Play Report Mar 10 2026 - Crow's Keep #29
Introduction
Bade farewell to two of my mainstay players due to scheduling changes! I first ran a game for them when they were teenagers at another game store. It was a 5e campaign, kind of a science fantasy, Arthuriana-tinged game. Was a great experience overall but was the start of my disillusionment with the Fifth Edition of the Worldβs Roleplaying Gameβfound it was difficult to achieve the tone and game I wanted. How things change!
For this game, I used the GOAT d4Caltropsβs Dolmenwood Dozen. The Haunted Hermitage formed the basis, but I changed the context a bit. As I donβt have the Dolmenwood books, I converted on the fly with the DCC bestiary, and made it up or guessed where there was no equivalent.
Some things I did:
- Stomachache ivy, DC 13 touch or sickened (can either move or take a single action for 1d6 turns)
- Blessed breadcrumbs - In addition to the warding implied can be eaten to lift a minor curse or heal ability damage. Can also be crumbled and sprinkled to prevent demons and undead from passing. Recipe is a sourdough starter made with holy water drawn from the Hermitage.
The ruin-monster who occupies the dreaded snake-eyes slot on the Emridy Meadows encounter table is a ruins elemental from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual V. It throws rocks (buildings) and crits as a giant, is vulnerable to fire, and has a whopping 15d12+15 HD.
I also experimented with some rules for purchasing serious magic items; specifically a luck-influenced brokerage system. This will be the subject of a future post!
Report
In attendance:
- HBGB, level 2 halfling, and his retainer Ingham the Priest
- Boris the Chestmaker, level 1 dwarf
- Bart the Butcher, level 1 warrior
- Kaledar of the Old Ways, level 2 cleric, and his juvenile griffon Gilgamesh
- Aislinn the Quick, level 2 thief
Eager to lift the curses plaguing over half their number, the Ogre-whelming Force set out for Saint Olimβs, a priory in Emridy Meadows. It was said the namesake baker once made bread that could absorb evil like a bad night of drinking. They availed themselves of horses and rode out into the land of ruined towns and villages.
Bart the Butcher retained the services of a broker to purchase a magic helm in the shape of a deep-sea mollusk. The broker took a sizable fee of gold, while the seller requested that Bart exchange one of his fingers for the helm.
Along the way, they saw what looked like a mass of buildings churning and rolling in the distance. Loud rumbles could be heard all about, and even the brave band decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Saint Olimβs was a small stone building right up against the water, though it was clear from the worn-smooth gravestones peeking up from the water that it had not been so close in the past. Tan correctly identified the vines choking the building as stomachache ivy, and used the Wand of Arboreal Duplicity to coax the sickening plants out of a window to allow the party access.
Inside, the band discovered that the church had come to an unhappy end. Upon the floor lay a mushroom-infested skeleton of a lay brother, his windpipe crushed. The remaining clergy had fallen victim to some curse of their own, becoming hateful and strangling revenants!
The band dispatched them, though Bart was quite hurt in the melee. He was saved from certain death by his nautilus helm, which turned him into a boneless puddle and allowed him to escape from the grasp of the restless dead.
Pressing on, the Force came upon the defiled sanctuary, which was haunted by a screeching will-o-wisp. As the bandβs weapons passed through its otherworldly form, the lanternβs eerie green light aged and drained the band. At last, Ingham fell upon the altar and invoked Justicia to cleanse the Hermitage. To the band's amazement, Justicia answered! The will-o-wisp was pushed back into the eddying waters of the River Goblindrink, and the remaining evil dead crumbled to ash.
Eager to have a sanctified foothold in cursed Emridy Meadows, the band tolled the bell and set about reinforcing the place. In their canvass of the church, they found a whole loaf of blessed bread, still preternaturally fresh; a recipe to make aforementioned bread, a sort of sourdough fed with holy water; a hagiography describing a nearby Saintβs tomb; and the vile volume that no doubt brought about the doom of Saint Olimβs. And this all is to say nothing of the fine church goods and reliquaries that the priests suck at the Keep would reward them for finding!
Curses lifted but tired and wounded, the band spent the night safely there. All through the night, the distant sounds of battle carried throughout Emridy Meadows, no doubt the dead relitigating their old clash. In the morning, they tolled the church bell to announce their victory and honor their friend Zig.
HBGB enlisted the party in a sidequest of his own. As the most adventuresome of the local merchant guildβs silent partners, he had been tasked with locating a caravan lost in Emridy Meadows. Searching for the better part of the day, the band found the broken-down cartβcargo intact, but no men or horses to be seen. The band spent a number of hours leveraging Aislinn and HBGBβs talents to repair the wagon and hitch their own horses to it.
On the way back to the Keep, the band became thoroughly acquainted with the source of yesterday's rumblingβa juggernaut made of ruined buildings was barreling toward them!
The band narrowly evaded a shed flung by the titan, their wagon weaving and careening through a tangle of crumbling homesteads. Kaledar, unarmored, flew off astride his juvenile griffin Gilgamesh to drop Zelligarβs napalm upon it! The pair was nearly blown out of the sky by a speeding cornerstone.
As the monster gained on the band, Aislinn shot out a failing joist by its leg, causing it to teeter and fall. By the time the ruin-walker had righted itself, the Ogre-whelming Force was long gone!