Acquisitions Incorporated: Pax South 2017

You can watch this on Twitch here.

We had ourselves another Acquisitions Inc. game. The holiday special aired just a few weeks ago and was quite a bit of fun. This show is playing off of the upcoming Tales From the Yawning Portal, a book that converts a bunch of classic D&D adventures to 5th edition.

No More Binwin: I must have missed something, as there’s been a major shake-up. Scott Kurtz, who plays Binwin, apparently isn’t on the show any more. From what I understand, there’s no bad blood or anything. He actually did a game with Chris Perkins at PAX South called “Binwin’s Minions,” but apparently they didn’t tape it.

More info on Binwin's Minions here. It's a whole thing.

This is definitely a blow to the show, as Scott was my favorite player. I just think he’s hilarious. I was worried going into this that it just wasn’t going to be the same.

It was different, but it wasn’t bad at all. I really like Morgan Webb and the group was on fire from start to finish.

Good Part: I would say that if you want to show someone who knows nothing about D&D why people like this show and D&D in general, just have them watch the fight in the yawning portal which starts at about 35 minutes in. That's what D&D is all about, in my opinion.

I am definitely noticing that there are consistent mentions of Asmodeus and the devils in almost every storyline. Clearly they've got some kind of big devil event coming at some point.

The Party

(Jerry) Omin Dran - Half-Elf Cleric
(Mike) Jim Darkmagic - Human Wizard
(Patrick) Viari - Human Rogue   

(Morgan) Morgaen - Elf Ranger

The legendary artifact Whelm (DMG page 218) is being auctioned off in Waterdeep. We start off with Morgaen alone, sneaking around on rooftops. Morgaen knows where Whelm is being kept.

She's been spotted by a big dude with a bow. He shoots her. She falls off the roof. Morgaen ends up falling through a window into a noble party.

The players are really on fire right from the start. The crowd is very cold but the group is just firing off the jokes all willy nilly.

Morgaen slips into an attic and grabs a disguise. She shakes off her pursuers.

The Yawning Portal

Acquisitions Inc. has been operating out of the Yawning Portal, a famous tavern with a well that is an entrance in the legendary dungeon known as Undermountain.

Binwin resigned? They have his wand of wonder and are trying to figure out what to do with it. Morgaen arrives and sits down with them.

The group tries to have a private meeting. Morgaen is a bit overdressed, still in the fancy clothes that she stole from the attic. Jim uses magic to wear a nice suit, complete with living dove cufflinks.

As the meeting begins in a curtained-off area, Jim's job is to keep an eye out on those chasing Morgaen. As soon as he looks outside the curtain, he sees a big half-orc dude. He quietly closes it.

The crowd is dying of laughter at this point. Over the course of the last 5 minutes, the players took the crowd from dead to rolling. Amazing.

Bar Fight: Viari thinks this is a perfect time to use the wand of wonder. Morgaen wants to send the bad guy into the well, an idea that the crowd loves.

Viari tries to jump the dude. Viari literally jumps at him. The half-orc catches the bard and tosses him into the well! Viari makes his save, falls 10 feet down and grabs onto the side of the interior of the well.

Omin mauls the guy and sends him hurtling into the well. The guy grabs onto Viari's pants and hangs there. Patrick points out that Viari's pants come off very easily. Just a bit of velcro.

Jim comes over to the well. Pulls out the wand of wonder! This is really great. Viari is horrified. Here we go… he rolls a 46. Lightning bolt! Viari gets hit, too. The half-orc is still alive and he is still holding on!

Morgaen's turn. A woman in the crowd shouts out that Morgaen should shoot Viari's pants off. Morgan is way ahead of this lady. She uses mage hand to undo his pants! Crowd loves it. Chris gives her inspiration.

Viari points out that the carpet matches the drapes. He considers this free advertising. Viari is not bashful. He climbs up, weiner dangling and high-fiving everyone.

An elf and a half-orc bodyguard were watching this battle, but now they're gone.

The Auction Scheme

Morgaen tells the group about the auction for Whelm. They learn about its powers - it is intelligent, it’s +3!! If you read the entry, you’ll see that it has a negative trait that gives the wielder disadvantage when outdoors. Yikes.

Morgaen is wearing a holy symbol of Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine Hells. She says she stole it from the nobles. She wants to keep it, but they throw it in the well.

The group sits down and plans out how to steal Whelm. Omin is a masked lord, a secret ruler of Waterdeep. They decide that they will use his political power to raid the auction and seize the illegal items.

Morgan points out that the group needs a new headquarters and that they should seize the whole building. Wow. The crowd is really impressed.

Viari really wants to use his disguise kit. The group humors him. The disguises:

• Jim: Jim becomes CLAUDE SPELLMANCER, a hunchback who smells like garlic.
• Morgaen: She gets fake human ears, they shave her head! One guy in the crowd desperately wants her to have a mustache. Morgaen gets a mustache.
• Omin: A guy with a hat, a beard and a southern accent.
• Viari: A lady.

The group gets there the next day and... someone else already raided the place. They eventually learn that a knight from the Order of the Green Flame stormed the place. All of the Zhentarim are dead.

The heroes interact with cops named Blastwyn and Cromley.

Omin is hilarious doing the southern accent. At first, I wasn’t sure if he could do it. But with each line, the accent gets deeper and better. They should make names for all of these new identities.

There's a tiefling of the Order of the Green Flame that was captured. The tiefling guy takes an immediate shine to Claude Spellmancer and slides his tail up Jim's leg.

The tiefling, Sly,  explains that Whelm was taken by the Order of the Green Flame. The knight in charge didn't want the hammer to fall into the hands of demons.

Dagult Neverember was ousted during Tyranny of Dragons. Laeral Silverhand runs Waterdeep. The adventurers learn that this all might be a scheme of Dagult’s to somehow regain power in Waterdeep.

The group wants to find the paladin of the Order of the Green Flame, Amandar.

The heroes decide to search through the warehouse and they find a greenish sword.

Amandar

Nix and Nox

A harper directs the group to Amandar’s location. The group knocks on the door. She comes down, slams the hammer on the ground and messes up the party.

Omin immediately figures out that Amandar is being controlled by Whelm. Whelm says he is looking for a dwarf. The heroes spot one or more winged demonic creatures in the sky heading this way. It turns out that they are fire genies.

The adventurers convince Amander to throw Whelm down and they befriend her.

Poor Jim got stunned in the beginning and just can't make his save. That tiefling guy who likes Jim shows up and says, "Nice to see you like this." Yargh. Morgaen shoots the guy in the head and kills him in one shot. Jim still can't make his save.

Amandar wants to hold off the demons while the heroes escape with Whelm. Viari does not want to leave her.

Whelm points out that it is Nix and Nox! The fire genies from White Plume Mountain! Servants of Keraptis. Wow.

Viari is definitely refusing to leave Amandar here alone. I hope they stay. Clearly they are supposed to leave, but this is the kind of thing that happens in D&D.

Nope.. they leave. Viari does leave his owlbear to help Amandar fight the genies.

The group goes to the Yawning Portal and drinks. Omin is contacted via a sending spell. Someone tells him that both of his sisters are dead!

That’s where we stop.

Overall

Good show! I was a little worried that the crowd wasn’t into it, but they got going after a little bit.

There was an interesting moment where the people in the crowd started yelling suggestions and it was getting annoying. Patrick put them right in their place. It was awesome. The occasional suggestion, if it’s really good, is fine. The problem is that it seems like once the shouting gets going, it turns into an irritating mess.

Mike was really, really quick-witted tonight, Morgan fit right in. It felt like something was missing as far as the adventure goes. Maybe the planning took too long and Chris had to cut some stuff.

I think this is definitely worth watching.