Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): The Rise of Tiamat: Season 2 Episode 15 Adventure #46
Date of Session: June 9, 2020 (3:00 pm to 8:00 pm)
Number of Players: 3
1. Kai-Ku Midoriya (FIGHTER Human, Kai-tick’s Vessel) Level 5
2. Gundam, Model K (SOLDIER War Forged) Level 5
3. Killion Gilgamesh (WIZARD Avariel) Level 5
Series Regulars NPCs:
1. Roshi Nighthill (Male Human, K-Krew’s Friend, Power: BULK UP)
2. Toguro (Male Human-Demon, Undercover PRO Hero, Power: Muscles)
Recurring Guest Star NPCs:
1. Krypto / The Almighty (Formless Deity, Gundam’s Robotic Dog)
2. Zaddy Zoomer (Member of Team Seven, Demonic Speedster)
3. PRO Hero Minus (Male Dragon-born Paladin, Menos Fanboy)
4. Shopkeeper Wizard (Male Half-Elf, Owner of the Magic Box from Eltruel)
5. Nameless Shopkeeper (Male Ogre, Owner of a Rebuilt Weapon / Item Shop from Baldur’s Gate)
6. Lord Wit (Leader of Team Seven, Male Teenage Aarakocra, Huevos Black’s Cloned Son of Lord Eggza)
New NPCs Introduced:
1. XerX-EGGZA Chimeras “Paradooms” (Part-XerX, Part-Eggza, Part-Demon Experiments)
2. Savitar “God of Speed” (War Forged Speedster, newest member of Team Seven)
3. Sonic (male blue-haired human speedster, leader of Team Sound)
4. Knuckles (male red-haired human speedster, member of Team Sound)
5. Shadow (male black-haired human speedster, member of Team Sound)
6. Gaara (male red-haired human, leader of Team Desert, power: Sand Bender)
7. Temari (female blond human, member of Team Desert, power: Airbender)
8. Lily Nighthill (female human, member of Team Desert, Roshi’s younger sister)
Welcome back to another D&D adventure! Season 2 Episode 5 is considered the mid-season finale of a planned 10-episode season. A lot had gone down in the first half of the season, and the second half seemed gear to go even darker. Last we left off in the adventure, D-Crew (the players), Roshi, and Toguro had just successfully completed the Trials of the Almighty. After the players walked out of the Temple of the Almighty, they were thrown into another world-ending catastrophe. The last world-ending catastrophe was Season 1, Episode 5 in the battle against Doctor Suresh, main antagonist of season 1.
The city of Eltruel was on literal fire. The sky was darkened. Dozens of citizens were running around and destroying things in a panic. Everything was wrecked. A large burning building—from a distance—had a message burned into it: BRING ME THE VICTORS – Z!
At first, Gundam assumed it was Zora from the previous campaign. However, the Racist Wizard from last session appeared to clear things up for the players. Zaddy Zoomer had returned to terrorize the city for the victors—the ones who had won the Trials of the Almighty. Zaddy was sent to ensure the kryptonite weapons didn’t leave the city on Lord Wit’s orders.
When the players revealed they were the victors of the Trials, Racist Wizard immediately turned on them and shouted to the skies that the victors were here. The players were not surprised at this turn of events. They were surprised when three gigantic XERX-EGGZA Chimeras landed like meteors in front of them. Everyone tried to run away—Kai-Ku and NPC Toguro succeeded in running—but Roshi, Gundam, and Killion got surrounded.
An amazing fight scene unfolded.
Gundam fired two NAT 20 bullets at the Chimera—in the face—twice, learning their weakness to kryptonite due to the EGGZA DNA in their system. Kai-Ku used a command spell to draw two out of three Chimeras to him, using his kryptonite shield to keep them at bay. Roshi and the last Chimera fought in hyper speed DBZ fashion while Killion hid behind rubble and shot his kryptonite sword at Roshi’s Chimera. Toguro powered up to pressure Chimeras into submission, but it only worked for a second.
Once they killed one Chimera, the players learned the Chimeras have the power to regenerate and resurrect themselves slowly. They decided to escape again, realizing the fight scene would ultimately be pointless. Killion rolled a NAT 1 and tripped, but everyone came back and got him while the other Chimeras were weakened and stunned.
Everyone stopped in an alleyway to figure out a plan. While planning and figuring out what to do, Zaddy Zoomer projected a message in the sky. Zaddy warned the victors that if they don’t face him soon, he’ll start killing hostages that he acquired. This warning convinced the players that escaping and leaving these people to die at the hands of Zaddy wasn’t an option. They also realized though, that they might not be able to defeat a demonic speedster.
Krypto—The Almighty—spoke up at this point about a legendary relic, a powerful evolution egg that could defeat Zaddy Zoomer. The problem was the legendary relic could only be used by someone who had died, seen the face of Death, and returned to life. Killion immediately volunteered for the powerful weapon being the only one who fit the requirement. Krypto was surprised to hear Killion had died and come back to life back in season 1 episode 4, given how Killion downplayed the experience.
Regardless, a new mission was reformed. Toguro and Roshi decided to distract Zaddy Zoomer while D-Crew and Krypto go retrieve the legendary relic. They were going to stop Zaddy Zoomer to save the city. Plus, defeating another member of Team Seven wouldn’t hurt either. The players were still thinking about Baldur’s Tournament. They were also thinking how ridiculous it was that they were going to save the world again as high school students.
On that note, the team separated to carry out their roles in this mission. D-Crew and Krypto went to Pro Hero Minus’ secret base, where the legendary relic was stored. They saw it as “sort-of stealing” but given the dire circumstances, the players didn’t have a choice. They needed the relic to stop Zaddy Zoomer and the XERX-EGGZA Chimeras.
The players noticed two XERX-EGGZA Chimeras guarding the building, and two more flying nearby the rooftop. Everyone agreed the priority was getting—at the very least—Killion inside the main building because he was the only one who could use the legendary relic. While working out the specifics of a plan, they noticed Pro Hero Minus charging the Chimeras to reclaim his base. Kai-Ku decided to join Minus while Gundam, Killion, and Krypto head into the building.
Gundam also used his Data Drain technique on a Chimera to learn more information about them. The XERX-EGGZA Chimeras were designed in an underground lab, but the name of the doctor—or doctors—behind the experiments was unknown. He learned more about their stats too. It only confirmed how powerful they actually were.
Adding onto this, Krypto revealed he also knew about the experiments, having hired regular XerX clones against the players during the Trials of The Almighty in the previous session. However, he didn’t know the Chimeras were developed this far along or were being used for nefarious purposes. The players called Krypto a bad God follower—being a deity following the Goddess Hathor—for being a part of the problem.
If The Almighty didn’t know, it was because he didn’t want to know. Krypto agreed with the players’ judgment of him, which was the reason he preferred not to be called The Almighty anymore. He was going to make up for his horrible mistake now by bringing Killion to the legendary relic.
After having their talk, the players acted. Their plan to divide and conquer worked for the most part. Kai-Ku helped Minus fight the Chimeras while everyone else made it inside. The problem was that one Chimera followed Gundam, Killion, and Krypto.
Gundam tried to use Krypto’s Canine Cannon Mode to pass his Infection Rate—a consequence of using Data Drain—onto the Chimera. The problem was that the Cannon needed at least three people to operate it. They hurried back outside—ignoring the Chimera awkwardly—to grab Kai-Ku, who was busy protecting Minus from the Chimera Onslaught with his Kryptonite Shield. In a moment of distraction, a Chimera chopped PRO HERO Minus’ sword-wielding arm off. Kai-Ku tossed Minus the Kryptonite Shield to keep the Chimera away for the time being.
Side-note: Kai-Ku kept calling Minus “Linus” by accident throughout this session.
After ensuring Minus’ protection, Kai-Ku, Gundam, and Killion FIRED the Krypto Canine Cannon at the Chimera inside the building. The “Trinity Attack” caused the Chimera to blow up, severely slowing down its resurrection due to the infection rate. This cleared the way for Killion, Gundam, and Krypto to enter the elevator and into Minus’s underground bunker. Kai-Ku went back outside to help one-armed Minus.
After stunning the Chimeras with his Spark Gauntlet, Kai-Ku and Minus also went into the building for safety. They tried to head down the elevator, but the humming wasn’t on. That meant the elevator wasn’t working. Let’s shift to Gundam, Killion, and Krypto to fill in the context.
Those three headed out of the elevator and found themselves in a metal hallway. They walked ahead to the door on the other side, but Gundam triggered a security system ready to zap them into a million pieces. Gundam tried to outsmart the system by claiming they were Minus’ hero interns. After correctly guessing the code, the system disabled and allowed them to enter the underground bunker’s power room.
Killion grabbed the legendary relic—a golden box—from its circular chamber. Once the relic was removed, the power was removed. Turns out, the relic was powering Minus’ entire underground base, including the elevator. This was the reason the power went out, which meant they couldn’t leave the bunker. There was no emergency stairway either. Gundam thought that was stupid.
Back upstairs, Kai-Ku used his electrical rope and his Spark Gauntlet in combination with the elevator’s wiring to recharge the elevator. My judgment as a Dungeon Master on this ruling was, “As long as you roll high, the science will work for this action.” The roll was an 18. This made the science work. Killion, Gundam, and Krypto entered the elevator and met Kai-Ku and Minus back upstairs. As a result of seeing Minus as beneath them, D-Crew raided his place for food, rest, weapons, and potions of healing.
Minus couldn’t do much to stop—or help—the players without his sword-wielding arm anyway. He soon fell into a depression, having failed miserably to protect Eltruel from Zaddy Zoomer and his army of Paradooms—the alternative name for the XERX-EGGZA Chimeras. In response to the emotional moment, Kai-Ku took his Great Sword and said this was a two-handed weapon that Minus won’t be needing. Gundam and Killion laughed and raided his kitchen for some potions. Minus also chose to stay behind.
After finishing their preparations, they heard Zaddy Zoomer in the sky announce how he swiftly defeated and captured both Toguro and Roshi. The projected screen in the sky showed them beaten, shirtless, and tied up inside a church alongside the other hostages. Zaddy warned the other victors—D-Crew—to step forward or he’ll kill the rest of the hostages, having killed two in front of Toguro and Roshi for going against him.
D-Crew head to the Eltruel’s Church, more than willing to accept Zaddy’s challenge. When they arrived at the battlefield, Zaddy and two Chimeras welcomed them to their deaths. Gundam said the same thing to them and injected himself with three speed drug serums, enhancing his abilities to face off against the Demonic Speedster. Gundam and Zaddy battled in Smallville super speed fashion.
Gundam fired a kryptonite bullet at Zaddy Zoomer, then he moved so fast behind the speedster before the bullet could hit him. Zaddy caught the bullet—revealing he wasn’t weakened by kryptonite, but he wasn’t ready for the back of the head shot. Zaddy survived the attack due to a healing factor and durability, but he was left with a serious headache. Kai-Ku injected himself with the speed drug next and attacked Zaddy, breaking Zaddy’s mask. Zaddy had a mixture of XerX’s and Zora’s face, revealing himself to be an experimental XerX Clone as well.
Killion was left alone to deal with two XERX-EGGZA Chimeras. He summoned Enkidu—his Familiar Owl—and unleashed the legendary relic, the Magna Egg of Menos Chimera. He cried out, “Execute! Menos Evolution!” Killion was transformed into the Menos Chimera, a Godly transformation to celebrate the player’s real-life birthday. This left everyone in awe at the overwhelming power coming from Killion. He effortlessly pummeled a Chimera with little effort.
Zaddy welcomed the challenge after beating Kai-Ku down to 0 HP with his speed combos. Gundam kept his distance in fear of provoking Zaddy into finishing his friend. As a result of Killion gaining the upper hand against the Chimeras, Zaddy left Kai-Ku for dead and battled Killion with a speed hurricane and lightning bolts.
Despite rolling low during this fight scene, Killion still managed to fight Zaddy on equal footing. After Gundam healed Kai-Ku back to consciousness, they backed Killion from afar. Enkidu—evolved into an Owlbear—fought against a Chimera on his own.
On Killion’s last turn as Menos Chimera, Killion unleashed the form’s ultimate move—Miraculous Punisher—against Zaddy, who had transformed into his Chimera Form. This broke Zaddy’s legs, and his HP was less than 10. Gundam finished him off with a bullet shot to the head, ending the Demonic Speedster once and for all.
Gundam declared they had saved the world again. Kai-Ku corrected Gundam’s statement, saying they technically saved the city this time around. Gundam kept going and said they could only save the world so many times as students. They were saying this as the city was still on fire. The rest of the XERX-EGGZA Chimeras retreated from Eltruel, brightening the sky as a result.
Kai-Ku suggested they ditch HERO Academy after this Undercover Internship was over and go into the vigilante hero business, thinking they had enough credit to start as street-level heroes on their own.
Once they brought the idea to Toguro in the church, he told them to finish the first semester at HERO Academia first before making this decision; they could work out a compromise about graduating early. Then the players questioned how Toguro lost against Zaddy. Toguro explained how he lost the ability to go beyond 30% Power after the Trials of The Almighty in the previous session. This concerned the players greatly.
Gundam went around the church’s benches to untie all ten hostages except the Racist Wizard, who was one of the hostages Zaddy Zoomer took. The other two were dead.
Another hostage—an unnamed human woman—was also being racist to Gundam and his Fake Magic, claiming that they were no victors or heroes. The other hostages were silent and grateful, but they didn’t speak out against the woman. Gundam took her and tied her up, then hung her up like a pinata. She cried out, but nobody cut her down. They bowed and respected Gundam’s decision. Justice was served.
After this, the players, Krypto, Toguro, and Roshi went back to the submarine. After they got back inside, everyone took a long rest—slept 8 hours finally—for the rest of the trip back to Baldur’s Gate, ready to hit the main plot.
Normally, I’d have ended the D&D session there, but the players were itching for more game time so we kept going for another hour or so. I wasn’t about to discourage their enthusiasm, and it was Killion’s birthday. So, I told the players they were waking up and at the breakfast table in the submarine. They were talking more about the vigilante business and who’d they were facing next in the tournament.
Toguro gave them an update on their next opponents—Team Sound. They used sound-based abilities, and some of them were speedsters like Zaddy Zoomer. There wasn’t much information on their background, but the players didn’t care about their motives. They just wanted to fight and win in order to get Eri Menos—wife of player Menos from the previous campaign—back from the powerful villains hosting Baldur’s Tournament.
The players needed a reminder on why they were in this tournament to begin with. To be fair, it had been two months since we played this HERO campaign, so their memory wasn’t the best when it came to what the plot was about.
After the debriefing on their next opponents, D-Crew decided to check around Baldur’s Gate to restock their items. They went back to the rebuilt Items Shop—the one that had been destroyed earlier during the VVV (Vampire Vlad Virus) pandemic—to buy more potions of healing. Once they did that, Kai-Ku wanted to get some food and went to a nearby Pub with Gundam. Killion was in the bathroom IRL, so he was absent for this next part.
Kai-Ku saw a random man harassing a waitress and stepped in to do something. The rude man wasn’t having it. Soon, Kai-Ku cried out “Bar Fight!” and chaos followed. This resulted in the rude man shooting the waitress in the head, killing her. Kai-Ku started to feel bad about what he did, and the morals that come with being a hero. Gundam killed the rude man in response. Killion had no idea any of this happened while he was in the bathroom. Nobody at the table had the heart to tell him.
Happy Birthday, Killion. It was time for their match against Team Sound.
When D-Crew went into the waiting room to rest up, they ran into Lord Wit sitting on a bench and eating an apple. The Aarakocra taunted them about Zaddy Zoomer and Translucent being off his team, passively implying that he knew about the players’ role in their deaths. Kai-Ku had his kryptonite shield, but Lord Wit didn’t do anything to them and phased through the wall—instead of using the door—to exit the waiting room.
Round 1 was an interesting match. D-Crew didn’t find Sonic, Knuckles, or Shadow challenging since they recently fought against Zaddy Zoomer and his Paradooms in Eltruel yesterday. The players did learn though that Team Sound came from a poor village, and they need to win Eri Menos to help them save their village.
Killion launched a Fireball at Sonic and Knuckles, incinerating them to ash. Shadow was stunned on the ground from Kai-Ku’s Spark Gauntlet, helpless to do anything but watch his brothers get killed right in front of him. Team D-Crew won the first round, but at what cost? Kai-Ku was starting to question what their morals really were at this point.
In-between the rounds, D-Crew watched Lord Wit and his new teammate fight in their Round 1 Matchup against three Giant Ogres. Lord Wit’s new comrade was a silver War Forged named Savitar, a self-declared “God of Speed”. Lord Wit considered Savitar an upgrade from Zaddy Zoomer. He also stated that his other new teammate wasn’t feeling the first round, choosing not to show up for the match. Lord Wit and Savitar ended up butchering Team Ogre on their own within seconds. The players believed they could take Team Seven still, even if they didn’t know who their new third member yet.
After watching the Team Seven match, Toguro did some research on D-Crew’s next opponents. They were called Team Desert: Gaara, Temari, and Lily Nighthill. Gaara was a Sand Bender, Temari was an Airbender, and Lily was a martial artist. She was also revealed to be Roshi’s younger sister.
Roshi found this impossible, having seen Lily die right in front of him. The players believed she was a vampire then. Roshi wasn’t sure how he felt about his sister potentially being alive again. Kai-Ku promised to save her if needed, but he wasn’t going to hold back if she turned out to be strong. Roshi agreed to the deal, choosing to watch the match from afar to avoid being emotionally compromised.
Round 2 was more challenging for the players than Team Sound. Temari was taken care of by Killion’s precise sword throwing and the fall damage from being so high up.
Gundam was trying to pierce through Gaara’s sand shield and whenever he got through the shield, he hit Gaara’s sand armor. Gundam was getting mad that he wasn’t making his opponent bleed. Kai-Ku and Lily fought in hand-to-hand combat. While she was confirmed not to be a vampire, Lily proved to be quite the challenge for Kai-Ku. Lily revealed she was trained by her older brother Roshi after she NAT 20 Kai-Ku with a Leaf Hurricane. She also revealed Gaara and Temari saved her, and that she owed them.
Kai-Ku looked to the crowd, apologizing to Roshi for what he was about to do next. He stole Roshi’s Kamehameha Wave Technique and blasted it at Lily, wanting to prove that he knew Roshi. He also wanted to kick her ass now. This stolen technique in addition to her own Leaf Hurricane overpowered Lily into getting knocked out of the ring.
Gaara was left alone to fight against D-Crew and kept up the momentum despite 3 on 1, being an absolute monster on the battlefield. Gaara launched sand waves and took less damage from the other players, courtesy of his absolute offense and defense abilities.
Eventually, Kai-Ku and Gaara ended up in a close-range sand vortex after Kai-Ku copied Roshi’s After Image Technique to avoid Sand Coffin. Killion was knocked out of the ring with Gaara’s Sand Coffin, but Enkidu was helping Gundam stay invisible. Gundam kept the gun fire on Gaara to apply pressure. The more the fight dragged on, the more Gaara grew angry.
Gaara raged about having a sand monster living inside him—that nobody could understand him or his internal pain of never bleeding. Gaara wanted to win Eri Menos in order to save his village from a war against another village. He needed Eri Menos to be the weapon instead of him for once.
Despite understanding Gaara’s motives for wanting to win the tournament, Kai-Ku kept fighting and broke through Gaara’s sand shield and armor using the last speed drug—somehow unlocking the Eight Gates and turning Fiery Red. After the speed drug wore off, Kai-Ku lit Gaara’s ass up with the Spark Gauntlet for the final blow. This resulted in Gaara being unable to physically move and losing to the 10 count, which made Team D-Crew the victors of Round 2.
Mentally enraged however, Gaara took vengeance and moved the sand for a sneak attack against Kai-Ku. He used the Sand Coffin Technique on Kai-Ku’s leg, completely shattering it. Roshi—dropping tears for his friend—rushed to the arena and cradled Kai-Ku in his arms; the move also made Kai-Ku lose all his HP. A medic team with a stretcher arrived and took Kai-Ku away to the stadium’s medic room.
This resulted in Kai-Ku needing a cast on his leg for a couple weeks. Despite the Male Goblin Doctor telling him he will eventually recover, Kai-Ku refused to wait that long for his leg to fully heal, demanding to know the name of a Black-Market Surgeon who could operate and make him better in time for the tournament’s semi-finals. The Goblin Doctor gave Kai-Ku a business card for the surgeon. Kai-Ku declared he will get this Surgeon to help him, or he’ll wear a peg leg. Gundam and Killion suggested cutting the leg off.
This is where the session officially ended.
Thanks for reading and following our epic adventures, everyone. This session was making up for lost time indeed, so I hoped you enjoyed the full ride from End of the World Scenario to Broken Leg Dilemma.
Stay Healthy, and I’ll see you all next time.