gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 24
Session 24
This session was one of those sessions where a player could not make it, but it is almost impossible to explain their absence. Handling that situation can be the bane of the DMs . Normally, if the character is simply ‘off-stage’, I run the character as an NPC in the player’s absence: Uru ‘going native’ in the swamps last week; Leon approaching Gale in secret during Skyseer (but being spotted by one of the other characters) were two interesting examples of how you can move the story on, or have something interesting happen to the character which the player might not have thought of. But here, there was very little I could do with the absent Rumdoom, other than leave him behind to guard the entrance. This ended up having far more dramatic consequences than I’d anticipated (as will become clear in my next session report).
Here’s the session report:
The original ‘module’, Danger at Dunwater was notorious for the fact that the entire adventure is avoidable. If carefully handled, a cautious, diplomatic party can quickly establish that the lizardmen have only strayed out of their range and begun to arm themselves for fear of further attacks by a sahuagin raiding party who have overrun their original lair.
I put very little effort into converting the original AD&D adventure because I felt sure that the party would talk to the lizardmen and quickly cease hostilities. One of the reasons for introducing the ‘cameo character’ of Lord Blackthorn was to provide at least some motivation for physical conflict – again, on the assumption that the other players would want to restrain him, and prove him wrong.
Instead, the players very much embraced the view that ‘these are just lizardmen’ and began a wholesale massacre which I worried might be very difficult for them to excuse when the opportunity to negotiate arose...
Session 24
This session was one of those sessions where a player could not make it, but it is almost impossible to explain their absence. Handling that situation can be the bane of the DMs . Normally, if the character is simply ‘off-stage’, I run the character as an NPC in the player’s absence: Uru ‘going native’ in the swamps last week; Leon approaching Gale in secret during Skyseer (but being spotted by one of the other characters) were two interesting examples of how you can move the story on, or have something interesting happen to the character which the player might not have thought of. But here, there was very little I could do with the absent Rumdoom, other than leave him behind to guard the entrance. This ended up having far more dramatic consequences than I’d anticipated (as will become clear in my next session report).
Here’s the session report:
- Leaving Rumdoom and the Stoutly brothers to hold the exit, the rest of the unit pressed deep into the lizardman lair, meeting with occasional resistance.
- The lair was much more complex than typical lizardman dwellings and contained many trappings that were 'civilized' in nature: crude furnishings, and the like.
- The unit discovered a 'banqueting hall', kitchen and larder (where various humanoids, including a dead dwarf – one of a team of adventurers who had been hired by Saltmarsh Town Council and had disappeared – were being cooked/stored).
- In a throne room they spotted a secret passage that led to the chambers of a high ranking tribe member.
- Uru and Leon found and examined a puissant jade idol which both fascinated and unnerved them.
- A harem was discovered, and its inhabitants massacred. A hatchery was left undisturbed (though Lord Blackthorn toyed with using some alchemist’s fire on the eggs).
- A meeting room was found to contain shipping charts and dates. This led the team to conclude that the lizardmen had been involved in sinking the missing ships.
- The unit then discovered a temple, and engaged the shamans (first time I ever used the plural form - had to check it wasn't shamen) and their crocodilian pets.
- They killed the high priest, took his powerful staff, and forced his subordinates to talk.
- The shamans blamed 'the forked-tongued one' for the misbehaviour of the lizardmen, and bemoaned the death of Selethsesh (their leader). When asked about a huge marine creature Oolsholeel had seen entering the lair through the sea cave entrance, they talked of the 'outsiders invited by the fork-tongue'.
- The unit decided to move on, aware that more lizardmen were closing in on their location. Uru forced one shaman to ingest an opiate poison to keep him from troubling them again, and they took the other along with them to confront the 'fork-tongue'.
The original ‘module’, Danger at Dunwater was notorious for the fact that the entire adventure is avoidable. If carefully handled, a cautious, diplomatic party can quickly establish that the lizardmen have only strayed out of their range and begun to arm themselves for fear of further attacks by a sahuagin raiding party who have overrun their original lair.
I put very little effort into converting the original AD&D adventure because I felt sure that the party would talk to the lizardmen and quickly cease hostilities. One of the reasons for introducing the ‘cameo character’ of Lord Blackthorn was to provide at least some motivation for physical conflict – again, on the assumption that the other players would want to restrain him, and prove him wrong.
Instead, the players very much embraced the view that ‘these are just lizardmen’ and began a wholesale massacre which I worried might be very difficult for them to excuse when the opportunity to negotiate arose...
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