The Fourth Adventure

[coffee]

Wilbur would also be ready to go. He knows nothing of these caves, but they can't possibly be more uncomfortable hanging around here, being useless.

[acodispo]

Sounds like we've got a party! Willie gathers his gear together, checks the oil in Lantern III, and prepares to march at the head of the party.

As the party is gathering, he raises a question: "Ms. Ursa asked us to keep things dark down there, so as not to disturb her research. I recall being able to see pretty well once we got to the cavern, but not before then. We have to decide whether to keep things dark, and risk missing some clue about what happened to Ms. Ursa, or use our lights and risk wrecking her research! What do you all think?"

[kipper]

"We should try keeping it dark first, but if we can't find anything we'll have to use light," is Dame Simonetta's opinion.

[mgtremaine]

"Hope it wasn't the dark that did this to her" Kiplyn says to no one in particular.

[mushgnome]

OOC:

A couple of quick administrative details.

First, if you can double-check your inventory here (the Google Sheet which is my master/canonical record), that would be great: http://forum.immersiveink.com/viewtopic ... 896#p29896

Second, a question about the maps: I'm overdue in posting the map for the Third Adventure. Is it helpful/fun to keep a separate, historical map of each Delve (as I have been doing) or is it more convenient if I just make one big master map of all the explored-so-far areas? (coffee don't look!) http://forum.immersiveink.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=835

@coffee, there's about to be some weird stuff about "Rules" but my advice is, just roll with it and play along. I confess it is kind of self-indulgent DM'ing on my part, but it's rooted in an interesting thought experiment that was the genesis of this campaign: You've probably heard the concept of "Mythic Underworld" in old school gaming? I got to thinking, if mega-dungeons are inherently Chaotic, then maybe the act of Adventuring itself is inherently Lawful? And so Adventure Club was hatched!

@acodispo, good job remembering Ursa's darkness clause. I wasn't going to mention it, and see if any of you brought it up.

[mushgnome]

Whenever Frederick has a moment alone with the returning Adventurers (Willie, Dougal, Kiplyn, and Dame Simonetta), he whispers, "This new chap Wilbur seems like a nice guy, but I don't think he knows about the password. What do you think? I like him. Should we let him in anyway? Quick vote: All in favor say 'aye,' all opposed say 'neigh.' It's unanimous: the ayes have it. I'll let you bring Wilbur up to speed on What We Do Here and teach him the Rules, while I tend to Ursa. Oh I almost forgot! See if you can recover her pack; she might have healing potions that would help revive her."

The final preparations are in place. Any last details before you go down in a hole in the ground, now or never.

Who is first down the ladder, and where are we slotting Wilbur in the marching order?

[kipper]

Dame Simonetta strides forward to take the lead, and is first down the ladder.

[acodispo]

"Aye!" says Willie cheerfully in response to Wilbur's joining the Club.

Willie takes 2nd rank behind Dame S, and will march alongside her when possible. He doesn't light Lantern the Third but has it ready, tied to his pack!

Willie's inventory looks good!

Maps: The per-adventure maps are certainly helpful for remembering at a glance what we did, but unnecessary if they are a lot of extra work for you.

Marching order (suggestion):

Single File
Dame S
Willie
Kiplyn
Dougal
Wilbur

Double
Willie.|.Dame S
Kiplyn.|.Dougal
.....Wilbur....

[mushgnome]

Maps: The per-adventure maps are certainly helpful for remembering at a glance what we did, but unnecessary if they are a lot of extra work for you.

Flavor-wise, I have a slight preference for the "per adventure" maps, because they feel folksy and "scrapbooky" to me. One quirk of the Hobbet species is that (for the most part, current company excluded) they are reluctant to go on Adventures, but they love writing about them after the fact.

I'll let a couple more players chime in. These maps are actually trivially easy for me to make: The map is on a background layer, so I just use the eraser tool to erase the top layer, revealing the map underneath. Believe it or not, the most time consuming thing is re-numbering the rooms! I don't use the published room numbers because I think they can be "spoiler-y." For example if you've explored rooms 1-16 and 18-30, then you might think, "hey guys, I think we missed a secret door between rooms 16 and 18." So I just re-number the rooms in the order you explore them. It's a little more work for me, but it gives the players fewer clues about the dungeon layout.

In the beginning, I briefly considered making the players keep their own map (I know some of you are really good at this) but the cavern environment is just too twisty and irregular.

[mushgnome]

Here is what Wilbur sees:

The cramped back room of the House of Pancakes is a combination storage room for the restaurant and sleeping area for Frederick. Dame Simonetta moves a large barrel of maple syrup to the side, revealing a trap door. She opens the trap door to reveal a ladder down into the darkness. One by one, the Hobbet Heroes follow her down the ladder into the Unknown. It appears they aren't using any torches or lanterns and will be adventuring blind; are they insane?!?

How confident is Wilbur feeling, on a scale of 1-10, and is there anything special he does to psych himself up for the descent? A little pre-game ritual or superstition, perhaps, or some words of wisdom his Pa always used to say?