WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY: Running Nightwick Abbey 01

 

ill: Fernando FJL

Ill-met and hell-wrecked are these haunted halls of Nightwick Abbey. And now after years of wandering its menagerie of hubris, I too sit in one of its many seats of power and govern the machinations of the denizens and dead within.

In other words, with Miranda's blessing, I've started DM-ing Nightwick Abbey now that Levels 1-3 are out on Patreon and I have sufficiently delved into those levels enough that I won't spoil anything for myself.

To differentiate these posts from the Weeknights in Nightwick, I am going to try to concentrate a little on the prep of Nightwick. Try to provide insight on how I run a megadungeon campaign and more specifically how I am going to do that 100 minutes at a time at my local FLAGS.

Also, I have decided to dub this campaign Where Hell Comes To Prey in a similar vein to different runs of Spiderman or how anime series have different offshoots.

CAMPAIGN PREP

Campaign Binder: The first thing I did was prepare a 3-ring bind split into three sections: character generation, The Dark Country, Nightwick Abbey, and a separate denizens section. I threw in a copy of my DMing pamphlet to help with the running of the game- which I will hopefully markup in response to the particular needs of this campaign.

Campaign Format:  It is typical to think of a D&D campaign as being an 8-hour per-game affair that demands/requires everyone to show up for every game. This doesn't have to be the case. I think megadungeons in particular lend themselves to open-table games and I want to show that off.  In particular Nightwick Abbey, unlike Arden Vul and even well-known dungeons like Barrowmaze and Forbidden Caverns of Archia, is written and laid out with high DM-utility in mind. 

So I settled on running a "100-minute game"- really 120 minutes because of two 10-minute breaks. My aspirational goal is to make a regular habit of showing up at my game store on Sundays at 2:00 PM and run if 3 players will participate. Furthermore using BX D&D will help reduce some of the overhead.

Pre-generated Characters: Since I will be running a more brisk game, I wanted to get to the playing of D&D ASAP and to do that I turned to pre-generated characters. What is interesting about this is that its actually a bit of advice from OD&D: 

"Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them

in selecting a role." 

Miranda has some pretty great classes in the Nightwick Abbey package. Notable to me are froglings and changlings which are this setting's "elves" but are humans stolen at birth by the fay. Miranda also has given the fighter some enhancements like cleave and ODDs two attacks with ranged weapons if the fighter has not moved. A couple of classes also have "half-class" extras if you roll properly.

So here were my starting 8 PCs: Graverobber, Magician, Fighter x2, Frogling, Cleric, Changling (Fair), and a Rogue.

What I Should Have Prepped: Jumping ahead. Okay given that I have been playing for two years now in the Miranda's Nightwick game and I thought I had a lot of the lore down, but I felt like when I ran the game I didn't quite give the start the "oomph" it required. But we were down in the Abbey soon enough.

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY

Our Sunday Congregation: 

Steve, Graverobber

Colin, Cleric +follower

JP, Rogue

Down in the Abbey: Through the Fogbound Forest, the party treks deeper and deeper until the trees close in and the light wains further. Each Bogdani they pass instantly knows the direction they are heading and makes a small sign of protection.

BEHOLD! Nightwick Abbey!: When the treeline breaks, the party is confronted by an expanse of erry purple vine blanketing the ground around two ruined towers- the only visible portion of the dread abbey's ruined upper works.

West Tower then East Tower: After investigating the two towers, the party flips a coin and attempts entry through the West Tower trap door. Stuck. After a couple of futile attempts, they break their shovel off wedging the West trap door shut. East door it is!

The Toll of the Great Goblin Kingdom: The party turns southeast and after creeping through the dark hallway are hailed by two sets of luminous eyes in the dark: "50 silver to pass this way!" The party, having about 30 silver between them, is reluctant to empty their pockets. Negotiations end with the party promising to return with the proper and amount and creatures requiring an additional 10%.

(DM NOTE: The barracde is actually somewhere else and I transposed it here, but no worries with little slip ups like this because by its fictional nature, the Abbey can shift)

Sweet Leaf Room: The party doubles back and enters a northwestern door into a ransacked, sour-smelling room: Sweet Leaf was smoked here. The party turns north.

Hunting Wolves: In the flicking torchlight, this columned hall appears to show riders on horseback hunting women who run screaming in the woods. The party moves east and as they draw close hear piercing cries of what sound like deer. The party's graverobber and thief slip up on either side of the archway. The cleric and follower take cover behind two columns and call out a challenge to the accursed creatures. With the snort 3 deermen charge into the room! 

ill: Huth

With nice planning the PCs are able to backstab two deermen and the cleric + follower take down the third! Their effort is answered with arrows fired from the dark, one striking the cleric deep in his side. The players decide to beat a hasty retreat south with a deerman head.

Sweet Leaf Room: Back in the musty room, the party turns east and enters a room burned beyond recognition with two charred corpses lying in the middle of the floor. As the party steps close, the corpses jerk up as if pulled by marionette strings, and burned lips emit a wet cackle!

ill: Huth

The party is almost caught off guard, but the cleric is quick to brandish the holy symbol of the God of Law... to no avail! The floating corpses laugh in mockery. Swords and knives gain no purchase either given the unnatural movements of the foul foes. In response, one corpse lashes out at the cleric with preternatural speed and removes the poor soul's throat! (DM NOTE: Nat 20 & 6 for damage vs 4 HP). Horror turns to resolve as the devout follower follows up with a smiting blow of her own and the combined efforts of the rogue and graverobber bring down the other mockery of life. 

For their efforts, the party finds a mysterious vial of power and a jade rosary with lurid iconography.

Hasty Retreat & Return: Having survived two encounters, the party decides to retreat from this cursed place. The body of the cleric is left behind...

They figure Halfdan the Black would be interested in the two items and is rewarded with 300sp for their efforts. 

POST-MORTEM

Nightwick Abbey is a pleasure to run. As Nova pointed out in this nice review, what one might lose in description is made up for in high utility. Especially in a dungeon that is made to shift. And with 3 levels at my disposal I know (through experience) it will be enough to keep going.

Love the Cause of Death Stamp

Total exploration was 6-7 rooms and 3 encounters which included 2 combats. One character died out of 3 which matches the death rate of the Abbey overall. Two of the players were folks I have gamed with before, but 1 individual was someone who just looked over at what we were doing and decided to join-- no prior experience with BX D&D but they easily slide right into the game.

The pre-gens really helped and I'm gonna stick with that. It allows me to ensure folks are starting with viable characters and into play quickly. I like to think this was also aided by a half-page character sheet I designed to reduce the feeling this is going to be a complicated experience. Honestly, if I could reduce a character to a monster-style stateline I think that would be ideal for an online generator.

The 100-minute format worked too. Now on the whole 2 hours might be short. It does require people to be focused as you can go stretches without finding treasure. But the exchange is that its a time that works for me and I (hope) will encourage more spontaneous sit-downs and returns. Well see.

If these horrid halls of Nightwick Abbey call to you, then please join Miranda Elkins' Patreon!