Sailors On The Starless Sea play report 1.

Last Tuesday a reduced set of my general gaming group came to my place to have our first Dungeon Crawl Classics game. Overall it went well I thought, and I got positive feedback from the players. I’m hoping that as things get pulpier they’ll also start enjoying the settings as well as just the pure joy of rolling dice, roleplaying with good friends over a few beers.

I’m running Sailors On The Starless Sea, henceforth known as Sailors On The Sunless Sea because I called it that by mistake once, and it’s extra bleakness then appeal to me. In preparation I printed out copies of the 0 level character creation rules, weapons and armour pages from the DCC PDF, one for each player. I also printed out several blank versions of the excellent 4 characters per page PC sheets from Purple Sorcerer - http://purplesorcerer.com/create.htm

The players, Dan, Monkey, Michael and Toby all rolled up 4 funnel characters using the normal method. Only Monkey hadn’t been in my 4e campaign, so generally they got through the concepts very quickly. The only oddity was that three elves were rolled and no other races.  Then we began.

I added a little more flavour to the introduction around how the PC’s friends and family had disappeared from the village following the revival of the ruined Chaos keep.  I then read the standard introduction out. One of Dan’s characters had a spyglass with which scanned the ruins and spotted the Vine Horrors, writhing and briar riddled. The players started arguing over if it was night or day, I think Michael wanted them to have burning brands and pitchforks, which needed a night setting, but some measure of preservation held out and they agreed it was day time. I rule that if the players are arguing about the metagame, the characters are arguing in character about something, and this attracted the Vine Horrors who were then peppered with remarkably good shooting from bows.  Once the Vine Horrors reached the party good initiative rolls saved them from injury.

Then the party approached the ruins and upon seeing the portcullis and intact tower… split up! Yes you read that right. One group went to scale the tower using rope. This started well, with Monkey’s hunter making his first two climb rolls easily. He wanted to reach the roof, and this last ascent cost him his life. While he had cleverly tied the rope to the bars at each of the previous two floors windows, the rope mysteriously seemed to untie itself from it’s lasso on the crenulations. He only took a single d6 roll for damage, rather than the 3d6 he would have had he not tied himself off, but 5 points was enough to kill him. Another character went up to retrieve the body, which was swinging in the wind, but couldn’t revive him.

The second group started ducking under the portcullis when it collapsed down, almost injuring one of the characters, but splitting this second group into two.  Now the characters are in three groups. Those on the inside, dusted themselves off, looked around and headed for the ruined chapel. There they were met with the grisly sight of blacked skeletons and charred remains. Their immediate interest lay with the chainmail and weapons left behind, which they donned, ignoring the ghostly fire that swept through the chapel . Only then did they investigate the leering and bejeweled furry toad idol and fountain. One character saw a strange ripple on the surface of the black pool, but the others still approached and were met by the vile tar ooze. A dramatic fight ensued, in which the butcher was pulverised and burnt to death. After the battle they retreated back out without further investigation of the idol.

The tower group and those left behind at the portcullis regrouped and went to investigate the west side of the ruins where they found the partially collapsed wall.  

One of the characters spotted the danger here, but having been slighted by the character who wished to immediately climb the wall he cryptically declared it safe, and seconds later the climber was crushed to pulp beneath several tons of monolithic stone. I’m very lucky to have players who are more than willing to take cues from each other to make play more enjoyable, even at their own cost.

The wall’s collapse revealed the pit that seemed to lead to a portal outlined by ancient runes. At this point the characters all came together and descended. One of the sages knew these ancient symbols and deciphered the words, to which there was general confusion and very little analysis. My impression is that they haven’t yet taken on board that clues are generally there to protect against death. Then several of the characters worked together to shove the door open. Three of them died in the ensuing fiery explosion! High damage rolls meant even those who scrambled away were scorched to a crisp. But the door was open and the way ahead tantalized them with the tomb of the barbarian lord and his gleaming vorpal axe!

Here persistency paid off. The players tried repeated to get into the magically cold and icy room, eventually using rope tied to the waist of the most agile in their party. They then worked together to free to giant axe, and retreated before the numbing cold took them. However the echoing thunder and evil laughter that sounded out as they passed for the last time back through the portal may yet come to haunt them further. At this point we called it a night. I wrote up the deaths as follows :-

* The trapper Chi Rian was lost to us first, when he dashed his head upon the tower he was ascending with dubious rope.

* Brave Baldric Baldricson, radish farmer, passed to the better place holding the line against the vile Tar Ooze. * Tyle the butcher was crushed by the collapsing wall, he will be greatly mourned this wintermass. * Aura Frtiz The Wisewoman, Gribal Nubit notable Scribe and Rai Ock the blessed ropemaker were consumed in unholy fire before the quad curse’d gate.

So the party of villagers is down to ten characters and they have yet to enter the ruins themselves. Our next session is booked for Tuesday the 7^th of Jan, and I’ll write up their further adventures as they happen.  Next time I’ll make some food, as we’re not serviced by decent Pizza where I live, by which I mean the expensive sour dough kind. In the past when we’ve planned at Dan’s, and what used to be Toby and Monkey’s house share they made really good stews and every put in a few quid to pay for it, a tradition I’d like to extend.  

Slave Pits Of Khasarn

Slave Pits Of Khasharn is a zero level funnel adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game (DCCRPG)

Set in the dungeon arena beneath the Autocaliph’s palace, the characters are poor souls sold or captured into slavery and forced to work their way through the hideously dangerous pits for the pleasure of the Autocalph Shazoon and his guests. While the PCs fight and die in the pits, betting between the city’s elite goes on loudly above them. Those slaves who make it through alive through the pits are promised their freedom. Those who don’t, remain in the dungeon as undead warriors doomed to fight a never ending supply of slaves.

A regular dungeon, with running commentary.

The dungeon itself is built around a series of large chambers that can be reconfigured by the dwarves that maintain the underground site. The Autocaliph invites his guests to create, also known as sponsoring, chambers to entertain their fellows to show off their creativity and wealth. During the events the audience bet heavily on either the number of slaves that will fall in a room, or sometimes towards the end of the ‘show’ the odds of survival of particular slaves. As each chambers roof is open to allow the audience to watch the grisly performance, the characters are well aware of the bets place upon their lives. Worse still, the Autocaliph likes to win, and guests who are able to control the events that unfold in their chambers are known to subtly target individual slaves that are being bet against to please him. It is of course up to the dungeon master how much commentary they wish to add to game. By adding cruel comments about the players performance, and changing tone from betting on how many will fall, to who will survive the DM can bring dark humour and a growing sense of desperate success to the games sessions. If you wish however to run the Slave Pits as a more regular adventure you could have the chamber roofs covered in one way mirrors, or even having impervious floating eyeballs following the party around.   

Introduction to Khasarn, city of jewels.

Khasarn is a sprawling coastal city that sits upon the mouth of the River Of Black Pyramids. It’s fertile delta and excellent trading position has given it an enviable situation in amongst the city states that line the blanket sea. Ruled by Autocaliph Shazoon Khandiz The Golden One, who snatched statehood from his uncle as a young man, the Autocaliph is despotic, whimisically cruel and wickedly insightful. Under his rule the city has mostly prospered, thanks in part to his patronage of the slave gangs that raid across the lands far and wide. These gangs sell their wares in the market of chains and pay the ‘red tax’, sending one in twenty slaves to the palace.

Khasran is beautiful to behold, with a thousands of coloured glass minarets gleaming in the relentlessly sunny skies. Beneath though it is a dangerous place for those who cannot defend themselves or show a relationship to the many trading houses that make the city their base. While exotic slaves from far of places or strange races command the highest prices, local smaller gangs are not above selling their own neighbours or even family at the market.     

Autocaliph Shazoon Khandiz, The Golden One

Shazoon is a now a fat aging man, who seeks more and more to indulge his primal fantasies and his love of the gambling. He was once an aggressive expansionist but he isn’t the strong military strategist he thought, and although his political acumen is beyond compare he could never trust his warlords enough to let them led. He employs a number of wizards to provide him magical toys, devices, illusions and auguries, although it is rare that they receive the title of palace mage as Mecalca Nhoul has. Under his rule the slave pit games have grown in both frequency and creativity. He politically favours those of the city elite who large sums of money on the creation of interesting scenarios for their sponsored chambers.