OD&D Solo game w/wife - The Parade

It has been a month since I last sat down at the table with @theprincesswife for Swords & Wizardry/OD&D play. She's just been feeling so worn out, she hasn't felt like playing. I was really surprised when Saturday night she asked if we could play. Could we? I think I had the dice, minis and campaign binder out in record time.

When we last played, a bit of player/DM miscommunication led Aeli and her band of henchmen and hirelings to the Tower of Zenopus rather than the Minotaur Mage's tower. She had been sent there to look into the issue of possible bandits in the tower, who'd been plauging Westport for weeks. She took her first steps back into her old stomping ground and ... [insert record needle scratch noise here] ... except we had to pause for a moment where her almost 8 month old map confused her and I had to tell her what she was seeing versus what she'd put down on paper.

Right, so we got that all set and she marches up a familiar hallway to find doors that are spiked shut. After a rather noisy series of attempts at yanking them open (and requisite wandering monster rolls), she came face to face with an unexpected sight... bandits AND goblins with a green fist on their tunics! (Note to my AD&D campaign players - yes, I reuse ideas. This is one of my favorite metal songs!)

A bit of nasty negotiation happened and resulted in Aeli slamming the door shut on the group and hightailing it out of the dungeon. She didn't like the odds of almost 2 to 1 and decided to go get reinforcements. A quick trip to the Keep and discussion with the Captain of the Guard ("You *are* the Champion of Westport, right?") and a very annoyed Aeli had 2 militia men and one 1st level fighter.

Back to the dungeon and the band of bandits and goblins sprung an ambush with a volley of arrows down a corridor as soon as the our party of adventurers entered. A chase through the Tower and several rooms found one goblin dead and another cowering, begging for mercy.

DM Note - this is one of the areas where I have a bit of a mental block - adjudicating running battles. My MO up till now has been if movement rates are equal, if the ones doing the chasing get initiative, they can perform a "charge" attack. Otherwise, if the pursued win initiative, I feel they'd somehow kept out of range for an attack. If there's a difference in favor of the pursuers, they can chase and end it with a charge attack. If it's in favor of the pursued, well... keep running, boys! It's probably not the cleanest ruling, but it works.

So Aeli and company tie up the goblin and start to drag him out of the dungeon. He starts raising a ruckus, so one of the hireling whacks him in the mouth! Aeli was in no mood. They drag him out into the sunlight, at which point No-took starts screaming in pain. They cover him with a sack and drag him through the city.

So here's an armed party, dragging a moaning, crying goblin tied up through a bustling seaport. So what does my wife do? "What tavern is nearest? I'm thirsty!" Probably one of the nastiest, lowdown places in Westport, but at the sight of almost 10 well-armed warriors (and one mage - my NPC Tironell - who at this point was getting a neck-ache shaking his head in disbelief...) the whole bar cleared out. Aeli had her drink, they proceeded to the Keep at which point the game ended. Next game, she'll get the results of the interrogation.

Sometimes you just have to let your players really do crazy stuff - I was rolling the entire time Aeli/@theprincesswife were parading the captured goblin through town. Not too subtle, my wife's character... it's great!

I'm really hoping we can keep doing these 1 to 2 hour sessions - she was cheered up after it was over.