I Am the Danger

Game publisher Judges Guild brought out some Tunnels & Trolls material in the early 1980s, at least initially with the approval of the people behind T&T (I'll say more about this when I move on to the next JG adventure). The first of these was The Toughest Dungeon in the World, by prolific T&T author Ken St. Andre, illustrated by Kevin Siembieda, whose RPG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness provided my school's gaming group with a variety of ways to get freshly-generated characters killed at high speed.

TTDITW has been reissued more than once, but my copy is a first edition, which means that it's got its fair share of errors (though the accompanying errata sheet does point out that they would make it rare and collectable if it were a postage stamp rather than a gaming product).

Most significant is the fact that, owing to miscommunication between author and publishers, the paragraphs haven't been scrambled. This makes it obvious that this is another adventure with unnecessary transitions - section 1 leads to section 2, which leads to section 3, which leads to section 4, which leads to 5, 6, 7 and 8, but as 4 is a hub and three of the sections to which it leads relate to returning after a non-lethal foray into the dungeon, it's necessary to pass through at least five different sections before getting to make any decisions. Given that most of these sections are all on the same page, and in the right order, this is not as annoying as having to repeatedly jump back and forth through the text, waiting for an opportunity to actually do something, but it's not a good sign when you know that the adventure is only less tiresome than it could have been because of a mistake.

Actually, the section padding does serve a bit of a purpose here. I need to eat and sleep every so often, and must keep track of the number of sections through which I pass to determine when lack of food and/or rest starts to have a harmful effect. Having the opening broken up the way it is means I'm that bit closer to suffering from hunger pangs and fatigue by the time I get to do anything, but no character should have to pass through that chain of sections more than once, so it's not that big a deal.

So, what of the adventure itself? It takes place in the protected caverns of Hael', purported to be the location of a lost Dwarven city containing a great treasure. In fact, by now the bulk of the treasure that can be found in the caverns was brought in by adventurers who sought the lost city and died, but loot is loot, regardless of whether it used to belong to the ruler of the Dwarves or a Warrior who failed a crucial saving roll. The point is that it's down here, and I need a substantial quantity of it.

By the way, I'm not an adventurer. I'm one of the denizens of the caverns. A Troll, to be precise (certain other 'monster' species are permissible, but Troll is the default option, so I might as well start with that). And why do I need to amass ten thousand gold pieces' worth of treasure? Well, that would enable me to relocate to Khazan and bribe my way into a cushy post in the Officer Corps, rather than being stuck down in a dank, dismal cave subject to repeated raids by parties of adventurers.

The rulebook includes two different sets of modifiers for creating 'monsters' with a full set of stats, but section 2 says to use the set that provides bigger bonuses to Strength and Constitution, which is fine by me. How much that helps is still subject to the whim of the dice, of course, and I get:
Strength 63
Intelligence 14
Luck 12
Constitution 84
Dexterity 8
Charisma -14
Speed 7
The negative score in Charisma is because I am a 'monster'. The further from 0, the better, and I treat it as a positive integer for the purpose of saving rolls. I don't get any starting gold or equipment, but my hide provides a degree of natural armour, and my claws are as good as a short sword in battle.

It being the start of the adventure, I must leave my lair and wander the caverns in search of adventurers and other creatures to fight and rob of their valuables. Stepping around the large stalagmite that conceals the entrance to my cave, I head along the tunnel and pick a side turning at random (as in, where I go is determined not by player whim but by the roll of a die).

Before long the scent of rotting meat alerts me to the proximity of another creature's lair, and I find the way in behind a big stalagmite. As Luck would have it, the occupant is currently out, doubtless looking for heroes and monsters to kill and plunder, so there's nothing to prevent me from helping myself to whatever cash and shinies my neighbour has saved up. Which turns out to be 200 coins. The type of coin should be determined by the level of the dungeon on which they're found, but since the text didn't specify anything more informative than 'deep within the caverns', I'm going to assume that they're gold.

Taking my ill-gotten gains, I return to the warren of passages, and find one that leads home, so I head back there to stash the money somewhere safe. A reasonably productive first excursion, but I'd better head straight out again, because I haven't yet found anything edible, and I will require a meal before long.

Heading out again, I find my way to a large grotto, which has been turned into something of a maze by walls of limestone. I wander around for a bit before finding an exit, which slopes down to end at the bank of a subterranean stream. It's not too deep to wade through, so I turn and splash downstream for a bit. For around a couple of hours (which, referring to the rulebook, seems to be roughly equivalent to 12 section transitions for the purposes of timekeeping - pity the text didn't specify) I follow the flow of the water until it disappears into a hole through which I cannot pass, forcing me to turn back and take one of the side passages I ignored on the way down.

A wide ledge overlooks the tunnel I enter, making it a good place to prepare an ambush. Climb up, wait for something edible or wealthy or both to wander below, leap to the attack. Or, as more randomness is likely to determine what happens next, possibly climb up, waste a few hours waiting for prey that never turns up, get that bit closer to starvation. Maybe even start to climb up, get surprised by some other monster that had the idea first, fight it at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, I shall give it a try.

There's no ambush awaiting me, but there are additional hunger penalties to be had if I spend 4 or more hours lurking without any prospective victims passing by. As luck would have it, I'm only up there for two hours before a party of adventurers comes by. Assorted rolls on tables determine the size and make-up of the party, but every new adventurer generated this way (including future encounters if I survive that long) is a little bit more powerful than the previous one, so the toughness of the adventure increases the longer it goes on.

As for this party, a male Rogue leads the way, armed with a spear and wearing no armour. Behind him come two Warriors, the man bearing a mitre and a shield, with a steel cap on his head, while the woman has full mail armour and wields a scythe. Bringing up the rear is an Elven Rogue, also equipped with a scythe, but wearing only leather armour. Neither Rogue knows any magic, which is a good thing for me, but also illustrates the problem I have with the character class: until they make enough money to start learning spells, they're just inferior Warriors, and considering how lethal most T&T adventures are, I can't see most Rogues surviving long enough to make use of their potential sorcerous capabilities.

The odds slightly favour the party, but if I can get in a lucky blow at the start and kill one of them straight off, that should give me the advantage. And maybe I miscalculated, because things go better for me than I expected. By the end of the third round, I've killed the Rogue with no armour, and though I haven't managed to penetrate the armour of any of his companions, seeing him die is enough to scare them into retreat. Slightly disappointingly, the dead Rogue has no valuables on him, but he's edible, and that spear is a better weapon than my claws. I just have the Dexterity required to wield it, so I'll be better equipped in my next fight.

Dragging the corpse back to my lair, I have a good meal. Since I took no damage in the fight, I get to increase my Constitution by 1 point. There's no need to rest just yet, so I go out in search of fresh victims. However, I haven't got very far before I am attacked myself.

My assailants turn out to be more adventurers. Only two this time: both Dwarven warriors, one with a poleaxe and leather armour, the other wielding a broadsword and wearing chainmail. Still, this duo presents a greater threat than the party of four I previously fought, and they inflict the first wound. I don't fancy my chances here, so even though flight will at best enable me to survive until my next, doubtless worse, battle, I'm still going to try and get away while I can.

Unexpectedly, they can't see in the dark (so how come I didn't spot their light source before they attacked me), and I have no trouble getting away from them. Rushing through the darkened tunnels, I wind up in the vicinity of another creature's lair, and creep in. This one is occupied, but at least whatever is in there is the first monster I've encountered: like the adventurers, the other creatures inhabiting these caverns get progressively more dangerous.

Unfortunately for me, I've blundered into the lair of a Liche. It only slightly outclasses me, but lucky rolls enable it to hit me three times before I can (and indeed must) run away. This time my flight takes me back to my own lair, so I think I'll see if resting will enable me to recover any health before I go out in search of tougher opponents. I know it would make more sense to seek easier prey, but the way this is structured, that just isn't an option.

Thanks to a good Luck roll, my slumbers are untroubled. However, it turns out that sleep can only restore Strength, not Constitution, so my rest leaves me no better off (except that I'm that bit further from any risk of fatigue-induced stat deterioration). Consequently, I need to head out and hope for some very favourable rolls the next time I encounter something hostile, as I need to eat even though I'm still some way away from triggering the hunger-based penalties.

Spotting another ledge suitable for ambushing, I climb up on it, but after a couple of hours nobody has come by, and I'm getting close to the point where I'll take starvation damage if I leave it for another hour, so I climb back down and start proactively searching for prey. I scent another lair, and have the good fortune to fail the Luck roll which determines whether or not the owner is at home. Yes, I have a fight ahead of me, but if I somehow survive, I should be able to eat.

This time I've found some Cave Lizards, which are nowhere near as dangerous as that Liche. Indeed, I slaughter them in a single round of battle. Somehow the Lizards have treasure - I'm assuming that they dragged the bodies of victims here to snack on, and there's money on some of the corpses. 300 coins, in fact. I take them and the dead Lizards back to my own lair, and eat them. The meal only restores a tiny fraction of what I lost in battle, but it does avert more serious Constitution loss, and by taking another nap straight afterwards, I get a small boost to my Strength, which will fractionally improve my chances in the next fight.

And back to the grind. Soon after leaving my lair, I see torchlight. Looks like more adventurers. I could do with the dice making it a lone human Rogue with no armour or magic and a rubbish weapon, but I doubt that I'll be that lucky.

I charge at the party, and have to roll against my Dexterity. I can see how that could make sense, but the consequences of my failing the roll are not 'you stumble and make yourself vulnerable to attack' but 'the adventurers are not intimidated', so a Charisma roll would have been more appropriate. And it would appear that I'm expected to have memorised the section number for determining the make-up of a party of adventurers, because I've not been directed there yet this encounter, but am now being asked about the presence of magic-users.

Having found the relevant section myself, I determine that I'm up against a lone Dwarf: a Warrior armed with a crossbow and a scythe, using just a shield and protective headgear for armour. The adventure appears to lack rules governing use of ranged weapons by hostile adventurers - if the Dwarf were a Wizard, he could fire a spell at me while I make my approach, but loosing a bolt from the crossbow is apparently beyond his capabilities.

The crossbow requiring two hands to operate, the Dwarf cannot use both it and the scythe against me simultaneously. Damage-wise, the crossbow is the superior weapon, but reloading it takes a round, which is a pretty serious disadvantage in a one-on-one fight. Most of the RPG players I know would, in a situation like this, try to use the crossbow in the first round of the fight and then switch to the scythe, vehemently dismissing the possibility that changing weapons mid-battle would in any way inconvenience their character, so I'll go with that scenario here. Or rather, I would, but even allowing the Dwarf to use his better weapon in the first round, I still purée him with one blow.

Despite allowing for encounters with lone adventurers, the adventure only covers two possible 'kill a foe' set-ups: kill one, scaring off the rest of the party, or massacre everyone and receive an experience point bonus. I guess I'll have to take the bonus, even though the 'magnificent slaughter' I just enacted wasn't actually that impressive. I also get to take the Dwarf's weapons (not sure if the crossbow will do me any good, but I can dual-wield the scythe and the spear I looted from the Rogue) and treasure (just 60 coins, but that still brings me a little closer to my target), and drag the corpse home for a meal and a snooze.

After waking, I go out again, and find another (or the same) stream. Will investigating upstream prove any more fulfilling than downstream? Well, it's less time-consuming, at least: I take slightly less than an hour to reach a waterfall. Side passages lead up and down, or I can check for hidden openings behind the waterfall. On this occasion there's only solid rock on the other side of the cascading water, so I must investigate a side passage.

The descending tunnel to the left has a section number that can't be reached from just outside my lair, so I check that out. It leads down to the shore of a massive black lake. Don't think I'll touch the water just yet, but I will explore further rather than turning back.

Unseen hostiles throw spears at me. Saving rolls determine that five of the seven spears thrown graze me, but even if my natural armour provides no protection, the damage done is still negligible. Then the mob of Goblins I have encountered charges to the attack with more spears. Weight of numbers, combined with the overly generous attribute increase for each Goblin after the first, and the lack of any escape option, leads to my death by attrition.

So, I failed. Hardly surprising, given that the author admits to never having won it himself during playtesting, and the principal other playtester proclaimed it 'too tough'. To be honest, this adventure has felt so uninspired that I've been hoping for a lethal encounter for some time, and now I'm free to reshelve TTDITW and play something more enjoyable.