//------------------------------//
// Twilight's Adventure: The Dungeon 
// Story: Learning to Master the Art of the Dungeon 
// by ADashofShy 
//------------------------------//


Twilight’s Adventure: The Dungeon 

The group sat gathered around the table in Rarity’s dining room, save for Bulk who had a shift at the gym, being a personal trainer meant his hours were sometimes unpredictable. Regardless, the rest of the group were ready to continue their quest. Twilight sat at the head of the table behind a screen of books to prevent the others from seeing adventure notes. Once everyone was settled she began by recapping their previous session.
“When you last left off you had barricaded yourselves in the stairwell room and broken Derpy’s table,” Twilight chuckled and turned to Derpy “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Rest in peace table.”
“You did not know what lay up ahead.” Twilight finished.
“Did we pilfer those brutes?” asked Rarity, remembering their previous sessions encounter with a bugbear.
“Yes, you did loot all the monsters previously, and one of you should have a potion on you.”
The adventurers all quickly checked their character sheets to see who had the potion on them. As they looked, Derpy spoke up.
“What the hell is a bed roll again?”
Twilight groaned internally and replied,
“A bed roll is basically a sleeping bag”
After a round of chuckles and some offhand discussion, Twilight brought the group back to focus on the game.
“On the ground next to the Sunset is Bulk Biceps who is fast asleep, out cold.”
“So in order for him to gain XP we’re just dragging his body around?” Lyra inquired.
Twilight decided to ignore the question and continue describing the current situation.
“In the room is some nice STONE STAIRS” Twilight looked pointedly at Derpy as she said this, as previously Derpy had wanted to take the stairs from some reason. “They are VERY SOLID!”
“They cannot be moved.” Trixie chimed in.
“Who’s got a pickaxe?” Derpy asked with a grin.
After another small round of chuckles, Twilight picked up where she left off.
“The room is about twenty feet by twenty feet, it’s not very big, there is a set of double doors right in front of the bottom of the stairs (these are spiral stairs so there is no real front) and to the left of the bottom of the stairs is a door with a room behind it that you guys have already explored.”
“It was the poker game.” Derpy added.
“Yes, there was a bugbear and a hobgoblin playing cards in there guarding a small chest.”
After some small discussion about marching order and figuring out who would be at the front of the group and who would be at the back Twilight asked the group what they wanted to do.
“Well the only way is to go forward.” Lyra said
“We COULD go back.” Rarity countered.
“How about we put my table back piece by piece?” Derpy said jokingly.
“Okay,  so what is marching order?” Lyra asked the group.
“Who has the highest hit points?” Rarity added.
“I don’t know about you but I’m in the back.” Lyra replied “I have to be in the back because I’m a ranger.”
“Technically the meat shields should be in the back and front of the group. Since Bulk is out of commission, Sunset, you take the front.” Derpy said diplomatically.
“Oh so I’m honourary tank again.” Sunset said in an amused voice. “Oh boy, this is going to end well.”
“I guess I’ll go next behind you.” Lyra said as she placed the miniature representing her character behind Sunset’s, “The cleric can go right next to me, and then sorcerer and wizard.” Moving each miniature as she named them, placing Derpy’s figurine on a square that was impassable.
“You realise that the wizard can’t move forward.” Twilight pointed out “There are stairs in front of him!”
As this unfolded someone called out “Front lines!”
“Why am I on the front lines?” Derpy complained.
“I don’t know, why did you try and hit so many goblins when we were in the brush?” Rarity asked, holding back a laugh.
“I don’t know, I felt ballsy that day!” Derpy called from the kitchen.
“Front lines!” Rarity replied
“It doesn’t mean I’m feeling ballsy today!”
Suddenly a small argument broke out over the placement of Rarity’s miniature being at the top of the stairs. 
“Wait, what’s the order of who’s going in combat?” Sunset asked.
“You mean the order of initiative? We don’t need to worry about that until combat happens, then we roll.” Twilight answered quickly.
The group moved their figures into the next room which came to a four way intersection and stopped to discuss their options.
“So which way are we going, left, right or forward?”Lyra asked the group.
“Forward.”
“Forward.”
“Forward.”
“Wait where am I in the group?” Derpy asked.
“You’re in the back.” Lyra replied matter-of-factly.
“Before we keep going, in order to protect Bulk I’d like to take the pieces of the once great mahogany table and build a small tent out of it.” Derpy announced tearfully.
“Doing so takes you about an hour.” Twilight responded.
“Ok time to move forward.” Lyra urged the group.
“You return to the intersection” Twilight narrated.
“Okay, once again which direction should we go?” Lyra asked her fellow adventurers.
“Should I send out my familiar?” Derpy replies.
“I will kill your familiar.” Lyra threatened.
“W-well-, I-, just it’s a better safe than sorry tactic!” Derpy sputtered.
“Ok so there’s three different directions, why don’t we split up into three groups of two and each take a different path?” Trixie offered.
“Because there are five of you.” Twilight responded flatly.
“Why don’t Trixie, Rarity, and Derpy go one way and Sunset and I go the other?” Lyra suggested. “You three go right and we’ll take the left passage and then we’ll reconvene afterwards and all go down the middle.” Talking to the three taking the left path Lyra said “You three might want to decide your marching order, what’s your AC (Armor Class)/HP?”
“Certainly not enough.” Rarity replied, sounding slightly amused.
“What about you?” Lyra asked, looking at Trixie.
“Trixie’s AC is 18 and she has 17 hit points!” Trixie replied imperiously.
“WHAT?!” Rarity cried out, shocked. 
“Trixie is a cleric,” Twilight explained, “They’re allowed to wear the heavier armours.”
“So you’re going to go in front, and you’re going to go in the back because you’re the squishiest of the group,” Lyra directed to Trixie and Derpy, “And that’s our marching order.” Lyra said turning to Twilight.
“Ok so I’m going to start with the group of two people,” Twilight began, “So, you come to a dead end, the there are wooden doors in the wall 20 feet to the north and south of you.”
“What’s your Listen skill at?” Lyra asked Sunset.
“Ahhh….Listen, listen, listen.” Sunset muttered as she scanned her character sheet.
“Mine is at +11.” Lyra said.
“That’s way more than me, because I got zip!” Sunset replied. 
“Your modifier is plus eleven?” Twilight asked skeptically, knowing that such a modifier was somewhat high for a second level character.
“Apparently, my skill modifier is six, my ability modifier is plus two, my ranks, three… I could be reading it wrong.” Lyra admitted as she listed off the components of her skill bonus.
“Yes, you’re reading that completely wrong, your grand total modifier is +6.” Twilight corrected.
“Oh ok.”
“Alright, which door do you want to listen at?” Twilight asked, bringing the group back to the game.
“I’ll go for the north door.” Lyra stated.
“Ok, roll your Listen check.”
“10”
“You hear the sound of water dripping.” Twilight described.
“Now I head over to the south door and do the same.” Lyra said and proceeded to roll the d20 again. “11.”
“As you press your ear intently against the door you hear a soft rustling sound.”
“I head back and relay this information to Sunset” Lyra said. “From the door to the north all I heard was dripping, so I deduce that it might be another open cavern, and from the left I heard soft rustling, so there might be something or someone there. So which way you want to go is up to you.”
“I think I feel like checking out the north door first.” Sunset said.
“The empty cavern?”
“Yes.”
“We’re going to go for the empty cavern.” Lyra said, directing this statement at Twilight.
“Okay, so, you attempt to open the door aaaaand it is locked.” Twilight narrated.
“Ok, the other door it is!” Lyra exclaimed.
“Process of elimination.” Sunset added.
“Hold on, hold on, before we do that, do I have to make a Move Silently check to quietly open a door?” Lyra inquired.
“No, that doesn’t require a check.” Twilight answered. “If you want to quietly open a door and peek in, that’s not a skill related action.”
“Okay, I’d like to do that.” Lyra said.
“This door is also locked. There are no keyholes on either of the doors.” Twilight described. “On that note, I’ve spent plenty of time with this group, so I’m going to jump over to the others.”
Addressing the second group Twilight says, “You come to a dead end similar to that of your companions, there are wooden doors 20 feet to the north and south of your position.”
“They can hear us because it’s a loud open area, right?” Rarity asked out of game.
“I’m assuming you are being somewhat quiet about this.” Twilight replied.
“We don’t want to alert any enemies.” Derpy added.
“So, what do you three ladies want to do?” Twilight prompted, bringing the group back into the game.
“I’d like to check the door to the south.” Rarity announced. “Can I do a Listen check?”
“You can. I will allow it!” Twilight replied imperiously.
“I rolled a 14.” 
“Surprisingly, you don’t hear anything, except what sounds like the slight crackling of a torch.” Twilight described, a tad hesitantly.
“May I try the other door now?”
“Certainly, go ahead.”
“Wait hold on!” Derpy interrupted. “Why don’t we just knock, girls? It’s a door after all!”
“No, no! Listen check! Listen check!” Rarity responded urgently and proceeded to roll the d20. “18. 18 for Listen check!”
“You press your ear intently against the door and you hear a howling wind. It sounds like there’s a big room behind there.”
“May I peek inside?”
“This door is also one of the locked ones.” Twilight said with a chuckle.
“I’d like to try opening the south door then.” Rarity replied.
“The door actually opens.”
“Oooh!” Rarity said with a smile, “Can I peek inside?”
“Yes you can,”
“What do I see?”
“You open the door a crack and inside you can see a shelf with some food on it, there’s a nice cobbled floor, and what looks like the light of a torch upon one of the walls.”
“I beckon my teammates over to me.”
“Hold on, I want to check out the other door!” Derpy said with a grin. At this, the entire table let out a massive groan.
At this Twilight decided it was time to return to Sunset and Lyra.
“What are you two going to do?” Twilight asked.
“I-I didn’t get a cha-!” Derpy began.
“I know, I know. don’t worry.” Twilight said, cutting her off.
“We’re going to go regroup with the others and tell them what we found on our end.” Lyra dictated.
“Ok fair enough” Twilight replied.
“Could you put my character back on her feet please?” Derpy asked, her miniature having been knocked over a few moments ago.
After sharing information, the players decided Lyra should be the first to investigate the room, with Rarity following behind her.
“ Don’t worry darling, I’m behind you and I have magic missile ready to cast should you miss your first shot.” Rarity reassured.
“I guess I’ll quietly swing the door open then.” Lyra said.
“Alright, with the door fully open you can see directly across from you is the wall with the torch. On the north and south walls are some shelves with various foods on them. Against the back wall there is a stack of large barrels.” Twilight said describing what Lyra’s character saw in the room. “The room is devoid of monsters.”
“Oy girls what’s in there?” Derpy asked.
“Loot!” Rarity declared, indicating what she wanted to do.
“There is actually-” Twilight began.
“Excellent!” Rarity cried, not waiting for Twilight to finish.
“Hold on, slow down Rarity.” Twilight admonished.
“Remind me, how do turns work again? Can you just take as many as you want?” Derpy cut in.
“Well, when you’re out of combat I will try to organize you guys in the order you speak to me, otherwise, declaring actions, yes you can more or less do what you want.” Twilight explained.
“Okay.” Derpy replied, satisfied with the explanation.
Getting back to describing what Rarity found Twilight continued, “There is actually a small chest.”
“I scream out: ‘CHECK FOR HIDDEN BOOKSHELVES!’” Lyra said. “Are there any books?”
“No, this is a store room, there aren’t any bookshelves.” Twilight replied.
“I’d like to open the chest.” Rarity announced.
“You lift the lid, thank Celestia it’s not booby trapped, and in the chest you find ten gold pieces and a shiny ruby.”
“Ooh a ruby!” Rarity exclaimed delightedly. “Oh and I throw the ten gold at Lyra.”
“You threw it at me? Why would you throw it at me?!” Lyra said, an incredulous look on her face.
“You are pelted with some gold” Twilight said. “Also, on the rest of the shelves are various cheeses and dried meats.”
“Did you say ‘Cheeses’?!” Derpy said, perking up excitedly. A groan went around the table. “I run into the room and grab the cheese!”
“I will meta-game you for that.” Twilight threatened.
“What, why?” Derpy cried in confusion.
“Because you are down the hall.”
“What, I said I run into the room.”
“But you also said ‘Did you say “Cheeses?”’ while I’m describing to Rarity and Lyra what they see in the room. Your character has no way of knowing there is cheese in there.” Twilight explained.
“Oh, my bad.” Derpy replied, looking slightly crestfallen. “Rarity, say ‘There’s cheese.’”
Twilight rolled a d3, her designated die for meta-game damage. “That’s two.”
“What?” Derpy replied.
“That’s two meta-game damage.” 
“For what?” 
“For running in. You displayed awareness that your character shouldn’t have.”
“I forgot! It’s been three months since our last session!”
“And this is your reminder!” Twilight said with a mix of amusement and satisfaction, a smirk playing across her face.
“Twilight, Trixie joins the other two in the room!” Trixie stated with a small flourish.
“You see cheese, and barrels of….something stacked on the far wall.” Twilight described to Trixie.
“Can we check the barrels? Is that possible?” Rarity asked after Twilight was finished.
“Yes, you can.” Twilight replied quickly. “They have little spigots on them.”
“What are spigots?” Lyra asked, looking slightly confused.
“They’re like taps.” Twilight explained.
“I’m going to check some of the barrels.” Rarity stated, somewhat hesitantly.
“Ok, what do you want to do exactly?” Twilight prompted.
At this there was some debate on how to best check what the barrel’s contents were, suggestions included breaking the barrel or stabbing a dagger into it and seeing what came out.
Twilight gave a small chuckle and offered a suggestion. “You know, there are other things you could do to check. I know I’m breaking the barrier between DM and players, but you could maybe shake the barrels, stuff like that.” Lowering her head behind the wall of books that formed the Dungeon Master’s screen she let out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t put up with it today.” She muttered.
“Girls, it has a spigot right?”Sunset said, finally voicing her suggestion. “Why not just-” She left the thought hanging, so that the others could draw upon the conclusion she had already made several minutes before.
“Okay so, you turn the knob on the spigot and a golden brown liquid pours out onto the floor.” Twilight described for the group.
“Umm…” Rarity said, looking unsure about what to do. “Okay, I’m going to close the spigot.”
“Liquid stops pouring out of the spigot.”
“Does anybody have a bottle?” Rarity asked, looking around the table.
“Trixie will use one of her empty potion bottles!”
Amidst all this Derpy spoke up. “I make my way into the room.” she announced.
“There we go, that is legitimate, go ahead.” Twilight said.
“Trixie will use one of her empty potion bottles, open the spigot, and fill it with the mysterious brown liquid.”
“Girls, is that mead?!” Derpy broke in excitedly.
“You now have a bottle full of amber/golden-brown liquid.” Twilight said, addressing Trixie. “It’s a bit frothy.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie! takes her other bottle and fills it up as well!”
“You now have two bottles full of frothy amber liquid.”
“I know I used a potion, but do I still have the empty bottle?” Rarity inquired.
“You do keep potion bottles even after you have used up the potion.” Twilight replied.
“I might want to take a sip of the liquid.”
“I see this and speak out to Rarity and Trixie: ‘Someone taste it.’” Lyra said addressing the two.
“I shall take a sip of the liquid.” Rarity announced.
“I quickly rush over and shove Rarity off to the side and place my mouth directly under the spigot!” Derpy interrupted.
“Well! How rude! Considering where I am standing, how on earth do you push me off to the side?” Rarity huffed. On the map, her miniature was standing between two barrels and against the wall.
“Ok fine, I PULL you out of the way and position myself with my mouth open under the spigot and start chugging!” Rarity huffed once more at the drunkard, and gave Derpy a disparaging look.
At this Twilight rolled her eyes. “It tastes damn good, like ale or mead.” 
“Five more minutes girls!” Derpy said with a goofy smile.
At this Twilight decided to describe the scene that presented itself to the rest of the party. “Basically you guys see a senile dwarf...drinking her troubles away.” At this, Derpy let out a chuckle.
“Does anyone one have an empty bottle they could spare? *hic*” asked Derpy, taking full advantage of the opportunity to act a bit tipsy.
“No.” Came the general response from the rest of the party.
“If you want to be drunk, I will actually impose appropriate penalties and bonuses on your character.” Twilight said in a very serious tone.
“Ok, then I’ve had my fill and I stop drinking.” Derpy replied hastily.
“”Can I fill my bottle with-” Rarity asked.
“Go ahead.” Twilight said, knowing what Rarity was asking. “You pull the dwarf out from under the spigot and you fill your bottle full of ale.”
“I step fully into the room and take a quick survey of the inventory.” Lyra announced.
“There are… nice… white and orange wheels of cheese, there is some fresh looking bread, relatively fresh, and some cured meat.” Twilight described with some hesitation. She had not expected the players to take such an interest in the contents of a simple storeroom, forcing her to improvise on the spot somewhat.
“I decide to split the food between everyone in the party, that way we all have something to stock up on.” Lyra finally decided. “That way we all have some extra food for later.”
“I walk up, put my hand on her back and say ‘That’s fair.’” Derpy said in a still slightly tipsy voice. “Good on ya.” After some lamenting the fact that Bulk was not present to carry a barrel of ale, Derpy spoke up again. “I have a speech!” groans went around the table. “We’re twenty leagues down in a goblin piss-hole, we have less than no idea where we are-”
“Trixie covers her ears.”
“Bulk is down for the count, and my mahogany table is in splinters. Grab what you can because we have a long trek ahead of us! We will not get out of here in one piece, but we sure as hell will get out of here with our dignity!” Derpy finished with a grin.
“It’d be funny if this dungeon were actually really small.” Rarity commented, earning a chuckle from the others.
“Okay so now that we’re done all our shenanigans, we’re all going to regroup back in the intersection.” Lyra said to Twilight.
“Now that Derpy is finished with her grand delusions.” Rarity commented jokingly.
“I try to give a rousing speech to get you all in high spirits!” Derpy replied good naturedly.
Twilight gave a short whistle to grab their attention. “Okay, so you find yourselves back at the crossroads.”
“I have one thing I’d like to do before this happens.” Derpy announced. “I go back to the north door, I just want to see what happens, I bang on the door: ‘Hello, anyone there?’”
“Your voice echoes around the hallway.”
“Derpy get back here!” Sunset called.
“Wait, I just realised something.” Rarity began.
“What?!” Lyra said impatiently, wanting to go down the north passage.
“We didn’t do everything in the store room did we?”
“I’m not sure, did you?” Twilight replied.
“Can I check the torch on the wall?”
“It’s warm, feels like a torch and you pick it up. Nothing happens.”
“Ok so it’s not a secret lever or anything then. In any case, I’m bringing the torch with us.”
“Ok you are now holding a torch.”
“And a quarterstaff in one hand.” Rarity reminded.
“Okay then, you’re holding your quarterstaff like a walking stick.”
“Is it possible to still use my staff in battle?”
“Yeeeee-no.” Twilight had to stop and think.
“I’ll look it up!” offered Lyra, pulling up a Player’s Handbook.
“Ummm, just out of curiosity, we’re leaving three doors behind.” Derpy interrupted suddenly.
“They’re locked.” Rarity replied flatly.
“Well why don’t we try breaking the,?” Derpy countered.
“None of us have the strength.” Several of the party replied, almost simultaneously. 
“We have weapons, I get that Bulk could have probably knocked the doors down in one hit but-”
Suddenly Derpy got cut off as Lyra found the quarterstaff entry in the Player’s Handbook.”Quarterstaff, simple two handed weapon.” She read out for the group.
“Right, so because a quarterstaff is a two handed weapon, you cannot use it with the torch in your other hand.” Twilight said matter-of-factly.
“So we’re not going to check the other doors then?” Derpy asked, trying to bring the attention back to her plan of action. “We’re not going to try breaking them down?”
“Certainly not, we need to press on and see what is up ahead.” Rarity replied with some finality.
“We might come back to them later.” Sunset said hopefully. At this the rest of the group voiced their agreement.
“Oh! We could light the door on fire!” Derpy said, grasping at straws. “It’s wood.”
“Ok lets move on.” Lyra said, trying to get the group to finally move the adventure forward. With that, Twilight proceeded to draw the area at the end of the north corridor.
“Ok so this turns into a bit of a big room, there are two large,wide stone steps, that lead up to a pair of massive double doors.” Twilight described. “They are heavy, iron doors.”
“Trixie sees this and she runs right up to the steps!” The blue skinned girl cried out.
“Hoooold on!” Derpy called out “As the dwarf of caution I’m going to say, do you want to do that?”
There was a momentary pause. “Trixie just said it!” Trixie replied with a smirk.
“There could be traps!” Derpy cried out with exasperation.
“She runs up.” Twilight said, acknowledging Trixie’s action.
“Can I listen to the door on the left?” Rarity asked.
“It’s a-, It’s a very-,” Twilight began, and then thought better of it. “Okay, go ahead and roll.”
“15”
“You press your ear against the cold metal and you can’t hear anything.” Twilight told Rarity. Addressing the group she said “I’m just going to let you guys know, that by sizing up these doors, they appear to be very thick.”
“Can we perhaps peek inside?” Rarity asked, attempting a different tack.
“No.” Twilight replied simply.
“Can we check for a lock?” Lyra this time, also attempting to find a way past the iron behemoths that blocked their path.
“The doors aren’t locked, they do have handles on them though.” Twilight responded.
“At this point I think it would take three of us just to open one.” Sunset mused, voicing her thoughts to the group.
“Trixie attempts to open the door herself, regardless of what the fighter says!” Trixie cried out with almost reckless abandon.
Derpy suddenly spoke up: “I once knew a man who said that some of these doors could be opened by song, should we try singing?”
“Derpy, no singing!” Sunset cried out. Everyone at the table knew how badly Derpy could butcher a song.
“I know a good little shanty!” Derpy pressed on, oblivious to the rejection of her ludicrous idea.
As Derpy began to sing, everyone loudly drowned her out until it got through to her that her singing the doors open idea was about as useful as telling a dwarf and an orc to get married.
Twilight let out a small groan as the group fell into debating where they should stand for when the doors opened. “I need to know what you guys are going to do.” She said, almost tiredly. At this, the group made solid declarations as to where they would be. Lyra stood at the back of the group with her bow at the ready, and Rarity in front of her, magic crackling between her fingertips. Derpy and Trixie both readied their crossbows and Trixie readied herself to pull open the giant door.
“Trixie now attempts to open the door!” Trixie cried out, looking ready for action.
“The door doesn’t budge, but as you attempt to open it, some magical writing appears in the air.” Twilight narrated, beginning to ramp up for a minor reveal.
“I TOLD YOU! IT NEEDS TO BE OPENED BY SONG!” Derpy crowed triumphantly. At this a round of groans was issued from the group.
“The magical writing reads as such:”

Tests of brain and tests of brawn
You must defeat to face my pawn.