It was just me 14yo, my little sister 10yo and the DM my younger brother 12yo, we were just about finished OotA and we had gotten up to the bit I had been waiting for and soo excited about, The Rage Of Demons, the DM made this part even better by saying to ease the pressure on him, with him having to play as all the Demon Lords he said WE could control whatever one we wanted. I obviously chose Orcus since he can raise Lich's from the dead, my little sister chose The Demogorgon and the DM played as all the others. We were in the middle of battle when my sister had an idea that scared the sh*t out of me. She said, "Wait, The Demogorgon can cast telekinesis right?" and we replied "Yeah, why", she remained silent until her turn and then, she said, the most scariest thing any Demon Lord could ever dream of. Being lifted up with telekinesis spell and dropped into Juiblex. As soon as she said that she was going to do that I knew Orcus has no hope, it was Orcus' nightmare, being lifted up above a Salivating Juiblex and finally being dropped into him. Anyways Orcus was stuck in Juiblex for at least 2 turns and slowly being engulfed by him and escaping with hardly any HP he was finished by Baphomet and it was probably the best D&D session we have had.
This is one of the most brilliant ideas. I am running OotA and I seriously need to consider something like this.
Thanks
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
REMEMBER: Wizards Of The Coast does not own DDB, they are two different companies. When you buy a physical book, WotC receives the money you bought it for, not DDB and vice versa. If you want a digital key to get an online book for free because you have the hardcopy book then DDB makes no money because you don't buy off DDB you buy off WotC, so please stop making threads about this issue. DDB needs money to continue helping people and servers aren't cheap.
Good. Our Tiefling Sorcerer and Human Monk/Cleric were invited to a mysterious party by an unknown noble. They arrived to find that the door was slightly open. Going inside they saw that the welcome room was in disarray and a man dressed like a butler was on his knees cluthing his bleeding throat. They tried to help the man and the city guard, led by a gnome that neither PC knew or recognized, arrived just in time to find them standing over the body, now smeared with blood and the Tiefling holding a dagger (which she had planned to use to cauterize the gushing neck wound.) They are now awaiting trial in the local jail. :)
I had to share an event from last night's game session. I ran Icewind Mail from the encounter of the week with a mixed group , my three kids aged 11-13, one of their friends , a dad and my adult sister
So, they're going to the ship and my son decides to push his sister in to the water , I'm like ... OK, roll for initiative. Son misses his attack , eldest daughter uses her Acton to flip him off, other dad jumps in trying to separate the two, then the middle daughter jumps in trying to push the eldest into the water. My sister just watches all of this and starts applauding.
As luck would have it , this was done right in front of the drow that you needed a performance check to pass.
The drow just waved them in laughing hysterically. I gave them all inspiration.
Characters: Level 5 Human Fighter (Champion) and level 5 Human Rogue (Assassin) + 1 Orc female berserker character that was only one-shot character
- This time we got one more player that was first timer. We decided not to create full character sheet for her because we already knew that she wants to play only one session. (We used Berserker stat block for the character)
- Characters stole a painting from wall of the tavern.
- Fighter + Rogue recruited the orc female berserker character from tavern.
- They had a job to raid a pirate cove. There was three fighting events in total. The rogue tied one of the unconscious pirates and rolled him down the tunnel like a ball.
- At end of the dungeon there was RP event. Three of the pirates decided to surrender. Orc female player character wanted to know more about the pirates that raided her village in the past and killed many of her relatives. (Background story) She was so angry that she almost immediately excecuted one of the pirates that knew about the raid. Fighter was able to calm down the orc female and they took two of the pirates as prisoners and delivered them to guards of nearby town.
- Hopefully we are able to play with her again. (Orc female berserker) She did some really nice rolepaying! (Especially in the last event of the dungeon)
Amazing! Our last session was actually the last of our campaign!
The party (Paladin, Monk, Barbarian, Rogue, Wizard and Fighter) had just made it to level 18 and were scaling the mountain at the heart of the continent to stop the magic caster group, who they have been fighting since level 4 on and off, from opening the astral plane and ascending to godhood.
They made their way up and got there just as the leader, Zachariah ( the pope of the church of Bahamut who had decided god had left him) ripped open the sky. The mountain top began to rise in the air as they made their way up the tiers of rock, fighting each major enemy once more.
At they got to the top to fight Zachariah, his wife Velenna who had been helping the party turned on them, taking the power from her husband and using it to rip open the veils between all the planes and begin merging them all into one.
At this point she was untouchable, so they fought Zachariah instead. As it was happening, our rogue saw the chance to fly into other planes to collect power, heading to the Shadowfell and making a last-minute pact with the Raven Queen to give them an edge.
He returned just as the fighter got the final blow and I let the party narrate how they killed him and Velenna who turned to ash and light, the magic of each plane rushing through her.
Though the planes were still opening, and using the magic in items they had had since the first arc (amulets that had been created by the gods) they managed to close the planes and return the world to its right state before the mountain crumbled. (as a DM, this part was amazing cause my music up with the narration)
They all got their bittersweet epilogue, and we closed the campaign. This game started running 4 years ago and what was got me into DnD, so it was sad to see it go, but I'm excited to see what we can do next.
Yeah let's tell everything to this guy we just rescued, like how we're aware there's six doppelgangers sowing chaos, we know the doppelgangers' master is keeping them controlled with a supply of dreamlily, and our NPC friend in the nearby town has one of the doppelgangers imprisoned in dreamlily withdrawal. Also here, stranger, take this cursed stone. It's enchanted with Enemies Abound, and the doppelgangers were using it to make evil monsters out of sacred trees. And of course you can take a campfire watch all alone.
Of course, doppelgangers can read minds so he likely knew all that already.
Hey. This is another time when it's been a week since the session actually happened. I really need to get better about posting these on a reasonable time scale. Anyway, when we last left off, the crew of the Drunken Revenge had explored a mysterious castle believed to be inhabited by a necromancer. In fact, the necromancer was merely a fraud, but he did have one thing that was useful to the group: A map to the long lost library of Reysatra Lathalas, the elven wizard who had made the eight artifacts for which the party is hunting.
The Players:
Giovanni Durrade: A young, cocky tiefling rogue/bloodhunter. Believed to have been murdered by his sister 10 years ago. Captain of the Drunken Revenge
Lori Afki: A tiefling tempest cleric. Actually Meredith Beaumont, the daughter of a wealthy merchant who ran away from her engagement to Captain Joseph W. Terrence of the Wellbyrn Royal Navy.
Baruuq: (Absent for this session) An aasimar monk of the four elements. Compelled by his angel to travel the world in search of his destiny. Received a letter from E.S., but was unable to attend the meeting as his ship was delayed.
Mariz: An Air Genasi hexlock whom Gio met at the open air market in Port Montgomery. Did not receive a letter from E.S.
Isane: A halfling bard who was sent to prison for swindling a noble, but who has since escaped, making a living with his bagpipes.
Me: The Dungeon Master. In my fifth session, finally beginning to get something of a grip on this, but still scared out of my mind. Let's resume
After learning that Lori's obsessive fiance, the former naval captain Joseph W. Terrence, had disappeared without a trace, the group was quite concerned, and Lori decided that she should let Coppersmith Marshweed, a gnomish gunsmith and something of an adoptive father to Lori, know that, at least for now, she was safe. The group went to Port Montgomery, their first stop being at Marshweed's shop. Marshweed already knew what had happened. Lori reassured him that she was alright. Nevertheless, he gave her a small gun (palm pistol) and 20 bullets, just in case. In the same trip, Giovanni and Mariz both purchased firearms, and the crew stayed in town for a few days to wait for these firearms.
That same night, Lori and Giovanni decided to go for a drink. They went to a small tavern in town where a visibly drunk halfling was playing the bagpipes. They briefly talked to the bard, but on the whole paid him little mind. Over the course of the night, the two tieflings found themselves drawn together, and after a few hours, they quickly went back to the ship together.
The next morning Lori stepped out of the captain's quarters of the Drunken Revenge, to the surprise of absolutely no one on board the ship. Much more surprising was the discovery of a stowaway, whom Lori and Gio recognized as the bard from the night before. He seemed to have no idea how he got on the ship, except that he had been extremely drunk last night. He introduced himself as Isane, and Gio offered for him to join them on the ship, which he happily agreed two. The crew purchased some casks of ale to store on the ship and they headed out to find the library.
After a brief encounter with some merrow, some fog, and some trouble docking the boat, the crew made their way to the island where the library was supposed to be. They found themselves in Parrot Rock, a tiny Hamlet with no shops, no inn, and not even a temple. They were greeted by a human man whose name I have completely forgotten, so let's call him Thomas. They quickly learned that Reysatra had indeed lived on the island long ago in a tower, and while the tower was destroyed, there is a system of tunnels rumored to still exist beneath the island housing her magical experiments. Thomas offered to show the party to the cave rumored to hold the entrance to the tunnels free of charge, and the party took his offer.
The journey to the cave was more or less uneventful, except for a certain tension between Giovanni and Lori that eventually escalated into a brief argument, though the situation was defused by Isane playing a tune on his bagpipes. The group entered the cave, and found a massive pool filled with a strange, dark liquid, with no way around it. In front of the pool was a pillar, on which rested a small bowl inscribed with wave-like patterns. Giovanni jumped into the pool, but quickly found himself being pulled in, unable to breathe. Isane pulled him out of the pool, and then the party decided to look for another way to cross the pool. They examined the bowl. They set it next to the water. Nothing. They filled it with water. Nothing. They considered drinking the water but soon realized that was a bad idea. Then someone (either Lori or Isane, one of the two but I don't remember who) tried setting the bowl on top of the water. It rapidly grew, becoming large enough to hold two people. They took turns using the bowl to cross the pool, and then found a sealed doorway, which they were able to open by setting the heavy bowl on top of a pressure plate.
They walked down a set of stairs and found themselves in a circular hallway with eight doors. They began travelling to the right, and the first doorway was marked with the symbol of the magical school of Divination. The door posed them a riddle: "" (answer: Sleep) They stepped into the room and found themselves in an octagon made of mirrors. In the center of room, sitting on a simple table, was a crystal ball, which they quickly realized was impossible to remove from the room. They used it to scry for a few individuals: First, Joseph. He was found to be travelling southeast from the Starkarrow Isles, seemingly in their direction. Next, Giovanni's sister, Ursula. She quickly realized she was being scried, and she flipped Gio the finger and the spell ended before they could see much of anything. Finally, Marshweed allowed himself to be scried, and was found to be in a dark room, heavily panting and seemingly tied up. The sounds around him seemed to suggest that he was on a ship.
Next up was the hall of Illusion. The door appeared to be heavily padlocked, but swung open easily. Behind it was another door, which soon proved to be an illusion. Giovanni then walked through the doorway but ran into an invisible door, which he opened. The group saw illusory visions of past memories, but everyone except Gio was able to determine that they were false. Lori snapped Gio out of it, and they found an unlocked chest containing a deck of illusions.
Next was the hall of enchantment. The door was simply locked, and a sign on the door warned that the hall was dangerous because of a terribly failed experiment. Giovanni ignored the warnings and picked the lock, and everyone had to make a charisma save or else suffer disadvantage on all checks, saves, and attacks related to a randomly determined ability. Everyone except for Giovanni passed, and Giovanni got disadvantage on... dexterity. As a rogue. Slash blood hunter. Oops.
After that was the hall of Evocation. The door to the room had seven tiles arranged in a circle around Reysatra's crest, each one representing a school of magic. Evocation was excluded, and the group quickly realized that the evocation symbol above the door was on a removeable tile that they could slip into the empty space. Giovanni pressed the crest, but was blasted with a magic missile (yeah, Giovanni really has not had the best luck these past couple sessions. I swear that this really is not deliberate on my part.) They rearranged the tiles in the order of the rooms, pressed the crest, and the door opened. Inside was a table on which rested a wand of lightning bolts, and three vases on pedestals, one green, one red, and one black. Giovanni examined the black vase, and then opened it... and inside was a Living Thunderwave spell. The sonic burst from the Thunderwave opened the other two vases, which contained a Living Burning Hands (red) and a Living Acid Arrow (green). They successfully fought the spells, took the wand, and moved on. (quick note: If Giovanni or anyone else had opened either of the other vases first, only the corresponding spell would have been released. The Thunderwave was unique in being able to break the other two vases.)
Hall of Conjuration: There was no door, just a puzzle with eight bells, each marked with a two or three letter sequence (except one, which was blank). After about 30-45 minute of real-world time, the players realized that the letters were backwards solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti), and that the blank bell was the second "Do." They played the bells in the sequence of a c major scale, and the door appeared. Inside was a teleportation circle linked up to the other seven halls, as well as the library. The players decided to wait to go to the library, instead going through all the rooms. So Isane teleported into the next room to save time... the Hall of Necromancy.
Hall of Necromancy: The other characters quickly rushed to the next room, worried for Isane. There was no trick, no elaborate puzzle, just a blade and a doorknob. Each character needed to draw their own blood in order to enter. Inside, Isane was actually perfectly safe. All that was in there were three bottles, more or less unmarked, and two pages from a journal, explaining that one bottle contained a deadly poison, one caused blindness, and one could be used to bolster one's health, and that the last bottle was capable of refilling itself. Giovanni emptied each bottle, keeping the bottle that refilled itself, which proved to be the right one.
Hall of Transmutation: Each door is flanked by two torches. One of the torches next to this door was golden. Lori held it against the door and it turned into a key, but she never extinguished the flame so it burned her hand and she dropped it. She picked it up again and unlocked the door. They were attacked by several animated objects, but found a flametongue rapier.
Hall of Abjuration: The door was protected with a password, which Isane correctly guessed as "Shield" (the door had a hot-cold system to determine how close a given guess was.) Inside were a bunch of doors, each sealed differently. They all led nowhere. On the table was an arrow-catching shield.
Finally, they went back to the Hall of Conjuration and teleported to the library. Inside they found a map to the next artifact, information on all of the artifacts, and a battery that could be used to charge the artifacts. Finally, Mariz went looking for information on his patron, who was actually the BBEG, but Isane got a nat 20 on perception, and so now the whole party knows that the warlock is in cahoots with their biggest nemesis. Whoops.
The party had a talk with Mariz and left the cave, but were ambushed by Joseph. He quickly revealed that he had hostages in the form of NPCs that he chose because Lori was close to them, and which I chose because Lori's player liked them (specifically, Marshweed, a running joke guard named Dave, and Lori's half-orc bodyguards). He had also searched the Drunken Revenge and had found Lori's engagement ring, which she had hidden in the smuggler's compartment. He threatened to start killing hostages unless Lori came with him. First, Giovanni threw down a card from the Deck of Illusions: a Beholder. Joseph believed the illusion, but as soon as he had his men shoot, he realized it was fake. But Isane was able to successfully convince him that it was actually a ghost, so Joseph started rushing. Isane cast invisibility on Lori, but Joseph saw the spell being cast and had his men shoot Isane with a poisoned dart, knocking him unconscious and breaking the spell. Giovanni also tried to attack one of Joseph's men, but he too was knocked unconscious. Finally, he had one of his men hold a knife against Dave's throat, and began counting backward from 10. At 5, Lori realized he was being dead serious, and reluctantly gave in. Lori was tied up and taken on to Joseph's ship, the NewVictory.
When he came to, Giovanni went back to the Hall of Divination, and there was able to scry to find Lori, and overheard Joseph detailing his navigation plan: They would be headed Northeast for about a month to an island off the coast of the nation of Wellbyrn, where Joseph would force Lori to marry him. As the Drunken Revenge went to sea in pursuit, they were stopped by a ship run by Amari Watson, Lori's best friend, the younger sister of the party's contact in the navy, Admiral Lucas Watson, and Lori's player's backup character. She was told about Lori's abduction, and she was pissed.
Reunited with the evil cult that worships my wizard Minroe (they think she's the goddess of darkness). They've grown from 13 members to 40 within a week, and built a 20 foot statue of Minroe. Another party member who somehow became the highest-ranking member of my cult gave them some commandments:
1. Racial tolerance
2. Follow no other but me
3. Do not attack anyone unprovoked
4. Labour day is a religious holiday
5. Friday Night Fight Club
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jude, He/They
Former gnome evocation wizard and dhampir fey wanderer ranger, current simic hybrid aberrant mind sorcerer
My small group finished Waterdeep: Dragon Heist last night after playing once a week since January! I used some extended material from Alexandrian Remix and other sources. One of my players is going to take a stab at DMing a new campaign next week, so I will be the player - nervous about that after only DMing thus far!
In our campaign (spoilers):
-Xanathar's fish was killed. He proceeded to go crazy (-er?) and murder half his own forces in rage. -Manshoon's organization was crippled. He abandons Kolat Towers to (perhaps) show up again later. -The Cassalanter's are foiled. The Eye of Golorr they held was swapped with a fake. -Jarlaxle's power was greatly diminished - the party sank two of his three flagships. -They fought and killed a red dragon and collected the finder's reward of 5% (25,000 gold).
Started Out of the Abyss with my dad, brother, and two cousins today. I've been wanting to run OotA for a while, so this was fun for me.
They escaped Velkynvelve with the help of Jorlan after some hard labor. One of the characters convinced Jorlan to get a disguise to make them look like a Drow guard, so it was easier to get to the armory and get their gear back. Then they jumped down into the webs below, after Jorlan disabled the guards at the Northern Guard Post by clunking their heads together (classic). The spiders prepared to attack, but some of the characters and NPC's jumped to the pool below and encountered the gray ooze. They killed one Giant Spider and the ooze, then left after loosing two NPC's, Sarith the drow and Ront the orc.
They went down the tunnel that heads to the Darklake and Sloobludop, making it three days while only encountering 1 Rocktopus and 3 Orogs. We ended with them getting to level 2, and having only lost 3 NPC's (Jimjar the gambling Deep Gnome died in the Orog encounter, unfortunately before he could pay off all his debts.)
Overall, it was really fun.Can't wait for the next session and for them to get farther.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Characters: Lar-Dun Vanthaft - Human Warlock - Yawning Portal with Artymis, Moril - Tiefling Sorcerer - Dragondenn's Dragonlords, Paquinal Dalanthan - Eladrin Wizard - ShadowThorn's Out of the Abyss
Campaigns: Rod of Nankon, Darkness Reborn, Dungeonverse, Alycron - A Cosmic Horror West Marches (Co-DMing), One-on-Ones
We have been playing a modified version of out of the abyss, where instead of the end goal being to fight the demogorgon, it's to escape the underdark.
The last session we were able to escape the slave trade outpost but were not able to save 2 NPCs. And sadly two more NPCs had died in this one too. My character, a female goliath genie warlock was having an emotional breakdown at this point. But through the help of the other PCs, and an old Kua-toa that was formerly a slave himself, they were able to snap her out of it. She was even able to help save one of the downed PCs from a pride of starving panthers.
With her confidence boosted, the party continued on word. They managed to find a temple dedicated to lolth, and were able to still some supplies. Tia was being chased by a mimic, that was in the temple with a smile on her face. It was actually the first time since leaving that slave outpost she felt such joy. After killing the mimic, we fended off the 4 drows that worked for the aforementioned outpost, and dispatched them with ease.
And finally the silk road. We took an NPCs advise and asked one of his contacts for a favor in order to safely cross. Everyone as able to make it by safely, until it was my character's turn. She failed 2 of her dex saves, and was hit by the in coming spiders. She would've fallen unconscious, if I hadn't remembered stones endurance, giving her one hp left. And that's how our session ended
So, I'm still processing what happened, but here's basically what went down:
We spent the better part of an hour fighting a giant heart-monster. The barbarian thought it was friendly after getting wrapped up in its tendrils. They hugged A LOT.
We made it to a huge tower where we could teleport to our required destination.
Before climbing the tower, we were greeted by the avatar of Ilmater. At this point, I regretted not playing one of my sorcerers who worshiped said god. Still, cleric's a good job with this bunch of doofuses.
The avatar asked us each a question about our personal growth. Most of us passed, save for the bard (who could not think of a single time he'd been humble) and the rogue, who had been the god of war for a while.
While the rest of us started climbing the tower, the bard and rogue were taken to a separate chamber. For one of them to progress, one would need to give up their lives, travelling to Mt. Celestia.
After some deliberation in private chat, the rogue handed over Blackrazor (which we need to kill the Raven Queen) and passed through. His reasoning was that during his 40 years as the god of war (time shenanigans in the outer planes are fun) he did a lot of bad things, so maybe this would make up for some of it.
The bard joined up with us and he gave the barbarian an extremely biting remark. After working out a puzzle, we teleported to our destination. There was a giant shadow boi waiting for us there, fighting with some moon elves.
Of course, the rogue wasn't done. He found himself in a plane of pure white with no features save for a staircase leading to a magical door.
He went up the first step. His skin turned slightly golden, his hair fell out and his facial features became slightly elongated.
He went up the second step. He went from chaotic neutral to lawful good (also the bard was horrified to find out he was chaotic evil. That was more of an oopsie from character creation than a deliberate choice.
The third step gave him a new bond: Celestia is his home and it has his highest loyalty. He also gained a modest home in a place near The Hills of Delight.
At this point, he saw no point in turning back and put a foot on the fourth step. He lost one racial trait (which he didn't decide on then but he probably has now) but he gained wings and a new power.
The fifth step blinded him, but he gained glowing orbs where his eyes were and blindsight. He also gained the power to use truesight up to 120 feet once per long rest.
The sixth step made him see his old name as a childhood nickname. His new name is Tavalathar the Holy. He might shorten the name based on the fact that he finds it hard to pronounce.
The seventh step was where the door was sitting. He opened it up and...that's the last part he played out. Based on a tweet from our DM, things are about to get very interesting...
Well, it's been over two weeks since my last session, and I haven't written a recap, so I should probably get on that. When we last left off, the crew of the Drunken Revenge found a map to the location of the Earth Artifact and the cleric, Lori, got kidnapped.
The Players:
Giovanni Durrade: A young, cocky tiefling rogue/bloodhunter. Believed to have been murdered by his sister 10 years ago. Captain of the Drunken Revenge
Lori Afki: A tiefling tempest cleric. Actually Meredith Beaumont, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Absent for much of the session due to being kidnapped by former naval captain Joseph W. Terrence, the man she was arranged to marry.
Baruuq: An aasimar monk of the four elements. Compelled by his angel to travel the world in search of his destiny. Received a letter from E.S., but was unable to attend the meeting as his ship was delayed.
Mariz: (absent for this session) An Air Genasi hexlock whom Gio met at the open air market in Port Montgomery. Did not receive a letter from E.S.
Isane: A halfling bard who was sent to prison for swindling a noble, but who has since escaped, making a living with his bagpipes.
Karc: An aaracockra arcane trickster and the only known survivor of an attack on his pirate ship. Left the party to search for his crew, but has returned.
Amari Watson: A half-elven storm sorcerer and privateer, as well as Lori's childhood best friend and the sister of prominent naval admiral Lucas Watson. This was the character Lori's player used for much of the session.
Me: The Dungeon Master. Extremely apologetic to my players that my sixth session ended up so depressing. I swear, the next arc will be fluffier. Hopefully. Let's resume.
We open aboard the Drunken Revenge, where Giovanni is ordering the crew to move as quickly as possible. Amari approaches him, saying that she knows that Giovanni and Lori are… involved, and that she does not approve. They have a lengthy argument, culminating when Amari tells Gio he’s a bad captain, and Giovanni pulls a “Well, fine, why don’t YOU captain the ship?” and Amari is like “Okay.”
Later, Amari finds Lori’s notebook, and reads a letter she wrote to the crew in case she was taken by Joseph. Among other things, the note tells Giovanni that Lori is aware of his feelings for her, and that she may indeed have feelings for him. This results in another argument between Giovanni and Amari, although much briefer this time.
The next morning, a small fire starts on the ship, and though the party initially struggles to fix it, they are ultimately able to continue moving along as normal.
On day six, the ship encounters a giant octopus. Karc, having been granted the power to communicate with aquatic animals (long story) talks to the octopus. Karc asks if the octopus has seen the New Victory, to which the octopus says he has not, but he knows someone who has. That someone turns out to be the mermaid who served as Giovanni’s adoptive mother for a while (long story), and she shows them several things she has collected that fell overboard the ship, including a set of broken manacles and Lori’s holy symbol (which Joseph had thrown overboard).
At some point, Amari gets drunk and she and Giovanni have another argument. After this one, the ship’s cook, Morgan, had a conversation with Amari, asking her what she had against Giovanni, to which she explains that basically has just dealt with enough ******** that she tends not to trust people.
Okay, this session consisted mostly of random encounters, so we’re going to do this montage style.
Day 10: The ship encounters a whirlpool, but is able to deal with that pretty quickly.
Day 13: The ship is trapped in a magical evocation storm, and takes quite a bit of damage.
Day 17: The Drunken Revenge encounters a pirate ship, and is barely able to outmaneuver it.
Day 19: The ship encounters three hungry giant sharks, but Karc is able to convince them that the ship is transporting a cargo of poison and so they leave the ship alone.
Day 24: The Drunken Revenge has a run in with an ancient ghost ship, which seems sinister on the horizon… but then turns out to be a bunch of friendly gnomes. The ghosts give them some advice, and Isane plays a song that cheers the ghosts up, and the ships part ways.
Day 28: The ship encounters four blood hawks, and the crew kills all of them.
Finally, the moment of truth. The wedding off the coast of Wellbyrn. When the ship pulls into the harbor, they see a middle aged human man, looking stressed. Lori’s father, Francois Beaumont. He tells them what happened. He had no idea what a terrible person Joseph was. He financed his expedition to find Lori, but he thought she was just lost. Before the wedding, he spoke with Lori, and found out the truth. Horrified, he promised to help Lori escape, but at that moment, Joseph came in, and attempted to kill Francois. Francois was able to escape, and that’s where we pick up.
The crew of the Drunken Revenge make it to the temple just as Lori and Joseph are about to be married. Thanks to a high persuasion roll from Isane and a low deception roll from Joseph, the crew is able to turn the crowd against Joseph, and then Joseph begins shooting at Giovanni. A massive fight breaks out. There are 16 enemies involved in the fight, but the crew is able to take most of them. Lori’s magic is being blocked by a collar, so she leaves the temple early on, but is able to break through the collar and returns ready to fight. Eventually, Giovanni pulls a mastiff patch off of his Robe of Useful Items and uses them to knock Joseph prone and almost kills him with his flametongue rapier. Finally, Karc casts Sleep, knocking Joseph and the last three bandits unconscious. Joseph is arrested and Lori is rescued.
A month later, Joseph’s trial ends with a conviction and a life sentence. Lori buys a magical night light to help her sleep at night and Giovanni gives away the two mastiffs, one to Lori to comfort her, and one to Amari as a peace offering. Lori’s father does not approve of Giovanni, but after what happened with Joseph he is more than willing to respect Lori’s wishes. The crew of the Drunken Revenge sets out to go on to find the Earth Artifact. And that’s where the session ended.
Side Note: If this recap seems shorter than usual, there’s a reason. Most of this session was a combination of random encounters, character interactions, and cutscenes of Lori aboard the New Victory, which I chose not to include.
I have a group of 5 Level 5 PCs, Arcane Archer, Storm Sorceress, Arcane Trickster, Drunken Master, and a Circle of the Moon Druid. They are in a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign just before the Isle of the Abby adventure.
I had been seeding the idea of the Night Hag Granny Nightshade since the first adventure. Every time someone mentions her name or just “The Hag” they spit over their shoulder to ward off evil. The PCs even had forewarning as one of the PCs cast Augury and got Woe as the outcome.
Players pulled a job from the job board for 500GP to deliver a package no questions asked and an extra 700GP when it is done. They talked to the guy - who looked like he was 80 – and found out he was paid to deliver the chest and now he is too weak to do it. Rest of the party was killed by an Owlbears and he can no longer move the chest. He cannot tell them anything about what happened, but once it is delivered he would be rewarded. They asked for more money and they guy admitted he did not have enough yet, but would have it after the chest was delivered.
They agreed to deliver it and the chest weighed well over 50 pounds. It was a simple boat ride up the river into the Dreadwood. They encountered some of the hag’s lair effects but continued on through it. They arrived in an area the river widened to a pond with an Eight foot tall Dryad waiting for them. They passed over the chest and asked if the guy who hired him would be cured. The Dryad said the agreement has been fulfilled and the curse was lifted, but not from them as the agreement was only for the original man. The Monk and Druid had been carrying it (strongest PCs) and were affected by an exhaustion curse. An agreement was made to get the only fruit from a specific tree and return it to the Dryad. She used Major Image to cast an illusion of the tree’s location and a map of where it is. She sent them off with a “Now hurry.”
The exhaustion curse caused anything that was recoverable with a long rest to not be recoverable – such as the druid’s spell casting. That was what caused them to rush at it. Otherwise they were going to hang around and investigate some things. They got to the place easily by using the Acquisitions Inc. Cartographer’s power Tale of Safe Travel. Once there they found orcs and bandits arguing back and forth about only speaking in orcish as the orcs could not speak common. The players did not speak orcish and tried to talk to them, but the orcs just yelled and swung their arms around. PCs noticed there were 3 children covered in tar and ash in an iron cage. That caused them to attack first. Fight went pretty quickly and they released the kids. The kids started screaming and ran. They managed to catch one because of the monk's speed and the rouge's bonus action. The other 2 ran into the woods.
They decided to take the kid back to town and used Tale of Safe Travel to get there safe and fast. They went into the town council and found Captian Xendros talking with Eda Oweland about a sending she just got about the kids being kidnapped. All eyes turn to the PCs with the magically sleeping kid. The kids were possessed by something and the Priestess of Iuz was hired to cure them after everything else failed - Demons know possession, right? The father is a very powerful merchant lord from the capital - friend of the King of course!
Cursed PCs now have 3 levels of exhaustion. (They keep moving around too much.)
Turns out the guy who hired them leapt out of bed the instant the PCs delivered it and high-tailed it out of town. They tried to follow him, but lost track. They went back to deliver the fruit.
The Dryad was there again. Next to her were the two other children that had escaped. The PCs did not want to deliver the fruit as they had agreed to in a verbal contract with a Fey. They also wanted the kids back. They initially refused on the fruit delivery. At that point they broke contract and I had decided the Dryad could cast spells on them with the save always failing. She cast Hold Person on and froze them. The PCs still did not hand it over, so I broke out her 17level spell casting and cast Time Stop and she suddenly had it. She waved her hands and the curse was dispelled and the PCs were no longer exhausted. At that point some of the PCs understood that they were outclassed and started playing nicer.
The Dryad initially asked for 13 scales (dragonborn) and 13 hairs in exchange for the kids. The PCs did not want to do this at all, and they eventually agreed to give a knife for the kids. The children were released to them without the possessing entity still inside. When the Dryad released the children she removed the hive entity from all 3 and kept it. Not at all pleased with how this went, they got back in the boat and the Arcane Archer saw a hag with the monk’s dagger smiling and backing into the trees.
The merchant lord was very pleased to get the kids back and no longer possessed. The PCs may have to pay weregild to Captian Xendros for the hirelings that were killed causing the PCs to lose money on an adventure. Sadly I figured this was about how it would go, and may have set things up to cause it. I am sure nothing bad will come from the dagger being given away.
Our last session was frustrating. We were investigating some caravans being raided, so we created a fake caravan as bait. We ended up spending a lot of time travelling between two towns, and only had one actual combat. The rest was just talking to people, which while it /can/ be fun, talking to rando merchants trying to find out what's going on with these raiders (nobody knew anything)...wasnt.
When we finally did get a combat, the enemies were mounted archers, when they started to get injured, they just rode away. We managed to drop one and capture him by killing his horse, but all in all it was a frustrating and not rewarding session.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
We played another session tonight, and this one was much better. Another caravan was attacked by archers, this time they were foot archers and they had to stand and fight. They lost pretty horribly, and we took one prisoner. I got to use the new inspiration ability from glamour bard 3 this time, and it was all that I'd thought it would be. I'd totally consider playing a single-class glamour bard (this one is a warlock main MC). The prisoner was a treasure trove of information, and we picked up a lot of intel as to what's going on. We were also able to track one who attempted to flee, and found their main camp. We scouted it out, and saw an old nemesis which had kicked our butts a few levels back working with the rebels who were raiding the dwarven caravans. We also saw some elves, which we are assuming to be dark elves (the dark elves in this world are similar to Krynn's dark elves...they are normal elves, just of an evil persuasion) stirring up trouble.
The king was quite pleased when we made our report, and we were richly rewarded with an estate.
Of course, it's something of a border land, near the dark elf pirates which seem to be stirring up hate and discontent and the king wants it fortified and garrisoned. I'm not sure what exactly he thinks he's paying us, but I can assure you that he's not paying enough. That said, we're pretty stoked about getting our own lands. We don't know much about them yet, and I am certain there's going to be more of a catch.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
My party wrapped up our playthrough of Curse of Strahd. The session started with the party trying to bargain with Strahd in his dining room (most fun I've ever had roleplaying in all my DMing). It ended with a two hour long duel with Strahd through Ravenloft Castle, we had our Cleric drop to exactly 1 HP twice, and everyone was close to death when they ended up stabbing him through the chest with the Sunblade.
After finishing off the Dark Lord, the party decided to stay in Barovia with all of their friends:
- The Cleric took over as Abbot, healing the sick and watching over Krezk.
- The Sorcerer became Burgomaster of Vallaki, replacing the corrupt Lady Watcher.
- The Warlock settled down in the Town of Barovia, starting a small cafe.
- And a statue of the (dead) Monk was built in Krezk to honor his death in Argynvostholt.
It was the most memorable session I've ever played, and I cannot be happier with how it turned out.
The lesson here is: Get Curse of Strahd.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Players beware, the DM is here!" - Probably Some 80's Cartoon
We finally made it to a drow city, after a week, the tavern owners ratted us out to the guards after finding out we were escaped slaves. We had to hurry and finish a quest for a orc girl, too clear out some fungal zombies.
But in my infinite wisdom, wanting to bring proof we did the job, had my female goliath warlock decapitate one of the fungal zombies, and DIDN'T pick up the head with mage hand. And now she is inflicted with Zuggtmoy's curse, and if not treated her head will explode (we had an NPC In the third session who died to the same curse.).
The session ended with my character in the arms of our adorable myconid NPC, Swoomy, running north into the mushroom forest. Rest of the PCs and ally NPCs right behind us, in a made dash to save my character's life.
Last session our party was trying to free slaves from a sahuagin base. We heard what sounded like hammers on stone and sahuagin yelling commands opposite a door when we were ambushed from behind. One of our party members readied an action to cast a fire bolt if anyone came through the door due to the commotion. Unfortunately a slave came through the door first and was promptly engulfed in flames by the spell resulting in their death. Needless to say the remaining slaves did not trust us to save them lol
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I like my belly and intend to keep it, thank you. I may even add some more to it!"
-Rumblebelly
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Thanks
REMEMBER: Wizards Of The Coast does not own DDB, they are two different companies. When you buy a physical book, WotC receives the money you bought it for, not DDB and vice versa. If you want a digital key to get an online book for free because you have the hardcopy book then DDB makes no money because you don't buy off DDB you buy off WotC, so please stop making threads about this issue. DDB needs money to continue helping people and servers aren't cheap.
Good. Our Tiefling Sorcerer and Human Monk/Cleric were invited to a mysterious party by an unknown noble. They arrived to find that the door was slightly open. Going inside they saw that the welcome room was in disarray and a man dressed like a butler was on his knees cluthing his bleeding throat. They tried to help the man and the city guard, led by a gnome that neither PC knew or recognized, arrived just in time to find them standing over the body, now smeared with blood and the Tiefling holding a dagger (which she had planned to use to cauterize the gushing neck wound.) They are now awaiting trial in the local jail. :)
I had to share an event from last night's game session. I ran Icewind Mail from the encounter of the week with a mixed group , my three kids aged 11-13, one of their friends , a dad and my adult sister
So, they're going to the ship and my son decides to push his sister in to the water , I'm like ... OK, roll for initiative. Son misses his attack , eldest daughter uses her Acton to flip him off, other dad jumps in trying to separate the two, then the middle daughter jumps in trying to push the eldest into the water. My sister just watches all of this and starts applauding.
As luck would have it , this was done right in front of the drow that you needed a performance check to pass.
The drow just waved them in laughing hysterically. I gave them all inspiration.
Campaign 1, 11th session:
Characters: Level 5 Human Fighter (Champion) and level 5 Human Rogue (Assassin) + 1 Orc female berserker character that was only one-shot character
- This time we got one more player that was first timer. We decided not to create full character sheet for her because we already knew that she wants to play only one session. (We used Berserker stat block for the character)
- Characters stole a painting from wall of the tavern.
- Fighter + Rogue recruited the orc female berserker character from tavern.
- They had a job to raid a pirate cove. There was three fighting events in total. The rogue tied one of the unconscious pirates and rolled him down the tunnel like a ball.
- At end of the dungeon there was RP event. Three of the pirates decided to surrender. Orc female player character wanted to know more about the pirates that raided her village in the past and killed many of her relatives. (Background story) She was so angry that she almost immediately excecuted one of the pirates that knew about the raid. Fighter was able to calm down the orc female and they took two of the pirates as prisoners and delivered them to guards of nearby town.
- Hopefully we are able to play with her again. (Orc female berserker) She did some really nice rolepaying! (Especially in the last event of the dungeon)
Amazing! Our last session was actually the last of our campaign!
They all got their bittersweet epilogue, and we closed the campaign. This game started running 4 years ago and what was got me into DnD, so it was sad to see it go, but I'm excited to see what we can do next.
my lvl 8 paladin fought and barely beat a death knight u tell me how it went
Of course, doppelgangers can read minds so he likely knew all that already.
Hey. This is another time when it's been a week since the session actually happened. I really need to get better about posting these on a reasonable time scale. Anyway, when we last left off, the crew of the Drunken Revenge had explored a mysterious castle believed to be inhabited by a necromancer. In fact, the necromancer was merely a fraud, but he did have one thing that was useful to the group: A map to the long lost library of Reysatra Lathalas, the elven wizard who had made the eight artifacts for which the party is hunting.
The Players:
Giovanni Durrade: A young, cocky tiefling rogue/bloodhunter. Believed to have been murdered by his sister 10 years ago. Captain of the Drunken Revenge
Lori Afki: A tiefling tempest cleric. Actually Meredith Beaumont, the daughter of a wealthy merchant who ran away from her engagement to Captain Joseph W. Terrence of the Wellbyrn Royal Navy.
Baruuq: (Absent for this session) An aasimar monk of the four elements. Compelled by his angel to travel the world in search of his destiny. Received a letter from E.S., but was unable to attend the meeting as his ship was delayed.
Mariz: An Air Genasi hexlock whom Gio met at the open air market in Port Montgomery. Did not receive a letter from E.S.
Isane: A halfling bard who was sent to prison for swindling a noble, but who has since escaped, making a living with his bagpipes.
Me: The Dungeon Master. In my fifth session, finally beginning to get something of a grip on this, but still scared out of my mind. Let's resume
After learning that Lori's obsessive fiance, the former naval captain Joseph W. Terrence, had disappeared without a trace, the group was quite concerned, and Lori decided that she should let Coppersmith Marshweed, a gnomish gunsmith and something of an adoptive father to Lori, know that, at least for now, she was safe. The group went to Port Montgomery, their first stop being at Marshweed's shop. Marshweed already knew what had happened. Lori reassured him that she was alright. Nevertheless, he gave her a small gun (palm pistol) and 20 bullets, just in case. In the same trip, Giovanni and Mariz both purchased firearms, and the crew stayed in town for a few days to wait for these firearms.
That same night, Lori and Giovanni decided to go for a drink. They went to a small tavern in town where a visibly drunk halfling was playing the bagpipes. They briefly talked to the bard, but on the whole paid him little mind. Over the course of the night, the two tieflings found themselves drawn together, and after a few hours, they quickly went back to the ship together.
The next morning Lori stepped out of the captain's quarters of the Drunken Revenge, to the surprise of absolutely no one on board the ship. Much more surprising was the discovery of a stowaway, whom Lori and Gio recognized as the bard from the night before. He seemed to have no idea how he got on the ship, except that he had been extremely drunk last night. He introduced himself as Isane, and Gio offered for him to join them on the ship, which he happily agreed two. The crew purchased some casks of ale to store on the ship and they headed out to find the library.
After a brief encounter with some merrow, some fog, and some trouble docking the boat, the crew made their way to the island where the library was supposed to be. They found themselves in Parrot Rock, a tiny Hamlet with no shops, no inn, and not even a temple. They were greeted by a human man whose name I have completely forgotten, so let's call him Thomas. They quickly learned that Reysatra had indeed lived on the island long ago in a tower, and while the tower was destroyed, there is a system of tunnels rumored to still exist beneath the island housing her magical experiments. Thomas offered to show the party to the cave rumored to hold the entrance to the tunnels free of charge, and the party took his offer.
The journey to the cave was more or less uneventful, except for a certain tension between Giovanni and Lori that eventually escalated into a brief argument, though the situation was defused by Isane playing a tune on his bagpipes. The group entered the cave, and found a massive pool filled with a strange, dark liquid, with no way around it. In front of the pool was a pillar, on which rested a small bowl inscribed with wave-like patterns. Giovanni jumped into the pool, but quickly found himself being pulled in, unable to breathe. Isane pulled him out of the pool, and then the party decided to look for another way to cross the pool. They examined the bowl. They set it next to the water. Nothing. They filled it with water. Nothing. They considered drinking the water but soon realized that was a bad idea. Then someone (either Lori or Isane, one of the two but I don't remember who) tried setting the bowl on top of the water. It rapidly grew, becoming large enough to hold two people. They took turns using the bowl to cross the pool, and then found a sealed doorway, which they were able to open by setting the heavy bowl on top of a pressure plate.
They walked down a set of stairs and found themselves in a circular hallway with eight doors. They began travelling to the right, and the first doorway was marked with the symbol of the magical school of Divination. The door posed them a riddle: "" (answer: Sleep) They stepped into the room and found themselves in an octagon made of mirrors. In the center of room, sitting on a simple table, was a crystal ball, which they quickly realized was impossible to remove from the room. They used it to scry for a few individuals: First, Joseph. He was found to be travelling southeast from the Starkarrow Isles, seemingly in their direction. Next, Giovanni's sister, Ursula. She quickly realized she was being scried, and she flipped Gio the finger and the spell ended before they could see much of anything. Finally, Marshweed allowed himself to be scried, and was found to be in a dark room, heavily panting and seemingly tied up. The sounds around him seemed to suggest that he was on a ship.
Next up was the hall of Illusion. The door appeared to be heavily padlocked, but swung open easily. Behind it was another door, which soon proved to be an illusion. Giovanni then walked through the doorway but ran into an invisible door, which he opened. The group saw illusory visions of past memories, but everyone except Gio was able to determine that they were false. Lori snapped Gio out of it, and they found an unlocked chest containing a deck of illusions.
Next was the hall of enchantment. The door was simply locked, and a sign on the door warned that the hall was dangerous because of a terribly failed experiment. Giovanni ignored the warnings and picked the lock, and everyone had to make a charisma save or else suffer disadvantage on all checks, saves, and attacks related to a randomly determined ability. Everyone except for Giovanni passed, and Giovanni got disadvantage on... dexterity. As a rogue. Slash blood hunter. Oops.
After that was the hall of Evocation. The door to the room had seven tiles arranged in a circle around Reysatra's crest, each one representing a school of magic. Evocation was excluded, and the group quickly realized that the evocation symbol above the door was on a removeable tile that they could slip into the empty space. Giovanni pressed the crest, but was blasted with a magic missile (yeah, Giovanni really has not had the best luck these past couple sessions. I swear that this really is not deliberate on my part.) They rearranged the tiles in the order of the rooms, pressed the crest, and the door opened. Inside was a table on which rested a wand of lightning bolts, and three vases on pedestals, one green, one red, and one black. Giovanni examined the black vase, and then opened it... and inside was a Living Thunderwave spell. The sonic burst from the Thunderwave opened the other two vases, which contained a Living Burning Hands (red) and a Living Acid Arrow (green). They successfully fought the spells, took the wand, and moved on. (quick note: If Giovanni or anyone else had opened either of the other vases first, only the corresponding spell would have been released. The Thunderwave was unique in being able to break the other two vases.)
Hall of Conjuration: There was no door, just a puzzle with eight bells, each marked with a two or three letter sequence (except one, which was blank). After about 30-45 minute of real-world time, the players realized that the letters were backwards solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti), and that the blank bell was the second "Do." They played the bells in the sequence of a c major scale, and the door appeared. Inside was a teleportation circle linked up to the other seven halls, as well as the library. The players decided to wait to go to the library, instead going through all the rooms. So Isane teleported into the next room to save time... the Hall of Necromancy.
Hall of Necromancy: The other characters quickly rushed to the next room, worried for Isane. There was no trick, no elaborate puzzle, just a blade and a doorknob. Each character needed to draw their own blood in order to enter. Inside, Isane was actually perfectly safe. All that was in there were three bottles, more or less unmarked, and two pages from a journal, explaining that one bottle contained a deadly poison, one caused blindness, and one could be used to bolster one's health, and that the last bottle was capable of refilling itself. Giovanni emptied each bottle, keeping the bottle that refilled itself, which proved to be the right one.
Hall of Transmutation: Each door is flanked by two torches. One of the torches next to this door was golden. Lori held it against the door and it turned into a key, but she never extinguished the flame so it burned her hand and she dropped it. She picked it up again and unlocked the door. They were attacked by several animated objects, but found a flametongue rapier.
Hall of Abjuration: The door was protected with a password, which Isane correctly guessed as "Shield" (the door had a hot-cold system to determine how close a given guess was.) Inside were a bunch of doors, each sealed differently. They all led nowhere. On the table was an arrow-catching shield.
Finally, they went back to the Hall of Conjuration and teleported to the library. Inside they found a map to the next artifact, information on all of the artifacts, and a battery that could be used to charge the artifacts. Finally, Mariz went looking for information on his patron, who was actually the BBEG, but Isane got a nat 20 on perception, and so now the whole party knows that the warlock is in cahoots with their biggest nemesis. Whoops.
The party had a talk with Mariz and left the cave, but were ambushed by Joseph. He quickly revealed that he had hostages in the form of NPCs that he chose because Lori was close to them, and which I chose because Lori's player liked them (specifically, Marshweed, a running joke guard named Dave, and Lori's half-orc bodyguards). He had also searched the Drunken Revenge and had found Lori's engagement ring, which she had hidden in the smuggler's compartment. He threatened to start killing hostages unless Lori came with him. First, Giovanni threw down a card from the Deck of Illusions: a Beholder. Joseph believed the illusion, but as soon as he had his men shoot, he realized it was fake. But Isane was able to successfully convince him that it was actually a ghost, so Joseph started rushing. Isane cast invisibility on Lori, but Joseph saw the spell being cast and had his men shoot Isane with a poisoned dart, knocking him unconscious and breaking the spell. Giovanni also tried to attack one of Joseph's men, but he too was knocked unconscious. Finally, he had one of his men hold a knife against Dave's throat, and began counting backward from 10. At 5, Lori realized he was being dead serious, and reluctantly gave in. Lori was tied up and taken on to Joseph's ship, the New Victory.
When he came to, Giovanni went back to the Hall of Divination, and there was able to scry to find Lori, and overheard Joseph detailing his navigation plan: They would be headed Northeast for about a month to an island off the coast of the nation of Wellbyrn, where Joseph would force Lori to marry him. As the Drunken Revenge went to sea in pursuit, they were stopped by a ship run by Amari Watson, Lori's best friend, the younger sister of the party's contact in the navy, Admiral Lucas Watson, and Lori's player's backup character. She was told about Lori's abduction, and she was pissed.
And that is where the session ended.
Reunited with the evil cult that worships my wizard Minroe (they think she's the goddess of darkness). They've grown from 13 members to 40 within a week, and built a 20 foot statue of Minroe. Another party member who somehow became the highest-ranking member of my cult gave them some commandments:
1. Racial tolerance
2. Follow no other but me
3. Do not attack anyone unprovoked
4. Labour day is a religious holiday
5. Friday Night Fight Club
Jude, He/They
Former gnome evocation wizard and dhampir fey wanderer ranger, current simic hybrid aberrant mind sorcerer
Rookie Call of Cthulhu Keeper
My small group finished Waterdeep: Dragon Heist last night after playing once a week since January! I used some extended material from Alexandrian Remix and other sources. One of my players is going to take a stab at DMing a new campaign next week, so I will be the player - nervous about that after only DMing thus far!
In our campaign (spoilers):
-Xanathar's fish was killed. He proceeded to go crazy (-er?) and murder half his own forces in rage.
-Manshoon's organization was crippled. He abandons Kolat Towers to (perhaps) show up again later.
-The Cassalanter's are foiled. The Eye of Golorr they held was swapped with a fake.
-Jarlaxle's power was greatly diminished - the party sank two of his three flagships.
-They fought and killed a red dragon and collected the finder's reward of 5% (25,000 gold).
Was a blast!
Started Out of the Abyss with my dad, brother, and two cousins today. I've been wanting to run OotA for a while, so this was fun for me.
They escaped Velkynvelve with the help of Jorlan after some hard labor. One of the characters convinced Jorlan to get a disguise to make them look like a Drow guard, so it was easier to get to the armory and get their gear back. Then they jumped down into the webs below, after Jorlan disabled the guards at the Northern Guard Post by clunking their heads together (classic). The spiders prepared to attack, but some of the characters and NPC's jumped to the pool below and encountered the gray ooze. They killed one Giant Spider and the ooze, then left after loosing two NPC's, Sarith the drow and Ront the orc.
They went down the tunnel that heads to the Darklake and Sloobludop, making it three days while only encountering 1 Rocktopus and 3 Orogs. We ended with them getting to level 2, and having only lost 3 NPC's (Jimjar the gambling Deep Gnome died in the Orog encounter, unfortunately before he could pay off all his debts.)
Overall, it was really fun.Can't wait for the next session and for them to get farther.
Characters: Lar-Dun Vanthaft - Human Warlock - Yawning Portal with Artymis, Moril - Tiefling Sorcerer - Dragondenn's Dragonlords, Paquinal Dalanthan - Eladrin Wizard - ShadowThorn's Out of the Abyss
Campaigns: Rod of Nankon, Darkness Reborn, Dungeonverse, Alycron - A Cosmic Horror West Marches (Co-DMing), One-on-OnesWe have been playing a modified version of out of the abyss, where instead of the end goal being to fight the demogorgon, it's to escape the underdark.
The last session we were able to escape the slave trade outpost but were not able to save 2 NPCs. And sadly two more NPCs had died in this one too. My character, a female goliath genie warlock was having an emotional breakdown at this point. But through the help of the other PCs, and an old Kua-toa that was formerly a slave himself, they were able to snap her out of it. She was even able to help save one of the downed PCs from a pride of starving panthers.
With her confidence boosted, the party continued on word. They managed to find a temple dedicated to lolth, and were able to still some supplies. Tia was being chased by a mimic, that was in the temple with a smile on her face. It was actually the first time since leaving that slave outpost she felt such joy. After killing the mimic, we fended off the 4 drows that worked for the aforementioned outpost, and dispatched them with ease.
And finally the silk road. We took an NPCs advise and asked one of his contacts for a favor in order to safely cross. Everyone as able to make it by safely, until it was my character's turn. She failed 2 of her dex saves, and was hit by the in coming spiders. She would've fallen unconscious, if I hadn't remembered stones endurance, giving her one hp left. And that's how our session ended
So, I'm still processing what happened, but here's basically what went down:
Well, it's been over two weeks since my last session, and I haven't written a recap, so I should probably get on that. When we last left off, the crew of the Drunken Revenge found a map to the location of the Earth Artifact and the cleric, Lori, got kidnapped.
The Players:
Giovanni Durrade: A young, cocky tiefling rogue/bloodhunter. Believed to have been murdered by his sister 10 years ago. Captain of the Drunken Revenge
Lori Afki: A tiefling tempest cleric. Actually Meredith Beaumont, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Absent for much of the session due to being kidnapped by former naval captain Joseph W. Terrence, the man she was arranged to marry.
Baruuq: An aasimar monk of the four elements. Compelled by his angel to travel the world in search of his destiny. Received a letter from E.S., but was unable to attend the meeting as his ship was delayed.
Mariz: (absent for this session) An Air Genasi hexlock whom Gio met at the open air market in Port Montgomery. Did not receive a letter from E.S.
Isane: A halfling bard who was sent to prison for swindling a noble, but who has since escaped, making a living with his bagpipes.
Karc: An aaracockra arcane trickster and the only known survivor of an attack on his pirate ship. Left the party to search for his crew, but has returned.
Amari Watson: A half-elven storm sorcerer and privateer, as well as Lori's childhood best friend and the sister of prominent naval admiral Lucas Watson. This was the character Lori's player used for much of the session.
Me: The Dungeon Master. Extremely apologetic to my players that my sixth session ended up so depressing. I swear, the next arc will be fluffier. Hopefully. Let's resume.
We open aboard the Drunken Revenge, where Giovanni is ordering the crew to move as quickly as possible. Amari approaches him, saying that she knows that Giovanni and Lori are… involved, and that she does not approve. They have a lengthy argument, culminating when Amari tells Gio he’s a bad captain, and Giovanni pulls a “Well, fine, why don’t YOU captain the ship?” and Amari is like “Okay.”
Later, Amari finds Lori’s notebook, and reads a letter she wrote to the crew in case she was taken by Joseph. Among other things, the note tells Giovanni that Lori is aware of his feelings for her, and that she may indeed have feelings for him. This results in another argument between Giovanni and Amari, although much briefer this time.
The next morning, a small fire starts on the ship, and though the party initially struggles to fix it, they are ultimately able to continue moving along as normal.
On day six, the ship encounters a giant octopus. Karc, having been granted the power to communicate with aquatic animals (long story) talks to the octopus. Karc asks if the octopus has seen the New Victory, to which the octopus says he has not, but he knows someone who has. That someone turns out to be the mermaid who served as Giovanni’s adoptive mother for a while (long story), and she shows them several things she has collected that fell overboard the ship, including a set of broken manacles and Lori’s holy symbol (which Joseph had thrown overboard).
At some point, Amari gets drunk and she and Giovanni have another argument. After this one, the ship’s cook, Morgan, had a conversation with Amari, asking her what she had against Giovanni, to which she explains that basically has just dealt with enough ******** that she tends not to trust people.
Okay, this session consisted mostly of random encounters, so we’re going to do this montage style.
Day 10: The ship encounters a whirlpool, but is able to deal with that pretty quickly.
Day 13: The ship is trapped in a magical evocation storm, and takes quite a bit of damage.
Day 17: The Drunken Revenge encounters a pirate ship, and is barely able to outmaneuver it.
Day 19: The ship encounters three hungry giant sharks, but Karc is able to convince them that the ship is transporting a cargo of poison and so they leave the ship alone.
Day 24: The Drunken Revenge has a run in with an ancient ghost ship, which seems sinister on the horizon… but then turns out to be a bunch of friendly gnomes. The ghosts give them some advice, and Isane plays a song that cheers the ghosts up, and the ships part ways.
Day 28: The ship encounters four blood hawks, and the crew kills all of them.
Finally, the moment of truth. The wedding off the coast of Wellbyrn. When the ship pulls into the harbor, they see a middle aged human man, looking stressed. Lori’s father, Francois Beaumont. He tells them what happened. He had no idea what a terrible person Joseph was. He financed his expedition to find Lori, but he thought she was just lost. Before the wedding, he spoke with Lori, and found out the truth. Horrified, he promised to help Lori escape, but at that moment, Joseph came in, and attempted to kill Francois. Francois was able to escape, and that’s where we pick up.
The crew of the Drunken Revenge make it to the temple just as Lori and Joseph are about to be married. Thanks to a high persuasion roll from Isane and a low deception roll from Joseph, the crew is able to turn the crowd against Joseph, and then Joseph begins shooting at Giovanni. A massive fight breaks out. There are 16 enemies involved in the fight, but the crew is able to take most of them. Lori’s magic is being blocked by a collar, so she leaves the temple early on, but is able to break through the collar and returns ready to fight. Eventually, Giovanni pulls a mastiff patch off of his Robe of Useful Items and uses them to knock Joseph prone and almost kills him with his flametongue rapier. Finally, Karc casts Sleep, knocking Joseph and the last three bandits unconscious. Joseph is arrested and Lori is rescued.
A month later, Joseph’s trial ends with a conviction and a life sentence. Lori buys a magical night light to help her sleep at night and Giovanni gives away the two mastiffs, one to Lori to comfort her, and one to Amari as a peace offering. Lori’s father does not approve of Giovanni, but after what happened with Joseph he is more than willing to respect Lori’s wishes. The crew of the Drunken Revenge sets out to go on to find the Earth Artifact. And that’s where the session ended.
Side Note: If this recap seems shorter than usual, there’s a reason. Most of this session was a combination of random encounters, character interactions, and cutscenes of Lori aboard the New Victory, which I chose not to include.
I have a group of 5 Level 5 PCs, Arcane Archer, Storm Sorceress, Arcane Trickster, Drunken Master, and a Circle of the Moon Druid. They are in a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign just before the Isle of the Abby adventure.
I had been seeding the idea of the Night Hag Granny Nightshade since the first adventure. Every time someone mentions her name or just “The Hag” they spit over their shoulder to ward off evil. The PCs even had forewarning as one of the PCs cast Augury and got Woe as the outcome.
Players pulled a job from the job board for 500GP to deliver a package no questions asked and an extra 700GP when it is done. They talked to the guy - who looked like he was 80 – and found out he was paid to deliver the chest and now he is too weak to do it. Rest of the party was killed by an Owlbears and he can no longer move the chest. He cannot tell them anything about what happened, but once it is delivered he would be rewarded. They asked for more money and they guy admitted he did not have enough yet, but would have it after the chest was delivered.
They agreed to deliver it and the chest weighed well over 50 pounds. It was a simple boat ride up the river into the Dreadwood. They encountered some of the hag’s lair effects but continued on through it. They arrived in an area the river widened to a pond with an Eight foot tall Dryad waiting for them. They passed over the chest and asked if the guy who hired him would be cured. The Dryad said the agreement has been fulfilled and the curse was lifted, but not from them as the agreement was only for the original man. The Monk and Druid had been carrying it (strongest PCs) and were affected by an exhaustion curse. An agreement was made to get the only fruit from a specific tree and return it to the Dryad. She used Major Image to cast an illusion of the tree’s location and a map of where it is. She sent them off with a “Now hurry.”
The exhaustion curse caused anything that was recoverable with a long rest to not be recoverable – such as the druid’s spell casting. That was what caused them to rush at it. Otherwise they were going to hang around and investigate some things. They got to the place easily by using the Acquisitions Inc. Cartographer’s power Tale of Safe Travel. Once there they found orcs and bandits arguing back and forth about only speaking in orcish as the orcs could not speak common. The players did not speak orcish and tried to talk to them, but the orcs just yelled and swung their arms around. PCs noticed there were 3 children covered in tar and ash in an iron cage. That caused them to attack first. Fight went pretty quickly and they released the kids. The kids started screaming and ran. They managed to catch one because of the monk's speed and the rouge's bonus action. The other 2 ran into the woods.
Cursed PCs now have 2 levels of exhaustion.
They decided to take the kid back to town and used Tale of Safe Travel to get there safe and fast. They went into the town council and found Captian Xendros talking with Eda Oweland about a sending she just got about the kids being kidnapped. All eyes turn to the PCs with the magically sleeping kid. The kids were possessed by something and the Priestess of Iuz was hired to cure them after everything else failed - Demons know possession, right? The father is a very powerful merchant lord from the capital - friend of the King of course!
Cursed PCs now have 3 levels of exhaustion. (They keep moving around too much.)
Turns out the guy who hired them leapt out of bed the instant the PCs delivered it and high-tailed it out of town. They tried to follow him, but lost track. They went back to deliver the fruit.
The Dryad was there again. Next to her were the two other children that had escaped. The PCs did not want to deliver the fruit as they had agreed to in a verbal contract with a Fey. They also wanted the kids back. They initially refused on the fruit delivery. At that point they broke contract and I had decided the Dryad could cast spells on them with the save always failing. She cast Hold Person on and froze them. The PCs still did not hand it over, so I broke out her 17level spell casting and cast Time Stop and she suddenly had it. She waved her hands and the curse was dispelled and the PCs were no longer exhausted. At that point some of the PCs understood that they were outclassed and started playing nicer.
The Dryad initially asked for 13 scales (dragonborn) and 13 hairs in exchange for the kids. The PCs did not want to do this at all, and they eventually agreed to give a knife for the kids. The children were released to them without the possessing entity still inside. When the Dryad released the children she removed the hive entity from all 3 and kept it. Not at all pleased with how this went, they got back in the boat and the Arcane Archer saw a hag with the monk’s dagger smiling and backing into the trees.
The merchant lord was very pleased to get the kids back and no longer possessed. The PCs may have to pay weregild to Captian Xendros for the hirelings that were killed causing the PCs to lose money on an adventure. Sadly I figured this was about how it would go, and may have set things up to cause it. I am sure nothing bad will come from the dagger being given away.
Our last session was frustrating. We were investigating some caravans being raided, so we created a fake caravan as bait. We ended up spending a lot of time travelling between two towns, and only had one actual combat. The rest was just talking to people, which while it /can/ be fun, talking to rando merchants trying to find out what's going on with these raiders (nobody knew anything)...wasnt.
When we finally did get a combat, the enemies were mounted archers, when they started to get injured, they just rode away. We managed to drop one and capture him by killing his horse, but all in all it was a frustrating and not rewarding session.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
We played another session tonight, and this one was much better. Another caravan was attacked by archers, this time they were foot archers and they had to stand and fight. They lost pretty horribly, and we took one prisoner. I got to use the new inspiration ability from glamour bard 3 this time, and it was all that I'd thought it would be. I'd totally consider playing a single-class glamour bard (this one is a warlock main MC). The prisoner was a treasure trove of information, and we picked up a lot of intel as to what's going on. We were also able to track one who attempted to flee, and found their main camp. We scouted it out, and saw an old nemesis which had kicked our butts a few levels back working with the rebels who were raiding the dwarven caravans. We also saw some elves, which we are assuming to be dark elves (the dark elves in this world are similar to Krynn's dark elves...they are normal elves, just of an evil persuasion) stirring up trouble.
The king was quite pleased when we made our report, and we were richly rewarded with an estate.
Of course, it's something of a border land, near the dark elf pirates which seem to be stirring up hate and discontent and the king wants it fortified and garrisoned. I'm not sure what exactly he thinks he's paying us, but I can assure you that he's not paying enough. That said, we're pretty stoked about getting our own lands. We don't know much about them yet, and I am certain there's going to be more of a catch.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
(Spoilers for Curse of Strahd)
My party wrapped up our playthrough of Curse of Strahd. The session started with the party trying to bargain with Strahd in his dining room (most fun I've ever had roleplaying in all my DMing). It ended with a two hour long duel with Strahd through Ravenloft Castle, we had our Cleric drop to exactly 1 HP twice, and everyone was close to death when they ended up stabbing him through the chest with the Sunblade.
After finishing off the Dark Lord, the party decided to stay in Barovia with all of their friends:
- The Cleric took over as Abbot, healing the sick and watching over Krezk.
- The Sorcerer became Burgomaster of Vallaki, replacing the corrupt Lady Watcher.
- The Warlock settled down in the Town of Barovia, starting a small cafe.
- And a statue of the (dead) Monk was built in Krezk to honor his death in Argynvostholt.
It was the most memorable session I've ever played, and I cannot be happier with how it turned out.
The lesson here is: Get Curse of Strahd.
"Players beware, the DM is here!" - Probably Some 80's Cartoon
We finally made it to a drow city, after a week, the tavern owners ratted us out to the guards after finding out we were escaped slaves. We had to hurry and finish a quest for a orc girl, too clear out some fungal zombies.
But in my infinite wisdom, wanting to bring proof we did the job, had my female goliath warlock decapitate one of the fungal zombies, and DIDN'T pick up the head with mage hand. And now she is inflicted with Zuggtmoy's curse, and if not treated her head will explode (we had an NPC In the third session who died to the same curse.).
The session ended with my character in the arms of our adorable myconid NPC, Swoomy, running north into the mushroom forest. Rest of the PCs and ally NPCs right behind us, in a made dash to save my character's life.
Last session our party was trying to free slaves from a sahuagin base. We heard what sounded like hammers on stone and sahuagin yelling commands opposite a door when we were ambushed from behind. One of our party members readied an action to cast a fire bolt if anyone came through the door due to the commotion. Unfortunately a slave came through the door first and was promptly engulfed in flames by the spell resulting in their death. Needless to say the remaining slaves did not trust us to save them lol
"I like my belly and intend to keep it, thank you. I may even add some more to it!"
-Rumblebelly