Hole in the Oak - Solo Play Report
This is a game of Hole in the Oak from August 2023, originally posted on Reddit, preserved here in its entirety.
So, I did this as a one-shot because I know Hole in the Oak can be deadly, and because I wanted to jump right in without doing any worldbuilding. I used Dolmenwood as my borrowed setting, put everyone already inside the hole, and started rolling. I started this around 01:00 last night and finished it around 14:00 today, and I was so interested in seeing where it was going that I woke up 2 hours earlier than I wanted (and way earlier than would probably be healthy) because my brain was that tickled.
Here's why I think I like it:
I like "throwing the bones and reading the prophecy" so to speak. I have more fun fitting pieces of narrative in the ongoing process than making up things myself.
I've DMed much more than played in my life, and usually through text. There's an app in my country for playing by a sort of instant message. Soloing like this reminds me of that, a lot of folks might be put off because it feels a bit slower.
I don't have that much control over what goes on. I have an easier time "caring" about teams and organizations rather than specific characters; I don't mind character deaths in the least, for instance, as long as it has a fun impact on other characters.
These are the 3 main points. If you think any of that resonates with you, I wholeheartedly recommend giving Player-emulation a shot. If you don't, however, then it might not be for you, because it's a very detached experience.
Dramatis Personae
Here's our party (all level 1), in marching order. All of them use she/her pronouns except the last one, who uses he/him. I have also attributed four Personality Traits to each of them, from Pendragon, but I ended up not using them that much because it didn't come up - that is, a value from 1 to 20 against which I'll roll whenever they're in a bind. Everyone has the Self-Preservation trait, and then 3 others.
I won't put in all of their stats because it'd take a while, and because most of it didn't come up. Also I have a hard time following names in posts like this so I put in some emojis to make clear whom the name refers to.
Agnes Logger, the Fighter 🛡️ - Her personality traits are Ambition, Do Good, and Cause Mayhem. She also has the Combat Talent Defender, which penalises foes trying to hit her teammates if they're in Melee range with her. She's a loner.
Jill Flip-a-tail, the Grimalkin 🐈⬛ - Her personality traits are Curiosity, Romance, and Attacking Monsters because she's a little dumbass who thinks too highly of herself. She also has a glamour that lets her step into shadows and step out a couple feet in another. She has a friendly rivalry with Tumble-and-Thimble 🏹, though he pretends he doesn't know.
- [Grimalkin are anthropomorfic fairy cats from the Dolmenwood setting who can eat rodents and spit furballs, they can also shapeshift into fat tomcats and a beastlike form when their health drops to 1/3]
Fannigrew Snoode, the Goatfolk 🐐 - Her personality traits are Exploration, Obtain Items, and Lecherousness, though subdued because she's controlled and responsible. She's secretly in love with Agnes 🛡️. She can't do anything too special though, basically just a fighter who can headbutt.
- [Goats get more damage from their horns as they level up, eventually they can also ellicit respect with their gaze and learn magic]
Imbwl, the Moss Dwarf 🍺 - She's a dozy dumbass, her personality traits are Indulgence, Bully, and Laziness, and she also has a friendly rivalry with Tumble-and-Thimble 🏹, though to a lesser extent. She has yeast infections all over her body and can use it to ferment sweet liquids into a delicious liquor - for moss dwarfs. Not guaranteed to also be for non-moss dwarfs.
Ursequine Candleswick, the Magician 🪄 - An Apotropaist who renounced Healing magic, Ms. Candleswick is basically feral. Her personality traits are Attack Monsters, Obtain Wealth, and Indecision. She can never make a choice! She ignores and ridicules Jill 🐈⬛, and is an old friend (at this point ex-friend) of Tumble-and-Thimble 🏹. Her spells are Seal of the Wonder-Worker King, Writ of the Otherworld, and Soul Harvest.
- [I'm using Wonder and Wickedness for the magic.]
Tumble-and-Thimble, the Elf 🏹 - A noble-looking elf who wants to break mortal hearts (Romance), Provoke Rivalries, and Cause Mayhem. He only looks noble and detached. He can make his clothes look exactly how he wants them too, and also create a white rose that, if sniffed, causes the victim to fall into deep slumber temporarily.
Actual Play
For those who don't play OSR games, each turn takes 10 minutes and the characters can move a bit. I was moving them in Owlbear Rodeo and counting the squares. Follow their path on the map, starting on the lower left.
Also, every turn I roll the event die (1d6) and, if it falls on a 1, an event of 20 will happen.
In questions of yes / no I "toss a coin" - that is to say I roll 1d2 online and if it falls in 1, it's yes. If something is particularly likely or unlikely I toss an extra Lucky or Unlucky coin and take the bigger or smaller.
Turn 0 - We find our girlies at the top of the eponymous hole in the oak, around 10 in the morning. There's a roll to see if anyone falls 20' - 1 in 10 or 1 in 6 if anyone's wearing heavy armour, which only Agnes 🛡️ is.
🎲 Agnes 🛡️ 1, Imbwl 🍺 5, Ursequine 🪄 7, Jill 🐈⬛ 7, Fannigrew 🐐 1, Tumb-and-Thimble 🏹 8.
Fannigrew 🐐 and Agnes 🛡️ drop from above. They both should take 1d6 damage, but I rolled (4, 4) and it'd have killed Fannigrew 🐐 right here, so I ruled that this would be lame and also waste my goddamn time rolling her and decided against. The floor is sand so I just said it's quite deep sand and neither take damage.
Turn 1 [Forgot to roll event die] - Jill 🐈⬛ lights a torch and they walk up to a junction, the roots get deep here. They can either go north or south (🎲1d2 = 1) and they choose to go north. Later they'll start voting, but at this point, Agnes 🛡️ chose by herself and folks just followed.
The image of a wizard with a long, white moustache gesticulates benevolently, says welcome, tells them to wait somewhere - hard to understand - and disappears. They keep walking and finish the turn on a room with a rug.
Turn 2 [Event = 2] - They spend the next 10 minutes exploring the room. Jill's 🐈⬛ Curiosity (🎲1d20 = 9, she has 10, so she needs to act on it) makes her fiddle with the rug. Under it she finds a magic circle filled with runes. Ursequine 🪄 reads it and says it must be something related to teleportation.
Will any of them step on it? Y/N - 🎲1d2 = 1, yes.
I reason it'll be either Tumble 🏹 or Jill 🐈⬛. I roll their Self-Preservations, both have 10. 🎲2d20 = 2, 13. Tumble's 🏹 self-preservation tells him he shouldn't, but Jill 🐈⬛ just steps on it and vanishes.
Will anyone go after her? Unlucky coin. 🎲2d2 = 1,1. An emphatic and surprising yes. Jill 🐈⬛ had the torch and Ursequine 🪄 did say it was just teleportation, so they decide to see what's up.
Turn 3 [Event 4] - They find themselves in the mouth of a big cavern. After Ursequine 🪄 chastising Jill 🐈⬛ for her recklessness and raising her voice, they hear a screeching from the west. To the east of them there's 3 doors. They spend the turn listening at each of the doors to see if they find out what's on the other side - they hear a lion's roar, a bull, and manic cackling.
They vote where to go: 1. turn back and go west in the direction of the screeching or 2. face the doors. 🎲6d2 = 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1.
Turn 4 [Event 4] - They move around 60' back, don't see the secret door or the gnome spying on them from behind a pillar. A door there goes north, but they elect (🎲1d2 = 1) to keep on the cavern.
Turn 5 [Event 6] - They reach the mouth of the cave. The floor is filled with guano, and they find they're still underground. Agnes 🛡️ inspects a pillar and it says:
“OVER TIME, MANY THINGS HAVE GROWN HERE. DELVE DEEP AND YOU SHALL UNCOVER WEALTH.”
Spirits are high, and they don't make too much noise, just keep walking until they reach a point where they can leave the cave or go north through a corridor. They decide (🎲1d2 = 2) to go north.
They reach a very clear trap. There's a skeleton who died from a wound in his side on the floor and slits on the walls. Probably some sort of big knife coming from there.
They loot the corpse for a sword, given to Imbwl 🍺, 25 gp and a necklace of brass skulls, and ponder on how to stop the trap. Eventually they decide to use Imbwl's 🍺 crowbar to block roughly the height that the blade would drop to hit a man of the height of the corpse where it is wounded.
It works! As they pass, a blade comes from the side, but it's stopped by the crowbar.
They reach the Hall of Kings, lined with many doors and stone statues of old kings.
Turn 6 [Event 2] - They should rest here, and their torch should go off, but I forgot about it and only remembered the next turn.
They take the turn to examine the hall and the statues, listen to very loud snoring in one of them, the other is locked, so they vote on where to go from the remaining options [🎲6d2 = 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2,]. I rule that Ursequine 🪄 was indecisive and that they elect to go west.
Turn 7 [Event 3] - They rest for a while, light another torch, and avoid talking too loud because of the ominous snoring.
Turn 8 [Event 5, how the HELL has no event happened yet?] - A 6' archway with carvings of 3 serpents intertwined stands in their way. They just keep walking. Bad idea.
I roll to see if the giant crab spider laying in wait behind the arch is surprised (🎲1d6 = 3) but she obviously isn't. The Party will be surprised in a 1 to 4, and they roll a 1.
As soon as Agnes 🛡️ goes under the arch, the spider jumps her: 🎲1d20 + 1 = 21. Agnes 🛡️ has AC 17 due to her plate mail and shield, that's a HIT, and an ugly one for 4 damage out of her 6 HP. Thankfully she rolls a 12 on her Death Save to avoid the poison.
Next round, 🎲Initiatives 5, 5; I re-roll, 🎲2 for the spider and 3 for the party. Agnes 🛡️ naturally goes first and hits the crab spider (AC 12) with a 18, deals 6 damage, and I roll 1d8 to see what's the HP of the crab spider... and roll a 6 lol
Agnes 🛡️ grabs the damn thing from her head, pins it on a wall with her shield and runs her sword through it, slicing the bastard in two, and silently keeps walking, not wanting to even mention what happened.
They reach a little room with a statue of a hunter, bow in hand, sword in belt, and his dogs. If they look in the mirror, the hunter will be awake.
🎲Do they? Unlucky coin. 2d2 = 1, 1.
They look at the mirror and see the hunter's face with an insane look in his eyes. They hear barking and a hunting horn in the distance. The hunt is on.
From here on out, if the Event Die shows 1 or 2, the Hunter will show up and attack them.
The Party collectivelly draws a breath and decide to keep walking. Agnes 🛡️ switches places in the marching order with Fannigrew 🐐 and tells everyone to press on.
They find themselves in the rug room again and go north this time. They find two locked doors. Jill 🐈⬛ tries to pick them but she can't.
Turn 9 [Event 3] - They can either go inside the door to their left or go north and left. They take a quick vote [🎲2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1] and decide to go in the door.
There they see a pile of gold and a silver challice... on the other side of a 10 feet wide and deep pit. In the pit, a mouldy skeleton in chainmail. The party looks around them and can't think of any way to reach it, so they leave it for now.
They walk north, navigating the corridors. Find a bunch of drowned corpses, but these aren't seasoned adventurers so they just try to not step on them and go forward.
They find themselves on a little beach at the side of a river. There's a boat there, a glistening sack to their right, and gore absolutely covers the place.
(🎲Surprise 6 for the foe, 3 for the Party)
A half-dead, legless body rolls from inside the boat and looks in Fannigrew's 🐐 eyes. It comes racing with his arms in her direction, but she (🎲20, 5 damage out of 2 HP) easily dispatches the thing, plunging her spear in its head.
They're starting to feel good about themselves when they look back and hear the dead bodies from before - the seven dead bodies - shambling and moaning in their direction.
These aren't just any zombies, of course, these are ghouls (2 HD). They can paralyse your ass, and I decide the characters are educated enough to at least have heard how dangerous these bad boys can be.
Ursequine 🪄 steps in front of everyone, lifts up her finger, spends her only point of magic, and recites an ancient writ.
The caster invokes one of the ancient pacts and writs enforced by Otherworldly Principalities on their subjects: there are many, and the caster must chose their utterance to victimize Demons, Spirits or Undead in the caster's location.
Roll 1d6 per caster level to determine the power ofthe writ: while the spell lasts, whenever a victim's hits are equal or less to the power, the victim is forced to flee the area. If the power is more than twice the maximum hits of the victim, the caster can decide whether they are utterly destroyed or bound to perpetually and faithfully serve the caster, even should they leave the area.
The strength of the writ is 5, the ghouls have 2 HD apiece. You know what that means? Ursequine 🪄 just got our guys 7 beautiful servants!
Everyone stops clambering into the tiny boat when they notice the shambling corpses are under the magician's control and start loading the treasure from the sacks (a bunch of gems and like 300 coins) onto their pockets. Who needs mules when you have the walking dead. Among the loot is a crystal dagger which Ursequine 🪄 can clearly tell is magic, because it's as sharp and tough as steel. She pockets it and no one minds.
Turn 10 [Event 10] - The boat is too small for our party, so they turn back to the rug room and go inside the only door left. There they find a scroll of diminution inside a bottle of wine which is vinegar by now, along with a bunch of dead bodies of tiny people inside glass bottles and a report of the travels of someone to the land of the tiny people.
Most are unimpressed. Tumble 🏹 finds it strangely poetic, but refuses to elaborate on why. Ursequine 🪄 keeps the scroll.
The party, walking in triple speed now because it's already explored terrain, goes all the way back to the junction they found themselves earlier. And then shit hits the fan.
Turn 11 [Event 1, the Hunter is here] - The hunter shows up (🎲2d6=10 x 10) 100 feet down the corridor. They're right next to the entrance when they isten to the hounds getting closer, but the Hunter has the advantage and covers half this distance in the time it takes for them to even notice he's appeared.
There's a shimmering and ethereality becoming closer just where the torchlight stops. The dogs are coming, the hunter is inevitable.
The party decides to make a break for it, but at this time I was already convinced that the way for this one-shot to end would be in tragedy.
They can see the midday sun just beyond the hole, Ursequine 🪄 orders the ghouls to hit the hunter but it makes no difference - they're magical. The hunter shoots Fannigrew 🐐 from the top of the ladder and she falls along with everyone else.
Ursequine 🪄 is fragile, but she can throw well (+1 in to-hit due to high DEX), so she decides to throw a hail mary - a well-placed knife to the neck should be enough to discorporate this thing.
She throws the dagger.
🎲8
She misses.
The Hunter takes home 6 other trophies. May the next ones be luckier!