Category: Tales From Zanzia

The adventurers continued exploring the mysterious castle that appeared suddenly overlooking the Capital city of Zanzia as well as their own keeps. This castle threatens both and thus the adventurers set off to explore this place and find out who it belongs to. So far they have explored four levels of the place and still have no answers to their questions. But they have seen fire, acid, frost and lightning on each different level. The next level down appears to have green walls.

In their last explorations of the white level they came across some frost giants and winter wolves and dispatched them.

They found a painting of an ice goddess hunting a Mammoth and touched it. This teleported two of the members of the party into the painting. The wizard and one of the fighters found themselves facing the Mammoth themselves. But the party won initiative and the Mammoth failed a saving throw and was slain by spell on the first round.

They then made a serious error….however…..and attempted to sleep in the dungeon. This cost them dearly as they again met the wandering guards of this place. Two skeletal warriors wielding halberds and black armor approached. Two more wearing green armor and firing bows were behind them. A witch wearing a red robe, a priest wearing a white robe and a monk wearing a blue robe were behind those.

The party mage was paralyzed by poison arrows and then dispatched with a halberd. The party cleric was paralyzed by poison arrows as was the thief. The thief was slain by a quivering palm. One of the fighters was disintegrated by the red witch. But this time the party prevailed with only one fighter remaining standing at the end. The party returned to town and raised the dead and wished back the disintegrated fighter.

The adventurers are now exploring the white level of the mysterious castle that has appeared almost over night. The castle threatens both the Zanzian capital of Barrowmar as well as the very keeps of the adventurers themselves. Who does this castle belong to? And what is their intent? The castle is up on a high mountain and the adventurers have discovered it guarded by a moat of lava and patrolling fire giants. This clearly does not bode well for their intentions.

Tonight the adventurers encountered a golem made of ice. After defeating it they found themselves fighting a mated pair of Rhemorhaz and a rather large group of Yeti and Snow Wolves. None of these encounters proved fatal to the group but the last encounter was a close one. The Magic User was knocked unconscious and the Cleric was severely mauled.

The Tales of Zanzia Continue……

This is a retelling of my current adventurers in the Zanzian campaign. This game takes place every Wednesday at my kitchen table.

The adventurers enter a new level of the dungeon that they discovered on the previous level. But before doing so they uncovered a cache of fine armor which they immediately donned after losing many of their best pieces to irreparable damage on the previous level. This new level begins with a series of caverns.

But this was a near fatal mistake. For some of this armor was cursed. And they used no magic to identify it as such. The discovery came too late during their first encounter on the white level.

This encounter went badly as their cleric betrayed them and used his spellcasting abilities to help their new enemies. The magic user and a fighter fell during this combat and the cleric was eventually overcome by the remaining players after the ice devils were dispatched. The bodies were dragged from the dungeon and the curses were lifted allowing the dead to be raised again once more.

After resting and refitting the adventurers again returned to the dungeon and resumed exploring the white level. The white level is a cold and miserable place with ice and snow on the floors and walls and icicles dripping from the ceiling. The adventurers find themselves quickly in combat with a new threat they had not encountered before. Ice worms!

Lastly they explored a room which was no longer cavernous but a man made construction of stone. But the icicles dripping from the high ceiling here were not made of ice at all. They were piercers and immediately began dropping on the adventurers. The mage made quick work of them with a well placed fireball but managed to injure his friends in the process.

At this point the adventurers retired for the night and returned to their nearby keep.

The delvers in my 1st Edition AD&D campaign have been exploring a mysterious castle that appeared almost overnight. This castle threatens the safety of the kingdom as it is on a tall mountain overlooking the capital city of Barrowmar and the adventurer’s own keeps. No mountain existed there before either. So it was paramount that the adventurers find out what this castle is all about, who lives there….and what they want.

So far they have found that the upper level contained red walls, floors and ceilings. All of the creatures therein were fire related. The next level was blue. And all of the creatures on that level were lightning related. The next level was black. All of the creatures on this level are related to acid. The adventurers have found a staircase leading downward to a level painted white but are still exploring the black level before proceeding further.

Tonight was a bad night for the adventurers. The magic user went down quickly to some Xorn that ambushed them in a cavernous part of the level. But even worse…his bag of holding was destroyed along with many of the magical items carried by the party but not used regularly. A number of useful items were destroyed during the encounters on this level and this did the party more harm than any of the physical damage taken.

Other encounters included a Thesselhydra which is pictured above (sort of….actually that is a normal or lernean hydra but I had no pictures of thesselhydras so it was the closest image I had). There was also a pack of umber hulks and some Anckheg. But the most serious combat involved two Dracolisks. And it was one of these that destroyed the bag of holding.

The adventurers do not know what this castle is about. But they have discovered that it involves various elements and forms of damage. So far they have not discovered the reason for this place but they have encountered some strange and powerful skeletal warriors along with some humans wearing different colored robes. These groups apparently serve a queen of some sort but have not disclosed who she is.

The adventurers continued exploring the black level of the mysterious castle that appeared nearly overnight near the city of Barrowmar. As this castle overlooks the very keeps of the adventurers it is imperative that they find out as much as possible about this castle and who inhabits it.

The adventurers found a statue in the last expedition and it turned into a Marilith. They found a similar statue this time and again it turned into a Marilth. The statue was a puzzle. Rather than making a serious attempt to solve this puzzle the adventurers chose to try magic instead. This statue represented a Zanzian storm goddess and she was angered by this attempt to defile her statue by firing a lightning bolt into it.

One of the adventurers was slain in this combat and they had to return to town to lick their wounds and resurrect their fallen comrade. The adventurers returned once more and explore more of this level but made another fatal mistake. They chose to set camp inside of the castle and were set upon by guardians of it. Two skeletal guardians in black armor and halberds attacked. They were accompanied by two more in green armor and firing poison arrows. Three humans were with these skeletons. One wore white robes and was a priest. One wore red robes and was a magic user. The last wore blue robes and was a monk.

The adventurers had to retreat from the dungeon as two more of their members were slain. Clearly camping in this castle is a bad idea. The adventurers returned to town and again had their friends raised from the dead.

The adventurers descended the stair case and were ambushed by Eight Hell Hounds and Four Skeletal Archers clad in black armor and firing acid arrows. The cleric is killed in this engagement.

After returning to town and getting the Cleric raised from the dead the adventurers return to the castle and explore further. In a large circular room they find a statue of a multi armed goddess holding a spear. A magic mouth appeared and asked a riddle….which was answered incorrectly. The statue became a Demon Type V (Marilith) and she proceeded to shred the magic user in the first round. She was ultimately slain leaving the adventurers returning to town yet again for resurrection services.

The adventurers continued exploring the mysterious castle. At one point they made a critical error and walked down a metal hallway that was electrified. When they tested the walls it did not shock them so they continued down the hallway. When they reached the middle the magnetic force ripped the metal off of the cleric and two fighters. As all three characters are extremely strong they managed to withstand the force of the pull but their armor did not fare well. It was destroyed when it was ripped from their bodies and slammed against the metal walls with full force.

The players are rather high level now and had two wishes available to them which they decided to use to bring back their armor. But they worded this wishes poorly…..and got poor results…..

Wish One “I wish for the return of my armor before it was ruined by the magnetic trap.”

This player received a lump of iron ore.

Wish Two “I wish for the return of my armor right before we left the hallway”

This player received the crushed set of armor that was the condition it was in just before they left the hallway…..

Two wishes down.

They explored a few rooms and killed some lightning based creatures. Four Behir. Some lightning mephits. And a group of Voltars from the plane of lighting. See the featured picture for a possible example of this species.

My players continued exploring the mysterious castle last night. And it went a little rough for them. They encountered a pit fiend and some barbed and horned devils in the lava pits that are adjacent to the castle. Those they managed to dispatch without taking any serious losses. The battle was long and there were injuries but no deaths in the party.

The adventurers made the fatal error in attempting to rest for the night within the castle. Despite taking serious losses in the past from this choice they again believed that they were safe to do so. Soon they met with some of the guardians of the castle. Four skeletal guardians arrived with a priest wearing a white robe, a monk wearing a blue robe and a witch wearing a red robe. The skeletal guardians were powerful fighters. Two had arrows with paralysis poison. In this exchange the party cleric was slain as was the red witch and the monk from the castle guardians group. The party wisely disengaged and fled the dungeon to lick their wounds.

The party later returned to the castle after getting their cleric raised and their wounds healed. They rested in town long enough to recover their wounds and their spells. And then they proceeded to head down a spiral staircase they had found much earlier in their travels.

The next level of the dungeon had walls painted blue. They quickly discovered that residents of this level appeared to have electrical forms of attack. They killed some volts and solved a puzzle involving a peculiar dome.

My current group started as five players playing five characters. It is a fairly balanced party. There are two fighters, a cleric, a magic user and a thief. There are two humans, two half orcs and an elf in the group. This is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition campaign. Unfortunately, work demands and schedules, have reduced my number of players from five to two. Sometimes a third player, who was one of the originals, returns when he is in town. 

The group has completed the Malcon campaign (until he returns of course) and then embarked upon an adventure in the Astral Plane. After completing that adventure they returned to their keeps only to find an immediate threat to their estates. A dark and mysterious castle appeared almost over night. It towers above their keeps from a mountain that also did not exist when they last visited home. At the request of the king they are now investigating this castle.

The adventures traveled to the top of the mountain and found the drawbridge and towers manned by fire giants. They defeated a large party of fire giants inside the castle’s main hall. And then they defeated more of them guarding a staircase. They found a secret tunnel leading into caves intertwined with molten lava. Inside of these caves they engaged a party of Salamanders and then defeated a group of Scorpion Men. They are resting and healing their wounds now before continuing their exploration of this mysterious castle.

And now….the adventure continues……

The Adventurers of my Zanzian campaign started as a party of five. Two half orc fighters, a human magic user, a human cleric and an elven thief began the quest to defeat the greatest threat to the kingdom….Malcon the Firebringer. Malcon has been a plague upon the land for more than one hundred years. He was once the Grand Seer of Zanzia. He was a loyal adviser to the king. And then he betrayed the king and tried to seize the throne for himself. This led Zanzia into a bloody civil war in which undead and unholy armies were unleashed upon the land. 

But Malcon was defeated.  His nemesis was his best friend. The great Paladin Antoviniuos led the Zanzian army and crushed Malcon’s siege of the then capital city of Zanzia….The City of Onm. But not before Malcon crushed the city and killed the king and queen. Only by the grace of of the gods did an heir survive this siege. Malcon’s army was defeated and he was imprisoned in a volcano in the Dragonteeth mountain range only known as the mountain of fire.

But Malcon has returned. During the hundred years that he was imprisoned he became a powerful Lich. Gnomish explorers near the volcano inadvertently broke the magical seals which kept Malcon imprisoned. Once released he again resumed his campaign of terror.  But again he was defeated. This time by a group of adventurers. About ten years ago a powerful group also led by a great paladin defeated Malcon once more. But this group only thought that they had destroyed the Arch Lich. While they destroyed his physical form they failed to destroy his phylactery. He laid low for a while to rebuild his forces. And then he again rose up to threaten the land.

This new group of adventurers has yet again set upon the quest to challenge this fiend and put an end to his terror. These explorers visited the Oracle of Gula to get answers for the king as to who was responsible for the many problems that began plaguing Zanzia. They then stormed the Temple at Domi and defeated an important ally of Malcon. Shortly afterwards they destroyed another important ally of the Lich. An ancient vampire named Aandoran was building another undead army for Malcon with the aid of an ancient evil artifact….a pipe organ that creates undead. And then they traveled to the Mountain of Fire to challenge Malcon the Firebringer himself. 

Again the Lich was defeated. And again his life force survived as his phylactery was not destroyed. And so it exists today. Malcon again is biding his time. He waits. He watches. And he rebuilds. And again he will rise up and terrorize the kindgom.

Fortunately for us…..Malcon has agreed to write a column here on my blog while he plots his revenge in order to help dungeon masters with their endless quest to kill, maim and destroy those nasty delvers in their own campaigns.