D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

We went through two short adventures in my "Dreams of Erthe" campaign this afternoon. In the first one, "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Undeath," the PCs:

• Rose into their undead forms (two necropolitans, a vampire, a mummy, and a death knight)
• Had a necropolitan come running up explaining there was an ooze monster in the Hidden Village, and when the PCs' lich mentor said there was a juju zombie ceremony scheduled, the necropolitan said it wasn't the gravesludge converting the dwarf prisoners (which got the dwarf vampire PC concerned)
• The lich and the PCs entered the Hidden Village, a mock village created back when the first humans ("deathborn") had been created as adults with false memories of having come from "a distant land" and hidden inside permanent hallucinatory terrain spells
• The dwarf vampire cleric flew up, saw the gravesludge ooze approaching the six captive dwarf miners
• The lich and necropolitan wizard entered an inn and spent the adventure exploring the rooms inside, while the PCs found a carnivorous blob inside a tavern one building over
• The mummy cleric/paladin cast a blade barrier spell in the middle of the carnivorous blob, cutting it into two smaller blobs
• The necropolitan elf sorcerer cast a wall of force spell in front of the bound dwarves to try to keep the "back blob" from reaching the dwarves while the other PCs fought the "front blob"
• Eventually killed the front blob after a lot of spell-slinging (and the human death knight spellsword's Abyssal blast), and when the back blob crawled over a rooftop to move around the wall of force, had the elf necropolitan cast a prismatic wall directly in front of the platform in which the dwarves were bound (although one staggered away before that, having severed his bonds but being too weak to aid his fellow dwarves - they were all staggered due to blood loss from the vampires who brought them in)
• Had the vampire dwarf cleric kill the back blob with an implosion spell, but not before it devoured three of the bound dwarves (it plowed through the prismatic wall but was either immune or made its save against all but about half of the electrical damage)
• Watched as the gravesludge "ate" the two remaining bound dwarves (turning them into juju zombies), then fed it the one that escaped after the elf's pseudodragon put him to sleep with its tail venom (they didn't want to give themselves away as secretly trying to stop the secret planet-threatening ploy concocted by the leaders of the Forbidden Lands, and saving the dwarves intended to be turned into juju zombie slaves would have done so)
• Got the apparent explanation from the lich: he'd found a broken magic urn in the inn that had apparently contained the carnivorous blob inside an extradimensional space in stasis, but the necropolitan rogue who stole the urn accidentally released the blob when he snuck off to the Hidden Village to investigate his stolen goods (his body was found in the inn - the blob devours flesh but not bone)

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

And in the afternoon's second adventure, "The Conclave of Skulls," the PCs:

• Returned to the Temple of Akari (God of Death and Undeath in this campaign, and their deific "sponsor" into undeath), through which the Conclave of Skulls could be reached
• Were begrudgingly allowed inside by Mother Bones, cleric of the temple (who neither likes nor trusts them)
• Saw a spiderstone golem on a plinth and another empty plinth at the bottom of a set of wide stairs, and advanced down a corridor just beyond which turned a corner and led to the Conclave of Skulls: around 200 demiliches lined up on wooden shelves against the back wall
• Found the "missing" spiderstone golem holding a female lich by her wrists and ankles; this was Andrea Jandoval, the arcane instructor of the human spellsword (now a death knight) who tricked the PCs into coming to the Forbidden Lands because her divinations had told her they were the five destined to save the planet
• Communicated with them over a telepathic bond spell, letting them know whatever the Conclave's plans were, it was on the other side of a secret door well within their view, there was some sort of a guardian behind the secret door, and whatever they had planned had something to do with "astronomy" and "orbital mechanics" (whatever those were), as well as the Negative Energy Plane
• Were telepathically interrogated by the Conclave; different demiliches had their gems light up when they "spoke" - it was rapid-fire, although only a handful of them were paying the PCs (and Andrea) any attention (Andrea had been interrogated in this fashion for over a week, after they got suspicious when she tried probing into their plans)
• Noticed some questions/comments were logical ("Why do you have the Mark of Akari emblazoned on your foreheads?" - "How do you intend to serve the Forbidden Lands now that you have become undead?" - "Do you have any concerns to bring before the Conclave?") and others were nonsensical ("Is somebody taking care of my cooshee? I hope he's okay" - "Mud rhymes with blood") and figured out more than a few of the demiliches comprising the Conclave of Skulls were senile
• Were told to send a necropolitan astronomer before them, to go over some of his orbital figures
• Met back up with Mother Bones and were told how to find the astronomer
• Passed the message on to him, and then almost blew their cover when the human death knight spellsword tried interrogating him about the secret plans going on behind the secret door; fortunately, the necropolitan said if they wished to join in their efforts they'd need to go through Mother Bones
• Recalled having seen a necropolitan wizard using illusions to create a pyramid overlapping the top half of a sphere, and deduced the Conclave is going to try to infuse the northern half of the planet with negative energy, turning every living thing into an undead form
• Decided on a plan: refresh their full complement of spells, then return to the Conclave and use passwall spells (from the elf sorcerer's staff) to make their own way into whatever room lies beyond the secret door (they know its general location), entering from a point beyond the spiderstone golem plinths but not close enough for the Conclave demiliches to see them go in (as they can't go in through the secret door without being spotted)

Next session - our 100th - we'll see how their plans go as we wrap up this campaign. As the follow-on campaign will take place in the same game world (some 20 years later), I hope the northern hemisphere won't all be filled with undead monsters and negative energy!

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

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

• Delivered the potions and elixirs from Gladys Giltgoiter to El Brujo, an eldritch giant with a grisgol servant and four firbolg henchmen
• Refused to admit they had a cubic gate on them (it's inside the extradimensional living space attuned to the necklace worn by the elf archer), because they feel it's too dangerous to get out (it has links to the Abyss, for one thing, and a demon army once came close to using it to stage an invasion onto the Material Plane)
• Heard the eldritch giant's arguments for why he "just wanted to see it" and became ultra-suspicious when he was willing to trade four powerful magic items just for the opportunity to examine it; eventually found out he wanted it to power a new grisgol, as his current one was getting fairly raggedy and it requires a lich's phylactery to power one (which allowed the PCs to figure out the cubic gate is the phylactery of a lich - yipes!)
• Departed El Brujo, and on the way back got swallowed by mists again and ended up in the Ravenloft-esque demiplane once ruled by a rakshasa the PCs had defeated many months ago
• Fought two roguish rakshasas, one wizardly rakshasa, and a greater fihyr in the dilapidated dwelling of the original rakshasa they slew months ago
• Had the elf druid wildshape into a Huge fire elemental and fight the foes in that form
• Took out the wizardly rakshasa with a firestorm spell (which also killed the greater fihyr), a well-placed arrow through the left eye (courtesy of the archer, naturally), and the half-elf paladin's flying charge on his celestial pegasus
• Had the human sorcerer slay one of the roguish rakshasas with a chain lightning spell, and had the paladin and the halfling rogue kill the other one with their respective blades
• Did not return to the Material Plane upon killing all of their foes this time, and had to use the cubic gate to get back home

Next Wednesday, we're scheduled to finish off this campaign with one final adventure; I'm half-expecting the lich to show up, looking for his cubic gate phylactery. [Later edit: it looks like we won't be playing our last session in this campaign until 16 July - something came up and Dan and Vicki will be leaving earlier than expected on their trip to visit her dad.]

Johnathan

 

[humble minion]

We killed Imryth. Last session of the main storyline of Storm King's Thunder. She got her licks in (and so especially did her mummy lord offsider who landed an unsaved Harm on the rogue who was only saved by his Death Ward), but the sheer volume of damage the great weapon paladin and archer ranger could dish out under the influence of potions of giant size was eventually too much - helped enormously by the fact that the DM is pretty generous about magic item shopping in Waterdeep, so we were all loaded up to the brim with every possible protective potion or oil or buff scroll, flying item, etc etc etc.

Not sure what happens now! There's a few unfinished minor questlines, but nothing core, and this campaign has been going for 5 years and FGU is starting to groan under the weight of old code and mods and incompatibilities which is making it tricky to run. Maybe a new start back at level 1, maybe a few more sessions for epilogues and tidying up, or maybe we revisit the characters from time to time in one-shots.

I'm just realising that I've never actually played a full caster in 5e, that might be the way to go next...

 

[Richards]

In this afternoon's final session of my "Dreams of Erthe" campaign, the PCs:

• Used the elf necropolitan sorcerer's staff to cast two passwall spells to create a passageway into the room on the other side of a secret door they couldn't get to without being seen by 200 or so demiliches
• Fought and defeated the jade colossus guarding the chamber beyond
• Placed a wall of force across the secret door they were unable to use, to ensure nobody else could use it
• Found a chamber with five teleportation circles, each of which led to either a satellite of solid calcimortum (solidified rock from the Negative Energy Plane) in an equatorial orbit around the planet, or the one directly above the planet's north pole
• Sent the human necropolitan bard/rogue invisibly to the first equatorial satellite, where he snuck up behind the drow necropolitan fighter guarding the antenna array attached to the calimortum satellite, and killed him with his rapier that allows him to crit undead
• Tried the same tactic against the drow necropolitan rogue guarding the second equatorial satellite, but didn't slay him in one round, and had the half-orc mummy cleric/paladin come in to aid him
• Ended up sending the other PCs to the other equatorial satellites (except the dwarf vampire cleric, as the sunlight would have been lethal to her; she sealed off the teleportation circle room with a wall of stone when she heard reinforcements trying to break through the secret door - good thing it opened inward and was blocked by the wall of force)
• Fought drow necropolitans on equatorial satellites 3 and 4, and discovered the first three satellites were in perfect alignment but the 4th was being placed into alignment by Mother Bones (a drow lich cleric who's never trusted the PCs) atop a death tyrant using its telekinesis ray
• Slew the death tyrant, leaving Mother Bones hovering above the satellite, and ganged up on her three-to-one to take her out
• Had the elf necropolitan use polymorph any object spells to turn the calcimortum satellites into harmless granite
• Slew the necropolitans, then advanced upon the north pole satellite, guarded by a drow lich wizard
• After killing him, discovered the north pole satellite could be maneuvered, and set it on a collision course with the Forbidden Lands, destroying all of the undead lairing there in a massive explosion (while they used a greater teleport spell to get back to the half-orc mummy's wood colossus, which took off at high speed across the desert before the falling satellite hit)

At the end of the session, I had each player tell me what his or her PC would be doing for the rest of their normal lives, after they used their noble genie wishes to be restored from undeath to life.

• The dwarf cleric will return to her Underdark birth village to serve as a high priestess to her deity, the God of Stone and Protection
• The human fighter/wizard/spellsword/eldritch knight will enjoy being a rich bigshot in his home town
• The half-orc cleric/paladin opted to stay as a mummy long enough for his wood colossus to walk across the Asia-sized continent, then along the ocean bottom to return to his Australia-sized continent, where he intends to destroy the undead who've overtaken a city in the middle of the continent (the result of another chunk of calcimortum which landed there as part of an early experiment by the Forbidden Lands undead); only then will he return to life with his wish
• The human bard/rogue will marry his human bard girlfriend, then travel with her across their home continent as she plays gigs in taverns and inns across the land
• The elf sorcerer will return to the elven lands of his birth and visit with his family

We'll be starting up the follow-on campaign in about a month.

Johnathan

 

[Ogre Mage]

It was a total disaster. I rolled a critical fumble, rolled maximum damage and downed a player character. I feel like $h*t.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

45 sessions into my 13th Age campaign. Eyes of the Stone Thief expanded to cover all 10 levels. Five player characters who reached 5th level at the end of this session.

I've not been posting regular updates, but we are playing on the regular.

Since I last posted, the characters:

• Made an alliance with the Queen of Skulls to infiltrate the Lich King's Necropolis. To avoid the attention of the undead, she removed their souls and placed them in Soulgems.
• Returned to Dungeontown and were celebrated as heroes.
• Entrusted their Soulgems to the care of the Crone who ruled Dungeontown.
• Awoke to Dungeontown under assault from below by the Cult of the Devourer.
• Fought to destroy the Cult's minions.
• Realized the Crone had been kidnapped by the Cult...which means their souls are now in possession of their worst enemies.
• Pursued the Cult to recover their souls...rather than saving the people of Dungeontown.

Next session, we'll cut to a week later, as the characters follow the trail of the Cult and the Crone to the lowest depths of the Stone Thief. Essentially, the players are leapfrogging to the very end of the adventure. That will give them a chance to confront and perhaps even kill the Secret Master, one of the primary villains of the campaign. But the Stone Thief will not be destroyed...which will force the characters to back track to the middle section of the campaign.

Along the way, they've abandoned a whole town full of innocents, who are now doomed to horrible deaths. Proving there's more than one way to lose your soul...

 

[Richards]

In last night's (final) "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

• Figured out the cubic gate they'd been holding on to was not only a lich's phylactery, but that the lich's soul had already left it as it remanifested a new undead body
• Figured it must have been the lich that they'd seen reforming a couple dozen adventures ago (and which had been slain by the half-elf paladin), in the chateau of a devil disguised as a human
• Had the human sorcerer teleport everyone to a clump of trees within eyesight of the former chateau (which they'd destroyed with an earthquake spell the last time they'd been there), and saw the ruined chateau had been removed and the stone wall around the place was gone (as were all of the outbuildings), leaving only the lich's tower
• Sent the sorcerer's grackle familiar to do a flyby reconnaissance mission, reporting back five human mercenary guards all around the tower
• Had the elf druid cast elemental swarm, summoning 5 Large, 1 Huge, and 1 Greater Earth Elementals
• Had the spellcasters buff everyone up, then sent the elementals earth gliding, with instructions for the Large elementals to engage the five guards, while the Greater and Huge elementals smashed their way up through the worked stone floor of the tower - which was the sorcerer's signal to teleport all but the paladin and his celestial pegasus over to the front of the tower
• Killed a sixth fighter inside the tower who was menacing what looked at first to be a bloodied human woman, but who soon proved to be a vampire when she assumed gaseous form and started drifting over to the hidden stairs
• Opened the secret door (they knew about it from the last time they'd been there), went down the stairs, and entered the temple below ground
• Dealt with a forbiddance spell effect inside the temple and engaged the lich in battle, while the sorcerer put the vampire inside a maze spell as a stopgap measure
• Killed the lich (the two biggest elementals were of great help here) with a combination of spells and the paladin's magic longsword (he made the final blow that killed the lich)
• Surrounded the vampire's exit point from the maze spell, and took her out with sunburst spells and readied attacks
• Had the Greater Earth Elemental destroy the cubic gate phylactery with its massive fists

This was the end of the campaign, by mutual agreement. Next Wednesday, my son Logan takes over the DMing reins once again for his new campaign ("The Middle of Elsewhere"), but my nephew Harry has opted not to join us due to him going off to college in the fall.

Johnathan

 

[billd91]

We didn't get an awful lot of overall playing in because we ended up in a single combat for a couple of hours. It took a bit longer because there were a lot of enemies on one side (20 hobgoblins, 2 captains, 1 warlord) against 6 level 5 PCs. So I set it up to be a reasonably tough encounter.
Then I started rolling like gangbusters. I think I critted the barbarian five times - and even though she was raging and taking half piercing damage, the poison on the arrows was still racking up the points. I had her down to a single hit point at one point before the hobgoblin numbers finally started to flag.
I seriously had 2/3 of the party on the ropes all within maybe a single hit each of dropping (I did drop one of the clerics for one of his actions before he got healed).

And to think, they could have avoided the fight completely if they had given over the 220 gp toll that was requested of them...

 

[Horwath]

Cleric murdered a 5yo boy as a sacrifice for his god, rest of the party managed to track down the grave in the woods, now we have to metagame how not to execute cleric on the spot for it.

Someone is making new character(s) for the next session...