Demonic DM

Last night we had the joy of all of us being able to play in person instead of over Roll20. Carter was home, as he is once a year, so we made the drive to pick up Hal and we all got together to play. It was the first time Carter and Hal got to meet in person. It was definitely a memorable night full of complex decisions and DM treachery.

Normally I’m pretty straight forward with encounters. I put a baddie before them and they engage it, but last night I was more devious. Several times during the night they had to decide if they would engage what lay before them or find some other way to handle the situation. They managed to navigate things well. Instead of attacking the deep gnomes they bartered with them to pass through their territory. Instead of taking on waves of duergar they snuck through the outskirts of their underground town. Narrowly escaping detection.

One of the more interesting battles was against a group of drunken orcs fighting each other over water skins. First, from behind cover, they took out the alpha orc. Then I treated the remaining orcs, now fighting amongst themselves in complete chaos without their leader, as a swarm. Not technically how one should play it but these were untrained orcs, with little more sentience than a dog, who were more concerned with fighting each other over the water skins than the outside threat. After defeating the orc swarm the group discovered that three of the water skins actually contained healing potions.

Most memorable of the night is e magic items they found in a chest. Judgeing from the tracks two duergar had dropped the chest and ran back towards the duergar town. After looting the chest the party discovered the likely reason the duergar abandoned the chest; an umber hulk. For those interested here is a list of the magical items they discovered.

Amulet of Guen ~ an amulet containing the eye of a displacer beast. It allows the wearer to use the beast’s displacement ability as a reaction once per encounter.

Winged Boots ~ these were for my halfling who was having a little trouble keeping up with the party. They are a set of boots with small hawk wings on the side that allow the player to move as per the Fly spell once per encounter.

Mage Bane Armor ~ this is a set of studded leather armor. The wearer has resistance to any spell that requires an attack roll. The wearer has disadvantage on casting any spell that requires an attack roll.

Short Bow of Bestow Curse ~ this was for my monk who uses his bow as a melee weapon in close quarters combat. When the player uses the bow for a melee hit on a target the target becomes cursed and takes an extra 1d8 damage anytime it is hit with an attack.

Hand Axe of Ensnaring Strike ~ twice per day when a target is hit with this weapon it suffers the effects of Ensnaring Strike as per the spell. It regains this ability after a long rest.

Dagger of Agiel ~ this was my favorite one. Taken by Hal, when he picked it up all he knew was that it gave him a +3 to atk and dmg rolls. Turns out the dagger houses the soul of the demon Agiel who now can control Hal’s halfling. When the demon wants to take control of Hal’s character Hal must roll a wisdom saving throw with a DC 17. If he succeeds he fights off Agiel’s influence but if he fails he must do whatever the demon commands. The dagger cannot be destroyed, put down, or be given away. The only way to get rid of it is for someone to cast remove curse.

My players were dumb struck that I would give one of them a cursed item. They are on their way into the underdark, none of them can cast remove curse and they’re moving into hostile territory where there is no one who would be willing to help them. They are on a covert mission, which just got infinitely harder since the demon can take control of their barbarian at any time.

It was so much fun to play in person and I wish we had that option every week. There’s just something about playing in person and rolling real dice that makes the game so much more interesting. I’ll be sad to go back to Roll20 but at least it’s a way for us to play with all of us being in different areas.