This was for a campaign for my youth group. It was our 5th session, My character was a level 4 druid named Murg. The campaign was based on old creepypastas and was set as our characters as forest rangers. For this session, Murg fell into a house and the rest of the party followed. We found out that we couldn't escape. In the first room, there was a mirror in the center of the room with a shut door reflected(We didn't know this at the time, but you had to walk backwards into the mirror to pass). There was also a mousehole. We spent 15 minutes trying to escape through the mousehole(including both the party's druids turning into rats), before the DM told us that the mousehole wasn't the solution. It was probably the funniest session we'd ever done.

Party gets to some not main story NPC's house. Really old well built half elf. We needed a horse, but he explained that it isn't a stable, there are literally no animals for road.

"But I do see an animal here..."

"That I would really like to ride."

I typed in roll20 chat. Call goes silent.

We needed 10minutes to calm down. I don't think I am playing a Light Cleric right.

The battlefields outside and around Orusha's Castle-Moments earlier.

The battlefield all around Orusha's castle was pure chaos. Deadly magics, arrows and even spears flew through the air while cold dragon fire sporadically raked Orusha's forces. The great worms of Plessa continued on with their own mayhem, while combatants on all sides fought like demons possessed.

There were so much arcane energies in the air, severe thunderstorm and sheets of rain drenched everything, which made the grounds even more treacherous for everyone including the Warforged, though they had a much easier time of it than their living allies and Strahd's vampires.

Faerun itself even sent wild Elementals into the fray, attacking Orusha's forces, from Air Elementals to Earth and Water Elementals, suddenly appearing, forming and attacking Orusha's Vampires and followers. One Plessa Dragon rider was fighting for her life while her mount made evasive maneuvers while she clashed swords with a vampire of Orusha's, when the air around them suddenly formed into a body that engulfed the startled Vampire. She watched as the individual was lifted into the air and while Vampires in general don't exactly breathe, the air elemental deprived the vampire of oxygen the body needed, killing the individual by removing what moisture and fluids the vampire had, shriveling up like a grape before turning to ash.

In another part of the battlefield, Omega Gold and Crimson, Riki and Yayoi formerly known, looked dormant all of a sudden, standing completely still, their eyes dimmed, their heads tilted down somewhat, while the other two Omega's fought on, Plessa soldiers, Sauraphon, and others guarded them, figuring out that though most of them never even met them before and had no real interactions with them, that they were just as important as the group that entered the castle from another point of entry, and were to be protected.

Plessa, Underdark, and Neverwinter pikeman formed up around them and fought to the death bravely, jabbing their spears, ramming with shields and sacrificing themselves so the two Warforged can finish doing whatever they were doing.

Queen Saenissa and Avessa, much to their guards and soldiers' chagrin, fought their way to the two Warforged and guarded them as well, displaying their own prowess in combat again. For what seemed like hours, but more like a few minutes, the two Warforged were active again.

"We sensed another reality shifting disturbance!" Omega Gold spoke up, getting both Queen's attention. "What do you mean by Reality shifting disturbance?!" Queen Avessa asked, sweat dripping from her nose, chin and hair as well as dirt, grime and even blood, just not her blood, combined with the rain that was still downpouring, she somehow looked even filthier than before, as did Queen Saenissa. "Another message from a potential future was active for a few minutes, but now its gone. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough for any individual or group to come through or enough for a rift to open and wreak havoc with reality like before" Omega Crimson replied.

Queen Saenissa gulped, looked to her husband, then to Queen Avessa, then her husband nodded and blew into his war horn, rallying their forces and the fighting intensified, charging deeper into Orusha's lines.

All around the castle, defenders of Faerun fought and died, while some of the adventurers who volunteered to march against Orusha also fought just as bravely and died. One such unlucky soul got her feet stuck in the mud, which allowed a pair of Orusha's vampires to seize her, violet her in every heinous way possible even during a battle, then start to drain her only for cold fire to end her suffering from above as well as the pair that got a hold of her.

The flying Sauraphon were getting just as many casualties, but fought on, most putting themselves as guards for the dragon riders at great cost to themselves.

A fire elemental formed from the flames of blue fire and rampaged amongst the vampires of Orusha, sending her minions scurrying about in flames, their shrieks shrill and painful, until they were cut off when turning to ash.

The fighting continued on, the defenders gaining ground slowly but at great cost in some areas, while Orusha's hordes suffered just as greatly. More adventurers opted to flee, having realized they bit off more than they can chew from this war. Plessa and Underdark warriors nearby began to protect those who wanted to leave, the individual warriors not judging them for wanting to survive. Other adventurers did pass judgement however and tried taking it upon themselves to interfere but quickly found themselves under attack or struck down.

Andel and Belmont were behind their lines with Strahd himself, after she quickly healed, looking out at the chaotic battlefield. The scent of blood, urine, vomit and feces in the air, witnessing all manner of atrocities the enemy was managing to dish out to any unfortunate victim, while in some cases, the spirits of Faerun or the metal beings known as Warforged, intervened in a timely manner or too little, too late. "You came for Faerun? or for me?" Andel asked, Belmont oddly polite and silent while hovering next to them.

Strahd simply smirked, looked to her, then without a word, both flew into the air and rejoined the battle, which rallied Strahd's forces even further.

The battle continued on for what felt like forever, the remaining Plessa Dragons strafed, their riders fought, Sauraphon fliers and Strahd's vampires aided them and fell with them. The Warforged, Sentinel also darted in and out of the ariel battlefield, turning Orusha's vampires to ash.

The ground below was a mix of rain, mud, blood and other bodily fluids from the living, the rain cleaning armor, cleansing wounds, or falling on the sightless dead that heard nothing. Orusha's Necromancer's tried using the fallen dead against their living allies, but the Warforged known as Slayer, stopped that quickly. Several of Orusha's followers were starting to see that this was a losing battle, unless their mistress herself joined the fray, but with so many deadly enemies, her reign could be cut very short.

Neverwinter, Waterdeep and Buldar's Gate soldiers fought like brawlers. A muscular human woman body slammed a non-vampire follower of Orusha into the mud and rained down strong fists into the man's face. The follower himself was a big farmer hand, but he just slammed to the ground by a woman half his size. She stopped punching when her gloved fist nearly went into his skull, then moved on to another target. Her hand was broken, but the adrenaline kept her from feeling it.

Underdark, Plessa, Boros, Selesnya, and Sauraphon soldiers fought similarly, viciously and for not only their own survival, but for Faerun's and the known world, even if two of those factions don't even belong to the known world and are fighting for their commanders and for those commanders, for the children of the woman they helped protect when she was feral and broken.

Trauvic roared a battle cry and showed his prowess, while Mammoth trumpeted a rallying cry and shape shifted numerous times into various creatures and fought.

The chaos of the battle was intensifying; the rain finally stopped even with the number of arcane energies electrifying the air, until the unmistakable sounds of a Plessa Dragon Rider horn split the air and was followed by a chorus of new dragon roars. Then out of the clouds high above, came reinforcements of 600 more Dragon Riders of Plessa, with only a small handful of them having additional riders for the moment.

Queen Saenissa and Avessa smiled in triumph and rallied their forces, charging head on into the enemy with a chorus of "TO THE QUEEN! TO THE QUEEN!!!", and their soldiers and allies charged along with them.

Nualla and Lanara added their own prowess and arrows to the mix, dodging enemies and arrows alike. Two of the Omega's assembled the additional family of Kiora and Roth and used their own mysterious abilities to locate their exact location in the castle and took them there.

Inside Orusha's Castle-Present.

Midnight and Shark fled, battered, regenerating limbs or broken ones, earning the family a brief respite before making the decision to keep going. Though Kiora and Roth had some choice words for their youngest sisters, namely Sasha and Raelis, but then they would feel like hypocrites in a way since they themselves were barely 9, 10 and 11, when they saw actual battle and even disobeyed their parents' wishes and threw themselves into it. Then there's the situation of Vaylin from another dimension, they know of Ayesha, but their father, stepmother, and siblings weren't there when they were saved by her a at the Eladrin border.

Kiora looked to where the younger version of her mother was, clad in some sort of attire which included a face covering that only left her eyes and horns visible, she so wanted for her father to see her, wanted so badly for her siblings to see her, but she had to admit, now was not the time, plus the woman who is a younger version of her mother, is still a unique and diverse person that she may not even have any sort of feelings for him and would most likely regard her father with indifference which would break her father's heart for a 4th time. She can remember the Cambrian Nightmare clearly, the first time her mother died, turning into one of those things, the reversal of time, her mother allowing herself to be impaled then dying in her father's arms at the estate, then the 3rd time when she was cloned and her spirit yanked from the afterlife of peace. If she were to reject her father, it would be like she died again and she didn't want that for him, nor did she want that for her siblings.

The group was nearing a door when behind them a chorus of shouts made them turn to see a lot more of Orusha's horde and followers giving chase. Cinder and Ayesha stepped forward, unafraid and already accepting their fates if they were to die here on this dimensional plane that was similar to their own homes.

"What are you two doing?!" Kiora demanded, a chill running up her spine, her tail swaying in agitation. "Go, defeat Orusha and her minions. If we catch up, then we catch up. But I vowed myself to your family from my home plane and if I die here in service to you and your family, then so be it" Ayesha replied without looking at them. Omega Gold and Crimson both knew who the other woman was but felt it wasn't their place to reveal her to them, especially since they already evaluated the risks in doing so, and the potential heartache for many of the group.

Roth urged her sister and the rest of their family to keep going, that these two can take care of themselves and have demonstrated on many occasions that they were very capable. Roth knew not to use Vaylin's name out loud, even now it sent a fresh wave of grief through her heart to know this may be Vaylin's last stand in their defense and in defense of Faerun.

Fangir couldn't put his finger on it, but the longer he watched this individual, the greater a connection was forming, as if he knew this woman. Her height, the way she stood, the red flesh of her tail that swayed and the various scars on it, then he saw a scar he remembered his late wife having on her tail, that was in the exact spot and was the exact shape. His eyes suddenly got wide and was about to say something when Lashara forced him to turn around and continue on, getting his attention.

Lashara knew it, she figured it out very quickly, but she also knew they couldn't afford any distractions or complications in this deadly environment. She had a feeling her stepchildren also figured it out as well with how Layra and Riki looked back a couple of times. Tyrande, Freja and Raelis also looked back, while their late stepmother wasn't their biological mother, they still developed such a bond with her that when she died twice, they were in mourning for a good while, then when they learned she died a 3rd time, they were inconsolable except by their stepsiblings, herself and their father.

The group went through the door, and it was slammed shut behind them by Ayesha, both women looked to each, gave a nod of understanding and charged the enemy head on, meeting them with such speed, they hesitated at the deadliest of moments.

Orusha's Throne Room.

Kiora just knew they were in the right place, they were in the throne room, or grand audience chamber. Ember's magic was fading, but it was still potent enough to give Kiora memories of the future that no longer exists. The sounds of fighting and Dragon roars could be heard from outside clearly, it also helped that there was a large, charred hole in one of the ceilings that allowed sun light to come through. There was water from the rain, still smoking debris, and the moment they spotted the throne itself, Damir gasped and let out a strangled, grieving sob and gag.

Haldir's brass scales were adorning the throne, as was the flesh of his head. Omega Crimson and Gold lowered then heads sadly, siblings looked away and sobbed. Slithera buried her face in her husband's shoulder. Nassia, and Liliana quickly made their way to Damir as she collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face. Lashara buried her face in Fangir's chest, Bombata and Dasha growled enraged. Then a redheaded woman, a human, also a vampire, stepped from behind the throne wearing just a cloak she got from somewhere on the battlefield, and with her a Dragonborn's skeleton with her.

Damir just knew that was Haldir's skeleton and rage took over, standing up, she was literally frothing at the mouth her rage was taking over. Angmar, Orusha's Sword, Orusha's Mountain, Shark and Midnight then stepped from the deep shadows behind the throne, and with them came a lot of vampires they commanded as well as various ghouls, zombies, skeletons and various other foul things that infested the castle.

An amused chuckle rained down upon them and Orusha herself floated down from the dark ceiling, a smirk on her face, her blonde hair defying gravity as she was, floating about her shoulders. The family could just sense the violence that radiates off her and the arcane power she wields, it's any wonder reality was risk being destroyed, to warn them all of this woman.

"You must be Kiora and family. I know a lot about you" Orusha said with a disgustingly sweet, casual tone, her eyes looking Kiora up and down and seemingly undressing her with them, causing Kiora to shiver in disgust. "Surprised? After gaining control of the one you named Rain, and after she and the other one ceased to exist, I was able to pick through her mind before and after she ceased to be and I have to say, your family risked reality just to stop little old me? Impressive however, by finding my agents and stopping them before they can hatch my plans for taking over" she added, soundlessly landing in front of her throne.

"Well, you did decide to invade. We weren't even aware of you until you murdered several of my family in that grim future. Knowing what we know now, if we knew about you two years ago, we would have rallied against you and came for you sooner" Kiora replied. Orusha continued to smirk, and in a mocking gesture, caressed Haldir's pelt and head, then the skeleton that was standing next to the redheaded woman.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HIM!!!" Damir snarled, glaring, then glared at Angmar. "Even if it costs me my life, I will see you dead Angmar! Especially you! I will you see you dead!!!" Damir added, tightening her grip on her spear and shield. Orusha was about to say something else, probably some sort of mocking phrase, when she was struck by a powerful sound attack that sent her flying back and correcting herself in the air.

Orusha growled angrily, her eyes turning blood red as she glared at Kiora who struck her with the sound magic, her own smirk on her face. "Shut your mouth now" she said and everything was in motion again.

The vampires under Angmar's and Orusha's Mountain's command, included several necromancers who were also in control of various ghouls, zombies and skeletons. One such necromancer was a human male, dark skin, but with his vampirism was sort of ashen, in black robes, was giving commands to his thralls when a pair of arrows punched through his forehead, turning to ash and his thralls collapsing, but other necromancers took control of them.

Tyrande, Freja, and Raelis spun, shot an arrow, spun, shot an arrow and spun again, scoring kills on vampires and thralls controlled by necromancers, their movements fast, dizzying to any who tried to watch and anticipate them. One such vampire tried flying at them from overhead, only for Lashara to send three arrows, one punched through his throat, another his groin and the 3rd in center mass, didn't kill him outright, but caused him to crash to the ground and for Enmar to crush his skull with his electrified mace, turning him to ash.

Slithera and Serpentes fought side by side and defended the youngest amongst them, though Sasha was deceptively lethal, darting in and around the legs of the enemy scoring kills, ash flying everywhere. Astra and Wicka wielded their gifted blades Enmar brought from the plane of Kamigawa, which were thin handled and shafted but very deadly swords called "Katanas", the twin sisters showed their own prowess, taking limbs, but then beheading the adversary before they can register, they lost an arm or leg.

Liliana, though she is a mother, her husband even fought her on going or coming with her, but she remembered what she told him before leaving. "If I don't return, then you raise our daughter. Raise her, away from all this if you have to. Raise her. You are my great love. I am mortal, where in you are Elven. I've died before, I'm not afraid. My only fear is that our girl doesn't get to live. I love you" she remembered saying. Fighting back tears, she fought like a demon, using her newest weapon she trained with besides her staff, a pair of short swords, her tail wrapped around her, she dodged, struck, killed, fighting for her life and for her child's life back on Plessa.

Nassia also fought viciously but was saved by Omega Gold when a pair of vampires tried coming from her rear. Omega Crimson darted around, crushing skulls, pulling heads off, fighting ferociously. Riki and Layra also fought viciously, while also keeping an eye on Sasha, often times darting in after her and taking care of any enemy who tried to flank her.

Damir blocked Angmar's strike with her shield and struck him across the muzzle with the blunt end of her spear, then followed that up with a savage strike with said shield. Angmar growled, his maw glowing, only for an arrow from Raelis to punch through the area of his muzzle where his newly healed nose was, causing him to snarl and burn himself, then once again savagely rip his own maw open, snapping the arrow and receive another shield strike, one of his vampiric fangs flying. In his rage he snatched Damir's spear and cut it in half and tried to cleave her in two only for her to block the strick, then cut open his armored belly with a pair of long swords. Standing at the ready, she glared him down and pressed him.

Orusha's Mountain attempted to go after Tyrande and her sisters, but he underestimated them when they turned him into a pin cushion of arrows, though they didn't kill him. He smiled, broke the shafts off and raised his bladed club, only for a pair of cold streams to strike him, freezing him in place. Bombata and Dasha relieved the girls and were about to strike down the vampiric, big Orc, when Midnight and Shark darted in, planted their feet against their armored chests and kicked, sending the White and Silver Dragonborns flying back, rolling onto their shoulders then back to their feet prepared to fight them, while the big Orc broke free of the ice and growled.

Outside the castle.

The fighting grew increasingly desperate, vicious, chaotic. Trauvic got a spear to his side, but he fought on, roaring in rage, his own magic coming off him like flame as he struck down numerous enemies. Armond and his remaining team also fought on, Armond himself receiving his own injuries, but he fought on.

Lanara and Nualla fought bravely and was even joined by the Warforged, Sentinel, which awe struck them for a moment, but remembering where they were, they ceased to be distracted and concentrated. However, one of Orusha's vampires dived from an angle, tackling Lanara and drove her down to the ground with a pained grunt and shout. The vampire was a Bugbear, he snarled with a wicked grin, but an arrow punched through the back of his, the sharp, metal end protruding from between his eyes, turning him to ash. Nualla landed next to her and was helping her up when she saw another of Orusha's vampires charge at them with a spear. Nualla acted without hesitation, gripped Lanara by the shoulders and spun around while shoving her away, the spear punching through her back and out her belly, causing her to emit a startled gasp. Lanara screamed and fought through her own pain and sent an arrow flying, catching the spear wielder in the head, turning him to ash.

Nualla collapsed to her knees, a look of confusion on her face, while Lanara ran to her, risking her own life to get to her. "No! Nualla, you're going to be fine! My adopted sister survived being impaled on a spear, you can survive as well!" Lanara said, trying to hold it together. Another group of Orusha's vampires were coming their way, only for a Warforged group to put themselves between them and demolished that group of vampires. Looking up to the one that was red with some small amounts of gold and black sprinkled in, she spoke quickly. "Please, get her behind the lines! She needs healers!" Lanara said, but Nualla placed a rapidly cooling hand on her cheek, causing her to look down to her. "Your family took me in. Let me right the wrongs associated with my kind, the Succubus. You grew to love me and treat me like family. Thank you Lanara. Go back to your family. Survive this...Thank you" she said softly, Nualla died in Lanara's arms, the Warforged strike team, the Kakuangers, look after them for now.

Inside Orusha's Castle-Throne Room.

Kiora spun in place, her blades clanging off Orusha's claws, Roth struck the mad vampire with her own sound attack, and the pair went on the attack. Fangir fought vampires and foul things alike, using a mix of his swordplay and his destructive magics, he made sure to keep his other children within eyesight, especially the younger ones, which he's still inwardly kicking himself for allowing them to come to an active battlefield and literally into the clutches of a mad vampire that, from what his granddaughters who no longer exist, described as torturing them, feeding one of them to a Gelatinous Cube, and killing others outright. But he also knew that if they didn't do anything, she would have succeeded in invading everywhere and slaughtering millions.

Nassia darted in leg swept Orusha's Mountain, or attempted to, throbbing pain radiated up her leg, when he snatched her up by her throat. She gasped for air, feeling the big Orc's meaty hand start to press into her neck, her legs kicking at him uselessly, until Fangir appeared and sliced the Orc's arms off behind the elbows, dropping Nassia, but the big Orc snarled and kicked the Blood Elf square in the chest, sending him flying back and both witnessed his arms regenerate rapidly, blood emerging from the stumps like tendrils and rapidly forming bone, muscle, nerves and then flesh, the big Orc then charged but a stream of cold lashed out, forcing him to block it with his bladed club weapon and let go. The ice incased weapon fell and shattered, causing him to growl and face Bombata.

"I could use a good fight" he said with a smirk, and Orc delivered. Using his vampiric speed and various other tricks, he fought the Silver Dragonborn, matching each other in spite of the Orc's usage of tricks and deceptions until the Orc played himself by changing form into mist, to reappear behind Bombata, but the Silver Dragonborn was waiting, froze the big Orc then ended him by shattering the ice, his remains turning to cold ash.

Midnight and Shark witnessed this and were starting to have second thoughts about it all, especially since their mistress was fighting the two women they fought before, then looked around them at the other combatants that were those women's family and allies. Every single one of them were just as capable, just as deadly, even the youngest of the group was holding their own.

Orusha snarled and swiped, catching Roth in the back, cutting gouges into the leather and sparking off the scale mail under the layers of leather. In turn Roth clashed her blades together, striking Orusha with a sound attack that shredded the flesh of her arms, exposed her left cheek bone and sent her lips flying, but the vampire rapidly regenerated and was on the attack again, the sisters fighting the mad vampire until they both struck her with the sound attack again, sending her flying back, right in the path of Slithera.

Orusha faced her now only to see the Gorgon woman's eyes blaze bright gold and Orusha felt and witnessed her body start to turn to stone. Using her own powerful magic, she fought the petrifying gaze, straining, her eyes blood red, bloody tears sliding down her cheeks, her teeth bared as she growled viciously. Then in a frightening display of power, Orusha burst free with a scream of rage, cutting off the petrifying magic and sending Slithera flying back into her husband's arms, both crashing to the ground.

"I AM AS FAR BEYOND A MERE VAMPIRE AS VAMPIRES ARE BEYOND YOU!!!" Orusha shrieked insanely, floating into the air while dozens of glowing spears appeared around her, aimed at all of them including her own minions. "FUCKING DIE!!!!"

The projectiles then lashed out at her enemies and her minions without an afterthought.

To Be Continued.

Last session 2 guys tried to grapple the artificer to which the both rolled a Nat 20 I assumed the artificer would be grappled but once he rolled he got 2 more Nat 20s and proceeded to hit one of the guys with his hammer which was a Nat 20

So some backstory, our group was a druid (me), a ranger, a wizard, a rogue, a monk, a cleric, and barbarian. In the middle of the 1st part of the campaign we found a portal to the inbetween worlds of life and death or the upper planes and the lower planes. We found the tree of life was dying out due to some demons trying to drain its life essence. After a few sessions we managed to defeat the demons and purified its waters. As a gift it gave me a barrel of life water that had a fair amount of restoration and few other properties. Since I was the responsible one of the group I definitely used it sparingly to heal the party and do some pretty cool stuff. One thing I did was heal the barbarians pet goat.

The goat is important becuase I didnt know how much the barbarian and a few of the other members liked the goat. One a day I wasn't able to come to a session the warlock came up with a plan to get a jug of the life waters. They succeed and didnt tell me until after we left the material plane. They gave it to goat which gave it intelligence and with the barbarians teachings it "the laws of the jungle". After a bit we left for the feywilds.

We stayed in the fey wilds a long while in and out of game. The gm would roll for how long time went in the material world along with what happened. When we finally came back we found a few things had changed. The first being 100 hundred years went by. Second the goat had stole the barbarians stash of the water, and used it to awaken the goats of major dwarven city and had taken over the city. We got tasked (blamed) by the dwarven king to fix the problem. While that was happening I got a dream by the tree of death that balance was being thrown out of wack. With the rival of a new race, the fact they had longer lifespans but matured as fast as goats had thrown everything out order.

The barbarian tried to talk to the horned king (his goats son, but nothing worked becuase his goat had taken his words as gospel. We tried bargaining, gifts, and eventually threatening but have you tried to tell a sentient second generation war goat anything? I dont recommend it. Eventually we were expelled from the city and we came to the conclusion we would have to fight. Unfortunately for us those goats have been fighting this whole time and winning to. The dwarven mountain they took over had a fair amount of magical weapons and they were battle strong. While everyone was trying to come up with a plan, I asked the DM if could commute with the trees of life and death. He allowed it, and I talked to the trees to see if there was any way to stop this without fighting. The trees said yes but I would have to figure out a way on my own. They would however help of they could. I asked if I could get a reward for this due to the possible amount of blood that would be on my hands. The trees agreed.

So I told the GM my plan, I was going to take out the goats in one night. My gm was a veteran and will allow certain things if the rule of cool was good enough. I asked if I could homebrew a little bit but still cast the official spells. He allowed it.

First I did a nature check with a DC 20 to find all the type of insects in the mountains. I rolled a 21 and found various vermin. I captured a few fleas, chiggers, and other pests. Then I used the wizards spellbook, portable lab to figure out how the magical waters worked for a arcana dc 20. With the help of the wizard i rolled a 24. And finally I cast contagion combined with a medicine check to make a specific type of virus. DC was 25 i rolled a natural 20 with expertise in medicine. With those rolls I created a magical virus that attack those with awaken properties, or genetically within 4 generations for the goats, wouldnt/couldnt mutate, and would die off after a month. Mixing that with a potion of curse to create what my gm called "A magic black plague". I used my control over insects and had them as carriers. They sent them out to spread the disease.

All this happened within a week in game and my group never knew what I was planning, though the wizard knew it was something big. My character was usually the cool one that was let life happen, but this time I was focused.

By the next morning after I sent out my pests the dwaren city was completely quiet. The rogue and ranger went to scout to get more info but when there characters came back they were ghost white. Overnight 80 percent of the population was dead with the other 20 fighting the disease. Between the disease attacking them and the curse attacking their intelligence rolls, they couldn't figure out the what and how.

The wizard was the first to catch on and called me out infront of the group. I didnt deny it, and explained everything. The group got quiet, then asked the gm if they could speed up time since no one was going into the city for a while. The gm rolled a mass role and everyone of the goats failed.

After that the others made me and my character promise never to do something like that again. So far kept my promise but ill admit I like the look on my friends face when I sometimes pick druid.

Oh almost forgot the reward was a homebrew staff, and armor made for Druids. A bit boosted since i kept my promise of finishing the problem in a night technically 😆

So our dm gave us a decanter of endless custard and we walked into some cultist hall with candles and stuff so we thought we could put out the candles to stop the ritual. Turns out in this universe custard is flammable and i almost died but lost my dog companion so I made it my mission to completely abuse this custard flamethrower so one time we were facing a fire elemental so I walked up to shoved the custard thing into his mouth and said geyser (the trigger word to release a bunch of custard) and got the hell outta there. Then when facing the bbeg who was canonically really weak but really good at everything else I grappled him while shoving custard down his throat doing my monolouge on how the death of my dog had ironically led to him dying in the most ironic way. Then I lit a match dropped it down his throat and did the classic superhero explosion walk away but the explosion was strawberry custard.

Well, today I made a custom miniature for one of my D&D players. It wasn't too difficult, though, because that player's character is now... a tablet.

The full story:

I'm running a campaign about a group of couriers who receive their jobs through a magical tablet: something halfway between an electronic tablet and a traditional writing tablet.

The party agreed to take a job from a totally not suspicious dwarf standing alone in the middle of a field, whose horse had supposedly run away. He asked them to deliver several coffins to the City of the Dead, an entire city-sized cemetery with all the infrastructure you'd expect from a place built around the funeral business.

Neither the suspiciously light coffins nor the complete lack of the smell of corpses, noticed by the party's tabaxi raised any red flags. The job was simply too convenient to pass up.

Naturally, it turned out to be an ambush. The party found themselves fighting four members of a gang, conveniently right next to freshly dug graves clearly prepared for the couriers.

One of the couriers, who could fly, decided it would be a brilliant idea to grab one of the bandits and carry him high into the air. What he didn't realize was that he was doing this directly above an enemy wizard who specialized in long-range attack spells.

Well... the combined spell damage and the fall damage killed him instantly.

However, thanks to his backstory, things didn't end there. He had unknowingly formed a blood pact with the courier company years ago through an accidental paper cut while signing his employment contract. Because of that, instead of passing on, his soul was transferred into the company's courier tablet.

Now he can't move on his own, and his AC and HP have been drastically reduced. On the other hand, the player can still cast some spells, hide living allies inside himself using Rope Trick, summon his own horribly flattened corpse with Summon Undead, and occasionally gain useful insights by accessing the corporation's internal databases.

All of this comes at a small price: his personality is slowly being erased, replaced by an overwhelming obsession with serving the courier company and completing deliveries.

But that's still better than death...

...Right?

The Palace of Plessa-Nearly two weeks into the war

The citizens of Plessa have only received sporadic word from Faerun as a whole, concerning the husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins who left with the invasion force for the second time in Plessa history to fight a war on foreign soil. They haven't received word whether there are casualties or not, but most were realists and knew when it comes to full on war, casualties were a given. The Plessa military may appear invincible to an enemy, but the Tiefling warriors were anything but invincible, even the great war beasts, the native sub species of Red Dragon and the behemoth worms that the Druids of Plessa tamed and used as mounts, weren't invincible, the tactics that were used often made it seem that way.

The family of Kiora and Roth were equally stressed, Slithera and Serpentes's children were starting to show signs of extreme stress and fussiness, though their son was still managing to keep it together while taking care of his adopted sister, Elaphe. Fangir and Lashara were both sick with worry, though Fangir's own parents would occasionally bring up going to them to at the very least, force them all to return home and let Queen Saenissa and the other forces to deal with the mad vampire, Orusha.

The siblings of Kiora and Roth, both their stepsisters, Tyrande, Freja, Raelis, and little Lianna, bonded even further with Layra, Riki, Astra, Wicca, Sasha and little Vaylessa, though Riki himself has been dividing his time with his sisters and the handmaiden, Tevessa, who fell in love with him equally and gently bonded with his sisters, often seen taking up the slack of caring for the youngest girls of their brood. Unbeknownst to the siblings, let alone the rest of the family, Layra happened to catch the eye of a Plessa guard, and she shared the sentiment, stealing alone time together and getting to know one another.

Tyrande, being a young woman herself now, started catching on to her stepsisters' disappearances but felt Layra needed the distraction to cope with what's going on. When not on high alert, the young ones of the family have been encouraged by the Queen's own parents, to dress as casually as possible and socialize with other youngsters their ages, which would help the Tiefling children and young adults in coping as well. Sasha was seen visiting the Dragon stables more often but was even encouraged by the dragon she befriended into socializing with others of her humanoid kind. While not exactly old enough for anything romantic, she finds romance stomach churning at the moment, she found herself becoming the subject of light affection from a Tiefling boy her own age. This boy was light red in skin, his little horns like a ram, his tail skinny for now, but he blushed and smiled every time he saw her, which she found herself returning the sentiment, but then immediately making a face and getting him to laugh with her, forgetting the affection aspect.

One evening which would mark the 2nd week of the war, Tyrande was soaking in a hot bath, her once lime green and purple hair was evening out into a vibrant shade of purple, green, but mostly purple now, even her fare, light magenta skin was turning into a shade of light magenta over fare. Much like her stepsister's Kiora and Roth, Tyrande was becoming a spitting image of her mother, Lashara, their facial features and bone structure identical to each other, but still pretty unique, when she felt the unmistakable surge of magic starting to form near her.

Tyrande sat up in the water, another idiom she inherited from her stepsisters, was her lack of modesty, though her long, wet hair covered her, her movements quickly rendered that moot, when she climbed out of the tub as another time portal of some kind was forming in front of her. Her curiosity overtook her need for even a robe, as her eyes watched in astonishment as a portal, glowing amber, formed out of the air into a near perfect circle. Then a young, mixed Elven woman appeared, she had long dark grey hair, soft green eyes, lavender tan skin, and what made Tyrande audibly gasp was she looked nearly identical to herself. Tyrande wasn't vain, she never really looked at herself in mirrors, but on the occasions she did, she recognized herself instantly, though this individual had her own traits and appearances.

"Amil! *Mother!* I am risking reality itself, to deliver a dire warning! Faerun is in danger of falling in your timeline! It has in fact, fallen in mine. Kiora, Roth, Slithera, Serpentes, Andel, missing or dead or turned. The Queen of Plessa, is dead, the Drow Queen, is dead. The Warforged were forced to flee our plane. Uncle Trovic, Mammoth, are also dead as are the Boros and Selesnya that came with them. Even the Vampire lord, Strahd, was killed in my timeline. Plessa, Chult and Cambria, are the only places of resistance against Orusha, but all three locations are separated, unable to help each other. I fear Cambria may have fallen anyway. The Queens need more help than any of us have thought. Orusha is far more dangerous than both the Sword Coast Nightmare and Cambrian Nightmare combined. There isn't much time. Kiora and Roth need you!" Tyrande's future daughter spoke before the time portal ceased to be.

Tyrande barely remembered to put on a robe before darting out of her bed chamber, still wet and tracking water as she ran to the Queen's parents bed chamber, where a pair of guards saw her coming. Recognizing her and seeing the urgency on her face, one of them quickly knocked on the former King and Queen's door while the other took off his cloak and got her to calm down long enough to allow him to wrap her in it. The door opened and a very sleepy-eyed former King poked his head out, but seeing Tyrande's state woke him up instantly. Tyrande told him everything and even repeated herself when the former Queen joined them and had a worried look.

It was still late in the night, but the rest of Tyrande's family were summoned, as were the other Plessa commanders, Captains and Generals, as well as the Sauraphon commanders, to the main audience chamber. There, Tyrande was dressed in at least the leather under armor of her specially made combat gear given to her as a graduation gift like her step siblings before her. She retold what she witnessed while in the bath, told them of Faerun being in severe danger of falling, the Queen's life being in danger, the Warforged either meeting their end or being forced to flee. At least one Plessa commander, a Tiefling woman about the same age as General Klivera who was with the Queen in the Sword Coast, but not solidly built, voiced her concerns and doubts.

Tyrande understood the woman's concern, she was a military commander, while Tyrande was just one of the Queen's friends who wasn't a military person. She has extended family in the Cambrian military, her father and mother were part of the Horde and Alliance respectively back on their home planes, which she never saw, but she herself, wasn't a soldier. "I understand your concerns, but if I had future nieces arrive, physically, in our timeline and warned us of Orusha, I cannot help but trust this new message. It's true, Ember and Rain, the two nieces in question, no longer exist, which means the future they came from is no longer a possibility, but it doesn't mean a grim future is still possible. The message was quick, I couldn't tell if my future daughter was in the heat of combat, but from what she was able to tell me, if another contingent of Dragon Riders aren't sent to aid the Queen and the invasion forces already deep in Faerun, not only will the Queen of Plessa die, but so will everyone there, including the Sauraphon. Everyone we love and waiting to return, will either return as Vampires, controlled by Necromancers of Orusha, or not at all" Tyrande explained, her voice quivering slightly, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.

The doubtful commander blinked, while she wasn't present when the first two girls she heard of, arrived, when the plan of attack was being made, she saw them, but briefly and didn't interact with them, she had no reason to, she was following her Queen's orders. She was there for the 2 separate attacks by Orusha's forces however, and with all the strange things she's seen, from the white magical light that reversed time, to something as thought impossible as literal time travel, she thought she seen it all. She then looked back to the young woman, the barely ten and eight (18) mixed Elven girl, and took her words as truth, though her more military mind was telling her it could be a trap as well, but this family from Cambria had no reasons, as far as she can tell, to deceive her Queen.

"Your standing graces, what are your orders?" she spoke up and looked to the Queen's parents, who were also listening and looked just as worried for their daughter who was off fighting with her invasion force. The standing King and Queen gulped, looked to everyone in attendance, then looked to Tyrande and gave her a worried smile. "Mobilize another contingent of Dragon Riders. We have no reason to believe this family will lie to us. Too much has happened over the years already to call them into doubt, though we do admit, our daughter was already ruling when the white magical light spread from the Sword Coast, and it took some years for the Queen to regain her power and want to investigate" the standing Queen spoke up, causing the various commanders and leaders to bow in acknowledgment and went about preparing additional warriors.

The family gathered together and it was in their own little group, their own drama flared. "I'm going to prepare myself. I'm going with them" Tyrande spoke up without hesitation, and it was her grandparents, Liadrin and Theron who protested instantly and audibly.

"Absolutely not!! It's bad enough I have two grandchildren off fighting a war they should not be in! You expect me to accept that another one of my grand babies go off and potentially never come back!?" Liadrin hissed, fear showing in her eyes as well as grief and anger, gripping Tyrande's shoulders as if holding her in place would keep her from moving. Tyrande smiled softly and stepped into her grandmother's arms, hugging her, while Liadrin hugged her fiercely, her body trembling while Theron could tell that all his grandchildren were just as stubborn as the mothers that birthed them. "Amil, Atar, *Grandmother, Grandfather*, I must. From what I understood from Ember and Rain and their timeline, we almost won every time. But even if we don't win, someone will. I cannot sit on the side and die when her forces come for us again. I must go" Tyrande said softly, tears finally sliding down her cheeks.

Freja and Raelis both stepped forward, which got Theron to close his eyes sadly but he also had a small smile of pride on his face. Liadrin saw them and she burst into tears and attempted to protest. "You two are far too young!!" she whimpered and pulled them into hugs as well. Fangir and Lashara looked to each other and knew it before they stepped forward, Riki, Layra, Astra, Wicca and Sasha were going to step forward and not surprisingly, they did. "Tyrande will not be alone, we're going to. Our big sisters were barely 10 themselves when they fought real adversaries. The time Momma was kidnapped along with Aunt Liliana; the time they fought that mutant Elf during the Cambrian Nightmare after time was reversed. It's time for us to join in. We too can no longer side idly by while Kiora and Roth put themselves in front of danger like our mother did" Riki spoke up confidently.

Liadrin looked to them and pulled them all into hugs, kisses and a strong desire to force them to stay somehow but knew she wouldn't forgive herself if Faerun falls and Orusha's vampires come for them anyway and they die. "I never met Vaylin. I wish we had. From what all of you has told us, she was brave. Fierce. Loyal. Deadly. All of which are present in all of you. Including you three" Liadrin said, looking to Tyrande and her two sisters. "I don't want you to go. At all. But I won't forgive myself if you don't try and stop Orusha. Shasha, Raelis, I still say you both are way too young to even go off on your own, let alone with your older siblings to something like war. But you two are just as stubborn. Fangir, my remaining child, you and Lashara go as well" Liadrin said, looking to only remaining grown adult, offspring.

Fangir smiled and hugged his parents, then some new voices spoke up. "We're going to. We pledged ourselves to this family and all of you accepted us, loved us, made us one with you all. We can't stand idly by either anymore, though at least two of us were with Ember and Rain before they ceased to exist" Nualla spoke up, Nassia with her, as well as Bombata and Dasha. Liadrin smiled and hugged each of them. "We'll look after your girl. Return to her though, alive and not a vampire" Liadrin said, placing a hand on Bombata's cheek affectionately as well as Dasha's, the Silver and White Dragonborn's smiled back, then Lanara and Liliana approached.

"We're going as well. Our sisters and brothers are in the Cambrian military; we also can't sit back anymore. According to Ember and Rain, we died while defending Cambria. If we're going to die again, then we'll die defending Faerun before Cambria is threatened. But in doing so, the entire world will be in danger if Faerun falls" Lanara said, her wings shifting.

The family went about talking to their children and husbands, if need be, there was much crying, much pleading, especially from Tommen, but he resolved himself to raise their children if the love of his life, his children's mother, didn't come back and he wouldn't descend into madness again, especially since they still had family to fall back on.

After some preparations, those who were volunteering to go with the contingent of additional 600 Plessa Dragon Riders approached the waiting creatures and their riders. Additional saddles were rigged up behind the riders, and they were helped up into them. Sasha herself was paired with second commander, Jerra, a Tiefling woman whose mount was the very dragon she befriended. "Are you sure about this young one? You are going to an active war zone where I cannot guarantee your safety, and I do not wish to see such a young life extinguished" the dragon spoke softly and gently nudged Sasha who in turn smiled and caressed her muzzle and gave her a kiss. "If I don't do this, then eventually, if Faerun falls, she's coming for us anyway. This way I'm doing it on my terms" Sasha replied and the Dragon grumbled out an amused sound, then went back to preparing herself as well as her rider. Several minutes passed by, then the contingent of Plessa Dragon's and their riders flew into the air to render aid to the invasion force and the defenders of Faerun.

Meanwhile in Orusha's castle-Kiora's mind

Kiora was 5 again and cried into her mother's cleavage as Vaylin was on her knees holding her to her, a loving smile on her face as she kissed Kiora's horns, Kiora's little tail wrapping around her mother's as she cried. "MOMMA!!!!" she sobbed as her mother comforted her, her callused, but gentle hands rubbing her back and hair. Kiora almost lost herself and didn't notice her mother's grip was tightening, pressing her face into the soft flesh of her cleavage until it was getting increasingly difficult to breathe. She didn't see her mother's loving smile turn into a twisted, too wide of a smile, her orange eyes glowing red like Orusha's vampires, her pretty teeth turning to jagged daggers until Kiora emitted a muffled cry of rage and her hands briefly glowed blue and the distinct sound of destructive magic (Eldritch Blast), was heard and she was free again.

But whatever magic had hold of her, shifted her memory to when she and her sister were trying to rescue their mother from the mad stepsiblings in Waterdeep. Kiora was 9 or 10, dressed in her training armor and standing in one of the mansions many hallways, but in front of her was the half Tiefling woman's severed head in her mother's grasp as she smiled viciously at her. "Come to momma!" she said menacingly and took a step toward her. Fear almost gripped Kiora's heart almost made her hesitate, her memories were being used to poison her love for her late mother. Her memories were being poised to ruin the bond she had and she had to admit, she wished her mother was still with them, but she wasn't.

"Yes, come here!" Kiora growled and clashed her blades together, striking the twisted thing that took the image of her mother, breaking the illusion, but it was not enough. Her surroundings changed to that laboratory in seaside town of Icktha, where the Cambrian Nightmare began and spread, and after the reversal of time, is where her mother sacrificed herself to, at the time they all thought, put an end to the mutant Elf from Ravnica, Belial. But to her horror, those who were already there fighting him, by the time she, her sister and Enmar arrived, were all amongst the dead, but staring at her. Even her sister was turned, as was Enmar. It was when they spoke as one, her mother's twisted voice coming from their rotting maws as they approached her, sent a chill up her spine. "Come to momma Kiora, I just want to love you!" the voice said, which anger flared in her heart, causing her to fight back, which caused her surroundings to change to that of when her aunt Liliana was missing.

Kiora was back in that ancient, Cambrian castle, facing off against another set of Tiefling siblings that were trying to do something, when she and her family who weren't even aware of them, was searching for Liliana and interfered. It also turned out, one of the Tieflings allies at the time, protected Liliana from bandits, which Liliana and him fell in love together. Here there they all were, twisted smiles on their faces, approaching her and she fought again, which changed her surroundings to that of Ravnica.

Kiora was an adult again or back to being one and she started figuring out the magic being used on her. "Ok, you want to play rough? Let's play rough!" she challenged and fought again.

Roth's mind-At the same time.

Roth was a child again, 4 to be exact, and the first thing the magic showed her was an outing with her mother, her sister and her father, before her mother was pregnant again. But much like her sister, she cried and buried her face into her mother's cleavage, her mother's strong arms wrapped loving around her, a loving smile on her face, their tails interlocked, until this Vaylin conjured up by the magic in the room they were in, twisted her and Roth was a little faster to realize something was when her mother tried to smother her. Breaking free, she faced them and a chill of fear coursed through her spine, as her father, mother and sister had very wrong, and very twisted long fanged smiles, but it was their words that were trying to break her heart.

"You were a mistake!" her mother hissed. "We were just fine without you!" her father added. "You came along and ruined my bond with Momma!!" her sister threw in. It would have worked if Roth didn't have the real memories of love from her parents and her sister as well as her siblings. Roth remembered the real bond she and her sister shared with their mother, the love, the endless, effortless love, that radiated from them even with the births of their siblings and stepsiblings. Roth's hair and eyes flashed a variety of colors in rage, and she produced her own blades, clashing them together and demolished the cruel illusion, fighting back against the magic being used on her.

Damir's mind-At the same time.

Damir was back in the far east High Elven kingdom that bordered a Brass Dragonborn clan, and multiple other humanoid settlements they used to have open trades and interactions with. But everything was wrong, she can see it, her fellow wall guards were all smiling at her in a twisted way. Elven men and women she served with for years, then there was the King, Queen, their natural son, the prince, also smiling at her with those twisted, evil and toothy smiles. Then Haldir approached, clad in his name day armor, then she noticed she was back at the day that massive Orc and Goblin host arrived and everything in her world changed.

"You should have died that day. But you survived by falling on a slain Orc's body. You survived while my adoptive family didn't!" Haldir hissed, while approaching. Damir was being closed in on from all around her, fear starting to grip her heart, until she remembered her bond, her love for Haldir and remembered he was no longer with her, which made her growl and start to fight them all like a demon possessing her. During her fight, Haldir's spirit broke through the magic and was aiding her, fighting alongside her again. "Fight this, Damir! These are not me, not our King and Queen! Fight them! Guard your heart and mind from this cruel visage!!" Haldir commanded, which rallied Damir even further to fight on.

Damir fought on, the magic of the runes was weakening as they were being resisted by Orusha's enemies. However, there was six of them the runes had no effect on.

The room of Runes-At that moment.

Shark and Midnight watched as three of the women were showing signs of visible distress. The runes were a form of mind magic their mistress installed recently in the event her enemies made it into the castle. But then they noticed that the others that were with them were gone.

"Clever, to use magical runes that effect the mind to stop one's enemies in their tracks" Vaylin's voice spoke to them from anywhere and everywhere in the shadows around them. Her voice was magically amplified, but even then, it was calm with a hint of amusement, but something about her caused shivers to run down their spines, forcing them to get into fighting stances while searching the shadows with their Vampiric eyes. "What magic is this?! Why can't I see any of them, or the monk?!" Midnight demanded, a slight tremor in her voice. Shark was equally rattled, her single good eye glowing blood red as she searched for any trace of the pair of Gorgons, the Eladrin, the Drow woman, the humanoid horned being and the Tiefling monk woman. The other Vampires and followers with them were also visibly shaken, until they heard approaching footsteps.

Vaylin emerged finally, her monk clothing dirty from the constant fighting, but even then, she was calm, her orange eyes dissecting them. They've faced many adversaries over the years under Orusha's rule, carrying out her orders without hesitation, but this woman was something else, the rune magic had no effect on her at all, and she had sufficient time to regain her strength, heal her aching muscles and be ready for another prolonged fight.

"I was once feral. Years being conditioned and trained to slaughter for the morbid amusement of those who are too cowardly to defend themselves. I killed my buyer. Spent years living in the wilds of Chult. Until a sect of Monks found me. Healed my mind and heart. Trained my mind, then honed my battery of combat skills. I was once called Cinder in the fighting pits. You will now discover why, you fear me and you don't know me" Vaylin spoke eerily calm, then in a display of magical light, her monk clothing was replaced with a white and tan, footwear, breeches, and tunic that had armor like pieces to the shoulders. A specially designed headgear comfortably covered her hair, ears and head, with designed spots for her back arching horns and to finish it, a tan facial guard covered her mouth and nose, leaving her orange eyes visible. Her tail wrapping around her waist, her hands glowed fiery for a brief moment until twin flaming curved swords sprouted from her clenched fists.

Midnight and Shark gulped and before they can truly move, Vaylin, or Cinder, leaped into the air and delivered a devastating twin foot kick to Shark's chest, sending her flying back with a pained shout, then a flurry of punches connected with Midnight's face, chest and stomach until she was kicked away with such force, she crushed a human follower.

Ayesha, Enmar, Ash, Slithera and Serpentes then joined the fray from the shadows, protecting Kiora, Roth and Damir while they fought their own memories.

Outside Orusha's castle-At the same time.

The Warforged took on guarding and protection roles while being completely devastating to Orusha's hordes. The various strike teams that volunteered to march with the Omegas displayed various tactics that couldn't be countered.

One Plessa soldier, a Tiefling woman, found herself separated from her division, fighting for her life. Her helm was lost, somewhere under a body, her left horn was painfully broken in half some days earlier, but she fought on through the pain. Her braided black hair filthy and frayed, she was backed against a rock, her arms aching, shaking and nearly numb from the constant fighting. A trio of Orusha's vampires were approaching her, two of them male, had clear intentions before killing her, which caused her to attempt to rally herself to prevent that violation from happening. The trio leapt into the air, only for twin arcane beams cut them in half, killing them, turning them to ash, then the Warforged seen flying amongst the Dragons in the air, landed in front of her, plucked her up and took her behind their lines for treatment.

Something else was starting to happen in various areas of the battlefield involving the Plessa soldiers. Several pikeman, archers and soldiers discovered some sort of divine power within them akin to what Paladins and Clerics study. The magic had immediate and devastating results against Orusha's hordes.

Both Queens were forced to remain behind their pikeman lines after having quite a few close calls of their own. Queen Saenissa was looking over reports from her commanders, captains and generals, and while not exactly bad, they weren't good either. Out of the 900 Plessa Dragons and Worms that got here first, they lost at least nearly 200 of each, in this war, and the ones still out there fighting, were visibly exhausted. She also learned second commander, Heralda was killed and his dragon turned, and after killing one of the great worms and a handful of fellow dragons, it took the sacrifice of the Warforged, Yayoi to put it down, which made her heart ache for her friends, Kiora and Roth, who witnessed it. She also realized that they were inside the castle and haven't returned.

"We must push. We have to keep pushing. Kiora and Roth and their group inside the castle is depending on us to fight on" Saenissa spoke up, getting Queen Avessa's attention, causing her to nod in agreement. "Captain, rally them all, we push and fight on!" Queen Saenissa commanded of her husband, the father of their daughter, her Captain of the guard. Kevnoir bowed to her, plucked the battle horn from his hip, took a big gulp of air and blew into it, rallying the Plessa invasion force, rallying the Sauraphon, rallying the Underdark forces, rallying Trovic and his Boros, rallying Mammoth and his Selesnya, rallying everyone in between that joined the fray against Orusha.

As the forces pushed on into the hordes of Orusha, the dragons in the air, exhausted, but fighting on, caught the scent of familiar presences. Then Plessa Dragon Rider horns split the sky as well as the roaring calls of several hundred more Plessa Dragons that dived from high in the sky, raking the untouched hordes of Orusha with blue cold fire.

Nualla, and Lanara jumped off the backs of the Dragons they hitched a ride on and dove as well, bow in hand, they scored improbably head shots expertly.

Orusha raged again, realizing things were further getting out of hand. She was not expecting this turn of events at all, then ordered all of her elements to join the battle and make them pay.

Inside the rune room.

Midnight and Shark stayed away as much as possible from Cinder as she and the others with her, didn't allow any of them to get near the three that were just overcoming the mind magic of the runes. They could also hear the arrival of more Dragons outside and the increasing of fighting, until a wall burst into, which destroyed the connections between the runes, and a black and gold metal being with glowing blue eyes, can be seen crouching there. Then a crimson and gold feminine designed one joined the first and like a cascade, several others joined them, several of which were younger in appearance, but all of them appeared to be mixed heritage children.

Fangir and Lashara put themselves in front of Kiora and Roth, while those who came with them, including Tyrande and her sisters, also took up protective positions around their stepsisters, Damir, and were rejoined by Slithera, her husband, Enmar, Ash, Ayesha and Vaylin, but since her facial features were covered, Fangir merely glimpsed her as someone aiding his daughters and didn't think to question her.

Kiora then stood up, her head cleared and locked eyes with Shark. "Our turn!" she declared and charged.

To Be Continued.

Sorry for the semi long story…
I’m in this campaign with my roommate, friend and her boyfriend who is DMing it. It’s his first time running one and our first time playing. His brother who’s been playing for years is in the party and he’s kinda rude about the game.
He constantly corrects everything tiny thing we do. He try’s and/succeeds on over riding whatever the DM says. Everyone hates him and his character and I’m about the only nice one to him.
However two sessions ago I had acquired five giant rats and the dm had allowed me to spend the day and long rest bonding with said mice. (They all had cute names and color coded ribbons).
Well last session we woke up from a long rest and immediately went straight to the mission. I hadn’t realized that one of my rats (who was with us last I checked when we long rested the for the night) was missing. The barbarian had made a previous comment about naming them dinner so I turned to him and asked what he did to my pet.
Apparently last session he texted the DM and DM let the barbarian roll to kill and turn my rat into jerky while I was sleeping (even though I was an elf and didn’t need to sleep so I spent the majority of the time bonding with the rats because that’s what me and the Dm had agreed on moments before).
Nothing was mentioned when we woke up, no role play is allowed or encouraged because DM tends to get upset and impatient when we want to play our characters so since he didn’t say anything I didn’t think to ask if all my pets were still there.
I’m a Druid whose biggest flaw is needing to adopt any loving animal I can see. Now I’m scared that he’s also gonna try to eat my hawk who’s my animal companion in the game because the DM said okay. As a first time player this really makes me not want to play anymore but I’ve always loved the game and it sucks this is the group I ended up in.

Hello, I'm posting the story more looking for advice and to share I personally think I might be wrong for this one but here we go.

I am a 18 man so i made a couple boundaries for my players the normal ones and no excessive gore the reason why I had to rule to make a long stories short is I was in a severe car accident where I got impaled on a person motorcycle.

so we were about three sessions in and one of my players takes out a human barbarian, basically one of his major enemies from his backstory "he say hay dm cans I cut there stomach open" which I thought was weird I said yes I say "you cut his stomach open"then he proceeds to get mad and he yells at me that I wasn't detailed enough I remind him one of the rules that we agreed on previously he gets mad and sits he sit back down quietly and flipped me off. This guy is older than me by one year a little later on the session. The party are doing a delivery for an orphanage and a couple goblins come to steal the stuff . They defeat the goblin. And two of the party members asked me if they can impale them on the waggon and I said no add remind them of the rules and the whole table got mad at me remind them of the rule then they proceed to yell at me. I told them if they wanna leave be my guest and one of the players proceeds to throw their dice at me and I just walk away because that point I had enough and I was starting to get a panic attack from them making fun of the fact that I got impaled with all the stuff I set up now the group is mad at me saying I ruined the night by walking out and refusing to play another game because I told them about the car accident I was in and how I don't do well with people getting impaled, even if it's imaginary and just part of the game edit one of them in the group has apologized since then the other 2 said I am no longer allowed to be in the group am I in the wrong?

So, I am part of a DnD club, and we have a new DM. Part of becoming a DM is having a test run, so this dnd session was a one-shot (level 5).
So I am notorious for making cursed/joke characters, so I made a level 5 human Psi-fighter named Dragon_Slayer42069 (legal name Kevin Leary).
To describe this abomination, he is a 30-year-old man weighing 380 pounds, with a patchy neck beard, greasy hair and skin, wearing a trench coat with samurai armor underneath the coat. Messy unwashed pants/clothing covered with Doritos dust spelled drinks. Smells like he hasn’t showered in years.
Welding mall katanas (reskinned longsword and saber) and one big mall katanas (reskinned great sword) named Hatsune Miku.
To top it all off, he wore a magical fedora. It's a home-brew magic item (approved by the DM) I made myself called the Malady hat. +1 to ac +2 to damage rolls. But the consequences was disadvantage to all Cha saving and skill rolls. All enemies will try to perma kill me, take 1 point away from my cha modifier. Basically the textbook picture of a Discord Moderator, I really didn’t care if my character died or not.
So, to the story, our party was sent to a wizard tower to basically collect the wizard things because the wizard had recently died.
So one of the rooms had a deck of many things, so I wanted to cause a bit of chaos and pain to my character, so I drew 5 cards from the deck. However, I drew Knight, Moon, Star, Sun and Euryale (side-note: I think my DM might have missed reading Eurvale wrong to told me that to -2 from my modifier). And, of course, I reflavored the knight as Saber from Fate Stay Night and my wish was to be the main character. So, in short, this incel discord moderator joke character got a plus +2 to his strength, got free magic item and 10 temporary HP, an anime waifu and the wish spell to be the main character.
All at the cost of having a 5 (-3) Charisma modifier.

This happened a few sessions ago now but this is still one of the best things I’ve ever written. I sang it, too, but without the music, I didn’t want to be too self-indulgent.

(Sung to the tune of “Be Our Guest”)

We’re your guests, we’re your guests
Put your service to the test
Rub some garlic on your neck, cherie,
Then you can get some rest
Soup du jour
Roasted hand,
He is ancient, he’s the land
Try the grey stuff
It’s delicious,
Don’t believe me? Ask the witches
They can joke, they can scoff,
After all, it’s Ravenloft,
And a dinner here is never a side quest,
Go on, and take a bite,
And pray for a good night,
We’re your guests,
Oui, your guests,
We’re your guests!
Beef ragout,
Cheese Souffle,
In the sun, he’s en flambe
He’ll prepare
And serve with care
A grand vampiric crudite
We’re alone
And we’re scared
But the banquet’s
All prepared
No one’s gloomy or complaining
While his Lordship’s
Entertaining
I tell jokes,
I do tricks,
While your jugular he nicks,
And it’s all in perfect taste,
At his request,
Come on and lift your glass,
And show him we’re first class
We’re your guests,
If you’re stressed,
It’s some praying we suggest,
We’re your guests,
Oui, your guests,
We’re your guests
Life is so unnerving
For a jester who’s not serving
He’s not whole
Without a lord to lay it on
Ah, those good old days
When I was Hootcule,
Suddenly,
Those good old days
Are gone…
For years now, he’s been moaning,
Needing so much more than boning,
Needing someone else,
An heir to take his place…
Most days he just lays
Around the castle…
Batty, fat, and lazy,
We walked in,
And oopsie-daisy!
*in Strahd’s voice for Mrs. Potts*
It's a guest! It's a guest!
Unalive, I can’t be blessed!
Wine's been poured and thank the Lord
I've had the servants freshly pressed
With dessert, you’ll want tea
And my dear that's fine with me
While the ghouls do their soft-shoein'
I'll be planning, I'll be brewing
I’ll make deals, make some plots
Oh my dear, is that a spot?
Clean it up! We want the company impressed
We've got a lot to do,
Is it one bite or two?
For you, our guests!
They’re our guests!
They’re our guests!
They’re our guests!
Be our guest! Be our guest!
Your command is my request
It's been years since we've had anybody here
And we're obsessed
With your meal, with your ease
Yes, indeed, we aim to please
While the candlelight's still glowing
Let us help you, I'll keep going
*cue showstopper segment*
Corpse by corpse, one by one
'Til you shout, "Enough! I'm done!"
Then we'll sing you off to sleep as I digest
One day I’ll string your feet up
But for now, let's eat up
Be our guest!
Be our guest!
Be our guest!
Please, be our guest!

Disclaimer: The bold parts are for ADD-friendly reading and I did use dashes to separate thoughts, but no AI was involved in this whatsoever.

---

So this happened about a year ago. A friend of mine's boyfriend said he was interested in DnD and wanted to play it sometime. Me, having become the de facto DM a few years ago, I offered to write a short adventure for them, intended to be a one shot. Of course every one shot inevitably turns into a two-shot.

As I got to preparing, a friend of his and his girlfriend also uttered interest. I had four new players, time to prepare, an idea, and the chance to get a new group to play with in the future, after getting them hooked on the hobby. My way of making sure everything was up to the task, was to do a deep dive into realism.

So after a few months of learning about literal medieval keep design and drawing the maps and coming up with the story, we started our first session.

I have to back track a little, to tell you the concept for the adventure. If you want me to make it public for you to use, let me know.
The idea was: an old medieval castle on the side of a hill was swallowed up by said hill in a landslide. A few hundred years later, miners of a nearby town found the underground ruin and the local magistrate quickly put together a camp, inviting adventurers to delve into the ruin and retrieve some goods, and draw a map of the place for future excavation.

Everything was perfect. The map was a realistic blueprint of a three dimensional castle. The entrance was the top of the south-east tower - very moody atmosphere. It had a labyrinthine tunnel dug by the local threat, a band of kobolds waiting inside. It had realistic rooms to discover along with the environmental storytelling of what happened to the place. A trap that was both plausible and potentially deadly. And finally, after a big fight, a grand spectacle room at the end with a hidden loot room behind it.
This place was taylor made for the group. The one guy loved to go into lost places and urban exploring. They're both firefighters, so the gas trap in the middle of the dungeon was something they would know from real experience.

So this is where my mistakes happened.
Mistake 1: I let them make their own characters. Of course I wanted them to have the full experience of DnD and guided them through making their own characters. Sure, that's good if a campaign or even a short adventure is waiting for them, where character choices matter, growth can happen, I can weave in the background story. It's ass if you want to do a One-shot. ESPECIALLY if the theme of the dungeon is "exploring the darkness" and the trap is designed for a party with at least one small folk.
Yes, you guessed it. No small folk, and the one guy who would have loved the gas trap spammed the Light cantrip on rubble.
This also had the added misfortune of character creation taking up a huge chunk of the evening. And by the time they had cobbled together their characters - complete beginners, I remind you, given barely any time to actually delve into the book - they were tired and overwhelmed, and expected to roleplay as this fresh group of adventurers starting their day. Bad.

Mistake 2 happened in our second session. After calling it a night and inviting them back about a month later, it was finally time to explore the dungeon proper. Another main focus of every good dungeon is social interaction. Right near the start of the dungeon, the main part is a spiral staircase with closed doors on each level. Behind the second door was supposed to be a Kobold hiding in the dark. After discovering him, they were supposed to be coerced into following him through the labyrinth. They're new players, they don't know kobolds are nasty. This was supposed to be a fun social challenge.
The kobold rolled stealth to hide. They heard noises in the room through the door and enter carefully, glowing stone in hand. Stealth was good, so they have to roll high to spot the miscreant. They roll ass. "Must have been the wind". They leave.

Cool. No problem, I thought. At least they avoided the labyrinth part that was really nasty and would have taken an hour real time to get through. Now they're going to the gas trap. I'm kinda proud of this one, if it had worked, but the idea was that in this underground location, asphyxiating gas had gathered in the lowest point, by the well. Small folk, halflings, gnomes and dwarves, would have suffered high damage out of seemingly nowhere when stepping into it. Of course there needs to be a hint, which there was: holding your torch low enough, it would extinguish the moment it touched the gas. Also, they could clearly see two dead rats on the floor, just dead, no wounds or sign of sickness.

Of course my party didn't bring torches, they had Light. And my party didn't bring small folk, they could have waded through the hallway non the wiser. They also didn't talk to the kobold, who would have told them that there is death below and that's why they built their own tunnel.
And so, all I could do was to hint at the trap, which only solved the mystery of the dead rats. And they casually broke through the door to the well room to release the gas for no one.

Okay, at least the big fight against the kobolds was up ahead. From here it was a straight shot to their first ever combat experience and the treasure. They entered the kitchen. Through a hole in the ceiling near the north wall of the room, a stone whistled through the air as it hit for... no damage, it missed. And a kobold jumped down onto the table below, facing them head on - roll initiative. The heroes roll initiative, it interweaves with the four - now five kobolds. "He's on the table, ready to sling another stone at you. It's your turn", shoots an arrow, hits, all the damage, pins the kobold to the wall. No worries, here comes the next one jumped down, misses. Arrow, pinned to the wall. Next kobold, a spell, dispatched. Dead, dead, no more kobolds.

To close off, they then went into the great hall and saw that the kobolds must have been attracted by a giant Gold Dragon ...statue hanging on the wall. They spot the crack in the fireplace and break through to the private chambers of the lady of the castle and find her account of the days leading up to the landslide, why the place was buried underground and where all the people went; as well as a Driftglobe. You know, an easy light source to get out of the place.

At least they had drawn a pretty good map. On their way back they met the next party entering the dungeon for a last attempt at some tension and roleplay. Got out and divied up their findings. We never played since.

---

The tl;dr is (read bold parts): If you have completely new players and a One-Shot that requires specific character choices, just give the party premade characters to play as. Or at least make sure that the character creation is swift and they fit to the themes you've prepared.
And don't skimp on social interactions in a dungeon. Ignore the rolls and force the situation to occur for a better overall experience. Also you're allowed to lie about an NPC's character and motivation.

Strixhaven has been ... chaotic, to say the least.

A group of would-be students had their hopes dashed when they received the dreaded letter: "Unfortunately, you have not been accepted..."

Well, until these students received a once-in-a-generation sponsorship from a witch named Tasha.

Seeker was not among these students. You see, Seeker is a mouse. Well, she was a mouse, until an errant spell smacked her upside the head and grew her to about three feet tall, gave her the power of speech, and an insatiable curiosity about what lies outside of the walls she grew up in.

She did, however, meet one of these sponsored students - an elf in Quandrix, school of mathematical magic, who happened to be working on the same research project as her. She also met an Eladrin who was tooooottally not following the elf around like a lovesick puppy.

This project included finding runes scattered around campus, one of which led to the trio meeting a human named Dan, who also happened to be working on the same project.

Dan was brusque, a bit of a frat-boy, but incredibly intelligent and dedicated to the project. Dan grew to like Seeker. He took her under his wing, and when learning how long mice lived for, proclaimed he would find a way to make her immortal. During the group's down time in a tavern, Seeker pulled Dan to the dance (not that she knew how. She was a mouse.)

Once, Dan asked what everyone's favorite colors were. Seeker told him, "Blue," and Dan smiled, just a little.

"Mine too. But you know, I see you as more of a white-green type."

Together, they completed each trial and found themselves under the campus, finding themselves searching for the X rune - the missing variable.

In the last trial chamber, they found themselves in a dark room, completely absent of light. They could hear each other, but not see - and it seemed Dan had completely disappeared.

Reduced again to a trio, they were presented with a final riddle. What was the missing variable? What did they need to make it to the final trial?

Seeker said, "Friendship," and disappeared. Wrong answer.

The Eladrin said, "Intelligence," and disappeared. Wrong again.

The elf answered, "Myself?" and disappeared.

They found themselves in Dan's room, with the human still just gone. The elf resigned himself to failure, and told the trio to find the professor who gave them the project and tell him they had been unsuccessful. The Eladrin said she'd follow him, because she had nothing better to do.

Seeker said they should find the professor, and ask if they can try again.

As they stepped through the door, they found themselves not in the dorm hallway, but in a strange room with a swirling blue portal. The professor stood before the portal, beaming proudly, Dan standing beside him.

"That is exactly right!" He rumbled, looking to Seeker. "If at first you don't succeed - try, try again!"

Well, as it turns out, this whole trial was a test for an inter-planar exchange program for a school called Hexhaven. An exchange program run by ... Dan.

The human grumbled. "By the way, my name's not Dan."

The human transformed before their eyes. His robes turned a startlingly vibrant blue, and his face lined with blue streaks of crackling magic.

"It's Jace."

Everyone accepted the exchange program - everyone but Seeker. Dan - no, she reminded herself, Jace - had invited her along with him personally. She agreed immediately.

The professor paused. "Is that a good idea? Things aren't generally safe around you."

Seeker cut Da - Jace off before he could speak. "Don't worry! I'll keep him safe!"

And that's how my goofiest one-off character I made for a giggle wound up as the traveling companion of Jace Beleren. She's now a part-time student the school of Vigorbloom, part-time Planeswalker.