Encounters of games past...

I was thinking up new encounters with my new group when I started reminiscing about old encounters that were fun for both the players and me, the DM.   I think I might start a whole new feature here.  Here's one such encounter that wasn't particularly fun for either...

The part was sitting in a tavern looking for something to do, they were perusing the "Bulletin Board" that was up in the tavern.  Great leads always came from there.   I had made an actual bulletin board with post it notes for my tavern.  Each post-it had an adventure hook on it.  It helped the players to feel like they were choosing their adventure path.

They picked one that looked like a simple escort job.  Help a wounded man bring his dead adventuring friends back from the cavern they were exploring.  Simple job.  But things were wrong from the beginning.

The ride to the cavern was about a day's ride.  I gave the group ample time to ask questions to the survivor about the place, in hopes to prepare them for the coming battles.  They never once talked to him.  Bad Move #1

Ok so going into a dungeon without ANY knowledge of what to expect, is never good, but it does happen.  it's like being given a book you've never read and told to write an essay on it.  AND you're given a day locked in a room with said book and nothing else to do.  AND you never actually read the book and then have to still write the essay about it.. AND you CAN read.  sheeze.  Let me force feed that carrot...

They went into the dungeon.  first room i described like this:   You see a large 50ft by 50ft room and there seems to be two sleeping cats in the center of the room.  they have 6 legs and tentacles coming out of their backs.

The group brings out the bows and starts firing into the cats. THUNK!  THUNK!.  They cat's don't move.  In fact, they don't respond to the attacks.   Looking closer, you see they are already dead.   Yea, the other party already cleared this room.   Still the group doesn't go back and talk to the survivor that stayed with the carts because he didn't want to go back in there because of what killed the group.  Did they ask him what killed the group?  NO!  Bad Move #2

So they continue.  they get to a room that has a large black pool in the middle of it.  they immediately know it's a black pudding and move in to fight it.  STAB!  MAGIC MISSILE!  no reaction here either.   Yea, it's also dead already.  So..  two rooms and the party's guard is dropping faster than a virgin's panties on prom night.

Next room, looks clear.  the elf walks straight across the room.   odd thing is, the dust was never disturbed here.  Green slime drips onto him.  party takes a good beating from the green slime, and the elf lost a good deal of Constitution.  Luckilly they had some healing wit them to heal the elf.   they decided to take a different route than the one the original party did.  They encountered a room barred shut with a wooden door.  they eventually got it open and found lots of treasure piled up in there.  Since it was too much to deal with, they decided to leave it and come back to it after recovering the corpses.  Bad Move #3

The continued along, fining no resistance from anything else.  They entered the final room of the dungeon and saw three dead bodies in the room.  the mage sees them and immediately, I said... IMMEDIATELY walks in to get to one of the corpses.  FINAL BAD MOVE.

Once the mage got inside, he could not lift the corpse, being a weak mage after all.  so the  fighter goes in to help.  The fighter actually at this point, looks up/dowm/all around.   That's when he notices that the ceiling is 50 foot high.  very odd when the rest of the place was only 10 foot high, but this one room was 50.  Odd.  he reaches the corpse and all hell breaks loose.

A huge Earth Elemental puts a hand up n front of the doorway and he "climbs" out of the floor.  standing at about 35ft high and 25 wide, he pretty much engulfs the room, blocking the mage and the fighter from any possible escape.  The other two characters are out in the hall.

The battle ensues.  the mage casting fireball on the elementals head.  he gets a fist to the chest that renders him unconscious. I could have remembered that the elemental's strength was higher than it was and it would have killed the mage.  but I left it at unconscious.   The fighter hacking away at the knees of old Earthy.  The elf ranger firing his bow from the hallway.  the elf monk, whose constitution was much better at this point, kicking and punching.

The elemental punches the fighter and knocks him back.  The elemental moves a little bit away from the door to continue the onslaught of the fighter and this allows the monk to get into the room.   The elf, still inside the reach of the elemental, fires off a crit shot to the thing, then ducks behind the wall.

I remember that earth elementals can "see" people standing on the ground, give a punch through the wall to the elf ranger.  He hits and promptly places the body of the ranger between his fist and the opposite wall of the corridor.  A wet gooey mass flops to the ground.  Dead.

The human fighter and elf monk fight the elemental, with the fighter going over to shove a healing potion down the mage's throat.  doing so allowed the mage to get up and start casting spells on the elemental.   the three kill it and all is well.  they pick up their fallen comrade and the corpses of those they were sent to retrieve and take them back to the cart.

Remembering the treasure they found, they head back there.  Only to find two rust monsters finishing off the last pile of gold and items....


Yea, I'm evil ain't I?

We be Goblins....

Ok, so my adventure has taken a turn into the swampy Marsh Woods.  I wanted to have some encounters there that were perfect for a swamp.   Well, I found the perfect race for the swamp.

Pathfinder came out with their version of a Goblin.  it's a different look than the WOTC goblin, so therefore I really can't mix-n-match them.  BUT, I decided to call the pathfinder version.... Swamp Goblins.  this because of their rounded heads and large toothy mouths.  Here is what one looks like:

They kinda remind me of Spike from the Gremlins movie.

So, here is my goblin tribe, ready to interact with the party.  But will it be friendly, or will it be hostile...  I guess it depends on who swings first...  if there is provocation, or not...

Adventure on the high seas!

Yep, the party finally got back together after several months of other commitments forcing the group to not play D&D...

We skip ahead where the party was thrown in jail for the burning down of a small town, one that they last visited for adventures.  They eventually found out that they didn't do it.  it was their companion.... Richard.

Yes, THAT Richard.

I included him a while back as a bit of comedy relief for the group.  Turns out, he's quite fun.  Well, he sent the group on thier next quest.  the "Quest for the Jade Skull"...  He said that and waited with dramatic pause for the music to play.  He repeated the statement and waited again.  He pulled a character to the side and said it a third time, this time he made the music himself...  "Dun. Dun. Duuuuuuunnnnn...."

It's rumored to be a skull made entierly of Green Jade.  it's large and in the Decaying Mountains.  Well, the party has to get three, get the skull and come back.  Too bad it's full of poison clouds and Acid rain.

Well the group had to travel the high seas to get there.  Ok, actually, just travel on a boat across the river to a port to get there.  but the port is about 200 miles away and would take two days to get there.   You can Ask the fighter if he's got his sea legs... and if he likes water.  AND if he'll wear his full plate armor while travelling by boat.

Oh and bar fights are always fun.  Ask the fighter about that too.  Crit mug to the HEAD!

Awesome Plot Twist... Or was it?

I just thought of this for my group... however, since I thought of it, and it's really cool, I also decided NOT to implement it..

Too bad it was all a dream and you are all chained up on a wall with a Mind Flayer sucking your memories out.  What you encountered was a fragment of a memory from the past when you were more experienced.  Since he's been sucking memories, you've all dropped to 1st level.  and can now go through your lives all over again, making different choices along the way...

Hence it was all a dream...

Or was it?

Rusty...

My second DM session went well.  Except the mapping.  I'm still rusty on things.  I had enough written to fill the night.  But the placing of the tiles was very time consuming.  The players were restless while I searched for the right tile.  Kinda sucked.  I'll be better next session.

But since the 1st lvl group just ended the night after meeting a "large" black dragon, a CR9 creature, it could have gone differently. But they were tasked to get her child back.  What started it all was the fact that they attacked a couple of kobolds they thought were trying to kill a baby black dragon, who were in fact trying to corral it to bring it home.

Looking For Group: Slaughter Your World

Enough Said....

Ok, maybe not.  Howabout a kickstarter for the next musical short?

This is War:  A LFG Musical Short

This is for when they make thier movie!

Capt'n Crunch Time...

It invariably happens.  When I'm DM, I usually draw a blank for the adventure until about a week before it takes place.  THEN the ideas hit.  and they hit with such force it knocks me down and I take 1d6 damage.

Ok, it doesn't hit THAT hard.  but the ideas, once flowing continue until I've got an adventure suitable for 6 players...  Sometimes I need visual clues to prompt me some more on ideas for this room or that.  Sometimes more sterner methods are in order.

Once it's woven, it'll be a good tale...  unless the players go off on a tangent not prepared for....  which they always do...

Richard....

I posted earlier about Richard joining my group in Valla Morr, my campaign world.  We'll, here he is in miniature format..

Base figure is Piazo's "Denizen of Leng" figure.  Modifications are removal of the pony tail, crown, and a new paint job.  Its not the best, but it works.

Check out the antics of Richard here:  

Valla Morr

OK, so my group wants me to DM.  I've dusted off the old campaign world of Valla Morr.  I've talked about that place already.  Hextor rules, elves as slaves, etc.etc.

The group wants to run as if their characters are not privy to the info that hextor is evil and needs to be overthrown.  So a quandary takes hold.  Eventually they will learn this, but I need to create adventures with evil and hextorian based in mind.

I've got tiles, I've got maps,  I went through my minis and trimmed down what I would take along to the game.  Now, for the adventure.  We've got many ideas swimming around my head.  I do know that the group is not a mystery solving group.  They are definitely NOT Mystery Inc.   Hack-n-slash and a bit of political intrigue is about right.  A good dose of RP to sweeten the plot, and toss in a curve ball once in a while and wha-la, game on.

We'll see if my dungeon mastering skills have faded or not...