rappan athuk there might be some spoilers here. so if you're a player who is visiting or might someday visit the dungeon of graves you might want to stop reading now.

i was so close to yet another total party wipeout last night. read about my past victories here. i warned the players it's a mean nasty dungeon and they will die a lot. i did help them by requiring that their characters all be at least half cleric. because as is pretty obvious clerics are pretty much the best class. but they keep insisting on taking non-cleric levels. ah well. players. can't run a game without them.

anywho, about last night. first the fighter type cleric got separated. the party was using locate object to find him. a fine plan. then they decided to use anti-magic field to avoid some magical traps. needless to say this was going to make it much more difficult to find their lost comrade using magic. they blundered into a room full of mind flayers and fighter type henchmen. there was no parlay cause telepathy doesn't work in the amf and none of the pcs speaks undercommon. the party was like, we fall back down the hallway. no pursuit. okay, we go shoot them with arrows. they take total cover behind columns. okay, we explore the room. great, now melee broke out. the pcs didn't want to leave the amf for fear of the dreaded psionic blast of the mind flayers. but they couldn't cast spells nor did their magic items work. so the mind flayers moved in at great personal risk and grappled three of the pcs. the henchmen moved in and pounded on the grappled pcs. three pcs were in danger of having their brains extracted and being slain instantly. they dropped the amf and used a wish to get themselves and their lost comrade out of the dungeon and back to camp. i was this --> <-- close. ah well. they'll be back.

but not right away. they decided to go somewhere else. in this case they went exploring one of the maze levels inhabited by phase minotaurs. they found and worked some poor helpless lost goblins whose only desire in the whole world was to get home to their gold mines and their wives and baby goblins. but they're all dead now so so much for that dream. these maze levels are nasty because of the shify walls and teleport traps and doors that don't open and of course the confusion. the party is often in total disagreement about which way is left and right much less which way is north. mazes aren't really not that much fun for players nor gm. so after the first one we just said, okay you entered a maze. it takes you four hours to get out and we'll roll randomly to see if you're on the other side or right back where you started. things were different this time, however. there was no confusion effect. i wonder if the party will figure out why. it might be immaterial however. they were exploring a large cavern when the phase minotaurs who just might call this area home showed up en masse. looks like we'll have another opportunity for a total party wipeout again next time. or should i say another opportunity to use a wish.  ¶ 8:38 AM