Liz was down and out with a migraine, so she was not able to participate this session.
Check-In: Name your favorite animal, either mythical or real.
- Justice: Platypus. Thistle Winkle Frost’s favorite animal is the blink-dog.
- Miranda: Dragon. Lysithea’s favorite animal is the volcanic komodo dragon that lives around the Ocan’Queb volcano.
- Kevin: Komodo dragon. Gobbles likes the pygmy rhinoceros.
- Cordelia: Cats and fish. Surina’s favorite is the Griffin.
- Ian: Sharks. Professor’s favorite is eels.
- Shannon: Seal. K’un-Lun’s favorite is also Griffins.
When we last left the party they had just completed a game show-type dungeon, put on by the faerie-dragon Thistle Winkle Frost. At this point everyone has returned to normal – Gobbles is back to his tiny Goblin size, K’un-Lun and Octavia are their normal skin tones, and Professor’s mustache is grey, revealing his age (see Session 12).
Thistle Winkle Frost: No one has passed the test so far! You are the first to succeed!
K’un-Lun: How long have you been doing this?
TWF: *pretends to look at wrist* Quite a while. They kept dying. But you didn’t! *throws confetti over everybody*
The party feels a bit wiser as the confetti falls on them. They can now speak Sylvan.
TWF: Now we have to leave! Let’s go, new friends, let’s go!
A tiny door appears. Party rolls perception (Professor 11, Surina 16, Lysithea Nat 20, K’un-Lun 21, Gobbles 18). The walls are starting to crumble and the magical coldness of the stones is fading. Lysithea can tell the magic is fading from the entire area.
Lysithea: Hey guys, the magic is fading away. We should skadoodle.
TWF: Yes, skadoodle! That is a good word. Skadoodle! *leads party to a tiny door*
Gobbles is the only one small enough to fit through the Alice in Wonderland-type door.
TWF: Through! Through! Must go through!
Gobbles walks through just fine. Professor attempts to fit through the door and gets stuck. Surina tries to push him through (strength, 9) but he is stuck tight. (acrobatics, 14) He’s stuck like Pooh Bear in Rabbit’s house.
K’un-Lun: Step aside!
K’un-Lun gives him a swift kick (dexterity, 18) and Professor rolls out on the other side of the door. K’un-Lun then compresses his body and dives through the doorway (acrobatics, 23).
TWF: What’s the problem friends? We need to go! Skadoodle!
Lysithea: Um…*feels her horns* Can you make it bigger? (persuasion, 19)
TWF: Oh, bigger? I forgot you can’t all alter your size. *waves his little dragon hands and the door gets bigger*
Lysithea: Thank you.
Lysithea walks through the door, followed by Surina. They all enter into a very compact room. It’s about a 5ft square, made for only 1 person. Thistle Winkle Frost flies in and the door shuts, leaving everyone squished together. The walls are growing warmer and sand is seeping through. Thistle Winkle Frost starts flying straight up.
TWF: Come, new friends, come!
K’un-Lun makes an insight check to check for malicious intent (5). He can’t tell if it’s malicious, in good fun, or if he’s just plain oblivious.
Gobbles: I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. I think about it every night and day. I’ll spread my wings and fly away. Come on, let’s fly like an eagle to the sea.
Gobbles earns 1 inspiration, and the remaining party take 1 d4 psychic damage each. Gobbles starts flapping his arms in an attempt to fly.
Lysithea: Is it possible for you to provide some assistance? (Persuasion, 14)
TWF: Can you not fly either?
Lysithea: No…
TWF: My new friends are lacking in some skills.
The ground starts moving up like and elevator.
Gobbles: It’s working! *continues flapping his arms*
Lysithea: You… you can put your arms down.
As they climb sand starts pouring down on the party, until they appear out back on top on the hill they entered from. It seems that no time has passed.
Lysithea: Well that was something.
TWF: It was! It was a fun something! You all are fun new friends. I like this new friend most of all. *points to Gobbles*
Gobbles: Yeah, you’re my favorite dragon guy I’ve ever seen.
TWF: I’ve given you fairy magic! I’m going to come with you now. *perches on Gobbles head and disappears from everyone’s vision*
Gobbles: Dragon hat!
K’un-Lun: K…
Lysithea: Is he still there…?
Gobbles still feels the weight on his head.
Gobbles singing: I got myself a little dragon friend!
Gobbles now proudly believes that Thistle Winkle Frost is his Patron, the mystical and all-powerful entity, comparable to Bahamut, that grants him his newly acquired Warlock powers. In reality Thistle Winkle Frost is a much less powerful representative of Gobbles’s actual Patron (a powerful Fae that Gobbles doesn’t even know exists) and is just hanging around as a tiny dragon hat for fun. Gobbles magical attacks will have a very whimsical flair from now on.
The party is southwest from Oas’il Oasis, and are making their way to Doompit Falls to retrieve the stolen statue. There is a town to the south called Ryphyet. The party decides to travel to the town to look for boats to take them to the islands of Doompit Falls. Their camels are waiting on top of the sand dune because no time has passed.
Gobbles: Sir Eagle, good to see you.
His camel suddenly turns hot pink. Surina becomes flustered and starts pointing and giggling at the pink camel.
Lystithea: Well that’s… something… that won’t cause attention to be drawn to us whatsoever….
The party proceeds to Ryphyet. DM has Cordelia roll a d100 (37). They are traveling with ease when they suddenly come across a knocked over cart…
Professor: *gasp* No!
… and large crates thrown about. There are 4 gnolls ravaging through the boxes. One looks bigger than the others. Lysithea rolls Nat 20 perception. These gnolls are definitely rummaging through and stealing. There’s a dead camel, and the party has not been noticed yet. Gobbles and Lysithea rolled 17 nature and know gnolls are usually not nice. Gobbles quietly demounts Sir Eagle and starts sneaking towards the gnolls (stealth, 19). K’un-Lun does the same (stealth, 17). Professor moves towards them on his camel and readys his crossbow. As he approaches the large gnoll shouts in Abyssal, which Gobbles understands.
Gnoll: More food!
Begin Gnoll Fight
Party rolls initiative (Gobbles 10, K’un-Lun 21, Lysithea 13, Surina 14, Professor 11). Party gets a surprise round, which will go to K’un-Lun, Gobbles, Professor. K’un-Lun sneaks up behind a gnoll and uses Flurry of Blows. He hits with a 19 and does 6 damage. He hits again with a 15 and does 9 more damage. His final attack misses with a 14.
K’un-Lun: Hi-yah!
Gobbles moves behind another gnoll and does a 2-handed warhammer attack.
Gobbles: We’re not food!
He hits with an adjusted 20 and does 9 damage total. Professor uses his prepared action and shoots his crossbow at the gnoll K’un-Lun attacked. He casts Arcane Weapon and attacks with his crossbow, but it misses with a 4. End surprise round.
K’un-Lun attacks the same gnoll. He hits with an adjusted 20 and does 7 damage. He ends up chopping into its neck and absorbs its life force, giving him 7 temporary hit points. Surina rides up on her camel and casts Bane on the 3 remaining gnolls. They all fail their saving throws and take -4 to all attack and saving throws as Surina shouts at them. Lysithea moves forward on her camel and uses Scorching Ray on the 3 remaining gnolls. The first she misses with a Nat 1 and sets a box on fire instead. She misses the second with a 12, but hits the big one with a 19, who takes 8 fire damage. The big one cannot reach Lysithea to retaliate, so it heads towards Gobbles. It attacks and does 5 damage to Gobbles, who now has to make a constitution saving throw (13, succeed). Gobbles reacts with Hellish Rebuke. He angrily points his finger at the gnoll and a pop of confetti shoots out as the gnoll becomes surrounded by flames and takes 14 fire damage. The gnoll attacks Gobbles again and hits, doing another 6 damage to Gobbles. The gnoll attacks him one more time, but misses. Professor moves himself forward on his camel. He digs around through his satchel and finds a ball. He pushes a button on the ball and throws it 5 feet on to the overturned cart. Spider legs appear out of its sides and a turret comes out of its face. Lysithea starts taking notes.
Lysithea: Remind me to ask you about this later.
He uses his bonus action to activate the arcane turret. His goggles turn red and aiming blips appear. He pulls out a controller with a giant antennae and pushes the big red button in the middle. The turret shoots at the smaller gnoll by Gobbles. It hits with a 25 and uses Force Ballista, doing 7 damage and pushing it back 5 feet. Gobbles takes 5ft step back to disengage the giant gnoll and makes a weird screech (he hears a weird imitation of his screech from his head), and casts Eldritch blast on the smaller gnoll. His attack does 10 damage and kills the gnoll. The other gnoll runs up to attack Professor’s camel, but it rolls a Nat 1. The camel catches the gnoll’s fist in its teeth. The camel tries to bite the trapped gnoll but fails. K’un-Lun punches the big gnoll and hits with a 16, doing 9 damage. He attacks again but misses with a 13. Surina jumps off her camel and attacks the big gnoll with Searing Smite. She hits with a 22, doing 5 regular damage and 6 fire damage. Lysithea uses Ray of Sickness on the big gnoll. She hits with a 25 and does 8 poison damage. It fails its constitution saving throw and is now poisoned till its next turn. The gnoll then attacks Surina and misses all 3 attacks. It has to make another constitution saving throw and fails, taking 6 more fire damage and is now dead. Only 1 gnoll remains and it has its fist in Professor’s camel’s mouth. Professor aims his cannon at the gnoll and points his loaded arcane weapon in its face…
Professor: It’s your move. What would you like to do in this situation?
It makes an Abyssal screeching noise.
Gobbles: It’s saying, “Just do it!”
Professor: Okay.
He shoots his crossbow, which hits with a 15 and does 3 fire and 2 piercing damage. At the same time he hits the big red button and the turret hits with a 19, doing 10 points of force damage. The gnoll is knocked prone instead of being knocked back because his hand was stuck inside a camel’s mouth. Gobbles peeks over…
Gobbles in Abyssal: Stay down.
…then uses a non-lethal Eldridge Blast. The gnoll is defeated.
End Gnoll Fight
Lysithea uses Thaumaturgy to put out the fire she accidentally started on the box. Everyone rolls investigation (Gobbles 7, Surina adjusted 1, Lysithea 6, Professor 13, K’un-Lun 11). Professor collects his turret and feeds his camel, Whiskers, an apple. As the party is investigating, the party notices some dead bodies in the wagon. All of the boxes are filled with musical instruments. The box that was on fire contained sheet music, some of which remained unscorched. There are no kazoos, to Gobbles’s disappointment. Investigation again for Gobbles (14) – yup, no kazoos. Professor rolled a 16 and found more instruments. Lystieha rolls again and gets an adjusted 20 to find that the instruments were going to Ryphyet. The shipping manifest was destroyed in the gnoll attack. The party decides to bring the instruments and the bodies back to Ryphyet, which is where they are headed anyway.
A violin starts hovering over Gobbles head and a jaunty tune starts playing on it. Everyone feels a little jig in their step. Surina and Gobbles feel an evil presence lift itself away and dissipate from the giant gnoll. It was a Fang of Yeenoghu. Religion roll (Gobbles 14, Surina Nat 20). Surina knows the Fang of Yeenoghu is marked as the favorite of all gnolls. This was the leader of all gnolls in this area. The spirit that had blessed it is returning to its realm. The party has cleared this area of this evil influence.
Lysithea: *pointing to the last gnoll* Why is it alive?
Gobbles: We don’t know if the gnolls actually killed these people or just stumbled upon it. And we did attack them first.
Lysithea: Actually no, it called us food.
Gobbles: That is true…
Professor: Let’s throw it in the cart and light it on fire.
Surina: I agree.
K’un-Lun: That’s not very heroic of you.
Although this did not seem very virtuous, Surina wants to punish all evil, so Cordelia felt she was acting true to her character.
Professor: Let’s get a little kindling going.
Lysithea: I’ll light it!
K’un-Lun turns away as the party burns the unusable cart and gnoll bodies, and Professor trying to get rid of the “evidence”.
Shannon left to get food at this point, so K’un-Lun just walked along for the rest of the session in a meditative silence.
As the party approaches Ryphyet they hear music playing, in addition to the music playing above Gobbles’s head.
Lysithea: That might explain the instruments.
Outside there are a lot of camels and other creatures parked. The area gets greener as they proceed through the peninsula. There are carts and guys wearing orange vests saying…
Human: Ho there travelers!
Gobbles: Ho!
Human: Ho, ho, what brings you all to our great festival?
Professor: I like the cut of this guy’s jib.
Human: Do you have tickets?
Lysithea: We have instruments.
Professor: Yes.
Human: *shouting* HEY PHIL! THEY SAY THEY’RE DELIVERING INSTRUMENTS!
Phil: *shouting back from the back* THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE THE DELIVERY GUYS!
Gobbles: We are also delivering bad news along with these instruments.
Phil: TELL THEM TO TAKE IT AROUND TO THE SIDE! THIS SIDE IS FOR PAYING CUSTOMERS!
Human: You’re gonna have to take it around to the other side.
Lysithea: What should we do with the corpses of the people that were supposed to deliver this? Cause they’re dead.
Human: Oh…. HEY PHIL, THEY SAY THEY HAVE CORPSES!
Phil: COPSES?
Human: NO, NOT COPSES. CORPSES! THEY SAY THE PEOPLE DIED!
Phil: TELL THEM TO TAKE THEM AROUND BACK TO THE OTHER SIDE!
Human: He said to take it around back to the delivery side.
Professor: Yes, yes, we heard him.
Another cart pulls up with Elves in tow.
Human: Y’all go, I gotta park these guys.
The party goes around back to the delivery side.
Professor: I don’t know about you guys but I want to meet this Phil fellow.
There are lots of carts and wagons around the delivery side from places the party has never heard of.
TWF: Hey new friend! New friend this is gonna be fun!
Gobbles: Yes it is.
There are people in bright colored clothing unloading instruments. The outside of the main city is covered in stages. There’s a dock on the other end with ships. There’s a man in a top hat in what looks like fancy clothing (perception Gobbles 10, Surina 8, Lysithea 21). Lysithea knows that even though his outfit looks fancy it is actually cheap.
Top Hat Man: Whatcha delivering?
Gobbles: Instruments and bad news.
Top Hat Man: Well we ordered instruments, not bad news.
Professor: Don’t worry, it’s lagniappe.
Top Hat Man: Lets see the instruments.
The party shows him the instruments and the box of sheet music.
Top Hat Man: The music is half scorched. We’re not paying full price.
Professor: That’s fine.
Top Hat Man: Instruments look fine, okay.
Lysithea: And what should we do with the corpses?
Professor: Let’s just leave them here. It’s their problem now.
Top Hat Man: Corpses? We didn’t order any corpses.
Professor: We’ll just take them back then. They obviously don’t care.
Lysithea: Do you have a lost and found?
Top Hat Man: Usually we just keep what we find.
Workers come and unload the instruments from the party and see the dead bodies.
Worker: Who are they?
Lysithea: The people who were supposed to deliver your things.
Worker: I guess they don’t get paid then.
Professor: No.
Worker: You do. 20 gold each.
Some Random Person: Are you the guys that brought the dead bodies?
Lysithea: Yes.
Random: For your troubles. *hands everyone a ticket*
Gobbles: Thank you.
Professor: Ticket to what?
Random: To the festival…
Gobbles: To the gun show.
Professor: What’s a gun?
Gobbles: You have one mounted on your spider thing.
Professor: Oh, you mean spider bro!
The festival is just now being set up and won’t start for another 2 weeks (in-game time). End session.
Check Out
Spotlight on Another Player:
- Miranda: Ian’s epic thing with the turret. So beautiful.
- Kevin: Cordelia Searing Smiting everything.
- Ian: Cordelia being like “Yeah, get rid of that last gnoll!”
- Justice: Cordelia actually using one of her divinity spells and how stupidly overpowered that is.
- Cordelia couldn’t think of anything.
A Challenge or Something Learned:
- Miranda: When I set the box on fire instead of the gnoll.
- Kevin: The gnoll hit harder than I thought.
- Ian: Remembering my character’s abilities. He’s had that turret since 3rd level!
- Justice: Making encounters the right level of challenging. Today was supposed to be a bit harder than it was.
- Cordelia: When Fraggle Rock was turned on for Victor she stopped focusing.
Prediction or Hope for Next Session:
- Miranda: I would like to actually get where we are supposed to go cause I feel like we are on a tight schedule and have a deadline.
- Kevin: I want to progress through to Doompit Falls and find it’s like Iceland (is actually lovely instead of covered in ice) and when we come through there’s not a burning husk from some evil we have released.
- Ian: Something ain’t right about this festival/town. Something is fishy and I don’t like it one bit.
- Justice: I hope you get to Doompit Falls and enjoy what I have there.
- Cordelia couldn’t think of anything.
Analysis: Cordelia was having focus issues again, this time due to Fraggle Rock. Even though she has seen every episode multiple times she still preferred to watch it instead of play (at least when we were not in combat). When it’s time for combat she hones in her focus and is ready to battle, but when it’s time to roleplay she almost tries to find a distraction. I don’t think it’s because she’s bored, I think she is still just not confident enough to roleplay. It’s also hard for her to focus when half the players are on a screen and not at the table with us. She says she’s still enjoying the game, so game on we shall.