D&D Plants vs Zombies style – part 4

[There's part 1, part 2 and part 3]

Ok, I planned really hard for the second encounter. Somehow I manage to mash more PvZ elements into a D&D game. Let me go into narration mode first:

You come up to a giant stone entrance on the side of the mountain. Fillian is moving around the entrance. “Strange. This looks a little different…”

For this encounter, I did something different for laying out the battleground. The layout was revealed piecemeal. There’s a reason, and it was nearly foiled by a magic item… more on this further down. I drew a small section of the cave, after saying the party entered through the stone entrance by the side of the mountain, and told my players to set up their positions in a corner. Then I went into narration mode again:

“It’s awfully dark in here… hey, this is a Plantern!” Fillian points at the Plantern. “Oh Sunshrooms!”

Fillian walks to the Sunshroom and absorbs some sunlight. Glowing, he moves to the Plantern and transfers the sunlight to it, and it starts to glow.

“Oalian’s beard, a spider!” Fillian points to somewhere beside the Plantern. And then he runs screaming out of the cave. And a stone slab slams down at the entrance.

At this point, my He-Man player started gesticulating wildly.
“I have a Sunblade!” he points enthusiastically at his character sheet. “I have a Sunblade!”

The now plummeting plan was to have this entire encounter dank with darkness (ooh alliterations!). The Planterns and Sunshrooms would provide the only sources of light, if the players didn’t have conventional light sources such as lanterns. We didn’t make use of any light sources, nor had light be a consideration of our tactics when we played before.

So I wanted to create the feeling of terror, of not knowing what’s beyond 5 squares of you. I wanted zombies to suddenly materialise and grab you and scare the living daylights out of you.

Never did I imagine a magic item so drastically changing my plans.

The Sunblade.

How devastating was it?

Property: This weapon can shed bright or dim light up to 20 squares. You control the brightness and range of the light.

Oh my beebeebahbee…

The Sunblade was taken primarily because it could deal radiant damage. You know, because I overwarned my players about the overflowing of zombies… The light property was a side effect, and messed up my plans…

My players, seeing my crestfallen (and shocked and surprised and stunned [save ends]) face, told me I could rule it out if I wanted to. I said it’s ok (following say yes rule), and looked at my map. All was not lost…

The pale blue area is where the party is initially deployed. The grey areas are impassable rock. Oh right, legend:

• Sun – Sunshroom (similar to Sunflowers, but only in the dark)
• PL – Plantern (I never got to explain that its light extends 5 squares… oh well)
• Arch – archer zombie
• SkZ – skulk zombie
• FlZ – flameborn zombie
• TrsC – treasure chest (that contained a lantern and 2 sunrods. Which were absolutely useless because of the Sunblade)
• Mari – marigold wall
• ChZ – chillborn zombie
• RIP – tombstone
• ZH – zombie hulk
• T – trap line

And that golden line there? It’s a plaque, which reads

Many challenges you will face
Maybe a daily price you paid
Mercy grants from spirits of grace
Mmm… only thrice, shall you smell aid

When saying “thrice”, hold up three fingers to emphasize the point. Then I described there was a drawing of a marigold at the bottom right corner. And below that, in scribbles:

All your brainz are belong to uz

I had to repeat my poem 2 times. The ardent correctly deduced something about daily powers. (yay!)

“Smell aid?” the paladin wondered. And he proceeded to sniff at the plaque. And even mimed it for real. It was all I could do not to laugh… The paladin at this point seem to be the worst of the lot, so any “aid” was appreciated.

“You smell the scent of fresh flowers, but that’s all.” I said.
“Aahh… must smell.” deduced the paladin.

Oh yeah, Sunblade. So I described the light from the (accursed… *narrows eyes*) blade flooding the entire corridor, whereupon 2 zombies were revealed. One held a sword and the other a bow. And they were quickly taken out by the party.

The paladin then moved to the squares marked “T”. That’s the trap line. It doesn’t do anything. It’s just a cue for me to say

Stop. You hear a sharp click. Then some breaking glass. And some moans and cries of pain *I moan and groan for sound effect*.

If the darkness was still in effect, describing the flameborn zombies covered in flames and coming to get you would be really awesome. Oh well…

The flameborn were killed and I told my players that for the rest of the encounter, even though they don’t see any enemies, they would still continue in initiative order, and take move actions.

When the first flameborn zombie was killed, I described

The zombie disintegrated before your eyes. The flames surrounding the zombie flashed and coalesced into a red crystal, about the size of your palm.

When a player picked it up, I described

You can feel it’s throbbing and almost going to burst.

It’s a Cherry Bomb. The ranger said “I’m going to put it into my pants”. I said hurriedly, “that wouldn’t be wise…”.

You also hear some pounding and roaring *makes thumping noises and pounding action* somewhere over here *points where the Zombie Hulk is (see map above)*

It was He-Man who first turned the corner, and I told him that he smelt the scent of fresh flowers (see marigold wall in the map). The paladin went straight for it, and it takes a minor action to smell the marigold. And the player must tell me he’s specifically smelling before he gets… one of his spent daily powers back.

“Woohoo!”

Then he smelled vigorously at the wall again. *doing ROFL in my mind*
“Uh, the fresh scent seemed to have faded…” I described.
“Oh…” sighed the paladin.
“Well, there’s 2 more ahead.” consoled the ardent. (they remembered my poem!)

I also had to keep track of where He-Man was, because his Sunblade dictated what was seen ahead. Luckily, I devised a winding cave route. Otherwise, much of the surprise would be gone.

Moving swiftly along, they killed the next 2 pairs of sword and bow zombies quickly. I had a conundrum. I had minion zombies streaming periodically. But still the players continued to slaughter them. “My zombies are too weak! They don’t feel challenged! I have failed!”

I started streaming in more minion zombies, 2 at a time. And uh, I started lying. My players would attack, and hit, and I would let them continue to roll damage. I would “Uh huh” and “Mmm hmm” and scribble on my writing pad. Then I would take one red ring and put on the minion zombie and declared it bloodied.

Yes, I made 2 hit minion zombies on the spot.

They were winding upwards, and I told the wizard that his Flaming Sphere would destroy the plants (small comforts…), and he moved his fireball accordingly. Yeah, I also had to keep track of where his sphere was, because it casts light too.

Then the ranger decided to double back to get at the treasure chest (someone noticed!). The wizard warned him not to go too far, or he would be left in darkness when He-Man turned the corner.

I was so dejected by the uselessness of the lantern that I just said the ranger found the lantern and 2 sunrods when he opened the treasure chest. On hindsight, I should have given him something. Maybe a quickening potion, where he gets to move 2 more squares per move action for 2 rounds or something.

I described the roaring and pounding of the Zombie Hulk again, and that some glass-like shattering was heard. Then they met the chillborn zombies (supposedly breaking out of their icy tomb, which was weakened by the Zombie Hulk pounding), who weren’t much of a challenge. Other than giving the ranger another slowing effect (the ranger was slowed by the flameborn before this).

They took a while to kill my chillborn zombies. Partly because I created the 2 hit minion zombies (wahahaha…). When the first chillborn zombie died, I described the coalescing of cold air and formed a blue crystal. It’s an upgrade for the melon plant to become a winter melon for the next encounter. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The wizard moved forward quickly together with this Flaming Sphere to light the way. He-Man moved right along, and I uh, cheated. I made up a door to block off his advance.

Then I made the Zombie Hulk pick up a stray zombie and threw it at the warden when he opened the door. Thus completely and effectively blocking his way. You will have noticed that wall adjoining that door wasn’t in my original plan (it was supposed to be 3 squares of open space). Improvise, improvise, improvise…

Somehow, the warden managed to kill off that minion zombie, move in, and knock my Zombie Hulk prone. Then the rest of the party followed soon after.

The ardent tried throwing a blue crystal at the Zombie Hulk. Another mistake I made. I said it bounced off the giant zombie without much happening. I could have said it sprouted icicles and frost and cold air, and the Zombie Hulk was immobilised. Or something. That would be awesome to describe. I disappointed my ardent player (pun not intended).

It wasn’t much of a fight once my zombie-spawning tombstone was rendered useless by the FLAMING FREAKING SPHERE. The giant Zombie Hulk breathed its last decomposing breath and fell. Then Fillian (remember him?) came running and appeared at the door.

“I’m sorry I ran out like that. I’m *really* scared of spiders…” Fillian said sheepishly.

Up next in part 5: Where my players were out to kill my beloved (and actually innocent) NPC. And I sing. Stay tuned (pun intended).