Play Report Apr 14 2026 - Crow's Keep #33
Introduction
Smallest session yet to fire with just two players! We made it work, using yet another of the inimitable ktrey's Dolmenwood Dozen. These have been so useful for filling out the Borderlands, despite how few Dolmenwood materials I have. I was a big fan of Wormskin, though. In this case I did reference a borrowed copy of the bestiary for the blood wyrm.
Interesting ruling that kind of lingered with me for awhile. When the blood wyrm did its boiling spew attack, it was going to kill Tan and Aislinn more or less outright as they failed their Reflex saves. We didn't have an immediately apparent fallback, and Tan's player proposed that he spellburn 26 points (which would leave him weak and sickly for nearly a month of game time) to beseech his patron, the King of Elfland, for rescue. As it had a chance for failure, and I loved the image of a scalded and staggering elf howling for his King, I decided to allow it this once.
For awhile I didn't feel terribly confident about allowing it; part of me wondered if it was against the spirit of DCC to allow something like this. After reflecting upon it, I stand by it. The opportunity cost was steep; on success, Tan would have been hobbled for a long time; he may well die from another failed save or whiff a key check. There was 25% for it to fail anyway, resulting in death; and Tan was required to perform an obtuse quest for the KingβI had the Hound ready to go, which has insanity and transformation as possible consequences. And that mental image! I think the player earned it and amply paid for Tan's survival.
I'm a little behind on play reports for this campaign, but we haven't been able to play much the past few weeks due to illness and scheduling. Eager to keep at it; we seem to be moving into the final stages of the Caves of Chaos, which means DCC 100 and Mike's World are around the corner!
Report
In attendance:
- Tan Gnollbane, level 2 elf
- Aislinn Half-Orc, level 2 thief
With a number of hired rivermen marines, include one named Marrow and another with no name, who fought with distinction as level 1 warriors.
Tan and Aislinn set out on a side job of their own, with most of the rest of the Ogre-whelming Force indisposed for the time being. Tan had spent some days studying the facsimile of the Necronomicon recovered from Saint Olim's, which caused his face to take on a serpentine cast. Eager to avoid further complications, the elf enlisted Aislinn to locate a place of power and protect against the worst complications of the book.
While gathering rumors, Aislinn learned that the original master of the shrine in the Caves of Chaos was a priest by the name of Ambrosius, who was said to have many disciples. Chief among them was one Hieronymus, a master of fire and shadows, but all the disciples were thought to have been slain after the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Aislinn mused that perhaps another had survived, for the voice in the shrine was that of an old woman.
Mallory Weaver, the spider-witch, told them that prehistoric Woodfolk had worshiped and communed with the gods at standing stones south of the swamp, but in the intervening millennia had become a haunted and cursed place due to a wicked priest's bloody sacrifices. An antlered spirit was said to wander the stones and claim the lives of the unwary.
The pair embarked aboard the Force's ironclad keelboat with a crew of Bill the Boatman's riverfarers. They came to a sickly, rust-colored mire at the southern edge of the Fell Fens. With her orcish senses, Aislinn quickly determined that this backwater was inundated with blood.
As they pressed into the thick bramble of the blood-swamp, ancient skeletons emerged from the muck, no doubt to seek recompense for their own sacrifice with fresh blood! As the dead attacked Tan and Aislinn, the blood-swamp seemed to coagulate around their feet. Although they were often frozen in place by the scabrous mire, the pair smashed through the old red bones.
As the blood deepened around their knees, the pair came upon an expanse of blood like a vernal pool. Within lurked a foul worm with the head of a neolithic Woodfolk, which spewed boiling blood upon Aislinn and Tan! With doom all but assured, the dying Tan mortgaged his youth and health to invoke the King of Elfland. The mercurial lord answered, and both were spirited away to Elfland to recover.
Back at the boat, the rivermen grew impatient. Who would pay them if their employers were dead? Marrow the coxswain and an unnamed crewman took up arms and set off after Tan and Aislinn.
The careful marines spotted the worm now sleeping, and opted to give it a wide berth. Two pairs of empty boots left in the bloody mud hinted at their employers' fate. Veering away to see if there was some coin elsewhere, a sprite with bee-wings and an acorn for a head appeared and offered them aid in in slaying the worm. The fairy bequeathed them a pair of childrens' wooden swords for the task.
Despite the dubious lethality of the wooden weapons, Marrow and friend crept up upon the slumbering worm and drove their blades deep into its red and oozing hide! As the monster thrashed about and spewed, the pair maneuvered around to its rear and dispatched it once and for all!
Now safe to explore the pool, Marrow dredged a fine gold chalice from the swamp. Though surely there was more loot submerged in blood, the pair decided it was an ample score and sailed back to Hommlet.
Some weeks later, elvish emissaries deposited Tan and Aislinn in their beds in the Keep. Tan was much worse for wearβaged and sickly, with no hope for recovery until he ventured to the erstwhile lair of the Hound of Glenfarne and meditated on the tar pit there. The pair made haste to oblige their benefactor. Tan nearly succumbed to madness, but extracted a dark orb through his contemplation of the dead demon's pool. This orb was claimed by the King of Elfland, who restored Tan's ability to recuperate.
Returning again to the standing stones, Tan and Aislinn were faced with the roaming spirit, who sought satisfatction in ritual combat with the living! Tan and Aislinn were happy to oblige the long-dead champion, who passed on to the afterlife once bested.
Now that the place had been thoroughly exorcised, the pair claimed their riches from the blood-pool of the worm. Tan was satisfied with the standing stones, and began to plan further study of his facsimile...