Planescape - For Duty & Deity

Tonight we played through a bunch of huge stuff! We found out what happened after one of the heroes died, and then we began an old 2e adventure - For Duty & Deity.

This recap is ridiculously long. Here's a quick rundown:

1. Bidam confronted Raja Khan, the killer of Theran.
2. We found out that a special thing happened when Theran died.
3. We learned a lot of secrets of Sigil (homebrewed).
4. All of the people linked to Bidam's special power are in one place.
5. There's a new building in Deadbook Square.
6. The group still really hates The Greatest Thief in Sigil.
7. The heroes went to Grazzt's Triple Layer in the Abyss to rescue a goddess made mortal.
8. There were a lot of sleazy hijinks and the group "rescued" a whole bunch of creatures.
9. The group started traveling through the viper tree forest and ran into their devil rivals.

When I read For Duty & Deity, I was shocked at how little adventure content there was. Half of it is just reprinted material from Tales From the Infinite Staircase. I dug around and found a whole pile of material that I added. I used ideas from:

• The Fiendish Codex I 
• An awesome, massive Grazzt article by James Jacobs for Dragon Magazine #360
• "The Iggwilv/Grazzt Affair," Dragon Magazine #414
• Court of the Dark Prince (Dungeon Magazine #212), a 4th edition adventure all about Grazzt

Iggwilv summons Grazzt

Next session, the group is going to have to sneak in to The Argent Palace (Grazzts home), rescue the goddess made mortal and maybe check out the Library of Secrets (from the Dungeon adventure).

As far as I know, James Jacobs is the only person to detail any of Grazzts 66 ivory towers. That guy is an idea machine and I am so glad he took a stab at it. His work will be the foundation of next session.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Elf Wizard
* NPCs - Fall From Grace (Succubus Paladin), Selinza ("Litorian" Wizard, level 6)

Last Time: Theran the elf wizard died in an explosion! It was a trap set by the rakshasa known as Raja Khan. He had infiltrated the party by magically disguising himself as a mute halfling.

Raja had been stabbed in the eye by Conviva Kettle, a woman who had a thing for Theran. He staggered out into Deadbook Square (a cluster of buildings that the heroes own) and howled in pain. Having heard the explosion, Bidam ran over to investigate.

Conviva was lying at the edge of the inferno, dying. From the nearby shrine came Prince Buttongleam (the unicorn/man who lives by The Unicorn Code). He magically healed Conviva and told her: "Unicorns always lend a helping hand."

Convivia saw Bidam. She pointed at the halfling and yelled: "He killed Theran!"

Bidam was shocked and enraged. The halfling assumed his true form - the rakshasa Raja Khan!

Prince Buttongleam drew his sword and closed in on the villain.

Ignus

From the nearby Umbra Cathedral came Ignus. If you remember, he had been a crazy guy who was covered in flames until the group gave him the Amulet of Flowing Flame. While wearing the amulet he was a normal (if feeble) human.

Ignus looked at the wizard lab engulfed in flame. He realized that if Theran had been wearing the Amulet of Flowing Flame, it would have protected him from the fiery explosion. Ignus cast aside the amulet! He burst into flame and floated off the ground.

He hissed: "I live! Long have I slept! Dreams of flames!" He started launching rays of flame at Raja Khan.

Raja was bleeding from the eye socket. He cast fly on himself and took to the air and fled.

The square that the heroes live in is home to 99 gargoyles. Bidam had the option of having a gargoyle pick him up and chase Raja. Bidam looked around and decided that Raja would have to wait.

Ignus was now a flame-throwing machine. He set fire to another building. Bidam used mage hand to lift the Amulet of Flowing Flame and put it around the neck of Ignus. Ignus was back to normal and plopped to the ground, unconscious.

I didn't expect Bidam to let Raja go. I figured one way or another, Raja would be killed. But he's still around so I'll have to figure out his next move. No way is he coming back to Deadbook Square. The group has way too many allies for him to handle.

Theran's Fate Revealed

Dabuses

Meanwhile.. the last thing Theran remembered, he was caught in an explosion.

He woke up inside a dark stone coffin. He couldn't remember who he was, but he knew about Sigil, the Lady of Pain, all that stuff.

He lifted the lid and was greeted by a dabus (mysterious custodians of Sigil). This is the dabus who owns Ffazablur, the magic sword from Nemesis (I'll refer to this dabus as "Ffazablur" from now on).

Theran was... a dabus. Naked. He had no genitals at all. This fact caused my players to die laughing.

It turned out that Theran the Dabus was somehow inside the Secret City of the Dabuses.

Ffazablur taught him how to hover. Theran found that he could now understand rebuses (the symbol language of the dabuses) and he could make rebuses of his own.

The group had heard a rumor a while back that dabuses are the reborn spirits of people who die in Sigil. I decided I liked this idea and ran with it. So, Theran did die in the explosion. He has been reborn as a dabus with no memory of his former life.

Theran looked at his dabus body in the mirror. Ffazablur noticed something on his side... a strange tattoo. Back at the Dream Well, Theran had gained what the player called a "vagina" in his side - an effect etched into his soul. In this little opening/pocket was a ball of light that contained all of Theran's memories.

The group flipped out as they realized what was about to happen. Theran instinctively pulled out the light and put it in his head. He had regained all of his memories!

I told George, Theran's player, that he could now shift between his dabus form and his elf form. You might remember that Theran was originally a regular elf until the Slaad Lord Renbuu turned him into a dark elf. I gave George a choice of how he wanted Theran to look:

• Regular Elf Theran.
• Dark Elf Theran.
• Dabus Elf Theran: Theran had blue skin, white hair, and horns.

No matter which form he was in, Theran could hover and make rebuses. He also had the dabus ability to repair things.

George chose the hybrid form!

The dabuses were utterly stunned. Only the dabuses and the Lady of Pain were allowed to enter the Secret City of the Dabuses!

Ffazablur showed Theran around. I made up this secret city. I know the Planescape books urge you to leave the Lady of Pain as a mystery, but every single time I use her in a campaign the players love her and want to do stuff with her, so I end up doing all sorts of wacky stuff.

A Phirblas

Theran got a tour of the secret city:

• Hall of Regret: A room dedicated to remembering how Aoskar almost took over Sigil. The Staff of Aoskar that the heroes had recovered and given to the Lady was in here.
• Conduits of Pain: The walls had transparent tubes full of concentrated pain. All of the tubes led to a mysterious chamber that only the Lady of Pain could enter.
• Hall of Vigilance: Full of magic paintings that allow you to watch everyone who is trapped in one of the Lady of Pain's mazes. Theran saw Ravel Puzzlewell in a particularly big painting.
• Hall of Repairs: This room held dabus tools. Ffazablur gave Theran a hammer and clippers. These items are normal tools to most, but in the hands of a dabus the tools can mend (like the spell).
• Hall of Travel: Theran was stunned to see hundreds of portals to every area in Sigil. These portals are invisible and inaccessible to all but dabuses and the Lady. No key is needed to activate these portals. Theran can just fly through.
• Portal to Inphirblau: In Planescape appendix 3, there's a race similar to the dabus called the Phirblas. They have red skin and instead of rebuses, they have written words hovering above them. They live in "one of the first demi-planes," Inphirblau. The whole plane is one big city. The Phirblas are peaceful herbivores who don't age.

Ffazablur told Theran that the Phirblas is the final step of mortal evolution. Dabuses are the second-to-last. I made this up because it seemed cool. So yeah, in my games, when you die, you are reborn as different planar creatures and when your soul has achieved true content and enlightenment, you are reborn as a Phirblas.

The Lady of Pain

The dabuses gathered around Theran. They were baffled. No non-dabus was allowed in the secret city. It should be impossible! One dabus shouted: "You must never leave this city! Our secrets must be preserved!"

Suddenly, the doors to the Lady of Pain's mysterious chamber opened. The Lady hovered towards the dabus who complained. She brushed right by him, turned invisible, and headed into a dabus portal. The dabus saw this as a rebuke. Nobody said anything like that to Theran again.

The Lady went through a dabus portal to Deadbook Square, invisible. Theran was amazed to see that even when the Lady was invisible, he could still see her. This too is a power of the dabus.

Ffazablur said: "Do as you wish, Theran. I believe that the heart Bidam gave the Lady has changed everything."

Theran headed through the secret dabus portal and appeared in Deadbook Square.

Building to the Faction War

Factol Sarin of The Harmonium

Everybody freaked out when they saw half-dabus Theran. People gathered around.

As that happened, the dabus with the decanter of endless water hosed down the wizardly lab building, putting out the fire.

The Harmonium (the Sigil police faction, basically) arrived. The sorted out the whole mess with the drow slavers. The drow didn't have a "slavery permit" and so they were arrested.

The actual Factol (leader) of the Harmonium was here. Once the drow were taken into custody, he asked to speak with Bidam. Factol Sarin had heard of Bidam's exploits and his sword of sharpness. He wanted Bidam to join the Harmonium. He told Bidam that after a trial period, he could become a Factor - one of the Factol's right hand men!

The Factol is actually a lawful good guy. He's a level 16 paladin.

Bidam was really torn. Jessie loves being a member of the Sensates, but this sounded cool, too.

The real reason I did this is that after I run Hellbound ($10 is a steal, IMO), I am running Faction War. By that time, I want both Bidam and Theran to be running their own factions and go to war with other factions for control of Sigil. So I'm getting the ball rolling now.

Bidam told Factol Sarin he'd consider the offer.

Theran's New Power

The group looked at the wizardly lab. It was burnt to a crisp. It looked like it might collapse. A dabus smiled at Theran and handed him a hammer. Theran floated forward, about to see how the mend power worked.

Suddenly.. time slowed.. just like when Bidams power kicks in. Theran was shocked to realize he had the power to reshape the building in an instant! He repaired it good as new just by looking at it!

I added in a mechanic here. He rolls an INT check. This roll determines the level of exhaustion he gets (exhaustion chart is in the back of the Player's Handbook). He rolled bad, so his hit point max was halved!

Everyone in the square was shocked. They watched as the building repaired itself in seconds.

The Next Day

Smoldering Corpse Bar interior

Ignus: Ignus apologized to the heroes. He wanted to give Theran the amulet back. Then, out of the Zactar Cathedral came Umbra! The group hadn't actually seen her in about a year. Somehow in that time she grew to an adult woman with bat wings.

She told Ignus that he was a valued member of the Zactars and she touched him, removing his curse. She handed the Amulet of Flowing Flame back to Theran and warned him that Alzrius the demon lord wanted it back.

Bidam's People: Throughout the day, all of the women that Bidam had 'infected' with metal hearts showed up. They all had some kind of weird incident with their power to cut people by looking at them. They wanted to be 'quarantined. They included:

• Lady Thorncombe: A member of the Sensates who taught magic.
• Yulmanda: The demon lady from the Abyssal realm of Nephrax.
• Urethragoria: The Greek woman from the party town of Sylvania. 
• The Reave Masseuse: She was already in the square. She's a bartender at The Smoldering Corpse.

Fall from Grace said: "It's too bad there's not another building here in Deadbook Square."

Suddenly...! Yep. Theran had the power to create an entirely new building. He grew it right out of the ground. He made it into a kind of dormitory. Once again, everyone in the square gathered around. People were amazed at what Theran could do.

Sigil Scroll: The group checked out the Sigil newspaper. Two people who had crossed Raja Khan had been murdered - Warrin Spellbinder (the clerk from Nemesis) and Thoebe (the other cat lady concubine). The group rightly assumed this was the work of Raja Khan.

Convivia Kettle: It looks like Convivia is officially Theran's girlfriend. She has a permanent scar on her shoulder from Raja Khan's claw swipe. She walked up to Theran and handed him a snack. It was a berry tart. It had sauce on it. This is because Convivia Kettle is the "Saucy Tart" on the Gary Gygax harlot table. Yep. Never a dull moment in this campaign, no sir!

The Rival Dabus: As Theran flirted with Conviva, he saw someone on the street glaring at him. It was Fell, the fallen dabus! To my surprise, Theran hovered over and talked to him in rebus-speak.

Fell was angry because the Lady chose Theran of all people for a special honor - a non-dabus! And here Fell was, doomed to walk as a shamed and "de-frocked" dabus for all eternity.

Theran tried to smooth it over, but Fell backhanded him! I rolled a 19, a mighty slap. Fell stormed off. Theran let him go.

Day Three

Fall From Grace

Promotion: Fall From Grace was promoted to Factor in the Sensates. Again this is more faction stuff. I just want to get the players thinking about the factions so that the Faction War adventure won't feel abrupt. Once I read and prepare Faction War, I'll start foreshadowing it. I'm still working on Hellbound right now.

Fall From Grace was given a Sensate Amulet, which gives her +5 Max HP, a bonus to CHA stuff and an aura of protection.

The Greatest Thief in Sigil: The cranium rats tipped off the heroes - Ash Vodiran had returned to Sigil. A while back, Ash Vodiran broke into their home and stole their stuff (twice). The group ended up handing him over to a paladin lord, who kept Ash in a jail in the Outlands.

Well, last session a beholder attacked the paladin lords citadel. The paladins freed Ash and he killed it. During the battle, the beholder blinded the paladin lord with a magic ray. Ash went on a special adventure and found a cure for the blindness! How could the paladins keep him locked up after that?

The paladin lord rode with Ash to Deadbook Square. The lord gave the group an impassioned speech, telling them that Ash was a good man and he asked them to "..let go of any animosity between you and let this rogue live his life."

Bidam's response took milliseconds: "No."

They hate Ash so much. It is amazing. I run the guy like he is a 'cool' video game character. He's got quips, he fixes his hair a lot and he wears a red jacket with no shirt underneath. He's pretty much a parody of Dante from Devil May Cry.

The heroes started arguing with Ash. They ended up trading some fairly vile insults. The group demanded that Ash leave Sigil forever. Ash said there was no way that was happening.

Somewhere in there, Ash asked where the cat-lady was. He has a thing for Theran's apprentice. She's still off studying with Iggwilv the Witch-Queen.

Ash held his breath and turned insubstantial (that's his special power). Ash left.

I have absolutely no idea what to do with Ash now. He doesn't hate the group, he's just a guy who steals stuff and tries to be cool. While I was writing this, I had some ideas.. I think I'm going to give the group an opportunity to steal from Ash and see what they do.

The Orphanage: Long story short, the creepy kids that the group rescued in The Shadowfell aren't fitting in at the Lawful Good Orphanage run by angels. The were hanging dolls in nooses and doing drawings of cats being killed.

I got to use Wesley Powderbottom, the cherub. I wanted to do a thing where Wesley instantly hates the Strahd doll. It worked big time, it was very funny. In the end, the group let the kids hold onto the hag doll and the Strahd ventriloquist dummy. Wesley Powderbottom vowed to watch the kids like a hawk.

This orphanage is the place the group saved way back in the Great Modron March.

I have no intention of having anything bad happen here with the dolls. It's just a comedy thing. Basically I wanted to do a baby voice and a Barovian accent.

Day Four

Grazzt, ruler of the Triple Layer of Azzagrat

Warning: Grazzt's realm is very "adult." I tried to use polite language, but if you don't like sexual stuff in D&D you should stop reading now!

Incubus: Selinza returned from her stay at Iggwilv's manor. It was time to go to Grazzt's layer to rescue the goddess of love! Selinza handed Theran a bottle full of vapors. He breathed it in and he was partially possessed by an incubus named Ghavish. Ghavish is going to help guide the group through Azzagrat telepathically. He lives in Iggwilv's manor, so he can keep her updated on the group's progress.

Here is their mission:

1. Take the Infinite Staircase to Azzagrat.
2. Search the city of Samora and find Anna Greystockings. She knows how to navigate the city of Zelatar.
3. Pass through the Zrintor Forest to get to Zelatar.
4. Figure out how to navigate the portal/maze that is the city of Zelatar.
5. Break into Grazzt's Argent Palace and rescue the goddess of love.
6. Use the cubic gate to get the heck out of there.

The heroes traversed the Infinite Staircase without incident. They got to the door to Azzagrat. On the landing was a dead guy, killed by a flaming sword. Yep, the devil agents of The Iron Shadow were here. Apparently, the devils also have a mission in Azzagrat.

The adventurers go through the door and appear in the city of Samora. Here's what Samora is like:

• The entire first layer is gray and hazy. Everyone here has advantage on Stealth checks.
• There's a constant sound: Muffled wailing of either anguish or ecstasy.
• Lots of Blood War draft dodgers.
• A large portion of the demons who dwell in Azzagrat are Grazzts kids, grandkids, etc.

Ladies Man: Azzagrat is overloaded with beautiful demon ladies! Grazzt is quite the ladies man. I made a list of the different female demon and monster types that are here: Succubi, tieflings, yochlols, mariliths, harpies, lillitu (succubi with broken wings and four tails), ferroliths (4e monsters - ancient succubi covered in metal), erodaemons (Pathfinder monsters - basically the yugoloth version of succubi. Blue skin, third eye), and lots of lamias (woman top half, lion bottom half).

Exploring Samora

Brood Swarm

The group were attacked by a brood swarm (monsters from the Fiendish Codex). I thought they were really cool - a horde of little winged demons who can make string and sew your limbs together. Theran massacred them with a fireball.

The group explored the twisted city of Samora and searched for Anna Greystockings.

Pleasure Pits: Samora is full of these places. They are "...gaudy parlors and perfumed spires." I don't like to put torture or really dark sexual stuff in my games. I wracked my brain and came up with places that were more goofy than sinister.

The very first pleasure palace the group saw had exhausted demons staggering out of the building. The heroes learned that agents of the goddess of love were also in Samora to attempt a rescue. The agents came in here the day before and interrogated the demons in a sexual way.

Some other pleasure pits:

• Tottlers: A place for guys/demons who want to dress up like babies and have their diapers changed.
• The Areolaopolis: This is where you go to have stuff happen to your nipples. It is the ultimate destination for everything nipple-related.
• The Orgasmatorium: This place has a perverted fountain and glory holes. Bidam of course immediately paid 5 gold and stuck his junk in a hole. Some weird slimy tentacle vortex went to work on him.

Chastity Sermon: As the group left the Orgasmatorium, Fall From Grace scolded Bidam. I was thinking over the week that maybe, just maybe, Fall From Grace would end up having a thing for Bidam somewhere down the road. I learned this week that Fall From Grace really is a succubus virgin. She used her wits to avoid all romantic entanglements, even when trapped in Hell.

Bidam is the exact opposite. He's a "man whore," as Jessie puts it.

Fall From Grace gave him a big speech about how he was putting himself in danger and he was spreading these metal hearts that were ruining people's lives.

She told him he should get himself a "chastity codpiece." She offered to show him how to have "intellectual intercourse" (which is what she did at the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts).

Bidam expressed just how lame he thought that idea was, but I think Jessie was slightly intrigued at this development.

Anna wasn't at the Pleasure Pits, so the group checked out...

A Marilith

The Slave Plaza: Jessie loves buying slaves. Not to torture, but to be buddies with. It happens in almost every campaign we play in.

The demons had five slaves for auction. They were non-combatant joke-versions of the MissCliks: Seaborn heroes:

• Maribel the half-minotaur
• Algrund the dwarf
• Bruno, the guy who plays the bongos
• "Dark" Albert, the shady elf
• Donabella Trumpet, the haughty lady who demanded special treatment

I was pretty sure what would happen here, and I was right. Bidam bought them all for a bit under 1,000 gold.

The group now had a crowd of NPCs traveling with them. Bidam bought them clothes.

The Stockyard: This is an encounter right out of For Duty & Deity. The group spotted a stockyard full of herd animals: Cows, sheep, rothe, giant space hamsters and.. two unicorns chained to a post. The unicorns were sickly. Being in the Abyss was killing them.

Ghavish told Theran that the unicorns would be eaten at a feast. Their horns were to be used as toothpicks.

And thus a rescue was underway. Thanks to the stealth advantage in this realm, the heroes were able to pull off some serious sneaking.

Dark Albert picked the lock of the main gate. The group riled up the herd animals and created a stampede. As the herd rampaged out into the streets of Samora, they freed the unicorns and covered them in tarps.

Things were going perfectly until the final stealth check. They were spotted. I looked at my list of demon inhabitants and rolled for a random demon race. I rolled.. a marilith! Not good!

The marilith drew six swords and advanced on the group! Bidam pulled out his horn of blasting and blew. The force wave sent a cow hurtling right into and on top of the marilith. The heroes made their escape.

I made sure to point out how Fall From Grace stayed far away from the unicorns. She is afraid that even though she is lawful good and chaste, the unicorns will reject her because she's a succubus.

Finding Anna Greystockings

A 2e Planescape Tiefling

The party was now ridiculous: 4 heroes, 5 slaves and 2 unicorns covered in blankets. The whole center of town was in chaos, animals running around everywhere.

The group needed to find Anna fast.

Festhall: Yep, they came upon a demon brothel. Three ladies were outside the front door, beckoning to the group. What a terrible time for Bidam's power to kick in! He had to make a choice. Hit It and infect one of these ladies with the Lady of Pain power, or Quit It and have someone die  (the group doesn't know it, but a Zactar will die). The ladies:

• A sad harpy accustomed to shabby treatment
• An abat-dolor (black skin, 6 fingers) who loves attention
• A kinky tiefling

The players were meta-game curious, so I told them that basically if Bidam Hit It, the group would have to make a stealth check to avoid the Lady's Lancers while Bidam did his thing.

I was shocked. Bidam Quit It!

The group finally found Anna at a tavern called The Sodden Solar. Anna had one red eye and, yes, she was wearing grey stockings. Anna hated her dad (Grazzt). She was more than happy to help the heroes and her mother (Iggwilv). She also had a familiar power - she could hold her breath and turn insubstantial.

The group was intrigued. Anna had the same power as Ash Vodiran. They learned that many of the children of Grazzt and Iggwilv had this power. Ash was Grazzt's son and didn't even know it!

I have no idea what they will do with this information.

Zrintor Forest

The heroes, the unicorns, the slaves and Anna headed into the Zrintor Forest. It's full of viper trees. The group followed the River of Salt and saw plumes of smoke in the distance - the city of Zelatar.

They heard familiar German voices off to the right. The devils!

That's where we had to stop.

Good session! The players seemed happy with the Theran stuff. I love all this Azzagrat stuff and I can't wait for the group to get into the Argent palace.

Click here to read about the group's trip through the 66 ivory towers and the Hundredfold Maze of Silver.

Adventures in Eberron - The Golden Eggs

Yesterday I was a player again in my friend's monthly Eberron game. I don't like being a player, but I think it's important to do it because it helps me keep in touch with what it is like to play in someone's else's game. I have lost perspective many times as DM and it can lead to unpleasant things.

Last time we played, my character was killed by a troll. The group had me raised and now I have resurrection sickness. That means I have a -4 to most rolls. The penalty lessens by one each day.

I cooked up some special "sickness traits," which the DM approved. On of the traits will go away each day:

1. My eyes are totally black.
2. Animals stare at me.
3. No sense of taste.
4. I have a creeping shadow that has a mind of its own.

I don't know if I've told you guys about my character. I'll try not to bore you and give you some highlights. My guy is Endarian Nimbus, a level 7 sorcerer:

• He's tall and barrel-chested. Bald, has a big black beard. Very hairy.
• He talks a lot like Prince Vultan, the hawkman along with plenty of Sean Connery.
• Drinks a lot, loves to carouse. When he's happy, he does that cossack dance where you kick your legs.

Last session, I bought my own grave plot and planted a magic bean from my bag of beans in it. I rolled a 100 on the chart and a beanstalk grew out of it. Today's adventure was all about finding what was up there.

The Cloud Jungle

Cloud Giant

We climbed up, and found that there was a jungle on the cloud. It turned out this was the home of a cloud giant, who had elf slaves. The giant and his ancestors had been hiding up here to keep safe from dragons. Dragons and Giants had a huge war in Eberron long ago.

This giant was actually a warlock! We'd eventually learn that he ended up getting into trouble with demons of Lolth, the spider queen.

We'd also learn that while we were creeping around up here, an undead priest from the graveyard followed us invisibly and made our lives a bit more difficult.

Exploration commenced and we befriended a village of elves who explained what this place was. They pointed us toward the giant's lair - a big building with giant faces carved into it.

Exploring the Giant's Stronghold

We looked around the outside of the building and found a golden egg made of solid gold. I was amused. I assumed we'd end up running into a giant goose, like in the Jack and the Beanstalk. It turned out something else was laying these eggs.

We found a secret entrance in a nostril of one of the stone faces and climbed in.

Our group crept from room to room, freeing elves. We'd tell them to climb down the beanstalk and go to Sharn. We gave them an address of an NPC who could help them get settled.

To our surprise, our hireling was doing pretty well. Each session, we hire a hireling who dies a horrible death almost immediately. The last one was torn apart by gnolls.

The elves told us that in this place was the cloud giant warlock, his girlfriend - a hill giant, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex that laid golden eggs! I was pretty excited, as I don't think I've ever used giants in 5e before and I wanted to see what fighting them was like.

There was a room with magically-heated baths. Inside were two elves who were possessed or evil or something. They attacked us and we knocked them out with no trouble.

We tied them up. Unfortunately, the undead priest ended up killing them and turning them into zombie minions.

During all this creeping around, I looted all sorts of giant-sized stuff into my handy haversack - giant bottles of wine, giant coins, giant bottles of bath oils, etc. Our characters are building a bar in Sharn. I like to take stuff from our adventures and add it to the bar.

The Hill Giant

We fought some more possessed elves, and then we came upon the hill giant lady in her filthy bedroom. Our fighter ran up and immediately took a ton of damage. I dropped a fireball and a shatter spell on her.

Our fighter had a crazy day of rolls. He rolled at least ten natural 20's and about five natural 1's. It made things quite amusing.

During this battle, the zombies started coming down the hallway. We had put our poor hireling out in the hallway for safety, and the zombies thought she looked delicious!

To our shock, she survived most of their attacks and she ran to us. I gave her a potion of healing.

We killed the giant and the zombies. We could hear loud stomping from elsewhere in the complex. It was either the giant or the Tyrannosaurus Rex heading our way. Maybe both! Our fighter had lost over 40 hit points and all we had were some potions of healing. 2d4+2 hit points wasn't going to cut it!

We decided to leave, rest, and come back. We bolted for the front door only to find more zombies outside! Their leader was there, too - the undead cleric. He was a "high priest of The Keeper." Not sure what that is.

Our poor hireling almost got devoured again, but she survived.

We pretty much massacred the cleric and his zombies. I had used almost every spell slot. We fled to the beanstalk.

The Dinosaur

We decided to rest high up on the beanstalk leaves. To our dismay, the giant looked down from the cloud at us. He cast fly on his Tyrannosaurus Rex! The T. Rex flew down and got ready to devour us.

The party wizard got a big grin on her face. She cast dispel magic. The T. Rex plunged right past us and fell to it's death! It was pretty hilarious.

After that, the giant decided to leave us be.

The Inquisitives

During the night, an airship flew toward us. On the ship were Inquisitives, some kind of police in Sharn. The captain was someone my character knew from his days as an airship pilot in the Last War.

This NPC was shady. I trotted on board as they asked about the beanstalk. I schmoozed them with my 18 charisma and told them about the giant, and that we were handling it. The NPC gave me a sneer but told me to bring the cloud giant's head to the Inquisitives so they knew the problem was solved.

I didn't like this NPC's attitude, so I asked to use their bathroom. They actually sent a guard in the privy with me to watch me pee!  I 'accidentally' peed on the guard's leg. While he recoiled in disgust, I planted a bean from my bag of beans in a potted plant. After that, we got off the ship real quick.

We watched them fly away. I rolled the "pink toad" result again. When these toads are touched, they turn into animals - including bears.

The group scolded me for my hijinks, but hey, I'd take the heat if something came of it.

We Might Have a Lolth Problem

We got our rest and we crept back up the stalk. We re-entered the giant's home. We eventually found him trapped in a magic circle. The demons of Lolth had betrayed him. He was pretty much dead, but he could talk.

He told us that the demons of Lolth had possessed some of the elves.. the elves we sent down into Sharn. That's a problem!

We looted the place, destroyed an evil altar and got out of there. We used our griffon to come back and transport piles of loot. We got 6 golden eggs (1,000 gp each), 240 platinum, and a huge pile of cloud giant wine in giant bottles.

The group also found some magic items. There was a staff of thunder and lightning, a magic longsword, and a dagger of venom.

This group of people are very unselfish. The wizard politely offered to give me the staff. We ended up rolling for it. She won, but she seemed like she felt bad.

I honestly don't care if I get the item! I mean, there will be more. I'll just grab the next cool thing. It is very reassuring to play in a group where every single person is so thoughtful. Many times in D&D you'll have one or two people in the group who get real grabby when it comes to loot and things get intense.

In this group, there's none of that. It's nice.

Simple Doesn't Mean Bad

If you've read any of my campaign summaries, you might notice that there's an awful lot of stuff going on in them. I have a fear that my games will be boring and so I overcompensate to a degree.
I've been watching a lot of D&D streams. Here's some of the scenarios I watched:

• 50 goats were stolen by kobolds. The group went to a cave and got them back.
• A group needed to find a guy. They traveled to an ancient dwarven fortress and searched for him.
• A group fought an assassin with golden chains.

When making campaigns and adventures, I often try really hard to avoid making something cliched or straightforward. I don't want the players to be bored and I don't want the game to feel flat.

But watching these things and playing in this session, I was reminded that a simple plot is often best. It's really OK to make an adventure where a princess is captured and you have to go to the bad guy's castle to save her.

I think that is because that while simple adventures are basic and might come off as lazy on a TV show, actually playing through the scenario in a role-playing game is something different entirely.

On a TV show, the heroes will react in predictable ways. But in D&D, who the heck knows what the players will do. In an RPG game, the princess might die during the rescue! The group might all fall in a lava pit and die.

So the cliched scenario isn't boring because it's still unpredictable.

It was another good session! I think next time we'll be battling sahuagin. We got a card from the Deck of Many Things. We only need four more, and then we'll have assembled the deck.

DNDUI - Episode 248

Today we're going to check out another D&D show: DNDUI, which stands for Dungeons & Dragons Under the Influence. This is an audio show, though they are starting to branch out into videos like this one.

I didn't start at episode 1 because the first four seasons use 4th edition D&D. While I love 4e, I'm kind of done with that system. I asked the DNDUI guys what show I should do, and they suggested this one.

I started off listening to this recap show.

Episode 248 is right here.

I think this is the kind of show that you're either going to really like or really not. DNDUI is all about getting drunk and playing D&D. It's very chaotic and there's tons of foul language. You'll be hearing the phrase "blowing your load" a lot.

The shows are just an hour long, which feels like the perfect length.

There's some special rules we should go over:

Drunk Rating: If you look at the listing of each show, you'll see a "drunk number" next to it. That number tells you how drunk the group got in that session. 1-3 is not very drunk. 9's and 10's are pretty sloppy, I guess. 

Random Shots: The drinking gets underway at the start of a session. Each player needs to roll a d20. Their roll determines how many shots they have to take right then:

• 1-9 = 2 shots
• 10-18 = 1 shot
• 19-20 = none!

Special Numbers: In addition to critical hits, there are two other numbers on the d20 that have special effects. These numbers are determined at the start of the session. The effects:

• Pitfall of possible peril
• Gift from the gods of gaming

The group didn't roll these numbers in this session so I'm not sure exactly how it works.

The DM is Marco, who tries his best to corral the drunk and disorderly gaming group through the session. You can tell he has a passion for the game and puts a lot of work into the campaign.

The Party

(CJ) Milst the Organic - Dwarf Fighter
(Dan) Oz Alduin - Changeling Paladin
(Adriano) Dr. Sullivan Prince - Human Warlock
(Raff) Achoo - Gnome Wizard

From what I understand, earlier in the campaign the main group of heroes split off and formed their own sub-groups of adventurers. So each session jumps to a different group of characters led by a "main" character of the campaign. Oz is the main guy in this session.

Bios for the main characters are here.

These are the main characters of the overall campaign

Last Time: The group chased bandits out of their lair. This has lead to a situation where the heroes need to defeat seven deadly assassins right in a row. I think that's a really cool idea and I am going to steal it for my game! This takes place in some kind of tavern or club with a stage.

Drunk Levels 3-6

We start off with a quick audio intro and then the group does this bizarre live musical improv. It's really weird.

The DM recaps where they left off and tells the group that they will be facing the first assassin - Elantra. He immediately regrets naming the assassin "Elantra" as the group goes nuts coming up with a dozen jokes about the Hyundai Elantra, which has a hands-free smart trunk, automatic emergency breaking and is really giving the Toyota Corolla a run for it's money.

Elantra wears a creepy mask and has gold chains wrapped around her limbs. These chains come to life and are basically monsters unto themselves.

Milst charges the stage and does a pile of damage to the assassin. Elantra animates her golden chains. They coil around the room like live snakes.

We learn that Milst's greatest fear is fermentation. Elantra's magic mask taps into his fears. The mask becomes barley and hops - Elantra's face is fermenting before his eyes. Milst is frightened and runs.

Oz does 40 points of damage to Elantra, which injures her greatly. Dr. Sullivan Prince pulls out his hand axe and licks it. Then he sends purple voodoo skulls her way and curses her - she'll have to make a WIS save or do nothing on her turn. I believe this effect is forgotten on the next turn, but remembered on the one after.

Everybody is drunk, so throughout this show effects and conditions are forgotten. There's a point where one character is wrapped in chains, but on his next turn nobody remembers and he takes his turn as if he was free. Then the DM remembers but they don't want to rewind time, so they just roll with it.

I'm glad they didn't stop the game to fix it. I guess this is just something that is going to happen on this type of show.

Someone rolls a natural one and they roll on their custom critical miss chart. The result: The dwarf magically becomes smaller. The DM is able to flavor it by saying that one of Elantra's failed spell effects ricochets around the room and strikes him.

I was wondering how the magic critical miss effects work. I like that they find a way to explain it so it's not completely out of the blue.

Then we briefly can't remember the initiative order. Do they not write this down? The DM remembers after a moment and we resume.

Elantra somehow shuts the lights out in the room, which is a cool development in a battle that I think I need to do more of. The group points out that part of this place is on fire thanks to a fireball spell that went off earlier, so there's dim lighting, at least.

Oz squares off against Elantra, puts his fist through her stomach and kills her. Then he stands at the edge of the stage and spits.

That's the end of the episode. It's quite 4e to have an hour long combat. I do like the idea of having each session revolve around a 'set piece' encounter, as long as it is of consequence.

Timestamps

I don't think I can put in timestamp links so you'll have to manually scroll.

(11:35) The legendary chains of Elantra
(45:34) You have to take your next turn without moving your lips

Overall

Original Ideas: Most D&D shows are pretty similar to each other. This one is completely different. There is nothing else like it, as far as I know. The drinking rules add a lot.

Critical Miss Chart: I love this chart and I love that the group actually gets excited when somebody rolls a natural one. I think this is my favorite homebrewed thing anybody has made for 5e so far. You can get this chart for free here.

Shockingly Focused: You would think that the focus of the group is on comedy, but it really is about the game. Despite the copious amount of drinking, the group is still intent on playing the game and achieving their goals.

Looking Stuff Up: One thing I noticed is that there was a surprising amount of time spent looking up rules. I did not expect that. It happens on almost none of the other shows I have seen. I would say that this group should make themselves some cheat sheets that list their spells, DCs, bonuses to hit and special abilities so that way they can keep thing moving.

Trust Issues: I could be wrong, but judging from this session there seems to be a bit of tension in the group. I got the vibe that the players don't trust the DM completely to "play fair" and they questioned a number of his rulings. I always say that it is the player's job to know what their powers and spells do. When they don't, they shouldn't fault the DM for looking it up and making a quick, drunken ruling that may or may not be correct.

Challenging the Group in a Fair Way: On the flip side, I get the sense that in this session, the DM was determined to challenge his group and it came off a bit like he was cutting corners to do it. He might not have been doing that, but the group seemed wary of it.

I think the key to being able to challenge your players without making things too hard/easy is to know exactly what the party's capabilities are. If you know what spells they can cast, their bonuses to hit, their save DCs, how much damage they can do per round and their AC, you can craft villains in advance that are mathematically challenging and it won't feel arbitrary at the table.

Even then, you have to allow for the fact that the group might come up with a fun and clever plan that wipes out your bad guy quickly. In that case, just roll out the next assassin! That's D&D. You never know what's going to happen. The group certainly shouldn't steamroll every foe, but you should be willing to allow it to happen when things unfold that way.

"Pure D&D": What I am noticing when I watch/listen to these things is that there are two types of D&D shows:

• "Performance D&D": This type of show is very aware that people are watching and everyone is trying to be entertaining. Many players come off as reserved, too, as they know they're being watched and don't want to look foolish. I don't blame them!
• "Pure D&D": These shows don't worry too much about the audience. They play the game and work under the assumption that the game itself is entertaining enough. There's still some thought put in to pacing and keeping things lively for the audience, but in the end these shows are not "improv with wizards." They are D&D games, warts and all.

In my opinion, DNDUI is "Pure D&D." Yeah they know they have an audience and they talk about it openly, but these guys are still focused on the game and getting drunk.

I'm not saying that one type is better than the other. Honestly I haven't seen enough of either type of show to really form an opinion on that.

Admirable Dedication: There is a lot to admire here. These guys have been doing this for 3 years and they have a ton of shows under their belt. They have built a nice-looking site that gives you a lot of info. They even have a web comic!

I am happy to see people out there who are in it for the long haul. This group is driven by nothing more than a love of the game and possibly a passion for alcohol.

Force Grey: Giant Hunters - Prologue Episode

Force Grey: Giant Hunters is a campaign run by Matt Mercer, the DM of Critical Role. This "preview session" was run in front of a live crowd as part of the D&D Meltdown event in L.A.

You can watch this on twitch here.

Chris Hardwick will play next week. His character is a wizard.

The Party

(Ashley Johnson) Dagny Halvor - Half-Orc Cleric
(Shelby Fero) Katya Horn - Dwarf Fighter
(Jonah Ray) Joppa - Human Monk
(Utkarsh Ambudkar) Hitch - Human Rogue
(Brian Posehn) Calliope - Half-Elf Bard?

There are more details on the characters here

This session is the origin story. We get to see the group meet each other for the first time.

We start off with Brian Posehn's character. Calliope has a deep voice. She's apparently part of some wizard experiment that goes wrong. The guy in charge says: "Time itself should slow. Stand between those ivory pillars."

She does so. Calliope's vision goes dark. The last thing she hears is the guy saying: "Ohh shit."

That's all we see of Calliope. Brian just sits on the stage for the rest of the session. 

Matt goes into a detailed introduction of the Forgotten Realms. We are in the City of Waterdeep. We get a look at Jonah's character first...

Joppa brings a bunch of fish to his shack. He's an old, whiskery, lonely fellow. He notices that his door is ajar. He goes around to the back and peeks in the window. Someone is in there checking out his smutty novels. He is hoping it's a sexy lady in a robe to act out his fantasies. He goes in.

To Joppa's disappointment, it's a man. The man hands him a scroll. Joppa has been summoned to Blackstaff Tower. Blackstaff Ijira herself. I have no idea if I got the spelling right.

Joppa says he will go right after he gives himself a full release, if you know what I mean. The guy tells him there's no time for that.

Elsewhere.. Katya Horn the dwarf comes home from what I think is a construction job. Hitch, Utkarsh's character, is living on her couch. He has to pee so bad and someone's after him. He whoever was chasing him runs off. Hitch stole a bunch of gold off the guy.

They argue a bit and we get to see that these two have known each other for a long time. 

There's a knock at the door. Hitch hides under the couch. It is a robed figure - a woman with fair features. She immediately spots Hitch despite his high roll. She tells them that they have been summoned to Blackstaff Tower.

Hitch asks her if she's eaten anything. Hitch likes her and he quietly begs Katya not to screw this up for him.

We jump to a repair shop. There are piles of metal, scrap, gears and a partially completed grandfather clock. Also in the shop is a symbol of Gond, god of invention. A raggedy half-orc woman is working diligently: Dagny. This is Ashley's character.

A 6 year old boy named Sebastian, comes in. He likes to watch Dagny work. Matt does a great little kid voice. I don't think I know anybody who can pull one off, but he did it. The guy is amazing.

Sebastian's father comes in. He's Dagny's boss. Ogden has a big mustache. It's time for Sebastian to go to bed. The kid leaves after Dagny gives him some cool gadgets.

A figure in a hooded robe is at the door. It's a young man with long blonde hair. He has a scroll. Dagny is being summoned to Blackstaff Tower. She asks him if he's hungry. The players do a lot of playing off of each others antics for laughs. I'm pretty sure everyone asks a PC or an NPC if they're hungry by the end of the session.

The group meets each other in Blackstaff Tower (except for Calliope). Joppa wants to know if there is going to be an orgy. He sees Dagny and they bond over the fact that they both read the note and were told the exact same message by the cloaked person. Joppa asks her if she's hungry and blurts out how lonely he is.

Hitch asks him if it's Joppa with a soft J.

They meet a guy named Jorman. Hitch spots a floating gem and wants to steal it. Katya talks him down.

The heroes are led to a room with a red glyph on the floor. The group meet Blackstaff Ijira. She's short, has black hair and she has a staff with a wolf's head carved on it.

She has been tasked with creating a faction: Force Grey. This team will go on missions for the City of Waterdeep. In return, they will receive amnesty from the law, gold and respect.

Katya needs to know how much gold. Ijira magically summons a chest spilling over with gold.

The heroes will be on call. When needed, they must answer Ijira's summons and complete their mission. The group starts to try her patience with more questions and haggling. Her eyes and her staff glow blue.

Here's our first mission: The Sun Dragon, ally of the watchful order, has asked for aid. The group must travel to the Sword Mountains. There, they must find a "maiden statue" to summon the dragon.

That's where we stop. This show will appear on Nerdist.com.

Overall

Improv D&D: When I wrote about the Meltdown event, I expressed concern that there were too many new players who didn't seem to know the first thing about D&D. While it is true that some of them really don't know anything about the game, it doesn't seem to matter.

This truly is "improv with wizards" and it worked out fine. It's nice to see this style of game, where it's all about comedy. I don't know if future sessions will be in front of a live crowd or not, but I'm fine with it either way.

Some of the players did lean too much on improv to the point that they were grinding the game to a halt, but to their credit they sensed it and nipped it in the bud. It didn't really matter because there wasn't anything tangible to do in the session, anyway. It was literally just them meeting each other.

Every single character is distinct and each player brings something good to the table.

Matt's Voices: I realize that this is the guy's real job, but I want to talk about just how good Matt's NPC voices are. They all sound completely different. Here's some of the voices he did on this show:

• Crabby Old Wizard
• The Hero Voice: Matt does the hero voice, period. 
• The Gentle Woman: Not a lot of guys can pull off the soft woman voice without sounding silly, but he does it effortlessly.
• The Little Boy: I said it above, but I'll say it again. Very few men can do a little kid voice without coming off goofy or screechy. He does it just right. It's amazing.

When I do a voice, I almost always lean toward a comedic version of that voice to hedge my bets. I don't feel confident enough in some of my voices to deliver serious dialogue. I really admire Matt's skill in this department and I am going to try to learn from him.

Jonah: This guy is just hilarious. You get the sense that any show he's on is worth watching.

Force Grey is probably going to be very good, so check it out if you have the time!

D&D Live From Meltdown - Storm King's Thunder

This is a recap/review of the live D&D broadcast on twitch where the new story was announced: Storm King's Thunder. There's also tons and tons of other announcements. At the end there is a live game run by Matt Mercer. I'm going to review that in a separate article.

You can buy Storm King's Thunder and the affiliated supplements on amazon here:

Storm King's Thunder
Volo's Guide to Monsters
Dungeonology (Ologies)
 
You can watch this Meltdown show here.

This event takes place in a hobby store in LA. 

Here's a quick list of the things on the show:

• Alcohol: Allison drinks D&D drinks.
• D&D Culture: Cliff talks to Nathan Stewart and Chris Perkins about the D&D brand.
• Storm King Game: We watch the Dungeon Bastard and Satine Phoenix play some D&D.
• Buddy Cops: Greg Tito and Trevor Kidd are best buddies. They chat with Liz Schuh and Cliff.
• Storm King's Thunder Details: Chris Perkins gives us tons of info. I wrote down a comprehensive list.
• Another New Book: Mike Mearls tells us about other products, including Volo's Guide to Monsters.
• Force Grey: Allison talks with Matt Mercer about his new D&D show - Force Grey: Giant Hunters. 
• Acquisitions, Inc: We learn about the new Acquisitions, Inc D&D show.
• Neverwinter MMO: We learn about Storm King's Thunder content.
• Force Grey: We talk with Ashley and Jonah. 
• Fantasy Grounds: Online play stuff.
• Virtual Reality: Jane Fang shows us some VR stuff.
• Force Grey: We talk with Utkarsh, Shelby and Brian Posehn.

Technical Difficulties: There are sound adjustment problems throughout this broadcast. It happens mostly when we cut from one thing to another. You can still hear what's going on but it can get annoying after a while.

Alcohol

We start off with our host Allison Haislip talking to a bartender who is making drinks in the store. He makes her a yogurt-based soft drink that has white peaches from Japan in it. She likes it. Then she tries three more drinks. I have a thing for bullet points, so try this on for size:

• Mimic Chest: Flavored ice cube in the shape of gems.
• Chauntea's Bounty: I couldn't hear what was in this drink. Allison is officially buzzed.
• Dragon's Breath: It's got cherries in it. The bartender sets it on fire as if it were a Flaming Mo. He uses some device to burn wood chips or something. Wow, it's got smoke coming out of it. She likes this one. I'll talk more about her in a bit, but Allison seems so perfect for this kind of job. She has such a big personality.

D&D Culture

Cliff Broadway is the "XSN Fantasy Host." From what I gather, he's a Lord of the Rings fan and is an actor/producer. He talks with Nathan Stewart, the guy who manages the D&D Brand. They talk about how D&D is becoming "cool" and Cliff likens it to being "rock & roll." Cliff has a great radio voice.

Cliff talks about his love for Castle Amber. Nathan says that he started playing D&D when he was 12. He played with his older cousin and his friends. Cliff is very touchy-feely with the people he talks to.

We cut to Allison outside. She is by some mountain dew stand. There's no sound. She gets a pudding with a D&D logo cookie on it. Still no sound.

We abruptly cut back to Cliff. He lets us know that Allison's microphone is being fixed. Here comes Chris Perkins. For a minute, our video is mirrored. The logos on everyone's shirts are backwards.

Cliff goes off again on how D&D is cool now. Chris explains that people who played D&D as kids are now very successful and they are defining our culture.

Chris talks about all the snazzy D&D stuff in the store. He says:  

"There's a whole room full of chocolate bars. I shit you not."

It always amuses me when Chris swears. I never see it coming.

Storm King Game

Back to Allison. She's in the store at a table where the Dungeon Bastard is playing D&D. How come he's not running this game? Ah.. because D&D employee Chris Lindsay is running the intro of Storm King's Thunder.

He drew a heck of a map. We watch them play. Allison has a lot of fun reactions. She's one of those people who was born to be in front of the camera.

The group is in a cavern and they're fighting with something that has short legs. The DM says it's a giant but there's no large mini on the map. Maybe it's a half-giant or something.

One player vaults over her allies and tries to grapple the giant..? She makes a bunch of rolls and chokes the giant out! Awesome.

We get a graphic that tells us that she is Satine Phoenix. Google tells me she is an artist and actress. Time magazine calls her "The Queen of D&D." She seems awesome. I want to watch this game.

Buddy Cops

We see Greg Tito and Trevor Kidd. These two are so much fun together. They tell us that Matt Mercer will be running a new D&D show. They talk about the pudding truck outside. There are also taco trucks.

We are joined by Liz Schuh. She's their boss. She seems like a nice lady. There's a virtual reality headgear thing in the store that people are using.

Our video goes out for about a minute. When we come back, Greg and Trevor run down the list of people playing in Matt Mercer's game tonight. They talk a bit about what they like to play in D&D.

Trevor likes playing warlocks. He plays in Mike Mearls real life campaign and gives us some details. In the Mearls world, elves are the bad guys. The good guys are devils. That sounds pretty cool.

Greg Tito likes playing haughty elves and wizards. His greatest character was a 22nd level half elf ranger in 3e. His name was Todhedron, aka "Toad." He had almond eyes and ears. I'll see if I can work this dude into my Planescape campaign.

Cliff joins us. We learn that Cliff is the West Coast Dragon Dice Champion. Wow. Apparently there are people out there who continue to play Dragon Dice.

Dragon Dice is the game that some claim put TSR in dire financial straits in the 90's. When TSR CEO Lorraine Williams saw promising initial sales figures while trying to decide how many sets of an expansion to produce, she supposedly cried out, "Order a million!"

I'm pretty sure Cliff could talk for hours. He talks about Dragonlance, the D&D comic, Grendel comics, you name it.

We cut back to the stage. Allison doesn't know we're live. She is telling the crowd about the time she was chasing a guy who stole her phone in Italy. She is quite a character.

Someone lets her know that we're live. She gives a big speech about D&D and how she didn't play it growing up. She says that when she played the game as an adult, she finally understood the appeal.

She brings out Chris Perkins and now we get to the good stuff.

Storm King's Thunder

Chris unloads tons and tons of information on us:

Levels: This adventure is for characters level 1-11.

The Setting: It's set in the Forgotten Realms and the villains are giants. The land was once ruled by dragons and giants who were at war for centuries.

The Giant God is Angry: In Tyranny of Dragons, the dragons tried to bring Tiamat back. The giants did nothing. The giant god Annam the All-Father was angry that his giants didn't oppose the dragons. Annam broke The Ordning - the societal structure that defines giantkind. In the Ordning, storm giants are at the top and hill giants are at the bottom. Now that's all out the window.

The Bad Guys: Evil giants go out in the world and do terrible things so they can become the new kings of giantkind. We get a rundown of the bad guys:

• Hill Giants: They plunder farms. Their chief's name is "Goo."
• Stone Giants: Led by a religious zealot who is being duped by an earth primordial.
• Frost Giants: Frost Giant Jarl Storvald has a fleet of longships with sails made of dragon's wings. They are looking for the ring of winter. Storvald wants to bring about an age of everlasting ice.
• Fire Giants: Duke Zalto has an awesome plan. His family is at a forge, using slaves to dig up an ancient colossus to unleash on the world.
• Cloud Giants: Looking for hidden troves of dragon magic. They are capturing and torturing dragons!
• Storm Giants: King Hekaton is missing. Nobody knows where he's gone. His court is in disarray and there's a power struggle between his three daughters.

Factions: There are giant allies as well. They want the Ordning restored. The group will have some options. Do they want to kill all of the giants or do they want to make an alliance with those giants who want the Ordning restored?

You Can Become a Giant: The scope is big. The locations are gigantic. The heroes will actually have the chance to become giants.

Mystery Villain: There's a mysterious villain behind the scenes who Chris says will be the death of many parties in the year to come. This villain traces its origins to the beginning of the realms. Ed Greenwood created this bad guy. I have no idea who this could be.

Here comes Mike Mearls! I think that Mearls is really good at these presentations. He's very polished.

Rune Magic: The key to defeating the giants will involve rune magic. Runes can be used to get the giants to work together. I guess this helps explain the level range, which seems low for fighting giants.

Release Dates:

• Game stores get this book on August 26th.
• Wide release is on September 6th. 

Other Products Coming Out:

• D&D Storm King's Thunder miniatures from Wizkids.
• New Board Game: Assault of the Giants.
• Gale Force Nine is making unpainted miniatures.

But wait, what's this?

Another New Book

Volo's Guide to Monsters:

• Lore: This book will have expanded lore on mind flayers, yuan ti, and other monsters.
• New Monsters: It will have 100 new monsters!
• Races: It has stats for playable races including Tritons and Firbolgs.
• Experiment: Limited edition cover by hydro74 only available in game stores. That's an experiment, they're going to see how it does.

We cut to a taped moment between Perkins and Matt Mercer. Perkins loans Mercer his "evil dice." The red paint on them is actually the blood of players, says Chris.

Force Grey

Someone Check Pulses: Allison introduces Matt Mercer on stage. This crowd is killing me. Maybe they are just mic'd poorly, but it is coming off like they are completely silent. Everyone who gets on stage just dies a death. Make some noise, people! I swear I can almost hear crickets chirping.

Matt says that way back when, he had a bad DM. That's what made him become a DM. Matt has done voices for over 100 video games. He did a voice in Overwatch. One dude in the crowd comes out of his coma and is excited about that.

Force Grey: This new campaign he is running is called Force Grey: Giant Hunters. They kept saying the name, but I couldn't make out what it was. Forest Grey? Force Cage? I had to google it.

Force Grey are mercenaries located in Waterdeep. They are a special 'black ops' team that operates outside the law.

Tonight, the players of Force Grey will be playing through a prologue for a video series that will air throughout the summer. Matt hasn't run anything in the Realms for 15 years and he's a bit nervous.

Acquisitions, Inc

We talk with Jerry Holkins about a new upcoming show: Acquisitions, Inc: The Series. The adventure they play through will be a lead-up to Storm King's Thunder. The climactic session of this series will be a live game at PAX West. It will be right here on youtube.

Neverwinter MMO

Neverwinter time. Allison talks with the head developer, Rob Overmeyer. This freaking audience. Rob asks the crowd: "Who here plays Neverwinter?"

One guy claps slowly about three times. Then... silence. I want to die.

Here's the highlights:

• We see a trailer. There's giants in Icewind Dale.
• You can meet Wulfgar and Cattie-Brie.
• Neverwinter is going to be available on the PS4 this summer.

Force Grey

Allison talks with Ashley and Jonah, two of the players who are about to play through the first session of Force Grey. Jonah has tried a few times in his life to play D&D. Each time, the campaign fizzled quickly.

Ashley's character is named Dagny. She has a pet mouse with wheel legs. She's a tinkerer. She worships Gond, god of invention. Her holy symbol has another purpose, but Ashley won't tell us more.

Jonah's character Joppa is a monk and recluse. His character loves fishing. He does the special ops thing for the money.

Jonah is real loose and funny. So much so that the crowd lurches to life and actually laughs out loud a few times. This man has done the impossible! He seems like a real cool guy.

Fantasy Grounds

Allison talks with Doug Davison, the dude who run Fantasy Grounds. It is a site to play D&D online. They'll have all of the Storm King's Thunder stuff will be online there on August 26th. They'll have player's maps and DM maps.

Then we go outside and talk with a dude who made a mural on the outer wall of Meltdown.

Virtual Reality

Allison talks with Jane Fang, who works for this virtual reality company. Jane's enchanting demeanor is making me swoon. I'll do my best to continue to report this accurately. We see some footage of the VR. Here's a picture:

Yes, that is a dude with a sword floating in front of him. His legs and arms do not move. He slides around.

This company has been working with D&D and they're still refining the programming. Apparently you can buy these headsets right now. Forgotten Realms author R.A. Salvatore tried it and bah gawd, he loved it. He was sword-fighting with his fans.

They held a virtual reality comedy show with Reggie Watts. 1,200 people joined in to watch via VR, which is a world record.

This is so weird. They want you to use VR to play D&D at a virtual table. When I think of virtual reality and D&D, I think of you being your character and traveling in the campaign world! Not sitting at a table playing D&D in virtual reality!

I've always thought that pen and paper RPGs won't become obsolete until they have the ability to make video games that allow you to literally do anything. We're getting closer, but we're not there yet.

Elsewhere, we talk with a guy who works in movie design. The audio is low. He painted a Drizzt mini.

Force Grey

Allison talks with Brian Posehn, Utkarsh and Shelby. They are the other players in Force Grey. Brian says that he's been playing D&D with the same group in L.A. for 15 years. Chris Hardwick was one of the original players. Apparently Chris will be joining Force Grey in future sessions.

Shelby has never played D&D before. Utkarsh has never played before either. He thinks this game is "improv with wizards." Ohhh boy.

Posehn is Calliope, a female half elf bard. Wears leather armor, has a lute that can turn into a crossbow. Vision impaired, 19 charisma.

Shelby is a dwarf fighter. She says that her character has a lot of "body points." Ohhhhhhhhh boy. She has a flying shield but she's afraid of flying.

Utkarsh is playing Hitch. He's a rogue and he doesn't believe in god or taxes. Women love him, until they don't. He has daggers that never run out. He finds Calliope to be quite attractive.

My Unsolicited Opinion: I'm sure the Matt Mercer game will be fun, but wow did that last interview give me the heebie jeebies.

I'm going to have to be "that guy" for a second. There's a 95% chance that once I watch Force Grey I will be proven completely wrong. But these are my thoughts:

They decided to get Matt Mercer to run a game for celebrity types. That's cool. I assume each of these people has a following and that they'll attract people outside the RPG world to come check out the game. That's awesome.

But they brought in a number of people who know absolutely nothing about D&D. That rubs me the wrong way. I am worried that we're going to get some players who are here just to cash a paycheck. I get that vibe from some players on some of the other shows I've watched and it is really throwing me.

Don't get me wrong. New players are awesome. But when I see the Dungeon Bastard and Satine Phoenix right there in the building, I ask myself: "Why aren't they in the game?"

They play D&D! Heck, Satine Phoenix is the "Queen of D&D." Why am I not seeing her on any of these shows? The Dungeon Bastard has been around for years and he plays all the time.

I guess the thinking is that the people they chose have some kind of following or cache that will help the brand. In my opinion, you could have had a few of those types and mixed in some veterans.

Again, I am probably 100% wrong. That's just my initial knee jerk reaction.

I'm about to watch Force Grey right now, so we'll see how it all works out.