Okay, so here's my first playtest post. I’ve run Issue #2 “The Ugly Gargoyle” twice now with two vastly different groups and systems.
The first was an impromptu gaming session with three seasoned, longtime vets of my table. We rolled characters quickly using the system Dungeon Delvers, found there. Since ability checks and whatnot are vague for both this system and the adventure, we kept it pretty open ended. We used entirely theatre of the mind, but I had drawn up (hastily, as always) a small castle for them to explore, sprinkled some enemies throughout so they could quench their bloodlust, and moved on. The important part was the gargoyle. How to make him helpful, but also invisible to the party, because the whole thing with the ugly gargoyle is that they're shy.
Anyways, they were immediately suspicious of the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the castle, particularly because they passed a Wisdom check and felt as though it was leering at them. They threw a javelin at it. It hit, broke a bit of stone off, but nothing happened. They move on. Phew. I didn't know what else to do if they kept at it, but frankly gargoyles are typically resistant to melee attacks unless they are from a magical weapon, so play that as you will. I decided that if they kept attacking it, and did sufficient damage, the gargoyle would run away. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
The castle I concocted was small with only 4 rooms, a courtyard, and a throne room. The throne room held a trunk with the cursed sword housed within. I placed a false illusory wall that led to a tower above the throne room with the real treasure, doubling as the king & queens quarters. As the party walked through the castle, the gargoyle followed them, randomly appearing as a statue above a door, over a window, or elsewhere. When they asked if it was the same gargoyle, I had them make a check, and they frequently identified it as the same or at least a similar looking gargoyle, but they never attacked it again. The rooms were mostly empty with some odds and ends: a library, a prayer room, an empty room, and an armory. In the armory, an animated suit of armor attacked them, but they defeated it easily.
They went into the courtyard before discovering the throne room. The courtyard was overgrown from years of neglect, so I threw a semi-sentient, hungry awakened plant. They fought it and barely survived. Then they headed to the throne room, where they saw the gargoyle frozen above the door before unlocking it.
They open the locked door with ease, went straight for the chest, and boom! The gargoyle dropped down to try and warn them about the cursed sword. I played it as the creature trying to mime this message to them. Play this as you will. They tried to attack it, and the gargoyle ran away. Then they tried to seize the sword, it attacked, they defeated it, and the gargoyle comes back and communicates (successfully) that there’s treasure upstairs behind the false wall. They get upstairs, find the treasure, and the gargoyle joins them as they leave.
Pretty simple. It was fun and the players were entertained with the miniature castle and the subversion of the 'enemy'. As they investigated the architecture and whatnot, I threw in some harebrained history of the castle too. Overall a good time, and it was cool to play a short, quick d6 system.
The second time I ran this adventure, it was in a 5e campaign for brand new players. I ran it mostly the same as above, with a few more animated suits of armor, and the gargoyle helping them on a beefed up boss fight in the throne room, which involved two suits of animated armor and the flying cursed sword. Using the stats and rules of 5e lengthened this quest into a two part session, lasting about 3-4 hours.
And that's that. Let me know what you think about this first playtest post, and if you've run this issue or another, I'd love to hear about the hijinks. I'll have a few more issues out soon.
Best,
Droning DM
