D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Maialideth]

The PCs are on the plane of Arborea, gathering ingredients for a cyclops to forge a magical weapon for the group's barbarian.
This week they were looking for the essence of the Western Wind Zephyrus.
Arriving on a beautiful tropical island, first they fought some harpies that were trying to lure people to a watery grave. But the druid cast Waterbreathing on everyone, and then the group (2 players) along with 3 NPC sailors gave the harpies a good beating.

Now they had to find the Western Wind somewhere on the island. The druid used his familiar to look for an area with signs of extraordinary wind activity, and the barbarian convinced some birds to search that area for the Western Wind.

The next step was to sneak up on the Western Wind without startling it. The barbarian with his Primal Knowledge snuck behind the Western Wind, and when in position, he blew out a strong breath towards the wind, so the wind thought it should move the way the breath was flowing.

This led the PCs up to the top of a high cliff overlooking the island. The Western Wind was frolicking and dancing around on the clifftop, and the PCs would have to somehow have to exhaust the energetic and playful wind. The barbarian tried to dance with the wind, but he overestimated the energy of the great Western Wind. Out of breath and out of ideas he sat down, while the Western Wind joyfully danced around the clifftop. The druid had moved out to the very edge of the cliff, and when he caught the attention of the Western Wind, he took a great leap from the cliff and started to fall through the air towards almost certain death. The curious wind would look over the side of the cliff to see what the strange mortal was doing. Meanwhile, the druid's owl familiar would fly under the falling druid, staying there just long enough for the wind to notice the intent. The owl would do this again a second time, then a third time, hoping the wind would figure out the idea of the game. The ground was getting closer and closer, and the druid was starting to accept that this was maybe not a great idea after all. His eyes closed, and with a slight smile on his face, he thought that at least it had been fun. He then felt a soft cushion and a sudden rush in his stomach, as he was boosted up on a great gust of the Western Wind. The wind lifted him up high in the air, then gently bounced him back down on top of the cliff.

The last thing the PCs had to do now, was to capture a part of the Western Wind. They knew they wouldn't cause it harm or remove it entirely from the Multiverse, it was the great Western Wind and they only needed a tiny fraction of its energy. The wind didn't move as fast now, and it was more accepting of their presence. They had been given an amphora by the cyclops Brontes, that would hold the essence of the wind. The druid approached the Western Wind and wildshaped into a vampire squid, which has membranes between its tentacles, then he enveloped the wind, which turned him into a living whoopee cushion that floated in the air. The barbarian hurried up to the 'balloon' and sucked the wind into his lungs (catching a couple of foulsmelling 'whoopees' as well). With his eyes watering from the 'whoopees', the barbarian managed to get the amphora uncorked and up to his mouth. He expelled the wind from his lungs with a mighty blow and put the cork back on the bottle before the Western Wind could fly away.

The session ended with the PCs collapsing in exhaustion on the grassy top of the cliff, looking up at the magnificent blue sky and noticing that for the first time since they arrived on the island and for the moment, there was no wind at all.

 

[el-remmen]

Western Wind

That sounds like an amazing adventure/encounter! And it also make me think, perhaps too obviously, of one of my favorite poems (by anonymous):

Westron wynde when wyll thow blow
the smalle rayne downe can Rayne
Cryst yf my love were in my Armys
And I yn my bed Agayne

Or transcribed into contemporary language;

O Western wind, when will thou blow?
The small rain down can rain
Christ!
If my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!

 

[Richards]

Today we started my new D&D 3.5 campaign, "Down to Erthe," and the PCs:

• Were individually attacked by sahuagin rising up from the shore waters; each was overpowered, stabbed with a poisoned sea urchin needle (which caused both paralysis and the ability to water breathe), and taken away to parts unknown
• Woke up in darkness, cold, wet, and sore, and soon figured out the reason they seemed to be in individual pits filled with broken chunks of wood (with the doors at the top of the ceiling) was they were in individual cabins of a sunken ship turned on its side
• Swam up out of their berths and had the snow fox hengeyokai cast a dancing lights spell to provide some illumination (it was close to midnight when they regained consciousness)
• Explored the nearby cabins, releasing a total of seven kidnap victims: 3 PCs plus a young boy, a mongrelfolk adept, a frightened human woman, and a halfling ranger (two dockworkers stayed in their rooms and the tenth victim was already missing from her berth)
• Opened several nearby doors looking for potential weapons, only to be surprised by a pair of sahuagin returning to the capsized sunken vessel to fetch the next sacrificial victim
• Fought off one sahuagin while the other retreated to fetch reinforcements
• Found their original gear and some well-needed potions to revive a few of their number who'd been knocked out by the sahuagin
• Found a way out of the ship to see a force of merfolk and giant sea horses attacking the sahuagin, who were planning on sacrificing ten victims to the sea god (they had already slain one, and the frightened human woman - played by our female player - died of fear-induced heart failure at seeing her planned fate, as she'd been recaptured by a sahuagin in a net by that time)
• Joined the merfolk forces in fighting the sahuagin with the four players each running their own PC (our female player now getting to run her mermaid scout PC), plus one of the following additional groups:
  • A merfolk samurai
  • Male merfolk warriors
  • Female merfolk warriors
  • Giant sea horses
• Defeated the sahuagin, looted the ship, and were escorted back to the shore by the merfolk forces, where the mermaid scout used her amulet (which had "scooped up" the woman who'd died of heart failure into its extradimensional space) to "bodyswap" her mind into the human woman's body while the mermaid body was stored inside the extradimensional space; she was under orders to explore the world of land-dwellers, learn their ways, and report back to the merfolk tribe on the first night of every full moon, giving the player a chance to run her mermaid/human PC in her mermaid form at least once every in-game month or so
• Were granted free room and board for life at a guesthouse run by the grateful mother of the boy the PCs saved
• Were also told by the mongrelfolk adept NPC that he considered himself under a "life-debt" to them for saving his life; he's now their 5th member, devoted to using his healing spells to keep them alive

Having just run 20th-level PCs in our last campaign the last time we played on a Saturday, it was a shock for all of us (DM included!) recalling how delicate and fragile 1st-level PCs can be.

Johnathan