After Action Report: The Burial Tomb of Ak-Owgra **WARNING: MAXIMUM CARNAGE**

After deciding on a base of house rules that suit our taste, we decided to play a short adventure of my creation. This was to have some fun but also to test the rules in actual play. We were pleased with the result.

(I'm still working on the Ruins of Mar Campaign, but with the start of the fall term I haven't had chance to get to it in detail.)

I created a short delve with the one-page dungeon sheet. I've made some changes to it, primarily swapping out the graph for a numbered photo of the dungeon (see below) using dungeon tiles. I found this cut out unnecessary steps. This adventure was designed with 4-5 hours of gaming in mind.

The adventure, entitled The Burial Tomb of Ak-Owgra (anyone know the movie reference there?), situates the adventurers as money-grubbing tomb-robbers. Here's the DMs backstory:

"Ak-Owgra, the Bandit Queen (some called the Bitch Queen) was entombed a hundred years ago. Many sought to plunder her tomb, and recently one group of brigands partially succeeded. Although they found rooms 1-4 most were killed off or fled. Rooms 5-10, including the main burial chambers, remain hidden. The defiling of her crypt has pushed Ak-Owgra and her buried minions into unlife."

What follows can be described as nothing less than maximum carnage.

The (initial) party consisted of the following first level PCs:

Rheiden the Human Male Fighter and Party Leader
Brother Banlin the Human Male Cleric (Obad-Hai)
Elwen of Riverwood, Female Elf
Talic the Human Male Magic-User

Joining the group were:

Ghiilner the Torch-Bearer (Hireling)
Grisit of Ulag (Man-at-arms)
Dros of Duloc (Man-at-arms)
Zert of Dolmvay (Man-at-arms)

All hirelings and henchmen were generated using a custom (emphasis on custom) version of the LL random hireling generator.

By the time the party arrived at the newly found tomb, the crypt door had been opened. The party lit torches and proceeded down the stairs. Here a pic:



The party proceeded into the first room and were surpised by a carrion crawler who was munching a half-eaten bandit while hanging from the ceiling. The CC paralyzed half the party before Elwen and Zert of Dolmvay managed to finish it off.



The group noticed one stone door bashed to pieces and proceeded down that hallway (without checking for secret doors). The entered a room and were attacked by giant spitting beetles. All three men-at-arms were below zero hit points and all made their saves vs death (see house rules). Sadly, Grisit was killed off by a coup-de-gras later in the battle.



The next room was filled with giant spiders and bodies of bandits in spider silk. The bit+poison or die seemed rather harsh to me and three party members died as a result. Brother Banlin (who never even had a chance to cast a spell before he died), Talic the Magic-User, and Ghiilner the Torch-Bearer all fell to spider poison.



The adventurers, now reduced by half, decided to press on rather than return to town to rest, re-arm, and recoup their loses. Instead they searched and found a secret door in the entry chamber and proceeded to a crypt room where they were attacked by lesser animated stone statues. There Dros of Duloc was killed. The only Man-at-Arms remaining was Zert of Dolmvay who had an uncanny nack for survival.

They opened one tomb and destroyed the ghoul within, found a magical longsword and some gold, and finally decided to return to town.

After spending a week in town the group added two more PCs:

Brother Percival a Human Cleric (St. Cuthbert)
Mazrik the Magician a Human Magic-User

Due to Zert unique ability to survive, he became a 1st level fighter and was hired as a henchman.

The following were also added:

Yacky the Torch-Bearer (Hireling)
Yacky had two goblin slave labourers he brought with him as part of the deal:
Yurk and Gak

Breston the Blugeoner (Man-at-arms)
Derx of Frogmorton (Man-at-arms)
Jax the Mighty (Man-at-arms)

The new (second) party:


Unfortunately things did not go well for this attempt either. In the Throne Room of Ak-Owgra the party was attacked by 7 skeletons, 2 zombies, and Ak-Owgra (Ghoul in armour with spells).

Before:


The only party members who survived were Rheiden, Mazrik, and Elwen (who I accidently killed off at one point by rolling the wrong damage die).

After:


Total Kills to date:

PCs: 3
Hirelings: 1
Men-At-Arms: 6
Henchmen: 1

Here's the tomb overview map: