This weekend I returned to a table that has been on hiatus for a while, for a session with a smaller set of only two and a half players.
Half, because there is one player on that server who so far always comes in, expresses great interest to play, then quickly drops out and disappears.
(one day soon it will work out!)
This session was no exception, and that brought us a fourth figure on the board: apart from my old character Mercutio (2 HP, AC 4), his comrade Durgor, and an NPC lantern bearer called Gothbert, we also now got Ella the Thief; although in the aforementioned fashion Ella got abandoned to NPC status within a few seconds, so she became another NPC.

Sandbox vs. Railroad

The DM had worked through some issues with the Sandbox Style in the past and had decided to drop it as a fool’s errand.

(Too soon, I think by myself. I for one still strongly believe in the Sandbox as the core and center of tabletop RP)

Instead, he would embrace the classic straightforward Dungeon setup, starting right at the door (as I have argued in favour myself), but with a twist: He dubbed his new style “Delve or Die” and promised it would be harsh. More on this twist at the end of this post.

He had also noticed a blog post I wrote about one of his Sandbox games, and especially the comment that one reader left under it …

… he found that funny, pinned this screenshot to his channel and often brought up the claim of his incompetence before and during the game, so it became a running meta-gag in play.

Anyhoo

The party moved straight into the dungeon and found a statue, but it seemed to have no special characteristics and hold no secrets. Next we went west, found a ground of some red sand, but soon discovered it was rusted metal. And there it was: a rust monster!

We quickly ran off to hide behind that stone statue, but the creature chased us. Mercutio dropped his bag of 12 iron spikes behind us, in lieu of dropping rations for wild animals, and with a neutral reaction roll of 6 the beast really picked the easy iron spikes over running farther after elusive adventurers.

Classic OSR move: give up a resource to avoid a danger.

While the rust monster was occupied we went east and entered a room where we were summarily attacked by three giant rats. Luckily they did not attack well enough, because Mercutio missed them with every attack and Durgor had to slay them all by his lone self, one by one, which took time. Well, three rounds, what with there being three rats.

Riddle Mouth

We moved onwards and found an enormous, creepy mouth set in a wall. It did not react to anything until we tried to leave. Then it boomed “SURPRISE!!” and proclaimed that it would ask us a riddle, double or nothing.

It did, tough Durgor managed to puzzle the solution together fairly quickly and lo and behold, magically our coins were doubled.

That fresh amount of gold brought Mercutio over the threshold to more encumbrance and slowed him down, and to feel a heavier purse made our NPC lantern bearer slightly blasé and uppity.

We went on further and met two goblins, who attacked us straight away too – a common occurrence here – and one of them hacked a deep gash into Mercutio, so the warrior fell and would need magical healing, which we did not carry on us.

Again it was Durgor who neutralized the threat with some well-placed slashes and stabs.

Killer NPCs

Wondering what to do with fallen and wounded Mercutio, the party’s NPCs turned on him and kicked him repeatedly until he succumbed to a combination of wounds and blunt trauma. The two killer NPCs mentioned bits from my old blog post and, once Mercutio had perished, looted his gold and possessions (and gave the surviving PC a share too).

Being Ella

Following that, the DM handed Ella the Thief to me as a replacement character.

Like Mercutio, she had only 2 HP, but being a thief she only had AC 7. On the plus, she had a bow, thief skills, and another set of iron spikes.

We checked out one corridor and found it looped back to the statue and the rust monster. So we took the other one and met more goblins, who also attacked us straight away.

Gothbert the problem-porter

Now, when we fought the goblins, Gothbert the porter stayed way back. He said that after looting Mercutio he was loaded now and had no need to work any more. When begged for help he said “Nah, I want to stay alive!” and kept well away from the foes, thank you very much.

Ella and Durgor cut down the goblins, but with her all frontwards in leather and him in armor behind us, Ella pondered scenarios. Gothbert kept boasting how much sweet money he now had from Mercutio and from the dead goblins, and that he was done with everything, especially with taking orders, oblivious to her dark stares.

Ella concluded that he was a real problem, even a threat. Had he not just two turns ago violently kicked a wounded party member to death, for the very gold that he now boasted about? Was he only waiting to kick more party members to into Valhalla? Who would be next? Or was he just going to walk away with that lantern if he decided the delve was getting too hot?

Sure, yes, she had also kicked Mercutio as he was down – but that was while being an NPC, so she felt that should not factor into her assessment of Gothbert’s reliability … or liability.

Killer PC

Next she found a sack full of lumpy items, and decided to spill the contents out in front of everyone. Gold, and a key.

Durgor took half the gold, she took half the gold, then she simply waited until the DM mentioned that Gothbert bent down to snatch the key. That’s when she pulled an Arya Stark and backstabbed him. Hit, and, thanks to double damage for a surprise stab, kill.

Well, hello.

That got a reaction.

The DM, for the moment forgetting the earlier kick attack, felt that I had now validated his thoughts from the older blog post, thoughts about evil murderhobo parties.
Durgor was slightly uneasy about now being alone in a dark underground complex with a girl who’d ruthlessly cut a fella’s throat.
At the same time he was fascinated, because this was actually the very first time he had seen an OSR-backstab in action.

Dynamic Duo

Bad news first: Gothberts lantern fell and broke, and we were plunged into darkness. But good news second: Ella owned five torches and lit one, ere we looted much of Gothbert’s possessions, and all of his gold, and went on as a Duo Infernale.

We found a wall that seemed suspiciously like something that could be a secret door. Ella checked it carefully and found, indeed, a secret entrance. Alas, she failed to open it. Durgor swung his (Mercutio’s) mace and hammered it down, revealing a small room with a treasure chest.

Ella checked for traps, did not find one, and on Durgor’s insisting opened it – triggering a spring blade that brought her down to negative HP.

Luckily, in the treasure chest was a convenient healing potion, so Durgor was able to save Ella’s life.

Delve or Die!

Back on her feet she insisted that this was the end of our delve anyway: This chest was huge, and we would not be able to carry anything more besides it. Durgor relented, and we left the dungeon without incident, going home to level up, the both of us, because the new “Delve or Die” style was to be fast and furious: the DM decided that the dangers would be harsh, every monster would attack off the bat, and death ever around the corner, but to survive would mean a level.

Me, I levelled up Ella to 6 HP, but since she was actually created by someone else, I’d hand her back to her original creator and pick another character for next time…

… like my old magic user Augustus the Faithful, nominally dead, but now back, and boosted up to L2, ready for when it is once more time to:

Delve or Die!

Adventures in this Shared World between Sandbox and Railroad