Session 9; The Curse of Blue Beard's Treasure.

 Session 9; Played on 19th of October extending to the 23rd.   

Pregame there was some discussion about the ideal size of parties in ACKs.  I am unsure if I should be allowing the AD&D ‘1st level’ characters are free, as technically characters that are not owned specifically revert/transform to henchmen and that could have a significant effect on how combat works. 

Player team 1 (it has not been named) prepares to go off into the woods do some patrolling.  This does not really go great for them, but not in the total party kill way.  They do see some wolves, but given the positive reaction rolls the wolves did not attack and the two players were hesitant to risk anything themselves.  So they ended up exploring in the forest for two days.  They ended up becoming bored/finding the area safe and the lure of Bluebeard’s treasure became too great for them. 

Juventas Clodianus (Bard) 2nd level
Philippus Gurges (Priest) 2nd level. (He picked Purify Food and Water)

Rudolphus Rutilus (Explorer) 1st level
***** (Blade Dancer) 1st level.
***** (Fighter) 1st level. (One of these characters has a Trained Hawk)
And followed by two mules and a cart. 

They then walked to the dungeon and spent the night within sight of the entry point.  The building was an asymmetrical pyramid made of bricks and only enterable by a single door.  The fighter immediately tried to shoulder check the door and promptly fell into a pit trap.  He was only damaged for 1 hit point and with the aid of the rope brought by the senior party members he was back on his feet.  There was then discussion of how to defeat a pit trap and what proficiencies were (one player had clearly not been instructed enough).  Eventually they ended up sacrificing an hour to filling the pit with dirt, loose rocks and forest/mountain debris.  They then tried to kick the door down, but could not do so.  Giving up on the ’stealthy’ approach they took a war hammer to the door and knocked more convincingly.  The door perished.  

(Picture of the mini-pyramid.)

The party entered and found themselves confronted by a 50’ long boat.  By unknown means it must have been carried here and been built over by very dedicated persons. The players boarded the boat and came across a strange sight.  Six variations of a blue bearded man were engaged in a repetitive argument over who was the real captain.  There were different scar variations or sword handle hilts to tell the figures apart and while not exactly friendly, the six were so heated in their own discussion they did not seem interested in the unnamed adventuring party.  They rebuffed requests to be guided around the boat or let the party explore it, and so the party began searching the corners of the pyramid.

In the first corner they found some 5000-6000 silver (still not sure about the treasure table) and went to the next corner.  There they  found there a crate of aged cutlasses, a crate of monster parts and a few thousand electrum pieces, before a snake came out of the monster part crate and spit at the blade dancer.  It missed and the explorer immediately threw a javelin that killed it.  Jump scare over…

Except the screams from the party were enough to summon the six doppelgängers to aggression.  They, being 4 hd monsters, were a bit too much for the party and they ran them down as the party tried to escape.  This ended somewhat predictably, though the fighter was able to mash one of them with his war hammer before falling.  

Reflections.

Again this was something of a mistake in dungeon building.  The trap was randomly selected, fun and defeated through player solutions and learning systems. The doppelgängers are the big mistake.  Obviously (especially in hindsight) they were too strong for the party.  The party did have the good sense not to challenge them and it was really just bad luck that they got rushed, but that is something of a mistake on my part. I do remember thinking that the doppelgängers must be bound here by some fell magics, but logically that means they shouldn’t have followed the party out of the temple.  So that was bad gm-rating. 

The two players were generally ok with results.  There is talk of a party of 9 fighters or 8 fighters and a cleric going out as a kill squad and the other player coded himself a program to more quickly generate ACKs compliant characters, so they are raring to go.  I think I am not quite at the #zeroprep stage of my refereeing journey and should build out a few more of the dungeons, but given my previous commitment to the solo play aspect I do feel a bind.  I don’t want to know what’s in a dungeon or a lair until I roll it up and watch in horror and fascination as another party is wiped.  This seems less polite to other players, but I am unsure how I will resolve it in the near future.