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Story be fucked, I am all about legos and racing now

#fortnite #fortnite chapter 5 #lego fortnite #rocket racing

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So I noticed that a lot of people are really annoyed or straight up angry about the story situation going on in Fortnite right now. While I am not a genius I do want to share my stance and potential understanding of how things are going.

First, we have to start with the event, The Big Bang as it was called. Personally, I believe this alone could explain why it was not only so short but also contained so little actual story elements. In the canon of the Fortnite world everything was created with the Big Bang, it was the starting point, it is why both the Multiverse and Omniverse exists in the first place. Jonesy sending off the reality jumbling time machine into the Zero Point simply caused another Big Bang, either hard or soft resetting everything depending on how you look at it.

Once again this is my personal perspective but I lean more on the soft resetting, as a way to explain why there is still The Loop and so many characters that shouldn’t exist if it was hard reset. It also leaves open plenty of potential wiggle room if they wanted to bring back aspects of the old story. The Zero Point has to exist simply as a base standard for the Omniverse so there could be some connections back to The Last Reality or The Nothing chasing it again, there are a lot of references to The Agency potentially teasing at a Midas return, it’s open while also being free to do it’s own thing.

Is this a perfect explanation? Not at all, there are plenty of holes someone could poke if they looked more into it, but it is one that makes sense, at least to me, with the knowledge and lore that we have at our disposal right now. We might get more later, we might not, for all we know they may want to go into more self contained seasons going forward, just gotta wait and see.

#fortnite #fortnite chapter 5

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I haven’t posted in a minute and definitely haven’t posted about fortnite in a HOT minute but I had a realization.

Since the Eminem skin actively sings along with the Slim Shady emote, canonically that means Eminem was strong enough to escape the Loop and regain his ability to speak. As well as basically every other musician that had an in game concert.

#fortnite #fortnite eminem

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The Party Returns to The Harbor of Hope

After the events of King's Run the party relaxes on the ride back to the town they got their mission from originally, all taking the time to rest and, in a turn that surprises nobody, almost all get stoned out of their gourd thanks to Otto. Some wanted it to calm down after the events, some wanted to just enjoy it, in the case of Mr. Explosivo Hawk he wanted to ease the soreness that came from blowing himself up just a few hours ago. Unfortunately for him, the extra strong stuff Otto gave him mixed with a pathetic Constitution save caused Hawk to have the absolute worst trip out of anybody in the party.

While everyone in the cart was blasted out of the entire planet, Oliver stayed up at the front of the cart as the designated driver and managed to ignore all of the shenanigans in the backseat to get the party back to town by the mid afternoon. Which, considering the amount of time it took to arrive there in the first place, somehow a lot of time was cut out. Although, there was one small stop that our merfolk driver took, and it was a rather sudden and impromptu stop. Upon seeing a bag on the side of the road, Oliver hopped off and grabbed the bag and ruffled through it and eventually found it's sole content: A red rock. Of course Oliver took it, it was a free bag and a cool rock, and he stuffed it into his own bag, and as far as the rest of the party was aware of! Then again, they weren't entirely aware of a lot considering their situation, but Oliver was well aware and aware of a lot more.

It's explained how Oliver suddenly heard a voice in his head, a surprisingly friendly one at that. Not the 'trying to get your favor' type of friendly either, there was legitimate emotion in their voice, which for a voice in the head is sort of difficult to manage. The voice explains that his name is Lerong and was once a member of a guild known as the Coalition of Creation and, after a little bit of a disagreement with a friend at the time, was essentially cursed and had his soul put into the stone. As it turns out, Lerong was a very unfortunate fellow, as he was put into the stone in a town known as the City of Hope, which is not the Harbor of Hope, but rather a city far to the north in a region now known as The Scorch. A wasteland for decades after a massive arcane explosion wiped the entire landscape, making it only suitable for necromancers and creatures able to withstand the most extreme of environments. Despite known that the person who cursed him was most likely long dead, Lerong decided to stick with Oliver and hopefully find someone else to help him out.

After making his new friend, Oliver hopped back onto the cart and began the trip back to the Harbor of Hope once again, the party arriving and returning to the Cracked Tankard tavern and reporting their job being completed to the bartender/job handler. After explaining the whole situation, mixed with everything including the wolf heads and the entire encounter in King's Run, it came out to around 250G for each member of the party, which came out to a lot more than what was originally planned but of course nobody would mention it. Along with this the party also got free food, drink, and board for the evening, of which not many actually took part of the food or drink. (Hawk especially as he was barely just coming down from one of the worst trips of his life.) Before being sent off, the party was told two major bits of information. First: Despite being in King's Run was only about two days in total, they were apparently missing for over two weeks, implying even more of the strange time distortion that the party assumed was already going on. Secondly: Due to the strangeness of the situation, they were going to be met with high ranking officials from an organization known as the White Ravens, an impromptu peacekeeping group.

Deciding to indirectly go about their own business until the next day, the group split and spent the evening doing any list of thing. Otto was enjoying his evening on the patio of the Cracked Tankard tavern and just smoke and rest. Oliver and Emre went about the town and began doing some simple shopping, nothing of major note but stopping back at a small bakery they promised to return to from before they went off to King's Run. There they got some unique breads, including one that was literally described by the DM as a 'mediaeval flatbread pizza'. On the opposite side of the coin from wholesome shopping, Hawk was actually hired by Aakran for a job of sorts. Despite being a more assassination themed Rogue than a thief, Aakran hired Hawk to steal for him a set of plate armor, something he was able to use but absolutely did not have the money for. Seeing it as an easy job Hawk went with it and, that night, found a small blacksmith on the edge of the shopping district and began his plan. It was a difficult job, starting with having to stealthily crack the lock to- oh, actually, no, he didn't need to do that, as the shopkeeper forgot to lock from the day before closing. But it wouldn't be that easy either, as Hawk now had to search and find where such an important and expensive set of armor would be hidden during the night- wait, no, nevermind. It's literally still sitting by the extinguished forge. Realizing that this shopkeeper might have been an idiot, Hawk simply took the suit of armor and just left. Not even seen by anybody on his way out.

Easiest 330G Hawk has ever made.

Taking the armor to his room for the night, Aakran used the smithing tools he stole from King's Run in order to fit it so it may fit his extremely slender frame better. That and make it look different enough from the armor that was stolen the night before, as he intended to start wearing it as soon as possible.

After that the night was essentially over, everyone going to their respective rooms and passing out in preparation for the meeting they were apparently going to have in the morning. It was a night without any strange dreams, threats to their lives, or any form of discomfort. The party deserved this little breather.

Come the morning, Otto was the first to wake up, going to the main area of the tavern and meeting with the member of the White Ravens that they were told about. A rather pompous looking man of rather indistinguishable race in elegant attire, dotted many times over with a sigil of a rose made of bones. The man introduced himself as Darmon Armunde (Do not laugh at the name!) and his position as a regional inquisitor and requested for the rest of the party to join them all in order to get the entire story of what happened.

Over time, and with a lot of arguments, almost all of the party had made their way to the main area with the exception of Oliver and Emre who wanted to sleep in. Now that everyone was there, they began giving the recap of what had happened in the town, including the wizard's tower, the wizard's experiments themselves, a little fibbing about the amulet situation so the survivors can keep the part they had for sentimental reasons, and a more heroic explanation - from Hawk - about how they almost exploded because of him. As well as the reasoning why he was wearing some rather luxurious robes in such a serious situation. He stole them, he is going to wear them!

Before leaving, Darmon asked a rather strange question after going over the events with the wolves and the wizard in the woods. He asked if any of us had any strange dreams as of late, to which of course Hawk raised his hand, and in a surprising turn Aakran did as well. The two explained their dreams and they were almost identical, being in pitch black landscapes and being met with sets of glowing eyes, each only ending with one set staring the person. For Hawk it was the blue set and for Aakran it was the green. This lines up with the sudden placement of strange sigils on both of the party member's bodies. Here we learn that these dreams were from something called the Curse of the Sisters, and when translated the sigils read: "Marked for Prey". Any extra details were left out, but for more information Darmon instructed the party to meet in this region's capital city of Zion, where they could also gain more rewards for the work that they did in freeing King's Run.

Before leaving, Otto informed about a situation in King's Run that was omitted from the previous entry, that being both Otto and Aakran sensing the presence of some almost celestial energy over the city of King's Run. Being told this, Darmon looks curious before turning his attention to Aakran as a sickeningly dark grin coming on his face. After a second of staring Aakran lets out a groan in pain as he grabs his head, leading to almost everybody grabbing their weapons as it was obvious that Darmon was doing something in Aakran's mind. Seeing the response from the party Darmon instantly raised his hands in a general manner to calm the party, taking a step back with a laugh, trying to act some damage control as he began exiting, only to let one thing slip.

Aakran was not Human. He was of Celestial descent. Aakran is an Aasimar.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #roots of treachery

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The Party Fights a Bunch of Blobs

Picking back up right at the start of the fight, immediately everybody rushes into the main room to understand more on what was happening. The survivor and the kids were in the corner as the front door and makeshift barricade was broken in and four of the shapeless Skinwalkers had pushed into the room. Just before the action started Oliver ordered the survivors into the hallways away from the battle and Josiah had set up an illusionary fire right behind the party from where they came, covering the hallway from the tunnel with light. Just in case.

Oliver jumping in first and almost entirely demolishing the first Skinwalker showed a very good start to the battle, as it carried on with mostly those types of turns. Systematic destruction with Firebolts from Emre, boosts from both Josiah and Otto, Verther blasting things, Aakran somehow growing to twice his size and knocking the creatures around and Hawk being just a fair bit extra with slashing at the creatures from on top of a desk if they got too close. There were a few standout moments in the battle, primarily with Otto setting Spike Growth right in the middle of the chokepoint the Skinwalkers were coming in from, finding out that the Skinwalkers could split at the start of each of their turns, and Hawk learning that throwing hid daggers can actually be a very useful attack!

The battle went on fairly well as at a point the damage that was done to the Skinwalkers caused them to be torn apart if they were to move at any point, including when they originally split from their base Skinwalker. Eventually the fight got to a point where everyone simply had to stand back and wait for them to crawl across the spikes and tear themselves apart.

That was, until, Otto felt a sudden surge of some energy start to grow from the back of the bathhouse. Specifically, the hallway they told the survivors to run and hide in. Realizing this and letting the last of the Skinwalkers to fall, Oliver and Emre rushed towards the halls and into the private washroom the energy came from. And that is where they saw it, for the first time in proper light. The Broodmother. Being the first two there, Oliver and Emre got their first attacks in faster than the creature could act, getting slashes into it's body from Oliver and three very hard hitting Magic Missiles from Emre that dug deep into it's body. And then... Nothing.

Well, not nothing, in fact quite the opposite. Specifically from Otto, there was an overwhelming feeling of life that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the entire abandoned city of King's Run. The Broodmother was not moving, the Druid felt life and nature return to the town, and the previous overwhelming sensation of dread had completely faded. Dropping the spikes from the doorway both Aakran and Otto stepped outside and saw that the once dead and almost monochromatic trees and plants had seemed to regain both their color and liveliness as small buds had begun to appear on the branches. It seems as though the two simple attacks from Emre and Oliver managed to defeat the Broodmother and cleared up whatever magic was about the town. For the first time since stepping into this town, everything was calm.

And then Hawk blew up both himself and Oliver.

See, there was one part of their reasoning for staying that was omitted prior to this moment, and that was the survivors were staying particularly in order to reclaim what was once their mother's amulet, a fairly priceless family heirloom. At least it was until it was stolen by a certain wizard that soon perished not too long after and was believed to be used in some form of arcane ritual. With an idea on why the amulet was used for a ritual, Hawk went up to the now dead but still standing Broodmother, took out his sickle, and went to zipper the creature's chest open.

Unfortunately, the direct spot in which he stabbed his blade into, even with a roll of 21 to avoid it, landed solid on the amulet in the creatures chest and exploded out into a wave of heat and force, knocking both Oliver and Hawk out of the washroom and slamming into the walls of the hallway, cracking it and having Hawk's sickle implant in the wall less than three inches above his head. Emre was okay though! He jumped out before it could go off. The heat caused all water in the private washrooms to instantly evaporate, and everyone around the explosion to become dehydrated.

It didn't take long for the two supports to round up and heal the injured party members and begin on their way out of the town once again. Of course, not before Hawk finished some previously unfinished business. He went back into the exploded washroom and dug through the meaty bits in order to find the amulet once again, unfortunately only finding the central bit that was still a fair bit crushed and such. He still returned it, he didn't almost blow both the rogues up at the same time for nothing dammit!

Now with their job completed, no longer exploded, and Verther breaking into a blacksmith in order to steal a set of smithing tools, the party make their way back towards the northern gate from where they entered from and found that the gate was no longer blocked. It was fully opened and, when we exited the town, even found that Derrick the mule was actually already hitched up and ready to go. This raised no red flags for anybody as it was an easy was for the party and survivors to escape the town and leave safely and quickly. Thus ending, the King's Run arc. With only two near death situations!

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #roots of treachery

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The Party has a Bathhouse Episode

Yep, you read that right! After escaping the previous safe house the party and survivors make their way towards Bjorn’s bathhouse, a surprisingly well maintained bathhouse on the inner edges of the city. When entered it was, just as surprisingly, almost pristine if not a tad dusty and a handful of mildewy towels. Setting up a temporary base in the main lobby, the party split to investigate and look around the building better. A very smart idea.

First group was made of Oliver, Emre, and Hawk as they split to look into the private washrooms the building had, finding, very conveniently, three rooms in the hall. Not to break Tumbrl’s rules, but I will say without a single hint of hesitation Emre started to strip while entering a private room by himself and started a proper bath. This note caught Hawk’s attention, calling it out after a while to find that he was actually kind of late to punch. He’s a quarter ginger, what do you expect from a Tabaxi. Thankfully, the idea was forgotten as soon as he found a wardrobe in another washroom filled with luxury robes, of which the three yoinked for themselves after the bathhouse moment had passed. They were amazing.

Aakran and Verther was the next group, going into the VIP and staff areas to investigate for anything that could be useful or helpful. Ultimately, this search for good things was broken up as the two started to get a bit aggressive with each other, screaming at each other at a level everyone else in the building could hear. Specifically their argument revolved around their differing views and beliefs on ‘The Cycle’, or what they see as how life is meant to play out, and the reasoning for their different beliefs came out to be seen as Verther believed that The Cycle was not real and easily broken, while Aakran saw it as important for the supporting the forces of nature. Of course, these were all put on the back burner after a while when they decided that finishing the current job was more important than their normal, petty arguments.

During their arguments, the trio in the private baths took bets on who was going to kill each other first. That’s not important, just a note.

Finally moving to the last group of Josiah and Otto who remained with the survivors in the main room keeping a sort of watch and sort of hanging around for the most part. Eventually realizing where exactly they were, Otto had taken a step away to the communal washroom in order to rehydrate some. It’s important for a Tortle to stay hydrated! As it is with you, too. Get a water or something. On his way back to the main room Otto had passed a strange door that something he couldn’t explain made him feel strange, leading him to take a - rather light - bench and put in front of the door, which later came to be rather useless as the door was a pull from the opposite side. He’s trying.

When the group met back up, some still irritated from a fight, some in very fanciful robes, and some having just vibed for a fair bit, the party had to go into working around the main room to try and keep it safe as they chose to stay for the night. The actual night, not the weird Broodmother caused darkness. Maybe, it’s impossible to tell. Either way, everyone had a rather boring night and the time that they woke up, a plan was formed.

Investigating the bad vibes door showed that it had went down into the tunnels, just like the wizard tower meaning a potential way to the Broodmother. As the party began their way down into the tunnels they were instantly called back by hearing the screams of the survivors in the main room. Rushing back the party sees a group of four strangely shapeless Skinwalkers that had broken in, either through the barricade or through one of the drains, but it didn’t matter. Right now, there was a fight coming up, and initiative is rolled... for the next session!

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #roots of treachery

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The Party Investigates the Town

At the northern gate of King’s Run, the party simply looks past the bars to the world outside. Everything seems the same as it was before they entered, and with Hawk climbing up the side of the wall to look over it was entirely possible to leave the town if they wanted to. In fact, there was a long discussion about the very idea, collecting the rest of the party that remained back and the other survivors and making their ways out of the city. After a fair back and few points including Hawk deciding Otto was good people and he doesn’t want something bad to happen to his sort of nearby home, the party decided to take care of the issue before it becomes too much to handle.

As they started to return to the homebase they notice that the sky was starting to get very dark very quickly, almost as if turning into the middle of the night despite it only being about 10 in the morning. At this point, our guide started to panic, the Half-Elf simply yelling at us to run and, well, we did such as that, rushing through the last stretch of road, the whole time passing buildings which now had slightly or fully opened doors and some even having the strange Skinwalker creatures around. Coming to the final turn towards the base the party is partially met, or at least sees, an extremely large Skinwalker at least twice the size of all the others.

We were fast, but our guide was faster, basically leaving us in the dust as he makes his way to the base before us, leaving us to the giant monster. We were rather lucky, as Oliver grabbed a stone and chucked it to the best of his ability, taking the giant creature’s attention and giving us a quick out toward the base.

While all this is happening, Verther and Gideon were waiting at the base with the other survivors when in a sudden burst the window was smashed open, a series of strange vines and brambles starting to climb their way in. Before any major panic started the Half-Orc the group were left with brought everyone to the wall far from the window, which seemed to do the trick as it seemed they could not reach further than the extent of the window. After a few moments the brambles started to pull back slowly out of the building.

At around this time, the explorer group made their way back and climbed into the attic to recoup from what had just happened and figure out what is going on in the town. When finally faced with the fact he messed up, our Half-Elf guide to the outside came clean that he kept some major points about their situation, the first being what was happening with the darkened skies and the brambles. As it turns out, those started around the same time as everything else with the Skinwalkers and are believed to have some kind of connection to them. Along with this we learn about the origin of everything going to shit as it is, and tracks back to two specific individuals: Someone simply referred to as ‘The Wizard’ and an entity known as The Broodmother.

Annoyed at being left out on important information, the party holds off on beating the Half-Elf for the time being and instead make a new plan: To investigate the Wizard’s tower. Very conveniently, that was the building right next to the base! Setting up another expedition party of... the exact same group as the first expedition party, everyone waits for the darkness to disperse back into the natural light of day before setting out. Otto shrunk himself into a rat in order to be quicker with the other sneaks, Oliver and Hawk take point as the stealth masters, Emre and Aakran were low and quiet as they stepped, and soon... we entered the wizard’s tower, surprisingly easily. Too easily.

When entered Aakran began searching through the tower, spotting each room very quickly before returning with news that the third floor was blocked by a pile of rubble and in the kitchen was a still smoking fireplace, as if put out right before the party got there. This caused a rise of caution as the party made their way towards the last place they had not investigated yet: The basement.

Hawk was the first one to investigate with rat Otto right with him, mostly due to needing the help to go down the stairs since, you know, rat. When down in the basement the duo saw a number of extremely concerning things, mostly a large amount of monstrous cobwebs filling along the room, a massive tunnel on the opposite side of the room, and a number of runes that were drawn on the floor, including one that was triggered by the Tabaxi. Unfortunately, Hawk doesn’t know jack shit about magic, so what he did was instantly go back upstairs to get the magically inclined explorer in the current party, Emre! Along with Oliver, because he was curious on the state of the basement as well.

With Emre having a Light spell put on his hat to help with being a normal old human, he was able to identify the runes and instantly call out Hawk for triggering an Alarm spell. At this information, the party now notice a creature in the tunnel, stopped just at the end of the light cast by Emre’s hat. A massive beast, roughly humanoid in shape, although appearing much like an attempt to form a spider-like body while staying in the form of a person. Now knowing that this basement was some form of den, the party moved back upstairs and blocked the door, confronting the guide about what they had just seen. Here we learn what exactly the creature downstairs was: The Broodmother itself.

With this knowledge, the skies outside began to grow dark again as now a massive Skinwalker beast stood outside a window and stared in before in a rather grotesque manner it started to push itself through the bars of the window, splitting and reforming grossly on the other side, though very slowly. Seeing they had limited time the party rushed up the stairs to the rubble blocked third floor, starting to pull or push or anything to knock the wall down before finally succeeding and making way not only to the third floor but also the roof entirely. From the top they could now see that the brambles had returned and began climbing the tower from the outside.

Now in a panic and with very limited time, the party started panicking a little and screaming amongst themselves, eventually leading to the most straightforward but also maybe dangerous option. Once they could tell the Skinwalker on the ground was fully inside the building they threw a robe down, tying it to a battlement to make sure it remained and started to climb down, everybody actually doing fairly well on the descent before hiding out in some scattered ruins and waiting. After a few minutes the darkness didn’t dissipate entirely, but was removed enough to where the party could feel comfortable returning to the home base.

Once back, the party took note of the situation and came to a rather unfortunate realization. The darkness wasn’t entirely disappearing as they waded it out, and they were now suddenly almost out of food as, in the time the party was away, the orc that was at the base had made off with most of the food leaving the party and survivors completely without whole food. With low resources and short amount of time, the party decides on the next place they should make as a base, ultimately deciding on King’s Run’s bathhouse due to the fact that, according to our guide and the other survivors, that is one of the few places around the town that has the least amount of darkness and brambles. And so, with a new location decided, the party sets up, sets out, and leads to the end of the story for the day.

Also! I officially got Hawk commissioned, so now he isn’t just a shitty pencil drawing but rather properly cell shaded! Look at the boi.

Shoutout to the artist and fellow player, Cupid! I am also gonna link them because, y’know, respect for artists need to be shared! https://cupidbeauxportfolio.carrd.co/

#Dungeons and Dragons #dnd #Roots of Treachery

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The Party Arrives in King’s Run

Picking up in the clearing, the party stands before the a robed wizard that had just blasted Aakran, a group of four undead wolves, and a strange ritualistic spell circle being cast at the top of a hill. And then, the fight begins.

A combat against a series of zombified canines isn’t exactly the hardest of fights to win, especially when the first act is our friendly neighborhood Tortle Otto summoning a Bear Totem in the middle of the field to powerup the party. With this, there was a series of hit and run tactics from the local rogue’s, large arcane blasts from Emre, and even more boons in the form of Bless from Josiah. In all honesty, this fight was rather lackluster for the first half, even the robed wizard didn’t act in any meaningful way aside turning back to the ritual circle and continuing the spell.

That was until Emre decided to attack the wizard themself, which caused things to take a strange turn. The wizard suddenly stumbled on his point at the top of the hill, falling back into the ritual circle and undergoing a powerful transformation matching the now properly destroyed zombie wolves, now in the form of a large, spectral wolf nearly double the size of anyone in the party that immediately blasted a breath of ice at Emre and Oliver. It charged towards the edge of the cliff and attempted another freezing breath towards Aakran and Hawk, but thankfully missing by just enough.

Coming around the bend of the hill and up towards the spectral wolf, Hawk drove his sword into the side of the beast all the way through until he pierced something solid. When it started to fall a sudden chill moved up Hawk’s sword and to his arm, soon letting a stabbing pain into his shoulder as the beast finally collapsed with one last howl.

The immediate aftermath was a bit underwhelming as everyone went on to patching themself up - which actually wasn’t that much at all, the wolves were very easy in a 7v4 situation - and examine the area. The spell circle was still active at the base of the hill although did not seem to be summoning anymore strange creatures. The magically inclined members made their way to the circle to examine it while the more mundane turned to the statue to do much of the same. Things got a little interesting with this bit going forward.

From the circle were a number of runes around the outer perimeter that were only barely legible and only partially understood as it was written in multiple languages, one a small few the party member actually understood. What they gathered was a number of references to Martuke, a God of Creation and Balance, and the being who the statue was built in a canine-like homage to. Speaking of the statue, Aakran decided to attempt and break it down, bashing it several times with a greatsword and causing a series of blue flames to flicker out before the statue came crumbling, the eyes flashing a bright blue and almost fixating on Hawk as it fell. As it collapsed and fell off the hill, Aakran suddenly collapsed passed out as well. Taking care of the fallen party member, a strange alteration to his body was found in the form of a seemingly brand new tattoo that, in a strange language yet still understandable, read: ‘Marked For Death’.

With Aakran woken and patched up, the party begins to leave and, in the process, decide to remove the heads of the dead wolves as a sort of proof of our killing our targets. Although... it hits us that this is not our targets, nor is this King’s Run. Literally this strange hill with the statue to Martuke in which a robed individual was casting a spell circle was entirely separate to where we were going, and the information about strange wolf creatures continue on even further into this dead land. We still took the heads, because of course we did, it’s important. Why is it important? Shut up, that’s why.

On the road again thanks to Derrick the mule, the party makes it’s way further west to the actual city of King’s Run and making it to the outskirts just before nightfall. Deciding it would be best to wait until morning, the party sets up camp for the evening and waits out the night, some in tents, some sleeping in the wagon with the wolf heads, and even a certain cat staying in a tree for the whole night and offering his place for the first watch.

The night was very quiet, nothing occurring beyond a few disturbing sounds coming from the town that waits before them. And then it was morning. A morning that was very loud, with nearly everyone in the party either screaming at something or being woken up someone screaming and screaming back at them. A morning of chaos it was, and damn did everyone have a good laugh with it.

Jokes and screaming having passed and not even planning anything, because who needs plans, the group makes their way into the proper city of King’s Run, passing through a gate into a rather unnerving scene. To use a word, ‘dead’ was the most accurate to the state of the city. Buildings falling in on themselves and boarded up, any form of roads being reduced to overgrown cobblestones and rubble, not a single living plant, and the only signs of life being a small swarm of ravens and the occasional rat found in the many alleyways of the town. There was eventually one outlier in this lack of life: Another robed, shadowy figure, one that started to run away as it saw our group appear in the town.

With Otto getting the assistance of one of the ravens, following the new robed stranger was surprisingly easy, the party being led towards a double story building with the windows boarded and front door entirely barricaded from the inside. Thankfully one of the windows had a hole in it, just small enough for either a small sized person like Josiah or Otto to squeeze through, or for an extremely dexterous feline to sneak in more stealthily. Once inside, Hawk searched around and found that this place was basically a destroyed shop with a ladder heading up to a hatch in the roof.

After snagging a map, Hawk went up towards the ladder and started to hear people speaking, while on the outside of the building Oliver had made himself onto the second floor from the outside and found a window that wasn’t entirely covered, just enough to sneak in in fact. Giving a few moments to take in everything, Hawk took the first action to try and enter only to be met with a crossbow pointed directly at him and a young Half-Elf staring him down. At this point Oliver and the others made their way in through the window, all while talking the new group of survivors in the attic down on having their weapons pointed at the party, which was actually surprisingly easy.

As it turns out, we are about the least of the survivor’s worries as they are actually hiding from some strange creatures in the town, very conveniently a few walking on a road visible from the window. Outside a group of mostly humanoid individuals were shambling about very weakly, all looking almost identical to a regular Human or Elf or any other race but a bit... off. Their clothing was not exactly clothing, but rather looking more like a weird form of outer layer of skin. They only wandered about, with one even falling onto the ground, before they suddenly noticed one of the ravens from around the town before. In a swarming style the Skinwalkers, as the party starts calling them, and begins devouring the one raven that was on the ground before they stood more straight up and begin to actually split in some form, creating another set of Skinwalkers for each one that consumed the raven. As soon as it was over, the now grown group of Skinwalkers begin walking and shambling through the town again.

Now with an opening the group in the attic begins explaining themselves and what has been happening. To them, they have been in this town for two years as all of this has occurred, with the Skinwalkers appearing one day rather out of the blue and ravaging the town very quickly. Instantly several red flags were thrown up as the party catches onto the fact that the people said that they had been in the town for two years, which was rather impossible dur to the fact that there was very little food and it would not have stayed edible for that long, and things got worse when asked about the year. When asked, the survivors gave an answer that was two years earlier than what we are in currently, which they were entirely thrown off about. They knew that none of it made sense yet they never questioned it before and now that it was brought up they were instantly shaken up about the information.

Moving past this for the moment by another set of information, being how it would actually be impossible for the party to enter from the northern gate, or any gate for that matter, as they have all been locked and closed off for as long as this town has been under siege. When explained how the town has worked these past few years, now the party was a little curious and concerned about what would happen if they try to escape, and then in a potentially not smart move a large group of both party members and survivors to the northern gate once more in order to see if it was still opened or locked as the survivors had said and as the party approaches the gate that they entered, that’s when they saw it.

The northern gate out of King’s Run was completely barricaded.

The party was locked inside of King’s Run.

#Dungeons and Dragons #DnD #Roots of Treachery

[mediocremisterm]

The Party Meets and Take a Job

The Lands of Mialia, a unique land of many types of people and races and, only ever so recently, magic. A sudden surge of arcane energy filled the world, and in it grew many powerful figures, some on the stepping stones of the gods themselves, and some capable of obliterating entire countries without a single ounce of effort.

This story does not involve those people.

Instead, we begin in the small port town simply known as The Harbor of Hope during an event known as The Resummoning Ritual. A special festival in which people brought back through necromantic means can be fully returned to life again. Here we go into a small yet still incredibly busy tavern where we pan to a short Tortle gentleman entering and scanning the room, landing his gaze on a pair of interesting individuals at a table. Approaching the duo, the Tortle introduces himself as Otto, a Druid, and the two strangers introduce as Emre, a Human Wizard, and Oliver, a Sea Elf Rogue. After some back and forth, and a few jokes about the slowness of the Tortle, Otto goes to the bar to get the duo some drinks.

At the bar, Otto runs into another interesting pair. Another Human gentleman named Aakran, a proper Fighter, and Verther, a Half-Elf Warlock with a token for Necromancy. Seems pretty convenient for The Resummoning Ritual if you ask me. With these three now talking at the bar Otto let’s it out that he is looking for people to assist him in a sort of job. One that instantly catches Aakran’s attention as it involves hunting down and potentially killing some ‘Wolf-looking creatures’ in the woods around the town. The two are now interested and attempt to follow up as Otto leaves to take the drinks to Emre and Oliver.

Now back at the table, they are met by a new individual who basically just joined in the table as if it was normal. This Tabaxi, Hawk, with a grin and positive tone, spoke out about how he overheard Otto’s talking about potentially hunting something down. He connected that to involving some form of bounty and, by proxy, a payout for doing so. Around this time, the table was now getting very crowded as along with the original duo, Otto, and Hawk, both Aakran and Verther wandered up to the table and sat themselves around. Here, Otto spoke more about the situation in which he was needing so many people for.

As it turned out, these wolf-like creatures that Otto was speaking about had caught the attention of the town’s recently elected mayor. This attention is very much not good, and it led to a bounty being placed on any information about the situation or taking care of the situation in general, and this is what the most of the party was wanting to do. Hawk, Aakran, and Verther saw it as an excuse to kill something for a payout, no matter how mild the reward was (110 Gold), Emre wanted to see the dogs, Oliver was planning to keep Emre alive and from doing anything stupid, and Otto just wanted to help protect the region. And then, there’s the final one.

From behind the bar, a very short gentleman sticks his hand up to just be seen as he steals an apron and starts to wrap it around his entirely exposed lower half. This lad makes his way over towards the table, stealing a large tray of beers and food and delivering it as a sort of gift to the group as he introduces himself: Josiah, a Halfling and the final member of our merry band of fuckwits. This lad simply wants something to do, and this is not only something to do but also pays out a fair bit.

Now with the party fully collected, the bounty properly organized for our group to hunt down, Otto begins to lead the group! To... an herbalist store, where some pretty fun interactions carry out. Here our Druid meets with the store’s owner, Ray, and performing a trade. Otto offered some special ‘medicinal herbs’ and Ray returned the favor with some unique healing... potions is the best word to use. After the little trading of goods Otto was able to give some information on the creatures the party was looking for! They could be found in a ruin outside of town, simply called King’s Run, which very conveniently happened to be just past Otto’s house.

And then Emre bought a lot of psychedelic mushrooms and offered them to the party.

After the trading of goods, purchasing of mushrooms, and gaining information, once again the party headed out led by Otto passing through the streets of The Harbor of Hope and wandering past the actual Resummoning Ritual in action. A series of multicolored lanterns and lights were floating in the air around the town square, surrounding a large spell circle filled with some form of revived peoples before, in a mass surge of magical energy, the lanterns all collided into one large, orange light that encapsulated the spell circle and the reanimated group. In a moment of bright light, the essentially corpses were brought back to full life, with bodies entirely returned to a living state.

Although this was a miraculous example of magic, a good few of the party weren’t actually all that into the whole situation. Whether it be for the use of mass magic in general for Hawk or it interrupting the natural processes of life for Otto, a good number of the party were ready to get out of the town at this point. It didn’t help the fact that, during the whole activity of the festival distracting people, Oliver attempted to pick a random passerby’s pockets only to fail and for Hawk to do the same but succeed and essentially poke fun at Oliver for it. Now having caused some problems the party had finally left the town.

Only for Oliver to double back and grab the TRUE final member of the party: Derrick the pack mule and his wagon! NOW the party is truly complete.

It did not take long for Otto to bring the party to his honestly surprisingly well maintained home in the far outskirts of town. A true home a of Druid, with uncontrolled plants growing about everywhere and many interesting animals about. Here the party set up for the evening, enjoying the hospitality of the Tortle and a very good portion of them partaking in ‘medicinal herbs’ before calling it for the night. It was a bit unnecessary due to being safely inside, but the party did take a few night watches. It was mostly clear through the evening with only a few small sightings of strange creatures that stayed on the outskirts of the house area.

The next morning after breakfast and sharing the information about what was happening during the night the party once again loads up onto the road and in Derrick’s wagon and continue their trek towards King’s Run. It didn’t take so long for the first steps into the ruined lands to be noticed as the forest suddenly turned into a grey landscape of dirt, stone, and dead nature. A land in which even Otto mentions there being no connection to the forces of nature at all. And this is where things took something of a downward spiral.

Deeper into the destroyed forest the party comes across a slightly destroyed statue of a god and a strange robed figure that stand before it. The party was a ways away as they attempted to figure out how to handle the situation before, a fair bit abruptly, Aakran steps forward and shouts to the figure to identify themself which didn’t exactly pan out... that well. After the first shout the figure only turned to look at Aakran and the party as a group of four almost zombified wolf-looking creatures with glowing eyes and nearly destroyed and exposed internals come around the platform the statue and man are on. With the sudden surrounding enemies the party gets ready for whatever would happen next, with the exception of Emre who wants to rather pet the strange dogs.

With Oliver holding Emre back and Aakran getting more irritated at the situation only yells at the person once more. This time, the robed figure simply looked at Aakran and held up their hands, throwing a Chromatic Orb and blasting the Fighter on the spot. With initiative rolled and a fight about to begin, the session ends in this place.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #roots of treachery

[mediocremisterm]

Treachery

Ya boy got lucky! I found another DnD game that’s actually called Roots of Treachery.

Once again another homebrew world and this one our dm says he intends to play it all the way to anywhere from levels 13-15, so a very long play game!

So with the excitement of a new game I have done some research and looking into some things, because I intend on bringing a very specific, almost unhinged energy if you will with my new character.

So may I introduce:

Hawk, The Tabaxi Assassin!

If ya ain’t keen, the energy I’m bringing is all Straya based. Fair dinkum, a bit hard to get all the terms down but that’s just ‘cause I’m a bit of a galah.

I am going to enjoy tormenting my fellow players with this far too much.

#my art #dnd #dungeons and dragons

[mediocremisterm]

Unfortunate Solart Update

I know not many people read these, originally I did only used this as a fun way to keep a record what was going on with my active dnd game, but as it turns out that is no longer necessary! It was a very clear and respectable send off, but our DM had to ultimately cancel the Solart campaign due to a series of stress, anxiety, and wanting to take care of his own mental health. We are all keeping in touch in case of future games that anybody else would be running or need a filler player, that and the fact everyone is pretty chill and cool in general. Unfortunately, this does mean that Solart stories are coming to an end, and I am... now looking for new games again! 

#solart

[mediocremisterm]

Return to Rekall

Finishing the adventure in the dungeon the party begins to leave before being stopped at the exit, meeting an individual named Jace, a guard from Rekall who had been watching us the entire time. After some normal-for-our-group-style back and forth with Jace - including overall insults and assumptions from Seth - Jace began leading the party out.

But, not before the Aurora and Tetra backtracked to released the animals from the cells. Somehow, the wolves kept from killing the rabbits, which was a positive light for everybody after such a long dungeon. And the horse? Well, he was adopted by the party, specifically Seth who named the new horse Apple-Bottom. The party continues to grow!

Finally leaving, the party takes nearly an entire day to make their way back to the small town but when they do they very not subtly insist on them going to meet the head of the guard in order to deliver their evidence, the recipe for the medicine for the lords son, and a recount of what had happened... and an apology for being accused and almost executed. Of course Seth had to pull teeth the entire time and make as many jokes as possible to screw with the guards, but in the end we got everything we needed, they got everything they needed, and we were on our merry little way.

And on our merry little way we did go! Directly up to Solis in order to complete the second half of our Ullivan mission. Meeting with personal guards for the organization at the door, Esreldiss was ultimately brought to the door and acted a lot more... eccentric, so to say, than the time before. Immediately she pushed past the group she had already met to meet Miralis and Tetra, being extremely touchy the entire time as she did so. It didn’t take long for this sudden meeting to pass and we were brought inside, up the stairs, and into the very small and cramped bedroom once again to begin our trading off of the strange crystal. 

And this is where we are introduced to a brand new mechanic and lore.

The strange crystal we found in the box that we delivered days prior was something known as a Reyas Gem. In few words, these are sources of immense power. To have a Reyas Gem is to gain abilities beyond comprehension and learning, and there are many of these gems in the world. A person can only have one Reyas Gem attuned to their body, and when it was attuned it can never be removed. These are absolutely not Devil Fruit.

Esreldiss explained that the only people who have these abilities are either exceptionally powerful and known people in the world, or hermits who have taken to hiding away from society in order to protect themselves. And now, we had one. She had ever so kindly, if not very weirdly, offered to identify the gem for us, to understand what it was and let us know who should use it. After identifying the Reyas Gem she explained it to be a gem relating to Sol, a person’s very being, and this particular one was a Sol-Art Gem. Very clever. 

It was for those who fought physically, enhancing the abilities of physical attacks, ranged attacks, and overall anything not related to magic. Already that takes two of us out of the equation for this particular stone. Tetra actually turned it down rather quickly, and then it came down to Seth and Miralis who, in an honestly surprising twist, Seth turned down as well. Ultimately it made sense, as Miralis had an entire range of types of damages he could cause that he was the best fit. Even Esreldiss thought so, as it would help him outrun... something.

Esreldiss spoke about how him taking this power as well as staying with the team that Miralis would be able to stay ahead enough of his past in order to keep himself safe. Seeing that this was crossing a line Tetra spoke up, which brought a smiling Esreldiss’ attention, making the Changling take a seat next to her. The first thing she mentioned was Tetra attempting to outrun something as well, beginning to change her form to that of some Human woman that clearly Tetra knew of and got a very visceral reaction from her. This only made Esreldiss laugh as she stood again, changing once again until she looked like a man that got another and even more violent reaction from Tetra. In one swoop there was a dagger a few inches away from the Solis agent’s face only to be stopped by Seth grabbing her arm.

Esreldiss didn’t even flinch as she just laughed again, getting screamed at by Tetra and growled at by Aurora. The latter of whom was instantly met with a look from Esreldiss, who approached and just giggled before giving Aurora a small boop on her nose and explaining that she ‘was not the thing that Aurora released’ and had no reason to be antagonized. Tired of the situation both Seth and Sav attempted to speak up only to also be targeted, the Changling just laughed and waved them off and stating ‘I won’t be lectured by two fugitives’.

There were a few moments of silence in the room, with the exception of Tetra screaming bloody murder and being held back by Seth, until Esreldiss just laughed and walked to the door. She claimed this all to be jokes and began leading the party out of the Solis headquarters again, there being nothing but screaming and the silence until we reached the exit. With very few words, and absolutely no kind words, the party left and the session was ended on and extremely, extremely heavy note. 

But hey, we got a cool power stone!

#dungeons and dragons #solart

[mediocremisterm]

I’ll be honest, I’m pretty disappointed with myself with this one. It took about three attempts and this the only one I was really proud of. I will say, I am trying new poses and such with these session drawings and Tetra de-eyeing a supersized Ullivan is definitely a unique situation!

And no, unless 100% necessary I will not do faces as whenever I do it completely ruins the piece. Also I will cut off the hands of every character to avoid ever drawing them again.

The End of the Slime Dungeon

After unfreezing the spider and defeating the last slime in the furnace, the party regained their composure and began making their way further into the dungeon. They decided to ditch Sav’s idea of utilizing the ice slime as it was clearly too much of a hazard to attempt and take a decent enough amount of it. Everyone kept it in mind as a learning experience, though, in case it came up again at any point.

Following the path south through the room we fought the previous slime group we eventually made our way into a library, but not just any library. It was also an observatory, as on the opposite side of a very dark glass was the room in which we previously fought the Hugath and all the notes relating not only to the slime beasts we found before but also some knowledge on the types of slime colors that were in the many tubes in room before. In our hurry we only learned about one, the Black Slime, which would enter the rounds of whoever it made contact with and prevent from regaining any health at all nor dealing as much damage when they fight. Now we know two of the potential twelve slime colors and what they do.

Along with this we also found a few letters of correspondence for Ullivan and written from an unknown party that was essentially guidelines on how to hide out in a very populated area without raising much suspicion. Something that Ullivan proved to be rather good at. Along with this note on the desk, a series of buttons were found that, when properly pressed, opened up a door in the wall which led into a small room with a series of holes in the ceiling. Against our better judgement we pressed yet more buttons that were in the small room and… got a shower. And possibly a spa with the type of steam it was letting in. After the whole cycle went through a door on the opposite wall opened to a very peculiar room.

Several tanks connected to the floor and ceiling were filled with different colored liquids and slimes, two of which were very familiar to us. Along the ceiling and floor were parallel grates all dripping with strange liquids, and several of the grates on the ground had large levers next to them. With all of this going around the room, it took a moment before the main target of our mission was shown: Ullivan Hesenthal, the Elven Alchemist.

As much as were surprised to see him, he was surprised to see us alive as well. At first, diplomatic actions were attempted, but they were quickly thrown out the window as Ullivan announced that he was not going to allow any one of us to make it out after learning about not only him being alive still but also finding his underground laboratory. Which, fair, most would not want to have this sort of secret get out into the world, and of course our disagreement on him wanting us alive against us wanting to live led to a fight, but not just any fight…

A Boss Fight.

With us starting on the opposite side of the room this battle began with everyone that needed to be in a reasonable or direct distance making their way towards the alchemist, with Geico and Sav climbing the walls to be out of the way, Miralis staying near the walls to provide bow shots, Aurora and Tetra being in a respectable midrange, and Seth going headfirst to attack the man. This is where we learned the importance of a mechanic that our DM added into our game: Ability Investigation! On each of our turns we got a free turn to roll and attempt to learn an ability or special attack that the enemy has. And we learned many of them on our first round entirely! Some which Ullivan used immediately, including one attack that, in a rather comedic sense, made Seth shrink down to the Tiny size category. Despite this, he actually still do some damage biting Ullivan’s ankles.

After this, almost everyone was in a round in which they could initiate some form of attack. Seth went on to continue his tiny style fighting, Aurora went through with the Eldritch Blasting, Tetra used some very interesting Cleric abilities to approach faster and assaulting Ullivan with Shillelagh enhanced daggers to surprising amounts of damage (reminding some of the party how powerful Clerics can actually be), and with the remaining three ranged attackers firing shots off with the exception of Sav throwing some very mild insults with Vicious Mockery. Of course, learning ever more that we can about this absolute madman each round and discovering… Ullivan is kind of more insane than we thought before.

That insanity came through with the next attack from him, as, right after Seth manages to unshrink himself thanks to the luck of the dice, he his hit with a potion from an ability that was literally titled “I Don’t Know What This Does”, in which, after yet another surprise roll, Seth was transported into the realm of the dead for a round! While also doing this, he activated a skill we hadn’t learned at this point where he downs a few unique potions and heals himself! Wonderful!

The back and forth was rather simple with going forward. Seth punched, Aurora blasted, Tetra… tore it up proper with her daggers, Miralis and Geico sniped, Sav was there, and Ullivan kept pulling so many strange punches, including lighting Tetra on fire, summoning a storm of falling shards of crystal in a radius around Seth, and pulling many levers! Thankfully, somehow, the majority of the fight everyone managed to stay out of the grates and falling of the slime. That was, until closer to the end.

In something of a Hail Mary to beat us, Ullivan took a strange concoction of potions before suddenly growing in size, almost as tall as the room itself, and began another assault on us all, beginning with knocking multiple levers and dosing both Aurora and Tetra in the black slime, blocking them from healing and halving their attacks. With that, the going fight was a little more of a grind, with Ullivan moving further away from the close quarters heavy hitters and more towards the ranged fighters and completely messing with our strategy. 

Thankfully, luck was on our side as, with our learning about Ullivan’s many abilities made many them work fairly less for him, we were able to avoid free actions, bonus actions, legendary actions, and put the proper hurt on the elf as he deserved. And the hurt was ultimately finished in a very… interesting way.

Angered and annoyed at Ullivan’s general existence, Tetra turned her attention to Seth and in a moment of understand ran towards him, the Barbarian cupping his hands and throwing Tetra into the air, her arm suddenly ablaze in a black flame as she came down onto Ullivan and driving her daggers directly through his eyes with a soul shattering howl.

The alchemist fell, the flames on Tetra receded, and we stood in the remains of the lab in the now total silence. After a few moments to focus again and gather their thoughts, Aurora and Tetra began searching the body of Ullivan in search of anything to assist us while Seth, Sav and Miralis went to one of the desks in the lab to look for anything else. Several things of note were noticed and collected as needed: High amounts of copper and silver, a handful of little interesting odds and ends that Sav took one of for his ever growing collection of trinkets, a few potions, and of course, the three most important items. A note detailing the needed ingredients and processes to make the medicine that the local lord required, a journal that detailed how he was hired by Sovereignty to work on some undercover operations, and a very familiar black box, now no longer magical and now opened.

The black box was collected, the strange crystal that Esrelldis wanted was in our possession, Sav was blinged out with a new gold bracelet, and Miralis took Ullivan’s bandoleer to carry potions easier. It was hard fought, everyone pulled through fairly well, we got a pretty decent payday, and now we make our way back to Rekall to clear our names and potentially lie to a member of Solis.

And so ends the trek through the first dungeon of Solart.

This is a prolonged post as the major boss fight took two sessions, and because of that as well the art for them will take a little longer too.

[mediocremisterm]

The End of the Slime Dungeon

After unfreezing the spider and defeating the last slime in the furnace, the party regained their composure and began making their way further into the dungeon. They decided to ditch Sav’s idea of utilizing the ice slime as it was clearly too much of a hazard to attempt and take a decent enough amount of it. Everyone kept it in mind as a learning experience, though, in case it came up again at any point.

Following the path south through the room we fought the previous slime group we eventually made our way into a library, but not just any library. It was also an observatory, as on the opposite side of a very dark glass was the room in which we previously fought the Hugath and all the notes relating not only to the slime beasts we found before but also some knowledge on the types of slime colors that were in the many tubes in room before. In our hurry we only learned about one, the Black Slime, which would enter the rounds of whoever it made contact with and prevent from regaining any health at all nor dealing as much damage when they fight. Now we know two of the potential twelve slime colors and what they do.

Along with this we also found a few letters of correspondence for Ullivan and written from an unknown party that was essentially guidelines on how to hide out in a very populated area without raising much suspicion. Something that Ullivan proved to be rather good at. Along with this note on the desk, a series of buttons were found that, when properly pressed, opened up a door in the wall which led into a small room with a series of holes in the ceiling. Against our better judgement we pressed yet more buttons that were in the small room and... got a shower. And possibly a spa with the type of steam it was letting in. After the whole cycle went through a door on the opposite wall opened to a very peculiar room.

Several tanks connected to the floor and ceiling were filled with different colored liquids and slimes, two of which were very familiar to us. Along the ceiling and floor were parallel grates all dripping with strange liquids, and several of the grates on the ground had large levers next to them. With all of this going around the room, it took a moment before the main target of our mission was shown: Ullivan Hesenthal, the Elven Alchemist.

As much as were surprised to see him, he was surprised to see us alive as well. At first, diplomatic actions were attempted, but they were quickly thrown out the window as Ullivan announced that he was not going to allow any one of us to make it out after learning about not only him being alive still but also finding his underground laboratory. Which, fair, most would not want to have this sort of secret get out into the world, and of course our disagreement on him wanting us alive against us wanting to live led to a fight, but not just any fight...

A Boss Fight.

With us starting on the opposite side of the room this battle began with everyone that needed to be in a reasonable or direct distance making their way towards the alchemist, with Geico and Sav climbing the walls to be out of the way, Miralis staying near the walls to provide bow shots, Aurora and Tetra being in a respectable midrange, and Seth going headfirst to attack the man. This is where we learned the importance of a mechanic that our DM added into our game: Ability Investigation! On each of our turns we got a free turn to roll and attempt to learn an ability or special attack that the enemy has. And we learned many of them on our first round entirely! Some which Ullivan used immediately, including one attack that, in a rather comedic sense, made Seth shrink down to the Tiny size category. Despite this, he actually still do some damage biting Ullivan’s ankles.

After this, almost everyone was in a round in which they could initiate some form of attack. Seth went on to continue his tiny style fighting, Aurora went through with the Eldritch Blasting, Tetra used some very interesting Cleric abilities to approach faster and assaulting Ullivan with Shillelagh enhanced daggers to surprising amounts of damage (reminding some of the party how powerful Clerics can actually be), and with the remaining three ranged attackers firing shots off with the exception of Sav throwing some very mild insults with Vicious Mockery. Of course, learning ever more that we can about this absolute madman each round and discovering... Ullivan is kind of more insane than we thought before.

That insanity came through with the next attack from him, as, right after Seth manages to unshrink himself thanks to the luck of the dice, he his hit with a potion from an ability that was literally titled “I Don’t Know What This Does”, in which, after yet another surprise roll, Seth was transported into the realm of the dead for a round! While also doing this, he activated a skill we hadn’t learned at this point where he downs a few unique potions and heals himself! Wonderful!

The back and forth was rather simple with going forward. Seth punched, Aurora blasted, Tetra... tore it up proper with her daggers, Miralis and Geico sniped, Sav was there, and Ullivan kept pulling so many strange punches, including lighting Tetra on fire, summoning a storm of falling shards of crystal in a radius around Seth, and pulling many levers! Thankfully, somehow, the majority of the fight everyone managed to stay out of the grates and falling of the slime. That was, until closer to the end.

In something of a Hail Mary to beat us, Ullivan took a strange concoction of potions before suddenly growing in size, almost as tall as the room itself, and began another assault on us all, beginning with knocking multiple levers and dosing both Aurora and Tetra in the black slime, blocking them from healing and halving their attacks. With that, the going fight was a little more of a grind, with Ullivan moving further away from the close quarters heavy hitters and more towards the ranged fighters and completely messing with our strategy. 

Thankfully, luck was on our side as, with our learning about Ullivan’s many abilities made many them work fairly less for him, we were able to avoid free actions, bonus actions, legendary actions, and put the proper hurt on the elf as he deserved. And the hurt was ultimately finished in a very... interesting way.

Angered and annoyed at Ullivan’s general existence, Tetra turned her attention to Seth and in a moment of understand ran towards him, the Barbarian cupping his hands and throwing Tetra into the air, her arm suddenly ablaze in a black flame as she came down onto Ullivan and driving her daggers directly through his eyes with a soul shattering howl.

The alchemist fell, the flames on Tetra receded, and we stood in the remains of the lab in the now total silence. After a few moments to focus again and gather their thoughts, Aurora and Tetra began searching the body of Ullivan in search of anything to assist us while Seth, Sav and Miralis went to one of the desks in the lab to look for anything else. Several things of note were noticed and collected as needed: High amounts of copper and silver, a handful of little interesting odds and ends that Sav took one of for his ever growing collection of trinkets, a few potions, and of course, the three most important items. A note detailing the needed ingredients and processes to make the medicine that the local lord required, a journal that detailed how he was hired by Sovereignty to work on some undercover operations, and a very familiar black box, now no longer magical and now opened.

The black box was collected, the strange crystal that Esrelldis wanted was in our possession, Sav was blinged out with a new gold bracelet, and Miralis took Ullivan’s bandoleer to carry potions easier. It was hard fought, everyone pulled through fairly well, we got a pretty decent payday, and now we make our way back to Rekall to clear our names and potentially lie to a member of Solis.

And so ends the trek through the first dungeon of Solart.

This is a prolonged post as the major boss fight took two sessions, and because of that as well the art for them will take a little longer too.

#solart #dungeons and dragons

[mediocremisterm]

Investigation and Slimation!

Picking up in the hallways of the dungeon again! Tetra investigates the room that she found with the tripwire and proceeds to look further in it, only finding some remnants of a destroyed wall and some form of incline that went up a very well ways! She came out to tell everybody and this is where there was a mild divide. Some of us wanted to clear out the rest of this floor while others wanted to instantly head upwards in the dungeon. Clearing out the floor won and we began going towards that southern hallway.

At the end we found a stone door that was very kindly unlocked by our resident Rouge and we entered to find something of a mini store room, alchemy lab, and kitchen. There was food, all extremely fresh and organized as if moved there very recently, a desk covered in a lot of papers that Sav happily took for himself - can never have too much paper! - and another small hall to a set of double doors. Being as antsy as he is, Seth charges into the room and discovers something that solidifies a lot of our suspicions. Slimes were being made here, in a series of about 14 large vats and several puddles on the floor.

But most importantly, was another one of the strange slime creatures with the many screaming heads on it’s back. When it spotted Seth it instantly let out a cry, stunning and deafening Sav, Miralis, and Geico as everyone rushed in to try and help. After this stunning it ran to a nearby goo puddle and pulled out a much smaller slime, this one just a simple grey color and rather small compared to the others up to now. Thinking this would be an easy bout we might have gotten a little bit careless at times, with Seth getting frightened by the Screech Beast but ultimately Rage-beating it down, a good number of everybody’s attacks missing, and the mini slime developing a metallic sheen and summoning a Cloud of Daggers around Savadar! Being as he his, Sav focused healing on Seth because he had taken a bit of a beating up to this point, Miralis did a long walk around and gave a heal to Sav while also dropping the concentration of the mini slime’s spell and dissipating the daggers, and, finally, Aurora once again pulling though and Eldritch Blasting the mini slime to a puddle.

Now, with a good bit of beating on them, the party returned to the main room and did a full on and proper investigation of the room and Tetra casts a Healing Prayer on the party, getting about everyone back up toward the tip of their health! Once again, Sav finds nothing of use in the many notes or scrolls, Aurora finds some snacks in the food storage area as well as learning that everything there has to only be a few days old, and Miralis searches through the alchemy lab area and unfortunately finds nothing of use. Until Seth walks up behind him, reaches into a random barrel, and pulls out a greater healing potion.

While searching the alchemy lab, however, Miralis gathers a few extra empty bottles and that gave Savadar a very, very, very, poor idea. Taking one of the bottles and Aurora - for the buddy system - he went back into the slime vat room and headed towards one of the puddles of good. The one he chose was a very light blue and, as soon as he got close, he slipped and stepped in the puddle. In an instant he started to freeze until he, as the party put it, became a spidercicle. Thankfully the kitchen area had a lit stove and the party was able to move Sav into place to defrost some. But, if anything, this just strengthened Sav’s terrible idea even more.

Unfortunately, this will have to wait until the next game as this one had to be cut short. Geico’s player wasn’t actually here this game! So we got to a comfortable stopping point and are going to wait to hopefully finish this dungeon until next time!

#solart #dungeons and dragons

[mediocremisterm]

The First Dungeon

After defeating the Wolf Mother/Arc Slime Alpha the party takes the cave as a temporary base for the evening, with it being rather uneventful for the entirety of the night. Albeit, we did massacre the majority of inhabitants of the cave, so naturally it wouldn’t be that rowdy in the aftermath. 

The morning is where it got interesting, as we investigated where the Wolf Mother had emerged from the wall from and we found something pretty interesting. A hole, just big enough for the uber tiny Geico to crawl and walk through into it, and this is where the big hit came in. This was the bathroom tunnel we were following from before, the one that connected all the back to Rakall and, specifically, Ullivan’s house. And it went further into the mountains. Coming back out, it took no time for Seth and Miralis to take their shovel’s and Geico’s crowbar to break the hole open enough for even the large, almost 7 foot tall Miralis to walk in regularly. And this is where the walking comes in. A lot of this adventure so far has been a lot of walking.

After roughly an hour the party comes across something they were not expecting. A portcullis connecting to some manmade hallway. Geico, being the sneaky little Rogue that he is picks a lock, if you want to call it that, and it unlocks the latch holding the portcullis down, which Seth and Miralis pick up and allow themselves to walk in. Only for the portcullis to slam down again and lock the party in a room with another portcullis on the other side and a long hallway past that. Trying to figure out what would work, Seth actually ends up accidentally stepping on a pressure plate on the floor, immediately sending red flags throughout the party but it was quickly calmed down as, from the ceiling a strange slime creature emerged and lifted up the portcullis again! On the side that we came in from. After a little investigation, we found another plate that when activated caused the door slime to close the portcullis leading outside and opening the one leading into the, as we are now calling it, dungeon.

Stepping through we immediately found a four way intersection of halls. The one straightforward leading to a door, the one south to another door, and the one north going a ways before turning. In a definitely democratic manner we made our ways to the door straightforward first, with Tetra staying outside to keep watch. As soon as everyone bar the watch was inside of a weird room covered in skeletons with one wall a solid black, glass-like material. Before we could all enter, the doors slammed close and a strange entity once again crawled through the walls.

A vaguely frog-shaped and slime-like creature with a large mouth and a cacophony of ghostly heads on it’s back fell into the room, looked around, and instantly screeched before crawling into the walls again. After that, there were several clicking sounds, the beast popped out of the walls, instantly targeted Savadar, and let out some scream that both stunned and deafened him. At this point we are well into battle and Sav is doing Not Well™️.

Unsurprisingly with the party that we have, Geico, Seth, and Miralis managed to slam the thing into a screaming, ghostly puddle and everything seemed fine up until the clicking behind the walls stopped. The ceiling opened as a SIGNIFICANTLY larger slime fell into the room and, as its first action, grabbed Aurora and pulled her into a very tight and acidic hug. This led to the nickname of: Hugath.

Thankfully Aurora was able to break away from the Hugath and scrambled to the opposite wall, blasting the thing in retaliation and actually taking a pretty big chunk out of it. Then it went to Sav who, after recovering from his double status effect, climbed up the wall some to get out of range, popped an Enhance Ability on Seth (actual mistake on my part because he never said he was Raging ohp), and then fired one off on the slime. Which it basically bounced off of the strange surface layer of the slime. Still pricked it though, so that’s a win.

This is where Miralis powers in, dropping a Hunter’s Mark on the Hugath and hitting it pretty hard and shaking up it’s general gelatinous shape. After this, as per the usual for how these things play out, Seth breaks in and gives the Hugath a taste of it’s own medicine and hugged the bejeezus out of it. With that, there were now two puddles of what use to be living slime in the room, one medium and one large.

During all of this, Tetra was still locked out and had to find her way back to the party, using her turns to race around the northern hall, following it around a corner to another hallways filled with prison cells all of which held something different. One was a live wolf, which explains the existence of the Goopups, one was of several rabbits, one was a strange glowing goo just on the floor, and the last was... a person! A human gentleman, looked like the definition of a hobo, with a small bird that perched itself on his shoulder. This duo was Bob and Gia! 

After essentially ignoring and running past the prisoner, Tetra arrived on the outside of the northern door that the rest of the party was trapped in, just in time for Geico to unlock and open it! After the party properly collects themselves - and Aurora collects a strange purple stone that was in the grasp of a stray skeleton in the room - they make their way to the northern hallway and towards the many prison cells. On the way, we meet up and release Bob, who explains that he was taken from a smaller village to the south of Rakall a few days prior. Conveniently lining up with when Ullivan’s house exploded and he went missing.

Bob explains that he has only interacted with the same kind of ceiling slimes that had brought him food and an unidentified ‘Crazy Man’. Once the duo of hobo and bird are freed, Miralis volunteers to lead them out and back towards the tunnel. And just the tunnel. We didn’t think further ahead than that.

As they head towards the exit, the rest of the party headed by Tetra follow the prison cell hallway until it leads to another doorway, where the cleric just pushed in without much thought. Thankfully, her passive perception was high enough to instantly catch sight of a tripwire in front of the door and she just stepped over it. 

And this, with Tetra in the room, Miralis at the exit to the dungeon, and the rest of the party in the hallway, we ended the session. We are digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the dungeon with only a vague theory on what could be further inside. Slimes and a sneaky alchemist.

#dungeons and dragons #solart

[mediocremisterm]

The Wolf Mother

Our party finally arrives at the base of the mountain at sundown, and all they find is a small creek and the opening to a large cave. After a small back and forth, most of which being Tetra throwing a show at Seth for making a joke at Aurora’s expense and that aftermath, in a potentially annoyed mood Aurora led the party up front into the the cave itself.

And then, initiative was rolled.

At first it seemed simple, a few Goopups, we handled them before, and with now six people it would be even easier, right? Well, it started easy, as both Geico and Sav were able to shoot the first one they saw, although that was mere seconds before they were overrun with five more that came from deeper in the cave.

That was the beginning of our problems.

In the next bout of action, Seth was covered in the slime shoot at him from one of the Goopups, Sav received a regular attack from another Goopup, and, in a more positive turn, the party members actually in the cave were Blessed by Tetra and were given advantage on their thanks to Aurora’s Bolstering Shout ability.

Once again returning to the realm of the unfortunate, Savadar finally used his spidery legs to carry himself to the ceiling of the cave, being at the perfect height to avoid physical attacks and shoot his crossbow down on his enemies! At least, he would have, if not for the fact that in this moment Savadar, even with advantage, rolled two Nat 1s and breaking his crossbow. Entirely destroying the whole point of him being on the ceiling in the first place and getting a laugh out of literally every player. Panicked and having to come up with a new strategy, Sav retreated a little bit.

The next bout was somewhat easier, as Aurora blasts away one Goopup, Seth completely destroyed another while also getting hit by yet another Goopup. Miralis helped take care of that one as Sav healed up Seth because at this point he wasn’t doing so hot. All this seems like a total gain, and it was for the time being, until the Goopups numbers were only half of what they were when they started. That is when it happened.

At this point, Geico with all his Rouge abilities, managed to get behind the wolves and saw something big start to emerge out of the walls from the furthest end of the cave opposite of literally everybody and extremely deep into the cave. He gave a warning just as it came out and we came face to face with the alpha of this strange tribe of Goopups: The Wolf Mother. An amalgamation of green slime, metal rods, and shocking electricity.

Although at this point we did learn it’s proper name: Arc Wolf Alpha. Although everybody kept with the name of Wolf Mother or just ‘Big Mama’, thanks to Seth. An appropriate name.

Now, we figured that since we were basically wiping the floor with the smaller slimes, that focusing more towards escaping to avoid a boss fight would be smart, and it was for a moment! And then Sav and Seth were both impaled by two metal rods that the Mother shot out of her, only to then be electrocuted by a large arching volt of electricity.

Now escape was at the absolute top of the list as everyone began moving their way out of the cave. Sav stayed on the roof to avoid the wolves on the floor while throwing a Healing Word at Seth again, Seth grabbed Aurora and literally carried her out, Miralis took the occasional potshots at the Goopups and Mother, thankfully removing the smaller slimes from the equation, and Tetra managed to hold the Mother back long enough thanks to an Entangle spell all the way from outside of the cave. Meanwhile, Geico was still in the deeper parts of the cavern, investigating a very strange pile of bones that, even with very little looking into it, was just off somehow.

While escaping, Savadar started the initial attack on the Wolf Mother. In hindsight, an EXTREMELY poor idea for a currently impaled bard. Although, using Heat Metal on the rods inside the Mother seemed like a good idea at the time and did actually do a pretty good chunk of damage! For… about a second before that very rod was shot back at him for a combination of both the impact damage and fire damage. This was a problem at this point.

Thankfully, Aurora was fairly safer outside of the cave and fired off a Hex onto the Mother, knocking it’s strength to a disadvantage as Tetra continued to hold it in place so Miralis can give the beast a Hunter’s Mark and let out a rather beefy hit on it. Only to himself get shot and impaled with a metal rod as well. It was actually a rather middle ground for damage dealt and taken by both sides as it was only the Wolf Mother and… about four of us, with Sav and Miralis actually rather low from the attacks against us.

The next bout, however, was a lot more heavy hitting on the Mother’s side, firing another rod and impaling through Miralis as well and then following it up with an arch of electricity that shot out and connected between Savadar and Miralis, knocking the two both to the ground. Tetra broke her concentration from the Entangle spell to ensure that the two of us are only downed and unconscious instead of dying, but did let the Wolf Mother have free reign to move again.

Thankfully, this freedom of movement was not a problem for out party, as Seth, with the luck of RNGesus, rushed the giant slime and drove his fist through its form and caused it let off a number of small discharges, lose its shape, and then fall to the ground as a puddle of electric slime and metal poles.

Now with several dead slimes, many metal poles, and a strange shadowy figure that seemed to appear and then disappear as Seth defeated the Wolf Mother, the party rests in the cave and the session comes to its end as the party has completed their first boss fight.

#dungeons and dragons #solart