A little "Down Time" between sessions

We won't be able to play for the next few weeks due to weddings, soccer tournaments, etc. We will probably spend a little time in Bayhaven, and my oldest boy has written a space adventure that he wants to GM for us. Mostly, though, I'm using this "down time" to prep the next several adventure paths our wandering band of vertically challenged heroes may choose to explore next. I've been trying to somewhat faithfully recreate the ruined keep and ambush dungeon from the Glade of the Unicorn adventure. Here's what I've come up with so far (I still need to cut out the crumbling second floor for the keep).

The ruined keep without the second floor. 

The arrow slits and doors can be seen here.

The "secret" rubble entrance in the back.

The entrance from the keep above is in the larger area in the bottom left.

The kids' characters are beginning to become quite powerful, so I'm planning on completely swarming them with goblins. There are 4-6 each archers, jabbers, stabbers, and shaman. They've been given a few new abilities that I know they are going to want to try as well.

That's the other thing I've been doing. Two of them gained the ability to transform into other things, and so I've been working out the details for those abilities. Once I figure them out, I'll post them for you.

I'm also going through all the rooms and traps from the Maze of the Minotaur for you guys. I'll post those as soon as I get them organized into a coherent list.

The Minotaur's Labyrinth 2

Whew! We've finally made it to the Minotaur's Lair. That was a rough one on them. They made it through, though. And it only took about 18 hours over 6 or 7 sessions!

I keep finding it amazing how much these four kids are willing to pour themselves into these characters. I keep presenting them with obstacle after obstacle with less and less information up front, and they keep figuring out more creative ways to conquer them. Of course, it's also fun to watch them work for an hour to try and figure out increasingly elaborate ways through a trap only to have the youngest one of them beat it in one sentence. They needed to cross a room that was a magic trap and filled with gas whenever any magic entered or was formed in the room. If they would've used any magic or brought anything with magic currently at work within it (like their enchanted gems that they were using for light), the room immediately filled with a yellow haze that would do 1 damage to them immediately and 1 poison damage on the following turn. They didn't want to leave the gems behind, though. So two of them entered the room and explored it without any magic ... or light ... while the other two stayed behind with the gems. Leaving their comrades behind, one almost was eaten by a giant, magically enhanced Venus Flytrap, one became Hulk-ified for a few minutes, and both ended up stuck in a dimensional portal in a trapped chest. They were rescued by one of the other two. After all that and still no success in getting the gems across the room without taking damage, the last one of them (the youngest) simply said, "can I just throw these things across the room?"

Yep.

I chuckled at the other three for a moment ... then made them roll a dexterity check to not get hit with the gems. Heehee.

Finally, they found the Minotaur at the top of a sloped corridor that had a trough running down the center and had a trap door in the ceiling near the top (I bet you can figure out what was above the trap door ... they haven't seen Indiana Jones yet ...).

They now have two pieces of the artifact that they need to assemble. The Minotaur also gave them scrolls that let them choose between two spells to help them on their journey. I've never seen 8-11 year-olds so conflicted. You would have thought I had asked them if they wanted to save the cute puppy or the cuddly bunny from the hungry lion. It was awesome.

They are so excited about their characters and trying out their new abilities that they acted out at least half a dozen scenarios on their way to bed. I am excited to see the ways they come up with to use their new abilities.

I'll list all the traps, the rooms in which they found them, the treasure rooms, the monsters, and the location of the lair in another post. They didn't explore the maze in its entirety, but they will have that option if they want to do that next session. I'm pretty sure they missed about 7 rooms.

Our four intrepid adventurers rise from the Maze of the Minotaur weary but determined. The elemental mage has become so infused with the elemental magic that he has gained the ability to become a living elemental being. The master archer has honed his tracking and stealth skills to the point where he can blend in to any surroundings (basically, disguise + camouflage). The life mage has learned to manipulate the life energies of her fellow adventurers at a distance and can now heal at range. The nature mage found himself at one with the wildlife around him and gained the ability to polymorph into any creature. May these new abilities prove beneficial on their journey to bring Zimarim the Grimm down.

The Minotaur's Labyrinth

Don't worry. We're still playing. It's just been a bit since I've been able to post.

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!

Mines of Martek

I had to use the wall from area where the track runs for the main rooms. There was a room at the end of the track with a pit in which they fought goblins in and rescued Eldar D'Dember.

The last 2 shots are of the secret puzzle-locked entrance to the Maze of the Minotaur. The first shows the puzzle solved. The second shows the pillar on which they discovered the puzzle.