Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): Enforcers Unite! Adventure #4
On May 24th, 2019, the entire group reunited before they went on vacation. Sort of. The 4-party players were playing together again, but their characters were not being nice to each other that night. Let me explain what I mean by that. As XerX and Bubby didn’t know Menos or Kai-tick that well, the group dynamic was inconsistent and at times, unclear. Kai-tick and Menos (XerX sometimes, too) honestly couldn’t remember they weren’t the same trio anymore.
They treated XerX like Kenji, which made the role-playing the session sort-of difficult at times. Let’s stop there for now, and go over the actual epic session.
Number of Players: 4
Legendary Hero Menos (Dragon-born Paladin)
Kai-tick, the Kin-slayer (Aarakocra Rogue)
XerX, the “X” Archer (NOBLE Elf Ranger)
Bubby, the God-Child (Aasimar Cleric)
I AM DUNGEON MASTER
The session begins with The Enforcers assembled at the ruins of Thundertree. This is where everyone gets confused because everyone wanted to tell their side-stories fast, but nobody really listened to each other. It didn’t help that the session occurred from 11pm to 2am. We normally don’t play that late, but we weren’t going to play D&D for a month. So in this instance, it was a necessary sacrifice.
Moving on, Mirna (the NPC) suggested The Enforcers go see Kenji’s body left at her family shop. Menos and Kai-tick were lying to each other about Kenji’s fate (I don’t remember exactly, but they were arguing about something), and Mirna had to defuse the situation (using the truth). This recap is starting to sound funny as I begin to write it. Oh, the Dragon Overlord retreated to his tower for some rest.
Well let’s continue onward:
The Enforcers arrived at the family shop without problems (still in Thundertree ruins), and discover Kenji’s body was gone. The battle axe was left behind, and a letter addressed to Bubby was attached to the hilt. Kai-tick tried to open it and took 1d4 lightning damage. Bubby read the letter, which revealed itself as an orb rock. Afraid he’ll accidentally hurt someone with it, Bubby tries to wrap the orb in rope. This causes dust to fall off it, which triggered the arrival of Vin Kelsier, the Water Genasi.
You read that right. My character returned as an NPC (I was feeling left out of the fun). After Vin left the Stranger Things adventure, he reunited with Lord Venture (Mistborn fan I am). The curse placed on my character didn’t enjoy that too much, and cursed the Genasi further into an orb (“magic lamp”). Bubby, being a new player, became really happy to have a Genie at his disposal. Vin has the power to grant 3 wishes, but there are rules attached (The Fairly Odd Parents rules essentially). Vin tried to talk to Menos, but he wasn’t really in the mood to play catch-up (became uncomfortable at the thought of a version of himself being with the Water Genasi).
The group begins to argue and strategize on what to do next. They know Mas O has an army in the town, gargoyles are roaming the skies, and that Mirna is a target (remember: Knights tried to kidnap her in the last one-shot adventure). It took awhile for the characters to figure all this out, and nobody else seemed bothered that Kenji’s body was gone. I think having the power of a Genie was taking priority around this time in the session.
Vin begins to explain why he was send to Bubby before any wishes are made. There are 9 Dragon Eggs that act as keys to the Nine Levels of Hell. The First Level is unlocked due to Menos breaking his morals (killing Gundren which released Mas O from First Hell), and if all 9 Eggs are used together, they can be used to release the imprisoned Dragon Queen from Ninth Hell.
Vin was sent basically to help the Enforcers stop The End of The World, and gave Bubby a bag of holding to keep his belongings.
Menos, XerX, and Bubby learned Mas O possessed a dragon egg hidden somewhere well in Phandalin from their separate adventure, but it took them awhile to remember. Kai-tick wanted to devise a plan or something to sneak into Phandalin after hearing this. Menos, XerX, and Bubby weren’t really 100% on-board with this plan. They pointed out how they already met Mas O and had drinks with him at the “bar”, and they’d be recognized immediately.
Kai-tick uses make-up as a solution to this problem because he wanted to bring Mirna (a target) along with them. I made him roll for this because he was in a hurry applying the disguises to XerX and Mirna. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Menos and Bubby when this was happening… I believe Kai-tick was trying to leave them behind.
As Kai-tick began to cook dinner as everyone agreed to wait until morning to deal with Mas O, the not-well guarded family shop (there is no door) is invaded. A Berserker cries out with the thunderstorm (it’s raining), that XerX recognizes as Bruce, one of the eight prisoners left on the road. A battle breaks out!
Bruce swings his Axe into the family shop, almost taking Kai-tick’s head. To counter, Kai-tick and XerX drew their arrows to shoot the Berserker Bruce into oblivion. Then, Menos followed the weakened Berserker outside, and I believe he was practically dead at that point. Kai-tick wanted to know who transformed Bruce into a Berserker, and he teased him with the obvious answer: KENJI is resurrected with his slit throat restored (the slit was sewed up).
Another battle starts. Kai-tick wanted answers, but Menos simply attacked to enact violence. He attacked and cleanly destroyed Kenji, taking amusement in his friend’s downfall. Menos was also unconcerned about the sudden circumstances of Kenji’s transformation into Berserker shortly after their wonderful time in Stranger Things.
Kai-tick comforted his friend a second time, and heard his last words: “Kai-tick. You made my life interesting.” Then, he uttered a warning toward Menos before the life faded out of his eyes: “Your brother’s coming.”
Nobody questioned how Kenji was resurrected a second time, or how these Berserkers are becoming a recurring thing in our lore.
Menos didn’t respond or didn’t really care his brother was coming. Kai-tick went into full-paranoia mode at the thought of another battle without rest. For some reason, these two were not cooperating anymore. XerX, Mirna, and Bubby went along for the crazy ride. It started becoming confusing around this point.
Vin was summoned to help figure out a battle plan. Kai-tick believed Mas O was coming to Thundertree to kill them, but Menos wanted to stay and fight (?). His line of reasoning was… confusing to say the least. XerX was messing around or following along, and I tried my best as DM to keep everyone included.
At some point, a wish was made. Bubby wished Vin to teleport them to the ruined farm of Phandalin. The Enforcers had the flowers from the Stranger Things Adventure to use, but nobody accounted for Mirna, the NPC who controlled the Young Green Dragon. I tended to forget about her too because this late night session had too much distrust going around.
The Enforcers teleported to the ruined farmland, the former home of young Carp and his mother. Then, everyone heard, “Hail Mas O!” and Kai-tick, giving into his paranoia, wants to run into the forest area to hide. Everyone decides to follow the kin-slayer’s immediate response, and XerX conjures the demon fog spell to effectively hide themselves. An hour of in-game time was spent on what to do next. The group had no idea what to do against the overwhelming odds. I finally cornered them to the point of no return.
Kai-tick and XerX planned to stealth through town. Again, the paranoia overwhelms Kai-tick when he sees Mas O’s armies covering the entire street of Phandalin. Honestly, I was surprised the Enforcers didn’t want to attack Mas O’s armies based on their shit-lose track record. After a literal minute IRL and in-game, the sneaky duo return to the group inside the fog to figure something else out. All the characters were spinning their wheels in the session. A whole lot of nonsense was going on, but at least it was still entertaining.
Eventually, the Enforcers used their second wish to teleport over to Cragmaw Castle, Mirna’s former prison, to hide from Mas O for the rest of the night. They arrive at the entrance, and Kai-tick takes a peek inside the door. Immediately, the candles light up revealing Mas O was there.
It was nearing 2:00 am at this point in the session, so I had to get into my lazy writing tool box and have the last boss conveniently there. Then, Kai-tick fired an arrow into the Castle’s doorway but Kai-tick didn’t roll high enough.
Having no other way to sneak up on the enemy, Kai-tick and XerX (why are they always together?) head into Cragmaw Castle first to stop First Hell’s strongest prisoner.
Menos, Mirna, and Bubby stayed outside for some reason.
This is where it got weird, again. Kai-tick tried to use trickery by attacking XerX despite knowing Mas O and the Red Overlord worked together. Plus, Menos knew Mas O knew everything about their history, but Menos didn’t disclose this information yet I suppose. It was a futile and foolish way to “win” the epic boss fight.
Anyways, Mas O used the Dragon Egg (the shape of an Infinity Stone) to create a magical fire barrier. The fire trapped Mas O, Kai-tick, and a dying XerX in a tight cage match. The odds were not in their favor. Menos, line of reasoning not clear, tried to jump inside, and ultimately a wish was used to get Menos and Bubby just in time to save their asses (Deus Ex Machina). The time was almost 2:00 am (exhausted), it was getting late, and I allowed the whole thing because the session needed to end soon.
Menos and Mas O clashed swords. I actually enjoyed this part. Again, Menos was lucky in this fight. Another Nat 20 strike just tells me Mas O might be destined to kill Menos after all. Luckily, the other Enforcers were there to make the fight even-out in their favor. After all, Mas O was unable to defeat them all.
I believe Kai-tick was the one who got the finishing blow on Mas O. As a result, the villain suffered “judgment” from the fiery walls, ascending him further from Berserker Paladin. He obliterates the roof off the Castle and offers Mirna the chance to join him as the other players dared not make a move. She accepted Mas O’s offer and revealed that the family heirloom that controlled the Young Green Dragon Overlord was the second Dragon Egg.
Nobody really questioned Mirna’s ability to control the Dragon. Kai-tick did a bit from his one-shot, but nothing of substance.
Mas O also taunted the heroes by “surrendering” his personal Dragon Egg. All of them tried to pick it up but suffered lightning feedback similar to Bubby’s Genie Orb. Mirna summons Overlord (immediate arrival), and the evil duo leaves for Greenest, a sneak preview to Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign book.
The session ends here, leaving the broken Enforcers in the ruins of Cragmaw Castle. I hit the highlights, but that was how we’re leaving it. Don’t get me wrong, the latest session was a lot of fun to play, but the role-playing needs work because the main issue was the heroes treating XerX like Kenji. XerX is played by the same player, but Menos and Kai-tick didn’t treat him like a new companion. Rather, it was the same exact dynamic they had prior to Stranger Things.
Overall, we’re going to work on it over the next month. We’re new players, and I’m just happy everyone also noticed the problem. Communication is key, and I’m really glad we’re working on our role-playing / character backgrounds. Thanks for reading, y’all!