Grendel's Stepdad

Play Report Oct 21 2025 - DCC Keep on the Borderlands Open Table (IRL)

Introduction

Doom of the Savage Kings part two! The module has been a huge hit at the table. The loot has been spot on, oohs and aahs every time, and the drama of the Jarl and Hirot (renamed Glenfarne here) has resonated with them. I have felt the chafe of the module’s structure here and there, a sort of underlying conveyor belt trying to get PCs to the next thing. Next time I run, I may go a little further making it less linear, but if the table ever felt railroaded they hid it very well.

Much better session organization-wise than last time. The group really locks in when it’s time to smash through a dungeon. Communication was clear, caller was effective, and the group was savvy and engaged. This is also the first campaign where I’ve had an eager mapper at the table; Glenn’s player studied art, so was able to lay down an excellent map on the fly. Felt bad erasing it!

We had a new player join the table this week, the first who has played Dungeon Crawl Classics previously. As the player behind Rudy was out sick and could not command his hirelings, I figured it would be best to hand him a couple level 0s and call it a mini funnel. This worked great; one of the hirelings suffered an incredibly gory death nearly immediately, and a clear frontrunner in the halfling emerged. Some excellent kayfabe on his part, as he admitted to having played Doom of the Savage Kings before.

I was also quietly pleased by how I ushered Rudy offscreen for the session. Since the past few sessions have picked up where the prior has left off, it was nice to be able to preserve the open table/drop-in drop out element of the table while tackling a beefier module. With a regular corps of players, I feel I can get the best of both worlds with an open table and a more serialized-feeling campaign.

I also took the time to write down my open table session agenda! I have been running it this way for awhile now, but haven't taken the time to make it formal. We usually have a little over 3 hours or so to play, so I try to keep it tight. Here’s what I do:

We had our second level-up as well, so ended up pulling that into the wrap up. Carrick and Rudy are now level 2 warriors, about 13 sessions in. I like this pace a lot; I feel like the magic items from &&&&&&&Treasure and Wonder & Wickedness have been so interesting to both me and the players that the XP advancement has not been the focus here.

Report

In attendance:

As well as the four hirelings, suddenly imbued with a newfound bravery and a mysterious divine spark…

With the threshold’s guardian water-spirit quelled, the Ogre-whelming Force prepared to enter the serpent-mound barrow in search of the Hound’s curse and any boons left behind by the ancients. Rudy stayed behind to mind the entrance, suspicious that someone may have followed the band to the tomb. The rest of the group pressed on.

Over time, the wetland had begun to intrude upon the tomb. The band moved carefully over the slippery stone of the ancient barrow, narrowly avoiding a pit filled with upright bronze spears. Birdy’s owl familiar scouted the area below the pit, finding evidence of a recent struggle–two daggers and dried blood. The wizard then read from one of the spider-witch’s scrolls and crawled along the wall to set up a safety line on the other side of the pit, allowing the band to safely negotiate the treacherous slope.

Beyond the pit, the band found two esteemed warrior tombs, one marked with a lion and the other with a bear. Though the lion-tomb had collapsed, the band found a burnished bronze shield with a visage of a terrifying lion in the rubble.

In the bear-tomb, the Ogre-whelming Force was beset by two baggy ghouls, whose loose dry skin seemed animated by something within. No doubt these were some of the lads from Glenfarne who had trespassed upon this place and awakened the curse! One of the men-at-arms, a career mercenary, was rent to bits, and Carrick briefly danced with his own death. When Glenn seemingly brought down one of the ghouls, a serpent burst forth from the sloughed off skin!

The twin serpents struck again and again, leaving Kaledar, Glenn, Carrick, and Zig all with black and numb wounds. At last, the band prevailed over the undead. By some miracle, Kaledar’s healing arts set straight the party’s ghoul-wounds. A fine boon from the Horned God!

From the bear-tomb, Glenn claimed a magic bearskin hood and cloak, joining that hoary old brotherhood of berserkers.

The halls of the crypt terminated before a sealed door flanked by braziers. A seeming dead end, but Zig the dwarf’s careful examination of the room’s construction revealed a crawlspace above the door the banded used to enter. Before entering the tight shaft, Zig doffed his armor and Kaledar made an augury–the key to defeating the hound was close by!

Accompanied by one of the emboldened halfling men-at-arms, Zig the dwarf crept through the crawlspace, anticipating trap or ambush. A papery rustling ahead and above hinted at another ghoul-serpent lying in wait from above in a vertical shaft.. Zig bravely drew the revenant out of the crawlspace, putting his life on the line to save the group at large from disaster. As the dwarf and the serpent fell from the crawlspace, the rest of the band fell upon the monster.

From there, Zig and the halfling made their way up the shaft and were greeted by an awe-inspiring sight: the bones of a savage king still grasping a mighty bronze wolfspear, point down in dark stain upon the floor. Zig claimed the Wolfspear of Glenfarne and at once learned its grave purpose: trap the Hound in its corporeal form so that it may be slain once and for all!

The halfling retrieved a magic-drinking horn from the crypt, intuiting its powers of physic and protection. Surely anyone drinking from it would be assured safety and health, maybe even the chance to cheat death!

The dwarf, satisfied that this was the true tomb and anything beyond was surely a trap for less clever grave-robbers, signaled to the party that now was the time to retreat and prepare to hunt the Demon Hound!

Leaving the tomb, Rudy’s suspicions were confirmed–the chieftain of Glenfarne had dispatched his huntsmen to do away with the band and claim any glory for their liege! Kaledar took a grievous wound from one of their arrows, but Carrick’s sudden charge scattered the ambushers with and felled one with Rogahn’s sword.

The would-be assassins quickly surrendered and gave up the game. Rudy had run like the devil, evading their arrows but unable to warn his comrades. Glenn, still adjusting to the ancient wrath within his new bearskin, demanded that the huntsman testify against the chieftain and his wise man. Iraco, the master of the hunt, agreed.

Back in Glenfarne, the band revealed the chieftain’s crimes. The townsfolk, now filled with hope seeing a legendary spear returned to spill demon blood, deposed their chieftain and installed Broegan Haverson as the new chieftain. No resistance was offered by the chieftain’s thanes, who even aided in the arrest of the wise man. As the people of Glenfarne secured the chieftain’s hall, they hard evidence the chieftain and wiseman rigged the sacrifice lottery!

The sun now hung low in the horizon. Glenn and Kaledar proposed that a fitting punishment for such a crime was for the two men to serve as bait for the Hound…

#b2 #dcc #doom of the savage kings