D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

In today's session of "Dreams of Erthe," the PCs:

• Teleported to the Dream Gate in the middle of the Centralia Desert, to find thousands of vipers (5 viper swarms) sunning themselves in the general area
• Buffed themselves up a bit, expecting the Nightmare King to show up in mortal form at any moment
• Saw the Dream Gate open and the Nightmare King step forth into the Mortal World - but then he reached behind him and helped the Queen of Dreams (for whom the PCs have been working for the past 60 adventures) step into the world and told her the way has been opened, just like they planned
• Had the Queen of Dreams demand that they kneel before their new rulers in the Mortal World, as this was just the first world that would fall under their eventual rule
• Refused to take a knee (except the dwarven priestess, who explained she was genuflecting to the Queen but not the King, thinking he had somehow mentally manipulated her, which irritated the Queen of Dreams to no end)
• Started spreading out so they could attack from all sides (and not be bunched up for area of attack spells), only to infuriate the Queen further, and watched as she spread her hands in an arc and caused the dreamstones embedded in their special gear to shut off, taking with it the extra powers she had imbued in them
• Ended up fighting the Nightmare King in his flaming centaurian-nightmare form, as well as a bunch of creatures summoned by the Queen of Dreams through her +5 dreamstaff (zoogs, wild moogles, and nightgaunts), as well as sleepwalking orc barbarians and human commoners she had called forth upon arriving in the Mortal World
• Found themselves mostly safe from the summoned creatures thanks to several protection from evil and magic circle against evil spells (although the dwarf priestess ended up taking on a trio of wild moogles - think winged panthers - on her own)
• Finally killed the Nightmare King, causing the Queen of Dreams to recoil at the realization that these "perfect" human bodies (18s in all stats, maximum hit points) could be permanently slain on the Mortal Plane, and she tried returning through the Dream Gate - only to be faced by Mr. Toad (in a battle helmet) and their six moogle guides, wielding pikes and keeping her there on the Mortal Plane, forcing her to resort to physical attacks with her dreamstaff
• Eventually killed the Queen of Dreams on the Mortal Plane, to see her blow away into dust as the Nightmare King had done
• Entered the Dreamlands to confer with the moogles, who told them the King and Queen had apparently been working together all this time, although the moogles hadn't known about it
• Learned that while the moogles could dream another Queen of Dreams into existence, they had jointly decided to allow Princess Caroline and the Council of Dragons - the minds of every dragon currently asleep and dreaming - to run the Dreamlands for a while and see how that works out
• Were told to await payment in a few days to compensate them for the lost powers on their signature weapons and items, since the dragons had no way (yet!) to replicate those powers the Queen had imbued them with
• Were met up a few days later by Wangle Turdblossom of the Gnomish Consortium, who turned over a total of 200,000 gp
• Were informed by the Council of Dragons (under a promise not to reveal this to the outside world) that there were no longer any living gnomes on the surface of Erthe; any gnomes they've met up with were secretly dragons wearing a gnomish form

And that brings the first major arc to a close in this 100-adventiure campaign. The next game session will set the second (and final) arc into play, eventually sending them to an entirely different continent.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

• Were still escorting five human surveyors and four dwarven luggers in mapping out a cave system that may include a passageway through the Underdark to the other side of the Lortmil Mountains
• Heard talking in an unknown language (Undercommon) coming ahead, had their human/dwarven charges remain where they were while the 5 PCs checked it out
• Super-buffed up before the potential impending fight
• Saw five derro cooking meat over cooling lava floes, but quickly surmised there were a lot more around a corner they couldn't see
• Sent the shield guardian to block off one forward passageway, while the paladin blocked another and the archer aimed down the third passageway
• Had the sorcerer cast haste on the group, then had the druid move up, see the ten additional derro, and cast a transmute rock to mud spell on the ceiling above 13 of the assembled 15, bringing it down upon them and covering them in gloppy mud and rocks
• Kept getting pelted by sound burst spells from various derro each round, which damaged most of the heroes but kept stunning my sorcerer (who, as he was the one wearing the shield guardian's control amulet, effectively "stunned" the shield guardian as well because he couldn't give it follow-on instructions)
• Slew a bunch of derro with the archer's arrows, the (frequently invisible) halfling's sneak attacks with her short sword, a bat swarm summoned by the druid, and the paladin's holy flaming burst longsword, and noted the derro leader was a lot tougher than the others (and was immune to fire and had spell resistance the others didn't)
• Saw a mind flayer advance from the back, so had the druid cast a spike stones spell all around the area
• When the sorcerer finally managed to spend a round not stunned, he stepped up to cast a spell on the mind flayer and got caught in a readied-action mind blast (even more potential stunning!), but fortunately made his Will save (so not stunned), got past the mind flayer's spell resistance (natural 20, no less!), and shot him with a maximized scorching ray spell that fried him dead in one shot (well, two, actually - he gets two 4d6 rays, so 48 points of fire damage total)
• Brought the derro leader down enough that the intellect devourer finally crawled out of his body - only to have the paladin smite evil it to death
• Scouted ahead and found an entire derro village just ahead, prompting the surveyors to finish this section of map and return back to Ghourmand Vale for a resupply run and to decide if they wanted to try to interact with a whole village of derro or find a way to sneak past them (possibly via the nearby Underdark river)....a decision for the next session.
• Made it back to Ghourmand Vale and leveled up to 10th level.

I run the sorcerer PC, so after I'd buffed everyone at the start of combat, I succumbed to sound burst after sound burst - each of which stunned me for 1 round - until I finally got my moment of glory for the night in one-shotting the mind flayer.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" session the PCs:

• Learned the spellsword was an inheritor in his wizard trainer's estate and needed to be in Port Duralia in one week's time for the reading of the will
• Made it to the city in six days, spent the night in an inn
• Learned the spellsword had inherited his wizard trainer's estate, on the following conditions:
  • That he and any associates he wished to bring along would follow in her footsteps to the continent of Talonia to return her body to Port Duralia for burial
  • That her goblin butler Borlick would retain his position and act as her executor in the running of the estate for the duration while the spellsword fetches her remains
  • That the spellsword was allowed to take any possessions from her house that he deemed necessary to bring during the trip to fetch her remains
  • She also left a list of suggestions of what the PCs might want to bring with them to Talonia
• Went to the estate to check out the house and all but the two bards ended up in the library while Borlick went to the kitchen to fetch refreshments
• Were mistaken for intruders by the senile grandfather plaque who had been in the family for four generations now, and who activated the library's various defenses
• Had to fight off the library's defenses: four caryatid columns, a dire tiger figurine of wondrous of wondrous power, and a glasspane horror
• All managed to turn invisible in one way or the other:
  • Half-orc cleric/paladin: ring of invisibility
  • Human fighter/wizard/spellsword: greater invisibility spell
  • Dwarf cleric: ethereal jaunt spell (she proceeded to explore the rest of the house ethereally)
  • Elf sorcerer and pseudodragon familiar: mislead spell
• They sealed off one caryatid column with a wall of force, the others stood down once there were no visible intruders, the dire tiger and glasspane horror were killed
• Borlick and the two bards finally made it to the back of the house and the goblin butler tried to talk the grandfather down, but at that point the spellsword (blinded by the glasspane horror) had cast a silence spell that prevented him from hearing anything
• Finally had the pseudodragon telepathically tell the spellsword to dismiss the silence spell so the goblin butler could shut down the grandfather plaque

So now they're figuring what all they want to bring to Talonia in a week or so. The halfling barge (pulled by two baleen whales) is due into the port in two days. We'll have two more adventures in the city of Port Duralia in the meantime, then three at sea (it'll be a two-month voyage), and then the rest of the campaign will be hunting down the wizard trainer's body; her message to her spellsword apprentice hinted that when they find her body, they'd likely discover why she was in Talonia looking for the Forbidden Lands, and she hoped they might pick up where she left off once they get her home and buried.

Johnathan

 

[Vaalingrade]

The part has recruited George Washington in the body of an ogre.

Context is for the weak.

 

[SakanaSensei]

Ran my first session of Shadowdark yesterday, and it went splendidly! Stole a few ideas from Mike Shea's prep for the game, but a lot of the scenario was filled out personally.

The setup:

A cemetery with two new residents, James and Camden Brewer. Cause of death: Glintskin Fever. Sweat becomes oily and blood infused, followed by skin becoming translucent, as an ooze, revealing tissue underneath. They died in 9 days. The holy folk say the number is somehow important, due to the nine gods.

The PCs all knew the Brewers for personal reasons, and they're also all sick with Glintskin. Given their symptoms, they're probably 2 days in, giving them a week to find out what they need to do to save their skins, literally.

The well smells of black licorice, the PCs rob a grieving household to see why their ale came out like jelly, and a kid with a sailor's mouth and cheek muscles clearly visible dominate their time in town. Eventually they go to see the local medicine woman, who the kid swears is a vampire who stole his friends.

Unfortunately for the PCs, she's a hag who's throwing contaminants into the water table from upstream, and they try to knock her out. Alas, they're level 1, and that's a bad idea. Burning hands lights her, and the house, on fire, and everyone takes a swing and books it out. A burning witch chases them from her hut, and CUT!

Hopefully they make it through next week.

I haven't run a game in several months after having burned out pretty hard, it felt good to be back in the saddle.

 

[James Gasik]

Delving further into the Scarlet Citadel (and letting the DM know, in no uncertain terms, that our characters hate puzzles and riddles), we spent a lot of time slowly exploring a new area, apparently infested with two communities of Derro (trying to explain to people what a Derro is who have never heard of the Shaver Mystery is quite frustrating- the other party members latched onto "insane half-dwarves with bad hair", lol).

The Derro were apparently under the thumb of a demon summoner, and after dealing with them, they agreed to let us help them get rid of her. Our attempt to use any kind of subterfuge failed- it turns out that, in my group, the people with good Persuasion are terrible at communication, lol, and everyone expects my sarcastic know-it-all Wizard to talk to people.

So combat ensued with neither side having a real advantage. We had to deal with the summoner, some kind of plague-infested minions, a pair of bearded devils and a barbed devil.

Pretty quickly, we realized we were failing the DPS check to handle this combat. Terrible rolls from the Cleric meant Spirit Guardians was only inflicting paper cuts, the Ranger is still reduced to using magical daggers to bypass the ever-present resistance to non-magical weapons, and the Monk kept having to reduce their damage output to heal.

The Bard had snagged a Mace of Disruption, which we thought would swing the tide of battle against the fiends, but they kept missing, and when they finally hit...nothing happened! "It's cursed!", the DM chuckled.

I hit the summoner with Confusion in the first round (and breathed a sigh of relief that she lacked Counterspell). This prevented her from using any of her reaction abilities (I have no idea what they were, but the DM kept griping about it).

My subclass gives me an option to have two concentration spells going by letting my familiar hold one, so on the next turn, I threw out Slow. Even with magic resistance, I got two of the fiends, and the summoner failed her save against Confusion again.

The DM announced one of the minions was going to Help the summoner with her save, and I knew I had to get them apart- a little forced movement prevented that, and she actually failed the save a third time!

At this point, one of the devils decided that I had to go, so for the rest of the combat, I was reduced to mostly running behind cover and taking the Dodge action until I recalled I had a potion of invisibility- using that, I pointed out to the DM that using the Healer Feat wasn't something that could break invisibility, so I became a healing duct-tape dispenser until all the enemies had finally saved from my spells.

The summoner never actually got a turn where she could act, and this was what allowed us to succeed in the end. Bruised, battered, and nearly spent on resources, we now have to see if the Derro will turn on us, or hold up their end of the bargain (I give it about a 50/50).

I just hope the summoner has a spellbook laying around somewhere, I'm almost level 7 and I could use a few new toys!

NOTE: Our DM remains casual about resting, which is the only reason we're getting through this- this adventure really seems intended for optimized parties who always make the best tactical decisions, and we, generally, aren't that group, lol.

 

[cbwjm]

My last session was in a sandboxy OSE game. We approached a tower that was once home to a necromancer. An arrow shot out from the tower and dealt 4 damage to the assassin, killing him. We bravely looted the body and ran away. It was a great session.

Assassin player has now rolled up a bard with a mighty d6 hit die, let's hope those 6 hit points keep him alive.

 

[Richards]

In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

• Returned to the cavern they'd been mapping underneath the Lortmil Mountains, overlooking a stone keep and several clay huts around it, inhabited by derro
• Did their normal pre-combat buff spells
• Had the druid (wildshaped into a dire bat and still able to cast spells due to the Natural Spell feat) fly over by the seven huts on the floor level and cast a transmute rock to mud spell on the cavern ceiling 100 feet directly above them, crushing them instantly, while the sorcerer used dimension door to teleport everyone else onto the roof of the keep
• Positioned themselves in front of the double doors into the keep and readied actions for when the sorcerer cast shrink item onto one of the doors, turning it into a piece of cloth which he whisked away
• Saw two mind flayers and a derro sorcerer inside
• Had the dire bat druid cast a wall of thorns spell that imprisoned the two mind flayers and the derro where they were, then pummeled them with a summon swarm (spiders) spell (later followed by a giant vermin spell that increased the size of two spiders to Large), a maximized magic missile, a sneak attack by an invisible halfling, long-reach attacks from a shield guardian, and a flame strike spell
• In the meantime, resisted about half a dozen illithid mind blasts, as well as a sound burst, charm monster (wasted on a paladin with protection from evil on him that made him immune), mass reduce person (which shrunk our half-elf paladin to halfling size), and slow (which hit the paladin, but just undid his haste effect)
• Had the shield guardian remove the halfling from the field of battle once she'd been mind blasted
• Killed the final foe (the derro sorcerer) with a smite evil charge attack from our 3-foot-tall paladin
• Rescued a bunch of svirfneblin in a pen outside the keep
• Avoided a nearby gelatinous cube and black pudding in a cave and then slew them at range
• Searched the keep, found chests of coins, gems valued at 1,660 gp and some arcane scrolls

We'll be camping out overnight in the keep, which will be turned over to the dwarven miner helping to fund this Underdark exploration/mapping expedition. There's a nearby river that provides an exit from this cavern in the direction we're going, and the dwarves brought a couple of folding boats for that very reason, so next session we might be having a water-based adventure.

Johnathan

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Free League's edition of Twilight: 2000. We've cleared a Polish prison of malcontents in some bloody fighting. But now we have our own home base! Some villagers we rescued previously from marauders moved in at our invitation. We spent about 10 days repairing vehicles, weapons, and fortifying the prison. Two player characters that were incapacitated due to grievous wounds recovered. Next session we track down a lead on Nazi gold!

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" session, the PCs:

• Met up with a noblewoman of their prior acquaintance, Lady Arabella Vulpina, who has a secret identity as "The Fox," a notorious sneak-thief/burglar who specializes in stealing from the well-to-do, and who leaves a calling card behind so everyone knows it's the Fox who stole their stuff
• Learned from her that there has been a string of missing noblemen over the past half-year or so, which has her own noble family concerned
• Found out she'd determined the missing noblemen always disappeared shortly after attending a party at Lord Hasperton's monthly party, and that there was another party scheduled for the following evening
• Got hired by her to attend the party (a costume party, for which she - as the Fox - had stolen enough invitations to cover them), during which they were to snoop around and see if they could figure out what was going on and if Lord Hasperton was involved in the disappearances
• Attended the costume gala, during which time each PC had to overcome a role-playing challenge in which they were accosted by a party-goer and had to bluff their way into appearing to be a member of the nobility (anyone getting caught would be expelled from the party with no way to get back in without an invitation, which were handed in upon first arriving)
• Heard a thump from the other side of the door (leading to the library, which was off-limits to the party-goers), and made their way inside, to see an unconscious man on the floor and a man standing over him (both in different masks and costumes), two other people in identical masks and costumes as the first two, and six cultists dressed in dark robes
• Got in a fight in the library, which was almost immediately under the effects of a silence spell except for one corner, where Lord Hasperton (the masked figure standing over the unconscious Lord Cantrelli, a business rival) quickly stepped so he could cast spells while the PCs couldn't (he was a cleric of the God of Betrayal)
• Fought off three summoned bearded devils and the two doppelgangers in the employ of Lord Hasperton (they were to have gone back out to the party to make it seem as if the two lords were still out among the costume party), and killed the cultists (low-level adepts) with spells cast from outside the open library doorway, under cover of an obscuring mist spell that kept the party-goers from seeing what was going on
• Slew the doppelgangers and the devils, knocked out Lord Hasperton, sent him to a lengthy sleep via the pseudodragon's sleep venom, tied him up, and left him under the care of Lady Vulpina and Lord Cantrelli while they went down a secret passageway to see where the cultists had been planning to take their unconscious captive
• Ended up fighting 10 grimlocks, 3 zygodacts, and 2 mind flayers, who had come up from the Underdark via a secret passageway to retrieve their monthly "offering," with which the mind flayers were repaid for advancing Lord Haspetron's and the cultists' power and knowledge
• Killed them off and were handsomely rewarded by Lord Cantrelli (who swore to bring Lord Hasperton's depredations to light), while the dwarf priestess PC cast a wall of stone spell to seal off the tunnel to the Underdark

The session took about 4 hours to play through, a bit longer than I had thought it would, but we had a good time.

Johnathan