Session 3 - The Dungeon
Last time we ended as we were about to enter the fourth room of our dungeon, and today we're going to pick it up and hopefully make it through the rest of the location without dying. So far we've not hit any combat, which is just fine by me for our plucky little wretch.
If you missed character creation, you can find that post here: Knave 2e Character Creation
The beginning hex-crawl and quest setup can be found here: Session 1 - Quest Begins
And for good measure, you can find the prior half of this delve here: Session 2 - Dungeon Delving
For an exhaustive list of the supplements and tools I've used for this playthrough, pop to the bottom of this post.
Now, with that all said - let's get on with it!
Corridor 1:
The corridor is bare, except for a threadbare and faded tapestry hung against the right wall, running nearly the length of the hallway. The faint smell of mould and dust is all you notice.
Paschal sighed, staring into the corridor.
'A great place for traps,' he thought.
It always went that way. Leave something back at home and sure as you could count on the sun rising, you'd need it. Worse yet, he couldn't even blame anyone else for the situation. He'd been curious about the steps, and he'd gone down them. Nobody had forced him to explore this ruin. In fact, he was actively ignoring a job that would pay, purely because he'd been a little curious and far too greedy. His meagre bag was already basically as full as he could stuff it, so even if he did find ancient treasure, something would have to be left behind.
'I should've bought a mule. Always bring a mule. I've been stuck in that damned city for too long, I'm forgetting how this works.'
He stood staring at the empty corridor, drinking in the details - such as he could see by the light of his torch. A thin coating of dust covered everything. The moss that had claimed footholds in prior areas hadn't reached this far, though standing in the doorway he could still catch a damp earthy stench of mould. The large, threadbare and faded tapestry spanning much of the right-hand wall was likely a feint, but if not, it was likely hiding something bladed and deadly.
Paschal grimaced. If the door was trapped, he could be certain the hallway would be too, so his choice was to cautiously proceed into what was an obvious trap, or slink back out the way he'd come and see if he could find his way back here again another time.
[Explore Roll: (6) Danger] [Danger: (2) Trap] [Roll to avoid using dex: Target 16, +5 modifier to roll because of background and movement speed: (17) - success]
He decided to risk it, and after one last glance at the doorframe and the immediate brickwork on the floor, stepped into the corridor. He proceeded forward at an absolute crawl, which is how he was able to hear the nearly inaudible 'click' as he lifted his right foot. Moving on pure instinct, he dropped to the floor just in time to narrowly avoid getting cut in half by a gleaming scythe as it sprung out of the wall behind him and wooshed forward down the corridor.
Paschal lay there panting for a long minute, his torch sputtering angrily on the stones beside him. That had been close. Less than the width of a finger between him and the blade - it had passed over him even before he'd fully hit the ground.
'The more I make, the faster I buy out my contract with Lord Katunaric,' he reminded himself, as he pushed himself to his feet. Now that the trap had been sprung, he could see the slightly raised edge of the pressure plate he'd stepped on.
Now he had a choice: take the door on the left, midway down the corridor, or head right to the door at the very end. A slow 'tick-tick-tick' of a mechanism starting made his mind up for him, and he moved towards the door on the left as the scythe that had nearly bisected him slowly inched back into its hidden recess in the wall. Self-resetting traps were rare and expensive, but not unheard of. He'd have to be mindful of the pressure plate on his way back.
Room 4:
The door opens to a narrow hallway, collapsed at the far end. A large open archway halfway down the hallway opens to a modest temple or offering place. A stone door sits in the middle of the wall at the back of the temple.
Paschal stepped cautiously through the doorway, his torch casting flickering shadows along the ancient walls. A series of reliefs were carved into the ancient stonework, depicting the faces of men and women whose names and status had long faded into history. To Paschal's eyes, these figures could be simple priests, or kings and queens, or gods and goddesses... and it didn't matter. None of them were remembered now, and no markings illuminated why these faces had been carved here. He eyed each in turn, as he approached the open archway in the middle of the hallway.
Beyond the threshold, the passage opened into a simple temple, hidden deep below the swamp. Four massive stone columns dominated the room's corners, etched with worn runes and symbols of a long-forgotten civilization. The torchlight struggled to reach the far corners, revealing glimpses of towering statues, their eyes hollow and staring, cloaked in the dust of centuries.
In the center of the room, Paschal could see a raised altar glimmering faintly, bathed in an eerie, pale light. Scattered around it were the remnants of offerings: crumbled bones, decayed relics, and tarnished gold coins.
[Patron Domain: (84) Hunt] [Symbol: (57) Mask]
Paschal wasn't typically superstitious, but when it came to ancient temples sealed within secret complexes full of traps... he took a bit of extra care. There was no way he'd be touching anything in this room, and, just for good measure, he pulled a coin out of his purse and set it gently among the other offerings.
A voice entered his mind, sounding almost like a growled whisper. "It has been so long since an offering - incomplete though it is - has been left to me. I see you, bandit, thief, spy. I see you. What do you hunt?"
Paschal froze, his whole body going rigid as ice filled his veins. He had no idea what to do here, and so he simply blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: "Freedom," he said aloud, to the empty room.
He could feel the voice in his head like a weight pressing on his mind. "A worthy hunt," it rasped, a moment later. "Wear your mask, Hunter. Complete the offering with blood and bone, and you will be rewarded. Fail, and you will be sorely punished."
As the words 'sorely punished' entered his mind, so too did an image. An image that Paschal immediately knew through the core of his being to be the God that had turned its gaze upon him.
With a strangely steady hand, Paschal pulled his mask from his bag and slipped it on. It was a simple tan leather full-face mask, shaped vaguely to the contours of a face but lacking anything beyond eye holes. No nose, no mouth. Once, he'd worn this mask when he preyed on travellers and merchants, taking at knife-point whatever they had. He wasn't proud of that time in his life, but he also didn't shy away from it. You use the tools you have.
Room 5:
Rusty cages, boxes of various sizes, and rusted tools and weapons have been haphazardly crammed into this room. A small path between precarious towers of rubbish leads to a door on the right side of the room.
Paschal knew before the door was even fully opened that something was alive amongst the piles of boxes, tools, and cages. He took a step in, and slowly closed the door behind him. It wouldn't do to release whatever was in here into the temple. The sharp squeak of a rat punctuated the silence as the door snapped closed.
[Now, since Knave 2e has a pitifully small bestiary, I'm going to be using the Giant Rat stat-block by OSE - Old School Essentials. It's not a perfect fit, so we'll clean it up. Knave doesn't use explicit Saves for example, among a few other changes.]
Armour Class: 12 (thick hide)
HP: 8 (We calculate this through multiplying Monster level x4 or roll 2d8)
Level: 2
Attacks: 2 (bite, claw) d6
To Hit: +2
Move: 30'
Moral: 8
Notes: Fears fire, weak against fire.
[To begin combat, we roll CHA vs CHA to see which side goes first. Since our Giant Rat doesn't have explicit stats per Knave's rules, we instead use a default +Level value. So, +2 for the rat.]
[Player roll: 3+1]
[Rat roll: 20+2]
Boxes flew as the shrieking rat flung itself at Paschal.
[Rat roll to hit (disadvantage due to the open fire of the torch): 13-5 (8); Miss]
Paschal flung himself to his right, narrowly avoiding the beast's gnashing teeth as it slammed into the door. Shaking itself off and hissing as Paschal lept back to his feet, the rat clawed for him.
[Rat to hit, disadvantage: 10-5 (5); miss]
Paschal swung his torch, and the beast flinched enough that its wild clawing reached nothing but air.
[Paschal to hit: 15; hit] [Weapon damage (1d6): 5]
Following the arc of the torch, Paschal stepped towards the creature and viciously slashed down with his kukri, the short blade biting through the thick hide of the rat and slashing deep into its muscle. His eyes darted around the room as he backed up, creating as much distance as he could in the cramped and dirty space. Blood dripped off his weapon, and the torch cast flickering shadows throughout the room. The rat hissed again, gnashing its teeth as it hunched to leap at him again.
[Rat to hit, disadvantage: 6-5; miss]
The savage cut to its right arm made the jump difficult, and the rat missed, careening off the edge of a box.
[I forgot to roll a moral check for the rat, so we'll do that now. It's 2d6, and we're targeting <=8, so if it's not a 9-12 this creature is going to try to run.]
[Rat moral roll: 8]
The rat pushed itself to stand, leaving a splash of blood on the stone floor. Paschal remembered the words of the unnamed god, and even as the beast began to scramble between boxes, he leapt forward and slashed down as hard as he could.
[Paschal to hit: 13; hit] [Weapon damage (1d6): 5]
With a bit of luck on his side, the weapon slammed into the beast's spine just above the tail, and he savagely wrenched it back towards him, dragging it from between the boxes it had been about to flee behind. Pained screeches filled his ears for a moment before he chopped down one final time on the thing's muscular neck, stilling it forever.
He could feel the sweat under his mask as he grabbed the creature's corpse by the tail, dragging it unceremoniously back to the door, and through it. A trail of blood coated the floor as he dragged it up to the altar, and set it atop the stone altar.
The raspy voice of the god filled his mind once more. "Well done, little Hunter. I haven't been worshiped in a long, long time... so my power is not what it once was. Hunt for me, spread my name again, and you will receive even more. Let the world again know and fear the name of Sekeen."
As the God's name echoed in his head, he could feel the mask on his face twitch and move as if temporarily alive. His hands lept up to fling it from him, and he had to force himself to stop the urge.
[To determine what our new Mask Relic will do, we roll on the spells (or potions) table. In this case, I'm using spells and I got: 34 hear whispers: A creature can hear all sounds up to 120’ away for INT turns. Because we have 0 INT, this will last for 1 "turn", which in Knave is 10 seconds. So, for ten seconds once per day, Paschal will be able to hear exceptionally well within 120 feet.]
He explored the mask with his fingers and a chill went through him as he realized the simple mask had become a depiction of Sekeen's own face. He took it off and turned it over, seeing the face outside of his mind for the first time - cracked skin, a sharp hawkish nose, and a gaping maw of sharp teeth surrounding a black void that light seemed to get sucked into. He tentatively pushed his fingers at the mouth hole and was relieved when they encountered something solid.
Later, back at his camp as he stared into the flickering coals, he would wonder at the time he couldn't remember but, distantly. Distractedly. He'd been in the ruins, staring at the mask and then... then it was night and he was sitting at his camp with a roaring fire and a rabbit on a simple spit. He'd never lost time before - not like this. If that, too, was a gift of the mask... of Sekeen... he shuddered and shoved the thought from his mind. It was best to simply hope that this was a one-off event.
Whew, this took a lot longer to put together than I anticipated, but I think was a relatively good ending to the delve. We didn't come out with coins, but we did come out with a Relic and a powerful Patron, and that's sure to pull the story in interesting directions going forward.
This isn't the last we'll see of Paschal, I want to finish his quest at the very least and maybe resolve his desire to not be under the yoke of that troublesome Lord. Hopefully you made it through this behemoth of a post and enjoyed it. I'll try to make the next one in a more timely fashion! Two weeks is entirely too long!
Until then, as always my friends... Happy Gaming.
Rules: Knave 2e
Card decks: Mercs & Masters by Crumbling Keep, and the Outdoor Encounter Cards Philip Reed Games. I'm using a mixed combination of all 4 of the available Outdoor Encounter sets, but I've linked the first set of 36 cards - the rest can be found on the creator's profile. I highly recommend them.
Mapping & Oracles: The Solo Gaming Sheets by Perplexing Ruins. For city maps, I'm leveraging HexRoll 2e.
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