When we last left off our heroes, they stomped a hole in a rat and made an actual hole somewhere else. Oh, and Agent Smith is alive. Now we play chess... Although I noticed something when I was setting up this encounter.
Each of these encounters had set up something about the game. The first encounter set up just that: the encounter. The next encounter explored dungeon crawling, the second encounter in the dungeon discussed Skill Challenges, and the previous room was the first encounter with traps. They’re pretty much teaching the DM all the necessarily features to a typical dungeon crawl/adventure, but they don’t do it in a way that feels like a Kingdom Hearts tutorial and have the book directly talk to you and say “Now we’ll learn how to employ traps in your game!”
So what does this room employ? Well, from what I have read in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, puzzles. And the feature in this is a pretty good sounding match at that. Players enter a chess-like room, and once they enter, they’re locked into a certain chess piece’s movement. Failure to move like chess pieces do will result in getting Mind Raped. No, seriously, move the wrong way, and you get five psychic damage.
Of course, our characters don’t know that... though... Yeah. Remember how they have a guy who used to be in cahoots with the Big Bad and current owner of the dungeon? Yeah. It would be too easy for him to go “Hey, this room has traps,” so I’m gonna test his knowledge on the dungeon to know this, and since he’s been in the dungeon quite a few times, I’ll do medium DC.
[Dungeoneering DC: 12. Roll... 4]
Welp, they don’t know, so we’re kind of fucked. Well, not entirely, it would seem. I would need to have the characters fuck up in initially moving, since that would trigger the encounter. Just for reference, here’s how my characters will move:
- Hugh: Knight
- Agent Smith: Knight
- Darerris: Bishop
- Hollyhana: Bishop
Although, upon reading through the rules, I doubt you’re supposed to not know you’re supposed to play it like chess... So fuck it, I’m gonna do the puzzle anyways. I’m gonna move the Bishops first, since they’re the easier ones, after moving them at their respective speeds, I’m now to do the Knights, which are tricky. However, they’re pretty easy, and after moving the Bishops around a bit, I managed to get Hollyhana out of the room. Then I get Hugh out of the room... Fuck. Now I’m stuck with Darerris and Agent Smith, and I can try all day to get them out... It’s like Rush Hour!
Here’s the reason why: the pieces are blocking the spaces, and this ain’t normal chess, where you can just take the pieces. No, you have to fight seven monsters in order to leave. Although... there’s no rule saying I can’t take the pieces... With this in mind, I decided to have Agent Smith take the queen, deciding on an Armor Class check. If I succeed, I defeat the Queen and take it like a normal chess piece, but if not, then I will initiate the battle with only my two guys.
[Attack Roll: Quarterstaff (+1) vs. AC (18) Roll... 18]
O_O SUCCESS! And since his next move is to get out of the room, Agent Smith does just that. Now it’s Darerris’ turn Alright, let’s see if I can do this! I’m gonna attempt to take the pawn!
[Attack Roll: Dagger (+6) vs. AC (17). Roll... 22]
DOUBLE YES! I take out the pawn and move onto the next room!
[175 EXP EARNED!]
I kind of feel bad for skirting the battle a bit and cheating with the rules, but the puzzle aspect was fun, and it’d probably would have been more fun had I purposefully tripped the battle, since you have to move in your movement pattern while your attacking. Who knows, maybe one day, if I decide on it, I’ll have an extra part where I pit monsters together in a chess match. Until then, stay tuned for more.
