D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[ccs]

The Paladin woke up lying partially clothed, missing gear, deep in the woods, surrounded by random characters (not the same ones the others had been playing to date), feeling like *** & realizing that the past 3 months we just spent playing OOTA was a drunken/drug/magic induced dream.

See, back at 2nd lv he & the other PCs had been attending an all night bacchanal at a tavern.
And at the end of the session he'd stated that because he couldn't make next weeks game, that his character was going to pass out. OK.... That's not the wisest choice of how to explain your absence given the environment & the fact that you've been actively interfering in the fun of every PC & 1/2 the NPCs....
Among a variety of amusing & embarrassing things the other players did to him (and filmed - yes, there was a camera crew present) one drunken GOO warlock NPC inserted nightmare suggestions into his head.

The other players all knew that OOTA was merely a bad dream the paladin was having. And that it would end when either the Paladin figured it out/died/the group seemed to not be enjoying the adventure any longer. The game would then reset to the lvs/equipment they were at the end of the party. (when the pally player had to miss). And they knew he'd awake in the woods. They suggested making an alt party to be with him when he awoke & each chose a different mini that'd been at the tavern.
And so, based on the leads/rumors/etc he'd encountered we randomly determined where he was.
Turns out that late in the party he arose in drunken stupor, recruited some random people, & drug them off to "Save the Forest Queen".

So this last session saw the paladin + 3 randos go investigate what was wrong with the Forest Queen (a nymph grieving the probable loss of her husband/lover due to another of the plot hooks revealed during the party ).
He also learned where he was in relation to the tavern. And so swung back to it to see if he could recover his missing gear (and maybe burn it down due to the vast immorality that he'd witnessed). .
Once there the other players switched back to their real characters (who'd learned that they & the paladins fates are intertwined thanks to a drunken tarot reading the night before) & joined him in his quest to find the nymphs lover.

This week they'll head off into the Northern Woods.

 

[pemerton]

Just as the title says, I want to hear about your latest session of DnD, or any other game really.

My last session was Prince Valiant - write up here.

 

[Lanefan]

How was my last session?

Nonexistent. Three of my four players were either out of town (2) or at a concert (1).

The session before that?

Also nonexistent. Three of my four players were out of town.

Maybe this Sunday...

 

[Bitbrain]

My last session went really well.

The PCs returned from the distant past (long story), cross referenced what they knew, cast legend lore and concluded that the BBEG was indeed the Big Bad.

They didn’t get the chance to do anything about it, because the local tyrant who they had ROYALLY pissed off two sessions ago (by freeing a bunch of slaves from his iron mine) found them, and dispatched his Challenge 13 Lava Drake “attack dog” to capture them.

The most intense combat I’ve yet run as a DM ensued in the basement of the PC’s fortress, ending with the Drake down to 34 hit points (from 234) and the PCs (3 10th-level, 1 7th-level, and a new player who started at 4th-level) all unconscious.

The players gave me a run for my money. It was an AWESOME fight.
The Druid was summoning animals like crazy, the three martial characters were going toe-to-toe with the drake, the bard was on a magic carpet, and the drake itself was turning the floor and walls to lava by his mere presence.
It also had a breath weapon that dealt fire and lightning damage.

The PCs awoke to find themselves imprisoned in the arena. They were introduced to the crowd as enemies of the state, and had their first gladiator match.

The Elf Druid cast sleet storm over everyone, the Mul Bard used Destructive Wave to great effect, and the Eldritch Knight, Halfling Champion, and Hunter Ranger dispatched the survivors.

All of their equipment is still in their possession, but until their allies manage to rescue them, the PCs are forced to wear these magic collars that prevent them from escaping, attacking the tyrant, or refusing to participate in the match.

 

[Reynard]

Last night was the third (and now final) session of the prologue of Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. I am running it in Eberron and am going with the conceit that House Cannith is extremely interested recovering Kwalish's notes if not actually artifacts in order to reposition themselves after the great losses they have suffered with the Mourning, Warforged emancipation and the general peace.

The Party has been playing cat and mouse with a pair of House Cannith agents as they traveled from Korranberg (where the adventure began) to Dragonroost (where they find Godfrey). Godfrey was a veteran of the Last War and a captive of the Monastery. Upon his fleeing the Monastery, he stole Gearbox (which isn't a modron but a weird proto-warforged). Gearbox (still just a sphere as far as the PCs know) just wants to roll on back to the Monastery. The PCs managed to get a drunk Godfrey to talk about his experiences so they decided to free Gearbox from its pen and are going to follow it all the way.

In order to keep Godfrey from talking to the House Cannith agents when they finally show up (the PCs sabotaged their horseless carriage last session to slow them down) they have kidnapped Godfrey. That's not going to go well once he wakes up...

Three sessions now and now combat at all. I expect that to change soon as they are likely to have an encounter or two in the mountains before reaching the Monastery.

 

[Imaculata]

During the last session of my pirate campaign, my players finally confronted a gargantuan octopus/beholder hybrid in a lake on the island of Stoneoar. This creature (named Cyratophobia) summoned forth several Callers of the Deep (water elementals), and Horrific Vasuthants (undead oozes that have an aura that consumes light).

For the last few sessions my players had been preparing and over-preparing for this encounter. Each night that they delayed their inevitable fight with the creature, I escalated matters by having Cyratophobia do more and more horrible things to the surrounding lake town and its dwarven people. Meanwhile the players were playing a clever cat and mouse game with the creature, by trying to make secret preparations, and deliberately feeding the beast incorrect information. Birus the Traveler, the current leader of the dwarves, had instructed his men to dig a trench in secret. This trench was cleverly hidden behind dummy market stalls, and covered with a sail. In this trench his best riflemen waited for the creature, while cannons were hidden inside some of the houses near the lake behind closed shutters.

But one night the water of the lake became poisoned and black with some sort of putrid ink. Loud splashing sounds could be heard from the lake, and it was clear that an attack was at hand. But because it was a clouded night, it was very dark on the lake...

The assault started with Cyratophobia flinging petrified dwarves at the shore, thus obliterating these former dwarves in front of their people, and intimidating the dwarven riflemen. It also used its telekinesis to collapse a house on top of the players, while chanting and summoning more minions. The players quickly rallied all their allies and begin targeting the front line of the creature's minions and the riflemen opened fire. The huge clouds of white smoke made it hard to see their opponents however. The players split up to deal with individual minions, some of which made their way into the houses where the cannons were hidden. The captain of the party leaped into his steam powered diving suit, which for the last couple of days he had modified to carry a powerful lens-weapon.

As the players were distracted by the minions, Cyratophobia used its Jet ability to flink itself forward into melee. Its huge tentacles immediately spread in all directions, and dozens of eyes opened up on each tentacle to unleash beam attacks, just as a beholder is known to do. It also opened a massive central eye where normally the mouth of an octopus would be, which much like a Beholder cast forward a cone of energy that suppressed magic (including all magical buffs that the players had casted on themselves).

The captain of the party had been waiting for this moment, and fired his lens-weapon directly at the central eye, knowing that the creature was sensitive to light. This dealt a large amount of damage, but it also exposed him to a barrage of melee attacks by the creature. Meanwhile the other players were hacking away at the tentacles, and were able to sever 3 of them. But it was the Druid of the party whose sunlight spell was able to end the fight in a spectacular fashion.

The best moment in this session, was when the captain decided to hand back the holy hammer of the dwarves to their leader (Birus), shortly after the battle. Although the hammer was a powerful artifact, the player reasoned he didn't need it anymore, and it belonged to the dwarves. I made a note of this action to give bonus exp later.

Now with its sinister guardian dead, the players can finally explore the ancient dwarven temple that lies on the bottom of the lake. Will they find a solution to the curse that has haunted the dwarves for centuries?

 

[Retreater]

I got the rare opportunity to be a player. One of the regular players wanted to GM "City of Mist" - a rules-lite game that felt like a supers game, but it's described as something like personifying concepts of legends. We had pregen characters, and I went against type (usually the charismatic face or "smart" one) and I played a thick-headed former boxer turned into a plant creature. I mixed together Drax, Groot, and Swamp Thing into a single concept.
We were investigating a theft and cult murders that were connected. I ended up going all out (it was a one-shot, after all), turned into a huge giant and ripped down the cathedral and destroyed the altar, preventing the ritual. Then I was shot down by the leader. The other players got to finish the adventure.
So I got to play against type, forcing the other players to step up to do most of the information gathering and charismatic roleplaying.
Good times.

 

[the Jester]

@the Jester that sounds rad as hell! Is there a sourcebook that you use for airship stuff, or do you homebrew it yourself?

No, it's homebrewed, though I am going to modify it to align with the vehicle rules in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. And the planar helm is based on Spelljammers in 4e.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My last session was my open table that's running through Tomb of Annihilation. The PCs had fun interacting with a chwinga, then fought some undead and the King of Feathers did a swing-by. They had just gotten to Nangalore by the end.

The session ended up being more combat-heavy than I had planned, mostly because a few players stalled out on their turns and just sat there thinking for too long. I hate to do this, but I think I'm going to start telling them that we'll come back to them after the next person's turn if they don't know what they're going to do when their turn comes up. A little more draconian than I like, but I asked them both if they wanted me to come back to them - they both said no and proceeded to still take forever to do something. I don't mind when players have questions, but the just sitting there in silence and thinking? I can see the enthusiasm draining away from the rest of the table.

 

[jayoungr]

Awful. It was supposed to be the culmination of a six-month campaign (AL season 4 with medium-to-heavy reworking for a home table). The BBEG won, thanks mostly to a too-powerful charm ability that I should have spotted when reading the statblock, but somehow didn't. So the two heaviest hitters were charmed very early in the fight and the remaining three limped along for about 10 more rounds, doing very little damage and taking turns going down and reviving each other, until the boss finished her goal and left them there.

Have been kicking myself ever since for not realizing that a 24-hour charm without a saving throw every round was something I should have changed or at least planned for. I don't think the players minded losing, but it was unfun, and that's totally my fault. Let all who read this heed my example and watch for pitfalls like this in your games.

We're supposed to have a meeting on Saturday to discuss future plans for the game, so I'm planning to offer the group a couple of options to recover from this disaster. I can't leave it here.