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| A map by Andria's player, quickly overrun with art from the session. Honestly reminds me of the art style from the module. |
The Session
As of last time, Sir Lorius the houndling knight was out with a nasty concussion, carried out of the dungeon by Loki, Bronn and Chance. That left Andria, Gale, Oberlin and The Batman to explore the dungeon this time.
They returned to the octagonal room and began checking out some of the doors. To the northwest, an open doorway led into a burial chamber. In the torchlight, the players noticed a golden disk set into the far wall. Testing the entryway with their trusted 10' pole, they triggered a pressure plate. A lightning bolt leapt from the disc, rocketing down the hallway. Luckily, the party were all to the sides of the chamber. Unluckily, three of them were deafened by the thunder. Their attempts to communicate by yelling very loudly at one another added a great deal of entertainment, and a few dice to the Tension Pool.
To the north, a collapsed tunnel, beyond which one party member heard moaning and shuffling. While the group wanted to dig up the rubble, they turned their attention to the northeast, where a primitive wooden door blocked another chamber. The one party member capable of hearing put their ear to the door, and though at first they heard nothing, he did pick out a strange rolling sound coming from the coffin within. At that point, the party assumed they were dealing with a gelatinous cube or slime (not far off) and nixed venturing into the room.
Until Oberlin whipped up a makeshift molotov and threw it into the room, thinking to dehydrate the slime.
This, of course, woke up the Black Pudding in the coffin, one of the tougher enemies in this area of the dungeon. It lurched forward , knocking down the door and seeking out the players. The party decided to fight it by grabbing rocks from the rubble and throwing them at the pudding. However, fearing a pincer attack from whatever was in the north room, they kited it around the pool and devised a plan. After Andria waved a torch in its face to confirm it was afraid of fire, (for which she got a tendril to the face) The Batman drenched his spare sword in oil and set it alight. Facing down the pudding (vulnerable to both edged weapons and fire) with a flaming blade, he proceeded to... critically whiff his attack roll (and got a tendril in the face).
It's worth noting that Gale, our wizard, decided against 'wasting' his magic missile here, instead choosing to throw rocks.
The Batman got a solid strike against the pudding with his polearm, and the party whittled it down from there. Seeing the pudding dead, but wriggling around, they took a wise precaution and used another oil flask to burn it. This revealed several silver rings in the remains, which the players looted.
In the short rest that followed, Oberlin had Gale inscribe one of his rings with the phrase 'a beautiful goddess' in an ancient and esoteric language he learned in wizard school. Gale actually just carved the word 'douchebag' (דוּשׁבּעג).
There the session ended, with our party healed back up, lacking a few more resources, hoping for reinforcements before venturing further.
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| The players' interpretation of the skull shaped entrance and the snake-man skeletons. |
Takeaways
A four-character table was a good deal more manageable. That said, the combat with the pudding was absolute chaos. Faced with a single enemy they were unfamiliar with, the party used a fair bit of strategy and experimentation, which was very fun. It's a good experience, but one that should be the minority of combats.
I'm studying modern Hebrew, and it's quite good as a mysterious magic language. Most people can recognize the block alphabet, but have no familiarity with what sounds it makes. But the cursive script is pretty much unknown to non-Hebrew speakers, and is different enough from block script to be unrecognizable unless specifically prompted. If presented with it, especially in the context of D&D, players are likely to guess it's Elvish, or a runic language or even made up on the spot before guessing it's Hebrew. As a result, I can use it as a mysterious ancient language and know exactly what it means and how to pronounce it, while my players have no idea.
Gygax's old chestnut about how the DM only uses dice for the sound they make is apt. I was rolling d10s to see if the pudding dissolved any of the party's weapons (1 in 10). The entire party jumped every time I made the roll, convinced something was going to happen to them. I can feel the killer-DM in me grow with every subsequent feeding.
Bonus
And for those of you who sat through this whole thing, a little bonus! A magic item inspired by tonight's events.
Ring of the Douchebag
An enchanted ring, the outside carved with a word in an ancient, magical tongue. Supposedly, it means 'beautiful goddess'. In reality, it means 'douchebag'. The ring allows its wearer (requires attunement) to both speak and understand the languages of all animals, as well as all alignment languages. However, any attempt by the player to speak those languages results in hideous insults and vile curses instead of what the player intends.
I'm currently running TotSK for a group of newbies as well, and it's always fun to see how the same dungeon can lead to profoundly different experiences.
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me more about this Tension Pool?
The Tension Pool is a mechanic invented by the Angry GM. It was originally just a time pool for keeping track of time over play, but it gradually evolved, and now it's an elegant mechanic that is useful for many kinds of play.
DeleteFor example, in a dungeon you move time in ten minute segments. For every ten minutes the party spends, add a die (a d6) to the pool. When you add the sixth die, roll all the dice in the pool. If any are 1s, there are complications, like an encounter, or terrain change, or some other danger. Regardless, anything which had a 1 hour duration, like a candle or a spell, goes out.
There are some twists, like adding and rolling dice when the party makes a lot of noise, and it can be applied to other modes of play, like overland travel and social encounters, but that's the gist of it.
https://theangrygm.com/making-things-complicated/
Thank you! Now that you mention it, I remember reading that post somewhere in the past. I am looking forward to new session reports!
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