DM Brainiac's Dungeon Crawl Classics

Game Master Brainiac

"Enough! Pick on someone your own size!" Zathra shouts. She stabs at her duplicate again, and this time, luck is on her side.

Attack: 1d20 + 1 + 1d3 ⇒ (8) + 1 + (1) = 10

Burning 2 Luck to hit.

Damage: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 1 = 7

The point of her weapon stabs into Mirror Zathra's chest! The duplicate groans and crumples to the floor!

"Everyone focus on ending the healer!" Shouts Mister Wanderful. He aims at mirror Clancy and fires.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

"There is only one Artemis" - the man snarled, slicing across with his dagger.

Attack: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Sigh...

Mirror Mirinde cries out in pain as the real elf hits her with an arrow. Mirror Clancy merely grunts as Wanderful's arrow grazes him. Your duplicates attack again! Clancy avoids his duplicate's hammer. Artemis gets stabbed by Mirror Artemis, though, and Mirror Mirinde returns the favor by shooting the real Mirinde! Mirror Roscoe draws his handaxes and moves to attack Zathra, but he misses.

The real Roscoe lies still at Clancy's feet...

Clancy Hammer: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Artemis Sword: 1d20 ⇒ 14
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Mirinde Shortbow: 1d20 ⇒ 18
Damge: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Wanderful Longbow: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Roscoe Axes: 1d16 ⇒ 41d16 ⇒ 4

3 damage to Artemis, 3 damage to Mirinde. Everybody may act!

The cleric feels a sharp stab of disapproval from Justicia as his magic fails to take hold, and Clancy knows he has chosen poorly. Perhaps it was the halfling's time to go. "I am sorry, Roscoe." He says as he turns from his fallen companion and draws his weapon, squaring off against the mirror Zathra. She seems to be the most formidable opponent, despite Mister Wanderful's personal opinion of his own 'other' self that swung its hammer and missed.

Clancy draws his own hammer - the ebon one - and again summons his magic, silently praying it works this time and that Justicia is with him...

Paralysis Spell - Caster Level Check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

YES!! Burning 3 luck to bring that check to a 24! 24-27: The cleric designates up to three targets within 30' and paralyzes all of them. If the creatures are 4HD or less there is no save, but if a target has 5 HD or more, it gets a Will save vs. spell check DC or is completely paralyzed for Duration: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 5) + 1 = 8 rounds.

Desperate now, seeing the others wounded and with Roscoe lying still at his feet, Clancy pours his entire soul into the Paralysis spell he'd used earlier with the lions. This time, three of their mirror selves are surrounded by the gray, ethereal mist!

Let's have Mirror Zathra, Mirror Clancy and Mirror Mirinde be paralyzed - unless they're HD 5 or more (I certainly HOPE not...) in which case they'd need to make those Will saves vs DC 24. I was gonna be satisfied with turning my warhammer into a paralyzing instrument, but the chance of taking out three foes is too much to resist. Even if it knocks my Luck down to 7... Hoping to get a point or two back at the end of the adventure if we survive and continue on to a new one!

Mirinde wastes no time here as she turns to fire another arrow at the lone remaining target!

Shortbow vs. Mirror ?: 1d20 ⇒ 19; damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Not sure if that is going to be Wanderful or Clancy, depends on who Clancy leaves unparalyzed :)

He fires at a mirror.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Zathra rushes past the paralyzed duplicates to help out Artemis. She stabs his mirror version with her polearm!

Attack: 1d20 + 1 + 1d3 ⇒ (14) + 1 + (1) = 16
Damage: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 1 = 5

Artemis whirled around the mirror image to flank the fake Artemis with Zathra, in a last, desperate attack.

Attack: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Yeah, nevermind me.

Clancy's magic proves super effective! The mirror versions of himself, Mirinde, and Roscoe all freeze in place, unable to move! Mirinde shoots Mirror Artemis and Zathra stabs him, leaving him almost dead, but not quite.

Mirror Artemis slashes at Zathra while Mirror Wanderful tries to shoot her. Her hide armor keeps her safe from harm!

Artemis Sword: 1d20 ⇒ 10
Wanderful Longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Everybody may act!

With only two opponents remaining, Clancy spins toward the mirror Wanderful and grins. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this." Then he swings the heavy, obsidian hammer at the elf's head!

Warhammer Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Warhammer Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Crit! Justicia is with me! Unfortunately, I don't have my crit dice in front of me, so feel free to roll it up on my behalf, GM.

Mirinde concentrates on felling the Mirror Artemis now that Clancy has dealt with Mister Wanderful here.

Shortbow vs. Mirror Artemis: 1d20 ⇒ 8; damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Artemis does not relent - "You lose" - he spat at his own mirror reflections, stabbing again.

Attack: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6
Damage if it hits: 1d4 ⇒ 1

Clancy Crit: 1d8 ⇒ 5
Extra Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Clancy's hammer smashes Mirror Wanderful's nose in an explosion of blood! He follows through with the blow, cracking open the elf's skull, and the duplicate falls. While Mirinde and Artemis miss, Zathra scroes a critical hit, driving her polearm through Mirror Artemis's head and killing him.

Zathra Attack: 1d20 + 1 + 1d3 ⇒ (20) + 1 + (3) = 24
Crit: 1d12 ⇒ 12
Damage: 1d10 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 1 + 3 = 11

Afterwards, it's a simple matter to finish off the paralyzed duplicates. Once the final one falls, all of the duplicates shatter like mirrors and vanish. On the floor, Roscoe stirs, his eyes opening as he regains consciousness. What previously appeared to be a fatal injury has vanished, and the rest of you who were injured by the duplicates find all the damage that they dealt was only illusionary!

The Yokeless Egg floats above the plinth at the center of the chamber. It is twice the size of an ostrich’s egg, bright blue in color, and feels both hot and cold when touched. Anyone putting their ear to it hears an erratic mixture of buzzing, murmuring, and screaming coming from within...

Roscoe quickly jolts to his elbows but remains prone on his back.

"What! What happened? I had an awful dream that we were fighting some mirror duplicates of ourselves... and I died. I've heard that if you die in a dream you die in real life as well... but that's obviously not true".

He then returns to his feet with a nimble move.

"Ohh! There is the egg. Now what do we do with it? Maybe if we just smash it then we don't have to give it to anybody".

Clancy helps Roscoe to his feet, relief evident on his face. "My friend, we'd all thought you dead! It is no wonder Justicia was wroth with me for using her divine magic to bring you back, for in truth you were not! Well, I must ask for your patience, for my patron in her infinite wisdom has asked me to pray for her forgiveness, and immediately at that. Please do not try to damage the egg, for I believe it is an important relic and likely could not be destroyed in any case. For myself, I ask you all to consider my earlier words that we return the artifact to the spy that acts under the very noses of the Chaos Lords we met. But speak among yourselves while I pray, for I do not wish to earn further scorn for my lack of faith."

With that, the cleric drops to his knees and begins to murmur prayers in a language only those that understand Lawful can understand.

Clancy needs a ten minute break folks! I'm sure Mister Wanderful will have lots to say about that, but the cleric feels quite cleansed of any pent-up anger and frustration after watching the mirror elf's head explode under his warhammer. Not that he'd ever want to do that to the REAL Mister Wanderful... nope! Not at all!

As Clancy settles in to do his penance Mirinde take advantage of the opportunity to examine the Egg further. "It appears the Egg has...some thing, or soneONE trapped inside it. Mayhap this be why our patrons wish the Egg returned to them. I hesitate to agree though, without knowing more of what the Egg holds inside..."

Mister Wanderful puts his weapons away and grabs the egg. He starts running for the exit, all the time wishing he had a Feather Fall spell.

Without warning, Mister Wanderful takes off along the bridge towards the exit, attempting to abscond with the Yokeless Egg!

Rolling initiative on the assumption that some of you may want to try to stop Mister Wanderful from getting away! He's 25 feet away from the main party, halfway to the door. Unfortunately for him he rolled a 1 on his initiative, so everybody but Zathra may act before he can act again!

"What the...? Where are you going?!" - Artemis chased the elf, and tried to trip him.

Trip?: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Fumble: 1d8 ⇒ 1

Holy sh... What is happening?

And ends up sprawling on the floor, like an idiot.

I'm thinking Clancy will consider this a dangerous situation, allowing him to postpone his prayers? He was fine with the others talking it out, but running off with an artifact THIS important to the Plane of Law requires immediate action, or so he believes.

The sudden flurry of activity draws Clancy's attention, and the cleric opens his eyes to see someone running off - and the egg is gone! A moment later he realizes that the absconder is, of course, Mister Wanderful and Clancy gains his feet and casts a spell at the elf, hoping to paralyze him as he'd done the mirror images moments earlier.

Paralysis Caster Level Check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
12-13: The cleric's hands and melee weapons are charged with the energy of paralysis. The cleric makes a normal attack this round if it hits the enemy takes normal damage and must make a Will save vs. spell check DC or be completely paralyzed for Duration: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 rounds.
14-17: As above, but spell duration is Spell Duration: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 rounds instead of a single round.

With a growl, Clancy launches himself at the elf, trying to punch him hard in the kidney to knock him down - hopefully immobilized...

Unarmed Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 14
Nonlethal Damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 + Will Save vs DC 17 or Paralyzed for 2 rounds

Clancy can move 25' and according to the spell he can make an attack on the same round the spell is cast. If you deem his attack can't happen until next round (unless of course it misses, in which case the attack is moot anyway.)

Though he knows he has little chance of stopping him due to his slow speed, Roscoe takes off after him anyway.

"Hey! Stop! Where do you think you are going"?

Roscoe will spend (2) luck points to give Clancy a +4 to this roll.

Will: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

spend 6 luck

Mirinde is startled by Mister Wanderful's actions here but recovers quickly. Sprinting after the slower elf she brandishes her dagger at him. "Drop the Egg or else, you fool!"

Mirinde is ready to use Invoke Patron here but will give her kinfolk one chance to surrender here.

"Scissor grind Justica if you'd like, but I would have shared with you."

"Your actions speak louder than your words!" Mirinde cries out as she calls out to her patron, gasping as she nearly buckles to her knees!

Invoke Patron spell check: 1d20 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 3 = 12 Spellburn -3 STR; STA loss: 1d3 ⇒ 3
Mirinde succeeds...barely here and current STR 7; STA 9

Mirinde's skin becomes brittle like ground stone, some of it flaking away as she gives of her own strength and stamina to call upon the Lady in Blue! From the depths of the cosmos, the Lady answers her call. An angry red gash appears across Mister Wanderful's throat as blood gushes from the wound!

Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 6) = 9

9 damage to Mister Wanderful (Fortitude DC 15 for half damage). If he is still standing after that, he may now take his actions.

I'll let Brain end it for me.

Fort: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Mister Wanderful gurgles and chokes on the blood, staggering off the edge of the bridge. He plummets into the starry void, taking the Yokeless Egg with him!

Anybody who rushes to the exit of the room reappears in the hub at the top of the staircase. You can see the elf's body lying at the bottom of the room, the Yokeless Egg wobbling and rolling beside him. It is intact, and ripe for the taking...

"The fool" - Artemis peers down at the broken body of his elf companion.

Brainiac, how far is it to get down there?

Then he goes to Mirinde - "Are you... Ok?"

It's 100 feet down the stairs.

Mirinde staggers weakly to her feet nodding slowly to Artemis, "I will be...OK. My Lady exacts a heavy toll for invoking her so I am loath to do so. I will recover in time." She turns to peer down the stairs at her fallen kinsman before turning to face Artemis, "Thank you for your concern. We should wait until Clancy finishes his penance here before leaving."

Are the stairs still in place and is there a clear path to walk down them Brainiac?

Yes, the stairs are there and you can descend them with no troubles.

Mirinde staggers weakly to her feet nodding slowly to Artemis, "I will be...OK. My Lady exacts a heavy toll for invoking her so I am loath to do so. I will recover in time." She turns to peer down the stairs at her fallen kinsman before turning to face Artemis, "Thank you for your concern. We should wait until Clancy finishes his penance here before leaving."

"I should maybe go down there and get that egg" - Artemis piped in after seeing to Mirinde - "Feels weird just leaving it lying on the floor like that"

Artemis will go and grab the egg, unless someone speaks against it.

Clancy moves to the edge and looks down at the body of Mister Wanderful. He feels no triumph, only a sense of sadness. "It didn't have to end this way..." He ways ruefully, shaking his head. He turns to Artemis, and gives the man a nod. "You're right. Thank you."

To Mirinde, the cleric speaks softly. "Thank you as well. I have much to ponder as I pray to Justicia for forgiveness. Perhaps all of this that transpired is a part of it. I will tend to your wounds as much as I can when I am finished, for I fear that if I try to use my divine magic now I will be at a disadvantage. My connection to Justicia is weak at the moment."

He moves away from the elf and falls to his knees once again to finish his brief prayers to Justicia. When he has finished, he tends to the elf, trying to heal her as best he can - though he quickly finds that doing so is beyond his abilities.

After that, he calls for a discussion on what to do with the Yokeless Egg. "You have heard my own thoughts, handing it over to the spy that works under the noses of the Chaos Lords. I believe she can be trusted, though I could of course be mistaken. All I know for certain is that we cannot turn it over to any member of the Court itself. I shudder to think what they would do with it."

I don't think LoH allows me to even try and cure ability score drain (I know I can cure disease, broken bones, etc with really good rolls), but let me know if I'm mistaken and I'll give it a shot. What do you all think we do with the egg?

RAW, it doesn't say you can heal spell burn with lay on hands. This snippet seems to suggest it is possible but comes with a warning:

"In playtests, many wizards attempted to partner with clerics to reduce the impact of spellburn. A common action is to have a cleric handy to heal ability score damage as the wizard utilized spellburn. The author encourages the judge and players to remember the underlying role playing activities associated with these actions. Spellburn represents a mortal sacrifice to a supernatural entity for strictly selfish purposes. A cleric’s ability to heal represents drawing on the power of a god to further that god’s agenda in the mortal realms. These are inherently contradictory activities. A god that observes his follower repeatedly healing a devotee of another entity, whose self-inflicted wounds serve no greater agenda than a personal pursuit of power, will surely object to that cleric’s action! Clerics who engage in this sort of behavior will soon find themselves out of favor with their divine allies.

Roscoe walks to the edge and looks over. Fool. He always acted on his own instead of building up trust with the rest of us. What did he expect us to do, just let him run off and become a tyrant? Plus, you can't trust the chaos gods to give you what you expect.

He then turns to Artemis. "While I don't exactly not trust you I think it would be preferrable if we all go down together. Who's to say you won't get down there and decide to take off on your own".

Before he heads off for prayer, Clancy lays a hand on the halfling's shoulder. "Be at ease, Roscoe. Chaos wins in the end if there is no trust among friends. Mister Wanderful acted on his own I think, and perhaps in haste - a victim of his own greed. By standing together, we shall all endure and find a way to thwart the Council of Chaos. I have great faith in this."

Then he moves off to make amends with Justicia for his transgressions. Afterward, he heals Mirinde, himself and anyone who needs it. So long as Justicia approves...

So it sounds like LoH actually can heal ability damage? I actually hadn't thought about the spellburn damage, but rather the STA damage she took from the spell itself - I'm guessing that might have been the mercurial magic effect? If that'd be okay to try (i.e. not considered the same as healing spellburn ability damage) and try to heal only that without offending Justicia, he'll give it a shot.

Lay on Hands Caster Level Check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21 for Mirinde

A good roll! But Mirinde IS of the opposite alignment, so not sure if it's good enough... Though if she's still wounded at least she should get some HP back, I think! Is anyone else wounded? Clancy is, so he'll use LoH on himself as well with this next roll.

Lay on Hands Caster Level Check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12 for Clancy

Hmm... is 12 good enough to work? I have no book at the moment, so I'll leave it to you to check, DM. I'll roll my heal dice, just in case it is good enough. I think it's the HD die plus STA modifier? If it's a failure, ignore the following roll and my Disapproval is now 3, I believe...

HD Healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 healing

"You can trust me" - Artemis winked at Roscoe, then went to retrieve the egg.

I agree that the LoH should not apply to the Spellburn, but the STA damage should be able to be healed.

Mirinde nods at the wise words of the halfling, "Yes, no need to play into their hands here." Watching Artemis head down the stairs she eyes him closely, but knows she can do little to stop him.

As Clancy heals her she offers him a small smile. "I believe you have paid off your debt to me now."

yeah! Roscoe is not as fast... but he won't let Artemis go down alone.

"I'm going to go with you. Make sure nothing else comes by to threaten you".

Yes, lay on hands can cure the stamina damage from the mercurial magic. 21 is more than high enough to do so.

yeah! Roscoe is not as fast... but he won't let Artemis go down alone.

"I'm going to go with you. Make sure nothing else comes by to threaten you".

"Fair enough" - Artemis grunted.

Clancy returns Mirinde's smile. "Not by a long shot, but it's a start."

DM, was that roll for Clancy good enough to heal him? Anyone else require healing? I seem to recall everyone took some damage, so if you're down more than a few HP Clancy can try and help. It's a risk sure, but I have a feeling this isn't over yet.

Yes, that will heal Clancy as well. In general 12 is the threshold for success on spell rolls. Remember that the damage dealt by the duplicates was illusionary and disappeared after the battle, so only the damage from other sources still applies.

Artemis and Roscoe secure the Egg without further incident. Clancy heals Mirinde and himself. Zathra just shakes her head, mystified by everything that went down.

”So, are we done here? Back to the Court?”

Forgot about the fact the damage was illusory, thanks for the reminder!

Clancy smiles at Zathra. "So it would seem, at least to the first part. But we must first agree as to what we will do when we return to the Court. Are we all agreed that we do not give it to the Chaos Lords? Shall we trust the spy, instead? If you all agree, I would like to carry the artifact. Lexaliah knows me, and I will recognize her. I only hope she is able to find us quickly when we pluck that flower and return to the Court. I fear there will be little time before we are brought before the Chaos Lords, though we must expect there to be a short delay, for they each appeared to us individually with their demands to be given the egg alone."

He pauses, waiting to hear what the others think.

That's only Clancy's guess - that maybe we'll be brought back to our private room or something and wait for a summons. For all I know though, we'll appear right in front of all them and each will expect us to hand over the gem to whichever one feels they made the right 'deal'. In any case, I'm going to try and cast Blessing on us right before we pluck that flower (and maybe Detect Evil as well.)

"I don't mind you carrying the egg" - Artemis shrugs at Clancy, while still curiously fiddling with the mighty object in his hands - "My only concern is this Lexaliah might not be who you think she is" - he added - "Which would mean we would be better off just returning the egg to their owners right here in this... Plane. The same argument about complacency can be proven right? We actually managed to steal the egg didn't we?"

Don't want to 'derail' us guys, but there is something 'off' about stealing an egg from the plane of Law, to return it to one of their agents in the plane of Chaos, to prove a point. Isn't the point already proven? :)

Mirinde gazes thoughtfully at the Egg, "I think we should be careful as to who we offer this prize to...there is much we do not know and I detest being kept in the dark like this." She sighs heavily still feeling the effects of her magicks, "Perhaps it would be safer to rest here? I have seen no other signs of life here..."

"I still say if it's so powerful we should find a way to destroy it so neither side benefits too many laws is as bad as too much chaos. Maybe if we can't destroy it, we can find some way to hide it away"?

Roscoe starts pacing around. He thinks better when he's moving.

"I just don't like playing with balance".

Clancy considers Artemis' words. "I believe the point was to spirit the Yokeless Egg away from the place where it was secured. We have not escaped this place quite yet, though delivering it to the Courts of Chaos would perhaps grab the attention of these mysterious Scions of Law more than it would to simply sound an alarm while still trapped here. Though in truth, I wouldn't even know how we go about getting their attention. If they haven't yet noticed their various traps and mirror guardians being defeated..." He shrugs.

When Mirinde speaks of rest, the cleric is mighty tempted, but brings up the fact that they have not yet escaped with the Egg. "I would hate to be caught napping with this priceless artifact in our hands when the Scions arrive - as I'm certain they will eventually. I doubt we could adequately explain our intentions to them without assistance. Which is why I think we need to trust Lexaliah. If we are to finish what we started, I think that's our only real choice."

Agreed this is definitely 'off', but I'm not sure how we get anyone's attention here now that all the guardians are gone - or even that we'd want to, as it might look like we tried to steal the Egg and just couldn't escape. I was thinking of a rest myself, but a little concerned that we could still get caught if we linger too long - especially know that we've actually pulled off the 'theft'.