Ran my first funnel last night! (Sailors spoilers ahead)

[laces_out]

Never played or ran DCC before, but I bought the book a while back and have been itching to run it.

Had 3 players, running Sailors on the Starless Sea, online over roll20. I gave them each 4 characters using the purplesorceror generator.
[SPOILERS AHOY]







They gamely went in on the vine horrors to start. After 2 rounds, 3 of the PCs were dead and the vine horrors were barely scratched. So they decided to retreat back and lead the horrors away from the gate so they could pass them, stopping to loot their dead comrades on the way. They ran into the gatehouse, and the portcullis snapped shut behind them, not hitting anyone.

They were able to investigate the well without losing anyone, and wisely decided to leave it alone. In the chapel they geared up with chainmail and maces and grabbed the incense. One character, newly clad in chainmail, went to investigate the toad statue and was burned to a crisp by the black ooze.

The PCs then went to look at the tower, and a halfing with 15 str was able to break down the door with a strength check.

They peeked into the tower and saw the beastmen waiting there trying to draw them in. At this point, they were so traumatized that they contemplated going back to town and telling their fellow townsfolk that everything was fine. I was able to entice them back in with the sight of one of the hanging prisoners moving and squirming around.

They actually decided they needed some light, so they declared they were going to burn the gongfarmer's nightsoil in the censer. It didn't work so well. Fortunately, one of the characters had a sling, so they were able to draw out the beastmen by shooting it at them, and the beastmen came out into the courtyard to fight them. The battle was a brutal affair, killing 4 more of the PCs before they were able to overcome the beastmen. The 4 remaining characters went into the tower and defeated the beastman champion, freeing the prisoners who swelled their ranks back up to 8.

The MVPs so far were Cecil of the Watery Deep, a halfling mariner with a flail, and Trigar the guild beggar with the sling. Neither of them would survive the day.

The characters pressed on downward towards the starless sea. They investigated the pool for a while but even after throwing rocks and corpses into it none of them was brave enough to jump in. They smashed the glowing skull that floated up to see what would happen to it. They didn't seem interested in the mouldering robes either.

They made their way down to the beach, and after pouring some holy water on the candle to see what would happen, they dried it off and lit it, summoning the ship. When the tentacles approached, they guy with the censer and incense almost immediately decided to light it, thus sparing them a total party kill.

They came across to the ziggurat, and after some hemming and hawing decided to try the agility checks to climb up past the beastmen. They made it up one level, but failed on the second level. I gave them a second try to get up before the beastmen noticed and closed on them, but they failed again and the battle was joined. The PCs fought valiantly against the horde of beastmen, but suffered many casualties. One character tried to climb up to the next level to get at the chained up prisoners, but rolled a 1 on his agility check and plunged to his doom. After a brutal battle of attrition, all of the beastmen uphill of the PCs were dead, and just 2 PCs remained, their chainmail proving invaluable against the attacks of the beastmen.

Once the way above was clear, they ran up the hill and freed some prisoners (I added in 4 more characters as 2 of my players had none left). They all ran up to the top of the ziggurat to see the shaman and his acolytes. One of the players decided he wanted his characters to push the shaman into the lava, so I had him roll opposed strength checks, telling him if he lost he would fall back to the next level and take damage. He rolled a 19 and pushed the shaman into the pit. The acolytes decided to hightail it away, along with the other beastmen that had been advancing from below.

The PCs stopped to loot, but as soon as they saw the blackened effigy rising out of the pit they noped out of there as fast as they could. I suppose I could have had the beastmen take over the ship and row it away, but that would have been cruel and it was getting late anyway. So the adventure ended with the players not even sticking around to see what the big bad looked like. Out of the original 12 characters, only 1 survived the adventure.

All in all, we had a great time. The character funnel was definitely as fun as I thought it would be, and I look forward to doing it again.