GM: Sean Nittner
Players: April Walsh, Eric Fattig, Jozy Zim
System: Shadowdark
Content warning: body horror (teeth) in masked text
This session was a bit touch and go, both for the players and the characters! We had two folks that couldn’t make it, but April braved running to characters (Solveig and Zzadrix), Eric make all the prophecies (Ixil Lochrain) and then Jozy joined the game last minute (Lenk). We also had some situations which very nearly ended our adventures but macabre ingenuity, perseverance, and a bit of luck got our company back into the light and away from vengeful ghosts, sea nymph zombies, and the paralyzing stingers of jellyfish!
New Mechanics
I love the random encounter tables in Shadowdark, but I’m less keen on the way encounters are generated in the first place. The core mechanic is roll a d6 and on a 1 there is an encounter. In unsafe places (like the Tomb of the Sea Wolf King) you roll ever 3 rounds. In deadly places (like when the lights went out) you roll every round. I’m fine with the frequency (1/18 most of the time, 1/6 when the torch goes out) but I think the current model lends more to surprise than suspense. I want players to feel the encroaching doom. Inspired by Underclock (and the Shadowdark Crawler’s Clock), I wanted something less fiddly than dice (which can easily be toppled or knocked) and with a greater physical presence. My first thought was a Jenga tower (pull one block per round, when it falls there’s an encounter) but I think that would be cumbersome in play and could also fall just because someone jostled the table.
I turned to cards because they have similar probability charts (3/54 = 1/18, 9/54 = 1/6) and I think they do a good job of building suspense. They also allow for non-encounter cards to do other fun stuff like omens (hits at upcoming encounters). Here’s the mechanics I’m testing:
Every round and every time characters make a loud noise, draw a card.
- Unsafe areas: any King except King of Hearts = encounter
- Risky areas: any King or Queen except Hearts = encounter
- Deadly areas: any King, Queen or Jack except Hearts = encounter
- Aces are omens. Roll an encounter and then give a clue or hint at it’s nature. The next time an encounter is drawn, the threat manifests!
- Jokers are…something else, I’ll reveal when it happens!
The deck is only shuffled after an encounter happens…until then you keep drawn and the encounters become more likely with every round spent in the dark!
Future expansions on this may include cards that generate lore (graffiti, strange objects found, runes, histories), local effects (strange fungus, water dripping from above, etc), but for now I’m going to keep it simple.
Last time on…
We recapped the last session, and then covered a few table management issues:
- Last session I didn’t get everyone back to the entrance but they had 40 min left on their torches. In the future it will be incumbent on the players to return to safety, but since this was the first session and I forgot, I just marked the torch as spent and moved everyone to the entrance.
- Speaking of torches. Since we have an in-game torch indicator (the red magnets) and because they can’t be re-lit if doused, once a torch is lit, remove it form inventory. It now lasts till the egg timer runs out.
- New (unplayed characters) will come in as normal (rolling for gear). Existing characters can spend a ration to recover health and spells or tighten their belt and take 1 CON damage to on without a good rest.
A Monstrous Feast
Between session I had to roll to see what happened between the Choker and the Goblins. Event 5-1 they did not fare well, but eventually they felled the beast. Six arrows were stuck in it, Ivor, the young and petulant (bult also injured) was strutting around after landing the killing blow. Hrovic (dim and muscled) was unconscious (barely saved by Kaxla) and had to be fed soup by his companions, and Magorth (short, sarcastic) was nursing a grievous wound and still trying to make fart jokes.
When the company arrived, Kaxla (eye-patch, suspicious) was yelling at her leader “Treez, you coward! You hid while we fought that monster!”
Treez (missing front teeth, cowardly) stood up for his choice “That thing killed Yid (not true, but what they all believed), Hrovic might not make it through the night, and Ivor and Mags are both hrut. How was fighting that monster the smart thing to do? We fight to put food in our bellies. How was killing that thing going to help us? Can we eat it?”
Enter the company…and the answer to Treez’ question.
The play is the thing
Note keeper’s journal. [Notes from Sean in brackets]
Featuring: Ixil the Seer, Zzadrix the Chaos Priest, and Solveig the Sea Wolf (shortly joined by Lenk the Fighter).
The goblins are injured due to fighting the choker and are bickering. They have not yet spotted our raft.
Ixil communes with the old gods for a prophecy, but does not share at first. [After some thought decides to let others know] “Any who returns from the caves with the Axe of Nine Eyes shall be made Jarl.” Solveig is very interested.
The goblins don’t know if the choker is edible. Zzadrix believes that one of strong constitution can eat it and gain power. Zzadrix does so and partially transforms. They can climb walls like a choker and their claws glow.
[Solveig asks Ixil about her belief that we own nothing and challenges it “You have your integrity.”]
Zzadrix pressures Treez to try the choker. [Treez resists at first, but all the other goblins try it] It goes fine. [Their skin greys somewhat, they can also climb like a choker. Ivor pulls a tooth out his palm that grew their spontaneously]
Solveig spotted a sunken raft. Zzadrix and Ixil free it from roots where it is tangled [Ixil uses her pole to pry it ,and Zzadrix cut away in the dark at the roots and rigging which were entangled]. Zzadrix is nearly swept away, but Solveig leaps onto the newly-freed raft and rescues them.
Ixil senses that releasing the raft has disturbed a creature. [Omen: A shimmering creature moves though the water]
Horvic near death, Zzadrix heals him in the name of Memnon.
[Zzadrix shares that they’ve been taught that goblins are cruel, heartless, greedy and ruthless. They’ve stripped the skin of Zzadrix’ ancestors and worn it as a prize. There is nothing more sacred to them than a momentary advantage. But these goblins are not my enemy.]
[Inspired by Zzadrix’ words] He immediately eats choker meat and passes out and starts dying again. [His skin turns completely grey, some of his teeth fall out, and many teeth grow from his palms]
Lenk joins us. [Jozy arrived and played Lenk as just waking up on the raft]
“Memnon tears asunder the laws of death.”
Another ominous clattering of boots and metal down towards storage. [Omen]
The goblins panic and ditch Hrovik on the raft Solveig offered them. [Treez, very supersicious, says if one of them was going to die because of Ixil’s prophecy, it might as well be the one who was already on deaht’s doorstep. They turn right at the form and disappear from view]
Zzadrix howls and heals Hrovik again [1HP]. He rises, confused, and Zzadrix invites him along.
We sail. We find a longboat adorned with a red dragon. It is the resting place of an ancient Nord. After brief deliberation and a prayer to Lurga [to forgive these transgressions], we retrieve some gold and a gold-shod skull. We don’t seem to be cursed.
Zzadrix spots a body – a dead sea nymph! Cut across the chest by a blade – recently. She grabs Zzadrix and drags them down! Leik leaps to the rescue.
☠️THE TORCH GOES OUT☠️
Looting, flailing, fainting, stumbling, disorientation, grasping zombie, gasping for air, grab the pole! [Lenk free’s Zzadrix, but then the sea nymph zombie grapples her and tries to give her a kiss of death. Sparking lights in the water descend and sting Lenk, nearly paralyzing her]
[Lenk was told to fear the Amaranth because they are disgusting creatures that hide in latrines and attack from the darkness]
“Memnon rebuke this vile creation!”
Leik clambers out of the water thanks to Ixil’s pole, with jellyfish stings. Zzadrix is on splintered docks.
The torch won’t light and rolls into the water. So Zzadrix suggests we burn the desiccated corpse of the ancient colonizer. [Tibia + funeral garb]
When we light it, a horrible chill runs through us.
- An enraged spirit rises from the corpse and drains Zzadrix’s life. They fall and drop the “torch”.
- “I AM GALA! DESCENDANT OF KING SKORGALD YOU SHALL PAY FOR DEFLILING MY RESTING PLACE!”
- Lenk rescues Zzadriz [Again!] and they awake [Crit on the first aid. Warming their cold, pounding their chest till the breathed again!].
- Ixil gets the ghost’s attention and is POSSESSED.
- Gala is keeping the boat to carry Skorgald’s spirit.
- Hrovic claims we didn’t do it. She doesn’t buy it.
- Solveig claims to be a descendent and Gala pauses her attacks to demand we seek vengeance on the descendants of Skorvald because their ancestors killed his favorite son.
- She invokes rage on Hrovic and inspires him to fight for her, but then wanders off (in Ixil’s body).
- Lenk breaks a board from the funeral boat to have a tar covered beam (not so great torch).
- Ixil learns that Skorvald was fond of secret Dverg chambers.
- We follow and Zzadriz finally manages to turn undead and get Gala out of Ixil. The ghost wanders off to the grave of the old gods?
We decide to investigate paths near the boat while she’s away. In the lakeside cavern in Dwarvish [runes on the wall] “Wisdom is the key that opens the way.”
[Zzadrix asked link how she got to be so brave, and she told of how her only crime was failing to die when sent on a mission. Her bravery was a thorn in Lieutenant Talix’ side!]
All treasure (3 rings, gold shod stave) plundered and returned to the goblin camp. [Zzadrix healed himself and Hrovic. Soveig and Ixil gathered more wood for the fire from the old barricade, and saw boot prints freshly made].
Thanks to our note taker April, timekeeper Jozi, an cartographer Eric!
Rumors Heard
Prophecies from the Old Gods
The gods have spoken! The seers say any who returns from the caves with the Axe of Nine Eyes shall be made a jarl!
Warning from the Ghost of Gala, Skorgald’s Daughter
If Skorgald’s treasure is in the caves, it’s surely not in plain sight. He was fond of secret chambers built by the dverg.
Death Omen
One who eats of the choker’s flesh will die this night!
Thoughts for next game
- Rest and recover (or don’t and suffer)
- I didn’t use the 2nd battlemap this game, but next time they have lots of directions to go in so I’ve got to figure out where to start.
- Speaking of mapping…I did a very bad job of counting squares as I drew stuff last time and gave Eric a hell of a time trying to covert it to the company map. I’ll have to work drawing more accurately next time!
