Play Report: Aryngrave, Group 1, Session 1
After many months and many hurdles, I've finally been able to run the first session of my new Swords & Wizardry Whitebox campaign and I'm here to tell you about it! I'll be splitting this post into 2 sections: one that just goes over the events, and the other going into what modules I'm using, why I made certain decisions and any lessons I may have learned from this. Before we get to that, permit me to set the stage and introduce our characters.
Aryngrave - The Northern Sanction
In the far north of the kingdom of Aryngrave lies the Northern Sanction, a territory of deep forests, rolling hills and cold marshes. The Northern Sanction has fallen on hard times with the slow retreat and collapse of the Utheran Empire which once supported it. House Knox - the family who preside over this land - are embroiled in a power struggle for the crown as the old king grows ever-more frail and has presented no heir, leaving this northern territory helpless. Many of its guards have turned to banditry in lieu of proper pay; the great bastion of Highmoor Castle once held the Orren Pass but has sat in ruin since its sacking 30 years ago; and to the south the Misery, a dead wasteland of dust and Chaos, spreads across the realm.
The Characters
Ico - Cleric of the Court of Rot seeking to guide the Northern Sanction through this time of decay.
Atelaine - A Fighter who chases the woman she sees the world in. Her love, her shame.
Owena - A Fighter with high-minded ideals and notions of chivalry, here to bring Law to a Chaos-ridden realm.
Part 1: Real Play
Our game began in a tavern - sue me, it's a classic - in the town of Braes of Tollen in early winter. The characters had each been in the town for around a week, and had been drawn together by a shared desire to bring peace and order to the Northern Sanction. Asking around the tavern they heard that a local had broken his leg after falling down a hole in the roots of a mighty oak tree, and that he was being tended to at the local temple.
After talking to the villager in question about his experiences they learned that at the bottom he saw a strange glow and heard the sounds of "some devilry" and frantically scrambled up out of the hole. With that, Atelaine, Ico and Owena departed for the oak - they had already geared up substantially during Session 0 - which they had learned stood along the road about 2 leagues south of the town.
All morning there had been this Silent Hill-esque deep fog, which lent a really eerie vibe to the surrounding forest and had the players on edge. A few hours into their journey the group discovered a large monolith standing ~20ft tall, just off the road. It was covered in columns of weathered runes centuries old at least that had been carved or chiseled into the rock. More puzzling to the players were the large symbols painted across the monolith in woad, months old at most. Ico in particular felt deeply suspicious of this, suspecting the symbols to be tied to a new cult in the area, and made plans to find out more when they were back in town.
Toward mid-afternoon the fog finally began to burn off, and the group found themselves in a hazy clearing where time seemed to stand still. Prominent in the glade stood the enormous oak tree the party had been looking for. It didn't take them long to find the hole the villager had fallen down, and after a brief debate about what had formed the hole and ladder formed of thick roots - they suspect fae - they climbed down.
With a lantern hooked onto Atelaine's armour, the party pushed forward through the tunnel and decided to follow the eastern path at a junction to investigate a strange green glow. Not much further on they found their path blocked by gnarled roots. Ico had a shock after touching the roots and finding one snaked around their wrist, but Owena quickly hacked the roots away before any lasting damage could be done. The group decided the best way to deal with the roots was to burn them away, which did work, but also caused the tunnel to rumble and shake ominously. Spooked but undeterred they continued down the tunnel.
They came to a small oval chamber with an arched ceiling and found the walls covered in numerous faces made up of roots, covered in glowing green moss. When prompted, the faces told the party it would share information with them in return for tribute. Numerous attempts to make friends with the faces were made, all of which were rebuked with a simple statement "we are the tree." Ico offered the faces knowledge of the tree's surroundings, of the worms in the earth, and was refused. Eventually deciding to try material tribute, the faces told them to beware the treachery of the Gnomes.
While further material tribute was fetched from the mule above ground, Owena scouted the tunnels leading off to the north and east, and Atelaine made a fascinating move. She asked the tree to take a memory of the woman she chases and to understand why she must be found, so that even should Atelaine die, Ydrissa will be remembered. She placed her hand on one of the faces which proceeded to wrap roots around the offered hand, and the memory was given. The tree spoke again "should you find the Lady of the Woods, She will know you." and released Atelaine's hand, which now bore a bark-like texture where the roots had touched.
Deciding they'd learned all they could for now, they continued heading east as Ico was adamant that once a path is chosen it should be seen through to the end. They found themselves in a cavern of natural stone, stinking of ammonia owing to the guano streaking the floor. Pushing further in they heard the scuttling of small feet from behind one of the large stone pillars up ahead, and decided to attempt a pincer manoeuvre to trap whatever was there. It turned out in fact, to be a short little man with ruddy skin, dirt-stained clothes and a pointy red hat. Once the group made it clear they meant him no harm, he introduced himself as Fimir, and explained he and his people had come here from their old home. He told them of an Ogre in the halls, lizards that pester them and the mean tree that hates them.
With that, the first session of the campaign came to a close! The players seemed to really enjoy the game and were pretty enthusiastic about playing a dungeon-crawl, so I'm glad they got into that pretty quickly.
Part 2: Spoiler Talk
Now for a peak behind the curtain and my thoughts on the game so far. I'll try address things in the order they came up in the game.
The Tavern
This was something I was unsure about initially to be perfectly honest. I have plenty of content seeded in and around the starting town so I felt pretty strongly about starting them in the town as opposed to in a dungeon or some other "hot start" scenario. The group had decided in Session 0 that they'd known each other for a few days and given their shared alignment they'd been drawn together by shared interests. Realistically, the main thing I want out of a starting scenario is to have the player-characters drawn together, and this had already been handled! Rather than try to come up with something fresh and unique, I decided to opt for the classic tavern start.I wasn't hugely satisfied with it because it can often feel clunky, dull, and profoundly unfun. However, it was made a lot smoother and safer as a start by the fact the players had played together previously and are all confident role-players.
Still, I made sure we didn't linger long on the tavern, and got them making decisions about what they wanted to do quickly. I think it probably only took around 10-15 minutes after the start of the session to find a goal, gather a bit of information about it and leave town. So honestly? I feel pretty good about the start of the game, even though I do wish I'd had something a bit more impactful and interesting prepped.
The Journey to the Oak
This went pretty quickly and smoothly, and to be honest I wish it had gone less smoothly! The path the party took went through light forest and was on a road the whole way, so I only gave a 1-in-6 chance for a random encounter on the way. Surprising only the players, no random encounter was rolled; if anyone is interested I'm using Nick LS Whelan's 2d6 table structure you can read about here. I was a little disappointed they didn't roll a random encounter, but there'll be plenty of other opportunities for that and I'm here to find out what happens, just like the players. Something I realised that I'm unsure of is whether landmarks in hexes should be handled with random encounter rolls as well or just found automatically. In the moment, I just decided to go with the latter so there was at least something of interest on the journey itself.
That brings us to the monolith. I honestly found the players' suspicion about this big-ass rock really funny because for all intents and purposes it's just that. It's called the Story Stone and is a place the people of this land have gathered at for centuries to listen to the stories the earth whispers on the solstices. Given the players' interest in it though I'll absolutely be adding some more detail to it and the rituals around it between sessions!
The Hole in the Oak
I'm sure anyone familiar with this module knew exactly what this was as soon as I mentioned a villager falling down a hole by a large oak tree. I've heard this touted as a good starter adventure for both referees and players by a number of people, so I decided to seed it close to the town. My first thoughts on it are 1) there's some fun stuff in the dungeon for the players to interact with 2) running it straight from the PDF is nothing short of infuriating. The amount of flipping back and forth to get information that is relevant for the current room or just to get to the room directly next to the current one is ridiculous. Now, I admit I should have read it more closely ahead of time, but with the amount of things the group could have done near the town I couldn't reasonably know all of it by heart. There's probably a lesson there about not putting quite so much in and around the starting town. Putting fewer options there would allow me to feel more confidant in my knowledge of all of them.
One thing I've enjoyed a lot so far running this module is feeling like I can really take some liberties with it and make it fit into my own setting. I probably didn't characterise the faces in area 4 "correctly" but making them feel somewhat ethereal and ancient fits with the tone of the game I'm trying to run. At first I stood staunchly by not giving them information for immaterial tribute, but after a few attempts the players began offering things that were valuable and important to them even if they had no monetary value. Given how I'd already characterised the faces, I felt it was fair to edit the requirement the adventure stated and it didn't contradict anything I'd already told the players. I feel pretty strongly that even if I riff off the module a bit and tweak things during play, the moment a piece of information leaves my lips and enters play it is concrete and can be relied upon. Being consistent with that feels very important to me.
The memory interaction between the tree and Atelaine was really interesting and I was very much flying by the seat of my pants. This adventure is placed in the Wytchwood in my setting, which has been watched over for centuries by the Lady of the Wood: a unicorn who has been missing for a number of years at this point. Her absence affects not only the people of the realm but the flora and fauna as well; so when Atelaine asked for the tree to take a memory of someone she yearns for and hold on to it, it felt fitting that the oak would accept. It yearns for the Lady of the Woods just as Atelaine does for Ydrissa. The bark-like texture on her hand afterwards will allow her to commune with the forest and its denizens, and potentially find the Lady of the Woods who may in turn be able to help Atelaine find Ydrissa. Hopefully, this interaction and payoff encourages the players to try weird shit in the world and interact with its fiction.
Closing Thoughts
This turned out longer than I had initially intended, but here we are at the end! I had a blast running this session, it felt so good to be back in the seat for a proper campaign after 2 years of not running games. It feels especially good to be in that very reactive space that you end up in when running a player-driven game, and I can't wait to see what they do. I can tell I've got a lot to learn, and I'm excited to learn it. I'll be running the first session for another group on Monday (fingers crossed) so there'll be another play report for that game too. Additionally, I've been playing in one of Sahh's games recently so there'll also be a play report for that very soon.
Until next time, take care folks!