Kids Game Report - Session 10

GEOFF GAME (The Kids)

Current Cast of Characters:
Soap the Wizard:  MU-3, played by L age 8
Glass the Second: T-1, played by B, age 8
Arden the Elf: E1, played by Z, age 9
Topaz the Fighter: F1, played by G, age 9
Henry the Conqueror: F1, played by J, age 10
Lennon the Dwarf: D2, played by D, age8
Morgan:  E2, played by Adam – a dad
Wallaby:  H1, played by Bo - a dad
Friar Shane:  C1, played by Jeff - a dad

Serge:   F-3, henchman to Soap

We've been playing an intermittent kid's D&D game over 6 months; the previous session reports are over at Dragonsfoot.  Due to the extremely high mortality rate, the fact that the kids play only 1-2 times per month, and the games are limited to about 2 hours, advancement has been fairly slow.

Quick campaign recap: 
After taking on a job as caravan guards, the group left Geoff and traveled across the Sea of Dust.  They became lost in a sandstorm and discovered the Lost City (module B4).  The descendants of the ruined city live deep underground, dark-dwelling humans know as Cynidiceans.  The pyramid is now home to different factions of the Cynidiceans.  After exploring the upper two levels, the kids made friends with members of the Brotherhood of Gorm, an ancient cult of the Cynidiceans trying to restore the old ways of the culture.  The three ancient gods of Cynidicea are Gorm, Usamigaras, and Madarua, but the decadent elements in the culture turned to the worship of a demon, Zargon.

Unfortunately, the Brothers of Gorm have a grudge against magic users, and when the group's resident chaotic magic user, Soap, heard that the Brothers hate magic, he tried to plunge a dagger into the back of the leader of Gorm, yelling  "Death to Gorm the oppressor of magic!"  Soap was subdued and imprisoned; that's about where we resumed.

*****

Arden's player must have been thinking about the game between sessions, because he came into this session with a bold plan.  "We need to figure out how to get the Brotherhood of Gorm and the other factions working together against the Priests of Zargon.  If we can convince them to let Soap go, Soap can help us make an alliance with the Magi of Usamigaras."  It was some excellent role playing, especially because the 9 year olds are usually a bit shy when it comes to talking to NPCs.  Arden articulated his plan to Kanadius, leader of the Brotherhood, and managed to free Soap, negotiate a truce with the Magic of Usamigaras, and got the two groups to agree to work together.  The party promised the Brothers and Magi that they would track down the Priest of Zargon that was terrorizing the factions in the pyramid.

The Brothers had a base on the second tier of the pyarmid, the Magi had their hideout on the third tier of the pyramid, and the groups believed the Priest of Zargon would be found on the larger fourth or fifth tiers.  The Magi guided the party to the entrance down to the fourth tier and wished them luck.

The fourth level of the pyramid was dark and fairly quiet.  The corridors were dusty and formed from huge dressed blocks of stone.  After descending a ramp, heading out into the corridors, and finding a room, they were attacked by a dozen or so skeletons that moved from their waiting guard positions.

They quickly smashed most of the skeletons and Friar Shane turned the last few, which were also quickly destroyed.  Then the kids went into action.

Lennon the Dwarf wanted more fighting and started smacking the flat of his axe on the wall and howling.  Henry the Conqueror upped the ante by picking up various pottery jars from around the room and smashing them to make more noise.  Just in case that wasn't enough chaos, Soap started yelling, "Monsters, monsters, come and get us, come and eat us", or something similar.  They shouldn't have been surprised when a pack of screaming rock baboons burst through the door.

Soap got nailed in the head by a rock and dropped unconscious; everyone else ducked or absorbed the impact of the rocks, and the battle was on.  It raged for a turn or two, until the cleric was able to give the magic user a Cure Light Wounds, and he recovered enough to Sleep the baboons.  At this point, a few of the dads started in with the lecture, "We're trying to avoid monsters and stay alive, not attract them.."

Their next exciting moment came when they found a spectacular sarcophagus room - a sarcophagus on a dais, surrounded by burning brass urns, and pillars that supported a marble dome over the dais.  Spectacular.  The kid's reaction to the room was here: tomb robbers.

When they exited the room through the other door and started down another corridor, a rolling boulder trap was triggered.  The hallway shook as the huge round rock rumbled side to side in the hallway, dust dropped from the ceiling, and then a massive 10' diameter sphere, filling the whole passage, rolled to the edge of the latern light.

I gave the table time to discuss.

A few plans were discussed, but someone (one of the dads, I'm sure) pointed out that if everyone just jumped back into the room, the boulder would pass harmlessly by.  I started to go around the table to ask actions.  Soap, Morgan, Serge, Shane, Arden, Topaz, Glass, Wallaby… all back into the room.  Then I got to Lennon.

"I start humming Indiana Jones and run down the hall in front of the boulder".  You're kinda slow buddy, you're a dwarf.  In plate mail.  Carrying a ton of gear.  "I don't care", said Lennon.  "I do it too", blurts out Henry the Conqueror.  And both kids start humming Indiana Jones, ignoring the pleas from their dad that this wasn't such a great idea.  Meanwhile, Soap decides to run back into the corridor after the boulder passed, to see what happened to his friends and jump in on the "fun".

Thump-thump, squelch.  Uh oh, I think it rolled over Lennon.

Meanwhile, Henry found himself running (alone) into the dark, since Soap had carried the group's lantern back into the room with him.  "I just keep running as fast as I can straight ahead", said Henry,"I don't want the boulder to catch me like Lennon".  The boulder was right behind him.

The problem with sprinting in the pitch dark, is when the corridor turns, there's a stone wall right in front of you.  I gave him a save vs paralysis to see if he was able to shake off the effect of running face first into a stone wall in the dark, and get out of the way of the boulder before it smashed into him a few seconds later.

When Soap made it that far (hundreds of feet down a dark corridor from the party's room) all he could see was an arm reaching out from behind the boulder.  Boulder 2-0.

"Well, what have we here?  A lonely human all alone in the dungeon, without any armor or weapons?"

A group of hobgoblins with spears were attracted to all the noise, and they proceeded to stick spear points into Soap's face.  "I totally give up, and can fork over some treasure", Soap answered in hobgoblin, flashing a cheesy grin.

"Hey, he speaks the lingo - he's like a goblin brother", said the hobgoblins, rolling an 11 on the reaction roll.  (Friendly).  I decided that 'friendly' hobgoblins would take Soap's backpack and equipment belt, and leave him standing in the dark with just his lantern.  "The Priest of Zargon thanks you for your contribution", said the hobgoblins, and they sauntered off laughing.

"That wasn't so bad", said Soap, as he headed back up the corridor. "Are you kidding?", pointed out the DM.  "Those hobgoblins walked off with your spell book and your wand of magic detection".

Groan.  "Soap would want to kill himself", said the player, "but now I don't even have a knife!"

We ended when dead Henry's player declared, "Ha ha, Soap got mugged.  By hobgoblins."

Dm's note: 
After the session, I realized Lennon might have been able to get away - his movement rate is only 20' per round, but with running he might have stayed a little ahead of the boulder, and with infravision he wouldn't have run head first into a stone wall like Henry.  I'll have to chat with the kiddo, see if he wants to make another level 2 guy.