The Lamprey Bog - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Session 9
The group finds out what awaits them in the bog of the Lamprey Men
In the last session, the group explored Fort Vulgar, met Sir Osric, and learned what they could about the missing bard Gerigrew. Then they set off into the bog to the west of town where they encountered their first Lamprey Man.
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You can find the prior play report here and the full play report index here.
Characters
Chalice-of-Duskviolet. Elf Enchanter (Lv2), HP 10/10
Hesper. Breggle Fighter (Lv2) HP 15/15
Sister Molly. Human Nun (Lv2) HP 4/4
Moriah. Human Hunter (Lv2) HP 13/13
Roland. Human Cleric (Lv2) HP 12/12
Day 8, Grimvold 8th, 1089
Weather: Relentless Wind
Wandering Encounter: No
The encounter says that there are 6 galoshers in this area, and I knew that if I just had them all show up immediately, it could easily spell doom for the group. I decided to keep the number of enemies but have them appear in waves rather than all at once. They would also be making non-lethal attacks. This seemed to make sense because they wanted to capture people and feed on their dreams, not kill them.
With Sister Molly charmed by the creature, Moriah tried to restrain her to no avail. Molly broke free and began to rush towards what she believed to be an angel sent from heaven.
More of the creatures appeared in the swamp around the group and began to close in on them. Moriah was forced to abandon Sister Molly and return to the group as they took up defensive positions. Seeing her friends in danger, Sister Molly decided they were the priority and began to rush back to them. Upon making this decision, the illusion broke, and she saw the creature for what it was.. GDo y
I asked Sister Molly’s player if Molly would internally prioritize her faith or her friends more. They thought about it for a minute and decided that Molly was a woman of the people more than the religious structure, so she would naturally want to defend her friends. Because of this, I gave her wisdom save to resist the effect, and this time she succeeded.
As the enemies closed it around them, the group tightened ranks, worried about how many of these creatures were beginning to surround them. After a few moments of tense combat and a well-placed light spell by Roland, their enemies were either slain or driven off.
Holy cow is the Light spell good, I’m used to light just, you know, creating light. It freakin blinds people in Dolmenwood.
As everyone caught their breath, they realised that it seemed like these lamping men were more interested in incapacitating them and killing them.
Chalice-of-Duskviolet: Maybe if they’re not killing people, they’re….saving you to eat later
Sister Molly: I agree, more than a few animals do that.
Hesper: That is... upsetting
Chalice: I don’t think our errant bard has shuffled off the mortal coil just yet
Roland: True, and he might be in one of those…
Roland was pointing at several large mounds of mud in the bog that had something poking out of them and moving slightly. Meanwhile, Moriah spotted gold and jewelry scattered among the bones in this section of the bog. Their best guess was that this was a lair for a large group of these lamprey men.
The group was a bit divided on what to do. Most of them were worried that staying in the area would attract more of these creatures. Moriah had spotted valuables in the big, including an undamaged set of armor, and Roland still very much wanted to find what was in the large amount of mud.
Finally, Roland made the call that he would check it out. He tied a rope to his waist, just in case things went very poorly, took off his armor and shirt, and waded in. The rest of the group was a bit stunned as they realized their cleric was absolutely jacked.
Roland has an unusually high strength score for a cleric, which has served him really well as sister Molly's Defender. But it has also led to some party jokes that he is incredibly ripped. This is further compounded by the fact that he has a mysterious past before he entered the church.
When he mentioned he took off his shirt, one of the other characters made another funny joke about how this was the first time the characters had seen how jacked Roland is. Everybody seemed to be having fun with it, so I described it like a scene from The Witcher where Geralt takes his shirt off and waded into some gross swamp, and it's somehow both super disgusting and super attractive. The players went nuts. They've now firmly decided that Roland is basically Geralt, as played by Henry Cavill. It's amazing.
Roland started digging through one of the nearby mud piles and discovered that the thing sticking out out of the mud was the tail end of a single lamprey. Scraping aside the next few inches of mud, Roland discovered something truly horrific. An emaciated human woman that looked to be barely alive with a dozen lampreys stuck to her hairless head that detached and swam away when uncovered. Worse, the lamprey whose tail extended from the mud was lodged down her throat. I seemed to be providing the buried woman oxygen.
Disgusted and horrified, Roland carefully pulled the lamprey from her throat and delicately carried her back to dry ground. Sister Molly inspected the woman and realized the Lampreys must keep their captives alive for as long as possible to continue to feed on their dreams. The woman had clearly been here for a significant time given her condition, and Molly wasn’t sure she would pull through.
As Sister Molly tended to the woman, Arda joined Roland in wading back into the swamp to check the other mud piles, while Moriah, Hesper, and Chalice-of-Duskviolet set about collecting any loot.
They opted against spending the time to collect the coinage and found several valuable items in the mud, including a set of armor that was clearly magical. Chalice-of-Duskviolet cast detect magic, and they learned it was set of leather faerie armor. It was incredibly lightweight and provided resistance to frost, but the wearer risked falling asleep for days whenever they rested.
Roland and Arda discovered that most of the piles were empty but found what they were looking for in one of them. Gherigew Thorncripe was alive, though he looked terrible. He had been buried in mud for a month, and he too had a lamprey down his throat to keep him breathing. Roland and Arda helped free him and got him back to dry land where Sister Molly told them the woman hadn’t made it.
I didn’t just want to decide this myself, so I settled on a 2:6 chance that she would live. I asked Molly to roll the dice for an attempt at maximum emotional impact. GM Tip: ALWAYS have your players roll the dice when an NPC’s life is on the line. They might hate you, but they’ll be more invested 😈
Chalice-of-Duskviolet immediately asked if she could bottled the woman’s last breath, and things quickly got heated. Chalice argued that the woman certainly wasn’t using it anymore while Roland and Sister Molly were adamant that the woman had already suffered enough and that there was no way they were letting Chalice bottle her “last breath”. Meanwhile, Moriah wanted to head back into the bog to collect the coinage while most of the group was worried about Gherigew and that staying here might invite more trouble.
As the debate continued, a psychically terrifying roar rippled across the bog, impacting both Roland and Moriah’s mental faculties. It seemed that Big Chook had settled the argument for them. The group grabbed what they could and headed back towards Fort Vulgar.
This was a really fun session! The group did an incredible job using their resources creatively to fight the Lamprey Men, especially when they started to get surrounded. Chalice-of-Duskviolet used her Gust of Wind rune to blow some back into the swamp and delay them, vials of oil were thrown, and overall, they really fought tactically. I was worried that we would lose a few players here, but they pulled out an exceptional victory.
For the treasure the group found, I decided that this counted as a Golsher’s lair and rolled treasure accordingly. I love that the Dolmenwood monster book gives you so many great tables to roll on for treasure. Many other systems leave this up to the GM, which is ok, but sometimes it feels like putting a lot of work on them to just “come up with stuff”. While I’m sure I’ll still sometimes make up my treasure, I like having something to fall back on.
I also really like that most magic items have a potential negative trait. Here is the exact description of that magical fae armor I rolled up:
Armor of Snowfall: Leather Armor, +2 bonus to AC, half-weight (so I ruled it takes up 0 slots), Frost Resistance (+2 to saves vs frost attacks/effects, and reduces damage by 1 point per damage die), Slumbering (-4 to saves versus sleep, each time the wearer sleeps there is a 1:6 chance of falling asleep for 1d6 days and they can’t be woken up from it)
5 sessions later, and they still haven’t put this armor on despite admitting how good it is 😆
As for the coinage, the players were dying that they didn’t feel like they had enough time to collect all the coins in the swamp. This is doubly true because gold equals XP 1 to 1. So they knew they were just leaving XP in the swamp due to timing.
But on that timing note…I had originally decided that it would be interesting for Big Chook to scream while the characters were on their way back to Fort Boulder. Since the penalties only last until a long rest, this would just be me continuing to lean into the horror of Fort Vulgar. But the session was already approaching a close, and the players were genuinely getting into a long debate about whether they should stay, so I just pulled the trigger then. It was incredibly effective. Moriah and Roland failed the save and took 1 point of WIS and INT damage. Even though I told them the impacts were temporary, they all immediately decided they needed to get back to town as quickly as possible.
GM Tip: Don't be afraid to change the timing of events if it creates drama and tension.
Lastly, Roland earned enough experience with this treasure to level up. While I only let players “bank” their experience once they are back at safety, I knew they would arrive at Fort Fulgur safely. Because of that, I went ahead and told the player to level up before the next session. He got another 3 HP, his saves improved, and he picked up another 1st Tier spell slot.
On other thing I want to mention. If you’re liking these posts, I’ve found another blog doing some really good play reports from the player’s perspective. I’d highly encourage you to check them out: The Dododecahedron: Dolmenwood Play Reports
We’ll pick up next time with the group at Fort Vulgar and prepare to set out on the road back to Prigwort. Until next time, stay curious!