D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

[Richards]

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" campaign session, the PCs:

• Met up with the same three drow warriors they'd rescued two adventures ago, who refused to return to the tribe until they had captured some game on their own, while they were stalking a group of six axebeaks busy pulling huge berries off of 10-foot-tall bushes
• Promised not to get in the drow's way while they picked off an axebeak on their own (for the sake of the warriors' honor)
• Found out there were actually two dozen axebeaks and a gray render protector, the axebeaks drunk on guzzleberries that had fermented on the vine, making them particularly aggressive (at which point the drow decided, "You know what? Those 15th-level heroes can go ahead and give us a hand after all!")
• Funneled the foes with a wall of force spell and two black tentacles spells, allowing the three drow to take on two axebeaks on their own without interruption
• Let the drow take off with their downed prey while the heroes dealt with the rest of the flock and the gray render, then moved on
• Met up with half a dozen non-expressive lizardfolk, who immediately attacked the PCs; most were taken care of with a prismatic spray spell, but that's when the three giant dragonflies showed up....
• After dealing with the remaining pod-spawned lizardfolk (they were plants!) and the flying insects, the PCs continued along the path of the stream they'd been following, to meet up with a giant bodythief plant stuck between a ring of massive, stone plinths
• After the elf sorcerer zapped it for 96 points of electricity damage (maximized chain lightning), they hid behind a 50-foot-tall wall of force (after it used a 12d6 acid stream breath weapon on the sorcerer in retaliation) and summoned monsters to go fight it (a greater earth elemental, Huge fire elemental, celestial polar boar, dire elk)
• Watched as the ruckus outside their cave brought out a mated pair of jungle giants and their styracosaurus draft animal
• Finally braved coming out from behind the wall of force once the bodythief plant was almost dead, then quickly slew the three cave dwellers
• Found a gemstone mine at the back of the jungle giants' sleeping quarters, in which was a crystallis - a being from the Elemental Plane of Earth that just wanted to get home (it had fallen through a rift to the Material Plane and hung around the gemstone cave because it reminded it of home)
• Talked to the crystallis, convinced it they could return it home if it didn't resist their spell, and had the dwarf cleric cast a banishment spell on it
• Had the greater earth elemental gather up the gemstones embedded in the walls of the deeper cave, garnering the PCs about 40,000 gp in all

The jungle giants had "corralled" the bodythief plant with the stone plinths, preventing it from moving away, since their main attack (swallow a creature, absorb its essence, and grow a plant version of that creature which is now enjoined with other of its kind and the bodythief via a telepathic link) only worked on creatures of size Large or smaller, and they were Huge.

Johnathan

 

[Richards]

In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" game session, the PCs:

• Headed to an abandoned shrine up a mountain slope, finding the entire place shrouded in heavy fog
• Approached the shrine as follows:
  • The elf druid wildshaped into a dire bat, which was ridden by the human sorcerer (on top) and the halfling rogue (on the bottom, by using her spider climb ability to stick to the druid/bat's chest while upside-down
  • The half-elf paladin rode his celestial pegasus, which followed closely behind the dire bat, following her flight path
  • The elf archer rode behind the paladin
  • Using her blindsense ability, the druid flew up while 15 feet away from the cliffside, then 10 feet above the surface of the ground upon hitting the plateau upon which the shrine was located
• Since everyone could only see 20 feet away, we had to "stumble" across the foes as we moved; first up were two ogre barbarians which we mostly ignored at first
• Once she saw an annis hag, the druid alerted everyone else of its location over the Rary's telepathic bond spell we had up and running, and then she cast an insect plague spell around the annis, which (accidentally) also encompassed the greenhag standing beside her (which the druid hadn't gotten close enough to detect yet)
• Eventually determined we were up against a fire giant, a night hag, and a cauchemar (Huge nightmare) as well
• Took out the ogres with physical attacks (mostly the paladin charging on the celestial pegasus and the halfling making sneak attacks)
• Dealt significant damage to the fire giant, annis, and greenhag with a couple of cone of cold spells, and then the druid caught everyone but the night hag in a wall of thorns spell
• The cauchemar went ethereal to escape the thorns, but the others were all trapped; the annis even knocked herself unconscious trying to escape the thorns after we'd brought her down to single-digit hit points
• The paladin and celestial pegasus slew the cauchemar when it returned to the Material Plane
• The night hag was the last foe standing (as we'd guessed would be the case), but even she couldn't stand up against getting an arrow into the eye (our elf archer had pulled the same trick on the cauchemar earlier, as well as the fire giant)

As it had turned out, one of the hags (the greenhag, I think) had spent the entire time completely invisible, but we'd never even noticed (the druid's blindsense as a dire bat picked her up just as easily as the visible foes); she was taken down by area of effect spells as collateral damage. And since we'd been buffed up with a mass bear's endurance spell before entering combat, none of us but the pegasus took any real hit point damage. It turns out the control weather spell the covey had used to protect their shrine hideout (they knew we were coming, having scried upon us slaying their minions last adventure session through their "hag's eye") had worked as much against them as it had against us, as they had no real way to see us any better than we could see them. The whole fight was out in the open, with nobody able to see more than 20 feet away (and us passing on info to the other heroes over the Rary's telepathic bond spell whenever anybody saw a new enemy, or the paladin detected a new source of evil up to 60 feet away).

Johnathan

 

[Sulicius]

I don’t know where to start with this last session, except the beginning:

Our heroes started in the treetops of a cyclopean forest, named the Abyssal forest. The trees here are so tall that it blocks any light from reaching the forest floor, making it as barren as the ocean depths.

Our heroes were looking for the regisaur graveyard, like an elephant graveyard but for tyrannosaurs.

As they were taking their long rest, a dryad appeared during one of the PC’s long rest (I randomly rolled for who it would be) and this PC was writing a letter to his family. The dryad could feel how the heroes were special and had been blessed with a magical connection to this land. I have been making great use out of this concept. I was inspired by BG3’s tadpole storyline, where the heroes have something about them that changes them, gives them powers and can be noticed by others. It’s like giving the party a heroic destiny that also is connected to mechanics. Back at 1st level when they received this blessing, they each chose a feat to represent their connection to the land of Ixalan, so every time they use it they interact with the plot. Mechanics Story

Anyway, that PC got an upgrade to their Chef feat from this dryad interaction and the dryad would help him deliver the letters through some spiritual forest “all life is connected” magic. Good stuff.

Then there was some party RP where one character used his mace of spider climb to walk on this 600ft tree to just below the canopy, and saw a blinking light. He convinced the party to go there, and they found some kind of metal salvage. It was part of an alien spaceship from thousands of years ago (of course there are aliens connected to a Mesoamerican inspired setting!) They had to go there.

Suddenly there was a human who didn’t make sense with what he told the party, because it was the sulfurous impersonation of an adult oblex. It used to be a bottom feeding ooze, but it changed after it came into contact with a special amulet in the wreckage.

Anyway, the party saw through his impersonation, and it revealed itself to be a memory eating ooze. It was willing to share information from its victims in return for memories. The party decided to attack it, and almost killed it. I described it as losing bits of ooze until it was small, and even though the rules definitely don’t state it, the party decided to threaten it to make him enter an empty vial. Now they carry along an oblex! They don’t trust it, but man what a perfect lore tool!

After that they wanted to take some of this otherworldly metal from the wreckage, and were making headway when the noise attracted an elderly T Rex! This thing would have killed them in one bite. Through the clever use of class features and the firbolg pc being able to talk to animals, they calmed it and with a natural 20 convinced it they wanted to help it reach its final resting place by defeating the corruption at the T Rex graveyard.

Now they are riding this thing to the graveyard! How awesome is that?!

And what makes all of this work is how the players see the world and the mechanics of their characters as one. The role play keeps adding to the whole experience, making an epic story that gets better each session. How lucky a DM am I?

A nat 20 to ride a T Rex!

Also did I say they only just reached level 4?

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Session 59 and 60 of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. Drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin. They started at 10th level and ended at 11th.

The characters are infiltrating a sunken castle in a swamp occupied by a warband of orcs. The orcs are allied with sinister nobles. The characters are trying to unravel and thwart their schemes.

The characters discovered that inside the castle was one of the nobles. They killed her bodyguard, captured her, and fled the castle before the orcs could swarm them.

Now aboard their airship, the interrogation commenced. She freely spilled the beans. Our heroes number only three. How could they possibly thwart this vast conspiracy.

In short, the players learned that at tonight's lunar eclipse (the Bloodmoon Conjunction) the orcs will descend on the nearby village (which is the home of the paladin), slaughter the townsfolk, and channel their lifeforce into a necromantic ritual that will power up an orc champion at a distant ruin. The orcs will then help the nobles advance their schemes to conquer Neverwinter.

The players discussed how to thwart the ritual, came up with a plan, and...we stopped there.

Next session: Bloodmoon Conjunction!