D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Blue]

Just finished running my last session. Session ended half hour early because my players were too awesome!

Quick context: our party of 5th level adventurers are trying to get to a portal to the Feywild to eventually get home. The Eladrin can feel there's a portal close, and they have worked out that it opening recently is what cause the volcano to erupt. So they've been heading for it, through Frost Giant mountains. They infiltrated the Jarldom pretty deep and at the end of last session met with a Frost Giant, found out they were TN not NE and willing to talk, and were brought to they Jarl's Steading.

The Jarl was described as a teenaged Frost Giant, beard still growing in. Basically he's recently in his position and the older giants are kinda blowing him off and not treating him with respect. So his goals are to come out of this looking powerful, and also deal with the issues with humans* (well, PHB races) trappers and furriers in the mountains leaving explosive traps - not what you'd use to capture animals.

The party picked up on this with lightning speed and kept just the right balance of You're-the-best-thing-since-Betty-White and believable. Made reasonable concessions (the party has authority in their land) and got a bunch of help. Including finding out that a red dragon lives in the volcano (which they had seen as a giant winged form hunting at night a several times in earlier sessions), and from the (very long) Giantish Poem/Song recital that the portal was there before the dragon and a rough idea of where. Plus passage and a guide to the mountain.

Once there they waited for the dragon to go out hunting, so now they were on a time countdown. Mechanically it was to be a number of challenges, all that could hurt the party but more that could take up time. They had a very rough idea through the lava tubes from the giants, could track the dragon prints (assuming it went to the portal), or could take advantage of cracks and other places too small for giants or dragons to have explored. (Or do other things I hadn't thought of.)

They did the last one - which was the hardest - and ended up getting three fantastic successes in a row, avoiding hazards, fights, and places they would have to double back and eat up time.

I had wanted to introduce the heat and lava so there was a scripted hazard they came across no matter what, which really should have slowed them down or softened them up. They were ingenious in quickly rigging safety equipment, did multiple people at once to keep time spent down, and assumed some risk. And when one did fall off the ledge towards the lava 20' below, they had both the paladin with a rope tied to them and the halfling druid with thornwhip ready to get them back up. Beat Initiative 10 do this before he falls the 20' and hits the crust of the lava. Success.

Finally they got to the portal, found out the crystals were out of alignment (which they had gotten clues about from the giant's saga). Didn't waste much time figuring out what they had to do, had a moon druid that could have a climb speed to deal with the 3D terrain, an eladrin with short term flight, and a ranger companion (from Tasha's) with a climb speed as well.

Now, the part they forgot what the the portal opening caused the eruption. So as soon at they got it in focus with one of the crystals there started to be tremors, after the second one the lava began to rise (which blocked access to some of the terrain by climbing). They worked out the "solid light' from the crystals to the portal was literally solid and they could move on it to the portal, and that the earthquakes would throw the crystals back out of alignment quickly so they had to brace the focusing crystals. The group was on fire. Well, not literally, always a possibility when dealing with lava.

The elementals in the lava (of course, why wouldn't there be elementals when the party would need to be split up to three locations surrounded by rising lava in a 3D terrain?), well the Oath of the Watchers Paladin (switched when Tasha's came out - his order guards the portals to hell) was able to use his Channel Divinity: Abjure the Extraplanar and ever since one of the elementals failed a WIS save.

They got in, dived through the portal, came up in a pool of water in the feywild, and we ended it there - I wasn't prepped for them getting that far.

They were great! Puzzles, hazards, skill challenges, roleplay and social puzzles - overcame them all. Avoided all the fights, from some attrition in the tunnels to the elementals to the dragon itself - though at CR 10 I pictured the dragon as more a "survive until we get through the portal".

Really, they just hit on all cylinders today and it was such a great session. Ended with the announcement that they hit 6th, and that next session would be: The Feywild.

 

[billd91]

Playing Age of Worms in 5e over Roll20. I have a lot of players on the roster but 2 arrive late after dance class, one may not play if he has too much homework, one goes to bed early, one has continuing education for his law practice, and one suffers frequent migraines. So, there’s a lot of times when 2-3 PCs are out for the session.
This week we really seemed to be hitting our stride. Combats went reasonably smoothly. One player couldn’t roll a save for love or money. He was stunned by a mind flayer by rolling a 1. The cleric hit him with a bless to boost his saves. He rolled 1s on both the d20 AND the d4 from bless.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 117. 20th level player characters. By the time this session ended they had 5 epic boons with nearly 500,000 xp each. We're probably five sessions away from the end of the campaign.

Previously, Tiamat escaped from Hell, killed Bahamut, and confiscated his divine portfolio. The PCs narrowly missed the opportunity to stop her. She now has power over all dragons in the multiverse. They must find a way to undo the damage she has done.

The PCs are in the innermost sanctum of the Cult of Tiamat in Faerun. One of them is dead, slain in an evil ritual, and another is unconscious. The two ancient gold dragons that were fighting alongside the PCs suddenly turn on them. Polymorphed into a Walking Statue of Waterdeep, the whispers bard grapples one of the dragons to protect his allies. The other PCs rally around the shadow sorcerer. Together, they all plane shift to Arvandor.

Meanwhile, one of the PCs sits alone in Castle Waterdeep, protecting a fragment of the mythical blade that slew the progenitor dragon god, Io. Supposedly, this fragment is critical to Tiamat's plans. The ancient silver dragon that's helping protect the fragment suddenly falls under Tiamat's thrall. The PC--an halfling lore bard--wins initiative. He casts Wish to reverse the dragon's alignment back to lawful good. And it works! However, the byproduct is that his strength is reduced to 3 for seven days and he takes 1d10 necrotic damage for each level of a spell he casts until his next long rest. Brutal!

Up and down the Sword Coast, allies of the PCs are being savaged by the metallic dragons that were once their protectors.

The situation is grim.

The main group of PCs arrive in Arvandor, the heavenly realm of Corellon and the elven gods. The arcane trickster rogue just happens to be the elven god of trickery in mortal form, so he's got some history here. And, fortunately for the PCs, time flows differently in Arvandor. This gives them a chance to heal and recover while only minutes pass on the Material Plane.

Corellon tells them that the gods of good are rallying against Tiamat, but her dragons are wreaking havoc across numerous worlds on the Material Plane. The more forces that the good gods commit against Tiamat, the more they leave themselves vulnerable to sneak attacks from other evil gods...such as Lolth. The action of the PCs is critical to saving the multiverse.

With Tiamat released from Hell, control of the first layer of Avernus has fallen to the archdevil Bel. Bel has emerged as a powerful nemesis to the PCs, having fought them to a standstill several times. Corellon believes Bel has information that can help the PCs defeat Tiamat. And with most of the legions of Avernus accompanying Tiamat in her assault on Celestia, Bel is left relatively unguarded.

Next session: Infiltration of Avernus!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 118. 20th level player characters with 5 epic boons. Previously, Tiamat escaped from Hell, killed Bahamut, and confiscated his divine portfolio. She now has power over all dragons in the multiverse. The PCs must find a way to undo the damage she has done. So, so close to the end of this campaign.

In this session, the PCs planeshifted into the first layer of Hell, Avernus, where Tiamat's hoard lays (mostly) unguarded. Tiamat is marauding across the Heavens. The legions of Hell rampage in her wake. In Tiamat's absence, the archdevil Bel controls Avernus.

In the hoard is an artifact known as the Staff of Suffering, which can bring back to life the beastmaster ranger that was sacrificed by the Cult of Tiamat three sessions ago. That's the goal this session: find the staff and resurrect their friend.

The PCs explored the hellish caverns holding the treasure hoard. It's like Smaug's hoard times a billion. More wealth than exists on the entire world of Faerun. Literally the largest collection of wealth in the multiverse. To represent the hoard's lure I had the PCs roll DC18 Wisdom saving throws. Three successes meant PCs had overcome their lust for gold. Those who failed had a choice--lose a turn trying to pocket all the gold...or take 8d6 psychic damage. I lifted this approach from Swords of the Serpentine and it worked very well. Some PCs took the damage while others lost turns in the midst of the battle with Bel.

Because of course Bel guards the Staff of Suffering. With him were two pit fiends, a host of ice devils, and a pair of treasure golems. The PCs unloaded on him. The shadow sorcerer dropped meteor swarm. The vengeance paladin hit for nearly 200hp of damage in a single turn. Bel was quickly on the cusp of death despite having bested the PCs twice before. But they had once again fallen for the misdirect spell. This wasn't the real Bel; merely an illusion. The real Bel appeared amongst the hoard and the fight raged on. The vengeance paladin (and his holy avenger) would not be denied. Bel fell beneath his blade.

The devils kneeled before the paladin. One of the pit fiends said, "What is thy bidding, master?" Wait, what?!? The party paladin now a lord of Hell? The PCs had a lot of fun trying to figure out what to do with that one. Eventually, the paladin passed rulership of Avernus to the amoral whispers bard.

The Staff of Suffering was used to bring back the beastmaster ranger...and then it distintegrated into dust.

I told the PCs that control of the multiverse's greatest treasure hoard gave them access to any magic item in the DMG...so go nuts!!! They're gonna need it, because...

Next session: The final battle against Tiamat!

 

[SirMoogle]

Playing Tomb of Annihilation, had our most recent session yesterday (number 34, IIRC). My party was captured the session before by Yuan-ti and imprisoned in their base. The leader isn't all that bad and helped let us out (small combat encounter that resulted in the Fighter becoming temporarily mute and the Paladin getting tremors (disadvantage on STR and DEX rolls, including attack)), only for his second-in-charge (priestess) to start a mutiny and perform a ritual to turn one of the Fighter's friends into a Hydra. Highlights for the three-hour encounter included:

• The Paladin commandeering a triceratops in an attempt to disrupt the ritual and knocking a gong into the priestess
• My Wizard flexing his new 4th-level spell slot to cast Banishment on an Air Elemental
• The Druid using Conjure Animals to summon two Dire Wolves, one of which managed to knock the Hydra prone, after which he cast Wall of Fire to deal massive amounts of fire damage to it
• My Wizard casting Grease for the first time to knock the Hydra prone again when it got back up, which was houseruled into being flammable and being ignited by said Wall of Fire, doing extra damage

With that we gained another level, and the Fighter may be changing subclasses for next session.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I'm DMing two different campaigns, ToA and DiA.

ToA. The party (level 9 at the beginning of the session), led by an incredibly smart, deceitful and lucky Tiefling Bard, was able to explore the second level of the Tomb. Most remarkable is the use of the kobold tribe of Omu to deactivate traps. (Yes, it's metagame but one of the players wanted to emulate Lord Robilar's use of orcs exploring the original Tomb of Horrors)

DiA. The party (level 3 at the beginning of the session) went for the Vanthampur brother in the Low Lantern taver. The meeting swiftly turned into a wild brawl, but the players enjoyed it so much they went full murderhobo! Highligh of the evening: the Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer casually polymorphing into a sheep, then trying to be useful by doing things. Eventually the Tiefling Bard used the sheep to intimidate the captured Vanthampur. Crazy!

 

[el-remmen]

In my "Revenants of Saltmarsh" campaign (being run concurrently with my newbie "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" campaign), the two PCs recruited more NPC's aid in finding a different way into the sea caves than how they entered in the last session - finding what locals called "Ye Ole Blow Holes" up on the bluff above the narrow strip of beach where they found the cave last time and climbed down the slick shaft into a chamber they had only guessed existed (and was judged by them too difficult to approach from below). The whole area was strewn with refuse and garbage from the locals. Inside they found the last of the mysterious "turkey-lizards" (actually immature velociraptors) who were using the chamber as access to their lair, dragging garbage they scavenged to keep the stunted otyugh who lived there from attacking them (anymore). The party fought the little (I mean, medium) otyugh and scavenged some dirty valuables from among the trash, and got back out - turning in the turkey-lizard heads for a bounty.

They then got the hook for the next adventure, "Roarwater Caves" from Dungeon #15.

 

[billd91]

In my Return to the Keep on the Borderlands/Princes of the Apocalypse campaign, with a mix of some newer, next-gen D&D players, the 2nd level party members managed to kill a troll. Key to the encounter were some good solid hits from a battle axe-wielding earth genasi and a timely searing smite from a paladin. The raging halfling barbarian, who had to that point been soaking the damage before the other two could bring their attacks to bear, was exhilarated to strike the final blow to lay the troll low (the barbarian player is brand new to actually playing D&D herself after years of it and other games being played around her).
The party was largely out of spell slots and beat up with no further healing on the horizon, so they went back to the keep to rest and tell their tales in the bar.

 

[el-remmen]

In my Return to the Keep on the Borderlands/Princes of the Apocalypse campaign

The last 3.xE campaign had a large portion based on "Keep of the Borderlands." Fun stuff!

 

[jasper]

More beans. As I mentioned earlier, my AL group has went to homebrew due to reasons. SO I opened the game up to a co-DM and PHB+2. Last night one of the players was still building his pc as we started. Two new to me players had no to very little knowledge on what they are playing. Some character sheets were not even totally filled out!
They threw another bean from bag of beans into the cultists sleeping room. And everyone started to run away except for the father son couple. Since the father threw the bean, I made him run the bulette, and me and co-dm ran the cultists. We won. But my co-dm made a good ruling.
Son, "Can I steal a bean from Dad's bag of beans."
Dad, "It is in my underwear!"
Co-DM, "Roll a 20 to do so."
The son tried twice and wanted to do again but since he had twice said he ran away, I ruled on the third time he could not.
I was also proud of the group of they focused fired on the devil instead of cultists in the temple fight.