The times they, are a changin'

Over the last couple of session I could feel a change in some of  my players attitude towards the megadungeon. They just weren't as excited about it as they had been. I made some adjustments to the game. I added more puzzles, reduced the random encounters, gave out some treasure with small plot hooks attached, that sort of thing. 

That helped a little.

The players just weren't into it any more. But because they are all good guys, they played on. After our last session (my off week of GMing), I asked point blank if the dungeon was still fun. The response was a hearty "Meh." One player (Batista) stepped up and commented about there not being enough story. That in the past my games had been about story, and this game was just a slog through a dungeon.The other players present agreed. I still need to check with the guys who weren't there, but I have a feeling they will agree. 

A bit of History. 

The first campaign  ran for this group was a series of loosely linked published adventures. Some were from old Dungeon magazines. Some were PDFs purchased from places like RPGNow. All of the adventures were converted from D&D to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It was a lot of fun. The players advanced from 125 point characters to about 300 point characters. The problem was in the style of play. From the GM side of things I felt like I was railroading the players through the adventures. I don't know if that is how the players felt. I should have asked. The group went through some big changes, players left, players joined. The combination of the roster changes and the perception of the railroad track I had laid down led me to close that game down.

Next I GMed a Shadowrun game, converted to GURPS, of course. As a reaction to the tight story lines of the previous game, I built a huge sandbox for the players to run around in. I had a couple of plot lines running, each with ways for the PCs to interact and affect. It started out pretty well. The first couple of runs came off with a few minor incidents that planted the seeds for things to come. But then the players started to flounder. I had built the sandbox too big. Way too big. The players were looking for something with more direction. Again we were experiencing some roster changes in the group and it seemed like a good time to switch things up again.

That brings us to Spiderweb in the Corner and the megadungeon under Castle Falconflight. Here I built a tiny sandbox. The PCs could do whatever they want as long as it involves going into the dungeon, killing monsters and getting treasure. It felt like a good solution to the problem I was having in the Shadowrun game. Limited area, limited NPCs, and a very straight forward game. I set things up for the players to power game their way down into the depths.

Not enough story. I was enjoying the slug fest, the minimal prep, the focus of the game, but it was/is lacking.

So, Its time to change again. I have a couple of options. I could expand the game world, send the PC out beyond the one town and one dungeon. Or I can change the game completely.

 I am going with option 2. I am currently planning on starting a GURPS Reign of Steel campaign.

Thanks to this great article written by +Peter V. Dell'Orto, I will building a limited sandbox. There will be tons of adventure to be had in the sandbox, and if the players start moving towards the edge, I will endeavor to bring them back using plot hooks, and rewards. I still have a lot of decisions to make. How many points? Where in the game world? I need to create the NPCs the characters will interact with etc. 

I plan to continue the blog, although its focus will change. I also intend to keep the megadugeon ready to roll, for one shots, or if we have a guest player that would be hard to work into the RoS game.

So, who among you has played or GMed a Reign of Steel game? What advice can you give me?

Thanks!

A Chilly reception, Undead spiders, and someone gets tossed off a roof.

The Party
Batista, human thief, approximately 325 points
Aquinas, Dwarf cleric, approximately 325 points
William Von Cromberg, human knight, approximately 325 points
Acroa, Human scout, approximately 305 points
AElfvine, Human Wizard, approximately 315 points

Hirelings
No hirelings joined this foray to the dungeon.



After gathering a couple of rumors, stocking up on healing potions and other consumables the party prepared for another early morning departure for the dungeon. Just as they were about to go up to their rooms for the night a man entered the Inn. He was ragged and wounded. His left had was missing, his arm ending in a stump covered in bloody bandages. He had bruising on his neck, as if he had been strangled. He walked with a noticeable limp. An empty scabbard hung at his waist. The bandoleer over his shoulder was empty. His chain mail missing several links and caked with blood. He staggered over to the group and flung a rolled sheaf of papers at the group. Shouting as though he were deaf, "I'm Done. I will Never Go Back to that thrice cursed dungeon. Here take these maps" His voice dropped to a barely heard whisper he continued, " I left four friends down there, if you see them, tell them I'm sorry."
The maps were very basic, and seemed to be areas that were new to the characters. In all there were 3 maps. One labeled "B", one "C" and one "E". Both B and C were of man made dungeon, but E indicated natural caverns and an underground river.

Accompanied by the wagon crew, the group rolled out just before dawn. Traveling over the river and through the woods they eventually came to the clearing surrounding Castle Falcolnflight and the ruined village.
Stopping at the clearings edge, William, using a spyglass, spotted a couple of figures walking on the outer wall of the castle. Batista was selected to sneak ahead of the group and gather information. In the mean time the rest of the party stealthfully made their way to the rally point in the ruined village.

Batista waited until the figures were out a sight before sneaking his way to the base of the wall. Fearing more people may be inside the castle, he elected to climb the outer wall. Three stories straight up. The climb was difficult, requiring several rolls all with negative modifiers, but his extremely high skill came through. Once on the walkway he found a shadowy corner to hide in. Here he waited for the cloaked figures to return. His luck held as only one of them approached him. Silently stepping from the shadow Batista snapped his saber out at the mans neck, doing enough damage to decapitate him. Batista quickly tossed the body over the crenelations of the wall and returned to his hiding spot. The second figure came around to investigate. Batista once again slipped from the shadows, this time running his blade through the man's belly. Too wounded to react the man staggered a bit. Batista planted his foot in the mans back and kicked him off the roof. Batista climbed down the wall and rolled the bodies for loot, finding only a dagger and a couple of gold on each one. Batista rejoined the group at the rally point. Once there Batista was questioned by the group as to what the figures were. He really didn't have much information, other than that they were human and poorly armed.

Leaving the relative safety of the rally point the group crossed the clearing as quickly and quietly as they could. They entered the castle through one of the many holes in the wall. Once inside they made straight for the stairway leading down to the dungeon below. Once underground they opted for the easier but longer path to what was now being called level A. The plan was to get to level B in as direct a route as possible. Taking the long narrow passage near the Crypt with the Otoroshi guarding it they headed for the stairway where they had encounter the giant bombardier beetles.

At the edge of their torch light they spied some quick, furtive movement. Acroa scouted ahead of the party to see what he could find. As he approached he saw movement again. This time he was able to make out that whatever it was had pale skin, and was smaller than a man. Suspecting a trap, the group stacked up at the next corner in the hallway. Leaping around the corner in an attempt to surprise their quarry, Batista was suddenly bathed in a aura of debilitating cold and frost. The six Frostfell Harriers were considerably quicker than the party. Taking advantage of their speed, the Harriers dashed up the hallway to better engage the party in close combat. Batista was set upon by two of the creatures, each attacking him with icy claws. Batista was able to dodge both attacks easily. However, the Cold aura surrounding the Imps took its toll,doing 5 points of damage. The rest of the party was similarly able to fend off the claw attacks, but each was wounded by the sub-zero cold. Aquinas started casting Protection from Cold as quickly as he could on the most wounded members of the party, but the tight hallway made this difficult. William was his usual killing machine wading through the Harriers as quickly as he could get to them. Aelfvine was able to snare one with a Fascinate spell, allowing the other members of the party to dispatch it with ease. By the time the combat was over most of the party was severely wounded. Healing potions were used in great quantity, everyone received some first aid. While the spell casters rested, William lamented not having sought out Brother Murdock to join them.

The Delvers then made their way to Level B and using the newly acquired map, discovered that they had missed several rooms on the last trip down. The first of these rooms contained a long bench, big enough to hold six people, facing a large wooden X  standing in the center of the room. Each arm of the X had a manacle attached to it. Behind the X was a small chair, bolted to the floor and facing away from the Planks. The far side of the room had a locked wooden door. Batista mad quick work of the lock and discovered torture chamber behind the door. In addition to the usual racks, iron maidens and other tools of the trade the group found a large drain in the floor covered with a heavy iron grate.

Peering down into the darkness Batista was able to make out some angular shapes, no details, but the shapes were definitely man made. Working together the party was able to lift the grate out of the opening. Securing a rope to one of the torture devices the group began to lower themselves down the drain. William waited until the entire group was down then jumped in, using a ring of feather fall to make his way down.

The room was large. The walls covered in murals of giant spiders, demons, dark elves and creatures that were half man-half spider. Several large graves dominated the center of the room. Each was six feet square and stood about four feet tall. Each of the stone graves was also covered in carvings of spiders, dark elves, and the half man-half spider creatures. Batista, wanting to see what was inside tried to shift one of the stone lids on the graves. As soon as he touched the stone it began to tremble and shake. Soon all of the lids were doing the same. Then with a loud crack the lids all broke into pieces and giant Undead spiders about 9 feet across clambered out.
The party panicked a bit. Batista, still wounded from the fight with the Frostfell Harriers made his way to the one doorway out of the room. Acroa loosed an arrow at the over sized eye of one of the spiders. William also made his way to the doorway Batista was intending to flee through. Aquinas fired of an armor spell on AElfvine. AElfvine began to concentrate on an illusion spell. The spiders attacked and most were able to defend with out much issue although they did have to give ground and would soon be backed up against the walls.
Batista after realizing that the rest of the group was going to stand and fight returned from the hallway, ran his full move and took a wild swing at the closest spider. Acroa loosed another eye shot, scoring good damage. William was able to advance and attack also.
The fight went on for a couple more rounds, neither side able to do much damage to the other. AElfvine's spell finally went off and trying to play to the natural tendencies of spiders created a phantasm of thousands of smaller spiders attacking the giant spiders. This was just the edge the group needed. It didnt cause a lot of damage but it was enough to put a couple of them over the edge. This made it much easier for the party to gang up on the remaining spiders.
Hidden among the grave good the party found a suit of plate armor, black as night. Aelfvine rolling well on his Hidden lore, magic items skill was able to recognize it as a being Armor of Darkness.

IT was getting late and we needed to end for the night.

Notes:

Two really close fights. THe Harriers were more difficult than I thought. They arent all that tough, but do hace a 1d cosmic aura attack. The spiders were easier for teh party to deal with. It was fun to see the looks on all of the players faces when I picked up 7 dice for a damage roll. by far the most I have used in this game.

Armor of Darkness: Known abilities: DR 8 all but torso, Torso DR 15. Deflect missile (only when an active defense is allowed), Dark vision. Being worn by "Good" people causes damage to the wearer.

The maps were given because I was tired of trying to keep the directions traight between myself anf the player doing the mapping. The maps are not labeled in any way and may not alwys be correct, but it should help save a lot of confusion

At the end of the session the players wanted to camp in the dungeon. I said no. My response was to paraphrase +Peter V. Dell'Orto from his blog Dungeon Fantastic;
    First you start camping in the dungeon, then you hide things in the dungeon, then you have to guard the things you have hidden, then you have to live in the dungeon to protect your stuff all the time, then you become one of the monsters in the dungeon.

I was wrong to say no. I should have let them camp. I mean really, why not. If the party does follow the example above, the game changes. Either starting over with new PCs or with a different focus on the mico climate within the dungeon.

Gas Attack and a Giant Crab

First session in a long time. The weather was nice, and we got a late start due to little league practice.

The Party
Batista, human thief, approximately 320 points
Aquinas, Dwarf cleric, approximately 320 points
William Von Cromberg, human knight, approximately 320 points
Acroa, Human scout, 300 points

Hirelings
Brother Murdoc, Human Cleric, unknown point total. Hired by William Von Cromberg to provide some healing power as Aquinas has no healing spells.
Daniel Red Apple, Halfling, unknown template, unknown points, glommed onto the party while they were in town.

The list looks a bit different, Ori's player moved to a different state. Drav's player switched out to play a scout, replacing  Ori and eliminating the overlap between the two wizards. AElfvine's player was away on a business trip.

Other than making sure the still had use of the Inn's wagon, the party did little in town.

The Group, their hirelings and the wagon drivers all set out in the early morning hours to Castle Falconlflight. The journey was uneventful and the band stopped just short of the clearing around the Castle. While the rest of the group found a place to stash the wagon, Acroa scouted around the ruins of the town and the back of the Castle.

Making a bee line for the second level of the dungeon the group headed down the ladder hidden in the jail cell in the basement of the Castle. Making their way to the closest stair way down they entered what was once a priests robing room. The stairs were behind a closed door. Acroa took the lead and headed down the stairs. About halfway down he started to suffer from nausea and feeling weak. A foul stench began to waft up from the room below. Unable to see into the room, the party started rummaging through their packs looking for a disposable light source. Daniel, the halfling follower, reached into an interior pocket of a ridiculous overcoat and pulled out a glow vial, which he chucked down the stairs before anyone could stop him. The light revealed a dense mist of poison gases about waist deep populated by six giant bombardier beetles. William, armed with his sword and a continual light stone charged down the stairs, holding his breath as best he could. The light was more effective than the sword, causing the beetles to flee out of the room into their warrens.

The room was an art gallery, or rather it had been an art gallery. Several ornate frames hung on the wall, but the canvases had been crudely cut from the frames and were missing.

At this point mapping was all but abandoned and the players rushed from room to room. First they discovered a small room, all four walls covered with plain red tapestry. a bit of searching revealed a door on the far side of the room. The party spent some time trying to figure out the purpose of the curtains, but did not discern any thing out of the ordinary.
The next room was filled with low tables and cushions. The tables and most of the floor were covered in small (1 inch) loose tiles, each with different symbols on them. The party surmised that the tiles were used in a game similar to Mahjong.

Continuing on they found a closed door that felt warm to the touch. The hallway smelled especially musty. after checking the door for traps, and finding none, they opened it to reveal a room filled with steam. Inthe center was a small fire over which was a pan filled with rocks. Next to the fire was a bucket filled with water.  Entering the sauna, they were attacked by a steam elemental. William engaged the elemental with sword and shield, to little effect. Due to the vaporous nature of the beast every attack against it only did 2 points of damage. The group hung in there, taking only minor wounds and eventually sent the creature packing back to its home realm. Searching the room reveal a silver bracelet inlaid with mother of pearl. The inlay depicted a sun being eclipsed by the moon.

Continuing with the pell mell run through the level they found themselves in a very long corridor with many twists and turns that eventually turned into another section of rooms.
Here, somewhat frustrated by the way in which the group was proceeding, William stood in the hallway and started banging on his shield and yelling at the top of his lungs. This had the desired effect, drawing out the closest dungeon dwelling monster, a giant Crab. The crab lunged at William with a pincer but he was able to deflect the blow off of his shield. William wound up for the return strike, taking an unusual called shot to the head. Rolling a three, William struck a critical blow. Rolling on the table he came up with the "treat it as a major wound result." turns out he didn't need it. The damage roll (3d+7) came up an 18+7 for 25 points. Maximum damage, killing the beast outright.

After this there was bit more exploring, including finding another art gallery, this one still intact, however the frames were trapped with a lightning spell that did a number on Batistia. After gathering up the artwork, the party headed for home.

Notes
William is coming into his own as the groups tank. In all my years of gaming I have never seen max damage rolled on a critical hit. It was pretty awesome.

Batista's player suffers some sort of curse. IF there is any form of electricity in an adventure, his character will be the one to find it. IT happens over and over. As the GM this amuses me to no end. I have never rigged it for him to be the one getting shocked, it just happens.....all the time.

Hiring Brother Murdock the healer was a help, they would have had to head home sooner had they not had him along. Daniel the halfling didn't really have any impact on the session, but I think as time goes on, he will.

A shelf full of 3 ring binders

The book shelf in my home office is a modest one. A simple put it together yourself model from the local outlet of the worlds largest retailer. Five shelves, plain white, and rather boring. I did replace the cheap cardboard back with salvaged pallet wood to add character and strength, but the shelf is just the vessel, what is on the shelves is what matters.

The top f the unit is covered in mementos, including a green telephone from my grandmother's house, a Spider-man cake decoration from  my 30th birthday, and a ceramic dragon painted by my son when he was younger.

The first shelf is filled with works of fiction, many authors, many genres.

The second  and third shelves is home to my gaming books, mostly GURPS but a few others thrown in for good measure. The books are sorted by genre. Fantasy, Alternate earth, Space, Western, Supers and a few Genre defying.  In each section there are two or three large three ring binders.

The Binders.

Each binder is home to a campaign I have run in the past. Character sheets, NPCs, maps, all of it. Ready to go in a moments notice.  The binders are the equivalent of a Zombie Apocalypse "Go Bag".

If my group of players were to come to me and say they wanted to change games, I could, in just an hour or two, get them running. By the time the players finished building characters, I can review enough of the material to run a starting adventure.

I have a fully developed Supers world ready to go. It pulls a lot of stuff from Champions and Mutants and Masterminds, but I run it in GURPS. I have 3 distinct power levels set up for the game, depending on what the players what to do. I can run a street level game, a regional/national level game, and an international/world level game.

I have a Fantasy world ready to go as well. I have several plot lines, each in a different geographical location, ready to go. The word has large cities, wild regions, and lightly populated areas.

I have SCI-FI covered as well.
 Cyberpunk, got it, in the form of a mash up between GURPS Cyberworld and Shadowrun, depending on if the players what magic or not.
I can run a GURPS Reign of Steel, or GURPS Monster Hunter
I can run a  Space based game too. Traveller, Firefly, WH40k, all ready to go. OK the 40k needs some work, but not much. With a bit more time I could pull together a Star Wars game, but that is very undeveloped at this time.

Point is, save the stuff you have already run. You may need to shave the serial numbers of a few things if your players have seen it before, but you will have it.
 If your players aren't as excited about a game as you are, you can change with little fuss. If you need a one shot because the regular GM is down with the flu, pull out an old supers encounter to fill in. Need a break from the current game? Pull out the binder from a different genre. Stuck for an idea? Go through the binders, maybe change a weird alien into a new fantasy race or monster. Maybe the Pirates from you old fantasy game can crew the Star ship attacking the PCs.

Truth is other than the mega dungeon I am running now, I haven't run a completely original game in years, maybe decades. But, then again, I could drop it into Cyberpunk as a sewer, or Space as a space station, or Supers as an underground lair for the evil mastermind. Good thing I am saving all my notes in a 3 ring binder.

Seven weeks is a long time

So, I havent had a chance to run a game in seven weeks. Normally a break this long would have kicked my gaming ADD into over drive and I would have shown up at tomorrows session with an entire new campaign world ready to foist on my players.

Not this time.

I was able to resist the urge a couple of ways.
First, I didn't go looking for new ideas for the campaign I am currently running, I didn't need to. Running the self contained dungeon has allowed me to plan further out than I normally would have. The maps have all been completed for some time. The upper levels have been stocked, restocked and reviewed. The encounters have been buffed, or de-buffed as needed. The treasures are ready and waiting.

Second, I didn't read any gaming books. This is what usually kicks me into "New Game Planning Mode." Once I start reading about new settings, adventures or whatever, I cant help myself. Often times I will pick up a out of genre book, looking for crossover ideas. This will then percolate in my mind until the ideas become entire campaigns on their own.

So tomorrows session will not be a new game, in a new world, with new characters. Just good old fashioned dungeon crawling.

Boy, am I looking forward to it!

Lost Reich paper model

So, the  regular dungeon crawl game has been on hiatus for about 6 weeks now. It has been a weird combination of illness, spring break, vacations, work and on and on

 In the mean time I have been working on some paper models to use in different games.

Below, is a 28mm scale version of Fat Dragon Games' Lost Reich Sherman Mk. 1 mecha. This model was originally designed to be 15mm scale, but I wanted to use it in a different setting. After a  little work in GIMP to change the scale and clan up some details I didn't want in the larger model, and I was ready to print. The model went together pretty easily. It took me about an afternoon, while i was watching television, to fully assemble the model. This included cutting it by hand, scoring the folds, coloring the edges, assembly and basing.

 Above, the 28 mm scale version pictured with an original 15mm scale Sherman and a GW Imperial Guard

Again the 28mm scale Sherman, an Imperial Guard soldier, and a soda can for scale.

the two versions, 15mm on the left and 28mm on the right.

Session 4: Skulls and Spiders

The Party:
Batista, human thief, approximately 315 points
Orivileni, who is called Ori, Wood Elf scout, approximately 315 points
Aquinas, Dwarf cleric, approximately 315 points
William Von Cromberg, human knight, approximately 315 points
Drav Emberstrike, dwarf wizard, approximately 315 points
Aelwine, human wizard, approximately 305 points

Guest appearance:
Unnamed Dwarf fighter, approximately 300 points. A former player was in town for the night and used a sheet out of the back up characters file.

The players spent quite a bit of time figuring our how they wanted to spend earned CP. Once again most chose to raise stats, or save to raise stats. Time was also spent on deciding what to do with the suit of armor found last session. In the end they sold it to purchase quite a bit of equipment including a permanent Continual light stone, enchanting William's sword with Puissance +1, and a ton of healing potions. As this was the first real money they were able to spend, I didn't bother to roll for availability.

Gathering rumors was less successful for the group this session. I would report them, but I have misplaced the notebook where I recorded the rolls on the chart. (Doh!) I do recall that at least two were already known to be false.

Once again the wagon team from the White Wyvern Inn agreed to accompany the group to the castle in exchange for a portion of the loot.

As usual the group departed the White Wyvern Inn before dawn, over the river and though the woods to castle Falconflight. Scouting around the valley showed no new work in the rebuilding of the castle. After helping the wagon team hide themselves in the ruined town, the group headed into the Castle through the larger gap in the back wall of the Castle.

In the castle jail, the party heard the sounds of fighting from around a corner. Ori sneaked ahead to see what was happening. In the hallway a three foot long Acid spider had a man in plate armor pinned to the ground. The man was no longer fighting back. The sound was actually the spider trying to get past the armor to enjoy his evening meal. Ori loosed and arrow while signaling for the rest of the group to charge in. Aelwine cast an illusion causing the hallway to appear longer than it really was. The spider fell for the trick and came up short on its charge. After that it was quick work for the party to bring the spider down. They did recover enough venom from the spider to make several acid grenades. 

Wasting no time the delvers headed down to the large passage, now known as Giant Cockroach path. Once in the dungeon, the delvers made a bee line for the terraced dining room. The group made their way to the bottom of the center isle ramp. Batista suspected that there should be a door here and began searching.  He did not find a door but buried under the rubble at the end of the ramp he did find 3 copper tiles in the floor, each about an arms distance apart. A little poking and prodding later, the party realized the the three tiles were pressure plates. Everyone readied weapons while Batista, Aelwine, and William stepped on the tiles. With an extremely loud sound of rusty gears, a secret door opened vertically in the wall. Everyone rushed through into a long narrow hall way. 

Advancing cautiously they came upon an unlocked door. While Batista checked the door for traps, Ori ran back to the Terraced dining room and stacked up a bunch of tiles in the still open doorway and returned to the party. His search complete, Batista opened the door. As he did, the same screeching metal sound filled the air. Thankfully ORi's tiles had stopped the door from closing completely, leaving just enough room to shimmy through should they need to.

Entering the room revealed eleven small alcoves, each with what at first appeared to be two burning candles in the recess. As the group moved closer the shadows shifted revealing the true nature of the lights.  Eleven flaming skulls took flight and attacked the party. Immediately blades were flashing, hammers swinging and spells were flung. Drav let fly with an area effect fire spell that did little damage. Batista tried to flee the fight by exiting the room through a door on the side wall. Three of the skulls pursued him just as the door slammed shut behind him. It was another battle of patience as the size modifier and speed of the skulls made them hard to hit and the cosmic nature of their attack dealt a slow steady stream of damage to the players. Batista trapped alone with three of the skulls was a dodging machine. He was only hit once or twice before the rest of the group showed up to rescue him. After the fight was over, 11 bloodstone gems were found, one in each alcove. William gathered these up and the party moved on.

A bit of exploring revealed the party to be in a complex of rooms and hallways behind the large room with the crypt.  While passing through the  crypt room, careful to stay on the correct tiles, the party saw the corpse of the Otoroshi they had slain on the last trip in. By watching for a few seconds they were able to see a second Otorshi had taken residence on the roof of the crypt. Aelwine made several rude gestures at the guardian, but it ignored him.

Moving on, the party found themselves in a large lounge. several overstuffed chairs, lanterns, chandeliers, and other fine furniture were placed around the room. While the others set to searching and looting, Aquinas flopped down in one of the chairs, kicked his feet up on one of the coffee table and tipped his head back in hopes of catching a quick nap to recover lost fatigue. As he gazed at the ceiling it started to wriggle and writhe. Aquinas tried to jump up and alert the others but before he could a three foot spider had dropped from the ceiling and tried to bite him. Large spiders cascaded from the ceiling as the party tried to gather into a defensive formation.  The fight went pretty well for the adventures. A few people were bitten, most had plenty of armor to protect them. Those that didn't took not only the 1d-1 from the bite, but 1d-1 fatigue damage as a follow up attack. The spiders were quick and dodged a lot of the attacks. As players figured out the spiders could not get through the characters armor, they started using all out attack, extra attack, to force the spiders to dodge more.  The fight still drug on for quite a while. In the end all the spiders were dead, the party was able to heal, and gather quite a bit of loot.

The party made it out of the dungeon, and back to town with no difficulty.

Notes
The second spider fight was long, really long. The players seemed to get a bit disinterested. I take the blame for that, I was not giving very good descriptions of the action. By the end of the fight, they were just happy to have it over.

Not sure why more of the players are not taking advantage of Power-ups. I think it might be not wanting to take the time to read and understand them and just get playing. Not sure if this needs "fixed" or not.

Note taking continues to be a weak link on my part. I have to slow down and take better notes.

the Plate armor, the gems and the furnishings from the lounge added up to a pretty good haul. for the first time, having the wagon waiting for them has paid out. 

Each player got 5 CP.