Dolmenwood Session Report 4-5: Windler House from Ragged Hollow Nightmare

 Previously, the party ran through Winter's Daughter and reunited an Elf princess with her lover. 

The party:

Gunkuss the Grim: A cowardly wood-grue fighter, who travels to sate his curiosity and find treasure. Recently bit the head off a magical dove at a wedding and was permanently turned purple, which he describes as an improvement.

Dombo the Green: An unintelligent Moss-Dwarf magic-user. Wants to become a better mage but is not interested in putting in much effort. Can talk to birds.

Episcopia the Judge: A nerdy human cleric of the church of the one true god. Kind of a nerd. Wants to FIGHT EVIL. 

Boots Tippler: A grimalkin bard who looks like Garfield. An extravagant showman, desires Fame and Fortune and something else starting with an F. 

In between sessions, Brad was spirited away by the Elven Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk to dwell with her in her tower forevermore as her consort/pet (his player had to drop out cause hey it's college).

In session 4, the party began exploring the town of Prigwort, which I played as a combination of Prigwort from Dolmenwood's zine issue 6 and the module Ragged Hollow Nightmare. After asking around town and hearing a few rumors, they decided to explore the old Windler House (detailed in Ragged Hollow Nightmare). The house had been owned by a wealthy aristocratic family, the last of whom had been a paranoid inventor who guarded the family's wealth with a multitde of traps. People also claimed the house was haunted.

• The party decided to enter the house through the window, reasoning that doors are usually trapped (it wasn't but better safe than sorry). They found themselves in a large study and made the acquaintance of a pale ghostly butler named Andrew. Andrew showed no awareness that he was a ghost or that the house was completely fallen apart and rigged with death traps, and instead acted like the party were normal visitors to Master Windler. The party had a good time roleplaying with Andrew. I played him as completely confused and oblivious to anything that was going on- he didn't notice when the party started basically tearing down the house looking for stuff, or later on when they started finding his master's reanimated corpse.  
• The party bypassed several traps, including a deadly chandelier and a bunch of shrimp-forks rigged to trip wires, mostly by throwing about a hundred books into the room until the traps ran out of ammo. They also found Andrew's long-dead skeleton, which had several shrimp-forks still embedded in his skull.
• They eventually made their way to the top floor where they found Master Windler, who was now a reanimated zombie, which they made short work of and then burned in the fireplace just in case he decided to resurrect. Andrew showed no awareness of the fact that his master was obviously a zombie, only saying he was of "slightly ill health as of late."
• The party also found a pair of clockwork shoes with tiny buttons on the heels. Boots put them on and tried clicking his heels together and was immediately launched 60 feet in the air, crashing through the ceiling and landing on the roof, where he took 13 damage and fell unconscious, prompting the party to return to town to heal up. 
• The party returned the next day. While exploring they found that the last room was filled with snakes. 
• Dombo, who can talk to birds, lured in two magpies. They used one of them as bait for the snakes, luring about half the snakes out through the window. Gunkuss, who had developed a taste for birds, ate the other one.
• The party attempted to fight the other 6 snakes, which went about as well as all of their battles:
• They paralyzed two of them with their magical freezing mirror from the tomb of Sir Oisin. 
• Dombo, who has 6 constitution and 4 hit points, got bitten by a snake, failed his save against poison, and fell unconscious. The party carried him off on their mule.
• The snakes failed their morale and ran away.

Notes

• I added in Andrew's dead corpse to the kitchen area of the module- it's a good way to telegraph all the danger in the house, plus it's fun to meet his ghost and then run into his corpse.
• I also added in the master of the house as a zombie in the bedroom, since I wanted a creepy but not-that-hard combat encounter. In the actual module his shadow shows up later in another area, but since I wasn't too sure my players would ever actually go there I figured something should happen now.
• Ragged Hollow Nightmare is a fun little intro scenario since it scatters hooks all over the place and asks the players to follow them. I was a little worried because the players picked what I initially had thought was the most boring of the hooks, but the process of searching for traps actually ended up being really fun, and Andrew the forgetful ghost butler was good comic relief.
• The big "Lesson" I'm learning is that very frequently when reading old-school modules I will think, "how the hell are the players supposed to solve that?" and have an impulse to add clues or make it easier, and every single time the players manage to come up with a solution without too much thought. 
• For example, I was nervous that the clue to get into the tomb in Winter's Daughter would be too opaque ("call to the companions," meaning say the name of the guy's dogs), but the players pretty quickly worked out what they were supposed to do and then went about investigating the tomb to find out his dog's names. 
• Similarly, I was worried about them just walking into the rooms in The Windler House and getting a face full of traps, but once they knew the place was trapped they were super cautious. By the end of it, I actually felt bad there weren't more traps, since they did lots of things that weren't necessary- they checked every single door and window, and at one point chopped through the walls of a room rather than using the door (for some reason they were certain the door was trapped). 
• They also tend to look more carefully for treasure than I anticipate. In this session they pulled all the books out of a shelf to look for hidden doors, pulled the wallpaper off the walls of a room to look for secrets, and looked under all the paintings in the house. In the future I need to start hiding more treasure in places like that.

Next Time: The players fight bandits and get wasted

Dolmenwood Session Report 1-3: Winter's Daughter

I've started running a Dolmenwood campaign for a few players from the D&D club at my college. The system being used is Old School Essentials with a few classes (Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Paladin, and Ranger) from the Advanced Edition, plus separate race and class (I wrote up race versions of the demihumans of Dolmenwood, I might post it here at some point). Our first adventure was Winter's Daughter.

The party consists of:

Gunkus the Grim- A Wood-Grue (kind of a bat-faced flute-playing goblin thing) fighter. The name is actually a misnomer. He is fascinated with humans and travels to sate his curiosity (and to find treasure!). In play has established himself as kind of a coward, inclined to take the money and run and avoid any heroics. Has convinced the rest of the party he's a majestic, well-travelled hero who has fought monsters, in reality is as inexperienced as everyone else. Agile, but not very tough.

Brad - A human fighter. Brad is a hillbilly with a can-do attitude. He worked at the local sawmill with his parents but was enchanted by Gunkus's stories and now works as his squire, which mostly means carrying him around in his backpack. Strong but not too smart. Wants to be an Arthurian Hero.

Dombo the Green - A Moss-Dwarf. His player rolled randomly for class and race so he is a Magic-User despite having 8 Intelligence. Was inspired to leave his small Moss-Dwarf village in the woods and become an adventurer by Gunkus's heroic tales. An idealist and a slacker. Wants to become a better mage but not put in too much effort. Plays the Hurdy-Gurdy (he rolled "musical instrument" as one of his starting items). 

Episcopia the Judge - A human cleric. Started off a follower of the old Druidic religion until her parents were killed, then was raised as an orphan by the Church of the One True God. Became an adventurer to FIGHT EVIL and solve religious secrets. Kind of a nerd.

Boots Tippler - A Grimalkin (3' tall cat with shapeshifting powers) bard. Looks like Garfield. An extravagant showman, desires Fame and Fortune and something else starting with an F. 

As a note, every single member of the party rolled slightly below average stats (between 60 and 62) except for Episcopia, whos stats total 54. Also, I changed Sir Chyde's name to "Sir Oisin" (pronounced Ush-een) for an authentically Irish feel.

1. As the adventure begun, Brad had mystical dreams where a woman in white appeared to him, professed her love to him, and implored him to explore an ancient tomb to bring her a magical ring, promising her heart to him if he could do so. He gathered his four friends and convinced them (though Gunkuss was skeptical of Brad's "Wet dreams") to go explore the tomb from his vision.
   
   
2. In the first room, they found four religious objects on stands. The first four party members entered and nothing happened, but as soon as Boots (the only party member not a member of the Church) entered the objects came to life and attacked! The five of them ran outside and realized the objects did not seem to be able to pass through the tomb entrance. Episcopia did a quick ritual to initiate Boots into the church (sprinkling dirt on his head), though Boots crossed his fingers behind his back. This time when they entered the objects did not come to life, and the party stashed them in their backpack to sell back in town (though Episcopia called it "returning them to the church).
   
   
3. At one point the party encountered a toad that hopped in front of them and said the single word "betrayal." As it tried to hop away Episcopia (rolling Dex) grabbed it, although she was disappointed to find it didn't still talk. The party christened it Dombo, after their Moss-Dwarf companion.
   
   
4. A few rooms down they found a small girl, Adeen, trapped in a circle of mushrooms (added in as a fun OSR-style challenge for the party). She said she was under attack and needed rescuing (Boots called her "the most unconvincing person I've ever met"). Episcopia went in to grab her but was entrapped by the spell of the mushrooms and began telling the other party members to come in as well. The party members used a grappling hook as a lasso to drag the two of them out, although Episcopia got hit in the process. They then returned the girl back to town, vowing to come back soon and complete the tomb. They also gave her Dombo as a pet, and continued to visit her like every session which was pretty adorable.
   
   Back in town the girl's older sister explained that her mother had gone missing after going to look for Adeen, and asked them find her shield and return it to them. 
   
   
5. The party returned a few days later. They found a room with two floating, animated skeletons, and five coffins. The skeletons were covered in slime that was dripping from the ceiling. The party talked to the skeletons, who revealed themselves to be Sir Oisin's parents, and the rest of the coffins to contain their other three children. One of the party had the idea to throw the children's skeletons into the slime and re-animate them as well, allowing the entire family to reunite as dancing skeletons (the module doesn't say what happens if you touch the skeletons with slime but I liked the idea and it seemed reasonable). Gunkuss bottled up some of the slime for later.
   
   
6. The party passed by an enchanted mirror that froze Boots in place. Clued in by scrapes on the floor leading from the room to outside, they dragged his body outside, and found that sunlight reversed the mirror's effects. They took the mirror with them as a weapon, and later used it to defeat some worms (they got lucky and all the worms failed their saving throws).
   
   
7. The party found two large stone doors, guarded by two stone dogs and the inscription "Call to the Companions." They reasoned that saying the names of the dogs would get them through. They found the name of the first one, Chedr, then spent about ten minutes trying to guess the names of other cheeses the other dog might be named. Eventually they went back to searching and eventually found Flaegr's name written in an old book, allowing them entry into the tomb.
   
   
8. Inside the tomb they found Sir Oisin's coffin, and his ghost. He explained that his soul was bound to his magic ring, that if the players took it to his beloved in fairy they would be reunited, and that there was a portal to Fairy somewhere in the tomb. He implored them to help him. He also implored them not to loot all the treasure in his tomb, which the players promptly ignored.
   
   
9. Exploring around the tomb the players found the portal to fairy hidden in the basement, warded by floating candles. Passing through they found themselves at the edge of a frozen lake, with Adeen's mother's body laying next to it and a giant white marble tower in the center. They poured the slime on the skeleton and brought her back into the tomb, bringing her back to life. 
   
   
10. The party approached the tower, ready to explore it and find the princess. They nervously knocked on the door, and had it opened by a goblin and a troll, who explained that this tower was full of guests awaiting the wedding between the lady of the wood and Sir Oisin, and refused the party entry due to them not being on the guest list. To get inside, they posed as a band, which he seemed to accept after they played a song. 
    
    
11. As he led the party inside, the goblin tried to convince them to eat from his magic sack of mushrooms (Winter's Daughter has a list of various random mushroom effects). Dombo tried one and gained +1 to his Wisdom score, inspiring the rest of the party to try as well. Gunkuss gained +1 to his Constitution, Brad shrank to six inches tall and spent the rest of the adventure being carried around by Gunkuss, and Boots began vomiting bugs and had to be left outside so as not to cause a scene. Episcopia turned transparent for an hour, which she spent sneaking around the tower looking for danger. 
    
    
12. The party made it up to the top of the tower where they found the lady, who revealed herself to be a princess of Elfland named Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, and that she was awaiting her lover, Sir Oisin. Brad felt betrayed since he had been promised her hand in marriage. As thanks for their role in reuniting them, the princess offered them either the entire contents of her jewelery box or a wish. The players settled on jewels, and got like 1500 XP each, enough to reach level 2.
    
    
13. The party, since they had claimed to be a band, played at the wedding. They did a splendid job (they rolled 2d6+charisma and got a 12) and impressed all the elfin nobility. Unfortunately, Gunkuss caused a scene by biting the head off a magical dove (this wasn't based on any kind of roll his player just thought it'd be funny) and the party was escorted out by security.
    
    Eating the dove also had the side effect of turning Gunkuss purple. Forever.
    
    
14. On their way back to Prigwort the party encountered two red-hooded figures performing a human sacrifice at a ring of standing stones (technically the module has this at the beginning but I placed it at the end, since encountering the Drune is a weird first encounter IMO). They confronted the figures, who identified themselves as members of the Watchers of the Wood (their real name is the Drune, but I decided to just call them watchers to make them more mysterious), a shady cabal of sorcerers who perform human sacrifices to bolster their magic, which they claimed kept the Elves out of Dolmenwood, and the sacrifice explained that she was totally willing. 
    
    
15. Episcopia tried to talk the sacrifice out of it and convert her to following the Church of the One True God, but was unsuccessful. Gunkuss sneaked up behind the watchers and picked their pockets, earning a wand and a golden bracelet on the first attempt but being noticed on the second, causing the watchers to attack.
    
    
16. The party got lucky with initiative and their attack rolls, and knocked one of the watchers unconscious (Episcopia said she wanted to non-lethal damage and I didn't want to look up the rules for it so I just said he was knocked unconscious when he reached 0 HP), but the second watcher hit Gunkuss with a magic missile, bringing him to -9 HP (one away from death) and knocking him out. She held a dagger to his throat and threatened to slice it open unless the party retreated.  The party acquiesced, loaded Gunkuss onto their mule, and headed back to town, taking with them piles of jewels and treasure...

Notes and Lessons

1. The party pretty quickly adapted to the OSR style. I was nervous about them dying constantly so I adapted Into the Odd's dying rules by saying that characters only die at -10 HP but have to make saves vs paralysis with a penalty equal to their negative HP every time they take damage bringing them to below 0 or fall unconscious, with unconscious characters dying if their wounds are not tended to in an hour. They actually ended up being super cautious anyway- they pretty much retreated from any fight they couldn't immediately win, and in general spent a lot more time scoping things out and investigating stuff than I thought they would.
   
   
2. You can actually downgrade lethality significantly just by playing opponents as actually intelligent beings and not as automatons who fight to the death. I tried to keep in mind what the watchers actually want: they want to complete their ritual and, failing that, survive to do it another day. The remaining one could have easily killed Gunkuss but would probably have been killed by the party, so I figured threatening to slit his throat was a reasonable action for her to take. She actually lost initiative the round it happened so there was a fun back-and-forth of the party debating if they thought they could take her out before she could kill their friend. 
   
   
3. Winter's Daughter is a fantastic module. It took us about 2 1/2 sessions but the players also spent a fair bit of time creating characters, introducing themselves to each other, and messing around in town. It's a bit light on actual enemies- the nightworms are really the only thing the party actually has to fight. The party enjoyed it but I think if I re-ran it I might add in one more combat encounter for the party to face.

Next Time: The party returns to Prigwort and explores a mysterious house full of traps...