DnD Session 07: 12-01-10

DnD Recap – Session #7 December 1, 2010

Dwayne and the Mysterious Box

So, after being almost brutally murdered by frogs, the party collected themselves and started traveling down the path towards the gang's camp.  It was night out, and the clouds started covering the moonlight, making it hard to see that far away.  The group made their way down the side of the dirt path in front of them, moving in between the trees for cover.

At some point, the party noticed that there were no sounds in the area; no sounds of animals or other wild beasts like the frogs they had just fought.  Slightly worried and alerted by this, the party moved on.  Alek noticed that there was something magical in the air, but at first could not tell exactly what it was.

The party continued moving through the trees when Blaze tripped a small trip wire he hadn't noticed.  The sound of a slightly distant bell cut through the silence and the party readied themselves for battle.  Sure enough, guards attacked the party soon thereafter.

The encounter wasn't all that special.  Members of the gang similar to the ones the party had fought before (and actually one of the guards WERE one of the lackeys they had fought in Luntin who had run off before being killed), only this time armed with crossbows and swords.

Once the battle was over, the party had easily defeated the guards without alerting anyone else.  It was then that Alek noticed that the large wall surrounding the camp had magical crystals imbedded into it, which contain magic that would normally keep monsters away, but since they were old and shottly put together, they were keeping all wildlife away.

Here, I actually thought the party might have disabled the system and let the camp be overrun by creatures like the giant frogs they had just fought, but no.  The party just took a key off of one of the guards, opened the gate to the back entrance of the camp, and entered, after looting the now empty guardhouse just next to the gate.

The camp, itself, was mostly deserted.  As predicted, most of them had left to rush to Luntin to find this band of four people who snubbed their efforts to capture bounties on the three gnolls they had captured.  The camp itself was basically a lot of manmade huts.  There were torches everywhere, lighting up the area.  The group started thinking about looking around the place, but quickly decided to head to what looked like the main hut as there looked like there was something going on inside.

The players snuck up to the main hut and looked in a small window in the door to see Dwayne himself.  Or, at least a man they later realized was Dwayne.  He looked like he was speaking to someone that Blaze couldn't see from his position, simply asking Dwayne "did ya get it?"  Dwayne pulled out some kind of spherical object, walked out of view, then walked back into view without it.

As Dwayne and the unknown person discussed payment for this object, the party decided to rush on in, busting the door down in the process, and just start killing things.  The figure Dwayne was speaking too was cloaked and concealing his identity…and promptly ran away the moment the fighting started.  Of course, just busting into the room without really checking anything wasn't the best of ideas as Dwayne had a couple of generals inside the hut with him.

Epic Boss Battle!

…well…okay, not THAT epic…but during the battle, more lackeys joined the fray as they heard what was going on and came to help their leader.  Too bad they were minions with exactly 1HP.

The battle raged on, the party struggled against the waves of minions and Dwayne, forcing Alek to summon his Fire Warrior once again.  But in the end, the party overcame the odds and ended up slaying Dwayne and all of his lackeys in the hut, save one general who saw Dwayne fall in battle and simply gave up.

So, the party searched around the area after the battle and found a large chest of gold that was clearly from the Luntin Bank, a few other items, and a small box with the holy symbol of Bahamut on it.  The box, itself, was empty, but clearly designed to hold something.

The party returned to Luntin, receiving something of a hero's welcome when they returned a large portion of the bank's missing funds to them.  Captain Thornton spoke to the party in a sorts of debriefing about what had happened.  The party wanted to know more about the box of Bahamut they had found.  Thornton stated that the leader of the Temple of Bahamut in Luntin, Father Emmit, was currently gone, but would return later in the afternoon to the Temple.  With that bit of news, the party decided to rest in the Tavern, ending the session for the night.

Things I learned as a DM this session:
* The party takes a long time to move through places they can't see far in...this shouldn't be a surprise really, but there you are
* Action Points help the party during encounters…just gotta remind them they HAVE them from time to time…
* Minions are fun.  Sure they only have one hit point, but you can send them at the party in waves
* Blaze enjoys making initiative rolls a little too much…
* I enjoy breaking out into song for no reason a little too much…though, I'm quite positive I knew this already…
* Do not tell the players you are actively trying to kill them.  It brings down player morale.
* I am the DM, I will therefore roll much higher than I did as a player.  MUCH higher…