Edge Ov The Twilight Queen's Domain: Mvrkmaal's Tunnels 1st Delve! x3
Mvrkmaal's Tunnels Delve 1:
My dear readers, I have just finished a short Dungeon Crawl Session for my new OD&D Setting! It was a lot of fun for me, I would like to (once again) thank my friend Dylan (Dyl Pickle!! x33) for letting me put his fucked up little guy in dubious situations.
We started off outside of the dungeon, with a little blurb about the trip to entrance and a small description of the outside. Situated 2.5 miles up into a mountain range a few miles off the coast, where the hills still have not become the mountains proper, is what appears to be a "Man-Made" cave entrance. The mounds of rubble imply this is only the remains of some larger structure that has since worn away.
Within, our fateful adventurer quickly found out that many of the doors in the place were locked! A thick carpet of Grime, Fur and Dust coats the first few areas while the horrid odor of oxidizing metal suffocates the nostrils. Whilst digging through the carpet of crud to investigate a large mass buried underneath, from an adjacent archway the echoes of skeletal bones emanated. Our brave adventurer and his Hirelings threw a torch into the hallway, and upon noticing the foul villains lurking about in the next room they quickly absconded to the first room.
From there, a close encounter with some wild dogs nesting in the room to the north and the discovery of a Rust Monster sitting atop a Chute residing within a broken booth. Our party's first torch died as the Rust Monster was provoked, resulting in the loss of some weapons (;-;).
Quick thinking led the party past the booth, to the portcullises separating the room from a 30' Hallway. Dylan, being the Dungeoneer he is, decided to open up the portcullises that had deteriorated enough to no longer lock in place and forcefully lock them in the raised position by pounding iron spikes into the wall to hold the Portcullis. He did this to both of these Portcullises in the hallway, and from there entered Mvrkmaal's tunnel proper.
The Entrance to the Dwemer Tunnel Highway system traversing the underground of the Death Mountain Range! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜
More locked doors, and a close encounter with some unknown armored/weapon wielding "Humans"(?) circumvented by a Sleep spell were the precursor to a final fight with the 2 Skeletons heard earlier (Foreshadowing! ٩(ᗜ )و). These were special skeletons, with bits of flesh still attached carrying nests of Rot Grubs. One hirelings managed to get hit by the skeleton, resulting in the burrowing rot grubs to attempt a claim on the life of another ill-fated adventurer in a Dungeon.
But Dylan! being the Dungeoneer he is, knew to torch his faithful companion and was able to save his life without killing him (D4 Damage from a Torch).
Takeaways
So! No treasure was found this time lol, no traps either lol. We were able to get through about 2 rooms, 2 hallways and Mvrkmaal's Tunnel proper in the span of about 1.5 hours give or take.
Combat went pretty well too, I was afraid that things would be "unbalanced" (Lol, not in my OSR!) but despite the Rust Monster mutilating the weaponry and that near death with the Skeleton things went over pretty successfully.
It's pretty astounding to me still, even after years, just how little Dungeon you actually need to create a good session. 2/20 rooms, and we have yet to scratch the surface on the amount of cool shit in the 1st floor.
Dylan left those portcullises open, which leaves me a very very nice little morsel of outside creativity to work with! Whether it remains open or closed, and whether that means something will be determined by whoever comes down into the place next.
Finishing Thoughts
I have much to think about in terms of restocking this dungeon after the first delve. Firstly, how will the encounters table change? New treasure and room contents means someone had to have done that.
Secondly, fleshing out the local village and area. As the Dungeoneering continues, I will be opening up the game to more players which means... Someone will get interested in the outside world, better yet someone will level up! And need new things to do!
Much to work on! It feels great to be back in the swing of things, and hopefully this is only the beginning of a Brand New Campaign in a Brand New Setting!
Happy Gaming everyone! x33