D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[THEMNGMNT]

26th session of Monte Cook's 3E Banewarrens campaign run with Shadow of the Demon Lord on Owlbear Rodeo.

Five player characters at Level 5:

• Dwarf Fighter/Warrior. Heir to a lost kingdom. His trinket is half of a treasure map. However, after being kidnapped by mysterious forces, his consciousness has somehow transferred into a Clockwork Rogue/Artificer. The whereabouts of his body are unknown.
• Elf Wizard/Magician. Outcast from elven lands, raised in Ptolus, keeper of a dark secret. His magical traditions are Arcana, Teleportation, Chaos, and Fey.
• Goblin Oracle/Magician. Responsible for the destruction of his tribe. Specialized in the Fire and Forbidden magic traditions.
• Changeling Spellbinder/Rogue. Created by House Vladaam to replace a child they kidnapped and held in servitude. Naturally, she wants revenge. Two weapon fighter with the Battle tradition.
• Human Paladin/Priest. Cleric of Lothian, the primary god of Ptolus. His magical traditions are Life, Theurgy, and Battle. His wife was murdered by undead and now he seeks answers.

Several sessions ago the dwarf fighter was kidnapped in the Banewarrens and taken into Ptolus. The other characters don't know who kidnapped him. Fortunately, his consciousness transferred into an automaton and so some version of him is still with the party. The other characters are trying to locate and rescue him. They're up against a ticking clock, because with each passing day he loses a little bit more of his mind and gains a point of Insanity.

This session opened mid-fight against four invisible stalkers on a bridge at midnight. They had lured the characters into a fake exchange. The characters defeated the stalkers and took one captive. Now, at 5th level, they're finally formidable combatants.

They rallied at a safe house the Church of Lothian had provided. They interrogated the stalker, hoping to find the location of the dwarf. The stalker didn't know the location of the dwarf -- that information was kept from him in case he was captured. However, he revealed secret information about the origins of the Pactlords of the Quaan -- which was directly tied into the backstory of the elf wizard. This was a key reveal in the campaign. It went perfectly. I'm so happy with how it played out. The Pactlords are now elevated as major antagonists. The elf and the dwarf are personally invested in taking them down.

With a few clues gleaned from stalker the characters gained a new lead on the location of the dwarf. They spent the rest of the session planning their next steps.

The characters also learned the origin of the invisible stalker -- a once-good man who committed a terrible evil and was cursed with perpetual invisibility. The players debated what to do. They came very close to murdering the stalker. Ultimately, they decided to release him. For that everyone lost a point of Corruption.

Enjoying this adventure immensely and definitely recommend it.

Next session: The Veiled Woman!

 

[Greenfield]

Our current DM has been playing for decades, yet it often seems he doesn't know the rules. We're playing 3.5.

Several times he called for D20 rolls, but wouldn't tell us why or what it was for. When he finally said what it was, it turns out it was for Balance or some similar standard skill check. It just didn't occur to him to plan it with skills in mind.

He withholds information, even when we ask direct questions: "Do I see any damage yet?" Answer: "You wold expect some." Re-question: "Do I see it now?" similar non-answer in response until I wanted to scream at him to PLEASE ANSWER THE F-ING QUESTION! He didn't want to answer because it would tell us something important. Which was why we were asking the question in the first place.

Getting basic answers was like pulling teeth. With toy pliers.

He's trying to make it challenging, but that's a lousy way to do it.

As a note in his favor: It's a royal pain to run a Dragon, to even prepare a Dragon for play. As the saying goes, "Greatly did he fail, but greatly did he try."

 

[Richards]

Last night's "Ghourmand Vale" session was interesting. We made it to the Vale, got paid, and were hired almost instantly to find out why the church of St. Cuthbert hadn't received its wagonload of foodstuffs from a farm they deal with. We went to the farm with our own horse and wagon, just in time to see a wagon loaded down with food (much of it in crates marked with the holy symbol of St. Cuthbert) tearing down the road, being carelessly driven by three hobgoblins. They turned a corner hard after passing us by, broke a wagon wheel, and were pitched forward to the ground. We took them out without any difficulty (two were dead before the third even realized we were there), then loaded the goods onto our wagon (the other one didn't have a spare wheel, so we left it where it was and tied the two horses' reins from that wagon to the back of our wagon) and backtracked to the farm where the goods came from.

There, we found the farmhouse had been taken over by a band of hobgoblins. The human husband and wife were bound and unconscious inside, along with two foreign strangers who barely spoke Common. But we were up against a full nine hobgoblins plus their leader; the only thing that prevented a TPK was the "normal" hobgoblin warriors came at us in waves of 2-4 - well, that and the fact that my nephew Harry's dice were on fire last night. (He took out five hobgoblins completely on his own, with one strike each with his longsword - and that was without smiting evil; as we're still 1st level and he only gets smite evil once/day, he was saving that for the "boss.")

Our halfling rogue got taken out almost immediately, dropped into the negative numbers by a single blow from the hobgoblin leader's +1 flaming burst longsword; I had to save her with an unseen servant that dragged her away from battle and poured the contents of a healing potion down her throat. But she was back in action in time for the big finish, when we were up against the boss (who was being flanked by my nephew's half-elf paladin and my own human "doesn't realize he's a sorcerer" young nobleman) and she managed to sneak attack him with a kobold shortspear through the back of the neck, delivering the killing blow.

The foreign guys weren't sure how they'd gotten there - they claimed to have walked into some mist and ended up here from their own country - but they were radiating evil like crazy and their story of having been captured along with the farmers didn't add up. (Why would the hobgoblins have tied them up but left them their scimitars, and why were there no knots in the hunks of rope by where they had apparently been bound?) So we got in a final fight with them, which knocked me into unconsciousness almost immediately - the other three PCs took care of those two.

And then, to add insult to injury, they decided to just bind my wounds to prevent me from bleeding out instead of feeding me the potion of cure light wounds I carry on my belt. Their reasoning? Then they wouldn't have to listen to me prattle on during the journey back to the church of St. Cuthbert, since I'd be unconscious in the back of the wagon....

But we all leveled up to 2nd level. I, naturally, rolled a "1" and now have a grand total of 9 hp. (Good thing I have a +2 Con bonus!) And the other PCs have me pretty much convinced I might just be an arcane spellcaster after all (although I'm fairly certain I'm a wizard, and must just be so good at it I don't need to bother with a spellbook like "commoner" wizards apparently have to do).

Johnathan

 

[Older Beholder]

We finished up our campaign that had been running for over two years.
I won't really go into detail as it would probably be all spoilers for Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but it was really cool and we had a lot of fun. My character got the final shot on Tiamat which was satisfying.

It was the first time I've ever played all the way through to level 20 which in itself is a pretty amazing accomplishment.
I've agreed to DM next, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

We finished up our campaign that had been running for over two years.
I won't really go into detail as it would probably be all spoilers for Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but it was really cool and we had a lot of fun. My character got the final shot on Tiamat which was satisfying.

It was the first time I've ever played all the way through to level 20 which in itself is a pretty amazing accomplishment.
I've agreed to DM next, so we'll see how that goes.

I finished my first 1-20 campaign last year and it was definitely a bucket list moment. Congratulations!

 

[Guest 7034872]

I finished my first 1-20 campaign last year and it was definitely a bucket list moment. Congratulations!

^^^ OTHER PEOPLE REALLY DO IT!!! This is hugely encouraging to me; I'd fallen to thinking no one else ever did 1-20 campaigns.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

27th session of Monte Cook's 3E Banewarrens campaign run with Shadow of the Demon Lord on Owlbear Rodeo.

Five player characters at Level 5:

• Dwarf Fighter/Warrior. Heir to a lost kingdom. His trinket is half of a treasure map. However, after being kidnapped by mysterious forces, his consciousness has somehow transferred into a Clockwork Rogue/Artificer. The whereabouts of his body are unknown.
• Elf Wizard/Magician. Outcast from elven lands, raised in Ptolus, keeper of a dark secret. His magical traditions are Arcana, Teleportation, Chaos, and Fey.
• Goblin Oracle/Magician. Responsible for the destruction of his tribe. Specialized in the Fire and Forbidden magic traditions.
• Changeling Spellbinder/Rogue. Created by House Vladaam to replace a child they kidnapped and held in servitude. Naturally, she wants revenge. Two weapon fighter with the Battle tradition.
• Human Paladin/Priest. Cleric of Lothian, the primary god of Ptolus. His magical traditions are Life, Theurgy, and Battle. His wife was murdered by undead and now he seeks answers.

Six sessions ago the dwarf fighter was kidnapped in the Banewarrens and taken into Ptolus. This session the others player finally got him back.

They knew he had been kidnapped by the Pactlords of the Quaan and they'd discovered the Pactlords had an agent known as the Veiled Woman. She held court at a sort of high society/low life speakeasy called the Onyx Spider. The Onyx Spider was neutral ground where no blood could be spilled. A great place for shady dealings.

They split the party -- one in disguise at the bar, another on the street outside, and three who approached the Veiled Woman directly. They asked her what she wanted in return for their kidnapped comrade -- but they already knew the answer: The Bane Key.

The Veiled Woman was ready to do the swap right here, right now. The dwarf for the Key. The players were incredibly reluctant to give her the Key, even though they believed they could simply follow the Pactlords into the Banewarrens, ambush them, and recover the Key.

What followed was a game of three dimensional chess as I tried to figure out how to orchestrate the exchange. The characters missed a few opportunities to backtrack the villains to their lair and locate the dwarf -- a recurring theme over the last several sessions. I could sense it was time to resolve this subplot and move on. Ultimately, the deal was done -- the dwarf for the Key.

As the Veiled Woman and her bodyguards exited the Onyx Spider with the Bane Key in their possession, the wizard followed under an invisibility spell. He watched as a wyvern descended from the night sky. The Veiled Woman mounted the wyvern, then turned to face the wizard -- as if she could see him. She took off her mask, revealing the face of their supposed ally, the half-elf sorceress Jevvica Norr. She gestured for the wizard to join her on the wyvern. "Well," she said, "what are you waiting for?"

Next session: Sting of the Wyvern!

PS: During the ransom, the characters learned that the Pactlords hoped to find a magical plague within the Banewarrens and unleash it upon civilization. So stopping them is more important than ever.

 

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" campaign session, the PCs had two encounters on the road: a pair of guards from Devlinshire (the location of their previous adventure, in which they killed three dread warriors animated at the behest of the local Duke) who warned them to be on the lookout for a group of five people described to look exactly like the five of them (the guards were okay with the PCs having slain undead in their city and were basically telling them to make themselves scarce before they were found out); and then an elderly noblewoman asking how long it was to Devlinshire, for she had business that way. She paid the human spellsword with a gold coin for his assistance.

Then they made their way to Snail Valley, the site of the next dream victim: a 6-year-old girl named Rosie Picklemeyer. However, when they tried to enter her dream, the human spellsword never made it to the Dreamlands and without all five present they couldn't alter her dream (of trying to hold a tea party when seven snail babies were crying). Some investigations led them to the realization the "elderly noblewoman" they'd met on the road was a night hag and she'd chosen the spellsword as her next victim, riding him as he slept.

The PCs had to sneak back into Devlinshire (one invisible, three hidden in a rope trick spell beneath the wagon, and only the human bard visible driving the wagon), where they consulted with the clerics of the Goddess of Magic, found out what they could about night hags, and paid them for a plane shift scroll and the casting of a plane shift spell to get them to the Ethereal Plane, where the night hag had set up a "dream trap" for the spellsword - any time he fell asleep, he got shunted to her dream trap on the Ethereal Plane before his sleeping mind made it all the way to the Dreamlands.

Once on the Ethereal Plane, the PCs entered her dream trap, fought off a pair of ethereal marauders and a pair of phase spiders, found the "genie lamp" that held her extradimensional space where she did all of her victim-riding, and fought and killed the night hag, her nightmare steed, and five larvae (the spellsword would have eventually been converted into a sixth larva, at which point the night hag would go sell the bunch on the Lower Planes - profit!). As a result, the spellsword was freed from the constant draining of physical attributes caused by being hag-ridden in his dream trap each night, the PCs gained a mobile HQ in the form of the extradimensional genie lamp, and they were even savvy enough to gather up a vast quantity of phase spider silk, which can be sold to wizards eager to create magic items (like portable holes) which use the material. So fun adventure, a different set of foes, and vast quantities of treasure (which helps balance the adventures where there's little to no treasure to be found). And now that the spellsword showed back up in the Dreamalnds when he fell asleep, they were able to put the crying snail babies back to sleep so they could all have their tea party with Rosie and her stuffed animal, Mr. Bear, after which she awoke from her weeks-long dream coma.

And the paranoid human spellsword's player got to say "I told you so" to the half-orc cleric/paladin's player, who refuses to cast detect evil on everyone they meet because he feels it would be rude (and specifically didn't cast detect evil on the elderly noblewoman - the night hag in disguise - when he had the chance to do so).

Johnathan

 

[THEMNGMNT]

28th session of Monte Cook's 3E Banewarrens campaign run with Shadow of the Demon Lord on Owlbear Rodeo.

Five player characters at Level 5:

• Dwarf Berserker/Warrior. Heir to a lost kingdom. His trinket is half of a treasure map.
• Elf Wizard/Magician. Outcast from elven lands, raised in Ptolus, keeper of a dark secret. His magical traditions are Arcana, Teleportation, Chaos, and Fey.
• Goblin Oracle/Magician. Responsible for the destruction of his tribe. Specialized in the Fire and Forbidden magic traditions.
• Changeling Spellbinder/Rogue. Created by House Vladaam to replace a child they kidnapped and held in servitude. Naturally, she wants revenge. Two weapon fighter with the Battle tradition.
• Human Paladin/Priest. Cleric of Lothian, the primary god of Ptolus. His magical traditions are Life, Theurgy, and Battle. His wife was murdered by undead and now he seeks answers.

This session started with most of the characters inside an underworld speakeasy called the Onyx Spider. They'd just concluded a deal with the Pactlords to ransom back the dwarf in return for the Bane Key, which unlocks the magically sealed vault doors within the Banewarrens.

To honor the terms of the deal, the characters agreed to stay inside the Onyx Spider for five minutes as the Pactlords exited. They couldn't leave early without violating the rules of the Spider and rousing the wrath of its owner. So they reluctantly decided to play by the rules.

Unfortunately, a rival group of adventurers working for the evil House Vladaam was not bound by that agreement. They followed the Pactlords out of the Spider -- but not before talking trash to the frustrated player characters.

However, one character was already outside -- the elf wizard. And he was invisbile. He used a spell called fetch to steal the Bane Key from the Pactlords without them even realizing it. Then he hid as the rival adventurers attacked the Pactlords.

Abbreviated session as one of the players was coming down with Covid.

The player changed the kidnapped dwarf's expert path from Fighter to Berserker to reflect the impact of his captivity.

Next session: The players take on the boggle who started this all!

 

[Richards]

In tonight's Ghourmand Vale session, we found our way out of "not-quite-Ravenloft-but-clearly-patterned-after-it" via a temporary planar gate that dumped us 6 days out of Ghourmand Vale. We ditched the betraying sorceress who had already used us for patsies once, then found our way to a halfling village just as the last tavern was closing. The tavernkeeper gave us directions to a halfling pony farmer on the outskirts of the village, and traveling through the woods to get there we rescued his son from a pair of worgs. The next morning we got directions to Ghourmand Vale, bought a pony and his only two light horses, and started on our overland trek. The halfling rode the pony, our armor-clad half-elf paladin rode one horse, which meant I got to buddy up with the elf archer, riding double on the second horse.

On the first day, we ran into an ettercap and two spider swarms, which we fought off using what fire we had available. (The paladin wields a flaming burst longsword he took from a hobgoblin and my sorcerer had a burning hands spell scroll; after that, it was the archer's flasks of oil being lit by a burning brand from my sorcerer's unseen servant, Ogilvy.) After killing the ettercap and one spider swarm, the other swarm decided to tuck into the dead ettercap and we continued on our trek unmolested.

Then the DM fast-forwarded us the rest of the trek home. We'll need to finish the task we were doing before we got whisked away to not-quite-Ravenloft, which was clearing out a dwarven mine of svirfneblin interlopers. And we're just at the cusp of 3rd level, so the next adventure should put us over the edge.

Edit: There apparently had been an error in our XP calculations - it turned out we were at 3rd level at the end of this adventure after all.

Johnathan