Skystone Subterrane aka The First Dungeon Adventure

I was challenged by the Living Urf Gaming Club to shut my mouth and run something. Big Mike laid down the command that it be in September, and even offered the sweet deal of a Wish for completion of the task. Since the idea I had in my head involved the full moon, I found my deadline looming ever closer. What's worse? I was dealing with spider bites that lead to a pretty bad infection. We persevere!

The Skystone

 “We know little of the Skystone. It appeared during a storm in the new moon, and remote viewings have revealed windmills across its southern edge. No contact has been received for whatever inhabitants may dwell there, but it has drawn the interest of astrologers and druids due to a strange phenomenon. On moonlit nights, a shimmering stair can be seen connecting the Skystone with our own lands, though attempts to ascend it these past weeks have been for naught. Soon the moon waxes full and we shall see if my own theory holds. If so, this expedition may be worth a shift in my own research.” – From the notes of Magister Marcus the Mad.

Big Mike gave me a lot of freedom in the setup; I could choose the theme and design without worrying overmuch about the current Urf milieu. Moreover, I added a request that any PCs across the campaigns have access to it. This offered the opportunity for convergence and permanence, and avoided the "one shot" situation. No one shots! Campaign only!

Enter our trio of adventurers! Egil, Captain of the Dark Odyssey and veteran of many battles! Harlan, a half-orc lookin' for a good bit of coin! Cleave, a fresh veteran from unknown lands. They were joined by Egil's friend from a now-sunken land, Thorfinn the Ranger.

Ascent to the Skystone is a simple matter: Upon the full moon, take the moonbeam staircase into the stars. The group soon arrived on a pavilion where they made their introductions and sped through the details of the island itself (the town part of town & dungeon) to focus on the delve: On a grand marble pavilion was a moon door whose veil had glittered and vanished, revealing the staircase down. For an AAR, we have to choose between details and adventure. You want to know more? Take the moonstairs yourself!

The stairwell emptied into a large room that appeared as an island floating in a void of stars. Along the floor was an ankle-deep mist that seemed to animate into familiar shapes; a trick of the light? The exits were arched doors awash in silvered light bearing motifs of flowers and vines. Harlan spent some time trying to sort out the details on the constellations, coming away with the knowledge that his viewpoint must have been from across, or on another, world. The party set their ranks and MO, and pressed east.

You'll note the party lacks a Thief. As such, Egil made an effort to run his knife around the edges of each door prior to opening it. After struggling a bit on the first door (which became a common occurrence), the group entered a large conference room: a fine table with rearing unicorn design, tall-backed chairs, liquor cabinet, and some couches. They split up to explore a bit with Egil knocking around the liquor cabinet in the hopes of finding a secret cache. No luck for him. Meanwhile, Harlan checked out the table and moved to finding an easy door. To his luck, he found one!

The group lined up and prepared to burst through, discovering a pantry! How horrifying! Within was fresh-smoked meats, cheeses, breads, and wine. Cleave made his disinterest known: "I am not eating any of this suspiciously fresh food." Egil, ever the connoiseur of alcoholic beverages, made for the wine rack and discovered an optical illusion as one of the bottles he put back slipped through and behind the wall. In a rush the party charged with weapons drawn, breaking 95% of the bottles and finding themselves in an adjacent writing room. This one, too, had a liquor cabinet. This one, too, did Egil give the once over. They discovered some peepholes in the stars on the wall and sifted through some books and writing material before deciding to continue their adventure. 

East was their shining star! The group pressed into a hall and quickly discovered a staircase leading further into the subterrane. Cleave was quick on the uptake: "Deeper places keep the best treasure." So the group descended and found the mist slowly rising to their knees. After exiting the stairs onto another platform, the party noticed a dark and perpetual twilight had intermixed with the stars. Moreover, the ground was soft and grassy, and a fresh air of spring and autumn greeted their senses. New level, new theme!

Egil tried his knife trick on a door nearby; a grand piece with an elven woman sitting in a garden with a boy playing with wooden weapons. He discovered it was locked, properly. With thick bolts and everything. He also noticed a recess in the boy's shield that could fit an object the size of a medallion. With this noted, the party ventured deeper into the floor, myself trying to practice mapping explanations and keep to Brigadine's style (shared language!).

They soon came across more halls, more doors, and the same floors. Choosing the closest option, the group entered a guest room and promptly set to work trying to tear the place apart. Egil burst into the armoire and was penetrated by a triple shot of arrows... Or was he? "Did I take damage?" came the question after a long silence. As he stood there stunned, Harlan rushed to the wall and found the arrows, but they dissipated into mist upon contact. After that scare, they tried to break into a rather stubborn underwear drawer; snapping off the handle and later using spikes to break it open. Another trap! Or was it? More mist. They couldn't get the footlocker to open due to the lock so decided to press on; "Stupid Elves."

After dodging a group of glowing beetles, the party snaked their way through some more halls and arrived at a pair of doors. East is their shining star! However, in the time it took Egil and Thorfinn to beat down the door, the creatures beyond had readied their attack... Rangers can only be surprised on a 1. Which is what was rolled. The creatures beyond were not surprised. So how many segments does that give them? I went with 1, but pondered how the subtraction/difference was supposed to work in such a circumstance. Need to review those rules some more!

The ensuing battle was a bit of a slog: Egil and Thorfinn's ACs and armor type required me to hit a Nat 20 to make any headway. Why? Because they walked into a swarm of boar-headed cavemen things with clubs and flint-tipped spears! There was a black monolith in the center of the room, the object of their desire. As the front rank cut down their enemies, occasionally taking a blow here or there, Harlan looked for openings to throw some oil. His throwing arm needs some work, though, because he spent more time burning his frontline than the monsters.

 Soon, the doorway started to fill with corpses. It was at this point that Egil and Harlan noticed something off. I'd been hinting at this for a while and had to press some reinforcement, but they finally caught on. "Wait, can I disbelieve this?" Something wasn't adding up, and they started to see why. Only about half of their foes were even real! Thorfinn and Cleave were not convinced, however, and the battle pressed on. Another chunk of bodies down and Egil and Harlan marched straight into the fray to "show the others there is nothing to fear." This helped wake up Thorfinn, but Cleave was still in the throes of rage. Nonetheless, they managed to cut down the real ones and the mists soon vanished. Is Illusion damage real damage? We diverted for a few minutes talking about representations within media (new and old). I ruled that it wouldn't kill you, but could KO you for long enough for something else to.

At this point the party is still without a ruby. They decide to press on a bit before falling back. So it was that they navigated a tricky room, found themselves in a garden flush with fruit (Egil ate some!), and discovered a room with murals straight from Appendix N. This room's focal point was a well whose water was like a mirror. Harlan tossed a coin inside before looking into it and found himself vanishing. Cleave's response was simple, "Is anything in this place even real?" It's at this point Egil made to examine the murals in the hopes of finding clues or secrets. In the meantime, I bounced into another channel with Harlan to discover what happened.

[Redacted!]

Harlan reappeared in the mural room some time later with a shout! The group turned to see a misty spearhead withdraw and dissipate as Harlan's body slumped to the ground. A quick patch job and the retreat was sounded. On their way back, Egil and the crew chopped the locked footlocker in the guest room free and hauled it out: "I know a guy that can open it for us." Some of the doors were stubborn on their egress, but nothing else came to harass them.

As we wrapped up, the group passed by the pond on the northern side of the Skystone. Across the still waters, they saw a white, winged horse lapping from it. You can thank the guys in the club that told me to watch Clash of the Titans! Egil tried to feed it, but the creature scented the blood on his hands and flew off. Perhaps another time. After that, they decided to descend the moonstair together and arrived in Grita-Heath, where Egil woke Stanson up to open the box.

Stanson had no issues cracking the lock, but was quite furious to find he'd been roused to open an empty box: "As the lock clicks and the lid opens, white mists flow out and dissipate along the floor."

Afterword

Alas, no rubies. I had hoped for another player or two to fill out ranks, but the calm nature of a smaller group gave me time to manage everything and chat as we went. In hindsight, the group explored something like 5 rooms; whether that's time wasted with descriptions or my own lack of controlling the pacing I do not know. Suffice it to say I had fun being in the driver's seat again after so long.

A note on the dungeon itself: I worked within Appendix A and pieced things together, but while stocking I found myself referencing the Dungeon Dressing tables a lot. I think this did a lot to add details to rooms that would have otherwise been completely empty. However, it does drain some creative energy depending on the size of the dungeon and amount of rooms you have to stock. I will say that I'm starting to understand the weird mazes in the old-school design a bit better, but I think my preference still leans on decent OPDs. 

Grades!

Egil: E. He lead the charge, held the line, and was thirsty as a pirate captain.
Harlan: E. An odd duck, but fought where he could. He leaned more into the tactical fighter and found openings where he could.
Cleave: E. Spearman, poked his enemies. Even the fake ones!

XP: 155
Hench: Half