[D&D 5e] The Wild Bunch in Galyria

[Jeremy]

I started playing in this Roll20 game on Discord back in 2021, we're probably coming up on 300 sessions now and while I have notes from the first 30 sessions I started writing up what happened after that. I don't know how I could sell my poor prose when you have some of the incredible word smiths in other threads here but I'll tell you what I do have. I have a game that has held together for 5 years now and is still going with half of us playing our original characters. I have an imaginative game with chaos and planning and fun and magic and personality that I am really overjoyed I have gotten to participate in. I'd like to share it here.

I'm kinda waffling back and forth between posting my notes file or doling out the sessions in the hopes that someone will read and enjoy them enough to comment. I think probably the first 5 or so levels of D&D are something most of us have read or experienced many, many times but maybe that is your favorite part. When the stakes are small and the mistakes plentiful. But now that we're casting 7th level spells and really upping the stakes I think that is particularly rare to get to read or experience so I kinda want to skip to present day.

I don't know, perhaps I'll do both. I have tried keep records of my games before and either the game died or my work ethic did and I stopped. Having 300+ pages of sessions already in the bag makes me want to post again. I hope you find something you enjoy.

 

[Jeremy]

I'll start first where I switch to writing things out as something other than outline bullet points. The party is in the capital of the kingdom of Galyria. In many ways the thread that assembled the party and continues throughout the campaign is stopping the Cult of Zehir which has been behind much of the strife that the party has had to wrestle with. The party in the capital is comprised of:

Veldra: An aasimar soldier haunted by her failings as an officer in the defense of her hometown when the Cult of Zehir attacked in the night and left many dead and many more families broken.

Gribitz: A goblin criminal turned shaman that struggles between helping others and helping himself.

Rhoseth: A dragonborn exile from the southlands both running from his destiny and struggling to control the monster within.

Grath: A human cleric of Ilmater, the newest member, who has seen the good this odd band of misfits has accomplished and suffers through trying to reign them in long enough to keep them out of prisons and out in the world doing good.

The capital city has been freshly infiltrated by the Cult of Zehir and an underground war is happening in the shadows between the Cult and the Silver Daggers; a criminal organization and possibly the true power behind the throne. When the party got too close trying to investigate if the Daggers could be allies against the Cult they were abducted and found themselves vastly out of their depth as they were interrogated by the possibly insane Beholder Clorox. The only way out was to sign a magical contract in a language the party couldn't even understand that almost certainly was not in their favor. This unfortunate scenario is where I'll pick up my retelling.

 

[Jeremy]

9/11/21​

After having signed the contract with Clorox, the guild master of the Silver Dagger, we were ejected magically back to the Fresh Food. Three Cult safe houses are clearly marked, the closest of which being an abandoned mausoleum, but the rest of the contract is written in a foreign language no one can understand. The second site is in the sewer system of the Copper Village, the third is within a cave system beneath the Western Silver. Before anyone can react, Grath leaves the inn. Rho misinterprets this swift action as decisiveness and chases after him, Gribitz in tow.

Grath takes all the responsibility for the situation the party finds itself in and apologizes for screwing up and hugs the others. The group heads to the Temple of Faiths to find someone who can recognize the writing on the contract. A dark elf priest identifies the script as Undercommon but says given the length it will take him a day to translate and write out a full copy.

Grath searches the markets for a potion seller while Gribitz asks Rho for the materials to send a message. He scratches out a message that he naughty word up and has a new eye monster boss and he needs help in Druidic, he ties the message to a raven and asks it to give it to Grandfather in the woods. Grath buys a couple antitoxins and healing potions from the apothecary in the market.

Gribitz wonders if the drow will sell them out when he deciphers what he has and wants to get started. The party heads to the first location that had been marked in the contract. They find the mausoleum all chained and locked up. After talking with some rats and bugs they identify that this is almost certainly the place. Kith and Gribitz pop the lock and Gribitz goes scouting. He finds various Yuan-Ti going about their daily business. After he gets back out the goblin suggests how he would ambush the snake heads if it were his call.

There is some discussion about what to do before the party raids the mausoleum. Rho grabs a couple Yuan-Ti and slams their heads together rendering them both unconscious but soon swarms of poisonous snakes begin filling the halls. Veldra holds one of the hallways while Rho and Grath try to hold another. Gribitz tries frantically to talk his way out of things but understanding the murderous intent of the serpents doesn't help matters any.

The party is eventually successful in defeating the swarms of snakes and Veldra and Gribitz discover a secret chamber with traps and a glowing staff on a sarcophagus. Veldra avoids the traps and gingerly picks up the staff but runes along it burst into flame. The soldier grits her teeth and bears it and soon the pain fades and the runes quiet.

I have neglected to mention that very early in the campaign the party alternatively adopted, kidnapped, or brainwashed a kobold named Kith who has become something of a mascot or ward of the party.

 

[Jeremy]

9/18/21​

Veldra feels tougher and full of energy after her struggle. Rho explores around and finds some writing in elvish. Unsatisfied, he tosses the armory about and finds a clue leading him and Grath to a bookcase in an adjacent room. Grath is dissatisfied with how apparent the clue is. Gribitz asks Veldra if the sarcophagus is hissing, she tosses him the staff (which burns him and he drops it), and opens the sarcophagus revealing a golden bedecked corpse. Gribitz hesitates a moment, then shakes it off remembering how broke he is. He strips the body of its adornments roughly and heads back with Veldra to the others.

The others have found a cache of jewels and riches Grath believes are offerings. Gribitz starts snapping them up after checking to see if they are cursed but he and Grath disagree about what should be done about them. Grath finds that the unopened sarcophagi still have riches within whereas the pile Rho found probably came from the emptied out creches. In the end Gribitz bags enough gems and jewelry to be worth five hundred gold pieces.

Veldra shows Grath the staff but he has no idea of its significance or enchantment. As Rho continues bumbling about in the dark Grath realizes he can share his god’s gift with him and the darkness flees from the dragonborn’s sight.

At the bottom of the stairs are three cultists investigating a runed door, with them is a fully snake-like yuan-ti. Gribitz taunts them and sends the crumbling Ratty against them which distracts them long enough for Rho to come charging into their midst. Grath summons up multiple spectral martyrs of Ilmater to pummel the cultists of Zehir into submission.

After they fall, the runes on the door flare up in reaction to the proximity to Veldra’s staff. A feeling of dread washes over her but swiftly dissipates. Grath pushes forward to open the door and has to push through a wave of nausea to get the gate open, but he perseveres. Beyond is an ornate burial chamber filled with still lit candles despite hundreds of years since it looks like anyone has been in the chamber. Grath enhances his vision and sees a powerful source of magic coming from the elevated sarcophagus bound by heavy chains. The school of magic it is radiating is Conjuration.

Veldra approaches the chained sarcophagus to make out the script engraved on it. The closer she comes, the more the staff strapped to her pack shakes and glows. The engravings read, “Thy who cometh here, remain no longer. Run far away for evil resides within.” Whispers begin calling to Veldra, commanding her to open the sarcophagus. She resists and the party discusses and tries to flee but the doors slam shut and the whispers continue until Veldra’s will crumbles and she starts walking slowly towards the dais, raising the staff. Dark twilight pours from Grath and clears the whispers from Veldra’s mind. Having had enough of this, Rho shatters the sarcophagus and the party moves to destroy whatever evil is trying to escape.

The room fills with black smoke that forms into a shadowy robed figure. The shadow horror begins to thank Rho for freeing it when it is distracted by Gribitz pelting it with little balls of fire. It bites into Rho and sends tendrils of terror at Gribitz’s nature spirits. Rho roars back and explodes into fire, tearing into the shadowy monster even as Veldra leaps up the stairs and jumps past, slashing and splitting into two to harry the dark spirit from all sides.

As it is rapidly failing it calls for aid and dark shadows pour forth from the other crypts in the chamber and the horror itself snaps up Veldra and begins sapping the strength from her body, causing black smoke to pour from her into him. Veldra struggles free as luminous wings burst forth from her and she and her echo fight back with brilliant slashes of their mirrored blades.

Rho falls back to protect Gribitz from the swarming shadows but as he breaks ranks the shadow horror tears open the scales on his back and saps the strength from him as well. Gribitz and his nature guardians are drained of strength by the shadows but the ones that move for Grath and Rho burn up under the assault of Grath’s spirit guardians. Gribitz and his nature spirits stay focused on the unleashed horror, scrambling around the room to harry it, but even as it falls apart, one of the other shadows swells in size and continues to taunt the party. Veldra and Rho burst into action, charging around the room and slashing apart the swarming shadows.

Once the last of the shadows is dispatched, Grath unleashes a massive beam of radiant light that blows apart the shadow horror, the glowing staff on Veldra’s back, and the door all at once. Oddly, as everyone’s vision clears, Grath’s hand is marked with a runic symbol of some kind.