My last session was a pre gen intro to D&D that my local club held as part of their open day today. As it was quiet, we had two of the usual war gamers playing and I was there with both of my kids my 14yr old murder hobo son and my 10yr old daughter (who also found a love for the game Unstable Unicorns today lol). He is a lawful good human fighter, she is a neutral halfling rogue, I am a high elf wizard, we also have a human cleric and another fighter (cant remember class). We get asked by some kids to investigate a house where their parents were dragged by monsters, so we enter the house and start looking around find a few interesting facts, murder hobo decides he wants to steal all of the silver ware from the dining table (with the promise of giving it all back if it turns out the house is inhabited!) He also tries to steal a spear from a suit of armour, natural 1 fails to steal, suit of armour comes to life and attacks him with spear (misses thankfully). Roll Initiative Murder Hobo Other fighter Cleric Midget Me Murder Hobo rolls another natural 1, steps back to swing his sword, trips over halfling and rolls down the stairs backwards! Fighter attacks and hits, cleric attacks and hits, Midget comes through with the natural 20 and her shortsword, rolls max damage ****s up the suit of armour! I use mage hand to take the spear from the other suit of armour no problems with that one. More searching and some time later the murder hobo decides to open a door by kicking it, third natural 1 of the day, he kicks the door and falls on his ass, I walk past him and just open the unlocked (something the DM had told us) door! A few doors later, he tries to open it by charging it and rolls a natural 20 (I really wanted the door to be a pull and for fun he just bounced off it lol, DM had him run straight through the door splintering it). End up in a nursery, there is a cot, Midget investigates the cot, Demon baby jumps up claws her face and bites her nose off! Several misses later I throw magic missile at it and its gone! The room opposite the nursery is the master bedroom with two bodies in the bed, I check for life signs there are none, I shocking grasp the bodies just in case they are faking it. The other fighter "Nopes" his way into the room and sets fire to the bed, the dead occupants of the bed, the fire spreads to the curtains, the wooden walls, etc etc etc. We are now legging it out of the house, murder hobo stops to grab the rest of the silverware! When we exit it turns out we are in Strahds land lol DM told us afterwards that if the fighter hadn't set fire to the place, we would have found the bodies of those kids that sent us in here in the attic, and in the cellar a cultists hangout! Me and the Cleric, Neutral Good, Rogue Neutral Fighters, one Lawful Neutral commits arson, one Lawful Good robs the place blind!
Final session of Dragon Heist. The players are infiltrating the Xanathar headquarters on behalf of the Blackstaff, who promises to identify the stone of Golorr for them if they kill Nihilor the mind flayer.
Being only three, the players decide to play it carefully, inspecting every room before entering, rolling stealth all the time, et cetera. Unfortunately, they only find uniforms that fit one of the characters, so the rest have to do some metal gear style sneaking. They avoid most encounters, but, unfortunately, the uniformed player is caught by Xanathar's majordomo. Being the crafty motha****er that he is, the rolls deception, telling him that he's a new recruit, and big fan of the Majordomo. Insight for the majordomo... 6. He believes the tale, and is so flattered by this that he gives the player his autograph. (While this is going on, the other players who were too large to use the uniforms are hiding behind pillars Wile. E. Coyote-style) We move on, and I'm happy that I didn't have to kill the players with the entire Xanathar guild.
The players get to the Antechamber of Madness, seeing the mass of Kuo-Toa there. The same crafty motha****a from the last encounter decides to talk to them, telling them that he's a big fan of their culture, and interested in learning more about their goddess. We have a good laugh about him being a Kuo-Toa weaboo (or Kuo-Toaboo, if you will), and he rolls deception. Again, high enough to trick them. They give him a tour of the facility, praising Blibdoolpoolp all the way, giving the other players plenty of time to get into Nihiloor's chamber. But that motha****a isn't done, and convinces the Kuo-Toa that Nihiloor is a heretic that needs to die. Now they have an army. The players and their new Kuo-Toa army engages Nihiloor in combat. Being the lazy DM that I am, I use mass battle rules. The kuo-toa gets a couple good hits in, until Nihiloor wipes all but one out with a Mind Blast. Unfortunately for him, the remaining Kuo-Toa was their leader, a Kuo-toa whip, which uses its grappling ability to keep Nihiloor in place while the players beat the crap out of him. After the combat, the Kuo-toa whip declares that he will travel and establish new Kuo-Toa colonies and spread the word of Blibdoolpoolp to new lands. Killing heretics all the way, of course.
Having done mission given to them by Vajra Safahr, they return, and get the knowledge they need about the stone. One of the players attune to it, and is confronted by Golorr. Golorr desires payment for his knowledge. The player must give up something entirely unique. We have a short moment where Golorr gives an example, by showing a drawing of him made by Renaer Neverember when he was 6, given in exchange for knowledge of where Dagult kept the cookie jar (Golorr now keeps the drawing on a phantasmal fridge, and asks each petitioner to Behold it). The player, ever the savvy motha****a, pulls out the Majordomo's autograph. With an exasperated sigh, I tell him that the autograph fulfills the requirements by technicality.
Really great, considering I forgot to bring any of my notes or the module! This was the first time I've truly winged it when Dming and it was really fun.
Session ended with the party chasing a goblin along the road out of Phandalin. They were tracking him to see if he would lead them to where Gundren Rockseeker was being held captive. They happened across an inn and decided they would rest up, as the goblin was leaving a clear trail behind it.
When they entered, the innkeeper was visibly shaken, the inn itself deserted. Still, they ordered three ales and despite the rogue in the party noticing the innkeeper was so nervous he nearly spilled them, they all took a swig. Suspicious, the rogue whispered "More your eyes to the left for yes, to the right for no. Do you understand?"
*Eyes left*
"Are you really alone here?"
*Eyes right*
"Have you been threatened."
... *Eyes left, eyes dart toward the tap room*
At this point, I make everyone roll a constitution check. The paladin and the fighter both quickly succumb to the sleeping draught they'd just consumed and fainted. The rogue, feeling the effects, simply said, "Why?"
"I'm sorry ... they gave me no choice."
That's when I called it for the session. The whole party went "Nooooooo what happens next!" We'll find out next Saturday!
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Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Our group recently finished a massive three and a half year campaign, and thus retired our epic-tier characters. In our latest session our brand new Level One characters met one another and began a brand new campaign.
We have... a spooky kitty, a punchy kitty, a big sparky cleric, an innocent poet, a spelldancy elf, a sneaky normal, a creepy caster, and me... a sneaky little ranger.
It's a big group with big goals. Well, modest goals. Stay alive... get paid... celebrate...
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
My last session was bittersweet, after 8 months DMing our campaign finally reached it's dramatic conclusion.
Robyn treads water in front of her son, ready to protect him. Yog, the surviving aboleth lets out a scream of grief and rage, his three eyes swiveling madly he demands the party give him back his mate. Ozwald tells him where to go and the water around Yog starts to bubble and boil as the waters become a conduit for the aboleth’s pure psychic fury, sending pain coursing through Breena, Magnus and Yoshy. As Yoshy passes out Breena mounts Oliver and, dodging tentacles, flies over to revive Yoshy with a healing draught, who looks up thankfully at the flying gnome.The carnotaurus lowers its head, swimming through the water like a torpedo straight towards Robyn, slamming its horns into the ranger sending her tumbling through the water. Seeing this Ozwald tries to use mage hand to distract the carnotaurus but jazz hands are not sufficient to put the dinosaur off its current prey.Whilst Panzy pummels away at Yog, Ozwald catches sight of his precious notebook floating in the water. As the waters continue to surge upwards, Robyn, Magnus and Yoshy see the jaws of the departed Sothoth, bursting from the water ready to swallow them, but our heroes see through Yog’s tricks now, and as the illusory jaws close harmlessly around them Magnus tells Yog that Sothoth is not coming back, but he’ll be glad to send Yog to her.
Yog appeals to Ozwald, telling Oz that to kill the aboleths is to destroy history and promising to share with him all the secret knowledge of the aboleths. If Ozwald will free him he can be a scribe in the empire to come, an empire of peace and wisdom. Ozwald responds with outrage at the aboleth’s enslavement of the mortal races but Yog points out the mortal races enslave themselves. Magnus does not meet Ozwald’s eye. The bard is tempted, but will not submit. Sever bites into Yog, draining more of the creature’s thick blood. But the aboleth turns it eyes on Robyn, telling her to release him. The dominated elf speaks the word “Trifle” and the bands unravel as Robyn swims towards Magnus with her blade drawn. As she passes the carnotaurus the creature snaps at her and the pain shakes Robyn free of the aboleth’s control. She spins around, stabbing at the carnotaurus instead as Magnus brings his hammer down on the creature’s thick skull. This is rapidly followed by an arrow from Yoshy striking the ailing dino as Robyn's panther Clouseau digs his claws into Yog’s flesh. Breena turns her holy flamethrower upon the aboleth but is unable to paralyse it, Ozwald follows up quickly with a thrown slave sphere but also misses. Taking a more direct approach he flies straight at the aboleth but is unable to pierce his flesh. The carnotaurus tries to flee but beneath Robyn’s blade and Magnus’ hammer the confused dinosaur sinks beneath the water. As the waters surge upwards carrying all towards the top of the cenote Yog slams his tail into Sever as Sever buries his blade in Yog’s spinal cord. Yog writhes in rage and pain, flailing at Sever and Clouseau, however the power of Bahamut acts as a shield of faith against the creature’s blows .At that moment, the sun rises over the horizon, shining down into the cenote. Sever enjoys the sunlight on his face for the first time in a long time. And then dismisses the aboleth’s desperate illusion.
The rest of the party hold off on attacking the wounded aboleth as Breena jumps on to the creature’s back and wielding her chemleric rings she shoves one hand into the wound on Yog’s back, grabbing hold of his spinal cord, and holds the other hand above her head. Invoking her god Smoothands, Breena begins to transubstantiate flesh for air, turning Yog’s nervous system into thin air whilst grey matter rains down upon her. Sever catches the brain goo on his tongue like a child catching snowflakes. Panzy goes to strike the aboleth but pulls her punch as the party cry out at her to stop, knowing the creature will just reform on the plane of water again if they kill it. But Sever will not be stopped and plunges his blade into Yog’s head. The aboleth’s eyes close, its breathing becomes faint as Yog hovers closer to death. Ozwald hears the dying monster’s voice in its head, urging him to finish Yog off, promising all the secrets of the world. Ozwald resists. Breena calls upon the power of the Underdark to finish transforming flesh into air and the creature goes limps as the water carries the party up through the opening in the top of the cenote. Yog’s control over Sever melts away. The dawn is about to break, and a gentle breeze blows away the air that was Yog. The aboleths are defeated.
The party are reunited with the baby owlbear as the water overflows the cenote pouring out across the island in streams. The barrier that had prevented teleportation off the island drops. Cage island is free. As the party collapse exhausted on to the grass, the world around them becomes fuzzy. A circle of flame draws itself around the party, burning the morning due off the grass, there is a moment of darkness and fire, and our heroes find themselves outside the Squid’s Arms.The party find themselves facing off against a strange coalition of the inquisitors left behind to garrison the town, the necromancers of the Dead Quarter, and the surviving militiamen. They are surrounding the tavern, weapons drawn. A singed Aboline stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Lilith and the dragonborn High Inquisitor. Fingers scuttles around in agitation pointing towards the tavern. Aboline gives a start at the appearance of the party, but the reunion is not a happy one. He tells them “I think Bas is in there with that thing that looks like Fred. It tore through the town, killing scores, but when it got to the tavern it stopped. Everyone we’ve sent in has been burnt to ash. He said he was waiting for you. He said he wants you to be the first to see.” Magnus turns to the High Inquisitor and asks him to pray for them. He retrieves the axe he lodged in the side of the building weeks prior and drops it at Sever’s feet. The party take a moment to try and heal themselves as much as possible, and Lilith offers first her wrists, and then her neck, to the weakened Sever. Despite his reservations Sever feeds deeply and as Lilith collapses into Aboline’s arms, he tells Sever to make sure it’s worth it. Sever tells Aboline to take care of her. Yoshy asks Robyn if he should come with them, and Robyn tells her son to stay outside and look after the owlbear.
Ozwald springs forward and kicks the door in, attempting to roar impressively, but no sound can be heard. Magnus, Breena, Clouseau, Robyn, Sever, Breena and Panzy follow behind into the eerily silent bar. Fred is standing calmly behind the bar, holding Bas by the throat with one hand and pouring a drink with the other. The party hear Fred’s voice in their heads as he ask them how it’s going. Oz tells him to **** off and Fred squeezes Bas’ throat. He tells them that whilst they may have scuppered his plans for the aboleths, they have also destroyed the only beings powerful enough to threaten him, and removed the barrier preventing him from doing this:
A flaming portal opens above Fred’s head and the party find themselves looking into an infernal, burning landscape of the damned. A towering horned pit fiend is striding across this hellscape towards the portal, drawing quickly closer. Fred is going to trade up bodies. Oz demands that he release Bas and close the portal or the Onward Hoes will kill him. Fred tells them that once he has his true form back he’s going to burn the island down to it’s bedrock, he’s going to have so much fun in their miserable little world. Magnus tells Fred that he was prettier as Cosmia, and Fred tells Magnus that Cosmia sucks cock in hell. Magnus invokes the pitfiend's true name in his mind, asking how Fred will survive when his red blood, red eyes, and red name are burnt out of existence. Fred asks how he intends to do that when he cannot speak and Magnus tells him they will destroy him as they destroyed the aboleths – together!
Magnus launches himself across the bar at Fred and hits him in his smug face with a mighty blow of his magic warhammer. But Fred doesn’t even blink. Sever shadowsteps into a dark corner and then dashes towards Fred, taking him by surprise and sinking his blade into the fiend’s side, but as Sever attempts to move away the skinny figure of Fred slams it’s fist into Sever’s face with the force of a freight train. Breena opens fire with silver dragon breath from her flamethrower. This paralyses Bas, but Fred simply shrugs it off. Fred tells her he will pull apart every gnome beneath the island whilst he makes her watch. Fred summons a fireball and flicks it at the party members gathered in front of the door, hitting Robyn, Breena and Ozwald and knocking Panzy and Clouseau unconscious. Fred drops the paralysed Bas and slams his tail into Magnus as the portal above him grows and the body of the pit fiend approaches. Ozwald enters a rage and flies at him, stabbing at his former friend with the Marlinblade. Robyn steps outside the bubble of silence and screams “Red” but the sound cannot penetrate the silence. She fires an arrow and hits Fred but he barely seems to notice. Magnus swings at Fred with his warhammer trying to trip him but Fred nimbly dodges aside. Summoning the last of his strength Magnus swings the hammer once more with everything he’s got and the blow makes Fred stumble slightly as he loses his concentration, knocking his drink off the bar. The party hear the glass smash against the floor. Magnus speaks:“How does it feel to be mortal Red?” Fred grits his teeth, as if compelled to speak against his will, he says:“You have named me true, name your one boon.” Magnus orders the pit fiend to leave this realm, return to his throne and sit upon it forever. Fire engulfs Fred and the pit fiend’s spirit is sucked backwards into the portal at the moment his true form begins to reach into the world. As the portal closes a tiny shimmering thing escapes and enters Fred’s body. Magnus wordlessly jumps into the closing portal. He has someone to find.The body of Fred takes a great gasp, staring terrified around him. Ozwald put his blade to Fred’s throat and Robyn checks on Bas, who stirs awake. Robyn suggests it might be time to leave as the townspeople rush in and restrain Fred.
The battle is over. Clouseau is restored to non-vampirism by Father Kepelchek and Robyn “comforts” Bas. A tense truce holds between the inquisitors and the other islanders, ships are free to come and go once again and soon a ruling council is formed in Liberty Landing. The Onward Hoes are invited to join but decline. The council’s first proposal is to make diplomatic contact with the Tritons and the Deep Gnomes, who are also seeking leadership. Robyn, reunited with her son, wants nothing more than to take him home and the two of them return to the Elflands together, leaving Cage Island behind as they sail across the ocean towards a new dawn. Breena travels to Amity, meeting up with the surviving awakened animals, and repairing the first Oliver. She declines the offer of a throne in the Underdark, entrusting Drimble to institute democracy, and instead she opens a shop in Liberty Landing, continuing her studies and acting as a go between the surface and the Underdark. She also punches the drunken gnome from her hometown in the face. Sever remains on the island with Lilith, taking up the vacancy as a Deadsmith and in time founding a new house of vampires. With foreign powers once again looking greedily at Cage Island and the Inquisition threatening to return in force, Sever becomes a defender of the exiled and rejected, putting his past life as an assassin behind him he swears to protect the island, and destroy anyone who would threaten it. Ozwald meets up with Grindel, who tells him many things lost and unspoken, before Oz returns to the old world to write down what he has learned and inform the College of Bards. He and Breena become penpals. In time Ozwald is approached by an inventor who has devised a new contraption he calls a “printing press” and is interested in Oz's work. Torrin’s body is recovered and laid to rest at the temple of Bahmaut. Fred explains his actions and reconciles with the others, before scaling Cosmia’s tower and piloting it to the centre of the island. He is never seen again, but people tell tall tales of a flash of red that is seen when wanderers in the forest are saved from danger. Magnus sets off into hell itself to find the only person whose answers he wants. He will find Cosmia, if he has to conquer hell to do it.
I finally DM'd my first game this week. That was nerve-wracking, but all of my players agreed I did great for my first time, so that felt good to hear. This is supposed to be a level 1 adventure, but it is very much baptism by fire; two players would have died in the opening scene if I hadn't held back. The game starts with the players arriving in an arctic town as caravan guards. The gates open to let them through then a pack of yetis attack the settlement, four juveniles and an adult. Only two of the players have any previous D&D experience, but it was all online, no tabletop pen and paper. All things considered though, everyone did well as I tried to walk them through combat without holding their hands, and the yetis weren't all that powerful. The problem was my attack rolls were too damn good. I had to avoid one player because he was still filling out his character sheet and trying to figure out spells, then I had to nerf the adult yeti's hit points otherwise it might have taken them all night to kill it, then I had to lie and turn a critical hit into a near miss. The only reason, and I mean the only reason everyone survived the encounter is because the barbarian got a crit on it and just about chopped the poor thing in half. If this hadn't been basically the tutorial encounter, I would have been a bit more aggressive, but damn why can't I roll that good when I'm playing the game!
After that, I pretty sloppily and inorganically dropped the three main quest hooks on the players. I would have been better prepared if we hadn't been postponing the game every two weeks since July, so I had forgotten a lot of the quest details and there were a bunch of times where I just read directly from the campaign book. After that one player got arrested, and another I had to talk down from trying to rob a bank. A third player really wants to play a wild mage, and while I don't blame her, it's a lot more for me to have to remember. The character who got arrested is playing the kind of ******* rogue who thinks he can just pickpocket everyone he meets and then whine that I can't punish him for roleplaying. Oh but I've got several ideas for him. The other player still wants to pull a heist. I'll let him try, but it will go down the bank robbery in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
So this is my to do list for the next session:
1. Print out the wild magic chart so I always have it on hand.
2. Design a bank robbery encounter, with the banker as a Level 3 or 4 fighter or monk.
3. Implement operation werebear, to turn my sticky fingers rogue into a lawful good monster who aggressively donates to charity.
4. Get everyone their own character pawn, because everyone had to make do with my generic minion minifigures.
5. Design random encounters. I originally wasn't going to, but seeing how they did in the two encounters they fought, they'll get crushed if they go up against the campaign's bosses they they don't have enough XP to level up at least once. I won't be as merciful, but I want them to at least have a fighting chance.
This is a story of how my Adventurer's League group killed their ranger.
I was DM'ing the Salvage Operation adventure from GoS, and the party was slightly under APL. I should also mention that 4 of the 5 players at this table were between the ages of 9 and 13. The party consisted of a dwarf rogue, a tabaxi warlock, an elf ranger, a halfling ranger, and a gnome druid.
The party is surprised by the ettercap and giant spider in the navigator's room and several of them succumb to poison and web restraints. After spending some healing spells and a couple vials of antitoxin, the party regroups on the deck. The confines of the ship renders their usual tactics of kiting and ranged attacks useless. They come up with another strategy.
The druid wildshapes into a spider and heads below deck. After a few minutes of scouting, the druid spider returns and tells the party all about Krell, the spiders, and that he found the box. The gnome druid didn't want to shift out of spider shape, which led to some interesting leg waving-yes or no-Q&A session. The dwarf rogue flubs his stealth roll as he "sneaks" into the bilge. He picks up the box and is immediately set upon by the bloated, water logged undead. He intelligently drops the box and runs to tell the party about the ghouls. The ghouls follow him out of the hold.
During the ensuing battle, involving the druid reshaping into a crocodile, the elf ranger goes down. The tabaxi warlock stabilizes him and rushes to get the box as the rest of the party is fighting the ghouls. The warlock realizing he can't carry it by himself calls for help. The druid disegages, drops shape and goes to help. So the current lay out of the battle is Warlock and Druid are in the bilge. Halfling ranger and dwarf rogue are on the main deck fighting one of the remaining ghouls.
Leaving the unconscious elf ranger alone in the aft cabin...with a ghoul.
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Lark- Goblin Bard 2- Lost Mines Gr-A/ AC 13 HP 15, passive perception 11
Really great, considering I forgot to bring any of my notes or the module! This was the first time I've truly winged it when Dming and it was really fun.
Session ended with the party chasing a goblin along the road out of Phandalin. They were tracking him to see if he would lead them to where Gundren Rockseeker was being held captive. They happened across an inn and decided they would rest up, as the goblin was leaving a clear trail behind it.
When they entered, the innkeeper was visibly shaken, the inn itself deserted. Still, they ordered three ales and despite the rogue in the party noticing the innkeeper was so nervous he nearly spilled them, they all took a swig. Suspicious, the rogue whispered "More your eyes to the left for yes, to the right for no. Do you understand?"
*Eyes left*
"Are you really alone here?"
*Eyes right*
"Have you been threatened."
... *Eyes left, eyes dart toward the tap room*
At this point, I make everyone roll a constitution check. The paladin and the fighter both quickly succumb to the sleeping draught they'd just consumed and fainted. The rogue, feeling the effects, simply said, "Why?"
"I'm sorry ... they gave me no choice."
That's when I called it for the session. The whole party went "Nooooooo what happens next!" We'll find out next Saturday!
The party awoke, heads still spinning. Before them, smirking, was Iarno Albrek. They had a previous run-in which didn't go well; he successfully cast hold person on them all at the Redbrand hideout, making his escape. They really hate him as I play him as a really smarmy, slippery character.
"Sorry and all that about the underhand manner in which I gathered you all here, but you three are far too troublesome. Now, before I have you killed, you will tell me where you have hidden your friend's maps of the Wave Echo Cave."
They looked around for Oogion, their goblin companion but he was nowhere to be seen. [NB - Oogion was one of the goblins who took part in the ambush right at the start of the campaign. The party kept him alive and he has now joined them. He appraises any treasure they find and generally hides behind the paladin.]
"What have you done with Oogi you bastard?" growled the paladin.
"He's at our hideout at Cragmaw Castle. If you don't tell me where I may find the maps, I'm sure he will."
No-one could move, the hold person spell kept them rooted to the spot (no-one actually thought to try and make a saving throw to break free!). Iarno soon grew bored and clapped his hands, two bandits entering with the swords drawn. "Kill them." As Iarno left, the paladin in the group thought quickly and asked the bandits to join him in a prayer. They granted this last request and finally the elven rogue and the dwarven fighter broke free. The dwarf headbutted the nearest praying bandit and knocked him out cold as the elf rushed out of the room to find their weapons. Luckily, the innkeeper threw her bow to her.
Alarmed, the second bandit clouted the paladin full in the face. There followed a great encounter where the dwarf and the paladin continually confused the bandit by promising all kinds of bribery and bargaining, rolling very highly on their persuasion rolls before the elf planted an arrow through his chest.
The innkeeper told them that the wizard had fled north along the Triboar Trail. He apologised for the deception and offered them free bed and board so that they might rest whilst the effects of the sleeping draught wore off. Once the room had stopped spinning, they set off after the wizard, along the way happening upon Thundertree where as they approached a green dragon banked around them, roaring as it flew towards the settlement.
Once in Thundertree, the group headed for the smithy, as the dwarf noticed a dim glow emitting from the building. They found several black winged masks and cloaks, along with some crudely-made swords still in the forge. Donning the robes, they headed towards where they thought the dragon had landed only to disturb a horde of undead. The paladin practiced his divine smites, cutting down several shambling corpses but the zombies were soon too great in number to be defeated. Just as it was starting to look hopeless, four masked, black-cloaked cultists ran from a farmhouse and saved the party. They met the leader, Vishnoth, who greeted them warmly and told them they were just in time; he was about to make first contact with the dragon.
The dwarf, distrusting Vishnoth and his silent henchmen was apprehensive as the group approached the tower, Vishnoth in front and the four cultists in a line behind them. Sure enough, when they reached the tower entrance and saw the smouldering corpses of two giant spiders, he decided he wanted to return to town. The cultists blocked the way, Vishnoth purring:
"Brother, why would you turn back now? Together, we will meet with the mighty Venomfang and pledge our service. Come, let us ascend the tower together." Choosing not to cut his way through, the dwarf relented.
They approached Venomfang, who eyed them curiously. Vishnoth sank to his knees before the dragon, threw his arms to the sky and cried: "Oh powerful Venomfang, we bring before you these three tributes as a sign of our fealty!" Cue the dwarf growling,
"I KNEW it."
As the dragon reared, the paladin ran alongside Vishnoth and shouted:
"Wait! Mighty Venomfang, do not act in haste, Vishnoth is unworthy! My companions and I are far more useful to you!"
The dragon stopped, considered this for a moment and opened it's mouth, its breath enveloping Vishnoth and leaving not a thing behind.
"Prove your worthiness to me. Kill the four."
The party had no trouble in making short work of the remaining cultists whilst the dragon looked on, amused. The final cultist tried to flee, only to be disintegrated by another blast of the dragon's breath. Venomfang asked them how they came to Thundertree, intrigued upon hearing about their adventure thus far. When the party asked if he knew where Cragmaw Castle was, he said yes. He wouldn't tell them where it was until the rogue convinced him that Cragmaw Castle would make a much more fitting lair than the ruins of Thundertree. Venomfang then tasked them with clearing out the castle for him, as such a task was unbecoming of one so great as he. He gave them the location so that they could finally find their friend Gundren, hopefully in time ...
For this session, I booked a table at our local pub, so this was the first time I haven't played at someone's home. I'm not sure I'll do it again in a hurry though as it got a bit busy and people kept bumping into me, which made running the game tricky at times. But we went from 1-5.30, long session but the players were saying they enjoyed it as there was more time to get into it. I had the feeling that they all could have gone on for a bit long, so it's really reassuring that I'm doing alright.
Can't wait to get to Cragmaw Castle and see how they tackle it.
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Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Playing a nerfed version of the U-series with a nephew. He almost got himself killed picking too many fights while scouting the sahuagin lair, but on the plus side, he conjured a swarm of magma mephitis to torch their armory, which will make the final assault easier. He spent a lot of time gathering allies. Persuaded the miners in Saltmarsh to let him have some of their modest stock of explosives to take down the front gate; failed to persuade a brother druid to join the coalition; helped the merfolk secure the services of a humpback whale who is a high-level bard.
My vision for the finale is that the sahuagin stage a desperate breakout attempt with the megalodon sized Maw of Sekolah crashing through the merfolk lines underwater. To save the day, I'm hoping he will use an artifact he was given a few months ago to summon an avatar of Sobek the Crocodile God and have a massive giant croc vs giant shark throwdown.
I just experienced my first moment of "Player does something stupid that almost kills them all" AND my first "Player accomplished something miraculous that I thought would be impossible" in the very same session. Basically, the players were hired to retrieve some treasure from a ship adrift. Long story short, they get onto the ship, fight some ghasts, the moon druid almost dies three times in one fight (he deserved it), and they find the treasure box. While they're healing the druid, the ships starts sinking, and the room starts slowly filling up with water (a giant octopus is involved). The druid, properly healed, turns into a shark, and, I kid you not, tries to make a hole to drain the water. The conversation basically went like this:
"I'm attacking the wall, I want to open a hole"
"...Okay, it's a wall, roll damage"
"7"
"It's hella rotten, you make a hole. Water is flowing in, the room is filling up fast"
"But I opened it under the water"
"Yes, so water is flowing in"
"But..."
"You ****ed up, [druid]"
The party eventually manages to get up on the top of the ship, and the players carrying the box (druid #2, ranger and paladin) jumps of with the box. But now they're in the water, floating with a heavy object. The paladin and ranger fail their strength checks, but druid #2 gets a nat 20, managing to hold onto it on her own. However, due to her low strength score, its slipping. We go down the initiative order, but due to generally bellow-average strength scores, they all fail to grab it. The paladin is their last shot. She wants to say a prayer to her god, Bahamut, and rolls the strength check. 14, compared to a DC of 15. I roll a die behind the DM screen, and get a 7. I ask her to say a number between 1 and 20.
"Uhm, I dunno, seven?"
With that, Bahamut hears her prayers, and gives her the strength needed to swim down, grab onto the sinking box, and lift it up to the surface like it weighed nothing. For a second, the other players catch a glimpse of a dragon floating over her, with scales colored... Silver? No, Platinum! This was the first time the Paladin player ever played D&D
So my campaign ended last week The BBEG who has been puppet mastering everyone to do what he wanted with his end game being awaking a huge clockwork Dragon to break the magic barrier that is keeping him trapped on the continent the game took place on. After a long battle, the heroes win and all go their own ways. The Cleric adopts the young barbarian as his daughter and teaches her how to be a War Cleric. The Aarakocra Bard went to study at a prestigious Bard College ( In my world a physical school) The Goliath retired from world traveling to be with his wife an Innkeeper the party met when that player joined and is now Captian of the City Gaurd. The Elf Druid and Human Ranger fell in love and got married seeing their mission over and a new era of peace...well until they slowly realized that the Big Bad ended up breaking the barrier and now opened up their content to the rest of the world. Next game is our Halloween one-shot than a New Campaign picking up 5 years later with the druid and ranger returning and the rest getting new charaters
The players decided to assist the duergar army in a battle against the mind flayers. The duergar had an ace up their sleeve--a gargantuan construct to smash the mind flayers and turn the tide of the war.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Party was level 5, a barb, a warlock 2 bards and me an archer samurai fighter so only the barb was melee
Facing some unread dwarves and hounds that could reduce max HP the barb was struggling so I took up a shield a rapier to help him. A dwarf attacked me for a crit hit 35 points damage reduced me to 19. I got 5 temp HP with fighting spirit but it was not enough to stay up when he crit hit me again. The barb also went down and the healer could only heal one of us and chose the barb. I failed a death save and the dwalf struck out at my unconcious body. His third crit in a row (although this time he only needed to beat my AC ) decapitated me.
I am wondering whether to insist I see his rolls in our next session!
Last session was rather frustrating. We have a new player with strong murderhobo tendencies, and his presence is bringing out the murderhobo tendencies of one of our longtime players, too. To make things worse, one of our other longtime players is playing a very strict Lawful Good cleric who goes out of his way in his attempts to shut down the murderhobos' shenanigans, leading to some very tense interactions where it's unclear how much of the antagonism is IC and how much is OOC.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
My homebrew beginner's campaign started out with the characters aboard a ship with a bunch of useful NPCs to help them through tough encounters. Now they are Level 2 and on land, and kind of trying to get their old NPC babysitters to come along on their journeys again for the main quest. So I decided the NPCs are going to form their own rival party.
The party rogue was determined to get together with the ship's rogue second mate and her new rogue goblin buddy, and asked to join THEIR party. They told him they were overpowered in the rogue department already, but he rolled a good persuasion attempt, so they said they would let him try to convince them by stealing something impressive. The rogue decided they meant, like, RIGHT THIS MINUTE NOW, so he tossed a furball from his Bag of Tricks on the table, which resulted in a giant badger frolicking through the dessert course of a royal banquet they had just finished, initiating a pie fight among the remaining guests (fortunately, the Queen had already departed with her bodyguards.) He took advantage of the distraction to attempt to pickpocket the rogue (failed) and two of her non-rogue NPC companions (got a sword and 5 silver) and pinched the shoes off a drunk halfling farmer. Meanwhile, he failed his perception check, and the goblin rogue picked his pocket and got the onion which is the rogue's most prized possession. (Pick-pocketed it off the ship's cook in his third-ever pocket picking attempt.) Obviously, he failed the gang initiation. But the goblin gave his onion back.
Next he decided to buy some thieves' tools. Which are illegal to sell in the city. But he convinced a shopkeeper he wanted them only for dungeon-exploring purposes, and was directed to the shady inn on the seedy side of town, where a gnome offered to sell him a set of 'Luxury elite-quality nose-pickers' for 40gp. The rogue identified them easily as normal 25-gp-variety thieves' tool, and demanded a lower price. They argued bitterly. The gnome pointed out that he would not get a better deal (or any deal) from anyone else in town. After haggling, threatening, and rolling a good persuasion check, the gnome lowered the price to 33, but the rogue stomped out in a rage, and is still without thieves' tools.
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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
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My last session was a pre gen intro to D&D that my local club held as part of their open day today. As it was quiet, we had two of the usual war gamers playing and I was there with both of my kids my 14yr old murder hobo son and my 10yr old daughter (who also found a love for the game Unstable Unicorns today lol).
He is a lawful good human fighter, she is a neutral halfling rogue, I am a high elf wizard, we also have a human cleric and another fighter (cant remember class).
We get asked by some kids to investigate a house where their parents were dragged by monsters, so we enter the house and start looking around find a few interesting facts, murder hobo decides he wants to steal all of the silver ware from the dining table (with the promise of giving it all back if it turns out the house is inhabited!) He also tries to steal a spear from a suit of armour, natural 1 fails to steal, suit of armour comes to life and attacks him with spear (misses thankfully).
Roll Initiative
Murder Hobo
Other fighter
Cleric
Midget
Me
Murder Hobo rolls another natural 1, steps back to swing his sword, trips over halfling and rolls down the stairs backwards! Fighter attacks and hits, cleric attacks and hits, Midget comes through with the natural 20 and her shortsword, rolls max damage ****s up the suit of armour!
I use mage hand to take the spear from the other suit of armour no problems with that one. More searching and some time later the murder hobo decides to open a door by kicking it, third natural 1 of the day, he kicks the door and falls on his ass, I walk past him and just open the unlocked (something the DM had told us) door!
A few doors later, he tries to open it by charging it and rolls a natural 20 (I really wanted the door to be a pull and for fun he just bounced off it lol, DM had him run straight through the door splintering it).
End up in a nursery, there is a cot, Midget investigates the cot, Demon baby jumps up claws her face and bites her nose off! Several misses later I throw magic missile at it and its gone!
The room opposite the nursery is the master bedroom with two bodies in the bed, I check for life signs there are none, I shocking grasp the bodies just in case they are faking it. The other fighter "Nopes" his way into the room and sets fire to the bed, the dead occupants of the bed, the fire spreads to the curtains, the wooden walls, etc etc etc. We are now legging it out of the house, murder hobo stops to grab the rest of the silverware!
When we exit it turns out we are in Strahds land lol
DM told us afterwards that if the fighter hadn't set fire to the place, we would have found the bodies of those kids that sent us in here in the attic, and in the cellar a cultists hangout!
Me and the Cleric, Neutral Good, Rogue Neutral
Fighters, one Lawful Neutral commits arson, one Lawful Good robs the place blind!
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Final session of Dragon Heist. The players are infiltrating the Xanathar headquarters on behalf of the Blackstaff, who promises to identify the stone of Golorr for them if they kill Nihilor the mind flayer.
Being only three, the players decide to play it carefully, inspecting every room before entering, rolling stealth all the time, et cetera. Unfortunately, they only find uniforms that fit one of the characters, so the rest have to do some metal gear style sneaking. They avoid most encounters, but, unfortunately, the uniformed player is caught by Xanathar's majordomo. Being the crafty motha****er that he is, the rolls deception, telling him that he's a new recruit, and big fan of the Majordomo. Insight for the majordomo... 6. He believes the tale, and is so flattered by this that he gives the player his autograph. (While this is going on, the other players who were too large to use the uniforms are hiding behind pillars Wile. E. Coyote-style) We move on, and I'm happy that I didn't have to kill the players with the entire Xanathar guild.
The players get to the Antechamber of Madness, seeing the mass of Kuo-Toa there. The same crafty motha****a from the last encounter decides to talk to them, telling them that he's a big fan of their culture, and interested in learning more about their goddess. We have a good laugh about him being a Kuo-Toa weaboo (or Kuo-Toaboo, if you will), and he rolls deception. Again, high enough to trick them. They give him a tour of the facility, praising Blibdoolpoolp all the way, giving the other players plenty of time to get into Nihiloor's chamber. But that motha****a isn't done, and convinces the Kuo-Toa that Nihiloor is a heretic that needs to die. Now they have an army. The players and their new Kuo-Toa army engages Nihiloor in combat. Being the lazy DM that I am, I use mass battle rules. The kuo-toa gets a couple good hits in, until Nihiloor wipes all but one out with a Mind Blast. Unfortunately for him, the remaining Kuo-Toa was their leader, a Kuo-toa whip, which uses its grappling ability to keep Nihiloor in place while the players beat the crap out of him. After the combat, the Kuo-toa whip declares that he will travel and establish new Kuo-Toa colonies and spread the word of Blibdoolpoolp to new lands. Killing heretics all the way, of course.
Having done mission given to them by Vajra Safahr, they return, and get the knowledge they need about the stone. One of the players attune to it, and is confronted by Golorr. Golorr desires payment for his knowledge. The player must give up something entirely unique. We have a short moment where Golorr gives an example, by showing a drawing of him made by Renaer Neverember when he was 6, given in exchange for knowledge of where Dagult kept the cookie jar (Golorr now keeps the drawing on a phantasmal fridge, and asks each petitioner to Behold it). The player, ever the savvy motha****a, pulls out the Majordomo's autograph. With an exasperated sigh, I tell him that the autograph fulfills the requirements by technicality.
Really great, considering I forgot to bring any of my notes or the module! This was the first time I've truly winged it when Dming and it was really fun.
Session ended with the party chasing a goblin along the road out of Phandalin. They were tracking him to see if he would lead them to where Gundren Rockseeker was being held captive. They happened across an inn and decided they would rest up, as the goblin was leaving a clear trail behind it.
When they entered, the innkeeper was visibly shaken, the inn itself deserted. Still, they ordered three ales and despite the rogue in the party noticing the innkeeper was so nervous he nearly spilled them, they all took a swig. Suspicious, the rogue whispered "More your eyes to the left for yes, to the right for no. Do you understand?"
*Eyes left*
"Are you really alone here?"
*Eyes right*
"Have you been threatened."
... *Eyes left, eyes dart toward the tap room*
At this point, I make everyone roll a constitution check. The paladin and the fighter both quickly succumb to the sleeping draught they'd just consumed and fainted. The rogue, feeling the effects, simply said, "Why?"
"I'm sorry ... they gave me no choice."
That's when I called it for the session. The whole party went "Nooooooo what happens next!" We'll find out next Saturday!
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
My last session was awesome!
Our group recently finished a massive three and a half year campaign, and thus retired our epic-tier characters. In our latest session our brand new Level One characters met one another and began a brand new campaign.
We have... a spooky kitty, a punchy kitty, a big sparky cleric, an innocent poet, a spelldancy elf, a sneaky normal, a creepy caster, and me... a sneaky little ranger.
It's a big group with big goals. Well, modest goals. Stay alive... get paid... celebrate...
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
My last session was bittersweet, after 8 months DMing our campaign finally reached it's dramatic conclusion.
I finally DM'd my first game this week. That was nerve-wracking, but all of my players agreed I did great for my first time, so that felt good to hear. This is supposed to be a level 1 adventure, but it is very much baptism by fire; two players would have died in the opening scene if I hadn't held back. The game starts with the players arriving in an arctic town as caravan guards. The gates open to let them through then a pack of yetis attack the settlement, four juveniles and an adult. Only two of the players have any previous D&D experience, but it was all online, no tabletop pen and paper. All things considered though, everyone did well as I tried to walk them through combat without holding their hands, and the yetis weren't all that powerful. The problem was my attack rolls were too damn good. I had to avoid one player because he was still filling out his character sheet and trying to figure out spells, then I had to nerf the adult yeti's hit points otherwise it might have taken them all night to kill it, then I had to lie and turn a critical hit into a near miss. The only reason, and I mean the only reason everyone survived the encounter is because the barbarian got a crit on it and just about chopped the poor thing in half. If this hadn't been basically the tutorial encounter, I would have been a bit more aggressive, but damn why can't I roll that good when I'm playing the game!
After that, I pretty sloppily and inorganically dropped the three main quest hooks on the players. I would have been better prepared if we hadn't been postponing the game every two weeks since July, so I had forgotten a lot of the quest details and there were a bunch of times where I just read directly from the campaign book. After that one player got arrested, and another I had to talk down from trying to rob a bank. A third player really wants to play a wild mage, and while I don't blame her, it's a lot more for me to have to remember. The character who got arrested is playing the kind of ******* rogue who thinks he can just pickpocket everyone he meets and then whine that I can't punish him for roleplaying. Oh but I've got several ideas for him. The other player still wants to pull a heist. I'll let him try, but it will go down the bank robbery in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
So this is my to do list for the next session:
1. Print out the wild magic chart so I always have it on hand.
2. Design a bank robbery encounter, with the banker as a Level 3 or 4 fighter or monk.
3. Implement operation werebear, to turn my sticky fingers rogue into a lawful good monster who aggressively donates to charity.
4. Get everyone their own character pawn, because everyone had to make do with my generic minion minifigures.
5. Design random encounters. I originally wasn't going to, but seeing how they did in the two encounters they fought, they'll get crushed if they go up against the campaign's bosses they they don't have enough XP to level up at least once. I won't be as merciful, but I want them to at least have a fighting chance.
Started playing Inglorious Redemption. Our Avernus campaign is taking place in Waterdeep. Links provided.
Session 2
Session 1
This is a story of how my Adventurer's League group killed their ranger.
I was DM'ing the Salvage Operation adventure from GoS, and the party was slightly under APL. I should also mention that 4 of the 5 players at this table were between the ages of 9 and 13. The party consisted of a dwarf rogue, a tabaxi warlock, an elf ranger, a halfling ranger, and a gnome druid.
The party is surprised by the ettercap and giant spider in the navigator's room and several of them succumb to poison and web restraints. After spending some healing spells and a couple vials of antitoxin, the party regroups on the deck. The confines of the ship renders their usual tactics of kiting and ranged attacks useless. They come up with another strategy.
The druid wildshapes into a spider and heads below deck. After a few minutes of scouting, the druid spider returns and tells the party all about Krell, the spiders, and that he found the box. The gnome druid didn't want to shift out of spider shape, which led to some interesting leg waving-yes or no-Q&A session. The dwarf rogue flubs his stealth roll as he "sneaks" into the bilge. He picks up the box and is immediately set upon by the bloated, water logged undead. He intelligently drops the box and runs to tell the party about the ghouls. The ghouls follow him out of the hold.
During the ensuing battle, involving the druid reshaping into a crocodile, the elf ranger goes down. The tabaxi warlock stabilizes him and rushes to get the box as the rest of the party is fighting the ghouls. The warlock realizing he can't carry it by himself calls for help. The druid disegages, drops shape and goes to help. So the current lay out of the battle is Warlock and Druid are in the bilge. Halfling ranger and dwarf rogue are on the main deck fighting one of the remaining ghouls.
Leaving the unconscious elf ranger alone in the aft cabin...with a ghoul.
Lark- Goblin Bard 2- Lost Mines Gr-A/ AC 13 HP 15, passive perception 11
DM- Sunless Citadel PbP// Waterdeep Dragon Heist (IRL F2F)// Adventurers League (F2F LGS)
FRUSTRATINGLY BORING
The DM puts a LOT of time and detail and effort into the story, the setting, the plot
The other players are highly creative, adaptable, and intelligent
Then we accomplish almost nothing. WTF!?
The party awoke, heads still spinning. Before them, smirking, was Iarno Albrek. They had a previous run-in which didn't go well; he successfully cast hold person on them all at the Redbrand hideout, making his escape. They really hate him as I play him as a really smarmy, slippery character.
"Sorry and all that about the underhand manner in which I gathered you all here, but you three are far too troublesome. Now, before I have you killed, you will tell me where you have hidden your friend's maps of the Wave Echo Cave."
They looked around for Oogion, their goblin companion but he was nowhere to be seen. [NB - Oogion was one of the goblins who took part in the ambush right at the start of the campaign. The party kept him alive and he has now joined them. He appraises any treasure they find and generally hides behind the paladin.]
"What have you done with Oogi you bastard?" growled the paladin.
"He's at our hideout at Cragmaw Castle. If you don't tell me where I may find the maps, I'm sure he will."
No-one could move, the hold person spell kept them rooted to the spot (no-one actually thought to try and make a saving throw to break free!). Iarno soon grew bored and clapped his hands, two bandits entering with the swords drawn. "Kill them." As Iarno left, the paladin in the group thought quickly and asked the bandits to join him in a prayer. They granted this last request and finally the elven rogue and the dwarven fighter broke free. The dwarf headbutted the nearest praying bandit and knocked him out cold as the elf rushed out of the room to find their weapons. Luckily, the innkeeper threw her bow to her.
Alarmed, the second bandit clouted the paladin full in the face. There followed a great encounter where the dwarf and the paladin continually confused the bandit by promising all kinds of bribery and bargaining, rolling very highly on their persuasion rolls before the elf planted an arrow through his chest.
The innkeeper told them that the wizard had fled north along the Triboar Trail. He apologised for the deception and offered them free bed and board so that they might rest whilst the effects of the sleeping draught wore off. Once the room had stopped spinning, they set off after the wizard, along the way happening upon Thundertree where as they approached a green dragon banked around them, roaring as it flew towards the settlement.
Once in Thundertree, the group headed for the smithy, as the dwarf noticed a dim glow emitting from the building. They found several black winged masks and cloaks, along with some crudely-made swords still in the forge. Donning the robes, they headed towards where they thought the dragon had landed only to disturb a horde of undead. The paladin practiced his divine smites, cutting down several shambling corpses but the zombies were soon too great in number to be defeated. Just as it was starting to look hopeless, four masked, black-cloaked cultists ran from a farmhouse and saved the party. They met the leader, Vishnoth, who greeted them warmly and told them they were just in time; he was about to make first contact with the dragon.
The dwarf, distrusting Vishnoth and his silent henchmen was apprehensive as the group approached the tower, Vishnoth in front and the four cultists in a line behind them. Sure enough, when they reached the tower entrance and saw the smouldering corpses of two giant spiders, he decided he wanted to return to town. The cultists blocked the way, Vishnoth purring:
"Brother, why would you turn back now? Together, we will meet with the mighty Venomfang and pledge our service. Come, let us ascend the tower together." Choosing not to cut his way through, the dwarf relented.
They approached Venomfang, who eyed them curiously. Vishnoth sank to his knees before the dragon, threw his arms to the sky and cried: "Oh powerful Venomfang, we bring before you these three tributes as a sign of our fealty!" Cue the dwarf growling,
"I KNEW it."
As the dragon reared, the paladin ran alongside Vishnoth and shouted:
"Wait! Mighty Venomfang, do not act in haste, Vishnoth is unworthy! My companions and I are far more useful to you!"
The dragon stopped, considered this for a moment and opened it's mouth, its breath enveloping Vishnoth and leaving not a thing behind.
"Prove your worthiness to me. Kill the four."
The party had no trouble in making short work of the remaining cultists whilst the dragon looked on, amused. The final cultist tried to flee, only to be disintegrated by another blast of the dragon's breath. Venomfang asked them how they came to Thundertree, intrigued upon hearing about their adventure thus far. When the party asked if he knew where Cragmaw Castle was, he said yes. He wouldn't tell them where it was until the rogue convinced him that Cragmaw Castle would make a much more fitting lair than the ruins of Thundertree. Venomfang then tasked them with clearing out the castle for him, as such a task was unbecoming of one so great as he. He gave them the location so that they could finally find their friend Gundren, hopefully in time ...
For this session, I booked a table at our local pub, so this was the first time I haven't played at someone's home. I'm not sure I'll do it again in a hurry though as it got a bit busy and people kept bumping into me, which made running the game tricky at times. But we went from 1-5.30, long session but the players were saying they enjoyed it as there was more time to get into it. I had the feeling that they all could have gone on for a bit long, so it's really reassuring that I'm doing alright.
Can't wait to get to Cragmaw Castle and see how they tackle it.
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Playing a nerfed version of the U-series with a nephew. He almost got himself killed picking too many fights while scouting the sahuagin lair, but on the plus side, he conjured a swarm of magma mephitis to torch their armory, which will make the final assault easier. He spent a lot of time gathering allies. Persuaded the miners in Saltmarsh to let him have some of their modest stock of explosives to take down the front gate; failed to persuade a brother druid to join the coalition; helped the merfolk secure the services of a humpback whale who is a high-level bard.
My vision for the finale is that the sahuagin stage a desperate breakout attempt with the megalodon sized Maw of Sekolah crashing through the merfolk lines underwater. To save the day, I'm hoping he will use an artifact he was given a few months ago to summon an avatar of Sobek the Crocodile God and have a massive giant croc vs giant shark throwdown.
I just experienced my first moment of "Player does something stupid that almost kills them all" AND my first "Player accomplished something miraculous that I thought would be impossible" in the very same session. Basically, the players were hired to retrieve some treasure from a ship adrift. Long story short, they get onto the ship, fight some ghasts, the moon druid almost dies three times in one fight (he deserved it), and they find the treasure box. While they're healing the druid, the ships starts sinking, and the room starts slowly filling up with water (a giant octopus is involved). The druid, properly healed, turns into a shark, and, I kid you not, tries to make a hole to drain the water. The conversation basically went like this:
"I'm attacking the wall, I want to open a hole"
"...Okay, it's a wall, roll damage"
"7"
"It's hella rotten, you make a hole. Water is flowing in, the room is filling up fast"
"But I opened it under the water"
"Yes, so water is flowing in"
"But..."
"You ****ed up, [druid]"
The party eventually manages to get up on the top of the ship, and the players carrying the box (druid #2, ranger and paladin) jumps of with the box. But now they're in the water, floating with a heavy object. The paladin and ranger fail their strength checks, but druid #2 gets a nat 20, managing to hold onto it on her own. However, due to her low strength score, its slipping. We go down the initiative order, but due to generally bellow-average strength scores, they all fail to grab it. The paladin is their last shot. She wants to say a prayer to her god, Bahamut, and rolls the strength check. 14, compared to a DC of 15. I roll a die behind the DM screen, and get a 7. I ask her to say a number between 1 and 20.
"Uhm, I dunno, seven?"
With that, Bahamut hears her prayers, and gives her the strength needed to swim down, grab onto the sinking box, and lift it up to the surface like it weighed nothing. For a second, the other players catch a glimpse of a dragon floating over her, with scales colored... Silver? No, Platinum! This was the first time the Paladin player ever played D&D
The story i posted a few days ago is also from Salvage Operation! Fun Times.
Lark- Goblin Bard 2- Lost Mines Gr-A/ AC 13 HP 15, passive perception 11
DM- Sunless Citadel PbP// Waterdeep Dragon Heist (IRL F2F)// Adventurers League (F2F LGS)
So my campaign ended last week The BBEG who has been puppet mastering everyone to do what he wanted with his end game being awaking a huge clockwork Dragon to break the magic barrier that is keeping him trapped on the continent the game took place on. After a long battle, the heroes win and all go their own ways. The Cleric adopts the young barbarian as his daughter and teaches her how to be a War Cleric. The Aarakocra Bard went to study at a prestigious Bard College ( In my world a physical school) The Goliath retired from world traveling to be with his wife an Innkeeper the party met when that player joined and is now Captian of the City Gaurd. The Elf Druid and Human Ranger fell in love and got married seeing their mission over and a new era of peace...well until they slowly realized that the Big Bad ended up breaking the barrier and now opened up their content to the rest of the world. Next game is our Halloween one-shot than a New Campaign picking up 5 years later with the druid and ranger returning and the rest getting new charaters
The players decided to assist the duergar army in a battle against the mind flayers. The duergar had an ace up their sleeve--a gargantuan construct to smash the mind flayers and turn the tide of the war.
(beer bottle and dead mind flayer for scale)
"Not all those who wander are lost"
"S U P E R M A N"
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
I died for the first time in my last season.
Party was level 5, a barb, a warlock 2 bards and me an archer samurai fighter so only the barb was melee
Facing some unread dwarves and hounds that could reduce max HP the barb was struggling so I took up a shield a rapier to help him. A dwarf attacked me for a crit hit 35 points damage reduced me to 19. I got 5 temp HP with fighting spirit but it was not enough to stay up when he crit hit me again. The barb also went down and the healer could only heal one of us and chose the barb. I failed a death save and the dwalf struck out at my unconcious body. His third crit in a row (although this time he only needed to beat my AC ) decapitated me.
I am wondering whether to insist I see his rolls in our next session!
Last session was rather frustrating. We have a new player with strong murderhobo tendencies, and his presence is bringing out the murderhobo tendencies of one of our longtime players, too. To make things worse, one of our other longtime players is playing a very strict Lawful Good cleric who goes out of his way in his attempts to shut down the murderhobos' shenanigans, leading to some very tense interactions where it's unclear how much of the antagonism is IC and how much is OOC.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Non existent
TL:DR: A Bad Day for the Rogue
My homebrew beginner's campaign started out with the characters aboard a ship with a bunch of useful NPCs to help them through tough encounters. Now they are Level 2 and on land, and kind of trying to get their old NPC babysitters to come along on their journeys again for the main quest. So I decided the NPCs are going to form their own rival party.
The party rogue was determined to get together with the ship's rogue second mate and her new rogue goblin buddy, and asked to join THEIR party. They told him they were overpowered in the rogue department already, but he rolled a good persuasion attempt, so they said they would let him try to convince them by stealing something impressive. The rogue decided they meant, like, RIGHT THIS MINUTE NOW, so he tossed a furball from his Bag of Tricks on the table, which resulted in a giant badger frolicking through the dessert course of a royal banquet they had just finished, initiating a pie fight among the remaining guests (fortunately, the Queen had already departed with her bodyguards.) He took advantage of the distraction to attempt to pickpocket the rogue (failed) and two of her non-rogue NPC companions (got a sword and 5 silver) and pinched the shoes off a drunk halfling farmer. Meanwhile, he failed his perception check, and the goblin rogue picked his pocket and got the onion which is the rogue's most prized possession. (Pick-pocketed it off the ship's cook in his third-ever pocket picking attempt.) Obviously, he failed the gang initiation. But the goblin gave his onion back.
Next he decided to buy some thieves' tools. Which are illegal to sell in the city. But he convinced a shopkeeper he wanted them only for dungeon-exploring purposes, and was directed to the shady inn on the seedy side of town, where a gnome offered to sell him a set of 'Luxury elite-quality nose-pickers' for 40gp. The rogue identified them easily as normal 25-gp-variety thieves' tool, and demanded a lower price. They argued bitterly. The gnome pointed out that he would not get a better deal (or any deal) from anyone else in town. After haggling, threatening, and rolling a good persuasion check, the gnome lowered the price to 33, but the rogue stomped out in a rage, and is still without thieves' tools.
Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) Wood Elf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2
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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