Open Table Session Report - Fondue Party in the Ape Dojo
Player Characters
Balgor Mountainkin (Dwarf 1), accompanied by Callios (Fighter 1)
Helios (Elf 1)
Poppy (Thief 1)
Robin Redwood (Magic-User 2)
Prep
Robin had learned Read Languages from Helene's spellbook recovered in the last delve. He prepared Charm Person and Floating Disc. Helios prepared Hold Portal. Balgor purchased a flask of tar and Robin bought a wheel of cheese. Helios and Poppy had newly joined the party and were thus penniless knaves.
Events
Robin immediately summoned a Floating Disc and headed north to the weird obelisk to restore the expended spell slot.
Heading west, the party picked their way through the ruined tavern and armoury, relieved to encounter no cave lizards. Poppy scrounged up a bag of old cutlery and found a hook to fix to the end of their 10' pole. The poison dart trap on the armoury door had been reset and was safely triggered. The party continued to the stairs heading down and heard the sucking, slapping footsteps of the lizards echo through the halls.
Entering the misted spa room, their torch failed and the party lit a lantern. Balgor inspected the sprinklers, hearing a current of running water from somewhere above the room, while Poppy picked the lock on the far door. Helios and Robin relaxed in the rose-scented mist.
Continuing through the unlocked door, the party heard clicking, insectile footsteps from around the next corner. Poppy stealthily padded up and peeked around the corner, seeing nothing but another corner soon after and darkness thereon. She threw a spoon from her bag of cutlery, hearing a hiss and a scuttling sound as a pair of large spider legs caught the torchlight and batted the spoon around. The party advanced as a group, confronting a single dog-sized spider which cautiously withdrew and scuttled away into the shadows.
Listening at a door at this junction, Helios heard nothing and the party strode forth. The Elf's hearing had failed them as they emerged into a wide, room lit with clay oil lamps and dotted with numerous sandy pits, within which wrestled pairs of flying apes. A larger, white ape wielding a bronze great-axe sat atop a perch in the centre, directing the training of the others. The white ape barked a command in Ancient Minoic and the others sprang to their weapons and formed up, preparing to fight. Robin appealed to them in in their tongue and offered a wheel of cheese as supplication.
The apes accepted the peace offering and Robin relayed recipes for melted cheese dishes from Poppy. An ape retrieved one of the lamps and the troop assembled a primitive fondue dish, melting the cheese with great excitement. Poppy and Helios joined them, sharing out some rations to dip in the cheese, while Balgor questioned the leader via Robin. The leader, called White Pelt, was a veteran of his kind. He warned them of a pit trap at the door on the far side of the room, which the apes used to contain the Minotaur if it strayed this way while they retreated, and told them that Kadmacho's domain lay north of here 'beyond the hall of light'.
Balgor asked if White Pelt could teach him any martial techniques. The great ape stripped off his armour and assumed a wrestling pose in one of the pits, challenging Balgor to face him. The Dwarf was defeated in the bout, tapping out of a mighty chokehold, but his performance earned White Pelt's respect and the ape offered a rematch once Balgor had increased in strength. White Pelt joined the other apes and the party continued north.
Continuing through long corridors, the sound of lizard feet echoed again but none emerged. Eventually the party saw light ahead and emerged into a long hallway lit by glowing orbs hovering beneath metallic spikes emerging from the ceiling. Poppy sat on Helios' shoulders and reached out, feeling no warmth but a peculiar tingling sensation. The party debated touching a ration to one of the orbs to see what happened, but decided against it and headed on.
Continuing through the labyrinthine corridors, the party came to a locked door. Peeking through the keyhole, Poppy saw occasional motes of light illuminating a stone wall opposite the door. Helios listened at the door and heard what sounded like grinding glass or crystal, and a delicate tinkling.
The party also heard scuttling footsteps and were surprised by a trio of spiders from behind. The arachnids didn't press their advantage, reacting cautiously, and the groups faced off. The party decided to press up against the walls to allow the spiders passage. Once in the centre of the immobile party, the spiders attacked. One was killed and the others wounded before the beasts broke and fled. The party sustained no injuries.
Poppy picked the lock on the door and the party proceeded through. At the far western end of the room stood a great mirror in a carved marble frame styled after vines, branches, and leaves. The face of the mirror was rough and pieces of it slide over each other, creating the grinding noise. Robin, in the lead, saw their reflection animate in the mirror and a gleaming simulacrum stepped forth, bound to the mirror by a silver thread. The faces of the other party members likewise appeared and began to emerge as the Robin-thing screeched like a knife drawn over glass and attacked.
The party fell to panic, Poppy ran to the door at the far side of the room and attempted to pick the lock, joined by Helios in an attempt to force it when that failed. Balgor planned to send his flask of tar and a flaming torch over the figures on Robin's Floating Disc to be dropped as a firebomb. Callios, meanwhile, drew his crossbow and fired at the mirror, shattering it in a single blow. With a great inrush of air, the Robin-thing was sucked back with the rest of the mirror and exploded into fine silvery sand against the stones of the western wall.
Deciding to call it a day, the party withdrew from the dungeon without issue and returned to Alos.
Outcomes
Treasure retrieved: 0sp
Combat XP: Crab spider (25XP), crystal statue (35XP) - 60XP
Feats of Exploration:
Apply lore in a useful or flavourful manner (2%)
Overcome a trap (2%)
Manipulate or cripple a faction to your benefit (5%)
Total: 9% XP required to level up.
Shares: 4.5 full shares | 13XP/share / 8XP/half-share
Thoughts
This was a really fun session. The players of Poppy and Helios were new to the game and had a great time. Poppy's player informed me that they'd felt very present in the dungeon through my descriptions, and both found the game easy to pick up and enjoy. The fondue party with the apes was an amazing bit of quick thinking and persuasion on their part, and it added an almost cozy moment to the delve - given that the party has had several very good interactions with the apes I've decided that they've formed a bit of a bond with them, lubricated by generous deliveries of cheese. Balgor's player asking to be trained in martial techniques was cool, I've been thinking about non-linear advancement so I'm going to devote some time to 'martial techniques' that can be learned - they'll carry a cost to use and require time to be trained by a tutor. More to come on that.
The overthinking of the mirror trap was quite funny to see. Sometimes the best solution is to shoot something with a crossbow.
I'm still black-boxing the game for the most part, and everyone seems fine with that - the new players found it really easy to focus on the fiction of the game, and when they wanted to do something risky or with consequences of failure I was able to call for a roll and guide them though the bit on the character sheet they needed to give me modifiers from.
I'm unsure if I'll keep using the underclock. I like the idea of it, but it's another thing to keep track of whereas the 2-in-6 encounter chance per Turn is dead simple. We'll see how it goes. Weirdly I only rolled spiders and lizards for encounters, with the lizards as omens - given how I've been running them as cautious wild animals this didn't lead to a lot of combat until the party literally served themselves up on a platter and allowed curious spiders to get very close to them.
I've found that OSE|B/X character creation isn't as quick and simple for newbies as one might expect. Compared with OD&D there's a lot of interplay between stat modifiers and mechanics, but ultimately I don't find that these add much additional texture to the game. I think I'd run this with OD&D if I were to start it over.
This session definitely ran long as a result of character creation, although the play time was about 2 1/2 hours. After cleaning up the room and sitting down for a bit to decompress after the session, I ended up getting home around midnight which is way too late. I might ask new players to arrive a little earlier to roll things up and give them a brief primer. Given that we ran late I handwaved the party leaving the dungeon - I'll need to institute a proper dungeon escape mechanic if they take too long and overstay.
Overall, this was a really positive session and a good one to come back from a 2 week break to!