Cauldron Con 2025 AAR

 

photo credit to Bjorn

A note on cognomens - as someone who is perhaps online less than many in the scene, I have a nightmare connecting screen names to real-life names. As such, I have used them interchangeability in this post. If anyone would prefer I changed their name from screen to real-life, or omitted it altogether, please get in touch and I will oblige immediately. Same goes for corrections to names I fucked up via misspelling or total forgetfulness, and for anyone that would like a photo of themselves removed.

 

The fact that I am writing this up before I have even gotten around to doing an AAR for my own event the preceding weekend probably speaks volumes. Still in its first half decade of organisation, the German event known as Cauldron OSR Euro Con has now taken on something of a mythical air for those interested in the tight focus of old-school adventure gaming (read: AD&D and OD&D, and to a lesser degree compatible retro clones).

The long and short of it is - a long weekend of in-residence gaming with less than 100 participants in a quiet corner of Germany, with excellent beer and catering and an auction of mystical artifacts so potent as to cause mass Feeblemind and nausea within a radius of 50'. The organisers are keen to make sure the con retains its intimate and friendly nature and not grow out of control, and so anyone that wishes to find out more about it can do their own work to find the website and read other AARs, of which there are no small amount out there from the last 2-3 years. This post will concentrate instead on the games I played, the people I met, the beers I drank, and a few other points.

Photo credit to Chris

Day 1 (Friday half day)

Played game 1: The Lunar Lion (DM Dreadlord/AD&D)

Participants: Theo, Bill, Me, Bruno, Marcus(?), Mike, Sam

Deaths: At least four depending on your conception of 'death'

TLDR: If you need to get what you’re looking for in the space of a single eclipse, it might be harder than you think.

I wanted to play in one of Dreadlord's games as I already knew I liked his vibe from blogposts and hearsay from talking to James K in my home games. This was only confirmed by him tolerating my rambling chats in the car on the way there - he proved a most convivial fellow with a lot of shared interests!

When we arrived there were quite specific set of named pregens along with miniatures. I selected an Elf MU/Thief because I liked her visual style and the pose of the mini (and it's a favourite multiclass of mine). The party as a whole had to make a call on including a Paladin or an Assassin and we went with the former which is never my preference to adventure alongside, but Theo played the PC brilliantly and it fit well thematically to the invasion into this blasted cult temple - very possibly one that had been appropriated from another religion and defiled.

We were told that the colosseum's temple had formidable defence in the form of a giant metallic golem, but that during a short eclipse of the triple moons it would be totally inactive. This was our time to act. Our mission was to retrieve a scroll case for our employer, which had been stolen two months prior – and under no circumstances to look inside! The short time period of the eclipse meant we had to get in and out in 5 hours.

 

 

The scenario hit the ground running with our bold assault on the cult, waiting for the eclipse to start so we wouldn't get hit with the power of the iron golem. Initial recon from me and my fellow (hobbit) thief showed them worshipping in a great chamber illuminated in torches, an intimidating leader with a warhorse in command and several cultists. So of course after trying to cleverly position caltrops and oil we just resorted to insulting their mothers and piling in to the assault as they summoned several warriors from nearby vomitoria in the walls. It was a great combat encounter with lots of tactical positioning, and I got in some extremely satisfying backstabs, at one point booting a victim off of a ledge after snuffing them out.

After this we explored further and discovered some of the day-to-day accoutrements of the complex, including a robing chamber and a row of sinister looking leonine helmets, one of which contained a Vargouille revealed by Detect Evil! Luckily it was destroyed before any hit points could be permanently drained. Soon we discovered a chamber with a horrible looking chained grimoire (ignore!!!) and later a secret chamber with a treasure item that haunted Bruno's character with some kind of spectral stallion, which we were not to see the last of.

Surreal experiences manifested as we delved ever deeper...a chuckling beautiful woman bedecked in jewellery lounged behind a portcullis and you bet we gave her a wide berth. A translucent green incarnation of Hecate stood proudly atop imagery of the moon. A collapsing floor gave way to a pit of impervious animated watery sludge and chained zombies powered infernal mechanisms of unknown purpose. We got teleported out by a Crypt-Thing, ran straight back in and some of the party used the 1e Grappling rules on it which was hilarious. Towards the end of the session Dreadlord was DMing a party that had split itself three ways. Whether or not cohesion would have saved us by this point I honestly don't know! The paladin held back a whole crypt full of skeletons in a chamber of magical silence. I was even ambushed by a leaping Son of Kyuss which I had to kick back into its verminous pit.

The climax of the adventure came when we found the chamber which contained a mummified corpse holding the scroll case. The dwarf played by Bill tried to grab it and was MAGIC JAR’d! Swapping bodies, he was taken aside by the DM and instructed in his evil roleplaying duties for the rest of the session. A tense few rounds of combat then occurred with some of the party trying to use subdual damage and not kill the newly possessed dwarf’s body, while others just tried to completely slay it. Not only this, but this evil wizard’s familiar turned up – an Imp – and started dealing out poisonous stings from its tail. I along with others caught one of ‘em and failed my saving throw, and decided to get the hell out with what little loot I was carrying.

We ran out into the newly emerged moonlight just as my character sagged to her knees and her heart stopped for good. The scroll-case had been recovered, but at what cost??

Let’s just say after this first game I already knew I was in for a great weekend.

Beer Spotlight: Camba Bavaria Hell

Holy hell (har har) was this a good beer. Possibly down to it being the first one I cracked upon arrival, I was quite shocked at how much pep I got after the first sip. All tiredness and confusion of the 5am start and not having had a proper shower vanished. It was apparent I had some real nectar here. Incredibly smooth – almost a fancy soda water kind of mouthfeel but with a gentleness that means you can find yourself pounding a bottle in a worryingly quick space of time. Cold and fresh but with a beautiful lingering cracker-y/grass clippings subtlety. It was my go-to beer of the con...at least before it all ran out!

Played game 2: Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor (DM Bruno/OD&D)

Participants: 8? 9? Darnok, Kyoshi, me, Iudex, Der Ogre, several others...I'm sorry everyone I forgot

Deaths: Almost everyone

TLDR: Don't fuck with wands, magic swords will save the day, help a hungry dragon.

I was extremely excited to get some 3LBB OD&D gaming in as a player, not a DM. 4th level pregens were handed out and I decided to take two characters, a Fighting-Man and MU. I took on the role of mapper and I was sat opposite Iudex who was the caller. Bruno turned out to be a DM with surgical ruthless precision and we were immediately in the specific style of play I have been familiar with from the other side of the screen over the last three years. It was all here - two moves per turn, exact dimensions for mapping, labyrinthine constructs, self-closing doors, wands of ridiculous power.

Our main aim as exclusively lawful PCs was to delve below the titular fortress and eradicate the high-ranking members of a void cult. Treasure and magic item acquisition was incidental. There was an additional quirk which I suspect was a DM addition for con play, where we each had a single use magic item in the form of a glass bead which teleported us out if we crushed it and spoke our own name.

The initial trek across an immense and disturbingly open-plan cavern to find the passage into the underfortress was very atmospheric, being unable to see anything beyond our ring of lanternlight or glowing magical swords and hearing gargantuan snores in the darkness.

My pregen fighting man had a pretty serious bit of kit, a +1 sword with various powers - if I remember correctly Detect Evil, Detect Metal, ESP and maybe even one other. In retrospect I didn't use it enough.

We managed to keep on target and enter the corridors, but came a serious cropper when we busted down a door and found ourselves staring straight down the barrel of a Wand of Cold held by a cultist that triggered and immediately enveloped the entire party in a freezing blast. Orcus knows how many fell in that initial blast, but it was a TPK-but-one. Darnok's character crushed the bead, retrieved the magic sword from my corpse and teleported out. Later we found out this wand-wielding cultist wasn’t even from the cult we were trying to slay!

Our second attempt with a whole new bunch of characters was a bit more extended. The highlight for me was following up the snores in the cavern and discovering an immense Red Dragon. We managed to keep it from blowing its top at our awakening it (and nicely deciding not to incinerate us) by speaking to it in Orcish, and brokered an uneasy truce if we promise to bring it some nice, fatty meat. After this we headed back into the underfortress corridors.

We managed to descend to the level which held out targets, avoiding signs of medusae (?) and a hydra but we overshot the mission-relevant chamber and ended up in a room with unimaginable riches, every surface quite literally plated with gold. Unfortunately there was the small detail that it also contained two very confident looking vampires. Despite one of us having obtained a Mace of Disruption, I decided to nope out and my characters crushed their beads and teleported out. This started a sudden chain reaction and one by one pretty much all of my party members did the same (tactics not cowardice!). This brought an end to a really fantastic – if punishing – session.

All of my party members were great, and I felt like myself and Iudex made a very good command/intel section that kept everything cohesive and focussed in the face of some adversarial (but not unfair!) DMing - not that it helped us in the end.

Bruno's DMing style is difficult to describe but could be summed up as 'sardonically organised’. I really felt like I was playing with someone who was running specifically OD&D, with no fudging. It was excellent fun.

One of my favourite exchanges after a PC death from plummeting into a pit-trap with no warning:

Me: Ok let's progress with the plan, but first, how can we stop this pit-trap shit from happening again?

Iudex (somewhat wearily): We can't.

I have one question for Bruno though...in the mythic OD&D underworld, where doors are always stuck and only open for monsters, how is it that an emaciated child who had been sold to the cult by slavers was able to push one open and surprise us? She turned out to be an actual child in need of our help and Iudex's character nobly sacrificed his escape-bead to save her, but my suspicions were high and she was THIS CLOSE to having my handaxe buried in her head until my party held my throwing arm back.

In all seriousness - a fantastic experience and my gluttony for punishment ended up drawing me back in to Bruno's grim and gritty world of dungeon-murder before the end of the con.

Comes in all the flavours: green...red...all the flavours

Interlude - Impostericus Syndromicus

There is a somewhat fearsome reputation attached to AD&D, and its players and communities on the internet (see statement 0 at the end of the article) and I spoke to several DMs throughout the day who were mildly trepidatious about running their upcoming games. The general half-serious vibe was that this was a convention full of iron plated grognards and neo-grogs who know the rules exactly and will call you out on your fluffy unprepared bullshit. As ManOWar would put it, "Wimps and Posers, Leave The Hall".

I won't lie and say I didn't feel a glimmer of this worry in the preceding weeks during my prep. When the dice hit the table, nothing could have been further from the truth.

An interesting fact of the term 'level' in the old games is that it refers to the experience of the character, but also to some degree the appropriate level of the player...and DM too! I already knew going in there were certain things I wouldn't have the confidence to DM, and so I set them aside for later experiences. Some examples: Psionics, Grappling, high level characters (no real experience of higher than 12th), monks (only had one in my pregens, and asked people to avoid it unless they were clear on the rules). So in the end, it all comes out in the wash.

Two occasions that summed up these vibes nicely and here with both tongue-in-cheek meanness and encouragement:

1. During The Spire of Iron and Crystal session I messed up a corridor measurement description because I prefer using 10’ squares instead of 5’ squares, and TpoIaC uses the latter.

Me: Ok so this sub-corridor is 30’ here and-
ghoul: And yet I thought these were 5’ squares - what’s going on?

It was said in good faith but I didn’t make that mistake again! Point being, even if you’re playing with someone more experienced than you, if you make mistakes nothing bad happens. Only a real asshole will give you a hard time about it, even in the supposedly hardcore world of AD&D.

2. During the same game we took a 5 minute beer/toilet break and Bjorn apropos of totally nothing just turned to me and said “I really enjoy your DMing style!” Thanks for the pep-talk buddy! It seems like he wasn’t just being nice either ‘coz he came back for game #3.

If anyone has ever experienced this worry at conventions or games with strangers in general, I would say it should be quashed in 99% of cases. You'll probably know in your heart of hearts if you're ready and prepped. People are there because they WANT to play your game. With enough experience too, you will learn to recognise this feeling of readiness in yourself in terms of maps prepped, rooms stocked, and the 'feel' of the adventure location hanging in your head. Going on to then run the adventure successfully after knowing that ‘feel’ is one of the most sublime experiences in gaming for me. 

 

 

Beer Spotlight: Bruckmüller Knappentrunk


I think this was one of the Bavarian microbrews kindly bought to the con by Viral/Tom. Just look at that label! Is that AD&D or what? Platemail man-at-arms dunkel assault!

I love a good dunkel. This one, despite the armoured fellow on the label was actually not the most robust even with a 5.5% ABV. I don’t mean that in a negative sense – sometimes dunkel lagers can occasionally feel a bit cloying or syrupy if the malt characteristics haven’t been handled too well, a little too dessert-y. None of that here, it was refreshing and drinkable. If there was anything critical I could say about it it was that it might have been lacking any major standout characteristics but perhaps that’s unfair – it was a nice tipple and I went back for another one. I’d definitely snag this if I saw it in a UK bottleshop.

Day 2 (Saturday)

DM'd game 1: The Rotunda of Misery

Participants: Valez, Darnok, Kyonshi, Dominico

Deaths: 0

TLDR: Group clears out (?) level 1 of its Wheelie infestation, maps my bullshit weirdly shaped rooms with panache and aplomb.

PLAYERS FOR MY DRAGONMEET GAME NEXT MONTH STOP READING THIS SESSION REPORT HERE

This was my game using the Wheelies from Fighting Fantasy, statted up for AD&D, in a 4 level Macro-Dungeon (I am determined to make this term stick) of my own design from a decade and a half (!) ago. I’d spent some time carefully rearranging and stocking it to get it ready for the high standards of Cauldron Con and without blowing my own trumpet, I think I did quite well with it. The true proof of course, is in the play.

The entrance to the dungeon (an enormous squat round structure standing alone in the Persimmon Wastes) is a matter of some choice. There are at least 7 initial ways in, depending on how much climbing the party wishes to do. They were drawn to a huge blue tower at the rear of the structure, a mysterious stone construction 100’ tall with no apparent entrances beyond the murky arches encircling the cupola way up top. Detect Magic and much secret door searching around the base yielded nothing, so they proceeded through the easternmost region outside of the rotunda, making their way through a grisly execution ground of white standing stones against which many human victims appeared to have been crushed with heavy blows. Carrion birds feasted on the sad remains.

Eventually they chose a ramp that led up the circumference of the vast building straight into the internal dome-shaped room that is the main lair of the Wheelies. Rolling for how many were present gave a lucky result of only 9, plus the Wheelie hetman. The horrid things unleashed a fusillade of crossbow bolts while the Illusionist took cover behind the henchmen, weaving the long 5 round spell of Hallucinatory Terrain. Great combat – the party rushed the monstrous things into the bottleneck of the archway and slayed several before the Hallucinatory Terrain cloaked the interior of their camp into a vision of enormous heaving fields of hot coals and spewing flame. This plus their casualties was too much to bear, and they rolled at high speed away from the party and down a huge circular shaft in the room, out of sight. After this encounter they were to cause much trouble, but each time the party slaughtered them or broke their will with excellent use of illusions and tactics. By the end of the adventure 23 Wheelies had been slaughtered!

Ransacking the camp for treasure turned up a bunch of good stuff – including an opaque ceramic orb full of something rattly. Smashing this gave most of the party a lucky escape when they made their saving throws because as well as much loot – uncut diamonds worth 2245gp! - it also contained a propulsive weakening gas that spewed into the entire space and sapped their Strength points. Kyonshi’s character lost their damage bonus for the entire adventure as a result, but this was very lucky – the potency meant that this gas could well have rendered the melee experts essentially useless early on in their delve.

Further exploration furnished several memorable experiences – like a truly brutal torture chamber with hanging and disembowelled bodies of three adventurers, and a severed woman’s hand clamped onto a torture table, covered with arcane tattoos that indicated a Magic User (this was the hand of Feydatha of the Sign of the Scythe, an NPC adventurer who was to turn up later in the con).

The brutality of the Wheelies even extended to their own kind – an external platform was discovered with several of them having been ‘squared’ – hoisted aloft after having their round edges mercilessly sliced off and salted, then being left in the air as food for the pterodactyls. Some efforts were made at this location to bring one of the creatures down, since the Potion of Delusion on the belt of one of them had to be got.

This later came to define one of my favourite moments. A plague ridden Hill Giant had been found sheltering in an old powder store accessed from one of the external walkways. It lay amongst a crushed mass of vegetation – enormous wagon wheel sized sunflower-type blooms filled the chamber. The giant clearly had mere days to live given the amount of pustules and boils, and its extreme weakness- barely able to bat away the pterodactyls that flew in to peck at its flesh. There was a little diplomacy from outside, since one of the party had a slight ability to communicate being fluent in Frost Giant, which had a few similarities. Offers of help were refused by the monster, and so the party left it in its misery. Returning later with the aforementioned Potion of Delusion, they snuck in when the creature was sleeping in cold sweats and dumped the entire potion into its open snoring mouth. It shrank down to about 18” in height and began squeaking in protest, and was summarily sliced in two with an improvised polearm! What’s more, the treasure it carried in its satchel was (temporarily at least) nice and portable! A mercy killing (?)

The other main event (excepting a somewhat tense fight with a Carrion Crawler that was blinded by a well aimed Light spell) came when a party of troglodytes was encountered in a cheese storeroom, a fully armed raiding party by the looks of it. After an uneasy backing away from both parties, a unique individual was found behind a concealed door – a stunted and twisted young troglodyte nearby who babbled and clutched a sack of “garbage”. Said “garbage” turned out to be full of magic items it had plundered from the lower levels after running away from its compatriots, and the party (with the help of the more capable looking troglodytes) were able to bully it into handing it over. Much of the XP in this session came from this diplomatic mugging.

One note that will be interesting for readers of my third game write-up – the party found a room full of tangled ceramic pipes with air currents running through them, and took care to break them all and disrupt the air flow.

Some extremely efficient exploration and mapping meant that in the course of just over 4 hours the party had mapped out almost all of the top level. It was a really great session and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to start my DMing. Thank you so much guys.

At the end of the session I carefully enquired how old the extremely young-looking Valez was and asked how he got into gaming. The short answer gave immediate clarity: “Settembrini is my father”. Yes, that indeed clears it up!

People seemed to enjoy this dungeon, which gave me the first inklings I might like to run it one more time before I went home. It was Darnok’s first experience playing an Illusionist (I can’t remember how we got on to the topic but we talked about it the night before and I said I had several in the pregens) and he did a great job, using the spells creatively, and with none of the bullshit “Ah well but ACTUALLY you see they would believe that because…” stuff that’s sometimes a danger with the class. Valez did a superb job mapping and taking extensive notes too, effectively preparing a free player handout for when I got the dungeon to the table on the following day. Thanks again dude!

DM'd game 2: The Spire of Iron and Crystal

Participants: 5 (ghoul, Bjorn, James, Tom, Oliver)

Deaths: 0

TLDR: Lightning, fireballs, ice, crystals and science-fantasy tech. Yes, it's a Matt Finch adventure alright.

There was a seriousness (more likely just Germanic RBF – see thanks list – combined with a dash of alcohol induced self-doubt on my part) to some of the players in this game that I initially felt a little intimidated by, and it was something of a slow start (perhaps due to the strange initial approach into the spire and the descriptions of the layout) but once we got past the first 30 minutes I felt like we settled into a very nice amiable session.

This was the first game that I witnessed people bringing their own characters from previous games, which is something I was very satisfied to see – just one of the principles of the con’s play culture clicking into place.

The gimmick of the adventure is that each dungeon level is a crystal egg with a ceilingless dungeon at the base, and everything above being filled by a permanent lightning storm. Thus the party can 'cheat' if they wish to by just climbing over the walls into other parts of the dungeon, and in fact this often yields the greatest treasure. Of course, it comes with the small detail that you can easily get fried by lightning in the process. This combined with the crystal walls of the dungeon maze game me the opportunity to describe tantalising glimpses of treasure and other rooms through the walls and then let them figure it out.

I think an early (an obvious) placement of a secret door in the adventure is there specifically to trick them into wasting valuable time looking for further secret doors every time they see something indicated through the wall. For the first half of the adventure, it worked! Once they stopped obsessively looking for secret doors things picked up quickly.

More practical solutions were soon found, with Invisible Servants lobbing glass balls full of gems over to the party from inaccessible rooms, and at one point a fairly ingenious engineering solution hoisted a huge golden mammoth statue over the wall.

The biggest laugh for me was when the party decided to play it ‘safe’ and cleanse the corridor on the other side of a door by nuking it with fireballs – the ole ‘open, blast and close’ tactic – but in a disconcertingly small space. In the event this killed one of the hirelings, nearly snapped the wand and caused some damage to Tom’s PC. Due to there being no ceiling on the ‘dungeon’ it also caused enormous billowing clouds of flame to shoot straight up into the atmosphere of the egg and merge with the lightning storms – obviously attracting further monsters! A very fun image to describe.

I eschewed the included random encounter tables for the adventure as being rather boring and also not very level appropriate (giant ants, fire beetles and some of the new monsters - but the same deal on each level) and defaulted to the dungeon level encounters in the back of the Fiend Folio. This at one point resulted in a fun encounter with a grumpy Ice Toad hopping out from a side corridor and blocking the party's way. Even after they killed it, vapour from its freezing guts meant they didn’t want to progress that way.

Eventually they found one of the bizarre alien beings which controlled the structure, a Korog technician, but dealt with it swiftly in a quickdraw face-off between Paralysis wands.

One of the most dramatic moments was the party being force-teleported into Level 2 by a trap into an apparently exitless chamber and nothing visible through the crystal walls. A decision had to be made at last to traverse over the top into the lightning storm! Luckily some statues in the room had buttons which temporarily negated it, with the side effect that for the first time in the adventure they were plunged into pure darkness.

This began one of my favourite scenes of the whole session, because as soon as they lit a lantern, a surprise roll meant they saw the appalling visage of a Phase Spider 10’ away from them! We had a cool combat where I made some DM rulings about characters relying on DEX checks to be able to strike the monster before it phased back out after each attack, trying their best to kill the hideous beast in the sudden darkness and relying on lucky saving throws against its potent venom.

Following this ghoul began using his Ranger's giant eagle friend with Speak With Animals to carry a lantern high above the suddenly darkened labyrinth in the lull of the lightning storm and reporting back, so I could hand them a player map of the entirety of level 2. They used this to enter the most secluded series of areas and grab some hefty treasure, with only some traps and an attack by a Lightning Bladder (akin to an electrically-charged cross between a slime and a jellyfish) to get in their way.

At the termination of the session we had to use the Table of Terror from Xyntillan to determine the fate of the characters, since they didn't manage to make it to the exit. One was imprisoned in the Spire of Iron and Crystal somewhere, a couple returned, yet strangely changed...and here we had to leave them to their fate because after some sustenance it was time for...

THE AUCTION

Others will have more to say about this. I am an accumulator, not a collector, in the sense that I buy RPG stuff to use it and let the dog-eared corners and dings and dents fall where they may. So there were some treasures here that I quite fancied but didn't really want to go hard into the high numbers for. I bid for a few things but didn't end up taking anything away. These were: Judges Guild Castles Book II and Temples Book, and some of the Brian Ansell Chaos Marauder miniatures. Let them go to others with more tenacity! It was clear to me that there were some completist collections having their gaps accounted for. Original OD&D set selling for 750 euro? It happened.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part for me of this section of the con was merely sitting back and soaking up the booze addled atmosphere and enjoying the awe-inspiring knowledge displayed by Settembrini on old gaming material as he described each item in turn. Even things he is not a fan of he is able to describe with the detached eye of a historian and no small amount of deadpan humour. In fact many laughs were furnished throughout from the pained wincing, roars of appreciation and shouted bids from the participants. It really felt like something special.

I am also enormously proud to be able to say I raised just shy of 350 euro for the con and associated club. I brought along 4 original pieces of art to sell - The Town of Silvash, the skeleton star map from DNGN#1, the Wronguncle wandering mushroom from the newest edition of Dolmenwood, and an upcoming piece of a Runegate to the Plane of Shadow that will appear in an upcoming issue of Fight On! magazine. Settembrini gave each a wonderful description and I was seriously humbled to see people jumping in with their bids. Thank you so much to anyone that purchased a piece and helped me support the con.

Now back to thee real important shit...

Played game 3: Holy Mountain Shaker (DM Julien/Whitebox)

Participants: 4. Me, Hynek, Jay(sorry...other czech dude?)...memory fails me

Deaths: 0

TLDR: A suspicious mining corporation could’ve saved themselves a lot of bother if they’d just given us a tour of their workplace!

This was a tough one as everyone was pretty tired (we kicked off at 2200), and there were some other obstacles in the way too.

Julien is a very chill DM with a laid back style, and I learned afterwards that he was not only converting this Luka Rejec module from OSE stats to Whitebox on the fly, but usually DMs in French and said he was frustrated at some of the language barriers. On top of this, I personally suspect that the module is not really one of the best. There was a touch of goofiness to it that felt like it was undercutting (pun intended for a module about a mine) its own sense of weirdness and majesty. Also perhaps evident here is one of my unfailing con game rules-of-thumb - "Start them at the entrance to the dungeon!".

For whatever reason it never quite felt like momentum was achieved here, but as a table we all worked together nicely and I did have a good time. I guess I was more in the mood for the nitty-gritty of dungeon mapping and tactical play rather than the somewhat zoomed out pointcrawl methods of the module. That said, there were some good moments of exploration and interesting vistas in the shared theatre of the mind. A retro-futuristic brain crumbling in the centre of a dead city, a dizzyingly subterranean canyon full of glittering flowers and belching volcanic geysers, a skyscraper sized ziggurat made of a piscine skeleton...Eventually however, the DM called a close to things, citing everyone's fatigue and the aforementioned obstacles. Thank you so much for running, Jumbot!

By this time I was exhausted and frankly pretty beered up! After all, perhaps a more intense and focussed session would have sapped my energy entirely and meant that I missed out on some of my favourite games to come. Such as...

Played game 4: Barbarians of Altania (DM Bruno/OD&D)

Participants: 20+ maniacs at an open table

Deaths: Unknown, presumably countless

TLDR: OD&D still works great as a massive party game, as long as your DM is prepped, everyone is on the same page, and you have a good caller.

I laughed out loud when I saw the initial sign up sheet for this game. 18+ players?? You gotta be fuckin' kidding. And yet it happened. By no means was I present for the whole thing, as I was playing in Julien's game for around 3.5ish hours. Stumbling downstairs I saw this game was STILL going on. I'd skipped out for a moment during my previous game just to marvel at the spectacle of this many players around the battlemap, and despite being a passive observer I was immediately met with an encouraging "It's an open game, come along and join any time" before I politely declined and left. Little did I know I'd be back in a couple of hours...

Me: "How long are you guys playing for now?"

DM Bruno: "Maybe half an hour more."

Me: "Then deal me in motherfucker"

I sat down and lo and behold was handed a dwarf fighter who was burdened with -2 Cursed Sword. Damn you OD&D!! Half an hour? I must have been there for around twice that.

Much exploration had occurred already along with the bloodshed. As I understand it, everything happening here is considered canon in Bruno's home campaign, of which a couple of players were present. In the short time I was here much wonder was discovered - reading between the lines what we had here was a mad wizard/scientist/time-travellers labyrinthine dungeon. We found some cryogenic pods with two inadvertent time travellers inside, and a crumpled space in the wall that (presumably) had held a third before it was eaten by Purple Worms - the tunnel being a clear result of their burrowing.

One of these frozen prisoners was a former friend of the owner of the dungeon who had been tricked long ago. A fitting demonstration of how trustworthy this guy was! Some discussion occurred, which we held the upper hand in due to our ESP abilities from various items. Unfortunately before this poor guy could become much of a conversationalist – and if I recall correctly he was willing to join us despite his disdain – he began vomiting Yellow Mold! A mad experiment of the arch-mage who owned this place? Simple BrundlePod style contamination? Who can say? He was immediately decapitated by the party, and I dragged the body out into the worm tunnels and burned it.

The other prisoner was a magic user (?) woman who ESP revealed had been captured during her pursuit of an enormous egg-shaped jewel. I'm not sure what happened with her but at one point I got up to go for a piss and when I got back she was dead, so perhaps she drew the wand she carried and attempted to use it on the party. Talk about a rude awakening. All I could imagine was how I would feel waking up after centuries of frozen slumber to see a bunch of armoured and blood spattered adventurers waving magic swords in my face.

We explored the worm tunnel and found a BUNCH of yellow mold. No, more than that. Keep going. I will take personal credit for fearlessly striding into this crumbling cavern of sentient deadly fungus. What's the worst that could happen!

I was right to do so, as telepathic communication revealed that the colony was irritated by the noise caused by The Egg of Desire - the very same magic item dreamt by the now dead magic user from the pod. Travelling through the fungal mass as it allowed us free passage, we eventually came to the location of The Tower Within The Tower that it had mentioned as containing the Egg. Insidious psychic energies from the Egg of Desire gently washed over our minds and our PCs felt the urge to lay down and give up the quest. This felt strangely apposite as it was 3am and I could barely focus. And so it was that I decided my dwarven fighter laid down with his accursed blade - just for a second to rest his eyes - and never rose again. Meanwhile I as his player bade the fiendish DM a good night with a handshake and I staggered to bed. I learned the next morning that the Egg had finally been recovered by a hardcore quartet of players after a climactic battle!

Bruno is a great DM and his games were perhaps the most inspiring to me of the whole con. I have been setting OD&D aside for a little after my campaign came to a close earlier this year, but his two games got the cogs turning in my brain about what I would do with it next. Dreadlord and I had a little brainstorm the following day spitballing ideas for this kind of huge multiplayer OD&D experience with a view to con play. I thought perhaps of the idea of several large games taking place in separate zones of a megadungeon, with players being able to move between zones and tables. Knowing me I'll do something way OTT where everyone's playing Voormis and Mi-Go in a huge labyrinth of insanity or something. Anyway, definite food for thought.

Speaking of food, Sean Smith and I came up with the silly metaphor once of OD&D being a nutritious gaming porridge. Great on its own, and unfailingly good for your gaming career/gut health, but nothing is stopping you going hard on visiting the toppings bar and loading up with extras, be they sweet or savoury. It will still be porridge and it's very hard to break! That somewhat tortured comparison aside, please join me as we progress onwards to...

Day 3 (Sunday half day)

I'd foolishly thought I might get more than 3 hours sleep this time. Nah! Got up very early, packed my bag and put my bedding laundry in the hamper, grabbed some breakfast and mingled with some very hungover looking folks and then it was time for...

THE AWARDS

Other AARs have already (!!) covered this in greater detail. Let's just say it was a heartwarming affair, and it was great to see things like those playing in the Blackrazor tournament event both have their hard play rewarded, and for some of the groups to have their hubris crushed! I remember talking to James the night before and him confidently stating "I'll be surprised if any group got more treasure than we did." All I can say is, well, a third place medal is still a third place medal! Hah!!

It was also funny to see the Most Valuable Player award go to one of the children of the organisers, in the form of Valez. One of the most important awards going to an organiser's son?? Nepotism! Fix! I demand a recount!!!! Just kidding, I voted for him to win too. A well deserved award to a rising star of adventure gaming I reckon.

And so we come to my final game of this grand event…

PLAYERS FOR MY DRAGONMEET GAME NEXT MONTH STOP READING THIS SESSION REPORT HERE

DM'd game 3: Return to the Rotunda of Misery!

Participants: Mike, Bjorn, Darnok, Dave, Marcel, Jacob, Marc

Deaths: 5

TLDR: Good prep is never wasted...you put an Apparition in one of your dungeons, then 15 years later you get to use it to actually murder PCs

I didn't even plan to run another session. I'd had two hours sleep after imbibing too many wakefulness potions and then sleeping next to a room-mate who had nightmare horrors in the grey hours. Yet here I was, filling out a blank game session form for a second delve into The Rotunda of Misery! I was encouraged by some of the previous players telling me they'd love to revisit. What followed was if anything an even better session than the first...and one with more deaths combined than both my earlier games.

This time I had a healthy 7 players, with several people bringing characters from earlier games, and Darnok bringing back Cugel the Illusionist from game 1!

Photo credit: Darnok / Map Credit: Valez

An early highlight was investigation of the Rotunda's ice cellar on the upper level, full of blocks of grimy ice no doubt plundered from passing merchant caravans for the Wheelies to enhance their taste for frosty alcohols. A tossed torch into the darkened and cold space was quickly snuffed by the stamping foot of an Ice Troll (thought the party did not yet identify it as such as first, trying their best to turn undead in the confusion of its appearance). Quick work by the sling of the assassin (and a DM who totally forgot that ice trolls can't be hit by normal missiles and had to commit) and some fearless fighting by the tanks of the party soon snuffed it out and they began investigating the place for valuables, finding some blocks with items clearly hidden inside and using the icepicks to begin breaking them open. And yet before they could do this, who would return but the very same Ice Troll! It was only at this point that they realised what it was, having left its fragments to slowly reknit themselves behind them. Frantically, but efficiently, they killed it (again) and melted it into filthy water.

After a little more cursory exploration of the remaining parts of the 1st level and finding a small brewery (with - thankfully - no Wheelies to be seen) they broke open the metal iris trap door in the pterodactyl eyrie at the centre of the place and descended to level 2 via the spiral stairway beneath.

Below, they found themselves emerging into a perplexing space. The last stair gave on to the top of a tiny circular structure in the middle of a vast void, so big that their lanterns didn’t show them its edges. A thin stone bridge stretched northeast into the darkness. They began mapping the space, but cartography soon had to take a backseat as they were surprised in a rather compromising and cramped space by three Huge Spiders! This was a tense fight in which poison mandibles claimed two lives – Bjorn’s cleric and Darnok’s Illusionist (Cugel) from my first game! Tragic stuff but I was really rooting for these guys – pinned into a tight space, surrounded by a seemingly bottomless pit. Dave’s thief shook off some poisonous bites and took the high ground in the stairwell to try and throw flaming oil – it was pretty epic stuff. Once again the invertebrates of the Rotunda fell prey to the Light spell being cast on their eyes by the cleric.

Heading along the causeway, two square pillars were seen at the point where the causeway joined the floor of the space proper – it seemed this was one vast domed-shaped space that comprised the majority of the 2^nd level. Dave’s thief confidently determined there were no traps in the pillars and walked forward – only to trigger a pressure plate that caused air currents to woosh out of the holes in the stone work! This was funny – he failed his find traps, but Valez’s actions in session one (the smashing of the pipes I mentioned) probably saved the first four characters lives! It was a double trap comprised of spewed acid cloud, followed by a burst of flame that would have then ignited the cloud for further damage – but without the propulsive air currents, all that happened was a quick puff. Great narrative happenstance. Relieved, the party progressed northeast into the darkness until they hit the edge circumference of the dome interior, finding some replacement PCs packed into cramped cage-like machines which they released.

Big treasure hauls were had in investigating some old foam igloo-like structures adhering to the walls that were eventually determined to be the remains of an abandoned troglodyte village, although based on the memories of the captured replacement characters, this was some kind of sub-species of troglodyte– slaves cruelly employed by the Wheelies. All sorts of strange things were seen in the interior of these small domes – webbed corpses, magical darkness, electrum bones resting in ethereal baskets...Elorim the Cleric cast Dispel Magic which eliminated most uncertainty and they were able to grab several valuable items, including an extremely valuable looking golden dinner centrepiece.

After this they found a portcullis that appeared to lead into the under chambers of the blue stone tower seen outside – The Tower of Condemnation. After the stronger characters managed to get the massive portcullis lifted (while some worrying sounds echoed in the darkness behind), the whole party ran through to find the unconscious body of Fedyatha of the Sign of the Scythe (see session 1), passed out in pain from her severed hand. The clerics helped her recover and she joined the party, explaining she had managed to escape from the torture chamber and make her way down here.

Moving north into the interior of the blue stone tower, they found some awe-inspiring workmanship – a complete miniature city with gold details picking out illuminations and a happy family in in the grounds of a great palace. A small alchemical lab was also seen, seemingly never used, with some bizarre coloured lights frolicking under glass bell jars. While the warriors stood guard, the thief was hastily peeling and chopping lumps of gold off of the beautiful cityscape...when a coalescence of vapour began to appear in the centre of the room and a creeping chill descended.

It formed into a tall floating blue-robed skeleton, impossibly tall, impossibly thin, with a constant stream of silvery tears pouring from its eye sockets. The skeletal claws spread wide in a mocking gesture of magnanimousness...the eye sockets focussed on Rhialto (Darnok’s replacement MU character) and every conception of fear he had every known flooded his synapses to factor of 500...gurgling, panicking, his body jerked like a marionette before his heart burst in paroxysms of fear and he dropped dead on the spot! The Apparition of Grolyna-Hkarr had guests and it was determined to welcome them!

What followed in the next 10 minutes was some of the most fun DMing I can remember. The Apparition was not turned by either of the two clerics who frantically tried to block its retreat with their holy symbols – both of them needing and failing to get a 20. The party fled back to the central stairwell of the rotunda, scrambling towards the staircase as fast as they could – and giving me plenty of time to describe the apparition warping their perceptions as it appeared mockingly in front of them, grew in size to fill the entirety of level 2, picked them up like insects and dangled them like toys...the boundaries between reality and terror broke down for some of the characters, while others steeled their nerve and shook off the horrific delusions. The beautiful thing about the Apparition mechanics is that each “attack” it makes determines whether or not your PC is vulnerable to the mental assault, and here it put each player in the spotlight for one horrific moment, either bursting their hearts with fear or revealing the insignificance of its true petty hatred if they dismissed it and concentrated on escape.

Dave’s thief had a nasty end – falling prey to the terror induced by the spirit, he managed to avoid his heart stopping – but ended up fleeing in terror instead, right by the void surrounding the stairway. I got out my compass directions die and sadly he – and the bulk of the treasure collected in this session – went plummeting into the void, never to be seen again. The rest of the party regained the surface with their minds intact, the clerics relying on the bulwark of their faith, and everyone else relying on cardio and their legs.

This was an absolute baller session – probably my favourite DM’d game of the con. There was a real feeling of willingness to engage with the material on offer, and the 7 player count felt great to run for. Absolutely brilliant stuff and something I will never forget. Thanks for the fantastic final experience guys.

I couldn’t resist a photo of the lads being terrified – or not – by the Apparition after the session:

Beer Spotlight: Kreuzberg Kellerbier

After two days of bibulous indulgence I decided to treat myself to one last half pint for my final game, seeing as I was in one of the most beer reverent countries in the world. I'd been seeing people supping on this beautiful looking chestnutty-autumnal-orange looking brew all weekend, but I think I'd assumed it was some sort of soft drink! Eventually I realised it was flowing from a large keg perched on the side, but deferred to the delicious helles and pils on offer. Tasting it during my last game I realised I'd foolishly discovered my favourite beer of the weekend! Ultra malty and inviting, almost bran flakes cereal type taste with a great texture to it, this would have been a comforting brew to have by my side earlier. Cosy yet hearty stuff. Still - one learns from their mistakes, and I will use this as a reminder to investigate Kellerbier further, a style that heretofore I have had somewhat neutral experiences with.

Closing Remarks

This was definitely up there in terms of the best gaming conventions I have been to, especially in relation to the focus of both the system(s) played and the unwavering commitment to actually playing them. As someone whose favourite RPGs are and (probably always will be) old-school Dungeons and Dragons and its branchings-off and bastardisations, this just WORKED in this case, near perfectly. If there are other people interested in setting up small events like this, I would really encourage trying out the concept of keeping them to one single system or small group of compatible systems, and only PLAYING rather than SELLING.

Both the immediate enthusiasms of the participants, and the shared understandings of rules and culture of play meant that this was pure, concentrated gaming. As such, the amount of foetid dungeon rooms and scenes of terrible wonder, death and treasure we encountered was staggering when you consider many of us meatsacks didn’t leave a spatial radius of 500m in 48 hours.

Speaking to Bjorn after my final game, he noted it was strange to play at an event with so few women or other types of folks. I agreed, but demographically it is a challenge that in most part I would guess just arises from historical audiences of AD&D and maybe location. I am used to very diverse old-school gaming groups, but then I live in one of the most diverse cities in the world. It's unfortunate but I can't really think of anything that can be done in the immediate sense apart from to stress to anyone of any identity that is interested in the con (or AD&D in general) to check it out. I can't speak for the organisers of Cauldron of course, but I would bet everything I have on anyone at all being extremely welcome here as long as they have an interest and/or experience in AD&D or OD&D. Ya just gotta book it quick!!

And that's it for now. Extremely inspiring weekend and odds are I'll try and organise something (much!) smaller with a similar AD&D/OD&D focus here in London next year.

I tend to get a little sentimental after drinking and not sleeping (because I’m becoming an old git) but my feelings on the plane back home were a strange melange. A mourning for the OSR of the G+ days and its dark, mysterious tone instead of the modern shiny cutesy product-focussed stuff, and a general sadness that gaming culture on the internet with its endless squabbling, “controversies”, posturing and bitter feuding is nowhere as potent, life-affirming and humanising as it is in person. This weekend was a sign that perhaps there are greater days ahead for our niche corner of hobby as reality and the world falls apart around us.

In closing I will leave you with:

[STATEMENT 0]

TURN OFF THE FUCKING INTERNET AND GO AND PLAY A ROLEPLAYING GAME

Thanks for reading!

Special Thanks to:

James Knight, Dreadlord and Chris for excellent travelling companionship and logistics.

Theo for chill vibes and the great chat about weird fiction and cosmic horror.

Michel for having Charisma 18 and making me laugh on many occasions.

Suren (?) for being the funniest guy at the con and nerding out with me about Clark Ashton Smith's sculptures, Hyperborea and many other topics.

Fabian and Blut_Und_Glas for the fascinating discussions about translation in literature and German resting-bitch-face.

Iudex for elite dungeoneering skills and for purchasing the skelly pic in the silent auction.

Charlie Brawn for taking the Stay Frosty book off my hands and asking for a signature :)

Valez for signs of a new generation of quality gamer and for sharing his artwork with me.

Patrick for also being incredibly kind about my artwork and purchasing the Dolmenwood piece, keep in touch!

Gus B for the brief discussions about monetisation, nostalgia, gaming (I guess I better listen to the podcast huh...)

Robin for the multiple chats (free your mind and your ass will follow motherfucker).

Dillon for being a metal SOB and kindly gifting me metal of death!

Hera the Hellhound for the boisterous vocalisations and ceaseless friendly wagging.