In the meantime, one session had gone down without me, and a lot more of the dungeon had been explored. This time there were only four of us, but all members of the initial party. Antonius the Cleric, Smiles the Fighter who had narrowly survived the first delve, my character Lencio the Fighter, and an NPC torchbearer.

What is the simple about simplified B/X you ask?

The actual attributes are not important, the modifier are determined with 1d6 each: a six gives a +1, a 1 gives a -1, the rest is average. Saving throws are like in the “… without number” school of RPGs, starting at 15 and going ever lower with rising levels. Also, Level-Up at 150 XP, calculated depending on different coin values.

Down, down we go

We didn’t fuck around on the surface this time, because we were told that multiple other parties were already aiming to loot this dungeon and we already knew nothing worthwhile was up here. We made a beeline to the entrance, found our own graffiti defiled, then lit a torch and went down.

We knew where others had already gone, but had no thief with us to play with locks, so we simply kicked down one of the unexplored doors. The room beyond was burnt by a fireball long ago. We kicked down the next door and started looking for secrets there.

Kobold Liaison

A couple of kobolds came upon us on their patrol and laughed at us for seeking secrets in here. Then they moved on to the next door, which they opened without any effort at all. They said goodbye and were gone. This was shaping up to be the norm of kobold interaction: they were useful and nonviolent.

Lencio tried to open the door they took, but now it was stuck. Luckily, one of them popped back in for a second for a last check, and Lencio took that opportunity to put a foot into the door like door-to-door salesman. The kobold left and we were able to get into an old kitchen without trouble.
Lencio inspected the oven, Antonius the sink. A green slime came out of the water pump and appeared problematic, so we retreated back out the way we had come and closed the door on the slime.

Back rooms

Through the oven Lencio had seen a small pipe going into an easterly room, so we tried to go around the wall through a corridor. Alas, a pit trap opened and Antonius and Smiles fell down. Antonius got away with some bruises, but Smiles broke his neck!

Lencio raced to find that healing water again and bring Smiles back again, like in our first delve… alas, he didn’t manage to open the portcullis. Smiles was gone.

The player took over the torchbearer and called him Oberon.

We found an old cell and noticed a group of dwarves doing some architectural research. We made verbal contact with them but didn’t meet up because they were behind a nasty spiked corridor.

Dwarf Liaison

Stumped for options we took a longer route around the north and discovered some weirdos, although we managed to avoid conflict due to a good reaction roll. Still zero loot!

Circling around through a temple with a lot of pillars (also without loot) we heard combat and dared a peek.

It was our friends the dwarves, beset by five orcs!

Without hesitation we raced in to help the dwarves, and between us we managed to neutralize the orcs. Alas, they had already called for reinforcements, and these reinforcements crashed into us from the south and gutted poor Oberon the torch bearer!

We ran away with the sputtering torch, but no fresh torches. Right in the middle of the pillar-temple our light went out just as Lencio called out the way to take. And he ran against a pillar and went down hard. Luckily, the others managed to avoid the obstacle and lead the way as suggested.

Behind us, the orcs were similarly afflicted by the sudden darkness and several of them ran against pillars too. Thus we gained some distance and managed to shake them. Our new dwarven friends slowly gained their night vision and managed to light some candles, and together we retrieved poor Smiles’ body. But with the torches gone, and Lencio’s spear lost during the skirmish with the orcs, we decided to call it a delve.

The dwarf leader thanked us for our help and paid us a good precious amount of gold. Also, one dwarf named Tyr decided to join us. (The Smiles/Oberon player’s third character of the evening).

A new dungeon

Outside as we waved the dwarves goodbye, we noticed that a mudslide had revealed a new entrance. Un-looted, as it had been buried! The three of us collected some firewood for makeshift torches and went in.

There we found some giant ferrets nibbling on dead goblins (darn, there must be another entrance!) and since the beasts were surprised Lencio stormed at them howling like a monster. Indeed we managed to capitalize on their disadvantage and kill them all. The goblins didn’t have a lot of worthwhile possessions, but the ferret pelts should be worth a penny.

Ratlings!

Lencio decided to take one last look before we *really* called it a day, and found a cave with 12 ratlings and giant rats, and shiny objects. He attempted to scare the nibblers away with fire, but they were not so easily cowed: they attacked him!

Antonius and Tyr raced to his aid, and together the trio killed a bunch of rats, scared the rest away, and got bitten so often that they all ended up bloodied and in tatters … and Lencio contracted a disease.

But it had been worth the almost-TPK: This cave was filled with valuable items that the dumb rats had collected for their aesthetic charms.

Thus we returned triumphant with sacks of cash … and one dead comrade to bury.

5 coins of burial money yielded 1 XP for the player’s next character — in this case, Tyr the Dwarf. In that way, combining loot, monster XP and burial XP, Tyr levelled up to L2!

When Lencio noticed his disease he was given a choice: Pay 300 coins to the priests for their aid, or 100 to the alchemist and his experimental broths. He chose the alchemist… got rid of the affliction, but his voice was altered by the weird potion: It dropped three octaves and he now speaks like Vin Diesel.

Ta-daa.

Stonehell with Simpler Rules:

• Part 1
• Part 2 (this here)
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Lost in the Depth