Tabletop Fun

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D Adventurers' League--

I was back to playing in a 'tier 1' game with a brand-new level 1 character, a shadar-kai hexblade warlock. A bunch of the characters at the table were fresh level 1's, even from veteran players, though we had a few experienced characters (level 3-4) so we weren't all squishy.

One of the players was doing a goliath barbarian, and he leaned into what little roleplay he had by portraying him as dumb. But he also at one point failed a save and didn't realize until a few turns later that he'd accidentally rolled a d12 instead of a d20.

One player was playing a yuan-ti paladin. Yuan-ti are humans that have been partially turned into snake-hybrids after rituals to some serpent god or other. But Orzo the Lesser insisted he was a "normal human," and the player leaned into it by implying that Orzo genuinely didn't know that some of the things about him weren't "normal," like his ability to spit poison, or that 60F temperatures weren't "freezing."

The dice weren't kind to a few of the players. Cameron, whom I've been at several tables with, has abysmally bad luck with dice, to the point he's bought new dice mid-session, and even went to buy a new dice tray once. At one point, I jokingly suggested he roll a d12 instead, maybe he'd roll better-- which got a lot of laughs after the barbarian's mix-up earlier. But Orzo's player had a lot of bad rolls as well, at one point rolling nothing but 3's. I told him "go get new dice," and he insisted it wasn't the dice. I let him roll one of mine-- and he promptly rolled another 3.

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D Adventurers League--

First time playing with DM Minmaxer in several months. Most of his games had been during the AL Waterdeep campaign I was a part of, so I couldn't participate. I was torn on which of my Tier 2 (Levels 5-10) characters to bring-- I only had two available, since the others had leveled out of Tier 2, and decided to use my High Elf Bladesinger Wizard, since the adventure was set in Wildspace, and my Bladesinger's been to Wildspace. We only had three players (including me) since some people had dropped out and there were major traffic issues preventing some others from making it. Cameron, notoriously unlucky dice-roller and infamously fond of dropping a pun at any opportunity, was one of them.

So the Wildspace-flying magic train we're on (long story) stops at this flat-topped asteroid with a derelict ruined theatre on it. There are ghosts inhabiting it, apparently the remnants of the audience waiting to be let in to see the show. After fighting our way past the ushers ("Tickets, please? ...No ticket--!!") we go in through a hole in the wall to find the ghost of the writer/director/producer/musician/composer/etc for the theatre/show sitting on the stage, muttering to himself and constantly re-writing the script and score, tossing pages all over the stage.

Me: (IC) "I think I see what's going on."
Third Player: "What?"
Me: "He's decomposing."

The adventure centered around helping the producer finish the show so it could be performed at last (after all, "the show must go on"), with some other notable NPCs from some of Minmaxer's past AL adventures turning up to help provide musical backing and stage experience. Including filling in for some roles in the show, and then fighting off an angry Phantom of the Theatre and other angry specters. The specters had a particular ability that could stun-lock people, which was a "recharge" ability-- after using it, every round on their turn, the specter (i.e. the DM) could roll a d6, and if it landed on a 6, the ability recharged and could be used again.

Well, Cameron helpfully reminded Minmaxer about the recharge...

Me: Why would you remind him?!
Cameron: I like to play fair!
Me: He doesn't need your help killing us!

The next round, Minmaxer looked at Cameron and then said he needed to roll the recharge, prompting another glare from me. Fortunately, the recharge didn't go off for several rounds.

...until it did. The specter got its maddening howl off and everyone failed the WIS save. Including the Phantom of the Theatre.

Me: This is your fault!
Cameron: I didn't make him--
Me: YOUR fault!
Cameron: It got the big bad too!
Me: YOUR FAULT!

In the end, we did manage to defeat the Phantom (albeit with a little help from master thief Camille Santiago, who is effectively like a DMPC at this point) and finish the show, the ghosts were all allowed to pass on finally, and we got the macguffin our train needed to keep going.
----------------------------------
Mysteries of Albia--

This was effectively the penultimate session for this campaign. Mike the DM said there may be two more sessions left before we wrap, depending on how things go. Then we'll have our campaign wrap-up meeting, before we move on to at least two session zeroes for Bob's Dragonlance campaign.

In the aftermath of our storming the castle of a villainous militant church splinter faction and killing its leadership, we had to deal with repercussions. One of the leaders of the splinter faction was a prominent politician for the upcoming election (basically fantasy Nigel Farage), and while we recovered evidence of his treasonous plot (conspiring with foreign entities and planning violent insurrection/revolution post-election), there were concerns over the optics of the PM more or less sanctioning what amounted to the assassination of her major opposition. We ended up working with her and our allies to prepare for violence on election night-- not from the splinter faction anymore, but from the Cult of the Dragon which had been orchestrating a lot of this. The Cult of the Dragon, in this case, being represented in the infamous Lightning Guild, which Vash had been raised in, currently headed by her biological father, titled "the Thunderlord."

We also had recovered an arcane artifact which gave Vash another memory-vision, revealing a huge amount of lore. It had been established previously that magic in the setting came from two sources-- the Fey and the Dragons, who had been at war in antiquity, until a Contract was signed which made both sides retreat from the mortal realm. The vision that Vash received showed her the initial signing of the Fey-Dragon Contract, overseen by Queen Medb (our setting's version of Asmodeus, Ruler of the Nine Hells). One of the terms of the Contract provided for a way through which the Contract could be re-drawn, re-negotiated. It required representatives from all four signatories-- Albia (England), Romeus (Roman Empire), the Fey, and the Dragons-- to meet at the appropriate place. The Contract was effectively kept guaranteed by conjoining it with the soul of the Contract's enforcer. This soul remained on the mortal plane even after its original body's death, and is now incarnate in Vash.

We realized that the Lighting Guild and the splinter group's plan had been to force the re-signing of the Contract, through which they would represent all four signatories. The Lightning Guild effectively claimed the Romean, Dragon, and Fey factions, and the splinter group would represent Albia post-election. But we also knew they probably had contingencies for the splinter group's failure, and so through the meeting with our allies, we made plans of our own. In order for the Guild to pull off its scheme, it needed access to arcane conjunctions called Pools of Radiance, and it needed at least one in close proximity to fantasy!London. But they couldn't use these pools if someone else attuned to them, or if the pools were somehow de-powered.

So our plan-- not perfect, but the best option we had in the timeframe available-- was to force a confrontation with the Guild by putting their three main goals in one location: the Albian Premier, Vash, and the only Pool of Radiance we left un-attuned. None of us liked putting the premier or Vash in jeopardy, but again, we were short on time.

Also in the downtime, our church-raised fighter, Beckett-- having been reunited with his estranged sister, and becoming increasingly unsatisfied with revelations about the church-- resigned from the holy order he'd joined, and asked our team that he be called by his birth name from now on, Joshua Freeman. (Beckett was a name given to him by his order.) We jokingly said he'd gone from being 'Saint Beckett, Slayer of Monsters' to 'Joshua Freeman, Brewer of Coffee.'

Well... as the session came to an end on election night, the Archbishop, the head of the church, was found stabbed (not dead), and he gave Beckett/Joshua a copy of the speech he'd been planning to deliver. Said speech was going to reveal that the church had been tracking several illegitimate bloodlines of the royal family, for surveillance and to try to bring them into the church for controlling purposes. The archbishop was planning to put an end to this practice, and furthermore reveal one of those illegitimate descendants of the royal family was none other than Beckett.

The speech also had a note written on it in another hand-- "The Thunderlord requests your presence."

Then the Royal Palace exploded.

TO BE CONTINUED--!

[Nunavut Pants]

Another game day with the lightweights yesterday. I wound up in a three-player game of Rummikub. Played six rounds; the host won three, her husband won two, and I won the last game finally.

Still haven't gotten Dominion to the table.

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D Adventurers League--

One of the players was playing as a Minotaur Barbarian ("Tiny Tunk") and he was having fun making jokes IC with it. Like mistaking a 19-year-old villager for "middle-aged" (in his defense, he claimed minotaurs live about 45-50) and similar. Claiming his name is because he (about 8 feet tall) is actually 'tiny' for his race. etc.

As the adventure was based in a small village (less than 50 people), we started cracking some jokes about "small town casting" for like TV shows, and he dropped in a comment about like the "Toronto film industry," and I could not let the opportunity for a pun go past.

Him: (semi-IC) "Small talent pool. Is like Toronto film industry."
Me: "That's where you're from, isn't it? Taur-onto."
(table reacts)
Me: "Or-- or would it be Mino-Toronto?"
(more reaction)

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D Adventurers League--

DM David is running a train heist from the "Keys from the Golden Vault" adventure book, and I decided to bring along the old standby Seb, the half-orc barbarian. There were actually several of our AL's DMs playing at the table this week (including Minmaxer - who was running a necromancer wizard who was basically Colin Robinson from What We Do in the Shadows) and we had some fun.

One sign it was going to be a fun session was the fact that I got David-- who, like many AL DMs doesn't award Inspiration very often-- to crack up at one point. There was some pre-heist discussion about whether anyone's ever ridden on a train before or whatever, and someone made a joke about "in this economy?" and "with inflation, ticket prices are crazy." At the mention of 'inflation,' I dropped into my IC voice for Seb and mutter, "...why would you wanna inflate it like a balloon?" David started laughing, caught his breath and gave me Inspiration. (This would basically let me re-roll any roll I made.)

One of the first cars we enter on the train is the "math car," where a bunch of modrons (basically arcane robots) were running mathematical computations, and a leading "math wizard." As tropes would have it, there was of course a blackboard covered in mathematical equations on it, so I had Seb just point at it and claim, "You forgot to carry the one." Minmaxer's Colin was also looking at the blackboard, and we were both told to make INT saving throws. Now, despite being a barbarian, Seb's INT score is actually average, but I still rolled low enough I took some psychic damage and was told "You now have a headache for the next hour."

Thus giving Seb, the barbarian, a reason to go into a rage later. As I growled, "I have a headache and I wanna share it with someone!" Which he did, on the first monster he saw. Got the killing blow and split a slaad's head open.

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D Adventurers League--

The DM this week was running "The Frozen North," a module I've done before with Seb, but not with Maleun, my shadar-kai hexblade warlock. Also at the table were Tunk and Logic, a half-orc paladin, both of whom Maleun's done adventures with. So was Cameron, whom I've mentioned before. But Cameron's legendary poor dice rolls spread to Tunk's player, who kept rolling real low for most of his attacks and saves.

At any rate, our caravan got slammed by an avalanche, leaving us effectively stranded in the middle of the Icewind Dale in a whiteout blizzard. Only place we could conceivably shelter would be at a distant mountain, if we could find a cave.

We had a couple of running gags through the session, with various members of the party making ranged attacks at some target in front of Maleun (arrows, javelins, thrown hand axes), so I flavored it that as they'd whizz past, he'd angrily go, "THAT'S MY HEAD!"

Also, Logic the paladin had a fondness for collecting heads from the defeated enemies, talking about stuffing them in her bag. So I naturally referenced Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag when she'd collect a new one.

One encounter was against a pack of four giant owls that attacked us, and when our fighter killed one, he tried to flavor it as him skinning it with the final blow. The DM made him roll to see how well he could do it, and so Logic was gifted the pelt afterward, but it was little more than a mantle, really. Except then the druid decided he wanted to try skinning one as well, was also told to roll for it, and got a Nat-20. It was a better coat than Logic's, but he refused to let the druid try to sew buttons onto it because the druid lacked the tools, proficiencies, and time to do it.

Druid Player: So I have this coat with feathers now?
DM: It's basically a duster.
Me: A feather duster?

Once again, I got a DM to crack up and award me Inspiration at an AL table.

There was some fun with some NPC survivors of the avalanche, a trio of ineptitude, described initially just as "the Expert," "the Spellcaster," and "the Warrior." (Whom we named Jimbo, Bob, and Calvin, respectively.) Calvin the Warrior spent more time in the first encounter trying to get his armor on than trying to fight off the wolves hounding him. Jimbo the Expert was noncommittal about what he was actually an expert in, leading to--

Maleun: "What are you an expert in, Jimbo?"
Jimbo: (scoffing, scandalized) "I can't believe you would even-- I mean, seriously-- what are you an expert in!?"
Maleun: "Killing things."
Jimbo: "Oh shit, you actually answered, uh..."

All three of the NPCs would be dead by the end of the adventure, due to scripted events meaning they got picked off by an angry, awakened owlbear.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Jay's At-Home Games--

Rather than D&D this week, my roommates and I played a different game. I recently received a game that I backed on Kickstarter, a Cards Against Humanity-inspired, D&D-themed game called Bards vs Humility. It primarily works around the CAH-style, where one player is the judge and draws a Setup card, and the other players select one of several Punchline cards to answer the Setup.

It builds off of this with the premise that everyone is part of an adventuring party of bards, going dungeon-diving for loot. Every player draws a "bard card" which names their bard and gives them a special ability. Players start with 10 HP and 2 Inspiration, the latter of which can be spent to use their special ability, play another Punchline card, or stop themselves from dying. They also start with 10 Punchline cards and 2 loot cards (more on them in a bit). There are two other stacks of cards-- dungeon cards and loot cards. You start by drawing a dungeon card with a monster on it (there are "encounter" cards which are more like events as well), which has its own attack/effect at the start of each round. Each monster has a set number of health.

The CAH-style play then begins, and the winning Punchline also deals a specific number of damage to the monster, and awards 1 point to the winner. This continues until the monster dies, in which case the winner also receives loot cards, depending on the monster. Loot cards are either spells or items, most of which can be played at any time (some can only be played in response to something), and some of which can be reused. Play continues until one player ends up with 10 points, or until only one player is still alive.

We had a lot of fun with it, and we all knew enough about D&D to be able to understand the Setups and Punchlines without needing explanation. It's generally been agreed now that our biweekly or monthly house game sessions could just as easily be one of the many games on my shelf instead of D&D.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Mysteries of Albia--

After a month's hiatus (various players and/or the DM not being available), we finally met again to kick off the finale of our campaign. We all had missed playing together.

In the wake of the explosions which rocked Victorium (fantasy London) that ended the previous session, Queen Londinia had been abducted by the Lightning Guild, whisked off to fantasy-Germany. A letter had been left from the Guild's leader, the Thunderlord, and as the letter was read out, we realized it was from Baron Sigfrid von Schallenburg-- the fantasy Christoph Waltz we'd met previously-- who invited us to meet at his castle near Lake Konstanze, though he could not guarantee our safety until we were on the castle grounds, as the nearby city was crawling with the Deutsche rebellion's forces, who had helped augment the Guild's forces in their attack on Victorium. (These rebels were connected to the terrorists we'd killed in the same story arc where we'd initially met the Baron.)

We reconvened at the detective agency HQ to make plans. Caradoc the druid could scry on the Queen and saw where she was being held, but also saw that the castle was surrounded by a Prismatic Wall-- a high-level spell that basically requires several high-level spells to break through its layers of protection. While we could in theory call upon high-level wizards to do this, the problem was two-fold. First, there was too much collateral damage that those spells could do to the surrounding city, and there would be civilian casualties. Second, getting close enough to cast the spells without getting spotted by the Deutsche rebels. The fastest way there was to use a Pool of Radiance to go from Victorium to Lake Konstanze, but the rebels were monitoring the lake.

Fortunately, the agency brass were able to provide us with Amulets of Alter Self and Rings of Tongues, with which we could disguise ourselves as injured Deutsche rebels, returning after being repelled by Albian defense. The brass could even provide us with cover identities. We had the rest of the evening and night to prepare, so we loaded up. Healing potions bought, Rings of Protection, etc. Vash and Annie-- our traitorous fifth member-- had a conversation, where they hashed out their differences. Annie was regretful for the deception, but said for as close as she felt to our team, her family took precedence, and she would do whatever she needed to assure their safety. They came to an understanding.

The team had some drinks at the agency's bar, given how this could be their last night alive, with a high-risk mission in the morning. Joshua (the former Beckett) admitted that he never liked the name "Fixer Nova" for our team, despite being the one who ICly suggested it. We mused about changing it, and Charlie (me) suggested something, "The Stormbreakers. 'Cuz we're about to take down the Lightning Guild." This was something we might discuss later.

But in the morning, we did the disguise thing, traveled through the Pool of Radiance to Lake Konstanze, and managed to bluff our way past the Deutsche officers keeping an eye on the lake. We got close enough to the castle to send word inside, and were allowed inside the Prismatic Wall. But once we were in the castle's hall, the Baron spoke over a loudspeaker and declared that it was time to begin the real battle.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Mysteries of Albia (non-campaign)--

Since one of the players was absent this week (attending a Green Day concert), the rest of us got together to play Bards vs Humility after I'd shown it off last week. We had a good time, but ultimately ended early, since a couple of other players needed to go.

Jesse, Bob, and I stood around talking for a bit afterward, about our upcoming Dragonlance campaign that Bob is going to DM, about TTRPG stuff in general, and about DM playstyles and such. Jesse has recently started DM'ing for some of his friends, and had mostly been looking for advice. But it sort of segued into a discussion of the dynamic at our table, which has been blessedly free of drama. Bob noted this was because three of the players (myself, Bob, and Eric) are all north of 40, and thus have enough maturity to take things in stride without undue drama, and are in a place where we can keep our schedule clear for our games.

Bob broke it down further by noting that every player at the table brought something unique to the dynamic, regardless of the character we were playing. Jesse brought the necessary inquisitiveness to ask questions. Eric was enough of a chaos gremlin to push a button because it was there, but also brought deep backstory and character into his play. Camilla plays the long game, with hidden character motivations or secrets which she kept under her hat until it would do maximum shock. Bob's characters were experienced and fine-tuned to provide maximum support/damage for the party. And me, he said I was a solid, dependable center to the group, keeping things grounded.

And, he noted, when I remarked on my concerns that I sometimes didn't contribute enough in terms of roleplay, my recaps on our Discord more than made up for any perceived shortcomings, something Jesse firmly agreed with. Everyone in the group seems to share that mindset, that my detailed note-taking and habit of posting detailed recaps of each session helped alleviate the burden of Mike the DM needing to do it for us, and helped those who may miss a week or two (or who were absent for half the campaign like Camilla) stay abreast of things going on.

It did help some of my concerns, hearing that.

[Jay 2K Winger]

D&D AL--

So the party were doing an adventure on a planet in Wildspace (Spelljammer stuff) and had to fight off an attack by essentially fantasy Cybermen/Borg, by clearing monsters out of a disused forge complex, which allowed us to get bee-like single-pilot fighter-craft, a freakin Jaeger a la Pacific Rim, and an orbital cannon (aka a "kill-sat") in our favor. We merge from the complex, with our team's monk and bard piloting the Mecha, and everyone else in a Bee-craft. The mechanics of the encounter meant we could apply our melee attacks to the Bees' ranged attacks, as well as launch "seed" missiles, which if they hit, would deal 4d10 fire damage and 4d10 thunder damage to all in range.

I fired one at the enemy ship, and threw my Bladesinger Wizard's Booming Blade on the attack as well, since the DM ruled we could do so. Which would be 8d10+1d8 damage if successful.

I rolled a Natural 20. Meaning I was rolling 16d10+2d8. Knocked a huge chunk off the ship's health, enough for the kill-sat to take it out in the next round. Except then the real final boss of the adventure-- a giant centipede-like kaiju-- emerged, and wiped out the Mecha's shielding in one attack (though they survived).

[Jay 2K Winger]

Mysteries of Albia--

This was it. The finale of our campaign, after 40 sessions across just about a year, our team-- the newly renamed "Stormbreakers"-- stormed the big bad's castle to rescue the Queen of Albia and stop Baron von Schallenberg from re-writing the rules of magic in the world. The session consisted of a series of battles against mini-bosses supplemented by clockwork automata. As the DM described the first two mini-bosses-- specifically describing one as a woman in a pink dress with a matching parasol and a purple eye-patch, and the other as a man in half-plate armor with a greatsword over his shoulder and a scar across his eye, my brain realized something and I said, "I can't believe we're fighting Guts from Berserk and Nui Harime from KIll la Kill..." The DM was surprised I caught Nui, but admitted that he'd been thinking of Geralt of Rivia for the other one. I told him Geralt has silver hair and would have two swords, and Guts fit the description a lot better.

The final battle was against the Baron himself, but he used some magic inherent in his descendancy from Siegfried to somehow transform the Queen of Albia into a giant dragon (basically by calling upon her dormant and distilled fae-dragon heritage), and between his armor and sword stance tricks, proved a fairly tough fight. But we were able to weaken him considerably enough that when he attacked Vash-- his biological daughter-- and knocked her unconscious, she was able to unleash one last Hellish Rebuke before going down, the damage of which was enough to kill him. Eric (Vash's player) narrated the kill as, just before Vash went unconscious, Knives (the devil sharing her body) flickered into appearance and told him, "Say hello to the Queen of Hell."

Then we just had to deal with a rampaging dragon. Fortunately, Annie came in clutch throughout the fights, dealing huge damage with her various skills and feats, boosting people's saving throws when she could, and was the one to clip the dragon's wing and bring her down, as the Queen of Albia returned to normal, if unconscious.

Then the Queen of Hell turned up, to oversee the re-signing of the Fae-Dragon Contract, in the Baron's blood. We had a choice to make in the signing. We could seal away one half of the magical races while unleashing the other (bad for the mortal races), we could seal away both but this would have dire consequences for mortal magic which was already weak, or we could maintain the status quo and as a benefit, renew the potency of the royal bloodline (which was connected to the strength of mortal magic - and so would revitalize mortal magic and undo the Great Withering). We of course chose the status quo.

In the denouement, which was rushed as the store was getting ready to close, the Stormbreakers were lauded by Albia and paraded through the streets, honored by the Queen of Albia, who bestowed citizenship on the two non-Albian members ("Pass," said our fae Irish Druid, only to be told to just renounce it later and not to embarrass the Queen in public) before bestowing knighthoods and damehoods on them all. Everyone got something else as well.
* Joshua Freeman (fka Beckett) had his illegitimate connection to the royal family acknowledged and was elevated to the title of Duke, with a signet ring and all.
* Charlie Tango, being former military, was awarded a medal, the highest military honor that could be given, and now felt he could be comfortable being hailed as a "war hero."
* Annie Leagallow was named the official bounty hunter of the Victorium City Watch.
* Vash was now the Baroness of Koenigsee and head of the Lightning Guild, with aims to reform the Guild to her liking, and remains the living Guarantor of the Fae-Dragon Contract.
* Caradoc ap Gryffed achieved something like the "home rule" that Eiru (Ireland) had been clamoring for, and remains the Fae's agent in the mortal realm to keep an eye on the Draconic side.

Next week, we'll have our wrap-up meeting, to discuss the campaign and our characters. Maybe even give some inklings about what they'd probably do post-campaign.