System: Cairn 2e (April 2024 Playtest)
Adventure: Barrow of the Elf King
Players: Storm (Mum), Aldrick (Dad)
GM: Me
Session length: 3h30m ish
The Game
First time trying Cairn after reading about it for years. I love Into the Odd and Cairn has a lot of the same mechanics, but it didn’t catch my eye until I saw the Kickstarter for the second edition. The addition of 20 different player backgrounds (inspired by failed careers from Electric Bastionland) and an extended warden’s guide drew me in and I decided to give the free playtest a go.
The backgrounds provide flavourful, unique character ideas that also hint at a wider implied setting. They each come with a unique item or trait, and in my experience each one was useful and interesting. They're easy to adapt to the adventure you're playing, and they are fantastic for sparking ideas.
Cairn 2e also has some good player principles and procedures for the GM, which I printed out for the players to read beforehand. Setup and character creation took about half an hour, explaining it as I went through it with the players. Before long, the players both had rad, interesting characters (a hexenbane and a rill runner) and I had rolled a half-witch NPC that I was going to use to give them the "quest" to go into the Barrow of the Elf King.
Barrow of the Elf King is a short, sweet dungeon by Nate Treme (https://natetreme.itch.io/botek) that's got a kind of forest fantasy theme, which fits with Cairn's forest folk setting very well.
Finally, we used the Omen table from Cairn 2e to provide some background colour and flavour to our quest. The omen they rolled was that the Mother Tree in the village was dying, and I immediately thought of ways to tie it into the adventure.
The Questgiver (Spoilers ahead for Barrow of the Elf King)
Improvised a short scene wherein the players arrived at a village and met a half-witch named Solara on the night of a full moon. The mother tree was dying, she told them, and the only way to fix it was to retrieve the old Elf King's wooden sword from his barrow in the woods.
All that stuff was made up during character creation, but the players didn't know that. Fun way to add meat to the imagined world. The combination of Cairn and the Barrow of the Elf King really shone in this respect.
Lots of time spent in a nearby village, Blackfield, talking with locals, gathering rumours and buying equipment. They had just enough coins to buy a donkey called Kicky, who they took with them to help carry stuff.
The town was also an improvised addition. Dad came up with the name. The donkey was not all that useful, but he was charming. The inventory system in Cairn is strict, which I like. A party that wants to gather loot will inevitably need backpacks, carts, pack mules, etc. Cool!
Spiderwebs
The next morning, they went into the forest to find the old barrow. Along the way, they came across an oak tree covered in cobwebs. A giant spider emerged from the dark canopy and peered down at them!
Got a random encounter but there were no random encounter tables. There are giant spiders in the dungeon, though, so I decided to drop one on them to foreshadow their presence. There’s also an entrance to the dungeon through a hole in the oak tree that the spiders use, so the players could have found that if they chased it.
Storm and Aldrick lit their torches and waved the spider away. It worked, and they never saw any sign of it again. With the help of Aldrick's pocket leyfinder, they found the secret burial mound of the Elf King and managed to find an entrance into the tomb.
This was a creative way to deal with the spider. To check it worked, I rolled a morale check. It failed so the spider fled.
The game was running slowly. Mum and dad were discussing options over and over and not actually doing things. That’s something you learn as a player, how to take the initiative and push the game forward. I stepped in to help them along a few times. One time I made Solara the half-witch appear and give them advice.
The Barrow of the Elf King
They found the secret entrance that led directly to the Elf King's grave. There were gem-inlaid skulls lining the entrance to the passage, but they agreed not to take any out of respect for the Elf King.
Very lucky. Anyone taking a skull risks a potentially fatal cave-in.
My dad loved this part of the dungeon. He loves Irish history and he said this barrow reminded him of Newgrange.
The found the old Elf King's remains. A large hourglass attached to a crank in the wall, a door to the east and a passage leading deeper into the barrow to the South. Strange noises deeper in.
A cold gust blew in and extinguished their torches. They panicked and dropped their weapons. Alone in the dark, they heard weird, fleshy sucking noises coming from the east, and both scrambled to relight their torches.
Not knowing what else to do, they turned the crank on the wall and watched the hourglass turn over, the sand slowly flowing down.
This was due to two dungeon exploration turns. The first one resulted in resource loss (torches extinguished) and the next one resulted in evidence of a nearby encounter (noise of the barrow worms from area 6). The panic effect is an optional rule in Cairn and it added a little bit of tension to the moment.
As the hourglass poured, a towering figure wielding an oak greatsword rose up from the old Elf King's burial slab. It was the spectral, undead form of the Elf King himself!
The King of Elfland’s Daughter
It looked as though Storm and Aldrick might be about to meet their demise. Just then, seven (!) barrow worms chewed through the door and began flailing around, trying to feed on anything in sight. An all out brawl ensued and all parties took serious damage.
Storm lay critically wounded on the floor as Aldrick racked his brains for a plan. Most of the worms had been pulverised into mush or blasted aflame by the Elf King and things were looking desperate. Suddenly, Aldrick remembered that Solara had given him a strange letter and told him it held a powerful secret. He pulled it out – it was the Elf King's true name, Vex.
Solara the half-witch started the game with a random trait, and the one I rolled was that she knew the true name of a powerful fey creature. The coincidence was too good to ignore, so I decided she knew the name of the Elf King. I made one up that sounded cool – Vex.
Aldrick cried out "King Vex!" and the undead king stopped, shocked that a mere mortal knew his name. Aldrick continued, "Solara sent us!" The fury on Vex’s face turned to confusion and sorrow as he whispered, "My daughter…?" before he was cruelly cut short by the chomp of an errant barrow worm. Finally, the Elf King was dead, for real this time, and he could rest in peace.
The idea that Solara was the Elf King's daughter hadn't occurred to me until my dad had shouted that Solara had sent them. It all just seemed to fit perfectly, and it was a dramatic, emotional highpoint to end the adventure on, so I rolled with it. Both players gasped and were astounded at this revelation. It was brilliant.
The Quest Complete
The King’s oak sword clattered to the floor as the remaining worms slithered to feed on the remains of their dead kin, ignoring Storm and Aldrick. Escaping with their lives, they grabbed the sword and rushed back to Solara.
I wrapped up the session quickly, handwaving the return to the village before playing out the final interaction with Solara. The mother tree quickly reinvigorated and its leaves turned green, and the village mayor rewarded them for helping.
Solara was very sad to hear the news about her father but was glad at least that he now rested in true peace. She thanked the two wanderers and told them that if they plant the oak sword, it will grow into a great tree that will act as a portal to Elfland, where they will be warmly welcomed forevermore.
Thoughts
This was fantastic, even just writing the recap I am reliving some of the emotional highpoints of the night. The combination of Cairn and Barrow of the Elf King was just perfect.
I have Nate Treme's Haunted Almanac, which includes many other small adventures, and I have Into the Odd as well. I'm hoping to run more one-shots using Cairn and Into the Odd with the Haunted Almanac. If they're half as good as this one was, it's going to be a lot of fun.
The Power of Vex Compels You!
Feirsteax