The D&D Corner (and other Pen & Paper - or virtual - RPGs!) <3

[Tawmis]

I have a special present, just for D&D!
"The D&D Show"
(to the tune of "The Muppet Show" Theme Song)
*Minotaur bangs a gong!*

That's pretty funny! I can hear it easily.

[Tawmis]

The "Work Group" - Session 41.
The final show down between dwarves, allies and our heroes, against the Drow Priestess Avatar has arrived...
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-41

The "Work Group" - Session 42.
The party has helped the Dwarven Kingdom be free of the Drow influence and killed the main Drow Priestess (Avatar) - and head to the surface.
Where they've selected to head to "The Broken Lands" - where all these wondrous items of magic are being discovered. They learn of a caravan going that way, and purchase their own wagon and horses...
A fun sessions because there was a lot of roleplaying and fun "downtime" events I created (gambling, pit fighting, archery)... as well as an old, fallen tower... with some history to it...
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-42

[Tawmis]

D&D - Work Group - Session 43.
Another one down - the session from **May the 4th (Be With You), 2021** - where our beloved heroes hear of "treasure" down in an ancient temple... discover it was once an ancient worshiping ground of an exiled god... and now home to a new cult... chanting the familiar name of "Razataun."

http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-43

[Tawmis]

D&D - Work Group - Session 44.

And another one done - For **May 18, 2021** - Session 44 notes!
The party gets an odd job from one of the Caravan members about a gem in a skull - finds out a bunch of other things weaving into one another - heads into a Wizard's tower - talks to a mad spectator - tries to figure out the tile floor - and eventually talks to a cursed wizard, who has information about the gem... then the party abuses the scrying pool!
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-44

Just one more to go for the normal game (I already have 46 done, so I just need to do 45) - and the normal game will be caught up note wise and my sanity (unlike Darius') will be restored!

[Tawmis]

One more to go for the regular work week (just this week's to do!) - here's Session 45 - the one Ragnaroc and Sephrenia missed (players) - which leads to them being abducted! (But the mystery of who and why remains... and yes, there's a plot there now developing!)

Read as the party seeks their comrades... Adrian meets Isabella, the potion vendor... the party asks Kraun about their missing comrades... the party heads into the sewer (Thieves Guild) and are greeted by a warning... they figure out the clues... and fight wererats - all to recover a cursed item!

Anyway - Session 45!
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-45

Session 46 -
Various things from some of the characters' past are starting to surface... the party comes together to go ask Kraun if he now has information on their friends... and he does... so now comes the rescue mission... now if they could only capture one of the brigands alive to find out who set this up... that should be easy enough...

http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-46

[Tawmis]

Work Group - Session 47 (this week's game! Officially caught up on the notes, finally! I was like 15 games behind in doing my notes! Hard to believe I kept it all together!)

This was the surprise one (surprise for me that it was the regular game week!) - but also that there was ZERO combat the entire time and it was all roleplaying! Everyone had something! And that was really cool that it worked out the way it did!
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... nturers-47

[Rath Darkblade]

Yeesh ... sorry, Tawm. I got my 2nd anti-COVID shot three days ago, and as a result, I've been up-and-down -- sometimes feeling OK, but sometimes not so much. Nothing major, just sometimes feeling cold and sore-throat-y (but then, it is mid-winter here). But then I take painkillers and it goes away. They told me it can take some people that way, but other people will feel just fine. It depends.

Anyway, on to session 47! Here are my comments.

Hmm. Just curious: "Adrian heads to the wagon, and changes out of his armor and into his normal clothing." What are Adrian's normal clothing? (Adrian goes out with Isabelle, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. What else?)

This gives me a curious mental picture:

The two (i.e. Adrian and Isabella) exchange some words.

"Hi."
"Hey."
Aw, how romantic.

*reads on* Ooh, looks like I was right!

"It’s so good to see them unharmed."

But one is glowing and one is naked. He doesn't mention that, does he?

Buppido assures Zaren, there’s no more wererats, just glowing Warlocks and Nudist Genasi.

And Zaren doesn't question this? Not even a raised eyebrow?

Korra takes the Displacer Beast hides they’d managed to skin.

Does she have her clothes back yet?

"Did you have a wonderful date?”

"No, she was out of dates." (drum fill)

Isabella offers to sell them to her for 25 gold...

Er, do you mean the healing potions? How many are there?

When Sephrenia leaves, Adrian comes out from the back and the two talk – and Adrian offers to commit himself to her and that he will come back for her ...

Sorry, this sounds like Adrian offers to commit himself to Sephrenia. I don't think that's what you mean!

Ragnaroc ignores Bristor, etc.

Does Bristor do nothing else? Draw his weapon? All right, that would be stupid.

Everyone meets back at the wagon – and all are there except Korra (someone’s always missing!)

Isn't Korra still trying to find her clothes?

It's sweet that Adrian gives Isabella a promise ring. Let's hope he keeps that promise.

The Celestial’s blood seeped into the mountains; and now, all throughout the mountains there are red gems, some of which glow, some that don’t.

Why do some of them glow and some not? *curious* A Celestial's blood is a Celestial's blood, isn't it?

As for the ending, with the head of Dick the elf wizard ... all you need now is tense music. DUN DUN DUNNN!!!

Thanks, Tawm. That was fun.

[Tawmis]

Yeesh ... sorry, Tawm. I got my 2nd anti-COVID shot three days ago, and as a result, I've been up-and-down -- sometimes feeling OK, but sometimes not so much. Nothing major, just sometimes feeling cold and sore-throat-y (but then, it is mid-winter here). But then I take painkillers and it goes away. They told me it can take some people that way, but other people will feel just fine. It depends.

No need to apologize! There's no expectation of commenting - just sharing it because of the D&D thread.

Hmm. Just curious: "Adrian heads to the wagon, and changes out of his armor and into his normal clothing." What are Adrian's normal clothing? (Adrian goes out with Isabelle, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. What else?)

Tunic and pants.

This gives me a curious mental picture:

The two (i.e. Adrian and Isabella) exchange some words.

"Hi."
"Hey."
Aw, how romantic.
*reads on* Ooh, looks like I was right!

Yeah; I don't include all of the dialogue. But it was a lot of roleplaying.
Like if a player says, "I flirt with XYZ" - I say, "Tell me what you say."
And I react as the NPC.
So it was quite funny he was flirting with Isabella, and I was speaking as Isabella based on what he says - whether he gets advantage on his rolls.

"It’s so good to see them unharmed."

But one is glowing and one is naked. He doesn't mention that, does he?

Well, Ragnaroc just let himself glow - but Korra (who went naked) rolled really well to react to fix the effect on her.

Buppido assures Zaren, there’s no more wererats, just glowing Warlocks and Nudist Genasi.

And Zaren doesn't question this? Not even a raised eyebrow?

He laughed, because he didn't see that (only the caravan folks did - and Zaren is a vendor in the town)

Isabella offers to sell them to her for 25 gold...

Er, do you mean the healing potions? How many are there?

Yes, she's the potion vendor.

Ragnaroc ignores Bristor, etc.

Does Bristor do nothing else? Draw his weapon? All right, that would be stupid.

Bristor is there to make Ragnaroc's life hell. He knows a fight in public would be ill advised. But he knows Ragnaroc killed his brother and he means to torment him, before he gets his revenge.

Everyone meets back at the wagon – and all are there except Korra (someone’s always missing!)

Isn't Korra still trying to find her clothes?

Well, as an Arcane Rogue, she did "Disguise Self" and created an illusion of clothing.

The Celestial’s blood seeped into the mountains; and now, all throughout the mountains there are red gems, some of which glow, some that don’t.

Why do some of them glow and some not? *curious* A Celestial's blood is a Celestial's blood, isn't it?

Any crystal taken broken and taken out of the mountain ceases glowing; so some of the gems on the outside are broken (like boulders) and are not red.

As for the ending, with the head of Dick the elf wizard ... all you need now is tense music. DUN DUN DUNNN!!!
Thanks, Tawm. That was fun.

Heh - one of my players who was there in the start (the guy playing Buppido) laughed and said I must have been waiting for this day.
Because the guy who played back then with us (and no longer does; left around game 8 or 9, due to getting a job elsewhere) named his character "Dick Poop."
Which, you can imagine... wasn't thrilling. But I always just called him Dick, since at least Dick is an abbreviation for Richard (which is still an odd name for an Elf, but whatever).

[Rath Darkblade]

As for the ending, with the head of Dick the elf wizard ... all you need now is tense music. DUN DUN DUNNN!!!
Thanks, Tawm. That was fun.

Heh - one of my players who was there in the start (the guy playing Buppido) laughed and said I must have been waiting for this day.
Because the guy who played back then with us (and no longer does; left around game 8 or 9, due to getting a job elsewhere) named his character "Dick Poop."
Which, you can imagine... wasn't thrilling. But I always just called him Dick, since at least Dick is an abbreviation for Richard (which is still an odd name for an Elf, but whatever).

Er, what? What was he, five? Oh, yes ... hilarious.

I assume these sessions either take place at the office (after hours?) or with work-mates. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But if my assumption is right, then ... yeesh. Did he really want to be known around the office as "the 'Dick Poop' guy"?

I guess it was a relief to everyone when he left, yes?

And yes, Richard is definitely not a common name for elves. How about more usually associated with elves? Strongbow Brownleaf, perhaps, or Linnael? (Yes, they are both strongly influenced by Tolkien!)

[Tawmis]

As for the ending, with the head of Dick the elf wizard ... all you need now is tense music. DUN DUN DUNNN!!!
Thanks, Tawm. That was fun.

Heh - one of my players who was there in the start (the guy playing Buppido) laughed and said I must have been waiting for this day.
Because the guy who played back then with us (and no longer does; left around game 8 or 9, due to getting a job elsewhere) named his character "Dick Poop."
Which, you can imagine... wasn't thrilling. But I always just called him Dick, since at least Dick is an abbreviation for Richard (which is still an odd name for an Elf, but whatever).

Er, what? What was he, five? Oh, yes ... hilarious.
I assume these sessions either take place at the office (after hours?) or with work-mates. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But if my assumption is right, then ... yeesh. Did he really want to be known around the office as "the 'Dick Poop' guy"?
I guess it was a relief to everyone when he left, yes?
And yes, Richard is definitely not a common name for elves. How about more usually associated with elves? Strongbow Brownleaf, perhaps, or Linnael? (Yes, they are both strongly influenced by Tolkien!)

This game (I call "The Work Game") did indeed start at work.
A few of my co-workers had heard I was DMing for a group of people ("The Anita Group" as I call them since Anita is my friend who asked me) who'd never played D&D before; and were all interested in playing.
Most of them were into various MMOs (namely "World of Warcraft") - and I assured them it's not like an MMO at all. There's no "aggro" and you're not really limited by what the game can do, you're only limited by your imagination and what your character can do.

So this guy - who plays Dick Poop - his real name is Tim. And he tells me about how he was in a D&D game, and one of his friends, shrunk themselves (Grow/Shrink spell) and used a Potion of Flying; to fly up the enemies rump. (No, I am not kidding) I said, if I were the DM - I'd consider the character RESTRAINED (D&D 5e Condition: RESTRAINED - A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage. The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.) and that they would immediately begin SUFFOCATING due to the lack of oxygen and I would, with great pleasure, kill that character. And Tim tells me, "Good! Yes! I want to play in a more serious game!"

So I set it up in D&D Beyond for them to make characters - we meet for session 0 and do a round of character introductions and he says, "High Elf, Wizard, named Dick Poop."

I shot him a scathing look of frustration. But I rolled with it - because, once it got down to actually playing the character - he played his Wizard very well. Knew how to best use his spells and was a great character in that regard. So I just began referring to his character as "Dick" which isn't bad - because that's a normal name (and even of a popular DC character - "Dick Grayson").

He did get another job before the pandemic hit. So we did play at work when we played (at the time, every other Tuesday). But it was all after work (6pm to 9pm).

These days? It's all done remotely using D&D Beyond website (for characters and monsters), Beyond20 plugin, and Discord. Beyond20 rolls the dice into Discord, and we use Discord to talk, post images, etc. (I now also use Roll20 for some of my games, which provides a virtual, visual table top, seen in some of the screenshots in the notes).

I should add, Tim also played a Elf Mage named Dick Poop he told me in Dragon Age (as well as other CRPGs).

And speaking of D&D - there's a monthly game I run called "Ben's Game" (it's Jessica's brother - Jessica is in all of my games, that I pulled over from the "Anita Game") - that one is just monthly because people are in three different time zones, but my next game with them is July 10th. So I am trying to catch up on my notes for that game -

This was from 02/13/2021 -

http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... scovery-07

[Rath Darkblade]

Fair enough. No comment about the "less-serious" campaign" ... but I wonder, if Tim could play D&D so well, why he chose such an immature name.

Personally, I know a few things about D&D (broadly). But I couldn't find any D&D groups, so I never got the chance to play it much. Then RL got in the way for a few years, so I had to put D&D on the backburner.

I had the source material for 2nd ed, and still do have some supplementary books from the 2nd ed era (e.g. "Ships and the Sea", "The Book of Villains" etc.) I use them from time to time for ideas and inspiration when I write RL-related stuff.

Anyway, reading the Feb 13 article ... I found a few things there while proof-reading.

...though he became known simply as “The Ahsen Elf”...

Typo, I presume -- "Ashen Elf"?

Sindri pulls out the Hand of Varek Greystone, which shows signs of it’s undead life...

"Its", not "it's".

It's = It is.
Its = belonging to it.

Not to worry, I've seen this kind of thing many times while proof-reading. (I'm proofing an 80K+ book for a friend at the moment, and I found that at least once. So it's all good).

And if this hand is so special as to be given Capital Letters (The Hand of Varek Greystone), then throwing into the fire won't work. Like what happens if you throw The One Ring in the fire.

- Oh, dear. The Rose of Valen Tyne. Good timing.

Arhian shrugs her shoulders...

Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine. I know a lot of people do this, but you don't need the "her shoulders" bit.

Why? Because just saying "Arhian shrugs" is fine. You can't shrug (for instance) your nose, right?

Avacyn ... picks up a rock and proceeds to bash the orc’s head, until she’s covered in blood and looks up at the group and smiles.

Avacyn sounds like a monster. What did that sleeping orc ever do to you? I guess Avacyn has a special aversion for orcs?

Nothing else here leaps to the eye ...

[Tawmis]

Fair enough. No comment about the "less-serious" campaign" ... but I wonder, if Tim could play D&D so well, why he chose such an immature name.
Personally, I know a few things about D&D (broadly). But I couldn't find any D&D groups, so I never got the chance to play it much. Then RL got in the way for a few years, so I had to put D&D on the backburner.
I had the source material for 2nd ed, and still do have some supplementary books from the 2nd ed era (e.g. "Ships and the Sea", "The Book of Villains" etc.) I use them from time to time for ideas and inspiration when I write RL-related stuff.

2nd Edition was my favorite edition before 5e. I, like you, have all the core, and extras for 2nd Edition. And the Book of Villains is a wonderful source for getting ideas and finding ways to keep villains consistent, whether for D&D or for writing.

...though he became known simply as “The Ahsen Elf”...

Typo, I presume -- "Ashen Elf"?

Aye!

Avacyn ... picks up a rock and proceeds to bash the orc’s head, until she’s covered in blood and looks up at the group and smiles.

Avacyn sounds like a monster. What did that sleeping orc ever do to you? I guess Avacyn has a special aversion for orcs?

Yeah. We've joked because the Forest Gnome has cast some fire related spells and done a critical miss before; igniting some trees...
So everyone joked that Sindri (the forest gnome wizard) was the "big bad" that would turn on the party....
And this session, everyone was like, "Avacyn is going to crush our heads when we sleep at night..."

[Tawmis]

The Ben's Game session (the monthly game) - still catching up writing notes!
D&D Notes for Session 8 are now available!

This is where Sindri rejoins the party (after being a lookout) and the party makes it's way - alarms go off, Pierces attack, Thornwhip + Quipper is born, and Avacyn's sister awaits....
http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-not ... scovery-08

[Rath Darkblade]

All good here - but I just found a couple of things:

Harmut swings his sword, misses, but hits with an unarmed strike and buckles down to one knee, and looks at Avacyn, and says in Orc, “Grant me mercy.”
Avacyn snarls back in Orc, “I gave you a chance.”
Avalyn says, “I see you and your companions are strong.”

1. It's Hartmut, not Harmut (note the extra 't')
2. Hartmut is asking Avacyn for mercy. I thought Avacyn is the half-orc paladin and part of the group? I'm confused.

Oh, and one more thing: Avacyn is a paladin (so, supposedly good). But she's crushing throats and bashing skulls. She sounds more like the classic, stereotypical ~EVIL~ orc warlord. "Crush you! SLASH AND SMASH! BIG ORC WEAPONS FOR BIG ORC WARRIORS!"



If even Bethesda does it, it can't be all bad.

[Tawmis]

Oh, and one more thing: Avacyn is a paladin (so, supposedly good). But she's crushing throats and bashing skulls. She sounds more like the classic, stereotypical ~EVIL~ orc warlord. "Crush you! SLASH AND SMASH! BIG ORC WEAPONS FOR BIG ORC WARRIORS!"

Heh, we spoke of it before.
Paladins being "good" was a 2e thing (which you're most familiar with, which is probably why it's ingrained in your memory).
I can't recall which version it was (3.0/3.5, 4th or 5e) - but they dropped the "alignment" requirement for Paladins.
This is something I did, myself as a DM, back in 2nd Edition.
Because Clerics can be ANY Alignment - to me, Paladins are nothing but Warriors called upon by a deity.
So if a Deity is Chaotic Evil, they can hand select Warriors to bless them with powers making them their (Un)Holy Warrior, just like any Cleric would.

I'd need to look at Avacyn's character but I believe she follows ARIKREEL (Goddess Of Strength), whose primary domain is War.
And while the goddess herself is "Chaotic Good" - stomping out enemies who are supporting Necromancy (i.e., raising the dead, extending one's life, etc., is the greatest sin in the world) do not deserve mercy.