How Running the Big Game Went - Part 3
Finale of reviewing our two-table Shadowdark one-shot for sixteen player characters!
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Introduction
This week is the third and final discussion walking through the big Shadowdark game we ran at the beginning of June. It has taken some time to get through, but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the rehash as this game is high on my list of “all-time best games I’ve ran.” If you’re just finding this entry and have not read through the first two, I would go through them first unless you just want to hear about the finale! Part 1 Here. Part 2 Here.
The Game at the Table
At this point in the story, both parties have collected the all-important magical items that are required to complete the ritual to revive Mirkos' Witch-Queen Rinessa so she may smite Duke Roath who had previously caused her magical stasis and stolen all her magical items from her to create an opening for the twin city of Kairaga to rule the region once and for all.
The wizards that sent the groups out into the wilderness to reclaim the artifacts met the PC groups outside the walls of the city of Mikros. The siege is still ongoing, but now there are plumes of black smoke and the outer walls have clearly been penetrated. Shouts and screams fill the air. Concussive vibration can be felt with every trebuchet launch. The din of combat can be heard for miles. Swaths of soldiers and siege engines are pouring into the city and the situation is dire. If the Duke makes it to the throne room while the Witch-Queen is still in stasis, he will destroy her and take the city. The wizards waste no time gathering the two groups of PCs and sending them to the throne room in the palace at the highest point in the city.
The throne room is a massive pentagon, but it only has one way into it from the southern wall. The northern walls have thin stained-glass depictions of heroic victories from history looking out over the city. At the south end, the wall is lined with doors that are currently barred and held fast by Mikran royal guard, but they are giving way to the press of Duke's men forcing their way in. Floor-to-ceiling pillars are spread out across the room supporting the ceiling and providing cover for our intrepid heroes. At the northern end of the room is a dais that steps up to house the Witch-Queen in her stasis within a magical blue ooze that is sustaining her while she awaits revival. There are four rune-marked tiles surrounding the wide podium the Witch-Queen is laid across that represent positions of import to the revival ritual.
The main mechanic in play for this encounter is called "diminishing pools", which I first learned of from an RPG called Grimwild - though modified. The basic concept there is a pool of D6s (six for this encounter) and the party needs to empty that pool of D6s by succeeding on an INT check to roll them dropping rolled 5's and 6's from the pool. In addition, important sacrifices can be made to straight up remove dice from the pool if deemed worthy by the GM, but it takes spending actions to attempt. I had not tried this out before, and though I had put smaller versions of both of these into the separate adventure sites, both tables had bypassed the related traps without allowing us to try it out, so this was fired straight from the hip. I put everything out in the open for this, all my dice rolls and the pool of six die, and I explained to the players what they needed to do as the victory condition. At least four of the players (now grouped to 16 players at one table) needed to be working on completing the ritual and the others needed to be fighting off waves of Duke's men.
I did not inform them the duke would be arriving after the first round
Initiative was going to be quick and dirty, everybody threw in their 1 inch stackable 3d-printed and painted tokens, and we set up everyone in the room and started rapid firing clockwise around the table asking people what they were doing. I was going for as much engagement as possible, so I was pretty animated about getting people involved and dice rolls were happening as fast as I could get them through the dice tower.
The player characters spread out across the room, taking up positions across the wide space. Recall that the most played class was Thief, then Fighter, then Wizard, THEN Priest. And the Wizards were looking to pass that INT check to roll the ritual diminishing pool dice. Grecko, the friendly Wererat, was positioned right in the middle of the southern wall.
The PCs took turns launched projectiles at the onslaught of Duke’s men, a couple of the players moved up and got into melee, and then one of the players passed the INT check to roll the ritual pool dice. On the first roll, half the dice were taken out as they were 5’s and 6’s. A great start for the players!
At the top of the second round, an explosion rocked the room…A large serpentine head covered in black scales with glowing red eyes emerges from the rubble of the central southern wall. As the din of battle subsides for just a moment, kicked up debris and smoke gave way to reveal a sinister form clad in dark plate mail wielding a long spear on the back of his draconic mount. Duke Roath had joined the fray and players started going down.
Luckily my rolls turned poorly. I kept rolling all of them out in the open and at least one player was watching me like a hawk - there wasn’t going to be any fudging here. The Duke’s mount sprayed a cone of fire and immolated poor Grecko to death after Grecko had single-handedly dispatched three Duke’s men. One of the few priests on the field was sprinting using all of his movement and actions trying to keep PCs alive. Another player, one of the new ones, sacrificed a magical scarab she had taken from the Pyramid of the Death Shaper, and successfully removed a Die from the ritual pool.
Two dice left.
A couple failures of the DC 12 INT Check, and then one of the players succeeded and rolled the dice. one 5, and one 3.
One die left in the pool.
The Duke is bearing down upon the heroes. Three heroes are down and bleeding out. The Duke and his draconic mount have made it into the room proper and are being harried by two of the players. One of the fighters in particular has landed multiple strong blows - About 47 points of damage have been dealt so far to this duke and his mount - but each time the damage is dealt, the armor crushes in and then snaps back out as if being magically held fast…
Another player succeeds the INT Check and rolls the last die…a 2…
Another round of punishment, another attempt to sacrifice something to the ritual, but it was deemed…unworthy…
This large pile of level 1 player characters has numbers on their side, but it is not guaranteed success. The dice have been going both ways, and if the Duke is let loose in the room and gets near the ritual, it is game over. The player have also run out of things they seem ready to sacrifice to complete the ritual and the Duke is still coming…
Duke’s men are dieing in droves, all of the royal guard are slaughtered, this is the last line of defense for Mikros. With everything spent and the ritual with one die remaining, another player succeeds on their INT check to roll the pool and succeeds…
The roll careens across the table, and lands solidly on a six…
A blinding concussive blast fills the throne room as the longmace Skiptro, bludgeon of the Maikari and the Orb of Planar Focus float up and gravitate towards the north end of the room. As the blinding light subsides, the Witch-Queen Rinessa floats in the room above the dais she was held in stasis, the blue ooze torn asunder, as the top of Skiptro opens with finger-like tendrils that accept and mount the orb to form a long staff combined of both the magic items.
Rinessa Screams as she unleashes a magical torrent upon the Duke and his mount, and all of the damage that had previously been applied to them, but had been held at bay by magical protection, was applied in a single stroke, and the Dragon was eviscerated in a shower of blood as the Duke’s armor became his coffin and it crumpled in upon his body, utterly destroying him.
The game concluded just after the stroke of midnight. And I had an absolute blast running it.
Conclusion
I had an absolute blast running this game. The preparation paid off and it honestly went damn near exactly how I wanted it to.
What did you think?
This turned into more of a straight rehash than advice on running this type of games, so now that I got that out - perhaps a post that just explores the tips, tricks, tools for running a bigger game like this is needed.
We are planning to turn the materials from this game into products so others can run their own tables in these adventures sites, so keep on the look out for these at goofandgrump.com!
Thanks for reading! Till next time!
Thanks for Reading!
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This sounded like so much fun! A post on tips for GMs would be awesome!
When the last wizard succeeded on their INT check, the players were rewarded with a cutscene moment. I hope that the rewards and recognition the party receives will be worthwhile.
What was the player response to the cutscene moment? Your written description was very energetic.