Cauldron Con AAR: Day 2

Greetings again blogland! Cauldron Con was so awesome that a full report could not be contained in one post. Read on for...


DAY 2

Waking up early, I frantically cleaned up my pregen character sheets to return them to factory settings, since I only brought one set for the two games! [Apologies to those who wanted to keep their sheets from the first game, this is a mistake I won't make again.]

With everything in place, I hunted down some coffee and got into character. After the previous day's session I knew I would be fine, so we dove right in to...


***

Saturday Block I
Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen

DM: Me

Players:

Premier - Edward the Scissorhands II, fighter 5 and his henchman Wigmund & John Magic II, M-U 5
Chomy - Arok II, ranger 5 & Torglol, elf fighter 4/M-U 4
Bexter - Berwick II, cleric 5 
Der Oger - Wicked Joe, assassin 5
Vorpal Mace - John Magic II, M-U 5 (late arrival, Premier handed off one character at this point)

With a smaller group, I let a few players bring an extra character to bring the total PCs up to six.

I gave the group the same preamble (see Part 1) and we were off!

The party checked out the Meeting Room briefly and scooped up a few pieces of treasure, then moved across to the Hall of Primaries. They ducked past a few glowing butterflies and examined the objects in the room briefly, but couldn't come up with a plan to open the sealed door. They decided to move on quickly [smart move in a time-limited convention game!].

They progressed through the long hall and turned a group of skeletons who fled the sanctum and were destroyed by a massive lightning strike on the balcony [a lucky roll!]. The same lightning frightened a pack of glowing butterflies, leaving the way clear. The group turned the skeletons lurking in the Room of Night, and found an invitation on an adventurer's corpse.

In a departure from the previous group's play, the party returned to the entry room and showed their invitation to the butlers. The helpful servants brought the party upstairs to the Trophy Room, explaining that the Queen was further above but they were not permitted to enter. The group also asked the butlers many questions about the sanctum, learning about the queen's alchemist (who works in the basement) and the general of her armies (not seen for many years).

Opening the gold & silver doors to the grand throne room, the group carefully approached the apparently-dead queen in formation. Berwick II got close enough to breathe in her poisonous aura. I forget what exactly they did to disturb her but the undead monarch woke up, and the fight was on! The witch-queen gave a better account of herself this time [casting Invisibility on the first round, then summoning more skeletons] but between a Fireball from John Magic II, a few tense melee rounds for Wicked Joe and Arok II, Silence 15' Radius from Berwick II, and well-timed use of a Potion of Flying by Edward to fly outside the arena and attack from the rear, the queen was slain and her treasure [what wasn't melted by the Fireball] looted!

With this victory achieved early, the group investigated the throne room. Berwick II stepped upon the golden stairs and failed 2 saving throws! His spirit was split into pure good (ascending to the sun, never to return) and pure evil (a 1 HD skeleton, easily destroyed by Edward). Before he vanished into the rapturous heavens, Berwick II's player was allowed one question, which the DM had to answer with perfect truth:

Bexter, without hesitation: "What is the alchemist's stat block?"

Me: "HEY, have you read this adventure or what?!?"

After assuring me he hadn't, I explained that this was an excellent question: I opened the OSRIC book to the Glabrezu entry and the players decided they would be mighty careful dealing with the queen's alchemist!

Around this point, Vorpal Mace showed up and somebody passed him a character sheet. Bexter was handed Arok II to replace the departed Berwick II, and we were back in action.

Using the gold sun key they took from the queen, the party bluffed their way past a few talking statues and took the stairs all the way to the basement. They were accosted by an old man behind bars, begging to be freed - the queen's alchemist! They scammed him out of a bit of gold but had no intention of setting the demon loose.

Exploring the prison using the Queen's Key, they discovered a room with a puddle of mercury that took the form of a knight, electing to seal the door shut when it made an aggressive move. They rescued an old monk named Ernas who had been trapped by the queen for many years and made immortal by his trip up the golden stairs.

Around that point we were running out of time, and luckily for the group they had Ernas with them and he knew the password to the teleporter!

Great and tight play by these guys, especially in the battle with the queen. They saw a different slice of the dungeon than any other group and were the only players to try out the stairs or make their way into the basement!

[Full breakdown of treasure, etc. in its own post later!]

With another successful delve, we turned our attention to lunch. More laughs were had around the tables, folks regaling us with thrills & spills of their games. GusB was convinced that our group had secured the Blackrazor Cup in our game the day before, especially after hearing about the disastrous run Prince and Parti had (they went into the pit of wights, dear god!). I was fairly confident, but prepared for a surprise (wait for Part 3).

I reached the signup sheets near the back of the line and saw that most games were full already! Then I espied an adventure that looked very cool, and signed up for...


***

Saturday Block II
Caul's Dark Citadel

DM: Jonathan Becker


Players:
(sorry, I didn't write down everyone's characters!)

Me - Sheila, thief 6/cleric 6
Doof - magic-user

Theo - fighter I think

Michael S.

Martin

Hening
Grutzi - cleric 5

I saw that Becker had run Anthony Huso's adventure The Silver Temple of Transcendent Flame the previous day, so I had my suspicions about what would happen. I was not disappointed!

The antipaladin Caul, Flayer of Men (a villain from Huso's original Esoteric Order of the Twilight Princess home campaign) had kidnapped the Divine Child, and was holding it in his evil castle. Our job was to break in, steal the child back and escape!

As a diehard Huso fan, I was obviously all-in for this. Having read and immersed myself in the original play reports, this felt like having a chance to go back and fight Darth Vader before the first Star Wars movie!

Our characters were Becker's interpretation of the cast of the '80s D&D cartoon, now all grown up. This was a bit odd, since Huso's adventures are usually pretty dark - it seemed like a tonal mismatch. Having no knowledge of the cartoon myself, I grabbed the first sheet that said 'cleric' on it, and got a dual-classed thief/cleric with Boots of Elvenkind and - a Cloak of Invisibility? Now we're talking!

Sheila turned out to be sick as hell. Her invisibility cloak had unlimited uses, so I spent my time way out in front of the group, scouting out the situation invisibly. Many backstabs were dealt out, and much advance warning gained about upcoming problems in the dungeon.

Sheila climbed up to the top tower of the fortress and let a rope down. A single half-elf was lurking, and once the group got his attention a tense confrontation began. As soon as he reached for an item, it was backstabbing time! He turned out to be a tough cookie (an assassin with a Potion of Speed throwing 6 poisoned darts in one round, luckily we all made our saves) but soon he surrendered and we pumped him for information about Caul, his associates and underlings (including a drow witch), and some kind of "giant mutant crustaceans." Hmm...

Mapping this place turned out to be a real problem. Caul's fortress had clearly been constructed with infernal assistance - hallways and stairs looped up and down over each other with no rhyme or reason. Every NPC we asked about the fortress would respond "well, this place is kind of strange..." until Becker was, with a grin, repeating the line to a chorus of groans from the players! 

[The only complaint I have about this group is that we spent too much time talking to NPCs. I understand the impulse to make sense of a strange area - after all information is power - but there comes a point when the most useful details have been extracted and it's time to move on.]

The group wandered the twisting halls of Caul's citadel. I tried to use Locate Object to find the drow witch's sanctum, but it did not work. We rescued some slaves and got a few details. Then we came to the Great Hall, where we knew Caul held court. It was time to take down the villain (honestly, all I cared about at this point in the adventure).

We had two characters in disguise enter the hall, along with an invisible Sheila. Unfortunately for us, the Flayer of Men was not deceived - he ordered his gnolls to seize us! Sheila ran back down the stairs to tell the rest of the group and there was a mad scramble for a fighting position at the doorway.

At this point I was so stoked that it was impossible to contain myself, I was vibrating in my seat. I hope my excitement did not render me too much of a pain in the ass at the table...

While most of the group battled the gnolls, Sheila snuck up behind Caul and hit him with a Hold Person spell [he failed his saving throw, rolling a 2!]. Once again the feared antipaladin had been brought low, and in the same manner as in Huso's home game!

[Cue George Lucas saying: "It's like poetry. It rhymes."]

After the battle our fighter [run by Theo, IIRC] put on Caul's armour and posed as the master of the castle. After a short detour to the slave pens to fight the ogre slave-master [and good use of Speak with Dead by Grutzi] we progressed to the final confrontation in the drow witch's sanctum. 

We had concocted a great plan. Our illusionist disguised us as gnoll troops with Spectral Force and we accompanied "Caul," following at a respectful distance. Our fighter started a conversation, walked right up to the witch and used his magical shield to create a dome of force, trapping her inside with him. Welcome to the thunderdome, baby!!!

At this point we unleashed as much power as we could and the fight escalated quickly: the evil cultists were targeted with a barrage of Hold Person spells, the monk grabbed the Divine Child and ran, while the rumoured Giant Mutant Crustaceans emerged from all around us, pincers ready! Sheila ran after the monk invisibly to provide backup while the rest of the group used spells, special abilities and some great attack rolls to destroy the gigantic man-eating crabs.

When the battle was done, the witch surrendered. Our fighter stripped her of her gear and spared her life with the following words:

"Return to the under-realms that spawned you, and know that your queen just witnessed your defeat!"

Awesome. Becker ran a tight ship, and the rest of the players were on the ball, coming up with really good plans and schemes, one after another. At this point the session had run long by about 20 minutes - we were late for dinner! Flushed with victory, we filled out some feedback sheets and hauled ass down to...

***

Dinner & The Auction

We laughed, we cried, we spent a mountain of Euros!

Dinner was roast pig, a patrician choice by the convention. Because I was late, I didn't eat as much as I should have. After Becker's game I was flying high on the thrill of victory, buckets of coffee, adrenaline, and a few beers on an empty stomach. This explains a little bit of what came next...

Settembrini held forth masterfully, describing the merits of every item and its place in gaming history. Many folks had donated games from their own collections, even pieces of original artwork!

An array of games both old and new appeared on the block. Some old Das Schwarz Auge material was snapped up (great to see some national pride from the Germans for their own homegrown RPG). Several classic Judges Guild books (Castles II and Temples, IIRC) disappeared in the blink of an eye, the prices raising so fast that I was left breathless, unable to even bid!

I steeled myself and resolved to get in on the action. Assisting in this plan, Chomy placed an assortment of Hungarian liquors on the table with a conspiratorial smile, inviting me to sample the various flavours. They were all quite smooth, and I was certain none of them had been made in a bathtub. At the same time, Becker slid a bottle of some kind of fancy high-proof American whisky down the table for us to try.

The contest was on! After throwing out a few numbers and being outbid at every turn, I found myself in a neck-and-neck contest with a German at another table who would simply add 1 Euro to my own bid in a vicious campaign to troll me (and raise more money for the Con, I'll wager...). With Parti banging on the glass behind me and waving his wallet, Prince slapping me on the shoulder, and the crowd's noise urging me to ever greater boldness, I persisted and won an original piece of Andrew W's artwork: the town of Silvash from Melan's Cloister of the Frog God!

At this juncture a bottle of Jamieson appeared in front of me as if by magic (another Irish trick by Lynchpin, I suspect). Flushed with success I threw out more bids, won a purple and gold Cauldron dice bag and pumped the numbers up on several more lots without winning them. Even losing at this auction was great fun, cheers to all the participants who scored so many great items!

It is at about this point, dear reader, that your narrator slowly - and then rapidly - lost the thread of his tale. Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, wandering on roads that I dare not tell...


.


..


...


I regained my senses outside in the fresh air and had a nice chat with Chomy, who was kind enough to look after me. Perhaps he felt some nagging guilt for introducing this effete Anglo to his devastating Eastern European concoctions?

Either way, I was rendered totally incapable of playing in Attronarch's game in Block III (the only disappointment of the con, I really wanted to see how he does the Wilderlands!) and retired with some water and a few extra-strength Advil, thankful that I hadn't caused an excessive amount of mayhem.

To get a true sense of the experience, consult:


PALINKA MISCIBILITY TABLE (d6*d20):

1 - [SLURS]

2 - have a pleasant conversation

3 - go to bed early

4 - say "I'll tell you what, bud!" and then fall over

5 - leave unidentifiable crud on character sheet

6 - fight a Turk

7 - punch whoever is sitting next to you

8 - bid 2x more than planned

9 - run out of darts, stop rolling immediately

10 - throw up during a game

11 - swear to never drink again... and this time, mean it

12 - bidding war with a German

13 - raise the roof

14 - off-colour jokes during auction

15-17 - shout "HELL YEAH!" after anyone says anything

18 - wake up feeling pretty okay, considering

19 - swear revenge on duplicitious potion vendor

20 - death in 2d6 turns


Stay tuned for the senses-shattering conclusion of DAY 3!!!