D&D 5E What awesome thing happened in your game recently?

[The Grassy Gnoll]

One of my players, a Ranger, had just levelled up to Level 3 and was due a Companion. He chose a wolf, but as I wanted the beast to come to him in a meaningful way rather than just *poof* appear at the bottom of the bed, I planned to have them encounter the wolf as they journeyed - perhaps find it trapped and free it, kind of thing.
So, I decided to have him be driven by visions of a wolf and the player decided to set out across country to Thundertree rather than follow the roads, as he was sure he would locate the wolf who seemed to be 'calling' to him in his dreams if he went off road.
As it turned out, they rolled a random encounter of an owlbear that first night, which proceeded to wipe out (drop to 0) the Druid, and despite taking max damage twice inna face from the 18 STR barbarian's warhammer, took him out too, leaving the ranger knock kneed and desperately firing arrows (badly) at the seemingly unkillable crazy monster... and just then, I ruled that from out of the woods comes a snarling ball of lupine fury who got surprise on the 'owlbastard' as the players have now dubbed it - and happened to roll a natural 20, killing the monster, saving the rangers life and becoming his BFF all at once.
That's what I call a special bond.

 

[neobolts]

As it turned out, they rolled a random encounter of an owlbear that first night, which proceeded to wipe out (drop to 0) the Druid, and despite taking max damage twice inna face from the 18 STR barbarian's warhammer, took him out too, leaving the ranger knock kneed and desperately firing arrows (badly) at the seemingly unkillable crazy monster... and just then, I ruled that from out of the woods comes a snarling ball of vulpine fury who got surprise on the 'owlbastard' as the players have now dubbed it - and happened to roll a natural 20, killing the monster, saving the rangers life and becoming his BFF all at once.
That's what I call a special bond.

This. This is why we play.

 

[ccooke]

(This one's probably a bit long. Sorry about that)

This is a bit of the session I ran last Sunday, which was one of the best sessions I've had with that group.

Background: The last two years a new metal alloy has been introduced to the trade networks of this setting. It's unusually easy to enchant, but it's also quite pretty and has been used in everything from arms and armour to cutlery. Unfortunately, it's also got some sort of curse on it that makes you become more and more Chaotic and Evil as you use it and the party have found that a number of local groups have been pushing trade in it. Recently, the party arrived in a new city and were able to convince the Senate there to declare the metal illegal despite the best efforts (bribery and intimidation) of the local opposition. To make things a bit more complicated, some unknown force has decided to "test" the party by making everyone affected by the cursed metal go into a berserk rage as soon as they see the party. The party have been told this will last 24 hours (of which there are eleven hours remaining at the start of this story). The party are all disguised so they can travel without random shoppers going insane and attacking them with a bag of cabbages.

The party are in the city's palace building, where they holed up overnight with the city guard. They've just been told that there are some known agents of their opposition watching the palace building. Wanting to find and take out the leader of the opposition (the agents are just hired locals), they arrange to spring what looks like a trap while a rogue they know is able to trace the agents back to their base. Therefore, the party nonchalantly stroll into the huge open plaza in front of the palace, ignoring the agents that have been pointed out to them. The party head to a pancake vendor on the North wall, noting that the two agents actually in the square have met up and are walking towards them...

Agent 1 (A Gladiator NPC): *slaps a meaty hand on the party Bard's shoulder* "The boss wants a word with you."
Bard: "Is this the sort of 'word' we've become used to or an actual conversation?"
Agent 1: "... bugger this." *draws knife, stabs*
Bard: Casts Thunderwave, catching both agents and pushing them back 10'
Party Barbarian: *Lifts up table, throws it at Agent 1. Rolls critical hit*
Party Druid: "I cast Charm Person. On both of them."

Right. Well, given the circumstances, I decide it's fair to let the agents have advantage on their Will saves...

Agent 1: Rolls a 5 and a 7
Agent 2 (An Assassin NPC): Rolls a 9 and a 3

So now I have to stop and think a moment and check notes I wrote about six months ago, about this particular enemy organisation. They go:
"Agents in this group are locals, but the leader is a recent arrival from across the mountains. The leader holds the agents at arms length and they have only met him once or twice each. Agents have no particular loyalty to him and don't fear him (yet), but have been picked for their competence and reliability"
Okay. I think I know how to play that.

Agent 2: *stops her attack, looks confused and embarrassed* "Oh dear, I'm sorry I didn't recognise you!"
Druid walks over to Agent 1 and offers a hand up, which is accepted.
Agent 1: "Well, this is a mess. I'm afraid we've been hired to kill you."
Agent 2: "You know how it is. Look, I can promise to make it completely painless. But a job's a job, you know."
Agent 1: "And we took the money, and the Boss would ruin our reputation if we let you go. Sorry."
Druid: "Oh, um. Yes, of course."
Bard: "Who is your boss, anyway? I mean, if you're going to kill us we'd like to know."
Druid: "It's not as if we're going to kill him, or anything"
Agent 2: "Oh, we'd have no problem with you killing him, would we?"
Agent 1: "Of course not. I mean, you're much better friends than he is, right?"
Agent 2: "Besides, then we can keep the money and our reputation"
Druid: "Well, maybe we could discuss that. Why don't you join us at this table my friend hasn't destroyed yet?"
Agent 2: "Sure! That would be a much better end to this than... well. I'm sorry we didn't recognise you earlier, anyway."
Bard: "Oh, we're in disguise at the moment, so it's no surprise you didn't recognise us"
Agents: "Oh, really?" *peer closer at the party to (quite naturally) attempt to see through the disguise
Agent 1: *rolls a natural 20 on perception check*
Agent 1: Rolls a natural "yes" on the "Is this person forced into a murderous rage upon recognising the party" check

...

So a second fight ensues, this one with the assassin desperately trying to grapple her partner to stop him acting in such an irrational manner. Agent 1 is pounded into the dirt by the barbarian, the city guard turn up and arrest him and Agent 2 slips away in the confusion... but not before telling the Druid to meet her in a bar in an hour (the Druid quickly remembers that Charm Person only lasts an hour and gets her to shorten this to 45 minutes) if they are serious about killing her boss.

I'll leave most of the rest out, except for this one little bit:

Agent 2: "Wait, so [Agent 1] was being mind controlled to attack you?"
Bard: "Yes. We think your Boss hasn't been entirely honest with you."
Agent 2: "Bastard. I hate mind control"
Party: "Oh, so do we"
Agent 2: "So, I can show you to the right sewer to get to the lair entrance. That do?"
Druid (Realising that Charm Person would wear off any moment): "Of course! But you know, before we do, would you mind if I cast a spell on you? It'll help protect you from the Boss' mind control." *Rolls Charisma(Deception) with advantage (since she's charmed). Gets a 25
Agent 2: (Insight: 4. She is utterly convinced) "Oh, of course!"
Druid: "I cast Charm Person"#
Agent 2: Will save: 22. But since she is convinced the spell will protect her, she lets it
Agent 2: *feels safer and is grateful* "Thank you! Are you sure you don't need some more help? If you'll guarantee me a share of the loot, I can help fight alongside you..."

I am really looking forward to the next session.

 

[meomwt]

Agent 2: "Wait, so [Agent 1] was being mind controlled to attack you?"
Bard: "Yes. We think your Boss hasn't been entirely honest with you."
Agent 2: "Bastard. I hate mind control"
Party: "Oh, so do we"
Agent 2: "So, I can show you to the right sewer to get to the lair entrance. That do?"
Druid (Realising that Charm Person would wear off any moment): "Of course! But you know, before we do, would you mind if I cast a spell on you? It'll help protect you from the Boss' mind control." *Rolls Charisma(Deception) with advantage (since she's charmed). Gets a 25
Agent 2: (Insight: 4. She is utterly convinced) "Oh, of course!"
Druid: "I cast Charm Person"#
Agent 2: Will save: 22. But since she is convinced the spell will protect her, she lets it
Agent 2: *feels safer and is grateful*

If the Druid didn't get an Inspiration Point for that wonderful piece of chicanery, then please let him have one at the start of the next session. It was a genius piece of role-playing.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

We ran into a demon(i think) that gave us a choice to draw from a deck, which was the deck of many things. My PC drew a card that gave them enough XP to jump two levels, the other card turned a friend into a foe.

 

[Reynard]

We ran into a demon(i think) that gave us a choice to draw from a deck, which was the deck of many things. My PC drew a card that gave them enough XP to jump two levels, the other card turned a friend into a foe.

The Deck is the best thing ever.

 

[ThirdWizard]

A sorcerer wild surge caused three out of four 3rd level PCs to be caught in a fireball that knocked two unconscious and left the dragonborn paladin injured. Luckily the cleric was just outside the blast radius.

No enemies were harmed in this blast, although they were very confused.

The PCs still came out victorious, although the fight was much more difficult!

 

[wedgeski]

The Deck is the best thing ever.

Oh that was also an awesome thing that happened in my Dragonlance campaign a couple of weeks ago: we found out what happens when it's the kender who discovers a Deck of Many Things. (Answer: rolls 3 on a d4 to decide how many cards to pick, and doesn't get a single bad card).

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

The Deck is the best thing ever.

Even the players whose PC's got hosed by it were laughing the whole time and afterwards we were talking about that for a while. Great way to cap off a session.

 

[Skyscraper]

I started playing with my won. If that isn't cool, I don't know what is

 

[Schmoe]

I started playing with my won. If that isn't cool, I don't know what is

That sounds dirty.

 

[PnPgamer]

My wild sorcerer exploded as a fireball... Twice on the same combat (on turns 1 and 3). I was appreciated by my party members because:
Both of them went down
I completely annihilated the loot
I completely disintegrated the badguy wizard
I didnt hit all the zombies and the 3 that was left started chasing me around while i couldnt do anything to them.

I almost exploded twice in a row at the end of the phandelver mines. Wild surge rols were 06 and 09 (fireball comes in 07 or 08) i call my green percentiles now my fireball dice.

Also on a sidenote at the end of the campaign my character was blue and had triple the featherbeard.

 

[aramis erak]

The all-newbs party killed a half-dragon and 2 berserkers... and it came down to the sorcerer versus the last berserker, mano-a-mano. The sorcerer killed him after a couple rounds of mutual miss.

Earlier in that same fight, the Gnome stood on a box and kept egging on the berserker... who kept missing.

My dice weren't that hot... but of 5 players, only one character hadn't been dropped in that battle. And one had been dropped twice. They did force the monsters to climb the slide, tho'.

They cheered each other's successes. They chanted for PC's death saves. They felt heroic. And they all made 3rd level...

 

[Fanaelialae]

Recently the party, which at the time consisted of a druid, a rogue and a pair of warrior henchmen, was tracking down a band of undead looking for a dracolich's phylactery in the woods the druid was sworn to protect. They tracked them to the ruins of an ancient dragon cult where the party fought their way inside and descended into the bone pit below.

There they found a strange undead man standing near the back of the room (a revenant), a ghostly dragon (advanced ghost with a white dragon's breath attack), as well as several ghouls and ogre zombies. The players were nervously watching the revenant, not sure what to make of him and expecting that he'd turn out to be the true boss of the fight. As the battle started the PCs engaged the enemies, and the revenant did something that surprised them - he ran for the stairs. Even though the other party members were hard pressed, the druid decided to cast Entangle on the revenant, and he surprisingly failed his save. For the next six rounds, the revenant would improbably continue failing his saving throws against Entangle.

By this point the ghost dragon had been felled and only a few zombies remained. The revenant called out to his master and more zombies began climbing out of the bone pit, engaging the PCs and trying to keep them from the revenant. The rogue wasn't having it, and she danced past the zombies only to be stopped short by the revenant's vengeful glare. One of the henchmen fell to the zombies, and they moved up to try to break the druid's concentration. It was about this time that the revenant finally saved against Entangle. He began to move up the stairs but the rogue had saved against the paralysis and used an elemental gem to summon an earth elemental, which blocked the revenant's path. The revenant pummeled the elemental, though it inflicted good damage on him as well.

Only two or three zombies were still shambling, but the party was running on fumes as well. The rogue, unable to approach the revenant due to being frightened, chugged a few healing potions and used the last charge from her Bag of Tricks, unfortunately only summoning a rat. That rat would prove surprisingly useful in a few rounds when it crit the last remaining zombie, taking it down.

The remaining henchman was paralyzed by vengeful glare, the druid was fighting a losing battle with the revenant, and the rogue finally made her save to shrug off frightened. The revenant retreated to the upper temple and seemed to be about to get away when the rogue caught up to him. He swung at her, but missed twice. And with that, they managed to down him.

That encounter was set up with the possibility that they could stop the revenant, but I never actually expected them to pull it off. It was a deadly fight even without the revenant, and his goal was simply to get away with the phylactery intact. The players set their minds to it and pulled it off, despite that several times a TPK seemed imminent. And now the lich who sent the revenant has a reason to take a special interest in the PCs!

 

[Hathorym]

My PCs discovered that one of their own had been betraying them to the Avatar of Shadows for the last six months. They were getting frustrated about feeling like their enemies were always a step ahead, and they finally figured out why. Of course, they were left trapped in an extraplanar vault as the cliffhanger season finale, but hey, we've all got problems.

 

[Rhenny]

(SPOILER ALERT - HoDQ)

In our Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign last Thursday, a new player joined. She was a human sorcerer who had been captured by kobolds/Dragon cultists so our party liberated her from bondage. Then, we needed to find a place to rest for the night, so we left the caves we were in to go to another cave we had found earlier that was outside the main cave complex we were exploring (The Hatchery). Valleja, the human sorcerer, refused to spend the night in a small cave with a bunch of adventurers she barely knew. My character, a human tempest cleric of Silvanus (raised by Elves), spoke with her and convinced her to let us sleep in the cave. I promised to protect her and also told her that when we got back to civilization I'd pay for her room in an inn. We conducted a few minutes of authentic roleplaying and she agreed to let us sleep. Of course, she stayed up all night because she was uncomfortable, but at least the rest of the party got a refreshing night's rest.

Then we went back into the hatchery and eventually encountered Cyanwrath the Half Dragon who had already defeated our Dwarven Fighter. Since the Dwarven Fighter, Brevick, was leading us down the stairway tunnel, he was the first to see the Half-Dragon. Although we could not see Brevick or what he had seen, we did hear him shout his Dwarven battle cry. When we got down there, we saw him engaged with Cyanwrath while 3 berserkers watched the show. The entire battle erupted into a very deadly encounter. In the end, we prevailed and had our revenge, but when the rogue opened a chest acid rained on us and caused the room to fill up with poison gas. Only 3 of the 6 of us were left standing. We dragged the unconscious ones out of the room and I was able to use my prayer of healing to get us up on our feet again.

Very exciting near TPK.

 

[Riley37]

The DM had some Adventurer's League certificates for magic items. One of them was printed as VOID. WotC prints those as sort of like a pre-voided check... but the party's warlock, with Great Old One patron called dibs on the VOID, rather than any of the other certificates in the pile (that is, the ones which had actual printed magic item descriptions).

Excellent roleplaying, and I'm rewarding it. His Patron has enabled him to attune the VOID magic item. It has zero height, width, depth and mass. When it's equipped, the warlock sees everything through a warp in space-time, giving WIS 19 and Advantage on Perception checks to spot any interplanar or extraplanar events. (It allows the Patron to look through the warlock's eyes - and the Patron sometimes spots details which the Warlock would otherwise miss.) It can also serve as a DM exposition/foreshadowing device; for example, the warlock might feel a great disturbance, as if thousands of sentients had screamed and then been suddenly silenced.

 

[Winterfell]

About four sessions back a Sorc and my Rogue-self decided to pledge ourselves to King Witchthorn (an Arch Fey) to complete a task (given in secret to us without the knowledge of the other members of the party) he needed in order to gain some protection against a large dragon residing in some nearby woods. King Witchthorn did as he promised and gave protection later in session allowing our entire group to survive the attack of the dragon and in turn pushing it from the woods.

The task ended up being that we had to go retrieve two young pegasi that were currently being held by the Emerald Enclave whereabouts unknown. The Emerald Enclave is actually looking for our group because the Tiefling Sorc I am pledged with is kind of a pyromaniac (carrying around a Wand of Phantasmal Fireballs she loves to use to keep from setting too many real fires) and has been setting fires throughout the forest during various encounters. The two of us convinced our party to help with this task.

Following various leads to track down the Pegasi, we came across a village that was decimated by a large force of Orcs. We continued down that trail and saw a large Orc encampment as they prepared to siege the Emerald Enclave compound. Our party containing (Teifling Sorc / Half-Orc Ranger / Half-Elf Rogue / Human Fighter / Drow Warlock) parked it behind a hill out of site of both parties, when our Half-Orc Ranger piped up that he wanted to go parlay with the Orcs. There is no way a half-elf, human, and drow would have been viewed favorably by those Orcs so we do what you should never do and...split the party. Half-Orc and Tiefling wander over the hill and the Half-Orc is able to talk themselves out of being killed straight out, but was being viewed extremely skeptically by the camp.

During that time the Elven Emerald Enclave scouting party came across the three of us remaining and I was able to talk them into speaking with their leader (no recognition thanks to previous disguise by the Warlock and myself and the fighter never having been involved with the Enclave fights. We got into the compound and approached the leader who was partially distracted giving positioning orders to the troops on the wooden palisade walls and gates. Leader began to grill about why the hell we were near the Orcs...and was looking none-to-happy.

While that was occuring, the Orc leader was tired of being talked to and ordered the two party members to provide an "act of faith" to prove their worthiness or die. The Sorc jumped at the chance and ran out to no-mans-land figuring she can lob a phantasmal fireball over the gate and make a good show of things...but a funny thing happened when the player tried doing math on the fly. Not calculating the distance she wanted correctly, she pulled up too soon, screams and launched the fireball...

**dice is rolled...to the utter shock of both the DM and the players around the table...crit fail of 1...that is no longer a phantasmal fireball but instead a live nuke headed directly for the gate***

...the entire gate area explodes with wood, elves, dirt being launched into the air by the blast. The party members on the inside being pelted by debris of wood and elven body parts.

In disbelief the Orcs all turned to her and began chanting "Ghash Mog" (Fire Voice) and use this as their battle cry as the siege then turned into an assault as the horde rushed to the gap. Without character knowledge, our party was now in a fight for their lives versus each other.

Just another fun session.

 

[Riley37]

the Orcs all turned to her and began chanting "Ghash Mog" (Fire Voice)

There's silly chaotic comedy of incompetence, and then there's chaos *with accurate LotR Orcish vocabulary*, and somehow that's what makes the difference for me between ridiculous and awesome.

 

[Winterfell]

There's silly chaotic comedy of incompetence, and then there's chaos *with accurate LotR Orcish vocabulary*, and somehow that's what makes the difference for me between ridiculous and awesome.

So often does our group find ourselves walking this very line...session after session after session.