Things started off innocently enough, a farmer came running into town, looking a bit scorched, talking about an earthquake having opened a crevasse in his cornfield, and how it was spewing forth flame spitting little creatures. The village elders drew lots, and the 16 party members became the official militia.
They set off to the farm, and encountered a pair of the little jerks fornicating in the cornfield. They slew them, but lost 2 of their own in the process.
It had begun.
Honestly, they were more deadly to themselves than the monsters. Two particular instances proved deadlier than any demon of the depths I could conjure.
1. Pitpocalypse
The party were crawling through a tunnel with an extremely low ceiling, when they encountered a giant white tunneling worm. It saw them and dove downwards, creating a gap they had to cross. The lead party member tied a rope to his ankle, and they crossed, one by one. Agility check to make it. If you fail, a luck check to grab the rope before you fall, but then the person on both sides of the gap needed to make a Strength check to keep from getting pulled in by the weight. All was going swimmingly, until the very last person, Sorcia, the wannabe Witch. She failed the Agility check but passed her Luck check. Petunia, the urchin who had collected vast quantities of corn from the field and was presumably distracted by her newfound fortune, failed her Strength check, and was yanked into the pit as well. The lead character with the rope tied around his ankle, had his leg jerked from beneath him and fell forward, taking enough damage to kill him, presumably as he smacked his face into the ground, driving his nose into his brain and sending the body sliding back through the rest of the group taking them with him as he slid into the pit. This set off a chain reaction, as one party member after the next tumbled into the pit. Altogether, almost a full third of the party was lost in what became known as, Pitpocalypse.
2. Piqued Oil
Again, the party's fault more than mine. Faced with an overwhelming force of Imps, they decided to break out a flask of oil and go for an area attack. The PC wanted to take it from another PC, light it and throw it. I said that was too many actions for one round, so he got clever. Making use of his multiple PCs, he comes up with the idea, "One PC takes it from another, hands it to another PC who lights it, who hands it to another who throws it." One action each, voila! While I grumbled, I couldn't argue the logic, and so the flask was passed, lit and thrown. And they fumbled. Checking the table, it seemed that the weapon was faulty. There was a crack in the flask, and as it had been passed around the party, it had left a trail of oil behind it. When it was lit, a conflagration enveloped the party, and even more died a horrible, flamey death.
Other choice quotes from the evening:
- The book contained secrets not meant for the eyes of a baker...
- What's a gongfarmer?
- Okay, so what's nightsoil?
- I take the helmet off of the dead orphan
- We've all had our fun eating human flesh, but now it's time to move on
- C'mon, of course I can sneak! Haven't you heard the expression, "Silent as a barber"?
- I make sure to have my Vampirella outfit on when I perform the ritual
They've all hit level one, except for Kaye, so much of the hilarity of zero level adventuring is gone, now we get to the serious stuff.
More on this group as it develops...
I had a great time playing it! I never knew death could be so entertaining! You did a great job running it!
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