<![CDATA[A-to-J Connections - Drink Talk Roll]]>

<![CDATA[A-to-J Connections - Drink Talk Roll]]>Tue, 17 Dec 2024 20:31:04 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[The Winter Court Soldier | Drink Talk Roll #70 (Arretin Campaign #24)]]>Fri, 13 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/the-winter-court-soldier-drink-talk-roll-70-arretin-campaign-24

This is the twenty-fourth session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! An old foe returns as the party begins continues their trek to resurrect their fallen friend Ulrich. Will this be the end for another of our unlikely heroes? No more details, watch for the rest! Consider catching us live to get the full, unedited DTR experience! The DM may change, the players may change, but we'll always be rolling!

DM:
J.D.

Players:
Manuel (Amra The Harbinger)
Hao (Sirocco The Cleric)
Pleiades (Khorr The Rogue)
Warren (Jedah The Gunslinger)

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 12/6 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #24: The Winter Court Soldier]]>Thu, 12 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-24-the-winter-court-soldier

Session Recap

After Sirocco detected the presence of an explosive device at the end of last session, the party this one by making Dexterity saves to avoid the explosion. Even with advantage, Sirocco was the only one who failed on his taking cold damage as the bomb exploded with an icy blast. The rest of the party fell into the canal and quickly made their way back to the street.

Khorr managed to spot a mysterious robed figure on a roof and started pursuing him along with the rest of the party. The all gave chase in different ways. Amra climbed up onto the rooftops and tried to catch up with the assailant. Khorr kept to the ground using his small stature to dart among the crowds of people. Jedah took his time as he tried to get his guns dried up and working again and Sirocco moved at a less urgent pace and just helped Jedah how he could.

On the rooftops, Amra made the most of his Shaddar-kai teleportation abilities to close in on the hooded figure only to be greeted by two bolts of eldritch blast every round which nearly sent him off the roof. Thankfully, he was able to recover with successful Strength saving throws. He eventually caught up with the hooded figure on the roof of a temple in the religious ward of the city. As they crossed swords, the hood finally came off revealing their assailant to be Darius, the Knight of the Winter Court sent to retrieve Amra and Jedah.

The two continue dueling on the roof as the rest of the party catches up. Sirocco uses his divine power to bind everyone together in a blessing that also lets him throw Khorr up to the rooftop to intercept a slash meant for Amra. Working together the part is able to subdue him fairly quickly.

When it seemed like he was nearly finished, Darius pulled two more bombs off his belt and threw them. The party ducked out of the way expecting another set of ice bombs but they turned out to be smoke bombs. By the time it had cleared, Darius was nowhere to be seen and the few witnesses to this battle couldn’t give a clear answer on where he might have gone.

After this, the party had to deal with the local guard to explain what had gone on. It took some negotiation to get Amra and Khorr to cooperate but after they underwent an offscreen questioning and paying the cost of repairs for the building damage, they were let off with a warning.

The party was once again at a decision point. Amra wanted to continue to the Feenritter estate and let Ulrich’s parents know about his passing but was voted down by the rest of the party who figured they should wait until after they had resurrected him. To do that, they would need to charter a ship to the Rotti Islands. Following advice they’d received last session, they headed down to the dock ward and found the Bearded Billy. There they found Captain Iskandar “Alex” Sunwolf, captain of the Leaping Lemure. He initially tried to overcharge them but after the party lied to him about getting a better offer from another captain and Amra and Jedah promised to pitch in, he lowered his offer to a more reasonable price and set the date of their departures for two days afterwards.

During that time, Jedah and Khorr go drinking with Talliyah who had just announced her intention to party ways with the party and return home to To’anata. Khorr and Talliyah have a coded conversation about Khorr’s connection to the group known as the Midnight Society and that his mentor T.K. was the one to induct him. She also relayed new info from T.K. about the translation of a tower in the Dola Sanctuary the party visited all the way back in episode 2. The important snippets were the mention of a “Wingless Traitor” who sided with the ancient writers in dealing with some ancient evil.

With their goodbyes said and an extra spot already booked, the party headed out in the early morning for the Leaping Lemure where they found an old man asking to be let on the ship. And that’s where the session ended.

Following Up

So, this is less a new topic and more a follow up on the issue I talked about last time: Having a player hogging the spotlight at the table. Manuel seemed to be hogging it in last session so I did my best to keep it balanced this session.

That’s one of the reasons I ran the pursuit of Darius after the attack like it was in initiative. It lets me have a definite “No, [Other Player]. You can’t do that right now. This is [Current Player]’s turn.” (Obviously, this also works with combat initiative as well) and it also lets off of them have a chance to shine and show off how their character reacts. Everyone moved in pursuit but went about it differently. Amra made the daring, heroic chase on the rooftops, while Khorr dashed through the road keeping an eye out. Jedah had to deal with his guns to make sure he could take care of Darius when the time came and Sirocco was more chill. (Pun intended)

After combat ended and we moved into the time between booking a ship and setting out, I also made each character had their turn to take the spotlight even if they didn’t want it. There are many different types of players. Some of them might want the chance to shine but need someone to hand them the chance. Some of them might not need it and all those are valid but it’s good to make sure everyone at least has the opportunity. It is the season for giving and sharing after all.

As always, this is an ongoing process and I might revisit it again in a future DTRE but for now, it’s the end of the line... for this year. We’re going to be off from now until a few weeks into 2025. Thank you for reading and keep on rolling into the new year.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[From Here to E-Terna-ty | Drink Talk Roll #69 (Arretin Campaign #23)]]>Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/from-here-to-e-terna-ty-drink-talk-roll-69-arretin-campaign-23

Nice! This is the twenty-third session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! Amra's back and the main campaign comes with him. In this session, the players depart the Crane Monastery for the city of Terna and deal with the fallout of the past actions... No more details, watch for the rest! Consider catching us live to get the full, unedited DTR experience! The DM may change, the players may change, but we'll always be rolling!

DM:
J.D.

Players:
Manuel (Amra The Harbinger)
Hao (Sirocco The Cleric)
Pleiades (Khorr The Rogue)
Warren (Jedah The Gunslinger)

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 11/22 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #23: From Here to E-Terna-ty]]>Thu, 28 Nov 2024 22:35:43 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-23-from-here-to-e-terna-ty

Session Recap

In the aftermath of their battle with the masked men who raided the Crane Monastery and used its statue for a summoning ritual, the party explained the events to the leader of the Monastery Suzanne Kudelia. They then helped with cleaning up the bodies and the scorch marks Amra had left on the ground before heading to bed. Having already completed his daily meditation, Amra decided to stay up and train in the style of the monks. Thanks to a failed acrobatics check, he was unable to do a crane kick but he did catch a glance at trainee doing a proper crane kick.

The next morning, the party was treated to an extra special breakfast and departed the monastery soon afterwards for their next destination in Terna. After travelling a few hours down the road, the entire party began to smell someone preparing food and it wasn’t long before they found the source: a stall setup at a crossroads. Inside the stall, the party found two familiar faces: Mugetsu, the little fox they had bought noodles from during their first trip to the Feywild and Kagami, the Spring Court attendant they had tricked into thinking Jedah was Abe Froman.

Kagami was pretty pissed at them because their little stunt cost him his job. Amra and Sirocco tried to smooth things over with alcohol but Kagami stormed out after Jedah made comments about him being a charity case.

Mugetsu was glad to see them again especially when they brought more friends along to eat at his stand. He did get a little worried when some party members let slip that Jedah and Amra might be wanted men on the Feywild but Jedah and Khorr were able to convince him that they had meant Khorr was a “wanted” man because he worked as a cover model for steamy romance novels. Their lies were made all the more convincing by the presence of four beautiful women in their company. With that sorted out, the party paid their tabs and proceeded on their way.

A few hours into travelling the next day, the party crested a hill and finally set their sights upon Terna. The party is then reminded that their deceased friend Ulrich had attended and dropped out of the city’s big university: The Recherche Institute of Thaumaturgy. The Robins also announced that they had detected the presence of the original Robin from which they were cloned somewhere in the city.

As the party entered the city, they decided to look for the original Robin first but luckily for them, they found Robin and Khorr’s old teacher T.K. just outside the Institute. The party then learns more about Robin’s history as an unwilling test subject for the School of Continued Progress that T.K. broke out with help from a friend of his. There were a lot of other questions but T.K. said he was in a hurry to meet a friend of his who might have some more of the answers they wanted.

The party then joined him as he entered the Institute campus and found the office of Dr. Nathaniel Skye in the Enchantment Engineering department. Amra remembered the man’s name from the notes on the experiments the School of Continued Progress had been running in Ikana and has to be talked out of attacking him on sight. The now 10 people with the party cram into his office and Amra immediately begins questioning him. The doctor explains that yes, he did lead those experiments to unlock and study psionic powers but one day, he woke up and realized the horror of the things he’d done. He’d quit the SCP and moved to the Institute. Soon after, he met T.K. and they had worked together to break Robin out.

Amra informed him of the two survivors of the Ikana experiments: Neil and Clover and Dr. Skye promised to do his best to support them. He also said that he would find employment for the clone Robins somewhere on campus so the party could leave them with him. T.K. and Robin also stayed behind as Robin came in for a kind of psionic checkup.

After that, Khorr and Amra decided to go around campus and learn what they could of Ulrich’s past here. Amra went off and did Amra things like trying to find his old dorm and sleeping in his bed. (I swear I will never understand what goes on in Manuel’s mind even when he’s sober.) Khorr had the more sensible plan of visiting the administrative building and after explaining the situation, he learned a little more of Ulrich’s family, the Feenritters. Dad’s a high-ranking cleric. Mom’s an archwizard and his sister Judtih is just kind of doing her own thing. Since no one else had come to claim them, the secretary offered Khorr the few possessions Ulrich had left behind. Khorr gives them a once over before meeting up with the rest of the party to maybe go and find the Feenritter Estate in the Noble District of the Terna.

However, as they are crossing a bridge over one of the city’s many canals, Sirocco is the only one to notice the subtle ticking of an explosive device just as it is about to go off….

And that’s where the session ended.

Give It a Rest, Man(uel)

Wow, I didn’t realize it until I was watching the episode back as part of the editing process but Manuel was hogging the spotlight for most of the episode. I would like to apologize to the viewers and the rest of the party for not giving them more time to talk. The only excuse I can offer is that I was too preoccupied trying to make sure the new stream setup was working properly. (It mostly did but we all had internet connection issues and I had some bad audio issues near the end which I tried to fix in post by rerecording the lines.)

Manuel was just so energized that night. Usually, I would have blamed it on his inebriation but I don’t think the players had that many drinks that stream but not having his camera on means it’s more difficult to keep a precise count of how many drinks Manuel has actually had at any point. He likes to find any reason to take a shot and he also has a penchant for pregaming but swears he hadn’t done that before last session.

Anyway, now that I’m done throwing Manuel under the bus, I should also go over where it went wrong and how I plan to fix it. Looking back, there were definitely scenes where Manuel / Amra didn’t need to be the lead character. This wasn’t really supposed to be an Amra-centric episode like how “Meet Joe Blacktooth” was a more Jedah-centric episode or the Feywild episodes dealt with everyone but Khorr. I definitely should have let Khorr take the lead in the encounter with T.K. since being his old apprentice, Khorr has the strongest relationship with him and I’m still trying to figure out how exactly he sees their time spent together. Jedah and Sirocco didn’t really have any scenes that were as directly related to them as that but they still deserved more time talking and in the spotlight than they got.

Now, on to solutions, the easy and obvious one is to just tell Manuel to shut up when it’s not his scene. I’m not really worried about seeming rude to him. This is a five-player game and if it’s only two of us talking most of the game, I’m more worried that they’re not having a good time listening to him yapp especially when he’s going off the wall like saying he was going to find Ulrich’s old dorm (which someone else has already moved into) and sleeping in his bed. They might be having a good time laughing at them but I also want them in on the action.

That’s the hard part especially if your other players are on the shy side or not that into roleplaying. They might just be there for the combat and that’s fine. A good game master should know how to keep all their players entertained. I know Pleiades and Khorr will go for any chance to learn something new if given proper prompting and Ulrich’s death and realizing how little he knew about Ulrich made him much more willing to go out of his way for that. I think I can throw in some more worldbuilding around food and that will get Jedah going more assuming Warren still remembers he said Jedah wanted to be open his own restaurant. Sirocco is the only one I really need a read on but Hao has always been the most forthcoming with characters and I think if I give him a chance to chill out and get people to join him, he’ll go along with it.

So, as it almost always is, the real lesson of any D&D advice is “Talk to Your Players like Adults.” Thanks for taking that long walk for this small glass of water. That’s it for this week’s article. Until next time, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[Even Stranger Things | Drink Talk Roll StrageBound Ep. 2 (Halloween 2024 Special Pt .2)]]>Mon, 18 Nov 2024 19:16:07 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/even-stranger-things-drink-talk-roll-stragebound-ep-2-halloween-2024-special-pt-2

Part two of our incorrectly named one-shot StrangeBound is here. The players find out the secrets of the Ape-iary and proceed to explore the town in search of the golden keys to get their Super Genesis.

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:04 - We Are Live!
00:02:12 - Intro / Recap
00:05:39 - Play Starts
00:11:13 - Entering The Ape-iary
00:30:39 - Combat with the Apes (Flashing Light Warning)
00:43:33 - End Flashing Lights
00:58:47 - Beneath the Ape-iary
01:26:42 - Back in Town
01:34:41 - Meeting Wally
01:47:02 - Break Time
01:52:07 - Walking with Wally
02:01:46 - Heading to School
02:10:48 - Another Quick Break
02:13:40 - Back to School
02:24:10 - To Be Continued?

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 11/8 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[The First Annual DTR Halloween Special | Drink Talk Roll StrangeBound Ep. 1]]>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/the-first-annual-dtr-halloween-special-drink-talk-roll-strangebound-ep-1

Drink Talk Roll's current campaign is a bit over a year strong at this point, but Manuel's two session absence prompted the discussion of what was going to fill those sessions. Instead of going on a long hiatus (which we have done in the past) we decided to created a one-off, or two-off as it were, campaign instead! Check this out and be sure to catch it's (possible!) conclusion next week!

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:04 - This Stream Is Cursed
00:00:43 - Player Intros
00:04:51 - Strangebound Begins
00:08:42 - Character Creation
00:46:10 - Starting the Scavenger Hunt
00:57:37 - Checking Out the Pizza Parlor
01:24:41 - Finding Frank's
01:46:42 - To the Ape-iary
02:01:36 - The Lessons of Today's Session
02:07:26 - Wrapping Up
02:11:41 - Keep On Rolling

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 10/25 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[Craning Day | Drink Talk Roll #68 (Arretin Campaign #22)]]>Fri, 18 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/craning-day-drink-talk-roll-68-arretin-campaign-22

This is the twenty-first session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! The party, now with Sirocco and the Nicoles, goes through the Valley of the Mists and ultimately find themselves at the Crane Monastery. After some character development and role-playing, the party finds Vecna's bff... No more details, watch for the rest! Consider catching us live to get the full, unedited DTR experience! The DM may change, the players may change, but we'll always be rolling!

DM:
J.D.

Players:
Manuel (Amra The Harbinger)
Hao (Sirocco The Cleric)
Pleiades (Khorr The Rogue)
Warren (Jedah The Gunslinger)

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 10/11 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #22: Craning Day]]>Fri, 18 Oct 2024 00:35:59 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-22-craning-day

Session Recap

Picking up right where the last session ended, the silhouette the party saw in the mist is revealed to be…an old man who says he’s on a journey to the Crane Monastery. He says he’s visiting an old friend at the monastery but has gotten lost in the foggy valley. Believing the monastery to be back in Meridan, Amra gives him the incorrect directions and he takes off. As he leaves, the party notices he is wearing a strange backpack that looks more like a shell.

Inspired by their recent interactions with both the traveler and the monks in the city, the party decides to make a short detour to the Crane Monastery and heads up to a hilltop to find their way. Sirocco is able to find the path and thinks it would be better for them to camp for the night and make for the monastery in the morning. The party listens to him and heads to sleep. Luckily for them, the little chaos resulting from the overlap with the Feywild is the only danger of the night.

After everyone wakes up, they set out for the Crane Monastery and find out it doesn’t take them as long to get there as Sirocco had suggested the night before. It turns out that despite his priestly training, he’s bad with numbers. (Maybe it’s all the drinking? It would definitely explain Manuel.) At the gates, they are greeted by one of the monks and after explaining that they came to investigate any connection between the monastery and the crane-marked blade Amra took off the Masked Man after their battle with him in Rashin.

Leader of the monastery, Suzanne Kudelia, notes that the crane on it is indeed the same crane they base their lifestyle and martial arts on. While they might have some claim to it, she believes that Amra should keep it and try to forge a closer connection with the blade by meditating with it in one of their buildings. Amra quickly excuses himself to go do that and the rest of the party goes passes the time in different ways.

Khorr decides to research the Divine Tree and its nuts in the monastery archives. He and Talliyah go through multiple tomes before finally finding one on the Forest of the Gods and the Orine people who inhabit. He learns more about how they were a native people of Hozumi who were displaced to the few northernmost islands after the Arato people crossed the Storming Sea after a civil war in Shunil. He also learns that they worship the Two-Faced God,a god of balance of life and death, and hold that concept of balance to be sacred while seeking to minimize waste. With all of that and more, Khorr feels he’s prepared for their upcoming journey.

Sirocco, on the other hand, decides to have a fun time drinking with anyone who will join him. He visits nearly every monk in the monastery. He even ventures into the subbasement and finds some monks practicing kata around a coppery crane statue. Eventually, he just retires and keeps drinking.

Jedah decides to join Amra in the meditation chamber but he seeks to deal with the still fresh wounds of his falling out with the Blacktooth Pirates. In the chamber, he feels a calmness and a sensation like every veil has been lifted off from him. He remembers his days running with his old crew, the Triad of Jacks, how they started working with Blacktooth and how one job went south after they stole the wrong treasure: a strange rusted spear tip that got thrown in one of the other Jack’s magic bags before they were caught by the authorities and thrown in prison. Then, the events catch up to the start of the campaign and eventually, the clash in the arena with Captain Blacktooth. At this point, Jedah is left with his own thoughts as to whether he should wallow in this or move on.

Finally, in the meditation chamber, Amra feels many of the same feelings of calmness like there is no external pressure on him. It feels just like the Dola Sanctuary the party visited on their journey to Ikana. He meditates focusing on the sword is eventually met in a sort of mental realm by a fiery crane that speaks in a shrieking voice. It asks him why he desires power and what he plans to do with it.

Then, it seeks to test him “as fire tests metal.” It summons forth multiple figures some with weapons drawn and waits to see if he attacks. When he doesn’t, one of the figures begins to attack him. When he still refuses to attack, a figure begins to attack an innocent bystander in the situation and finally, Amra attacks. After striking through the foes as they attack, the crane reappears and congratulates Amra on taking the first step towards unlocking the blade’s true power.

With all of that done, the party goes to sleep. They are offered bunks in a guest building but Amra decides to sleep outside the meditation chamber where some of the effect is still tangible.

Some time during the night, Amra and Sirocco are both woken up to the sounds of the front gates opening and spot three robed figures sneaking into the main chambers. Amra moves up behind them and eventually figures out that they’re the same kind of raiders as the ones who attacked Meridan and Erezel. They alert the others and follow the intrudes down through the archives and into the subbasement where the intruders are found gathered around the crane statue and chanting just like the cultists encountered on the Axida Plains.

Combat begins almost immediately. Amra attunes himself to his blade and discovers the new power he awakened within it. With the command word spoken, he begins to exude a fiery aura in the shape of crane wings that grants him a fly speed and allows him to deal a small amount of damage with each attack. Sirocco meanwhile just lies down in combat and casts buffs on everyone that as he notes require them all to work together peacefully. It’s definitely an interesting party.

Without having to worry about tying anyone down or saving anyone from kidnapping, this combat against the raiders goes quickly. When the final one is cut down, he grabs on to the Amra and uses their blood to complete the ritual. With his final breath, the raider says, “Another seal broken.” The crane statue disappears and in its place, a tall humanoid figure with purple skin and tentacles coming out of its head appears: a mind flayer. It is able to do some damage but thanks to their new shared connections via Sirocco, the party is able to resist the mind flayer’s psionic attacks and put it down quickly. The party collects 1200 gold of various materials off the bodies and the session ends.

Ghost Drawer

Generally, this is the part where I talk about what went into building something in the session and maybe offer some advice but it’s been a busy week for me and there’s another thing I want to talk about in fewer words: We finally got character art from my friend TinyGhost. Check them out online on Twitter (@tinygh0stt) and Twitch (tinygh0stt). They’re a great artist and a really fun streamer to watch.

Here are their pictures of Amra, Jedah, and Khorr:

You’ll see them in our tokens and on our new “Be Right Back” / map-less roleplaying screen. You might notice that there’s no art for Sirocco or Ulrich. I offered to get art of Sirocco as well but Hao thought it would better sell his place as a temporary member of the group if he looked a little off. He has since made a few adjustments to better match Ghostie’s style with the shading. As for Ulrich, his art is still coming but both Ghostie and I agreed that it could be placed on the backburner while he was dead and allow them to get these pieces done before our month-long break. I can’t wait for you all to see Ulrich’s art as well.

We are all very happy with what we got. Ghostie was accommodating of all our weird requests and was one a similar wavelength to us from the get go. I still remember their asking if we wanted Ulrich (RIP) to be smugger in his art when not more than fifteen minutes earlier, Hao had jokingly said that he wanted Ulrich to be smugger. They were even open to some last-minute suggestions like the lionhead and blood gems on Jedah’s guns.

So, thank you again, Ghostie. Your art is amazing. I hope we can work together again in the future.

Well, that’s it for this edition of Drink Talk Roll Extended. Unless Pleiades (and maybe Warren) want to write their own versions, I expect this will be off until the campaign reconvenes in November. So, until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[School of Sirocco | Drink Talk Roll #67 (Arretin Campaign #21)]]>Fri, 04 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/school-of-sirocco-drink-talk-roll-67-arretin-campaign-21

This is the twenty-first session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! The party tries their best to get over the death of Ulrich. Khorr takes his body to a morgue, and Amra makes sure The Headmaster faces justice. The trip to the morgue eventually leads to a bar called The Black Whirlwind where they meet... No more details, watch for the rest! Consider catching us live to get the full, unedited DTR experience! The DM may change, the players may change, but we'll always be rolling!

DM:
J.D.

Players:
Manuel (Amra The Harbinger)
Hao (???? The ????)
Pleiades (Khorr The Rogue)
Warren (Jedah The Gunslinger)

You can catch us live every other Friday at 6:30 PM via our twitch channel below! Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe for more, and feel free to chat with us in the comments below!

Catch Us Live On Twitch!:
https://www.twitch.tv/atojplays

[Original Stream: 9/27 7:00 PM PDT]

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #21: School of Sirocco]]>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 11:02:13 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-21-school-of-sirocco

Session Recap

Picking up where last session left off, the living party members continued mourning Ulrich’s death in the last battle. They quickly and sadly divvied up his things. Some for sentimental value. Some for their value for the quest. They also searched the mysterious attackers finding only a dagger with an intricate snake pattern on it. It seems they weren’t coming down for much more than a raid. Under their masks, these raiders had the same sickly green Elf-like appearance and black paint on their faces.

Amra once again interrogated Headmaster of the School of Continued Progress Calvyn Silvergard about his knowledge of the raid and the raiders. Calvyn claimed to know nothing about who they were or why they raided this SCP grounds. He didn’t even think anyone would have that kind of airship technology for at least a century. Amra finally decided it was time to turn in Headmaster Silvergard to the proper authorities and took care of that while Khorr saw to Ulrich’s funeral arrangements.

At the funeral parlor, Khorr began to regret that he didn’t know enough about Ulrich to know what kind of coffin he would want. An offhand comment from the parlor worker about how it would take a miracle worker to bring their friend back set off the idea in Khorr’s mind. He quickly learned from the worker that he had heard from a guy who heard from a guy (and so on) about a miracle worker. It was all a little fuzzy because he was getting drunk at a tavern known as the Black Whirlwind.

The party quicky arranged for some temporary storage of the body while they sought out that tavern and hopefully the miracle worker. They found it a lively place with the monks of the Crane Monastery celebrating their own victories and losses in the recent raid. Khorr started drinking with their leader Suzanne Kudelia that talked about loss and the monastery’s principals of reciprocity which fully cements the desire to resurrect Ulrich.

As this was going on, Jedah and Amra were drinking in the tavern when Jedah noticed a figure sitting in the back where shady figures always sit wearing a robe with the same snowflake symbol of the Winter Court on the hood. Going over to interrogate, they find the mysterious figure is a woman and a Shadow Elf like them. She seems slightly familiar to Jedah but he can’t pinpoint why.

They ask why she wasn’t toasting Ulrich when the rest of the tavern was doing so. She asks about Ulrich’s last name and realizes that Ulrich is dead and she’s talking to his companions. She starts panicking slightly as she tells them they either have to come back to the Winter Court with her now or flee because Darius the Winter Court Soldier will be coming after them to reclaim them forcefully. They do their best to convince her to cover for them for as long as she can to give them a head start. She agrees to do so just as Jedah and Amra are whisked out the door.

While Khorr had been drinking with the Crane Monks, he was also talking to the bartender who said he was the one who knows the miracle worker who can bring Ulrich back from the dead. From what he heard, they would have to bring an offering of wine to the church up on the hill and the guy will see them. He sells them the wine and offers to accompany the party up to the church. At the church, he reveals that he’s the miracle worker. His name is Sirocco. He’s a cleric in service of the nature goddess Arisa. He’s also the new party member played by Hao.

Sirocco asks them to hand over a nut from the Divine Tree as a material component. The whole party looks at each other but none of them knew that. Sirocco explains to them that if they don’t have it, they’re going to have to retrieve it from the Divine Tree in the Forest of the Gods on an island in Hozumi. For a small price, he’s willing to accompany them to Hozumi and help them retrieve the nut.

The party agrees and spends some time wondering what to do with the Robins which Jedah and Amra have only just realized aren’t automata themselves. After tracking down the third Robin in Meridan, they party consulted the Sisters for their opinion and they said that they didn’t care where they went as long as they were all together in one place. The party decided to take them along in case they accidentally attracted any more raids.

With that, the party set out southward through the Valley of the Mist towards the city-state of Terna. As the fog rolled in over the party, Amra immediately felt uneasy as he realized this area was a point of overlap with the Feywild. Up ahead in the distance, Amra spotted something vaguely humanoid approaching them…. And, that’s where the session ended.

Short Rest

You may have noticed the part of the session where I pointed out, “We’re probably not going to have combat tonight.” I figured that after the last session ended with the loss of Ulrich and this one would start with their mourning, I decided it was probably right to have an unexciting session and I think that was for the best.

I love sessions with thrilling life or death combat or some kind of perilous adventure across hostile terrain but these kinds of sessions are useful too or even tense social situations like a party where the fate of kingdoms could be on the line. Pacing at its best is almost always peaks of tension and then valleys of relaxation to allow those things to properly sink in.

This session in particular gave the characters time to decompress and explore how they handle their grief. Ulrich’s death may end up being Amra’s Uncle Ben moment that takes him off his slide into despicability and moves him towards the path of a hero. On the flip side, I wasn’t entirely sure of what Sirocco’s personality was going to be like but having him and being a source of energy when everyone was down also allowed for things to start picking up just as they got the hope that they could bring Ulrich back. I’m looking forward to seeing how he meshes with the group and hopefully, brings some peace and order to them.

Well, that’s it for this week. Stay safe. Have fun and until next time, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

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