In my game world, the spell fireball
doesn’t exist anymore. It was banned two hundred years ago by a powerful
college of magic-users and gold dragons called The Circle. Very few copies of
the forbidden spell have been stored in six remote locations for future, wiser
generations to retrieve. One of these six locations is a ruined city where a large Gate to Avernus opens every 25 years, and only remains open for 50 minutes. A
copy of the spell is stored over there – in Hell.
A group of rogue magic-users have decided to
defy The Circle and their ban; they plan to go through the Gate, and bring back
that infamous, banned spell.
Pun or no pun, they are literally “going to hell”.
At the beginning of the session, every
player gets to choose if he’s gonna send his real character on that perilous
expedition, or if he would rather play one of the fifth level NPCs provided.
The risks of dying are high, but the rewards are huge: a big chunk of XP, in
addition of the spell fireball for the magic-users!
The decision to play “real characters” or
NPCs doesn’t have to be a group decision: that’s the real beauty of it. The
gate only allows for 10 people to go in and then come out 50 minutes later. The
10 NPCs – three magic-users, one cleric, one thief, and five fighters – are all
set to go through that Gate when it opens. Players characters can choose to
bump one NPC out of the lineup, and take its place. If the “real” thief or the “real”
cleric decide not to go, they can play a barbarian and a druid – and not risk
the lives of their characters. But the ranger, bard, and magic-users decide to
send their actual characters, and there you have it: an unexpected combo of
“real” characters and NPCs-turned-PCs-for-a-day.
Basically, it would have been like a game of
Frostgrave, with 7 players controlling 10 characters and aiming for one
precise objective.
But then, 6 of my 7 players decided to send
their “real” characters to Hell. I was quite surprised, given that they were
all too afraid to open any of the doors in one puny first-level dungeon, three
years ago. Kudos, guys! Being crackbrained bold fuckers can go a long way – or
you can remain trapped in Hell, or die.
The party had many tricks up their sleeve: a
Figurine of Wondrous Power, a Potion of Fire Control, a Potion of Heroism, plus
several one-shot magic items – two “mass cure wounds” items, a holy sword, a
rending wave (4d6 damage on 4 different targets), a Compelled Duel, and a
talisman allowing its wearer to cast one Bigby’s crushing hand.
In the very first room beyond the Gate, they
squared off against two lemurs, two Legion Devils, and three fire bats. The
magic-user cast his one and only lightning bolt there.
The second room proved to be much more
challenging: three Legion Devils and one Horned Devil – and that Horned Devil
later gated in three additional Legion Devils – and some reinforcements
came in from the previous room (two more devils, one of them wielding a
frightening “lemur blade”). So, eight Legion Devils, plus one gargoyle
guarding the fire tower where the forbidden spell is stored.
The magic-user monster summoned three
goblins, and one of those teeny-weeny goblins held its ground and lasted five
whole rounds against a mighty Horned Devil and one Legion Devil. That nameless
goblin became my favorite NPC of the game.
The other NPCs went down one by one, having shielded the PCs from 150 HP of cumulative damage.
The two “mass cure” had to be used in that
room, along with the “rending wave” and the Figurine of Wondrous Power (a stone
golem). The magic-user cast jump to get to the fire tower, climbed the
ugly thing, and copied the priceless fireball spell. Then, the party
scrambled to get out of there. Their golem carved up a few more pesty lemurs while
carrying an unconscious barbarian NPC.
They all headed back towards the volcano
crater where the Gate is located, but monsters kept coming “like bats out of
hell” (the expression is literal this time – and they are fire bats).
The only exit was now blocked by a
salamander boss, three magma elementals, and one more Legion Devil – number
Eleven, for those of you who are keeping track. At one point, the fight turned
into an intifada, with both magic-user and cleric picking up rocks to throw at
the devil and elementals, since they were out of spells AND missile weapons.
The magic-user drank his Potion of Fire
Control in order to ward off the fire bats: an inventive and clever use for
that potion. They also used Bigby’s crushing hand on the first
elemental. They were fresh out of cure light wounds and all running pretty
low on Hit Points.
Hope was dwindling, so the Dwarf decided to
drink up his Potion of Heroism despite being down to 4 HP. The potion made him gain
4 levels of experience and 44 HP. He was now an eighth level fighter with 48 HP
and 3 attacks per 2 rounds! He used the Compelled Duel on the salamander –
unblocking the Gate for his friends to get out as fast as they could. But the
salamander still managed to cast heat metal twice, first on the ranger’s
splintered mail, and then on the cleric’s magic armor...
Ranger and cleric both successfully threw
one unconscious NPC into the Gate, thus gaining the reputation of “stand-up
guys”. The magic-user cast one last lightning bolt from his precious
scroll; then he yelled “aligato, sayonara” and jumped into the
Gate. The ranger fired his last two arrows +2 and also threw himself into the
Gate. The thief tried to throw the last remaining unconscious NPC into the Gate
but missed his roll and that NPC fell into lava. Six fire bats then swarmed the
thief, and he dropped to -2 HP. And sadly, there was nobody left to
rescue him.
Despite the Potion of Heroism, Gorik the Dwarf
died battling the salamander, and the last man standing (the cleric) had to
jump into the Gate right away – abandoning Kalarion the thief, because Kalarion
was on the opposite side of the crater, and had fallen right on the one evil
rune that prevented his friend to reach him. (Plus, that salamander was now making
its way back towards the cleric...)
Nevertheless, that killer mission is a
success. They now possess the spell fireball and its dreaded “ouch”
factor. But it cost the party their awesome fifth level thief and their valiant
fourth (almost fifth) level fighter. Yes, we will have two new first level
characters in the mix, next time.
Hell, that was some grandiose / Homeric
D&D, wasn’t it?
