Characters
- Luna Berryfang (War Bear Bogatyr)
- Hoot (Owl Primal Chaos Worshiper)
- Varg (Wolf Troglodyte)
- Igor Lazarovich (Human Solar Priest)
Session Recap
The party consisting of Igor the solar priest, Hoot the owl Chaos Worshiper ( already quite the the pair), Varg the Wolf cave dweller and Luna, the Bear Bogatyr (normally not a combination available, but allowed due to nobody spotting the error early enough) awoke in a conical room flooded with blood red light, upon a pile of corpses and junk. No memory in how they got here, and no way out in sight, they proceeded to explore the mysterious dungeon they had found themselves in.
In the process they ran into a pair of old ghosts and their nobleman son, who tried to fight them after freaking out, but the party easily dispatched them (later in the session also destroying the nobleman's remains by shooting him with his own pistol, and finally banishing the ghosts), ran into a strange overgrown cave filled with plants that defied any actual categorization (and also having a mysterious pit leading down into the darkness of the dungeon) and explored a giant mural on a wall, which hid a secret compartment under the giant wood stove that the nobleman lived on. Luna used her unnaturally cold paws (a side effect of he magical blue ice hair that she started the game with) to pick up the incredibly hot iron case which contained some good weapons and a fancy hat.
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| The stove itself was quite ornery, belching flames at anyone who tried to approach it. |
The party however decided to avoid the impressive double bronze doors leading further into the dungeon, instead deciding to circumnavigate it by going through the obvious side tunnel. In that obvious side tunnel Igor the priest, who was at the head of the group, stepped on a trip wire and a whole mess of pots, pans, knives and other metal junk fell on his head, knocking him out (12 hits out of 12 CON). Luckily the party were in no immediate danger and managed to drag him out, and let him rest a bit to regain his consciousness, but for the rest of the session he was effectively a walking vegetable, unable to really do much except slowly shuffle in a direction and just offer advice in a weak voice.
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| I do, Bateman. I do. |
The group decided to instead explore the rest of the floor, finding a hidden compartment leading behind a curious pair of locked metal doors, where they discovered a shrine to some kind of unknown deity, its statue eroded and smoothed by the into a vague shape. They thought better than to drink the strange magical black ooze belching forth from the two cauldrons near the statue, but grabbed some in a bottle just in case.
Eventually they made their way down the shimmering staircase and into the proper first floor of the dungeon. Finding themselves in a round room with three doors, they decided to take the one with least signs of being used regularly, finding themselves eventually in a natural cavern, with a warm welcoming fire and nine rather odd welcoming people, each dressed in slightly worn out clothes and wearing goat-themed headgear. The people invited the group to sit and rest, gave them some food, and eventually through the conversation the group said they would like to see the Goat that these people worshiped. Willing to oblige, the goat cultists lead the party into the following cavern, where they had two wood posts with manacles and giant splatters of dried blood. At that point the intent was obvious and a fight ensued.
However with Igor being incapable of doing anything, the group was badly outnumbered 9 to 3, and while Hoot blasted away a cultist with a bolt of chaotic energy, Luna was not really able to withstand the overwhelming numbers and eventually got brought down and stabbed and slashed repeatedly. This however gave Hoot and Varg a chance to disengage and run away, taking potshots with chaos bolts and pistol fire at the cultists, some of which gave chase.
The party ran back into the room with the staircase they came down to, and Varg used magic to seal the doors behind them, stopping the cultists for a moment. Using Hoot's magical chaos lantern they set up an ambush on the stairs, killing another cultist, but the rest would not follow them up, instead retreating back with their fallen comrade.
Heading back down the two animals tried to follow the group's obvious blood trail, but instead saw a side passage of the dungeon, running into a palisade manned by a middle aged woman and several people with rifles. They instantly noticed Hoot trying to peek behind the corner and once they were sure he's not danger welcomed him and Varg in, explaining that their camp is guarded by a powerful Domovi (a house spirit) they call The Host, who in exchange for a gift of the nobleman's fancy furry hat and a nice pipe and tobacco welcomed the two into the camp as his guests and thus provided them with the protection of his magic. The session ended, with the two finally at a safe place and able to rest.
Observations
Well, finally! After a year and a half of writing this goddamn thing I finally started up my megadungeon campaign. The ruleset currently used is a modified Tunnels & Trolls, which so far has worked fine in any game I've used it. We'll see how long it handles over a longer game, but for now it does the job.
The group was only 4 people initially, as it's a three day weekend here in Bulgaria, but I expect more people to be joining from here on out. The players generally seemed to be on top of things, though a bit slow in making decisions. Of note they managed to find the secret shrine on the entry floor of the dungeon, which I did not expect them to do, but also failed to Drink the Goo, so they get points docked off for that one, hah! They also had truly insane luck with encounter rolls on the first floor, never getting to see the guardian of that floor, but feeling its presence with the scent of dog breath, blood and rotting meat haunting them as they explored.
The session was quite long, 7 hours total with only about 20 minutes of actual break in the whole thing. I normally avoid running sessions this long for weekly games, but it was important for the party to find a safe haven so that their characters don't simply get lost to the dungeon's dangers, and I figured I'd give them a bit more leeway on the first try. Luckily they succeed, after unfortunately running into a trap which took out Igor in a single roll, and then bumping into the goat cultists which, while not dangerous by themselves, tend to have advantage in numbers. Smart play (running away) helped this from being TPK, which it absolutely would have been as the party's toughest fighter got torn to shreds in a single round, taking over 60 hits with her 18 or so Constitution.
Luna specifically was quite interesting, as the player rolling her up did not actually notice that War Bears can't be Bogatyr, and I decided to just keep it rather than have them roll something else. Add to that the ice blue hair which was a magical item she started with, and that war bear had big "Anime Protagonist" vibes about her, unfortunately dying in a glorious fight to protect her friends.
All in all the session I think went well, the players ultimately did achieve their goal of finding a safe place to leave their characters between session, allowing new characters to start there. Also exploring fully the entry level granted a hefty 100 adventure points to the party as a whole, which I rule that all characters joining from now on get them as a start, thus avoiding the issue of someone joining on session 5 and being way behind as previous floors have already been explored and the AP for that being claimed. Thus I also think this makes for a good catch up mechanic, a useful thing in a semi-open table setup where people come and go.
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| Map by Luna's player |
Session Stats
Rooms Explored: 15
Enemies Defeated: 3 Ghosts, 4 Goat Cultists
Characters Dead: 2 - Luna and Igor