I've started running a game recently and noticed that my players wouldn't search everything dispute me all but pointing it out to them. It's never anything important to the quest just some hidden loot or magic items so I usually shrug it off.
But my last game I made a gamble and threw in a ring of 3 wishes for them to find. Obviously they didn't look so I had the child npc tag-along find it. He didn't know what it was so he just thought it was a nice ring.
Throughout the game the party has been teaching him various things including how to speak another language so when they noticed him pick up the ring they told him to say something in abyssal and they'd let him keep it.
His first unknowing wish was to speak abyssal and can now speak it near perfectly. They didn't catch the hint and now I've got a very young kid locked and loaded with two wish spells.
I clearly remember as a child wishing that I had a hundred pet gorillas...
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Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) WoodElf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2 Last Tree StandingTabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1 Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
I've started running a game recently and noticed that my players wouldn't search everything dispute me all but pointing it out to them. It's never anything important to the quest just some hidden loot or magic items so I usually shrug it off.
But my last game I made a gamble and threw in a ring of 3 wishes for them to find. Obviously they didn't look so I had the child npc tag-along find it. He didn't know what it was so he just thought it was a nice ring.
Throughout the game the party has been teaching him various things including how to speak another language so when they noticed him pick up the ring they told him to say something in abyssal and they'd let him keep it.
His first unknowing wish was to speak abyssal and can now speak it near perfectly. They didn't catch the hint and now I've got a very young kid locked and loaded with two wish spells.
Is the child an orphan? Have him wish his parents are back, just have them come back kinda not alive! If the kid isn't an orphan have something scary happen and let him wish his mom was there to give him a cuddle, just dont make whatever she was in the middle of super akward lol
I guess I should've added this but this is the first time I've really posted on forums.
The game is a post apocalypse zombie dnd game (because I love zombies and haven't found a DND game using that) and the kid in question is actually a very young goblin they picked up who tried to steal food from their camp late in the night.
He actually started out as a joke but now the table has fallen in love with him and would kill their characters to protect him. Since they're taking really good care of him if they get into a bind I have a way to explain dm intervention
My character has the Gladiator background, so naturally seeks out the fighting pit in every town we come across. Last night he finally got to compete in a match against the minotaur champion of the town we're staying in.
It was epic: the Minotaur thought he had me beat when he scored a crit on his attack - my life saved by Armor of Agathys taking a decent portion of the damage and damaging him back, followed by a Hellish Rebuke that knocked his HP down almost as much as he did to me. My next turn? Nat 20 on my attack. Run him through with my blade. Cue my character sauntering around the arena like The Rock, then turning to the downed champ to ask: "Who's champion now, b*tch?"
Of course, then we got into a bar fight celebrating the win and my character was knocked-out almost immediately with a bottle to the back of the head...
We found a mimic hiding amongst a flock of sheep. We couldn't target the mimic specifically since it blended in too well so my barbarian used breath weapon and set fire to most of the sheep and the mimic. This started combat but also gave the party some delicious mutton afterwards lol
My level 7 party went beholder hunting and stumbled upon a lair of a mage that (though they don’t know this yet) studies the planes and how they connect and all that stuff. They fought two skeletal Druidic based casters toward the entrance which were basically his guards.
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Bardic Inspiration is just someone believing in you, and I believe in you
My level 7 party went beholder hunting and stumbled upon a lair of a mage that (though they don’t know this yet) studies the planes and how they connect and all that stuff. They fought two skeletal Druidic based casters toward the entrance which were basically his guards.
Our party (14th level) were in Hell, and we had recently defeated a fairly badass demon, and all his slimy lair minions. We were in Hell to defeat a couple of Cambions who had taken several of our party's blood samples so that they could compel us to give them a spellbook (that we didn't actually have.) We made several deals throughout this trip to Hell - including with Glasya, ruler of Malbolge. She wanted us to defeat the demon in order to have the "opportunity" to enter a deathmatch with the Cambions. We needed to defeat the devils in Hell, so of course we dove into this deal with no delay.
One long-lost member of our party returned just in time for this fight, so our DM added a "fallen" angel to oppose us. We were 6 strong against the 2 Devils and their +1. I can't recall all the details, but I know we banished the Angel 3 rounds in a row, and our wizard conjured up a Bronze Dragon to act as a bit of a tank. My Hexblade dove right in and started attacking the devil caster, figuring she was the bigger threat. I took a couple hits, but that doesn't slow me down much. Our Sorlock got hit hard, and failed 2 death saves before our Paladin fixed him up. There was much smiting - of the Eldritch and Divine flavors. My Hexblade has a Ring of Smiting for an extra one, and her pact blade renews a spell slot when she kills with it. So, I think I got in 4 Eldritch Smites - 2 in one round that allowed my PC to behead the first Devil, flicking the severed head at her brother, to see if I could shake him a bit. So, next round, I go after him, and with another 2 Eldritch Smites, I was able to bisect him top to bottom.
So, I got in 2 killing blows. Pretty good battle. The angel, after returning a 3rd time, decided to concede defeat, since he was really only there to kill those 2 devils anyway... his "arrangement" with Glasya must have been a little more complicated.
All of this happened remotely for me - I was on a business trip half way around the world. When I opened up that AD&D Red Box on Christmas day, way back in 1983, I don't think that my 13 year old self would have been able to imagine my 49 year old self to be playing D&D online, from a hotel in Hong Kong...
Our party (14th level) were in Hell, and we had recently defeated a fairly badass demon, and all his slimy lair minions. We were in Hell to defeat a couple of Cambions who had taken several of our party's blood samples so that they could compel us to give them a spellbook (that we didn't actually have.) We made several deals throughout this trip to Hell - including with Glasya, ruler of Malbolge. She wanted us to defeat the demon in order to have the "opportunity" to enter a deathmatch with the Cambions. We needed to defeat the devils in Hell, so of course we dove into this deal with no delay.
One long-lost member of our party returned just in time for this fight, so our DM added a "fallen" angel to oppose us. We were 6 strong against the 2 Devils and their +1. I can't recall all the details, but I know we banished the Angel 3 rounds in a row, and our wizard conjured up a Bronze Dragon to act as a bit of a tank. My Hexblade dove right in and started attacking the devil caster, figuring she was the bigger threat. I took a couple hits, but that doesn't slow me down much. Our Sorlock got hit hard, and failed 2 death saves before our Paladin fixed him up. There was much smiting - of the Eldritch and Divine flavors. My Hexblade has a Ring of Smiting for an extra one, and her pact blade renews a spell slot when she kills with it. So, I think I got in 4 Eldritch Smites - 2 in one round that allowed my PC to behead the first Devil, flicking the severed head at her brother, to see if I could shake him a bit. So, next round, I go after him, and with another 2 Eldritch Smites, I was able to bisect him top to bottom.
So, I got in 2 killing blows. Pretty good battle. The angel, after returning a 3rd time, decided to concede defeat, since he was really only there to kill those 2 devils anyway... his "arrangement" with Glasya must have been a little more complicated.
All of this happened remotely for me - I was on a business trip half way around the world. When I opened up that AD&D Red Box on Christmas day, way back in 1983, I don't think that my 13 year old self would have been able to imagine my 49 year old self to be playing D&D online, from a hotel in Hong Kong...
So, after beating up Amrik Vanthampur and tying him up, they decided that there was no point in keeping him alive, so Lorag ordered one of his skeletons to grab his unconscious body and chain him underneath the water in the dock. A few bubbles floated to the surface, but then they stopped, and the skeleton climbed back up.
They then went back to the library Lorag works at to take a long rest before heading off to Vanthampur Villa.
On the way to the Villa, they encounter 4 imps disguised as ravens that immediately attack them. The imps severely injure Miraak'Bal and nearly destroy a Birch, the weakest skeleton.
They then break into the stable house of Vanthampur Villa, by Lorag Misty Stepping through the window, and then opening the window. They then searched around, and found a hidden trapdoor on the ground. They opened it up, and found a small hallway that lead to a dead end. They searched the dead end, and found a secret door, and the rogue, Miraak'Bal opened it with his thieves' tools. They burst inside, and found an altar of Zariel that appeared to be an angel statue with glowing white eyes. In the center of the room there were 4 cultists wearing golden tragedy masks, and a barbed devil stood near the altar.
The party ran into the room, Miraak'Bal flew to the opposite side of the room and started shooting arrows at the barbed devil. Irsu charged in with the abyssal chicken on his shoulder slashing down his enemies with his magic greatsword. Lorag teleported into the room, blasting enemies with Chromatic orb, and sucking out their life with Toll of the Dead, then crushing their ribs with his silver skull flail. Kallo then ran into the room with her rapier, piercing both her enemy's bodies and mind using her Bardic Inspiration.
In a few short rounds, all the creatures in the room were dead, but they ended the fight badly injured. They then searched around the room. They discovered that the angel's eyes were glowing from a magical mace that was inside. They took the mace, and then found a secret door to the south. Inside the small room was an obsidian altar with a golden flame shaped like an angel dancing on top of the altar. Kneeling in front of the altar praising Zariel was Duchess Thalamra Vanthampur.
Long story short, the duchess made a pact with Zariel, and was working to drag Baldur's Gate into Avernus. They then fought, Miraak'Bal shot her with an arrow from his longbow, then Lorag's weak skeleton, Birch, walked in dual wielding shortswords, and hit her with his first attack. She then called upon the power of Zariel to cast Hellish Rebuke at 2nd level on Birch. Fire rained down from the ceiling above Birch's skull, completely covering him in hellfire. He was disintegrated into a smoking fine gray powder.
Lorag screamed at the sight of his skeleton's destruction. Birch, and Milch were now both dead, only Krenks remained (I know, they're all weird names for undead creatures). Lorag, infuriated and mourning, then unleashed a deadly Chromatic Orb of fire, blasting Thalamra in the abdomen, and severely wounded her. She then cast hellish rebuke on Lorag, blasting him with fire from the heavens. Duchess Vanthampur then eldritch blasted Miraak'Bal and Lorag, hurting both of them.
Irsu and Kalo then ran in, flanking the duchess, and knocked her to about 25 hit points. She then hellishly rebuked Irsu, and eldritch blasted Miraak'Bal and Lorag once again, getting a natural 20 on Lorag, knocking him and the rogue down to 0 hit points. She then ran out of the room into the sewers, taking 2 o. The last skeleton, Krenks, then charged forward and shot an arrow with his shortbow into her shoulder, dropping her to 1 hit point. Irsu then charged forward, and cut her head and most of her torso in half with one foul swoop.
The party then went to the treasury room. I won't reveal what happened there here because of spoilers, but gained a great magic item, and learned of a plot to turn the tides in the Blood War.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Xanster the Chainlock and Three-Axe Johnson have to break a baby dragon out of the Priory of Lament, a prison floating in the plains of Avernus. To pull this off, they use the soul coins they stole last week to assemble a crack team of specialists and mercenaries. They hire a rakshasa illusionist, an ogre mage explosives expert, a ghost mastermind, a medusa face and a night hag wheelman. Xanster's faithful imp Screwtape learns that one of the prisoners at the Priory is a goristro. He arranges for a battalion of demons to attack the front gates as a distraction. The team climbs into bags of holding and Crazy Mary, the night hag, carries them into the goristro's dreams. She lets them out and they hunt down and kill the goristro inside its dreamscape, although it mauls the ogre mage to death. Crazy Mary catches the goristro's soul in her satchel before it can escape back to the Abyss. They fall out of the goristro's head into its cell inside the Priory. Three-Axe bends the bars to get them into the hallway. The Rakshasa defeats the arcane sensors with illusions, getting them from the hallway to the guardpost. The medusa petrifies the guards at the guardpost, and from there they learn the location of the baby dragon. Crazy Mary asks questions of the goristro's soul, like a soul coin, using its ability to understand mazes to navigate the labyrinthine prison. The ghost keeps a lookout and Xanster disables the dragon's cell door with a spell scroll. So far so good.
The baby dragon is inside a protective magic shell being terrified and tormented by devils. From here, it all goes to hell, so to speak. Three-Axe charges in swinging and the alarm gets sounded. There's a running battle for the door and the rakshasa bails out and vanishes. The building physically warps around them, dragging them back into the dragon's cell. Chains fly out of the darkness and drag the mercenaries off, screaming. Xanster and Three-Axe, Screwtape and the baby dragon, find themselves facing the Prelates, the four powerful devils who serve as the prison's wardens. They talk the Prelates into letting them leave with the dragon and return to the Prime Material Plane if they help them recover Gathor the Dracolich, their former prisoner. That's going to be the main event next week.
I liked setting up the heist, pulling elements from Inception, Ocean's 11, and Hellraiser, among others. I thought it went a lot faster than I expected and was probably more railroad-y than I'd try with most tables, but my players seemed to have fun.
My party arrives in a port town that makes its living fishing for a rare fish found around a local island. Essentially, they use it to make sushi. Lizardmen on the island had been a nuisance; but maneagble.
But weeks ago, a strange shadowy presence had been spotted by a fishing boat headed towards the island. Since then, the lizardmen have steadily grown more intelligent and deadly, constructing ranged weapons that have made approaching the island treacherous. Our party goes to investigate.
As we approach the island, our boat is attacked with large, ballistae bolts. Our fearless barbarian jumps into the water while our party struggles to rally. My cleric "Controls Water", unaware that the barbarian had jumped overboard. Moving the water beneath the boat, we accelerate towards an island cave at heightened speed...and our barbarian gets hit by the front of the boat.
He grabs on, however, like the mermaid-bust you find on the front of ships, and rides the boat, twirling his double-scimitar like a madman as we crash into the cave. Without skipping a beat, we assault the lizardmen in the cave, who are shocked and surprised by our sudden attack. The barbarian cuts two down, as our ranged party pelts them from afar with crossbows and magic.
Descending into the cave, we uncover a massive chamber, with seemingly-peaceful chanting lizardmen. Our wizard speaks Draconic, and understands that they wish the "great one" to let us pass.
We see a huge, spectral creature...a multi-headed dragon with different colored heads, atop piles of gold.
Combat engages...stone pillars activate around this circular chamber, bombarding us with waves of elemental effects. Curiously, the ghost-like dragon doesn't seem to be breathing actual fire at us.
Our session ends as several of our party remain in critical condition...
In my last session I ran a one-shot that combined the Encounters of the Week Lost Minotaur, Dying Unicorn, and A Tale Too Far.
For lost Minotaur no one in the group spoke abyssal or undercommon, and with the natural 20s they were throwing around they felled him before round 3. Then as I was hinting that things were weird (which they picked up in) and that I was doing death saves for the Minotaur they gruesomely behead him. And because of poor investigation checks (rolled a 5) they couldn’t find the clues on his person to move further with that plot hook.
They then moved on to the Vassorum wood, which I told them at the beginning was where they were going. Found the Unicorn easy enough and they role played it well. It was a little funny the Barbarian covered in Minotaur blood being so respectful to the dying unicorn.
They honestly struggled with the puzzle, focused very much on the numbers 8, 5, and 3, but not 4. When they finally caught on to the 4 and 4 answer they tried filling 2 jugs separately and I decided to let them roll intelligence checks to see if they could exactly fill them up without going through the steps. They rolled well with 18 and 19 but I set the dc at 20.
they worked out the order in real life and I had them roll a Dex check because they were down to the wire. By my calculations they had 7 rounds to finish. But they handily beat the Dex check of 20.
As a reward the spring healed them, and they were able to take some that is being home brewed into an item. The Barbarian also asked if they could have a Figurine of Wondrous Power for a unicorn and I decided to allow it if they rolled high enough on persuasion. With two 10s they did not. The Unicorn left them with parting words of a friend in the forest.
Finally a Tale too Far. It wasn’t hard finding Zhemmy, they just had to follow their noses. 2 party members were suspicious and rolled stealth. Very well and beat both the dragon’s active and passive perception. The other 2 just walked right on in where I began the trade food for stories bit. They were into it. But the 2 that came out had super low charisma and bombed their first 2 attempts.
thats when the other 2 joined them and with their help was able to get a successful performance. But after I continued to ask for stories (I needed either one more failure or 2 success to trigger the next part) they grew suspicious. So they tried distracting and investigating and deflecting. Then they noticed the ring and learned that Zhemmy was unwilling to take it of and then my favorite part came about.
The sorcerer used the friends cantrip and asked if he could closely examine the ring in his hand. And he super aced the check with a 27 roll. The looks on the players’ faces as I describe how as he takes off the ring and transforms into an adult copper dragon was priceless.
Because of the friends spell side effect he became hostile when it wore off, but I played Zhemmy as more upset and angry with the group rather than go into combat. Annoyed he went off to see his unicorn friend.
I ended the session on a cliff-hanger with the group receiving a message of a Minotaur city falling under drow control after their prince disappeared. Again, watching them connect the dots was so much fun.
After several sessions cancelled, we finally get together again!
The heroes are on a quest to find a way to fly up to the floating sky city. It will pass over the mountain at the closest point in 14 more days. (Party is now Level 3)
When last seen, our heroes had just rescued a little elvish boy from bandit kidnappers, son of the mayor of the Elvish city of Ado Vandor. Today they traveled to the city to return him. As they neared the city, a wild Aurochs decided he didn’t like the look of the giant elk (from the thief’s Bag of Tricks) that was helping to pull the wagon, and charged. The giant elk had the highest initiative roll, and the Very Chaotic Halfling Thief ordered it to attack. Since the giant elk was still hitched to the wagon, everyone made a Dex check, and they all held on except the thief, who rolled off the back of the wagon and landed in a brickle bush. The Elk knocked down the Aurochs for more than half its HP, but the Aurochs then mauled the bard within an inch of his life. (Wasn’t a music fan, and he could smell the bard’s ukulele.) Meanwhile, the monk (transformed into a horse by the evil wizard Jasper Featherstone) ran away carrying the elf child to safety. They defeated the Aurochs and the druid, true to form, skinned it and harvested 100 pounds of beef. (Low roll.)
The party regrouped at the Ado Vandor tavern, where the bard performed for their room and board, and the druid sold 75 pounds of Aurochs to the barkeep. In the morning, they took the child to the mayor, who gratefully asked how he could repay them. They said, “Make us fly.” That was not within the mayor’s power, but he paid them 100 gold, and gave them the key to the city so they could get all non-magical purchases half price. He also suggested they seek out a powerful spell caster. mentioning the magic shop keeper in Seaclere city, the northern druids, or Jasper Featherstone, “because he transforms people even when they don't want to, so if you ask nicely…” Hearing that they had already run afoul of JF, the Mayor tells them that if they want revenge, the wizard’s hideout is on rumored to be on Twist Island.
From the choices, the party decides to go looking for the druids.
Party: “Hey, yeah, we wrote Druid 200 on the map. Let’s go to the Druid 200.” DM: “Um, that’s Druid Zoo.” Party: “What, really? We’ve been reading that as 200 all this time…” DM: “It’s the Druid Zoo.” Party: “All right! Let’s go to the Druid Zoo!” Very Chaotic Halfling Thief: “And we’ll open the cages and free all the druids! Yay!” DM: "Um…”
So, party remembers to grab the NPC cleric on the way out of town this time, and heads north! Then they go back because they forgot to get the monk untransformed. (Monk is fixed, but now has a mane…like a mohawk that ends mid-back.) Now that the monk can speak again, she can finally point out that the halfling retained horse ears from his own transformation, which somehow nobody else in the party noticed. “Hoofs would have been cooler. But then I’d need a prosthesis to pick pockets."
After a long and uneventful traveling day, the party arrives at a logging camp serving the Blaxx sawmill. The Very Chaotic Halfling Thief wants to set fire to it as usual, and the Very Uptight Druid won’t let him (also as usual.) So the Very Chaotic Halfling Thief decides to sleep up in a tree, because it will be entertaining if the lumberjacks cut it down in the morning with him in it. He decides to tie himself to a branch to prevent falling during the night. Then he decides not to, in case his friends set fire to the tree. The dice were with him, he did not fall out of the tree, until it was in fact chopped down. Took some bludgeoning damage, but said it was worth it, and that he felt completely fulfilled, and might not even try to set anything on fire that day.
They left their wagon in the camp and gave the remaining 25 pounds of aurochs meat to the lumberjacks, helping to wipe out the stain of their earlier failure at the sawmill. Then they traveled through the deep forest until they came in sight of the high, bramble walls of the Druid Zoo. They hear shouts of, ‘Who let them escape?” “Where did they go!” and suddenly, the party sees a velociraptor. They look at it, it looks at them. And that’s when the attack comes: not from the front, but from the sides…from the two velociraptors they didn’t even know were there.
Session ended. Twelve days left.
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Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) WoodElf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2 Last Tree StandingTabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1 Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
Our encounter with a Tiamat-looking dragon in a chamber continues, though it becomes clear this creature is merely an aspect of the draconic demon.
Our double-glaive wielding elf barbarian continues to hack down multiple dragon heads...but they slowly regenerate, so all he can do is keep the creature at bay. He complains that his arms are growing tired, and he cannot keep doing it for much longer.
Meanwhile, our kobold sword bard has discovered that the gems at the exterior of the chamber are the source of this aspects power, and proceeds to "Shatter" one. And just like that, one of the dragon heads stays dead.
So while our barbarian continues to engage the monster, our bard, druid, paladin and my cleric destroy these gems, with our genasi wizard even joining in as he exits our demi-bag.
The beast is then slain. Some lizardmen cultists who had been observing suddenly scatter, seemingly losing their intelligence with the death of this dragon monster.
We discover a bizarre portal past the pile of gold; my cleric inspects it and goes inside.
He enters a chamber that is almost completely dark, save for faint light in the distance. Lacking darkvision, he can only make out the vague shapes of some kind of workshop, a cloaked feminine figure busily at work.
As a Ghostwise halfling, my cleric telepathically asks her how her work is going, without giving away his presence in the dark.
The woman stops working, and remarks that the dragon monster had been intended to ensure that the work continued uninterrupted.
My cleric apologizes (still telepathically), but the woman turns to face him anyway, and begins approaching.
My cleric hastily asks for her to hold up a moment, while also casting "Entangle" (a trick he picked up from our druid with the Magic Initiate feat), trying to stop her advance.
The woman, however, slips through the spell as if by magic, and soon stands in front of my halfling.
...then she stabs my cleric in the chest with a concealed dagger!
The dagger grows to twice its size while impaled in my chest, and my halflings eyes bulge in shock and horror.
...and then he's...gone. Disappeared, his equipment clattering to the floor.
The rest my party enters just in time to see the woman sheathe her dagger. Apparently, time works differently here, and since the party didn't enter at the same time, they do not witness my cleric's demise. They do interrogate this woman, demanding where the cleric has gone, and the paladin detects the smell of evil upon her.
The woman sighs, commenting that her work cannot continue with these interruptions, and that now she will have to move. She warns the party that the cleric has paid the price, an expensive one, and that if the party intervenes further, the "price" will go up immeasurably.
Though angered and mournful, some Arcana and Investigation checks reveal that this woman is far beyond our ability to fight.
The party leaves, and the portal closes. They collect some gold from the dragon trove, and return to the fishing town to announce the death of the monster slain.
...meanwhile, my halfling cleric finds himself naked and alone, in an endless abyss of darkness. Unable to see, he sees and feels cold hands reaching out to him, rubbing and prodding him as sad wails echo through the blackness.
A hulking demonic figure approaches after hours pass, the details my halfling cannot see without darkvision, but is undoubtably horrific.
The demon presents a piece of paper, and in Abyssal croaks, "Deal?"
My halfling, ever the fool, says that he has been kept waiting for over 15 minutes, and demands to see the manager.
The demon chuckles, a wicked sound, and repeats the question. My halfling shrugs and says he doesn't have a pen.
A cut slices the palm of my cleric's hand, and it becomes clear that unless my halfling signs the paper, he will he condemned to the cold darkness, alone.
...which as a Light Cleric with loneliness issues, is terrifying.
So my halfling signs the paper, and the session ends.
I'm in a steampunk campaign that, once it gets running, will in large part take place onboard an airship. I'm the ship's captain, rock gnome artillerist artificer Doza Dunben. We had our first session back in December, but I was out of the state at the time so I couldn't make it. Apparently the bard got arrested for trying to steal some bagpipes. Because bard.
As for our second session, it was weird. To just show you the insanity, here's the character breakdown (aside from Doza): Shadow Elf Rogue (Swashbuckler) Ash, Goliath Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) Sparrow, Aarocockra Life Cleric Ginger, Tabaxi Satire Bard Mr. M. Ittenz, and a halfling druid with no name (I forgot her subclass). During the first session, my character was basically an NPC, and the players arrived at my office. We got a call from the town's mayor, who told us to meet her. Upon our arrival, we were informed that there was a ring of goblins smuggling a drug called Wormstongue into the city through unknown means. On our way to meet the constable, we ran into a goblin runner in an alley, and the rogue dealt with him easily. After a visit to the constable, we split up.
The druid wandered around for a bit and didn't really do much until we met back up.
Doza, Ash, and Ginger did some espionage, hunting around the town for signs of the smugglers. I failed an investigation check and got distracted, not arriving at the location of the goblin until Ash shot him with a sniper rifle, nearly killing him. The three of us tried to interrogate the goblin, but we all had mediocre intimidation scores, and so our attempts did nothing except beat him up, and so I ultimately decided to put the goblin out of his misery with my handaxe. All we learned is that their leader was named Mauvis.
Sparrow stayed behind at the constable's ofice, where several goblins were packed into the jail cells. Due to his high intimidation, he was easily able to ascertain that the drugs were coming through a portal in the woods, and he was able to find the exact coordinates. He also learned of Mauvis.
Ittenz went to the local tavern. The tavern was almost completely empty, so he spoke to the bartender. After ordering a drink, Ittenz was easily able to learn of the portal. He also learned of Mauvis.
Then the bartender threatened to kill him if he didn't hand over 100 gold. Ittenz quickly ran away. The druid then tried to go to the tavern, quickly fleeing as soon as she saw it was filled with goblins.
When we returned to Doza's office, Ittenz was hugging a pillow, rocking back and forth on Doza's couch (Aside: Ittenz is now canonically crashing on my office couch until we leave). We exchanged information, and set off into the woods. During our long rest, our DM rolled on a random encounters table. Ittenz was on guard duty, and he failed a perception check, and was hit by two attacks from heavy crossbows. The DM had rolled "haunted by a recently made enemy," and the bartender was back, with someone else.
The fight was pretty standard... except I rolled AWFUL. I summoned my eldritch cannon and tried to shoot. Nat 1. Blew up in my face. Literally. I pulled out my crossbow and tried to shoot. Nat 1. Shot myself in the foot. LITERALLY. After the fight, I tried to pull the bolt out of my foot. Nat 1. Broke the shaft and dug the head in deeper. At the end of the fight, we looted the corpses. On each one, we found identical lockets. With a cast of identify, I discovered that they were amulets of minor necromancy. The hatch on each swung open to reveal, carved into the stone, a capital "M."
After we woke up, Doza killed a deer and Ash rolled a nat 20 preparing the carcass, which Ginger made into jerky. Our druid, a vegan, ran off to forage for berries. Failed her nature check. Found a bear. Bear rolled a nat 1 and hit itself on the first attack. The druid healed the bear, and now we have a pet bear named Winnie.
We found the portal, and stepped through. We found seven goblins, mining gold, refusing to look away from their work. At the back of the mine was a giant metal figure, lying dormant, the words "Titanus Olympus" scrawled across its chest. Rolling an arcana check, I discovered that the machine would wake if the goblins ceased their work. Meanwhile, Ittenz and Sparrow were attempting to rally the goblins to rebellion. I approached the machine, and slowly took out my crossbow, and fired a shot. Who would've thought that it would also wake up if you attacked it? That's just ridiculous!
Once it awoke, we realized it was a creature of legend, an Olympus Titan (basically just an Eberron Warforged Titan but legendary and with more HP). My character dropped to 5 hp so fast that the DM immediately sent in our campaign's resident Deus Ex Machina NPC, a lizardfolk druid, who saved Doza, attacked the Titan, and disappeared. During the fight, Sparrow had the idea to throw his axe, with thunderous smite, at the Titan. Our DM then decided that, if the roll was a success and if he changed his deity from Tyr to Thor, Sparrow's axe would basically become Stormbreaker. Sparrow agreed, and dealt a ridiculous amount of damage to the Titan (also, keep in mind that two of the players had to leave and the DM was trying to speed up the fight. )
We destroyed the Titan, and were about to leave, when suddenly we saw a vision. Mauvis appeared to us, and we discovered that we were fighting the forces of a lich.
My last session was supposed to be a hostage rescue for 5 level 2 characters (including me). Spying out the situation we was a group of bad guys at the front a smaller group at the back (who were position so it would be pretty easy to surprise attack them) and a huge bunch slowly circling round between them. It was obvious we needed to take out the group at the back quickly and silently. The Fighter said to make sure the big group didn't get to us he would distract them and pull them away from us, there was plenty of tree cover so we thought we were just losing one party member to ensure we didn't bump into the large group, it might also make getting the hostages out easier.
We started our attack as the the distraction began but the tank ran straight to us, the big group had a little further to go but instead of going very slowly they were dashing. As they approach us we had just managed to kill the small group and putting the bodies in the bushes a couple of us would have been able to get to the door which would probably have been enough, the fighter throws a grappling hook breaking a window about 20 foot up and starts to climb but instead of getting all the way up he stops half way to taunt the bad guys and the rest of us decide we have to fight not realising quite how many were still to come round the corner.
We we rolled well and killed many but as our luck evened out there were just too many first the fighter went down then the warlock. I rushed to them with a healers kit only to find the boss fight next to me round the corner. 2 make a long story short the boss knocked me unconscious but I rolled a nat 20 on my death save and stabilise the warlock, the boss hits me unconscious again. The two left alive try and make a run for it one manages but the other gets hit and is also unconscious, while the DM said we were out of initiative he asks us to go through our death saves we both roll 20s first roll! This allows us to escape, and the three of us regroup and decide the 4 remain baddies were all in a bad way so rather than let them get reinforcements and heal we should try to take them out. The boss goes down to one more arrow followed by the other human leaving just a kobald and a "guard dog" (creature name withheld to avoid spoilers) who both gave up the fight.
Result
21 dead bad guys 3 bad guys run away XP 925 Adjusted XP 3700 (anything over 1000 is deadly, and I should also point out that this was our 4th encounter without a short or long rest, while it was only our second battle and we were close to full health at the start we were fairly low on other resources)
1 dead party member 1 unconcious party member (who may be ruled dead as the player is considering a new character) 3 surviving party members
My death rolls 20,20,20 As a party we also had 3 consecutive nat 20s on death saves.
I had a very frustrating session tonight. I spent an hour and a half unconscious; I nearly wish I had died so I could have just logged off for the night (I am playing remotely) rather than waste my time not having fun. It started off with us needing to get through a door. to get at a necromancer we knew was in a mausoleum raising undead. The fighter...well he decided it was a good idea to run into the stone wall to try and knock the whole mausoleum down rather than...you know...open the door. Worked as well as you might think. Then the rogue tried. Rolled a 1. *shrug* So, my 8 strength support sorcerer opened the door. I roll a 20 (auspicious start, right) which was enough with my -1 mod to get the door open. I shatter the enemies, do a bit of damage. The other sorcerer throws a fireball and does some good damage. Rather than hold the doorway, the fighter charges to the back of the room because he's got the bloody charger feat, and by Tempus he's going to use it. Ghouls walk up to me since there's no line. I'm already at half health, they hit me, I shield and take it anyways, and lose a big chunk of health. Enemy necromancer fireballs, and I go down like a sack of potatoes. Paladin charges past me into the room and trucks a ghoul. I make my death save. The other sorc runs away and drinks a heal potion because the healer (me) is bleeding out. The fighter uses some ability and manages to heal me for 2 points. I make my plan how I am going to heal up and try to get to a safer location. Necro AOEs me down (I guess that's better than the auto two death fails) again. Paladin trucks the necro (still no heal). I death save. DM is incredulous that I can't get a kill shot on the last ghoul with like 2 hp left. He's like, but you have two hp left. I told him no, you effing AOEd me for 9 while I had only 2 hp left. He's like well maybe you should have let the fighters open the door. I said maybe the fighters shouldn't have charged past me so that I could get wrecked by melees....again (this is getting to be a common theme). I don't mind getting hurt, but the amount of non-protection I get as a divine sorc from my melees is astounding and frustrating. And they are slooooooooow. those three rounds of combat took an hour and a half. I literally rolled one skill check and cast one spell all night long. I made a bunch of death/saving throws though, so yay? I was the only one who managed to not get ghoul fever, as if that was some consolation for not doing anything.
I am seriously || close to my next two levels being hexblade warlock. Medium armor, shield, and darkness/devils sight...maybe that will get me the protection I need.
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.
Characters: Level 1 Half-orc Fighter, Level 1 Rock Gnome Sorcerer and Level 1 Mountain Dwarf Ranger
- This time we got a job investigate a ship because there were rumors about vampires and we got hired as staff to the ship.
- Each character had own job on ship: 1 was helping in kitchen, 1 was cleaning the deck and 1 was lookout.
- We found empty barrels from cargo room with same symbols that were related to vampires.
- One of the doors was locked and we decided to investigate that door during night.
- When were on the way to cargo room some guards interrupted us and it turned out into fight with result that dwarf ranger was dragged away unconsious. Gnome sorcerer was able to escape and hide away while half-orc fighter was not attending to the fight and was hiding in cargo room.
- Half-orc fighter and gnome sorcerer tried to rescue the dwarf ranger from captains cabin but unfortunately dwarf ranger died during the fight.
- After the fight with captain we found a key to the locked room and we found out that barrels were filled with blood in the harbour town.
- We were hiding in ship waiting for the ship to return to the harbour where the journey began.
- In the harbor some local guards came to investigate the murders that happened on ship. However, gnome sorcerer was talking with the guards and he was able make the guards believe that the dead dwarf ranger was only involved in murders so were able to leave the ship.
- After the game we realized we forgot that original plan was to level up characters to level 3. However, we decided to just make one level up and we will begin next session from level 2 with all changes already written in character sheets.
I clearly remember as a child wishing that I had a hundred pet gorillas...
Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) Wood Elf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2
Last Tree Standing Tabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1
Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive
Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth
Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
Is the child an orphan? Have him wish his parents are back, just have them come back kinda not alive!
If the kid isn't an orphan have something scary happen and let him wish his mom was there to give him a cuddle, just dont make whatever she was in the middle of super akward lol
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
I guess I should've added this but this is the first time I've really posted on forums.
The game is a post apocalypse zombie dnd game (because I love zombies and haven't found a DND game using that) and the kid in question is actually a very young goblin they picked up who tried to steal food from their camp late in the night.
He actually started out as a joke but now the table has fallen in love with him and would kill their characters to protect him. Since they're taking really good care of him if they get into a bind I have a way to explain dm intervention
Had a lot of fun with our group last night.
My character has the Gladiator background, so naturally seeks out the fighting pit in every town we come across. Last night he finally got to compete in a match against the minotaur champion of the town we're staying in.
It was epic: the Minotaur thought he had me beat when he scored a crit on his attack - my life saved by Armor of Agathys taking a decent portion of the damage and damaging him back, followed by a Hellish Rebuke that knocked his HP down almost as much as he did to me. My next turn? Nat 20 on my attack. Run him through with my blade. Cue my character sauntering around the arena like The Rock, then turning to the downed champ to ask: "Who's champion now, b*tch?"
Of course, then we got into a bar fight celebrating the win and my character was knocked-out almost immediately with a bottle to the back of the head...
We found a mimic hiding amongst a flock of sheep. We couldn't target the mimic specifically since it blended in too well so my barbarian used breath weapon and set fire to most of the sheep and the mimic. This started combat but also gave the party some delicious mutton afterwards lol
Full of rice, beans, and bad ideas.
That is hilarious
My level 7 party went beholder hunting and stumbled upon a lair of a mage that (though they don’t know this yet) studies the planes and how they connect and all that stuff. They fought two skeletal Druidic based casters toward the entrance which were basically his guards.
Bardic Inspiration is just someone believing in you, and I believe in you
Did they manage to survive?
Our party (14th level) were in Hell, and we had recently defeated a fairly badass demon, and all his slimy lair minions. We were in Hell to defeat a couple of Cambions who had taken several of our party's blood samples so that they could compel us to give them a spellbook (that we didn't actually have.)
We made several deals throughout this trip to Hell - including with Glasya, ruler of Malbolge. She wanted us to defeat the demon in order to have the "opportunity" to enter a deathmatch with the Cambions. We needed to defeat the devils in Hell, so of course we dove into this deal with no delay.
One long-lost member of our party returned just in time for this fight, so our DM added a "fallen" angel to oppose us. We were 6 strong against the 2 Devils and their +1. I can't recall all the details, but I know we banished the Angel 3 rounds in a row, and our wizard conjured up a Bronze Dragon to act as a bit of a tank. My Hexblade dove right in and started attacking the devil caster, figuring she was the bigger threat. I took a couple hits, but that doesn't slow me down much. Our Sorlock got hit hard, and failed 2 death saves before our Paladin fixed him up.
There was much smiting - of the Eldritch and Divine flavors. My Hexblade has a Ring of Smiting for an extra one, and her pact blade renews a spell slot when she kills with it. So, I think I got in 4 Eldritch Smites - 2 in one round that allowed my PC to behead the first Devil, flicking the severed head at her brother, to see if I could shake him a bit. So, next round, I go after him, and with another 2 Eldritch Smites, I was able to bisect him top to bottom.
So, I got in 2 killing blows. Pretty good battle. The angel, after returning a 3rd time, decided to concede defeat, since he was really only there to kill those 2 devils anyway... his "arrangement" with Glasya must have been a little more complicated.
All of this happened remotely for me - I was on a business trip half way around the world.
When I opened up that AD&D Red Box on Christmas day, way back in 1983, I don't think that my 13 year old self would have been able to imagine my 49 year old self to be playing D&D online, from a hotel in Hong Kong...
Sounds like one "Hell" of a time. XD
We did Descent into Avernus again.
So, after beating up Amrik Vanthampur and tying him up, they decided that there was no point in keeping him alive, so Lorag ordered one of his skeletons to grab his unconscious body and chain him underneath the water in the dock. A few bubbles floated to the surface, but then they stopped, and the skeleton climbed back up.
They then went back to the library Lorag works at to take a long rest before heading off to Vanthampur Villa.
On the way to the Villa, they encounter 4 imps disguised as ravens that immediately attack them. The imps severely injure Miraak'Bal and nearly destroy a Birch, the weakest skeleton.
They then break into the stable house of Vanthampur Villa, by Lorag Misty Stepping through the window, and then opening the window. They then searched around, and found a hidden trapdoor on the ground. They opened it up, and found a small hallway that lead to a dead end. They searched the dead end, and found a secret door, and the rogue, Miraak'Bal opened it with his thieves' tools. They burst inside, and found an altar of Zariel that appeared to be an angel statue with glowing white eyes. In the center of the room there were 4 cultists wearing golden tragedy masks, and a barbed devil stood near the altar.
The party ran into the room, Miraak'Bal flew to the opposite side of the room and started shooting arrows at the barbed devil. Irsu charged in with the abyssal chicken on his shoulder slashing down his enemies with his magic greatsword. Lorag teleported into the room, blasting enemies with Chromatic orb, and sucking out their life with Toll of the Dead, then crushing their ribs with his silver skull flail. Kallo then ran into the room with her rapier, piercing both her enemy's bodies and mind using her Bardic Inspiration.
In a few short rounds, all the creatures in the room were dead, but they ended the fight badly injured. They then searched around the room. They discovered that the angel's eyes were glowing from a magical mace that was inside. They took the mace, and then found a secret door to the south. Inside the small room was an obsidian altar with a golden flame shaped like an angel dancing on top of the altar. Kneeling in front of the altar praising Zariel was Duchess Thalamra Vanthampur.
Long story short, the duchess made a pact with Zariel, and was working to drag Baldur's Gate into Avernus. They then fought, Miraak'Bal shot her with an arrow from his longbow, then Lorag's weak skeleton, Birch, walked in dual wielding shortswords, and hit her with his first attack. She then called upon the power of Zariel to cast Hellish Rebuke at 2nd level on Birch. Fire rained down from the ceiling above Birch's skull, completely covering him in hellfire. He was disintegrated into a smoking fine gray powder.
Lorag screamed at the sight of his skeleton's destruction. Birch, and Milch were now both dead, only Krenks remained (I know, they're all weird names for undead creatures). Lorag, infuriated and mourning, then unleashed a deadly Chromatic Orb of fire, blasting Thalamra in the abdomen, and severely wounded her. She then cast hellish rebuke on Lorag, blasting him with fire from the heavens. Duchess Vanthampur then eldritch blasted Miraak'Bal and Lorag, hurting both of them.
Irsu and Kalo then ran in, flanking the duchess, and knocked her to about 25 hit points. She then hellishly rebuked Irsu, and eldritch blasted Miraak'Bal and Lorag once again, getting a natural 20 on Lorag, knocking him and the rogue down to 0 hit points. She then ran out of the room into the sewers, taking 2 o. The last skeleton, Krenks, then charged forward and shot an arrow with his shortbow into her shoulder, dropping her to 1 hit point. Irsu then charged forward, and cut her head and most of her torso in half with one foul swoop.
The party then went to the treasury room. I won't reveal what happened there here because of spoilers, but gained a great magic item, and learned of a plot to turn the tides in the Blood War.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Xanster the Chainlock and Three-Axe Johnson have to break a baby dragon out of the Priory of Lament, a prison floating in the plains of Avernus. To pull this off, they use the soul coins they stole last week to assemble a crack team of specialists and mercenaries. They hire a rakshasa illusionist, an ogre mage explosives expert, a ghost mastermind, a medusa face and a night hag wheelman. Xanster's faithful imp Screwtape learns that one of the prisoners at the Priory is a goristro. He arranges for a battalion of demons to attack the front gates as a distraction. The team climbs into bags of holding and Crazy Mary, the night hag, carries them into the goristro's dreams. She lets them out and they hunt down and kill the goristro inside its dreamscape, although it mauls the ogre mage to death. Crazy Mary catches the goristro's soul in her satchel before it can escape back to the Abyss. They fall out of the goristro's head into its cell inside the Priory. Three-Axe bends the bars to get them into the hallway. The Rakshasa defeats the arcane sensors with illusions, getting them from the hallway to the guardpost. The medusa petrifies the guards at the guardpost, and from there they learn the location of the baby dragon. Crazy Mary asks questions of the goristro's soul, like a soul coin, using its ability to understand mazes to navigate the labyrinthine prison. The ghost keeps a lookout and Xanster disables the dragon's cell door with a spell scroll. So far so good.
The baby dragon is inside a protective magic shell being terrified and tormented by devils. From here, it all goes to hell, so to speak. Three-Axe charges in swinging and the alarm gets sounded. There's a running battle for the door and the rakshasa bails out and vanishes. The building physically warps around them, dragging them back into the dragon's cell. Chains fly out of the darkness and drag the mercenaries off, screaming. Xanster and Three-Axe, Screwtape and the baby dragon, find themselves facing the Prelates, the four powerful devils who serve as the prison's wardens. They talk the Prelates into letting them leave with the dragon and return to the Prime Material Plane if they help them recover Gathor the Dracolich, their former prisoner. That's going to be the main event next week.
I liked setting up the heist, pulling elements from Inception, Ocean's 11, and Hellraiser, among others. I thought it went a lot faster than I expected and was probably more railroad-y than I'd try with most tables, but my players seemed to have fun.
My party arrives in a port town that makes its living fishing for a rare fish found around a local island. Essentially, they use it to make sushi. Lizardmen on the island had been a nuisance; but maneagble.
But weeks ago, a strange shadowy presence had been spotted by a fishing boat headed towards the island. Since then, the lizardmen have steadily grown more intelligent and deadly, constructing ranged weapons that have made approaching the island treacherous. Our party goes to investigate.
As we approach the island, our boat is attacked with large, ballistae bolts. Our fearless barbarian jumps into the water while our party struggles to rally. My cleric "Controls Water", unaware that the barbarian had jumped overboard. Moving the water beneath the boat, we accelerate towards an island cave at heightened speed...and our barbarian gets hit by the front of the boat.
He grabs on, however, like the mermaid-bust you find on the front of ships, and rides the boat, twirling his double-scimitar like a madman as we crash into the cave. Without skipping a beat, we assault the lizardmen in the cave, who are shocked and surprised by our sudden attack. The barbarian cuts two down, as our ranged party pelts them from afar with crossbows and magic.
Descending into the cave, we uncover a massive chamber, with seemingly-peaceful chanting lizardmen. Our wizard speaks Draconic, and understands that they wish the "great one" to let us pass.
We see a huge, spectral creature...a multi-headed dragon with different colored heads, atop piles of gold.
Combat engages...stone pillars activate around this circular chamber, bombarding us with waves of elemental effects. Curiously, the ghost-like dragon doesn't seem to be breathing actual fire at us.
Our session ends as several of our party remain in critical condition...
In my last session I ran a one-shot that combined the Encounters of the Week Lost Minotaur, Dying Unicorn, and A Tale Too Far.
For lost Minotaur no one in the group spoke abyssal or undercommon, and with the natural 20s they were throwing around they felled him before round 3. Then as I was hinting that things were weird (which they picked up in) and that I was doing death saves for the Minotaur they gruesomely behead him. And because of poor investigation checks (rolled a 5) they couldn’t find the clues on his person to move further with that plot hook.
They then moved on to the Vassorum wood, which I told them at the beginning was where they were going. Found the Unicorn easy enough and they role played it well. It was a little funny the Barbarian covered in Minotaur blood being so respectful to the dying unicorn.
They honestly struggled with the puzzle, focused very much on the numbers 8, 5, and 3, but not 4. When they finally caught on to the 4 and 4 answer they tried filling 2 jugs separately and I decided to let them roll intelligence checks to see if they could exactly fill them up without going through the steps. They rolled well with 18 and 19 but I set the dc at 20.
they worked out the order in real life and I had them roll a Dex check because they were down to the wire. By my calculations they had 7 rounds to finish. But they handily beat the Dex check of 20.
As a reward the spring healed them, and they were able to take some that is being home brewed into an item. The Barbarian also asked if they could have a Figurine of Wondrous Power for a unicorn and I decided to allow it if they rolled high enough on persuasion. With two 10s they did not. The Unicorn left them with parting words of a friend in the forest.
Finally a Tale too Far. It wasn’t hard finding Zhemmy, they just had to follow their noses. 2 party members were suspicious and rolled stealth. Very well and beat both the dragon’s active and passive perception. The other 2 just walked right on in where I began the trade food for stories bit. They were into it. But the 2 that came out had super low charisma and bombed their first 2 attempts.
thats when the other 2 joined them and with their help was able to get a successful performance. But after I continued to ask for stories (I needed either one more failure or 2 success to trigger the next part) they grew suspicious. So they tried distracting and investigating and deflecting. Then they noticed the ring and learned that Zhemmy was unwilling to take it of and then my favorite part came about.
The sorcerer used the friends cantrip and asked if he could closely examine the ring in his hand. And he super aced the check with a 27 roll. The looks on the players’ faces as I describe how as he takes off the ring and transforms into an adult copper dragon was priceless.
Because of the friends spell side effect he became hostile when it wore off, but I played Zhemmy as more upset and angry with the group rather than go into combat. Annoyed he went off to see his unicorn friend.
I ended the session on a cliff-hanger with the group receiving a message of a Minotaur city falling under drow control after their prince disappeared. Again, watching them connect the dots was so much fun.
After several sessions cancelled, we finally get together again!
The heroes are on a quest to find a way to fly up to the floating sky city. It will pass over the mountain at the closest point in 14 more days. (Party is now Level 3)
When last seen, our heroes had just rescued a little elvish boy from bandit kidnappers, son of the mayor of the Elvish city of Ado Vandor. Today they traveled to the city to return him. As they neared the city, a wild Aurochs decided he didn’t like the look of the giant elk (from the thief’s Bag of Tricks) that was helping to pull the wagon, and charged. The giant elk had the highest initiative roll, and the Very Chaotic Halfling Thief ordered it to attack. Since the giant elk was still hitched to the wagon, everyone made a Dex check, and they all held on except the thief, who rolled off the back of the wagon and landed in a brickle bush. The Elk knocked down the Aurochs for more than half its HP, but the Aurochs then mauled the bard within an inch of his life. (Wasn’t a music fan, and he could smell the bard’s ukulele.) Meanwhile, the monk (transformed into a horse by the evil wizard Jasper Featherstone) ran away carrying the elf child to safety. They defeated the Aurochs and the druid, true to form, skinned it and harvested 100 pounds of beef. (Low roll.)
The party regrouped at the Ado Vandor tavern, where the bard performed for their room and board, and the druid sold 75 pounds of Aurochs to the barkeep. In the morning, they took the child to the mayor, who gratefully asked how he could repay them. They said, “Make us fly.” That was not within the mayor’s power, but he paid them 100 gold, and gave them the key to the city so they could get all non-magical purchases half price. He also suggested they seek out a powerful spell caster. mentioning the magic shop keeper in Seaclere city, the northern druids, or Jasper Featherstone, “because he transforms people even when they don't want to, so if you ask nicely…” Hearing that they had already run afoul of JF, the Mayor tells them that if they want revenge, the wizard’s hideout is on rumored to be on Twist Island.
From the choices, the party decides to go looking for the druids.
Party: “Hey, yeah, we wrote Druid 200 on the map. Let’s go to the Druid 200.”
DM: “Um, that’s Druid Zoo.”
Party: “What, really? We’ve been reading that as 200 all this time…”
DM: “It’s the Druid Zoo.”
Party: “All right! Let’s go to the Druid Zoo!”
Very Chaotic Halfling Thief: “And we’ll open the cages and free all the druids! Yay!”
DM: "Um…”
So, party remembers to grab the NPC cleric on the way out of town this time, and heads north!
Then they go back because they forgot to get the monk untransformed. (Monk is fixed, but now has a mane…like a mohawk that ends mid-back.) Now that the monk can speak again, she can finally point out that the halfling retained horse ears from his own transformation, which somehow nobody else in the party noticed. “Hoofs would have been cooler. But then I’d need a prosthesis to pick pockets."
After a long and uneventful traveling day, the party arrives at a logging camp serving the Blaxx sawmill. The Very Chaotic Halfling Thief wants to set fire to it as usual, and the Very Uptight Druid won’t let him (also as usual.) So the Very Chaotic Halfling Thief decides to sleep up in a tree, because it will be entertaining if the lumberjacks cut it down in the morning with him in it. He decides to tie himself to a branch to prevent falling during the night. Then he decides not to, in case his friends set fire to the tree. The dice were with him, he did not fall out of the tree, until it was in fact chopped down. Took some bludgeoning damage, but said it was worth it, and that he felt completely fulfilled, and might not even try to set anything on fire that day.
They left their wagon in the camp and gave the remaining 25 pounds of aurochs meat to the lumberjacks, helping to wipe out the stain of their earlier failure at the sawmill. Then they traveled through the deep forest until they came in sight of the high, bramble walls of the Druid Zoo. They hear shouts of, ‘Who let them escape?” “Where did they go!” and suddenly, the party sees a velociraptor. They look at it, it looks at them. And that’s when the attack comes: not from the front, but from the sides…from the two velociraptors they didn’t even know were there.
Session ended. Twelve days left.
Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) Wood Elf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2
Last Tree Standing Tabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1
Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive
Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth
Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
Our encounter with a Tiamat-looking dragon in a chamber continues, though it becomes clear this creature is merely an aspect of the draconic demon.
Our double-glaive wielding elf barbarian continues to hack down multiple dragon heads...but they slowly regenerate, so all he can do is keep the creature at bay. He complains that his arms are growing tired, and he cannot keep doing it for much longer.
Meanwhile, our kobold sword bard has discovered that the gems at the exterior of the chamber are the source of this aspects power, and proceeds to "Shatter" one. And just like that, one of the dragon heads stays dead.
So while our barbarian continues to engage the monster, our bard, druid, paladin and my cleric destroy these gems, with our genasi wizard even joining in as he exits our demi-bag.
The beast is then slain. Some lizardmen cultists who had been observing suddenly scatter, seemingly losing their intelligence with the death of this dragon monster.
We discover a bizarre portal past the pile of gold; my cleric inspects it and goes inside.
He enters a chamber that is almost completely dark, save for faint light in the distance. Lacking darkvision, he can only make out the vague shapes of some kind of workshop, a cloaked feminine figure busily at work.
As a Ghostwise halfling, my cleric telepathically asks her how her work is going, without giving away his presence in the dark.
The woman stops working, and remarks that the dragon monster had been intended to ensure that the work continued uninterrupted.
My cleric apologizes (still telepathically), but the woman turns to face him anyway, and begins approaching.
My cleric hastily asks for her to hold up a moment, while also casting "Entangle" (a trick he picked up from our druid with the Magic Initiate feat), trying to stop her advance.
The woman, however, slips through the spell as if by magic, and soon stands in front of my halfling.
...then she stabs my cleric in the chest with a concealed dagger!
The dagger grows to twice its size while impaled in my chest, and my halflings eyes bulge in shock and horror.
...and then he's...gone. Disappeared, his equipment clattering to the floor.
The rest my party enters just in time to see the woman sheathe her dagger. Apparently, time works differently here, and since the party didn't enter at the same time, they do not witness my cleric's demise. They do interrogate this woman, demanding where the cleric has gone, and the paladin detects the smell of evil upon her.
The woman sighs, commenting that her work cannot continue with these interruptions, and that now she will have to move. She warns the party that the cleric has paid the price, an expensive one, and that if the party intervenes further, the "price" will go up immeasurably.
Though angered and mournful, some Arcana and Investigation checks reveal that this woman is far beyond our ability to fight.
The party leaves, and the portal closes. They collect some gold from the dragon trove, and return to the fishing town to announce the death of the monster slain.
...meanwhile, my halfling cleric finds himself naked and alone, in an endless abyss of darkness. Unable to see, he sees and feels cold hands reaching out to him, rubbing and prodding him as sad wails echo through the blackness.
A hulking demonic figure approaches after hours pass, the details my halfling cannot see without darkvision, but is undoubtably horrific.
The demon presents a piece of paper, and in Abyssal croaks, "Deal?"
My halfling, ever the fool, says that he has been kept waiting for over 15 minutes, and demands to see the manager.
The demon chuckles, a wicked sound, and repeats the question. My halfling shrugs and says he doesn't have a pen.
A cut slices the palm of my cleric's hand, and it becomes clear that unless my halfling signs the paper, he will he condemned to the cold darkness, alone.
...which as a Light Cleric with loneliness issues, is terrifying.
So my halfling signs the paper, and the session ends.
...now I have to roll a new character.
Okay, this is going to be a long one.
I'm in a steampunk campaign that, once it gets running, will in large part take place onboard an airship. I'm the ship's captain, rock gnome artillerist artificer Doza Dunben. We had our first session back in December, but I was out of the state at the time so I couldn't make it. Apparently the bard got arrested for trying to steal some bagpipes. Because bard.
As for our second session, it was weird. To just show you the insanity, here's the character breakdown (aside from Doza): Shadow Elf Rogue (Swashbuckler) Ash, Goliath Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) Sparrow, Aarocockra Life Cleric Ginger, Tabaxi Satire Bard Mr. M. Ittenz, and a halfling druid with no name (I forgot her subclass). During the first session, my character was basically an NPC, and the players arrived at my office. We got a call from the town's mayor, who told us to meet her. Upon our arrival, we were informed that there was a ring of goblins smuggling a drug called Wormstongue into the city through unknown means. On our way to meet the constable, we ran into a goblin runner in an alley, and the rogue dealt with him easily. After a visit to the constable, we split up.
The druid wandered around for a bit and didn't really do much until we met back up.
Doza, Ash, and Ginger did some espionage, hunting around the town for signs of the smugglers. I failed an investigation check and got distracted, not arriving at the location of the goblin until Ash shot him with a sniper rifle, nearly killing him. The three of us tried to interrogate the goblin, but we all had mediocre intimidation scores, and so our attempts did nothing except beat him up, and so I ultimately decided to put the goblin out of his misery with my handaxe. All we learned is that their leader was named Mauvis.
Sparrow stayed behind at the constable's ofice, where several goblins were packed into the jail cells. Due to his high intimidation, he was easily able to ascertain that the drugs were coming through a portal in the woods, and he was able to find the exact coordinates. He also learned of Mauvis.
Ittenz went to the local tavern. The tavern was almost completely empty, so he spoke to the bartender. After ordering a drink, Ittenz was easily able to learn of the portal. He also learned of Mauvis.
Then the bartender threatened to kill him if he didn't hand over 100 gold. Ittenz quickly ran away. The druid then tried to go to the tavern, quickly fleeing as soon as she saw it was filled with goblins.
When we returned to Doza's office, Ittenz was hugging a pillow, rocking back and forth on Doza's couch (Aside: Ittenz is now canonically crashing on my office couch until we leave). We exchanged information, and set off into the woods. During our long rest, our DM rolled on a random encounters table. Ittenz was on guard duty, and he failed a perception check, and was hit by two attacks from heavy crossbows. The DM had rolled "haunted by a recently made enemy," and the bartender was back, with someone else.
The fight was pretty standard... except I rolled AWFUL. I summoned my eldritch cannon and tried to shoot. Nat 1. Blew up in my face. Literally. I pulled out my crossbow and tried to shoot. Nat 1. Shot myself in the foot. LITERALLY. After the fight, I tried to pull the bolt out of my foot. Nat 1. Broke the shaft and dug the head in deeper. At the end of the fight, we looted the corpses. On each one, we found identical lockets. With a cast of identify, I discovered that they were amulets of minor necromancy. The hatch on each swung open to reveal, carved into the stone, a capital "M."
After we woke up, Doza killed a deer and Ash rolled a nat 20 preparing the carcass, which Ginger made into jerky. Our druid, a vegan, ran off to forage for berries. Failed her nature check. Found a bear. Bear rolled a nat 1 and hit itself on the first attack. The druid healed the bear, and now we have a pet bear named Winnie.
We found the portal, and stepped through. We found seven goblins, mining gold, refusing to look away from their work. At the back of the mine was a giant metal figure, lying dormant, the words "Titanus Olympus" scrawled across its chest. Rolling an arcana check, I discovered that the machine would wake if the goblins ceased their work. Meanwhile, Ittenz and Sparrow were attempting to rally the goblins to rebellion. I approached the machine, and slowly took out my crossbow, and fired a shot. Who would've thought that it would also wake up if you attacked it? That's just ridiculous!
Once it awoke, we realized it was a creature of legend, an Olympus Titan (basically just an Eberron Warforged Titan but legendary and with more HP). My character dropped to 5 hp so fast that the DM immediately sent in our campaign's resident Deus Ex Machina NPC, a lizardfolk druid, who saved Doza, attacked the Titan, and disappeared. During the fight, Sparrow had the idea to throw his axe, with thunderous smite, at the Titan. Our DM then decided that, if the roll was a success and if he changed his deity from Tyr to Thor, Sparrow's axe would basically become Stormbreaker. Sparrow agreed, and dealt a ridiculous amount of damage to the Titan (also, keep in mind that two of the players had to leave and the DM was trying to speed up the fight. )
We destroyed the Titan, and were about to leave, when suddenly we saw a vision. Mauvis appeared to us, and we discovered that we were fighting the forces of a lich.
My last session was supposed to be a hostage rescue for 5 level 2 characters (including me). Spying out the situation we was a group of bad guys at the front a smaller group at the back (who were position so it would be pretty easy to surprise attack them) and a huge bunch slowly circling round between them. It was obvious we needed to take out the group at the back quickly and silently. The Fighter said to make sure the big group didn't get to us he would distract them and pull them away from us, there was plenty of tree cover so we thought we were just losing one party member to ensure we didn't bump into the large group, it might also make getting the hostages out easier.
We started our attack as the the distraction began but the tank ran straight to us, the big group had a little further to go but instead of going very slowly they were dashing. As they approach us we had just managed to kill the small group and putting the bodies in the bushes a couple of us would have been able to get to the door which would probably have been enough, the fighter throws a grappling hook breaking a window about 20 foot up and starts to climb but instead of getting all the way up he stops half way to taunt the bad guys and the rest of us decide we have to fight not realising quite how many were still to come round the corner.
We we rolled well and killed many but as our luck evened out there were just too many first the fighter went down then the warlock. I rushed to them with a healers kit only to find the boss fight next to me round the corner. 2 make a long story short the boss knocked me unconscious but I rolled a nat 20 on my death save and stabilise the warlock, the boss hits me unconscious again. The two left alive try and make a run for it one manages but the other gets hit and is also unconscious, while the DM said we were out of initiative he asks us to go through our death saves we both roll 20s first roll! This allows us to escape, and the three of us regroup and decide the 4 remain baddies were all in a bad way so rather than let them get reinforcements and heal we should try to take them out. The boss goes down to one more arrow followed by the other human leaving just a kobald and a "guard dog" (creature name withheld to avoid spoilers) who both gave up the fight.
Result
21 dead bad guys
3 bad guys run away
XP 925
Adjusted XP 3700 (anything over 1000 is deadly, and I should also point out that this was our 4th encounter without a short or long rest, while it was only our second battle and we were close to full health at the start we were fairly low on other resources)
1 dead party member
1 unconcious party member (who may be ruled dead as the player is considering a new character)
3 surviving party members
My death rolls 20,20,20
As a party we also had 3 consecutive nat 20s on death saves.
How that wasn't a TPK I'll never know.
I had a very frustrating session tonight. I spent an hour and a half unconscious; I nearly wish I had died so I could have just logged off for the night (I am playing remotely) rather than waste my time not having fun. It started off with us needing to get through a door. to get at a necromancer we knew was in a mausoleum raising undead. The fighter...well he decided it was a good idea to run into the stone wall to try and knock the whole mausoleum down rather than...you know...open the door. Worked as well as you might think. Then the rogue tried. Rolled a 1. *shrug* So, my 8 strength support sorcerer opened the door. I roll a 20 (auspicious start, right) which was enough with my -1 mod to get the door open. I shatter the enemies, do a bit of damage. The other sorcerer throws a fireball and does some good damage. Rather than hold the doorway, the fighter charges to the back of the room because he's got the bloody charger feat, and by Tempus he's going to use it. Ghouls walk up to me since there's no line. I'm already at half health, they hit me, I shield and take it anyways, and lose a big chunk of health. Enemy necromancer fireballs, and I go down like a sack of potatoes. Paladin charges past me into the room and trucks a ghoul. I make my death save. The other sorc runs away and drinks a heal potion because the healer (me) is bleeding out. The fighter uses some ability and manages to heal me for 2 points. I make my plan how I am going to heal up and try to get to a safer location. Necro AOEs me down (I guess that's better than the auto two death fails) again. Paladin trucks the necro (still no heal). I death save. DM is incredulous that I can't get a kill shot on the last ghoul with like 2 hp left. He's like, but you have two hp left. I told him no, you effing AOEd me for 9 while I had only 2 hp left. He's like well maybe you should have let the fighters open the door. I said maybe the fighters shouldn't have charged past me so that I could get wrecked by melees....again (this is getting to be a common theme). I don't mind getting hurt, but the amount of non-protection I get as a divine sorc from my melees is astounding and frustrating. And they are slooooooooow. those three rounds of combat took an hour and a half. I literally rolled one skill check and cast one spell all night long. I made a bunch of death/saving throws though, so yay? I was the only one who managed to not get ghoul fever, as if that was some consolation for not doing anything.
I am seriously || close to my next two levels being hexblade warlock. Medium armor, shield, and darkness/devils sight...maybe that will get me the protection I need.
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
Campaign 2, 3rd session:
Characters: Level 1 Half-orc Fighter, Level 1 Rock Gnome Sorcerer and Level 1 Mountain Dwarf Ranger
- This time we got a job investigate a ship because there were rumors about vampires and we got hired as staff to the ship.
- Each character had own job on ship: 1 was helping in kitchen, 1 was cleaning the deck and 1 was lookout.
- We found empty barrels from cargo room with same symbols that were related to vampires.
- One of the doors was locked and we decided to investigate that door during night.
- When were on the way to cargo room some guards interrupted us and it turned out into fight with result that dwarf ranger was dragged away unconsious. Gnome sorcerer was able to escape and hide away while half-orc fighter was not attending to the fight and was hiding in cargo room.
- Half-orc fighter and gnome sorcerer tried to rescue the dwarf ranger from captains cabin but unfortunately dwarf ranger died during the fight.
- After the fight with captain we found a key to the locked room and we found out that barrels were filled with blood in the harbour town.
- We were hiding in ship waiting for the ship to return to the harbour where the journey began.
- In the harbor some local guards came to investigate the murders that happened on ship. However, gnome sorcerer was talking with the guards and he was able make the guards believe that the dead dwarf ranger was only involved in murders so were able to leave the ship.
- After the game we realized we forgot that original plan was to level up characters to level 3. However, we decided to just make one level up and we will begin next session from level 2 with all changes already written in character sheets.