Lair of the lamb - play report

In my first post (link) I shared the google doc I prepared for my next game. This week we played through the dungeon and here is my recap as requested by Arnold K:

• What path people take through the dungeon?

Yellow X: character death

Blue X: Encounter with the lamb

• How many secrets did they find?

They managed to get the black iron spellbook from the sarcophagus (14) and found the corpse on the ledge (18). (6) tumblers confused them and they found but did not interact with the market beyond the crack. They found the candle in (17).

• Is the Lamb too threatening? Not threatening enough? Did they kill it?

The lamb was sufficiently terrifying. The party managed to collapse the ceiling on it but did not interact with it further.

• Were the ghouls killed, avoided, or befriended? Did you have enough guidance to roleplay the ghouls well?

n/a, we only played the first level

• How much pressure was there for light sources?

I ruled that torches last 2 underclocks and candles 4. The timing was pretty much perfect. 

• How much pressure was there for ropes and weapons?

The party really wanted rope and was excited when they found it next to the dead corpse on the ledge. Weapons were abundant enough, considering that there is actually not much to fight on the first floor. Some more tools could be cool.

Thoughts on the dungeon

There was lots to do and lots to explore, but the underclock and lack of light sources put pressure on the party to go fast. This worked quite well. The secrets (sarcophagus) are fun to play around with and the rewards are cool.

The party consisted of 2 randomly generated peasants and the players could respawn as often as they want (2 deaths in total) in (1). 

I gave the players a two hour time limit to either escape or be lost forever. This was due to real life time constraints but worked beautifully. 15 minutes before the end they were still in (18) but made it out exactly as time was called: running away from the priests who were awakened by a suspicious Vandress, Akina in tow, surprised by the lamb crashing into the room, leaving Akina behind, her screams echoing behind the closed door as the single surviving PC tried to get her head around what just happened.

This was a lot of fun for both me as the DM and the players.