DM Chronicles, Session 12: Blind and Bloodied Dungeon Crawling, Part 2

See part 1 here.

With two PCs either vaporized or teleported away to the gods knew where, the remaining 4 PCs (Fizban the Wizard, Naquist the Cleric, Bjerm the Fighter and Takeo the Warlord) entered the room hidden behind the black velvet curtains. They had their eyes firmly fixed on the wall ahead, were blindfolded or (in the case of Naquist) with helmet worn backwards.

It so happens that the room was furnished with several square pillars on which trapped mirrors were mounted on each face.  Each pillar had one of three group of mirrors that ‘attacked’ people gazing in them: a Draining mirror that dealt necrotic damage, a Teleporting mirror that sent the PCs to another pillar with the same type of mirrors and a trapping mirror that sent PCs to an enclosed space with no issue (The Oubliette of the Empty Mind).

Rocco the Rogue and Masaru the Warlock had been sent to the Oubliette, where a starved, insane Gnoll attacked them.  They killed it rapidly and started looking for a way out, with no success.

The four other heroes progressed in the room as best they could.  They tried to blindly attack mirrors a few time, but got a magical discharge in return, causing damage or teleporting them again near the  room’s entrance.  That strategy was soon wisely abandoned.

At the end of the room stood another dark curtain as wide as the room was.  Always careful not to trigger another mirror attack, the PCs checked behind it…

…and were attacked by 2 Boneshards skeletons (armed with a Scimitar and some long shards of bone wired to their left hand) that were guarding an altar.

Fight!

This encounter was a textbook example of making an interesting fight by adding constraints and challenges to a fight.  On the one hand, we had 2 players fighting a gnoll in an enclosed space while the rest of the party having to deal with 2 undead and the mirrors.

The  boneshard skeletons are pretty average brutes except that they explode in a burst of, yup, boneshards once ‘bloodied’ and when they are destroyed.

During the fight Naquist the cleric approached the skellies and used Turn Undead.  One skeleton was affected and ran outside the room and was pushed right in the arms of Bjerm the fighter, who had been teleported back o the room’s entrance and was running blind trying to reach the combat.

It was one of those times where forced movement delivered a monster on a silver platter.

What I forgot to do was to have the exploding skeleton’s blasts attack the nearest mirrors.  As written, they triggered against any type of target (including undead) if attacked. That would have shortened the fight some (or better yet, send a bloodied skeleton to the 2 PCs stuck in the oubliette).  I’ll know better next time.

Speaking of the 2 stuck PCs, I was worried they’d grow bored being away from the action once the gnoll was dispatched.  That’s when Eric’s Wizard, the partys instigator, examined the altar between launching 2 Magic Missiles and found a minotaur-shaped mask and a hand shaped indentation.  He put his hands on the indentation  and ‘BAMF!’ both Masaru and Rocco were transported back from the oubliette and into the room.

After encounter, the party rested for 24 hours… I also allowed the PCs to level up to 6 as everyone had reached that point after the last encounter.  The game stopped for about 20 minutes until we were ready to start again.  It was about 9h00 PM at that time and I judged that everyone looked fresh enough for another encounter.

Now during the resting period I rolled on the random event chart (the first time I did such a thing in more than 15 years).  The event I rolled was that the tortured spirit of a Minotaur priest attempted to possess one the PC with the lowest Will defense.  That happened to be the Dragonborn Warlord.  The attack was successful.  The only thing I told Mike (the warlord’s player) was “Tell me the next time you get bloodied”.

The party proceeded to explore the first westward exit from the dungeon’s central area and entered a large chamber filled with blood!

Actually, the party were standing on one of two Eastern platforms sitting over the level of blood, as was a Central 10′ wide band in the middle of the room. 4  other platforms of stone rose out of from the pools of blood.  On 2 of those stood large statues of Minotaurs yielding long, spiked whips.  On the remaining 2 platforms stood 2 pieces of a ceremonial dagger, the third object needed to access the dungeon’s Inner Sanctum.

Now, as written, the Minotaur statues activated and attacked everything in a 7 square radius burst as soon as PCs entered one of the blood pools or pick up the dagger.  The way the room was designed, you had to jump a distance of at least 15′  (a DC 15 with a 2 squares running start) three times to cross the room without touching the blood.  Quite a challenge in itself.

Looking at the statues, the group decided to attack the statue with ranged spells like Eldritch Blast and Magic Missile.  After 2 attacks on the statue, I decided to trigger them in order to make the encounter an actual challenge.  The statue swiveled 360 degrees and the whip struck most of the group, sliding at least two (the warlord and, possibly, the cleric)  in the pool of blood.

Of course, the blood was corrosive and poisonous. And as soon as the PCs were in the blood, a Carnage Demon hidden in the pool attacked!

Now we had a challenging encounter.  While the melee PCs were fighting the demon,  Rocco the Rogue leaped on the platform with the statue and started to disable it while the spellcasters continued to damage it with bolts of arcane energies. The Statues could be disabled with 4 thievery skill checks or by being dealt some 70  points of damage.  After  2 rounds, the Rogue had succeeded 3 times and the statue had suffered 40-something points of damage, so I called that it was disabled.

During the first part of the encounter, Takeo was bloodied and he informed me of his state as I asked him too.  That’s when the possessing spirit manifested itself and Takeo ran out of the pool, literally covered in blood, screaming an Oath to Baphomet (Demon Lord of minotaurs) and charged one of his friends!

Shocked, the party wasn’t sure how to react, but Takeo’s eyes cleared and the possessing spirit left his body.  Everyone focused on the more pressing dangers in the room.

Once the demon and statues were dispatched, the PCs, well outside of it’s range, destroyed the second statue (smart move).  Afterward, using 2 Tenser’s Floating Disks, the PCs jumped to the end of the room to recover the 2 pieces of the dagger.

Now, at this point it was getting kinda late and I should have spotted the tiredness of my players but I didn’t.  There were still 2 Carnage Demons hiding in the second blood pool. Seeing that no PCs seemed to be falling in it, the demons burst out of the poll and attacked.

Using hit and run tactics, I tried to hit/drag PCs in the pool.  Since the demons had regeneration and I would retreat after demons got damaged, making it hard for the PCs to spot the demons under the blood’s surface, the fight dragged on 30 minutes too long.  I somehow clung to the need to challenge the PCs to the end.  Since dropping a PC in the blood could change the direction the fight could go, I pushed passed the group’s limits.

Still the players kept focus and were resourceful.  For instance, you can break a grab by causing forced movement, which is what Fizban did with his Magic Missile that pushed the target by one square.

Eventually, at 11h30 PM, the last demon was killed and the dagger was recovered.

The players were happy but they were exhausted.  With minimal discussions, people packed up and left.  A great game, if a bit stretched at the end.

Lessons Learned

• Keep a timepiece close by when an encounter starts after 9h00 PM.  Arranged for the encounter to last no more than one hour.
• Burst attack can affect objects/traps, this can be relevant.

What Players liked

• Franky was happy that I rewarded his clever thinking and arranged for the failed Skill Challenge with the Dire Boar to be a success.
• Players were sufficiently challenged and enjoyed the rich encounter environments.

What players disliked

• The last encounter as 30 minutes too long, players ran out of gas and the mood dropped.

Next Session

• We finish the dungeon and we conclude the adventure.

Image Credit: Copyright Wizards of the Coast