In which MetalJim’s DND group briefly become champions in the Arena of Death…

Here’s the recap from the last two meetings of my D&D group.  The players are now all 5^th level.

In the city of Kardina, a faction of mercenaries called The Red Company is threatening to take over the city.  The heroes have good info that the Red Company is really a “front” for an evil temple of Bane.  In recent sessions, the party wiped out a platoon of hobgoblins that was infiltrating the sewers into one of the “good” districts in town, and then fought off another plot against one of the two friendly temples.

Two weeks ago, the party sat down to play without their usual cleric.  This was sort of useful, however, as the 4 remaining heroes felt free to conduct their own investigations into enemy held territory in the city without the cleric looking over the shoulder.  The party rowed a boat over to the town’s main entrance, and settled into a “neutral” inn near the city gates.  From there, they walked into the bad part of town and right up to the Dragon’s Arse Tavern, which was also conveniently right next to the big combat arena in town, just across from the evil Red Company HQ.

It wasn’t long before the heroes were approached by various shady types offering to act as managers for their careers as gladiatorial combatants.  For whatever reason, the party decided to take an offer from an especially shady looking drow elf.  At least the drow made a convincing case that he knew how to get the PCs right into action in the arena.  The drow was also honest enough to admit that under the right circumstances he might try to screw the party over, but that it wasn’t in his interest to do so until after he had established the party’s reputation in battle.

So, the dwarf fighter, the barbarian, and the wizard fought a brief battle in the arena against a dire wolf and two snakes.  It was an easy fight, but enough to prove the point that the arena battlefield can be a dangerous and shifting place – the heroes weren’t told about the snakes beforehand, and they came popping up out of “Elevators” built into the floor of the arena.  Yes, you can guess which movie I was using for inspiration here.

Anyway, the party finished up the session by fighting a “headlining” match of 4 heroes versus two 7^th level elite orc bloodragers.  The PCs had a good excuse to throw down all of their new 5^th level daily powers and then some.  The orcs didn’t actually fare very well, and didn’t really even get to take full advantage of their own powers.  Still, the players did use good tactics, and earned their victory, and the cheers of the townspeople.

The PCs early success in the arena was very galling to the Red Company commanders, who were basically trying to use the arena as propaganda for their cause (very Roman legion, in this respect).  So, the Red Company sent an ambassador to convince the PCs to accept Red Company sponsorship.  A little bit of fun role-playing ensued.  The party thought about taking the money as a means to gain entrance to the enemy HQ, but realized that they just didn’t have the “bluff” skill to pull something like that off.

So, on to last weekend’s session.  The party was now rejoined by their cleric.  The bad guys issued (through the party’s manager) a proposal for the party to fight against the nasty green dragon inside the arena.  The same green dragon had spotted some of the party’s previous activities, and knew who the heroes were.  The player’s didn’t want the dragon to fly away halfway through the battle.  Their shifty drow manager suggested that both sides front a wager of 2000gp each.  That way, if anyone welched or tried to flee the arena, the betting money would be forfeit.  The players agreed to these terms, and there were a few other back and forth items about the arena setup and guaranteeing the PCs safety to and from the big fight.

On the way to fight the dragon, the party witnessed a strange figure stealing a baby from a woman in the street.  The heroes were not impressed, and were reasonably alert to the trap.  Actually, the dwarf rolled a natural 20 for his perception check, which helped.  These particular assassins were trying to collect a bounty on the barbarian, which is part of another storyline.  In any case, the heroes avoided that fight.  In short, “Help!  He stole my baby!” is not a good tool for motivating players to do something foolish – they tend to spot that trap fairly quickly.

So, we moved on to the big fight in the arena against the dragon.  That all went pretty well.  The baddies had a few surprises planned – with every intention of cheating.  The bad guys had insisted on a “pond” in the center of the arena.  This was actually filled with poisonous water that was, of course, no danger to the dragon.  The bad guys had also witnessed the party’s wizard teleporting himself up on top of a pillar during his previous battles.  Thus, this time the bad guys had rigged the pillars in the arena with illusionary tops concealing spiked pits.  By the time the wizard finally discovered this fact, the battle had already been decided.

The bad guys had one other plan for cheating.  They placed a spined devil inside one of the pillars, and had their announcer claim that it was the PCs who were summoning a devil which, of course, immediately turned on them.  The audience probably wasn’t convinced.  Yes, bad guys like to cheat.  That’s what makes them bad guys.

The fight involved 5 PCs of level 5 against a level 5 solo that had actually been “bumped” up to level 6, with an additional level 6 monster for good measure (arriving 2 rounds into the fight) offset by some minor environmental tricks in favor of the monsters.  A fair level 7 encounter, and as expected the PCs once again blew out their daily powers, and did just fine, though I almost knocked the wizard to zero HP.

The battle against the solo was NOT boring.  My players were only just running out of non-at-will powers by the end of the battle.  The dragon did, however, have a hard time moving after the second round.  The fighter was using his mark, the wizard had an icy hand grabbing the dragon, and the barbarian was using his rage to knock the dragon prone.  In other words, solo creatures can have a VERY hard time maintaining mobility against a determined party.

As they celebrated their victory, the PCs made damn sure to coup-de-grace the dragon, and then set its corpse on fire.  They were going to make darn certain that they wouldn’t have to fight the dragon again.

The arena was in a bit of a commotion following the battle.  Riots were starting up outside in the plaza.  Back in the locker room, the players discovered that the bad guys were manufacturing some sort of “protest” in order to delay paying out the promised wager money.

Hell hath no fury like adventurers who think they’ve either been cheated or stolen from.  It turns out that this is a VERY easy way to motivate players to go somewhere or do something.

So we had another major battle as the players decided to bust their way into the office of the arena master.  The party’s drow manager decided to flee the scene, not sure how far the party’s bloodlust would extend.  This fight was a good tussle for a few rounds, and I even knocked the barbarian into negative HP twice, even though both times he was immediately healed by the cleric.  The party ended up showing no mercy whatsoever to the arena manager and his goons, even when they started to run away.

After reclaiming their own gold and most of what was owed to them (the Red Company’s wager money was short by 500gp), they decided to burn down the arena and to release the animals (never mind that these same animals were dangerous dire wolves and poisonous snakes).  We’ll deal with political and practical effects of all of this in a couple of weeks.

To sum up – a little action in the combat arena is a great way to add some drama to your regular campaign.  The gladiator ring should be a treacherous place where players are nervous about what, exactly, will come through the gate to fight them.  For their part, the players will respond by using all of their powers and action points, so feel free to make sure that your arena battles are, in fact, challenging for your PCs.

After two weeks in the arena, however, my players were also fairly happy to see it burn.  Time to move onto other horizons and other venues.  Besides, it’s fairly hard to top killing a green dragon in front of 2000 adoring fans (and another 400 enemy mercenaries).

What’s the biggest thing that your favorite D&D character ever killed in front of an audience of screaming fans?