Our game has slowed down a bit due to other schedules. I've been back to work for several weeks now following a short medical leave after surgery this summer. Pre-season training for my oldest son's soccer team began. Vacations, camps, and good weather for bike-riding have all caused our sessions to happen a bit less frequently. Also, the boys decided that unless their friends are here, they don't want to progress in the main campaign. So we've done a few one-offs from the Bayhaven adventures and Space adventures and a few I made up off the cuff.
This also is compounded by the fact that we have been engaged in a MASSIVE dungeon crawl through the Labyrinth of the Minotaur. They solved the riddle to open the secret entrance only to find a 70 foot shaft descending through the underground lake. They very creatively figured out a way to descend the shaft safely utilizing some vines courtesy of the nature mage (the pets had to be left behind for this one due to the shaft and the tight nature of the corridors). That was about 5 sessions ago. I made the labyrinth a HUGE underground network of caverns and tunnels from the map pieces in the Maze of the Minotaur adventure. It's made of 35 full sheets in a 7x5 grid. Here's a picture.
We've had to move this adventure to the floor.
I've been having a blast running them through a ton of traps and battles as they make their way through this maze. I decided to lay it out like this instead of reveal it room by room for two reasons. First, I wanted them to get a sense of the vastness of the labyrinth. This is the largest map on which they've played. Second, I figured they were going to get the "secret labyrinth" feel with all of the traps and random encounters I have planned.
They descended into the labyrinth in the third row, second column (little horizontal corridor with one opening to the right). They travelled north and hit almost every room in the upper right section. They found some glowing gemstones that give each them a portable light source, several giant snakes and scorpions, two spider infestations, glowing mushrooms that disintegrated when pulled from the ground by hand (they didn't investigate those any further to discover how to harvest them), a former adventurer (now only remains) with 1 intact potion, a magical stream of healing water, a pit trap, a cave-in trap that KO'd the life mage (healer), and the minotaur - which they defeated only to see it retreat into what can only be described as a glimmering portal.
After finally freeing the life mage from the rubble from the cave-in, they are now investigating a trap in the next room (where the minis are standing looking into) that they have learned is tripped by magic but not by physical objects. It's fascinating seeing them go through the process of detecting the trap (archer) through the partially blocked exit of their current cavern, detecting it is magical plant-based, testing it with a fireball, then an arm, then a staff, then a staff with magic sent through it, then a magical rock, then an arrow, then an arrow with ice that was created magically on it, then an improvised torch made from a magically manifested stick (nature mage) lit by magically manifested fire (elemental mage). Through all of that (with very little prompting from me) they figured out that the trap was triggered by magic, but not be physical things - even if those physical things were created by magic.
They still have yet to discover the actual lair of the minotaur, which will hold a second piece of the artifact as well as two scrolls for each character that will let them choose one of two variations on an upgrade to their abilities (i.e. - the life mage will be able to choose from a resurrection style spell that fully heals an ally from a KO once per day/adventure or permanently upgrading "Healing Touch" to a ranged spell). They also will probably run across an arrow trap (think Indian Jones), another group of lost adventurers that will end up being a reanimating skeleton attack trap, a locked room escape riddle, a mirage trap, an acid stream trap, and at least one more treasure room (the very upper right room was a treasure room).
The Minotaur's labyrinth has been loads of fun so far for them (they were laughing hysterically when the nature mage's spelled failed and ended up sprouting thorns out of the elemental mage's bald head). Hopefully, they'll bring back rewards worth the danger the faced (so far, each of them has been KO'd at least twice, and they were one character away from a TPK - Total Party Knockout).
If you guys are interested, I can post more detailed descriptions of the traps and consequences ifyou would like to include them in your adventures. Let me know below. I can do a whole post just on the traps I've used to trick my boys and their friends and the ones I've yet to spring upon them. They might be my favorite part of their adventures because I love watching them go through the process of devising solutions to the traps when discovered or triggered.
Happy adventuring!
