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.

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.

• 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.