Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Armor-as-DR Playtest, Round 2

Same exact roster as the last time, but this time I whipped up something resembling an actual dungeon that you might actually play through, as opposed to a string of encounters. The simple-and-completely-unnecessary adventure hook is that characters are hired by someone to go to their tower and retrieve their research, which was overrun by orcs.

The tower is three stories high, with an animal enclosure next to it. The characters check that out first, finding multiple empty stalls, along with blood spatter, bits of rotting meat and bone fragments, and heaps of straw. There are some barrels, but they're all empty and scattered about.

Finding nothing of interest, they go to the front door which has been torn off. Hearing snoring from quite a distance, the fighter sneaks up (since armor doesn't really affect Stealth), peers inside, and spots four orcs: two are sleeping, and another pair are arguing near a fireplace, where one is attempting to cook something that looks suspiciously like a human limb.

There's a table near the center, burdened with a heap of mostly cleaned bones, also suspiciously human-like.

The cleric and wizard circle around the tower, waiting on the other side of the door, while the fighter makes some noise, hoping to attract the orcs. This works, but it draws out all of them, instead of just the pair there were already awake. They also come prepared, brandishing crude spears fashioned from table and chair legs, rope, and what they would later realize were kitchen knives.

Swarming the fighter, only one manages to land a hit, and while the weapons are improvised are still effective given the force with which they are wielded. The wizard catches three of them with a Lightning Bolt, but only manages to kill one, and the cleric finishes one off with a well-place spear-stab.

Two are still standing: one goes after the fighter, landing another solid hit, while the other turns on the wizard, since he doesn't know that wizard magic is dangerous and limited, but miraculously fails to hit her. On the following turn another orc goes down, and the last one fails his Morale check and tries to flee, but the fighter impales him before he can get too far (opportunity attack).

In the tower they try the only other door: it seems stuck, but they can hear something grunting and thumping about inside. The fighter tries knocking, killing the orc that opens it. There aren't any other orcs, but there is a corpse on a table at the center, partially butchered, and a half dozen other bodies dangling from hooks.  Limbs jut forth from a pot of foul-smelling stew, and the party decides they're not interesting in snooping about.

Heading up stairs, an orc emerges from a bathroom carrying nothing but a book. He sees the party and tries making a run for it, but the fighter knocks him down with a very well thrown meat cleaver (23 to hit, enough to squeeze out a +2 damage bonus) that she took from the orc chef. There are a couple of doors in the hall, and as the fighter moves in for the killing stroke, a pair of orcs poke their heads out from one.

They see the orc struggling for dear life, the fighter advancing upon him, spear at the ready, and hurriedly slam the door close. The cleric and wizard then approach, waiting on the other side, and when the orcs try to rush out a few moments later, too late to save their comrade, they're also ultimately struck down by the party. The room features a few beds, with corpses tied to them, mostly eaten. 

Suffice to say, they also skip this room.

Going up the last flight of stairs they find three doors, one solid metal with no apparent means of opening. They pick one of the other two, discovering a ransacked alchemical lab. Several dead orcs are sprawled on the floor: one looks mostly dissolved, another horrendously mutated, and all that's left of a third is a pair of legs. Rifling through the remaining contents, the wizard procures a mending potion that the fighter drinks to top off her WP.

The last door contains the remains of massive glass tanks, along with a grotesque, fleshy cylinder covered in mouths, eyes, and grasping, misshapen limbs. Think the ending of Akira, but a cylinder instead of a blob. It's also still alive, and attempts to roll towards the characters: the wizard and cleric both blast it, while the fighter tries stabbing it. It survives their initial onslaught, but luckily is slow and has trouble squeezing through the door (though it eventually manages).

They continue attacking, retreating towards the stairs as they go, eventually destroying the monstrosity, which slowly peels apart and collapses.

DESIGNER NOTES

Melissa didn't uncover the "secret", but that's okay. Doesn't matter, as it was primarily a combat playtest. As before, she didn't have any trouble remembering the rules, though since the orcs also had spears it didn't really matter until the flesh roll at the end (its attack was Range 0).

Orcs are pretty burly, doing good damage despite the fighter and cleric's DR 3 (it essentially offset their damage modifier), but they aren't exactly durable, going down in a couple hits. Can't remember if I mentioned this, but they're also getting changed to have pigs' heads, and be more of a vat-grown slave race.

Next playtest is going to be 2nd-level, with a barbarian, bard, and rogue, just to mix things up, see how it all goes down.