Monday, November 27, 2023

Lighthouse under attack: a D&D 5E one-shot

With Legorlas' gang unable to reconvene for a session, we went for a one-shot, with a first-time DM. Time to make a new character!

  • Pussycat, female tiefling bard
  • Obi von Kenobi, eldritch knight (me)
  • Emanon, warforged arcana cleric 
  • Himawari Ranbu, kensei monk

The adventurers were having breakfast in a port side tavern. I went ahead with presenting my background first, as I put way too much thought into this. The rest of the players joined in, leading to a well-established adventuring party. 

No, I won't spare you. Obi von Kenobi spent his youth at the jedi temple, a religious enclave worshipping the Weave of Magic permeating the universe as a single entity - the Force. His first quest was to offer a helping hand to the kingdom of Naboo, threatened by the warforged/golem army of the local Trade Consortium. Obi and his master, Qui von Jinn, turned the tide by convincing a local bullywug tribe, the Gungans, to distract the warforged army, while the two jedi took care of the army's leadership. Unfortunately, Qui von Jinn died, leading to Obi questioning the tenets of his order and starting on the path of the adventurer instead. Emanon was part of the warforged army, but got shocked by a Gungan weapon and his programming misfired. He deserted and joined Obi instead. Ranbu was a jedi reject, as he was unable to grasp the philosophy. Still, he joined up. Pussycat was simply attracted by my strength of arms and huge... sword. Yes, it went on like this all evening.

So as we were having our breakfast, a seagull flapped in, and said, in the voice of an old man, that the local lighthouse is under attack by sea monsters and help is needed. Everybody looked intently at their plates and food. This was intolerable. As a champion of the weak, Obi stepped up. He only needed to convince Ranbu to finish his meal already.

It helped that a halfling merchant, Benji, also offered a reward to help the lighthouse and recover his missing ship.

We started on our merry way, and looked for a capable ship to take us to the lighthouse. The biggest ship I could find, captained by the half elf Ilonka Coppertree, agreed to take us on. However, just as we were embarking, a pair of tough guys showed up to accuse our captain of cheating at dice. As we did not bother asking any questions beforehand - strange that nobody was willing to leave the harbor, except our captain, we just asked her if she cheated. She said no, obviously. We took this at face value, and stepped up to face the bandits, who included one tanned dwarf called Mr. Barac. Ranbu tried to intimidate them, but rolled a 3 with advantage.

My face was my shield, even as more A-team members popped up on the nearby ships and started peppering us with crossbow bolts.

But I just held strong, as Ranbu climbed unto the boats, Emanon shot fire bolts, and Pussycat taunted them with vicious mockery. After a particularly vicious hit, Emanon threatened the pirate called Faceman to send the next firebolt into his face, and no woman will ever want him again. But the pirates stood their ground, and died, except one guy, who tried to run away, but was ran down. Not by me, I let him flee. Poor devil.

We then finally embarked unto the ship and left towards the lighthouse. I meditated, with Pussycat playing her flute nearby.

Soon enough we were under attack by a water elemental flowing up on board. I tried to talk it down, to no effect.

I used all my spell slots to dodge the hits and pin it down, while everybody else peppered it with shots. Emanon improvised by sticking his hand inside for a point-blank firebolt, taking some steam to the face. Finally, the elemental dispersed into water, leaving behind a pouch of magical beads. Ranbu wanted to eat them, but Pussycat took them instead, letting him know that she'll give him something else to eat later.

The rest of the journey went by peacefully, and we scouted out the surroundings of the lighthouse. Nothing. So we went through the front door (literally, it was locked). And there were eel people inside. I told them to stand down, but again to no effect.

This is how you're supposed to roll D4's!

With the roll above, two eels were pasted inside a bead-sphere. We took down the rest, careful to avoid - as much as possible - their electric discharge. Yeah, a 20 on the lore check gives away such details.

As for the last one, we waited for its containing bead-sphere to disperse, then shot it down.

We searched around the ground floor, finding a broken storeroom with a trapdoor and ladder leading down, and a dormitory with more eel people. However, time was running short, so we skipped the fight and went upstairs instead. Behind a locked door awaited Lucas, last scion of house Deephorn, keeper of the bowl of elemental magic which controlled water elementals. That was taken over by the eel people. Great asset management there, Lucas.

Finally, we went down the ladder and sneaked into the elemental temple, where more eels guarded some prisoners. These were captives taken from our halfling merchant's ship, used to summon elementals. Pussycat opened the door stealthily, and we shot down the eels.

Repeat the same process in the next room. This was supposed to be a tough boss fight, but instead Ranbu shot the prisoner controlling the bowl first, messing up his concentration. Then Pussycat cast hypnotic pattern, taking out more than half the enemies, including the eel king.

Then it was a matter of taking down the eels one by one. Ranbu went into overdrive, eating up all the bardic inspiration, consuming ki points, attacking left and right.

Emanon used a bead-sphere with an eel still inside as a portable force field, keeping himself and Pussycat in cover.

We cut them all down, thus ending the adventure in victory!

Great work and awesome preparations by the DM, love you for it. The adventure itself was fine, but probably intended for 2 sessions instead of one. A couple more fights to consume our resources and the final battle would have been way tougher. 

My character was kinda bad, but easy to roleplay and memorable, so I loved it nonetheless.

All in all, 5/5.

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