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canyonwalkerThree weeks in a row of roleplaying games, woohoo! Friday night we held session 3 of my D&D mini-campaign, The City of the Dead.
The curtain opened on the session with the group of 5 characters (4 PCs plus one NPC) in a graveyard outside of Graymount, the cursed city. In session 2 they had already reconnoitered part of the area, fight some low-power ghoulish creatures plus a 4-armed skeleton deftly wielding 4 swords. In this session they completed their sweep of the surrounding area and finally headed into the cemetery's inner sanctum, which they'd already found to be cursed with an unholy aura.
The group knew there was going to be trouble inside. Someone— or something— set up that unholy aura, presumably either to protect itself or protect its handiwork. In addition, as they moved carefully into the zone the group's paladin used her Detect Evil ability and determined that there were at least 4 evil auras lurking inside stone sepulchers. ...And they weren't faint auras, like she'd detected previously elsewhere. These were stronger.
The party's cleric had spotted a holy symbol of his faith on the corner of a mausoleum. He Consecrated the area but found his deity's symbol had been defaced. While attempting to repair it— BOOM! The double wooden doors of the mausoleum crashed open as a 9 foot tall horror of mismatched human body parts strode out. It was a flesh golem.
The cleric knew it was a flesh golem. It was part of his religion, a construct created by powerful priests of his faith to help protect the living from the undead. (I communicated this via secret-note clue passing.) He found quickly, though, that this particular golem had other designs! It started attacking him and his allies, smashing him with a powerful blow from a muscular arm as it let out a hoarse roar.
The commotion caused by the golem was the cue the undead hiding nearby were waiting for. A gang of 4 wights slid the lids off their stone coffins, climbed out, and entered melee, swatting and swiping at the characters with their bony claws.
Wights, for those who don't know, are energy drainers. They're feared by D&D players because they have the ability to suck levels from characters. I think all the experienced players knew this intrinsically, as they groaned when they recognized the monsters from how I described them.
This presents a common role-playing game problem called firewalling. Experienced players know a lot of monsters' special strengths or weaknesses. Often these are things that their characters would not know... but because the players know them, their characters act as if they know, too.
I anticipated there would be a firewalling problem with these wights so I made it moot. I created one of those pre-written "secret notes" of character knowledge and handed it to the cleric's player. He (the cleric) recognized them from his religious knowledge, so the player got to shout a warning, in character, to everyone else.
As the monsters emerged from hiding and I placed their pieces on the tactical mat spread across our gaming table, the players gulped. They knew they were in trouble with all these foes in combat with them at once. They were overpowered and in danger of being surrounded. But then an unexpected thing happened. The golem... deactivated. Just swiftly as it attacked seconds earlier, it halted. It dropped its arms to its sides and stood impassively.
The group rallied to fight the wights. The heavy fighter landed a massive blow with his dire flail, nearly killing one with a single blow, but then missed with his other attacks. The wight fought back with a savage claw attack and connected, saddling the fighter with a negative level (the immediate effect of energy drain).
Then the cleric got in on the action, held forward his holy symbol, and commanded the undead by the power of his patron deity to "Begoooone!" The wights weren't reduced to ashes like the lesser undead he'd used his supernatural power on earlier, but 3 of the 4 were forced to flee.
The scout moved around the edge of the melee to take a strong tactical position against the remaining wight. As he did so, though, the golem reactivated. No longer standing still with massive arms hanging limply at his sides, he let out a hoarse roar again and resumed pummeling the party's cleric.
"Wait, what?!?!" the players wondered.
"Maybe he just hates clerics," someone suggested. "Particularly those of the faith that creates golems."
"Nah, he's just chill because his lil' buddy, the scout, is here again," I joked.
"I think I know what's happening," remarked the scout's player. But thankfully he didn't elaborate— as that would be a firewall failure!
As the group finished off the combat, killing two wights while two got away and seeing the golem go back into "quiet" mode, they figured out the mystery. The cleric had cast a protection spell on the scout prior to combat. Specifically it was Magic Circle Against Evil. Among other things, it protects everyone in a 10' radius from mind-control effects by evil creatures. The golem had been... reprogrammed... to destroy living creatures instead of protect them.
How did they know its programming? With the help of Detect Magic and a good Spot check or two they found a magical piece of parchment in the golem's mouth. "KILL THE LIVING" it had written on it in magic runes (the cleric decoded it with Read Magic) along with a sigil of the god of undead.
Update: But wait, there's more! The group fights off zombie sheep!
The curtain opened on the session with the group of 5 characters (4 PCs plus one NPC) in a graveyard outside of Graymount, the cursed city. In session 2 they had already reconnoitered part of the area, fight some low-power ghoulish creatures plus a 4-armed skeleton deftly wielding 4 swords. In this session they completed their sweep of the surrounding area and finally headed into the cemetery's inner sanctum, which they'd already found to be cursed with an unholy aura.
The group knew there was going to be trouble inside. Someone— or something— set up that unholy aura, presumably either to protect itself or protect its handiwork. In addition, as they moved carefully into the zone the group's paladin used her Detect Evil ability and determined that there were at least 4 evil auras lurking inside stone sepulchers. ...And they weren't faint auras, like she'd detected previously elsewhere. These were stronger.The party's cleric had spotted a holy symbol of his faith on the corner of a mausoleum. He Consecrated the area but found his deity's symbol had been defaced. While attempting to repair it— BOOM! The double wooden doors of the mausoleum crashed open as a 9 foot tall horror of mismatched human body parts strode out. It was a flesh golem.
The cleric knew it was a flesh golem. It was part of his religion, a construct created by powerful priests of his faith to help protect the living from the undead. (I communicated this via secret-note clue passing.) He found quickly, though, that this particular golem had other designs! It started attacking him and his allies, smashing him with a powerful blow from a muscular arm as it let out a hoarse roar.
The commotion caused by the golem was the cue the undead hiding nearby were waiting for. A gang of 4 wights slid the lids off their stone coffins, climbed out, and entered melee, swatting and swiping at the characters with their bony claws.
Wights, for those who don't know, are energy drainers. They're feared by D&D players because they have the ability to suck levels from characters. I think all the experienced players knew this intrinsically, as they groaned when they recognized the monsters from how I described them.
This presents a common role-playing game problem called firewalling. Experienced players know a lot of monsters' special strengths or weaknesses. Often these are things that their characters would not know... but because the players know them, their characters act as if they know, too.
I anticipated there would be a firewalling problem with these wights so I made it moot. I created one of those pre-written "secret notes" of character knowledge and handed it to the cleric's player. He (the cleric) recognized them from his religious knowledge, so the player got to shout a warning, in character, to everyone else.As the monsters emerged from hiding and I placed their pieces on the tactical mat spread across our gaming table, the players gulped. They knew they were in trouble with all these foes in combat with them at once. They were overpowered and in danger of being surrounded. But then an unexpected thing happened. The golem... deactivated. Just swiftly as it attacked seconds earlier, it halted. It dropped its arms to its sides and stood impassively.
The group rallied to fight the wights. The heavy fighter landed a massive blow with his dire flail, nearly killing one with a single blow, but then missed with his other attacks. The wight fought back with a savage claw attack and connected, saddling the fighter with a negative level (the immediate effect of energy drain).
Then the cleric got in on the action, held forward his holy symbol, and commanded the undead by the power of his patron deity to "Begoooone!" The wights weren't reduced to ashes like the lesser undead he'd used his supernatural power on earlier, but 3 of the 4 were forced to flee.
The scout moved around the edge of the melee to take a strong tactical position against the remaining wight. As he did so, though, the golem reactivated. No longer standing still with massive arms hanging limply at his sides, he let out a hoarse roar again and resumed pummeling the party's cleric.
"Wait, what?!?!" the players wondered.
"Maybe he just hates clerics," someone suggested. "Particularly those of the faith that creates golems."
"Nah, he's just chill because his lil' buddy, the scout, is here again," I joked.
"I think I know what's happening," remarked the scout's player. But thankfully he didn't elaborate— as that would be a firewall failure!
As the group finished off the combat, killing two wights while two got away and seeing the golem go back into "quiet" mode, they figured out the mystery. The cleric had cast a protection spell on the scout prior to combat. Specifically it was Magic Circle Against Evil. Among other things, it protects everyone in a 10' radius from mind-control effects by evil creatures. The golem had been... reprogrammed... to destroy living creatures instead of protect them.
How did they know its programming? With the help of Detect Magic and a good Spot check or two they found a magical piece of parchment in the golem's mouth. "KILL THE LIVING" it had written on it in magic runes (the cleric decoded it with Read Magic) along with a sigil of the god of undead.
Update: But wait, there's more! The group fights off zombie sheep!
