And that's why you don't see shark wrestlers

I think it is probably safe to say that we have hit the high-water mark for fun. Saturday night's gaming session was one of the most wholeheartedly entertaining sessions I think I have ever had playing table top D&D. At least based on everybody's complicity in the ensuing hijinks, it didn't appear that anyone felt left out or that the game bogged down because of it. Indeed, a little levity now and again is a good reminder of why it is we play the games we play.

The evening started off with an early round of Castle Ravenloft. Homer, Josh and Ken came by early to give the big box a whirl. It was also Beth's first time playing the modular dungeon which was officially unveiled the weekend before at fall-loha in Lyndonville. Having a couple plays under my belt it was easier setting up and getting everyone situated for the dungeon delve. I passed out the character sheets for folks to pick over while I prepared the dungeon containing Klak the kobold sorcerer.

Almost immediately after starting it became apparent just how challenging the game could be. As the only experienced player I kicked things off with the Ranger. I exposed a tile with a white arrow which, fortunately, didn't trigger an encounter. The rat swarm I drew, however, could only feast on my flesh and it did. Five minutes into the game and I was down HP. It was all down hill from there. "Give her something," someone said. "I don't have anything to give," Homer replied. "All I can give her is the finger."

Looks like I goofed on a couple of things. I didn't fully read the special rules for Klak and therefore didn't use the white arrow/black arrow abilities. On the whole I suspect it probably hurt the heroes more than Klak. While we did cancel a few encounter cards, gaining new powers for each white arrow tile drawn would have certainly boosted our offensive prowess particularly as things fell apart.

Then there was the crushing walls and fire trap incident. Turns out only ONE trap should be active at a time. Somehow we managed to neutralize both traps and kill the swarms of monsters that joined us there. The traps would prove to be a continual bane to our existence as were cards which affected "every hero on the active hero's tile" which always seemed to include the hapless Ranger. To my accounting the Ranger died no less than three times. That is particularly frightening in light of the fact we only had two healing surges.

Luckily Homer's wizard drew a healing potion in the start treasure and Beth was able to Healing Strike a wolf to revive me on two of those sad occasions. I also drew a Blessing card that granted +1 HP to every hero who successfully struck a monster that turn. On the whole the game always teetered between black disaster and euphoric success, based on a lucky combination of treasures or fortuitous timing of player abilities.

The final battle with Klak proved almost anticlimactic as it turned out. Even as characters fell in rapid succession in other parts of the dungeon, we finally started rolling poorly for the monsters. Homer unleashed a lightning bolt that zapped Klak and his Infernal Artifact while the brave Ranger leaped in with a Bounding Attack that slapped down Klak for three points of damage. Meanwhile the scattered remnants of the party surged forward. Beth barely was able to reach Ken in time to revive the Rogue as Josh ran in to try to take the pressure off the battered Wizard and near death Ranger.

In the end the Ranger was able to shoot off two arrows with her Many Shot power and slay a rat swarm and Klak in the same round. As a treasure from the swarm she drew an action surge that enabled her to make one final attack on the artifact to destroy it and win the game for the heroes. And to think that was only the first hour and a half of the night's activity!

Rob and Angela arrived as Ravenloft entered its dying throes...when the heroes were the ones doing most of the dying as it turned out. After packing up and setting up the battle map, we jumped back into D&D. The party had enjoyed some success outwitting the dragon and creating the artifact that sheltered the town from the dragon's predations. And yet, there were still some things left undone. We hadn't managed to fully plumb the depths of the abandoned wizard's tower.

So off we went using the knowledge that Angela's sorceress gained from reading a weighty tome. Turns out we hadn't noticed a water elevator that would carry us deeper into the tower. Probably because it was rune locked and looked like a ceiling drip from an otherwise decrepit tower. The antechamber it led to was less than inviting looking like a D&D underwater prom theme complete with mermaids and sharks.

Initially we thought jumping the sharks might be a fun, if useless, diversion. sensing the menace they offered Yama the monk decided to try and grapple one of the predators as Amra the barbarian grappled the mermaid. "Sharks are helpless if you flip them on their backs," Yama exclaimed. While Yama rolled a natural 20 on his attack, we had forgotten that without Improved Grapple, the mere attempt provoked an AoO. So naturally the shark succeeded the AoO and disrupted what might have been the coolest move of the night. "And that's why you don't see shark wrestlers," (Homer)Splinter the rogue said.

In a whirling mass of fiendish octopus tentacles and celestial porpoise slams the cleric and sorceress summoned sea creatures to assist in the shark battle. Yama was certainly the meat of choice but the summoned creatures helped draw some attention away even as the remainder of the party alternated between pleading and menacing the mermaid into letting the party pass. Even as the shark battle wound down, the heroes discovered that their ability to survive underwater was rapidly diminishing.

In an effort to save at least one party member's life Dordo the cleric shouted to Amra to make use of the mermaids water breathing ability. "Suck her gills!" he shouted. It was a phrase that would persist throughout the evening eventually leading Josh to admit "Everything is funny after 'suck her gills.'" Somehow the party managed to move along ending up in the academy portion of the tower. Not surprisingly everything was abandoned and in some disrepair.

Until we found the arcane metaphysics class presided over by an animated brain in a jar. "Where's the rest of you?" Splinter asked to which the brain replied "How would I know? I'm just a brain in a jar?" Meanwhile Amra and Yama found and fought a boar topiary, or, rather, the boar gored Yama and sent Amra into a berserker rage. "I'm running and I'm not going to stop until I find Mayor Wolverine!" Yama proclaimed.

In the end Dordo's spells were thoroughly exhausted and the group still the worse for wear. Holing up in one of the student cubicles, the party decided to wait a while before venturing deeper into the tower.