Dungeon Crawl Classics — Session 3

Surf’s Up, Brah! by Kevin Whitaker

Greetings, adventurers! When we last left off, our (second) party of adventurers had fought and crawled their way through the guts of the cursed mountain fortress in search of their captured neighbors and loved ones. Having confronted horrible demons, nefarious traps, and the insidious madness of Chaos, the group now stood at the shores of a vast, underground lake. Their destination; a towering ziggurat spewing gouts of noxious vapor; lay across the water on an island.

Of course they had to deal with the giant tentacle monster which was trying to eat a some of their companions, first.

Things were not looking great for the PCs at this point. One of their number; having been driven insane by some Chaos runes; had stabbed and nearly killed another. A couple more of them were hanging back on the shore, not entirely sure what to make of a mysterious boat which had floated up to meet them when they had arrived. The remaining two, bolstered by their previous successes, had insisted on swimming out to the boat, and had their curiosity rewarded by being attacked by the guardian of the lake. Now, the stats of the guardian are formidable — there is almost no chance that a group of level-0 characters can drive it off (the stats for killing it aren’t even included), so the party was going to have to get creative. Thankfully, two new characters arrived on the scene, just as things were getting going.

As I’ve written about before, my IRL gaming group is a come-and-go affair; anyone is welcome to join, and people drop-in or drop-out on a regular basis. This week, we had someone pop in who hadn’t played any part in the previous sessions. Thankfully, it was easy enough to add them in — I had plenty of spare characters at the ready, and we just determined they had managed to slip away when their fellow villagers had been dragged to the island. Think Merry and Pippin escaping the orcs at Fangorn.

With all the characters accounted for, it was time for some initiative. A few PCs tried to pelt the creature with rocks and arrows from the beach, while one of them raced up a nearby menhir to see if something at the top could help. There they found a great, black candle, and busied themselves attempting to light it. The two characters already in the clutches of the creature uh, tried not to die. And failed. One of them was slammed into the side of the boat, while the other was dragged beneath the waves.

Eventually, the PC atop the menhir managed to light the candle (with the help of one of the new characters), and the monster was appeased. It took one of the doomed swimmers with it as it swam back into the depths… for now.

I Won’t Kill You, But I Don’t Have to Save You

Lighting the candle also caused the boat to close the distance to the shore, allowing the remaining part members to climb aboard with ease. They brought their insane companion along of the ride, but bound her to the figurehead on the prow of the ship to keep her safely away from the group. I mean, tying her to the mast would have probably been just as effective, but her victim was feeling understandably vengeful. With everyone on board, the boat magically set out for the island.

About half way through the short journey, the tentacle beast returned, though it didn’t attack. Sailors on the Starless Sea has the creature wait a few rounds before beginning its assault, in order to give the PCs time to appease it. There are a several options for doing so, but a few of them involved areas of the dungeon the party had already bypassed. Not that any of these options would have mattered; the party was now suitably terrified of the beast, and cowered in the hold while it fondled the boat.

Everyone but their living figurehead, that is.

Tied to the prow of the ship, Pearl was helpless. When I specifically asked the group if they were untying Pearl to take with them, they all balked. So, as the party watched in horror, the tentacles wrapped themselves around the figurehead. Pearl awoke to the sound of snapping timbers as she was wrenched free from the ship, and dragged beneath the dark and churning waters. Thus appeased, the guardian of the lake let the ship pass.

This encounter with the guardian is one of the highlights of the adventure, and showcases some great design. The creature itself cannot be killed, according to the rules of the module. The PCs are simply too weak. At best, it can be driven off. However, the module gives the group several ways to circumvent the monster; there’s a room in the fortress above which has an item to appease it; they can attempt to bribe it with treasure; they can fight it and hope to drive it off; and of course, they can sacrifice someone to it.

This was the path the party took, though they didn’t do so on purpose. That however, opens up great roleplaying opportunities. The universe of DCC rests on a triumvirate; Law, Chaos, and Neutrality. DCC inherits this from D&D, though it simplifies it significantly. While I’m not a huge fan of this kind of morality, it serves well enough in this case. How do lawful (read: good) characters feel about sacrificing someone to the creature? How will that impact their relationships with any deities they choose as their patrons? If the characters don’t care about Pearl, does that slide them into neutrality, or more drastically, chaos? These would be great questions to explore, and Sailors encourages you to do so. They didn’t really matter for my session, though, as this was our final game of DCC with this group.

Pyramid Scheme

With the danger of the lake behind them, the party soon found themselves on the shore of the island, the great ziggurat looming above. They spied a group of demons herding some captives up a ramp nearby, and discussed their options.

A few of the PCs had thought to bring some of the cultist robes they’d found, and wanted to infiltrate the group of demons, hopefully bypassing the need to sneak or climb. The rest of the group, wary of any possibility of discovery and capture, voted to try and climb the pyramid, instead. In the end, the second group won out, and the party started rolling Strength checks to climb the back face of the structure.

Just as in the previous session, I wasn’t interested in the group being unable to climb the pyramid; just how much time and how painful it would be to do so. If they rolled poorly, they wouldn’t be able to climb fast enough to avoid the groups of enemies moving up the ramp, which spiraled around the ziggurat. If they rolled exceptionally poorly, they would fall and take damage (most likely killing the character who rolled). Luckily for the PCs, they all rolled well enough, and were soon on the first tier of the pyramid. However, since they hadn’t rolled exceptionally well, they only managed to miss one group of demons, and had enough time to prepare as the second rounded the corner below them.

Thinking quickly, the group decided to use their wounded companions as a ruse; two of the party donned the cultist robes, and made as if they were beating and chastising the lazy “prisoners.” The approaching pair of demons — who were herding their own group of prisoners — stopped to see what the hold up was. I had the two “cultists” decide who was in charge, and that character rolled a Personality check to fool the monsters. He did not succeed, but also did not bomb the roll. In the interest of time (short sessions, remember?) and moving things forward, I opted to have one of the demons continue on with the prisoners, while the other stayed behind to show these fools how it was done. One of the party ended up taking the brunt of the assault (1 point of damage), while the rest waited nervously for the other group to round the corner and get out of sight.

When the opportunity to strike arose, we rolled initiative. The demon was high on the order, but not high enough, and when the first PC to act rolled a natural 20 the party was rewarded with an instant kill. The creature was gutted before it could land a blow, and its body was soon tumbling down the face of the pyramid to the sands below. Emboldened by this stunning success, the party got to their feet, and decided to continue the charade as they moved up the mountain.

We Are Legion

Once atop the pyramid, the PCs were confronted with the final battle of the adventure; a grand set piece involving a pit of molten lava, a shaman and its acolytes, and an animated magma golem. Rounding out the battle were groups of prisoners waiting to be cast into the fire, along with the hoard of treasure that was meant to join them.

Coming onto the scene, the party immediately tried to plan out their best course of action. The shaman was praying to an armor-clad effigy, while its three acolytes busied themselves throwing prisons and treasure into the lava. To make matters even more daunting, groups of demons were still moving prisoners up the ramp of the pyramid, and would soon be upon the party. The rules of the module state that as long as the party kept up the charade of being cultists, and didn’t attack anyone, the demons would ignore them. However, the shaman would instantly see through their ruse, once it focused on them. Sensing their time was nearly up, the adventurers leapt into action.

The obvious target at this point was the shaman, so most of the party focused on him. The remaining members went after the acolytes. The first round did not go well for the PCs; the shaman took almost no damage, and the acolytes were mostly unharmed, as well. The characters, on the other hand, were not so fortunate; a few of them were killed very quickly.

At this point, I came to another decision point; if the PCs died, that would be it; game over, TPK. Clearly, that is in the spirit of the game, and is what should be done. However, my group only had one more potential session set aside for DCC, and I did not want to run them through this dungeon, start-to-finish, for a third time. So instead, I decided to make ready use of the prisoners. Bolstered by seeing their neighbors fight on their behalf, the captives would themselves step in to replace fallen characters. I’m not convinced this was the correct decision to make; part of me wishes I had just stuck with the ethos of the game.

With replacements secured, the combat continued, and even escalated. Once the shaman knew what was happening, it immediately threw the effigy into the fire, causing it to transform into an armored golem, made of searing magma, and armed with a wicked flail. Rather than having it leap out of the lava in a flash, I let it climb slowly and inexorably to the top of the pit, building the dread and giving the party some time to even the odds. Thankfully, the group started rolling better than they had been, and soon two of the acolytes and the shaman were dead. By the time the golem was out of the pit and on its feet, only it and one acolyte remained — the demons below had fled at the sight of their shaman’s demise. Now the real slaughter could begin.

The effigy is a formidable opponent; it has both a high defense and offense. Any hit from the automaton is likely to kill a character outright, and its own health pool is quite high. Even with the party ganging up on it (the soundest tactical option), it was mowing through them at a rapid pace. Though replacements were hitting the field nearly as fast as characters were falling, it was still a hard, nail-biting fight. In the end, the characters defeated the creature, but not without heavy losses. By the time it fell back into the lava, only one of the original eight characters who began the adventure was left standing, and her only barely. The total party size was reduced to five, and most of them were “new;” either from the beach or the pyramid.

Roll Tide

Their enemy slain and their fellows freed, the characters had one last danger ahead of them; the dungeon itself. With the evil magic which had sustained the structure gone forever, the great cavern began to collapse in on itself. To complicate matters, the seismic activity had triggered a great tidal wave from the opposite end of the lake, theoretically giving the party little time to escape. And of course, there was all that treasure…

Here, Sailors presents the party with a potentially deadly choice; they only have so much time to reach safety, and each scoop of treasure they take, while lucrative, subtracts from that time limit. As the GM, I rolled 1D6+1 to determine the number of rounds it would take for the wave to crash into the island. It would take two rounds to reach the ship, and one round each time they gathered up treasure. But, I rolled a 6, giving the PCs seven rounds to gather treasure and flee for their lives — hardly high stakes, considering. This is one of the areas where I think Sailors misses; I’m not sure how best to improve the situation, but I feel like there’s a better way to increase the stakes, without it being totally random. Of course, as the GM it was my job to provide the illusion of danger — you shouldn’t tell the party they have X number of rounds to escape, after all.

But escape they did. By the time the wave crashed into the island, the party was safely aboard the boat, which was carried out of the cave via an unseen waterway. Thus, did the players rescue (most) of their captured neighbors, and put an end to the evil in the mountains!

Final Thoughts

So, I really, really enjoyed my time with Dungeon Crawl Classics, and my players seemed to as well. Everyone enjoyed the high-stakes, high-lethality of the system, and the mechanics provided moments of high drama and unexpected comedy.

Of course, it’s not perfect. There are times I believe the system is too unforgiving, and the quality of the materials, while excellent overall, has some occasional problems. And of course, I’ve only played a level-0 game. Looking at the main rulebook, I can see level-1 play and above will be much, much more complex; each class has special rules and their own critical hit tables. Monsters, also, have unique critical hit tables, based on their type. Hell, every spell has its own unique table of effects, and thats not even counting the various tables you roll on to cast a spell in the first place. Now, not having played at this level, I can’t comment from experience, but I can already tell that I won’t be able to run games like that for my sessions; we just don’t have enough time, and we’ve got too many RPG novices who come to play, and who would be intimidated by something like that. I’ve been playing RPGs for more than two decades, and I’m intimidated by it.

But, I can say that if you are looking for an OSR game, with mostly elegant mechanics, and some great weirdness to it, look no further than Dungeon Crawl Classics. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. We certainly weren’t.

https://medium.com/@kwhitaker81/dungeon-crawl-classics-session-3-bf5824516c08