Off-Topic General Discussion - Page 3636

Hoenn

Map: http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/images/faerunlarge.jpg
tl;dr on setting – Our campaign started in Arabel, with meteors falling from the sky. Upon investigation, we found out they were gods and that the Tablets of Fate had been lost, and so we’re trying to find those I guess.

Previously, our group of 7 was tasked with figuring out what was going on inside the mage tower at Suzail. While inside, and while going through several differently magic-themed trials, we discovered that Mystra, the goddess of magic, had been slain by Helm, the god of protection. We eventually reached the top of the tower, fought some shit, and got teleported out by the head wizard guy (can’t remember his name). When we teleported out of the tower, and we discovered that 3 of us were in the Queen of Suzail’s hall, but the other 4 found themselves in the middle of some desert. This is where this weekend’s session began.

The party has been split, and each adventure group is spearheaded by a different DM. As much as I enjoy playing with my friends, big parties like the one we started with began to get frustrating because of ♪Too Many Cooks♫. As someone who is really trying to learn how to roleplay and figure out my character, these smaller, separate groups are very welcome to me.

My Group – those who remained in Suzail

L’oqor Smith – my character - half elf, Wild Magic Sorcerer thrown into this world with a gambling addiction that resulted in the death of his mother. In killing the goblin witchdoctor responsible, L’oqor was cursed with an uncontrolled magic that is really fun (and often risky) to gamble with.

Eliza – half elf, Dragon blood sorcerer. My character doesn’t know a whole lot about her except that she is a potential love interest (she’s 17, my character is 16 – although I did start out at 19). She has a very fleshed out back story and has a level of knowledge about her magic that only increases my intrigue towards her.

Vallahax – Dragonkin Paladin. He also has a pretty rich back story that I’m not entirely privy to, but he does his best to stick to his moral code. If he knew how much negativity tends to follow my character, he probably wouldn’t like me as much, but even the purest of heart can be blinded by the charming.

The three of us begin the session in the Queen’s chambers, and try to figure out where the rest of the group went. We’ve only known them for about 6 days, so we’re only so concerned about them, just mostly about their general wellbeing and that the teleportation spell clearly went poorly for them. The wizard who teleported everyone eventually was able to tell us that they’re alive in some desert, but that’s all the info we can gather. The queen of Suzail suggests that we might find some stronger magical help up north in Shadowdale. I’m totally on board with this, as I know there is a decently sized temple to Tymora, the goddess of fortune, in Shadowdale; and since she is now walking the earth with the rest of the gods, I want to try and find her.

We go looking for a caravan to travel north with, but have a bit of trouble when we find out that much of the trade to the towns directly north has been cut off by goblins in the Stormhorn mountain range between Arabel and Tilverton. The goblins have lately been venturing further out from the mountains and plundering more merchant caravans than usual, which is causing issues in the region. We do, however, manage to find a father/son pelt-selling combo that will be venturing north.

The escort to Arabel goes fairly smoothly. Around the third night, during my watch, we hear some rustling. I wake Eliza and Vallahax up to investigate, but we realize that the rustling is coming from Eliza’s bag. Apparently she has a red, speckled egg in there (which she claims to forget where she obtained), and it is starting to shake as if it is getting ready to hatch. I’m still concerned about what is going to come out of it.

We arrive at Arabel and part ways with the merchants. We quickly realize, however, that we’re likely not welcome in this town. We then recall that the 7 of us started the campaign in jail in Arabel. We broke out when the metors (gods) fell, causing an earthquake and our cell to break open. Despite our greatest attempts at the time (seriously, we tried to be really passive, but the DMs had none of it), we had to kill a couple guards to escape. Eliza cast Invisibility on Vallahax, and with a bit of smooth talking, coin, and convincing a guard that Eliza was my retarded bride and that we were on our way to visit my parents in Tilverton, we were able to continue on our way north.

The next day, we came closer to the Stormhorn mountain pass, and we found some goblin tracks, as well as a pool of blood. Following these, we came upon a large wooden totem in the mountains. With my familiarity with goblins, I noted that this was set up to be a type of proximity alarm for a goblin encampment. We circle around to find more totems, denoting the perimeter of this encampment, and we formulate a plan.

Eliza lights the totem on fire, sounding the alarm, and a small group of goblins lazily comes out to check it. We deal with them quickly and easily, but while we’re arguing on how to proceed, the alarm is still going off, and another small group comes running, clearly worried because the other goblins didn’t return. Again, we deal with them, and the totem burns up, ending the alarm.

In the last fight, we managed to capture a goblin alive, and being the only one who speaks goblin, I was tasked with interrogating him. With some slick intimidation (and my CHA score of 20), we find out that there are “lots” of goblins, as well as the Goblin god Maglubiyet (a lesser god of war), are within the encampment. There are also a couple of prisoners within that they are planning to sacrifice to Maglubiyet. Vallahax wants to save them, I want to go in knowing there are likely riches to be won, and Eliza is really apprehensive, but decides she will go along with us for now.

Eliza casts invisibility on herself and scouts out the camp. There are several small houses, some larger barracks areas, a jail, and a sacrificial area. She counts around 28 goblins total, and we decide we’re going to stealth our way in as best we can with the invisible Eliza scouting for us. We channel our inner Tom Clancy and make it a ways in before we get to a lone shaman in a house. We breach and ambush and get him incredibly low, and then we whiff everything for like…6 rounds. It was terrible. He made it out of the house and almost was able to get around a corner to help before Vallahax belched acid on him, saving our skins.

We continue with our stealth mission until we’re a few buildings away from the jail. Vallahax and I hide behind a building while Eliza says she’s going to go into the jail, get the prisoners, and then we’d flee. We want to take out as many goblins as we can on the way out, but we are, under no circumstances, to try and fight a god.

She goes off, and shortly after, I’m peering around the corner of the house and see a patrol of 4 goblins on the other side of the camp. At a time that I think Eliza is near the prisoners, I use a subtle spell (silent) Shatter on the group. A huge crack of thunder catches the attention of all the goblins in the camp (fortunately in a direction opposite where Eliza would be releasing prisoners), killing 3 of the 4 goblins. The survivor runs off to the north (we’re on the south of the camp), while 5 more goblins run over to where the others died. At this point, Eliza is releasing prisoners and gets noticed by another goblin patrol.

I fire off another silent Shatter on the group of 5, killing them all, while we notice a couple other goblins rushing towards the front door of the jail. Vallahax and I know the jig is up, so we move into action. Eliza is trying to fight her way through the front door of the jail while the prisoners sit back uselessly. We rush to the outer gates of the prisoners’ cells and take out the two guards watching the back gates there. Vallahax starts trying to bust down the gates to let Eliza and the NPCs out, while I see 8 goblins + the god rushing down from the north. We’re on a real tight timeline.

Vallahax manages to break down the gate door, allowing Eliza and the prisoners to get out, while I’m picking off as many goblins as I can from a distance. I drop another shatter on the big group of goblins+god, but they’re much tougher than the others and I only take out one. As the squishiest are making their escape, Vallahax stands his ground to make sure we get out alive. Unfortunately, with the religious fervor and pack mentality, the goblins rush him down and manage to surround him with his back against the jail gates. We’re able to cut/blast him a path, but the god swoops in, fearing Vallahax into running away from us, and once again cornering him with more goblins.

One insanely lucky round of combat leaves Vallahax with 4 health as he manages to resist the fear and run towards us, but the goblin onslaught is still following. My job is now to keep Ray of Frost on the god as much as possible so he can’t catch us. Eliza and I get caught by a couple small goblins while we were trying to help our Paladin ally. At this point, we’re all pretty low, have very few useful spell slots left, and neither Eliza nor I have any sorcery points left. We’re able to cut down all but 3 goblins and the god (1 goblin on Eliza, 2 + the god chasing me), and it’s a mad fucking dash. They take out the goblin on Eliza while I’m doing my best to kite the other 3, but the two small goblins catch me. I have to risk opportunity attacks just to keep out of the range of the god – if he catches me, we’re fucked.

They take out one chasing me, I take out another, and the DM makes me roll on the Wild Magic table because I had used Tides of Chaos for advantage earlier on. Nat-fucking-100. With all of my sorcery points back, I consume 3 for a lvl 2 spell slot, blast Gust of Wind into the god’s face, and he’s no longer going to be able to chase me. He makes a couple feeble attempts at it, but he gives up, running away. We half want to chase him, but also know that while we might be able to kite him and kill a god, we’re all too weak to risk it. We make our grand escape, and end our session after ~8 hours of play.

This was, by far, one of the most exciting and terrifying sessions I’ve played, and I can’t wait to continue this adventure. Gambling with magic is crazy fun.