PCs:
Urikas the elf, F1/MU1
Samwich Baggins, halfling, T1
Zyla the elf, C1
SESSION REPORT:
Since many members of the party almost died, the group needed again at least a week of rest. The leaders of the village, Rufus and Burne, agree to keep the groups evergrowing treasures safe at their keep for as long as they continue to raid the Moathouse. They are also approached by the local trader who offers to sell them his products at half price if they promise to pay the rest throught their loot.
At Fireseek 27th, the party visits the Moathouse once more. In the yard they kill 4 giant rats but besides them, they don't find any resistance in the ground floor. So they head to the stairs that lead to the lower level.
As they descend they trigger a glyph of warding. It doesn't cause much damage but it did a lot of noise. They are concerned that someone might heard it but still, they continue. After a while they reach a dead end but with a closer investigation they find some secret doors.
However, doors are not the only things that they 've found. Soon enough they met 9 gnolls that gave them a tough battle. The party used their flasks of oil to burn them and they took a phyrric victory. Zyla, Spugnoir and Urikas lost conciousness during this tough fight. After that, they retreated back to Hommlet.
LOOT AND KILLS:
Loot:
10 gp worth gem
11 gp
96 sp
Kills:
4 giant rats
9 gnolls
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SESSION:
This was the first attempt of the group to venture in the dungeon of the Moathouse and it ensured me that we have a few sessions yet to the finale of T1. They barely discovered a few rooms before they retreated but still, they progressed. The enemy has lost now even more of his minions and I must start planning his counter attack. If he could accept the loss of his brigants, the fact that someone came down to his dungeon and killed the gnolls is someting that need to be taked care off. And he has a few tricks up his sleeve, don't worry about that.
I like very much that in this style of play, I can actually play the bad guy. Since I had a week to prepare and he knew that someone was onto him, I could prepare his defences without knowing what the party will do exactly. I set up a glyph of warding and prepared the troops to surprise anyone coming down. Unfortunately the gnolls weren't strong enough and now I must prepare a new strategy to welcome back the brave adventures in a week. Truth be told however, he almost got them in this one, 3 party members fell to 0 hit points.
Speaking of that, we realised that Hommlet, although a dangerous module, provides a strong group of henchmen who are willing to follow the party. Elmo is really tough and his longbow skills are amazing and the magic user is really strong as well. Without them there was no hope for the party to advance, which makes me wonder how can a party full of level 1 characters clean this module by itself.
Another nice thing is that game time goes 1:1 with real time. The fact that we play weekly and the wounded PCs need at least a week of rest before they are ready to fight again, makes time pass at the same rate both in the real and in the game world. Something that I guess happens by design.
An important point is the first realisation that OSRIC by itself, without the 1e DMG is not enough long term. For example, we came across the situation were the party wanted to light up the gnolls. There are no such rules in OSRIC about that, however there are detailed rules in the 1e DMG. We used them and from now on I will have to take advice from that book if I want the campaign to run smoothly.
Let's see how the PCs will continue in the next one! See you then!
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