Read Session 3 here
The Infinite Dungeon Game Session 1
DM note: Sadly I did not think about recording the first session of The Infinite Dungeon. Hence I am writing this summary based on memory, notes and the art produced after this first game. I have provided links to Art linked to specific scenes and characters in the post ahead. :)
Four individuals found themselves trapped within a cell to their own. Without recollection of how they found their way into this prison, they make their way to get out, whatever means necessary.
Each person wakes up in a cell made of cobblestone walls, ground and ceiling. Iron bars including a locked iron door preventing them from simple escape.
Guthrie @guthrie-odonto, a halfling with some of rather bird-like traits, escaped with some skill and force, picking the lock. Or at least he would have picked it, if it wasn't for tha fact, that he was able to slip right through the bars. Clearly that cell was not made with halflings in mind. Outside in the corridor to the left he discovered two jars. One of them was filled with pure water, the other one had a key hidden inside. Guthrie takes the key.
Lyr@lexarga, a blue-skinned half-elf, used to the wild and stormy breeze of the ocean, now found herself trapped in a cell that barely provided any sound at all. The corridors were silent and all evenly lit, but no light source to be seen. After using some brute force she started wandering the lone and strange corridors.
Damien @abstractbabble, a human with a very fancy jacket, escaped his cell by popping the lock, but soon encountered a creature that seemed to have it out for him.
Lorem @moreclaypigeons, a human wanderer of the celestial planes, escaped using one of the many keys she held on to. While still sorting her thoughts she was attacked by a creature similar to the one aiming for Damien in another place.
The skull bugs as players and characters would soon call them, are skulls with wings that look like rotten leafs. Their lower jaw is missing, but the upper row of teeth is sharp and instead of fangs they have two long fangs, similar in function to sickles. And unfortunately just as sharp as sickles.
Lyr ends up in a direct encounter with the skullbug that attacked Damien, but Damien decides he’s not having it, instead of helping her, he dashed down the twisted corridors of this labyrinth, only to be almost shot by a sacred flame, cast by Lorem, who just happened to miss her shot. Damien in return to almost having his precious jacket burnt, flips her off.
And just as Damien keeps running, his path is blocked by yet another skullbug rising from a pile of bones. The gelatinous orb within the open skull shimmers in a variety of bright colours. The skullbug slashes with its claws and deals some gruesome injuries to Damien’s beloved jacket.
Damien, taken aback, considers his options, when an arrow strikes the critter down. From the other side of the corner, Guthrie pokes out his head, having taken down the enemy in one shot.
Soon both of them go back, finding Lorem who is taking down another skullbug, Lyr has cleaned up her mess as well. The skullbugs disintegrate and the characters more or less team up, as the players come to understand the lay of the land.
As the group slowly comes to an understanding that all of them have the same objective, getting out of this place, Damien notices that his jacket has been mended. It’s as good as new. None of the other players claim credit for this.
Exploring the remaining paths, they end up discovering a 5th cell in the northeast of the map. The cell is empty, there is some rope hanging from the ceiling. On their way through the narrow corridors leading up to said area, they find paper with some writing on it, but after reading, what seems to be the draft for a novel, they soon move on.
At the center of the labyrinth, west of which there is a set of stairs waiting to be climbed.
As the group walks up the stairs, white fog blocks their vision, before they emerge all together on a new floor, which seems to be a circular communal room, of some sorts. Not much time remains to investigate, as the group is immediately attacked once again by skullbugs. This time it’s a group of them, one of them significantly larger than the others.
While Lorem, Lyr and Guthrie do their upmost to take down the skullbugs, who are definitely stronger than the ones they fought previously, Damien tries to keep himself and his beloved jacket safe.
As combat continues, Damien engages as well. While Lyr uses vicious Mockery, Damien just uses "normal mockery." Lorem, in a moment of strategic brilliance takes down two enemies in one shot with a fire bolt. In an effort to take down the last of the enemies, Lyr, who has been mostly relying on her weapons and supportive magic, casts thunderwave.
In the chaos that ensues, Damien fails to save himself and takes serious injury away from the powerful magic that rumbles through the room. Lyr, shocked, by what happens, apologises and moves over to heal Damien, as their enemies have finally been taken out.
Or so they thought. A pile of rubble turns out to be a vicious mimic, as it is being poked by Lyr. As Guthrie attempts to shoot the creature, he misses in a critical fashion and instead Lorem takes an arrow wound to her arm. As the “WHAT THE FUCK!” moment ensues, Damien fails to get out of range, the mimic sees it’s opportunity and attacks.
And just as Damien is torn to shreds by a pile of vicious bricks, and his companions watch this scene, the group’s vision turns white.
The next thing they know...
Four individuals found themselves trapped within a cell to their own.
Okay, so the end of my first complete campaign as a Pathfinder GM came with a bang, to say the least. The party started off as the souls of the villains slain by heroes in their own respective campaigns who were freed from the doom of their final resting places and released to scour the multiverse for redemption and a chance to recover their lives. Several party members fell throughout the course of the journey through the elemental planes, Elysium, Nirvana, and finally Hell, but the final line-up was as follows: Ami: Catfolk Samurai who was more dangerous in the kitchen than with her swords. Most notably, she fed an archdevil magic mushrooms and got him tripping too hard to fight the party. Drizzt: One of four of the original seven to survive the entire campaign. This Elven Rogue/Ranger never waded into combat, but as a long range sniper he was devastating, especially when he started enchanting his bow to hit like it belonged to a storm giant. Vragor: Half-Orc Barbarian. Fighting with a pair of improvised wrist-blades, this walking Cuisinart killed every healer the party ever had but one, who blew himself up trying to keep from being cut in half. Audric: Human Fighter/impenetrable tank. At a whopping AC40 with a dancing Lion shield and dual wielding a +5 Holy Longsword and a +3 unholy gladius granted to him by the Goddess Sarenrae and the Archdevil Dispater respectively... he was a beast with his great cleave, but was most proud of being a secret werebat. Andross: Vanara Monk. Blessed by Demigods and respected by Great Wyrm Cloud Dragons, this golden-haired simian stretched the bounds of what constituted 'lawful' alignments, but kept things fun for the whole party regardless. Nessa: A halfling druid that kept forgetting her velociraptor companion. When the party was trapped in hell, she became famous for flooding the river Styx and washing away a trio of Erinyes (CR9) almost single-handedly. Lotor: A tanuki antipaladin of Lamashtu, this little hellion was something of a narcoleptic, never once passing a saving throw against sleep, but was ever so fond of summoning pods of infernal dolphins to flounder on dry land as cover. Mad Sven: A Kobold alchemist painted gold and given a pair of draconic wings by the Goddess Shelyn, Sven believed that EVERY problem could be fixed by blowing it up. More often than not, that did end up being the case. Synth: A human cleric of Sarenrae, this latecomer was so blessed by the goddess that he once turned a 60' tall golden statue of his goddess into a colossal golem with a God Call to protect a repentant adversary from the otherwise evil party. This bunch of misfits stumbled around the planes of existence rather aimlessly, but still managed to overthrow a dictatorship, wipe out armies from both Heaven and the Abyss at level 3, and create an entire planet populated by disparate refugees that they inadvertently rescued from horrible fates. Their end came finally in the pits of Hell, at the forge of souls that creates armies of Devils. The party required an infernal legion to sack Heaven and claim a relic that would make them gods, but the Pit Fiend General of the 5000 some odd souls was having none of it. Squaring off with the enemy, the Cleric negated a would-be devastating Meteor Swarm in the fiend's opening salvo, and used his fire resistance to go toe to toe with a creature that would have snapped him like a twig normally. He was the first to die, but damn it if he didn't go down swinging. Next to fall was Nessa the Druid. After her spells were proven ineffective, the halfing decided to beast shape into a freaking SPINOSAURUS and attempted to EAT THE PIT FIEND! I couldn't make this up if I tried. Eventually she succomed to a flurry of fireballs that also cooked the antipaladin and the valiant samura girl, but not before our werebat fighter decides to fly over the action and take a 50 foot dive to try and drive his +5 Holy longsword through the devil's head. With arrows and fists proving ineffective against the Pit Fiends DR15 defenses, the monk and ranger stuck to a pair of ballistae and plugged the sucker full of holes to keep it from flying, giving the barbarian and fighter enough time to make a desperate last stand that nearly did the devil in. Once the final forces on the ground were wiped out, the Big Bad turned his attention to the ranger, who didn't last long under the assault, but stayed fighting to the bitter end. In the end, it was the monk who finally took down the crippled archfiend, but at the cost of his own life. The two fell into the crucible of souls and were obliterated together. The only one to survive the encounter was the Kobold alchemist Sven, who made it as far as the river Styx before a horned devil caught up with him. Instead of surrendering though, the little bugger ate one of his own bombs and went out with a bang. Even though all of the characters died, the legends they created in their bid to recover what was taken from them lives on in the world they made and the peoples they delivered from bondage and despair. In a way, they gained a certain immortality in the end after all. They were the craziest bunch of munchkins and nutjobs that I've ever had the privilege of DMing for, and I will miss them dearly.
