D&D is finally back on! I'm thrilled to be back.
I had an artwork commissioned of my character Thomoras, I got to show it off today. The artist was lovely, very collaborative. They shall post it on tumblr soon, I will reblog it once it's up.
Today I was seated with a player from my first session here, finally. Thomoras had promised his character a bottle of wine in trade for protection. It's been at the back of my mind since, I thought I got to sit with him one or two sessions later, but he was actually substitute DMing for someone, so I didn't get to make up for it.
We traveled by cart up to a mountain filled with dwarfs, some social, some not so much. (I would just like to mention I despise that this is the most common way dwarfism is represented. Little people deserve better.)
The more social ones got a bit handsy at first. Either way, we got to a bar, where I bought this chap a bottle of wine. The bartender saw me hand it to him, and poured some wine for the whole party (and himself) because of it. The wine... Sounded quite unappetizing. I won't recount the details, but trust me when I say I was glad to not have actually tasted it in real life.
We got to a crowded hall where we were meant to meet up with someone. However, there was a fight about to start, and Thomoras happened to take notice that there were four groups of people, all singing different songs. Two players went off to watch the fight, one of them placed a bet (and lost). The other two players went off to the person we were supposed to meet. I, however, recognized two of the songs people were singing. One of which was more cheerful than the other. I shouted out that everyone pull themselves together and sing the same song, as the clashing sounds were getting quite bothersome. Thomoras then proceeded to do an amazing job playing background music for the cheerful song. (I rolled a nat 20, with my modifier it was a 27.) People started joining in, Thomoras got a look from a racist high elf (Thomoras is a half-elf), but the high elf's friend, who was also a high elf, seemed fine with Thomoras.
Eventually, everyone gathered to hear our mission. We were to complete a trial for the dwarfs in the mountain. Unfortunately I didn't quite catch why, I was quite unfocused today.
After some discussion, we decided to go with the trial of the hunter, which involved tracking down something (or someone) dangerous and defeating it (/them) and bringing back something to show of it.
When we asked for some guidance, we were told we could defeat a wyvern, since there were loads nearby, and we were advised of a monastery of fighters, in which we would be rewarded an orange gold coin of sorts to show we have defeated someone.
However, we were gently informed that wyverns were quite dangerous, and we also didn't get an exact location for the monastery. We decided to sleep on it, and perhaps gain some more intel.
During this time, Thomoras decided to go around asking to read a poem to anyone willing to listen. He finally found someone willing to listen, and started to read out a medium length poem, of only 30 minutes. He gained quite a crowd, but unfortunately they felt it got repetitive and was written badly. Remember the high elfs from earlier? The one that was NOT racist had changed his mind. He said that was about what you'd expect from a half elf. As he and his friend left, they even called Thomoras a *quarter* elf. I have never in my life felt greater pain.
While Thomoras was doing this, the other players were asking around, and apparently some people had seen a bloated elk corpse with two large wounds. We concluded it must have been from some kind of snake.
We returned to the person responsible for the trial of the hunter, announcing our decision to track down this beast and kill it.
Our quest got approved, and off we went. It didn't take us long to find the dead elk. It had decomposed quite rapidly, only having been dead for a few days. We concluded it was due to some kind of poison.
After a while, we found that the ground had an odd rainbow sheen to it. Two of the players rolled quite well on history/religion checks, so we learned that the tracks most likely belonged to a kind of rainbow snake. Either, a kind winged ond that would leave us alone, or a dangerous fallen one.
Moments later, we encounter this dangerous beast.
I would recount to you the battle in great detail, but it was already over right as we got into the 3rd round. I wanted to use my staff of the python, but the beast did consistently over 60 damage, which is Slitherz the fourth's HP. If he reaches 0, my staff breaks and he's dead for good. There's rumors of a player who lost their snake, cried, and never returned... And I would like to stay out of that rumor.
I'm quite thankful that I didn't release Slitherz, because one of the players died. He seemed quite casual about it, and the DM held sort of a funeral for his character. It was short, but it was respectful.
Right, I almost forgot! When we defeated the beast, it turned out that we had been followed by the trial of the hunter man, and he informed us that what we had defeated was... I believe a Naga? Which is a beast that regenerates. We hurried back with the head, which then got ushered away and presumably locked in some sort of cage.
At the end of it all, I (along with the rest of my team) got a sort of silver coin, engraved with dwarvish writing and anvils, as a sign of allegience.
During the game my bag of snacks (which was meant to be able to stand!) fell over and I lost around a third of it on the floor. :/
