Teaching Skeletons Checkers
The group was still in Oistace Ard's tomb. Curlip was helping to reassemble Wym, the talking skeleton they'd freed last time. Apparently he'd ended up in the spider's web after losing a bet with his skeleton friends. Then they heard panicked shouting from down the hall.
The spider they'd chased off last time had run straight into the three remaining skeleton guards. Guillem and Curlip scared it off again. The guards seemed more interested in gambling than actually guarding the place. Snerd lost several games of dice against them and even taught them checkers. Tom provided some music on his flute.
Further in they found a young girl hiding in a barrel, whom they coaxed out with a sandwich. Her name was Marn, but her friends called her Rootmouse. She had stumbled upon the barrow entrance that morning and decided to explore, but got scared by the spiders and skeletons. Crispin made her a Promise to take her on an adventure and bring her safely home.
Eventually they reached Ard's resting place. His body lay in wooden armour with a long white axe beside him. Nearby they found the skulls of his four retainers, each wired to a plinth. One skull lay beside its plinth with the wire snapped. Snerd and Guillem managed to disarm the traps and recover the decorated skulls.
Back in the burial chamber they turned the large hourglass Andramath had set up. This revealed a ghostly scene from the past, showing Ard's retainers and two Drune paying their respects. The Drune then presented the retainers with the same stone coffer the group had recovered from the well in their first session.
Snerd decided to take Ard's white axe. Rootmouse warned them that the Woodcutters probably wouldn't appreciate that. Naturally, they started discussing how to pass it off as a gift.
I really liked how the spider fleeing last session immediately became someone else's problem. The reaction roll didn't just end an encounter. It changed what was happening in another room. And now they've chased it off again.
I expected some gambling with the skeletons, but didn't expect Snerd to teach them checkers and actually befriend them. So far they've managed everything without resorting to combat. I like that a lot.
Finally someone made a Promise! I'd imagined Promises as something individual characters make rather than the whole group. We also wondered whether simply returning Rootmouse home would be "heroic" enough. Crispin decided to up the ante and promised to take her on an adventure while keeping her safe, before returning her home. That seemed fair to me, so I accepted the Promise and he gained his Hit Die.
I'm also pretty happy with how the skull traps worked out. The snapped wire was enough to make them suspicious of the other skulls and figure out how to disarm them. Much more interesting than catching them with a gotcha trap or having them constantly declare they're doing things "carefully" or ask for skill checks. They had enough information to make an informed choice.