Dungeon Scum, The Boss Battle.

Rose Glenguard and her party of Adventurers follow their treasure map to a narrow chamber that echoed with the sound of rushing water.  In the deepest recess of the chamber the party finds their coveted treasure, unguarded and partially submerged by a small waterfall fed by some unseen underground river.  The treasure looks to have been picked over, but still the party finds a magic shield and bags of gold.

Once the Treasure is secured, Rose begins to lead the party back to the surface, hoping to return to a near by village.  Some of the passages on their way out, however, have been flooded, perhaps by rain on the surface feeding the underground stream.  Forced to take another route, Rose leads her party through a narrow fissure that opened up into a huge chamber.  The party smells smoke from cook fires, hears the din of activity, as well as the guttural sounds of Orc speak.  With flooding behind them, Rose has no choice but to lead her party into the Orc camp.

The Adventurers stumble upon an Orc camp.

An Ogre lords over his lesser cousins.

Many Elite Orcs are also in the camp.

The Adventurers (L to R)-  Trina the Ranger, Estelle, Rens (back), Rose Glenguard, Halfdan (back), Monica the Scholar, Listra (back), and Lady Lena.

Rose singles out the advancing Ogre and shoots arrow after arrow, but cannot penetrate the tough hide of the beast.

The Elite Orcs rush Lady Lena and Monica, hoping to overwhelm them.

Trina rushes to the other flank and faces off with the advancing Orcs.

The Ogre throws large stones at Rose as it approaches.  One hits the escarpment she hides behind, and she is momentarily stunned.

Orcs on either flank rush towards the Adventurers.

Lady Lena and Monica are joined by Halfdan, who blocks the Orcs from flanking the heroes.

Estelle joins Trina to help hold off the oncoming foes, but a foul Orc gores her with his spear.  She screams as she falls, but then goes deathly silent.

Monica dispatches one of the Elite Orcs, then rushes headlong to meet another.

Lady Lena does the same.  She guts her Orc then rushes forth and with a quick slash she stuns Monica's new opponent.

The Ogre rushes Ranger Trina.  Things look bleak for the Hero as she faces the brutish beast as well as 3 Orcs.

The battle divides into smaller conflicts on each flank.

Listra darts forward with her knife and brings down one of the Elite Orcs.

Meanwhile, Rose and Rens rush to aid Trina.  The two Heroes valiantly engage the Ogre.

Listra pays for her boldness as an Orc swings it's morningstar and brings her down.

Monica brings down another Elite Orc.  Though a Scholar by trade, she holds her own in a fight.

Lena slays Listra's killer, then rushes over to aid the Heroes in their struggle against the Ogre.

The fight now centers around the Ogre and the few Orc supporters he has left.  Neither side seems willing to leave the fight whist foes still breathe.

The Ogre slams it's mighty club into Trina, wounding the hero.   Even though other Adventurers have come to her aid, Trina is still assailed by multiple attackers.

The weight of attacks seems too much for Trina and she falls, wounded again when an Orc spear pierces her light armor.  The Hero slips into unconsciousness due to exhaustion and blood loss.

Monica brings down another Orc, while Rose and Lena continue to fight the Ogre.

Halfdan also takes down on Orc.  This leave only one Orc remaining, the one faced off with Rens.

Lena lashes out with a mighty slash and the Ogre bellows, enraged.  Though she did not wound the creature, she gained it's full attention.

Monica takes advantage of the beasts reaction and lands a thrust of her spear that plunges into the creature's shoulder.  The Ogre, now wounded and even more enraged, turns to face her.  The Heroes continue to harass the beast from all sides, causing it some confusion.

Rens finally dispatches the last Orc standing.

The Heroes continue to confuse the beast with attacks from all sides.  Lena lands another wound on the beast, and as it turns to face her, Rose runs it through with her boar spear.  The beast topples to the ground, and after a moment to catch their breath, the Adventurers turn to their fallen friends.  Estelle and Listra prove beyond any help.  The party saves their morning until they can reach the safety of an Inn, where they can drown their sorrows and pay respect in proper form.  Trina stirs at their ministrations, and though still wounded, the Hero will survive.  A trove of treasure is gathered from the Orc camp, including a magic bow, adventuring supplies and bags full of gold.


Now that I have gotten a full Dungeon Delve played, I have a better idea of how the rules play out, and how challenging the game can be.  I found that the early encounters were not too dangerous for the party, but the addition of a single Ogre changed the challenge level significantly.  I also got to see how character advancement works.  This delve provided few opportunities for level changes (though Listra moved from a Grunt to an Elite after an encounter), however, several characters were able to gain new traits.  Lena gained a weapon specialist trait that provides an extra dice in combat, I gave Monica a Monster Lore trait that gives her an additional dice when fighting Monsters (like the Ogre, though I forgot to apply it this last game).  Trina, through her introspection trait which gives her a chance to advance every encounter, gained a much needed dodge trait which provides an additional defense dice.

Altogether I have liked playing Dungeon Scum and hope to continue my solo adventures with this party, but I really look forward to getting a group of players to run characters and try the game out as an RPG as well.

Dungeon Scum, the Delve Continues.

Rose Glenguard and her party of Adventurers continue through the dark caverns in search for treasure.  The passageway opens into another larger room filled with pools of brackish water of unknown depths.  A foul mist hangs heavy in the air, obscuring the view of the far side of the chamber.  Somewhere behind the rock ledges a quiet splashing alerts the party to eminent danger.

The Adventurers encounter a large chamber with pools of water and foul mist hanging heavy in the air.

 The Adventuring Party (L to R):  the Hero Trina of the Blade, Rens and Estelle (minions), Rose Glenguard leader of the party, Monica Wellspring the Scholar, Halfdan (minion), Listra (minion), and Lady Lena.

Lurking in the cavern are a pack of hungry Lizard men.

The Lizards work in tandem with the wiry Slithering Crawlers that also live in the cavern.

As the heroes advance, one of the Lizard men rushes Trina of the Glade.  She calmly blocks the creatures attack and the two are locked in combat.

At the end of the first turn, the party advances whilst the Slithering Crawlers hang back awaiting an opportunity to strike.

Rose rushes over to join the fight, but the stern Lizard warrior holds them both off.

Lady Lena approaches a suspicious column peeking through the mist.  A Slithering Crawler darts out from behind a rock formation, hisses at her and coils up for a lunge.  Lena interposes her shield and the two engage in earnest.

 As the heroes engage the lead Lizard man, Minions Rens and Estelle prepare to fight another that emerges from behind the rocks.

The end of the second turn sees the party spread out and facing foes from both sides of the cavern.

Trina rams her boar spear into the Lizard man's gut, opening a gaping wound and turning the now lifeless creature into a pile of scales and blood.

 The gruesome kill rattles the nerve of the remaining Lizard men.

Lena is stunned by the Slithering Crawler, but Halfdan and Listra engage a second Crawler, keeping it off of Lena's back.

Even stunned, Lena manages to dispatch the Crawler with a well placed sword blow.

Monica Wellspring the Scholar lends the weight of her attack to the others and dispatches another Crawler.  She takes a moment to examine the curious looking creature before getting back into the fight.

Meanwhile, Rose sees another Slithering Crawler emerge from the brackish water.  She sends an arrow it's way, but only grazes the beast, stunning it.

Even stunned, the beast slithers quickly across the wet cavern floor in order to engage Rose.

Soon both Lena and Monica rush to lend their leader a hand.

The end of the turn sees the creatures in a dire position, outnumbered on all fronts by able Adventurers.  Still, the creatures fight on, defending their lair.

Monica skewers the stunned Crawler and nearly looses her spear as the creatures wriggles and gasps until it expires.

Rens and Estelle continue to exchange blows with a Lizard man, but to no effect.  The battle remains a stalemate, as help approaches for each side.

But then Trina bounds up upon the mound of stone brandishing her bloody boar spear.  The Ranger lets out a wild yell as she attacks.

Trina's attack leaves another Lizard man dead on the cavern floor.

The end of the turn shows the Adventurers running out of opposition.

The lone Lizard man takes in the situation.....

His friends are down, the Crawlers dead, and all the Adventurers are heading his way.   Trina waves her bloody spear in his direction....

....and the Lizard man rushes towards a nearby pool, takes a quick dive, and disappears into the dark water.

This was the second encounter of a typical fantasy dungeon delve using Nordic Weasel's Dungeon Scum rules.  The party was rewarded with 4 bags of gold and 2 magic potions, randomly generated by the various charts in the game rules.  Also, 2 Retainer characters (Lena and Monica) gained new traits as an experience reward for defeating monsters of their same level.  This dungeon has so far consisted of battles with Minions and a Pack of Monsters, but other type of encounters could have been generated as well.  Situations such as traps, delays, puzzles to solve and even unguarded treasures can be generated using the Delve rules.  In this dungeon the party has one more encounter before facing the boss monster of the Delve.  Stay tuned for the next installment.