So, I'm gonna tell a few things that happened. This is where there'll be spoilers
I expect you to have read or played the module if you read past this point.
We started out saying that the party had sought out the dome after hearing a bunch of rumors about it (each player got to roll once on the rumor table). They entered and fairly quickly went down to the first level.
Now, the module says the Grondians speak with a weird accent. I'm crap at accents, but I gave it a shot. They ended up sounding like friendly Gothenburgers (the Gothenburg accent is known for sounding friendly and a bit over-the-top, and it's hilariously exaggerated when I do it). The players noted that they seemed like good chaps; minus the thing with the human sacrifice. However, the party decided not to interfere with local customs. There was a sense of relief when it was over and they entered the second level.
One of the rumors they had heard was that "imbibing the flesh of the amoeba inhabitants of the dome would make you immortal". One character in particular took this to heart and more or less tasted anything that was slimy, just in case it happened to be amoeba flesh. The yellow sludge in the tank on level two was *not* amoeba flesh, and certainly not meant for eating. I subsequently made a ruling that his character was feeling utter crap for a few turns after that taste (he succeeded with his CON roll, so no retching at least). They took the south passage from that room.
I didn't often roll for random encounters. It seemed a good idea to do seldom, because the players kept very busy exploring stuff. Instead I decided to roll for it only when a) nothing had happened for a while, b) if they went back to a previously explored area left untouched for a while, c) a room seemed particularly empty otherwise or d) they stayed in one room for a very long time. When they entered the next room, I thought 'c' fitted, so they promptly encountered an amoeba that seemed a bit off. It behaved threateningly, but not directly hostile. Until they threatened it back... The thief in the party didn't have enough hitpoints to withstand the blast. This was their first encounter and it scared them pretty much.
Later on they located the octobear, but didn't enter his cavern. I rolled for his reaction, and he left them alone for now. They also found the giant maggot and decided to kill it, because it would contain gems. After a rather lengthy and chaotic fight this was done, and the dude who wanted to taste everything tasted the maggot's poo. Yes, you read that right. I made him save vs. spell and roll CON, which both failed, so he started being sick and swelling up, all pale and sweaty. His friends were kind enough to loosen his armour, but not kind enough to carry him back to the surface with them ("We've got a lot of gems now, let's secure that loot and come back later. OMG! He's really big and heavy now! Just leave him be..."). They also filled a few bottles with magic maggot poo slime, because it's obviously a good poison.
Because they decided to regain all health and wait for backup (another couple of players joined in for the next session) the didn't come back until TWO DAYS later. At which time the amoebas had cleaned up most of their mess and were feeding a new, smaller maggot. A maggot which - mysteriously - had a tattoo like the one their fallen friend had had... And yes, they killed this one too. With fire. Though there was some discussion to justify it morally before the act.
At this point things began derailing drastically - in a good way. The players were warmed up, enthusiastic and eager to find out more stuff. The new M-U in the group realized that Invisibility lasts until you attack someone or decide to drop it, so he acted as an invisible scout for most of the rest of the time. They found the room with the hundreds of drawers filled with animal-transforming-play-dough and decided to catalog which serial numbers were which species. I rolled a d10 for each new kind - the higher result the larger the animal. Now began the chaos.
- They defeated the octobear by letting it duke it out with two bengal tigers.
- One dough lump turned into a diplodocus. 75 metric tonnes of meat and bone that didn't fit into the room with the yellow sludge tank, and so blocked it completely while dying in pain.
- They used a whole bunch of different animals to figure out what was dangerous in the cold room, and how dangerous it was.
- Zombies on the lower level were distracted by crocodiles.
- Keyholes to which they had no keys were subsequently blown open. "This pudding stuff expands to larger animals. Let's just punch a random one into the keyhole and take cover!" Minced meat and blood. Everywhere.
- Kong's cave was a surreal battlefield with an ostrich, a wolf, two rhinos, a narwhal, a tiger, a dolphin and some more for hours before everything settled down and the party walked past the carnage, killing what was left.
I found it very difficult to describe the machinery with the non-working ON/OFF lever in any meaningful way, and around that area I also found it hard to describe what the automatons were actually doing. Other than that this was an absolute success. One of my best GM experiences ever, all genres and games included.
