Hemskil Sandbox Playtest: Witch Hut, Part 2

THE CAST

• Level 3 human bard
• Level 3 human nomad
• Level 3 dwarven rogue
• Level 3 dwarven ranger w/ wolf

THE REPORT

Picking up where we left off about a month ago (because we don't use arbitrary kinda-sorta-but-not-really 1:1 timekeeping, instead pausing the game like normal people), the party once again opened the first door.

The hall beyond looked familiar: it extended about 20 feet before turning to the left. There were two doors on opposite walls about midway and a third at the end where it turned. They decided on the left door, but as soon as they entered the hall the pale figure appeared once more.

This confirmed that it was the second hall, but this time they didn't close the door. Instead, the bard urged them forward, intent on actually making some form of progress. At first, despite all the shouting the figure moved slowly and gracefully. It was only when the door handle was touched that she shrieked and sprinted towards them, fingers extending into long talons. She slashed at the bard, rending gambeson and flesh alike. The party stumbled through the door, just barely managing to close it before she struck again. 

They waited a bit to see if she would pursue them, prepared to fight if necessary. After a few moments, something knocked: startling, but at least nothing attempted to open the door. Any relief was short-lived, however, as when they turned around to examine the room's contents they were alarmed to see that it was dominated by a vast tub, seemingly wrought entirely of silver and filled with blood.

The room was illuminated by the usual red candles, either gripped by limbs or placed upon wax-covered faces, which revealed another door on the other side of the tub. They proceeded across the room as quietly as possible, hoping that whatever was invariably lurking within the tub wasn't as bad as the Pale Woman.

It was much worse.

Tall and thin, she silently and steadily rose from the blood. Her head was concealed by the skull of a deer, her body draped in ragged, blood-soaked layers. Correctly assuming that stealth is at this point pointless, the party picked up the pace, and as they dashed across the room the figure turned to observe them, her body creaking loudly as if made of dried wood.

The party moved through the door, finding themselves back in a hall at least similar in layout to first: it wasn't very long, only about 15 feet in total. There was a door right in from of them, and at both ends the hallway turned in the same direction. Still confused as to what's happening or even where they are, the bard began marking doors with unique symbols in hopes that they didn't lead to random destinations each time.

Deer Skull stepped out of the tub and advanced upon them. She was but a few paces behind so no one argued when the bard just bolted through the door right in front of them...

...only to find themselves back in the bathroom. They knew it wasn't a duplicate or illusion, as they also observed Deer Skull leaving through the opposite side (which was simultaneously right behind them). They re-enter the bathroom, and wait for Deer Skull to try entering before once again running out the other door.

This time they take a right and sprint around the corner, and began sensing a theme when they discovered another pair of doors directly across from each other, at the center of both walls. It was safe to assume that this particular hall would be a square (useful in case they had retreat), with doors placed equidistantly on the inner and outer walls. The only thing they couldn't predict was where the doors would lead, so they chose another at random.

Inside this room was a long loop of chain, which dangled from somewhere high and out of sight. The candlelight didn't reveal the ceiling but they could see the night sky through a circular opening. There were several tables: some featured empty bowls and stacks of stones, one an iron tray with an assortment of knives and other sharp instruments, and another with a plain deck of cards.

Everyone took turns drawing a card: the bard's wounds were mostly healed when she drew hers, but there was no overt effect for everyone else. It was obvious that the cards were magical, though since there were no instructions nor discernable changes for most, the bard cautioned against drawing anymore, as there would surely be negative side effects (and she couldn't even be certain that hers didn't carry some sort of unforeseen drawback).

Proceeding through another door, the party found themselves back in what they referred to as Hall 2 for convenience. It was where they first encountered the Pale Women and featured a sort of elongated and squared "Z" layout. No immediate threats (for now), so the bard marked the door they emerged from before quickly rushing off to select another.

They rounded the corner and found two doors, as expected. The one on the right--randomly chosen, of course--revealed an unnerving vista that resembled what could be most succinctly described as a sort of hellish garden. The ground was dry and hard, and the air heavy with an odor of sulfur. What might have been a crimson sky was largely obscured by a thick haze.

Numerous tendrils covered in what looked like teeth and metallic shards reached everywhere, writhing about slowly. What was even more concerning was that they could not identify their source: they simply emerged from and vanished into the haze. Heart-shaped-and-sized masses tangled from bent and blackened trees. Thick clumps of what appeared to be waist-high lengths of smooth, polished bone intermittently twitched despite no wind. 

The ranger stabbed one of the hanging hearts with her spear. It bled, but that was fortunately the extent of its reaction. They assumed that something would at some point appear to attack them, but lacked the luxury of time: moving quickly, the characters hurriedly snatched up a variety of what they hoped were the "plants" that the kobold was looking for whilst searching for another exit.

It wasn't long before they found a gate, but the Pale Woman was on the other side. As she flowed through the bars, the party briefly considered fleeing before coming to the grim realization that Deer Skull was likely close behind. Though the ranger was heavily wounded the combat was still swift, with the Pale Woman collapsing into a puddle of wax upon her presumed destruction.

The party doesn't have the opportunity to celebrate or loot the remains, as the wax quickly flowed away from them. It didn't have to go far before arriving at Deer Skull's feet. Her body creaked loudly as she produced a metal jar and bent low. The wax eagerly lifted itself up off of the ground and floated into the jar, and after a few moments Deer Skull turned the jar upside down: the wax dribbled out, and the party could see that it was reforming into the Pale Woman.

Baffled as to why they waited this long, the party flung open the gate and fled down the hall. Thanks to the bard's marking it didn't take long for them to realize that they were back in Hallway 1. Mission complete they beelined towards the first door, hoping that it was still linked to the room with all of the deer heads, but found their path blocked: stumbling towards them were four gangly humanoids. Their heads were mostly replaced with massive candles, with only many-toothed maws still visible.

Not daring to retrace their steps the party changed ahead, stabbing and hacking the candle-zombies apart as quickly as possible which, as it turned out, wasn't nearly quick enough: when there was only one left Deer Skull appeared behind them. She touched a wall, causing a thick shell of wax to seal two nearby doors. This was mostly fine, as they weren't intending to go through either of them, anyway. 

Figuring that its teeth weren't nearly as dangerous as whatever Deer Skull was capable of, the party opted to rush past the remaining candle-zombie and through the door. The ranger lost a bit of skin but they were relieved to find finally themselves back in the first room. 

But Deer Skull wasn't far behind.

She tried to seal the entrance with wax, which would have trapped the nomad had he not been capable of simply teleporting through the tiny opening (hooray for infinite-albeit-short-range-teleportation). For the first time Deer Skull made noise, emitting a furious shriek that literally rattled the boards of the hut and caused numerous limbs of molten wax to spring forth.

This time everyone was ensnared, but once against the nomad teleported to freedom and began hacking at the limbs. The ranger's wolf crushed a few in its jaws, and they managed to escape just as Deer Skull passed through the opening. Sprinting down the hall they could see light from the front door, so the nomad created a wormhole in front of them, linking it to a destination outside and over a hundred feet away.

He dismissed it as soon as everyone made it through. The good news is that Deer Skull was nowhere to be found, the bad news was that the hut lurched to life and seemingly begins searching for the party. Thanks to the distance and rough terrain they managed to flee and escape, and they don't stop running until they could no longer hear it, nor see the oily clouds and tarry rain.

THE NOTES

The players missed about half of the dungeon, understandably not wanting to stick around. However, they can always try returning to explore the rest...if they can find it. Though, the witch might come looking for them. She's got the bard's blood, after all.

The hut was randomly generated: each time the characters opened the door in the first room, it would connect to a random hall layout. If they opened a door in a hall, it would link to a random room. In these rooms, the doors would then link to a random hall layout again.

So the pattern would go: hallway, room, hallway, room, etc. And once opened the destination would be set, so clever players like Melissa could mark a door to clue them in as to where it would go in case they had to make a mad dash through a series of doors.

The downside is that, again, they only found like half the rooms and hallway layouts due to the dice, and I'm thinking there should be a way to find a specific destination without trying a string of doors and hoping for the best. Maybe something like the last level in Super Mario Bros, where you have to navigate the castle in a specific manner to find the end.

This information could also be conveyed by the kobold. Otherwise, I'm not sure how players could organically discover the solution. I'm also thinking of having the witch carry keys, which can be used on certain doors to open them to a specific location.

Something to ponder.