Game Report #4 - Audacious Failure?

A friend from work brought his sons over for last night's game, so we were joined by G2 and C.  G was unable to attend, so our players included L, L2, M, S (via Skype), J2, N, H, V, J, G2 and C.  During play, they broke into three groups, so I've split our cast of characters accordingly:

Group 1:

L:  Grimm the Medium (1st level magic user)

L2:  Ditchy the ditchdigger, Stabby the Mercenary, Chip the woodcutter, and Apollo the astrologer

Group 2:

M:  Dave "Hawkeye" the hunter

S:  Ockhena and River the mushroom farmers, Anja the urchin, William the beggar, and Becca the ditch digger

J2:  Brock the ditch digger, Enteri the locksmith, Gilder the weaver, Sammy ("Dark Reaver of Souls") the orphan, and Kaza-rune the armorer

N:  Gimli Fartbucket the armorer, and Jimmy "Ratman" the jeweler

H:  Gamzee the baker, and Eridan the hunter

V:  Bellatrix the alchemist, John and James the sewermen, Angara the minstrel, and Annie the orphan

Group 3:

J:  Rudy the baker, Salvador the alchemist, Draco the wizard's apprentice, and Shern the minstrel

G2:  Maliwan the jeweler, Torque the mushroom farmer, Bandit the beggar, Vladof the wainwright, and Tediore the guild beggar

C:  Ron the alchemist, Don the gambler, Max the caravan guard, Mordecai the jeweler, and Ven the herbalist

During the week they'd been hanging out at Milburn Hall, two more people were kidnapped during night-time raids, and it was assumed they were taken by the kobolds.  The party decided to attempt a rescue.  Following the path through the brambles that first led them to the kobold tunnels, they found the entrance, formed a single file line, lit torches and crawled in.  They managed to make the correct turns, and reached the caverns without incidence.

Here, they regrouped into a marching order four abreast, and began to explore tunnels they hadn't visited before.  The first curved around right back into the main entrance room, and it was here they heard voices coming from the north.  Although they couldn't make out what was being said, the language was clearly Common, so they headed north to follow.  They passed through a hall wider than their torches could illuminate, and found a statue without a head... but ignored it to continue north.  They came across another statue, toppled over, with a pile of blood-soaked clothing next to it.  Grimm picked up the clothing and they continued north.

Just a moment later, they came across another group, backed into a dead-end, facing them with weapons drawn.  Maliwan, Torque, Bandit, Vladof, Tediore, Ron, Don, Max, Mordecai, and Ven (our new players' characters) had attempted a rescue, and had found the four kidnap victims unconscious in the cave.  The two groups joined to head back to Milburn Hall.

As they headed south once again, they decided to explore the full extent of the room where they'd found the headless statue.  As they followed the western wall away from what they could see before, their torch startled a giant mushroom, which let out a loud blood-curdling shriek.  They quickly dispatched it, and Okhena, River and Torque, the three mushroom farmers, examined it.  When they couldn't identify it, they hacked it to pieces, learning in the process that it wasn't rooted to the ground, and could apparently move.  They managed to find a large bag of silver coins hidden under/behind it.  While continuing their exploration of the chamber, they located four more headless statues, and toppled all five, which broke into large pieces while making much noise.  

They regrouped, and headed south again, but were attacked by a large group of giant rats.  In the ensuing battle, Becca, Okhena and William were knocked out.  After dispatching the rats, the party hoisted up all seven unconscious people and continued on their way... only to be attacked by a party of seven kobolds in the main entrance room.  They managed to dispatch all seven, and found 26 gold pieces, a piece of amber, and a silver pendant on the lead kobold.  As they crawled back into the tunnels to escape, they dragged the unconscious along with them, and the two armorers, Gimli Fartbucket and Kaza-Runê, dragged the kobold and some of the giant rat bodies along as well.

Back at Milburn Hall, they sold the pendant and the piece of silver, and made 85 gold for the pair.  After resting, Dave the Hunter had earned enough experience to choose a class.  Pyotr took him away.  Becca and William succumbed to their wounds, and never woke again, while Okhena recovered.  The party hung around in Milburn Hall for three months, during which Dave the Hunter underwent training and became Dave the Apprentice (a first level thief), Gimli crafted one set of leather armor from giant rat hides, and Kaza-runê crafted two sets of leather armor from kobold hides.

Growing bored again of hanging around the Hall, the group decided to head to Kemper Village and return to the mausoleum.  They stayed off-trail to the east, and hid under the trees for a while when they heard the cry of the roc overhead.  They made it to the village without encountering any orcs, and split up into the three houses they've been spending the night in.

In the morning, they broke into three groups.  The first group (see above) headed back south toward the orcs, staying east of the trail until they had passed the wall, then coming back to the wall from the south.

The second group heard noises behind House Six, so Dave climbed up onto the house to look over the ridge of the roof, while the rest went around to investigate. 

The third group headed toward the mausoleum then turned left to explore more houses.

Behind House Six, in the trees, they spotted a man on a horse.  He fired an arrow at them, but missed... and Dave "Hawkeye" the Apprentice fired back, scoring an excellent shot and felling the beast.  As it fell, the players saw that it was really a centaur.  They headed forward to loot the body, but several more arrows came from the trees.  The spotted at least three more centaurs, and beat a hasty retreat back around to the street-side of the house, while Dave slid down to join them in front.

Meanwhile, the third group explored six more houses; four of which had shattered door-frames, and two of which had locked doors with T-bars blocking them shut. In the first, they found a set of four carving knives, and a chest containing gold and silver coins.  The second house, when opened, proved eerily clean... it was completely empty and without even a speck of dust.  They quickly exited, and replaced the T-bar blocking it shut, then headed back past the mausoleum to explore the other side.

In front of House Six, after much discussion, Dave climbed to the roof, then helped the rest of the party up.  They crawled up to the ridge, and raised their shields, peering into the woods.  By the time they got up there, the body of the centaur had been dragged off into the woods, none were visible at all.  They climbed back down, and headed south to Milburn Hall... staying off the trail to the west.  Near the wall, they encounted a group of twelve orcs, but paid a toll of 2 gold pieces each and were allowed to pass.  They made it home to Milburn.

The third group explored another house with the door frame destroyed, then came to a house with a T-bar... but decided it was time to head back to Milburn Hall.  They headed south, off the path to the East, and made it home to Milburn Hall without incident.

At the wall, Grimm told Grack (the usual orc guard) that he wanted to join the orc tribe.

Grack incredulously asked, "You want to join The Bloody Claw?"

Assuring him they did, the entire group were told to drop all their weapons and be escorted to the orc village.  They did so.  (Timing wise, as they headed west, other orcs gathered the gear they'd dropped and were carrying it to the village when the other party encountered them, paid their toll, and went on their way south)

At the orc village, they feasted, then spent the night.  In the morning, each of them faced unarmed combat with a single orc.  Grimm and an orc traded blows, and Grimm fell.  Apollo fared better, but also fell.  The rest of the group went down as well.

Thus ended our evening's play.

Game Report – First play

Tonight, my son and four of his friends became the first players in my new campaign world.  We’re using the original LBBs as the basic ruleset, with the addition of some house rules and a modified zero level funnel (idea courtesy of the OSR Blogosphere and Dungeon Crawl Classics).  Each player created five zero-level characters for the game.  For each character, they rolled on the Occupation Table (a modified table based on the table of the same name from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Quick Start Guide) to get their original occupation, a weapon and an extra item.  They then rolled 1d6 for gold, 3d6 for silver, and 5d6 for copper.  After that, they named each character and picked their alignment.  No other stats were generated.  Each character started with -500 experience points.  

In order to choose a class, they’ll have to survive long enough to earn 500 experience points, and test each of their primary attributes in some way.

Here was our initial cast of characters:
L’s characters included a grave digger named Grimm, a minstrel named Bardzz, a scribe named Penn, an herbalist named Baisil, and a prisoner named Cage.
M created a cutpurse named Vriska, an outlaw named Caliborn, a wizard’s apprentice named Roxy, and two hunters, named Dave and John.
J’s characters were a ditchdigger named Ash, two scribes named Jak and Joey, a locksmith named Mordecai, and a cutpurse named Daxter.
V created a pair of sewermen named James and John, an alchemist named Bellatrix, a minstrel named Angara, and an orphan named (of course) Annie.
G had a cutpurse named Richard, a hunter called Robin, a Minstrel named Justin, Rose the herbalist and Pinky the jester.

After character creation, play started as the Feast in Milburn Hall ran down.  After most of the crowd had gone to bed, Pyotr stood, and told them he knew they were not the type put up with years of indentured servitude.  “The Master,” he said, “would accept payment of 70 gold each to void their contracts,” and he explained that there was work to be done and treasure to be found in the surrounding areas.

In the morning, Pyotr showed the characters their first and only mandatory task:  The main door to Milburn Hall was blocked from the outside, and needed to be cleared.  The characters decided to climb from an outside balcony down to the front of the Hall, then clear the obstruction and open the door.  Those characters involved needed to do dexterity checks, so first had to roll their dexterity.  Those who failed had to roll their constitution and hit points.  Ash the ditchdigger slipped from the rope, and fell backward onto the logs blocking the door, breaking his back and dying instantly.  Mordecai the locksmith, Joey the scribe and the outlaw Caliborn also fell to their deaths.  Strength checks were needed as the survivors cleared away the rocks and logs blocking the door.  After finally opening the main doors, the players decided to work both on clearing the field of brambles surrounding the hall, and exploring the paths that led through it.  Giant rats were encountered several times in the maze, and when a path led underground, several characters crawled blindly into the tunnel.  Vriska the cutpurse was clubbed by an unknown assailant in the pitch black tunnel, and dragged out only to die later from her wounds.  It turned out the tunnel was inhabited by kobolds, which they learned only after killing one and retrieving the body.

Tiring of the brambles and tunnels, the party finally decided to set out for one of the nearby villages.  On the way, they encountered (but avoided) a party of five orcs.  After several hours of hiking, they found an abandoned village.  They explored 15 houses, a few of which had their doors blocked from the outside, and the rest their doors torn down and their doorframes shattered.  One of the houses had a basement containing a stone coffin.  Opening it, they found a richly dressed corpse wearing a necklace.  Cage the prisoner reached in to remove the necklace, only to have the corpse sit up, reach out, and strangle him before anyone else could react.  They managed to cut off its head, then pulled the corpse out of the coffin and laid Cage to rest in it instead.  The necklace had a red gem surrounded by a silver medallion, and seemed rather valuable… so they took it.

The game ended there… five characters lost during about 4 hours of play, and none reaching first level.  Feedback at the table was favorable, both about how much they preferred the simpler rules over the 4e most of them learned on, and on the zero level concept.  Looking forward to playing again Sunday!