DMDM's Strange Aeons

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Zoophagous Zoogs! They sure look evil! Let me at 'em!

Even with a flank, a 10 isn't going to do it. Also,

Vitae, Jordan and the Oracle can attack or cast; everyone else, talk is a free action, but please don't roll until it's your initiative.

It's not a big deal in this case, but in more complex combats it could become a real nuisance. So, please.

Waiting on Yordan, then the bugs get their bites in.

A general note on genre. In a standard campaign, the default is "open every door, search everything". The meta-assumption is that the rooms wouldn't be there if there wasn't something potentially useful or interesting inside.

This is a horror campaign. So, those default assumptions get bent a little. There may be rooms that are better left unopened.

A bit of RPG historical trivia: when Gary Gygax wrote the Tomb of Horrors, he filled it with horrible inverse-munchkin insta-death traps. However, of all the stuff he did, the one that caused the most outrage among his players was three boxes. [slight spoiler for a module published forty years ago] Box #1 gives you a faceful of poison darts. Box #2 throws a bunch of poisonous snakes at you. And Box #3... summons a demon, which tries to grab you and take you to the Abyss.

Good times, good times. -- But anyway: what provoked his test players to cry out in dismay was that the box puzzle violated a meta-rule that was already well established back in 1976: there's got to be something good in there, to reward us for all this trouble!

In a horror campaign, this is not necessarily true. There are doors better left unopened. There might be NPCs you shouldn't really talk to. Rummaging through every single room may turn up things best left undisturbed. Sometimes, "Leave it alone and let's move on" may be the precisely correct response.

For instance, in the last room, I offered you the option of leaving the dead Zoog alone. Of course someone examined it, because curiosity is just as powerful a motivation as greed. And that's fine. But... since this is a horror campaign, I would have been totally within my rights to have the zoog's blood be toxic, or to have it deliver a curse to anyone who touches its remains, or something equally unpleasant.

Remember Call of Cthulhu. Do you open every door in CoC? Do you read every book? Well, maybe the *party* does -- but you the player may say, hey, I'm going to hang back while Bob opens the door. Or, sure, Doctor Alice can read the book... I'm going to keep the tommy gun pointed at her while she does, with an action readied to blow her away the moment anything looks funny. (Good times, good times.)

Anyway: since Texas won't wake up for a few hours, I'll bot Yordan. He swings his glaive at the uninjured bug!

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17 That's a hit. Damage is 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 3 + 1 = 12 (stare damage included), which is enough to kill it.

Okay, the surviving bug is going to attempt to grapple Kyleen. 1d20 ⇒ 14 Ah ha, that does it. Squirming and wriggling, the segmented horror has wrapped itself tightly around you.

Attacks against the centipede with one-handed light weapons are still normal. Attacks with any other weapons are at -2, and a natural 1 will hit Kyleen instead, doing normal damage. Kyleen can't move and is at -4 Dex. (Also, Kyleen, don't forget that poison save.)

Okay, so now everyone but Fritz can act, and then it'll be the bug's turn again.

In a horror campaign, this is not necessarily true. There are doors better left unopened. There might be NPCs you shouldn't really talk to. Rummaging through every single room may turn up things best left undisturbed. Sometimes, "Leave it alone and let's move on" may be the precisely correct response.

But ... how would we know?

I think we are role playing being sacred of everything, including each other somewhat.

Is the closet large enough for me to get in there? If so here is my attack.

Shortsword 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

As a note for future stuffs, Mrakala can act on surprise rounds due to his Forewarned ability.

Surprise Round "Ah! That is a particularly large bug!" The wizard takes a half-step back and hurls one hand forward, slinging a Daze at the creature which takes the form of a slight disturbing pattern in the air.

1d2 ⇒ 2 1: targeted the creature that is now dead. 2: targeted the one on Kayleen DC 15 Will save.

Round 1:

"Get that thing off of her! It may be poisonous!" Mrakala will move 30' down the hallway away from the melee and..uhm...wish he had a crossbow.

Damn. Low level wizards are pretty boring. You have, at most, like 3 or 4 spells and are reluctant to use them. Urgh. Any chance I could re build Mrakala with Spheres of Power? XD

Fort: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

As the creature falls on her, Kyleen lets out a scream:
AAAAAHHHHH, BUGS!!!!!!

She immediately attempts to brush the creature off and move back.

Escape Artist: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

And fails miserably.

Just to note, I'm OK with botting me when it's an obvious thing to do.

Low-level wizards have school powers and cantrips...

Most school powers are pretty passive (or at least the ones that are any good past level 1 or 2). Also, cantrips are...meh. Daze works once a minute and at level 1 you only get 3 cantrips. There is a strong encouragement to always have detect/read magic prepped which leaves you with 1 combat-oriented cantrip, possibly 2 if you skip read magic or you coordinate with other players and realize only one person needs detect magic. Making a touch attack for 1d3 elemental damage versus throwing a 1d6 crossbow bolt is essentially a wash in terms of usefulness/interesting choices.

Once you have a few levels and can throw out at least 1 spell a combat, things get a bit more interesting. Also one reason I always invest a good 40% of wealth into scrolls/wands for more options. Still, the ability to use a handful of interesting and more thematic abilities at-will is what makes Spheres awesome.

The best part of a wizard is easily Scribe Scroll. having a pack full of choices for weird situations and using spell slots for reliable combat spells is awesome. I'm holding onto that obscuring mist scroll in case we step outside and a flying creature decides to harass us...

1d20 ⇒ 9 The centipede failed its Will save, so Kyleen is not grappled after all -- that gets retconned. However, she still gets bit; however, she made her save.

She could do something else, but she's stuck with that natural 1, so never mind.

So, we're in round 2 -- Vitae and then the bug's turn again. I assume Vitae will crossbow and stare. 1d20 ⇒ 8 Nope.

Over to the bug. Bite and then grapple is its go-to move, so it tries to grapple again. It keeps its roll from last time, same as Kyleen, so it succeeds, with the same consequences as before. And once again everyone can act before it's the bug's turn again. Can you kill it this time?

Since Kyleen is grappled and in close with the centipede, Yordan does not swing his glaive -- instead he flexes his arm muscles in a particular way, and a spring-loaded dagger appears in his hand, he takes a 5' step in, and tries to cut out the centipede's spine.

Dagger attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16 for 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 damage.

Do I benefit from the Painful Stare?

You do. So, despite the fact that centipedes don't HAVE spines, you are able to inflict enough damage to kill it!

Twitching and spasming, the huge arthropod loosens its grip on the bard. (Its hooked legs don't actually release her, though -- that'll take a round of untangling.)

Both centipedes are now dead. However, your quick examination of these rooms showed nothing of value.

-- Let's search them thoroughly now! There's got to be something good in there, to reward us for all this trouble!
-- Wet blankets and broken glass? Let's move on.

Fritz frowns and looks at his sword

Antiquated aardvarks! This thing is not working right!

"Someone has already been in and rifled these. Let us go on!"

It's probably too late given the centipede blood all over the floor, but can I figure out who might have done the looting? Any tracks or traces?

Survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

I hate to say this, really I do, especially since I know we may need this later, we have limited resources as it is, but I don't think Daze affects insects. I hope I am wrong here, but that's the reason I didn't cast it. DM I hope in the future if you see a ruling that helps us you mention it as well.

DM may I retrieve the crossbow bolt that missed?

"Maybe we should be more careful about which doors we open. I suppose those are the bugs they warned us about.."

"Perhaps on our way back we can get the blankets for the children."

"A good idea. Even wet blankets can help keep warmth in, and maybe they have ways of drying them."

Yordan considers the use of Survival checks to assist in enduring low temperatures, then wonders what season it is and how cold the nights might be here.

Kyleen shivers as she spazmatically pulls the centipede off the rags she is still wearing as an excuse for clothes.

Yuk, get it off, get it off.

Once she has removed the chitinous corpse from her shoulder, Kyleen looks around and grabs one of the less wet towels from the floor and wipes the bug guts from her body, likely smearing more on her drenched clothes than actually cleaning herself.

Once she has calmed down, she looks to the others:
We have opened these rooms, lets at least look and see if something was missed.

It's a storage closet, doubtful if anythin' of value is in ther...nothing magical anyways...let's keep movin'.

A modest bit of rummaging will turn up two (2) winter blankets, a bit damp but not yet moldy.

Okay! Continuing north up the corridor...

The corridor is long. Another fifty feet, and the lamp in front of the barricade is just a dim twinkle in the darkness behind you. Outside, thunder rumbles; you can hear it faintly.

And then things get interesting.

The corridor ends. Or rather, it's cut off. The ceiling has collapsed, and there's just a pile of rubble. The last 30' of corridor before the end is also partly covered with broken stone and tiles, making it difficult terrain.

To your left (west) there are a large pair of double doors. They are marked LAUNDRY.

To your right (east) there's a pair of double doors marked STAFF. They're about 20' south of the LAUNDRY doors, so not directly opposite them.

Also to your right (east), about 40' north of the STAFF doors, is a single door marked DE UTY DI EC OR. The sign has been partly effaced or damaged. This door is right at the edge of the rubble-fall, so there's about a foot of rubble at the base of it. If the door opens outward (you can't see from here), that would make it impossible to open without some work.

As to the Daze: you're right -- it's only humanoid creatures (and with less than 4 HD). So, retconning, the centipede gets one more bite on Kyleen. Here's the roll: 1d20 ⇒ 4

All right then!

-- Let's check out LAUNDRY. That looks interesting.
-- Wait, didn't we want to look at the STAFF room?
-- DE UTY DI EC OR intrigues me.
-- Hey, what about the rubble to the north? Does the corridor really end there, or might it be possible to wriggle through?

Also, please ignore this die roll: 1d20 ⇒ 16

Listen at both sets of doors,
Left perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
Right perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

I would like to go to the Staff room, but if you want to start with the deputy's office first I am fine with that too.

My vote: Staff, then laundry, then we deal with the rockpile..

Listen at both sets of doors,

Left perception 1d20+5
Right perception 1d20+5

Okay, for future reference: just say you're listening, and I'll make the rolls and tell you what you hear (or smell... it's a Perception check.)

I vote for Staff then director room. The laundry room doesn't seem like it'd have anything worth looking into.

Ghelik the Sly wrote:

Listen at both sets of doors,

Left perception 1d20+5
Right perception 1d20+5

Okay, for future reference: just say you're listening, and I'll make the rolls and tell you what you hear (or smell... it's a Perception check.)

Will do, let's start with the staff doors.

Deciding that she is not going to be the one that centipedes drop on this time, Kyreen stays back as the others begin to investigate the doors.

Staff door works for me.

Yordan will keep an eye on the laundry door in case anything comes out of it.

Yordan will keep an eye on the laundry door in case anything comes out of it.

High odds say DMDM has Yordan attacked by a mimic disguised as a business suit.

The STAFF door opens easily, albeit with a loud scraping from the dust and dirt on the floor. It only opens about halfway before it bumps into something.

Inside is a large room which once had desks, bookshelves and cabinets. It still has those things, but they've been knocked over and smashed. Sodden, ruined papers lie in drifts across the floor.

The papers are sodden because part of the ceiling to the south has collapsed. There are several cracks that are allowing the rain from outside to come in. (The cracks are perhaps big enough to allow a Small-sized creature to wriggle through. From here it doesn't look like a human-sized creature could manage, though you'd have to look more closely to be sure.) Most of the room has a couple of inches of water on the floor -- not enough to impede movement, but enough to make stealth more difficult. Some yellowish-gray light comes in through the cracks, but most of the room is dark.

A door exits to the north, presumably into the DE UTY DI EC OR room, though there's no sign on it.

Oh, the reason the door wouldn't open all the way: there's a body on the floor, just inside it.

It's gray-skinned and hairless and vaguely sticky-looking. It looks just like the false doctor's body.

"What killed it?"

Yordan examines from a distance, not touching the thing.

Heal check to determine cause of death: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

Without touching the thing, it's hard to be sure. But its throat is slashed open. A neat cut -- either a blade or a very sharp precise claw.

Vitæ studies the room for a possible ambush, lurking assailants or other points of detail.

Percpetion: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

When he thinks it's safe he draws his weapon and plunges a full 2 inches of his sword cane into the carcass for good measure.

'We have a body. Two more will give us a chance to enter what could be the safely of the Chapel."

Feels like a trap.

Vitæ lacks the skills for a proper diagnosis but will try to help guess the cause of death, if it really is dead.

assist Heal check: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Vitæ studies the room for a possible ambush, lurking assailants or other points of detail.

[dice=Percpetion] d20 + 7

Mrakala stays out of the room, near the back of the group. "Voices, do you want to cast Light on something and throw it in there? How did the shapeshifter die? Is there anything else in the room?"