The following image is the map the players received in session one from the old man in the pub!
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| Dungeon Level 1 |
The party left their room (the highest one on the map with a chest in it) and proceeded to follow the passageways round, ensuring they explored all areas. The followed the passageway down past the very rickety looking bridge and straight up. They missed the ambush hole to their right and were surprised by 5 Kobolds leaping out at them. In their surprise round the Kobolds managed to smash the Mage to the ground rendering him unconscious. The rest of the party fought bravely on and managed to kill 3 of the Kobolds in 2 rounds of combat. Feeling the fight was not going their way the Kobolds ran. (failing a morale test). One bolted south (down from the point of view of the map) the Cleric smashing him with his staff killing him as he passed. The other was disoriented and fled north trapping himself in the dead end. The One Eyed thief skewered him soundly with an arrow.
The party took the opportunity to stabilise the mage and drag his unconscious form back to the room they were using as a base of operations. By now they had spent enough time there to start to decorate. Kobold pelts lined the floors making a lovely soft carpet, and Kobold skulls made excellent water containers and bowls.
The party took this opportunity to rest again. They had ample meat and supplies and with me rolling plenty of times they had a very quiet time of it. All the recent monster deaths had obviously dissuaded others from this section of the dungeon.
After some rest and recuperation the party ventured forth to the most right hand room and the door at the top of it. The thief wisely chose to check for traps. As GM I rolled behind my screen (he failed to spot the poison dart trap) but I informed him he didn't find anything. Learning from his previous encounter he retrieved his eye from the fighter (remember he lost his eye to a poison dart trap and the fighter had kept the eye in his pocket) and held it in front of the keyhole. Trying the door he triggered a poison dart trap (one save role later) and the dart narrowly missed his fingers holding the eye and pierced his severed eyeball.
The trap having been triggered they opened the door. A hissing noise came from inside and peering into the room they spied 3 cobras! Hoods open and hissing madly at the light that had just flooded the room from their torches. The cleric leaped forward and slammed the door, but not before one of the snakes let loose with a nasty poisonous spit. One failed Save (with a +4 modifier) and the cleric was blind.
I decided having a blind cleric as well as a one eyed thief may play against the party so did a quick roll. I figured there was a 20% chance the village they had come from had a cleric with sufficient skill to heal him. Picking up my dice I rolled 16! At last some luck! I inform the party there is indeed a cleric in the village they came from that could possibly help. At this stage the party debated whether to send the blind cleric in everywhere first to see what would happen or whether they should head back.
We consulted the core rule book to see just how bad the effect was ... the cleric would be surprised on 1 - 4 on a d6, in addition to this they would suffer -4 to hit, -4 to their AC, and -2 to their initiative.
Upon the balance of this the party decided to head back to the village.
After 2 uneventful nights under the stars (the rolls were going their way!) they reached the village. The party headed straight for the temple, as they approached an old wizened man shuffled out to greet them and introduced himself as Gilgan. The priest ushered them into the temple and listened to their tale of woe, and confirmed he could indeed help. The party, being suspicious, asked what the cost was. Gilgan informed them they could pay 10gp or owe him a favour to be called in at his convenience. The party unanimously agreed paying the money was the better option (it is almost like they don't trust me!). The 10gp disappeared into the priests robes, and he instructed the cleric to strip. The cleric protested vigorously, but Gilgan insisted that his magic and god required him to be naked for the magic to work. Reluctantly the cleric stripped. When he had finished the old priest cackled manically and informed him he just wanted to know if he would do it or not before rubbing a magic ointment on the clerics eyes. As he shuffled off informed the party the clerics sight will return over the next 24 hours.
The cleric being a dwarf made a mental note.
Our intrepid adventurers decided there was little in the village of interest and started the slog back over land to the entrance to the caves. As they strolled steadily along an earthen path a travelling merchant with horse and cart came into view. As he pulled his pony to a stop they could see that he was dressed in a brown tunic, with brown shoes, and a brown hat; the adventurers decided to enquire as to what the merchant sells. He excitedly explained he has silky cloth (brown) rough linen (brown) hard wearing cloth (brown) ... it turns out all the merchants goods are in fact brown. Finally he confides in them that he also has some Magic brown cloth. The cleric is sceptical and rolling a 20 he calls bullshit. The mage however rolls a 1 and summarily buys a length of brown magic cloth for 10gp which he wraps around him as a scarf. The cleric slowly shaking his head as the mage puts his new "magic brown scarf" on.
The players then discussed whether they should kill the merchant. However as GM I put it to them what would their characters do. The fighter decided he probably wouldn't want to kill the merchant in cold blood, however the thief was all ready to slit the mans throat. Deciding they needed more time to decide what to do with him they asked if he would like to camp with them for the night. I rolled for the merchant and got a 3 ... he apparently was oblivious to the thoughts running through the adventurers heads.
The merchant pulled supplies from his wagon and proceeded to cook everyone brown sausages, brown bacon and brown bread toasted brown, all washed down with brown Ale.
<Let me just take a moment to apologise now to you the reader, as well as to my players. Of the whole adventuring world I had to play with I decided to give them a man obsessed with brown ... I don't know what I can say other than I am sorry and the next wandering merchant shall be a far more interesting character ... however it was amusing at the time ... sorry.>
After having their fill the merchant retired to his brown tent and the party decided that killing someone who just fed them would be bad sport. Plus a fully recovered cleric really wasn't happy with cold blooded murder.
The party settled in for the night and first watch was taken by the fighter. They had early on decided between them that whenever they slept they would take turns to take watch through the night. As the first watch progressed a howling rose from the woods surrounding them. The fighter woke the others and I rolled a d6 (they had 2 turns to get ready!).
The cleric threw extra wood onto the fire to build it up and provide better light and to try and scare the wolves off. He then piled all the food scraps to the side of a tree and hid in wait.
The mage cast Shield and hid beside the cleric.
The thief attempted to climb a tree but fumbling his role managed to get up onto a branch before slipping and finding himself hanging upside down by his legs.
The fighter also wanted to climb a tree but after some disastrous roles found himself just standing there while trying to work out how top climb a tree and hold a two handed sword.
Two wolves arrived and started sniffing at the scraps of food. The cleric cleaved ones skull in killing it and the mage hit one for a point of damage. The thief showing presence of mind fired his bow (upside down from a tree) and managed to hit one of the wolves a glancing blow on its shoulder.
The initial surprise round over there were 6 wolves left to deal with and a heavy snoring from the brown tent. The thief used his next turn to pull himself into a tree, the cleric felled another wolf with a huge swing of his staff. A squeal signalled the sound of the mage going down with a wolf gnawing on his jugular (it would appear the "magic" scarf didn't help).
One very low % roll later (this was good) and large brown sparks and bangs sent the wolves scurrying back into the forest their tails between their legs. The party turn to see the merchant in a brown nightgown setting off his own custom fireworks. After double checking that the wolves are gone the merchant stabilises the mage using the brown scarf to stop the bleeding, and then retrieves a brown vial of liquid which he pours down the unconscious mages throat restoring him to consciousness.
The merchant decided it wasn't safe to camp with hungry wolves around and packed up and headed on for the next village. The party also decided that maybe they wouldn't tarry any longer and continued on the road to the caves.
The cleric decided now was the time, and with the assistance of the mage fashioned the beginnings of his own "Book of Grudges" and on the first page at the very top he wrote "Gilgan". Apparently getting naked really had scarred him!
The party entered the caves (top left of the picture) and stopped to light torches and prepare for the next big challenge ... the ladder. Now anyone who has read the previous posts will know the party struggle with ladders ... maybe I should make a dungeon just of ladders :)
The cleric went first, panicking at the same time as before he over balanced the ladder (a really really unlucky Dex roll). He hit the floor with the ladder on top of himself taking 1HP damage. Getting up and dusting himself off the cleric put the ladder back in place and the thief and mage successfully navigated this most dangerous of non-traps. The fighter however had other ideas, he wasn't going to risk that wily ladder, and instead fetched his grappling hook out of his backpack and secured it against some rocks. He then backed away from the hook pulling on the rope to test it was secure. One really bad low roll later .. out fighter not being the smartest stick from the barrel kept walking backwards right off the edge falling and smashing to the ground for 3HP damage.
I should note I avoided the standard falling damage table reducing it from 1d6 to 1d4 as this would avoid death by ladder.
The party decided to press on and moved to the bridge over the ravine, deciding they would leave the cobras for someone else! The cleric trusting to his God went first ... he crept carefully over the bridge measuring each step. I gave the bridge a 10% chance of collapse .. I picked my dice and rolled .. 16 .. the Mage made it over! He then took his rope and threw it back to the next party member who subsequently crossed safely. They repeated this process for each party member making it across the bridge with nothing breaking (with me rolling behind the GM screen for each party member).
A quick check behind my GM screen showed nothing random in the pool (shame!). The mage decided to investigate the pool further and climbed in. His first Dex roll saw him sink like a stone, but passing his next roll he composed himself and got the hang of swimming. Looking around he spied a chest with rocks piled on top of it. Swimming across to the chest he shoved the rocks off it and the chest started to rise to the surface. Grabbing on the chest rose to the surface of the pool and the party pulled the chest and mage clear of the water.
The thief now aware of only having one eye decides he can't risk being too cavalier and checks for traps. (I do a quick roll) Sure enough the chest like the others had been booby trapped with a light flash trap. The party closed their eyes and the thief triggered the trap. Everything flashed bright behind their eyelids then went dark. Opening their eyes the party opened the chest and found a scroll and a ring. The mage identifies the scroll as having the spell "Protection from Undead" written upon it, however he can only ascertain that the ring isn't cursed. Deciding to risk it the mage put the ring on and felt decidedly tougher (I had rolled randomly and generated a ring of +3 protection!).
The party left it there and made camp at the top of the stairs, ready to descend to the next level.
At this point I feel it probably a good time to summarise what we have found so far.
GM Point of View
I find the game easy to run, I need to get more experience/exposure to the rules so I don't have to flick around, but I'm quite comfortable coming up with tests based on the situation, the players skills and any situational bonus or negative. I feel I have to be very ready to ad lib (which is fine as I enjoy that) but a beginner GM may struggle with that. I would recommend that anyone new to being a GM makes notes and even does some pointers for themselves along the lines of ideas of things they can drop in for various situations. Then just amend those are you feel right at the time.
I amended character generation from the base versions and I have to say that the more flexible approach allows people to play the race and class they are wanting to play which to me is part of a game.
With the base stats being set, the average curve (from our rolls) seemed to really be around the +0 level which leaves them being very squishy. Again if we hadn't agreed the custom death rule of 0 then -1 per turn with -10 really being dead, then the party would have been totally wiped out. This also adds to the situation and can help add drama. The party see their comrade in arms go down after a bite from a wolf, blood pumping from their wounds, but slowing with every turn. They need to clear off the monsters fast or come up with a plan of the team member dies.
As a GM I could feel the frustrations of the players growing that they were struggling to achieve any tasks they were going for. This was a combination of average stats and really low/unfortunate rolls on the dice.
I feel there is a balance and as GM I don't think I have got it quite right yet. I want the real prospect of player death to be there as it adds an edge, however the rules as are would have me pretty much creating new characters multiple times a session. I think I need to encourage players to look to take advantage of scenery and other items, and to be fair the party did making use of the trees and fire. I will have to look to give modified rolls when making the most of a situation.
Player Point of View
On one hand the players are enjoying the game, the exploring and the game mechanic. On the other hand they are finding it increasingly frustrating to achieve results. We are going to have discussions on ways we can address this and look to put them into practice next Thursday at the new session.
They are however looking at the situations and learning from the situations and coming up with some brilliant ideas.
Roundup So Far
I love the rules and I must say that anyone playing them "as is" I tip my hat to you because you are really working with a system that is great, but make a mistake (save vs poison) and you really are back to square 1 (I realise you could go get them raised from the dead). I think key to our success using the system will be a combination of adaptation (the rules and our play style). So for example how the players brilliantly stopped the thief dying from poison, and how we amended the "death" mechanic, and how the thief blocked the keyhole with his severed eyeball.
In my next post I'll cover what we have decided as a group to change on how we play and update everyone on how the party fares in the next level of the dungeon!
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