1,000 Statues - Super Adventure Friends
On Thursday I got a chance to play in Mr. Mann's now Euro-friendly weekly game running through the 1,000 Statues dungeon, along with several other members of the Gay Beholder server.
Players
Mr. Mann - Referee
Me - Fari, Dwarf Fighter 1
Franc - Pinkl, Human Cleric 1
spuk - Pvt. Tintenfisch, Jr., Octopod 2 (?) / Uale Xerive, Synthetic Elf (Fighter 1/Magic-User 1)
wackywarlock132 - Pious Urban III, Human Cleric 1
bubblegum8077 - Mr Qually, Magic-User 1
Aggie - Orokosaki, Ninja 1 (?)
oldhawkeyes - Wilbur, Fighter 6
Events
Previous sessions had seen the dungeon explored down to level 16, a place with poisoned air. Downtime investigations revealed the existence of a battery-acid flavoured substance which would allow us to breathe the miasma. Wilbur, flush from an interdimensional Super Adventure and clad in powered armour, procured this for the party and distributed 300gp to each character. I carried Tintenfisch's bucket.
We descended to level 15 to take on the stinky hydra, avoiding a group of evil INT-draining creatures on the way down. The lizardfolk on this level agreed to aid us for half the treasure we recovered, sending several warriors along. We entered the beast's lair with Wilbur, Orokosaki and the lizardmen launching a frontal assault, shadowed by a camouflaged Tintenfisch, while the rest of us attacked the creature from the rear. The lizardfolk were swiftly devoured while Wilbur cast Haste on himself and the other characters at that end of the room and Orokosaki fired their hookshot at a stalactite above the hydra. After a few attempts, Wilbur pulled the great spike loose and it impaled the hydra to the cavern floor while Orokasaki narrowly escaped sharing the lizardfolk's fate. With the hydra pinned, Wilbur unloaded his machinegun on it and drew Blackrazor, nearly slaying the beast with a devastating stroke. A single kunai ended the hydra's life and Orokusaki disappeared into the shadows. A single key was found among the hydra's remains. The corpses of the lizardfolk were returned to their people and Wilbur granted them 1,000gp in recompense.
We ventured down to level 16 and our gas countermeasures worked perfectly. We forced the door leading south from the staircase and entered into a wide tunnel. Heading west we encountered a mob of skeletons, who attacked. In the melee Tintenfisch was slain and Fari was reduced to 1hp. Wilbur held the line and Pinkl and Urban turned the skeletons, sending them fleeing into the darkness to their doom. Uale Xerive, synthetic elf CEO, joined us and gave 2,000gp to each party member. I stored Tintenfisch's body in his bucket. We followed the skeletons north through a winding corridor ending in a bottomless pit and then backtracked, finding no secret doors on the way.
We head the other way past the staircase room, heading north through a door into a room holding a hieroglyph-ed sarcophagus. We pushed it open with a pole and Wilbur thrust his flamethrower in, scorching the mummy lurking inside. We held the sarcophagus closed while Wilbur roasted it and Urban battered it with a flaming torch. Eventually the creature ceased to move and we recovered 4,000gp and 8 gems worth 1,000gp each.
A room through the door to the north had a pit trap filled with skeletons just past the doorway. Pinkl turned them, sending them bouncing off the walls in panic, and Wilbur dropped into the pit to annihilate them (and an additional group which jumped in from the darkness).
With that, we exfiltrated the dungeon without issue. All the first-level characters levelled up at least once, and Uale took Tintenfisch to be resurrected.
Thoughts
I'm really enjoying arcade gaming - this along with Ocean D&D have been very much procedure first, fast-paced games (the OD&D I've played has been more wilderness exploration than dungeon crawling, but with a similar focus on travelling and exploration procedures. I'm definitely going to try running something in a similar style soon, I can see the pace of my games really picking up if I lean on the procedures present rather than my usual back and forth kind of discussion.
This was a great bunch of players to game with. Letting oldhawkeyes just stomp things with Wilbur (join the Super Adventures, folks!) and hoovering up gp while occasionally loosing a crossbow bolt was very enjoyable, and Ags cuck-sniping him out of 12 temporary levels by getting the last hit on the hydra and then immediately leaving the game was hysterical.
I'm going to have to get better at keeping up with this style of game. I'm running off a laptop now and between note-taking, scrolling around in tldraw, referencing the Discord side-chat, and paying attention to what people were saying I felt like I could have done with a second head and third arm. It was chaotic but also well-ordered, and despite the high player count things moved quickly - well done to Mr. Mann for his efficient refereeing!