Play reports

Gunderholfen – Between a harder place and a bigger rock (session 13)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Screaming Devilkin that the PCs killed last session wasn’t that dangerous in itself but the ruckus he made sure attracted attention!

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Torchbearer, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4A

  • The Battle Brothers go back at the entrance of Level 4 nearby and there they see someone coming from the south. It’s an orc, grievously wounded but still standing. They decide to capture him so they can interrogate him at their leisure and get more information about this level. They jump on him but right at this moment there’s much noises coming from the ogre lair just the other side of the eastern door.
  • The orc isn’t happy either at the idea of meeting with ogres and they all flee together southward and then east into natural passages – unexplored territory yet for the PCs.
  • There’s boiling sounds coming from the east and it’s also noticably warmer the more they advance. The orc says it’s not a good place, better follow him and get to his home he says. The PCs accept to follow him.
  • They backtrack a little and now they see several ogres (five of them) coming their way. They hurry and turn south and then east, fleeing away from the brutes. After more than an hundred feet they turn north and soon get at the entrance of a large cavern (dimly lit).
  • There’s a lower section in the middle of the cavern with an island in the middle. To the left and right are also elevated sections and five orc archers stand on each side, bow at the ready.
  • The wounded orc shouts: « don’t shoot, it’s Snagrat! » They shoot anyway, the orc get hit by a several arrows and dies. Torch the not-expendable-goblin-anymore blocks many arrows with his nice dwarven shield.
  • The PCs hear the ogres behind them and they decide to they’d be better taking on the orcs and they all try to jump on the eastern section (I’ve messed up with the difference in elevations, that shouldn’t have been possible, oops o_O).
  • They all succeed to jump, except Ghardeet who didn’t react quickly enough (slow iniative) and gets caught by a massive blow from an ogre’s club from behind and he’s down! Aracyne shouts to Ghardeet to get up already (rally) and get with them and the mage makes an ultimate effort, get on his feet and tries a levitate spell but fails, falls down all the way to the bottom of the cliff and dies…
  • The Battle Brothers have lost their hired mage and are now fighting against 5 orcs in melee. The 5 archers on the other side concentrate their fire on the ogres for the moment and kill the closer one, the one who clubbed Ghardeet, forcing the remaining ogres to turn tail. The archers then switch their focus on the adventurers and shoot at them but, in the confusing melee, they hit their comrades as often as not.
  • Aracyne isn’t in melee though, he stays behind his companions with his bow and he kills two orc archers and disable another over the course of the fight. He manages to evade several arrows aimed at him too (good evade skill and fast footwork).
  • Meanwhile, Forka, Jedri and Torch slowly gain the advantage despite being initially outnumbered. They eventually kill all 5 orcs on their side but they’re also all pretty banged up from this fight, with heavily-armored Forka being the least wounded.
  • But now they see a throng of orc warriors coming from the west and they don’t have much choice but fleeing the way they came, with the remaining orc archers shooting at them (but missing fortunately). Forka throws Torch moria-style across the chasm (as his acrobatic skill his poor and he suffers from a condition making it even more difficult) and then himself, Jedri and Aracyne jump back on the southern section.
  • They hurry down the passage to get away from the orc arrows. The ogres don’t seem to have lingered fortunately.
  • They want to go back at the level’s entrance and they go westward but then they see a giant lizard (pretty much like a komodo dragon in my mind, bacteriological-hazard bite included) coming at them from a side-passage (random encounter) and they now sprint to escape.
  • They’re in sight of the entrance, the stairs, with the giant lizard breathing down Aracyne’s neck (last on marching order) and they can see an ogre sort-of keeping watch nearby. They dash for the stairs. Aracyne dodges a bite attempt from the giant lizard and then also manages to get into the stairs. Now the ogre and giant lizard face each other and start fighting harryhausen-style and the adventurers climb up not looking down. Halfway, Aracyne throws up from exertion (sickly condition) and almost fall to his death but he wills himself and soldiers on.
  • From Level 3 they get to Level 2 pretty quickly with the ladder that leads to the secret room and then they’re down to Level 1 in no time.
  • There their hobgoblin allies complain that the blockade of Level 1 isn’t doing that great, the adventurers are inflicting heavy casualties on them. But they also trapped one party into the special room, they’re there right now but one adventurer mage have blocked access with a magic stone wall. By the time the hobgoblins manage to enter the room the adventurers are gone, the portcullis trapping them smashed open. There’s one dead adventurer left in the room, it seems like the Black Axes don’t care that much for each other.
  • Chief Nerulf is in a bad mood and he tells the Battle Brothers that since they lost his mage (Ghardeet) he’ll keep theirs (Hedralynn) as his warriors need a healer.
  • The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen to go back in Longfelt and, apart from a few stings from angry wasps, don’t have any troubles crossing Ganfal Swamp.

Closing Comments:

  • Very near tpk territory here. In fact if I hadn’t messed up with the elevation in the orc cavern I don’t think they could have survived.
  • I’m a bit disappointed by myself for that mistake really. Not that they haven’t been killed but I very much like verticality in dungeons, something that is often lacking, so to mess this up is annoying. Less skimming through the rooms’ description I guess.
  • The rally mechanics in Dragonbane allows for a fellow characters to « persuade » another to still act even getting down to 0 hp. I was on the fence about that but I think it makes sense narratively speaking and I’m all for it now. There’s also a « 3 failures- 3 successes » count (borrowed from D&D 5E no doubt) and that I don’t like that much and I’m replacing with the grittier Frail feature from Worlds without Number where one is kept at just another hitpoint from dying unless he receives magical healing.
  • Fleeing in unkown territory is very very risky. Their orc « guide » had his own motives for sure. The issue of whom to trust is maybe a bit too much to ask from my young players though. They have a nice childhood, why wouldn’t they be trustful? Well ttrpgs are good for a variety of reasons, one is to simulate non-favorable situations and learn from those perhaps (i.e not everyone has your best interest in mind).
  • I like the concept of the Screaming Devilkin monster. More of an alarm system than a real threat, it does only light damage but is hard to kill (27hps as per the book). The real threat of course is in having a good chance of provoking a random encounter and possibly alerting nearby denizens too. I’m thinking about making them somewhat more prevalent in the dungeon, that may be a bit evil…

Gunderholfen – Into the Darkness (session 12)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

With the kiigoths dead, the entrance to Level 4 is freed. However, the PCs will get to discover that Level 4 is not so easily conquered…

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Torchbearer (Edmond)
  • Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4

  • The Battle Brothers (their official guild name now) go down the long slippery stairs to Level 4A.
  • They get into a rectangular room, there’s a stuck door east, with deep ogre voices coming from the other side.
  • The PCs go south down a slope and into a natural passage. They look into a small cavern on their right and find several dead orcs, hard to tell what they died from.
  • They go south and ascend a little now and come in front of a 10′ wide chasm barring their way. They all jump over on the other side without any special precautions.
  • They’re inside a large cavern and further south into a smaller one with no exits and suddenly their torchlight diminish to only the faintest of glow. From the darkness a small, stunted-built humanoid comes at them with a wicked dagger but Jedri the ratman reacts quickly and stab him first, with both his daggers, the Dark Creeper dies and his body releases a dazzling flash of light.
  • Inspecting the room further Forka feels a slight draft of air from the southern part of the cavern and the party soon discover a secret door (that lead to Level 4C).
  • They follow a long, sinuous passage and get into a small cavern where they’re immediately ambushed by 3 other Dark Creepers (their torchlight almost extincted again). One Dark Creeper place himself behind Torch and is going to slit his throat but Forka saves his underling by rushing to his help (Heroic Ability: guardian) and takes the hit instead (mostly blocked by his superior chainmail). Jedri gets stabbed and is hurt. Aracyne kills an opponent with a well-placed arrow but the ensuing burst of light dazzles Ghardeet. Forka kills another with a big blow of his two-hands hammer and Jedri kills the last one.
  • The PCs get a bit further and Aracyne spots two Dark Creepers standing on ledges on each side above the floor. He shoots and kills one. The other jumps and dash towards the PCs but he quickly meets his demise.
  • They then fail to spot a well-concealed trap and Torch falls into a spiked pit trap and is fatally wounded. Only magic can save him but Ghardeet doesn’t see any value in saving the still (for him) expendable goblin. He’s finally convinced with the gift of a wine jug. Torch is saved.
  • Thence, they get to the entrance to a large cavern but before they get in another Dark Creeper jumps on them from somewhere above. Jedri, the fast-footed thief, manage to evade the blade that targeted him and his own hit connects efficiently. A flash of light but everyone cover their eyes in time.
  • Other Dark Creepers come out from somewhere inside the large cavern. Aracyne kills one with a well-placed arrow. Ghardeet kills another with his magically-augmented staff.
  • With no immediate danger the PCs come across a hut furter into the cavern, search it but nothing much of interest.
  • There’s a rope bridge that goes over a large chasm and the PCs get across. On the other side they follow a reddish cobblestone patway that lead to another cavern with several huts. There isn’t anyone there but the adventurers do some good looting in coins, jewelry and semi-precious stones.
  • Further south the adventurers hear a piercing whsitle sound and then fight against 3 more Dark Creepers that they vanquish without much trouble.
  • There’s a guard hut nearby and a large palissade south-east with large double doors. The doors are slowly opening and large throng of Dark Creepers, dozens, emerge from the palissade.
  • The adventurers can’t hope to win against such numerous foes and flee the way they came. They have to be quick, any delay and they’ll get a blade between their shoulders. They manage to get across the rope bridge and they quickly cut it down from their side, this is met with nothing more than threatening whispers from the other side of the chasm.
  • The PCs get all the way back to the entrance of Level 4A.
  • They go north into a corridor and then west. They spot a skeleton (unmoving) inside a small room, adorned in chainmail and his skull crushed.
  • Next room they get assaulted by a monkeyish Screaming Devilkin that took surprisingly many blows to kill, and yes, screaming devilishly loud all the while. Troublesome situation.
  • TBC…

Closing Comments:

  • A series of fight that went really well and then a desperate flight. Things can change fast!
  • There’s a whole village of Dark Creepers and the book specifies that since it’s their home they try to kill the intruders instead of just stealing from them like they would do elsewhere in the dungeon.
  • I’ve changed a bit the effect of darkness, or at least the fluff, the way I describe it – the Dark Creepers aren’t casting the spell Darkness in my version, rather their bodies just absord light (and release it upon dying). I don’t know, not important but I prefer it this way, like it’s something of a quasi-natural biochemical effect. Furthermore I think a 5 or 10′ radius of faint light, a torch reduced to a candle let’s say, with shadowy figures dancing just outside, isn’t that much more reassuring than foes shrouded in darkness I would think.
  • But this time either the Dark Creepers missed their sneaking checks or the PCs succeeded their awareness checks (even with bane), surprise attacks just did not happened in any of the ambushes.
  • Good reaction from the boys to cut the bridge, twas the only way to survive I think.
  • Ended in hostile territory this time and lot happening in next session…

Gunderholfen – Against the Kiigoths (session 11)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

There’s officialy 5 parties of adventurers (including the PCs) in our campaign that have been given permits to explore Gunderholfen. Being the first one in place gave the PCs a huge headstart, particularly with their alliance with the hobgoblins. But now comes a dilemna, do they help their allies against other adventurers and be complicit on such a dubious course of actions or do they let them fare for themselves onward to their incoming annihilation?

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Torchbearer (Edmond)
  • Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Longfelt – Gunderholfen Level 3

  • Leaving Longfelt and all went well with getting across the Ganfal Swamp.
  • In Gunderholfen, they talk to Nerulf who informs them that the Hobgoblins are taking heavy casualties againts adventurers, most recently against a party with 3 magic-users. This party has installed itself in Level 1A for the past few days and is still there. With current rate of losses, Nerulf will remove patrols outside of 1C except the nearest exit in 1B.
  • Unmoved by the hobgoblins plight, the PCs hire Gardheet, the hobgoblin mage (30gp and 10% cut) and go to Level 3, taking the shortcuts they know.
  • Down the ladder in Level 3 they go west where they hear sounds of grunting and growling and open a set of double-doors and come face-to-face against 7 kiigoths.
  • They kill a few quickly but as much as 15 others rush from the 2 adjacent rooms!
  • The PCs take a few steps back to get into the corridor behind them in order not to get immediately surrounded.
  • A long and violent brawl ensues. Kiigoths often keep fighting even when mortally wounded and get more ferocious while doing so. Jedri gets wounded by a club attack but Ghardeet casts stoneskin on him at maximum power and the protected thief is able to stay in the fight and, with one knife in each hand, stab foes left and right. Forka’s chainmail deflects most attacks from the crude weapons but is still getting bruised after getting hit by numerous blows. Aracyne shoots arrows from behind and Torch even manage to burn a couple of kiigoths here and there. With several of his own now dead the bigger, meaner kiigoth leader gets into melee against Forka and has one good hit with his deadly-looking, not-crude-at-all battle-axe but is smashed to pulp by the knight’s 2-h hammer in return. The death of their leader isn’t changing the savage kiigoth’s will to fight unfortunately and the adventurers eventually have to kill them to the last, not without being severely hurt themselves in the process.
  • The fight over, the PCs go to Jedri’s place nearby and Ghardeet heal all their wounds. They then get back to to the big pile of dead kiigoths, but there’s not much else other than the very nice battle-axe (nobody is very proficient with axes though).
  • They then go at the big room south and find big non-locked chests that contain coins, a nice chainmail (taken and wore by Forka) and a big, sturdy dwarven shield (given to the less and less expendable Torch, who’s overjoyed by the gift).
  • Going to the west now, they find a lot of broken, useless stuff and also an intact clay jug of wine. A bit further they also find an okay helmet (to Jedri).
  • They get into a very long and narrow passage going south, there’s also a side-passage going west with a brirge going over fast water. There’s a really bad smell coming from that way though and they decide to go further south instead.
  • They open a door into a room with a statue of a dwarven warrior. They spot a depression on his extended hande but can’t do much with anything and right then, an ooze drops from the ceiling on Forka’s head! Torch burns the ooze a few times with his torch and saves his boss from asphixy. Forka looks at the ceiling fearfully for a while.,
  • Nearby, they see a Sun Face carved into a wall and messing with it, manage to obtain a ruby from its opened mouth. It’s exactly the rigth size for the depression on the statue’s hand and they put it in place. An aura of virile dwarven energy surrounds them and they all feel a bit more competent. Except the elf, virile dwarven energy isn’t for elves obviously.
  • Next room, looking for it, they spot an ooze suspended on the ceiling and they send Torch with his shield up to bait it to drop down, which it does but it somehow slides on the shiels and target Torch’s head and it’s the turn of Forka in coming to the help of his sidekick.
  • The PCs now have found their way to the Level 2 stairs coming from the other way around and connecting their map in the process. They decide to go to the lair of ogres in the central corridor but the door is stuck and that’s enough to dissuade them for the moment.
  • They get back into the long passage west and Jedri, who’s walking a few steps ahead, sees an ogre coming the other way. He’s dragging a kiigoth corpse along.
  • Aracyne tries to cast Augment Weapon on his bow but only gets a nosebleed for his effort. He shoots nonetheless and hurts the ogre. The latter try to bum-rush the elf archer but Forka valiantly gets in front (guardian) and takes the hit instead. He gets slammed hard against the wall but still manages to take a big swing of his hammer at his foe. Jedri then plunges his dagger in the ogre’s chest and gets the kill.
  • Leaving the dead ogre behind but picking up the dead kiigoth, the party goes back to the ogre lair and boldly shouts at the inhabitants that they want to make a deal. Or more of a fait-accompli, since they killed the kiigoths, the enemies of the ogres, they ask that they show them the way to Level 4. The ogres (there seem to be 3 of them) are surprisingly amiable (excellent persuade and reaction roll) to this non-deal and Glorm, their leader escort them to the stairs to Level 4. He also tells the adventurers that there’s an ogre colony in Level 4 (not in good terms with himself) and also an orc colony.

Closing Comments:

  • The players chose to explore and let the hobgoblins fight alone, that’s probably the thing to do. I’ve built an okayish random table to see how goes the protracted fight between the hobgoblins and adventurers and let the dice decide, mostly.
  • Big fight against the kiigoths, close one too. Forgot one major thing on my side though, the squares on the map are 10′ wide, so that was a 20′ wide corridor not a 10′ one like I had in mind. Fighting there wouldn’t do much to prevent encirclement in fact. Bad DM, bad!
  • The ogres of Level 3 were amiable at that moment but will find their dead kin before long. With an arrow protruding from his chest, even an ogre will make the link…
  • They found the entrance to Level 4! The last of the Upper Levels and more complex than what they’ve seen so far, no doubt about that.

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 1: character creation and magic

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Play reports, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ve been using the Dragonbane ttrpg system (DB) for several sessions now- testing the limits of it in fact, with a megadungeon campaign, but I think for the moment I’d do something between a walkthrough and a true review. Suffice to say I like Dragonbane a lot but like every other systems, it also has some flaws.

First thing first, I’ve seen it often called an « OSR » game but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. It’s a fairly light system (the rulebook is slim at 112 pages) and there’s also many random tables (i.e magic mishaps, injuries, etc.), but here the comparison ends as I think the implied style of play is a bit different than OSR (i.e all the different actions you can do in combat).

Character creation:

You have the classical humans, elves, dwarves, halfings and then you’ve also got those guys, the duck-persons mallards and also wolfkin.

Choosing your Kin, you get an ability from it, a small power that you can activate spending willpower points (your wp pool is equal to your willpower score), for example the mallards get « ill-tempered » giving them a boon (advantage, roll twice take best) on attacks at the cost of getting angry (a condition, more on that later).

Choosing a Profession (the complete list: artisan, bard, fighter, hunter, knight, mage, mariner, merchant, scholar and thief), you get an Heroic Ability, another thing you can activate spending willpower points (the fighter for instance gets Veteran, something that lets him play with his initiative order a bit).

If you choose the Mage profession, you don’t get a Heroic Ability but instead get access to three Rank 1 spells and two Magic Tricks from one magic School. Others can also learn magic but not at the beginning.

Next step is rolling your attributes (the same 6, or thereabouts, willpower instead of wisdom, 4d6 take three, assign to one attribute at a time.

Lastly, based on your attributes numbers, you’ll have scores on skills, which are either free or trained (chosen from your profession’s list and a few you can choose as you wish), the minimum is 3, maximum is 14. thus if you have a 17 or 18 score in an attribute on a trained skill, you have 14 for that skill that will be used with a d20 roll under or equal. So, it’s a Roll Under system.

The whole character creation is pretty easy and fast as apart for Kin and Profession most of the choices are already made for you. A few more customizations, rolled randomly (i.e starting gear, a memento), and you’re ready to go. Nothing to complain there, all good.

Magic:

Spells are ranked from 1 to 5, with most within the 1-3 range, with each rank from 2 and above having a lower-ranked spell as a prerequisite.

There’s four magic schools: General, Animism, Elementalism and Mentalism. Everyone that has the Magic Talent heroic ability (from being a mage most probably) can access General magic and also choose one of the three other schools.

You can remember a finite number of spells depending on your Int score but can have more into your Grimoire. The magic system is somewhat Vancian (memorizing spells, spending them and getting to choose anew after resting) but with the addition that you can cast any spells that you have in your Grimoire if you double the casting time (2 rounds instead of 1 for most spells). That’s a nice touch, a bit more flexibility is good.

Spells also take magic points to cast (from you wp pool, as determined by your willpower score) and cost 2, 4 or 6 points depending on how strong you want the effet to be.

So both memorized spells and spell points, a bit cumbersome in my opinion.

But something pretty big is effectively missing from the whole thing: how do you acquire new spells? As it stands, it’e pretty much up to the DM to decide, that’s weird.

I would add that the spells list to choose from is a bit limited, some offensive spells are just stronger versions of lower-ranked ones, making the latter completely obsolete (which also feels wrong). There’s seventeen Rank 1 spells to choose from initially, with not too bad a variety of effects but it could also be better.

There’s also a nice (optional) Magical Mishaps table in case a character roll a 20 (remember, it’s a roll under system) whereas they could vomit a frog the moment they tell a lie for some time or some such.

Addendum:

There was a KS going on recently for financing two more Dragonbane books, one being the Book of Magic… They clearly recognized the need, that’s great, because as it stands the magic part of the game is the weakest.

Part 2 – character development and conditions

Gunderholfen – Back in Longfelt (session 10)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Short session without any combats but in which the PCs managed to get out of the dungeon efficiently (after 3 sessions inside) with the help of their new friends.

1,5 hours

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Forka (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Torch, Goblin Torchbearer (Edmond)
  • Ghardeet (me) Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman
  • Tiali, Ratwoman Thief (me)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief (me)

Level 3

  • We start in Level 3 in a set of rooms occupied by Tiali and Jedri, cursed adventurers turned into rat persons. They shared a nice broth together and had time to rest and talk.
  • Among the things Tiali and Jedri shared is a shortcut to get to the entrance of Level 2. It’s near, to the north, next to the kiigoths’ den.
  • The PCs set for a plan of action, they would get out of the dungeon ao that Tiali could ask in town for a cure to her affliction. Jedri for his part, doesn’t mind being a rat person as it gives some good advantages as a thief and he never was a good-looking fellow anyway.
  • Getting out of the room, wary of the Gelatinous Cube in the vicinity, the PCs go north at the pair of double doors.
  • They get inside a large room that has a dead ogre and 3 dead kiigoths, casualties from the conflict going on between these two sides.
  • There’s a locked room at the left but the two thieves warn that there’s something dangerous inside.
  • Door to the right, there’s a small closet with a lone skull in a corner. Forka smashes it with his 2h hammer and kills a green centipede at the same time.
  • Going north they get into another large room with another dead ogre (no kiigoths this time) and a ladder next to the northern wall.
  • Forka goes first up the ladder followed by Torch (they named the goblin follower by what he does) and everybody else and up they go for a 100 feet until they reach a secret room right next the great hall, the entrance of Level 2!
  • From there they get among their hobgoblin allies and separate from Ghardeet and Torch until their next delve, maybe.
  • They get out under the sun, which they haven’t seen for several days, and start the trek through Ganfal Swamp. Aracyne the hunter manages to lead them well through the treacherous swamp and they reach the town of Longfelt before the end of the day. They leave Tiali to her own device but promise Jedri to invite him for the next delve.
  • Forka and Aracyne both takes training course in their respective guilds, pay 100 gold each and learn new tricks.
  • They’re then ready to leave for their next delve, out in the farmlands they encounter a patrol of horsemen and talk with them a little. They learn that the adventuring party « The Protectors » led by Bayard came back from Gundeholfen a few days ago with 9 pairs of hobgoblin ears that will earn them money by one Reginald in town, a Halfling inn-owner who pays for any dead hobgoblins.
  • The PCs are unsure if they can do something about that at first but then decide to turn back and talk to Reginald at his inn. They learn thar Reginald’s village had suffered heavily from hobgoblin raids in his youth and now he spends his money to avenge himself.
  • TBC…

Closing comments:

  • No big eventful things happening but a very useful session nonetheless for the players as they progress in their knowledge of Gunderholfen.
  • Jedri will be a nice addition to the team.
  • I finally chose how to deal with the Ganfal swamp in my game: I make Aracyne the hunter makes a bushcraft check, that’s a skill in DB, if he succeeds there’s still a 1 on 6 chance of encounters, if he fails there’s a roll on the Dragonbane journeys’ mishaps table and also a 1 on 6 chance of encounters. At the moment, there’s still a bit more than 50% chance that something inconvenient/bad happening which seems fair to me.
  • Forka learned the heroic ability Massive Blow with his weeklong training and Aracyne learned Fast Footwork with his.

Frosthaven – Apotheosis (76)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Final scenario of the Threat from the Deep (Personal Quest), a Boss Fight obviously. We do the Enemy to the Fish King version, as we’re not fools.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 6, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 8, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

The Fish King is rapidly gaining power and the disruptive Chaos energy that surrounds him means that he’s not entirely of this world anymore. This mean in effect that each time he loses one quarter of his HPs be becomes invulnerable and we have to move into some kind of pocket dimension, kill demons and come back to hurt him again.

Some weird thing is going on with the Fish King…
Gaining access to tentacles is a sure sign of success in life for some people.
One Piranah Pig each for Pearce and Schlurkt but Pantherius is hurting the Fish King bad!
First interlude with Wind Demons.
And we’re back at it. Missed us?
Shadow Demons now? Dispersed.
The Fish King calls in reinforcement.
But he’s getting assailed relentlessly.
Ice Demons now, their retaliate is worrisome.
And now he’s got no more tricks.
Final blow from Pantherius and the Fish King has officially botched his apotheosis…

Closing comments:

  • The Fish King had heavy-hitting attacks but only one per turn so not too worrisome.
  • Dealing with the demons, and killing them fast, was more challenging.
  • Both the Metal Mosaic and the Pain Conduit are retiring so two new characters for next time and a whole new team dynamics for us.

Frosthaven – Infiltrating the Lair (75)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Penultimate scenario of the Threat from the Deep‘s Personal Quest.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 6, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 8, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

We’re infiltrating the lair of the Fish King. Water tiles are harmful (if we end our tun on one) cause they’re brimming with chaotic energy or something. Furthermore we have two explosive charges to use on tunnels inside, to effectively stop enemy reinforcement.

We have a narrow path to navigate and we have to stop the Abael Herder in the back quickly.
But these electric eels are fast and bity.
Pearce jumps ahead and get the fight to the piranah herder.
He’s dead, we move on! Schlurkt, stop messing around and kill your eel already.
Inside, a large room with two more entrances, and more enemies.
Schlurkt, you’re coming or what?
These piranahs are ferocious!
All clear, where do we go?
Pantherius opens the door: « Schlurkt, go set the charge, quick! »
Meanwhile, Pearce has gone to the other area and does the same, no more enemies this way.
But chaotic energy coalesce into two Chaos Demons.
And charge into poor Pearce’s back.
His companions are very far from him.
Pantherius get into the last area where there’s three chests to be found! And Ice Demons…
Schlurkt does his best to go help his endangered companion.
And gets there in time.
Whilst Pantherius is busy on his own and then kill the last enemy. It’s Victory!

Closing comments:

  • Hard scenario with many possibilities to get derailed.
  • I was stuck fighting the eels way for one more turn when I picked the Miss card and was left behind by my ever-rushing friends.
  • Fortunately, we managed well the biggest hurdle of collapsing the tunnels quickly. I had a convenient Teleport 5 at my disposal at the right time.
  • The Metal Mosaic was put in a bad spot as he was suddenly the closest to the appearing Chaos Demons and couldn’t anticipate this turn of event. I got there to help in 2 turns as the Deepwraith has good mobility.

Frosthaven – Gaps in the Road (74)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Third part (out of 5) of the Threat from the Deep personal quest that we’re doing for the Metal Mosaic character.

Characters

  • Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 5, a crab that goes stab stab stab
  • Pantherius Octadine the Pain Conduit (Mathieu) lvl 7, loves the pain, shares the pain
  • Pearce DeWalt the Metal Mosaic (Guillaume) lvl 7, the pressure is rising!

We have a clue for an artifact we’ve been seeking for a while but the path going there is narrow and flooded.

In this scenario water tiles aren’t just difficult terrain as usual but full-on obstacles. We have the option of « killing » trees, felling them in order to get over the water.

Algox archers are shooting at us from the other side.
Pearce brings the fight to them while Schlurkt prefers looting.
It’s hard to manoeuvre into such a narrow place.
Schlurkt gets into the next area, quickly kills another archer but gets peppered by the remaining three and is badly wounded.
Fortunately his metallic companion takes the lead.
Schlurkt teleports to the other side, soon followed by Pantherius and Pearce, after the latter made a proper path to walk on (destroyed an obstacle). Pantherius does what he does and kills the enemies after they’d hurt him.
Still more Algox trying to stop us, assisted by Faery Imps.
Pearce is now heavily damaged but is killing foes left and right.
Pantherius clears the northern side of the room.
The last remaining archer is hidden behind traps and a tree.
Nothing that would stop an annoyed Metal Mosaic.
He then takes on a swarm of Piranha Pigs almost all by himself (with some minor help from Schlurkt). We’ve vanquished our foes but the objective was already taken away by the insolent Fish King…

Closing Comments:

  • As I understand it, the scenario changed (slightly) to adapt to a previous choice we made, whether we’d accepted the deal offered by the Fish King or not.
  • With all the options of getting invisible I have with the Deepwraith, I still managed to open a room and get plain visible in the middle of it and then lost a card to not die. Bad play this one.
  • Guillaume and his Metal Mosaic really pushed the pace and was, once more I felt , really reckless. He explained to me afterward that he hasn’t much choice with this character, with its pressure mechanics, it must be played accordingly. He did a lot to win the scenario mind you but one tiny bit of bad luck and he’d would lost his character (permadeath on) it seemed to me.
  • I’ve looted everything I could in this one, both because of a battle goal but also because we’re short on resources to further build in town. It felt underwhelming, less impactful than killing enemies let’s say, but it is a part of the game.

Gunderholfen – Stinky Halls of Level 3 (session 9)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Second session at our cabin. The boys nearly got themselves killed the previous session in Level 2 so the logical thing to do is to go deeper, of course!

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Forka (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Ghardeet (me) Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman
  • Expendable & Nameless Goblin (me)

Having fled from Living Deads and Giant Ants, their wounds magically healed by Ghardeet their hobgoblin honorary mage, the PCs are ready to explore some more. They start by opening the door in the large boulders room and it’s not long before they find a set of stairs that goes down and down…

Level 3

  • With Expendable Nameless Goblin now officially the group’s torchbearer (he tries hard to be useful and is obsequious to Forka, his savior), the PCs exit the stairway into a dwarf-made room with layered stone and bricks and 3 sets of double-doors.
  • Listening to each doors, the PCs finally opt to open the northern ones and enter into a very long hallway that goes well beyond their torchlight.
  • Aracyne listens to the first door at their right and hear some metallic scrapings and they decide to let it be.
  • They go the next and see that it’s staked to make it unopenable.
  • Still further on the hallway, in an open area at their right, they see a sun-face carved on the wall. They interact with it, manage to make it open its mouth but it doesn’t seem to do much else.
  • Everything is quiet at the next door and they open it to reveal a small room with a pedestal in the middle, with drawings of dwarves holding something up. Ghardeet casts sense magic and says there’s some dwarven-affiliated magic at work here but isn’t able to do anything with it.
  • Next room, after opening the door, Forka’ sense of smell is assaulted by overwhelming body odors, rot, excrements and other unpleasantness. A trophy of sort is in the middle of the room, with non-human (pointy teeth, giant bat? feline?) skulls on display and with a crude drawing of large matchstick men smashing smaller figures with their clubs.
  • Listening to the door they can hear several loud snorings coming from nearby.
  • The PCs get out of this smelly den of brutes and continue north, still in the long hallway.
  • Now in a large doorless room, full of large mushrooms, something is moving amongst them but hidden from view. They send in E & N Goblin (thus proving that his expendable status still applies), he wearily moves into the mushrooms and soon let out a surprised yap and flees back to the adventurers, pursued by a Giant Beetle. The beast is obviously heavily-armored so Aracyne aims at a weak spot with one of his newly-acquired magic arrow and inflicts a severe wound. A massive blow from Forka’s 2H hammer is enough to slay the dangerous monster before it could do much (slow iniative). A good search of the floor beneath the mushrooms revealed an impressive hoard of coins as well as dozens of semi-precious and precious stones. Treasure, at last! They also collect several rations worth of edible mushrooms.
  • Thence, the PCs get out of the mushrooms room, continue their way north and, after a 45 degree angle turn, get in front of a large cistern, water dripping in it from the ceiling – and more importantly, before 4 surprised, hairy humanoids that were busy filling many waterskins (more than for their own use for sure).
  • The adventurers quickly fell 2 Kiigoths before they even reacted. Those, despite being mortally wounded, still had the will to fight but one more blow each and they stopped moving. The 2 surviving creatures proved no match for the PCs who won the fight without a scratch.
  • The PCs refilled their own waterskins and then checked the great double-doors across the cistern but couldn’t open them, even with their combined strength – they were blocked from the other side most likely.
  • They then got back to the stairway room and went east from there, past another set of double-doors.
  • They got into a large rectangular room with a basin within filled with murky, smelly water full of algae.
  • They open a door and get into a long hallway with many doors and openings. Aracyne listens to the first door at their right but is immediately assaulted by some kind of psychic attack and is disheartened.
  • Not opening this door, they go further in the hallway and turn right, into a side corridor and then left, which gets them back in the main hallway. (it wasn’t obvious beforehand, proceeding forward with torchlight hides much) They see a small, sooth-covered room in front of them but also, oddly enough, there’s a floating sword (in its sheath), very near them at their left.
  • Forka try to seize the sword but screams in pain as he forcibly pulls back his forearm, acid goo dripping from it. The sword (and its near-invisible Gelatinous Cube holder) then lunges forward but Forka and his companions retreat hastily.
  • Seeing that they run faster than the « sword », the PCs calmed down a little and lured the monster in the side-corridor just enough so they could then have time to get to the unexplored area.
  • They opened a door (didn’t have time to listen) into a narrow corridor and came face to face with two armed rat-persons (rat-headed humanoids, clothed, not too unkempt). Both facing them, obviously ready, one in front with a wicked dagger, one behind with a spear. As the PCs didn’t attack outright, the rat-person with the dagger started talking, said that he was named Jedri and his companion was Tlali and enquired who they (the PCs) were. Aracyne told them they were adventurers, that they came in peace and reassured them enough so that the two rat-persons invited them to their dinner in the adjacent room. There, a cauldron of broth was put above a small fire and the PCs added mushrooms and fish and thus enhanced it considerably, making everybody one step happier.

Closing Comments:

  • Level 2 is now mapped something like 85% but several rooms were barely entered because they seemed to hold danger in them.
  • Related to this, before finding the Mushrooms room hoard, Isaac complained of the lack of treasure (they found nothing significant since the meagre kobolds’ treasure) but, well, it’s a push-your-luck game. There IS treasure, but it often comes with danger.
  • If Level 1 was mainly humanoids and Level 2 mostly populated with critters (with a few surprises here and there), Level 3 is more mixed, having two groups of humanoids within (among other things). Still pretty vanilla stuff, but it gets weirder the deeper you go in Gunderholfen, oh, yes it does.
  • The encounter with the Gelatinous Cube was fun, a beginner’s mistake by 10 yo Edmond for sure, but we have to do them in order to learn… I was lenient, giving them time to react (rolling ini) instead of being surprised, next time though…
  • Jedri and Tlali in the book are supposed to be evil wererats that will try to murder PCs with a devious plan but I’ve changed them into cursed adventurers and potential allies in my game. They know some useful stuff about the dungeon too (not shared yet) and at least one could become an hireling if the players wish so.

Gunderholfen – Mud Spa of the Living Dead (session 8)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’re back from our first trip of the season at our cabin. Just in time to catch some morels too! Weather was good at first but got rainy afterward – no matter, I had brought something to entertain me and the boys…

Short session: 1 1/2 hours

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Forka (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Ghardeet (me) Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman
  • Expendable & Nameless Goblin (me)

Level 2

  • We start inside the dungeon, in the southern part of Level 2 (which is about 80% natural caverns), in a large cavern lit by a sofly-glowing green moss.
  • Checking his map, Aracyne first leads the group to an unexplored, low-ceilinged area nearby where they find a message scribbled on a wall: « Find the Floating Level. Nym ». Their second reference to the « Floating Level » to date.
  • Otherwise it’s a cul-de-sac and they go back at the large-boulders cavern (where they fought the Vilstraks) and check the door they found earlier, see that it’s locked and decide to go explore another area instead.
  • They go into a long, twisting and ascending passage and get into new territory in the south-west corner of Level 2.
  • There’s a chasm to their right with Giant Ants on the other side, with some bigger ones too but they don’t seem too agressive for the moment (good reaction roll).
  • Further on they get at the entrance of a room covered by mist that reeks of rot and decay and Forka can also smell the presence of some unknown predatory beasts lurking nearby. They don’t enter the room and prefer to go in another area.
  • In a smaller cavern they find broken crates and searching them they find 2 quivers full of arrows. Five of the arrows are rather deadly-looking and Aracyne is happy to take them all.
  • In the next cavern they find an obelisk with writings on it (dwarven?) but unfortunately nobody can translate it in the group.
  • Thence, they get at the entrance of a warm cavern obscured by steam. Mud covers the floor and there’s several bubbling pools that let out jets of steam interminently. And Forka detects a faint odor of rotting flesh. The PCs get inside to investigate and immediately find what is obviously a gravestone.
  • A rotting hand emerges from the mud! Several corpses, dwarf-sized, with dead flesh half-boiled half-rotten, slowly extirpate themselves from the ground – enough to send the PCs running for their lives.
  • They get back to the broken crates area where they decide to make a stand against the incoming Living Dead. Aracyne shoots an arrow and manages to miss. Forka is charged by a Living Dead and almost get his heart torn out, he takes big damage! The PCs are now gueninely worried and start to flee again with Expendable & Nameless Goblin, already scared (a condition in DB), going first and Aracyne taking the back and shooting his bow when he can.
  • They near the chasm but E&N Goblin get assaulted by a Soldier Ant, is severely wounded and trapped under it. 2 Worker Ants are also blocking the way and threaten the adventurers.
  • With the Living Dead coming behind (they’re typical zombie-slow fortunately), the PCs do an all-out attack against the Ants. Ghardeet wound a Worker Ant with his magic-augmented Iron Fist Staff.
it looks like this
  • Aracyne wounds the Soldier Ant with an arrow and Forka finishes it with a big blow of his 2H hammer. Aracyne then kills the wounded Worker Ant, Ghardeet shove the other one down the chasm. E&N Goblin is still stuck under the corpse of the Soldier Ant and pleads for his life, Ghardeet reminds his companions of his E&N status but Forka takes upon himself of saving him and pulls him out of his predicament.
  • Aracyne takes a parting shot at one Living Dead and has aimed well but his target doesn’t seem to care much that he’s supposed to be dead. The PCs then hurry away because several other Giant Ants are coming from the walls and ceiling to cross the chasm. Some go at the Living Dead and some others at the adventurers.
  • The PCs interrupt a moment their flight to throw food at the Giant Ants, some rations and fish they had caught earlier (but not all), and that seems to distract the insects out of their pursuit.
  • They reach once again the big cavern with large boulders and unite their efforts to move one of the boulder to block the way they came (there’s another way to the north-east and a door to the south-west). Ghardeet then heal Forka and reluctantly, after being convinced to, also E&N Goblin.

Closing Comments:

  • My nephew Olivier was supposed to come along with us at the cabin but couldn’t make it unfortunately. I’ve found the solution to still have a decent group of PCs with the addition of the hobgoblin shaman and expendable goblin, putting their prior efforts to the forefront in this manner.
  • I try as much as I can to feed inputs for Forka’ superior sense of smell and telegraph things to the players accordingly. I’m quite amazed in fact at how a great sense of smell could be even better than darkvision in a dungeon environment and more appropriate to nuances in many cases. Quite the revelation to me.
  • They truly got themselves between a rock and a hard place with the Living Dead and Giant Ants. Pushing forward with enemies at your flank wasn’t a sound exploration strategy and I think the boys learned that.
  • I think the Living Dead in Dragonbane are a lot more dangerous than classical D&D zombie meatbags, maybe a bit too much even. They’re not unbeatable either, I think I’ll keep them as is, the players just have to be careful about it.