“So I took 3 damage from the fall, but Margaret didn’t take any?” asked Anne with a theatrical scowl.

“She made her dexterity check, so she managed to grab the lip as she started to fall. You failed so you fell into the pit and took 1d6 damage,” explained Gary.

“Are there spears or something at the bottom that damaged me?” she asked.

“No, just the fall. Characters take 1d6 damage per 10 feet fallen. Spears or blades at the bottom would do additional damage.”

“Can we see anything coming with our infravision?” asked Dave.

“Unfortunately when you’re near a large heat source, like the torches, it swamps your infravision and you can just see normally. If you wanted to use your infravision, you’d have to extinguish the torches, then the human characters would be blind.”

“That’s not a good idea,” said Kate.

“So, I guess I climb out of the pit,” announced Anne.

“Unfortunately the lid has sealed, so you’re trapped in there until it’s opened again”.

“Can I use ‘Cure Light Wounds’ to heal myself at least?” she asked.

“Sure,” Gary agreed “Roll 1d6 and add 1 and you’ll restore that many hit points.”

“I only rolled a one,” Anne admitted after rolling the 6 sided dice.

“SInce you took three damage, that will heal you for two and you’ll still be down a single hit point. The rest of the group sees eight kobold guards pour out of a northern passage, spears held ready. They’ve clearly been drawn from the noise of the trap being sprung and they charge at the party. Roll initiative!”

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“We got a five,” Dave announced after rolling a six sider.

“I only got a three, so you have initiative. You get to do magic first, then they get to do magic, then you get to fire ranged weapons, then they get to fire ranged weapons, then you get to move and melee attack, then finally they move and melee attack. Since they’re charging, you can go ahead and do any magic or ranged attacks first.”

“I wish I could hit them with ‘Magic Missile’ again.” Kate announced. “But I decided to memorize ‘Sleep’ when we were back at the Fort. I don’t think that does anything here, right?”

“You can use ‘Sleep’ now if you want,” Gary admitted.

“That actually might be a good idea,” suggested Dave. “‘Magic Missile’ has just been taking out one guy at a time. If sleep could put more of them out of the fight that’d be worth it.”

“Ok, I’ll cast ‘Sleep’ then,” Kate said, changing her mind. “How does it work?”

“Read it over in the game manual that you have, then explain it to all of us. Basically it’ll put some of them to sleep, but I don’t remember how many or whether or not they get a saving throw.” Gary instructed.

The groups started talking about work as Kate looked up the spell in the game manual. Frank offered to make another pot of coffee if anyone was interested, while Anne’s dog Han lazily looked from his dog bed at the group of people sitting at the kitchen table.

“So, it says it only affects 4d+1 HD creatures, so will it affect kobolds?” Kate asked.

“Definitely,” confirmed Gary.

“It says that I can put 2d8 HD worth of creatures to sleep and that they can be killed instantly with a bladed weapon when they’re sleeping. So how many do I affect?” she asked.

“Roll your 8 sided die twice and add them together,” Gary instructed.

Rolling twice, Kate said “Ten”.

“All eight kobolds stumble and collapse to the group mid-charge. You hear loud snoring from the group of them.”

“They’re ALL asleep?!?” Anne asked in shock.

“Well that’s amazing,” announced Dave. “I should have learned ‘Sleep’ from you instead of ‘Magic Missile’”.

“When I played years ago I thought ‘Magic Missile’ was the best 1st level spell,” Kate said “I didn’t realize ‘Sleep’ is so good!”

“I think you were playing Advanced Creatures and Caverns when you played years ago.” Gary replied “It might have had a saving throw, I don’t remember. ‘Sleep’ is a very powerful 1st level spell.”

“Can I kill them all and take their stuff without falling into the pit?” asked Dave.

“You remember where the pit opened and you can jump over the edge of it to the kobold’s side. With any edged weapon you can kill them one at a time.” Gary confirmed.

“Wait!” Margaret suggested “Shouldn’t we take back a prisoner or two?”

“There’ll be more we can grab later,” suggested Dave “Let’s kill these now and look for prisoners later on.”

“How do we get Anne out of the pit?” asked Frank, refilling everyone’s coffee mugs.

“Can we push down on the side of the lids together to try to open it?” asked Margaret.

“Yes, straddling the edge and working together, you’re able to push down on it and trigger it again, reopening it. If any of you have rope you can lower it down and get Anne out of the pit.”

“Damin,” Anne corrected.

“Damin,” Gary agreed.