(OK so that was a little longer than the next day, but...)
After character generation was done, it was time to delve right in for the remainder of the evening...
The Gloomy Ruins
After character generation and tequila-chicken fajitas(yummmm!), I wanted to make the most of the remainder of the evening so set-up exposition was kept to a minimum.
It's always dangerous living in a small village on the frontier but some years are more dangerous than most. For one village, the danger seems to follow an established predictable pattern: The village will suffer from increased attacks by monsters and humanoids, historically coming out of the Gloomy Ruins located a day to the north. Once word of this reaches more populous, civilized lands the adventurers come. Some come for glory, some for gold, some for lost or forbidden lore, and even on rare occasion some just to do the right thing.
The party was one such group, their specific motivations left up to them to determine, who now approached the small valley containing the ruins. Near the center of the valley was a hill with the ruins resting on top. The ruins were scattered and old, with many stones so worn it was hard to tell pieces of once worked stone from boulders. But the keen stoneworking eye of Minden the dwarf was not easily fooled, and she was able to distinguish both form and function at just a glance. Here was once a curtain wall, here's keystone so this was the gate, now these are flagstones and interior walls, so it was determined the ruins were once a keep of some kind.
(DM's Note: This was a clever, above ground, non-dungeon use by Sally of the dwarf's stoneworking sense/ability. And to be completely honest one that hadn't occurred to me when giving a description of the ruins until she said "But I can tell as a dwarf, right?" And so she could...)
A quick scouting showed there to be to entrances leading below ground. A worn spiral staircase in the exact center of the keep, and a landslide or quake exposed cavern on one side of the hill (appraised as definitely natural by Minden) from which a cold mist flowed at ground level. After a short debate it was decided by the party that the cave might lead too deep too quickly and so the stairs would be explored first.
The very worn spiral staircase led to a series of worked stone chambers with a serious goblin problem. Most of the combats were pretty straight forward. The players were understandably cautious given their low levels (and hit points). But despite that the combat rounds ticked by pretty quickly. Part of it is the limited options and rules to be sure, but I think the Holmes style Dex based initiative helped. Everyone knew the fixed order among the players and just had to insert the monsters at another fixed point per encounter. With his plate mail armor Dominus the cleric was easily able to stand toe-to-toe with the two fighters Minden & Frauk. But surprisingly the most effective at combat was the shortbow sharpshooter Leila the halfling thief. With her racial and dex bonus giving her a +2 to hit it was a pretty big deal at these low levels. It did come with a side effect though: impatience. At one point when the melee fighters had blocked all her other shots (I am not allowing people to shoot through friendly occupied squares) we got the quote of the night:
"Well if I can't fire past them at those goblins, I shoot the hostage."
(The hostage being a goblin from the very first encounter who had surrendered. His actual hostage status was in doubt. Dominus considered him a "convert", a couple others a hostage, and the rest just a delayed but inevitable casualty)
The lone hobgoblin leader encounter would give us the first party fatality, and a rather brutal one. The dice just wanted Frauk dead. The hobgoblin got surprise, a natural 20 critical, and double damage critical result. And so Frauk went from unharmed to dead in a single round (I decided since he hadn't had the cash for a helmet that the hobgoblin's flail had a Gallagher-like effect on his head...) The party took his death pretty well, with cheers and laughs all around. The ease of character generation meant that Russel had his replacement fighter Burdonk (ruled a captive of the hobgoblin) ready to go before the party was done refining the map & going over all the goblin (and Frauk's) equipment for anything of possible utility.
Once out of goblins, the party came across 4 possible exits from this area: another spiral staircase leading down, a 3' by 5' crack of unknown length in the side of one hallway, and two barred doors marked with crude skulls. There was a fair amount of discussion of which to take, no one seemed happy with any of the choices. I took this to be a prime example of Zak Smith's saying: Scared players are thinking players.
In the end it was decided to take the stairs where yet more goblins were found. The dice decided the party was pretty exhausted though, for the goblins almost killed them all. I am using rules where unconsciousness starts at zero hp, and death once you are below your level in negative hp. So for the 1st level party that gives us the pretty narrow range of 0 to -1. As luck(?) would have it three party members ended up only unconscious, forcing Jänx the magic-user to enter melee before the last of the goblins fell. Deciding it was time to retreat the party fled back to the nearby village...
Overall I was quite pleased with the first delve. I had forgotten what "lean times" these early levels could be in this kind of game. Resources are definitely scarce, whether it's spells, money, or equipment. Nothing went to waste, the party scavenged everything (even poor Frauk) and equipped or drug out everything their weight allowances would let them after being forced to prioritize it by value. A marked change from the previous high-level Pathfinder game where I expect a few small fortunes were left behind to rot towards the middle/end levels.
Next game is coming up on February 25th so hopefully another post soon afterwards.
Savage Menagerie: Pfrzt
4 hours ago