Your DDC experiences

[slimykuotoan]

I'm starting a campaign this week beginning with The Mysterious Tower, and thought it t'would be nice to start a thread about your role playing experiences with the DDC adventures.

Any takers?

[goodmangames]

I wrote and playtested The Mysterious Tower and can tell you it was a lot of fun! The acid trap actually worked beautifully -- my brother (one of the PCs) took the bait and said, "OK, I walk in and pull the lever. What happens?" heh heh, it only went downhill from there! When they finally escaped from the room, they ended up stuck in the staircase with a pool of acid separating them and the rest of that level. They had to go upstairs and hack the door off a room then use the door as a raft in order to cross. That was a fun session.

[slimykuotoan]

Well, we had our first game.

Since our group has pretty hectic work schedules in real life, I opted to go with the: "You're walking down the roadway when your group sees a tower..." route.

Upon reaching said tower and its surrounding ruins, the party took a while to get over its fear of magical traps, etc. at the main entrance to the courtyard, after having seen the bluish force field in the distance.

And when they finally did get closer to the tower, the trapped ghost began its dreadful howling...

Oh, I guess I should introduce our group before continuing onward.

The cast:

Bodyknock: Gnome Ranger
Atsug: Halfling Rogue
Mialee: Elf Druid
Bharrai: Vampire Monk (from the Book of Undead)
slimykuotoan: dm

To make a long session short, the ghost's continuous howling affected everyone except the vampire.
Rolling randomly for panicked direction flown, three unlucky members of the party ran straight into the 'orchard o' fun'.

And after entering, stumbling, falling, and finally, hiding for two rounds, the adventurers were invariably attacked by the assasian vine within...

Strangely enough, whilst the rogue got most of the attention from the evil vine, it was the druid who spent the entire encounter entangled by its surrounding plantlife.

After a few rounds of terror and general mishap then- with the vampire frantically racing around in an effort to aid his companions in their attempts to break free of the vile garden, the group finally won the day- with the rogue landing the much needed killing blow.

And after a bad day's rest (two wandering encounters near the officer's quarters- rats 'n beetles galore...and a vampire too terrified to battle them inside the rotting structure for fear of bring it down around them, and thus letting in the 'life giving' rays of the sun), the adventurers are now ready to begin a new night's exploring...

[goodmangames]

Sounds like a good start to the adventure. I also had one of the guys in my group panic and run from the ghost. It was the bard, I believe. He ran directly in the opposite direction, and one of the other PCs tried to grapple him to keep him from getting too far. It was fun.

[slimykuotoan]

and boy was it a doozie.

Disclaimer: If you read ahead and you plan to play this adventure, you'll ruin the surprises...

After waking once again to the midnight sun, the party continued their exploration of the courtyard and surrounding areas, all the while hounded by the endless shrieking of the ghost.

Indeed, to make the game more realistic, and to be a good DM, I'd stop the action every so often, just to let out a rising moaning sound for effect: "Nnnoooooooo....ooooo...oo!!!!"

Good of me eh?

Well, it worked, with the party thoroughly peed off and periodically yelling curses at the ghost. (and therefore often losing their concentration and becoming careless during their search)

Finding a half-submerged giant beetle, and not knowing whether the horrid beast lived or lay dead, one of the characters (the halfling rogue) decided to approach and sneak attack the motionless form- just to be careful.

Since I'd started the campaign in winter, I used the crinkling of a chip bag to simulate sounds of the party's walkng across the frozen ground...thus if they made their move silently checks, light crunching sounds would be heard from behind the DM's screen.

Well, the rogue causiously stood by the side of the giant beetle's shell, and whispered back to her party in the near total blackness: "Watch this..."

After rolling a 1 on her die, the halfling's blade skidded across the giant insect's side...and the creature promptly rose out of the ground, surprised the group, and trampled her.

More to follow...

[JediOre]

I have not read the last post. Thanks for the "heads-up" spoiler message. Just wanted to let you know this adventure looks very neat. The co-dm owns it & I'm hoping to enjoy this someday. When I do, I hope I can still find this thread.

Mr. Goodman, I again send my complements to you and your talented staff. I own all the DCCs through 12. I haven't read #3 (for the above reasons) and am getting ready to head to bed & read #12 there. Keep up the good work.

slimykuotoan, you guys have fun. A vampire PC??? Is he evil? We have a saying in my little circle of D&D buddies, "the only good bad guy is a dead bad guy! Especially if he has lots of loot!!"

[Dragondesciple]

Spoilers!


And now for a message from one of the heroes.....

Why, the aforementioned Gnome Ranger Boddyknock, of course!

Had a blast in this particular module, but found the deviation from my usual Mage to a Ranger was sorely missed. While the vampire made things difficult (playing in the dark outside is not much fun when trying to outrun OwlBears with short stumpy legs....), there were a lot of opportunities to be creative. We were able to successfully lure the Owls above ground and scare them with the tower.

There were also some key times when we thought it likely that we be stuck in the tower....permanently..... and had to carefully measure the balance between cautiousness and cowardice. Listening to the advice of a particular caged being comes to mind....

All in all, in our adventure, we have managed to keep the tower (after striking a deal with the good-natured, but over-protective Jinni), and our characters are currently looking for a way to fix up the surrounding battlements. Given a better mode of transportation, this could be the first time any of my characters have had a permanent abode.

Our DM, though lacking hygiene and basic interpersonal skills, (not to mention his unsightly wandering left-eye...) has placed us in a real and living world with believable characters and realistic consequences to our actions. It's also nice to know that there's a larger environment and real-world politics evolving around our characters. Somehow, I'm guessing the DM will weave our storyline on towards another possible adventure involving another GG module should we choose to accept that path.

Keep up the interesting situations and creative writing - my characters need situations that don't involve any Fiendish Plane-Touched Half-Gnoll Aracnid Assassin-rogues with particular agendas... and more "Owlbears" or "Crazy Ghosts."

Keep 'em interesting!

[Dragondesciple]

NOOooo ..... ooooooooooo ... OOOOooo OOOOOOOoooo ... ooooooo OOOO ooo OOO OooooOoooo ooooooo OOO... OOOO ooo....