Play Report: MÖRK BORG Party B: session 3 (The Death Ziggurat)

 13th of Kytorn, year 2620

Player Characters:

Adalberta von Dup, Wretched Royalty, accompanied by the irritating and useless jester, Mr. Giggles

Euzebiusz the Defecator, Forlorn Philosopher

Larv, Gutterborn Scum

Theras, Heretical Priest

Urvarg, Cursed Skinwalker

Retainers:

Hrangvald, death cultist

At dawn, the party had breakfast inside the cracked dome, while Theras sat down to read his Blasphemous Nechrubel Bible (the secret roll failed, meaning he will be suffering from hallucinations). The heroes headed south, to an area covered with demonic statues. They examined them closely, trying to smash some of them. Euzebius searched for a spot that could be considered the center of the statuary and began digging through the snow. Under the snow, he found a frozen corpse, and as they cleared more, a whole pile of frozen bodies. Searching a bit farther, there were no bodies uncovered.

They then headed west, expecting to find more domes and artifacts. Passing through a frozen garden, Euzebiusz noticed two skulking "maw priests" (also called "gobblers" by the heroes). He discreetly informed Theras, who, glancing in that direction, saw not two but ten approaching priests. He unfurled his scroll and cast lightning bolts at them, but only burned the bushes; there was no trace of the priests.

Those 10 were a hallucination, and the 2 priests managed to slip away into the mist to inform their mistress about the intruders - they were the first priests the party encountered and survived. From that moment on, for random encounter rolls, I applied the following rule: if I rolled an encounter with Akünh, there was a 50% chance she was prepared for a fight and accompanied by an escort (d4+1 priests, 2 horned beasts). Rolling an encounter with Sark, whom the party had the chance to encounter, meant a 50% chance of encountering another group, which Brother Nasbert had sent north against Akünh - after all, who would expect one small group of misfits to be able to stop a demonic child? Nasbert recruited them somewhat incidentally, while awaiting for an audience at the Shadow King's court.

The party reached a frozen lake to the west, surrounded by undead trapped in the frozen mud, without encountering more domes symmetrically arranged as before along the way. They hoped to find a secret passage behind the waterfall, but the ice was too thin and brittle to walk on. They found frozen black lilies on the ice's surface. Urvarg picked one up, and Larv crushed it in her hand - immediately, she shivered and felt nauseous; the lily prevented her wounds from healing for a week and attracted vermin, intensifying the effect that had plagued her since touching the rotpriests (the effect would have worn off after a night's rest away from the valley, but now she had to wait a week). Larv stowed away a few lilies in her backpack, being careful not to crush any of them in her hands this time.

Spiral Cathedral

Next, the heroes returned to the Spiral Cathedral and tried to pry the head of the statue with their knives. Their tampering activated a mechanism, and in the niche, they found a golden disc covered with a spiral pattern and star images, the disc's size matching the indentation in the center of the chamber. Urvarg tried to remove the partially molten statue from the niche and succeeded, but the trap struck her with an electric discharge.

After inserting the disc, the bottom of the niche slid aside, revealing a golden crown with a motif of a spiked halo and jeweled spirals. Adalberta took the crown and placed it on Euzebius's head. Euzebius rose half a meter above the ground, his eyes glowing with unnatural light. The philosopher lost all sensation, seeing only visions of an ever-expanding and contracting cosmos beyond his feeble mind's grasp. The rest of the party noticed it had become quieter, as if a sound that had constantly been there had ceased (the vortex to the north of the valley disappeared).

They heard a scream that seemed to come from all directions simultaneously, then some growing noise beneath the floor. A moment later, a rocky floor gave way to a maw, from which emerged a two-meter-tall figure in a richly adorned black robe, with a mass of eyes around its head, horns like a ram, huge claws, and a vertical, tooth-filled maw from sternum to crotch (it's Akünh, though the players mistook her for a lesser demon). The heroes panicked and removed the crown from Euzebius's head; he fell to the ground, disoriented but conscious. They managed to quickly defeat this opponent - it turned out I didn't pay enough attention to Theras' player, who accidentally wrote down that his spell casts d4 lightning bolts instead of d2; unfortunately, I only noticed this mistake much later.

Akünh began to regenerate in the heart of the Ziggurat, now fully aware of the threat the party posed, as well as the crown.

They tried to put the crown back on Euzebius, causing the same effect, but without summoning the demon (Akünh had not yet regenerated). One of the heroes went outside to make sure the vortex had disappeared. They removed the crown from Euzebius; the philosopher stated that the crown probably didn't summon the creature, but rather the demon reacted to it. They traveled half a kilometer north to approach the Ziggurat and ensure the crown worked outside the Cathedral as well. They put the crown back on Euzebius once more. The vortex vanished, and shortly after, they noticed approaching enemies: 7 priests and 4 horned beasts the size and stature of wild boars, with no visible eyes, round mouths - it was the weakened Akünh who sent all her available forces against them.

At this moment, my problem with conducting battles is apparent - I often forget important rules. In this case, I forgot that the beasts attack twice and have damage reduction. In the future, I gotta make sure to always reread the description of opponents prior to a battle.

The heroes removed the crown from Euzebiusz's head; this time, he fell unconscious. I took the player aside and explained to him that his soul had left his body and been sucked into the void. In the ensuing battle, Adalberta and the cultist Hrangvald died. Larv shoved one of the priests a black lily into its vertical mouth (it had no discernible effects). Eventually, the priests fled after suffering heavy losses, while the beasts fought mindlessly and fiercely until death.

The heroes looted Adalberta's corpse, and with Euzebius in a vegetative state, they dragged him into the Cathedral. They planned to rest overnight and set out towards the Ziggurat in the morning. Suddenly, they heard measured footsteps and clanking armor; after a moment, a armored troop entered the cathedral: seven spearmen with shields, in plate armor and helmets covering their faces. They exclaimed, "Heretics! Surrender in the name of the Shadow King!" The heroes' faces, previously expressing terror, lit up. They began to explain that their goal was to stop the demon, and in fact, they had once saved the Shadow King's heir, Aldon, and actually had an official letter of mark from the Shadow King. The commander of the unit, Captain Vradolak, leader of the Ashen Spears, sent his henchman Heneck to fetch this letter. The captain was convinced that the party was on his side and asked them about the situation.

Regarding the above: I rolled a random encounter with another group sent by Brother Nasbert. I had previously rolled that the monk convinced the Shadow King to help against Akünh, and the King sent a military unit. I knew it would look like I had deliberately summoned reinforcements for the weakened party to give them a better chance in the final confrontation. In reality, it wasn't so, and honestly, it would have been just as interesting for me if they had gone into a doomed battle and sacrificed themselves for the cause, or if they had fled (while Akünh wreaked havoc behind them). Well, since I decided to rely on the dice, it wouldn't be fair to abandon that now.

Vradolak informed the party that the soldiers had already defeated and killed the vile priests. It soon became clear that these were the cultists camping in the forest, the party's allies, not the "maw priests". Theras led them to the battlefield to the north, where, lighting their way with torches, they examined the corpses of the maw priests and horned beasts. Their presence scared off a ghastly figure that had been drinking blood from Adalberta's corpse through a long proboscis.

Larv

 Everyone returned to the Cathedral and spent the night there. Larv tried to calm Adalberta's jester, Mr. Giggles, and convince him to bravely persevere. She generally tried to make him useful somehow. Mr. Giggles was devastated but agreed to go with them, as he saw no chance of survival if left alone. They considered whether to put Euzebius out of his misery, but Captain Vradolak said that either they would all die soon, or they would return shortly, and in any case, his suffering wouldn't last long.

Meanwhile, I assumed that Akünh was also gathering her forces and preparing for the final confrontation. As long as no one wore the spiral crown, she wouldn't take any desperate moves. I estimated that she had about 6 priests left, and for the priests who fled the skirmish, I rolled for HP regeneration. Additionally, every 2 hours, I rolled for what reinforcements they could summon: 1/2 - nothing, 3/4 - d2 horned beasts, 5/6 - d4 undead.

In the morning, they set off north. They approached the vortex, and while the rest of the team and their allies saw only a foggy ice wasteland around them, Larv saw a lake and a causeway leading to an island with a walled necropolis. This was because she was the only one wearing a medallion stolen from the priests. When they realized that the medallions were necessary to reach the necropolis, they returned to the Spiral Cathedral for the medallions left in Euzebius's equipment. They were short one medallion to equip everyone, so the team (excluding the unconscious Euzebiusz) set off for the final confrontation along with Mr. Chichotek (intending to use the crown on him) and all the armed spearmen, while Heneck stayed behind at the Cathedral, preparing a crossbow to defend Euzebius if necessary.

The heroes reached the island with the necropolis. Besides graves, they found a bottomless pit - Vradolak threw a stone into it, but nothing was heard. Theras tried removing his medallion and suddenly found himself in a snowy wasteland, surrounded by undead who turned towards him and moved in his direction with a groan. He quickly put the medallion back on and returned to the island.

They moved forward to the Ziggurat, sending the armed men ahead. The battle began:

On one side were Larv, Theras, Urvarg, 7 soldiers of the Shadow King, and Mr. Giggles. (11)

On the other side were Akünh, 6 rotpriests, 3 horned beasts, and 8 undead. (18)

It was a big battle, which started around 1 AM, and I must admit that I missed a lot of details during it. Earlier, I had forgotten that the horned beasts had 2 attacks, so this time I mentioned that these beasts seemed more ferocious, so they attacked twice. Regarding the team helping the party, in the first round, I completely forgot about the opportunity attack for characters using polearms against approaching enemies (houserule), and that they were wearing plate armor. As a result, the warriors who would likely have survived much longer mostly died in the first round, and by the time I remembered, it was too late to correct the mistake. Additionally, I realized too late that Urvarg's lizard regeneration shouldn't work on non-healing wounds inflicted by the rotpriests. I remembered this ability of the priests only the first time when Larv was wounded. Although the final battle was very exciting and probably enjoyed by all players, I was quite disappointed due to these reasons. Well, at least I know what to work on and pay attention to in future sessions.

In any case, the course of the battle was such that the beasts and undead engaged the first line of soldiers in combat. While they fought, Urvarg transformed into a lizard, and Larv placed the crown on Mr. Giggles. The vortex flying into the mouth guarded by the priests in the center of the hall disappeared. Akünh teleported next to Giggles and killed him. Larv cast invisibility on herself and then on Theras in the next round. Using the invisibility, Theras placed the crown on Akünh's head (!!!), who rose with glowing eyes, weakened each round by the crown's power.

The priests rushed to remove the crown from Akünh, who eventually fell to the ground reduced to 0 HP (at this moment the undead also fell, but the rest of the enemies continued to fight). They tried to snatch the artifact from the invisible Theras, who stabbed them with his special knife, which had a 1/4 chance of causing instant death. Despite striking the enemies multiple times, the instant death effect was never triggered, and the priests surrounded and eventually tore him apart with their claws.

Larv, using invisibility, ran to the mouth in the floor. While her companions fought for survival, she spent one round looking inside the mouth, the next round, hanging inside on a spear stuck in the fleshy wall, she saw a giant, pulsating hear, and in the third round, she jumped down and pierced the heart with the spear.

At the moment the heart was destroyed, in accordance with the handbook, a Misery was activated, and I rolled prophecy 4:6:

AND LEVIATHAN SHALL COME AMONG YOU. CHILDREN WINTER-BORN AND FATED TO FALL BEFORE SNOW, BOTH SHALL HE TAKE.

Larv saw a bubble forming next to the heart in the fleshy wall. When she cut it, something resembling a human fetus flowed out. She pierced it with her spear. It was the regenerating Akünh, but after the heart's destruction, her regeneration was halted.

Urvarg was close to death, surrounded by enemies. Larv emerged from the mouth. Both heroines removed their medallions, which shifted them to a wasteland full of corpses, inanimate this time. It was noticeably warmer than before; the power binding this land with unnatural cold had disappeared.

The heroines returned to the Spiral Cathedral, where they startled Heneck, who saw Urvarg in her lizard form for the first time. However, they managed to calm him down and informed him about the course of the battle.

The heroines removed the plate armor from Euzebius, Heneck collected the most valuable items from his equipment (including the necrorune-covered whip). The girls decided to take the philosopher with them while he was still alive and there was a chance to save him. Heneck was surprised, claiming that hauling him up the cliff was too risky, but he didn't realize that the heroes had entered the valley through a tunnel. They finally reached the top, collected the horse and donkeys with the Ashen Spears' supplies, and set off back through Sarkash.

On the way, one night, they could hear growls and chomping sounds from a group of loudly feeding beasts, but they encountered nothing else. On the 16th of Kytorn, Euzebius body expired. On the 20th of Kytorn, they reached a settlement - Urvarg still in her lizard form. Seeing her, the peasants scattered in panic. She was surrounded by guards. Heneck quickly explained the situation to the guards. Urvarg transformed back into a human form, Larv covered her with a blanket and bought simple clothes for her. Heneck's intervention helped her regain freedom thanks to her merits, but she was warned that such incidents should not happen again.

I have a feeling that similar situations will happen to Urvarg (after all, the flaw she rolled for her character is forgetting important things), and in other conditions, she will likely face a much more aggressive reaction from both the people and the clergy or law enforcement.

The heroines asked Heneck to accompany them to the inn, where they found brother Nasbert. He was surprised to see them, and the girls told him that the rest of the mission's members had perished. He asked for proof of Akünh's defeat - they didn't have her head or heart with them. They only showed him a golden medallion, which the monk took. Heneck confirmed their story, noting, however, that he didn't witness the final battle himself, but the vortex had in fact disappeared, as did the unnatural cold. Nasbert also asked about other groups of adventurers, which the heroines hadn't encountered on their way. The monk paid them a reward totaling 875 silver pieces (each one was left with a hefty share, given the death of 3 party members) and quickly left. The monk went to the Shadow King's court to thank for the help in this mission and then set off to his superiors. Heneck eyed the sack of coins the heroines received and argued that he deserved something too. He even insinuated that they might have had something to do with Captain Vradolak's unit's death and could make his suspicions known within the palace. The girls agreed to give him 60 silver pieces, which satisfied him.

In the end, Heneck took their animals (the horse and the donkey), which the girl never mentioned were their, and the soldier assumed were fair spoils from the defeated cultists, he also took off with Euzebius' necrotic whip. Overall, he made a killing from the whole expedition.

Entries in the Book of the Dead:

†Euzebiusz Defekator, whose spirit left his body, taken by the spiral crown

†Adalberta von Dup, torn apart by a horned beast

†Theras, torn apart by a maw priest in the Ziggurat of Death

Play Report: MÖRK BORG Party B: session 2 (The Death Ziggurat)

7ᵗʰ of Kytorn, year 2620

Player characters:

Adalberta von Dup, Wretched Royalty, with an annoying jester, Mr. Giggles
Eusebius the Defecator, Forlorn Philosopher
Larv, Gutterborn Scum
Urvarg, Cursed Skinwalker
Theras, Heretic Priest

As the Masked Seer departed with prince Aldon, one soldier of the escort stayed behind. He approached the party, introduced himself as Kvezum and informed them that a friend of his may have a use for their indisputable talents. After a few hours of travel (during which Eusebius the Defecator defecated on a statue they passed), they approached a small settlement centered around a marshy area filled with small ponds in what was once a palace garden.

Entering the local tavern ("the Toadie"), they noticed a wanted poster (Silas, wanted for heresy, assault and robbery). Inside, they inquired about where the wanted Silas is to be delivered. The innkeep did not know, but said that the poster was left by guards that came from Niedendorf.

Silas

Kvezum led them to brother Nasbert, a Cretun monk, who told them of the demon-child Akünh, who has been imprisoned by the order ages ago and now, as reality comes undone, her seals have started to break. He also informed them that the ancient scrolls say that the Ziggurat that was her place of imprisonment is hidden in another realm and that "the priests carry keys". They agreed to the payment of 175 pieces of silver per person for stopping her.

They ate a supper of roasted half-beaked ravens and pond soup and rested for the night. The next day they stocked up on supplies (warm coats, shoes, tents, shields, rope), Theras bought a donkey (which he named Pothem) and Adalberta bought a horse (which she named Nihil, she's a nihilist). Theras used his Bestial Speech scroll to talk his donkey into carrying him on his back in exchange for good food and human-grade water.

Traveling through Sarkash, Theras (using his Bestial Speech) tried to convince a Dredgehog to show him its tummy, only to be attacked by a throat-cutting warbler. He tried to ply it with his blood (which he drew using a poison knife of the deceased Alberta von Dup that has a 1-in-4 chance of killing - he did not know about that effect, he later agreed with Adalberta to exchange the knife for a scroll of lightning).

After 5 days of travel through the increasingly cold Sarkash forest, they finally arrived at a huge depression in the ground. It was surrounded by 50-100m cliffs on all sides and filled with fog. Through the fog they were however able to make out a frozen waterfall to the west, a smoke column rising to the east, the clouds from the sky spiralling down in the form of a tornado to the north, and a large building in the central part of the depression. To the east, from within the forest, there was another column of smoke, which suggested someone might be camping there.

Theras started looking for some animals to interrogate, but upon finding a bunch of mulch-squirrels, he failed at casting his spell. They then approached the camp within the forest, where they saw a group of fur-clad cultists with tattooed faces and dangling bones within an encampment smelling of incense. They approached with Urvarg chanting "Akünh! Akünh! Akünh!". The cultist were confused but friendly, and did not seem to know much more about the situation within the depression - since coming here, they have only found a rotting mouth within the forest, and spent their time performing rituals and trying to achieve enlightenment through their dreams while taking in the deathly energies emanating from within the depression.

The cultist leader, Kuvan, sent brother Hrangvald with the party to the rotting mouth. Upon approaching it, the party tried: slicing it, hacking it, throwing poop on it, and throwing one of the small bones from Hrangvald's furs into it. Finally, Theras cut his hand (using the poison knife again) and smeared blood on the teeth, after which the mouth opened. The party asked the cultist to go in with them, but he was eager to report to his superior. They agreed, sending him off with their pack animals. He returned, armed with an axe, with two of his brothers Jattr (armed with a spear) and Thorgel (scythe), who agreed to accompany the party in investigating.

Afraid that the mouth might close after Theras passed through it, the rest of the party entered first, the mouth stayed open and they ventured through the dark tunnel. Adalberta went blindly first, and only someone behind her lit a torch. She decided she could use some light, however, when she heard a moaning voice in front of her. She quickly asked her friends to pass her a torch, the light of which enabled her to see a walking corpse with a hanging drooling tongue and red eyes. she quickly handed her torch to Mr. Giggles, her jester, who proceeded to swallow the flame, drowning them in darkness. Another torch was quickly lit, and Adalberta vanquished the undead. However, just when the rest of the party passed over the corpse it rose back. Theras, moving at the back of the party defeated it again, then promptly dismembered it. The separated parts started twitching, but were incapable of harming anyone.

While close to the exit within the frozen depression, they encountered another one of the undead, which they also dismembered after defeating (they made sure to dismember all the defeated enemies from now on). Moving out of the tunnel they passed some ruins, the first of which was a cracked dome. They discussed the possibility of climbing to enter through the crack, but decided against it (they did not go around to look for a regular entrance on the ground level, however). They soon encountered a group of moaning undead, whom they disposed of without much issue. 

They passed the frozen remains of a walled garden, partly forested, and then within a regular forest, encountered an encampment with five men sitting around a fire. They were dressed in black robes with wide-brimmed cylindrical hats, and black veils covering the face. They all wore golden medallions on their necks. The men invited the party to discuss metaphysical matters, but upon learning that the men are trying to aid Akünh, Theras took out a scroll and targeted them with lightning. The torsos of the priests opened, revealing vertical mouths filled with teeth. In the ensuing fight, Larv was grabbed and almost consumed by one of the priests. Jattr did not have such luck however, and was swallowed whole. They managed to defeat the priests and took their medallions, notably finding a piece dried human skin with a tattooed unclean scroll (Foul Psychompomp: Summon (d6): 1–3 d4 skeletons, 4–6 d4 zombies). They ransacked through the camp, took their blankets, and rested for a bit. Their cultist allies proceeded to use the tents as kindling in a funeral pyre for Jattr, to the dismay of Theras, who wanted to spend the night resting in the tents.

Rot priests

Larv did not regenerate the hitpoints lost from the priests' rotting touch. Panicked. Borrowed the poisoned knife to heat in the fire to cauterise the wound. Her screams lured another group of moaning undead.

After the fight, they moved northwest through the forest, aiming for the large building in the center. While travelling they heard a noise followed by a nervous yelp. Larv stayed back to investigate, and soon saw a ghastly gaunt white figure moving from tree to tree behind the party. She then ran screaming to warn them, to their dismay, as they lost a chance to stalk their stalker in return and likely surround him.

They proceeded, and soon encountered another cracked dome, this one with a crack going all the way down to the ground. Inside, the floor was covered with sand and snow. There was also a portal shape surrounded by a narrow gap on one of the walls. After they pushed the stone within, they found a short corridor, with a golden statuette of a man performing coitus with a centipede (minor treasure stashed away - blasphemous idol). When all of them were looking at that, Urvarg, who was standing farthest from the treasure, saw a white shape move within her field of vision. She immediatelly shapeshifted into a huge lizard, prompting the gaunt, ghastly figure to exclaim: "how interesting!". Urvarg spat acid at the intruder but her toxic saliva went right through.

The figure introduced himself as Sarku and was eager to know of their purpose. When they admitted they were planning to stop Akünh, he was evidently relieved and told them that he used to be her caretaker, until he realised her demonic origin, tried to stop her, and subsequently died and was transformed into his current form and that he is unable to pass from this world until she is vanquished. He told them Akünh was going to unleash her demon father into the world and that she cannot be defeated by normal means, but her one vulnerability is her heart, which is hidden in the Ziggurat itself. He also described how she looks like to the party - tall and slim, female, dressed in a robe, horned head, vertical mouth in torso, 5 eyes all around her head. When asked about the Spiral Cathedral, he admitted that he had never been there, as some unknown force has stopped him from entering there - intriguing the party, as this suggested they might find something inside that would enable them to stop the demon child. Meanwhile Theras has been very cautiously observing the reaction of their cultist allies, worried how they might react to this information, but on surface they seamed merely curious. Then Sarku wished them luck and went away.

Akünh?

Curious about the Cathedral, they decided to investigate. They went inside without issue, the inside was one huge chamber, with a circular depression in the middle, the dome painted in a spiral and stars from the inside, and a large mural of a priest-like figure dressed in a robe with a star pattern raising his hands as in worship inside the temple itself. There was a groove around the priest's head, suggesting it can be moved/removed, but it was so large, and so high up that they were afraid to tamper with it. The depression was also visible on the mural, but was filled with something gold-coloured. Urvarg decided to put the blasphemous idol inside the depression, causing lightning to shoot from the ceiling, she barely avoided it, but the statuette partially melted. It was not enough gold to fill the depression, so they figured that the other dome must have had more gold, that they should now retrieve and also melt in the hole.

The priest mural

They ventured south, dusk approaching, but upon encountering a demon statuary, decided to circumvent it and went through another walled garden to the west. They encountered a group of three rot priests and tried to sneak behind them, but Eusebius' clanky armor made that impossible. The rot priests ran for their lives, ignoring Eusebius raising his amulet and calling them "brothers". However, Larv and the cultists managed to catch up to them and attack! In the ensuing fight, Thorgel was killed, but eventually the party emerged victorious. They now possesed 8 golden amulets in total, they also found some bags of smelly cheese (cat), that they decided to throw away.

ZZ Top?

Nope! More rot priests.

They easily found the ground entrance to the first cracked dome, found minor treasure under a loose tile in the floor (Iron devil mask), provoked and defeated two moaning undead and gathered some firewood to camp and spend the night inside the dome. They decided on the watches and thus the session ended.

Stylised, albeit slightly inaccurate map of the depression

Post session notes:

Theras' player was very eager to see what arcane catastrophes look like, so he cast spells whenever he got the opportunity, such as talking to every animal he encountered when he only had the Bestial Speech.

The players continue to be mistrusful of their friendly cultist allies, and keep expecting to have to sacrifice their hearts to make the ole switcheroo with Akünh's heart.

I was glad that I had Sarku say that something stopped him from entering the Spiral Cathedral, as it implied that something there is capable of opposing Akünh's necromantic powers, which is true. Also in the Cathedral, the golden shape in the mural seemed like a good way to telegraph the hidden spiral disk, however the conculsions the players arrived at are wonderfully misguided.

As for hexcrawl itself, the contents of the ruins in the depression are randomised, yet still coherent enough to yield interesting content with an illusion of underlying purpose, such as the players expecting to find more golden statuettes to melt inside the Spiral Cathedral.

I loved it how Larv's player panicked when her wounds would not heal.

Regarding the date, someone kept asking what date it was, and I had not thought about it before, then one of the players exclaimed "It's fucking 5th of Kytorn!", which was entirely random, but we found it funny so it stuck. For the year, I just rolled for each digit: d4+d10+d10+d10.

Play Report: MÖRK BORG Party B: session 1 (Rotblack Sludge)

Player characters:

Alberta von Dup, Wretched Royalty,  with a small but vicious dog, Maurice von Cip
Larv, Gutterborn Scum
Urvarg, Cursed Skinwalker
Theras, Heretic Priest

I ran Rotblack Sludge again with a different set of players. This time, the Seer’s “truths” were:

·      Gasses leak from holes and cracks, driving anyone who breathes them insane!

·      I fear none have ever willingly escaped the Accursed Den!

This time the party’s descent started with Theras peeking into the Dining Hall, while the rest of the characters investigated the Library/Bedroom. While trying to read one of the books, Alberta felt an overwhelming urge to scream “you dead, arise!”, summoning a crystal demon, who hit the surrounding characters with a mental shockwave. This alerted the three crooked guards in the Guard Room, who reacted aggressively and demanded the party to surrender, which they actually did, giving up their weapons (at least those that were immediately visible on their persons [the guards did not search them thoroughly]). The guards took them down to the Chain Room, they knocked on the locked door, summoning their boss, Fletcher.

Alberta von Dup

Fletcher questioned them, and upon learning that they were there to retrieve Aldon, the Shadow King’s heir he proposed a deal: he would give them Aldon in return for them helping him get rid of Lesdy, that damned woman living within the Den. Theras was uneager to take up this mission, tried questioning Fletcher (Is she your associate that you want to get rid of? Is this some sort of trick? Are you just doing that to get us killed?) until he finally pushed him too far (How do you spell your name?), causing Fletcher to lose his patience and raise his flail agains Theras. Combat ensued, and Larv fell within the first round (however, thanks to her Dodging Death specialty, she would return later with an unlikely explanation).

The party tried to calm Fletcher down, saying that they get it, he’s serious, he proved that (by apparently killing Larv), but they did not manage to convince him. Urvarg started her horrifying transformation into a life-and-death lizard. Alberta’s dog rolled a fumble, which in this case meant grabbing Fletcher’s arms with its teeth, but ending thrown off westwards into the Gem Room and falling into the sludge. Again the game surprised me in how formidable even the seemingly fragile first level characters can be. Despite being without their main weapons, and getting targeted by multiple of Fletcher’s spells, they managed to finally defeat him and his henchmen.The cursed skinwalker proved to be a real powerhouse, especially with the regeneration ability and the armor–reducing spit, Urvarg’s player also rolled A LOT of 20s during the fight. During the combat, Theras got hit by the chocking spell (reducing him to 0hp and causing him to collapse with internal bleeding), and Alberta von Dup got fried by the lightning attack (fatal).

Midway through the fight, Larv awoke thanks to her Dodging Death ability (50% chance to come avoid death, with an unlikely explanation [“I sorta winked at him sexily, distracting him, so the hit was not as deadly as it seemed”]). She crawled back and ran upstairs to retrieve a flail and get back into combat. After the fight, Larv  revived Theras using her medicine chest (as the players described in one of the funniest moments of the session – healing his internal hemorrhage due to a crushed throat by giving him a suppository). Theras then quickly restored the rest of his strength after reading his Blasphemous Nechrubel Bible. They also looted the corpses.

They lingered around in the room for a long time, so I rolled an encounter, resulting in all the sounds in the room being inexplicably muted. They investigated the effect for a bit. Then, feeling safer than they probably should in a dungeon (because they just killed the “boss”), they split up, peeking into the Gem Room, Statue Room, and into the Corridor. They went into the Cells, trying to talk with the mad prisoners, but seeing that they only keep screaming for help and tring to grab anyone coming close and are unwilling to calm down and talk, they ignored them. In the last cell they found an imprisoned woman and a diminutive man in a jester’s garb who were more communicative, so they decided to free them. The jester also pulled a seemingly dead man from the corpse pile -who turned out to be just unconscious and incredibly scrawny.

(It was the next day in the real world, and Alberta’s player wanted to rejoin the game. Additionally, a new player wanted to join in)

Player characters (day two):
Adalberta von Dup, Wretched Royalty, with an annoying jester, Mr. Giggles
Eusebius the Defecator, Forlorn Philosopher (he started with 1 max HP, no surprise they figured he was dead)
Larv, Gutterborn Scum
Urvarg, Cursed Skinwalker

Theras, Heretic Priest

 

Adalberta von Dup and Mr. Giggles

They figured Adalberta looked a lot like the recently burned Alberta, and soon learned that they were actually twins (what a coincidence).

They went into the Debris Room, where Urvarg (in lizard mode) got attacked by a single dusk gnoum, whom she promptly devoured. In the Debris Room they found Adalberta’s and Eusebius’ missing equipment. Urvarg climbed the stepladder in the Forge into the Pump Room, encountering the giant spider, which she fought alone while blocking the stepladder itself, while the rest of the party waited idly downstairs (after getting a feel how strong her character is, she became a bit of a showoff). Theras also plied a bunch of gems in the gem room (not provoking the gutworm, which sunk into the sludge dead but dreaming due to Fletcher’s death).

Pump Room with the hound-sized spider

While they were looking into the statue, the floor tilting trap activated, throwing all the characters except for Larv fell into the Rotblack Sludge. They all actually managed to survive it, some climbed the wall, some climbed a rope fastened to the statue by Larv while they were splashing around in the sludge.

When they all got out, Eusebius put an eye from one of the corpses into the statues bloodstained eye cavity, opening the secret door into the Son’s room. They discussed who is supposed to go in first into the new room for so long, that a fat kid dressed in finery finally peeked out of the room himself. He scoffed at them and went back inside.

(The funny thing is that by now, Theras’ player completely forgot they were meant to rescue someone, and figured they were just screwing around, experimenting with the dungeon after killing who they were supposed to kill)

Used to sending Urvarg in lizard mode upfront as the most resilient character, they got her into the Son’s room. This terrified him, so he grabbed a crossbow from the shelf and started shakingly loading it. However, they managed to convince him that they were not going to hurt him, and that if he stays, he is going to starve to death, since his caretakers are all dead. After that, he agreed to follow them. They also took the bullwhip with cryptic runes, and Eusebius took Alberta’s armor, after scraping her charred remains off of it.

They emerged from the Den into the outskirts of the Shadow King’s Palace (“so basically like the kid got mad to his dad and ran away from home and into the basement?”), where they met the Masked Seer and his guards. The escort promptly stuck Aldon into a windowless litter. The Seer pointed at Eusebius and Mr. Giggles and said “They didn’t go down there with you,  kill them” (he ignored Adalberta, whom he mistook for Alberta) – however, they managed to convince the Seer to spare their new comrades.

The Seer then handed the Shadow King’s Iron Letter to Theras, who was the first to emerge, so the assumed leader. He also gave sacred scrolls of Bestial Speech to Theras and Larv, an unclean scroll of Nine Violet Signs Unknot the Storm to Adalberta and 9 silver pieces to Urvarg (lol) – rolled from the Getting Better table. Eusebius got nothing, because he wasn’t among the people who were given the job.

The adventure description promised “wealth” but we started the game in the middle of the night and forgot to read that part, so that is all they were given.

Some conclusions:

I probably should have had all of the Fletcher’s henchmen (D4 Guards with sharpened teeth, mongrels) from the listed encounters rush to them to help him in the big fight. On the other hand, perhaps they saw him getting wrecked as an opportunity to escape his cannibalistic necromantic reign.

After the session I figured that since the Skinwalker’s class is supposed to be a curse, but mechanically is actually a huge blessing, to later add some additional rules to have the character get slowly overpowered by their bestial half – Preliminary idea: if they shapeshift over the power limit, they have to do a Presence test, if failed, they permanently lose 1 Presence, cannot increase their Presence when Getting Better anymore, and look more and more like their animal form even when human (rough skin, hairy, change of eyes, fangs, forked tongue, later getting actual fur/scales all over), after four stages (which are increasingly difficult to avoid, due to decreasing Presence) they stay in their animal form forever and lose their human mind, either running away into the wild or attacking the rest of the party.

Entries into the Book of the Dead:

†Alberta von Dup, fried by Fletcher’s lightning in the Accursed Den

 

 

Play Report: MÖRK BORG Party A: session 1 (Rotblack Sludge)

Player characters:
Rachela, Heretic Priestess, with a small but vicious dog, Leon
Aldona, Wretched Royalty
Margar, Forlorn Philosoper, with a Hegelian Owl
Shnee, Gutterborn Scum

The party, facing execution for heretical theft, accepted the offer of a masked Seer to instead risk their lives in an attempt to retrieve the Shadow King’s lost heir, Aldon from an infamous accursed locale known as the Accursed Den.

After rescuing him, they were to discreetly bring him to an abandoned inn, known as „the Ratcatcher”, which lies halfway on the Road to the Shadow Kings palace.

The Seer guided them there together with an armed escort, and offered to scry them two truths, which were as follows:

·      The lamps burn red, the lamp-oil touched with human blood!

·      Something hungers in the depths, an enormous creature, like a vast intestine!

Stepping down into the first cavernous room, with a small stream of water flowing through, black-violet butteflies flying around, and two doors in the wall before them, they carefully ventured forth, at first throwing  stones before them, anxious of potential traps.

Listening at first at each of the doors, they all moved into the Dining Hall, in which they encountered an ancient man. Margar, the Forlorn Philosopher however stayed behind, scared of the contents of the dungeon. After their attempts at communication with the ancient man were unsuccesful, they launched a slingshot stone at him, hitting him straight in the foreahead. He bleeded a bit, but did not react. Shnee searched him, upon which she noticed him breathing, got scared and left him alone.

The Ancient Man

Then they moved into the guard room, where they encountered a single Crooked Guard. Figuring his reaction might be uncertain, I rolled for it, and it came out as helpful, which would mean that he figured that his boss, Fletcher, might want to strike a deal with the Party for his own designs (getting rid of Lesdy and her cultists from the Greenhouse), perhaps even allowing them to take the heir for their aid. The guard guided them into a dark corridor, meaning to lead them through a hatch in the Pump Room down into the Fletcher’s Forge/Slaughterhouse. He remained unaware however, of Margar, the Forlorn Philosoper, who stayed back in the entrance cavern, and who decided to run up to him and attack him from behind. A fight ensued, in which they managed to kill the guard, mainly thanks to Margar’s Hegelian Owl, which scored a critical hit against the guard, tearing him to shreds.

They searched his body, and Rachela smashed his face to retrieve the guard’s teeth for her necklace, as per her custom (rolled in the Bad Habits table). Worried about the hatch that they had seen in the pump room, Shnee decided to drag the body there, to weigh down the hatch. Then she noticed a black sarcophagus (rolled from the random encounter table) that she was sure that she had not seen before from the corridor. Perplexed, she abandoned her idea.

Meanwhile Aldona started tinkering with one of the paintings in the corridor, activating a pit trap, leading to the fall of herself, Rachela, and Rachela's dog. Margar used his long chain to help them out. The trap started to slowly close itself up.

Then they dawdled for so long discussing their next steps, that I figured I’d roll on the random encounter table.

(The way this dungeon is written, it seems that encounters are to be rolled only upon entering a particular set of rooms, which left the players without sufficient urgency, in my opinion, that’s why I decided that a possibility to encounter some denizens of the dungeon was called for)

The roll resulted with two guards with sharpened teeth, who approached with indifferent intent. However, when Aldona loudly exclaimed „You will not take us alive!”, they were eager to comply. In the ensuing fight, the party tried to escape jumping to the far side of the pit, Rachela and Shnee succeeded, while Aldona and Margar fell into the pit.

Fittingly, one guard managed to jump over the pit, and one fell in. Aldona and Margar managed to decapitate the guard that fell into the tunnel, again with much help from Margar’s Owl, which scored another critical hit.

Rachela and Shnee fared much worse, barely making it in the fight, and losing Rachela’s dog, which fell down the pit, shortly before it closed (the dog fumbled the attack, I figured it's like losing a weapon). Finally they managed to reduce the guard to half his HP, after the morale roll he surrendered and begrudginly agreed to join them.

Margar and then Aldona took off their armor and squeezed through the tunnel westwards, entered the stuffy greenhouse, densely covered with plants. Margar tried to stealthily approach a campfire he saw, but his habitual whistling lead him to be quickly discovered by Lesdy and her three „hosts”. He and Aldona agreed to join them in their meal. Rachela’s dog stayed behind and gnawed on the guard’s corpse/pissed on his decapitated head.

After the meal and a short conversation, the „hosts” rised and attacked the Player Characters, who felt slowed down, and sweaty after the food and drink they were given. The attackers brought Margar down to 0 HP (making him fall unconscious for 4 turns). After a short struggle Aldona surrendered, and allowed herself to get tied down. The Blade of her Ancestors laughed at her incompetence.

Meanwhile Rachela and Shnee interrogated the guard about the Den, Fletcher, and the lost heir. They learned the guard knew about the heir, but did not know where he is held. He was afraid of Fletcher, and unwilling to aid them in fighting him. He also told them Fletcher would be willing to make a deal, just to get rid on "the woman". The upstairs half of the party decided to reactivate the closed pit trap, and use the table from the Dining Hall to safely move to the tunnel below. They told the guard to go first, so he eagerly obliged, slided down into the tunnel and promptly ran away to Fletcher (I forgot that the only door this way is supposed to be unopenable from this side, oops). Rachela told her dog to guide them toward their friends, the dog went into the tight tunnel, so they decided to disrobe and also squeeze through the tunnel, after which they heard a loud roar from somewhere behind them (it was Fletcher upon getting a report from the escaped guard).

Just about time they finished donning their armor back, making a huge noise (especially Rachela with her plate), Margar regained consciousness and escaped as quickly possible in his state in their direction, surprising his enemies. The "hosts" rised and went to investigate, upon encountering all three remaining party members, they were willing to parlay, and brought her to Lesdy. She, assured that they were no friends of Fletcher, told them that she has been consuming the sludge and trying to commune with the Gutworm dwelling within, and had them promise that they would get rid of Fletcher (while offering no aid from herself or her friends, basically using the PCs with no risk of her own). After that she rised, and left together with her men, after which the campfire went out (I though it might be cool), after that they were nowhere to be found (also thought that it would be cool, seeing how they all barely made sense to me as written anyway, I found it appropriate to give them a mysterious flair).

The party decided to rest in the Greenhouse and sleep the night, restoring their HP and Omens (another occasion where I felt the dungeoun lacked Random Encounters, but didn’t roll for any, Lesdy and her friends were apparently able to stay there undisturbed there, after all). When they were asleep, Margar dreamed of going down the hatch into a hellish realm of fire and flesh, meeting a monstrous entity and then stabbing Lesdy in the ribs (the dreams of what he should have done sent by his Hegelian Owl - if they followed the guard and made a deal with Fletcher, it would all have been over by now).

Upon resting, the players squeezed through the passage one by one. The body of the killed guard was missing, but the table blocking the pit trap was still there.

They scouted the Gem Room, but retreated back (they were tempted by the gems, but decided against disturbing them after what happened with the paintings) and instead climbed up on the table. They investigated the Pump Room, Aldona tried drinking the muddy liquid, but did not feel any more understanding of the Worm afterwards. Rachela opened the sarcophagus, which led to her and Aldona (the only PCs who were in the room) being sucked inside andbeing teleported into the Greenhouse.

Surprised but unfazed, they met up again in the corridor, and went back to the Dining Hall and experimented a bit with the ancient man. Knocked him over, then figured he might be hungry or thirsty, since he was sitting at a set table, with mugs and plates and all, so they tried to give him food or drink, but to no avail.

Then they sent Leon, Rachela’s dog to scout the guard room to the East. They heard the barking of a much larger dog. Soon, both dogs, together with two guards (one of them was the one they captured before, with a black eye – a sign of Fletcher’s frustration).

(They were awaiting around the Chain Room to ambush the party – figured it would make sense after their previous fights with the guards, and with the escaped guard notifying Fletcher)

After a short scuffle, Fletcher himself appeared, a huge bald bear of a man, wielding a huge red-hot flail. In the fight, both the guards and the dog soon perished, with only Fletcher remaining. Rachela however, became infected from the dog's bite, leaving her future bleak and uncertain. Shnee managed to score a critical hit on him, tearing apart his hardened skin (reducing his armor), but died soon after from a hit of his flail. Another casualty was Rachela’s dog, fried by Fletcher’s bolt of lightning.

Shnee, Gutterborn Scum. Donned in fur armor and armed with a femur.
Fough valiantly but died.

Thanks to their sacrifice, the remaining characters managed to defeat Fletcher, despite Aldona’s ancestral sword working against her. They brought him down to 0 HP, Aldona dealt the final blow, severing his arm, then Rachela stabbed his heart for good measure. The surviving party members quickly robbed Shnee of her belongings. Thus the session ended.

Entries into the Book of the Dead:

†Shnee, killed by Fletcher in the Accursed Den

Play report: OSE Session 3 (Tomb of the Serpent Kings)

1^st day of the second month of spring, Year of the Rat

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, ran with OSE, this time, I had no opportunity to use the Death & Dismemberment Table from Skerples' GLOG hack.

Player characters:

Lonya, Thief

Valbona, Fighter

Ziemko, Fighter

Hirelings:
Radzimir

The adventurers, approached by the innkeeper with two eager volunteers, previously arranged for a venture with a different group of fortune-seekers (RIP), entered into negotiations with the two and settled at a payment rate of 1 gold piece per week plus one share of the loot for each of the two: the fighter Ziemko and his buddy Radzimir.

They ventured forth in the early morning and had to spend the night in the wilderness on their way to the tomb. The party tried to camouflage and fortify their encampment the best that they could. Each kept their watch diligently throughout the night.

During Lonya's watch in the early morning, they were awoken by a mounted group passing nearby, engaging in foreign-sounding talk and clanking with armour. The adventurers managed to coax Radzimir into trying to catch a peek.

Soon enough, they heard loud shouting from the direction he went. Lonya and Valbona were less than eager to risk their skin, but Ziemko didn't want to hear anything about abandoning his friend. The armed group turned out to be Sarentian knights returning home from a holy mission to the Commonwealth. They were easily convinced that the party were not, in fact, bandits, despite Radzimir's appearance and sneaky ways. They conversed for a bit. The knights mentioned that they will be visiting the Dorian King's court in Kindzhyl-Altariy on their way East. Ziemko was enamoured by their tales about Sarent, the "biggest city in the world" and seemed to be interested in joining them in their travels, but was kept back by his current obligations.

Upon reaching the entrance to the tomb, the party encountered a pack of wolves that appeared to have made the first empty chambers their home. Using torches, they managed to scare the animals into one of the rooms and anxiously continued down, making sure that their rear guard keeps a lit torch in case the wolves followed them.

Upon descending into the tomb, they found the octagonal room with the pool smeared with rotting blood and fragments of meat, a bloody human skull was lying on the floor, together with three wet torches, and the mummified hand was in a different place than they have seen it the last time. The pool had notably less water than before.

(These are the remains of Priest, thrown into the pond during session 1. They were dragged out by the fungus goblins after the party neutralised the stone cobra guardian.)

They continued down, walking on the stone ledge, ignoring the barred stone door on their way to enter the first open corridor to the right. They also ignored the next turn to the left, which ended with a door with a visible metal lock and entered a square room. They immediately noticed that one of the floor tiles was missing, with darkness visible below. Lonya rashly decided to investigate and ended up almost falling into the pit trap. Afterwards, she used her crowbar to smash the surrounding tiles, dropping some, and uncovering that it is safe to pass, as long as you stick close to the wall. She made a lot of noise doing that. The party heard thrashing of what sounded like a chain in the distance.

For some reason they did not continue in that direction, instead they backtracked to the corridor leading South and had Radzimir open the door, which he accomplished easily - the lock was old and terribly rusted. The room beyond was filled with hot, foul air, had chipped and bloodstained stone walls and a pair of manacles on the floor. When Valbona was passing through the room, the manacles grasped her ankles, but she was able to easily free herself. The party throroughly demolished the corroded manacles.

Radzimir started to become anxious by the fact that he was the one who had to open all the doors, but was happily silenced by the promise of increasing his weekly wage to two gold pieces and convinced to open the door to the West. They heard a hissing sound from that direction.

The next room had a domed ceiling covered with images of proud snake-men and doors on each of the walls. They first investigated the Northern route, inside they found a fiery pit that seemed to be the source of the hot air and hissing sounds. The pit was surrounded by a stone ledge that lead to another door in the North-western corner.

Then, they had Radzimir open the Western door of the domed chamber. A broomstick suddenly sprung out and tried to push him back. He cut through it with his axe, some wet sounds were heard from beyond the door, followed by another broomstick emerging. Forcing their way inside they found a small humanoid on the other side of the broom. It looked sticky and dirty and mouldy, like a rotten potato. When Ziemko attempted to parlay, it told them to follow the way to "the King" and did not look back, despite their shouts. They passed near rows of cutlery-based pole-arms and entered the dirty earthly caverns, stepping over beetle shells and other detritus. They were lead to a place where eight other "potato-people" surrounded an enthroned figure dressed in leather armour, it had a seemingly-alive snake-man head affixed to its neck with sticks, on its neck hanged a broken cross, a straw emerged from above its sternum, its left hand grasped a dagger and the right had three silver rings on its fingers. The "King" had a crown of cutlery and trash. A golden snake-man statue was standing in the corner of the room.

The King

(The King of course being the remains of Priest with the mad mummy snake-man's head stuck on top of his neck.)

The broom-guardian climbed on the King's lap and blew into the straw that stuck out of his neck. The airflow enabled the snake-man head to "speak", it seemed to be complete gibberish, but the guardian "translated". The party learned that the creatures were assailed by what they called "the goo", which was apparently unkillable. They impressed the potato-people when they told them that they killed one already (meaning the black pudding). The adventurers impressed them even more with the idea of throwing "the goo" into the fiery pit to destroy it.

(A good way to deal with the skeleton jellies for sure. Should they actually encounter them later.)

The party inquired on the exact number of "goos" inhabiting the dungeon, but the potato-people seemed to be arithmetically challenged. They determined that there were less goos than potato-people, at least. In the meantime, most of the creatures lost interest, some started using the golden statue as a backscratcher. Upon enquiry on other creatures living in the vicinity, the potato-people got agitated again and mentioned "the monstrum", which "turned to stone". Despite troubled communication, they ascertained that it was not the stone cobra-guardian, but possibly some sort of basilisk. The party managed to negotiate a deal: they would slay "the monstrum" and leave it to be eaten by their "translator" in exchange for the golden backscratcher.

The adventurers also asked about the origin of the King - they learned that he was found in a pond above. They speculated that perhaps the pond itself was the source of this strange people.

The broom-guardian showed them the way to the "monstrum". Past some haphazard "farms", up some dirty stairs lied a stone door. Recalling old-wives tales about basilisks, they prepared a small mirror to reflect any petrifying effects and opened the door into a large hall filled with columns and shadows, inside they heard faint breathing and saw realistic stone figures of spiders, bats, and potato-people in various states of fragmentation. After the party scrambled into the room, hiding behind the columns, and made sure to look down on the ground, Ziemko started feeling slow and heavy, so the entire party escaped in much haste.

They experimented a bit by tying Ziemko with a rope and having him bring petrified creatures outside of the room, dragging him back as soon as he stopped moving, speculating that perhaps the room itself had a petrifying effect and the breathing could have come from magical nostrils on the wall or something. However, bringing the petrified creatures out of the room did not, in fact, de-petrify them. During the investigation, Ziemko managed to catch a glimpse of a giant lizard with a crocodilian head, some kind of visor and collar attached with a chain to the chamber's ceiling. The mirror did not seem to have any effect on the creature.

The party decided to go back to town, perhaps to stock up on oil to burn the entire chamber with the creature in it. On their way out they cursorily investigated the room  to the West of the fiery pit but found nothing flammable within to use in their plans. They also considered the barred stone door next to the chasm, but abandoned it as well, wary of activating any traps so close the abyss. The wolves inhabiting the first chambers of the dungeon apparently left, as there was no sign of them.

On their way back to Tor's Field, the party spent their night in Beaverton, one of the villages on the way. They were gladly given hospitality by one of the peasants, Tom, together with his wife Jadzia, in exchange for company and tale. The adventurers were wary not to disclose too much of their exploits (they do seem to be terribly secretive about everything they are doing, perhaps not to avoid other adventuring parties venturing into "their" turf, but they sure do sound suspicious to everyone they talk to...) and in turn inquired about any monsters known to exist in  the vicinity, especially of the petrifying type. Apparently the area has been plagued by attacks of troglodytes, but these did not match the description o anything that the party encountered, despite their suspicions about the potato-people. They learned that the troglodytes can use natural camouflage to blend in with their surroundings but emit a nasty oily smell, thus are often first smelt, rather than seen. They also apparently were incapable or unwilling to engage in any negotiation and would attack people on sight, using primitive weapons (non-cutlery based). The local ruler, Horka Gabriel, was known to offer the prize of 5 silver pieces per troglodyte head to curb this menace.

(Getting to know about the local monsters seems like a good idea)

The party also inquired about the general area, which, they learned, used to be covered with Swardonian realms, until all of them were conquered by the Onioner invasion (the Onioners being known, of course, for their prominent, onion-shaped headdress). The Ononers, who call themselves the Dorians, have been the rulers hence.

Additional note: The session was unfortunately cut short by real-life considerations. I rule that any party that does not make their way back to civilisation on the end of the session shall be considered lost in the wilderness and probably dead, so the players had to leave the dungeon sooner than they might have done otherwise (if there was more real-life time to continue, that is).

Play report: OSE Session 2 (Tomb of the Serpent Kings)

19^th day of the first month of spring, Year of the Rat

Tomb of the Serpent Kings, ran with OSE, using the Death & Dismemberment Table from Skerples' GLOG hack.

Player characters:

Lonya, Thief

Urpert, Thief

Valbona, Fighter

Lonya the Fighter

Another group of adventurers, having been sold a supposed treasure map from a mysterious old man, prepared to venture out of the town of Tor’s Field. Unbeknownst to them, the old man has been plagued by horrific dreams. The only thing that soothes his mind appears to be luring people to a location in the Northeastern wilderness with those damned maps.

Having asked around town, the party learned of a previous group of miscreants who, after venturing into the same general area, returned with various cryptic items, before meeting various abrupt and violent ends. Prior to dying however, they seem to have enlisted the help of an acolyte (still living), who, in the end, did not decide to pursue the same adventuring lifestyle. They met him outside of the palisade of the decaying town, in the surrounding fields and orchards, peppered with ruins of the town's former... mediocrity. Beside a collapsed church, in the town’s cemetery, the acolyte was busy burying the remains of two adventurers. He relayed their story and gifted the party what looked like the map of the inside of a tomb, before immersing himself in prayer for these poor souls.

They arrived there the next day, finding a set of ransacked rooms, and a smashed stone door with a stone slab lying on the floor. Upon entering further, into a large chamber filled with rotten grave goods and scattered bones they saw a clay statue of a snake-man, surrounded by fragments of clay, to his left, laid a snake-man skeleton. Lonya disturbed the remains by trying to scatter the bones with her foot, in an attempt to prevent it from being animated later on and endangering their rear. The attempt animated the skeleton, leading to a quick fight, from which the party survived unscathed, while the snake-man ended scattered.

Not willing to leave any possible accursed dead undisturbed, Valbona knocked on the remaining statue, which erupted in a rain of clay fragments, unsurprisingly revealing another skeleton inside. The party escaped into the outlying corridor, hoping that the blessed light of day may have an adverse effect for the enemy. That did not seem to prove true. In the ensuing scuffle, they did, however, manage to lodge a grappling hook into his ribcage and pulled him down to the ground, leading to his demise.

(They started trying to use the environment to their advantage and being more creative in combat, which was a welcome change and worked well in the end. Too bad they didn't think of springing the hammer trap on the skeleton.)

Disappointed at the apparent lack of treasure, the group ventured deeper, encountering a vile statue, that they investigated thoroughly. Founding no way to interact with it, they dove into the hole at its base and entered a corridor flanked with statues of snake-men warriors. Remembering that they’ve been informed that one of these statues was moveable, they decided not to investigate it further.

They entered an octagonal chamber with exits on every side, multiple snake-men statues bearing various implements, a pool of black water in the middle, and a smashed mummified hand near the pool (unfortunately I forgot to mention the blood that must have been there, since that is where Priest bled out to death during the previous session). They carefully approached the pool, but nothing emerged from within.

Then the party started investigating the surrounding doors, starting with the wooden ones to the Southeast. Inside they found a small room with rotten beds, shelves, piles of scrolls in an unknown language and a gold and emerald icon depicting a Snakeoid figure. They quickly pocketed the icon and some of the scrolls.

Next, they investigated a stone door to the North, which they moved without much hassle using Lonya’s crowbar. Inside they found collapsed rubble, with a small hole which might have enabled them entry, if it weren’t for a furious snake-man skeleton aggressively trying to attack anything that came close. They decided to forego this route for now and sighed with relief when the skeleton stopped making noise after losing “sight” of them. They attempted to make sense of the various implements that the statues around the octagonal room are holding regarding the rooms and their contents, but they find no logic or reason connecting the two.

Opening the elaborately carved doors to the East and seeing ominous-looking stars leading down, and walls covered in reliefs of snakes “performing indeterminate movement between the sky and the ground”, they decided not to venture deeper just yet.

Then they decided to enter the room to the Northwest. Inside, on the wall, a circular shape glittered with the light of their torch. Upon noticing a raised tile on the floor, they apprehensively rolled a large stone from the collapsed corridor on the floor towards it and hid outside. With a deafening sound, a bolt of lightning shot from the room, destroying the wooden door to the Southeast. They entered the room, crawling on the floor and avoiding the pressed tile and stone. The adventurers expressed worry that the dungeon seemed to be causing them to behave like snake-men. Inside the room they stuck close to the walls, waiting for another lightning to shoot, it did not. Then they carefully took the electrum disk from the wall, being careful not to touch it with their skin, and only manipulating it through a bag. They expressed heavy disappointment that the sarcophagus in the room is empty.

Next, they entered the crudely carved room to the Northeast, and upon hearing squelching sounds from the stone coffin, prepared a plan ofaction. After a lengthy deliberation on the possibility of baiting the potential enemy to be zapped by the lightning trap from the Northwestern room, they abandoned that idea. They were not sure whether the electrum disk that they took was necessary for the trap to activate. Instead poured oil around the sarcophagus (again thinking creatively), Valbona braced to push the lid off and Lonya stood with a torch prepared to burn whatever emerged. As soon as it opened a bit, a black pseudopod shot out, grabbing Valbona’s hand. She managed to break her hand out, but not without sustaining painful burns. The adventurers hastily exited the room after Lonya threw the torch on the oil. A blob of black jelly pursued them, emitting a horrific sound while passing through the flames. They did, however, have the advantage of speed, Lonya and Urpert escaped to the upper level, while Valbona remained, trying to bait in to fall into the black pool. She succeeded and rising black water washed over her boots as the creature fell. She called for the rest of the party to come back down. As they were descending to join Valbona, the monstrous jelly emerged out of the water but was promptly put down by the steel of her axe. They investigated the scorched room from which the jelly originated but found only clay jars and copies of goods.

When investigating the Southern room, they found only an unfinished chamber with various mining and masonry tools scattered around. They took the tools to the Northern room and threw them through the hole at the unruly skeleton until he stopped moving, then used the remaining tools to clear their path. Inside, they found various golden funeral trinkets, Urpert also took the axe previously wielded by the animated skeleton.

I love this amazingly legible map.

The party then entered the corridor to the Southwest and smashed one of the clay snake-men warriors standing there. Finding neither treasure nor foe, they left the rest undisturbed.

Having apparently exhausted all other routes, the party decided to venture down the stone stairs, without performing any prior investigation. Upon stepping on the third stair, Valbona activated the trap – the stairs turned into a smooth ramp, and she slided down into spikes below, somehow managing to survive with only a flesh wound. She found herself in another octagonal room, this one had a huge stone statue of a humanoid figure with a cobra-like head wielding a huge sword, the walls were covered in various old and mostly decayed shields. The thief was shocked upon seeing that the stone figure started to approach her but managed to escape it into a narrow path overlooking a dark chasm on the other side of the room. She heard a swooping sound but did not look back and managed to avoid falling off the slippery stone ledge. She heard the statue stomping away (the ledge was too arrow for it to follow) and sat down in the dark, shaking with fear.

Meanwhile her comrades tried to fix a rope to safely descend down the ramp to aid her. The ramp, however, soon turned back into stairs, so Urpert tied the rope around Lonya’s waist instead and had her walk down the stairs (avoiding the third), while she carefully prodded the stairs in front of her. No other stairs turned out to be trapped.

As soon as the cobra guardian, now also bearing a shield, noticed them, he approached, but they were able to easily avoid him, as he did not fit up the stairs. Shouting over the foe, hoping he did not understand Common, the adventurers coordinated a plan to bait him to approach the slippery stone edge of the chasm and throw him down there using ropes. Shenanigans ensued. Valbona narrowly escaped doom while running on the slippery ledge multiple times. They did not manage to do it exactly how they planned, the guardian turned out to be too heavy to push/pull him. However, when the statue leaped near the ledge to attack Valbona, who was taunting him and throwing stones, he did slip and fall into the chasm. Valbona escaped the same fate, but her ribs got cracked by the impact of the stone guardian's leap.

(I was glad to see that they did not even think of fighting a huge stone enemy head-on.)

The party decided to recuperate in the octagonal room formerly occupied by the cobra-golem. They dragged down the beds from one of the rooms above to start a fire and get comfortable. Before they managed to do that, they were startled by chittering sounds and creepy laughter coming from the direction of the chasm. They ruled to rest in town instead.

(Death is a quick teacher, after the previous session they were markedly more cautious and creative, both with traps and with enemies. They also seemed to have consistently good rolls throughout the session.)

The travel back was uneventful, in town, they found callers roaming the streets with handbells, and people gathering at the chapels. It was the day of Resurrection.

Lonya went straight to the local wizard and, upon introducing herself as “Tulia Rostfhausen”, tried to sell him the emerald snake icon, he was interested and greedy, but suspicious. She was unwilling to name the source of the treasure, so the wizard brushed her off, openly citing fear of the local ruler as the reason for his unwillingness to make business before being aware of exactly the kind of risk he is taking.

She then roamed the streets, saw wanted notices promising 500 gold pieces for the head of a local bandit leader, named as “Bloody Henry”. She inquired a bit about this figure (she learned that they call him Henry-who-does-not-close-his-eyes) and about the local ruler also.

(I will be dropping various hooks for other opportunities of adventures throughout the sessions, so they should have no right to complain about only venturing into the one dungeon, but they seem to be ignoring them so far - the dungeon seems to be adventure enough for them.)

Valbona also visited the wizard and paid him to have the scrolls translated.

They waited for a week, until Valbona’s ribs healed and for the wizard to translate the scrolls. They turned out to be mad ravings of dead kings, desperately calling to their descendants, describing visions of dark eternity. One name seemed to pop up throughout the texts, “Baltoplat”, described only as “the demon of the deep”.