Tomb of the Serpent Kings, Chapter 1

Played Tomb of the Serpent Kings using Old-School Essentials and the OSE conversion notes by Axian Spice. Although my players and me are all long-time RPG players going back to the early 80s, we've spent so many years playing 4th-5th edition that our old-school muscles had atrophied.

Especially Jeff, who is an adventurous "what's the worst that can happen?" style of player. He lost three characters in the first 30 minutes of the game! One in the very first room. Another to a trapped door. And a third to a skeleton in their first fight. 

Once they realized the dungeon was a dangerous scary place that was not playing with kid gloves, they adjusted their play style. They became more hesitant and wary, started asking questions and using ropes and ten-foot poles, assuming things were trapped, etc.

The last character to die last night was Trevor's Ranger. They had discovered a room with a basilisk. 

Trevor had the idea of using a hand mirror to reflect the basilisk's gaze back upon it. He held a lantern in one hand and a mirror in the other, shut his eyes tight, and walked bravely into the room.

The basilisk approached him slowly, sniffing, checking Trevor our. Trevor bravely stood still, his body shaking with anxiety. The basilisk examined the mirror in the outstretched hand, made its saving throw vs. petrification and bit Trevor's character's head off!

The rest of the party's survivors retreated down the corridor as fast as they could, closing the doors behind them. They got the hell out of that dungeon, but will return next week!