Set up at the brewery on Sunday night, and found a full table. Excellent. I had a few choices in my folder, but with a table of meat, er, PCs, it was time to take on Foxtail Grotto.
The cast:
- Freya, Seawolf
- Durl Snuggs, Priest
- (forgot name), Bard
- Eswald, Seer
- Rand, Fighter
- Gilden, Wizard
- Holbarn, Fighter
We started at a small coastal settlement that had been plagued by pirates. The garrison's sergeant didn't have the resources or talent to root them out. But look! A seawolf and a handful of "talent." The party was equipped with a small sailing ship and basic supplies, given a map, and enough rumors to point them in the right direction. A day or so of sailing along the coast and poking around in coves, and they were rewarded with signs of activity, such as harvesting of timber for ship repairs.
Carefully navigating shoals, and they found the pirates' ship, the Meteor (mis-heard as 'meatier'). But it was in sad shape, holed on a rock. The party carefully navigated toward the ship to investigate, and got themselves hung up on the doomed ship's rigging. While clearing the snarl, one of the gaff hooks was snapped off, and a rotting, undead shark made its appearance.
 |
| duh-DUHN...duh-DUHN |
It got turned away, and in spite of the hazard, three of the PCs hopped over to investigate the damaged ship. It was found to have been stripped of loot, and they were able to return to their ship without incident.
The party dropped the sailing ship's sole rowboat (this will be important later) and ferried over to the cavern beach. While oaring over, the seawolf noted some movement to one side, and they found a starved, half-mad survivor of the pirate crew (Barnaby Crood). With some food, and the bard's fascinate talent (or just hot elf bard talent), they were able to get some ramblings about dragon and walking dead and what-not. Clearly just delirium.
Sure enough, tracks and the corpses of several of the crew were found. But let's go check out the pirate hideout. I'm sure its not important. Barnaby was left near the hideout entrance with some food and a "stay here and keep watch" command. Augmented by the wizard casting alarm on him (this will be important later)...
They party broke-and-entered, and spent some time tossing the crew's sea chests for loose change, small trinkets, and orc erotica. During this, they were set upon by some zombie sailors. The sailors were managed by a combination of death and turning. Into the quartermaster's quarters, and they found more zombies. And a heavy chest with a suspicious rune. Best to be careful. They hauled it out to Barnaby, and he confirmed that the key would be found with the quartermaster (this will be important later).
Into the main hall. More investigation, and More Zombies! This time, the zombified captain and quartermaster. A tough fight, with a handful of wounds, and the two were slain. Excellent. We have the key now. But why is the Barnaby-alarm going off? And why did it suddenly get cut off?
Best that the heavily wounded (2hp left) wizard go investigate. He went halfling-invisible. Which lasted just long enough for him to reach the cave entrance and reappear...
 |
| Boo! |
Curious. The wizard never returned from checking out the alarm. Anyway, let's loot the good stuff. Which included a wand of paralyzation and a few scrolls. Oh no, we have no wizard! But we have a magic-dabbler bard. Good enough!
Now to investigate the alarm and missing mage. Peering through a peephole, the dragon was spotted as it searched for intruders. This is troublesome. The party set up to make a run for it, armed with a priest and an optimistic bard. The bard and seer also managed to replace a few spent luck tokens (oh yeah, they were freely spent in these encounters...).
The priest called upon their god and was able to turn the dragon, miraculously. To the boat! Oh no, we don't all fit. Most of the party ferried over, leaving a bard and fighter to manage the dragon. No worries, we have a wand!
Oh yeah, roll to cast.
Oops. Even with a luck token...
The survivors returned to the ship to open the chest and find, yes, healing potions and holy water...
Well. Fewer people to split the treasure...
The party sailed back to port. Well, we have good news and bad news. The pirates won't be bothering you anymore. But now you have an undead dragon...
DM Notes:
I wrote this adventure a while back, and have finally playtested it, as it were... It ran out pretty well. Of course, looking at it as I write up this report, I note a few details that I missed regarding encounters and a couple of room features that may have affected the session outcome.
I think it still would have been touch and go, and depending on the players' actions, could have easily swung towards a TPK. I'd written this for Generic OSR Game(tm) prior to Shadowdark. Of course, things port over easily. But there is that pesky detail of roll-to-cast. Which made all the difference with the wand. An unexpected complication... And made for some good last-action drama.
Like before, I think this scenario deserves a bit of revision to improve the flow and usability. I've changed formatting since I wrote this, and a double-column, at least, will clean it up, as well as repeating some information so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. I have to consider what to do with the dragon. While having a powerful thing to deal with is meant to drive some creative use of found items, it still has the ability to one-shot a party. I'll think on that.
Regardless, folks had a good time, and hopefully I'll get a return offender or two. The brewery is hoping to develop their Sundays as 'game night,' so I have an open invite to keep infesting a table.
Considering a open table game with an ongoing mini-megadungeon. I have a couple in my stacks (10-ish levels, with 2-300 rooms).
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