Notes from the Other Side (of the DM Screen) 2

We encountered a What?!?
or
Sometimes it's fun to run away

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got be a PC instead of DM the other day! Yay! It's not like I'm never a player, but it really is like a 90/10 split. So when I do play, it's a big deal for me, and I try to use it as a learning opportunity to become a better DM.

It may seem like I bagged on the DM's black dragon encounter in the last post for not quite fitting in with my plot/balance expectations, but that was just focusing on one particular nuance of the encounter. Another facet of the encounter, namely how absolutely scared s---less we were and how awesome that was, is highly praiseworthy. Let's recap:

The party is off to find a dangerous and evil orb in a cave. The party does indeed find an orb, but it hardly seems dangerous and evil. The orb is suspended by the spray of a magical fountain. It bobs atop the water, and the water is pure and refreshing. The party's paladin and cleric sense no evil. Runes etched into the ceiling contain references to Moradrin and Corellon - the antithesis of fearsome, evil deities (there are also runes for "undead" and "protection" but I just assume - correctly, it turns out - those are related to a trap).

At this point, we think it's the orb we seek, but it just seems too darn "good" compared to what we were expecting. I think too many of us grew up on Gary Gygax modules where the obvious often equated with death. So we decide to press on for a bit, to explore some more and be sure the "real" orb isn't hidden deeper in the cave network. It's still early in the day, so we meander through the cave network for over three 3 hours (big caves).

At this point the DM utters something like "a loud whoosh of air from massive, leathery scaled wings rushes over you" as he places a figure on the table. It's a Black Dragon. "In Draconic, the dragon says 'You have trespassed into my lair - I may yet allow you to leave with your lives.'" Almost everyone succumbs to dragon-fear.

The players begin to chatter amongst themselves (something our characters didn't do, but the DM let it slide) debating if we could take on the dragon, but it becomes clear there's a misunderstanding. "Whups, no - the only Black Dragon miniature I have is medium-sized. This guy is actually large. Here, this is better." as the DM swaps out the 1x1-based mildly alarming dragon for a 2x2-based figure of plastic-injection-molded terror.

Unfortunately, the only guy in our party who speaks Draconic is the not-terribly-bright Dragonborn paladin. While most of the party shakes with puddles of urine at their feat, he summons the courage to overcome the dragon-fear and speak (having worked with reptiles, I'm somewhat alarmed at what might be in the Dragonborn's undergarments). The paladin says something along the lines of "Mighty cousin, we have come here seeking a magical orb of great evil, do you know of this orb we seek?"

When combined with a poor Diplomacy check, the black dragon interprets this as something along the lines of "Cousin whom I insult terribly by speaking to as an equal, we think there is a magic orb in your treasure that we wish to take from you. You cool with that?"

The dragon's eyes narrow and it hisses "I know of many magic orbs, and I see one more that I shall add to my trove. Leave it and I will spare your lives." The dragon was looking at the magic orb currently being held by the party's wizard...

There was some back-and-forth where the wizard genuinely contemplated trying to palm the orb and use Prestidigitation to hand over a fake orb so as to save a few hundred GP and perhaps some dignity. Eventually, however, the sheer statistical improbability of pulling that off made him relent and hand over his orb. The party tip-toed out the way we came in.

That encounter was awesome.

As a player, I am generally expecting to be able to defeat anything we encounter, though sometimes it may be harder than other times. But we're still gonna defeat it. I generally only experience, erm, iris-puckering fear, as it were, when the dice have gone terribly wrong and we're losing to random luck, or perhaps we've made a stupid decision or missed an important clue that is making our fight harder. I never really expect to be just plain ol' outclassed by an encounter. It's frickin' scary.

Sure, we could have taken on the dragon and won, though somebody would likely have died, and if the dice went against us, it could have been a TPK. But it was so much more fun to be scared and to have to turn tail. I know it doesn't sound like much fun when you put it that way, but it was a really memorable encounter. I'm just glad no one did anything stupid. And the DM did a good job of playing up how menacing the dragon was, and gently coaching people about potential consequences.

I might add an encounter like that to my games. The two concerns I have are making sure the party has a realistic out and making sure the party knows what they're dealing with. I'd hate to have the party die due to some failed Diplomacy checks or saying the wrong thing. Likewise I'd hate for the party to die because one of the players unilaterally decides the party can take 'em. In other words, the problem with introducing something that can kill the party into the game is that just might happen.