D&D & Tabletop

[Utrommaniac]

Well, now we have a place to tell our tales (and maybe even share videos from other peoples stories) from the table.


And I guess I'll start things off with a couple stories with one of my two characters. A goblin named Chovolona, who has the classic "my tribe was slaughtered and now I drink to keep the trauma at bay" backstory.


It got to the point that the other characters didn't trust her to carry potions. But, she was (accidentally) also the bad@$$ shot with a shortbow. Whose thing was the ol' "aim for the eyes".

So, I didn't quite have a full idea why the other players were so excited when she blinded a Nothic. And then I saw the picture.



I haven't played Chovlona in a while, but she also has an "Emotional Support Warg" named Fogbog.


Right now, it's been a halfling wizard that was dreamed into existence by a Beholder. She's been a lot of fun. But I will tell her stories later.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Oh, cool! Was thinking of doing this if no one else did. Ok, I'll go.

My "main" pc/npc (I use him as a support character when I DM) is a drow bard named Lothir. His full name is Lothir Ustdalharn E'Terrindar, which basically translates to Lothir Firstson of House E'Terrindar. He's the prince and (AWOL) heir of the First House of the Argonian Empire. He also hates his parents. His father is the self-styled "Pirate King", who rose to power in the drow lands after having been cursed to become one by the elven gods when he murdered his brothers, father, and finally his wife, all in the pursuit of becoming head of his family's noble estate. After joining a drow House after being Cursed, he built up his own fleet of ships, followers, and allies, staged a coup of the drow matriarchy, and then slaughtered the families of every House that refused to follow his new regime. Most fell in line, while those who refused were exterminated to the last child.

He also kept an elven woman named Ravyn as his plaything, and from her Lothir's older half-sister Morganna was born. The two siblings are bitter enemies, as she hates him simply for existing, believing he usurped her (nonexistant) birthright as heir. Morganna's mother seved as Lothir's wetnurse and nanny as a child (and eventually as his lover later), and it was from her that he learned to value love and compassion, and to hate slavery and cruelty. She was taken as a sacrifice to the drow goddess when Aldan discovered she was pregnant after he'd been absent for an extended time, and when Lothir's mother (a high priestess) determined the unborn twins carried his blood, all three were killed. For this reason- the murders of his beloved and the unborn children- he hates his father more than anyone in the world.

His mother, Matron Ardra, was formerly the head of their House until Aldan (his father) took over, and she seethes with hate and desires to undermine her husband's rule by manipulating the boy to her own ends. She turned one of his tutors into a drider as punishment for disobedience while forcing him to watch, treated him little better than the slaves simply because he was male, and later sent a trio of bounty hunters to capture him after he fled his home. She was also the one who slew his love and former nursemaid, so he is bitter about her hand in the murder, though it was at his father's command.

He has befriended a dragon he was supposed to kill as a rite of passage, been kissed by a goddess, faced an infestation of energy-draining bugs, been "executed" for murders he didn't commit (he faked being dead!), killed in a duel with his sister (he got better!) and been abducted to a demon's wedding. Among other things.

[Utrommaniac]

I think my favorite thing about Tami is the current group she's with.

She's actually been in two different campaigns. One was completed with the party all dying, and being given a choice to move on to the next live, go to heaven, or to to another world. The rest of the party imparted their inventory to her and she was allowed to ask for any item she wanted beforehand; she asked for levitating boots so she can float.

After much consideration, Tami was moved to another world because she was on the ground sobbing hysterically because she was afraid her dad would turn into a Death Tyrant (also she's fourteen), while the others decided to all become woodland animals.

Now she's with a Dragonborn monk who was raised by wolves (Wolfrick) and married Simic hybrids (Deche and Lex).

Deche records everything that happens around her, being a researcher. Wolfrick is finally going out into the world for the first time and everything is new and exciting, but he keeps a list of all the things Tami has done that is weird. Lex...is best described with:


Unlike the other group, they don't really question her basically being the child of a Beholder, but she hasn't divulged other details of her history to them. She's kind of a lawful neutral, I think, which is weird given the environment she was raised in. But even the Beholder that created her was weird for his race. Tami exists because he dreamed of the idyllic life he wanted, and what lives a more wholesome than a halfling?


I'm pretty sure she ended up being declared the leader of the group because she's so loaded, she's paying for the repairs of the manor Volo dumped on them when he couldn't reward them for saving his friend.

Spoiler:

We didn't even get points for killing the Mindflayer in that mission, because they didn't kill the Mindflayer. Tami panicked after a TPK attack just barely missed them and she summoned Daddy for help (rolled odd or even for success). Daddy took care of it.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

OMG, Volo was involved? ROFL!! I am quite familiar with the *ahem* "guide" of FR fame. As well as his connection (unfortunately for the Old Sage) to Elminster.

My other pc/npc is Beznik Bogglewort, a curmudgeonly gnome wizard (fire elementalist/pyromancerprestige) who is something of an alchemist and tinkerer. He is a pyromaniac, dangerous enough on its own, but he is also nearsighted- and a clutz. Accident prone and rather absent-minded. One of the party's tropes at this point has become the "throw the gnome" tactic, because they KNOW that something is bound to blow up when he lands! Since he is an alchemist who specializes in fire, well.... that, and he LOVES to watch things burn anyway with his spells, but often burns them inadvertantly with his potions and alchemic items! He's been thrown out of several towns for doing just that. Gets caught in the middle of a tavern brawl, or accidentally blows up his shop taking several others with it two or three times, and, you get the idea. It's not that he WANTS to destroy things, he just is clumsy and half-blind, with a habit of getting lost in his thoughts at inoportune moments.

What makes him even more fun to play is that he has a familiar who is a mechanical ferret named Chamomile, who can roll up into a ball to be carried around in a pocket or pouch. I modeled him after an ermine of the same name feom Negima, minus the attitude and talking. And yes, I know he kind of sounds like a pokemon. That was an unintentional but humorous coincidence.

[Utrommaniac]

I would hope Volo is involved, we were doing the Dragon Heist campaign (with some sprinkles of homebrew missions in there; we do have a manor to fix up, so we gotta take the money we can get. We even made friends with the poltergeist that haunts it.)

It will be a long time before they meet the Xanathar, but I'm really excited for it. Right now, we're just know about the gang war and how the Xanathar gang was murdering elves at the Waterdeep docks. For which Tami had to accept the reward for, since she was voted in as leader in a split second.
Lots of glancing around before "Lex" finally shouted "This child who's wise beyond her years!"

Here's a rough idea of her design

Spoiler:

With some struggle at the bottom of the robe...???
And not doing her signature "hands over head" display of magic, because I drew this before I decided that would be a cool idea

She really only has one eye, the eye patch just covers empty skin. Her skull would look like One Eyed Willy's in The Goonies.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Not really familiar with that particular adventure campaign, but I have enough of the Volo's Guides from earlier editions and other source books (including a fair number of Forgotten Realms novels/anthologies) to know of him and Xanathar both. Wait- is Xanathar her dad??? Cause he's probably the most famous/powerful beholder in lore. Iirc, he was even featured in one of the early handheld games for the Nintendo DS color(I think).

[Utrommaniac]

So, has anyone made their own campaign?

I've been trying to figure out my first (a one shot), but don't know entirely were to start.

Plot hook?
The newest members of the Xanathar Theives Guild to know their leader’s identity are tasked with replacing their Master’s dead fish before he notices it is gone.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

So, has anyone made their own campaign?

First time I DM'ed I created a homebrew campaign, with a map over the kingdom it mostly took place in; Mith-Thoron.

We played over skype as I and some players was in UK while the rest was in Norway, and we used MapTools for rolling and combat. It's a pretty good program when it works, we had to use a extra program that simulates LAN connection so that people could connect to the server we had. But, it's great for macro work, and having a few of the players being interesting in coding we had some pretty crazy macros that recognized and did the math for critical hits, taking damage and various modifiers for attacks.

My memory is pretty hazy on what the campaign truly was about, as a lot of it was winged on the fly. But in rough strokes: Orcus was pulling the strings to achieve true Godhood as his trusted Death Knights (Damodar from the D&D movie, Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior rip-offs ) was looking for a God Machine that can grant Godhood.

And there was a Elven Wizard who almost attained Godhood from the God Machine, but was sealed in her spellbook 2000 years ago was plotting to gain freedom with help from her Lich sister.

The group started very basic, but it got wilder and wilder, as clearing out a abandoned Wizard academy turned into saving the world. They had to battle Death Knights, Liches, Lolth herself and her army of invading Drow, Their own party member who tried to take over his former cult, dealing with human Wizards being out of their mind and dealing with Jamfalcon "Muffinbeard" Shieldhearth; a out of his mind über Wizard who was sealed away for 2000 years (in my campaign he was the inventor of the Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity).

And after collecting artifacts to get boons from Pelor, Sehanine, Corellon and Raven Queen, they finally killed Orcus himself on his own home plane (and catching his essence to use as a power source). They had to fight Orcus on the Material Plane and Orcus Empowered (a official beefier version of Orcus) in the Abyss. This fight was pretty awesome as we had jumped off MapTools and played traditionally with miniatures, and the guy playing Garon have the Orcus mini.

We cycled through a lot of PCs and we started on level 5 and ended the campaign on level 30 (max for 4th edition) Where the final party members had each a epic conclusion.

Spoiler:

Former Bard-now Paladin of Corellon, Lady Lucy of Sylviath. She's a Drow (raised by a adventuring party and was the most good person in the original group line-up) that became the Goddess of Rebellion and started a nation populated by renegade Drow. She was the only original party member that was played all the way to the end of the campaign, she also got a huge following of Drow that she dubbed "The Ducklings". She became a paladin after dying and encountered Corellon himself.

Garon deBrie, a human Warlord. He usurped the throne of Mith-Thoron from the useless king who hailed from a great line of warriors all the way to the Original King Grey who was a adventuring party member of Muffinbeard. Garon ruled as a divine king, and married a Eladrin Noble who had aided the party.

Lona the Lord Lady Knight Emperor Overlord of Mastery of Masterness in Awesome Shiny Lordness of The Elemental Chaos. She's a Void-Soul Genasi Wizard who squired the Five Books of Ultimate Truth, got herself a Drow Priestess as a girlfriend and started up the Wizard Academy as Archmagister that the campaign started with. if the game ever got a sequel she might have been the next big bad as she was quite morally dubious and chaotic.

Blade of Justice, a winged Avenger of Erathis. He always wore a mask covering his face and was very Lawful and not a good sharer of personal stuff. He was a long time tormented by the Avatar of Vecna (she looked like Jessica Rabbit with a creepy eye and hand) and taunted him with gifts if he revealed his face to her. When the group killed Orcus, Blade poofed into dust and his soul became a part of Erathis.

Notable mention PCs are:

Spoiler:

Leonard the Shadar-Kai Wizard, a former Tharizdun with a horrible sense of direction sense. He was almost possessed by the Elven Wizard by reading her spellbook, he ended up selling the original king's crown for a fortune and settled down in his own Wizard tower.

Ruse the Psion. This guy was a Changeling, who for some reason disgused himself as a Eladrin, and just by sheer luck he wasn't found out as he kept his secret through the campaign with "I can't feystep casue I got a birth defect" and always serving away from Lucy's questions who was educated in the Feywild.

Thoradin, Dwarven Cleric of Moradin. He got cursed by a Belt of Femininity/Masculinity where it also changed your race. He became a Wood-Elf as well as a lady.

Spectre, a Revenant Avenger (Later Assassin when it came out). He was a member of a Raven Queen cult that very devoted to undead slaying, and he didn't stop despite becoming one. The player was That Guy, and created a lot of animosity and drama in the party. When the player left, the character took over his own cult, and the party had to destroy said cult and they ended up killing Spectre.

The old map:

Spoiler:

Castle Grey
The City of the King of Mith-Thoron. A large city surrounding the mighty castle, mainly populated by Humans, Dwarves and a few Half-Elven merchants.
Deepiron City
A melting pot of people, in the old times it was a city of Darwen kin only. Now it's ruled by the Chief of the Mith-Thoron Dwarves, but he is a subject of the Human King. Elves of any kind are not welcomed here.
Crystal Forest
The regent of the Elves, now a hostile place for any non-pointed ears. The current regent of the Elves declare the peace treaties over, there are still however many Elves that still pledge their allegiance to the old king.
Port Redway
It is the largest port city in the land, it have a beautiful facade but crime and poverty are lurking prominent in the background

Smaller Cities
Grey Town
The oldest port city in the land, in it's past it was notoriously known for slave trade until a group of adventurers stopped it and slavery was banned by law.
Riverside
A ciry of trade, built halfway on a lake, this city's majority of residence is Halflings. Wonderful goods can be found in this marvelous but protected city.
Alfhaven
The Elven friendly town, residence of 2 of the remaining adventurers that stopped slavery. the toen have had it's ups and downs but are usually the typical quiet town.
Wickervale
A logging town, the lands most trusted lumber supply due to it's contract with the local Elves. it was a quiet town until recently it got overrun by an undead scourge, now trapped in a never ending struggle to survive.
Sparrow Bay
A pirate port city, it have it's own laws and rules. A perfect place for the roguish and those with secrets, and loot to sell.
Dvergi Valley
A all Dwarf city, strong followers of Pelor thought the lands main deity is Bahamut.
Espa
A city close by the coast, a city wholly devoted to magics and the Arcana, a must see place for Mages and Sorcerers.
Quartz Hammer
A Dwarven town, known for it's training of top class Paladins and accepts all races that want to learn.
Ravenholm
a village almost forgotten, they abhor magics and live a strict lifestyle devoting their life to their deity.
Bluehaven
A crossroads town in a swamp, used to be a big trading town. located near a river running through coast to coast, it still lives of trading but it's glory days are past.

I do want to revisit the setting again. The party did travel outside of the Mith-Thoron border to a desert country that is the neighbor lands, so there was more.

But with so much forgotten it's a bit discouraging. Although I'd do a significant time jump, either 500 years or 800, so that no PC still lives by natural means.

[Utrommaniac]

I wanted to make a campaign around the Xanathar's inner circle sending their newest members out to get a replacement for its fish before it noticed it was dead...but then I found there was an even better version of basically the same thing and works with Dragon Heist, which my main group is playing.


And Tami is a bit of a "Syldar" herself, so that would be a great game to have her in.


I am trying to ponder her adulthood, though. And where exactly she stands in all the Beholder varieties; she'd probably be considered more of a "Spectator" than a true "Beholder", with her willingness to be around or even befriend other creatures and her capability to venture farther than most other Beholder varieties would. Also in an event in which she could grow eyestalks, she would only go up to four. And cover them with a turban of some kind (with one poking out disguised as a gem)

[MsMarvelDuckie]

My group's party consists of Issa "Shadowfox" Mito, the wood elf ninja (and de facto leader), who is on an honor quest to recover her family's missing heirloom katana. She found it, and is now (slowly) returning gome to reclaim her family's honor. With her are Lokran, the kitsune (foxyokai) arcanist, whose main goal in life seems to be to acquire every magical artifact, book or scroll that isn't nailed down, and to get filthy stinking rich. This naturally causes the party some problems when his curiosity gets the best of him.

Then we have Elric, the half-wood elf monk from Issa's clan who wants to prove himself worthy of the clan by helping to recover the blade, mostly so the two can marry, as he is considered an outcast due to being a half-blood.

Lothir joined the group on a whim, as well as for protection from his family's bounty hunters (and sister Morganna) and has been mostly aiding them while keeping out of the spotlight.

The original group also included an orc barbarian named Nodrog, who eventually got killed, ressurected by priests of the god of passion and fertility, and then ended up serving as a temple "companion" as payment. The party left him there.

Then there is Thordar, a dwarf barbarian battlerager from Ironhold. Not too bright, but always ready to slay whatever gets in the party's way. He dislikes and distrusts elves, and thinks everything is always the fault of orcs, even if no orcs are around or involved.

Beznik Bogglewort, my other main NPC helper, is the clutzy gnome pyromaniac- er, pyromancer who likes to use fire a bit TOO much. He has been run out of several towns simply for accidentally setting buildings on fire with his alchemic items or experiments. Or blowing up one too many taverns. But his expertise in elemental magic is second to none, and he has a natural resistance to fire due to some ifrit blood in his family lineage. (I gave him two levels of sorcerer as a way to explain his natural affinity with fire, plus if gives him the ifrit bloodline feats that make his magic so devestating.)

We also have a pair of sorcerers at present, one a female half-vampire (think Blade) and the other a red half-dragon male, who are paramours. Weird couple, and the damphir (half-vamp) likes to taunt Lokran since he hates undead.

At one point there was a halfling paladin, played by my hubby, but that one didn't last long and eventually left the party due to conflicts of morality.

And finally, Jezzendrix, a young red dragon disguised as a kobold via a magical collar, who acts as both guide and patron, and who encountered our party after he had stolen a dragon orb from his own father, who happens to be THE Elder Great Wyrm of the entire realm! Helstrom, as daddy is known, is the biggest, oldest, and most powerful red the world has ever seen, and he hungers for godhood, the ritual for which the dragon orb is essential to. So guess who is now hunting the PC's??

[Utrommaniac]

Today, on Dragon Heist!

The Gang got more information on the Stone of Galore, which is hidden within Tami's Bag of Holding! Which was inside her bedroom at the Trollskull Manor!
...where the game ended with the shattering of glass from the manor, heard from the Gralhund Villa...

And the day before they're opening the tavern.



So we going to workshop if Tami potentially has some kind of security on the Bag of Holding, which goes to her Beholder dad's lair instead of the Astral Plane.

[Utrommaniac]

You just gotta remember to actually play your character.

[Utrommaniac]

I completed my Homebrew D&D session.

Which eventually ended with them discovering that a baby Aboleth was trapped in the caverns that were being artificially flooded to free it. Initially, the party was set to kill it, until it explained that it had been separated from its parent in an earthquake. So, rather than face the wrath of the parent, they found a way to free it without flooding the cavern any further (the Kuo-Toa assigned to the job were being overly complicated).

In return, the baby Aboleth gave them the secret to curing those charmed by the slime (Just spouted off random stuff. "Slime that's been boiled...Crow's foot", all spoken in the "hewwo" voice)


The session ended with them sailing off with the boat that was their rewarded, being seen off by the freed Aboleth and its parent. And finishing with "they will both remember what you have done."


Which leaves things very open for a second session where they will more than likely be helpful.

[Utrommaniac]

Well, I went to a one-shot at a game shop today. Intended to go to a friend's game, but she (and most of the other players at that place) were at someone's birthday.


So, we did a Ravinia-centered one shot. That went bottom up pretty fast, when the four other players turned against each other after completing a sketchy task.


My character was a minotaur bard (a REALLY REALLY good performer too. +6 advantage on performance!), who tried and failed to talk everyone down, then gave up one smokescreens went off and he just left them to fight.

Eventually, he did give a report on the situation and was given a passport back to Faerûn, where he was trying to return. Where he landed near Waterdeep.

The name of his game: "Um, I'm partially a cow. Can I go home?"

My favorite exchange, though:
DM: He (my Minotaur) is playing the fiddle.
Me: Oh, he plays double bass.
DM: He's playing Minotaur fiddle!

(And he rolled like a 25 or something with his performance check.)

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Hmm, needs more cow bell.... Lol!

As a matter of fact, my game is a mostly homebrew campaign, with some older modules adapted either in part or whole, but always taylored to fit me realm. Which if I'm being totally honest, is kind of a mix of Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and a bit of Dragonlance (Kryyn) and Eberron. I have entire kingdoms set up for everything from Oriental Adventures characters/cultures, to Ravenloft's gothic horror. (There's a forest inhabited almost entirely by lycanthropes, and I have gyspy bands that travel around the central kingom I start from.) I've even got Arabian, Italian/Roman, dark elven, and Aztec cultures.

Most of the adventures I run center around two or three main kingdoms- Deepvale, Ironhold, and Kalleris. Deepvale is a wealthy trade and agricultural hub in a huge rift valley between the giant desert land of Simara and the mountains to the west. Ironhold is a dwarven city in those mountains (one of several), with rich veins of iron, mithril, and silver in their deep mines. And then on the other side of the mountains, in a large valley where the mountain range splits into two chains, is Kalleris, which is a lush green land of farming and sheep-herding communities, ruled by a central High Lord, a bit like Ireland or the Scottish highlands in flavor.

Currently, our party is trekking through the Underdark looking for a skull (one of four) made of gold. The other three are silver, emerald, and diamond. They were sent by a shaman of a tribe of Triceratopian lizardfolk to retrieve it as a peace offering to a neighboring tribe of drow they are at war with. Since the drow had originally hired the party to help eradicate the lizardfolk, but the lizardfolk are mostly peaceful and are the only ones of their kind, the party is trying to parlay to keep the Triceratopians from going extinct, while still helping the drow get what they want. (Basically, stopping the raids by angry lizardfolk looking for revenge for several tribemembers taken as slaves or used for magical experiments by drow "exploration" excursions.) What the party doesn't know yet is that the skulls are artifacts that when united can be used as a weapon of great destructive power.....

[Utrommaniac]

Ah cool.

Tami might actually be cool to have for that. She knows Deep Speech and would be considered a Beholder in the Underdark. Which would make her safer and more dangerous, depending on the outlook.

[Utrommaniac]

I just DM'ed my first game !

Made a homebrew.

Set on a "Seal Island" that had been a refuge for populations displaced by war, and it ended up being a very...eclectic community. A place where the current mayor (for three years) is a Tiefling named Benjamin (just threw out that name on the spot lol), and the previous mayor was a goblin that died in office. With a nephew in the royal guard.


Anyway, two years previously, an earthquake shook the island...but only sometime after did the water start receding at a rapid rate and flooding the caverns under the island. And not even can the island's secret selkies can find out what's going on. (My players figured out an NPC was a selkie pretty quick)


In the second round, hopefully, they'll discover that a baby aboleth was trapped in a cave-in, and the parents are trying to for the cavern to collapse in a way that will allow it to escape - which includes flooding the cavern more.


I just need to figure out what to do with the population of the island just being really friendly toward each other. "Walk into a tavern and find a goblin making out with a kobold" friendly. Where trolls are basically like TSA agents at the bridgeways. Where most reviled races are welcomed warmly.


Maybe I'll boost that in another game; I just wanted to tell the Selkie and Aboleth story. I just thought it would add some flavor to the island to have a really friendly population...which has caused a tourism boom and created an overwhelming huge influx of money.

My players were two half-orcs and a wood elf. "Half orcs" ended up being described as "handsome Shrek".



Also, seals are there.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

When I get some more free time and money, I'll definitely look into jumping into a game (or at least, watch some other people playing first so I can get an idea of an average game)

Anyone know of any sites where you can play D&D online?

[Utrommaniac]

Discord tends to be a good one. Though, I've found D&D is a game best played in person.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Most definitely. Today's session was.... interesting. And fun. The party is currently running through the classic adventure White Plume Mountain, though I have added a few twists of my own. They passed the sphinx last game, and got as far as the water-filled room where the sea hag and chuul (think giant mutant crawfish with mouth tentacles) lurked. Two of the party fell victim to her horrid presence and were weakened. Fun times. One room that was empty in the original version had a table with a mysterious cannister, and a door that wasn't really there. They paid more attention to the door than the only REAL object of interest. The cannister had a large M on it, and had the word "energy" in ancient runic script. It is literally a can of "monster energy" (as in, a trapped water elemental) that they have yet to open. They are presently doing battle with a werewolf sorceress and her sword-weilding lover. All on the way to find Wave, a legendary trident forged by a sea god. And that's just the FIRST of the three artifact weapons in this adventure!