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.
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.
Why do you end up in jail so often?
I made a mistake at the start of the campaign which put me on the most wanted list of a King.
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.
Why do you end up in jail so often?
I made a mistake at the start of the campaign which put me on the most wanted list of a King.
The King of Random?
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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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no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 um, I killed a Triceratops that attacked us and nearly killed the fighter. I'm sure in this abandoned dinosaur amusement park with dinosaurs, robots, robot dinosaurs and a necromancer, I will suffer no consequences for this action.
My party (aasimar fighter/warlock, gnome wizard, goliath paladin, human hexblade (me)) found themselves in the tribe of the goliath paladin a few sessions ago, encountering some particularly aggressive white dragons while on the run from The Cult of the Dragon (we're playing a slightly modified version of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, mostly modified bc we make weird in character choices). We learn that the dragons have been encroaching on the tribe's land for a while now and take it upon ourselves to try to hunt these dragons. The tribe leader calls a meeting with the council and we get like a week of downtime.
(for a bit of background I should add that we killed Rezmir, the wurmspeaker in HOtDQ much earlier in the game than we were supposed to (we're like lvl 8) so my character has the black dragon mask and the fighter/warlock has Hazirawn)
Downtime if you want to know what happened, it was honestly pretty interesting
The gnome wizard (who's literally a child that ran away bc he wanted adventure, important later) and I decided to look around the forest to find some stuff--for him, it was ink to copy spells into his spellbook, and for me, it was crafting components because my character's backstory ties heavily into blacksmithing.
We look around, not finding any ink but I found some pretty decent crafting components around this fey-touched pond area. We stay the night in the pond area because we wouldn't be able to make it back to the village before dark. I took the first watch, getting a pretty decent perception roll. I do however fail an ominous wisdom save and our DM moves us to a different discord call. The wisdom save is for a charm effect from a Naiad that was in the pond, forcing my character to look for the naiad until the effect wore off/I drowned. I was getting pretty freaked out at this point but then I remembered something,
The black dragon mask gives me water breathing.
I was so relieved, and after that scare, I just finished my watch soaking wet and hand it off to the guide who came with us to help us find what we were looking for. Then it's the wizard's watch, and he also fails his wisdom save. The DM moves him to another call and I grieve him as I know he doesn't have water breathing.
SOMEHOW he manages to come back alive. (this session was literally like a week or two ago, and the wizard's player is my brother, and I still haven't figured out how he survived drowning).
Our fighter/warlock decided to try to attune to Hazirawn (a neutral evil sword) as a chaotic good character. He'd been trying to no avail for a bit now but it hasn't been working out. He tried to get his patron Bahamut to help him but it didn't really work in his favor because the sword is quite stubborn.
The paladin didn't do much, or I don't remember what she did for downtime.
After a week had passed, we meet before the council. Our party worked together to try to convince the council to give us a chance to slay the dragons. The council took some time to think about it, and eventually, we're informed of their decision. They told us that they would allow us 72 hours to kill the dragons, and they would need permission from the wizard's parents to go with us on the quest. (I'll put backstory in a spoiler in case anyone's interested)
Like I said before, the wizard is like 10. We met him while we had some downtime in a city, where my brother's previous character had been arrested and tried for a near-life sentence for trying to steal a city artifact. He rolled up a new character, a 10-year-old gnome abjuration wizard who ran away from home because he wanted adventure.
The threat of his parents being called on him had come up a few times, largely being ignored thanks to plot armor and trying to keep him in the game. It wasn't until we were captured by the cult, and they threatened to call his parents on him that we realized we'd screwed up and were definitely going to have to face the consequences of essentially kidnapping him (justifying it so my brother could keep playing his character that he loved). We'd been wrestling with that eventuality for a bit before this time, so we'd been thinking of a few ways to solve it. Luckily it wasn't too big of a deal (also probably thanks to plot armor) as you'll read next.
The three adults in our party (myself, the paladin, and the fighter/warlock) receive some personal training from some council members each gaining a feat based on the respective council members' strengths and weaknesses
The wizard gets sent home (without any consequences thanks to a deal the chief of the tribe made with his parents) and my brother gets a new character, A Firbolg Cleric. He kinda has chill vibes but we haven't been able to interact with him that much yet, so only time will tell.
We set off, making our way past where we killed the white dragons a session prior. Two Cyclopses were salvaging the dragon for food, and we decided to ask them for directions. Despite having a few party members who spoke giant, we end up in a battle and take out the cyclopses fairly easily (ignoring a few tree trunks to the face) and that's where the session ended.
Overall I'd say it was a fun session, and I'm looking forward to the next one!
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first thing you should know about me: I exist
I play a warlock who is also a blacksmith who is also Irish on Mondays
There was a dinosaur. With lasers. My inner child was very happy until we had to kill it. Turns out there was an undead artificer controlling it and we just can't have that. Also the guy that the head of Calimport's thief's guild sent us to find was his brother. DUN DUN DUUUUN!
Short Version: My party finally reached Neverwinter, the monk finally found a magic shop he'd been saving up all his gold for, he brought a +1 spear using his entire gold stack. 2 hours later the monk was dead.
Long Version: (Warning: Minor spoilers for Storm King's Thunder) Dm'ing Storm Kings Thunder for 4 level 7's. The party left Neverwinter and arrived in Port Llast to find it under siege by 20 frost giants lead by the evil giant lord Jarl Storvald. In my version of the campaign Storvald can control the weather in a small area, which he used to surround the port in a blizzard that reduces visibility to 60ft. The party decide to head into the town to rescue as many survivors as possible, they dispatch the two frost giants at the entrance and end up meeting, Sir Jordeth Tavilson, their Order of the Helm contact who also arrived to rescue survivors. Together they sneakily dispatch 3 frost giants without alerting the rest when they discover Jarl Storvald has gathered a group of survivors in the town, demanding Artus Cimber to reveal himself. Artus Cimber isn't here, one of his relatives is and the party know this. Sir Jordeth proposes pretending he is Artus Cimber so the party can lead the hostages away, his deception beats the Jarl's insight and he is captured in a net.
At this point the monk decides to try save Jordeth. The town square contained Jarl Storvald (In my version of the campaign he's a CR 14 Storm Herald Barbarian frost giant), his pet Frost Salamander (CR 9) and 5 Frost Giants (CR 8), so as a DM I'm thinking "this could actually be a TPK". The party get a surprise round and use this to free Jordeth, the fighter and monk rush ahead, all 3 eventually end up downed by Jarl Storvald and his Frost Salamander. Jarl Storvald grabs 'Artus' and orders the giants to retreat, believing the group have reinforcements with them, a retreating giant downs the ranger with a rock. The warlock is left alone with the frost salamander, the downed ranger, the downed monk who failed his 1st death saving throw and the downed fighter who crit failed his 1st death saving throw. The warlock decides to heal the ranger and finished off the frost salamander, the ranger uses all their speed to end up 10ft away from the downed party members. The monk then crit fails his death saving throw and dies, then the fighter fails their death saving throw and dies. The session before the party stole a scroll of revivify from a merchant and now the warlock is faced with a choice over who to use the scroll on, I start a 10 minute timer to show when revivify becomes useless. The warlock chose to revive the fighter, the monk now consigned to death. The party then levelled up.
It was my first encounter with a character death both as a player and a DM. I had planned to give the party a reason to fight each Giant Lord, revenge is a very good reason.
Waterdeep Dragon Heist update: After a long absence from here, we switched from Phandelver to Dragon Heist (but maintained our level 3 status to counteract the fact there's only 3 party members) After rescuing people and setting a tavern up, we got introduced to the factions. Last three weeks has been getting all this done and getting the first faction mission done. Today was the second faction mission. Waffles got a mission to clear out some skeletons from a graveyard, Salem got a mission to help an old woman with a monster problem, Assembler got a mission to find an evil adventurer and "put him to the sword" , and we all got told by Force Grey there was a dragon in the harbour. Day one: Assembler failed to find the evil adventurer. Night One: No Skeletons: Day Two:Assembler got two leads. Night Two: No skeletons. Day three: Assembler found his man. Lvl 4 Warforged Artificer with a musket and a mechanical leopard vs two Kenku and the adventurer. After a few rounds of MARC the defender getting mauled, Assembler cast Sanctuary on him and stayed close to him. Can't attack the defender without making a Wisdom check, and Assembler has 20 AC. MARC survived heroically (despite getting down to 3hp) before kenku and adventurer were downed, the latter by a crit fail with his own scimitar.He was put to the sword, no one specified whose though. :P Waffles and Salem teamed up to take on a gazer, and despite a few rounds of fear and frost beams, came out victorious. Night three: No skeletons. Day four: Went to see the dragon. Blackstaff gave potions of water breathing.....to the two warforged and the air genasi.... and Team Air? What Air? went into the depths of the harbour and had a pleasant conversation with the dragon, learning it's intentions. From then on it was keeping the tavern running during the day and patrolling at night for skeletons until day seven, when we encountered six. Waffles got banged up, but each party member accounted for two skeletons. Once that was done, we rested from our respective ordeals for a day, and then someone attacked the front of the tavern with a fireball. Cliffhanger established, session ends.
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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)
So I made a LP Dragonborn, with a couple of variants based on DM inputs to allow them into their campaigns: https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/614095-fey-dragonborn (I just wanted to have fun with it & it turned out GREAT!)
Meet Dewy Smallscales!
Watch him grow throw his first campaign: Tyranny of Dragons. The DM said if iI wanted to play a Homebrew, he'd put it to the test...
Disclaimer: I am using the names/likenesses of fantasy characters as named by their players, that have no copy right or trademark and I will use said at my artistic discretion. Although this tale is told via Dewy's perspective, there is only about 7% embellishment for the sake of roleplay.
Session One: Hitching a ride with the caravan headed to Greenest by pretending to be a lost youngling, Dewy meets his future companions on the run, literally. Rushing into Greenest in order to stop the raiders, the party encounters more than expecting, when a blue dragon swoops across the city. But when a mother with children in tow round a corner being pursued by a band of kobold, the party come together... mostly. After dispatching the kobold, the party starts to sweep the streets on the way to the fort, looking for others in need, only to come face to face with the Cult of the Dragon. Whew, Dewy has survived his first encounter with the Cult of the Dragon! Neo dodging a barrage of fire bolts from a trio of mages for 2 rounds and outshooting a Dwarven ranger, using only his slingshot... 7 Kobolds and 4 Cultists down! I mean, what's more embarrassing to a dwarf than to be upstaged by a 4' tall dragonborn?! Revealing his ability to Misty Step to save his ass, Dewy pops to an adjacent roof. Even after battling through this encounter with the Cult, Dewy still managed to slip away and procure advanced payment for his heroics before rejoining his group at the fort... (Post game note - DM admitted that I was the only one visible for those two rounds and it wasn't personal.)
Session Two: Unfortunately for party, the Dwarven Ranger named Flint, snuck off in shame to live with a colony of sewer rats the party encountered en route to the fort. After the party rescued the occupants of the temple and escorted them to the keep, Dewy added 5 Kobold and 2 Cultist notches to his slingshot. Tired and hangry, Dewy dispatched a group of cultists battering the front gate, by tossing barrels of lamp oil at them from above the gate and lighting them up, yelling "NO VACANCY!" Immediately after his quippy success, a Blue Dragon attacked the tower behind him, scaring the shit out of him. Irrythil "The Jackal" leads the charge and since Dewy has nothing to do, he follows. Using a Goliath named Elgath and his battle axe as a distraction, Dewy waited until the dragons attention was fully on the axe embedded in his forehead, before loosing a fatally blinding shot... I mean, that dragon might not see right for a while! Not really a notch, but he carved a small dragon eye on the butt of his slingshot anyway. Then Elgath had to go and get stabbed in the chest by some half dragon while Dewy stared down a bunch of Kobolds holding children hostage. The half dragon's ego stroked, the hostages were released. After a much earned rest, Dewy awoke... different, better? His mixed coloration of scales seem more uniform, more bronzish and his leather armor didn't feel right anymore. After the party accepts its mission to find a kidnapped monk, Dewy in an act of selflessness, hands his now smaller leather armor to a 13 year old boy who lost his father, telling him that "if he takes care of it, it will take care of him". Looking for clues in town, he managed to use his persuasive cuteness to convince the local alchemist to "donate" some vials of acid and a couple discounted healing potions, as he cased the remainder of the town of Greenest... finding nothing was left behind by the Cult. On the trail of the raiding party, Dewy the Daft Slingshotta Misty Stepped into the middle of, yep, you guessed it, a group of Kobolds only to add 3 more notches while his party took out a couple of Cultists. The party regroups, rolls the bodies and continues along the path, Dewy scouting ahead. Its relatively nice out... a head ducks behind a rock as an arrow whizzes past Dewy's head. And we last see Dewy, "Dukes of Hazard freeze frame" running away, flipping someone off over his shoulder, from an ambush on the trail ahead.
Session Three: To the party's surprise, Dewy unwittingly ambushed an ambush! A group of cultists are giving chase to a dwarf, hands bound, run-stumbling through the terrain. Not expecting to run into the adventurers, the dwarf is surprised to hear someone yelling to him, not at him. The party rushes forward to the dwarfs aid, engaging the cultists head on. Again, sneaky cult casters try to ping Dewy as he cuts the dwarfs bindings, but to no avail. He daftly dodges their sacred flames and ducks behind a tree. While the rest of the party makes quick work of the first cultists, a screeching roar comes from the hill above as a Griffon mounts the ridge. As the beast flits down, seemingly injured, to engage the nearest cultist, Dewy feels a surging power in him. First he thinks its adrenaline, but then a crackling energy builds in his little claws, his eyes get wide with excitement as the arcane knowledge surges within him. Dewy spins from behind the tree creaming "Unlimited POWERRRR!!" as he unleashes Witch bolt on the Cult Caster. The other caster, not knowing wtf just happened just stops, gasping as his companion is reduced to a smoldering corpse. The griffon then moves on to Minerva, the party's bard, taking a peck but missing. Without hesitation The Jackal, an accomplished fighter rushes into take a jab at the griffon. Dewy in awe of this fey beast, throws down his hands and coos at the intelligent beast in Sylvan "STOP! We are friends, frrriendsss...." an begins to slowly approach. Amazingly, with no animal handling skill set, Dewy calms the beast and the party moves between it and the rest of the cultists. With only a handful of Dragons Cultists left, Dewy begins to tend to the Griffons wounds, hand feeding it a potion of healing while the dwarf casts a healing spell on it. The fight ends with a solitary cultist surviving, only to be interrogated by Minerva and Jackal, while Dewy continues to succeed AH checks keeping the beast calm. Lulled into a sense of overconfidence, Dewy carefully and gingerly climbs on the Griffon's back. It rises from the ground slowly, dolphin eyeing the little dragon on its back, but doesn't seem threatened, nor threatening. After a few more "good boy's" and scratches around its neck, the griffon prances around the clearing a little, emitting the occasional cackling 'laugh'? Again overcome with confidence, Dewy pats the Griffon and says "UP!", at which point the griffon bucks Dewy off and he takes 2pts bludgeoning. The griffon nuzzles him a little to make sure he's okay. Dewy, lying on his back, waves the Griffon away, saying "We're good, yo can go now, buddy...". The griffon cocks its head and bounds into the forest. Jackal glances at Dewy and calls him a show off. Dewy replies, "Show off? Maybe... But that's a great title for my resume... Dewy the Spelldodger, The Kobold One-shot wonder, Dragon Blinder... and now GRIFFON RIDER!" Jackal smugly replies, "You rode it for 15secs..." Dewy just smiles... "That's 15secs longer than you." The party rests, does the ol meet n greet with the dwarf cleric, Kurgan and then continues tracking the bandits. Finding the raiders encampment, the adventurers boldly walk in the front gates like they were bandits themselves. Locating the monk, Dewy casts disguise self, making himself look like Flint, the dwarven Ranger who abandoned them earlier (but dressed as occultist) and makes his way to the monk. Upon telling the monk they were here to rescue him, he pleads to be left behind, for he is actually investigating the cave at the back of the raider encampment and that he will be fine. Dewy, dumbfounded by the response, leaves and tells the party the news, to which all agree to take their intel back to Greenest and tell the mayor... We end this session as the party arrives at the keep, telling their news and receiving a small reward for their efforts. Another change brews in Dewy as he catches a long rest... A misty form comes into his dream. A Fey unknown to him takes shape. She is lovely, yet a viciousness hides in her eyes. "Little Dragon.." she calls to him, "I see great things in your path... You are a child of the Fey, a child of mine..." A slender hand extends, wreathed in tendrils of fey mist that seem to reach out themselves, "Walk with me and I will show you wonders..." Dewy hesitates all of 1.3 seconds before smiling and taking her hand saying, "You bet your sweet misty ass I accept!" The Fey's head cocks to the side in a 'What'd you say?' motion as she slowly smiles and begins to wonder... was it she who offered her hand, or accepted his...? (Post game disclosure: The DM admitted that he did not expect me to try and spare the griffon, definitely didn't expect the rest of the party to help, as he threw it in as DC fodder because we were destroying everything with hella rolls. I was playing on the mythical "fey" aspect of the creature, a little twist never hurts...)
Session(s) Four & Five: (Apologies, narrator was ill last week end and so you get a twofer! ) Dewy and the gang relax a little, have drinks and make plans to take on the cult. Dewy not a big drinker, as most drinks are as big as he, pounds a tankard after listening to one of the most ridiculous religulous debates between an elven fighter who stabs everything in sight and praises IO when he means AO and a dwarven cleric... I mean, have you tried to argue religion with a dwarf? DON'T! At which point, Dewy spies open sky through a hole in the thatched roof and Misty Steps 30ft straight up, free falling onto the tavern roof, taking 2pts of damage and passes out under the stars. After accepting Lurue as his Patron, Dewy wanders the feymists with her. The mists that connect all time, all reality. If you're keen enough, you can pick up glimpses of the other realms. Some vibrant, some mere shades, some wholly alien and undecipherable. Like there was one that was nothing but eyeball creatures, she said Behold Her Realm, or some shit like that, Dewy was still a little drunk... and hoped it wasn't really hers. Though it seemed Dewy wandered for much longer than he slept, he awoke after a wonderful night under the stars. Renewed and focused with a brilliant idea... well, an idea he gleaned while wandering the mists with Lurue. He caught a brief visage of another party, their time seemed to move much faster and their speech like the chattering of squirrels, but the event to unfold was a wonder indeed. A strangely cute goblin girl hurling a small barrel and screaming in a pitch almost comical... "Fluffernutter!" Lurue pulls him away as there is a fiery flash and he hears the echoing roar fade into the mist. The seed is planted... Upon awaking, Dewy makes his way to the alchemist he helped before, an older but attractive half elf. He asks her if she happens to have any smoke powder, for you know, removing stumps? She eyes him suspiciously, as if being entrapped, but his widdle dwagon eyes were just too much, so she leads him to a secure dry cellar where she produces two small powder kegs, at discount, for aiding the city, but cautions him to take care in transporting. (sidebar for DMs - it makes for an interesting ride engaging your players in convo and randomly dropping Wis saves on them to see if they are transporting smoke powder carefully/properly... some bumps, but I think he was rooting for that 1) Dewy talks to the mayor about his plan. He requests four wine barrels filled with flammable oil and pinecones and a wagon with horses. In addition, the mayor sent 12 city guard to aide. Dewy's plan, in his head, was perfection... Staging the barrels just so in the first wagon, He and Minerva dress as Cultists driving the wagon, with the rest of the party and some guards posing as mercenaries. The second wagon would be covered to hide the rest of the guards. Before reaching the bandit encampment, the guards are instructed to take positions above the camp and when all hell breaks loose, just start raining arrows. The party simply rolls in as before, Dewy announcing they took a merchant on the road and have a teat for the boys, pending the bosses approval first. Using his draconic influence, he commands a small band of Kobolds to "circle the wagon" and calls everyone over, telling them to hang tight while he talks to the "boss" and as soon as he gives you the thumbs up, help yourselves to the wine. Dewy walks 100ft, casts eldritch blast to detonate the powder kegs, while simultaneously misty stepping to cover. The blast erupts in flame and debris, the oil soaked pinecones now shrapnel for those around the wagon are also resinous balls of flame igniting the rest of the camp. The chaos makes for easy pickings as the guards pick their targets, allowing the party to slip into the cave... THE REALITY ~ Everything goes as planned up to the entry, at which point the party finds the encampment virtually empty, as they missed everyone leaving 12 hours earlier. Dewy, extremely disappointed in all his effort, rolls the wagon in and parks it close to the cave. For the sake of brevity, the party dispatches a few cultists inside the entrance, gets attacked by some funky fungus, a few troglodytes and rounds a corner to find a whole clan of kobold. Dewy and Minerva say "Sup, just headed to the hatchery" and manage to just walk by undeterred. Epic showdown with the Blue Half-Dragon and a couple barbarians, Dewy strikes the final blow with another witch bolt screaming, "CRAKLE CRACKLE, MOTHER****AAA!" Skip ahead after they rest, Minerva sets of an acid trap while opening a chest, acid is bad, but the loot is good. And on to the hatchery.... (now if you're overly pc and/or easily offended, please stop here and simply enjoy the antics above)... within the hatchery the party finds kobolds hiding in ambush down a small drop off, but cutting their ropes and tell them if they stay there, we will not kill them seems to suffice. After dispatching some guard drakes, the party discovers three Black Dragon Eggs, at which point the party's stab happy elf unloads on one of the eggs. He declares he is ridding the world of future evil, to which Minerva pierces the second egg. Dewy, up until know, knew little of the world beyond his small stretch of coast and its quaint towns. But he did know that Black Dragons were, for a lack of words... evil,. As he raised his Yklwa to stab down, there is hesitation... not in the act itself, but he senses a corruption in this place, a mild confirmation that he is justified. And the wyrmling is no more. "Why?!" yells Kurgan, he dwarven cleric "Why would you kill them? Have you never heard of nurture over nature?" Dewy looks at Kurgan, slumps his shoulders in disbelief and says in return "Well, you're a little late on the ****ing draw there! The intent was announced, yet you stood by!" The party comes to terms with the deed and Dewy, ever the thinker, collects the remains of the wyrmling's and eggs and hauls them out. Upon reaching the battle scene prior, the party finds The Jackal skinning the Half-Dragon. Dewy, already regretting the wyrmling's, now finds himself dumbfounded and points out that its a HALF dragon and that he's pretty sure the other half is human or elf, but the Jackal wants his trophy, stating he want a a cloak to strike fear into other dragons, but he be lucky some bracers out of it all, maybe some fingerless gloves... I mean Dewy ****ing fried it good with a nat 20. Upon exiting, Dewy exudes his Fey Presence and draconic influence to convince some kobolds into aiding him with a "special project". Almost to the exit when Kurgan spies a side chamber full of cultists and Dewy just smiles. Can a dragonborn have a Cheshire Grin? Seeing the bodies of the cultists, the kobold falter, but Dewy pulls another one out from under his kilt (rolling deception & persuasion) and tells them "these cultists seek to hurt the dragons, to take the eggs for themselves". One kobold in particular begins stabbing the dead cultist, so Dewy spits on the body for street cred, which obviously pays off. Talking the stabby kobold into playing a "big tricksy" on the thieving cult, he hands over a powder keg and tells the kobold that he will be champion of clan if he runs into the room and throws this at their feet. The Kobold in his excitement to be clan champion, begins to run with the powder keg, but Dewy cautions him to walk slow "so they don't hear you"... Minutes later there is a rumbling, as if the earth had not eaten for weeks, followed by debris and dust flying from the cave. The other kobold looking concerned, turn to Dewy for a command, to which he yells "They attack!, Hurry, get the rest of the clan and attack the cult!" The remaining kobold run back into the main cave, Dewy takes the second powder keg, walks briskly and places it inside the entrance behind a central column, runs to distance throwing a mote of fire over his shoulder as he misty steps to safety, thus collapsing the cave and entombing the kobold and cultists that survived. He whispers "Fluffernutter" in tribute to the misty goblin girl who inspired him. On the way back to Greenest, the monk shares his disappointment in the loss of the wyrmling's, the argument between the elf and dwarf began and Dewy zones out. Taking his guilt laden loot to the alchemist, she is overwhelmed with geeky delight at his bounty. After leaving everything with her, he took a well deserved rest, contemplated being more forward thinking and then returned the next morning to collect his 1,500gp for the wyrmling's and eggshells, with an added bonus of 4 vials of black dragon acid. At which point he contemplates some more... "Maybe I shouldn't take my lead from a stab happy elf with an haughty ego, or a dwarven cleric who will chastise for killing "potentially" evil creatures but will steal gold off a drunk. He thinks about it while walking back to the fort. His face takes on that Cheshire Dragon grin as he mutters the word again, "Fluffernutter..." Gods be damned that's brilliant he thinks. Maybe he'll just take his cues literally, he is a mischievous little dragon after all. Minerva stands outside the fort, readying her the horses gifted to the party as Dewy approaches. She turns to speak to him but find he isn't there. But just a little further a way, a toe headed child does a little skip as he makes his way inside. She swears it was him, kinda hard to miss a 4' dragonborn, but it's been a long day already with long days ahead. Maybe she's just distracted...
Session(s) Six & Seven: (as our narrator suffers through an ongoing plague spell, twofers will be the standard re-caps for our little Dragonborn...) From Greenest to Elturel, Dewy finds that his 4' frame was not built for horseback. After a meet n greet session with the Harpers and Order of the Gauntlet, accepting their offer to blend in with the Cult caravan expected to leave Baldur's Gate, Dewy finds the local cartwright and looks over the modest selection before finding a few damaged caravans salvaged from recent bandit raids and commissions a custom caravan wagon. Overall, the design is indistinguishable from a standard chuckwagon, but for a little extra gold, Dewy has the undercarriage and suspension replaced with that of a large passenger coach he found half burned in the back, giving it an 800lb capacity and a much smoother ride for high speed movement. In addition, he has the frame stripped down and the standard side planking replaced with cedar paneling to keep the weight as light as possible. As he has no plans to actually carry anything that would weigh down the wagon, he has the horse rigging refitted for a single, large horse. Unbeknownst to his companions, Dewy also has two secret compartments built into the wagon for his personal stashes. Knowing that his riding horse won't be able to tow this new wagon, Dewy peruses the stables for an upgrade. Using his Beast Speech, he "interviews" various large breeds before happening upon a friendly young Clydesdale who prefers to be called Santos... and a friendship was born. For shits and giggles, Dewy buys a basket saddle, typically used for children, in case he needs to ditch the wagon and ride Santos. On the way to Baldur's gate, Dewy revels in telling Santos of his little stretch of beach, as Santos tells how much he loves carrots and talking to somebody other than horses! Once in Baldur's Gate, the party cuts loose and follows Jackal to a local pit fight, where he proceeds to over power his opponent, but in a rash display of hard to justify motivation, delightfully snaps the neck of the other fighter, putting the whole party in quite the pickle. Holding their own and intimidating the owner, the party manages to avert further conflict and spends the following days blending in and finding work within the caravan, pretending not to know one another. Kurgan finds paid passage as smithy and guard, Minerva uses her mysterious background to work her way into the cult itself, The Jackal (our go-to stab happy edgelord elf) books himself a private coach with his pit fight winnings and pampers himself. Dewy, dropping the covers of his wagon, pretends to carry a full load. The night before the caravan heads out, Dewy's sticky clawed nature gets the better of him and he goes... shopping. Finding a modest mundane arcane shop, Dewy disguises himself as everyone's favorite Dwarven scapegoat Flint, casts Unseen Servant and hands it a wooden shim as he walks in. Upon closing the door, the servant wedges the shim under the threshold and waits by the entrance. Eyes darting all around, taking note of his surroundings, "Flint" engages the elderly woman running the shop. After buying a few potions, Dewy feigns frustration in the lack of space in his pack and asks if she happens to have a Bag of Holding. Excited at another sale, she gladly opens a case and let him look over the selection. Tentatively asking if he may inspect one, she hands it to him and he begins to "inspect" the stitching while commanding the servant to start knocking items from shelves at the front. Startled, the shopkeeper runs to the front to inspect as Dewy drops a scrap of Cultist robe in plain sight and Misty Steps through a window to the adjacent rooftop, running and skipping back to his wagon with his newly acquired BOH. As the caravan stages for departure, Dewy enlists the aide of a few stray dogs using Beast Speech and treats, letting them sniff the Cultist robe he acquired in Greenest and has them identify and piss on their wagons. He takes note of the wagons his canine friends marked and keeps tabs on them, steadily maneuvering his wagon in line behind the trailing cult wagon. The days to follow are uneventful and the party makes due blending in. Minerva standing guard two wagons ahead of Dewy as a cultist, Kurgan primarily playing guard and mending a horseshoe here and there, Jackal rarely emerges from his pretentious ride and begins to garner the reputation as a spoilt ***** and Dewy makes due playing throwing prestidigitation around for children and entertaining them at night by telling stories of his fathers adventures and casting images in the campfire using control flames. One particular evening, that ol feeling of mischief creeps into Dewy's bones... casting sleep on the cultist in front of him, Dewy then calls forth another unseen servant and sends it to retrieve a bag of loot from the covered wagon. Returning just in time, Dewy quickly stashes his ill-gotten, already ill-gotten gains, as the cultists on guard come to. Trinkets and baubles, about 250gp total, but its better than nothing... and there will be other nights on this long journey. The next evening, Jackal enlists Dewy's aide in inspecting a burial mound not far from the caravan. Without hesitation, Jackal topples the stone blocking the entrance and meanders inside. After dispatching a skeletal guard and claiming its armor, The Jackal proceeds to open the sarcophagus, finding the remains of a high priest from a long lost order. Dewy refrains from disturbing the remains and recuses himself. After leaving the tomb, Dewy uses Mold Earth to cover the entrance. A little over a week in and the caravan abruptly stops and a gathering of armed men huddle in a conversation, pointing to a distant hill. A great golden stag stands surrounded by a heard of regular deer. The hunters want to kill it as well as the other deer, not just for food, but for a trophy. As the hunting party starts out, bot Kurgan and Dewy intercede. The hunters attempt to push past the two, but Dewy squares his shoulders and evokes his Fey Presence and this small dragon seems to grow, exuding a fearsome yet charming persona and warns them away. As Kurgan "escorts" the hunters back to the caravan while Dewy cautiously approaches, stopping a mere 50' from the golden stag and in Beast Speech announces himself as a servant of Lurue. All of the herd disperses save for the stag, who speaks in Sylvan to Dewy... without speaking. An omen is spoken, a task laid at his feet, as well as a short bow with beautiful antler designs and in a poof that reminds Dewy of his Misty Step, the Golden Stag vanishes. The Jackal emerges from his drunken man-servant pampering (because according to the DM, female servants weren't available at the time he booked passage... heheheeee) only to state his disappointment in not being able to kill it. (cringe-worthy eye rolls apply as the party realizes that the Jackal's CN alignment is just his justification in being a murder-hobo) The caravan moves on and just before reaching a known roadhouse, comes to another brief halt as a man is found buried in the middle of the road, OATHBREAKER written on his face. Oathbreaker or no, this is no way to die, so the party removes him from the earth, Dewy making quick work with his Mold Earth to find he is in fact a Harper agent who was ousted by other bandits and left for dead. Persuasive ruses abound, the party convinces the caravan he was waylaid by bandits and places him in Dewy's wagon. A storms rolls in as the caravan reaches the road house, only to be turned away due to occupancy issues, yet there were only four people in the common room. While negotiating with the keeper, the "patrons" began mocking various members of the party, finally pushing the needed button by calling Minerva a red-headed *****. A brawl ensues as The Jackal side steps and makes his way over the the previously occupied table and begins enjoying someone else's meal instead of helping his companions. Taking a grazing strike from a poisoned blade, Dewy Misty Steps across the room and unleashes Witch Bolt on his assailant, and with a follow up, casts prestidigitation at Jackals plate, rapidly cooling his once enjoyable meal. Jackal counters in the same manor and warms his plate back up. After dispatching the would be assailants, Minerva walks over and playfully pushes Jackal's plate off the table (because it wasn't his to begin with). Jackal however, did not think this was funny, began justifying his non-assistance as "You guys started it, they paid good money to rent this place out and you picked a fight..." then stabs Minerva in the foot with his rapier for the plate encounter. As tensions grow due to PVP violence, a great, shimmering celestial hand descends from the ceiling and separates the two before the lights fade and we end this re-cap. After the fact, as the party RPs the rest of the evening, Dewy has been tending to Santos. Before re-entering the road house, he changes into Flint and kicks open the door yelling, "I have come to avenge my comrades!" and smiles as the innkeeper ducks behind the bar expecting another tussle. Change back, Dewy peeks around the bar and assures the owner that after seeing us, that dwarf fled... trying not to burst out in laughter. He then snags dusty bottle of fine brandy wine, tosses a platinum to the owner and ducks back out to spend the evening in the stables with Santos.
Dewy awoke to a rubbing/scraping sound that seemed to resonate from every direction. As he leads Santos out of the stable to begin hitching him to the wagon, he notices a monolithic eraser, moving across the horizon, leaving not but a void in it's trail... Dewy misty steps one last time onto Santo's back, quaffs the last of the brandy wine and says, "Well... shit." He spurs the massive steed southward, hoping to se his lonely stretch of beach again before its gone.
We're running a homebrew prologue to Curse of Strahd, since half of our players are playing for the very first time this will help get them acquainted with the mechanics of D&D.
So the session before this last one, the PC's were chasing someone who had kidnapped another NPC when they got ambushed by wolves and crashed the wagon. My character was a halfling bard, lvl 1. I was the only one who passed my save to stay conscious after the wreck, and there were 6 or 7 wolves, so needless to say I was screwed. I got my throat ripped out and the only person who saw it happen was my fiances character who was half conscious. I already had a second character made so that character, Ivan Krezkov, a Variant Human Paladin, dragged the party back to the small village where he lives.
[This is VERY shortened but too much details to type out] So in this town, we're basically all hunters, and the party is tasked with looking for a couple lost hunters, one of which was pregnant. So since my character has lived here for 5 years, naturally I'm their guide. We find one of the hunters dead, and follow wolf tracks to a cave where we hear what sounds like a baby but also a puppy wimpering, so we go investigate. It's a newborn werewolf pup, born prematurely. The mother, the lost hunter who turns out to be a werewolf, shows up alongside a dire wolf. The mother almost get's into combat with the party but shes gravely wounded from the other hunter stabbing her in the stomach, hence why the baby was born prematurely, he cut the baby out of her. We help the mother into the cave to be with her baby. Our druid tries to heal her but it doesn't work, so she and another PC sits with the mother to comfort her. This type of situation ties in GREATLY to my characters backstory, so he's watching this dying werewolf mother hold her pup and he sort of goes into shock, like PTSD from something that happened in his backstory. Anyways, long story short, between the sad situation and the dialogue between the druid and the mother, all of us were either tearing up or bawling our eyes out, including the DM. She dies, we convince the dire wolf to come with us and we bring the baby back to the town. The guy who runs the hunters lodge takes the pup (the townsfolk HATE werewolves but the hunters lodge guy is a wereraven so he has a soft spot for this child), and the dire wolf agrees to go with one of the hunters. GREAT session.
Well, i lead my party split players together, for the shared goal of geting paid by their investor.
He wants to reserch nearby ruins, so he wants the party to make sure it's safe first.
They came across a large stone door, carved all over with old runes of most religions and some ruins of religions that arent around anymore. They figured out that an owl figurine they previously aquiered was the key, and after the door fell open they went inside.
What they found was a long hallway with murals depicting powerfull snake like beings being brought to their knees, along with a few rooms with old weaponds and potions.
They finaly whwnt through the last door at the end of the underfround hallway, and foumd themselves in a lush forest, very confused, they looked back just as the intrance was covered by bolders trees and rubble.
A single crow greeted them, "haha, fools, haha". The dwarven fighter shot an arrow at it, leaving a hole strate through its chest, it fuffled some fethers to cover the hole, and continued too mock them.
As it flew away, they folllowed it, only having too stop and dispatch some giant spiders with arrows, fire, and blunt force trauma.
And thats when we left off, HA, hehe one of my players thinks they're in the fey wild
...hehe...well...they can only dream!...ahahahahahaha!
So my last session was my first ever session, and let me tell you, it was certainly interesting. My group was in Stonehill Inn and my, quite literally, dwarf sister ticked off a couple Drow, who happened to hate dwarves by the way... so we fought and my group's rogue shot one of the Drow in the back... and so like the brilliant person I am, I thought it would be a great idea to attack the dead body with Eldritch Blast because I wanted to, and so I sent the body 10 feet through the floorboards into the ground. And then, since I'm greedy I wanted to loot the body, and so I jump down into the dark 10 foot deep hole with the dead body and so I'm looting right? And then... wait for it... something starts to drip onto the dead Drow's body and starts to burn through the flesh, and the DM announces that Ochre Jelly has arrived and has also decided that it doesn't like me and starts inching towards me... so I'm trapped in the hole and I keep missing the athletic rolls (because I had -1) and so the rogue decides to throw down a rope to get me out right? Only for her to fail her dexterity roll and then she falls into the hole with me... The cleric then decides to blast it with Sacred Flame right? Damages but doesn't kill it, and then my dwarf sister decides to through one of her hand axes at it.... IT SPLITS IN TWO! And so, one continues inching towards me, and the others starts going toward the fallen rogue... keep in mind that we are still in the 10 ft deep hole and there's nowhere to go. Finally, the cleric and the fighter team up and get us out, but talk about traumatizing... although I was 4 gold and 2 silver pieces richer.
Thursday session of Waterdeep: After a fireball detonation outside the player's tavern, Waffles checked the dead bodies assisted by Salem while Assembler interviewed the witnesses. Assembler gathered the information of weapon (fireball necklace) and assassin (puppet without strings) and the one guy who got away.Waffles located a Zhentarim tattoo on one of the victims. Weapon was turned over to the Mage when they show up to interview the players. Taking it personally, the party looks into it, encountering Nim at the house of inspired hands and learning about the made nimblewright. Obtaining one detector, Assembler looks into his contacts in the Lord's Alliance to ask to borrow a griffon for a scan of the city, while Waffles goes to Vincent Trench to look into the man who escaped the fireball detonation. Party also talks to Renear about the situation, who tells them about the Stone of Golorr, some kind of mythic artifact Dagult Neverember wants, and how Xanathar and Zhentarim want it really badly too. Upon returning home, the third set of faction missions come in. Next morning by the river gate, Assembler gets to ride a griffon, located a number of nimblewright detections, one near their tavern in a villa, and a number by the docks.Waffles and Salem head to their faction missions, ironically to the same doppelganger in the Yawning Portal. Hijinks ensue. Assembler lands and regroups with the party, before at midday they decide to scope out this villa. Upon approach, they hear the sounds of combat inside the manor.Assembler (somehow) manages to pick an arcane lock, and the party rush to help, only to have to fight the groundsman and his dogs. So they fight them, and then rush into help, only to find two thugs left standing in the great hall. So they fight them, the conclusion of the fight co-inciding with the arrival of the City Watch. Session ends in a pickle.
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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)
After surviving a deadly fall with the help of Lady Luck Tymora herself, the four party members stumble upon a small society of mandrakes (a homebrew race). Friendly, tiny plant-creatures who fight over a golden coin with Tymora's face on it (her sign that their survival was thanks to her blessing from a couple sessions ago). One mandrake didn't see any worth in the coin while the other thought it was shiny. My new party member - a wood elf ranger - grabbed them and made them scream of fright, doing a bit of damage to the party members. After some conversation (the ranger threatening with burning them alive, the mandrakes begging not to and the bard trying to find a road down the middle) the mandrakes eventually helped them navigating through the rocky area.
After crawling through the village of the mandrakes inside hollow stones, the party finds their way towards the stone path up above. They said goodbye to the mandrakes and climbed the stone wall until they reached a stone bridge, guarded by gargoyles. They had to navigate over this bridge without triggering pressure plates, but the party had quite the difficulty figuring out how to not get stabbed by the statues. With some acrobatics and spells they finally managed to get across and that's where it ended.
It was a fun, yet annoying session here and there because the Ranger is pretty used to DMing himself, so it felt like he corrected me a little too much by making the game 'too difficult' if that makes sense? The cleric started to poke one of the skeletons on the mountain and the ranger said: "Wait, aren't you lawful good? Because that's not what a lawful good person would do!" And the cleric wasn't sure anymore, so instead of just changing the lawful good to chaotic neutral (because that's what I'd say their alignment is) the ranger just kept on discussing it. In hindsight I should've cut that discussion off right away and say 'let's save this for another time'. However I did learn to keep non-lethal rolls to a minimum. If characters have to climb three different walls right after each other, then they don't have to roll three times. Once would be enough, I'd say (from now on).
I DM a group of seven adults ranging from 28-56, six of which are face to face, and one plays via Zoom. The remote player is an old Army buddy that I served with many years ago, so I made an exception for him. It is a long term campaign, slightly homebrew, with no ending. I write up a session journal after each session, which is held twice a month. I find it helps keep all of us up to speed on where they've been, what they've done, and reminds them of key names and places that may be important later on.
If interested in reading about their exploits the journals can be found on the campaign website. The journals are numbered in sequence, so start at #1. I don't have an editor to correct my writing, so please be forgiving.
Husband, Father, Veteran, Gamer, DM, Player, and Friend | Author of the "World of Eirador" | http://world-guild.com "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." ~Gary Gygax
Ok, so here's a Cliffsnotes on our campaign: Two dudes from dragonlance ( and eventually one from Eberron ) end up getting sucked into a homebrew setting we came to call displaced, we find a small gambling town of benningston and introduce ourselves, the townsfolk explain how they have a gnoll problem, yadda, yadda, yadda, later gnolls and other miscellaneous monsters overrun town, townspeople flee to an old abandoned fort and the monk dies ( who, by the way was a Tabaxi ), wakes up, finds years of hard work ruined and finds he is now a three-foot tall kitten-person, swears vengeance against those who wronged him, becomes a gunslinger, current session, the party has now found that the world they are on is a chunk of faerun, floating in the elemental plane of air, being held up by a immovable rod, they are now faced with the choice of which world to go to , party chooses Eberron, artificer starts a smithy but a competing smithy doesn't want him operating, my gunslinger is being interrogated by a detective that was in another adventure in Eberron ( By the way did I mention my DM makes all NPCs unkillable demigods? ), he asks where the artificer is ( who was currently in the saloon's basement/his laboratory ), I roll very high on deception, but I could tell by the look on the DM's face he rolled a nat 20, I tell everybody in the saloon to "Shoot this sonuva gun!", everybody pulls guns, the detective teleports, and then I go and buy some guns, and then the artificer get's arrested, we hijack a sky cab, and then we duck inside the saloon and I fix my gun while he renovates the basement, all in all it was good session.
The party start the session dealing with the aftermath of the last session where the monk was killed whilst trying to save someone. The party decide to dig a grave, in frozen soil, using a crowbar... decided to give them a level of exhaustion for that.
Party head to Luskan, the module has references to the Drizzt books (Which I haven't read) so I fill the inn with references to the adventures and characters from the books. Turns out none of my players, including the ones who have read dnd books, have read the ones with Drizzt in, yet I get called out later for having an npc named Farideh who isn't the Farideh from another book (I got the name from the PHB Dragonborn page).
Party are asked to spy on this warehouse, whilst spying, they see the fugitives the Ranger had been tracking. The party decide that in order to get into the warehouse, they would 'non-lethally' shoot the guard in the head, twice. A nat 20 medicine check enables them to get away with this, however once they get in they end up deciding to leave the fugitives alone and leave without anyone knowing they were there, leaving the guard with 2 non-lethal head wounds unconscious in the alley.
This was the first session I'd ever dm'd where nobody rolled initiative.
Earlier the party entered the fort where the BBEG resides. The ranger - who has a grudge against the undead - decided to burn it down, so the East-wing is on fire. The presence of a small creature with red eyes soon got noticed until they finally saw small footprints in the snow, leading to a big door.
Cliff hanger...
In the last session they went inside. In the throne room, they were met by the vampire who had taken away the kids of a nearby town. One of the children - a girl with a Russian accent (which is the reason why she was chosen) - was held prisoner in a cage in this throne room. Roleplaying the villain was SO difficult, because I really had to put my mindset into his. Justifying his actions. Mostly it came to: "We vampires live way longer than any other race, so I have more right to give my child a playmate than to reunite them with their parents to finish a miserable short life" or something like that. Either way, a battle ensued and the vampire started off horrifyingly strong (to the point that I started to regret my decision hahaha). However: the party noticed the windows were boarded up (they strategically travelled by night to arrive at the fort in the morning), so as soon as the boards were ripped off the windows, sunlight entered the room, which made it a lot more difficult for the vampire. Some of the characters got it rough, but in the end they fought on one of the wooden balconies until the wizard shot a fireball at it and the ranger could push the vampire down, into the sunlight. There the cleric depleted the vampire's HP to the point that he would immediately die because he would start his turn in sunlight.
His defeat was awesome and I really enjoyed the session!
Set the scene: Party got given a bunch of magic items by a secret society and asked to meet with a contact to be given a quest. Party ignore the contact, go raid a giant run digsite, find a 2000lb slab of adamantine, decide to attach it to the horses (Horses only just had the carrying capacity to drag it), return 4 hours late to the Contact.
Contact: Finally you've arrived, I've been waiting here for hours.
Ranger: We were busy, what do you want?
Contact: I need you to help kidnap this evil guy.
Rogue: Why should we do that, you haven't really done anything for us?
Contact - Gestures to the 3000gp worth of Magic Items the society gave them earlier-
Rogue: Any group can give us a bunch of magic items, is that all?
(This is a faction heavy campaign, only 1 faction has given them a magic item, they have other magic items that they stole from a group of hostages and then claimed goblins took them when asked about it)
Ranger: These magic items aren't even any good
(Ranger got given a Javelin of Lightning which he used to attack 4 enemies at once but because it's a strength based weapon and he's a dex fighter, he hates it)
Contact: Our Society can offer you much more, we can track down any person you want to find
Rogue: Why would we want that?
-Flashback to 3 sessions ago-
Ranger: Yeah, I'm looking for some fugitives. It's important that I find them but I have no clues to their location.
-Flashback to 2 sessions ago-
Rogue: I'm looking for my sister who was captured, I have no idea where she is though
-Flashback to last session-
Warlock: A knight saved us but was kidnapped, do you have any idea how we can track where he was taken?
-Flashback to the start of the session-
Rogue: Alright the plan today is to hunt down this criminal on this wanted poster we found, however I'm not sure where we should start
-Returning to the present-
Ranger: Yeah, we're not looking for anyone
Contact: -Visibly Annoyed-
Rogue: Alright fine, we can do it.
Contact: Great
Warlock: Are you interested in buying this 2000lb metal fragment
Contact: How am I supposed to carry that with me?
Party: -Collectively shrugs-
Rogue: This could prove very useful to a group like yours
Contact: -sighs- Fine, leave it here. Obviously I don't carry that amount of cash on me so I can't pay you now, but will pay you when we next meet
Rogue: Woah Woah Woah! I don't trust that. No, we'll meet you with the person you want kidnapped, as well as this fragment and you can pay us there.
Contact: You're going to drag a huge piece of metal up a mountain, perform a kidnapping, and flee with the person whilst dragging that huge piece of metal behind you?
Why do you end up in jail so often?
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
I made a mistake at the start of the campaign which put me on the most wanted list of a King.
: Systems Online : Nikoli_Goodfellow Homebrew : My WIP Homebrew Class :
(\_/)
( u u)
o/ \🥛🍪 Hey, take care of yourself alright?
The King of Random?
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.
So um, I killed a Triceratops that attacked us and nearly killed the fighter. I'm sure in this abandoned dinosaur amusement park with dinosaurs, robots, robot dinosaurs and a necromancer, I will suffer no consequences for this action.
Aight let's do this,
My party (aasimar fighter/warlock, gnome wizard, goliath paladin, human hexblade (me)) found themselves in the tribe of the goliath paladin a few sessions ago, encountering some particularly aggressive white dragons while on the run from The Cult of the Dragon (we're playing a slightly modified version of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, mostly modified bc we make weird in character choices). We learn that the dragons have been encroaching on the tribe's land for a while now and take it upon ourselves to try to hunt these dragons. The tribe leader calls a meeting with the council and we get like a week of downtime.
(for a bit of background I should add that we killed Rezmir, the wurmspeaker in HOtDQ much earlier in the game than we were supposed to (we're like lvl 8) so my character has the black dragon mask and the fighter/warlock has Hazirawn)
Downtime if you want to know what happened, it was honestly pretty interesting
The gnome wizard (who's literally a child that ran away bc he wanted adventure, important later) and I decided to look around the forest to find some stuff--for him, it was ink to copy spells into his spellbook, and for me, it was crafting components because my character's backstory ties heavily into blacksmithing.
We look around, not finding any ink but I found some pretty decent crafting components around this fey-touched pond area. We stay the night in the pond area because we wouldn't be able to make it back to the village before dark. I took the first watch, getting a pretty decent perception roll. I do however fail an ominous wisdom save and our DM moves us to a different discord call. The wisdom save is for a charm effect from a Naiad that was in the pond, forcing my character to look for the naiad until the effect wore off/I drowned. I was getting pretty freaked out at this point but then I remembered something,
The black dragon mask gives me water breathing.
I was so relieved, and after that scare, I just finished my watch soaking wet and hand it off to the guide who came with us to help us find what we were looking for. Then it's the wizard's watch, and he also fails his wisdom save. The DM moves him to another call and I grieve him as I know he doesn't have water breathing.
SOMEHOW he manages to come back alive. (this session was literally like a week or two ago, and the wizard's player is my brother, and I still haven't figured out how he survived drowning).
Our fighter/warlock decided to try to attune to Hazirawn (a neutral evil sword) as a chaotic good character. He'd been trying to no avail for a bit now but it hasn't been working out. He tried to get his patron Bahamut to help him but it didn't really work in his favor because the sword is quite stubborn.
The paladin didn't do much, or I don't remember what she did for downtime.
After a week had passed, we meet before the council. Our party worked together to try to convince the council to give us a chance to slay the dragons. The council took some time to think about it, and eventually, we're informed of their decision. They told us that they would allow us 72 hours to kill the dragons, and they would need permission from the wizard's parents to go with us on the quest. (I'll put backstory in a spoiler in case anyone's interested)
Like I said before, the wizard is like 10. We met him while we had some downtime in a city, where my brother's previous character had been arrested and tried for a near-life sentence for trying to steal a city artifact. He rolled up a new character, a 10-year-old gnome abjuration wizard who ran away from home because he wanted adventure.
The threat of his parents being called on him had come up a few times, largely being ignored thanks to plot armor and trying to keep him in the game. It wasn't until we were captured by the cult, and they threatened to call his parents on him that we realized we'd screwed up and were definitely going to have to face the consequences of essentially kidnapping him (justifying it so my brother could keep playing his character that he loved). We'd been wrestling with that eventuality for a bit before this time, so we'd been thinking of a few ways to solve it. Luckily it wasn't too big of a deal (also probably thanks to plot armor) as you'll read next.
The three adults in our party (myself, the paladin, and the fighter/warlock) receive some personal training from some council members each gaining a feat based on the respective council members' strengths and weaknesses
The wizard gets sent home (without any consequences thanks to a deal the chief of the tribe made with his parents) and my brother gets a new character, A Firbolg Cleric. He kinda has chill vibes but we haven't been able to interact with him that much yet, so only time will tell.
We set off, making our way past where we killed the white dragons a session prior. Two Cyclopses were salvaging the dragon for food, and we decided to ask them for directions. Despite having a few party members who spoke giant, we end up in a battle and take out the cyclopses fairly easily (ignoring a few tree trunks to the face) and that's where the session ended.
Overall I'd say it was a fun session, and I'm looking forward to the next one!
first thing you should know about me: I exist
I play a warlock who is also a blacksmith who is also Irish on Mondays
There was a dinosaur. With lasers. My inner child was very happy until we had to kill it. Turns out there was an undead artificer controlling it and we just can't have that. Also the guy that the head of Calimport's thief's guild sent us to find was his brother. DUN DUN DUUUUN!
Short Version: My party finally reached Neverwinter, the monk finally found a magic shop he'd been saving up all his gold for, he brought a +1 spear using his entire gold stack. 2 hours later the monk was dead.
Long Version: (Warning: Minor spoilers for Storm King's Thunder) Dm'ing Storm Kings Thunder for 4 level 7's. The party left Neverwinter and arrived in Port Llast to find it under siege by 20 frost giants lead by the evil giant lord Jarl Storvald. In my version of the campaign Storvald can control the weather in a small area, which he used to surround the port in a blizzard that reduces visibility to 60ft. The party decide to head into the town to rescue as many survivors as possible, they dispatch the two frost giants at the entrance and end up meeting, Sir Jordeth Tavilson, their Order of the Helm contact who also arrived to rescue survivors. Together they sneakily dispatch 3 frost giants without alerting the rest when they discover Jarl Storvald has gathered a group of survivors in the town, demanding Artus Cimber to reveal himself. Artus Cimber isn't here, one of his relatives is and the party know this. Sir Jordeth proposes pretending he is Artus Cimber so the party can lead the hostages away, his deception beats the Jarl's insight and he is captured in a net.
At this point the monk decides to try save Jordeth. The town square contained Jarl Storvald (In my version of the campaign he's a CR 14 Storm Herald Barbarian frost giant), his pet Frost Salamander (CR 9) and 5 Frost Giants (CR 8), so as a DM I'm thinking "this could actually be a TPK". The party get a surprise round and use this to free Jordeth, the fighter and monk rush ahead, all 3 eventually end up downed by Jarl Storvald and his Frost Salamander. Jarl Storvald grabs 'Artus' and orders the giants to retreat, believing the group have reinforcements with them, a retreating giant downs the ranger with a rock. The warlock is left alone with the frost salamander, the downed ranger, the downed monk who failed his 1st death saving throw and the downed fighter who crit failed his 1st death saving throw. The warlock decides to heal the ranger and finished off the frost salamander, the ranger uses all their speed to end up 10ft away from the downed party members. The monk then crit fails his death saving throw and dies, then the fighter fails their death saving throw and dies. The session before the party stole a scroll of revivify from a merchant and now the warlock is faced with a choice over who to use the scroll on, I start a 10 minute timer to show when revivify becomes useless. The warlock chose to revive the fighter, the monk now consigned to death. The party then levelled up.
It was my first encounter with a character death both as a player and a DM. I had planned to give the party a reason to fight each Giant Lord, revenge is a very good reason.
This just happened in the side campaign I'm in (our main campaign is on hold atm) and I freaking love it. (We're in the Feywilds)
(the Athletics roll was an 18 (17 + 1) we roll in a different channel)
Waterdeep Dragon Heist update:
After a long absence from here, we switched from Phandelver to Dragon Heist (but maintained our level 3 status to counteract the fact there's only 3 party members) After rescuing people and setting a tavern up, we got introduced to the factions. Last three weeks has been getting all this done and getting the first faction mission done.
Today was the second faction mission. Waffles got a mission to clear out some skeletons from a graveyard, Salem got a mission to help an old woman with a monster problem, Assembler got a mission to find an evil adventurer and "put him to the sword" , and we all got told by Force Grey there was a dragon in the harbour.
Day one: Assembler failed to find the evil adventurer. Night One: No Skeletons: Day Two:Assembler got two leads. Night Two: No skeletons.
Day three: Assembler found his man. Lvl 4 Warforged Artificer with a musket and a mechanical leopard vs two Kenku and the adventurer. After a few rounds of MARC the defender getting mauled, Assembler cast Sanctuary on him and stayed close to him. Can't attack the defender without making a Wisdom check, and Assembler has 20 AC. MARC survived heroically (despite getting down to 3hp) before kenku and adventurer were downed, the latter by a crit fail with his own scimitar.He was put to the sword, no one specified whose though. :P
Waffles and Salem teamed up to take on a gazer, and despite a few rounds of fear and frost beams, came out victorious. Night three: No skeletons.
Day four: Went to see the dragon. Blackstaff gave potions of water breathing.....to the two warforged and the air genasi.... and Team Air? What Air? went into the depths of the harbour and had a pleasant conversation with the dragon, learning it's intentions. From then on it was keeping the tavern running during the day and patrolling at night for skeletons until day seven, when we encountered six. Waffles got banged up, but each party member accounted for two skeletons.
Once that was done, we rested from our respective ordeals for a day, and then someone attacked the front of the tavern with a fireball. Cliffhanger established, session ends.
"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)
So I made a LP Dragonborn, with a couple of variants based on DM inputs to allow them into their campaigns: https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/614095-fey-dragonborn (I just wanted to have fun with it & it turned out GREAT!)
Meet Dewy Smallscales!
Watch him grow throw his first campaign: Tyranny of Dragons. The DM said if iI wanted to play a Homebrew, he'd put it to the test...
Disclaimer: I am using the names/likenesses of fantasy characters as named by their players, that have no copy right or trademark and I will use said at my artistic discretion. Although this tale is told via Dewy's perspective, there is only about 7% embellishment for the sake of roleplay.
Session One: Hitching a ride with the caravan headed to Greenest by pretending to be a lost youngling, Dewy meets his future companions on the run, literally. Rushing into Greenest in order to stop the raiders, the party encounters more than expecting, when a blue dragon swoops across the city. But when a mother with children in tow round a corner being pursued by a band of kobold, the party come together... mostly. After dispatching the kobold, the party starts to sweep the streets on the way to the fort, looking for others in need, only to come face to face with the Cult of the Dragon. Whew, Dewy has survived his first encounter with the Cult of the Dragon! Neo dodging a barrage of fire bolts from a trio of mages for 2 rounds and outshooting a Dwarven ranger, using only his slingshot... 7 Kobolds and 4 Cultists down! I mean, what's more embarrassing to a dwarf than to be upstaged by a 4' tall dragonborn?! Revealing his ability to Misty Step to save his ass, Dewy pops to an adjacent roof. Even after battling through this encounter with the Cult, Dewy still managed to slip away and procure advanced payment for his heroics before rejoining his group at the fort... (Post game note - DM admitted that I was the only one visible for those two rounds and it wasn't personal.)
Session Two: Unfortunately for party, the Dwarven Ranger named Flint, snuck off in shame to live with a colony of sewer rats the party encountered en route to the fort. After the party rescued the occupants of the temple and escorted them to the keep, Dewy added 5 Kobold and 2 Cultist notches to his slingshot. Tired and hangry, Dewy dispatched a group of cultists battering the front gate, by tossing barrels of lamp oil at them from above the gate and lighting them up, yelling "NO VACANCY!" Immediately after his quippy success, a Blue Dragon attacked the tower behind him, scaring the shit out of him. Irrythil "The Jackal" leads the charge and since Dewy has nothing to do, he follows. Using a Goliath named Elgath and his battle axe as a distraction, Dewy waited until the dragons attention was fully on the axe embedded in his forehead, before loosing a fatally blinding shot... I mean, that dragon might not see right for a while! Not really a notch, but he carved a small dragon eye on the butt of his slingshot anyway. Then Elgath had to go and get stabbed in the chest by some half dragon while Dewy stared down a bunch of Kobolds holding children hostage. The half dragon's ego stroked, the hostages were released. After a much earned rest, Dewy awoke... different, better? His mixed coloration of scales seem more uniform, more bronzish and his leather armor didn't feel right anymore. After the party accepts its mission to find a kidnapped monk, Dewy in an act of selflessness, hands his now smaller leather armor to a 13 year old boy who lost his father, telling him that "if he takes care of it, it will take care of him". Looking for clues in town, he managed to use his persuasive cuteness to convince the local alchemist to "donate" some vials of acid and a couple discounted healing potions, as he cased the remainder of the town of Greenest... finding nothing was left behind by the Cult. On the trail of the raiding party, Dewy the Daft Slingshotta Misty Stepped into the middle of, yep, you guessed it, a group of Kobolds only to add 3 more notches while his party took out a couple of Cultists. The party regroups, rolls the bodies and continues along the path, Dewy scouting ahead. Its relatively nice out... a head ducks behind a rock as an arrow whizzes past Dewy's head. And we last see Dewy, "Dukes of Hazard freeze frame" running away, flipping someone off over his shoulder, from an ambush on the trail ahead.
Session Three: To the party's surprise, Dewy unwittingly ambushed an ambush! A group of cultists are giving chase to a dwarf, hands bound, run-stumbling through the terrain. Not expecting to run into the adventurers, the dwarf is surprised to hear someone yelling to him, not at him. The party rushes forward to the dwarfs aid, engaging the cultists head on. Again, sneaky cult casters try to ping Dewy as he cuts the dwarfs bindings, but to no avail. He daftly dodges their sacred flames and ducks behind a tree. While the rest of the party makes quick work of the first cultists, a screeching roar comes from the hill above as a Griffon mounts the ridge. As the beast flits down, seemingly injured, to engage the nearest cultist, Dewy feels a surging power in him. First he thinks its adrenaline, but then a crackling energy builds in his little claws, his eyes get wide with excitement as the arcane knowledge surges within him. Dewy spins from behind the tree creaming "Unlimited POWERRRR!!" as he unleashes Witch bolt on the Cult Caster. The other caster, not knowing wtf just happened just stops, gasping as his companion is reduced to a smoldering corpse. The griffon then moves on to Minerva, the party's bard, taking a peck but missing. Without hesitation The Jackal, an accomplished fighter rushes into take a jab at the griffon. Dewy in awe of this fey beast, throws down his hands and coos at the intelligent beast in Sylvan "STOP! We are friends, frrriendsss...." an begins to slowly approach. Amazingly, with no animal handling skill set, Dewy calms the beast and the party moves between it and the rest of the cultists. With only a handful of Dragons Cultists left, Dewy begins to tend to the Griffons wounds, hand feeding it a potion of healing while the dwarf casts a healing spell on it. The fight ends with a solitary cultist surviving, only to be interrogated by Minerva and Jackal, while Dewy continues to succeed AH checks keeping the beast calm. Lulled into a sense of overconfidence, Dewy carefully and gingerly climbs on the Griffon's back. It rises from the ground slowly, dolphin eyeing the little dragon on its back, but doesn't seem threatened, nor threatening. After a few more "good boy's" and scratches around its neck, the griffon prances around the clearing a little, emitting the occasional cackling 'laugh'? Again overcome with confidence, Dewy pats the Griffon and says "UP!", at which point the griffon bucks Dewy off and he takes 2pts bludgeoning. The griffon nuzzles him a little to make sure he's okay. Dewy, lying on his back, waves the Griffon away, saying "We're good, yo can go now, buddy...". The griffon cocks its head and bounds into the forest. Jackal glances at Dewy and calls him a show off. Dewy replies, "Show off? Maybe... But that's a great title for my resume... Dewy the Spelldodger, The Kobold One-shot wonder, Dragon Blinder... and now GRIFFON RIDER!" Jackal smugly replies, "You rode it for 15secs..." Dewy just smiles... "That's 15secs longer than you." The party rests, does the ol meet n greet with the dwarf cleric, Kurgan and then continues tracking the bandits. Finding the raiders encampment, the adventurers boldly walk in the front gates like they were bandits themselves. Locating the monk, Dewy casts disguise self, making himself look like Flint, the dwarven Ranger who abandoned them earlier (but dressed as occultist) and makes his way to the monk. Upon telling the monk they were here to rescue him, he pleads to be left behind, for he is actually investigating the cave at the back of the raider encampment and that he will be fine. Dewy, dumbfounded by the response, leaves and tells the party the news, to which all agree to take their intel back to Greenest and tell the mayor... We end this session as the party arrives at the keep, telling their news and receiving a small reward for their efforts. Another change brews in Dewy as he catches a long rest... A misty form comes into his dream. A Fey unknown to him takes shape. She is lovely, yet a viciousness hides in her eyes. "Little Dragon.." she calls to him, "I see great things in your path... You are a child of the Fey, a child of mine..." A slender hand extends, wreathed in tendrils of fey mist that seem to reach out themselves, "Walk with me and I will show you wonders..." Dewy hesitates all of 1.3 seconds before smiling and taking her hand saying, "You bet your sweet misty ass I accept!" The Fey's head cocks to the side in a 'What'd you say?' motion as she slowly smiles and begins to wonder... was it she who offered her hand, or accepted his...? (Post game disclosure: The DM admitted that he did not expect me to try and spare the griffon, definitely didn't expect the rest of the party to help, as he threw it in as DC fodder because we were destroying everything with hella rolls. I was playing on the mythical "fey" aspect of the creature, a little twist never hurts...)
Session(s) Four & Five: (Apologies, narrator was ill last week end and so you get a twofer! ) Dewy and the gang relax a little, have drinks and make plans to take on the cult. Dewy not a big drinker, as most drinks are as big as he, pounds a tankard after listening to one of the most ridiculous religulous debates between an elven fighter who stabs everything in sight and praises IO when he means AO and a dwarven cleric... I mean, have you tried to argue religion with a dwarf? DON'T! At which point, Dewy spies open sky through a hole in the thatched roof and Misty Steps 30ft straight up, free falling onto the tavern roof, taking 2pts of damage and passes out under the stars. After accepting Lurue as his Patron, Dewy wanders the feymists with her. The mists that connect all time, all reality. If you're keen enough, you can pick up glimpses of the other realms. Some vibrant, some mere shades, some wholly alien and undecipherable. Like there was one that was nothing but eyeball creatures, she said Behold Her Realm, or some shit like that, Dewy was still a little drunk... and hoped it wasn't really hers. Though it seemed Dewy wandered for much longer than he slept, he awoke after a wonderful night under the stars. Renewed and focused with a brilliant idea... well, an idea he gleaned while wandering the mists with Lurue. He caught a brief visage of another party, their time seemed to move much faster and their speech like the chattering of squirrels, but the event to unfold was a wonder indeed. A strangely cute goblin girl hurling a small barrel and screaming in a pitch almost comical... "Fluffernutter!" Lurue pulls him away as there is a fiery flash and he hears the echoing roar fade into the mist. The seed is planted... Upon awaking, Dewy makes his way to the alchemist he helped before, an older but attractive half elf. He asks her if she happens to have any smoke powder, for you know, removing stumps? She eyes him suspiciously, as if being entrapped, but his widdle dwagon eyes were just too much, so she leads him to a secure dry cellar where she produces two small powder kegs, at discount, for aiding the city, but cautions him to take care in transporting. (sidebar for DMs - it makes for an interesting ride engaging your players in convo and randomly dropping Wis saves on them to see if they are transporting smoke powder carefully/properly... some bumps, but I think he was rooting for that 1) Dewy talks to the mayor about his plan. He requests four wine barrels filled with flammable oil and pinecones and a wagon with horses. In addition, the mayor sent 12 city guard to aide. Dewy's plan, in his head, was perfection... Staging the barrels just so in the first wagon, He and Minerva dress as Cultists driving the wagon, with the rest of the party and some guards posing as mercenaries. The second wagon would be covered to hide the rest of the guards. Before reaching the bandit encampment, the guards are instructed to take positions above the camp and when all hell breaks loose, just start raining arrows. The party simply rolls in as before, Dewy announcing they took a merchant on the road and have a teat for the boys, pending the bosses approval first. Using his draconic influence, he commands a small band of Kobolds to "circle the wagon" and calls everyone over, telling them to hang tight while he talks to the "boss" and as soon as he gives you the thumbs up, help yourselves to the wine. Dewy walks 100ft, casts eldritch blast to detonate the powder kegs, while simultaneously misty stepping to cover. The blast erupts in flame and debris, the oil soaked pinecones now shrapnel for those around the wagon are also resinous balls of flame igniting the rest of the camp. The chaos makes for easy pickings as the guards pick their targets, allowing the party to slip into the cave... THE REALITY ~ Everything goes as planned up to the entry, at which point the party finds the encampment virtually empty, as they missed everyone leaving 12 hours earlier. Dewy, extremely disappointed in all his effort, rolls the wagon in and parks it close to the cave. For the sake of brevity, the party dispatches a few cultists inside the entrance, gets attacked by some funky fungus, a few troglodytes and rounds a corner to find a whole clan of kobold. Dewy and Minerva say "Sup, just headed to the hatchery" and manage to just walk by undeterred. Epic showdown with the Blue Half-Dragon and a couple barbarians, Dewy strikes the final blow with another witch bolt screaming, "CRAKLE CRACKLE, MOTHER****AAA!" Skip ahead after they rest, Minerva sets of an acid trap while opening a chest, acid is bad, but the loot is good. And on to the hatchery.... (now if you're overly pc and/or easily offended, please stop here and simply enjoy the antics above)... within the hatchery the party finds kobolds hiding in ambush down a small drop off, but cutting their ropes and tell them if they stay there, we will not kill them seems to suffice. After dispatching some guard drakes, the party discovers three Black Dragon Eggs, at which point the party's stab happy elf unloads on one of the eggs. He declares he is ridding the world of future evil, to which Minerva pierces the second egg. Dewy, up until know, knew little of the world beyond his small stretch of coast and its quaint towns. But he did know that Black Dragons were, for a lack of words... evil,. As he raised his Yklwa to stab down, there is hesitation... not in the act itself, but he senses a corruption in this place, a mild confirmation that he is justified. And the wyrmling is no more. "Why?!" yells Kurgan, he dwarven cleric "Why would you kill them? Have you never heard of nurture over nature?" Dewy looks at Kurgan, slumps his shoulders in disbelief and says in return "Well, you're a little late on the ****ing draw there! The intent was announced, yet you stood by!" The party comes to terms with the deed and Dewy, ever the thinker, collects the remains of the wyrmling's and eggs and hauls them out. Upon reaching the battle scene prior, the party finds The Jackal skinning the Half-Dragon. Dewy, already regretting the wyrmling's, now finds himself dumbfounded and points out that its a HALF dragon and that he's pretty sure the other half is human or elf, but the Jackal wants his trophy, stating he want a a cloak to strike fear into other dragons, but he be lucky some bracers out of it all, maybe some fingerless gloves... I mean Dewy ****ing fried it good with a nat 20. Upon exiting, Dewy exudes his Fey Presence and draconic influence to convince some kobolds into aiding him with a "special project". Almost to the exit when Kurgan spies a side chamber full of cultists and Dewy just smiles. Can a dragonborn have a Cheshire Grin? Seeing the bodies of the cultists, the kobold falter, but Dewy pulls another one out from under his kilt (rolling deception & persuasion) and tells them "these cultists seek to hurt the dragons, to take the eggs for themselves". One kobold in particular begins stabbing the dead cultist, so Dewy spits on the body for street cred, which obviously pays off. Talking the stabby kobold into playing a "big tricksy" on the thieving cult, he hands over a powder keg and tells the kobold that he will be champion of clan if he runs into the room and throws this at their feet. The Kobold in his excitement to be clan champion, begins to run with the powder keg, but Dewy cautions him to walk slow "so they don't hear you"... Minutes later there is a rumbling, as if the earth had not eaten for weeks, followed by debris and dust flying from the cave. The other kobold looking concerned, turn to Dewy for a command, to which he yells "They attack!, Hurry, get the rest of the clan and attack the cult!" The remaining kobold run back into the main cave, Dewy takes the second powder keg, walks briskly and places it inside the entrance behind a central column, runs to distance throwing a mote of fire over his shoulder as he misty steps to safety, thus collapsing the cave and entombing the kobold and cultists that survived. He whispers "Fluffernutter" in tribute to the misty goblin girl who inspired him. On the way back to Greenest, the monk shares his disappointment in the loss of the wyrmling's, the argument between the elf and dwarf began and Dewy zones out. Taking his guilt laden loot to the alchemist, she is overwhelmed with geeky delight at his bounty. After leaving everything with her, he took a well deserved rest, contemplated being more forward thinking and then returned the next morning to collect his 1,500gp for the wyrmling's and eggshells, with an added bonus of 4 vials of black dragon acid. At which point he contemplates some more... "Maybe I shouldn't take my lead from a stab happy elf with an haughty ego, or a dwarven cleric who will chastise for killing "potentially" evil creatures but will steal gold off a drunk. He thinks about it while walking back to the fort. His face takes on that Cheshire Dragon grin as he mutters the word again, "Fluffernutter..." Gods be damned that's brilliant he thinks. Maybe he'll just take his cues literally, he is a mischievous little dragon after all. Minerva stands outside the fort, readying her the horses gifted to the party as Dewy approaches. She turns to speak to him but find he isn't there. But just a little further a way, a toe headed child does a little skip as he makes his way inside. She swears it was him, kinda hard to miss a 4' dragonborn, but it's been a long day already with long days ahead. Maybe she's just distracted...
Session(s) Six & Seven: (as our narrator suffers through an ongoing plague spell, twofers will be the standard re-caps for our little Dragonborn...) From Greenest to Elturel, Dewy finds that his 4' frame was not built for horseback. After a meet n greet session with the Harpers and Order of the Gauntlet, accepting their offer to blend in with the Cult caravan expected to leave Baldur's Gate, Dewy finds the local cartwright and looks over the modest selection before finding a few damaged caravans salvaged from recent bandit raids and commissions a custom caravan wagon. Overall, the design is indistinguishable from a standard chuckwagon, but for a little extra gold, Dewy has the undercarriage and suspension replaced with that of a large passenger coach he found half burned in the back, giving it an 800lb capacity and a much smoother ride for high speed movement. In addition, he has the frame stripped down and the standard side planking replaced with cedar paneling to keep the weight as light as possible. As he has no plans to actually carry anything that would weigh down the wagon, he has the horse rigging refitted for a single, large horse. Unbeknownst to his companions, Dewy also has two secret compartments built into the wagon for his personal stashes. Knowing that his riding horse won't be able to tow this new wagon, Dewy peruses the stables for an upgrade. Using his Beast Speech, he "interviews" various large breeds before happening upon a friendly young Clydesdale who prefers to be called Santos... and a friendship was born. For shits and giggles, Dewy buys a basket saddle, typically used for children, in case he needs to ditch the wagon and ride Santos. On the way to Baldur's gate, Dewy revels in telling Santos of his little stretch of beach, as Santos tells how much he loves carrots and talking to somebody other than horses! Once in Baldur's Gate, the party cuts loose and follows Jackal to a local pit fight, where he proceeds to over power his opponent, but in a rash display of hard to justify motivation, delightfully snaps the neck of the other fighter, putting the whole party in quite the pickle. Holding their own and intimidating the owner, the party manages to avert further conflict and spends the following days blending in and finding work within the caravan, pretending not to know one another. Kurgan finds paid passage as smithy and guard, Minerva uses her mysterious background to work her way into the cult itself, The Jackal (our go-to stab happy edgelord elf) books himself a private coach with his pit fight winnings and pampers himself. Dewy, dropping the covers of his wagon, pretends to carry a full load. The night before the caravan heads out, Dewy's sticky clawed nature gets the better of him and he goes... shopping. Finding a modest mundane arcane shop, Dewy disguises himself as everyone's favorite Dwarven scapegoat Flint, casts Unseen Servant and hands it a wooden shim as he walks in. Upon closing the door, the servant wedges the shim under the threshold and waits by the entrance. Eyes darting all around, taking note of his surroundings, "Flint" engages the elderly woman running the shop. After buying a few potions, Dewy feigns frustration in the lack of space in his pack and asks if she happens to have a Bag of Holding. Excited at another sale, she gladly opens a case and let him look over the selection. Tentatively asking if he may inspect one, she hands it to him and he begins to "inspect" the stitching while commanding the servant to start knocking items from shelves at the front. Startled, the shopkeeper runs to the front to inspect as Dewy drops a scrap of Cultist robe in plain sight and Misty Steps through a window to the adjacent rooftop, running and skipping back to his wagon with his newly acquired BOH. As the caravan stages for departure, Dewy enlists the aide of a few stray dogs using Beast Speech and treats, letting them sniff the Cultist robe he acquired in Greenest and has them identify and piss on their wagons. He takes note of the wagons his canine friends marked and keeps tabs on them, steadily maneuvering his wagon in line behind the trailing cult wagon. The days to follow are uneventful and the party makes due blending in. Minerva standing guard two wagons ahead of Dewy as a cultist, Kurgan primarily playing guard and mending a horseshoe here and there, Jackal rarely emerges from his pretentious ride and begins to garner the reputation as a spoilt ***** and Dewy makes due playing throwing prestidigitation around for children and entertaining them at night by telling stories of his fathers adventures and casting images in the campfire using control flames. One particular evening, that ol feeling of mischief creeps into Dewy's bones... casting sleep on the cultist in front of him, Dewy then calls forth another unseen servant and sends it to retrieve a bag of loot from the covered wagon. Returning just in time, Dewy quickly stashes his ill-gotten, already ill-gotten gains, as the cultists on guard come to. Trinkets and baubles, about 250gp total, but its better than nothing... and there will be other nights on this long journey. The next evening, Jackal enlists Dewy's aide in inspecting a burial mound not far from the caravan. Without hesitation, Jackal topples the stone blocking the entrance and meanders inside. After dispatching a skeletal guard and claiming its armor, The Jackal proceeds to open the sarcophagus, finding the remains of a high priest from a long lost order. Dewy refrains from disturbing the remains and recuses himself. After leaving the tomb, Dewy uses Mold Earth to cover the entrance. A little over a week in and the caravan abruptly stops and a gathering of armed men huddle in a conversation, pointing to a distant hill. A great golden stag stands surrounded by a heard of regular deer. The hunters want to kill it as well as the other deer, not just for food, but for a trophy. As the hunting party starts out, bot Kurgan and Dewy intercede. The hunters attempt to push past the two, but Dewy squares his shoulders and evokes his Fey Presence and this small dragon seems to grow, exuding a fearsome yet charming persona and warns them away. As Kurgan "escorts" the hunters back to the caravan while Dewy cautiously approaches, stopping a mere 50' from the golden stag and in Beast Speech announces himself as a servant of Lurue. All of the herd disperses save for the stag, who speaks in Sylvan to Dewy... without speaking. An omen is spoken, a task laid at his feet, as well as a short bow with beautiful antler designs and in a poof that reminds Dewy of his Misty Step, the Golden Stag vanishes. The Jackal emerges from his drunken man-servant pampering (because according to the DM, female servants weren't available at the time he booked passage... heheheeee) only to state his disappointment in not being able to kill it. (cringe-worthy eye rolls apply as the party realizes that the Jackal's CN alignment is just his justification in being a murder-hobo) The caravan moves on and just before reaching a known roadhouse, comes to another brief halt as a man is found buried in the middle of the road, OATHBREAKER written on his face. Oathbreaker or no, this is no way to die, so the party removes him from the earth, Dewy making quick work with his Mold Earth to find he is in fact a Harper agent who was ousted by other bandits and left for dead. Persuasive ruses abound, the party convinces the caravan he was waylaid by bandits and places him in Dewy's wagon. A storms rolls in as the caravan reaches the road house, only to be turned away due to occupancy issues, yet there were only four people in the common room. While negotiating with the keeper, the "patrons" began mocking various members of the party, finally pushing the needed button by calling Minerva a red-headed *****. A brawl ensues as The Jackal side steps and makes his way over the the previously occupied table and begins enjoying someone else's meal instead of helping his companions. Taking a grazing strike from a poisoned blade, Dewy Misty Steps across the room and unleashes Witch Bolt on his assailant, and with a follow up, casts prestidigitation at Jackals plate, rapidly cooling his once enjoyable meal. Jackal counters in the same manor and warms his plate back up. After dispatching the would be assailants, Minerva walks over and playfully pushes Jackal's plate off the table (because it wasn't his to begin with). Jackal however, did not think this was funny, began justifying his non-assistance as "You guys started it, they paid good money to rent this place out and you picked a fight..." then stabs Minerva in the foot with his rapier for the plate encounter. As tensions grow due to PVP violence, a great, shimmering celestial hand descends from the ceiling and separates the two before the lights fade and we end this re-cap. After the fact, as the party RPs the rest of the evening, Dewy has been tending to Santos. Before re-entering the road house, he changes into Flint and kicks open the door yelling, "I have come to avenge my comrades!" and smiles as the innkeeper ducks behind the bar expecting another tussle. Change back, Dewy peeks around the bar and assures the owner that after seeing us, that dwarf fled... trying not to burst out in laughter. He then snags dusty bottle of fine brandy wine, tosses a platinum to the owner and ducks back out to spend the evening in the stables with Santos.
Dewy awoke to a rubbing/scraping sound that seemed to resonate from every direction. As he leads Santos out of the stable to begin hitching him to the wagon, he notices a monolithic eraser, moving across the horizon, leaving not but a void in it's trail... Dewy misty steps one last time onto Santo's back, quaffs the last of the brandy wine and says, "Well... shit." He spurs the massive steed southward, hoping to se his lonely stretch of beach again before its gone.
*Synopsis ~ Murderhobo's ruin everything
We're running a homebrew prologue to Curse of Strahd, since half of our players are playing for the very first time this will help get them acquainted with the mechanics of D&D.
So the session before this last one, the PC's were chasing someone who had kidnapped another NPC when they got ambushed by wolves and crashed the wagon. My character was a halfling bard, lvl 1. I was the only one who passed my save to stay conscious after the wreck, and there were 6 or 7 wolves, so needless to say I was screwed. I got my throat ripped out and the only person who saw it happen was my fiances character who was half conscious. I already had a second character made so that character, Ivan Krezkov, a Variant Human Paladin, dragged the party back to the small village where he lives.
[This is VERY shortened but too much details to type out] So in this town, we're basically all hunters, and the party is tasked with looking for a couple lost hunters, one of which was pregnant. So since my character has lived here for 5 years, naturally I'm their guide. We find one of the hunters dead, and follow wolf tracks to a cave where we hear what sounds like a baby but also a puppy wimpering, so we go investigate. It's a newborn werewolf pup, born prematurely. The mother, the lost hunter who turns out to be a werewolf, shows up alongside a dire wolf. The mother almost get's into combat with the party but shes gravely wounded from the other hunter stabbing her in the stomach, hence why the baby was born prematurely, he cut the baby out of her. We help the mother into the cave to be with her baby. Our druid tries to heal her but it doesn't work, so she and another PC sits with the mother to comfort her. This type of situation ties in GREATLY to my characters backstory, so he's watching this dying werewolf mother hold her pup and he sort of goes into shock, like PTSD from something that happened in his backstory. Anyways, long story short, between the sad situation and the dialogue between the druid and the mother, all of us were either tearing up or bawling our eyes out, including the DM. She dies, we convince the dire wolf to come with us and we bring the baby back to the town. The guy who runs the hunters lodge takes the pup (the townsfolk HATE werewolves but the hunters lodge guy is a wereraven so he has a soft spot for this child), and the dire wolf agrees to go with one of the hunters. GREAT session.
Well, i lead my party split players together, for the shared goal of geting paid by their investor.
He wants to reserch nearby ruins, so he wants the party to make sure it's safe first.
They came across a large stone door, carved all over with old runes of most religions and some ruins of religions that arent around anymore. They figured out that an owl figurine they previously aquiered was the key, and after the door fell open they went inside.
What they found was a long hallway with murals depicting powerfull snake like beings being brought to their knees, along with a few rooms with old weaponds and potions.
They finaly whwnt through the last door at the end of the underfround hallway, and foumd themselves in a lush forest, very confused, they looked back just as the intrance was covered by bolders trees and rubble.
A single crow greeted them, "haha, fools, haha". The dwarven fighter shot an arrow at it, leaving a hole strate through its chest, it fuffled some fethers to cover the hole, and continued too mock them.
As it flew away, they folllowed it, only having too stop and dispatch some giant spiders with arrows, fire, and blunt force trauma.
And thats when we left off, HA, hehe one of my players thinks they're in the fey wild
...hehe...well...they can only dream!...ahahahahahaha!
Current game- Pelegos: Singularity
Game world- Thad'thra, homebrew
Role- DM
Players- Maro: Light Cleric, Rivqah: Feind Warlock, Kortek: Artillerist Artificer
Plot: Uncover a conspiracy and truth behind the Dragon, Blasphemy, and the light of the kingdom that was stollen. Drenching Baranara into shadow.
So my last session was my first ever session, and let me tell you, it was certainly interesting. My group was in Stonehill Inn and my, quite literally, dwarf sister ticked off a couple Drow, who happened to hate dwarves by the way... so we fought and my group's rogue shot one of the Drow in the back... and so like the brilliant person I am, I thought it would be a great idea to attack the dead body with Eldritch Blast because I wanted to, and so I sent the body 10 feet through the floorboards into the ground. And then, since I'm greedy I wanted to loot the body, and so I jump down into the dark 10 foot deep hole with the dead body and so I'm looting right? And then... wait for it... something starts to drip onto the dead Drow's body and starts to burn through the flesh, and the DM announces that Ochre Jelly has arrived and has also decided that it doesn't like me and starts inching towards me... so I'm trapped in the hole and I keep missing the athletic rolls (because I had -1) and so the rogue decides to throw down a rope to get me out right? Only for her to fail her dexterity roll and then she falls into the hole with me... The cleric then decides to blast it with Sacred Flame right? Damages but doesn't kill it, and then my dwarf sister decides to through one of her hand axes at it.... IT SPLITS IN TWO! And so, one continues inching towards me, and the others starts going toward the fallen rogue... keep in mind that we are still in the 10 ft deep hole and there's nowhere to go. Finally, the cleric and the fighter team up and get us out, but talk about traumatizing... although I was 4 gold and 2 silver pieces richer.
Thursday session of Waterdeep:
After a fireball detonation outside the player's tavern, Waffles checked the dead bodies assisted by Salem while Assembler interviewed the witnesses. Assembler gathered the information of weapon (fireball necklace) and assassin (puppet without strings) and the one guy who got away.Waffles located a Zhentarim tattoo on one of the victims. Weapon was turned over to the Mage when they show up to interview the players.
Taking it personally, the party looks into it, encountering Nim at the house of inspired hands and learning about the made nimblewright. Obtaining one detector, Assembler looks into his contacts in the Lord's Alliance to ask to borrow a griffon for a scan of the city, while Waffles goes to Vincent Trench to look into the man who escaped the fireball detonation. Party also talks to Renear about the situation, who tells them about the Stone of Golorr, some kind of mythic artifact Dagult Neverember wants, and how Xanathar and Zhentarim want it really badly too. Upon returning home, the third set of faction missions come in.
Next morning by the river gate, Assembler gets to ride a griffon, located a number of nimblewright detections, one near their tavern in a villa, and a number by the docks.Waffles and Salem head to their faction missions, ironically to the same doppelganger in the Yawning Portal. Hijinks ensue.
Assembler lands and regroups with the party, before at midday they decide to scope out this villa. Upon approach, they hear the sounds of combat inside the manor.Assembler (somehow) manages to pick an arcane lock, and the party rush to help, only to have to fight the groundsman and his dogs. So they fight them, and then rush into help, only to find two thugs left standing in the great hall. So they fight them, the conclusion of the fight co-inciding with the arrival of the City Watch. Session ends in a pickle.
"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)
After surviving a deadly fall with the help of Lady Luck Tymora herself, the four party members stumble upon a small society of mandrakes (a homebrew race). Friendly, tiny plant-creatures who fight over a golden coin with Tymora's face on it (her sign that their survival was thanks to her blessing from a couple sessions ago).
One mandrake didn't see any worth in the coin while the other thought it was shiny. My new party member - a wood elf ranger - grabbed them and made them scream of fright, doing a bit of damage to the party members. After some conversation (the ranger threatening with burning them alive, the mandrakes begging not to and the bard trying to find a road down the middle) the mandrakes eventually helped them navigating through the rocky area.
After crawling through the village of the mandrakes inside hollow stones, the party finds their way towards the stone path up above. They said goodbye to the mandrakes and climbed the stone wall until they reached a stone bridge, guarded by gargoyles. They had to navigate over this bridge without triggering pressure plates, but the party had quite the difficulty figuring out how to not get stabbed by the statues. With some acrobatics and spells they finally managed to get across and that's where it ended.
It was a fun, yet annoying session here and there because the Ranger is pretty used to DMing himself, so it felt like he corrected me a little too much by making the game 'too difficult' if that makes sense? The cleric started to poke one of the skeletons on the mountain and the ranger said: "Wait, aren't you lawful good? Because that's not what a lawful good person would do!"
And the cleric wasn't sure anymore, so instead of just changing the lawful good to chaotic neutral (because that's what I'd say their alignment is) the ranger just kept on discussing it. In hindsight I should've cut that discussion off right away and say 'let's save this for another time'. However I did learn to keep non-lethal rolls to a minimum. If characters have to climb three different walls right after each other, then they don't have to roll three times. Once would be enough, I'd say (from now on).
I DM a group of seven adults ranging from 28-56, six of which are face to face, and one plays via Zoom. The remote player is an old Army buddy that I served with many years ago, so I made an exception for him. It is a long term campaign, slightly homebrew, with no ending. I write up a session journal after each session, which is held twice a month. I find it helps keep all of us up to speed on where they've been, what they've done, and reminds them of key names and places that may be important later on.
If interested in reading about their exploits the journals can be found on the campaign website. The journals are numbered in sequence, so start at #1. I don't have an editor to correct my writing, so please be forgiving.
https://world-guild.com/home/blog
Husband, Father, Veteran, Gamer, DM, Player, and Friend | Author of the "World of Eirador" | http://world-guild.com
"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." ~Gary Gygax
Ok, so here's a Cliffsnotes on our campaign: Two dudes from dragonlance ( and eventually one from Eberron ) end up getting sucked into a homebrew setting we came to call displaced, we find a small gambling town of benningston and introduce ourselves, the townsfolk explain how they have a gnoll problem, yadda, yadda, yadda, later gnolls and other miscellaneous monsters overrun town, townspeople flee to an old abandoned fort and the monk dies ( who, by the way was a Tabaxi ), wakes up, finds years of hard work ruined and finds he is now a three-foot tall kitten-person, swears vengeance against those who wronged him, becomes a gunslinger, current session, the party has now found that the world they are on is a chunk of faerun, floating in the elemental plane of air, being held up by a immovable rod, they are now faced with the choice of which world to go to , party chooses Eberron, artificer starts a smithy but a competing smithy doesn't want him operating, my gunslinger is being interrogated by a detective that was in another adventure in Eberron ( By the way did I mention my DM makes all NPCs unkillable demigods? ), he asks where the artificer is ( who was currently in the saloon's basement/his laboratory ), I roll very high on deception, but I could tell by the look on the DM's face he rolled a nat 20, I tell everybody in the saloon to "Shoot this sonuva gun!", everybody pulls guns, the detective teleports, and then I go and buy some guns, and then the artificer get's arrested, we hijack a sky cab, and then we duck inside the saloon and I fix my gun while he renovates the basement, all in all it was good session.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
Earlier the party entered the fort where the BBEG resides. The ranger - who has a grudge against the undead - decided to burn it down, so the East-wing is on fire. The presence of a small creature with red eyes soon got noticed until they finally saw small footprints in the snow, leading to a big door.
Cliff hanger...
In the last session they went inside. In the throne room, they were met by the vampire who had taken away the kids of a nearby town. One of the children - a girl with a Russian accent (which is the reason why she was chosen) - was held prisoner in a cage in this throne room.
Roleplaying the villain was SO difficult, because I really had to put my mindset into his. Justifying his actions. Mostly it came to: "We vampires live way longer than any other race, so I have more right to give my child a playmate than to reunite them with their parents to finish a miserable short life" or something like that.
Either way, a battle ensued and the vampire started off horrifyingly strong (to the point that I started to regret my decision hahaha).
However: the party noticed the windows were boarded up (they strategically travelled by night to arrive at the fort in the morning), so as soon as the boards were ripped off the windows, sunlight entered the room, which made it a lot more difficult for the vampire. Some of the characters got it rough, but in the end they fought on one of the wooden balconies until the wizard shot a fireball at it and the ranger could push the vampire down, into the sunlight. There the cleric depleted the vampire's HP to the point that he would immediately die because he would start his turn in sunlight.
His defeat was awesome and I really enjoyed the session!
Set the scene: Party got given a bunch of magic items by a secret society and asked to meet with a contact to be given a quest. Party ignore the contact, go raid a giant run digsite, find a 2000lb slab of adamantine, decide to attach it to the horses (Horses only just had the carrying capacity to drag it), return 4 hours late to the Contact.
Contact: Finally you've arrived, I've been waiting here for hours.
Ranger: We were busy, what do you want?
Contact: I need you to help kidnap this evil guy.
Rogue: Why should we do that, you haven't really done anything for us?
Contact - Gestures to the 3000gp worth of Magic Items the society gave them earlier-
Rogue: Any group can give us a bunch of magic items, is that all?
(This is a faction heavy campaign, only 1 faction has given them a magic item, they have other magic items that they stole from a group of hostages and then claimed goblins took them when asked about it)
Ranger: These magic items aren't even any good
(Ranger got given a Javelin of Lightning which he used to attack 4 enemies at once but because it's a strength based weapon and he's a dex fighter, he hates it)
Contact: Our Society can offer you much more, we can track down any person you want to find
Rogue: Why would we want that?
-Flashback to 3 sessions ago-
Ranger: Yeah, I'm looking for some fugitives. It's important that I find them but I have no clues to their location.
-Flashback to 2 sessions ago-
Rogue: I'm looking for my sister who was captured, I have no idea where she is though
-Flashback to last session-
Warlock: A knight saved us but was kidnapped, do you have any idea how we can track where he was taken?
-Flashback to the start of the session-
Rogue: Alright the plan today is to hunt down this criminal on this wanted poster we found, however I'm not sure where we should start
-Returning to the present-
Ranger: Yeah, we're not looking for anyone
Contact: -Visibly Annoyed-
Rogue: Alright fine, we can do it.
Contact: Great
Warlock: Are you interested in buying this 2000lb metal fragment
Contact: How am I supposed to carry that with me?
Party: -Collectively shrugs-
Rogue: This could prove very useful to a group like yours
Contact: -sighs- Fine, leave it here. Obviously I don't carry that amount of cash on me so I can't pay you now, but will pay you when we next meet
Rogue: Woah Woah Woah! I don't trust that. No, we'll meet you with the person you want kidnapped, as well as this fragment and you can pay us there.
Contact: You're going to drag a huge piece of metal up a mountain, perform a kidnapping, and flee with the person whilst dragging that huge piece of metal behind you?
Party: Yes
Contact: -Jackie Chan meme face-