**Real dates:** 2/2/19, 2/9/19, 2/16/19 **In-game dates:** November 18th-19th, EY632

**PCs:**

Ambrose (Hero – Fighter L4)
Zort (Curate – Cleric L5)
Roger (Woodsman – Warden L4)
Imric (Swordsman/Conjurer - Fighter L3/ MU L3)

**Hirelings:**

Vol, Sundarr (porters)
Vog, Murdir (meatshields)

**Retainers**

Webris (Village Priest - Zort's Cleric L3)

[Link to prior sessions][1]

After returning to Frostmark, the party rested for that day and the
next, taking the opportunity to pay their retainers and re-stock for
a trip north to the Chaotic Caves. They set out the next morning on
horses, with a light snow falling and as normal headed north along
the road. After a few hours, however, they decided to take a
different route to the caves. They cut west across the Broken
Plains, and into the Barkwood, intending to turn north. The day was
uneventful, and they camped in a clearing. Roger built a small fire
and took first watch.

After a couple of hours a deer ran through camp, obviously
spooked. To the north, Roger could hear voices. He woke Imric and
the two scouted in the direction of the noise. After a few hundred
yards, they could see four Hill Giants and four Grendel around a
fire, eating a late meal. There were four bulging sacks next to the
fire.

They were too far from the Giants to overhear what the details of
was being said, so Imric quaffed a potion of clairaudience, and
heard the group would move south in the morning. Thus warned, they
returned to camp and told the others what they found.

After some discussion, the party decided to try and steal the
Giants' sacks. They hatched a dangerous plan - Roger would advance
on the camp and wait until the Giants and Grendel were asleep, then
sneak in and grab the sacks one at a time. Meanwhile, the rest of
the party would head east a short distance into the forest in case
they were needed. Of course, none of this went as planned - Roger
advanced on the camp, but was spotted by a Grendel who had been left
on watch. Roger and the creature traded bow shots, wounding one
another, and the Giants were now awake and quite angry. Roger fled
the camp.

Hearing the commotion, the party advanced on the camp and found it
empty. Roger was nowhere to be seen, and neither were the Giants or
the Grendel - except that the Giants had left their sacks behind!
Ambrose and Imric took advantage of the opportunity and grabbed two
of the sacks, all loaded with coins, and fled north.

Meanwhile Roger had successfully evaded his pursuers, and with a bit
of a head start had led the Giants and Grendel away from the
party. He was still in the forest, however, alone and at night,
without his horse. He applied a poultice to his arrow wound, and
rested high up in a large tree until dawn. With the light he was
easily able to track the party, catching up with them later that
afternoon, outside of the caves.

After hiding the sacks of coins among some nearby rocks and scrub,
the party decided to explore an area unknown to them, to the
west. Near a fast-moving stream, they found a cave entrance with
wooden totem poles on either side and entered cautiously. A hundred
feet down a dark tunnel, they were attacked by a giant gecko and
several lizardmen. They had no problem defeating them, and continued
on, exploring the rest of what turned out to be a lizardman
lair. After a few tough battles, they had defeated the leader but
were all wounded. They grabbed what treasure they could find and
headed out of the caves, back to town.

**Referee notes:** I've been using the BFRPG module 'The Chaotic
Caves' [1], modified (mostly on the fly) for OD&D and to adjust the
encounter difficulty and treasure up, as the module is for levels
1-3. The separate cave lairs make it really easy for quick
in-and-out sessions like these. The lizardman lair turned out to be
quite a slog, however, with lots of narrow tunnels and small caverns
that acted to restrict movement and melee choices, especially with a
large party like this one. I tend to like sessions like that less -
I think it's more interesting for the players to have lots of
tactical choices, like they did with the Giant encampment.

Speaking of Giants, they are one of the few wandering monsters in
OD&D with real treasure:

> Wandering Giants will carry from 1,000 to 6,000 Gold Pieces with
> them in their usual copious shoulder sack. - M&T p. 8

[1]: https://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#sn_modules