D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[THEMNGMNT]

Player in Free League's edition of Twilight: 2000. Our team:

• 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

A lot has happened over the last 4 or 5 sessions. We entered a city defended by NATO forces and under assault by the Soviets. We were pressganged into the defense. The Soviets are bringing in a trainload of tanks. If the tanks reach the city, they'll wipe out the defenders. We were tasked to join the team to stop the train. Our mission, which we did not get a choice to accept: Go behind enemy lines, intercept the train, and heist the tanks.

Fortunately, the train was stalled by sabotage -- special forces had blown the track. The train was delayed several days as their engineers repaired the track.

We arrived on the scene with 2 tanks, an armored personnel carrier, a pair of Humvees, and an uparmored police car. We had about 20 soldiers. We spent a full session planning our attack...but the longer we planned, the closer the train was to getting underway.

We sent in our armored units from the north. They were loud and drew the attention of the stalled train's defenders. Our infantry moved on the train from the south. We had the element of surprise, fortunately, because the Soviets had more infantry...and, strapped atop the train, more tanks.

Our snipers took out the soldiers with RPGs atop the train. One of our tanks started blowing out the rear boxcars, with the intention of derailing them and obliterating anything within. The derailed boxcars would keep the train from getting underway, while avoiding damaging the armor we were there to steal.

Everything was going swimmingly until the Soviet infantry attempted to climb into the tanks on the train cars. They intended to start them up and turn the guns on us. We managed to blow away successive waves of infantry, eliminating the threat.

Then the engineer fired up the train. One of our snipers tried to get into position while our tanks tried to blow up a car that connected the engine to the flatbeds hauling the tanks.

That's where we paused.

It's been a super fun mission, with a great sense of back and forth, and tremendous satisfaction from wrecking face with our M1 tanks.

Next session: I think we've got this in the bag.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

53rd session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. Three player characters of 10th level: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric.

Transitional episode. The characters gathered at the home of a noble ally. This noble and several other NPCs had been caught in a death trap by the characters' mind flayer archenemy. But they were rescued when the characters cut a deal with the Tower Arcane (my version of the Arcane Brotherhood).

I staged a series of one-on-one scenes between each character and an important NPC. It went really well, bringing some clarity and closure to a number of threads and themes.

Then it was time to the pay the piper. Awaiting them in the courtyard was a mage from the Tower. In return for saving the lives of their allies, she wanted a valuable artifact in their possession: The Book of Vile Darkness. In previous sessions the players had debated a double cross. Which I was anticipating...and, naturally, so was the Tower. But, to everyone's surprise, the characters handed over the Book.

The conversation turned toward finishing off the mind flayer once and for all... I told the players to level up. This might be the climactic battle of the campaign, so I want them to feel the power.

Next session: Assault on the villain's lair! Or at least a lot of talking about it!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

51st session of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. Drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin at 9th level.

This session, I did something experimental. I had them find a villain's journal that spelled out all the schemes of the characters' foes. Not just for this one foe -- for literally all the foes. It's a roadmap to the entire campaign. My intent was to give more transparency to the villains and their motivations...and to give the players the ability to pick and choose their battles.

For posterity, I'll post the whole thing below.

THE JOURNAL OF SYDON, ENVOY TO NEVERWINTER FROM THE TOWER ARCANE

• The Tower Arcane continues to supply aid to the Winter Nobles. Why? Because the petty schemes of the nobility are a distraction that masks the machinations of the Tower Arcane.
• The Winter Nobles intend to fabricate a crisis, use the crisis to spark an assassination of the Queen, and then seize power for themselves.
• What is the crisis? An invasion by the orc horde gathering at Xul-Jarak. Agents of the Winter Nobles are preparing now to meet with orc envoys at Mir Vardun and cement the secret alliance.
• The weakness of the Winter Nobles is that each believes he or she should be the next true ruler of Neverwinter. That weakness makes them easy to divide and conquer.
• Meanwhile, agents of the Tower Arcane have uncovered the locations of the three remaining Keys of Sul-Khatesh.
• The locations were discovered in a complex beneath Castle Phandalin, which held the remains of the dragon Valanthara.
• The agents were able to enter the complex using the Pyramid of Valanthara, which they obtained after defeating a band of adventurers in Phandalin.
• Valanthara and her legions were allies of the Sanctum in centuries past. Their mission was to scatter, hide, and guard the Keys of Sul-Khatesh. They were successful for over a thousand years.
• The Keys of Sul-Khatesh can unlock the hidden vaults within the Sanctum.
• Tower Arcane’s plot to seize the Sanctum and the magical artifacts contained within are progressing along three vectors:
  • The traitor within the Sanctum has growing influence—which no one suspects. They are subtly sowing confusion and dissension within the conclave.
  • Lareth the Beautiful has passed through the mirror and now resides in a secret location in Neverwinter. It is his job to weaken the city from within, preparing the way for when the plot is revealed and the subjugation of the populace commences. He is well underway, having expanded operations beyond the Winter Nobles.
  • The Archmages of Luskan have assembled three teams to recover the Keys of Sul-Khatesh from:
    • The volcanic heart of Mount Delzoun.
    • The Maelstrom beneath the Sea of Swords.
    • Stormbreaker, the legendary flying fortress in the storm.
• The artifacts of Sul-Khatesh are her staff, robe, and grimoire—which unlock the lost sorcery of the Netherese Empire and grant total control of the Sanctum.
• However, the Tower Arcane has recently obtained the grimoire from a group of adventurers in Waterdeep. The true name of the grimoire is The Book of Vile Darkness. This means that one of the three locations—Stormbreaker, The Maelstrom, and Mount Delzoun—holds nothing.
• Unlocking the most potent sorceries require the Nightstone to be returned to its rightful place in the heart of the Sanctum.
• To recharge the dormant power of the Nightstone requires completing a ritual contained within the grimoire of Sul-Khatesh—The Book of Vile Darkness. This ritual will consume the lifeforce of every citizen within Neverwinter.
• Unfortunately, only the mind flayer Zyrxog knows the location of the Nightstone. Attempts to uncover that information have resulted in Zyrxog consuming the brains of the infiltrating Tower Arcane mages.
• When Zyrxog consumes the mind of a mage, he learns their magical spells and powers.
• Tower Arcane has decided not to send anymore mages to infiltrate Zyrxog’s organization, instead finding other ways to secure the Nightstone.
• Zyrxog does not realize what the Nightstone truly is—the ancient mythal that powered the Sanctum.
• The might of the Sanctum will make the Tower Arcane the dominant force in the North and its peoples will be their plaything.
• The Archmage of Divination has foreseen that a mage of the Tower Arcane will attempt to betray the others and seize the Sanctum’s power for themselves. The temptation is irresistible. No more details are forthcoming.
• Anyone reading the Envoy’s Journal is cursed and cannot repeat the information they have learned—except to others that have read the journal. Furthermore, readers die of a wasting disease which causes them to permanently lose 1 hit die each week. Yes, this means you.

 

[James Gasik]

After days of delving in the former Scarlet Citadel, our mercenary jerks brave heroes finally evoked a response from the bandits and ne'er-do-wells who infest the former Dwarven fortress, as we were woken up from our well-deserved long rest to find a small force of trollkin, an actual troll, and an armored owlbear trained for war attacking the town we'd been using as our base of operations!

While the mayor blamed us for everything (and we attempted to keep collateral damage to a minimum to avoid further tanking our reputation in the town) we did gain some assistance from the non-combatant townsfolk, such as healing from the Druids and a stash of imperfect Pearls of Power (no attunement required, but one use only) from the retired Battlemage who serves as one of the few sources of (slightly cursed) magic items.

Armed with few ways to overcome the regeneration of the troll-blooded foes, our Monk started using a torch as an improvised weapon, to deal 1 point of fire damage, while my Wizard was required to deal the bulk of the fire and acid damage (not for the first time, I have to wonder why the designers decided that this would be practically exclusive ability of arcane casters!).

Just when we thought things couldn't get worse, we also had to deal with some ghost wolves and a trollkin shaman's sleet storm, which ground combat to a halt for a few turns.

Our Ranger clambered up onto the Inn's roof to pepper our foes with arrows, while the Cleric used Spirit Guardians for the first time, daring anyone to stay in range!

Quickly realizing fireballs and Tasha's Caustic Brew were bad, the enemies pinned down my Wizard, forcing me to use Dodge (and a couple of well-timed shield spells) to avoid taking damage and losing my concentration- though nothing could save me from an opportunity attack I took leaping out of a window, which brought me to less than half my total hit points!

The Cleric and Ranger went down once each, and the Monk attempted to fend off a troll by his lonesome for several combat rounds before slowly, the tide of battle began to shift in our favor.

It was a grueling conflict that took a good 15 combat rounds to resolve, and afterwards, we retreated to our rooms, fully expecting to have to deal with the mayor's complaints in the morning.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Player in Free League's edition of Twilight: 2000. Our team:

• 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 finished off the Soviet defenders of the train hauling nearly a dozen tanks and APCs.

Then something weird happened.

Some new guys rolled up. They wore Army uniforms but something about them was off. Also: They had tattoos of a snake wrapped around a cross. Our Polish truck driver recognized them as part of a prison-based criminal faction with a religious bent. The Brotherhood. The mission commander, Captain Parry, said we were going to take these tanks to Fort Brooks. Huh? We'd never heard of Fort Brooks. And our original orders were to take the armor back to the town under siege by the Soviets.

So, yeah, something smelled fishy.

But we were outnumbered and outgunned. Didn't have much choice but to go along to get along. We formed a convoy and drove through the night. We passed through the ruins of the several small towns. Lining the road were crosses -- hung with the bodies of crucified Soviet soldiers. Through small talk we confirmed that our religious friends were responsible for this.

Unsurprisingly, we arrived at a penitentiary in the middle of nowhere. Zaklad Prison. Our Polish driver had done hard time there. It appeared to be a heavily fortified structure manned by soldiers and prisoners. We were fed, given a bed, and told to make formation in a few hours.

That's where we wrapped.

Next session: I'm guessing we discover the Brotherhood's master plan...

 

[TarionzCousin]

I run a Planejammer campaign where the PC's are currently based out of Sigil.

The last session was the third and final 5 hour session of a castle/dungeon. The previous session ended with two PC's hearing two antagonists arguing about buying and selling slaves. The player rolled Perception with Advantage and both dice came up "20." So I gave him plenty of info and interesting stuff to think about during the two weeks between game sessions.

So the latest session began in Initiative Order... and we stayed in Initiative for 5+ hours. It wasn't all combat, but in-between fights various NPC's and bad guys were doing things "offstage." It was intense, tedious, and not the most fun for the players; when it wasn't their character's turn, they mostly had to wait.

And we didn't have enough time to truly wrap up this "dungeon." I had to give brief summaries of what else the PC's discovered/learned. They skipped over much of the top (castle) level and want to explore it "on the way out." So I'll do that before the next official session--which isn't until a month has passed.

tl;dr 5+ hours in Initiative. Wouldn't recommend.

 

[Richards]

In this week's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs tracked the remaining hill giants, ogres, and orcs that had been out on a mission to grab the stuff from the hill giants' former lair when we slew all of the ones who had taken over the stone giant lair in last week's session. It was mostly picking them off at range, until we finally had to enter the giants' dwelling to take out the last two hill giants. Now it's time to head back home after three interlocked sessions, so it's back to the Vale for us. But we all return as 9th-level PCs!

Johnathan

 

[jasper]

Good, except for one the players has been warned about his actions will get him a ban soon. He been playing longer than me. All the players can see the monsters AC and HP. He will NEVER give his total damage. Let see does a 24 hit? Okay. 9 and addition 6 damage. 18 hits for 4 and additional 3 damage. This barely okay if a 3 or 4 person table and 2 hour slot. I told him he needs to bring a mini white board and use it to add up the amount. OTHERWISE the first number out his mouth is going to be the total and we move on. If you going to act like you 13 I going to treat you like a kid.

 

[Richards]

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

• Rode into the small desert village of Sandhill, where they got nasty looks directed at Scarlie, their half-orc wagon driver. (Wakuren, the half-orc cleric/paladin PC was wearing a magic cloak that gave him the appearance of a human.)
• Found the person who'd been stuck in her dreams for two weeks, and freed her in one of the easiest dream sequences ever. (Dwarf cleric cast a hold person spell on the orc raider, elf sorcerer cast a lightning bolt on him, human bard/rogue charged and sneak attacked - orc raider dead, cowering teenage human girl dreamer saved from dream.)
• Found out four young women, ages 17-25, had gone missing in the past four weeks and interviewed their families, finding out there had been no ransom demands - the women just walked out one day and were never seen again.
• Stayed overnight in the village's sole inn as a reward for successfully awakening the dreamer.
• Found out another young woman (a half-elf) had gone missing the next morning, and had been spotted walking alone out into the desert.
• Followed her tracks on foot for several hours (leaving the half-orc wagon driver behind with the animals, and borrowing the magic cloak from the half-orc PC), catching up to her just as she stood before the cave opening to a lair of a desert orc tribe, pulling an arrow from a quiver on her back and loading it into her longbow (neither of which the dwarf drunkard who'd seen her leave had mentioned her as having), taking aim at one of three orcs guarding the three entrances to the tribe's lair. She was remarkably accurate with her shots.
• Fought off a vulture that dove down at the girl, and then they tried calling out to her by name but she ignored them.
• Cast a black tentacles spell at the front entrance and a spike stones spell at the eastern entrance, then headed to the western entrance.
• Wakuren got shot at by the half-elf archer girl whenever he was the closest "orc."
• Quickly figured out the half-elf was being possessed by a ghost (although the human spellsword held out the belief that she was somehow being possessed by the longbow she was using).
• Ended up slaying three dozen orcs - barbarians, fighters, rangers, and warriors, with a druid shamaness and a high-level barbarian tribal leader.
• Killed the powerslug that escaped from the leader's body after he'd been slain.
• Had the half-elf finally recognize Wakuren, asking if he'd been raised in Port Duralia.
• Got the full story: the ghost was Gizelle, a former human ranger and part of the militia charged with keeping the village safe from orc raiders; two dozen years ago (Wakuren is 23 years old), her team had been overpowered and she'd been taken as a captive, only escaping after several months - at which point she was pregnant with the future PC. She slunk off to Port Duralia to visit a cousin, who convinced her to bring the baby to term and leave him at the church of Cal to be raised (which she did). She then gathered up a new band and continued hunting down orc raiders, until she was captured again and this time killed, after which she returned as a ghost and started taking over convenient bodies of young women to continue her quest for vengeance. With the original tribe finally slain (with the PCs' help), she was finally able to move on.

And then the PCs leveled up to 12th, with the elf sorcerer choosing the Improved Familiar feat and taking on a pseudodragon familiar.

Johnathan

 

[THEMNGMNT]

54th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. Three player characters of 11th level: Half-orc cavalier fighter, halfling swashbuckler rogue, and half-elf evoker wizard/grave cleric.

In this episode, the players (and their characters) made their battle plan for the climactic fight of the campaign. And I did my taxes. Not really! But I could have.

Next session: Assault on the villain's lair! For real this time.