KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited February 2018
My current DnD group has a bard named Motley Wiseman. His player chose this name randomly. He is the defacto leader of the group; so we thought it was too good of an opportunity pass up a great group name. We named ourselves the Motley Crëw. So far, we have yet to shout, shout, shout at the devil.
My current DnD group has a bard named Motley Wiseman. His player chose this name randomly. He is the defacto leader of the group; so we thought it was too good of an opportunity pass up a great group name. We named ourselves the Motley Crëw. So far, we have yet to shout, shout, shout at the devil.
That's an easy fix. There are bunch of devils to choose from to shout at.
Just because they're not brought back as a zombie doesn't mean it's not necromancy.
Oh the days when all curative magic, including Cure Light Wounds, was in the Necromantic (Healing) school of magic.
Good times, good times.
Right now I'm a Light Domain Cleric in a homebrew setting where all Resurrection spells (Revivify, etc.) are unknown, so one of my character's main goals is the discovery of that magic.
I am trying to decide if he would be okay with using a spell like Animate Dead as a means of studying Necromancy. Spells aren't explicitly Evil but I'm not sure if he would look at that and think "Hmm, perhaps this is just Step 2 to being a villain"
OOC the rest of the group is okay with it, but I'm not sure how their characters would react.
I posted a bit about the increasingly important role of myconids in the setting I'm developing, and the more research I do into real life fungi the more interest I have in expanding the myconids' role.
Here's a bit of the inspiring information I've found, as well as applications in a D&D setting:
While mushrooms might be the most familiar part of a fungus, most of their bodies are made up of a mass of thin threads, known as a mycelium. We now know that these threads act as a kind of underground internet, linking the roots of different plants. That tree in your garden is probably hooked up to a bush several metres away, thanks to mycelia.
Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi. The 19th-century German biologist Albert Bernard Frank coined the word "mycorrhiza" to describe these partnerships, in which the fungus colonises the roots of the plant.
Film fans might be reminded of James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster Avatar. On the forest moon where the movie takes place, all the organisms are connected. They can communicate and collectively manage resources, thanks to "some kind of electrochemical communication between the roots of trees". Back in the real world, it seems there is some truth to this.
Simard now believes large trees help out small, younger ones using the fungal internet. Without this help, she thinks many seedlings wouldn't survive. In the 1997 study, seedlings in the shade – which are likely to be short of food - got more carbon from donor trees.
In 2010, Ren Sen Zeng of South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou found that when plants are attached by harmful fungi, they release chemical signals into the mycelia that warn their neighbours.
Plants have to compete with their neighbours for resources like water and light. As part of that battle, some release chemicals that harm their rivals...experiments show the fungal networks can transport these chemicals in high enough concentrations to affect plant growth.
In a fantasy setting these far-reaching connections might be part of the roots of a World Tree that connects all plant life, as well as plant creatures. Dryads and treants living in the same forest might share information constantly through the mycelium links, giving them near omniscience within their forests and alerting them of current events. The blights (twig blights, tree blights, etc) could also choose to connect to the fungal network to weaken their natural rivals and spread their corruption. Vegepygmies could also be connected to and affected by the network, but hidden myconid colonies living beneath earthen mounds within the forest could be the true overseers of the natural network (and therefore valuable allies of the dryads, treants, and vegepygmies).
Fungi were the first organisms to come to land, and survived the cataclysmic asteroid impacts of geological history — visitors to our planet 420 million years ago would have encountered a landscape dominated by 30-foot-tall prototaxites, fungal pillars dwarfing the surrounding landscape. And, lest you think this kind of cyclopean ‘shroom has gone the way of the dinosaurs, the largest known organism on our planet today is a 2,400-year old, 2,200 acre honey mushroom mycelium in Eastern Oregon.
even though the animal kingdom branched off from its fungal counterpart some 600 million years ago, we still share over half our DNA with fungi. Historically, culturally, and biologically, we are incredibly close to mushrooms. That closeness can be exploited to our benefit: many powerful antibiotics against bacteria come from fungi, while anti-fungal antibiotics tend to harm us, precisely because of our intimately interlinked relationship with mushrooms. Some scientists posit reorganizing traditional biological classification to include a animalia-fungi superkingdom called “Opisthokontum.”
Paul Stamets, a mycologist, understands the fundamental structure of information, of the physical universe itself, as adhering to a “mycelial archetype.” To him, everything is mushroom — while Terence McKenna, his visionary counterpart, reads the history of human culture through a mycophilic lens. Of course, both men experimented extensively with the mental states associated with ritualized consumption of a certain variety of mushroom, but this shouldn’t lessen the impact of their profound, macrocosmic reading of the humble fungus (although it’s interesting to think of mushrooms as doing their own psychedelic PR).
In a fantasy setting natural life may have first sprang from the newborn world of its own accord in the form of fungi, startling the gods but inspiring them to experiment with further shaping natural life. The towering mushrooms could have inspired the creation of trees, later yielding to them and moving underground to form the mycelial network that connects plants and fungi (and therefore most of the natural world in the roots of the World Tree). The myconids themselves could have inspired the design of the true humanoid races and their communities, and may have been early allies of them in helping the humanoids connect with the young spirits of the natural world.
Finally, but perhaps of the greatest interest for a fantasy setting, "mushroom cults" are believed to have arisen throughout prehistory.
- Catholic missionaries in Guatemala discovered that the native people not only consumed magic mushrooms as part of their religious rites but had also carved many "mushroom stone" figurines depicting mushrooms and human or animal mushroom hybrids. Before Christianization psychedelic mushrooms were known as "god mushrooms"; afterwards they were called "little angels" and were said to grow from places where Christ had shed his blood.
- Another possible mushroom cult may have been located on Jeju Island, near South Korea. Several large statues carved from rock depict Dol Hareubang, or "Stone Grandfather", which are meant to ward against demons. Above each statue's face is a mushroom-like cap, suggesting a possible link to a mushroom cult.
- New Age icon Terence McKenna (who was really, really into mushrooms) identified a cave painting at Tassili n'Ajjer (an ancient site in the Sahara Desert dating back to the end of the Ice Age) as evidence of a mushroom cult. The figure depicted by the painting is striking; it appears to be a creature with a human body and a deer's head that is not only holding mushrooms but also has them growing from all around its silhouette!
Given the wealth of information about the mushroom's role both in the natural world and in religious ceremony it is unconvincing that in Dungeons & Dragons Zuggtmoy (demon queen of fungi) had to hijack the Temple of Elemental Evil to remain relevant. However, seeing how the average person in the real world knows so little about fungi despite their ecological and anthroplogical importance, perhaps the peoples of fantasy worlds are similarly ignorant of how important the humble mushroom is to their worlds and their prehistories? Maybe some sages have melded with the myconids and learned secret, primeval knowledge only to be ignored by their former peers as raving lunatics high on hallucinatory spores? Spurned by society's ignorance but with their own eyes irreversibly opened, perhaps the mushroom sages vanish into the secret underground barrows of the myconid sovereigns and meld, not only with the fungus folk, but with their gods Carrion King and Psilofyr, as well as the roots of the World Tree itself...
I hope someone else finds this information as inspiring as I have; this is definitely the most I've ever read and written about mushrooms!
due to some fantastic rolls and smart ability usage, our most recent encounter with strahd ended not with us cowering scared, but with him running away after having his cool cloak taken off. i'm thinking instead of having my bard just wear it, he'll have it turned into cool armbands or something for the whole gang
due to some fantastic rolls and smart ability usage, our most recent encounter with strahd ended not with us cowering scared, but with him running away after having his cool cloak taken off. i'm thinking instead of having my bard just wear it, he'll have it turned into cool armbands or something for the whole gang
Very wise. That way Strahd's not going to be able to focus on you to get his cloak back, he'll have to go after your entire gang.
We did have another character who died to a darkmantle, so the player is going to bring a new character next time, but it was some homebrew race called an Arcanum that he described as a humanoid mass of magic.
The story so far is that kids have been going missing in the city and we've been hired to investigate. After a bit of investigating we decided to check-out the ruins of a temple that was destroyed by an angry mob a century ago after the priest became an evil heresiarch. In the middle of the night a hidden passage opened, but whoever opened it noticed a trap of caltrops we had set and immediately closed it back. After a bit of searching we found a way to open the passage ourselves and went down into a tunnel with a strange teleportation effect; going away from the entrance caused you to teleport three miles towards the end of it, but you had to walk the entire distance back. After a battle with giant rats in the tunnel we entered into a larger chamber with a glowing green pillar, where we fought two darkmantles.
A personal challenge of mine is that I have a degree of social anxiety but am trying to roleplay a silver-tongued sorcerer, so I want to try and speak in a charismatic manner like how I think my character would. You know, avoiding awkward pauses and trying to sound charming.
due to some fantastic rolls and smart ability usage, our most recent encounter with strahd ended not with us cowering scared, but with him running away after having his cool cloak taken off. i'm thinking instead of having my bard just wear it, he'll have it turned into cool armbands or something for the whole gang
Very wise. That way Strahd's not going to be able to focus on you to get his cloak back, he'll have to go after your entire gang.
no joke the plan was to just wear the cloak but then i could just imagine 3 fireballs being sent directly at me, and decided on a different course of action
A personal challenge of mine is that I have a degree of social anxiety but am trying to roleplay a silver-tongued sorcerer, so I want to try and speak in a charismatic manner like how I think my character would. You know, avoiding awkward pauses and trying to sound charming.
that is great! Good job on that! I know this might sound lame, but charming people often are charming because they are self-confident to the point of narcissistic and appear to know what they are talking about all the time. This can be impossible to pull off on the table because you might not know something that your character does know. Your DM can help out there, by either feeding you more information under the table or by having NPCs respond to your character in a more excited manner than normal.
For example, I love Jim Darkmagic and the way Perkins has NPCs go "Jim DARKMAGIC?? Of the New Hampshire Darkmagics??" To establish that people adore him. It makes roleplaying a lot easier for Mike, I am sure.
Had an amusing incident while running Sunless Citadel on Saturday.
The party tracked down the white dragon and, through some clever diplomacy by the dragonborn barbarian, managed to convince it not to kill them. In a fit of pique over the dragon's rudeness, though, the dragonborn knocked over a case of fine silverware on his way out of the dragon's room, prompting it to attack all over again. As the fight raged, the monk and the cleric ran down the hall and kicked open the door to the goblin warren, where all the goblin noncombatents gathered. As pandemonium ensued, the barbarian got the dragon in a headlock (advantage on Athletics checks makes grappling a solid plan), while the goblin chief stormed into the room.
So the barbarian threw the dragon into the room with all the goblins, and the cleric leaned into the room, grabbed the monk by the collar, and hauled him out while closing the door.
It was cool enough that I just sorta fudged the fight between the goblins and the dragon, leaving enough goblins alive that there was an amusing little scrum when they went back into the room.
I'm amused by the perytons' everchanging backstory:
Depending which edition and who you ask, perytons are either magically created hybrids, invaders from another plane, spirits of travellers murdered far from home, creations of a twisted deity, eagles changed by the goddess of nymphs, elves transformed by a hideous curse, or birds warped after eating the corpse of a wicked heart-eating woman.
I'm amused by the perytons' everchanging backstory:
Depending which edition and who you ask, perytons are either magically created hybrids, invaders from another plane, spirits of travellers murdered far from home, creations of a twisted deity, eagles changed by the goddess of nymphs, elves transformed by a hideous curse, or birds warped after eating the corpse of a wicked heart-eating woman.
So what you're saying is that perytons were the creation of some recluse wizard, and after they killed him (it's always a him) and ate his heart, there was nobody left who had any idea where the indestructible heart-eating deer-eagles came from?
I've found a blog that reviews the adventures in every print issue of Dungeon magazine and have been combing it for inspiration (although the author is very opinionated and seems to think 90% of the adventures are awful). Here are some of the highlights I've discovered so far:
- The party must explore an empyrean oracle's dream.
- A small bandit gang performs a ritual that summons a devil that they didn't believe would actually appear.
- A remote farming village is experiencing a drought and the old head man knows that someone has to go to their sacred site and see what’s up with their protective spirit.
- The party joins a caravan, supports it in a couple of monster attacks, and then is attacked by the caravan when they transform into werewolves that night.
- A wilderness guide is looking for his sister, who is a werewolf.
- The party encounters giants hunting another adventuring party in a ruin.
- A dead archmage pledged his soul to multiple factions, all of which have come to his keep to collect, but none can find his soul.
- An elven wizard-king long ago discovered a gigantic ruby containing the bound essence of a giant god called the Stone of Gul and gained great magical power from it. However, it eventually drove him insane, drastically slowed his rate of aging, and compelled him to serve as its protector. The wizard does not remember who he was and refers to himself only as "The Keeper".
- A salvage ship captain is set to depart for an island where he had discovered several scuttled vessels. The island is populated by sailors shipwrecked by a marid and under the spell of a morkoth, and in fact the captain and his crew have been ensorceled by the marid (who is himself also charmed by the morkoth) into luring adventurers to the island to serve as guards for the morkoth.
- A small bandit gang performs a ritual that summons a devil that they didn't believe would actually appear.
Awesome adventure prompt, or plot synopsis of the best early-90s Carloco Pictures production that never actually got made?
Perhaps it is ...both?
_
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Matt Colville currently has a kickstarter up for a 5e supplement book for Strongholds and followers, 128 page hardcover. It launched today asking for 50k and is already over 500k. It looks pretty interesting.
I found an awesome fantasy Caribbean map on Reddit and I think I'm going to incorporate the strongholds supplement and do hopefully an awesome pirate campaign where you can sail, rob convoys, build an awesome pirate stronghold and have crews and shit. Maybe run with an ancient artifact/person/event overarching plot.
In 2nd edition Ravenloft there's this corrupted treant that was recycled in paper, wands and staves by a powerful mage. While the mage was scribing scrolls on his treant paper, it gained back sentience and unleashed the magic written on itself killing the mage. After forming a skeleton of twigs and paper, it is now trying to collect the pieces to be whole again. It can control trees and cast the spells on the scrolls that form him. Always liked that concept.
I DMd for the first time in my life for a oneshot. I managed to introduce my players to a mimic, gelatinous cube and a mindflayer and it all made sense for the story. I did turn the difficulty down, because we were running a bit late. I think everyone was kind of disappointed that the mind flayer was down so quickly, but I had a barbarian and a ranger messing him up pretty badly and that is exactly how you're supposed to beat them: tons of physical damage.
I had a sidekick and a way for him to run off to a second toom planned, but one of my players was pretty much falling over from lack of sleep and another wasn't feeling so hot either.
Oh and they got to cast a fireball, someone took a photo of it. They used it against a trash room full of flammable scarecrows and Awakened Bushes.
- New Age icon Terence McKenna (who was really, really into mushrooms) identified a cave painting at Tassili n'Ajjer (an ancient site in the Sahara Desert dating back to the end of the Ice Age) as evidence of a mushroom cult. The figure depicted by the painting is striking; it appears to be a creature with a human body and a deer's head that is not only holding mushrooms but also has them growing from all around its silhouette!
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Could be dicks too as they were really into putting dicks on everything back then
It's also why we have a lot of STDs as we got them from our ancestors getting it on with animals
Could be dicks too as they were really into putting dicks on everything back then
It's also why we have a lot of STDs as we got them from our ancestors getting it on with animals
- The relationship between an abbey of evil clerics and a crew of ruthless pirates has soured to the point that the pirates are attacking their former allies; unfortunately, the pirates have accidentally unleashed hordes of undead from below the abbey, which now hide in the sand on the beach nearby.
- The village stream has run dry, causing the villagers' crops to have is wilt. The cause of the problem is a small band of goblins who have captured the stream’s source, a nixie, in order for the chief to better catch a giant talking fish.
- The figurehead of the ship known as the Vaka is actually a wicked man's corpse transformed into wood; his spirit is bound to the ship, and for years on end his shadow has emerged from the figurehead at night to drain vitality from passengers and crew, which they experience as night terrors, unexplained lethargy, and rapid, overnight aging.
By the way, a large number of the adventures so far were written by Chris Perkins, and in the most recent review I read Chris himself commented to apologize for being overly wordy with the descriptions in that adventure.
I remembered the first 4E Monster Manual had a ton of unusual monsters in it and am looking through it now for monsters to convert. The creatures the designers decided to include are often untraditional, although I recognize several from when I looked at the later 3.5E Monster Manuals.
Here are some that stand out:
- Phane, Abomination: Looking something like a shadowy lamia made of mist (albeit with the humanoid half more muscular and alien in visage), the phane can travel through time and slays victims with an aging ray. They are one of the ancient abominations created by the gods solely to battle the primordials, but now that the phanes have outlived their purpose they serve as extremely powerful mercenaries that make deals with beings in need of their powers. It doesn't seem that phane care who they work for as long as they can use their abilities in battle, working for both demons and devils, those who cheat death and agents of death, etc. There is no indication that a phane can take anyone with it when it time travels, and they don't seem terribly motivated to hatch their own time travel plots, but maybe they secretly try to start conflicts through manipulation just so they will always have someone to employ them? I could see a unique phane working as a warlock patron, too.
- Banshrae: Basically a more alien alternative to elves, the banshrae are fey that lack noses and mouths; this combined with a pointed chin causes their heads to look like those of mantises. They communicate via telepathy and are described as loving the sound of singing and woodwind instruments despite having no way to make such music themselves. Banshrae hunting parties toy with their victims before killing them, but those who play a tune for their stalkers may find themselves spared. Perhaps they are cursed elves?
- Battlebriar: Bizarre, hulking plant monsters that look like a cross between a shambling mound, a deep sea fish, a lizard, and an arthropod (they are very hard to describe). They are grown (by wizards, maybe?) to serve as siege monsters. They don't require food and may be used by imperialistic humanoids, war-like fey, or even hill giants.
- Berbalang: These creatures resemble human-sized, warty imps (albeit without the stinging tail). They eat humanoid corpses and relive the memories of those whose remains they have consumed while they sleep. Some remote villages may feed their dead to the berbalang directly. In battle a berbalang splits its life force into five bodies that all rush a target to attack with their claws.
- Feymire Crocodile: Giant crocodiles that have somehow bonded with their marsh's plants. Wavering roots and tendrils emerging from the beast's hide make it difficult to manuever around the crocodile. Though it is carnivorous, the feymire crocodile can also embed roots into the soil to rapidly heal itself.
- Cyclops: These creatures are already in 5E, but honestly their 4E flavor is far superior. Whereas the latest edition's cyclopes are just dumb, one-eyed hill giants, the 4E cyclopes are smaller (Large instead of Huge), more intelligent, and well-equipped with magic weapons and armor that they craft themselves. However, they also serve the fomorians, wicked masters of the Feywild's Underdark (or Feydark, if you can bear to use that term). If you want to reintroduce the 4E cyclops you might just say that the 5E fomorian's "Curse of the Evil Eye" power has a wildly different effect on cyclopes, making them smaller, smarter, and fiercely devoted to the fomorian that cursed them. I also understand the D&D Next iteration of the cyclops possessed the "Evil Eye" power, so give it to these cyclopes, too.
- Immolith, Demon: As far as I can tell the immolith was a new type of fiery, undead demon that premiered in 4E. It can both set things on fire and heal undead, which is pretty neat. Perhaps more interesting is that in searching Google for the immolith I discovered a band named Immolith that was founded in 2008, the same year as 4E's release (hard to believe it's already been a decade...). Seeing as the band has song titles like "Ghost Tower of Inverness" and "Torch of Baphomet" I can only assume they took their name straight out of the 4E Monster Manual. I'm already planning to include a cult of minotaurs, fire elementals, demons, and undead led by an immolith called the Torch of Baphomet in my own setting.
We fought some goblins, I accidentally destroyed a bag of holding which caused all the treasure inside to vanish into another dimension (woops), we rescued some children who had been kept in cages by goblins, and we found a book written in a mysterious language or code.
The DM also said he doesn't have any established gods in this setting and that whatever god we say our character follows exists, so I'm gonna look for a good one!
We fought some goblins, I accidentally destroyed a bag of holding which caused all the treasure inside to vanish into another dimension (woops), we rescued some children who had been kept in cages by goblins, and we found a book written in a mysterious language or code.
The DM also said he doesn't have any established gods in this setting and that whatever god we say our character follows exists, so I'm gonna look for a good one!
I've had the most luck in coming up with adventure ideas by taking common 90s sitcom plots and throwing in bits of magic.
1. The Wizard Academy is in an uproar after the dumbest student and the smartest student unknowingly switch IQ tests and the dumb one is made chief wizard student.
2. The Druid circle gets in a tiff because Angela dumped Howard to start seeing Rob just 3 days before Druid Prom.
3. When all the adults in the town of Ranshire decide to collectively go on vacation for the weekend due to a Succubus curse, the children take over and hijinks ensue.
We fought some goblins, I accidentally destroyed a bag of holding which caused all the treasure inside to vanish into another dimension (woops), we rescued some children who had been kept in cages by goblins, and we found a book written in a mysterious language or code.
The DM also said he doesn't have any established gods in this setting and that whatever god we say our character follows exists, so I'm gonna look for a good one!
Ra Ra Ra
It's good to see I'm not the only one who remembers the ancient god of cheerleaders.
I want to start a new game of my own soon with the setting I've been working on, but I'm having a hard time deciding on how to start it. I'm designing the region as a kind of sandbox with one major city called Diyun, but I'm not certain if I would want the players to begin there or if they should start somewhere else first.
Here's a breakdown of the major points of interest:
- Diyun: A city built into several resilient stone columns carved from a sea cliff by the waves. After centuries of occupation by monsters and pirates the city has now found new life within the last fifty years as a place for the hedonistic members of the upperclass to indulge their vices across the sea from their judgmental peers. The ruler of Diyun, a woman named Lureqa who looks human but has the height and girth of an ogress and hasn't aged a day in fifty years, is establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with throughout the region. A number of factions have presences here, including the Fateful Council, the Utopian Masterworkers, and the White Lantern Consortium.
- Mount Hoshuthm: A mountain-sized collection of geysers and hot springs that release water with unique alchemical properties. Arcanists, alchemists, and artificers use the unique resources found here for experiments while cautious miners extract rare tibur stone from the mountain.
- The Thrymbultors: A mountain range with a connection to the Frostfell. Frost giant druids loyal to the nature spirit Hunter of Winter prowl the mountains in the form of giant wolves and mammoths to keep it from falling into the hands of Cryonax, the evil archomental of ice.
- The Thaneward: An ancient realm inhabited by the Thanewardens, a coalition of human, half-elf, and shifter clans loyal to the goddess War Mother, the Great Elder Spirits, and a number of archfey. The history of the Thanewardens stretches back into the early days of the world (indeed, back to the first elves, before humankind's birth) and chronicles many legendary battles against destructive entities such as Tziphal the Mountain Builder, the Grave Wyrm, the Winter King, Mag Tureah, Zuggtmoy, and Yeenoghu. Three two-mile-deep ravines are also present here, shining light into the uppermost reaches of the Underdark.
- Turak-Tol: An isolationist dwarven city-state that has given itself over to the influence of the Hells. Artificers build war constructs and magical firearms from the stone and metal provided by slave labor. Turak-Tol's ruler is known only as the Prisoner in Iron, a patron for the city-state's warlocks who is completely wrapped in chains binding him to the throne.
- Dream Garden: A realm combining both a dense forest on the surface with an (relatively shallow) Underdark cavern. Giant mushrooms called zurkhwood grow both above and below, blanketing the forest and filling the cavern with rapport and hallucination spores like those the Garden's myconids emit. It is said by the Thanewardens that the zurkhwood and myconids were grown here by the godlike fungus Carrion King, who was attracted to the region because it was where the ancient Thanewardens disposed of the countless corpses of their enemies.
- Snakefairy Springs: A set of four springs, each guarded by an advanced water weird, whose source begins in the Feywild domain of a serpentine archfey named Melusine.
- Ter'Qual: A small island a few miles off the coast of Diyun and populated primarily by firbolg who revere the Stone Brother spirit clan.
- Stoneweave: An ancient dwarven complex maintained by the Stoneweaver clan, who are devout followers of Sunnis, the True Stone. It is believed that Stoneweave serves as a prison or seal upon some evil entity.
I also recently named a new region called the Sixfold Kingdom of Erathenor, but I've done very little to detail it and right now it's mainly a place across the sea for the wealthy people visiting Diyun to come from.
With a few other people at the table, we traveled out and were ambushed by a bunch of Guard Drakes that were squeezing their way out of a boarded up cave. After slaying them all, and having destroyed the barricade of the cave, we saw it was very small and contained a water-hole which went 30-ft deep and had many little side passages. Between some diving by the more sturdy people, and one of the newbies being inventive and 'fishing' with thorn whip we pulled a lot of loot out of what was the drakes underwater hoard.
The newbie druid got herself an Oathbow, the newbie Rogue a Rapier of Wounding along with an Ioun Stone of Charisma. A friend managed to grab Boots of Levitation and a +2 Shield. I ended up finding a Sun Blade, and a Bowl of Command Water Elemental. Traded the sword to my friend for the boots, as I already have a powerful magic weapon.
The new people had to go after that, and generally the event ends... but we stayed to keep going. Another friend joined us and it leveled our really big party to just six. We trekked further and took a long rest... and immediately afterward ended up in a makeshift arena. Seems we'd found the "Boss Fight."
For our hubris of cheekily resting right before, the DM upped the ante. A huge lumbering skeleton emerged from a gateway, the body fell quickly... but the skull continued to hover. Demilich! But once that one fell, another appeared... and when -that- one was down two at once followed. Between my hammer pummeling them at range and our Paladin just smiting the ever-living-crap out of the skulls we completed the encounter.
The room full of chests, and one mimic, below the arena didn't have much in the way of magical items. Another friend got a Ring of Animal Influence, can't recall the other item. We got an unusual amount of gold from the chests, normally this DM showering players in loot rather than coin, came out of it 750 GP richer each. And as for the XP? 14,000 XP each for defeating the Demilich's, both myself and the friend I gave the Sun Blade to shot right up to Level 7 from Level 5!
Alright so the fight happened with the Blight Druid! And in preparation, my wife and I made a diorama of the swamp encounter area. This was our first time working with Foamular to make anything like this and it was a lot of learning. A lot of flock was bought, along with making our own variations in dirt. We tried to learn to use the "fake water" as well which went poorly this time, but we learned some things. In the encounter, the brown is solid ground while the green is ankle deep muck.
A Blight Druid, a Ghostwalker (old title of 3.5 edition flavorful subclass but it's just using an Oath of Vengeance Paladin), and a Blighted Earth Elemental (again just flavor for a normal one) fought the party of seven. What I learned is balancing for seven people is hard. There was a nice back and forth, however and the team got low at times before the enemy retreated back into the swamp as they felt overwhelmed (both having spells to retreat if needed should the group not counter/disrupt them).
They were successful in driving off the Blight Druid for the time while meeting a bubbly, excitable, and a bit over-the-top mermaid who just so happens to be a natural seer. She showed up to help the group and relayed some warnings to the group; going forward if they proceeded down this path, they'd each be wrapped up in a complicated fate that would not so easily let them go. Maylae (her name) also warned that this Blight was still dangerous and would spread here and elsewhere without the help of others stopping it. Unfortunately, the local druid circle was mostly corrupted and were the cause of the ancient Blight with only a single member remaining who arrived not long later, having come along with Maylae but getting waylaid by a Blighted Elemental of their own. Maylae had gone on ahead but the pair together give the players a choice; "Stay and help against this threat and the complicated fate that goes with it, or let the druid teleport them home where they can avoid this possibly dark fate."
The out of game reason that went along with this in game sensible offer was to allow any of the new table to reroll if they didn't like what they were playing. Two chose to retire their current character, with my wife being one of them to which I handed over her mermaid character Maylae, since it was hers all along and she had intended to switch. Another is my daughter's 14 year old friend who decided being a wizard for now wasn't what she wanted and she's rerolled into a halfling rogue which is pretty awesome. The party could use a rogue and I did a little one shot with her later to let her flex how the character operated which she really loved. I'll make sure later to give her plenty of chances to flex those Thief muscles (which is the subclass she went).
A third is strongly thinking about going Druid, but the campaign stopped around that time so everyone can sleep on it, so to speak.
The current Oath of Vengeance paladin player (younger brother) spoke interest in swapping to an Oath of Ancient last session, so at the end of this one, instead of retiring the character, he's setup to do a standalone session where he will undergo a trial from the last local druid to becoming a Green Knight. It will be a situation where he won't be able to go back once complete, preventing the whole "Back and forth" possibilities, though it's hardly something I'm worried about him trying.
My wife's character being a seer/oracle as a trait (not class, mind you, as her class is Tempest Cleric) is that I get to use her for all sorts of foreshadowing and plot drops along the way, sliding her pieces of paper with little or big things as we go. She isn't a diviner and doesn't know the answer to things she necessarily wants to know, but rather gets visions as they come to her at random, or gets feelings about things. So if they start a quest, I might slide her a piece of paper that reads "This ... this ends sadly" or if she's talking to an NPC "You snore too loud" or talking to a bartender "Who's Claire?" speaking of someone that might be on their mind or just a crush. It's really just a fun flavor extra I get to drop that.
Good session over all. Skype is still an issue. They could see the diorama just fine but there was still some issues with them hearing us. I need to look into a personal mic that I can clip to my shirt, I think. The question is, does anyone know if Skype or Discord allows two mics to be picked up?
Turns out all you need is a half-orc barbarian who doesn't know when to retreat
Well... and a few magic missiles (oh, but the enemy is resistant to magic!)
And a bit of healing (just enough to keep the barbarian standing, really)
And having been borrowing the cleric's adamantine sword that is an auto-crit against constructs (because he destroyed that magic greataxe you had bought because it was cursed and devouring your soul)
But mostly just a half-orc barbarian who is either stupidly overconfident or just plain stupid
Posts
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Point is these guys were gullible jerks!
I'm still keeping more detailed session notes in a journal, but let me just give this one tip:
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Oh the days when all curative magic, including Cure Light Wounds, was in the Necromantic (Healing) school of magic.
Good times, good times.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
That's an easy fix. There are bunch of devils to choose from to shout at.
Right now I'm a Light Domain Cleric in a homebrew setting where all Resurrection spells (Revivify, etc.) are unknown, so one of my character's main goals is the discovery of that magic.
I am trying to decide if he would be okay with using a spell like Animate Dead as a means of studying Necromancy. Spells aren't explicitly Evil but I'm not sure if he would look at that and think "Hmm, perhaps this is just Step 2 to being a villain"
OOC the rest of the group is okay with it, but I'm not sure how their characters would react.
Here's a bit of the inspiring information I've found, as well as applications in a D&D setting:
BBC: Plants Talk to Each Other Through an Internet of Fungus
In a fantasy setting these far-reaching connections might be part of the roots of a World Tree that connects all plant life, as well as plant creatures. Dryads and treants living in the same forest might share information constantly through the mycelium links, giving them near omniscience within their forests and alerting them of current events. The blights (twig blights, tree blights, etc) could also choose to connect to the fungal network to weaken their natural rivals and spread their corruption. Vegepygmies could also be connected to and affected by the network, but hidden myconid colonies living beneath earthen mounds within the forest could be the true overseers of the natural network (and therefore valuable allies of the dryads, treants, and vegepygmies).
Science Blogs: Livin' in a Mycelial World
In a fantasy setting natural life may have first sprang from the newborn world of its own accord in the form of fungi, startling the gods but inspiring them to experiment with further shaping natural life. The towering mushrooms could have inspired the creation of trees, later yielding to them and moving underground to form the mycelial network that connects plants and fungi (and therefore most of the natural world in the roots of the World Tree). The myconids themselves could have inspired the design of the true humanoid races and their communities, and may have been early allies of them in helping the humanoids connect with the young spirits of the natural world.
Finally, but perhaps of the greatest interest for a fantasy setting, "mushroom cults" are believed to have arisen throughout prehistory.
- Catholic missionaries in Guatemala discovered that the native people not only consumed magic mushrooms as part of their religious rites but had also carved many "mushroom stone" figurines depicting mushrooms and human or animal mushroom hybrids. Before Christianization psychedelic mushrooms were known as "god mushrooms"; afterwards they were called "little angels" and were said to grow from places where Christ had shed his blood.
- Another possible mushroom cult may have been located on Jeju Island, near South Korea. Several large statues carved from rock depict Dol Hareubang, or "Stone Grandfather", which are meant to ward against demons. Above each statue's face is a mushroom-like cap, suggesting a possible link to a mushroom cult.
- New Age icon Terence McKenna (who was really, really into mushrooms) identified a cave painting at Tassili n'Ajjer (an ancient site in the Sahara Desert dating back to the end of the Ice Age) as evidence of a mushroom cult. The figure depicted by the painting is striking; it appears to be a creature with a human body and a deer's head that is not only holding mushrooms but also has them growing from all around its silhouette!
Given the wealth of information about the mushroom's role both in the natural world and in religious ceremony it is unconvincing that in Dungeons & Dragons Zuggtmoy (demon queen of fungi) had to hijack the Temple of Elemental Evil to remain relevant. However, seeing how the average person in the real world knows so little about fungi despite their ecological and anthroplogical importance, perhaps the peoples of fantasy worlds are similarly ignorant of how important the humble mushroom is to their worlds and their prehistories? Maybe some sages have melded with the myconids and learned secret, primeval knowledge only to be ignored by their former peers as raving lunatics high on hallucinatory spores? Spurned by society's ignorance but with their own eyes irreversibly opened, perhaps the mushroom sages vanish into the secret underground barrows of the myconid sovereigns and meld, not only with the fungus folk, but with their gods Carrion King and Psilofyr, as well as the roots of the World Tree itself...
I hope someone else finds this information as inspiring as I have; this is definitely the most I've ever read and written about mushrooms!
Very wise. That way Strahd's not going to be able to focus on you to get his cloak back, he'll have to go after your entire gang.
- Half-Elf Divine Soul Sorcerer (me)
- Centaur(!) Ranger
- Aasimar Blood Hunter(!)
- Goliath Monk
We did have another character who died to a darkmantle, so the player is going to bring a new character next time, but it was some homebrew race called an Arcanum that he described as a humanoid mass of magic.
The story so far is that kids have been going missing in the city and we've been hired to investigate. After a bit of investigating we decided to check-out the ruins of a temple that was destroyed by an angry mob a century ago after the priest became an evil heresiarch. In the middle of the night a hidden passage opened, but whoever opened it noticed a trap of caltrops we had set and immediately closed it back. After a bit of searching we found a way to open the passage ourselves and went down into a tunnel with a strange teleportation effect; going away from the entrance caused you to teleport three miles towards the end of it, but you had to walk the entire distance back. After a battle with giant rats in the tunnel we entered into a larger chamber with a glowing green pillar, where we fought two darkmantles.
A personal challenge of mine is that I have a degree of social anxiety but am trying to roleplay a silver-tongued sorcerer, so I want to try and speak in a charismatic manner like how I think my character would. You know, avoiding awkward pauses and trying to sound charming.
no joke the plan was to just wear the cloak but then i could just imagine 3 fireballs being sent directly at me, and decided on a different course of action
For example, I love Jim Darkmagic and the way Perkins has NPCs go "Jim DARKMAGIC?? Of the New Hampshire Darkmagics??" To establish that people adore him. It makes roleplaying a lot easier for Mike, I am sure.
So the barbarian threw the dragon into the room with all the goblins, and the cleric leaned into the room, grabbed the monk by the collar, and hauled him out while closing the door.
It was cool enough that I just sorta fudged the fight between the goblins and the dragon, leaving enough goblins alive that there was an amusing little scrum when they went back into the room.
Depending which edition and who you ask, perytons are either magically created hybrids, invaders from another plane, spirits of travellers murdered far from home, creations of a twisted deity, eagles changed by the goddess of nymphs, elves transformed by a hideous curse, or birds warped after eating the corpse of a wicked heart-eating woman.
So what you're saying is that perytons were the creation of some recluse wizard, and after they killed him (it's always a him) and ate his heart, there was nobody left who had any idea where the indestructible heart-eating deer-eagles came from?
- The party must explore an empyrean oracle's dream.
- A small bandit gang performs a ritual that summons a devil that they didn't believe would actually appear.
- A remote farming village is experiencing a drought and the old head man knows that someone has to go to their sacred site and see what’s up with their protective spirit.
- The party joins a caravan, supports it in a couple of monster attacks, and then is attacked by the caravan when they transform into werewolves that night.
- A wilderness guide is looking for his sister, who is a werewolf.
- The party encounters giants hunting another adventuring party in a ruin.
- A dead archmage pledged his soul to multiple factions, all of which have come to his keep to collect, but none can find his soul.
- An elven wizard-king long ago discovered a gigantic ruby containing the bound essence of a giant god called the Stone of Gul and gained great magical power from it. However, it eventually drove him insane, drastically slowed his rate of aging, and compelled him to serve as its protector. The wizard does not remember who he was and refers to himself only as "The Keeper".
- A salvage ship captain is set to depart for an island where he had discovered several scuttled vessels. The island is populated by sailors shipwrecked by a marid and under the spell of a morkoth, and in fact the captain and his crew have been ensorceled by the marid (who is himself also charmed by the morkoth) into luring adventurers to the island to serve as guards for the morkoth.
Awesome adventure prompt, or plot synopsis of the best early-90s Carloco Pictures production that never actually got made?
Perhaps it is ...both?
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I found an awesome fantasy Caribbean map on Reddit and I think I'm going to incorporate the strongholds supplement and do hopefully an awesome pirate campaign where you can sail, rob convoys, build an awesome pirate stronghold and have crews and shit. Maybe run with an ancient artifact/person/event overarching plot.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
?
I had a sidekick and a way for him to run off to a second toom planned, but one of my players was pretty much falling over from lack of sleep and another wasn't feeling so hot either.
Oh and they got to cast a fireball, someone took a photo of it. They used it against a trash room full of flammable scarecrows and Awakened Bushes.
- New Age icon Terence McKenna (who was really, really into mushrooms) identified a cave painting at Tassili n'Ajjer (an ancient site in the Sahara Desert dating back to the end of the Ice Age) as evidence of a mushroom cult. The figure depicted by the painting is striking; it appears to be a creature with a human body and a deer's head that is not only holding mushrooms but also has them growing from all around its silhouette!
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Could be dicks too as they were really into putting dicks on everything back then
It's also why we have a lot of STDs as we got them from our ancestors getting it on with animals
I prefer the mushroom explanation, to be honest.
- The relationship between an abbey of evil clerics and a crew of ruthless pirates has soured to the point that the pirates are attacking their former allies; unfortunately, the pirates have accidentally unleashed hordes of undead from below the abbey, which now hide in the sand on the beach nearby.
- The village stream has run dry, causing the villagers' crops to have is wilt. The cause of the problem is a small band of goblins who have captured the stream’s source, a nixie, in order for the chief to better catch a giant talking fish.
- The figurehead of the ship known as the Vaka is actually a wicked man's corpse transformed into wood; his spirit is bound to the ship, and for years on end his shadow has emerged from the figurehead at night to drain vitality from passengers and crew, which they experience as night terrors, unexplained lethargy, and rapid, overnight aging.
By the way, a large number of the adventures so far were written by Chris Perkins, and in the most recent review I read Chris himself commented to apologize for being overly wordy with the descriptions in that adventure.
Here are some that stand out:
- Phane, Abomination: Looking something like a shadowy lamia made of mist (albeit with the humanoid half more muscular and alien in visage), the phane can travel through time and slays victims with an aging ray. They are one of the ancient abominations created by the gods solely to battle the primordials, but now that the phanes have outlived their purpose they serve as extremely powerful mercenaries that make deals with beings in need of their powers. It doesn't seem that phane care who they work for as long as they can use their abilities in battle, working for both demons and devils, those who cheat death and agents of death, etc. There is no indication that a phane can take anyone with it when it time travels, and they don't seem terribly motivated to hatch their own time travel plots, but maybe they secretly try to start conflicts through manipulation just so they will always have someone to employ them? I could see a unique phane working as a warlock patron, too.
- Banshrae: Basically a more alien alternative to elves, the banshrae are fey that lack noses and mouths; this combined with a pointed chin causes their heads to look like those of mantises. They communicate via telepathy and are described as loving the sound of singing and woodwind instruments despite having no way to make such music themselves. Banshrae hunting parties toy with their victims before killing them, but those who play a tune for their stalkers may find themselves spared. Perhaps they are cursed elves?
- Battlebriar: Bizarre, hulking plant monsters that look like a cross between a shambling mound, a deep sea fish, a lizard, and an arthropod (they are very hard to describe). They are grown (by wizards, maybe?) to serve as siege monsters. They don't require food and may be used by imperialistic humanoids, war-like fey, or even hill giants.
- Berbalang: These creatures resemble human-sized, warty imps (albeit without the stinging tail). They eat humanoid corpses and relive the memories of those whose remains they have consumed while they sleep. Some remote villages may feed their dead to the berbalang directly. In battle a berbalang splits its life force into five bodies that all rush a target to attack with their claws.
- Feymire Crocodile: Giant crocodiles that have somehow bonded with their marsh's plants. Wavering roots and tendrils emerging from the beast's hide make it difficult to manuever around the crocodile. Though it is carnivorous, the feymire crocodile can also embed roots into the soil to rapidly heal itself.
- Cyclops: These creatures are already in 5E, but honestly their 4E flavor is far superior. Whereas the latest edition's cyclopes are just dumb, one-eyed hill giants, the 4E cyclopes are smaller (Large instead of Huge), more intelligent, and well-equipped with magic weapons and armor that they craft themselves. However, they also serve the fomorians, wicked masters of the Feywild's Underdark (or Feydark, if you can bear to use that term). If you want to reintroduce the 4E cyclops you might just say that the 5E fomorian's "Curse of the Evil Eye" power has a wildly different effect on cyclopes, making them smaller, smarter, and fiercely devoted to the fomorian that cursed them. I also understand the D&D Next iteration of the cyclops possessed the "Evil Eye" power, so give it to these cyclopes, too.
- Immolith, Demon: As far as I can tell the immolith was a new type of fiery, undead demon that premiered in 4E. It can both set things on fire and heal undead, which is pretty neat. Perhaps more interesting is that in searching Google for the immolith I discovered a band named Immolith that was founded in 2008, the same year as 4E's release (hard to believe it's already been a decade...). Seeing as the band has song titles like "Ghost Tower of Inverness" and "Torch of Baphomet" I can only assume they took their name straight out of the 4E Monster Manual. I'm already planning to include a cult of minotaurs, fire elementals, demons, and undead led by an immolith called the Torch of Baphomet in my own setting.
To be continued!
We fought some goblins, I accidentally destroyed a bag of holding which caused all the treasure inside to vanish into another dimension (woops), we rescued some children who had been kept in cages by goblins, and we found a book written in a mysterious language or code.
The DM also said he doesn't have any established gods in this setting and that whatever god we say our character follows exists, so I'm gonna look for a good one!
Comics, Games, Booze
1. The Wizard Academy is in an uproar after the dumbest student and the smartest student unknowingly switch IQ tests and the dumb one is made chief wizard student.
2. The Druid circle gets in a tiff because Angela dumped Howard to start seeing Rob just 3 days before Druid Prom.
3. When all the adults in the town of Ranshire decide to collectively go on vacation for the weekend due to a Succubus curse, the children take over and hijinks ensue.
Etc.
It's good to see I'm not the only one who remembers the ancient god of cheerleaders.
Here's a breakdown of the major points of interest:
- Diyun: A city built into several resilient stone columns carved from a sea cliff by the waves. After centuries of occupation by monsters and pirates the city has now found new life within the last fifty years as a place for the hedonistic members of the upperclass to indulge their vices across the sea from their judgmental peers. The ruler of Diyun, a woman named Lureqa who looks human but has the height and girth of an ogress and hasn't aged a day in fifty years, is establishing herself as a force to be reckoned with throughout the region. A number of factions have presences here, including the Fateful Council, the Utopian Masterworkers, and the White Lantern Consortium.
- Mount Hoshuthm: A mountain-sized collection of geysers and hot springs that release water with unique alchemical properties. Arcanists, alchemists, and artificers use the unique resources found here for experiments while cautious miners extract rare tibur stone from the mountain.
- The Thrymbultors: A mountain range with a connection to the Frostfell. Frost giant druids loyal to the nature spirit Hunter of Winter prowl the mountains in the form of giant wolves and mammoths to keep it from falling into the hands of Cryonax, the evil archomental of ice.
- The Thaneward: An ancient realm inhabited by the Thanewardens, a coalition of human, half-elf, and shifter clans loyal to the goddess War Mother, the Great Elder Spirits, and a number of archfey. The history of the Thanewardens stretches back into the early days of the world (indeed, back to the first elves, before humankind's birth) and chronicles many legendary battles against destructive entities such as Tziphal the Mountain Builder, the Grave Wyrm, the Winter King, Mag Tureah, Zuggtmoy, and Yeenoghu. Three two-mile-deep ravines are also present here, shining light into the uppermost reaches of the Underdark.
- Turak-Tol: An isolationist dwarven city-state that has given itself over to the influence of the Hells. Artificers build war constructs and magical firearms from the stone and metal provided by slave labor. Turak-Tol's ruler is known only as the Prisoner in Iron, a patron for the city-state's warlocks who is completely wrapped in chains binding him to the throne.
- Dream Garden: A realm combining both a dense forest on the surface with an (relatively shallow) Underdark cavern. Giant mushrooms called zurkhwood grow both above and below, blanketing the forest and filling the cavern with rapport and hallucination spores like those the Garden's myconids emit. It is said by the Thanewardens that the zurkhwood and myconids were grown here by the godlike fungus Carrion King, who was attracted to the region because it was where the ancient Thanewardens disposed of the countless corpses of their enemies.
- Snakefairy Springs: A set of four springs, each guarded by an advanced water weird, whose source begins in the Feywild domain of a serpentine archfey named Melusine.
- Ter'Qual: A small island a few miles off the coast of Diyun and populated primarily by firbolg who revere the Stone Brother spirit clan.
- Stoneweave: An ancient dwarven complex maintained by the Stoneweaver clan, who are devout followers of Sunnis, the True Stone. It is believed that Stoneweave serves as a prison or seal upon some evil entity.
I also recently named a new region called the Sixfold Kingdom of Erathenor, but I've done very little to detail it and right now it's mainly a place across the sea for the wealthy people visiting Diyun to come from.
With a few other people at the table, we traveled out and were ambushed by a bunch of Guard Drakes that were squeezing their way out of a boarded up cave. After slaying them all, and having destroyed the barricade of the cave, we saw it was very small and contained a water-hole which went 30-ft deep and had many little side passages. Between some diving by the more sturdy people, and one of the newbies being inventive and 'fishing' with thorn whip we pulled a lot of loot out of what was the drakes underwater hoard.
The newbie druid got herself an Oathbow, the newbie Rogue a Rapier of Wounding along with an Ioun Stone of Charisma. A friend managed to grab Boots of Levitation and a +2 Shield. I ended up finding a Sun Blade, and a Bowl of Command Water Elemental. Traded the sword to my friend for the boots, as I already have a powerful magic weapon.
The new people had to go after that, and generally the event ends... but we stayed to keep going. Another friend joined us and it leveled our really big party to just six. We trekked further and took a long rest... and immediately afterward ended up in a makeshift arena. Seems we'd found the "Boss Fight."
For our hubris of cheekily resting right before, the DM upped the ante. A huge lumbering skeleton emerged from a gateway, the body fell quickly... but the skull continued to hover. Demilich! But once that one fell, another appeared... and when -that- one was down two at once followed. Between my hammer pummeling them at range and our Paladin just smiting the ever-living-crap out of the skulls we completed the encounter.
The room full of chests, and one mimic, below the arena didn't have much in the way of magical items. Another friend got a Ring of Animal Influence, can't recall the other item. We got an unusual amount of gold from the chests, normally this DM showering players in loot rather than coin, came out of it 750 GP richer each. And as for the XP? 14,000 XP each for defeating the Demilich's, both myself and the friend I gave the Sun Blade to shot right up to Level 7 from Level 5!
A Blight Druid, a Ghostwalker (old title of 3.5 edition flavorful subclass but it's just using an Oath of Vengeance Paladin), and a Blighted Earth Elemental (again just flavor for a normal one) fought the party of seven. What I learned is balancing for seven people is hard. There was a nice back and forth, however and the team got low at times before the enemy retreated back into the swamp as they felt overwhelmed (both having spells to retreat if needed should the group not counter/disrupt them).
They were successful in driving off the Blight Druid for the time while meeting a bubbly, excitable, and a bit over-the-top mermaid who just so happens to be a natural seer. She showed up to help the group and relayed some warnings to the group; going forward if they proceeded down this path, they'd each be wrapped up in a complicated fate that would not so easily let them go. Maylae (her name) also warned that this Blight was still dangerous and would spread here and elsewhere without the help of others stopping it. Unfortunately, the local druid circle was mostly corrupted and were the cause of the ancient Blight with only a single member remaining who arrived not long later, having come along with Maylae but getting waylaid by a Blighted Elemental of their own. Maylae had gone on ahead but the pair together give the players a choice; "Stay and help against this threat and the complicated fate that goes with it, or let the druid teleport them home where they can avoid this possibly dark fate."
The out of game reason that went along with this in game sensible offer was to allow any of the new table to reroll if they didn't like what they were playing. Two chose to retire their current character, with my wife being one of them to which I handed over her mermaid character Maylae, since it was hers all along and she had intended to switch. Another is my daughter's 14 year old friend who decided being a wizard for now wasn't what she wanted and she's rerolled into a halfling rogue which is pretty awesome. The party could use a rogue and I did a little one shot with her later to let her flex how the character operated which she really loved. I'll make sure later to give her plenty of chances to flex those Thief muscles (which is the subclass she went).
A third is strongly thinking about going Druid, but the campaign stopped around that time so everyone can sleep on it, so to speak.
The current Oath of Vengeance paladin player (younger brother) spoke interest in swapping to an Oath of Ancient last session, so at the end of this one, instead of retiring the character, he's setup to do a standalone session where he will undergo a trial from the last local druid to becoming a Green Knight. It will be a situation where he won't be able to go back once complete, preventing the whole "Back and forth" possibilities, though it's hardly something I'm worried about him trying.
My wife's character being a seer/oracle as a trait (not class, mind you, as her class is Tempest Cleric) is that I get to use her for all sorts of foreshadowing and plot drops along the way, sliding her pieces of paper with little or big things as we go. She isn't a diviner and doesn't know the answer to things she necessarily wants to know, but rather gets visions as they come to her at random, or gets feelings about things. So if they start a quest, I might slide her a piece of paper that reads "This ... this ends sadly" or if she's talking to an NPC "You snore too loud" or talking to a bartender "Who's Claire?" speaking of someone that might be on their mind or just a crush. It's really just a fun flavor extra I get to drop that.
Good session over all. Skype is still an issue. They could see the diorama just fine but there was still some issues with them hearing us. I need to look into a personal mic that I can clip to my shirt, I think. The question is, does anyone know if Skype or Discord allows two mics to be picked up?
Turns out all you need is a half-orc barbarian who doesn't know when to retreat
Well... and a few magic missiles (oh, but the enemy is resistant to magic!)
And a bit of healing (just enough to keep the barbarian standing, really)
And having been borrowing the cleric's adamantine sword that is an auto-crit against constructs (because he destroyed that magic greataxe you had bought because it was cursed and devouring your soul)
But mostly just a half-orc barbarian who is either stupidly overconfident or just plain stupid
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The other spells that the wizard was throwing were being resisted - you can only cast so many magic missiles, after all.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar