Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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*snarkilly* “If he had been a Bard, he wouldn’t be “the guy that tried to seduce your mom,” he’d be your new stepdad.”
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OOC: Bueller....? Bueller...?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Press on or rest among these skulls?"
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
"Move along. I'm still in decent shape."
“Well, should I try to use a little magic to open the door without touching it, or does somebody stronger or better at picking locks want to try some of your “muggle magic” on it?”
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"Let's save the fancy gestures and dusts for when we need them," Tommary says as he pulls out his tools and goes to work at lock:
Thieves Tools 15.
After which I'll pull free my skull door jams and open the door.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Elyona stands ready with her battleaxe, still a little flustered both from her sword's comments about her (?) parentage and Toot's flattery.
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OOC: Yes, it was. Now we're at a locked door in a a hallway full of bones and people are talking about Elyona's mother.
While Tommary is working on the door Toots would like to quickly check in on Mece, Star, and Pipkin, and then ready herself so that when he opens the door, if she sees anything scary in there she can cast Hypnotic Pattern to catch as many scary things as possible. Would you like me to check off the spell slot now?
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OOC:
What was happening when* you last popped in:
There were originally two Wights, but Toots had cast a spell called Hypnotic Pattern and one of the Wights was all dazzled for a few rounds which gave us time to focus on them one at a time. So she scarpered back down the cliff to GTFO.
The other Wight jumped down and started attacking us, but the party was able to work together and combine a couple of different abilities which made it easier for Oethe, our Cleric to invoke the power oh his god(des?) and drive the foul creature into the scalding hot mud where it sank below the surface, never to be seen again.
Whith that one down, we were able to focus on the other one as well. Folks started scrambling up the cliff to reach it. Tommary, Elyona, and Taslyn were the first three up, and among them they were able to make short work of it with steel and main strength. It wasn’t long before that one had also died it’s second death.
*(When you last popped in we were already halfway done with the second Wight.)
What has happened since then:
Taslyn decided it would be prudent to return to our hometown, the city of Cliffside, with news of our preliminary findings. (His player chose to leave the campaign.) So now our party is down to six.
With the moment of danger past, we could all take our time and climb up carefully with Elyona at the top to pull us up the last of the way. Toots complimented her for her kindness, and after having felt Elyona’s muscly muscles complimented her for her strength as well. Toots’ attention was drawn to Elyona’s face by a smear of mud and also made a comment about Elyona’s beauty. (Elyona has both Strength and Charisma at 18.)
Open Spoiler for backstory information about these two characters for context on that brief exchange-
Elyona and Toots are both female Halflings. As part of Elyona’s backstory she was picked on as a girl. All of the other Halfling children Elyona grew up around were typical Halflings, which is to say they were fairly nimble since Halflings get +2 Dexterity. (That’s why most players do Dex builds with their Halflings.) But ArwensDaughter didn’t do that with Elyona, she made a Paladin and went for a Strength build and is relying on heavier armor for AC instead so she made Dex her “dump stat” and put the lowest number she had (8) in Dex so with her Racial bonus it’s only up to 10. (That’s referred to as “playing against type” since it’s not the obvious choice.) Having a 10 Dex is a Wray for a human, but kinda low compared to most other Halflings. So to the other Halfling children she seemed clumsy and they picked on her for it a lot. That’s why Elyona is fine around most folks, but gets a little uncomfortable around other Halflings. She also longs for a connection with her own kind, but fears the outcome if she tries.
She probably has some degree of PTSD after almost 2 decades of verbal, mental, emotional, and likely even physical abuse because kids are ******** to each other. Heck, human children don’t develop consciences until they are 6 so we are all essentially sociopaths for the first half decade of our lives, casual cruelty is not unexpected. Then we hit adolescence and our brain chemistry goes haywire for a bit so we spend another half decade as essentially bipolar. (Fortunately most people regulate in late adolescence.) Halflings age just a skoche slower than humans, so maybe they get an extra year or two during both the sociopathy and bipolar stages. That probably increases the likelihood of that PTSD diagnosis a bit too.
Toots on the other hand didn’t grow up with Elyona. Toots was an orphan and grew up homeless. The children she grew up with didn’t pick on each other for being clumsy, they mugged each other for food, beat each other senseless over the “good doorways” to sleep under, and joined street gangs for protection. And when adolescence came, they used the small and the weak in other ways too.... Toots learned to hide pain with humor, loneliness with nonchalance, fear with wrath, and uncertainty with an air of confidence. She learned music as a way to make sure that no matter how many times all of the bigger stronger street rats stole her food she would have a way to earn a few copper for more. And when she learned that her music had power, the other street rats learned to find someone else to abuse. She only had to make examples out of a couple of them before they caught on....
Toots joined the Waywatchers for a sense of belonging. This is the first “family” she has ever really known. (Except the gang, but they were just using her too.) This is the first time in her life that she feels like she is part of something. This is the first time in her life she looks around her and sees love instead of avarice, hatred, or worse. She will do whatever it takes to not loose it. This is also the first time in her life she feels safe enough that she doesn’t have to wear a mask all of the time. Only, she’s worn one mask or another for so long that she isn’t really sure how to show who she really is.
Toots assuredly suffers from some degree of PTSD, as well as abandonment issues.
Happy, well adjusted people do not choose the life of armed, itinerant mercenaries for hire. (Let’s be honest here, that’s what an “adventurer” is.)
Where we are now:
Having all ascended the cliff face safely, we moved a little way down the corridor and ended up in a sort of anti chamber area. Ahead of us is a locked door, and the ground at our feet is littered with the skulls of various humanoid creatures. Elyona also happens to have a magic sword that warns her of danger. So does Tommary. Except, while Tommary’s sword is like the vibrate of a cellphone, Elyona’s sword insults her mercilessly* to warn her of danger. In this case the sword said that whatever is on the other side of that door “smells like the guy that tried to seduce your mom.” Tommary sniffed the door and made a joke that whoever that guy was rather smelled like a Gnoll or “Bard patchouli.” To which Toots snarked “If he had been a Bard, he wouldn’t be “the guy that tried to seduce your mom,” he’d be your new stepdad.”
*(Odd that she would choose a sword that ridicules her like the children of her youth? Not really. After living with enough abuse for long enough, a person doesn’t know how to feel right without it. 😔)
We had a brief conversation about how to proceed and so Tommary is picking the lock on the door to get us in, Elyona is standing at the ready, battleaxe in hand, and Toots is trying to be prepared to dazzle whatever is in there with the same spell she used on the Wights if she can.
So now you’re all caught up, and I even threw in some color comment and character analysis for you too. Hopefully that all helped put Halfastbracegirdle’s comment about us discussing Elyona’s mom into context for you too.
Personal note:
I Promise it’ll get easier to follow along the more familiar you get with the game and the characters. And to be honest, these play-by-posts are not the easiest to follow sometimes because of the nature of forum posting, so you’re learning the hard way. But don’t worry, we’ll keep explaining things whenever you ask or whenever something that hasn’t been explained before comes up.
One thing that might help is if you get into a routine with it. In the morning while your in the bathroom or eating breakfast or something pop in just to catch up, and then maybe again in the afternoon or evening too. You don’t have to post every time unless you want to (or it’s close to your turn), but being able to absorb and digest what’s going on in smaller chunks makes it easier to process, at least it does for me anyway. If I get busy and don’t check for a bit then when ai do and three pages have gone by even I have to put in extra effort to catch myself up and I am not new. But as a personal promise from me to you, I will always do what I can to help you with this if you’re really interested. And being somewhat familiar with most of the others in this campaign I’d bet they will too.
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OOC: I went with having Elyona's sword be a family heirloom, passed from mother to daughter. Generations of living and fighting alongside the Tasselfoot women have given the once mildly enchanted sword a matronly personality and preternatural ability to predict danger.
Tommary won his sword in a duel. It is happy to be in the hands of a superior swordsman.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Tommary is completely unsuccessful at picking the lock.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Because I am fairly certain I did not mention any lock.
The door is difficult to open but with a couple party members pulling on the ring (total of 30 STR points), you get it open.
In front of the party is an opening to a room of unknown shape and size. Maybe it's another hallway? You can't tell because at the door is a wall of darkness.
You get a whiff of an earthy, spicy, comfortable odor with a hint of tar.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
He rolled a 20, you couldn’ta posthumously slapped a DC nothin lock on that sucker for him to let ‘im have that one? Harsh bud dude. 😜 (I kinda saw that coming though as I’ve seen it happen before.)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
But I cleared my improvised skull door jam, and maybe pulled some metal fragments shed by my sabre during the Wight fight, right?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
OOC: Your scimitar doesn't shed pieces of itself. It's not Frostfang.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"In the ancient reels, there was one called Highlander. In the reel, evidence of duels was determined by a forensic sage via tiny slivers of blade stuck around the scene of the duel. Since witnessing this ancient reel, my underground dueling league has adopted the practice of leaving no trace of blade wherever we fight."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Can Toots make some kind of check to figure out what that small is? And do you want me to burn the spell slot for the spell she had readied?
”Well now... that is not what I expected at all. Any of you all have any way to get rid of that?”
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
"We could probe it with some arrows or some skulls.... We could wait and see if goes away.... I don't suppose anyone has the magic to ask it to go away... I could do my 'can't see me' stunt and gently touch and go to see how far this goes, if it's not too far I might be able to send messages back your way with that head trick we got, I'll need to make a few litecoin to use as probs before I go in, and I'd be a bit since I'm not going to just charge in. Slow is smooth smooth is fast and all that. Speaking of light coins, anyone bring change with them into combat. My illumination is costing me gold when I don't recover it."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.