We played the next session of my old-school hexcrawl campaign based on Freebooters on the Frontier, Perilous Wilds (and Dungeon World), which I unimaginatively call “Perilous Frontiers”. The system has been a great fit for the setting, it lends itself nicely to a low-prep, “randomly generate everything” philosophy where the action at the table sets the scene for later adventures.
Here is the write-up for Session 03:
Summary
The party looked in horror as dozens of fist-sized spiders poured out from the webbing. Standing in the cave were Zarl “the Greenfish” the portly tattooed human thief, Leon the white-bearded halfling Wizard of rot and fury, and Tobrek the malicious human cleric of the god of insects. The metallic clanging from the alarm trap still echoed through the chamber. The spiders looked like a black carpet rolling towards them.
Tobrek cursed these non-insect arachnids, clutched his holy symbol, and began a chant to trick the spiders into thinking the stalactites on the ceiling were birds of prey. It seemed to work and the mass of spiders pulled back. Zarl sprung into action. He wiggled behind a boulder that was shoulder-height and pushed with all of his might. It creaked then started to roll towards the spiders. Tobrek, still chanting to keep up the illusion, didn’t see the boulder and wasn’t able to move out of its way. It crushed a few of his toes as it rolled over his feet and he yelped in pain. Leon wanted to make sure the boulder finished its job, so he called up his spell of deflecting rot to aim the rock straight and accelerate its motion. It impacted the mass of spiders with a satisfying squish, and lodged itself into the lower half of the passageway. A few more thrown rocks and the spiders pulled back entirely.
The thief fashioned improvised torches from the bones and clothing of the dwarf skeleton in the previous chamber and handed them to his companions. He led the way and they climbed over the boulder and burned a path through the webbing. A new passageway led them deeper into the caves. Soon they spotted the shining 8 eyes of one of the man-sized spiders, blocking the way in a narrow crevasse. Leon smeared something green and slimy and smelly on the back of Zarl’s shirt, hoping to create a deflecting miasma to protect him in battle, and Zarl drew his sword and charged the spider.
The spider puffed itself up and shot a thick stream of webbing at the thief, but he dodged out of the way and and struck the spider. The spider pulled back and shot another stream of webbing, catching his sword. He dropped it, withdrew and readied his sling. Zarl hit the spider with a well-aimed rock, and the spider replied with a final stream of webbing - that hit its mark. Zarl was trapped, and his companions looked on in horror, searching for a quick solution, as the spider extended its dripping fangs and started to pierce the thief’s neck. Tobrek started to chant another prayer, but his fickle god punished his insolence for disturbing him too often. Leon, out of spells, grabbed a torch and thrust it between Zarl’s feet, thrusting it up and into the webs. Luck was with him, and the only thing that got burned was the webbing that had trapped Zarl. The thief and the wizard stumbled backwards, the cleric drawing power to heal his companion’s wounds. Zarl loosened one more stone from his sling and the spider was no more.
The party decided not to venture further in that direction. They had no interest in fighting more giant spiders, and even less interest in encountering the even larger queen that had killed their companion in the woods. The webs beyond were thicker than any other, she must lay ahead. The searched the room, found a huge skeleton of something that Tobrek knew was an Ogre, and pulled a small sack of silver coins from the bones.
They decided to pull back entirely. Everyone was hurt, Leon has over-exerted himself, and Tobrek thought it was wise to spend some time appeasing his god. They withdrew to the campsite they used the night before, ate lunch, and then spent some time in quiet reflection. Zarl worked on his whittling, the cleric muttered dark prayers to his rotting god, and the halfling pulled out his thick book and studied his incantations.
Later that afternoon Leon was surprised to see a single drop of water splash down on his book, then another, and then a third. He just had time close his book and put it away when the skies opened up and a cold rain enveloped the thin forest. The party knew of only one place to seek shelter and returned to the spider caves. In the mouth of the cave they started a small campfire, divided their rations, tried to make the dark rock floor as comfortable as possible, set a watch and fell asleep.
Leon woke up in the dark witching hour well before dawn with a start. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and realized that both Tobrek and Zarl were both asleep. The fat thief was snoring like a pig - and had fallen asleep on his watch! Leon grumbled then realized with horror that a set of shiny 8 eyes were staring up at him in the dark from down a sloping passage further into the cave. He slid his staff and poked Zarl “in the junk”, and swatted Tobrek also. “Spiders - down there - in the dark” he hissed. Zarl, perhaps feeling guilt from dozing off by the fire, jumped up, leapt in front of his companions, and fired a stone harmlessly past the spider into the darkness. The spider was ready and pounced on the thief, and the fight was on. Things ended badly after a few swings, and poor Leon held up his staff managing to impale the wounded spider as it crushed him under its weight. Tobrek brought him back from the brink of death with a muttered prayer to his god, and the wizard gasped another breath. No one died … yet.
Leon stayed awake the rest of the night, nursing his wounds and muttering about his companions. They all managed to get some rest and were feeling a little better in the morning, as the rain continued outside. Tobrek started to realize that perhaps his companions were like-minded and talked for a while about the benefits of worshiping the lost god of fear, insects and rot. Leon recognized that rot also powered his spells, and Zarl knew a thing or two about fear and dark places, and they all started to see the benefits of a closer alliance. That would have to wait, however, as the dark caverns were not going to loot themselves.
Zarl led the way in a new direction, down the carved steps and into the lower area where the metallic clanging had echoed the day before. He soon found a small chamber with a statue of a human-sized figure in wizard’s robes, but with tentacles for arms and bulging round eyes on top of a worm head. There - he knew he saw it move! He told his companions and they all crept up to watch a statue … a still, stone statue. Leon threw a pebble at the statue and it bounced off its stone head and rolled across the floor. They chuckled at the thief, Tobrek impatiently brushing past him while Leon examined the statue.
Well, what do you know? Zarl was right. As soon as it was alone with Leon, the statue swiftly sliced at him with its fast, stone arms. Leon ducked under them and called out for help. Tobrek smashed into its back with his mace, only chipping the stone. Zarl fired a bullet from his sling but lost his grip and the leather sling went flinging across the room. Leon summoned one of his spells, and dark rot riddled the statue with black cracks, clearly doing a lot of damage. He leapt at the opportunity to finish it off with his staff, but slipped on the sling that he did not notice under foot like a leather banana peel. He landed with a smack on his face, and the statue smashed him unconscious with its stone tentacle-arms. Zarl cried out and charged with his most prized possession - the crowbar that had been his favored tool as long as he could remember - and hit the worm-thing statue. The magic holding it together failed and the statue disintegrated into a pile of rubble.
Leon was in bad shape. They rolled him over and his face was smashed, his nose pulped into a flat, bloody mess. Tobrek and his god argued internally for a while, and he was unable to convince the god of insects while the halfling should be saved. Luck, the same fickle luck that had taken Tildur earlier in the week, this time decided that Leon should live, and he coughed out a spray of blood but did not open his eyes. Tobrek finally won the ongoing argument with his god - for now - and was able to heal the halfling enough to wake up. Zarl, making the most of a bad situation, figured the crumbled stone pile would be magical and poured it into a sack.
The party decided to creep forward, slowly, cautiously. Zarl couldn’t help himself - there was no way he was leaving with only a sack of maybe magical rocks that he could maybe sell to the town alchemist. He peeked ahead and saw thick red curtains, and beyond that an ancient and dusty sitting room and bedchamber. He passed a few books back to Leon, who flipped through their crumbling pages and kept a few that related to military history. He slowly slid a few drawers back to Tobrek to search for false bottoms, but the cleric lost his patience and pushed his way past and entered the room. It was clear that the statue was a guardian, that guardian was dead, and they had better get on with figuring this place out.
Everyone was intrigued with what lay ahead. A dim light, the faint smell of wood smoke, and the trickle of water were the clearest evidence they had that these rock chambers were still inhabited. Zarl took the lead, searching carefully as he tiptoed ahead. He found and ignored what appeared to be a wooden privy consisting of a wooden seat over a deep natural cavern with rushing water far below. Curving the other direction he found the source of the light and the smell.
This was a rich, warm chamber lit by a flickering fire. A single, large cave had been widened to serve as a bedchamber and study. A thick patterned carpet covered the floor, the furniture was carved and solid, gold ornaments lined the wall, and a large mirror with intricate designs hung on the wall. But the thing that caught his eye was a woman, dark haired and seated at a large chair, flipping the pages of a massive book as she slowly read by the light of the brazier.
They withdrew and whispered excitedly. Tobrek was suspicious, and he poked in to ask his god what her intentions were. His god confirmed his suspicions that this was an evil and malicious force. As he was about to pull back from the tiny corner he had peeked around, the woman turned and looked right at him. She was a lovely, dark haired elven woman with a regal face wearing rich robes, and she simply turned back to her tome and continued to read.
This freaked everyone out. Well, not Leon who wanted Zarl to sneak in there and stab her in the back. Zarl angrily suggested the halfling do it himself, but Leon knew he was in no shape to start the attack. The party did not have the courage to confront her, nor the confidence to slip in and try to make off with some of the riches, so they decided after a short but heated debate to head back to Laborton.
They withdrew sullenly from the caverns, the flickering light of one of their last torches dancing along the walls as they backtracked. Soon they stood at the mouth of the cave, standing over the embers of their extinguished campfire, and saw the heavy rain and thick fog that enveloped the sickly forest. It was going to be a long, cold, wet march back to the Inn.
Here is a picture of the dungeon map, which is almost cleared:
All of the character are now level 2. We play again in a few weeks. Roll20 has worked great, there is even a Freebooters character sheet to use inside of the virtual tabletop.