The theme of this past session was chaos and I mean that in more ways than one. First, we had a full table which was rather rambunctious (to the extreme even for us). Second, there was a trapped room that altered some PC's alignments. So it was an unruly game in more ways than one. I, as DM, probably could have controlled the table a bit better as well as some game elements but when the table is loud and chaotic, it's hard to maintain some of the flow of the game as well as making on the fly judgments. Oh, and actual role-playing is like climbing a mountain on your hands and knees. But alas, on with the recap.
As the party explore the 'mirrored' room they are joined by Televon and Gnarly along with his mushrooms. Exploring the room, some of the party began to fall asleep upon the divans and couches. Maudlin, Adesa, Skwanky and Wolfheir, who were still awake saw the others disappear until each is alone in the room with a mirrored version of themselves. The mirrored version is an evil version and attacks. Maudlin fought off the evil Maudlin by catching the tossed dwarve's hammer and then hammering evil Maudlin into oblivion.
Adessa, Skwanky and Wolf, however were not as lucky. They were defeated by their evil selves.
After their individual battles, they reappeared with the rest of the party and their sleeping comrades awakened. Wolfheir began to smash things in a rage.
The party finished exploring the chamber and Gnarly found a stone in the ceiling hanging from a chain. Having one of his mushrooms pull on the stone revealed a secret door. Beyond the opening was a small furnished living chamber with a door.
Going through the door they found a furnished bedroom unused for quite some time. Examining the room they discovered Zenopus' spell book!
While Wolfheir began to smash his way through this room's furniture, Skwanky explored down a passage that was filled with heavy webs. A torch was tossed in to burn the webs but immediately, two large spiders leaped out and bite the halfling who goes down poisoned and drooling. Adesa and the others leaped in to slay the arachnids. Before they fall, however, Adesa too sucumbs to the poison of the spiders.
As their two comrades lie there dying, it is decided to head back to the surface and try to heal them before it is too late.
They make it back to Caladan and Skwanky and Adesa are brought to the temple of Mithra and cured of their poison. Slick Vinny, meanwhile heads to the Cloven Hoof to talk with Onyx the old wizard that use to live in the tower before he was blinded by Zenopus. Onyx confirms that this is Zenopus' spellbook and they if Arvin's Avengers can find the Eye of Zenopus, he will be able to read the book, regain his spells and aid them in their fight against Zenopus.
Vinny decides to hide out in the Cloven Hoof in case Zenopus comes looking for the book.
So the session sort of ended at that point. With a rowdy table and three characters that switched alignments things were a little more up in the air than usual. I don't feel that I handled the battles amongst the good and evil selves to best keep the table involved and I think that's where things began to break down. I also didn't expect three of four characters loosing to their evil counter-part. That always throws a player for a loop in terms of his character concept. They have to suddenly shift gears and I think some of that was handled pretty well with the players. With some time to think about it I think they'll have a better handle next session.
I'll be clarifying a few things with the players this week over email to smooth things out and fill in some of the blanks from last session.
This was a tough session, in more ways than one. No one can resist the Stair Master! No ONE!
ReplyDeleteWhen planing an encounter like this, one has to consider the consequences and what impact it has on the narrative. If the CE Wolfhier were true to self, he would poison and kill us all taking all our loot and the tower for himself. Why wouldn't he? What ties him to the rest of the parties narrative? There in lies the question. The hook still needs to be there.
I'm uncertain as to what the objective of the Mirrored Room is/was. In theory it was there to create a more interesting, engaging and complex story. The hook to keep evil players from killing everyone should likewise been implanted there. Perhaps its truly a trapped room, but Zenopus maybe took part of their soul or something, that even a deeply evil character would demand to get back. A McGuffin for sure but something to tie them to the party, the quest and the narrative you are creating.
On that note Televon will start looking for a very strong knock-out drug/poison and ship these Evil Doers to Stygia! Serious, he will.
Yeah, I think the room was planned more as a trap without thinking out the consequences. I also didn't think that the evil versions would beat the heroes. We'll have to play through and see what happens. Maybe Wolfheir will slay you all? Perhaps a talking with Morphius will lend some guidance???
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