Dungeons and Dungeons and Skeletons

and dragons

We've had two play sessions since my last D&D post. We left off having escaped from being captured, buying supplies in town, and getting in a bar fight.

We had planned with the king and queen of the castle to more or less find the secret headquarters of the evil skeleton dude cult by having one of our own get captured on purpose - the assassin - and then following him and his captors to the dungeon.

This worked out great for our DM - since we had escaped earlier when we weren't supposed to - because now he was able to use the plan he had made in the first place for the previous session. He kind of orchestrated this on purpose, since he was RPing the queen and king anyway.

We brought some invisibility potions, along with a fanciful assortment of other things, and planted our mole with some concealed tools in a poor village outside of the castle town. In the night, it was attacked by some humanoid henchmen, and after a short battle, we started to follow the prisoners and their caravan through the woods.

We got flanked by some baddies, but I snuck away to keep an eye on the caravan while the more battle-capable crushed in their skulls. After finishing the battle and following the caravan, we came to a hidden door in the face of a mountain.

roll a perception check

We used invisibility potions and my own invisibility spell to make everyone invisible - except for myself. I literally rode on the back of the half giant, holding myself up between him and his cloak, so that I would become cloaked by his cloak. When we opened the door, a small group of baddies came out of it as we hid to the sides. I tossed an alchemist's fire (basically a bomb in a bottle) out and away from us, luring them away while we sneaked into the cave so that they wouldn't accidentally bump into us or hear us.

While we were sneaking along, the recently captured prisoners - including the assassin - were taken into prison cells and shortly thereafter brought into a Colosseum where they were pitted against a lion.

typical

During the fight, he used a concealed dagger while two of the other four captured villagers used swords they were given. One of the unarmed guys died pretty immediately to the lion, while the other unarmed guy did more damage than the guys with swords. The DM's rolls for him were awesome, and he was basically punching a lion - successfully. The assassin of course did the bulk of the work, using a poisoned backstab and defeating the lion without further casualties.

As we searched through the hallways of the area looking for the assassin, we found four doors, and then further down the other end of the hallway four more doors. We spent far too much time opening and peeking into each door, eventually realizing that each of the two doors on either side of the hallway went into the same rooms. Since the doors opened inwards, we had the idea to tie the two door handles together, so the monsters inside - guards of the dungeon - wouldn't be able to open the doors. During this part of the campaign, we learned to affix "quietly and silently" to every action we said we did. It became a running joke.

basically like remembering to hit ctrl to sneak

We found cells with a large number of prisoners on one side, but headed back to other way to find only two doors across from each other. Knowing the assassin knew I had a bag of marbles, I rolled a marble under one of the doors. I asked the DM if anything happened, and he said "you hear knocking on the other side of the door and a jiggle of the handle, then it stops." Sigh.

The assassin asks "what's going on in my room?"

"You hear someone nearby knocking on a door and jiggling a handle."

Duh.

We figure he was probably behind the other door, so I rolled another marble under the other door. The assassin asks "what's happening in my room?"

"You see a marble roll under the door."

It was like a case in Phoenix Wright where you freaking know the answer, but you have to play the game AI to get it to bring you to a part where you can announce it.

courtesy of awkward zombie

I pick the lock on his door and we open it up, where he sees me, but not everyone else because they're still invisible. The other prisoners in the room don't know what to do or how to react while the assassin speaks to invisible people and disembodied voices respond to him. He asks for the half giant to give him his equipment, which he had been holding onto, and so armor, items, and weapons materialize and pour out of thin air to the assassin. We eventually explain it to the other people, and we start putting together a plan to free all the prisoners, fight the bad guys, and save the day.

In the cell had been another giant person that was supposed to become a main NPC. We used a unique miniature for him, like when you come across an NPC in a game with a unique character portrait - you know that guy is gonna be a main character.

if any of the baddies aren't named "generic thug"
make sure they don't die

The cells on the other side of the hallway were guarded by two ogres, so I use my alter self spell to look like a big dumb ogre and hatch a plan to lure them to the other hallway with all the freed dudes and the rest of our players. Me and the assassin picked the locks on the other doors, except for one where we both failed our pick lock check. We rolled strength checks, and just like the bindings in the caravan earlier, the assassin makes his four percent chance strength roll and bends the bars on the cell door. We amass our giant army and plan to head up the stairs to reclaim the evil book and save the day.

But we had to call it a night, and ended our play time there. Yesterday, we only played for a few hours, and next session should complete this particular adventure!

where hopefully we don't die

- D&D Series -

Intro.    Ch. 1    Ch. 2    Ch. 3    Ch. 4    Ch. 5