Session 7 Report Hole in the Oak

Previous session report can be found here. First session report can be found here.

Overall

On Friday, October 24^th^, I ran the seventh session of my Hole in the Oak game for OSE via FoundryVTT.

After the battle with the spider in the hallway, the players wanted to move on through the door. They’d spent quite some time worrying about whether the door was trapped, illusory, or just trying to get them in some other way. Eventually, they made the wonderful decision to just knock. I love rewarding common-sense thinking, so I chose to have the troglodyte (which a random roll told me was hiding around the corner) walk up and answer them. It was Tomfool, so I figured he must be a little innocent and naive, and so I played him up like that.

After a little chat, which was amiable, they wanted to know if Tomfool could open the door. He answered he’d have to go get his brothers, which the PCs quickly shied him away from. Instead, they asked how they could get around, and Tomfool let them know that they could go around north or south. So, to avoid the ghouls in the north, they decided to go around south and face either the obviously trapped skull door or the unexplored guano cave.

They ended up skipping the skull door and went in the next doorway. There, they found a sand-covered room with two black skeletons at the other end. This led to a number of incremental tests where they tossed something near them; took a step inside the room; shot an arrow at them; and finally snuck close. For each of these, the black skeletons were absolutely still. We ended the session there, with the players deciding to act more boldly at the start of the next session.

What Went Well

Jumping in after two months

Our play schedule is a little chaotic. Both my players as well as myself have had stuff come in between our fortnightly sessions, and before you know it it’s been two months between sessions. I was happy with how easy it was to pick up where we left off and how easy it was to scan the next room and run it.

Lessons Learned

One player still treating hireling as DM NPC

In this session one of the players again wanted to ask a hireling whether they had additional knowledge of the situation. I’ve been keeping that at bay by not having them provide useful information, because they simply do not have it. At the same time, I should probably make a note of what it is they’re asking after. I might see a pattern in what they want or when they want it that might help me guide a little better. At the same time, I also want to make sure they explore on their own accord and face weird mysteries, so this may also be one of those things a referee doesn’t have to solve.

Infravision rules

I still don’t know how to properly work the infravision rules in FoundryVTT. This session, the PCs could see the black skeletons at the end of the room, even though their torchlight didn’t extend that far. I’d asked about half a year ago, but sadly there was no answer. Well, except from the person who asked a year ago and also did not receive an answer. I guess the answer might be that it’s not possible yet. It did make me rethink using the FoundryVTT features with this level of granularity. Perhaps it’s better to just work with more abstract rooms that the party is in, rather than having a drawing that represents the exact room.