Tuesday, September 4, 2012

D&D Uber Playtest - pt. 6

[This was a short one, as Megan and I only squeezed in an hour of game time. We're still doing AD&D, 1st ed., before switching back to the new version of D&DNext!]

The five adventurers returned to the Caves of Chaos and took stock of their options. They found more entrances concealed by foliage this time, making for a grand total of seven as-yet unexplored cave mouths and one unfinished! But again the adventurers went with what was closest and that proved to be one of the concealed entrances this time.

The kobold lair is the one that most frequently gets encountered when I run module B1, with the goblin lair a close second. So I knew from experience that the hardest thing they were going to encounter in that lair was the pit trap just inside the entrance. Jack the cleric fell in from the second rank of the party, alerting the kobolds in room 1 and the giant rats in room 2. John the cleric was already on the right side of the pit, nearest to the kobolds.

Mary the dwarf fighter leapt the pit and joined John in battle with the kobolds. The kobolds' spears proved useless against platemail armor. Those that stayed in melee got creamed, while those who hung back and flung their spears got to just be useless. Four were killed, one per round, while two ran and escaped.

The rat situation proved more serious. Beau the halfling thief and Ernil the elf magic-user tried to stem the rat tide with sling bullets and a Magic Missile, but three giant rats still scurried down into the pit to attack Jack. And for four rounds, Jack held his own, even though the rats outnumbered him and he was soon down to half his hp.

Megan was not interested in a prolonged fight with rats, however. John and Mary retreated back over the corner of the pit, Jack was pulled out of the pit, and the adventurers retreated back out into the ravine, crossing this cave mouth off their list for now.