This week was a doozy, there were 9, count 'em, NINE players around my table. I usually have my DM screen and notes on a separate table that stands a little above the main table, placed at the head. This is to make sure my crap doesn't eat into player space on the table, and also the elevation is nice as I prefer to run the game standing as opposed to sitting. But this week, with nine players I needed to set up my table a good five feet away from their table, so that they could all fit around it! This was the largest group of players I have ever run for and with a few quality-of-life notes that I need to account for going forward in terms of space and seating, it was excellent.
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| Hell yeah |
So what went down?
Having paid their tithes and gotten some minor healing from the clerics, the party was ready to return to the Library of Shuga-Koth. After all, the wizard Siegfried von Vemmelmordt was still paying nicely for anyone willing to clear the place out and secure it for his research team. On the excursion we had:
Seamus the Fighter
Ivan the Fighter
Yon the Elf
Akaviri the Elf
Thargaret Matcher the Fighter
Dobias the Elf (Formerly Dobby)
Merlon the Magic-User
Corrigan the Magic-User
Bard the Cleric
The journey up-river on May 8th to the dungeon saw NO random encounters, which is a shame because we determined the previous week that these jungles are home to a territorial wereboar, and the players had diligently acquired some silver weapons in case he showed up again. In any case, they arrived at the dungeon unscathed and fresh. Prior to devling to the second level in search of treasure, they took a pit stop at the DEFINITELY NOT CURSED MIRROR, which Seamus was devastated to find painted over in Fuligin black. The mirror was wrenched from the wall and set aside to be brought back. Seamus desired nothing more than to restore the reflective surface of the mirror and see himself in it once more. Down they went to Level 2.
The second level was, like the upper level, clearly NOT abandoned. There was ample evidence of activity, including clean floors. Arriving at a room full of clearly-recently-used bunks, the party realized that some larger force was using this ancient temple as a base of operations. While poking around in this empty barracks the players got a random encounter "Heroes", unlikely given the "New World" feel but we rolled with it. A pair of fighters and a cleric from the expedition boat had evidently been poking around here after word got out that the players had found treasure. The interaction was terse, clearly neither group interested in sharing what they may or may not have found. The NPC party diplomatically indicated that they were heading up to the surface to head home, and I suspect they found something in the dark that they felt the need to resupply for. Something valuable but heavy. We'll see how things play out in the future. They did tell the players about a proper library chamber and gave directions.
The party arrived in the library chamber and it was enormous. Well over 100 feet wide and 80 feet deep, the chamber was full of high stone shelves carved from the cave itself, stuffed to the brim with ancient scrolls stored in hollow femurs. The script on these texts was swirling and serpentine, the walls adorned (like many other rooms in the dungeon) with carvings of towering snake men. And snake men did arrive, with the thorough 2-hour investigation of this chamber being interrupted by an attack from a pair of snake-headed Conjurers leading a cluster of skeleton archers and hobgoblins. Through careful use of choke-points and judicious use of flaming oil, they managed to defeat the interlopers without any casualties, though one of the wizard-cultists did ditch his flaming robe and escape. They followed his sooty footprints to a secret door.
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| I assure you what happens next was amply telegraphed |
Behind the secret door they found an opulent room, snake-themed brass décor, silk pillows, a chandelier, a hookah, and absurd quantities of treasure. This was the motherlode, over 20k value in gold pieces. But they had to get it out. The room was home to something, something that had been lurking in another part of the dungeon and been called back by the fleeing, lightly toasted cultist. The party heard, though the non-secret door to the chamber, the sound of a body dragging across flagstones. This was a sound they had heard throughout the dungeon all day, and their paranoia had them cast Hold Portal on the door. This would have bought them enough time to ditch with the goods, but they underestimated their opponent and lingered long enough for the Medusa to go all the way around and come up the hall to the secret entrance. Merlon the Magic-User was the first to notice it, managing a "Hey guys heads up there's a-" before being turned to stone.
There was a real chance that this would have been extremely bad for them, but thanks to the warning of Merlon's demise they avoided looking the creature in the eyes. Even better, Dobias had a mirror. This turn of events not only was enough to turn the Medusa to stone, it was a ringing victory of planning for Dobias' new player, who was at that moment in his second ever game of Dungeons and Dragons. The previous week, when making a character, he had elected to purchase a mirror for reasons unknown. This sort of serendipitous preparedness was immensely exciting for the whole table and would never have been possible if using some sort of quantum inventory. The party seized their treasure, including breaking off the medusa-statue's head, and set off for home. Once again no random encounters bothered them, and they were back in town by noon on the 14th. The treasure was enough to level up the whole crew, which is just as well, because by the time we game again the state of the world will be noticeably more treacherous...
The medusa encounter is also special because this is the first D&D roll ever made by one of my children, my daughter wanted to roll dice for me while stocking the dungeon level and she rolled a real nasty one. I couldn't be prouder!
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