[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #12

One of these days, I'm gonna write a blog post that's not a Mazes & Minotaurs session recap! But not today... not today!

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9, Session #10, Session #11

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Meteora's player was busy with work stuff :(

The group woke up after some well-deserved rest in the cavern. Porphyra was still unconscious... So her player was given the choice to play as either Buff the henchman or Romulus the wolf, and of course he chose to play as Romulus the wolf!

As a first order of business, Romulus marked the cave as his territory.

Ellipsis came up with a plan to reach the Source: tie something to a rope, and throw it down through the little "window" overlooking the cave of the Source, wait for it to come down with the current, and use the rope as extra support when wading upstream. However, with their numbers so low, they decided to leave that part of the exploration for a later time.

Ellipsis and Romulus decided to leave the cave and explore the surroundings a bit. They left Buff and Chuff behind to look after Porphyra.

Outside, it was a hot summer morning. 

Suddenly, there was some movement in the bushes about 70' away from the cave entrance --- and a group of scorpion men started shooting arrows! An ambush! Ellipsis returned the favor with a couple of his own arrows, and Romulus charged into battle. However, the three scorps posed a much greater threat. Ellipsis called for help, but Buff and Chuff needed a couple of rounds to reach the place of the battle. 

Ellipsis took cover in the cave entrance behind some rocks, but still he got hit by several arrows... The damage was enough to kill him, but instead he got an adrenaline rush and continued fighting for enough time for Buff and Chuff to join the fight --- but then........

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #11

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9, Session #10

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Meteora the Amazon

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Right at the entrance of the cave, Meteora the Amazon caught up with the rest of the party. Turns out, she got distracted by a game of chance back at the village, and lost all her clothes as the outcome.

So now it was time to go dungeoneering!

The party traced the river back to its source, a cave on the northern slope of the Feathered Queen's mountain. The tethered their donkey at the mouth of the cave and cautiously entered. The cave seemed natural: grayish-black rock with sparkling speckles, polished smooth by millennia of fast-flowing water. The cave looked like a horizontal funnel, a gradually narrowing passage.

Ellipsis scouted forward, with the rest of the crew following after him. They found a chamber off the main passage to the left. They entered, and found that it was full of clusters of small, needle-like crystals, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. There was a draft of air coming from further ahead, and a weird whispering sound.

The party realized that the whispering sound was caused by the crystals; and that the crystals echo any nearby sound and amplify it. Porphyra the Lyrist decided to test the acoustics and played a song: however, her voice cause a bunch of screeching feedback, which led to some of the crystals exploding, and maiming Buff the Warrior - a bunch of small crystal needles embedded themselves in his palm. 

The party proceeded further, and found a long winding passage sloping upwards. It led to a small spherical chamber, with an opening ~10' above the floor. An uncanny light was seeping through this "window", slowly pulsating between blue and orange. The light of the group's lamp seemed to "retreat" from this otherworldly illumination!

Ellipsis stood on Porphyra's shoulders and looked through the opening: into a great cavern, full of large crystal, with a sphere of light and a whirlpool in the middle!!

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #10

 Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Having rescued the poor Phoenician man from the evil cyclops laboratory, the gang decided to go back home to the village.

They quickly headed south, as they wanted to cover as much distance as possible before nightfall. Then they camped, luckily without any incidents. During the next day's track, they noticed more weird kinks about the local wildlife: for example, a regular-looking brown bear tried to ambush them by rolling big rocks off a cliff. Some of the adventurers got hurt, but were able to continue the journey and reach the river around dawn.

There, they set a fire to signal to their comrades on the other bank, to come get them with the ship. 

In the meantime, Romulus the wolf started gnarling at something in the water: a human body!

The body was pulled ashore with ropes. It was the cadaver of a drowned man, with lots and lots of tattoos on his body: mostly concentric circles and spiral patterns. Then the patterns started swirling and moving... and the bloated body rose from the ground, and attacked the adventurers. His touch had a life energy draining effect. Porphyra almost fell prey to it, because she tried to grapple, but got lucky with her save. Then with the help of a bunch of rope they subdued the creature, and tried to throw him on the fire. The flames burnt the ropes away, and the creature attacked again, but this time was put down for good and burnt to ashes.

Meanwhile, the ship crossed the river and took the group back to the village. 

There, they took good care of the Phoenician, and, when he regained consciousness, the group learned about how the village is originally the rescued guy's home, and how he had been abducted by the cyclopes. He wasn't aware that his fellow villagers were gone as well. But, he did confirm they had been seeing vultures hovering above them. They also learned the guy's name (Bel-Shazzar). It also was confirmed that Danel, the nymph's lover, was also originally from this village.

The next day, the adventurers stayed on their side of the river, and tracked north, towards the volcano. Logging was still going on in the woods at the foot of the volcano. They camped here, and at night saw an awe-inspiring gigantic creature swimming in the river...

In the morning, the group took a turn towards the east, to reach the source of the river in the mountain. They managed to avoid a vulture patrol, and reached the source - a mysterious cave...

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #9

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Meteora's player couldn't make it, so we commenced the exploration of the cave with two players characters and their henchmen.

The party (this time with a proper light source - an oil lamp) cautiously entered the cave. Ellipsis the Hunter checked for tracks, and found several, including prints of a single wolf and a cave lion. The lion's tracks, however, were strange, heavily impressed. Ellipsis thought it made be that somebody is riding the lion.

After the cave entrance, the passage branched into two. Romulus the wolf/dog gnarled at the left passage, so the adventurers proceeded to the right. In the next chamber they found a big eye caved into the rock. At the same time, a cave lion charged out of the left passage and attacked the rearguard. The two warriors put up a good fight, and with the arrival of the rest of the party, they managed to dispatch the lion quickly. 

But there was another surprise: it turned out that the lion was not a regular cave lion, but was a half-taxidermic, half-mechanic monstrosity!

This revelation greatly unsettled everybody. But they decided to investigate the lion's lair in the left passage, and found a weird nest made out of copper wire, and two marble eggs. The lion obviously was trying to hatch these stone eggs...

The adventurers returned to the chamber with the eye, and soon they found that its pupil could be popped open. A little niche behind it hid a metallic wheel or valve. Ellipsis turned out, and they heard a click from the neighboring chamber - a dead end. They searched that area, at first without much success. However, one of them realized, that the dead end was actually an illusory wall!

Ellipsis bravely walked through, and found that a strip of dark material was crossing the passage diagonally, however it did nothing. So he stepped through, and found himself in a built area!

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #8

 Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7

Meteora the Amazon

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

The session started with a track to the south along the river. A mild rain started. The group circled around the frog-people's swamp, but found a couple of discarded miniature mice-weapons along the edge. These they gathered, to have more tangible proof about the great Batrachomyomachia they had observed the day before.

During the trip, Ellipsis eyed the sky cautiously, afraid of vulture attacks. However, peril came from another direction: the river! Two giant snakes slithered out from the water, and attacked the group. The monsters were strong, with coiling bodies and green-yellow-brown scales. Porphyra tried her signature move - WRESTLING! But she got constricted by one of the snakes instead, and was almost crushed. Ellipsis and the two warriors peppered the snakes with arrows and sling bullets. Meteora and Romulus took the serpents in melee. Meteora was constricted too, but she was able to break away. Finally Porphyra broke out of the deadly situation as well, and tried to fight fire with fire: she wrestled with the snake again! But the snake simply shed its skin! So Porphyra wrestled a fine snake-skin instead of a snake...

But in the end, the group was able to defeat both monsters.

As this happened about an hour away from the village, they decided to transport the snake-meat home. Ellipsis started gutting the monsters. He found a big bulging area in the snake's belly, so he opened it up, and found the remains of what seemed to be parts of a pony, and parts of a teenager. The group thought that this might actually be a young centaur (as they've learned a couple of sessions back that the west bank of the river is "centaur country"). 

They opted to spend some extra time here, risking travel at night, to give the remains of the centaur a proper cremation and burial.

Luckily, this delay didn't lead to any extra encounters. And around midnight they reached their home village.

There two of them noticed a person sneaking out of one of the houses, and running off into the night!

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #7

The first Mazes & Minotaurs session of 2021 was a blast!

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6

Meteora the Amazon

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (now in technicolor level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

The group, present in full, including their trusted henchman Buff, the newcomer Chuff, and Romulus, the wolf, wanted to go and explore alternative routes towards the volcano.

In the morning after the funeral of Guff, the village got hit by a vicious thunderstorm. The group stayed in the village, and erected a tent over the sacred hearth of Hestia. Then the village priestess did a rite and blessed everybody.

The adventurers stocked up on arrows, ropes, lamp oil and torches (you may recall how, during the last six sessions, they lacked some of these essentials).

And on the following day, when the weather got all nice and warm and dry, they set out towards the north, along the river that runs close to their village. It was their intention to learn whether this river is the same as the one they followed earlier, or maybe if the two connect up somewhere.

(see the hexmap later in the post)

[Dungeon] Maze of Amazement ( & Death ), one-page adventure for OD&D/Delving Deeper

So, if keying the entirety of The Maddening Corridors of Nuclear Chaos is not really a viable option, what can we do with it?

Well, we can cut it up and use a part of it as a complete dungeon!

I divided up The Maddening Corridors map into 36 quadrants, took a random one (by rolling two six-siders), cut it into half, edited out some errant corridors and superfluous exits; and ended up with a 60-ish room dungeon.

The next step of the exercise was to key it. I followed the basic procedure of my two previous OD&D efforts (Temple of the Berserkers and Outpost of Stone & Silver): stocked it quickly using Delving Deeper (made even quicker through Inspiration Pad Pro automation), then edited as needed...

You can fit 61 rooms on a single page... Of course, the key becomes very minimal, but still, I think this is playable. See for yourselves:

Download PDF with map & key!

Enjoy!

UPDATE 2025: A Level 3 Dork turned this into The Lair of the Serpent Men! Compare & contrast to see how far a little re-skinning can take you in making a dungeon your own.

[Map] THE MADDENING CORRIDORS OF NUCLEAR CHAOS are just too big

2020 was the year of MAP DRAWING. I drew a lot of maps, even made geomorphs. But my magnum opus is this... THE MADDENING CORRIDORS OF NUCLEAR CHAOS! A megadungeon sketched onto four sheets of wrapping paper, adding up to around 100 x 75 cm (that's 40" x 29,5").

Today, I scanned it.

It took about 3 hours and half my sanity.

But it is done.

You can download the full map here...

(Click the link above to get the map in various resolutions, and I've also added a black & white version!)

Four long sheets of wrapping paper.

I scanned it bit-by-bit, in 16 bits. Then stitched it together in GIMP, corrected everything that wasn't lining up.

This is a thing of beauty.

It will probably never see play... But hey, perhaps I (or you, dear reader) can use parts of it?

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #6

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5

Meteora the Amazon

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

and Buff the Warrior henchman

This recent session was another short one, this one because me, the Maze Master, had a lot of work stuff, and couldn't commit to a full 3-hour session. Still, we thought it would be better to play at least an hour or so, especially now that the group could be present in full force!

Meteora, Ellipsis and Buff spent the night camping near the big river. Meteora heard a noise during her watch, and when she checked it out, she saw a body lying under the bushes! Of course, it turned out to be no-one else, but Porphyra the Lyrist, back from her bender with the Magic Stag! She couldn't remember much, or even how she got to the river from the valley of the Stag, but was happy to see her companions again.

She also found a small whistle hanging around her neck, which she supposed might be the whistle to call the Stag in case she wants its help.

Ellipsis and Meteora told Porphyra about the events of recent days, and what things they'd learned about the land.

Luckily, they didn't attract any unwanted attention / random encounters during the night, and in the morning they headed south. They thought that that way might lead them through a forest (which is not the creepy enchanted forest of the Golden Tribe), and towards their village.

In the forest, they saw a big brown bear, but the bear was busy eating something, so they avoided it.

And after a long track, they exited the forest next to the little grain field near the village!

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #5

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4

Meteora the Amazon

Ellipsis the Hunter

and Buff, the Warrior henchman

This was a relatively short session, as Porphyra the Lyrist's player was still sick, and we didn't want to go ahead much without her.

So, after the character group had been escorted out of the palace/nest of the Feathered Queen, they hiked down the hill. Luckily, they didn't encounter any vulture patrols or other monsters. They went back to the valley of the Magic Stag, but couldn't find neither them nor Porphyra.

Their plan was to go and circle west/north-west around the Feathered Queen's mountain, without going into the enchanted forest, because they saw a river to the north of the mountain, and thought that it might be the very river that flows by their settlement. 

However, first they had to get there. The group's mobility was partially hindered, because they were carrying the corpse of the dead warrior Guff (on one of the donkeys).

Even with all the caution, their path lay dangerously close to the edge of the enchanted forest. And soon, indeed, danger struck, as a herd of wild boars charged out at them. Ellipsis the Hunter alerted the others, and they looked for a quick way to escape, and tried to climb up some nearby rocks. Buff made it up quickly, but Ellipsis and Meteora failed to scale the rocks under pressure, and had to receive the charging boars!

During the combat, Ellipsis noticed that the boars all had golden ear- and nose rings! Quite unusual for wild animals... But also, this wasn't your normal wilderness either, but the ancestral territory of the Golden Tribe. The player characters hypothesized that the boars might be actual members of the tribe, polymorphed into boars by the Mother Superior, the stern witch leader of the lake nymphs.

After a quick and gory melee, the group managed to kill or rout the boars. Ellipsis fancied the thought of dragging a boar carcass into the forest and bleeding it there (in a previous session, the soil of the enchanted forest drank up all blood eagerly), but abandoned the idea and the group moved forth.

Nightfall caught them still out in the open, so they set up camp under an overhanging rock. Despite the rain, they managed to get a fire going, and rested for the night.