D&D General How Was Your Last Session?

We played a session of our "Primordial Evil" campaign this past Sunday.

• The PCs conferred some more with the druid they visited in order to decide if they were going to the site the star supposedly fell or to go the other way around the mountain to look for the monks that should have been on their way to the druid to get the star info.
• They decided to go after the star because the Tabaxi druid PC's prophetic dream warned that various elemental cultists might be seeking it out too.
• They then went back to the village and met up with a young NPC wizard who was also waiting for those monks to bring him to the Tower of the Heavens where he was supposed to do a post-graduate internship. As the party of adventurers he'd hired dropped him here and refused to bring him further. As the PCs are planning to seek out the tower after finding the star they invited the wizard to join them - but first he extracted a promise from the party paladin to protect him. The PCs soon found out that the other party probably dropped him b/c of how annoying he is.
• They then traveled to another nearby village with a letter of introduction from one village prefect to another, in hopes of buying or borrowing some canoes to go up a partially dammed river to where the star supposedly was.
• The village prefect wanted them to go investigate some missing trade caravans instead, but relented and arranged for the canoes with a promise they'd return to look into it.
• The PCs traveled up river finding evidence of some kind of ecological devastation. Lots of debris, dead rotting fish on the revealed banks of the river, and other dead or dying wildlife. Eventually finding the impact point of the "star" and the vast damage it caused to the mountainside and forest which tumbled down into the river valley. They also found the stripped and abandoned corpses of several members of "The Children of Yanbin," one of the evil elemental cults. "Maybe the enemy of our enemy is our friend?" they thought.
• The party druid wildshaped into a rat to scope out a cave they found and spotted some derro conferring, but since she could not understand their language, she was not sure what to make of it. While locals had warned them about strange anti-social dwarves in the region who frequently warred with people of another isolated village (those who had dammed the river with their giant beaver companions) and the party paladin knew some derro worship Ogremoche (whose cult he had escaped and now he swore revenge on), the PCs still wanted to try to negotiate with them for the star.
• When they entered the caves to talk, the derro were like, "You'll make excellent slaves in helping us dig out our outpost which collapsed from the impact of the star above!" A fight ensued, which the PCs won.
• Further exploration of caves found a old slave who claimed to actually be 23 years old and that the derro were extracting the lifeforce of their captives for their nefarious goals. He also explained that the derro had had their captives dig up the fallen star.
• We left the session there with the party Gloomstalker considering using disguise self to go deeper into the caves and figure out where they are keeping the star before going in as a group to free the captives and get the star. The paladin, however, is itching to just rush in and put all the derro to the sword.
  
  We play again on August 18th.
  
  

Richards said:

In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, the PCs:

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I'm sorry that this DM is such a drag (each of these accounts makes me amazed that you continue to play in that game), but for what it's worth, I do enjoy reading the recaps from it.

My last session here

Did not stick the landing on this one, and really only have myself to blame. Was it a grueling and unfair battle against enemies too strong for the party, a comedy of errors, or an epic struggle of heroes vs. villains? Only time will tell.

el-remmen said:

I'm sorry that this DM is such a drag (each of these accounts makes me amazed that you continue to play in that game), but for what it's worth, I do enjoy reading the recaps from it.

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Actually, this DM is only occasionally a drag. During last night's session he was back on his best behavior, DMing fairly and squarely. That's what makes the sessions where he slips back into his old ways so frustrating - we all know he can be better. And he's a good friend and co-worker in the office where I work, so I'm willing to put up with more from him than I likely would from someone else doing the same things.

He, like I, got his start in AD&D 1E, but he had the misfortune to be a player playing under an adversarial DM and I think he just picked up some bad habits. (I had the advantage of being the DM from the get-go, as I was the oldest of four siblings, after learning the game from my cousins, who had a very player-friendly approach, so I never picked up the "I want to win the game as the DM" bad habits that seem to plague many beginning DMs.)

Incidentally, while I do enjoy writing up these recaps, I also do a full-fledged Story Hour of my campaigns, if you're ever bored. The "Ghourmand Vale" one even includes the songs my sorcerer PC writes for the NPC bard we just recently rescued from the aboleth.

Johnathan

Richards said:

Actually, this DM is only occasionally a drag. During last night's session he was back on his best behavior, DMing fairly and squarely. That's what makes the sessions where he slips back into his old ways so frustrating - we all know he can be better. And he's a good friend and co-worker in the office where I work, so I'm willing to put up with more from him than I likely would from someone else doing the same things.

He, like I, got his start in AD&D 1E, but he had the misfortune to be a player playing under an adversarial DM and I think he just picked up some bad habits. (I had the advantage of being the DM from the get-go, as I was the oldest of four siblings, after learning the game from my cousins, who had a very player-friendly approach, so I never picked up the "I want to win the game as the DM" bad habits that seem to plague many beginning DMs.)

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I have definitely have been accused of adversarial DMing, and while I will admit a hint of truth to that in the past, these days I try to be as open and generous as possible within my understanding of the framework of the rules and setting (we use a lot of houserules but I make them clear and available for everyone so we can discuss if something doesn't seem to be working). And that's also because I know I am also a tough DM who enjoys difficult and challenging and multi-faceted adventures and encounters. I am actually struggling with my Primordial Evil group a little because they are so bad at tactics and strategy and it bites them in the butt (as when what I thought would be a difficult but not too prolonged scenario that'd maybe take part of a session extended into three sessions because they just kept running forward, retreating and then doing the same thing again. I played their adversaries as learning from them, but they never seemed to learn from the previous attempts). But they tell me over and over how much fun their having so. . . all I can do is shrug and makes sure to mix in some potential clear wins for them (I say potential b/c I roll in the open and you never know what dice will do).

Incidentally, while I do enjoy writing up these recaps, I also do a full-fledged Story Hour of my campaigns, if you're ever bored. The "Ghourmand Vale" one even includes the songs my sorcerer PC writes for the NPC bard we just recently rescued from the aboleth.

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Oh I have sampled both of your story hours and enjoyed, just usually only have time for the recaps.

Session was … one of the tricky ones.

Diplomatic negotiation got blown up pretty thoroughly by one player (new to the group) playing in an entirely in-character but disruptive way, and another (not new to the group but only just starting to come out of his roleplaying shell) kinda stampeding the others and not letting them get a word in.

Bit of group dynamic repair being done before next session, sigh.

In today's "Dreams of Erthe" session, the PCs made it to the surface drow city of Du'dorach, where they:

• Were interviewed at the city gate by the guards, who had them pen their dinosaur mounts and follow a guard into a building for what their halfling guide assumed was a simple registration of their animals (that's what happened the last time he was through here, with the lady whose body the PCs are crossing the continent to fetch and bring back home)
• Were instead brought before a drow administrator in what was basically a courtroom, where they were accused of bringing a dangerous animal into the city
• Learned the "dangerous animal" wasn't the halfling's fastieth mount, but the half-orc cleric/paladin PC
• Were found guilty, sentenced to the arena, and when the administrator shut off the wall of force/illusory wall serving as the courtroom's floor, went sliding into an anti-magic field outside Machina Arena, where they were met up by a drow slave serving as their handler
• Learned from the handler they'd be up against a group of Assessors, who would then determine how many bouts they'd need to survive in order for the gods to grant them clemency for their crime
• Fought and defeated six hammerer automatons (the Assessors) with no problem, at which point they learned they'd have to fight their way through three separate bouts
• Fought and defeated two maug fighters without too much problem
• Fought and defeated an advanced chain golem, relying heavily on summoned creatures since it was immune to so many of their spells
• Fought and defeated an iron golem juggernaut, likewise relying heavily on summoned creatures (although the dwarf cleric cast iron body on herself for the first time and went hand-to-hand with the golem while everyone else held back and did stuff from range)
• Were each given a token (a small stone disk) with their name on it and proof that they'd survived the arena and could roam the city freely (although they were warned any future mishaps could lead them right back to the arena)

They plan to spend some of their money in Du'dorach, now that they're in civilized lands after months among hungry dinosaur predators and tribal humanoids. The half-orc has already put in an order for a +1 adamantine gauntlet for his left hand, since his right hand has a gauntlet of Cal (God of the Air and Healing) which allows him to throw three javelins of lightning per day.

Johnathan