With most of my Basic Fantasy RPG table suffering from March Madness I decided to take the remnants of the group on a Dragonbane dungeon crawl. I figured it would allow me to put the system through some more paces, and it was the most fun I’ve ever had running a crawl. Two of my regular players came along, and my daughter jumped in to make the crew a trio:
- Illyriana Bloodhunger, an elven hunter
- Garmandé Redeye, a human thief
- Halvelda Saltsplash, a human mariner.
The premise was the party was short on funds after traveling and needed to make some cash. That’s when they heard rumors about a small band of goblins who’d been raiding nearby merchant caravans who were holed up in a small cave not too far from town. The proximity was ideal, but the townsfolk avoided the cave because local lore said it was “cursed.” With that information given, I set the tokens at the cave entrance and asked, “What do you do?”
What follows is a narrative retelling of the party’s adventure in the goblin cave. When something happens in story which springs from a distinct Dragonbane feature, I’ll explain the mechanic in a footnote.
“OK,” Illyriana halted and glanced up at the cavern entrance. “This is the spot the villagers told us about.”
“The spot they told us to stay away from,” Halvelda retorted.
Garmendé nodded his agreement. “I gotta say, Hell’s right, Illy. We’re not equipped for this right now. There’s got to be a better way to make some money.”
The elf rolled his eyes, “It’s fine. It’s just goblins. Besides, they’re stealing from the local folks. If we stop them we’ll be the toast of the town and get some treasure.
“Look, you light your torch and I’ll scout ahead. If I don’t like what I see we can turn around. OK?
“Fine,” Garmandé grunted as he pulled a torch out of his pack.
Without further word, Illyriana crept forward down the tunnel, several meters 1 in he discovered the passage split. One path went right, the other curved away to the west. The elf paused there for several minutes, convinced his approach hadn’t been heard. As he waited, he listened, and heard muffled voices echoing up the tunnel to the right. With abundant caution the hunter pulled out a few metal caltrops and spread them on the ground. Then he backed back toward the cave entrance.
“OK,” he whispered as he rejoined his friends. “Two passages, one heading right and the other bends away to the left. I heard voices down the right passage, and put some caltrops down so we’ll know if they come looking for anything.”
The torch came to life as Garmandé sighed. “Fine, what’s your plan, Illy? Sneak to the left?”
Illyriana grinned, “Oh no, I’ve got a better plan.”
“And it’ll end well, I’m sure,” Halvelda groaned.
The trio crept back up tunnel, but just as the torch began to spill down the left passage Illyriana leapt forward. The elf caught a glimpse of two shocked figures looking back up the passage toward him as he drew back his bow. Angling for a better shot the elf took a step forward, but just as he was about to release the notched arrow pain jolted through is foot.
He’d stepped on one of his caltrops.
Distracted, Illriana’s fingers slipped from the bow string. The unaimed missile deflected several times off the passage walls, and struck Illyriana in leg.
“Aaaahhhh!” The elf yelled as he clutched his wound 2.
Halvelda pulled the hunter back. “That was your plan?”
“It should have worked! Just get up there!”
The mariner nodded and uncoiled her rope, revealing the dagger that was attached to one end.
“Oh, I’ve got this.”
Garmandé warned, “I can hear them coming!” as Halvelda stepped forward, swinging her rope. As the first goblin came near she swung it out, but the dagger clanged against the wall.
“Oh no,” she muttered as the lead goblin danced through the caltrops 3, blade raised to attack.
“They’ve got stuff on the floor, look out!” the lead goblin muttered as his sword came down for an attack, slashing across Halvelda’s body. As the mariner reeled back in pain the goblin looked at what he was up against, and decided that the odds weren’t in his favor. He bolted down the opposite hallway shouting, “Intruders! Intruders!” He disappeared into darkness but his shouts continued to echo through the caves.
A second goblin was also coming up the left passage, but he stopped and drew a short bow and fired at Halvelda, piercing her arm and causing her to fall back. Garmandé threw a dagger at the archer, and managed to wound him, but the goblin smiled as he notched another arrow. By this point Illyriana had recovered his wits, however, and rushed back into the fray. Leaping over the caltrops 4 Illyriana brought his blade down on the remaining goblin, ending his life.
“That should not have been that hard, Illy” Garmandé huffed.
“Agreed,” Illyriana replied.
Halvelda snorted. “So are we leaving now?”
The elf shook his head. “No, Hell. This just means the rumors were accurate. And that means…?”
“More treasure,” the other two responded in unison.
“And more renown if we pull it off. I think it’s worth the risk. But let’s head back out into to sun to bandage up.”
The trio made their way back out of the cave and out into the small box canyon which hosted it. The Sun was past its zenith and beginning its afternoon plummet toward the horizon, increasing the haste with which the group tended their wounds 5. When they were feeling hail once more, the trio crept back into the cave. They passed by the right fork and continued on the main path as it curved toward the left. About eight meters past the initial split Garmandé’s torch illuminated three paths. One continued straight, and two others broke off left and right. Before the trio could decide on which path to take, however, they were challenged.
“Who are you? What are you doing here? This is our place, you leave!”
A single goblin stepped out from the shadows which shrouded the left fork in mystery. He had a short sword drawn and sneered at the trio.
“These caves are older than you, they aren’t yours,” Garmandé replied.
“We’ll see about that. Last warning, leave now. And Bob and Steve better be ok, too!”
The sly thief, however, had finished conversing with his adversary. With slow and deliberate movements he reached for his knife, preparing to launch it at the goblin. Before he was able to attack, however, the goblin spotted Garmandé’s movement and shouted, “Hey!” just as the thief’s knife flew out of his hands. The dagger hit, but struck a hardened spot of the goblin’s armor and bounced away 6.
Enraged, the goblin rushed forward and struck with his sword, but missed. He then saw other companions moving forward to attack and darted away while shouting, “Intruders! Intruders!” Garmandé, however, was furious with the goblin and ran after him, striking him in the back and ending the creature’s life.
As Garmandé chased his prey Illyriana and Halvelda rushed forward toward the junction. “Quick!” Illyriana hissed, “Watch the left passage and make sure nothing comes up that way, I’ll take the right.”
The two adventurers took their positions and there was a moment of quiet, which was interrupted by the shouts of more goblins rushing down the hall toward Illyriana.
“Garmandé, get back here!”
The elf held his own against two assailants, but as he did so he hear a sound which filled him with dread–the scraping of stone against stone. Behind him. As he continued to dual his assailants Halvelda shouted, “They’re behind us!”
The mariner pivoted to face the new foes, two goblins who’d emerged from a secret door the party had passed. As she did so she thought, “There’s no way we’re getting out of this.”
To be continued…
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Dragonbane uses Metric. Each square is two meters. ↩
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In the game the roll for this attack turned up as a 1, which in game parlance is a “demon.” This roll triggered the mishap which led to Illy shooting himself. ↩
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In game the goblin made its acrobatics check to dance through the obstacles. ↩
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With a successful acrobatics check. ↩
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In Dragonbane characters may take one “stretch rest” per day. It’s a few minutes, and they can regain some hit points when they do so. ↩
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In game the strike did one point of damage, which matched the goblin’s armor so he was unharmed. ↩
2 responses to “The Goblin Cave: A Dragonbane Narrative”
[…] though more than a simple combat. It was so much fun I wrote up the first part of the crawl as a story. Part two will come […]
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[…] This is part two of my narrative retelling for a Dragonbane crawl I led some players on. As with part one, if there’s a part of the narrative which is linked to a distinct Dragonbane mechanic I’ll describe it in a footnote. You can read part one here. […]
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