Into the Tomb of the Serpent Kings - Part 2

Whoop! Second IRL session with my university buddies - with six players this time! And we had four hours to play. 

I decided to retcon bits of the first session to accomodate almost everyone being new - since the Monster Hunter's player wanted a new character too, I figured the Duck had scouted the tomb ahead and everyone else had died. Character generation took about 30 minutes, which is a bit longer than usual for Into the Odd, but these are new players for the most part, AND there was a lot of talking over each others.

Characters
• Daffy the Duck Barbarian returned for a second delve into the Tomb. The others used Failed Careers:
• Kōri the Anti-Revolutionnary (RIP) followed by Kōri (no relation) the Alpha Tester
• Erik the Paid Fighter, and her snake pet-weapon
• Euphorialice the Estate Squire, who understands the language of horses
• Marik the Urchin Pack (actually two kids in a long coat)
• Bobbydick (no relation) the Wall-Born, proud owner of a pack of rust-flavoured gum

What Happened
• After character generation, I explained how the group was endebted to the Pittance Society (can only repay debt in loose change), and was tipped about an ancient Tomb in Deep Country ripe for pilfering. Daffy had already scouted ahead mapped the entrance. After some chatter, the crew answered and went straight past the first few rooms to the big room with three coffins, were in pt.1, Daffy had almost died.

• Despite knowing the danger, the party insisted on opening all three coffins to see what would happen. Skeletons attacked, Euphorialice went down, but the party won the fight (each skeleton had default EB stats, so 10 STR, 3 HP, d6 damage). From then onward, Euphorialice's player decided to stay in the back when fights broke out, with only 1HP and 5 STR left.

• Moving forward, the party found a not-so-secret entrance to the second level underneath a grotesque serpentine statue. They went down a set of stairs and reached a corridor full of snake-men warrior statues. They noticed one of them was not in the "right place" compared to the others, moved it and found a secret passage that led them to some loot as well as a hooked polearm, which Euphorialice grabbed with glee, to replace her blunt spear.

• Further into the dungeon, the party reached a large octogonal chamber with a pit of dark water and a bunch of stone slabs. They checked the water and something tried to pull Euphorialice down into the pit but she somehow wrestled her weapon out of the water, cutting off a rotting hand covered in wet bandages. They ignored the pit and proceeded to open the stone doors one by one.

• The first one led to a small tomb after a short corridor smelling of spices and ozone. Kōri and Erik went inside, noticed static in the air and a crackling, buzzing sound rising...and promptly ignored it. A few more steps and a ball of lightning zapped the corridor in a crackling shockwave of electricity. Erik somehow jumped out of the way reflexively... Kōri was vaporized (d12 damage, vaporized on Critical Damage).

• I lent Kōri's player the book so he could roll a new character while the rest of the party checked a few more doors. There was a corridor filled with rubbles that they cleared out a bit, saw a skeleton was on the other side (Marik shot it dead), then they opened the east door which led further down.

• Brave Erik and Daffy went first. And fell down the stairs when a trap turned the last flight of stairs into a slope. They landed in another similarly-shaped room with a giant living statue of a snake warrior carrying a massive flail (15 STR, 10 HP, Armour 2, d10 Flail or d6 Blast sweeping attacks). Noticing shields on the walls, they ran for it... but Daffy got caught by the flail and smashed into the wall, going down nearly instantly. Erik grabbed her friend and ran off further east, hiding on a ledge near a massive chasm.

• Everyone else but Euphorialice arrived down the stairs to help and attacked the stone monster. Eventually, Erik also joined the fray again, and after Marik (both of them) also went down, they finally finished off the massive creature. There was no reward but survival for their troubles.

• Checking out the chasm quickly, they decided it looked creepy as hell, with giant barnacles and vertiginous depths, and decided to climb back up (Euphorialice had tied a grappling hook and ropes upstairs while the fight went on).

• They went south-west, the only passage that wasn't blocked off by a door, found another room full of statues (clay ones) which they arrange to match tilings on the floor. While doing so they noticed a crack in a wall, broke it down and went through a short secret passage, leading in some room they have yet to explore...but something large and slithering lies beyond.

Some Thoughts
• I love Electric Bastionland's Failed Careers. They can be relied on heavily by players to infuse life into a character, or can be safely ignored and still provide interesting gear and gimmicks. I stopped making a fuss about how to handle the setting and just decided to embrace the kitchen sink aspect - Tomb of the Serpent Kings is somewhat "trad medfan" but it didn't pose any problems either in my head or the group's as far as I know.

• Six players is not usual to me anymore. When you're in a large room (a tavern, actually) with a lot of energy and excitment from everyone involved, it sometimes feels like herding cats. Didn't help that I wasn't in the best of shape today. I think it'll get easier as the players get more familiar with tRPGs. Tried implementing a Caller, though there's not yet a clear consensus as to who should actually handle that job.


Stay tuned for more. Hopefully getting some more Lost Dreamlands of Carcosa on Saturday.