HPE D&D Session 5 (7/30/22): In search of the Fountain of Youth

 

Inarie negotiates with the local fauna for a ride.

The crew takes on the Guardian Bander Hobb.  Ornock is caught by the beast's tongue while Auric, Inarie and Humanknight chip away at it.

D&D Session 45 (7/13/22): The Trials

Text by Paul O'Connor, Dungeon Master

A barbarian wedding isn't like a regular wedding. There isn't a registry and there is no wedding party. Instead there is ...

... THE TEST OF STRENGTH! Blah rose to the challenge, contemptuously lifting a mighty stone over his head, and then for good measure flinging it at Isarr Kronenstrom, the cannibal Wolf Tribe Chief who persisted in taunting Blah for being half an orc. Even a second challenge to lift an even heavier stone -- this time frozen by Sha-Ga's magics, was passed easily by the future king of the Reghed Barbarians, though he left more than a little skin on the stone. Huzzah

... THE TEST OF SONG! Who better than Khostov and his ever-potent Pipes of Fear. Cannily shaping his enchantment so it affected only the sneering members of the Wolf Tribe, Khostov Cross-Eyed Mary'd the pack off the wedding stage. After some drinking, there followed a vocal performance ... but by this time the crowd was thoroughly won over to the heroes' side. Huzzah, Huzzah!

... THE TEST OF COURAGE! The crowd went wild when Arthur the halfling fearlessly strode forward to meet the Test of Courage. Cries of "Wee Man! Wee Man!" reverberated through the assembled barbarian host, even taken up by those few members of the Wolf Tribe who had not fled the sacred grounds. A moan went up from the Rider Sisters when they saw the test their lover was to face -- a tall, thin man with muscles like strips of beef jerky stretched over a bony frame. "The test is passed!" they cried. "Don't make him fight!" But Arthur was heedless, bearing in on the man and cutting him good, though the wound scarcely bled. "End the test!" the Rider Sisters again implored, and Queen Bjornhild agreed that the fight might end. She, like the rest of the tribe, had been won over, and they saw no sense in hurting the brave little man. But Arthur was having none of it, he would see the thing to the end ... even after the man tore off his outer skin, and emerged as a mighty werebear! Arthur scarcely paused, tumbling between the beast's legs and cutting at will. Like lightning the halfling enveloped the were in a tornado of steel, cutting and slashing and avoid the worst of the bear's mighty claw swipes. In less time than it takes to relate, the bear took a knee, signaling the contest's end, and the crowd rushed the stage, tossing their little champion into the sky in their joy.

Then followed the marriage of Blah and Bjornhild, beneath the driving snowflake blessings of the goddess Auril Frostmaiden. If Blah had second thoughts after hearing Bjornhild say that the united barbarian tribes would demand tribute of the Ten Towns, then ride south to sack Waterdeep ... well, that was a problem for another day. For now there was a bride to kiss and a wedding night to celebrate.

(Here followed much drinking and frolicking for all).

And in the morning, the party was crashed by an exhausted rider dispatched from Bryn Shander -- come quick, the giants have besieged the city!

D&D Session 44 (6/29/22): Savage Splendor!

 Text by Paul O'Connor, Dungeon Master

"He kneels before his queen, but he shall rise a king!"

Bjornhild Solvigsdottir

Avoiding the siren call of a ruined hill fort where they might have made a stand against the pursuing Wolf Barbarian tribe, our heroes set their spurs to their mounts and pressed on to Sommpher's Rest. Cresting up and down into the crater where Sommpher's Rest resides, they saw a sea of tents as seemingly every Reghed Barbarian in Icewind Dale had descended upon the sacred site for a great event.

The crowd parted for the returning heroes, opening a path for them to the island at the bottom of the bowl-like depression, where a visibly beaming Queen Bjornhild Solvigsdottir received the Axe of Axton from a kneeling Blah. "Rise, as my King!" the Queen commanded, to a general cheer from the crowd ... but then came hisses and cries of "Orc! Orc!" from the late-arriving Wolf Barbarians. Their king Isarr Kronenstrom claimed the right of truce at Sommpher's Rest and said Blah was not a Reghedman, so he could not be king. Orc!!

Perhaps because his britches fell down (and Arthur had something to do with that), the crowd didn't immediately rise at Isarr's challenge. Instead, they agreed with Bjornhild that the newcomers should be made part of the tribe by passing tests of Strength, Courage, and Song on the morrow.

Retiring to the Queen's massive tent, there was much canoodling. The Rider Sisters reclaimed Arthur. Some quick work by Sarkagan foiled a conspiracy to poison or drug Blah's drink, and while Arthur's reconnaissance linked the plotters to members of the Wolf, Elk, Bear, and Tiger tribes working with the shaman Sha-Ga, they lacked proof to do anything about it.

The fires burn low, the drunks stagger off to bed singing their savage songs, and the sun will rise on a day of trials for our intrepid heroes ... 

D&D Session 43 (6/22/22): Slaughter At White River

Text by Paul O'Connor, Dungeon Master

Caught between a defended ford and a thundering herd of cannibal Wolf Tribe barbarians, our heroes gird up their loins for the grim task ahead.

A halfling thief, a wizard, and a half-orc barbarian -- with a frost giant, a reluctant barbarian, and an adolescent owlbear to support them -- faced off against far superior numbers. A frost druid and his tribal champion companion, a fierce berserker, a towering yeti, slavering lycanthropes, and a whole clan of tribal spearmen. Good luck!

The druid showed his hand early -- raining hale and jagged ice far and wide. Sarkagan took the worst of it, and when the Wolf Tribe berserker singled out the wizard, fairly vaulting across the battlefield to clobber him with his axe, it looked bad for the good guys.

But our heroes got their feet under them. Sarkagan quaffed a healing potion, and the giant Harshnag lifted the little wizard up onto his mighty shoulder, where he might better concentrate on what he does best -- blowing fearsome pipes and blowing stuff up. 

Meanwhile, Blah threw caution to the winds and sprinted through the druid's bodyguards to lay into the enemy spellcaster, heedless of the spears and axes arrayed against him.  Stunned by this turn of events, the druid shifted to defensive mode, first failing to escape by transforming into an owl, then relying on magic fog and stealth spells to quit the battlefield. Blah's impetuous attack took the Wolf Tribe's most important piece off the battlefield, and that Blah also beat the tribe's champion and a score of spearmen seemed almost a bonus.

Meanwhile, from atop the towering giant, Sarkagan routed half the field with his damn pipes, then wreathed Harshnag in a wall of fire, which drove back the weres and spearmen yapping at his heels. Arthur tumbled here and there about the battlefield and put paid to the enemy berserker in single combat. Before long the field was a confused mass of burning lycanthropes and fleeing, fear-maddened spearmen. A few got across the ford; more plunged to their deaths in the swift-flowing White River.

With Mal-Do yelling that enemy horsemen were fast approaching from the south, the team mounted up and fled across their hard-won ford, with Sarkagan frustrating pursuit with a wall of water cast across the ford, securing the only line of pursuit like a magical cork in a bottle.

On to Sommpher's Rest!

D&D Session 42 (6/10/22): Harshnag!

Text by Paul O'Connor, Dungeon Master

Emerging from the cleft guarding the Tomb of Axton, our heroes were confronted by a massive frost giant. His helmet was the skull of a white dragon, he wore magic armor and bore a wicked axe. His white beard was like a frozen cascade across is chest. This is Harshnag!

Harshnag met the heroes with suspicion. He'd had a dream that Ragaman wished him to find the heroes. His path led him to Sommpher's Rest, where he paid tribute to the fallen hero (who he had known in Sompher's youth, as part of Force Gray), then followed the trail after learning of the quest for Axton's tomb from queen Bjornhild Solvigsdottir.

There was some breast-beating in the form of diplomacy. Harshnag tested the edge of his axe. But seeing Sommpher's holy item and the Harpers ring bequeathed by Ragaman softened the giant's heart.

Once convinced the heroes were who they said they were, Harshnag gladly threw in with them, saying that as they were friends of Ragaman, then their quest was his.

Their numbers swollen by the massive giant, they began the long march back to Sommpher's Rest ...

... but it wasn't long before they were trailed by sinister members of the Wolf Tribe barbarians. They were clad in human skins, their teeth filed to sharp points.

A desperate race for the ford, which comes up just short ...

... and as intimidation fails, the Wolf riders charge down upon our heroes, with a whole howling pack of their fellows fast riding up from the east!

 

Dr. Sketchy's Seattle. 6/6/2022

 

D&D Session 41 (5/3/22): Making It Personal

 Text by Paul O'Connor, Dungeon Master

There is the stench of death in the air, and not just from the fragrant corpse pile the undead Axton calls a bed. A sense of DOOM clutches at the heart of the party.

And that's because of ... The Hellfire Orb! The ritual was a (real time) month in the coming, but it did not disappoint. Arthur was hurled aside like a broken doll, and Blah was staggered. Death saving rolls ahead! Boom goes the dynamite!

Quaffing a healing potion (and it's a good thing he did), Blah had a moment of inspired madness. "NO MAGIC!" he shouted at the undead king! "Fight me like a barbarian!"

Now, Axton should have known better. But you know what they say -- you can take the boy out of the barbarian, but you can't take the barbarian out of the boy. (They do say that, don't they?) Somehow, Blah's word wormed their way into Axton's worm-eaten heart (and it helped that I rolled a fumble when checking to see if Axton kept his cool). 

"No magic, hey? I'll show you no magic!" I mean why use a prepared spell that might banish your foe to another plane of existence when you can wade in and slash with a sharp piece of steel?

(You know, there's a reason that even when he forged the Rehged Barbarians into a single fighting force that Axton failed to build a kingdom. He stooooooo-pid).

Slice, hack, slash! Blah takes the hit ... but when raging, he's all about taking the hit. Does it say something on his sheet about half-damage from being banished to another plane of existence? No, it does not. Good thing Axton didn't do that!

Slice, hack, slash ... and down goes Axton, exploding into ribbons of bandages and mummy dust like spring snakes released from a can!

(Gotta love D&D -- "Personal challenge improbably unhinges campaign end boss and prevents total party kill." Yep, had that on my DM bingo card).

A healing potion down Arthur's throat and he was right as rain. And looking around the burial chamber, our heroes find more gold and platinum pieces than they can carry. Plus -- not to be forgotten -- Axton's legendary axe, the key to rallying the barbarian tribes against the giants! (Theoretically).

Problem is, our heroes are on an island, surrounded by raging, frozen waters -- how do you transport all those hundreds of pounds of coin across the water?

I'll tell you how NOT to do it -- Iago's way. Maddened with greed, his pockets stuff with WAY too much loot, the unloved NPC Bard waded into the water, convinced he could make the other side. Only being swallowed by a Frost Salamander saved him from drowning before he could freeze to death.

Spending exactly zero seconds mourning Iago, Khostov froze our gang a temporary causeway through clever application of his Frost Fingers spell, and with only a few white knuckle moments, the gang got off the island, their treasure intact. They spent the night in Khostov's tiny hut.

An under-appreciated feature of that tiny hut spell is the hut is transparent from the inside ... so the party easily saw the Ice Trolls laying in wait for them, and dispatched them with contemptuous ease come the morning. This had the dual benefit of helping much of the party hit Level 9 ... AND it let us scratch "Troll" off our list of classic D&D monster encounters.

Laden with treasure, fully healed and rested, in possession of the fabled Ax of Axton, our heroes set out on their last (?) and greatest (?) journey ...