D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[FXR]

After a few months playing Fengh Shui and The Expense, we returned to our sword-and-sorcery-ish D&D game.

The characters went back to the City-state of the Invincible Overlord and pour throught the Treaty on Things of the East, an old tome written in Elvish about the mysterious tripod vase that was stolen, with the unwilling help of one of the PC, by the Yuan-Ti. They didn't make much sense of most of the book but found out that the localisation of the island where that vase could be used was only in the memory of a human transformed into a stone statue and kept in the appartement of an elf in the elven city of Abalonne.

Meanwhile, one of the characters met his elder brother who explained to him that he was going to fight for Abalonne, as money was short.

The characters decided that their best option was to travel to Abalonne and join the elves in their battles againt the Northmen (pseudo-vikings). They knew that they would cross blades with their friend, the paladin Svana who had decided to leave a few weeks ago to join her people against the elves.

In Abalonne, the characters were well received buy the Grand Duke, who promptly took the Treaty on Things of the East but promised to offer them help. He insisted that the characters participate in the defense of the city.

One character and the sidekick of another character chose to help defend the (small) western gate of the city. They were facing a small group of Northwomen leaded by Svana. The character decided to go easy on Svana but had no pity against her crew. The Northwomen managed to bust the gate, but were quickly cornered.

The other characters join in the defense of the port, where the big Northmen fleet was. Things did not go well for the Northmen, who were losing much warriors, especially when one jarl and his followers turned tail (only to be quickly killed by a warboat that was invisible).

It looked like a landslide elven victory, until the characters heard a huge rumbling, than another. About thirty frost giants attacked the elven city, reducing several building in rubbles. The chaos caused by their attack and the elves' need to divert troops to fight these newcomers let the Northmen regain their momentum. The city was soon engulfed in chaos, as three factions were fighting (or fleeing) each other.

 

[humble minion]

Swingy. Natural 1s and 20s all over the place, which is a not-insignificant deal when you use critical hit and fumble tables.

The group was assaulting an orc stockade, intending to liberate captives that had been enslaved there. My paladin had a great day of it with the dice early, a critical smite let him demolish the elder Eye of Gruumsh in a round (it was a bad damage roll or he'd have done it in a single blow), and then another natural 20 with disadvantage in the next round from a javelin at the very edge of long range scored an 'instant death' critical hit on the alpha worg. Later, however, it all turned south as we ambushed the guards as they escorted the working party of slaves back from their diggings at the end of the day. The gnome rogue critical fumbled and took 1d10 damage from a savage flying rabbit (i didn't say it wasn't an occasionally silly critical fumble table...), the elf ranger critically fumbled and put an arrow in a captive's throat by mistake (and the fumble table, aptly, said he collapsed into a state of catatonia until roused), and both my paladin and the druid in giant elk form spent round upon round dueling with orcs and orogs, utterly unable to land blows as we all rolled 4 after 2 after 3 after 5, despite flanking and advantage.

Now ... we're stuck in the middle of the Spine of the World wilderness with winter coming on hard, no food, 40 rescued slaves to feed and care for, and our only assistance a tiny little blimp staffed with Cult of the Dragon loons who we've grudgingly joined forces with because a) they insist and we're afraid of what their boss will do if we say no, and b) the gnome is a compulsive tinkerer and if you've got a cool contraption he's your best friend no matter how bad an idea that might be. The people we were actually hoping to rescue aren't even here. And we've got no idea what the orcs were even digging for way the hell out in the middle of nowhere or who was telling them to look for it, and both of those questions worry us a great deal. Oh, and the captive the ranger accidentally killed was the most attractive one, and the cleric of Sune has decreed this a very grave sin (look, he didn't join the clergy of Sune because he was a particularly deep and contemplative guy, let's be honest here). Oh dear.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

110th session. Player characters are on the cusp of 20th level. We opened mid-combat in a cliffside fortress where the Cult of Tiamat was performing a ceremony to ritually murder an ancient silver dragon and use her power to free Tiamat from the Nine Hells. The PCs disrupted the ritual, slaying a trio of blue abishai and an ancient blue dragon. The elf arcane trickster rogue brought down the ancient blue almost single-handedly with a quiver full of arrows of dragon slaying. However, a horde of a hundred white abishai were converging on the PCs' position. The half-elf bard (who is now the Open Lord of Waterdeep) polymorphed into a CR18 Walking Statue of Waterdeep, picked up the dragon's corpse, and hurled it down in front of the abishai. "This is your god!" he roared. The abishai turned and fled. It was an awesome scene that showcased just how epic 19th level characters can be.

The silver dragon was still trapped in a magical slumber. And, oh yeah, she's the mother of the human beast master ranger. This is the first time he's met his mother. It's also the first time the PCs have encountered a good dragon. We roleplayed a quiet moment that dramatized the magnitude of the moment. After casting several spells to free the dragon, they realized the only way to do so was to go into the dragon's dream. One by one, the PCs touched the dragon, slumped unconscious, and awakened inside her dream.

The dream was a vision of the silver dragon's cliffside fortress transported to the first layer of Hell and surrounded by a sea of fire. The dragon was bound by shackles themed around dragon breath. The PCs needed to use their wits and abilities to figure out how to break the shackles. And that's when Tiamat showed up.

There was a palpable change in the players' energy when I said her name. It was a bit of a "Holy s--t!" moment. I've positioned Tiamat as the boss villain and so the players know a fight with her is on the horizon. But they weren't expecting her to appear now (even if it's only a dream version). Behind the screen, I wanted an opportunity to use Tiamat in a fight before the climax so I could see how she plays.

Next session: Tiamat rolls for initiative!

 

[el-remmen]

It went great!

We began with the PCs arriving in a new town (The Brackwater Styes - based on the Styes from the adventure of the same name in Ghosts of Saltmarsh) in order to meet up with the dwarven crew of a ship meant to take them to investigate the wreck of the Empress of the Waves (those who have played Salvage Operation would be familiar with this). They had heard the town was very corrupt, but were surprised at how corrupt it is and nearly started a donnybrook with the town guard a couple of times because they did not want to pay the bribes necessary to get around town and get the info they needed (they have plenty of money, but it was the principle of the matter). They paid one small bribe and then intimidated some other guards to let them by (they have a bit of a rep as adventurers at this point). They did add "take care of the guard situation in Brackwater" to their list of long term goals.

Soon they were on a several day sea journey. My one flub in my eagerness to get to the meat to the adventure was I forgot to describe the ship's passage through a canal to the open sea, which I will have to remember to describe on the way back, because it is an important site for a future adventure I have planned.

Once at the ship (you can see the prop one I made in this thread), three members of the party climbed aboard, while the druid wildshaped into an octopus and explored the outside of the ship and found a crack in the damaged hull he managed to slip through (I required a bunch of perception, investigation, and then athletics checks to notice the proper bubbles, follow them back to a hole big enough for an octopus to squeeze through with effort, and then actually squeeze through it).

The party did eventually meet back up - but in the meantime they fought the spider and ettercap minions of a tiefling cultist of Lolth who had taken over the ship. We left off as the first wave was defeated and they had captured the tiefling (they did not want to kill her for story reasons) when the second wave was arriving to save their mistress.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

5th level player characters in my Dragon Heist meets the Deck of Many Things mashup. They're in the middle of the heist of the Margaster Estate, which is my equivalent of the Cassalanter Villa, in the middle of a grand ball.

The halfling rogue and half-orc fighter started in the attic/garret, where they discovered a room with a locked door warded by arcane runes. They tried to open the door to no avail. However, the magic on the door telepathically alerted Lord Margaster that someone was trying to break in.

Meanwhile, the half-elf wizard deep in conversation with a scheming sorcerer from the Arcane Brotherhood, who hoped to recruit the wizard. The wizard cut short the conversation when he saw Lord Margaster rallying the guards and leading them toward the attic. Before they could get off the ballroom floor, the wizard threw out dust of sneezing and choking. Margaster and his men got a big whiff...as did a dozen guests of the ball. The wizard hurried past them up to the third floor. He failed his Stealth check and was intercepted by a guard. He took out the guard with magic missile. However, Lord Margaster and his men were now on his heels.

The wizard met up with the rogue and fighter in the attic. They blocked the trap door so Margaster's guards couldn't reach them. Then they tried to get through the arcane wards with a series of spells. This temporarily lowered the ward. Inside was a lushly appointed chamber occupied by a veiled woman. This is Margaster's wife (and the half-orc's mother FYI). She's been held captive in this room for reasons unknown.

Eventually the PCs realized they didn't have the magic needed to break her out. With no other choice, they escaped onto the roof. On the roof, they switched into guard uniforms they'd looted from elsewhere in the estate. They rappelled down the roof then snuck back into the estate's ground floor. One of Margaster's henchmen ordered them to follow her down to the basement.

In the basement, they found a temple to Siamorphe. (Margaster is the embodiment of Siamorphe's powers.) The temple was being looted by a team of drow thieves. The PCs had crossed paths with the drow in previous adventures. Like the PCs, the drow are seeking cards from the Deck of Many Things.

We ended there.

Next session: Drow!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

111th session. Characters reached 20th level at the end. That was a major milestone in my nerd career. Pretty cool.

Anyway, the PCs had entered the mind of an ancient silver dragon that was locked in a catatonic slumber by the Cult of Tiamat. Inside the dragon's dream, they found the dragon in Hell, bound with mystical wards, and tormented by Tiamat. As they worked to free the wards, Tiamat arrived in all of her CR 30 glory. The PCs had to split their focus between breaking the wards and fighting Tiamat. If slain in the dream, they would be unable to awaken in the real world. Tiamat is a murder machine. By the second round she had two of the PCs down and was virtually untouched. Soon only one PC was still standing. But that PC revived the bard, who used the healing powers from the Rod of Resurrection to get the other PCs back on their feet. The players broke the last mystical bond, freed the silver dragon, and awoke from the vision. It was awesome. Mostly, this session was a chance for me to take Tiamat for a spin and see how she matched up with 20th level characters. She's definitely a serious threat. But I think if properly prepared they could win.

Next session: More dragons!

 

[jasper]

Interesting. They took a sideways on me and went hunting for pirates in Baldur's Gate. Including a shot of their minis.

 

[Umbran]

Our last D&D session really got our goats..

In that the PCs were riding herd (literally) on a herd of goats. Giant goats, intended for use in the mountains as pack animals. Why are 8th level characters working as goatherds, you ask? Because wyverns.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Last Session was the finale to our 5E Dark Sun campaign in which our heroes took down an immortal sorcerer king, freed a city-state of slavery, and retired the campaign with a new challenge: running a city state deprived of the rulership it has been used to for the last 1000 years.

 

[ccs]

Pretty slow & irritating to the DM (me) & 3/4 players as player #4 kept bogging things down arguing about wich way to go, how to deal with a problem, etc. Just generally being a difficult ass.

It's not hard, it's Curse of Strahd. They're the right lv, they've got several of the items, the clues/card readings + their own divinations etc all point to the rest of the items and the bad guy being right up there in the haunted castle....
Grrr.