Welcome to Victor the DM Part 2! This session’s check-in question was created and led by Victor. As with the last session, I am going to write using the descriptor words that Victor uses as he DMs. Justice will do the quick recap at the beginning, and then Victor will take over to lead us through the rest of his dungeon.
Check In Question: If Pokemon were real, who would your Pokemon partner be?
- Miranda: I mean, I love so many Pokemon. I’m going to go with my favorite starter, Squirtle. Lysithea’s would be Litwick.
- Kevin: Golem. Gobble’s would be the powerful and illustrious Slowpoke.
- Justice: I would have to go with Rowlet. Benedict Hammish Poppinlink III would choose Jigglypuff.
- Cordelia: I would choose Mudkip. Surina would choose Flareon.
- Victor: I would choose Solgaleo. Draggy would choose Lunala.
When we last left the party, they were deep in a strange and terrifying dungeon in the caves below Pupbaatt (Victor: Bwuahaha). Good monsters gifted the party boon of a special ability that can be used only in this dungeon. After they defeated a Black Dragon, Pincer Pincer Pincer, and a Catoblepa, Gobbles used his new power and hugged a gray slaad out of existence. Professor and Octavia both decide that this dungeon is too creepy for them and rush back to the cave entrance.
Draggy cautiously opens the door to the next room of the dungeon and steps inside. Surina goes in next, with Lysithea sticking close to her back. Gobbles enters last, making sure nothing is following them. There is some stuff in this room, including barrels and what looks like treasure. Draggy inspects one of the barrels (investigation 6), and inside is a potion of some kind, but Draggy cannot tell what. Lysithea and Gobbles give each other a look, then both dash for the barrel (Rollies Gobbles 13, Lysithea 4). Gobbles gets there first and takes a huge gulp of the potion. It tastes like a frog, a taste Gobbles knows well. As he drinks the potion Gobbles eyes light up and feels more powerful.
Lysithea: I just wish he would let me inspect before chugging the unknown liquid in the terrifying monster dungeon…
Gobbles: I can see the universe!
Thistle: New friend, your eyes are glowing a strange color. Can you see sound?
Gobbles: Yes!
Lysithea: Okay… do you hear anything with your eyeballs?
Gobbles: Um…
Lysithea: From the other door. There’s another door over there.
Gobbles: I’m trying to hear if there are any more potions with my eyes.
There are more potions, but some of them have spilled. The party begins to inspect the rest of the room.
Draggy: Surina, go stab that chest. I don’t trust that chest.
Surina: Okay!
Instead of stabbing the chest with her sword, Surina uses her new Super Power Punch on the chest (attack Nat20) and it’s fake!
It is at this moment that Victor requests music for the monster and the dungeon. He changes the music for each room and monster for the rest of the dungeon. Creepy organ music begins to play…
Begin Mimic Fight
(Initiative Gobbles 18, Lysithea 16, Draggy 18, Surina 17, mimic 15) Her punch hits the mimic for 18 bludgeoning damage, plus she activates Divine Smite for an additional 24 radiant damage. As a reaction, the mimic eats some fruit and heals 15 hp. Surina punches the mimic again (attack 11), but misses. Gobbles runs up and uses his special ability, Grab Tight (attack 17), on the mimic. The mimic sticks to Gobbles as he hugs, so it does not pop out of existence, but it does take 7 hug damage. Draggy uses his warhammer to smash the first mimic (attack 15), dealing 14 bludgeoning damage. He smashes again (attack adjusted 20) bringing the mimic’s HP to 0, but it’s still moving.
We had burned through some of Victor’s monsters too easily last session and they didn’t get much of a chance to attack. He really wanted this mimic to show off its abilities, and we didn’t want to stifle his creativity, so we allowed it.
Lysithea uses her Super Fire Bolt against the mimic (attack 23), and hits for 15 fire damage. The mimic is defeated, but in its defeat it lashes out and tries to hit the party. The Tongue Whip (attack 12) and Smash Mouth (attack 19) both miss Draggy. Suddenly the mimic grows giant, leaps into the air, and comes down with a Mega Slam (attack Nat20), hitting Draggy, Gobbles, and Surina for 12 bludgeoning damage each. For its final attack it lashes out once more at Draggy (attack 12) but misses. Surina, confused and upset, punches the dying mimic (attack 22) for 10 bludgeoning damage, finally defeating the mimic.
End Mimic Fight
Lysithea: What kind of mimic was that?!
Treasure appears where the mimic had stood! The party finds 100 gems and 6 gold, which they quickly gather together. The party then opens the door to the next room. In this room they can see a flipped over table and what looks like more treasure. Gobbles walks into the room to look at the table, but it’s a trap! The treasure explodes (Dexterity saving throw 18), but Gobbles is able to leap out of the way and avoids getting hit. The sound of the explosion awakens a monster that had fallen asleep waiting for the party. The monster is the craziest looking hydra the party has ever seen. It has 5 heads, 1,000 feet (Victor actually said one finnion feet, which is his made up number), and one hand.
Victor had never seen an image of a dracohydra. When he described the monster he wanted to appear, Justice found the image in the book and showed it to him, to which Victor explained, “I’m right!” He was so excited to imagine something that actually (kind of) existed.
Lysithea: It’s Tiamat’s weird cousin.
Surina: Uh, hi?
Gobbles: I see it with my special eyes!
Lysithea: I see it with my regular eyes!
Begin Dracohydra Fight
The dracohydra takes a deep breath, then unleashes its breath weapon upon the whole party (dexterity save Lysithea Nat20, Gobbles, 24, Surina 16, Draggy 19). The green acid breath drenches Surina for 27 acid damage, and Lysithea, Gobbles and Draggy take 13 damage having quickly taken cover.
Thistle: New friend, what did you do?
Gobbles: Uh, I made a friend.
Thistle: New friend, I don’t like this big thing in front of us.
Gobbles: I do if it will be our friend.
Gobbles scampers around behind the dracohydra so that he can hide from the breath weapon, and casts Hex, giving it disadvantage on intelligence checks. Gobbles then grabs the dracohydra’s biggest tail and gives it a big hug (attack Nat20). Gobbles is not big enough to hug the monster out of existence, but it takes 13 hug damage, 6 necrotic damage, 4 damage from Fury of the Small, 8 sneak attack damage, 13 fire damage from Green Flame Blade, and 29 radiant damage from Divine Smite. Gobbles hugs the tail so tight that one of the dracohydra’s heads falls off! Draggy charges in and smacks down on the dracohydra with this Giant Ax (attack 21). The Giant Ax flattens the dracohydra for 7 damage, and another head falls off! Draggy attacks again (attack 19) and hits for an additional 17 damage. Lysithea casts Tasha’s Mind Whip (intelligence saving throw 10). The psychic whip strikes the dracohydra for 7 psychic damage, and suffers the full effect of the spell. Surina rushes in behind the dracohydra, afraid of its breath weapon, and swings her Flametongue sword at it (attack Nat20). Her mighty swipe hits 14 slashing, 13 fire, and 23 radiant damage from Divine Smite, cleaving off 2 heads. Only one head remains. Surina attacks again (attack Nat20), hitting for 11 slashing, 16 fire, and 36 radiant damage from another Divine Smite. The final head falls off, and the body falls down for a second, but then a giant head with one eye emerges from the body and whips around to strike Draggy (attack 7), but Draggy blocks the attack. Gobbles prepares to give the dracohydra another hug, but it goes limp, and falls over dead.
End Dracohydra Fight
Lysithea: How did it die?
Gobbles: From death.
Lysithea: Right…
The party begins to inspect the room, making sure there are no more hiding monsters. Surina steps on a switch as she walks, and good monsters appear. They walk over to Gobbles and hand him a Clockwork Mace of Divinity.
Gobbles: Oooh, another mace. I should duct tape them all together.
Draggy: No.
Gobbles: Hey, this thing can also turn into a trident. Lysithea, this might be something you could use.
Lysithea: Interesting…
Gobbles: Here ya go!
Lysithea: Oh! Okay! I’ll just hold onto it for now.
The door to the next room is locked, but it has a very obvious keyhole. The party continues to search the room in hopes of finding a key. Under the table they find a giant key.
Lysithea: Surina, that key looks big and heavy. How about you carry the giant key?
Draggy: I can carry it, too!
Surina and Draggy lift the giant key and use it to unlock the door. The door opens to a long, narrow hallway. Surina and Gobbles volunteer to go in first. At the end of the hallway is a Burning Monster (we used a Beholder figure and Death Tyrant stats for this one), a floating skull with one foot and one eye.
Lysithea: Have you noticed that a lot of the monsters here have only one eye?
Gobbles: Yeah, it’s full of cosmic horrors with a bajillion limbs but one eye.
Lysithea: Reminds me of that triangle demon…
Gobbles: Did we accidentally walk into an outer rim or something?
Lysithea: I think so…
The party begins to cautiously walk down the hallway. Suddenly, the monster speaks.
This was the best moment for me. Victor speaks as the monster in this deep, guttural voice, doing poses as he speaks. His first NPC voice! I was so proud!
Monster: You can only pass through me by beating me!
Draggy: Yeah, I figured as much.
Lysithea: Alright, we can do that.
Monster: Try and defeat me! And don’t hit me with that giant key because it’s a bad weapon for me. Uh oh… And I have a best friend skull behind me!
Looking behind the strange monster the party sees a bunch of small skulls floating around. The tyrant is guarding the door to the boss. (Arcana check Lysithea Nat20, Gobbles 24) The creature is very similar to a regular Death Tyrant in every way except for the foot, including its immunity to poison.
Monster: Now… START!
Lysithea: This is gonna hurt…
Begin Burning Monster Fight
Gobbles dashes behind the monsters…
Gobbles: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!
… and prepares to strike with his warhammer as soon as one of his allies gets into position. Draggy moves further down the hallway and throws a bomb (that Victor says Draggy has) at the monster (attack 15), but the bomb was a dud. He throws another one (attack 24) and this one explodes, dealing 7 damage to the monster. The monster uses a Legendary Action and fires a yellow telekinetic eye ray at Draggy (strength saving throw 24). Draggy grabs the eye ray energy as it blasts at him and throws it up into the ceiling. Lysithea stays back at the beginning of the hallway and casts Scorching Ray at the monster (attack 24, Nat1, attack 12). The first ray hits the monster for 7 fire damage. The second one explodes right off of Lysithea’s hand, causing her to stumble and miss the third ray. The tyrant fires another telekinetic ray, this time at Gobbles (strength saving throw 9). The ray hits Gobbles, lifts him up, sends Gobbles halfway back to the entrance, then knocks him prone and restrains him.
Gobbles: I believe I can fly!
Thistle: We’re caught in its tractor beam!
Surina charges in and Misty Steps to stand right behind the tyrant. She thrusts her sword forward (attack 26) and pierces the monster for 11 slashing, 11 fire, and 15 radiant damage from Divine Smite.
Gobbles: Great, just do that 16 or 17 more times and we’re gold!
Surina swings her sword (attack 16), but the tyrant floats up and dodges the attack. The tyrant blinks and uses a Legendary Action to shoot an eye beam…
Surina: No, no, no, no, no!
… at Gobbles! (Dexterity saving throw 21) Although he is prone and restrained, Gobbles is able to wiggle out of the way of the rainbow slow beam. Now it is the tyrant’s turn. It shoots an eye beam at Surina (wisdom saving throw 16) and hits her, causing her to now be afraid of the tyrant. The tyrant turns its eye to Lysithea and fires the rainbow beam at her (dexterity saving throw 16), causing her to be slowed. It fires a third, yellow beam at Draggy (strength saving throw 19), but once again Draggy catches the telekinetic ray and throws it behind him. Gobbles is now free of restraint.
Gobbles: Ermughurd!
He stands up, moves forward, and casts Hexblade’s Curse on the monster. He then swings his warhammer (attack 27) and hits the tyrant for 8 bludgeoning, 7 sneak attack, 4 Fury of the Small, 12 radiant Divine Smite, 4 necrotic, and 10 fire Green Flame Blade damage. The tyrant reacts and shoots an enervation beam at Lysithea (constitution saving throw Nat20). Lysithea is able to withstand some of the ray and takes only 16 necrotic damage. Draggy runs up and, with his berserk warhammer (attack Nat20), smashes the tyrant for 20 bludgeoning damage. He swings again (attack 19) and smacks the tyrant for 10 more damage. Using the momentum of the swing, Draggy spins around and action surges (attack Nat20), hitting again for 15 more damage, and again (attack 21) for 16 more damage. The tyrant reacts and shoots a fear ray back at Draggy (wisdom saving throw 13), causing Draggy to be feared just like his sister. The slowed Lysithea shoots Super Fireball as a Twinned Spell (attack 27, Nat20). The first bolt hits the tyrant in the left for 15 fire damage, and the second one, which is twice as big, hits its right for 39 fire damage. The tyrant explodes upon impact!
End Burning Monster Fight
Draggy: That wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Lysithea: Are you kidding?!
Gobbles: We got lucky with some of those beams it was shooting.
Gobbles immediately falls asleep. In agreement, the party camps outside the next door and takes a short rest. Gobbles ends up laying down on a rainbow switch, causing another good monster to appear. He presents the party with a giant mushroom. The party munches on the mushroom as they rest, gaining another powerful move! Gobbles gets Gobbles Shield, Lysithea gets Bird Rain, Surina gets Blooobb, and Draggy gets Powerful Punch. Bird Rain is different from Chicken Rain – Lysithea fires a spell and summons Jester (our cockatiel) to attack. After some snacking and healing, the party prepares to enter the boss room. (Initiative Gobbles 16, Lysithea 16, Surina adjusted 20, Draggy 10).
Lysithea: Let me go in first…
Surina: Why?
Lysithea: Because I’m going to use Cone of Cold.
Surina delays her turn so that Lysithea can go in first, something she never wants to do. They open the boss door, and the room inside is covered in black slime. At the back corner of the room is a gargantuan blob!
Lysithea: Aw, eww!
Gobbles quickly checks his bag, making sure he has an empty tankard ready to collect slime.
Lysithea: You may want to get that now, because I’m going to light this place…
Gobbles: I don’t want the old, crusty stuff. I want the fresh stuff from that guy.
Gobbles takes another gulp of the eye potion in preparation. Lysithea double checks to make sure her Mage Armor is still active. Suspended inside the blob the party can see skeletons. (Arcana Lysithea 14) It looks like a giant, gelatinous cube. It also looks like all of the water is pooling into the cube.
Lysithea: Oh! This is going to solve the city’s water problem!
Begin Blob Battle
The lair goes first, making the floor slippery so that anyone that enters has to cross difficult terrain. Lysithea stands in the doorway and blasts Cone of Cold at the blob (constitution saving throw 17). The purple and black snow encases the room and the cube, but it withstands the attack. Combined with its natural resistances, the blob takes a measly 9 damage. Lysithea is furious.
Lysithea: That’s what I get for using cold.
Surina carefully walks into the room, and slips and slides just a few spaces in (dexterity Nat1). She loses balance and starts to fall, but Misty Steps and lands next to the blob. She wisely chooses to not use her fists, and swings her sword at the blob (attack 15), but her sword bounces off the blob. She swings again harder (attack 18) and slices through the blob for 8 slashing and 7 fire damage. The fire doesn’t seem to do as much damage as it should. Gobbles had drunk enough of the blob’s kind to know that this thing is neither fiend nor undead, celestial nor fey – it is an ooze.
Gobbles: This might be the spiciest sauce I’ve seen!
Gobbles slides into the room, then, following Surina’s lead, Misty Steps to stand next to the blob. He then casts Faerie Fire (blob dexterity 10), and the blob is suddenly filled with glitter, lighting it up and making it easier to hit. The blob uses Slime Throw Up on Gobbles…
Gobbles: Hi there!
… (attack 14) but misses. It tries to throw up on Gobbles again (attack 30) and vomits slime all over Gobbles, hitting him for 14 acid damage and pulling him into the blob. The party can now see Gobbles swimming around inside the blob! Gobbles takes a slurp of the blob as he starts to drown inside it. It’s a little richer tasting than a gelatinous cube, and the water is fresher. The blob then uses Throw Up Punch on Surina. A fist of slime forms and tries to punch Surina (attack 21), but Surina blocks the attack. Draggy slips a few feet into the room, then uses his breath weapon on the blob (blob dexterity save 14). A straight line of lightning hits the blob for 11 lightning damage. The blob seems fully affected by the lightning damage. Draggy takes a deep breath and shoots his breath weapon again (blob dexterity save Nat20), but the blob resists this time and takes only 6 damage.
Suddenly the blob begins to jiggle and sucks up all the slime from the room! The floor is no longer difficult terrain. A furious Lysithea twin spells Blight, hoping to drain moisture from the blob (constitution saving throws 16, 19). The blob is able to resist some of the second Blight, but takes a combined total of 55 necrotic damage. Surina slashes her sword at the blob (attack 17, 18), but the blob giggles out of the way. Gobbles, swimming around inside the blob, doesn’t trust his own strength to help him get free, so he Misty Steps himself out and lands safely away. Gobbles attempts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter against the blob (wisdom save 16), but the blob doesn’t even giggle. The blob casts Sleep on Surina (roll 23, Surina HP 85), but the spell does not affect Surina. Draggy rushes forward and flanks the blob with his sister, then swings his battleax twice at the blob, then Action Surges for 2 more attacks (attack 18, 27, 22, 13). Only two of his attacks hit for a total of 21 damage.
The blob begins to shrink and hardens itself, making it harder to do damage to it. Lysithea casts Bird Rain! A giant Jester bird appears and attacks the blob (attack 19), but the blob just hardened itself and the pecks do no damage.
Surina slashes at the blob (attack 25), slicing through it for 7 slashing, 6 fire, and 18 radiant damage from her last 3rd level Divine Smite. She uses the momentum of her first slash to swing again (attack 18), but she misses. The blob casts Sleep on Draggy (roll 21), but the spell has no effect. The blob then giggles and throws slime at Lysithea (dexterity save 11), drenching her in slime for 44 damage. Lysithea reacts with Hellish Rebuke (blob dexterity save 24), but between the blob’s dexterity and resistances it takes only 4 damage. Draggy smashes his ax at the blob (attack adjusted 20), hitting for 14 damage. He attacks again (attack 19), but just misses.
The blob releases its harden, returns to its former size, and fills the room with slime once again. Lysithea casts Blight again (blob constitution save 19), but once again the blob resists and takes only 20 necrotic damage. Jester swoops in and starts pecking at the blob (attack 26) for 4 piercing damage. Surina tries to hit the blob as hard as she can (attack 14) but misses. The frustrated Surina swings again (attack 21) and hits for 9 slashing, 10 fire, and Divine Smites for 8 radiant damage. Gobbles casts Hexblade’s Curse on the blob, then unleashes all of his crazy spells as he smacks the blob with his warhammer (attack 19). He hits for 5 bludgeoning, 4 Fury of the Small, 4 necrotic, 4 sneak attack, 19 radiant Divine Smite, and 9 fire damage Green Flame Blade. The blob does a Giant Mouth Attack on Jester (attack 25). The blob forms a giant mouth and bites Jester’s tail for 17 damage. Jester squawks in pain and flies away! Draggy smashes (attack 28), hitting for 14 damage, and smashes again (attack 18) but his weapon bounces off the blob.
The blob sucks up the slime from the room and recovers some of its health. The blob is looking very rough. Lysithea is very frustrated, angry that her spells are not as effective as they usually are. She casts Magic Missile at third level, sending five missiles of force straight into the blob for 18 damage. The Final Fantasy victory music begins to play as the blob is reduced to a puddle of goo.
Lysithea: Where is that music coming from?
End Blob Battle
The sound of rushing water soon overpowers the sound of the music. The blob was blocking the water flow to the town. Gobbles rushes to the puddle before it washes away and collects some of the blob “sauce”. Underneath the blob puddle is a switch with a smiley face on it. Draggy steps on the switch and from it grows a tree with two apples on it. Draggy pulls one of the apples off the tree, hoping it will heal him, but the apple turns into a Dragonsword. Draggy takes the sword and hands it to Surina, who begins to leap up and down from excitement! Lysithea pulls the other apple, and it turns into a sword dripping with purple slime.
Lysithea: Gobbles, this sword was made for you.
She hands it to Gobbles, and he identifies the sword as a Slime Blade, a +1 sword of which the blade is coated in an endless flow of slime; however, the slime does not drip or cover the pommel of the sword. Once attuned to the sword he will be immune to the slime, plus he will have the ability to communicate telepathically with ooze creatures, advantage on charisma checks against oozes, and can use an action to fling some of the sword’s slime at a creature to deal poison damage.
Gobbles: Yay! Delicious. It’s like a lollipop that never ends.
That’s right. Gobbles now has a slime sword that he can lick and will be immune to the poison damage.
The sound of rushing water grows and the party takes their leave of the one of the craziest dungeons they have ever been in.
Victor levels the party up to level 10! End Session.
Check Out this session was celebrating Victor’s triumph as a DM!
Analysis: I am such a proud mother! Victor is a natural DM. His charisma and enthusiasm for DMing is unparalleled by any adult DM I’ve ever played with. He was very patient this session, waiting patiently for his turn during combat, and didn’t interrupt or try to overshadow any of the players. When he went into the voice for the Death Tyrant my mind broke. It was such an incredible moment and I will remember it forever. Once again he not only challenged the party and hit us hard, but he granted boons with the new moves, new swords, and leveling us up! Both of my children are planning their next dungeons, and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us.
Notes: The blob monster was a modified version of the Juiblex. The Slime Sword and Clockwork Mace stats can be found in Kobold Press’s Vault of Magic.