Dreamation brought a chance for imagination when MG Kids visited the games convention created by Double Exposure Inc. at the end of February in Morristown. Convention-goers could play board and video games or try out live-action role playing (LARPing) or more sedate (or at least more costume-free) role-playing games. MG Kids correspondent Carl Hausman checked out a Dungeons and Dragons-style scenario run by Legandary Realms Terrain, a Long Island-based company that creates three-dimensional board pieces. Here, Carl gives a detailed description of the game.
By Carl Hausman, MG Kids correspondent
On Feb. 25, I went to the games convention in Morristown. The first time I’d gone, it was all kid-friendly and fun games. The second time was all meet-the-designers, chat about games in conferences and other adult stuff. This time was like the first time.
We started by getting ourselves signed in and going to a board that had all the role-playing games on it. I wanted to try Temple of the Lizard King, a setting in Dungeons and Dragons, one of my favorite games.
And so, my mom and I went on what felt like a wild-goose chase running all over trying to find something that it turned out we were looking for the wrong sort of thing entirely and then finally found the game table.
Then, I borrowed some dice, wrote some character statistics, “bought” some supplies, and we got ready for the adventure. All the other players were adults. The characters were a cleric, a thief with a very vicious guard dog, a dwarf, a warrior, a half-orc and a magic user (me). Everyone else was the run-forward-and-beat-people-up team. I was the supposed coward who hides in the back and then blows your enemies away with fire and stuff like that. I didn’t have much defenses or health, though.
It started out, we learned that goblins had kidnapped some fishermen, and you were to take a boat to go to an old mountain pass and find them. Supposedly, somewhere in the canyons, chasms and mountains was a hole in the ground overshadowed by a huge tree that led to a subterranean temple to a powerful lizard god.
So the boat first landed on a narrow beach, and we started walking forward after Groon, the half-orc, smashed the captured fishermen’s boats at the dock. We were just going to enter this pass into the mountains when four combination fish-lizards (troglodytes) leapt out of the water and began advancing. We defeated them and then proceeded into the canyon.
We twisted and turned a bit until we came to a place where you had a slight turn right, a slight turn left and then another turn right. Just as we were coming to the first right turn, at which there was a narrow pass to a small mountain valley, completely empty except for a few rocks, we saw something dart past, and there was an awful smell.
We went past that turn and came to the left turn after carefully investigating the empty valley (we didn’t really want any surprise packages falling on us!). At the point where the left turn began, there was another pass leading to a valley, this one slightly smaller. In it was a humanoid lizard-man creature larger and very different in appearance compared to the ones on the shore, though still a troglodyte. It smelled awful and stood near a primitive altar with a clay lizard creature atop it.
As some of us fought that, the ones we’d glimpsed earlier darting past came rushing down past a bend in the canyon and besieged us from behind. Finally, we defeated these and walked down a mostly straight hallway that eventually had another small pass leading off on the left side. We went through and came to another small valley, and on its left side was another pass, which led to yet another valley with a small pool of troglodyte eggs. The thief took one as hostage and to use later as a treat for his dog, and I took one as well, because possibly if it hatched it might be good to have a troglodyte on our side. We destroyed the rest.
We walked a bit further and came to an immense valley. In it was a huge leafy tree. Near this, was a hole in the ground – the entrance to the temple?
We no sooner started creeping around the edges of the valley than arrows started coming out of the tree. We started firing back and finally killed the two goblins in the tree. We found on one of the goblins a note that said, “KEP WACH FEED BUTCH.”
We went into the hole and found well-made steps. The cleric ended up in a small square room, as he was leading the group, with a passage leading out of its left side. In one corner was a goblin. In the other was an immense dire wolf with a goblin sleeping on its back. Everything in this room, in fact, was asleep.
The cleric tried to back slowly away but tripped over a stick. Two angry goblins and one angry wolf (named Butch) jerked to their feet. As we cracked a lot of jokes during the adventure, I’ll give you this one: Cleric yells, “Wolf!” Everyone else yells back, “What?” Cleric yells, “Butch!” Everyone else yells back, “Oh!”
We won that battle and began creeping down the passageway. At the end of the passageway, there was an opening at the end of its right side as wide as the passageway was wide. There was a mirror at the end of the hall, and the thief, who had crept up, smashed it – two seconds after the four goblins and the giant ogre in the room had seen him in the mirror.
The ogre started yelling that his name was Face Smasher, and he was going to smash faces. He started throwing rubbish randomly around, by accident creating a barrier that would be hard for us to get over.
That’s when I did the best move of the game. I cast “charm person” on the angry ogre. Suddenly, we had a very large club thrown by an enraged ogre liquifying the goblins instead of us.
After this, we traveled down a hallway that had an offshoot with four angry grenade-throwing goblins that took us awhile. It gave way to a huge room with two very scared goblins, who immediately began retreating across a bridge over a gaping chasm. Two more goblins at the end of the bridge began hurling missiles along with them.
The ogre couldn’t cross because he was too big, but from a distance we managed to kill all but one of the goblins, which ran into a narrow hallway and through a door. After a few moments of speculation of what evils lay behind the door, we followed.
We came up to the door and heard behind it, “We have to run! We go in door!”
“No, no! Door nasty! Door explode!”
“Other door!”
“No! Shhhhhh! They hear! Get magic stick!”
“Use stick, stupid magic user!”
We decided not to find out what “magic stick” was. We blew down the door, nearly smashing the wounded goblin who had warned the other goblins of our arrival. There was a wizard that the goblins were trying to force to use a wand to open the door, the two captured fishermen shackled to a wall and three goblins along with what looked like the goblin king. But we didn’t get to them immediately because they sicced another dire wolf on us. This one was named Duchess.
After we defeated all these nasties, we questioned the fishermen and got the story. We accidentally totally wounded ourselves blowing up the door with the exploding runes and then used the wand, aka magic stick, to open the door.
A deep voice intoned: “Do not meddle with that which you do not understand!”
Glowing purple light filled the room, streaming from a large sarcophagus. I cast an arcane lock on it to prevent what was in getting out, but it just blew up the sarcophagus from the inside.
It was the avatar of the lizard god.
We tried to flee back across the bridge, but the dwarf was cornered. The cleric stayed behind to help and single-handedly took the lizard god down – very difficult! The dwarf, trying to flee, opened the other door and released a nasty slime creature.
After we’d won these battles, we left the game. Total, it had taken four hours.
I wandered around a bit in the games convention hotel, browsed the shops and bought a Dungeons and Dragons set – one I’d really been longing to get. Then we went home. It was really fun. I can’t wait for next year’s!
Dreamation’s next Morristown event will be Dexcon 15 in early July.
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