So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
This is more absurd then some of my DM's campaigns i love it.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
This is more absurd then some of my DM's campaigns i love it.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
My character (one of the ones that got a crit fail) also told the personification of Death that he was a terrible dancer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
My character (one of the ones that got a crit fail) also told the personification of Death that he was a terrible dancer.
More like he was told by Death that he was a bad dancer.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
My character (one of the ones that got a crit fail) also told the personification of Death that he was a terrible dancer.
More like he was told by Death that he was a bad dancer.
Came in here to complain about my dice refusing to admit they had double-figures on them through an entire session, resulting in me failing at everything and then getting gored to death by a moose. But now I'm just here for the disco goblins.
So, just now, the players went through a portal and found four goblins in business suits sitting around a circular table in an office. The goblins saw them, and called security, and four hobgoblins came in. The party just backed out of the portal. After exploring the area a bit more, they came back to the portal. They argued for a while as to what to do about the goblins, and eventually settled on just running in and attacking them. So, that's what they did. Only, I had planned that if anyone tried to attack anyone in that room, an anti-violence spell would activate. This anti-violence spell consists of a panel opening in the roof, which a disco ball comes out of. Then, music starts playing, and each player is paired up with a goblin. One of the characters was turned into a bunny as well, which made things quite interesting. Two players got critical failures on their performance checks, so I had an angry demon appear because the bunny was doing the Dance of Angry Demon Summoning. This demon started dancing uncontrollably as well. And so, the dance-off between goblins, players, and one angry demon began!
It will probably become a running joke for the rest of the campaign.
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
My character (one of the ones that got a crit fail) also told the personification of Death that he was a terrible dancer.
More like he was told by Death that he was a bad dancer.
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
That sounds like one of the campaigns in my D&D club, except in the club, it sometimes feels like I'm the ONLY serious one! Except for our old DM and one player who left and another who is still there, but is a Co-DM (He does combat since our new DM is bad at the combat) But yeah... I'm used to that sort of stuff happening. Especially the fight to the death part...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
That sounds like one of the campaigns in my D&D club, except in the club, it sometimes feels like I'm the ONLY serious one! Except for our old DM and one player who left and another who is still there, but is a Co-DM (He does combat since our new DM is bad at the combat) But yeah... I'm used to that sort of stuff happening. Especially the fight to the death part...
I hope you find a group that works well for you. As the DM, I actually asked all of my player to join, so my group turned out pretty well. Don't worry. Eventually, you'll find a group that you love.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
That sounds like one of the campaigns in my D&D club, except in the club, it sometimes feels like I'm the ONLY serious one! Except for our old DM and one player who left and another who is still there, but is a Co-DM (He does combat since our new DM is bad at the combat) But yeah... I'm used to that sort of stuff happening. Especially the fight to the death part...
I hope you find a group that works well for you. As the DM, I actually asked all of my player to join, so my group turned out pretty well. Don't worry. Eventually, you'll find a group that you love.
Things are getting better in the group. It's just hard to communicate when we have to talk to each other through a Zoom call, and only a few of us know each other from school. (Most of us are in different grades, so a lot of us have never met before the club...)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
That sounds like one of the campaigns in my D&D club, except in the club, it sometimes feels like I'm the ONLY serious one! Except for our old DM and one player who left and another who is still there, but is a Co-DM (He does combat since our new DM is bad at the combat) But yeah... I'm used to that sort of stuff happening. Especially the fight to the death part...
I hope you find a group that works well for you. As the DM, I actually asked all of my player to join, so my group turned out pretty well. Don't worry. Eventually, you'll find a group that you love.
Things are getting better in the group. It's just hard to communicate when we have to talk to each other through a Zoom call, and only a few of us know each other from school. (Most of us are in different grades, so a lot of us have never met before the club...)
Makes sense. I was the only person in my group who knew everyone before we started the campaign, but I've found that doing activities with your group outside of D&D helps make your group have more fun together. Now everyone knows each other pretty well.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
In our most recent session, our party (level 3) managed to slay a young green dragon (the one from thunder tree in the Lost Mines of Phandelver). We were then able to harvest a lot of its parts (yay!!) and sell them back in Neverwinter, and get some dragonscale mail for our barbarian
Tonight's session went swimmingly. Amazingly. It was much smoother than I thought I would be, even considering I got plastered halfway through. Players have been in a halfling village called Everclear where the water is fresh and100% non alcoholic. Some mercenaries moved into a local fort and were extorting the locals, so they asked the players to clear the fort. This session began, they had already cleared the fort. One of them is a changeling who copied the boss's voice giving him advantage on a deception check to convince the ruffians to leave. Players had come through a back entrance, and the changeling convinced the other mercs to cut off the intruders at said entrance. Last session the players had also made a mutual non-aggression pact with a colony of spiders in the crypt, so they were sending the mercs into a trap.
Tonight's session picked up where they had left off. They investigated the keep and found some nice loot, two +1 weapons and three level 2 spell scrolls. One of the mercenaries was a wizard who was building a contraption on the roof called the Arnest Device: one part teleporter, one part magical defense grid, but it is far from working condition, requiring three ultra rare components which will take most of the campaign to acquire.
Well, when they got to the roof to investigate the device, they saw someone, one of the mercs, was still in the fort, guarding the outer wall. It would be crazy to leave the fort completely unguarded after all, and a fire had started in the town. After the spiders attacked them, the mercs figured out it was a ruse, so they attacked the town to draw the players out. After a combat encounter where the bandit chief just about one-shotted on of the PC's the players hurried to town where three more ruffians completely botched an ambush, rolled a 3 for stealth so the players spotted them immediately. No surprise round.
It was here that one player introduced his second character. Let me elaborate, the party are squishy as an overripe peach: two rogues, two wizards, and a druid. I should have caught it at session 1, but too late now. So I told them if they want to make secondary characters, I would allow it, only rule is they can't use both them at once, one of them has to stay behind at base where they can't gain XP.
So combat lasts for a round or too, then the players hear Shoot to Thrill on a lute, and in walks the satyr cleric (I nominated John Cena's theme song, but it was fun regardless). Cleric rolls max damage on his first turn of combat and knocks one of the thugs prone, damn near kills him in one hit, then casts spiritual weapon and repeats it on the other enemy. No time for introductions though, because the town's on fire.
Moving on to the next area, I went back and forth on how to run this fight. What I decided on was to split it into three smaller battles, each with their own initiative count, and resolved one round after the other for each one, and let the players choose which fight they wanted to join. The first battle was two halfling scouts against three thugs. The second was an NPC the players knew against a bandit captain and a veteran. This character is Patrick the Blind Swordsman, a ranger who sees the world in third person through the eyes of an owl familiar. The players don't know he's actually an incubus, and he's not actually blind, he just chooses to wear a blindfold so he doesn't accidentally charm anyone. They are all suspicious of him though, and they have every right to be, because all the women in town are madly in love with him and it's clearly not natural. Third battle was a cleric they know named Brother Martin. They're even more suspicious of him, one of them figured out he's most likely a werewolf. I was wondering when they'd figure it out. (Werewolves are the whole premise of the campaign, and we're finally getting to the main quest after three sessions).
After a couple rounds, the enemy dragonborn wizard appears and summons a powerful elemental, and I think that's where it started to fall apart. Remember when I said the town was called Everclear, named after the river that flows through it. Let's just say we all drank some river water. That made it very hard for me to run an already complicated combat encounter, but even considering all that, it went much more smoothly than I feared it would. Honestly the biggest hickup was one guy's DND beyond account was glicthing out and wasn't reading one of his feats right. He's a wizard, but he took spell sniper bard which through off his attack rolls, but we couldn't for the life us figure out how to give him the correct version of the feat, so we had to manually add firebolt, which he taken with the feat, to his action and attack list. it didn't help that we had all drunk river water.
It also doesn't help that I seem to really suck at running spellcaster bosses, and the enemies focused more on the tanky NPC's than the players, so they mopped up the fight in short order. The surviving ruffians booked after a while and reconvened in a narrow ravine where they were waiting for the players and had taken hostages. The hobgoblin captain had taken control of the gang, and made it clear if the players took one more step, the halflings were dead, and they tried to negotiate the return of the fort.
See, the mercenaries were hired by a cult to excavate the crypt below the fort. Players don't know this, but there is a hidden tomb down there of an ancient werewolf king, he was buried with a sword called the traitors fang, a holy weapon which can break any curse. Even outnumbered as they were, the mercenaries are more afraid of the cult than the players. Well the players negotiated with the mercs, allowing them to finish their excavation as long as they leave when they're finished.
I didn't like what happened next, really didn't like it, but this campaign has places to be, so I kind of railroaded the story and the werewolf cleric killed the ruffians in the night. I didn't like making the players think they had roleplayed successfully through a very tense encounter only for it to resolve itself. No more of that, I swear I won't do that again. Anyway, pretty clear now that Martin is a werewolf, since he's nowhere to be found that morning and Patrick, the undercover incubus explained the priest disappears every month.
But the hostages are alive and well, so to celebrate their town's survival, they threw a festival in the players' honor. I also didn't like the absurd mood whiplash, because the players had just investigated an absolutely brutal massacre, and now they're jumping to fun little minigames. To be fair, they all though the minigames were a fun way to wind down the tension after a truly massive battle.
The three events were a rock-skipping competition which the satyr cleric won with flying colors, a pie-eating contest in which the druid did better than the other players but lost to the town's reigning pie champion, and a fishing derby where the kalashti rogue and the satyr both caught very high level fish. I awarded all of them bonus XP based on how they did in each event. It was a fun way to wind down the game.
Before all hell breaks loose. Even though Everclear is a "dry county," one of the halflings got plastered and got in trouble for trying to drink the holy water from the chapel. He storms off in a drunken fury mumbling to himself about starting his own religion and some such right before the players hear a bloodcurdling scream from across the river. The last thing the players saw before the session ended was the drunk halfling being dragged by something into the corn field. And yes, it's a full moon.
Last session went great: the party got enlisted by a town constabulary after a murder occurred during their annual "Festival of Joy"...where violence is not permitted on the grounds.
After a rather wealthy dwarf grain farmer was slashed to ribbons; the party was able to determine that the primary suspect...a farmer known for a history of drunken brawling...was probably not the murderer.
They inspected the man's house, and found out that his wife had converted to the faith of Loviatar, the Mistress of Suffering.
When they investigated the scene of the murder on the festival grounds, they found peculiar footsteps of no particular type leading away from the scene...where they walked right into an ambush of crows, as well as an animated scarecrow.
The party successfully killed the creatures...the sorcerer just narrowly evading death...and found a wedding ring belonging to the wife inside of the scarecrow: virtually identical to a wedding ring found on the body of the victim (who had won it gambling earlier that night).
Whatever ritual she had used, it had animated the scarecrow with sinister divine magic...and had killed the dwarf instead of the ring's original owner, the farmer.
Now in our upcoming session, the party gets to reveal the true murderer...should be good.
Great story @Tony1Adobe. I like when the narrative is crafted from small everyday events and people, yet compelling.
Last session the PC finally managed to find the elusive magical site only to find a cult of Ghaunadaur having set up shop right there. With ready kidnapped Kobolds to sacrifice. Some frenzied fighting later they attempted to interrogate the remaining living cultist only to have him melt into a ooze in front of them whilst cursing them in his gods name. Kobolds were thus freed by elves and dwarves in a strange heartwarming scene after the wood elf having conversed with the victims in Draconic.
Sooooo...today's session was almost two hours long... and all we did was kill 2 people (A random guy who obviously did not like us, and a guard who was guarding our friend's hospital room.) Then, my character, Portia, gets arrested for trying to steal a few hats because we needed a disguise, and it does not look like anyone is going to save me sooooo... yeah.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
Success! My Fourth Level Cleric got a staff of fire (No jail cell can hold him now)! Now I need to debate whether to multiclass into wizard next time I level up, or get 3rd level spells first.
This is more absurd then some of my DM's campaigns i love it.
KNIGHT OF RANDOM
Halike Morgad the Dhampir fist of arlo
Sir strange one of the centaurs
The rabbit got a 30 on a performance check later, though.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
It was a Tavern encounter. Eris is the rabbit.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
My character (one of the ones that got a crit fail) also told the personification of Death that he was a terrible dancer.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
More like he was told by Death that he was a bad dancer.
Looking for a campaign? Or, perhaps, trying to start one? Come join Rolegate! Just send me a friend request (same name as here) and I'll help you get started!
Ducks are just geese lite. Focus on the future. It'll become the past soon enough.
Istari and White Counsel in Club. Not the wish-granter of a thread.
Become a Plague Doctor today!
Join the Knights of the Random Table and Calius and Kothar Industries!
Homebrew: Artifact, Dungeon
May be offline due to school
Death is psychopompous.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
Came in here to complain about my dice refusing to admit they had double-figures on them through an entire session, resulting in me failing at everything and then getting gored to death by a moose. But now I'm just here for the disco goblins.
That is true.
Looking for a campaign? Or, perhaps, trying to start one? Come join Rolegate! Just send me a friend request (same name as here) and I'll help you get started!
Ducks are just geese lite. Focus on the future. It'll become the past soon enough.
Istari and White Counsel in Club. Not the wish-granter of a thread.
Become a Plague Doctor today!
Join the Knights of the Random Table and Calius and Kothar Industries!
Homebrew: Artifact, Dungeon
May be offline due to school
My last session goes as following:
Four new players (who have never played dnd) wanted to join for a session. So my party was now a group of seven. One of the four players took it seriously which I respected, but the other three just goofed off which was really funny.
The story:
A tabaxi asks the party to save his daughter who was taken by a band of orcs. They followed the orcs which lead to a cave. Inside the cave was lava and a fire giant had set up his home there. He was eating the orcs. The party went through and slayed the fire giant way too easily, got a bunch of loot and brought the tabaxi daughter back to her father. Then the three goofy players decided they wanted to eat the tabaxi dad. But the other four wanted to save him. So they fought to the death. The bard (a goofy one) charmed two PCs to fight with them. But then the paladin (the serious one) Killed the bard (realeasing the charm) and killed the other two goofy ones.
I am sorry if this was hard to follow, because it was hard for me as the DM to follow.
A New DM up against the World
That sounds like one of the campaigns in my D&D club, except in the club, it sometimes feels like I'm the ONLY serious one! Except for our old DM and one player who left and another who is still there, but is a Co-DM (He does combat since our new DM is bad at the combat) But yeah... I'm used to that sort of stuff happening. Especially the fight to the death part...
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
:)
I hope you find a group that works well for you. As the DM, I actually asked all of my player to join, so my group turned out pretty well. Don't worry. Eventually, you'll find a group that you love.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Things are getting better in the group. It's just hard to communicate when we have to talk to each other through a Zoom call, and only a few of us know each other from school. (Most of us are in different grades, so a lot of us have never met before the club...)
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
:)
Makes sense. I was the only person in my group who knew everyone before we started the campaign, but I've found that doing activities with your group outside of D&D helps make your group have more fun together. Now everyone knows each other pretty well.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
In our most recent session, our party (level 3) managed to slay a young green dragon (the one from thunder tree in the Lost Mines of Phandelver). We were then able to harvest a lot of its parts (yay!!) and sell them back in Neverwinter, and get some dragonscale mail for our barbarian
Tonight's session went swimmingly. Amazingly. It was much smoother than I thought I would be, even considering I got plastered halfway through. Players have been in a halfling village called Everclear where the water is fresh and100% non alcoholic. Some mercenaries moved into a local fort and were extorting the locals, so they asked the players to clear the fort. This session began, they had already cleared the fort. One of them is a changeling who copied the boss's voice giving him advantage on a deception check to convince the ruffians to leave. Players had come through a back entrance, and the changeling convinced the other mercs to cut off the intruders at said entrance. Last session the players had also made a mutual non-aggression pact with a colony of spiders in the crypt, so they were sending the mercs into a trap.
Tonight's session picked up where they had left off. They investigated the keep and found some nice loot, two +1 weapons and three level 2 spell scrolls. One of the mercenaries was a wizard who was building a contraption on the roof called the Arnest Device: one part teleporter, one part magical defense grid, but it is far from working condition, requiring three ultra rare components which will take most of the campaign to acquire.
Well, when they got to the roof to investigate the device, they saw someone, one of the mercs, was still in the fort, guarding the outer wall. It would be crazy to leave the fort completely unguarded after all, and a fire had started in the town. After the spiders attacked them, the mercs figured out it was a ruse, so they attacked the town to draw the players out. After a combat encounter where the bandit chief just about one-shotted on of the PC's the players hurried to town where three more ruffians completely botched an ambush, rolled a 3 for stealth so the players spotted them immediately. No surprise round.
It was here that one player introduced his second character. Let me elaborate, the party are squishy as an overripe peach: two rogues, two wizards, and a druid. I should have caught it at session 1, but too late now. So I told them if they want to make secondary characters, I would allow it, only rule is they can't use both them at once, one of them has to stay behind at base where they can't gain XP.
So combat lasts for a round or too, then the players hear Shoot to Thrill on a lute, and in walks the satyr cleric (I nominated John Cena's theme song, but it was fun regardless). Cleric rolls max damage on his first turn of combat and knocks one of the thugs prone, damn near kills him in one hit, then casts spiritual weapon and repeats it on the other enemy. No time for introductions though, because the town's on fire.
Moving on to the next area, I went back and forth on how to run this fight. What I decided on was to split it into three smaller battles, each with their own initiative count, and resolved one round after the other for each one, and let the players choose which fight they wanted to join. The first battle was two halfling scouts against three thugs. The second was an NPC the players knew against a bandit captain and a veteran. This character is Patrick the Blind Swordsman, a ranger who sees the world in third person through the eyes of an owl familiar. The players don't know he's actually an incubus, and he's not actually blind, he just chooses to wear a blindfold so he doesn't accidentally charm anyone. They are all suspicious of him though, and they have every right to be, because all the women in town are madly in love with him and it's clearly not natural. Third battle was a cleric they know named Brother Martin. They're even more suspicious of him, one of them figured out he's most likely a werewolf. I was wondering when they'd figure it out. (Werewolves are the whole premise of the campaign, and we're finally getting to the main quest after three sessions).
After a couple rounds, the enemy dragonborn wizard appears and summons a powerful elemental, and I think that's where it started to fall apart. Remember when I said the town was called Everclear, named after the river that flows through it. Let's just say we all drank some river water. That made it very hard for me to run an already complicated combat encounter, but even considering all that, it went much more smoothly than I feared it would. Honestly the biggest hickup was one guy's DND beyond account was glicthing out and wasn't reading one of his feats right. He's a wizard, but he took spell sniper bard which through off his attack rolls, but we couldn't for the life us figure out how to give him the correct version of the feat, so we had to manually add firebolt, which he taken with the feat, to his action and attack list. it didn't help that we had all drunk river water.
It also doesn't help that I seem to really suck at running spellcaster bosses, and the enemies focused more on the tanky NPC's than the players, so they mopped up the fight in short order. The surviving ruffians booked after a while and reconvened in a narrow ravine where they were waiting for the players and had taken hostages. The hobgoblin captain had taken control of the gang, and made it clear if the players took one more step, the halflings were dead, and they tried to negotiate the return of the fort.
See, the mercenaries were hired by a cult to excavate the crypt below the fort. Players don't know this, but there is a hidden tomb down there of an ancient werewolf king, he was buried with a sword called the traitors fang, a holy weapon which can break any curse. Even outnumbered as they were, the mercenaries are more afraid of the cult than the players. Well the players negotiated with the mercs, allowing them to finish their excavation as long as they leave when they're finished.
I didn't like what happened next, really didn't like it, but this campaign has places to be, so I kind of railroaded the story and the werewolf cleric killed the ruffians in the night. I didn't like making the players think they had roleplayed successfully through a very tense encounter only for it to resolve itself. No more of that, I swear I won't do that again. Anyway, pretty clear now that Martin is a werewolf, since he's nowhere to be found that morning and Patrick, the undercover incubus explained the priest disappears every month.
But the hostages are alive and well, so to celebrate their town's survival, they threw a festival in the players' honor. I also didn't like the absurd mood whiplash, because the players had just investigated an absolutely brutal massacre, and now they're jumping to fun little minigames. To be fair, they all though the minigames were a fun way to wind down the tension after a truly massive battle.
The three events were a rock-skipping competition which the satyr cleric won with flying colors, a pie-eating contest in which the druid did better than the other players but lost to the town's reigning pie champion, and a fishing derby where the kalashti rogue and the satyr both caught very high level fish. I awarded all of them bonus XP based on how they did in each event. It was a fun way to wind down the game.
Before all hell breaks loose. Even though Everclear is a "dry county," one of the halflings got plastered and got in trouble for trying to drink the holy water from the chapel. He storms off in a drunken fury mumbling to himself about starting his own religion and some such right before the players hear a bloodcurdling scream from across the river. The last thing the players saw before the session ended was the drunk halfling being dragged by something into the corn field. And yes, it's a full moon.
Last session went great: the party got enlisted by a town constabulary after a murder occurred during their annual "Festival of Joy"...where violence is not permitted on the grounds.
After a rather wealthy dwarf grain farmer was slashed to ribbons; the party was able to determine that the primary suspect...a farmer known for a history of drunken brawling...was probably not the murderer.
They inspected the man's house, and found out that his wife had converted to the faith of Loviatar, the Mistress of Suffering.
When they investigated the scene of the murder on the festival grounds, they found peculiar footsteps of no particular type leading away from the scene...where they walked right into an ambush of crows, as well as an animated scarecrow.
The party successfully killed the creatures...the sorcerer just narrowly evading death...and found a wedding ring belonging to the wife inside of the scarecrow: virtually identical to a wedding ring found on the body of the victim (who had won it gambling earlier that night).
Whatever ritual she had used, it had animated the scarecrow with sinister divine magic...and had killed the dwarf instead of the ring's original owner, the farmer.
Now in our upcoming session, the party gets to reveal the true murderer...should be good.
Players meet a spectator at the forge of spells, give it depression and free therapy.
The fire giants made a gundam wheeeeee
Great story @Tony1Adobe. I like when the narrative is crafted from small everyday events and people, yet compelling.
Last session the PC finally managed to find the elusive magical site only to find a cult of Ghaunadaur having set up shop right there. With ready kidnapped Kobolds to sacrifice. Some frenzied fighting later they attempted to interrogate the remaining living cultist only to have him melt into a ooze in front of them whilst cursing them in his gods name. Kobolds were thus freed by elves and dwarves in a strange heartwarming scene after the wood elf having conversed with the victims in Draconic.
Sooooo...today's session was almost two hours long... and all we did was kill 2 people (A random guy who obviously did not like us, and a guard who was guarding our friend's hospital room.) Then, my character, Portia, gets arrested for trying to steal a few hats because we needed a disguise, and it does not look like anyone is going to save me sooooo... yeah.
Hi!!!! My pronouns are She/They!
Picture a halfling riding a flumph and be happy!!!!!
:)
Success! My Fourth Level Cleric got a staff of fire (No jail cell can hold him now)! Now I need to debate whether to multiclass into wizard next time I level up, or get 3rd level spells first.
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
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o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?