“Built by priests of Amon-Gorloth, this dungeon was constructed and adapted from existing caverns following their dreams channeled from Amon-Gorloth itself—making them a twisted and nightmarish version of the convoluted mausoleums under the desert sands where Amon-Gorloth sleeps and dreams.”—Dyson Logos
For a minimum-preparation D&D campaign, use The Deep Halls of Amon-Gorloth with the rules of your choice and some method to generate monster encounters.
This is one of my favorite maps from the map god mere mortals call Dyson Logos.1 Every time I look at it, a voice in my head screams, “Bluebook D&D!”
Today, I’m doing it.
You might run it as a seven-level dungeon. Without counting encounter areas per color, though, I’m guessing there aren’t enough to stock a whole level of experience points for even a single character to level-up. So I group the colors into “logical” levels of two or three colors each.2
“The Deep Halls of Amon-Gorloth,” Hand-Drawn Map by Dyson Logos.
“To make it a bit easier to navigate, I’ve also provided a pair of colour-coded versions of the maps indicating the depth of each individual level. This is based on the excellent work of Michael Prescott who colourized a photograph of the original map before I had scanned it.”
Applying the “Stone Mountain” nomenclature from Holmes to Prescott’s colors, we get the following three-level dungeon.
Level
Color
Name
1
Red Tan Light Green
1st UP 1A 1B
2
Dark Green Blue-green
2A 2B
3
Blue Violet
3A 3B
Even at two or three colors each, XP per level will be tight. A fun solution to the problem is to throw treasure at it. See “Monty Haul” below.
Mine is a solo campaign, so I don’t trouble myself with placed encounters. As the PCs explore the dungeon, I roll on the tables in Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One: Levels One-Three. This random generation fits the dungeon’s “dreams of Amon-Gorloth” theme.
I say, “What’s next?” and the voice says, “Three-dee-six in order…”
A “Monty Haul” Dungeon
There might be a line between “giving away treasure” and what we used to call a “Monty Haul” dungeon. If the PCs open a door to a ten-by-ten room and see piles of gold and platinum coins counted in the thousands, littered with gems and jewelry, and “one of every magic item in the book,”3 that’s giving away treasure.
To maintain the thrill in treasure-finding, the DM might put constraints on treasure placement by establishing a method. Your “Monty Haul” method might be anything, but keep to it.
My own “Monty Haul” method is simple: triple, quadruple, or quintuple any treasure, guarded and unguarded alike.
In preparation for the next age in the Wyrm Dawn campaign, I made monster group cards for the primordial wyrm, each wyrmling, and living statues. I also made a cosmetic change to the Kobolds card and added new actions, used by the new monsters.
Guard A guarded treasure or epic treasure cannot be stolen or otherwise removed from its place.
Wake Roll 1d6. On a 6, the active group explores. Otherwise, it stays asleep and prepares.
Touch Handle touch as steal. In addition, no matter the results of the conflict, the target group (in our case, the Dragon) adds the following instructions to the bottom of its card.
Wyrm-touched: The Dragon has the same bonus to dice rolls as the Wyrmling who touched it. A wyrm-touched Dragon cannot be so touched again.1
New and Modified Monster Groups
Symbols:
Population: ● Treasure: ❍ Epic treasure: ⛭ Special bonus: ★
Kobolds (modification)
Remove the draconic tag from the Kobolds card.2
Living Statue
In addition to the three initial monster group cards, the Living Statue card begins the Age of Monsters in play. By default, its type is Magma, but you may decide otherwise or roll for it. Place its counters with 1 ⛭ in the Hall of Living Statues.
The Living Statue guards an enormous stone tablet. This epic treasure is called “The Stone of Living Statues.” Made by the Throrgrmir dwarves in their renaissance, the tablet describes how to create a living statue. It is immovable and, so, cannot be stolen or otherwise removed from the Hall.
If the Wizard or the Blue Wizard finds the tablet unguarded, add the following action to the wizard’s card:
❏ Build Living Statue (req cyrstal, iron, or magma).3
On its turn, the builder—and only the builder—may deactivate a Living Statue. Deactivation is not a separate action. When deactivated, the Living Statue card is removed from play. Given the required materials, a wizard may build multiple Living Statues, but only one at a time may be in play.
Living Statue
Crystal●●● Iron●●●● Magma●●●●● Treasure varies
Construct, Mindless, Magical
Constructed by the Throrgrmir dwarves or a powerful wizard, a living statue is a formidable guard.
LIFECYCLE
AlwaysGuard. IF it has not interacted with any monster group in the last turn, the Living Statue prepares and takes no additional actions.
A Living Statue’s type is determined by the resource of which it is made. It takes its turn immediately after the wizard who created it.
Primordial Wyrm
The Primordial Wyrm begins the Age of Monsters in her lair, which is the ancient city of Throrgardr, now in ruins. Place 6 ●, 6 ❍, and 2 ⛭ in Throrgardr.4
The epic treasures in the hoard are Lyngheid’s Prize and the Seventh. When yielding treasure, whether through theft or otherwise, the Primordial Wyrm gives up normal treasures first. Only when she has no treasures remaining does she sacrifice Lyngheid’s Prize. The Seventh, being her last unhatched egg, cannot be removed from the hoard while the Primordial Wyrm is in play.5
Primordial Wyrm●●●●●●❍❍❍❍❍❍⛭⛭
Unique, Primordial, Aquatic, Draconic, Hoarder
The primordial wyrm sleeps in her lair unless disturbed…
LIFECYCLE
AlwaysFight any group that has made me the target of any action. IF I have not interacted with any group in the last turn, prepare and take no additional actions.
Healing: If the Primordial Wyrm has fewer than 6 ●, roll 1d6 when she prepares. On a 1, add 1 ● to the Primordial Wyrm.
Apathetic: No matter how many ● or ❍ she gains, the Primordial Wyrm never rises to villainy.
Die for the Seventh: The Seventh, being her last unhatched egg, cannot be removed from the hoard while the Primordial Wyrm is in play.
Wyrmlings
There are six unique Wyrmling cards. Wyrmlings are named by order of birth. Fighting over treasure during the Age of Civilization, they now abide by an established hierarchy. Stronger Wyrmling cards, higher in the order, have a bonus to all dice rolls.
Wyrmling, Name●●
Unique, Aquatic, Draconic, Wandering
A wyrmling seeks treasure. She does not know nor care that her touch effects dragons. She just wants the treasure.
LIFECYCLE
IF I am asleep, wake. IF I am near a Dragon and it has treasure, touch it. Otherwise, alwaysexplore.
❏ Steal.
Hoard bound: When she acquires a treasure, a Wrymling returns immediately to the lair, adds the treasure to the primordial wyrm’s hoard, and sleeps.
Wounded: A sleeping Wyrmling with fewer than 2 ● cannot wake. Instead she prepares, adding 1 ● instead of a ★.
Protected: In the lair, a Wyrmling cannot be the target of any action while the Primordial Wyrm is in play.
Wyrmling Hierarchy:
Wyrmling Name
Bonus to Dice Rolls
Delta
+2
Epsilon
+2
Zeta
+1
Alpha
+1
Gamma
+1
Beta
+0
Notes
1 The touch action and the Touched instructions might also be used in a demon-centered campaign—renamed as taint and Tainted.
2Wyrmwyrd, the follow-on campaign, uses the B/X “rules as written.” Though compelling, the kobold association with dragons was introduced in a later edition.
3 Crystal may be exploited from the Crystal Caverns, iron from the dwarven Smelter, Foundry, or Power Plant (considered as biomes), and magma (also a biome) from the magma chamber.
4 During the Age of Civilization, the primordial wyrm acquired (through her treasure-seeking offspring) nine dwarven treasures. Using the average treasure type values, I converted nine dwarven treasures to four dragon treasures. These are in addition to the two treasures the primordial wyrm previously possessed.
5 I don’t see in the rules that the (optional) epic treasures can be stolen at all. I’m making up the “yield normal treasures first” rule.
The story of “Lyngheid’s Prize” gives me the idea to name epic treasures as they appear. Thus far, with the intelligent sword, we have five epic treasures.
Epic Treasure
Location
Description
Lyngheid’s Prize
Throrgardr
Intelligent sword
Throrgrmir Scepter
Throne Room
Emperor’s symbol of state
Sigregnormr
Trophy Hall
Gold statue depicting the victory of the dwarven lords over the primordial wyrm
The Inordinate
Doom Weapon
A trigger device akin to the red telephone of our twentieth century doom weapon
In time the Throrgrmir dwarves recovered from the civil war. They built a power plant, which drove production higher, and they made a highway, which reached subterranean neighbors to the east and west. Increased communication fostered the exchange of goods, services, and skills and, so, ushered in a rebirth of the Throrgrmir civilization.
Meanwhile, in the Deepmost Caverns, trouble—in the form of wyrmlings1—hatched from eggs. The first attacks on Throrgardr’s gate were repulsed, but the wyrmlings persisted and they grew in number.
Eventually, the wyrmlings sneaked around the gate, swimming up the river, and defeated the dwarven defenders in frontal assaults. They prowled corridors, seeking treasure and decimating dwarven populations.
Despite this constant threat, the dwarves continued their mining operations and construction projects. Beside the highway, they built an assembly line. Progressing along the road, visitors entering the realm followed products as they were assembled on this magnificent testament to dwarven ingenuity.
The dwarves also continued Eitri’s work from the previous age, building the aqueduct that carried water from the screw as well as a drain. A valve directed water into an unused cavern or back into the river to recycle water in time of upstream drought.
They also added a sewer beneath the city’s graffhellar.2 The system extended beyond the city, servicing inhabited areas throughout the realm.
As their crowning achievement, the Throrgrmir dwarves constructed an impossible machine. It was an engine that produced more energy than it consumed. By feeding its output back into the machine, it ran by itself at the pull of a lever.
With this energy source, they built an entire hall adorned with statues of granite, crystal, gems, and iron (which they invented on a day off). Not simple carved figures, these statues were animated with a life force.
But the dwarves suffered from the wyrmling attacks. The crystal and gem mines were played out. Facing a bleak future, clans began to emigrate, and their numbers dwindled.
Finally, three wyrmlings attacked the gate and traversed Throrgardr. On the city’s outskirts, they ravaged a graffhellir. The dwarves successfully fought off the attackers, driving the wyrmlings back to their lair. But it was to be their last victory. The wyrmlings returned in a relentless onslaught, destroying clans and stealing treasure.
So, in a mass exodus the remaining clans departed, taking all the wealth they could carry.3 The primordial wyrm crept into the abandoned city, gathering wyrmlings to her, and the Throrgrmir civilization came to an end.
Throrgrmir Dwarves Defend a Graffhellir Against Three Wyrmlings at the Civilization’s Final Peak.
Notes
1 By now, the dwarves named the wyrm “Ormr” (serpent), and its offspring they called frekormr, (greedy snake) or frekr for short, and more derogatory, thjofrormr (thief snake).
2Graffhellar (canal + caverns): Throrgardr’s administrative areas akin to city quarters. Also used for areas outside the city. Singular graffhellir.
3 Had the wyrmlings not so depleted the population, the civilization would have ended in an industrial accident. The impossible engine, producing evermore energy, would eventually explode. The departing dwarves, with a pull of the lever, switched off the machine. Should the lever ever be pulled again…
Meanwhile, the wyrm laid eggs. During Throrgrmir’s final era, the eggs hatch. While the dwarves struggle in the war’s aftermath, they must defend themselves against treasure-seeking wyrmlings.
Tinker & Tack
What’s fun about tinkering with rules in your own instance of a game is that they don’t have to work in every case. They only have to fulfill your present purpose. I tacked these additions on to the Age of Civilization. I present them here as an example of what you might do with your own game of How to Host a Dungeon.
Dwarves
When expanding and exploiting, dwarves prefer to move into dormitories and store treasures in vaults as far as possible from any active wyrmlings. They build, however, where they find space.
Wyrmlings
I name wyrmlings after the order in which they hatch, using the greek alphabet. From seven eggs, the wyrmlings are called Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta.
Following the dwarves’ building phase, the wyrmlings—all together—take their turn in phases as follows.
Incubation
Roll a d6 for each unhatched egg. For each 1 or 2, one egg hatches. Emerging wyrmlings immediately search for treasure.
Once hatched, a wyrmling may wake or search. Each of these actions may lead to subsequent actions, which are handled in the appropriate phase.
Wake
Roll a d6 for each sleeping wyrmling. The wyrmling wakes on a result of 1 to 4. Upon waking, it immediately searches for treasure.
Search
Wyrmlings seek gold and gems. As the offspring of primordial and cosmic parents, they have no affinity for epic treasures.
The wyrmling moves one finger toward the nearest dwarven treasure, excluding epic treasures. A wyrmling may move along waterways as well as tunnels.
If the wyrmling encounters a dwarven population, the conflict is resolved in the CONFLICT phase.
If the wyrmling encounters treasure, it returns immediately to the lair with the treasure, and its turn ends.
Conflict
When a wyrmling encounters a dwarven population, the conflict is resolved according to the rules for CONFLICTS AND ATTACKS in the Age of Monsters section, How to Host a Dungeon.
If multiple wyrmlings are in conflict with a population, they join forces and get a +1 bonus per additional wyrmling on the conflict roll.
The wyrmlings are young and, when outmatched, retreat back to the lair. Therefore, dwarves win all ties.
If the wyrmling wins the conflict, remove the dwarven population. The wyrmling’s turn ends.
If the dwarves win, the wyrmling retreats immediately back to the lair and sleeps.
The Wyrmling “She”
I don’t know yet if the offspring of the primordial wyrm and the World Dragon have a gender. Until we discover otherwise, I use feminine pronouns for the wyrmlings.
At the Gate
The dwarf gate blocks the tunnel from the Deepmost Caverns to the city of Throrgardr. Although no dwarven population is present, the dwarf gate is considered to be defended, unless occupied by wyrmlings. Defenders get the appropriate fortification bonus against attacks. From the gate, the dwarves also observe the waterway entrance.
A wyrmling at the gate may either attack the gate or sneak by it, swimming up the waterway. If more than one wyrmlings are present, they split into two even groups: some attack, others sneak. An odd wyrmling joins the attackers.
Multiple wyrmlings at the gate gain a +1 bonus for each additional wyrmling to the conflict roll if attacking, or if sneaking, gain a -1 bonus for each additional wyrmling at the gate. The bonuses apply to all wyrmlings, no matter in which activity they are engaged. One roll is made for each activity (attacking or sneaking) no matter how many wyrmlings are present. An example follows.
While a victorious wyrmling is at the gate, it is not defended. Dwarven defenders reinvest the gate at the beginning of their turn in which a wyrmling does not occupy the gate.
Attack
Attacking the gate is handled as a conflict, see CONFLICT above.
Sneak
Wyrmlings may attempt to get past the gate by swimming up the river. A 1 or 2 on a d6 indicates the dwarves do not detect the wyrmling. She immediately continues movement up the river. If the dwarves detect the wyrmling, she is repulsed and returns to the lair.
Example
Three wyrmlings are at the gate. Two attack, while the third attempts to sneak by. The two attackers get a roll with a +2 bonus, while the sneaker gets a roll with a -2 bonus.
The dwarves roll a 3. A +1 for fortification gives them 4 against the wyrmling attackers roll of 2, +2 for numbers, which is a 4. Dwarves win the tie. The defeated wyrmlings return to the lair and sleep.
The sneaker rolled a 3, which, with a -2 for numbers, is a 1—a success. The wyrmling continues her movement, following the river.
Sibling Conflict
When more than one wyrmlings find a treasure, they fight over it. Roll a d6 for each wyrmling. If the optional Wyrmling Hierarchy rule (below) is used, add a bonus according to the wrymling’s rank, if any. The elder (or ranking) wyrmling wins ties. Winner takes the treasure back to the lair. Loosers remain; their turn ends.
Wyrmling Hierarchy (optional)
I have the idea that it will be important to know the wyrmlings’ hierarchy in later ages of the How to Host a Dungeon campaign. I found it not too onerous to keep track of wins and loses between the wyrmlings in the manner described below.
It does, however, prove difficult to detail how it works. Feel free to fill in holes or come up with your own system. If you don’t use the wyrmling hierarchy, assume the wyrmlings are ranked in order from eldest to youngest, i.e., as they hatch.
When any number of wyrmlings fight, the winner, if she doesn’t have one already, earns a ranking. If she is lower ranked than an opponent, she may move up in the ranking.
In all cases, a loss is recorded for each looser.
No rank: If the winner has no rank and she has an equal or fewer number of loses than her highest ranking opponent, she assumes the rank of that opponent.
Higher rank: If the winner is ranked higher than her opponents, she maintains her current rank.
Lower rank: If the winner is ranked lower than her highest ranking opponent and she has fewer loses than that opponent, she assumes that rank. Otherwise, she climbs in rank until she has fewer loses than the wyrmling whose rank she assumes.
Slipping rank: When a wyrmling’s rank is assumed by another, she slips down in the ranking. Compare the loses with the next lower ranked wyrmling. The wyrmling with fewer loses gets the higher ranking.
Empty Nest
If all the eggs hatch during this age, the primordial wyrm sleeps. Beginning on the next turn, she might wake up. In the WAKE phase, roll a d6. She wakes on a 1, and attacks the dwarf gate (with any wyrmlings present) in the CONFLICT phase, adding 1 to the conflict roll for each of her populations. She begins with 3 populations.
If the attack is unsuccessful, any wyrmlings return to the lair, and the primordial wyrm loses 1 population (return 1 token to the Deepmost Caverns). The primordial wyrm remains to press the attack in the next turn.
She continues the attack until she is successful or all her population tokens are returned to the Deepmost Caverns, at which time, she returns to the lair and sleeps. Check each turn for waking.
If the attack is successful, she occupies the gate, and her turn ends. The next turn, she moves into the city and makes a new lair there. While the primordial wyrm lairs in the city, dwarves may not reinvest the gate.
The wyrm sleeps and does not wake unless disturbed. Returning wyrmlings deposit their treasures and sleep in this new lair.
Unhatched Eggs
At the end of the Throrgrmir civilization, any unhatched eggs become epic treasures. In a later age, or in the later campaign, a wyrmling might be coaxed from an egg through an arcane ritual.
Civilization Ends
If civilization ends by industrial accident or other catastrophe, roll a d6 for any wyrmling above the dwarf gate and not in the lair—the primordial wyrm is impervious to the damage, and she protects her young. On a 1 the wyrmling does not survive the catastrophe.
If the dwarven population is reduced to five or fewer populations, the remaining dwarves depart, taking treasure (but not epic treasure) with them, and the Throrgrmir civilization ends. If she isn’t there already, the primordial wyrm moves, with her hoard and any unhatched eggs, into the city.
Active wyrmlings return to the current lair and sleep. Otherwise, follow the rules for the dwarven End of Civilization, How to Host a Dungeon.
Wyrmlings at the Gate. At the gate (center), Alpha attacks, while Gamma attempts to sneak up the river. Having previously penetrated the gate, Beta (background) engages a dwarven population. Four eggs remain in incubation (right).
While the dwarves toiled to rebuild their civilization above, the primordial wyrm lurked below. In deep recesses of her cavern lair, she crept into crevasses and twisting tunnels, which led ever deeper below the sunlit surface.
At length she emerged into the world’s underside, where lived the World Dragon. In the dimness there, with the World Dragon she mated and, thereby, fertilized the eggs that grew in her belly.
Withdrawing, she returned to her lair in the Deepmost Caverns, and laid her eggs one by one. Seven eggs in all she brooded in the nether dark.
Wyrm’s Clutch. Ovoid stones, overlarge, serve as eggs. In the final age of the Throrgrmir civilization, the eggs hatch. Emerging wyrmlings seek treasure.
Tomb built, fallen heroes enshrined, the Throrgrmir dwarves recovered, though their population much reduced by the wyrm’s incursion. They continued their work and became rich beyond imagination. They built a smelter and improved the quality of their bronze tools. With a foundry, they increased metalwork production. To protect Throrgardr against further invasion from the nether reaches, they built a great gate at the city’s entrance above the Deepmost Caverns.
Meanwhile, gold mining continued until the primary vein was exhausted, at which time they turned their efforts to crystal and gem deposits.
They also embarked upon an ambitious project. Desiring to bring water to the upper levels, they planned to construct a canal along the empty vein. They built a simple yet enormous device to bring water up from the subterranean river. They named it “Eitri’s Screw,” after its audacious inventor.1
Applying knowledge of metallurgy and crystallography, they made a weapon. The purpose and use of which would be lost with the civilization that conceived it.2
As wealth increased, society grew self-indulgent. Successive emperors became less attentive to dwarfolk needs. Tension rose between laborers and bureaucrats. Protests turned to revolt. Revolt turned to civil war. Throrgardr burned.
Throrgrmir Civilization Before and After the Civil War. At war’s end, half the remaining dwarven population departed3 with half the treasure, seeking a new home. Five populations, eight treasures, and three epic treasures remain.Throrgrmir Civilization Age of Decadence Overlay and Composite.
Notes
1 In our world, its invention is attributed to Archimedes. The water screw is tilted at a 45-degree angle to hold the load as it screws up. Though it appears vertical on the campaign map, Eitri’s exemplar is tilted north, in our viewing direction.
2 Having no idea what sort of “doom weapon” dwarves might invent, I drew the sort with which my 1980s upbringing is familiar.
3 In the later Wyrmwyrd campaign, dwarves may be from remaining Throrgrmir clans or from clans of this diaspora.
The dwarf-wyrm encounter I envisioned became an adventure, both in-game and in its setting up. More than two weeks later, I’ve played the scenario several times in the dwarven city arranged in beach stones on two tables in my small apartment.
I’m tempted to recount the event in dramatic detail, but I’m more eager to get back to the history’s main thread. So I will, instead, summarize here only details pertinent to the current campaign and to that which is to come.
Future adventurers read the inscription on the dwarven lords’ tomb.
The dwarven lords pushed the primordial wyrm back to her lair in the Deepmost Caverns. Four dwarven lords of ten survived. They rescued two dwarfolk groups but not the third, which the wyrm ate.
Six dwarven lords and a dwarfolk group, in total the Throrgrmir dwarves lose seven populations, and the primordial wyrm can lay as many eggs.
One of the surviving dwarfolk was a pre-adolescent female named Lyngheid. The dwarven lords discovered the dwarfkin, wearing an overlarge mail shirt and armed with wooden sword, marching toward the source of recent screams, quickly-squelched, and escorted her to the nearest exit. Unknown to them, as soon as they were out of sight, Lyngheid sneaked back in.
The dwarfkin reappeared just in time to charge into the wyrm battle, stopping to pick up a sword, which lay next to the charred remains of its previous owner.
Lyngheid then squeezed into the melee and planted the sword in the wyrm’s nose. The wyrm fled with a sword +1, +3 vs. dragons stuck in her snout.
For her bravery and heroic deed, Lyngheid was made a hero and given honorary possession of the weapon.
“Lyngheid’s Prize” now lies in the wyrm’s treasure horde at the bottom of the Deepmost Caverns, where it gains intelligence and a distinct hatred for dragon kind.
Wyrm Dawn Campaign Map. The next age of the Throrgrmir civilization begins with the building of a tomb.
The earth shook. Limestone walls trembled. Yellow plumes of dust fell in straight lines from the great cavern’s ceiling onto rooftops and pavements of the dwarven city. While the ground rumbled, adults grabbed children and scurried under lintels, miners dove beneath timber shorings, crafters ducked under worktables.
Throrgardr’s inhabitants were accustomed to earthquakes. This one was stronger than usual, but the dwarves were confident that their buildings would stand it, and that the tremor would soon subside.
It did. But while crafters recovered their work and homemakers swept the dust, news came from the shaft below the city. The mining team there had broken into an enormous cavern. The miners were presumed dead, and something lurks in the open darkness of the Deepmost Caverns.
Astonished faces turned panic stricken when shouts came from the under-city quarters. A great serpentine beast emerged from the shaft. It breathed fire and lightning. Families fled the city as the colossal creature crept along the streets. Its scaly skin squeezed between homes and workshops. It scooped up stragglers in great claws. Ripping with gnashing teeth, it ate in a ravenous frenzy.
Now the heroes have assembled. Ten dwarven lords must enter the abandoned city to hunt down and destroy the wyrm.
Ten Dwarven Lords
The party consists of ten 12th-level dwarven lords, a representative from each clan.
Ability Scores
I rolled 3d6 mostly in order. That is, I rolled Strength then Constitution. If either result was below 9, I started again.
Five of the six abilities play into the encounter. Apart from the obvious, the bonus to saves vs. Spells (Wisdom) might be needed as the wyrm is a spell-user. I doubt the dwarves will have occasion to parlay with the creature, but I used Charisma to determine the chain of command within the party.
Adjustments
While I adjusted Intelligence and Wisdom down to raise Strength, I didn’t allow to lose any Wisdom bonus (see above). Though I guessed a dwarven lord wouldn’t care so much about knowing more languages, so I mined the ore out of Intelligence.
For easy reference, I put the ten dwarven lords on a single sheet and the wyrm on an index card.
Equipment
Each dwarf is equipped with plate mail & shield and a sword, unless another magic weapon is at hand. All carry a backpack from which they may pull any standard equipment required.
Magic Items
Using the rules for NPC Magic Items (X53), each 12th-level dwarven lord has a 60% chance to have an item from each magic item subtable. Items not usable by dwarves are forfeit.
I rolled for each dwarf on the Wand/Staff/Rod table and was eventually rewarded with the only item they can use. I wasn’t sure what one would do with a rod of cancellation until I got a cursed armor result. The dwarf with AC 9 will discover his predicament when first struck.
Even the scroll results that are not spells are fairly useless to the dwarven party. I did get a treasure map showing the location of a magic item. I traded it immediately for a roll on the General Magic table (X44), which gave me a sword +1, +3 vs. dragons. Perhaps fate itself machinates against the wyrm.
On the subject of swords, I rolled the usual chance for intelligent swords and got two, one of which had a special purpose. Though, instead of dealing with another character, let alone two of them, I’m going to let the encounter with a primordial wyrm determine whether any swords gain intelligence.
I rerolled duplicates. I thought three potions of speed, however useful, were unimaginative. But I kept items that seemed to me to be useless in the scenario. Protection from undead scroll, dimunition potion, ring of animal control: should these items survive the wyrm’s breath, they may be useful to adventurers who discover the dwarven tombs.
Gender
Without rules to differentiate, B/X implies a setting in which equal numbers of male and female heroes set out on adventures and contend with ferocious monsters. Unless some reason dictates a character’s gender, I let a dice decide: odd male, even female. Of the ten, four are dwarven ladies.
Assault and Support Teams
I imagine the dwarves might conduct a raid on the wyrm’s position, if she’s stationary, or an ambush, if on the prowl. Either way, the party is divided into assault and support teams. The support team uses missile fire to weaken the enemy and keep it occupied, while the assault team closes for melee. I assigned dwarves to teams by weapon type—melee or missile.
Chain of Command
The dwarves are shown on the character sheet in command order, leader on the left. The assault team leader is the mission commander. If a team leader is out of combat for any reason, the next in command (to the right) takes charge to continue the mission.
Morale
Because the encounter is intended to simulate events, the dwarves’ morale is important. Like the wyrm, the dwarves might retreat, if combat goes badly, to regroup and return later. The morale of both teams is 10 as long as the mission commander is alive and fighting. Otherwise, it drops to 8. If the support team leader is out of combat, the team’s morale becomes 9 unless it joins the assault team.
The dwarven lords’ character sheet is color coded according to the table below. The ability scores match, more or less, to the sphere.
Color
Sphere
Ability
Red
Melee
Strength
Orange
Missile
Dexterity
Yellow
Movement
Charisma
Green
Healing
Constitution
Blue
Protection
Intelligence
Purple
Utilities
Wisdom
Names
Brisingi f. flame
Rekkr m. warrior, hero
Dagfinna f. day finder
Thrasir m. the one in rage
Aurvangr m. mud field, gravely plain
Blainn m. dark, blackish
Dorri f. spearwoman
Herraud f. army-peace
Ivaldi m. yew bow wielder
Farli m. the faring one
These few brave go to defend the dwarven home. Remember their names for the drinking halls will resound with songs to glorify their victory or dirges to mourn their deaths.
Primordial Wyrm
The primordial wyrm, a 16th-level monster, is 80’ long. Her serpentine body has eight legs and nascent wings. Though she cannot fly, she swims, and she climbs walls and ceilings as well as she crawls on the ground. She breathes fire and lightning. Being of dragon kind, she is vulnerable to attacks and magic vs. dragons.
The wyrm has a preternatural intelligence and the ability to speak, though not yet having been exposed, she knows no languages save that of magic.
After being awakened by the dwarves from a millenia-long slumber, she is hungry. For every dwarven lord (population) she eats, she can lay one egg.
