Darth Credence
2022-07-25, 11:04 AM
My players have been searching for the son of one of their allies, who was conscripted and sent into war against the fey (it really made sense at the time). They were finally approaching the tower that they knew he was in, and that was going to be the focus of several sessions. I was taking some inspiration from Tomb of Horrors, so the tower had four "entrances", three of them false.
So the session was going great! They were being pursued by a small part of the Wild Hunt (I planned on the whole thing coming after them when they try to escape the Feywild), and we made it into a skill challenge chase scene. I had written up a bunch of flavor text for places in the forest they were being chased through, and timed some chase music to it, so it really came together well. We established the rules of how things would work, they had a two minute head start, they needed 8 successes to reach the tower, and lost 30 seconds on each failure. They made it with only two failures, leaving them a minute to figure out what to do.
So, tower with four fifty foot long tunnels leading in at each main compass point. They came in from the south east, but had overhead scouts give them the entire layout. They had to get up the motte to where the tower was, then figure out which entrance to go in. The one to their immediate left was the correct one, and was a slightly modified version of the correct one from ToH. They go to the right.
That one was a modified version of the giant devil face. Instead of a devil, it was a lion for lore reasons, that opened its mouth when light was shined on it. They saw the lion at the end with dark vision, decided it wasn't the place, and split up to go around each way. To the right was the sliding block entrance. One character, the impulsive one we'll call T, headed down, set off the trap, and barely escaped. It worked well, tension ratcheted up, everyone was on the edge of their seats after what we'd done so far. Same time, the wizard and fighter had gone around with T, but kept moving to the other side. The ranger went over the correct entrance to check the back, while the artificer checked the correct entrance, and the bard hid.
The artificer saw the long hallway in darkvision, so didn't get the bright colors and couldn't tell what all the mosaics and frescoes were, but saw the misty arch at the end. He sends his mechanical servant through, it disappears, ending up in a cell, although they don't know that just that it's gone. They bring in light, see the path in the floor, note the colored stones in the archway, talk about it, clearly have a handle on what needs to be done to get through. Wizard and ranger have made it to the farthest entrance, the ceiling trap had already gone off, killing members of the group they were following. Great, everyone's ready to head to the correct entrance, and we will proceed with the dungeon. Hooray!
Not so fast. The wizard sends their familiar through, then pocket dimensions it and brings it back, finds out about the cell. Well, that must be the wrong entrance, they decide, so let's check out the lion. Now, I knew it was at least possible that one of them, almost certainly T, decides to go through it, so it was not a sphere of annihilation. It was a one way portal to the astral plane. I had a plan in case someone gets sucked through - they'd be picked up by a Spelljammer, who would take them to a color pool if they gave them a magic item to fuel the ship. The person would lose a minor item, but make it back home safe, and the player could play the sidekick for the rest of the session. But it would only be one, right? Because they always have a telepathic bond going, and could tell the others what was up, or they could do the send the familiar through bit, and learn what was going on, or they could use sending to find out where the first person through had ended up. I'm saying they have options.
But, by this point, the minute was almost up, and everyone was panicking. Everyone but the ranger had made it to that entrance. And rather than check at all, they just one right after the other ran through. The ranger stayed carefully on the path, but did not do anything with the keystone, so he ended up in the cell, which he could quickly and easily escape from, and he could let the person they were after out. Everyone else is now somewhere in the Astral plane.
TL;DR - All but one panicked, and jumped into a portal leading to a random place in the Astral Plane, not using any of the many ways they had on hand to know that was happening. One person made it to the dungeon, the rest are scattered. They are so excited to find out what I have planned for them, and the answer is nothing. I have nothing planned. I can have adventures in the Astral plane, sure, but one guy is still on mission, and short of him escaping the tower and going and diving in the mouth, I don't know what to do. And having said that, I'm pretty sure that he will go and dive in the mouth as soon as possible, because why not?
Worst part for me personally - I am halfway through building the escape, which would require them to activate a number of runes to open the portal. I was programming an Arduino to light up the runes as they are activated, then light up the waterfall portal when everything is activated. Clear resin prints, alcohol ink painting, it was shaping up to be awesome. Oh, well.
So the session was going great! They were being pursued by a small part of the Wild Hunt (I planned on the whole thing coming after them when they try to escape the Feywild), and we made it into a skill challenge chase scene. I had written up a bunch of flavor text for places in the forest they were being chased through, and timed some chase music to it, so it really came together well. We established the rules of how things would work, they had a two minute head start, they needed 8 successes to reach the tower, and lost 30 seconds on each failure. They made it with only two failures, leaving them a minute to figure out what to do.
So, tower with four fifty foot long tunnels leading in at each main compass point. They came in from the south east, but had overhead scouts give them the entire layout. They had to get up the motte to where the tower was, then figure out which entrance to go in. The one to their immediate left was the correct one, and was a slightly modified version of the correct one from ToH. They go to the right.
That one was a modified version of the giant devil face. Instead of a devil, it was a lion for lore reasons, that opened its mouth when light was shined on it. They saw the lion at the end with dark vision, decided it wasn't the place, and split up to go around each way. To the right was the sliding block entrance. One character, the impulsive one we'll call T, headed down, set off the trap, and barely escaped. It worked well, tension ratcheted up, everyone was on the edge of their seats after what we'd done so far. Same time, the wizard and fighter had gone around with T, but kept moving to the other side. The ranger went over the correct entrance to check the back, while the artificer checked the correct entrance, and the bard hid.
The artificer saw the long hallway in darkvision, so didn't get the bright colors and couldn't tell what all the mosaics and frescoes were, but saw the misty arch at the end. He sends his mechanical servant through, it disappears, ending up in a cell, although they don't know that just that it's gone. They bring in light, see the path in the floor, note the colored stones in the archway, talk about it, clearly have a handle on what needs to be done to get through. Wizard and ranger have made it to the farthest entrance, the ceiling trap had already gone off, killing members of the group they were following. Great, everyone's ready to head to the correct entrance, and we will proceed with the dungeon. Hooray!
Not so fast. The wizard sends their familiar through, then pocket dimensions it and brings it back, finds out about the cell. Well, that must be the wrong entrance, they decide, so let's check out the lion. Now, I knew it was at least possible that one of them, almost certainly T, decides to go through it, so it was not a sphere of annihilation. It was a one way portal to the astral plane. I had a plan in case someone gets sucked through - they'd be picked up by a Spelljammer, who would take them to a color pool if they gave them a magic item to fuel the ship. The person would lose a minor item, but make it back home safe, and the player could play the sidekick for the rest of the session. But it would only be one, right? Because they always have a telepathic bond going, and could tell the others what was up, or they could do the send the familiar through bit, and learn what was going on, or they could use sending to find out where the first person through had ended up. I'm saying they have options.
But, by this point, the minute was almost up, and everyone was panicking. Everyone but the ranger had made it to that entrance. And rather than check at all, they just one right after the other ran through. The ranger stayed carefully on the path, but did not do anything with the keystone, so he ended up in the cell, which he could quickly and easily escape from, and he could let the person they were after out. Everyone else is now somewhere in the Astral plane.
TL;DR - All but one panicked, and jumped into a portal leading to a random place in the Astral Plane, not using any of the many ways they had on hand to know that was happening. One person made it to the dungeon, the rest are scattered. They are so excited to find out what I have planned for them, and the answer is nothing. I have nothing planned. I can have adventures in the Astral plane, sure, but one guy is still on mission, and short of him escaping the tower and going and diving in the mouth, I don't know what to do. And having said that, I'm pretty sure that he will go and dive in the mouth as soon as possible, because why not?
Worst part for me personally - I am halfway through building the escape, which would require them to activate a number of runes to open the portal. I was programming an Arduino to light up the runes as they are activated, then light up the waterfall portal when everything is activated. Clear resin prints, alcohol ink painting, it was shaping up to be awesome. Oh, well.