Barbigazl: Part Three Notes

Barbigazl: Part Three DM Notes [by Peter A. Picture is of Morf, who hasn't appeared yet.]

Unless the Dungeon Master has a clear idea of how much time a game is likely to and can practically last in real time, and unless he or she has a good grip on the running of the game, then ensuring any one game is balanced and interesting enough to continue is going to be a challenge. Two nights of real time had passed playing 'Barbigazl' and with the exception of one hard-fought ambush by Hobgoblins, nothing much had happened in the game and the PCs were still trying to get up the damned mountain. In between nights two and three I had some stops to pull out - and I was aware that Paul, one of the reasons for the game, only had one more night in town; so night three had to be a good one.

I managed to half the size of Hurin's retinue - I actually did this by myself for fun, and to see if there would be any survivors of a Dwarf-versus-Wargrider encounter. Guess what? The Dwarves won, despite the high cost. I could have left the survivors out of the game, but no - up the mountainside they trudged, to join the party just after their first encounter of the evening, the Ice Mummies. On the way the players had the usual scene setting - a blizzard to encourage them to keep going (not actually that necessary by that stage), and some strange hooting and whistling noises on the wind. This wasn't going to be from an encounter, but was laying down of more background detail that I soon realised wasn't necessary either. The backstory in my head hadn't really been told, and already it was getting away on me! An infodump was required, hence the stories of Lotus and Hurin on this evening.

The Ice Mummies were my own creation. Intended to be atmospheric and chilling (sorry), I gave them a reasonably good description - great warriors with swords, free-dried from having lain in the extremes for decades. The party immediately twigged they were undead (in a tomb? Madness!) and attempted to Turn them using one of the two Clerics in the party. Not this time. Preparing for a good fight, I then discovered that Argon, the fighter had a few tasty devices in his arsenal - namely a Ring of Undead Control. Now, what a character who was essentially a paladin was doing with a magic item like this I couldn't fathom, but he had it, and it ended the encounter. The ring, created in someone else's game years ago, worked along the same lines of a Control Undead potion. I can't remember how often it could be used, or whether it had charges or not, but it at least had a limit of Hit Dice it could work against appropriate to the wearer's level. The Ice Mummies were rounded up, put back in their crypts and burned itidy away. So much for a new encounter - I decided the next undead match-up would have to be harder and less obvious.

Again, short of having an infodump ready, I can't recall what led me to add Lotus - a third Cleric, to the party. Lotus had been the character of an old school friend, effectively 'retired', but was a contemporary of The Pentad, so perhaps I thought he would eventually fit in their group. Once I realised that I'd put two Staves of healing in the party plus other healing spells, I reconsidered. That said, having Lotus enabled Jamas, our newest player, to join the game, and that was a good thing, though it would be the following night where his contribution would be felt most.

Once inside the Halls of Hurin's apparent ancestors, descriptions weren't that useful or necessary - it was a Dwarven mine, and countless years of gaming plus a successful movie franchise did the job. The encounters were good though, and the first, using Goblins well familiar with the secret passages in the mine, and Bugbears doing what they do best (waiting out as the second wave and ambushing the party) were great. That would have indeed been a good fight if the party's number were lower yet! There was time for some more mystery - the non-encounter in the chasm with what turned out to be the other Gnome party was suitably puzzling for the players, who seemed to have no idea at all what that other group was. And the Gark gave Paul something to finish his game off happily with - a heroic deed for Balinor, rolling a natural 20. How could I not give him his moment of glory? And finally some more back story, with Hurin's tale (another poem - the game had only three to go!) and another riddle in Yellowjacket's bee discovered following them. The bee made no sense to one player as a surveillance device, but after an explanation of bees 'dancing' directional codes to one another in nature, the penny dropped. And just in time for the major encounter of the night - the Gnomes.

I can't emphasis the effect of Hurin's order to kill the Gnomes enough, I don't think. It was shocking, contrary to the PCs' way of play, and with the retinue still outnumbering them, quite beyond their control. It caused no small amount of protest and surprise - and it was for me the best part of the entire game. Perhaps it was unfair given that the guys were most likely expecting a straightforward dungeon crawl; but the back story got to them in the end! [Yes... backstory and plot vs PCs expecting a dungeon crawl... what could possibly go wrong? - JE]

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