Solo Dungeoneering FKR Style

 I enjoy reading actual play blog posts. Of osr style games in particular. I find the emergent stories these game often generate quite entertaining. For some time now, I wanted to recreate this experience or at very least the format of the output in a solo rpg game. I've made few attempts using various rule systems as well as more free form solo journaling. None of these succeeded in what I wanted to achieve. Not until now. I set out to recreate a journal of a dungeon crawling experience.

I started by rolling d3+3 for the initial party size. I then generated a gender and name for each. Mixed results from couple tables and generators to get an idea for the dungeon they're delving into. As is often the case for a first session, I decided to drop them right at the doorstep of the dungeon.

From then on I mostly used this generator as a spark table for locations. I occasionally leaned on some random words. When I needed a character to do something, I rolled a die to see who would do it. As a general oracle, when I needed to know whether something is true or not, or whether certain character will do something or not, I simply flipped a coin (virtually, rolling d2). I know some people use more complicated oracles but honestly this seemed to do the job very well for me. When they encountered monsters or NPCs, I rolled a b/x style reaction checks. When I needed a treasure, I also used b/x tables (or rather OSE generators).

I eventually dropped generating names wholly randomly cause I seldom find generator results to my taste. I simply generated a starting letter or a syllable and came up with something sufficiently archaic sounding to me.

Note, I purposefully did not generate the characters as OSE or b/x or any other system characters. I left them entirely as blank slates for as long as I don't need to know a certain information about them. This greatly reduced the necessary prep and worked quite well so far. Where I rolled randomly for certain character to do something, I marked it down it my notes that perhaps they're well suited for that action/role. Something that further play might cement for that particular character.

I quite enjoyed this exercise and I'm happy with the result. Whether it feels like a write up of an OSR style session, I'll leave up to your judgement.

Prologue

There is a legend. Speaking of Lady Ebeth of the Depths and Ser Janus the Host of Ancients and their heroic deeds. In ancient times, many generations ago, when wise queens and kings ruled over Ardania, a tear in reality opened and from it spewed forth unimaginable horrors. Queen Basilea of Rezlav mustered an army and fought back the monster and the demon alike. They contained the rift and built a mighty fortress over it, the Walls of Linwe. Generations later the duo of already accomplished adventurers ventured into the rift and defeated the Devil Emperor. Thus making it possible to close the rift permanently. On their way back, they brought out such riches and powerful artefacts they’re talked about to this day.

As the fortress once holding back the tides of chaos fell into disuse, it was abandoned and it deteriorated over time. Over the centuries many a vermin found it to be a suitable lair. Few months ago however, dark omens started appearing, hinting at the possibility of the tear being opened once more. And there are no wise queens or kings left to protect the civilised realms anymore. Our fate lies in scrappy adventurers, venturing into the Walls of Linwe, enticed by a promise of coin and might.

Day 1

Theodor, Iratz, Cyril, Ogva and Mydred stood in front of the Walls of Linwe. In front of them, the main gatehouse. 30’ tall building made of massive stone blocks. Main gate, made of solid metal, was still intact, even after centuries of abandonment. It was opened ajar. Other than it, there were but few arrow slits adorning the front wall.

Iratz went to pull the gate open further but stopped himself as he felt an odd tingling in his fingertips. Mydred noted she felt like they were being watched. Group decided to leave the main entrance be for now. They skulked away to the right following the fortress walls.

They came upon a group of 7 dog sized scarlet beetles scaling the walls. As they noticed the party they scurried down into the burrow at the base of the wall. Party noted down the location of the burrow but gave the beetles a wide berth, continuing to follow the wall to the right.

In the distance, Iratz heard metallic clanking and ratcheting. Following the wall they came upon the eastern gatehouse and the sound became much louder. It was followed by a loud bang as a set of portcullises fell down. It then started being pulled up again and so it kept repeating. At the further away portcullis, they could see a dead body of an hapless adventurer nearly bisected by the fall portcullis.

Getting through was not particularly difficult and once inside the fortress wall, Iratz pulled the dead body to examine it. It belonged to an older female adventurer and Cyril realised he recognised her. Pryscil, an archer specialist. He didn’t know her too well but got the impression she is an experienced adventurer, so he was surprised this is what got her. Her belongings appeared to be mostly looted, however Cyril remembered she mentioned using a removable heel on her boot to hide valuables. Inside her left boot, they found a delicate necklace made of platinum and encrusted with diamonds.

Instead of pressing further into the fortress complex, Cyril suggested checking out the eastern gatehouse itself. Brief look around revealed no door leading into the gatehouse. Cyril pulled out a grappling hook from his backpack and threw it up onto the flat roof. At first it looked like it found a purchase but then it was dropped down as if someone unlatched it.

“Sod off, will you kindly?”, came a somewhat uncertain demand up from the rooftop. The voice sounded muffled by several layers of fabric.

“Who goes up there?”, asked Mydred.

“None of your business? Look, just leave us be, alright.”

“We simply seek an entrance to the gatehouse. We mean you no harm.”

“Have you tried using the door?”

“We see no doorway here.

“Ah, right. From the portcullis, third stone to the right, about 3’ high. Then kick the stone near your left foot. Give it a good one, it's a bit rusty. And finally count 5 stones further to the right and one row down.”

Iratz went to check out the mentioned stones and they were indeed pushable. He relayed this to the rest of the group.

“Well… Thank you, whoever you are.”, said Mydred.

“Right, right. Now be on your way and don’t bother us no more.”

Operating the buttons in the correct sequence indeed opened up a hidden entrance into the gatehouse. Inside, the air was humid and filled with the scent of mould. Narrow corridor led forward, into the darkness. Theodor lit a torch and stepped in right after Iratz. They found 5 tiny rooms, no doubt serving as housing for reserve guardsmen. In the darkness they could see many glowing vermin eyes following them but wherever they shed torchlight the vermin scurried away before they could be seen. Nothing of use was left within the rooms.

Moving further inside they found some kind of an office or a small armoury. Scattered papers lay on a desk and around it. There was a miniature gong on the desk. Arrayed along one of the walls were around two dozen swords. Most of them in a decent condition. Party contemplated taking the swords to sell but eventually decided it wouldn’t be worth it. Iratz examined the miniature gong and found it to be impossibly heavy for its size. He could barely swing it and couldn’t move its frame at all. He decided against trying to strike it with the gong mallet, not knowing what it might do. No one bothered to have a look at the papers. Probably wasn’t important anyway.

Opening another door revealed what once might’ve been a pantry, now a teeming mass of rodents. Lying in their midst, a humanoid skeleton. Rodents seemed largely uninterested in the party but not wanting to risk it, Iratz closed the door nearly immediately.

As they moved down another corridor, Iratz’s foot caught on a tripwire. He sprung a trap and a moment later a dagger was flung at him. He did not manage to react in time and the blade cut his thigh. Though the wound itself was not lethal, he immediately felt his leg going numb. Theodor moved immediately to provide him first aid and it was only thanks to him, Iratz survived, though his right leg was paralysed and unusable.

Though Cyril voiced his concern and suggested the party cut its losses and return back to town, they decided to push on forwards. They found another, slightly larger bedroom. There was a chest placed next to the bed. Theodor looked over it and found some indistinct runes on its ironwork. Mydred tried to decipher them but could not make any sense of it. Though there was a lock built into the chest, Ogva volunteered to try to open the chest anyway. Rest of the party stayed clear of her and then… The chest was locked and nothing happened. Since neither of them could pick the lock they decided to at least tip it to see what might be inside. They felt some heft and heard clinking of glass, as if bottles rolled to one side. After a short discussion, they decided this might be a good enough loot and decided to bring the chest with them to the town.

Retracing their steps was rather uneventful. Slowed down both by Iratz’s injury and the chest they made their way back towards the town of Rechthorst.