Land of Eem - Session One: Wally's Waffles & Rats (part one)

Storyline (Session One – “Wally’s Waffles & Rats”)

• The party forms in the Land of E around familiar hangouts and shared history:

  • Dave’s Gaming plays Goop (a friendly gelatinous goo).
  • Megan plays Coralini/Creini (a gnome engineer-type with a green hat that can mend things).
  • Theator plays Coral Shrewman (a dungeoneering mushroom character, notably “all about” getting into unexplored areas).
  • Tony plays Ludo (a whaling bard/musician with a mandolin).
  • The group also adopts a small creature named Colin (a snag bunny/snack-like pet that eats meat).

• They are in the Used-to-be Forest at Wally’s Waffles & We—a chaotic, underculture tavern/restaurant founded by a retired human pirate.

• The mood is grim: they have lost a sixth member, Wendy, supposedly taken by a giant bird / Scrockwing.

• While they eat and settle in, a stage performance turns into a brawl. In the chaos, they receive an opportunity to earn money/jobs.

• Wally explains the real problem:

  • Corporation SPL wants the property.
  • Wally can only stop them by recovering the property deeds.
  • But the deeds are gone—Wally suspects the rats in the basement.

• The party accepts the job and heads into the basement, discovering:

  • A worm hiding in rotten vegetables.
  • A wine cellar with three killer rats guarding glowing cheese.

• They defeat the rats (using tactics like non-lethal/influence via music, plus combat with improvised weapons), but their search triggers new complications:

  • Searching bottles/racks spawns additional rats.
  • They find multiple jars/food items, including super spicy secret mustard.
  • They disturb a slurpworm, leading to parlay/intimidation/improv solutions before ultimately fighting it.

• After winning the worm fight, they move on to a trophy-room / storage-adjacent area with pirate-related remnants.

• They find additional clues/items (including copper and various bottles), then locate the tunnel with tracks.

• In the tunnel, they uncover evidence of a larger ongoing conflict:

  • Goblins and rats have been operating together.
  • This implies the rats may be part of (or used by) the goblins trying to steal the deeds.

• The party follows the trail into a one-way, dangerous section and encounters a cave area thick with red/white speckled mushrooms—with bones visible in the composty floor—setting up what looks like the next major threat.

---

Gameplay highlights / key moments & strategies

• Sandbox survival tone + session-style D12 checks

  • Rolls use D12 with degrees of success.
  • Success/failure strongly affects outcomes and escalation.

• Non-combat influence via bard/musical abilities

  • Ludo uses mandolin/song to create tactical effects during conflicts—calming rats, providing a “soundtrack” for fights, and later healing via invigorate (with rhyming requirements).

• Improvised weapon use

  • Shovels/picks/bowls can be used as weapons.
  • Improvised damage may include drawbacks (e.g., disadvantage-style handling).

• Coralini’s mini-mushrooms (crew mechanic)

  • The party’s mini corals act like a special “crew” resource usable once per session for useful actions such as:
    • distraction
    • menial work
    • trap interaction
    • intimidation/inspiration

• Chase mechanics

  • When a killer rat flees, the group runs a chase:
    • players alternate describing actions and making checks
    • the party needs 5 successes to catch the target

• Conflict phases (parlay → improvise → run away → combat)

  • Conflicts aren’t forced into immediate combat.
  • Each round, players choose a phase.
  • Parlay attempts with animals require checks and may fail hard if the situation isn’t “talkable” by the rules.

• Mistakes create new enemies

  • Searching containers/bottles can trigger spawns (e.g., extra rats emerging from bottles after partial exploration).

• Careful navigation in cramped spaces

  • Basement exploration includes nimbleness checks while threading through crates and avoiding collapse/damage.

• Resource management and quest acceptance

  • They start broke and rely on jobs/earning money.
  • They use found items (like copper) and bought food effects (waffle healing/courage mechanics).

• Courage / dread as the core survival pressure

  • Damage reduces courage.
  • Enemies can inflict dread.
  • Certain states (like being engulfed) progress toward defeat over multiple rounds.

---

Notable events (condensed)

• A stage brawl breaks out; the party eats, then decides to “earn” through jobs rather than just spend.
• Wally’s quest: recover deeds from the basement; rats are consuming/causing the missing-property problem.
• Combat + music control in the rat/wine cellar:
  • Rats are calmed with song, then eliminated quickly using pickaxe/weapon swings.
• Worm encounter:
  • A worm bursts from rotten crates.
  • Later, a slurpworm nearly causes an engulf-and-defeat sequence.
  • Intimidation/booming sound and coordinated violence stop it.
• Trophy room and tunnel discovery:
  • Clues related to the deeds appear amid traps/rat spawns.
  • The party follows tracks into a tunnel system.
• Final session beat:
  • They reach a mushroom-filled cave with bones and moisture—implying a new danger (possibly rat/biohazard territory) beyond the immediate tunnel.

---

Gamers / sources featured

• Dave’s Gaming (Dave)
• Phil (the host/speaker introducing the session and rules context)
• Megan
• Theator
• Tony