Murdicog's Manse Session 3: Inlaws & Outlaws
Date: Dec. 27, 2025 (A.D.M. 25, Dec. 27)
Players: Ammonia Doolittle, Veteran (TK), Aloysius Cranberry, Blue Medium (ERK), Grandiloqua Sneep VII, White Medium (AK), Pickle Melrose Jr. (KK)
Summary
Four adventurers gathered on the trail to Murdicog's Manse, enticed by tales of fabulous treasure therein.
They chose to enter the manse by following the stream into the cliffside cave, having heard that a past cohort successfully entered this way earlier in the month. Gary the hireling was ordered to throw rations to distract the Dinicthys, a task he carried out with aplomb.
Inside the large cavern with the lake, they went knorth & poked their heads inside the small room full of clock parts. Next, they followed the nearby passage knorth, where they chanced upon three Grey Aliens dissecting something on a metal table. They doused their lantern & skirted around the edge of the room. In the room to the eest, they opted to keep their lantern doused after hearing a deep rumbling snore.
Feeling their way clockwise along the wall, they passed through a large metal door to the Knorth into Murdicog's astrogalleon. They did not linger, as their uncovered lantern illuminated a small phalanx of Orcs & a giant spider web.
Past the ouestern door of the astrogalleon, they marveled at some enigmatic graffiti & ventured posuthouest into a room with convoluted schematics hanging on the walls & one Ochre Jelly burbling on the floor. Without hesitation, Aloysius confidently instructed his companions to put it to the torch. The jelly thus dispatched, Aloysius & Grandiloqua were free to study the schematics, from which they learned the spell Odradek's Infelicitous Contrivance.
Continuing further Psouth, they chanced upon a bridge guarded by a stern-looking man going by "Fenris Lupus Wolverton". Grandiloqua was able to negotiate a reduction of the toll from 50 to 40gp.
At the end of a long hall, 5 Zombies were encountered next to some decorative caryatids & summarily put to rest.
Following the hall eest, they reached a room with four of Tsar Murdicog's hunting trophies: an auroch, an arctother, a megathere, & a mastodon. The auroch's horns & mastodon's tusks were removed, & 12 gp worth of plating was scraped off the mountings.
Further exploration led the adventurers to the staircase leading down to Level 5. There, they encountered Hannibal Brompp, blue Enchanter, shrouded in his usual haze of tobacco smoke. A favorable impression by fellow blue magus Aloysius induced him to allow the party to take his four keys in exchange for a share of treasure.
In the spinning intersection, they chanced upon a trio of gnomes. Grandiloqua offered them 3gp in exchange for information. They accepted the fee & offered the following tidbit:
These keyes you have open locks that lead to a great treasure. The locks are............ somewhere in the dungeon, HA HA!
The gnomes ran off & the adventurers went eest into the organ room. Pickle played counterpoint on his aulos, earning a solemn nod from the Wight organist.
Through the door to the ouest, they surprised a circle of disheveled-looking Hobgoblins that were punctuating the performance next door with simulated flatulence. The party joined in, earning the friendship of the Scrungly Hobs.
As their lanterns burned low, the adventurers traversed a maze-like series of passages Psouth of the spinning intersection. A Giant Crab slew Gary the hireling before being slain itself & butchered for meat.
Down a dead-end passage, the blue key opened a secret door to a small room where a statue of a priest held another ring of keys, which were taken after searching for traps.
Finally, on their way out of the dungeon, the party bypassed four Rhizomes (a carrot (orange), carrot (purple), beet, & turnip) fleeing in fear from a Giant 5-eyed Lagomorph. The crab meat sufficed to distract the Lagomorph, allowing the party to exit the dungeon in peace.
Aftermath
Treasure Found: 1 auroch horn (75gp), 2 mastodon tusks (each 100gp), 12gp, ring of four brass keys.
Foes Encountered: 1 Dinichthys (distracted), 3 Grey Aliens (mutually ignored), 1 unseen slumberer (avoided), 7 Orcs (avoided), 1 Ochre Jelly (killed), 3 gnomes (swindled by), 1 Wight (harmonized with), 7 Scrungly Hobs (befriended), 1 Giant Crab (killed), 4 Rhizomes (bypassed), 1 Giant 5-eyed Lagomorph (distracted)
Rumors:
- Hannibal Brompp's colored keys open doors found psouth of the spinning room.
- Dungeon level 4 is fairly light on treasure.
Deaths: Gary (hireling)
XP Awarded: 800 from HD slain, 187 from treasure recovered, for 247 each.
Notes
I ran this session for my in-laws while visiting for the holidays & made the following adjustments:
- Chainmail/Meatheads combat swapped out for Slothyyyy's (Modified) New Revised Alternative Combat System, as it requires only a single d6 roll per combatant.
- I did the mapping on a piece of graph paper and held it up for everyone.
- I was generally more forgiving w/r/t reaction rolls & creative negotiation to bypass combat.
- The "goofy" dial was cranked way up.
It was a good time all around; one thing I love about OD&D is how easy it is for new players to get into. The world-first, rules-second approach to playing makes it really easy to get invested in the immediate situation. My sister-in-law is not into games at all but does have formal negotiator training & got into parlaying with the monsters. My mother-in-law said it reminded her of late nights playing D&D with her college friends in the 80s, which was very gratifying.
I stocked this dungeon exclusively with the U&WA rules, hoping it would override my tendency to include too little treasure, but it's still to sparse, so I'll need to do some restocking.