The next morning, our group gets up good and early to look at the cave entrance and decide what to do. There was a fair amount of discussion as to who to bring, and whether this was to be an invasion force or more of a scouting missions. They finally ended up with the main characters: Ordo, Sleve & Ylervan were leading the crew. The player for Miss Baudelaire has dropped out for a bit, so the quartermaster is staying aboard the ship to keep an eye on things there. Along with our characters, Sinea the Grassrunner is tagging along as are 4 of the crew. We have the light bearer, the armsman, one carrying a pony keg of dynamite and the cabin boy, who is fleet of foot in case they need to have a message run back to the Dwarf mine entrance.
The entrance is large enough for almost two across, and Ordo does not need to stoop. Following the map, the first off-branch they can smell something burning, and via several good observation rolls, notice dragonette droppings. As noted in the rules, dragonettes are used widely by corsairs but need to be trained from birth. Finding eggs is hazardous but can be richly rewarding. They passed the side tunnel on the way in, but perhaps they have noted it for their return trip: having a pet dragonette could be interesting, and if they manage to collect some eggs, rewarding financially!
Continuing, they encounter a sink hole in the tunnel. Not being a leaper, Ylervan scales the walls which were dry at this spot, and using his sailing skill fastens a rope to help with the others. The rest use their acrobatics and successfully cross the first obstacle. The tunnel narrows around a bend, and Ylervan is leading the way. An impetuous fire imp is apparently quite angry and attacks our crew shortly thereafter. I only rolled for one to show up despite a nest around the corner. It was also in a tight bend in the corner where the imp attacked Ylervan. It took a couple of rounds to kill the squirmy beast, and Ylervan took a few fiery scratches in the rapid battle. Some first aid from the resourceful Sleve and Ylervan is back in full fighting trim. They also notice natural repellium deposits starting to show up around them when they look carefully.
They continue on and we finally come to the end of the natural tunnels and the start of what looks to be a mine. It is blocked by some broken columns and timbers that appear fairly old, and looking into the mine they see yet another large sink hole, about 15 feet across.
And this is where we left session 5. It was a bit shorter: we started late and ended early because people have real lives outside of the game. I know, shocking! And there was a fair amount of discussion as to what to wear inside the tunnels in the event they run into the Alderal Empire miners or crew. They finally ended up in corsair style clothing, nothing to indicate that they are anything official or threatening.
While not quite a hex crawl, I did have several things planned out that seemed to basically work. After I finally found the map with notes: I actually put it in the notebook I am using so it took me longer to find as I was looking all around my far too messy office area (office/computer/gaming stuff. I am surrounded by Lego, games and usually a cat or two. It can be a bit chaotic). I think the combat went pretty well, though I want to start describing things better, to make it more interactive with the players and give us at least an internal visual display. Theater of the mind works well over Skype if we can describe things well enough. And we do share images on the chat channel. So there is some shared visual media, and occasionally even audio.
The mechanics for fighting I think went pretty well, though we've been having someone else roll the difficulty dice. I think at an actual table the player would roll them all, but being remote we're trying to get everyone a chance to roll some dice I think. We did not discuss that, it just started organically.
The map is using some of the Loresmith tiles I've bought just to goof around with. I've been showing them just the section they are in, which is actually easier on a computer than having the map on the table as I just cut & paste the section of the moment.
Next session will have contact with the other side of the mine, and we'll see what happens there. If they had brought more of the crew I may have tried using the boarding combat process, but as they only have 8 people along, of which only 4 count as crew, if we do that I fear unless they get really good rolls they will get decimated. We'll see what happens next.
And yes, there was a bit of a gap between sessions. We've had a few real life things, and for us, family is more important than gaming (how much may vary depending on who, and when, you ask!). And while we've played with 1 person out, when we hit 2 or more, as that is half the group, we either skip or do something else. I almost got a one shot in to test the Lamia's Labyrinth but we decided not to do that. I am still working on that, bringing in bits and pieces of Kickstarter zines I seem addicted to. How that will play will be interesting as well.
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