Yes, I'm backed up on play reports.
Ran three games this year at Dragonflight, held in Bellevue, Washington. The total attendance this year over three days was 1050 souls, a few of whom sat at my table.
The first of the three games was Professor DM's "Deathbringer," which I've run as a one-shot a few times. Who showed up?
- Mystic: "Morgue" - scoundrel
- Nick: "Grunk" - deathbringer
- Eric: "Larry" - plague doctor
- Christian: "K" - grimscribe
- Don: "Jerry" - plague doctor
As before, I ran Tim Shorts' "Requiem for Atticus Stumps" mini-adventure. I had booked a two-hour slot for this session, so used the scenario for its flexibility. I warmed up the players for play with a few questions (Who in the party owes you money, how did you get in trouble in the last town, why are you far from home, etc.).
The party, desperate from whatever "miseries" they had rolled up in chargen, took the bait.
Travel and negotiation with Harlow went smoothly, and the halfling took up spear and lantern to lead them to the selected barrows. The grimscribe cast dancing lights to provide some illumination in the forest and keep people from tripping over tree roots. Harlow avoided any encounters.
Barrow #1: The flowers surrounding the barrow remained unidentified (although Jerry did place several in his mask). Removing stones went without a mishap, someone noticing about halfway through the process the warning runes carved into them....
Harlow, as usual, lit the lantern with a flinch, refusing to explain or yield it to the party. He illuminated the barrow from the entrance.
Morgue was suspicious of the metallic urn but urged Grunk to break it open anyhow (scoundrels...). So Grunk took the brunt of the gas trap. Morgue thanked him and recovered a silver dagger and some coin.
Grunk and Jerry easily tossed the stone slab. Larry poked at the coffin, causing the spectre to rise. The fight was on. Morgue failed to get a good sneak attack in, but other characters made the best of it. The spectre was able to drain some strength from Morgue. K attempted to magic missile the thing, but rolled a crit failure. Doh! Thankfully the outcome dice were merciful, and the spell merely fizzled away.
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Finally, Larry bombed the thing with a potion, and it faded to darkness. A scroll and some jewelry was recovered, but no death coins. The PCs dusted themselves off and asked Harlow about other options.
Barrow #3: A larger barrow, without warning runes, at least. The party easily cleared the entrance stones and investigated the junction. The statue was a curiosity, and Jerry suspected it may be more than it appeared to be. Grunk didn't care, and knocked it over. The party was surprised as the statue's wing sagged as the "statue" fell over. Even more so when the thing came to life, blew past them, and flew awkwardly into the forest.
Most of the party knocked down the stone slab while Jerry investigated a separate room. Sure enough. more friendly neighborhood undead, in the form of Durrow, the undead Northman.
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More shooting and stabbing and failed spell rolls. Jerry heard the ruckus but kept poking around his chamber. No reason to get in the way... Finally, Durrow was beaten back into the grave. K clandestinely commandeered a pair of bracers of defense, and other treasure was recovered.
Death coins were found upon the eyes of Erric, the skeleton that didn't attack the party. Success. In the meantime, Jerry sussed out the purpose of the bottle containing the preserved lizard.
Time to return to town in time for the funeral and banquet.
DM Notes:
As before, the Deathbringer/Atticus combo is a great mix for a short one-shot session. With three small barrows of two to five rooms each, a gamerunner can easily flex the locations to fit the time. Just put the death coins in the last room the party enters, and success! :)
Anyway, the party played well together. I initially only had two players signed up, and Player #3 texted Players #4&5 to fill the table. Everyone got into their characters and we had some good rapport.
I did forget/couldn't find the initiative rule on the sheet, and had forgotten that is was simple d6 side-based. You know, like I normally play. Oops. But no big deal, I just made a mechanic and ran with it. This is the first session with a critical magic fail. No boom, but it was satisfying to ramp up the tension regarding the results...
Deathbringer again proved itself as a fun, light game for one-shots and convention play. I'll keep it in my folio for the next con or a random pickup.
Games 2 and 3 incoming.
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