You got talking, in a bar, to a dwarven labourer who told you you of a great door he was commissioned to build. A large door. A door with a secret.
When the dwarven trading stronghold of Lord Ciswin was attacked by the goblins the fort was lost. Lord Ciswin vowed to reclaim it. But to protect it from being plundered by others who would have his ancestral home he commanded a door be built into the side of the mountain so that when folks searched for the real back door to the stronghold they would find the fake one, see the collapsed tunnel and assume that the only way in was through the front.
The dwarf told you that the secret of his door didn’t matter now as Lord Ciswin was now out of followers, on square one his journey once more.
The players were Rob, who has run amazing BW games for us and Rich, an enthusiastic Torchbearer backer. Rob was playing Dirk the human warrior and Rich played the elven ranger… Blackleaf? I forgot the name.
They started out fresh from town and with full packs, the fake door vas visible up on the mountain. Dirk was described as looking around at the base of the trees to see if he could find the route the actual back door used. I set a pathfinder obstacle and he rolled six dice and they all came up sixes.
First of all they faced the spider chasm. The warrior sliced the spider, which he scouted for with his instinct, with no help from the elf who was withering the web with his torch. It was messy and so scary that Dirk became afraid.
The pair decided to descend the chasm’s broken stair using the rope and some spikes to ho down rather than leap to the door on the other side.
The next room down they met Gripfast the dwarf who was a goblin prisoner missing his legs and the fingers from one of his hands.
The pair decided to pull him out of the dungeon in exchange for information of what they face. I made them test to pull him out and the Elf decided that he’d interrogate him whilst holding the rope, making things harder with his skeptical trait. They succeeded in spite of that. Their torch went out. Gripfast was one of Ciswin’s men and he described their raid going badly.
Next was the bog room. A poison mud had risen from the depths. The warrior decided to wade through to the door on the other side. He’d be doing so in dim light and he’d go the long way to investigate a bookshelf. Failure resulted in the sick condition. The elf was now no longer fresh. He followed and also failed also becoming sick. On the bookshelf they’d found a map to another dungeon.
The next corridor led to a massive chasm. The corridor continued along the chasm wall, but only half as wide, the whole left half had fallen. Peering down from the edge they saw another corridor built below the first. The pair camped. The elf had one check which he passed to the human along with his wine to help him get over the afraid condition. He failed that. The afraid condition is really bad as stops you interacting with the helping part which was a big part of play in our Burning Wheel game. It was hard to deal with.
The camp event said that their oil spilled out. But they didn’t have that so I said that nothing bad happened and moved on.
Continuing along the path they got to a portcullis of an underground castle. There were goblins atop the wall who were alerted to their light. The players went back to the chasm to nail in their spikes and go down a level. They failed the dungeoneering test so I brought in a goblin squad as a twist.
We used the conflict rules. I was confused about what I should say about what the goblins wanted. We concluded that I didn’t have to say what the goblins wanted and I should just use the victory and compromise table.
The conflict worked well although I kept forgetting which goblin was which with the hit points.
The result was a draw. I suggested the players were injured and the goblins retreated to gain reinforcements. Players would have the initiative right now though. Plus the elf got a goblin bow. (But no arrows as I pointed out later.)
Dropping a level down the pair chose a direction and found a staircase and a store room. I rolled on the loot table and got “equipment”, I said it was a grappling hook head. This went up to the upper level of the bog room and there were ceiling joists to walk across. I set a health test which they both succeeded at to cross. Then they were at the far side of the first room. The jump was easier this way due to the ruined stair that they used the rope to go down. After the elf succeed he threw up the rope to the warrior and used the good idea rule to get him across.
The pair escaped the dungeon to the sound of goblins entering the bog room from below.
The pair had consumed two food each, used up most of the iron spikes. The elf had lost his dagger. Both were sick and injured, the warrior was also afraid. They had two or three unused torches left. They were dirty. They had no checks. And Gripfast was there too complaining that he’d lost both his legs.
They successfully left the dungeon with a map to another stronghold, a bow and a grappling hook attachment for their rope. They each gained 2 fate and one persona. Rich was the teamworker for carrying the torches, passing the check and giving away his wine. Rob was the most valuable player for good use of iron spikes, killing the spider and getting the map.
I forgot to add backpack for a factor in any test. I forgot how leather armour worked but decided that a polearm and bow are both piercing and leather wouldn’t do anything. We also overlooked the sick condition -1D a few times by accident.
