Sandbox game session 5

Last session was a short one. We started late (9 PM), had "chivitos" for dinner (please go and Google "chivito uruguayo") and one of the guys left early (1 AM) because he was running 6 km. that morning. We later agreed to start earlier from now on.

Back into the action. The party left the idol alone and decided to check te rest of the seven doors that were in the octogonal room. One by one Tamryn the thief looked for traps and tried picked the locks. She found no traps and in some she picked the lock but the door couldn't be opened, not even by the strngth of Kratos the fighter. A couple of doors were unlocked. One led to a room with just a bed and a chest. When Scarlett send her guard dog to sniff the bed, it animated and attacked the animal but missed. Promptly the dog retaliated and Vanon and Kratos rushed to his aid, all managing to hit the strange creature with flail, bite and sword, being the last one the most viciuos. The monster responded by lashig a pseudopod at Kratos hitting him squarely in the chest despite his new magic armor. The pseudopod tried to attach by Kratos managed to get free.

The adventurers attacked and all hit again, and again Kratos blow was the most devastating. The creature retaliated with another pseudopod attack at Kratos that send the fighter down. Brom the ranger and Tamryn that were searching another door came back, and Brom threw his spear at the creature missing. The creature tried to flee but flail, bite and arrow finally killed it. Tamryn rushed at Kratos, took off his chest plate and bind his broken ribs the best she could. Since Vanon had no spell left to cure Kratos, the group then prepared to sleep in that room. When they were at it Tamryn decided to check the chest for traps but find nothing, so she proceeded to pick the lock. While doing so (and after a 100% roll) a cloud of gas poured from the keyhole and Tamryn dropped unconcious. The rest of the party fled the in panic and waited for the cloud to dissipate. Vanon then checked on the thief and made sure she was not dead but deeply asleep.

Meanwhile in the woods Phillipe the hireling, who was guarding the cart and horses, heard some growls and steps from the shadows beyond the fire. A lonely dire wolf came into sight. He took his sword and faced the best, who surprised with his reaction fled (failed morale check).

The party rested several hours without any incident and Vanon was able then to cure Kratos, who though in pain was able to carry on. The group focused on the other unlocked door which had a table, a chair, bookshelf and a torch with a blue-greenish flame. Scarlett went for the fancy torch and when she tried to grab it everything in the room vanished and two levers appeared where the bookshelf was. Everyone left the room while Vanon figured what the levers did. Meanwhile Tamryn checked the last door and found a trap on the handle: when turned the floor in front of the door opened into a dark pit.

Vanon played with the levers back and forth for some time until at some point the room went completely dark and a scream was heard. The group went a bit crazy but after checking everyone was all right decided to explore more the room. They wondered if the levers opened some hidden door when the dark was on or unlocked some of the doors they couldn't opened. They set to that task (to my amusement) but got frustrated as they found their assumptions were wrong.

At that point we called it a game and spend the rest of the night talking about life. The idol still has its ruby eyes...

Maure Castle game session 2

Two Fridays ago we had our second session of the new Maure Castle campaign but I forgot to write what happened on it.

This session one of the players couldn't be present due to a flu-like feeling, but we managed everything for him to play via Skype. Everyone wanted to see his new character, Kamar the Kensai, in action and it wasn't going to be the same without him playing it. An now into the action...

The party decided not to try to get past the red Guardian Shield and headed back to the stairs that lead to the "Chambers of Antiquities". While passing through the massive chamber of the columns of faces and symbols, they were attacked by a maurid roper. Kamar and Inowe were surprised by the camouflaged creature, but Denar and Quinath reacted quickly enough, casting magic missle and spiritual weapon (the first passed the SR, the second didn't), before the monster lashed its tentacles to them. The tentacles grabbed both Denar and Kamar who overcame its weakening touch, but missed Quinath and Inowe who quickly attacked the tentacles severing them. Kamar, now free, charged at the creature and landed a gruesome hit with his two-handed bastard sword. The creature, to everyone's astonishment, produced new tentacles to replace the severed ones and lashed all of them to Kamar, weakening him and rendering almost immobile. Denar atacked the creature, while Quinath and Inowe freed Kamar again, who concentrated and focused on his inner self (Power Surge) and landed another terrible blow on the maurid roper. After that hit the creature was doomed and was quickly defeated.

Everyone was gladly surprised by the kensai's abilities and carried on. After passing the gray Guardian Shield, going up some stairs and following a long empty corridor, a wide flight of stairs led them to a huge chamber lit by some torches that cast eerie shadows. (The players had a map of the place but didn't remember some details about some things that were annotated on it. And I didn`t refresh their memory either... I wanted to see how thing went.) Quinath decided to explore the "M" symbols engraved on the floor (they we actually Symbols Of ...) surrounded by bookshelves. Although he resisted the effects of the symbols, upon entering the area the rest of the party saw how the gargantuan iron seven-headed hydra, that was resting on an altar in the center of the chamber, animated itself and begun moving towards them!

The group promptly fled the chamber (under the cover of a fog cloud cast by Quinath) as the hydra closed in and reached the stairs but didn't followed them. They waited for some time before looking if the hydra was still there. And it was. Seeing this Denar decided to attack the iron construct with a wave of green slime. I ruled that the slime ate the hydra's metal legs but was destroyed when the incandescent belly of the construct touched it. Since the hydra didn't spot the cleric he was out of sight before it could attack back.

With the hydra unable to move Denar tried another attack on it. This time he went with a blade barrier, but the spell failed and this time the construct did saw him. One head shot a line of cold that hit the cleric taking away almost half of his hit poins and rendering him all numb. Then another head shot a bolt of lightning capturing the cleric in a cage of lightning that kept damaging him. Inowe tried to pull the lightning bars appart only to receive a discharge. She then decided to use her abundant step ability (dimension door) and succesfully freed Denar from his prision. After that the cleric proceeded tu heal himself.

We all enjoyed the session very much because it had a lot of action.

Until next session!

Great chance to stock up on books!

I just successfully used "FALLREADS" coupon on Lulu.com for 40% off (up to $20 max - until October 15, 2010) on "Stonehell Dungeon" by Michael Curtis, Fight On! #1 and "Original Edition Characters" by Goblinoid Games.

You can check the full list of Lulu.com coupon codes here.

Seeking advice

I must say I've always wanted to use the idol on the cover of the AD&D 1e Players Handbook in a campaign. The current sandbox campaign in Blackmoor provided me with the perfect excuse. I'm using a slightly modified version of The Hidden Serpent from Faster Monkey Games where the party is trying to recover a stolen statue (you can read Grognardia's review here).

So, as I commented here something may happen when the PCs try to take the ruby eyes from the idol's statue. It was something commented by Tamryn the thief but the group hasn't decided on the matter yet. They'll probably do so next session.

I'd like to ask my fellow gamers for ideas about what could happen if they remove those rubies...

Read An RPG Book in Public Week

Just a quick reminder that we're in the last "Read An RPG Book in Public Week" of the year. A curious event to promote the hobby.