A solo playthrough of „The Temple of Psaan“ from The Beholder Issue 11 (1980).
Can be found here: Explore: Beneath & Beyond: Original Scenarios Resurrected III: The Temple of Psaan (1980, Andrew Ravenscroft)
Continuing the journey of Thorn the barbarian. He used his new found wealth and gathered a party of fellow adventurers to make more daring expeditions for fat loot.
Characters:
Thorn, 2nd level barbarian, with middling stats except for STR. Equipped with leather armor, sword and two spears.
Grigor, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with plate mail, morning star, shield and crossbow.
Alyssa, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with splint mail, 2H axe and composite bow.
Seraphina, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with plate armor, sword, shield and short bow.
Korgatha, 1st level MU, decent stats. Not quite human. Equipped with staff and daggers. Spells: Light, Magic Missile, ESP
Vaanar, 1st level illusionist, good stats all around. Equipped with staff and daggers. Spells: Detect Invisibility, Wall of Fog, Blind
Sythra: 1st level thief, good stats. Equipped with leather armor, sword, daggers and sling.
The party was attracted to a nearby village by rumors of strange lights and sounds originating from an old temple at night. Thinking that old temple and strange happenings can only mean riches waiting to be uncovered, the party sets out. They arrive at the old ruin, sitting on a hill near a cliff to the sea.
The roof and low walls of the building have long since collapsed, leaving only rubble and remnants of the pillars. The only intact thing is the altar. A few big rats scurry around nearby, but quickly flee from the party’s torchlight (no giant rats encounter). Sythra investigates the altar and finds it to be slide-able. The party pushes the altar back, revealing a flight of stairs going down.
The party descends and finds themselves in a hallway with three doors - one in front of them and one to the south and north each, also leading forward. The party listens at each door. The northern one betrays the sound of growling and claws scraping the floor. Behind the southern door, strange sounds, almost human but unintelligible, as well as heavy steps can be heard. The middle door is quiet, so the party chooses to open it.
The door, however, is locked and Sythra fails to pick the lock. Thorn breaks the door down, causing a loud noise, but nothing seems to react to it. There is another hallway ending a door behind it. Sythra also fails to pick the new lock, so Thorn bursts down the door again. The room behind the door is wider to the sides and ends in a set of double doors. The only feature in the room is a large plank set against the north-eastern wall, opposite of the party.
Thorn steps into the room and the floor gives way below him. He manages to swing his body back to avoid falling into the deep pit that opened up before him. The pit covers about half of the room, 15 ft. in width. Vaanar casts Light, revealing the pit to be 40 ft. deep and empty. The party discusses plans to proceed, which results in Seraphina taking off her armor to jump across the pit. She makes the jump and lays the plank across the pit, allowing the rest of the party to cross safely.
The two doors prove too difficult for Sythra to unlock, but are no match for Thorn and his newly honed door opening technique. The sound of wood splintering echoes down the long, torch-illuminated hallway stretching before the party. Two smaller hallways lead to the north and south, which the party presumes to connect to the other two doors near the entrance.
The group decides to double back to the south, thinking to deal with whatever lurks there, in the hopes of preventing a possible ambush later. The door is, of course, locked. The same sounds behind the door as before can also be heard from this side. Another door falls victim to Thorn’s boot and the party finds themselves face to face with two large apes. The apes attack in a frenzy of hunger, but are quickly dispatched by the party. Alyssa suffers a light wound, Grigor and Thorn a serious wound each. Thorn takes out three healing potions he bought before the expedition, which bring Alyssa back to perfect health and mostly patch up Thorn and Grigor.
The party return and decides to also deal with whatever lurks to the north. Another door is destroyed, revealing five war dogs. The barking beasts are dealt with in short order. Only Grigor suffers a nasty bite, but another healing potion cures him.
The party doubles back and continues down the long hallway. It ends in a T-section, going north and south. To the south, it disappears around a bend, while four doors are visible along the northern stretch, which ends in a set of double doors.
The party decides to go north. Listening at all the doors, they hear snarling and talking in a bestial tongue behind each one. No traps are found, so the party opens one of the eastern doors. A gnoll is inside, looking rather unfriendly. The gnoll barks something and the party quickly deals with the creatures, but the noise carries through the complex and more than 12 gnolls flood out from behind the other doors. Outnumbered but in good position, the party takes formation and an intense battle begins.
The battle ends with most the gnolls dead, Thorn unconscious, Sythra and Seraphina heavily wounded and Alyssa and Grigor lightly wounded. Two of the gnolls have surrendered, and the party finds about 100 gold pieces in the various rooms, as well as a key on the leader of the gnolls. The captured gnolls tell the group that the key is for the doors to the entrance rooms, and that they were hired by a sorcerer named Maldivius, who resides in an enchanted labyrinth deeper in the complex. They don’t know anything else, so the party releases them in direction of the entrance.
Grigor assumes the role of party leader and the party decides to explore a bit further, stashing Thorn in one of the rooms. They move down the southern path. An equally long corridor as the previous one stretches with before them, with three doors at the southern side. They spot a hooded figure disappearing through the far door and decide to follow.
The group enters a labyrinth of dead ends and pit traps (which they jump over). They find a door, which leads to a small room holding a carrion crawler. The creature strikes first and paralyzes Alyssa, before being killed. Finding only a small vial, which Korgatha identifies as a potion of healing, the party decides to return to the village. Blessed by good luck, they don’t encounter anything while carrying Thorn and Alyssa through the complex.
The party rests for a week, not enough to fully heal all wounded party members. During the week, Seraphina, Sythra and Alyssa ask around the village for priests or other means of healing, but find none (determined via oracle). The village elder informs them that there might be help in some of the other nearby villages, so the trio sets out to investigate. They tell the tale of what they encountered beneath the ancient temple, which does not sit well with the villagers, having a hostile force of monsters so close to them. Travelling from village to village, they are granted aid in the form of three healing potions, as the villagers want the threat gone as soon as possible (determined via oracle). Thorn drinks one of the potions and recovers greatly, though he still suffers a serious wound, which hampers his fighting ability.
With Thorn once again as the leader of the party and reasonably well rested, the group sets out toward the temple. Not encountering anything suspicious on the way or near the temple, the party carefully enters the underground complex. They find that the middle door they previously bashed down has been replaced. After some deliberation, the party inspects the door, which does not have a lock. Thorn pushes the door open and it falls down, apparently not having been hinged to the wall. As it lands on the floor, a burst of fire explodes in Thorn’s direction. He barely manages to dodge back in time to avoid the fiery blast.
The group proceeds back into the room with the pit, the long plank still covering it, and the double doors at the end also replaced. As Grigor is about to step on it, Vaanar shouts a warning. The illusionist pokes the plank with his staff, which passes through it. An illusion, he explains. Not finding the real plank anywhere, the party decides to pass the pit by jumping. A relatively easy task for the athletic members of the party, only Vaanar and Korgatha struggle a bit, but are caught and pulled over by the others.
Just as the party has cleared the pit, two bugbears and two gnolls rush at them, right through the new double doors – another illusion. One of the gnolls heavily wounds Alyssa and she stumbles back, leaving her dangling on the edge of the pit. A bloody battle ensues, with the party focused on saving Alyssa and not getting pushed into the pit. Thorn ends up bleeding out on the floor, while Alyssa and Sythra are seriously wounded.
The group hears shouting from behind the illusory doors, signalling incoming enemy reinforcements. Seraphina takes charge of the party and heals Thorn with the healing potion they found last time, but he remains unconscious. The party takes up position besides the illusory doors, reasoning that their enemies can’t see through it either. Vaanar casts Wall of Fog in front of the door. Two gnolls rush through the door and are confused by the fog, letting Alyssa and Sythra strike them down. Grigor and Seraphina rushes out through the illusion and catch three more gnolls off guard, striking them down. The last remaining gnoll proves to be quite the tough beast, bringing down Seraphina before being killed by Grigor.
(The traps are stuff that I invented, based on Maldivius’s spells and possessions. I also redistributed the sorcerer’s forces, setting up ambushes and choke points as makes sense.)
Not daring to face any more possible ambushes waiting deeper in the complex, Grigor takes charge of the party and they retreat through one of the other rooms. They arrive safely back at the village, where the villagers are preparing defenses in case anything from the dungeon follows the party. The party rests for two weeks, using two healing potions to help Thorn recover faster.
Then the party sets out once more toward the dungeon, determined to make Maldivius pay for his trickery. They descend into the dungeon, wary of new traps, tricks or ambushes. Not encountering anything, they reach the second long hallway with the three doors, where they entered the labyrinth last time. Again they spot a robed figure darting into the far door to the east and decide to follow it.
Back in the labyrinth they explored partially last time, the party is wary of traps and lurking monsters. Grigor almost falls into a pit trap, then finds a secret door at a dead end. The door opens to another empty stretch of hallway, at the end of which Thorn finds another secret door. Proceeding through it, the party find themselves in a well furnished bedroom. A man dressed in a wizard’s robe looks at them with surprise.
The party decides they want information, so they talk to the man. He introduces himself as Maldivius and praises them for finding their way through the labyrinth. The party cautiously questions the sorcerer about his purpose here, to which he states that he simply wants to conduct his experiments in peace. He offers to show them to the party, who accepts.
Maldivius leads the group into the next room, a sorcerous laboratory. An apprentice pours over books, whom Maldivius instructs to fetch the experiments. The party warily watches a tall, ape-like creature of blue scales, iron claws and spiked tail, which keeps watch over the western door. When questioned about the demonic creature, the sorcerer tells the party that it is a lesser demon from the 12th plane, summoned to do his bidding. Maldivius orders the demon, Zdim, to watch his guest, to which the creatures turns and observes the party.
The apprentice returns with two hulking, human-looking creatures with big lumps where their hands should be. Maldivius proudly presents the results of his experiments – the mutation of humans for specific purposes. The party is not impressed, or amused, and threatens Maldivius to stop his experiments and vacate the premise. The sorcerer cares little for the party’s threats and tells them to leave, now that they have found what they were looking for. Else they will face the overwhelming force of him, his apprentice, the demon and the two experiments. The party draws their weapons to put an end to the sorcerer and his unnatural creations.
Maldivius orders Zdim to “tear those over there apart”, then sics his creations on the party and prepares to cast a spell. The apprentice does the same. Thorn makes the first move and strikes a powerful cut across the demon’s body, supported by Seraphina. It retaliates and rends the barbarian with its powerful claw, nearly killing him instantly. Grigor exchanges blows with one of the hulking experiments, while Alyssa gets struck by the other one’s clubbing arms. The four magic-users unleash their spells upon each other simultaneously. Vaanar tries to blind Maldivius, but the more powerful sorcerer resists the spell and counters with a might magic missile, blasting the illusionist dead. Korgatha shoots her own magic missile at Maldivius, but is killed in return by the apprentice own magical projectile in return. Sythra wounds Maldivius with an arrow, who retaliates with another magic missile, killing the thief. Seconds later, Thorn and Grigor fall to the combined might of the demon and one of the experiments. The other creature strikes down Alyssa. Now all alone, Seraphina fires two last arrows, her likely final act of defiance, at the apprentice and Maldivius. They strike true and both of the men keel over dead. However, her fortune turns as the experiments march up to strike her down – Zdim now hacks its deadly claws into them, following its master’s last order to the letter. Heavily wounded, Seraphina flees while the monster fall upon each other.
She arrives at the village and tells the villagers what happened. They prepare for the worst while she rests. Fortunately, no demons, sorcerous experiments or other horrors attack the village. Seraphina rests until she is fully recovered, then manages to persuade a group of brave villagers to help her scout out the dungeon one final time (she has the highest CHA of the group). They encounter nothing while making their way through the complex. Most likely the rest of Maldivius forces fled after their master’s death. They find site, mostly as it was when Seraphina fled, except for the two torn apart bodies of the experiments. The demon is nowhere to be found, likely having returned to where ever it was summoned from. Seraphina takes whatever treasure she can find, then helps the villagers carry the bodies of her fallen companions back to the village.
Thorn, Grigor, Alyssa, Sythra, Vaanar and Korgatha are buried as heroes of the village. The villagers make plans to seal the underground of the temple for good, lest another evil make its lair there. Seraphina stays in the village for a while, then sets out for further adventures.
That’s end of this adventure (and Thorn’s journey). Really fun dungeon, I enjoyed creating the traps and ambushes for the party’s return. I also made up Maldivius’s purpose being the experiments, since there’s nothing given in the adventure for why he’s down there, but I thought it made sense, as he does have those creatures guarding the room before the study.
I rolled for the groups reaction upon encountering the sorcerer, which turned out to be friendly. Then I rolled neutral and hostile when they were waiting for the apprentice to return and for Maldivius offer of letting them leave. Guess the dice wanted a TPK :V. The fight was the level 8 demon, Maldivius and the two experiments all level 5, and the level 2 apprentice against six level 1 and one level 2 characters. Quite the challenge! Seraphina got lucky she won initiative and dealt enough damage to kill the two sorcerers. The adventure says that Zdim takes orders extremely literally, so I thought it made sense for it to attack the experiments, as they moved “over there” to attack Seraphina. The whole adventure is inspired by Sprague de Camp’s book “The Fallible Fiend”, so pretty fitting how it ended.
Seraphina managed to survive a few more adventures, eventually establishing a fortified city near a cleared dungeon. She also got payback on Zdim later, by first drawing the Flames card from a Deck of Many Things (earning its enmity again), then drawing the Moon card, enabling her to cast Wish, which she used to summon the demon and slay it with the help of her new, stronger party.