D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Maialideth]

The PCs are on the plane of Arborea, gathering ingredients for a cyclops to forge a magical weapon for the group's barbarian.
This week they were looking for the essence of the Western Wind Zephyrus.
Arriving on a beautiful tropical island, first they fought some harpies that were trying to lure people to a watery grave. But the druid cast Waterbreathing on everyone, and then the group (2 players) along with 3 NPC sailors gave the harpies a good beating.

Now they had to find the Western Wind somewhere on the island. The druid used his familiar to look for an area with signs of extraordinary wind activity, and the barbarian convinced some birds to search that area for the Western Wind.

The next step was to sneak up on the Western Wind without startling it. The barbarian with his Primal Knowledge snuck behind the Western Wind, and when in position, he blew out a strong breath towards the wind, so the wind thought it should move the way the breath was flowing.

This led the PCs up to the top of a high cliff overlooking the island. The Western Wind was frolicking and dancing around on the clifftop, and the PCs would have to somehow have to exhaust the energetic and playful wind. The barbarian tried to dance with the wind, but he overestimated the energy of the great Western Wind. Out of breath and out of ideas he sat down, while the Western Wind joyfully danced around the clifftop. The druid had moved out to the very edge of the cliff, and when he caught the attention of the Western Wind, he took a great leap from the cliff and started to fall through the air towards almost certain death. The curious wind would look over the side of the cliff to see what the strange mortal was doing. Meanwhile, the druid's owl familiar would fly under the falling druid, staying there just long enough for the wind to notice the intent. The owl would do this again a second time, then a third time, hoping the wind would figure out the idea of the game. The ground was getting closer and closer, and the druid was starting to accept that this was maybe not a great idea after all. His eyes closed, and with a slight smile on his face, he thought that at least it had been fun. He then felt a soft cushion and a sudden rush in his stomach, as he was boosted up on a great gust of the Western Wind. The wind lifted him up high in the air, then gently bounced him back down on top of the cliff.

The last thing the PCs had to do now, was to capture a part of the Western Wind. They knew they wouldn't cause it harm or remove it entirely from the Multiverse, it was the great Western Wind and they only needed a tiny fraction of its energy. The wind didn't move as fast now, and it was more accepting of their presence. They had been given an amphora by the cyclops Brontes, that would hold the essence of the wind. The druid approached the Western Wind and wildshaped into a vampire squid, which has membranes between its tentacles, then he enveloped the wind, which turned him into a living whoopee cushion that floated in the air. The barbarian hurried up to the 'balloon' and sucked the wind into his lungs (catching a couple of foulsmelling 'whoopees' as well). With his eyes watering from the 'whoopees', the barbarian managed to get the amphora uncorked and up to his mouth. He expelled the wind from his lungs with a mighty blow and put the cork back on the bottle before the Western Wind could fly away.

The session ended with the PCs collapsing in exhaustion on the grassy top of the cliff, looking up at the magnificent blue sky and noticing that for the first time since they arrived on the island and for the moment, there was no wind at all.

 

[el-remmen]

Western Wind

That sounds like an amazing adventure/encounter! And it also make me think, perhaps too obviously, of one of my favorite poems (by anonymous):

Westron wynde when wyll thow blow
the smalle rayne downe can Rayne
Cryst yf my love were in my Armys
And I yn my bed Agayne

Or transcribed into contemporary language;

O Western wind, when will thou blow?
The small rain down can rain
Christ!
If my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!

 

[Richards]

Today we started my new D&D 3.5 campaign, "Down to Erthe," and the PCs:

• Were individually attacked by sahuagin rising up from the shore waters; each was overpowered, stabbed with a poisoned sea urchin needle (which caused both paralysis and the ability to water breathe), and taken away to parts unknown
• Woke up in darkness, cold, wet, and sore, and soon figured out the reason they seemed to be in individual pits filled with broken chunks of wood (with the doors at the top of the ceiling) was they were in individual cabins of a sunken ship turned on its side
• Swam up out of their berths and had the snow fox hengeyokai cast a dancing lights spell to provide some illumination (it was close to midnight when they regained consciousness)
• Explored the nearby cabins, releasing a total of seven kidnap victims: 3 PCs plus a young boy, a mongrelfolk adept, a frightened human woman, and a halfling ranger (two dockworkers stayed in their rooms and the tenth victim was already missing from her berth)
• Opened several nearby doors looking for potential weapons, only to be surprised by a pair of sahuagin returning to the capsized sunken vessel to fetch the next sacrificial victim
• Fought off one sahuagin while the other retreated to fetch reinforcements
• Found their original gear and some well-needed potions to revive a few of their number who'd been knocked out by the sahuagin
• Found a way out of the ship to see a force of merfolk and giant sea horses attacking the sahuagin, who were planning on sacrificing ten victims to the sea god (they had already slain one, and the frightened human woman - played by our female player - died of fear-induced heart failure at seeing her planned fate, as she'd been recaptured by a sahuagin in a net by that time)
• Joined the merfolk forces in fighting the sahuagin with the four players each running their own PC (our female player now getting to run her mermaid scout PC), plus one of the following additional groups:
  • A merfolk samurai
  • Male merfolk warriors
  • Female merfolk warriors
  • Giant sea horses
• Defeated the sahuagin, looted the ship, and were escorted back to the shore by the merfolk forces, where the mermaid scout used her amulet (which had "scooped up" the woman who'd died of heart failure into its extradimensional space) to "bodyswap" her mind into the human woman's body while the mermaid body was stored inside the extradimensional space; she was under orders to explore the world of land-dwellers, learn their ways, and report back to the merfolk tribe on the first night of every full moon, giving the player a chance to run her mermaid/human PC in her mermaid form at least once every in-game month or so
• Were granted free room and board for life at a guesthouse run by the grateful mother of the boy the PCs saved
• Were also told by the mongrelfolk adept NPC that he considered himself under a "life-debt" to them for saving his life; he's now their 5th member, devoted to using his healing spells to keep them alive

Having just run 20th-level PCs in our last campaign the last time we played on a Saturday, it was a shock for all of us (DM included!) recalling how delicate and fragile 1st-level PCs can be.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In tonight's "Middle of Elsewhere" campaign session (our first!), the PCs:

• Began their week of planar scout testing (after a year of training) by having to attack one of the town's leaders, a marilith (who fought with only one longsword and four of her hands tied behind her back); the test was to strike her successfully 10 times with weapons and spells before she knocked any of the PCs out
• Traveled two and a half days to some old ruins, and were attacked by a pack of six celestial dogs (which turned out to be the result of an invisible gnome wizard test proctor's summoning spells, to see how the PCs would fare in field conditions against foes common to that locale (Elsewhere has spent the better part of the past year on a layer of Mount Celestia at this point); defeated the dogs and detected the gnome, who accompanied them to the ruins (but stayed invisible so they wouldn't know who or when he was watching)
• Arrived at the ruins, which was to be a bit of puzzle solving another proctor was to have set up, only to find him unconscious and bleeding out; the test was put on hold while the gnome proctor tended to his friend, and the PCs were given leave to explore the ruins and find out who or what had attacked him
• Fought half a dozen human skeletons with vampiric fangs, and then a fanged ghoul as well
• Upon slaying the ghoul, watched as it collapsed into mist and started drifting over to a coffin pierced by a relic-level shaft of pure sunlight
• Found out (through rune carvings on the walls) the light shaft was holding a vampire's remains in check; he was able to remanifest whenever a dead body was brought within a certain distance from his coffin, and each time he remanifested he tried dragging his coffin out of the light for as long as he could before the sunlight burned his body to ashes
• Passed on what they'd learned to the gnome proctor, who vowed to seal off the coffin to prevent any other dead bodies from being brought close enough
• Were graduated from their planar scout testing, as the gnome proctor decided their real-life "field test" was a more than sufficient replacement for the puzzles the other proctor (whose life they saved) had prepared
• Were each given 100 gp as a graduation present, to help equip them for their real-life field excursions, especially since "Shift Day" was fast approaching, when the village of Elsewhere would randomly hop to another outer plane for the next year

Each PC (fiendish human cleric of Boccob, celestial elf wizard, shadow human druid, fiendish orc fighter) earned 600 XP, so we're already over halfway to 2nd level (which is great, because these 1st-level PCs are really fragile!).

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In last night's "Middle of Elsewhere" campaign, the PCs:

• Attended a celebration on the evening before Shift Day, commemorating the fact they had survived a year on Lunia, the first plane of Mount Celestia (Shift Day always happens at midnight)
• Watched as the shadow human druid released his Medium celestial viper animal companion from service before midnight. so it had time to slither away out of the range of the town and its surrounding farmlands and thus remain on Lunia, its home (we never have any advance warning about where Elsewhere's going to shift next)
• Got into position before midnight at the beginning if the farmland, inside the protective radius of the town center where planar effects don't reach (in case the next plane is hostile to life, like the Negative Energy Plane), and once we shifted (to a land that was still dark, but had heavy, reddish-black cloud cover), headed due north to check out the new environment
• Saw several fires ahead in the whet fields and approached; the celestial elf witch's owl familiar saw several foxlike figures inside the flames
• Were approached by four fell foxes (vulpine equivalents to hell hounds) - normal-sized foxes with burning tails, which were setting the wheat fields ablaze
• Killed two fell foxes when the celestial elf witch saw a larger version (a dire fell fox) fighting a hell hound further on, about the same time the shadow human druid determined these fell foxes weren't attacking us, merely running away from the hell hounds (there were two dead hell hounds and a human-sized figure lying prone by the dire fell fox)
• Complained when my fiendish human cleric continued killing the fell foxes anyway (one had tried setting his robes on fire, and another attacked him when he killed that one)
• Took out the remaining hell hound, the shadow human druid made friends with the dire fell fox (new animal companion to replace his celestial viper), and determined the dead woman was a druid scout missing from Elsewhere several years back
• Learned from her journal she'd gotten separated from Elsewhere when she failed to return to the town before a Shift Day, and had been traveling the planes on her own
• Recovered a magic staff, a doll that allows a wizard to cast spells on her familiar when it's not in contact with her, a Heward's handy haversack, and the smashed remains of a mechanical gizmo she'd used to track the movements of Elsewhere - and apparently allowed her to deduce it was coming to this plane next (that last bit is very intriguing to my cleric, who wants to learn how to "steer" Elsewhere)

And we all leveled up to 2nd level at the end of this short adventure.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In today's "Down to Erthe" campaign, the PCs:

• Were subcontracted by the Silent Sodality (the thieves guild one PC works for an another occasionally does jobs for) to deliver four packages an outside agency had paid to be delivered to four addresses in a fairly well-to-neighborhood in the city; each package was about 2" x 2" x 4"
• Ran into a pair of rogues from the Ragamuffins, a local street gang, who wanted the PCs to pay a toll of 1 gp each for traveling in their neighborhood; the PCs opted to fight instead, ending in the slaying of both rogues; then delivered their first package, which was received by a butler who promised to pas it to his master, and he gave them each 1 cp for their service
• Couldn't find a way to the door of the next address, whose house was behind a 10' tall iron fence with a locked gate and a vicious dog in the yard; threw rocks at the door until the owner showed up and delivered the package via unseen servant
• Ran into Aenus Feysputter on the way to the third house (Aenus the gnome sells potions, candy, and gum from his wheeled bicycle cart; the PCs bought some potions)' delivered the third package to the maid who answered the door (she promised to give it to her Lord and Lady upon their arrival on some business in the city)
• Were approached by four beggar children asking for money; the changeling rogue IDed one beggar as working for a rival guildmaster (of thieves and beggars) and shooed them off before they could pick any pockets; delivered the fourth package only to have it opened and tossed at their feet with declarations that he didn't care how many debts his son racked up, he wasn't paying a single copper for him and they could stop with the threats
• Examined the contents of the discarded package and found a severed human finger and a demand that the parents pay the debts the son foolishly ran up (past his means of paying) at the Aerie, a gambling den for the well-to-do, ot they'd be getting another body part delivered each day until the debt was paid in full
• Realized there were likely four noblemen's sons being held at the Aerie
• Went to the Aerie, had the wu jen cast hypnotism to get past the bouncer, and talked their way into allowing the human monk to see the boss
• Had the monk explain to the Aerie boss (a kenku rogue named Sinister) that one of the noblemen was refusing to pay any amount of ransom, and was then sent out of the establishment
• Planned to return that night with a rope and an animate rope spell, to climb their way to the rooftop of the Aerie (the monk had learned the captives were kept "upstairs")
• Made it to the rooftop, found a hatch leading to the top floor, and snuck in, while the human scout readied smashing through the skylight and shooting a heavy crossbow at the four kenku rogues guarding the captives in their individual cells
• Fought and killed three kenku while the other escaped down a slide to warn Sinister
• Rescued the four nine-fingered young noblemen and ushered them down the slide while the kenku that escaped, Sinister, and two human rogues came barreling up the stairs to confront the rescuers
• Knocked Sinister into unconsciousness, forcing his underlings to break off combat to save his life
• Slid to the bottom of the four-story tower and escape out the back through a secret door
• Delivered the young noblemen to their parents (well, three of them, anyway - the fourth was pissed at his father who wouldn't pay his debts to free him), and were rewarded with 3,000 gp, which they split four ways - 750 each.

As we're using the same XP advancement as my last campaign, there will be five adventures of each level; this was adventure #2.

Johnathan