OSR: Stonehell OSE Open Table 11-16

Noticed that I never finished this one, was rotting in my drafts folder. This is a continuation to the general notes on sessions 1-10, about 6 additional session of Stonehell. Note that each session was about 3 hours, excluding ~30 minutes at the start to buy equipment, get hirelings and generally get everyone in the ElfGaming mindset. We played online via virtual table-top.

The game broke down due to personal circumstances on my end, a couple of years ago. But since players were doing written reports/notes for each session, I can trace back some of those sessions and write down what transpired.

Since then, I've used some bits of Stonehell as individual dungeons in some of my games. Levels 2A and 2C to be precise. Such fantastic books, Stonehell are, they just work like that.

Stonehell spoilers ahead, be warned!

General Game Notes

Players explored many portions of the outdoors canyon and about 60-70% of Level 1 of the dungeon proper. That is but a tiny sample of the thing! I did regenerate content between delves, so rooms would fill up again between gaming sessions, but (after a player cleverly pointed it out) already mapped locations could be traversed at 3 x the exploration rate in B/X / OSE.

Parts explored of Level 1, where most of our games took place

General Game Notes

After each session, one player got the chance of writing a session report for a bit of extra XP. This helped with Stonehell being rather stingy with treasure in the first portions of the megadungeon. And to introduce new players (, or remind existing ones) to what had transpired before. I have my doubts that anyone read these reports, ever. I can however extract some anecdotes from the game:

• Attracting the bear from the canyon is not harmful. And skeletons can be reduced with ease when Clerics with Turn Undead are available in the party.
• Helpful kobolds (yay reaction rolls!) and the talking stone head with laser eyes provide a lot of helpful information early on to the party: where are the (neutral) Korners, where is a significant magic item in the level.
• The party avoided conflict when possible: bribing orcs with food, and having a wrestling match for sport, giving commitments to noble dwarfs, shooing giant rats away by setting rubbish on fire, feeding fire beetles, etc etc.
• Iron spikes were sorely missed with self-locking secret doors. The Keeper of Secrets' riddle was answered with success, granting generous coinage, potions of healing, and a wand.
• One of the most dangerous areas, the crypts of 2B, were treated with the utmost care and respect. There were several kerfuffles with ghouls and zombies. The latter claimed a couple hirelings.
• Party decided to purse "Da Dragon" around session 6. The Thief purchased a chicken with the intent to lure or tame it. And despite successful sneaking efforts, the feeding plot was a disaster. I changed the creature a bit, giving it a gliding ability and two baby lizards. All whilst making the environment closer to a hothouse (aka players couldn't see the ceiling). Still it was a neat battle, and a Light spell saved the day. With 5500gp in treasure, I believe this was the biggest score of the (short-lived) campaign.
• The invisibility trees of the Canyon level almost catches the party once due to a random roll. Would have been a perfect score for the bandits, since the party had a good chunk of treasure. Luckily, the PCs fled with arrows on their heels.
• The Wheel of Fortune claimed a(n unlucky) Halfling, Mylo. Curiosity and foolishness was the end of him. The body is carried back to town, giving a proper burial.
• Green slime was lethal! And one very hard to deal with challenge for the party. Fear the Slime!
• There was a schism in the kobold faction: one loyal to Skiff and the Korners, the other led by a human lady with kobold workers fed up with their conditions. The players latched onto this conflict, but an action/outcome never materialized.
• Players started then to use the Korners as a second base of operations. There were clear indications that Level 2 would be explored in the coming sessions (before the campaign petered), on suggestion of a dwarf noble in search of a dining Hall.
• For some reason the players latched to an encounter with a cow god/spirit. Opening a church to it and moving that agenda forward also seemed to be in the pipeline. I guess it was material ripe for memes :-)
  

General Lessons Learned

• By making fresh hirelings available every week, and any equipment at standard rates (including Plate), the PCs were carrying a lot of material, were very resilient, and rarely challenged by the hardships of the Dungeon. At least that was my impression.
• The feast-or-famine nature of treasure was much commented. I sensed some frustration from the players. But in my opinion, this is a feature and not a bug of Stonehell (and early B/X as an extension).
  
• It is hard to keep up with the Treasure Economy, once it starts to hit. B/X as written has even a 2nd level PC capable of acquiring all the equipment they want, several hirelings, war dogs, etc. Imposing taxes, jewellers and banks, carousing rules, etc. are left alltogether to the imaginative Referee and obscure supplemental materials. And it is often met with resistance from the players. This remains in my opinion a sore point of my games, and I understand why many don't want to engage in Dungeons & Dragons & Accounting if it carves out from your 2-3 hours of session fun-time in the week.
  
• The trip back and forth to the dungeon was hand-waved, but it meant that, for the most part, carrying treasure out was a trivial endeavour. A single overland random encounter check could have made sense here.
  
• We used a Caller role - someone to discuss options within the players, and make final decisions towards me - the Referee. This all in all worked well, especially in online play. With its awkward silences, there is always someone other than the Referee moving things forward.
  

Ulflandia Play Report 1-3

This being a (long overdue) play report in our Ulflandia campaign, where the players basically tackle a single dungeon. Initially, there were no pretensions of evolving into a campaign, just to cleanse the palate after playing Willowby Hall. Things then snowballed, and we are now in the double-digit realm of sessions.

The avid reader will notice that this is Goblin Gully, an OSR classic. Used this Toadstool Gully variant instead of the original by Dyson Logos. Of course it ended up being easy to shoe-horn into Ulflandia, since the author of Toadstool was planning to use it in Necrotic Gnome's Dolmenwood anyways, and there are a lot of synergies between Ulflandia and Dolmenwood.

Goblin Gully is placed in hex #4626, in the Coblyns region.

Total play time for the 3 sessions: ~7.5 hours

The Cast

Higgley Halfling 1 (Copernico): cannibalistic gourmand; probably killed a wizard? (wears a wizard's hat and has wizard liver paté); collects ears.
Neem Thief 1 (iagson): suave thief; from the biggest distant city you never heard of; favors the crossbow.
Retainers:
- Calico Dwarf 1 (iagson), stout and with a broken broadsword
- Rana (Copernico), Magic-User 1, an alchemist's apprentice.

Highlights

• Two distracted Goblin sentries on top of the leafless tree, picking their noses and bickering. They spot the group and fire an arrow to Neem which brings him to the ground (0HP), luckily the suave Thief gets to tell the tale (made the save vs. death). This, the first roll of the game! Setting the tone...
  
• Once the two sentries are bested by the group, Higgley questions a captive for details, stealing its bag of "magical shrooms". Giving into his meat devouring habits, the Halfling has to taste the goblin's calf! On the party goes, to the Gully
• Drop halfling down to the bridge with rope. Down there, patroll of goblins approach and spot him! Rana the retainer flings herself down the rope too, doesn't catch the rail, and perishes at the bottom of the pit.
• A series of confrontrations on the fragile bridge ensue, where the party comes out with the upper hand. Then, they decide to descend to the bottom, check that odd frog statue and loot Rana's body. In the process they discover and negotiate with a talking toad, Xaar, to drive off the goblins in exchange of future riches.
• Group gets mushrooms from Xaar the talking toad, that allows them to create a (temporary) clone of themselves. Intellect and instincts of a dog, dissolves at nighttime. This proved invaluable to the group, and served as cannon fodder. The group's number is doubled!
  
• Next room with glue and rope, and a trapdoor going down (Pretty glaring mistake on my end here. There is no trapdoor in the map, just a descending staircase. Oh well...). Fleeing goblins manage to gain a safe position by climbing up the rope (and pulling it up!). At this point the group goes back and forth, unclear on what the next move will be. Players moan and bicker and grovel.
  
• Negotiation with the Goblin Prince. Goblins taken too many losses, and are willing to negotiate. "Want to go downstairs? Sure sure. Great treasure behind big door".
  

the goblin prince. just a negotiating voice for most of the game!

• With a temporary and fickle truce in place, and a goblin mook to guide and oversee them, they descend to the goblins' barracks. This was a temple at some point, there's an altar, a big stone door, and carved reliefs and runes on the walls. Here I stole the hammer trap from Tomb of the Serpent Kings wholesale, and the group solved it by moving the altar!
  
• All Hell breaks loose! Black Pudding released! The "clones" take the worst of it, the group scadoodles out of here fast like the wind, shortly followed by the Goblin Prince & co. Proceeds to add a Black Pudding to the overland encounter table...
  

capture of our Roll20 gaming board

Referee Commentary

• Should have made the bridge combat more realistic, and give the structure a decent chance to break under that duress (with the consequent fall!).
• My players like to overthink and plan zany endeavours. A lot! Sometimes have to push them to reach a decision.
  
• The random mushroom bag obtained from the goblin sentries, with random effects, was an absolute kick. And Higgley would benefit from it for in-game weeks (sessions) to come...
• As a mea culpa, I realize more and more that a shortcoming of my refereeing is not being impactful enough. "Bad" or risky player decisions should get the impartial outcome they deserve. Instead, I tend to get muddled in unneccesary and rocambolesque saving throws, x-in-6 rolls, etc.
• I also failed to make the goblins whimsy and trickstery, instead resorting to the dull cannon fodder mooks stereotype.
  

Magical Murder Mansion Review

Disclaimer

- In the interest of full disclosure I bought this with my own funds. Paid 6.99US$ in October 2019 for the PDF version of this adventure.

- Nobody is paying for this review. All of the opinions you see are my own.
- Nobody is approving or reading this post before it goes up.
- I have no relationship with any of the authors of this product.

- Also, check my review standards for more context.

This thing contains spoilers (duh..), so if you're sensitive to them, stop reading!

 

Enter the Magical Murder Mansion

Let's take a closer look at Magical Murder Mansion, "A Challenging Funhouse Dungeon". Writing by Skerples, with fitting illustrations by Frenden, editing by Shane Liebling, and layout by David Shugars.

My take here serves as both a review of the module, and the broad impressions of running the adventure over the span of two different groups and 15 gaming sessions. With the first group we ran 3 sessions before the game fizzled out, using Knave. The second group (The Calaveras) however, managed to clear the mansion in a whopping 12 sessions, with lots of shenanigans and fun, using Macchiato Monsters. Despite their extreme caution and cleverness, yeah, MMM is rather unforgiving:

our body count: 3 PCs and 6 retainers

Product Details Quality

The PDF comes with bookmarks, and is easy to print and annotate, since it is completely black and white. This is a core strength of all of Skerples' products, and one I greatly appreciate. Font is big and easy to read, and there is plenty of space in the margins for my own notes and scribbling.

 

Art is a  mix of Frenden's pieces, mostly monsters, and selected public domain works. The cartoon-like quality of the former is fitting for such a tonally light adventure. My only minor criticism is I would have appreciated more of it! I get that art is expensive, but more dynamic pieces, like the one on page 12, would've been a nice addition.

 

About the map. It's utilitarian and annotated. Most room names are self-explanatory. From the inferred reading I learned (assumed?) that a square = 10 ft, but a scale on the provided maps would have been welcomed. We get map snippets of the relevant section accompanying the room descriptions. Nice!

Skerples encourages us to read from cover to cover, and take copious notes. And thus that's what I did. Layout is clear and functional, monsters and magic items get some italics, and cross-referenced room numbers are bolded. But, I feel descriptions could get wordy, I would've appreciated key elements been bolded or underlined, to draw attention when skimming at the actual game. Or more generous bullet point use. Is this lack a decision to hand-force the referee read the module beforehand, perhaps?

my mad method: traps in red, monsters in green marker, treasure underlined green, monster HD on margin, purple marker things to interact with

About the Adventure

This is a funhouse dungeon, citing inspiration in classics like Tomb of Horrors, Tegel, or White Plume Mountain. I've played the former, and ran the latter. However, MMM does have a distinct feature separating it from those touchstones. It tries to make sense and justify its bizarre attractions.

 

There is a two page introduction, covering important bases: what this is, who is it for, adventure hooks, and also important details like unorthodox ways to enter the dungeon (since it's a mansion, there are many!). I wish other adventures would take notes of a nice introduction like this one. One thing I'm missing is an overview of the treasure and magic items, something I've complained about in the past, and where Necrotic Gnome took note. This is a minor quibble, and in fairness a ballpark to treasure in the dungeon is given, as well as assumed HP and damage levels for PCs. The introduction is well above most.

 

The adventure proper is a hefty undertaking for any group, falling into the kilodungeon category in terms of size. 90 rooms of different sizes and content densities, and on the heavy side when it comes to interactivity.

Careful and finessed danger telegraphing is demanded from the referee in this one. There are enough deadly traps, levers to pull, fountains to drink from, and statues/memorabilia to interact with, where failing to do so can result in dangerous or fatal outcomes. This is a must in MMM, given the sheer amount of such content. Players hate if things are capricious and absolutely arbitrary. Luckily there is a primer on how to run traps in an OSR game at the end of the product (akin to something like Quick Primer by Matt Finch).

 

But on the flip side there are plenty of chances for the players to learn how the mansion operates, and what Mr. Nibsley favors. Carpets should be carefully poked, lifted and inspected. Ghosts are best kept at a fair distance. Also, there are plenty of chances to turn deadly traps (and in general the mansion) against its own denizens.

It has enough absurd goodies in terms of magic items, laser guns, an accelerator, etc. to make it tougher to integrate into an existing campaign or running game, in case your players walk out with such treasure. There is good design here, several of the most bizarre and explosive curios are in the upper level. An option would be to replace that level with just room 90, also shortening the adventure after getting the four keys.

 

Our Run

Here I for the most part focus on the group that did the complete run, using Macchiato Monsters.

 

As mentioned above, we ran for 12 gaming sessions. Players were ultimately successful (sans the overgrown graveyard), and secured the ultimate spellbook objective of MMM. For our slowness I blame both me and my players for taking our sweet sweet time to explore every corner of the MMM. They really left almost no room explored and interacted with. Also, our sessions are on the short side, I would say between 2-2.5 hours of actual game time.

screenshot from Roll20; few rooms were left untouched

A lot happened in our run. So for brevity's sake I'll condense some highlights here (in no order):

• A sneaky doppelgänger infiltrated party, after the PCs returned to town for supplies leaving a dead retainer behind in the mansion. She's alive! (yeah...). We later had both the false retainer and a PC killed by reading a false tome with explosive runes. Self immolation; first and only TPK.
  
• After blowing the blue whistle, unaware of what it would unleash, they summoned a blue behemoth. Causing great havoc amongst the veggie-mites, enough to distract them and steal their key. A PC had to play a bit the toreador role, though.
  
• Sampling weapons of the futuristic armory (85: Weapon Alcove), one by one, to fend off against three not-so-hidden mimics. The rat-in-a-stick-shooting-laser-beams-through-eyes staff was a highlight for the players!
• They convinced a complacent kiln-fired-zombie-maid to take an acid shower.
• They used the garbage disposal sphere of annihilation hole to get rid off probably the biggest threat of the dungeon, the Callowfex, by meticulous and slow herding. This is after a previous PC died in there by the doppelgänger (see first point) pulling the lever at a capricious moment.
  
• Deducing with careful note-taking, and thanks to careful reading of the 47: Record Room who the real Esmeralda is (19: Prison).
• Quickly skadoodling out of the mole dragon's den with a pissed off and rampaging mole by "sacrificing" Sophie the thief hireling. All of this with pissed-off teeth eating feys on their heels.

You probably can detect a pattern here. There were a lot of dangerous situations, and my players had great success in turning the mansion's traps against some of the most dangerous monsters. This emergent play is one of my favorite parts of the OSR, hands down.

There were also a good number of "nope" situations. Where the players hesitated, decided to circle back to another section of the mansion, etc. They suspected furniture or another room feature and immediately closed the door, didn't pull the lever, etc. This of course got penalized with more random encounters, draining HP, abilities and so on. Their choice. But we had enough of these instances where I do wonder if the dungeon was too "passive". Or setting a timer to the adventure would have worked better: the manor will self-destruct in two days, the local authorities will seize the contents themselves, etc.

To spice things up, and because I hoped to continue the game after MMM, I introduced a rival adventuring party. Against my expectations, the PCs ended up befriending them and joining forces to clear the upper workshop portion of the adventure.

Growing Points

A very few rooms could use some massaging. Nothing deal-breaking. Just careful reading and changing beforehand. For instance

• 47, Record Room: this meta game gimmick has the trouble of voiding the players of useful information. Latest visitors are not listed, and I feel that could have helped the referee (for instance Esmeralda Spugs in room 19). In the first game, the group felt deflated. In the second I added that and it was a success.
• 54, Art Gallery: there is a ton of information to hand out when describing this room and the paintings. The lack of doors to nearby rooms didn't help us resolve it.

Non-talking monsters. There are perhaps too many, clearly outweighing those players can talk and negotiate with. My group had to deal with a considerable amount mimics, giant spiders and paper snakes. Perhaps granting a bigger role to the doppelgängers and the ghosts could have helped here? Making them proper factions? Not sure.

Also, the aforementioned point of bolding or underlining of important room keywords to make the descriptions easier to parse during play is another quibble of mine.

---

Conclusion

This concludes the review.

The adventure has a clear goal in what space it's trying to fill, and it delivers in spades. Increased verisimilitude compared to other funhouse dungeons was something I liked and worked well, and the main adventure structure (with the 4 keys) was well received by my players. Deadly traps and situations are not too capricious or random; clever players will be rewarded. The whole adventure evokes a Saturday morning cartoon feel.

Plugging MMM into an existing campaign is likely tough and not advisable (too many crippling traps, or wonky magic items). We didn't do it. Rather, it should be used as a singular affair for experienced players seeking some challenge. Removing the second floor and placing the spellbook directly after the 4 keys could make it a shorter run, perhaps for a single sitting? This is pure speculation on my part.

The PDF version is more than enough, ideal for print & play, there's really no need for a physical version. Price to content ratio is a steal, and it belongs to any OSR collection as a masterclass in the space it's trying to fill: funhouse dungeons. Very much recommended.

OSR: Stonehell OSE Open Table 1-10

Have been running an open table of Stonehell by means of OSE.
Players come and go, we do 1 delve = 1 session, and they have to return to town before we finish the game.

What follows are my highlights on how it's going after 10 x 3h sessions into this megadungeon.
No detailed notes this time. I lifted myself of that burden by giving the players an XP incentive for writing those, and posting them on our discord. So far they've proved a great resource (?).

Mild Stonehell spoilers ahead, be warned!

Some Highlights

• Party scared to hell and back to enter a soot-filled room.
• Wulfa the fighter wrestling with the orcs, with members of the party betting behind.
• Getting treasure from the Keeper of Secrets by using their wits.
• Sheperd the zombies from the crypts to attack the giant fire beetles.
  
• Methodically hiring a small army to (magically) blind and hunt the dragon.
• Pools of hot water? Future saunas?
• The group getting peppered by arrows coming from the invisibility trees when leaving from the dungeon.
  
• Mylo the halfling dying due to peer pressure to spin the wheel of Lady Chance. The group quickly pulled funds together to make the Mylo memorial wing at the healing house back in town.
• Portcullises posing the biggest threat in the dungeon.
  

Stonehell Referee Notes

• Dungeon is vast and dense. We have explored bits of the canyon and about half of level 1. Price to gaming ratio is just ridiculous. Stonehell should easily be 50$, the team who put this together is being robbed.
• Awesome ideas abound! Probably Stonehell as written gets you 80% there, and filling in the remaining 20% with your own material is the way to go. Some new monsters were really good to read (e.g. doom lure), can't wait for them to appear.
  
• That said, I have my gripes and terseness comes at a cost.
•  ... factions are outlined, but are missing some strong motivation and extra oomph and flavor.
•  ... some traps are just a "T" on the dungeon map, or secret doors a simple "S". Expanding this aspect is a must for the referee.
• Treasure is scarce. Feast or famine. It's a design decision by Mr. Curtis, and I can see the reasoning behind and what it's trying to reinforce. But my players have complained about it, and it can get frustrating.
•  ... have been giving extra XP for number of rooms explored in a session.
• ... and for session reports. These are crucial given the open nature of our table to bring new players up to speed.
• Stonehell could benefit from more loops and connections. Jaquays and Melan would wince at some of the sections.
• Downtime is the big left-out in the OSR. There are a gazillion dungeons in the space. But common questions on how to pace and structure the game between delves is often neglected. Products and advice for this are missing. Although I get this is very personal from table to table: some people skip it, some allow magic items/potion purchase others not, etc. I don't blame Stonehell here, but it's just an observation.
  

OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 11, 12, 13

This is an ongoing Knave Macchiato Monsters campaign, a smallish sandbox of sorts with new players to the hobby. Read what happened before here.

The cast of characters:

Solbion (iagson) - dwarven smith apprentice of the city of Falkcrest. On a sabbatical year, seeking to see and experience the world. Nerisse (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Has some newly discovered Fae-powers. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Hirelings/Animals - Sprig, the freelancer astrologer-wizard

Session 11

After seeing the phantom, illusion, ghost or hologram of the robed elder in the last session, we get an immediate random encounter with reptilians (troglodytes) carrying a sack to "Old Gregg", wanting to pass by the PCs. Their reactions is weary and rude, but not necessarily hostile. They move north, past the ghost/illusion of the wizard's warning, without giving much information to the party.

 

The next room, circular and with a the rug in the center. The players avoid stepping on it, seeing the troglodytes did that too when carrying the sack. It has passages in all cardinal directions, and they go for the studio room to the left. Exploring it reveals tiny people in jars, and a scroll of diminution as treasure retrieved.

 

Returning to the rug room, and going further to the north. They have the suspicion the troglodytes moved to the doors to the east. Unfortunately, they are locked. To the west, however, they see some bodies at the end of the corridor. Wisdom makes the PCs avoid them and trace back their steps. Next, they decide to check the second corridor to the west, opposite one of the locked doors.

 

There's a pit, and behind it a pile of treasure. Solbion jumps to retrieve that, only to find out that it's an illusion. Instead, there is a peacock's feather, and instructions on how to enter the realm of Ynn...! Returning, they notice (by dropping a torch) that at the bottom of the pit there is a pool of water and a skeleton floating on it. Again, caution prevails and they decide to ignore the valuables...

 

Back in the room with the rug, last cardinal direction to check out is east. They find the statue of a hunter flanked by two hounds. The statue itself flanked by some (mildly glowing mirrors).

 

Solbion has the clever sense to pass the open room by ignoring the statue and mirrors, looking into the floor to avoid unwanted reflections. Dwarven cunning! Unfortunately some steps ahead, past an arch with serpent motifs reveals a fearsome foe, yet another giant spider. Spells fling, spear jabs, but its a lone one this time, so they hurt it and it manages to escape through a crack in the ceiling, after a poor morale roll.

Proceeding to two rooms that get explored, but not interacted with!

First, a big room with several chipped statues of old nobles, and corridors and locked doors going in all directions. The body of a chocked dead dwarf near an archway. Then, a "control room" with a stone boulder on a corner, and 6 numbered levers. Again, the party ignores that, and prepare to rest for the night.

Session 12

Group wakes up cold from the metallic floor in the control room. Angan's condition due to the spider's poison is debilitating, the hill-man starts the day coughing blood. Lesson: don't get bit by any spider!

Almost immediately his acorn necklace starts flaring with heat for an instant. A signal? A cry for help? An enchantment? All of these are unclear for now...

 

They continue exploring North, following the underwater noise in search of the reptiloids. There's a skirmish with three troglodytes near the sandy river bank (they are aggressive from the get to). Decent use of glue by Nerisse to blind one, the corridor as a choke point, and some spells make this a short affair. The adventurers have the upper hand this time around. Tumcool, one of the troglodytes, agrees to present Old Gregg to the group. Angan hopes the troglodytes might have an antidote or cure for his poisoned condition.

 

They meet with Nancy, an albino troglodyte, takes the offering the adventurers bring: the body of the dead dwarf they found a while back. Sadly, the troglodytes are not able to provide help regarding the poison, only freak the PCs out with their primitive "fresh meat" diet and hanging fish... Old Gregg is even less helpful!

 

Moving back to a known location, they are able to capture the spider with a well-placed Roots spell by Angan, and Nerisse's ability to put it to sleep. Then the coup de grace, the carcass might help to concoct an antitoxin with the right tools, perhaps? Sprig suggests that...!

 

Finally, they decide to move towards the corridor where they found the dead dwarf. A stone archway with tree and root motifs carved serving as ominous entrance...

Session 13

Last we left off.... out heroes scoundrels were exploring the archway. Solbion advances as much as possible, torch in hand. With the flickering light he's able to see black roots all around, their density increasing as the corridor advances.

Angan thinking himself a naturalist druid from the nearby Biber Hills, decides to step forward, all care to the wind. The roots animate, and grab his legs, twisting and squeezing painfully! He suffers some damage, Solbion and Nerisse quick to the rescue.

Another strategy then: Nerisse uses her fae-ability to hover above the ground (and the roots!), tied by the waist by a rope. On the other end both Angan and Solbion hold tight.

Safe enough! Passing by the roots is harmless for her. Moving forward, the roots thicken, and she's able to see an ascending staircase. Going up, she sees a big space, thick with vegetation, almost a jungle. In the center, a big bronze buddha-like statue? And... movement on some branches? Monkeys? Babys!
Nerisse wants none of this, and quickly traces back.

Now on the corridor with the roots, she's able to retrieve... some big black tomatoes! The graffiti at the entrance of this place was right! And we all know what players do when presented with rare food/drugs/substances...

Their pupils and eyes turn pitch black, they recover some stamina (HP), and.... Solbion develops an addiction. How fitting for a dwarf! He convinces the group to advance and get more tomatoes: "QUICKLY!". Fortunately the roots seem non-aggressive to black-eyed individuals.

Finally, they find a space of black trees. A garden. In there, a bucket and more tomatoes! In searching and harvesting them, a shadowy figure appears. No-nonsense, it wants the intruders dead!

A lengthy combat ensues. The creature seems immune to parley, reason, or willing to flee. Angan uses his Roots spell to start rearranging the vegetation in the room, creating for himself and his companions a "safe" patch in the center of the room. Solbion ignites one of the trees, to be able to track the shadow even better. Unfortunately Nerisse suffers the most getting her Str drained (gulp!). But the party has the upper hand, once again, since they are resourceful and are in a 4 to 1.

With the shadow gone, they take a minute to recover, check the room, and find several goodies (including a secret door and a chest) that we will reveal next session.

Referee Commentary

For session 11: on about fifteen turns of exploration I was only able to roll a random encounter once, right at the beginning of the session, these pesky troglodytes. As a consequence exploration felt static at times, void of urgency or tension. But such are the trappings of randomness.

The dungeon has some very interesting locales and encounters, like for instance the hunter's statue with the mirrors. It genuinely annoyed my players and made them be paranoid about that and future statues in the underground complex. Oh, and the layout of this adventure (the PDF) is brilliant, like every Necrotic Gnome product. I was running this pretty much as we go, only having done a cursory skim of the material beforehand.

One point that surprises me is that two PCs have spellcasting at their disposal, yet they get rarely use it during the game. Not sure why that is? Perhaps free-form casting is too intimidating for them? Have to try and remind them that this is a possible option in their arsenal.

All in all, we are having a tough time to cram OSR dungeon exploration. Our sessions are quite short, and the players have a hard time to decide a course of action. For instance Mo is losing interesting in these kind of procedures and game. Seems to favor (light) puzzle solving, and more role-playing and politic interactions. So I will have to think what to do about this.

Memorial

• Daniele - woman-at-arms, sword & board.
  Mauled to a pulp by an animated serpentine statue in session 4.
• Pancho - guy with a lance, and a tendency to grab shiny stuff in front of him.
  Dropped from great height by a giant eagle in session 5.
• Ber - a goat granted by Rhys the beastwoman shaman.
  Eaten and scratched to death by fungal goblins in session 7. Instrumental even after death.
• Zemalayu - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos.
  Bitten dead by giant spiders from the Glenry Wood and their poison in session 10.

OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 9, 10

This is an ongoing Knave Macchiato Monsters campaign, a smallish sandbox of sorts with new players to the hobby. Read what happened before here.

The cast of characters:

Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos. Solbion (iagson) - dwarven smith apprentice of the city of Falkcrest. On a sabbatical year, seeking to see and experience the world. Nerisse (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Has some newly discovered Fae-powers. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Hirelings/Animals - Sprig, the freelancer astrologer-wizard

Session 9

A lesson is learnt from the night skirmish with the fungal goblinoids (and Ber the goat's demise). The group barricades the windows and lower doors of the sergeant's building to have a safer rest for the night.

 

With a fresh morning start, they go to the nearby Quartermaster's building, two-story as well. There are also evident signs of struggle in the building. Broken windows on the lower floor. Blood stains on the main door. Individuals with bows and crossbows and red leather vests get out of the upper windows, pointing their weapons to the adventurers! Bandits? Brigands? Guards? Agents?

 

Through parley, the reaction of both groups is wary, but not hostile. Ultimately these individuals understand there could be a mutual benefit in avoiding conflict. And potentially working together? Nerisse asks for answers to her Fae past nature and origin. If someone inside that building can provide any insights about the Fae. Well, it turns out these red vests are traveling with an individual named Sprig, that could help her for a price...

 

Sprig, art from OSEs Rogue Gallery I

There is some back and forth with the negotiations. Tension drops very slowly. And an accord can be struck. Sprig, turns out, is an astronomer-wizard versed in the Sylvan language. Claims to know Nerisse's origin to be intertwined with Ynn, and a passage to that place could be uncovered in the very near future... Sprig is interested in the characters. And apparently only associated with the red vests for this job. But why are the red vests here? What do they want? Turns out that the juicy delobia, currently at the watchtower with the manticore.

 

Now to plotting and scheming. The group puts Ber's corpse on the courtyard, and cover it in oil. In the hopes it drives out the manticore as bait. Then the group of seven (our party and the red vests) takes cover in the different buildings, missile weapons ready. And the thing takes the bait.

Angan has spent the last hour preparing his Roots spell to bind the flying manticore to the ground, but with the side effect of binding and immobilizing himself in the process (this takes the HP cost down to something manageable).

 

And it works! The flying beast is immobilized for some seconds when it approaches the goat. They pepper it with projectiles, ignite the oil, and make a general mess. One of the red vests perishes in the assault, being caught by one of the tail's spikes. We see the heavily wounded beast flap its wings away from the tower into the horizon, leaving the area.

 

Delobia gets handed to the remaining red vests, and Angan finds an obsidian spear in the tower. Objective done! Sprig, seeing the utility of the party, offers to tack on and show them the entrance to the Hole in the Oak, just south in the forest...

Session 10

Sprig leads to the site in the Glenry Wood, south of the Biber Hills. Or where he recalls have read it being in the dusty tome at the academy...? Answers to Nerisse's background await, as well as a wizard's lair to potentially pilfer for reagents and items. Bozurah the Imperishable!

 

Crossing the forest, Angan takes the lead to make sure the group keeps on track with Sprig's vague indications and general instructions. Thick webbing becomes evident as the group advances, hanging from the trees like rotten fruit. Obscuring, and covering the way like strong, fixed curtains. With the choice of push forward (for a faster arrival) or taking a detour to avoid the thick webbing, the group decides the former. And...

 

Four crab spiders jump the group. The adventurers are carrying torches and have an attentive Angan in the front, so there is no surprise. A deadly skirmish ensues, spells are chanted, bolts are shots, and Zemalayu is bitten by one of the spiders, dropping dead on the spot (SECOND PC DEATH). Angan is bitten too, and will have to worry about the poison later, but can carry on. The survivors manage to kill and scare the spiders away, but have to run away themselves, the murmur of something bigger coming to the site. Zemalayu's body, alas, stays there as a free meal for whatever is coming next.

After a jog through the forest, adrenaline levels dropping with the recent horror behind them, the group resumes their journey. Arrival to the Hole in the Oak glade occurs before nightfall. Time seems to slow down, a silence is cast among the unnaturally thick roots scattered around the bare oak. Near the tree, a dwarf examines an interesting graffiti "The most delectable night-tomatoes grow down there". After proper introductions, Solbion joins the group. 

With clever use of ropes and equipment, they are able to descend down the hole between the roots. In there, the natural tunnel and a bit of exploration reveals a left-handed leather glove, a message among the moss covered wall "NOLLY'S KINGDOM", green glowing roots covering the path to their right. So they decide to take the left. Which reveals a corridor, a ghost, phantom, or illusion giving a cryptic and broken message...

Wizard, from the Hole in the Oak module

"That was, friends, Bozurah the Imperishable!", suggests an excited Sprig.

Referee Commentary

I was very proud on how the group handled the conflict with the manticore. They allied with the red vests and Sprig to get to the common goal, and used a good assortment of preparation, spells, positioning and fire to deal with the scary foe. Handling that recklessly could have ended much much worse for them. They then went on next session to do the complete opposite with the giant spiders... I also decided to make the spider's poison a little bit less immediate, but something they will have to solve in the next 24h.

 

Macchiato Monsters narrative goals are very not OSR. Or rather, they are taking a bit of muscle effort to define between me and the players. Some seem to obvious or trivial, and we have in general a hard time agreeing on them (or harder than I'd like, anyways). 

We are getting better and faster at resolving the flexible and free-form spellcasting, as predicted. And I really like the freedom and creative problem solving it provides.

Memorial

• Daniele - woman-at-arms, sword & board.
  Mauled to a pulp by an animated serpentine statue in session 4.
• Pancho - guy with a lance, and a tendency to grab shiny stuff in front of him.
  Dropped from great height by a giant eagle in session 5.
• Ber - a goat granted by Rhys the beastwoman shaman.
  Eaten and scratched to death by fungal goblins in session 7. Instrumental even after death.
• Zemalayu - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos.
  Bitten dead by giant spiders from the Glenry Wood and their poison in session 10.
  

OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 8

This is an ongoing Knave campaign, a smallish sandbox of sorts with new players to the hobby. Read what happened before here.

 

Before this session 8 there was a coup d'état orchestrated by my players. They wanted to change systems from Knave to something new, claiming they were moving past its simplicity and ad-hock rulings. Granted, I could have pushed for Knave++, or concocting a set of satisfying house rules to achieve the same effect.

 

But in the end decided to offer them Old School Essentials and Macchiato Monsters to pick from. To my surprise, they chose the latter. We re-rolled the characters, but keeping their experiences and place in the world, and we put them at level 2.

The cast of characters:

Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos. Nerisse (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Has some newly discovered Fae-powers. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Hirelings/Animals - Ber (a goat that can carry some of their stuff)

Session 8

We open with the group entrenched in the nearest possible building, the barracks, after the fierce attack perpetrated by the flock of crows. Thankfully, Zemalayou had a fair douse of sense in tossing silver coins to distract the creatures for their escape. Even if previously explored, they decide to give the barracks another swipe for treasure and clues, taking in the fact that the space hasn't been sacked before. Unfortunately, no treasure, clues or riches around.

 

Angan takes note of the overflooded latrines to the north, connecting with the barracks. The stench of mud and feces  in the floor is hard to overcome, but peeking inside the space the beastman takes note of a closed wardrobe. He decides the promise of the unknown is worth the effort, and enters the area, disturbing the fecal mud... and getting his boots stuck in the process! Whilst trying to escape, he notices a tiny child-sized hand filled with pustules coming out of one of the over-flooded latrines. An evil grin cast in his direction, a fungal goblin has seen some tasty prey. Another stinky foe is emerging too, making them two. Nerisse sends one to sleep with her (newly acquired powerful) fairy dust, whilst the other is assaulted by Angan and Zemalayou's crossbow. For now, safety, but the group now knows that it is not alone here.

Fungus goblins, illustration taken from the Gourmet Street zine

Leaving the barracks, they go see the Grime guards they left outside with the delobia. Turns out, all but one left to explore the Quastermaster's building to the East. The guard was left behind to check for his drugged companions (the ones from the basement) and the delobia barrel. Angan asks for directions, and gets a menacing response from the guard. They already got things under control. Best check either the tower or the Sergeant's offices South of the camp. Group decides the latter.

 

In the Sergeant's building: broken windows, place has been sacked. Only intact is the taxidermy of a huge dog (a mastiff) in the room, with a strange purple coloration in the tongue. They decide it sure is cursed, enchanted, trapped or worse, so they transport it out of the house and want nothing to do with it. Further exploration of the edifice, they find a bedroom in the second floor (sacked), and a studio/office. Nerisse finds a missive from Lastleaf, king of Grime, named the Eternal, explaining why these hills have been abandoned after the catastrophe, and what the regent's plans are for the neighboring kingdoms. What the players decide to do with it, is unknown yet.

 

The kitchen on the first floor has no food, but some hidden wine with some magical properties that Angan experiments with. But so far it's unclear to the beastman what it's purpose is, other than it colors his ears in flashing rainbow colors for as long as the kick of the alcohol is in his mouth.

 

While Angan and Nerisse are busing looting the premises, Zem is keeping watch through the broken windows, loaded crossbow in hand. It is then that Zem sees the tower lurker, an adult manticore butchering what's remaining of the drugged guards, taking the barrel of delobia back to the tower.

Night falls, group takes Ber the goat into the sergeant's bedroom to rest for the night. Watches are assigned. Angan goes first. Soon after hearing the first snores of his companions, stench and mad laughter catch the beastman. Peeking through the window he sees... 6 fungus goblins, who start to explore and raid the building they are in! Combat ensues, but the party has the high ground and missile weapons. They take a beating, and Ber the goat almost perishes in the process. But this time the group has the upper hand, and dispose of the goblinoids.

Referee Commentary

Transitioning to Macchiato Monsters took a full session creating characters (between games 7 and 8), but this is likely due to the inability of my players to do their homework and read what I send them. There is, however, more involvement in the Machiatto Monsters process, with the traits as well as the free-form spell words requiring (my) referee input.

During play the characters seem rich, more complex and resilient than standard Knave or B/X scoundrels. But we did struggle with the free-form spells (even though it only appeared once/twice in play), and how to adjudicate them. My gut tells me that it's something one has to get experience and comfortable with, and we will warm up to it.

OSR: Magical Murder Mansion 3

This session took place a long while ago, and since then the game disbanded and has been cancelled. I still wanted to put these notes here for completeness sake.

We picked things up where we left them running through Magical Murder Mansion (report to sessions 1 and 2 here). The party has explored a good portion of the mansion already, mainly on the North-West tower area. They get an interesting breakthrough during Session 3, and seem motivated to carry on exploring.

Let's revise the characters again:

Wendell - a Human Fighter type, former butcher. Carries a Battleaxe, Bow and arrows. Likes to boss his underlings around. Gelda Cleanwater - curious Halfling Wizard dabbling in the arcane arts. Also carries a staff.  Grem - a Spiderling Fighter with two spears and a shield. Likes to poke at things, no matter how big. Starting Hirelings - Hammerhead (a dwarf with a short-lived career)

Session 3

Rooms covered: 16: Coal Storage, 15: Boiler Room, 75: Workshop Door, 14: Storeroom, 13: Kitchen Exploration Time: 1h40 (excluding their visit back in town) Session Length: 3h Fatalities: Hammerhead (dwarf man-at-arms)

• Battered from the Art Gallery room, Grem decides to grab a painting (the one shedding light), and the group decides to return to town to lick their wounds.
• There, Grem puts the painting for search of a potential buyer (will take 1-2 weeks, 1000gp potential reward, the Halfling Jeweler will take 15% of the sell).
• Wendell takes his chances to hire yet another man-at-arms
• The mercenary guild grows weary, and he only finds a dwarf fool enough to be willing to follow them to the estate, but demands double price, and 2 days pay up front. 23 gp settles it.
• Back at the mansion, they decide to take in the perimeter, and about 20 minutes walking around the mansion clock-wise they find 1/ stone fence 2/ iron door with coal
• Gilda opens the door, revealing a room filled calf-deep into coal
• Wendell makes an interesting argument to Hammerhead to go and 
• Coal golem fight!
• Hammerhead perishes on the spot
• Grem courageously (stupidly?) charges ahead.
• Gilda casts the Upwell spell. The spring of seawater corrodes the coal and causes significant damage.
• Wendell fires arrows and they in general damage the golem greatly.
• They're able to "kite" and lure the dump construct out of the room, to then dart inside and shut the door.
• The party made it in!
• Inside, they quickly move to the Boiler room, filled with pipes, knobs, and other handles.
• Wendell spins a wheel, the mansion shakes a bit, but there's no other effect.
• Gilda seems keen on a 10 foot pole, and pulls a pipe out.
• A ghost comes out of the steaming water, and puts its hand on her brain! She ages 29 years, now instead of a young adventurer she's a mid-aged lady.
• They move north along the corridor, Gilda and her pole at the front.
• Find door to workshop with 4 key-holes and riddle/clues.
• Before moving to Storeroom, Gilda uses skirt to avoid slimy handle. Acid exposure saved!
• Group moves to Storeroom, and decides to take some sledgehammers, crickets, and teeth. 

• Random encounter: bunch veggie-mites, 17 of them, coming from the eastern corridor! 
• Like minions, they are chaotic and unruly, but willing to "talk" this time around.
• They make it clear that they're after fertilizer and soil.
• Party tosses them the dead crickets, to where they retire happily! Two of them fight for the prize, and one of the Veggie-Mites remains unconscious on the floor.
• Next party goes to kitchen
• Wendell gets smashed by flying knives.
• They explore the kitchen and decide to play "anatomy" with the dead Veggie-Mite, thinking of carving it into a key.
• The tap of water is open in the sink, with a flowing of magical water. (Note: is the water colored differently, octarine? does it have odor? does it give an electrostatic charge?).

Referee Commentary / Things I Learned

• Session 3 went smooth as butter. There were a few interesting interactions and encounters, and the players used negotiation and clever tactics.
• USE REACTION ROLLS!
• The Veggie-Mites could have been a boring hack&slash, but instead the party tossed the dead crickets to calm them down.
• Ditto with the Ghost coming out of the pipes.
• The 4-keys workshop door riddle is nice. Might feel "video-gamey", but it's very fitting for a fun-house dungeon like this. The players greatly appreciated the hints and clues, and see a more focused purpose and approach to the whole thing. Putting that big room in the center was a deliberate good choice. Brilliant.

OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 7

This is an ongoing Knave campaign, a smallish sandbox of sorts with new players to the hobby. Read what happened before here.

Let's look at the characters:

Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a bow and a spellbook. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through a mouse. Nerisse (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Wants to find his family. Hirelings/Animals - Ber (a goat that can carry their stuff)

Session 7

• The adventurers arrive at the southern garrison's tower, a protection point in the Biber Hills. The Grim Kingdom keeps tabs with their neighbors of Diremouth to the West.
• Short wooden walls surround the camp, as well as the tower. Broken entrance doors give way to the muddy yard. Several buildings in sight, one and two stories short. Two dead bodies in front of the central building, face down, with wooden stakes popping out of their backs.
• They investigate the bodies (first "parking" the cargo-goat Ber). Then decide to enter that building (Grim Kingdom shield above door). Heavy smoke comes out. Feasting hall, music, and lots of people feasting in here. Big turkey with shiny knife at the center. (variation of Michael Kennedy's room, see Referee Commentary below).
• They aren't let out of the room! The guards and soldiers get infuriated at mentions of what happened here. Food and drink are actually rotten or gone bad, Nerisse finds out.
  
• Knife is found to be magical, and disperses the illusion when being held.
• They go to the cellar from the kitchen area, all holding the knife. There, they find 3 guards (not illusions!) guarding a barrel. Dizzy and red-eyed. Heavy drug scent in here. What are they guarding? A variation of Delobia, they claim, and in spades.
• Confrontation is avoided, and the PCs leave the scene. Then, a group of guards/soldiers charge into the courtyard, back from patrolling. Three on horse, with 5 dogs sniffing and snapping around (a lucky entry on the random encounter roll!). Angan and company take to dialogue and parlay, explain what happened, and convince the guards to join efforts to go to the basement and retrieve those drugs. Unfortunately, having authoritative figures present, Angan has to refrain from further investigating the drug.
  
• Whilst this is being solved, Zem stays outside keeping watch. He spots the shadow of a big creature at the top of the watch tower. Horse-sized and with wings? The carcass of an animal (deer, pony, or similar?) gets dropped to the feet of the tower.
  
• Next they investigate forge; find a dead dwarf within, again with small stakes protruding from the corpse. Small but vicious chained dog barking. Nerisse tames it with a fantastic performance of her harmonica.
• Move north to a door with several locks outside. Unfortunately, takes them a while, and a flock of crows goes to attack them! (Hitchcock style). Nerisse takes the worst of it, but Zem throws his purse full of silver coins to distract them, and it works! (Of course it does).
• Using the confusion, the groups hides inside another building, empty inside, which looks like soldiers' barracks. After a few moments it is decided; they will spend the night here.
  

Referee Commentary

• The players liked this scenario, the interactions, and the mini-pointcrawl exploration.
• What I did was to: 1/ grab this map by dysonlogos, 2/ come up with keyed locations (points), including a modified version of this one, 3/ make up a random encounter table. That's it, we are ready to go.
  

OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 4, 5, 6

Read what happened on the previous sessions of this Knave campaign. Things are progressing well as we close up the first dungeon crawl, and the group moves to other adventures in the region of Rietikon.

Let's look at the characters:

Pancho (Copernico) - guy with a lance, and a tendency to grab shiny stuff in front of him. Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a bow and a spellbook. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Nerisse* (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Wants to find his family. Hirelings - Daniele (woman-at-arms, sword & board)

*Nerisse joined the group at Session 3.

Session 4

• They spend a considerate amount of time debating what the next course of action is, still puzzled at the riddle from the thick prayer book: "Place something cold, my Agent, the color of our essence."
• Zem decides to cut part of his newly lizard-like cheek to let some blood drip, to no effect (other than the damage willingly taken by the attempt).
• They try other objects, and finally with a bit of the separating curtain get the effect of a nearby human-sized cobra to spill a red liquid. PCs are too afraid to come near it, so they move on.
  
• Extremely cautious with the door to the East, Pancho starts working with his trusted lockpicks on the door. After some time (burning torches and resources), he unlocks it.
• There, they are back at a human-sized statue of a cobra (another one) in the corridor, two gems (green emerald and red ruby) on the eye sockets. Of course Nerisse plops them out. Of course the green one turns to dust and blasts chocking poison damage to the group (albeit not fatal). Red ruby hauled though...!
• Stairs go down, turning to the right. Stone door needs further exploration. Inside, a temple-like area, with stone statues flanking the space, columns supporting the structure, treasure scattered on the floor (coffers, bracelets, amphora). And this guy, but in a statue made of stone (cool looking obsidian sword on his hand):
  

• Pancho convinces Daniele to remove the obsidian sword (treasure!), whilst Zem starts pocketing riches, and Nerisse protects the entrance with her bow.
• Of course, the statue animates, mauls Daniele the hireling to a pulp (FIRST DEATH), and recovers the sword. PCs are fast enough to flee, and the creature doesn't seem too bothered to pursue them past this room, which they wisely close behind them.
• ... many torches and plenty of equipment are left behind on Daniele's corpse...
  
• Next room explored has another column with manacles (no skellies there this time), and a cryptic graffiti message on the western wall "Kill the False Heir!".
• Reluctant to waste more time, after investigating the space, they move North to the only available exit. Large corridor, with rubble slowing their steps.
• They find a new room, with 4 stone lamps, and the skeleton of a medusa on the ground with a dagger on the hand. After some investigations, playing with lighting 2 of the stone lamps, and finding some treasure below the skeleton,....
• ... a naked kid shows up, lizard-like eyes. Shouts and commands the adventurers to leave this sacred place. Intruders!
  

Referee Commentary

• Players learnt the hard way that there are fights not worth fighting.
  Running is a viable (and sometimes very advisable) strategy.
• Timing a session is extremely hard, no matter how experienced you are running games, or how much you prepared your session in advance. Glad it worked this time!
  

Session 5

• Pancho is able to convince the lizard-kid to leave them alone, arguing that they are here to help. This buys the group some precious exploration time, as he disappears leaving the adventurers to their task.
• After several turns exploring every corner of this area and room, the group is in the brink of giving up. Including the nearby locked door spitting paralyzing darts to both Nerisse and Pancho, when trying to force it open with the lockpicks.
• Finally, a random encounter is rolled. The dragon-lizard strikes again, this time bigger and meaner. It opens with a tongue of flames, that catch Zem unaware, so the adventurer gets his lower face burned (losing the ability to speak). We all rejoice in how scarred his face is!
• There's a cruel and short-lived combat encounter, where let's remember, Nerisse is still paralyzed. Pancho is able to convince the creature of their good intentions, by showing it the red ruby they found previously.
• Too hurt and frustrated at the lack of a way forward, the treasure hunters decide to call it a day, and make their way out of the dungeon. When exiting, they take a secondary tunnel, and detect a foul ogre as the owner of the barking dog, and the Dragon Skull entrance. Party (wisely) walks away from the brute undetected.
  

• To cash in their acquired treasure, group wants to go to Rietikon. But it's clear, they will have to spend the night in the Biber hills. Unfortunately, they get two encounters, both with Beastmen.
  
• First, just a pair of scouts in the distance. Nerisse scares them off by using her magical spell Disguise.
• Second, during the camp at night, they get ambushed by a bigger patrol of 7. Weapons are surrendered. But they get positive reactions, and hence get an audience with the leader of the Beastmen, "Rhys".
  
• Next day, some rest was taken. With the Beastmen as newly found "guides", the numerous group moves West towards the locals' lair, by a lake. Mid-way they have the unfortunate event of a random encounter with a giant eagle (!) that grabs Pancho and takes to the skies.
• Beastmen pepper the bird with spears, and Zem gives the final blow with this crossbow.
• Pancho however... barely makes the fall, and is carried from now on in a comatose state. (SECOND DEATH)

• With a snail pace, dangers are avoided on the second part of the trek. Beastmen lead the treasure hunters to their lair in the cave system near a natural lake. Carcass of the giant eagle is taken as trophy. And an audience with the leader of the Beastmen is arranged.
  

Referee Commentary

• I agree that players should be able to recoup from a dungeon at any point of their choosing. They were just so close... perhaps this is feedback to the dungeon I designed, and some tweaks are necessary.
• The random encounter proved very fatal. Chance and luck are a pickle. Take precautions, be vigilant. You will die anyway.
  

Session 6

• Zem & Nerisse get an audience with Rhys, shaman leader of the Beastmen of the Biber Hills. They find truce and peace, as there could be mutual benefit. She inscribes a tattoo into Zem's chest, helping him speak through a living mouse. An avatar of sorts.

• Rhys takes Pancho's possessions as payment for their "hospitality". A sour price, but there's not much of a choice here. Promises to try and recover him. However, Nerisse takes a hard negotiation angle, sells off some recovered goods from their first dungeon delve to the Beastmen, and both her and Zem get their first 250XP!
• Angan Enge gets introduced to reinforce the party. A Beastman hunter in search of his lost family. The floods have taken everything from him.
• Rhys has a few quests for the group, to aid the Beastmen in reclaiming the Biber Hills:
• Go kill the fungal midgets that reproduce like vermin! Or at least find out how they come to be. Rhys has a location for the PCs to investigate as a starting point.
  
• Recover a bone hookah adorned with runes. Had a seer dream recently, and saw it on a grove of stone trees. It's undeniably important and related to the floods.
• Marching out to explore the Hills (with re-stocked rations, rope, and a porting goat), after a couple hours they find a grey knight sitting with a greatsword at their lap. "Grey Knight of Bratum"... "failed at my quest; poisoned to death; kill me in a duel to get my title".
• Nerisse accepts, but then starts skirmishing the knight and raining arrows on him. The knight retreats back to his post, claiming this is not the noble duel tradition mandates.
• PCs leave him there to die... "we'll pick up his sword when he's dead!"
  

• Moving on, they decide to take a de-tour to the South instead of running to the fungal midgets' point. There is an abandoned watchtower, and Angan rightfully points out "It could be a good way to scout the area for possible threats".
• Midway there, they run into another group of scoundrels, Auriola and the Crows. Reaction roll is positive, and the groups are for talking. Auriola looks for a sparring partner, but nobody is in the mood, nor do they mention the knight. Their wizard, with a big scarf around his neck, has a speaking method similar to Zem's, but through a crow.
• Groups exchange information; Auriola & co claim to have cleared the ruins of the watchtower already.
  

Referee Commentary

• XP awarded for their first plunder was too low? They missed a big treasure haul by a hair. But hopefully this serves as a lesson to bring more hirelings/torchbearers/mules with them next time, and go better prepared.
• They bypassed several fights. That's good. But maybe Auriola and the Crows should have imposed a more confrontational goal (what do the NPCs want?). I felt they just went past each other, and I didn't give a hard choice. But at least the players know they are not the only treasure plunders in these hills anymore.