Game Report #3 - Centipede Poison and Zombies!

Friday night we played our third game.  We had three new folks (N, L2 and J2) show up, so there were ten players (L, J, G, L2, N, M, S, J2, V and H) sitting around the table, along with me (standing mostly, and walking between the table and the island in the kitchen, where I set up my stuff.

N's five characters were:  Gimli the armorer, Blarg the woodcutter, Jimmy the jeweler, Hans Olo, a gambler, and an old male jeweler known only as "Old Bald Lady."

L2 created Apollo the astrologer, Ditchy the ditch digger, Chip, a woodcutter, Knees the caravan guard and a mercenary named Stabby.

J2's rolled up Guilder the weaver, Enteri the locksmith, a ditch digger named Brock, an armorer named Kaza-runê, and an orphan called Sammy, who styles herself the "Dark Reaver of Souls."

As we began play, Grimm spoke to Pyotr and asked him if there was someone who could train him to be a magic user.  Pyotr said he'd speak to the Master of the Hall, and left through the kitchen.  In just a few moments, an old man in long grey robes came into the hall, and introduced himself as Aetherus, "Wizard of Milburn Hall."  He accepted Grimm as apprentice, and led him away for a month of training.  In the meantime, the rest of the group continued removing the brambles in front of the hall, and weaving baskets.  After a month, Aertherus and Grimm returned to the hall; Grimm a newly trained Medium, with the following spells in his book:  read magic, sleep, read languages, and detect magic.  As the party spoke to Grimm and Aetherus, Pyotr closed the kitchen door, used a key and opened the door again, to reveal the hallway leading to Cittá.  As the team of horses pulled the coach into the hall, Aetherus told the party he'd answer any questions they might have.

The only question I recall was how the door to the kitchen kept changing, to which he replied, "Pyotr is using one of the magical keys that lets the door open to other places... places like Cittá."  He went on to explain that he'd grown up just outside of Milburn Hall, when it was a very large community with several villages within a mile of the Hall.  He said that when he as a young man, something had come through, just like they were now doing, and it had forced the villagers to flee the countryside for many miles around, and was why the outer door was locked from the outside.   "The survivors, you see, were afraid to leave any door unlocked, and preferred to destroy doorframes altogether, so no other ways could be found."

Aetherus left them, then, and the original party met the 15 new people during the evening's feast.  The next day they set out for Kemper Village.  When they reached the orc's roadblock, several party members tried to bargain a new price, with Grimm first asking the orc's name (Grack) and then asking how much a lifetime pass would cost (50 gp for him, 100 gp for each of the others.)  Robin strode up to the wall, drew his bow and took aim at the orc, but before he could fire, arrows flew from the trees on both sides of the road, taking him out.  The party backed away, with Justin retrieving Robin's body, and the orcs allowed them to turn back south.

When they came to the bridge, they headed west along the southern bank of the stream.  When they came to the entrance to the kobold tunnels, the party decided to explore while Justin took Robin back to the Hall for rest.

They explored the dirt tunnels, hoping to find their way back to the kobolds caves, and took several wrong paths, finding two places where the tunnel sloped down, but shrunk to less than 15 inches high forcing them to turn back when they saw how difficult it was to find giant rats while slithering on their bellies.  The finally found the caves, where they fought fire beetles and giant centipedes.  Unfortunately, both Hans Olo and Knees were bitten by the centipedes and immediately fell into comas.  They died later without ever waking up.  The party decided to return to Milburn Hall once again to rest and recover.

At Milburn, they ordered equipment from Pyotr, and again spoke to Aetherus learning more of the area.  They decided to set out for Kemper Village once more, to seek treasure in the Mausoleum.  This time, after crossing the bridge and heading north, the travelled under cover of the trees, about a half mile east of the road.  They did surprise a patrol of three orcs, and felled two immediately.  The third threw down his weapon and shield and ran for help... but was hit in the back with a javelin before he could escape.

They spent an uneventful night in the three houses they'd picked before, and in the morning entered the Mausoleum.  This time, as an experiment, they decided not to light the oil lamp on the altar.  The thought the door to the basement might not open, but were surprised to find it did.  Heading downstairs after lighting torches, they took the long route to the room with the sarcophagus and pit, then tried the east exit.  It was blocked by a wooden portcullis, which the woodcutters handily dispatched.  Passing it, they turned left into a long room, and were surprised by a pair of richly dressed people... who of course turned out to be zombies.  Blarg was knocked out before they dispatched the zombies.  "Old Bald Lady" rigged a makeshift sling, and hoisted Blarg up on his back.  They found six gems on the zombies, and a sack of silver coins against the west wall of the room, and then headed back.  Back in the room with the pit, Blarg started waking up, but instead of speaking, he moaned, and attacked "Old Bald Lady," knocking him out.  In a panic, Jimmy and Gimli each attacked... one crushing Blarg's skull, the other "Old Bald Lady's"... because "We can't let them come back as zombies!"

After that, the party left the Mausoleum, and immediately headed back to Milburn Hall, again staying far to the east of the road to avoid the orcs.  The entire trip was uneventful, and at Milburn Hall they were able to sell the gems and split their profits after recovering.

Thus ended the night of play!

Game Report - Second Play

Today we played our second game.  Joining the crew from last time were two new players, S and H.

S created Becca, a ditch digger; William, a beggar, an urchin named Anja, and two mushroom farmers, Okhena and River.

H's characters included Eridan, a hunter; Bec Noir, a ditch digger, a baker named Gamzee, a guild beggar named Tavros, and a Gambler named Vriska.

The original party made the trek back from the ruined village.  At the place they'd encountered the orcs, they found a large tree cut down and laying across the path.  Approaching cautiously, they climbed over it and continued to Milburn Hall.  They arrived in time to see the coach disgorge a new group of indentureds in the Hall.

Grimm asked Pyotr to find a jeweler who could tell him about the necklace he'd found.  After breakfast the next morning, the jeweler arrived and offered Grimm 630 gold pieces on the spot.  As they were counting it out, Tavros ran over, grabbed a handful of the coins, and tried to run out.  Grimm, Bardzz, Penn and Baisil killed Tavros, retrieved the coin, and then paid Pyotr the 280 coins needed to free themselves from their indentured service.

The group of 28 then headed north to the ruined village.  When they reached the downed tree, an orc sitting there demanded a silver coin from each to let them pass.  The party hesitated.  The orc raised his hand and waved it, and the group heard noises from behind trees on both sides of the path.  They quickly handed over the silver, and were allowed to pass.

Two hours further along, there were surprised by a great bird with a thirty foot wingspan, which swooped down silently and grabbed up John the Hunter in it's talons.  It quickly flew out of arrow range, then dropped John from a great height, scooped up the corpse and flew away.  The party stuck to the trees, and made it to the ruined village without further incident.

At the village, they went to the large marble building at the end of the road, which had both a T-bar holding the door shut, and a chain and lock.  Above the door was an inscription that read "Kemper Village Mausoleum."  They moved the T-bar, and Becca the ditch digger managed to pick the lock.   They opened the doors to find a single room.  Lining the walls were shelves with urns full of ashes; while the center of the room held a raised platform with an altar on it.  On the alter was a three-branched oil-lamp with symbols of law, neutrality and chaos on it.  On the front of the altar the same symbols were engraved, with the names Aros, Topha and Samana under each one in turn.  The party lit all three wicks, and called out each name in turn, which caused the glow to become brighter than daylight.  Searching the room, they found a hidden door opposite the entrance, which revealed a stairway leading down into the ground.

Exploring below, they battled zombies and skeletons, and both Daxter the cutpurse and Vriska the gambler lost their lives in combat.  The survivors found several gems and some gold, camped out in houses in the village, then headed back to Milburn Hall the next morning.  On the way, they kept a look out for the great bird, and at the downed tree, no orcs were to be seen, so they continued back without paying a toll.

While the injured rested for ten days, half the group wove baskets out of brambles, while the other half cut a new path from the front of Milburn Hall due north toward the stream.  It took them an additional ten days to cut all the way through.  At breakfast the next morning, they found that two men had gone out overnight to collect firewood, and had never returned.  They found footprints and followed them back to the kobold tunnels.  Each player picked one character to enter the tunnels.  This smaller group took torches and followed the tunnels.  A giant rat attacked as they were exploring, but it was dispatched with ease.  After almost an hour, the tunnel dipped down and opened up in a stone cavern where the party could again stand up.   A group of eleven kobolds confronted them, and the party bribed them with a bunch of excess equipment to win their escape.  As quickly as they could get out into the sunlight again, they returned will all their characters... only to find the kobolds no longer there.  The party began to explore, and quickly found a corrider leading out of the cavern.  Turning their backs on the cavern, they marched 2 by 2 into the 8 foot wide corrider, which proved to be a trap.  The front row was attacked and one round later the rear of the party was attacked as well.  Roxy, Jak, Bardzz and Baisil all lost their lives in the ambush, but after eight kobolds died, the rest fled, letting the characters escape again from the tunnels.

Back at Milburn Hall, J, who'd lost his last two characters, created a new batch:  Rudy, a baker, Merin, a fortune teller, Salvador, an alchemist, a minstrel named Shern, and a wizard's apprenticed named Draco.

This time, after recuperating, the group decided to skip the kobold tunnels and head back to the village.  Grimm and Penn carried the bodies of Bardzz and Baisil with them for internment in their house at the village.  On their way, they found the orcs had replaced the fallen tree with a double wall of tree trunks sunk vertically into the ground, with a door in the center.  An orc stood above them and told them the cost was again a silver coin apiece in order to pass.  Grimm and Penn called out saying they were on their way home to bury their dead, and could they pass for free?  A lucky reaction roll had the orc grant them approval, and the entire party was allowed to pass without paying.

Before reaching the village, the party was again attacked by the giant bird, which managed only to snag and drop the corpse of Bardzz.  The party hid under the trees, and the bird gave up and flew on.

Back in the mausoleum the party continued exploring the first basement, battling zombies, skeletons and rot grubs.  Merin the fortune teller was killed by a zombie.  The party found a deep pit, but their torches weren't strong enough to let them see the bottom.  They dropped bones and three zombie corpses and estimated the pit to be almost 50 feet deep.  They tied their ropes together, and knotted it every few few feet to make a climb down easier.  Three members successfully climbed down the pit, but Bec Noir slipped and fell to her death, impaling herself on ribs sticking out of the zombies they'd dumped.  The rest of the party stayed above, keeping an eye out for wandering monsters.  At the bottom, the smaller group explored the corridor in both directions, finding stairs leading further down, several doors they ignored, and a room with two zombies.  After killing the zombies, they found a chest full of gold, then battled several more zombies, one of which killed Penn the scribe.  As the party hoisted the chest of coins up from the pit, there were forced to battle one more zombie, which had climbed aboard for the ride up.  Leaving the mausoleum, they again camped in village houses, then headed for Milburn Hall in the morning.  This time, when they reached the orcs' wall; a new guard appeared on the wall and looked them over.  Seeing the ornate wooden trunk they carried, he told them the toll was a gold piece each.  Turning back, they went north a half mile then left the path and went half a mile to the east before again turning south.  They defeated a small group of orcs, and made it back to Milburn Hall to rest and recover.

After receiving their experience points, one character, Grimm the ditch digger, had earned enough to become a first level character.  He opted to become a mage, and was told he'd need to receive a month of training.

Again, the players said they really liked the much simpler rules, and how much faster play could be.  All in all, everyone seemed to have a good time, even J, who had to start on his second batch of zero level characters.

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!