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bhaalbaaby · 9 months

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Title: a pearl (2159 words) Pairing: astarion/tav Warnings: physical/sexual/mental/emotional abuse A/N: lol so i redid the end of astarion's mission and made him good again so i could redo missions i saved over lol but in the process, i found that you don't have to sleep with astarion in the graveyard and they could just be together which made my heart burst, even more, tbh ;-; so i wrote about what they did instead. it is traumatic because of everything astarion went through and with my tav's backstory. so a lot of warnings.

Read on AO3!

They stayed in the graveyard all night, her head carefully tucked in his arm as he stares up at the sky. He doesn't sleep or meditate. His mind replays all two hundred years, all the spawn he brought back to Cazador, the abuse. He remembers each person and the charm he used to bring them back. The number of times he slept with people just so he could have a moment of reprieve once he went back to the palace. He enjoyed it in the beginning, but…

He glances down at Sarnarei, her face so calm in the dream realm. He regrets being her first. She should have been with someone who cared. He cared enough to make sure she wasn't hurting, physically, but that's all. If they tried again now…

Her smile replays in his memories as she takes his hands. "We can just stay here and just be together."

Her words soothe him. Yes, he wanted to sleep with her after their physical break, but to just be with her. It eases his heart that she didn't want to go back into being physical right after the heavy day they shared.

She kisses his cheek, swiping her thumb over it as she sits back. "When we're free of this affliction, where do you want to go first?" She asks, squeezing his hand.

He swallows hard, looking at the grave. "Back to the night time I suppose. I may go to the Underdark where my siblings will be." She nods as she listens, her thumb rubbing patterns on his wrist. "How about you?" He asks their voices just above a whisper.

Sarnarei's brows quirk down as she shrugs, "This is as much adventure as my life will get I think. I'd want to be with you though."

He can't meet her gaze as he shakes his head. "Don't live your life thinking about me, Sarnarei."

She giggles, moving closer to him, "If the mind flayer never captured me, I'd be a boring book shop owner's wife. In a boring marriage out of safety." She shrugs, "Maybe I'd want to go on another adventure eventually, but I want to spend my time with you."

He laughs softly, "A boring marriage out of safety doesn't sound boring, Sarnarei." He would much rather hear her backstory than dwell on his. His eyes plead with her to share as he sits back, resting on his arms. She stays where she is, running her fingers over her curved horns.

"I want to know more about you. I apologize for never asking about your past and shunning you before."

The corners of her mouth perk up as she tucks her hair behind her ear. "You're fine, Astarion. I shouldn't have brought it up in the beginning like I did."

Astarion's brows furrow as she goes into her apologies, something he recognized as a deflection from trauma. It manifested in his sister, Dal. He leans over, bringing her closer to him. "I want to know. Tell me all about you Sarnarei. More than I already know." He stares up at the starless sky as she glances up at him.

"You already know I lost my mother at a young age like Yenna, and that my father gave me to a strong Wizard in Baldur's Gate, hoping I could get my magic under control. I never found out what happened to him. I don't know if I want to find out. Lord Verbuyst died a few months later and I was left to the Lady."

She scratches her head as she shrugs, "I still don't know if I was supposed to stay. Sometimes I am grateful because then I would have had to fend for myself in an unknown city barely thirteen." She frowns as she continues. "At first I was just a maid, cleaning after everyone and treated like I was invisible to her until I made mistakes. She would come up with harsh punishments."

Her hands go up to her horns as she nibbles her bottom lip. "She wanted to shave my horns once, but her children saved me from that." Astarion's eyes widen as he listens. "It was for something minor. I accidentally made her bath water too hot because my magic wasn't under control. She didn't get burns or anything, just shocked and upset."

She swallows hard as she sits up, making space between the two. "It got more intense as I got older. The Lady was so scared about getting old and looking old. She wanted to try blood magic, but I didn't want to learn it. She called me good for nothing and invited weird shaman over almost every week once the children went to sleep. I only knew because she used me as bait. A young beautiful Tiefling they could do whatever they wanted to in exchange for making her younger."

His heart sinks as she grips some grass under her fingertips, her exhale shaky as she looks away. "They never slept with me, but with my hands… My mouth. And then they'd prick me and draw so much blood. It was all pseudo-magic. I could tell, but I'd lie so she wouldn't invite them over. But she'd see a new wrinkle, a new sag, and then the shaman was back. Molest me, bleed me dry, and lie." Astarion sits up, trying to shake the anger and rage at this woman he'll never know.

"It went on until her eldest son found out because he came home late one evening and saw the strange man trying to go further with me, saying I needed to make the perfect sacrifice of my virginity to him so My Lady could be young forever." She wipes rogue tears from her eyes, shaking her head. "I was like seventeen when it stopped. She didn't stop seeing that man though. She just stopped having me around. She started looking for more help, specifically younger girls, but they never stayed long… I don't know what happened to them. I stayed, however. I didn't know where to go. I did run away, but she sent bounty hunters after me and threatened to kill me. I ran away a year ago for the final time."

She laughs softly as she sniffs. "I can't believe I stayed for so long. For over ten years. I know that's not as long as centuries for you, but Tieflings don't live long like elves or even half-elves." She whispers.

Astarion interjects, shaking his head. "I'm sorry you went through that. I do have to ask, why did you let me bite you? Why do you let me bite you?"

She winces as she shrugs, "I need you strong so we can fight. I also was used to it. My blood being used for something other than staying in my veins."

He takes her hands in his, "You listened to me, made sure I didn't do anything that made me uncomfortable. But I want to make sure you're not doing anything that makes you uncomfortable."

She smiles up at him, "You've never made me uncomfortable. Especially since we've not had sex afterward." She whispers before quickly adding. "I did enjoy it though. I think I would again."

She removes her hand from his as she continues with her story. "I found my friend at his bookstore in the upper city. He's a Drow but could pass as a regular elf. He kept me hidden and offered to give me another name. We'd be married and if she came to find me, he'd be able to protect me since I would be his wife, no longer tied to my Lady… He proposed this to me the night I was taken. I told him I needed to think and then…" She rubs her forehead.

"Would you marry him?" Astarion asks, trying to read her expression.

She sighs, shaking her head. "I never loved him like a wife is supposed to. I would have been trapped even if he meant well." Sarnarei pats her cheeks as she finally looks up at him. "So that's the story of mine. I don't have anything in this city to keep me. I am free to come with you wherever you would like, my love."

Her story resonates with him as the quiet night continues as they move on to the future. "I bet we could get a nice little home near the Myconid Colony." Sarnarei muses, remembering how beautiful the Myconid Colony was.

Astarion frowns, "I'm sure we could find somewhere else." He scratches his head as he sighs, "I wish we could stay in the city. I will miss it." He says with a wistful look.

"Hmm, maybe we could stay in the city, even though you'd have to stay away from the sun."

"You are so adorable when you're coming up with solutions." He says, touching her cheek. "We'll figure it out, I am sure. Besides, we'll have to figure out what you can do."

A blush comes to her cheeks as she shrugs, "I feel like people will want me to be a leader of some sort. They'll want me to help rebuild. I'm just a random Tiefling."

"You're my random Tiefling. And you are much more than that. Not many people are willing to face the Dead Three and an Elder Brain." She waves away his statement away. "I've barely faced one of them. We still have Gortash and Orin. And the Brain." She rubs her forehead and sighs, quietly adding, "And the mind flayer in our brain."

Astarion laughs, bringing her closer. "I believe in you. You're the only person I trust with handling all of this. You're intelligent, strong, quick-witted." She carefully hides her face in his chest, mindful of her horns. "You're going to take all of these compliments, darling. You're an inspiration to a whole entire generation. I don't care about children, but I see the way the Tiefling children see you. I see the way you care about them. They want to be strong like you. I want to be strong like you. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Gods, who knows where I would be if you didn't give me a chance back on the beach." She scrunches up her face, making his odes continue, "You are the rock that we all depend on. You keep us all together…" He pauses, lifting her face to his. "I want to be the one you can lean on when it gets too tough."

She smiles, before accepting his gentle kiss, feeling so tired. "You already are… Should we stay here for the night or go back?" She asks, glancing at the tombstone, today's date etched over his birth.

"We can go back if you want. You're looking quite tired."

She snuggles close to him as she nods, "Okay. We can go back in a moment. I just need to rest for a little bit." He lets her fall asleep, wishing he could join her.

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He carries her back to the bar and inn seeing the sky starting to turn blue at the first light. Gale is on night watch tonight, letting them in. "Fun night?" He asks, smirking. Astarion ignores him as he gently puts Sarnarei on the bed.

"When you fell in love with Mystra, how did you know you wanted to steal a Netherese artifact?"

Gale scoffs, stuttering as he crosses his arms. "I just wanted to prove myself worthy of her affection, but before you do anything rash, Sarnarei doesn't need any of that. She may be a goddess among us with questionable taste in lovers, but she doesn't need anything huge and over the top. No one really does even if we feel it in our bones." He pauses as Astarion gently closes her doors.

"I don't feel worthy of her affection," Astarion says to the wizard, the two going to their beds.

"Well, I recommend taking your time with her. That's where I messed up I think. She's beautiful. I wanted to capture her affection and keep it for myself. Misguided, but I see how much happier she is with you, and Halsin to a degree. Once the tadpoles and the Absolute are dealt with, you'll know what your next steps will be. And in the meantime, just enjoy each other. You have plenty of time to show yourself that you're worthy." Gale sits across from him as Astarion takes in the advice.

"Thank you, Gale. For the advice."

Gale smiles as he puts his hand for Astarion to shake. "In the battle of love, you were a great opponent. I wish you two nothing but the best."

Astarion shakes his hand, rolling his eyes, "Hardly a battle, but I'm glad you accept defeat." He replies cheekily as he rests back in his bed, wishing he was cuddling Sarnarei instead. He takes a deep breath, feeling so much lighter. He is free.

#writing #astarion x tav #tav x astarion #astarion #baldurs gate astarion #bg3 astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 tav #baldur's gate iii #bg3 spoilers #bg3 #baldur's gate oc #tav: sarnarei

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sadincae · 1 year

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With every “!!” i get, I’ll introduce you to an OC!

MY BABY IGNATIA!!! I mentioned her briefly when talking about her mother, but now I'll talk about her more in depth >:3c

Ignatia was another D&D5e character I played in a campaign. She's an artificer who primarily used a gun rather than magic, unlike the rest of her family.

She's the current youngest child of Vaniesa and Rukodyne, and takes the anxiety of her mother to a while new level. She's also prone to rather childish outbursts of anger, especially when her abilities are called into question. She genuinely wants to do what's right though, she just isn't sure how to do it most of the time, which has gotten her into major trouble more than a few times. She's very smart and skilled with making things, and creating new inventions is something she enjoys doing in her free time.

She's half bronze dragon, and as such has features that betray that, most obvious of which are her tail, scales, and horns! The latter feature is one she attempted to hide by wrapping her hair around them into pigtails, and scales were hidden by clothing, as well as her tail to an extent, but the tail especially proved to be more of an issue since she couldn't control it as easy when emotions ran wild. She also has a breath attack she can use, but it's not as powerful as her fathers yet, but she hopes to be even stronger than he is someday.

Ignatia went from being very outgoing as an infant and toddler to much more introverted as a preteen due to how overprotective Vaniesa got over her (in large part to Ignatia being briefly kidnapped by the dragon cult) and being teased constantly and relentlessly by Illiandrus didn't help matters at all. This, coupled with the fact that Vaniesa refused to take her on adventures but did take her older sister Illiandrus, Ignatia grew rather bitter and angry toward her mom and sister.

When she was about 12, she was briefly placed in the care of Vaniesa's father in Baldur's Gate as Vaniesa had to go on a mission with Illiandrus, and Rukodyne also had important matters to take care of. Ignatia took this chance and decided to run away and go on her own adventure when she heard rumors of troubles. Armed with a gun her godmother Sil had made for her, she set off on her own. The rumors unfortunately turned out to be true and Ignatia ended up in a whole lot of trouble as she eventually made her way to Avernus with a few others in an attempt to save the city of Elturel, and to prevent Baldur's Gate from meeting a similar fate. She was in way over her head but she was too stubborn to quit for a very long time as she wanted to prove to her mom that she was just as capable as her sister and could save the world too! But she was terrified, and every step seemed to bring a new danger for her to face. She got a lot stronger but at the cost of facing horrors she wasn't truly prepared for.

Essentially, 3/4s of the campaign was spent like this:

Once Vaniesa had gotten word of exactly where her daughter had gone, Ignatia was eventually visited unexpectedly by her mom once she'd figured out how to get to Avernus and find her daughter. Despite everything, Ignatia only agreed to return with only if Vaniesa would let her go on adventures too, just like Illiandrus, and only if the few friends she had made would be okay. Conditions were met, and she returned relatively safely to the material plane.

She still had a lot of resentment that took a long time to begin to fade, but once she got older and got more experience in a place that wasn't literally hell, she began to feel a lot more confident in herself and eventually starts going on adventures alone and with Illiandrus, who has also eased up a lot and is trying to be a kinder older sister in her own ways.

#.:: { answered asks }#leidensygdom #thank you for sending this in!!!!#Ignatia was so much fun;;;;

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zippdementia · 3 years

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Part 93 Alignment May Vary: A Series of Side Quests

ALast time, I introduced the concept of how I’m handling the pre-final battle side quests, which will influence how that battle goes. I’m taking a lot of direction from the RPG Blades in the Dark for this, which I highly recommend as a must-read for any DM who wants to take their game to the next level. Even if you don’t end up playing Blades in the Dark, the way it presents how to run a satisfying game and how to keep your sessions focused on actions, obstacles, and consequences, is incredible reading. For these side quests, I’ve really drawn on its lessons a lot in order to keep the action focused and our story moving. If I didn’t, the five missions I’m going to cover in this post could have taken us months to play, as we explored dungeons, fought various combats, and had downtime between each quest. As it is, we do all five of these (plus the one from the last blog post) in a single large, six hour session. In that time, the players roll a ton of dice, but we don’t run a single combat... though they overcome many many obstacles along the way.

Here, then, is a brief rundown of each of our little “side quests.” This is a long post, so enjoy!

Dragonmeet

Argent, their bronze dragon ally, tells the PCs that they need the support of the dragon council if they are to fend off Abenthy. The PCs agree.

The journey from Waterdeep to the Nether Mountains is more than six hundred miles. For three days, Argent flies you north, passing overhead many signs of ruined cities and villages. No people remain, but neither is their undead or monsters. Abenthy’s influence is silently spreading, and as it does, it is erasing this world of life, leaving nothing behind.

Arriving at the Nether mountains, the PCs are given audience by the council of the great Metalic Dragons. This is a scenario lifted out of Tyranny of Dragons, in a nod to our original planned adventure, four years ago. But whereas in that campaign, there are specific things each dragon wants, here I leave the direction of the conversation more up to the PCs. All three of them make a plea, roleplaying out the conversation, with me playing the dragons. Milosh focuses on his life in Eberron, and the fact that dragons have disappeared from his world and their guidance is greatly missed. He fears Abenthy would see everything destroyed, them included. Carrick compares the dragons to Primus, in their greatness and glory, and says that in a way people are their creations and begs them to make the decision to protect life. Imoaza’s plea is full of regret for the path her people, the Yuan Ti, choose to follow, and says that the dragons are right to judge people not worth saving in the past. But she promises that if they are saved, she will make the effort worth it in the future.

These pleas move the dragons, and they agree to give aid, on one condition: that when the war is over, the Yuan Ti turn to worship of them, and follow a better path.

Imoaza agrees to do this, if she can wrest her people free of their current leader, her son, Xaxus.

An Icy Reception

The PCs decide they need the assistance of the Ice Barbarians in order to fight successfully in the frozen plains of Friezurazov. Also, they will not abandon them to slavery, which which be their fate if the PCs do not intervene.

Argent flies you across the Moon Sea, until you come across a line of Prison Ships. The moon shines down upon them, and upon the head ship, named The Re-Enlightenment, and captained by Gregor Tolman, whose great grandfather once captained The Enlightenment, lost at sea ages ago when it fell befoul of a plot involving the Red Hand. Among its final passengers were Shando, Daymos, and Karina...

The roll to set this quest up goes really well, so I actually cut out an encounter I had planned with the Tarasque, summoned into the ocean by Abenthy to destroy the Barbarians before the players can recruit them. Instead, the PCs reach the ships before Abenthy realizes they are going after the Barbarians, and so this encounter comes down to another roleplay moment, with the PCs having to convince Gregor Tolman to give over the Barbarians to their care.

To do this, I really enjoy the plan the players come up with. Imoaza poses as a haughty noble who says she represents Nakir, their noble ally from Waterdepp, and says he wishes to buy the slaves... all of them! With the help of some magic and good persuasion rolls, they convince the captain to turn the ships around and drop the Barbarians off at the old sea elf post, then go back to their sailing. Gregor is a little suspicious, but they play upon his fears of nobility and convince him not to get wrapped up in their political games. Believing he is in over his head, he follows orders and leaves.

The Ice Barbarians are secreted away in the forests around Waterdeep. Orcaheart, in particular, is overjoyed to have the chance to fight again alongside Milosh and promises that their final drive against Abenthy will “shake the very heavens.”

Death Pact

One character that the players are very concerned about is Verrick, the four-eyed Tiefling and former lover of Karina. He is a long long term NPC, and so the players have a personal connection to him. Also, he has become a Death Knight, under the control of Nazragul. While that control seemed to be broken at the Maakengorge, the news that he may be returning to Abenthy’s side is a concerning notion, as he is quite a deadly foe.

You catch up to Verrick at the ruins of Baldur’s Gate, where you find him sitting on a fallen statue, head in his hands. He looks up wildly as you approach and gets to his feet, waving a hand at you as if to push you away.

“Stay back,” he warns. “I do not know how much longer I have control of myself and I would not want to hurt friends of Karina’s.”

It is easy to convince Verrick to fight against Abenthy, but the problem is that Verrick is magically bound to Nazragul’s soul, and has a deep connection to Karina and Abenthy as well. With the three combined in one body, he is finding himself drawn back to fight for him.

Verrick says that, as a Death Knight, he is doomed to be bound to another’s soul until such time as all bounds are broken. Even death cannot stop him while his binder lives, he says. But if they can defeat him now, he will not reform for some time, and will not be able to fight against them in Friezurazov. He prepares to duel them...

... but the PCs have other ideas! I really like how the PCs solve this one. Milosh decides to try and unbind Verrick’s soul from Nazragul and bind it, instead, to himself, thus meeting the requirements of the Death Knight’s contract, while actually winning him over to their side for the final battle!

It requires Imoaza’s mastery of the weave to pull off, and carries a significant risk of killing Milosh, but in the end the players manage to roll through it, and Verrick’s soul, while not freed, is at least bound to the force he wishes to fight alongside.

The Wayward Daughter

This is a tricky one. Imoaza receives word that Hecate is being held at Spiral Tower, an underground fortress where the Yuan Ti torture and brainwash those who have “left the fold.” Hecate’s treachery has been discovered, and she is about to go through a re-education program to make her, once and for all, a thrall of her brother, Xaxus.

Imoaza’s thoughts turned to the daughter whom she had abandoned so many years ago, and who had spent so long trying to kill her. Their reconciliation on the Abyssal plane had changed both of them and Imoaza felt that if she did not save her daughter from the clutches of the Yuan Ti now, they would be forced to face each other one final time on the battlefield, and this time one would not walk away.

This mission goes wrong from the start. A bad set up roll means I actually add in an extra challenge. Argent is flying them to Spiral Tower when he is spotted by the magical sensors of the Yuan Ti. A magical storm immediately forms to swallow the dragon and Argent has to abandon the mission. The PCs use the fly spell to drop from his back, fly through the storm, and land in the forest that grows above Spiral Tower.

They waste no time in quickly preparing their plan. This is a bit of a heist mission, involving teleportation magic. Carrick and Imoaza are going to be teleported by Milosh to a precise location in the tower, where Hecate is being held, and then try to get her out. Anyone who knows teleportation rules knows there is a huge risk here: Milosh has never seen the inside of the tower, and is forced to operate off of what Imoaza can describe to him. This leads to some tense rolls, which could result in an instant death scenario for the PCs if they fail. They do not fail, however, and Carrick and Imoaza reach Hecate’s chamber via portal.

Their time is short. Carrick begins dispelling the magic that is rewriting Hecate’s personality and thankfully the process is not far enough along to have changed her, yet. Hecate comes up with a daring plan. Rather than leave with Imoaza, she suggests that she stay behind and pretend to have been indoctrinated. Then, when the moment is right, in the final battle she will turn and strike Xaxus down.

Imoaza agrees, and tells Hecate, too, of her plan to join the Yuan Ti to the worship of the dragons. She says to start spreading the word of the dragons through the Yuan Ti as subtly as Hecate can, so that the Yuan Ti begin to believe the Dragons are their true saviors. Her hope is that when the dragons arrive on the battlefield, it throws the Yuan Ti forces into disarray and opens up a path to Xaxus.

Imoaza half expects Hecate to question this new direction for the Yuan Ti, but Hecate says that Imoaza will always be her leader and will be trusted in all things. Then she tells them to go, before Milosh is discovered. As they leave through the portal, Imoaza finds herself concerned for the first time in her life with the safety of a family member, and finds the emotion both beautiful and strange.

The Wizards of Thay

The final side quest involves finding Daymos and helping him recover Jade’s soul. The roll on this one is not great, and so the PCs find no trace of the psychic-turned Quasit. However, they do learn that Jade, as a Lich, had a phylactery, and that she was aided in making it by the Red Wizards of Thay. Nazragul forced her into this path so that he could more easily take over her body and make use of it, and the Red Wizards were only too happy to help in exchange for some of his knowledge and power.

When Nazragul was exorcised from Jade’s body, she died, but her soul went to her phylactery, while Nazragul merged with Abenthy and Karina. That phylactery is now with the Red Wizards.

Thay is an isolated and arid windswept plateau some twenty-five hundred miles east of Waterdeep, its dark skies constantly clouded by volcanic ash. This land is defined by the prevalence of undead within its borders. The supreme leader of Thay is the lich Szass Tam, whose council of advisers-the zulkirs-are powerful liches themselves. Everyone of consequence in Thay is a spellcaster, and necromancers are common there. Undead servants are everywhere, and many of the commanders in Thay's armies are the free-thinking undead soldiers.

This is another scenario lifted more or less from Tyranny of Dragons, though it is a little simpler than presented there. Rather than have to win over the Red Wizards, the PCs simply have to offer them something that is worth the return of Jade’s soul. The PCs also learn that the Red Wizards are holding Daymos captive, for he came to them and tried to force them to release Jade. The PCs end up negotiating for both of their souls. The price ends up being twofold. One, they must stay the night in Thay. This seems like an odd request, but the PCs agree to it tentatively. Two, they must give them an item of great power.

At first, the party thinks that what they should give over are spells of Haggemoth. However, while a tempting appetizer, the Thay wizards say that it is not enough. So the PCs keep the spells and look for something else. That is when Milosh suggests, though not without sadness, that they give up Lhu-Ee, the painting gnome that Haggemoth created, and who has traveled with them since the tomb.

It is an acceptable trade: the Thay wizards are fascinated by the notion of what is essentially a living, thinking phylactery. It is a surprisingly sad moment for the -players. Though Lhu-Ee has barely had a roll in the campaign, I played him with a lot of personality, and the players felt good about saving him from Haggemoth’s lair and from the Mummer. He made a bigger impression than I thought he would and so the moment becomes a solemn one as they hand him over to the wizards. The wizards say they will begin work on the brother and sister immediately, and Lhu-Ee bids the PCs farewell, saying that no matter what happens next, he will always love them for having given him freedom, even if it couldn’t last.

Only that night does the first gift the wizards ask for really show its purpose. As the PCs fall into a deep sleep, the wizards try to infiltrate their minds and draw forth the secrets they harbor. They are powerful secrets: Imoaza is a master of the weave. Carrick has all the knowledge of the Surveyor. Milosh is from another world. They come close to cracking Milosh, who has more self doubt than the others and is really struggling with what his purpose in life should be, but ultimately all the PCs fight them off through willpower and good roleplaying, and none of them remember the night’s events afterwards. The wizards may be sneaky, but they are not necessarily dishonorable. They recognize that they had their chance to garner secrets from the PCs and it is their own faults they failed. So they consider the deal done and turn over Daymos and Jade, their bodies restored.

The brother and sister, who have been in this campaign since it’s very first session, shed tears and greet the PCs like family, saying that they will lend their phenomenal powers to winning this war. Daymos also has one more surprise: to rebuild his body, the wizards had to put someone else in the Quasit. They choose Reeves Sar Testain, whose soul had been carried with Daymos from the Abyss, ever since Esheballa’s game. So now Daymos and Jade also travel with the reborn Testain, in Quasit form.

The Siege of Waterdeep

The side quests are ended, but there is one final event before the last battle. The PCs are called back to Waterdeep by Nakir, who says that it is time to reveal the Blackstaff. They all travel with Breathgiver and the real Blackstaff to the middle of the city, where Nakir has asked several of the Lords and many citizens to gather, on the pretense of a grand announcement. However, before they can make their announcement, diaster strikes. Vindass Lanteral crashes the gathering with the army of Waterdeep and says he has come to arrest Nakir and the PCs as traitors. The PCs prepare to face him down, when alarms break out all over the city. A great beast is emerging from the harbor. It is the Tarrasque, and it comes to bring Abenthy’s wrath to the city.

This is a big battle scene, with a lot going on. Breathgiver tells everyone that she can defend the city with the Blackstaff, but they must protect her. So Imoaza, Carrick, and Milosh stand guard while familiar ethereal tentacles erupt all over the city, sucking the life from its citizens. Breathgiver enters a trance and everyone hears a loud crash coming from all over the city.

Waterdeep, one of the wonders of the civilized world, contains wonders of its own. Undermountain, the Tower of Light... many argue for fun over what the wonders truly are. But the oldest citizens of Waterdeep say there are eight wonders, and all of them are statues. The Walking Statues are behemoth statues, said to have appeared out of the ethereal plane as guardians for Waterdeep, controllable only by he or she who wields the blackstaff.

Since I first read about Waterdeep as a child, I’ve wanted to do something with the Walking Statues. Now I get my chance. Breathgiver awakens the statues and I give the players control of three of them, as the Tarasque emerges like Godzilla from the docks and begins wreaking havoc on the city. Three statues converge on it and the players get to have what is essentially a giant Mech fight. The Hawkman, the Swordmaiden, and the Godcatcher all come forward to face the Tarasque and protect Waterdeep. This becomes a tremendous fight, with the Tarasque laying into the statues and bringing down the Hawkman and the Swordmaiden before the Godcatcher grabs it by the tail and, much like Mario swinging Bowser in Mario 64, spins the Tarasque through several buildings and out to sea, where it crashes into a nearby island and falls, unconscious into the ocean.

While all this has been going on, Milosh has been pulled into the Ehtereal world by the tentacles. Imoaza tries to grab him out, but she fails and is left with severely burned arms, that will remain black for the rest of her life. Desperately, Milosh calls upon his powers to teleport him back to the city... only, he doesn’t quite make it.

A Pocket Dimension

Milosh finds himself in, of all places, a brothel. It is being run by a strange man wearing all red, who is shocked, but not unhappy to have a customer. A few questions later, the group realizes this is Immerstal the Red, old party buddy of Aldric, who the group last saw on board the Surveyor’s ship, before he was sucked back into his pocket brothel.

Honestly, this scene is totally unplanned. I didn’t think Milosh would end up in the Ethereal but once he was there, someone (I can’t recall who had the idea, myself or one of the players) mentions our old NPC, Immerstal the Red, and it just was too perfect to not bring him back into the game.

Immerstal reveals he knew Aldric, and is shocked and saddened to hear of his passing. But he doesn’t seem that interested in returning to Faerun. Things are simpler in his pocket brothel, after all, and he is not sure it is wise to bring himself back to a world which, by all accounts, is about to be eradicated.

"Anyway,” he says, “they should just throw Immerstal’s old Fireball spells at the brute. That will show him.”

“The what now?” Milosh asks.

Immerstal blinks in surprise. “You haven’t heard of Immerstal’s mighty Fireblast?”

It turns out there’s a lot of Immerstal stuff that people haven’t heard of, or have forgotten. Sensing a weakness, Milosh plays this up, saying it’s too bad Immerstal won’t be coming back to remind the world who he was. Too bad history will forget him. This finally pushes Immerstal over the edge and he begins packing a bag, and pulls Milosh with him through a portal back to Waterdeep.

Wrapping up Waterdeep

A few final things wrap up our time in Waterdeep and prepare us for the final two sessions of our RPG. In the days that follow, It is revealed that Vindass Lanteral has fled the city, his fake Blackstaff broken. He is out of our game, and never does make a reappearance, at least not in our tales.

With the former blackstaff fled, Waterdeep is in political confusion, but they rally around Breathgiver, the new and true Blackstaff. She immediately declares an end to the shadow lords of Waterdeep and says that from now on, Waterdeep will no longer have lords, but instead shall be led by a council of people from every walk of life, and the Blackstaff shall preside over the council with the wisdom of all its ancient holders. Even as she proclaims this, word comes from the city gates that the other members of the Alliance, including the refugees from Baldur’s Gate, have heard of the Tarasque’s defeat and have arrived to offer their strength in the fight to come.

There is not much time to celebrate or rebuild. The PCs need to get to Friezurazov and face Abenthy before he can revive the Tarasque. However, in the Tarasque’s attack, Waterdeep’s massive fleet was all but destroyed, and the PCs have only Argent to carry them to battle. The armies of Waterdeep cannot follow. It is a devastating blow, for alone they cannot hope to survive and bypass Abenthy’s army.

But then hope arrives from an entirely unlooked for place. A fleet of elven ships is spotted on the horizon. When they land, it is revealed to be the fleet of the Wood Elves of the Sword Coast, led by an old elf named Feluver. He is the brother of Trakki, our PC from many campaigns ago, who was lost during the Red Hand saga. Feluver says that for the first time in many years he had a prophetic dream, and in it Trakki told him to sail his ships to Waterdeep and prepare to fight that evil which had corrupted Trakki’s soul before he passed.

This, then, is the answer to how the armies will make it to Friezurazov, how they will bring the strength to stand against Abenthy, his undead and Yuan Ti, and whatever other defenses he has. This, then, is the true beginning of the end.

Next time, our penultimate session, A Clashing of Fates.

#Immerstal the Red #DND 5e #Campaign Journal #Alignment May Vary #Karina #Waterdeep #Statues of Waterdeep #Blackstaff #Tyranny of Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #Yuan Ti

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zippdementia · 3 years

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Part 92 Alignment May Vary: The Gathering of the Storm

We last left the gamers in a precarious position... one of them, Milosh, was literally inside the mouth of a Tarasque, under the control of Abenthy, and sent to stop the players from recovering anything that could disrupt his plans! What are those plans? The merger of the material plane with the Abyss, an act that will destroy the planes and bring an end to life as we know it.

Milosh, with a strength that’s impossible to comprehend, holds open the jaws of the Tarasque for just long enough to unleash a blast of magic down the beast’s gullet. The resultant belch of flame blasts him out of the jaws and through the air, just as they hear a roar approaching them from beyond the lava pit at the edge of their battlefield. Argent, their friendly bronze dragon ally, flies in through the lava pit and tells them to get on his back. Breath Giver is with him, and Argent tells them that Breath Giver seemed to know that Milosh was in danger and was able to lead him to their location.

“The soul of Haggemoth may finally be at rest,” he tells them, fleeing away from the Tarasque, flying back out of the lava tunnel towards the beaches of Rori Rama. “His power has finally faded from this island, and no longer am I restricted from entering the sanctum. Good thing, or else I would not have been able to come to your rescue!”

They leave the island behind then, the distant roar of the Tarasque like the sound of the mountain itself groaning.

Back to Waterdeep

Imoaza and Carrick sat alone in a tent, set in the woods a mile or two outside of Waterdeep. Or rather, they felt they were alone. Breath Giver was there, too, but the silent shaman had a way of becoming invisible... not truly, not magically, but you would forget she was there. She blended in with her own silence, wearing it like a shroud.

Milosh, Argent, and Lhu Ee had gone south to investigate a rumor, one they all hoped was not true. Carrick’s mind was not on them, however. He thought instead of something Milosh had told him, when they’d last left Waterdeep.

“Have you asked Imoaza about Aldric?” he’d said, deep in his own melancholic anger. “She murdered him, you know. You would put your trust in us? In her?”

Carrick watched Imoaza now and considered the question. They were coming to the end, he could feel it. They were coming to the time when they needed to be past regrets, past betrayal, past questioning.

He cleared his throat to get Imoaza’s attention. She looked up from the book she was reading, and stared at him, waiting.

Carrick and Imoaza go into a discussion of Aldric’s death. Imoaza no longer connects with the person she was when she murdered Aldric, but neither does she regret it. She tells him that the person she was then wanted power. He asks her what the person she is now wants. She doesn’t know.

They are interrupted by Milosh returning. He says that the rumors are true: Baldur's Gate has been utterly destroyed. Argent, in the form of a black skinned human, says the level of destruction was like "the anger of a hundred dragons." Lhu-Ee says that it was the Tarasque, the great Abyssal beast that Abenthy controls. It is only a matter of time before Abenthy sends the beast against Waterdeep. "When he does though, we also have an opportunity!" the gnome in the painting cried out. “It takes power to transport such a great beast through the Abyss, and when it has been used to attack Waterdeep, we will have a window of freedom from it in which to strike at his base at Friezurazov.”

"What about defending Waterdeep?" Argent asks. Lhu Ee seems to think this is impossible, but Argent reminds them all of a letter they received when they arrived at Waterdeep. Their arrival was not met with celebration by the lords of the city. In fact, they found the city gates barred, their allies who had been in the city banished, or imprisoned, and the lords of the city telling them they would not be welcome there, and that Waterdeep was not going to take part in their war, that Baldur’s Gate had been punished as a warning to others who might think to help fight against Abenthy. So the companions had made camp a few miles outside of the city, in a patch of forest, and now debated what to do next. Time was running short. Every day that passed, Abenthy grew stronger. Only a mysterious letter had given them any hope, but they did not know who it came from. It arrived by being dropped into their camp by a raven, and read as follows:

I write this letter briefly and in some haste, for it is imperative that none in the city know who sent it. More I cannot say, except this: I know what it is you face and what, and more importantly, WHO you fight for. If you would win this war, you will need my help. Go to the ruins of the sea elf post. There you shall wait for my signal, which I shall send to you as soon as I am able, after your arrival. Do not depart, do not despair. There are allies everywhere, if only you have the wit and will to find them. Yours, an ally.

The characters now commiserate on what they know. Who are their allies?

This next section of the game I’ve designed as a prelude to the final battle, which is going to be a massive war against Abenthy’s base at the Jarlberg, in the frozen lands of Friezurazov. For this battle, I’ve got a literal excel sheet of stats and data on what armies and forces they may be able to recruit into the fight. It’s all based on what happens in this next section of the game. Each ally they may gain is going to be played out like a mini-mission. Each of these missions should be thought of like a side quest; played out like a vignette or a montage: quick sequences meant to fill in the gaps before the big battle.

These missions are as follows...

Imoaza reminds the group about the Yuan Ti plot she uncovered when they were last in Waterdeep, and says it is probably their doing which has turned the city against them. If they can find a way to unveil it, they can gain the help of Waterdeep, it will mean having their strength of arms to face Abenthy.

Argent says that they should go to the North, to the mountains where the rulers of his people, the good-aligned Metallic dragons, reside and call on their aid. The dragons are finnicky and will not see the need to aid in a war they feel they will survive one way or another, but if the companions can convince them, they will gain their air support and phenomenal might in the battle to come.

Ruze and Esheballa’s daughter, Hazelwood, left Waterdeep with the changelings, sensing the city was turning against them. The changelings have hidden power, and Hazelwood especially. But no one knows where they have gone. If the companions can find them, they might convince them to help.

When they left the Maakengorge, Daymos had sworn to revive his sister, Jade. They are both incredibly powerful psychics, maybe two of the most powerful beings in the world, and Jade was connected with Nazragul’s soul. Their help in the battle to come would be a tide turner, but where did Daymos go?

Hecate helped free Imoaza and the companions at the Maakengorge. Is she a secret ally, a knife poised at the very heart of the Yuan Ti forces? If they can find her, maybe they can disrupt the entire Yuan Ti operation.

Breath Giver’s people, the Ice Barbarians, are not numerous, but they know the secrets of fighting and traversing ice and snow, and that knowledge could be incredibly useful in the battle to come, as it will take place on the frozen planes of Friezurazov. However, Argent has learned that they have been loaded onto prison ships and are being sailed across the Moon Sea to be sold into slavery in Feylan.

Verrick, Karina’s former lover and now a death knight attached to Nazragul’s power, found his will shattered by Karina’s demise. He wandered from Waterdeep and no one has seen him since. But knowing that he was once a thrall of Nazragul makes the companions nervous... would he go back to Abenthy in the final fight, to once again be a thrall?

Rumor reaches the companions that across the sea in Feylan, at the ruins of Vraath Keep, a small band of survivors keep up a resistance fight against the undead. The fighters are led by Sierra, the half orc who wears the mask of El Ultimo Santo, which Shando once wore. If the companions can help her overcome the undead there, then surely she would join their side for the final battle.

The monsters who once helped Karina and were accepted by her as people have been driven out of the city of Waterdeep and called monsters once again. Bitter and angry, they make their way to Friezurazov to join Abenthy and fight, as they always have, against the peoples of Faerun. But if the companions could find them first and once again accept them as equals, rather than as beasts, perhaps they would fight in Karina’s name once more.

They don’t have time to do each mission. Every time they attempt a mission, they have to roll a d6. On a roll of 1-2, the mission starts off poorly and will take more time to complete. On a roll of 3-4, the mission starts off neither in their favor, or against it. On a roll of 5-6, the mission goes better than expected, and takes a shorter time.

So there are nine total missions they can attempt, but they know even with the best of rolls, they will not be able to do them all (at worst, they will attempt three, at best seven), meaning they have to pick and choose which allies to prioritize. Complicating things is that some of these potential allies could also go to Abenthy’s side, if not won over.

The Blackstaff

The companions agree that turning Waterdeep to their side should be their top priority, and so they go to the old sea elf post to await the “sign” from the mysterious ally.

When the PCs reach the sea elf post it is old and decrepit. They follow a raven to an old bell near the old submerged docks. A raven drops a tiny golden hammer into their hands and, taking it as a direct sign, they ring the hammer against the bell, surprised by the deep gong it makes. This summons the writer of the letter, who soon appears out of a secret tunnel that leads from here to the city.

Their ally is someone they’ve never met before, but he has played a role in our wider story, albeit a small one. Ages ago, when Jade and Verrick and the slime Lee went to Feylan and ultimately fell prey to Nazragul, there was a fourth person who was to go with them. Originally, that scenario had been intended as an easy way for the group to keep playing if they had a TPK while pursuing the Red Hand plotline. When the party didn’t need this, the fates of these NPCs became tied into Nazragul’s machinations. But this fourth person, described only as “an apprentice” was left vague and their fate uncertain.

Now it turns out that this is the Apprentice. He saw everything that happened to Jade and Verrick, but was teleported away by her power before she fully lost control to Nazragul. He fled Feylan and told Karina what he had seen, which is how she knew about the evil growing in Feylan, and why she moved the school to Vraath Keep, to begin fighting back against it. Meanwhile, this Apprentice became a statesman so that he could be her ally in Waterdeep. He is old now, but still loyal to Karina. His name is Nakir Dunspar. He tells the companions his story as he leads them through the sewers and into the city of Waterdeep.

He also tells them of the political situation in Waterdeep. The Open Lord of Waterdeep used to be marked by their possession of the Blackstaff, a relic last held by Laurel Silverhand, a very famous figure in Faerun (and D&D) history. When Laurel died, the Blackstaff was lost. The current Open Lord, an older elf named Vindass Lanteral, carries what he says is the Blackstaff but Nakir believes it is not the real thing. He says Vindass probably doesn’t know that he carries a replica, and if the companions can find the real thing, they could give it to Vindass and with it, he could sway the rest of Waterdeep to aid in the war effort. However, he is also afraid that even now, the Yuan Ti must plot against Vindass and seek to bring harm to him if he turns his support to the companions.

The party discusses the situation and decides to split up. Imoaza uses disguise magic and her arts of infiltration to set her and Carrick up as a mistress and her manservant and attend a ball at Vindass’ estate, where they sneak around and ultimately end up with Imoaza inside Vindass’ rooms, going through his belongings and looking for threats or scrying devices which she can trace back to the Yuan Ti.

Meanwhile, Milosh and Breathgiver have ventured into the city catacombs, to find the tomb of Laurel Silverhand and try and gather clues about where the Blackstaff might be. He finds a riddle written on Laurel’s tomb, that “I still hold the Blackstaff,” and, by sharing this with Nakir, they come to the revelation that the Blackstaff is actually hidden in plain sight, in the hands of a statue of Laurel that rests in a public park in Waterdeep. Thankfully, no one recognizes Milosh in his new form, as he is no longer a Frankenstein-esque metal monstrosity. He and Breathgiver make their way to the Statue and Milosh prepares to draw the Blackstaff.

“It can only be held by one whose heart does not waver,” Nakir had told him, when Milosh had said he was heading to get the staff. “That person must be prepared to give everything they have to the betterment of the people of Waterdeep.”

Now, as Milosh closed his hand around the staff, he asked himself the question... was he ready?

Milosh has to make a Charisma check to see if he can recover the staff and... he critically fails. The staff blasts him away and does not come free of the statue. It seems the companions may fail this mission after all, as Yuan Ti spies have been tracking Milosh’s movements and are beginning to close in on the park. If they discover the resting spot of the Blackstaff, they will destroy. But as Milosh is despairing of what to do next, his player has an idea.

“Could Breathgiver take the staff?” he asks.

It is a brilliant idea. A great story beat. A redemptive arc for the character that, when the party first met her, the players had despised for her enmity towards them. And so, as Milosh lays dazed on the soft grass of the park, Breathgiver approaches the statue, grips the staff, and pulls it free.

Holding the Blackstaff, Breathgiver is filled with power and freed from her curse and her obligation to Milosh. Her heart unwavering, she speaks the first words she has spoken since the Sea of Moving Ice:

“I would fight alongside you still, if you would let me,” she tells Milosh.

Meanwhile, Imoaza has made a disturbing discovery. In going through Vindass’ rooms, she finds a secret compartment with a journal that outlines his communications with the Yuan Ti. He is actually a Yuan Ti sympathizer, in league with them and hoping Abenthy will destory all humanity. Vindass’ hatred for humans descends all the way back from the War of Forgiveness, when the Alliance destroyed the area where his elvish tribe was from. This is a tie back to the plotline that plagued the party in the days of Karina, when much of her storyline dealt with how people thought she was a betrayer of the Alliance during the war.

Of course, just as Imoaza is discovering this, Carrick is keeping watch outside of Vindass’ rooms and sees Vindass himself approaching. This leads to a quick roleplay moment, where Carrick pretends to be weak and falls forward onto the floor, distracting Vindass and actually drawing his concern... Carrick is a half-elf, and Vindass shares a moment with him commiserating that his mistress doesn’t take enough care of him. He gently leads him from the hall to get him some food and water and medical attention, and Imoaza takes the opportunity to cast invisibility on herself and slip out of the door.

With this information, Imoaza and Carrick reach Nakir just as Milosh and Breathgiver are discussing with him how they should go about bringing the staff to Vindass. Forewarned, they change their plans. Nakir declares that Breathgiver must hold the Blackstaff for a while, for it has clearly choosen her, and they must keep her safe in the city until she can be revealed to the public in a grand way, thus stopping Vindass from making machinations to get the Blackstaff back. It is safer if the recovery of the staff goes unknown. Imoaza says she will use her knowledge of the Yuan Ti to feed them back false information about the Blackstaff while Nakir and Breathgiver go into hiding for the time being.

This was just one of the missions the companions take on. They end up being able to complete six of them, so five more await. We’ll cover those next blog post.

#DND #DND 5e #Campaign Journal #Alignment May Vary #Blackstaff #Laurel Silverhand

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zippdementia · 4 years

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Part 87 Alignment May Vary: The Sea of Moving Ice

One of the biggest rules of being a good DM is letting your players take direction and control over the story. It is hard to do, sometimes, especially in D&D, where the DM is often put in the position of knowing everything the PCs are going to encounter (per a dungeon map) and in charge of directing a story that they are told by a module. It is something I have gotten better at as I’ve developed as a DM and yet this game presents a unique challenge in that it has gone on for so long and has incorporated so many story elements and plot lines that, as we draw close to a conclusion, there is an element of linearity that is being assumed (we aren’t starting any new huge unresolveable plotlines).

During this next section, which took us about six sessions to play through, and will be broken into two blog posts, I had to remind myself of that a lot and ultimately was able to let go and let the PCs steer the plot into areas I didn’t foresee at all.

Speaking of steering, this section opens with the Players traveling through a teleport in Vraath Keep to Waterdeep, and from there boarding a vessel, an Icebreaker, to take them north into the uncharted Sea of Moving Ice. This is an adventure lifted straight from Tyranny of Dragons, though changed drastically to fit our story needs. I fell in love with the idea of a dungeon embedded in an iceberg and really wanted to bring that into the campaign.

Brief note on the party’s time in Waterdeep: just to set the stage for the current political climate, while in Waterdeep the party learns that while the Alliance (a political banding together of Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, and five lesser cities, whose seat of power is in Waterdeep) has allowed Karina to link her teleport to their city, they are not very supportive of her war effort and feel that getting involved in a war on foreign soil in the Elsir Vale is not very worth their time or attention. They feel powerful enough to repel any invasion that happens to cross the water and seek to attack the Sword Coast; they worry that Karina’s power and influence make her a figure that people would follow and there are some that mutter that the best thing to happen would be for her and the undead to die fighting each other.

Into the White

So why are the PCs heading into the Frozen North? What are they looking for? The set up I use for this adventure is that Karina gets a vision in a dream, a message from a dragon she once gave The Rod of Storms to, in exchange for “treasure when she needed it.” The dream tells her to go to the Sea of Moving Ice and find a particular iceberg named Oyaviggaton, which is native for “Winter’s Crown.” However, Karina cannot leave Vraath Keep right now. This vision comes 80 years or so after she initially traded for it. She did not suspect she would be in the middle of running a war when it came. Karina sends the players, in her stead, telling them that her visions showed her an iceberg, and beneath the iceberg, a library. And beneath the library, something for her, waiting... encased in a massive wall of ice.

Cliff Notes: A long while ago, during the Haggemoth adventure, Karina traded the Rod of Storms away to a Bronze Dragon. It was a cool moment and at the time it let me get rid of a troublesome item and focus on the character growth that was happening with Karina. But the dragon made a promise: one day, when the time was right, it would repay her with a gift. Now that time has come! The Rod of Storms ended up coming back into the game, as well, in the hands of one of the Red Hand generals, and from there it was taken by Nysyries, and when she was killed by Harpies it.... geez, I actually don’t recall after that. I remember at some point Aldric got it and it got powered up by an elemental elder on the plane of air, and then Imoaza killed Aldric to get the Rod and then it was used to build Black Razor Alpha... I mean, this item has woven itself in and out of our story. I thank Robert Kendzie for designing it, as part of Haggemoth!

There is a mechanic in the Sea of Moving Ice adventure that determines, using simple dice rolls, how often a random encounter occurs and after how many encounters the PCs find the iceberg they are looking for. I take this table for our use, but with a twist: I come up with a bunch of new encounters and, depending on what they roll, decide to use those to build up the next part of the story. Imoaza’s player ends up getting the first encounter and it’s one I had hoped to use... three Buer Hags (from Vollo’s Guide).

Buer hags are ice Hags, and I play this encounter up, where they attack the Icebreaker while wheeling and laughing about in a storm they created. They try to lock the Icebreaker onto the side of a huge glacier and partially succeed before the party drives them off with powerful magic. But a few things come out of this encounter. First, they realize that Ruz is a changeling and they tell her something strange: “You’ve come looking for the other one, haven’t you? But you can’t have her. You can’t have our child!”

Also, during the fight, one of the Hags descends on a crewsman manning the crow’s nest and brutally devours him alive. The gory display combined with a blast of a spell from the Hags to amplify its effects overloads Milosh’s circuits and he becomes convinced that he is on a mission in his old life, chasing something infinitely important and yet completely undefinable across the fertile plains of his homeworld, Eberon. He charges out into the icy waste and disappears. After combat, Imoaza and Ruz wait for him for a while while helping to fix up the ship. But when he doesn’t return after an hour, they decide they need to go find him. What follows is definitely a side quest and was nothing I expected to happen this adventure, but it is a piece I love. All three of them become lost out in the snowy expanse of the glacier, trying to come up with ways to find their way and find each other. Like Milosh uses a scrying spell to try to find if anyone is around him. And Imoaza has a cool idea. A while back I mentioned she got a glimpse of the Weave, the magic that surrounds everything. So now she asks if she can try to find the Weave again and use it to trace Milosh’s passage. It’s such a fun idea, we run with it, and Imoaza rolls for Arcana, scoring a critical success! With this, the dice are telling the story for us: Imoaza not only taps into the Weave Sight but finds that she can see more than ever before! Around this time, Milosh casts his scrying spell, and to Imoaza it is like a siren going off in her Weave Sight. She tells Ruz and they head off towards Milosh’s location.

The crater Milosh found himself in was cut in half by a humongous Chasm. Milosh thought briefly of taking shelter there from the coming storm but almost immediately discarded the thought. Something about the chasm was uninviting. Or no, that wasn’t quite right. Uninviting means uncomfortable, the opposite of desirous. And a hole in the ground certainly fit that description. But the chasm went beyond this. Looking at it Milosh could almost see the chasm walls pulsing, like they were breathing, like he was staring down the gullet of a gigantic black beast. Milosh didn’t react without purpose to most things, yet staring into that void he shuddered involuntarily and took a step back.

The Crater does indeed hold a monster and it attacks just as Ruz and Imoaza find and reach Milosh. A mighty Remorhaz bursts free of the chasm and chases down the players, fully intending to swallow one of them to slowly digest as it returns to hibernation. Rather than fight it, Ruz casts fly on everyone and they boost out of there, Milosh firing a delayed fireball out of his gun-arm into the furnace like maw of the Remorhaz as they do... as the Remorhaz is immune to fire, it does nothing, except convince them they are making the right choice. This sets us up to run a crazy chase scene, the Remorhaz charging through the snow beneath them as they fly away, trying to not let the building storm knock them back into the awakened creature’s grasp.

They eventually lose it and make their way back to the ship, but one more thing happens before they set sail.

it looked like an abandoned battle site than a camp, Ruz could now see. She silently thanked Karina for the gift of the magical robes that seemed to keep her warm as she bent in the snow and ran a fur-gloved hand through the wreckage of bone and wood that she had found nestled into the shadow of the rock. She frowned as her hand bumped against something else, something made of leather. A bag... and inside, a journal? She picked it up. The pages had not gotten wet, thankfully, and so she teased open the frozen spine and began to read.

As they finally sail away from this glacier, the party spots an old campsite next to what looks like a fortress wall and decides to investigate. They find the remains of some kind of explorer’s party and Ruz finds a journal he does not share with the others. It belonged to a Changeling, someone who was being rescued from the Buer Hags who had stolen her. However, before the party could escape, they were found here in their final campsite and wiped out (or so Ruz can assume, for the journal ends with the words, “I can feel it in the air. My mothers are close.”)

While Ruz reads, Imoaza and Milosh examine the fortress wall. Imoaza finds strange runes all over it and before she can warn him, Milosh scales the wall and sees beyond it where a hole disappears into the earth. Imoaza’s Weave Sight shows her the runes lighting up and something awakening beyond the wall, just as Milosh hears the sobbing of babies coming from the hole and a scrabbling sound.

Terried, the three dart back to the ship and sail away.

Ready Player Two?

The players are ambushed. It starts with Kobolds, dropping boulders on their ship as it sails down a narrow avenue formed by two glaciers that will, over the course of decades, eventually touch each other. Imoaza flies up to the glacier lip to do battle and while up there, she is attacked by something far worse, a hideous long limbed humanoid which makes a cry like a wailing child as it leaps at her. Imoaza is taken.

This scenario was set up based on their action last time, which released something, or many somethings, that have been hunting them since. But it was also a necessity from a meta game perspective, as we have a session where Imoaza’s player won’t be joining us. So this removes her from the action while keeping suspension high.

I had intended this to be a quick scene, where the PCs realize they are outnumbered and have to abandon their ship to sail away on rowboats, as the boulders from the Kobolds are sinking their boat. Ruz actually does something incredibly clever: he uses a chromatic orb of cold to freeze the holes in the ship and asks if the ship can stay afloat long enough to get them out of there. I say yes... but then I also effectively cut this out as a possibility as three of the long limbed demon-like horrors drop down on the deck and start killing crew.

The result is the scene I intended: there are some nice moments of tension as Ruz and Milosh try to fight back while also freeing their rowboats (some cool uses of Telekineses to do this) and trying to save as many of the crew as possible from the horrid beasts. At the same time, it puts the players on rails more than I like to do. My general thoughts when DMing are not to overplan and not to try to force players into a specific scenario unless the story absolutely calls for it. Those times are RARE, and even then should be made as natural and organic as possible and STILL a DM should be ready for everything to change on them in an instant. Truly good games come from those unexpected changes, those twists and turns that the DM cannot anticipate and must follow to their conclusion. In this case, having the float still be a factor would not have been a detriment to the story and would have made the players feel empowered, which has always been my goal. But I miss it in the moment, and so they escape the ship and Milosh blows it up with a delayed fireball (kinda becoming his Megabuster Signature move).

Still, despite me missing this opportunity, other things arise because of it. The PCs pick up a few survivors out of the water, including the one-eyed, hook handed Captain, and set out into a lonely night broken by a sea of stars above them. And in this moment, Ruz and Milosh share a very cool, player directed, bonding moment. Ruz casts a psychic spell so they can speak without “speaking,” and maybe because of the quiet blackness, the rocking of the boat, their exhaustion, or the incredible otherworldly view of the stars, they transcend the physical plane and end up together in another space. Hear, Milosh sees Ruz’s true Changeling form and Ruz reveals what she is. She also reveals what she read in the journal and that she believes there is another Changeling out here on the ice, somewhere. The two speak of Imoaza and refuse to believe she is gone. They speak of their purpose and realize that both of them have lost a piece of their purpose. Milosh’s entire existence was devoted to the Surveyor, or in this case the next closest thing (Carrick, possessed of a piece of the Surveyor’s soul). With him gone, he now doggedly pursues the prophecy, trying to stop it from coming to fruition. But he does so without direction and without a thought to what might come after. Ruz, on the other hand, lost her entire history, displaced from a world she knew to a near eternity spent in Chaos. Now she has returned to find her city destroyed, her homeland under siege, and she has no one left to fight for except herself. Ruz says that no matter what, she will not be a sacrifice to this new Faerun she doesn’t know. She has sacrificed enough. She wants to find a family and live again. They both agree that their goals mean seeing this war through to its end, winning it, and then having the freedom to move on. Overwhelmed by Ruz’s candor, Milosh reveals his truth to her, as well: that he was taken from another world, aeons ago... so long ago he is not even sure that world exists anymore. He was placed in this cybernetic body by the Surveyor and told to pursue the prophecy. He does not know what future he would even want for himself, now.

Their discussion is interrupted by the captain, who tells them they are coming up on the iceberg they sought.

In Tyranny of Dragons, Oyaviggaton is the primary dungeon, an iceberg home to a white dragon who is dominating the Eskimo-esque villagers who reside on its floating lair. I’ve changed this scenario a little, making the Dragon a trio of witches and adding in some story-related pieces to the dungeon, as well as changing some of its challenges to match my level 16 and 17 (Milosh) characters. But the primary outline I’ve kept the same, and that ends up leading to some unexpected ire on the part of my players. See, in the original, the natives on the island are suspicious of the outsiders and stage a fight between them and their champion warrior, Orcaheart. They say it is to be a one-on-one fight with NO MAGIC... and then they cheat during the fight (the shaman, Bonecarver, heals Orcaheart). And if caught cheating, they turn this around on the players and attack them for daring to accuse their shaman. It’s a very hostile moment and it is definitely meant to conjure up the “hostile natives in a strange land” trope that is part of many pulp fiction works of yore. And despite it being anachronistic and unintentionally racist, it does touch on a style of storytelling that is so embedded in Western culture that I can’t help but be enamored with the moment. It’s problematically familiar.

That said, it also has a major design trap for the unwary DM. And tonite, I was that DM.

See, if the natives are under the thrall of an evil force, then the whole point is that the PCs should want to help them. Having the natives cheat and lie during what is supposed to be an honorable fight doesn’t enamor them to the PCs. In fact, it is liable to make players loathe them. This could potentially be circumvented by some really big clues as to what is going on behind the scenes or, even better, by making one of the natives a very obvious ally, who can then also explain what’s going on. The text even suggests this be Bonecarver... but that is hurt by the fact that they also make Bonecarver the one who cheats!

Had I thought about this ahead of time, I would have taken out the cheating entirely. It doesn’t add anything except more conflict, and this is already literally a head on brawl. You don’t need the extra bit. But I don’t think about it and the end result is a laughable amount of rage being directed at these already victimized natives. Milosh is the one to go up against the mighty Orcaheart and he almost wins... but the cheating means he gets knocked unconscious and when Ruz spots and points out the cheating by using magic of his own to strengthen his voice, the natives turn on him as an evil mage and knock him out, too.

Oh man, the players are pissed! They wake up inside the iceberg dungeon and, spotting three frog-like humanoids going through their belongings, immediately unleash hell upon one of them, smashing him to jelly against a wall. The others reveal they were sent by Bonecarver to help them proceed deeper into the iceberg and fight the witches. Then they hand them potions (a third is currently smashed against the wall) and flee for their lives.

The players make a pact to (a) stop the witches, and (b) burn the village to the ground.

Below the Berg

Now inside the Iceberg (and on a new session), it’s time to bring the party back together. Milosh and Ruze begin searching the dungeon and in the process come across a couple of trophy rooms: rooms where giant monsters and even an entire treasure galleon have been frozen by the power of the Bhuer Sisters. They also encounter more Kobolds, these ones carrying Imoaza, who has been frozen in a block of ice!

The players make quick work of the Kobolds (two turns) and go to work on freeing Imoaza with fire spells. When the block of ice is damaged enough, she comes back to her senses and breaks free with Blackrazor suddenly in her hand and a wild look in her eyes. Her two companions back away and try to talk sense into her. But Imoaza is seeing other people... Aldric is in front of her, accusing her of his murder and taunting her for getting trapped in a cold place... like the place he died. Imoaza reacts as she does to most opposition: disdainfully. And in her disdain, she finds her way back to the present. But Aldric’s voice will forever be taunting her, now. This is an indefinite madness, a leftover of her harrowing experience being ambushed by the Wendigo, the hideous creature with the cry like a child that captured her and brought her unconscious to the witches, who froze her for their keepsake. Aldric’s player (now playing Milosh) actually role plays this voice out when appropriate, basically bringing the voice of Aldric back into the game, even if Imoaza is the only one who can hear it.

The three, now reunited, set about exploring more of the iceberg. They find many interesting things here, which will be detailed in the next post: Still Frozen.

#dnd 5e #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #Tyranny of Dragons #Forgotten Realms

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