The Dada Dungeon and Wichita Greyhawk

Henry has been DMing me through his "Dada Dungeon" since mid-August 2019, and we picked up our game again yesterday afternoon over the long weekend.  (Well, a long weekend for Henry and his older brother, anyway ;) ).   

Since August I've spent a lot campaign time dealing with machinations, assassins, and attacks on the town of Scortop (located in South Province hex #N2-87 on the Darlene Greyhawk map, which is 3 1/2 hexes up from the D in Rieuwood), which were only "resolved" recently.  I still don't know the identity of the mysterious and seemingly-ancient Octarius---of the long-lost Archbarony of Ilgelgoron, east of Blackmoor (mentioned in a letter dated 319 CY, over 257 years ago!)---or of his possible agent Frengier and his long-distance-writing magical quills (they seem to act like longhand telegraphs).  That has allowed a return to the abandoned dwarven gem mine dungeon, which we hadn't revisited since the start of the school year:

Henry's Dada Mega-Dungeon - Level 1 Player Map by Allan Grohe

Henry completely improvised the upper caves level, as well as most of the resulting escapades in town.  I had previously only discovered a well (visible in the upper left of the above map in the "dog with pointy ears" cave") as a possible lower entrance.  I think that the surface plottings had grown a bit beyond what Henry originally intended, and he was happy to return to the dungeon itself today.

We played for about 4-5 hours, from before and through lunch, until about 4pm.  The PCs spent time exploring the level rather than engaging everything encountered---we didn't open any doors, and were really just trying to get the lay of the land.  Nonetheless, several encounters found us:

• avoided an ochre jelly---we'd previously observed its trail in the caves above, and they descended the stairwell we found today into the second level (or the first dungeon level, depending on how you think of it)
• befriended a family of (normal-sized) badgers via Speak with Animals
• discovered a sleeping white dragon in its lair (and backed away quietly)
• we slept 7 of 8 members of a squad of orcs (the eighth surrendered), tied them up, looted them, and escorted them out of the dungeon with dire warnings never to return
• we traded information with a dungeon merchant (there's a dungeon town to the south that has a subdued red dragon!), who is also selling a magic longsword for 1500 gp (we can't afford it until after we hit the white dragon, perhaps...)
• we avoided another group of 8 orcs, but were ambushed by 3 others and we killed them

This is where we left our explorations off today:

Henry's Dada Mega-Dungeon - Level 2 Player Map by Allan Grohe

I'm very-much looking forward to exploring Henry's dungeon further! :D

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In other Greyhawk news, I'm launching my local Wichita Greyhawk campaign this coming Sunday, 26 January 2020, in honor of the roughly 46th anniversary for the publication of OD&D.   Some friends in Austin are holding a local meetup game on the day, which inspired me to put my stake in the ground for kicking off my local game too.

In case anyone is local and interested in playing, I posted this notice to the Wichita Dungeons & Dragons group on Facebook:

New in-person Greyhawk campaign to begin on Sunday, 26 January 2020 at Hero Complex at 1pm! Estimated stop time 5-6pm.

In honor of the upcoming 46th anniversary of the first publication of Dungeons & Dragons, I'll kickoff a new AD&D 1st edition campaign set in the World of Greyhawk. Previously discussed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/111904705646730/permalink/958413074329218/ and with some introductory steps taken at TsunamiCon in October 2019, this session will mark the campaign's official start.

No previous experience with AD&D 1st edition or the World of Greyhawk required.

Allan.