They Might Be Gambling with Their Lives at Fortune’s Wheel
Farrow got them to the Casino immediately that evening. I was cheating a little bit again by using material from the Planescape campaign. Excitement ensued, as they gazed upon the artfully detailed Casino floor. After the market adventure, this evening would prove to me that my group was more than willing to focus entirely on roleplaying and exploration. We were about to have a shit ton of fun.
Greeted by Varek, who worked for the casino’s owner, the party received a note saying they were safe from the fuzz and that they should relax. They each got a key to their own personal pocket dimension rooms, which I asked them to describe. Qor had a bacta tank and Jabba the Hutt style bowl of frogs to snack on. Bitzie had a mushroom to sleep on and many more to eat, while Hobbler was next door with a room of guitars to play with. Last but not least, Z had a large and rather perfect cave with a pig over the fire ready for eating. Each also had a set of very nice clothing waiting for them. Having been on the run since moment one, the party took time to actually rest.
The group descended to the Dragon Bar, the entry into the Casino proper. Q’or was convinced to have his mini dragon Flamebringer fight Popsicle, the white dragonling belonging to the Kobold posse. Bitzie, of course, was trying to get the two of them to make her a pink dragon instead of fight. Well, the white dragon won the first two of three matches and they had to watch Kliky gloat with the rest of the 13 warriors from Kliky’s Kobold Komandos. After the silly lil’ scuffle Bitzie tried to engage the barbed devil and deva looking at the book but not enough to meet the threshold where they would really engage back. Got a few drinks or coffee, after receiving their betting discs present from the mistress, our adventurers finally passed by the Oni bouncer and went to the casino floor.
The group descended to the Dragon Bar, the entry into the Casino proper. Q’or was convinced to have his mini dragon Flamebringer fight Popsicle, the white dragonling belonging to the Kobold posse. Bitzie, of course, was trying to get the two of them to make her a pink dragon instead of fight. Well, the white dragon won the first two of three matches and they had to watch Kliky gloat with the rest of the 13 warriors from Kliky’s Kobold Komandos.
After the silly lil’ scuffle Bitzie tried to engage the barbed devil and deva looking at the book but not enough to meet the threshold where they would really engage back. Got a few drinks or coffee, after receiving their betting discs present from the mistress, our adventurers finally passed by the Oni bouncer and went to the casino floor.
Bitzie didn’t get her pink dragon egg.
Time for Some Gaming (weren’t we doing that already?)
Immediately upon entrance to the hall, Z went right to the Fortunes Wheel, and won a fucking t-shirt, perfectly sized to her giantess size and with the message “I spun Fortune’s Wheel, and all I got was this lousy tunic.” printed on it. We all had a good laugh and the good times, they proceeded to roll on. Some highlights were Hobbler abusing the slots and after a few failed tries rolled a triple-6 and won a necklace of fireballs. Q’or found a new personal hero after betting on the gladiators vs demon sporting event. He won three times his wager to the general disapproval of the disgruntled gnomes at the table. Bitzie lost a bunch of coins at the d20 based roulette table but made a friend.
At the bar within the casino, Q’or found himself chatting with an upset young dragon. It’s name was Winters Bite and it had come here to add to their burgeoning horde of coin, but at the current moment could not even afford it’s drink tab. The Gith paid off the white dragons bar tab and also made a friend.
Brick won a face full of fire at the slot machines, as did Q’or, which was funny, until it happened 3 more times. That brought the unlikely event to pure unadulturated hilarity. After getting hit in the face one more time, I had a tech came over and kicked the machine. It produced a free roll and a magic mace as the reward, which Brick gave to Z. Showing her lack of luck, Z produced a handful of writhing grubs and gave them to the night hag that spoke like a chain-smoking old lady: said they were tasty ones.
The party was engaged by a small group of Vecna impersonators on the Casino floor. I read off a few quotes that I pulled from Google as they “professionally” pretended to be ancient Lich. Chad playing Q’or the way he had developed, to all of our entertainment, tried to attack the fake liches, so, of course the impersonators tried to pick pocket our Gith paladin. Luckily Bitzie caught them and alerted Q’or in time to stop them. They ran into the crowd: the group did not pursue.
Eventually they returned to the actual fortunes wheel, and everyone that had not taken a spin yet did so. In the end, Q’or got a sticky midflayer tentacle and added it to his trophy belt while it was still wriggling, Bitzie got a non-denominational holy water flask, Hobbler got a free drink at the Ice Lounge, which he gave to Qor. They finally blew through the rest of their coins, generally failing to get anything of value from the slot machines.
The Lady of the House
It was then that Shemeshka arrived, with the Yugoloth descending down a spiral staircase from a magical circle in the ceiling. I had eBayed her mini a few months ago and finally got to use it, to the surprise of the group. They were led to a private room to have their conversation away from the ears of others.
This is where we went off the rails from the published work. Shemeshka lightly interrogated the group and Hobbler spilled the whole story in a way only he and his bard could do, launching into an entertaining rapid-fire tyraid. The Yugoloth had Varek fetch her the mirror. and each of them saw an alternate version of themselves within; during dinner that evening I had told them to think up a totally different version of their characters, so they were prepared to describe them. First was Z who saw herself as a druid, all green and covered in vines. Next the mirror went to Q’or who saw himself as a wizard in dignified robes. Hobbler described himself as a stoic monk while Bitzie saw herself as a fighter complete with a a mushroom coat of arms upon shining armor. Brick got to see himself as a less bulkie construct with mad scientist with contraptions all around.
In the end Shemashka told them that she would work with her contacts to see if she could dig up any information about their current predicament, but, first, she would need a favor. Turns out she had sent a group of adventurers to retrieve a crown and a necklace but they had failed to return. Brick was unimpressed and asked why they should trust a literal demon, to which she replied that it was smart to doubt her but that she could be counted on to honor a lucrative arrangement. Everyone else was playing their characters stuck in shock after the visions they had seen, so they didn’t really argue. They did take payment in advance, but were expected back within a day. No one remembered to ask about the relic in the bank vault. Oops.
After the game that night, I confessed to Kera that I had been worried about running Shemeshka, and so I asked how I did. My wife responded, and I quote: “Uncomfortably good.” I took that as a win.
Off to the Astral We Go!
Varek brought the party back to the Dragon Bar, and handed them a stuffed ownbear toy: he said it was the key to where they were going, and the items they were lookin for was in the Grinding Chamber. Bitzie took the adorable key, of course. He told them the portal was the kitchen door, so they walked through the door and nothing happened. The Mephit cook looked up and pointed, croaking at them that they needed the other door. That one worked. Poof.
The characters arrived on a floating island of blue grass and rust colored earth afloat in a sea of silver nothingness, complete with fluorescent critters crawling around that unfolded into butterflies when they approached too close. Behind them was an archway, before them at the far end of the tiny island was a stone entry with stairs down into the ground. They went in. Turns out it was another portal.
I described the first large square room, stone walls, lit only by the glowing indecipherable runes glowing blue dug into the walls. The group spent a few minutes trying to find a way out. They found one when the whole chamber started to rumble and then turned counter clockwise, and as it did so, they saw another chamber meet up with the entrance with another chamber turning clockwise. This second was smaller. Then they watched me roll a die. You could feel the suspense.
I had started typing up a description of each room and it got real boring, rather repetitive and didn’t add much to this account. But in the moment, as the whole table engaged in turning rooms, looking on in anticipation as I went to add a new room when an exit opened a new walkway. So here is the quick version.
The rolling of dice in reference to the chart I had fashioned was the most fun. The first room they entered lead to the group getting zapped for some damage, the next healed them for a similar amount. I rolled a gear slip, where the rooms advanced an extra turn, which locked them in place for a bit. One chamber had a message painted on the wall with the energy of the room’s dead runes reading: “THE TEA WILL TAKE YOU ALL!!!”
That’s both ominous and awkward at the same time.
Kera immediately tried to slay the treasure goblin of sorts I rolled up, Chad was all for it. Bob healed him and Lynn took his shit. I determined that he was there to sell Tea. And also drugs. He needed a name fast so I went to a random name generator, found Trurd. Turd it is!
They soon came across a Cambrion rifling through the previously owned possessions of three corpses: it looked up, and said “Don’t tell me, she sent you too?” as it let a corpse drop to the floor. I am finding that Lynn is great with the timing: Z used the bag of tricks again, rolled a fucking dire wolf again. So, I brought our friend back. This time, he knew it was their fault.
They had to do some roleplaying after to keep him calm and helpful instead of attacking them. I forget who suggested it, but his name became Blanka and he wanted to get back to the ward he left within the gate-town of Faunel. Anyway, they took care of the Cambrion quickly. They scavenged a few minor bits of gear and potions from the remains and moved on.
Once again the immovable rod was used to avoid a trap, this time a it was a ceiling that was going to crush them. They avoided the spike pit dead end by sheer chance, since I had rolled an extra turn of the chambers twice. I even rolled a result that saw a random number of chambers disappear. I rolled and lost two small chambers. Yikes. I had planned a way out for them, but, not knowing that they began wracking their brains for a way back out after.
Next up was the mini boss fight: A bladed Devil. I wanted the fight to be more exciting than 4 PCs, my main NPC, so I gave him a spin attack as a reaction every other round to cause some damage. That was before they persuasion checked a goblin and a dire wolf to join them. It was about then that Chad, a fellow dm, noticed I was burning through their resources. Tee hee.
An in character discussion turned into a near argument about killing a wounded ranger after he gave them the info they needed. Did they want to “waste” a spell. I let them go at it for a bit, but, not wanting to slow things down, and needing him for later, I had Turd find a potion. They learned that the other three corpses were most of his team, they had fought and barely killed the first boss.
There was also a wizard named Kheloseos that escaped with the crown they were sent to gather. Totally inconvenient. Especially since they were already paid to return it to Shemeshka. The ranger, barely alive, stayed behind. They would meet him again.
Each character eventually made it through random crushing chamber and into the first boss chamber. They found what appeared to be a grotesque twenty-five foot tall biscuit golem dead on the ground, pastry and guts mixed in a disgusting mess. As they watched, floor panels disappeared and they watched a smaller corpse slide off the chamber floor and into the void below. Hesitantly, they crossed the chamber to the doorway on the far side. Just then…
The Boss Battle Music Began
The characters entered the boss chamber at one side of a platform surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. At the center stood a giant in metal plated armor, on it’s head was a ridiculous tea kettle. It was swinging a sword taller than even the warforged barbarian. Beside him stood two large knights, similarly garbed with tea cup helms. I told them the tea was going to get them… I showed them the picture I found on Facebook which had inspired this nutty experience. They loved it.
As the fight started the players noticed that I was tracking turns. The Teapot Knight used a scolding tea attack at range and crushing sword up close. Every other turn the outside row of the platform fell away. When this happened the tone of the encounter changed dramatically.
The party had the idea to cut down the adds to help their action economy: when one minion died it fell from the open endless sky down to the platform on it’s initiative.
The best part was when the knight got to bloodied: he tossed aside his cape, and did a crazy swinging area attack. A few failed saves later and the boss finished off one of his own minions, and killed Q’or.
Oh, and the big boss healed himself back to full. This should be fun. Insert maniacal laughter.
Yup. Q’or, our beloved awkward ass Gith paladin was downed by the bosses attack. It was time to introduce a core concept that I had planned all along: alternate Q’or arrived from a library on the Rock of Bral, totally confused and understandably so. He appeared in place of the corpse of his other self. He immediately understood the danger he found himself in, as even the dimmer Q’or would have caught onto that, and added his damage based spells to the onslaught.
When he got to bloodied again, the area attack came again and this time we lost Bitize to the slashing blade. Having been dozing at her guard post, heavily armored warrior Bitzie threw up her shield and entered the fray.
The final phase of the boss fight started when the Kettle hit 25% health. They had lost floor tiles four times by this point, and the arena had shrunk by twenty feet on each side, and had also cut off what they thought was the exit. The stress level had risen. I went and made things worse. The Teapot Knight made a ranged attack and scorched Turd from existence, smashed Z nice and good and then jumped in the air disappearing.
I pointed at their 6 models, including their new wolfie friend Blanka and Brick, then I rolled a D6 out front of them: The Kettle made like death from above and landed on the summon. An insane amount of damage was done to the poor wolf NPC, killing him instantly. They were very lucky that time, but would that luck last?
Knowing they were in dire situation, they went hog wild and burned him down. I let Chad describe how Brick dramatically killed the boss: as I let him run my NPC for the fight. I suggested that maybe he shouldn’t finish the boss off, and the table responded: no, no, that’s ok. They killed the boss before my next planned jump attack.
Conveniently, a portal arrived on the death of the boss and the retrieval of the necklace which hung around the neck of the kettle spout. They make quick to leave and exited back to island where they entered the Grinding Chamber. The alternate characters were played well, confused, lost and concerned. Before they could get too lost in an extended conversation the surviving original characters noticed the ranger they met inside waiting impatiently before portal. It was then when they remembered: the other Bitzie has the portal key back to Sigil.
Then some crazy-ass shit happened. The ranger they saved started to convulse and an impossibly long blade black as the depths of infinite space began to extend out from the man’s torso. As they watch a dark being pulls its way out of the poor ranger: everyone of them failed the wisdom save I gave them and locked up in utter terror. Stretching the body of the ranger in impossible ways, the dark sword lunges forward grasped by an equally black hand and arm of spiked armor and re-kills Q’or. I let him describe what his nearly dead OG Q’or was doing in the library his alt had previously occupied, then the dark being trying to birth its way into reality killed the other Bitzie dropping her barely conscious original form on the ground. Regular Q’or snatched up the se mi-conscious Tiefling, yells at the rest breaking the hold of terror upon them. They all turned and ran through the portal.
We ended with the statement “you appear back in the Dragon Bar back at the casino” and that we would continue in a few weeks.
This article described two entire evenings of gaming. The first night was mostly roleplaying, while the second was entirely a action fueled dungeon crawl. Across the two nights, I had produced a well balanced spread of the three pillars of the game. I was really liking the routine we had found ourselves in, whereas I planned a nice long game and split it into two evenings, playing two consecutive weeks, then taking a week off to plan. This was allowing us three games a month or so.
Everyone seemed to be really enjoying their time. I certainly was: Dungeons and Dragons had filled a hole that I had not noticed was there. I wasn’t just enjoying it more than I had wargames over the past few years, but I had accidentally found a rather effective cure for my depression. Maybe not a cure, but at least a solid treatment. Not only that, but I was getting gifts from my players and they were sharing art they had made on my discord in the channel dedicated to our game.
My confidence was growing and I was having even more fun than before. One player told me that the game I was running was a gift. Damn, that felt good, more than these words can explain. And I can’t forget the home made food.
Stay tuned here for when we get into more high jinx and hilarity.
Click here for more Game Night entries
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
