D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[AnotherGuy]

So a friend of mine who has played D&D since early 3.x days asked me to run Pleasure Prison of the B'thuvian Demon Whore. Well it took me a year but I decided to change it up from a duet to a 4 PC group and I redesigned the system (mashup of VtM/V5th Edition and 3.x with ideas from 5e - like Advantage but with a twist). Furthermore, I transplanted it to the Emirates of Ylaruam setting.

First session happened this past Friday and it worked like magic - I had Persian/Egyptian...music all lined up from YouTube to set the atmosphere. Social and exploration challenges dominated the game time as we teased out elements of the setting for authenticity.
When we did do combat, it was scary and lethal because of the new system.
The ambush from the bulette tearing out the desert ground had everyone scrambling away for safety but it was eventually put down after injuring 2 of the four characters.
The opportunistic manticore attack from the air was just enough to highlight the dangers of travelling within an open desert basin between the two mountain ranges allowing flying beasts such as manticores, wyverns and blue dragons to prowl on travellers, small groups and trading caravans. The defeated the manticore, having chased it away with some accurate arrow fire.

The 4 PCs were a/an

• Barbarian hero from the Frozen Wastes of Sodjerford who was instrumental in his home country's reformation (the protagonist of the storyline);
• Sufi (mystic) academician and lecturer, from the religious learning centres of the city of Isfala. He had a touch of psychic powers;
• Musafir (wayfinder) who is a necessary companion for travellers and trade merchants that cross the desert basins of the Emirates, but they can also double up as bounty hunters for items, beasts and people who are lost within the nation's harsh deserts; and
• Alwaghadu (scoundrel), a swindler and opportunist, whose past is rich and checkered.

This session cemented for me, that I'm going to try and flesh out my system, which the players too are enjoying. I will likely not return to the D&D engine for my staple fantasy RPG once my high-level campaign is done.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

57th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. This is the climax of the whole campaign!

Three player characters of 11th level: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric. With them is an NPC drow wizard--a romantic interest of the evoker.

The characters are in the Xanathar's lair. The Xanathar is held captive and about to be transformed into an elder brain by a mind flayer named Tassatar. Tassatar murdered the evoker's parents and the drow's clan...and has caused more than a few problems for the rogue and fighter. It's time for payback!

The characters' explorations finally alerted a patrol--two chain brute ogres and an ogre that had been transmogrified into a nothic. (I used the stat block of an evil eye fomorian, which is a pretty fun monster.) Hits from the rogue and fighter softened up the patrol, and a few fireballs from the evoker finished them off.

Unfortunately, fireballs make a lot of noise. Nearby, a door opened, and a horde of grimlock minions rushed into the corridor. On the other side of the door was the lair's main chamber, where Tassatar waited. The mind flayer was wreathed in a glowing force field and guarded by a dire troll.

Melee ensued between the grimlocks and player characters. At this point, the rogue put his plan into action. He commanded his shield guardian to stomp past the grimlocks, enter the chamber, and grapple the mind flayer. If you've been following along you'll remember that the shield guardian was strapped with smokepowder barrels.

From the corridor, the evoker got line of sight on Tassatar. He cast dispel magic and critted his check. The force field shattered. Next in initiative was the drow. She cast lightning bolt at the shield guardian. The smokerpowder barrels detonated, obliterating everything and everyone in the chamber.

In the aftermath, the characters got in a few last words with the dying mind flyer. They recovered all the remaining cards from the Deck of Many Things. And had a moment to savor their triumph.

That's when the chamber started to crack...the ceiling collapse...and the wall to the Xanathar's bedroom caved in--revealing that the beholder had undergone ceremorphosis!

Next session: Elder brain beholder!

 

[Richards]

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

• Encountered a poor farmer whose crops were nearly destroyed by disease, whose wife left him that morning to take the kids to a tent revival of a new religion popping up in the area, "The Ministry of the Father" - the same (possibly fake) religion we'd been hired to check out
• Gave the farmer a ride to Crockport, where the "tent revival" was actually taking place in a partially-ruined amphitheater
• Cast the standard prep spells (expecting the possibility of combat), this time including an air walk spell cast by our druid onto our archer, who rose up 180 feet in the air above the amphitheater and "locked on" to the faith healer on stage, a human bard, with her arrow
• Reunited the farmer with his family, then the half-elf paladin, human sorcerer, and halfling rogue sat in the front row
• Had the druid wildshape into a snake and check out the interior of the building, while my sorcerer's grackle familiar flew up into the air and saw a bunch of wagons of food being unloaded into the back of the building
• Observed while a human cleric cast a protection from evil spell on stage beside a statue, while the bard called out specific people in the audience (he was using his bardic fascinate ability on them)
• Had my sorcerer stand up and call out the cleric's actions, which was ignored by the cleric, bard, and audience, but which caused the aerial archer to shoot the bard in the eye (we'd been told to take them down if they were evil, and a protection from good spell was enough evidence for us - that, plus the robed cultists detecting as evil under our paladin's gaze)
• Had the druid - in snake form - cast a spider climb spell and check out a hole in the wall by the ceiling, leading to a scaffold directly behind the statue (with a gauze curtain between the back wall and the statue), with an elf wizard standing on the scaffolding
• Attacked the cleric with a maximized scorching ray spell from my sorcerer, a charge on foot from the paladin, a sneak attack from an invisible halfling rogue, and an attack of opportunity from the paladin when the cleric tried to heal himself and flee
• Chased the wizard, after a baleful polymorph spell cast by the druid failed to turn him into a bunny (after which she bit him with her envenomed fangs), eventually knocking him unconscious after he polymorphed into an eagle (and activated the "statue" on stage - really a clay golem) in the hallway below
• Blinded the eagle with a contagion spell (blinding sickness), causing him to knock himself out when he flew into a wall
• Took out the clay golem after a long, drawn-out battle where the paladin and archer slowly whittled him down, as my sorcerer's attack spells were all useless (I resorted to casting haste on my nearby allies, then sat back down in the bleachers and enjoyed the show)
• Chased the two remaining fleeing cultists (there had been six in all, but four got away in wagons), finally killing them (and the blind eagle wizard, who had been picked up by one of them) with a flame strike spell
• Sent my grackle familiar chasing after the cultists fleeing in the wagons, so he could see where they went and report back to my sorcerer

That sets us up for the next adventure, when we'll go after the cultists who fled to see where the rest of this phony religion is headquartered and hopefully take them out. And we're now just shy of 11th level by less than 300 XP, so we should level up at the end of our next session (probably on 3 Jan 24).

Johnathan

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

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

• Granted asylum to six fleeing mermaids, who were being chased by a pair of darfellan fighters who were providing them as a sacrifice to a plesiogigan (centaurian-build storm giant with a plesiosaur's body below the waist), allowing them to climb aboard the halfling barge being towed by a pair of baleen whales towards an Asia-sized continent
• Fought off the darfellans when they appeared, who warned the plesiogigan wouldn't be pleased at being thwarted
• Fell under the sway of a sudden storm, which battered the ship with pouring rain, right before the plesiogigan appeared (he'd cast a control weather spell)
• Fought off the plesiogigan, eventually having the bard/rogue stab it to death in the water
• Released the grateful mermaids back into the ocean and continued on their journey
• Several days later, had a pair of sirines sit on their starboard pontoon and sing their charming song, which entranced one of the halfing crew and the dwarf cleric PC, both of whom leaped over the side of the vessel, received a kiss from the sirine (which granted water breathing), and then swam underwater to go seek out the entrance to a morkoth's coral maze, as directed by the sirines
• Had a water breathing spell cast on the other PCs so they could follow the errant halfling ranger and dwarf cleric
• Entered the coral maze and wandered around a bit, running into a few sharks and an octopus who were also in the maze, seeking the center
• Had the half-orc cleric/paladin finally decide "Mazes are for chumps!" and blast his way through the walls with a series of javelins of lightning
• Finally got to the center of the maze (most of them, they took 3 different routes to get there) and fought the morkoth, eventually killing him (again it was the bard/rogue who made the killing blow)
• Robbed him of the treasures in his lair and got everyone back up to the halfling barge, where their journey continued on

This was the last of three "at sea" adventures; the next session ("Welcome to the Jungle") will see them arrive on the continent of Talonia, where they'll discover the western half is full of dinosaurs. (I'll manage to get in a dozen adventures with a bunch of dinosaurs, something I don't usually get to do in a D&D campaign.)

Johnathan

 

[Queer Venger]

Pretty awesome. We've been getting through Curse of Strahd for the past 2 years (returning to in-person after the pandemic). I have 6 players, they are pretty savvy bunch. We are almost done with the campaign (players all at level 10) and really looking forward to wrapping this one up. Players are really excited to be at level 10 and I want to keep challenging and entertaining them, so hope the momentum continues.

Funny thing is how much my bunch loves a good 'ol dungeon crawl; they are halfway through then Amber Temple and really enjoying it. So am I!!

 

[Richards]

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

• Had my sorcerer's grackle familiar follow the fleeing cultists from last adventure, find out where they holed up, and had him report back
• Set off the next morning (after healing up and sleeping) to their location, a half-hour's ride distant
• Recovered the bags of grain in the wagons that would have been used to "sway" the local farmers to join the new "Ministry of the Father" (which we suspected were the ones behind the farmer's recent poor crops)
• Saw a cultist dropping bodies of dead cultists into a pit - the same pit a stream flowed into
• Had our archer air walk (courtesy of a spell from our druid) up into the air and slay him with a well-placed arrow
• Converged around the pit, only to have a Large black dragon rise up and hover over the pit, shaking all but 2 PCs (the archer made her save, the paladin is immune to fear effects)
• Had the paladin and his celestial pegasus fight the dragon in mid-air, while the archer shot at it with arrows, and my sorcerer got off two maximized scorching rays that did 96 points of fire damage over 2 rounds (he's so proud of that!)
• Watched as the celestial pegasus was knocked unconscious by the dragon's acid breath weapon and he and the paladin fell 30 feet to the ground
• Had the druid heal the celestial pegasus back into consciousness, just in time for the paladin to release him back to the Celestial Realms
• Took out the black dragon (the sorcerer's second maximized scorching ray spells making the killing blow)
• Had the spider climbing halfling rogue explore in the pit, finding the dragon's hoard on an underground ledge
• Took the hoard, which included proof of the Ministry being behind the plant blight via a signed agreement between the black dragon and an unknown individual named Pecunnius Fecitus (Latin for "made money," per Google Translate)
• Passed word among the local churches (Pelor, Yondalla, Ehlonna) about the shenanigans of this Ministry of the Father
• Leveled up to 11th level

And as an added bonus, we had the son of the DM (still home on Christmas break), a former player in our previous campaigns (and a current player in mine, when his school schedule allows), join us by running our NPC druid, the first time he got to see his dad DM an adventure session.

Johnathan

 

[Older Beholder]

Last night we continued a wuxia themed 5E campaign that's been running for a couple of years now.

We've been conscripted into a war that's broken out across the land between multiple provinces. With a few hundred men at our command we have been laying siege to a castle for the last couple of sessions. Previously we'd killed a Slaad (death or grey, I'm not sure which), 3 captains along with lots of troops.

This session we were clearing out the last few buildings and towers we hadn't got to yet, in search of the ruling Duke.
Eventually we found a system of underground chambers that took us to the man we were looking for, but not before we came face to face with a beholder guarding the final door. I've never fought a beholder in 5E, so that was a lot of fun. Thankfully we were all lucky with our saves and made it through.

We found the Duke on his death bed having ingested poison just before we arrived.
As we were deciding what to do with the enemy soldiers we'd captured, a unit of men (we believe to be on our side) turned up and demanded sanctuary, reporting that a much larger opposing army was heading our way. So we left on the cliffhanger that we'll probably have to defend the castle we just captured.

A really fun session that saw us reach level 12.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

58th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. This is the climax of the whole campaign!

Three player characters of 11th level: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric. With them is an NPC drow wizard--a romantic interest of the evoker.

The characters are in the Xanathar's lair. The Xanathar has been transformed into an elder brain. So, yeah, they're fighting an elder brain beholder. As the lair collapses all around them.

I've run one other beholder fight. It felt swingy. One character was disintegrated; others never even got scratched. So I wasn't really sure how this fight would go. I combined the stat block of a beholder with a few psychic abilities of the elder brain. I also ran them as two separate creatures, with different initiative counts. I did not use any legendary actions. Mechanically, the characters were fighting two monsters. On the whole, it went fairly well. The beholder's multiple eye rays let you spread the pain around and keep the environment dynamic.

As the fight unfolded, the collapsing ceiling was a terrain hazard that required the characters to make Dexterity saving throws, with the damage going up each and every turn.

The fighter wanted to cut off the beholder's eye stalks. I set a high AC for each stalk and gave them 10 hp. He managed to cut off 3 stalks during the fight. Really fun stuff. In the end, all the characters survived and the Xanathar was destroyed by relentless attacks from the fighter. It's been cool to see a high level fighter in action. They're formidable.

The characters gained enough XP to reach level 12.

Next session: Deck of Many Things!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Sessions 56 of my Neverwinter campaign. 10th level drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin.

Short version: The characters are assaulting the tower of an evil wizard. And it's not going well. They had some bad luck and frankly are using poor strategy. For the wizard, I used the stats of a Necromancer and sprinkled in the evil eye ability of the fomorian. Her human body guard has the stats of a Githyanki Gish, which hit hard.

The wizard also summoned an earth elemental from the stones in her tower. The warlock took the bait and sent her air elemental to do battle with it. She should have had her air elemental attack the flying Necromancer. The Gish took advantage of her tactical error. The warlock and her elemental were the first to fall. The evoker was next.

I offered the players a chance to retreat, at the cost of a campaign loss, 13th Age-style.

The paladin looked around and said, "I got this."

Dear Reader, he does not have this.

Next session: TPK?

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Twilight: 2000. We're nearing the end of the campaign after about 9 months. Normally, I'm the DM. Here, I've been the player. And it's been a pleasure. In recent sessions we've secured a prison as a home base, populated it with endangered civilians, and gathered an arsenal of tanks and mobile artillery. We're kind of bad ass.

However, we have a lead on a way home -- for the Americans. My character is Polish. She won't be leaving.

There's a group of spooks on a secret based, in possession of some sort of secret something, and they need an escort to the extraction point in Gdansk. From there, a boat will sail them to the States. We're the escort.

This session was us travelling from our base to the rendezvous point and meeting the spooks.

Next session: "Sir, the package is secured."