Return to Mork Borg

The dregs of the Shadow King's prisons made another venture into the warrens under his castle in our Mork Borg Redux. This time exploring a dungeon I created myself. Map, recap and further thoughts on Mork Borg as a system below the fold.

• After they rescued Aldon last session, the King's seer invited the Dregs to undertake another mission for him: dig up the crypt of Morgara the Witch and retrieve her spell book. 
• With the promise of meager reward and the implicit threat of unceremonious liquidation should they refuse, the Dregs accepted the mission. 
• The seer directed them to the cracked base of a tower within the Shadow King's palace. His scrying led him to believe that Morgara's remains had been buried within, and her spellbook with her. 

Here's the dungeon: 

Uses elements from a Dyson Logos map from 2011.

1. Entrance room: Mosaic in floor depicts covers a flagstone sealed in place with wax. 
• Dead body in room. Corpse is bleeding from eyes, foam on lips. Pack contains basic supplies (knife, crowbar, lantern) and corpse's hands clasp poisoned coins.
• Pulling up the flagstone grants access to the hallway below.
2. Hallway - South branch of hall contains trap. A loose flagstone is the trigger.
• The flagstone depresses when any weight is put on the south side of the stone (northside of stone is ok) and causes the walls on either side to drop revealing four skeletons chained to the walls (two each side). Skeletons have steel-traps for hands. On a hit, a victim is grabbed by the skeleton until it is killed. If an attack against the skeleton misses, the weapon is grabbed and held until the skeleton is dead. Each skeleton can only hit twice.
• If the party triggers this trap, they will likely attract the attention of the Wraith from Room 6.
3. Wickhead trapped in locked room. He's been here for ages. Depending on reaction roll/party negotiation he's "Aland" the Wickhead knife-wielder monster, or becomes a Wild Wickhead follower per Mork Borg book. 
4. Room is guarded by two blood-drenched skeletons. They dissolve if they leave the room. Coffin, if opened roll on random coffin table.
5. Room is guarded by two blood-drenched skeletons. They dissolve if they leave the room.Secret door conceals coffin and stairs to lower level. 
6. Wraith's Room: Draped in black velvet curtains. Contains ebony casket. The wraith sneaks around and will attack the party while they are distracted or distressed. If badly wounded he will flee here to recover and attack again (he's very fast). Stairs to Room 8.
7. Room contains two coffins (roll on random coffin table) and an alter. The altar has a bowl on it with poisoned coins inside. Adding coins to the bowl will open the secret door into a tunnel (leads to Room 8).
8.  Summoning Room. Book on lectern (roll on book table from Rotblack Sludge Area 3, except summons fire demon rather than crystal demon). Silver circle inset in floor (60s if pried up). If demon summoned with book, it will appear in circle and will make a deal for the party to let it out. As soon as deal is satisfied, it attacks them. 
9. Fountain room. Just a fountain d10 coins inside.
10. Unfinished room propped up with wooden supports like a western-movie mine. Dirt floor and walls. Hungry Coffin. 
11. Chapel. Contains the body of Morgara and her spellbook (or whatever Mcguffin you like). Hanging from the rafters are dozens of upside down skeletons. Inert at first. 
• If the book is taken, Morgara awakes as Undead Necromancer and the hanging skeletons animate. They will attack and on a success, grab PC and chain will retract into the ceiling lifting them up 20 feet. Unless precautions are taken, when skeleton is killed, they are dropped for falling damage. Crawling on the ground will stay out of their reach.

Coffin Table (d6): 1-2 contains angry skeleton nailed down inside coffin. 3-4 random magic treasure. 5-6 poisonous spores and a random magic treasure.

Recap: 

The Dregs had three party members: A returning Gutterborn Scum, a new Heretical Priest and a new Fanged Deserter.

• The Dregs infiltrated the catacomb and were fortunate to find a magic flute in the first coffin they opened (Room 7). Playing the flute created a meat-golem from a nearby corpse (from Room 1) and they used the homuncular thrall to trigger the skeleton trap (Area 2). 
• While they battled the skeletons the Wraith (from room 6) back-stabbed and started thrashing their Heretic. The Dregs focused all their fire on the Wraith and after a few hits he fled back towards his lair, revealing the secret door. They followed, defeated him and descended down into the lower level. 

On the lower level, they pried up the silver summoning circle and failed to interpret the book (room 8) and proceeded through the fountain room (room 9) back up the stairs into Room 5. They fled from the skeletons which dissolved when they pursued.

They met Aland in Room 3 and made friends, skipped Room 4, and returned to the Chapel (Room 11). Sensing the danger from the hanging skeletons they chained several up on their path to the Coffin. When they opened the coffin and woke Morgara and the skeletons, the heretic used his Crucifix to turn the skeletons. Without her skeletons, Morgara was easily defeated (though she stole and destroyed the Scum's sacred scroll) and the party returned to the surface victorious with her spellbook and her corpse in a bag.

Bog Mummy

Reflections: 
Mork Borg is a really easy system to run. My players (all used to newer edition D&D) really liked the comparatively fast pace. I think this is a really good gate-way drug for getting new-school players to try old-school play (albeit very stylish and streamlined).

Monsters were threatening but not impossible and consistent smart tactics and creative solutions prevented any character deaths (last time >50% casualties, partly due to unlucky starting hit-points, partly due to insta-death worm monster).

I tried to use as many monsters/elements from the Mork Borg book as I could and resist the impulse to make everything up myself. Over the next couple sessions, I plan to run every monster in the book.