Doing extensive research in his Temple’s
library, the cleric uncovered proof that the labyrinth he and his fellow
adventurers had already explored twice may very well hide additional
levels and sub-levels. So the party sets out on a new quest to find and copy an
ancient wall fresco depicting the whole dungeon complex along with some
shortcuts and secret access points. That sort of intel is worth a lot in
virtually any D&D universe: a series of 5 or 6 fresh / unexplored dungeons
nobody else knows about? HELL YEAH!!!
Since the PCs already know where the two
entrance portals are located – they’ve used one in Game #3 and the other in
Game #5 – they buy all the necessary gear, and go straight back to the forest
where the closest portal can be found.
Twenty minutes of exploration in empty
corridors and vacant rooms with no ancient frescoes anywhere, and then, one of
the magic-users – the one with a continual light spell, of course – is
suddenly teleported away by a mysterious Shadow Door. And that, ladies and
gents, is where the fun begins!
Magic-user #1 appears in yet another empty
room – but where is that room in relation to the rest of the party? Well, at
the very least, he’s not in complete darkness! A single door on his left, and
double doors in front of him. He goes for the double doors...
Elsewhere in the dungeon, the six other PCs
are scrambling in the dark, finally lighting a torch just in time to see their
second magic-user vanish. Did I mention fun yet? It’s only just begun.
Magic-user #2 appears in a small room with a
phosphorescent spirit face on the wall – and that face soon adresses him in a
multitude of conjoined voices. It’s warning him and his comrades about a “Crypt
Thing” that wanders around the place. “Whatever you do, never attack the
Crypt Thing...”
Meanwhile, magic-user #1 opened those double
doors, and saw a wide corridor with a lone skeleton slowly getting to its feet.
Magic-user shoots two magic missiles and advances on the skeleton; he is
one bold fucker, you have to admire that.
The others (now five PCs) hastily resume
their exploration, Dwarf in the lead, cleric in the rear, holding a torch. But
the cleric is not teleported. The bard is. Boom. Gone. And then, as the
four remaining characters reach a long hallway, the Dwarf gets a glimpse of a
gelatinous cube slowly turning the corner! At the far end of that same hallway,
there’s the elusive Shadow Door – and a mummy priest already preparing some
dark spell...
Bard appears in a beautiful room: rich
carpet, marble statue, and two huge greenish orbs with stone pedestals – but
still no fresco. That’s the mummy priest’s personal room, but the bard doesn’t
know that because he’s not yet seen a single monster.
Reassurance is building now, because the
players clearly see how their miniatures are all on the same dungeon map –
albeit spread out in different corners. Magic-user #1 is cut away from the rest
of the party by that gelatinous cube at one end of the hallway, and the mummy
priest at the other end. Skeletons keep coming at him and he smites them with
his staff.
Magic-user #2 is done talking with the coalesced
spirits of previous dungeon adventurers. He opens the door only to be caught
right in the creeping fog of doom spell the mummy priest has just
unleashed in the hallway.
Bard also have a little chat with some
mysterious “prisoner” through those twin orbs. Once he’s done, he leaves that
room and comes face to face with a mummy – not the priest, but a regular mummy.
The rest of the party is over there, at the other end of the hallway – but
there’s an awful lot of nefarious stuff in the way: Shadow Door, creeping
fog of doom, two mummies, and now a wraith (spewed by the Shadow Door).
Then, the Shadow Door disappears from the
hallway, reappearing one round later, behind the party, right next to
that gelatinous cube. Three foul-smelling ghasts shamble out of the Shadow Door
– but the Dwarf, cleric, ranger and thief all Save vs Poison, and none of them
suffer the -2 To Hit penalty.
Now the Dwarf is locked in melee with the “regular”
mummy, the ranger fires +2 arrows at the wraith, the thief tackles one of the
ghasts, and the cleric uses up one of his Beads of Karma to cast an enhanced silence,
thus preventing the mummy priest from using his remaining spells (and these
were potent, like ray of frost and disrupt life). Bravo, padre!
The bard sneaks in from behind the mummy
priest and stabs it with his +2 shortsword. He even tries to yodel, but it’s
complete, utter silence.
Magic-user #2 is also inside the silence
zone, so he only uses cantrips, throws his new +3 dagger, and then a good old
burning flask of oil.
On the other side of the map, magic-user #1
isn’t affected by silence. He keeps blasting skeletons and tries his web
(plus some fire) on the gelatinous cube, to no avail.
Cleric turned two out of three ghasts, and
later rolled a natural 20 to turn the mummy priest! With his sling, the bard
kept firing on the mummy priest until it fled to its private chamber and then
through the Shadow Door. It barely escaped with 2 HP even though all damage on
mummies is always reduced by one half.
Ranger destroyed the wraith – but not
without having suffered some energy drain. Dwarf hacked down not one but two “regular”
mummies (there were three mummies in all). Thief fought off a wight that skulked
in the corridor.
Resting for a while in the mummy’s luxurious
suite, the party studied spells and cured a great many “light wounds”. After a
few hours, they picked up their dungeon crawl and went through seven more rooms
– all empty except for three ghouls and five more skeletons. These were easily
dealt with.
As they approached the room which held the
exit portal, the cleric had some sort of “vision”. He saw the wall fresco they are seeking, just as if he were standing right in front of it... but then
he realized that it was some black-robed skeleton standing there – somewhere –
and that he, the cleric, seemed to be looking through the eyes of that
black-robed skeleton!
And the cleric “felt” that he could simply
take one step forward and be transported over there, to where the fresco
was located...
Dauntlessly, he goes – taking that step
forward, and vanishing.
The other PCs don’t like that.
Cleric appears in a big room full of stairs
and platforms, with a mezzanine. He is standing in front of a mural depicting
the entire dungeon complex, all nine levels of it. And he’s standing next to
the ominous robed skeleton: the Crypt Thing they’ve been warned about. (“Whatever
you do, never attack it.”)
It’s like the Crypt Thing knew they
were searching for that master map, and intervened in order to “help” them get access
to it... Very strange indeed. So the cleric grabs his calfskin vellums and
charcoal and starts copying the rather large fresco.
After six or seven rounds the rest of the
party either stumbles into the fresco room (over a trap, expertly found by the
thief) or is teleported there, each one in front of a different “dungeon level”
rune. Weirder and weirder...
Oh, and there are quite a few undead lurking
in that room: three revenants, one undead green dragon hunched on the second
platform, and a blazing skeleton up on the mezzanine. They all seem to leave
the cleric alone while he’s busy copying the map. Maybe this is due to the
Crypt Thing’s proximity?
Blazing skeleton immediately begins to shoot
balls of blue flames towards the PCs, and two of the revenants savagely attack
the bard and the Dwarf.
After melee had started, the undead dragon
slowly moved from its platform to halfway down the stairs – and then used his
breath weapon. Five characters were caught in that suffocating cloud of rotten
gas, and can you believe all five missed their Saving Throw? Everyone lost 12
HP, except for the cleric and one of the magic-users. Ouch.
And then the Crypt Thing was gone. No more “protection”.
But the cleric was almost done copying that precious map anyway. Two wights crept
in through the opposite entrance and angled straight for the magic-users, one
of which then cast a web, and the other fired a couple magic missiles.
“Go up, guys!” I was secretly thinking. “Make
for those stairs! Use your Rope of Climbing or that 12-foot ladder from the
Robe of Useful Items! Don’t stay in the mosh pit: new undead are pouring in
through there! The exit portal is up on that mezzanine... Climb, you fools!”
But they remained down, except for the thief
of course, who climbed that wall and got within ten feet of the exit – but he
had 1 HP left by then and couldn’t take on the very last obstacle: a giant
tentacle!
The two healers were still in the mosh pit –
and the bard was out cold now (-6 HP).
Then we were out of time, and had to stop.
I’ve got an idea for my next game. Boss
fight first, little scenes later.
Why is it that gaming has to follow the same
narrative buildup than TV shows or movies? If you jump-start the boss fight in
the first half of your session, there are three MAJOR advantages:
• You’re not tired.
• Players are not tired.
• You will have time to wrap up that big
scene.
The intro / buildup / climax protocol makes
sense in a movie because a movie is only two hours long, not six or eight. It
also makes sense in books, since nobody reads an entire book in one sitting –
unless your name is Dr. Spencer Reid.
In a game, though, it makes no sense. After
six to eight hours of DMing, you’re obviously drained, your players are
exhausted, the focus is not as solid as it was towards the beginning, and some
of the guys have to leave because they’ve promised their wives they’d be home
by eight...
So why not deconstruct that age-old recipe
and start your boss fight before halftime? What’s the worst that could
possibly happen?
Next time, we’ll see about that! Mark my
words.