Laidback DM: SteveStillStanding.com

Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017. It was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s the follow up campaign – 2018’s ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. We used experience points rather than milestones/level-based progression, which led to some ‘xp grinding’ along the way. Each session was 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing; don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Note: There is no week 26 – we missed that week due to other commitments

Week 27

The Tomb of the Nine Gods! Welcome back Steve K, who was away at uni, but re-joined the party with a new Monk.

The party rested after Daniel’s Bard decided to slice and dice poor old Orvex’s body for food(!), still unwilling to admit that she was, in fact, a serial killer of epic proportions and undoubtedly evil. I’m sure she won’t put that on her Tinder profile.

The party found a room with a gaping mouth that could be passed twice before it chomped them, a sarcophagus, a young daughter of the Last Queen of Omu in the form of a telepathic skull, hordes of undead tarantulas and some nifty teamwork (including an incredible bow shot by Morgan’s Rogue that took out the swarm with one arrow – ricochets, I’m sure!). And gained a nice Staff of the Serpents for Mark’s Cleric.

Onto a corridor with a giant propeller blade and a pressure plate! Dan’s Halfling Warlock boarded William’s Druid who had turned into a Giant Wolf Spider and crawled across the walls and past the blades to the room beyond, where three chests and a 20-foot deep pit with a sarcophagus lay. Dan’s Warlock got stuck in one of the chests and lost all his metal possessions (including all his money). Steve K’s Monk was persuaded by William’s Druid to enter a chest and got disintegrated. DOH!

William’s Druid, Dan’s Warlock and Morgan’s Rogue (without his weapons – long story) confronted a mummy from the sarcophagus. Mark’s Cleric decided to Dimension Door himself, Daniel’s Bard and Morgan’s weapons (long story) to the room to help out but ended up in another room fighting an Otyugh. They eventually got out after defeating the beastie, getting a nasty disease and later healing it.

They gained a nice Mace of Terror for William’s Druid, plus he was possessed by the Trickster God Wongo, who gave him a psionic power and a nice psychological flaw…

The party rested at the front door, then headed off to level two and a room with a devil’s face and a deep, blackness-enshrouded pit, a corridor (possibly leading to an alternate tomb), a dead goat man body with a staff and spell book, the story of a previous party caught in the tomb, and finally a new room that smelled of wine (with a sarcophagus – how unexpected).

Next week: The winey-smelling room! Other stuff!      

Week 28

The Tomb of the Nine Gods!

Into the false tomb! William’s druid, inhabited by Wongo, went all Wongo on that sh%t and decided to open the sarcophagus lid, exposing the illusionary light to the wooden plaque, which triggered the block falling slowly to seal off the room, which led to everyone leaving except for Chloe’s Sorcerer and Daniel’s Bard (hey, thanks heaps, party of supportive friends). While the rest were sealed off outside, wine started to fill the room and three Wine Weirds (like Water Weirds, but with…well, wine) attacked the brave and soon-to-be-dead heroines!

Mark’s Cleric, Davor’s Ranger and Morgan’s Rogue headed off to the circular corridor to the alternate tomb, triggering the trap in the duplicate room and rushing back. Nice try, guys.

Chloe’s sorcerer found the hidden escape tunnel, Daniel’s bard followed and they ended up in another tomb room with a sarcophagus (ho hum) and a pentagram in salt. Ten minutes later the door rose and the wine rushed out. The party found the crawl space, Daniel’s Bard pretended to be a demon and told them to f%ck off. The party joined up and William’s Wongo-mad Druid decided to break the salt circle. A Grey Slaad went wild on the team and after a lovely, spell-ridden battle, succumbed to the pointy bits of their weapons.

After a long rest in the demonic tomb (as you do), the party located a secret door to a secret room…

Next Week: DOH! Or something that sounds like that. Or something else.

For more Laidback DM, click here.

For Laidback DM products, visit Drivethrurpg.

Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017. It was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s the follow up campaign – 2018’s ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. We used experience points rather than milestones/level-based progression, which led to some ‘xp grinding’ along the way. Each session was 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing; don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Week 23

OMU! The last shrines! (Thank the Lord, they were getting tiresome lol)

Off to the amphitheatre went the party. An impromptu performance by Daniel’s Bard, and a number of deinonychus were awakened (and then fireballed by Jake’s new Wizard, who just happened to be at the amphitheatre to join the party). Then a couple of Tyrannosaurs, who made mincemeat of Davor’s Ranger. Then Daniel’s Bard remembered he had the mask of beasts. One friended and the other killed. Williams’s Druid tried on his Allosaurus wildshape form.

I’Jinn’s Shrine

William’s Druid in Allosaurus form decided to eat the Almiraj – yum! How to cross a complex floor pattern without getting stuck with poisonous arrows: Davor’s ranger just ran across, William’s Druid just spider-shaped it, Daniel’s Bard tried a door on the floor and then worked out the pattern. At the end of a maze, a room with a puzzle cube. Mark’s Cleric searched for secret doors and got a hidden swinging blade for his troubles. Davor’s ranger grabbed the cube.

Unkh’s Shrine

A shed full of keys! An almost dead Wizard of Thay! A convenient plot-device story about the last puzzle cube being taken by the Yuan Ti! The puzzle solved, but not before the Wizard was zapped by the Unkh statue.

Off to the Fane of the Yuan Ti! Some basilisks protecting the back door! Chloe’s Cleric bit the big one (that’s petrification, in layman’s terms) and so she’ll need a new character for next week (that makes six characters stoned in this campaign, so far). The only good basilisk is a dead basilisk! Why am I using so many exclamation points!

Next week: The Fane of the Deathly Serpent of Devious and Deadly Means! Sounds very Potter-esque…  

Week 24

Into the back door of the Fane of the Serpent, secret hideaway of the Yuan Ti and Ras Nsi!

At first, the party successfully deceived several guards and slavers to get to a storeroom with a giant intelligent snake. William’s Druid, who squeezed through a number of large tunnels to retain his Allosaur beast shape, couldn’t fit into the smaller internal tunnels and so the party backtracked to discuss how they would sneak in.

Jake’s Wizard decided to upset the applecart (what’s new). Never much of a team player, he got fed up with the party discussion, headed back into the caves and fireballed the Broodguards.

The big battle raged on! The party fought Yuan Ti Broodguards, a Yuan Ti Mallison and a Hydra. Now, resting in the slaver’s cave, they heard the noise of more approaching guards. Mark’s Cleric locked the doors and broke the key in the lock.

Next week: Fight the coming guards or exit the lair and try the front door? Or something else involving boats? Who knows…   

Week 25

The party tried to sneak out the back door of the Fane of the Night Serpent and ran into Ras Nsi and his many Yuan Ti followers.

After a quick change of underwear, the party negotiated a truce after learning that Ras Nsi was affected by an unknown wasting disease. Deducing that it was the Soulmonger curse, they were ‘hired’ by Ras Nsi to go to the Tomb of the Nine Gods (which he’s been protecting for Acererak without realising what the arch-Lich was up to) and stop the Soulmonger.

Each party member was given a magic item and they received the final puzzle cube. They all achieved 7^th level!

Off to the Tomb of the Nine Gods, where they found an obelisk with a strange message and two entrances. After solving a puzzle, they found an amulet that took them to a hidden entrance. They solved the puzzle door, got past the floor trap (nice work, Morgan’s Rogue), killed a shadow demon hiding in a dark devil’s mouth (some great shots there, Davor’s Ranger), explored, got through a tomb and found a ring of protection (in which Dan’s halfling successfully avoided being possessed by…something), Mark’s Cleric lost his armour (rusted to bits on a magical statue), Dan’s halfling drank some necrotic water, Daniel’s psychotic Bard finally went all the way and turned Chaotic Evil, Orvex decided he’d had enough and nicked off, everyone pursued him, fought a bunch of wights and finally poor old Orvex met his maker when the Bard decided to go even further and turn cannibal (didn’t see that coming!). Phew! A lot happened this week!

Next Week: Deeper into the Tomb…

For more Laidback DM, click here.

For Laidback DM products, visit Drivethrurpg.

Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017. It was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s the follow up campaign – 2018’s ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. We used experience points rather than milestones/level-based progression, which led to some ‘xp grinding’ along the way. Each session was 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing; don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Week 21

OMU! And the gang’s all here (well, most of ‘em—the rain was pretty bad in the real world…)

First up: Nang Nang’s shrine, where the rescued Grung was reunited with his dad, who happened to be Chief of the local Grung tribe. The party members, unaccustomed to not killing everything, were a little out of their element, but after some fancy persuasion by Daniel’s surprisingly less-than-psychopathic Bard, Dan’s laid back Warlock/Sorcerer and Jake’s unusually non-violent Warlock, the party got access to the shrine and finally worked out how to get the inner doors open. And there was the puzzle cube, ripe for the taking. Which they did. A long rest and lots of treasure later (which became worthless when they left the shrine—no wonder the chief was so blasé), the party traveled to the next shrine, on a column over a lake of lava.

Jake’s Warlock flew over, almost fell prey to some Jaculi (or “ejakuli”, as the party preferred to refer to them), and took a rubbing (get your mind out of the gutter!) of the saying conveniently carved into the door so that Orvex Ogglebutt, local translator for hire, could read it. Then William’s Druid accompanied Jake’s Warlock as a portable velociraptor and they looked in some arrow slits. After working out the dumb puzzle (yeah, it was pretty simple), another cube was claimed!

Next up, some wandering Kobolds. Morgan’s Rogue decided to sit out the combat (how unusual), and chat with Orvex Scratchyabutt, instead.  A reasonably quick fight and some vicious interrogation later (ah, there’s the party we know and love) and the Kobold leader spilled the beans about Acererak (who used to be bullied at school a lot because of his name), the dude who built the big tomb that everyone is trying to get into. Apparently, the Kobolds are a work crew who repair the shrines once stupid adventurers set off the traps. 

Week 22

OMU! Come on down to Shrine’s Galore – we have so many shrines, we’re giving them away!

Obo’Laka’s Shrine – just around the corner, through the dark corridor, teleport through the sun pool to the moon pool, Jake’s Aasimar Warlock gets stoned (and Daniel’s Bard gives his statue makeup to help him look nice in retirement), lots of faffing about with lit torches going out in water, a battle with six cuddly Zorbos (Dan’s Warlock intends to stuff one for later…), Mark’s Kenku Monk turns to stone (“DOH!” could have been his last word), the party finally finds the secret passage to transport the lit torches through (yep, the building’s shaped that way for a reason…), and another puzzle cube comes their way. Everyone’s happy! Except for Jake and Mark.   

Wongo’s Shrine – just down the road, check out the wall masks, big monkey statue, sh&*-easy puzzle, fight the Su Monsters, get the puzzle cube!

Long Rest! Along comes Mark’s Human War Cleric, who just happens to be brother of Mark’s petrified character at Nangalore. Nice!

Papazotl’s Shrine – through the flooded city, make friends with the Giant Crocodile at the door (thanks, Daniel’s Bard’s Mask of Beasts!), find a riddle, use all sorts of lighting tricks to discover the secret crawl space, rope up Dan’s Warlock as he gets to the secret room and discovers the grid on the wall, eventually work out that the riddle needs to be applied to the grid to reveal the secret, another puzzle cube! 

The party now has seven puzzle cubes! Two to go!

Next week: Two more cubes! Or not!

For more Laidback DM, click here.

For Laidback DM products, visit Drivethrurpg.