The summary of our first session of Pits & Perils:
- We entered the little hamlet of Inwood. Our group consists of two player characters, Chevor (fighter) and Phrandohr (magician). We also have four henchpeople with us: William, Juliet, Elizabeth, and Hogarth.
- We discovered several things: (a) a young woman named Rose was missing; (b) a young troublemaker named Fenric, Rose's suitor, had also disappeared and was the prime suspect in Rose's disappearance; (c) the well in Inwood had gone bad; (d) Fenric's mother offered to pay us 10 gold pieces to find Fenric.
- We talked with some villagers, which gave us the lay of the land. In addition to Rose, Fenric, and the well, the village was troubled by a pack of wolves of the area.
- Fenric's mother told us that Fenric might be hiding out in a nearby abandoned abbey so that is where we went. Underneath the ruins we found a small complex of tunnels and ruins. As we explored, we discovered a trail of blood that led us to a dead human and a dead wolf. Based on the evidence, we decided the dead guy was Fenric.
In Tonight's Session (Session 2)
Session 2 went like this:
- We continued to explore the underground tunnels beneath the abbey. We were attacked by a wolf, which after many whiffs, a few of us finally connected with our weapons and felled the animal.
- We explored the rest of the complex and found one more dead wolf surrounded by rats. We left this wolf corpse alone, but removed the heads from other two. The bounty on a wolf? 5 gold pieces for each head. 10 gold pieces would give us one more night at the inn (we are that broke).
- We returned to Inwood with the corpse that we believed to be Fenric. Sadly, his mother confirmed this for us. We returned her down payment of a finders' fee of 5 gold pieces.
- We discovered that the mysterious problem with the well had been solved. There was a small amulet fashioned in the form of a wolf's head found in the well. Phrandohr (me) examined the item and determined to be cursed and representing the wolf demon, Lycaon. Some townsfolk had seen Fenric with a similar item. However, a stranger traveling from Ravenswood was also seen with a like item right around the time the well went bad.
- We decided that we needed to find the wolves' lair in order to find Rose and get to bottom of the problems plaguing Inwood. Session 2 ended with us approaching the lair.
Impressions of Pits & Perils
I am really liking this very simple rule set. It offers a different take on an early D&D style game, using 1d2 and 2d6 for resolving actions. First level characters are more powerful than their early D&D equivalents, but the Pits & Perils' power curve is not as steep. Characters grow in might as they gain levels, but to a much lesser degree than D&D.
