Date: 11/3/12
Playtime: 6pm-10pm (Significant technical problems reduced actual playtime to about 2hrs 30minutes)
Players: Ronnie, Morrie
Characters: Garret, Drako
Hirelings: Harriette, Dorvan
Game Date: Deep Winter of the year 16,341 after The Fall (Calendar not yet implemented)
Session 1 began with two players. Garret the Thief, played by Ronnie, and Drako the Thief, played by Morrie.
The party went to the local tavern and announced they were heading into the tower depths. Drako asked if anyone would like to accompany them. Dorvan, a local woodsman and trapper, agreed to come along for 10gp/week and a half share of treasure.
No one else in the tavern was interested in coming along as Garret’s companion, so they went to the local blacksmith and asked if he, or either of his two apprentices would like to join for the same deal. The blacksmith turned to his apprentices and told them that he had been trying to figure out how to tell them that he couldn’t afford to keep them both through the winter. He advised that one of them take the offer, and Harriette did, joining the party as Garret’s hireling.
The party then attempted to inquire around town to see if they could get the town guard to accompany them into the depths, but the general feeling in town seemed to be that the town was safe enough, and sending guards into the depths was a death sentence. The party decided not to pursue that goal any further.

 
 
After descending into the tower, the party reached a room with 4 doors, one in each corner. They chose the south eastern door. It was locked, but Garret successfully unlocked it, and the party peered inside. Beyond the door was a short hallway, which opened into a very large, dark room. Drako threw her torch into the room, and managed to see a few pillars, but still could not see any walls. The party also heard chittering in the darkness.
They chose to follow the wall of the room east, trying to get a sense for its size. They made it about 40ft along the wall, and discovered a door, before a trio of crossbow bolts flew from the darkness. Bolts struck both Drako and Garret, but both managed to survive with 1hp remaining. The hirelings began to flee, and the players decided to follow. Since the distance to the door was significant, a dexterity check was required in order to avoid tripping in the darkness as the four characters made a mad dash for the doorway. Harriette failed, and stumbled to the floor. Before she could get up, the creatures in the darkness fired another crossbow, which struck her in the head, killing her.
The players returned to the first room and shut the door behind them, opting instead to try the south western door. They moved cautiously into the first room, and then through the corridor, until they reached an octagonal shaped room. Across from the entrance was a door, and on the six remaining walls were murals of men and women staring angrily straight out from the paintings. They were faded, but the players could tell that the figures were great warriors and mages on a field of battle. By testing with a 10ft pole, the players discovered a pressure plate in the center of the room which released a large stone boulder from a trap door.
After crossing through the room and exiting through the door, the players were faced with a choice between two 5ft wide hallways: one which turned north, and one which turned south. They chose the hallway which turned north, and followed it as it twisted and wound, eventually ending in a room filled with piled soft things, such as pillows and blankets. The room stank of urine. The players surmised that it may be a rats nest, and used their torches to set it on fire. It took some time to get the blaze going, but once they did they were rewarded with much screeching as a half dozen dire rats and their young were burnt to a crisp! Unfortunately, no loot was found, and the only other door in this room was a bathroom, so the players retraced their steps so they could head south.
On their way south they encountered a torture room, filled with iron maidens, racks, and a half-eaten, dessicated corpse in the center. While the players were examining this room they encountered a pair of dire rats, which they quickly put down with arrows. They also discovered that one of the room’s three iron maidens had a blunted spike. They tried to pull it like a lever, and were rewarded when a secret hatch in the wall opened, revealing 15 gold coins!
The party continued south until they reached a T intersection, and chose to move east. They found a small room with a tapestry on the wall, and a rug on the floor. They took the tapestry, and discovered behind it a small circular stone which didn’t match the rest of the stone bricks used to make up the wall. They pressed it with a 10ft pole, and a secret door opened behind them into a room filled with shelves, and a small table in the center with tools on it. The party began exploring the room, but did not notice the giant snake resting beneath the table. The snake slithered out and attacked the party. The battle continued for a long while, Garrett blunted his sword by hitting it against the floor, and Drako was fatally bitten. Fortunately, Dorvan rallied his courage and attacked the snake, lopping off its head.
Drako succeeded on her save v. death, but the muscles in her arm were badly damaged by the snake’s bite, and she permanently lost 1 point of strength.
The party looted the room, finding 3 bottles of blue liquid, 6 bottles of preservation material which Drako suspects to be very poisonous, 10 empty jars for misc. use, a set of rusty jewler’s tools, and a finely crafted necklace of a silver chain, with gold links in the front attached to sapphires.
The party then went West, and found an identical room. Using his 10ft pole. Garrett discovered a pit trap beneath the rug, and successfully avoided it. The party exited the southern door in this room, and reached an intersection, but the hour grew late, and the party decided this would be a good time to turn back so they could return fresh next week.

Post Session Thread:

GM:
First session of D&D&LB is completed! Congratulations to everyone for surviving your first delve into the Depths Beneath the Ancient Tower.
Everyone except poor Harriette, of course. Bear in mind that this will affect your ability to recruit hirelings in the future. Not only did she die on her first expedition, but you didn’t even return with her body to give her a proper burial. People will be more wary of signing up with you in the future, and may require more money if they do choose to work for you.
Here’s what you recovered this trip:
Necklace (Not Selling)
6 Jars of ‘Cancer Juice’ (Not Selling)
3 bottles of blue liquid (Not Selling)
15 Gold Coins
6% of giant snake skin (12 gp)
2 Giant Snake Fangs (9gp)
Rusty Jeweler’s Tools (40gp)
2 fine tapestries (100gp each)
That’s a total of 276 gold for the expedition. That’s 138 GP each
Ronnie & Morrie: You need some place to stay for the week while you heal up for your next expedition. You can sleep on the floor of the inn for 5gp/week, or get a private room for 10gp/week.
If you don’t have a private room, that increases the chances that someone might steal your stuff, since you’ll be sharing a space with a bunch of other people.
Morrie, remember that since you have a hireling, he gets 1/3rd of your experience points.
The easiest way to calculate that is this: Anytime you buy something, divide your XP by 3. Your hireling gets that many XP, and you get twice that many XP.
For example: if you spend 9 gold, you get 6 XP, your hireling gets 3 XP.
If any of you would like to do something in town during this week, let me know.
Ronnie:
i like the idea of getting a private room, i will pay the ten gold for that. i would also like to start cultivating relations with the towns people, here in there asking discreat questions about the neacklace, acting as if i had heard of it and not actually recovered it. the necklace is hiden in the matress of my bed.
GM:
Nobody in town seems to have heard of the necklace.
Make sure to reduce the amount of gold in your inventory, and apply it towards your XP.
GM:
I forgot to mention. You guys also picked up 10 empty jars which should currently be in Dorovan’s inventory as 2 encumbrance points. Additionally, Ronnie, your sword is blunted. As you recall, you currently need to roll 2d6 for damage, then whichever roll is lower is the amount of damage you deal.
If you would like to get the sword repaired, the blacksmith will do it for 1/2 of the sword’s original value.
Also, I’ve posted a play report for this session: https://www.paperspencils.com/ddlb-session-1/
I don’t promise I’ll do this for every session. We’ll see how it goes.