Look here for an introduction to the open table experiment, and here for a play report of session one (though the first two sessions were comprised of completely separate parties that pursued completely separate goals; don't worry about being "caught up").

As with session one, I will be giving commentary atop a player-written summary. But first, a character roster:

• Rowan Harper, a down-on-their-luck angler (played by Katana)
• Constance Crumwaller, a down-on-her-luck angler (played by Sydney)
• Edda Danbridge, a down-on-her-luck hunter (played by Jo)

This session's summary was written by Jo.

Session Two Commentary

Our small party of 3 (Constance, Rowan, Edda) began the day at the Poppycock Inn where Edda found herself very much fitting in, and Rowan not so much. The party proceeded to question the Innkeeper, One-Eyed Gil, about a local map that Rowan had in their possession since none of the party members can read. The party learned of a location East of Fog Lake called Hag's Addle where an infamous hag with great power resides, but we warned to never venture there for the land was tumultuous and the Hag unkind. We then asked about a drawing of an Ancient Gnarled Oak directly North of Brakenwood Castle with a drawing of a "little guy" next to it. We were informed that the "little guy" was a Marrowmuck and that he was likely guarding treasure hidden somewhere near the ancient tree.

Because this session had no character nor player overlap from the previous one, I began the session in Castle Brackenwold, in the potential "home base" of the Poppy Cock. This session was interesting from the start because for me this was DolMEGwood session two—but these players didn't know much of anything the previous group of players learned or accomplished. It was more of a session one than a session two with new players. Occasionally I ran into instances where I would forget that information was new to these players and assume I had described something prior, but was misremembering the previous session. This was easily corrected, but perhaps something I should be mindful of in the future—especially as new players cycle in alongside old players who may be very familiar with a locale or NPC, I have to ask myself what is the correct amount of detail and introduction for each permutation of players.

Gil thus felt similar to session one, in that I defaulted to Generic Information Source rather than realized person. I hope that now that I've reflected on this fault I will be more mindful of it in the future. Despite the source/mode of information gathering, I was happy with the fact that the players were gathering information at all. Curiosity about Hag's Addle stemmed from Jo looking at the Dolmenwood player's map and seeing the doodle there, then asking a question. I was very happy with that interaction; the map is doing its job.

Another source of information was a "local map" Katana bought as starting equipment for Rowan. I had actually forgotten that this was an item available for purchase and thus didn't consider what it would actually contain or entail. It was a remnant from the original supplies list I took from Wolves Upon the Coast, before I went through and edited it to better fit both Dolmenwood necessities and the kinds of things I wanted to be readily available (I would prefer the players to hire a locale guide over buying a local map). But Rowan had one in their possession, so I wanted to honor that, rather than ask Katana to use that money for something else. I decided that the map would display the major landmarks of the Tithelands (Castle Brackenwold, the major roads, and both the Roost and the Refuge of St. Keye), as well as one other point of interest. I checked both the hex descriptions in the Dolmenwood Campaign Book and my own additional notes, and described the location of a dungeon I placed in the area.¹ I also had Katana roll for a random rumor, with the justification that whomever Rowan bought the map from could have told them the rumor (this sort of thing would emerge far more organically if the source of information was an NPC with whom the characters could interact...).

I gave two rumors about the ancient oak before the players ventured there. I think that one was successfully shared, but I have qualms with how I chose to share the other. The successful rumor, in my mind, was when I described the ancient oak as being the burial site of a long-ago-diminished order of knights. I didn't share anything more about the knights and the players didn't have any other leads (besides the dungeon) to pursue about it. The second rumor was that I described Rowan's map as depicting a tiny, fairy-looking guy who looks to be made from mud. The fairy was drawn beside the ancient oak and I informed the players that creatures like this have been sighted near the ancient tree recently. I then went on to name the creatures as merrowmucks—and this is where my qualm lies. Much like the breggles from session one, I think having the players come up with their own names for things is far better if the name isn't something which has its origins in folklore. I was otherwise quite careful to describe the drawn creature was just a "goblin" or generic "fairy," so I'm not sure from where the impulse to share its name came.

With the Ancient Gnarled Oak being their ultimate destination the party first headed to the Cathedral of Saint Signis in hopes of being blessed by Priests before embarking. While Constance and Rowan prayed to a statue of Saint Signis, Edda beseeched a Priest for a blessing and wisdom/a talisman to keep with her on the journey, he responded "Don't believe in the folklore, all you need is a Crucifix and a prayer."

Before leaving Castle Brackenwold, the players traveled to the Cathedral of St. Signis in the hopes of gaining a blessing or some other boon before their risky journey. The priest didn't offer much practical or magical help—which was clear, at least to me, what the players were actually looking for—but it seemed to give them confidence as they left the city walls.

After departing from the church, newly blessed, we arrived at the Ancient Gnarled Oak (Northmost part of HEX 1508) at around noon (12:00). A brief investigation of the large hole in the Oak revealed it to be an entrance with an approx. 20' drop and a natural ladder of sorts made of vines on the near side of the hole. Constance and Rowan had no issue descending but Edda, who went first, fell and had her guard broken- forcing the party to rest for a "dungeon round" (10 minutes).

Two things to point out here: the first is Edda's fall. In my game, a character who is reduced to 0 HP has their guard broken, the consequences of which loosely mimic niosis's rules for wounds and dying. This is obviously a system intended for a combat encounter, while Edda fell twenty feet while climbing down an unstable ladder. In the moment I ruled that she suffered a scar as normal and, in the interest of getting to dungeon crawling, could regain her composure (and one hit point) after a brief breather. In the future I think that I would insist the character remain with her guard broken until she regains hit points naturally (the most obvious way being after a night's rest; faster methods are surely available).

The second thing to note is the unfamiliarity of at least two of the players, I think, with what I now consider obvious dungeon procedures (marching order, tracking time via dungeon turns of ten minutes, and paying special attention to who is carrying light and how far that light reaches). I think I could have done a better job of teaching these procedures or making it clear what that shift in play style entails. To the group's credit, they caught on quick.

Once Edda had caught her breath the party moved forward 20'. Then Rowan swore an oath to not leave any party members behind and return treasure found to the Church. At the end of the 20' tunnel was a T intersection, with both sides bent in a shallow curve, mirroring each other.

This is the first instance of a character swearing a chivalric oath. Thus it involved more of my own input than would want in the future, but I think it's important to establish what counts as a chivalrous oath; the name-swap from WUTC "boasting" only actually works to shift our mindset from one genre to another if we actually enforce it. As more characters swear oaths and the game continues on for longer, I think the difference between a WUTC boast and a DolMEGwood oath will become clearer.

Originally Rowan only swore to protect their party members and not leave any behind. Constance added the complication of "return[ing] the treasure of this land back to the Church." The characters were establishing themselves as fairly pious, especially with the visit to the cathedral earlier for the blessing, so I was thrilled with this oath. (Of course my approval doesn't really matter, as I throw the decision of adjudicating oath fulfillment to the other players.)

There had been bipedal hoof prints and boot prints in the sand corridor from whence they entered, and they continued in both the right and left direction. To the left rushing water or air was heard, from the right came a faint green glow and sense of warmth, the party decided to go right; however, they were stopped ~15 down the tunnel by a thin wall of roots from whence the green glow seemed to originate behind. As Edda used her hand axe to chop down the roots the entire earth briefly shook, but nothing else happened so the party continued on.

I want to highlight a great small moment here that encapsulates some of my favorite parts of OSR play. When investigating the hoof prints in the sand, Sydney asked about the gait of the prints: did they look like they were made by a four-legged animal? Or did the distance and mode of locomotion indicate that the hoof prints came from something bipedal? They were clued in on the fact that Dolmenwood has bipedal hoofed creatures by Gil's breggle tattoos (which I described as simply depicting goat-men, this session) and applied their knowledge by asking a clarifying question. (The tracks looked bipedal, by the way.)

After ~15 more feet of curved tunnel the narrow passageway opened into a 10x10 room where faces emerged from the roots and spoke in unison: "For an offering placed upon the roots, knowledge of this place in return." Edda asked the spirits/faces what sort of offering they meant. [Their answer:] "The bones of the earth, gemstones, jewels. Or offspring of the surface... familiar or unfamiliar."

The module has the faces offer to share one rumor about the dungeon per 5gp paid. I thought that was lame and this was a cool and ominous alternative.

The faces' offer inspired a lot of discussion amongst the players about if gemstones and jewels were the bones of the earth or if the bones of the earth were something distinct. I let them discuss this because I was reading ahead in the module, but this is something that I probably should have clarified, as I actually misspoke. I meant to say something like "The offspring of the earth: gemstones, jewels. Or the offspring of the surface world: flesh, blood." It was a little confusing, but they came to a conclusion eventually.

Constance suggested that they sacrifice one of her chickens. She slit the chicken's throat and placed it upon the roots, the faces once again spoke: "Beware the treachery of the devil poppets. They guard a secret god with great power."

I thought the rumors in the table were also fairly short and vague, so I combined two alongside the Dolmenwood-specific coat of paint.

With time running out [in the session] and an Oath left to fulfill the party continued on through a passage leading directly east. The passageway slowly widened until it was 15' wide and spilt in twain. To the north, a stone archway. To the east, more sand and hoof prints—along with the overwhelming smell of ammonia.

Something that may grow to be a problem (and was perhaps more of one in session three) is the fact that the open table format necessitates players beginning a session in a safe location. This is a rule enforced by my fairly severe table that punishes ending a session in a dangerous locale. This severely limits the potential depth of a dungeon crawl or overland expedition (perhaps directly at odds with my increasing the time it takes to travel through hexes). It felt like the players had only just begun to explore the dungeon when it was time to start heading back to Castle Brackenwold.

Going into the stone archway revealed a stone hallway leading to another stone arch, this one adorned with carvings of skulls. Just beyond the foreboding opening was the body of a dead woman. Edda moved towards the body and swore an oath to the woman making sure she would have proper burial rights preformed upon her. Then Edda nearly joined the woman in her grim fate as a previously unseen swinging blade dropped from the ceiling, once again leaving her with a scar and broken guard.

A fairly unlucky session for Edda. The extra hit points gained when she swore her oath likely saved her life; otherwise she'd have taken far more damage and perhaps lost a limb. One gripe is that I had her roll the location of her scar, though in hindsight I think that the location table should come secondary to fictional adjudication—something that perhaps should have been obvious all along.

I thought that I was fairly clear with there being danger in the archway—the woman was rent from a wound that punched through her mail and collapsed in the middle of the archway—but this might once again be a disconnect moment between my greater experience with dungeon crawls, OSR play, and telegraphing danger, and the players' relative inexperience in that regard. Or perhaps I just wasn't as clear as I thought! I don't feel like this was an unfair trap, though. Perhaps if Edda had died to it I'd feel different, but I don't think so.

The woman and her belongings were retrieved and brought back to the surface, then the Church. Upon giving the body and 10% of what they had made from the adventure to the Church, both Oaths that had been sworn were completed.

And thus the session comes to an end. But before I close out this post, a quick discussion on the oaths sworn this session. There had previously been some jockeying to swear an easy or convenient oath in the beginning of the session, but I'm fairly happy with the oaths that eventually were sworn. To me, the goal of advancement through chivalrous oath is to inconvenience the character (at the very least) in the pursuit of some romantic ideal. So swearing to "attempt" something or swearing to succeed at something easy or that furthers your goals without consequence isn't a chivalrous oath. This nuance is something that we'll have to navigate as the campaign continues.

I am somewhat unhappy with my adjudication of the oaths' fulfillment. In the interest of ending the session, it was easy to conclude with Edda returning the body to Castle Brackenwold and Rowan tithing some of the group's loot with no other complication than a ten percent fee to liquidate treasure into coin. I think that this was too easy, though. If I ran this session again, I might require Edda to put some of her own money forward in order to ensure proper burials for the woman, rather than a mass or pauper's grave, which would put Edda's oath in direct conflict with what I should have insisted be the requirement to fulfill Rowan's oath. Rowan swore to "return the treasure of this land back to the Church," which I would interpret to mean all of their loot—not just a tithe, which is the baseline for proper piety. I don't plan to change it or retcon anything, because I maintain my position that the party ought to determine if an oath is properly fulfilled, but if this comes up in the future I might be more inclined to propose complications about which the group may discuss.

Next post: DolMEGwood session three, which I ran earlier today. The group pursued the abandoned hoard of Chasobrithe the worm—stay tuned to see how that turned out! (A small spoiler: not super well.)

Next session: DolMEGwood session four, which will have a similar cast to the session described in this post. I believe they intend to delve into the hole in the oak once more.

1. Astute readers may have already made this connection from Jo's intitial description, but I will expand for the rest: I've inserted Gavin Norman's Hole in the Oak dungeon into hex 1508, on a hill just north of Castle Brackenwold and right at the edge of the Wood. I am loosely following Brian Yaksha's conversion of the module to better fit Dolmenwood, though I have changed some things to my own liking as well.↩