City of the Dead, Session 5: Undead Ambush

As I noted in my previous blog, Session 5 of my D&D game, The City of the Dead, was the climactic episode. Normally in a Shakespearean structured narrative Act 4 is the climax and Act 5 the moral. Yes, I think about classical narrative structure when writing roleplaying adventures! But the group was a little slower playing through some of the earlier challenges so they were only up to Act IV by Episode 5.



After warding off a nighttime ambush by worgs earlier in Session 5 the group was ready to take the fight to town. They reasoned (correctly) that the worgs were not just random wandering monsters but were connected to the main story. (Maybe they read my blog on making wandering monsters more meaningful. 😅) And they figured "connected to the main story" means connected to the main evil power. I.e., the worgs were servants of a much bigger evil power in the City of the Dead  and thus had now reported back that the adventures were still nearby along with how many of them are in the group and what power level they seem to have.

Walking into an Ambush

None of this deterred the PCs from doing what they were going to do next. It just meant they knew they were walking into an ambush. So this time the entered the City of the Dead as a group, with a tight formation, on full alert (various PCs doing Spot checks and the paladin doing Detect Evil.)



The fun thing about walking into a well planned ambush is that knowing there's going to be an ambush doesn't make it less fun, it actually kind of makes it more fun!

The quintet marched toward the center of town. The two in the front, Astrin and Herran, spotted a charnel scene ahead at a crossroads. A wagon stood in the intersection surrounded by dead human-ish bodies and two slain horses. Astrin's Detect Evil pinged that there was, indeed, evil ahead. Meanwhile, Terence the cleric nailed a good Spot check and saw human-ish shapes moving in the deep shadows in an abandoned building.

"Contact!" Terence yelled. The fight was on.

To be continued....

Update: keep reading as the group gets in over its head. Will they survive?

Sizzling Brownies

Last night I made a pan of brownies. One of our friends who came over for dinner is allergic to eggs, so in making this recipe I substituted the one egg called for with flaxseed and water. It's a common substitution in baking for people who can't eat eggs, and usually it works well. But last night it failed... weirdly.

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When I took the pan of brownies out of the oven it was sizzling. Oil and water were bubbling on top of the brownie making a loud sizzling sound. I've never seen this happen with baking before.

I set the pan aside figuring it was a failure but also figuring I'd check after dinner to see if anything enjoyable to eat could be salvaged from it.

After dinner the brownie had cooled fully... and petrified. I couldn't cut it with a spatula. I couldn't even cut it with a sharp kitchen knife. Figuring it was a total loss I tried just wedging it out of the pan so at least the pan wouldn't be a loss, too.



The brownie popped out of the pan surprisingly easily. I attribute that to me coating the pan well with a thin layer of butter before pouring in the batter. Hey, at least something wasn't ruined. 😅

The brownie was one stiff piece. It still wasn't amenable to being cut with a knife, but I did find that I could break it into chunks with my hands by folding it. I put the pieces onto the wooden cutting board and carried it out to the dinner table. "Let's see if any of it is worth eating," I laughed.

Our two dinner guests joined me. It was tough... but the flavors were good. I dubbed it Brownie Brittle.

Update: I tried another piece this afternoon. It had hardened even more overnight. To soften it up I broke off a chunk, wrapped it with a damp paper towel, and microwaved it for 30 seconds. That loosened it up a fair bit. It still wasn't soft and moist like a proper brownie but at least it wasn't a jawbreaker.