Ten of +1 Swords

Into the Mountain Play Report, Session 3

Hello, I go by Bubblegum, and this is my first post!
Some quick context: The setting is apocalyptic medieval fantasy where structures and constructs of fascism are rotting but alive. The players are part of a community who mutually aid each other in exploring the last remnant of this kingdom. The only source of food is this megadungeon, the kingdom built under a mountain. For each of us, this is the first megadungeon and our first open table. So far I have 9 players on board, with 6 who have attended.

Date: September 26th, 2026
System: Cairn Barebones (with dungeon procedure changes)

PCs:

I resolved downtime at the table, I'm considering doing this over Discord in the future to save time. My players decided to look for clues about the Caprix, small goat people who have been causing problems for their potential allies, a colony of giant ants. But they know the Caprix are mainly causing issues on the 3rd level and they still want to map out level 1 entirely. If they happen to find one of Maveria's lost fairy sisters, they will prioritize returning her, since she promised them information about the locale and some magical favors.

They enter the first level, a system of mossy caverns and tunnels. They go straight to a cavern they mapped the first session that had a 2" hole leading further in the direction of a room blocked by a portcullis. They took mushrooms they received as a reward for saving Maveria last session which reduced them in size. I ruled that they could keep their belongings as mini versions, but the torch light would only light 20 centimeters and it would take several turns to explore what essentially is a 10'x10' privy. They decided to induce vomit and grow back to size while exploring further. (I should have made fatigue a consequence of inducing vomit)

I'm testing out different rules for random encounters. I tried the event die from Cairn 2e for a while and didn't love it for this campaign. I want my players to have a hand in logistics, which I think adds agency. For this reason, randomly losing resources back to back was causing friction. I'm familiar with B/X style dungeon turn tracking from previous games, but I decided to try something new, Goblin Punch's Underclock.

I told the PCs how the Underclock works and I exposed the results for them to tally. When the tally reached 19, I told them they were vaguely aware of a presence, like mounting tension in the silence. Once they reached 20 I rolled distance, surprise, and reaction. This worked pretty well though the fact that the players knew exactly when the encounter will happen felt a little awkward to hand-waive. It feels a lot different than a 1-in-6 chance every two turns, even when that is exposed as well. I might do exploding dice to make it more unpredictable. I want to try it a few more times before making up my mind.

The Silver Knight (as Iron Construct) was there encounter since they were right next to the silver eye statue that it can see through. They heard its heavy clanging footfalls from the level 2 entrance down the stairs, it crossed a cavern river to meet them with no trouble at all. The PCs still decided they wanted to try communicating with it and if that didn't work, fighting it. They had relative advantage since they fought it in a stairway with smaller weapons, and it had a big greatsword. This did not matter as mundane weapons do not work. The dice were in their favor, they did not take much damage before retreating.

They used a rope and spikes to trip it, only delaying it an extra round. They pulled the lever to the portcullis to both the North and South and exited North, but Saoirse stayed behind to see what the southern portcullis revealed. She found a mess of dead bodies and a trapped fairy in an iron cage. She risked a DEX save to grab the cage and return to the group without getting into melee with the Silver Knight and succeeded. They retreated into a previously found cavern where Gorilla Pigs make their home (as White Apes with excellent sense of smell). Garen spent his downtime researching Gorilla Pigs and found if they cower and avoid eye contact they improve their chances to avoid violence. So they did this while offering food, and succeeded. The Gorilla Pigs were interested in the food and ignored the party as they snuck past.

Here is where capital 'I' Impact hit like a ton of bricks. The Silver Knight got up and continued pursuit only to get distracted by incredibly territorial Gorilla Pigs. The players heard the massacre from the other cavern. They decided to book it to Maveria to return her sister. They ran into the Praetor of the Moss on their way, the agent for the giant ants on this level. They informed her of the Silver Knight and without emotion, she informed them that the Silver Knight had been trapped behind the portcullis and now freed will cause them issues. She assessed them as "not very useful friends".

We were getting close to the end of our session so they reunited the fairies and will return next week for a reward. Everyone is getting into the rhythm of returning to camp every session and taking downtime actions. This week everyone had something in mind.

Ending thoughts:

Thank god they unleashed the Knight. I don't have to restock at all, I just have to run this to its logical conclusion. I'm elated with how my group is playing. They've been very respectful of the Table Agreement and have kept pace, locked in on a shared goals, and kept a fun and creative environment for play. I think I could be more mindful of the impact of choices. I mentioned earlier how my players induced vomit to stop being tiny, and I think this took away from the impact of their choice to make them small in the first place. I got so excited that they were using the tools that I forgot to make it interesting. I'm glad for the opportunity to see the difference between consequential and inconsequential choices in action, this session.