March 30th, 2009
OD&D
IN THE CAVERNS OF THRACIA
PART
7: THE TWIN TRAVAILS OF THALMAIN
Go to Part 1
I'm continuing the account of our second session
of OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia.
FIRST
TRAVAIL: FUN WITH PIT TRAPS
The pit trap in this section of the dungeon
also led to some hilarity: After detecting its presence, Thalmain spent
the better part of 15 minutes working out massively elaborate and
overwrought work-arounds for trying to get across it... having missed
the fact that there were 1-foot wide walkways to either side of the pit
that could be easily walked across.
The funny part was that the other players
had heard that information just fine. They, like me, just waited for
Thalmain to finish his various exertions with ropes and acrobatics.
When he was finished, Herbert calmly walked around the pit trap and patted him on the shoulder. "Can we go now?"
INTERLUDE:
SLEEP
AND SLEEP
ALIKE
Following their first forays into the
dungeon, the Thanatos death cultists had retreated to this chamber.
This was going to be a tough encounter in any case and the PCs,
unfortunately, alerted the cultists by talking loudly as they
approached the heavy wooden doors.
This allowed the cultists to entrench their
positions. When the PCs finally battered their way through the doors
they found 8 well-accoutered guards in full plate; 2 cultist priests;
and a trained black bear awaiting them.
Which is when I was forcibly reminded of
just how powerful the sleep
spell used to be:
| Sleep:
A Sleep spell affects from 2-16 1st level types (hit dice of up to 1 +
1), from 2-12 2nd level types (hit dice of up to 2 +1), from 1-6, 3rd
level types, and but 1 4th level type (up to 4 +1 hit dice). The spell
always affects up to the number of creatures determined by the dice. If
more than the number rolled could be affected, determine which "sleep"
by random selection. Range: 24" |
At low levels it is, effectively, an
encounter-ending ability. It was significantly neutered in 2nd Edition
and then further neutered in 3.5 to the point where I almost never see
it cast any more. But it quickly became apparent why it used to be a
staple of the Magic-User class (along with magic missile and fireball):
Trust cast his first spell... and the entire
room (except for the black bear) fell asleep. The bear was quickly
taken down and a mass throat-slitting ensued.
There was much cheering and general
approbation.
I had poetic justice a few minutes later,
however, when the party triggered the sleep gas trap on
one of the chests in the room. Everyone except for Thalmain was knocked
out.
SECOND
TRAVAIL: FUN WITH FLAMING OIL
Here we had another fun twist: Earlier in
the session, several characters had been afflicted by a paralytic
effect. Thalmain had been among those who had tried (unsuccessfully) to
wake them. They had been forced to wait for the better part of an hour
before the effect wore off. Left all alone, Thalmain now assumed that
the sleep
gas was, in fact, another paralytic effect.
When Thalmain decided to move their
unconscious forms to the far side of the room, I was initially going to
declare that the disturbance of being moved was sufficient to wake them
up. But then Thalmain's player specified, out of the blue, that he was
moving them very
carefully -- and I decided that such careful ministrations
would not be sufficient to wake them.
This nearly proved their undoing when, a few
minutes later, a patrol of lizardmen showed up hoping to parlay with
the cultists. Thalmain had spiked the door shut and even tried to bluff
them into going away, but the lizardmen weren't having it. They managed
to batter the door open, although Thalmain's cleverly placed iron
spikes manage to wedge it in a position where they could only come
through single-file.
But, nevertheless, it was still Thalmain the
Halfling against an entire squad of lizardmen.
This would have probably ended badly if it
wasn't for Thalmain's pyromania: He had, with great forethought, doused
the floor in front of the doors with oil. As the lizardmen started to
pour through the gap between the doors, he fired a flaming arrow into
the middle of it and turned the entrance into a pyre.
A few lizardmen managed to leap through the
flames largely unharmed... only to be struck by a second flask of oil
that Thalmain had kept in reserve, spreading the inferno even further.
The remaining lizardmen tried to pull back... only to be taken down by
Thalmain's archery.
It was a complete rout.
Shortly thereafter, Thalmain realized he
could wake the others up by simply slapping them on the cheeks.
On this triumphant note, the characters
retreated from the dungeon and the players retired for the evening.
Session 3 - Coming Soon!
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