We got to play again! We were told our laughter could be heard down the hall through two closed doors, something I consider a win. Once classes start back up, we may need to tone it down a bit.
Earlier logs are here: one, two, three, four, five.
Summary: met a new NPC, went upstairs, met three more NPCs, then killed them.
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Chesire Cat
The party stood in front of a statue of a wizard, right arm extended and hand upright (waiting for a high-five, perhaps), and the left holding a large book, a book that is chained to the statue's waist.
Before the PCs (Varda, mostly, with an assist from Daffyd) could do much investigating, they heard a voice, followed by seeing a smile, then eyes, then the rest of the Chesire Cat appear and a conversation ensued. The major question asked by the players being "is this the cartoon or live action Chesire Cat?"
Disney's cartoon, of course.
As the Chesire Cat disappeared, it implied it would be watching the party, as they were so very entertaining.
It gone, the PCs got back to the important business of examining the statue and looting it of hidden treasure.
Part of the examination involved high-fiving the statue, so as I held out my hand (roleplaying the statue, naturally) I planned to describe a mild electric shock. Instead, real life intervened and when our hands touched, there was audible static shock, derailing all of us with laughter.
That done, the PCs determined how to open the cover of the book, which was basically a stone box. Within it, they found a leather-wrapped candle in the shape of a wizard, with the wick poking out of its pointy hat.
As they agonized over what to do with the candle, Dave's ring pulsed upon his finger, and he suddenly had the idea that he should light the candle (which he didn't do). DM note - the ring is a Ring of Uffish Thought, and when the players are dithering, it pulses and the wearer has a DM-provided idea about what to do next; not necessarily THE answer, but a possible answer to their dilemma. There is no requirement they follow through on the idea.
Now possessing a Little Wax Wizard, Varda tucked it away in her pack rather than light it. It's like the players don't quite trust me!
Finished with the statue, the explorers moved to the staircase heading up.
But again, failed to search it.
Alas...
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Upstairs
At the top of the stairs, the party found themselves on a landing, with a stone wall to their left, a heavy curtain to their right, and another staircase headed down in front of them. They sent Dack the Boar with Daffyd the head under the curtain as a reconnaissance team of sorts. Hearing no combat, the rest of the team joined them in a large chamber, with a single large heavy curtain concealing the stairs landing, and a pair of large double doors to the north.
Varda's infravision revealed what appeared to be three moving heat sources on the far side of the door - she could see it through the crack between door bottom and floor. With this information, the party hatched a plan.
Opening the doors let the PCs, led by Varda, see three pig-head orcs (porcs?). The orcs, on the other hand, only saw her and a few others (DM note - I didn't consider what the orcs would see with their infravision). The reaction roll was middling, so the orcs were willing to talk, but since Varda is an elf (whose player doesn't know the lore involving Gruumsh, Corellon, and an eye), they weren't particularly kind. Negotiations broke down when bribes/tolls were demanded, and the fight was on!
It was a terrible fight, with many rolls on both sides below 8. Eventually, the PCs prevailed, with Dack the Boar charging the lead orc and knocking it prone and Dave charging a second, grabbing an arrow out of the door (from a botched ranged attack) all Legolas-style and stabbing the orc with it. Roro finished the prone orc by driving the Cutlass Sierra through its face and head, then spent the rest of the fight throwing brain matter at people. Varda and Alistar double-teamed an orc, and the last orc standing traded blows for several rounds until Dack put it down.
The orcs passed morale checks throughout, to their demise.
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Brains!
The brutal assault on the orcs finished, Roro found herself with a handful of orc-brain left, so she threw it at Brother Frank, rolling a natural 20, which resulted in Frank catching much of it in his mouth, mid-praising Avrae. This in turn caused Brother Frank to start puking his guts up and our laughter to be heard waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the hall.
After recovering, Brother Frank pointed at Roro and gave her an angry glare. It's a good thing first- level clerics cannot cast spells in BX, or Roro might have caught one!
While the brains were being thrown about, the orc corpses were looted, using a repurposed random table. Not much of value was found.
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Treasure recovered this session was minimal: the wizard candle, a scroll (actually a map, but they didn't open it), a large full wineskin, and three orc scimitars (Alistar kept one) - I won't be using that random table for loot again. Maybe I can find that die-drop loot table I printed from Run from Kelvin's Brainsplurge! (Dyson reformatted it) before next session.
MVP for the session was Roro, for the natural 20 when throwing brains at Brother Frank. We laughed LOTS at that.
Describing what Varda sees with Infravision makes things interesting. It might be time for me to do research beyond my very fuzzy experience with thermal cameras from years ago. Thermal cameras are fun - I ended up down a rabbit hole of watching videos of people farting, belching, and peeing through a thermal lens. Humans generate lots of heat.
I also found this (italics and boldface mine) online, here. That said, its original source is likely the AD&D DMG:
"Creatures with infravisual capability of unusual nature, such as those which see infravisually to 90', are actually emitting infrared radiation from their eyes and seeing what is within this visual range by receiving the reflected radiation. Such creatures can easily distinguish floor, ceiling, wall, and other areas, as well as furnishings within an area. The eyes of all such creatures will appear as very brightly glowing red when observed by any other creature with standard infravision. Most monsters inhabiting underground areas will have this form of infravision."
Next time, I will be more deliberate in my use of infravision.
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