Originally shared by Brett Slocum
So the story of the weekend at U-Con in Ypsilanti, Michigan was in The Lichway, an old-school dungeon from White Dwarf magazine #9 from 1977.
The PCs had traveled through most of the dungeon with their donkey, Jones, carrying the two chests and the extra spear and shield they had recovered. They finally ran into the wizard Dark Odo, who promptly cast Sleep on our 1st level heroes. They all missed their saving throws. As they are blissfully drifting to sleep, they heard the donkey bray loudly in anger. He charged the wizard, rolled a 20 and rolled maximum damage, doing a total of 12 hit points to the wizard with the spear, killing her instantly. The owner of the donkey awoke being licked by the trusty Jones.
I do dislike the standard D&D sleep spell. However I find that works my objections go away if you just give it an extended casting time (in my case ten minutes). So it's really useful lulling sentries to sleep (or ensuring the occupants of a house are deeply asleep when burgling it), but less so for combat. And it means if you take a Rest period under certain trees or in the wrong meadow you may be easy pickings for the next people to come along (certain trees in my game have evolved the use of sleep (and even charm) to get extra nutrients.
ReplyDeleteNice! Quit epic.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a cool story! Sometimes I think mules are the real heroes of adventuring parties.
ReplyDeleteIan Borchardt I might steal that spellcasting trees idea :)
ReplyDeleteEric Nieudan: Feel free. Outside of Gamma World most games never really give the vegetable kingdom the love and respect it deserves.
ReplyDelete