A Very Special Episode.

I've been behind on our adventure recaps, so let me catch you up: The altar staircase led down to an Eldritch dungeon, teaming with undead-which we discovered after one of our warlocks passed out in the tomb (missed the session) and was snacked upon while we were distracted, by zombies who ventured up the open staircase.
The dungeon wound up being a winding affair with many doors. The walls and floors were finely carved with what seemed to be magically engineered designs. Throughout the dungeon were large elven numbers carved into the floor. Two sets, 0-9. There were a few books on pedestals, written in draconic- fortunately we had a dragonborn in our party.
If we made a wrong turn in the dungeon zombies and skeletons were released from one of the closed rooms, also, a nearby number would begin to fill with liquid. That liquid formed slowly into some variety of intelligent golem. Once the dungeon doors locked behind us at our first wrong turn, the fun began.

Our last session finished the dungeon in a way I've never seen Lance run a session before.

No combat.

Not a lack of opportunity for fights, but each encounter had an opportunity for non-combat resolutions. Taking the hack and slash out of D&D may sound sacrosanct, but in action it encouraged aspects of gameplay often overlooked in favor of a good spanking. Problem solving, roleplay, and skill checks won the day, singing harmony to an epic storyline. Here's how it worked:

Intelligent monsters
While the golems that grew our of our wrong turns were out for souls, they could, and were, reasoned with. With our paladins head trapped in a giant fist of blood, the party agreed to pay the unnamed passage fee in lieu of the 'word' the blood golem sought. With that, the entire defender was absorbed, suspended breathlessly and unharmed inside. The golem, calm and poised, waited as the party negotiated, pondered, and reexamined their surroundings. Examining one of the tomes, the dragon-born wizard found 'the word', simply the draconic word for the number which had born the golem.
But still, it would not release its prize without an equal or superior replacement. While the core of the group- Val the archer, Flint the cleric, and Gahala'la the warlock- went to hunt a worthy replacement, Yorma the halfling sat down to a game of chess with the golem. Using perception and insight checks, Melori the paladin was able to be another pair of eyes for Yorma in the game.
As the rest of the party returned, Yorma defeated the golem, and replaced Melori in her prison. The golem vanished just as he had come, and there went our young warlock. Yes, for reals. We lost a player character. Avoiding combat doesn't mean avoiding danger.

The Voice of God

While many of us have run multiple campaigns with our resident DM, this is the first time he's introduced serious puzzle solving. The mindset of maximizing combat doesn't translate to puzzles. All combat questions are answered in the PHB. So, with the dungeon timed to collapse, the door locked behind us, wailing zombies behind every door, and deadly golems popping up seemingly randomly- solving an old draconic puzzle could have wiped the party. We were unpracticed.

As we ascertained afterward, most of this session was ad libbed. Why would the Golem swallow Yorma, but not Melori? It's a plot hole, but it leads to Yorma now being a dungeon NPC who can prod our thinking. Later in the dungeon we find a tome of his thoughts up until his death, which insinutes we have a time limit, and that our puzzle seems somehow related to the earlier puzzle we solved to open the dungeon door.
Finally, Yorma's tormented soul- trapped by the dungeon's magic, waited us in the final chamber. By now we had figured out the puzzle, and how to escape. However Yorma, giving us a few final cryptic answers to our questions, was forced to materialize and fight us, stoppable only by revealing our most prized possession, and what Yorma had meant to us. This would apparently put him to rest, as would a second death- at which point the dungeon collapse began. Even so, the DM was clearly planning to wipe the floor with us, as he fingered his dice.

Melori removed her emblem, a shell of Melora, and approached Yorma.
"You offer me your holy symbol?" Yorma asked, affronted by it's destructive power.
"Yes." She knelt to the halfling. "And this is what I feel for you." Closing her eyes, Melori placed a chaste kiss on Yorma's cold lips.

Lance rolled a d20, seemed flabbergasted, and began the collapse of the dungeon. What followed was an immediate evacuation, following the puzzle correctly, dodging golems and dragging each other to safety.


No combat, plenty of danger, and in the end- a well rounded plot-rich session. It definitely goes down in my book as a favorite.