[This play report contains spoilers for Dolmenwood’s Winter’s Daughter adventure module. First part of this solo adventure is HERE.]

The snowstorm only hindered them for a bit. They were so close to Sir Chyde’s burial mound when the storm began that they found it and groped their way to the stone entrance.

Joremey was ready. He wanted to find the Lady, find her ring, be a hero. He led Lady Pouncemouse and Obb through the door, prying it open with a crowbar so they could get out of the snow and cold.

The tomb kept the snow out but not the cold. Obb managed to shake off the frigid air, but Joremey and Lady did not, further adding to their exhaustion (and hindering their ability to fight and do damage). Still, they were glad to be out of the snowstorm as they entered the tomb and descended twenty feet down stairs caked with dust. Everything was deathly silent, and there was a dank smell in the air. Moisture and mold pervaded the space. Lighting one of Joremey’s torches, Lady held it and led the way.

She stopped at a square room made of stone blocks. It was musty and wet, and the first thing she noticed were the four plinths, one in each corner of the room. Atop each plinth was an object covered in mustard-yellow mould. Her eyes lit up at the thought of treasure, but as soon as Lady stepped into the room, the objects floated into the air and screamed at her in shrill voices:

“Heathens! Repent, ye sinners! Godless fairies, godless heathens!”

The objects–a silver chapes, a wooden cherub statue, a holy book, and a thick liturgical candle–launched themselves violently at Lady, trying to strike her dead.

Luckily, my PCs won initiative, so Lady booked it across the room to a doorway on the right side, Obb and Joremey following quickly behind (Joremey’s plate armor clanking noisily). As soon as they fled into the other room, they heard the objects shout, “Serves ye right!”

Huffing for breath, Lady led them all down a ten-foot hallway to another chamber, a circular room that seemed less hostile (at first). This room was also constructed of stone blocks, but there was a chill atmosphere as they entered it. On the southeastern side of the circular room was an empty marble plinth (3′ across, 1′ high) with a full-length mirror behind it on the wall. The mirror was framed in silver and faced a set of stairs on the opposite wall (northwest side of the room).

The stairs were stone-carved with the archway over them also carved of stone to look like tree branches hanging over the entryway. Next to the stairs was another hallway leading out of the room.

Joremey was quite interested in that mirror and went right up to the plinth, faced the mirror, and looked.

Lady, for her part, was interested in the stairs and the beautiful tree motif carved into the stone archway. Obb followed Lady and peeked into the nearby hallway as they went. What they didn’t see was poor Joremey, so transfixed by his glance into the mirror that he turned still as a stone.

In fact, he really WAS frozen in place!

“Joremey, lad! Come see!” Lady called, noticing that on the stairs there wasn’t a hint of dust (unlike the rest of the tomb) and that at the bottom there was a watery shimmer in the light from her torch.

But Joremey said nothing.

“Cat got your tongue?” Lady teased, turning around and seeing immediately that Joremey was now frozen solid.

“Stay back from the mirror!” she warned Obb as they both skirted the wall of the room to reach Joremey without looking directly into the mirror. They pulled at him, but he was utterly frozen. Together, they managed to lift him up and pull him away from the mirror, but it was no use; he was still cursed.

Obb broke out his pan pipes and tried to play a tune, hoping it would break the spell, but it appeared this was holy magic and not fairy…

“Best to head back to Lankshorn,” Obb offered. “Let Fr. Dobey handle it.”

But Joremey was much too heavy for little Lady and Obb to carry. They could try dragging him…

“Let’s strip off all his stuff,” Lady said, “he’ll have to be glad we’re taking him back even if he leaves his gear behind.” They stripped him of everything but his traveling clothes, and heaved him up in their arms. He was heavy, and they couldn’t move very fast… Could they outrun the screeching objects in the first room?

They tried, but this time, initiative was not on their side. They lost and the objects attacked.

“Back for more, eh? Ye heathen fairies!”

Two objects (the candle and the book) hit Lady, and one (the chapes) hit Obb. Lady went down (taking five damage, more than her total), and Obb couldn’t help but drop Joremey without Lady’s help. Terrified, he simply fled for his life, but lost initiative again, meaning two objects hit him (the chapes was joined by the cherub). He took five points of damage and fell to a crumpled heap. Poor Joremey was frozen like a statue on the floor, while his two comrades lay dead on either end of him. The holy objects–satisfied that they’d destroyed the heathen interlopers–returned to their podiums.

Now Joremey must rest here, frozen seemingly forever in the tomb of Sir Chyde unless some other adventurer should find their way into the tomb and rescue him…

Yikes. That was an ugly defeat. I suppose if initiative had gone differently, my party might have made it out alive, but as it was, they did not. I thought fleeing the first time was the right call (four objects vs. three PCs didn’t seem like good odds), but once Joremey was frozen from the mirror’s magic, things got much dicier. OSR-style gaming is not for the faint of heart!

I do really like how simple the mechanics are. Combat (though deadly) is quick, and my characters were able to explore and make choices without too many rules or fiddly skill rolls getting in the way. Exploration means describing character actions and seeing what the modules says they see/hear/smell/etc. It’s very narrative in that way, very immersive.

For group play, if one of my players investigated the plinth and mirror, and I knew looking into the mirror caused paralysis, I would telegraph that danger. I might say that he gets an ominous feeling as he approaches the plinth and looks around. Maybe say that he feels especially cold as he comes nearer the mirror, “freezing cold,” or something similar.

But for solo play, I wasn’t sure how to handle that since I can’t really “telegraph” danger to myself. Perhaps I should have rolled dice and used my oracle to determine whether Joremey approached cautiously and avoided getting frozen. Having him simply “be cautious” while knowing (as the player) that the mirror is magical feels like cheating. This might be a case where letting the randomness of dice determine a PC’s fate should’ve been the way to go. As this is only my second “solo play” session, I can’t be too hard on myself. I’m learning as I go.

Now that my trio of adventurers is dead/paralyzed in an ancient tomb, I have two choices: send some of Joremey’s cousins off to find out what happened to him OR start with a totally new adventure and character(s).

I’m somewhat inclined to go with the second option… I’m already envisioning a human thief who meets a human or breggle fighter in a tavern and together they go adventuring… Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, Dolmenwood-style!

Till next time!