A Stealth Mission... Right?
The heroes group up at the entrance to the Church of Happy Happy Village. Looking in through the windows, a huge crowd of people in blue uniforms stand inside. Surely they are cultists. They all stared blankly and repeated the phrase, "Blue, blue..."
How might they get in? Checking the windows and the walls, climbing to the roof and inspecting the top floor, the heroes decide entering through the front door is best option.
With a loud CRASH, the doors are thrown open by Cyrus, not caring in the slightest about stealth. None of the cultists move. None of them seem to notice the newcomers.
Seeing a narrow path between the blue-hooded figures, the adventurers begin to advance, but are quickly blocked by a cultist asking for a password.
Cyrus stares at the cultist, looking him up and down. He wears blue robes with a blue hood masking his face. He holds a blue paintbrush in one hand, and a bucket of blue paint in the other. Cyrus answers, "Blue."
The cultist, utterly shocked, steps aside to let the heroes through. Advancing through the crowd the heroes are interrupted again and again. First a trade, then an empty threat, a tricky riddle, and finally, a large glass statue of a man.
Cyrus passes the statue with ease. Vike passes the statue, almost tripping. John passes the statue with acute precision. Jeffeus passes the statue, but makes a mistake in the end. The statue wobbles left and right before ultimately falling on the floor. It shatters into thousands of pieces, and every cultist in the room turn to stare at the cause of the racket.
The cultists approach the intruders. The heroes quickly throw open a door at the end of the room and escape. With the closing of the door, all the cultists return to chanting.
Now the heroes stood in what seemed to be a lobby, or office of sort. The only person present was a man in a blue suit and blue bowler hat at a desk. Cyrus demands that the man tell him what's going on in this strange town. The man stares for a second, surprised. He breathes heavily and then lets out a SCREAM!
After this outburst of noise, the man falls to the floor and curls into a ball, crying. The heroes decide it's no use staying here, so they turn to a set of stairs and begin ascending.
It's hilarious sometimes how long it can take a party to solve what you thought was a simple puzzle. In a different campaign, there's been an uncountable number of times we've overthought opening a single door.
It took the players at least half and hour to decide how to enter the church. If your players get stuck on a puzzle for way too long, be willing to give them a hint or some extra help.
I seem to have changed to a much longer style of recapping these events. The article is filled with much more detail, but at the cost of being so long. I'd like to know what you think of this. Do you like the longer recaps, or should I return to writing shorter?
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