Dungeon Master: Only a short distance and some turns down a street, and you arrive at the northwestish corner of our city of mystery and stairs! Remember, it appears so:
Rouge: I am attracted by a giant diamond on top. Does this temple look climbable?
Dungeon Master: Possibly. Is your skill at climbing exceptional?
Rouge: Hmm. In this game, that's ...
Pilchard: Athletics. Under Strength.
Rouge: Are we sure it's not Acrobatics? Under Dexterity? I am closer to exceptional there.
Pilchard: Seems like in new Dungeons and Dragons, it's Strength.
Rouge: Might be worth trying ... such a large diamond!
Luce: Without doubting your Strengthfulness for climbing up ... are you Strengthful enough to remove a giant steeple-diamond and also to climb down while carrying it?
Rouge: Obviously not. But some chipping at a giant diamond might produce smaller diamonds.
Pilchard: If you have a tool to chip with that is harder than such a giant diamond.
Rouge: I suppose it's time for going inside, then.
Grolka: I open the door. By a small amount. And stand where a tiefling can't squeeze past and run in to grab religious goblets to get us cursed with. What is seeable inside?
Dungeon Master: A churchly chamber, very long and tall. High windows have glass of the stained kind, but all blue and showing only pictures of diamonds. Light inside this chamber is also blue, you find.
Dungeon Master: A platform of diamondly shape is at the center. On it, an altar! On top of the altar, a greenish-looking book!
Plummet: What? We're supposed to find a yellow book!
Bingly: Does this book look greenish to me? Or grayish.
Dungeon Master: You are surprised! Despite your cursedness, it looks greenish.
Pilchard: Is this because it's a yellow book seen in blue light?
Dungeon Master: 100 experience points! Columns rise to support a high roof. Benches appear available for people to sit religiously. At the back, two doors. Remember, though -- right now, only a barbaric orc sees these sights. Others just see an orcish back.
Pilchard: I ask her, "Grolka! What do you see?"
Grolka: If there's no sign of enemies or tiefling-tempting temple treasures, I will just open wider the door and go in.
Pilchard: "A book!" I rush to read it.
Plummet: I rush as well.
Helsa: I will again keep watch on the street.
Rouge: I investigate a door at the back.
Luce: I investigate a different door at the back.
Grolka: Like our hermitly ranger, I remain guarding. But inside the door.
Bingly: I send my bat to fly through beams and rafters overhead! Hopefully it sees something intriguing.
Dungeon Master: In this case, Pilchard and Plummet arrive at a podium. Rouge and Luce arrive at doors. A bat flits here and there. Make a Perceiving roll for it, Bingly!
Bingly: My roll is 4, boo. Apparently it is as blind as something. I am not sure what.
Dungeon Master: No discoveries for a bat. Plume mages see that this book is shut instead of open like the one in the temple of Prisma.
Pilchard: I open it.
Dungeon Master: Flash! Blue light sparkles around the podium! It surrounds mages with diamond brightness and gleams. A voice speaks only to mages at the altar. "Burglarizers! You have come to steal!"
Plummet: Is it stealing if something belongs to a person who isn't the person you take it from?
Dungeon Master: Do you ask this out loud?
Plummet: Um ... sure?
Dungeon Master: Worse than burglary types, then! You are heathensome! You serve the witch who thinks blue is a color without specialty compared to others. Blue is not one of seven! It is the only one!
Grolka: I am not a mage or on a podium, so I don't hear this voice ... but do I see diamondly lights surrounding our Plumes?
Dungeon Master: Yes. Like walls of diamonds from floor to roof.
Pilchard: I will explain to the voice, we are not exactly heathensome.
Plummet: We only want to uncurse our companion!
Dungeon Master: If you try to take this book of our foe, you will have more curses, not less!
Plummet: Well ... we'd really like there to be a way for us to have less curses.
Dungeon Master: You must labor for us, then! For one labor, we will remove one curse.
Pilchard: It could be rude to doubt a powerful voice in an ancient temple, but ... how can we be sure you are able to remove our companion's curse?
Dungeon Master: We will show you! Bring this companion to us, and we will uncurse him. But the price will be two additional curses!
Pilchard: Again ... that is more curses, when we want less.
Dungeon Master: Adventurers and burglarizers and heathensome sorts must make difficult choices -- it's well known, isn't it? So do one labor and trust that we can uncurse your companion, or have us prove it and uncurse him at the cost of two new curses. Then it's two labors for you to become curse-free entirely.
Rouge: Am I able to investigate a door while all this happens? I don't think my character would wait around for the finishing of a conversation she does not know is being conversed.
Dungeon Master: Possibly time is moving differently inside the diamond-light walls. No door investigating yet.
Pilchard: Well, sister -- do we ask for proof? Or do a labor and hope Bingly is uncursed?
Plummet: I feel like, if two curses occur, will both of them be on Bingly? If one might be on me, such a bargain doesn't attract me much.
Pilchard: Who will the curses be on, mysterious voice?
Dungeon Master: Mystery individuals. No certainty is offered ... only that curses will be two in number.
Plummet: I'm a lot happier with one curse on a companion than two curses that might include one on me.
Pilchard: I feel this logic has soundness to it also.
Plummet: What labor must we do, mysterious voice?
Dungeon Master: You must steal a shadow from the Temple of Sun!
Plummet: That sounds hard.
Pilchard: Not sure I know how to steal a shadow. Can more be explained?
Dungeon Master: Yes. But the cost is one curse.
Plummet: No thank you!
Pilchard: Will directions to the Temple of Sun cost us one curse also?
Dungeon Master: No.
Pilchard: ...
Plummet: ...
Dungeon Master: Do you request the directions, then?
Pilchard: ... yes?
Plummet: Maybe?
Dungeon Master: "Haha!" says the voice. "The cost is two curses!" Diamondly lights sparkle about you, winkling and twinkling! Then, they disappear. The voice says, "Two added curses means it's three labors to remove them all."
Pilchard: Do I feel or sense any result of this curse?
Dungeon Master: Hard to say.
Plummet: I complain! So unfair to curse us just for asking directions to a temple! I reject this barter! Once I inform the voice, I put fingers in my ears and loudly say, "Lalalalala," so that I cannot hear directions.
Dungeon Master: The voice quickly says, "It's the big building with a gold dome by the town square."
Pilchard: Can't we roll for Initiating? Possibly I could also put fingers in ears before it speaks, if there's such a roll.
Dungeon Master: Too late. Plummet's player gave the solution and then a Dungeon Master spoke quicker than Pilchard's player, so the directions are heard. 100 experience points for Plummet's solution!
Plummet: Does this mean I am not cursed?
Dungeon Master: No. A party member accepted the directions, so a party must complete all payment.
Pilchard: One labor will be keeping secret from the Temple of Sun that our thievery is caused by the Temple of Blue Diamond!
Dungeon Master: "Stop!" cries the voice.
Plummet: One labor will be ... um ... um ... um ...
Dungeon Master: Finding the treasures that our Temple had stored in a bank! They are marked with blue diamonds, of course.
Pilchard: "We agree!" I say. "The deal is complete!"
Plummet: What?!
Pilchard: I do not tell this to Plummet currently, but the mysterious voice did not say we had to return such treasures to it ... only find them.
Plummet: Ohhhh, smart!
Dungeon Master: A Dungeon Master is unsure how you will convince a mysterious voice that you found the treasures, if you don't produce them. However, 100 experience for attempting this bold exclaiming.
Pilchard: Excellent. Or, possibly excellent. Still uncertain whether I am cursed and whether it's a curse that's made acceptable by 100 extra experience.
Dungeon Master: The voice says, "Go now and perform your labor!" Sparkling diamond-light walls disappear.
Pilchard: I look around to see if colors are missing from my vision.
Plummet: Yes! And also I will sniff at things to see if odors are missing from my smell detection.
Grolka: Be careful. An orcish barbarian may grow suspicious if sniffed.
Dungeon Master: Hard to tell about the colors, Pilchard -- so much blue light in here. Also hard to tell about odors for Plummet, because only things very close or very smelly would be detected anyway. There's no sensation noticed to be missing. But! You determine one curse very quickly. Rouge Hornytail the Black is now blue!
Pilchard: I gasp and loudly say, "What has happened? So mysterious for a companion to change colors!"
Plummet: Yes, why is Rouge blue? It is strange in an extreme and surprising way!
Grolka: Are we sure she's blue? With blue light, maybe she is white and we're unable to see it.
Helsa: Before I become surprised at her blueness -- what color was she before?
Rouge: Red, obviously. Her name is "Rouge."
Bingly: But her last name is "the Black."
Luce: I imagined both black and red.
Plummet: Wait ... what color is anyone? What color am I?
Helsa: Have there been no descriptions of party members at all?
Luce: I assumed these descriptions occurred before Luce joined. But now I'm thinking, "Hmm. I did read all those notes, and I don't remember any describings of appearance." Since no one asked, I just assumed my character was blue with white hair and horns, but did not announce it.
Dungeon Master: Probably a Dungeon Master should have asked about such traits very early in a campaign's start. I apologize for so inexperienced a mistake. 100 experience points for everyone.
Plummet: Yay!
Grolka: More mistakes of this sort will be easily forgiven, Dungeon Master. Especially if experience bonuses are their companions.
Dungeon Master: All players should now identify the see-able traits of their characters.
Pilchard: I am reedy and weak in physique, but not too bad, looks wise. Round-lens glasses, light brownish hair pulled back in a ponytail to avoid getting it in ink while scribing.
Plummet: Um ... I share my brother's build of scrawny, and glasses-wearing, and I guess have same-ish hair color. Mine is shorter, though. Long enough to be breezed by falling featherly, but not so long it would be uncomfortable if whipped around by air durring a plummet.
Grolka: Are you scrawny in the boobs department also?
Helsa: Such a focus seems accurately barbaric.
Plummet: Probably not flattish, but gentle-sized and hard to see under sagely robes. I think ... "modest" is a good word for them. Maybe about like those of Rouge's player.
Rouge: Hey! No yams here have ever complained about the size of these!
Pilchard: They are very pleasant. Don't be unsecured.
Helsa: Dainty in an appealing way, I think.
Rouge: Grrr.
Dungeon Master: More character describings and less real-world boob comparings, please.
Grolka: Grolka is sturdy-ish but not extreme in massive for an orc. Pretty tall. Green, so possibly I can hide from Bingly now, if for some reason a barbaric orc wanted to hide. Very short-cut hair and square jaw. Orc men find this appearance has allure.
Helsa: My character has very flat and bland features for an elf. She's of the wood kind, so her complexion -- sort of barky, meaning brown and rough. Very average in height and construction. Leafy green hair.
Rouge: I am ssssssSizzling! Red with black hair and black horns and black tail and black patterns of sharp and curving sorts to show off a face of smoking hot and a body of even hotter!
Bingly: Nice! One of our artisting sorts should create art of this!
Rouge: Pretty much the same as our Dungeon Master's picture of 5 Halloweens ago, but with more black.
Plummet: Oooh, right! I love that picture!
Luce: I require someone to show it to me later.
Dungeon Master: First, only Bingly remains to describe a character.
Bingly: Kind of boringish. Hair is red in a dull way, very average and round sort of face, some freckles. Healthy looking, though! No sign of sickliness or unconstitutional. These averagenesses are probably why he is so interested in achieving cool spells.
Dungeon Master: Good! 50 more points of experiencing in such exceptional imaginings of appearance!
Grolka: Seeing Rouge now blue, an orcish barbarian imagines she might also have changed in color. I look at my hands to see.
Helsa: I am watching the street, so no observation of a novel companion color occurs for me.
Rouge: Do I notice the blueing? Already my red parts must look purple from blue light. How different is this change?
Plummet: Probably you don't notice from being so busy looking at a door you think has treasure behind it.
Rouge: Yes, the door! I am very focused. Am I there yet?
Dungeon Master: Roll Perceiving.
Rouge: 11.
Dungeon Master: Something distracts you. You have noticed suddenly Luce changed from extra-blue under blue light to only very light blue. In fact, her hair and horns and skin -- all are now the same very light blue.
Helsa: So she has been alabastered?
Dungeon Master: Hm. This word sounds possibly a little rude?
Pilchard: She just means turned white.
Dungeon Master: Ah. It's deductible that this is true.
Bingly: I ask if she is okay. "You look like you saw a ghost!"
Luce: I do? Looking at hands, I say, "No, this change did not happen when I saw a ghost-wizard, so why would you say it did now?"
Bingly: Oh, that's right. I forgot we all saw a ghost before.
Pilchard: I say, "Possibly this is a warning curse because a Blue Diamond Temple saw two tieflings approaching sacred doors."
Grolka: Seems like an untrue statement since Plume mages know why the curse happened. Does Pilchard need to roll for Deceivery?
Dungeon Master: Probably. But with Advantage because everyone may think, "Pilchard has understandable reasons for trying to make Rouge behave more cautionly."
Pilchard: With Advantage, I roll 17.
Dungeon Master: Players can decide what their characters really think, but 17 means, unlikely they think Pilchard desires distracting from Plume mages having suspicious curse awareness.
Grolka: I question the mages about what happened behind a wall of diamondly light.
Pilchard: I say, "Oh, a voice told us that our goal of finding an enemy temple's book can be satisfied by a different quest to a third temple."
Grolka: Another Deceiving roll?
Pilchard: No, it's truthful because our goal of finding this yellow book is to remove Bingly's curse, and performing a Blue Diamond Temple quest will accomplish it.
Plummet: So clever!
Pilchard: In case further motives are needed, I say, "Also, there's a reward for finding treasures the voice said were in the bank."
Rouge: News of treasures in the bank ... tempting ... but, so many stairs down that hole!
Grolka: A barbaric orc is not so bright. However, I have some wisdom, and it seems like so far, each temple has demanded a quest. Won't more quest-demanding likely happen at this third temple?
Plummet: A solution is to put fingers in ears and say, "Lalalalala." It's proven by an experience point bonus!
Grolka: Might make it hard to fight any monsters or glass golems in a temple, though.
Rouge: I prefer the sound of many stairs down to treasure ahead of more quest requesting in another temple and then maybe another, and another.
Bingly: What is this stair discussion? Did a mystery voice talk to Rouge also and reveal stairs in a bank?
Rouge: Oops. I forgot I secreted that one. So I say, "Yes! When it turned me blue!" My Deceiving roll is only 8, though.
Luce: Who wishes to go where, then? We should decide. I am impatient to stop having the color of a fish-belly.
Pilchard: I prefer a Sun Temple to a deep hole of many stairs.
Plummet: Yes, more likely to be sagely learning in a temple than in a hole.
Grolka: An orcish barbarian thinks brainly mages probably have right ideas.
Helsa: I am still watching streetward.
Bingly: I think a Sun Temple sounds cooler than going down a hole. But there's something even cooler -- sending a bat familiar down a hole while we go to a Sun Temple! I can only communicate within 100 feet of my familiar, but I can give it orders to search out treasures in a hole and come back to a Blue Diamond temple when it finds them, or when some number of hours have passed.
Luce: Two quest requests being attempted at once -- Bingly is smart despite spells kind of weak.
Dungeon Master: Agreed! 50 experience points, Bingly.
Bingly: Thank you, Dungeon Master! And also, Luce!
Luce: You're welcome.
Pilchard: Seems like if a Dungeon Master rewards such an idea, probably we should do it.
Rouge: Obviously the votes to climb down a hole aren't winning, so I agree to quest to a Sun Temple first.
Pilchard: Excellent! We know where it is.
Plummet: Let's go!
Helsa: If a ranger's companions begin exiting, she says, "So quick! Did we get a book already?"
Rouge: No, just more curses and questings. Now, we're following Plume mages to a new temple.
Bingly: But first I instruct my bat!
(Sorry to any readers disappointed with learning all these characters looked different than readers expected! 100 reader experience points to you all for my apology! This dungeon continues next blogging.)
