Today's Topic is "What Was Something Wild in Your Game?" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month!
This is from my Ruins of Murkhill Campaign as it was running a few years ago IRL time.
In the campaign, the party was investigating a ruined tower at one end of a extensive set of ruins. The ground level was empty and the stairway to the upper levels was completely missing. When the party looked up all they could see was a 5' by 25' opening in the floor of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors and above that the tower had collapsed. They worked out a way up to the 2nd floor which was vacant and as was the 3rd floor.
But on the **4th floor there was a pool in the middle of the floor with crystal clear cold water that appeared to be about 20 feet deep even though each floor level was only about 4' thick. The pool was about 30' across and in the middle of it was an island about 10 feet in diameter with extremely dense shrubbery and a single tree in the center. A rope was tied off on a hook on the wall of the tower and extended onto the island and was tied around the tree a few feet above the shrubbery. One of the players decided to climb up and grab the rope and going hand over hand reached the tree in the middle of the island, climbing down the tree and disappearing from view.
In a little while he climbed back up the tree and told them that at the bottom of the tree he could see no shrubs, but he could see over 100 yards in every direction in a forest, so after some discussion they rigged a second rope and got all of them and their equipment over to the island and started off through the forest. They went through a few encounters with large herd animals and some predators. A week later, they came out of the forest onto plains which gradually changed into a desert as they travelled, But it was very strange desert.
This world they found themselves in has about a 36 hour day which took a lot of adjusting to. The daytime temperature gradually rises until it reaches about 110°F at late morning and 150°F at mid afternoon. The players found to their surprise when they dug into the very coarse sand material that they would hit water at anywhere from 6 inches deep to four to five feet deep; however, only in little patches here and there. Other places they could dig down 6 feet a few feet away and not encounter water at all. So they holed up during the day and traveled mostly at night.
They traveled across this for several weeks having seen what looked like ruins in the assumed southeast direction***. During this time they had a number of encounters with wild animals a few of which were very close calls. They eventually came to a trail about 20 feet wide that was packed down about two feet deeper that the typical desert floor running from the assumed southeast to the northwest that was about 20° off of the angle they had been traveling. They ****hid several hundred yards back from it for several days and eventually saw traveling along what was obviously a merchant/slave caravan. These people had huge beasts of burden that were about 100 feet in length with backs rising about 25 feet in the air with enormous amounts of goods loaded on their backs and long chains of people chained together following along.
They followed them for a few days and determined that there were about 25 guards with the caravan with about a hundred chained slaves together and about 30 slaves that were collared and chained in such a way that they could do the grunt work of camping and they were chained together at night. These people seemed quite adapted to the temperature extremes and did not seem to be greatly discomforted by it. The enormous creatures used as pack animals were not unloaded at night, but were allowed to wander around the camp eating large rubbery looking thorny plants which they pulled up and ate along with the long tap roots which were the girth of a man's body and 30-40 feet long.
**On the fourth floor the hole in the floor they saw from below was a pool instead of a hole.
***Yes, they could see a very long way, possibly at times over the horizon. Also in some of the encounters they killed animals they could eat and they did from time to time find edible roots each time they dug in.
****I was surprised that they chose to stop traveling and wait for traffic on the trail.
This will continue with Part 2...
This is from my Ruins of Murkhill Campaign as it was running a few years ago IRL time.
In the campaign, the party was investigating a ruined tower at one end of a extensive set of ruins. The ground level was empty and the stairway to the upper levels was completely missing. When the party looked up all they could see was a 5' by 25' opening in the floor of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors and above that the tower had collapsed. They worked out a way up to the 2nd floor which was vacant and as was the 3rd floor.
But on the **4th floor there was a pool in the middle of the floor with crystal clear cold water that appeared to be about 20 feet deep even though each floor level was only about 4' thick. The pool was about 30' across and in the middle of it was an island about 10 feet in diameter with extremely dense shrubbery and a single tree in the center. A rope was tied off on a hook on the wall of the tower and extended onto the island and was tied around the tree a few feet above the shrubbery. One of the players decided to climb up and grab the rope and going hand over hand reached the tree in the middle of the island, climbing down the tree and disappearing from view.
In a little while he climbed back up the tree and told them that at the bottom of the tree he could see no shrubs, but he could see over 100 yards in every direction in a forest, so after some discussion they rigged a second rope and got all of them and their equipment over to the island and started off through the forest. They went through a few encounters with large herd animals and some predators. A week later, they came out of the forest onto plains which gradually changed into a desert as they travelled, But it was very strange desert.
This world they found themselves in has about a 36 hour day which took a lot of adjusting to. The daytime temperature gradually rises until it reaches about 110°F at late morning and 150°F at mid afternoon. The players found to their surprise when they dug into the very coarse sand material that they would hit water at anywhere from 6 inches deep to four to five feet deep; however, only in little patches here and there. Other places they could dig down 6 feet a few feet away and not encounter water at all. So they holed up during the day and traveled mostly at night.
They traveled across this for several weeks having seen what looked like ruins in the assumed southeast direction***. During this time they had a number of encounters with wild animals a few of which were very close calls. They eventually came to a trail about 20 feet wide that was packed down about two feet deeper that the typical desert floor running from the assumed southeast to the northwest that was about 20° off of the angle they had been traveling. They ****hid several hundred yards back from it for several days and eventually saw traveling along what was obviously a merchant/slave caravan. These people had huge beasts of burden that were about 100 feet in length with backs rising about 25 feet in the air with enormous amounts of goods loaded on their backs and long chains of people chained together following along.
They followed them for a few days and determined that there were about 25 guards with the caravan with about a hundred chained slaves together and about 30 slaves that were collared and chained in such a way that they could do the grunt work of camping and they were chained together at night. These people seemed quite adapted to the temperature extremes and did not seem to be greatly discomforted by it. The enormous creatures used as pack animals were not unloaded at night, but were allowed to wander around the camp eating large rubbery looking thorny plants which they pulled up and ate along with the long tap roots which were the girth of a man's body and 30-40 feet long.
**On the fourth floor the hole in the floor they saw from below was a pool instead of a hole.
***Yes, they could see a very long way, possibly at times over the horizon. Also in some of the encounters they killed animals they could eat and they did from time to time find edible roots each time they dug in.
****I was surprised that they chose to stop traveling and wait for traffic on the trail.
This will continue with Part 2...
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