Legend4ry Reviews: Dyson's Delve

Awhile back I posted my conversion of Dyson Logos' Dyson's Delve conversion, but it wasn't until recently (Saturday, in fact) that I was able to play through it with my regular group. We noticed a lot of things about the game, mainly that it was a lot of fun and it played fast and furious. 

The first level of the delve is pretty straight forward, it is split into three sections: the Goblin area, a rough cave region, and finally a crypt. It's pretty standard as far as adventures go, but that didn't distract from the fun of this mini-mega-dungeon. 

As I stated before, it's important to note how the game played. From a mechanical note, we made use of my modified version of C. Ross' Nightmare Damage. In order to off-set the damage boost, I halved the monster's HP. Now, I've discussed this very method in previous posts but had never really got a chance to play-test it, sadly. This was an excellent opportunity and for the delve itself I fluffed it as an "Aura of Chaos" that was detectable with either an Insight, Religion, or Arcana check when they first entered the dungeon and a Perception check after their first battle. My players made their initial group and found out quickly what this aura meant all on their own. They loved it and it worked great. It created combat encounters that were fast and deadly and lead to some interested inter-party debates later on. Below is the chart for the modified Nightmare Damage:

I should also note another mechanical change that was used within the game. The delve itself calls for a wondering monster roll every 10 minutes. With the typical 4e work day, including short rests, this wondering monster roll becomes a pain and isn't even worth rolling for. To fix this, I implemented my Short Rest variant and finally got to test how it worked. 

The Short Rest variant is simple: you divide the 5 minute long Short Rest into two segments. Each of these segments represents something integral to the rest. One of these segments is called The Ritual and basically means the reclamation of Encounter Powers. The second of the two segments is The Healing where the expenditure of Healing Surges and gaining of Action Points (if any) happen. The players must decide which of these two segments they want to do first during the rest. I typically would roll for Wandering Monsters (a 2 in 6 chance) after the first segment so they at least reaped partial benefit of the rest if I rolled for monsters. The reasoning for this is to cultivate an atmosphere of deadliness and this feeling fits Dyson's Delve quite well. Resting in the Goblin section should be scary and something the party thinks about and debates over. And they did, it was exciting to hear them debate in character about the merits of resting or moving on, the whole risk versus reward element (something that I've talked about loving before) was in the forefront of their decisions and it showed. It was a beautiful thing to witness, and when my party talked with me about the delve later, they loved that aspect, they loved the fear. Their decisions actually mattered and they talked about how they had become so comfortable (especially with published adventures) with just making assumptions about both Short Rests and Extended Rests. This really shook things up for them and their response was overwhelmingly positive. 

And a final mechanical note is that I restricted the available sources for the players only to Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. This is for simplicity's sake, but also because the Essentials classes have a more old-school feel from ditching the AEDU class design philosophy. Not only that, it was due to the fact that my players wanted to give making their characters by hand a chance. It was something that they loved doing, despite it taking about two hours. One player told me later that she loved making it by hand because she knew the character inside and out. It was quite a positive response to this process.

To give the game a little bit of fluff I gave the party an adventure hook so that their characters had some story within the scope of the delve itself. It was a pretty simple hook that can be found below:

Dyston has been a thriving city for many decades. When trade must happen the Dyston market is the only place to go to peddle wares. Once, according to ancient rumors, there used to be a Dwarven delve located in the area that was the economic powerhouse of the region. The Dwarves were noble and kind and served as guardians for the region, yet still they disappeared and no one knows what happened to the Dyson Dwarves.

Recently the city of Dyston has had some problems with the local Goblin tribes, something seems to have riled them up and they have grown completely reckless. Bann Highton of Dyston has posted a notice on the market board asking for a few brave adventurers to come forth and cleanse the region of the Goblin menace. You have answered his summons and when word spread others sought you out.

Delving into the Dwarven delve has made you quite popular in such a short amount of time. The High-Priest Artkus of Moradin has read in ancient tomes tales of a powerful Dwarven artifact buried within the crypts of the delve with the Dwarven King Saint Ulther. Necromancer Aegon is working on a powerful spell to protect the city of Dyston from any threats and desperately needs Bone Meal to make this so. Lastly, Cartographer Xenu is interested in the history behind the delve and has requested that in your delving you map the region and take notes of anything abnormal.

The Delve of Dyson has two entrances, one located at the bottom of a hill and the other located within the ruins located atop the same hill. Which will you enter the delve from?

In addition to the above, I also created a few quests for the party to focus on in addition to the regular killing and delving and what-not. Here they are:

Quests:

*The Bann of the nearby city of Dyston has asked you to rid the caves of the Goblin threat (slay 15 Goblins)

*High-Priest Artkus has heard rumors have told of a powerful artifact hidden within the crypts of this level, seek it out.

*The local Necromancer needs some Bone Meal from some Skeletons, search the crypts for this fine alchemic powder and return it to him. (bring back 10 doses of Bone Meal)

Ongoing Quest:

*Local Cartographer Xenu has asked you to map the ancient Dwarven delve.

These hooks served for a little party buy-in, which helped with the feel a little. Not only did it give them a reason to delve, but it proved fun for them. (They are a group of accountants, so keeping track of numbers and things is their wheelhouse. This is the same group that has a member that excitedly asks every game if we are keeping track of carrying capacity and ammo...)

As I only had three players I created four different NPCs for my party in the monster template/stat-box. These monsters were a very bare-bones version of the "Big Four" classes; the Knight, the Mage, the Thief, and the Warpriest. They had a portion of their mother class' abilities, but were pretty simple otherwise. My players got the choice of one NPC to round out their party. Here are the four NPCs I created:

Click to enlarge!

The Knight, Ser Allain, and the Warpriest, Simon(e) of Pelor.

Click to enlarge!

The Thief, Aldo the Rat, and the Mage, Deckard the Grey.

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The intrepid group of adventurers consisted of: Shakrin the Drow Hunter, Evander the Elf Scout, Germock the Dragonborn Cavalier, and Simone the Human NPC Warpriest.

The party chose to go in the entrance near the ruins, which spat them out in Room 4. It was here that they first tasted the "Aura of Chaos" and the Nightmare Damage. A vicious battle took place, but they eventually persevered, mostly all blooded, after 2 rounds of deadly combat.

During the battle a Goblin had fled and rushed off into Room 5 (and eventually Room 6) warning of the party's presence. While attempting to Short Rest, the party learned of the dangers of resting in a dungeon (only receiving half of the benefit of a Short Rest) as they were ambushed by the group of Goblins from Room 5. This battle was also fierce, lasting 3 rounds. Simone the NPC had to work diligently to heal her comrades and the Goblin Artillery who could summon Gray Oozes gave the party a run for their money. Upon completion, the party looted the bodies and asked about the Goblin's tome that allowed him to summon said Oozes, on the play I created a magic item (which is recreated below) that would allow them, as a one time boon, to summon a Gray Ooze of their own with a DC 20 Arcana check as a Standard Action. The party was thrilled, but this became a "Hail Mary" of a play as none of the group was trained in Arcana.

It should be noted that in the Dyson's Delve 4e Conversion pdf that I forgot to mention that a Gray Ooze would be needed in the monster list. This being the digital age, I was easily able to look up the required information, but I felt the need to mention it here as not everyone plays near internet-able devices.

After the battles in Rooms 4 and 5, the party attempted to Short Rest in Room 5 before moving on to Room 6 after the fleeing Goblin. Their Short Rest was a failure and they only got to enjoy half of the benefits of the rest. I should note here that I allowed the players to roll for the Wandering Monsters to give them a bit of buy-in for their rests. It also created some tension in the room as they were terrified of their rolls. The Short Rest didn't take and instead the party randomly encountered 12 Giant Rats. The battle was over in 3 rounds, but not before Shakrin was infected with Filth Fever. 

Avoiding another random encounter, the party decided to press on into Room 6, which lay behind a locked door. Their logic was, despite being down Encounter Powers and Healing Surges, that they could perhaps easily defeat the Goblin runner behind the door and lock the door behind them and enjoy, finally, an Extended Rest. 

They were wrong... Behind the door to Room 6 stood the Goblin chieftain as well as the Goblin runner. Two rounds into the battle the party realized that they were overwhelmed and under-rested to take on this threat and decided to slowly start retreating. Germock held the line as the rest moved down the hallway back to the staircase in Room 4. Halfway through the retreat the party had Simone attempt to summon a Gray Ooze from Rort's Tome. Simone only had a +1 Arcana and rolled a natural 20, so after some DM adjudication I allowed the Ooze to both double move and make an attack on the chieftain. The Ooze held the line and Germock retreated. Bloodied and bruised and all-in-all in bad shape, the party decided to risk an Extended Rest in Room 4, hidden among the stairwell.

The Extended Rest was divided into 4 Wandering Monster checks, one to represent each watch divided among the party members. The first and second watches went on without a hitch, and the Elf Evander was fully healed due to his trance ability. Watch 3 went differently and the party randomly encountered 5 Fire Beetles. Three rounds later the beetles were vanquished and after a fourth check, I allowed the party to have enjoyed the benefits of the Extended Rest.

I should note here that the decision and debates to rest or not to rest was well-loved by the party. The door to their escape in Room 4 had been closed and locked during their delving, but being stressed out and predominated by thoughts of healing, they didn't even think to attempt to pick the lock. They loved this atmosphere of fear.

Feeling revitalized, the party surged back forward into Room 6 to take on the chieftain and his cohorts. During the party's resting, the chieftain and runner found themselves reinforced by three more runners. This was quite a long battle, only because both sides knew that the other was there. The first two rounds proved to be a waiting game for each side to make a move (the baddies were readying actions for the party to enter the room.) The party finally relented, rushing into the room and engaging in battle. The battle itself lasted 8 rounds and Germock was slain outright by the chieftain. The party swept up after Germock's defeat and barred the door to safely Short Rest again. 

I hand-waived going back to town so that the party could gather another PC to join their quest. In addition to this, Evander the Elf had taken a claw off of Germock to raise him at a later date. The player who had ran Germock decided to go a different route and created a Half-Elf Sentinel named Dru (complete with Bear companion!) Having two healers and no Defender seemed like a bad idea, so the party opted to switch out Simone for Ser Allain the Human Knight. Fluff-wise, Simone offered to stay in the temple with Germock's claw until they had raised enough money to raise Germock from the realms of the dead.

As part of the agreement for the going-back-to-town-hand-waive, everyone except for Dru and Allain only got to enjoy the benefits of their Short Rest. The party moved onto Room 7 and easily dispatched in a little over 1 round the Goblins and their Dire Rat pet. The party discovered that the door into Room 9 was not only sealed with wax, but was also locked or barred. Moving onto Room 8 after successfully unlocking the door between the two rooms. Room 8 was mainly fluff describing the tomb and murals to Saint Ulther. The party had a moral debate as to crack open the wax-sealed tomb of Ulther or not. Morality winning out, they moved onto Room 11.

The Skeletons in Room 11 proved to be an exciting, if not close quarters battle, for the party that was wrapped up in about 4 rounds. Afterwards the party successfully Short Rested before moving on to Room 10.

Room 10 housed a tomb with a big Undead baddie in it. The zombie within the sarcophogus has a Glowing Dagger stuck in its chest that the party could have used to turn the tides of battle. As party member after party member fell, they instead chose to just keep hitting the thing as hard as they could before it killed them all. Evander and Ser Allain were knocked into unconsciousness a few times, and the zombie itself never got the chance to leave its own sarcophagus. The battle was hard-won but surprisingly only lasted 2 rounds. The party retrieved the Glowing Dagger and a low Arcana check revealed some of the weapon's properties (but not the Undead Bane portion.)

Again, I should note a mistake on my part here. The Cauldron Corpse (Zombie) has a Blast attack that also summons a Cauldron Mote. I forgot to add this to the list of monsters and as my party was having a rough combat with the Zombie, opted to leave it out of the battle.

Evander took the dagger, which they were correct in ascertaining was the artifact they were sent to the crypts to search for, and the party Short Rested successfully.

The party decided then that a Short Rest wasn't enough as some party members were without Healing Surges and decided to extended rest after shoring up their defenses and exploring Room 9 and the alcove off of Room 10. They pushed shut the heavy stone doors between Room 10 and 8 and began their resting.

The third watch proved to summon forth another Skeleton from Room 11, but as the creature was so weak it couldn't open the door to Room 10. The fourth watch also summoned 2 more Skeletons who, after the Extended Rest, were able, with some lucky Strength rolls, to bust open the door for a quick 1 round combat. Evander and the party were able to discover all of the properties of the Glowing Dagger due to this combat.

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We decided to call it here for the evening and had a discussion about the session. It was wildly positive and these D&D newbies (they have only been playing for about a year and only 4e, as taught to them by myself) loved how deadly the delve felt. They are excited to play it again on our regular Tuesday sessions. Evander's player opted to negotiate with the temple to raise Germock in exchange for the Glowing Dagger. I allowed it and the party decided that Evander and Germock would retire and set up an adventurer's guild to help gather missions as the party delves further into the ancient Dwarven Delve. Evander's player decided to stick with the Striker role and has opted to bring in a Hexblade as the party both needs a Striker and was short on the Arcana skill as they noticed throughout the delve.

I am currently working on finalizing the second level of my Dyson's Delve 4e Conversion and I should have it posted after my group's Tuesday session. In addition to this, I have a few magic items that have already been created and are gathering dust in the ol' Legend4ry archives. I will likely post them on either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Until next time,

-blob

You can follow me on Twitter @Sorcerer_Blob or via the hash-tag #legend4ry. You can also find my blog and others at the Fourthcore Hub and at the RPG Blog Alliance.