D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

In today's "Down to Erthe" game session, the PCs:

• Were sent to take out everyone working in two side-by-side businesses, a pawn shop and a bar, which were fronts for a rival guild of rogues and assassins; the PCs' Guildmaster had just survived an assassination attempt by this rival guild and he wanted them all slain
• Split into two groups, with the men (human monk, changeling rogue, and mongrelfolk adept) entering to the bar and the women (human scout and snow fox hengeyokai wu jen) entering the pawn shop
• Got the sole pawn shop customer to leave (by paying him 5 gp to skedaddle), as the pawn shop owner's guard dog came out from behind the front counter and attacked the hengeyokai, who smelled like a fox
• Took out the guard dog and the pawn shop owner (a human assassin), then found a secret door leading into a hidden area behind the pawnshop
• Slew the four human rogues and the human barmaid in the bar (all of whom were members of the rival guild), locked the front door, and headed into a back area through a locked door (using a key taken from the bartender's ring)
• Encountered additional troops: a pair of human rogues on the other side of the secret door from the pawn shop, and two private rooms behind the bar, each holding human and elf rogues and assassins; managed to kill them all without any casualties on their part
• Had the women go through the door the guards were flanking, to find an elf assassin training almost a dozen elf and human assassins, who all charged the intruders, surrounding the scout
• Had the men find a secret door in the rear of one of the private rooms, allowing them to come to the women PCs' aid (in a rather timely fashion)
• Took out half of the remaining troops, while a pair of staggered assassins ran to the back to wake the remaining rogues and assassins, who came to the rescue of their beleaguered compatriots
• Eventually managed to take out the remaining foes, while a lone rogue exited a safehouse room in the back, saw the massacre, and fled through the secret door to the private meeting room behind the bar, seeking to escape
• Chased down the visiting rogue, finally catching up to him after he'd escaped out into the streets of the city and tried escaping down an alley
• Finally took him down with a magic missile, after he'd been shot twice with crossbow bolts and slammed by the monk's spiked chain
• Dragged him back inside, stripped the places and corpses of valuables, then reported their success back to their own guild, the Silent Sodality (believed by the people of the city to be a philanthropic organization, an image the Guildmaster works hard to foster)
• Were paid a 5,000 gp per PC bonus for jobs well done in taking out the rival guild

Despite assassin being a prestige class in 3.5, I used a 20-level assassin character class Mongoose Publishing came out with in the early days of 3E. The PCs are all 4th level, and they were up against 1st- and 2nd-level assassins and rogues in training, under the tutelage of a 5th-level assassin and a visiting 5th-level rogue.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

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

• Traveled through Muspelheim for four days, arriving at the ruins of the Cerulean Spire, the location where the fire giants handed off the kidnapped elf seer they were sent to rescue to the drow
• Fought a half-red dragon human among the ruins, who insisted (in Draconic) "Go away! It's ours! We found it!" (Fortunately, both the celestial elf witch and my fiendish human cleric speak that language)
• Killed him without too much effort, and then found a secret door (a hatch, really) leading to a set of spiral stairs carved into the stone leading down into darkness
• Cast prep spells - the most important of which was the elf's invisibility sphere - and then quietly followed the elf down the stairs, everyone staying within 10 feet of her so we all stayed invisible
• Entered a "+" shaped chamber, with another dead half-red dragon human in the middle section, a hoard of treasure laying in a heap to the east, and a zombified salamander and a flesh golem standing to the west, facing the treasure
• Figured out the two unliving guardians were apparently set to attack any visible intruders, so - while still invisible - dumped all of the treasure into the human cleric's Heward's even handier haversack and the shadow druid's bag of holding, then did likewise with a bunch of necromantic books and scrolls on a bookshelf to the south
• Skedaddled back upstairs without having activated either guardian, to be met with a raven familiar who offered to take us to his mistress, the elf seer we're supposed to rescue from the drow

So basically, we accidentally stumbled upon the exact spell that made the fight against a flesh golem and a salamander zombie moot, stealing all of the treasure available during the adventure after having only fought and killed a half-red dragon human barbarian who only managed to deal minimal damage to two of our PCs. Not a bad night's work!

And next week, we may finally meet up with the elf seer we've been trying to rescue for the last three adventure sessions.

Johnathan

 

[Sulicius]

The 90th session of our Ixalan campaign was again, a lot of fun. The heroes are travelling through the subterranean rivers of the continent to reach the hollow world to deliver the McGuffin to a sun god.This session, they arrived at the jaguarfolk city of Ban Koj.

They're a slightly hostile people with a caste system and an immortal king who they worship as a god. A king who would VERY MUCH like to take that McGuffin off the party.

The party, in turn, is very interested in this strange civilization, and also wants to learn magical secrets from them. I am loving the tension so far. The party KNOWS these guys will want to take the Immortal Sun McGuffin from them, but also think they're bad-ass jaguarfolk and want to learn from them. I have never had so many Insight checks rolled in a single session, I think!

The party is figuring out the culture and want to meet the king (which is a bad idea), but also improve their ship so it can sail through loose sand like it would water. They found a powerful glyphscribe (the jaguarfolk glyphs are like jaguar spots!) who will only help them if the heroes collect some magical material for him first.

We ended with some combat, where 4 CR5 were absolutely decimated by a level 11 party.

I was worried the jaguarfolk city would not be interesting, but I think I pulled off the interesting culture! And I will admit, I got one solid location idea from ChatGPT: The Ancestral Skin archive. A place where they preserve pelts of honored Malamet. Since their pelts are covered in spots that are used for glyphs, they are living text. When I told the players about this place, they did a double take: "Wait, what are you saying? That's insane. Let's go there!"