The Dungeon Game: Weekends at Stonehell, session 2
The party gain a name have some unfortunate encounters with some enemies and make a pretty big score.
Party Members
- Tina the Titanic - Level 1 Martial Artist
- Telperion Desh - Level 1 Magician
- Vako - Level 1 Fighter
- Sneaky TBD - Level 1 Thief
Followers
"Wolfboy" (Porter and Cook), "Sparkles" (Torchbearer), Medium Sized Marta (Woman at Arms)
Session Recap
In-Universe Date: February 15th, 3017
The group (which are now called The Crownless Company, name registered in by Tina during downtime in Zorb) head back to Stonehell, fighting off the awful summer heatwave, and settle into the cave they cleared out last session before proceeding into the dungeon.
Deciding to explore the ruined kitchen first they run away from some giant centipedes that crawl out of the water spout of the sink, with Vako swearing to bend the thing the next time he's there just so stuff stops coming out of it.
Exploring further around the dungeon, the group run into a strange room with a wind and voice calling portents of doom (seemingly at anyone who enters), as well as a rusted portcullis. Spiking the thing open so as not to get themselves trapped, the group proceeds into a room with a dried up fountain adorned with a fish. The thing is either trapped or just badly maintained as messing with it releases poisonous gas, luckily both Sneaky and Vako move away in time so as not to breathe the stuff in.
Continuing deeper they find some more kobolds. Telperion approaches them speaking their language, but while the small vermin are friendly enough (or frightened) enough to not attack, they are not particularly helpful or interested in dealing with more intruders and eventually just retreat away. All the commotion of talking instead brings out a trio of giant centipedes (again) who have a go at the party. While the group tries to rebuff them Vako, Marta and Tina all get bit, their muscles cramping from the centipede venom. The party retreat and settle back in their cave. With their three fighters down for the count, the group pool their money and send Sneaky back to Zorb, where he buys some antidotes and gets back as soon as he can. Having recovered they also shoot some deer and solve their food problem for the foreseeable future, leaving Wolfboy the cook to process and smoke the meat.
After having rested for a few days between the poison and the trip back to town, the group decide to venture back into the dungeon, stopping by the talking statue head to ask it questions, trying to determine what it's deal is. They then decide to just have a go at this "dragon" the kobolds seem frightened off. They run into another kobold work crew, who are again skittish, but not interested in a fight. They direct the party as to where they can find the dragon, then leave.
Going deeper into the natural caves, the group end up eventually finding the "dragon" - a giant gecko lazily laying on a pile of rocks and filth. The party attack it, and while it manages to take a pretty good swipe at Vako they take it down with swords, daggers, magic and bullets. However by the time Vako can cut off its head, the gunfire had attracted another enemy. A formation of ugly pigmen (orcs) end up blockading the only exit out of the cavern.
Telperion, ever the diplomat and linguist, speaks to them in Orcish and attempts to negotiate the party's safe exit. The orcs are uncharacteristically friendly, and agree to let the party go in exchange for any money they find in the gecko's ""horde"", Vako's suit of chain armor and a promise to either deliver two sacks of wolves teeth to the entrance of the dungeon by 10 days, or be considered Kill on Sight by the orcs.
The group agree, with the thief Sneaky managing to squirrel away a valuable looking circlet and simply giving the orcs a pile of copper coins. They escort the party back out the dungeon, and after gathering their cook and the smoked meat the party return to Zorb, where they find that the circlet is actually quite valuable, solving the short term money issues the company might have.
Observations
A short session this time with fewer players, which was honestly for the best - my LGS was quite packed today.
The session went quite smoothly, the centipedes being a recurring theme and a clear danger despite not dealing any damage. Turns out when half the party (and the fighting half at that) are basically only able to slowly move around and groan in pain, adventuring isn't happening!
There are several observations I got as a referee out of this session. First, Stonehell floor 1's encounters are quite chunky in numbers, but it offsets that by only making you roll once every two turns instead of every turn.
I have a ruling that firing a gun, using a bomb or just doing other extremely loud shit causes an immediate encounter check, and indeed that is how the orcs ended up where they did.
Secondly, I also ruled that a failed feats of strength test to open a door while using a crowbar results in just some noise, but the character doesn't end up stumbling into the room (which is what happens if you do it without). I am not sure I entirely like this yet, but it works so far. Honestly I am not entirely sure how much I like the "all doors are stuck by default" approach. While very classic, it mostly either means wasting time (which I don't like) or making a ruling like I have (which I also don't entirely like). So I am left with....multiple things that I don't like. I might end up having to change the way I run these.
Third - I need to really work on pre-rolling some encounters. Kobolds in particular are complicated, since there are numerous chances and checks I have to make when rolling up a group of them (and the groups are also pretty big). While the party are making an explicit point to avoid fighting them, I do need to keep track of their gear more than other monsters, as kobolds don't and shouldn't just stay around for a fair fight (which they will certainly lose). Something to work on.
Fourth - Man reaction rolls really do make a difference. While I was tempted to rule orcs as always just violent, being creatures that are only made to wage war, I figure they do have the ability to trade and negotiate too, they're not just mindless berserkers. And so reaction rolls made sense, and they just had insanely high ones throughout the entire negotiations with the party. It also highlighted just how much terrain matters - being stuck in a dead end cavern, with your only way out being through several heavy armored warriors with polearms is...not good.
Overall a perfectly serviceable session of dungeon crawling, there are definitely things I need to refresh myself on before I run the game next time, as Stonehell might be pretty minimally keyed, but I do still need to pay attention to what does exist. I also want to figure out more ways to incorporate the dungeon dressing table at the back of the book, since that's quite good.