Photo by Malik Shibly on Unsplash

Introduction

Another Friday night spent in good company, and so another play report put together based on adrenaline-fueled memories and hastily typed notes. We've made it past the pilot episode, and you know what that means: increased production values and some of the actors have inexplicably changed. If you have no idea what I am talking about, Gentle Reader, you should probably start here with session 1. I'm not going to recap much with this post because the session ran longer and a lot more stuff happened.

Roster

• Cyrus the Fighter (Imperial Line Infantry), played by Liam.
• Imari the Magic User (Ship's Witch), played by tonezime.
• Iosis Harvest the Magic-User (Alchemist), played by Naeolin/Derek/Me.
• Lempen the Judge, Cleric of the Golden Emperor (Holy Auditor), played by Zedeck Siew.
• Sigmund Bain the Magic-User (Bonemender), played by Warren D.
• Susie the Magic User (Arcanist Scholar), played by Marcia B.

Play Report

Please note that the locations visited in the misadventures I describe in these play reports may end up in published Crystal Frontier modules (currently we are exploring the Iron Barrow) at some point. If your GM likes to run those for you, or has been talking about it, this would likely be a good time to stop reading.

Start of the Second Expedition

In the morning, after recovering in body, mind, and spirit from the previous day's trial, the party descended into the tunnel to once again brave the lightless depths of the Iron Barrow. Some members of the previous expedition opted to remain behind, while several previously unknown individuals had arrived at the camp and agreed to take their place.

The group quickly decided to venture southward into the passageways previously discovered, only this time continuing further South instead of turning East into the chamber where were first ambushed by a Bovine Effigy.

Map courtesy of Warren D., which he produced during the first session. Squiggly lines showing my lack of a steady hand provided by me.

Competing Theories and the Problem of Time

The Southern route turned West, opening into a chamber with yet another bull-headed statue. This one was oriented the same as all the others, and here the party fell into a lengthy debate on the best course forward. Recognizing that preemptively destroying the statue from afar was the safest course of action, they had no way to do so without taxing their (very) valuable light resources. It was decided that they would attempt to bypass the statues, but there was further disagreement on how to safely do that. The question was whether the statues were triggered by which direction you passed them (a theory favored by me), or was it based on whether you walked clockwise or counter-clockwise (a view put forward by Warren, if I recall correctly)? The party dithered over these issues so long that they found their torches burning low, and they resolved to be more decisive in the future (Lesson: Don't debate in the dungeon).

Ultimately, the party decided to try the former approach, passing by the right hand of the statue. They quickly discovered this was the wrong decision when the Bovine Effigy sprang into their midst. Chagrined at this misstep, but half-expecting the attack, Iosis quickly channeled arcane energies into a companion's torch (Lamps are more expensive to replace) and attempted to deal with this opponent much like he dealt with the first. However, he only managed to engulf half of the creature's body in flames. Luckily, his new companion Susie also had the presence of mind to prepare her own magical working, unleashing a torrent of horrifically warped projectiles that smelled vaguely of baked goods (Girl Scout Cookies! The hilarious consequence of Marcia having to decide the appearance of her character's Maleficence at the last minute).

Material Components for Susie's spells.

Tottering slowly forward and reeking of burning pitch and bread too long in the oven, the effigy was easily dispatched with a final blow from Imari's cutlass. The party was winded (exhaustion result on Encounter Die), but decided to press on without resting.

Of Chariots and Chaos

One theory disproven, the party exited the chamber and found that they had two choices: continue West and then North along the eerily regular "natural" hallways, or duck into a smaller (3-foot wide) passageway leading South.

Naturally, the party opted for the mysterious smaller passage, which after a short distance opened up into rectangular area filled with the wreckage of ancient chariots, rendered useless by the passage of time. There were two additional exits in the room: a large set of double door forged of bronze to the South, and a lowered portcullis to the East. Truvidius, who had been silent up until this point, lamented the lack of worthy finds for his quest to achieve tenure thus far. At this point, the party found an unusual malaise had begun to seep into their bones (exhaustion result again!), no doubt a result of their strange surroundings, and decided to take a brief respite in the form of rations and rest.

Having rested, the party split their efforts: some investigated the two doors (portcullis and bronze double doors) while the others sifted through the detritus of the ancient vehicles. Four panels of silver, tarnished black from the passage of millennia (?), were found amidst the debris (300 GP each, for a total of 1200 GP!). Meanwhile, the others discovered that bronze doors to the South to be barred with heavy links of the same metal, and that the portcullis to the East once had a mechanism that allowed it to be raised, but was long ago rendered inoperable by the passage of time.

Seeing no way to continue South without cost (in Time or Spells), and concerned about what the chains might be keeping in, the party decided to rig up a way to raise the portcullis with what was left of the mechanism and ropes. Knowing that such an action would take time and potentially cause noise, the party decided to erect barricades at the exit to the North so that anything attempting an ambush would be unable to catch the group unawares. The mechanism was jury-rigged back into operational status, and Imari and Susie showed off their impressive physiques by lifting the portcullis by themselves (We needed a combined total of 30 Strength to lift it, and both characters had 15 Strength despite being Magic Users).

At this point, the party realized they had a problem: How would they get everyone through the portcullis if two people were required to hold it open? A suggestion was made to tie the rope to the chains on the South door, but Iosis pointed out that if something unexpectedly burst through the door the party would end up trapped on the other side of the portcullis. Lempen solved the problem by spiking the portcullis open on both sides (Between the rope and iron spikes, and the 10 foot pole from the previous session, we are quickly filling up our "classic adventuring tools" bingo cards).

Don't mess with our Muscle Mages!

Stepping into the chamber, the party found tight formations of armored skeletons, their bronze armor covered in verdigris. Over one hundred in number, at the head of their column one ancient soldier bore a faded red banner of a stylized snake consuming its own tail. A brief glance at the rest of the room revealed large iron braziers and a door to the East. Truvidius pontificated on how this was a perfect example of the inferiority of ancient sorcery: preserving soldiers to fight for a later date, but not ensuring that they were preserved against the ravages of time. He declared them harmless.

Naturally, none of the party really believed this claim given the number of "inanimate" things in the dungeon that had proved to be quite capable of trying to kill them. It was proposed by multiple members that the armored skeletons be knocked over to see if they would animate, and hopefully give the party time to escape. Iosis pointed out that it would likely take more time for the party to safely lower the portcullis (1 Turn, as confirmed by Gus) than it would for the skeletons to pick themselves back up. Lempen, being an adherent of the Golden Emperor and Imperial Tax Collector, was very concerned about neutralizing the threat of the undead so that their belongings could be seized to help pay their taxes (In the Crystal Frontier, death is not certain but taxes invariably are).

Needless to say, Iosis was decisively outvoted and Cyrus readied himself for a running shield bash that would cause a chain reaction of toppled bodies (LEEROY JENKINS!!!). The former legionnaire slammed into the column, managing to knock down seven of the surprisingly heavy bodies. The seven began to rise, their bearing that of trained warriors. The party now faced the possibility of one hundred twenty bronze-armed and armored skeletons animating and deciding to decorate the chambers with the party's entrails (it was around this time that I realized, and mentioned, that we had barricaded the North exit, and thus our only sure means of escape...)

The party suddenly realized that they had to somehow hold off the skeletons long enough to safely remove the spikes and lower the portcullis (10 Rounds, or 1 Turn, for the curious), while also not dying horrific deaths due to facing overwhelming numbers.

Iosis, who had been inching closer to the portcullis as soon as he was overruled, produced a vial of highly corrosive acid from his Chemics Kit and dashed it against one of the spikes (10 Rounds reduced to 5). Susie dashed through the raised portcullis and made her way to the barricade, thinking to clear it and give the party a means of egress should they fail to lower the portcullis before they were forced to retreat. Imari unleashed a supernatural fog, sowing confusion amongst the ranks of the undead and buying time for Sigmund to unleash his horrific eye-beam upon the remaining spike, which began to lose its form but ultimately held firm.

Meanwhile, Lempen called on a Miracle from the Golden Emperor, which sped the actions of his allies and gave them time to safely remove the spike and prepare to lower the portcullis. Cyrus, who had all this time been guarding the portcullis opening from any undead who managed to stumble out of the fog, was almost provoked into staying to fight a few of the undead who had begun making lewd and provocative gestures in his direction. Clearly, many of them still retained their personalities from when they were living (we decided that their behavior was akin to that of frat boys, and they were dubbed the "Skele-Bros"). The rest of the party, already on the other side of the portcullis, managed to talk Cyrus into making a tactical withdrawal (no one is allowed to make a heroic, yet futile, final stand with treasure in their pack). The portcullis slammed down, and through its corroded bars the group could still see the pelvic-thrusting and ineffectual sword-licking (difficult with no tongue) of the undead menace.

Map provided by GusL, though I had to blow it up so much to give me room for labels that you can't appreciate how pretty it is.

Someone Always Drinks the Potion

Having escaped the skeleton army, the party quickly decided to head North rather than attempting to breach the large Bronze doors (we were hoping to "complete the loop" and thus reach a better understanding of how to navigate the barrow). A winding passage eventually opened up to a long hallway leading North that terminated at yet another chamber with a Bovine Effigy standing in the center. Approaching the statue, the party realized that they had come at last to the second statue that they had originally spotted upon first entering the Barrow. They tested their second theory, that it mattered whether you passed the statue going clockwise or counter-clockwise, and the fact that the statue remained still seemed to confirm the veracity of this belief.

Continuing North, the party entered a strange room filled with multiple large pillars: White chalk pillars with bird designs to the South and red pillars covered in skull designs to the North. In the center, a shallow pool held a few handfuls of water that strongly smelled of minerals. Susie stepped up and began inspecting the water. Iosis, concerned by the ominous surroundings of the liquid, interrupted her investigations in order to collect a sample and hopefully determine any unusual magical or mundane properties.

At this point, Sigmund decided to collect a sample for himself and promptly drank it down like one of his dubious health tonics. The bonemender immediately collapsed, causing many of the party to prepare themselves for some form of attack. Iosis quickly knelt and tried to determine the cause of Sigmund's unconsciousness, but could only deduce that it was some sort of magical malady. Cyrus attempted to revive him via more mundane means, but to no avail. Susie, on the other hand, cannily bound the magic user's arms using his own clothing (Marcia showing a bit more genre-awareness as to some of the more worst-case scenarios than the rest of us).

Time slowly passed, the party unsure of what to do besides wait. Susie explored an exit to the West and found a stairway going up with many large holes interspersed throughout the walls. She threw a loose stone to see if anything was triggered by the weight of the rock, but nothing happened. Torches guttered and went out, and upon kindling new ones the party began to notice that Sigmund's face had begun to be covered with thick stubble that eventually transformed into a beard before their very eyes.

Meanwhile, from Sigmund's perspective, the room had begun spinning and he had fallen to the ground, his spirit sinking into the stone beneath the party's feet. He experienced the life of a man in reverse: from dying of plague to being a farmer during a time when Kosse Sildar (the Crystal Frontier) was still verdant grassland.

Sigmund opened his eyes, feeling refreshed (2d6 HP healed), and sporting a new beard for his troubles. He promptly collected the last of the water, and with newfound vigor led way up the stairs by crawling slowly upward. A pressure plate, cunningly concealed from those who would be descending but more obvious to those ascending, caused a series of spears issuing forth from the previously mentioned suspicious holes. Protected by his prone position, Sigmund merely waited for the mechanisms to draw the spears back in place and then led the rest of the party safely up the stairs.

The party made their way ever upward, passing several crudely carved stone warriors along the way. Despite prior experiences making the party cautious about said stone warriors, they proved to be not nearly as prone to spontaneous animation as the bull-headed statues previously encountered. The party's one remaining functional lantern began to run low on fuel. Finally, the party arrived at top of stairs they believed to be ground level, facing a large stone door.

Map courtesy of GusL, who had me really sweating when we ran into those stone statues given how much trouble we had with ones made out of wood, pitch, and bone.

A Temple Most Offal

The stone door opened up to a large room with more stone pillars, both decorated with birds. Lempen mentioned that many religions have a belief that when a body dies the soul transforms into a bird and flies to the heavens. Truvidius likely had something to say as well, but at this point even the newest members of the expedition had learned to distrust any words that leave his mouth.

Turning West, the party entered a large circular chamber with a once-magnificent stone altar, two crumpled heaps that used to be stone statues, and a large mural in the background depicting mountains and strange figures surrounded by birds (souls?). Inspecting the room revealed that the statues used to depict priests in formal robes, wearing chains of office that bore a mountain-like chevron symbol. The altar, meanwhile, was heavily scored and smeared with human waste. Though clearly old, the defilement seemed to have taken place at a later time than when the temple was first in active use.

Turning East, the party came upon a door that opened (via 10 foot pole!) to a massive chamber lined on either side with stone pillars. At the far end of the chamber, the party could just make out a massive set of rusty iron doors that they believed were the other side of the main entrance they had originally failed to open at the beginning of the first expedition. Throughout the room were murals that depicted the history of the place: plague victims suffering, the sacrifice of people in the temple, and a giant snake monster. Of particular interest was a mural depicting a golden army (the band of warriors Sigmund had a vision of in session 1?) coming to defeat an army of red, only to driven off by a giant bull monstrosity. Later, the golden army is shown to return to seal the barrow with mass human sacrifice.

Blithely ignoring the warnings suggested by these images, Iosis suggested removing the rusted iron cross-bar holding the doors to the Barrow shut, but the others suggested that it might make too much noise and alert something nearby to their presence. During this brief debate, torches once again ran low and had to be replaced anew.

The party noticed several side passages that led off from this main chamber, and decided to explore one in the Northwest corner of the room. They discovered a set of six stone tombs eerily lit by four small blue flames. Each tomb has a sword and shield laid over the top, and the blue flames were discovered to be situated in the eye sockets of two skulls sitting in niches in the back wall. A mural depicting white bees swarming on a hill with a moon in the background could be dimly seem along the back wall. Intrigued, but a little unnerved, the party decided to retreat from the room.

Their resources all but exhausted, the groip decided to open the rusted iron doors and escape from the barrow quickly rather than risk an encounter with something unpleasant on the long trek back to the original tunnel entrance. After many minutes of effort, and the grinding protest of rusted metal, the party managed to remove the iron cross-bar and throw the corroded doors of the Iron Barrow open wide. This unleashed the blinding rays of the Sun into the chamber, and more ominously, a distant laughing and wailing could be heard coming from deep in the recesses of the barrow.

Recognizing that it was best not to linger when potentially unleashing an ancient evil into the world, the party quickly exited the Iron Barrow with their hard-won treasure.

Final Map of the play report also provided by GusL, note the two rooms that the party said "nope!" to as we ran out of session time and resources.

Total Treasure Found

• 4 silver chariot panels (300 GP each, 1200 GP total)
• Potentially unleashing an ancient evil beyond the ken of man (priceless)

Reflection

Standard disclaimer that the next bit is slightly indulgent ramblings involving this session, the "Classical/OSR" playstyle, observations about being a player versus a GM, etc. Read at your peril.

First off, this was a long one. I'm not sure about the long-term feasibility of structuring my play reports like this given the time it takes, but people seem to like them. Let me know what you think in my (non-existent) comments section, or more realistically on the NSR Discord.

Now then, I want to talk about player dynamics, because this session had a very different feel than the first session due to the nature of the Open Table. Part of that was because of the composition of this second expedition versus the first: A preponderance of Magic Users, rather than Fighters. I was initially nervous about this, as everyone knows that there are fewer things that are squishier than a 1st level M-U. Though I will say that Gus's OD&D-based ruleset makes this less true than is typical, I suspect. In practice, the party composition didn't seem to matter quite as much. What did matter was that this group was more stacked with players who took much greater risks and got into greater shenanigans than what we saw in the first session.

There is no greater example of this than when the party decided to pick a fight with an army of Bronze Age undead with no clear exit strategy. I won't lie, when this happened my first thought was "I have aligned myself with agents of chaos" (not Chaos, mind you. I don't go in for Alignment personally). From an objective strategic standpoint, the encounter in the portcullis room was a pretty big blunder: We started a fight with an army of undead having failed to secure an exit strategy (no easy way to lower portcullis and we had barricaded our only means of fleeing should that position be overrun). To make matters worse, we expended a great deal of both mundane and magical resources in our frantic efforts to escape and keep the undead contained within the room, and we have no way knowing what is on the other side of the Eastern door.

However, putting all that aside, it was absolutely the highlight of the session and some of the most fun I've ever had at the table. The quick thinking and tension of seeing if we could outthink this trap of our own devising was incredibly enjoyable, especially in hindsight. I say that it was a trap of our own making, but this was quite clearly a trap room by design. I wish that we had managed to discover the means that it was meant to be triggered, as I seriously doubt a 300-style shield bash was how Gus envisioned that it would be set off. Were the large iron braziers that lined the room meant to provide a means of lighting the room, a means of waking the undead, or a method of destroying them? It could have also been the door, but we sadly didn't take the time to inspect that before we woke the "Skele-Bros".

I have similar regrets with the room with the pillars and the "well" of water. The imagery with the skulls and birds suggested that caution was in order, and I suspect that it might have made a difference where we were standing or how we entered the central area (I'm sure you noticed, Gentle Reader, that this module's big standout feature thus far seems to be making the specifics of how you move through the dungeon matter). I don't think there were quite enough clues in that room alone to make an informed choice, but given some of the imagery involved in other parts of the dungeon I suspect it is a matter of trying to solve a puzzle without being able to see all of the pieces.

Warren, of course, expedited the process by simply drinking the water. OSR players are notorious for trying to eat and drink mysterious substances, so this should have come as no surprise. I suppose by the end of the session I wanted to get in on the action as well, since I was the one who first proposed opening the main entrance to the dungeon despite the murals along the wall indicating that this was probably a very bad idea. In my defense, we were running low on resources and would have had to take several Turns to travel all the way back to the Tunnel Entrance that we had been using previously.

I am sure that this action will not come back to haunt us.

This brings me to a thing that is a big part of games that embrace the Classical playstyle: Time. I learned firsthand this session that, as much as you might want to make perfectly reasoned decisions at all times, it is difficult to do so whenever excess investigation and debate results in time passing and resources dwindling. Having played (and run) in many games where the only time that matters is session length, this is a very interesting thing to adjust to as a player.

In truth, I haven't gotten to be a player very many times in my years in the hobby, and so it was a little bit of a shock to realize that by default as a player I'm a little bit of a stick in the mud. My instincts throughout most of this session was to take more time and be more thorough, but we wouldn't have made it as far nor discovered so much if everyone in the party had approached the Barrow in the same way as myself. I am thus resolved to be a little bit less risk-adverse in future sessions.

Indulgent paragraph about "play-acting": I've had a hard time staying in-character thus far, and tend to default to speaking OOC. I know this is pretty typical for an OSR game, but historically I've tended to stay in-character for most of a session's duration. I wonder if should have used something like Cairn's Character Traits tables to give me a little bit more to hang my hat on, as during most of my time as a player of roleplaying games I was firmly in the "3-page backstory" camp.

Side note, but six players at one time is a lot to keep track of. I've never bothered to take notes as a player, and as a GM I've never had more than 3-4 players at a time. I don't know how GMs do it when there are 10+ characters, though I suppose as a GM I've never bothered to keep track of who comes up with what idea and whatnot, only what they actually do. I have done my best to give credit where credit is due, provide accurate descriptions, etc. For ideas or situations where I don't remember who did or proposed something, the party is given collective credit (or blame) for the thought or action.

I'd also like to briefly note how much I enjoy the concept of "Kits" and the way Gus uses them as a very limited form of quantum inventory. I think this strikes the sweet spot between games that require you to note every single solitary object a character has in their possession and using a more abstract "Supply" mechanic or allowing Flashbacks to retroactively place useful items there. I have used two of my three "slots" for my Chemics kit (once for vials and collection equipment, once for acid), and after the third my accoutrements will become fixed unless I make a visit back to town to swap things out or buy a second Kit.

A final note, if you will indulge me (those of you who took the time to read this far, anyway). I feel like we need a name for our group. Anyone have any ideas? Team Tsathogga is already taken, but perhaps Team Truvidius? Troop Trouble? Let me know in my (non-existent) comments section, or more realistically on Discord!