This test was run using the 20221018 rules. The resulting feedback went into shaping version 20221023. Here are some basic info...

• 4 Players: Adrian, Olja, Olivier and Alex (it's a me!😁)
• Total play time ~240 minutes
  • 30-40 minutes to create 4 PCs and generate the Quest
  • ~180 minutes of relaxed play & snacking
• 9 sections explored
• ~50% quest completion

Setup

We started by assigning the 4 Player Roles and then quickly creating our party of characters using the default "Classic Fantasy" options for their Craft, Quality, Biology and Culture:

• Adrian is our Scholar, playing Aldon, a sharp elven arcanist from the Salt Forest 🧝‍♂️⚗️
• Olja is our Cartographer, playing Lofwyra, a sharp gnomish troubairitz from the Shadow Conglomerate 👩‍🎤🪕
• Olivier is our Quartermaster, playing Billy the Squid, an agile octopoid scoundrel from the Invisible Academy 🦑🔧
• Alex is our Leader, playing Druna, a vigorous dwarven huntress from the Badlands 🧔‍♀️🏹

Then we rolled on the Quest Seed tables to give shape to our delve:

• We find ourselves in an abyss of many caves where everything looks new and well kept and most of the inhabitants are monsters and abominations. Our quest requires us to escort or defend an organisation and then get out of this dangerous place.
• We have been in this dangerous place for a while now. We have already engaged with some of its areas and denizens. We have yet to reach the stranded miners. We are taking a moment to regroup in a small area with one entrance and one exit.

After a brief discussion we agreed that our team of mercenaries was called in to rescue a group of dwarven workers that were left behind during the hasty evacuation of an underground dwelling/mine due to a sudden and unexpected infestation of giant spiders (and possibly dark elves). The starting area is a sort of storage room containing a few crates and dipped in darkness, as the mine's light sources have either run out or have been smashed by the invading creatures.

- - -

Round 1

Delve Phase -

The Ref got asked for some basic details about the room and the two doors present in it. As there is no Ref yet, the Leader has precedence to provide the answers. This will happen more or less constantly throughout the whole session.

It is established that Druna is holding a torch to lit their way... and the usage roll determines that our LIGHT supplies  are already starting to dwindle (we started with Light 3 and I rolled 1d scoring equal or more than 3, so we got left with Light 2).

Billy cautiously observes the door (Investigate) leading out of the room while Lofwyra offers some observations and comments too (Help). The door appears safe and unlocked but apparently something, rocks by the sound of it, blocking it from the other side.

Druna uses her strength to slowly and carefully force the passage open (Be Crafty). This reveals a new section, but she already made her move for this phase, so the narration stops and the spotlight moves to Aldon...

[We messed up keeping track of which PC had performed a move, so Aldon ended up doing nothing. I just realised this now, listening to the recorded audio of the session 😅]

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

- - -

Round 2

Delve Phase -

As Druna carefully pushes the door open, the new sections is revealed to her (Explore). It's a narrow passage with two more doors at its bifurcating ends. A faint blue/green glow comes from the walls, where meticulously carved niches hold rows of fluorescent mushrooms; it's a sort of hydroponic garden. The door was blocked by a big stone fallen from a wall as one of the beams the dwarves placed for structural integrity got somehow damaged in the recent past.

Aldon checks to see if the mushrooms can be gathered to be used as an alternative source of light (Forage). The idea is good but the stock is too meager and while going through it a small accident happens. The torch held by Druna hovers too close to a cluster of mushrooms and they react to the sudden heat by "exploding" in a thick cloud of spores that smothers the flame. The group is in the dark.

Lofwyra lits up one of her torches (whose amount is dwindling further) and joins Aldon in collecting the few mushrooms that seems to give off enough light to be useful (Forage).

[This second Forage move should not have happened possible, as the result of the previous one determined that there was too little to amount to anything substantial... but the torch accident distracted us]

Meanwhile Billy checks out (Investigate) one of the new doors, the one to the right. It seems safe.

Red Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

- - -

Round 3

Delve Phase -

Lofwyra listens to determine if anything dangerous lays behind the right door (Investigate) and it sounds like something many-legged is moving beyond the door. Billy is spoiling to kill some spiders. Druna is not so eager.

Druna tries listening too, but on the left door (Investigate). She hears an irregular heavy thumping, but is unable to discern what it might be. After a brief and hushed debate, the party decides to go right.

Billy opens the door to the right as silently as he can (Explore). Druna is behind him, with her short bow at the ready. The revealed section is a vast room consisting of a deep pit crisscrossed by stone bridges. Roof and floor are lost in darkness. There is also a single wooden brindge that seems to lead straight into a cave wall... very odd and kinda out of place. Everything is enveloped by spiderwebs, and sure enough a positively GIANT spider (Aragog-like) is tending them, slowly moving around. Billy is not so eager to fight anymore 😝

[~1h of active play has passed]

The group closes the door silently and opts to try the left door instead. Lofwyra asks the Ref if she knows any legends and songs about this kind of spiders and gets some info. Aldon opts to pass rather than risk opening the door himself.

Ref Phase - 

Peril is tested, and (Ref Reaction 2 : Make Trouble) from the room to the right the clicking sound of giant spider legs moving on stone starts to sound closer to the door than before, and it also seems that more, albeit smaller, legs are joining it.

- - -

Round 4

Delve Phase -

Billy takes the lead and, without spending time to check for traps, delves ahead, opening the door to the left and stepping in with us all in tow (Explore).

We end up in a twisting passage with only one opening in addition to the door we came in through. No glowing mushrooms here. The opening is basically a hole in the wall, neatly carved, housing a wooden service elevator. The elevator itself is quite small, meant for goods rather than people, but could fit a single human bending down. It appears to be operated by pulling a chain. The wooden elevator compartment waves slightly because of some air current, occasionally banging on the surrounding rock. That's the origin of the noise Druna heard before. Scattered on the ground is a small amount of raw uncut gemstones, shining in the torchlight and (maybe) precious.

While getting acquainted to the new location, the party hears distant voices coming from the elevator's pit, some dwarves talking about being wounded. But they fade in the distance before anyone can do anything about them.

Druna and Lofwyra, being dwarf and gnome, squeeze together in the elevator while Billy and Aldon help each other operating it. And down a level they go. All senses alert and being lowered slowly and steadily, Lofwyra is the first to witness the new section (Explore): it looks like a misty cold storage room encrusted in ice and filled with dark shadows hanging from the ceiling, probably meat carcasses or sacks containing perishable food.

They decide to not stop, continuing their descent. Druna is the one getting first glimpse of the new section (Explore) a weird ascending passage that seems to go nowhere. Junk litters it, and so we realize its function: it must be a trash chute, probably build in between normal levels as a part of a service system. Again, they don't stop and ask to be lowered further down.

[~2h of active play have passed]

[And we forgot about Aldon again ☹️ I think the problem was, Adrian was active and participating, roleplaying a lot with me and the others, but not making any actual moves. This created the feeling that his character had done stuff... and he had, only it was all Free Play. Next time I need to craft "Move Cards" so that Players can flip them front or back to cearly signal if they stillhave a move to do or not...]

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

- - -

Round 5

Delve Phase -

Being lowered further down, Lofwyra discovers (Explore) a broad passage. There are two openings: one on the left ends in a heavy wooden door, one on the right ends a metal portcullis. Rails on the ground go from the chute to somewhere in the darkness beyond the gate. A mining cart sits on them near the elevator entrance. As soon as light is shed in the area we see copious traces of blood near the portcullis.

Billy and Aldon descend here, one at a time, through the cramped elevator. Meanwhile Druna looks closely at the blood traces (Investigate) without worrying to much to check for dangers... turns out the blood is fresh, but there are no signs of violence here. Probably a wounded miner passed here recently and took refuge in the tunnel beyond the portcullis (a clever way to cut off pursuing spiders?). Unfortunately, doing so she walks on a pressure plate, a simple mechanism meant to somehow operate the cart... whose breaks get released, leading the empty but heavy cart to move on the rails and end up crashing on the closed portcullis, whith Druna in between them!

She manages to dodge the worst of it (Death Save successful) but she still gets injured. Aldon then whips out his alchemical equipment to quickly concoct (Be Crafty) a painkiller drug. This lowers the level of our food/medical RATIONS (another tracked Supply).

Meanwhile Billy checks the portcullis to figure out how to open it safely (Investigate).

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

- - -

Round 6

Delve Phase -

The party hurries through the now open gate, led by Lofwyra (Explore), revealing a narrow passage, barely sufficient for a single mining cart to go through on its rails. At the (apparent) end of it we find a group of 4 dwarves laying unconscious on the floor in the middle of a cloud of spores originating from some mushrooms growing all over the floor.

Druna fished in her backpack to create a makeshift filter-mask using cloth and water (diminishing the group's GEAR, a tracked Supply) and plunges into the spore could to drag the miners out (Face the Odds); Aldon does the same and joins in the effort (Help)(Gear is further reduced). They drag the first out of the danger area. The second one too. But by the time Druna gets back for the third one, the first dwarf comes to, but is confused and aggressive, rambling about spider without making much sense.

[This time we misremember when Billy made his move, so we skip him for a change 😮‍💨]

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens. But the currently active threat (the raging dwarf) attacks Aldon. They get into a violent brawl, with the elf avoiding a nasty rock to the head by crumpling into a ball and shielding himself with his backpack.

[We experimented the rule by which a current threat always acts no matter what the general Peril test says. This found its way in the 20221023 rules. Aldon then suffered harm but sacrificed equipment to avoid performing a Save vs Death roll. This works differently in the new rules, and is basically not possible anymore. ]

- - -

Round 7

Delve Phase -

While violence happens Druna is deep in the spore cloud trying to save the last two miners (Face the Odds). She succeeds but in the meantime...

Aldon tries to restrain the raging dwarf (Face the Odds) with Lofwyra's aid (Help) but the miner is too panicky and aggressive and strong. In the brawl Aldon is dragged close to a patch of the toxic mushrooms and gets and idea...

Billy decides that the best way to help is to get away from the violence and bring about the cart, so he runs back to the previous section (Backtrack).

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

[~3h of active play have passed]

- - -

Round 8

Delve Phase -

Druna emerges from her last trip in the spore cloud to find Aldon on the ground wrestling a miner, and quickly jumps into the fight to try and subdue the aggressive dwarf (Help) while the elf follows the idea he had before and tries to rub the miner's face in the nearby patch of toxic mushrooms (Face the Odds) ... the fight ends shortly. The dwarf unconscious and breathing raggedly.

In the other tunnel, Billy is fixing the broken brakes of the mining cart (Be Crafty) to then go help the others transport the four unconscious miners. This costs us the last of our spare Gear supplies.

Billy reaches us with the cart and then, with everyone's help, Lofwyra leads the group back to the previous broad (and mushroom free) passage (Backtrack) where we will try to regroup, help the wounded and intoxicated miners, and decide what to do.

Ref Phase -

Peril is tested, and nothing happens.

And the session ends here.

[~10 minutes past the 3h mark]