Through Ultan's Door

Session Recap: Enter The Doomed City! The party climbed the steep stairs over the stables to crowd into the Child witch Adrianna's cramped apartments. All the furniture had been moved out. Guttering candles lit a complex diagram in powders of various hues. The pages from Evocations of the Doomed City, retrieved by the party as some expense, were nailed to the wall around the room. The cloying smell of incense mingled with the smell of horses. Adrianna explained to the party what they were in for. She would begin with the Song of Six, calling forth the six vessels that would transport the party to the location of the Doomed City. She explained that as the party members stepped forward into their chosen vessel, their souls would meld with these potent individuals. The union would provide them with the powers of the vessel, but should the vessel be slain, the soul of the traveler might be lost (save vs. death). When questioned she indicated that although physical injuries and maladies...

Here is an annotated version of the map from the party's first session in THE DOOMED CITY! Warning, it's a big file. If it breaks your google, here's a link to the file on google drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qu4_tB_b2dL7_lToA4a5VOX7LRFvYzZX

We do need to adopt a proper high-level mentality here in the Doomed City. No one should open things, that's a job for unseen servant. We've all got a pile of magic items and only one session to use them in.

Apologies to Chris for getting his character blinded and deafened. I have a bad mindset for old school play.

Here's a cool resource for spells from AD&D PhB that Chris P. pointed me to: http://pandaria.rpgworlds.info/cant/rules/adnd_spells.htm May be of use to Eric Boyd and whoever plays Oman ibn Atta next session http://pandaria.rpgworlds.info/cant/rules/adnd_spells.htm

Evocations of the Doomed City For the sessions in the Doomed City, we will be running BtB 1E AD&D. The main change for these purposes are the initiative rules. Here they are: Initiative rules Every round, everyone can do up to 4 things: (1) Either attack or cast a spell, (2) Move up to 1/2 movement rate, (3) Use a special ability e.g. hide in shadows or turn undead, (4) Use a magic item, e.g. potion or ring Here is the procedure: Every one declares what he or she is doing. Most importantly people say if they're casting spells. I also decide what monsters are doing. Each side rolls 1d6: higher roll wins initiative; equal rolls go simultaneously; this mean steps 3 and 4 happen together, i.e. everyone acts at once for the first six segments. (1) Casters begin casting their spells (unless they want to do something else first). Spells will go off in the segment equal to their casting time. (2) The first volley of missile weapons are fired, first for winning side, then the losing sid...

Here is the setup for our next sessions, which will take a highly unusual format: After Adrianna has had time to consult the copied text you have provided her, Valtropis comes to fetch you (still avoiding Salinger's gaze). As you mount the narrow stairs to her cramped apartment, the smell of the stables beneath is strong in your nostrils. Adrianna's youthful face is resplendent with innocent joy as she clutches to her chest in a girlish manner the copied pages you have secured her. When you are assembled, she speaks to you in her gravelly voice, "Evocations of the Doomed City contains, or perhaps is, a spell that evokes an unimaginably ancient city, a city that fell under a curse so terrible and irrevocable that its name must never be spoken, for it is said that to speak it is to bring oneself under the curse, and forfeit one's life. But certain books do give us hints, referring to it obliquely as the wandering city of the Caliph of the Painted Dawn, and describing it ...

I feel like you guys would have all the levels if we used this system

No Game This Week & Notes on Our Next Session First off, I have a work thing this Thursday that is unavoidable, so our next session will be 1/25 Secondly, I want to back track on my description of Evocations of the Doomed City and what adventuring there entails. Basically, I bit off more than I can chew with my original conception of the book as providing a set of 8 inter-linked dungeons set in different locales of a doomed city. Given my current work situation, I need to stick with the dungeons I have already. (Including a couple you haven't visited, but for which I have notes, e.g. The Gauntlet of the Panther Priests.) So, what I'm going to be doing instead, is running a reskinned Anthony Huso's A Fabled City of Brass as the doomed city that the book evokes. I will do a post explaining how the sessions in the doomed city will work, and the tactically relevant features, which will involve the use of some unusual rules and adventuring protocols. I'll tag you in when...

Ben L. is it possible to acquire Black Lotus in the city? If necessary, I will leverage my connections as a foreign agent.

Hey Ben, just wondering if we were on for this week?