Open Table Session Report (#17) - Hireling Recovery Mission
Player Characters
Ash (Halfling 1)
Poppy Tumbletop (Halfling 1), accompanied by a heavy footman.
Mercy (Fighter 1), accompanied by a bowman.
Prep
No dungeon change - spilled blood sated the Underworld. Mercy bought 3 torches (3sp) and a sword (10sp), stashed rations and a flail, and hired a bowman mercenary (15sp). Poppy bought 100' of rope (6sp), stashed 250sp, and hired a heavy footman mercenary (50sp).
Poppy was elected Captain of the delve and also acted as scribe. Mercy took on mapping duties.
The party chose to explore the second level in search of the hooting growths they had heard about, with investigating the strange market a secondary goal.
Events
The party proceeded to their now-regular route down to the second level. The grate they attempted to pass resisted their attempts to budge it, diverting the party down a different route through a circular mosaic-ed room with a gas trap - nozzles positioned in the mouths of depicted figures pumped out choking fumes. Luckily they noticed several raised flagstones and triggered it safely, waiting for the fumes to disperse. A second grate also resisted them, but they were able to force it with a turn of effort.
Roping down to the second level, they proceeded to the location they had abandoned the bodies of Connell and the hirelings. They found the bodies of Connell and Artos, stripped of all iron and steel items, but Gorato's body was missing and a dark trail of dried blood led SW.
A group of ironcursed burst into the room and charged towards the party. In the battle that followed, Mercy took a minor blow from the enemy and sundered their shield to avoid another. The ironcursed were slain to the last, and Mercy noticed that their sword had begun to pit and rust where the creatures' dark blood stained the blade. Mercy took Poppy's shield to replace their broken one and the group dragged the remaining bodies back to their rope.
They proceeded back eastwards and investigated the door where they had heard strange voices previously. Listening intently, Ash and Poppy heard deranged chatter debating the correct manner of table setting and noticed the glimmer of light shining past the door jamb. Opening the door and striding into the large room beyond, the group was attacked by a pair of ghouls laying mismatched cutlery on large banquet tables surrounded by faded tapestries and lit by candelabras dripping with stalactites of old wax. Poppy loosed an arrow at the nearest ghoul, felling it in a single hit, and the other fled through a door north.
The party salvaged 500sp in fine silverware from the chaotically laid tables and Mercy took a single sweet-smelling dried flower from an urn full of them. Angry voices were heard from the eastern door and the party barred it with a banquet table before making their escape and heading back to their rope.
A final encounter greeted them as they opened the door to their entrance room to find a group of gnomos (Gearing-kobolds) chattering over the rope hanging down from the first level. At that point, the other door to the room burst open and a group of ironsworn poured in, taking both the party and kobolds by surprise and attacking both. In the chaos that followed, the majority of the ironsworn were driven off with no casualties to the kobolds and the party and the situation fell into a tense stalemate. The stalemate was broken after a brief negotiation - the kobolds demanded the party take their rope with them and stop messing with the dungeon, and warned them that the big tomb to the north was 'not nice'.
The party were then able to ascend and exit (taking their rope with them). Funerals were held for Connell and Artos.
Outcomes
Treasure retrieved: 500sp | 71sp half-share
Combat XP: 5 ironcursed (50XP), 1 ghoul (35XP) - 85XP
XP from funerals: 110XP/character
Shares: 143sp - 231XP
Feats of Exploration:
Uncover additional information about a lead, or open a new lead ('big tomb bad') (2%)
Overcome a trap (gas trap) (2%)
Total: 4% required for next level, plus bonuses for player roles.
Thoughts
This was a solid session - a new player joined us and said they'd be back when they had time, which is always good news. The hireling changes I'd proposed worked well, the players were pleased to have a bit of extra muscle to bring along and providing some simple fighter-types with set equipment and not having to roll up entire characters a la retainers made things a bit easier on me prep-wise.
The new player was mono-focused on 'flirting' with things the party encountered. This took the form of them asking if they could flirt with something and then asking how to do it, which was odd. It was harmless enough but I explained that I wasn't running that sort of game - the other players were fine with things and gave advice on how to act in combat etc. We ended up joking about 'flirting' being a euphemism for combat. After the session the new player messaged me wanting to double-check 'if they'd played the game ok', I explained that I had fun running things and the other players had enjoyed the session so it was all good. We had a brief chat and they said they were probably looking for a more RP-focused experience but they still really enjoyed the game and would be back when they could. It was an interesting situation to Referee - the player seemed genuinely very sweet so the 'I flirt with the orc' thing was easy to deal with in its stride and they took the explanation on board, whereas I'd have booted a 'weirder' player who didn't know how/when to change their behaviour. I think I handled the situation well and kept the other players in a comfortable spot.
There was a lot more combat in this session than we've ever had previously - our average tends to be maybe 1 combat/session at most and this one had 3 separate fights - and the players did great. They played strategically, used their equipment and the environment to their advantage and readily overcame their foes. I love how rolling initiative every round influences the flow of combat, and morale checks always provide some interesting spice. I played the monsters in these encounters a bit more aggressively - the ghouls are happy to talk if you catch them in the right mood, but the ironcursed (Gearing-orcs) are pretty aggro if they think they can get the jump on you, the gnomos (kobolds) may have attacked the party if they'd encountered them independently but they were quite happy to have some help against the ironcursed in the final encounter.
I'm still torn between the underclock and ordinary encounter rolls. I think I'll try the latter in this coming session as the party are effectively able to bypass the first level without incident when using the underclock.
I modified the rules for forcing doors slightly - the party failed to force a number of grates in the dungeon which would have totally diverted them. I allowed them to spend a turn forcing the things open but making a lot of noise while doing so, which is a method I've seen used by others on the Gay Beholder server. It worked well, allowing them to pursue their set objectives while risking additional attention. I've been running the game with doors mostly opening normally but I'll need to run one with stuck doors as standard to force these kind of decisions more often.