Goodman Games

My players finally entered Rathulagon's lair last session. The Barbarian and the Rogue went to scout the bridge. Halfway across the Barbarian fell into the water and the Rogue managed to catch the railing. A lightning bolt hit the water and an electrified chainmail-wearing Barbarian began sinking to the bottom, alive, but not a swimmer. The Ranger began trying to help the Barbarian out of the water. The Paladin, Cleric and Wizard on the Eastern beach experienced a brutal rain of stalactites loosened by R.'s breath. The wizard cast a fog cloud to conceal them (against blindsight?) as they crossed the bridge. Another rain of stalactites showered the bridge. All this time R. stayed beyond their vision and they could only see brief illuminations of his visage when a lightning bolt came their way.The players took their time healing each other and laying down numerous buffing spells on each other. The Ranger headed up the beach by himself to confront R. who rolled a boulder at him for his trouble. R. did a lot of flyby attacks, chomping on people and then moving beyond the range of their weapons, letting loose another breath weapon when he could. With mage armor, R. proved nearly impossible to hit most of the time. The wizard nailed him with a fireball. A few arrows found their mark. At one point R. landed to lash out all his attacks on the party, and got hit several times himself in the flurry. The tide really turned when R. got nailed to full effect by a ray of exhaustion. That really took the wind out of his sails. The Ranger, who is an Aasimar flew up and they tussled in the sky. Eventually R. was down to 25 hp and he fled up the chimney, but not before frying the enlarged Barbarian down to -9 when the session ended for the night.

The players hated the stalactite showers. They argued that lightning wouldn't create such a shower of debris, argued that their was no way that multiple stalactites of 2d6 and 3d6 damage could all be falling in five foot squares. That was the part of the combat where they really cried foul, and those stalactites messed them up and brought many of them the closest to death. Several characters spent most of the combat healing or being healed. Otherwise, there would have been a pile of corpses.

At this point the party have cleared out the Trogs, spanked the dragon, and the dragon prefers desert climes anyway, which is exactly what is on the Western side of the mountains, so he will probably head off that way, which just so happens to be where the players are going next, to foul the plans of the Great Caliph of the Efreet. They killed the Djinn at the end of the Mysterious Tower, and the rumor grew until it was an Efreet, and so they were sought out by a champion from the Western lands for their experience. Of course they still have to get the censer back to Wildsgate on one side of the mountain pass protected by Whitefang Stronghold. Lady Aborn is still out there with her army, and she doesn't want the censer to be used in the coronation of her half-brother, the recovered Baron. Azubal the goblin vampire is still hunkering for revenge before the players leave the area, and quite a few people in Wildsgate probably want to get their hands on some of that dragon's hoard. Out of the frying pan . . .

IK

Sounds like an impressive combat, IK. Thanks for the synopsis!
(I can say with confidence that all the DCC authors like reading about experiences had with their adventures. It improves the writer, and keeps one from writing in a vacuum, so to speak.) So keep those tales coming—I'd be delighted to hear more such stories (especially if any PCs located the hidden temple).



The players' gripe is understandable. That said, this was the climatic fight. Many classic modules featured heavy "ceiling damage"; Gygax's Frost Giant module features a cave where each PCs take 3-30 damage—no save—if any sound is made therein and an adjoining cave where the PCs can each take 6-60 points in a similar fashion! I was going for that angle, though perhaps a bit lighter. I suppose you could have ruled that only one stalactite could hit each PC for a greater amount of damage—say 4d6—but it's pretty much the same result. This brings to mind the climax of the second Brendan Fraser Mummy film, The Mummy Returns, wherein an amazing amount of debris is raining down from the ceiling at our heroes. A little bit over the top perhaps, but it made for a great scene!

Thanks again for the update. It sounds like you've woven a great tapestry of DCC adventures for your players.

Had this module for over a year, and I can't wait to run it. We're just about to finish the Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho, then the heroes will go through Secret of the Stonearm... then they'll face the Scaly God.

I hope your party is still relatively intact after the first two modules named Jezza, they'll probably need to be!
Otherwise they may never leave the Dragonspires alive...