Solo RPG Campaign - 5. Wight Out, Wandering, and A Warm Fireplace

I began play on 3/3/24, IRL and in-game. 2 days pass in-game, but as usual it takes me longer to play that that out-of-game.

Day 1 (3/3/24)

A new character has joined the party: Zephira, a Priestess (STR:13, INT:5, WIL:15, DEX:12, CON:12, CHA:14, "Medician" template). She fills my roster back out to 6 characters, and provides some healing capability after the loss of the BFRPG Dwarven Cleric, Grimace. I figured since last session I learned about ACKS's damage model, it was time to begin learning about ACKS's healing model. With the ACKS market limitations, there are limited quantities of healing herbs available in this market in any given month, but adding a new PC who already has healing herbs in their starting template... well, that's one way to circumvent the market limitations.

The party travels to the shrine without an encounter. They avoid the Attercops (aka Ettercaps) lairing in their previous campsite, and spend the night at an alternate campsite without incident.

Day 2 (3/4/24)

First Hour

They enter the dungeon from the hidden entrance in the NW that they had discovered last session, and approach the x-intersection. They go past the junction to explore the east passage, and come to a stairway down to the second level. Before the stairs, there is a door on the right wall. This enters into the same room as the door on the far side of the organ room, which had not previously been opened (room #10). When Jelyssa listened at the door, I rolled on the room stocking table, and got a monster.

I rolled a third level monster: a Wight. Wights have 3HD, are immune to mundane damage, and can cause rotting on a failed death save. I had to stop and take stock of the rules in this situation, to see how a Wight works, and what I actually had access to. The party has not yet found any magical weapons. Marzipan and Zephira are immune to the rotting, and Marzipan has a silver dagger that would technically be able to cause damage. Zephira cannot turn undead nor cure the rotting, though she could delay it. In short, I had only one dagger capable of causing damage, in the hands of the least competent, and most fragile character. This was not a good encounter.

And this is where I must confess that in a moment of weakness, I cheated the random encounter.

After considering my options (the only viable one was to run), I decided to retcon the roll. I would say that they did hear a ghostly moaning of undead, but that it came from the nearby stairs down to the the second level, and not from behind the door. They could still, potentially, face this Wight if and when they descend to the second level, but I rerolled the inhabitants of the room on the first level, and got two Giant Ants. This kinda fits with the Giant Spider I had encountered in this dungeon last year, as well as the Giant Centipedes and the nearby Attercop lair. The ACKS Monster Manual says that "Giant Ants are not aggressive unless their nests are invaded." The in-Lair check told me that this was not their nest, so when the party opened the door, there was not an immediate attack. I probably could have made a reaction roll, though the rules didn't specify to do so. Seeing the two ants, the party decided it was not worth their time or effort to attack them (ants have a low XP value and no treasure), so they closed the door and returned to the intersection.

Next, they followed the north branch of the hallway. As they advanced through the passageway, they noticed a mirror on the left wall, and when Jelyssa examined it, she noticed signs that it concealed a door. As I wanted to map the extent of the first level, the party simply marked the location of the mirror on their map, and continued north. An hour had elapsed, so they took a break in the hallway before continuing, and lit a new torch.

Second and Third Hours

Soon, the party reaches a left turn, and are heading west. Just around the corner, Jelyssa notices a tripwire across the hallway. She activates it with her 10' pole, and a crossbow bolt shoots harmlessly across the hallway. The party avoids tripping the wire, and continues to another left turn, and the corridor leads them south to a tee-junction. To the left (east) is another set of stairs to the second level, while to right, the hallway extends for some distance before reaching a pair of doors opposite one another (on the north and south walls) while the hall itself ends with yet a third set of stairs to the lower level. They listen at both doors and hear nothing. A second hour has elapsed, so the party rests again and lights another torch. So far, this delve has not yielded much more than corridors.

Not ready to descend to the second level yet, the party slowly retraces their path through the winding corridor. As they come around the corner back to the original north-south hallway where the secret door was located, they spy a pair of Gnolls, who are surprised by the encounter. Marzipan attempts to use Choking Grip on one (the first spell he has cast!) but it resists. Meanwhile Zephira Shatters the blade of the other. Edelweiss' arrow shoots wide, but Chadonius charges and kills the one that resisted Marzipan's choke. He cleaves, and inflicts damage on the second one (who Zephira had disarmed) but fails to kill it. A few more attacks miss before Jelyssa finally kills it. The Gnolls never even got a single blow. The party earns 40 XP for the encounter. It's not much, but it's more than zero. Since they are near the secret door, Jelyssa checks it for traps, and finds none. They rest and light another torch, then proceed to open the door, which leads to room #11.

Fourth Hour

The dungeon stocking roll for this room came up "unique" which gives me pause. I'm trying to procedurally generate the dungeon on they fly, but now I'm being asked to put on my GM hat and actually be creative. This room may or may not have monsters, or it may or may not have treasure, but it needs to have some kind of unique dressing. I rolled on a dungeon dressing table and got a "key". I'm not sure what it's a key to, but my party finds a key hanging on the wall and decides to take it. I've already decided by fiat that all the doors on the first level are unlocked, so perhaps this opens something on level 2.

I rolled a second time, because the key didn't feel unique enough, and I got a fireplace. There's a stack of firewood next to it, but it is not currently lit. That reminded me that when I first entered this dungeon last year, I came across another party that described the dungeon as "intensely warm." I didn't know what that meant at the time, and had kind of ignored that prompt, but I think this fireplace must have been lit when the other party was exploring. To make it even more mysterious, I decide that this is a multi-level fireplace -- in the back is an exhaust vent from a fireplace on a lower level.

Since the party had just encountered gnolls outside the secret door, I decided that this room would not have any monsters, but I gave it a 4-in-6 chance of having treasure -- which it did. Hidden behind the stack of firewood is a sack containing 5,000 sp, 5 ornamental gems (worth 175 gp), and three trinkets of jewelry (worth 1160 gp), for a total value of 1,835 gp. At 1 GP = 1 XP, this is worth far more than any of the monsters they've encountered.

There is also a door on the far wall to room #12, which is blacked out on the map. Listening at the door, Jelyssa hears the skittering of giant Luminous Beetles which, like the Giant Ants, are hardly worth the effort of killing, so they leave the door closed, and the beetles leave them alone as well. It seems that the nearby Attercops truly are attracting all manner of giant insects into the vicinity.

I must not have been into things while playing this session, as I was apparently playing in such a way as to avoid needles combats, and simply map out the dungeon looking for treasure. Maybe I was overcorrecting for prematurely attacking the Morlock in the previous session? Or maybe avoiding combat is smart play? At any rate, if it hadn't been for the treasure in that last unique room, I wouldn't have earned much XP on this delve, even if I hadn't avoided combat.

Return Trip

On the Return trip, they encounter a Meet of Halflings, consisting of 3 Bands of Halfling Bounders, totaling 34 in all, including a Constable and 3 Reeves. As is typical for overland travel, Edelweiss (my Halfling scout) is scouting ahead of the party. However, for some reason, she provokes a strong negative reaction from her fellow halflings. Things nearly come to blows, but Chadonius is able to step in and smooth things over. This indicates to me that perhaps Edelweiss is an outcast among her people for some reason that I have yet to determine.