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

<![CDATA[A-to-J Connections - Drink Talk Roll]]>Wed, 11 Jun 2025 23:57:04 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Romancing the Stone Statues | Drink Talk Roll #77 (Arretin Campaign #31)]]>Fri, 13 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/romancing-the-stone-statues-drink-talk-roll-77-arretin-campaign-31

This is the thirty-first session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! After completing the Fire Temple, the party finally arrives in Hozumi where they meet their newest foes and are challenge to a game of wits. 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: 6/6 6:45 PM PDT]

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:05 - We Are Live!
00:00:14 - Why We Were Late
00:02:27 - Introduction
00:06:21 - Last Session Recap
00:08:21 - Downtime on the Leaping Lemure
00:23:06 - Arriving in Hozumi
00:29:46 - Night at the Summer Festival
01:20:34 - Intermission Starts
01:32:15 - A Challenge is Issued
01:40:49 - Stormbreaker Tower 1st Floor
02:25:49 - Wrapping Up
02:31:17 - Until Next Time, Keep on Rolling!

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #31: Romancing the Stone Statues]]>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-31-romancing-the-stone-statues

Session Recap

Picking up a bit after the end of the last session, the party started the second half of their journey to Hozumi on the Leaping Lemure. The week was relatively uneventful so each member of the party had some downtime to do as they wish. Khorr spent his gambling with some of the deckhands winning 15 gold in the process. Jedah decided to start lifting weights and learned just how far he has to go to be as strong as someone like Captain Ren. Sirocco and Amra basically did what they always do: Make/drink alcohol and try to pick up chicks, respectively.

Not one to let a woman’s lack of interest stop him, Amra continued his attempts to win Wax’s heart with his flute performance for her and some of the noblewomen on the ship. He played well but all he really ended up doing was moving the noblewomen’s view of him from “completely disgusting” to “tolerable” which is more than some of us can say about him.

When the week came to an end, the crew of the Lemure finally spotted Stormbreaker Tower in the distance. Captain Ren once again explained the importance of it to Hozumi’s history. How it bears that nickname of the first Empress who led the exiled Arato faction out of Shunil across the Sea of Storms apparently causing all the storms to part with her weapon Stormbreaker, some sort of spear of Power. She also bore a Mirror of Truth and a Necklace of Courage. (I kind of kept mixing up the attributes for the Necklace and the weapon. Sorry.) Because of her feats, she was made the first empress of the new nation of Hozumi.

Finally touching down on land in the late morning, the party spent the afternoon and evening wandering around a fair. Jedah put his new rogue training to good use when he won ten goldfish from the goldfish scooping stall. He passed them out to some of the local children keeping only one for himself which he named Goldie. Seeing an opportunity, Khorr decided to see if any of the kids had single mothers. Learning that the child Ken’s mother was a widow, he started looking for her.

While looking for her, a mysterious man bumped into Jedah and Khorr. He claimed he was searching for his partner. His described him as a human man roughly 5’10”, short dark hair, looks 25 but acts more like a 10-year-old. They told him that hadn’t seen the man they described and he continued on. Khorr decided to test his pickpocketing skills and steal from this passerby. Pleiades rolled high for it but as Khorr went to reach for one of the man’s pouches, it disappeared. Khorr then saw the man twirl the little pouch with his winnings from the ship and found it missing when he checked his own pockets.

Jedah and Khorr continued to track this man and eventually saw him find his partner at another stall. The difference between the serious passerby and his very unserious partner who was dominating a game meant for children with his lightning-fast throws. Khorr tried to catch up to them but their target turned around, looked both of them in the eye and suddenly, a crowd came out of nowhere. Khorr saw that it was an illusion but Jedah was unable to see through it holding down Khorr to stop him from being trampled. The two men disappeared afterwards but Jedah and Khorr kept looking around the festival for them.

While all of this was going on, Sirocco was just drinking with the locals by the river and Amra went looking for an Arrow-Catching Shield. He had to haggle with a wise old blacksmith who got the better of him to the tune of 100 gold but he did manage to find it. By the end of the night, they also managed to track down Ken’s mom but due to some bad luck, she wasn’t as attractive as they hoped. With all of that taken care of, the party found an inn for the night and went to sleep.

The next morning, the Arrow-Catching Shield was delivered to the room by an apprentice who accidentally set off a trap Khorr had set to prevent more thievery in the night. Luckily, it was a crossbow bolt which got drawn to the shield. A few gold coins soothed the kid’s pain and bought his silence on the matter but it didn’t stop another bolt from flying in through one of the screens and piercing the shield.

Attached to that bolt, they found both Khorr’s empty coin pouch and a letter of challenge asking them to meet at Stormbreaker Tower at noon. That gave the party a few hours which they took to eat and prepare.

Just before noon, they arrived at the tower and stepping inside, they felt themselves overcome by powerful illusion magic and magically locking doors. “25 statues of Stormbreaker and only one perfect depiction. Stab what you think is the perfect one and pray you don’t stab a human.” The voice was none other than the serious man from the night before.

With nowhere else to go, the party tried to narrow down as many of the statues as they could. First, Amra tried to find the real statue by touching all of them and kissing them to see if they reacted. Apparently, it never dawned on him that he could kiss them on anything other than the lips if he wanted to see if they were stone.

Khorr decided to use his knowledge of history and the common depictions of Empress Stormbreaker. Thus, they found ones with the wrong hair and incorrect designs or placements of the Three Sacred Treasures allowing them to narrow it down to three statues. They tried to stab all the statues but each of them was met with a shock as a lightning bolt arced across the floor. They tried again to the same result which knocked Amra to the floor. It was only then, that he noticed the floor was a mosaic depicting Stormbreaker.

With that, he stabbed the floor and the illusion dispelled. Luckily for them, all the statues were just statues so they didn’t accidentally stab any humans (or other fantasy peoples). They ascended the stairs to floor two and that’s where our session ended.

Setting the Scene

This puzzle might have been a lot easier had I taken the time to fully describe the scene but sometimes it’s hard to do when my players seem to jump straight to asking questions about other things. I’m trying my best to keep up with that but I still need to find a way to tell the party, “I’m not done narrating. This will be helpful later,” without just yelling it out.

I’m doing my best to try and describe the scenes with extra descriptions both for the purpose of hiding information that could be used later like I wanted to do with this puzzle and just to add in additional info and create a more for lack a better word “immersion” into the world.

Like, I barely described the festival because I think most of the party understood the concept I was trying to describe but I could have added in more details about the various stalls staffed by older men and women in light cotton robes dyed in many brilliant colors or how the scents of the various foods they were cooking mixed together to create a smell that mixed fish and savory vegetables. It’s a skill I’m working to improve.

This also ended up biting both ways when Amra said he stabbed with his sword while praying to Favel for guidance. He meant to say “I stab the ground with my sword” but because he never specified where he stabbed, I just assumed he meant “I stab the air.”

This is one of those sections where I’m not really sure if I helped anyone other than myself as I talk through my problem without much of an attempt to fix it other than “This is what I should do next time.” I hope you could find some kind of help in this.

Well, that’s it for this week. We should hopefully be back next Friday, June 20, 2025. Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[Raging Bull | Drink Talk Roll #76 (Arretin Campaign #30)]]>Fri, 02 May 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/raging-bull-drink-talk-roll-76-arretin-campaign-30

This is the thirtieth session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! After a long break, the party returns to finish up the Fire Temple. First, they fight off some angry salamanders. After that, they ascend to the top of the temple where they run into a true mechanical wonder standing (and running) in their path to saving the world. 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: 4/25 6:45 PM PDT]

00:00:05 - We Are Live!
00:04:09 - Introductions
00:10:38 - Recap of the Last Session
00:16:05 - Session Begins - Salamander Fight
00:32:19 - First Nat 20 of the Night
00:47:39 - Salamander Battle Aftermath
00:52:01 - The Tower's Final Chamber
00:54:40 - Temple Boss Fight
01:48:31 - Finishing the Fire Temple
01:55:55 - Meeting the Fire Crane
02:04:06 - Wrapping Up This Arc
02:11:36 -Wrapping Up

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #30: Raging Bull]]>Thu, 01 May 2025 19:46:32 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-30-raging-bull

Session Recap

Once again picking up exactly where the last session ended, the party began their confrontation with the adult salamanders in the Fire Temple. One of them hit Khorr with a few attacks from its spear but the halfling rogue proved too slippery to be constricted by its tail. The other one tried to hit him with a ranged attack from the other side of the room but Khorr was able to react in time avoiding any damage from the rain of magma.

Sirocco did as he always does and started buffing everyone before sitting down. Jedah brought the firepower and was able to take down the one in melee with Khorr by using his Action Surge and scoring a critical hit on the final blow. This egged Amra on into using his abilities against the other salamander but he wasn’t so lucky. Amra’s streak of bad luck continued with the salamander scoring multiple hits against him and grappling him. But, as it prepared to drag him into the magma with it, Jedah once again was able to kill the creature with a well-placed bullet.

The party decided to forgo a rest and continued through the doors at the back of the magma chamber where they found another set of stairs that seemed to climb upwards forever. The steps here were even more destroyed than those in the previous set with only Khorr having an easy time find footholds.

At the top of the stairs, the party found a mostly empty room save for a pile of metal in the background and a pool of magma in the center in which sat an altar. The Fire Ruby Jedah was carrying started pulling him towards the altar even more fiercely than it had been since they entered Mt. Lohi. Unable to cross the magma, the party decided to try to using mage hand to place the stone on the altar but when the hand found a barrier preventing it from doing so.

At the time, a light blinked from the pile of junk…and then, that pile stood up revealing the great mechanical bull designed to guard this altar. It immediately started charging around the room. The party moved quickly to fight this raging bull but it seemed to barely notice them as it made rings around the pool.

The one thing it did take notice of was when Amra activated his crane sword’s transformation. The bull picked up speed and charged straight into Amra and kept going until it hit the wall. This also caused some rocks from the ceiling to fall down into the pool causing the magma to expand further out. Jedah and Sirocco were nearly caught in it but managed to move out in time.

After seeing the bull repeat this process with Amra and Sirocco on its second lap of the magma pool, the party decided that the way to defeat this thing was to have it run into the magma and hope it would disintegrate. Seeing as he was the only one capable of flight, Amra was forced to take the lead on that flying over to the altar and daring the bull to charge at him. Sadly, the dice weren’t in Amra’s favor with his attacks not dealing enough damage and the bull scoring a few good hits on him. However, on the next round, after the rest of the party had taken their chances to put in some last bits of damage, he was able to slay the beast flying it around the altar until it finally cut a turn too close and ended up slamming straight into the barrier around the altar.

With the boss defeated, the magma pool and the barrier around the altar disappeared allowing the party to return the Fire Ruby. The night sky appeared above them and from it, the constellation of the Crane formed. It manifested into Hyashi the Guardian Beast of Fire and descended to the Mortal Plane to address the party. Hyashi thanked them for their deeds and wished them luck in returning the other two gems.

Amra told the Guardian Beast of his devotion to both it and the God of Wind, Favel and asked it Hyashi would be able to empower his sword further. Hyashi told him that there was indeed more power to be unlocked but Amra would also need to prove his devotion in times both good and bad. Amra tentatively accepted the guardian’s reasoning and with that, Hyashi returned to the Divine Realm.

With that, the party returned to the entrance of the tower in the Forge of the Gods where the held a mild celebration before heading to sleep. The next morning, the returned to the palace in Emberfell where the royal family held a feast to celebrate the party’s saving them from Darius and his mother. They were joined by most of the Leaping Lemure’s crew and the royal family also awarded them with a few pieces of treasure from their vaults. After two days of partying though, Captain Ren noted that they still had to depart for Hozumi. The celebration ended and the party returned to the ship to begin the second stage of their trek to revive Ulrich. They also leveled up to 11. And that’s where our session ended.

Who’s the Boss?

Even if you haven’t caught all of them, I’ve made it clear multiple times that I’ve…. let’s say, “taken a lot of inspiration,” from the various media I’ve watched/read/played over my life for this campaign.

This specific boss fight was inspired by two bosses from The Legend of Zelda series: King Dodongo from Ocarina of Time and Goht from Majora’s Mask. Very specifically, I wanted to have a fight that escalated as it went along. That’s where I got the idea of combining a shrinking battlefield with a giant boss who could take up the entire width of it. It was intended to force the party to either keep on the run or look for ways to stop or divert the bull.

The last time that I ran this campaign, I only had the idea of a rampaging bull enemy made of metal to fit the theme of being forged in fire. The party also had more magic capabilities which allowed Dr. Skye, then a member of the party and a high-level psionic wizard, to create barriers that made the fight a lot easier than I had intended.

So, with all of this in mind, I went back to the original version I had for that last campaign. That was based on the Gorgon from the 2014 rule book. I mostly picked it because it had the closest picture to what I imagined the boss would look like and started working from there. Since it was a boss the would be working alone, I gave it Legendary Actions and Legendary Resistances so that it essentially had as many turns as the players did. This was especially useful in making it much faster than its base speed because it could keep moving out of its regular turn. I also raised its AC and doubled its health so it would survive longer than a turn against these characters.

Some of its characteristics were improvisations on my part. The way it reacted to Amra activating the sword was the big one. I thought that as a guard against the return of the crane, seeing something that looked like it appearing right before its eyes, the boss would rush at that. Also helped that it played into the “bulls charging at the color red” stereotype. It let me get straight to the point where it charged into something causing the expanding pool to come into play and had I had more time to prepare it, I think it could have served as an effective marker of the different phases of the fight. Well, I guess the third time’s the charm.

I’m not sure how much help this would be for anyone else but I think it’s a decent look into my process for creating a boss monster going from concept and execution to revision and a second attempt. This is a vital part of designing for TTRPGs and games in general. Maybe I’ll take notes about this time, revise and have an even better report for next time.

Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[Jedah vs The Volcano | Drink Talk Roll #75 (Arretin Campaign #29)]]>Fri, 04 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/jedah-vs-the-volcano-drink-talk-roll-75-arretin-campaign-29

This is the twenty-ninth session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! With Manuel out, the rest of the party marches onward continuing their trek to the Fire Temple. Along the way, they get in a fight with some meddling mephits on the side of Mt. Lohi and Khorr is roped into the forge's initiation ritual. 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:
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: 3/28 6:45 PM PDT]

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:05 - We Are Live!
00:03:15 - Last Session Recap
00:07:38 - Session Starts
00:23:58 - Mephit Fight
00:37:48 - After Combat
00:40:31 - Entering the Forge of the Gods
00:48:57 - The Forge's Initiation Ritual
01:24:58 - Before the Temple
01:28:44 - Intermission
01:46:32 - Session Resumes
02:13:26 - The Magma Chamber
02:39:36 - Wrapping Up
02:43:09 - Keep on Rolling

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #29: Jedah vs The Volcano]]>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:48:22 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-29-jedah-vs-the-volcano

Session Recap

Picking up where the last session left off, the party began the long trek up Mt. Lohi towards the Forge of the Gods. Along the way, they started to hear the high-pitched laugh-like language of mysterious creatures. They continued up the mountain and eventually, the creatures revealed themselves as various kinds of mephits. Seeing that one of them seemed made of magma, Jedah held out the Fire Ruby for it to appreciate but when it tried to take the ruby, battle began.

And it ended pretty much immediately. The mephitis might have been able to deal damage but with their small health pools and low saving throws, they died to one or two hits from Sirocco’s spirit guardians and a few attacks from the party.

A little bruised, the party headed further up the mountain until they found a dwarven man waiting for them. He introduced himself as Keahi, the master of the Forge of the Gods, and led them into the forge deep in the heart of the mountain. Following the tug of the Fire Ruby, Jedah asked to be shown to the main forging chambers. Keahi agreed to let them go but first, they must follow tradition and one of the party members must participate in the forge’s initiation ritual. He let them know it will be a contest of strength and because Amra was getting into hijinks off screen while Manuel was out, the party sent its next strongest member: Khorr.

Keahi gave Khorr a loincloth to wear as part of the ceremony and after they both change, he led them into the main chamber an explained the rules of the ceremony: They would take turns charging at one other trying to push him out of the ring. In game terms, this meant multiple contested Strength (Athletics) checks or thanks to Khorr using his size and agility against his opponent, Dexterity (Acrobatics) contested against Keahi’s check. The first one of them to win three checks would be declared the winner.

The two traded blows back and forth nearly knocking each other out of the ring until it came down to the final point. Keahi charged at Khorr like a bull but Khorr was able to dodge at the last possible instant causing Keahi to take one step outside the ring ending the match. Keahi congratulated Khorr on the victory and when Khorr asked him for a nickname, Keahi granted him the nickname of Little Tidal Wave.

After Khorr came back into the waiting area, the party celebrated Khorr’s victory but in secret, Jedah lamented the loss of 30 gold he had bet on Keahi. They all ate, drink and were merry for the rest of the night.

In the morning, the party followed the ruby to the back of the forge chamber where it revealed the Fire Temple entrance. The party invited Keahi to join them on and after letting the workers know that he would be gone, he agreed. The party climbed a staircase for what felt like hours until the finally came upon what appeared to be a set of empty living quarters.

In a large chamber that seemed to be a gathering room where the walls depicted the history of the area. There were pictures of great creations including what appeared humanoid constructs more advanced than what they had seen from the Clockwork Institute and a giant bull-like construct. The carvings cut off when a giant flying object with some sort of strange tails streaking from it descended.

With that room fully explored, the party looked more around the living quarters and found that most things had decayed to the point of turning to dust when touched. They did however find a trail of slime like those left by a snail that was still warm. They followed the trail to another set of stairs which also showed signs of being destroyed by some heavy creature walking up them.

When this set of stairs finally ended, they found themselves in a magma-filled chamber where four rocks floated in each corner and a fifth stood in the center connected to the two side by a set of bridges. After crossing one of the bridges, Khorr was able to notice salamander-like creatures that were camouflaged as rocks in the magma. The party quickly figured out that they would follow them if they offered food. They then tried to figure out what to do with them and eventually decided to move them outside the room by throwing food outside and closing the door after they had all filed out.

After the salamanders realized that they weren’t being let back in, they started clawing at the door and calling out like dogs. This attracted the attention of something swimming in the magma which swam to surface ready to fight for the younglings. And that’s where the session ended.

Side Note: I think with this and the last episode, we’ve had one episode with each of the current party members’ names in the title:
15 - Khorr and the Giant Leach
21 - School of Sirocco
28 - Amra the Lion in Winter
29 - Jedah vs the Volcano

Mythology Spotlight: The Shattering of the Turtle

I don’t have much to talk about from this side of the screen this week so instead, let’s take another look at the mythology of this world with a story multiple characters have mentioned: The Story of Darune and the Turtle. This myth tells the story of the creation of the Rotti Islands and ties together the gods of Arretin and the Guardian Beasts to which the four great monasteries are dedicated: The Lion, the Crane, the Dragon and the Turtle.

Once, there existed a giant turtle who boasted his shell was unbreakable. Warriors from all over the world came to test their strength against his shell but none could even so much as make a scratch.

“Strike me with all your strength but only your weapons will break!” the Turtle boasted loud enough to reach the Divine Realm.

Darune, the God of Smithing, upon hearing these boasts, took this as blasphemy against his skills descended to the Mortal Realm with Halogi, the greatest hammer ever forged. He accused the Turtle of making a mockery of his domain and the god’s prescribed punishment would be to show the turtle just how weak his shell truly was.

The proud turtle accepted this challenge and stood still for the god to strike him.

On the first blow, Darune’s hammer, the turtle’s shell remained unharmed but the force of the blow caused tidal waves to spread out from the turtle. The turtle laughed in Darune’s face which only made the god angrier. Darune claimed the strike was only a warmup and demanded the Turtle give him another chance.

On the second blow, the turtle’s shell began to crack too small for even Darune to see. The turtle continued to boast. Darune once again demanded another strike and the proud Turtle obliged him.

On the third blow, Darune brought all of us strength down upon the turtle and shattered its shell into pieces that became the Rotti Islands. It is even said that the blow was so powerful that the turtle was knocked all the way to the seafloor and the remaining force caused Mt. Lohi to rise out of the sea.

Content in his victory, Darune claimed the islands as his domain, creating the fire genasi to rule over the islands and establishing the Forge of the Gods in the insides of Mt. Lohi.

Despite the turtle’s loss, there were still some who saw its superior defense as an admirable technique who are said to have established the Turtle Monastery on a remote part of the Rotti Islands.

I could probably go one for a bit more but that’s the basic parts of the myth. Maybe some time in the future, I’ll talk about more in-world myths. Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

]]><![CDATA[Amra the Lion in Winter | Drink Talk Roll #74 (Arretin Campaign #28)]]>Fri, 21 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/amra-the-lion-in-winter-drink-talk-roll-74-arretin-campaign-28

This is the twenty-eighth session of our brand new "Arretin" campaign, and the madness continues! After a short hiatus, Drink Talk Roll is back and this week, the crew faces off against Darius, his mother and a pack of Snowbolds. Amra takes a beating but will it be enough to take him out for good? We can certainly hope so. 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: 3/14 6:45 PM PDT]

00:00:00 - Start
00:00:05 - We Are Live!
00:05:07 - Last Session Recap
00:07:43 - Session Starts
00:17:33 - Combat vs Darius, His Mom and the Snowbolds
01:15:03 - After the Battle
01:21:53 - Break Time
01:28:46 - Aftermath of the Battle
01:53:06 - Heading Back to the Ship
02:01:44 - Wrapping Up
02:04:56 - Keep on Rolling

]]><![CDATA[Drink Talk Roll Extended #28: Amra the Lion in Winter]]>Thu, 20 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMThttp://a-to-jconnections.com/drink-talk-roll/drink-talk-roll-extended-28-amra-the-lion-in-winter

Session Recap

Starting directly where the last episode had left off, the party had ended Emberfell Palace on the frozen Rotti Islands to find Darius and an old woman he called his mother. Darius had the same demand as last time: Now that Ulrich was dead, his contract with the Winter Court was void; thus, Jedah and Amra were to be returned to Winter Court custody. Jedah and Amra both didn’t care for this arrangement. Jedah tried to keep a cooler head but Amra was well... Amra, and that meant combat broke out pretty quickly.

Faced with a small army of Snowbolds, a hag and Darius, this combat proved more difficult than before. At the start, Darius’s mother (Her name never came up but it’s Rhonda) used her magic to create a cold vortex that took a decent chunk out of the party with only Khorr managing to avoid it with his fast reflexes and small stature. Darius also focused on Amra and cursed him with fear making him an easy target.

The Snowbolds swarmed Amra and Rhonda summoned a wall of ice behind him to limit his options. Luckily, Amra hadn’t forgotten about his ability to teleport. He charged forward and pressed the attack the hag. With the combined attacks on her, she fell quickly which caused her Snowbold creations to disappear as well.

At the death of his mother, Darius got just as furious and headed straight to Amra with no regard for what happened to him. This made him easy prey for the party who finished him off quickly thereafter. Searching his body revealed two potions, a few gems for funds and the mission directive from the Winter Court.

At this point, the party was split on what to do and by that, I mean that as usual, Amra wanted to do something recklessly belligerent and the rest of the party thought that was a stupid idea. His plan was to somehow find a way to send the missive back to the Winter Court with Darius’s bloody handprint and a note explaining the situation. Everyone else disagreed with him but the argument was put on ice (pun intended) as they heard a thumping sound coming from behind the throne.

Searching the area, the party found a man and a woman. The woman had strange skin that seemed to crackle with fire. Amra and Khorr were quick to recognize the two as King Kolonohi V and Queen Kalanika. They did their best to get things up and running as the weather around the islands began to return to normal. They learned that Mt. Lohi, the sacred mountain of Darune the city sits on had been acting up lately while sailors coming in from Hozumi had noted that the Sea of Storms had been worse than usual. It seems the elemental forces of Arretin are still out of balance. After having a vivid reaction to touching the Fire Ruby, Queen Kalanika granted the party a royal invitation to visit the Forge of the Gods as soon as the path had cleared up.

To pass the time, the party headed back to the ship to update Captain Ren of the situation. Once again, Amra chose needless belligerence when trying to request the ship stay docked near Emberfell while the party investigated. Captain Ren noted that they would need to stop anyway because of the long delays in the calm zone and the frozen islands meant that they need more supplies than expected.

After a few more days on the boat, the party made their way to the start of the path up Mt. Lohi to see the Forge of the Gods... and that’s where our session for this week ended.

How to Avoid Being Swarmed in Combat

Running a large group of enemies can be mentally taxing and a major pain. *Salutes Major Pain* This is especially true when they’re not the only enemies in the combat. Here are somethings I keep in mind to keep myself from bogging down combat too much when running a group of enemies.

First off, I play the groups different if they’re the only enemies or if they’re part of a larger set. When the Snowbolds were by themselves, they used more magic and more complex attacks. They were the main threat of that combat and thus, I could put all my focus on what they were doing. That’s why they were the ones who got to use cool (pun intended) ice effects. Those effects also scaled with the number of creatures still alive so that things got easier as the players defeated them. It made things more in the players’ favor and helped them feel like they were making a bigger dent in the group.

In this week’s combat, they were just the minions of main threats Darius and Rhonda. The magic and other special abilities were reserved for their controllers. They still swarmed and surrounded Amra as they focused their attacks on him. They also moved simultaneously instead of having individual initiatives that made them feel more like a small united being controlled rather than a set of independent actors. That’s also why the rest disappeared as soon as Rhonda was killed. I think all this helped reinforce that they were just minions this time around and kept the difficulty down when already facing two characters that were on paper at least, a decent threat to the party by themselves.

Well, that’s it for this week. These were just the ramblings of one DM but your TTRPG of choice probably has some advice for running a large number of creatures individually or as a swarm in either its manual for running monsters or its advice guide for game masters. We should be back next week as the party explores Mt. Lohi and the Forge of the Gods. Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.

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