Pens and Papers

[Ruki]

My buddy tried to run a zombie horror one shot. Unfortunately, he set the level at 14. I'm a wizard. I fear nothing. 

[Ruki]

Oh dear, looks like Critical Role is likely on the final boss for campaign 2, which probably gives us two more episodes left. Even though that episode was like 90% combat, it was still great. 

[Toe]

It's felt like it was coming to an end soon for awhile now. It will be exciting to see where they go next and what kind of one-shots they do in the mean time. 

[thepunkrockicon]

I don't follow Critical Role, but my partner and I were talking about that. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if there is no season 3, or if someone else takes over, given how toxic their community can sometimes be. I actively chose not to engage with their content, and the community that exists around them online is a huge part of the reason why.

[Ruki]

9 hours ago, thepunkrockicon said:

I don't follow Critical Role, but my partner and I were talking about that. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if there is no season 3, or if someone else takes over, given how toxic their community can sometimes be. I actively chose not to engage with their content, and the community that exists around them online is a huge part of the reason why.

For the most part, I've not seen any toxicity (the exception being people demanding they continue to play this campaign). But I generally only interact with my own friends about the show, which is what I suggest doing!

 

Pretty sure campaign 3 is all but confirmed. Liam and Sam have already decided on characters. 

[Toe]

The end of Critical Role campaign 2 was a 7 hour long stream. I thoroughly enjoyed it though, and I really hope they bring back those characters for a few one shots like they've done for the previous campaign.

[Ruki]

11 hours ago, Toe said:

The end of Critical Role campaign 2 was a 7 hour long stream. I thoroughly enjoyed it though, and I really hope they bring back those characters for a few one shots like they've done for the previous campaign.

I watched it all in one sitting, live! I cried a whole bunch!

 

I do know they have a one shot with a few of those characters (Jester, Fjord, Beau, Molly) in a Mighty Nein vs Vox Machina (Percy, Vax, Pike, and Scanlan) Battle Royale on the 19th. This Thursday we might learn about some one shots! And next Thursday we get the cast Q&A session!

[Toe]

Last night's D&D session was crazy. My party was in deep trouble - we got into an encounter that was probably too challenging for us at the moment, but we were stuck in. The Ranger was making death saves, the Cleric was pinned down away from us, our Barbarian was being mind-controlled, and I (a Vengeance Paladin) was low on health and spell slots. 

I decide to go for a hail mary. The previous turn, I had marked the BBEG with Vow Of Enmity. On my turn, I used Misty Step to go around his minions and his MECHANICAL DRAGON?!  and attack him directly - but this was just the set-up.

We survived one more round with the Barbarian shaking off the mind control and the Cleric taking a hit to save the Ranger. Everyone was now on less than 10 HP except me. The BBEG turns to me and attacks, leaving me with 5 HP but still alive. And now it was my turn to take my shot. 

I used my last level 1 spell slot to cast Thunderous Smite and attacked. Even with advantage, my first strike missed. Damn. Roll for a second strike... and I hit! YES! I decide to also burn my last 2nd level spell slot to use Divine Smite, and end up doing over 40 points to the BBEG. But the damage wasn't what I was going for. 

When you hit someone with Thunderous Smite, they need to make a save or be pushed back 10 feet and knocked prone. By using Misty Step, I had made sure that the BBEG had his back to a lava flow that was powering his underground forge. 

So the DM rolls and fails... but the BBEG has advantage on Strength saves, so rolls again. And he FAILED! The evil King falls backwards into the lava, melting away. Having my last-ditch effort actually work was so satisfying - although I may have also destroyed the control for the Mechanical Dragon in the process. Sorry!

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

A few weeks ago, I had a pretty wild event as well.

Our party is searching an area. We get near a cave and sneak in. We overhear this guy with a red dragon's head & human body talking to his minions. We scatter out before they start to leave and all hide in the swampy area outside. But this is a dragon, just in another form. He transforms back and comes out. He's hunting us down. He catches the scent of one of us hiding. I'm close by so I stand up.

The dragon asks me what I'm doing here. I tell him, honestly. He replies, "then you know too much" and begins to breathe fire against me.

I had been holding a Scroll of Last Resort, something I had found in a temple in a previous campaign. The DM asks me what I want to do with it. I tell him I want to send all the fire energy back at the dragon, and kill him in the process. The dragon dies, I stand in a charred space, totally fine. The dragon lies dead in front of us. 

Jarrod rolled the damage of the dragon's breath, which would have insta-killed me (all my HP, plus more than my total HP). The way the scroll worked is that it would do what I said if I was literally at my last resort. Otherwise, it would have burned up and disappeared. If I had said "I send all the energy back at the dragon," it wouldn't have even killed the dragon. It just would have done like 90 damage to him and he'd still be alive.

 

[Toe]

Imagine what that would look like to anyone who watched. It would have been incredible!

[Ruki]

Hot damn that is a nice item!

 

I'm gonna scare the SHIT out of my Storm King's Thunder group this weekend. Gonna come face to face with the ancient blue dragon who is the main villain. They'll probably not stand and fight...

[thepunkrockicon]

I've taken a break from streaming my D&D game because between transferring stores and some personal health stuff that's come up, I've managed to get terribly behind on planning the giant port city my party is about to land in. Thankfully I should have time to get some more planning and organizing done, so we might be picking it back up in a few weeks if everyone's still down to stream. I'm just glad to have the energy to work on stuff again

[Ruki]

Killed a player tonight... they fucked with a demon portal. Demons poured out and we did a skill challenge to escape.... they failed the first two attempts, and they needed six successes before three failures. So they had a big ol' demon throwdown. They won... barely. Sorcerer died, cleric had 1hp left. The only saving grace was the barbarian having a weapon that does radiant damage and two of the stronger demons were weak to it. 

[Ruki]

On 11/06/2021 at 16:16, Ruki Returns said:

Hot damn that is a nice item!

 

I'm gonna scare the SHIT out of my Storm King's Thunder group this weekend. Gonna come face to face with the ancient blue dragon who is the main villain. They'll probably not stand and fight...

Follow up to this... they tried to stand and fight for 2 rounds. No damage was dealt to the dragon, and the barbarian was almost dead. Their giant friend collapsed the mountain and they skill challenged their way out and succeeded. Barely. Now they are gonna start off Saturday fighting a Roc as they storm the lair of the Stone giant lord.

[Ruki]

On 16/06/2021 at 15:10, Ruki Returns said:

Follow up to this... they tried to stand and fight for 2 rounds. No damage was dealt to the dragon, and the barbarian was almost dead. Their giant friend collapsed the mountain and they skill challenged their way out and succeeded. Barely. Now they are gonna start off Saturday fighting a Roc as they storm the lair of the Stone giant lord.

They accidentally found the direct path to the Thane. And in what I assumed would be a difficult fight, wasn't too hard. Now they are level 9! And taking a detour to avenge a cloud giant ghost by killing his dad and then going to fuck up the fire giant lord so they can get a tower and some land in their name.

 

Also... what are people's favorite magic items? They have cash anf are going to find a magic item shop.

[Toe]

I usually play a cleric and spend my gold on stockpiling diamonds instead of magic items.

In the campaign I'm currently in, our Barbarian got this awesome chain that kind of works like Scorpion's "get over here!", so he can just drag enemies to him and pummel them.

[Toe]

Last night's game was another life-or-death struggle. During our last session, our party had used almost everything at our disposal to survive, so we were moving very gingerly. 

We manage to work our way around a trap, but unfortunately stumble into a room where a Mindflayer was waiting for us to enter. We all knew this was bad news, and it got worse when our Barbarian was dominated and forced to drag our Ranger into the room as we attempted to flee.

It was a tough fight. I was stunned and our Ranger was making death saves while the Barbarian (freed by a desperate attack on the Mindflayer by me) couldn't reach the enemy and the Cleric was doing her best to keep us alive while not exposing herself to the enemy. 

The Ranger's turn comes up. Death save. I say into the mic - "A natural 20 would be awesome right now". And what happens. Natural. Fucking. 20. So our dying Ranger comes to life and fires his bow. Another NAT 20. But this doesn't kill the Mindflayer. No - it's his magical swarm of penguins that deal the killing blow, saving us from having our brains eaten. 

Two sessions in a row of amazing, deadly encounters that we were able to just barely survive. I love this game.

Edited June 25, 2021 by Toe
spelling mistake!

[Toe]

Didn't mean to double post - whoops!

Edited June 25, 2021 by Toe

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Starting Curse of Strahd tomorrow. Very excited.

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, Mx. Canadian Destroyer said:

Starting Curse of Strahd tomorrow. Very excited.

RIP