Session 76 - Aewdil Chases Pegusai - Day 834 - 10/30/2022

 Aewdil the 1/2 elf ranger decided to head out and search for a pegasus, long rumored to exist east of Arkala. It turns out the mountain range referred to isn't the Letties, the closes range, but the Zhorians, across the Kabbir Waste. Aewdil's player really wants a flying mount!

Aewdil as miniature (AI generated)

The trip is sketched out on the map. 

Each hex is 1 mile. 

To be honest, there was little in the way or pre-planned content here, as usual. I just don't have a good way of knowing what the players will want to do. Every pre-planned location has been bypassed or so thoroughly overrun with expert bullshit (ie, the players read the PHB and exploit every damn thing), they've exhausted them! They are pushing further and further into unknown spaces.

First thing we do is check to see what, if anything, Aewdil encounters. She's a ranger, do the odds are in her favor against most encounters against being horribly surprised. In any case, the trip is pretty uneventful except for a brief run in with 2' flying insects, which she evades. Her intermediate goal is to reach the marked settlement, which she learns is called Sunham.

Sunham, city on the edge of the Kabbir Waste

I don't have firm details, I just know that when I made this map about 2 years ago, I put a city there for some reason. What to do? I reach for the DMG. The player rolls a d17, and it indicates a whole city that only has a dozen or so inhabitants. This is normally where people mess up and throw out the results. Don't do that. Instead, I allow this nonsensical result to drive the situation. Why is there only a dozen people in the WHOLE CITY?

Aewdil makes her way into the town after dark. It appears deserted except for a traveler's hostel. The normal sights and sounds of a busy town are missing. The player is suspicious!

At this point I need more information too. Again we consult the DMG for content! I roll on the city encounter table, nighttime. The result is [REDACTED] which I decide is from [REDACTED LOCATION] because of [REDACTED REASON]. The player decides to cast detect evil and I tell him that yup, she senses evil alright! The player debates for a few minutes, then decides to GTFO. What was in the hostel? Why the city empty? What was happening? What was the evil? All unanswered, but now we have yet another mystery on our hands!

A few days later Aewdil finds another couple of blue-black 2' flies and again evades. (I swear, I rolled the SAME MONSTER, for different terrains, both times.) She finally reaches the foothills of the Zhorians and lays out her plans for using her trained birds to spot any flying horses nearby. (I call the session there, since I had to run the airport, etc.)

Anyways, this is a good example of the terror fun I have running 1e AD&D RAW, using just the DMG and the tables in the back of the FIEND FOLIO. It was a departure from the mass combats and maneuvering in the Aearviran civil war. This doesn't even cover the async chat play going on all the time in the background. For example, the players know that there's a weirdo sea monster cult AND a pack of werewolves in a port town. They know there is an assassin's guild working against one of the local big city. They know there is a vampire (and vampire cult) that has taken over another city. They also all know about a rumored artifact in the area, which they are slowly narrowing down the location of. In between all of the there are PCs with mercenary groups, a necromancer LE cleric, and more assassins than I ever thought was possible to sustain.