#the dm hit us with an aurora last session because of the one a few weeks ago

[psikind]

my bed the ground, my roof the sky

[chornayadrakoshig]

Aaand this artwork is done, yay!

This is a dnd character I played in a Strixhaven campaign last year! Human artificer and Lorehold student, goes by he/she pronouns. I'm not sure how to translate his name correctly (I wasn't playing in english), I guess it's El? Yel? (with a sofl L at the end) Stormsong. Anyways...

This was actually my first dnd campaign (I participates in handful of writting-based roleplays waaay back in like 2010-2014 and played one session in warhammer 40k campaign which I didn't like because I know next to nothing about the setting but my friend dragged me there).

So, few notes from the campaign itself:

In the first year Larine almost died from exhaustion because she took all her free time for extra practice before the water-dancing club had a large performance on Rose Stage (which was it's own shenanigans to find someone who can cast and controll the huge mass of water to give us, like, temporary magical pool on stage).

Also in year 3 Larine won the magical fashion show and ended up working as designer later on.

My character and Aurora almost killed each other. Not like that, they were besties and tried to handle some issues with Aurora's dhampir hunger that was triggered by her falling in love with another NPC and, well, I'll just say it was one of the most emotional moments in the whole campaign and the only time I cried. Eventually DM decided it's too much and we got a happy ending (both survived) but damn.

Also right after that my character got in trouble because, well, she took so much damage she had to go to the hospital, but he tried to convince people that's just study experiment went wrong and not a dhampir bite so she got scolded by professor for allegedly messing with necromancy.

Quentillius tried to hit on Jawenish (unsuccessfully) and eventually ended up dating my character instead. They married after graduation and opened a shop selling magical music instruments.

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 8 Highlights

New skills are learned, libraries are slightly ruined, and rumours are gathered.

Aaaaaand we’re back! Although finishing finals and traveling was super fun, I’m happy to be back in the DM chair and having adventures with my friends (I missed them). 

Before we get into the highlights, just a little sidenote from me: I’m gonna be on a D&D livestream! The great people at Encounter Roleplay, a show that I immensely enjoy watching, had open call for some viewers to join for a game or two. I decided to apply after being encouraged by some of my players, and now I’ll be playing my bard Mari Stagheart this Thursday! If you want to watch me struggle be a player for the first time ever, catch me on https://www.twitch.tv/encounterroleplay this Thursday May 18th from 4-7 p.m EST. Hope to see you guys there, and drop a hello in the chat if you do drop by!

Now back to the “regularly” scheduled programming... Premise: due to a panicked wizard and an exploding wand, everyone except Baldwin and Corrick has been body swapped, leading to some internal chaos. Aurora is in Carlin’s body, Carlin is in Innchie’s body, Innchie is in Igtbtgh’s body, and Igtbtgh is in Aurora’s body. After apprehending Kevamros Silentread, the wizard who was responsible, they headed back to Fortuna to jail Kevamros, figure out how to switch back into their normal selves, and create a plan for recovering the next item, which is in the estate of Councillor Evans Galonodel in his city of Keltar (next to the capital Salv). 

So everyone has about 3 days of freetime together to figure shit out

Aurora decides to teach Igtbtgh how to use magic, as he is quite literally the most magically illiterate character in the body of a sorcerer (oh irony, how much I love you)

She rolls terribly, he rolls a fucking nat20

Great start of the night guys

So while Aurora sits and ponders on how to describe her spells and magic just beyond basic descriptions, Igtbtgh somehow just...wills it into happening, casting light on a stone

While Igtbtgh practices, Aurora heads out and searches for somebody in the city that might be able to help in reversing the body swap magic

She finds a monk named Toman, who tries his best to manipulate her body’s energy to fix the magic

She, Carlin, and Igtbtgh feel a strange flickering as they seem to switch between their current bodies and just....nothingness

Toman stops, saying that the magic that body swapped them seemed to have been tinted by wild magic, and thus he would find it unsafe to continue as he has no expertise

But he recommends her (and the rest of the party) to his former adventuring partner Allura Cardin, a wizard and librarian of the Salv library with a specialty in wild magic

Carlin, trying to find someone to help, also stumbles upon Toman about a day later (to Toman’s amusement) and receives the same information

Afterwards Carlin, in Innchie’s body, decides to take a shower and buy a simple green dress (much to Innchie’s chagrin)

Carlin (OOC): Oh god now I’ve seen her naked

Innchie, in the spirit of this, buys Igtbtgh a new fancy cape

People are almost having fun with the body swap things, until they realize that the abilities and weapons that they’re comfortable with are very out of reach now

Baldwin is checking in with the Morai following in Fortuna, including the printing press of pamphlets run by Maude

He makes a great sermon, further solidifying his presence in the city

He also uses his network to search for rumours about Councillor Galanodel to find out more about him and why he and Councillor Astorio are at odds with each other

He learns that Councillor Galanodel is considered an upstanding and well-loved High Councillor, having been elected into his position many times over 

Councillor Galanodel is also known to be strict but just and kind, and that no one knows why he and Councillor Astorio are at odd other than the fact that he was known to be close with her mother, the deceased Councillor Terra Astorio

The party starts suspecting that there might be some romantic history between Councillor Galanodel and Councillor Astorio’s mother, even theorizing he might be current Councillor Astorio’s father

With new info (and a convenient visit to Salv scheduled anyways by Councillor Astorio before the event at Councillor Galanodel’s estate) they head to Salv

Upon reaching it after a few days of travel, they find the two-story library in the second ring of the city, which is interesting as it appears to have no windows and made completely of white marble 

Baldwin goes off on his own with Corrick to try to glean some more info and plan for the retrieval of the item

As they approach the wooden doors, two High Council guards stop them and say that there’s an incident inside that is under control but the group isn’t allowed inside until it’s taken care of

The party persuades the guards to let them in and help out

Inside the foyer are a bunch of librarians and other workers with cuts all over them 

They say that the main room of the library is closed (both literally behind the next set of doors and figuratively), as something was wrong with the latest shipment of books from a recently deceased wizard in Salv

They also say that Allura is inside the main room dealing with the situation at hand

Igtbtgh manages to bluff them into thinking that the party was called in to help, and were given access into the main room

Carlin stayed outside to gather information from the librarians about Councillor Galanodel and the event at his estate while Aurora, Igtbtgh, and Innchie creak open the doors

The inside of the main room of the library is beautiful, with the walls lined with books up to the ceiling, magical ladders that extend upwards, a balcony-like ring along what would be the second floor, and the marble walls thin enough to let a glow of light in

It would be stunning and awesome if there wasn’t a giant vortex of flying pages in the middle of the room with a few figures fighting it

Fight begin!

If I’m to be completely honest, I was tougher (but not merciless) during this fight because I was bitter about my crystal golem being defeated so easily 

The vortex lashes out, attempting to slash at the players with the pages but misses

Aurora tries out using daggers, which seem to have no effect on the paper vortex and she nopes out of there, trying to hide or escape without invoking an attack of opportunity

Innchie uses her (Igtbtgh’s) shield and charges forward, attempting to get to the middle of this vortex, getting cut in the process

Igtbtgh starts using fire spells (especially after the figures in the background yell that fire is probably the best way to defeat it)

Unfortunately, Igtbtgh’s sense of aim isn’t what it used to be and many a fireball goes off and hits some priceless books

The other figures, fortunately, are getting some fire hits in 

Innchie reaches the middle of the vortex, coming across a 12 foot tall figure made completely out of paper, tall and spindly with wings and a face made out of pure swirling arcanic energy

It’s a living spellbook, but not wanting to give it away, I start referring to it as “paper monster”

The players made fun of me for using the term...and I might’ve gotten a little meaner at that point

She uses the longsword to cut it, and the figure lashes out in retaliation with a spell with a shit ton of force damage, causing Innchie to fall unconscious and out of the vortex

Igtbtgh: I’m too old for this shit

Rounds go by with the living spellbook and Igtbtgh exchanging fire magic while Innchie receives more damage and has to start making death saving throws

Igtbtgh, in a bit of a panic, attempts to use mage hand to remotely give Innchie a healing potion

Unfortunately, due to reduced visibility and lack of skill, he only manages to feed half of the bottle to her 

At this point, Aurora manages to get the door back open and stumble out, asking for help

Igtbtgh follows, only to have a surprise attack of opportunity from the living spellbook and fall face-first out of the doorway unconscious

They get him back to some health with potions of healing, and with Carlin now with them, they make their way back inside

The living spellbook is getting wailed on by the other people inside, and is quite visibly on fire

Carlin helps by shooting a bunch of eldritch blasts, hitting it quite easily

Innchie, at this point, has failed two death saving throws

Igtbtgh stabilizes Innchie with a decent medicine check, then brings her back to consciousness with potions of healing

With the pages starting to lose control, everyone can now see the figure of the living spellbook within the vortex of pages, also on fire

The living spellbook starts to move away from everybody, clearly in distress, and casts shield 

However, Carlin gets in a powerful last shot

I implemented the Critical Role “How do you want to do this” thing for the killing blow, where the player gets to narrate how they kill the boss

Me: how do you want to do this Innchie (OOC): what do you mean?? Carlin (OOC): ...swiftly?

It took some explaining but they got it eventually

With the final spell, Carlin shouts “THIS IS TO AVENGE MY FRIENDS” as the living spellbook shrieks and just falls apart into lifeless pages

Fight end!

One of the figures fighting the living spellbook introduces herself as Allura, saying that she was grateful for their help

Aurora totally forgot the name of the person who sent them to get her help, but thankfully Allura knew she was talking about Toman (can you tell I was going easy after the fight?)

She says that helping to reverse the spell is the least she can do to help after what they did

Using some powerful custom glyphs, she manages to switch them back into their original bodies safely 

Afterwards, Carlin briefs the group on what he learned from talking with the librarians in the foyer 

He says that the event is meant for Councillor Galanodel to get to know people of the High Council and other members of higher society outside of a formal business context, and he holds these events every 6 months or so and tend to be fairly open (though with invitations given to guests of honour and high status)

The estate itself acts as both his office and his home, and so the house tends to be fairly open with some wings that have restricted access

Their suspicions might be correct that Councillor Galanodel and Councillor Astorio’s mother were romantically involved, but rumours seem to say that it was one-sided on Councillor Galanodel’s side

The Serpent, the thief that had sent their calling card to the Galanodel estate stating they were going to steal the item, is known to be a mysterious gentleman thief that always sent a calling card ahead of time and has never been caught

Carlin also knows that Councillor Galanodel has hired on a traps and engineering specialist to help secure the room with the item in it

Bidding farewell to Allura and the rest of the grateful librarians, Carlin strikes a final heroic pose, enhanced by his Cloak of Heroic Flapping

With this new information in hand, the party decides to prepare for the ball with help from Councillor Astorio 

Aurora and Baldwin are going as more influential and affluent guests (with Baldwin not needing to bluff considering his background and standing in Fortuna)

Innchie and Carlin will be going as less eye-catching middle-class guests to stay under the radar

Igtbtgh is going disguised as a security guard

And next we see them, they will be at the ball!