Here's a brief AP, heavy on the fiction, of a recent one off of the dungeon from the book. Overall we had a lot of fun though I do wonder how it would play as a longer term game. There was a fair bit of levelling up. It was quite deadly (or potentially deadly). I was impressed, as MC, of two things. Firstly, it didn't seem very strange after a short while to not have any dice, or any antagonistic power as GM. Secondly, there was a lot of emergent play. In fact, it was mostly emergent play. The players got into it though most of them are fairly new to indie gaming. They came up with great ideas and used their moves to great advantage, especially the discern realities move and make camp move.
Five adventurers stand before the great bronze doors of the Bloodstone temple. they have assembled to stop the Wizard Grundloch from awakening the ancient artifact and taking over their home city of Battlemoore. The party are;
Gwendoline, elven Magic User. She carries her precious spell book with her at all times, and has sharp eyes, wild hair and stylish clothes over a thin body.
Farley, a thief, with sharp eyes, messy hair, and a lithe body, disguised as a holy man. He wears leather armour, and carries a supply of throwing daggers. He trusts Bjorn, btut has stolen Gwendoline’s undergarments for his own amusement.
Next is Admond, an elven ranger. He has animal eyes, a bald head, camo gear over a wild body. He is accompanied by a wolf, which loyally licks his hand. He carries a bow and a sword, and wears a chainmail vest.
Crassius, next, is a Paladin. He has fiery eyes under a quiff, and a fancy holy sybol on his chest. He is very buff, and carries a longsword under chain mail. He and Bjorn are old battle comrades.
Bjorn is the party’s Drawrven cleric, bald in a monks habit, a wiry body. he wears Dwarfish chain and wields a battleaxe.
Before them are an assorted group, an uneasy alliance of goblins and lizard men, bribed by Grundloch to stop them. Crassius has no time for shilly-shallying, and calls a challenge out to the goblins and lizard men, who respond by attacking them! Battle is joined. Gwendoline, afraid for her skin, shimmies up a nearby tree. The goblins are dispatched, largely thanks to Crassius and Bjorn, fighting side by side just like the old days.
witht heir enemies swiftly defeated, they regard the large bornze doors, but Gwendoline cries out - she is still stuck up the tree. Farley clambers up the tree to help her, but Gwendoline drops her spell books while trying to hold on, and Farley puts his hand on something that buzzes - and recognises it as a beehive! angry bees start to swarm around them all. In panic, Gwendoline falls from the tree but Crassius manages to catch her. Bees start to swarm inside Crassius’ armour and they all run for the door. They are not able to easily push throigh the doors as they are only open a crack. Crassius squeezes through, and Gwendoline realises she has forgotten her spellbook. Admond manages to dash through but his wolf doesn’t follow. They watch with a mixture of horror and amusement as the wolf runs over to the spellbook and pees on it, marking it as his territory. Admond calls his dog back, and tries to convince Crassius to go out and do battle with the bees, but he refuses. Eventually Farley digs out some rope from his pack, and Admond expertly lassoos the book and hauls it in. They pull the ancient doors shut to protect them from the bees.
They do a quick assessment of their wounds - most of them are badly hurt. Bjorn casts Cure Light Wounds, but Gwendoline is still at deaths door from her fall. They make camp and decide to picnic there. Admond, expert at camping, finds a secluded overhang where they can rest, get their breath and have a refreshing snack without being seen. Eventually they feel refreshed and ready to head on. There are two tunnels. Bjorn discerns realities, and knows that the upper chamber leads directly to the bloodstone, but only after a great fall, and Grundloch went down the other corridor. They decide to take the lower path.
As they enter the chamber, they see on the stairs the body of an adventurer, partially mummified so his look of fear is still visible. He died in terror. As they enter the room they learn why - a ghost rises up and shrieking, calls out for them to leave. Bjorn knows that ghosts are held to this Earth by some uncompleted task, so he tries to reason with the ghost. Meanwhile Admond dashes pasts the ghosts and runs out of the room on the other side. He has seen the tracks of Grundloch and leaves the others to their fates.
The ghosts are unresistant to reason, so eventually Bjorn manages to turn them, but not before he is hurt by a ghosts clasping hands. Crassius lays on hands, healing Bjorn.
They hear a crashing noise - Admond has collapsed some stairs and fallen deep into some sort of muck. hovering above him are several vicious looking giant fireflies. They wade into combat. Gwendoline hangs back but dashes down the collapsed stairs when three goblins run towards her from the upper tunnels. Farley dives down, and buries himself in the mud, which appears to be firefly guano. He is pleasantly surprised to find a large gold nugget buried in the guano. He pockets it, and hides, completely submerged, while the others fight.
The fireflies split up and half attack the golbins. They flee, and the heroes are able to dispatch the others with ease. Farley gathers up as much gold as he can, but he is thwarted by Bjorn, who hides as much as he can from Farley. Gwendoline levels up, consults her damp spell book and manages to cure serious wounds on Crassius. Beyond they discern is the chamber of the bloodstone, where they sense Grundloch has just completed his ceremony...
They step through to be confronted by a menagerie of creatures. Gwendoline is killed by a Manticore, but Bjorn discerns that they are only illusions and eventually, with great difficulty manages to convince the others of this. Gwendoline then wakes, realising she only thought she was dead (!)...
And there the game ended - it was late, though we were all disappointed at not making it to the climax.