D&D General How Was Your Last Session?
Greenfield
Adventurer
I found myself getting really ticked off and frustrated. Almost walked out, except that I'm the host.
Yeah, it's a semi-virtual game, but I have the battle mat and miniatures on my table, and set scenery and positions for everyone.
Our game (3.5) world has been described as fairly hard core feudal, complete with serfs (look it up if you're unfamiliar with the term.)
Our group was approached to see if we would help overthrow an evil King.
First problem: We only have this one person's word that the King is a problem.
Second problem: My character, who is true neutral and really doesn't like "society" still knows better than to have her name associated with any rebellion or plot against a monarchy, even an evil one in a foreign land. Nobility everywhere will defend even an enemy from a commoner taking action against a monarch. It's just not done.
In the real world, medieval setting even when at war, if a commoner struck at a nobleman he was in trouble. Even his own side would jump on him for that. Monarchs ruled by divine right, and for a commoner to attack a noble was seen as a rejection of the divinely ordained order. Bad juju.
Anyway, she advised that we very loudly reject the offer, even if we intended to help. Public rejection of the very idea, while slipping the guy a note saying where we'd meet him.
Idea rejected as if it wasn't made.
We ended up in the presence of the local Duke, on another matter, and the subject came up. My character bent down and whispered something to one character. The DM had NPCs responding as if she (my Druidess) had spoken loud and clear.
I emphasized to the DM, "WHISPERED conversation", and made another comment. Again, the room responded as if my character had been using a bullhorn.
Speaking out of character I explained why she wasn't speaking for or to the room, and that discussing this job in front of the Duke was putting our heads in a noose.
Back in character, another whispered comment. This time the DM acknowledged that he should have made a roll to see if the NPC could overhear what had been said. Dice hit a table and then the NPC asks, "What was that? I missed what you said.", pretty much rubbing it in that there could be no privacy on this subject. NPCs would be pointedly rude in eavesdropping, and then politely ask for the details.
No, the DM wasn't setting us up for a necktie party, he was just being... well I won't write it here, but it's bad.
I walked away from the camera for 10 minutes until I could get my blood pressure under control.
When I returned, we, as a group, had decided to head elsewhere than our erstwhile employer wanted, and sailed to another port. A note had been slipped, and we waited a week before sailing for the land of said evil King.
Everyone in town knew our business. Every ship in port knew that our passage was paid for by said employer, knew exactly where we were going and why.
Somehow, someone knew what we were planning and thinking, and had broadcast it all over the known world.
At this point my character is thinking of killing the employer and delivering his head to the evil King as the organizer of the rebellion.
It would screw the DM's entire adventure to the wall, and probably tick him off severely. No fun for the other players, of course, whick would make me the bad guy over all (me the player, not my character as a team mate), so I'll resist the temptation.
Probably
Yeah, it's a semi-virtual game, but I have the battle mat and miniatures on my table, and set scenery and positions for everyone.
Our game (3.5) world has been described as fairly hard core feudal, complete with serfs (look it up if you're unfamiliar with the term.)
Our group was approached to see if we would help overthrow an evil King.
First problem: We only have this one person's word that the King is a problem.
Second problem: My character, who is true neutral and really doesn't like "society" still knows better than to have her name associated with any rebellion or plot against a monarchy, even an evil one in a foreign land. Nobility everywhere will defend even an enemy from a commoner taking action against a monarch. It's just not done.
In the real world, medieval setting even when at war, if a commoner struck at a nobleman he was in trouble. Even his own side would jump on him for that. Monarchs ruled by divine right, and for a commoner to attack a noble was seen as a rejection of the divinely ordained order. Bad juju.
Anyway, she advised that we very loudly reject the offer, even if we intended to help. Public rejection of the very idea, while slipping the guy a note saying where we'd meet him.
Idea rejected as if it wasn't made.
We ended up in the presence of the local Duke, on another matter, and the subject came up. My character bent down and whispered something to one character. The DM had NPCs responding as if she (my Druidess) had spoken loud and clear.
I emphasized to the DM, "WHISPERED conversation", and made another comment. Again, the room responded as if my character had been using a bullhorn.
Speaking out of character I explained why she wasn't speaking for or to the room, and that discussing this job in front of the Duke was putting our heads in a noose.
Back in character, another whispered comment. This time the DM acknowledged that he should have made a roll to see if the NPC could overhear what had been said. Dice hit a table and then the NPC asks, "What was that? I missed what you said.", pretty much rubbing it in that there could be no privacy on this subject. NPCs would be pointedly rude in eavesdropping, and then politely ask for the details.
No, the DM wasn't setting us up for a necktie party, he was just being... well I won't write it here, but it's bad.
I walked away from the camera for 10 minutes until I could get my blood pressure under control.
When I returned, we, as a group, had decided to head elsewhere than our erstwhile employer wanted, and sailed to another port. A note had been slipped, and we waited a week before sailing for the land of said evil King.
Everyone in town knew our business. Every ship in port knew that our passage was paid for by said employer, knew exactly where we were going and why.
Somehow, someone knew what we were planning and thinking, and had broadcast it all over the known world.
At this point my character is thinking of killing the employer and delivering his head to the evil King as the organizer of the rebellion.
It would screw the DM's entire adventure to the wall, and probably tick him off severely. No fun for the other players, of course, whick would make me the bad guy over all (me the player, not my character as a team mate), so I'll resist the temptation.
Probably
turnip_farmer
Adventurer
Fun session, but I think I screwed up the adventure design. The big, climactic encounter next session will probably kill them. While I don't have a problem with killing characters, per se, I think this will just feel like a big screwjob ('how were we possibly supposed to survive all that?'). I need to either redesign the encounter without it feeling anticlimactic, or think of a way of giving them an opportunity to gain some helping resource.
After two and a half months, we finally got to have a session! The session started on the shore of a river with the characters having finished dealing with some ghouls. This was a soft reboot of the campaign (due to setting building for WWN resulting in some pretty big changes), so we figured out their aspiration: they want to loot the fallen capital. They know it’s a megastructure, and they figure they’ll need some gear and supplies. Their short-term goal for this session was to find a ruin and explore it (with the hope of getting useful treasure).
They set out to the east along the river until they returned to Finland (the settlement they had named in the prior iteration of the campaign returned as their base of operations in this one). On the way into town, they heard from the guards that the Caretaker had sent his hammer orcs to effect obedience in Orlæg, which is just across the river from Finland. There is a population of rebels that are being allowed to reside in Finland, and they are not happy about this.
Finland had been established as an outpost by Warin-Graf, a republic to the east, when it sent its military west to push back the Outsiders that had spewed forth from the capital of the now-fallen kingdom of Adal-Sinths. They fought for ten generations, and the war was nearly over. Unfortunately, Dyrstelice is positioning itself to make a claim to some of the land now that the hard work has been done of liberating it. The guards warned the PCs that the rebels were press-ganging people and to watch out.
The PC steered clear of them and solve off the treasure they recovered from the ghouls, splitting it four ways. Three shares were for the party. The fourth was their fund for carousing the night away (along with some funds to donate to the local temple). The barbarian boasted of their deeds and entertained people with her recorder while the thief won money at cards that the party just turned around and spent. Good times were had by all. I also got a chance to hint at some of the potentially volatile relationships amongst the rebels. A couple of them were vying for the affections of another, and they were making a show of outspending each other and the barbarian in the party.
The next day, they went about their business getting some supplies and asked around town to see if anyone knew anything about where they wanted to go. Their target was Hirzhus, a ruined settlement a couple of hours upstream by boat where the Fin river meets the Eternal Lake. They learned that adventurers had taken an interest to it a month or so ago, but no one returned. There was supposedly treasure there, but it was dangerous. People eventually turned their attention elsewhere.
Someone eventually got the idea to see if there was a sage in town who knew anything about the history of Hirzhus. It turns out there was a researcher who was helping the civilian administration. The barbarian managed to catch him before work, and she talked to him a bit. He mentioned that a peculiar elven had shown up a while back. He was wearing white robes. When he did, the administration took him in another room where the researcher couldn’t hear the conversation. He thought it was odd that the man had neither come nor left with anything, but he was given an audience.
After that, the party caught a boat upstream to Hirzhus. When they arrived, they saw a couple of people in white robes fishing on a dock. The people fled as they were rowed out from the ship to shore. The town itself was in disrepair, but some parts of it were obviously still being used even though it should have been abandoned a long time ago.
The PCs first explored a priest’s quarters and found a latrine. They remained cautious and vigilant, assuming the robed figures were some kind of ill-intented cultists. They moved further into the settlement and found a flooded amphitheater and a statue dedicated to one of the old leaders. None of them actually spoke elven, so no one could read it. They also saw corpses lying across on the far side of the amphitheater, which was the first sign of something actually dangerous. While the party’s priest took a rubbing, one of the robed figures poked her head out from a doorway behind them and got their attention. She invited them inside to meet their patron.
Surprisingly, the party went along with it. The room where the orcish woman brought them was a chapel. There was an altar and some religious paraphernalia. There was also a pear-shaped creature with four wings and four heads, atrophied limbs, and eyes all over its wings and body. The creature’s front-facing head reflects its current mood, and it always appears to face you no matter where you are in relation to it. The woman told the party they should listen to its song. Fortunately for the party, they managed to talk their way out of a performance.
The party managed to learn that there was another creature in the town. A magician had been there long ago, but she disappeared. This creature was a threat to Horsiel (as the thralls referred to the Outsider), but they didn’t want to leave because this was their home now. The party made an excuse about needing to use the latrine, and got out of there.
While they were regrouping and discussing what to do next, the man who had traveled to Finland followed them and then tried to talk to them. He asked if they had been sent there. He explained that he had gone to Finland to ask for help. Some people had shown up, but they stopped coming about a month ago. The party indicated they had not been sent (which was true since they were just looking for places to loot and were not deterred by the fact no one had returned from this one).
The party wants to help with the creature, but they’re not sure about Horsiel’s song. They thing it’s an Outsider, but they don’t have any idea what it is or what it can do. However, they’re sure that song is bad news for them.
They decide to go investigate a bit further. They head around the southern side of the amphitheater and notice pipes leading out of one of the buildings to the forge. They’re not really big, and they’re suspended in the air. The players wrack their brains trying to figure out why it would be set up that way, but they just don’t know. The priest decides she wants to blow up the bodies, which are obvious undead. They set a trap, and she rolls terribly on Smite the Dead. She rolls a 2 and 4. The corpses get no saving throw, but that’s not enough to destroy them.
The party tried to set up a choke point. The thief had set up a fire trap, and the barbarian was chucking spears and trying to dismember them. Unfortunately, the undead are coffer corpses. Unless you’re using magic, they can’t be harmed. They’d go down, then they’d pop back up. The party opted to retreat once the barbarian dropped her axe and ran away in fear. They left the town and decided to rest for the day since it was getting late.
We stopped the session there, but since the barbarian’s goals involved defeating a foe to accomplish them, I let them go back out and try again against the coffer corpses. The priest rolled better, they were destroyed, and we stopped there. The party’s goal for the next session is to solve the mystery of the magician. They know something weird is happening, but they’re not exactly sure what it is.
They set out to the east along the river until they returned to Finland (the settlement they had named in the prior iteration of the campaign returned as their base of operations in this one). On the way into town, they heard from the guards that the Caretaker had sent his hammer orcs to effect obedience in Orlæg, which is just across the river from Finland. There is a population of rebels that are being allowed to reside in Finland, and they are not happy about this.
Finland had been established as an outpost by Warin-Graf, a republic to the east, when it sent its military west to push back the Outsiders that had spewed forth from the capital of the now-fallen kingdom of Adal-Sinths. They fought for ten generations, and the war was nearly over. Unfortunately, Dyrstelice is positioning itself to make a claim to some of the land now that the hard work has been done of liberating it. The guards warned the PCs that the rebels were press-ganging people and to watch out.
The PC steered clear of them and solve off the treasure they recovered from the ghouls, splitting it four ways. Three shares were for the party. The fourth was their fund for carousing the night away (along with some funds to donate to the local temple). The barbarian boasted of their deeds and entertained people with her recorder while the thief won money at cards that the party just turned around and spent. Good times were had by all. I also got a chance to hint at some of the potentially volatile relationships amongst the rebels. A couple of them were vying for the affections of another, and they were making a show of outspending each other and the barbarian in the party.
The next day, they went about their business getting some supplies and asked around town to see if anyone knew anything about where they wanted to go. Their target was Hirzhus, a ruined settlement a couple of hours upstream by boat where the Fin river meets the Eternal Lake. They learned that adventurers had taken an interest to it a month or so ago, but no one returned. There was supposedly treasure there, but it was dangerous. People eventually turned their attention elsewhere.
Someone eventually got the idea to see if there was a sage in town who knew anything about the history of Hirzhus. It turns out there was a researcher who was helping the civilian administration. The barbarian managed to catch him before work, and she talked to him a bit. He mentioned that a peculiar elven had shown up a while back. He was wearing white robes. When he did, the administration took him in another room where the researcher couldn’t hear the conversation. He thought it was odd that the man had neither come nor left with anything, but he was given an audience.
After that, the party caught a boat upstream to Hirzhus. When they arrived, they saw a couple of people in white robes fishing on a dock. The people fled as they were rowed out from the ship to shore. The town itself was in disrepair, but some parts of it were obviously still being used even though it should have been abandoned a long time ago.
The PCs first explored a priest’s quarters and found a latrine. They remained cautious and vigilant, assuming the robed figures were some kind of ill-intented cultists. They moved further into the settlement and found a flooded amphitheater and a statue dedicated to one of the old leaders. None of them actually spoke elven, so no one could read it. They also saw corpses lying across on the far side of the amphitheater, which was the first sign of something actually dangerous. While the party’s priest took a rubbing, one of the robed figures poked her head out from a doorway behind them and got their attention. She invited them inside to meet their patron.
Surprisingly, the party went along with it. The room where the orcish woman brought them was a chapel. There was an altar and some religious paraphernalia. There was also a pear-shaped creature with four wings and four heads, atrophied limbs, and eyes all over its wings and body. The creature’s front-facing head reflects its current mood, and it always appears to face you no matter where you are in relation to it. The woman told the party they should listen to its song. Fortunately for the party, they managed to talk their way out of a performance.
The party managed to learn that there was another creature in the town. A magician had been there long ago, but she disappeared. This creature was a threat to Horsiel (as the thralls referred to the Outsider), but they didn’t want to leave because this was their home now. The party made an excuse about needing to use the latrine, and got out of there.
While they were regrouping and discussing what to do next, the man who had traveled to Finland followed them and then tried to talk to them. He asked if they had been sent there. He explained that he had gone to Finland to ask for help. Some people had shown up, but they stopped coming about a month ago. The party indicated they had not been sent (which was true since they were just looking for places to loot and were not deterred by the fact no one had returned from this one).
The party wants to help with the creature, but they’re not sure about Horsiel’s song. They thing it’s an Outsider, but they don’t have any idea what it is or what it can do. However, they’re sure that song is bad news for them.
They decide to go investigate a bit further. They head around the southern side of the amphitheater and notice pipes leading out of one of the buildings to the forge. They’re not really big, and they’re suspended in the air. The players wrack their brains trying to figure out why it would be set up that way, but they just don’t know. The priest decides she wants to blow up the bodies, which are obvious undead. They set a trap, and she rolls terribly on Smite the Dead. She rolls a 2 and 4. The corpses get no saving throw, but that’s not enough to destroy them.
The party tried to set up a choke point. The thief had set up a fire trap, and the barbarian was chucking spears and trying to dismember them. Unfortunately, the undead are coffer corpses. Unless you’re using magic, they can’t be harmed. They’d go down, then they’d pop back up. The party opted to retreat once the barbarian dropped her axe and ran away in fear. They left the town and decided to rest for the day since it was getting late.
We stopped the session there, but since the barbarian’s goals involved defeating a foe to accomplish them, I let them go back out and try again against the coffer corpses. The priest rolled better, they were destroyed, and we stopped there. The party’s goal for the next session is to solve the mystery of the magician. They know something weird is happening, but they’re not exactly sure what it is.
Bupp
Adventurer
A supply caravan went missing. The party was hired to find out what happened and got ambushed by bugbears and hobgoblins. Close fight, but the party prevailed. A sleep spell gave them three captive hobgoblins.
In my world of Eska, the gray elves used Hobgoblin Legions in their millennia long war against the dark elves. Peace was declared 7 years ago, and many of the legions disbanded. These now unemployed troopers have turned to banditry. They had captured the small caravan, and were going to keep the supplies and ransom the prisoners.
The party negotiated with the hobgoblins and came to terms to hire them and their nine brothers as mercenaries. Now now my party has a force of twelve hobgoblin spearmen.
In my world of Eska, the gray elves used Hobgoblin Legions in their millennia long war against the dark elves. Peace was declared 7 years ago, and many of the legions disbanded. These now unemployed troopers have turned to banditry. They had captured the small caravan, and were going to keep the supplies and ransom the prisoners.
The party negotiated with the hobgoblins and came to terms to hire them and their nine brothers as mercenaries. Now now my party has a force of twelve hobgoblin spearmen.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
You need to talk to your DM about that. Telling the DM that their metagaming, giving every NPC knowledge they shouldn't have, is ruining your fun. And more importantly he's invalidating your player agency by blatantly removing the effects of your playing to be discrete about this.
This isn't something that will fix itself. Be non-confrontation if you can, but be firm.
Older Beholder
Hero
We took a break from our main game as the DM wanted to work out what’s happening next, it’s been going for a year and a half. Instead he had another idea for a short campaign where we start as high level (8th) characters that have retired 20 years after saving the city from invading devils.
I made an Earth Genasi Ranger (swarmkeeper), it was my first time making a new character since Tasha’s came out.
The game began with the city being attacked by an undead horde, after the battle we learnt that to save the city 20 years ago the king made a deal with some dark lord that’s now come to collect.
It was lots of fun.
I made an Earth Genasi Ranger (swarmkeeper), it was my first time making a new character since Tasha’s came out.
The game began with the city being attacked by an undead horde, after the battle we learnt that to save the city 20 years ago the king made a deal with some dark lord that’s now come to collect.
It was lots of fun.
So, in tonight's session we fought some undead on the Plane of Shadows just outside a dwarven city that had been shunted there hundreds of years ago, then followed a find the path spell to the location of a dwarven weaponsmith's forge where the Null Axe - a dwarven superweapon that can destroy the nine remaining Writhing Gates that could potentially destroy all life on the planet if used by an illithid Elder God to return to the Material Plane from the Far Realm - where we ended up fighting an illithilich (undead mind flayer) who's been trying to get into the shielded forge for the past 93 years.
Highlights include:
- Fighting a huecuva in the first battle who cast a flame strike on all five PCs when we were all clumped together trying to take out the dread wraith. The dwarven barbarian failed his save. The dwarven barbarian was wearing a necklace of fireballs, which also failed its save, so the remaining beads on it exploded into flame, dealing more damage to us (and the huecuva) than the flame strike had done. And then the dwarven barbarian's player asked us, "Do I need to make another save for my other necklace of fireballs?" It turns out since he was running low on fireball beads he had recently purchased a second necklace of fireballs and was wearing them both. (Fortunately, the second necklace made its save so it didn't also go all explodey on us.)
- My lizardfolk charging at the illithilich that was waiting for us outside the weaponsmith's forge and pinning its arms in a grapple that prevented him from casting spells or paralyzing anyone with his hands. And the DM had specifically statted him up as a shadowcaster from the Tome of Magic, expecting to be able to spring some new stuff on us that we'd never experienced before. No such luck: all he was able to do from that point on was to wriggle around ineffectively while I kept him pinned and the others pounded him to dust with spells and weapons.
- Leveling up to 14th at the end of this adventure.
Johnathan
Highlights include:
- Fighting a huecuva in the first battle who cast a flame strike on all five PCs when we were all clumped together trying to take out the dread wraith. The dwarven barbarian failed his save. The dwarven barbarian was wearing a necklace of fireballs, which also failed its save, so the remaining beads on it exploded into flame, dealing more damage to us (and the huecuva) than the flame strike had done. And then the dwarven barbarian's player asked us, "Do I need to make another save for my other necklace of fireballs?" It turns out since he was running low on fireball beads he had recently purchased a second necklace of fireballs and was wearing them both. (Fortunately, the second necklace made its save so it didn't also go all explodey on us.)
- My lizardfolk charging at the illithilich that was waiting for us outside the weaponsmith's forge and pinning its arms in a grapple that prevented him from casting spells or paralyzing anyone with his hands. And the DM had specifically statted him up as a shadowcaster from the Tome of Magic, expecting to be able to spring some new stuff on us that we'd never experienced before. No such luck: all he was able to do from that point on was to wriggle around ineffectively while I kept him pinned and the others pounded him to dust with spells and weapons.
- Leveling up to 14th at the end of this adventure.
Johnathan
Ogre Mage
Hero
This session was fun! A good mix of roleplaying and action. As we hiked through the forest to the Wizard of the Wines, we came upon a caravan of Vistani including Madam Eva. They invited us into their caravan for a meal. I rolled a natural 20 on my insight check and sensed no ill intent, so we joined them. The interior of the wagon was unnaturally large and luxurious, as if it were under the effect of magnificent mansion spell. Madam Eva said it was fated for us to visit Barovia and read our fortune. She said a lonely mill on a precipice, a con artist in a carnival wagon, a treasure beyond amber doors, a raven in the vines and a father's tomb all had a role to play in our future. She said Count Strahd was once a hero who freed the people of these lands but as ruler some say he had grown evil. We asked why he would have brought us here and she said she did not know. But she knew he was looking for a successor. We finished an excellent meal and departed.
We arrived at the Wizard of the Wines. Davian Martikov told us that their winery had been overtaken by evil druids and their minions. He eyed the two druids in our group suspiciously. We assured him all of us were from outside Barovia and said we would help the Martikovs. Thodak, our dwarf rune knight had a crazy plan to bang on the front door asking the druids to share their wine while the rest of us snuck in. But twig blights rose out of the vineyard and began attacking! Thodak broke down the front door only to be entangled by the evil druid on the other side. Twig blights began grappling Thodak.
The rest of us fended off the twig blights in the field as we backed toward the winery entrance. Kinoka cleared out many twig blights with a flaming sphere. Kandle, our grave cleric of Kelemvor, struck the druid blocking the entry with a guiding bolt, killing him instantly. The session ended with us scurrying toward the winery door, trying to stay ahead of the twig blights.
We arrived at the Wizard of the Wines. Davian Martikov told us that their winery had been overtaken by evil druids and their minions. He eyed the two druids in our group suspiciously. We assured him all of us were from outside Barovia and said we would help the Martikovs. Thodak, our dwarf rune knight had a crazy plan to bang on the front door asking the druids to share their wine while the rest of us snuck in. But twig blights rose out of the vineyard and began attacking! Thodak broke down the front door only to be entangled by the evil druid on the other side. Twig blights began grappling Thodak.
The rest of us fended off the twig blights in the field as we backed toward the winery entrance. Kinoka cleared out many twig blights with a flaming sphere. Kandle, our grave cleric of Kelemvor, struck the druid blocking the entry with a guiding bolt, killing him instantly. The session ended with us scurrying toward the winery door, trying to stay ahead of the twig blights.
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26th session in my Neverwinter campaign. Three PCs: human genie warlock, drow evoker wizard, half-orc vengeance paladin. In this session, the PCs arrived at Neverwinter. The goal of this session was to introduce the players to the city and present them with a variety of adventure hooks. And that's what happened, basically. I tried writing the recap but it was boring. The session itself was not boring, fortunately. More to come next week...
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