Gotta love Erin’s low Personality score. Before we jump into the narrative, there are three topics to cover:

First, I’ve been slowly making my way through the entire 10+ year history of the Spellburn podcast, which is dedicated to Dungeon Crawl Classics. I recently finished an episode dedicated to magic items, and it made me realize how rare and special Ulfheonar’s wolf-spear is. According to p.366 of the DCC core rulebook, magic weapons are each: 1) unique, 2) intelligent, with specific desires, and 3) special in some way associated with the materials and conditions from which they were forged. I’ve talked about those special properties–the spear has a +1 to hit and damage, grants a +1 to initiative, and can pin even magical forms of escape. But what about the rest, including its alignment, intelligence, and desires? Let’s roll some dice to figure it out.

What is the Alignment of the spear? Rolling on the tables in the core rulebook, I get a percentile roll of 16, which makes it Chaotic. Interesting… so ‘ole Ulfheonar was trafficking in not-so-nice forces, much like Hilda. How about its Intelligence? Again, a percentile roll gets me a 10, which means it’s not very smart, gaining a d6 score. I roll a 5, which would equate to a -2 modifier for a PC with this score. At this Intelligence, it cannot communicate directly with its wielder, nor does it have a “Bane” (in other words, it might have been forged specifically to destroy a particular kind of creature). A little disappointing, but thankfully fits the fiction so far.

What, then, is the purpose for which the wolf-spear was forged? Rolling a d16, I roll a 5 and get… “To acquire wealth through theft.” Oh my. I’m getting a sense that maybe the Snake King wasn’t such a nice guy, and was pillaging his nearby Savage Kings to accumulate a horde. It all sounds a little draconic, honestly, which is a fun way to think about it.

Alright then: If Joane rolls badly in a fight, it will be easy to explain that there’s no profit in it and the spear was resisting her. And I’ll pull her a little towards Hilda’s way of thinking when it comes to treasure as it subtly affects her behavior. Fun!

Second topic: The group has rested (albeit poorly) for another night. Haffoot gains another Luck point, bringing her to 11 out of 12. Hilda would recover another Stamina point, but I remembered that one of the requirements of attempting to cast Chill Touch—as she did in the Hound fight—is to spellburn at least one point. I’ll take away that point now. She is still at 15 of 18 heading into this final, climactic day. That’s it from a “daily rest” standpoint. Otherwise, the group is in good shape.

Finally, the next obstacle in front of the party is the Sunken Fens, a place heavily corrupted by the Chaos of the Hound and the lingering magic that has kept it an immortal tool of death. From the adventure module: “Few creatures make their home in the fens, but all present a threat to the PCs. For every hour spent traveling the fens, the characters risk a random encounter. Roll a d5, on a 4-5, the PCs suffer an encounter.”

The first question, then, is how well do they navigate the fens? I’ve been using Umur as the guide of the group, since he is the only one of them who has done overland travel of this scope in his lifetime. He has a +1 Intelligence bonus, so let’s have him roll a d20. On a result of 15+, they’ll take the most direct route and travel 3 hours. 10-15 will mean 4 hours. 5-9 will mean 5 hours. And a lower result will mean 5+1d4 hours.

Umur rolls a [17+1] 18! Nice. It will take the group 3 hours to get to the lair of the Hound, which is likely as good or better than what it took them to discover Ulfheonar’s tomb. Here are the d5 rolls for each hour:

Hour 1: 2

Hour 2: 4 (winner winner chicken dinner!)

Hour 3: 1

Halfway through their journey, the PCs will “suffer an encounter” (I love this turn of phrase). To figure out what sort of encounter, I’ll roll a d7… 4. Oh boy…

On the encounter table, I rolled tindalos vines, semi-sentient plants that try to pull victims beneath the murky swamp waters. First step: How many vines are there? I roll a 3 on d3. Ouch.

Now let’s do Luck rolls for everyone. The lowest of each will suffer a surprise attack from a tindalos vine next to them.

Haffoot rolls a 19. Erin 12. Briene 11. The three lowest are Umur (10), Hilda (7), and Joane (3).

I won’t give the vines a +2 to attack in their surprise rounds because the party are all very much on guard. Working in “worst first” order of rolls, the first tindalos vine lashes out at Joane and rolls a [4+3] 7, missing.

The second vine attacks Hilda with a 17, doing 3 damage. Our wizard is now also restrained and must break away or be constricted and dragged down into the muck.

The third tindalos vine finishes the surprise round with an attack on Umur. It rolls a [18+3] 21, doing 2 damage and grabbing him as well.

Initiative goes badly for the party, with only Joane acting before two of the vines. She obviously chooses an imperiled Umur over Hilda (who she fears and doesn’t like so much), and moves to strike the vine grabbing him with the fabled wolf-spear. She rolls a 2 on her Deed die, then a [17+1+2] 20 with the spear, doing a max [8+1+2] 11 damage. Joane severs the tendril grasping Umur and leaves it with 1 hit point.

Next is the tindalos vine grabbing Hilda. It squeezes her for 3 damage and pulls her beneath the mud. Yikes.

The vine that had grasped at Joane no longer has her as a target. It can choose between Erin and Haffoot and rolls to strike Erin. Its attack roll is [15+3] 18, and it does 2 damage and now our cleric is restrained and being pulled down. The vines’ attack rolls are… quite good so far.

Here is the advantage of having a dagger. Erin can easily strike at the vine holding her while restrained and does so, but just misses with a [8+1] 9 against its AC 10. She will also try a DC 15 Strength check to break free, but isn’t close with a [6+1] 7.

Hilda’s turn, and she is currently underwater. She also rolls a Strength check, 11, and remains bound, effectively ending her turn.

The nearly dead tindalos vine goes next and lashes back at Joane, but she is apparently quite prepared for these animate plants, because it rolls a [8+3] 11 and misses.

Haffoot’s turn, and she jumps in to help Erin. Her twin strikes on d16 are [10+1] 11 and [9+1] 10. Sweet! She inflicts 3 damage with her first sword and 5 with her second. I’ll count the 8 damage as a “single strike” for the purposes of severing a vine, and she frees the cleric.

Umur acts next. Can he finish off the vine that struck him? He only rolls a 1 on his Deed die, then a measly [4+1+1] 6 with his longsword. Thankfully, the shield bash does its job, and he rolls a [14+1+1] 16, dealing 3 damage and crushing the plant to destroy it.

Finally, it’s Briene’s turn to end the round. Though she’s not at all strong (-1), she will attempt to break Hilda free of the vines dragging her down. Her Strength check is a [3-1] 2. That would be a no.

Round 2! Joane steps towards the vine Haffoot has just slashed open. She rolls a 3 on her Deed die. Since Briene is her closest friend here, she will attempt a rallying cry to the healer, giving her an additional Strength check at +3 to pull Hilda free. Her roll is an impressive [19+1+3] 23, and she rolls [7+1+3] 11 damage, obliterating the tindalos vine.

That gives Briene a chance to pull Hilda free. But alas, she rolls a [6+2] 8. Still, good turn, Joane!

The tindalos vine holding Hilda beneath the mud rolls another 2 damage as it constricts her. Hilda is now at 6 out of 14 hit points. On one hand, it’s good that she’s the one taking this punishment, otherwise another PC might be dead by now. On the other hand, we’re hitting a critical zone here, and that tindalos vine holding her is unharmed.

Erin can’t help, as she rolls a [3+1] 4 to attack. That brings us to Hilda’s turn, who will fail another Strength check with a 9.

Haffoot misses with her first sword with a [3+1] 4, but slashes with her second on a [12+1] 13. She does 3 damage, which is good but doesn’t free Hilda.

Can Umur save the day? He rolls another 1 on his Deed die, sadly, but hits with both his longsword ([13+1+1] 15) and shield ([10+1+1] 12), doing 3 damage with each attack. Unlike Haffoot, I don’t see those two attacks as simultaneous, so the 6 total damage won’t free Hilda. The attack does leave the tindalos vine at 3 hp, however.

Still pulling with all her might, Briene rolls a [12-1] 11 Strength check. No luck.

That leaves Joane at the top of Round 3 to attempt to save Hilda before the vine does more damage to her. She rolls another 3 on her Deed die, and then a [13+1+3] 17 on her attack! The [5+1+3] 9 damage is more than enough to kill the plant. Since she was again going to rally Briene, I’ll say the maneuver fills her friend with a burst of energy and it is the healer who pulls Hilda free.

Alright, let’s take stock: Joane, Briene, and Haffoot were unharmed in the combat with the tindalos vines. Umur and Erin each took 2 damage, leaving them at 8 out of 10. Hilda, meanwhile, needs some attention with her measly 6 hp.

Erin will attempt to Lay on Hands with her wizardly friend. She gets a +1 for her level but a -1 for her Personality, which means a straight d20 on the Lay on Hands table. Erin rolls a 14! Since Hilda is Neutral and Erin Lawful, that means that Erin will heal 2 hit dice for Hilda. Unfortunately for Hilda, wizard HD are d4. Erin rolls well, though, and heals Hilda for [3+4] 7 damage. Whew!

Briene, our novice healer, will get a check with all damaged parties at DC 15, +1 for her level (though we still don’t know her class). She fails her rolls for Umur and Erin but rolls a [17+1] 18 for Hilda, healing the last point of damage. Good for our wizard, but I’m worried about Umur and Erin going into the Hound’s lair with damage. Does Erin attempt to heal them both? I think she would, feeling the same way as me.

Erin rolls an impressive 18 on her Lay on Hands check for Umur, easily healing his 2 hp of damage. She saves herself for last and rolls (holding breath)… a 13! Nice. So we’ll go into the final set piece at full health. Just as important: Erin hasn’t received any disfavor from Shul today.