Into the Depths

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


Calendar Start Date: March 12

Calendar End Date: March 13

Nizan - Human Mystic

Malger Zoilus, Human Thief

Bollo Bobilla - Human Fighter

Shandar Oathbringer - Elven Nightblade

Rusty Locke - Human Fighter

Regis Tomas - Human Bladedancer

Baron Dario Dauss informed the players that he was no longer able to stop the government of Adamas from sending other adventuring parties to the dungeon. However, he noted that he procured a writ of passage to the dungeon, which makes them an officially sanctioned group. The group was a little angry that their 1,000gp bribe had effectively gone to waste, but the sanction reduced the sting a bit. 

The dwarf Balfar asked the players if they would be willing to bring him along to find the remains of his comrades lost in the dungeon, but the players declined. Instead, they planned to delve deeper than ever; the second level. After checking on their investments and the progress of their guild house’s construction, the party returned to the dungeon. 

They wanted to get some information from the metal face, and so went in that direction. Listening at the door, they heard the voices of another adventuring party. Things went sideways quickly when Nizan’s honor was challenged, and what followed was a surprisingly lengthy fight. Adventurers have much better stats than giant centipedes and even black skeletons. Eventually, however, the battle was over. Two of the rival party were killed, and the other three surrendered and were robbed and released. One of these party members was a female elf, a rare sight in this world. Shandar was very curious about her. After a brief discussion in elvish, Shandar let the woman keep her possessions, and he let her take his horse to Muntburg, where he instructed her to leave his horse. Nizan recovered an intricate and likely magical belt, which he planned to identify later.

The party asked the metal face some questions about the location of the treasure in the dungeon. Someone also thought to ask how many levels there were in the dungeon, and were shaken when the answer was twelve. “Twelve levels!” Exclaimed Regis, “we’ll be playing this game for years!” They were able to obtain some directional bearings as to the location of treasure vaults on the second level. Satisfied, they headed for some previous-discovered stairs leading downward.

The stairs to the second level were very long and deep, traveling some fifty feet into the depths. The details were different here; the coarse cement and natural caverns are replaced by smooth white marble, fine statues and polished columns with religious motifs. The first room they discovered contains six pillars, each made of a different type of material, and each with a different letter carved upon it. A strange, abstract sculpture further confused the party, who didn’t know what to make of this bizarre room. Further into the dungeon, listening at another door revealed more voices, this time in an entirely different language not heard before in the dungeon. They busted down the door, surprising half a dozen hobgoblins, who died a second later. One of them surrendered and was kept alive for interrogation. He explained he was part of a scouting party sent by their King to see if the “zombie lord” had control of this area. The party showed their gratitude by killing him and taking his stuff.

The rest of the session was spent looking for secret doors and treasures and carefully mapping this new floor.

Behind the Screen

The session began with a real-world hour and a half of in-town activity. It’s gotten to where some of the players' favorite part of the game is managing their intricate plans before returning to the dungeon and getting more money. These plans include:

• Checking on the progress of the guild hideout, which is currently under construction
• Doing research in the royal library, in the forbidden section
• Finding a good group of hirelings for the week
• Shopping for better armor and weapons
• Selling magic items
• Lining up previous NPCs to come work at the hideout once completed
• Paying monthly upkeep (currently 2,024gp)

The list goes on. This type, while possibly tedious for players who are eager to jump into the dungeon, is deeply engaging for other players.

It should also be noted that Regis Tomas’ player had recently purchased a new tablet computer that came with some impressive drafting tools, so throughout this session, he was drawing the most accurate version of the map he could.

Nizan recovered a Belt of Giant Strength, which I didn’t realize was so powerful in this system. It doubles the wearer's damage and lets them throw rocks for 3d6 damage. I mistakenly thought it only maxed the character’s strength score. Because I don’t want combat to devolve into a silly joke, I worked with the player to revert the belt to the (still very powerful) level that I originally anticipated.

It's also important to note that my "open table" seems to be coalescing into a fairly normal-looking game of D&D, because the players and their characters gel quite well. However, if one player can't make it for a week, I still have the freedom to bring in someone to fill the spot. Since there is no ongoing story other than the one the players are telling themselves, drop-ins are welcome and encouraged. If I had my way, I would open a second night of the week for more players to join, but sadly, it's just not possible at this time.

 

Also note that this is the last of the campaign logs I wrote, even though we played for a total of 36 sessions. My personal notes became progressively more stripped down and minimal, until it was little more than the date and a list of players and their characters who attended that session. The rest of the happenings occurred via text message during the week, but those often went un-collected until much later, if at all.

My goal with the campaign was to have something that required no prep, and that was almost true: Instead of prep, I spent my week actually playing the game via text with players as they engaged in their private activities. Finding the time to write down the previous week's events, I discovered, was too much work for too little gain. The only regret I have is that there are many specific things that happened that won't be remembered, except as fond memories in the minds of myself and the players.

It makes me wonder about the ephemeral quality of D&D as an entertainment medium; it's a lot of time and effort to entertain only 5 or 6 people for a few hours each week. Compare that to a novel, video game or movie that takes tens of thousands of man-hours to create something that will entertain its audience for millions of man-hours. I'm still wondering about this; D&D is a more private and exclusive type of entertainment that exists only in our minds, and will never be repeated.