OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 1, 2, 3

As I already touched on here, a new campaign has started where I try to run Knave in Spanish. The players, old friends of mine, have never played a TTRPG before. So I can proud myself on being their first contact with the hobby, and hopefully a worthy ambassador?

To keep things lean and simple (one of my selling points for Knave has been the 7-page-long rules), the only additions I allowed were an extra item at character generation (choose between extra weapon, lockpicks, or random spellbook), and Snacks (once a day consume a ration during a turn of rest to regain some HP). Hopefully these help counterbalance the group being 2 3 players.

As for how I'm organizing this game, there are two main changes:

1. I switched to Micro$oft's OneNote to keep my notes in one place. So far Markdown text notes were my jam, but the need to embed images and other media in one place made me give this a try. Let's see.
2. On top of that, keeping an analog journal after each session has been a refreshing change. The reports below are expanded mentions of what I have in these notebook pages.
   

Let's look at the characters:

Pancho (Copernico) - a guy with a crossbow and a tendency to grab shiny stuff in front of him. Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a bow and a spellbook, Zem has showed good and bad judgement alike. Heavily scarred after this first adventure so far. Nerisse* (Mo) - a redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. New Hirelings** - Daniele (man-at-arms, sword & board)

*Nerisse joined the group at Session 3.

*Daniele was hired at Session 2 in Rietikon.

Session 1

• A trip on the road from Walfalkon to the hamlet of Rietikon. Word of floods and landslides in that region serve as a hook for the adventurers, with rumors of ancient ruins and sites with potential treasure.
• They travel with a family wanting to try better luck West, and a dwarf called Gunther who's reserved and bookish. The family reduces their travel speed, so Gunther decides it's better to haste to Rietikon rather than be forced to spend the night camping, so he gallops away with his pony.
• Zem and Pancho decide to camp with the family instead of pressing on after the dwarf. Why wouldn't they risk going on? That's their prerogative.
• During camp, they question the family (Honk & co) to get a sense of the current mood in the region, and their motivations to moving. Selling boots and moving on, it seems?
  
• Marching continues with the break of dawn, and close to Rietikon they find Gunther's saddlebags discarded near the road.
• Copernico rolled a spyglass at character creation, so Pancho makes good use of it to scout ahead.
• Investigating the area yields some clues. It looks like this was a violent attack perpetrated by a group. Valuables as coin and books were left on site. So of course, Pancho pockets that.
• They decide to continue to town, escorted by the family, to check out those 3 tomes.
• Once in Rietikon, the Pfaff Lake stands ominously by the fishing hamlet. The lake hosts an endless fog at its center, together with constant lightning. Its nature a mystery, yet it doesn't seem like a threat?
• They get room and carp stew at The Satyr & The Carp, little more than a side cottage with some bunk beds for rent. Lon Abio, both host and major, gives them a sense of the area (and provides some rumors):
• Landslides down South have stirred things up. Why is Walfalkon not sending help yet?
• Beastmen are roaming the region, sprouting out like vermin after the floods.
• A wizard passed by town going South-West to the marshes, about 2 days away.
• There's someone in town (Enric) who might be interested in those books of yours...
  

Referee Commentary

• I'm perfectly aware that this way of warming new players up is sub-optimal. But I knew these friends would be hooked, and decided to take a softer start to facilitate a broader sandbox scope.
• Gunther's dilemma is what Phandelver's start should have been like.
• They were given meaningful choices and a few hooks. Let's see how this continues.
  

Session 2

• Books are dropped to Enric, a sick-looking fella that accepts transcribing them for profit, in the span of weeks.
• With the profits they hire Daniele, a woman-at-arms ready for some mercenary work, and get some provisions. All is ready to venture to the nearby Biber Hills!
• Half-way a couple with their throats cut out is found, killed on site. Few monetary valuables still on them.
• Getting into the hills proper, the trio spends the night and gets some nearby hints but no action:
• Beastmen seen from a distance (again Pancho's spyglass comes in handy), accompanied by a woman.
• Landslide and unsteady terrain not far from their sleeping spot wakes them up at night.
• An owl of titanic proportions flies nearby during the darkest of night.
• The next day, they decide to go for the Dragon Skull of Xaxalar, a known site within the hills.
• On their arrival, there's a column of smoke coming out of the skull's nostrils. Is someone there? There's also a tied dog at the entrance. It starts barking as the group approaches, but no one comes out with the warning. After feeding it some dried fish (a ration), it can be bypassed.
• Inside there are some logs, furs, and discarded bones. Pancho and Daniele investigate the area, whilst Zem serves as lookout with his bow. They find a sizeable sack with teeth and fangs (priced possessions of sorts?), as well as a hidden passage below the furs!
• Following that tunnel, after some minutes of crawling and going underground in this structure, they find the stone ruins of a complex. The closed door has a stone hand, open, instead of a handle. Zem thinks it appropriate to give it a shake. It instantly animates, crushing his hand bones and tendons. Hand is unusable from here on out!
• Pancho takes an iron hook, gets the "shake" on the piece of equipment, but can get the door open.
• Inside, there's a corridor with tapestries left and right, with images of serpent folk, dragons, and other creatures. Serpentine Empire, anybody?
• The next room has a lizard skeleton, impaled on the skull by a javelin. Eyes are glowing. Shelves with moldy old tomes and parchments to the eastern wall.
• Pancho pulls the javelin out, as Zem is investigating the books, which makes them ignite and throw a flame tongue at the already injured bowman! He passes out, face disfigured by the burn marks.
  

Referee Commentary

• Glad that the group chose to feed the dog and not escalate the situation. They also took their time to check the interior out.
• Glad that iagson learned to be more cautious from here on out when encountering bizarre dungeons.
  

Session 3Nerisse (Mo) joins from this session #3 on

• Zem has been burned and is currently down. A reinvigorating Snack and attending by Daniele gets him back up and capable of adventuring, hand still a mess of broken bones.
• Pancho scouts ahead, and in the next room finds a column with 4 sets of chains and manacles. One of them contains a sprawled skeleton, the other a ginger woman, Nerisse. Quickly freeing her with his lockpicks, Pancho questions her, but little she remembers of this place, or what brought her to it.
• A scaly crimson lizard the size of a fat cat crawls through the ceiling, upside down, and attacks the recently recovered group.
  
• Nerisse tries tossing the femur of the skeleton to another direction: "Doggy, fetch". Didn't draw the desired attention, instead the skeleton animated asking "Well, that is rather impolite. Do you mind?"
• After a feral exchange, Pancho goes down, but it's Daniele who deals the final sword blow to the creature, that turns to ash and smoke, and disappears as quickly as it came to existence.
• Time to question the skeleton. Nerisse takes the lead, hoping the bony figure can give some clues. "Name is Daer the fool, I used to brighten up this slumber temple in times past. I remember... a great betrayal. A thief and a mother!". He points to the Western doors claiming that the place of worship is in that area.
  
• Zem moves to the North with Daniele, whilst Pancho fiddles with some locks (lockpicks! equipment!). The archer has 1 unusable arm, and a disfigured face (permanent -1 to Charisma): the (momentary) torchbearer. They find a human size stone statue of a cobra, with a red ruby on one eye socket, and a green emerald on the other. Also some stairs in front, moving down. Too psychologically scarred, and weary of any traps, Zem decides to move back to the group.
• From here on out, moving West thanks to an unlocked door:
  
• There's a chapel area with rotten benches, and a red curtain separating the room.
• A stone tub with goo and liquid reveals to have regenerative powers. Zem quickly puts his hand in, and splashes some on his face too. Hand is fixed! But face scars get lizard scales?
• They get attacked again by the same red lizard, bigger and stronger this time.
• Nerisse and Zem push the basin together, dropping the liquid. The lizard vanishes as it came. Where to?
• Behind the red curtain, a prayer room with a second stone cobra statue (this one without gems in the eye sockets), and a prayer book at the lectern. With riddles and cryptic messages, and some magic even?
  

Referee Commentary

• Very happy with the group's engagement with the game and the fiction.
• In the couple of combats we had, the players' first reaction is to look at their character sheet to look for equipment to use: net, glue, fire, etc. This fills my OSR heart.
• I'm glad the first point of interest was a dungeon of my own design. Means it's rougher on the edges, but it gets playtested.