Wed Night, Game Night

So, we've effectively switched our gaming nights to Wednesdays. I think everyone in the group is ok with that. Didn't make much of a difference to me other than Thursday night was good because that led into Friday, which led to Saturday.....kind of like a long weekend. Anyway, last night's game was pretty good. Lots of action. Good enough that I want to write about it.

To start, we're in the Castle of the Mad Archmage. We've BEEN in the CotMA for the last year and a half, give or take a few side quests. Last night we found ourselves on the 4th level. This thing is massive, and we're STILL on the 4th level. At this rate, we will still be playing when we're 60. But that's ok because its been a good time and I still have both of my original characters. The last two sessions have been chaotic because some people couldn't make it one night, but came the other. At one point last night, we had EVERY character on the table (each one of us has at least 2 characters, about 18 total). With some creative DM-ing and some help from the Archmage, we sorted out the marching order and who was in the dungeon with us.

The picture above shows us at the start of last night. We had left off last week in the arena. Our group had decimated the "Red" gang in the 4th level and taken over their stronghold. We had "paused" the game at the arena where the Red Team's two hill giants had faced off with four manticores. More on that in a moment...

The line of characters in the foreground is our group in the "Red" skybox above the arena. You can see our henchman, Boltoff, giving a raucous cheer. In the arena itself you can see a line of dead manticores, killed by the Red Team's hill giants. You can also see some boulders (yellow d12s) strewn around the arena. Further away in the arena you can make out one dead hill giant and another coming in from the left. Presiding over this melee is the Archmage himself; you can see the white figure standing on top of the red cup in front of Dave's arm.

Who are their opponents? Funny you should ask. At the beginning of the game we played out the hill giant vs manticore battle. Bets were placed (500gp on a manticore to go down first and 1000gp on the Red Team to win) and the battle was on. Each of us was randomly assigned a character to play in the battle, I ended up playing a manticore. Knowing 500gp was on the line, the hill giants went after manticore #1 right away, kicking the crap of it. Cha-Ching! Now, even odds, the manticores took their toll, scratching and biting until they were eventually stomped by the giants. A roar went up from the crowd and winnings were collected, 3500gp in total! The hill giants were wasted though, one only having 2 hit points left when the Archmage offered "DOUBLE DOWN!". Some of our group, being greedier than others, decided that the hill giants were expendable and took the challenge.

During a short intermission, we did what we could to heal the giants, wineskins, bandages, Sir Owyn even laid healing hands on one to boost his hp. Halftime over, the Archmage announced the next opponents....Dun DUn DUN!!! Kalen the Wizard, Rolf the Fighter, and Thift the Henchman (all Jim's characters who hadn't played last week). DOH!!! What now? We looked around the table at each other like idiots. No bets this time, I was thinking that the refreshed giants, who had set up their defenses, would easily stomp the newcomers. Especially since there is no magic allowed in the arena. Kalen was squishy. That being said, the two fighters rushed across the floor towards the giants, who tossed their boulders and followed after. Thift saw his life flash before his eyes as a high speed boulder just brushed his curly locks, nearly taking his head off. Rolf (7th level fighter) opened up on the first giant and sliced and diced. Kalen creeped around and tried to stay out of the way. The second hill giant dealt Rolf some major damage, but the combination of the two fighters cut him down soon after. Had the giants been full strength, the battle would have ended MUCH differently. As it was, Jim's characters had a surprise entry into the game.

After that, the more OCD members of our group spent a lot of time redecorating the Red Team's living quarters and bickered over who was sharing rooms with who. A good half hour discussion about SOPA took place, stopping all gaming activities as Ryan lambasted evil downloaders and got red in the face. We ended by finally getting somewhere new, some rough looking caves with hundreds of bats inside. Kalen launched a couple of fireballs, since he had been handcuffed earlier and we waded in confidently. Little did we know that this was the gateway of a leathery demon who summoned help and started putting a whoopin on our party. My character, Sir Owyn the Paladin, resumed his miserable dice rolling, missing right and left. It looked like we were toast, until Kalen cast "haste" on Owyn, doubling his attacks. Just at the right moment, Owyn rolled hot and hit the slightly damaged demon with 40+ points of damage, banishing him from this plane of existence.

It was a long night, but quite productive. Looking forward to getting back in there in 2 weeks.