Encounter at 10 Crown Caves, a DFRPG 1 Page Dungeon

[Dalin]

I had the pleasure of running this adventure for my children and some of their friends this weekend. We had a great time and I'm definitely going to keep it around as a great option for a one-shot.

Here are a few more details [SPOILERS... of course]:

We were up at my wife's family's rustic cabin in northern Minnesota for the long weekend. Players were four kids (11, 10, 8, 7) and an adult friend (parent of two of the kids). Player characters were a human knight (Sir Yvor Gryffyn from Delvers to Go), a human holy warrior (Samar Alqatil from DtG), a half-ogre barbarian (Argua from DtG), an elf scout (customized, but based on Llandor in DtG), and an elf druid (original, focused on animal control with a bit of healing house-ruled into the mix). Most of the players had played these characters before on some other delves, though it was Argua's first time. Due to the age of the players, I was very fast-and-loose with the rules and tried to have a "yes and" attitude toward their suggested strategies.

I modified the setup to provide a few hooks for this specific group. The scout (our youngest player) has been eagerly searching the world for a magical arrow. (I forget exactly what it's supposed to do—some sort of homing missile?) So they had heard that an elf friend had found the arrow and was on her way to the city to deliver it. On the way, the agent stopped at Ten Crown Caves and hasn't been heard from since. Meanwhile, Samar and Sir Gryffyn had been warned by the Queen's soothsayer that a demonic presence was detected in the vicinity of Ten Crown. That was enough for them and they raced out to the caves. The druid made a great navigation roll so they made it without mishap (I described Argua scaring off a potentially aggressive wild boar).

They traveled up the bank of the river to the crevice with the minty moss. They were confused by this, decided that it might be glow-in-the-dark moss, so the two lead characters grabbed some. Inside the cave, they heard the killer cows grunting and snorting. Then they charged out of the darkness. One of them screeched to a halt before the two front characters, snorting and sniffing at the moss. The other veered left and rammed Argua (sadly, mossless). It was a serious strike, inflicting a major wound, but Argua was not knocked down. She and the scout dispatched the beast in the next round. (She then claimed that raw killer cow is the best, and started eating it. The rest of the group was suitably disgusted.)

The party then found the cowherd. After a bit of back-and-forth, they decided to make an influence roll based on intimidation. It was a smashing success, so he told them that the elf had indeed come to visit, but she had insulted the ogre musicians, and was locked in a cage in the storage room. He indicated that you could get to the storage room in two directions, but he didn't know the details of the map. He also said that after the elf was captured, another person arrived who he didn't see. The ogres had the new visitor back with them and had been behaving in an unusual fashion... they had been playing music constantly for the past few days without resting or emerging from their chambers.

[In reality, in a last ditch gambit, the elf agent had used a magical item that she thought would summon a genie but got a demon instead. I made the demon like a physically weaker Peshkali with the addition of a magical charm spell that allowed her to quickly dominate the ogres. She's been enjoying having them literally perform themselves to death for her amusement. This whole plot layer was there to hook the holy warrior and to help clarify some of the moral issues with whether or not to slaughter the ogres.]

The party decided to take the back route and held their breath through the moss room. Hilariously, they elected to dig out the rocks and climb up to the storage room, stationing a guard (the holy warrior) right in front of the pit that they didn't know about. They used Repel Vermin to clear out the critters and wrapped their faces in wet cloths to help deal with the smell of the moss. I played up the grossness, but let things proceed a bit more rapidly than the adventure suggested because of Argua's strength. They eventually climbed up into the back room and found the elf in a cage. The ogre concert was blasting from the next room, and they could see the shadows of the massive performers flickering on the wall.

They didn't have a thief, so they tried to gauge the music and have Argua smash the cage's lock at an appropriate crescendo. I thought this was fairly clever but told them that without musical talent, the odds would be low. The druid (highest IQ) gave it a shot, rolled a six, and totally nailed it. The lock broke and the party got the elf out.

At that point, a song ended, and the party heard the ogres groaning in exhaustion. Then they heard a mellifluous voice commanding the ogres to keep playing. Samar, from his guard post by the pit, heard the voice and instantly recognized the sound of a demon. He charged forward, falling, noisily, into the pit. This set off the alarm, so the demon sent the ogres to investigate. Meanwhile, the party was spying from the storage room. The druid successfully cast control animal on the dire wolf, who began to sniff toward their hiding place, gaining an ally. The ogres dragged the bloody holy warrior into the room. The Peshkali attempted to charm him, but his resist evil and higher purpose gave him just enough of an edge to resist. He pulled the classic move, pretending to become her willing servant. (The kids loved this, as you can imagine.)

At that point, the rest of the party launched a surprise attack from the rear, with the goal of ending the demon without having to damage the ogres too much. There were some unlucky rolls at first, and things looked grim, but the demon turned her back on Samar (thinking he was charmed) allowing him to make a surprise attack. She was grievously wounded, but not killed. There were a few tense rounds of chaotic mayhem, but Sir Gryffyn finally managed a critical skull strike, dispatching the demon back to her realm. (It was sad that the holy warrior didn't manage the killing stroke, but we convinced him that it was all about teamwork, and his initial surprise attack was pivotal.)

With the charm broken, the ogres were thankful, but one of them was still grumpy about the elf agent who insulted their music. Good role-playing ensued (also a debate between two players about the ethics of whether this would really count as lying). After some nudging from the party, the elf admitted that perhaps she had spoken hastily. The party requested to hear the ogres play. The ogres, after three days of non-stop music, were too tired for a full concert, but they did sing an acapella number that the party pretended to appreciate. Fortunately, the ogres began passing out in a heap, so the party tip-toed out. The game ended with the group grilling up the rest of the killer cow carcass with the cowherd while the ogres snored in the back room.

Totally fun and unpredictable. I loved the mix of role-playing, puzzle solving, and combat. I'm eager to try it again with an all-adult group at some point. Might have another opportunity in a few weeks.