TD017 – Metagame Spiral

04/19/13 • 18 min

The Delvers:

The Dungeon:

Show Outline:

Additional DM Notes:

This session takes place in “Barrowmaze II”
The sharp, piercing weapons doing half damage against against skeletons is a house rule. It’s worth noting this is something The Delvers carried over into Labyrinth Lord, which was fine with me.
In our first Barrowmaze campaign, The Delvers discovered the secret passage under the sarcophagus. I passed this off to their characters as an aside from the Captain who sold them the pirate map. Again, the pirate map is the player’s previous campaign map; the map is not something from me, the Dungeon Master.
The Dwarven Runes were accompanied by an arrow pointing to the exact spot on the wall. No real search was needed; I was not interested in wasting their time in a room they had thoroughly searched with their pirates. On purpose or not, The Delvers decided otherwise.
When searching, Sue looked at the map and saw the arrow. She then went right to the spot, while Tess was looking everywhere else.
After running two Barrowmaze campaigns, the next campaign is not going to use a map that is larger than a single sheet of graph paper.
I was happy to hear that Sue was not making a reference to one of the lamest memes on the internets.
I say with sincerity The Delvers are “lucky” and “prepared” near the end. Are they?
Our Greyhawk Map

Contact: If you have any questions or feedback, please send an email to [email protected]

The Delvers:

The Dungeon:

Show Outline:

Additional DM Notes:

This session takes place in “Barrowmaze II”
The sharp, piercing weapons doing half damage against against skeletons is a house rule. It’s worth noting this is something The Delvers carried over into Labyrinth Lord, which was fine with me.
In our first Barrowmaze campaign, The Delvers discovered the secret passage under the sarcophagus. I passed this off to their characters as an aside from the Captain who sold them the pirate map. Again, the pirate map is the player’s previous campaign map; the map is not something from me, the Dungeon Master.
The Dwarven Runes were accompanied by an arrow pointing to the exact spot on the wall. No real search was needed; I was not interested in wasting their time in a room they had thoroughly searched with their pirates. On purpose or not, The Delvers decided otherwise.
When searching, Sue looked at the map and saw the arrow. She then went right to the spot, while Tess was looking everywhere else.
After running two Barrowmaze campaigns, the next campaign is not going to use a map that is larger than a single sheet of graph paper.
I was happy to hear that Sue was not making a reference to one of the lamest memes on the internets.
I say with sincerity The Delvers are “lucky” and “prepared” near the end. Are they?
Our Greyhawk Map

Contact: If you have any questions or feedback, please send an email to [email protected]

The Delvers:

The Dungeon:

Show Outline:

Additional DM Notes:

First Sapphire Skeleton Encounter:
Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love
Second Sapphire Skeleton Encounter:
Rattle of Bones
It’s worth noting that each sapphire gem (even when shattered) is worth 100 gp.
The Delvers never remember to collect the sapphires. In not so many words, I pointed this out to them in TD009 – Random Encounters; in Circe’s words, “We’re idiots.”
Usually Kay or Sue remind Tess that a cleric can turn. In this case, I inadvertently reminded Tess that both her and the Paladin can turn when I pointed out Paladins can “Lay on Hands.”
In my experience, most players turn undead so the party can escape. Not so with The Delvers.
Gold is spent when items are identified.
Our Greyhawk Map

Contact: If you have any questions or feedback, please send an email to [email protected]

The Delvers:

The Dungeon:

Show Outline:

Additional DM Notes:

For those interested, UO T2A is probably the best representation of “The Way It Was.”
Sue is our Labyrinth Lord, so I bought her a copy of Dyson’s Delves – Limited Edition. At the time, she was using the book to look up Ghoul stats. I didn’t care, but the stats were never going to match, because . . .
The Death Masks the Ghouls are wearing make them more powerful than normal Ghouls.
Facing eight Ghouls, scary. Facing eight Ghouls wearing Death Masks, a heart attack.
If the edit was not clear, Circe switched places with Amber before casting her spell. Dice were rolled; she was not hit by the Ghoul when they switched. I did not cut this out so much as it was just dice rolls in the moment without much verbalization of what was happening.
As mentioned at the end of the last episode, The Delvers’ starting tactic was to use the doorway as a choke point.
Spoiler: Overconfidence leads them to forgo this initial tactic and things go bad.
Our Greyhawk Map