Thanksgiving Adventure in Lidevin

The Cast of Characters:

Florence Mastercastle - Elf

Princess Consuela Banana Hammock - Cleric

Ves Grudrog - Magic User

Zander Scuttletoes - Halfling Thief

Plumb Bob - Thief

This boar was literally just eating some food
minding it's own business when we decided to attack it

It was the first time in a while I was a player instead of a dungeon master. When I am a player I am not the most mature; I have a desire to visit the perceived wrongs that players have committed against me back on other dungeon masters thus perpetuating the cycle of abuse. Fortunately this time there was another countervailing desire, to see one of my players who I taught how to play Dnd succeed her first time as a dm. Erika did a great job.

The adventure started with the party’s most recalcitrant and obstinate character, Zander Scuttletoes having travelled back to his hometown for Fantasy Thanksgiving. Normally Zander would not travel back to the town of Lidevin, a sleepy hamlet he has never mention and apparently has no memory of, but he was getting fed up with the his other party members (I presume) and needed a break.

So, the adventure starts in a bar. Zander is getting drunk alone. He wishes not to be noticed. Unfortunately, as so often happens when you go home for Fantasy Thanksgiving, all the people Zander was hoping to avoid are at the bar. Plumb Bob, the cheerful (probably due to some sort of brain problem) has become the incompetent bartender. He begins chatting Zander up and neglects to keep his stein properly filled. Then other people from Zander’s long forgotten past pile into the bar. They are every bit as irritating as the party Zander left behind in Clargarser. Of course Plumb Bob waives them over neglecting to fill any drink orders.

Zanders is tortured by his past acquaintances until two members of the town guard bust in, some old dude, who is chill and some young dude that is not chill. The not chill dude is named Cade.

A bunch of stuff happens and we are sent to the lord’s house for a very standard quest introduction. There is a reward. I forget what it is. I remember the quest though. The town is next to a magic forest. Usually winter never comes to the forest and hence the town. Winter is coming for the first time in memory. The town is not set up with grain reserves to make it through the winter. So, stop winter or a bunch of people starve.  The Lord thinks that the unicorn is somehow responsible or for the coming of winter (yes, there’s a unicorn). Cade is a virgin and only he can seduce the unicorn to make the unicorn happy again (I am unable to remember this part accept as Plumb Bob understood it, sorry). Cade is embarrassed that everyone in the party now knows that he’s a virgin and we head into the forest with Cade and Plumb Bob’s mule.

The forest is spooky.

We meet the unicorn. The unicorn is kind of obnoxious. Cade seduces the unicorn and claims that she has nothing to do with the winter coming and that some monsters stole the three globes of there not being winter and took them into a cave. The unicorn can’t go down stairs cause she’s a unicorn so she was thwarted from retrieving the globes (maybe orbs) Also the unicorn say the mule has to stay with her. The unicorn gives each of us a single strand of her mane to help us rescue the globes/orbs. They have good magical properties:

Plumb Bob's Mule left the party to become the Unicorn's lover

Hair of the Unicorn: single use magic item. Say “give me light” to create light equal to a continual light spell. Say “I wish to be healed” to cast cure light wounds. Say “Guide my weapon” to guaranty that your next attack hits and if the attack does less than 3 damage double the damage.

 The dungeon itself started out as a cave and had the general shape of a spiral leading down. It was pretty linear, which was appropriate for the single-session-one-shot nature of the adventure. There were monsters that could be run from or fought. There were monsters that could be bribed with food or fought, and there were monsters that could be reasoned with or fought. There were a few monsters that had to be fought.

Off the main path of the dungeon were a few rooms that provided extra treasure or puzzles that we could choose to ignore. One of the highlights was a room with seemingly worthless junk that when removed from the room revealed itself to be much more valuable treasure. It was really simple but really created a feeling of wonder and felt really rewarding to the party.

Then of course was the talking skeleton (Yes he kept asking for wine) with a desk full of valuables, who we could fight for his treasure but that would give the massive snake in the room time to come down from the ceiling and eat us. We ran away.

The whole adventure did a really good job of creating a sense of fairy tail logic. We were able to beat monsters through creative use of stuff found in the dungeon. An old tablecloth found earlier in the dungeon was used to blind a minotaur. A scrap of paper found in one room turned out to be a scroll of silence we were able to use on the harpy guarding one of the orbs. It was good design. The orbs themselves were kept in tiny seemingly magical cupboards. The dungeon came was like a scary children’s movie, which made sense as it was heavily influenced by The Last Unicorn. More people should steal from The Last Unicorn.

In the end we got out of the dungeon with the three orbs. We gave them to the Unicorn, who was now grateful and had fallen in love with Plumb Bob’s mule. Plumb Bob bid a tearful farewell to his mule and the party returned to Lindevin.

 Perhaps due to the fairy tale nature of the adventure, both Cade the uptight NPC and Zander Scuttletoes became a little friendlier and less ornery that before. It was another Fantasy Thanksgiving miracle.