Shadowdark Thracia 14
Players: Dina Snubrash Zema Zafat Bomb
Recap:
Party decided to investigate the jungle of Thracia a bit further and hex-crawled along the eastern half of the hex-flower. They encountered some rot flowers coming out of Minos but were able to circumvent them pretty easily.
They arrived at the waterfall after spending a day camping in the jungle. Some soggy villagers clothes were washed up by the beach of the pond. No tracks or trace of where they were. Bomb suggested she could climb up behind the waterfall to see what is behind. Dina tried to protect her from Evil, but suffered a miscast, angering her goddess Athena. She now owes the temple of Athena 5gp. Bomb took her armor off and climbed up behind the waterfall, discovering the large cave it concealed. She pinned some rope to the rocks and helped her comrades up, donning her armor back on afterwards.
Inside the cave they discovered a big black ziggurat within a translucent green lake. They climbed up the ziggurat via a set of stairs and found a stairwell decending down within it. Trilobite fossils littered the top of the ziggurat, but Dina spotted that two were polished to a sheen. She pressed down on them both and found that it locked the stairs into place. The party descended cautiously, avoiding the pit-trap at the bottom of the steps.
Once inside they spent a while arguing about how to proceed within the room. They did not do much with the grey slugs within and decided to listen in on the doors. Dina decided to kick the west door open after hearing some munching noise behind. It alerted the 6 berserkers behind and Claxul the Mind Flayer. Upon seeing these foes, ZZ cast web on them. The party then fled.
Leaving the cave, Snubrash dove into the water and retrieved the jade nautilus gem embedded in the underwater statue.
The party then travelled west through the jungle and investigated the whirlpool in the lake. They learned from Snubrash's scouting that the lizardmen will occasionally enter the whirlpool. Bomb guessed that this could be the lizardman's way into Thracia (correct but they haven't confirmed). They left the whirlpool alone and pushed further east.
Reaching the coast they spotted a shipwreck to the north. Travelling to it they saw the wreck of the Cerberus, which was a ship belonging to the Thracian Revival Company. Seeing that some harpies hovered above the wreck they decided to leave it for later. They pushed west and rested overnight.
Heading to Minos via the west edge of the jungle they saw the observatory. They noticed the well and saw there was no rope. The observation scope was visible but pointed South East. They did not venture inside, but Dina knocked on the door and heard armor moving from within. The party decided to rest and return to Minos via the desert.
Total XP earned 1
This was much more of a scouting session, which are always more chill for me as the GM. They often are less intense. I do like to show my players the world they are in. I am quick to give them the details. They now have a sense of some of the more immediately close landmarks.
What is a success is that they now have a much better idea of the content they can choose to engage with outside of Thracia. I think they will be much more eager to explore that stuff. And there is indeed a lot of stuff.
The game felt very timid this session. It may be a side effect of having the wide world open up and maybe players feeling like there are too many variables. I'm not sure. I do realize though that this is all very new. They've fought gnolls and cultists for weeks now. They haven't had to face a Mind Flayer. Also Mind Flayers are fucking terrifying enemies.
Some of the players have familiarity with the modules I've picked to include in this hex-crawl. It isn't a huge deal for me but I can see how it may disincentivize them from participating. I doubt it will be that much of an issue, given that none of those delves will last more than 3 sessions tops. I can maybe shake things up a bit in areas they did not encounter. Just to keep them on their toes.
I included Lost Citadel because it is basically made for Thracia. It's Kelsey Dione's homage to the module she tested her system with. I also think it's really good! But in hindsight, I now feel like maybe every Shadowdark player has read or played it. This one is definitely worth remixing. My immediate thought is to mess with the Ettercaps.
Wavestone Monolith is a dungeon I have run before and I like how mean it is, though I do now feel it's maybe not that great. It's definitely got vibes going for it. I just wonder if those vibes work well with the tone of this setting yet. Buuuuuuuut... I kinda don't care.
I am choosing to accept that player agency means they will engage with things at their own pace and intensity. I think I have a nice balance between homemade stuff and things someone else made. I'm actually very happy they want to explore my shipwreck...
I'd be keen to homebrew a lot more. I'll probably reskin some stuff to make them feel even more Thracian.