Hriston
Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
It had been about six months since our last session which I posted about here.
The level-one PCs are:
Party goal: to acquire treasure.
We picked things up again in the first chamber of the second level of the dungeon, where the party had found an invisible treasure. The chamber had two exits, so, between sessions, I had asked the players about which way the party might want to explore next. Unsurprisingly, they were ambivalent about the blind choice I was giving them, so I generated some content with which, hopefully, to inform their decision making. In one direction, I generated an encounter with giant centipedes. Now centipedes like humid environments, so I described the tunnel in that direction as damp and full of humid air. In the other direction, at some distance, I generated a stream crossed by a bridge, so I described, in that direction, the distant sound of running water could be heard.
They chose to go towards the sound of running water and soon found the bridge that crossed the stream, after which they came to a four-way intersection. I had also generated content down each of the three passages that led away from the intersection, but only one, an underground river down the left hand passage, was something I felt I could telegraph successfully, which I did, describing a loud sound of rushing water in that direction.
The players chose to go away from the sound of water this time, and, after moving through some empty rooms, eventually opened the door to a small room containing twelve hobbits. This was something I hadn’t prepared, and the result of the reaction roll was “indifferent”. Some indifferent hobbits had also been encountered in our first session, at the entrance of the dungeon, which fell flat, and I had determined later to make indifferent encounters be about overcoming the encountered creatures’ reluctance to help. The best I could come up with, though, was to say the hobbits were having a rest but didn’t want to share their room with big folk, hoping the players would try to persuade the hobbits to let them stay given that one of the party members, Soliana, was still down a few hit points after an earlier encounter with large spiders and was in need of a rest. As it turned out, the players declined to take the bait and simply moved on. I thought afterwards this was a lost opportunity to use my prep as it related to the party’s goal in that I could have had the hobbits suggest they knew where to find a treasure, and that the encounter could have then become about getting them to divulge its whereabouts, how it was hidden or guarded, etc. As it turned out, the party found the treasure on their own as described below.
The party returned to the intersection and, after exploring one of the passages which led to a dead end, eventually followed the sound of running water to a large chamber containing a largish ceramic jar, the sound of the river continuing to echo down a passage that led on from one of the chamber’s exits. The jar contained 300 gp guarded by a poisonous snake, which the party quickly foiled by using mage hand to open the lid, which I had decided beforehand would trigger the trap, causing the snake to safely emerge from the jar and slither away. Having come to the end of my prep, we ended the session there. It occurred to me afterwards that, given the number of times mage hand had already been used to resolve situations the party encountered, it would be a good idea for me to observe more strictly the hand’s carrying capacity in the spell’s description and to stipulate, for instance, that the jar’s lid or the trip wire in the collapsing ceiling trap encountered in our second session would require more than ten pounds of force to open or trigger and to strongly telegraph, if at all possible, that aspect of the fiction.
Our next session began with a decision about which of the chamber’s exits to explore next. In the effort of informing this decision, I had generated some content between sessions to be found down each of the chamber’s four unexplored exits and did my best to telegraph what it might be. Of course there was the passageway which led to the river, which I continued to describe as being filled with a loud sound of rushing water and left at that. Then there was also a passage which led to a chamber containing a group of gnomes, which I telegraphed with faint knocking noises and occasional peals of high pitched laughter. A third passage led to an encounter with giant rats. I described it as smelling like sewage and ammonia. And a fourth passage led to an encounter with a group of brigands. I had a hard time coming up with something for this but decided the brigands were singing a marching song which could be heard faintly echoing through the dungeon.
I think the players got spooked at the telegraphing of my prep because, after spending most of the session deliberating, they finally chose to head for the river, the direction for which I’d prepared the least. They came to the river, and I told them wading across would take an extra ten minutes, risking an additional wandering monster roll. They made the crossing uneventfully and continued along the passage, eventually coming to a chamber containing eight orcs who saw the party approaching due to the elf’s light spell and waited for them in the darkness. The chamber also contained five small coffers containing 1,320 cp and 300 gp.
The reaction roll determined the orcs were violently hostile to the party’s goal of acquiring treasure, but they mostly failed their Stealth rolls, so the party wasn’t surprised when Soliana the elf spotted the orcs waiting in the darkness.
“They’ve come for our treasure!” I described the orcs as saying. “And they brought an elf! Kill the elf!” And with that we ended the session, leaving the ensuing combat for next time.
When we reconvened, I awarded inspiration to each of the six PCs, explaining it was for relentlessly pursuing the party’s goal of acquiring treasure down into the second level of the dungeon, crossing the river, and thereby putting all their lives in danger. Then, everyone rolled initiative. The orcs rolled high, tying with the party’s wizard, so I let the wizard go first. He took the opportunity to cast sleep on the orcs, causing one orc to fall asleep. The orcs, armed with spears and shields, and one with a glaive, rushed the party in the ten foot wide corridor while an orc in the back of the chamber, armed with a crossbow, stopped to awaken the orc who’d fallen asleep, another glaive wielder. The orcs in front stabbed with their spears at Ham and Ozmir in the front rank while those in back threw axes, but all their attacks missed their targets. Next, Soliana cast sacred flame, calling down radiance on one of the orcs in front, but her target made the saving throw and successfully dodged out of the way. Soliana then decided to move back through the ranks to avoid becoming the orcs’ preferred target. Ham was next and spent his inspiration to gain advantage on attacking and hitting an orc with his longsword. The party’s rogue also spent his inspiration for advantage on shooting the orc engaged with Ham with his shortbow, which he hit, inflicting sneak attack damage and killing the orc. Ozmir spent his inspiration for advantage on an attack on the orc in front of him with his shortsword, which also succeeded. Lastly, the druid cast produce flame and threw the flame at Ozmir’s orc and hit, bringing the orc to below half its hit points.
The second round began with the wizard casting chill touch on Ozmir’s orc, which missed, but because the orc was below half its hit points, one of its friends had been killed, and the orcs hadn’t managed to hurt the party, it was forced to make a DC 17 morale check, which it failed, causing it to flee in panic through a door in the back of the chamber. This should have incurred opportunity attacks from Ham and Ozmir against the fleeing orc, but I think I forgot to remind the players of this at the time. Also, due to the fact that the orcs had missed all their attacks in the first round and had been hit several times, along with the above factors, the rest of the orcs had to make a DC 15 morale check, causing one to also flee and another, named Turge, to drop his spear and offer his surrender. The remaining four orcs moved forward to fill in the gaps and continue the attack. Ham was hit with a spear and Ozmir with a glaive. The formerly sleeping glaive-wielder moved in but was unable to hit, as was the crossbow wielder who tried to fire through the melee but was unsuccessful. Soliana stepped forward to heal Ozmir, casting cure wounds, before returning to the rear of the party. Ham fought back, doing critical damage with his longsword to the spear-wielding orc whom the rogue finished off with another sneak attack with his shortbow. Ozmir used his shortsword to stab the glaive-wielder at whom the druid threw another flame, conjured by produce flame, but missed.
At the top of round three, the wizard once again cast chill touch, dragging Ozmir’s glaive-wielding orc to the grave. A DC 24 morale check was now imposed on the remaining two orcs, the formerly sleeping glaive wielder and the crossbow wielder who had stayed out of the melee, triggered by over half their force being removed from the battle and which was made more difficult by three of their friends having been killed, three having deserted, and being outnumbered, at this point, three to one. The failure result had the glaive wielder surrender to the party and the crossbow wielder flee in panic through the same door through which the other fleeing orcs had gone.
The victorious party informed Turge and the other surrendering orc they were free to go and took possession of the coffers. The players did not say they would loot the bodies of the dead orcs, but I’ll try to remind them the orcs might have been carrying individual treasure when we take this up in our next session.
Thanks for reading!
The level-one PCs are:
my daughter's characters:
- Ham, human fighter,
- Ozmir, chaotic good tiefling paladin who lied his way out of a hostile interaction, and
- Soliana, high elven war cleric, still injured after an encounter with spiders,
and my son's characters:
- The Druid, a human druid,
- The Rogue, a human rogue, and
- The Wizard, a human wizard.
We picked things up again in the first chamber of the second level of the dungeon, where the party had found an invisible treasure. The chamber had two exits, so, between sessions, I had asked the players about which way the party might want to explore next. Unsurprisingly, they were ambivalent about the blind choice I was giving them, so I generated some content with which, hopefully, to inform their decision making. In one direction, I generated an encounter with giant centipedes. Now centipedes like humid environments, so I described the tunnel in that direction as damp and full of humid air. In the other direction, at some distance, I generated a stream crossed by a bridge, so I described, in that direction, the distant sound of running water could be heard.
They chose to go towards the sound of running water and soon found the bridge that crossed the stream, after which they came to a four-way intersection. I had also generated content down each of the three passages that led away from the intersection, but only one, an underground river down the left hand passage, was something I felt I could telegraph successfully, which I did, describing a loud sound of rushing water in that direction.
The players chose to go away from the sound of water this time, and, after moving through some empty rooms, eventually opened the door to a small room containing twelve hobbits. This was something I hadn’t prepared, and the result of the reaction roll was “indifferent”. Some indifferent hobbits had also been encountered in our first session, at the entrance of the dungeon, which fell flat, and I had determined later to make indifferent encounters be about overcoming the encountered creatures’ reluctance to help. The best I could come up with, though, was to say the hobbits were having a rest but didn’t want to share their room with big folk, hoping the players would try to persuade the hobbits to let them stay given that one of the party members, Soliana, was still down a few hit points after an earlier encounter with large spiders and was in need of a rest. As it turned out, the players declined to take the bait and simply moved on. I thought afterwards this was a lost opportunity to use my prep as it related to the party’s goal in that I could have had the hobbits suggest they knew where to find a treasure, and that the encounter could have then become about getting them to divulge its whereabouts, how it was hidden or guarded, etc. As it turned out, the party found the treasure on their own as described below.
The party returned to the intersection and, after exploring one of the passages which led to a dead end, eventually followed the sound of running water to a large chamber containing a largish ceramic jar, the sound of the river continuing to echo down a passage that led on from one of the chamber’s exits. The jar contained 300 gp guarded by a poisonous snake, which the party quickly foiled by using mage hand to open the lid, which I had decided beforehand would trigger the trap, causing the snake to safely emerge from the jar and slither away. Having come to the end of my prep, we ended the session there. It occurred to me afterwards that, given the number of times mage hand had already been used to resolve situations the party encountered, it would be a good idea for me to observe more strictly the hand’s carrying capacity in the spell’s description and to stipulate, for instance, that the jar’s lid or the trip wire in the collapsing ceiling trap encountered in our second session would require more than ten pounds of force to open or trigger and to strongly telegraph, if at all possible, that aspect of the fiction.
Our next session began with a decision about which of the chamber’s exits to explore next. In the effort of informing this decision, I had generated some content between sessions to be found down each of the chamber’s four unexplored exits and did my best to telegraph what it might be. Of course there was the passageway which led to the river, which I continued to describe as being filled with a loud sound of rushing water and left at that. Then there was also a passage which led to a chamber containing a group of gnomes, which I telegraphed with faint knocking noises and occasional peals of high pitched laughter. A third passage led to an encounter with giant rats. I described it as smelling like sewage and ammonia. And a fourth passage led to an encounter with a group of brigands. I had a hard time coming up with something for this but decided the brigands were singing a marching song which could be heard faintly echoing through the dungeon.
I think the players got spooked at the telegraphing of my prep because, after spending most of the session deliberating, they finally chose to head for the river, the direction for which I’d prepared the least. They came to the river, and I told them wading across would take an extra ten minutes, risking an additional wandering monster roll. They made the crossing uneventfully and continued along the passage, eventually coming to a chamber containing eight orcs who saw the party approaching due to the elf’s light spell and waited for them in the darkness. The chamber also contained five small coffers containing 1,320 cp and 300 gp.
The reaction roll determined the orcs were violently hostile to the party’s goal of acquiring treasure, but they mostly failed their Stealth rolls, so the party wasn’t surprised when Soliana the elf spotted the orcs waiting in the darkness.
“They’ve come for our treasure!” I described the orcs as saying. “And they brought an elf! Kill the elf!” And with that we ended the session, leaving the ensuing combat for next time.
When we reconvened, I awarded inspiration to each of the six PCs, explaining it was for relentlessly pursuing the party’s goal of acquiring treasure down into the second level of the dungeon, crossing the river, and thereby putting all their lives in danger. Then, everyone rolled initiative. The orcs rolled high, tying with the party’s wizard, so I let the wizard go first. He took the opportunity to cast sleep on the orcs, causing one orc to fall asleep. The orcs, armed with spears and shields, and one with a glaive, rushed the party in the ten foot wide corridor while an orc in the back of the chamber, armed with a crossbow, stopped to awaken the orc who’d fallen asleep, another glaive wielder. The orcs in front stabbed with their spears at Ham and Ozmir in the front rank while those in back threw axes, but all their attacks missed their targets. Next, Soliana cast sacred flame, calling down radiance on one of the orcs in front, but her target made the saving throw and successfully dodged out of the way. Soliana then decided to move back through the ranks to avoid becoming the orcs’ preferred target. Ham was next and spent his inspiration to gain advantage on attacking and hitting an orc with his longsword. The party’s rogue also spent his inspiration for advantage on shooting the orc engaged with Ham with his shortbow, which he hit, inflicting sneak attack damage and killing the orc. Ozmir spent his inspiration for advantage on an attack on the orc in front of him with his shortsword, which also succeeded. Lastly, the druid cast produce flame and threw the flame at Ozmir’s orc and hit, bringing the orc to below half its hit points.
The second round began with the wizard casting chill touch on Ozmir’s orc, which missed, but because the orc was below half its hit points, one of its friends had been killed, and the orcs hadn’t managed to hurt the party, it was forced to make a DC 17 morale check, which it failed, causing it to flee in panic through a door in the back of the chamber. This should have incurred opportunity attacks from Ham and Ozmir against the fleeing orc, but I think I forgot to remind the players of this at the time. Also, due to the fact that the orcs had missed all their attacks in the first round and had been hit several times, along with the above factors, the rest of the orcs had to make a DC 15 morale check, causing one to also flee and another, named Turge, to drop his spear and offer his surrender. The remaining four orcs moved forward to fill in the gaps and continue the attack. Ham was hit with a spear and Ozmir with a glaive. The formerly sleeping glaive-wielder moved in but was unable to hit, as was the crossbow wielder who tried to fire through the melee but was unsuccessful. Soliana stepped forward to heal Ozmir, casting cure wounds, before returning to the rear of the party. Ham fought back, doing critical damage with his longsword to the spear-wielding orc whom the rogue finished off with another sneak attack with his shortbow. Ozmir used his shortsword to stab the glaive-wielder at whom the druid threw another flame, conjured by produce flame, but missed.
At the top of round three, the wizard once again cast chill touch, dragging Ozmir’s glaive-wielding orc to the grave. A DC 24 morale check was now imposed on the remaining two orcs, the formerly sleeping glaive wielder and the crossbow wielder who had stayed out of the melee, triggered by over half their force being removed from the battle and which was made more difficult by three of their friends having been killed, three having deserted, and being outnumbered, at this point, three to one. The failure result had the glaive wielder surrender to the party and the crossbow wielder flee in panic through the same door through which the other fleeing orcs had gone.
The victorious party informed Turge and the other surrendering orc they were free to go and took possession of the coffers. The players did not say they would loot the bodies of the dead orcs, but I’ll try to remind them the orcs might have been carrying individual treasure when we take this up in our next session.
Thanks for reading!
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