After a brief reprieve from Hell, we returned to the Material Plane to investigate a disturbance at the behest of our benefactor.
After travelling for some time, we encountered a Hill Giant who demanded we pay a toll.
My halfling cleric cast Death Ward...on himself.
Our Tabxi Swashbuckler rogue we've come to love scaled the hill giant like in "Shadow of the Colossus".
Our dwarf paladin attempted to use a crossbow, as they were out of range as combat began.
...a natural 1.
She struck our rogue with an arrow, wounding him.
Combat continued, the rogue dealing substantial damage to the hill giant.
Alas, in the creatures final death blows, the hill giant flung the rogue into the side of a mountain, at an incredible height and distance.
We slew the hill giant, but it took time to reach our rogue...
...during which, they rolled a natural 1 on their Death Save.
As our wizard levitated my cleric up to where the rogue had fallen, they saw our Tabaxi Rogue leaning up against a rock, one hand upon their feathery hat, the other clutching their gourd filled with alcohol.
The rogue died smiling.
We buried our rogue by the giant he'd helped slay, and my cleric said some funeral rites and added the gourd to his lantern, adorned with various amulets to the gods.
After mourning our fallen rogue, our group needed a brief reprieve. A vacation; a time to grieve.
Our paladin went off alone to mourn in her own way; while the rest of us found a small town along the roadside.
The "inn" was a mere house that has been adjusted for guests...but they served liquor, and so liquor did we drink.
A adventurers board described an archeologist uncovering an elven ruin in a cave not far; we took the job, eager to distract our thoughts.
Along the way, we encounter a rather heavily-muscled elf, with a thick foreign accent and a peculiar double-bladed weapon. He, too, sought the archeologist, so we travelled together, meeting up with the archeologist.
Chatting up our new party member (the players replacement for the fallen rogue), we learned that the elf came from Valenar, a desert region of a far off land. His purpose was visiting these lost elven ruins. He did not share his name; claiming that his people did not commonly use them, but rather titles. He chose not to say more.
We reached the caves, and descended down. The mosaics of the cave depicted ancient elves, all aiming their bows towards some mysterious monster...surrounded by hydra.
My halfling cleric triggers a trapdoor...falling down below, revealing a deeper tunnel. As we traverse further, a trap triggers a rolling boulder. Our new barbarian friend holds the boulder back with impressive strength, but sustains considerable damage. The bard and wizard flee, as does my cleric...but not before healing the barbarians wounds. The barbarian shoves the boulder with renewed vigor, and retreats with us to safety. Our archeologist, sadly, is killed by the boulder.
A grateful barbarian then reveals that his "name" is Iskatel...the elven word for "Vessel". His ancestors before him all had the same title, and they lived through him.
We uncover a mosaic of a terrifying dragon with multiple heads of various colors...which our kobold bard immediately kneels before and worships. The kobold does not know the name of the dragon, but knows that it is a "great dragon".
We remain skeptical of this.
Our destination unveils a underground pool, occupied by a hydra. Our new barbarian friend lunges straight at it, and ghostly apparitions appear around him as he expertly spins his double-bladed glaive in a mesmerizing form.
Snicker-snack; several hydra heads go off...and grow more.
Our kobold sword bard jumps upon the hydra, hacking at it. My Light cleric casts Scorching Ray, trying to target multiple heads.
It goes well...four heads destroyed...and fire cauterizes the stumps! No more hydra heads!
The party cleaves the remaining hydra heads, until only one remains...and our kobold casts Burning Hands, screaming that he is a "GREAT DRAGON...!", and slays the beast.
The corpse sinks into the pool...and the wizard notices a chamber beneath the water. My cleric casts Shape Water, revealing a small dragons horde...nothing grand; merely a lot of gold.
We take what we can, filling our pockets, and condemning what remains to a watery oblivion.
We set forth back on the road, our grief not gone...but our nerves somewhat abated.
The last session I had, was at the end of last year. We were doing the beginning of storm lord's wrath.
My brother was playing his human noble champion, named Alexander Seabreeze III, and for npcs. (which were originally pregenerated character, and a green dragon madly in love with the female NPC, from Lost mines of Phindelver.) He hadn't done Dragon of Icespire Peak yet, but because he was already level 7, I decided, let hm go on, and my mom and eldest brother deal with the now armless, one eyed white dragon (was trying to stall for time, and he ran into the dragon. So I said screw it let's go to the next campaign, and make a shared universe).
Anyway. The party left Phandalin, leaving Alexander's monsters, 6 goblinoids, 3 orcs, and ogre to defend the town, while they head towards leilon. The group comes to Waysid inn, and fight off undead. I may have accidentally made the encounter too difficult, and was afraid of tpk right of the back. One of the Female NPC, Suzanne Hatchet,(who I changed from a Fighter champion, to a Oath of Heroism) nearly died to one of the wraths. So to did the other NPc(a high elf Evocation Wizard Artificer) almost died. Alexander was also almost close to death too. It was a long, and exhausting encounter.
But the party came out in one piece. I decided to throw Alex a plot hook, by having the wizard NPC ask Alex to help him investigate the zombie remains. With a nat 20 on religion, Alex immediately released that one of the zombies had the symbol of Myrkul. He began to ask the patrons and staff in the inn. But no one knew where the zombies came from. After agreeing to escort a halfing girl to leilon, the party left.
The session ends with the Wizard putting Alex to sleep, because prior to the campaign starting, Alex had been not getting my sleep (he had been doing paper work, for repairing Phandalin. And getting a wall erected, to protect from the white dragon.). And he kept arguing he should stand watch.
But that's how I ended that session. Hope it was coherent enough to understand.
Have a couple of sessions running at the moment so game 1 is Waterdeep Heist, that is this Friday so will update after that. Game 2 is my sons game with his friends which because of two of his friends not being able to make the last session we played a couple of death matches. Game 3 family game Tyranny of dragons, so in reverse order here we go.
Game 3 - Tyranny of Dragons
Me - DM Wife - Elven druid lvl2 10yr old daughter - Yuan-Ti Pureblood hexblade (called Snaketrina) 14yr old son - Half Orc Barbarian
Running the game quite gently to ease my wife and daughter in as they haven't played before, perception checks get thrown and I tell them they can hear a group of voices around the corner no idea how many but they can make out two distinct types of voice. Wife sneaks up and has a look around, 2 cultists and 8 kobolds await them, (my idiot son has a habit of making comments thinking he is edgy, I was waiting for this) so he comes out with "I jump round the corner and shout "I'm a cultist too" or words to that affect. I role 10 D20s he was so lucky as only 6 knives get thrown at him and only 4 of them hit! At this point role initiative, Snaketrina at the top runs round the corner crits a cultist and using green flame blade takes out a kobold too. Wife sees her do that realises she has access to green flame blade too, kills the other cultist and another kobold, son walks up to a kobold looking all angry with 4 knives sticking out of him and blood everywhere cleaves a kobold in two, 5 kobolds take attacks 3 hit the barbarian (he is not looking healthy). Snaketrina (remember this is being played by a sweet and innocent 10yr old girl) hits another Kobold and green flames another one, but she asks if she can rip out the heart of the one she just stabbed I let her role an intimidation check (i figured I would be pretty intimidated if someone decided to stop fighting mid battle to rip out an enemies heart) NAT 20! I ask what she is going to do with the heart, ever so innocently she says I am going to carve my name into it so they know who did this to them!!!!!!!!!!! Well the intimidation worked and away ran the bad guys after throwing their weapons on the ground and she got initiative for that!
Game 2 - My sons game, however due to two friends not making it we had a play around session there was 4 of us and we all role up lvl 15 characters and have a bit of PVP action, Round 1 Me - Warlock, Son and Friend A - Barbarians, Friend B - Blood hunter, I am not allowed to play as a Warlock now! Round 2 (lvl20) Me - Druid (lol), Son - Blood hunter, Friend A - Barbarian (again), Friend B - Can't remember, I am not allowed to play as a Druid now! Round 3 (lvl20) Me - Artificer, Son - Sorcerer, Friend A - Barbarian (doesn't learn), Friend B - Blood hunter, I am not allowed to play as an Artificer either! I have told them the next time we play PVP they can chose my class and race, because they can't complain when I read my abilities and know how to use them!
Okay, so here's the things you need to know first.
I have never played DnD before, ever.
Of the 7 players sitting around the table, 1 is an experienced DnD player, 2 have played a total of three one-shot campaigns between them, and 5 are brand new players.
I'm the DM.
All things considered, it went as well as I was expecting. I managed to fly by the seat of my pants when the party IMMEDIATELY decided to ignore the giant story hook I put in front of them, went on a bender of a pub crawl, spent most of their money and tried to murder the bartender who I had planned to be their introductory contact to the villainous underground of my city (secondary plot hook, which I will just have to scrap on account of the attempted murder).
One player has decided not to come back for a second session, which I was expecting to happen at some point anyway. But I'm glad he came and gave it a shot. He wasn't interested in engaging with the story at all, he just wanted to go murdering, so I might invite him back for a one-shot some time so he can murder everyone and everything and have a good time.
Last session, we had to save a bunch of people from zombies in a mine. Because the premade Dragonborn Paladin successfully made a Religion check, we found out that it was caused by a door which was basically a portal to a world of darkness, and the door was made by a mage who made a terrible mistake on unleashing the darkness to our world but managed to seal it with an elaborate, well-detailed door. In the end, the miners (including the quest-giver's son) made out alive despite their heavy wounds because the paladin and my ranger Archer both have excellent healing abilities.
My last session in a homebrew campaign finished with the most hilarious END...
The Priest ( with Loyal-Good aligment ) ended up the campaign anihilating a whole village, by throwing a random potion over the window, that he FORGOT to previously identify it.
The Barb ended up the campaign being anihilated by the explosion of that random BOMB the priest created.
The Ranger, died by getting a Nat 1 to evade the destructive results of that BOMB.
Me, as a wizard ( Evo skilled )...... I was, by an strange luck, outside the village just to investigate some strange footstep noises...
So, 2 cousins of mine, and one of their friends and I started the Stranger Things starter set, and they found their way to the troglodyte lair, and walked straight into a room with 8 troglodytes. The trogs then swarmed the human paladin, knocking him to 0 hit points within 2 rounds, then knocked out the half-orc ranger that tried to heal him the next round, and the half-elf wizard had to thunderwave the paladin, and the rest of the troglodytes to death.
So, essentially, in order to save 2 lives, the wizard had to kill their paladin.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
So, 2 cousins of mine, and one of their friends and I started the Stranger Things starter set, and they found their way to the troglodyte lair, and walked straight into a room with 8 troglodytes. The trogs then swarmed the human paladin, knocking him to 0 hit points within 2 rounds, then knocked out the half-orc ranger that tried to heal him the next round, and the half-elf wizard had to thunderwave the paladin, and the rest of the troglodytes to death.
So, essentially, in order to save 2 lives, the wizard had to kill their paladin.
So, 2 cousins of mine, and one of their friends and I started the Stranger Things starter set, and they found their way to the troglodyte lair, and walked straight into a room with 8 troglodytes. The trogs then swarmed the human paladin, knocking him to 0 hit points within 2 rounds, then knocked out the half-orc ranger that tried to heal him the next round, and the half-elf wizard had to thunderwave the paladin, and the rest of the troglodytes to death.
So, essentially, in order to save 2 lives, the wizard had to kill their paladin.
Was that going by 1st edition rules or 5th?
5th edition, the paladin with 2 failed death saves got hurt by thunderwave, and so he died.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
So, 2 cousins of mine, and one of their friends and I started the Stranger Things starter set, and they found their way to the troglodyte lair, and walked straight into a room with 8 troglodytes. The trogs then swarmed the human paladin, knocking him to 0 hit points within 2 rounds, then knocked out the half-orc ranger that tried to heal him the next round, and the half-elf wizard had to thunderwave the paladin, and the rest of the troglodytes to death.
So, essentially, in order to save 2 lives, the wizard had to kill their paladin.
Was that going by 1st edition rules or 5th?
5th edition, the paladin with 2 failed death saves got hurt by thunderwave, and so he died.
Last session (Eberron setting): (From my perspective) Arriving at Sharn after the murder on the Lightning rail, the three warforged, the rogue elf pretending to be a bard, and the actual bardic half-elf were taken aside for questioning by the local watch. Constructor Tertius had triplicated his medical notations on the murder and given one to the captain in charge. The captain, approving of the efficiency our party had displayed, invited us to a high tower for a good-paying job that evening.
During the time between now and then, Constructor took the druid warforged who met him on the train to House Cannith's lodgings, to see about getting the young warforged's programming looked at, as it appears to have been created on the day of Mourning, and still has some memories of those incidents buried within itself. Lodgings were acquired for the stay in Sharn.
That evening, Constructor and the other four PC's met the captain up on the tower at the agreed time. For 25gp, we were asked to find an informant for one of the gangs at a bar, and find out what information she possessed. After locating the bar (a warforged-specific bar with carnival games and light entertainment, the informant was found, only for an explosion to go off and spook the informant. The paladin warforged gave chase, trying to convince her we were not responsible while Constructor stepped to the door of the bar, drawing his revolver and scanning for enemies.
4 kobolds and a shapechanger ambushed us. Constructor cast Sanctuary on the informant, to some effect, while the druid pummelled the changer with his staff. The paladin and informant fought the kobolds, while the changer tried to run from the druid, the rogue drawing his scimitar and giving chase. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Constructor aimed his pistol at the fleeing shifter and crippled it's leg with a precise shot, before hiding away the prototype firearm and giving medical attention to the informant. The druid used charm person on the changer, and some information was learned about the gang. The session ended there.
X9 looked adorably at everyone, and got a saucer of oil for his troubles.
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"I am a machine, built to make more machines, so that those machines would go and fight your wars for you against the ultimate evil. I was not made by some heavenly deity ruling on high, but by a man's hands, with man's tools, and a man's will.I know that man's name, and I know that man's fate. I do not worship him, for he sought no worship from his creation, only that I follow his will.And thus you and I fulfil our respective duties to those who made us." -Constructor Tertius (Warforged)
This is in my Eberron Campaign, "Born of Prophecy", which we just did our previous session yesterday.
So, the party is level 3 and is made up of the following:
A Warforged Battle Smith Artificer, Lucky Laughter, who was the last warforged to be created in Cyre before the Mourning. He woke up just after the Mourning happened, and had heard 3 people talking nervously just before gaining full consciousness. He woke up to find a dead High-Artificer of house cannith, Gerrith d'Cannith, who died from a dagger to the heart, and a dead Half-Orc noble, Nuntin ir'Lanore. Lucky then left to work in the Last War for Breland, and after the war became a House Agent for House Kundarak investigating the creation of warforged in Sharn. After this, he has been searching for the answer to his question, "Why was I last?" His Steel Defender is shaped as a snake, and is named Slither.
York Hugnar, the Firbolg Way of the Open Hand Monk. He is from an island near Xen'drik, and a small group of people from his village were captured by Cyre during the Last War and forced to serve in battle. He eventually earned medals and his freedom from captivity, but then the Mourning happened, and his new home was destroyed when he was away fighting in the Battle of Wroat.
Mark of Finding Human War Magic Wizard, Neirena d'Cannith. Neirena is only 18 years old, but is a skilled wizard. Her grandfather taught her the basics of wizardry, but other than some training from him, she is self-taught. She was ordered at the age of 16 to study to become an Artificer, but she disobeyed and studies magecraft instead. Because of this, she was kicked out of her home in Aundair, and hasn't seen her birth family ever since.
So, recently the party had done a small quest to recover some missing gold for House Kundarak, and returned with about 1,000 gold pieces to resolve their debts. After discovering they were nearly broke, they decided to pool together all of their funds to buy a rowboat, and hire an airship to take them halfway to the Shadow Marches so they could collect some eberron dragonshards.
So, they bought a rowboat, named, "The Sinful Princess" and after being dropped off at the coast of Breland sailed to the bottom of the Shadow Marches, the trip there took about 2 weeks. One day before they came to shore, they saw up in the sky, a large purple glowing orb hit a huge Siberys dragonshard out of the Ring of Siberys, crash in the middle of Khorvaire. The Siberys Dragonshard crashed in the northern part of the Shadow Marches.
So, now to the session.
After landing at the beach in the Shadow Marches, they started heading north to search for eberron dragonshards and the Siberys Dragonshard. They started looking for them, Lucky took responsibility for searching for them, and also would cast Detect Magic 3 times a day to see if he could detect any.
After the first week or so they had gathered enough dragonshard geodes (eberron dragonshard's natural form is of a geode) to give them around 350 gold pieces, and then after the next few days they found a 67 pound dragonshard geode worth around 13,000 gold pieces. They had some random encounters in the forest (they hadn't gotten into the swamp yet), a Giant Constrictor Snake, some elk, cats and hyenas.
They finally got to the swamp and found a black dragon named Curzigor (dragons can be any alignment in Eberron), it was neutral, and was looking for food, but wasn't in the mood for humanoid meat. They told it where it could find the body of the Giant Constrictor Snake they killed, and it thanked them and told them how to get to Vvaraak's Cave (they didn't end up going to it). They told it about what they saw fall from the sky, and they talked a bit about where they were going.
The dragon left, and they later came across a House Tharashk Eberron Dragonshard Search Patrol, and talked briefly together. About a week later of treking through the muddy swamp, they found a crater in the Deepwoods. The trees within 200 feet of the impact zone were knocked over, and the earth had risen up about 20 feet around the crater. They walked over the small hill created by the crash, and looked down. They saw an owlbear, but warped. It had 3 extra sets of eyes, like a spider, on the top of their head. Instead of claws, its fingers were replaced with tentacles, and its hind feet were webbed. Riding on top of the warped owlbear was a mind flayer, who was reading an inscription on the giant golden Siberys Dragonshard that was sitting in the center of the crater. The Siberys Dragonshard was about the size of an elephant.
The party attacked, Lucky throwing his returning dagger and slashing with his scimitar, attacking the Mind Flayer. Neirena stayed back and cast scorching ray hitting both the owlbear and mind flayer with a small blast of fire. York charged in, headbutting and elbowing both of them. Slither dashed forward, attacking the owlbear.
When the surprised mind flayer finally got to go, it mind blasted Slither and York, stunning and severely wounding them both. Neirena then charged forward and cast Thunderwave at 2nd level, slamming both the illithid and owlbear into the dragonshard, causing the mind flayer to fall off his mount, and lay prone on the dry soil. The owlbear then destroyed Slither, crushing his serpentine body like a soda can.
Lucky then ran up, stabbing and slashing the knocked down mind flayer, he almost killed it, but it was still at 5 hit points. It stood up, tentacles moving around, Lucky thought that the mind flayer was going to kill him, but suddenly, with a loud "POP!", it was gone, planeshifted back to Khyber. The owlbear then charged towards Lucky, attacking him with his beak and tentacles, Lucky had to block out his attacks with Shield, shining a bright distracting light into the owlbear's eyes to cause it to miss. The owlbear only managed to get 1 hit on lucky in 4 attacks, but it was enough to reduce him to 3 hit points.
Lucky then went, stabbing his dagger into the owlbear's thick neck, and slashing his large muscular leg with his scimitar, but the owlbear still stood, with 1 hit point.
Neirena then cast fire bolt, hit, and rolled 1 damage. With a small burst of fire to the face, the owlbear was dead, and the dragonshard was theirs for the taking.
Engraved in the side of the Siberys Dragonshard was a part of the Draconic Prophecy:
"If two houses built near the River Thrown,
Meet the high Leafborne and the Serpentine Shield,
Near Bear-King's border with the Birthplace of Creation,
The Last One's Land might be restored once more.
The plane of fiendish blight threatens shifted woods,
As scorpion giants encroach on the Light of Death,
The elves' best friend shall bond with metal,
Only when the ill flesh of bones aids with harmful truth.
If Death is punished, War will return.
If War returns, all is lost, and all shall die.
If Death is freed, blood will be spilt.
If Blood is spilt, all is lost, and all shall die.
Imminent Death, Blood, and War, comes to and from the Tattler,
May I return rite and written in the heavens,
Blessings and Safety may fall down with a fierce blow,
From the alien orb of planar chaos."
After reading the prophecy, Neirena and York stayed with the dragonshard to protect it while Lucky and Slither left to Tharash'ak to hire an airship to transport them and the dragonshard to Korth in Karnnath, just outside the headquarters of the Twelve.
On the way to Tharash'ak, Lucky found a half-orc child wandering in the swamp, she had gotten lost from her family while moving to Tharash'ak, and needed help finding her way home. Lucky took care of her, giving her a piggy-back ride the way there. He also encountered a Yuan-ti Malison that he easily defeated, and came across Curzigor once more, who gave him a ride the rest of the way to Tharash'ak.
Lucky returned the little girl to her family, who rewarded him with 2 healing potions, and then hired an airship, bribing them with some splintered off Siberys dragonshards he'd picked up from the crater. Curzigor then went to the crash site to read the Draconic Prophecy written on the side of it.
They then took the dragonshard to Korth, and sold it to House Cannith for 5,000,000 gold pieces.
They then decided to retire for a year, and build bases across Khorvaire and invent new technology, (Lucky is trying to invent a hover-cycle and guns).
That was my crazy long last session!
What do you think of the prophecy? If you speculate at all on what it means, I'll let you know what you got right or wrong.
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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.
Tragic.
After a brief reprieve from Hell, we returned to the Material Plane to investigate a disturbance at the behest of our benefactor.
After travelling for some time, we encountered a Hill Giant who demanded we pay a toll.
My halfling cleric cast Death Ward...on himself.
Our Tabxi Swashbuckler rogue we've come to love scaled the hill giant like in "Shadow of the Colossus".
Our dwarf paladin attempted to use a crossbow, as they were out of range as combat began.
...a natural 1.
She struck our rogue with an arrow, wounding him.
Combat continued, the rogue dealing substantial damage to the hill giant.
Alas, in the creatures final death blows, the hill giant flung the rogue into the side of a mountain, at an incredible height and distance.
We slew the hill giant, but it took time to reach our rogue...
...during which, they rolled a natural 1 on their Death Save.
As our wizard levitated my cleric up to where the rogue had fallen, they saw our Tabaxi Rogue leaning up against a rock, one hand upon their feathery hat, the other clutching their gourd filled with alcohol.
The rogue died smiling.
We buried our rogue by the giant he'd helped slay, and my cleric said some funeral rites and added the gourd to his lantern, adorned with various amulets to the gods.
Our rogue now walks with them.
Hilarious
they/her Always open to chat. Just send me a PM
Whatever it takes
Yeah, take me to the top
I'm ready for whatever it takes
'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
After mourning our fallen rogue, our group needed a brief reprieve. A vacation; a time to grieve.
Our paladin went off alone to mourn in her own way; while the rest of us found a small town along the roadside.
The "inn" was a mere house that has been adjusted for guests...but they served liquor, and so liquor did we drink.
A adventurers board described an archeologist uncovering an elven ruin in a cave not far; we took the job, eager to distract our thoughts.
Along the way, we encounter a rather heavily-muscled elf, with a thick foreign accent and a peculiar double-bladed weapon. He, too, sought the archeologist, so we travelled together, meeting up with the archeologist.
Chatting up our new party member (the players replacement for the fallen rogue), we learned that the elf came from Valenar, a desert region of a far off land. His purpose was visiting these lost elven ruins. He did not share his name; claiming that his people did not commonly use them, but rather titles. He chose not to say more.
We reached the caves, and descended down. The mosaics of the cave depicted ancient elves, all aiming their bows towards some mysterious monster...surrounded by hydra.
My halfling cleric triggers a trapdoor...falling down below, revealing a deeper tunnel. As we traverse further, a trap triggers a rolling boulder. Our new barbarian friend holds the boulder back with impressive strength, but sustains considerable damage. The bard and wizard flee, as does my cleric...but not before healing the barbarians wounds. The barbarian shoves the boulder with renewed vigor, and retreats with us to safety. Our archeologist, sadly, is killed by the boulder.
A grateful barbarian then reveals that his "name" is Iskatel...the elven word for "Vessel". His ancestors before him all had the same title, and they lived through him.
We uncover a mosaic of a terrifying dragon with multiple heads of various colors...which our kobold bard immediately kneels before and worships. The kobold does not know the name of the dragon, but knows that it is a "great dragon".
We remain skeptical of this.
Our destination unveils a underground pool, occupied by a hydra. Our new barbarian friend lunges straight at it, and ghostly apparitions appear around him as he expertly spins his double-bladed glaive in a mesmerizing form.
Snicker-snack; several hydra heads go off...and grow more.
Our kobold sword bard jumps upon the hydra, hacking at it. My Light cleric casts Scorching Ray, trying to target multiple heads.
It goes well...four heads destroyed...and fire cauterizes the stumps! No more hydra heads!
The party cleaves the remaining hydra heads, until only one remains...and our kobold casts Burning Hands, screaming that he is a "GREAT DRAGON...!", and slays the beast.
The corpse sinks into the pool...and the wizard notices a chamber beneath the water. My cleric casts Shape Water, revealing a small dragons horde...nothing grand; merely a lot of gold.
We take what we can, filling our pockets, and condemning what remains to a watery oblivion.
We set forth back on the road, our grief not gone...but our nerves somewhat abated.
SPOILER WARNING:
The last session I had, was at the end of last year. We were doing the beginning of storm lord's wrath.
My brother was playing his human noble champion, named Alexander Seabreeze III, and for npcs. (which were originally pregenerated character, and a green dragon madly in love with the female NPC, from Lost mines of Phindelver.) He hadn't done Dragon of Icespire Peak yet, but because he was already level 7, I decided, let hm go on, and my mom and eldest brother deal with the now armless, one eyed white dragon (was trying to stall for time, and he ran into the dragon. So I said screw it let's go to the next campaign, and make a shared universe).
Anyway. The party left Phandalin, leaving Alexander's monsters, 6 goblinoids, 3 orcs, and ogre to defend the town, while they head towards leilon. The group comes to Waysid inn, and fight off undead. I may have accidentally made the encounter too difficult, and was afraid of tpk right of the back. One of the Female NPC, Suzanne Hatchet,(who I changed from a Fighter champion, to a Oath of Heroism) nearly died to one of the wraths. So to did the other NPc(a high elf Evocation Wizard Artificer) almost died. Alexander was also almost close to death too. It was a long, and exhausting encounter.
But the party came out in one piece. I decided to throw Alex a plot hook, by having the wizard NPC ask Alex to help him investigate the zombie remains. With a nat 20 on religion, Alex immediately released that one of the zombies had the symbol of Myrkul. He began to ask the patrons and staff in the inn. But no one knew where the zombies came from. After agreeing to escort a halfing girl to leilon, the party left.
The session ends with the Wizard putting Alex to sleep, because prior to the campaign starting, Alex had been not getting my sleep (he had been doing paper work, for repairing Phandalin. And getting a wall erected, to protect from the white dragon.). And he kept arguing he should stand watch.
But that's how I ended that session. Hope it was coherent enough to understand.
Have a couple of sessions running at the moment so game 1 is Waterdeep Heist, that is this Friday so will update after that. Game 2 is my sons game with his friends which because of two of his friends not being able to make the last session we played a couple of death matches. Game 3 family game Tyranny of dragons, so in reverse order here we go.
Game 3 - Tyranny of Dragons
Me - DM
Wife - Elven druid lvl2
10yr old daughter - Yuan-Ti Pureblood hexblade (called Snaketrina)
14yr old son - Half Orc Barbarian
Running the game quite gently to ease my wife and daughter in as they haven't played before, perception checks get thrown and I tell them they can hear a group of voices around the corner no idea how many but they can make out two distinct types of voice. Wife sneaks up and has a look around, 2 cultists and 8 kobolds await them, (my idiot son has a habit of making comments thinking he is edgy, I was waiting for this) so he comes out with "I jump round the corner and shout "I'm a cultist too" or words to that affect. I role 10 D20s he was so lucky as only 6 knives get thrown at him and only 4 of them hit!
At this point role initiative, Snaketrina at the top runs round the corner crits a cultist and using green flame blade takes out a kobold too. Wife sees her do that realises she has access to green flame blade too, kills the other cultist and another kobold, son walks up to a kobold looking all angry with 4 knives sticking out of him and blood everywhere cleaves a kobold in two, 5 kobolds take attacks 3 hit the barbarian (he is not looking healthy). Snaketrina (remember this is being played by a sweet and innocent 10yr old girl) hits another Kobold and green flames another one, but she asks if she can rip out the heart of the one she just stabbed I let her role an intimidation check (i figured I would be pretty intimidated if someone decided to stop fighting mid battle to rip out an enemies heart) NAT 20! I ask what she is going to do with the heart, ever so innocently she says I am going to carve my name into it so they know who did this to them!!!!!!!!!!!
Well the intimidation worked and away ran the bad guys after throwing their weapons on the ground and she got initiative for that!
Game 2 - My sons game, however due to two friends not making it we had a play around session there was 4 of us and we all role up lvl 15 characters and have a bit of PVP action, Round 1 Me - Warlock, Son and Friend A - Barbarians, Friend B - Blood hunter, I am not allowed to play as a Warlock now!
Round 2 (lvl20) Me - Druid (lol), Son - Blood hunter, Friend A - Barbarian (again), Friend B - Can't remember, I am not allowed to play as a Druid now!
Round 3 (lvl20) Me - Artificer, Son - Sorcerer, Friend A - Barbarian (doesn't learn), Friend B - Blood hunter, I am not allowed to play as an Artificer either!
I have told them the next time we play PVP they can chose my class and race, because they can't complain when I read my abilities and know how to use them!
Game 1 - I will update this weekend
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Okay, so here's the things you need to know first.
All things considered, it went as well as I was expecting. I managed to fly by the seat of my pants when the party IMMEDIATELY decided to ignore the giant story hook I put in front of them, went on a bender of a pub crawl, spent most of their money and tried to murder the bartender who I had planned to be their introductory contact to the villainous underground of my city (secondary plot hook, which I will just have to scrap on account of the attempted murder).
One player has decided not to come back for a second session, which I was expecting to happen at some point anyway. But I'm glad he came and gave it a shot. He wasn't interested in engaging with the story at all, he just wanted to go murdering, so I might invite him back for a one-shot some time so he can murder everyone and everything and have a good time.
Last session, we had to save a bunch of people from zombies in a mine. Because the premade Dragonborn Paladin successfully made a Religion check, we found out that it was caused by a door which was basically a portal to a world of darkness, and the door was made by a mage who made a terrible mistake on unleashing the darkness to our world but managed to seal it with an elaborate, well-detailed door. In the end, the miners (including the quest-giver's son) made out alive despite their heavy wounds because the paladin and my ranger Archer both have excellent healing abilities.
Personal Website: https://neonriser.neocities.org/
My last session in a homebrew campaign finished with the most hilarious END...
The Priest ( with Loyal-Good aligment ) ended up the campaign anihilating a whole village, by throwing a random potion over the window, that he FORGOT to previously identify it.
The Barb ended up the campaign being anihilated by the explosion of that random BOMB the priest created.
The Ranger, died by getting a Nat 1 to evade the destructive results of that BOMB.
Me, as a wizard ( Evo skilled )...... I was, by an strange luck, outside the village just to investigate some strange footstep noises...
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
That is very funny So tpk?
Yep, the Priest tpk'ed the whole village, and almost the whole party....
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Oh whoa
So, 2 cousins of mine, and one of their friends and I started the Stranger Things starter set, and they found their way to the troglodyte lair, and walked straight into a room with 8 troglodytes. The trogs then swarmed the human paladin, knocking him to 0 hit points within 2 rounds, then knocked out the half-orc ranger that tried to heal him the next round, and the half-elf wizard had to thunderwave the paladin, and the rest of the troglodytes to death.
So, essentially, in order to save 2 lives, the wizard had to kill their paladin.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Was that going by 1st edition rules or 5th?
5th edition, the paladin with 2 failed death saves got hurt by thunderwave, and so he died.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Poured one out for the Paladin?
Roll to pay respects.
Personal Website: https://neonriser.neocities.org/
15. Didnt know the Paladin, but I know to read the room.
Last session (Eberron setting): (From my perspective)
Arriving at Sharn after the murder on the Lightning rail, the three warforged, the rogue elf pretending to be a bard, and the actual bardic half-elf were taken aside for questioning by the local watch. Constructor Tertius had triplicated his medical notations on the murder and given one to the captain in charge. The captain, approving of the efficiency our party had displayed, invited us to a high tower for a good-paying job that evening.
During the time between now and then, Constructor took the druid warforged who met him on the train to House Cannith's lodgings, to see about getting the young warforged's programming looked at, as it appears to have been created on the day of Mourning, and still has some memories of those incidents buried within itself. Lodgings were acquired for the stay in Sharn.
That evening, Constructor and the other four PC's met the captain up on the tower at the agreed time. For 25gp, we were asked to find an informant for one of the gangs at a bar, and find out what information she possessed. After locating the bar (a warforged-specific bar with carnival games and light entertainment, the informant was found, only for an explosion to go off and spook the informant. The paladin warforged gave chase, trying to convince her we were not responsible while Constructor stepped to the door of the bar, drawing his revolver and scanning for enemies.
4 kobolds and a shapechanger ambushed us. Constructor cast Sanctuary on the informant, to some effect, while the druid pummelled the changer with his staff. The paladin and informant fought the kobolds, while the changer tried to run from the druid, the rogue drawing his scimitar and giving chase. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Constructor aimed his pistol at the fleeing shifter and crippled it's leg with a precise shot, before hiding away the prototype firearm and giving medical attention to the informant. The druid used charm person on the changer, and some information was learned about the gang. The session ended there.
X9 looked adorably at everyone, and got a saucer of oil for his troubles.
"I am a machine, built to make more machines, so that those machines would go and fight your wars for you against the ultimate evil. I was not made by some heavenly deity ruling on high, but by a man's hands, with man's tools, and a man's will.I know that man's name, and I know that man's fate. I do not worship him, for he sought no worship from his creation, only that I follow his will.And thus you and I fulfil our respective duties to those who made us."
-Constructor Tertius (Warforged)
This is in my Eberron Campaign, "Born of Prophecy", which we just did our previous session yesterday.
So, the party is level 3 and is made up of the following:
So, recently the party had done a small quest to recover some missing gold for House Kundarak, and returned with about 1,000 gold pieces to resolve their debts. After discovering they were nearly broke, they decided to pool together all of their funds to buy a rowboat, and hire an airship to take them halfway to the Shadow Marches so they could collect some eberron dragonshards.
So, they bought a rowboat, named, "The Sinful Princess" and after being dropped off at the coast of Breland sailed to the bottom of the Shadow Marches, the trip there took about 2 weeks. One day before they came to shore, they saw up in the sky, a large purple glowing orb hit a huge Siberys dragonshard out of the Ring of Siberys, crash in the middle of Khorvaire. The Siberys Dragonshard crashed in the northern part of the Shadow Marches.
So, now to the session.
After landing at the beach in the Shadow Marches, they started heading north to search for eberron dragonshards and the Siberys Dragonshard. They started looking for them, Lucky took responsibility for searching for them, and also would cast Detect Magic 3 times a day to see if he could detect any.
After the first week or so they had gathered enough dragonshard geodes (eberron dragonshard's natural form is of a geode) to give them around 350 gold pieces, and then after the next few days they found a 67 pound dragonshard geode worth around 13,000 gold pieces. They had some random encounters in the forest (they hadn't gotten into the swamp yet), a Giant Constrictor Snake, some elk, cats and hyenas.
They finally got to the swamp and found a black dragon named Curzigor (dragons can be any alignment in Eberron), it was neutral, and was looking for food, but wasn't in the mood for humanoid meat. They told it where it could find the body of the Giant Constrictor Snake they killed, and it thanked them and told them how to get to Vvaraak's Cave (they didn't end up going to it). They told it about what they saw fall from the sky, and they talked a bit about where they were going.
The dragon left, and they later came across a House Tharashk Eberron Dragonshard Search Patrol, and talked briefly together. About a week later of treking through the muddy swamp, they found a crater in the Deepwoods. The trees within 200 feet of the impact zone were knocked over, and the earth had risen up about 20 feet around the crater. They walked over the small hill created by the crash, and looked down. They saw an owlbear, but warped. It had 3 extra sets of eyes, like a spider, on the top of their head. Instead of claws, its fingers were replaced with tentacles, and its hind feet were webbed. Riding on top of the warped owlbear was a mind flayer, who was reading an inscription on the giant golden Siberys Dragonshard that was sitting in the center of the crater. The Siberys Dragonshard was about the size of an elephant.
The party attacked, Lucky throwing his returning dagger and slashing with his scimitar, attacking the Mind Flayer. Neirena stayed back and cast scorching ray hitting both the owlbear and mind flayer with a small blast of fire. York charged in, headbutting and elbowing both of them. Slither dashed forward, attacking the owlbear.
When the surprised mind flayer finally got to go, it mind blasted Slither and York, stunning and severely wounding them both. Neirena then charged forward and cast Thunderwave at 2nd level, slamming both the illithid and owlbear into the dragonshard, causing the mind flayer to fall off his mount, and lay prone on the dry soil. The owlbear then destroyed Slither, crushing his serpentine body like a soda can.
Lucky then ran up, stabbing and slashing the knocked down mind flayer, he almost killed it, but it was still at 5 hit points. It stood up, tentacles moving around, Lucky thought that the mind flayer was going to kill him, but suddenly, with a loud "POP!", it was gone, planeshifted back to Khyber. The owlbear then charged towards Lucky, attacking him with his beak and tentacles, Lucky had to block out his attacks with Shield, shining a bright distracting light into the owlbear's eyes to cause it to miss. The owlbear only managed to get 1 hit on lucky in 4 attacks, but it was enough to reduce him to 3 hit points.
Lucky then went, stabbing his dagger into the owlbear's thick neck, and slashing his large muscular leg with his scimitar, but the owlbear still stood, with 1 hit point.
Neirena then cast fire bolt, hit, and rolled 1 damage. With a small burst of fire to the face, the owlbear was dead, and the dragonshard was theirs for the taking.
Engraved in the side of the Siberys Dragonshard was a part of the Draconic Prophecy:
"If two houses built near the River Thrown,
Meet the high Leafborne and the Serpentine Shield,
Near Bear-King's border with the Birthplace of Creation,
The Last One's Land might be restored once more.
The plane of fiendish blight threatens shifted woods,
As scorpion giants encroach on the Light of Death,
The elves' best friend shall bond with metal,
Only when the ill flesh of bones aids with harmful truth.
If Death is punished, War will return.
If War returns, all is lost, and all shall die.
If Death is freed, blood will be spilt.
If Blood is spilt, all is lost, and all shall die.
Imminent Death, Blood, and War, comes to and from the Tattler,
May I return rite and written in the heavens,
Blessings and Safety may fall down with a fierce blow,
From the alien orb of planar chaos."
After reading the prophecy, Neirena and York stayed with the dragonshard to protect it while Lucky and Slither left to Tharash'ak to hire an airship to transport them and the dragonshard to Korth in Karnnath, just outside the headquarters of the Twelve.
On the way to Tharash'ak, Lucky found a half-orc child wandering in the swamp, she had gotten lost from her family while moving to Tharash'ak, and needed help finding her way home. Lucky took care of her, giving her a piggy-back ride the way there. He also encountered a Yuan-ti Malison that he easily defeated, and came across Curzigor once more, who gave him a ride the rest of the way to Tharash'ak.
Lucky returned the little girl to her family, who rewarded him with 2 healing potions, and then hired an airship, bribing them with some splintered off Siberys dragonshards he'd picked up from the crater. Curzigor then went to the crash site to read the Draconic Prophecy written on the side of it.
They then took the dragonshard to Korth, and sold it to House Cannith for 5,000,000 gold pieces.
They then decided to retire for a year, and build bases across Khorvaire and invent new technology, (Lucky is trying to invent a hover-cycle and guns).
That was my crazy long last session!
What do you think of the prophecy? If you speculate at all on what it means, I'll let you know what you got right or wrong.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
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.