Play Report: Dolmenwood Sessions 44 & 45
Here’s the first play report from the Dolmenwood campaign I’ve been running for a few friends since January 2024. It’s been a slow and winding campaign, mostly exploring northeastern Dolmenwood and published modules. I plan to write a larger piece reflecting on the campaign when we hit Session 50.
The party has been cautiously exploring The Ruined Abbey of St Clewyd for a couple of sessions, and have covered much of the surface and the Eastern Basement.
Spoilers for the Ruined Abbey of St Clewyd below.
Session 44, March 19, 2026
PCs: Bunk (Bard 5); Pansy (Enchanter 4); Hogrid (Magician 8).
Retainers & pets: Kaya (Thief 5); Moody (Fighter 1); Creeper the dog; Deuce the hawk.
Jul 24, 8:20
In the dilapidated abbot’s residence, Hogrid grabs some gems sitting in a fireplace, and a slime monster hidden in the chimney drops down on him. Several party members are hurt in the ensuing fight. Finally, Hogrid casts Dominate, successfully charming the slime.
In a ruined study, the party finds a secret staircase leading down. Descending the stairs, they emerge into a lavishly decorated underground chamber. The air is dry, and they hear human voices coming from an adjacent room. The party is confused by signs of normal life here. They find another secret door leading to a library. Three old monks pore over religious texts and completely ignore the party. While looting the library, Pansy finds a key hidden inside a book.
As they prepares to leave, Pansy pokes one of the old monks, suspecting it might be an apparition. The monks – living humans! – now notice the intruders and react to them in awe and horror. As one of them is about to run and scream for help, the party talks them down momentarily, claiming that they have been sent by the Church (which is true!).
Session 45, March 23, 2026
PCs: Bunk (Bard 5); Pansy (Enchanter 4); Hogrid (Magician 8); Oggy (Mossling 5).
Retainers & pets: Kaya (Thief 5); Lucrecia (Knight 1); Moody (Fighter 1); Creeper the dog; Deuce the hawk.
Jul 24, 10:30
The old scribes take the group to meet the abbot, and interrupt the morning sermon of a group of monks living in the abbey's crypts. While the abbot has a whispered conversation with the newcomers, twenty-odd monks look on in amazement. As Pansy mentions the secret entrance to the abbot, she notes a flash of terror in his eyes.
Back in the privacy of the library, the abbot presents the group with a sceptre he claims to be a relic of St Clewyd. He tasks the party with closing the Chaos Rift at the other end of the crypts (the party has been there before): they are to enter the rift holding hands, with the sceptre raised, reciting a prayer. The party’s suspicions of the abbot grow, but they agree to do it.
First, the PCs want to rest back on the surface. They grow annoyed when the abbot demands they not take the secret entrance. They begin to leave, but, to push the abbot's buttons, insist on saying goodbye to the rest of the monks. Before the abbot can stop them, Pansy announces the existence of the secret entrance to everyone.
Some of the monks begin to call the abbot a liar and accuse him of hiding the exit. The abbot implores his flock to ignore the party, even accuses them of being chaotic apparitions. The argument among the monks breaks into a scuffle. A wild-eyed monk calls to the party that the time is ripe to release the Charge, pointing to a set of ornate stone doors.
Monks loyal to the abbot attempt to flee. At the behest of their wild-eyed leader, rebellious monks run to inspect the secret entrance and to find a key in the library. Bunk is locked in melee with the loyalist prior. Kaya and Lucrecia tie up the abbot. Hogrid puts most of the loyalists to sleep. Oggy enters the chamber of the Charge.
He sees a nightmarish amalgam of St Clewyd and the atacorn (a unicorn-like servant of the evil Nag Lord) Sallowbyrg. The creature is bound in chains and asks Oggy to be released. However, after a brief conversation, Oggy retreats.
The tied-up abbot implores the party not to release the creature. Meanwhile, the rebels look for the keys to its chains – fruitlessly, because Pansy already has them.
Reflections
Our group hadn’t managed to get together for a Dolmenwood session in two months, and it felt very comfortable to play B/X again.
Session 44 was bog-standard dungeon crawling, but a perfect example of how solid the classic D&D chassis is. The passage of time, the random encounters (skipped for brevity in the recap) and the power level (a Level 4 redslob enemy putting the fear of death in our Level 8 Magician) all make for a game that’s a joy for me to run, even in a slower session. My ongoing Mothership game suffers by comparison. Mothership's lack of procedure and haziness on some of the rules requires so much more preparation, arbitration and house-ruling.
Session 45 made me really fall in love with the Ruined Abbey of St Clewyd. The situation with the monks is so dynamic! The presence of this or that NPC, or the divulging of this or that bit of info can shape events in significant ways. It’s exciting that a player announcing the presence of a secret door can spark such a powder keg.
However, when they did that, I had to call timeout and go sit in the other room to double-check the module for a few minutes. The section of the module concerning the monks is dense: twenty named NPCs; split into two factions; with different beliefs and known information; a bespoke reaction table; events that trigger certain behaviours; battle plans; etc.
I’d read this section of the module a bunch of times over the months and still hadn’t internalised it all. There’s “if-then” logic here, and attempts in the room key to give the NPCs a schedule (certain locations are only occupied at certain times of day), and random rolls to determine which NPC is where. It’s rubbing up against the limitations of, if not written modules, then certainly the Necrotic Gnome house style.
With all the conditionals and systemic interconnections, and so many dynamic NPCs to track, this little section of the module is like trying to put a Deus Ex level on the page. I struggle with the mental RAM needed. When it comes to social challenges, I think TTRPGs – or pre-written modules, at least – are probably at their best as chamber plays. Few moving parts, clear information.
But we did have a lot of fun with the chaos. Maybe the juice is worth the squeeze, because after these last two sessions, the Abbey of St Clewyd went from good to great in my estimation. Out of the modules we’ve played this campaign, this one has landed the best at our table. Can’t wait to see how things unfold, because there's potential for some setting-changing events here.