Sesson III: "That's Our Scruffy!"

Every party has that one guy who charges on ahead, and in our party that guy is our Dragonborn Paladin, Scruffy. After splitting into three groups last session, the rogue and the bard were battling shadows in a darkened room, while in another part of the sewers, the Barbarian, the Fighter and the Half-Elf Paladin squared off against a pack of giant spiders.

Scruffy meanwhile, had wandered off alone and blundered into a room where a ledge surrounded a deep pool. A Gelatinous Cube was there, feeding off the effluent being carried by the sewage. It was suppose to be an encounter for the whole party, not one character and I quickly realized that the GC was going to win any one-on-one fight through sheer hit-points alone. Not how I like to kill PCs. Luckily the Cube fumbled and I used that to have Scruffy notice that the ledge under the Cube was old and crumbling. He took the hint and started hacking at the floor instead until it gave way and dumped the GC into the rushing sewer water. The group immediately began joking that the GC would come back, seeking its revenge.

You all understand that I HAVE to do this now, right?

I went looking for suggestions on-line and the best response was having GC be washed out to sea and becoming a pirate. I'm leaving the next direction of the campaign up to the players, but a pirate/lost island adventure is definitely on the table. If they go in this direction, this has to happen.

If they remain in the city, I might have it become a crime-lord (leader of a gang known as 'The ____ Square'?), or possibly 'lurking monster killing innocents in the streets'. If they continue to explore the dungeons or go into the Borderlands, I might make it a Warlock or a Mage.

No matter what happens, the thing is coming back wearing a giant eyepatch.

The night ended with the Barbarian and Fighter and HE Paladin stumbling over a cave-in trap, cutting themselves off. They then stated messing with a bloated corpse they found with a tattoo of a catfish on its neck. Looting the body is not advised when its full of giant maggots.

The bard and the thief met back up with Scruffy and broke down a door that had been hastily nailed shut, from the outside. Inside the room smelt of iron and rust and no one recognized the large, red lobster like creature chittering in the far corner. It didn't display much interest in the thief, but it got very excited when Scruffy in his full, shining plate and badass sword, walked into the room. Scruffy thought it was cute and let it rub its long, feathery antenna all over his full and shining plate.

This is why I love playing with the kids. Who gets to sick a rust monster on a completely unsuspecting party nowadays? Hands down the most old school encounter I've ever run and I'm freakin' stoked about it. Just goes to show, its not the edition you're playing that matters, its the style.

Line of the Night:
Came from the player who runs Gorg, the Half-Ogre fighter. He doesn't talk a lot and when he does its very slow and methodical. But last night he looked right at Scruffy's player and said, "The guy who runs ahead and breaks into all the rooms...." there was a bit of a longer pause here so Scruffy said, "gets all the treasure?"
When Grog said, "I was going to say, 'dies first'."