Summary of "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.