Tweedle Returns

A Tweedle & Dunh Adventure

Some time after ignominiously fleeing from the Chasm of Evil, Tweedle cajoles his friend Dunh into a second attempt.

"After all, heroes don't give up," Tweedle declares.

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They proceed through the catacomb, climb a rope down the pit, and once again enter the caverns. This time, they make a left turn.

Rats

They enter a room (1) with 5 putrid. zombified rats.

Tweedle immediately casts Mirror Image and 6 other Tweedles appear. Confused, the rats hesitate. Tweedle manages to take out 3 with one sweeping blow and Dunh mops up the rest.

Our heroes turn right and enter a room (2) with a sinister altar. A feeling of dread overwhelms Tweedle. Five winged zombie rats swoop at our heroes. They swarm on Dunh until he collapses of his wounds. Tweedle is about to run, but he cannot leave his friend behind. He slays a few of the rats; the rest flee.

Tweedle binds Dunh's wounds and gives him a restorative potion. Dunh recovers.

As Dunh recuperates, Tweedle suggests that they leave the caverns. But Dunh reminds him, "Heroes don't give up."

They search the altar room and find a gold-bound book. Tweedle puts it in his bag.

Dunh is reluctant. "I don't know about that," Dunh states. "It looks, um, it looks..."

"Sinister, corrupt, malevolent, nefarious?" Tweedle suggested.

"I guess. Is that the same as bad?"

"Don't worry," Tweedle lied. "I'll cast a protection on us."

This consoles his friend and they continue.

Skulls and Bones

They pass through some winding corridors (3-4) and enter a room (5) with 2 floating skulls. 

The skulls swoop at our heroes. Fortunately, they attack Tweedle's mirror images, dispelling two of them. Dunh steps up and with a mighty swing, shatters one skull. The duo manage to corner the second. Both hit simultaneously, crushing the skull.

Passing through a corridor (6) they come to a crypt (7). They feel a malevolent presence. Tweedle's mirror images suddenly scream in fright and flee from the room. Tweedle's primary defense is gone.

The Necromancer.

Proceeding forth, they handily defeat a skeletal archer (9), pass through an empty room (10), until they find another crypt (11). A robed figure holds a staff over a coffin muttering incantations. He turns to face our heroes.

Illustration from Micro Chapbook

"You are too late to stop me!" the figure cackles. Suddenly, two skeletal warrior rise from the coffins.

One rushes Tweedle and slashes him across the ribs with a rusty sword. Tweedle recoils in pain. Dunh, however, parries and with a mighty swing decapitates the other skeleton. It collapses with a rattle of bones.

Dunh turns to help Tweedle.

"Don't mind me!" Tweedle shouts. "Get the necromancer!"

Dunh rushes the robed figure, who is in the midst of more incantations. Dunh gets to him first. The necromancer raises his staff to parry. Dunh swings and slices the staff in half. His blade passes through and slashes the necromancer, who stumbles back.

The necromancer counters, using the shards of his staff as clubs. Dunh blocks with his shield and counters, but his foe dances out of the way.

Tweedle, hard pressed by the skeleton warrior, calls out, "Hurry, I can't hold him much longer!"

Dunh redoubles his attacks. Slice, stab, feint, lunge. But the necromancer avoids all the blows.

Dunh hears Tweedle cry out in pain. There is no time to lose!

Dunh decides on a desperate measure. He throws his shield at the necromancer. Confused, his foe sidesteps. At this very moment, Dunh grasps his sword with two hands, leaps forward, and cleaves downward. The blade strikes the necromancer on the head, and then splits him all the way to his heart. A fountain of blood sprays over Dunh. He hears a clatter of bones.

Note - I may have embellished some of the details :)

Turning, Dunh sees his wounded friend with a pile of skeletal remains at his feet.

Dunh binds Tweedle's wounds and then they search the room. They find a handful of gold pieces and a potion. However, Tweedle looks dejectedly at the splintered staff.

"Tsk, what a pity," Tweedle says. "It appears that it was magical."

"Wonderful! More treasure!" Dunh exclaims.

"I said 'was,'" Tweedle replies. Dunh looks sheepish.

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Upon returning to their village, Tweedle shows the gold-bound book to "Doc," his master and mentor.

"I think I may be able to learn some new spells from it!" Tweedle declares excitedly.

"No!" Doc sternly pronounces as he grabs the tome. "It is not wise to dabble with dark arts beyond your ken. Let me examine it first."

Reluctantly, Tweedle agrees.

After many days, Tweedle becomes impatient. Since his return, Doc has said nothing about the book. That night, Tweedle sneaks into his master's room, intent on "borrowing" the book for a quick read. But as soon as he touches the gold cover, a voice begins calling out "Alarm! Alarm!"

Tweedle hears Doc clear his throat behind. Tweedle turns.

"As I suspected. Well, we will talk about this in the morning."

Stay tuned for the further adventures of Tweedle and Dunh

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Game Notes

Today's adventure comes courtesy of Micro Chapbook.

I'm not using the rules themselves. I ran this adventure using my own fast-play dungeon crawl rules called MicroQuest. However, Micro Chapbook features 5 short, random dungeons. I used the first one. It gave quite an exciting adventure.

I made the map using Dungeon Map Doodler, a free, online dungeon mapper. I like how it looks, very old school, but I need to play with it more to grasp all the features. For example, I really wanted to make the rooms rough caverns, but haven't figured out how to do that yet.