D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[THEMNGMNT]

29th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. 6th level half-orc cavalier fighter, 6th level halfling swashbuckler rogue, and 6th level half-elf evoker wizard with one level of grave cleric.

Previously, they'd managed to murder a squad of city watch that had been sent to arrest them for a framed up murder. Oops. Fortunately, they had an artifact that could bring the dead back to life.

In this session, they broke into the mausoleum where the dead were lying in state, attended by an honor guard of clerics of Kelemvor. A recon by the rogue revealed that the clerics had been killed and their high priest was about to be sacrificed for a dark ritual. Looming over the priest was a hooded figure that was soon revealed to be a nemesis of the rogue -- a corrupt cop who had tried to frame the party for murder and tipped off the city watch in the encounter that went horribly awry. The cop works for an evil wizard responsible for the murder of the evoker's parents. Now, he was attempting to turn the dead city watch into undead, thereby making them impossible to resurrect.

The party managed to disrupt his ritual--so instead of the dead watchmen becoming undead, it was the clerics of Kelemvor. The fight that followed was brutal. The rogue went down, the fighter nearly went down, and it was only three consecutive fireballs from the evoker that allowed the party to triumph.

In the final round, the wizard brought the rogue back to consciousness with a healing spell. The rogue fired his hand crossbow at the corrupt cop and scored a critical hit on his sneak attack.

Game over.

Next session: What to do with all these bodies?

 

[Richards]

Question from THEMNGMNT: "What to do with all these bodies?"

Answer from my lizardfolk PC: "Meat is meat."

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" session, the PCs:

• Got their butts handed to them in the dreamlands, basically fighting King Kong (they're 4th level), so they had to abandon that dream victim to her fate and hope to come back later to rescue her when they're more fully trained on dream manipulations
• Ordered some magic items that will be ready in about three days
• Successfully rescued an innkeeper from her (quite literal) nightmare and brought her back to full wakefulness
• Got involved in a street fight with a druid, a dire ape, an awakened ape, an awakened baboon (the latter two wearing magical collars that made them look like a heavyset villager and a large mastiff dog, respectively), and a swarm of spiders in a city where active spellcasting is forbidden
• Tracked the druid and dire ape to their forest campsite, where they were also under attack from three awakened monkeys and a pair of bugbears who had tracked the druid down after he'd plundered the gravesites of some of their warriors
• Killed the druid, killed the bugbears, killed the awakened monkeys (nasty little face-biters, those!), but let the dire ape go free

Johnathan

 

[Faolyn]

The hexblade finally revealed he could change the shape of his pact weapon. The party's gun-wielding investigator rogue decided that he would show the hexblade the ins and outs of the gun. Spirit bullets ahoy!

 

[el-remmen]

It was great. We completed a huge module that took 8 sessions of five hours each to play through and the party was awarded XP at the end, reaching 6th level.

The session began mid battle with the big bad, EXPLICITA DEFILUS, in her lair in a sunken temple in the middle of a huge sunken cavern. Where we left our heroes:

Nora Darhk the tiefling ranger/sorcerer critically wounded and facing off against the naga. The vile naga's human child shield bleeding out as collateral damage! (Not pictured, the druid's Air Bestial Spirit hovering above)

Sister Ottie, cleric/monk NPC ally of the party, also critically wounded and facing off against the troglodyte scouts.

Thron Greenman, druid, waterwalking and fighting a crocodile

Rollo Snow, orc-descended barbarian standing over the corpse of the troglodyte mystic he just vanquished.

And who is that lurking behind the pillars and considering rooting through the pile of treasure for something useful? Alston Turin, the gnome bard/wizard, who is very good of staying out of the scrum!

The fight began grimly, but the party turned it around and was about to quickly finish the naga when a dimension door followed by a readied action from where she hid behind a pillar, slowed the pace to something she could work with - esp. once when that readied action went off and the barbarian and bard found themselves face to face with a wall of fire.

The tiefling even tried this badass thing where she jumped through the wall of flame counting on her dex and resistance to bare the brunt of it. The idea was to leap through and sink and arrow into the critically wounded naga. She jumped through and barely survived but even with a hero point (+1d6 houserule we use) she still missed! And then dropped from additional fire damage because I forgot the back side of of the fire wall was "cool." So much to remember sometimes - thankfully she survived and the party won the day. [I have since informed the party of my error]

After that there was a lot of clean up, reuniting with NPC captives they'd freed and having a minor encounter with a harpy who was a cursed woman tied back to the party's very first adventure - and they were able to free her and change her to human and bring her back to town with the others.

The session ended with XP awarded - but with the bombshell that the knight they defeated as part of a sidetrek encounter back in session #16 is the suitor of their friend, the girl in love with a singing troll! Now they have even more reason to try to get involved in her life despite her father's consternation at their interference!

Anyway, they hit 6th level and I am curious what choices folks will make.

 

[Musing Mage]

Chaos in the Forgotten Realms as my 1e group went treasure hunting.

Following the clues on a treasure map, they search the area they believe hides the hoard. They come across an ogre that is keen to join them and become an adventurer, but leaving the conversation to the uncharismatic dwarf provokes him into attacking, knocking one of the two Kensai into critical condition before dispatching it.

Clues on the treasure path indicate a possible name on a grave marker at a cemetery, but the group is unsure. After two days of trying to decipher the final clue they opt to finally retreat back to Arabel to reprovision and consult a sage.

En route they meet a minotaur in battle with a pack of gnolls. Sitting back and letting the two groups fight, the chaotic neutral fighter/thief spontaneously decides that she can solo the Minotaur after it has moved on from the gnolls. Using elven stealth she gets the drop with a full 4 segments of surprise (and tripled rate of fire as per 1e surprise rules) and peppers the Minotaur with arrows. Caught off guard, it flees after a morale check fails. One of the Kensai and the Dwarf fighter weren't about to let her go off alone, so they arrive for the assist. The Minotaur leads them on a merry chase, but they ultimately keep up forcing a confrontation. The Minotaur turns around and charges - missing the squishy elf. The Kensai does the same leaping in with double scimitar attack and a Ki strike for full damage on the main hand, dealing a massive 20 pts of damage finishing it off.

Back in Arabel, the group properly translates the clue as to the name on the grave marker where the treasure hoard is buried and immediately reprovisions to head out. At the location - they dig up dozens of sacks filled to the brim with platinum and electrum, the happy adventurers realize that even with two mules they can't carry it all back. Taking what they can, they re-bury 10k in electrum and mark the new location before heading back home.

Alas, a pack of 6 more ogres looking for their other friend arrives. With absolute glee the Chaotic Neutral dwarven fighter charges headlong into the pack while they charge at the team. He successfully engages 3 solo while the other 3 charge at the other PCs, killing one Kensai and the Ranger/Cleric.

The Dwarven assassin, being the chaotic evil that he is, uses the opportunity to take one treasure laden mule and slip away while everyone is busy.

4 ogres fall to the team, while the other two flee after a morale failure. The surviving Kensai has finally had enough of the Dwarf's crap, and stalks after him. After a brief standoff where the assassin wonders if he can take her, especially with the support of the fighter/thief, he opts to spout out a bull story about merely leading the mule to safety for the sake of preserving the group's haul. The Kensai warns that one false move means curtains for him, so he agrees to disarm and be bound at the insistence of the rest of the PCs. The bodies of the two fallen are buried and the loot they were carrying also hidden and marked.

During the night he attempts to sway the fighter/thief into freeing him that they might dispatch the goody-goods and take the loot for themselves, but she opts to not go that route.

Returning to town they untie the untrustworthy dwarf, but since his intent cannot be proven everyone splits the treasure evenly and the Kensai and Dwarven fighter permanently break off from the Assassin and Fighter/thief who head to their guilds. The Kensai's final words to the assassin warning never to cross her path again.

Thus the group of PCs splits into two. The Guild team being their own campaign alternating with the others.

Levels are made, training is done and the next chapter in the campaign begins in a few weeks.

Characters:
Team 1
Kyla - 3rd level Kensai (level duel pending, may revert to level 2 if she loses)
Feltuun - 4th level Dwarf fighter.
Arash - 1st level Human Ranger (was previously the 2nd Kensai)
Name TBD - 1st level human Druid. (Was previously the Ranger/Cleric)

Team 2
Lyra - level 2/3 Elven Fighter/thief.
Bob - level 4 Dwarven assassin
Shady - level 4 Half orc fighter (has been sitting out due to conflicting schedule, but player is finally able to come back)
Marie - level 1 human magic user. (New player joining game)

Good times - pure chaos!

DM note: Yes, this kind of backstabbing, chaotic conflict is welcome at our table. Players know the score. I am genuinely curious to see how team evil with the assassins' and thieves' guild jobs all plays out.

2nd DM note: In an odd turn of events, seeing the Kensai in action has prompted other players to want to make Kensai. It's possible that each team will end up with another Kensai or two as time goes on and other characters potentially die. Who knew?

 

[Older Beholder]

I ran a game for some people from my work (past and present) over the weekend. A mix of people new to the game, from never played, played once to played one campaign.

I was trying to keep things simple, but ended up setting the game in a home brew city that is ruled by high sorcerers, a place where wild magic runs rife and the city motto is 'embrace the chaos'. The characters were hired to act as night watch in a quiet dock ward.

At night the streets of the city are illuminated by Will'o-the-wisps that pour into town from a magical forest at the cities edge. (In my world will'o-the-wisps are fey and generally good aligned) The adventurers start out watching the wisp's flying across a bridge and notice a pair of crazed Githyanki's begin attacking the Wisp's and rush to help. A Flumph also came help the wisps as well and after the fight hung around the party for the rest of the night. (I'm going to use the sidekick rules to have it level up)

After that it was a bunch of random encounters, a mix of roleplaying, combat and setting tourism, that were mostly just setting up hooks for future sessions. Overall everyone seemed to have fun and enjoyed their characters and the setting.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I always write a summary of the session and share it via group message. Then one of the players posts pics of her notes and, in this case, random session photos. Hope it makes sense. Here's the latest:

The marathon Whack-a-mole session

So, we didn't explore much because the battle went on for six rounds; our longest battle by far. Goblins kept pouring in from the room to the north. It didn't help that I was rolling plenty of nat 20s and Jigo missed... everything. Everyone dropped below 0hp with the exception of Jake. So it was pretty much everyone barely hanging on and dropping, only to rise again (Whack-a-mole).

You will be facing the dreaded Wolf Skull tribe next. You're doing this in order to save some guardsman that are loyal to the Duke. Be prepared for more goblins and Dire Wolves. Also there's something much more sinister going on. Malgor, Jura's friend, has something to say about the history of their fortress, Largat Lajak.

On the bright side, this'll probably be the last time you will face goblins for a long while.

Loot: A bunch of gold from the Orc's hidden compartment and the captured farmers. A scroll of purify food&drink and scroll of reincarnate

@ Can you post pics?

Reincarnate 5th level Spell

You touch a dead humanoid or a piece of a dead humanoid. Provided that the creature has been dead no longer than 10 days, the spell forms a new adult body for it and then calls the soul to enter that body. If the target's soul isn't free or willing to do so, the spell fails.

The magic fashions a new body for the creature to inhabit, which likely causes the creature's race to change. The GM rolls a d100 and consults the following table to determine what form the creature takes when restored to life, or the GM chooses a form.*

The reincarnated creature recalls its former life and experiences. It retains the capabilities it had in its original form, except it exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its racial traits accordingly.

*I will probably use a home-brewed list of races

Pics

Spoiler

 

[Richards]

In our 3.5 "Raiders of the Overreach" campaign tonight, we fought a Gargantuan white dragon and four 4th-level frost giant barbarians in the dragon's lair, a massive cavern carved inside a glacier.

This was our first adventure after having just leveled up to 15th level. As her 15th-level feat, our sorceress (who already had the Empower Spell metamagic feat) chose Maximize Spell. So now she can cast a 2nd-level scorching ray spell (three rays, each doing 4d6 points of fire damage) in a 7th-level spell slot, causing maximum damage (3 x 24 = 72 fire) for the Maximize Spell feat and then half again as much (72 + 36 = 108 fire) for the Empower Spell feat.

And since white dragons and frost giants are vulnerable to fire, they each take half again as much (108 + 54 = 162 fire) when the sorceress hits with all three rays (and in the case of the dragon, overcomes its spell resistance).

Which she did.

Repeatedly.

It was a bad day for them to pick a fight with us.

Johnathan

 

[THEMNGMNT]

30th session of my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. By now we are waaaay off track. Previously, the 3 player characters had chopped down a dozen members of the city watch and become Waterdeep's most wanted. Realizing this was bad (a classic case of too little, too late) they decided to break into the mausoleum, steal the watchmen's corpses, and bring them back to life with an artifact procured in a previous adventure.

It's times like this I love this game.

As this session opened, the PCs had the corpses in their portable hole. They took the bodies to a warehouse obtained by the rogue's underworld associates. There they conducted a dozen rituals and slowly brought back to life each of the watchmen. The PCs drugged them to ensure they woke up later, after the ritual was complete and the PCs had time to escape.

It was right about this time that the rogue's player had a notion. He was worried that one of their enemies might sneak in after they left and murder all the watchmen -- again -- thereby keeping the PCs on the wrong side of the law forever. My DM brain thought: "What a great idea! Yoink!" In truth, I'd been looking for the right moment for one of the campaign villains to try one last screw job, and this was it. So the PCs made a big show of leaving the warehouse, then doubled back. The rogue and wizard hid in the warehouse. The fighter donned a disguise and circled the street outside.

After an hour, an imp manifested inside the warehouse. This imp belonged to an evil mage of the Arcane Brotherhood, one of the major antagonists of the campaign. As the PCs watched, the imp conducted a brief summoning ritual. For some reason, they did not try to stop it. Eventually, a glabrezu demon sprang forth. With truesight it quickly spotted the rogue and wizard. Initiative was rolled. The rogue won. The first thing he did was run outside to alert the fighter, leaving the wizard to face the demon alone.

Outside, a cadre of boggles ganked the fighter. They were attempting to steal the artifact that powered the resurrections -- a silver chalice blessed by the demigod Siamorphe. The evil mage desires this artifact because reasons. The fighter used action surge and dropped several of the boggles. But one boggle managed to steal the fighter's backpack. It teleported to the roof to flee. The fighter slipped through the boggle's own portal and fought it for control of the backpack. With backpack in hand, the fighter jumped through a skylight into the warehouse.

The rogue finished off the remaining boggles, then slipped back inside.

Meanwhile, the wizard had been locked in solo combat with the glabrezu. I decided that the glabrezu would use melee attacks to kill the wizard, saving its spells for the tougher fighter and rogue. Unfortunately, I was rolling terrible, and most of its four attacks per turn were missing. The wizard (with two levels of cleric) critted on an upcast inflict wounds and bloodied the glabrezu in a single hit. Soon both of them were in single digit hit points.

The fighter missed his attack, then was incapacitated by power word stun. Confusion caused the rogue to attack the downed fighter while the wizard lost all actions for a turn. As the final round started, the initiative order was rogue, demon, wizard, fighter. Whoever got in the first hit would score a kill. The rogue got a lucky roll to shake off the effects of confusion. He fired his crossbow at the demon -- miss. He used a bonus action to strike with his short sword -- hit. The demon fell.

All of this was witnessed by the watchmen, returned to life, roused from their drugged slumber. As one, they stood and applauded the heroes.

Next session: The Arcane Brotherhood!