D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[ccs]

The current campaign has come to an end & Strahd has escaped "Barovia" and is now loose in the real world.
So a victory for team Evil!

Our heroes: A human wizard, a human vengeance paladin, a human UA monster-hunter ranger, a halfling monk, an elven pirate, and a 1/2orc (revenant) barbarian (who's purpose is the destruction of Strahd).

Two sessions ago:
Things were going fairly well for the heroes.
They infiltrated Castle Ravenloft, caught up to Strahd as he was in the middle of prepping the final step of his current master (escape) plan {use the Apparatus from I10/Mordentshire to permenantly transpose himself into the real world), and beat the bat guano out of him. Damned near put him to 0hp. To escape he turned into mist & fled in order to regenerate.
And thus the hunt was on for him....
Well, the PCs found him by accident though via a wandering monster check. (CoS says to check for an encounter everytime the PCs enter an otherwise empty area)
And I'd been keeping careful track of the rounds - so I knew how many HP Strahd had regained. He wasn't topped off yet.
This time the PCs DID knock him to zero HP.
End of session.

1 session ago:

• A new player joined the game. We randomly determined what room they were starting in & they explored from there. The assumption was that they'd eventually link up with the other characters.
• Now at zero HP & in mist form Strahd has two hours to get back to his crypt. Moving at '20/round. And so began a slow speed chase - the party strolling along after this cloud of mist.... And being kited into encounters aimed at slowing them down, separating them, or killing them. They always managed to keep one PC on his tail though.

Until he slid under a door in the "Larders of Ill Omen" lv & blended into the 3' of mist & fog the description says covers this hall.
With no way to tell where he was & 5 exits the PCs began searching. Two triggered an elevator trap & shot themselves to the near top of the one tower. The other two encountered Cyrus & coerced the poor mongralman into leading them to Strahds coffin.
Cyrus of course then attempted to lead the Paladin & Wizard as far away from the crypt & through as many new encounters/traps as possible. He succeeded in getting the Paladin killed & the Wizard was running low on both HP & spells.
Meanwhile the other two a barbarian polymorphed into a giant ape & a tiny 1/2ling monk riding on his shoulder, were having great fun in the upper towers playing D&D Rampage. Climbing about the outside of the towers, punching through windows to crush/eat witches, chucking a vampire spawn to the courtyard far below, hurling the Clockwork Jester clean into the chasm that surrounds the spire Ravenloft occupies....
They DID run into the new players hero though! An Elven Pirate.
Strahd of course easily made it to his crypt & now only has to survive another hour of helplessness.....
About 3/4 of the way through the session both groups linked up, found their way into the crypt lv., & started systematically tearing open crypts searching for Strahd.
Assuming they're onto a critical countdown, they proceeded straight down the widest path in the catacombs (because of the giant ape) demolishing crypts & monsters and burning HP/resources until they reach the crypt of the King/Queen.
Creative use of a tiny hut spell got them past the "trap" that guards this crypt. They proceed to trash this crypt.
And then? They decide that - since they're all extremely low on HP/spells/resources - to take a short rest.
End of session.

*???
These are not inexperienced 5e players. They know how long a short rest is. And they know that's likely going to exceed the clock they're on.
Turns out their reasoning seemed to be that they'd simply return to where they'd interrupted Strahd initially & disrupt his plans again.

Last session:
Too bad for them Strahds not stupid.
After his refreshing nap + regening to full HP he simply followed the trail of destruction, determined where the PCs were holed up (and why) - and summoned every monster still in the crypts + hoards of Strahd Zombies to lurk outside his parents crypt & attack anything exiting it.
He then went back to finishing his Bon Voyage prep, confident that the idiots wouldn't be interrupting him this time. The only thing actually standing in his way was a very small (11%) chance of actual failure caused to the Apparatus by unnoticed damage during the initial fight with the party.

So, having completed their short rest, the party heads up the stairs back to the catacomb lv. And finds a virtual wall of monsters blocking their way & extending out of sight into the darkness.
In the front ranks there were Hellhounds, a wraith, a ghost, a spectral warrior, 3 vampiric brides, 3 giant wolf spiders, and a Nightmare.
Behind these were numerous whites & ghouls.
Behind those were the hoards of Strahd Zombies barely visible in the gloom....

Press play on my phone & :
"And the man in the back said everyone attack & it turned into a ballroom blitz...."
"ROLL INTIATIVE."
Only 1 player picked up on the fact that I used this exact music clip/quote waaaay back in the 1st session of the campaign. Bonus xp to her.

6 rounds later Strad activated the Apparatus & the fight abruptly ended.
I had one of the players roll me a %. They rolled 19%.
Looking at my notes..... Transference works, Apparatus + tower explodes, and the entire remaining population of Mordentshire is swapped into Barovia in exchange for Strahd + an equal # of monsters*. And echoes of evil laughter.
All the monsters fighting the PCs suddenly became very confused/frightened townsfolk.
The surviving PCs + a bunch of villages are now trapped in demi-plane Barovia & Strahd plus hordes of monsters* (mostly undead) are free in the real world.

*That revenant 1/2orc Barbarian? Yeah, he was counted as a monster. He's the only PC to get out of demi-plane Barovia & now his 1 year clock has started (it was suspended while in the demi-plane).

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I forgot to mention in my last post that at one point an NPC attempted to high five the party monk. The player decided his monk would be unfamiliar with the concept and assume he was being attacked, leading to his character striking the NPC's arm for 19 bludgeoning damage.

 

[humble minion]

Finally, after much planning and diversionary attacks and recon - the attack on Grudd Haug.

We were cooperating with a group of female hill giants who resented their husbands being commandeered by our target Chief Guh for her raiding parties. With the strategic use of a potion of growth, we were able to make their leader look a lot more intimidating than normal, and that drew out a lot of Grudd Haug's defences while the PCs and their allies (human light cleric, gnome arcane trickster, dragonborn devotion paladin, elf hunter ranger, NPC firbolg druid, and a very powerful but dubiously trustworthy NPC vampire tiefling paladin/bard) pulled off a near-flawless old-fashioned 3e-style scry and fry, courtesy of a sneaky druid scouting in rat form, and the vampire's Helm of Teleportation.

We teleport in, chief Guh is hugely fat and largely immobile, but she throws a mean rock and has a couple of oni, a hill giant, and some nasty ogres in attendance. It briefly rains fireballs, erupting earth, dragon's breath, ice storm, a waterskin of lamp oil carried by the arcane trickster's mage hand, and arrows while the paladin uses a Sleet Storm from a magic item to cut off the door we assume the most dangerous reinforcements would come from (and to prevent us getting in a fight with the hill giant door guard, who was the husband of our hill giant ally and who we very much didn't want to kill). The ogres go down quickly to spells, one oni gets filled with arrows before the paladin tries out his brand new Great Weapon Master feat and takes it down, the other has time to get off a cone of cold (mostly hitting the last ogre...) before the vampire dismembers it. Guh goes down in a rain of arrows, flaming oil and Divine Smite. The hill giant, seeing its chief was down, flees (we'd calculated this would happen, Guh seemed to keep her minions in check with fear), and we're left standing around saying 'was that all'?

The gnome does some exploring and slickly saves a captive halfling from being thrown in to an oven by goblin servitors, while the rest of the party cleans up a small unit of orc guards and some worgs, (and takes more damage in the process than they did from the climatic fight with Guh). Highlight of the day was the formidable 8th level ranger, with a bad run of dice rolls combining with a custom critical fumble table, first missing an attack so humiliatingly badly that all of the rest of the party who could see her got disadvantage for the rest of the round because we were laughing too hard, and then getting shoved off a balcony by a basic goblin (who nearly escaped to get away with it, and would have if he hadn't stopped and spent an action grabbing some of the late Guh's loot)

Next on the agenda is (hopefully) convincing the remainder of Guh's giants that their chief is dead, hopefully also that they should give up this 'gather an army' thing and disperse into the hills again. We found the magic key we were here for (we had to Banish Guh's dying form to get it out from under her, mind you...), but we also will need to check out the lower levels to see if there are any more captives (and loot!), and try to thin out the sizeable numbers of orcs, hobgoblins, oni, ogres, and goblins that Guh had coerced into her army. Fortunately, we can probably rely on the giants to help a bit with the last. I don't entirely trust the hill giants to be capable of dealing with whatever sneakiness the remaining oni might be planning though, we might need to attend to that ourselves...

Then, sometime to regroup, think about what to do about the vampire, then decide where to go next. Obvious destinations are Waterdeep or possibly the ancient temple of the ancestral Father-God of all giants, cos we've got some questions to ask that guy...

 

[Quickleaf]

I had my FLGS Candlekeep group last night. New girl lost her pc sheet and I had to pull a copy of the pregen out and give it to her. New guy has the D&D beyond app but did not do his home work of reading the srd. He even forgot to pick spells. Bob one my special needs players help the new girl read her character sheet and point out stuff. He also put together the clues for inspiration. Freaked out Bob's dad on why if the ghouls were turned they were targeting his and his son's pcs. One I forgot turn monster can't attack the party. And two he forgot the graves they arrived in were glowing. I forgot wight's shoot twice with a long bow. Oh the Book of the Raven chapter in Candlekeep,

Way to share your love for the hobby!

Last session ran I ran a haunting scene. In the moment, I thought it was an ok to average session, with the scene taking 2-3x as long as anticipated, but feedback from my players was super positive, they really enjoyed the creepiness and mystery, and are still trying to figure out what it was they faced.

Ghul haunting within a tomb, where the PCs were holding captives, with the ghul sowing discord via false whispers of treachery, magically aging, making people time-delayed teleport when moving between rooms, scratching/rattling/cold spots, blood names appearing on the wall dealing Wisdom drain, and manifesting shadowy phantasmal force illusions vs. the 2 undead PCs. Was inspired by Dael Kingsmill's Ghost video.

We ended the session with their return to the city amidst a religious celebration and handled some logistics. Definitely sped up the pacing here and enjoyed some light role-playing vignettes involving Egyptian beer and bad jokes. One that I nailed was the Pharaoh's advisor disguised as a flower seller using metaphorical language to convey secret messages to one of the PCs. Did a good job framing that their next challenge is gathering evidence of this conspiracy they've uncovered to present to the Pharaoh – players were starting to really run with that idea when we ended.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

24th session of my homebrew "Reign of Neverwinter" campaign that started off as a playthrough of Dragon of Icespire Peak.

We began with a heart-to-heart talk. We have five or six players (depending upon how you count). Three of them show up consistently. The rest do not (for very valid reasons, to be fair). So we had a chat among our core group of players regarding how to best handle that. With that out of the way, we rolled some dice!

Neverwinter has appointed a warden, Lady Taneth, to run Phandalin. Something about her is shady. The player characters gifted her a lamp...which happens to belong to the genie warlock. Taneth brought the lamp to her estate and placed it in the palm of a large statue in the reception hall.

The warlock cast find familiar to summon a rat, then used the rat to scout the estate. In the study, she found Taneth conspiring with a mysterious hooded figure against the PCs. The figure exited out the back door. The PCs were soon to discover that the figure belonged to a group of rival adventurers they had previously tangled with.

We then cut away to the room at the inn where the dwarf tempest cleric slumbered. One of the rival adventurers--a female barbarian--stepped into the room through an arcane gate. She grabbed the dwarf, threw him through the gate, and gathered up his gear. The dwarf was seized by the other rival adventurers. They forced him to look into a Mirror of Life Trapping. He was sucked into the mirror.

The hooded figure stepped forward. Lowering the cloak, it was revealed as a changeling. It assumed the form of the dwarf and donned his gear. Then it headed into Phandalin in search of the PCs.

The remaining rival adventurers began the journey to Lastport (my version of Port Llast) with the Mirror--and the dwarf.

Once Taneth went to bed, the warlock exited the lamp. At that point, the statue animated. (Actually a CR 10 Stone Golem.) The golem attacked the warlock. The warlock fled, taking a hit from the golem and losing half her hit points.

Here, we introduced the new character of the dwarf's player--a gnome arcane trickster thief. He jumped in to defend the warlock from the golem. The third player--a half-orc vengeance paladin--also entered the fray. Their combined attacks shattered the golem.

The good news: They gained enough XP to reach 6th level!

The bad news: Lady Taneth--rightful ruler of Phandalin--witnessed all of this from her bedroom window.

The PCs decided it was time to flee town.

East of Phandalin is a fortified bridge. No communication has been heard from the garrison in a week. Previously, Taneth had proposed the PCs they investigate. The PCs are now curious why Taneth cares...so that's where they're headed.

Next session: Hags!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

7th session of my Marvel Heroic mini-campaign. Players of Spider-Man and Wolverine were out for the night; Hulk, Ant-Man, and Punisher were in. In the previous session, a captive Mentallo had revealed the prison breakout at the Raft was masterminded by the Kingpin...and he gave them the location of the Kingpin's hideout.

This session started with montages as the heroes prepped for their showdown. Mechanically, each player spent the XP they had earned thus far to upgrade abilities or get unlockables. Then we got to the action. The Kingpin was holed up in an old, abandoned tenement that had once been the juvenile home where he was housed as a youth. He was not in his right mind. (The mystery behind that is for future sessions...)

Guarding him were Bullseye, Tombstone, and Typhoid Mary. Tombstone proved to be tough due to his Invulnerable SFX, so the heroes had to dogpile on him to get him down. When the Punisher took out Bullseye with his Full-Auto SFX he quipped, "Bullseye!" That got the biggest laugh of the night. And one of Typhoid Mary's personalities had a crush on the Punisher while another personality tried to murder him...the result was a series of Mental attacks that almost brought the Punisher down.

We stopped early so the other two players could be present for the finale with the Kingpin.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Apparently I forgot to write the recap for the 24th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. I'll keep it short.

PCs are on the cusp of 6th level: half-orc fighter, half-elf wizard, halfling rogue.

This was the climactic fight against Lord Margaster and his minions in Thornkeep, just north of Waterdeep. The PCs had intended to steal an artifact, the Silver Chalice, that Margaster could use to resurrect his daughter. Nothing went as planned. The Chalice ended up in Margaster's hands. The PCs were surrounded by Margaster, his bodyguards, a couple clerics, and a griffon or two. It was an epic fight. At the end, Margaster was slain, his minions routed, and the Silver Chalice was claimed.

Next session: Return to Waterdeep!

 

[Richards]

Yesterday we ran our first session in my 3.5 "Dreams of Erthe" campaign since January. The PCs rescued their second dream victim, although "rescue" might not be the right word for it as the 60-year-old grandfather had spent the last month or so in a continuous orgy dream and he was not particularly pleased at being forced back awake to his life as a turnip farmer.... It raised some interesting questions as to who might be behind the dream plague and how trapping a horny old man into a sex dream for a month was advancing whatever goals the person responsible might have.

Then the adventurers investigated a group of needlefolk lairing in an old silver mine, which brought them into conflict with the crippled green hag and her bugbear bodyguard who had recently made the place their lair. But they were relative pushovers compared to the "lair guardians" they'd set up: a yellow musk creeper and a trio of yellow musk zombies made up of a horse, a human fighter, and one of the human clerics responsible for getting my son's half-orc cleric aspirant thrown out of the temple of the All-Father the morning of his initiation rites. And he and the fighter PC each got the "signature items" that will be with them over the course of this campaign, growing in power with them as they level up: a shield for the half-orc cleric/paladin and a bastard sword for the fighter. The next two adventures will see the other three PCs getting their own respective signature items. And then we'll continue to see if they can unravel the mysteries of this dream plague....

Johnathan

 

[ccs]

A refreshing break from weekly prep now that the 5e campaign has closed & one f the other guys is running some PF for a bit (I.E. however long it takes to complete book #2 of the AP).

We've resumed the PF AP Ruins of Azlant (think that's its name) that he'd been running last year until the pandemic + politics crashed our Sunday game & we lost 1/2 the group.
All I had to do was pull out my PF folder & review my existing characters.
The other players spent about 1/2 the session creating characters.
The rest of the session was all RP introducing them to the town/NPCs/filling them in on what had been going on.
Towards the end of the session we set out to visit a local Water Naga on a diplomatic mission. I'm sure that complications will ensue this coming week.

 

[Older Beholder]

Rather than an exposition dump as an intro to the big battle we're soon to face, the DM had us roll for a random character in the backstory we were being told.

I got to play a goblin that was as dumb as a brick, and heard voices telling her to kill the other party members.
We were a group of miners working on some recently discovered caves. After some tunnel collapses we were sent to a different area where strange things began to happen, cutting away the stone revealed eyes in the walls, black sap oozed from the walls eventually forming some ancient evil that absorbed each party member into it's mass.

I ended up the last player standing before my character took her own life rather than be consumed by the unspeakable horror.
It was a really fun session, knowing we were all going to die anyway we did a bunch of things that we probably wouldn't do with our own characters, like split the party, take crazy risks, etc...