DM Chronicles, Session 12: The Great Game! Part 2

Life goes on…

See part 1 here.

So when I left off in part 1, Nogard had been accosted in his Dragon Temple by Plantagonox, the Juvenile Bronze Dragon errand boy of House Dallimothan (i.e. The Dragon-friendly Noble House of Ptolus).

When ‘Gonox asked Nogard if he know about Xorvindaal, Nogard responded that he did not. The young dragon impatiently brushed this display of ignorance aside, telling Nogard to look the word up.

He gave Nogard a Dagger made from the tooth of a White Dragon and said that House Dallimothan was very concerned about the PC’s quest and very much wanted it to be successful.

‘Gonox then took a very conspirational tone and informed Nogard that Dallimothan’s Pool would be unguarded tonight and that a little dip (with the dagger) could bring some ‘refreshing’ insights about the Demon-slaying sword the prophecy was referring to.

Then he left, telling Nogard to say Hi to ‘Slarty’ for him.

DMing aside: Yes this is exceedingly heavy handed (read railroady), even for my usual style, I totally agree. I wanted to give the feeling that the PCs weren’t alone in all this, as harder times lay ahead. Clearly mapping out the party’s allies was paramount to me.

When Nogard informed the group of his meeting, they researched the meaning of Xorvintaal and found that it referred to ‘The Great Game’ that some dragons played to one-up each other. I presented Xorvinataal as being basically a cross between Chess and Poker, where the world(s) was the chessboards, the Dragon’s hoards the chips and sentient beings the playing pieces.

Not really liking to be pawns, the heroes still agreed that following Dallimothan’s cue was the best course of action.

At dusk, the PCs set up to climb the upper-city to reach the Noble Quarters where the Dallimothan Estate was. To get there they had to cross the gate of Dalengard, the old cannon-armed fortress that protected Ptolus’ upper reaches from invaders.

There, Cixi recognized some old comrades of arms she used to command in the Order of Iron Might. When the soldiers recognized her, they parted ways and saluted the party by banging their swords on their steel shields, shouting rallying war cries.

You should have seen the smile on Franky’s face… it was priceless.

The party did indeed find the gate of Dallimothan’s Estate unlocked and unguarded and they rapidly reached the Gold-Dragon shaped fountain. Nogard dipped the Dragon-Fang knife in the pool, creating a spreading glow in it.

All players jumped in and found themselves in a natural pool of freezing water inside a frigid cave that featured a silvered-haired man seated nearby, surrounded by bookcases filled with books of all kind.

“I hope that House Dallimothan was aware that you were playing in their pool” said the man without looking up from his book.

When the players responded with the usual ‘but of course you moron’ he sighed and asked if they had had the foresight of bringing a new book with them.

Thinking on his toes, Math had Aravar step forward and offer a new edition of a reference work on waging war against the Drow. The book was politely accepted.

‘Slarty’ then welcomed the group to Ysgard and confirmed that he was indeed keeping an eye on the ruined keep containing the Frost Giant Gungir and the Demon-Slaying sword.

The PCs returned to Ptolus, geared up for the cold and came back for some Frost Giant Diplomacy.

The party approached a ruined compound embedded in a rocky hill. It was guarded by a lone Frost Giant and a trio of Winter Wolves. At that point, the players had planned to negotiate for the sword (which surprised me as I was sure they’d be looking forward to attack anything).

When they tried to parlay, the Frost Giant let out a cry of anguish and anger about Gungir having been slain and launched a boulder at the PCs while the wolves eagerly attacked them.

Welcome to Ysgard, he Heroic domain where fighting is how people greet one another!

I used the Ruined tower battle map of the Frostfell Rift Fantastic Location. The fight was incredibly short, mostly because three party members are stocked up on fire magic/abilities and creatures of the cold subtype are vulnerable to that. The Winter Wolves moved in on the slowed characters (who had to walk through hip-high snow) and failed miserably to inflict damage.

Statistics aside: It rarely happens but that night was the night where my dice decided to play way below the probability curve. I missed about 80% of all my attacks in the night’s two combats.

It’s worth noting that I decided to start playing à la 4e with all diagonals only costing 1 movement square… this is so much easier! Adopted!

The PCs dispatched the Winter Wolves and moved on the Giant who was rapidly killed. Then the heroes noticed that wounds healed rapidly. In Ysgard, all living creatures gain Fast Healing 2, so some additional hacking of fallen enemies was done.

They entered the keep and found it oddly deserted.

While exploring it, they found a huge pair of doors adorned with a shield design on which a white claw was drawn. Beside that door they also found a kitchen where a grief-stricken old female Frost Giant was carving huge pieces of meat, surrounded by a gaggle of Ogres. When the party entered, all Ogres scrambled behind the Giantess.

The old Giantess was mute (having had her tongue ripped out repeatedly, as it regenerates in Ysgard, and nailed to the kitchen’s wall) but she managed to convey that she had no beef with the PCs nor that she could help them. When they asked about what happened to Gungir, the giantess let out a strangled cry and the Ogres excitedly said ‘the Dragon, the Dragon, the Dragon killed him!’

In front of the claw-decorated double doors, all players used their Oil of Elhonna (see part 1) and entered. They were met with a huge 20’X60′ corridor where floor to celling slits were found on each side spaced 5′ apart. The corridor ended in another locked double door.

Aside: This was one of the Encounter traps presented in Dungeonscape. It features a trap that has many elements that can be disabled by a rogue-like and/or destroyed by might and magic. It basically acts like a giant monster.

Smelling a rat, Inigo calmly advanced to the corridor’s middle and promptly dodged the Pendulum blade that exited one slit!

The room was now filled with 12 such blades!

Of course I went on playing abysmally bad rolls and no one was actually struck by any blades. A key was found attached to one of the pendulums. The Blade was destroyed, the key was recovered and the door was opened…

…into a huge icy cavern (I used the Frostfell Rift battle map from the D&D fantastic location series) that featured 2 billowing clouds of Chilling Fogs (which are Cone of Cold Living Spells from the Monster Manual 3) and a Huge White Dragon (I’ll add pictures soon, my wife left with the camera for a few days).

This Dragon featured a strange Aura of bluish energy (It was built with the Dragon of the Great Game template, doing away with spells and Spell Resistance in exchange for some cooler abilities). The players moved in on the fogs and dispatched both in 2 rounds.

That’s when Eric (Cruguer) made a monstrous tactical blunder. He used his boots of dimension door to land in melee range with the Huge Dragon, right before its turn.

Here’s the thing, I don’t usually go out of my way to kill PCs. I usually downplay all monsters a bit to allow players to shine with smart tactics and brilliant maneuvers. But if a PC jumps in the fire, I do not extend a net.

When the Dragon activated, the energy aura dealt Cruguer 36 points of Cold damage, no save. Then it proceeded with:

• A bite (hit)
• 2 Claw attacks (hit and hit)
• 2 Wing slams (both hit)
• 1 Tail slam (Critical hit)

Cruguer was now at -27 hit points and quite dead.

This came as quite a shock to the table and caused priorities to rearrange themselves.

The dragon used its breath weapon on all players (for a paltry 20 points of damage) making its aura disapear. Inigo and Nogard moved in while Cixi and Aravard provided artillery fire.

Then Inigo, using his spring attack feat, hit the dragon and Yan stopped his miniatures 3 squares away from the dragon.

A huge dragon that can move 1 square and make a full attack with a reach of 2 squares…

At that point, I decided, not quite consciously, to up the dragon’s overconfidence and moved 7 points of attack to damage (with the Power attack feat), bringing it’s Attack bonus from 21 to 14. I proceeded to attack Inigo and all attacks thankfully missed (Huzzah for the +5 natural armor bonus provided by the Oil of Elhonna).

Even though the dragon had fast healing and could have afforded to fight more defensively, I pressed on the attack. It was nearing 10h30 pm and people were getting tired.

Player Psychology aside: After leaving Eric to marinate about 10 minutes in his instant death, I explained to him that a pair of buxom armored maidens picked his soul up (instead of the devils he expected, given his Hellbred ‘nature’) and invited him to the nearest Heroe’s Hall. That cheered him up a bit.

A bit later, I had one of the occupants of the mead hall tell him ‘Cheer up, demon boy! Nobody can truly die in Ysgard! You’ll rise up like all of us tomorrow, ready to continue our glorious battles!’ At that point Eric was all right.

I might be taking some artistic liberties in my retelling. 🙂

The dragon was finally slain by a combination of critical hits, spells and martial maneuvers. The bonus to natural amour class that all characters had through the use of the Oil of Elhonna truly helped save the day.

The party raided the Dragon’s hoard and found the Demon slaying Sword. I can’t stat it out exactly as it’s taken from the Adventure… But I can say that it’s a magical large greatsword that is more efficient against evil outsiders, that it adds some cold damage to all hits and grants an extra cleave attack to the yielder.

Upon returning to Slarty’s cave, they found him packing his books, saying that the party ended his requirements for staying here and that he was grateful for their intervention. His role in the Great Game was to make sure that the White Dragon, a recent loser in the latest rounds , stayed there but couldn’t talk about it.

As a reward, he offered the PCs to become Exarch of the Great Game (basically Elite pawns) which they politely refused.

The party awaited the next morning and Cruger rose from the dead, fully healed and with a wistful look on his face.

Thus ended the session.

Lessons Learned

• Driving a more controlled plot can be used sparingly if the payoff for players is worth it.
• Making all monsters vulnerable to fire made the fights a bit too easy… but such combat are appreciated once in a while by players.
• Making token gestures by NPCs to acknowledge how cool the PCs are is always appreciated.

What players liked:

• The heroic feel of Ysgard and the fact that no one can die.
• The Dragon fight… people always like a Dragon fight
• Moving diagonally for 1, so simple.

What Players Disliked

• Dying… (doh!) Good thing we were on Ysgard
• Math was a bit frustrated that his arrows missed when spells were on them.

What’s next:

• The Yugoloths (which I’m making into demons as of next game) make their final move on Ptolus. I’m calling the next game ‘Knee deep in Demons’