I'm new to DM'ing and have three new players, so I guess it evens out. We're doing Icespire Peak (starter set) and are in the Dwarven Excavation. This is face to face, no roll20, etc. Going well so far although I think they need to understand that they have almost limitless choices to make. Ex. while in Phandalin they didn't explore much except choose a quest and start it. They encountered an ochre jelly and are fighting it (had to stop before fight ended) with the dragonborn using his acid breath on the jelly. He was surprised to find acid damage is halved against the jelly but I was glad he used a race feature instead of a regular attack.
After our Tortle Bard bought a cursed puppet from a shop that convinced him to go stab a random person, causing our Artificer to shoot the puppet and the Tortle to retaliate against the whole party and then get arrested, we figured we should probably break him out of prison before the town's guards burnt him at the stake.
After the Artificer's homunculus servant got lightning bolted, speared through the chest, and magic missiled, we decided that maybe we shouldn't send him as our first line of offense. We ended up sending the Druid, who was wielding a cursed sword (can you see a trend here?) that was draining her charisma and the artificer's bag of holding, to charm the guards to let her in because she was the only one who wasn't seen at the scene of the fight. The Warlock followed after her invisibly.
The plan was to have her pass off the Bag to the Warlock so he could search the prison for the Bard and stick him in the bag of holding then leave (Tortles can hold their breath for an hour so he would have been fine). And sure, we technically followed that plan... to the best of our ability.
The Warlock had to make a clutch DEX roll to grab the Bag of Holding off the Druid before she and the two guards she charmed got Dispelled, Just Barely Made It and ran out the door into the prisons before the Druid got discovered by the guards she charmed and got thrown in a temporary holding cell because miraculously she rolled high enough deception despite her sword.
The warlock then rolled a 6 perception to find Bard and only managed to eventually run into King's Guard, the Holiest and Buffest dudes in the country, where he discovered that the guy Bard stabbed the day before was, in fact, one of them. He followed them, still invisible, to Bard's cell, where, after plenty of talking out of character (which is allowed at our table), we realized that Tales from Beyond wasn't magic and that Bard could do it while stuck in solitary confinement. He rolled 4 (1 free 30ft teleportation) the SECOND he was grabbed by the Guards and began being dragged outside to the courtyard.
By this point all of our hearts were Racing, it was the moment of truth. Out in the courtyard, Bard used the free teleport to go back into the hallway, where he was just about to be pulled into the Bag of Holding, before getting targeted by Dominate Person. He has a +1 to WIS saves and, unbeknownst to him, a stone of ill luck, so this would make or break the success of this mission. We all started chanting Natural 20 around the table, because that always works, except this time it DID. We all basically blew up yelling as Warlock pulled Bard into the bag (which, by the way, as an Artificer Infusion, was actually a magic rune sewn onto one of Artificer's socks), and RAN, only to have to Misty Step to actually be able to get out, causing him to be seen by the Guards right in the middle of this chaos. Luckily, we're part of a school club and our time ran out, so at that very moment the DM made the decision to just jump cut to Warlock Made It Out. They also decided to level us up four levels, to level 8, because that was A Lot.
Our Ranger couldn't make it to this session so we decided that the rationale for him leveling up was that he was the only one who didn't commit any crimes in this town, and that amount of restraint deserves levels lmao.
The party decided to split up in a monumental way. Two of them took the Cursebreaker to the library to try and de-curse the book of Emmental Evil. Two of them took their landship into the town of Steepfield to barricade the automated golem-run slaughterhouse, and the fifth scouted ahead to make sure that the cows weren't multiplying (they are cursed giant cows which, whenever they are hurt, the blood or separated parts of them grow into another cow and they heal immediately).
The Warlock, on the landship, sees something on the horizon, flying towards the town and getting steadily larger. They immediately assume (correctly) that it's the dragon. They and the Artificer steering the landship start shouting for people to run for cover. The Warlock jumps onto her wolf, cuts him free from pulling the landship, and runs to the library.
Meanwhile, in the library, the Cleric and the Barbarian with the Cursebreaker are being slowly ushered through the library by the elderly librarian, and they are about to descend to the vault when the Warlock bursts into the library and shouts "Dragon!". The Cleric tells the Barbarian to stab the book and goes outside to follow the Warlock to the tower of Enzo Copperhead, the inventor who has been helping them (and who has fitted the buildings with Hashbows, which are 4-shot ballistas). They race to the tower, downhill; the Warlock on her wolf, the cleric in a rickshaw pulled by a halfling (who has previously been a champion of the cheese chase, so has a lot of experience running downhill fast!). They pass the Artificer, steering the landship, and he joins the race. The Warlock wins, and then the Artificer remembers that there are no brakes on the ship, so cuts loose the mounts and trys to stop the ship, and with some help from their giant goat mount and armour of magical strength, manages to not get crushed and to stop the ship in time.
Meanwhile, the Monk (who was scouting) has already climbed Enzo's tower and is at the top, trying to attract the blue dragons attention with cones of cold.
Meanwhile, the Barbarian has pursuaded the librarian to allow him to cut the book with the sword, to try and break the spell. She begrudgingly accepts, as long as he doesn't destroy the book. The resulting magical explosion resulted in the barbarian doing 2 rolls on the wild magic surge table and being flung across the room, but unfortunately, both results were boring "you regain sorcery points" or "your spells are bonus actions now", rather than turning blue or becoming bald. The sword became lodged in the ceiling, and the barbarian decided "we need a Wizard", and instead opted to climb Sentinel Hill above Steepfield, to try and attack the dragon with a Hashbow; this, regrettably, after they saw the Dragon heading to the lower end of Steepfield. When they arrived, they decided to cross the large water pipes to swing across to a building, and whilst they rolled well on athletics, the pipes rolled poorly on Constitution and the pipes broke, releasing a river of water into Steepfield. He starts running towards the tower. I roll 2d4 to see how long the run takes, and he will arrive after 3 turns (I reasoned this with the time being a bit earlier than the arrival of the dragon).
Meanwhile, the Dragon has reached the cattle, and to show it's power, it strafes them as it flies over, causing an eruption ov bovine rejuvination in it's wake. The cows break through their corrale and begin t ostampede towards Steepfield...
Meanwhile, the Monk has gotten the dragons attention. The Cleric, Artificer, and Warlock have gotten to the top of Enzo's tower and are panickedly preparing to fight. Initiative is rolled, and the dragon mini is brought out onto the table for the first time. It's a good feeling.
The fight involves the Monk trying to slap the dragon upside it's head whilst using step on the wind and wings unfurled to move very fast whilst flying. The Dragon claws him twice, and the player starts looking worried. The dragon uses it's wings to knock the Artificer prone, who was preparing to fire a hashbow whilst blessed, but failed their strength save. The dragon unleashes it's breath attack and rolls low, and the party starts panicking more - the cleric and the Artificer got hit. The Warlock is grappled by the dragon and carried upwards, but she escapes by teleporting to the top of the dragon, and then rolls a 5 for acrobatics, and falls off. A second check of 17 sees her catch hold of the bridge before she falls 500ft. down to the cobbles below.
The Warlock then manages to throw a magical stone into the dragon's mouth, and commands her raven Kaarn to carry the other to the slaughterhouse, which is around 1000ft. away across town, and drop it. The magical stones are linked, a homebrew item called Leapstones, which are used such that when one stone comes to rest, the other stone will be teleported, along with any creature carrying it, to within 5ft. of the first. The intention was to allow short-ranged telportation, but the party have, naturally, weaponised it. The slaughterhouse is full of Iron Golems, which have been instructed to slaughter any large, 4-legged animals which enter the slaughterhouse. This is where they intend to teleport the dragon to!
The barbarian arrives and loads a Hashbow, then shoots all 4 bolts in their next turn into the dragon, scoring 2 critical hits! We run max damage + a roll for crits, so he does 67 damage from the 2 hits!
I decide it'll take 5 turns for Kaarn to get there, and the Artificer decides to coax the dragon into following him towards the Slaughterhouse, and baits it semi-successfully into following him. It chases him (who is under Longstrider) for 2 turns before overtaking him and blocking the way, using Frightful Presence. The Artificer tries to keep the Dragon talking for Kaarn to get to the Slaughterhouse, but the Dragon was also keeping the Artificer talking to recharge his breath attack, and drops the Artificer to 0.
The next turn, the Monk swings a bag of 5 Alchemists Fires into the Dragon, and "misses", so smashes it on the dragons head and himself rather than into the dragons mouth. The dragon responds by making two claw attacks, and the monk player says he's nearly dead, and the dragon then goes for the bite attack. The cleric heals the Artificer, bringing him back up, and the dragon drops the monk to 0. The session ended with the bloodied and battered dragon, head aflame, holding the still-burning Monk in it's jaws as it dares the party to approach. The Raven has dropped the stone, and in true jumanji fashion, the Warlock can see, through the raven's eyes, the stone bouncing down into the slaughterhouse. The Ground shakes as the cows stampede towards them, and somewhere above, the forefront of a tidal-wave is sweeping towards them.
Was mightily annoyed that the pub decided to shut early last night! We will be picking it up again on Thursday!
We found us a hall to rent out, which is cheaper than a free pub and one drink each so we're sticking to that!
The dragon approached the party, and the Artificer cast Heroism on himself, and shouted something intimidating (Can't remember what it was). I let them roll intimidation, and they got a 20, so I had the Dragon step back and ask "Who Are You?". The character is very self-proclamatory so this was perfect for them. They declared "I Am Thunderbrand!" and shot lightning into the sky. The Dragon, who was keeping them talking whilst their breath weapon recharged, rolled a 6. He Smiled. "Let me show you how it's done...", and their breath weapon charged up, causing their throat to glow as he opened his jaws towards the party...
Now, astute followers of this adventure will recall that a Pair of Leapstones had come into play in the previous session. These stones, when one is thrown and the other is held by a creature, when the thrown stone comes to a rest, the other (and the creature holding it) is teleported to the thrown stone. I bring this up, because one of these stones is currently lodged in the dragons mouth. The other has just come to a rest, having been dropped into an automated slaughterhouse run by Iron Golems, which have been instructed to kill anything large and with 4 legs.
The Dragon disappears, and the party look down the street to see the roof blasted off of the slaughterhouse, and they hear a terrible roar from the Dragon as the slaughter golems get to work. They then see the dragon flying upwards, only to teleport back down again over and over again as the stone in its mouth is drawn to the stationary stone in the slaughterhouse (this prompted the expected "oh my god..." response from the players).
At this point, the party start discussing what to do. The rumbling of stampeding cattle is getting closer. They start moving toward the slaughterhouse to try and redirect the cows through. There is a clicking sound, but nobody pays it any heed. Marva looks down to see a familiar stone roll to a stop at her feet.
The dragon, bloodied and missing a wing, appears swinging, and clamps his jaws around Marva. He flings her to the side, and Thunderbrand steps in, unleashing a critical hit with smite to kill the beast. Marva gets up, wounded, and they turn around to see the stampede round the corner and head towards them, full tilt.
Thunderbrand, wielding the Cursebreaker, sees the Matriarch of the herd at the front, and tells everyone to step aside while he tries to break the curse. In an awesome show of awesomeness that I am truly thankful to have been a part of, the entire party (Except the cleric, who was running on a mission to get the guy who made the golems) stood by his side, one of them saying "you do not stand alone." He got another nat-20 on the attack on the Matriarch, and lopped her head clean off. as the others pulled him from the path of the stampede.
They managed to turn the cows around, and tested their theory that the cursebreaker had lifted the curse on all of them, and it appeared it had. They were all ready to start celebrating, and then one of the warding stones fell from the side of the Golem Slaughterhouse.
It's worth flashing back, at this point, to Enzo talking to them about his slaughterhouse at the start. He said "The glyphs keep the small animals from getting in, and they keep the golems from getting out!".
Cue half the party trying to turn the cows around whilst the other 2 try to mend the glyph. The golems try to push out, and the Barbarian angrily stops them (they rolled poorly!). The party get the cows under control and the slaughterhouse mended, so no rampant golems. Then, as they watch, a slow wash of water comes and washed away the dragon blood, from the pipe the Barbarian broke at the top of the hill before the fight started.
It was probably the most epic finale of a story arc I've ever witnessed.
So, the party slew the dragon and there was much rejoicing (yay!). They returned to the Horde and took the Platinum back to the bank, and organised a wagon train to get the gold. They returned to the dragons lair to find it being ransacked by Frost Giants.
They sealed the tunnel the frost giants were going down by causing a cave-in, and found more giants in the dragons chamber. They fought them, and were surprised to see that one of them had glowing eyes and could perform frost magic. They then asked Bahamut to help them find the nearest entrance to the tunnel they had collapsed, and it was underwater. They swam down and entered the mine shaft, and after 3 misses from the Roper (rolled 2,3,3 and then 18+ for stealth checks each time) it grabbed one and dragged them upwards. The underwater combat started, and they soon found that the water had a surface - because they were all dragged out of it by the roper. Then one of them used Lightning Lure to pull the roper downward, and the roper fell in the water, where they kiled it.
They found the join to the tunnel they had collapsed, and followed the minecart tracks to find 2 frost giants pushing a large card with a chest in it. The party dispatched them, though took a lot of damage doing so as these giants are imbued with frost magic, and they opened the chest to find that t is full of the junk from the lair - furnishings, plaques, mounting shields, and everything else not nailed down. They ended the session with the party contemplating a rest, and deciding what to do next!
Wow, this was a while ago! This is about 4-5 sessions worth:
So the party tracked the giants back to a dilapidated manor house, where they lost them after finding signs of a skyship having left (frost marks on the floor). There they discover that the manor house was the ancestral home of one of the party, a Dwarf named Zav. They arrived from the tunnel into the basement, and found a pair of Choeropsi (homebrew hippo folk) hiding in a room, which also had arcane sigils and abyssal text scrawled over every surface. Below them, the paladin sensed a fiend, so they did what any brave adventuring party would do - they fled the building and barricaded the doors as best they could!
Zavs backstory was that he has been resurrected many times, and each time he is born to a noble family, and each time the family has something terrible happen, causing Zav to be abandoned. He always ends up with nothing but a Signet Ring. The same motif was found on the door of this abandoned manor.
The party met a flock of ravens which inhabited the roof of the manor, and there they met The Master, who is a 200-year-old raven who remembers Zavs birth. he is huge, the size of a doge (and birds in Arenstar have 4 legs as they are descended from dragons), and blind, with grey feathers. He welcomes Zav back to the house, but asks that he destroys the evil lurking beneath.
The Master tells Zav of how the manor was abandoned by the dwarves who lived there, when the Giants of Ormnir (who were ruled by Balthaz the Eternal) came south and pushed into their lands. He also said that the evil had been there before the dwarves had fled.
The party descended and found a route through a natural cavern, which led to an ancient shrine. On the way, they killed a Rutterkin and then found the dead body of Zavs uncle, in a room with walls covered in the words "I'm Sorry" and "Forgive Me". They found a journal (which detailed the uncles descent into madness as he first tried to awaken the ancient snake-god Mizlavurm, and then tried to worship Dagon, thinking Dagon could release Mizlavurm on the world, who would then save him), which prompted Zav's player to say "I don't know how to deal with this as myself, let alone as Zav...". They then faced down a pair of homebrew demons called Lophilithans, who are anglerfish-like monsters who consume souls and project illusions of loved ones from their lures. They tried to tempt the party with knowledge, but the party attacked anyway and won. There they found Zavs father, as a corpse strung from the walls in the snake gods temple. The walls were covered in abyssal scripture and they sanctified it with a magical sword they carry called Cursebreaker.
Having cleansed the demons out, they then buried Zavs father and Zavs uncle and asked the gods for forgiveness for him. They then told the Ravens of their success, and Zav found a vault containing a lot of paperwork, including papers of birth for himself and bank slips from his Grandfather. He also found a small shrine dedicated to Bahamut, with a silver mace hanging above it.
They returned to the caravan they left for several days, and the paladin had a touching moment with his parents, when he thought he was going to get a dressing down for getting into danger, and instead his mum asked him when he had grown up, and said she was proud.
They returned to Steepfield and visited Enzo, the inventor, who has plans for their ship (to make it fly). He tasks them with going to The Tower and finding Gizmo, the artificer, and getting him to help with the project. They left towards Longford, and were ambushed by the reanimated corpses of the goblins they had killed several weeks ago. They recognised the pale light in their eyes as being similar to that of the giants they were fighting. They immediately decided to travel in disguise and approached Longford with the artificer disguised as a priest, with the more noticeable mounts in the forest alongside to keep out of sight.
The party arrived in Longford (which resembles Sleepy Hollow, with gothic architecture and misty moorland behind it) and they decide to act inconspicuous - so, naturally, they split up. The werebear barbarian started climbing on the buildings, and the two chaotic elves decided to break into Gilmora's apothecaries, which resulted in them waking Weelum the bear (who they had met before, and loved), and they stole several potions. The barbarian then started dancing down the street in bear form. The two more serious characters then found the captain they were after and pursuaded him to take them away by boat as soon as possible.
The party travelled by boat down the River Long, where they encountered many interesting things, including schools of glowing fish and a water elemental full of tadpoles and lily pads. They fought off a quartet of aquatic bulette-eels which were set on sinking the boat, and then they pursuaded the captain to shoot the hashbow on the boat at a tree. The bow misfired, and everyone laughed when he was flung into the water. They stopped laughing when they realised he was dead, but then they revived him with spare the dying and continued on their way.
They arrived at a tavern called the Fallen Roc, which was once a skyship called The Roc, which fell. Now it's a tavern, bridging the river. They arrived and (predictably) asked for the strongest drink in the house. They drank Turnback Tequila, which wipes out your memory. I described the bottle over and over, and the barbarian kept asking for a shot, and by the time he passed out he had bought 7 shots and forgotten every one! He woke up with 7 hours missing, and the artificer had 3 hours missing from their memories. They rolled out of the tavern, attracting the attention of a group of thugs.
The party opted to leave immediately, so they tied the doors shut and left on the boat. They proceeded to North Masonport and there they bought some potions, some books, and asked for information on an item they had found.
All told, it's come a long way since the last post here! Anyone else want to share - it's been just me for ages!
The artificer-paladin (son of Thor, unbeknownst to him, and only lawful character left in the party) is drinking in a tavern while the rest of the party shops, and is battling with his lawful vs chaotic side. A group of thugs in the tavern are quietly mocking him, pointing and laughing, and not too subtly.
The party arrives at the tavern to pick him up as a thug sails out of the window. They exchange worried glances, and then hear the Artificer shouting "I didn't say you could leave!" and using lightning lure to drag them back in.
They intervene in the bar brawl and manage to stop it before anyone dies - the Monk using Stunning Strike on both the Barbarian and the Artificer to keep people safe. The warlock intimidates one utterly into submission and the cleric tries and fails to intimidate the rest. They make their way out of the town, and get an explanation from the Artificer that they were laughing at him.
They then visit a character called Benzo who sells the Warlock a spider in a jar which can make people it bites stronger for a brief duration - at a risk of passing out for several minutes. She and the Monk both try it, and the monk becomes addicted (meaning he takes a point of exhaustion after each long rest, unless he gets bitten by the spider again). He can repeat the save each time he long-rests whilst still exhausted, but giving in to it guarantees the addiction stays fed, so he will wake up the next day exhausted again with no save.
They make their way into the Great Market of the Tower and start shopping, purchasing some belts from a red-skinned dwarf to be enchanted later, some snail-glass amulets from a Quickling with a Flail Snail, and then pressing onward toward the Tower, which now takes up over 90 degrees of the horizon.
As night sets in the Markets entertainment changes, from jugglers and acrobats to fighting pits, brothels, and an animal fighting circuit. This last one registers on an emotional level, as they are announcing that they have owlbears fighting, and the barbarian is a were-bear. The monk, warlock and Artificer decide to go in and free the animals, and their sneaking espionage quickly escalates into pandemonium. They release a cage of blink dogs, which immediately run and teleport into a cage of Displacer Beasts, and the sounds of their fight draws the group of attendants. The warlock releases a Rhino, which she then rides through the group of attendants, leaving 2 of them impaled on its long, sharp horn. Other animals start escaping too, freed from their cages, and chaos quickly reigns. The artificer flies through to the front to shout for everyone to leave, and in doing so distracts the pit-fight going on, leading to a KO. He is pelted with rubbish and drinks for ruining the fight, so cuts through one of the supporting pillars for the big-top tent, causing it to collapse.
The warlock tries to lasso the rhino's horn to get some control over it and instead lasso's one of the still-dying attendants impaled on the front, which gives her a little control. Se turns the rhino back around, and it knocks over an oil brazier, spreading fire. Meanwhile a group of 5 owlbears have been loosed into the arena by the group, and the Monk is in the cage fighting the displacer beasts with the Blink Dogs. The Artificer flies straight upwards, cutting through the collapsing tent and flying out into the night.
The Cleric looks back from their wagon on the road and says "I leave them alone for 5. >darn<. minutes..."
I (DM) reply: "Actually, it's been exactly 10.", and I direct a pointed look at the Artificer who started this whole thing by firing up the "Fly" spell.
The artificer starts falling. The attendants have stretched a huge net across in front of the warlocks rampant rhino. The displacer beasts are dead.
And we end the session there.
The look on their faces when I dropped this as a cliffhanger was priceless!
The party spent their first night inside their new property, a historic inn known as the Cloak & Stagger Inn.
The Death Cleric was subjected to a harrowing night’s sleep, beset by dreams of unsettling figures in a dark, cavernous space, before a deep voice dispelled the darkness & woke him up to the sound of banging from the kitchen in the floor below.
Our Bugbear Druid was awoken by a soft voice urging him to get up, stating that his “friends” were in danger, and that they should not have come to this place.
The Wild Sorcerer woke last, and the trio made their way down to the kitchen together (eventually).
A poltergeist had animated the objects in the kitchen, and violently sent the Death Cleric flying, initiating combat.
One fiery-belching stove, an animated meat cleaver & broomstick, and a tactical use of “Moonbeam” by the Druid & a barrage of “Magic Missile” from the Sorcerer, the poltergeist was slain, and all was quiet.
…except for the cries for help coming from the cellar.
The party ventured down into the basement, to find a collection of arms frantically waving from beneath the earth, shouting that they could not breathe.
Not fooled by the voices, the Druid used their “Moonbeam” once more: the arms burst from the ground, revealing them not to be victims; but a “Soul Shaker”.
The party was able to overpower the clump of hands; which burst into 6 “Crawling Claws”, which they party dispatched (save for one, which the Death Cleric then placed inside a jar).
One of the crawling claws had tried to escape through a small crack in the cellar wall; the Druid managed to pry away some of the brick to make an opening.
Inside, the party found a legless, armless corpse with one eye…and it started moving & groaning!
The Sorcerer found a book with a tongue nailed to the cover…they removed the tongue (yuck), and proceeded to place the tongue inside the groaning corpse (double yuck).
But it worked; the corpse began magically speaking to the group; which is where we left it that night.
After panicking and running out of town after one of our party members got killed, we were tracked down by Warsorrow, the mayor. He found us in the middle of the desert that surrounds the town of Frostford (it's an iceland/greenland situation), and told us to explain what exactly was going on, why we left immediately after a suspicious murder without collecting any of our stuff, leaving him only a note delivered by the Artificer's flying mechanical cat.
The Artificer explained the situation: They were given a note, drenched in blood, that was left on top of the Druid's body where she was found. It was from the Artificer's ...father? type person? basically explaining that the Druid was an eldritch, inhuman creature that deserved to be killed. That went down poorly with Warsorrow, as it turns out that, as Abe (the father figure) has raised the Artificer, Warsorrow had raised Abe. This was a REVELATION. Artificer has a twice-adopted grandparent, and they've made him very angry by not telling him what was up sooner and then leaving immediately and basically making all-around bad choices.
Throughout all of this, the Wizard who had just joined the party Would Not Stop flirting with Warsorrow. This did not help his mood.
The mayor brought us back to his estate, where we were told to stay in town for a few days, arm up, and prepare to head to the City of Hunters, where we'd almost certainly find Abe. We're going to track him down and either fix him or kill him. Warsorrow told us he's breaking his vow of nonviolence for this, for his son.
The first night in, we all FINALLY got to restart the Story Circle that was so rudely interrupted by Warsorrow teleporting in on us the the desert that morning, and listen to the Warlock's backstory in full, which had been interrupted and slowly, segmentally told over the course of at least five sessions. He told us about his time bravely defeating cult members and catching the eye of the demon those cultists had been summoning, becoming her warlock and setting himself on a journey to collect enough sacrifices to finally marry her (hell marriage is weird).
Throughout all of this, the Wizard attempted to sneak up into Warsorrow's room (this was after being told Multiple Times to PLEASE stop flirting/talking to him/touching the magic artifacts in his house). The Wizard apparently was heard by Warsorrow, who feigned sleep until getting kissed goodnight on the forehead, upon which he picked up the Wizard and chucked him back into the common room, after which the party all decided to sleep piled against the door to assure he wouldn't escape again. Keep in mind this is the wizard's first full session. He made quite an impression xD
Let's see. . . Lots of in-town minor role play stuff which burned 2/3 of the session. Our party's leader learned of a treasure, and gained a star chart. We chartered a small cargo vessel, and sailed from a small seaport, for two weeks, over to a tropical island. Our vessel avoided a ghost ship, and some sketchy sea elves on the way. On the island, the first thing that we encountered was a group of yuan-ti(spelling?). Our leader, being theoretically good, but proving to be surprisingly bloodthirsty, attacked them, and the rest of the party followed suit. In the process, a large idol, precious to the yuan-ti, was destroyed; those locals present fought to the death over this sacrilege. We burned up most of our hit points, spells, and resources in order to kill all of those present, and the session stopped at the base of a large, jungle-covered ziggurat (step pyramid).
As there will be no rest for the party, the next session could prove interesting. If we can't RP/talk/think our way through it, I don't see us making it off the island. (dun dun daaaah!)
Characters involved: The leader, a gnome sorcerer, shunned by his own kind because of his curse (hints of draconic physical features), who seeks glory and notoriety above all else, and appears to be shifting away from 'good'. A half-sea elf rogue, very competent and easy going. A dwarven barbarian, with a severe gambling problem. A war-forged being, with amnesia, who is just glad to have folks to hang out with folks who don't fear it. A kobold (urd) sorcerer, who's home and tribe were destroyed by a small army of humans, years ago.
Yes, the kobold and the gnome do not like each other much, but have agreed that there are better ways for each to spend their time than trying to kill each other. Neither one is accepted by their own folk.
The session started with re-setting the scene, and then I continued in initiative order - with the Artificer going last!
The artificer made an epic set of rolls to grab the rope which was linking the two halves of the big-top tent, and swing around on it to join the fight. The tent collapsed, and the warlock steered the rhino back into the tent to join in as well. The barbarian and cleric noticed the ocllapsing, flaming tent behind them and decided to go back and pull the other characters out of there!
The monk heard this enormous voice shouting "What the hell is going on!" from inside, and they investigated, along with the Artificer, to see a huge, well-dressed Ettin who was furiously looking out over his burning tent from the wooden building that was inside it.
The artificer is roleplaying their discovery of Thor being their father and their getting the Hammer of Thunderbolts, so they decided that anything Giant is now their enemy. They decide to try and kill this Ettin, who disappears back into the building. They arrive in time to see him take a pair of huge swords off the wall. After a brief "who i nthe hell are you" exchange, the Ettin gives the "little man" one chance to run. He charges, and as he does so, the Ettin symultaneously activates his armour (*for he is an Armorer artificer) and stops him short with sentinel/polearm master with one of the long greatswords he employs.
The fight is brief, and very nearly sees the artificer die (level 11 character dropped to 7hp), before the warlock arrives - still on the rhino, which demolishes half the building, pitching the Ettin through a hole in the floor. The Ettin escapes, freeing the monsters which the party aimed to leave trapped, and jumping on a skyship. The Artificer is downed by a giant spider but the warlock uses a healing potion to bring him back from the brink. Not knowing she had "bought" (stolen) healing Philter, she mixed an entire vial of philter with a waterskin and ended up healing him 16d4+16 hp!
The party then make good their escape, and flee the chaos to finally enter the Tower.
Next Session!
The party work their way upwards through the Tower. They enter the second floor, known as the Acting Rooms, and they are told to feed the fires, and not break character. They are then given "roles" to play:
The barbarian became Dogood Holyman, the Paladin
The Monk became Brizmathus, the Grouchy
The Warlock became Lightfoot Silvertongue, the Bard
The Artificer became Lonewolf Edgypast, the Rogue
and the Cleric became Fighty McPunchface, the Barbarian.
They proceeded through the rooms, being subjected to badly-written screenplay and prompts, with poor props and others acting as well. The monk became concerned, as they had to fight some "bandits", and when he killed one, another dropped his weapons and started screaming, before disappearing in a flash. They later encountered the same person, who was acting very much in-character, but then suddenly looked terrified and confused before leaving. The monk declared "I am not acting any more!" and disappeared, reappearing in a dark room, with a loud voice declaring "DO NOT BREAK CHARACTER", and was branded on their wrist with an oval symbol. The final fight was a parody of a fight they had fought two years previously, where they defeated Gorgonzilla in the town of Steepfield and thereby saved the town. The Prompt was "The town of Steephill is under attack from an ancient evil". They then had to fight a T-rex which was draped in smelly cheese-cloth. They all rolled abysmally on their History checks, so none of the characters were aware of what they were fighting!
When they made it out, which they did, they all gave a bow - except the monk, whose brand burnt on their wrist, and they were forced to bow. This left them worried that the "enemies" they had fought were just people forced into acting. The ushers congratulated them on their performance and on not being demoted to "extras". When the party enquired, they explained it was all in the rules they agreed to, and the monk punched him, getting a crit and killing him outright. The Cleric healed him back to life immediately, and he fled behind a door.
The party collected their things and a bag of 120gp in tips from "the audience" (the barbarian player actually broke his voice by loudly proclaiming that Dogood Holyman was here to save the day in every instance, and the artificer player was constantly playing up to the edgelord rogue stereotype).
They now arrive on the Second floor, where await spas and baths, and all manner of relaxation. they aim to climb to the Fifth!
It was the first session of an epic spelljammer campaign. The first 2 training sessions to get recruited as crew on a SJ ship. First mission was defend ship from kobolds....no problem. 2nd was a kobiashu maru type situation with a 9th lev spellcaster (we were lev 1 at the time) and waves of kobolds.....which we failed but got into the crew. I'm Running an Autognome Druid (Circle of Stars).
We're in a CoS campaign where Strahd has already captured the critical NPC, Ireena. Half the party decided to split from the others while they were sleeping and attempt a rescue mission.
As a result, the Paladin is captured and about to be turned into a vampire spawn, the Druid and Sorcerer are both missing, and the Ranger is dead.
Dumb question, do you know what he wanted to do with the salt? If too much metagaming is the worry, ask them to make a DC 10 Nature/Religion check, maybe DC5. If they make the check then the character can be assumed to know how to make salt by evaporation of sea salt. Being a paladin of a sea god, this check might be made with advantage. From there making a ring of exclusion to slugs or anything else that doesn't like salt might be possible.
2. "But remaining unconscious, might spare you the level or three of exhaustion that I might give for asking such an interesting question and reminding me of some rules I was sorta thinking about ignoring until a moment ago. How dead were you?"
3. (Thinking to myself, this is amusing, maybe the bad guys will not kill them but instead take them, prisoner) What I might say...that the offhand chair is a little unbalancing. Roll those attacks with disadvantage or we'll pretend it's your "parry chair."
My group went on a hunt for deer in Neverwinter Woods to give to a manticore. I didn't know how to run a hunt but I worked out a fun system as the party went along. They'd first do a check for deer and if successful they'd spot one. The deer got a check each turn to detect them and if it saw them, it would move away. If it got a certain distance away it was assumed to have fled and the party would have to start over.
A suggestion for how to run a hunt. Having had some real world experience, venison is tasty and part of my personal cultural identity (all people deserve respect)...and a lot of experience as a DM, here is my suggestion for a deer or other hunt. The suggested DCs are based on players declaring reasonable actions, be really quite, be aware of the wind (that one might give advantage on some checks), with maybe some camouflage and good hygiene with products that are relatively scentless. Good role playing should be rewarded as always.
1. To Find Deer...DC 10 or higher survival check to locate the deer. DC depends on how plentiful the place they are hunting. DC35 for middle of ocean. DC10 for the edge of a farming/wild lands.
2. To get close enough for a shot: Stealth check: DC 15, much higher if the players declared actions are not very sneaky. Deer have really good eye sight, at least for motion and really good smell and hearing. Blown check, for at least the local deer, they will snort wheeze and demonstrate why they are called whitetails as they bound away. If the character isn't proficient in BOTH Stealth and Survival/Nature, a second check to get a surprise shot in might be called for. Deer hunting in heavy armor is likely a non-starter, or where the DC 25+ checks start to fly. If you want more medieval, then the hunt involves hounds and horses, with the stag being killed in a hand to hand spear. The kill is made when the deer cant move from exhaustion, but a couple of animal handling/survival checks for the chase would be appropriate. But if you are thinking hunting with a bow/crossbow...then...
3. Attack roll, AC 12. Hopefully someone is a sharpshooter (feat) and can give the +10 damage. Partial cover bonuses are always a possibility. Arrows and bolts do not fly straight after hitting a small branch or twig. A running deer is taking the dash action and dodge as a bonus action, really hard to hit. Pay attention to range.
I am assuming that if the party doesn't feed the manticore, then they feed the manticore on a more personal level.
Based on the stats in DnD beyond a hit dealing 4 hp of damage is pretty easy to achieve. Damage falls a little short, then you could add a survival/nature check (DC dependent on how many HP the deer has left) to track and actually harvest the animal. A wounded animal is very dangerous.
The way you handled it was fine by the way, at least in my opinion.
It went well! We started in a Star City (one of the things in my world) in a tavern empty except for the players and 2 NPCs (a man and his child) at the edge of the city, we had a bit of roleplay to let the characters meet each other.
Weird cultist boys teleported in and rolled a bomb into the centre of the tavern and activated the detonations at the entire tavern, everything went boom and the tavern went flying off the edge, we had some rounds in the sky as we fell but the child NPC channeled some magic and everyone’s vision went dark.
We awoke back on the ground of the Mainland and had to scavenge for supplies to survive, we ended after they found some old ruins and were attacked by some funky wolf bois.
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I'm new to DM'ing and have three new players, so I guess it evens out. We're doing Icespire Peak (starter set) and are in the Dwarven Excavation. This is face to face, no roll20, etc. Going well so far although I think they need to understand that they have almost limitless choices to make. Ex. while in Phandalin they didn't explore much except choose a quest and start it. They encountered an ochre jelly and are fighting it (had to stop before fight ended) with the dragonborn using his acid breath on the jelly. He was surprised to find acid damage is halved against the jelly but I was glad he used a race feature instead of a regular attack.
After our Tortle Bard bought a cursed puppet from a shop that convinced him to go stab a random person, causing our Artificer to shoot the puppet and the Tortle to retaliate against the whole party and then get arrested, we figured we should probably break him out of prison before the town's guards burnt him at the stake.
After the Artificer's homunculus servant got lightning bolted, speared through the chest, and magic missiled, we decided that maybe we shouldn't send him as our first line of offense. We ended up sending the Druid, who was wielding a cursed sword (can you see a trend here?) that was draining her charisma and the artificer's bag of holding, to charm the guards to let her in because she was the only one who wasn't seen at the scene of the fight. The Warlock followed after her invisibly.
The plan was to have her pass off the Bag to the Warlock so he could search the prison for the Bard and stick him in the bag of holding then leave (Tortles can hold their breath for an hour so he would have been fine). And sure, we technically followed that plan... to the best of our ability.
The Warlock had to make a clutch DEX roll to grab the Bag of Holding off the Druid before she and the two guards she charmed got Dispelled, Just Barely Made It and ran out the door into the prisons before the Druid got discovered by the guards she charmed and got thrown in a temporary holding cell because miraculously she rolled high enough deception despite her sword.
The warlock then rolled a 6 perception to find Bard and only managed to eventually run into King's Guard, the Holiest and Buffest dudes in the country, where he discovered that the guy Bard stabbed the day before was, in fact, one of them. He followed them, still invisible, to Bard's cell, where, after plenty of talking out of character (which is allowed at our table), we realized that Tales from Beyond wasn't magic and that Bard could do it while stuck in solitary confinement. He rolled 4 (1 free 30ft teleportation) the SECOND he was grabbed by the Guards and began being dragged outside to the courtyard.
By this point all of our hearts were Racing, it was the moment of truth. Out in the courtyard, Bard used the free teleport to go back into the hallway, where he was just about to be pulled into the Bag of Holding, before getting targeted by Dominate Person. He has a +1 to WIS saves and, unbeknownst to him, a stone of ill luck, so this would make or break the success of this mission. We all started chanting Natural 20 around the table, because that always works, except this time it DID. We all basically blew up yelling as Warlock pulled Bard into the bag (which, by the way, as an Artificer Infusion, was actually a magic rune sewn onto one of Artificer's socks), and RAN, only to have to Misty Step to actually be able to get out, causing him to be seen by the Guards right in the middle of this chaos. Luckily, we're part of a school club and our time ran out, so at that very moment the DM made the decision to just jump cut to Warlock Made It Out. They also decided to level us up four levels, to level 8, because that was A Lot.
Our Ranger couldn't make it to this session so we decided that the rationale for him leveling up was that he was the only one who didn't commit any crimes in this town, and that amount of restraint deserves levels lmao.
:)
Well,
Continuing from this post...
The party decided to split up in a monumental way. Two of them took the Cursebreaker to the library to try and de-curse the book of Emmental Evil. Two of them took their landship into the town of Steepfield to barricade the automated golem-run slaughterhouse, and the fifth scouted ahead to make sure that the cows weren't multiplying (they are cursed giant cows which, whenever they are hurt, the blood or separated parts of them grow into another cow and they heal immediately).
The Warlock, on the landship, sees something on the horizon, flying towards the town and getting steadily larger. They immediately assume (correctly) that it's the dragon. They and the Artificer steering the landship start shouting for people to run for cover. The Warlock jumps onto her wolf, cuts him free from pulling the landship, and runs to the library.
Meanwhile, in the library, the Cleric and the Barbarian with the Cursebreaker are being slowly ushered through the library by the elderly librarian, and they are about to descend to the vault when the Warlock bursts into the library and shouts "Dragon!". The Cleric tells the Barbarian to stab the book and goes outside to follow the Warlock to the tower of Enzo Copperhead, the inventor who has been helping them (and who has fitted the buildings with Hashbows, which are 4-shot ballistas). They race to the tower, downhill; the Warlock on her wolf, the cleric in a rickshaw pulled by a halfling (who has previously been a champion of the cheese chase, so has a lot of experience running downhill fast!). They pass the Artificer, steering the landship, and he joins the race. The Warlock wins, and then the Artificer remembers that there are no brakes on the ship, so cuts loose the mounts and trys to stop the ship, and with some help from their giant goat mount and armour of magical strength, manages to not get crushed and to stop the ship in time.
Meanwhile, the Monk (who was scouting) has already climbed Enzo's tower and is at the top, trying to attract the blue dragons attention with cones of cold.
Meanwhile, the Barbarian has pursuaded the librarian to allow him to cut the book with the sword, to try and break the spell. She begrudgingly accepts, as long as he doesn't destroy the book. The resulting magical explosion resulted in the barbarian doing 2 rolls on the wild magic surge table and being flung across the room, but unfortunately, both results were boring "you regain sorcery points" or "your spells are bonus actions now", rather than turning blue or becoming bald. The sword became lodged in the ceiling, and the barbarian decided "we need a Wizard", and instead opted to climb Sentinel Hill above Steepfield, to try and attack the dragon with a Hashbow; this, regrettably, after they saw the Dragon heading to the lower end of Steepfield. When they arrived, they decided to cross the large water pipes to swing across to a building, and whilst they rolled well on athletics, the pipes rolled poorly on Constitution and the pipes broke, releasing a river of water into Steepfield. He starts running towards the tower. I roll 2d4 to see how long the run takes, and he will arrive after 3 turns (I reasoned this with the time being a bit earlier than the arrival of the dragon).
Meanwhile, the Dragon has reached the cattle, and to show it's power, it strafes them as it flies over, causing an eruption ov bovine rejuvination in it's wake. The cows break through their corrale and begin t ostampede towards Steepfield...
Meanwhile, the Monk has gotten the dragons attention. The Cleric, Artificer, and Warlock have gotten to the top of Enzo's tower and are panickedly preparing to fight. Initiative is rolled, and the dragon mini is brought out onto the table for the first time. It's a good feeling.
The fight involves the Monk trying to slap the dragon upside it's head whilst using step on the wind and wings unfurled to move very fast whilst flying. The Dragon claws him twice, and the player starts looking worried. The dragon uses it's wings to knock the Artificer prone, who was preparing to fire a hashbow whilst blessed, but failed their strength save. The dragon unleashes it's breath attack and rolls low, and the party starts panicking more - the cleric and the Artificer got hit. The Warlock is grappled by the dragon and carried upwards, but she escapes by teleporting to the top of the dragon, and then rolls a 5 for acrobatics, and falls off. A second check of 17 sees her catch hold of the bridge before she falls 500ft. down to the cobbles below.
The Warlock then manages to throw a magical stone into the dragon's mouth, and commands her raven Kaarn to carry the other to the slaughterhouse, which is around 1000ft. away across town, and drop it. The magical stones are linked, a homebrew item called Leapstones, which are used such that when one stone comes to rest, the other stone will be teleported, along with any creature carrying it, to within 5ft. of the first. The intention was to allow short-ranged telportation, but the party have, naturally, weaponised it. The slaughterhouse is full of Iron Golems, which have been instructed to slaughter any large, 4-legged animals which enter the slaughterhouse. This is where they intend to teleport the dragon to!
The barbarian arrives and loads a Hashbow, then shoots all 4 bolts in their next turn into the dragon, scoring 2 critical hits! We run max damage + a roll for crits, so he does 67 damage from the 2 hits!
I decide it'll take 5 turns for Kaarn to get there, and the Artificer decides to coax the dragon into following him towards the Slaughterhouse, and baits it semi-successfully into following him. It chases him (who is under Longstrider) for 2 turns before overtaking him and blocking the way, using Frightful Presence. The Artificer tries to keep the Dragon talking for Kaarn to get to the Slaughterhouse, but the Dragon was also keeping the Artificer talking to recharge his breath attack, and drops the Artificer to 0.
The next turn, the Monk swings a bag of 5 Alchemists Fires into the Dragon, and "misses", so smashes it on the dragons head and himself rather than into the dragons mouth. The dragon responds by making two claw attacks, and the monk player says he's nearly dead, and the dragon then goes for the bite attack. The cleric heals the Artificer, bringing him back up, and the dragon drops the monk to 0. The session ended with the bloodied and battered dragon, head aflame, holding the still-burning Monk in it's jaws as it dares the party to approach. The Raven has dropped the stone, and in true jumanji fashion, the Warlock can see, through the raven's eyes, the stone bouncing down into the slaughterhouse. The Ground shakes as the cows stampede towards them, and somewhere above, the forefront of a tidal-wave is sweeping towards them.
Was mightily annoyed that the pub decided to shut early last night! We will be picking it up again on Thursday!
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Continuing from the above post!
We found us a hall to rent out, which is cheaper than a free pub and one drink each so we're sticking to that!
The dragon approached the party, and the Artificer cast Heroism on himself, and shouted something intimidating (Can't remember what it was). I let them roll intimidation, and they got a 20, so I had the Dragon step back and ask "Who Are You?". The character is very self-proclamatory so this was perfect for them. They declared "I Am Thunderbrand!" and shot lightning into the sky. The Dragon, who was keeping them talking whilst their breath weapon recharged, rolled a 6. He Smiled. "Let me show you how it's done...", and their breath weapon charged up, causing their throat to glow as he opened his jaws towards the party...
Now, astute followers of this adventure will recall that a Pair of Leapstones had come into play in the previous session. These stones, when one is thrown and the other is held by a creature, when the thrown stone comes to a rest, the other (and the creature holding it) is teleported to the thrown stone. I bring this up, because one of these stones is currently lodged in the dragons mouth. The other has just come to a rest, having been dropped into an automated slaughterhouse run by Iron Golems, which have been instructed to kill anything large and with 4 legs.
The Dragon disappears, and the party look down the street to see the roof blasted off of the slaughterhouse, and they hear a terrible roar from the Dragon as the slaughter golems get to work. They then see the dragon flying upwards, only to teleport back down again over and over again as the stone in its mouth is drawn to the stationary stone in the slaughterhouse (this prompted the expected "oh my god..." response from the players).
At this point, the party start discussing what to do. The rumbling of stampeding cattle is getting closer. They start moving toward the slaughterhouse to try and redirect the cows through. There is a clicking sound, but nobody pays it any heed. Marva looks down to see a familiar stone roll to a stop at her feet.
The dragon, bloodied and missing a wing, appears swinging, and clamps his jaws around Marva. He flings her to the side, and Thunderbrand steps in, unleashing a critical hit with smite to kill the beast. Marva gets up, wounded, and they turn around to see the stampede round the corner and head towards them, full tilt.
Thunderbrand, wielding the Cursebreaker, sees the Matriarch of the herd at the front, and tells everyone to step aside while he tries to break the curse. In an awesome show of awesomeness that I am truly thankful to have been a part of, the entire party (Except the cleric, who was running on a mission to get the guy who made the golems) stood by his side, one of them saying "you do not stand alone." He got another nat-20 on the attack on the Matriarch, and lopped her head clean off. as the others pulled him from the path of the stampede.
They managed to turn the cows around, and tested their theory that the cursebreaker had lifted the curse on all of them, and it appeared it had. They were all ready to start celebrating, and then one of the warding stones fell from the side of the Golem Slaughterhouse.
It's worth flashing back, at this point, to Enzo talking to them about his slaughterhouse at the start. He said "The glyphs keep the small animals from getting in, and they keep the golems from getting out!".
Cue half the party trying to turn the cows around whilst the other 2 try to mend the glyph. The golems try to push out, and the Barbarian angrily stops them (they rolled poorly!). The party get the cows under control and the slaughterhouse mended, so no rampant golems. Then, as they watch, a slow wash of water comes and washed away the dragon blood, from the pipe the Barbarian broke at the top of the hill before the fight started.
It was probably the most epic finale of a story arc I've ever witnessed.
So, the party slew the dragon and there was much rejoicing (yay!). They returned to the Horde and took the Platinum back to the bank, and organised a wagon train to get the gold. They returned to the dragons lair to find it being ransacked by Frost Giants.
They sealed the tunnel the frost giants were going down by causing a cave-in, and found more giants in the dragons chamber. They fought them, and were surprised to see that one of them had glowing eyes and could perform frost magic. They then asked Bahamut to help them find the nearest entrance to the tunnel they had collapsed, and it was underwater. They swam down and entered the mine shaft, and after 3 misses from the Roper (rolled 2,3,3 and then 18+ for stealth checks each time) it grabbed one and dragged them upwards. The underwater combat started, and they soon found that the water had a surface - because they were all dragged out of it by the roper. Then one of them used Lightning Lure to pull the roper downward, and the roper fell in the water, where they kiled it.
They found the join to the tunnel they had collapsed, and followed the minecart tracks to find 2 frost giants pushing a large card with a chest in it. The party dispatched them, though took a lot of damage doing so as these giants are imbued with frost magic, and they opened the chest to find that t is full of the junk from the lair - furnishings, plaques, mounting shields, and everything else not nailed down. They ended the session with the party contemplating a rest, and deciding what to do next!
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Wow, this was a while ago! This is about 4-5 sessions worth:
So the party tracked the giants back to a dilapidated manor house, where they lost them after finding signs of a skyship having left (frost marks on the floor). There they discover that the manor house was the ancestral home of one of the party, a Dwarf named Zav. They arrived from the tunnel into the basement, and found a pair of Choeropsi (homebrew hippo folk) hiding in a room, which also had arcane sigils and abyssal text scrawled over every surface. Below them, the paladin sensed a fiend, so they did what any brave adventuring party would do - they fled the building and barricaded the doors as best they could!
Zavs backstory was that he has been resurrected many times, and each time he is born to a noble family, and each time the family has something terrible happen, causing Zav to be abandoned. He always ends up with nothing but a Signet Ring. The same motif was found on the door of this abandoned manor.
The party met a flock of ravens which inhabited the roof of the manor, and there they met The Master, who is a 200-year-old raven who remembers Zavs birth. he is huge, the size of a doge (and birds in Arenstar have 4 legs as they are descended from dragons), and blind, with grey feathers. He welcomes Zav back to the house, but asks that he destroys the evil lurking beneath.
The Master tells Zav of how the manor was abandoned by the dwarves who lived there, when the Giants of Ormnir (who were ruled by Balthaz the Eternal) came south and pushed into their lands. He also said that the evil had been there before the dwarves had fled.
The party descended and found a route through a natural cavern, which led to an ancient shrine. On the way, they killed a Rutterkin and then found the dead body of Zavs uncle, in a room with walls covered in the words "I'm Sorry" and "Forgive Me". They found a journal (which detailed the uncles descent into madness as he first tried to awaken the ancient snake-god Mizlavurm, and then tried to worship Dagon, thinking Dagon could release Mizlavurm on the world, who would then save him), which prompted Zav's player to say "I don't know how to deal with this as myself, let alone as Zav...". They then faced down a pair of homebrew demons called Lophilithans, who are anglerfish-like monsters who consume souls and project illusions of loved ones from their lures. They tried to tempt the party with knowledge, but the party attacked anyway and won. There they found Zavs father, as a corpse strung from the walls in the snake gods temple. The walls were covered in abyssal scripture and they sanctified it with a magical sword they carry called Cursebreaker.
Having cleansed the demons out, they then buried Zavs father and Zavs uncle and asked the gods for forgiveness for him. They then told the Ravens of their success, and Zav found a vault containing a lot of paperwork, including papers of birth for himself and bank slips from his Grandfather. He also found a small shrine dedicated to Bahamut, with a silver mace hanging above it.
They returned to the caravan they left for several days, and the paladin had a touching moment with his parents, when he thought he was going to get a dressing down for getting into danger, and instead his mum asked him when he had grown up, and said she was proud.
They returned to Steepfield and visited Enzo, the inventor, who has plans for their ship (to make it fly). He tasks them with going to The Tower and finding Gizmo, the artificer, and getting him to help with the project. They left towards Longford, and were ambushed by the reanimated corpses of the goblins they had killed several weeks ago. They recognised the pale light in their eyes as being similar to that of the giants they were fighting. They immediately decided to travel in disguise and approached Longford with the artificer disguised as a priest, with the more noticeable mounts in the forest alongside to keep out of sight.
The party arrived in Longford (which resembles Sleepy Hollow, with gothic architecture and misty moorland behind it) and they decide to act inconspicuous - so, naturally, they split up. The werebear barbarian started climbing on the buildings, and the two chaotic elves decided to break into Gilmora's apothecaries, which resulted in them waking Weelum the bear (who they had met before, and loved), and they stole several potions. The barbarian then started dancing down the street in bear form. The two more serious characters then found the captain they were after and pursuaded him to take them away by boat as soon as possible.
The party travelled by boat down the River Long, where they encountered many interesting things, including schools of glowing fish and a water elemental full of tadpoles and lily pads. They fought off a quartet of aquatic bulette-eels which were set on sinking the boat, and then they pursuaded the captain to shoot the hashbow on the boat at a tree. The bow misfired, and everyone laughed when he was flung into the water. They stopped laughing when they realised he was dead, but then they revived him with spare the dying and continued on their way.
They arrived at a tavern called the Fallen Roc, which was once a skyship called The Roc, which fell. Now it's a tavern, bridging the river. They arrived and (predictably) asked for the strongest drink in the house. They drank Turnback Tequila, which wipes out your memory. I described the bottle over and over, and the barbarian kept asking for a shot, and by the time he passed out he had bought 7 shots and forgotten every one! He woke up with 7 hours missing, and the artificer had 3 hours missing from their memories. They rolled out of the tavern, attracting the attention of a group of thugs.
The party opted to leave immediately, so they tied the doors shut and left on the boat. They proceeded to North Masonport and there they bought some potions, some books, and asked for information on an item they had found.
All told, it's come a long way since the last post here! Anyone else want to share - it's been just me for ages!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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Continuing from post 1254
The artificer-paladin (son of Thor, unbeknownst to him, and only lawful character left in the party) is drinking in a tavern while the rest of the party shops, and is battling with his lawful vs chaotic side. A group of thugs in the tavern are quietly mocking him, pointing and laughing, and not too subtly.
The party arrives at the tavern to pick him up as a thug sails out of the window. They exchange worried glances, and then hear the Artificer shouting "I didn't say you could leave!" and using lightning lure to drag them back in.
They intervene in the bar brawl and manage to stop it before anyone dies - the Monk using Stunning Strike on both the Barbarian and the Artificer to keep people safe. The warlock intimidates one utterly into submission and the cleric tries and fails to intimidate the rest. They make their way out of the town, and get an explanation from the Artificer that they were laughing at him.
They then visit a character called Benzo who sells the Warlock a spider in a jar which can make people it bites stronger for a brief duration - at a risk of passing out for several minutes. She and the Monk both try it, and the monk becomes addicted (meaning he takes a point of exhaustion after each long rest, unless he gets bitten by the spider again). He can repeat the save each time he long-rests whilst still exhausted, but giving in to it guarantees the addiction stays fed, so he will wake up the next day exhausted again with no save.
They make their way into the Great Market of the Tower and start shopping, purchasing some belts from a red-skinned dwarf to be enchanted later, some snail-glass amulets from a Quickling with a Flail Snail, and then pressing onward toward the Tower, which now takes up over 90 degrees of the horizon.
As night sets in the Markets entertainment changes, from jugglers and acrobats to fighting pits, brothels, and an animal fighting circuit. This last one registers on an emotional level, as they are announcing that they have owlbears fighting, and the barbarian is a were-bear. The monk, warlock and Artificer decide to go in and free the animals, and their sneaking espionage quickly escalates into pandemonium. They release a cage of blink dogs, which immediately run and teleport into a cage of Displacer Beasts, and the sounds of their fight draws the group of attendants. The warlock releases a Rhino, which she then rides through the group of attendants, leaving 2 of them impaled on its long, sharp horn. Other animals start escaping too, freed from their cages, and chaos quickly reigns. The artificer flies through to the front to shout for everyone to leave, and in doing so distracts the pit-fight going on, leading to a KO. He is pelted with rubbish and drinks for ruining the fight, so cuts through one of the supporting pillars for the big-top tent, causing it to collapse.
The warlock tries to lasso the rhino's horn to get some control over it and instead lasso's one of the still-dying attendants impaled on the front, which gives her a little control. Se turns the rhino back around, and it knocks over an oil brazier, spreading fire. Meanwhile a group of 5 owlbears have been loosed into the arena by the group, and the Monk is in the cage fighting the displacer beasts with the Blink Dogs. The Artificer flies straight upwards, cutting through the collapsing tent and flying out into the night.
The Cleric looks back from their wagon on the road and says "I leave them alone for 5. >darn<. minutes..."
I (DM) reply: "Actually, it's been exactly 10.", and I direct a pointed look at the Artificer who started this whole thing by firing up the "Fly" spell.
The artificer starts falling. The attendants have stretched a huge net across in front of the warlocks rampant rhino. The displacer beasts are dead.
And we end the session there.
The look on their faces when I dropped this as a cliffhanger was priceless!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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The party spent their first night inside their new property, a historic inn known as the Cloak & Stagger Inn.
The Death Cleric was subjected to a harrowing night’s sleep, beset by dreams of unsettling figures in a dark, cavernous space, before a deep voice dispelled the darkness & woke him up to the sound of banging from the kitchen in the floor below.
Our Bugbear Druid was awoken by a soft voice urging him to get up, stating that his “friends” were in danger, and that they should not have come to this place.
The Wild Sorcerer woke last, and the trio made their way down to the kitchen together (eventually).
A poltergeist had animated the objects in the kitchen, and violently sent the Death Cleric flying, initiating combat.
One fiery-belching stove, an animated meat cleaver & broomstick, and a tactical use of “Moonbeam” by the Druid & a barrage of “Magic Missile” from the Sorcerer, the poltergeist was slain, and all was quiet.
…except for the cries for help coming from the cellar.
The party ventured down into the basement, to find a collection of arms frantically waving from beneath the earth, shouting that they could not breathe.
Not fooled by the voices, the Druid used their “Moonbeam” once more: the arms burst from the ground, revealing them not to be victims; but a “Soul Shaker”.
The party was able to overpower the clump of hands; which burst into 6 “Crawling Claws”, which they party dispatched (save for one, which the Death Cleric then placed inside a jar).
One of the crawling claws had tried to escape through a small crack in the cellar wall; the Druid managed to pry away some of the brick to make an opening.
Inside, the party found a legless, armless corpse with one eye…and it started moving & groaning!
The Sorcerer found a book with a tongue nailed to the cover…they removed the tongue (yuck), and proceeded to place the tongue inside the groaning corpse (double yuck).
But it worked; the corpse began magically speaking to the group; which is where we left it that night.
After panicking and running out of town after one of our party members got killed, we were tracked down by Warsorrow, the mayor. He found us in the middle of the desert that surrounds the town of Frostford (it's an iceland/greenland situation), and told us to explain what exactly was going on, why we left immediately after a suspicious murder without collecting any of our stuff, leaving him only a note delivered by the Artificer's flying mechanical cat.
The Artificer explained the situation: They were given a note, drenched in blood, that was left on top of the Druid's body where she was found. It was from the Artificer's ...father? type person? basically explaining that the Druid was an eldritch, inhuman creature that deserved to be killed. That went down poorly with Warsorrow, as it turns out that, as Abe (the father figure) has raised the Artificer, Warsorrow had raised Abe. This was a REVELATION. Artificer has a twice-adopted grandparent, and they've made him very angry by not telling him what was up sooner and then leaving immediately and basically making all-around bad choices.
Throughout all of this, the Wizard who had just joined the party Would Not Stop flirting with Warsorrow. This did not help his mood.
The mayor brought us back to his estate, where we were told to stay in town for a few days, arm up, and prepare to head to the City of Hunters, where we'd almost certainly find Abe. We're going to track him down and either fix him or kill him. Warsorrow told us he's breaking his vow of nonviolence for this, for his son.
The first night in, we all FINALLY got to restart the Story Circle that was so rudely interrupted by Warsorrow teleporting in on us the the desert that morning, and listen to the Warlock's backstory in full, which had been interrupted and slowly, segmentally told over the course of at least five sessions. He told us about his time bravely defeating cult members and catching the eye of the demon those cultists had been summoning, becoming her warlock and setting himself on a journey to collect enough sacrifices to finally marry her (hell marriage is weird).
Throughout all of this, the Wizard attempted to sneak up into Warsorrow's room (this was after being told Multiple Times to PLEASE stop flirting/talking to him/touching the magic artifacts in his house). The Wizard apparently was heard by Warsorrow, who feigned sleep until getting kissed goodnight on the forehead, upon which he picked up the Wizard and chucked him back into the common room, after which the party all decided to sleep piled against the door to assure he wouldn't escape again. Keep in mind this is the wizard's first full session. He made quite an impression xD
:)
Let's see. . . Lots of in-town minor role play stuff which burned 2/3 of the session. Our party's leader learned of a treasure, and gained a star chart. We chartered a small cargo vessel, and sailed from a small seaport, for two weeks, over to a tropical island. Our vessel avoided a ghost ship, and some sketchy sea elves on the way. On the island, the first thing that we encountered was a group of yuan-ti(spelling?). Our leader, being theoretically good, but proving to be surprisingly bloodthirsty, attacked them, and the rest of the party followed suit. In the process, a large idol, precious to the yuan-ti, was destroyed; those locals present fought to the death over this sacrilege. We burned up most of our hit points, spells, and resources in order to kill all of those present, and the session stopped at the base of a large, jungle-covered ziggurat (step pyramid).
As there will be no rest for the party, the next session could prove interesting. If we can't RP/talk/think our way through it, I don't see us making it off the island. (dun dun daaaah!)
Characters involved: The leader, a gnome sorcerer, shunned by his own kind because of his curse (hints of draconic physical features), who seeks glory and notoriety above all else, and appears to be shifting away from 'good'. A half-sea elf rogue, very competent and easy going. A dwarven barbarian, with a severe gambling problem. A war-forged being, with amnesia, who is just glad to have folks to hang out with folks who don't fear it. A kobold (urd) sorcerer, who's home and tribe were destroyed by a small army of humans, years ago.
Yes, the kobold and the gnome do not like each other much, but have agreed that there are better ways for each to spend their time than trying to kill each other. Neither one is accepted by their own folk.
Continuing from here
The session started with re-setting the scene, and then I continued in initiative order - with the Artificer going last!
The artificer made an epic set of rolls to grab the rope which was linking the two halves of the big-top tent, and swing around on it to join the fight. The tent collapsed, and the warlock steered the rhino back into the tent to join in as well. The barbarian and cleric noticed the ocllapsing, flaming tent behind them and decided to go back and pull the other characters out of there!
The monk heard this enormous voice shouting "What the hell is going on!" from inside, and they investigated, along with the Artificer, to see a huge, well-dressed Ettin who was furiously looking out over his burning tent from the wooden building that was inside it.
The artificer is roleplaying their discovery of Thor being their father and their getting the Hammer of Thunderbolts, so they decided that anything Giant is now their enemy. They decide to try and kill this Ettin, who disappears back into the building. They arrive in time to see him take a pair of huge swords off the wall. After a brief "who i nthe hell are you" exchange, the Ettin gives the "little man" one chance to run. He charges, and as he does so, the Ettin symultaneously activates his armour (*for he is an Armorer artificer) and stops him short with sentinel/polearm master with one of the long greatswords he employs.
The fight is brief, and very nearly sees the artificer die (level 11 character dropped to 7hp), before the warlock arrives - still on the rhino, which demolishes half the building, pitching the Ettin through a hole in the floor. The Ettin escapes, freeing the monsters which the party aimed to leave trapped, and jumping on a skyship. The Artificer is downed by a giant spider but the warlock uses a healing potion to bring him back from the brink. Not knowing she had "bought" (stolen) healing Philter, she mixed an entire vial of philter with a waterskin and ended up healing him 16d4+16 hp!
The party then make good their escape, and flee the chaos to finally enter the Tower.
Next Session!
The party work their way upwards through the Tower. They enter the second floor, known as the Acting Rooms, and they are told to feed the fires, and not break character. They are then given "roles" to play:
They proceeded through the rooms, being subjected to badly-written screenplay and prompts, with poor props and others acting as well. The monk became concerned, as they had to fight some "bandits", and when he killed one, another dropped his weapons and started screaming, before disappearing in a flash. They later encountered the same person, who was acting very much in-character, but then suddenly looked terrified and confused before leaving. The monk declared "I am not acting any more!" and disappeared, reappearing in a dark room, with a loud voice declaring "DO NOT BREAK CHARACTER", and was branded on their wrist with an oval symbol. The final fight was a parody of a fight they had fought two years previously, where they defeated Gorgonzilla in the town of Steepfield and thereby saved the town. The Prompt was "The town of Steephill is under attack from an ancient evil". They then had to fight a T-rex which was draped in smelly cheese-cloth. They all rolled abysmally on their History checks, so none of the characters were aware of what they were fighting!
When they made it out, which they did, they all gave a bow - except the monk, whose brand burnt on their wrist, and they were forced to bow. This left them worried that the "enemies" they had fought were just people forced into acting. The ushers congratulated them on their performance and on not being demoted to "extras". When the party enquired, they explained it was all in the rules they agreed to, and the monk punched him, getting a crit and killing him outright. The Cleric healed him back to life immediately, and he fled behind a door.
The party collected their things and a bag of 120gp in tips from "the audience" (the barbarian player actually broke his voice by loudly proclaiming that Dogood Holyman was here to save the day in every instance, and the artificer player was constantly playing up to the edgelord rogue stereotype).
They now arrive on the Second floor, where await spas and baths, and all manner of relaxation. they aim to climb to the Fifth!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
It was the first session of an epic spelljammer campaign. The first 2 training sessions to get recruited as crew on a SJ ship. First mission was defend ship from kobolds....no problem. 2nd was a kobiashu maru type situation with a 9th lev spellcaster (we were lev 1 at the time) and waves of kobolds.....which we failed but got into the crew. I'm Running an Autognome Druid (Circle of Stars).
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
Minor CoS spoilers below.
We're in a CoS campaign where Strahd has already captured the critical NPC, Ireena. Half the party decided to split from the others while they were sleeping and attempt a rescue mission.
As a result, the Paladin is captured and about to be turned into a vampire spawn, the Druid and Sorcerer are both missing, and the Ranger is dead.
So overall, pretty standard.
tpk
Quokkas are objectively the best animal, anyone who disagrees needs a psychiatric evaluation
Were you the DM? This question will determine if you had a good or bad session...
Long live the dragon slayers, long live the spider guild, long live the forums.
I want you to know. You are going to lose. You are going to lose badly. You’re going to lose badly and it’s going to be awesome.
I was the dm
Best session of my life!
Quokkas are objectively the best animal, anyone who disagrees needs a psychiatric evaluation
Dumb question, do you know what he wanted to do with the salt? If too much metagaming is the worry, ask them to make a DC 10 Nature/Religion check, maybe DC5. If they make the check then the character can be assumed to know how to make salt by evaporation of sea salt. Being a paladin of a sea god, this check might be made with advantage. From there making a ring of exclusion to slugs or anything else that doesn't like salt might be possible.
My answers...
1. "Yes, are you sure you want to do that?"
2. "But remaining unconscious, might spare you the level or three of exhaustion that I might give for asking such an interesting question and reminding me of some rules I was sorta thinking about ignoring until a moment ago. How dead were you?"
3. (Thinking to myself, this is amusing, maybe the bad guys will not kill them but instead take them, prisoner) What I might say...that the offhand chair is a little unbalancing. Roll those attacks with disadvantage or we'll pretend it's your "parry chair."
My group went on a hunt for deer in Neverwinter Woods to give to a manticore. I didn't know how to run a hunt but I worked out a fun system as the party went along. They'd first do a check for deer and if successful they'd spot one. The deer got a check each turn to detect them and if it saw them, it would move away. If it got a certain distance away it was assumed to have fled and the party would have to start over.
A suggestion for how to run a hunt. Having had some real world experience, venison is tasty and part of my personal cultural identity (all people deserve respect)...and a lot of experience as a DM, here is my suggestion for a deer or other hunt. The suggested DCs are based on players declaring reasonable actions, be really quite, be aware of the wind (that one might give advantage on some checks), with maybe some camouflage and good hygiene with products that are relatively scentless. Good role playing should be rewarded as always.
1. To Find Deer...DC 10 or higher survival check to locate the deer. DC depends on how plentiful the place they are hunting. DC35 for middle of ocean. DC10 for the edge of a farming/wild lands.
2. To get close enough for a shot: Stealth check: DC 15, much higher if the players declared actions are not very sneaky. Deer have really good eye sight, at least for motion and really good smell and hearing. Blown check, for at least the local deer, they will snort wheeze and demonstrate why they are called whitetails as they bound away. If the character isn't proficient in BOTH Stealth and Survival/Nature, a second check to get a surprise shot in might be called for. Deer hunting in heavy armor is likely a non-starter, or where the DC 25+ checks start to fly. If you want more medieval, then the hunt involves hounds and horses, with the stag being killed in a hand to hand spear. The kill is made when the deer cant move from exhaustion, but a couple of animal handling/survival checks for the chase would be appropriate. But if you are thinking hunting with a bow/crossbow...then...
3. Attack roll, AC 12. Hopefully someone is a sharpshooter (feat) and can give the +10 damage. Partial cover bonuses are always a possibility. Arrows and bolts do not fly straight after hitting a small branch or twig. A running deer is taking the dash action and dodge as a bonus action, really hard to hit. Pay attention to range.
I am assuming that if the party doesn't feed the manticore, then they feed the manticore on a more personal level.
Based on the stats in DnD beyond a hit dealing 4 hp of damage is pretty easy to achieve. Damage falls a little short, then you could add a survival/nature check (DC dependent on how many HP the deer has left) to track and actually harvest the animal. A wounded animal is very dangerous.
The way you handled it was fine by the way, at least in my opinion.
I DM’d Session 1 on Wednesday (New Group).
It went well! We started in a Star City (one of the things in my world) in a tavern empty except for the players and 2 NPCs (a man and his child) at the edge of the city, we had a bit of roleplay to let the characters meet each other.
Weird cultist boys teleported in and rolled a bomb into the centre of the tavern and activated the detonations at the entire tavern, everything went boom and the tavern went flying off the edge, we had some rounds in the sky as we fell but the child NPC channeled some magic and everyone’s vision went dark.
We awoke back on the ground of the Mainland and had to scavenge for supplies to survive, we ended after they found some old ruins and were attacked by some funky wolf bois.