Game Report: “Why are we even down here?”

Everyone showed up this time. More than everyone. A showed up, bringing along his female friend, K, who has played with us before, so we could start right away. With very little ado, we got started, the ranger, played by K, suddenly appearing and adding a little extra oomph to the group.

The group was ready to continue into the cave to kick some insect hiney. They traveled down the tunnel they found, only for poisonous spikes to launch out of the darkness and hit the fighter in the chest. Apparently, the insects have a memory. They charge forward to engage the horrible those bad bugs, only to have a crapload more burst out of the walls, prompting what will likely be the warlock’s catchphrase, “Why are we even down here?”

The battle is unnecessarily intense, mainly because the bugs’ ability to deal damage consistently with both poison and a death of a thousand cuts aura. The adult bugs wouldn’t go down quietly, and about two or three characters fell down, although they finally got the hang of how to keep healing up, as well as how to use action points, so there was no real danger.

They found themselves at a crossroads, one sloping downward, another seeming to stay on the same level and veer left. They decide to stay on the same level, and go some ways before seeing anothing bug looking intently off a cliff. The fighter decided that it would be hilarious to push the bug off the cliff, and everyone agreed. The bug grabbed the edge, and then it was found there was a small pit below with a few more bugs inside.

This battle went a lot better, with many direct hits by the PCs, many misses by the enemies, and some hardcore strategy. High on adrenaline, they leap up the wall into another tunnel to see a T in the road. They suddenly stopped and decided to take a six-hour nap. A decent plan, sure, although a little bizarre. The rest passed without incident, and they decided to take the right tunnel in their second forking path of the night.

This led to a small cave with a skeleton inside. The group’s first skill challenge is initiated! They decide to look around a bit and figure out why the hell a corpse is under a church. Through a series of stilted skill checks, they discover that this is Yan Walter, former Constable of Tarsis, who should have been killed when the End happened, but is instead in the buried in the basement of a temple of Avandra. Odd. They take his ring with them and hope to one day figure out why.

Then, it’s back down the other tunnel, to come across the nest of all those horrible bugs they’ve been fighting. They’ve gotten used to fighting these creatures by now, and use their powers to great effect to keep themselves out of harm’s way...until the queen showed up. A failed daily power unnecessarily provoked it, and a few poison breaths (and my very loud hinting) was enough to convince them to run away.

They ran. When they got back to the T in the tunnel, someone finally made a Perception check and noticed the hidden door to their right, which happens to be home to a wererat and his kin. They weren’t terribly happy to be there, it being late at night and their susceptibility to combat being a little low. They quickly beat up the rats, dropping the wererat in a hole not once but twice, and the warlock just asked her catchphrase again. Legitimate at this point, because this is so far afield from the original plan. After a successful combat, they proclaimed they were done and left my house.

Lessons learned: Be even more prepared. This can’t be seemed to be stressed enough. There was still a great number of missteps and periods of mild confusion. Running with six pretty well, although it can be better. And although it makes a lot of sense to have all the creatures in a particular area be the same thing...it’s not exciting. ‘Til next week, sports fans.