D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[THEMNGMNT]

I hope the Ranger's player was kinda aware of what was gonna happen. Cuz that kinda sucks if you killed the character totally out of hand.

A little from Column A, a little from Column B.

Having your character die at the hand of a resurrected former PC now in thrall to an evil god trapped in Hell and having your death be the key that releases said god from Hell is always going to suck.

However, the characters are 20th level and at this point death is but a speed bump. The ranger will be back. And he'll be pissed.

I like to think that after almost four years playing together in this campaign there's a little bit of trust.

 

[Weiley31]

However, the characters are 20th level and at this point death is but a speed bump. The ranger will be back. And he'll be pissed.

I like to think that after almost four years playing together in this campaign there's a little bit of trust.

Got ya. That's understandable.

 

[Zardnaar]

Battle of Sasserine Tonight. 6 level 6 PCs.

Basically the imperialistic elves sent a fleet to invade Sasserine.

Previous sessions they...

Convinced Arkhosia to dispatch a legion plus ships.

Retrieved prism flower artillery.

Convinced Gnomes to send an ironclad with Gnomish fire launchers.

Sasserine was well defended.
They scouted the invasion fleet and ran rings around the opposing scouts. Identified the leaders flags and Vanthus Vanderboren ship.

The council deployed the Dragonborn legion in the landing area the PCs identified as.

Think Omaha Beach.

Waves of aquatic Simic hybrids added to various NPCs. +1 AC and water breathing. 5th wave was actual proper troops.

Used mutated reef sharks as well with legs and a bit of Spellcasters. Mostly CR 2.

AKA cannon fodder.

Each wave only lasted 2 rounds or so and one of them involved running up the beach.

This was deliberate the opposing commander is limited and the waves are mostly to deplete the PCs.

5 waves only lasted 9 rounds or so. Each wave was mostly to suck up spell effects and make them deplete their resources.

Kinda funny seeing them mulch into lightning bolts, fireballs and spirit guardians.

Waves 6-8 will have dispel magic, casters etc available.

No short rests though.

Have to finish up next week. Probably push them off the beach but have them withdraw to Sasserine for Vanthus's final assault.

Or have the Dragonborn win but PCs have to be dispatched to Sasserine.

 

[jasper]

My game went full gonzo. They try to feed an egg to a bearded devil name Thoss. I said disadvantage and they still manage to do it. And what is good for the monster is good for the pc. Thoss fed an egg to a pc. PC did not survive. The Egg was from a bag of beans. As we halted the session to discuss, long rest, short rest and what to do with the bodies. The group decided to stop doing AL and do homebrew.

 

[RoiC.]

Pretty meh, honestly. My country entered a 3rd lockdown recently, so we got back to online session. We had a few session over Roll20 during the first lockdown, but I hated it, so we took a break for a while. This time, we used only Discord and Owlbear Rodeo for combat, to make it more simple. However, I still felt very constricted, and felt like my improv and acting abilities were stunted. It went ok and the players had a really good time, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I do in fact to face, real life sessions.

I told them we'll take another break, until we can meet face to face again. I want to enjoy playing.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Got ya. That's understandable.

To be totally honest, killing a PC always causes me some anxiety. I want the threat of death to be real so players feel like there are meaningful consequences to their actions, but at the same time I want my players to have a great time. It's a tricky balance. That said, I'm hearing positive feedback on this final phase of the campaign.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

19th session in Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup set in "my version" of the Realms. Three PCs at 5th level.

Last session, they entered the Margaster Estate (same map as the Cassalanter Villa) to steal/collect several cards from the Deck of Many Things. They soon discovered that a drow team had the same mission. In the secret temple below the estate, the PCs battled the drow and the Margasters. The PCs killed one of the adult children of Lord Margaster. But a drow assassin grabbed the cards and escaped into the sewers. The PCs pursued.

This session began with the PCs capturing the drow. Margaster guards were on their heels. The drow told the PCs the smart play would be to let him go with all the cards. Why? Well, turns out he's the brother of the female drow who is the love interest of the PC wizard. If the drow loses the cards to the PCs, his matron mother will kill both him and his sister in retribution. The PCs agree to let him go. Now that they know who has these cards, the PCs tell themselves, they can always go back and collect them later.

The PCs decide to focus on the Margasters while they have the advantage. The Margasters own a fortress outside of Waterdeep known as Thornhold. There, they keep a silver chalice imbued with the power of Siamorphe, the goddess of the divine right to rule. This chalice gives Lord Margaster his otherworldly charisma. Additionally, it can be used to bring his daughter back from the dead. The PCs fabricate a fake chalice to swap out with the real one.

They need to get to Thornhold before Lord Margaster. They book a ship -- a rumrunner captained by a connection of the PC rogue. Unfortunately, the PCs previously pissed off the Kraken League (my version of the pirate captains of Luskan with a bit of abolethic mind control in the mix). Halfway to Thornhold they are overtaken by a Kraken League warship. The captain of the rumrunner apologizes for ratting them out to the Kraken League. Nothing personal; just business. "This isn't personal either," says the PC rogue as he stabs the captain, "just business." The PCs quickly dispatch the rumrunner's crew. But the warship is almost upon them.

And that's where we ended things. It was a super fun session where a lot happened in only two hours.

Next session: Boarding actions!

 

[humble minion]

We were very measured and judicious. We did a lot of negotiating, and backed off rather than slaughter a bunch of people, and had a debate about the nature of evil and whether gods were fixed in their nature or could change, and we cast divinations, and assembled old allies to consult and do some long-term strategising - and then an ancient blue dragon kicked down the door (we're level 7...) and we ended the session by rolling initiative.

Next session could be interesting. Or short.

 

[Eis]

we had a very nice weekend of Rise of the Runelords 3.5 style. crossed our DM up by coming at the area we were entering by an alternate route and forced him to improvise quite a bit which he is actually very good at. Personally I used my new fluorite dice that my son got me for Christmas to great effect, rolling quite a few criticals. Easily was the most badass that my dwarven kensai felt since I have created him

 

[The Green Hermit]

My kids were both loopy, so we didn't get very far today. Still, our caravan got out of the Fields of the Dead, and a few things of note happened. First, one of our PCs was found dead with a dagger through the heart. (The player had to leave the game.) Without blowing our cover, we discovered that one of the wagons she had talked to the day before had at least one dragon cultist in it. (We already knew the other wagon she had talked to was a cultist wagon.) After a quick burial and discussion about whether to send her possessions back to her family (which happily lived not too far from the caravan's path) or if we should loot them (which I vetoed) the caravan continued on its way.

The other thing of note that happened was that the caravan spotted a herd of deer with a golden stag. My DMPC, who is a ranger, noted that it reminded her of her spirit animal. She went along on the hunting expedition, though, because she wanted to bring some venison back to the caravan -- and she was secretly hoping to save the golden stag. No luck on that latter part. Our dwarf brought it down in two shots, only to discover that it was really a woodelf that he had shot -- naked except for an antler headband. A quick investigation showed that the headband was cursed and had caused the transformation into a stag. (They put it on the dwarf's horse and could barely get it off.) They decided to sell it, with the dwarf getting half the money and the rest split between the other adventurers.

They also decided that it was wisest to just tell the caravan that the stag got away and not to mention the dead elf.