#3 guesses on what happened. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cinturon-cadena · 5 months

Text

My D&D Party!!

I can finally post this beautiful artwork that I commissioned from @bimborat for the D&D 5e game that I run online!!

[From Left to Right: Giblet the Aarakocra Monk/Ranger/Fighter, Rael the Drow Druid, Raguel the Godling in the back, Asbel the Half-Elf Fighter/Warlock, Kori the Half-Elf Wizard, Ti the Aasimar Cleric/Artificer, and in the front veiled in shadow is Endrina the Shadow Demon patron of Asbel]

Bimborat aka Eldritch Blossom is an amazing and talented artist who churned this out for me in under a month! Go check out her Tumblr here and her Instagram here!

She was very patient and adaptable throughout the entire process, and obviously the results speak for themselves!! ❤❤

False Hydra Encounter Spoilers under the cut~

IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING AS A PLAYER, PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE AS IT MAY SPOIL THE EXPERIENCE:

Random things (such as health potions) appearing on or around dead bodies

Extra beds in the Tavern/Hotel rooms you stay in

NPCs frequently referring to your Party as 1 person larger than it is

Allies/Enemies randomly becoming more damaged than they were a second ago

NPCs having inconsistent memories or selective amnesia

Empty houses that are fully furnished as if someone could live there, but NPCs insisting that "no one has ever lived there"

Ok, Storytime~

I'm DMing this D&D 5e Party online, and have been for nearly 2 years now. They've finally made it to level 11, so I can start throwing some really big bosses at them like the False Hydra.

I give one of my PCs, Ti, a note from a villager in the upcoming town, stating that they had the pleasure of meeting a friend of Ti's and that they should meet. This is a big deal, because Ti has been looking for this friend of his for a long time. He convinces the Party to come with him to meet his friend, and the Party arrives in the town.

The town is oddly quiet and empty, with only a few market stalls manned. They come across an odd homeless man that appears to be graffitiing the side of a house in charcoal with the words, 'LOOK UP'. When the Party attempt to communicate, he gives no indication that he can hear them and runs away.

Things get even stranger when they arrive at the address the letter was sent from. They are greeted by an eccentric Halfling Gnome! (definitely a Gnome!) inventor, who invites them to test his Nonmagiscry device - a contraption that is able to instantly capture the image of someone nearby without the use of magic. They agree and the inventor instructs the Party to pose for him. Afterwards they ask him about the letter and the mysterious cryptic note in the middle of it. However, not only does he have no idea what they're talking about or who Ti's friend is, but the panicked note that was embedded in the middle of the letter is gone!

Apologizing that he can't help the Party more, the inventor informs them that if they're looking for someone out of town, they should go to the tavern as it's a popular place for travellers.

They arrive at Larry's, a tavern named after the talented chef and owner. Inside, they find that most of the tables are empty, with only 1 or 2 patrons at the occupied tables spread out oddly throughout the tavern. Despite this, most of the tables are full with tankards of ale that haven't been touched, and the barista, Larry's wife, appears overwhelmed at trying to manage the half-empty establishment.

After some questioning and ordering of drinks, the Party finds out that someone matching the description of Ti's friend had passed through town some days ago, but they were being followed by 'mysterious figures in dark cloaks' (it's the cult problem they've been having to constantly deal with throughout their adventure).

They thank her for the information and get a room for 2cp/person - 12cp 10cp in total. The price includes a delicious breakfast made by her husband.

This is when things start to get really interesting.

The Party wakes up the next morning, and Rael has scratched 'IT'S WATCHING' on his own chest with his fingernails during his sleep (meditation, technically - dude's a Dark Elf).

This, naturally, causes the entire Party to Freak Out. They deliberate what to do before Kori the Wizard has an idea: he takes the small silver pocket mirror that he had bought the day before, and uses it to view the room.

They see that Rael and Ti's room window has been smashed from the outside through the mirror. They are on the second floor. And the window appears normal when they look at it without the aid of the mirror.

Taking it to the others' rooms also yields some interesting finds: in Kori and Giblet the Aarakocra's room they find scratching on every wall surface stating, 'IT'S WATCHING YOU IT'S ALWAYS WATCHING THE EYES THOSE HORRIBLE EYES', as well as a boarded-up window. In Asbel's room they find more broken glass and blood stains around the window. They also find an extra bag that doesn't belong to anyone.

Needing a break from this insanity, the Party decides to go downstairs and discuss their findings over breakfast. However, upon arriving they are served nothing but a meager burnt toast and coffee instead of the breakfast buffet they were promised from the barista's husband. Upon questioning the barista about it, she curtly informed them that she has never been married.

Taking their investigation outside, the Party discovers that the number of footprints in the snow around town seems to have more than doubled overnight. Using Giblet's tracking abilities, they follow a set of new footprints to an abandoned house with a wide-open gate that bears a sign saying, 'BEWARE OF DOG'.

They do not find a dog.

However, Giblet's keen eyes do find what the rest of the Party somehow missed: a doghouse in the backyard that seems to have been completely obliterated from above. As the Party examines it, both Giblet and Kori spot something in the back window of the house:

A pale, gaunt face with wet, hollow holes for eyes and a distended jaw filled with perfectly straight, white teeth. It is extended unnaturally as it sings a horrible song.

As they watch it, it seems to slink back further into the house.

The 2 lead the Party into the back of the back of the house in order to find out what this creature is. After some investigating, they find a storage closet with some potions of Blindness/Deafness as well as a potion of Clarity. They also find an empty bedroom with all the furniture from the entire house piled up in the closet.

Deciding to head back to where this all begun for them, the Party heads back down the street to the inventor's house. However, halfway there Rael gets the Feeling of Being Watched, and he can hear a horrifying melody being bellowed from somewhere behind the Party. The rest of the Party appear to be unaffected.

Slowly, carefully, Rael holds up the small silvered mirror that Kori had given him, and sees behind him a massive pale fleshy stalk that stretches up into the sky. At the top of the stalk is a pale, gaunt face with wet, hollow holes for eyes and a distended jaw filled with perfectly straight, white teeth. It is extended unnaturally as it sings a horrible song.

Rael does his best to Not Freak Out, and succeeds fairly well. He subtly informs the rest of the Party that they're Being Watched and that it might be a good idea to plug their ears (he has correctly assumed that the Singing is Bad).

The Party, unfortunately, are not so subtle, and begin frantically ripping their clothes and tying cloths around their heads in order to try and muffle their ears. The False Hydra sees what they're doing and attacks!

It goes after Rael first, since he's at the back of the group. Before the Party's very eyes, Rael seems to disappear out of nowhere. Rael can still see the Party from where he's being grappled in the Hydra's mouth, 20' in the air, but the Party seem unable to heed his cries.

Using his quick thinking and Monk training, Giblet stills his mind and is able to now hear Rael's cries, though he is still unable to see him. Flying up, Giblet, with Rael's instruction, manages to land a hit on the False Hydra and grab Rael's hand. Rael wildshapes into an ant and slips out of the False Hydra's jaw just as the beast bellows in pain and disappears down into the hole in the middle of the street.

Giblet, with Ant!Rael in tow, dive down after the monster. Kori reaches into the Bag of Requirement I provided the Party with at the beginning of the Adventure (so of course they've never used it until now), and rolls well enough to pull out Eyedrops of True Sight. He uses them and chases after his Party members, providing them with the eyedrops as well.

They descend down through the tunnels into the depths below the town, until they come across a massive cavern with a twisting labyrinth. Fortunately, Ant!Rael has an amazing sense of smell, almost as if ants' entire lives revolve around olfactory communication! So Giblet places Ant!Rael on his unfolded paper fan which acts like a protractor, and Ant!Rael indicates the direction in the maze with the most foul stench.

Using the AntProtractor, the Party make it to the centre of the maze, where the massive, bulbous mass of pale flesh sits with no less than 5 long fleshy stalks with horrifying heads at the ends.

The battle was long and hard, and had 2 phases so that when the Party thought they had won, I pulled a sike! on them and they had to fight it again. Multiple Party members were rolling Death Saves at the same time, multiple times in a row! (Remember, these guys are level 11; I'm allowed to be hard on them now)

One by one, they defeated each head until there was only one left. 2 Party members were in the process of being swallowed by this thing. Another was still in its jaws. Those not within its grasp were either being paralyzed or recovering from their Death Saves.

Then Ti, one of the Party members within the gullet of the False Hydra, Ti sliced its neck open Hercules-style and slayed the Final Head. The False Hydra was Dead.

(then I moved the turn order up and loudly announced it was the False Hydra's turn. And that it was Dead so it didn't get a turn :) My Party cussed me out after they recovered from the horror)

Tired but victorious, the Party burned the body and left the bowels of the town to return to the surface. They exited from a hole near the inventor's house, and Kori remarked that they still needed to see how the Nonmagiscry picture had turned out. Together, Giblet, Rael, Asbel, Kori, and Ti walked up to the inventor's door.

The inventor was suspicious at first, seeing to have regained awareness that there was a monster lurking about eating people at random. But after reassuring him that they had defeated the monster, he welcomed them in with open arms.

He retrieved the photo of the Party and gave it to the Five of them:

There was a Sixth person in the photo.

#art #@bimborat #instagram.com/eldritchblossom #d&d #d&d 5e #dnd #dnd art #storytime #rare long post #the Shadow Demon isn't the 6th person btw #3 guesses on what happened.#go check out Bimborat/Eldritch Blossom they're amazing!!!#art commission #obviously I gave you the slightly shorter version of the story #otherwise I would literally be here all night #I've already been writing for - checks clock - 2 hours

8 notes · View notes