Dolmenwood Campaign Session 0 Report
This will be the start of my ongoing session reports for my newly started Dolmenwood campaign. We were using a Shadowdark/Dolmenwood/OSE/homebrew mashup for the system, but I’ve decided going forward to just use the Dolmenwood system with some tweaks in future sessions. Spoilers ahead for Winter’s Daughter, an adventure module for Dolmenwood.
The party is made up of Basil (Human fighter), Chloe (Breggle cleric), Hollace (Human wizard), Shamash (Human fighter), and Stira (Human thief). They begin in High Hankle, either recently arrived from the greater empire to the south or as locals who have not had opportunity to travel the wood.
They all have an NPC friend in common: Dimothy Tolman, who has landed himself in jail and requests the aid of the group. He just needs enough bribe money to get out, and fortunately had a line on some treasure to be found in a barrow to the north, the burial mound of Sir Chyde. Thus the party found themselves in the woods, on the path to the tomb (I started them off directly at the adventure site just to get the ball rolling. We’ll be dealing with travel afterwards).
The party first encountered a circle of standing stones on the path leading to the tomb, inside which was an eerie twitching stag skeleton covered in green ooze. Unsettling metallic owls hang from the surrounding trees looking onward. Basil, would be archeologist, stepped forward to investigate first, and found the haze surrounding the skeleton dizzying so backed away. Hollace inspected the runes carved on the stones and determined they relate to summoning, perhaps some form of witchcraft (the group is not yet familiar with the Drune or the witches of the wood). A toad hopped from the wood and rather disconcertingly uttered the word “Betrayal” before hopping away (and becoming something of an obsession for Shamash, though he didn’t pursue the toad). Deciding to to keep their eyes on the prize, they moved forward to the tomb.
Four of the party had enough strength to move the block of granite that sealed the tomb, and promptly did so. Chole lit her lantern and the party descended. They entered a room with various religious objects (a book, candle, wooden cherub, and Chapes holy symbol of the Pluritine church), which animated as soon as the group entered (getting particularly agitated at Stira and Hollace as Chaotic characters). Basil nabbed the book from the air and sat on it. Stira and Hollace were also very deft as their objects dove towards them, Hollace capturing the candle in her bag and Stira snatching the holy symbol by its circular form. Chole, being a cleric, managed to calm the cherub down with gentle assurances and prayer. They all tied up the objects and stashed them way, bound, for now. The scuffle revealed a mosaic below, which Shamash cleared to see a scene of Sir Chyde fighting frost elves. This, along with some imagery on them standing stones outside, let them to comment that frost elves (or maybe elves and fairies in general), didn’t seem to be well liked here.
Undeterred, they searched deeper in the burial mound, finding a room with an empty plinth with drag marks leading back to the entrance and an ornate mirror. Hollace prompt strode up to inspect it, only to be caught in its magic and paralyzed. The others cautiously began inspecting the mirror and frozen Hollace from the side, looking for ways to help her. Initial prodding and moving the frozen wizard were no help, nor was Chloe slinging the wooden cherub at the mirror (to its dismay), shattering it, although this prevented future paralyzations. Shamash decided to carry Hollace along the drag marks and out of the tomb, with the idea he would place her in the standing stones. Fortunately the sunlight outside immediately cured her affliction.
Meanwhile Basil and Stira forged ahead, finding an old chapel with a door hidden behind a tattered tapestry. The door was swollen and stuck, so Basil forced it open, revealing a hidden room and a tunnel behind. Attracted to the noise, three worm creatures like tongues with lamprey mouths emerged and attacked, seeking a meal, while the rest of the group caught up. Rolling high on initiative, Basil quickly was able to dispatch two of the worms. Hollace followed up with a magic missile to finish the last before they could act. The room secure they managed to find a book in a desk, which gave a clue: the name of one of Sir Chyde’s trusty hounds.
As they were about to leave Shamash decided to clear this floor looking for another mural, instead finding a loose flagstone. After careful inspection by Stira, they determined it was safe to open, and found a metal box inside with a suspicious looking lock. Opting to investigate later, they stashed the box for now.
Moving onward, the party came to a large room with sealed stone doors, large stone dog statues chained to the wall, and an inscription saying to “call to the companions”. Shamash figured they would need to call out the names of the dogs, of which they only had one. More investigation would be needed.
We had to end the session here, as we had spent most of the time in character creation and setting up the new campaign, but this was a great start!