Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): The Rise of Tiamat: Season 2 Episode 17 Adventure #48
Date of Session: June 18, 2020 (6:00 pm to 9:00 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)
Recurring Guest Star NPCs:
1. Vincent “Cent” Kelsier (Male Water Genasi, Multiverse Traveler)
2. Lily Nighthill (Female Human, Roshi’s Younger Sister)
3. Spook (Male Disfigured Human, Student at HERO Academy)
4. Twenty the Goblin (Male Berserker Goblin, Student at HERO Academy)
5. Professor Stoner Head (Male Mummy, Teacher at HERO Academy)
6. Baxter (Female Cow Humanoid, HERO Academy’s Engineer)
7. Bon-Bon (Female Human, K-Krew’s Student Supervisor)
8. Trudy Overlord (Female Dragon-Human Hybrid, Student at HERO Academy)
9. Shane Offender (Male Human, Student at HERO Academy)
10. Adam the Warlock (Male Human, Student at HERO Academy)
11. Nurse Kissey-Kiss (Female Human, School Nurse at HERO Academy)
12. Marvelous Johnson (Male Human, Student at HERO Academy, Gil Supporter)
13. Eri Menos (Female Human, Menos’ Wife, currently comatose inside a pod)
New NPCs Introduced:
1. Principal Paradox (Male Human, Leader of the Dai Li Police Force)
2. Dai Li Officers (Male Human Earth-Benders, Gilgamesh’s HERO Police Force
Welcome back to another D&D session! I had a good time directing the campaign out of the “Undercover Internship SAGA” and into the “HERO License Arc”. However, the players needed to confront school at least one more time. They also won 12,000 Gold Pieces from winning the Tournament, which they divided amongst each other. Once they took care of some things on the submarine, they took a long rest for the remainder of their underwater trip.
Season 2 episode 7 followed K-Krew back to HERO Academy after they had just recently won the Baldur’s Tournament, where they were thrown into another situation. They found themselves surrounded by militarized men called the Dai Li, an elite HERO police force—Earth Benders—sent to keep HERO Academy “safe” in the wake of Gen Kai’s death. A new school order had been established. While Killion and Kai-Ku respectfully laid down on the floor, Gundam refused and tried to fight back against the Dai Li’s brutality.
The Dai Li were extremely racist to War Forges. They hated being unable to bend metal and secretly took out their frustrations on War Forges, living metal beings. This was shown in how they immediately saw Gundam as a threat, and how they brutalized him with relentless gun fire.
Gundam rolled a NAT 1 for escape, getting shot straight down to 0 HP from the Dai Li and the helicopters flying above the submarine. K-Krew were taken and separated as a result. Kai-Ku and Killion were taken to the principal’s office while Gundam and Eri Menos were taken to the school nurse’s office. Roshi and Lily Nighthill were taken to a “rehibition center” somewhere on the island. Things weren’t looking very good for the players.
Killion and Kai-Ku met Principal Paradox, a male human and the leader of the Dai Li. Principal Paradox was also gay and a Gil Supporter, someone who believed in Gilgamesh’s epic hero philosophy. The players tried to convince Paradox how corrupt Gilgamesh was, but he truly believed in Gilgamesh’s goals to weaponize the students into the next generation of heroes under his rule. Gilgamesh was officially declared the BBEG of this campaign.
Killion was able to provoke his “Gil Privilege” on Paradox and the Dai Li, but the same couldn’t be said for Kai-Ku. While still restrained, Kai-Ku tried to charge after Paradox and failed to account the Earth-bended restraints. The Dai Li used that to keep Kai-Ku at bay, and then Paradox shot a NAT 20 bullet into Kai-Ku’s chest. The damage was critical. After this, they released Killion as an honored guest… at his own school. Kai-Ku was barely treated like a GSW—gunshot wound—patient.
Kai-Ku was taken into the medic room, where he reunited with Gundam and Nurse Kissey Kiss. Nurse Kissey Kiss healed Kai-Ku, wondering how much trouble they brought to HERO Academy this time. Killion followed along to check on his friends, using his “Gil Privilege” to get pass the two Dai Lis guarding the room.
They needed to figure out a way to escape Bubby Island. K-Krew decided the best way to leave was the submarine without drawing the Dai Li’s attention. There was also another problem. Gundam and a comatose Eri Menos were still stuck inside a cage inside a transparent forcefield. To solve this problem, Killion cast “Charm Person”—a love spell basically—on a Dai Li agent. This Dai Li Agent was pretty chill while under the influence. He helped them escape the other agents, guiding them back to the Kai-tick Red Dorm and then the dock area.
K-Krew discovered their submarine high up in the air. Their new sub was pierced by a bended rock formation. The Dai Li destroyed K-Krew’s only ride off this island. However, they didn’t give up hope. They remembered Cent Kelsier, the multiverse traveler and his fancy Wave Rider spaceship. Using Killion’s smartphone, they called Cent and put him on speaker phone. K-Krew asked Cent that they’ll agree to journey with him if he picked them up right now.
Cent agreed to retrieve them for future adventures, but he wasn’t sure how long it’ll take for him to get them. Cent was currently getting stoned on the other side of the multiverse. He said he’ll send someone in his place if he doesn’t get sober in time.
K-Krew had no choice but to agree to this compromise, considering the circumstances they found themselves in. First, the charmed Dai Li agent was taken care of before the spell wore off. Second, K-Krew called Spook—a teleporter—for his help, an old classmate from season one.
They learned Spook wasn’t captured based on the Dai Li’s checklist. Spook was on the way to Bubby Island—via airplane—when they called him. He teleported to them and saw his own plane get shot down by the Dai Li agents’ helicopters. Spook was shocked about the Dai Li and Gen Kai’s death, his near-death experience, and the dark changes he saw in K-Krew. So much could change in one week’s time.
Everyone decided to split and conquer. Split the party.
Killion and Gundam decide to rescue Baxter—their weapon experts—at her workshop. Kai-Ku and Spook decide to rescue the rest of the student body at the detainment center—the former gymnasium. Killion gave Kai-Ku and Spook invisibility for an hour to help out with their stealth once they teleport into the scene.
During the rescue of Baxter, Gundam was chased by six Dai Li agents and Killion was smashed by a NAT 20 boulder. Killion compared the Earth Bending experience to “feeling crushed like Obito”. In the end, Killion chained the Dai Li agent who NAT 20 him. Gundam escaped the other five Dai Li agents somehow. The players realized the Dai Li were indeed powerful but not very bright. They proceeded inside the building. Well, Killion went first while Gundam stayed outside to keep watch.
Killion took out the two Dai Li agents guarding the workshop room, finding Baxter being treated like a slave. She was working on something for Principal Paradox and the Dai Li Police Force on behalf of Gilgamesh, the King of Epic Heroes. Gundam joined Killion at this point, and they wrecked the Dai Li agents. However, the agents managed to escape with Baxter. Gundam and Killion gave chase after the Dai Li and Baxter. Now, let’s jump to Kai-Ku and Spook’s stealth mission for the students in pods.
Spook and Kai-Ku teleported right inside the gym area. They found all the students inside pods, and those pods were guarded by Dai Li agents. The students were also being weaponized and implanted with mind control chips similar to Doctor Sylar’s design. The players learned at this point that the Dai Li loved to work in pairs. Kai-Ku knew it was too risky to face them all with just him and Spook. So, Kai-Ku pulled the fire alarm. The Dai Li Earth bended the human pods underground and evacuated the building.
On the way out of the gymnasium, the twenty-four Dai Li Agents ran into the two agents running away with Baxter. The twenty-four covered for the two agents and confronted Killion and Gundam. Kai-Ku and Spook teleported behind their friends, seeing Killion prepare a Fireball and Gundam with his Trinity Dragoon Barrage. The all-out attacks killed all twenty-four Dai Li agents.
The players were reunited once again, deciding to chase after Baxter together. They will need her to figure out how to save everyone from the mind control chips. K-Krew + Spook followed the Dai Li’s trail back to the medic room, where Nurse Kissey Kiss was healing Baxter’s injuries. Everyone charged in and defeated the Dai Li agents, rescuing Baxter from her enslavement.
The players needed Baxter to build something to disrupt the mind control chips, but Baxter said she’ll need at least one mind control chip to work with. Knowing what they need to do next, the team thought about the underwater base near HERO Academy, where Doctor Suresh used to experiment on the missing students from season one. The charmed Dai Li from earlier confirmed that’s where Principal Paradox and the other Dai Li were mainly operating from.
Before heading there to take out the Dai Li though, Baxter suggested creating something for Gundam to use against the mind control chips. While they will still need a chip to make the “Battlizer Prototype” work, Baxter will still need to build the Battlizer using Gundam’s new robotic dog, Krypto. Kai-Ku asked where Krypto went when he wasn’t hanging with them. Krypto told the players that he resided in The Almighty’s Pocket Dimension until called upon.
Everyone went back to Baxter’s workspace, where she went to work on creating Gundam’s Battlizer using Krypto. While she couldn’t give him anything else due to the time restraints, Gundam was simply grateful to have Baxter work on awesome weapons for them again. He missed that very much throughout season two. After Baxter finished the Battlizer, Gundam wore the armor immediately.
Gundam loved his new Krypto-Head Sword, the antenna for the mind control chip disruptor. All Gundam had to do was insert the mind control chip into the sword’s hilt, and that will destroy all the mind control chips in the vicinity.
Now that they obtained a new weapon to stop the Principal Paradox and Dai Li’s masterplan from weaponizing the HERO Academy students, K-Krew just needed a plan to infiltrate the underwater base. After a couple minutes of brainstorming, they stole the defeated Dai Li’s uniforms—the black robes—and disguised themselves. Gundam didn’t disguise himself given he was a War Forged and already wearing The Almighty Battlizer.
After swimming deep and opening the doorway, K-Krew ran into two Dai Li agents and defeated them without making a scene. Killion and Kai-Ku switched out their wet uniforms for dry Dai Li uniforms. They were betting hard on these stealth checks.
Kai-Ku ventured into the large room first, looking for the students in pods. He tried to seduce a male Dai Li agent with no avail. Eventually, Kai-Ku was pointed in the right direction though. Kai-Ku found all his classmates in their pods in the basement area of the underwater base. He woke them all up, finding everyone was chipped—including Roshi and Lily Nighthill.
Kai-Ku did risky surgery to remove the mind control chip from Roshi’s chest area, undoing the sutures. He almost killed Roshi in the process, but Kai-Ku retrieved the mind control chip and closed the wound. Roshi wondered what had happened since they were captured at the submarine. Kai-Ku told him a lot went down, and now they were going to escape HERO Academy’s corrupted educational system.
On the way out, Kai-Ku ran into more Dai Li Agents. The agents wondered where Kai-Ku—believing he was one of them—was taking the prisoners. Kai-Ku got all close to the Dai Li agent and loudly accused him of sexual harassment. This random accusation distracted the Dai Li long enough for Kai-Ku to toss the chip over to Killion, who passed it on to Gundam. Then Gundam inserted the chip inside the hilt, freeing the students. It also freed Professor Stoner Head, a mummy teacher with the ability to negate powers.
The Dai Li were cut off from their Earth Bending as a result, allowing the students to revolt easily. K-Krew watched their classmates—and Professor Stoner Head—take down their enemies. On the way out, the underwater base was blown to pieces with a Fireball from Killion. Doctor Suresh’s original base was destroyed once and for all. However, this was only a brief victory.
Back on the surface, K-Krew and friends were greeted by Principal Paradox.
K-Krew tried to have a conversation with Principal Paradox, but they realized it was futile to reason with a mad man. Principal Paradox was too loyal to Gilgamesh; he truly believed in the King of Epic Heroes and his corrupted philosophy. Paradox even tried to “Gil-plain” to Killion, Gilgamesh’s own son. Killion was offended—he couldn’t believe this villain was trying to tell him something about his own father.
Kai-Ku stabbed Paradox in the stomach with his White Sword, taking revenge for the NAT 20 gunshot at the start of the session. Killion finished him off with swords to Paradox’s head and heart. Three swords total—plunged in three vital points—definitely killed him. Gundam wanted to help in the fight, but he rolled a NAT 1 that disabled the Battlizer. This fight scene wasn’t very long anyway, but Gundam kind-of missed out on the slaughter.
Around this time, the Wave Rider arrived. Cent Kelsier had made it just in time to pick them up. K-Krew hurried their friends on the spaceship before more Dai Li showed up. The Wave Rider took off and stationed itself in the Temporal Zone—a “crack” between dimensions. This area would keep them safe for the time being. However, more than half the students didn’t want to stay in the Wave Rider. While some simply wanted to go home or back to school, others were actually supportive of Gilgamesh and the Dai Li’s influence at HERO Academy.
Marvelous Johnson—a student K-Krew knew—was a Gil Supporter. Recalling their brief history with Marvelous, they didn’t find that surprising. After getting count on who wanted to leave, Cent took them all back to HERO Academy on his mini spaceship—the Jump Ship. Listed below are the NPCs who chose to stand by K-Krew:
1. Krypto / The Almighty
2. Professor Stoner Head
3. Bon-Bon
4. Baxter
5. Roshi Nighthill
6. Lily Nighthill
7. Twenty the Goblin
8. Trudy Overlord
9. Spook Kelsier
10. Adam the Warlock
11. Shane Offender
Counting the players (3) and Cent Kelsier, the head count was 15. Shane Offender and Kai-Ku had a moment where they exchanged helmets. At the end of season one, Kai-Ku gave his precious Red Sentai Helmet to Shane as a temporary replacement. Kai-Ku destroyed Shane’s Aarakocra Head and felt bad about it, promising to find Shane a new replacement Head. Shane was grateful to Kai-Ku for keeping his promise.
There were a few other humorous moments—like catching Professor Stoner Head and Bon-Bon coming out of the shower together and everyone smoking after escaping Bubby Island—that we all really appreciated. After everything they’ve been through, K-Krew could take it easy (light-hearted tone). They were also finally qualified to take the HERO License Exam, the most difficult exam in the entire multiverse. Next course? The Vanishing Point—a neutral location outside space and time where the exam will be held.
The session ended on that very interesting note. It was so much fun. Season 2 went in an inevitable direction with the players officially leaving the school life behind them for the vigilante multiverse business. They were also official fugitives from Gilgamesh and the Dai Li HERO Police Force. Cent Kelsier will be their “Pro Hero Mentor” moving forward. This was an explosive way to kick off the “HERO License Arc”. K-Krew have always been running their own course anyway.