Dragonflight 2024, Part the First: Deathbringer Among the Barrows

Yes, I'm backed up on play reports. 

Ran three games this year at Dragonflight, held in Bellevue, Washington. The total attendance this year over three days was 1050 souls, a few of whom sat at my table.

The first of the three games was Professor DM's "Deathbringer," which I've run as a one-shot a few times. Who showed up?

• Mystic: "Morgue" - scoundrel
• Nick: "Grunk" - deathbringer
• Eric: "Larry" - plague doctor
• Christian: "K" - grimscribe
• Don: "Jerry" - plague doctor

As before, I ran Tim Shorts' "Requiem for Atticus Stumps" mini-adventure. I had booked a two-hour slot for this session, so used the scenario for its flexibility. I warmed up the players for play with a few questions (Who in the party owes you money, how did you get in trouble in the last town, why are you far from home, etc.).

The party, desperate from whatever "miseries" they had rolled up in chargen, took the bait.

Travel and negotiation with Harlow went smoothly, and the halfling took up spear and lantern to lead them to the selected barrows. The grimscribe cast dancing lights to provide some illumination in the forest and keep people from tripping over tree roots. Harlow avoided any encounters.

Barrow #1: The flowers surrounding the barrow remained unidentified (although Jerry did place several in his mask). Removing stones went without a mishap, someone noticing about halfway through the process the warning runes carved into them....

Harlow, as usual, lit the lantern with a flinch, refusing to explain or yield it to the party. He illuminated the barrow from the entrance. 

Morgue was suspicious of the metallic urn but urged Grunk to break it open anyhow (scoundrels...). So Grunk took the brunt of the gas trap. Morgue thanked him and recovered a silver dagger and some coin.  

Grunk and Jerry easily tossed the stone slab. Larry poked at the coffin, causing the spectre to rise. The fight was on. Morgue failed to get a good sneak attack in, but other characters made the best of it. The spectre was able to drain some strength from Morgue. K attempted to magic missile the thing, but rolled a crit failure. Doh! Thankfully the outcome dice were merciful, and the spell merely fizzled away.

source

Finally, Larry bombed the thing with a potion, and it faded to darkness. A scroll and some jewelry were recovered, but no death coins. The PCs dusted themselves off and asked Harlow about other options.

They Met at a Tavern 3: Clearing the Water Under Wyvernseeker Hill

Last Wednesday's Meetup one-shot only had two plays (#3 was a missed connection). One was a Repeat Offender, and spoke well of my GM skills, so that was a boost.

With just a pair of players, I had each make up a pair of Deathbringer PCs to run through the wringer. 

• Player 1: Ferris Mantlefall, Witchhunter and Niles, Plague Doctor
• Player 2: Amberlin, Scoundrel and Pentaxin, Grimscribe

Finally a Witchhunter! So no undead this week. 

I kid.

I pulled up "Four Visits to Wyvernseeker Rock," a collection I put together some time ago, but haven't run through. Of the four scenarios, I selected "Wraithful River" (spoilers, of course).

The PCs were tempted into the scenario by word that the river upstream of their village had become poisoned, with a fishkill and dead wildlife. Coincidentally, the old mausoleum of Wyvernseeker Rock had been disturbed, with unknown things moving about.

So be it. Let's go test the waters.

The party found the locale, and sussed out the main entrance behind a waterfall. They were immediately set upon be a Tumorous Spider: 

Hi!

They Met At a Tavern 2: Another Deathbringer One-Shot

Howdy folks. Time for another Meetup One-shot session at the brewery. Since I'd had a successful run with Deathbringer last time, I wanted to play with the game a bit more. The night's miscreant PCs:

• Rosey the Plague Doctor
• Ferrick the Plague Doctor
• Timber the Deathbringer
• Young Gerrin the Scoundrel

Plenty of local healthcare providers

Note: No Witch Hunters, again. So yes, there will be undead... But first, the Shorter Half asked, "Aren't we going to roll for hats?" Of course we are.

I recently finished "The Temple of Dynss" and wanted to give it a playtest. The scenario is more appropriate for 2nd to 3rd level PCs, so I softened the lizardfolk guards, otherwise things were run by the book. 

The party got hired as expendables to go check out the goings-on at the abandoned temple, since the local lizardfolk tribe had become more belligerent lately. Having few coins to rub together, and the promise of heaps of jade sent them on their way.

Random encounter en route - a lizardfolk hunting party. Great... Reaction roll: 11. "Hi, would you like a rabbit? Look out for snakes!" The party soon arrived at the temple and cooked the rabbit for lunch.

Rosey reconnoitered the perimeter of the temple, with Gerrin scrambling up the ruined side to check out the platform. He spotted the statue and an undead gecko. With a little planning, Timber made a racket, and lured it away into the woods while the remainder of the party checked out the statue, which was surrounded by obvious scorch marks. So of course Ferrick went up and poked it. No boom. He got away with some pocket change left on the alter.

The party entered the temple proper, inspecting the first room. They took a close look at the stele there, then poked their heads into the large central temple room. Here, they were spotted by a pair of guards, who rushed them. Ferric missed his throw with a potion (an ongoing issue), but Gerrin and Rosey took out one, and Timber critted the second. The party checked pockets, then broke down a rusted door to find a small idol.

By now, it was time for another wandering monster, so I attacked them with the undead gecko because that was funny. They dispatched it without too many wounds. 

They Met At a Tavern: Deathbringer One-Shot

It's been a while since I ran a Meetup one-shot at the brewery. After all, my original series of one-shots morphed into a campaign, and I ceased the pickup games. But, I've been itching to both run games for strangers, as well as play a few other games on my shelves. So I posted up for a Deathbringer one-shot, and picked a few possible brief adventures from the files.

I ended up with four players: Elijah, Roy, Mark, and Alex. Elijah, Roy, and Mark had gamed together before. None had played the system before, although Elijah was a follower of Professor Dungeonmaster. I distributed the rules and character sheets, and did a quick run-through of chargen and the five player options. There was some negotiation on what characters everyone wanted to play, and we ended up with:

• Artemis, Scoundrel
• Vandal, Grimscribe
• Blog, Deathbringer
• "Johnathan," Plague Doctor

I had a few options to run, and picked "Requiem for Atticus Stumps," by Tim Shorts. Tim's dark and grotty Komor Forest fits with the esthetic of Deathbringer, and "Requiem" has flexibility to explore multiple small locations depending on playable time.

The gist is that the adventurers are asked by a pair of elderly locals to collect a "death coin" from a local barrow to inter with their old friend to help his soul's journey onward. And since the party consisted of two out-of-work ratcatchers, a ne'er-do-well with gambling debts, and a former militia medic with a bad healing track record, of course they said yes. Especially with the offer of being able to share in the funeral buffet.

Oh fun. I'm dropping them into barrows without a Witchfinder. Let's see how this goes...

Double Review: Monkeyblood Design's "Chewer of Fingers" and Professsor Dungeonmaster's "Deathbringer" RPG

A few weeks back, Mr. Jackson and I decided to play a quick one-on-one game to pass a Saturday evening. For the system, we grabbed Professor Dungeonmaster's ultra-light Deathbringer. And for the adventure, Monkeyblood Design's Chewer of Fingers, described as a "grim, old-school introductory adventure intended for The Midderlands setting."

For those perhaps unfamiliar, The Midderlands is a fantasy setting based on a grimdark medieval England, described by the author, Glynn Seal, as a "green and unpleasant land." Fog abounds, as does a thesaurus-full of shades of green, along with an equivalent number of venomous NPCs and critters. Monkeyblood published the original volume, as well as a number of supplements, via successful Kickstarter campaigns. For people following the current Dolmenwood Kickstarter, Midderlands bookends very well with that setting, and both were used within Red Dice Diaries' "CSI Midderlands" campaign for anyone interested in seeing how the two settings mesh. I've seen discussions that the Dolmenwood setting is intriguing, but some people are less attracted to the fairytale tone of the setting. The Midderlands may be worth a look for people who prefer a darker, more grounded, tone.

So here we go:

I made up a 1st level character of each of the five provided classes in the two-page game system, choosing three to pit against the adventure: a deathbringer (fighter), grimscribe (mage), and plague doctor (sketchy healer/alchemist). Chargen took about five minutes each. More on Deathbringer below.

We considered truncating the adventure, but ended up running the full scenario, which we finished in around 3 hours.

The hook is to investigate and (hopefully) capture a serial killer (the eponymous Chewer) who has escaped from a local gaol.

The PCs started their adventure by saving a "mud cow" for an old lady at her decrepit farm.

Mud Cow

After freeing the irascible beast, the party scraped the mud off themselves and accepted a bag of turnips in reward. Clearly going to be a treasure-heavy session...