Badger: A Druid's Story

[Inquisitor66]

Lame, having 1 bad player can wreck an entire afternoon.

[Raindog]

We played tonight 😀.

The game progressed well. We found a series of leads leading us to a dungeon dive. We found an unknown under city with the good we were looking for hidden in a room, but not the missing owner. The problem player, on their last play date, wanted to leave immediately, since it was spooky, but the group went on. We found the city's ancient crypts, opened the skeletons missing. The group continued and saw movement ahead, we went to investigate, hoping to find more clues, people we could question, or follow, but found an a skeleton horde. After killing 17 with dozens more filling the the ranks, the party retreat back out of dungeon. 

[Raindog]

Another game is under our belts. The problem player still played, but it seems like the last game in that player's arc. The problem player spent most of the time playing video games on their phone. 

Healed and sharing information with out contacts, the party regrouped and went back under the city into the crypts. The party found an ancient blood altar under the center of the city. Then, the party found a secret way into the mage's school. In the deepest basement of the, we found the people we were searching for. One was barely alive, and the other had turned undead. We killed the undead person and returned to our contacts with the city. Once the missing person was healed, it was confirmed the mages had captured the people we were looking for. The were trying to find how to locate valuable magic components, but accidentally killed the missing mage while torturing her. 

[Blustorm]

10 hours ago, Raindog said:

Another game is under our belts. The problem player still played, but it seems like the last game in that player's arc. The problem player spent most of the time playing video games on their phone. 

I know at least 5-6 people who would LOVE to play D&D in person around a common table, but they all have families and so are relegated to playing D&D online thru Discord and apps. Some people just have no appreciation for how fortunate they are.....🤔

[Raindog]

OK.

The problem-some player deftly dropped out in a well worded e-mail. 

The party gated away to the Canyonside ruins where they had fought the goblin strong-hold to start the next set of adventures. With a lead that Bane K, had been the person to ship the spell components, including those from the body parts possibly enslaved  sentient creatures known as changelings, the party monetarily aided the fight against the goblins, and headed to the next country to the west. The gate to the next town in our path had glitches, so we opted for an unknown destination to the southeast. The gate led us to a lone hill standing over a desert. Ruins of an ancient settlement circled the hill and a great, sentient tree stood over the gate. 

The gate revealed one party member, a servant of the problem player, who wished to continued the quest, and claimed to have permission to be with us, to be a changeling. The changeling had taken multiple roles over several encounters to help the party.

When my character, Badger, went to investigate the tree, the tree spoke to the group, revealing the goliath barbarian to be a Fastrider (think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, once in a generation, legendary fighter). The tree wanted to walk north, but the guardian of the place held it in place. Badger went to investigate and discovered a guardian in the form of giant scorpion holding the tap root of the Great Tree (think Ent). The angry guardian tried to fight the party, but freeing the Ent, the party fled through the gate to the east. Landing in a pine wood, Badger tried to learn who the changeling actual was.......

[Raindog]

Per the DM, he was shocked we did not kill the Guardian, but the creature was not evil and seemed to have a defensive posture, so the party freed the tree and left.  

[Raindog]

We gamed!

The party gated from the forest circle to the town of Stahl.  Stahl is like an old west farming town, but a merchant baron owns the whole town. Most people are share croppers who owe too much to ever leave, so it it like a company town from the 1800's. 

A kindly share cropping couple who dwell near the gate tell us how the city runs. The man we are looking for, the man selling body parts of changelings , owns the town. The party acts as if they are representatives of a merchant coalition seeking trade with the man who owns the town. 

As we scope out the city, Silence the ranger feels magic being altered in three areas. She prods Badger to sense out and a walled compound spikes his interest. As the party scout out the area, a lone guard challenges us on the side of the walled compound. The party starts to separate to distract and annoy the guard, but the changeling in the party goes into a rage and attacks the guard. The guard is quickly overwhelmed and shoved into a hole badger digs (as a giant badger), but Brae the party's barbarian charges the gates of the compound and all hell breaks loose. The changeling and the bard and wade into combat. 

Badger digs under the walls and begins to search the compound. Silence follows him in.  She fires arrows at the compound guards from the rear as the barbarian and friend charge throw the man gate. 

Badger finds a building with a series of cells, finds imprisoned Changelings, finds the keys and begins freeing them. 

As combat stops, 13 guards lie dead. 7 Changelings are freed and the party reaches the gate to bring the changelings to safety. 

[Raindog]

 

My wife really wanted to go back and raid the manor house in the town for the records. badger wanted to use the gates to return the Changelings to safety. 

In the end, I won out since the majority of the Changelings preferred safety. 

The Changelings were from three different groups kidnapped near the Ullirim States. They have been moved from camp to camp. There were at least four more camps we have yet to encounter. So Badger took the group through the gates to the Canyonside camp and introduced them to the group ferreting out goblins along the Great Rift. 

Then we head east of Stahl to the base of the Red Stone Mountains using the gates. We find a frontier mining town with three bard all demanding our bard. badger uses animal form to be a dog and a magic item to extend his ability to remain a dog to go with the Bard. Goro the Bard uses his Invisibility spell to hide Brae the Barbarian and try to info gather as Goro plays in a bar. When the Brae become visible again, the bar tender does everything he can to sign Brae to a local brute squad contract and even summons a boss' lieutenant to seal the deal. The underling is a jerk, so Badger as a dog pees on the man. When the man begins to beater Badger, Brae beats the man with her ale jack as all hell is about to break loose,  Badger cast Fog Cloud and Brae and Badger slip away. 

[Raindog]

Two more sessions and disaster:

First, the party looked around the village of Kant. It is owned by the same guy as Stahl and most of the west of the Ullirim States. The town has stores of magic items components, but not the captured Changelings. As the party is about to leave, a legion of undead, flaming dwarf spirits attack the town. Since there is a bunch of cannon fodder peasants, we try to intervene, but no matter how many how many we kill, the boss cast a single spell and KO's the party, except Badger.  The party is captured and taken to a dark black hole and put in a floating cage over  the whole.  Badger heals the party and then escapes. The whole night is a giant railroad that waits until the   problem character returns. A ghost in the machine mechanic lowers the party to where Badger has been trying to mark the bottom of the cave. Once freed, the party finds a tunnel leading to a trap, a one way gate the party all walks into. 

[Inquisitor66]

By disaster do you mean the for the characters or was the session not fun? I get the impression of the latter from youd post.

[Raindog]

The session was not fun. My wife threaten to quit the game. 

[Inquisitor66]

Lame. Campaign seems to have some real highs and lows.

[Raindog]

There are great sessions and two bad ones so far. The best part of the last session is the bard decided Oasis' "Wonderwall" was his song of inspiration and my character began to use minor illusion to augment the song. It was hilarious. All the players laughed, but it annoyed the DM (who hates the song). 

[Inquisitor66]

Sounds like the GM's vision doesn't match up with the players actions....par for the course.

[Raindog]

I have talked to the DM. He thinks it is his fail. He was unemployed and now working 53 hour weeks. He said he has a hard time anticipating the player's needs as well as the predicting where and what option the group will head. 

[Brother Glacius]

That is a fallacy that all DMs fall into.

[Ish]

It’s perfectly normal for ongoing campaigns to have the occasional rough patch. Even scripted television shows with entire teams of professional writers, veteran directors, and award-winning actors will inevitably release one or two lousy episodes each season... You’re a half-dozen nerds sitting in a basement playing make-believe*, so of course you’re going to have similar snags.

Talk about it with the group, if you feel it’s warranted, but I don’t think you need to fret. 
 

* I say this with love, obviously. 

[Raindog]

We are going to hit pause on the the campaign. The DM is working 55 hours weeks and even the every other week format of the game is not providing him enough time for him to prep. We had a conversation over beers and then he talked with my wife. It was highly productive and no feelings were hurt.