DCC 35A Halls of the Minotaur- TPK

CharlieRock · Post by **CharlieRock** » Mon May 21, 2007 9:17 am

*Spoilers*

My team took a rather unexpected route into the tower. They actually managed to make it upriver using ropes and well rolled swim checks. After landing on the beach and discovering the fun of a kobold style beach party they rested and continued into the dungeon.
Up till now the only dead character was the halfling expert who drowned. Having sleep casted on you while swimming can result in injury or dweth.
Then they ran into that honor guard unit. The resultant battle led to the deaths of the rest of the team.
It was a very close fight. None of the characters were in danger of bleeding to death due to the actions of the gnome adept in the team. However when it came down to him and the elf apprentice vs. the final kobold , the dice favored the dragon-kin.

It was a lot of fun though. We will be doing 0-level characters in the future. But for now the players want to play their old (8th level) characters or start someone at 1st.

Ken Hart · Post by **Ken Hart** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:53 pm

Charlie,

Sorry to hear that. Yeah, the honor guard is a tough opponent, and they can be overcome ... unless the Dice Gods are feeling malicious that night. When I ran my players through this about three months ago, they were on the beach, too. The sneaky halfling expert peeked around the corner and saw the honor guard first. He came back and informed the others. They then lured the honor guard down toward the beach, where the PCs were able to get a surprise round of ranged attacks off as the kobolds descended the stairs.

They fared much less well with the Kobold King and his entourage. It would have led to a TPK, but I had the King order subdual attacks in order to interrogate and torture the PCs later on. At the same time, a new player was entering the mountain, so with that distraction, I gave the halfling expert one chance to escape his bonds (he was the only PC with the Dex and Escape Artist ranks to have any shot at getting out of their bonds) -- and he made it.

It was a narrow, but fun escape for the PCs ... but the players were very happy to finally gain their first "regular" level and more hit points.

Post by **Harley Stroh** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:24 am

Oof. Sorry to read about the TPK, Rock.

Props to your PCs for a creative back door entrance.

The 0-level encounters are dicey in the "dice" sense of the word. I've had people tell me that the adventure was way too easy, but just as often I hear about TPKs.

Definitely not for the faint of heart.

//H