The session I ran last night was the most fun I've had as a DM yet. It wasn't supposed to be a major plot episode, but I finally made the players scared. Early in the game before I'd got the hang of balancing combats, I hit them with some monsters that were a bit too big for them and one-shotted some PCs. But since then I've had a hard time challenging them with right-sized monsters. I finally did it right with some wave attacks that didn't allow them to short rest. A few PCs went down, but no deaths. Still, I had them so convinced of the direness of their situation that even the player who's usually, "Never give up; never surrender," suggested that surrender might be their best option.
DMing my nephews. I think I may have been the first person to expose them to the "OH NO! THE PERSON WE THOUGHT WE RESCUED FROM THE VAMPIRES HAS BEEN VAMPIRED ALREADY!" bit, which makes me super happy.
I play every week on Tuesday and Wednesday, two separate campaigns. Tuesday is a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign pretty much straight out of the book. This week was a pretty cool session overall, we're currently at level 5 and spent most of it trying to escape from a goblin fortress after killing & taking the leader's head, but we were ambushed by a number of hobgoblins & casters and barely made it out alive.
Wednesday's (last night's) session however was the really fun one. It's a group of 6 of us playing in a 100% homebrewed campaign that our long-time DM created. It's largely based on the magic of the Red Wizards of Thay and takes place mostly around the transport of goods from Kara-Tur along the Golden Way road from the East to Telflamm on the Sea of Fallen Stars to be shipped off to Faerun. It's a great change of pace from your basic "pick a spot on the Sword Coast" style of Forgotten Realms games.
Anyway, we started out a couple days outside of Telflamm and had been tracking a group of cultists who were kidnapping young women from surrounding villages and sacrificing them in fire to some unknown deity/fiend/daemon. Thanks to our Ranger's tracking skills we followed them to this huge (apparently) abandoned farm/plantation house and after doing some investigation realized it wasn't quite as "abandoned" as they wanted us to think. We split up and had some of us breach the side door of the mansion while others jumped in two separate windows. Inside we found half a dozen Panthers, half a dozen Flying Snakes, and about 15 Cultists of Mephistopheles & Guards of Zariel :O All-out carnage ensued as I (Barb/Fighter) raged and started swinging my battleaxes around, our Bard got off a Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the head Cultist, the Ranger & Fighter picked off the beasts two at a time, and the Warlock jumped through a window with the guns-a-blazing. We had to end the session before we fully cleared the house because someone's computer died, so currently I am in the very back of the house completely surrounded by 8 Cultists & 2 guards and the rest of my team is making their way up the stairs. I still have my Stone's Endurance and Second Wind so even though I'm gonna be on my own for the next 1-2 rounds of combat I think I'll be alright. Overall it was a freaking blast and I'm looking forward to next week because from the get-go it's gonna be pure raging adrenaline-fueled action :D
So after the DM had to rescue the party by introducing the barbarian from our previous campaign (I wasn't there but I heard about it) we get taken to the palace where we met the Syl-Pasha (kind of like the King of Calimshan) and a few other higher ups. The paladin...didn't exactly get along with the Syl-Pasha when he commented on our decision to not fight a hydra, which earned him a 'what the heck dude' later on from his superior.
That night, I revealed my backstory to the party. Honestly, there was a lot more abuse in there than I remember writing, but most of the party were sympathetic. The ranger, who is a gnoll, instead commented that they eat the young if they consider them weak...or the elderly...or really just anyone who doesn't get away fast enough.
After I told my story, I asked questions of the other party members (except for the fighter, who wasn't there. I'll ask him later) and I was all sweaty and shaking afterwards.
Once all that was done, we headed down to port to take a boat to our next destination, the cheerfully titled 'City of Sorrows.' We spot a white rabbit in a waistcoat holding a pocket watch. He looks at me and says, 'it's time.' Then, the ground falls out from below us and we, well, fall.
Once we land on a pile of refuse, we find ourselves in a room with two regular sized doors and a tiny golden door. In the centre of the room is a table with a key, a flagon and some bread. An illusory head appears and says, 'let's see how you like this!'
Want to know who the head belonged to?
Urdlin.
Bloody Urdlin.
A few levels ago, we managed to foil an honestly dumb plan that this god of the gnomes set in motion. He swore his revenge, but honestly we thought we had more time. The sorcerer drank from the flagon and shrank to about six inches. That's where we stopped for the night.
You are completely and utterly ****ed. A gnome god dropping you in an alice and wonderland scenario. Oh boy thats gonna be fun for him to watch
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This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic byVitaly S Alexius
My last session was quite short, they continued their jaunt into the mephit cave, and found several magic items which they haven't quite worked out the link between yet being stored in a sealed chamber (they couldn't work out the riddle, so they forced a Magmin to do it for them, then killed it!). They now have a tap of endless water (as in, ripped-from-a-kitchen-sink tap), a wet sponge (which they will find never becomes dry), some pebbles in a bag (which do cold damage), and a ring of fireball (or firebolt, if I decide to make it less powerful) which has some interesting quirks.
The session ended with the 3 attending members almost dead, as they all relied on close combat and every enemy they fought exploded when it died! The monk also relied on fire damage, which everything was immune to!
Next session should be interesting, with a bit of a change of scenery as we head to another island!
My party spent 55 minutes (not exaggerating) debating which of the following methods would help them stop a camp of goblins from attacking merchant caravans:
Organise a 'Labour for Goods' exchange where the strongest goblins are persuaded to be taken to the nearest village to perform manual labour in exchange for food for them and their families
Organise a grand feast to help the starving goblins, secretly adding mummy flesh to the main dish in the hope that it would cause all the goblins to rot from the inside out.
Choice quotes from this exchange include:
"Goblins are too short to be considered people!"
"What if we made a separate meal for the children?" - "What, and just leave them to fend for themselves in the wilderness!?!" - "It worked out for the kids in Lord of the Flies" - "No it didn't!!!"
"What if we just adopted them all?" - "We're not a zoo!"
In the end I made a bunch of enemies attack the goblins and the party fought them off, so the goblins became so grateful they vowed not to attack anymore. All because by this point I was so sick of this discussion!
Artificer: "Hey Cleric, I'm a little bit demonic, right? Like if I was an actual demon, holy water would hurt me, right? But I'm just a little bit demonic, so holy water should be kinda spicy, yes?"
Cleric: "Only one way to find out."
Cleric blesses a bottle of vinegar
Artificer sprinkles holy vinegar on focaccia and takes a bite
DM: "Roll a percentile."
66
DM: "Okay, roll a CON save."
21
DM: "You step out into the street, mug of coffee still in hand, and as you go to greet somebody you let out a burp so deep and loud that it reverberates around the houses. As the burp subsides, white smoke pours out of your mouth, but you are unharmed."
The party set out to a maximum-security prison in the frozen north, so that they could fulfill bargain made with an elderly wizard to interrogate a prisoner there.
Along the way, however, they accidentally struck a mindflayer wandering in the cold with their dog sled...the same mindflayer they had set free two sessions ago (long story).
The mindflayer revealed the location of a derelict Nautiloid vessel not too far from where the party was going. The mindflayer then died...and was brought back as a spectral servant by our Hexblade Warlock.
At the derelict Nautiloid, the party encountered two gnome ceremorphs...gnomes that had partially undergone the process to become miniature mindflayers, but had retained their personalities & free will.
(doing their voices was fun)
The gnomes asked the party where they might find shelter so they might gather resources to repair their ship & leave, and our charitable Sorcerer told them the location of Ten-Towns.
In exchange, the gnome ceremorphs gave the party some energy rifles, which our Warlock gladly added to his arsenal.
The party reached the maximum-security prison, where they were granted an audience with a wizard prisoner, who informed them of vital intelligence related to their would-be adversaries / allies.
While at the prison, they also encountered several other dangerous prisoners...who may or may not be involved in a subsequent campaign I plan to run.
Well my mic was buggy as heck, but I managed to give my backstory to most of the party (the fighter couldn't be there, but he's doing family stuff with his family which is totally reasonable). As a result of my story, the sorcerer realized that maybe his parents aren't as bad as he thought. I mean, they're probably jerks, but they're not AS bad as my character's dad.
Cleric went into a room with 12 gnoll on his own, attacked them immediately despite the fact they were non-hostile, got downed 3 rounds later, starts complaining gnolls are op and the module's (Icewind Dale) unfair.
First time running ToD. Started with HotDQ. worked on making the beginning much more conducive to 5 random PCs being drawn together to the little burg of Greenest. I had read somewhere where someone started with a festival/carnival, so I had the group who was arriving there on the first day appear when the honey festival started. Decided Greenest was known for its honey. Anyway, my table of 5 PCs are 4 dragonborn and 1 fairy. The fairy is a bard, and so was there as part of the entertainment. As the DM, I constructed several carni games, one of which was a local entrepreneur trying to drum up business for his crossbow making company. The bard was the first to hit the bullseye, and after a short amount of time, the others wondered by one-by-one due to the growing crowd. 3 of the dragonborn participated alongside the bard who had worked a "marketing" deal with the owner of the startup biz, and he also spoke with the dragonborns to go along with a silly woven tale that he woo'd the crowd with of a little guy battling dragons. THey all rolled above a 20, the DC I set for a bullseye, and it was a lot of fun. After meeting with a prospective employer who was looking for talent, the group has parted ways for the evening...and if you know anything about HotDQ, you know that the first evening can be very intense.
It's bee na good week for me, 2 session and in one of them we actually one-shotted a one-shot!
First session is Batmoria the inquisitive rogue tiefling and Miguel the sword bard human (and Tulio, his mouse sidekick which may-or-may-not be a polymorphed faerie dragon).
Context: We had been summoned to the town of Baskerville by mysterious "AVH", seeking help with a string of deaths and a lot of superstition. We met AVH on the docks - Abraham Van Helsing, as it happens - and he explained how there was a legend of a vicious hound which people now say has returned and is killing people. We found a hellhound, which was mutated and full of weird blue liquid, and a wasp in the same state, and successfully killed both. Van Helsing and his assistant Henry told us it was some form of potion, and we went to investigate the abandoned mansion where the Lord lived (but had gone missing). We found signs of a struggle and notes about a "Site A", and "Project X". Both the hellhound and the wasp had "X-###" serial numbers branded on them. So now we go to seek site A.
We journeyed into the woods and we found it as night was falling, as a bunker built into a hill. We entered, and descended the stairs, and found many rooms with experimental gear in them. At the end of the corridor, we found a large room with broken restraints, and a cage containing the Lord, who was freezing but alive. Then we heard something in the corridor. A great black creature with red lamp-like eyes stalked in and started to look around, and we hid as best we could, and it started eatign the bodies i nthe room (note -this is a horror campaign and we are embracing it by hiding & running when it seems sensible!). We tried to distract it but Bath made a noise, and it turned on her. So began the fight.
Miguel missed with his first shot as Bath ran like hell for the stairs, with it hot in pursuit. Miguel ran to the bottom of the stairs as it disappeared after her, and shouted some abuse at the creature for vicious mockery, making it turn around. Bath then jumped on its back and stabbed it, clinging on. So the creature, which by now we had worked out was based on the Cryptid Mothman, scurryed out of the door and took flight.
Luckily Miguel had Feather fall, so when Bath fell off (Mothman did a barrel roll), he could save her. Then he misty-stepped on tMothman whilst Bath climbed a tree, and between us (Bath leapt from the tree onto Mothman) we managed to bring it to the ground, where the Lord, who had revealed he was a werewolf, helped us to kill it.
The session ended with the Lord explaining that the legend of the hound was his family, who are all lycanthropes, and they now control the curse, which is why there had been no sightings of the hound for years. We returned Mothman's head to Van Helsing, and he said Henry was unwell. Then the Dean of the university said he was missing. We went to his room and found that his walking stick was still there but he was gone (Henry suffered with a condition that necessitated a stick). We put 2 and 2 together then, as we had found notes referring to a human test subject for project X. It's worth mentioning at this point that Henry's full name is Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Second session was a one-shot of festivities. Very fun, we had to save a village of halflings from the Grampus. When the DM described a village full of happy little people celebrating Vinterfest, and a brooding house on the hill where there were no festivities, I immediately assumed it would be the Grinch, but I was mistaken!
We found the Grampus & his cultists in his house, and saw him enter a room - so we embraced the christmas vibes and went full home-alone on him, setting up ball bearings and bear traps outside the cultists rooms, and rigging a trap for the beast involving a chandelier and a snare, and the term "Grampus Pinata".
So we sprung the trap - the Grampus walked out, the chandelier dropped, the rope snapped taught around his leg - and nothing happened. The Grampus, who was large, weighed a lot more than the chandelier. Thoruk jumped onto the chandelier to try and help, but it didn't work, and the Grampus cut the rope, sending Thoruk smashing down. The cultists ran out and two died immediately with bear-traps on their heads, and what looked to be an epically fatal fight started, 4 cultists and the grampus (based on a chain devil) vs 3 level 3 characters!
Then the Ranger cast lighting arrow and got a natural 20 on the attack on a cultis, doubling the damage to 8d8 + 4d8 splash damage, splattering 2 of the cultists. Then her panther ripped apart the third, and the fourth ran forward, rolled a nat 1, then the DM decided to see if he was scared, which he was, and tried ot run away again, causing an opportunity attack for the panther and killing him too! Thoruk then started slogging it out with Grampus, and managed a critical hit with his greatsword, causing 5d6 damage, which was awesome! Then the rogue shot him, and became scared as he was haunted with every bad thing he had ever done under the Grampus' stare.
A few rounds of slogging later, the Grampus was blinded and the ranger shot him one last time, causing him to return to where he came from and saving the town!
It was very fun, and there was an excellent sequence where Thoruk thought he would get a wish for releasing a fairy (he killed a sentient wooden doll and a blue light flew out), and then we had to fight a living tree, and Thoruk declared aftewards that his wish to fight a tree had come true. Thoruk ahs also been convinced, by the Rogue who used an invisible mage hand, that doors will open for you if you smile at them - except back doors, which you have to frown at. It was very, very good fun!
During a lull in the Drow Civil War, the group of cousins who make up the inner circle of House Køk attend to some family business. They learn that Thermir, a cousin by adoption, was expelled from his original house (House Butter) after being wrongfully accused of murdering a youngling.
A recent mission however, brought the mutant telepath Calura inside House Butter, where he perceived a stray image, a memory of a girl's hand wearing an orange ring which concealed a hidden poison needle. The figure to whom the hand belonged was revealed in the memory to be the youngling's actual murderer! Calura shared this vision with Thermir, and Thermir recognized the ring immediately as that of his twin sister Glamamir! There were a few other clues that could have been investigated, but instead the cousins just decided to stage an all-out assault on the Butter compound. While their main force mostly just argued with the guards at the gates, Thermir and Calura infiltrated through secret passages, confronted Glamamir and challenged her to the kroykl, a vicious form of ritual combat.
The first round began, as the kroykl does, with a karaoke dance party. When the results of this proved inconclusive, Thermir entered the arena with his sister's champion, the sadistic bully Dangoo. Several super macho preparatory rituals were observed. and finally the two began to circle the pit, facing one another warily. Dangoo was bigger and stronger than Thermir, but had held largely ceremonial roles for some time now and was a cavalry officer by training, not specifically drilled in blindfighting. Above the combat pit a lirpa (which is like that Shaolin spade thing from Star Trek) hung, suspended from a spider web, out of reach of the combatants. At the edge of the pit was placed a chair. This marked the beginning of the dance-within-a-dance known to the drow as Ahn-Woon, the Ritual of Politeness and Murder.
It is the specific and firm command of Lolth that no cheating be allowed during the kroykl. The Priestesses enforce this law with astonishing speed and cruelty. But Lolth shows us laws so that we may learn how to break them, as the Scriptures say. And so - along with this very simple rule - a sort of unwritten body of tradition has sprung up. It is understood that someone is going to try and throw the chair into the ring to either be used as a weapon by their friend or for their friend to stand on in order to acquire the lirpa. During the Ahn-woon, an equal number of supporters for each fighter, plus a number of priestesses equal to each of the other two sides, must mill around the combat pit looking nonchalant, while attempting to murder one another clandestinely. If a Priestess is able to detect an assassination attempt, she then insta-kills the fighter that she caught. In theory, if one side ends up with a net advantage of 2 or more, they will then be able to distract the Priestesses and hold off their rivals long enough for a member to throw the chair into the arena. Statistically, far far more people die in the Ahn-Woon than in the kroykl pit.
While Thermir fought warily in the pit, the rest of House Køk cleaned up behind the shapeshifting powers of Calura and an amazing sacrifice play from Captain Gelless who burned through a death ward in order to give himself superior field position for chair throwing. Once armed with the lirpa, Thermir dispatched his rival with callous precision and assumed control of the house from his sulking twin.
Can a male actually govern a drow house? Does Thermir intend to remain loyal to his benefactors in House Køk. Could this affect the course of the war? We may find out next time!
In the last session we got to hither and had the encounter with Agdon and his brigands on the little dock/bridge area. We lost kinda hard and got kidnapped. :')
The book didn't really tell him what to do if the players got captured. This session Barvlona gave us a deal that she'd let us go if we did 3 chores for her n such. As Agdon was taking us to the room where our stuff was being held, I got the idea in my head "What if I hit on the rabbit? That'd be funny haha, cuz I'm terrible at flirting." I leaned into it, and I managed to get far in my goal once I grabbed his scarf and he was like "What do you guys want?!?" and my character said "An in-depth interview. Just you and me. ;)" whilst lightly touching his whiskers.
My char is a satyr knowledge cleric, her goal is to interview every feywild resident and add them to her book. So she was asking him questions on the way to and from to the room and to the preservation pool, calling him cute in his scarf as well. We fought the ooze in the pool my char said "Hey...that was a real good hit from you there on the ooze" to Agdon, who joined the fight, our idiot paladin (that's his character concept lol) went up afterwards to box-block me being all "YEAH MAN, YER A DOPE FIGHTER BRUV!" and it was great.
Agdon helped us get the package we needed to complete the second chore for Barvlona. He left after we got to the building where it was being held, since he didn't want to get in trouble with the hag. On the way to here, our party got distracted by the encounter with the bullywug knight lady who got captured and sentenced to trial by combat.2 of the party volunteered to fight her n such, and whilst the fight was happening I was sharing my snacks with Agdon and putting my hand on his knee.
Barvlona (I'm too lazy to look up how to properly spell her name rn) teleported us back to her house to get her package, we went up to her preservation pool and she also specifically wanted to someone else in the party, our wizard, about something. Whilst she was giving us her deal earlier she said "Well, are you ready to hear my proposal?" and the swizard had responded "Not if it's one of marriage" and she was all "Oh so you want to get married?? I'll get you a bride!" to the wizard's dismay. Guess who Barvlona brought out after we gave her the package? The Bullywug lady from earlier. The wizard was the 2nd one to fight her before she told king gallop to bring us all into the fight cuz she smacked our paladin silly and the wizard kept missing on purpose. The wizard then managed to roll high enough to be the first of the group to hit her besides the paladin (got konked before this happened). Bullywug then faked being knocked out after that 4 damage quarterstaff hit. This was the bride Barvlona decided she will show to the wizard. The wizard kept being all "no" and barvlona was all "I don't care, you're going on a date >:(". She then said she'd let us rest in her house and asked if we wanted any accommodations. Barvlona had noticed that my char was into Agdon and my char decided to ask to stay with Agdon for her accommodations. She called Agdon up to the room and told him "You've gotten a request to, ahem, bring someone home with you" and Agdon was all "Wait, you want me to house them too?" and the party immediately tried to box-block me again by saying "yeah I wanna stay with you" lol. Barvlona then said "No, no, just take her to your hideout. Give her a room. Alright, now everyone leave." and so we left. We ended the session there. After the game, the DM asked me what I wanted to do at Agdon's hideout.
"Oh, I wanna stay in his room."
"Oh you just want to straight up seduce him?"
"YES."
"Advantage persuasion check please."
"18."
The night went great and we leveled up to 3 after that. Don't know what the rest of the party did to level up, but I know what I did. :)
They say you can't win DnD, but this was a definite win.
My last session was session 1 of a 1-shot (it's probably 5-6 hours but we only get 3). The one-shot is one I wrote myself and it seems to be going down well!
The 5 adventurers (a bard, a barbarian, a paladin/artificer, a fighter and a druid) have arrived in the town of Steepfield to participate in (or in the Bard's case, watch) the cheese chasing festival. But they found themselves needing to fight when the cheese suddenly leapt into life and started attacking the town!
They successfully fought off the cheesewheels which were attacking the people and then made their way towards the tower above Steepfield, which is developing the characteristic swirling-cloud-vortex of powerful magic. In the town, they had to fight a pack of Camem-Bears which were stalking them, and thus far nobody has been too badly injured (the barbarian with over 50 health managed to tank the majority of it!). They also managed to capture some of the cheese wheels using the druids posionous bite when he transformed into a giant spider!
The game's going very well so far, and the players seem to be thoroughly enjoying it. Lots of cheesy puns being thrown around, and they ain't seen nothing yet!
The session I ran last night was the most fun I've had as a DM yet. It wasn't supposed to be a major plot episode, but I finally made the players scared. Early in the game before I'd got the hang of balancing combats, I hit them with some monsters that were a bit too big for them and one-shotted some PCs. But since then I've had a hard time challenging them with right-sized monsters. I finally did it right with some wave attacks that didn't allow them to short rest. A few PCs went down, but no deaths. Still, I had them so convinced of the direness of their situation that even the player who's usually, "Never give up; never surrender," suggested that surrender might be their best option.
My level 10 party when facing a room with one Hobgoblin and 2 Goblins inside:
Fighter: Oh shit, there's people there!
Ranger: Hobgoblin's have 18ac, these guys are tough
Rogue: I'll just snipe them
Ranger: Wait! I've got a brilliant idea, I've got a bag of tricks, I'll pull out a small animal and we can use it to scout
Fighter: Brilliant!
Ranger: -Pulls out a Giant Elk, a Dire Wolf and a Giant Badger-
Rogue: For F***s sake...
Warlock: We could try talking with them, or intimidating them to stand down
Rogue: We're not here for compassion, we need to kill them
-30 minutes of debating morality and various plans later-
Ranger: So I cast Disguise Self, make myself look like a hobgoblin and then I stab them
DM (Me): You can only use disguise self to make yourself look like a creature with the same basic arrangement of limbs
Ranger: Yeah, I have 2 arms and legs
DM: You're an Aarakocra, you have 2 wings coming out of your back
Ranger: Those don't count!
DM: They extend from your torso and are used for mobility, they are limbs. DM ruling.
Ranger: So what, I can become... other Aarakocra?
DM: Aasimar, Winged Tiefling, I'd probably let you disguise yourself as a Cambion or an Angel.
Ranger: Ooo, I should become an Angel!
Rogue: Why!!! Why don't we just shoot them!
Warlock: Cambion's and Angel's aren't humanoids though...
-20 minutes of arguing later-
Rogue: Arghh, I just shoot them. 21 to hit, 19 to hit, 26 to hit. For 16, 8 and 7 damage on each of them.
DM: Yep, you killed them all.
Ranger: Oh... well that wasn't that fun
DMing my nephews. I think I may have been the first person to expose them to the "OH NO! THE PERSON WE THOUGHT WE RESCUED FROM THE VAMPIRES HAS BEEN VAMPIRED ALREADY!" bit, which makes me super happy.
I play every week on Tuesday and Wednesday, two separate campaigns. Tuesday is a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign pretty much straight out of the book. This week was a pretty cool session overall, we're currently at level 5 and spent most of it trying to escape from a goblin fortress after killing & taking the leader's head, but we were ambushed by a number of hobgoblins & casters and barely made it out alive.
Wednesday's (last night's) session however was the really fun one. It's a group of 6 of us playing in a 100% homebrewed campaign that our long-time DM created. It's largely based on the magic of the Red Wizards of Thay and takes place mostly around the transport of goods from Kara-Tur along the Golden Way road from the East to Telflamm on the Sea of Fallen Stars to be shipped off to Faerun. It's a great change of pace from your basic "pick a spot on the Sword Coast" style of Forgotten Realms games.
Anyway, we started out a couple days outside of Telflamm and had been tracking a group of cultists who were kidnapping young women from surrounding villages and sacrificing them in fire to some unknown deity/fiend/daemon. Thanks to our Ranger's tracking skills we followed them to this huge (apparently) abandoned farm/plantation house and after doing some investigation realized it wasn't quite as "abandoned" as they wanted us to think. We split up and had some of us breach the side door of the mansion while others jumped in two separate windows. Inside we found half a dozen Panthers, half a dozen Flying Snakes, and about 15 Cultists of Mephistopheles & Guards of Zariel :O All-out carnage ensued as I (Barb/Fighter) raged and started swinging my battleaxes around, our Bard got off a Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the head Cultist, the Ranger & Fighter picked off the beasts two at a time, and the Warlock jumped through a window with the guns-a-blazing. We had to end the session before we fully cleared the house because someone's computer died, so currently I am in the very back of the house completely surrounded by 8 Cultists & 2 guards and the rest of my team is making their way up the stairs. I still have my Stone's Endurance and Second Wind so even though I'm gonna be on my own for the next 1-2 rounds of combat I think I'll be alright. Overall it was a freaking blast and I'm looking forward to next week because from the get-go it's gonna be pure raging adrenaline-fueled action :D
DM'ing Icewind Dale, my party are 3 level 3's.
DM: On the side of the road is a large frozen statue with a plaque on the bottom.
Rogue: I'd like to read the plaque
-The Plaque basically says 'Don't annoy the Frostmaiden'-
Cleric: Alright then, let's go
Rogue: I want to remove the plaque and smash it
Cleric: Don't do that!
Warlock: We can deal with any of her goons that show up
-Rogue removes plaque-
Auril: You still dare to provoke my wrath -Teleports in-
Cleric: You f*cking arseholes, now we're dead!
-Cleric is downed by an unlucky crit from an AoO, fails his first saving throw-
Warlock: We're going to die!!!
DM: (Hah, that'll teach them to go around mocking gods, I'll have some some help arrive to distract Auril so they can heal the cleric and run...)
Cleric: I rolled a one, I'm dead.
DM: ****.
-2 minutes later-
DM: Oh look, the goliath who saved you just happens to have a scroll of revivify...
Hoo boy, had a big un'.
So after the DM had to rescue the party by introducing the barbarian from our previous campaign (I wasn't there but I heard about it) we get taken to the palace where we met the Syl-Pasha (kind of like the King of Calimshan) and a few other higher ups. The paladin...didn't exactly get along with the Syl-Pasha when he commented on our decision to not fight a hydra, which earned him a 'what the heck dude' later on from his superior.
That night, I revealed my backstory to the party. Honestly, there was a lot more abuse in there than I remember writing, but most of the party were sympathetic. The ranger, who is a gnoll, instead commented that they eat the young if they consider them weak...or the elderly...or really just anyone who doesn't get away fast enough.
After I told my story, I asked questions of the other party members (except for the fighter, who wasn't there. I'll ask him later) and I was all sweaty and shaking afterwards.
Once all that was done, we headed down to port to take a boat to our next destination, the cheerfully titled 'City of Sorrows.' We spot a white rabbit in a waistcoat holding a pocket watch. He looks at me and says, 'it's time.' Then, the ground falls out from below us and we, well, fall.
Once we land on a pile of refuse, we find ourselves in a room with two regular sized doors and a tiny golden door. In the centre of the room is a table with a key, a flagon and some bread. An illusory head appears and says, 'let's see how you like this!'
Want to know who the head belonged to?
Urdlin.
Bloody Urdlin.
A few levels ago, we managed to foil an honestly dumb plan that this god of the gnomes set in motion. He swore his revenge, but honestly we thought we had more time. The sorcerer drank from the flagon and shrank to about six inches. That's where we stopped for the night.
You are completely and utterly ****ed. A gnome god dropping you in an alice and wonderland scenario. Oh boy thats gonna be fun for him to watch
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic by Vitaly S Alexius
Without going into much detail…
The party chased down a superweapon.
Certain NPC’s we’re placed in mortal peril…but were saved by the party.
Our Warlock both pissed-off (and sort of impressed) Asmodeus.
Llirra, Goddess of Joy, provided a bomb that helped cripple said superweapon.
Casualties were high; but the party managed to save the Ten-Towns from utter destruction.
They’re in the endgame now.
My last session was quite short, they continued their jaunt into the mephit cave, and found several magic items which they haven't quite worked out the link between yet being stored in a sealed chamber (they couldn't work out the riddle, so they forced a Magmin to do it for them, then killed it!). They now have a tap of endless water (as in, ripped-from-a-kitchen-sink tap), a wet sponge (which they will find never becomes dry), some pebbles in a bag (which do cold damage), and a ring of fireball (or firebolt, if I decide to make it less powerful) which has some interesting quirks.
The session ended with the 3 attending members almost dead, as they all relied on close combat and every enemy they fought exploded when it died! The monk also relied on fire damage, which everything was immune to!
Next session should be interesting, with a bit of a change of scenery as we head to another island!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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My party spent 55 minutes (not exaggerating) debating which of the following methods would help them stop a camp of goblins from attacking merchant caravans:
Choice quotes from this exchange include:
In the end I made a bunch of enemies attack the goblins and the party fought them off, so the goblins became so grateful they vowed not to attack anymore. All because by this point I was so sick of this discussion!
fun
Nugz - Kobold Level 4 Bloodhunter/Order of the Mutant - Out there looking for snacks and evil monsters.
Ultrix Schwarzdorn - Human Level 6 Artificer/Armorer - Retired and works in his new shop.
Quercus Espenkiel - Gnome Level 9 Wizard/Order of Scribes - Turned into a book and sits on a shelf.
Artin - Fairy Level 4 Sorcerer/Wild Magic - Busy with annoying the townsfolk. Again.
Jabor - Fire Genasi - Level 4 Wizard/School of Evocation - The First Flame, The Last Chaos. Probably in jail, again.
My Tiefling Artificer drank holy hot sauce.
Scene: my Artificer has run out of hot sauce.
Artificer: "Last of the hot sauce."
Artificer looks at Cleric
Artificer: "Hey Cleric, I'm a little bit demonic, right? Like if I was an actual demon, holy water would hurt me, right? But I'm just a little bit demonic, so holy water should be kinda spicy, yes?"
Cleric: "Only one way to find out."
Cleric blesses a bottle of vinegar
Artificer sprinkles holy vinegar on focaccia and takes a bite
DM: "Roll a percentile."
66
DM: "Okay, roll a CON save."
21
DM: "You step out into the street, mug of coffee still in hand, and as you go to greet somebody you let out a burp so deep and loud that it reverberates around the houses. As the burp subsides, white smoke pours out of your mouth, but you are unharmed."
Wizard: "You alright there Artificer?"
Artificer: "WHOO! THAT WAS SPICY!!!"
The party set out to a maximum-security prison in the frozen north, so that they could fulfill bargain made with an elderly wizard to interrogate a prisoner there.
Along the way, however, they accidentally struck a mindflayer wandering in the cold with their dog sled...the same mindflayer they had set free two sessions ago (long story).
The mindflayer revealed the location of a derelict Nautiloid vessel not too far from where the party was going. The mindflayer then died...and was brought back as a spectral servant by our Hexblade Warlock.
At the derelict Nautiloid, the party encountered two gnome ceremorphs...gnomes that had partially undergone the process to become miniature mindflayers, but had retained their personalities & free will.
(doing their voices was fun)
The gnomes asked the party where they might find shelter so they might gather resources to repair their ship & leave, and our charitable Sorcerer told them the location of Ten-Towns.
In exchange, the gnome ceremorphs gave the party some energy rifles, which our Warlock gladly added to his arsenal.
The party reached the maximum-security prison, where they were granted an audience with a wizard prisoner, who informed them of vital intelligence related to their would-be adversaries / allies.
While at the prison, they also encountered several other dangerous prisoners...who may or may not be involved in a subsequent campaign I plan to run.
Yay for sequels.
Well my mic was buggy as heck, but I managed to give my backstory to most of the party (the fighter couldn't be there, but he's doing family stuff with his family which is totally reasonable). As a result of my story, the sorcerer realized that maybe his parents aren't as bad as he thought. I mean, they're probably jerks, but they're not AS bad as my character's dad.
Cleric went into a room with 12 gnoll on his own, attacked them immediately despite the fact they were non-hostile, got downed 3 rounds later, starts complaining gnolls are op and the module's (Icewind Dale) unfair.
First time running ToD. Started with HotDQ. worked on making the beginning much more conducive to 5 random PCs being drawn together to the little burg of Greenest. I had read somewhere where someone started with a festival/carnival, so I had the group who was arriving there on the first day appear when the honey festival started. Decided Greenest was known for its honey. Anyway, my table of 5 PCs are 4 dragonborn and 1 fairy. The fairy is a bard, and so was there as part of the entertainment. As the DM, I constructed several carni games, one of which was a local entrepreneur trying to drum up business for his crossbow making company. The bard was the first to hit the bullseye, and after a short amount of time, the others wondered by one-by-one due to the growing crowd. 3 of the dragonborn participated alongside the bard who had worked a "marketing" deal with the owner of the startup biz, and he also spoke with the dragonborns to go along with a silly woven tale that he woo'd the crowd with of a little guy battling dragons. THey all rolled above a 20, the DC I set for a bullseye, and it was a lot of fun. After meeting with a prospective employer who was looking for talent, the group has parted ways for the evening...and if you know anything about HotDQ, you know that the first evening can be very intense.
It's bee na good week for me, 2 session and in one of them we actually one-shotted a one-shot!
First session is Batmoria the inquisitive rogue tiefling and Miguel the sword bard human (and Tulio, his mouse sidekick which may-or-may-not be a polymorphed faerie dragon).
Context: We had been summoned to the town of Baskerville by mysterious "AVH", seeking help with a string of deaths and a lot of superstition. We met AVH on the docks - Abraham Van Helsing, as it happens - and he explained how there was a legend of a vicious hound which people now say has returned and is killing people. We found a hellhound, which was mutated and full of weird blue liquid, and a wasp in the same state, and successfully killed both. Van Helsing and his assistant Henry told us it was some form of potion, and we went to investigate the abandoned mansion where the Lord lived (but had gone missing). We found signs of a struggle and notes about a "Site A", and "Project X". Both the hellhound and the wasp had "X-###" serial numbers branded on them. So now we go to seek site A.
We journeyed into the woods and we found it as night was falling, as a bunker built into a hill. We entered, and descended the stairs, and found many rooms with experimental gear in them. At the end of the corridor, we found a large room with broken restraints, and a cage containing the Lord, who was freezing but alive. Then we heard something in the corridor. A great black creature with red lamp-like eyes stalked in and started to look around, and we hid as best we could, and it started eatign the bodies i nthe room (note -this is a horror campaign and we are embracing it by hiding & running when it seems sensible!). We tried to distract it but Bath made a noise, and it turned on her. So began the fight.
Miguel missed with his first shot as Bath ran like hell for the stairs, with it hot in pursuit. Miguel ran to the bottom of the stairs as it disappeared after her, and shouted some abuse at the creature for vicious mockery, making it turn around. Bath then jumped on its back and stabbed it, clinging on. So the creature, which by now we had worked out was based on the Cryptid Mothman, scurryed out of the door and took flight.
Luckily Miguel had Feather fall, so when Bath fell off (Mothman did a barrel roll), he could save her. Then he misty-stepped on tMothman whilst Bath climbed a tree, and between us (Bath leapt from the tree onto Mothman) we managed to bring it to the ground, where the Lord, who had revealed he was a werewolf, helped us to kill it.
The session ended with the Lord explaining that the legend of the hound was his family, who are all lycanthropes, and they now control the curse, which is why there had been no sightings of the hound for years. We returned Mothman's head to Van Helsing, and he said Henry was unwell. Then the Dean of the university said he was missing. We went to his room and found that his walking stick was still there but he was gone (Henry suffered with a condition that necessitated a stick). We put 2 and 2 together then, as we had found notes referring to a human test subject for project X. It's worth mentioning at this point that Henry's full name is Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Second session was a one-shot of festivities. Very fun, we had to save a village of halflings from the Grampus. When the DM described a village full of happy little people celebrating Vinterfest, and a brooding house on the hill where there were no festivities, I immediately assumed it would be the Grinch, but I was mistaken!
We found the Grampus & his cultists in his house, and saw him enter a room - so we embraced the christmas vibes and went full home-alone on him, setting up ball bearings and bear traps outside the cultists rooms, and rigging a trap for the beast involving a chandelier and a snare, and the term "Grampus Pinata".
So we sprung the trap - the Grampus walked out, the chandelier dropped, the rope snapped taught around his leg - and nothing happened. The Grampus, who was large, weighed a lot more than the chandelier. Thoruk jumped onto the chandelier to try and help, but it didn't work, and the Grampus cut the rope, sending Thoruk smashing down. The cultists ran out and two died immediately with bear-traps on their heads, and what looked to be an epically fatal fight started, 4 cultists and the grampus (based on a chain devil) vs 3 level 3 characters!
Then the Ranger cast lighting arrow and got a natural 20 on the attack on a cultis, doubling the damage to 8d8 + 4d8 splash damage, splattering 2 of the cultists. Then her panther ripped apart the third, and the fourth ran forward, rolled a nat 1, then the DM decided to see if he was scared, which he was, and tried ot run away again, causing an opportunity attack for the panther and killing him too! Thoruk then started slogging it out with Grampus, and managed a critical hit with his greatsword, causing 5d6 damage, which was awesome! Then the rogue shot him, and became scared as he was haunted with every bad thing he had ever done under the Grampus' stare.
A few rounds of slogging later, the Grampus was blinded and the ranger shot him one last time, causing him to return to where he came from and saving the town!
It was very fun, and there was an excellent sequence where Thoruk thought he would get a wish for releasing a fairy (he killed a sentient wooden doll and a blue light flew out), and then we had to fight a living tree, and Thoruk declared aftewards that his wish to fight a tree had come true. Thoruk ahs also been convinced, by the Rogue who used an invisible mage hand, that doors will open for you if you smile at them - except back doors, which you have to frown at. It was very, very good fun!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
During a lull in the Drow Civil War, the group of cousins who make up the inner circle of House Køk attend to some family business. They learn that Thermir, a cousin by adoption, was expelled from his original house (House Butter) after being wrongfully accused of murdering a youngling.
A recent mission however, brought the mutant telepath Calura inside House Butter, where he perceived a stray image, a memory of a girl's hand wearing an orange ring which concealed a hidden poison needle. The figure to whom the hand belonged was revealed in the memory to be the youngling's actual murderer! Calura shared this vision with Thermir, and Thermir recognized the ring immediately as that of his twin sister Glamamir! There were a few other clues that could have been investigated, but instead the cousins just decided to stage an all-out assault on the Butter compound. While their main force mostly just argued with the guards at the gates, Thermir and Calura infiltrated through secret passages, confronted Glamamir and challenged her to the kroykl, a vicious form of ritual combat.
The first round began, as the kroykl does, with a karaoke dance party. When the results of this proved inconclusive, Thermir entered the arena with his sister's champion, the sadistic bully Dangoo. Several super macho preparatory rituals were observed. and finally the two began to circle the pit, facing one another warily. Dangoo was bigger and stronger than Thermir, but had held largely ceremonial roles for some time now and was a cavalry officer by training, not specifically drilled in blindfighting. Above the combat pit a lirpa (which is like that Shaolin spade thing from Star Trek) hung, suspended from a spider web, out of reach of the combatants. At the edge of the pit was placed a chair. This marked the beginning of the dance-within-a-dance known to the drow as Ahn-Woon, the Ritual of Politeness and Murder.
It is the specific and firm command of Lolth that no cheating be allowed during the kroykl. The Priestesses enforce this law with astonishing speed and cruelty. But Lolth shows us laws so that we may learn how to break them, as the Scriptures say. And so - along with this very simple rule - a sort of unwritten body of tradition has sprung up. It is understood that someone is going to try and throw the chair into the ring to either be used as a weapon by their friend or for their friend to stand on in order to acquire the lirpa. During the Ahn-woon, an equal number of supporters for each fighter, plus a number of priestesses equal to each of the other two sides, must mill around the combat pit looking nonchalant, while attempting to murder one another clandestinely. If a Priestess is able to detect an assassination attempt, she then insta-kills the fighter that she caught. In theory, if one side ends up with a net advantage of 2 or more, they will then be able to distract the Priestesses and hold off their rivals long enough for a member to throw the chair into the arena. Statistically, far far more people die in the Ahn-Woon than in the kroykl pit.
While Thermir fought warily in the pit, the rest of House Køk cleaned up behind the shapeshifting powers of Calura and an amazing sacrifice play from Captain Gelless who burned through a death ward in order to give himself superior field position for chair throwing. Once armed with the lirpa, Thermir dispatched his rival with callous precision and assumed control of the house from his sulking twin.
Can a male actually govern a drow house? Does Thermir intend to remain loyal to his benefactors in House Køk. Could this affect the course of the war? We may find out next time!
potential spoilers for Witchlight:
In the last session we got to hither and had the encounter with Agdon and his brigands on the little dock/bridge area. We lost kinda hard and got kidnapped. :')
The book didn't really tell him what to do if the players got captured. This session Barvlona gave us a deal that she'd let us go if we did 3 chores for her n such. As Agdon was taking us to the room where our stuff was being held, I got the idea in my head "What if I hit on the rabbit? That'd be funny haha, cuz I'm terrible at flirting." I leaned into it, and I managed to get far in my goal once I grabbed his scarf and he was like "What do you guys want?!?" and my character said "An in-depth interview. Just you and me. ;)" whilst lightly touching his whiskers.
My char is a satyr knowledge cleric, her goal is to interview every feywild resident and add them to her book. So she was asking him questions on the way to and from to the room and to the preservation pool, calling him cute in his scarf as well. We fought the ooze in the pool my char said "Hey...that was a real good hit from you there on the ooze" to Agdon, who joined the fight, our idiot paladin (that's his character concept lol) went up afterwards to box-block me being all "YEAH MAN, YER A DOPE FIGHTER BRUV!" and it was great.
Agdon helped us get the package we needed to complete the second chore for Barvlona. He left after we got to the building where it was being held, since he didn't want to get in trouble with the hag. On the way to here, our party got distracted by the encounter with the bullywug knight lady who got captured and sentenced to trial by combat.2 of the party volunteered to fight her n such, and whilst the fight was happening I was sharing my snacks with Agdon and putting my hand on his knee.
Barvlona (I'm too lazy to look up how to properly spell her name rn) teleported us back to her house to get her package, we went up to her preservation pool and she also specifically wanted to someone else in the party, our wizard, about something. Whilst she was giving us her deal earlier she said "Well, are you ready to hear my proposal?" and the swizard had responded "Not if it's one of marriage" and she was all "Oh so you want to get married?? I'll get you a bride!" to the wizard's dismay. Guess who Barvlona brought out after we gave her the package? The Bullywug lady from earlier. The wizard was the 2nd one to fight her before she told king gallop to bring us all into the fight cuz she smacked our paladin silly and the wizard kept missing on purpose. The wizard then managed to roll high enough to be the first of the group to hit her besides the paladin (got konked before this happened). Bullywug then faked being knocked out after that 4 damage quarterstaff hit. This was the bride Barvlona decided she will show to the wizard. The wizard kept being all "no" and barvlona was all "I don't care, you're going on a date >:(". She then said she'd let us rest in her house and asked if we wanted any accommodations. Barvlona had noticed that my char was into Agdon and my char decided to ask to stay with Agdon for her accommodations. She called Agdon up to the room and told him "You've gotten a request to, ahem, bring someone home with you" and Agdon was all "Wait, you want me to house them too?" and the party immediately tried to box-block me again by saying "yeah I wanna stay with you" lol. Barvlona then said "No, no, just take her to your hideout. Give her a room. Alright, now everyone leave." and so we left. We ended the session there. After the game, the DM asked me what I wanted to do at Agdon's hideout.
"Oh, I wanna stay in his room."
"Oh you just want to straight up seduce him?"
"YES."
"Advantage persuasion check please."
"18."
The night went great and we leveled up to 3 after that. Don't know what the rest of the party did to level up, but I know what I did. :)
They say you can't win DnD, but this was a definite win.
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
My last session was session 1 of a 1-shot (it's probably 5-6 hours but we only get 3). The one-shot is one I wrote myself and it seems to be going down well!
The 5 adventurers (a bard, a barbarian, a paladin/artificer, a fighter and a druid) have arrived in the town of Steepfield to participate in (or in the Bard's case, watch) the cheese chasing festival. But they found themselves needing to fight when the cheese suddenly leapt into life and started attacking the town!
They successfully fought off the cheesewheels which were attacking the people and then made their way towards the tower above Steepfield, which is developing the characteristic swirling-cloud-vortex of powerful magic. In the town, they had to fight a pack of Camem-Bears which were stalking them, and thus far nobody has been too badly injured (the barbarian with over 50 health managed to tank the majority of it!). They also managed to capture some of the cheese wheels using the druids posionous bite when he transformed into a giant spider!
The game's going very well so far, and the players seem to be thoroughly enjoying it. Lots of cheesy puns being thrown around, and they ain't seen nothing yet!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!