At the start of the Sanctum of the Serpent God module for the Serpent’s Skull adventure path the players are lead into a labyrinth where they must find a weapon of unknown make or design. My party has been in the labyrinth for four sessions now and are still struggling to make progress toward the final goal. It is getting me a little frustrated as I want to get this game moving on toward the end of the adventure path. It is frustrating the players as they are beginning to struggle with some of the creatures that inhabit the labyrinth.
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| The Ultimate Weapon… Mafioso kids… |
The good news here though is that the group is keen to explore the complex, almost to the fullest degree. They are enjoying such things as the simple discovery of a well hidden secret door or marvel at the well designed fashioned rooms within the complex. They are also coming up with theories as to why the particular denizens are there and what the weapon may actually be. The players seem to have really settled into their characters in this last module and are working well as a team.
Last game found the party locate the leader of the denizens in the maze and a big battle ensued straight after another battle that found a couple of the characters almost killed by drowning. So, when they happened into the massive chamber that had been purpose to sacrifice by the denizens they found themselves a little under powered for the four denizens located there. As I wrote the initiatives up on the fridge (our whiteboard) an old school DnD player moaned in anguish as I put the most powerful creatures name on the board. I am not going to name it so I do not ruin others games of this module but let us call it a prolific life-drainer and with an instant death ability!
The night had dragged on for a long time and I was a bit reticent to leap into this combat but we did. The players decided as these were the nastiest of the labyrinth so far that this room would contain the weapon they were after. With this in mind they decided to attempt to capture one of the lesser denizens and make it talk after they were done with the rest of the fiends. All did not go to plan for our intrepid heroes however. The mega beast grappled +Cam Mcloughlin‘s Janthir rogue/sorcerer/arcane trickster and ate his soul leaving him limp and very dead. As the rest of the PC’s dealt with the boss and the big creature the least two of the creatures managed to kill the cohort minion of my daughter’s character Seleca the Cavalier.
When the dust settled from the battle and the players questioned the underling to find that they did not know of any great weapon they realised several things:
- They were the farthest they have ever been from their camp on the surface;
- They were completely out of buffs and close to out of healing;
- The two people that had teleport were now both dead; and
- One of the two dead was the only one that could bring life back to them.
Soon the group will be drawn into the intrigue and coercion required to form an army to finally put down this menace once and for all! Are they the heroes of legend that they tell me they are over and over and over again? Or are they the try hards of Saveth-Yhi, more bluster than bravado? Stay tuned and we will find out together!