The Dungeon of Graves - Session 1
Once upon a time (that happened to be right now) in the magical land of OSR Pick-Up Games discord server there was an OSE shared world campaign. I decided to claim a region within the world and run Rappan Athuk megadungeon in it. Yesterday we played the first session.
The Story So Far
September 5th 2021
- Clark, Knight 1
- Grudge, Fighter 1
- Tiberius Stone, Paladin 1
- Thuban, Cleric 1
- John Moonridge, Cleric 1
Party gathered in a small settlement by the name of Zelkor's Ferry. Entering the common room of the local inn they were greeted with a tense situation. Odo Bristleback, proprietor of the inn, was staring daggers at a group of armed and armored men and women. Guard patrol in the employ of Duke Baduwin, the local liege.
They were looking for a couple of outlaws and Bristleback was less than cooperative. Knight leading the patrol questioned the party but ultimately they likewise decided to cover for the outlaws. Irritated by the treatment the knight stormed off and took the patrol with them.
While still in town the group inquired about services provided by certain Old Ulman living in the settlement. It's a public secret, that he is a practitioner of dark arts. For a price, he is willing to cure poison and disease, concoct healing potions and even raise people from dead.
Gathering the local rumors and asking around they figured out the main entrance to the dungeon is too dangerous and too far away. However there is a smaller secondary offshoot of the dungeon not too far away to the south. Locals call it the Mouth of Doom.
On their way the group came upon a decrepit statue of a winged demon overlooking a river. Quick examination didn't reveal much. Direction in which the statue is pointing was noted and the party was on their way. Much closer towards the Mouth of Doom they saw an abandoned stone cottage. Walls were still standing but the roof, windows and the door were completely missing. Inside was overgrown with grass and shown no sign of habitation in recent past.
Moving further south, through a forested area and up a hill, they finally arrived at the entrance to the dungeon. Enormous demon face carved into the stone, the gaping mouth being the entrance itself. Staircase descending beneath the hill, took them into a room with six alcoves. Each alcove featured an iron reinforced wooden door and a stone carving above it.
Looking for tracks they found traces of dried up slime and a scattering of small pale feathers. Judging by their placement doors to the north, southeast and south were determined to be most frequented. Party decided to take a stab at one of the less frequented doors first. They chose the southwestern door which featured a stone carving of an outstretched hand, palm facing the party. After several futile attempts to open the door they poured wine beneath it. When it didn't pool much under the door, they determined it must be a false door.
Checking other doors, party was unfortunately similarly unlucky. Not cause they were all false doors but simply cause they were all stuck, swollen by the ever present dungeon moisture, and players had a streak of bad rolls.
Their attempts were interrupted by two figures entering the room from the northern door. Three feet tall at most, bloated bodies covered in pale nearly white feathers, wide beaked faces. Clearly not expecting the adventurers, they were momentarily stunned. Party tried to intimidate them into fleeing but instead enraged them (I rolled double ones on their morale check). Combat was short and rather unfortunate for the bird creatures. Though Tiberius and Thuban missed their missile attacks, some very lucky damage rolls from Clark, Grudge and John swiftly dispatched the enemies.
Having the door open, party continued north. Through a short corridor they came into an empty room. From there, through another corridor, they came upon a Y shaped intersection. At the northern side of the intersection there was another door. Trying to open it failed, as was usual for the party. What's more, the crowbar was stuck fast to the door and so was one of their boots.
Blowing some gathered feathers on the door they determined the door and the immediate area around it was covered in invisible glue. They could still wiggle the crowbar so they managed to get the door open. Beyond was a room with a wooden chest on the opposite end. Lying on the floor was a skeletal hand, cut off at the wrist and a leather boot. It seemed the entire room was covered in this invisible glue.
After series of experiments, which included tossing a bird man corpse inside, they figured out a coating of oil provides a decent protection against the glue. Tiberius oiled the bottoms of his boots and bravely ventured into the room. At first he wanted to get the entire chest outside the room but it was likewise stuck to the floor. Luckily it was unlocked. Inside Tiberius found a pile of golden coins and a single silver coin placed at the top. The coin had an image of balance scales with the word "justice" written on one side and an image of a human skull with the word "death" written on the other side. Stashing all the coins inside a bag, Tiberius made his way back across the room. As he was taking his last step, oil on his right foot became depleted and it was stuck to the floor. Another boot fell victim to the glue room.
After acquiring the treasure and with the end of the session coming near, party decided to leave the dungeon and return to the Zelkor's Ferry. Five hundred golden coins heavier and two boots lighter, they safely made their way through the dark corridors and then across the wilderness. As they were entering the settlement, they noticed the gate was decorated with skulls of the bird creatures they fought, something they thought to be just mundane bird skulls before.
Monsters defeated: 2 humanoid bird creatures
Deaths: none
DM Thoughts
Rappan Athuk module I'm using is written for Swords and Wizardry (OD&D retroclone) but I don't expect any/many issues running it with OSE. Overall the room keys seem bloated for the amount of content they have. Nowhere near the neat terse formatting of modern OSE adventures.
Dungeon itself has many neat traditional puzzles/tricks/traps you'd expect from a D&D dungeon. I feel it lacks a little bit in terms of interesting dungeon factions. Nearly all monster encounters are explicitly hostile. I decided to throw that out and use reaction rolls for all the encountered creatures.
A lot of players are veteran D&D players and as such I decided to randomly change appearances of nearly every creature type within the region. So far it seems to be working as intended.
Big chunk of the first session (one hour out of the three hour session) was spent on exposition and initial roleplay. In future sessions I'll rush players into the dungeon itself much faster but for the very first session in the region, I wanted to give them some more background info.
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