Session recap

session 5 D&D Session: Winery Siege Against the Needle Blights ###### Action Items - [ ] Brainstorm specific combat situations, moods, and intensity levels needed for the D&D music system - [ ] Music producer to build a dynamic D&D soundtrack system with adjustable intensity levels, fast and slow transitions, and button-triggered scene changes ###### Setting & Initial Encounter - Party arrives at a winery to find it surrounded by 30 needle blights — small, humanoid-shaped plant creatures organized into 6 groups of 5 - NPCs Ismark and Ivan are present with the party; Ismark is visibly nervous, Ivan remains composed - Party considers communicating with the blights; Gray rolls a History check (20) and recalls that needle blights do not speak, cannot be reasoned with, and are likely guarding or protecting something - The blights are confirmed to not qualify as humanoids for spells like Charm Person — they are plant creatures ###### Retreat Into the Winery - Party decides to retreat inside the winery and barricade the doors rather than fight in the open - Inside, the party identifies 4–5 exterior doors and uses wine barrels to barricade them before initiative begins - Ismark notes the doors are unlocked and leads the way in - Party theorizes the blights may be an infestation, a security system gone haywire, or an outside force attacking the winery ###### Combat Summary - Round 1: Iridel casts Moonbeam at the entryway (2d10 radiant, concentration), killing one blight immediately and controlling the chokepoint ; blights begin forcing through barricaded doors - Needle blight tactics: Groups attack with melee and ranged needle volleys; most attacks miss due to high AC but land occasionally on Iridel and Jables - Iridel goes down twice during the fight due to concentrated ranged fire; party uses healing potions and Healing Word to revive - Jables also goes unconscious from a nat 20 attack; revived with a potion administered by Ismark - Were-ravens arrive mid-combat — large, humanoid raven creatures in leather clothes — and join the fight against the blights - Ravens confirm they are friends when Gray asks the rafters ravens - Gray communicates with the ravens (via Speak with Animals) and relays that the blights are hostile ###### The Druid & Resolution - A scruffy human druid descends from the upper floor, wielding a staff as a focus, and begins summoning additional vine blights (larger, stockier plant creatures) - Ravens instruct the party to "Destroy the staff" as quickly as possible - Ivan lands the killing blow on the druid with a nat 20 crossbow shot - Jables picks up the staff but the remaining blights show no sign of responding to it - Trusting the ravens' advice, Jables breaks the staff; it releases an inhuman scream and all blights in the vicinity immediately wither and die ###### Party State at End of Encounter - Iridel has one level of exhaustion from going unconscious twice - Party is low on resources: healing potions largely spent, spell slots depleted - Iridel has Moonbeam and two Healing Words remaining; party has no healing potions left - The druid's staff has been destroyed; its nature and origin are unknown (no Identify spell available) ###### D&D Music System Discussion - One participant shared a work-in-progress D&D ambient music track (updated version of a previous demo, now titled Shades) - Vision for the system: dynamic breakdown by scene type, multiple intensity levels, and button-triggered transitions with variable speed - Group agreed to brainstorm specific scenario types and moods needed so the system can be built to spec As I see Iridel going to try and commune with their gods, am I able to help them by playing a holy melody? You can. You can. Are you trying to do it quietly as it is in the middle of the night? Okay. Performance check first. It's pretty good, it's a 15. Yes, you are more than talented enough to play a quiet, yet still, that's the word I'm looking for, evoking. So either both of you can roll this religion check, or Iredel can roll this religion check with advantage. You pick. What's your religion? I'm terrible at it. Then I'm going to roll with advantage. 20, dirty 20. Dirty 20. I'm a kind of judge. I get plus three, so it's like... Yeah, it was the right call. So, you know, last time you weren't able to really successfully commune with your... It's your celestial contacts. Celestial contacts, yes. But, you know, Jables is helping you really get into the zone with his tune, so you are able to successfully... Commune this time. Nice. And it is not Celestia that you see, but the other one that I told you about. I'm pulling them up because I forgot his name. It's Istis, isn't it? I think so. Yes, it is. Istis. You see Istis up here before you. Yes, my child. Oh, yeah. This is the first time I've talked to Istis. It's a pleasure to meet them. I was expecting another, but connecting with a God is always, you know. Reverend, what can I do to best serve you? God that one serves quite in that way. And while we have never communed, I have always been with you, here and now. Did Celestian make up the two halves of your being, so to say? And what does that mean for me? Is there any guidance that you can provide that will help me along that journey? Roll me a persuasion check. Persuasion. All right. Come on, big money. One is it? It sure is. It sure is. You have inspiration. Okay, I'm going to use my inspiration. I know this because Jables can give you inspiration once per day at least. Thank you, thank you for reminding me. I have 12. 12. Better than a man. Yeah, that was... You always know the look of realization on someone's face. One of the first roles of the day. I'm like, look at him, I'm like, please be a seven. Please? You can do that German symbol on the dice, and you can always be 100% sure. With the line. But then you don't have that potential that the one is a second. You don't have that hope. Right. There was never hope. There was never hope. How do I say that? The only aid I can lend you is I can answer one question. One question. This has happened after the whole 4.5, right? That is canonical to the point where we are right now. Yes. Then my question would be, why did I see myself in Strahd? The music got to a pretty good point for that question, actually. That was a good question. Yeah, one question's a dangerous thing to offer, you know? It is. It's the best thing to offer. I can always give you a cryptic answer, you know? Think about it. If you need a couple minutes to think about it, I can, you know. If you want to, yes. Give me just a moment. Lucky I like you. Is this something that we can all hear happening? What you're seeing right now. I assume we see him in like a trance. Okay, and then you just play. You're sitting here, Jables, Jables. That's kind of what I figured. So while this is going on, I might be taking some time to kind of look at that Smoky Corpse thing because... As far as I know. What exactly was my experience during the other things? When I was kidnapped, what exactly does that mean? - Black. I essentially put you in a state of stasis. - Okay, so it was just like-- - Everything was gray. - Yeah, okay. - Yeah! - I thought you were gray, that means black. - Okay, but basically it was just kind of like I didn't experience anything. It was just like they all kind of, basically after Blade left, it was like a suddenly bam, snap, you're what the fuck's going on? - I believe as we were told, we pooped there. And then you weren't there when we poofed there, but then when we were done and we poofed back, you were there. The shadows took all of me. Okay, so I was just kind of whatever, but it was as if I didn't experience anything. I just suddenly got back and you guys were like, what the fuck just happened? We just did all this shit and here's this eye thing. I will say the right. Or was the eye thing something that you had given to me or am I going to like it? They would have given it to you. They'd be able to give it to you. They're conscious of all of it. It was just kind of like a moment where they were stolen. They experienced some cryptic information about themselves. You would know, though, that Garl Glittergold, his items of favor are cut gems. So this is a smoky quartz that's been carved into the shape of an eye. I might want to, is it while I'm here and while they're doing that, while they're doing something spiritual, I might be doing some, trying to decide what kind of check role I want to do on it, but I want to like. It's better if you describe to me what you want to do and I'll hit you with a check. Okay. So. What are you trying to do? Well, I mean, close inspection and just thinking about What its significance is in the terms of religion. Because like you said, I know that it's a common, I call it political things, like the kind of gems. So I'm going to be trying to think what about this smoky black color. I'm just kind of boring looking at it. History or religion. History or religion? History or religion. Okay, let's see which one I'm going to do. I'm going to do religion. I'm going to do religion. I want to get It's at 14. One moment. No problem. I distracted her for a little bit. It's all right. It's right now. That bop just hits so good. It gets you high like on D.O. It's one of those shit-times where everybody's so... The color of your bottle and the way the light was hitting it and the way that I was looking at it mostly through the bottle, it looked more like it was glowing orange than just like reflecting orange. It is very orange. So I don't lose it. So he answers you after contemplating for just a moment. He says, sometimes in moments of strife, - Being insights into our true nature, our past, our present, our future. You saw yourself in stride? Is that a question? He will make that statement and say, you saw yourself in stride. Would you make it better or don't? 19. So you hear the rustle of dead vines all around you. Inhuman shapes emerge from the vineyard. Their limbs cracking as they trudge forth through the mist and rain. So, as you guys approach and get to where you're standing, you're craving. Why do I keep saying crow? Very kind. Fuck you. Craving. Yes. Yes. You're going to see 30 needle blights, which what the needle blights are, they're almost like little plant twig creatures. There's six groups of five. They're a plant. They're humanoid in shape, but as creature classification, they're a plant. So does charm person work on them is the question. What does it say? One humanoid you can see within range makes a wisdom saving throw. You unfortunately do not remember anything significant. If Gray wants to roll me a similar roll to try to see if you can remember anything about needle blights, as if they can be spoken to or reasoned with? 30, 20. Still good enough. My boy. You remember, you know, as your time studying in your temple, in your heritage as a priest, you would remember that while needle lights do have vaguely bipedal forms, not only do they not speak They're typically. They have a single objective, which is rarely, if you see them moving, something that's going to not include them protecting something or maybe guarding something, preventing people from accessing something. Oh, they're with you. Oh, they're with you. So Ismark seems very, very nervous. Ivan does hold his cool and say, do we get inside the winery and barricade the doors, or do we fight them out here right now in the open? I'd say let's run for the door. Let's at least get inside. Yeah, because we don't know what's inside, but we know there's 30 things outside. Yeah, lots of these things. I know I can use fire and Deeradal can use fire, which potentially would be very helpful. But yeah, I'd say let's just run inside. I do like the idea. There's plenty of windows, so I do like the idea of barricading the door at least. Right, unless the source of them is in there that's gonna deactivate them. Right. So I imagine not so good stuff is going on inside the winery. Right. Well, and the description of what I remembered about them being that maybe their function is to protect, sounds like they may have been a trap set to protect the winery. Yeah. So maybe they were previously attacked? Or maybe the security was gone haywire? Yeah, or they could be attacking the winery now as like, you know, get off our land, sort of. Alright, sorry, I had to find the right music to try killing you guys with these twig bites too. Except, twig bites. You will know. Might be worse than something else. Might be now. So as you guys go to have these deliberations, Ismark is going to go to the door and it is unlocked. So he has to be going inside. We'll have to block these doors too. Yeah, so the big double doors right there. So the current plan is blocking these ones, this one, and this one, hopefully before they get in, and if not, we'll deal with them. I also wanted to double check. With your movement and your action economy, you could, between the five of you guys, barricade five doors before we start this initiative. Okay. Cool. You're picking the five that I'm assuming are the most direct. So this one, this one, this one, and this one? I'll make a list of some things that I want, but write down the types of, a good name or description of the types of scenarios or the types of units or things like that that you want to be able to adjust for for a session. so that I can try to work out or something. I'll do something that's kind of like a tech theory style, but I'll have it broken up into a section like this where it's like a more dynamic breakdown. And I'll have different intensity levels and different moves. I'll try to make it all so where you can hit a button and it'll transition to whatever one you want over a certain amount of time. I'll choose fast and slow transitions too, so you can I'm going to trigger this now because I'm going to do a little bit of talking and want the mood to get there. Or if somebody does something immediately, or like when the battle starts, we just switch it up immediately, things like that. That sounds good. But we'll have to brainstorm specifically what kind of situations and moods that you want available so they can actually build it. Bad, bad, not good. I'm going to relay that to everybody in the room just because I think it's... Basically... No real information as of yet. Maybe we can come up with some better questions later. I am going to use a second level moonbeam right on the entryway like Basically right here where this rock is. It puts a five foot circle, 80 foot tall cylinder, beam of light. 40 foot high, sorry. Five foot radius, so 10 feet. Oh, so it's, yeah. So it'd be like... Yeah, anything... Inside the circle does a constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d10 radiant damage, and if the creature is shapeshifted, then it reverts to true form. Well, on a successful save, they take half as much damage, so they still take damage even if they pass the save. And it's a concentration, so it exists for up to a minute, and as long as my concentration is not broken, I can move it within 60 feet of where it is at any time. Take your moonbeam damage 15 15 radiant They're going to take their attacks. They didn't have to use their actions to bust down the door because their buddies had already bust down the door. So now I get to take some attacks. So Jables is having three attacks against him. Viridel is having two attacks against him. It's needles. Because they're needle blights. I know, right? That's sick nasty. I don't know why I forgot to add it. So they're going to take three of their needle attacks against you, Jables, and two of their needle attacks against you, Iridelic. Put your dough first. 1460. I am unconscious, just for the record. Hmm? I said I am unconscious, just for the record. You're unconscious? I'm going to use these four minutes. But at the beginning of the round, you guys are going to see fly into view from the door, multiple doors. You are going to see these large humanoid ravens. that are dressed in these leather clothes. Much like this. So they are gonna go at the end of initiative after Jables. Okay, that knocks me out. First thing is, I'm asking these crows in the rafters, "Hey, are these guys friends of yours?" In relation to the new guys that showed up. Just because. Friends! Friends! Friends! Friends! - So Ismark utilizes full turn to action, give him 10 HP, which takes it to Jables. Jables is figuring out what he's doing. - Yeah, for my turn I'll use my action to fully use my potion for Iridel. - Iridel gives up with 10 HP. And you actually have one point of exhaustion now from going down at least two times. That takes it to the end of the round. And lo and behold. You are going to see a figure come down from the stairs you saw that lead up. He's going to be kind of a scruffy looking man with a staff in his hands. What do you guys think? Two hits against the good vibes are going to hit. Dead. Dead. So that twig blight, or-- This? Yeah. Those needle blights, should I say, are dead. And then they're going to deal damage to the dude. OK. That is their turn, should I say, which is going to take it to the druid. And on the beginning of his turn, So you're going to see two vine blights in here. And vine blights are much larger. It was called 2D&D. Okay, yeah, yeah. This is an even more updated version of this one because I didn't have a name for it. Now it's called Shades because the one that I had before was called Shapes and I haven't officially released it yet. So this one was also like I was working on trying to do different colors of things in different ways or whatever and then it's been styled as Shapes and Shades. That takes two to Druid. You're going to see him kind of hold his staff in the air and it's going to start radiating this kind of sickening energy. And you are going to see him actually have a few more groups of live lights materialize. So upon him doing that, that is going to be his turn. The Ravens are going to look at you, Thomas, and they're going to say, "Destroy the staff." As quickly as you can. I bet he does. He does what? He does nat 21 the second. My boy. That's my boy Ivan. That's hilarious. He kills him. So the druid has died. You just turn him over. Roll me a perception check now that you have it in your hand. Actually, no. Never mind, that wouldn't apply on this. So no, don't make me do the perception check. It's like, it's a spongy black length of wood. For sure, but... In the midst of battle, unless you try to do anything to like... I don't even know if you could unless you identified it. Do you have identify? I do not have identify. I wish I did. I know warlocks can, yeah. I don't know if my sorcerer can have it or not. I don't because the warlock has it. I know, I know, I know, I know. And they don't... But like as I hold this staff in front of me, I hold it in front of the plants, I can't see them like obeying it at all. They just look the same to me. Because they saved our asses. I'm going to break it. Yeah. I'm going to break it. Yeah. So as you're going to break it over your knee, the wood is going to release a terrible inhuman scream. And then all lights. ...in your vicinity will immediately wither and die. Fuckers. I have Moonbeam left. That's also zero heals. That's also zero health potions. I had two healing words left and a healing potion.

Review before next table

• Confirm open clues, NPC promises, loot, and next-scene intent.