I spent most of my free time over the past few months working on the Horror of Talaraska. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have tackled something like this during my busiest time at work. However, with the adventure behind me I wanted to wrap up a few things and provide some plot hooks for anyone who would like to build on to the adventure. For anyone catching up, the pertinent posts can be found here:

The Village of Cross Tree

Background & Synopsis

The Horror of Talaraska part I

The Horror of Talaraska part II

My intention was to create a one-shot adventure that would actually be a one-shot and not run over into multiple sessions. At 54, my current reality is often that I have one crack at new players. On some occasions there will be no chance at a follow-up game, while at others a fun single evening might land me a new gaming group.

I opted to base things on the Rules Cyclopedia because I’ve been dipping my toes in those waters lately. I should note that aside from nostalgia, I don’t typically lean toward those old school systems. Left to my own, I’d prefer something more mechanically complex or even classless. However, Basic D&D fit the bill for my target audience of prospective new players (who I often rope in with little or no experience to TTRPGs).

My group for this adventure consisted of a party of 5 1^st level characters. All but one of the players were entirely new to hobby, with the 5^th having only dabbled with 3e in college. Shout-out to Elyndra, Ardor, Cedric, Remere, and Ivee. We ran the adventure as written in just over 3.5 hours (I used a stack of pre-generated characters like I would for a convention) and it seemed to be well received. My plan worked, as we’re currently trying to line up schedules for a regular game over the winter months.

The Village of Cross Tree

I started the party just West of the Village of Cross Tree, as suggested at the beginning of the adventure. We had previously established that all the party members already knew each other and we’re heading off in search of adventure.

The party’s interactions with the villagers played out largely as I expected. However, I did encounter one thing that I found interesting. My players ranged anywhere from 4 to 20 years younger than me and it was clear that while they were new to tabletop role-playing games, they had an almost video game mentality to interacting with the villagers.

On the Road

The trip from the village to the bandit camp was one area I was concerned about. I was afraid that it might either take too much time or seem too easy to the party. As things played out at my table, my list of mundane encounters worked as intended. The party from the discarded supplies and thoroughly investigated that area. Next up was the giant bees though they wisely gave them a wide berth. Their third rule ended up being the faint campfire smoke and I made the decision based on elapsed time to have that lead them right on to the bandit camp.

Bandit Camp

The bandit camp encounter worked as intended. I set this up in such a way as to make it highly likely that the party would get the drop on the bandits. First level characters in Basic Dungeons and Dragons are pretty fragile, so it was important to me to give the players a chance to feel heroic here.

As things worked out, the party broke their morale after the 3^rd bandit fell. Their fellows were plopped down, bound and gagged, and had to wait outside the cave until the party completed their explorations.

In hindsight, I got lucky here and this could have been deadlier than I’d intended. If I were to do it again I might not worry about bandit HP and instead simply say that they would drop with a single hit.

#2 Breached Room

There was originally more to this secret room. When I was first putting together the adventure there were some levers built into the wall here that would move objects in the map room (location #5). This was all intended to give the party clues about other things they might find if they were to explore the lower city. As it turned out, it just felt cumbersome and I thought it would slow things down so I left it out.

#5 Map Room

The frescoes here were intended to give the party a clue about the final encounter. I wanted to telegraph the fact that lighting the braziers in room #7 might help them defeat the horror.

I also toyed with including a sort of “you are here” Marker to give the party a point of reference if they explored the lower city in the future. Again, I skipped this for the sake of brevity but if I were to build on this adventure I would probably put it back in.

#6 Collapsed Stairway

I included the Magic Mouth on the pillar here because I’ve always been taken by David A. Trampier’s illustration in the AD&D Player’s Handbook (if you’re not familiar with the image you should check it out). Magic Mouth doesn’t exist in Basic D&D to my knowledge but Talaraska being an ancient center of arcane knowledge, it felt appropriate to lift something from AD&D.

# 7 The Study

My goal with this final room was to create an encounter that would feel exciting to the players. I had the benefit of hosting players who were quite green. However, knowing I’d be sharing this adventure I went into the project as if veteran players were at the table. Meta gaming aside, players are often every bit as familiar with all of the standard monsters as the GM. This led me to want to use a unique creature.

I was also a bit challenged by the system itself. Basic D&D may hold a dear place in my heart but low-level combat isn’t exactly exciting. Because of this I gave the Horror some abilities to keep the party on their toes. I’m sure this may be seen as heresy by some OSR purists and that’s fine. I was simply doing what I thought would work for my table.

In the end I was very happy with the results. The combat was resolved at the top of the 4^th round and I believe my players were engaged for the duration. Multiple PCs were injured but all stayed up and the added abilities really seemed to leave the players scared of what would happen next.

Where to Go From Here?

While I think this would work well as an intro or convention adventure, I’ve tried to create it in such a way that it would be easy to build onto. The city of Talaraska has been kicking around in my head for some 40 years and I’ve always loved the idea of a subterranean city lost to time (see my previous post on Wakou M’baque). I’ll revisit the space as time allows but for now there are some questions and threads that you may want to fill in for yourself.

• If the party decides to return and explore the lower parts of the city, there should be invaluable information to be gained by studying the map room.

• Knowledge of Talaraska should be hard to come by. However, there may be more clues to be found in the woods outside of the village of Cross Tree. Karia Merric, the barmaid at the Cross Tree Inn, recently found an antique suit of armor in the woods. This will be discovered to have originated from Talaraska.

• Nicodemus from the Ruined Tower may have knowledge of the lost city, as it’s been hinted that he had been an adventurer in his younger days.

• Taryn Keen’s father Benjamin has been missing for two years and townsfolk claim that he had an unhealthy fixation on legends of a lost city somewhere in the vicinity of Cross Tree.

• The frescoes in the map room depicted numerous shadowy creatures like the one the party encounters in the study. Are they still lurking about? What’s their origin?

• What’s the purpose of the runestone found in the study?

Closing

That’s all for this week. As we head into November I’m hoping that I’ll have fewer real life demands and more hobby time. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit. Have a great week!

For the Village of Cross Tree, go here.

For maps & plot hooks, go here.

For my Idea Chest posts, go here.

For some random tables, go here.

Finally, for a bit about me and some general stuff, this is the spot.