Winter's Daughter Play Report (x2)

Prolegomena

Over the winter break I had the opportunity to run Winter's Daughter twice, both times using Old School Essentials. I thought I'd put a quick writeup here of running the module as a relatively new GM. This is also an excuse for me to work on recording my thoughts to better express myself. In preparation for these games I made a number of pre-gen characters to help things start off quickly. I picked a subset from the Advanced Rules book and the Mage and Acolyte from Carcass Crawler. To help balance out the characters some, I gave those with the worse stats more starting gold and the ones with better stats less gold (inspired by Electric Bastionland/Into the Odd). I rolled the starting amount in OSE (3d6 * 10) a number of times equal to the characters I was making and then assigned the values to individual characters. When making the pre-gens, I also made sure each character had some interesting piece of equipment for the players to play around with and to encourage them to get creative in their problem style in the old school way. 

Cast of Characters

The first session was with my brother and his wife while we were together over Christmas. I gave them each two characters to give them better odds of survival. The PCs in this session were:

Stromboli the Gnome (Chaotic 1) - starting with javelins, oil, a brass bell, and other odds and ends.

Thomas Bahamaus aka Rod Stanley aka Dicks Gambino aka Mr. Mow Your Yard aka Oh Canada, the Fighter (Chaotic 1) - had a polearm and platemail

Lady Lazervere the Magic-User (Lawful 1) - knows sleep and has a box of candles

Arowen the Half-Elf (Neutral 1) - comes with a sword and some twine and not much else

As you can tell, this wasn't a very serious game (Thomas Bahamaus's character portrait was a picture of Boomhauer).

The portraits of some of the PCs. Stromboli
the Gnome is easily the most problematic
PC I've ever had.

A few days later, between Christmas and New Year's, I ran a session for some former co-workers/classmates. Here, we had:

Cletus the Elf (Chaotic 1) - One of my favorite character names. Due to their high starting stats (4 +1 bonuses and no penalties), Cletus basically started with only weapons and a shield.

Alpiander the Acolyte of Mephassurous (Neutral 1) - The Acolyte class comes from Carcass Crawler and is essentially a reskinned Cleric that uses skill checks like a thief rather than spells. I handed this player the Petty Gods pdf and let him pick a god to serve. I found it amusing that he picked the god of mislaid and unanswered prayers. I think that there's a lot of interesting lore we could flesh out in what it means to serve such a god.

Gloin Ironbeard the Dwarf (Lawful 1) - A proper dwarf name. This player had never played a TTRPG before (actually most of the players in this group hadn't) and was especially excited at the prospect of playing a dwarf. Gloin  started with a mining pick, a banjo, and barley wine.

Brad the Barbarian (Neutral 1) - Despite the barbarian tropes regarding intelligence, this player was one of the ones who has experience with TTRPGs and so had the best idea what was going on and often helped keep things progressing by just running ahead to the next area.

The Halfling (Lawful 1) - This player decided to name his PC after another player at the table, so I'll suppress the character's name out of a respect for privacy. Due to the halfling's bonus to missile attacks and his high Dex, this PC wound up being one of the most effective ones in combat.

Madame Lady Glitter Sparkles the Elf (Chaotic 1) - This was the replacement PC once Cletus died, but it happened so late game that we really didn't get a defining moment for her.

So the second group was slightly more serious, but only just.

Outside the Tomb

I started off the adventures with a slightly modified version of one of the player hooks. The PCs had each been having mysterious dreams about an elfin woman beckoning them to help her find her lost love. Eventually, the PCs felt compelled to get up and start travelling, not sure where they were going. They came to the Red Rooster Inn, on the edge of the Dolemwood Forest, last night, and fell into discussion with one another, discovering that they had all been having these same dreams. After they went to bed, they had a new dream, of entering a burial mound and taking a ring off a skeleton's finger. This morning, they got up and headed into the forest, being guided by some unknown force. Now, about midday, they are on a forest path, the trees so thick they can't see the path behind them. Up ahead, they can see some large stones through the trees and the faint sound of metal clinking is in the air.

And that's where I started them off, with them at location 1 in the adventure. I didn't give them a lot from the player-side background information. I think that was fine, there could have been more of a pay off if they knew more about the history of the war with Farie, but it helped keep things simple and start off quickly.

Starting in the area 1, I tried to emphasize that the party sees large stones up ahead and could hear the faint clinking of metal, but there's nothing really to do there except for going forward. One of the groups (I forget which) struggled with what to do, being new to TTRPGs, when just left in the middle of the woods. I should have had them start in motion, they're on the path, they see the stones up ahead, they hear the clanking of metal, but the group has been walking in this direction and is still heading that way. They have the chance to talk to one another or take a cautious approach, but if they do nothing, then they find themselves in the clearing.

The Whything Stones were a good mood setter. The metal owls were mysterious (one PC shot one with his bow, another tried to steal one) and the stag skeleton was pretty creepy and set the tone that things could get weird. Again, I stressed that they could see a large hill beyond the stones to keep them from dwalding here too long or being confused as to what to do.

The mound itself is where the two parties really diverged. The second group had enough people/strength to simply open the door and proceed while the first group couldn't. I gave them the option to break down the door though it would take an hour, but my brother immediately decided to search around the exterior of the mound first and found the worm hole. Stromboli decided to throw a brass bell down the hole to see how deep it is, which naturally attracted the wormtongues, kicking off the first combat of the session. A lucky nat. 1 from a wormtongue helped keep the party safe and early on, Stromboli dove down the hole to recover his lost bell, sitting in darkness for a few rounds while he attempted to light a candle. The rest of the party soon joined him in the abandoned priest's quarters. I think this fight would have been more interesting if I didn't automatically initiate it. I'm thinking of Information, Choice, Impact here from Chris McDowell. Throwing the bell down the hole should have alerted the PCs that there's something in the hole (it riles up the wormtongues but they don't leave the hole yet), giving them a choice: do they go back to the main tomb entrance, breaking through the doors or face the monsters in the hole or come up with a third option?

The map (drawn on wrapping paper)
after one of the sessions.

Inside the Tomb

Back to the other group, they entered straight into the Hall of Guardians, where relics came to life and attacked some of the party members. Honestly, this fight is my least favorite part of the module. The objects have low HP, but enough to survive a bad damage roll, and a relatively high AC compared to what a 1st level character will roll. In both sessions, I feel like there were just rounds of a bunch of misses on each side with only one or two hits total. I think next time I run this adventure, I'll replace the fight with a single statue of a knight who comes to life to defend the tomb in the same manor (maybe I'll have the stag skeleton reanimate to attack the PCs from the rear - if they want to flee, they'll have to run blindly deeper into the tomb). It should be a quicker fight if I give it a more reasonable AC and it'll create some tension when PCs encounter statues later in the the tomb - most are actually harmless but this could clue them into the threat of the dog statues.

They then went west, to the room with the blindfolded statue. One of the PCs (Alpiander, I believe) removed the blindfold from it and I informed him that he recognized the statue as being of the woman from their dreams. The adventure gives no special purpose to the blindfold, as far as I can tell, but I think he kept it, so I might try to come up with a purpose to it if the PCs hold onto it. Maybe it has significance to the Drunes, who want to reclaim it, or perhaps putting it on grants a magical ability (like Darkvision or being able to communicate with Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk). From there they went north to the chapel of St. Sedge where Alpiander took the statue of the saint with him but no one found the secret door to the priest's quarters.

The first group, regrouped in the priest's quarters, found the book on the desk and the treasure box and moved on to the chapel, where they witness a pair of floating skeletons, dancing arm in arm through the room. They went north to the Hall of Hounds. They didn't check out the door, but rather went south into the Family Crypt and fought those two skeletons in order to rummage through the tombs (which hold nothing of value to the adventurers). Stromboli almost fell in the fissure due to his fellow PCs being on the fence to rescue him due to his chaotic nature thus far. In the end, this near-death experience (or so he thought) led him to change his ways and try to be good. They then went into the Hall of Guardians and had that same fight with the religious objects. One thing I liked about this room was that the fight would kick up the dust and reveal a mosaic of Sir Chyde beneath the dust. That was a neat reveal for both parties. Luckily both parties had a member who could read Old Woldish and translate them (I had everyone with bonus languages roll randomly for them).

The second group went back to the room with the blindfolded statue and decided to descend the stairs and found themselves in a forest clearing. In retrospect, I should have stressed that they now found themselves in a winter setting and it was most not definitely winter when they entered the tomb to really hit home the point that something really weird was going on. The tower in the middle of the frozen lake was the obvious landmark to head to. Brad the Barbarian (played by my most chaotic and rowdy player) decided to climb the tower rather than go in the door and rolled well on their Climb Sheer Surfaces skill. So Brad went straight to the 3rd floor and started a conversation with Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk while the rest of the party went in the front door and started a conversation with Griddlegrim. Brad got all the information from Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk without problem - the PCs are currently in Farie, she's separated from her love Sir Chyde and the PCs need to find his ring in the tomb and bring it to her and she will reward them greatly. The other PCs had a good time with Griddlegrim. Gloin shared some of his barley wine with Griddlegrim which made him more receptive with the PCs and so he agreed to let them in if they each ate a fungi from his pouch, which required a d12 roll on a table of random effects. Gloin shrunk down to 6", Cletus's eyes enlarged and began to emit light in a 30' cone, Alpiander's body turned transparent, and the Halfling's hair grew to be 10' long. At this point, Brad came downstairs, took in what was happening, and decided to eat a mushroom (though they didn't have to) and gained a +1 to CON. Then the PCs had some fun trying to eat more mushrooms, only to immediately start vomiting (which happens when you eat more than one a day). Brad caught them up to speed on what the princess wanted and Alpiander tried to barter for the Pouch of Limitless Fungi. Eventually, they returned to their world via the forest path, coming up the stairs into the room with the Freezing Mirror.

The first group also went east from the Hall of Guardians into the same room. Lady Lazervere was  frozen by the mirror and so the party destroyed it to keep the rest of them safe. Arowen had a scroll of hold person from the abandoned priest's quarters and her player had the idea to cast it reversed to cure Lady Lazervere. She hadn't played RPGs before so definitely didn't know about the concept of reversed spells, this was just an idea she came up with on her own. I loved the creativity so I went with it even though it goes against a couple rules of OSE. With the second group, Alpiander was first up the stairs, but since he was still invisible and couldn't see himself in the mirror, we decide that it can't effect him and then Brad pushed over the mirror, breaking it. The mirror is a neat trap and the referee's notes specify that its quite valuable but, due to its danger, both groups broke it just to be safe. I would have loved to seem them try to bring the mirror with them and use it as a weapon, but oh well.

Both groups went north to the statue room from here. The statues definitely put them on edge, but they mostly looted new weapons and found the mural (with Chedr's name). The first group doubled back and took the stairs down and found themselves in Farie. They went to the tower and befriended Griddlegrim, being allowed access to the tower in exchange for eating fungi from his pouch (Stromboli turned permanently purple). They received the same information from Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk as the other group and went out, looking for the ring. At this point, we realized that it was 3 AM and we had to stop for the night. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to finish up the adventure (which is a shame, they had been to every room in the dungeon except for the knight's tomb).

The second group here went north into the Hall of Hounds. One PC (Brad) struck one of the hound's chains with his axe, but I ruled that wasn't enough to break it (as an act of mercy). As they were examining the inscription on the door, one PC took to the door with a crowbar to break it open. Upon touching the door, the two stone dog statues came to life, attacking the PCs. Three of them beat the dogs on initiative and ran away in separate directions (the Halfling and Brad went to the west to the chapel and Alpiander went to the east, to the mural in the room of statues. The dogs missed Gloin and struck and killed Cletus, whose magically altered eyes were serving as the party's light source, leaving Gloin in the dark. This dungeon is small enough that the PCs can get pretty far across it in a single combat round. Alpiander searched the mural for the other dog's name but couldn't find it. Convinced that they had missed something, Brad and the Halfling manage to find the passage behind the tapestry in the chapel. They go to the priest's quarters and find the copper plate with Flaegr's name. They hear the wormtongues approaching and immediately left the room, jamming the door behind them. The party convenes in the family crypt with Madame Lady Glitter Sparkles, the new PC to replace Cletus, and kill the dancing skeletons to get no loot. Alpiander touches the slime and is dismayed to find that he is now permanently weightless. Brad ties a rope around his ankle and they go into the knight's tomb using the names of the two dogs to open the door. They briefly speak to the ghost of the knight, take the ring and go straight to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, who thanks them profusely and gives them a handsome reward.

Concluding Thoughts

I had a great time running this adventure. Getting to run it multiple times was great, as I felt more comfortable with it the second time which helped things go smoothly. The magic-users/elves never used their spells. I guess since they only got one, it felt too special or perhaps they simply forgot about them. For the second group, Alpiander turning weightless provides a great hook for a next adventure - they need a magical cure for him and I can easily set up rumors that whichever dungeon I want to run has it. I don't know what play would be like for him, though. With the setup to this Winter's Daughter, I gave the PCs a very specific quest with a narrowly focused goal. I feel like that worked for these groups (especially the second group), but it also set up the expectation that they would not have to decide their own goals for the party. If we're able to keep playing together, I'd talk to them about what they were interested in doing and work to build adventures and hooks around that to keep them interested and delving. Overall, the adventure itself was great and I think Winter's Daughter can be a perfect introductory adventure for OSE or a similar system. I'll definitely be keeping it in my back pocket for future introductory adventures.