NPC - Harald the Old

Harald the Old

- Ftr 9th Lvl - HP 91 - AC (8) {3 with Chainmail} [2 with chainmail and shield] +1 To Hit and To Damage due to strength. Cannot be knocked unconscious in combat nor can he be held, slowed or trapped by spells. If detect magic is used Harald personally radiates magic from his body.

Harald has lived a long life and feels the approaching years with trepidation in his heart. Always he has put himself in the forefront of battle. He has gone on long and dangerous raids, adventures, quests and while his fame has become great a glorious death in battle has eluded him. Votan, he who chooses the slain to fight for him in the next world, calls to him and Harald is eager to answer that call.

Armor and items of renown and power Harald once possessed, but he has set those aside, gifted them to friends and kin, so that the death-wound may find him. He wears finely crafted mail and helm, a sturdy shield and a thick cloak of red, but the only item of power he carries is his bastard sword, Steel-Cleaver.

Steel-Cleaver - Bastard Sword +3(To-Hit)/+5(To-Hit & Damage) versus Giants and Giant-Kin - Any successful hit by Steel-Cleaver has a 20% chance of destroying any nonmagical shield, helm or piece of metal armor that is struck. The bonuses apply (To-Hit only and not To-Damage except against Giants and Giant-kin - Steal-cleaver is then a +5 to hit and damage weapon but does not destroy armor).

While Harald is eager for a glorious death he will use all his considerable skill and combat knowledge to defeat his opponents. He will never surrender and Votan has blessed him so that he cannot be knocked unconscious in combat or even magically held, slowed or trapped.

Currently Harald is a warrior sailing with the Styrkarsarjar and has volunteered, eagerly, to join the thirty who are to go ashore to find supplies and water, but Harald is really looking for death. The pig-faced orcs they fought are nothing to him but somewhere on this island he feels there must be a worthy foe.

A Foe Most Evil... D-Series Ad From Dragon

+2 Backscratcher

Humor from 1e DMG

Loved the humor  from the DMG. Always reminded me of Trampier's PHB cover.

EO 1eAD&D Deities & Demigods Cover Art

Trampier 1eAD&D PHB Cover Art

City of Brass 1e AD&D DMG Cover Art

City of Brass advertising sheet

Lone Wolf AD&D Part 10 Encounter E-5

Lone Wolf AD&D Part 10 Encounter E-5

9.

The 3 locations marked as '9' on the map are latrines. They are a room with a bench and a hole that drops down 40ft to a branch of an underground stream.

10.

This room is a supply closet but the back 10ft is packed with bric a brac. The druids tend to use a lot of wicker. Amid the clutter is a minor magical item. A Broom of Sweeping.

The Broom of Sweeping

On command (a word of activation and cancellation is needed t start and stop the broom) the broom will begin sweeping and will sweep a 10x10ft section of floor every Turn. The Broom will sweep in  a straight line then move right  (if it can) and begin sweeping back the way it came just 10ft over, It will continue to sweep forward then back, then over 10ft till it can no longer move to the right of its original starting position. If it can no longer move right it simply reverses the process t that point.

While the broom puts very little weight down on the surface it does sweep with enough strength to move small objects and trigger sensitive traps.


11.

This is thee room of a 2nd lvl Druid named Smythe. He oversees the 1st lvl druids assigned to this aarea. Smythe is more than a bit of a coward and will run rather than fight if he can help it.

NPC - Khelaret

Khelaret is of Madame Sartenna's 'Ladies'. She is of half-elven blood and Sartenna's second apprentice. She is more inclined to witchcraft than necromancy and having skills in both has proven helpful to Madame Sartenna.

Reply to a post about 1e AD&D

1e AD&D is an artform rather than just a Chilton's guide to the mechanics of the system. It is the DM as master of this art that provides the balance to the game. No player running an elf or half-orc or human has any advantage over the DM or over other players because the real goal is enjoyment and fun and each player will have a different measure of what that means and each DM will have a different method of achieving that measure. 

Gygax's method is certainly that of a master but a wise DM needs to choose a path that is their own and find the balance that works for them. That is how you master the game and not by a blind adherence to the method of someone else. 1e AD&D inspires DM's to find their own method, their style, their voice, more than any other system I've come across, but it is also the hardest of all systems to master because it requires you to use your imagination, your creativity, your own will and authority, not someone else's, not even Gygax's nor any lesser designer of games. 

1e AD&D is a lofty pinnacle, a singular creation which lesser men have diminished rather than improved like a masterpiece by Davinci repainted by draftsmen, mechanics and engineers studying form and not spirit or soul. Without mastering the spirit of the game the enforced rules quickly become lifeless and dry and the game becomes meaningless, mere paper tigers and gold made of ink and merely numbers. Do not mistake the music of Mozart for a disturbance of sound or 1e for a collection of rules in a book, both capture a spirit that few can tame and fewer master.

Addendum:

Nothing asrtsy fartsy about an artform. If you've ever seen skilled boxers at a match you will see an artform, if you've ever found yourself stepping into a new world through the pages of a book you will see an artform, if you've ever been part of an enthralling adventure of the imagination through AD&D you will see an artform. And if you don't, some people just don't see the balloon people, or to be more pop culture, choose the right pill. 1e AD&D is both a floor wax and a dessert topping, but it just isn't for everybody, and that is the way it is supposed to be. The Valkyrie don't touch ever poor slob who has had a scimitar lobbed at them, not everyone gets a sip of Odroerir or is born of Kvasir's blood, and for many people a game is a game is a game and will never be anything but less than their imagination might aspire to. If you look deeply enough you will find that the most cherished things of concrete are actually full of wholes or sometimes not even there. Words of any kind are magic, they make you angry, they make you Love, they push your buttons like letters on a keyboard. If your 1e AD&D game isn't pushing the boundaries of your imagination, if it isn't magic, isn't Mozart... Why isn't it?