Old School Essentials: The Dark Labyrinth of Meraie

Introduction

I recently got Old School Essentials in a Humble Bundle and thought I'd try it out solo. I'm using the D20 dungeon generator on Donjon which has generated The Dark Labyrinth of Meraie. As for characters, I rolled up some classic fantasy types. You roll 3D6 for each ability, and I decided to go hardcore and stick with the first results I got, which made some characters who might not actually be suited for their class, but it'll be fun to see how far they get.

I've been reading a lot about OSR games lately, and while Scarlet Heroes is very much one, it's also quite forgiving. So I'm going to have to think laterally and untrain my brain which usually thinks in terms of skills and feats in a very videogamey way.

Alinn

Male elf

STR: 10

INT: 13

WIS: 8

DEX: 9

CON: 9

CHA: 11

HP: 6

Sword

Chainmail armour

Equipment: Lantern, oil flask x1, tinderbox

1 spell: Sleep

Durgan

Male dwarf

STR: 13

INT: 12

WIS: 10

DEX: 14

CON: 5

CHA: 9

HP: 6

Battleaxe

Crossbow

Platemail armour

Equipment: bolts x30, tinderbox, torches x6, crowbar

Sarry

Female thief

STR: 9

INT: 15

WIS: 12

DEX: 8

CON: 13

CHA: 10

HP: 4

Shortsword

Shortbow

Leather armour 

Equipment: Arrows x20, 50ft rope, grappling hook, torches x6, thieves' tools

George

Male cleric

STR: 12

INT: 17

WIS: 9

DEX: 15

CON: 9

CHA: 14

HP: 4

Warhammer

Platemail armour

Equipment: Holy symbol

The Adventure

Our heroes met in a tavern (that old chestnut) in a remote town called Bonstadt. Alinn's research has told him of a great hoard of treasure somewhere in an ancient ruin nearby, known as The Dark Labyrinth of Meraie. It is said to be filled with monsters, so he has talked the three others into accompanying him and promised to split the loot equally.

Meraie is a couple of hours' walk from town, so they set off early one spring morning. The journey is uneventful other than a sighting of some wild horses running across the grassy plains. Soon they arrive at the location and find the entrance, a rotten wooden door hidden behind a tangle of vines that they have to cut through. A flight of stone steps lead down into pitch darkness so Alinn lights his lantern and they descend into the labyrinth (For simplicity I'm going to allow the lantern oil to last for one expedition into the dungeon rather than tracking how long it lasts in turns. If Alinn loses the lantern for some reason someone will have to light one of the torches they brought).

At the bottom of the stairs they find themselves in a corridor heading north for 50 feet, so they follow it to a door in the west wall. Durgan the dwarf tries to open it but finds it stuck, so he levers it open with his crowbar. The lantern lights up a large pile of empty glass bottles in the middle of the room beyond, and some skeletons hanging from chains on the walls. Next to the bottles is a swarming mass of pale yellow creatures: tiny monstrous centipedes! It looks like there are ten of them. They don't react to the light, they just carry on crawling all over each other in the middle of the room so the party presses themselves up against the walls and moves around the room to a doorway in the south wall.

This doorway has a heavy wooden portcullis in it. Durgan offers to lift it and suggests someone put his crowbar under it to hold it up so they can all crawl underneath.

To do this we'll do an ability check on Durgan's strength and try to roll equal to or under it on a D20. I'm giving him a modifier of -4 as this is quite an easy task.

Durgan: Strength check (13)

12 -4 = 8

Success!

He hefts the portcullis easily and Sarry the thief wedges the crowbar underneath, allowing them all to pass under it. Durgan retrieves the crowbar afterward. The room has a fireplace in the north wall and the adventurers are surprised to see a large party of fifteen halflings trying to get a fire going. They are slightly unsure of what to say, so George the cleric steps forward, being generally the most agreeable party member. "Ho there, fellows!" He begins, "'Tis good to see your hearty faces in this grim place."

Reaction: Neutral, uncertain.

"Greetings," one of them replies, "If you're here to plunder this place you'll find nowt but strife in these here grim chambers. We're just preparing to have second tea so if you don't mind taking your leave...?"

"Certainly my good man," George says, "We have no wish to trouble you. Good day." The halflings light the fire and begin pulling cooking tools out of their packs. As the warm firelight washes over the room George notices the east wall has some graffiti on it. It reads "The blue dragon is not a dragon". Curious.

The party bids the halflings farewell. There is another wooden portcullis in the west wall and a wooden door in the south wall. Trying the door they find it's unclocked and go into the next room. This room is larger. They can see a wooden door in the south wall and a large mosaic on the west wall. They move inside and study the mosaic. It shows a horrible scene: various green humanoid monsters are killing men, elves and dwarves in various gruesome ways. Beheadings, disembowellings, things even worse than that too. "How horrid." Sarry comments, and they continue on towards the southern door which is unlocked.

This room is about the same size, with two archways serving as exits. One is in the west wall and it looks like it leads to a corridor. The other is in the south wall and looks like it leads to an empty room. The ceiling is high and dome-shaped, with stars painted on it. In front of the west wall there is a large stone statue of an ogre with its hand out, palm up. They approach the statue for a better look and to their shock a slow, deep voice emanates from it. "WHAT HAS ONE EYE BUT CANNOT SEE?" the statue asks. The adventurers are shocked, they've never encountered anything like this. Then they start racking their brains for the answer.

Intelligence checks:

George (17)

1

Failure

"A one-eyed blind man?" he says.

Durgan (12)

1

Failure

Durgan just shrugs.

Sarry (15)

13

Success!

"A needle!" Sarry shouts. There is a brilliant flash of white light and a puff of smoke. When the smoke clears there is a small strongbox resting on the statue's hand. Sarry examines it closely, and finding no obvious trap she takes it and opens it. Inside are 20 gold pieces and 600 silver pieces. This is 80GP in total. In OSE we award 1XP per gold piece of treasure value (excluding magical treasure for some reason), so each character gains 20XP!

They take a moment to celebrate their find and then have a look in the room to the south. It's empty so they go through the western archway of the statue room. The statue remains silent as they pass it.

The corridor here runs south nearly 100 feet, branching off west and east at the end. The lantern lights up a large group of small one foot tall pixie-like creatures floating across the corridor from east to west. They see the adventurers and speed up, obviously in a hurry to be somewhere else. The party reaches the junction and looks left and right. They can see a door in the eastern corridor so they head that way. It's a strong stone door which turns out to be locked. Sarry tries it pick it with her tools but she's unable to get it open, so they're forced to backtrack to the junction and go west instead.

They follow the corridor west and round a corner to their left. Soon enough they reach another junction where they can go west or north. They can see a door to the north so they head that way. Alinn the elf leads the party with Durgan the dwarf clanking along behind him in his platemail. When Durgan crosses the junction he steps on a hidden pressure plate on the floor. Four of the large flagstones fall away beneath his feet. He drops his battleaxe and grabs for the edge of the gaping pit he's falling into.

Durgan: Dexterity check (14)

10

Success!

He grabs the edge of the pit and scrambles to try and pull himself out, but his armour is weighing him down. Alinn drops his sword and lantern on the floor and grabs hold of Durgan's wrist, pulling on him as hard as he can.

Alinn: Strength check (10)

14

Failure!

The dwarf is too heavy in his armour and slips out of Alinn's grasp. He screams and falls into the pit. The others hear a loud metal crash and peer over the edge. They see Durgan lying twenty feet below. Four spikes have impaled him through the head and the side of his torso leaving him quite dead.

The adventurers are in shock, the reality of dungeon delving finally dawning on them. Finally Sarry says "We should try and get his backpack out of there." She uses her grappling hook and rope to try and hook the backpack and pull it off Durgan's corpse.

Sarry: Dexterity check (8)

2

Success!

She expertly hooks the backpack and detaches it from Durgan, pulling it up. She takes out the crossbow and bolts, tinderbox, torches and crowbar, and hands them to George to carry. Next she and George need to jump over the pit to join Alinn on the other side. Taking no chances she detaches the grappling hook, ties the rope around her waist and throws the other end to Alinn. There is a door 40 feet away at the end of the corridor so he ties the rope firmly around the handle before she attempts the jump.

Sarry: Dexterity check (8)

18 -2 difficulty modifier = 16

Failure!

Sarry leaps across the pit but stumbles at the last moment, falling into it. Luckily there's only 10 feet of slack so she ends up dangling 10 feet from the bottom of the pit.

Sarry: Climb (87% chance)

41

Success!

She climbs out, throws the rope to George and he does the same thing, making the jump easily. At the end of the corridor is the door they tied the rope around and a second door in the same wall (the north one). Sarry decides to listen at the first door, but hears nothing. Opening the door they find an empty room with featureless stone walls. The second door also leads to this room, and there's a door in the north wall too. This time they all press their ears to the door but again, none of them can hear any noise. The door is stuck so each of them tries to use the crowbar to open it but no one can do it. (I've decided to let them do this as many times as they like but roll for wandering monsters between each attempt, otherwise they might have to leave the dungeon and construct some kind of battering ram which goes a bit beyond the scope of what I want for this one shot adventure. Obviously I rolled a 1 on the first wandering monsters roll).

While they're taking turns with the crowbar a party of three dwarves walk into the room. They stare at the adventurers for a moment and then turn to leave. "Wait!" George calls to them. "Could you help us get this door open?"

"Was it ye who left that fallen dwarf in yonder pit?" One of the dwarves asks, a look of contempt on his face.

"He was quite heavy..." George stutters as he replies. The dwarves huddle together for a moment.

"Alright," the dwarf says, "We'll help ye for 30 gold and no less."

"Could we make it 20?" George asks.

George: Charisma check (14)

10 +4 difficulty modifier = 14

Success!

"Alright ye cruel man-bastard, 20 it is." The dwarf grabs the crowbar, sticks it into the door and taps it lightly with his hammer. It swings open. The room has a balcony high up on the north wall, with a rope tied to it and hanging down. There is a large cube of smooth stone in the middle of the room. The dwarves look around, then head back the way they came.

Sarry climbs up the rope to the balcony while the others examine the cube.

Is there treasure on the balcony? 1-2 on a D6.

No.

She comes back down again and sighs in frustration. There are doors in the north and east walls, so they all try listening at both. None of them hear anything so Sarry tries the north door, which is locked.

Sarry: Open lock (15%)

7

Success!

She opens the door and walks in. Unbenknownst to the party this is a one-way door which won't open from inside the next room. Do either of the other party members follow her in? (50% chance each).

Alinn does, and the door swings shut behind them. It's an empty stone room with two doors in the north wall. Alinn tries to open the door to let George in but finds it won't budge. They both call to him, and he opens it from the other side, holding it open while Sarry goes to the north door and finds it leads to a dead end corridor, with only the other door of this room in it. They walk back into the previous room, letting the one-way door swing shut behind them.

As they walk over to the door in the east wall of the room with the cube and balcony, a five foot long blue gecko watches them from the ceiling, upside down.

The reaction roll is "unfriendly, may attack". Does it? 50% chance.

No

The adventurers fail to notice the giant lizard. As Sarry touches the doorhandle she remembers the one-way door and the pit trap that killed Durgan. She examines the door closely and asks the others to as well. None of them can find anything strange about it so she tries to turn the handle. It's locked, and a trapdoor opens under her. She instinctively reaches out, dropping her shortsword.

Sarry: Dexterity check (8)

4

Success!

She grabs the edge of the pit and this time both Alinn and George are there to grab her arms and haul her out. She tries to hook her shortsword and pull it up with the grappling hook and rope.

Sarry: Dexterity check (8)

18

Failure!

She can't do it and neither can George or Alinn. They're going to try again (after a wandering monsters roll). Luckily she's able to get it the second time. She stands next to the pit and tries to pick the lock, but fails. Frustrated, the party sits down on the floor and looks at the map Sarry has been making. It looks like they can go all the way back to the room where they met the halflings and try the portcullis in the western wall. That should lead them back towards this part of the dungeon. They begin trudging back through the rooms and corridors to that room.

Luckily the journey is uneventful and they leap over the first pit easily. The halflings are nowhere to be seen and their fire is dying down now. George lifts the portcullis and they repeat the crowbar trick to get underneath it. The room beyond is bare, with an archway in the north wall and a door in the south. While they're looking around they notice a horrible stench, then the western wall seems to come alive and move suddenly. A camoflaged stone-grey troglodyte jumps out from its hiding place and swipes at George with its claws, slashing him! It swings again and tries to bite him but he fends off its further attacks with his warhammer.

George can just about stomach the stench of the creature but Starry and Alinn can't bear it, and suffer -2 to their attack rolls. They charge it and swing with their swords but it dodges them easily. The troglodyte fights back, slashing Alinn's shoulder and then it bites deeply into George's neck, tearing a chunk out of him. He grabs at his neck helplessly then falls to the ground dead. Again it dodges Alinn and Sarry's attacks and carries on slashing at them, slaying them both easily with its claws before they can fight back. Finally the stinking creature crouches down and starts eating Alinn's corpse, happy to have secured food that will last for several days.

My Thoughts

Wow, that really was old school! They died in the first fight with one monster, unable to even hit it. It was a fun experiment though, and the random dungeon generator on Donjon worked really well. It's always hard to find a balance when playing solo between having enough party members to give you a chance of survival and minimising the dice rolls so you're not sat there all night just playing through a single combat encounter.

The only thing I'm not sure works in the OSE rulebook is the rules on stuck doors. It says each character gets one chance to force a door open and then that's it, they can't do it. I think it would be reasonable for the characters to make some kind of battering ram out of furniture in the dungeon or a tree just outside, and then try again with all of them putting their strength together, or alternatively do what I did and roll for wandering monsters each time so there's a risk involved. Otherwise there's no point rolling a D6 over and over until they do it, you may as well remove all stuck doors from the game and not have them as a feature.

I'd definitely try OSE solo again, but it'll be after I've had a go at some other OSR style games I've got waiting for me...