Playing in Mystara with my kids
by Thorfinn TaitD&D with Erik, Isla and Luna
I'd been meaning to revisit D&D with my kids for a while now. It turned out that Isla had basically no memory of playing it back in 2018, though Erik still remembered his turn through the solo adventure. So I decided to start by running Isla through the Aleena/Bargle part, then get the party together to rerun the solo adventure. Luna insisted on joining us, and played a little, but she's really still too little, so she kept wandering off and we all played her character for her when she was away. (So when you see her character doing something, chances are it wasn’t her who suggested it!)
Session 1
Wednesday 24th March 2021
Guest: Gaga
Erik: Red Kire, Traladaran fighter, aged 14, Threshold native, just sheared. Knew Aleena.
Isla: Leafa, Alfheim elf. Bargle caused (unspecified) problems in her home village; tracked him to Threshold.
Luna: Puffin Carrotcakes, his from Five Shires. A bandit from the Black Eagle Barony kidnapped her family. She is on a quest to free them.
Gaga: Snoria Everast, Rockhome dwarf-cleric, from noble family in ruling Everast clan. On holiday in Threshold, wants to sample the local cuisine.
The game started with Leafa exploring a cave in the hills near Threshold, in search of Bargle the Infamous. (Red Box introductory solo adventure.) She came through fine, meeting Aleena, but then fell victim to Bargle’s charm.
She awoke to find most of her treasure gone, and Bargle with it. Retrieved Aleena’s body (not sure if she was alive or dead — seemed very badly hurt), and carried her back to the Church of Karameikos in Threshold.
After delivering Aleena, she went outside and realised how hungry she was. Seeing a tavern across the street, she started to run towards it, and ran straight into Snoria, landing them both in the mud.
After apologies they both headed for the tavern. Red Kire was talking with Puffin outside, and they all met. Recognising fellow adventurers, and wanting to continue tracking Bargle, Leafa suggested they should form a party, and they all agreed — but went to eat Sindhi curry in the tavern before continuing.
They stayed at the Duke’s Stag Inn, then set out early the next morning, entering the caves through a different entrance this time. (Second Red Box solo adventure.) They fought giant rats, solved the magic mouth’s puzzle, fought goblins, more goblins (and nearly got in trouble), then found rust monsters, where Leafa lost a dagger and Puffin lost her shield before they won out. Finally they dealt with skeletons, found some treasure, and Snoria nearly died opening a trapped chest.
All pretty beaten up, they hauled their treasure out of the dungeon and headed back to town.
Highlights: 4 year old Luna’s halfling, who is called Puffin Carrotcakes, which just sounds hilarious when she says it (she is too little, but insists on taking part of course); eating at a tavern in Threshold (Isla: "Let's have Indian curry!" Me: "Uh, it's Sindhi curry in Mystara." Erik: "Sind? There's a Sind in Pakistan!"); their reaction to the rust monsters...
Later I asked Isla what clan she wanted Leafa to be from, and she chose Red Arrow — the same choice her uncle made about 30 years before. If we can find his old character sheet, we’re going to weave him into her backstory.
Session 2
3rd April 2021
Erik: Red Kire of Threshold, Traladaran fighter 1
Isla: Leafa of the Red Arrow clan, elf 1
Luna: Puffin Carrotcakes of the Shires, halfling 1
We began by going shopping in Threshold, which involved Erik and Isla spending two hours or so (!) looking through the equipment list and writing stuff on their character sheets.
When they were finally ready, Red Kire, Leafa, and Puffin set off for Castle Mistamere, following the Red Book DM’s Guide’s example adventure.
Arriving outside the gate, they encountered the carrion crawler, which promptly paralysed Kire, then Puffin, too. Thankfully Leafa managed to slay it before it could get her and doom them all to a grisly death. They managed to find its treasure inside its rather disgusting hole.
Next they snuck around the outside of the castle, mapping its exterior walls, before creeping in through the hole in the wall. Seeing kobolds guarding the gate, they decided to engage them in missile fire — long range for Leafa and Kire, out of range for the kobolds! Smart kids.
The kobolds ended up failing their morale check and making a dash for the castle entrance. Unfortunately they made it inside, locking it behind them, but not before the PCs picked off a total of three of them with long range missile fire.
That’s where we left it, as by this time the kids were getting sleepy. Next time we should be able to get more done without the long shopping trip!
Session 3
4th May 2021
Kire and Leafa spent an interminable amount of time talking about what to do outside the entrance. Eventually I asked Kire what they were going to do, and he said, “Nothing.” So I decided that the kobolds had got fed up of waiting in ambush, and rushed out to attack. I asked, “How many kobolds were there, again?” to which Isla replied with a big grin, “A hundred!”
So I said, okay, 100 kobolds attack you — and started rolling 100 d20 attack rolls! The looks on the kids’ faces.
Of course we rewound this silliness and reverted to the original remaining 8 (of 11 outside at the start). The PCs cut down another 3 before the remaining 5 fled inside once again.
And at last the PCs entered the castle. They first decided to go west, where Leafa poked a chimney and got showered in rubble — and attacked by a giant bat. Kire killed the bat, and Puffin found a nice onyx on the floor. Kire found... a bag of dried peas?!? What kind of castle is this?! He pocketed the bag nonetheless.
Then the prolonged discussions about what to do next began once more, so I decided to give them some motivation to start agreeing with each other, by rolling for wandering monsters.
Of course I got a 1. What fun! So I quickly rolled to see what had appeared. Humans — fine. 3 humans. Two fighters and a magic-user. What were they here for?
Bait.
I tried (probably unsuccessfully) to hide my maniacal laughter, and then promptly decided that they must be here to lead the party to the yellow mould! Kire, Leafa and Puffin shuttered their lanterns and hid in the western room, peeping round to see the three humans entering the castle. When they appeared to be Traladaran, and not monsters, Leafa spoke up and started a discussion. Both sides reacted favourably to each other. The magic-user, an old man named Arkadi, explained that he was here to get some rare and dangerous yellow mould for his magical research. His two companions, the fighters Petra and Sandra, were accompanying him to keep him safe and out of trouble.
They all agreed to explore the castle together, and began to strike up friendships.
As they proceeded into the castle interior, they discovered a magical bed, which Arkadi warned them not to touch. We looked over at Luna, sleeping on the couch by this time, and decided that while Arkadi was explaining, Puffin had walked over to the bed and lay down. Oops.
They tried all sorts of things, but couldn’t get her to wake up. Then I gave them a gentle reminder about the story of the princess who can’t sleep because of something under her mattress, and they quickly worked out they needed to use a pea. Puffin woke up and they were on their way again.
In the next room, they found kobolds on the stairs, and since this time they didn’t immediately attack they instead talked with the kobolds, and ended up having a reasonably friendly discussion and not fighting at all. They asked about the yellow mould, and the kobolds said that there may be some in the dining room.
Session 4
The party decided to have some lunch before continuing to the back of the castle — and looking for the yellow mould.
While they were eating, I rolled for wandering monsters again, and some kobolds turned up. Again, the party decided to negotiate rather than fight, and ended up successfully avoiding battle once again! I’m impressed. They agreed to leave as soon as they got the yellow mould, which the kobolds grudgingly were okay with.
They decided to enter the dining room from one of the side doors. Leafa tried the door, but couldn’t open it. At this point Arkadi chanted some words and knocked his hand in the air — making a knocking sound despite there being nothing there — and the door creaked open.
Immediately music began to sound from within... Amazingly, Kire, Puffin, and Zandra all made their saving throws, hearing the screechy cacophony for what it was. But Leafa, Arkadi, and Petra all failed — and they were in front. Realising something was wrong, Zandra closed the door while Kire restrained Leafa and Puffin (making a strength check) held Arkadi back.
Wondering what to do next, they tried to persuade their friends — who kept going on about the “beautiful music” — not to go back in the room. Finally Puffin hit upon the idea that they should go for a snooze before going to eat, and they managed to get their friends to the magic bed of sleeping. After that, they carried them one by one to the bed of waking, and all awoke refreshed.
Realising what had happened, Leafa and Kire thought they should not go back in the room, but Arkadi suggested that the magic of the song would not affect them again now that they had all heard it once. Off they went back to the room.
Then Puffin hit upon another great plan: pretend that they were all charmed by the music!
What a great idea. So in they trooped, all swaying mindlessly to the hideous screeching, pretending to be entranced. Two harpies poked their heads out of the chimney, then came fully down to the hearth with evil grins when they saw their “victims”, commanding them all to sit at the table.
At which point they all drew their weapons and lunged at the harpies! Arkadi used a magic missile, too, and in short order both harpies were dead on the ground, before they could even leave the fireplace.
Arkadi was able to get his yellow mould, which Puffin (the most dextrous of the group) decided to help him with. She got a puff of the spores, but made her saving throw against choking and coughing. Phew!
After thoroughly searching out the closets and killing some giant rats (although feeling sorry for them!), the party decided to make good on their deal with the kobolds and leave. Although they would need to come back to continue their search for Bargle.
Together they returned to Threshold, meeting up at the Gold Dragon Inn to split the treasure.
Strangely enough, the kids are convinced that the magic-user, Arkadi, is Bargle in disguise... That certainly wasn’t intended, but perhaps I should make their idea reality...
I forgot to mention, Red Kire and Puffin both levelled up at last, while of course Leafa the elf is still only halfway to level 2. But as a consolation, I had Arkadi the magic-user teach Leafa the magic missile spell...
Finally found time to get another session in. We seem to be managing one a month at least, which is great, though it would be nice if it was a little more often.
First, to answer your question, David, we’re not using floorpans. I’ve been describing the dungeon and Erik has been mapping it out as we go. It helps that he is crazy about maps — neither of his sisters are, so it naturally became his job. Having said that, the more complex dungeon tonight was causing us mapping headaches. I’m not really used to describing maps from an in-game perspective, so it’s likely mostly my fault.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Session 5
PCs
NPCs
The session began with the characters going shopping while I got things ready to play. I gave them the equipment list and let them have at it. We’re all learning bit by bit — well, they’re learning, and I’m re-learning. Today’s revelation was the capacities of small sacks, backpacks, and large sacks: 200 cn, 400 cn, 600 cn respectively.
The kids were eager to continue adventuring with Arkadi, Petra and Zandra, who they have become quite attached to. There was talk of accompanying them to Kelvin previously. But I decided to give them a reason to go back to Castle Mistamere, and also a reason for Arkadi and co to go with them.
So when they returned to the Gold Dragon Inn after their shopping trip, the PCs were passed a letter that had arrived for them while they were out. It was addressed to “Red Kire of Threshold and Leafa of the Red Arrows (and that small one whose name escapes me)”. The letter went on to say that the PCs’ intrusions were becoming “quite irksome” (cue me having to explain what “irksome” means — truly D&D is a great vocabulary teacher!), and that this would not do. To forestall further action, their dwarven friend had been abducted, with the threat that if they came after her, they would seal her fate.
Signed B.
Erik read this out, and he didn’t even bother reading the “B.”, instead skipping directly to “Bargle”.
Well, yeah. Obviously. ;)
They went straight to find the Kelvin trio to tell them about the development, and enlist their aid — which they quickly agreed to. And before we knew it they were off again.
However, taking a leaf from Thorn’s Chronicle, I had them met at the town gates by a messenger from Tarnskeep, requesting that they attend an audience with Patriarch Sherlane at Tarnskeep on the way to the Castle. They quickly agreed, and were on their way.
I adapted Rob’s Baron’s Favour speech at this point, introducing Halaran to them. They were surprised to find out that he had his eye on them already, and was aware of some of their deeds. They were even more surprised when they mentioned the deceased Aleena, and his face suddenly turned sad as he told them he was her uncle.
I then got the Baron to give them two leads, to give them a choice of adventure: Bargle had been associated with the Old Caves as well as Castle Mistamere, after all. Unexpectedly, Isla immediately said she wanted to go to the Old Caves, and overruled Erik’s objections. So that’s where we were headed next.
I had already checked up on this, and knew about Trevor Holman’s Find Bargle adventure in Threshold #8. So I searched it out and off we went — me working directly from Threshold 8 on my iPad to run the adventure. I must say it’s wonderful to be able to say that I’ve run an adventure from Threshold Magazine now!
My other plan was Castle Mistamere, using either Dungeon 150’s Kill Bargle or Rob’s Baron’s Favour — probably the latter since Rob already did the BECMI conversion. That will be for next session!
So off we went back to the Old Caves. The party decided to enter via the statue room, heading for the skeleton room and the secret door in the treasure chamber there. After dispatching a few wandering zombies, they got Arkadi to use Knock on the secret door, then ambushed the unsuspecting goblin sentry on the other side.
Continuing up the corridor, the next part was the best moment of the day. Luna was still with us and paying close attention at this point, and when they entered the lair of the Giant Black Widow, it tried to jump on her and bite her. But it rolled a 4, failing to connect.
At this point, 4 year old Luna stood up on her chair and announced, “I take my sword and stab it in the eyes!” before rolling her pink d20. Which came up with a 20. Her contribution was so on the ball and so well done that Erik, Isla and I all sat smiling in amazement. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass, so I told her she could roll for double damage. Everyone else then proceeded to miss the spider, and she won initiative before hitting the killing blow the next round.
Wow. What a brilliant moment. Of course after this she was done, and wandered off, but I have no complaints. :D
Next up, they headed up the corridor and went to the barracks, where they found six sleeping goblins. When they didn’t stir despite the PCs’ presence, I wondered what they would do — would they kill the sleepers, or leave them be? It turned out to be the latter. Fascinating stuff. I asked them about it just to be sure, pointing out that if they left them, they may end up waking and attacking them from behind later on, but they weren’t about to attack sleeping creatures. :D
So they tiptoed though the room and ransacked Bargle’s little room, finding the note about the Tome of Knowledge and Wisdom only with a bit of prompting. I’m not too bothered about this plot point, actually, but I figure it will do them well to have a bargaining chip to try to save the dwarf Snorria from Bargle later on.
Next up was the tunnels. They managed to get the drop on the diggers, first ambushing a straggler before attacking the diggers at the rockface. The human Stiles ended up the lone survivor when he threw down his sword and shouted “Parley!” after all his goblins were killed. (No qualms killing goblins who are awake and attacking them, then!) Stiles wanted to save himself, and asked to be let go, but Leafa was having none of it. She wanted him to join them! Perhaps she has gotten the idea that all NPCs should join the party. Not a bad idea, but Stiles wasn’t interested.
Nonetheless, Leafa forced his hand, making him tag along with them. From here on they encountered giant centipedes — one of which tried to fall on Petra’s head, only to miss her completely — skeletons, and eventually stirges. Stiles, in the middle of their ranks, kept being the only one to get hit, and ended up falling to one of the stirges, which latched onto him. They did think about healing him, but without a cleric or healing potions, there was nothing much to be one.
RIP Stiles.
The kids then wanted to deliver his body to his family, but that wasn’t going to be easy given that “Stiles” likely wasn’t even his real name. So they decided to carry his body back to Tarnskeep and get the Baron to deal with it! Impressive. (They did take his stuff when I asked, though. ;))
This just left the old wizard’s room. Four of the six party members bolted in fear upon sight of the ghost, leaving just the elf and the halfling to explore his room. With the ghost seeming to be harmless, and the rest of the dungeon clear, they let their friends run away and just got on with the search, finding all the treasure they could.
Which brought everything to a close.
I must say, progress has been pretty slow so far XP-wise. Five sessions in, and they’re still only on just under 3,000 XP each. And it would be much less if I hadn’t given them a few bonuses for roleplaying and completing tasks. I’m surprised at the lack of treasure so far, too — their first permanent magic item was poor Stiles’s ring of protection +1 tonight. All in all it has been pretty low powered, low magic stuff thus far. Hopefully this will lead them to be extremely surprised and happy when they find a real treasure hoard eventually, but it’s certainly hard on the XP.
Finally, I started using Bruce’s revised spell progression and XP stuff today, so Leafa and Arkadi have lots of spell slots to play with, and Leafa’s early progression is a bit easier — 3,000 XP rather than 4,000 for 2nd level. It seems fun so far.
Sorry about the huge long report! Hopefully we’ll get to go on to Castle Mistamere soon...
Leaving the kobolds alone, they explored the rest of the front rooms, killing some zombies and finding the bed of waking. By this time the kids were getting sleepy, so we left the PCs there for the night.
5th May 2021
Sunday 13th June 2021
Erik: Red Kire, Traladaran fighter, now level 2.
Isla: Leafa, Red Arrow elf, still level 1.
Luna: Puffin Carrotcakes, hin from Five Shires, now level 2.
Arkadi, Traladaran magic-user, likely from Kelvin, level 3.
Petra, Traladaran fighter, companion and bodyguard of Arkadi, level 3.
Zandra, Traladaran fighter, companion and bodyguard of Arkadi, level 2.