. . . and a new DM awakens.

The weekly group hosted by Bighara and participated in by the other Faster Monkey Games folks along with a bunch of us other gaming hoodlums got a treat last night. Shelly, the editor among the Monkeys ran her very first session as a DM. There is more to go so if you know what adventure she is running please do not spoil it in the comments.

The party began at a tavern listening to tall tales of some old fellow over a few ales. He told of a prison the next county over that was run by a mad Earl who would sometimes put prisoners into a "hole" with a key at the bottom. If they could get the key and make it back to the door, they would be freed. And of couse there was a guardian with great rubies for eyes.

After a few too many pints, the group of greedy naer'do'wells decided to march over and make our fortunes. Aberdeen, a fighter; Sparlky Dude (?), an elf; Lobo, a fighter; and Brother Tippleton, a cleric; easily found the place and got trapped inside.

There was a hallway with numerous doors other than the one we entered, which would of course no longer open without the key. We set about checking the rooms after reading magical inscriptions hinting that chutes would take us downward and ladders would bring us up.

Some of the rooms were empty while others held snakes and some with snakes had holes within which were ladders. Lobo, one of our not too bright fighters tried climbing down a ladder, after my very wise cleric Brother Tippleton suggested maybe the Earl's wicked sense of humor made it better to go backwards through the puzzle dungeon.

As Lobo was decending the ladder, the top five rungs transformed into snakes and they with Lobo, fell 30 feet to the packed earth floor below. Lobo luckily broke his fall on top of 4 of the snakes, killing them outright. He then fought and slew the last one, but not before it bit him.

Before entering the dungeon, Lobo had traded his magic sword to a farmer for a pair of "lucky pants and lucky boots". While they did nothing for him this time, in a later altercation with more snakes, the pants would prove to be of some worth. Fortunately he did have a neutralise poison potion of questionable efficacy he bought on the cheap from a local "alchemist" as well.

The party investigated the room below and behind another door encountered a nest of many spiders.

Tossing oil and a torch in there and closing the door the party decided to go back up the rope and look for another way to the key and the treasure rumored to await below.

Encountering more snakes, the party broke out weapons and went to war with the venomous reptiles.

Brother Tippleton got to work with his mace +1, mostly missing while his companions took care of the pests. This continued to be a theme throughout the session.

Gradually the group worked their way to a room with a chute and dove into it to rapidly avoiding more spiders and snakes. Below we opened another door behind which was a room with rats.

Uh, no.

That's more like it.

In another nearby couple of rooms were more snakes. We arranged a meeting of the two groups and they had a mutual hate fest.

That is where the session ended for the night with the party bedding down in another room.

Hopefully the end boss of the dungeon is not a much more dangerous snake.

And hopefully the treasure is something we can spend.

All together, I think for a first timer Shelly did a great job behind the screen tormenting we bunch of goons. I'm looking forward to part two of this dungeon.