The first session of our campaign is over. We did the prequel adventure, Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye. It was… the experience of all time. First of all, a basic overview of our builds (level 3):
- Big Floppa, Tabaxi Moon Druid 2/Monk 1
- Charles, Custom Lineage Genie Warlock 3
- Dolorous, Dhampir Druid 1/Undead Warlock 2
- kill me, Custom Lineage War Wizard 2/Peace Cleric 1
Naturally, I was playing the floppa – the main damage-dealer of the party, as well as the emotional support kitty. Because meowing is fun.
Each of us picked the Investigator background with the Inheritor background feature, selling our spyglass trinket and magnifying glass in order to purchase a ton of stuff, then picking a more expensive item via Inheritor. For example, my cat had an insignia of claws, +1 handwraps, spellwrought tattoo (spirit guardians), eldritch claw tattoo, elemental gem(emerald) and +1 half plate.
The session began with us just kind of vibing in Neverwinter, when all of a sudden we encountered a female scout and her dead companion, who was indeed very dead (I made a Medicine check to make sure). He had a piece of parchment with the words “Hail the Undying.”
BIG FLOPPA: “My master told me about something called the Undying. Apparently it was replaced by something called the Undead.”
There was also an eyeball. Dolorous wanted to gouge out her own eye and insert it in the empty socket just because an Arcana check revealed it was magical, but thankfully didn’t. Floppa meowed the words on the parchment, causing the eye to glow and lead us to the stronghold of a cult (turns out it was an Eye of Ender). Upon reaching the dungeon, we used familiars/goats/similar things to cast conjure elemental and maintain concentration via elemental gem, getting a total of two air elementals and one water elemental.
We entered a creepy hidden room with a large pool. The imp went first, searching the area. As it turns out, there was human flesh in the area. And some water weirds.
Encounter – 7x Water Weird CR 3
Original module encounter – 1x Water Weird CR 3
Tactical commentary – this was default killable, but we were stupid. Dolorous went up on the ceiling instead of using a familiar to scout and got grappled. Floppa then got downed fighting water weirds in an attempt to save our companion – that didn’t even go that poorly, I was killing one weird per round.
Our air elementals were pulling most of the weight. The ability to yeet someone 20 feet helps massively when fighting a water weird, a creature that literally dies when removed from the water it is bound to.
The total resource cost of this encounter was 15 of our 80 goodberries and one wild shape to return to my moorbounder form.
We sent the water elemental to scout ahead, and it found a ghost in the next room. We formed ranks, bringing the non-humanoids among us in front because of their immunity to the ghost’s possession. The ghost had amnesia and wanted us to help her find out who she was. We searched the area and found two tombs, one of which contained a very cool shield that Charles gave to his imp.
Unfortunately, the ghost removed the curse on our awesome shield of missile attraction, turning it into a regular +1 shield – a massive downgrade. We asked her to change it back, but she was unable to. Figuring it had something to do with her amnesia, I tried to induce trauma again by opening the sarcophagus containing her body, bringing her corpse over to her and eating it, but this had no effect. Finally, I got fed up and hit her twice with my massive kitty claws, dealing 58 damage and killing her.
It was at that point that the undead attacked.
Encounter – 9x Minecraft Zombie CR ¼ and 8x Minecraft Skeleton CR ¼
Original module encounter – 8x Zombie CR ¼
Tactical commentary – this time we did not have skill issue and simply won the encounter by sending elementals and using ranged attacks to remove the skeletons, leaving the zombies (melee lul) for Big Floppa to deal with. At no point in this encounter were we even remotely threatened.
We headed into the sewerage chamber next, just to make sure there wasn’t any free XP there. As it turned out, there was.
Encounter – 14x Gray Ooze CR ½
Original module encounter – 3x Gray Ooze CR ½
Tactical commentary – these things have 10 feet of speed. Default killed and moved on.
We got through the double doors the normal way, encountering a group of sleeping cultists. Careful not to wake them (our minimum Stealth beat their passive Perception by 5, because Dolorous was concentrating on pass without trace via a magic item), I massacred them one by one, killing the 9hp enemies with 42-damage hits.
We then entered what looked like a ritual room, where a cultist was doing cultist things.
Encounter – Cult Fanatic CR 2, 30x Skeleton CR ¼, 8x Shadow CR ½
Original module encounter – Cult Fanatic CR 2, 2x Shadow CR ½
Tactical commentary – we surprised the enemy and it was a bloodbath. Big Floppa charged at the cult fanatic, removing him from existence in two kitty punches before flopping away. The elementals dealt with the shadows before moving on to the skeleton horde. Minimal damage was taken, and we emerged victorious. Special mention to Charles for using his Genie’s Vessel (catapult munition) to blow up a bunch of skeletons.
An image of Vecna then manifested, and he said we were interesting and therefore deserved a gift. So each of us got to choose between one of two charms:
- 5 uses, +1d10 necrotic damage to a weapon attack and 5 temporary hit points
- 3 uses, free cast of clairvoyance
Since this was the end of the oneshot, our DM decided that the charms would also apply to our characters in the actual campaign. I have not chosen mine yet.
Form of Dread - D&D Tactics 