The Blood Library (9/27/2026)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: James Lawton, Adrienne Mueller, Ryan Squire, Sam Tillis
System: Crows: Fortune or Death

Two events collided for me: the release of the Crows playtest document and me having a weekend alone, where I knew that sans-game I would devolve into a goblin. I didn’t have the time to schedule a full SeanCon with multiple games and tables, but Karen suggested I run a single game all weekend long, or a LongCon. The SeanLongCon? Don’t shorten that down to much or it sounds naughty. Alas, getting friends together for a full weekend didn’t pan out, but I still planned to run an all day game, and thus was created the ShortSeanLongCon. WE PLAYED TWELEVE HOURS OF CROWS!

Warning: Spoilers for the Blood Library below.

Preparation

In concept, Crows made sense to me immediately. It has a lot of OSR conceits (the world is dangerous and uncaring, but a smart idea will just work, roll the dice when you aren’t sure) that I’m familiar with and uses the Draw Steel tiered mechanics for results.

But that’s where my familiarity ended. Crows also contains:

• 36 Character backgrounds, each with different starting expertise, traits, and most importantly gear cards.
• A robust crafting system, including requirements for tools, parts, expertise, and time.
• A spellcasting system that borrows from Shadowdark and The Black Hack, while giving magic very discreet effects like you’d expect to find in Draw Steel.

That information wasn’t always where I thought it would be. I was running a game in person, which meant I needed all of these materials available. I printed out the books (with some custom covers I made using art from the crowdfunding campaign), the inventory cards, maps, monster images, and a hex grid for the players to fill out. I also grabbed my handy egg timer (for dungeon turns) and a Mothership GM screen to put all the inventory cards not in play behind. That plus a handful of d10s and d6s and I was set!

Introduction to Crows

Since none of my players has seem the material, I introduced Crows by reading and summarizing the start of the Rules book:

Crows is unfair. It doesn’t care about your character’s level. Charge at a behemoth without a good plan to take it down, and you’re probably going to end up as a puddle of gore. This game’s math hasn’t been balanced to ensure players win most of the time or to ensure that each player character starts with the same level of power as the others.

But the unfairness goes both ways. Come with a clever plan to defeat that behemoth, like dropping the cave ceiling on their head while they slumber, and you can win the day without a fight. A good plan or clever thinking won’t just save your life, it’ll get you paid—and that’s the whole point. Your life will be easier and you’ll still get the gold and the XP if you can just sneak by that behemoth with your pockets full of coins.

In Crows, the players create adventurers in a desolate world who dive into horror-infested ruins for gold, gems, and other treasures. Sure, these adventurers occasionally perform courageous, selfless acts and might be moral people, but they aren’t heroes. It’s greed, thrillseeking, or lack of other ways to make a living
that drives them into the dark where gold and ravenous eyes gleam in the torchlight. It’s a risky job—surviving a dungeon takes strength, smarts, and reflexes. Coming out a little richer than you were going in also takes luck.

My own personal take on Crows is that the Crows themselves are neither so despicable of miscreants as they are in games like Torchbearer or Errant, nor are they the heroes of the land like in Draw Steel. They live in the village and have lives there. People they know and care about. They also have just enough wanderlust, boredom, greed, or curiosity to set them out into the world, braving the miasma and terrible creatures to find treasures left behind from the Necromancer Wars.

Importantly I noted that in Crows there are no quests. Nobody running to the Crows to ask them to save their lost flock or missing child. There is no war approaching that can only be stopped by the holder of a lost magic item. They could just go about their lives, but they have chosen by their own volition to seek danger and reward. I think making that distinction up front at the start of the game really helped set the tone for this. Nobody is making you go do these things, the problems the Crows ran into were of their own making (sometimes literally).

I also read a bit of the history of Cornath, focusing on the archmages Craelin and Ornassa, because those were the ones I had material on. Finally I named each of the god so they had a sense of the celestial forces. Then we got about to making Crows!

Character Creation

Character creation was fast and fun. It was a mix of making a few light choices (stat allocation, name, distinguishing feature) and some arts and crafts (cutting out inventory cards and deciding where to place them). Ryan couldn’t make it for the first few hours of the game, so he texted us a roll for background, and we got his character sheet as prepared as we could when he arrived.

After the Crows were made put a blank hex page on the ground and asked them to create their village and put it somewhere in the middle, then pick one additional institution as a group, and one person they knew in town that cared about them. EVERYONE LOVED THIS PART. Fun choices, more arts and crafts. Fun NPCs. All good stuff. Behold Fiddlegreen and it’s surroundings. They knew that Gadwick and Litton were to the east past the Wist Weald and that Burrfield was to the southwest. They also knew that northwest of the lake was Mucket Swamp. For their town institution they chose a Beacon, which in addition to providing protection from the miasma meant they also knew what was in all the surrounding hexes. The rest they discovered through exploration!

Our Crows were:

• Elgin the sage, known for his permanently ink-stained fingers and tongue. He always carried a journal and ink. Friend with Alastiar, the Smarty Pants. (James)
• Winston the village guard, known for his strapping muscles that always seemed to be flexing even when he wasn’t trying. Friend of sweet Molly, the Caretaker. (Adrienne)
• Kemp, the tinkerer, know for his disheveled look and messy hair. Friend of Zana his sister and Monster Collector. (Sam)
• Togs, the farmer. Brother of Winston, known for being just the sweetest guy who was almost as attractive as his brother. Friend of Bonnie, the Money Bags, who took coin from her father’s coffers to lend to Togs. Everyone said the two were going to be married one day, but she asked so many questions about Winston, it was hard to be sure. (Ryan, who joined mid game)

The only other notable NPC was Shremp, the general store owner. He was just the weirdest, creepiest little guy and I had so much fun playing him. I could play Shremp for days.

Sam was immediately fascinated by the crafting rules and wanted to start making alchemical concoctions as soon as he could!

Rumors and preparation

Before heading out, each of the Crows took a moment to buy some last minute gear, ask about rumors, or interact with their favorite villagers. Notably, everyone in Fiddlegreen knew everyone else’s business, so as soon as any of them talked to one NPC, all the others knew as well. It was pretty delightful to play out.

• Winston was doted over by Molly, who gave him a torch that had sweet smelling incense wrapped into it, to remind him of her love.
• Kemp visited Shremp and bought himself an 11′ pole. He also learned that merchants from Gadwick reported seeing Blood monsters coming from the Wist Weald, south of the road.
• Elgin consulted with his wise friend Alastiar who told him that there is a ruined tower that could be seen just outside the Weald from the road. From there, they might be able to spot one of Craelin’s manses, the Blood Library! The creatures there can track anyone covered in blood. [I had Elgin make a Mind check to get that last part, based on his own studies.]

Soap in hand, the Crows set out east in search of the lost library.

Overland Travel

The Crows set out east (thanks to the Beacon, they knew a little of their surroundings) along the old road. When choosing a pace and roles, they elected for a Normal pace (knowing that traveling on the road would give them an extra hex of movement) and picked these roles:

• Elgin as Guide
• Kemp as Scout
• Winston as Tracker

The Crows thought we knew what their roles would include, until they were given options.

Elgin didn’t want to follow a normal route. He wanted a shortcut! [Tier 2 result, they traveled 1 hex faster, but the EN was reduced to 6]

Kemp thought he’d scout for danger, but when he realized Scout for Treasure was an option the greed set in (despite his low strength). Off the beaten path, thanks to Elgin’s shortcut, he spotted a skeletal hand sticking out of the ground, and on that hand was undead bone armor! The Crows didn’t have a shovel so they spent hours digging the body out with their knives and pikes, and hands. By the end they had lost the time that Elgin made and were exhausted [Kemp got a Tier 2 result, used his searching expertise to increase that to Tier 3, and then I rolled on the Major Interesting Items table. I threw the dice in front of everyone, my first roll of the game, and I got a 00. Holy crap. Undead bone light armor. That shit was awesome. I also decided due to circumstance that it wasn’t easy to acquire. They considered going back to town to buy a shovel, but didn’t want to come back empty handed so they improvised. I can’t remember if I had Winston make a Strength check or not, but I told them the downside was losing a hex of moment, and that they all took one wound from exhaustion. In retrospect that was probably too steep a price, but it worked out. Notably, this armor was the most valuable thing they found all game, and they instantly gained a crap load of XP!]

Winston saw that the armor was emblazoned with the sigil of Ornassa and that this must have been a solider in her army. He didn’t like the idea of simply stripping the man of his last possession and leaving him in the ditch where they found him. They considered taking him home back to the crypt in Fiddlegreen, but were too hungry for adventure, so Winston elected to carry him even though it encumbered him. [5 inventory slots, rechecking the rules doc page 11 afterward, it should have only been 4, but I couldn’t find it fast enough when I was looking through the books, so I made a call on the fly]

As they progressed closer to the Weald, Winston went hunting and came back with a deer [3d6 Rations and a Large Hide [Which I thought was 2 slots but I’m not sure about that]. Winston was beginning to get weighed down and the inventory shuffle began.

At the end of the day, when they all should have rested on the road, they could just barely make out the tip of the Ruined Tower to their south. Instead of making camp, they decided to push forward [I had to do some impromptu rules jiggering here. I liked the idea of pushing through rest, but wanted it to come with a consequence. I had the leader make a Strength check. Winston got a Tier 3 result so didn’t have to think of the bad outcomes, but in my head a Tier 1 would have been getting lost, and a Tier 2 would have been some combination of Stamina loss, lost/broken gear, or something else to relfect the strain of pushing. I also ruled that it triggered another Encounter Check. On the road, when the EN was 6, I didn’t get one, but as they delved into the woods, I rolled a 10!]

Assailed from Above

It was dark out and the Crows had lost track of the tower they could see from the road so they just prayed to The Three that they were on the right track. Kemp had a torch, and that is what drew their attention. From the trees above a horrible four armed blood creature dropped down on him and began to claw away at him. Thankfully he was wearing Winston’s armor, so they beast could not get to his delicious flesh. [I showed the image to the players and asked them. “When you first see this creature in the torchlight with glowing red eyes, what do you call it?”] “The Slobbering Shadows are upon us! Fight them back!”

Three of these terrible creatures, one for each of the Crows, dropped down form the trees, hungry for blood. Winston kicked one off of Elgin and speared another with his pike. Kemp picked up his drooped torch and ran into the woods. Elgin, tried to stick his knife into the one climbing on Winston, but it twisted around, caught his arm and bit savagely into it.

Kemp, seeing his companions stay to fight, perhaps encouraged by their bravery, or just not wanting to miss out on the treasure they might find, turned pack, pulled out an axe and threw it into one of the Slobbering Shadows. If fell dead, twitching on his blade. The third, now outnumbered ran off to when it was spawned.

After the fight, the Crows licked their wounds and decided to carry on, but the did not want to leave the corpses of the blood creatures behind. Kemp convinced Winston to rest the nameless solider or Ornassa in quiet repose against a tree, so that he could carry the corpses of the Slobbering Shadows. A decision he would soon regret.

The Crows continued forward, drenched in blood, some of it their own.

Ruined tower of Craelin the Clever

They arrived an were instantly dismayed that the tower they thought they saw from the road, was little more than rubble. A single portion of wall stood, but there was no building to take refuge in. Beside it they spotted a ring of stones around an old well, deep enough their torchlight did not reach the bottom.

Before resting, while there was still a faint bit of light remaining, Winston climbed up side of the crumbling tower, and from the top, through the trees he could see a great purple crystal pyramid to the southwest. Meanwhile, Kemp and Elgin tied together two lengths of rope, and they lowered Kemp into the well. It was pitch black at the bottom but he could hear the undeniable sound of a bone snapping under his boot. He lit a torch and found the remains of a desiccated Crow at the bottom of the well. The corpse had a broken leg, and thanks to Kemp now some broken toes as well.

Kemp searched his corpse and found nothing of value but did note all the dirt under his fingernails. Clearly he had buried something here, but the dirt was now hard packed. Kemp did not know how long he had been out here, but it seemed the poisonous miasma may have accelerated his ruin. What he would do for a shovel!

Kemp climbed back out and on the way he spotted several pitons hammered into the wall of the well. Clearly the crow had tried to climb down safely but slipped halfway, fell, and broke his leg.

Meanwhile, Winston searched among the ruble above, and from within found something that glinted silver [Note to my past self, I should have made this gold]. As he was pulling it out, five giant crows from the trees and perched at the tower. They looked at him with their beady eye, then looked the glint of silver on the book. It was clear, they wanted what he found. [I rolled an encounter, this time animals, and got five giant crows. I rolled their reaction and got sleeping. That didn’t make any sense for what I had just described, so I rerolled, and noted to myself to roll reaction before describing them in the future. The second time I got Treasure-Seeking. Perfect for crows. I loved it.]

Winston talked to them, tried to determine their intent, but it was clear they had eyes for the book. He pulled out five gold coins and threw them in the air to make an offering. Four of the coins fell to the ground and the four giant crows swept down to pick them from the dirt and fly away. The fifth however, caught the coin in its beak, and worked it over between it’s mandibles. It continued to stare at Winston and did not fly away. [I couldn’t find the rule for making pets (its in Characters page 42) but I remembered that there was one and that a middle result where the animal took interest in you, but I also thought you needed to approach a friendly or tame animal, and this crow wasn’t either of those. But Winston rolled a 17 (Tier 3) so I figured it should start the clock. The crow would stay interested till he either did something to annoy it or further entice it].

The book found turned out to be a book with the spell Stubborn Object. At the time the Crows didn’t know it was going to be thing thing that stood between them and certain death!

When Kemp made it back to the surface, they decide to rest in the hopes of fashioning a shovel [Thanks to the Improvised Equipment Trait] so they could either dig up whatever the crow had hidden, or make better progress through the rubble.

Resting in the Miasma

Tired from a long days travel, already pushing late into the night, the Crows finally decided to rest. Kemp used his soap to wash the blood from himself and his fellow crows, so as not to attacked more monsters in the night.

Elgin, his fingers already stained black from ink, harvested parts from one of the Slubbering Shadows, Winston repaired damage to his armor, and Kemp tended to Elgrin’s wounds. He wanted to make a shovel, but that would have to wait for another rest.

The feasted on the deer that Winston caught and thankfully they were not assailed by creatures in the night, but that does not mean they made it unscathed. The foul Miasma poisoned each of their hearts in the night. Winston and Elgin became deceitful, lying even to themselves. Kemp grew lazy, refusing to do anything he didn’t have to. They all grew more cruel. [Everyone got Tier 1 results to Resist the Miasma]

After resting some, late in the night, still a few hours before dawn, their curiosity grew. Elgrin looked at the stones in the tower and noticed the stones were marked with arcane ruins and declared this place was once a Beacon that could ward off the miasma (a lie if anyone was to care). Kemp was annoyed that none of his fellow Crows was willing to dig into the rubble in the dark, and suggested they keep resting into the morning, so that he could fashion the shovel, and perhaps Winston or Elgrin could repair his armor. That seemed like a good plan at the time. [But this time I rolled an encounter!]

The Wrath of Ornassu

While it was still dark, Winston felt a rattle in the bones of his armor and a cold wind on his back. From the tree line he spotted the gleam of dead and hollow eyes. The body of the solider of Ornassa, now transformed into a spikey creature, stepped out from the tree line. Behind him, three more nights, each attended by hounds with leashes that had long since rotted away. They called out the names of these terrible undead “Spike Knights and Blood Hounds!”

The Crows had just enough warning to grab their belongings (though they left behind the remaining Slobbering Shadow corpse by accident) and flee into the woods. The hounds gave chase, one leapt and bit into Winston, but when it tasted the undead bone of his armor it released its grip, confused that this Crow wore the armor of his masters. [Again I needed to make a ruling here and I had them roll +Agility to flee. They got a tier 2 result with Winston increased to Tear 3 with Athletics, so I ruled that they made it safe, but since the Hounds had a speed of 6 (compared to their 5) I liked the idea that the were confused rather than out run]

My Brother Togs, oh no

The Crows decided to return to the village, craft some of these blood creature parts into some goods, and then return when the effects of the Miasma had faded. Instead of going north to the wood, they took a direct path that would lead to the farm Winston grew up on, and where his brother Togs still worked.

However on the way there [I rolled a travel encounter] the Blood Hound they had fooled caught up to them, led by his Spike Knight master. They had somehow gotten ahead of the Crows and now stood in their path.

In the distance however, Togs heard his brother Winston cry out. He picked the knife he has purchased from Shremp, called his goat named Goat, and charged the undead who assailed his beloved brother.

With preternatural speed and sense, the Spike Knight leapt into the air just as Togs would have struck him, and he landed behind Togs, lacerating his back with a terrible blow, causing blood and puss to seep from the wound [Toggs rolled a Doom result, so he took Tier 3 Damage from the Claws, which caused a Laceration as well. I added in the leap because it’s part of the stat block and I was having fun with the Doom result]

“Nooo!” Winston cried as he buried his pike into the Spike Knight [Double damage with Bury the Point] As it gurgled it’s final words it told Winston he was no true “Knight of Ornassa.” Elgin and Kemp did sufficient violence to the Blood Hound that without its master, it fled back into to the Wist Weald, though it did so with Kemp’s hand axe lodged between the ridges of its skull like a blacksmith’s mohawk.

“Brother.” Togs panted. “That was the worst thing that has ever happened to me!”

[Mechanically Ryan had just arrived and barely had a handle on his character when I called him to join the fray. It worked out great. He figured the rest out along the way.]

Return to Fiddlegreen

The crows returned home to rest and recover, learn more of the Blood Library, and reequip themselves for adventure. Kemp, being our tinkerer, and no longer feeling the lethargy of the Miasma, was keep to get crafting with with the remains of the Slobbering Shadow and the Spike Knight they recovered (oh yeah, they hauled that corpse around too).

Shremp told them traveling merchants had made their way through, and because of it he had some fine wares this week [Village Event: Merchant institution has a surplus, so the General Store was Level 2 for this Village Cycle.]

Togs talked to his bonnie lass (who was not coincidentally named Bonny) and asked her if he could borrow 100gc. Her father was the inkeeper and she was sure she could take that form his coffers without being noticed, if only Togs made sure to return the coin quickly. She also asked about his brother Winston, who being a member of the Village Watch she saw much more of. Was Togs wearing Winston’s armor now? It smelled of sandalwood. Togs tried to avoid conversations about his brother, who he agreed was a great hero, but wasn’t sure he wanted Bonny to think was so incredible.

Kemp first got to tearing undead bones from undead ligaments, making a once formidable Spike Knight into a pile of bones. He also cajoled Togs into spending that 100gc on a healing potion from the temple, so that he could learn the recipe.

Elgrin consulted with his friend Alastair and told them about the pyramid they spotted. Alastair said he believed that was a prison for a powerful creature the Craelin caged long ago. He didn’t know all the details yet (give him a day to do more research) but he suggested that while the creature was powerful, it was likely also able to offer the Crows aid, certainly in knowledge, but perhaps also in more material matters.

Winston repaired his new armor again, and tried to avoid looking too handsome and too swole, thought it was challenging.

Togs, more determined than ever to impress Bonny, set out towards the Mucket Swamp to find a flower for her, and he found an incredible one indeed, a beautiful Blood Thistle Rose, known for protecting the wearer from the effects of Miasma [Ryan’s first roll of the game was a 2, his second roll was a 20. Doom followed by Crit! I decided that on a crit he’d find a flower with mystical properties and absorbing the Miasma sounded like a good one. I made it a tiny object, with 3UD (useless). Each time the wearer would make a Miasma check, roll the UD instead. Once the last die is lost, the rose blackens and shrivels to dust]. As Togs returned to town the other village watch all called down to him. “Aye Togs, looks like you’ve found a blood thistle. Are you going to give that to your true love Bonny.” Truth be told Togs was torn. What use would Bonnie have for such a rare flower, as the innkeepers daughter, she’d never leave the village. The person who really needed it was his brave brother Winston.

Kemp visited Shremp, who couldn’t stop gloating about his fine wares. He sold Kemp a real shovel and more soap. This time they would be prepared!

Elgrin heard back from Alastair, who told him more of the creature trapped in the pyramid. He whispered the forbidden knowledge into his hear [I told James I’d share what he told Elgrin when the time was right]

Winston paid Shremp a visit and tried to buy acid from him, but the unctuous merchant said he’d need to talk to Brune, the alchemist in Gadwick if he wanted some of that. Shremp did have some iron bars, but he first wanted to know Winston’s plans for Molly, and for her sister Bonny at that! Shremp let the iron bars thump on his counter conveying the great weight (of responsibility, surely) Winston had to carry.

Togs went out to find a different flower for Bonny and returned with peony. She received it with a faint smile, and put it limply in a vase. Of course she had heard about the blood thistle, but her so-called love had other uses for it, it seemed. At the mention of Winston, Bonny straightened the flower in the vase, saying she wondered what gifts he would be giving her sister Molly.

Kemp got to crafting. Making healing potions from the blood creatures body parts, and storing the remaining undead parts and hide with his sister Zana to hold until he returned with more.

Ruined Tower Revisited

Travel back to the tower was mostly uneventful. Togs went off on his own looking for treasure and got lost in the woods [A doom roll. Ryan just can’t roll anything but crits!]. There he found a rope tied to a tree, leading up to net, which held a monstrous and massive creature. He couldn’t make out the details, but though it slithered and squirmed, could not escape. He started to untie the rope, but heard a voice behind him “Are you keen to take from another man’s trap?”

He turned as saw a man in hunter’s greens, who introduced himself as Lograth. Togs quickly made amends and they parted with a hug and a pat on the back. “If you’re ever in Gadwick, tell them Lograth sent you.” Later, when Togs checked his belt he realized his knife was missing, but while his coin purse had previously been empty, there were now 5gc in it. [Technically there’s no result on a failed Search for Treasure, but on a doom I decided to have a random encounter. I had been rolling nothing but monsters thus far, so I made the choice to roll a Miasma-Touched human and got a Thief (Power 9) and rolled Competitive for his disposition. Poor Togs had virtually nothing of value on him. so Lograth took his knife to prove he could, but left him coin as an act of pity for the Crow]

When they arrived at the Ruined Tower, the Dungeon Timer began. [Forgot to do that last time].

Kemp climbed down the well, with the aid of the pitons and rope and dug up the coin purse buried by the ex-Crow before him. 94gc inside.

Togs also gave a turn at digging through the rubble, with Winston giving him aid. As they worked Elgrin noticed something coming from the woods. More red eyes…and something much bigger behind them. Two Slumbering Shadows launched themselves at Elgin and Kemp, while a titanic but malleable monster dove past the Fiddlegreen brothers and into the gaps of the rubble. Togs was sure, this was the same creature he had seen captured before, but how was that creature held in net? [Point of order here. When I described the creature before I didn’t read that it was malleable. Must mean Lograth had a magic net!].

Togs cried out when he saw it again “That’s a Flesh Abomination!”

The Slobbering Shadows, without cover from the trees above were no match for the Crows. One was killed by Elgin’s blade, another fled to the top of the tower after it was harried by Kemp.

The Flesh Abomination however, gave them trouble, being submersed in the rubble ruins made it hard to fight, and the Crows had to keep pulling rocks away to get a clean attack [Bane of they didn’t spend a maneuver removing the cover]. Also, as they uncovered it, it would more often the not manifest a fist toe punch them, or hurl a clot of fleshy mass at them. Togs lost his knife (actually Winston’s knife) into the rubble and Elgin was nearly bodily pulled in when was grabbed, but the Crows held fast and eventually beat the abomination back. When it realized victory was not in it’s grasp, it sunk further into the ruins were the Crows blades could no longer reach it, and the Slobbering Shadow, skittered away.

At the very least the digging and the fight revealed a clay urn with a small note fastened around the next by twine. The note was written in a Crow’s spidery hand. “DON’T DRINK.” Cracking it open, the realized the urn contained strong acid. Another concoction for Kemp to learn and reproduce!

They rested uneventfully. Winston protected from the Miasma by the blood thistle, the others struggling to resist its effects.

To the Blood Library

After resting at the tower, only safe because Winston was on guard that night, the Crows head southeast for the Blood Library. [The EN was 7, Winston raised it to an 8, and I rolled a 7!]

[As when the party arrived I spoke in the voice of the Smarty Pants Alastair].

Before Craelin the Clever became Craelin the Craven, he built a repository of books to share his knowledge of alteration magic with the world. As he fell into wickedness, the necromancer covered this library in flesh and filled it with blood creatures to protect what he once shared. With Craelin gone, ambitious crows
have hacked through the protective scab to form an entrance into the Blood Library, where books
and other treasures are ripe for picking.

They came upon the great lake of blood, which poured from a wound in an even larger mass of scabby flesh covered in giant, moving eyes. Piercing out of the flesh was a dark blue pyramid that Winston had spotted the day before.

The way in was fraught. Togs waded through the blood (he has missed the earlier memo about blood creatures tracking blood). Winston tried to climb along the scabby wall to find a way but one of the jugs (a real rock climbing term I learned from Adrienne years ago) tore from the scabby flesh and he fell into the lake, completely submerged and being held down by malformed hands. [I had offered that using a bladed weapon to climb would make it trivial but perhaps because I made the offer, Winston wanted to use his bare hands, and then Adrienne rolled a Doom. Right in that moment, I decided that the Blood Creatures were spawned from the list lake and that at the bottom of it were the partially formed limbs of yet unborn blood creatures, mindlessly grasping at the living. This is one of those times when the rolls really tell you the game your playing it. I loved it and I’m pretty sure nobody realized I made that up on the spot.]

Winston’s friend ran in and used their knives to cut him free of the grasping arms and into the stone steps of the entrance.

Steps into Darkness

[I dialed 30 minutes onto the egg timer. Dungeon Time began]

Stone steps led into a room only partially illuminated from the sunlight outside. In the entry way they spotted three sets of doors, an unadorned stone desk, and a cabinet that glinted in the shadows. Elgin inspected and saw that it was a pearl handled letter opener, wedged between the handles. He nearly pulled it but then suspected it might be trapping something inside. Instead he used his new spell but to cast Stubborn Object on the doors and hold them fast, then he pulled free the prize. Inside the blood creature that was trapped flailed and rage at the scent of humans, but could not escape.

Kemp used several bars of soap to get everyone clean [The way the game handles usage dice are fucking great!]. Winston lit his lantern, and they made their way into the Library proper.

Inside the grounds they saw rows and rose of empty shelves, occasionally populated by ruined books. As they entered their lantern revealed the shadows of a balcony above and spiral staircases in the corners.

“Surely there must be one book remaining in tact at least.” The all set out to find some tome of value, but as they did the creatures from the balcony, drawn by their light, began to descend in the shadows. The heard the scraping of claws on stone and wood as well as sickly sound of the scabrous walls being serrated by the same sharp talons.

The worked quickly, combining their efforts to search. Elgrin finally found a book in tact, it seemed to be a tome of magic lore, but just as he was going to rejoice, the Slobbering Shadows descended. They saw two stets of eyes, then two more, and two more, and they did not know how many more would follow.

The fled west through the stacks, with shadows biting at their heels. They came to a locked door, but Winston slammed his entire body into it and smashed it open. Once all the Crows (and Goat) were inside. Togs slammed the door shut and Elgrin cast another spell of Stubborn Object to hold it in place. After a time the skittering sounds outside ceased and the were safe…or so they thought. [Tier 3 result to overpower it!]

It’s a Trap!

The hexagonal room they entered had scabrous fleshy walls like the rest of the building, but these walls had green, throbbing pustules, which occasionally seeped a viscous fluid. The floor was littered, ankle high in bleached white bones.

In the center of the room was a stairwell leading up to a closed trapdoor 15′ above, and an open grate at the bottom.

Along the five walls that did not contain the door back to the library, a leather-bound tome with metal clasps was chained to a fleshy plinth.

Was this a trap? Surely it was a trap. But could it also be treasure? Craelin was called both Cruel and Clever. The Crows reasons there was probably something here of value, if they could discern what it was. And if not, Kemp had a pot of strong acid he believed would burn their way out of the room. To be on the safe side, Elgin cast Stubborn Object on the trapdoor above, ensuring that nothing could drop on them. [Heh heh heh heh]

The Crows inspected the books and noticed their clasps we each made of a different metal: gold silver, copper, brass, and platinum. They thought for a time about what they knew. Craelin’s was the archmage of alternation, so perhaps the metal that was an alloy of two others would hold the secret. Elgin was at the top of the stairs, Winston was in the middle, Togs at the base with Goat at his side.

Carefully, Kemp released the brass clasp, and then standing as far as he could away, he used his 11′ pole to flip it open. They heard a few things happen all at once. The doors, already magically sealed, locked. The grate slammed shut. The pustules gurgled, swelled, and then erupted, spraying a gratuitous amount of acid into the room, quickly beginning to fill it. [Perhaps cruelly, but I thought appropriately, the acid did piercing damage, so armor was of no use against it]

From here desperation ensued. Togs, Goat, and Kemp were all burned by the acid. Kemp and Goat ran up the steps as far as they could, but Togs felt in his gut that this acid was not going to stop spraying. He ran to the door that led back to the library and with all his might, wrenched it open [Tier 2 result, raised to Tier 3 with Lift Expertise].

The acid levels began to lower, but the pustules were still praying at a prodigious rate. And once they heard the door open, the Slobbering Shadows began descending toward the door. The bloodbath that followed was a terrible one.

Togs clambered up to the top of a bookshelf (to escape the acid) and leapt form shelf to shelf, all the while being clawed by the Slobbering Shadows.

[Content Warning. Harm to Animals. Goat does not survive. If you want to avoid that, skip this paragraph] Winston knew that the Blood Creatures were drawn towards the living and to blood. He impaled goat with his pike and was going to throw him towards the creatures to distract them, but Kemp, both Clever and Cruel in that moment, bit him wait a moment. He fed Goat a healing potion so while he was bloody, it would take longer for the Slobbering Shadows to devour him. The tossed the goat from the stairwell and just and the lure worked drawing four of the Shadows to descend on it, where they all burned. Kemp tossed his bottle of strong acid onto the writhing mass and destroyed them all [They had all taken some damage from the acid on the floor and while Strong Acid doesn’t technically have an area of effect, I ruled that because they were all devouring Goat, Kemp could spread the damage around]

While Togs fled, Winston taunted the Shadows that he could, and ran through the remaining acid to protect him. Togs was flayed by their claws, but he managed to make it to the entrance and hide in the same cabinet they had previously locked the other creature in with a spell (thankfully, it had worn off by then!). The Slobbering Shadow ripped it open and was going to be the end of Togs, but his brother impaled the creature with with his pike and end it. Togs was so wounded he could not move [Speed reduced to 0] but Winston carried him back to the “safety” of the tower of forbidden books.

Prison or Protection

From there a horrible cycle of attempts at rest, ambushes, and more rest ensued. Several times creatures arrived, and some of those times the magic that bound the doors held, while others it gave way and they had to do battle again.

There were two moments that were positively delightful and must be recounted. The first was when Winston’s guarding the entrance prevented Shadows form sneaking in when the Stubborn Object spell gave way [Again, he took the Secure Camp rest action to raise the EN from 7 to 8 (Kemp kept using soap to clean the blood off them) and I rolled a 7 on the encounter roll!]

The second was many hours into their rest. The door into the room had ben battered back and forth so much that the best they could to was get it nearly closed and cast Stubborn Object again. With only a crack open the Shadows could reach their foul claws in, but could not fit themselves. However, after a time, they returned with a Fleshy Abomination, which began to ooze it’s way through the crack, throwing clots of fleshy mass at the Crows. When one clot missed and cracked some of the stone on the stairwell, the wounded Crows realized this creature my be their end. Togs wedged his iron pot in the grate to hold it open, and Kemp set off the trap again (this time opening the Platinum book), once more filling the room with Acid. They all crammed up at the top of the stairs as high as they could, but because of the crack in the door and the open grate, the acid did not fill the room entirely, and they were safe huddled at the top of the stairs. The Flesh Abomination was not so fortunate. Halfway in and halfway out of the room, it was quickly engulfed in acid. It fled and for a time they were safe.

As the acid was draining, but before the trap could reset, Elgrin used the 11′ pole to pole vault over to the acid onto the plinth with with the Silver clasps. In the back of his head, he remembered Alastair telling him the creature Craelin trapped in the pyramid would surely know the secrets of the Blood Library, but decided to brute force this problem. The book opened to reveal another open journal and the sounds of the grate trying to close, the doors trying to lock. Also, his 11′ pole was now a 9′ pole thanks to the acid below when pole vaulted it.

At this point they had tried three books and figured, they might as well keep going. Another quick vault to the Copper book, which also attempted to spring the trap but could not.

With all other choices selected, the group opened the gold clasped book an finally found…a deathspeech spellbook.

Kemp was disappointed to say the least. He listlessly handed the book to Togs, who received it and looked thoughtfully at the piles of bones on the floor.

Goat’s final wish

Even a farmer can use magic, but he best beware the chaos that can ensue. Togs cast the spell of deathspeeech and was able to ask Goat one question. But he also triggered a magical backlash that made him allergic to magic. He did not know if the effect was permanent or not.

Togs asked Goat where he wanted to be put to rest. The animated scull bleated, and somehow Togs knew what he meant. “Bury in with the corpse of your brother Winston, so I can gnaw at his soul for an eternity.” No one else understood what the bleating meant, but when Togs told Winston he must now forever more carry Goat’s skull with him. Winston begrudgingly agreed and adjusted things in his backpack.

Crystal Chamber

Tired, injured, and low on supplies the Crows considered returning home, but greed drew them further. Alastair had told Elgin about the creature imprisoned here, and surely he would know where more riches lay. The Stubborn Object spell faded, they decided to creep in the dark (they remembered how light drew the Slobbering Shadows before) to the other side of the library. Based on what they remembered from the outside, they believed that is where the pyramid was and they hoped (correctly) that it was the prison they sought.

When the opened the door however, and tried to move forward into the darkness they found they were blocked. The Slobbering Shadows, having given up on trying to get in, toppled the bookshelf (weakened by the acid eating away at its base) in front of the door. They were trying to force the Crows to exit through the trap door above, or ensure they would hear when the exited. But our Crows were more enterprising than that.

Elgin moved to the west wall of the room and lit a torch, so it just barely lit the doorway, and slowly meticulously, Winston and Togs pulled and pried at boards to make a hole in the bookshelf that they could crawl through. Winston tied a rope to his waist and everyone behind held onto it [I made sure everyone had a free and for the rope and that Winston used a belt slot for it!]. Tethered thus, the crept slowly through the library following the right wall till they eventually made it past the entrance, and to another metal door, this one thankfully unlocked.

As they crept inside they were about to light torches but found that the room was glowing with a dim purple glow. In the center was a massive crystal that went nearly 30′ in the air and rose out of the fleshy ceiling above. Inside they saw the silhouette of a cloaked figure with ten arms holding a large sword floats at the center of the
crystal.

Beside the crystal was a staircase that led 15′ up to a catwalk that encircled it. On the catwalk was a throne, its back placed against the crystal itself.

As he looked at it, Elgin remembered the words Alastair whispered to him:

The Ring Collector is a creature gifted with supernatural strength and speed who is obsessed with finding and collecting magic rings. They invaded and wiped out several villages during the Necromancer War in pursuit of rings.

The Ring Collector is Craelin’s advisor, Namlin. Namlin stayed loyal to the archmage even after
all others left the necromancer’s side. As a gift, Craelin warped Namlin’s flesh and turned them
into a hunter of magic rings, ones meant to eventually adorn the necromancer’s fingers.

Kemp wasted no time. If this creature was going to blast his mind, he’d better to it fast. He raced up the stairwell, sat in the throne and called out to the creature “Namlin, what have you got?”

Kemp felt another presence in his mind, thinking thoughts that were not his, trying to determine learn what it could from him, but resisted the probing [Tier 3 Mind RR]. The creature, which only made the suggestion of moving to the others, expressed its regard in Kemp’s mind. “You have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I am not aware of yours. Are you a great Necromancer?”

Kemp scoffed and told Namlin he was a Crow, ready to trade information, or perhaps services. Namlin told him of the museum above the tower of forbidden books, where they would find treasures including a ring he greatly coveted. Kemp negotiated some and decided his options from worst to best were:

1. Get the ring, break Namlin free, but refuse to offer him the ring.
2. Get the ring, let Namlin rot.
3. Get the ring, break Namlin free, trade him the ring for his sword.

Museum Hiest

Number three is pretty much what they did. They crept into the museum through the trapdoor, were assailed by tentacular blood creatures which they called Blood Spiders, grabbed the treasures, broke free of their grasp, and ran back out of the trapdoor, and once again cast Stubborn Object to hold it closed, but this time Elgin suffered backlash as well and his skin grew cold.

From the Museum the claimed a chest of gold coins, which Togs had to drop down the stairwell and they spent a long time collecting. a jade mask (cracked from also being dropped), a corrupt spellbook, and a ring.

Completing the Bargain

When the returned via the same cautious route to Namlin the creature telepathically communicated with Winston as he touched the crystal and gave him a suggestion. USE FORCE.

Winston first cracked the crystal with a blow from his pike, and charged to impale it, causing the prism to shatter [It has 50 stamina and his first attack did 5 damage. On his second attack he got a Crit, which dealt 9 damage, used Bury the Point to double the damage, and offered if he was walling for the pike to be completely shattered rather than just damaged I’d double the damage again. Probably not a good precedent to set, but we were all getting very tired and and it sounded cool. The prism shattered and with it Winston’s pike.

Namlin stood before them appraising them all. He nodded with respect and uttered only one word “Crows.” He held out one of his many hands and Kemp placed the ring inside it. He put the ring on and with a gesture lifted many of the purple crystal shards and flung them into a Slobbering Shadow that had been trying to sneak into the room. Namlin held two more arms out like sword rest and then placed the greatsword upon it.

Winston drew it forth and Namlin told him. “This is a sword of explosive impact. Use it cautiously. Should you crows ever find more magical rings, reach out to me and I will pay graciously for them.” Then he blinked out of existence, leaving a vacuum of air behind!

The Crows, their ambition finally sated, headed back to Fiddlegreen to enjoy the soils of their adventure. Fin.

Thoughts on the game

Monsters and Encounters

We loved that the Crows named the monsters as the found them. The only mistake I made describing them was saying the Blood Spiders were spider-like, because that subconsciously put spider in everyone’s mind.

As a GM, I didn’t find a large distinction between power level, mostly it seemed to be more stamina, where I would have liked to see them be more dangerous. For instance, with the Flesh Abomination, once the Slobbering Shadows were done and it was being attacked by all four Crows, its Clot and Punch attacks weren’t dangerous enough (unless I got a Tier 3 result) to make it a real threat. I eventually had it dissolve into the tower itself rather than keep fighting a losing battle.

I wondered if creatures with multiple attack listed (like Punch and Clot) could make multiple attacks, but that didn’t seem consistent with the rest of the game, so I ruled those as either/or not both/and attacks.

I rolled SO MANY encounters, and all but one of them were monsters. I don’t think that is the game’s fault (I just rolled a lot of 8-10 results and they rarely got the EN over 8). However there were two times in the game where they did the “Secure Camp” move raising the EN from 7 to 8 and I rolled a 7 and everyone fucking cheered like the person who secured the camp (usually Winston) was a fucking hero. Winston saved the day!

In later versions I’d like to see some environmental encounters as well. Earthquakes, landslides, fires, strong winds, bad weather, lightning storms, raging rivers, dry spells, freezing cold, etc. Obviously these would have to be either environment and/or season dependent (most forests don’t have volcanos and it’s hard to get snow in summer) but I have faith in the design team to cook up some of these that make sense.

Combat

We only used a grid when in the Blood Library, which I think sped up all of our Overland Encounters. I think there are a few traits (like Axe Hurler) that are devalued when you don’t strictly use a grid, but the benefit of speeding up combat and making everything feel more dynamic and alive (such as when the Slobbering Shadows landed on top of the Crows, rather than placing them in an adjacent square) made it worthwhile.

We loved the “Counter” action. It made combat feel much more dynamic without slowing things down. Definitely a keeper. I’ve never personally been a fan of attacks of opportunity, but they did trigger folks to use the disengage maneuver a few times adding some tactical element, so I didn’t dislike them as much as I have in D&D (a huge issue in 3.x, less so in later editions, but still fussy, especially if you’re not playing with a grid).

Group initiative was great. It allowed things like “we all run away” which are nearly impossible to orchestrate when initiative is staggered. That said, all of the players to one degree or another chafed against rolling initiative every round. When the monsters went twice in a row it was terrible, nearly ending Togs even when he had been clever and used every trick in his arsenal. Also, it just threw off the cadence of action. One time when the monsters went twice in a row, and Sam asked why in the fiction they would go twice, I invented a bit of narrative momentum, zoom out for a moment, showing the entire Bloody Library pulsate and fill its denizens with extra vigor. That worked once, but I don’t think it was a satisfying

Dungeon Turns and Usage Dice

I love usage dice and I think Crows has the best implementation of then I’ve seen, because there is always a chance (no matter how low) that something fails. In the Black Hack if you have a d8 UD, you know it can be reduced to a d6, but it can’t outright fail. Even the d6 can’t fail. Only a d4 can. But in Crows, even if you have a whole bunch of UD, there’s a chance they all roll 1s or 2s and suddenly it’s gone. It’s just great. Plus, I like sticking with d6s!

Dungeon Turns felt familiar (from playing Shadowdark) but there are some other things I really like about them:

• Being 30 minutes ramps up the tension. 30 min is just right.
• The fact that torches don’t goin out, but rather roll UD means torches aren’t constantly going out, but they always could.
• I like that many effects last until the end of a DT, that makes for easy accouting.
• I also like that you roll for encounters at the end of a DT. That means there’s just one trigger to watch for on the regular instead of tracking both real time and in game turns.
• Converting a DT to 2 Hours Overland Travel and saying you make 2 DT checks during rests (one in the middle and one at the end) also keeps that simple.
• I FUCKING LOVE slicing time slowly when the result of a roll indicated more time was taken. For instance when they crept to the Prison Crystal room in the dark and got Tier 2 results, I described all the sounds of the gurgling pool outside spawning blood creatures, talked about how they had to wait before crossing the open door and then do it one by one so the creatures would not see them. This was me killing 5 minutes, but I killed the most delicious way.

The one frustration my players had (rightfully so) was that when I as looking up rules the DT was still going. It also made it hard to take breaks from the game for meals. I had an old egg timer that couldn’t pause, but I think when I play in the future I’ll buy a timer I can pause 🙂

XP and advancement

Suggested procedure. Assign someone to record the gc value of all treasure found, then award XP when they rest. This addresses two issues:

1. Reduces the XP lost to rounding errors. My players kept groaning every time the got XP that was not evenly divisible because it meant they lost a portion of it due to rounding. By summing it all up at rest, that rounding only happens once per rest instead of once per item.
2. It’s really easy to forget what the Crows acquired if someone isn’t writing it down. This method helped us remember and account for every spellbook and iron bar they pried from the Blood Library.

Organization of the text and resources

Finding what I needed during play was a constant struggle. I had all four books printed, plus all the PDFs open on my laptop, and I still spent forever searching for things, often using pression time of the Dungeon Timer. I don’t think the organization was poor, but I needed a Table of Contents in each book and I would have loved it if the gear existed in a list instead of just on the cards themselves. In the future I’m going to combine all the PDFs into one doc, so I do a single search (instead of opening five PDFs) and I’ll tag sections with post it notes.

Crafting

I wasn’t sure how you find recipes for crafting. I decided that you need to first have the item to learn it’s components or spend a rest action researching a recipe. I did this for two reasons:

1. So Crows don’t instantly know all recipes. I wanted more sense of discovery.
2. The only place the recopies existed was on the inventory cards so I didn’t actually know them myself unless I had the card. This made it so I wasn’t constantly searching through the cards.

We wondered if hides or monster parts have gc value? We ruled they did not, but other crafting items (like the iron bars Winston wrenched from the grate in the Forbidden Library) did!

Are there any time constraints on crafting? Once in the village, it seemed that in the village there was very little time pressure, and no reason for our alchemist not to turn all the monster parts into healing potions. At least enough to give everyone stacks of them.

Having played a little Stardew Valley, I think that Crafting would benefit from another limitation besides the base materials. For instance in Stardew a Copper Bar needs 5 x Copper Ore and 1 Coal. It’s the Coal that can really be the limiting factor. I think that this could be accomplished by giving Tools (like Alchemist Tools or Blacksmithing Tools) some Usage Dice. That way they might be able to make a ton of creations, but you might run out of alembics or need to repair your hammer, etc.

Spellcasting Backlash

I love that backlash in the game reinforces the lore. Magic is dangerous. It corrupts. The stronger it is, the more dangerous it is. Very smart!

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I really like having an in-game term for PCs. In Blades in the Dark they are Scoundrels. In Rangers of a Broken World they are Rangers. In Crows, they are, well Crows. It makes it so much easier to talk about PCs and it sound natural when people in game use the term. Very good! I feel much less strongly about the Ref instead of the GM, but I appreciate the roots of the term, so I don’t hate it.

Questions that came up in play (or that I wondered afterward):

• When you arrive at a dungeon at the end of the day, must you rest as you normally would at the end of a day?
• Why are roads more dangerous to travel on (lower EN)? Is it because bandits prey on them? The Crows are exposed? We weren’t sure in play.

We weren’t sure if Resting actions were completed and/or if rations were consumed if rest was interrupted by strenuous activity (e.g. encounter rolls). This was primarily because the Secure Camp action necessarily needs to happen before the encounter roll is made. However, looking closer at the text I saw

“You can only perform on rest activity per rest and must complete the rest to gain the benefit of it.”

And under Seclude Camp

…you don’t need to complete this rest to gain this activity’s benefit.

Just a detail I missed. I ended ruling in the moment that repair armor and craft actions also happened. If I hadn’t I’m pretty sure we would have had a TPK in the Forbidden Books, but now I know for next time.

Some things were less challenging to the Crows than we expected:

• Seemingly endless healing potions (so many monster parts), especially if you have the Midnight Oil trait.
• Armor repair requires no rolls and fully repairs armor.

The Future of Crows

I’m very excited about this game and hope to keep playtesting it as it develops!