Quantum Dungeons Preview 4B

In the last installment, a group of six 8th level Quantum Dungeons characters have begun exploring the ship in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

See the previous post for an introduction to the six characters, and this part to explain why only six characters have braved this strange dungeon.

The Expedition Continues

At a Crossroads

The party reaches a decision point. Crossing their path is an unlit corridor, 3m (10’) wide. Ahead of them is a dimly lit section that comes to a T junction in about 15m (50’). Left, right, or straight ahead?

The de facto party leader, Dain, argues for straight ahead. Aldis wants to explore left, as does Gerfast. The other three – Jack, Sresk, and Yves – choose for the dimly lit path ahead: they can save their lantern oil, and perhaps there’s somebody besides those weird plant creatures. Majority rules, so they plunge straight ahead.

When they come to the T-junction, they notice that the cross corridor is 6m (20’) wide, and that there are doors to the immediate left and the far right, and that the corridor on each side turns a corner toward the north, i.e. in the direction they’re walking. Now they have four choices: the left door, the right door, the left corner, or the right corner.

This time Aldis chooses the right-hand door, and seeing no reason not to, the others agree.

Medical Area

As soon as the group enters, a disembodied gender neutral voice says something in a language they can’t understand. When it stops speaking, everyone relaxes. The room with the lights and boxes had disembodied voices too, didn’t it? They all feel kind of foolish. Nothing to be afraid of …

Jack spies three desks, and, thinking they might have loot, he starts searching one. Immediately a loud bell rings, over and over, and within less than a minute they receive a visit from a a strange … creature? device?

The barrel-like object squawks at them in a language they don’t understand. Dain bows to the thing and tries to charm it, evidently in a language it doesn’t understand. Seeing Jack near a desk, it advances on him, waving its tentacles.

Initiative

• Robot (13)
• Jack (13)
• Gerfast (12)
• Sresk (10)
• Dain (10)
• Yves (10)
• Aldis (8)

Round 1

• The Robot grapples Jack, which per the above is a Physical vs. Physical contest. Jack rolls a 9, the Robot rolls an 11. Jack is tangled in the things tentacles.
• Jack tries to break free, which is another contest. Jack rolls an an incredible 11, the Robot rolls only an 8. Jack twists out of the thing’s grip.
• Gerfast draws his hammers and bashes at it, perplexed that his hammers stop mere inches from it. Both times Gerfast manages to hit, knocking the defense shield down by 4.
• Sresk claws at the thing, doing 10 damage.
• Dain attempts to find a Weak Point, but fails catastrophically. He resorts to bashing it with his hand axe, managing to hit anyway and doing 6 points of damage to the bare metal.
• Yves, stuck for ideas, casts Paralyze Monster, but confirms that it’s not actually alive.
• Aldis, who used up his blade sanctification for the day, whacks at it the old fashioned way; his blade bounces off its metal shell.

Round 2

• The Robot, now surrounded by miscreants, deploys a sleep grenade at point blank range. Everyone must make a Stealth 8+ roll to escape the gas:
  • Aldis fails
  • Dain fails
  • Gerfast succeeds
  • Jack succeeds with flying colors
  • Sresk succeeds
  • Yves succeeds, barely.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Jack, not wanting to dive back into the lingering gas cloud, throws a knife at it. It clangs uselessly off its carapace.
• Gerfast strikes at the creature: two misses.
• Sresk draws his crossbow, inserts a bold, and fires. He spends a Hero Point to reroll, but the second result is no better. The bold clangs uselessly off its carapace.
• Dain … sleeps.
• Yves throws his dagger at it. The dagger clangs off it, uselessly.
• Aldis … sleeps.

Round 3

• The Robot, fixated on Jack as the main miscreant, chases him down and tries to grapple him again. Jack easily ducks away from it.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Jack slashes at the Robot with his machete, but misses.
• Gerfast strikes at the creature again: he connects, but his hammers bounce uselessly off its carapace.
• Sresk abandons his crossbow, rushes to toe Robot, and slashes with his claws. He misses again.
• Yves, now completely out of ideas, strikes at it with his wooden staff. So close, yet so far.

Round 4

Next verse, same as the first.

• The Robot grapples Jack again. This time it succeeds.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Jack struggles to break free, but fails miserably.
• Gerfast strikes the creature, twice: once for 6 damage, and once for 2 damage.
• Sresk slashes with his claws again. He connects but does no damage.
• Yves strikes at it with his wooden staff, and this time misses completely.

Round 5

• The Robot lets off another sleeping gas grenade.
  • Jack, pinned, cannot escape and succumbs.
  • Gerfast ducks away with surprising nimbleness.
  • Sresk gets a lungful and succumbs.
  • Yves succumbs.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Gerfast, last man standing, strikes twice and hits both times. He uses his Heavy Hitter talent to make the most of the first hit, doing 6 damage, and does two damage for the second hit.

Round 5

• The Robot gently lets Jack down and rounds on Gerfast.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Gerfast strikes twice, but can’t match the success of his previous strikes.

Round 6

• The Robot lets off its final sleep gas grenade.
• The Robot’s shield regenerates 1 point.
• Gerfast can’t quite get away this time, and he, too, succumbs to sleep gas.

Rude Awakening

Some time later, the party wakes up. Each is locked in a 10’ by 10’ cell, with one wall being a force field. All their weapons have been “confiscated”, save Aldis’s dagger and shield, Dain’s bow and arrows, and of course Sresk’s claws.

The cells have walls on three sides while across the front there is a row of short projecting studs on both the top and the bottom. In the center of this “wall” is a small post with a card lock similar to those found on other doors. Below this is a button and a dial that control the force screen. When a cell is in use, the force screen will be turned on and an invisible wall will radiate in the area between the studs.

Dispensers in each cell produce potable water and putrid “food”. Nobody and nothing comes to check on them.

They’re trapped.

Commentary

• If I thought the Vegepygmies were too tough, the Police Robots are entirely too tough. They original text listed their Armor Class as -1. They have an arsenal of lethal options, yet supposedly they prefer peaceful means … unless they malfunction.

  I honestly can’t tell if the Police Robots were designed to be too tough, whether the translation to Quantum Dungeons was flawed, or if there’s some mismatch of assumptions between AD&D and Quantum Dungeons. Maybe AD&D wizards have an arsenal of offensive spells, and fighters of 8th level or higher can simply chop up metal monsters. Maybe I really needed 15 characters to have a hope of surviving the adventure. Or maybe the author of The Tomb of Horrors wrote yet another convention scenario where it’s a good thing you’re not risking your regular characters.

• Also, I should have read the whole module before I started. The 15 sample characters all have magic items ranging from +1 and +2 weapons to oil of slipperiness, a wand of cold, a sword of dancing, etc. I can retcon some magic items into the packs of one or more characters. But that smacks of Batman’s utility belt … or Felix the Cat’s Bag of Tricks.

• I literally have no idea how the party are going to get out. All they have are a few useless weapons and Yves’s magic, but according to the text, The cells are force field shells, so magic will not function beyond them […] Does that mean spells won’t work in the cells? Through the cell walls? That excludes a desperate Fireball from Yves, let alone any other spell he knows like Wizard Eye or a fortuitous magic item to break out from within a cell.

  Maybe this is an opportune time to end the series …

Next Time

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll wrap up this series, with Our Heroes(?) starving to death. Maybe I’ll introduce some new heroes to rescue them. Who can say?