**Real dates:** 3/2/19 **In-game dates:** November 20th, EY632

**PCs:**

Ambrose (Swashbuckler – Fighter L5)
Roger (Woodsman – Warden L4)
Imric (Swordsman/Theurgist - Fighter L3/ MU L4)

The next day the party rested in Frostmark. The Curate Zort and his
retainer attended to some personal matters at the local temple, so
they stayed behind while Ambrose, Roger and Imric planned an outing
to explore more of the wilderness to the south and west. The
following morning they headed south along the Twin-Towns road, then
turned west into the Thistle Wood. There was no path but it was easy
going - the trees were sparse and they had been in this area before,
on the way to the lost Hobbit Village [1]. After an hour or so they
entered unknown territory, and soon thereafter the the quiet was
broken by sounds of horses approaching from the south.

The party took cover as best they could, and could see a wagon
approach, led by two horses and a man-at-arms riding alongside. he
had his sword drawn and the group was clearly in a hurry. Were they
being pursued? The party stayed put and let the wagon pass, then
followed its tracks south. A short time later they again heard
sounds of horses. Imric and Roger hid away from the track, while
Ambrose drew his sword and waited. After a minute Ambrose was
confronted by an armored  knight leading four creatures on large war
horses. The creatures looked like bears, but in man form.

The group stopped and the mounted knight drew his own sword,
demanding Ambrose step aside. Ambrose refused, and the knight
dismounted while the bear-men watched. The knight readied his
shield - blue and emblazoned with a black dragon, and spoke a word,
after which his sword began to glow with a blue light.

Imric, watching from the trees, decided a sleep spell might be in
order. As Ambrose and the knight faced off, he cast it and the four
bear creatures fell into an enchanted slumber, slumped over their
saddles.

Ambrose and the knight fought a pitched battle, trading blows and
wounds. Roger cautiously joined in the melee, looking for an
opening. At one point a blow that would surely have killed Ambrose
was stopped by his magical shield. He doubled his efforts and with
the help of Roger, the knight was soon dead. Imric emerged from the
trees to kill the sleeping bear-men, and the party searched them and
their leader.

The glowing sword they wisely left alone, remembering what happened
to poor Alus [2], but they took the knight's shield and the contents
of his saddle bags, finding 60 platinum coins. Ambrose inspected his
shield that had saved his life - it was battered and Imric could no
longer detect any enchantment on it.

The three adventurers took the five horses, the head of a bear-man
and the knight's shield and headed back to town, intent on
discovering the history behind the black dragon standard and the
story behind the fleeing wagon.

**Referee notes:** I rule that sleep affects the lowest hit dice
creatures first, in this case the bear-men had 3HD versus the evil
knight's 4HD and Ambrose's 5HD (so he could never have been affected
anyway). I've read that Gary's original OD&D group randomly rolled
to see which HD group was affected by sleep [3], this seems fine
also, but I think leaving the higher HD foes unaffected is more
challenging.

During the combat with the knight, Ambrose saved himself from what
would have been a fatal blow by sacrificing his magical shield. A
normal shield would have shattered, but I ruled his shield lost its
+1 enchantment. It seemed a good trade-off.

The knight's sword was aligned with chaos, as the players
suspected. So it was good they did not pick it up as two of them are
lawful and one neutral.

[1]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/rpg/play_reports/nolenor/nolenor-09.txt
[2]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/rpg/play_reports/nolenor/nolenor-15.txt
[3]: http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/10409/sleep-spell-again?page=1&scrollTo=150989