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Post by Daos on Mar 7, 2023 12:50:10 GMT -8
XP is as follows:
Oceana Poole (Paladin 2) Recruiting Selena - 100 XP Getting to know Nymwen - 10 XP Getting to know Clover - 10 XP Cooperating with the Rain Mountain soldiers - 10 XP Defeating Dullwings (x5) - 42 XP Speaking and gaming with Ashel - 10 XP Aiding Selena in a crowd - 10 XP TOTAL: 192 XP
That brings her to a full total of 954 XP, meaning she has reached level 3, because the people who designed this game think low levels aren't 'fun' and so designed it so that a person can reach 3rd level within 4 freakin' sessions, I swear. Anyway, you get new HP, Divine Health, a new spell slot and perhaps most importantly, you choose your Oath.
Wyldfyre (Barbarian 2) Defeating Dullwings (x5) - 42 XP TOTAL: 42 XP
This gives him a total of 504 XP, meaning he now needs 396 XP to level up.
Selena (Druid 1) Defeating Dullwings (x5) - 42 XP TOTAL: 42 XP
This gives her a total of 42 XP, meaning she now needs 258 XP to level up.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Mar 7, 2023 16:09:30 GMT -8
Hmm, I’ve always found that lower levels aren’t much fun and typically start my players at 3rd Level. Well, it’s not so much that having fewer powers is dull so much as there are only so many Enemies appropriate for 1st-level characters.
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Post by Daos on Mar 7, 2023 19:07:34 GMT -8
I'm the opposite. I feel the first few levels are the most important, because they help define the sort of person your character grows into. They're also the most fun for me, as a DM, because it's so much easier to challenge the players. The more powerful they get, the harder they are to manage. Which is why I tend to shy away from higher level games.
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Post by Daos on Mar 14, 2023 0:30:34 GMT -8
Session 05 - Love and Marriage We pick up the following morning, Day 18. The party resumes their quest southward down the Fey Eye Road. They cross the border into Rose Valley, a vibrant and green valley despite it being the dead of winter.
A carriage from the south approaches, pulled by two black horses, driven by a beleaguered looking halfling servant. A handsome, well-groomed yellow-skinned tiefling leans out the window to yell at the driver, and they come to a stop.
The servant gets off the carriage and approaches, introducing himself as Timo. He explains that his liege, Xarrian Shail, is heading to a wedding up north in Basalt, and they've been on the road for several days out of Paradise. His liege is tired of rations and wants to know if the party has any fresh meat they might sell them. Failing that, if the party would be willing to hunt for some, Timo strongly suggests that the party overcharge them, as they can easily afford it.
Oceana and the others struggle to hunt, but after several hours are only able to capture a single hare. Xarrian is offended by the offering of these 'peasants' but Oceana is quick to point out she is of noble blood. Xarrian quickly changes his tune, curious as to her bloodline. They are not familiar with Harmony, or the Pooles, and probes her for more information, inviting her to join them in the carriage while Timo dresses the rabbit. Oceana avoids saying her family is fairly unimportant, instead describing them as 'up and coming.' She tells them about being chosen by Elonna herself to save the world, which they find very interesting. They are particularly interested in the fact that Oceana is not yet betrothed, a fact she finds a bit disquieting.
They say their goodbyes, and Oceana only charges them 2 pink shards for the rabbit. As they leave, they hear Xarrian yelling at Timo to hurry up with that hare.
By evening, they reach the gates of Mudturtle. It's massive compared to Harmony, with at least 10 times the population. The garden is partially built on the Dove River itself, forming something of a bridge over the river to the other side. It's also in full bloom, despite it being winter. Oceana senses strong druidic magic all over the place.
They find a fancy inn with three stories and suites at the top. She rents four suites for the party (having them pair up for each suite; herself and Eve, Isles and Wyldfyre, Clover and Nymwen, and Billow and Selena). She also asks for local rumors and learns of something of interest.
There's a small forest nearby, outside of the garden. Thirty years ago, a young boy went missing in those woods, and his mother went in after him and also vanished. Some believe this makes the woods cursed, but they contain lots of valuable herbs and fungi that have important medicinal value to the locals. But lately, everyone who goes in there vanishes, even those who bring guards or soldiers as backup. Nobody knows what happened to these people, but nobody goes in there now.
Oceana decides she will take care of whatever is in the woods, but waits for the next morning. On Day 19, they do just that. Oceana takes the lead, and quickly gets them hopelessly lost. Fortunately, Selena is able to get them back on track. They encounter a humanoid woman with gnarled claws, tear stained black eyes, and vines encircling her limbs. She is joined by three small children with no faces, constructed from mud and twigs. The feminine creature screeches and moves forward with her 'children.'
The fight isn't too difficult. The party large ignores the Lost Children and gangs up on the Grasping Mother, and once she goes down, her remaining Lost Children fall, as well, transforming back into just mud and sticks. Once it's done, the party returns to the inn to tell the locals the forest is safe to enter again, and are given a heroes' welcome.
They immediately set off, and while on the road are attacked by five thornies--dog-like creatures made of plant-like material. This fight, ironically, turns out to be harder as the thornies regenerate a lot. Nymwen is able to one-shot one with a Blight spell once it annoys her. One targets Selena and almost takes her out, but Oceana is able to keep her standing. Another one goes for Clover, but she uses her abilities to redirect it toward Oceana instead.
Once the creatures are dealt with, the party moves on. That evening, they come up to Twinrivers, the Garden of Roses. True to its name, there are roses everywhere and they are in bloom despite it being winter. Roses grow on buildings, along the streets, and in personal gardens. A number of the locals wear red and have roses in their hair, even.
They find an inn, which is fairly packed, and manage to rent suites for the party again. Just then, Oceana hears a familiar voice and discovers that Edith is here, looking for some adventurers. She is happy to see Oceana again, and they sit and talk. Edith explains she is trying to help a pair of young lovers in distress. They are Thornen and Petal, and they have fallen in love and hope to get married soon. As per local custom, Petal has grown a special rose, which has been preserved in a magical glass container, called an engagement rose. She is to present it to Thornen to make their marriage legal, but last night someone broke into her home and stole it--and only the rose, nothing else, despite other valuables being present. Custom dictates that a new rose would have to be grown from a seed, so this delays the wedding for awhile. Edith is hoping Oceana might track down the thief and retrieve the engagement rose instead.
She gives Oceana Petal's address so she can question the girl further. Oceana agrees, but feels they should wait for morning.
They wake up on Day 20 and go meet Petal. She's a young aasimar, like Oceana, around 18 with brown hair, hazel eyes and a light gold skin. She seems a real sweetheart and is immediately taken with Oceana, treating her like an older sister she's just met.
Oceana asks to see the crime scene, and Petal shows her her room where it was stolen from her dresser. Whoever it was came through the window while she was over at Thornen's place. Oceana asks if Petal has any exes that might take issue with her getting married, but she replies, “None that matter.” She also reveals she has been growing that engagement rose for some time, but only met Thornen recently. Oceana manages to find some muddy footprints outside the window. She and her group follow them to a sewer entrance, then descend into it. Following the tunnel, she comes across some kind of hovel. Searching through the ratty blankets, she discovers a purse containing 50 blue shards. At that moment, something attacks her from behind, so she instinctively turns around and strikes her assailant with her fist, knocking the child out cold. Yes, it is an 11 year old tiefling girl with purple skin and little nubs for horns, and dressed in rags. Feeling bad, she lays hands to revive her.
Naturally, the child--named Sody--isn't particularly inclined to be helpful. But Oceana tries bribing her with 5 pink shards. Oceana asks if Sody has the engagement rose, and Sody says she does not. Oceana determines this to be true, but only technically so. It turns out she did steal the rose, but no longer has it. She was paid 50 blue shards to steal it and hand it over to Shen, the son of the local brewers. Oceana gets directions to his house and heads there with her group.
Knocking on the door, she meets a young deep gnome, around 18 years old or so. He is Shen, but when Oceana asks about the engagement rose, he panics and tries to shut the door in her face. Oceana pushes back, slamming the door into his face, and leaving him with a bloodied nose. Apologizing for her second accidental assault of the day, she laid hands to heal him up again.
Interrogating the young gnome, she learns that he did pay Sody to steal the rose. He explains he and Petal were deeply in love and the rose was grown for him. But a week ago, Petal suddenly dumped him out of nowhere to pair up with Thornen. He insists this isn't like her, and she must be under some kind of spell. Rather than retrieve the rose and turn it in for the reward, she decides to leave it with him and investigate his claims.
She finds Thornen's place and knocks on the door, but nobody answers. Giving up, she heads back to Petal's to talk about him. She learns Thornen is the son of a wealthy merchant and keeps odd hours, usually sleeping through the day.
Oceana returns to the inn and waits for nightfall. Then she returns to Thornen's house. This time, he answers the door. He's a handsome chalk white tiefling. He's quite charming and speaks highly of Petal. Not learning anything, Oceana returns to the inn and starts asking around about him. She learns he was something of a playboy back in the day, before settling down with Petal. After a bit more investigating, she learned the name of his most recent girlfriend, Rosa.
Oceana tries investigating Rosa, but only learns that she disappeared without a trace and nobody knows where she went. Oceana returns to Thornen's place and decides to break in, but nobody in the party has any skill with picking locks. And she doesn't want to risk kicking in the door. She eventually remembers Sody and returns to her hovel and bribes her another five pink shards to pick the lock for her.
They sneak in through the back kitchen door. Inside the living room, they hear Petal and Thornen on the couch, moaning and groaning. Oceana tries to sneak forward, but her armor makes too much noise. She tries to run out the way she came, but Thornen catches up and grapples her. He orders her to send the party out, and once she does so, he bites into her neck, wondering if all aasimar blood tastes as good as Petal's. Oceana cries out and the others rush back in.
Thornen manages to keep Oceana in a grapple the whole fight, but she still gets off several smites with her flaming sword, while the others gang up against him. He is eventually dusted, and they find Petal passed out on the couch, bleeding from her neck.
After patching her up, they take her home. She comes to, and whatever charm was placed on her seems to have been broken, as she laments the awful way she treated Shen.
The following day, Day 21, the party meets with Edith at the inn. She tells them that Petal and Shen have reconciled and are planning to marry again. She thanks them for helping love finds its way, even if it wasn't in the way she had expected. She gifts them some shards and some of her patented perfume (which gives advantage to persuasion checks temporarily when used). They depart from Twinrivers, continuing south on the Fey Eye. However, Nymwen points out that Thornen was only a vampire spawn; meaning he was sired by another, more powerful vampire. Oceana could only guess who that was, and where they might be hiding.
My Notes This session was 4h, 40m.
Xarrian and Timo were a random encounter, but I was surprised how well they worked into the story, as Oceana is currently thinking a lot about weddings and betrothals after realizing her brother was being forced to marry. It's entirely possible Liege Xarrian will appear again some day down the road.
The Grasping Mother and Lost Children were a homebrewed encounter I picked up online that I wanted to use. I think I should have beefed them up, though, because it was fairly disappointing for a boss fight. Probably should have had the party meet her in her lair, where she'd be stronger and have lair actions, and also given her more than three Lost Children. But oh, well. Live and learn.
The thornies were just a random encounter, but ironically gave the party more trouble. This may have just been because the party was still spent from the previous fight, though.
I hit something of a creative roadblock when planning for Twinrivers. It took me a few days before I was able to cook up that little sidequest. I wanted there to be something for her to do there, but all I knew about the place was it was the whole rose theme. Roses reminded me of Edith, so I decided to bring her back and the rest worked itself out from there.
I think Horizon was reading into the races of the various characters a bit, and assumed there was something meaningful about Petal being an aasimar and Thornen being a tiefling, but honestly I roll race completely randomly in my 5E games. That was just the fickle whims of the dice.
I actually wrote up a whole tragic backstory for Sody, but it never came up.
Horizon almost immediately figured out that Thornen was a vampire (a vampire spawn, actually) when she learned he slept during the day, which is kind of funny when you consider her own work hours. But also, I felt like Oceana probably wouldn't know so much about vampire lore, considering her sheltered upbringing.
Speaking of the spawn, he wasn't that tough. Even grappling Oceana for most of the fight, she is still a paladin and her divine smites hurt undead quite a bit, especially when paired with a flame tongue. Plus, he kept missing his bite attack. During this battle, I also realized that Nymwen is, rather ironically, largely useless against undead. Almost all of her attacks deal necrotic damage, which vampires resist. She did have the Word of Radiance cantrip, at least.
Anyway, seemed appropriate that a character loosely based on Buffy would slay a vampire.
I think this session ran a little too long. I know Horizon wanted longer sessions, but not only did it wear me out, but I'm almost completely out of material again and now need to build back up a buffer by the weekend. I think I'm going to set a hard limit to four hours maximum from here on out.
After the session, Horizon said she felt my towns (gardens) did not 'feel lived in.' I'm not really sure what that means, and she couldn't clarify it any further than that. She mentioned the crowded inn in Twinrivers but that it didn't 'feel' crowded. I guess she wants me to describe nameless NPCs? I admit, I was on a time crunch to get the session ready in time and I didn't want to waste time fleshing out extras that don't contribute anything to the story, or even worse, risk creating red herrings that distract her from the NPCs I actually do want her to talk to. So I'm not really sure how to fix this problem, or even really understand what the problem is, to be honest.
I guess I can try adding more descriptive text to read when entering new areas. But that's all I can come up with.
Anyway, I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Mar 14, 2023 11:08:48 GMT -8
XP is as follows:
Oceana Poole (Ancient Paladin 3) Revealing to Xarrian that she's of noble birth - 25 XP Defeating Grasping Mother and Lost Children (x3) - 340 XP Defeating Thornies (x5) - 200 XP Reunion with Edith - 25 XP Interviewing Petal - 25 XP Interrogating Sody - 25 XP Interrogating Shen - 25 XP Interviewing Thornen - 25 XP Defeating Vampire Spawn - 360 XP TOTAL: 1,050 XP
That brings her to a full total of 2,004 XP, meaning she needs 696 XP to level up.
Wyldfyre (Barbarian 2) Defeating Grasping Mother and Lost Children (x3) - 170 XP Defeating Thornies (x5) - 100 XP Defeating Vampire Spawn - 180 XP TOTAL: 450 XP
This gives him a total of 954 XP, meaning he is now level 3. He can now rage 3/day, gains 10 HP, and chooses Path of the Berserker for his Primal Path, which grants him Frenzy raging (while raging, he can go into a frenzy rage, which will allow him to make a second attack as a bonus action; however, when the rage ends, he suffers a level of exhaustion).
Selena (Druid 1) Defeating Grasping Mother and Lost Children (x3) - 170 XP Defeating Thornies (x5) - 100 XP Defeating Vampire Spawn - 180 XP TOTAL: 450 XP
This gives her a total of 492 XP, meaning she now is now level 2. She can now Wildshape 2/day into any beast she has seen before that has no flying or swimming speeds, gains 7 HP, gains 1 first level spell slot, and chooses Circle of the Dreams for her Druid Circle, which grants her Balm of the Summer Court (Selena now has a pool of fey energy equal to xd6, where x is her level; once per day, she can spend up to half her level worth of those dice to heal one person she can see within 120 feet as a bonus action, and also grants that person 1 temporary HP for each die spent).
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Post by Daos on Mar 19, 2023 22:07:21 GMT -8
Session 06 - Sakura ShadowsWe pick up at the beginning of Day 21. Oceana and her group continue south along the Fey Eye through the verdant farmlands of Green River Valley. They come across a GRV patrol who asks where they are heading. Oceana only says they are on a pilgrimage to Crater Lake. The soldiers tell her if she continues south, she'll reach Haven and from there, Paradise, before reaching the mountains. Oceana asks if there has been any word from Crater Lake, and the soldiers claim there hasn't for some time now, and they aren't sure why. They then wish her well and continue onward. When the sun sets, Oceana takes the group off the road to find a campsite. They come across a grassy clearing with a toadstool ring. Oceana asks Wyldfyre about the toadstools, but he just tries to eat one and spits it out (he botched his Nature check). That night, during Oceana's watch, she hears the sound of laughter and footsteps approaching. She quickly wakes up everyone and gets ready. Eventually, dozens of fey creatures of all shapes and sizes emerge from the toadstool ring and begin to dance and party. Oceana asks Selena about it, and she believes it may be a fairy revel--sometimes the fey travel to the mortal plane and just party all night. The fey ask Oceana to join them, and she does. The fairy wine goes right to her head, though, and she winds up dancing and drinking all night. When the sun finally comes up, she is exhausted (one level) but discovers in her hand (not sure how it got there) a rare prismatic coral shard--worth 100 pink shards. Selena guesses it is meant as a thanks for partying with them. On the morning of Day 22, they continued south and came across a drake-drawn merchant cart, driven by a kobold. He greeted them and introduced himself as Baranbas Popple, and his drake was Chunks. His cart had the words “Popple’s Mobile Emporium” emblazoned on the side. He had a little bit of everything. He claimed he was traveling up and down the Fey Eye, hoping to make enough money to one day buy a shop in a garden somewhere and put down roots. He is eager to make a sale. Oceana asks if he has any magical mauls, for Wyldfyre. As it turns out, he does. He offers one made of coral for 500 pink shards. Oceana tries to talk him down, but it turns out she isn't great a haggling (she botched several persuasion checks) so she just walked away, much to Barnabus' disappointment. Moving on, they eventually reach the garden of Haven that evening. While Twinrivers was filled with red roses, Haven is the Cherry Garden, and thus filled with cherry blossoms, making the whole garden pink. There is also a festival ongoing. There are food stands, game booths, parades, and the streets are filled with people, both local and tourist, celebrating. Oceana asks a random passerby what is going on, and she is told it is their annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Much like Si'ahl's Coffee Festival, it is just a way to honor their most profitable crop. Although still exhausted from the fairy revel, Oceana decides to check out the sights. She splits from the party and goes off on her own. She spots a young couple playing a bottle stand game, trying to win a stuffed beaver. Ignoring the youths, Oceana decides to try and win something of her own. She spends quite a few shards before eventually, finally knocking over the bottles and winning a cherry blossom wand. It is just a wand that summons a dramatic flourish of cherry blossoms, but it is fun as a toy. Continuing on, Oceana finds Clover putting on a show on a street corner, singing a song about the time she single-handedly rescued a high ranking noblewoman from a vampire lord. She also encounters a parade, and sees a woman sitting on one of the floats waving to the crowd, wearing a crown with cherry blossoms on it. Asking around, Oceana learns she is none other than the queen of Green River Valley, Aqua Freewaters. Oceana is surprised and watches the parade a bit longer before moving on. As she is walking around, she spots a flash of pink near her head, but whenever she turns to look, it's gone. Eventually she discovers that a cherry wisp, a little fae borne from cherry blossom trees, is following her around. It rests on her shoulder for a bit, and she decides to let it. After awhile, though, it flits away, its attention drawn by something else. She finds Wyldfyre looking over a booth selling cherry wine bottles. Oceana decides to buy one, although it's fairly pricey, and later realizes that while she was doing so, Wyldfyre took the opportunity to swipe a bottle of his own. She heads to the inn to meet up with the others, and finds Selena hiding in an alley, overwhelmed by the crowds. She helps her make it to the inn. Once everyone meets up, she orders four suites for the party again to double up. She then goes straight to bed, exhausted. However, in the middle of the night, she wakes up suddenly, her instincts telling her something is very wrong. She looks around the room and everything looks normal. The room is dark (she has darkvision, though). The door is still closed and locked. Eve quietly slumbers in her own bed. The window is closed, as well. She tries to get up, when someone tries to choke her with a garrote from behind. She manages to escape, but quickly gets grappled again. The assailant should be no match for her, but she's not wearing armor and her weapon is out of reach. She cries out for Eve to 'get help' but rolls a 1 on persuasion so instead Eve grabs her rapier and tries to help. Oceana takes quite a bit of damage before breaking free again, and grabs her sword, but then goes down to the assailant's short sword shortly after. Meanwhile, the same thing happens to Wyldfyre. But he manages to frenzy rage and beat off his opponent. He yells for Isles to get help, but the old man is fairly useless and can't even see in the dark so stumbles around. The assailant, whatever it is, escapes by leaping into the shadows and vanishing. Wyldfyre then rushes to Oceana's room and literally breaks down the door. He finds Eve passed out on the floor, and the assailant dragging Oceana to the shadows. He beats it up, and it drops Oceana to escape into the darkness. Wyldfyre then breaks down the door to Selena's and Billow's room, grabs the gnome, and carries her back to heal Oceana. Once Oceana is back on her feet, she stabilizes Eve and then goes to check on Nymwen and Clover, but they're fine. Oceana questions Nymwen about the creatures, believing they are undead. But Nymwen has never heard of them, and she knows everything about the undead, so assures her they are not undead. Not sure if they intend to return or not, Oceana insists that Billow, Isles, Wyldfyre and Selena all sleep in her room with Eve. Oceana tries to sleep in her armor, but this prevents her from recovering from her exhaustion. (Wyldfyre now has two levels; one for the fairy revel and another from the frenzy.) The next morning, the party reconvenes. Eve, now awake again, mentions that the assailant tried to encourage her to leave, saying 'the boss' was only interested in Oceana, not her. Because Eve refused to listen, it took her down before turning its attention to Oceana. Oceana heads down to the innkeeper to lodge a formal complaint. But he has no idea what she's talking about. He's quite upset, however, when he realizes that they broke two of the locks and demands Oceana pays for them. Oceana decides they will stay here again tonight to see if the assailants return, but the innkeeper doesn't want any more trouble and boots the party out. Based on her description, Selena recognizes the assailants as meazels, creatures of shadow that are said to be able to transport from one shadow to another. However, nobody can guess why the meazels attacked and why they were only interested in Ocena and Wyldfyre, but didn't care about the rest of the party. Oceana decides to take the party to the nearby grove, and she asks for shelter as a paladin. The druids grant it, but they charge her for it. Oceana then decides to set a trap. She will put everyone in the same room, she will then go to sleep without any armor or weapons, and see if the meazels attack again. However, It then occurs to her that's a terrible idea. Instead, she sleeps in her armor, maintaining her exhaustion, but Wyldfyre at least loses one of his. Regardless, nothing happens during the night. The meazels do not return. My NotesThis session was 2h, 10m. Both the guards, the fairy revel and Barnabus were random encounters. Fun fact, some of Barnabus' wares were real, some were fake, and some were cursed. The maul she tried so hard to get wasn't actually magical at all, so maybe it was good luck she failed to purchase it. It's not that he's a cheat, mind you, he just naively believes anything anyone tells him when they sell him goods, and he doesn't have any means to verify it. The Cherry Blossom Festival involved me writing several brief vignettes--just a couple of sentences for each scene, and then elaborating on them when necessary. This was my attempt to make the gardens feel more 'lived in.' It seemed to work out well, so I'll probably use this technique for any other gardens or settlements that are visited. The cherry wisps and cherry blossom wand were homebrewed stuff I found online. You can find them here and here, if you're interesting. I guess meazels are from the Shadowfell now? They're dark fae? That's new to me. They used to just be regular humanoids who liked to strangle people, usually dwelling in swamps or caves. Anyway, had any of the meazels actually been defeated, they had some clues on their bodies that might have shed a little light on what is going on, but that will remain a mystery for now, I suppose. Horizon was suffering from a level or two of exhaustion herself, which probably explains her weird plan at the end to bait the meazels into a trap...by leaving herself completely vulnerable and at their mercy. After I teased her a bit about that, she reconsidered and at least had her sleep in her armor (and she also cast Light on the bed, but it only lasts an hour). Personally, I would have just set a watch like one does in the wilderness. Anyway, I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Mar 20, 2023 13:58:05 GMT -8
XP is as follows:
Oceana Poole (Ancient Paladin 3) Joining the Fairy Revel - 25 XP Meeting Barnabus - 25 XP Enjoying the festival - 25 XP Fighting a Meazel - 67 XP TOTAL: 142 XP
That brings her to a full total of 2,146 XP, meaning she needs 554 XP to level up.
Wyldfyre (Berserker Barbarian 3) Fighting two Meazels - 267 XP TOTAL: 267 XP
This gives him a total of 1,221 XP, meaning he needs 1,479 XP to level up.
Selena (Dream Druid 2) N/A TOTAL: 0 XP
This gives her a total of 492 XP, meaning she needs 408 XP to level up.
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Post by Daos on Mar 27, 2023 22:23:21 GMT -8
Session 07 - Take Me Down to Paradise Garden We pick up the following morning, on Day 24. As the Meazels did not return, the party packs up and heads out, getting back on the road. They pass by a field of tall grass and due to a bad perception check, Oceana does not notice anything amiss until it's too late. Five Swift Thieves (velociraptors) leap from the grass and attack. The small feathered dinosaurs prove moderately difficult for the party, but they are able to put them all down.
Fortunately, the rest of the day passes without incident. They look for a place to make camp and Oceana discovers a massive tree that has been felled by what seems to be lightning. The dead tree provides a wall of roots that make for a perfect shelter, so they set up camp there.
Oceana takes the first watch, and while the others sleep, she hears a weird sound that at first resembles wind but then she realizes is a woman crying. She wakes up Wyldfyre and Selena and takes them with her to investigate. She finds what appears to be the ghost of a dryad sitting on the tree, mourning its lightning burns.
Oceana finds the dryad can only speak Sylvan, so she has Selena translate. The dryad cannot move on because her mortal lover, a man named Nate that lives in Paradise, is unaware she has died. Oceana offers to take an acorn from the fallen tree to him and tell him what happened. This allows the ghost to move on, but also causes a branch the size of a club to snap off the tree and land at their feet. Upon investigating, they realize it is a magic weapon known that allows a person to cast Barkskin on themselves once a day. Oceana gives it to Selena. The party returns to camp, and Oceana finally loses her level of exhaustion.
On Day 25, the party wakes up and breaks camp, then continues southward. Oceana is in the lead, walking alongside her mare, Rogue Wave, when suddenly she tripped and fell flat on her face. Eve thought this was hilarious. Looking back, Oceana discovered that small vines had seemingly sprouted out of the road and wrapped around her leg, tripping her. She has Eve cut her free, then she spots some movement in the treeline. She gathers Wyldfyre and Selena with her, and the three head to the treeline. However, Oceana then sees the Rot tendrils crawling all over her and her companions. She tries to tear them off of her, but her hand passes through them. Realizing it's an illusion, they suddenly vanish. She hears faint tittering coming from the treetops.
Oceana demands whoever is doing this show themselves, and conjures a ball of flame as a warning. However, she's hit with a dizzy spell and when it passes, she finds her companions are gone, as is the road, and she's surrounded by trees from all directions. Confused, she reaches out to touch a tree and finds it wriggling with bugs. She the hears warped, twisted music that seems to come from all directions and covers her ears. Someone starts shaking her shoulder, and she realizes it's Wyldfyre. Everything is back to normal, and her companions ask her what's wrong. Apparently, only she is experiencing these things, and they are worried she's losing it.
Annoyed, Oceana demands they leave. But when they return to the others, she finds her horse is now a bright lime green color and is making chicken-like clucking noises. Oceana tries to ignore this and moves on. But every time she takes a step, she hears a loud, wet fart sound. Growing increasingly frustrated, she draws her blade (igniting the flame) and runs back into the treeline, alone this time. She fails a save, and suddenly shrinks down to one foot tall (dropping and extinguishing her sword, as it's now far too large for her to hold). She realizes she now has gossamer wings now. Experimenting, she's able to clumsily fly up to the treetops. There she is confronted with a dozen or so pixies. The leader addresses Oceana in Sylvan (which she can now understand, as she has been polymorphed into a pixie herself), and explains they were testing to see if Oceana was a good person or not.
Apparently several darklings kidnapped some of their people, and are torturing them to the south. The pixies are pacifists, so can't fight back, so they want to find a mortal champion to save their kin. Oceana agrees, but only if they change her back immediately. The pixie leader agrees, and then undoes the polymorph. This causes the weak branch Oceana was on to snap under her weight, and she falls ten feet, landing on her backside.
Oceana regroups with the others, saying nothing, just insists they move onward. Oceana stays on high alert. Sure enough, as evening approaches, they spot five creatures tormenting some tied up pixies. The creatures resemble gnome-sized elves, but with grey skin and are wearing full-body cloaks to hide from the sun.
Oceana orders them to stop and says the pixes are under her protection. The darklings ask why she cares, and she tells them who she is. They seem to recognize her name, one of them saying, “Hey, that's who the meazels were after.” Realizing the meazels had failed, they decide to attack her and claim the bounty.
Nymen completely incinerates one, but Oceana orders the party to take the rest alive. They knock them all out, one by one. Oceana then unties the pixies, who thank her and fly off to the north. Using the same rope, she ties up the remaining four darklings.
She uses her lay on hands to revive one of them, and demands to know who it was working for. The darkling insists he wasn't working for anyone, he just wanted to torment the pixies. She asked about the meazels, but he didn't know a lot of details. Apparently a mortal put out a bounty on an Aasimar woman and a fire Genasi man; the latter was expendable, but the former was to be brought in alive. But he didn't know anything about who this mortal was or why they put out the bounty. Oceana tells the darklings she will spare their lives if they agree to leave the pixies alone and return to the Plane of Shadow. The darkling agrees, so she unties the rest and leaves them.
As night began to arrive, Oceana and the others arrived at the gates of the garden of Paradise, also known as the Emerald Garden thanks to the fact it was always green, even in the dead of winter. Stepping inside, they find the place something of a mess. People wander around in a dazed state, some partially dressed (or completely nude), dancing to music only they can hear, and many wearing nothing more than mud and leaves.
Wyldfyre is pleased to see such an open-minded garden. An elderly woman in her birthday suit approaches and hands Oceana a flower, before walking off. Wyldfyre changes his mind about the place after seeing all of her sags and wrinkles, though.
Oceana decides they should find an inn quickly, but the place is something of a maze and nothing is where it should be. For instance, inns are usually right by the gate entrances, but she couldn't find any there. The party moves deeper into the garden, but most of the locals aren't too much help in finding anything.
A handsome young man with impressive pecs approaches Oceana and says he really likes her vibe, and asks if she wants any Chrysalis. She has no idea what that is, but says sure. He hands her a small mouth-sized piece of cactus. She doesn't eat it, though, just places it in her pack.
She stops an old man asking for directions, but he just rants about weird nonsense. In the meantime, Wyldfyre gets distracted by a nymph and a dryad and wanders off with them somewhere.
Nymwen takes matters into her own hands, and finds someone who gives her directions. But not to an inn, but to the library. Apparently Paradise has an extensive one, although she's doubtful an Elonnori library will have anything of value. She wanders off to find it. Clover starts playing music on a street corner, singing a song about how she single-handedly rescued the queen of the fairies from dark fey.
Now down to just herself, Selena and her retainers, Oceana continues to try and find an inn. She hears some shouting and chanting and comes across a war protest. The locals are mad that apparently Queen Aqua is planning to conquer the rest of Cascadia, reuniting the empire under her leadership. But they are opposed to warring on their own people. Oceana criticizes them for protesting here, when Aqua is over in Haven. But they explain it's about raising awareness.
Frustrated, Oceana moves on but does eventually find an inn. Inside, she runs into Morelia again. They catch up a little, and Morelia admits she's in a bit of a bind. She's been commissioned by a wealthy family to brew up a preservation oil for a recently departed matron. She needs it tonight, but there's an ingredient she needs first--flowers that have grown on a grave. There's a graveyard nearby, but it's closed off because supposedly it's haunted. Oceana agrees to help deal with the haunting problem. Morelia is relieved, but has no shards to pay with--instead, she offers a couple of her spare potions for payment.
Oceana rents rooms for the party and leaves her retainers there, then she and Selena go to collect the others. They find Clover still performing on the street, they run into Nymwen fuming about the disappointing library, and then discover Wyldfyre in a drug den with several exhausted women. Once everyone is back together, they head to the graveyard.
The Elonnori bury their dead, usually with seeds. Consequently, instead of stone markers, the graves are instead marked with trees. Some are saplings, freshly grown, while others have clearly been there for decades or even centuries. Thus, the graveyard looks more like an orchard than a cemetery.
They come across a patch of white lilies growing out of a grave, but before Oceana can pick any, she hears a chilling scream. A creature approaches aggressively. Oceana has no idea what it is, but fortunately, Nymwen is an expert on the undead. She calls it a Bodak, the spirit of a person who died in the Realm of Shadows, and she warns the party to not look at it.
Not looking directly at the creature makes it hard to fight, and even with the party going all out and Oceana burning all of her spell slots on smites, it's still quite a tough fight. Nymwen makes things a bit easier when she performs some kind of ritual and three corpses dig their way out of their graves and attack the Bodak, keeping it occupied for a few rounds. They don't do much damage, but they serve as a distraction.
Eventually, the party is victorious and the Bodak is destroyed. Oceana then gathers the flowers and returns them to Morelia. She gets two potions of dubious quality in return.
My Notes This session was 3h, 40m.
The Swift Thieves were a random encounter. Horizon said she thought they would be tougher, but I emphasized they were actual velociraptors, not the kind from Jurassic Park. In reality, velociraptors were the size of chickens. Also, t-rexes can see just fine and there was no evidence that dilophosaurus could spit acid. My dinosaurs are scientifically accurate, with feathers and everything, sorry.
The ghost dryad was also a random encounter. There were a few ways to resolve the issue. Another one was to try and revive the tree, although that was probably beyond the party's power. They could also plant an acorn so the tree would regrow some day. They also could have tried to ignore her, but she would have cried so loudly as to keep everyone up all night. The magic club was called Grief's Guardian; it had no magical bonuses to modifiers, but it does deal magical bludgeoning damage.
I had fun with the pixies. Most of their pranks were thought up on the spot; my notes just said 'play pranks on Oceana.' I made use of cantrips, illusions, mind-reading, a confusion spell, and a polymorph spell.
The plot thickens! Who would pot a bounty out on Oceana, and why in the Shadowfell of all places? Currently, Oceana's main suspect is Queen Meera, but she isn't sure it's her because if the Rot is not stopped, she would be in danger, too. But it seems that someone seems intent on stopping Oceana's quest, for whatever reason.
Paradise was a fun place to make. I essentially treated it as a permanent Woodstock. I even played some Iron Butterfly while describing the garden. I mean, it makes sense, right? The Elonnori are feminist tree-huggers; they have to have a sub-culture of hippies somewhere. I also enjoyed some foreshadowing of Chronicles of Overmorrow. Apparently Crane is not the only person hoping to rebuild the empire.
I threw in the Morelia quest just so there was something more to do in Paradise. It was pretty straight forward, and the party earned a decent chunk of XP from it. After Edith and her, maybe I'll bring back some of the other former hirelings to now serve as quest givers, too. We'll see.
The Bodak fight was pretty tough. Nymwen mostly only deals necrotic damage, making her ironically useless against the undead. The Bodak also resisted non-magical attacks, cold and fire damage. Fortunately, Clover had her psychic attacks (Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers) and Oceana had her smites (although the flames of her Flame Tongue were still resisted). The three ghouls Nymwen summoned really helped, too. At one point Oceana was one-shot by its gaze, but then it was remembered as an Aasimar she resists necrotic damage, so we retconned that she was still on her feet.
Oceana has collected a number of potions now, including those weird booze ones she picked up earlier, and now the two from Morelia that have somewhat random effects. I wonder if she'll ever use any of them?
Anyway, I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Mar 28, 2023 11:39:16 GMT -8
XP is as follows: Oceana Poole (Ancient Paladin 3) Defeating Swift Thieves (x5) - 50 XP Helping the Dryad's ghost - 25 XP Dealing with the pixie pranks - 25 XP Defeating the Darklings (x5) - 100 XP Exploring Paradise - 25 XP Reunion with Morelia - 25 XP Defeating the Bodak - 460 XP TOTAL: 710 XP That brings her to a full total of 2,856 XP, meaning she is now level 4. She gets either an ASI or a feat, plus more HP. Wyldfyre (Berserker Barbarian 3) Defeating Swift Thieves (x5) - 50 XP Defeating the Darklings (x5) - 100 XP Defeating the Bodak - 460 XP
TOTAL: 610 XP This gives him a total of 1,831 XP, meaning he needs 869 XP to level up. Selena (Dream Druid 2) Defeating Swift Thieves (x5) - 50 XP Defeating the Darklings (x5) - 100 XP Defeating the Bodak - 460 XP
TOTAL: 610 XP This gives her a total of 1,102 XP, meaning she is now level 3. She gets a new 1st level spell slot and 2 second level spell slots. She also gets 7 HP and another d6 of fey energy.
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Post by Daos on Apr 2, 2023 20:26:50 GMT -8
Session 08 - Plight of the Blight We pick up on Day 26, with the party waking up at the inn and going in search of Nate. Unfortunately, Oceana had no idea how to find him. She asks around to no avail. Fortunately, Nymwen is far more capable of investigating and manages to track him down. He's a young human man in his 20s that works at a local plant store and medical dispensary. Oceana does her best to diplomatically explain that his dryad lover was dead and hands over the acorn. He is a bit in shock, but thanks her and promises to plant the acorn somewhere safe so it can grow and hopefully a piece of her will live on with it.
The party departs from Paradise, and head toward the Cascade Mountains to the west. Late that morning, they come across a group of twenty or so refugees, fleeing from the east. They claim they own farms at the base of the mountains. Some kind of blight has been infecting their land, and it turned their own crops against them. They were forced to flee and are hoping to find succor in Paradise. Oceana assures them she is here to deal with the problem.
Once they had passed, Wyldfyre questions whether this is the same blight they faced at Smoke Mountain. After all, the Rot they saw before did not infect plants and it drained energy from lava, but there is no lava nearby. Oceana speculates that maybe the Rot evolved differently here or maybe it can absorb energy in different ways. Wyldfyre also pointed out that the Rot in the volcano didn't extend beyond the volcano itself, but these farms are some distance away from the lake. Oceana wonders if the Rot here is feeding off the water, meaning it could possibly extend underground like a root system.
Continuing onward, they see some of the now abandoned farms in the distance. They are all dried up, the crops withering away to nothing. The ground itself is cracked. It looks like this place has suffered from a massive drought for years. There are a number of dried up shrubs near the road as they pass. One of them moves, striking at Oceana from behind--but only striking her armor. Suddenly beset upon by Twig Blights, the party easily wipes them out without breaking a sweat. That afternoon, they then ran into some Needle Blights, which proved a bit tougher. Oceana noted a strange white powder that seemed to burst from their remains when they were destroyed. Wyldfyre investigated it and determined it was salt, of all things.
The party continued on until they reached the final farm as the sun was setting. Oceana wanted to set up camp, but here she noticed there were thin black vines growing around the plants. They weren't as thick as the ones she saw in Smoke Mountain, but they were just as plentiful. Not far from the party was an apple tree with the vines choking around it, leaving the tree dried up and browned. When Oceana moved to investigate, the vines moved, forming into humanoid beings and attacking. These Vine Blights were the toughest of them all, and kept trying to entangle everyone, but Nymwen's Blight spell was particularly effective against them.
The following morning, Day 27, they reached the base of the Cascade Mountains. Oceana easily finds a trail leading up into them. Crater Lake is in the mountains, specifically on the other side of the range, so the party will have to cross them to reach it. Oceana isn't sure what to expect, so warns the party to stay alert.
The trail leads to a very rickety wooden bridge over a gorge. The bridge looks like it hasn't been well maintained and is starting to fall apart. Oceana has the idea to use rope to tie off everyone so they can try to cross, but this includes two horses which makes the task more difficult. They manage the task, but only by the skin of their teeth. They continue on, and that evening they find an old abandoned cabin. It looks like it has been deserted for years, and is falling into ill repair. But it is still more or less intact. There's a small stable to tie off their horses, a well, and the cottage itself.
Oceana examines the well and finds it stinks of saltwater for some reason. It looks really deep, too, over a hundred feet. She pulls up the rope, but it ends with a fray and no bucket. She then checks out the cottage. The front door is ajar and the place is a bit of a mess from animals coming in and poking around. There are dirty dishes in the sink, suggesting whoever used to live here left in a hurry. Weirdly, she finds a water-stained leather halter under the bed for some reason.
The party makes arrangements to stay in the cabin. Oceana allows Nymwen to take the one bed. At around midnight, while Oceana is on watch, she hears a haunting and beautiful singing voice over by the well. Curious, she goes outside to check it out. She sees a gorgeous woman, her skin wet with moisture, who beckons the paladin to the well. Oceana approaches and the woman, with an alien, other-worldly beauty, tries to kiss her. Oceana backs up, so she tries to grapple the Aasimar. Oceana fights her off and tells her she'll go with her, so the creature shrugs and leads her to the well. Then pushes her in.
Fortunately, Oceana manages to grab the rope before hitting the water (her hands get burned a bit, though). She sees the well opens up into a cavern, and she spots a human skeleton floating in the water. She climbs back up and the woman transform into a dripping wet horse-like creature. Oceana uses her channel divinity to ensnare it then runs to the cabin for help, bumping into Wyldfyre and Selena who heard her shouting. The creature escapes from the vines, but now seeing it was outnumbered, retreats back into the well.
Selena recognizes the creature as a Kelpie, and theorizes it was trying to drown Oceana in the well to eat her. Oceana starts putting the pieces together. Whoever lived here must have tamed the Kelpie, hence the halter and the stables. He brought her up into the mountains, far away from her home. At some point he must have lowered his guard and she drowned him in the well--hence the bones down there and why this place was now deserted. Not sure what else to do, they decide to board up the well. Nymwen, who had slept through the whole thing, complains about all of the noise they are making.
The next morning, Day 28, they continue their journey through the mountains. As they travel, they come across small piles of a white, fine powder. Closer inspection reveals that is salt. Clover mentions she's heard tales of a 'great salt lake' to the southeast, and wonders if Crater Lake is similar. But Oceana assures her that isn't the case--Crater Lake is fresh water. Oceana talks a bit about what she encountered in Smoke Mountain, and Clover seems unusually interested, even jotting down notes. Oceana decides not to say any more, worried she'll write another song about it.
Selena mentions that they know so little about the Rot--where it came from, how it works, what its purpose is. Wyldfyre mentions that in Smoke Mountain, it fed off fire and left behind ash, and was repelled by radiance. Oceana wonders if a similar formula will be in play here. They also speculate on where the salt piles are coming from.
That night, as they are setting up camp, a basilisk sneaks into their campsite. Oceana is very nearly turned to stone, but fortunately Nymwen is able to grievously injure it and Wyldfyre and Clover finish the creature off.
My Notes This session was 3h, 10m.
This was fairly simple and not a lot to talk about. We're past the last garden now, so it's all wilderness until the temple.
I wanted to give Nate's store some kind of pot related pun, but I couldn't think of one in the moment. Oh, well.
For the bridge, I had the party do a group athletics/acrobatics check; including the horses. It was 5 successes to 4 fails, so came really close there.
The Kelpie was a random encounter. It didn't quite go as I expected, but it was a fun little scenario. Especially trying to solve the mystery of where it came from and how it wound up in the mountains of all places. I kind of wonder what will happen to it, trapped in that well. It's fey, so extraplanar, so I don't know how its physiology works, or if it will run out of air or food or something.
The basilisk was a random encounter. Oceana failed her first save, and was able to Bless herself to help pass the second save. Good thing, too, as nobody had Greater Restoration on hand, so I'm not sure how that would have worked out if she had failed the second save. I suppose Nymwen could have prepared it the following day.
Anyway, I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Apr 3, 2023 13:33:21 GMT -8
XP is as follows:
Oceana Poole (Ancient Paladin 4) Aiding Nate - 25 XP Defeating Twig Blights (x5) - 25 XP Defeating Needle Blights (x5) - 50 XP Defeating Vine Blights (x5) - 100 XP Defeating the Kelpie - 450 XP Defeating the Basilisk - 140 XP TOTAL: 790 XP
That brings her to a full total of 3,646 XP, meaning she needs 2,854 XP to level up.
Wyldfyre (Berserker Barbarian 3) Defeating Twig Blights (x5) - 25 XP Defeating Needle Blights (x5) - 50 XP Defeating Vine Blights (x5) - 100 XP Defeating the Basilisk - 140 XP TOTAL: 315 XP
This gives him a total of 2,146 XP, meaning he needs 554 XP to level up.
Selena (Dream Druid 3) Defeating Twig Blights (x5) - 25 XP Defeating Needle Blights (x5) - 50 XP Defeating Vine Blights (x5) - 100 XP Defeating the Basilisk - 140 XP TOTAL: 315 XP
This gives her a total of 1,417 XP, meaning she needs 1,283 XP to level up.
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Post by Daos on Apr 10, 2023 13:07:31 GMT -8
For anyone who is still following this, there was no session this past weekend, so no summary this week. I needed more time to work on the dungeon, and haven't been feeling great lately anyway. We'll try again this weekend.
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Post by Daos on Apr 17, 2023 13:05:35 GMT -8
Skipped the session again Saturday. Maybe next week.
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Post by Daos on Apr 24, 2023 15:29:56 GMT -8
Session 09 - Mounting Danger We picked up on the morning of Day 29. As the party is hiking through the Cascade Mountains, Oceana spotted something approaching them in the sky. At first glance, she thought it a single dullwing--hardly a real threat. But as it got closer, it got larger and larger, and she realized too late it was no dullwing, but rather, a skywing (Quetzalcoatlus)! It swooped down at the party, and like previous battles with flying creatures, they found themselves at a disadvantage; Wyldfyre even went down, although Selena revived him. But eventually they defeated the creature. That night they made camp, and a sabre-toothed tiger slipped into the camp, looking for food. Oceana woke up everyone and they fought it off.
On Day 30, they continued toward the temple. Oceana wondered what the odds are that another 'chosen one' might be at the temple. Wyldfyre didn't like the notion, as he felt it made his own destiny less special. Selena speculated that it's possible averting the Rot is more than a one person job, so there's no telling how many people Elonna has tapped to help.
They were interrupted when a screeching griffon descends on them, hungry for horseflesh. It went straight after Rogue Wave, Oceana's horse. The horse went down before the party could defeat the griffon, however. Oceana was upset, but Nymwen offered to fix the horse, and make it better. She wouldn't need to feed or brush it anymore; that's so much more efficient! Oceana preferred a living horse, so Nymwen scoffed but revived it, and then Selena healed it back up.
That night, the party made camp and Oceana took first watch. As she did so, a strange mist appeared and coalesced around her, trying to drain her vitality. Rather then call for help, she attacked the mist with her flametongue, smiting it, and destroying it. She later told Nymwen about it the next day. Nymwen was annoyed, as it sounded like a vampiric mist and she would have liked to be woken up so she could have studied it.
On Day 31, as they were traveling, a trio of harpies appeared and began to sing. Oceana and Selena were instantly charmed, but the others resisted. Two of the harpies flew over beyond a cliff ledge, trying to lure the two women over. Wyldfyre tried to stop the women but the third harpy engaged him. Clover managed to hit one of the two over the cliff with a Tasha's Laughter spell, causing her to plummet to her death. This scared the other one, which flew back over land. Eventually, Oceana was able to snap out of it and fight back. This led to the remaining two harpies being defeated.
It was on Day 32 that the party finally arrived at Crater Lake. It was a massive caldera filled with water but with no apparent source. Or rather, it used to be filled with water. Large, pulsating black tendrils spread throughout the area, absorbing the water like sponges. The water level had dropped to the point that the lake was nearly dried out completely. It was so empty, in fact, Oceana was able to spot a stone structure on the bottom, once completely submerged but now no longer. Wading down into the lake, to a part that was only knee high at best, Oceana heard a whistling sound and turned just in time to see an arrow whiz down and strike the ground at her feet.
Looking toward where it came from, she spotted a cloaked woman had emerged from the temple. Oceana calls out to her, but the woman is incredibly rude--hateful even--toward Oceana. Almost like she had a personal grudge, although Oceana was quite certain she had no idea who the woman was. The woman told her to get lost, that there was nothing she could do to help, and she would only make things worse. She called Oceana a loser, among other things, and suggested she should fall on her own sword so as to not 'waste precious air' that might go to more deserving folk.
Baffled, Oceana didn't know what to make of this tirade. The woman then re-entered the temple, summoning a wall of vines out of the ground to block the way. Undeterred, Oceana led her group down to the temple. She tried to burn through the vines, but they were too wet. So instead, she cut through them.
Stepping inside, the place was cool and moist. Water ran down a set of stairs leading into darkness. There were black vines--smaller ones--crawling up the walls and ceiling, sucking up any water they touch. The entire place smelled like the ocean for some reason, despite them being rather far inland. Stepping cautiously so as to not slip in the running water, the party descended into the darkness.
My Notes This session was 2h, 15m.
Kind of ironic, we skipped the game for two weeks so I could finish up the temple, but then when we finally played, we only just made it to the entrance. Granted, it was a fairly short session, but still. Guess I needn't have worried quite that much.
I realize this session was kind of rote. It was mostly just random encounters as Oceana made her way through the remaining mountains to the lake. I probably could have spruced things up a bit, so it wasn't just 'You see a monster; it attacks!' and then moving on to the next one. I actually had meant to go back and do just that, but I got distracted with getting the lake temple done. And I was suffering some pretty severe burnout in general. It's funny, usually when I'm in a depressive slump, working on my games is the cure. It's the one activity that doesn't suffer. Not this time, though. I slacked off on all of my games. But hopefully I can get things back on track now.
The vampiric mist encounter was nuts. It attacked her, and she made the save, then she attacked it doing considerably damage. It attacked her again, she made the save again, so she smote it, destroying it. Can't believe she solo'd a CR 3 encounter without taking any damage and in only two rounds. It's wild how much having a magical weapon considerably unbalances 5E combat.
Kind of funny that Oceana kept making her CON saves against the vampiric mist but kept failing her WIS saves against the harpies. She did manage to snap out of it eventually, though.
Anyway, I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Apr 25, 2023 10:35:08 GMT -8
XP is as follows:
Oceana Poole (Ancient Paladin 4) Defeating skywing (x1) - 90 XP Defeating sabre-tooth tiger (x1) - 90 XP Discussing chosen one status with party - 25 XP Defeating griffon (x1) - 90 XP Defeating vampiric mist (x1) alone - 700 XP Defeating harpies (x3) - 120 XP TOTAL: 1,115 XP
That brings her to a full total of 4,761 XP, meaning she needs 1,739 XP to level up.
Wyldfyre (Berserker Barbarian 3) Defeating skywing (x1) - 90 XP Defeating sabre-tooth tiger (x1) - 90 XP Defeating griffon (x1) - 90 XP Defeating harpies (x3) - 120 XP TOTAL: 390 XP
This gives him a total of 2,536 XP, meaning he needs 164 XP to level up.
Selena (Dream Druid 3) Defeating skywing (x1) - 90 XP Defeating sabre-tooth tiger (x1) - 90 XP Defeating griffon (x1) - 90 XP Defeating harpies (x3) - 120 XP TOTAL: 390 XP
This gives her a total of 1,807 XP, meaning she needs 893 XP to level up.
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