The party has made it to the base of the bad guys and are nearing the end of the story arc. Hobgoblins and a cult of Baphomet have teamed up to cause havoc and locate an ancient ring that was supposedly blessed by Baphomet himself. This ring, according to legend, would give the Doomspeakers cult great power. The party tracked them to an old abandoned dwarven fortress built into a long-dormant volcano. Inside, they began to engage the bugbears and hobgoblins and took out one of the cult’s lieutenants and the squire of the dark Paladin who leads the combined force. This is where the party left off last session. Today, they picked it up again. This session was 75% combat and 25% exploration, with four skirmishes over the course of the session.
Halfway through the hobgoblin-occupied dwarven fortress, the party resumed exploration, now with the aid of a facility map. They found an abandoned secondary barracks as well as an armory, but no sign of other occupants. Finally, they pushed forward into a new hallway and ran into a group of eight bugbears and hobgoblins who came charging in to attack them in phalanx formation with the bugbears in the lead, then hobgoblin pikemen behind them and, finally, archers in the back. There was also a hobgoblin captain there to marshal the troops. While the battle was protracted, the result was never much in doubt as the group worked their way through the enemies with attacks and magic. After dispatching the enemies, the group finished searching the rest of the facility, finding some potions as well as some random supplies and a shrine to the demon lord Baphomet in what looked like the lord’s bedroom.
Progressing out the back passage of the dwarven outpost, the group traveled into large the open caldera of the long-dormant volcano. It was still night time and the group had difficulty seeing details on the far side of the caldera as several arrows streaked at them out of the darkness. After spreading out under fire and closing the distance enough for their darkvision to work, the group discovered four bugbear archers who attacked them using hit and run tactics. These bugbears had improved darkvision due to a potion they had taken prior to engaging the party. The bugbears got the drop on the party, but their attacks were mostly weak, and they could not land many arrows on the party. Once more, the tide turned in the party’s favor and they pressed their advantage, finishing off the enemy. A search of the bodies turned up a magic longbow on one of the bugbears. Melias the archer bard was very happy.
After a short rest to attune to the bow and power up a few items that recharged at dawn, the party advanced into the cave on the far side of the volcano, tracking down the Doomspeakers cult, who the party knew were inside excavating the mine in search of the cursed magic ring. The first chamber appeared empty with a pool of water on one side. Cyrus, the gnome arcane trickster, swam down to examine what looked like a treasure chest only to discover it was embedded within a Gelatinous Cube. Cyrus took some damage but was unable to avoid getting engulfed by the cube as he swam back to the surface. The party’s sorcerer, Zarrak, kept hitting the cube with Ray of Frost to keep it nearly immobile while the rest of the party picked it apart with ranged attacks. In the end, the cube was defeated, and the chest was opened, to reveal some minor treasure inside.
After this, the party moved on to another chamber in the cave that was thick with bizarre plants, vines, and fungus and smelled horribly of decay. They lit the foliage on fire and then Melias went in to search for treasure, only to be grabbed up by an otyugh. The party attacked it, but next round, it slammed the restrained bard, stunning him and knocking him unconscious. The party’s cleric, Thud, healed Melias to bring him back to consciousness, but Melias was promptly knocked out again the next round by another slam. It became a race to keep him alive while the rest of the party tried to finish off the otyugh, with Beelock getting the killing blow before it could kill Melias. And there in that room with the dead otyugh and only one exit, the group paused for the end of the session.
What adventures await the party next session as they wrap up the story arc? Perhaps the final showdown with the dark paladin of the Doomspeakers and a destiny with a cursed ring? Only time will tell. Next game: October 28th.
Post-session breakdown and random thoughts:
I was afraid the group of eight bugbears and hobgoblins might overwhelm the party, but they ended up being mostly pushovers, especially once the party found their footing and began to turn the battle.
The showdown with the bugbear archers in the wide open darkness was interesting at first because the range of PC's darkvision came into effect pretty heavily. I expected this to cause the group more trouble, but aside from a particularly nasty volley that struck the sorcerer, the NPC attack wasn't very coordinated and they couldn't roll to hit worth a damn. It wasn't much of a surprise that the group came out ahead there as well.
The otyugh was surprisingly effective once it got hold of a character who wasn't all that sturdy. A couple failed saves and he was effectively perma-stunned. The bard very well could have died in what i expected to be more or less a throwaway encounter. Just goes to show how bad I am at predicting the tough fights from the easy fights.
My players are starting to figure out I'm never going to give them a magic item as boring as a +1 sword or a basic ring of protection. I like to keep things interesting and unconventional. Case in point: Riley Fuzzle's Trick Longbow.
We met a dead god last session! It almost killed us!
To back up, after failing to prevent another zombie outbreak in a town, we started investigating possible causes of the outbreak (and also retreating). We found yet another guy (the town's apothecary) dead of apparent asphyxiation, and in the dead man's fireplace we found a secret tunnel. Since the zombies were closing in on us, we decided to take our chances going into the tunnel. It led to an underground chamber that appeared to be a makeshift temple to Ruedi, a dead god whose iconography we found in the first town we investigated. In the temple we had to fight a few ghosts, which we handled relatively well, and we also found a stash of treasure (woohoo!). There was only one other entrance/exit to this temple, and it led to a secret entrance in the town wizard's abode. So it seems both the wizard AND the apothecary were part of this secret death cult!
I'd visited the wizard a couple days ago to see if I could purchase more spells for my own spellbook, and I recalled that he'd mentioned he'd created a hot air balloon. As the zombies closed in on us, we launched the balloon and escaped. Landing a safe distance away, we encountered several anti-necromancy mages from the Ixidor Academy, which is the premiere school of magic in our setting; they had also heard about the necromantic goings-on and were investigating. We told them everything we knew about the apparent cult of Ruedi, and they created a portal for us to get to safety.
HOWEVER! Something went awry with our portal, and instead of going to our intended destination, we found ourselves on a strange, desolate, dark plane that we surmised to be one of the planes of death. In the distance we saw two bright lights - the only discernible features. With lack of anything else to go on, we headed towards the lights, which were actually the glowing eyes of a giant skeleton that was partially buried in the ground - we had apparently been walking along its spinal column the entire time.
The skeleton asked us, "Why have you come?" and we explained that we had arrived by mistake. "Then you are not dead?" the skeleton asked. When we said no, it replied, "I must remedy that." It barfed a swarm of locusts at us and one-shotted all of us. TT_TT
When all seemed lost, a paladin of Pelor (Sir Eric) appeared and revived the party's paladin - also of Pelor. Apparently Sir Eric had divinely sensed that a fellow devotee of Pelor was in trouble and came to our rescue. The two of them carried out the rest of us through the portal Sir Eric made, and we were given the chance to recuperate in Ashley's Church of Pelor, in the coastal town of Blackpool Hill. It was then that we learned that, while only a little over an hour had passed from our perspective, we had actually been missing for a whole week. I immediately surmised that the giant skeleton we encountered was most likely Ruedi himself - the dead god was not as dead as everyone thought, apparently!
The mages of the Ixidor Academy, Sir Eric and other devotees of Pelor, and Sister Pallas of St. Cuthbert (who had initially asked the party to help with the zombie outbreaks) were all meeting to discuss next steps, yet for some reason the party was not initially invited to this meeting, despite our insistence that our firsthand experiences made us uniquely qualified. Maybe it was because we'd failed to stop the last zombie outbreak we were sent to deal with...
In any case, as the session closed, we finally received word from Sister Pallas that she required our presence. It seems she's had a change of heart - she even called us "The Pride of Avalon," although we'll have to learn what that means next week!
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
What my party's last session has taught me is that they have a cleric who doesn't like to heal and a rogue who is scared of his magic sword. As a DM, this is hilarious.
It's great from a player psychology perspective too, because the two characters are paradoxes for completely opposite reasons. The guy who plays the rogue is a bit of a min/maxer (not in a negative way--it's just what he prioritizes in his character). In the session before last weekend, he found a magic sword. But of course since I'm running the campaign, it's not just any magic sword, this one is Serpent's Fang. I thought I balanced the sword pretty well with goods upside, but all the rogue can think of is the potential for exhaustion and that freaks him out. But it's also a magic sword so it's better at killing things. Watching the player agonize over it is pretty funny.
The player who plays the cleric just had an idea of a character in his head and that's the guy he's going to play regardless of playing to the strengths of the class. I have a lot of respect for that once I let go of the stereotypical cleric roles in the party. Our bard ends up doing most of the healing for the group. This forge cleric, who plays more like a paladin, took the dual wielder feat and wades right into the thick of the enemy with heavy armor and a war hammer in each hand. The party coming up on what is most likely the ninth and final session in the first story arc so they know there will be some tough battles ahead. They just found out he doesn't prepare revivify so the stakes are pretty high if someone falls.
This forge cleric, who plays more like a paladin, took the dual wielder feat and wades right into the thick of the enemy with heavy armor and a war hammer in each hand.
Meeting a god face to face is a cool concept. I feel like the characters in my party are still a bit insignificant to be worthy of a god's direct attention, though they are probably starting to earn a passing notice here and there. One of the things I really enjoyed in Critical Role's first campaign as it worked toward culmination was the planes the players went to while meeting the various gods as they prepared for the big final showdown.
The way it has played out (so far?) in Nat_30's game is as interesting as it is dark. I love the idea of a plane of darkness with only two glowing lights and as the players approach it, it turns out to be the eyes of a gargantuan skeleton representing the god of death. So much awesome gothic imagery right there. In fact, the tone of the all the session recaps have been dark. necromancers, armies of zombies, players accidentally killing children. I'd like to play a game with a more somber tone some time. I definitely enjoy following the updates.
In our previous session, we were scouting out the creepy old house in the swamp where a hag coven lived. My rogue picked a lock which set of a magical trap and alerted the hags. After failing a bunch of WIS saves, half my party was grappling my rogue to keep him from running all the way back to town. We managed to get away from the house and find a safe spot a few miles away to regroup and rest.
That night, I scoured my character sheet for anything the rogue might have to help kill these hags. He's got the Boon of the Night Spirit, but I'm not sure the hags won't be able to see him while he's invisible. He's got no magic weapons besides a +1 silvered quarterstaff he's not proficient with. He does have this Bag of Devouring tho... A 50% chance of being sucked into the bag plus a DC 15 CON save to get out don't sound like great odds, but it's the best move I've got when the stuff goes down.
So this past Sunday's session, we make it into the house and up to the second floor when the hags make their appearance. A night hag and a green hag. My rogue goes invisible and makes his way around the melee to within 5 feet of the night hag. On my turn, I announce, "I've been planning for this for two weeks and I hope to the gods it works." I describe taking out the Bag of Devouring, holding it carefully on the outside, and suddenly slipping it over the night hag's head. I roll a decent unarmed strike hit, the DM rolls the percentiles and ZHOOP. The hag is in the bag. Cheers and high fives all around the table.
I know my rolls were legit. The DM could have been fudging his save rolls, but I really don't care. After that hag mini left the battle grid, I felt like goddamn Superman.
We killed the rest of the hags, rescued a mangy dog from the second floor and the kids they had confined on the third floor. My rogue got to help comfort the children by letting them feed bits of rations to his new dog. The kids were returned to their parents and a 1500 GP reward was given to my party be the mayor. And now I need to find a dog bed for the keep.
Holy crow-- How scared were you guys when the locusts/skeleton ko'd you all?
We were pretty freaked out, but at the same time we had the inkling this was mostly a cinematic scene. As our sorcerer put it, "Is this one of those JRPG boss fights that we're supposed to lose?" We're only level two, so there's no way we could take on a god and win; this was the DM's way of introducing us to the Big Bad in a dramatic and memorable fashion. (He succeeded!)
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
We finally had our Druid back last night, so they got to play a little catch-up! Thankfully for them the party loves RP, talking to NPCs, shopping and exploring so they hadn't even finished a full day.
I started off the session dealing with the Druid's work-day. About 10+ sessions ago the party fought some phase spiders, and the Druid spent some time and a successful check to extract a large amount of spider silk from them. They decided to spend 8 hours working on examining and crafting (rope), and learned that they could make a magic item, but would need some additional materials around day 4 of the crafting process; or they could just make high value silk rope. They decided to go with the magic item, and successfully used weaver's tools to get things started. 1/5!
The Druid then made their way to town and asked around to locate two of their allies, the monk and sorcerer, at a magic shop. They tried to find out where Naia was, and Pyrrhae said they tried to find her, but she ran off. Linwood decided to go looking for her, and started at her last known location, questioning some guards and then wildshaping into a bloodhound to try to track her scent. Eventually Linwood found their way to the gates to the aristocratic part of the city, where they convinced a guard they knew Naia, and got them to send a message through a sending stone to retrieve her.
Meanwhile, Naia continued her investigation into robberies in said aristocratic area of the city. She had determined that religious objects of significance were the items being stolen, and one from 9 of the 12 deities had been taken. By asking some questions she learned that only 1 of the remaining 3 had worshipers in the area, and so she went to them. She found a dragonborn household worshiping the deity of wealth, and tried to persuade them to let her and the party set a trap for the culprit. The head butler assured her that they were in no trouble. She was able to get information from him, however. He mentioned a sun priest going door to door with pamphlets over the last several months, and the guard escorting her noted that sun priests were comforting the victims. The sun deity is also the deity of truth and answers, and so it was assumed that they were offering guidance-- But it became a point of interest.
Before they left the household, the butler began to act strangely and asked Naia to follow him. They went upstairs, and into a mist. When out of the mist, the butler and guard were missing, and Naia was in a strange attic facing a woman in white at a loom. The woman requested a meeting with the Grand Conjurer that the party had returned to life, and offered guidance in exchange. Naia willingly let the woman access her mind, and when she next looked at the tapestry she saw the lighthouse with a thieves' cant symbol beneath it standing for 'escape route'. When she turned around, the woman was gone and the guard and butler were back. The guard told her that Linwood was at the gate, and the two went to retrieve them.
Together they went to the lighthouse where Linwood's high perception and Naia's high investigation lead them to noticing some scrape marks on the floor that seemed to imply a trap door. Naia cast Charm Person on the lighthouse keeper to try to persuade answers out of her, and learned that in inheriting the lighthouse, the keeper had also inherited the deal with the guild known as the Sea's Revenge-- a thieves' guild. She warned them against going down there, of the dangers, but they did not heed them. Linwood used Find Traps to locate a trap on the door hidden beneath the crate and Naia managed to disarm it. Then, after disguising the guard they're travelling with, they went into the tunnels.
Linwood wildshaped into a wolf to better notice tracks and scents, and focused on trying to determine how many people have used the tunnels. Meanwhile, Naia kept an eye out for traps-- And missed a trigger, sending crossbow bolts firing at the group. The guard didn't succeed, and was badly hurt. She insisted on continuing however, not okay with the idea of leaving civilians unprotected. They continued, with Linwood now leading instead, and discovered a strange patch of dirt which they determined to be covering canvas over a pit. There was enough room on either side to cross, with Naia and the guard making it easily. Linwood decided not to change back, and tried to sidle in wolf form (disadvantage)-- Unfortunately, they failed and fell 20 feet into the pit!
It seemed fine and dandy, until they picked up a rock to help get them out, and discovered under the rocks was a swarm of rot grubs! What followed was a desperate attempt to escape the pit, not get infested by rot grubs, and pick up a magical item that was in the pit-- While a low level guard and a rogue tried to help from above. The rogue got light below for the druid and picked off rot grubs with Toll the Dead, and the guard threw a rope down and used her turns to pull the druid up-- But 3 rot grubs got inside of the druid, getting their health into a very dangerous zone. They kept themselves above 0 by healing themselves, but it got dangerously close to death-- Since if you go to 0 while infested with rot grubs, you die! Thankfully the guard knew how to save Linwood once they got back out, and they healed up and took a short rest, Naia taking the time to determine the properties of the magical item-- Goggles of Night.
While all of this insanity occurred, Pyrrhae and Balasar went to a coin shop where they knew the proprietor had an adventure that could pay 10k in gold. They learned a bit more about it-- An ancient pirate queen's treasure, which was sunk when she was attacked by an opposing pirate during a lightning storm, hidden in a place called the 'Screaming Cove'. The proprietor claims to know where the chests have ended up, based on researching currents and underwater tunnels, and can also offer a plant that can allow them to grow gills-- should they help him. He wants the coins of value, and will pay 10,000 for it, and they can keep anything else they find. After trading an old coin one of the players had for a magical coin (a darkness/daylight coin) they decide they need to consult with their party first, and head to a tavern called The Sopping Wench where they have a meeting that night.
The session ended off with someone arriving at the tavern that could be their person in disguise-- And he's got some pretty big information for the monk's backstory! That's where we'll pick up next session.
So this past Sunday's session, we make it into the house and up to the second floor when the hags make their appearance. A night hag and a green hag. My rogue goes invisible and makes his way around the melee to within 5 feet of the night hag. On my turn, I announce, "I've been planning for this for two weeks and I hope to the gods it works." I describe taking out the Bag of Devouring, holding it carefully on the outside, and suddenly slipping it over the night hag's head. I roll a decent unarmed strike hit, the DM rolls the percentiles and ZHOOP. The hag is in the bag. Cheers and high fives all around the table.
What a killer moment! I love when players take chances like this and do something out of the box. Too cool.
Right, so I just had the first session with a new campaign, called Dormant Gods.
This was a homemade campaign ran by my friends' girlfriend and she told us we had to make 1st level characters, I made Godi the elfling bard, she was natural good [fun fact this is the first woman character I made] We had 3 players overall me my friend and my neighbour. My friend made a Goliath ranger and my neighbour made a human gunslinger, gunslinger was a homemade class that focused on making guns and had spells to strengthen their guns.
Dormant gods-session 1
It starts in a town called Direre a town that banned magic users at this point me and my buddies had no idea about this. We walk into the town and tell us to make a roll collectively we get a 12 and the DM describes the scene "As you walk is the guards guarding the entrance staring at you they look at each other and whispers something they walk up to you and say 'greetings to Direre with our amazing god tombs there is no town above us' what do you do" It was my turn first so I said 'whats the god tomb?' the DM explained "The guard says 'There was a god named the editor. The Editor could completely change any one's alignment good to evil, evil to good. Our ancestors mastered the way of taming and fought the editor with 3 powerful dragons; the ancient black dragon, Ambush Drake and the wyvern. The war lasted 3000 years but 1 unidentified warforged used a molten eraser to erase him and the editor's souls out of existence. The editor's body and the eraser lay in that diamond tomb at the centre of town 14 miles under the ground.[ For you curious folk thats 2 mariana trenchs ]' " I took my turn to sneak past the gaurds and started heading into the town the DM said "you see 2 inn's a cupple of houses and a hotel scattered across the terrain." so I head into one of the inn's and end my turn.
The next to go is my friend he also walks into town and runns right past the buildings further into the town the DM states that he stares at a tunnel leading down to darkness surronded by houses and rubble and of course like any human bieng casts a light spell down the tunnel... so you know how I said that they banned all magic users... 7 guards sneak up behind him and try to stab him. The DM says to my friend to make a roll if its less than 10 he will be exacuted... he makes a roll and he got.... A TWENTY!!! Now imagane this in you head 7 soldiers about to kil him, he backflips behind them before they can stab him gets out his cross bow and shoots 2 of them through the head with 1 SINGAL ARROW!!!!! To be fair 20 are rediculasly rare because we all have bad luck now then its my neighbours turn... you know what lets give them nicknames well call them by there charcter names im Godi My friend's called grate and my neighbours called utilaty. So Utilaty for his turn pulls out his revolver which all gunslingers start with and rushes to Grate and trys to shoot a guard he rolls and gets a 3 [yeah bad luck] and accsidently shoots Grates arm giving the 5 remaining gaurds an oppertnity to attack the DM rolls for the guards as a collective and they get a 17 so 5 hits and these guards have a dubble strike abilaty so technachly 10 hits MMMmmmmm.... 1 thing that I didnt mention about gunslingers is that for every shotthey loose a hit point so after all that he's knocked unchonsious with 3 hp left.
Back on my turn yay! The very first thing I do is go to the 2 guards at the entrance lead them over to the battle field and say to them 'These are fake gaurds trying to slaughter all of the people in this town and with a flick of my gitaur I use my charm spell and roll for it to get a 14/15 cant remember but yeah I do that and the 2 gaurds attack the other gaurds. I use a heal spell on Grate and he heals Utilaty grugeingly and togeather we take the 5 guards down and for whatever reason Utilaty shoots the 2 gaurds killing them and after that we stare into the tunnel nd end our session... my next session is on thursday so see ya soon. :)
What my party's last session has taught me is that they have a cleric who doesn't like to heal and a rogue who is scared of his magic sword. As a DM, this is hilarious.
Those both sound like awesome characters to play with. Min-maxing and good RPing aren't mutually exclusive, for sure - one of my partymates is a massive minmaxer, but he also plays the most engaging characters and is really fun in social encounters.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
The most minmaxer of my group also does the most roleplay, and the person who does the least roleplaying is the furthest from a minmaxer.
In both cases, it's just a matter of experience. The former has been a part of 5e since its playtest days, the latter is playing for the very first time after being introduced to Critical Role's second campaign.
I'm working on the latter to break her more out of the shell. Such as offering carrots like Inspiration for partnering up for a night's watch and roleplaying their two characters discussing recent events, but I've also found her responsive to being directly engaged by NPCs. I've been using her relatively high Charisma (she is an elvish sorcerer) as an excuse to be approached or opened up to.
So, last session was a lot of fun. The duel between the barbarian and the orc champion was enjoyed by the other players just as much, they were content to listen with little interruption (I'd opened up opportunities for them among the spectators). I used the fight to further the barbarian's personal narrative, by having her hunter-god that ties into the Zealot subclass finally "take notice." Whether as a gesture of respect, a glance of evaluation, or the targeted gaze of a predator upon prey, who yet knows? I feel like I may have gone too deeply into the barbarian's narrative to the detriment of the other players however, so I intend to ease back while introducing elements for the other players.
After the fight, the group chose a circuitous path that bypassed an encounter I had set up that would have been something of a cathartic release for them, but I've got opportunities to bring it back up. They spoke with the child-lord about his grandfather's deal with the orc clan, and after some persuasive talk from the whole group they were finally able to break past the imperial emissary's hold on the young lord's ear. As the conversation wrapped up, the guild master burst in hurling accusations of incompetence and dereliction of duty at the city watch captain, now the only advisor. I did this, admittedly, because I knew the sorcerer would be entertained by it and hopefully be more open to roleplaying the event out.
The mines have gone silent, and people she's sent in to retrieve word are not coming out. There were guards, but clearly they were of no use, as she very derisively comments. Which is when the party decided it'd be a good moment to bring up that, actually, they'd tried to warn about the mine being under threat, but the news was dismissed by the lord's advisors. No surprise to the guildmaster, who very clearly and openly has a poor opinion of the increasingly red-faced and bushy-bearded captain. This was very fun to act out, I can also admit that I'm trying to better differentiate how I roleplay different NPCs and I went all-in here.
The young lord, in an attempt at juvenile diplomacy, offered the party's services in figuring out what went wrong. The guildmaster approves after hearing about their recent exploit, and the fact that they're not a member of the city watch certainly raises the party's value in her eyes. The group's a bit put off that the lord would give their services away without even their input, but accepted the mission nonetheless. They're hoping that after dealing with the orcs and the news that something may be happening at the mines will finally prove to the lord that their warning of war coming from the mountain giants and goblinoids is valid. We left it there, as the group and guildmaster leave the townmaster's hall together.
This foreverDM got to play a Warforged Bard! I cast Vicious Mockery about ten times. Each failed. I also used Cure Wounds and Healing Word. It was nice. I kept the party alive as a healbot.
Well, some weird stuff happened. We kind of found out about a homebrew thing my DM made called Guardians, kind of like an upgraded Cleric. They are chosen after the one before dies, and there’s one for each god. They have some really powerful magic, and now we’re facing against one of them. And that was where the session ended.
I like the concept. It's like an avatar of that god. For which god is the guardian you are about to face off against? Also, if you are victorious, does that mean another cleric of that god will be promoted sort of like a Modron?
The last session was a one-shot, because various players had real life things happening. Since it is October decided a more horror sci-fi/fantasy theme...as well as some experimental mechanics. Injury table, madness system and such which I never used before. Made character sheets with everything re-flavored into power suits, rockets etc. It was an Metroid/Axiom Verge with some Resident Evil influences mixed in. Had my players draw randomly which character sheet they'd play with. They also only had 4 healing potions, 1 greater healing for the entire one-shot. No loot drops were too occur. Since the powersuit had each dose it was not possible to exchange between them. However they could activate the healing dose of a suit if there were still some present.
Location: Secret research facility in the Outer Rims. Planets hidden behind a belt of debris and black holes which makes it hell to navigate through. The facility is build into a mountain range which allowed me to re-flavor some dwarf settlements. Different floors connected with big elevators as well as tunnels to fit 2 lines of mono-rail transportation. Landing Dock leading into the floor for commerce. Top few floors for management and the facility Overseer. Going down leading into a wide open space that is meant for housing/apartments etc. Further down Engineering and Security. Then Research and Development. With a hidden Research floor where the "Remnant" of alien material is causing trouble. Quest: The Corporation hasn't heard from its research facility for a while. They sent a shuttle with specialists to find out what is going on. Co-pilot of the shuttle is the Handler which is allowed to provide further information on need-to-know basis. And also decide what task is important next. Upon arrival the readings show that there is no electricity in the facility. The team has to go to the top floors and find the Overseer. Learn what is going on and report their findings for further orders. Atmosphere: Everything is described as pitch black darkness. They have to activate the lamps on their suits which only provide light in a straight line. Blood trails here and there with windows and walls being broken down. Desks and computers destroyed with claw marks etc. At the edge of their peripherals they occasionally see stuff move. At one time it were some plants swaying or a re-flavored Displacer Beast moving in the darkness. In the Overseer's Office were two individuals that were re-flavored Doppelgangers pretending to be the Overseer. Even though one of the players was keeping an eye on the only entry point...and they heard noises coming down the hallway. They couldn't perceive the beasts, crawling across the ceiling outside their peripherals into the room. First combat was three beasts from the ceiling attacking the group and allowing the doppelgangers for a nice backstabbing surprise opening as well.
The third floor was the "city level". But once again pitch black darkness. Also the temperature was increasing to 30-40celcius. Here and there throbbing flesh pressed against walls of buildings. Broken walls and windows etc. Packs of 6 re-flavored Glibbering Mouthers slithering through the streets. Led to some exciting sneaky stuff as they tried to find an infirmary. Afterwards using a downloaded blueprint to find a mono-rail tunnel leading down. They managed to avoid quite a lot just barely. Further they went there were sounds of flapping wings above them in the darkness. However they were sneaking without using their lights on... basically stumbling around in the dark. Near the entrance of the tunnel they failed a stealth check and drew attention from the flying monstrosities. Re-flavored bio-mechanical flying horrors which were Oorokcara's and Stirge's...60-70 of them to be exact. They only heard them and then noticed dark red "eyes" so attacked with AoE's. A funnel of eyes coming down with loud winged sounds in the darkness above them. They managed to destroy 40 targets and then started the straight up fight. Was fun and then had their noise trigger a pack of 6 Glibbering Mouthers appear out of the tunnel coming towards them. They owned this fight, but took a lot of resources. Especially a new player, who was the Berserker of the group, was just bashing those flies left right and centre. He was having a blast as his first dnd experience.
Through the tunnel more and more flesh and muscle elements covered the walls. Fourth floor the buildings and streets were fully covered in dried up blood and sacks of blood. They learned something moved in those sacks. Temperature was rising further and eventually found a building that was somewhat "safe" for a long rest. It was a 4 hour soldier's rest. One of them on watch, during the night, saw a gigantic monstrous shadow moving through the street. Climbing on the outside walls of various buildings as if checking on the blood sacks. Random building checks that just barely passed by their window. Two of the players failed wisdom saves and had horrific dreams that gave a Madness point as well as 1 point of Exhaustion. They resumed and found the broken down building off Security where they found documents regarding the Purge Protocol. As one was reading the document another looked out the window from the second floor. From the darkness two gigantic blue eyes appeared just outside the window staring right at him. It was a re-flavored Behir hanging upside down on the ceiling and this floor had become her hatchery. The sniper shot, but couldn't pierce through the bullet proof window. Allowing the beast to come in through the broken wall and swallow the Infiltrator. Breath Attack almost taking 2 of them out. They fought in this two story "police station" and barely made it out alive.
They proceeded to the other end of this floor where the Engineering area was. Hacked open the doors to enter the Server Room(s). A giant tower "golem" of hardware standing in the middle with a few side areas with a desk and monitor. They looked around, booted up a pc terminal, which triggered the golem. After the first round of damage it just grabbed other hardware from the ground to regenerate completely. The golem had a reach of 15ft with only 1d6 damage per attack, but it did 3 per turn as multi-attack and the ground was difficult terrain due to the hardware everywhere. It was meant as a puzzle where the hacker could shine. Hack the terminal, turn off the golem, open the doors to proceed, perhaps even activate turrets and other defenses on the upper floors to start cleaning out the monstrosities. Thus creating a cleaner way out for later. Instead they couldn't figure it out and destroyed each terminal. Brute forced open the doors and proceeded. They also learned that from this point any form of communication with the shuttle was being interfered with...they were now truly isolated and alone.
In this narrow corridor, with flesh and black goo, throbbing walls everywhere which made the corridor feel smaller then it actually was. At the end a woman stood there watching as they approached. When the group got closer 8 mechanical "spider" legs appeared from her back and carried her away. Avoiding attacks and disappearing in the distance. In the next room of servers a piece of floor was broken open. Muscle tissue forming spiderwebbing thick and strong enough to carry the players as they climbed down into the darkness of the next floor.
This floor was the Research and Development area. Bit like Deus Ex with frameworks of bionics and more. Hearing the skittering of mechanical spider legs in the distance. Passing through various rooms into a big open domed conference hall. The top filled with lots of the bloodied muscle webs. For this fight I used re-flavored Drow Driders, Drow Mages and some beast or another. Everything had spiderwalk. The party managed to use special Paralysis plasma ammo to stun one drider so she hung upside down in from the webbing. They could focus fire her down as two beasts crawled down the walls. Then two of the Drow Mages appeared near the ceiling allowing nice ranged spells to rain down on the group. They had a hard time.
Eventually they proceeded. Found a hidden elevator that lead to the secret Research floor. A giant room with a basin of purplish glow. Next to it two re-flavored Otyugh's. At the back a wall sized computer. They used the pillars in the room to fight well. Then psionic mindblasts started hurting them from out of nowhere and I rolled well on the re-charge of it each turn. From the ceiling 1 additional re-flavored Animated Armor joined the fight. After several turns a re-flavored Mindflayer appeared from the basin and started munching on some brains. The party's hacker hacked the computer. Instead of activating the elevators for a way out he immediately decided to activate the Purge Protocol... all explosives went off. With his entire squad dead he took all his remaining health potions to get high and die with honor. Player Feedback: They loved the sci-fi fantasy experience with the horror vibe. But for a one-shot it was too lengthy at 8-9 hours of play in a single sitting with the occasional breaks. They enjoyed how everything was against them, with all sorts of debuffs, injuries and always running low on resources...but there still being a way out somewhere if they took the time. Great occasionally, but not always.
Player Feedback: They loved the sci-fi fantasy experience with the horror vibe. But for a one-shot it was too lengthy at 8-9 hours of play in a single sitting with the occasional breaks. They enjoyed how everything was against them, with all sorts of debuffs, injuries and always running low on resources...but there still being a way out somewhere if they took the time. Great occasionally, but not always.
9 hours--!! How long did you expect it to go when planning the one-shot?
This foreverDM got to play a Warforged Bard! I cast Vicious Mockery about ten times. Each failed. I also used Cure Wounds and Healing Word. It was nice. I kept the party alive as a healbot.
Well I was hoping for our usual play time. Which is from 16:00 till 21:00 with a 1 hour break half way. So 4 hours. However I knew it would run longer since there were 6-8 encounters planned. My players however aren't dungeon delvers and roleplayed a lot with the doppelgangers. Already had an idea something wasn't right. So the "cleric" was escorting them to "safety" in a small hidden area behind the bookcase. So they wouldn't get in the way should they be aggressive. Which didn't quite work out for them. So even in a heavy old fashioned dungeon crawl they still find ways to roleplay somehow hehe.
It isn't the first time it ran longer. We've had a few other sessions that were fun so decided to play longer deep into midnight.
This foreverDM got to play a Warforged Bard! I cast Vicious Mockery about ten times. Each failed. I also used Cure Wounds and Healing Word. It was nice. I kept the party alive as a healbot.
Congrats on breaking out of your ForeverDM-ness!
Thanks! It was just a one day thing, but I got to fail at being a bard due to bad rolls! :D
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The party has made it to the base of the bad guys and are nearing the end of the story arc. Hobgoblins and a cult of Baphomet have teamed up to cause havoc and locate an ancient ring that was supposedly blessed by Baphomet himself. This ring, according to legend, would give the Doomspeakers cult great power. The party tracked them to an old abandoned dwarven fortress built into a long-dormant volcano. Inside, they began to engage the bugbears and hobgoblins and took out one of the cult’s lieutenants and the squire of the dark Paladin who leads the combined force. This is where the party left off last session. Today, they picked it up again. This session was 75% combat and 25% exploration, with four skirmishes over the course of the session.
Halfway through the hobgoblin-occupied dwarven fortress, the party resumed exploration, now with the aid of a facility map. They found an abandoned secondary barracks as well as an armory, but no sign of other occupants. Finally, they pushed forward into a new hallway and ran into a group of eight bugbears and hobgoblins who came charging in to attack them in phalanx formation with the bugbears in the lead, then hobgoblin pikemen behind them and, finally, archers in the back. There was also a hobgoblin captain there to marshal the troops. While the battle was protracted, the result was never much in doubt as the group worked their way through the enemies with attacks and magic. After dispatching the enemies, the group finished searching the rest of the facility, finding some potions as well as some random supplies and a shrine to the demon lord Baphomet in what looked like the lord’s bedroom.
Progressing out the back passage of the dwarven outpost, the group traveled into large the open caldera of the long-dormant volcano. It was still night time and the group had difficulty seeing details on the far side of the caldera as several arrows streaked at them out of the darkness. After spreading out under fire and closing the distance enough for their darkvision to work, the group discovered four bugbear archers who attacked them using hit and run tactics. These bugbears had improved darkvision due to a potion they had taken prior to engaging the party. The bugbears got the drop on the party, but their attacks were mostly weak, and they could not land many arrows on the party. Once more, the tide turned in the party’s favor and they pressed their advantage, finishing off the enemy. A search of the bodies turned up a magic longbow on one of the bugbears. Melias the archer bard was very happy.
After a short rest to attune to the bow and power up a few items that recharged at dawn, the party advanced into the cave on the far side of the volcano, tracking down the Doomspeakers cult, who the party knew were inside excavating the mine in search of the cursed magic ring. The first chamber appeared empty with a pool of water on one side. Cyrus, the gnome arcane trickster, swam down to examine what looked like a treasure chest only to discover it was embedded within a Gelatinous Cube. Cyrus took some damage but was unable to avoid getting engulfed by the cube as he swam back to the surface. The party’s sorcerer, Zarrak, kept hitting the cube with Ray of Frost to keep it nearly immobile while the rest of the party picked it apart with ranged attacks. In the end, the cube was defeated, and the chest was opened, to reveal some minor treasure inside.
After this, the party moved on to another chamber in the cave that was thick with bizarre plants, vines, and fungus and smelled horribly of decay. They lit the foliage on fire and then Melias went in to search for treasure, only to be grabbed up by an otyugh. The party attacked it, but next round, it slammed the restrained bard, stunning him and knocking him unconscious. The party’s cleric, Thud, healed Melias to bring him back to consciousness, but Melias was promptly knocked out again the next round by another slam. It became a race to keep him alive while the rest of the party tried to finish off the otyugh, with Beelock getting the killing blow before it could kill Melias. And there in that room with the dead otyugh and only one exit, the group paused for the end of the session.
What adventures await the party next session as they wrap up the story arc? Perhaps the final showdown with the dark paladin of the Doomspeakers and a destiny with a cursed ring? Only time will tell. Next game: October 28th.
Post-session breakdown and random thoughts:
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Oooh, I love that bow.
We met a dead god last session! It almost killed us!
To back up, after failing to prevent another zombie outbreak in a town, we started investigating possible causes of the outbreak (and also retreating). We found yet another guy (the town's apothecary) dead of apparent asphyxiation, and in the dead man's fireplace we found a secret tunnel. Since the zombies were closing in on us, we decided to take our chances going into the tunnel. It led to an underground chamber that appeared to be a makeshift temple to Ruedi, a dead god whose iconography we found in the first town we investigated. In the temple we had to fight a few ghosts, which we handled relatively well, and we also found a stash of treasure (woohoo!). There was only one other entrance/exit to this temple, and it led to a secret entrance in the town wizard's abode. So it seems both the wizard AND the apothecary were part of this secret death cult!
I'd visited the wizard a couple days ago to see if I could purchase more spells for my own spellbook, and I recalled that he'd mentioned he'd created a hot air balloon. As the zombies closed in on us, we launched the balloon and escaped. Landing a safe distance away, we encountered several anti-necromancy mages from the Ixidor Academy, which is the premiere school of magic in our setting; they had also heard about the necromantic goings-on and were investigating. We told them everything we knew about the apparent cult of Ruedi, and they created a portal for us to get to safety.
HOWEVER! Something went awry with our portal, and instead of going to our intended destination, we found ourselves on a strange, desolate, dark plane that we surmised to be one of the planes of death. In the distance we saw two bright lights - the only discernible features. With lack of anything else to go on, we headed towards the lights, which were actually the glowing eyes of a giant skeleton that was partially buried in the ground - we had apparently been walking along its spinal column the entire time.
The skeleton asked us, "Why have you come?" and we explained that we had arrived by mistake. "Then you are not dead?" the skeleton asked. When we said no, it replied, "I must remedy that." It barfed a swarm of locusts at us and one-shotted all of us. TT_TT
When all seemed lost, a paladin of Pelor (Sir Eric) appeared and revived the party's paladin - also of Pelor. Apparently Sir Eric had divinely sensed that a fellow devotee of Pelor was in trouble and came to our rescue. The two of them carried out the rest of us through the portal Sir Eric made, and we were given the chance to recuperate in Ashley's Church of Pelor, in the coastal town of Blackpool Hill. It was then that we learned that, while only a little over an hour had passed from our perspective, we had actually been missing for a whole week. I immediately surmised that the giant skeleton we encountered was most likely Ruedi himself - the dead god was not as dead as everyone thought, apparently!
The mages of the Ixidor Academy, Sir Eric and other devotees of Pelor, and Sister Pallas of St. Cuthbert (who had initially asked the party to help with the zombie outbreaks) were all meeting to discuss next steps, yet for some reason the party was not initially invited to this meeting, despite our insistence that our firsthand experiences made us uniquely qualified. Maybe it was because we'd failed to stop the last zombie outbreak we were sent to deal with...
In any case, as the session closed, we finally received word from Sister Pallas that she required our presence. It seems she's had a change of heart - she even called us "The Pride of Avalon," although we'll have to learn what that means next week!
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
What my party's last session has taught me is that they have a cleric who doesn't like to heal and a rogue who is scared of his magic sword. As a DM, this is hilarious.
It's great from a player psychology perspective too, because the two characters are paradoxes for completely opposite reasons. The guy who plays the rogue is a bit of a min/maxer (not in a negative way--it's just what he prioritizes in his character). In the session before last weekend, he found a magic sword. But of course since I'm running the campaign, it's not just any magic sword, this one is Serpent's Fang. I thought I balanced the sword pretty well with goods upside, but all the rogue can think of is the potential for exhaustion and that freaks him out. But it's also a magic sword so it's better at killing things. Watching the player agonize over it is pretty funny.
The player who plays the cleric just had an idea of a character in his head and that's the guy he's going to play regardless of playing to the strengths of the class. I have a lot of respect for that once I let go of the stereotypical cleric roles in the party. Our bard ends up doing most of the healing for the group. This forge cleric, who plays more like a paladin, took the dual wielder feat and wades right into the thick of the enemy with heavy armor and a war hammer in each hand. The party coming up on what is most likely the ninth and final session in the first story arc so they know there will be some tough battles ahead. They just found out he doesn't prepare revivify so the stakes are pretty high if someone falls.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Holy crow-- How scared were you guys when the locusts/skeleton ko'd you all?!
The Cleric sounds pretty bad-ass!
Meeting a god face to face is a cool concept. I feel like the characters in my party are still a bit insignificant to be worthy of a god's direct attention, though they are probably starting to earn a passing notice here and there. One of the things I really enjoyed in Critical Role's first campaign as it worked toward culmination was the planes the players went to while meeting the various gods as they prepared for the big final showdown.
The way it has played out (so far?) in Nat_30's game is as interesting as it is dark. I love the idea of a plane of darkness with only two glowing lights and as the players approach it, it turns out to be the eyes of a gargantuan skeleton representing the god of death. So much awesome gothic imagery right there. In fact, the tone of the all the session recaps have been dark. necromancers, armies of zombies, players accidentally killing children. I'd like to play a game with a more somber tone some time. I definitely enjoy following the updates.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
In our previous session, we were scouting out the creepy old house in the swamp where a hag coven lived. My rogue picked a lock which set of a magical trap and alerted the hags. After failing a bunch of WIS saves, half my party was grappling my rogue to keep him from running all the way back to town. We managed to get away from the house and find a safe spot a few miles away to regroup and rest.
That night, I scoured my character sheet for anything the rogue might have to help kill these hags. He's got the Boon of the Night Spirit, but I'm not sure the hags won't be able to see him while he's invisible. He's got no magic weapons besides a +1 silvered quarterstaff he's not proficient with. He does have this Bag of Devouring tho... A 50% chance of being sucked into the bag plus a DC 15 CON save to get out don't sound like great odds, but it's the best move I've got when the stuff goes down.
So this past Sunday's session, we make it into the house and up to the second floor when the hags make their appearance. A night hag and a green hag. My rogue goes invisible and makes his way around the melee to within 5 feet of the night hag. On my turn, I announce, "I've been planning for this for two weeks and I hope to the gods it works." I describe taking out the Bag of Devouring, holding it carefully on the outside, and suddenly slipping it over the night hag's head. I roll a decent unarmed strike hit, the DM rolls the percentiles and ZHOOP. The hag is in the bag. Cheers and high fives all around the table.
I know my rolls were legit. The DM could have been fudging his save rolls, but I really don't care. After that hag mini left the battle grid, I felt like goddamn Superman.
We killed the rest of the hags, rescued a mangy dog from the second floor and the kids they had confined on the third floor. My rogue got to help comfort the children by letting them feed bits of rations to his new dog. The kids were returned to their parents and a 1500 GP reward was given to my party be the mayor. And now I need to find a dog bed for the keep.
We were pretty freaked out, but at the same time we had the inkling this was mostly a cinematic scene. As our sorcerer put it, "Is this one of those JRPG boss fights that we're supposed to lose?" We're only level two, so there's no way we could take on a god and win; this was the DM's way of introducing us to the Big Bad in a dramatic and memorable fashion. (He succeeded!)
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
We finally had our Druid back last night, so they got to play a little catch-up! Thankfully for them the party loves RP, talking to NPCs, shopping and exploring so they hadn't even finished a full day.
Pyrrhae, Level 6 Wild Magic Sorc / Level 1 Tempest Cleric
Naia, Level 7 Arcane Trickster
Balasar, Level 7 Open Hand Monk
Linwood, Level 7 Seedling (HB) Druid (Who nearly died!)
I started off the session dealing with the Druid's work-day. About 10+ sessions ago the party fought some phase spiders, and the Druid spent some time and a successful check to extract a large amount of spider silk from them. They decided to spend 8 hours working on examining and crafting (rope), and learned that they could make a magic item, but would need some additional materials around day 4 of the crafting process; or they could just make high value silk rope. They decided to go with the magic item, and successfully used weaver's tools to get things started. 1/5!
The Druid then made their way to town and asked around to locate two of their allies, the monk and sorcerer, at a magic shop. They tried to find out where Naia was, and Pyrrhae said they tried to find her, but she ran off. Linwood decided to go looking for her, and started at her last known location, questioning some guards and then wildshaping into a bloodhound to try to track her scent. Eventually Linwood found their way to the gates to the aristocratic part of the city, where they convinced a guard they knew Naia, and got them to send a message through a sending stone to retrieve her.
Meanwhile, Naia continued her investigation into robberies in said aristocratic area of the city. She had determined that religious objects of significance were the items being stolen, and one from 9 of the 12 deities had been taken. By asking some questions she learned that only 1 of the remaining 3 had worshipers in the area, and so she went to them. She found a dragonborn household worshiping the deity of wealth, and tried to persuade them to let her and the party set a trap for the culprit. The head butler assured her that they were in no trouble. She was able to get information from him, however. He mentioned a sun priest going door to door with pamphlets over the last several months, and the guard escorting her noted that sun priests were comforting the victims. The sun deity is also the deity of truth and answers, and so it was assumed that they were offering guidance-- But it became a point of interest.
Before they left the household, the butler began to act strangely and asked Naia to follow him. They went upstairs, and into a mist. When out of the mist, the butler and guard were missing, and Naia was in a strange attic facing a woman in white at a loom. The woman requested a meeting with the Grand Conjurer that the party had returned to life, and offered guidance in exchange. Naia willingly let the woman access her mind, and when she next looked at the tapestry she saw the lighthouse with a thieves' cant symbol beneath it standing for 'escape route'. When she turned around, the woman was gone and the guard and butler were back. The guard told her that Linwood was at the gate, and the two went to retrieve them.
Together they went to the lighthouse where Linwood's high perception and Naia's high investigation lead them to noticing some scrape marks on the floor that seemed to imply a trap door. Naia cast Charm Person on the lighthouse keeper to try to persuade answers out of her, and learned that in inheriting the lighthouse, the keeper had also inherited the deal with the guild known as the Sea's Revenge-- a thieves' guild. She warned them against going down there, of the dangers, but they did not heed them. Linwood used Find Traps to locate a trap on the door hidden beneath the crate and Naia managed to disarm it. Then, after disguising the guard they're travelling with, they went into the tunnels.
Linwood wildshaped into a wolf to better notice tracks and scents, and focused on trying to determine how many people have used the tunnels. Meanwhile, Naia kept an eye out for traps-- And missed a trigger, sending crossbow bolts firing at the group. The guard didn't succeed, and was badly hurt. She insisted on continuing however, not okay with the idea of leaving civilians unprotected. They continued, with Linwood now leading instead, and discovered a strange patch of dirt which they determined to be covering canvas over a pit. There was enough room on either side to cross, with Naia and the guard making it easily. Linwood decided not to change back, and tried to sidle in wolf form (disadvantage)-- Unfortunately, they failed and fell 20 feet into the pit!
It seemed fine and dandy, until they picked up a rock to help get them out, and discovered under the rocks was a swarm of rot grubs! What followed was a desperate attempt to escape the pit, not get infested by rot grubs, and pick up a magical item that was in the pit-- While a low level guard and a rogue tried to help from above. The rogue got light below for the druid and picked off rot grubs with Toll the Dead, and the guard threw a rope down and used her turns to pull the druid up-- But 3 rot grubs got inside of the druid, getting their health into a very dangerous zone. They kept themselves above 0 by healing themselves, but it got dangerously close to death-- Since if you go to 0 while infested with rot grubs, you die! Thankfully the guard knew how to save Linwood once they got back out, and they healed up and took a short rest, Naia taking the time to determine the properties of the magical item-- Goggles of Night.
While all of this insanity occurred, Pyrrhae and Balasar went to a coin shop where they knew the proprietor had an adventure that could pay 10k in gold. They learned a bit more about it-- An ancient pirate queen's treasure, which was sunk when she was attacked by an opposing pirate during a lightning storm, hidden in a place called the 'Screaming Cove'. The proprietor claims to know where the chests have ended up, based on researching currents and underwater tunnels, and can also offer a plant that can allow them to grow gills-- should they help him. He wants the coins of value, and will pay 10,000 for it, and they can keep anything else they find. After trading an old coin one of the players had for a magical coin (a darkness/daylight coin) they decide they need to consult with their party first, and head to a tavern called The Sopping Wench where they have a meeting that night.
The session ended off with someone arriving at the tavern that could be their person in disguise-- And he's got some pretty big information for the monk's backstory! That's where we'll pick up next session.
What a killer moment! I love when players take chances like this and do something out of the box. Too cool.
Right, so I just had the first session with a new campaign, called Dormant Gods.
This was a homemade campaign ran by my friends' girlfriend and she told us we had to make 1st level characters, I made Godi the elfling bard, she was natural good [fun fact this is the first woman character I made] We had 3 players overall me my friend and my neighbour. My friend made a Goliath ranger and my neighbour made a human gunslinger, gunslinger was a homemade class that focused on making guns and had spells to strengthen their guns.
Dormant gods-session 1
It starts in a town called Direre a town that banned magic users at this point me and my buddies had no idea about this. We walk into the town and tell us to make a roll collectively we get a 12 and the DM describes the scene "As you walk is the guards guarding the entrance staring at you they look at each other and whispers something they walk up to you and say 'greetings to Direre with our amazing god tombs there is no town above us' what do you do" It was my turn first so I said 'whats the god tomb?' the DM explained "The guard says 'There was a god named the editor. The Editor could completely change any one's alignment good to evil, evil to good. Our ancestors mastered the way of taming and fought the editor with 3 powerful dragons; the ancient black dragon, Ambush Drake and the wyvern. The war lasted 3000 years but 1 unidentified warforged used a molten eraser to erase him and the editor's souls out of existence. The editor's body and the eraser lay in that diamond tomb at the centre of town 14 miles under the ground.[ For you curious folk thats 2 mariana trenchs ]' " I took my turn to sneak past the gaurds and started heading into the town the DM said "you see 2 inn's a cupple of houses and a hotel scattered across the terrain." so I head into one of the inn's and end my turn.
The next to go is my friend he also walks into town and runns right past the buildings further into the town the DM states that he stares at a tunnel leading down to darkness surronded by houses and rubble and of course like any human bieng casts a light spell down the tunnel... so you know how I said that they banned all magic users... 7 guards sneak up behind him and try to stab him. The DM says to my friend to make a roll if its less than 10 he will be exacuted... he makes a roll and he got.... A TWENTY!!! Now imagane this in you head 7 soldiers about to kil him, he backflips behind them before they can stab him gets out his cross bow and shoots 2 of them through the head with 1 SINGAL ARROW!!!!! To be fair 20 are rediculasly rare because we all have bad luck now then its my neighbours turn... you know what lets give them nicknames well call them by there charcter names im Godi My friend's called grate and my neighbours called utilaty. So Utilaty for his turn pulls out his revolver which all gunslingers start with and rushes to Grate and trys to shoot a guard he rolls and gets a 3 [yeah bad luck] and accsidently shoots Grates arm giving the 5 remaining gaurds an oppertnity to attack the DM rolls for the guards as a collective and they get a 17 so 5 hits and these guards have a dubble strike abilaty so technachly 10 hits MMMmmmmm.... 1 thing that I didnt mention about gunslingers is that for every shotthey loose a hit point so after all that he's knocked unchonsious with 3 hp left.
Back on my turn yay! The very first thing I do is go to the 2 guards at the entrance lead them over to the battle field and say to them 'These are fake gaurds trying to slaughter all of the people in this town and with a flick of my gitaur I use my charm spell and roll for it to get a 14/15 cant remember but yeah I do that and the 2 gaurds attack the other gaurds. I use a heal spell on Grate and he heals Utilaty grugeingly and togeather we take the 5 guards down and for whatever reason Utilaty shoots the 2 gaurds killing them and after that we stare into the tunnel nd end our session... my next session is on thursday so see ya soon. :)
Those both sound like awesome characters to play with. Min-maxing and good RPing aren't mutually exclusive, for sure - one of my partymates is a massive minmaxer, but he also plays the most engaging characters and is really fun in social encounters.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
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ModeratorThe most minmaxer of my group also does the most roleplay, and the person who does the least roleplaying is the furthest from a minmaxer.
In both cases, it's just a matter of experience. The former has been a part of 5e since its playtest days, the latter is playing for the very first time after being introduced to Critical Role's second campaign.
I'm working on the latter to break her more out of the shell. Such as offering carrots like Inspiration for partnering up for a night's watch and roleplaying their two characters discussing recent events, but I've also found her responsive to being directly engaged by NPCs. I've been using her relatively high Charisma (she is an elvish sorcerer) as an excuse to be approached or opened up to.
So, last session was a lot of fun. The duel between the barbarian and the orc champion was enjoyed by the other players just as much, they were content to listen with little interruption (I'd opened up opportunities for them among the spectators). I used the fight to further the barbarian's personal narrative, by having her hunter-god that ties into the Zealot subclass finally "take notice." Whether as a gesture of respect, a glance of evaluation, or the targeted gaze of a predator upon prey, who yet knows? I feel like I may have gone too deeply into the barbarian's narrative to the detriment of the other players however, so I intend to ease back while introducing elements for the other players.
After the fight, the group chose a circuitous path that bypassed an encounter I had set up that would have been something of a cathartic release for them, but I've got opportunities to bring it back up. They spoke with the child-lord about his grandfather's deal with the orc clan, and after some persuasive talk from the whole group they were finally able to break past the imperial emissary's hold on the young lord's ear. As the conversation wrapped up, the guild master burst in hurling accusations of incompetence and dereliction of duty at the city watch captain, now the only advisor. I did this, admittedly, because I knew the sorcerer would be entertained by it and hopefully be more open to roleplaying the event out.
The mines have gone silent, and people she's sent in to retrieve word are not coming out. There were guards, but clearly they were of no use, as she very derisively comments. Which is when the party decided it'd be a good moment to bring up that, actually, they'd tried to warn about the mine being under threat, but the news was dismissed by the lord's advisors. No surprise to the guildmaster, who very clearly and openly has a poor opinion of the increasingly red-faced and bushy-bearded captain. This was very fun to act out, I can also admit that I'm trying to better differentiate how I roleplay different NPCs and I went all-in here.
The young lord, in an attempt at juvenile diplomacy, offered the party's services in figuring out what went wrong. The guildmaster approves after hearing about their recent exploit, and the fact that they're not a member of the city watch certainly raises the party's value in her eyes. The group's a bit put off that the lord would give their services away without even their input, but accepted the mission nonetheless. They're hoping that after dealing with the orcs and the news that something may be happening at the mines will finally prove to the lord that their warning of war coming from the mountain giants and goblinoids is valid. We left it there, as the group and guildmaster leave the townmaster's hall together.
This foreverDM got to play a Warforged Bard! I cast Vicious Mockery about ten times. Each failed. I also used Cure Wounds and Healing Word. It was nice. I kept the party alive as a healbot.
Well, some weird stuff happened. We kind of found out about a homebrew thing my DM made called Guardians, kind of like an upgraded Cleric. They are chosen after the one before dies, and there’s one for each god. They have some really powerful magic, and now we’re facing against one of them. And that was where the session ended.
I like the concept. It's like an avatar of that god. For which god is the guardian you are about to face off against? Also, if you are victorious, does that mean another cleric of that god will be promoted sort of like a Modron?
"Not all those who wander are lost"
The last session was a one-shot, because various players had real life things happening. Since it is October decided a more horror sci-fi/fantasy theme...as well as some experimental mechanics. Injury table, madness system and such which I never used before. Made character sheets with everything re-flavored into power suits, rockets etc. It was an Metroid/Axiom Verge with some Resident Evil influences mixed in. Had my players draw randomly which character sheet they'd play with. They also only had 4 healing potions, 1 greater healing for the entire one-shot. No loot drops were too occur. Since the powersuit had each dose it was not possible to exchange between them. However they could activate the healing dose of a suit if there were still some present.
Location: Secret research facility in the Outer Rims. Planets hidden behind a belt of debris and black holes which makes it hell to navigate through. The facility is build into a mountain range which allowed me to re-flavor some dwarf settlements. Different floors connected with big elevators as well as tunnels to fit 2 lines of mono-rail transportation. Landing Dock leading into the floor for commerce. Top few floors for management and the facility Overseer. Going down leading into a wide open space that is meant for housing/apartments etc. Further down Engineering and Security. Then Research and Development. With a hidden Research floor where the "Remnant" of alien material is causing trouble.
Quest: The Corporation hasn't heard from its research facility for a while. They sent a shuttle with specialists to find out what is going on. Co-pilot of the shuttle is the Handler which is allowed to provide further information on need-to-know basis. And also decide what task is important next. Upon arrival the readings show that there is no electricity in the facility. The team has to go to the top floors and find the Overseer. Learn what is going on and report their findings for further orders.
Atmosphere: Everything is described as pitch black darkness. They have to activate the lamps on their suits which only provide light in a straight line. Blood trails here and there with windows and walls being broken down. Desks and computers destroyed with claw marks etc. At the edge of their peripherals they occasionally see stuff move. At one time it were some plants swaying or a re-flavored Displacer Beast moving in the darkness. In the Overseer's Office were two individuals that were re-flavored Doppelgangers pretending to be the Overseer. Even though one of the players was keeping an eye on the only entry point...and they heard noises coming down the hallway. They couldn't perceive the beasts, crawling across the ceiling outside their peripherals into the room. First combat was three beasts from the ceiling attacking the group and allowing the doppelgangers for a nice backstabbing surprise opening as well.
The third floor was the "city level". But once again pitch black darkness. Also the temperature was increasing to 30-40celcius. Here and there throbbing flesh pressed against walls of buildings. Broken walls and windows etc. Packs of 6 re-flavored Glibbering Mouthers slithering through the streets. Led to some exciting sneaky stuff as they tried to find an infirmary. Afterwards using a downloaded blueprint to find a mono-rail tunnel leading down. They managed to avoid quite a lot just barely. Further they went there were sounds of flapping wings above them in the darkness. However they were sneaking without using their lights on... basically stumbling around in the dark. Near the entrance of the tunnel they failed a stealth check and drew attention from the flying monstrosities. Re-flavored bio-mechanical flying horrors which were Oorokcara's and Stirge's...60-70 of them to be exact. They only heard them and then noticed dark red "eyes" so attacked with AoE's. A funnel of eyes coming down with loud winged sounds in the darkness above them. They managed to destroy 40 targets and then started the straight up fight. Was fun and then had their noise trigger a pack of 6 Glibbering Mouthers appear out of the tunnel coming towards them. They owned this fight, but took a lot of resources. Especially a new player, who was the Berserker of the group, was just bashing those flies left right and centre. He was having a blast as his first dnd experience.
Through the tunnel more and more flesh and muscle elements covered the walls. Fourth floor the buildings and streets were fully covered in dried up blood and sacks of blood. They learned something moved in those sacks. Temperature was rising further and eventually found a building that was somewhat "safe" for a long rest. It was a 4 hour soldier's rest. One of them on watch, during the night, saw a gigantic monstrous shadow moving through the street. Climbing on the outside walls of various buildings as if checking on the blood sacks. Random building checks that just barely passed by their window. Two of the players failed wisdom saves and had horrific dreams that gave a Madness point as well as 1 point of Exhaustion. They resumed and found the broken down building off Security where they found documents regarding the Purge Protocol. As one was reading the document another looked out the window from the second floor. From the darkness two gigantic blue eyes appeared just outside the window staring right at him. It was a re-flavored Behir hanging upside down on the ceiling and this floor had become her hatchery. The sniper shot, but couldn't pierce through the bullet proof window. Allowing the beast to come in through the broken wall and swallow the Infiltrator. Breath Attack almost taking 2 of them out. They fought in this two story "police station" and barely made it out alive.
They proceeded to the other end of this floor where the Engineering area was. Hacked open the doors to enter the Server Room(s). A giant tower "golem" of hardware standing in the middle with a few side areas with a desk and monitor. They looked around, booted up a pc terminal, which triggered the golem. After the first round of damage it just grabbed other hardware from the ground to regenerate completely. The golem had a reach of 15ft with only 1d6 damage per attack, but it did 3 per turn as multi-attack and the ground was difficult terrain due to the hardware everywhere. It was meant as a puzzle where the hacker could shine. Hack the terminal, turn off the golem, open the doors to proceed, perhaps even activate turrets and other defenses on the upper floors to start cleaning out the monstrosities. Thus creating a cleaner way out for later. Instead they couldn't figure it out and destroyed each terminal. Brute forced open the doors and proceeded. They also learned that from this point any form of communication with the shuttle was being interfered with...they were now truly isolated and alone.
In this narrow corridor, with flesh and black goo, throbbing walls everywhere which made the corridor feel smaller then it actually was. At the end a woman stood there watching as they approached. When the group got closer 8 mechanical "spider" legs appeared from her back and carried her away. Avoiding attacks and disappearing in the distance. In the next room of servers a piece of floor was broken open. Muscle tissue forming spiderwebbing thick and strong enough to carry the players as they climbed down into the darkness of the next floor.
This floor was the Research and Development area. Bit like Deus Ex with frameworks of bionics and more. Hearing the skittering of mechanical spider legs in the distance. Passing through various rooms into a big open domed conference hall. The top filled with lots of the bloodied muscle webs. For this fight I used re-flavored Drow Driders, Drow Mages and some beast or another. Everything had spiderwalk. The party managed to use special Paralysis plasma ammo to stun one drider so she hung upside down in from the webbing. They could focus fire her down as two beasts crawled down the walls. Then two of the Drow Mages appeared near the ceiling allowing nice ranged spells to rain down on the group. They had a hard time.
Eventually they proceeded. Found a hidden elevator that lead to the secret Research floor. A giant room with a basin of purplish glow. Next to it two re-flavored Otyugh's. At the back a wall sized computer. They used the pillars in the room to fight well. Then psionic mindblasts started hurting them from out of nowhere and I rolled well on the re-charge of it each turn. From the ceiling 1 additional re-flavored Animated Armor joined the fight. After several turns a re-flavored Mindflayer appeared from the basin and started munching on some brains. The party's hacker hacked the computer. Instead of activating the elevators for a way out he immediately decided to activate the Purge Protocol... all explosives went off. With his entire squad dead he took all his remaining health potions to get high and die with honor.
Player Feedback: They loved the sci-fi fantasy experience with the horror vibe. But for a one-shot it was too lengthy at 8-9 hours of play in a single sitting with the occasional breaks. They enjoyed how everything was against them, with all sorts of debuffs, injuries and always running low on resources...but there still being a way out somewhere if they took the time. Great occasionally, but not always.
9 hours--!! How long did you expect it to go when planning the one-shot?
Congrats on breaking out of your ForeverDM-ness!
Well I was hoping for our usual play time. Which is from 16:00 till 21:00 with a 1 hour break half way. So 4 hours. However I knew it would run longer since there were 6-8 encounters planned. My players however aren't dungeon delvers and roleplayed a lot with the doppelgangers. Already had an idea something wasn't right. So the "cleric" was escorting them to "safety" in a small hidden area behind the bookcase. So they wouldn't get in the way should they be aggressive. Which didn't quite work out for them. So even in a heavy old fashioned dungeon crawl they still find ways to roleplay somehow hehe.
It isn't the first time it ran longer. We've had a few other sessions that were fun so decided to play longer deep into midnight.
Thanks! It was just a one day thing, but I got to fail at being a bard due to bad rolls! :D