D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Evilhalfling]

Fun, full of laughter, and close combat with Pirates.
Session 15: Empire of Dawn: Bad Moon. Level 10.

• Commissioned priests of Builders and Smiths to build a spelljammer helm, (from old plans found in session 10) He said it would take 50 days and require a core component, suggested some options: Dragon bones; beholder heart or rare "Floatstone" from the Plane of Air.
• party decided on Dragon Bones, spent 3 weeks finding a dragon's location, and buying supplies (No- to Conman with sunscreen, Yes - to Fire resistance potion from Quincy, of Quincy's Tavern. Not a chance - DragonLance held by rival/hostile adventuring party.
• Party received "The Citizens Crown" award for acts of bravery relating to the rampage of multiple elephants & a dinosaur during New Year's Celebrations. (Sessions 13-14)
• Party boarded the ship Wavedancer and set forth for the dragon's island.
• Made friends with the Boson Zug, the kobold, who could tap into "Racial Memory Storage Palace" for training in any Lore skill. Zug does not know who made the RMSP but has never seen anyone else there. talked for hours with PC Druidess/Monk Amarath
• stopped at Talon Island, a naval base/quarry; drank at "The Infamous Trout" bar - which of course sailors call by the initials.
• Fought the Infamous Pirate Captain Goldheart, PC Warpriest Eli made 2 death saves before being healed, PC Huntress Dani was nearly killed by the Pirate Captain. Insane ballista tricks and mind spells turned the tide and allowed the capture of the enemy ship, with minimal structural damage.
• Zug repeatedly told people "Do Good Job" or "You Suck" triggering a variety of Bard & clerical spells.
  Zug is a Rogue1/Bard5/Cleric1 optimized for training in ALL skills, the RMSP is just flavor. (until it isn't)
• Pirate galleon was renamed "The Mercy" and Eli its Captain. future plans including holding a noble gala on board, and flying it to the moon. (I hope these ideas don't get combined, but who knows that would be a blast)
• Reached small town near dragon's lair, heard lots of rumors about the local dragon. Some want it dead others don't. All agree it is hostile. A fisherman agreed to guide to the dragons island, 3 hrs away.
• 
  
• The dragon was seen briefly in the mists - it is Large, and Gold. (end session)

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" campaign session, in an adventure called "Hell on Erthe," the PCs:

• Saw a house hidden away in the woods sealed inside a bluish-tinted force shield (a 100-foot-diameter hemisphere field of solid force, surrounded at six equidistant points by stone barriers)
• Met up with a 29-year-old wizard who looked to be in his late 60s, sleeping in a homemade shelter beside an oak tree just outside the force shield, who explained he'd activated a well of many worlds in his basement, opened a gate to Hell, and had to flee after he was unable to fight off all the devils who came pouring out of the well
• Learned he'd used up his last wish from a ring of three wishes to activate the barrier, even though he hadn't finished working out the design yet, and as a result it was being powered by his own life force, aging him at an advanced rate and forcing to him to remain nearby lest his distance from the force shield rendered it inoperable
• Awakened his owl familiar from a dream in which it was being attacked by seven different humanoid animals (otter, hedgehog, ferret, squirrel, mouse, rabbit, and weasel) in a forest clearing
• Spread themselves at six equal points around the force shield's perimeter, while the wizard walked steadily farther away from it until it was weak enough to allow the PCs to enter; then, at a signal from his owl familiar, reversed course and returned to the barrier, sealing them inside so they could deal with whatever devils were inside the globe
• Fought an invisible hellcat in the backyard, then a kocrachon devil and a chain devil (and an animated horse skeleton) in the wagon shed before heading inside
• Fought a pair of bearded devils in the kitchen, but one escaped to the library to get help from the two barbed devils there
• Focused fire on one of the two barbed devils until they managed to slay it, then brought the second one down enough it teleported downstairs to warn the amnizu devil about them
• Made a deal with the amnizu and the wounded barbed devil: if they returned through the well of many worlds, the PCs wouldn't kill them (a permanent death, as they hadn't been summoned but walked through a planar gate)
• Got the two devils to agree, calling forth an imp and an erinyes (the only two other Hellish denizens on the Material Plane inside the force shield at the time) to return to Hell with them
• Rolled the well of many worlds back up, and then - at the owner's insistence - destroyed it before it could accidentally cause another such breach in the future

Sadly, the wizard's unnatural aging was permanent, all of his spellbooks had been destroyed by the barbed devils, and he had no way to complete the experimentation on getting his force shield to work without draining his own life force in the lifespan left him; he contented himself to a quiet life with his familiar in the few months or years left to him.

Johnathan

 

[el-remmen]

Great!
The party entered a series of winding catacombs beneath a ruined abbey to find the means of turning off the cursed beach choked with undead which keeps the navy from landing on the beach to establish a garrison in preparion for a coming sahuagin invasion.

It was very old school with many traps and illusion covered pits and undead guardians.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

49th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. Three player characters: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric. During this session they hit 10th level.

The session started mid-fight with a Death Knight -- the remains of the orc fighter's stepfather. It opened with a Destructive Wave that knocked out the half-elf wizard and nearly dropped the halfling rogue. It also killed the fighter's mother, whom they were attempting to rescue.

The fighter struck back, hard. Meanwhile, the rogue poured a healing potion down the wizard's throat, and helped himself to a few, too. The rogue had a Shield Guardian, who unleashed a spell on the Death Knight. A fireball from the wizard finally destroyed the Death Knight.

From its corpse they recovered the Book of Vile Darkness. And a magical axe for the fighter. And enough XP for everyone to reach level 10.

The characters returned to the safety of Waterdeep. We narrated the funeral of the fighter's mother. With his family deceased, the fighter was now heir to a noble title and a future lord of Waterdeep.

Meanwhile, they were broke. They schemed on how to get 5000 gold to buy the material components for Secret Chest, which they intended to use to stash the Book of Vile Darkness. Simultaneously, they looked for allies to help them take down their one remaining foe -- the mind flayer, Tassatar.

Next session: Calm before the storm...

 

[Richards]

In this week's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

• Convinced an NPC bard to travel with us, so he could watch our horses while we went looking for the sister of a wizard known to us, said to have been captured by an aboleth
• Entered the cave system believed to be connected to the aboleth's "summer lair" (about a day's ride away), only to encounter five duergar, who were busy drinking and attacking each other with hammers
• Each slew a duergar in our first round of combat (the duergar rolled poorly on initiative), leaving the fifth to try to flee into the underground stream, only to be chased down and slain by our half-elf paladin
• Drank our potions of water breathing, entered the stream, and followed it to a large cavern with three small rock islands in the middle and inhabited by six skum and a chuul
• Killed two skum pretty quickly, then had to rescue the paladin from the chuul (he was caught in a claw and about to be paralyzed, but we slew the chuul before he could paralyze him)
• Saw an aboleth swim up onto the leftmost rock, only to find out it was the woman we'd come to rescue, wearing a modified cloak of the manta ray that gave her the illusory appearance of an aboleth instead (and it turned out she was not only a wizard herself but also a willing partner to the aboleth, not a kidnapped victim as we had been led to believe)
• Attacked the full-size aboleth that plopped up onto the middle rock, only to learn it was a projected image spell cast by the real aboleth, who was hiding in the waters behind the rightmost rock
• Had our halfling rogue catch the wizard in a web spell from her cloak of arachnida, taking her out of the combat entirely (she couldn't manage to break free from the webs)
• Killed the aboleth, mostly by ranged spells from my human sorcerer and arrows from our elven archer, although the half-elf paladin's charge, smite evil attacks, and flaming burst longsword came in mighty handy there as well
• Managed to kill all but one skum, who fled beyond our reach
• Got a bunch of treasure from the wizard, all of which was inside an extradimensional space attached to her amulet (it's basically a Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion spell focus item - and our new mobile headquarters!), inside which the aboleth's treasures were stored
• Bound the wizard and brought her back to our allied clerics of St. Cuthbert, where she'll be held while we contact the appropriate authorities, for she was a willing accomplice to a slaver network we'd fought earlier
• Advanced to 8th level!

Today I made a map of the interior of the Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, which we'll have with us for the rest of the 20-level campaign.

Johnathan

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Sessions 5, 6, and 7 of Free League's edition of Twilight: 2000. This time, I'm a player! Player characters:

• 26 year old American spy with a history of criminality
• 56 year old Polish truck driver who spent 30 years in prison
• 33 year old American special forces NCO who is career military
• Not-sure-how-old American who has done literally everything: military, police, criminal, blue collar
• Me: The Baroness Petra von Breza, age 30, Polish special forces descended from a noble family

I've missed the last two sessions. Again. We're fighting a cadre of marauders/slavers in the town which they control. This session opened mid-battle. We've gotten much better at team work. We managed to eradicate the slavers and free the town without any catastrophic head wounds. Huzzah!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

50th session of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. Drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin at 9th level.

The characters are infiltrating the embassy of the Tower Arcane, which is my version of the Arcane Brotherhood, to uncover their evil schemes -- and to get their hands on a spellbook called the Atlas of Endless Horizons. This session was a series of fights that culminated in destroying a crystalline golem, the most formidable defender of the embassy. I used the stats of a crystal dragon from Fizban's. Quite the wrecker. It left the wizard and paladin making saving throws. The warlock was able to defeat it only with a summoned air elemental.

Next session: They discover the journal of the ambassador, which will reveal plots of literally ALL the villains in the campaign, and give the characters a difficult choice of which to prioritize.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 8 of Free League's edition of Twilight: 2000. This time, I'm a player! Player characters:

• 26 year old American spy with a history of criminality
• 56 year old Polish truck driver who spent 30 years in prison
• 33 year old American special forces NCO who is career military
• Not-sure-how-old American who has done literally everything: military, police, criminal, blue collar
• Me: The Baroness Petra von Breza, age 30, Polish special forces descended from a noble family

We now control the village of Szadek, seized from evil marauders with the help of friendly citizens from a neighboring village. This game has a lot of resource management, so we spent the time scavenging, bandaging our wounds, repairing weapons and vehicles, and the like. It's a curious game that makes 11 units of sheet metal exciting. Highlight was scavenging a CD of Europe's "The Final Countdown".

There was a prisoner to interrogate. She gave us some rumors about the region before expiring.

Next session: We go somewhere and do something.

 

[the Jester]

Last night's session was AMAZING, you guys.

I was running an epic battle. The pcs were:

Vann-La, fighter 20+
Bunny, cleric 15
Sadev, hexblade 10
Praxis, druid 8/ranger 7
Hajime, monk 19
Danielle, rogue 20+
Tommy, druid 18
Craven, barb 6/fighter 10
Karl Hungus, paladin 20+ (and his mount Scrote)

The foes were:

The Dread Emperor, CR 26 legendary villain with 20 commoner children chained to him
Horhor, a sword saint (CR 13) with an artifact sword and two pieces of the rod of seven parts
Leerah, a legendary CR 4 healer with the ability to prevent and heal large amounts of damage
An archmage
Two archers
A champion
Ten veterans of the army of the city that the pcs live in, who are reluctant participants but under orders
and four horned devils.

So, an epic level battle with no less than 31 participants and 20 children that the BBEG could use as fuel (to heal, regain spell slots, etc). The battle had started mid-way into the previous session.

Guys, not only was it harrowing and a "pull out all the stops" kind of situation, WE FINISHED IT IN ONE SESSION! Well, 1.5 counting starting it last time.

From a critical hit with a polar ray that dealt 177 points of damage to stealing the artifact sword and taking the sword saint out of the fight- without it, his Str dropped to 3 and he could barely walk- to using the campaign's first antimagic screen, this fight was awesome! Everyone had a part to play; even Sadev, the lowest level pc present, dealt significant amounts of damage. This was not an easy fight; it was tense until the Dread Emperor fled, but the pcs managed to free ten of his captive children.

It was a great example of why high level play can be so fun. You can really pull out all the stops as the DM. I mean, look at that list of foes. And they were using good tactics- they had a plan that only fell apart because of the pcs' own smart planning.

God damn do I love high level games.

 

[John R Davis]

Soulbound this afternoon.
You really are big damn heroes able to take on the horde!