New Kids on the Block

This is part of a series. Click here to go to part 1.

Calendar Start and End Date: December 26

PLAYERS

Milton Morzak, Collegiate Mage

Lorisandra - Human Cleric

Durand Marion - Human Fighter

Rusty Locke - Human Thief

Eldra - Dwarven Vaultguard

Hirelings:

Durrik the Dwarf

Dardox The Human

Farash the Torchbearer

The session began with the players creating their characters. Afterward, they met in a tavern.

Inside the dungeon, the players were very careful with how they explored. They came to grips with how time passes in the dungeon. They got very unlucky with a random encounter, fighting a very slow and dangerous gelatinous cube, which they made sure to stay well away from. Before long, they were able to kill it (with a little help from Eldra's military oil).

Discovering a storage closet full of choking dust, Rusty’s coughing alerted another party of dwarves, who were very careful and warned the players to stay away. Both parties were eager to avoid a fight. Before they slipped away, the dwarves warned the party of “great evil” in the northeastern part of the dungeon. The players promptly ignored the warning.

They discovered that the “great evil” was locked behind a heavy iron door (the Wight that had nearly killed the party in the previous session), so they went to the opposite end of the hallway and opened the door there. Inside were six black skeletons, the same ones that caused the total party kill! Lorisandra the cleric rolled a natural 20 to turn undead, but nothing happened.

A huge fight broke out. Swords were flying and things were looking very grim. Rusy Locke kicked his torchbearer and semi-adopted son Farash into two skeletons to save his own life. Farash survived the first blow, but not the second.

What followed was about forty minutes of careful fighting and positioning, and me remembering new combat rules every few turns. Fortunately, only two hirelings were killed (Dardox and Farash). Milton Morzak scored the killing blow, shooting two skeletons through the head with a single arrow.

Inside the skeleton’s room, they found a secret door behind the altar. Inside was a decent haul of silver coins and gemstone, along with a mysterious black scarab, which needs to be identified by a scholar before it could be used. (Note: This was a mistake on my part: I thought it was a magic item, but it’s something called a Scarab of Death, which has no written value or magic properties).

Behind the Screen

This session was the first with an entirely new group of people; they had no familiarity with the system or world other than the intro you can read in part 1. All of them had experience with 5e, but there was still some explaining to do. Character creation for all five players took an hour total, which ate into our precious playtime.

We got into the dungeon quickly, but an early random encounter consumed most of our table time. The players were able to come to grips with the system during that time, though I kept forgetting to explain various parts of the game, and so new rules were constantly being added. There had been a big gap between games for me, so I had to remember a lot of things.

After the game, Rusty's player told me he had grand plans for his torchbearer Farash but had to sacrifice him to survive. 

Durand Marion was playing D&D for the first time in his life. I’m not sure he enjoyed himself, as he was very sick with a cold, and jet-lagged from the East Coast. His character mostly fled, and missed every attack he attempted. It was not the best intro to the game, sadly.

Overall, it was a fun session, though it felt a little rushed. We stayed up WAY too late because we started at 8pm, didn’t have characters ready until 9pm, and the players were extremely careful and cautious. However, they made the best player map to date (I have never shown the players my map).

The journey continues in part 7.