Solo Gardens of Ynn Play Report

After reading a bit of Sofinho's plans to play through the Stygian Library solo earlier this year, I became interested in doing the same, with the (original, 2018 edition of) the Gardens of Ynn. I'd never played a solo game before, and my opinion on depthcrawls has soured somewhat over time, but the two of them seem to fit together quite pleasantly. 

My framing device was based on my urban fantasy setting, Libra - a trio of prisoners from the government containment facility CATERPILLAR have spent months carefully growing mold under the floor of a common area - just enough life to open a door to the Garden. 

1. Adhara Matar, a Fighter 3 (17 HP, AC 10) has a tied-together-bedsheet rope and stole a Glock (1d8, 17 rounds, integrated flashlight) off a guard on her way out. She was picked up on a charge of smuggling supernatural goods - she is, herself, entirely non-magical.
2. Idris Nist, an 11 HP AC 11 OSIRIS Theurge 3 (my system here was "the GLOG that exists in my head" - Nist has 3 MD and 3 spells, Laplace Transformation, Squared Missile, and Irreality) with his hands enveloped in metal spheres and chained together to stop him from casting.
3. Noé Michaud, a Psychic 3 (6 HP, 10 AC, Apex Firestarter, Apex Inception) with a stolen toolbox.

Their goal is to pass all the way through the Garden, to an eventual location roll of 35 or higher. They can rest once for free - if they do it again, government agents and apsych kill teams will swarm into Ynn and appear on the encounter table. 

Depth 0

Noé pries up the floor tile, and the trio drop into Ynn, tumbling to a stop in a meticulously-arranged rock garden. In the center of the radiating gravel patterns is a stone sarcophagus, carved with images of cavorting humanoid salamanders. 

I threw a reaction roll for Adhara, who got to be team leader by virtue of her criminal career, and it turned out she was absolutely the kind of person to go "big sarcophagus! People put loot in those!". Noé breaks it open on her orders, and ignores the four skeletons within in order to pocket 20 rounds of verdigrised 9mm. She gets a Real Bad Feeling afterwards, but nothing seems to happen... 

(the cartridges were cursed, and Noé failed her save, but the curse was "next time you roll a character, treat all 6s as 1s", so I guess we're fine!)

While the others commit vandalism, Idris notices a set of smoldering amphibian footprints and decides "well, they lead somewhere, and that's better than nowhere"; so as Adhara pockets the rounds, the group follows.

Depth 1

The salamander's footprints lead through more and more precarious ground, and the sky starts to hang heavier and heavier until they switch places, and the PCs pick their way across a vine trellis hanging down from the ceiling above an endless, hungering sky. 

Idris's manacles mean he needs the help of the other two to move - unfortunately for him, he is promptly abandoned when Adhara sees their pursued salamander in arms and armor, going toe-to-toe with an animate topiary dog. The PCs win initiative and decide that the clearly intelligent salamander will probably make a better friend than the Literal Plant, so Noé tosses a couple MD into setting the plant ablaze, Adhara whiffs with a handgun round, and the salamander manages to throw the topiary into the abyss. 

It bows and turns to leave, but another reaction roll decides Noé is absolutely the kind of person to mind-control an innocent bystander. A psychic command of "You want to help us leave." fails due to a save, and the salamander swings away.

Depth 2

Noé won't leave well enough alone, and leads the other two after the salamander, following its footsteps through increasingly dark woods. When they reach it, their conversation quickly turns bitter - the salamander scorning their plans to cooperate.

The PCs leave, frustrated.

Depth 3

A maze of silver-stemmed roses, with a gantry of ships beneath an immense steel grate at its center. Noé, feeling high on MD, torches the place and awakens a pair of Rust Bumblebees from their newly red-hot hive. 

The PCs win initiative again, and Idris runs forward to cram his shackles into the jittering antenna of one bee, while the other is shot at (Adhara missing again) and set on fire (Noé keeping her dice, again). On the bee turn, one of them obligingly rusts off Idris's chains, and the other stabs Noé through the arm.

Now able to cast, Idris shoves a pair of dice into Laplace Transform - the three PCs are flattened into 1-dimensional lines, and hover untouchably past the bees, past the burning maze, and through the grate.

They drop their chosen vessel into the underground river, and sail for hours, resting, joking about the prison break, and watching bioluminescent fish stream by.

Depth 9

Their ship runs aground near the blown-glass mausoleum of a dead Sidhe, with rose dryads woven around it as grave decorations. Between a sense of altruism and a desperate desire for extremely valuable Sidhe bones (2500gp, which I'm sure is rather a lot in USD), they smash the place up, freeing the roses and running off with the skeleton before anything gets too upset.

Depth 10

An actual building, all granite tile and hulking bronze mechanisms. The party touch absolutely nothing and tiptoe out as quickly as they can.

Depth 11

The clamor of salamanders returns, and the party follows it to their city - wrought-iron palaces in wrought-iron fields to feed hives of Rust Bumblebees. Noé's psychic sense prickles - for all the city's hospitality, it is cursed. Any leaving it immediately take 1d10 CHA damage - the Ch7 Adhara and Ch5 Idris decide not to take that chance. The city of the salamanders isn't Earth, but it's better than prison - Hell, it's probably better than Pennsylvania, too.

But the curse needles at Noé - pressing and stabbing and twisting. She can't stay here. Noé shoulders the Sidhe skeleton and Adhara's stolen handgun, and bids the rest of the PCs farewell, letting the curse wash over her.  

Depth 12

A vast gnashing maw of fire, howling with laughter. Noé flees in a panic through poisonous air, moving not one layer deeper, but seven.
 
Depth 19

The promise of an ending. Between rows of broken pillars, a ladder stretches up into limitless space, engraved with "to Earth, by way of Ynn" in tiny, precise text repeating across its surface.

Three pale apes wind between the columns, throwing stones at a pursuing giant worm. Noé avoids the ire of the combatants for a couple turns while throwing save vs. charm psy-attacks, and eventually manages a lucky hit on the worm. After crushing the apes, Noé rides the mind-controlled worm up the ladder and steps across the boundary, back to Earth - an orchid grove in Patagonia.

Noé doesn't know the language, doesn't have a hold on the local esoteric underworld, and has a $250,000 payday in a bag over her shoulder. I wish her luck.
 
(rolling an option that skips six depth followed by another that skips seven really accelerated the experience, didn't it)