Barbarians of Hyboria is my conversion of the Barbarians of Lemuria RPG for adventures in the world of Conan. It is a very slimmed down system with little crunch that is good at handling narrative swords and sorcery adventures. I recently used it to run the Tower of the Elephant, an adventure based on the short story of the same name by Conan creator Robert E. Howard.
For this game there were three player characters:
- Conan, a barbarian thief from Cimmeria (yes, that Conan)
- Molina Goth, a beautiful Turanian merchant and pirate
- Argol Arron, an apprentice wizard and thief (and alchemist)
The adventure began in the Maul, the thieves' quarter of Arenjun, in the realm of Zamora. The PCs were plotting in a tavern to steal the Heart of the Elephant, a fabled jewel rumoured to be in the possession of Yara, himself a powerful wizard who lived in a glittering tower in the temple quarter of Arenjun. On top of that, Argol Arran was out for revenge, because Yara had betrayed and murdered his master, the wizard Oomathax. The thieves had to move carefully, because Yara was known to exercise considerable influence over the city's rulers.
The PCs began by conducting some street level research into the tower. They heard that Yara himself was meant to be at least 300 years old, and that he had arrived in Arenjun from some fabled eastern kingdom, where he had been dwelling in a jade palace. They also heard rumours that the tower - called the Tower of the Elephant - had been built in a single night, by whom, nobody knew. Conan heard that Yara could only be killed with a silver dagger blessed by a priestess of Ishtar. He also heard a tale of some undead guardians thought to patrol the grounds of the tower.
The adventurers scouted the edge of the tower but could not really see past its walls. They could see no sign of doors or windows. They did discern that there was a daily delivery of food but also noticed that the guards themselves did not venture into the city. Conan and Molina went to the temple of Ishtar where Molina paid the priestesses to bless a silver dagger she had bought in the bazaar (Molina has the Great Wealth boon, having sold our her pirate comrades to the Turanian navy).
Molina's relationship with the merchant who supplied the food to the tower's garrison came into play. Previously she had helped the grocer, called Quartman, get out of an arranged marriage to his cousin, and he owed her a major favour (expenditure of a Hero point to add elements to the narrative). This resulted in the trio disguising themselves as the delivery men for the next day's batch of supplies.
Those familiar with the original tale will know that Conan stole into the tower's grounds by going over the wall under cover of darkness. Not so this crew, who simply rode through the gates and into the tower, to begin unloading the food supplies into the basement level.
While not being properly supervised by the guards, Conan had a look around in the basement level, and discovered the lions that were released into the grounds at night. During daylight hours they were being kept locked up in cells in the dungeon. He hit upon the idea of distracting the guards while Argol covertly released the lions from the cells. Argol sadly fluffed his Agility roll and was noticed by the guards, but not before he had opened the doors to the lions' cells.
Conan opened a bag of meat to further appeal to the lions, then he and Molina fled to the stairs leading back up to the ground level, brawling with three of the guards who also decided to make a run for it. Four more guards converged on Argol, but he in turn used his alchemical knowledge to drop a smoke bomb in the corridor and - just - got past the guards before the lions set upon them.
A brawl had started on the stairs, where Conan managed to throw one guard down the steps, and Molina stabbed another with her dagger. The third was tripped by Argol as he caught up with them. The trio then fled back to the ground level, where the main doors, heavy and built of bronze, had been closed. Any other sentries were outside the tower, and could not hear the commotion going on in the dungeon level. The PCs up-ended the cart and shoved it against the entrance to the dungeon level, to stop any guards - or lions - from coming back up again.
They then headed upstairs to the next level and began exploring the tower. It was here that they made a startling discovery as they searched for loot:
"...a large chamber, with a domed golden ceiling; the walls were of green jade, the floor of ivory, partly covered by thick rugs. Smoke and exotic scent of incense floated up from a brazier on a golden tripod, and behind sat an idol on a sort of marble couch...the image had the body of a man, naked, and green in colour; the head was one of nightmare and madness. Too large for the human body, it had no attributes of humanity. Conan stared at the wide flaring ears, the curling proboscis, on either side of which stood white tusks tipped with round golden balls. The eyes were closed, as if in sleep."
The PCs stood in the doorway to the chamber and debated what to do next. Next to the idol, on an altar, they could see a large crimson crystal, which could be the jewel they sought. Or it could be a trap. Molina was for ignoring the scene and heading up to the next level, as she could not believe Yara would leave his treasure so close to the ground. Argol argued for taking the jewel and making a run for it. He sensed, however, that it was magical, but not necessarily evil. As they whispered urgently to each other, the eyes of the idol opened. The thing was alive...
Next time: Confrontation with Yara and further thoughts on Barbarians of Hyboria
BoL is so good. Would love to play it again.
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