Recognizing a successful game night is more difficult than recognizing failed evenings and more importantly recognizing a successful DM moment, action, use-of-the-rules is more difficult than recognizing the times one fails. At the very simplest of definitions a success is when everyone at the table has fun through the accurate application of the rules of the game and a failure is when either some number of individuals at the table do not have fun or there is an inaccurate application of the rules or some combination of both.

In looking at the above definitions of success and failure it is quickly realized that it is far harder to achieve a success than it is to avoid failure for success relies on all present having fun while a failure occurs even if all but one individual is having fun. And by far, fun over-rules rules. Even if, like in my previous post on DM failure, a rule or some aspect of the game is forgotten, overlooked, etc., but everyone still had fun then the failure is minimal.

Additionally, determining if an evening was successful is far more difficult than recognizing it is a failure. It is far easier, as a DM, to notice frustration, anger, or disappointment in one’s players than it is to determine accurately if a player is having fun while thinking about their next move or neutrally bored with the situation.

The past three nights that I ran my campaign¹ (spanning over two months) were largely successful. The all-human party consists of Barakus Zarhadov (sorcerer, noble), Govan Evresi (magus, noble), Onzul Hjerngo (druid, commoner), Sadiri Medvela (cleric, middle-class/expert), Satili Norezhen (Inquisitor, noble), and the NPC Erkhan (rogue, commoner). The outline of the three-night adventure happened roughly as follows:

• 23rd: Concerned over the missing children mentioned in the 2nd Haradhiem Broadside² of the year, the party travels from the city of Haradhiem north to the village of Vaulgren where they talk to the locals, the parents of the missing children, and meet with Sered Dolsh of the Company of the White Stag at the inn. They search the village and the surrounding region where Onzul’s wolf, Swift, picks up the scent of the children and possibly one of the strange hounds that had been seen. They follow the scent north out of the village, towards the Tiginfields (large farming region). On the southern edge of the fields they visit the hermit, Abdrun, who informs them that he has seen the hounds, always travelling north across the fields, for the past month or more. The party then picks up the scent in the farmland and travel across the Tiginfields to the northern end where the scent seems to carry on along a deer path that follows a small stream. They decide to camp there at the edge of forest. Norezhen (Satili’s noble family’s) guards, led by Captain Zamriv, talk with them on their patrols of the fields.

• 24th: The party is awoken by Zandin Norezhen, Satili’s brother and mayor of the Norezhen villages, who invites the party to come stay at the Tiginfields manorhouse once they’re done “playing in the fields.”
  • The party heads out along the deer path, the morning growing dark under the heavy canopy of the forest. The scent turns eastward away from the river and soon the party finds themselves before an old abandoned farmhouse where the forest has grown quiet.
  • Satili and Onzul approach the house while Swift is sent to check the barn. With Satili and Onzul at the front and back doors of the house, they are rushed by the strange hounds they have been tracking. The party rushes to their aid and after dispatching the two hounds, Satili and Onzul search the first floor of the house while Barakus examines one of the hounds with magic. Satili and Onzul then begin searching the second story while Barakus and Sadiri head into the house in order to search the basement where Sadiri had seen a light and heard something during the fight with the hounds. With Govan and Erkhan outside, Govan hears a powerful thump against the inside wall of the barn and calls for the others to come outside. Satili stops from opening the door to the basement and in walking towards the exit she falls through the rotted floor of the house; descending into the dark basement below. (End of the first evening)
  • Sadiri is dragged through the darkness of the basement by something big. Onzul falls halfway through the floor just after returning to the first floor and then drops himself down into the basement. Two malnourished gender-less children composed of an inky nothingness sicken Sadiri with dark magical miasma and she is then dragged through the basement by unseen hands again. With difficulty, the rest of the party navigates through the house and down into the basement where Satili and Onzul confront the two strange otherworldly children while Sadiri, Govan, and Barakus confront a third. They manage to defeat the creatures, which dissolve into piles of rendered fat. The party then finds a ritual room, with the bodies of two human children which they believe are those of the ones they had been searching for. But the ritual doesn’t seem to be connected to creating the strange creatures. The party makes their way out of the house (but not before the stairs leading out of the basement collapse) and into the courtyard of the farm. Just as things grow quiet again, the thing within the barn slams against the wall again. (End of the second night)
  • Sadiri, Govan, and Erkhan place the bodies of the children on their horses while Barakus, Onzul, and Satili step tentatively towards the barn. Barakus begins to detect for magic and feels there is an entity in the barn, fifteen feet up near the far wall. Onzul and Satili enter in the back door of the barn and begin making their way towards the front, where Barakus detected the entity. Satili attempts to cast a spell of light but it is unable to take hold as dark forces are smothering out such magics. Onzul then uses a spell of flame and lights a torch while Satili attempts her spell again and succeeds on temporarily enchanting one of her crossbow bolts to produce light. As they progress forward, Onzul and Satili see a ritual circle on the floor of the barn, near the main double doors.
  • Erkhan is told to wait with the horses and Govan and Sadiri join Barakus and Swift at the front of the barn, while Satili goes to unbar the double doors. Halfway across the front of the barn a creature, with flesh of inky-blackness, and head like that of a boar, a body and legs like that of a bloated tick leaps upon Satili, biting her, only to ascend back into the corner of the barn through the use of some kind of web-tether. Satili manages to open the barn doors while Onzul climbs to the loft and the party, em mass, engages the otherworldly creature until Sadiri is finally able to cleave it in two with her sword.
  • Barakus studies the ritual on the floor of the barn and determines that its purpose is for summoning, which the party then links to the creature they just fought and the sickly ink-like children from the house as well as possibly the hounds.
  • The the bodies of the two missing children, the party heads back to the Tiginfields and then east to the village of the same name, where they rest at Satili’s brother’s manorhouse. (End of third night)

The first evening was a mystery/clue-finding night, culminating in meeting a crazy old man living in the woods who gave the party their final clue as to where to search for the hounds (which had been seen around the time the children went missing), and ending with the fight with the hounds and one of the players falling through the floor of the house into the dark basement below for the cliffhanger.

The clue-finding portion seemed to work well. I was on my toes as I had not expected the players to immediately go looking for the missing children on the very day that the broadsides were posted around town, but I had the ruined farmstead planned and ready, all I had to do was back track a number of days from when I thought the PCs would go there and figure out what was happening with the farm’s denizens at the current date. I was also happy to have introduced 4 local NPCs; the retired veteran adventurer at the village inn, the crazed old man in the woods, the captain of the local guard, and the brother of one of the PCs who is also the mayor of the three nearby villages.

But as for the players, how would they rate the night? Essentially the first portion was split between tracking and information gathering. Onzul, the druid, is the tracker and was assisted by Satili, the inquisitor. Govan and Satili are also conversationalists so they were engaged with the information gathering. Barakus and Sadiri were the two most left out, though Barakus (being an Intelligence-based sorcerer) made use of his knowledge skills to help the party out. Being a cleric of the god of war, Sadiri was essentially relegated to the sidelines until they came upon the hounds at the farmstead. But once combat was engaged, Govan became almost a non-entity. However, this is a role-playing choice on the part of the player. The player makes sure Govan is far away from combat, letting the druid and his wolf, the cleric of war, and the inquisitor take the glory…only stepping in when things seem dire.

The cleric failing a save and falling through the floor was one of those in-game events that is too perfect to pass up. It occurred near the end of the evening (I was planning on ending the night once all the players made it out of the house). Ending when Sadiri fell through the floor split the party into three groups, Onzul and Satili coming down the stairs from the 2nd floor of the house. Sadiri in the basement. And Barakus, Govan, Erkhan, and the wolf all outside of the house fearful of what was banging on the walls inside the barn.

With that wonderful ending I was able to really get set up for the second night. I picked out four musical tracks on youtube and just kept rotating through them;

Psycho Suite

Berlioz: Fantastic Symphony – Dreams of a Witch’s Sabbath (5th Movement)

Béla Bartók – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, III

Rachmaninov – The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 (part 1/2)

Especially fun were the moments when the classic Psycho shower-scene portion of the piece would hit, which always seemed to be at appropriate moments when the frighteningly macabre children-things made their attacks or when a player would move around a corner and then encounter one of them.

Luckily for this, 2nd, evening I had a lot of energy which I channeled into pulling players into the side room quickly to frantically give them bits of information that others didn’t have. Especially concerning the “haunting” of the house. For example, when the Onzul and Satili rushed to the hole in the floor where Sadiri had fallen through they had to pass by the open front door but as they passed I explained to them the door slammed shut just as they made eye contact with the characters out in the yard. But to the characters in the yard, they saw Satili walk by the door, look at them in the eye, smile wryly, and then purposefully slam the door shut. During the night, just about every character saw some other character do something similar. All of which heightened the paranoia of the characters, making them wonder if other players had been charmed, mind-controlled, or if they themselves were under some dark spell. Sadiri, the cleric who fell through the floor, was subjected to something grabbing her by the legs, knocking her prone, and then dragging her through the hallways of the basement at least three times. But the one time other players saw it happen to her, they just saw Sadiri drop to all fours and then crawl backwards under her own power.

The creatures in the basement were also horrific; naked famine-starved gender-less copies of the missing children with swirling inky-black flesh who moaned hauntingly as they either slowly clawed at the characters or evoked a dark cloud of suffering that withered the roots of the plants growing through the walls of the basement and sickening the characters.

By the time the characters made it out of the house the players were quite stressed. The perfect time to slam my fist on the table indicating that what ever was in the barn still knew they were out there and ending the game for the evening there.

The third night was more frustrating than stressful, exciting, or fun for the players, I think. The thing in the barn was basically a “sub-boss.” Lots of hit points, high AC and attack rolls, low damage but the chance for additional effects on a failed Fortitude save (lucking the players made all their saves), as well as some “home-turf” advantages to keep it out of reach of melee attacks. The players decided to investigate the barn without resting and so carried with them the wounds from the hounds and the basement as well as the spellcasters being effectively out of spells.

So the spellcasters were out of their primary spells, no chance of being healed, and most of the players needed at least a natural 18 to hit, if not higher. I could see in a couple of the players’ eyes a futility when they picked up their d20 to attack.

One other point that added to the frustration, I think, was that I kept everything in combat initiative since the first night with the attack of the hounds. The second night wasn’t so bad due to the heightened anxiety, but the third night, it made the game slow as the players made their way across the courtyard, putting the bodies on the horses, and exploring the first half of the barn. I should have stopped the combat-round tracking for the minute or so (10 rounds) between exiting the farmhouse and being attacked by the thing in the barn.

On the whole, I’m rather happy with the Farmhouse-Adventure and how it turned out. And given where things ended, at the opulent manorhouse of Satili’s brother, the next game night should be a bit more relaxed for the players.

But they did leave the NPC, Erkhan, alone with the horses and the bodies while they dealt with the thing in the barn. They did leave Erhkan alone.

Notes:
¹ The campaign is set in the beta version of my own fantasy world. It’s using the Pathfinder rules with slight modifications. A major change being all characters must start with an NPC class (commoner, merchant/expert, or noble) and then start their “heroic” character-class. The characters start as 2nd level (1st level heroes), currently are 2nd level, and have completed four adventures (the 4th being the Farmhouse adventure described above).
² Near the beginning and ending of each month (1 month so far in game time) someone secretly posts broadsides around the city of Haradhiem that are critical of the town’s leadership, the nobility, and also lists some notable current events.

The job of the DM is big. There’s a lot to keep track of. Add in a home-brew campaign world and the number of things to keep track of rises exponentially.

The last game I ran I made a massive mistake. Granted there was a lot to keep track of during the combat…but it was a massive mistake.

The player characters’ (PCs’) had tracked an unknown number of tribal orc slave traders as the orcs attacked various settlements and kidnapped their inhabitants along the humans’ borders.

Luckily for the PCs, the military cleric in the party had conscripted 10 mounted knights to travel with them and upon finding the camp of the orcs the PCs had found five guards from the last raided village who had tracked the orcs to the campsite. All of which I handed control of over to the players save for an NPC companion of the group.

The PCs sent the knights down to engage the 16 or so orcs only to find another 23 orcs rush out from over the other side of the hill where the first group of orcs were camped.

Battle lines formed and the 5 PCs, 1 NPC companion, 5 village guards, and 10 knights faced off against 39 orcs.

The druid of the party cast an entangle spell so that over 30 of the orcs were caught in the area; vines, grasses, and shrubs reaching up to hold the orcs down. The rest were stuck behind the entangled area.

In the first round of combat, the few orcs outside the entangled area moved around and fought with the knights.

After that round I made my mistake.

The druid’s turn occurred right after the orcs. On the orcs turn they are able to try to break free of the spell’s vegetative entrapment. On the druid’s turns, the spell attempts to re-trap the orcs.

Around 30 orcs, each receiving two twenty-sided dice (d20) rolls in an attempt to escape and then on the druid’s turn they must make a saving throw (rolling another d20 each) in order to not become entangled again if they’re still within the area.

So to make things go faster, I roll up to 3 times for each of the entangled orcs. If the first roll was a success the orc moved and most those got out of the area. If first roll failed then I rolled twice as even if the second roll succeeded, the orc wouldn’t be able to move out of the area by the druid’s next turn and so it will have to roll again then.

I quickly made my rolls, then moved the orcs that could move out of the area, up to the line where the knights were gathered. Sounds to me like great DMing, getting through 30-90 die rolls as fast as possible.

But I forgot to have the orcs, that could attack, attack the knights. For at least two rounds, and I’m pretty sure three, I forgot this major act on behalf of the orcs.

Epic fail.

By the time I realized my mistake, well over two-thirds of the orcs had been killed by the knights and the PCs.

Epic, epic, fail.

With less than ten orcs left, I only drew blood on one knight and the NPC companion (both of which I was able to kill), and the tension was definitely changed after this realization.

On the bright side, the use of chits to track orc damage was a great success. Each of the 35 “grunt” orcs had 21 hit points. So I just used a chit where for every 3-7 points of damage was taken (the minimum the PC’s would do per hit) the orc got a chit that I placed under its miniature. 4 chits and the orc died. For smaller combats I’d keep track of each individual’s hit points, but for such a large combat (on both sides of the battle line) this kept things accurate and swift.

Luckily the orcs didn’t have any spellcasters in their ranks so that was one less thing to keep track of.

All in all, seeing the mounted knights in action, the players would have survived the encounter…but had I remembered to have the orcs attack there would have been a few more causality (and greater tension) on the players’ side of things.

See part 1 here for the set up to this, Nov 2nd 2012’s, game night.

The evening began where we had left off the previous game. The adventurers were in a side tunnel half-way down a wide 200-foot deep well in the sewers of the city. Viola, the half-drow rogue, set off a trap that released the scorpions in the small side passage higher up in the well.

Ill Omens

Hearing the legs clacking against the walls of the well, the adventurers get ready for a fight. Lotus, the Shou ninja, moves near the opening to the well and Magora draws her mace but then steps back and pulls out her crossbow. Viola moves back to check the other side of the T-section hallway (opposite to where the trap was) and finds a room thick with mold, a crumbled wall, and passageway that exits with stairs going down, “smells horrible down here but there’s more room to move around,” she says. Rash moves down, away from the well, towards Viola. Lish, the human cleric, steps down the tunnel away from the incoming scorpions as the sound of the scorpions skittering along the well’s walls getting louder.

Lotus whispers, “prepare to pull back.”

Viola pulls out her rapier and peeks around the corner to get a complete view of the stairs leading down and out of the moldy room.

The skittering sounds cease as if the scorpions just stopped on the wall of the well some ten feet above the passage’s opening. Magora steps farther down the hallway and takes aim at the opening to the well.

Then, as if fading into view, having moved completely silently, a scorpion rounds the lip of the passage. It’s mandible open up wide, wider than what any normal scorpion should be able to, and it hisses at Lotus. Lish conjures water above the scorpion, the force washing it onto the floor. More scorpions follow after it.

“They’re coming down the walls,” Magora says and fires her crossbow, hitting one, but barely scrapes the chitinous hide. She reloads quickly and empowers her crossbow with magic.

Viola drops her sword and pulls out her shortbow. She moves back to the T-section and fires around the corner at one of the scorpions, hitting, but again it barely scratches the creature.

Rash bellows, “not on my watch!” and rushes in swinging his greataxe, cracking its hide but not killing it. It’s body elongates becoming a spiked ball of many eyes and wide mouth and it screams at Rash, confusing him, muddling his senses.

All four of the scorpions appear in the tunnel, but in their fiendish transformed state, screaming at Viola, Lotus, and Magora…only Magora seems unaffected.

Lish steps back even further and casts a spell of mental protection around her. Lotus, shaking off the affects of the creature’s scream, vanishes using her ninja abilities, side-steps the creature, and attacks with her wakizaski sword dealing only minor damage to it but enough to poison the creature. Magora fires her crossbow again, her aim true, the bolt sinks deep into it, it then swoops in, flying, and bites her wrist but she shakes it off. Rash swings his greataxe at the one in front of him, cleaving into its hide; blood now flowing out of the bizarre creature’s wounds, but it screams again at the half-orc which muddles his mind. Viola fires her bow again but misses, cutting her fingers on the bowstring.

Several of the creatures swoop in, biting at the adventurers. Lish rushes to Viola’s side and quickly bandages her fingers. Lotus begins babbling incoherently as if mad. Magora yells at Lotus, “keep yourself together!,” and fires her crossbow again but only scratches the creature floating in front of her.

Viola screams as if seeing phantasms. Rash raises his axe and bellows madly at nothing. Magora and Lish become concerned, seeing Lotus, Viola, and Rash acting strangely. One of the creatures again screams at Rash, keeping his mind in a confused state. The creatures then disappear while another screams at Lotus but she seems to be able to resist the strange effect that it has on the mind; it then disappears. She collects herself and looks out the edge of the well, up and down, for the disappeared creature. Viola collects herself, “what happened?” Lish tries to console her.

Magora eyes Rash yelling madly and brandishing his axe in the air, “Rash, calm down,” she says.

Rash, still yelling madly, swings his greataxe and cuts deep into Magora who moves just in time to keep it from being a mortal blow. As blood rushes down her tunic, Lish offers a prayer to her goddess, and then she bursts out in holy light which mildly heals the wounds of the others. Wary of the barbarian, the rest of the party readies themselves to constrain Rash but he quickly comes to his senses as Magora curses him, over and over again.

Curiosity and Half-Orc Cats

As the creatures seem to have fled, the adventurers bandage their wounds. Magora turns to the half-orc male and says, “Rash, if that happens again I’m going to hurt you.”

“Well…don’t get scorpions on ya!” He replies.

She just stares intently with her deep half-orc eyes, “I will hurt you.”

Rash just growls, “bring it!” but she lets it go.

Bringing the focus back to the tasks at hand, Viola says, “What ever those things were, they sure did a number on our minds. I’d sure hate to run into one of those in the temple.”

The adventurers then head into the moldy room and down the stairs. It winds around, spiraling deeper into the depths with Magora leading as she has magic that helps to detect traps. She finds one, a pit-trap, in the floor in a hallway after the stairs and Viola comes forward, studies the trap for a while and then is able to disable the trap.

They continue onward, finding another trap which Viola disables, which Rash walks over first to test the rogue’s handiwork. They come on a third trap and Viola breaks the mechanism of it as well.

Further down the hallway they can hear water dripping and they come upon a chamber that has two five foot square grates in the floor with dark oily water below. In an alcove in the chamber is a cot and a chest. In the center of the room, near the grates, is a large worn bronze gong with a mallet hanging on the stand. The party enters the room and begin searching it.

“Viola, what do you make of this?” Magora says about the grates and the gong.

“Hmm, those grates on the floor can’t be good. Is this a dead end, is this all there is?” Viola asks.

“I believe so,” Magora replies.

“There must be more here than what we see. A gong, two grates over liquid,” the rogue continues.

“And apparently a place where someone sleeps.” Magora points to the cot.

Looking at the grates, they are set with wide-spaced bars and have hinges but no locks. Viola then searches the chest, doesn’t find any traps but it is locked. She then pulls out her tools and sets to unlocking the chest which resists opening to her half-drow fingers. Lotus comes over to help her and the two of them together are able to discern the difficult mechanism.

With a click the chest opens and inside they find some blankets, a sack with sewer-workers guild clothes, and at the bottom are four vials with magical liquids inside. The sack contains several different guild badges and a sowing kit.

“I think we found the living quarters of a doppleganger,” Viola says.

“We should leave, then,” Rash says, “how do we know one of us isn’t the doppleganger?”

“We came in together,” Magora says indignantly.

“I have faith and assume that you’re not,” Viola says and then turns the party’s attention to the gong. Magora and Lish divine that it is not magical.

“They come here to dispose of the bodies, they bang the gong and throw the bodies down the grates and what ever is listening for the gong comes and gets them,” Lish suggests.

“Why would they drag the bodies all the way down here?” Viola asks. “What should we do?”

“We shouldn’t go down into the waters. I believe we should go back and report on our findings,” Magora says, “there’s nothing left to do here, other than banging the gong.”

“Yeah, about that…” Rash says as Magora begins to protest. The barbarian goes over to the gong and takes the mallet and slides it under his belt. Magora positions herself between the gong and Rash.

Lotus does a final search of the room.

Viola says, “You think we should ring it?”

“No,” Magora says.

“You know…eh…I’m afraid of what would happen but it would almost be a shame not to play the game through, wouldn’t it?”

“Not really,” Magora replies dryly.

“We’ve come this far…” Viola says looking at the gong.

Magora just says, “I like my life as it is.”

“Are you so sure something bad will happen? How do you know something bad will happen,” the rogue presses the half-orc woman.

“Because it’s a gong,” Magora says, “in a room…that is hidden…by many traps.”

“It does seem to be that the gong is meant to summon something,” Lish quietly says.

“Right, but what?” Viola asks. “Do you truly believe everything in the world is evil?”

“I never said that…” Magora says.

Rash speaks up, “You can bang it then,” and hands the mallet to Viola under Magora’s deadly stare.

Viola takes the mallet and says, “I would not bang the gong wihtout the consent of the entire group, I’m just saying…”

“I do not think that is a wise idea,” Magora states sternly.

“What do you think, Lotus,” the mallet wielding rogue says to the Shou woman.

“We really haven’t learned anything about what is happening with the missing sewer-workers,” she says.

“Rash?” Magora asks.

“What?” The barbarian says.

“I think I know what you want to do,” she smiles at the half-orc.

Rash laughs, “give it a good one!”

“Lish,” Viola asks, “what do you think?”

“If you wish to bang the gong, I will do what I can to heal the wounds…”

“Do you think we should bang the gong to see what happens or do you not? Yes or no?” Viola interrupts softly.

“Well if you want…” Lish begins.

“That is not what I asked, what do you want?” Viola says with a little more force in her voice.

“Well,” Lish says, “what I want is for us to be finished with what needs to be done down here so we can get out. If you need to find more information then banging the gong may be what you need to do. Is it safe, I would say no, but this whole place hasn’t been safe. Do what needs to be done.”

“A simple yes or no would have been sufficient,” Magora says.

Lotus pulls out a coin, “heads we bang the gong, tales we don’t.” She flips a coin, walks over, takes out her sword and bangs the gong with its hilt. No one hears the coin hit the floor and no one sees what it came up.

Against the Odds

As soon as the gong is struck, the floor undulates as if made out of water but it still is solid. Between the two grates, coming out of the stone like a watery statue of a woman with subtle piscine features. She says, “welcome back, please come and kneel. The master will be with you shortly.” She looks around the room but doesn’t seem to focus on the adventurers. The floor subsides.

Lotus kneels. The rest of the party stands looking on in silence.

“We will not be able to assist you if you go down into the water,” Magora whispers to Lotus while eyeing the grates in front of them.

The woman looks down at Lotus, “the master will appear soon,” and then she dissolves back into the floor.

The water below splashes and a tentacle comes up through the grates and then another through the other grating.

“Back up,” Magora says and takes a step towards the exit. Lish quickly obeys and backs out of the room.

As one of the tentacles heads towards Lotus, she quickly steps away. Rash steps up and swings at one of the tentacles but it dodges out of the way.

“Viola, I think it’s best we leave now,” Magora says and heads out of the room swiftly.

Lotus swings at a tentacle, hits, and tumbles across the room towards the exit as a dark ichor oozes from the wound. Viola glances around and follows Magora.

The tentacles flail around, as if performing some intricate motion in front of Rash. The half-orc steels himself against the phantasmagoric display. He seems only phased, dazed, for a split moment and then steps away from the tentacles and swings his greataxe deep into Lotus’ flesh, “kill them,” ringing in his head.

The rest of the party continues running down the hallway and up the stairs. Lotus goes on the defensive and runs from the half-orc, following the rest of the group. As she runs, Lotus vanishes and while invisible she hums a tune for Rash to follow.

Rash continues his pursuit, “follow your friends as you would normally do,” he hears whispered in his head as he rushes on after them.

At the top of the final set of stairs into the moldy room, Magora, having waited for the others, asks Lotus (who is now visible), “Lotus, what’s happening?”

“Move!” Lotus commands, “Rash is taken over, we’ll have to deal with him when we get to the edge,” they both move on, “I will stand between him and you.”

“No. I think I will stand between him and you, I have a way of dealing with him if necessary,” Magora says. Lotus protests but she acquiesces.

Rash comes up the stairs and yells, “I’m sorry Lotus, I’m sorry.”

“Follow me,” Lotus says and notices that his greataxe is on his back. Rash follows but does not try to close the distance.

As they near the T-section they hear the screeching of the things which were originally in the form of scorpions. The party readies to fight them as Rash then closes in on the party. The creatures appear at the well’s end of the passage. Viola fires her shortbow and hits but its hide deflects the arrow. The four foul things swarm Viola, attacking her with their fanged maws but she is able to deflect all but one of their attacks. Lish steps up to Lotus and heals the wound that Rash’s axe gave her.

Magora steps forward, using the power of her god, she fires at one of the creatures and deals a hefty amount of damage but its hide deflects much of it. Healed, Lotus runs past Lish and jumps over the floating creatures, landing on the other side of them to somewhat block the exit to the well. Viola takes aim and fires again but misses and the arrow flies past Lotus’ head.

The creatures then disappear.

“Cut the rope, do not let them ascend,” Rash hears whispering in his mind.

An Axe and Half-Orc to Hold Her By

Rash says, “out of my way,” and he comes down the hallway that exits at the well, “Is everyone okay, I’m sorry, that thing had control of me!”

“We should keep moving,” Viola says.

The party approaches the bucket and Viola offers for Magora to go up first. Rash says, “Let me take the lead, you all have taken enough damage…there’s no more traps.”

“I appreciate the concern but I will go up first,” Magora replies.

“If you must,” Rash says.

“Those things are still out there, maybe Rash should go first so he can pull the rope…he is the strongest,” Viola says, “besides he weighs the most…”

Rash then steps up to the bucket and grabs the rope. He says, “come on,” as they hurriedly gather in the hallway near the edge of the well. “Come on,” Rash says again then takes his axe and swings at the taught rope, severing it and letting the bucket and rope fall hundreds of feet into the dark waters below. “Guess we better go back down,” Rash says.

“We will climb,” Lotus says.

“I think we better go back down,” Rash says, concern dripping from his half-orc lips.

“Drop your weapon!” Magora says, casting a spell at the barbarian who immediately complies.

“Kill them,” Rash hears echoing through his mind. The barbarian takes a drink from his whiskey flask, growls with rage, steps forward, and grabs at Lotus but Lotus throws a martial punch at the unarmed half-orc which bloodies his nose as Viola fires an arrow at Rash which slices a wound on his shoulder but fails to strike true. Unphased, Rash continues to try to grab a hold of Lotus but she spins out of the way, dives between his legs, grabs the barbarian’s axe, drops it down the well, winks at Magora, and then vanishes from sight.

Magora casts another spell at the barbarian, “Stop attacking!” she commands and Rash stops in his tracks looking dumbfounded.

Viola fires again, striking another wound in the half-orc and says, “We’re going to miss you if we kill you, Rash.”

Lish casts a spell and and the barbarian becomes held immobile by the cleric’s sorcery. Immobilized, Rash just stands there.

“How long will this last?” Lotus asks.

“Only a few seconds,” Lish responds worriedly.

“No,” Lotus says with concern, “this mind control he is under?”

“I said, only a few seconds,” she says again still thinking about the mind control she placed on the barbarian to keep him held in place.

The party then begins discussing ropes, who has one, who is the best climber, and so on.

Lotus throws two shurikens at Rash, both of which hit the half-orc but their poison does not affect the raging barbarian.

Magora pulls one of two 50 ft. length of ropes from Viola’s backpack. Viola then starts climbing up the wall of the well. She slips, falls, but catches herself on the lip. Rash continues to be held. Magora moves up to Rash and ties him up. Viola, focusing herself, climbs up fifteen feet along the well’s wall. Lotus and Lish keep an eye on Rash and Lotus nicks the half-orc with another poisoned shuriken but again, the poison is not strong enough to affect his still raging mind. Viola keeps climbing but it’s slow going, she’s twenty feet from the scorpions’ passage. Rash begins to twitch, Lotus readies herself. Lish and Magora both cast spells but Rash shakes them off. Rash growls and rips his arms out of the ropes. Lish attempts another casting at Rash but again it doesn’t take hold to his enraged mind. Magora casts again but the spell again fails. Viola keeps climbing, pulling herself up to the passage, she comes face to face with the scorpion-creatures which are back in their holding area, 30 feet away.

Rash, free of the spells and the ropes, raging, lunges at the female half-orc, Magora, and grabs a hold of her. Lotus vanishes again and stabs at Rash but the barbarian’s elbow accidentally knocks the ninja nearly unconscious. Lish commands, “release her,” and casts a spell but her casting is not strong enough to work.

Viola ties the rope to a rung that is just above the scorpions’ passage.

Magora struggles, attempting to break from the barbarian’s hold, but she is not strong enough.

Rash drags Magora down the hallway then leaps with her wrapped in his thick arms down the well after his axe; the half-orc inquisitor screaming as they descend into the darkness. As the fall, Magora is able to kick free of the barbarian’s grasp and then they hit water.

November 2nd, 2012 was one of the most exciting game nights I’ve had in a while. Not that previous game nights haven’t been good, just that Nov 2nd was streets ahead. Since the player, L., was absent the group was sworn to secrecy about what happened so that we could relate the story in person, hence the great delay in publishing this post.

The adventurers¹ consist of:

Lish: Female human cleric (played by me)

Lotus: Female human ninja (played by P.)

Magora: Female half-orc inquisitor (played by K.)

Rash: Male half-orc drunken barbarian (played normally by L. but he wasn’t here so I ended up having to run his character)

Viola: Female half-elf (drow) rogue (played by A.)

DM: T.

The back story:

Rumors have surfaced  of city sewer workers going missing. The adventurers searched for answers which led to the discovery that the guild master of the sewer-workers may be the source, or at least the conduit to the source, of the missing workers.

The characters camped out in the sewers below the guild master’s home to see if he’s using any secret entrances to go about his, alleged, vile deeds. After much waiting, the group saw a figure  in the sewers who accessed a secret door. The group followed him found the secret door led to a set of stairs that descend some fifty feet into a small circular room with a large well in the center. The figure was descending down into the well via a rope and pulley. The adventurers trip an explosive trap, and though they survived instead of confronting the mysterious individual who is dangling on the rope down the well, they hastily returned to the surface to inform the people they’re working for.

After several hours the party then returned to the sewers, reaches the secret door, and headed down into the well-room. Looking down into the well they found a small bucket-like platform at one end of the 200-foot long rope that can be lowered down around 100 feet. Rash, the half-orc barbarian, got in and lowered himself down. 50 ft. down he found a 5 ft. x 3 ft. tunnel in the side of the well-shaft that led down a small hallway with a grating some 30 ft. down. Behind the grating scurry 4 large scorpions, about the size of dogs. He threw some food at them, one of them ate it, and then they all move up to the grate and stop moving to watch Rash watch them. He threw some more food but they don’t react, they just watch him. Rash could just make out a small ledge and another passageway another 50 ft. down but headed back up to inform the others about what is down there.

After some discussion, the party lowered the bucket with a magical light source to it’s full length to see if it sets off any traps. 100 ft. down they can see the other, larger, passageway. They pulled the bucket back up and Rash headed back down. He cautiously passed the scorpions, which were still lined up watching from behind the grating, and then reached lower passage which was 8 ft tall by 5 ft wide and had a set of stairs descending 30 ft. down to a T-section. Rash got out of the bucket and looked around the T-section. To his right it dead-ended after about 30 feet and at the end, in paint, is a symbol drawn on the floor. To his left the hallway opened into a moldy smelling room that’s covered in slick mildew.

Magora, the half-orc inquisitor, then descended and reached the lower passage with no trouble. Lish then descended with the three above helping lower her down. On passing the scorpions, when they saw her and the light from her enchanted mace, the scorpions began ramming their heads against the grating as if to burst through. Lish screamed. The scorpions stopped when Lish passed out of sight and finally Lish arrived at the lower passage visibly shaken. She gets out and the others raised the bucket back up while Lish relates the story to Rash. Viola, the half-drow rogue, and Lotus, the Shou ninja, got in together. The scorpions did not rush the two, but the two adventurers take a moment to examine the tunnel. They could make out some kind of symbol near the grating. They then lowered themselves the rest of the way, reaching the lower passage with ease.

The party convenes at the T-section, Rash threw some chalk onto the symbol on the floor at the right end, but nothing happened. Viola then headed down to check it out, and as soon as she entered the hallway the symbol lit up, sparked, and disappeared. Then they heard the sound of the scorpions’ legs clacking on the walls of the well behind them.

Part 2 comming soon.

¹ For those interested, this is a Forgotten Realms campaign and is based out of the city of Waterdeep. It consists of two groups of adventurers. The higher-level adventurers, The Mystics, are all around 10th level. Each player has one character in this group, except for P. who has two. The second group consists of 15 4th-level characters where every player controls three of them. This second group works for the Mystics, performing tasks for them. Every time an adventure arises for these lower-level characters the players pick one of their three characters to go on the adventure.