October 2nd, 124 in anno obscuri
YOU CANNOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS yada yada. I forgot about this in the first session, and retroactively decided to start on October 1st. I have a little faux Latin year name. Basically going for something that evokes "Dark Ages."
After a good night's sleep, Alaine and Mabub prepeare to once gain set forth to the insidious, evil infested Moathouse. After a failed attempt to impress the bar patrons with their exploits, Mabub tries to get the nickname "Blood Axe" to stick. It does not.
Characters, especially low level ones, heal pretty fast in Whitehack. Basically 2-4 HP a day, all HP if resting for two full days. I like the speed here, and I think I prefer it to getting them all back after one night. Mabub's player already regretted choosing the name Mabub. I gave him a CHA check to see if he could make his new nickname stick, and it failed. These kinds of situations are where the roll under attribute check works great. Get a new nickname? Sure, roll under charisma. Easy, up to chance, but reflects on their character.
They hired a town crier to announce their hiring of any able bodied men-at-arms. Two responded. The first was a vehement hater of orcs, and refused to work with our boar-faced hero. The second, a old, tired gnome (who the northmen call "dwarfs") accepted the job, and introduced himself as Galg.
I strongly recommended they beef up their ranks with some hirelings. I used the Barrowmaze hireling generator, and they only got two, a dwarf and a man who vehemently hates orcs. Randomly rolling the orc racist turned out to be a pretty fun part of the story, so I'm glad I used the generator. Unfortunately it left them with only a single meatshield. I start to get nervous around this point.
As they arrived, the party saw the flame charred ruins of the southwest moathouse tower. Whatever horrible creature they saw their last time was long gone.
As the party headed into the basement, they noted a large increase of cobwebs in the northeast hall of the keep. A new resident?
I restocked the bandit room with the giant spider who left the burnt tower. They picked up on this immediately, and I think we all felt that spark of the "aliveness" of the dungeon.
The basement floor was newly painted with bright streak of blood, leading from the door of the ogre lair down south to a hallway lined with rusty cell doors. The cells were filled with shambling corpses, animated by some foul sorcery, with tools of cruel torture clamped to their bones.
I figured that the bugbears, or maybe the other ogre had dragged Lubash's corpse to the zombie cells for them to dispose of it. I tweaked this area a bit ahead of time, in a way I thought was interesting and more forgiving, but may have backfired. T1 has the zombies attacking on site, with one cell opening per round. Instead, I had the zombies docile until attacked, and made sure they new the rusted cell bars could easily be broken open.
From within the southernmost cell, the party spied a glint, some jewel hidden beneath a misplaced flagstone, behind three of the stinking undead. Alaine loosed a bolt at one, and struck him down. Mabub tried the same with a handaxe to a lesser effect.
I also didn't hide the hidden gem in the southernmost cell, and told them they saw the telltale glint of treasure coming from a crevice in the back of the cell. The players of course, tried to kill the zombies with ranged weapons, then break into the cell and steal it without consequence.
And then, the zombies started a gruesome howl, and beat at the rusty cell bars. Two cells near the entrance to the befouled hallway burst open, and five corpses shambled towards them, in open mockery of the law of God.
I ruled here that all the zombies would want to attack, and I'd make a check for each cell to see if they escaped. By the book, they could only be attacked by two or three zombies at once, and they would have their back to the exit, or at the very least to the the larger chamber to the east. Unfortunately, they didn't attack them until they were at the southern end of the hall, and my ruling meant that five zombies were attacking. Looking at the map, the problem becomes apparent.
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| They were down at the very bottom of the passage, while five zombies were between the middle and bottom column. |
The two had their back to the wall, with five zombies barreling towards them. Willow, Alaine's trusted hawk, clawed out ones rotting eyes. Galg the dwarf stared horror, as two abominations ripped out his throat and started to feast upon him.
I hoped the hireling would at least help them, but he IMMEDIATELY died. Alaine used her attuned hawk (now named Willow) to blind a zombie and deal five damage (not enough to kill it. These are 2 HD zombies). Were she to make a point to blind a zombie closest the wall to make a way through, they may have been saved, but instead opted to attack the closest one, who had two others right behind him.
Mabub struggled to bring his axe to bear in the cramped underground hallway, and failed to deal any lasting damage. He attempted to run, but not before the horrible ghouls dragged him down and ripped him to pieces.
Mabub attacked, and missed. Then he decided to run away. I figured if he tried to slip by the two zombies eating Galg's corpse, then they'd only get one free attack between the two of them. Sadly, they hit, dealt five damage, and Mabub failed his death saving throw.
Alaine was alone now, and tried to retreat. A last ditch effort to break through the horde was the only choice left. Alas, she could not make it before being hacked to pieces and joining the ever growing pile of meat and viscera.
Alaine decided to try the same thing, thinking there's no way every die roll would roll as badly as possible like it did for Mabub. And of course it did, and she died as well. She asked if her Hawk could make it out, and I said on a roll of 15 or lower, yes. She did.
And thusly, the story of our heroes comes to an end, with Willow the hawk flying out into the woods.
Some real bad luck for them all around, including on the random hireling roll. All these rolls, excepting hit dice, were rolled in the open on Roll20, and I told them the monster Attack Value each time. I think this did add a feeling of fairness, but spirits were definitely low. But most insults were hurled at the dice and at the system. I think those two, even if they don't suck, are a good target for player frustrations. It's easy to just show the rule or the die roll and say, "Yeah, that sucks. Try again?"
I thought change to the zombies' behavior would make it easier, but only encouraged them to place themselves in an incredibly dangerous position. I do think the logic held up in the situation though, and nothing felt forced or unfair. I have to try pretty hard not to give player's incredulous outs, and I definitely didn't this time.
It was only an hour into the session, so I figured we could real quickly spin up two more characters and see where it goes.
October 3rd, 124 in anno obscuri
Two new would be adventurers now came upon the moathouse, having heard rumors of treasure from a retired bandit. As they passed through the gate, Kody, a hardened pit fighter, noticed a giant tick creature ready to pounce from the castle wall onto Rezan, a novice witch doctor.
I finally get a random encounter here. I tweaked a tick a bit before hand, simply because the thing felt way too strong, and I had some ideas to make it more interesting. I had it's AC lower from 6 to 2 after it had drank blood, and made the initial bite less damage. I also ruled that a successful attack would knock it off. Ticks are pretty tough when they're flat and empty, but pretty easy to squish when full.
Rezan did not appreciate pranks, and kept walking. A fight ensued, and Kody hacked off the now engorged tick from the back of Rezan's head. Rezan skewered the beast and celebrated. The two looted the burnt tower to find a handful of copper coins.
I think the players were still a little peeved about the TPK, so we had a little exchange where Rezan didn't want to believe that a tick was above him, and decided to keep walking. In general, the players weren't trying hard at all to keep these new characters alive. I understand, but I do feel that disengaging like that, although tempting, really leads to less fun.
The two decided to explore the cobweb filled corridors to the northeast. There, they found a giant, territorial wolf spider. Kody's bowstring slipped off at the last second, and while Rezan was preoccupied with tearing off a piece of his shirt for some reason, the wolf spider pounced.
They decided to try and take out the spider, which was pretty weak, just 2+1 HD. But after a fumble (I had Kody's bowstring slip off. I still felt guilty), and a miss, the spider rolled a critical success to Attack Rezan. Crits in Whitehack default to double damage. I'm flexible on different crit systems, but decided to stick with this one. Funnily enough, the lowest roll possible, 1 x 2, was enough to kill him after being weakened by the tick.
Rezan was torn asunder, and Kody fled back to the town of Hommlet. The stinking evil heart of the moathouse takes three more souls.
I had been pretty honest about combat difficulty and running away, but I think it took until now for the lesson to sink in. Especially the player more experienced with RPGs, who I think, despite playing for five years, only lost his first (and second) character this session.
Deaths and Injuries:
Mabub a.k.a. "Blood Axe" - throat ripped out by zombies
Alaine the falconer - torn to shreds by zombies
Witchdoctor Rezan - eaten by giant territorial wolf spider
Treasure:
45 copper pieces
Yup, only 45 copper pieces the whole session.
Experience Got:
4 from treasure
150 from slaying a giant tick
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