Happy New Year everyone!

Sorry for the delay, holiday season and whatnot.

We last found our party in the Elven capital of Qualinost where they were tasked with rescuing the captured people of Krynn from Pax Tharkas. During their time in Qualinost, our favorite problematic Dragonborn met the Elven princess, Laurana, who seemed to take an immediate interest in our angsty boy.

Unfortunately, she was kidnapped that same evening, putting a pin in our blossoming interactions.

The party started this week with leaving Qualinost to journey to Pax Tharkas, with Gilthanis as their guide. Before leaving, Lady Liadrin was given the title Captain (Lady) Liadrin, The Unbroken Jewel of Qualinost. She is to be the last warrior given rank in Qualinost during the Age of Despair as the elves readied to abandon their homeland to find sanctuary in the western lands.

Heading south towards Pax Tharkas, and the secret Elven entrance Sla-Mori, the team came across a bloodied battleground strewn with the corpses of men and Hobgoblins. While investigating the clearing, one of the bloodied men rose to his feet, warning the party of the ambush surrounding them. After defeating the ambush, the party spoke with the man, Eben, and agreed to take him with them on the mission.

Before reaching their destination the party witnessed thousands of Draconian soldiers exiting Pax Tharkas, headed towards the Elven homeland. This sight spurred the heroes towards their destination which they reached by the evening.

Having entered the hidden passages of Sla-Mori the party was IMMEDIATELY SLOWED by the DM's attempt at a puzzle dungeon. Yes, friends, we had it all. Back-tracking a hundy, no attempts at investigation roles, 0% questions directed at their guide; just a complete and utter disregard for their situation that bordered on absolute arrogance.

The party did recover an ancient weapon, Wyrmslayer, which was used by the first Speaker of the Sun of Qualinesti thousands of years ago. Neltharion was gifted the Greatsword after Aello begrudgingly admitted that she could not use it--but it looked dope and she wanted to keep it anyways. Having found the sword, the party returned back the way they came and took another route, where they found the ghost of a man long since trapped in Sla-Mori.

They asked this ghost NOTHING, just promised they'd get him out of Sla-Mori if he helped guide them. The ghost...who has been trapped in the tunnels for over 500 years. Guiding them, evidently. Not the living elf, this random ass ghost they found.

No matter, Gorm the dwarf just promptly heaved all those bones into his pack and continued forward. Surely no consequences there!

The ghost had offered them some tips in a highly manic voice. Those tips were as follows:

"Fools take the RIGHT way, continue through darkness, find the lowering stone. Touch not the tombs of the dead. Speak, “Friend to elf, dwarf and man.” and the doors will open. I’ll see you in time."

Again, nothing haunting or sinister there.

The team was very hung up on "the RIGHT WAY" so they opted to return back the way they came--completely passing the entrance where they could have taken the ghost so that he might escape, just fuck that, he's not going out the way they came in apparently--and continue exploring the room where they found the sword again. This time they found that the room was larger than they previously thought, and OH LOOK AT THAT:

A giant slug was stuck in it. Just a massive 1 1/2 story, 45 ft long slug.

So naturally, they decided to kill that thing. But they didn't just...attack it with swords and bows and whatever else they had. No no.

These absolute psychopaths proceed to torment this thing by casting both Phantasmal Killer and Phantasmal Force on this thing and forcing it to view the Tiefling Bard as an almost 7ft tall salt shaker, while the Dwarf made it believe that a 10ft bucket of salt was just perpetually hanging directly over its head.

When they asked me to make Wisdom and Intelligence saving throws for this thing I screamed, "MY DUDES, IT'S A SLUG." As it failed both of those miserably. They killed it within 2 rounds, as it could not move at all due to the phantom salt plaguing it.

To kill it, Neltharion and Rodriggo were right up on it and Neltharion stated that he, "Slid on his knees alongside the beast cutting it from end to end so that all of the entrails and nastiness purposefully lands on Rodriggo." It's...a love-hate thing they've got going.

We left our heroes being judged very harshly by Eben for the chaos and villainy of what they'd just done to this poor creature (who had obviously been just stuck in this room peacefully growing in size over the centuries, living its best life) which then caused an existential crisis over whether or not they were supposed to be friends with it (they weren't, but I enjoyed the sorrow and anxiety the thought provoked).

We will be picking up in the tunnels of Sla-Mori; Neltharion has a new weapon, Gorm is carrying a whole ass ghosts worth of bones, the party has a new ally (Eben) and Rodriggo is covered in slug goop.

So an IRL bestie of mine plays in my DnD campaign. She wanted to play a Dragonborn...in Dragonlance. Alright, bet Queen let's goooo.

So she's been playing her character for 7 sessions now and as per usual she's made him quite angsty. His name is Neltharion and he's got a bad boy with a dark past vibe like no other. He's currently running around with the heroes of Krynn, confusing literally everyone.

She likes making these angry characters and they generally stay quiet. Lately, her character (Neltharion) has made friends with the Assassin (Rodriggo) in the group and that's led to some humourous interactions which I adore, but I wanted a little more.

Enter a love interest, pre-written into the campaign. Her name is Laurana. She is an elf. She is SUPPOSED to be a love interest with a pre-existing campaign character. Those characters don't exist in my world so I could have:

A) Gotten rid of it

B) Kept the character minus the love interest bit

C) Have fun.

My motto is always have fun. So I wrote down my PCs names and rolled a dice.

Hehehehe. It landed on the Dragonborn. The angsty-ass Dragonborn who isn't a Draconian but still confuses and terrifies all who come across him. The Dragonborn whose main interaction with the party so far has been hiding a rotting fish in one of the member's packs (he also was the one who made BlipBlup his braided iron crown *sigh* my heart).

So they get to the city, have a lot of dialogue with the elves, and then BAM enter the gorgeous elven princess. Who immediately is taken with this strange creature gracing the halls of her father's nation. She's got diamonds braided into her hair. Her brown skin SPARKLES like it's been rubbed with gem dust (going for an Edward in the sunlight vibe here). Her eyes reflect shades of green, teal, and hints of amber. She is GORRRGEOUS.

And she is the first person to ever treat Neltharion with any sort of kindness. I even checked that, I asked his in-game friend (Aello), "How do you generally treat Neltharion? You've known him your whole life, is it a brotherly relationship? Are you friends? What's the deal between you two?" And Aello's player agreed that they would treat Neltharion kind of like a sibling (i.e. they're not "kind" to one another but would die for each other).

So I throw my poor bestie into this role-play scene where this elven princess is flirting with her 7-foot-tall Dragonborn and just being overtly caring and kind. Answering his questions, speaking quietly, lightly touching his arm, etc.

She could have refused it, kept going with her angst; but, she's BLUUUSHING, cannot handle her boy being romanced. Fully into it.

When the elven princess leaves, she looks right at the Rodriggo and says, "Nelly's in love."

She's never referred to her character as anything but his full name. Just the instant personality switch was amazing.

The princess later got captured and our Nelly boy (my heart forever) angrily roared in despair as he watched her disappear on the horizon on the back of a stinky Wyvern.

LF Help providing prizes for my upcoming art contest! Please follow this link to my DA for more details: https://www.deviantart.com/indigo-chan99/journal/LF-Contest-Prize-Donors-w-prizes-869724019

Thanks for all your help!

My boy Coda's on a pirate airship on his way to the abyss to break a mate out of demon prison.

Had to change his look up a bit to match the new swashbuckling adventurer he has become.

Meet Virion Morelli, a sorcerer and follower of the Raven Queen, who will be joining the @ratpackrpg crew for the very first time tonight at 9pm GMT live on Twitch! 

https://www.twitch.tv/ratpackdnd

The party has dealt with a sinister crew of criminals - and come face to face yet again with a monstrous Ilithid. Is something connecting these creatures to the Rat Pack, or are their plans simply set on Errathor?

If you’re new to the stream, why not catch up on past sessions on our Youtube page - Rat Pack RPG