Maybe I'll Put Down The Pitchfork: Session 3 of Dungeon Exploration

Our group:

Cinder (me): Some kind of fire elemental offspring. Innate burning attacks, not much else.
Rocky: IQ 8 Golem with decent DR 4, Injury Tolerance: Homogeneous, and not much else
Beholder: Has a bunch of hilariously weak eye beams (binding, corrosive/burning innate attacks, telekinesis, etc)
Dr. Dinosaur: Makes things explode and is a dinosaur. Played by my roommate's ten year old daughter.
Homunculus: Winged greedy thing whose capabilities I don't know much about yet.

We started play in combat, quickly wiping the floor with the Kobolds.

This left us at the top of a very deep hole- roughly 60 feet according to a failed Mathematics (Surveying) check on my part. 60 feet being enough of a fall that even Rocky isn't comfortable trying to tank that amount of damage

We dithered about in real time for almost 45 minutes trying to resolve getting down this drop. My climbing skill of 11 is the highest in the group, and repeated climbing checks meant that a fail early is a one-way ticket to creating a new character.

Nobody has rope or climbing gear, and our two flying members either have low ceiling (Beholder) or are still suffering from arrow wounds (took me four attempts to succeed on first aid over the course of an hour of play time). The kobolds had a perilously dangerous ladder they had used which I promptly burned when the GM implied it was in our way.

Attempting to make a ramp of sorts by dumping rubble in was fruitless. The Kobolds had no hidden entrances or doors that we could find.

We eventually made a very dubious ladder from the fences the Kobolds used for fortifications, a bloody miracle considering that nobody in the group has carpentry.

Somehow, we all made it down alive. Kobolds immediately began trying to nail us with crossbows, but 15rof suppression fire does wonders to convince anything with a brain that occupying hallways is a bad idea.

Beholder got caught in a deadfall trap, reducing his HP to 2. The next 'deadfall' we got to I lit on fire (just in case it was a trap- yeah, that's the ticket). When it didn't immediately collapse the group sprinted past it in full expectation of a cave-in.

I took a crossbow bolt to the hand for 3 damage but grabbed the burning 'trap' and took 6 points of burning damage. My absorption DR quickly converted this back into HP.

The rest of the session involved fruitlessly trying to stem the tide of Kobolds taking pot-shots with their crossbows and moving further into the unknown depths.

Lowering the Pitchfork:

I had more fun this last session, largely because of my own antics. Lighting things on fire is what my character is designed to do, and I got to do it twice, even if burning a support beam underground is a terrible idea.

Now, the pacing still sucks. Spending 45 minutes examining boring idea after boring idea is a drag. Nobody found the hole problem captivating or exciting- just something that was keeping us from getting to the gooey center.

It's obvious that for the moment we're on a set of railroad tracks considering the path ahead of us has had no branch points at all. The way back isn't an option unless we want to try the ladder back up (ha, no). This linearity isn't a problem- until the party hits a challenge that they cannot succeed at. It's totally cool to have things that players cannot solve or do immediately in games, but only if there are other things to turn around and do while getting the equipment/spell/skill to deal with that thing you're leaving alone for now.

We lack that option entirely, with the only option being forward. The fact that two of our party are seriously injured and that we still have no healing at all (unless the ten year old is adding it to her sheet) is still a concern.

POINTS!

Along with Session 2, we were granted 10 points:

• I raised all skills associated with Talent (Explorer) to have at least 1 point, and increased Cartography to 2 points
• I added a second level to my Torch Accessory Perk to double the range it illuminates from 2 yards to 4
• I added the Overhead enhancement to both of my innate fire attacks on the suggestion of Matt, the guy who played Virgil in Agency 17. Now I can literally rain fire on foes.