D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

We played through two short adventures in yesterday's "Down to Erthe" campaign. In the first, the PCs:

• Were tipped off that a local gnome potion maker was secretly a dragon who'd been eating people in the city, and opted to break into her shop, slay the evil dragon, and take her hoard for their own
• Learned what they could about the gnome, her business, and the neighboring businesses
• Snuck into the back of her shop at night, looked around, and found out - as they'd suspected - her shop had expanded into several nearby businesses that had been closed down and boarded up
• Encountered guardian spiders - one Medium and one Large - hiding in the webs along the ceiling of the boarded-up businesses
• Discovered a treasure horde hidden behind a makeshift wall made of stacked-up stones (from the torn-down walls that once connected the adjacent buildings) and spider webbing; they thought for sure they'd found the dragon's den, but there was no dragon there
• Looted the shop of potions, then set them by the back door so they wouldn't have to lug them around while they explored the rest of the layout
• Found a secret door connecting to a drow tailor's shop next door, leading them to believe he'd been the one keeping the spiders fed
• Explored the gnome's apartment, found it empty
• Finally checked out the last corner of the building complex (via a secret door), and ran afoul of a spider swarm
• Fought the gnome in her aranea form (turns out she wasn't a dragon after all!), after having just laid a ton of eggs, killing her after a decent fight
• Went over to the drow tailor's apartment after deducing he was likely a male aranea and they were both in cahoots - turned out they were right, and they killed him as well

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In the second short adventure, the mermaid PC:

• Met up with members of her merfolk tribe (as she did the first night of every full moon), to explain what all she'd learned about life as a human in the past month
• Was told a deep aboleth had recently come to the shallower waters and had been slain from the inside by a triton hero wielding a powerful weapon, Galrich's fang, but the triton had likely died and the weapon was still inside the aboleth's stomach
• Was furthermore told a group of anguillians (eel men) had been standing guard around the deep aboleth's corpse, refusing to allow anyone but the prophesized next wielder of the weapon, "she who has both two legs and none at all" - an obvious reference to the mermaid PC, whose intellect was housed inside a slain human woman while her mermaid body resides in stasis in a magic amulet she wears (she can "swap bodies" at will)
• Agreed to meet the tribe members the following morning to go to the deep aboleth and seek out the weapon
• Brought along the other three PCs (and their mongrelfolk NPC adept)
• Fought an orca on the way, who slew the mermaid samurai leader of the group meeting with the mermaid PC, then left with its meal
• Arrived with the other PCs at the deep aboleth, showed the anguillian cleric she was the next wielder (by briefly swapping bodies in front of him), and then entered the deep anguillian, foillowed (in single file) by her companions
• Fought Small and Medium monstrous crabs, a crabman druid (all of whom had eaten their way into the deep aboleth without the anguillians noticing); the druid thought the "godflesh" was all his, and if he ate enough of the deep aboleth he'd gain his godlike powers
• Found the weapon embedded in the top of the stomach cavity, and had the human monk retrieve the triton's corpse, then all returned back outside the deep aboleth
• Showed the anguillian cleric the weapon, to which he praised the God of the Sea for allowing the prophecy to be fulfilled...at which point he said the prophecy didn't say who would wield the weapon next after "she who has both two legs and none at all" and called for his six anguillian warriors to help him slay the PCs
• Fought them off, slaying one warrior and the cleric, at which point the other five retreated back to the deeper depths from whence they'd come, not wanting any further trouble

Galrich's fang swaps between a trident, a longspear, a shortspear, and a stiletto, each a +1 weapon and grants the wielder proficiency in whatever form it currently holds. And the PCs all leveled up to 3rd at the end of the adventure.

Johnathan

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Last session was alright, but I softballed the players bit too much.

It's Hoard of the Dragon Queen, where the PC's infiltrate a war camp. PC's gathered intel and were about to rescue a key prisoner when they acceded to his foolish desire to be left prisoner to learn more about war camp leader's plans.

PC's exfiltrated (too easily), met up with various npcs before realising their callousness.

Next session, they're thinking to infiltrate again, which could lead to dungeon crawl or overland chase. Either way, going to harden it a bit by not forgiving distracted play. PC death would do wonders.

 

[TravDoc42]

I run a monthly 5e 2024 one shot for teens at my local library, where I work! Today, I had my latest session, a Level 3 mission in the Underdark below a mine in the Vast, in Faerûn!

There are 6 players: two Bards, a Rogue, a Ranger, and a Monk, all of whom are teens, and all of who I've played with before! They met Oath Braunstein (a dwarf miner) and Sakhthet (a Mulhorandi priestess of Geb), who are the proprietors of the Happy Gemstone Mines. They explain that fourteen miners, lured into the mines by a recent discovery of more bloodstones, went missing yesterday. They hire the party to investigate.

The party finds signs of a struggle in the mine, and a ladder/net made of spider silk. They follow footprints to an underground stream, and follow the stream downwards, until the tunnel forks. The stream carries on one way, while another tunnel goes to the left. Suddenly, they hear a flumphing noise coming from the darkness, and a telepathic message from Squishlord, a friendly flumph NPC! They explain that the flumphs have problems from a "scary shrimp", and need help. In exchange, the flumphs will produce a "smell poem", and lead the party to wherever they need to go. A deal is struck, and the party makes quick work of a chuul (the scary shrimp) that has found a +1 greatsword stuck under a rock. Attracted to the magic, the chuul refuses to leave, and attacked the flumphs for it.

After using the torches provided by Oath and Sakhthet to make a bonfire, roast the chuul with mushrooms, and prepare a delicious feast, the party is led by the flumphs to their target: a group of drow of Lolth who have kidnapped the miners, and are keeping them in an abandoned temple to Moradin. The drow, led by a drow mage of Lolth named Zi'zzek the Rash, are working with a group of quaggoths, and a as of yet unseen dragon. The drow are out fighting troglodytes*, leaving the quaggoths alone.

The party Ranger, a drow gloomstalker who speaks Undercommon (the player planned ahead upon learning it was an Underdark one shot!), negotiates an alliance with the quaggoths, who hate Zi'zzek's leadership. They also are bribed with leftover roast chuul with mushroom. The quaggoths inform the party that the drow are soon to return, and the group prepares an ambush.

When the drow enter, the party successfully ambushes them, attacking from the rear and killing several low level drow easily. Zi'zzek the mage and his Drow Elite Warrior of Lolth lieutenant are tougher, and Zi'zzek summons a spider demon using Summon Fiend. The party kills the demon, which explodes, downing two PCs. Then, the aforementioned young deep dragon Mycoragoth arrives. She is eccentric and selfish, and uses her breath weapon against a group of PCs and drow NPCs. The remaining drow are slain or surrender eventually, after some clever tactical moves by my players (I gave cover opportunities). The deep dragon Mycoragoth is wounded but not Bloodied, but she agrees to "let the party off with a warning", and promises to kill them next time. She flies off, and the party rescues the hostages, just as we run out of time (as the Library closes at 8).

I am pretty impressed with the final combat! I gave them room to maneuver and plot, and they took advantage of it for a really fun fight! I love the Summon Fiend spell for the drow mage, it was a great surprise to have it explode on them. All in all, a fun time!


*had the party gone the other way, they would've witnessed this.

 

[Richards]

In tonight's "Middle of Elsewhere" campaign session, the PCs:

• Learned a total of 18 villagers (including the mayor) had been abducted by the recent formian raid
• Discovered crystals embedded in the heads of the formians that had been slain in the raid
• Were sent out with a Rary's telepathic bond necklace (allowing our celestial elf witch to "report in" to her mentor, who'd be staying back in Elsewhere) and a tracking device that showed the way to concentrations of these crystals, as there were five different "clumps" on an adjacent Mechanus gear (other planar scout teams were assigned to the other four clumps), with orders to observe the location of the formian nest, determine how many formians lived there, and if any of the kidnapper villagers had been taken there (and, should opportunity allow, take the formians out and rescue the villagers; otherwise, wait for reinforcements
• Crossed over to the adjacent gear, and determined the "clump" was on the opposite side of the gear and had to figure out how to get our horses over to the other side (the witch cast fly on her horse and flew the other steeds over one by one)
• Discovered this side of the gear was mostly desert
• Had a Huge monstrous scorpion rise up from the sands to attack us, and it immediately caught up the witch in its claw
• Dealt enough damage in one round to bring it down to under half its starting hit points, which forced a nearly fully buried formian psychic warrior to scramble up out of the sands and transfer some of its life essence into the scorpion (using some psionic power)
• Found out the scorpion couldn't be flanked (it was part of the formian hivemind), and had a piece of crystal embedded in its dorsal carapace
• Kept dealing so much damage to the scorpion we kept the formian psychic warrior busy transferring more and more of its hit points over to the scorpion
• Eventually killed the scorpion and the formian in the same round, ending that particular encounter
• Had the fiendish orc fighter cut open the dead formian's head and discovered half of its brain was made of (or converted to) crystal
• Continued on our multi-day trek until daylight (we travel at night since we all have darkvision and the orc has trouble seeing during the daylight hours)

We all (save the orc fighter) got to try out some new 3rd-level spells during this encounter, so that was fun.

Johnathan

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Had much better session with latest Tyranny of Dragons.

Party indulged in bit of politicking in Greenest, arguing for and against remaining independent after raider attack. Good opportunity for world-building and couple PC's display their values. Funny how both helped each other argue against each other; very polite debate, halfling community approved.

Characters got awarded medals and plots of farmland by governor, investing some players.

Party decided to redress missed rescue opportunity by scouting raider camp. During travel, realized raider party including 2 minotaurs (!) are tracking them. Did clever doubled backs and traps to hinder trackers.

Discovered raider camp dispersed. Walked in so bold, kobold sentries thought they should be let past. An ettin at top of cliff challenged party, but so easily (accidentally) tricked, druidess couldn't stop laughing.

Found important monk prisoner still tied to stakes, but removing hood revealed dead and triggered orc ambush! Orcs managed to smash through party's high AC, druidess fled invisible and paladin KO'ed. Raging half-orc barbarian exile and skirmish rogue won the day. Wow, lightfoot halfling was sneak attacking with advantage all fight; lots of damage. Oh, and grapple barbarian would lock down foe at a time.

Winged kobolds watched fight but didn't intervene. Seemed pleased when orcs died. Bad blood between.

Anyway, party discovered monk prisoner's head in trapped chest in tent. Concluded macabre set-up something to do with Speak with Dead. Thief greatly pleased got whole body; she has big wager on saving him and hopes to get him Raise Dead.

Druidess led party into cave. Roll for initiative! End sesh.

Then went out for pizza. Good time.