My current plans are as follows:
(as of 10-24-05)Whenever a game is canceled or the right people feel like roleplaying, I will be running A Grim Task. No material is prepared beforehand, it is all spur-of-the-moment for me, and uses the same characters as the ones in Frank's Warcraft D&D game. General perameters: The PCs are outfited with awesome magical weapons/armor for their level, and face terrible opponents/traps that, for the most part, involve one-hit kills. Players respawn two rounds after death at specific checkpoints, and they record the number of deaths they have incurred. Depending on the length of the session, after a certain amount of deaths, the player will be out of the game (for the session). This is a large number. Creative solutions to puzzles are rewarded with unexpected results.
The Scene:
The world is in peril, as usual. Years ago, armies of evil creatures swarmed down the steep slopes of Mt. Gloom, bringing terror and death to the world. The forces of good were scattered and for a time, the outlook was bleak. However, hope never died, and the forces of good united, pushing the vile creatures back.
Now, the forces of good are camped near the summit of Mt. Gloom. However, this advance has depleted them. Evil creatures of all shapes and sizes continue to enter this world from the mist-covered peak, leading tacticians to believe that instead of a castle at the peak (which is what was originally assumed), there might be a portal to some evil dimention. The forces of good are unable to advance any further and, if this invasion continues, their ranks might be broken and evil will once again flood the world.
Four of the bravest, strongest and dumbest adventurers are armed to the teeth and sent up the mountain to end this threat once and for all. These four adventurers are able to sneak past the evil creatures, entering the misty peak and vanishing from this world. The fate of all good men lies in the hands of these four suicidally brave warriors. Is the world doomed? Will these four bring light to the world once again?
The Players:
Last Week:
The party scales the staircase to find that the scenery has changed. The ceilings are much taller, and all surfaces, to include the doors, are comprised of sandstone complimented with iron and brass. The group negotiates a gauntlet of traps and puzzles, each individual regularly crushed, burned, poisoned, electricuted, etc. Occasionally, a trap might involve a monster, like a ladder with a trained stag beetle at the top, prepared to ram the first thing it saw off of the ladder to fall 300 feet into a bed of spikes.
At the midpoint, the party finds themselves in a room 60 feet in diameter. There are four doors in this room, including the entrance, and in the middle is a minotaur. This minotaur is chained to the floor in a kneeling position, its arms bound to its ankles and a leather blindfold connected to its face as though it were a part of the monster. The group discovers that this minotaur, named Goftor, is the Keeper of the Maze. His existance allows the dimentional properties of the castle to become warped. He does not particularly wish to do this job and would welcome death, but he has no choice but to comply, and the party's attempts to slay him fail (their weaponss, regardless of hit location, slice through bulk meat and bone before the wounds mend themselves).
Following a wide array of tricks and traps, the party find themselves in a very large, cylindrical room whose ceiling reaches beyond the touch of light. The room's atmosphere is that of a tavern, filled with hundreds of people moving from table to table, or sitting around and drinking. The bartender hands out drinks with ideas and concepts for names and, when asked for the least popular drink, the bartender reveals a small bottle with a lable on it that reads, "hope." A party member requests a glass, but the bartender discovers that the bottle is empty.
Various patrons tell the party members that they are here to enjoy the "End of the World Celebration." An archway is found where people are seen entering, but none can exit (exiting takes you back into the room). One of the humans sees the back of a beautiful, scantily-dressed barmaid holding a large plate. He approaches her. She turns around, revealing that her lower jaw and part of the bone below her nose had been replaced with solid steel, and that her eyes and eyelids were also removed, replaced by spherical, faintly glowing marbles. On her plate is a pile of small sticks, similar to those one might find on the forest floor. The human retrieves one and, without thinking, stows it in a pouch, forgetting it ever existed, and is cursed.
The final feature of this room is a stairway that hugs the curviture of the wall, leading to an elevated platform. On this platform, standing guard in front of an ordinary door is a troll in black, thorn-covered full-plate mail. This troll, surprisingly intelligent (for a troll), informs the group (unwillingly, the party confuses him) that every patron in this room is dead, "damned," and that it is his duty to guard the door against the living. The troll is battled and, after a difficult fight, felled.
The party discovers that the door is secured by a black metal lock that glistens like a ruby and, as they investigate further, a familiar voice grabs their attention. Goftor, standing free and armed with a magical great axe, stands in a cleared area of the crowd, who stares at the group in terror. Goftor delivers his ultimatum: enjoy the end of the world with these people, or cease to be. The suicidally brave adventurers, of course, accept his challenge and battle the minotaur. Before the fight, Goftor explains that if they fell "this body," that they might claim their reward. He nods down to his belt, where a ring of skeleton keys dangles.
Following a second difficult battle, the party defeats the false body of Goftor and obtain his ring of keys. As the elf holds the ring in one hand and rests the keys in the other, her fingers seek out one key in specific, and somehow she knows that this is the correct key for the door in question. The key is inserted and turned, and while the door remains shut, the edges and corners of all objects begin to glow with incandescent brilliance. This light intensifies until it fills their vision, and the group discover themselves in the statue room again, called the Room of Many Doors by Goftor. The fancy door snaps shut.
Highlights:
The players fell for every trap. Where a room was designed to throw them off, they would be. Switches placed next to doors would bring rocks crashing down from the ceiling. Water at the bottom of a long drop proved to be quite shallow, and covered in sharpened iron spikes. A player might take 30 seconds to explain to me the manner in which they open a door to avoid contact poison or poisoned needles, only to have the door come crashing down on them, crushing them instantly. At times, it was beautiful how well the traps worked, and the group enjoyed the carnage.
