The Sanctuary of Knowledge: dungeon and play report

For the first/zeroth edition of FKRCon I wrote a small adventure for 2nd Age, a setting communicated through twelve classes.

It featured the remnants of a religious research facility, with decrepit immortal monks, a mutant who believes she is an angel, strange magic gone awry and squealing mutant fetuses. I wrote up the dungeon in this file. 

The Hook:

• The Empire has send you to one of the fallen colonies of the First Age, in the hope of reclaiming its former glory. 
• The various organisations that enforce the will of the Empire have been ordered to scope out a First Age research facility and retrieve anything that might be of use to the Empire. 
• As an agent of one of these organisations you rely on them for your primary needs. And they have chosen you to fulfil the wishes of the empire, as well as their own goals.
  

The Cast:

Hudson, an unmotivated employee of the Argon Forge Faculties. Would rather take his family to live outside of the influence of the Empire, but is sceptical if any such place can stay free for long. The Argon sign up bonus grants him medium armor, workers gloves and a bar of company soap. At rank one, he has access to 'Heat Knife' and 'Dismantle'. 

His organisation has ordered him to get as many metal samples of First Age alloys as possible, as well as attempt to aquire the original plans of the building.

Caleb, an ambitious member of the Royal Institute for Furthering Arcane Knowledge. Eager to learn based on his own observations and hopes to rise through the ranks of the RIFAK. Anyone joining the RIFAK gets a note book, an arcane spectrometer, and a pointy hat. At rank one, members are able to observe magical phenomena occuring in the world, after which they can replicate them. 

His organisation has ordered him to document all First Age magic he comes across, and to protect the research notes of whatever experiments they performed in the facility. 

The Events:

Approaching the facility

Our adventurers enter a clearing. The woods they had traveled through end abruptly and a strange feeling of familiarity washes over them: the are surrounded by plants that only grow back in the Heartlands; not a single native plant has managed to take root here. In fact, though the vegetation is unkempt, none of it grows outside of its designated areas. The paths remain clear, the hedges still clearly divide up the plot of land.

Atop the hill in the center of the clearing lies what looks like something between a cloister and a fortress. Thick walls, filled in with rubble that spills out where the outer brick has given way, small windows shaped like arrow slits, and a large wooden gate which hasn't yet completely decayed. 

Caleb suggests moving around the complex before deciding on their approach. He wips out his arcane spectrometer to get an idea of what areas of the complex would have high magic activity. The mostly square complex, with two annexes in the northern corners turns out to have three possible entrances: The main entrance, a giant hole in the western annex, and a rotten barndoor leading into the eastern annex with large amounts of magic activity. 

Seeking entrance

They check out the giant hole first. The traces of rubble suggest that something bust out of here a long time ago. Inside they find a bunch of cages, most of them busted open, as well as the nest of a large creature. The nest looks lived in, with fresh bones surrounding it, which is enough to discourage them and attempt the entrance of the eastern annex. 

The barndoor is almost completely rotten, more a slap of pulp than a propper door. When they pull it down with as little noise as possible, they see it leads into a room with more cages. Here some are also busted open, though most are still closed and contain bones. There is a humming which intensifies, after which lightning arcs between the cages. On the other side, past the irregular lightning strikes, is a short tunnel into a further room. The arcane spectrometer is going wild. 

Caleb wants to observe the phenomenon. Hudson finds the lightning too dangerous to explore the room and instead goes and peeks through some windows. In the dim light he sees the glitter of gold and hears two voices, one clearly bullying the other. 

Just as Caleb is getting a good understanding of the lightning, he sees five shambling, robed figures enter the tunnel on the other side of the room. He retreats, signalling to Hudson to come with him. They overhear the figures complaining about something they ominously refer to in vague terms.

Based on conjecture, Caleb robes himself in similar fashion to the shambling figures and pretends to be a travalling, non-human vagabond. The robed figures lament that they had hoped for the return of the Empire and curse Caleb for giving them false hope as they retreat back through the tunnel. 

As they consider the lightning arcing between the cagest to be too unpredictable, Hudson and Caleb try out the main entrance. What remains of the door is ajar and reveals a hallway filled with ankle deep rubble. Two doors, one east and one west, are difficult to open due to the rubble; to the north the hallway opens up onto a courtyard in which a figure is hunched over, planting sticks into the ground. 

Discussions and Exploration

Because of high arcane readings, Caleb begins clearing the door towards the east, while Hudson strides forward and introduces himself as an agent of the Empire. The woman turns to him with a look of disdain on her face and a hand on her sword. She warns the dogs of the Empire to leave if they know what is good for them. 

Caleb starts to clear away rubble more franticly, while Hudson tries to de-escalate the situation, emphasizing that he isn't very happy to be working for the Empire, got send here to scope out the location and is more than willing to keep her wishes in mind when reporting back. He is also interested in what the community she comes from is like and what she is doing here. 

While Hudson is chatting to the local, Caleb makes his way into the eastern rooms until he comes to a kitchen where the temperature is about as hot as the inside of an oven. Whimpering on the wall in the corner is a weird slimy creature, with black bulding eyes. Caleb ignores it and makes it into the pantry where the heat is more manageable. 

Hudson learns about the home of the local, that she is studying old places which were important to her people and that she puts the sticks into the earth to see if they sprout back to life, which legend says this place supposedly should be able to do. The local is clearly still not trusting him completely, but seems a lot less hostile and continuously refers to Hudson and Caleb as dogs. 

When his discussion with the local, called Penka, is over, Hudson heads through the western door, rathern than chasing after Caleb. He finds some metal bedframes that are in strangely good condition, and a study dedicated to the local wildlife. He collects some books and sketches and returns to see what Caleb is up to. 

Caleb means to investigate the kitchen's oven, which is clearly the source of the heat, but finds it hard to do so in a productive manner. He figures he'll need to get rid of the roof so the heat can escape out of the kitchen. He goes to look for Hudson to tell him his plan. 

Together they gather the bedframes so Caleb can get onto the roof and start messing with the ceiling, and Hudson remembers to cut off a piece of one of them as a metal sample. The removed tiles come crashing down with a loud bang, causing Penka to rush over to them and warn them of the dangers within the complex. She tells them that if they cause a ruckus she'll be leaving as she doesn't want to be around when these dangerous creatures find them. 

Getting back out

The adventurers decide they should probably be finishing up some of their other goals. They ask Penka where they might find more documents, and she points them towards the west wing, north of the study Hudson had already pillaged as she heads off. Caleb and Hudson head over there and look for research notes that Caleb can return to the outpost. 

Looking for these, they find a room with the silent image of a monk preaching in a study dedicated to a weird religion which talks about the Empire as if it is paradise on earth and about the then Emperor as if he is a god. North of that room is another study, filled with research notes. Caleb quickly makes sense of the notation, learning that they seem to have been making mutant bodies for creatures they refer to as 'angels', and he pockets as much of the most recent records as he can carry.

Once they make to the north west corner of the complex, they find themselves in what was clearly a wooden disection theater, however the wood has come alive and is growing branches with leaves. Hudson cuts off a piece of the metal table at the center and they head towards the western annex where they found the nest of a still unknown creature, and out through the hole.

Reporting dutifully

Upon returning to the outpost Hudson gives an adequat report about what's happened to the Govenor's clerk, leaving out most of what he learned from Penka. He hands over the metal samples to his organisation and is told to await further orders. Caleb gives a more detailed report, but also says little about what they learned from Penka. He summarizes what he learned about the religion as well as the notes. He hands these notes over to his organisation as well as the notations he made of the magical phenomena he encountered. 

Hudson is told he did a 'sufficient job' by his patron organisation and has served the Empire enough to not be tried for treason. Caleb is told he has done exceptional work for the Institute and that, should he keep this up, he'll be eligable for promotion soon.

HUD-less gaming

I ran this game 'HUD-less'. Also sometimes called black box gaming, it is a playstyle in which the players don't have access to stats or dice rolls. They consider the situation as if it is real, consider what their character should be capable off, and make decisions based on that alone. All stats and dice rolls happen remain behind the screen, together with the keyed map and encounter tables, i.e. for the GM's eyes only. 

This was my first attempt at going completely HUD-less, and I think it went alright. It was also the first time for both of my players, and they said they both liked it as well. 

It is a playstyle that I've heard described as hight trust. Trust that the GM will communicate clearly what the stakes are of an action before you commit. Trust that the GM will be fair about dice rolls and resolution in general. Trust that the players are able to take an imagined space seriously and approach it creatively without the aid of 'verbs' on their character sheet. 

However, I don't think it requires a lot more trust than other forms of adventure RPGs. Trust is always important, even if players have more access to stats and can see the dice. As long as the GM has something behind the screen (enemy HP, ally morale scores, wandering encounter tables, etc.) players have to trust that the GM isn't just messing with them. And as long as we adhere to the idea that 'the answer isn't on your character sheet', the GM has to trust that their players will come up with plans using the fictional world anyway. 

I do think it requires comfort. Players need to feel comfortable to let go of having precise knowledge of odds, exact quantifications of their characters abilities, and the false feeling of control by rolling the dice themselves. And GMs need to feel comfortable taking on the extra load of managing everyone's stats and dice rolls. 

For me, this was no biggy, because my playstyle already does away with most stats. I like being able to pull them out whenever they make a situation easier to adjudicate, but for the most part I don't use HP, ability scores, or inventory slots anyway, using qualitative systems to keep track of harm, character differentiation and encumbrance instead. I also try to keep rolling dice when adjudicating to a minimum, whenever possible. 

So yeah, HUD-less was fun. I'd love to do it again some time in the future, so it looks like HAG might be something I want to continue working on. (Then again, I like all of my other projects still as well, so who knows if HAG will ever get finished).