You see it slowly at first. Just a drip. Then another.
Then Thraxxagar’s brains blow out the back of his head, the gruesome remains splattering around in a circle. He remains standing for a good while. After a beat he falls forward like a felled tree.
Hit us with a afterlife scene! I really liked the last one.
—
Lialeth
The Mindflayer reacts to your attack, and grabs your glaive. It pulls you towards it! You’re now 5 feet away from it!
It lifts up its quivering tentacles and reveals a terrible maw!
—
Wylan
Your blade pierced its side! When you draw it back it’s coated in black blood.
The Mindflayer is bleeding out! Soon it will fall!
Rapier in hand Roy rolls out from the cover he'd taken from the blast hoping to back up thrax but instead seeing through his open head wound towards the horrible beast pulling Lialeth towards its foul maw. As always Roy is a sucker for the shiney and if all this trouble is over a helmet Roy at least wants to see what is so special about it before this terrible beast should claim his life. Roy reaches out grabs the helmet from the plinth and puts it upon his head.
Three voices ring out unintelligibly. You raise a hand to them and they slowly sync into one.
“Welcome captain. Welcome to the Spelljammer.”
“Initiating transfer of command.”
Roy! You are motionless! It will take 2 rounds for you to snap out of it and assume command of your ship!
Endless_Serpents on
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
Billy S. Capricorn, esq.; HP 5/26
Billy turns, his wounded rear legs leaving small drops of blood where he steps.
Things don't look good. His allies are scattered and in disarray; immobile, knocked over, dead, submerged, or about to get their brains eaten out through their skull. His own strength and health is waning, although he's stubborn and obstinate and refusing to let it stop him.
Like all animals, he can recognise when someone wants something. And like all assholes, he knows what to do with that information.
Clipping in as fast as his little legs can carry him, he rushes up and shoves Lialeth back away from the beasts gaping maw.
Billy is now standing next to the Murderflayer, between it and Roy with the helm, standing on unsteady legs staring at the beast and ready to fight.
Come on, tinpot tyrant. You want the helm? It's right behind me. We have unfinished business, you and I.
Lialeth take 1 damage, get pushed back to where you were last turn. If you're asleep, this should wake you up.
Once second I was reaching for a cool looking helmet. Then there was like a screeching in my skull, then I don't remember anything.
Now I get up off the ground. Its cold, snowy. The sky is, full of more stars then I've ever seen. Its peaceful here. Slowly I get up. I don't feel hurt from the damage I took in the Under Temple. I don't feel sad about Timmy Tin or my new friends in the temple, or my mother who will probably never know what happened to her son. I just feel, at peace. This is nice.
Now that I'm standing, in the distance I see a light. As I get closer I can make it out. Its a long house, several in fact, hundreds, maybe more. All of them are full of people laughing, swapping stories and sharing food and drink. This must be it. Valhalla. I made it. Trying to open a door to one of these long houses, and its locked. I try the next, it too is locked. I keep trying for what feels like ages, all locked. Finally, I reach the end of the longhouses and see one, the largest of them all, but with no lights, no sounds of merriment. Simply a symbol over the door of a lightning bolt, one very similar to my holy symbol.
I hesitate, perhaps, maybe my father is here simply waiting to accept me into his open arms. Yes surely that is it, this is the house meant for kin of the gods themselves. My hand trembles as I reach for the door. It opens! Stepping inside, I see no party, no light, no joyful celebration of life. Just a dark room with a long table, and in front of the cold hearth a sad man. His features appear to shift, from some angles hes a Dragonborn, from some a Human, and others a Dwarf. He is wearing mail armor and a helm with lightning bolts on either side. He turns to me.
"Thraxxagar my son. I am...so sorry. Fate was unkind to you, and I fear death shall be as well."
'Wait, father?! Is that really you? Oh I knew it! I knew mother wasn't mad like the others said, you, you truly are my father and I am truly of the line of gods!'
"Well you may have been, but before you could fulfill any sort of grand adventure worth of tale, you died. Really gross like. You went out like a wuss."
'What...father I don't understand, I was trying to have a grand adventure, to live as I though you would!'
"I would have figured out what that amulet does. I would have put on the helmet and not gone out with a single brain punch. But you? I don't think you are worth for me to call kin. This hall is yours, and your alone. You will not be punished, as you died in battle and tried to help others, but you shall also not be exalted. Here you will stay until the final stars burn out. Maybe then, when great serpent rises and all of Midgarr and Valhalla are threatened, maybe then you can prove yourself worthy of being my son."
'Father wait...'
"I mean you didn't even save the golem or give any of your comrades in arm a proper burial or send off. You went out like a jerk, totally leaving everyone hanging."
And with that he disappeared in a bolt of thunder, the smell of burning ozone left in his wake. And with that I sat down at the long table, and began thinking of what I could have been, and I'd have a long time to thing about it.
Wylan lands another strong blow, and sees the Mindflayer bleed. It's hurt, and that means he's winning.
It lands a slash across his face however, and then a wave hits him and pushes him back. When the water clear, it appears a wall is in front of him now, separating him from his quarry. So, he runs, spinning around the pit, splashing out of the water, to circle back to the mindflayer.
As he gets in range, he readies his final javelin, and throws it, unwilling to give up his attack.
The javelin is launched through the Mindflayer’s back moments before it was to suck Lialeth’s brains out through their ears!
It arches back with a psychic wail! And when it looks back there is a goat in place of lunch.
The Mindflayer drops to one knee... and for a moment it looks to have accepted defeat.
NO
You all hear it.
It reaches out and grabs Billy by the horns.
Billy, make a Wisdom saving throw verses Mind Control!
—
Lair Action
Wylan! The floor beneath you suddenly thrusts upwards as several serrated spikes!
Make a Dexterity saving throw verses 2d8 piercing damage! Should you succeed, you’re unharmed. Should you fail, you’ll take damage and be stuck there as the spikes pierce your feet for 1 turn.
—
Roy
1 round remains until you have total control over the ship.
—
It’s no great secret that the next attack against the Mindflayer will likely slay it!
...after those saving throws are made.
Endless_Serpents on
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited September 2020
Goat was actually the name of the Doctor. The monster was called Billy; HP 4/26
Pain shoots up through your feet! The spikes are through the soles of your boots and in inch into your feet!
You’re going nowhere this turn. You’re stuck until the start of your next turn. You take 5 piercing damage, but gain no further injury.
Despite the pain, you can still do something this turn. What equipment do you have? Can you throw anything worthwhile? Perhaps you can aid an ally instead?
Wylan yells in pain as spikes stab through his feet. He tries to move and finds himself stuck, unable to advance to take another swing. From this position, he can now see someone with a helmet on who is starting to float, and he sees the goat looking strangely at the person in the helmet.
Frustration boils inside of Wylan as he is stuck without any throw-able weapons. His hands dig through his pack, angrily searching for anything worth throwing. He pulls out the raptor claw, something small and sharp but also unlikely to be directed where he wants. In his frustration, he still throws it at the Mindflayer, angry that he can't reach the thing, annoyed that this fight still continues.
Not going to roll anything because it's not even really a weapon, but I figure it's a moment of frustration for the currently immobile Wylan.
I have nothing I can do here. All the spells I grabbed are touch spells, and I wouldn't use the last spell slot for anything other than a divine smite anyways.
As Lialeth steps in to slay the Mindflayer its eyes glow—and then it is hit in the back of the head by a claw, losing focus.
WHAT?
OH
Lialeth slams his blade into the head of the monster, and rips it back out when it doesn’t cleave it in two. He slams it back in, over and over... until it is done.
Lialeth! You slew the Mindflayer!
Everyone earns 500 experience!
Lialeth! You earn an additional 900 experience!
LEVEL UP!
Billy... you’re back in the room. Your mind is your own. Good thing too, you only just turn from charging Roy down.
Captain Roy, in 5... 4... 3... you will have command over the Spelljammer, a vessel that can traverse both time and space. Not even the planes are a barrier to the course you may wish to set. There’s too much information to process right now, but you know when it crashed it had no captain, so it took on a pyramid shape to conserve power, but soon you will mold it as you please to once again take flight!
Wylan watches as someone else cleaves down the Mindflayer, torn between the satisfaction of the creature dying and the slight pang of regret that it wasn't his glaive that did it. The room calms at that point, the current danger seems to surpass, and Wylan takes a moment to step off the spikes that had grown into his feet.
He moves towards the person wearing the helm, floating off the ground, and raises his eyebrows. An interesting sight, but not a present danger as far as the paladin can tell. Instead, he places his healing hands on himself, soothing his own pains with divine energy, feeling his body stich itself back up to a state that leaves him feeling at least healthier. Then, he just stands there and rests, taking deep breaths and coming down from the adrenaline rush that he had been in.
Guess I can be the first to do something.
Regardless of the result, have to stick to the story I've been crafting for Wylan so far.
Lialeth rests the butt of his glaive on the ground, grimacing at the lifeless corpse of the mindflayer. "Good riddance," he says, sparing but a moment to breath before he starts looking around. "That was the vile creature that made me attack you, Miss Tinker. I'm sorry," he says, a pit growing in his stomach as he continues to scan the room. "Satra?"
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited September 2020
Goat. Billy Goat. ; HP 4/26
Billy looks at the fallen corpse of the Mindflayer.
Pfft. I could have done that, if I wanted too.
The tall one who took the helmet floats now, practically glowing with power, but that's uninteresting to the goat. Instead, he wanders over towards the Northeast corner of the bridge. As he passes Wylan, the Aasimar notices that included in the items harnessed to the goats back are several small throwing javelins; the goat does not react when the Aasimar retrives a pair of them as he wanders past. The goat walks on past the pool where the Drake swam to, looking down into the inky depths at the shadows moving there, and continues on.
He reaches the body of Satra, and gives it a gentle nudge. Satra does not respond.
He gives a more insistent nudge, calling out for the gnome to react. "Mlellellellep".
Still there is no response.
The goat stands a moment, gazing upon his fallen comrade.
Then, duties observed, the goat starts insistently pushing and sniffing around Satra's pockets, looking for loose biscuits.
Wylan had said nothing as he took two of his javelins back, but the cry of the goat from where Satra had fallen drew his attention.
He walked slowly over to the corner where Satra's body lay, the goat pushing and nosing around. He kneels down next to the goat, placing a hand on its back, and releases divine healing into the goat. "You did what you could. We all did."
He removes his hand after healing Bucky, and places it on Satra's head, closing his own eyes and saying a silent prayer. When he removes his hand, the body glows in a bright light, a beacon in this terrible place, and a reminder of hope.
That's all of us not attacking Roy, so going to go ahead and do this.
Casting Cure Wounds on Bucky.
Geth, roll 1d8+3 for Cure Wounds HP
Having learned of Satra's fate, Lialeth finds Thraxxagar's body as well. "Damn," he says sorrowfully, standing over the gory scene. "He seemed like he had a lot of potential. Both of them did. I hope this was all worth it."
He turns to Roy. "Is this the prize we were all after? There must be more than this. Are you still with us Roy? Or are you going to become another of the ship's ghosts?"
The steward is whole and subservient to you. The factories for the various types of robots are being fixed, and soon new robots will be busy repairing vital systems across the vessel.
The holograms are rebooting, their flaws being removed. Soon they will be sane, helpful guides.
You see in your mind’s eye the medical bay, long locked away. You flick a finger, and the lights come back on.
Feel free to give me your ideas for how things play out from here. Ask questions and just have a general chat! Everyone that was playing, if you’re reading this, come back for a bit, won’t you?
In a bit I’ll tell you all about what this was actually all about. I tried to put the lore in there, but you didn’t get it all and I was being purposely vague most of the time.
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
There once was a goat here; HP 10/26
In character, I have to go see a Frost Unicorn about a Tinker.
OOC, Thanks for this, I've had a lot of fun; I'll add some more thoughts later when I'm not quite so rushed.
Wylan would recognize Roy's authority. Whatever Roy decided, Wylan would follow (assuming it wasn't "murder everyone else"). He would want to hold ceremonies for any of the dead, and probably search the ship for anyone else that dropped, specifically Ashala. Thinking, solemn ceremonies, and maybe a section of the ship dedicated to anyone who fell (holograms?).
OOC: This was fantastic! Loved the story here, and it was fun to find all the rooms and see what was going on everywhere. Super curious around the details of what was going on everywhere. It was not very surprising that people didn't attack each other, the place was deadly enough, but I'll go ahead and say right now if I had been playing any class other than paladin, I probably would have taken a shot at Roy there in the end (and probably gotten killed by Lialeth in response).
RIP Satra, who lasted way longer than I thought she would have (by like, *weeks*), and who ended up being a *way* more fun character to play than she had any right to be
I sort of came up with her back story as the game went along and stuff happened to her
She was haunted by the memory of her brother. He was her twin, and an aspiring Ranger, and a lot more of a jolly, easy-going character. He's the reason she does things like following effing goat's around (her brother thought animals were nature leaving signs) and trusting strangers (despite having very good reasons not to). So, they were inseparable as gnome children. They would take excursions in the deep caves around their home, finding and recovering ruins. During one of these excursions (the one she kept flashing back to), Satra found a rube goldberg trap connected to a puzzle box that she was able to solve (where she found the Angel's Tear!), but everything went Indiana Jones collapsing temple behind them, destroying large parts of the caves and the foundation in and around their home, and leaving her brother (who she was able to pull up from rubble, but not quickly enough) with crushed and unrepairable legs. She was booted from her society, but often snuck back to see her still living but bedridden brother, who encouraged her to move on with her life and find a purpose (even though the crippling was clearly starting to embitter him). Part of the excitement of her finding Tinny Tim was that she was gonna come back and try to use the advanced designs to try to rig him up a way to walk again
This game was honestly a frigging blast, you guys; *way* more fun than I remember having with it last time I played. Thank you for letting my inexperienced-self play with all of you, and thank you to Endless for putting together an *awesome* game and patiently answering my every "well, what if" pm (there were*a lot* of them). Feel like I've definitely got a bug for it now, to play or DM or both. Seriously, my only regrets with this game are not getting to play a long term game with these characters interacting (and the three guys I didn't even get a chance to meet). I'll *definitely* be going back and reading everyone's whole story eventually, to find out what all else was going on.
Also thank you all for indulging me three paragraphs to fire a gun twice, things like that... honestly thought Satra was gonna be done any minute for the past two weeks, and was trying to give her character her proper due. I had a really good time with all of this! :biggrin:
@Endless_Serpents thank you for a fantastic game! This was such a fun adventure. I loved the mystery of the place, the way the lore unfolded as we moved along, and how you made exploration and resources more interesting. Sincerely a great modification of the sort of core D&D experience.
I think Lialeth would be looking for another group to be part of, so he would probably not need any convincing to join the crew. Although none of it was written anywhere, I had this idea that he was a soldier in his past, but had some kind of tragic event with his unit that left him as the only survivor. He was nursed back to health (and taught how to love) by a druid that he met when fleeing his former life, but that druid's life was also cut short in tragedy. With nothing else to devote his life to he became an adventurer, and entering the temple was a "this will either kill me or save me, and either one is fine" kind of thing.
When the mind control effect hit him (those random effects were also a really neat addition) it all came together for me that he was mind controlled by something in the past, killed his fellow soldiers, then fled. So to be mind controlled and forced to attack his allies again filled him with rage and a singular mission of revenge against the mindflayer. Very fitting that he got to be the one to deliver the final blow!
Also even though I think we all figured out we were on a spaceship, the Spelljammer reveal at the end was *chef's kiss*. So great.
I'd love to hear more about what was in the ship and the stuff we missed. Especially what was down below. I avoided all of those spoilers and tried not to read the posts of people that weren't around me so that it would be easier to react in character.
"Still here Big and Harry, not sure what prize you were lookin for, I came in here to find money for food and a tent, and maybe a good meal at an inn, seems we've found an even better place to sleep than a tent."
If there's anything roy could do with the medical bay for his fallen acquaintances he would start making that happen.
OOC:
This was definitely super fun, my magical murder hobo woulda been happy with the 300 gold for food, getting a magical weapon a pistol, and a freakin space ship sure was dope though.
Also shout out to Fishman cause I definitely threw some mountain goats into my session this week as part of an obstacle because of Billy.
First, a brief timeline:
1. In the future, Illithids (mindflayers) establish a planar-wide empire and enslave, well, everything.
2. Thousands of years later, The God Watching from the End of Time is born from, or built, by the Illithids. It begins dismantling reality. I feel like I heard that was a thing, but I might have made it up.
3. Entire dimensions are destroyed, and many gods and powerful beings die.
4. The brightest minds and most courageous heroes remaining band together and build the Spelljammer, as well as the helm needed to pilot it, on a half blown up material world, using its exposed core as a forge. Let’s say it was Krynn, because no one likes Dragonlance.
5. The heroes use the Spelljammer as the flagship to fight back, rousing a rebellion. They manage to destroy The God Watching from the End of Time, but not before the ship is infiltrated by the elite mindflayers second only to The God. All but one are destroyed at great cost, and in a final desperate act the captain used their own existence to power a spell that would trap the last mindflayer in a loop. The Spelljammer is sent hurtling through time and space, in the hopes of keeping the mindflayer as far away from The God as possible.
6. The Spelljammer crashes into your nondescript D&D world in the distant past. It takes on the pyramid form as a kind of standby mode.
7. The steward (ship’s computer) was nearly destroyed by the mindflayers, but managed to split into three instead. One steward got control of the outer doors, opening them periodically in the hopes of attracting some kind of help. Only Roy met this one. This steward was forgetful, the most broken, but had managed to access some of the ship’s time magic. When a hero it allowed in died, it would isolate and reset time right by the door it opened, so the same hero could have another go. Each copy was a unique instance however, each time they died they really died, so Thor has been disappointed in dozens of Thraxxagars.
8. By the time of this adventure that steward and its spell was nearly done for. People were coming back wrong. All of you had messed up your own names, for example. The weird looking triplets Wylan and Ashala met were three time-copies gone wrong. Elsewhere Satra briefly saw a melted wizard (ooze monster that cast spells) who summoned an illusion of the powerpotamus.
9. Then you guys made the perfect run! You killed the last mindflayer in its weakened state and took command of the Spelljammer once more! It was amazing.
The Spelljammer
There was this D&D setting years back where you could sail your magic ship through space. The titular Spelljammer was a mystery, the best magic ship. It looked like a manta ray. I’m sure it was statted up at some point because that’s D&D for you, but at its heart it was supposed to be above and beyond what even the main villain of your campaign could get their hands on. It was special.
So I figured, traversing time and space was what made the Spelljammer the best. I knew the ship was the Spelljammer from the start.
The stewards intentions:
The forgetful one that called Roy ‘Fillianore’ (potentially a name Roy had used before, or a hero Roy once worked with) was the one letting people in and creating copies to try again. It was losing hope, and was simply in a routine now.
The angry one that gave Wylan the injector wanted control of the ship at any cost. 90% of the hovering ‘bug’ robots were under their command. It had lost sight of the main goal, but would have killed the mindflayer once it had control.
The calm one that plugged a psychic resistance node into Wylan’s neck wanted to defeat the mindflayer, but had also stopped caring about your lives long ago.
None of them were without morales, but they were alien. Their alignments were XZ, you know?
The ghosts
They were holograms. They were advanced voice recognition systems like the stuff you can buy now, but none of them were smart AI.
The original crew
They were a mixed ragtag band of folks, but the majority were of a race that you’d know in regular D&D as Githyanki and Githzerai. Unlike traditional D&D they weren’t at odds, and in fact we’re likely more or less the same race at this point in history. They practiced psionics, and with the help of the black tablets, were granted a limited version of the helm power by the captain, so they could rearrange the ship to help them with their tasks.
There’s all sorts of bits, like the three singing prisoners, who were double agents sent in by the mindflayers, but you ask me what you wanna know.
I’d post the rooms you missed, but you might be surprised to know between you all you hit nearly every single room I made. A straight run from any starting room is only 5 to 7 rooms until the bridge, but your own curiosity and occasional trepidation sent you in circles.
The route Mr. Grungle and Magnus were taking shall forever be a mystery, just like their untimely demises.
Anyone got a favourite room?
I think the Landscape Gallery (Wylan and Ashala make a desert a forest by pressing a button) is mine.
What did happen to Mr Grungle and Magnus? Just stopped posting?
As an outside observer, i honestly didnt pay too much attention to any of the rooms as such, but i enjoyed the whole "oh this is fuuuuuuuucked" vibe i got from reading the whole thing. Even if i remain dispointed i didnt get to turn up and yell "Thin the herd" at everyone to confuse them/incite murder. Let your peanut gallery murder your players endless, geeeez.
Posts
You see it slowly at first. Just a drip. Then another.
Then Thraxxagar’s brains blow out the back of his head, the gruesome remains splattering around in a circle. He remains standing for a good while. After a beat he falls forward like a felled tree.
—
Lialeth
The Mindflayer reacts to your attack, and grabs your glaive. It pulls you towards it! You’re now 5 feet away from it!
It lifts up its quivering tentacles and reveals a terrible maw!
—
Wylan
Your blade pierced its side! When you draw it back it’s coated in black blood.
The Mindflayer is bleeding out! Soon it will fall!
MY TURN
The Mindflayer lashes out with his long nails, slashing Wylan across the face.
—This will scar permanently, a dark purple.
YOU
FALL
Lialeth, make an Intelligence saving throw against falling asleep!
—
Lair Action
With a flick of its wrist, a mass of filthy water is summoned into being! It crashes like a tidal wave over the fire, slamming into Wylan!
He’s thrown onto his back some distance!
Wylan takes 9 damage overall.
Geth roll 2d6 for Slash
Geth roll 1d20 for Slashing Injury
Geth roll 1d12 for Tonnes of Water
Geth roll 1d6 for Reload
Rapier in hand Roy rolls out from the cover he'd taken from the blast hoping to back up thrax but instead seeing through his open head wound towards the horrible beast pulling Lialeth towards its foul maw. As always Roy is a sucker for the shiney and if all this trouble is over a helmet Roy at least wants to see what is so special about it before this terrible beast should claim his life. Roy reaches out grabs the helmet from the plinth and puts it upon his head.
Imbued with the power of the last angel and the final devil.
The Helm of Time and Space
You stand within a bright blue nothing.
Three voices ring out unintelligibly. You raise a hand to them and they slowly sync into one.
“Welcome captain. Welcome to the Spelljammer.”
“Initiating transfer of command.”
Roy! You are motionless! It will take 2 rounds for you to snap out of it and assume command of your ship!
Billy turns, his wounded rear legs leaving small drops of blood where he steps.
Things don't look good. His allies are scattered and in disarray; immobile, knocked over, dead, submerged, or about to get their brains eaten out through their skull. His own strength and health is waning, although he's stubborn and obstinate and refusing to let it stop him.
Like all animals, he can recognise when someone wants something. And like all assholes, he knows what to do with that information.
Clipping in as fast as his little legs can carry him, he rushes up and shoves Lialeth back away from the beasts gaping maw.
Billy is now standing next to the Murderflayer, between it and Roy with the helm, standing on unsteady legs staring at the beast and ready to fight.
Come on, tinpot tyrant. You want the helm? It's right behind me. We have unfinished business, you and I.
Now I get up off the ground. Its cold, snowy. The sky is, full of more stars then I've ever seen. Its peaceful here. Slowly I get up. I don't feel hurt from the damage I took in the Under Temple. I don't feel sad about Timmy Tin or my new friends in the temple, or my mother who will probably never know what happened to her son. I just feel, at peace. This is nice.
Now that I'm standing, in the distance I see a light. As I get closer I can make it out. Its a long house, several in fact, hundreds, maybe more. All of them are full of people laughing, swapping stories and sharing food and drink. This must be it. Valhalla. I made it. Trying to open a door to one of these long houses, and its locked. I try the next, it too is locked. I keep trying for what feels like ages, all locked. Finally, I reach the end of the longhouses and see one, the largest of them all, but with no lights, no sounds of merriment. Simply a symbol over the door of a lightning bolt, one very similar to my holy symbol.
I hesitate, perhaps, maybe my father is here simply waiting to accept me into his open arms. Yes surely that is it, this is the house meant for kin of the gods themselves. My hand trembles as I reach for the door. It opens! Stepping inside, I see no party, no light, no joyful celebration of life. Just a dark room with a long table, and in front of the cold hearth a sad man. His features appear to shift, from some angles hes a Dragonborn, from some a Human, and others a Dwarf. He is wearing mail armor and a helm with lightning bolts on either side. He turns to me.
"Thraxxagar my son. I am...so sorry. Fate was unkind to you, and I fear death shall be as well."
'Wait, father?! Is that really you? Oh I knew it! I knew mother wasn't mad like the others said, you, you truly are my father and I am truly of the line of gods!'
"Well you may have been, but before you could fulfill any sort of grand adventure worth of tale, you died. Really gross like. You went out like a wuss."
'What...father I don't understand, I was trying to have a grand adventure, to live as I though you would!'
"I would have figured out what that amulet does. I would have put on the helmet and not gone out with a single brain punch. But you? I don't think you are worth for me to call kin. This hall is yours, and your alone. You will not be punished, as you died in battle and tried to help others, but you shall also not be exalted. Here you will stay until the final stars burn out. Maybe then, when great serpent rises and all of Midgarr and Valhalla are threatened, maybe then you can prove yourself worthy of being my son."
'Father wait...'
"I mean you didn't even save the golem or give any of your comrades in arm a proper burial or send off. You went out like a jerk, totally leaving everyone hanging."
And with that he disappeared in a bolt of thunder, the smell of burning ozone left in his wake. And with that I sat down at the long table, and began thinking of what I could have been, and I'd have a long time to thing about it.
Lialeth takes a nap.
It’s more of a long blink, as you feel the horns connect to your hip. You bounce away, landing flatly on your feet.
Wylan lands another strong blow, and sees the Mindflayer bleed. It's hurt, and that means he's winning.
It lands a slash across his face however, and then a wave hits him and pushes him back. When the water clear, it appears a wall is in front of him now, separating him from his quarry. So, he runs, spinning around the pit, splashing out of the water, to circle back to the mindflayer.
As he gets in range, he readies his final javelin, and throws it, unwilling to give up his attack.
Geth, roll 1d6+2 for The Final Javelin
The javelin is launched through the Mindflayer’s back moments before it was to suck Lialeth’s brains out through their ears!
It arches back with a psychic wail! And when it looks back there is a goat in place of lunch.
The Mindflayer drops to one knee... and for a moment it looks to have accepted defeat.
NO
You all hear it.
It reaches out and grabs Billy by the horns.
Billy, make a Wisdom saving throw verses Mind Control!
—
Lair Action
Wylan! The floor beneath you suddenly thrusts upwards as several serrated spikes!
Make a Dexterity saving throw verses 2d8 piercing damage! Should you succeed, you’re unharmed. Should you fail, you’ll take damage and be stuck there as the spikes pierce your feet for 1 turn.
—
Roy
1 round remains until you have total control over the ship.
—
It’s no great secret that the next attack against the Mindflayer will likely slay it!
...after those saving throws are made.
Haha! Yeah! You’ve got it exactly where you want it! The Mindflayer’s attempt to control you has totally messed up!
Now all you need to do is kill that fellow in the helmet and all will be well.
—Spend your turn moving towards and attacking Roy. Feel free to get creative with that order to deal the least or most damage you can.
Make the same saving throw at the start of your next turn, so long as the Mindflayer still lives.
Pain shoots up through your feet! The spikes are through the soles of your boots and in inch into your feet!
You’re going nowhere this turn. You’re stuck until the start of your next turn. You take 5 piercing damage, but gain no further injury.
Despite the pain, you can still do something this turn. What equipment do you have? Can you throw anything worthwhile? Perhaps you can aid an ally instead?
Geth roll 2d8 for Suddenly Spikes
Roy’s feet no longer touch the floor.
Wylan yells in pain as spikes stab through his feet. He tries to move and finds himself stuck, unable to advance to take another swing. From this position, he can now see someone with a helmet on who is starting to float, and he sees the goat looking strangely at the person in the helmet.
Frustration boils inside of Wylan as he is stuck without any throw-able weapons. His hands dig through his pack, angrily searching for anything worth throwing. He pulls out the raptor claw, something small and sharp but also unlikely to be directed where he wants. In his frustration, he still throws it at the Mindflayer, angry that he can't reach the thing, annoyed that this fight still continues.
I have nothing I can do here. All the spells I grabbed are touch spells, and I wouldn't use the last spell slot for anything other than a divine smite anyways.
Am I awake? Dreaming? Either way...
Geth, roll 1d10+4 for Slashing Damage
WHAT?
OH
Lialeth slams his blade into the head of the monster, and rips it back out when it doesn’t cleave it in two. He slams it back in, over and over... until it is done.
Lialeth! You slew the Mindflayer!
Everyone earns 500 experience!
Lialeth! You earn an additional 900 experience!
LEVEL UP!
Billy... you’re back in the room. Your mind is your own. Good thing too, you only just turn from charging Roy down.
Captain Roy, in 5... 4... 3... you will have command over the Spelljammer, a vessel that can traverse both time and space. Not even the planes are a barrier to the course you may wish to set. There’s too much information to process right now, but you know when it crashed it had no captain, so it took on a pyramid shape to conserve power, but soon you will mold it as you please to once again take flight!
He is currently vulnerable, and can be slain if only you choose to.
Will you kill Roy to claim the helm?
For if none of you choose to, he alone has command of this mysterious vessel.
Wylan watches as someone else cleaves down the Mindflayer, torn between the satisfaction of the creature dying and the slight pang of regret that it wasn't his glaive that did it. The room calms at that point, the current danger seems to surpass, and Wylan takes a moment to step off the spikes that had grown into his feet.
He moves towards the person wearing the helm, floating off the ground, and raises his eyebrows. An interesting sight, but not a present danger as far as the paladin can tell. Instead, he places his healing hands on himself, soothing his own pains with divine energy, feeling his body stich itself back up to a state that leaves him feeling at least healthier. Then, he just stands there and rests, taking deep breaths and coming down from the adrenaline rush that he had been in.
Regardless of the result, have to stick to the story I've been crafting for Wylan so far.
Using all 10HP of LOH on myself.
Lialeth rests the butt of his glaive on the ground, grimacing at the lifeless corpse of the mindflayer. "Good riddance," he says, sparing but a moment to breath before he starts looking around. "That was the vile creature that made me attack you, Miss Tinker. I'm sorry," he says, a pit growing in his stomach as he continues to scan the room. "Satra?"
Geth, roll 2d10+6 for two HP increases
Billy looks at the fallen corpse of the Mindflayer.
Pfft. I could have done that, if I wanted too.
The tall one who took the helmet floats now, practically glowing with power, but that's uninteresting to the goat. Instead, he wanders over towards the Northeast corner of the bridge. As he passes Wylan, the Aasimar notices that included in the items harnessed to the goats back are several small throwing javelins; the goat does not react when the Aasimar retrives a pair of them as he wanders past. The goat walks on past the pool where the Drake swam to, looking down into the inky depths at the shadows moving there, and continues on.
He reaches the body of Satra, and gives it a gentle nudge. Satra does not respond.
He gives a more insistent nudge, calling out for the gnome to react. "Mlellellellep".
Still there is no response.
The goat stands a moment, gazing upon his fallen comrade.
Then, duties observed, the goat starts insistently pushing and sniffing around Satra's pockets, looking for loose biscuits.
"Mlellellellep"
Wylan had said nothing as he took two of his javelins back, but the cry of the goat from where Satra had fallen drew his attention.
He walked slowly over to the corner where Satra's body lay, the goat pushing and nosing around. He kneels down next to the goat, placing a hand on its back, and releases divine healing into the goat. "You did what you could. We all did."
He removes his hand after healing Bucky, and places it on Satra's head, closing his own eyes and saying a silent prayer. When he removes his hand, the body glows in a bright light, a beacon in this terrible place, and a reminder of hope.
Casting Cure Wounds on Bucky.
Geth, roll 1d8+3 for Cure Wounds HP
Then, casting the light cantrip.
Having learned of Satra's fate, Lialeth finds Thraxxagar's body as well. "Damn," he says sorrowfully, standing over the gory scene. "He seemed like he had a lot of potential. Both of them did. I hope this was all worth it."
He turns to Roy. "Is this the prize we were all after? There must be more than this. Are you still with us Roy? Or are you going to become another of the ship's ghosts?"
You softly float down to the floor.
You have command of the Spelljammer.
The steward is whole and subservient to you. The factories for the various types of robots are being fixed, and soon new robots will be busy repairing vital systems across the vessel.
The holograms are rebooting, their flaws being removed. Soon they will be sane, helpful guides.
You see in your mind’s eye the medical bay, long locked away. You flick a finger, and the lights come back on.
You are the captain now. Before you is your crew.
What do you do? Only time will tell.
Feel free to give me your ideas for how things play out from here. Ask questions and just have a general chat! Everyone that was playing, if you’re reading this, come back for a bit, won’t you?
In character, I have to go see a Frost Unicorn about a Tinker.
OOC, Thanks for this, I've had a lot of fun; I'll add some more thoughts later when I'm not quite so rushed.
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OOC: This was fantastic! Loved the story here, and it was fun to find all the rooms and see what was going on everywhere. Super curious around the details of what was going on everywhere. It was not very surprising that people didn't attack each other, the place was deadly enough, but I'll go ahead and say right now if I had been playing any class other than paladin, I probably would have taken a shot at Roy there in the end (and probably gotten killed by Lialeth in response).
RIP Satra, who lasted way longer than I thought she would have (by like, *weeks*), and who ended up being a *way* more fun character to play than she had any right to be
I sort of came up with her back story as the game went along and stuff happened to her
This game was honestly a frigging blast, you guys; *way* more fun than I remember having with it last time I played. Thank you for letting my inexperienced-self play with all of you, and thank you to Endless for putting together an *awesome* game and patiently answering my every "well, what if" pm (there were*a lot* of them). Feel like I've definitely got a bug for it now, to play or DM or both. Seriously, my only regrets with this game are not getting to play a long term game with these characters interacting (and the three guys I didn't even get a chance to meet). I'll *definitely* be going back and reading everyone's whole story eventually, to find out what all else was going on.
Also thank you all for indulging me three paragraphs to fire a gun twice, things like that... honestly thought Satra was gonna be done any minute for the past two weeks, and was trying to give her character her proper due. I had a really good time with all of this! :biggrin:
p.s. that *fucking* goat
I think Lialeth would be looking for another group to be part of, so he would probably not need any convincing to join the crew. Although none of it was written anywhere, I had this idea that he was a soldier in his past, but had some kind of tragic event with his unit that left him as the only survivor. He was nursed back to health (and taught how to love) by a druid that he met when fleeing his former life, but that druid's life was also cut short in tragedy. With nothing else to devote his life to he became an adventurer, and entering the temple was a "this will either kill me or save me, and either one is fine" kind of thing.
When the mind control effect hit him (those random effects were also a really neat addition) it all came together for me that he was mind controlled by something in the past, killed his fellow soldiers, then fled. So to be mind controlled and forced to attack his allies again filled him with rage and a singular mission of revenge against the mindflayer. Very fitting that he got to be the one to deliver the final blow!
Also even though I think we all figured out we were on a spaceship, the Spelljammer reveal at the end was *chef's kiss*. So great.
I'd love to hear more about what was in the ship and the stuff we missed. Especially what was down below. I avoided all of those spoilers and tried not to read the posts of people that weren't around me so that it would be easier to react in character.
Truly a phenomenal game. So glad I joined.
"Still here Big and Harry, not sure what prize you were lookin for, I came in here to find money for food and a tent, and maybe a good meal at an inn, seems we've found an even better place to sleep than a tent."
If there's anything roy could do with the medical bay for his fallen acquaintances he would start making that happen.
OOC:
This was definitely super fun, my magical murder hobo woulda been happy with the 300 gold for food, getting a magical weapon a pistol, and a freakin space ship sure was dope though.
Also shout out to Fishman cause I definitely threw some mountain goats into my session this week as part of an obstacle because of Billy.
First, a brief timeline:
1. In the future, Illithids (mindflayers) establish a planar-wide empire and enslave, well, everything.
2. Thousands of years later, The God Watching from the End of Time is born from, or built, by the Illithids. It begins dismantling reality. I feel like I heard that was a thing, but I might have made it up.
3. Entire dimensions are destroyed, and many gods and powerful beings die.
4. The brightest minds and most courageous heroes remaining band together and build the Spelljammer, as well as the helm needed to pilot it, on a half blown up material world, using its exposed core as a forge. Let’s say it was Krynn, because no one likes Dragonlance.
5. The heroes use the Spelljammer as the flagship to fight back, rousing a rebellion. They manage to destroy The God Watching from the End of Time, but not before the ship is infiltrated by the elite mindflayers second only to The God. All but one are destroyed at great cost, and in a final desperate act the captain used their own existence to power a spell that would trap the last mindflayer in a loop. The Spelljammer is sent hurtling through time and space, in the hopes of keeping the mindflayer as far away from The God as possible.
6. The Spelljammer crashes into your nondescript D&D world in the distant past. It takes on the pyramid form as a kind of standby mode.
7. The steward (ship’s computer) was nearly destroyed by the mindflayers, but managed to split into three instead. One steward got control of the outer doors, opening them periodically in the hopes of attracting some kind of help. Only Roy met this one. This steward was forgetful, the most broken, but had managed to access some of the ship’s time magic. When a hero it allowed in died, it would isolate and reset time right by the door it opened, so the same hero could have another go. Each copy was a unique instance however, each time they died they really died, so Thor has been disappointed in dozens of Thraxxagars.
8. By the time of this adventure that steward and its spell was nearly done for. People were coming back wrong. All of you had messed up your own names, for example. The weird looking triplets Wylan and Ashala met were three time-copies gone wrong. Elsewhere Satra briefly saw a melted wizard (ooze monster that cast spells) who summoned an illusion of the powerpotamus.
9. Then you guys made the perfect run! You killed the last mindflayer in its weakened state and took command of the Spelljammer once more! It was amazing.
The Spelljammer
There was this D&D setting years back where you could sail your magic ship through space. The titular Spelljammer was a mystery, the best magic ship. It looked like a manta ray. I’m sure it was statted up at some point because that’s D&D for you, but at its heart it was supposed to be above and beyond what even the main villain of your campaign could get their hands on. It was special.
So I figured, traversing time and space was what made the Spelljammer the best. I knew the ship was the Spelljammer from the start.
The stewards intentions:
The forgetful one that called Roy ‘Fillianore’ (potentially a name Roy had used before, or a hero Roy once worked with) was the one letting people in and creating copies to try again. It was losing hope, and was simply in a routine now.
The angry one that gave Wylan the injector wanted control of the ship at any cost. 90% of the hovering ‘bug’ robots were under their command. It had lost sight of the main goal, but would have killed the mindflayer once it had control.
The calm one that plugged a psychic resistance node into Wylan’s neck wanted to defeat the mindflayer, but had also stopped caring about your lives long ago.
None of them were without morales, but they were alien. Their alignments were XZ, you know?
The ghosts
They were holograms. They were advanced voice recognition systems like the stuff you can buy now, but none of them were smart AI.
The original crew
They were a mixed ragtag band of folks, but the majority were of a race that you’d know in regular D&D as Githyanki and Githzerai. Unlike traditional D&D they weren’t at odds, and in fact we’re likely more or less the same race at this point in history. They practiced psionics, and with the help of the black tablets, were granted a limited version of the helm power by the captain, so they could rearrange the ship to help them with their tasks.
There’s all sorts of bits, like the three singing prisoners, who were double agents sent in by the mindflayers, but you ask me what you wanna know.
The route Mr. Grungle and Magnus were taking shall forever be a mystery, just like their untimely demises.
Anyone got a favourite room?
I think the Landscape Gallery (Wylan and Ashala make a desert a forest by pressing a button) is mine.
As an outside observer, i honestly didnt pay too much attention to any of the rooms as such, but i enjoyed the whole "oh this is fuuuuuuuucked" vibe i got from reading the whole thing. Even if i remain dispointed i didnt get to turn up and yell "Thin the herd" at everyone to confuse them/incite murder. Let your peanut gallery murder your players endless, geeeez.
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