![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMy D&D game was on a hiatus for a few weeks due to travel around Thanksgiving week. We played again last night, Friday night. It was session 4 of my adventure, City of the Dead.
Friday's session reminded me of a funny but totally true observation about roleplaying games, about how the GM and the players influence the story:
In that vein call this week's session City of the Dead: Fool Around and Find Out Edition.
Picking up from the previous session, which the players wrapped up by killing a flock of evil, bloodthirsty zombie sheep, the group gave chase to its two mounts who'd panicked at the ravenous bleating and bolted. One PC's riding horse ironically bolted past her into the cemetery; a pack mule bolted down the old trade road... toward the haunted City of the Dead. 😱
The group split up. Because, why not? When D&D groups split up bad stuff only happens to them, like, 98% of the time. 😂
The group split 4-1. The fastest PC swung atop his horse and spurred it into a full gallop to chase the mule. He knew his mount could outrun it, even carrying him on its back. He'd trained the horse himself. The only questions were whether he'd catch the mule fast enough, before it could get into trouble, and whether it would run straight down the road or might veer off somewhere.
What are bükken? They're an undead monster I made up for my game world. They're similar to ghouls with adaptation for burrowing. They were once human but now have dried, gaunt flesh falling off exposed bones. They can burrow through dirt like fish can swim. And they're blind (no eyes) but have tremorsense that lets them determine with pinpoint accuracy anything nearby that's touching the ground and moving. Oh, and like ghouls they carry a supernatural disease that sickens victims of scratching claws. Those infected with Grave Rot waste away over a matter of days until they die... and become bükken, too!
For the posse of four PCs this encounter was no challenge. Pretty much any one of them could have destroyed these lower level monsters in their own idiom. The one fastest on the button was the cleric of the goddess of death. ...The goddess who opposes undead. He thrust forward his holy symbol and intoned. "The power of the Lady of the Grave compels you, BEGONE!" And *pffffft* the undead monsters disintegrated into dust.
Herran found the mule soon enough. There was a sinkhole in the main road through town, and the mule had fallen into it. The sinkhole was about 20' deep.
As Herran rode up to the sinkhole, the edge crumbled away beneath his horse. His horse fell into the pit, though he was able to leap to safety as the horse fell. Now there were two injured animals at the bottom of a 20' deep cavern under the road. 😰
If Herran had any sense he would have reasoned that The City of the Dead is way too dangerous to be in, alone— more powerful people have died here, alone, like literally the person they're searching for— and that there was nothing he could realistically do to get his horse out of a sinkhole by himself. But he decided to secure a rope to one of the abandoned buildings lining the road and climb down into the collapsed cave.
As Herran entered one of the builds to secure his rope to something, an unexpected monster swung into action. In D&D there's a creature type called a swarm. It's made up a large number of very small creatures but it acts as a single in combat— with some characteristics that make it very hard for low- and even mid-level characters to defeat. The rule books give examples like a swarm of bats. I made up stats for a swarm of crows.
The crows were all quietly perched on the roof edges of buildings lining both sides of the street, sitting there ominously all Alfred Hitchcock-like, until the scout entered a building. Then with an cacophony of squawking and flapping of wings they descended to harry Herran.
Herran didn't really have any attack move that could affect the swarm. That's part of the unique thing about how swarms work in D&D. Meanwhile, they could harm him. Yes, by pecking at him. And also making him nauseated. All he could really do was withdraw.
Herran backed off. The birds settled back onto their roof perches. He tried approaching the sinkhole again. This time the birds stayed perched.
As he approached the hole this second time he saw something new. Three bükken had emerged from the ground and were attacking the two animals!
Now, any normal person at this point would realize the situation in the sinkhole screams "TRAP!" But Herran was really attached to his horse. He swiftly lowered himself down the rope, Army Airborne style (climb is one of his skills), to fight for his prized steed.
Down in the hole, Herran quickly found himself in over his head... literally and figuratively. As the first three bükken killed horse and mule, a fourth emerged from the ground to attack Herran. Soon all four were attacking him. He was skilled in fighting undead (Ranger class ability Favored Enemy) but fighting 4 of them, solo, was a tall order. I was kind of nice to him and left it at 4 rather than having 2 more emerge from the ground. He barely managed to defeat the four.
I was nice to him again as he climbed out of the pit, finally having the sense to flee town and find his companions, by not having the swarm of crows attack. I'd decided anyway that the crows had particular rules for what would trigger a swarm attack, and neither emerging from a hole in the ground nor fleeing the area were not one of those things.
Herran made it back to the cemetery, grievously wounded, just as his companions exited from their adventure. It had been a bad day for horses as Meraxes's horse had died, too— also killed by bükken. It had taken the foursome split of the party just as long for their side trip as Herran's, even though they had traveled far less, as Meraxes, the nobly born mage (who attended an elite magic school in a foreign country), cried a lot over her dead horse.
To be continued....
Update: the group decides to head toward danger, entering the City of the Dead, this time together.
Friday's session reminded me of a funny but totally true observation about roleplaying games, about how the GM and the players influence the story:
”In a role-playing game the GM determines that the story is a caper, while the players determine whether the theme music is Mission Impossible, The Pink Panther, or Yakety Sax.“
In that vein call this week's session City of the Dead: Fool Around and Find Out Edition.
Picking up from the previous session, which the players wrapped up by killing a flock of evil, bloodthirsty zombie sheep, the group gave chase to its two mounts who'd panicked at the ravenous bleating and bolted. One PC's riding horse ironically bolted past her into the cemetery; a pack mule bolted down the old trade road... toward the haunted City of the Dead. 😱
The group split up. Because, why not? When D&D groups split up bad stuff only happens to them, like, 98% of the time. 😂
The group split 4-1. The fastest PC swung atop his horse and spurred it into a full gallop to chase the mule. He knew his mount could outrun it, even carrying him on its back. He'd trained the horse himself. The only questions were whether he'd catch the mule fast enough, before it could get into trouble, and whether it would run straight down the road or might veer off somewhere.
The Group in the Graveyard
Meanwhile the rest of the group formed up a squad and entered the cemetery. They found the runaway riding horse lying on the ground, dead, with a pair of bükken tearing off chunks of its flesh.What are bükken? They're an undead monster I made up for my game world. They're similar to ghouls with adaptation for burrowing. They were once human but now have dried, gaunt flesh falling off exposed bones. They can burrow through dirt like fish can swim. And they're blind (no eyes) but have tremorsense that lets them determine with pinpoint accuracy anything nearby that's touching the ground and moving. Oh, and like ghouls they carry a supernatural disease that sickens victims of scratching claws. Those infected with Grave Rot waste away over a matter of days until they die... and become bükken, too!
For the posse of four PCs this encounter was no challenge. Pretty much any one of them could have destroyed these lower level monsters in their own idiom. The one fastest on the button was the cleric of the goddess of death. ...The goddess who opposes undead. He thrust forward his holy symbol and intoned. "The power of the Lady of the Grave compels you, BEGONE!" And *pffffft* the undead monsters disintegrated into dust.
Herran Gets In over his Head
Herran, the group's scout, who'd gone off on his own to chase the mule, got into deeper trouble on his own. He followed the mule's tracks to the haunted city of Graymount. The literal City of the Dead. The city that has been mysteriously cursed for over 100 years, where most who go there die and anyone and anything that remains is corrupted by evil. Yup, the scout went right into that city. 😳Herran found the mule soon enough. There was a sinkhole in the main road through town, and the mule had fallen into it. The sinkhole was about 20' deep.
As Herran rode up to the sinkhole, the edge crumbled away beneath his horse. His horse fell into the pit, though he was able to leap to safety as the horse fell. Now there were two injured animals at the bottom of a 20' deep cavern under the road. 😰
If Herran had any sense he would have reasoned that The City of the Dead is way too dangerous to be in, alone— more powerful people have died here, alone, like literally the person they're searching for— and that there was nothing he could realistically do to get his horse out of a sinkhole by himself. But he decided to secure a rope to one of the abandoned buildings lining the road and climb down into the collapsed cave.
As Herran entered one of the builds to secure his rope to something, an unexpected monster swung into action. In D&D there's a creature type called a swarm. It's made up a large number of very small creatures but it acts as a single in combat— with some characteristics that make it very hard for low- and even mid-level characters to defeat. The rule books give examples like a swarm of bats. I made up stats for a swarm of crows.
The crows were all quietly perched on the roof edges of buildings lining both sides of the street, sitting there ominously all Alfred Hitchcock-like, until the scout entered a building. Then with an cacophony of squawking and flapping of wings they descended to harry Herran.
Herran didn't really have any attack move that could affect the swarm. That's part of the unique thing about how swarms work in D&D. Meanwhile, they could harm him. Yes, by pecking at him. And also making him nauseated. All he could really do was withdraw.
Herran backed off. The birds settled back onto their roof perches. He tried approaching the sinkhole again. This time the birds stayed perched.
As he approached the hole this second time he saw something new. Three bükken had emerged from the ground and were attacking the two animals!
Now, any normal person at this point would realize the situation in the sinkhole screams "TRAP!" But Herran was really attached to his horse. He swiftly lowered himself down the rope, Army Airborne style (climb is one of his skills), to fight for his prized steed.
Down in the hole, Herran quickly found himself in over his head... literally and figuratively. As the first three bükken killed horse and mule, a fourth emerged from the ground to attack Herran. Soon all four were attacking him. He was skilled in fighting undead (Ranger class ability Favored Enemy) but fighting 4 of them, solo, was a tall order. I was kind of nice to him and left it at 4 rather than having 2 more emerge from the ground. He barely managed to defeat the four.
I was nice to him again as he climbed out of the pit, finally having the sense to flee town and find his companions, by not having the swarm of crows attack. I'd decided anyway that the crows had particular rules for what would trigger a swarm attack, and neither emerging from a hole in the ground nor fleeing the area were not one of those things.
Herran made it back to the cemetery, grievously wounded, just as his companions exited from their adventure. It had been a bad day for horses as Meraxes's horse had died, too— also killed by bükken. It had taken the foursome split of the party just as long for their side trip as Herran's, even though they had traveled far less, as Meraxes, the nobly born mage (who attended an elite magic school in a foreign country), cried a lot over her dead horse.
To be continued....
Update: the group decides to head toward danger, entering the City of the Dead, this time together.
