Shadowdark Thracia 7
Players Ebane Zema Zafat Arete Strabon
Recap:
Session began with the discussion of what entrance to take. Arete scouted the perimeter of Area A and found that it was well guarded by Gnolls and a pair of Lizardmen to boot. After some further discussion, the consensus was reached to access the Caverns via the cult hideout.
The Cult were receptive to the party since they were wearing black robes and Arete and ZZ both had silver skull necklaces which are symbols of Thanatos. The cult priest at the barricaded door of Area B let them through so they could come attend the funeral happening in room 1-27B. On the way there, Ebane the bard used his charm and background as an acolyte to go into a false reverie, singing the praises of Thanatos and how much of a connection he felt in this place. The other Cultists were enthralled.
While Ebane had their attention, Strabon, ZZ and Arete made out a secret door in the hallway across from 1-25. They did not enter. Instead the priest of thanatos continued to escort them to the funeral chamber (1-27B). There they saw a funerary party taking place. The room was quite crowded and another priest was saying a prayer to still the dead.
Strabon spoke to the priest asking about the gates of death. The cultist was intrigued, interrogating Strabon on what he knew. Lying, Strabon told the cultist it was further down the caverns. The cultist believed Strabon and asked the party to take him there. He also raised a skeleton from the dead and called on one of the ceremonial guards to accompany him.
Together the party and priest escort went down to level 2 via 1-8. In room 2-20, the party found Flint's body completely picked clean to the bone. The priest approached the eastern side of the room but his torch caught the attention of the Gnolls in area 2-21, who knocked their arrows to attack. The party managed to act first upon spotting the Gnolls and quickly disposed of them.
After looting the Gnolls (and Flint's coin) the priest and his guard ran ahead to engage the other Gnolls up ahead, but both fell into the pit traps. The guard was impaled on spikes. The priest was slaughtered by the Minotaur Lizard. Arete caught a glimpse of the horror just before the pit door slammed shut.
Up ahead the Gnolls in Area 2-23 began their assault. Luckily none got a shot on the party. Instead ZZ got the first move by casting web on the archers up front. A few of the Gnolls fell into the pit trap during the fight, but after some successful castings of web combined with missile fire, the rest of the Gnolls gave up and surrendered.
The party looted them for petty silver coins and discovered the teleporter next to the statue of Athena. The defeated Gnolls told them about the Gnoll fortress directly south of the temple on this floor, and how it is guarded by their leader, Cinder. Strabon investigated northwest with ZZ and they both discovered a statue of Apollo with healing properties.
The party then decided to make their way back up to Level 1 and tell the cult their priest fell to Gnolls. The cult, curious about the level below, decides to grant the party access to the caverns through their secret entrance should they explore level 2 on their behalf. Any relics found down there should return to them.
Thoughts: An alright session. Nothing particularly bad about it. Only gripe is that I should have read the Bard rules more carefully, my rules mistake led to bad information being delivered to a player that hurt his experience (though he's been incredibly chill about it - I just overthink).
I am hearing from players that the dungeon entry at the start of each session is getting tiresome. I feel that, I can see that 7 sessions in it can get very repetitive to do the whole song and dance (literally) of entry into Thracia. This is something they could have resolved if they managed to raise a warband during downtime but Strabon was not able to do so (bad roll).
I think with a warband they can certainly take over one of the entrances, and so long as they ensure good pay they can keep it that way. Of course, they will get whittled down over time by beastmen and maybe cultists, but it would be a temporary reprieve.
Next time I will definitely shake things up with the faction play:
- Cult will essentially take over Level 1. They will claim the outpost room (1-7) and they will have sent some people through the "Gates of Death". None will have come out yet.
- The Cult will also have descended down to 2-20 using rope ladders and fight over the temple of Athena. It will be a warzone. Cultists will use undead bodies as fodder against the beastmen.
I do wonder what next session will be like. My fear is that after I take my break the momentum of this game will die out and no one will sign up. This fear is probably irrational. I know body and mind could probably use a break. This is not an easy game to GM, and I have to prep a fair bit. I am not burnt out by the game, but I am overwhelmed by other things in my life, all of which are above gaming on my list of priorities, so taking time to figure that stuff out will be important.
I tend to think about my weekly game a lot and I do hope that giving it some breathing room will give me some much needed respite. Maybe if this session was a banger like last time I would be all too eager to run the game throughout the summer with no breaks, but at the moment I actually look forward to the break. I think that's normal and healthy to do.
A note on combat:
Thracia does expect quite a bit of it. It's by no means a hack and slash dungeon, you have plenty of other kinds of interaction, but there are quite a few hostiles here and they are arranged in patrol units that have certain tactical applications.
I think the player in me would be very down for a wargame-esque approach to the dungeon, where I would strategize and game the faction relations. It seems my players are far more interested in exploration, which is totally fine, but they will be disappointed with their loot gains if they don't tackle some of the more challenging encounters. It's not that combat is unavoidable, but rather that confrontation is inevitable.
At this point, the party have slaughtered enough Gnolls to really get on the beastmen's bad side. The beast men are horrible, without any redeeming qualities really. So are the cult. The cult, however, can be used as a means of access to the dungeon that the beastmen aren't going to provide. The Gnolls started off as hostile since session 1. The party's been killing them ever since.
I want this to matter and my instinct is to pile on some more special encounters so its not just your same Gnolls every, single, time, but maybe a Minotaur shows up with them. I don't know, I think my players try to avoid combat at all costs, but they are fairly strong for where they are at, level wise.