#rip eldeth

[funstufffandomsandcoolpictures]

I've never shared one of these online before but I loved this guy so much. My first rogue, my first real 5e character after Phandelver, and my highest level dnd character to date.

This poor guy. I gave him a chill backstory on purpose because I didn't want him to be that stereotype edgy rogue. Just a guy wandering the Sword Coast with his childhood friend on a lark. Pickpocketing and burglarizing to pay for rooms in each town, until one day they get separated fleeing one town, and Timothy "Mulch" Dorset gets nabbed by drow slavers on the road (the hook for OoTA).

We only played the first half of the campaign, but over the course of it we suffered 60% casualties. And through a combination of players having to drop out and luck, every single PC and NPC Mulch befriended died. Serial killers, faulty teleporters, a held-action disintegrate. Even the no-name Scout he played cards with died in a drow ambush.

During the final escape, an NPC gets cut down by Orcus himself right in front of Mulch, and he has to jump over his body to get out.

A minute before he was killed by the Disintegrate spell, the PC and Mulch had argued about who should entered the room first. Mulch entered second, his boots covered in dust.

I swear if I didn't watch it all go down I'd have thought it was planned. I didn't even realize it all until I calculated the casualties afterwards (neither did the DM).

Nowadays, Mulch is working as a sailor, as far from underground and demons as he can get, until such time as I can pull him into a new campaign.

[ootacampaign]

Adventure #11

Back on the waters of Darklake toward Gracklstugh, the crew spots a storm ahead as the waves begin challenging the wheels and navigator.

“Put your backs into it!” encourages Caduceus.

“Hooold onn, thhiss wwilll beee bummmpyyy.” replies Shuushar.

Indeed the waves crashed upon the koan bringing with them all kinds of debris ripping up the hull.

“Think this will hold?” asks Aryn.

“Let’s hope so, cause there only 2 swimmers and 1 flyer in this crew.” adds Jimjar.

Even Ikki had trouble flying in this wind but he continued as he shouted out rock croppings ahead. Aryn skillfully moved them aside without damage, but the ship and crew was wet as Darklake itself now.

More waves, more rocks, more debris but this crew knew their talents: Ikki spotting with the familiars, Aryn & Shuushar navigating, Stool & Buppido as runners, and the rest as the muscle working the paddle wheels that power this kou-toa ship.

After an hour the storm subsided and as they relaxed their tired bodies, Eldeth shouted, “Boat portside!”

The crew looked over to see an empty boat taking on water.

“Its empty.”

“Thats a duergar boat.” replies Hemeth.

“Theees arre duuugaar waaatersss.” adds Shuushar.

“Well she’s empty and sinking, law of the seas says she is open game. Prepare the raft,” commands Caduceus.

Jimjar, Ront, Caduceus, Aryn, and Ikki decide to investigate the mysterious boat with their mushroom cap raft they’ve been dragging since Sloopdulop. With a crack against the starboard, Jimjar throws a grappling hook and Ront brings them up close while Aryn and Caduceus look around. The below deck is full of water and some supplies.

“This is too weird,” says Aryn.

“Maybe they were washed off by the storm,” adds Caduceus but Aryn’s reply is only a confused and frustrated brow & lip.

But to their dismay the boat was indeed not crewless, as a dozen duergar became visible with an assault on the crew. Caught unaware, almost all of them took some strike flat-footed. Three duergar grew to large size and shouted a haughty war cry.

Caduceus brought up his patented defense trying to keep Aryn & Jimjar from the frontlines while Ront bellowed a raging strike with his maul into one of the large duergar pirates. The duergar recruits, while young were still deadly with their javelins finding their mark on Ikki.

Aryn knew this was a deadly encounter, so she called for everyone back to the raft and retreat to the koan. As they moved back, Aryn gave one last warning before she broke a bead from the newly discovered necklace from the Lost Tomb of Khaem. The bead hit the pirate deck and exploded with the power of a mighty explosion taking a few recruits and damaging two of the large duergar. 

But the dwarves were not ready to let them escape as they jumped aboard the mushroom raft bringing their assault to Jimjar and Aryn. The gnome fell off the raft into the water, but Aryn was prepared with her own Armor of Agathys nipping back at the attacks against her. Ikki kept his attacks on the recruits hoping to draw some of their fire from the rest, while Ront jumped back to the raft finding his mark smashing one of the pirates brains to pulp. The orc gave out a blood-curdling cry wiping the dwarf blood into his mouth, and charged the next duergar.

Caduceus broke his defensive stance to bring his own attacks, now empowered by the mighty Dawnbringer. The dwarves grimaced as the bright sunbeams poured forth from the enchanted blade and they could not defend quick enough as Caduceus took down another pirate. Jimjar struggled to get back onto the raft but his companions fought a bloody battle without his aid, and with Ront unconscious again only one duergar remained and throw down his weapons in surrender.

Caduceus looks over to Aryn healing Ront, “I told you this was a good idea.”

“That’s duergar blood all over you right?”

“I’m fine. Now for the spoils of battle.” laughed the eldritch knight.

They found some cork stowed away that perfectly fit the holes bringing in water, as if they dwarves planned this whole ambush. The crew with Hemeth’s advice decided to take the boat with them, hoping to trade it in at Gracklstugh.