maychorian | Sometimes things go right. (Reply)

D&D tonight with the group that is not my Monday group. I DM this one, and it's going well. The party is in a sprawling labyrinth under the capital city of Barva, killing undead and basically fighting their way toward a major plot point that I have been setting up for quite some time. Last time they found a secret door that could only be opened with a specially shaped key that they found on the body of one of the Drow they killed. The key was shaped in the symbol of the Snake, a goddess of manipulation and deception in this world, and also the deity that the Drow worship.

Anyway, so they go through the door, fight some ghouls, blah blah. That was last week. This week they finally discover MAJOR PLOT POINT. Tis a city, under the other city. A city built of BLACK STONE FLOATING IN A RIVER OF LAVA. (I cannot take credit. This was Aaron's idea. Not the city--I was totally planning that. But the floating in a RIVER OF LAVA was all Aaron, and it was awesome.) I knew it was going to be a short night, since we didn't get started till eight and Sean was leaving after nine, so we moved quickly and I packed it full of all kinds of creepy description, making it atmospheric and everything. My players seemed suitably impressed.

I was only planning on one little encounter, since time was limited. As the players approached the bridge to cross over the lava, having disguised themselves as Drow with the barbarian Bella posing as a prisoner (hey, it worked for Han and Luke), they passed through a stony training outpost, practically deserted. Except for four gargoyles. So two gargoyles approached the party and accused them of being imposters, and blah blah, if you defeat us we will believe that you are truly Drow, blah blah.

This is not the cool part. They defeated these two handily, as I expected, with Bella "getting loose" from her ropes and waling away on them with a +1 morningstar and turning them into rock dust in a couple of rounds. But THEN. I had the other two gargoyles fly down and attempt to help their Drow "friends," trying to grapple Bella and saying "We will help you secure the prisoner."

So then! Bella the barbarian is raging and pretty much unaware of what's going on. The other three are desperately trying not to blow their cover, but don't want to hurt their friend. It got really interesting, really fast. The bard/rogue tried to Charm Person her. Twice. Failed both times. The others tried to grapple her, tried to come up with solutions. The druid wished that he had prepared Entangle today. Bella almost killed the gargoyle who was only trying to help.

Eventually she voluntarily failed her grapple check (she was winning handily every single freakin' time), when the druid tried to grapple her, recognizing his friendliness, and that ended the fight. It was a close thing, though. She easily could have destroyed them all and completely ruined their chances of sneaking into the city.

It was fantastically interesting and a really good fight, and it was all because of good roleplaying and characterization. I don't know if I've ever had so much fun DMing an encounter. It was supposed to be a little, easy one!

My pal Jenny (player of Bella) is fantabulous and cool, and I love playing with these guys. When a player reluctantly says something like, "No, I can't do the reasonable and logical thing right now, even though it is smart and will probably keep me alive longer, because that's not what my character would do," you know that you have a good gaming group. And so it was with Jenny and Bella. The sad shake of the head and, "No, Bella would definitely keep fighting."

This is why it is cool to have good friends who are good at making up stories and playing characters. This is why I like D&D. This is why collaboration beats doing it on your own, every single time.

Just wanted to share how much I loved this.