Yesterday's game was wacky. First I found out that one of the kids who signed up (one of them who wrote me that letter) just can't play Sundays, due to no ride. Sad. So I only have 3 players, which is annoying.
The session started with a distraught miner showing up with the tale that
something ate his mule! He needed help, there was something in his mine! He was crying and otherwise annoying to the players, but they agreed to help. This led to a dwarven wizard's lab that had been caved in, and broken into via the miner's excavation.
Inside, the PCs once again split up and went in different directions. They battled an ooze that spawned minions as they hit it, and an undead dwarf with an empty hollow where his stomach should be, which drew them towards it like a black hole. After they had battled the various horrors, the PCs entered the wizard's library. That's where this conversation transpired:
Me: On a desk, there are several papers sitting on top of an ornate box about the size of a shoebox.
Rogue: I grab the box!
Me: The papers fall on the floor.
Rogue: I try to open the box!
Me: It's locked. By the way, you see this symbol on one of the papers, it is the same symbol you came across in the last adventure.
Rogue: I try to pick the lock!
Me: You get a slight magical jolt when you try.
Fighter: I use the key I found on the wizard, and unlock the box.
Me: You open it, and there's a brief flash of bright, white light. Then the box is empty. On the inside you notice that there are various symbols drawn all over, designed to contain something, like, trap something inside.
Rogue: Ok I read the pieces of paper.
Me: The papers are a last will and testament, along with an explanation that the wizard who lived here was trapped by a cave in, and slowly starved. He says that his last act was to craft the box and stick his soul inside, please open it outside so that his soul has a better chance of escaping (as opposed to being trapped in his body, as he fears becoming an undead when he starves to death).
The group: ... Maybe we shouldn't have done that.
As they exited the mine, they were attacked by The Half-Elf that had been beaten up last session, along with some thugs he hired. What ensued was a difficult battle with this result:
Early in the fight, one of the mercenaries surrendered when he was reduced to 2 HP. At the end of the fight, the half-elf was at 4 HP. The Fighter PC asked to just break the half-elf's leg, and with some off-the-cuff rolling, I said sure. Then the Rogue decides to just knock the half-elf unconscious.
Rogue: I just leave the half-elf alive, and walk over to the surrendered mercenary guy and kill him.
Fighter: What! Why would you do that? You're killing the guy who surrendered, but sparing the guy who
hired these guys to come after us?
Rogue: Sure! He'll wake up and tell everyone we kicked his ass. Our legend will grow!
Fighter: And hire more guys to come after us!
Rogue: And we'll kill them too!
Fighter: I... I just kill the half-elf, so he doesn't come after us again.
Little sociopaths.
They then paid off the dragon, and it flew off, but they had recovered some definite riches. They had also recovered a half-burned map, which I will provide more details to next time (I had actually drew a map on a brown paper bag and then set it on fire).
The session only lasted two hours
again. I need to prep a whole lot more, just to fill the time. I am apparently a terrible gauge on how long things will take at the table. This week I am going to help them make their characters, starting at level 2!
It's also become clear that I am going to have to run a DMPC healer.
Sidenote: Last session I had brought cardboard tokens I had printed out, but the tokens were too big for my map. This time, I just brought marble stones for monsters, and for the players, I brought little rabbit figurines and a few other random bits for minis. The little bunnies were a big hit - it really amused them to have pastel bunny minis running around killing things.
