Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 5402526" data-attributes="member: 3448">Deforch's second adventureMy son and I played another game of D&D yesterday afternoon.  As might be expected, it was another day of milestones.  He began by telling me that Deforch wanted to go to the castle where his family was.  I asked about Deforch's family, and he told me that they were all heroes, and that Deforch has a baby sister (who is not, I presume, a hero yet).  He also reminded me that he wanted there to be a nice dragon in this game.The trip to the castle was convenient, because the adventure I had prepared (i.e. thought about vaguely in the shower) started with an encounter while Deforch was camping by the road.  So I said that the trip to the castle would take a while, and that Deforch would have to camp on the way there because it was farther than he could walk in a day.  My son agreed with this, because the castle was in Mexico.  (I was a little surprised by this, but I was happy to accept it.  He later said that the first adventure was in Germany, whereas this adventure was taking place in Japan.  This surprised me for two reasons:  (1)  I had no idea that he knew that Germany was a place and (2) if he's traveling from Germany to Mexico and he's currently in Japan, I think he's chosen a poor route.)  So I described how he had made camp, started a fire and cooked some food, and was now sleeping in his camp.  I then had him roll a Perception check (he was clearly very nervous about this roll).  Fortunately, his rolling was terrific, so I told him that Deforch woke up to the sound of some skeletons walking towards him.  He leaped up, drew his swords, and the battle was joined.  The trio of skeletons won initiative, but because he woke up before they got near him, they could only close part of the distance without being able to reach him (I haven't introduced charging yet).  On Deforch's turn, he ran up to the skeletons and used an encounter power which allows him to attack every enemy that's adjacent to him.  Some decent attack rolls later, and he had hit each of the skeletons.  They were only minions (although again, I haven't explained minions to my son), so almost as soon as the fight had started it was over, with three shattered skeletons at his feet.In the morning, a great dragon appeared to Deforch.  It explained that its name was Califax the Gold, and that it needed to speak to Deforch.  Deforch introduced himself, more or less politely.  Califax asked if Deforch had recovered a gold cup in his previous adventure.  Deforch said that he had (the treasure from the previous game was 5 gold pieces and a gold cup).  When Califax saw the cup, he explained that it was a powerful magic item, the Cup of al-Faisal (which we can think of as the Maguffin of al-Faisal).  The cup has powerful magic for good, but it can also be twisted to evil, which is why the skeletons and the other dragon wanted it.  The dragon explained that the skeletons from the last night had been drawn to the cup, and that Deforch needed to go to their dungeon to stop the threat.  My son also helpfully clarified that the cup had been stolen from the dragon, who had kept it in his attic.  Sure, why not?  Its message delivered, Califax disappeared in a puff of smoke and fire.Deforch found the skeletons' footprints, and followed them back to a spooky old abandoned graveyard, and in particular to an ancient crypt in the graveyard.  The heavy stone door was sealed shut, but there was a stone carving on the front of it:  four stone hollow columns, labeled 1, 2, (scratched out), and 4.  There was also a tray filled with colored polished stones in front of the door.  Deforch had encountered his first puzzle.  My son immediately figured out that the scratched out section had been another number, although he was a little unsure whether it was a 3 or a 5.  At first, he was a little reluctant to engage with the puzzle, but I encouraged him, and he tried putting one stone in each slot, counting them as he did so.  A brass cover came out in the 1 column, but nothing else happened.  He then tried removing the stones and counting with different stones, but there was no effect.  After a little while, he tried putting a second stone in each column as well--the second stone in the first column fell out, but a brass cover came out in the 2 column now that it had two stones in it.  That was enough for him to figure it out, so he put a third stone in the scratched out column and a third and a fourth stone in the 4 column, and the stone door swung open. Deforch bravely entered the crypt, although my son was clearly a little scared, and two zombies leaped out and attacked him.  He fought the zombies; it was a little dicey at times, but his rolls continued to be on fire.  Eventually, after having dropped the first zombie, he did his twin-strike attack at the second zombie and rolled a natural 20--his first critical hit!  It turns out that zombies have the special weakness that they're automatically killed by any critical hit, so that finished the second zombie off, and he had won the battle.Deforch found a place for flowers at the back of the crypt, which was the ancient family crypt of the al-Faisal family, with the flowers knocked on the floor.  He hesitated about putting the flowers back where they should have been--he also wanted to bring the flowers to his mommy at the castle.  But finally, with some prompting, he put the flowers back and heard singing.  A box under the flower stand opened, and he found a potion of healing.  Califax then appeared again and explained that by making the ghosts happy, he had solved the problem, and there would be no more undead from this graveyard.  Deforch said that because the ghosts had gone away, he could now take the flowers to his mommy, which Califax agreed would be fine.  And so, Deforch set off again to head towards his family's castle, having eliminated another undead threat and having gained some flowers and a potion of healing.Among the momentous milestones of the day:  Deforch's first critical hit; Deforch's first fight against multiple non-minions; Deforch's first puzzle encounter; and Deforch's first (useful) magical treasure.  All in all, another very successful D&D game with my son.</blockquote>

Verification