talumin

Session 34 - There was a LOOOOOOOT of talking in this session - like a good three hours worth of it. Basically we had to decide if we would join Amrita's (the non-prophet) army and march on the capital, or go our own way, and if we should wait five days or leave immediately. We chose to join, and to wait. And Kaz tried to hit on Amrita the best way a 19-year-old half-orc with a 10 in WIS and 8 in CHA knows how - tell her she's really hot and then run away.

There was also a lot of inter-personal character drama, but it didn't really go anywhere. At the end of the session, we were ranging ahead of the army, found an abandoned farm with a halfling who asked us to save his murdered friends. We wandered into a cave and fought some worms who had gotten the jump on us. We finished up when the last worm was dead.

Session 35 - Following on from the worms, we decided that while these probably weren't what killed the halfling's friends, it was good enough, and left. When we got back to the road, we received word from the army that they needed food badly, as the countryside had been scorched when news of the army had spread. We found a couple of villages further off the road, and convinced the first one to help (I forget how). The second village said that we could have help if we did something for them - kill some goblins. Now, Kaz HATES goblins, so he was in immediately. Hell, he'd had done it for free.

As it turns out, he didn't get to strike a blow against them :( My first action was to cut down the tree one of the goblins was hiding in, which worked great. On my next turn I had the choice between ignoring a massive rock elemental that was attacking our cleric, and going after a goblin that was out in the open and making myself a target for every other goblin there. I decided to charge at the rock elemental and go for the goblin later, but by then, it was too late :( The goblin leader died really swiftly, and the rest got picked off by various magic users while Kaz fumed uselessly as he could reach goblins but not attack them.

We went back to the town, and began a big discussion about how the group should make decisions, and then the vampire twins showed up. Even better, I won the initiative roll and got to take two swipes at them - which missed really badly. And then I was charmed, as usual. Later, the vampires tried to charm the halfling and he made the save with a 24! Which means I know what I need to roll to beat their charm. Technically I can't actually get a 24, but it's good to know.

The conversation with the twins was still ongoing when we stopped, so we're continuing it via Facebook.

I've been slack updating this because I have so many tabs open that I didn't want to open another one just to post. Yes, I'm THAT lazy.

This week was a good example of what often stressed me about running RPGs. This was supposed to be the last session and wrap the story up a little, save for some long weekend games where we can just power through encounters. The problem with that is that it meant there were certain beats and encounters that we HAD to get to before we ran out of time for the evening, so the DM ended up having to push us onto the tracks and railroad us along.

We were fighting the giant apes and starting to hold our own (although Manu had gotten smacked around because he was standing too close and nearly died), when one of the apes just up and fucking died. Something ripped open its back and the last ape legged it. Then our employer Darnish (our Major Reisman) showed up, we rescued the skyship captain and headed back to camp, constantly on guard for whatever killed the giant ape.

Once back at camp we levelled up (wooo level 7). We started asking the captain why the apes wanted him, and he was wondering why we were here. We started getting some plot elements that we hadn't known before, and the DM was clearly indicating that SOMETHING about what we'd done was shifty and didn't match with what was going on and that we'd been misled, but I couldn't follow it (which means Manu couldn't either). B and M made some good Perception rolls and began to realise that Darnish was acting... weird. Like not-human weird. Like weird construct that looks human. There was lots of RPing as we slowly started to all realise what was going on and the situation became more and more tense, with Darnish wanting to leave and the rest of us trying to figure out what was going on. And then that last giant ape showed up and just fucking skewered Darnish.

It was an awesome moment but I immediately realised that this was going to turn into a boss battle and the DM had pushed it forward because we were running out of time for the session. Still, it was awesome, as Darnish started acting like a lunatic, giggling when he took damage and becoming immune to magic. I had the idea to turn into a giant constrictor snake and hold him still while everyone pummelled him, but he still managed to kill B's paladin in one-shot (death rays, yo). Eventually, the construct Darnish was using was killed and the presence retreated, changing form and heading back towards Goldenfields.

So yeah, we're fully off book from Storm King's Thunder now. It's a good ending for the campaign, leaving lots of hooks for when we pick it up again. That being said, I'll be glad to get back to Kaz and B's campaign next week.

So we started off this session with the dwarf mage and aasimar paladin announcing that they were in love and were heading off into the sunset to get married.

We made it to the tavern, and met the folks there. The halfling bard got into a bard-off with the resident halfling bard, and Manu turned into a great dane to get free room and board. We also met our new party members replacing the mage and paladin - A playing a human wizard and T playing a child necromancer with a zombie mother.

We stayed at the tavern overnight and investigated the next morning to discover what happened to these treants. We started by asking an emissary from the capital if they'd seen anything, but she was snarky and the bard ended up using magic on her, which didn't end up turning out well. Turns out the bartender was in love with the emissary, so when the bard sent her off crying, the bartender kicked the bard out, and then passed his charm save. The bard barely got out of being arrested. It's funny because B is playing the bard, and he normally DMs, so he really should have seen the results coming.

Anyway, we went off and got absolutely no information whatsoever where the treants might have gone, but we did find out where to buy drugs. And met some NPCs, but the main thing was the drugs. And that night the town was attacked by elementals and some sort of weird moss creature.

We had the "planning challenge" of determining the defences of the town which I think we did pretty well with. The enemy force showed up at the gate and I think we were doing really well, but since we took so long messing about and talking to NPCs and trying to buy drugs that we had to end the session mid-combat. Pretty sure we'll reach level 6 by the end of next session.

Mwahahaahaha Kaz has a level in barbarian and it is AMAZING!!!

Ahem.

First things first. Epic 13 hour session yesterday, so we got through a lot. And I needed it, because these last few days have been a bit tough on me, even with Star Wars etc.

So, with our new part member, we made our way further south, and ran into our giant dragon buddy, (!) using his new polymorph skills to look like a human. He gave us some news and updated us on what has been going on in the rest of the world. It looks like once we're done with the rakshasa, we're heading into the jungles where it's likely a massive vampire infestation has occurred. But also, there is a big orc invasion occurring, although it looks like they're running from something rather than really trying to invade. This has made me think that Kaz wants to go down there and solve two problems at once - the orcs used to live in the jungles after all. If Kaz becomes their glorious leader, he can take them to the promised land. Also, it'd mean we'd save the world and people would be nicer to orcs.

That's for the future though. We arrived where we suspect the rebellion leader is, and began asking around for information. Smartly, we split up so we didn't attract attention - however, the dwarf sort of blew the cover the halfling and warlock had going, so we may have caused more problems. We did make contact with some of the lycanthropes we'd met (fought) in Sigrad (so long ago!) and they weren't pleased to see us, but said that if we could get the Imperial officials out of the area, we might be able to get something done. There was also a group of locals that basically act like the Klan, hunting lycanthropes.

For some reason, some of the others agreed to meet with the rakshasa's executioner, but we had two days to kill, so we investigated reports of something attacking a local's sheep. Of course the Klan members thought is was lycanthropes, but it turned out that it was a shadow wyvern, and Kaz's diadem of daylight (really, why do I have that?) came in handy and spotted it really quickly. We damaged it a bit, then it started to flee and we couldn't keep up. Regrouping at the farmhouse, we scouted out a ruined keep that might be a hiding spot for the creature - and we were right! This battle went about the same, although I did get to lasso the wyvern, but it phased away. Still, we managed to hurt it pretty bad but it smashed through our blockade of the exit and escaped again. The warlock wanted to finish things, but managed to trigger the traps we avoided on the way in, getting knocked out.

We didn't hang around too long, but we managed to find the shadow wyvern as it was trying to recover. We encircled it and charged, slaughtering the thing before it could get into the air. We beheaded it and took a rest over night before heading back to the farm. It also turned out the dwarf and I had been infected with a disease, but thankfully we had a cure on hand.

Getting back to the farm, and then the main town, we were diverted to the captain of the guard's office, who implied that he was a lycanthrope and that we should meet him that night in the forest. Again, looking to kill time (and avoid less sympathetic authorities), we went to the graveyard to level grind via carrion crawlers. After that, we met with the lycanthropic council who said we could go to where the rebellion leader was being held, but they would rather we didn't. The dwarf didn't listen, so off we went.

Reaching the grotto we were confronted by a treant, some vine blights, and pixies/sprites. The dwarf charged in, but we talked to them and they fetched the Forest Guardian, a FUCKING MASSIVE MINOTAUR, like as big as a tree. We couldn't convince him to let us in, but he left us to the guards already there. That didn't go so well for them, because even with only four of us, we mopped the floor with them. The warlock dropped a fireball right in the centre of the treant and oh. My. Gods. She basically one shot this thing, but it retaliated by one-shotting her right back. Then the knight errant (new character) and myself stepped up and yelled timber. It's so good having another fighter. We're like a wolf pack now.

The session ended just as we found a group of humanoids who are probably the rebellion leader's followers.

So epic! We have one session left before Christmas, and then we take a break and play Storm King's Thunder for a while. I'm really excited about this, but the first session has to change nights because I'm planning on going away for a weekend and that's stressing me because of money and having to make other people change plans to suit me and travel and all the other dumbass anxieties I have.

These updates are getting later and later, but I had a busy weekend so there.

Lots of exploring and talking in this session, and we made some decisions. The ranger and warlock had been told by the vampire twins that they might be able to help cure the dwarf's curse. The gunslinger also had info that suggested we could go north and possibly clear our names (and save the world). However, the twins wanted us to go north, so Kaz naturally wanted to go south. We investigated a possible exit out of the city, then used the cover of night to go visit the twins again, despite everyone being VERY aware that Kaz was going to try to kill the vampires as soon as he saw them. However, Kaz managed to be charmed almost immediately and fighting was completely avoided.

It turns out the vampires couldn't help the dwarf, but they knew someone who could. Some guy called Richard... Sanchez. Who we already met. Who the dwarf pissed off by burning the only way of reverting Rick back from squirrel form. It was awesome. Anyway, we went and saw Rick and Morty again, and the dwarf got uncursed. The halfling also slipped out of the city to talk with his fey patron, but we don't know about that yet. We also don't know that the rakshasa is tracking Kaz and scrying on us.

We made our way back to the secret exit to the city, and made the decision to go south. We voted on it, and basically got split 50/50. Eventually the halfling changed his vote. On the way out, we had to fight a shadow toad, a battle which nearly killed Kaz and the ranger's wolf. As we defeated it, the rakshasa arrived and we had to run again. We made it out, however, and started travelling south to our destination - a city that may contain the prophet.

After a few days, we came across a scummy pool with a woman bathing near it. She offered us a swim and the warlock took her up on the offer and was immediately pulled under, vanishing entirely. And we ended it there. Underwater combat? Next session is going to be interesting...

Finally posting!

First, we had a boss battle that was surprisingly hard - it was essentially an elder brain, and it tried to trick us into turning against each other. In some cases, it was successful. However, we had the added task of trying to soothe the brain as we killed it - if we convinced it of something and reminded it why we were here, it was less likely to attack. Still, Kaz got bored of that VERY quickly and just started hacking away. It was an interesting mechanic and could have gone very poorly for us.

Having the defeated the brain, we teleported away with the help of the crystal we'd been given ages ago, just as the mind flayers rocked up and the fortress collapsed entirely. And instead of finding ourselves with the army, we ended up in prison. Our patron was in another cell, and it looked like we'd been betrayed somehow! We managed to breakout, but our warlock was suspicious, and we suddenly discovered that our patron was actually the lord of the city in disguise. Who was also the rakshasa!!! (Turns out we poked a hole in the DM's plot and we couldn't think of an answer fast enough, so he revealed the twist early.)

Apparently they'd been tracking Kaz the whole time thanks to the blood spilled when fighting the warlock's husband, which meant everything we had done had been watched (I really hope the saw the bit with Rick and Morty). The rakshasa wanted to talk with us, and discovered that we had the book that revealed his true heritage. He forced us to hand it over, but the warlock made it invisible, then herself, and we ran like fuck. There endeth the session.

Our DM was running a special event this weekend, so he wanted to give us a try at it (and practice for DMing the event). Basically we made a brand new level 4 character (mine was a green dragonborn warlock), broke into teams of three and had to try and kill each other. In addition, there was a hungry hill giant wandering around the arena trying to kill us.

I really enjoyed the PvP, even though I was the first to die. It gave us a lot of ideas in regards to tactics and targeting each other. We also didn't get too invested and become unable to operate as a party afterwards.

In the actual game though, we met another new character! The former monk, now former rogue, is now a druid! A halfling hippy druid who is basically the party's biggest fan! He's also incredibly curious so his first reaction to seeing the hydra we faced almost immediately afterwards was to walk up to it and ask if it was friendly. Possibly it was, but I'd already hit it with my axe.

So, hydras are REALLY hard to kill! This was a really fraught battle for us, as the DM designed a great encounter to challenge us, since when we're not on the back foot, we can basically slaughter any beast one on one. Anyway, it started with 5 heads, and ended with 8. As players we'd decided to try and leg it, but Kaz was the one that led the retreat, on the basis that if it has more heads than he can count, he better leave. There have been a couple of moments where I've had Kaz act based on information we all have as players, but only he has as a character, and it's interesting to see which players have picked up on the fact that Kaz may not be the most trustworthy of people any more.

As an aside, Kaz's axe can cast detect good and evil, and since it works as a voice in his head, I'm going to start using FB Messenger to ask the DM to tell me the results, rather than let the rest of the table know.

It was a close thing, but we all got away from the hydra, although apparently there is worse to come...

Things are starting to come together, and we've entered into the realm of myth and religion.

Following our slaying (Or maybe not?) of the Father of Beasts, we returned to see the elven queen. We'd been told that what we saw here might be true, or it might be wishes, or it may be how things went in a different reality. Anyway, we got some treasure (a headband that creates a beam of light from the forehead, so OBVIOUSLY Kaz took it), and were allowed to free the unicorn. This actually proved tricky, as none of us speak Unicorn. And the rogue was led on a merry chase, only to have an angel of fire appear when he got close. The dwarf saw this as his god made manifest and rushed towards it. It was a comedy of errors but also kinda frustrating because I don't think any of us had any idea of what to do. We figured it out, however, and returned the unicorn to Damian, who immediately turned into a demon and burst into ash.

It seems that the consciousness that has been guiding us was Damian's helper, and what we were seeing were the events leading up to the cataclysm called the Red Harvest, from whence the vampires came. There were some more metaphorical scenes, including one where we went COMPLETELY the wrong way and ended up dicing with Death. The rogue basically offered up all of our souls (while cheating) and I missed an AWESOME opportunity to build Kaz's character a bit more. Following that encounter, I had 8 HP and we went almost immediately into a boss battle with the god of the forge. We ended the session mid-combat, and we were told the rogue was going to be killed immediately due to the player realising the character was creating too much drama and wanted to play a more laid back character.

I'm still pretty sure Kaz is going to die next session, just because I'm tapped out of skills and healing, and going toe-to-toe with a fucking god.

Going to update this quickly because I'm watching Vox Machina battle Vecna.

The group reunited, and Kaz came face to face with his half-sister (!). We got some more offers on things to kill from the local lord, but we started to suspect that he was trying to get rid of us, and that he was hiding something, so we didn't agree immediately. I had the idea to head to the training grounds so we didn't have a discussion where we could be overheard, and also to beat the shit out of my dad.

Kaz confronted his father and sucker-punched him (getting a natural 20 on the roll thanks to inspiration from like, 4 sessions ago). In the arena, he proved he was the superior warrior, but I also showed him why Kaz is called "the Biter". I also learned that he only left Kaz's mother because the tribe was attacked and he assumed we were both dead. So there's that.

We met clandestinely with the ambassador from the magic colleges, and accepted her offer to investigate the former rebellion, as long as she could provide us transport back to the army so we could battle the CURRENT rebellion (I need a big flow chart for you guys). Unfortunately, because of all the murders (some of which we committed), the city was on lockdown, so we took the lord's offer to help him maintain order in the surrounding towns and immediately went in a different direction.

We rode hard for five days, before coming across a town where the guards were about to put down a riot. They were trying to draft a young man who had gone missing, and they believed the townsfolk were hiding him. The townsfolk claimed the man had gone to 'the tower'. We went to the tower and managed to get inside, and then suddenly we were in a Rick and Morty episode. The pseudodragon form of Morty convinced us to get the tower key from the great warrior who has had a bad mating season, but we messed up the skill challenge and had to fight a massive fire elemental. Kaz was having none of that and slaughtered it pretty handily, eventually just blowing it out like a birthday candle.

That's where we took a break, so it'll be interesting next week when the gunslinger suddenly shows up again.

I'm sorry there's been a delay in updates - since I know you're all hanging out for this stuff.

So we got our cleric back. The wraith wasn't too difficult, but oh my fucking gods - those zombie critters. Half the party ended up paralysed by them, and in the end, my buddy the monk was devoured by them, moments before the cleric made it there to save us. (The monk's player took it REALLY well - the corpse hadn't even stopped moving before he whipped out his new character sheet). Kaz is going to take this really hard, especially since he should have been there to save him.

So, after we did kill the creatures, we took a rest and met our new party member - a rogue/barbarian goliath named Raven. We also discovered a secret chamber with open graves, and decided to go and wait for the creatures to come back. Unfortunately, we ran into some city guards who had been hunting the sewers for us, and after some discussion, we decided to turn ourselves in and make statements in our defence. Thankfully, our answers seemed to satisfy the Law, but our gunslinger ended up under arrest for some other crime, and the goliath and ranger (unknown to the authorities yet) snuck away, which worked out nicely because all three players will be away next week.

I've got some interesting things planned for Kaz now - I want him to process the grief of losing his best friend appropriately; by killing things. First, he'll deny anything is wrong. Then, he'll get angry at inopportune times and cause more problems for the group. Then, he'll try to force the cleric to bring the monk back to life. Finally, I'll retire the character for a little while, sending him off to find himself as part orc and play a back up. Once I'm satisfied, I'll bring Kaz back and his next level will be barbarian.

It's gonna be awesome!