Yuletide Adventures

When one of my old players asked me to run a one-shot over the holidays I couldn't help but say yes. Holiday gaming is not something i've done much of previously, but seeing this as golden opportunity to take a look back at the old Hill Cantons campaign I jumped at the chance. Due to scheduling we only met up after the actual holiday season, but it was a blast nonetheless. In addition, this post is coming along a couple weeks after the session itself, oh well! 

Typical pit-fighters

For the adventure itself the characters were contacted by the dwarves of Hoimatbuch, whom having sent help in the final battle against the eld now called on the party to repay the favour. The task therefore became to travel to the underground city of the duergar to take part in the annual gladiatorial games. Should the party make it through three rounds of battles they may be granted a wish to free many of the dwarves who suffer as slaves of the duergar.

The first battle is fought against an "A-team" of duergar and their allies (e.g. orcs, kuo-toa) as well as a ferocious owlbear. The second battle was much the same against two dragons (one copper and one bronze), one of whom was instantly defeated by a polymorph others cast by Pearl the Reckless. The other dragon was swiftly defeated once it landed and the now gauntlets of ogre power and girdle of giant strength wearing Natalie Bukowski. 

As the final and third battle is fought against a ferocious purple worm, the excitement of the crowd seems to reach a frenzy. Several onlookers jump into the arena, whilst fights break out in the stands. As the worm is slain by a now schnorkler-riding Huldovic Klyvballe. Through the chaos the party are able to free many of the enslaved dwarves, though not before escaping an encounter with the demon-lord Demogorgon whose presence seems to have been the trigger for the madness around them. The group return as heroes to the surface and then spend a merry yuletide getting shitfaced in dwarf-town. 

The adventure proved to be a success! I experimented with a sort of meta-currency dubbed "yuletide miracles" which could restore hit points or grant re-rolls. This was in an effort to be able to throw several fairly difficult encounters at the players without the risk of any character dying (since the campaign has ended after all). In addition, for each major opponent defeated, the person whose character dealt the killing blow was given a gift by your truly, which made for a fun twist (again very meta). All-in-all it was a lighthearted session and a great send-off to the characters and the old campaign as a whole, something I certainly do again.