Dolmenwood Play Reports - Session 1

Character creation and the beginning of Winter's Daughter

So, not too long ago, I kicked off a Dolmenwood game and decided I was going to post play reports for it. These will be reasonably short summaries of each session, along with my general GM notes. The style will be more informational and less narrative, but hopefully, it will still be a fun read.

I’m not going to be emailing these out because I don’t want to overwhelm any mailboxes, either.

Character Creation

We start off our adventures in Dolmenwood with 6 characters.

Chalice-of-Duskviolet: A female Elven enchanter that has wandered through the Dolmenwood driven by curiosity and the desire to find forbidden arcane.

Hesper: A male Breggle fighter that has spent most his life near High-Hankle. Recently his desire to travel and see the world pushed him to leave his hometown and set out into the Dolmenwood.

Jack Whiskers: A male Gremalkin thief driven by the shine of gold coins.

Moriah Burl: A female human hunter exploring the Dolmenwood in the hopes a landing a legendary kill and making enough coin to never go hungry again.

Roland Cross: A male human cleric with a mysterious past he has recently joined the church for a fresh start. Looking for a mentor he has set out into the Dolmenwood under the tutelage of Sister Molly.

Sister Molly Furl: A female human nun traveling the Dolmenwood to bring the word of the one true god to the masses and raise funds for the church in the process.

I told all the players that I really wanted to run a longer Dolmenwood campaign but since the system was new for all but 2 of us, we would start with a smaller adventure. If we all liked it, then we could just keep adventuring.

I was clear with then that this style of game would not provide a set story. Plots would surely develop but the onus of seeking out adventure was on them, not the world itself. I likened it to the Witcher vs Lord of the Rings.

I chose Winter’s Daughter because it's already tied into Dolmenwood, it’s easy to place almost anywhere and the hooks/rumors were easy to work with. I decided to place the tomb close to the town of Prigwort because Prigwort seems like a blast, and it's in the heart of the Dolmenwood. Finally we talked through character hooks and goals up front but started our first session already at the entrance to the tomb. I have always found starting at the adventure works way better when kicking of an adventure, campaign, or major arc. If you start players in a town, or too far away from the adventure site distraction and decision paralysis quickly set in.

Session 1: Day 1

Characters

Chalice-of-Duskviolet. Elf Enchancter (Lv1), HP 5/5
Hesper. Breggle Fighter (Lv1) HP 8/8
Jack. Gremalkin Thief (Lv1) HP 3/3
Sister Molly. Human Nun (Lv1) HP 3/3
Moriah. Human Hunter (Lv1) HP 5/5
Roland. Human Cleric (Lv1) HP 6/6

Day 1, Grimvold 1st, 1089
Weather: Snowstorm

The group had accepted a job from the consulting wizard of Prigwort, Mostlemyre Drouge. Mostlemyre had recently come into possession of a treasure map and needed some willing and potentially expendable adventurers to follow and map and retrieve a highly valuable ring rumored to be buried there. Upon its return, he would pay them 5,000 gold pieces and was upfront that they could take whatever treasures they found in the tomb other than the ring. Except for Sister Molly and Roland Cross, the group had been strangers to each other before accepting this job and were only brought together by the promise of riches.

I gave all of the characters a pretty simple fetch quest. Get this ring and earn 5k gold. In Dolmenwood, treasure recovered is equivalent to XP, and 5k would be almost enough to level most of the characters up. But to keep things interesting, one of the characters has a different hook. Chalice-of-Duskviolet has had visions of a beautiful female elf for the last few months. She has professed her love to her and asked that she retrieve the ring from the tomb and bring it to her in faerie.

The map led them several miles southeast of Prigwort, and while the journey to the tomb was uneventful, a snowstorm had been to blowing through the trees, and the group hurried towards their destination hoping to be inside soon.

Upon arriving, they found a circle of standing stones outside the tomb entrance. Small metal owls hung from the stones, and the mostly skeletal remains of a stag lay inside the circle. The remains of the stag twitched on occasion and had trace amounts of some kind of green ichor or slime on its body. Sister Molly and Roland were certain the creature was not undead, but rather simply dead, though it war unclear what killed it. The group recognized the metal owls as symbols of the Drune, a terrible order of male magic users based in the Dolmenwood. Sister Molly pointed at the ominous scene and said, “That’s the universal sign that something should be avoided.” The group had no desire to get involved with the Drune and decided to avoid the standing stones entirely and head for the tomb’s entrance.

I’m going to play the Drune as primal, evil druids. If you want to see more of what that looks like, this is a great article…I mean, it’s awful, but you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Once in the tomb, Hesper and Jack were attacked by several religious objects in the entryway. They only focused on the two characters and kept calling out exceptionally minor “bad deeds” the two had committed (littering, sleeping in a church service, not holding the door for someone entering a building, etc). Rather than continuing to fight, Hesper and Jack retreated up the stairs while Sister Molly and Chalice-of-Duskviolet spoke to the object in an attempt to pacify them. After a brief conversation, they convinced the objects that the two “scoundrels” were part of Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s envoy. The exceptionally judgy objects agreed that as long as Hesper and Jack behaved themselves, they would allow them to advance further within the tomb. They also told Chalice-of-Duskviolet that they hoped she would be as kind and courteous to other beings the group encountered in the tomb.

The group pressed on through doors to the north that bore the inscription “The Most Dear.” Inside, their torch reavealed a bizarre sight. The large family crypt contained five stone sarcophagi, two of which were already open. A large fissure bisected the room, and sheets of translucent green slime dripped into it from above. Dancing upside down on the ceiling were two skeletons faintly coated in the slime. Smiling at the group, they welcomed them to the tomb and invited them to join their dance.

No one in the group accepted the invitation, but Chalice-of-Duskviolet greeted the dancing skeletons courteously and asked their names. The skeletons seemed friendly enough and introduced themselves as Lady Amaranda and Lord Brigforwith. Given their disposition, Jack described the ring they were searching for and askd if they know its whereabouts. The skeletons abruptly stopped dancing, their demeanor suddenly serious. After a tense pause, Lady Amaranda asked, “And what exactly do you want with my son’s betrothal ring?”*

One of the players literally said, “Oh shit” right after I said this. I love shocking/surprising players and it’s one of the ways I know I’m doing it right.

The situation quickly became tense as Jack tried to backpedal and “revise” his statement. As he fumbled over his words a loud thud reverberated through the tomb as the door to the tomb slammed shut. Three more skeletons climbed out of the remaining sarcophagi brandishing weapons. The group continued to hold their attacks but things were quickly growing more dire and they know they had to make a call to flee or fight soon.

Suddenly Chalice-of-Duskviolet spoke up and said that she was here to claim the ring and bring it to the woman from her dreams as she was asked to do. She knew this was the correct tomb as she had seen a statue in the tomb depicting the woman from her dreams. This caught Lady Amaranthe off guard and she asked Chalice-of-Duskviolet to show her this statue. She wished to confirm the identity of this “dream women” herslef. Chalice-of-Duskviolet happily showed Lady Amaranda the statue (which the whole group had seen earlier, but only she recognized), Lady Amaranda asked a few more questions before she was convinced that the group truly had no idea of the significance of the tomb or the person they had intended to rob.

*None of this is really in the book, but it does say that the two dancing skeletons are Sir Chyde’s parents. So when the thief brought up that they were looking for their son’s betrothal ring I jumped at the opportunity to turn what could be a simple conversation into more of a challenge. I try to do this by continually ramping up the pressure and tension during the conversation. In this situation, a few moments after they started talking the group heard the large stone slab at the entrance of the tomb roll back into place. This cut off a quick escape. When the group continued to parlay rather than attack or escape, I had three skeletons climb out of nearby sarcophagi.

The goal isn't to make the players roll a whole bunch, in fact they didn't roll at all during this conversation. The goal is to continually make it more dangerous for the group to switch to combat. I have found that this makes the players tense because they want to resolve things through conversation, but they're increasingly aware that if they fail, combat will be much harder.

She explained that this was the tomb of Sir Chyde, her son, and a legendary hero in the war to drive back the Cold Prince. Her son had fallen in love with one of the Cold Prince’s daughters, an elf by the name of Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk The two had pledged their hearts to each other and exchanged engagement rings. Not long after, the Princess had vanished and Sir Chyde had died in the final battle with the Cold Prince.

This news stunned the group. Sir Chyde was known by most to be a hero from long ago, and the idea of stealing from him was less than appealing to most of the group. It also seemed that one of their companions was in love with Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk and planned to take the ring to her through an entrance to faerie that she was convinced lay hidden in the tomb. Sister Molly and Roland were the two most impacted by this news. They had assumed this was a largely abandoned tomb, or perhaps the tomb of a ner-do-well. Sir Chyde was a hero of the church and the idea of disturbing his tomb, let alone stealing from it was downright appalling. Molly was set on determining what the right thing to do was and Jack agreed though his description of “right” was a little different. “I mean, of course the right thing to do is 5,000 gold.”

While the rest of the group debated what to do next Chalice-of-Duskviolet moved forward with her plan. Lady Amaranda said she would tell them where the ring was, and the passphrase to enter. In return one of the group would have to swear an oath that they would take the ring and deliver it to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk. Chalice-of-Duskviolet agreed, touched the outstretched fingers of Lady Amaranda’s skeletal form, and felt the magic take hold.

I play Oaths as incredibly powerful magical effects. To swear an oath is to bind your spirit to your word; break your word and you break your spirit. Think of curses from folklore where food turns to ash in your mouth, your children all go missing in the woods, or you wake each night knowing you killed someone but unsure who. I am however always very clear with my players about how serious an oath is. The goal is never to trick a player into one, you want them to want to take an oath. I also don’t often bother deciding the impact of breaking a specific oath when a player makes it. They are normally going to fulfill the oath, and I can always ponder it later.

With the oath pledged, and little else to do, the group thanked Lady Amaranda and Lord Brigforwith and moved further into the tomb. Encountering little resistance, the group quickly found their way to Sir Chyde’s burial chamber and opened the door with the passphrase they had been given. As the doors swung open they saw the hero’s spirit hovering over his sarcophagi. His face bore years of melancholy and heartbreak as he faced the group and demanded, “What brings you to my tomb?”

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I think this kicked off the session pretty well and the whole group loved/hated where we ended 😃. I’m always looking to see if I can end on a cliffhanger even if it doesn’t always work so I’m glad we were able to end where we did. I’m happy the group isn’t taking a “kill everything” approach and is trying to avoid any fights they don’t think they need to take.

I also really like the unfolding dynamic where Chalice-of-Duskviolet wants to return the ring, Roland and Molly want to preserve the tomb of their saint, and Jack wants the loot. I don’t want characters at each other’s throats but I like having conflicting goals/drives. It just makes things interesting.

We’re all still getting used to the rules of this system but so far it doesn’t seem too challenging. The only things still throwing me are the declarations before initiative in combat and how fleeing from combat works.

Hopefully people like this and if you want to stay up to date on the game I’d love to have you subscribe.