B/X solo play, Session one: Don't pick on someone your own size.

     The party descends into the first dungeon, a little number called The Cyst of Tenaidia. Given that Abigail Cheddar is both the toughest and the most charming, she is sent in front. 

In the first room, the party encounters a giant squid and its vampire flunkies, who don't want to let them through. Tommy Siz tries to sneak through, gets caught, and sprints into the next room, scattering gold behind him so the vampires won't pursue. 

Now, all on his little lonesome, Tommy comes across a strange magical beetle, who's pissed off at him. Not wanting to wait for aggression, he throws a flask of burning oil at the beetle, who sustains massive damage and scampers off into the darkness. Tommy exits the room, still alone, into another room containing a giant clock and not much more. He successfully dismantles a bunch of valuable parts out of it, getting 100 GP of various whirligigs and gimcrackery. 

Tommy journeys into yet another room, finally finding what he's looking for: A sinister looking suit of armor, sword in hand, surrounded by skulls. Hoping the d6 rolls high, he gets into the armor. He feels it boot up around him, and he is now inside the fantasy equivalent of a mech suit. 

Well, it's more that he has become the fantasy equivalent of a robot. I'm using the stats for a living iron statue here (4 HD, 2AC, two sword attacks per round, d8 damage). 

Tommy goes back to the room where the beetle was and starts shouting at the vampires and taunting them, but because the squid beast is too big to fit through the doors (that's why it has servants) it can't follow. With the vampires out against Tommy, we're getting our first taste of real combat! 

Tommy wins initiative round one and cuts one of the spawn up, killing it immediately. The other vampires swarm him and get lucky hits, bringing him below half on their first set of attacks. Undeterred (it's only the suit getting hurt) Tommy hits back, but only grazes one of them lightly on the jaw. Again the vampires swarm him, but they don't manage to bite through his armor. The fight continues in tense but boring fashion for a few more rounds, and Tommy's suit is shattered, with 3 vampires still up and going. 

But he has a chance! It's Tommy's round in initiative, and if he gets a kill, he brings them down to half their number, forcing a Morale save. The advisable thing to do would be to turn and run away, but I'm publishing this for an audience, so he lashes out with all his mighty thiefy strength at the injured one. 

He just barely kills it, but they don't run, they double down! Tommy gets killed within the next round of battle. Let this be a lesson to you kids: Even when you're wearing a nigh impenetrable war machine, don't pick on people your own size. 

With Tommy dead, the rest of the party is still stuck at the entrance to the dungeon. However, watching the grisly scene as the vampires feed the mangled corpse of poor, poor Tommy to the giant squid gives everyone else an idea. The various party members lump together the meat from their rations with Wonder's belladonna, and throw the mass down the stairs. 

The vampires feed it to the squid, who then makes a poison save (as a 5th level fighter). It, unfortunately, succeeds. 

Out of options and out of ideas, the party uses its singular spell: Floating Disc. Wonder summons the floating disk (at waist height, which here on the stairs is taller than the squid's head). They then load it up with all 5 of Wonder's oil flasks, and push it over the squid with ten foot poles. 

Goldor lights a torch, gives the okay, and throws the torch at the creature just as Wonder dispels the disc. 

The resulting inferno kills the squid beast, kills one of the vampires, and leaves the other sitting, charred, in a pile of dead boss and dead friend. 

However, the primary emotion in this Vamp's mind is not "I'm next" but rather "You're next" and he charges the party. It takes a swing at Goldor, missing him by a wide berth, and Abigail nad Wonder both plug big holes in him. Finally, after the loss of his boss, his 4 buddies, and most of his organ systems, the last vampire flees into the rest of the dungeon. 

The rest of the dungeon that will be explored next time. 

I know this post was short (it only covered 4 rooms!) and poorly paced, but this is where I'm ending it for now. A lot of the time in solo play, just as in real play, is spent thinking stuff up, and that doesn't translate well into blog post material. I'll have another up within the week, probably with more than 4 rooms in it. If there's interest, I'll post the system I use to generate these dungeons, but for now It's my little secret.