The ecology of the dungeon is probably the hardest thing I've been trying to figure out. On one hand, I want things to make sense in world;
Not happening in a typical multiple-layers-of-caves dungeon.
Reality: the primary energy (sometimes known as food) source is OUTSIDE.
The grizzly bears are IN THE ENTRANCE, close to the energy source.
Behind the grizzly bears are RATS.
Behind them are COCKROACHES.
There may or may not be bats on the ceiling above the rats and cockroaches. If there are, then there are more cockroaches and fewer rats.
But practically every dungeon crawl in a million universes has easy monsters at the entrance; the deeper into it you go - the further from the energy source and thus the less desirable the location - the nastier the monster.
That makes sense with a few sorts of monsters - rust monsters who happen upon a seam of iron ore, for example, or demons who don't need to eat - but in general it does not.
Now when there is an organization controlling essentially the entire dungeon (as is the case when, for example, a castle is first built), that is a different situation. Deeper into the dungeon is better defensively, so more desirable - and the top monster commands lesser monsters to bring him food, so not being close to the entrance is not a big deal.
"The world does not work the way you have been taught it does. We are not real as such; we exist within The Story. Unfortunately for you, you have inherited a condition from your mother known as Primary Protagonist Syndrome, which means The Story is interested in you. It will find you, and if you are not ready for the narrative strands it will throw at you..." - from Footloose
So we had our third session tonight. Whereas the last two saw my dice luck being quite hot, it was time for my players to have the hot hand. Many crits and tremendous burst damage in the first round meant they mowed through every single encounter. It didn't matter how my dice were rolling, since they dropped almost every enemy before they could act. They had a blast, of course.
I think that's a good point about the mechanical trap. I'll have to think about how to use it. I've thought about the dungeon summoning monsters within a time period of others' deaths, so it's a constantly repopulated environment. Which seems oddly helllike for the monsters.
I'm excited to see the full writeup!
"What's stupid is when people decide that X is true - even when it is demonstrable untrue or 100% against what we've said - and run around complaining about that. That's just a breakdown of basic human reasoning." -Mike Mearls
We sat down at the table one short; Mink the monk's player was missing. But we decided to play anyway; we'd just have Mink hanging out at the back of the party, "fighting some additional bad guys". An easy way to handle his absence without having to run his character.
The first order of business was to clear out the rest of the kobold lair. The party had only two areas left to check; a large barred door in the middle of the kobold complex had some threatening noises from behind it, while the underground lake (which had the snakes in it) was still mostly unexplored. Dealing with the barred door first, they quickly discovered an ogre locked away, with a healthy pile of well-gnawed adventurer bones. The PCs had the jump on him, and destroyed the ogre before he had a turn. Some good, hefty damage rolls really helped take him down fast.
Under the hood: Not much to say about this one. The PCs were smart; they unbarred the door stealthily, then gained a surprise round. The ogre rolled low on initiative. So all four PCs plus their NPC got in an attack, then three more attacks occurred before the ogre would have a chance to fight. He's got a lot of HP, but not THAT much HP.
Some loot was had, including a dead wizard's spellbook. I'm using an old rule from earlier editions, where the wizard doesn't automatically get spells when she levels up. Instead, she has to find a wizard who knows the spell, or find it in a book. Making spells a treasure or quest item can make for some great adventuring.
The PCs poked around at the lake, finding a couple of treasures underwater, and they quickly dispatched a bunch of non-aggressive fire beetles. Feeling mighty good about themselves, they decided they would be best served to explore some of the other wings of the dungeon. They jammed a broken pillar into the kobold escape chute (which led to a lower level), and then made their way out into the central cave.
The cave offered an opportunity to meet the other adventuring party who had taken the delve, entering at the same time they did. Marissa Cairn, a lady warrior in blue was sitting at a fire, cooking some giant beetle with her two surviving men-at-arms. They told the PCs they'd attempted to raid a place called the Hall of Bells on the second floor, but the undead had slain two of theirs. Marissa provided the PCs with some information on the other wings, so the characters made some decisions. They decided to attempt the goblin caves first, then to explore Refuge.
The Goblins
The big defensive feature of the goblin caves is a twenty foot chasm. The far side offers cover for goblins; they post a sentry there, who alerts the others if anyone's coming. The walls are covered in thick foliage, which allows someone to climb along them. But Brelf didn't require it; with Rosco Tealeaf on his shoulders, he made a jump, and with his 18 strength, he covered 18 of 20 feet. He grabbed the far edge with his arms, and used his second action to pull himself up and take cover. Rosco slipped around the cover and spotted the goblin sentry, who he quickly shanked.
The sentry hadn't had a chance to sound the alarm.
The party then ambushed a goblin patrol, then ambushed a scout sent to check on the noise. Then they forayed deeper into the cavern complex.
There was a lot of activity from the goblins; moving feet, barked orders. But the goblins wanted no part of a fight. They asked to parley, and two of the PCs met with Rax, the bugbear who leads the goblins. The PCs noticed that many of the goblin warriors bore wounds from an earlier fight; the bugbear confirmed that a couple of adventurers had been through recently. He offered to pay them to leave them alone. They accepted his terms, and about 250 gp richer, left the goblins alone. Perhaps the most surprising part was that Mariele offered to heal the goblins. When Rax declined, suggesting it would look weak, she left him a healer's kit. The gesture actually moved Rax; in the future, the bugbear may be more of an ally than he would've been otherwise.
To Refuge!
Well, not quite. The party went into the wing of the dungeon that held Refuge, the bandit town. But they were sidetracked. The entrance to that wing passes through a library, which is entirely picked clean except for one book, sitting on a conspicuous pedestal. Correctly realizing it was trapped, they decided to investigate; the book was a very fine spellbook, after all. They determined that the pedestal itself was alive; it was, in fact, a gargoyle. Standing back, the PCs decided to attack. The casters managed to inflict some damage as it emerged, and then the warriors promptly dealt with it.
Under the hood: A gargoyle is a level 5 monster worth 320 xp. On its own, it should constitute a tough encounter for a 2nd level party of four (280 xp would be the usual budget). Accounting for Drekkis the NPC, the encounter should be really challenging. It began with a roll of initiative and a surprise round. I decided that the gargoyle would have DR of 10 while in stone form (particularly since its body was largely out of view, only its arms were visible). Two arrows struck it, but failed to do enough damage (since gargoyles are resistant to non-magical attacks). The two casters, however, readied actions to blast it when it revealed itself. When its initiative count came up, the gargoyle burst into view, and was blasted for 21 damage between the pair. Gargoyles only have 34 hit points. It made one attack on Brelf and missed it. Then all the PCs smashed it to dust.
They claimed the spellbook, and set about exploring the rest of the wing. There was a section that led off towards Refuge which they ignored, then a section which housed some undead. A wight made a lair here, with six zombies accompanying it. The undead commander issued a warning not to tresspass, and the party decided to destroy said undead monstrosity. And they did.
Under the hood: One Wight, Six Zombies is 420 xp. The encounter should have been a real challenge, but here's what happened instead. First, the mage won the initiative. She stepped forward and used ray of frost on the wight. She rolled a critical hit, and dealt 21 damage. Now at 6 hit points remaining, the wight had lower hit points than the zombies (who had 7). The cleric went next; she stepped forward and turned undead. She didn't roll enough to destroy any, but she had enough points to affect the undead. And since it affects undead based on hit points remaining, the wight was immediately forced to flee for a minute. Six zombies didn't stand much of a chance without their leader.
Examining the wight revealed that his armor would probably fetch a good price based on the amount of metal alone, so they decided to start removing it from him. Drawn by the sounds of battle, an ankheg began to burrow towards the party; the rogue heard it, so he ushered the party into the hallway, dragging the wight's corpse with them. Dragging the corpse wasn't helping matters any, and the brute burrowed up beneath the fighter. Brelf made his dexterity save, and was able to step back to safety. They battled the ankheg, who spit acid at the party, scoring the only real damage all day. Then they took the beast down, and cut it open to find a trove of swallowed gems.
Under the hood: The ankheg was one of my medium encounters on the random encounter chart, worth 210 xp. His breath weapon actually hit most of the party, and dealt the only damage most party members took all night. And since the DC on the save is 9, everyone made it, taking only 4 acid damage. The creature has an AC of 18, which every single attack managed to hit. It wasn't that the AC was poor, but my party's dice luck was incredible.
Satisfied with their victory, the adventurers decided to check out the other passage before venturing to Refuge. They explored a few tunnels with some portcullis traps, and found a puzzle door which required an INT check to pass by. They made that, and discovered an alchemist's laboratory, long abandoned, but with plenty of valuable tomes on science and the like. Also, they found some potions, and a the wire-connected skeleton of Hawthorne the Rat, the previous tenant's familiar. Hawthorne's story was carved all over his bones in arcane runes.
After some looting, the party found another room with some sarcophagi. Naturally, they decided to open one, and they found the bones of a dead tenant swimming in a gray ooze. The puddle attacked, and three monstrous centipedes emerged from a small crack to join the fight! The party made short work of them.
Under the hood: Gray Ooze is 150 xp, and I had 3 giant centipedes for a total of 180 xp. So this was meant to be an average fight. Surprisingly, it lasted the longest out of any of the fights, mostly because the PCs didn't want to hit the ooze with weapons (after the NPC got his greatsword damaged). Still, the magic was effective, and the warriors dealt with the centipedes with their usual efficiency. Ultimately, the ooze was slain on an opportunity attack, as it tried to get at the softer, magical targets. The fight may have reached the third round.
At this point, we wrapped up, with the PCs debating whether to return to town with their treasures (and earn some bracelets from the Church), or to investigate Refuge first. Either way, it should be an excellent session next Tuesday!
Observations
When PCs go on a dice rolling hot streak... wow. It wasn't that my dice were cold, my monsters didn't get a chance to act. None of the fights lasted more than 3 rounds.
D&D Next moves FAST. We got through 5 significant fights (the ogre, the goblins, the wight and zombies, the ankheg, the ooze), had plenty of exploration (they explored two wings of the dungeon), and had some roleplay encounters as well. All this in a four hour session. I nearly ran out of prepared material!
When PCs go on a dice rolling hot streak... wow. It wasn't that my dice were cold, my monsters didn't get a chance to act. None of the fights lasted more than 3 rounds.
D&D Next moves FAST. We got through 5 significant fights (the ogre, the goblins, the wight and zombies, the ankheg, the ooze), had plenty of exploration (they explored two wings of the dungeon), and had some roleplay encounters as well. All this in a four hour session. I nearly ran out of prepared material!
Another great read, MortalPlague.
I love your idea about the wizard's spell acquisition it makes much more sense, and adds a lot to the game.
From your experience, and from mine, it looks like area attacks like the acid spray are really much more dangerous than usual melee attacks. Last night, I played my first character in ages (since I dm mostly). I made a halfling rogue to play one encounter in another group. I had a great time, but in the first encounter, our party faced some kind of swamp drake accompanied by 4 kobolds. The swamp drake got the jump on us, and was able to spray acid all over us. My first saving throw as a player (probably the first time I played in over 6 years) was a "1". My little halfling went down as the acid burned him to unconsciousness. Only the cleric of our party saved, so everyone else took full damage. Luckily we had 3 fighters and a cleric, so the fighters were able to clean up, and the cleric got me up next round.
Save for half damage is pretty nice. I mean, as a dm tool. I just threw a small hive of ankhegs at my PCs today (writeup forthcoming at some point). That acid felt like a reasonable way to ping away the hp resource (party was level 5 by this point).
As for your dungeon... nice. The bugbear negotiations sound like character building rp. The combat sounds fun and fast! Speaking of which, D&DN keeps surprising me by how much we can get through in so little time. Do you ever try to imagine how much time a session would've taken in another edition?
"What's stupid is when people decide that X is true - even when it is demonstrable untrue or 100% against what we've said - and run around complaining about that. That's just a breakdown of basic human reasoning." -Mike Mearls
My first saving throw as a player (probably the first time I played in over 6 years) was a "1". My little halfling went down as the acid burned him to unconsciousness.
Lol... Oh man, bad luck. In my buddy's first 4th Edition game, I rolled up a warlord who died in a bar fight, failing all three death saves. It was a really ignoble death in a fight that simply spiralled out of control due to us not wearing armor in the tavern (he just hadn't considered that), and us rolling poorly (particularly me on death saves).
Save for half damage is pretty nice. I mean, as a dm tool. I just threw a small hive of ankhegs at my PCs today (writeup forthcoming at some point).
Yes, I'm planning to use it a little more often in the future. I have some traps set up in the orc area that are acid blast traps. The fun part is the PCs can take over the triggers, and use them against the orcs (or both parties).
...D&DN keeps surprising me by how much we can get through in so little time. Do you ever try to imagine how much time a session would've taken in another edition?
Always. The last session would've been three whole sessions in 4th Edition. Although the fights would have been tougher.
I'm really excited to see what happens next session (tomorrow). The players are debating out of game whether to return to town now, or to hold out for six more days in the dungeon so the river is stopped once more, and they can carry all these valuable books out. If they go back to town, then I get to introduce all sorts of new happenings; they'll probably get bracelets, which will draw in the noble patrons who might want to sponsor them (or at least have a chat with them). Also, they'll suddenly be big fish in the pond. It should be a lot of fun to see how they react to the newfound attention from other social circles.
The characters made the decision to hold onto the books and wait out the six days in the dungeon. They figured that if they were going to haul back some treasure, they might as well make it a truly momentous haul! So in addition to the various gems and coins and potions they'd acquired, and the collection of books, they decided to take a pair of 500 pound marble statues.
The first order of business was to explore the last wing on the first level. Our heroes had destroyed the kobolds and plundered their section thoroughly. Then they had battled the goblins, reaching an understanding with Rax, their bugbear leader. Thirdly, they explored the side where the bandit town of Refuge was located, defeating all the undead who lurked in the halls nearby (though not actually visiting the town itself). The last, they had been told was empty; picked clean by previous adventuring groups. But Marissa Cairn, a fellow adventurer they'd crossed paths with earlier, had said she was headed there to see if anything had been missed.
In the interests of thoroughness, they set off to see what there was to see. The empty area was, indeed, empty. I hadn't even drawn a map for it, it was simply a collection of thoroughly-plundered lairs. All except for one section, towards the back; a gloomy pool in a cavern, with an island at the far side. And there, on the shore, looking terrified, was Marissa Cairn. Minus her pair of bodyguards.
They found out that her bodyguards had been eaten by some sort of monster in the lake, when they tried to cross and claim the treasure from the island. And, through some trial and error, they discovered that this thing was a blind creature with tentacles and one big mouth (think the Watcher in the Water from Lord of the Rings). Brelf, being a guide by background, decided that since they were spending six days here, he would attempt to condition the beast to fear attacking the surface. With the use of a hunting trap on a chain, he would bait the thing into setting off the trap, then haul it back up. If the tentacle was still caught, it would be hit by missile fire.
Since the party had holed up in a relatively safe area, the chance for encounters was low. Over the span of six days, there were two. The first encounter was at night on the third day, when a ghoul and a pack of skeletons happened to smell the tasty flesh. A relatively tough encounter, the two sides had a standoff at first. But as the skeletons advanced, the party sprang into action. The cleric went first, but unfortunately, her attempt to turn undead failed to yield any result (a really poor dice roll). The mage had better luck; Estel strode forward and blasted several skeletons back with thunderwave, dealing significant damage to three. Rosco's sling stone was tremendously effective, taking down another skeleton. At Brelf's direction, Drekkis, the NPC warrior stepped forward to chop down another skeleton with his greatsword. Unfortunately, that left Brelf without a target in reach, so he stepped up beside Drekkis, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the big warrior, ready to strike any skeleton that closed.
Sure enough, the skeletons closed. Brelf missed his attack, while the skeletons both failed to strike Brelf and Drekkis. The last skeletons were stuck behind the line of combat without a ranged weapon, as was the ghoul. The ghoul hissed and took cover behind a corner, while the last two skeletons waited to shuffle up.
The next round of attacks was more successful for the party. Handmaiden Mariele wielded Pelor's holy light with much greater success; she hit the ghoul with lance of faith, dealing 12 damage. That put the creature into bloodied territory. Then Estel acted, taking down a skeleton with a ray of frost. Rosco's sling did its work once more, and then Drekkis carved up another skeleton. That left one skeleton, and a badly wounded ghoul. Brelf stepped in and handily cut down the ghoul, and the skeleton was taken down by Marissa Cairn, the other NPC.
Under the hood: This was the second-toughest random encounter on my list, clocking in at 420 xp. 280 xp is supposed to be a tough encounter for a 2nd level party. The PCs had several advantages; they had the initiative, and they had a bottleneck. Being able to limit their incoming attacks was a big factor. Also, my skeletons didn't have bows, which their stat block entitles them to, so the xp perhaps ought to have been a little less, but I wanted to get them up to 3rd level, so I didn't nerf it. Furthermore, the ghoul was stuck at the back of the fight; I really should've given him superior cover from the corner, but I only granted him regular cover; every attack hit him. Still, the positioning was mostly to blame for the lack of challenge.
The PCs were 20 xp short of 3rd level, so I gave them each 25 for their training of the sea monster. They levelled at the end of their extended rest.
On the fourth night, during the first watch, there was another encounter with wandering monsters. A pair of orcs, on the hunt for adventurers to enslave, carrying three goblin gladiator-slaves with them, came wandering down the corridors. The orcs were laughing and joking and not being quiet in any way, so they were easily detected. Furthermore, the PCs were quiet in their preparations, and managed to surprise the orcs as they came around the corner.
We didn't even bother rolling out the combat. They took down the orcs, then took the goblin prisoners. One of the goblins spoke a little common, and he pleaded for their lives. There was a debate between Brelf, who wanted to kill them, and Handmaiden Mariele, who wanted mercy. Eventually, they agreed grudingly to let the goblins live, but they would bring them to the surface instead of turning them loose. Brelf did not want them to join with the other goblins, where they would then kill more hapless adventurers.
On the fifth day, the party began to move their treasure up to the dungeon entry. Parade Day was tomorrow, which meant the waters would be stopped, and they could march out in triumph. They piled the treasure on the beach, including their pair of marble statues, and they waited. During the night, a dwarf from Refuge exchanged some words from a distance, promising them work if they ever stopped by. Other than that, the evening passed without event. And then with the dawn, the river was stopped.
Our heroes met another band, made up of mercenaries, making their way inside. There was an exchange of boasting, but they were headed in opposite directions, so they took their leave. Commander Fang was surprised and impressed to see the party, and he offered some of his soldiers to help carry the statues (and offer gladly taken). With a great deal of wealth, they returned to town and earned their bracelets.
Drekkis took his leave, heading off to drink and woo some ladies with hiw new bracelet. Furthermore, Rosco Tealeaf, the halfling rogue, announced that he was through with this place. But he knew a guy who could step in to fill his shoes; an elf fighter with some thieving skill. And so, after splitting the treasure, he went off to happier paths.
The party spent a day or two in town. Some messages came in from friends of the characters (I had typed up letters for the other three, furthering some background details). Both Brelf and the new elf fighter (his name escapes me at the moment) purchased Displacer Beast Hide Armor, and borrowing a few gold pieces from Mariele, they masterworked their weapons. With a bracelet, they were also entitled to purchase the services of some more serious mercenaries at the Grey Company; Brelf investigated, seeing if any were worth their salt. Estel sold the statues to a sculptor.
Onwards and Upwards
With the bracelets came the notice of important parties. The characters were invited to a dinner with The Ivory Lady, a noble patron, who offered them a quest. Deep in the dungeon, in the haunted Hall of Bells, a mummy known as Queen Teera wore a priceless necklace, which the lady greatly desired. She sought adventurers who would accompany her in her mission to retrieve it. Offering two hundred gold to each party immediately, and five hundred upon a safe return, the offer was simply too good to pass up. Despite having to accept The Ivory Lady as the leader of the expedition, the heroes agreed to the task.
Furthermore, the party was approached by Commander Fang of the White Guards. He told them of a bandit queen who has been striking the food caravans coming to town. Reputed to be a lady of great charm, Illantha Fane is a serious danger to the town of Fortune. Since they had a few days to wait till the next Parade Day, when they could head for the Hall of Bells, they accepted the task. As they set out to track down the bandit queen, we wrapped the session.
Observations:
We didn't get as much done in the session as I'd have liked, but in the end, splitting treasure is always a long process, no matter the edition.
The gold from two levels of adventuring, after being split five ways, was not quite enough for masterwork weapon and an armor upgrade. I like that. Two characters managed it, by borrowing money from the casters (which they were then able to repay with the 200 from their new patron).
I'm going to be throwing some harder encounters at the PCs in the near future. These last two sessions, they haven't been challenged at all. Illantha Fane is secretly a Green Hag, so that ought to make things interesting. Also, she's got a lot of bandits.
The Hall of Bells should also make for a good challenge. Mummies are a harrowing monster to fight. Lots of undead in the Halls too, as well as some custom creatures.
For those of you following along at home, tonight my PCs will battle some bandits, then attempt to plunder the Hall of Bells. In that vein, I've posted up the Hall of Bells as a standalone adventure. You can take a look at it here.
