Thursday, May 7, 2020

A Funny Thing Happened On Roll20



I'm really enjoying running games on Roll20. My anxiety before running a session is less and I'm sure it has to do with not being able to see my players. For the record, I have great people in my groups, but my anxiety often makes me feel like I'm not good enough to do this or this will be the session where they group finally grow tired of my DMing. It's illogical, but that's anxiety.

One of the games I'm running started at 10th Level and was based on a Savage Worlds Campaign called Evernight. Essentially, Illithids (and their aberration servitors races) invade the Lands of Valusia and Kos and begin to block out the Sun (in effect blocking Pelor from his faithful).

I opened the game with the players waking us as clones with no memories after being cloned and they discovered that their native Valusia was being invaded from the stars. As they moved into Valusia and tried to help the innocent, they encountered the aberrations that were terrorizing the lands of Valusia and they learned that they may have had a hand in helping the invasion occur. Additionally, due to their folly, Istus the Goddess of Fate was abducted into the Far Realms by a tentacled thing.

One of the players, Russ, had a half-orc Fighter named Sholgar with a Dark Secret, he knew what had transpired and why.  

They eventually found their way to the lair of the Sphinx Aravel and she explained that she was surprised to see them again. They asked what they had wanted from her in their previous visit and she explained that they had sought the Wish she guarded but they couldn't solve her riddle and were kept from obtaining the spell. This time they solved the riddle and the Wish was handed over and Russ, due to his Dark Secret, immediately  Wished that his allies would be returned to a time before both the invasion and the death of his friend Ashton.


So the Party, sans Russ (casting a Wish destroys the caster with no possibility of resurrection) learns the truth of their missing time. Several years ago, the characters made the acquaintance of a Sorcerer named Zing Zao Zang and while fighting the Tarrasque a member of their Party, Ashton Starcatcher, prevented King Gryph of Valusia from reading the Wish spell to destroy the monster by ripping it from the good King's hands and casting it himself.

While Valusia was saved, their band, especially Shlogar, wanted to find a way to bring Ashton back. Zing Zao Zang promised them that she had researched an item that would allow the user to cast a Wish without paying the price of total destruction. She needed two things, an orb called the Heart of Darkness that was acquired in the Tomb-City of Pifany and a Wish spell guarded by the Sphinx Sarkt and his wife Aravel. However, they could not pass the riddle that guarded the Wish spell, though they did retrieve the Heart of Darkness.

They met up with Zang in King's Port, the capital of Valusia, and presented the Heart of Darkness to her. When she found out they had failed at securing the Wish spell she lost her temper, raging at them for their weakness and cursing them for making things harder. Then she used the Heart and an Illithid ship crashed down upon the group slaying them instantly and announcing that the invasion had begun.

However, with the Wish sending them back before this they arrived as Level 20 characters that are preparing to face the Tarrasque with King Gryph heading their way with the Wish presented to his family from Boccob several hundred years ago.

Shits gonna get real.

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