D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

• Went to the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, to find only two low-level acolytes there, but they were apparently in a position to authorize us to go destroy the undead, and warned us copying the book could take up to a week, which we agreed to (but stipulated that we would have at least one of the five of us present with the book at all times (as we didn't want them pulling any fast ones in an effort to prevent the phylactery from being destroyed)
• Heard a sudden wind pounding at the doors and started casting pre-combat spells, thinking this might be an invisible stalker or something sent to fetch the phylactery
• After three rounds of readied actions to attack anything coming after us through the doors and with the clock ticking on our 11-round haste spell, the paladin finally opened the front doors and saw Andrew the lich and the two mummy fighters from the hidden library three rounds into returning to physical form after having wind walked to our location (after the lich used a discern location spell to find us, which he wasn't technically able to cast - more on that later at the end)
• Had to wait two more rounds for the full manifestation to take place, at which time we all got in our readied actions, and then my sorcerer, the halfling rogue, and the elf archer were all paralyzed by the mummies' aura of despair
• Had the half-elf paladin and the elf druid take on the three undead for a bit, until the rest of us were able to act again, during which time the druid caught all three up in a wall of thorns
• Killed off the two mummies after a fairly tough battle, by which time the lich had summoned a Huge earth elemental (which the druid countered by summoning a Huge air elemental to try to take it out)
• Ended up with the paladin and the lich inside the wall of thorns duking it out, which became even more problematic when the lich cast an antimagic field spell, which - combined with his DR 15/bludgeoning and magic - meant none of the other PCs could do anything at all which could have hurt him in the least
• The paladin finally killed the lich, but only by using Power Attack, which meant most of his attacks failed to hit (and even those that did hit did minimal damage); he was dealing 0-4 points of damage at a time each round while the lich was dealing 7-14, and the paladin was down to around 16 hp (from his normal 85 hp) by the time it was done

• Were returning the drow woman they rescued last adventure to her jungle tribe, when they encountered a pair of hungry ceratosaurs, who burst out of the jungle on either side of the path the PCs had been traversing (on their pachycephalosaurus mounts, with the exception of the half-orc cleric/paladin, who rode an air element warhorse)
• Had the dwarven priestess cast a hold monster spell on one dinosaur, while the half-orc cast a freedom of movement spell on himself to escape from the other's teeth and jaws
• Summoned a Huge fire elemental to help fight the ceratosaurs, forgetting the burning elemental was 32 feet tall and the tree branches overhead were only about 20 feet up; they started burning down the jungle as a result
• Finally slew both ceratosaurs (but only after the half-orc and the human spellsword got to experience being shaken like a rag doll in a predator's teeth for extra damage) and went on their way, figuring the frequent daily rains would put out the fire they'd started in the jungle behind them
• Made it to the drow tribe and were met by a guard, who welcomed the woman back and filled her and the PCs in on what had transpired since her disappearance: a tribesman named Ranagar had challenged the chieftain to a duel to the death for leadership of the tribe at midnight tonight, but the chieftain had since slipped into a deep sleep from which he couldn't be awakened
• Offered their services as dreamwalkers, and got the wise-woman's approval to try to wake the chieftain
• Did their normal dreamwaking ritual (it had been a while since they'd last had to do so), and were surprised when they just "popped" straight into the dream instead of being led their by their moogle guides
• Saw the dream taking shape before them: Ranagar was castrating a prone and naked Chieftain Vhaundalan, whose wrists and ankles were bound by hypnalis vipers, while warning him this is what would happen if the chieftain stepped into the combat arena at midnight; Alaundria was laying unmoving nearby - it turned out she was dead
• Attacked the vipers and Ranagar with a variety of spells and weapons, only to learn the challenger had a very high spell resistance (even for a drow), was somehow immune to mind-affecting magic, and enjoyed biting his victims (leading them to believe for a moment he was a vampire)
• Found out "Ranagar" was a dreamthief hag when the spellsword's bastard sword, which can pierce illusions, showed her for what she really was
• Killed the vipers and caused the hag to touch her book of dreams (a reworked dreamstone) to heal herself of all damage
• Dealt her enough damage in the dreamscape afterwards that she decided to skedaddle, taking several attacks of opportunity as she used etherealness to return to the Material Plane (where the dreamwalkers' bodies were being guarded by their allies)
• Tried escaping out of the tribal lair, but was brought down by a chain lightning spell by the half-orc after he woke himself back up
• Convinced Chieftain Vhaundalan that Ranagar had been in league with the hag and had tried to cheat to force a win in the upcoming fight to the death, which neither could get out of now that the challenge had been made
• Watched (along with the rest of the jungle drow tribe) as Vhaundalan slew his challenger and ate his heart raw, and then they made diplomatic excuses as to why they wouldn't be joining the tribe in a cannibalistic feast (although they added some dinosaur meat they'd harvested from previous kills and ate that during the feast in their honor)
• Were invited to a sweat lodge ritual by the wise-woman (who they'd freed from her own dream coma - she'd been imprisoned in the book of dreams and was awakened when the PCs burned the book), where they saw a vision of a possible near future; the dwarf priestess being devoured by a monstrous plant, and turned into some type of vegetable zombie

Richards said:

In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, after explaining to the DM our plans for what the PCs would do between last session and this one (talk to the head cleric of the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, explain what we found, offer to slay the undead for them and return with all the books and scrolls, and allow their scribes to copy the info out of the book that had become a phylactery before we destroy it, because we would definitely be destroying it before we went to fight the lich), the PCs:

• Went to the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, to find only two low-level acolytes there, but they were apparently in a position to authorize us to go destroy the undead, and warned us copying the book could take up to a week, which we agreed to (but stipulated that we would have at least one of the five of us present with the book at all times (as we didn't want them pulling any fast ones in an effort to prevent the phylactery from being destroyed)
• Heard a sudden wind pounding at the doors and started casting pre-combat spells, thinking this might be an invisible stalker or something sent to fetch the phylactery
• After three rounds of readied actions to attack anything coming after us through the doors and with the clock ticking on our 11-round haste spell, the paladin finally opened the front doors and saw Andrew the lich and the two mummy fighters from the hidden library three rounds into returning to physical form after having wind walked to our location (after the lich used a discern location spell to find us, which he wasn't technically able to cast - more on that later at the end)
• Had to wait two more rounds for the full manifestation to take place, at which time we all got in our readied actions, and then my sorcerer, the halfling rogue, and the elf archer were all paralyzed by the mummies' aura of despair
• Had the half-elf paladin and the elf druid take on the three undead for a bit, until the rest of us were able to act again, during which time the druid caught all three up in a wall of thorns
• Killed off the two mummies after a fairly tough battle, by which time the lich had summoned a Huge earth elemental (which the druid countered by summoning a Huge air elemental to try to take it out)
• Ended up with the paladin and the lich inside the wall of thorns duking it out, which became even more problematic when the lich cast an antimagic field spell, which - combined with his DR 15/bludgeoning and magic - meant none of the other PCs could do anything at all which could have hurt him in the least
• The paladin finally killed the lich, but only by using Power Attack, which meant most of his attacks failed to hit (and even those that did hit did minimal damage); he was dealing 0-4 points of damage at a time each round while the lich was dealing 7-14, and the paladin was down to around 16 hp (from his normal 85 hp) by the time it was done

So, discussing it in the office today, I learned the DM had misinterpreted how bonus spells worked, and had allowed the 11th-level cleric lich (with access to spells of up to 6th level) the "bonus" 7th- and 8th-level spells he "gained" by increasing his normal Wisdom via the owl's wisdom spell. I had to explain to him that's not how that works, and he didn't believe me until I reminded him his wife runs a dwarf cleric in my campaign who, at character creation, had an 18 Wisdom and thus would get a bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spell above and beyond what she would normally be able to cast, but only when she was able to cast spells of that level. Then it finally clicked in his head.

So we were facing a lich who had access to spells he shouldn't have been able to cast, making him much more powerful that he should have been, and we still ended up 347 XP short of becoming 12th level (because we got standard XP for a lich of that level). There were also no less than three instances during this game session when the DM's immediate ruling was, "Nope, you fail, it doesn't work that way" until we showed him in the rules where that what we were having our PCs do was in fact how that particular rule works. (And then he pulls the same thing in reverse, trying to do something illegal by the rules as written that benefits the enemies and screws us over, until we point out in the rules that that's not how that works, either.)

My son, nephew, and I are kind of looking forward to this campaign's end, when my son regains the DM's chair once again. The DM is a good friend and a decent player, but after 48 game sessions as a 3.5 DM he still hasn't gotten over his "AD&D 1E Adversarial DM" ways....

Johnathan

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Richards said:

just 347 XP short of leveling

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• Were invited to visit a "freak show" of exotic animals (well, magical beasts) in a tent setup outside of town by the lady in charge of it (a perk of being the Vale's most well-known adventurers)
• Saw the following in barred cages: 4 gricks, 4 krenshars, a dragonne, two girallons, "Snake-Boy" (apparently a yuan-ti who could almost pass for human), and a female tiefling in a cage across the way from Snake-Boy's, all while being given the tour by the proprietress (followed around by her gray render bodyguard)
• Queried the proprietress why intelligent creatures (tielfling, yuan-ti, dragonne) were being held in cages, got evasive answers
• Had the paladin detect for evil, and sure enough, the proprietress, Snake-Boy, and the tiefling were all evil
• Had the elf archer move out of visual range just long enough to turn invisible, but while there she saw a yuan-ti abomination enter the tent area, apparently looking for Snake-Boy
• Had the sorcerer's grackle familiar take to the skies as aerial reconnaissance, he alerted the sorcerer of the abomination, and the sorcerer alerted everyone while casting a haste spell upon himself, his familiar, the halfling rogue, and the half-elf paladin (the other two PCs were out of range)
• Fought the abomination, taking it down with a sleep arrow, a scorching ray spell, the paladin's charge with his +2 holy flaming burst longsword and a smite evil attack - which knocked it out, and the halfling then killed it with a coup de grace attack
• Had the elf druid "bunnify" the proprietress, which panicked the gray render into attacking the nearest person (the elf druid, as it turned out); she escaped by wildshaping into a snake after being chewed/clawed by the render (she slithered through the corner of the girallon cage, staying well out of their reach)
• Saw Snake-Boy dissolve the pin going through his ankle (through which he'd been tethered by a chain) and break down the door to his cage
• Caught the gray render, the bunny, and Snake-Boy up in a wall of thorns spell cast by the snake-druid
• Watched as the bunny reverted back to human form on her own (she must be a shapechanger of some type!)
• Killed the gray render with a lightning bolt spell, took out the proprietress with an arrow, and then talked to Snake-Boy who demanded to be freed from the wall of thorns; the sorcerer killed him with a magic missile spell after determining he was too dangerous to the Ghourmand Vale populace to let live
• Gathered up the "roadies," explained why we were freeing the tiefling (she'd been sold into slavery as a young girl and was "evil" due to her tiefling heritage, not anything she'd ever done; we told her to keep her nose clean) and the dragonne (he'd been captured when he had a broken wing, but he was long since healed and we didn't like the idea of an intelligent creature kept in a cage)
• Got an argument from the druid that the other creatures shouldn't be kept in cages either, but we weren't willing to set krenshars, gricks, or girallons free to attack people (the dragonne feasted on deer and the like), so she was outvoted
• Leveled up to 12th level (at long last!)

• Headed out on a two-day journey to the rock quarry where a group of stone giants who are providing stone to the Vale for construction projects were late on their latest shipment, to see if everything was okay with them
• Encountered a group of four unfamiliar stone giants (the PCs have already met the members of the tribe they were going to visit) in the forest a couple hours from the quarry, and were asked if they knew the way to the quarry, for this group of four were "emissaries of the shrine" seeking out nearby stone giant tribes
• Professed not to know the location of the quarry, after the paladin detected these four were all evil
• Attempted to bypass the stone giants by riding through the forest under the effects of a haste spell (and the paladin was riding his celestial pegasus, so we would all be able to outrace the giants), with the intention of warning the stone giants at the quarry of these incoming strangers of an evil nature
• Got caught up in some readied actions: one giant pulled a fireball bead from a necklace of fireballs he wore wrapped around his bracer and went to toss it at my human sorcerer as he rode past, only to have the elf archer's readied action to shoot him if he tried anything take effect first; as a result, he dropped the bead and it exploded at his feet, encompassing all four giants and none of the heroes
• Got the giants penned in with the druid's spike stones spell, but then one tossed a rope of entanglement at her that she couldn't escape
• Attacked the giants with the sorcerer's chain lightning spells, the archer's arrows, the halfling rogue's wand of burning hands, and the paladin's dive-charge on his flying celestial pegasus
• Discovered the "stone giants" weren't as they appeared when my sorcerer took slicing damage from a stone giant's greathammer; eventually saw through the veil spell that they were two fire giants and two ogres
• Killed the lot of them and looted the corpses, to find one wearing a magic gem that a hag covey could scry through
• Got the druid (who had tried escaping the magic rope by wildshaping into a garter snake with no effect) free of her entanglement by having my sorcerer dimension door with her in tow but not the rope; the rope then became treasure for the halfling to use in future adventures