#we learn that from a db orc before us

[babyblueetbaemonster]

For some unknown reason rabbits won't run away from me. Maybe Dubak has learn some tricks from his Bosmer mom? Or maybe my laptop is insane lagging haha.

[kaiju-z]

DnD 5e One Shot - The Dragon and The King

So, last saturday our group had our second one shot. I’m writing this up first, because the first One Shot was a Winter Solstice one that takes place in the near future of our party and stuff happens in it (will write down an episode on that once we catch up).

Our ranger @unholysavior​ was the DM for that one, so our regular dm @lozwithasideofcheese​ got to play with us again as a player.

Our party consisted of:

Reed, the Firbolg Ranger (as played by our Goblin Barbarian player Hayden) and his companion, the mountain lion and BEST GIRL Ginger;

Kit, the Changeling Rogue (as played by our DM);

Gamin Steak the Eldarin Necromancer (as played by our Half-Orc bard @langsty-mc-langstface​);

Nemo Olzien, te Aasimar Paladin (as played by our Air Genasi Monk, @kittehr​);

and lastly Esteban “Ban” Carrera, the Halfling Cleric, as played by me.

We started at 5th level and were called to the court of King Adavier (a rather empty court as we found out later on). He tasked us with the job of arming ourselves in the town of Greenburrow/Greenborough (I’m not sure on how it’s written), climb a nearby mountain and fight a 500 year old tyranical red dragon atop the Stone’s Peak of the mountain.

He will pay us “handsomely” 40 gold pieces each for the task and immediatelly we should’ve figured something was wrong with the job. It felt off. But I think we were mainly distracted with Gamin’s shenanigans. Gamin was a bit unhinged (and by a bit, I mean a lot) and almost dove out of a window.

He also secured himself bones from the royal catacombs??? I don’t think we ever followed up on that.

After some shenanigans (for some reason I wrote down that the king sleeps commando style?! Gamin was great, XD) in the court and introductions to each other outside the king’s castle, we made our way to GB. On the way there we avoided a fight with highwaymen?? I think that was a thing that could have happened. But we were too perceptive to be caught by surprise, so they never made their move.

Ban, after some reluctance, ended up riding on Ginger’s back along the way to GB and Reed talked to some horses to get their take on how they were doing in the service of rent horses (Tap once for doing ok, tap twice for nah).

Kit basically robbed Gamin in plain sight, but we all rolled low enough to where we didn’t see her pull that off.

We learn that Gamin doesn’t remember where he lives, but he wants to go home. He wasn’t always like this, the insightful Ban understands from his rolls (It felt so nice to play a character, who doesn’t roll low on wisdom checks X’D). And before we reach the outskirts, everyone but Kit flexes. Yep. Even Ginger.

In the outskirts of the town we meet a black dragonborn named “Dennar” (or Donnar? I’m not sure on the pronounciation), who lives outside of town in a barn, painted black. Gamin adopts him immediatelly.

From Denar’s snoot to our ears, we learn that Sleekclaw isn’t a baddie. In fact, he’s the protector of these lands. Kind and wise. Which gets us to start questioning the king’s motives. (Us not being locals, but travelers from our own paths, we don’t know much about the local lore).

It seems that ever since the king took the throne, he has been a tyranical ruler, who would wreck any town within his kingdom??? He held hostility towards all the non-humany races (Dragonborn and Tieflings included).

We comfort the troubled DB and he basically joined the party from that point (cue the dm making a sheet for Denar, while we have a break).

We continue on the way to the town and find a sword amidst burned buildings. But not from above, which corroborates Dennar’s story to us. We learn, through Nemo, that the sword is cursed and that diamonds are growing from it. According to Reed, the sword is infused with Conjuration type magic. After some more shenanigans between Ban and Gamin (They have a very Order vs Chaos dynamic developing here), Gamin uses a clever way to carry the sword, as it may be useful for later.

The king took power 5 years prior and since then things have been going bad. My favorite quote from the one shot came next. “ It’s like a royalty card! You need to punch a card in corruptness.”

We reach the town, which is covered in diamons of various sizes. It’s disconcerning as we enter town. Greenborough is a small town with a few shops. But that doesn’t really matter, because it’s overrun by these black, red and purple diamonds that have grown all over the place.

Further north in town is the castle of the Lord and Lady, who run the township. Gamin looks at a tree and starts crying after a trip to the secret chat. My heart 8(  Dennar taps him. “You ok?” Gamin: “Peachy!”

Big oof.

Gamin suddenly decides to run for the castle and we end up following him inside. Once in, we all make will saves and for all we know, we all pass. We find the lady, a green tiefling with heart shaped horns,curled up close to the staircase, looking traumatized. There’s blood up the staircase.

Ban tries to comfort the woman, while upstairs, Gamin finds a door blocked by diamonds. And starts magic missiling the shit out o the diamonds. Once he hears a faint cry for help from the other side.

After a perception check (we made SO MANY in this one shot, amazing), Ban noticed that diamonds were slowly growing on the woman’s wrists and throat. It seems that some kind of diamond plague had reached this town???

Gamin shatters a diamond and sees a red tiefling, stuck under diamonds inside the room that was blocked by the diamonds.

It’s at this point that things go bad. Dennar’s legs are petrified to the ground because of diamonds, growing on him (I guess he failed his save D: )

Through quick thinking on everyone’s part we managed to save the Lord and Lady AND Dennar, thanks to Kit’s swing with the greatsword, taking out the crystals on the lady, Reed bringing the Lord to Ban and Ban using some spells to restore both the Lord and Dennar to a non-plagued state.

The couple embrace and we learn more about what happened.

Yep, the king’s a piece of shit and needs to go down. We discuss a gameplan and ultimately agree to talk with Sleekclaw for back up. (I mean, come on. You give us a dragon, we gotta talk to the guy at least!) Ban promisses to keep Kit safe, as she doesn’t want to die before becoming an adult.

Also further developement happens between Gamin and Ban. Ban explains his faith (He’s a Life Domain cleric to Lady Istus). and Gamin is not impressed. Ban understands.

The party go to Aurora’s peak, where Sleekclaw’s cave is. We have a Proclaimers montage. It’s great.

After a callback to when Gamin befriended Dennar, Sleekclaw joins the party and flies us to the king’s domain, where he disguies himself as a person. Kit stealths like a boss and basically becomes a backpack for Nemo.

Before entering town, more shenanigans happen between Gamin and Ban. Ban gets frustrated to a point where he has an outburst at Gamin and asks him to “MAKE SENSE! PLEASE MAKE SENSE!” and I think he cured him (if temproary?!)  of his madness?!

Because Gamin rolls a history check and suddenly remembers EVERYTHING O_O!!!

In tears, on his knees, he reveals his story. His name is Simon Everwinter. He was married to a man named Luke, who tragically died. Simon tried to bring him back through necromancy, but things went wrong and his mind was taken away. (PAIN!!!!)

Simon begs the party to help him remember this, should he forget it. Ban swears to him that he will do his very best to help him remember.

And so, we enter town and meet with the king. We bluff well enough and Reed ends up stabbing the king, initiating a fight that lasts less than two rounds of combat.

Simon ends up with the HDYWTDT for the game, much to Ban’s chagrin.

An argument starts between Ban and Simon over what to do next. Simon wants to raise the king as a zombie, Ban wants to revivify the king and have him stand trial for his crimes against the kingdom. Ginger bites a chunk off the king in the meanwhile (holy shit). The time for Ban’s revivify passes and he ends up distraught over the situation (god, the feels of the whole ongoing narrative between Ban and Simon. Big oof </3).

With the king slain, we have our wrap up. And learn that this game takes part in the same universe as Seon Adventures. But on a different continent. And through a mirror we see our characters from the main campaign.

And that’s how the game ends.

[colonel-killa-bee]

Do all men and elves really have to fight? My DB nord REALLY doesn't wanna kill his wife, brelyna maryon. Or am I just presenting a simply insignificant anecdote that is not at all reflective of how most men and elves view one another?

I’d say that in reality, most elves and men don’t give a dang about other races enough to want to fight them. The Altmer for example before didn’t care what the younger races did, they considered their affairs beneath them. Even when Talos brought them in, they didn’t think about it like “Oh these humans conquered us, we’re gonna mess them up”, they thought about their own importance in relation to the Empire. It was powerful, something to fear and respect, once upon a time.

When that changed however, that’s when the Thalmor made a return. Maybe these ideals were there before, I’d say it’s even likely, but Rising Threat made it clear that these ideas really only were more widespread and acceptable because the Altmer people were desperate. It’s not that different from how the Nazis came to power. 

First, the Crystal-Like-Law fell, their best hope to learning how to ascend as Auri-El had, escaping this mortal plane and joining their ancestors. And then the Thalmor took credit for stopping the Oblivion crisis, and in their fear and desperation, they were all too happy to believe in someone looking out for their spiritial and physical well-being. Only after these significant events could the Thalmor rise to power so easily. And even then, there are still Altmer as we’ve seen in Skyrim, in Windhelm of all places who do not share their ideals.

Nords aren’t different. They’re historically and metaphysically at odds with elven kind, but culturally, the Nords simply take value in conflict. They love it, they love the chaos of fighting worthy opponents, and coming on top, or bettering themselves in their defeat. But those are warriors, and while there are many warriors and people proud of their warrior culture, not everyone is this way. Many just want to live their lives, Skyrim’s a harsh enough place as it is without having to worry about who or what the other poor sod trying to survive next to you is. It’s a mixed bag, and yes Skyrim’s Nords tend to want to keep to themselves out of distrust. They even have a myth about their god and ancestors being tricked by elven devilry and treacherousness. It’s not even unfounded. 

But most don’t worry about fighting all elvenkind, just those that wish to interfere with their way of life. Even Ysgramor himself lived peacefully in elven land until Saarthal was sacked. And the Nords of today are a far cry from the Atmorans. Hell they even gave refuge to Dunmer when Baar Dau dropped. Even giving back Solstheim.

But it’s Lorkhan who is at odds with elven kind, and Lorkhan is their master. And they believe one day he’ll call upon the heroes of Sovngarde to fight at his side again.

Something I’ve been thinking about for a while and sorry that this is already such a long response, but I thought about this when remembering a quote from Shor himself.

It was “I do not wreak vengeance on the Dwarves for the reasons that the Tribunal might believe I do. Nevertheless, it is true that they will die by my hand, and any whoever should side with them. This Nerevar is the son of Boethiah, one of the strongest Padomaics. He is a hero to his people despite his Tribunal, and he shall muster enough that this battle will be harder going still. We will need more than what we have.”

And afterwards, the passage goes on and says that the Nords went side by side with Orcs, wizards, brass men stolen from Dwarves, all these people you expect Shor to roflestomp, just to defeat his enemy. Lorkhan is goal oriented. His chosen people were simply spirits that aligned with him. He’s not necessarily against all elves, he’s simply against the ones that wish to hinder his plans, and against the existence of Mundus.

Hell, if he could get some elves to switch over to his side, he might find that poetic. Probably would accept them just to rub it in his enemies’ faces.