Today’s answers to the check in question will be relevant to the session.
Check-In Question: What is your favorite color, and what is your least favorite color?
- Justice: Favorite is blue, least favorite yellow. Mateen’s favorite color is green, and his least favorite is black.
- Cordelia: My favorite colors are pink and purple. My least favorite is black even though it used to be my favorite. Surina’s favorite color is gold, and her least favorite is black like mine.
- Miranda: Whenever I’m asked this question I always say blue is my favorite, but I have so many favorites. My least favorite is vomit green I guess. Lysithea’s favorite is red cause she grew up in a volcano village. Her least favorite color is cockroach brown.
- Kevin: Favorite yellow. My least favorite is red. Gobble’s favorite is orange, his armor is painted orange. His least favorite is purple.
- Ian: My favorites are black and purple, and least favorite is off-white. Professor’s favorite color is dirt brown. He’s a hermit! His least favorite color is yellow.
- Liz: I love blue and purple. My least favorite is orange. Octavia’s favorite is bright green, and her least favorite color is sand (It gets everywhere).
- Shannon: My favorite is yellow. Least favorite brown. K’un-Lun’s favorite color is yellow, and his least favorite is scarlet red specifically.
- Victor: My favorite is blue. I don’t like black. Draggy likes blue and doesn’t like black.
When we last left the party they had found this weird dungeon, echoing the sounds of gears whirring and clicking. The stone walls feel man made and cold (the stones are made of wall – yes, we still messed with Justice about this). They had walked into a side room with the weird marionette dressed as a jester that came to life and bonked Professor on the head. When Professor hit it back it fell apart, revealing it was stuffed with gears and other mechanisms.
K’un-Lun, who had stayed behind in the Queen’s city to meditate, sprints through the desert and catches up to the party, who then fill him in on what he missed.
Back in the main room Professor tries to use Thieves’ Tools on the left door that was locked (Sleight of Hand, 21). The door unlocks (really hard) and opens. Professor and Surina enter first. They walk in and find 6 barrels, 2 iron doors on the left with script written on them, a giant 10ft wide stone door straight ahead, and another smaller iron door to the right. Besides the barrels and doors, the room is empty. Professor rolls stone cutting (11) and the stones look exactly the same as the other room. They feel cold and the same as before. The rest of the party enters the room.
Lysithea: What do the doors say?
No one can read script on the doors. It looks similar to Elvish, but they can’t read it.
The party gets ready to investigate the barrels when Professor opens one up and causes everyone to roll initiative (Gobbles 18, Octavia 18, Lysithea 19, Surina 7, K’un-Lun 18, Professor 10). The 6 barrels spring to life. They are not Mimics. They look like kegs, but they have helmeted Dwarven heads that pop up and down.
Being Barrel Battle
The barrel Professor touched pops to life and hits him with a mechanical fist, doing 5 damage. There is a keg within 5ft of each party member. Lysithea jumps back…
Lysithea: Ah! Kill it with fire!
…and uses Magic Missile, doing 3 damage to the keg in front of her, 4 to the keg by Professor, and 5 to the one by Surina. Octavia uses her rapier and slashes at her keg, but her sword bounces off the side of the barrel. K’un-Lun back flips in place and lets his Cloak of Billowing billow behind him as he flips, then punches the nearest barrel with a 17, doing 6 damage. His bonus attack hits with a Nat 20 and does 8 more damage for a total of 14 damage. Gobbles takes a second to think about casting Thunderclap, then decides against it. Instead he attacks with his warhammer. He hits with an 18 and does 4 damage. The barrel in front of Octavia swings a fist at her, but misses. The barrel by Surina is leaking a little from the damage it took from Lysithea’s Magic Missile, and it sprays liquid out by its spigot at the party. The liquid smells like a fine cider.
K’un-Lun: Ahhhhh…
Surina, Lysithea and Gobbles are in the path of the spray and have to make a constitution saving throw (Gobbles Nat 20, Lysithea adjusted 20, Surina 12). Surina fails her throw and feels slightly slower. Professor takes a step back and uses Fire Bolt, hitting his barrel with a 14 and doing 6 fire damage. When he hits it the fire singes the wood, but the liquid puts out the flame. The barrel by Lyisthea moves forward and punches her, doing 4 damage. K’un-Lun’s keg attacks him and hits for 4 damage. The barrel by Gobbles attacks but misses. Surina swings her longsword at her barrel, but rolls a Nat 1, so she spends an inspiration to attack again. This time she hits with an adjusted 20 and does 6 damage. The barrel by Professor sprays a small stream at Professor…
Professor: It’s going to stain my shirt!
…but Professor reacts and casts Shield on himself, blocking the attack. Lysithea uses Chill touch and hits her barrel with a 22, doing 6 necrotic damage. Octavia attacks her barrel with her rapier…
Octavia: I’m going to stab at thee!
…hits with a 16 and does 8 damage. K’un-Lun double kicks his barrel with his feet, hits with a 21 and again with a 17, doing 10 damage total. As he kicks the keg bursts open and juice spills all over the ground. When the keg bursts open the others shut down and return to barrel form.
End Barrel Battle
Lysithea: Well that was lovely.
Gobbles tries to pick one up one of the barrels to take with him. They weigh 12 gallons each. He tries to pick one up (strength, 8) and struggles, but the barrel is bigger than he is. Surina makes another constitution saving throw (13) and brushes off all of the sticky liquid that was slowing her. Professor inspects the barrels (investigation 10). He realizes that the barrels are functioning on gears, but also a bit of magic. He rolls arcana (23) and discovers that the barrels work because of the gears, but there’s magic infused in them. He’s never seen this type of magic before, but he can tell that this whole place is running off of this mechanical/fairy dust/hope-and-pray-that-it-works type of magic. He can figure out more if he keeps investigating it, so he will get advantage to checks.
Professor: If it’s okay with everyone I’d like to spend a few hours just drinking and inspecting these barrels.
As he says, “drinking” one of the barrels pops to life, pours a cup, and brings it to Professor. The liquid is a fine, sweet grape juice from a different land. Professor chugs the drink, then makes a constitution check (10). He notices as he drinks that his mustache begins changing color. It changes into this dirt-brown color.
Professor: I look 100 years younger! Look at me!
K’un-Lun: You must have been quite a catch back in the day, Professor.
Professor: You have no idea. *pulls K’un-Lun down to his face*
K’un-Lun: I’m scared. You can’t tell, but I’m scared in my eyes
Surina: Let’s check the big stone door. *knocks on it*
A small slit magically appears in the stone door and a voice says…
Voice: What’s the password?
Gobbles: 12345
Voice: That’s the same combination as my luggage!
The door clicks and opens. The room it opens to is well lit and octagonal in shape. It is made of the same cold stones as the other rooms. There are mats on the ground, and a giant pot (cooking cauldron) in the middle. There is wood under the pot, but it is not lit and there’s no heat coming from it. Whoever asked for the password is not in this room, and the door no longer has a slit.
Gobbles: That’s very comforting.
The party enters the room. The door is still open.
Octavia: I call shenanigans.
K’un-Lun: I’m going to stand in the doorway, just in case.
Lysithea investigates the pot. There’s liquid – an almost but not quite clear, slightly cloudy liquid. The liquid doesn’t really have a smell. Lysithea lights the wood to see what happens. The fire starts and…. nothing else really happens. Professor sits down on a mat, and then the party follows his example. As the party sits the barrel bots from the other room enter, carrying cups. They place a cup filled with purple liquid in front of each party member.
Gobbles: Thank you. *drinks*
He rolls a constitution saving throw (15), and it tastes sweeter than anything he has ever drank.
Gobbles: Sweet.
Gobbles waits to see if something changes on him, but he remains the same. Surina takes a sip (constitution saving throw, 16) and the drink is the sweetest thing she has ever had. Nothing changes on her. Steam rises from the cauldron as the liquid begins to boil. This counted as a short rest, so the party heals. Since nothing else is happening the party returns to the previous room to check the small iron doors. Surina opens the door to the right. This room has 3 large cabinets filled with bowls, mugs, and utensils of all different types – wood, fine china, metal, stone, etc. – quite the variety. It looks like a pantry. Professor takes a wooden mug.
Lysithea: Okay.. this is the weirdest dungeon ever. Is this someone’s house?
Octavia: Like, we are in their pantry and we were in their kitchen a moment ago..
Lysithea: What if we take the utensils and make table settings by the mats?
Octavia: I like the way that Lysithea’s brain ticks.
They each bring utensils of a different type (K’un-Lun steel, Surina stone, Gobbles wood, Lysithea fine china, Octavia fine china, Professor wood). The water is at a rolling boil now. Nothing else happens. Professor takes a ladle, and scoops the boiling water in the bowl. It appears to be slightly cloudy water and nothing more. Professor takes a sip… and it is just water. It’s really hot water so he makes a constitution throw (21) and he drinks it fine. The party returns to the barrel room to try to unlock the other doors. Surina unlocks one of the doors (Sleight of Hand, 15). A burst of cold air hits the party as the door opens. Inside is hanging meat of all kinds. It’s a meat locker. Surina tries to unlock the final door (Sleight of Hand, 15) and succeeds. This room is full of spices and plants from all around the world.
Lysithea: Who can cook?
K’un-Lun (Survival, 21) recognizes some of the spices and meats from when his time. He can cook a meal. He puts together a meal and makes a stew in the pot. As he starts cooking the room fills with the most delicious smelling odors. Suddenly, on each of the 6 mats a creature comes and holds the bowls the party had laid out. The mats with the wooden bowls suddenly bloom flowers, and a magical looking creature appears and starts eating. A dwarf appears alongside rock formations at the mat with the stone utensils. At the mats with the fine china the most beautiful, long-haired figures with sunshine and rainbows appear. At the mat with the metal bowl this blackened, slightly disfigured creature appears and begins eating. The different creatures finish eating, then disappear, leaving a potion in their place. There are 6 potions total. They party check out the potions, but no one can figure out what they are. Gobbles walks over to the wooden potion and drinks it (rolls 1d4). He suddenly doubles in size! He is now the size of a medium creature, and is enlarged for 1 hour. They know they still have at least 1 Potion of Enlargement.
Gobbles: I’m an adult!
Lysithea: I think we should hold on to these.
Gobbles: Hey everybody, if I drink more will I get bigger?
Surina: I don’t think you should drink more.
Lysithea: Let’s take them and go.
The party goes back to the entrance and continues down the hallway. Gobbles closes all the doors they had opened (Perception, 22). He hears giggling, and the food disappears a bit, but then he closes the door. He hears little bangings on the doors.
Gobbles: I’m sure that’s fine. That seems fine.
The party proceeds down the hallway and passes a door that connects to the pantry. They come to another door that is unlocked. Octavia opens the door and a burst of steam hits the party in the face. There’s benches around the edges of the room and stones in the center. It’s a sauna.
Octavia: Oh yeah, I’ve found my room.
It’s steamy, hot, and no one is in there.
Octavia: Y’all go ahead, I’ll be here for an hour. *kidding, not kidding*
Octavia goes into the room. The room feels pleasant, but her armor feels like it’s weighing her down. Her body is relaxing, but the heat is causing her leather armor to feel sweaty. She rolls a constitution check (15) and as she is relaxing she notices something peculiar about her skin. It is changing color! Her skin is turning a bright green!
Lysithea: Well that’s interesting.
K’un-Lun enters the room. The steam is relaxing (constitution check, 13). He is feeling nice and relaxed, when his skin starts turning scarlet red.
K’un-Lun: That’s my least favorite color! No! No!
Lysithea: You guys look like Christmas.
K’un-Lun immediately leaves the sauna, but he is still scarlet red.
K’un-Lun: I am displeased. *scowers at everyone* What is Christmas?
Octavia: You guys should give it a try. It’s pretty fun.
Lysithea: I’m already purple, I’m good.
The party heads down the hallway to another wooden door and opens it. The door opens to a circular room with a lever in the center and 10 doors around the circle. Each door is a different color – purple, dark blue, green, orange, white, light blue, red, yellow, teal, and the door they entered from is black. Surina sees the black door…
Surina: OH NO!
…and the door shuts behind them. K’un-Lun approaches the yellow door because he is easily baited. The door does not budge in the slightest. Octavia approaches the dark blue door and it doesn’t budge. Surina pulls the lever and the entire room starts spinning. Everyone makes an acrobatics check (Gobbles 17, Surina 3, Lysithea 14, K’un-Lun 21, Octavia 9, Professor Nat 1). Octavia and Surina fall on their backs and are dizzy. Professor takes a full-on face plant.
Professor: *speaking with his face in the floor* It must have been something I drank or ate.
He tries to stand up but his head is spinning. There are clicking and whirring sounds as the rooms spins. All of a sudden from above the party spikes appear and begin lowering. The spikes are pretty high up but they will not have much time before they crush the party. Everyone (except for Professor, Octavia and Surina) has enough time to do 1 action. K’un-Lun pushes the lever back but it is hard to move (strength check, 5). He cannot get it to move for the life of him. His ego takes a blow. They notice that the doors are not where they previously were. The colors remain but have traded places. Lysithea checks to see if the purple door is unlocked and it is. As she opens the door she sees a totem that looks like a giant Gorilla. She makes a wisdom saving throw (12) and now takes -1 to strength checks because she feels inadequate to carry the gorilla statue. Gobbles checks the orange door. It opens and a cloud of gas escapes from behind the door. DC constitution throw (original Nat 1, uses inspiration to roll a 14) and he is safe.
Gobbles: Thank you Bahamut and oranges.
K’un-Lun is fighting the lever when all of a sudden it moves again. The room begins spinning in the opposite direction.
K’un-Lun: Get me off this crazy thing!
Acrobatics check (Surina 13, K’un-Lun18, Gobbles 8, Octavia 21, Lysithea 19, Professor 16). Gobbles is now dizzy. The room eventually stops, the spikes are now closer, and the doors have changed places again. Everyone but Gobbles can take an action. Lysithea checks the purple door. A cloud of gas emerges. She makes a constitution saving throw (16) and is safe. Surina opens the yellow door and finds a suit of armor. It looks like Surina’s armor, but shinier. Surina simply closes the door. Octavia opens the dark blue door. A bolt of cold energy blasts out and strikes towards her, barely missing her.
Octavia: Well that was pleasant.
Professor opens the white door. He sees an arcane sigil etched into the wall. Professor inspects it – it is a glowing arcane symbol that he does not recognize. Professor touches the symbol to see if it activates. He feels a glowing energy pulse through him and he heals 2 hit dice. Professor gets a piece of paper and rubs the symbol onto it to copy it. K’un-Lun opens the red door. There is a giant mouth that shoots a spray of fire. He makes a dexterity saving throw (17) and takes only 1 point of fire damage.
K’un-Lun: That mouth is weak.
The party has about 10 seconds until the spikes get down to a dangerous level. There is enough time for 1 person to take 1 action. We elect Surina to take the action. Surina chooses to open the light blue door. Behind the door is an old, rusted warhammer just sitting there. Surina looks at the warhammer and closes the door on it. The spikes are about to touch Surina’s head. Lysithea and Gobbles try using Mage Hand to hold up the spikes and buy the party more time. As soon as the spikes hit the hands the spikes retract and go back up.
Gobbles: We did it!
The black door opens back to the hallway.
Lysithea: Let’s get out of this room quickly please.
Octavia: Yay! Let me out!
Gobbles: Let’s do that again! That was fun!
Sitting in the hallway are 2 big boxes that look like wrapped presents.
Lysithea: I don’t trust that.
K’un-Lun: I’m scared of these boxes.
Octavia shakes one of the boxes. It’s heavy and it sounds like metal clanking.
Lysithea: Give it to Professor.
Professor opens it and finds the rusty warhammer that was behind the light blue door. He takes the rusty warhammer. Lysithea opens the other box cautiously and it contains the shiny metal armor. There is a note as well:
Thanks for being honest and a good sport.
The party decides Draggy should have the warhammer, which turns out to be a berserk hammer in need of repairs. Professor initially wants the armor till he realizes he can’t use it, so it gives it to Draggy. The armor is +1 chain mail. The party continues down the hallway which ends in stairs leading down.
What will be on the floor below? End Session.
Check Out
Spotlight on Another Player:
- Miranda: When Surina saw the black door and screamed OH NO! It was beautifully acted out by Cordelia.
- Kevin: The meal K’un-Lun made was delicious.
- Cordelia: Gobbles growing medium sized.
- Ian: K’un-Lun/Shannon rolling really high tonight.
- Liz: Kevin/Gobbles growing to medium height.
- Shannon: Professor getting chummy with the barrel bot.
- Justice: The politeness of Cordelia knocking on the stone door, and the 12345 password.
A Challenge or Something Learned:
- Miranda: All the Nat 1s…
- Kevin: Trying to figure out the last puzzle with the doors and the colors.
- Cordelia: She had a hard time coming up with an answer for this one again.
- Ian: The spinning room puzzle.
- Liz: I’m still learning the game so puzzles are hard. The cauldron I had no idea what to do.
- Shannon: Being turned scarlet red and I am still scarlet red.
- Justice: Finding a way to design this puzzle so that it was fun and entertaining, but difficult enough so that you wouldn’t get the answer right away. You guys also did the cauldron puzzle in a weird backwards order which made it so much harder than it needed to be.
Prediction or Hope for Next Session:
- Miranda: I am hoping that Cordelia will learn to stop climbing on the table.
- Kevin: Finding the proprietor of this establishment.
- Ian: I want to understand the magic and science that is making this place work.
- Liz: I want to see the mastermind behind this huge place.
- Shannon: I hope I find maybe a weapon like some brass knuckles or something to level up my punches, or that we all level up soon.
- Cordelia: I hope I have an easier time answering questions.
- Justice: I hope you continue to have fun with this place cause it was a joy to create this place of just traps and puzzles.
Analysis: Even though Cordelia didn’t do much speaking today she was very enthusiastic about leading the party. She chose what rooms we went in and in what order. We were all very proud of her when she just walked up to the stone door and knocked on it instead of trying to open it. She was the one to decide when to move on to another room, or to move further down the hallway. She was climbing on the table a bit and playing with the miniatures right on the table while we were trying to figure out some of the puzzles, but other than that she was engaged and eager to explore this crazy dungeon. We were also proud of how she chose to simply close the door on the shiny armor and warhammer instead of trying to take (steal) them. She is still not comfortable with the role playing aspect of the game, but she is definitely becoming more comfortable and confident in taking action outside of combat.