Quantum Dungeons Preview 2

Last time I gave an overview of the rules for the upcoming Quantum Dungeons RPG from Stellagama Publishing. I also ran six characters through what was supposed to be a challenging combat, but which proved easier than I had heard.

Ragnar’s Crew

Mithrius’s Spells: Respite, Sleep

Nightmares in Brass

This one-shot adventure for OSE comes from 13 Weird One-Shots by Joseph R. Lewis from Dungeon Age Adventures. All quoted and boxed text comes directly from the adventure.

The Crew must investigate the perilous house of Lady Trella Yog.

Rumors:

• “Lady Trella has gone mad! She sent her mechanical murder machine to terrorize the neighborhood. People are dying! Someone needs to stop her!”
• “Some folks went to arrest Lady Trella to answer for her crimes, but they chickened out when they saw a bunch of dead animals on her lawn. Some say she’s a magician, but I think she’s just rich.”

After agreeing on a price, the Crew head to Lady Yog’s “manse” to investigate.

Outside Lady Yog’s Manse

A hedge of razor-wire topiaries surround a trimmed amber lawn. A flagstone path leads to a black gothic mansion with gingerbread details and a witch-hat tower. Dead animals litter the manicured grass. A white silk purse lies near them.

Giles succumbs to temptation and grabs for the purse. Two spinning blades pop out of the grass and nearly slice off his feet. The purse contains 13 gp and a tube of black lipstick.

Living Room

The door is ajar. The Crew enters.

Plush blue velvet couches sit slashed open. A cold tea service rests on the coffee table. Blood trickles down the walls. Under a leather armchair, a white cat hisses. A brass clockwork butler bows and offers tea and sandwiches.

Duri and Ragnar graciously accept the tea ans sandwiches, but sample none of it. The butler introduces itself as Niles, and explains the mistress is “indisposed”.

Abruptly the butler exclaims, “Oh my word! I’m naked! Please don’t look at me!” It then tries to poke the Crew’s eyes out.

Initiative

1. Ragnar (12)
2. Niles (10)
3. Aelfric (8)
4. Berthold (8)
5. Duri (8)
6. Mithrius (7)
7. Giles (6)

Round 1

• Ragnar lands a solid hit on Niles, who takes 4 points of damage.
• Niles, attempting to poke Ragnar’s eyes out, misses him. It emits a loud siren-like cry.
• Aelfric looses an arrow at Niles, which hits for 5 damage. Niles goes silent; it is deactivated.

End of Combat

Giles pockets the only seemingly valuable thing in the room, a snowglobe.

Dining Room

Inkara porcelain dishes and Twilight Age silverware are arrayed on a polished mahogany table under two golden chandeliers. Serpentine shapes slither under the wallpaper. A brass clockwork maid runs circles around the table.

Berthold and Mithrius have the bright idea to stop the maid and ask it what’s wrong, but it twists out of their grasp and keeps shrieking, “I can’t get away from it. It keeps chasing me.”

Abruptly two tentacles materialize out of the wall and attack Duri and Aelfred. The tentacles hit Aelfred for 5 damage and hit Duri for 7 damage. Both are Wounded and out of the fight. The others drag them into the next room and Mithrius casts Respite on each of them, bringing their Stamina back to full (but leaving a Wound).

Kitchen

Gleaming steel pots and pans hang above white granite counters. Tables and floors are crowded with covered dishes. A brass clockwork cook works ceaselessly to make more and more new meals.

The clockwork cook pats her abdomen and mutters, “I’m cooking for two now.”

The food smells delicious, but when Ragnar lifts one of the covers, he sees a gelatinous red blob that stares at him with golden eyes. He hastily re-covers the dish.

The kitchen’s back stairs lead up to the upper floor.

Workshop

The door at the top of the stairs is locked. Giles examines it and discovers that opening the door will trigger a sleeping gas trap. He disarms the trap, then handily picks the lock.

Hundreds of tiny wires, plates, gears, rods, and orbs hang neatly on the walls above scratched tables. Three brass clockwork cats hunch on the floor, coughing up tiny brass teeth.

Accompanied by the sound of clockwork cats coughing up gears, the Crew search the room. The only items of note are three quarts orbs that glow and spark with some sort of energy, and a carafe of a silvery liquid. Mithrius advises the Crew not to touch the liquid.

Giles pockets the spheres as the Crew open the door into the next room.

Library

A cyclone of shredded paper whirls around empty bookcases. Two brass clockwork parrots fly around the room at blinding speeds. A gold-plated tome lies on a colorful Carcassite wool carpet.

Each of the parrots squawks, “We’re falling!” and cries out in panic. As the Crew watch a shred of paper catches fire and burns to ash.

Ragnar empties his pack, and Duri and Berthold do likewise. Ragnar uses his pack as a makeshift net and, after several attempts, the trio catch the parrots, which are still squirming and complaining that they’re falling.

Now that the room is passable, Mithrius looks at the book. It only seems to be a book, but is in fact a clockwork construct resembling a book. It seems to be doing nothing. Mithrius decides to carry it with him anyway.

Master Bedroom

A short hallway leads to a smashed door.

The doorway is blocked by a motionless brass clockwork warrior with four arms holding four scimitars. The furniture inside is splintered and shredded.

The automaton squawks, “Off you go! Off you go!” Then it moves to attack.

Initiative

1. Giles (13)
2. Berthold (11)
3. Ragnar (10)
4. Aelfred (9)
5. Frayzer (Clockwork Warrior) (9)
6. Duri (5)
7. Mithrius (5)

Round 1

• Giles attacks with his machete, but his blow glances off the automaton’s armor.
• Berthold hits with his main attack, doing 4 damage, and also his off-hand attack, which does 1 damage.
• Ragnar hits with his axe, doing 5 damage.
• Aelfred shoots and his arrow gets lodged in a gear, doing 3 damage.
• The automaton’s four arms each attack Giles, Berthold, Ragnar, and Duri. It hits Giles for 3 damage, hits Berthold for 3 damage, misses Ragnar, and hits Duri for 6 damage. As its final act, it fires gears out of its chest at Aelfred, doing 3 damage. Aelfred is down.
• Duri winds up and hits for 3 damage. With that, the automaton is deactivated.
• Mithrius casts Respite on Aelfred, bringing him up to full Stamina but leaving a Wound.

After Combat

No one is currently at 0 Stamina, save the automaton. Mithrius casts Respite again, bringing Duri back up to full Stamina. The others hold off for now.

The Crew step into the bedroom. Within they see …

[an] armoire bursting with moth-eaten frilly dresses [and a] vanity covered in dusty perfume bottles. An elderly woman lies unconscious in bed, wearing a brass sunhat.

Ragnar and Mithrius approach the woman. As they near the bed, two slimy red tentacles slither from under the bed. One strikes Ragnar but does no damage; the other hits Mithrius for 5 points of damage. Battle is once more joined!

Initiative

1. Giles (12)
2. Ragnar (10)
3. Berthold (9)
4. Aelfred (7)
5. Slyndroth (6)
6. Duri (6)
7. Mithrius (6)

Round 1

• Giles lunges out and hits the tentacle on Mithrius, doing 5 points of damage.
• Ragnar hits his tentacle for 6 points of damage.
• Berthold hits with his main attack, doing 1 point of damage, but misses with his off-hand attack.
• Aelfred aims under the bed and hits, doing 6 points of damage. That’s 18 points of damage total in three attacks. … except Slyndroth is immune to all physical attacks.
• Slyndroth uses his Eldritch Thrum. Only Aelfred and Mithrius make their saving throws; all others succumb.
• Duri, too, is stricken and falls asleep.
• Mithrius drags Ragnar away from the bed, and with a surge of adrenaline (i.e. a successful Physical throw) drags him to the door of the bedroom … though not far enough away from the Thrum.

Round 2

• Aelfred drags Duri back to the door.
• Slyndroth continues the Thrum. Aelfred and Mithrius make their saving throws again.
• Mithrius goes back for Giles and drags him to the door.

Round 3

• Aelfred drags Berthold to the door.
• Slyndroth ceases the thrum and lashes out with two tentacles, one against Mithrius and one against Aelfred. Both strike true; Aelfred takes 5 damage, and Mithrius takes 3 damage. Both are Wounded.
• Mithrius makes his Physical 6+ check to stay conscious, and with heroic effort (i.e. a natural 12) hauls both Ragnar and Giles out of range of the Thrum.

Round 4

• Aelfred also makes his Physical 6+ check to stay conscious, and manages to haul Berthold away from the Thrum and into the Library.
• Tentacles materialize from the walls and strike at Mithrius and Aelfred. They miss Aelfred but hit Mithrius, doing another Wound.
• Mithrius misses his throw, spends a Hero Point, and makes his throw to stay conscious, even with Disadvantage. He goes back for Duri.

End of Combat

The others awaken, and, harassed by tentacles, assist Aelfred and Mithrius out of the mansion.

After The Crew Escapes

Aelfred was Wounded three times, once in the Dining Room, once by Frayzer, and once by Slyndroth. Aelfred spends a Hero Point to reroll a bad Triage roll, and ends up with a 10, or an 8 after penalties from his Wounds. He needs a week of rest, and will retain scars from his various battles.

Duri was wounded once by Slyndroth in the Dining Room. He rolls a 9, which means only five days of rest.

Mithrius was Wounded twice by Slyndroth. Mithrius rolls a 9 on the Triage chart, or 8 considering his extra Wound. He will need three weeks under a healer’s care, and bear an impressive tentacle scar.

The others suffered no Wounds, apart from a lifelong fear of cats.

Ragnar and the others apprise the villagers of the true nature of the problem, and mention they disabled the two most troublesome automatons. They lack the magic to handle the creature in possession of the house, but offer to assist the villagers in finding more magically inclined adventurers. After long and bitter negotiations, the villagers grudgingly give the Crew 28 gp.

Once Mithrius heals up, the Crew go on their way. Mithrius keeps the book. Giles keeps the three orbs and the contents of the purse.

Experience

The experience total is as follows:

With the 34 XP from last time, Aelfred and Berthold are 15% of the way to Level 2.

Further Comments

• Except for Slyndroth, who was immune to physical attacks, the Crew tend to chew through enemies at a brisk pace. Maybe that’s because there’s six of them. A standard party is usually three to five, but I made six characters thinking the Caves of Chaos would be tough.

• Figuring out how to handle saving throws was hard. I had a whole section on how to do saving throws, and then I scrapped it once I dug into OSE. (Should the main rules, or a supplement, solve this problem?)

• I do have a hard time believing third level OSE characters can handle a creature like Slyndroth. Even the Quantum Dungeons crew was helpless. Maybe if the party had magic weapons, they could have defeated the thing.

Next Time

For the final outing we take on a full adventure for Shadowdark, the furthest “OSR” system from Quantum Dungeons’s emulation of Classic D&D (Original D&D, B/X, BECMI, and Rules Cyclopedia).