D&D Beginner's Game: Act 1, Scene 2(a): Stolen Hearts and Minds

The Dungeon Master

Aesc falls through the other side of the portal into a dark, dank room.



The portal vanishes behind him. All that is visible is a 7ft wall straight in front of him. The room is dimly lit, so he is able to see there are no apparent exits.

OOC: Ok, this will be an example of the pacing before people tackle the 'main' dungeon. It's designed to gauge what sort of speed you prefer. It's designed to get you used to how dungoneering works, the mechanics and rolling.

Take it away when you're ready, OG!

OldGoat

Aesc steps into the darkest shadows and checks his surroundings. If there is no immediate threat he searches the room for traps and sekret stuff while he don's the armor he took from the Vizars offerings.

The wall looks scalable to him and he thinks that if things go wrong he could climb it without too much difficulty.

The Dungeon Master

OldGoat wrote: »

Aesc steps into the darkest shadows and checks his surroundings. If there is no immediate threat he searches the room for traps and sekret stuff while he don's the armor he took from the Vizars offerings.

The wall looks scalable to him and he thinks that if things go wrong he could climb it without too much difficulty.

No apparent threats or traps. The wall looks sheer, but to a thief such as Aesc should not prove too troublesome.

OldGoat

"The only way is up."
Humming to himself the half remembered song that he heard at the Woodshock festival where he was being given his first lessons in picking pocketing Aesc starts to climb the wall.
"'tis a dwadle, easy peasy." he thinks to himself totally disregarding his old teachers preaching of 'Overconfidence will be the death of you.'

The Dungeon Master

Ooc :
I need a D100 roll please
https://rolz.org/dr?room=The%20Meatgrinder%20Boards.ieD%26D

Command : #d100

Climbing is a thief skill. See page 13 of the manual. At level 1 you have an 87% chance of success - so roll under 87 to succeed.

Note : some of those skills like hide in shadows or check for traps are hidden rolls that the DM does for you, because you don't know if you've succeeded or not. But if you fail to climb the wall youll probably notice

edit
You are currently wearing studded armour so in fact you will have to take this off to use the thief skill climbing other wise it’s a Dex test so you will need to roll a d20 and add 1 and get less or equal than your dexterity

OldGoat

The Dungeon Master wrote: »

Ooc :
I need a D100 roll please
https://rolz.org/dr?room=The%20Meatgrinder%20Boards.ieD%26D

Command : #d100

Climbing is a thief skill. See page 13 of the manual. At level 1 you have an 87% chance of success - so roll under 87 to succeed.

Note : some of those skills like hide in shadows or check for traps are hidden rolls that the DM does for you, because you don't know if you've succeeded or not. But if you fail to climb the wall youll probably notice

edit
You are currently wearing studded armour so in fact you will have to take this off to use the thief skill climbing other wise it’s a Dex test so you will need to roll a d20 and add 1 and get less or equal than your dexterity

OOC: Rolz = 78
Point of pickeyness though, studded leather is still leather (and in later editions it's noted as being light armour)
/Pushes nerd glasses right up high on nose bridge and zips up anorak
Rolz Vs dex, 19.
Damage from a fall I assume then try again.
Rolz Vs. dex 3 Yay!

The Dungeon Master

OOC: Sadly in 1E, studded leather armour is classed as too heavy for thieves to use their abilities with

Aesc slips the first time and falls to the ground, a little bruised but otherwise fine. He dusts himself down, picks himself up and scrambles up the wall again, this time his fingers and feet deftly finding little grooves invisible to others.

He reaches the top of the wall with ease.

At the top of the wall, he can see the room is a little larger than at first glance. A door leads north in front of him.

OldGoat

OOC: Didn't know that, hence picking the stronger armour. Hopefully I can sort that out in character.

Chagrined at the indignity of a fall from such a simple climb Aesc spends the next 10 minutes whittling the studding off his armor with the silver dagger and then trimming the welts and weals and tailoring the leather to ease it's movement. He feels the loss of protection against the freedom of movement is a fair tradeoff.

From his vantage point atop the wall he spy's out as much as he can before heading cautiously north.

The Dungeon Master

OldGoat wrote: »

Chagrined at the indignity of a fall from such a simple climb Aesc spends the next 10 minutes whittling the studding off his armor with the silver dagger and then trimming the welts and weals and tailoring the leather to ease it's movement. He feels the loss of protection against the freedom of movement is a fair tradeoff.

From his vantage point atop the wall he spy's out as much as he can before heading cautiously north.

Nothing of note on either east or west walls. The door is plain enough, an old oak frame with one of those oversized brass handles.

OldGoat

He moves deftly to the door and checks it for traps before trying the handle. He's half hoping it's locked so he can try out the new set of thieves tools, to test their quality.
As he's examining the lock he thinks about what is happening so far, about why he is here.
"Some form of entertainment, bread & circuses. So where is the entertainment is seeing me die to a simple doorlock trap? I'll wager a quart of ale that there is more dangerous here that a needle trap laced with an itching poison and that the real horrorshow is yet to happen."
His overconfidence in his own reasoning doesn't override his training though and he examines the lock thoroughly.

The Dungeon Master

OldGoat wrote: »

He moves deftly to the door and checks it for traps before trying the handle. He's half hoping it's locked so he can try out the new set of thieves tools, to test their quality.
As he's examining the lock he thinks about what is happening so far, about why he is here.
"Some form of entertainment, bread & circuses. So where is the entertainment is seeing me die to a simple doorlock trap? I'll wager a quart of ale that there is more dangerous here that a needle trap laced with an itching poison and that the real horrorshow is yet to happen."
His overconfidence in his own reasoning doesn't override his training though and he examines the lock thoroughly.

OOC: Roll against Dex

OldGoat

OOC: Rolz 9

The Dungeon Master

A pit trap opens below Aesc's feet, he can see the horrible spikes beneath. His agility, however means he backflips out of the way before he falls within.

He kicks off the door and lands in the same room, just at the edge of the trap.

The door swings open and he can see the passageway continuing north the other side of the hole. The pit is easily avoidable now he knows where it is.

OldGoat

Aesc checks the pit for items left by previous 'guests' who might not have been as quick then heads along the passage north, hoping he can pick out any further traps in the poor light.
He pauses and listens for any noise that might give some clue as to whats ahead.

The Dungeon Master

A meagre return in the pit, only 50GP in the form of a ruby.

No traps apparent in the corridor.

OOC: d100 to see if you hear noise. You can do this one yourself

OldGoat

He pauses along the passage way, his sense of hearing seemingly heightened by the rush of adrenaline...

The Dungeon Master

Aesc's heightened hearing can sense rustling beyond the corridor.

Slight jangling of keys on a belt.

A rustle of armour.

A silent (to everyone else) - but probably deadly emittance of flatulence from a rear end.

Someone is in the next room.

OldGoat

He draws his bow and trys to move silently forward in the cover of the gloom to the opening to the next room and look around to see whoever is there.
OOC:
Move silently
Hide in shadows

The Dungeon Master

OldGoat wrote: »

He draws his bow and trys to move silently forward in the cover of the gloom to the opening to the next room and look around to see whoever is there.
OOC:
Move silently
Hide in shadows

Aesc slips into the room unheard. The guard is standing in front of a door going east. He hasn't spotted the thief just yet.

OldGoat

He swaps his bow for his dagger and tippytoes forward to backstab the guard.

The Dungeon Master

OldGoat wrote: »

He swaps his bow for his dagger and tippytoes forward to backstab the guard.

Aesc stealths forward, but crunches on a piece of broken tile. The guard looks up and spots the thief.

'Oy! You!'

He runs at Aesc, drawing his sword...

OOC: Init!

OldGoat

Aesc deftly reverses his hold on the dagger to a throwing grip and chucks the knife at the guard...

The Dungeon Master

The dagger flies past the guard, missing wildly. He swings his sword at the thief who deftly dodges.

OldGoat

Aesc runs back along the passage trying to get to the other side of the pit from where he can nock an arrow to his shortbow.

The Dungeon Master

The guard gives chase, stopping short at the pit, stumbling a little but manages to right himself.

'I'll kill you, you bastard!'

He shouts at Aesc.

OldGoat

You'll try...and fail, you fat lummox!"
Aesc lines up an arrow...

The Dungeon Master

The arrow flies past the guard, missing by miles. The guard deftly jumps across the trap with a spring even Aesc is impressed about.

He rolls to his feet drawing his sword again.

'Die, cur!'

He attacks Aesc.

OOC: Init again

The Dungeon Master

The guard swipes at Aesc but the thief is simply to nimble to be hit. He rolls out of the way and fires an arrow into his side.

The guard wails in pain but battles on, again lunging at the thief.

Again Aesc sidesteps, cooly re-loading his bow and nocking an arrow.

The guard stares wide eyed as Aesc prepares to loose the killing arrow.....

OldGoat

"Please don't misspleasedon'tmissple..."

The Dungeon Master

The arrow flies true and spears through the guard's eye. He slumps to the floor, dead.

OldGoat

Aesc also slumps to the ground and promptly throws up. It was never like this in the playhouses where the bards acted out the stories of heros slaying all and sundry with nare a qualm. He felt nothing but cold and empty as he looked into the guards cold dead singular eye.
After a few minutes of recovery he finally roused himself and with grim determination set about plundering the guard and recovering his arrows and dagger.
Finally, he looks at the door the guard had been ... guarding.

The Dungeon Master

Aesc finds a singular silver key on a ring on the guard's belt. In his pockets there was a paltry 5GP.

The door looks normal enough, the lock made out of cast silver. The keyhole is unusually small.

OldGoat

The thief checks for traps in the lock. He sizes the guards key to the lock to check the fit. Then takes out the key he took from The Vizier and compares it to the guards key. Finally he unwraps his thieves tools and ponders which of the three he can use to open the door.

OOC: In order, 1)Guards key, 2) thief's lockpick and if all else fails 3) try the unlikely Grand Viziers key.

The Dungeon Master

Both keys look the exact same.

No traps appear to be in the lock.

Aesc tries the guards key which unlocks the door, it swings out revealing a portal similar to the one he entered from.

OldGoat

With one last glance back to the dead guard and a shudder of revulsion Aesc nocks an arrow then steps into the portal.

The Dungeon Master

The portal slams shut as Aesc enters... he tumbles out and looks up at three familiar faces...

OOC: Aesc, please join Stufur, Brutha and Webby in their thread. Thread

sKeith

Your entry point.