Dungeons & Dragons – War of the Triplets, Chapter 2.5: “Theurumines’ Labyrinth”

We recently had to stop Chapter 2 mid-game as it turned out to be longer than expected and it has been difficult to get the whole party together to continue due to illness and the fact we are heading into the holiday season.

We left the party in the middle of a dungeon, but in a safe place where they could take breather.

So to keep momentum going, I decided to make another spin-off chapter that would kick off while the party was resting in the Chapter 2 dungeon.

The characters of the three players attending took the first rest, while the other two characters kept guard.

The three found themselves in the same dream where they met Bebbie the Beholder Bartender, who asked them to retrieve a Magic Mead Maker held by the Minotaur Theurumines. The players would have to go through the Minotaur’s labyrinth to get it.

However, like most players and DMs, I find labyrinths tedious and hard manage and not that exciting to play, so what I did was I created a “faux” labyrinth as shown on the map below with the following rooms:

Bebbie’s Bar as the starting point.
Four action rooms:
- Box room. A box in the center of the room. 4 chests/mimics around the edges of the room. Lifting the lid reveals the box is actually the room they are in so the players will have to poke holes in the box to make ways out of the room. Disturbing the box wakes up the mimics. (note, I’m 99% this idea is not mine, but something I’ve read online)
- Heroes to Goblins. The players sees themselves at the other side of the room only to realise they themselves have become goblins. Each player gets a random goblin sheet and I as DM controlled the PCs.
- Skellies skellies skellies. Doors into this room are 15 feet up in the air. A central rise has two levers, the levers controls an ice wall/bridge that swings around the room like a dial. The room is full of Skeletons (20+ for a lvl 2 party). They will start climbing up the wall after the wall swings the first time.
- Golem room. Three doors guarded by Stone Golems. In the middle of the room is a riddle that triggers a fountain of liquid ice to appear. The idea is the players dip their weapons to get golem-killing weapons… although in our game the players just scoped up the icy liquid and threw it at a single unfortunate golem!
Camp site. A place for players to rest. Guarded by a mute druid-like man. Note, this is really the only real opportunity for roleplay in this adventure.
Stairways to Theurumines’ lair. Icy which makes it dangerous when players are coming back down as the intent is for the Minotaur to chase them.
Theurumines’ Lair. Where the Magic Mead Maker is guarded by the Minotaur! This is intended to start a chase scene out of the room, down the slippery stairs and through the camp site.

The four rooms weren’t allocated so I could choose what room the party would enter next depending on how things went.

I should add I think this is the first session where the party has really come together as a team, worked together and used scenery and tactics to their advantage. All three players are completely new to any type of Roleplaying Games so it is great to seem them fall into character individually as well as a team. Really enjoyed this session!