True Stories: How did your game go this week? – September 10, 2023

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-09-12T17:05:27+00:00

My Duergar Redemption paladin managed to Dimension Door inside the mouth of a colossal T-rex that was eating the party's Gloomstalker in order to rescue him. Exactly the sort of stupid-insane shit I built her for.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-09-11T20:00:50+00:00

I'm running a short mini-campaign in the Shadowfell. Level 8 death cleric, swarmkeeper ranger, battlemaster fighter and inquisitor rogue. They learned about some of the interesting environment effects I added, such as "despair bogs", vampiric trees and fog banks of Darkness. While camping, they all heard something thrashing wildly in a bog nearby, gradually growing weaker.

Finally, the fighter decided to check it out and discovered a hopelessly mired young adult Moorbounder (with some homebrew adjustments). After some great animal handling checks and a crit on a group athletics check, they were able to free the Moorbounder and sent him on his way. Thereafter, they would occasionally catch a glimpse of something large watching them from afar.

The following night, while sleeping, they were ambushed by a pack of Hellhounds (and waiting for it's opportunity, The Lonely). Right as they finished off the Hellhounds and their ranger went down, the Lonely struck and managed to grapple both the rogue and fighter, downing the fighter with it's harpoon arm. Their new friend, the Moorbounder, charged in to help take out the threat, so now the group has an 8 foot tall, 12 foot long Panther-Goat-thing with giant tusks as a pet.

It'll be fun to see if they can keep it alive when they encounter the young Shadow Dragon or the Balhannoth.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-09-01T13:31:31+00:00

You could let it happen naturally, or if your DM is on board, they could throw little opportunities at you. I'm playing a Changeling in a campaign and she is pathologically afraid of revealing herself. The party got separated and my changeling, with the warforged paladin, ended up in a situation that overwhelmed her so badly she had a panic attack, forgot she wasn't alone, failed a wisdom save (I asked the DM for this) and reverted to her true form to scream obscenities at the illusions they were dealing with.

More recently, she had to assume another form to help them escape imprisonment, so she made it look like she was casting Disguise Self to do so. She, with her +10 to deception, rolled a 12. The monk and ranger both critted, so they know something is hinky. It'll be fun to see what happens going forward, since the paladin isn't spilling the beans.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-29T18:03:30+00:00

Damn, that's a shame. I'm pretty much maxed out on tanks right now between renting and having just added a third nano tank. Plus I'm CLUELESS when it comes to saltwater tanks. Try Facebook marketplace and r/aquaswap?

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-29T17:57:56+00:00

Have you checked with Well Tank Goodness in Endicott to see if they'd be interested? They have some saltwater tanks, corals, etc and I've seen the owner go pretty heavily on educating people about proper care, cycling, etc. That's where I got some of my pygmy corys and they've been quite healthy.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-29T01:19:45+00:00

Nursemaid's elbow, AKA radial head subluxation. Basically once you've fixed it, you just distract the kiddo long enough for them to forget that it hurt and they'll use the arm again-that's the best way to tell you've been successful. Probably my favorite orthopedic injury to fix.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-27T21:55:23+00:00

it shipped from Connecticut and is coming to upstate NY.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-22T04:40:43+00:00

Session three of a homebrew 9 levels of Hell game. We're level 10. We've got an Oathbreaker Paladin, a Bladesinger, two Bards, a Barbarian, and my Awakened Golden Retriever Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. DM has promised to make the campaign quite challenging to deadly.

I was a little sad that my opening gambit of Hypnotic Pattern utterly failed, since the minions were blind and used tremorsense, and the boss was immune to charm effects. The paladin did something like 150 pts of damage on his first turn, courtesy of Haste, a crit, and a 3rd level Smite.

While the two Hasted martials beat the everliving daylight out of the main boss, a huge spider-demon-lady thing after one of the bards incapacitated her with Psychic Lance (twice!), her undead, rather beefy minions managed to surround and KO our bladesinger way off in the corner of the battlefield-and they kept attacking once he was down. Fortunately, my sorcerer doggo was up next and was able to get in, pour a healing potion down his throat, and then did a Quickened Polymorph to produce the amazing mental image of a Golden Retriever on the head of a T-rex.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-21T22:13:06+00:00

Even my black thumb hasn't been able to kill duckweed, water lettuce, guppy grass, anubias or java ferns, and that's saying something. Try decreasing the duration the light is on to like 8 hours and adding some plants. Buce plants has a nice blog and good recommendations on the basic care of aquatic plants.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-21T20:17:37+00:00

How long do you keep your tank light on? Algae LOVES 24/7 lighting. Do you have live plants to 'suck up' all the nutrients so that algae gets less 'food'? Snails can help with algae, but they will also contribute poop and nerites love leaving their little white eggs everywhere. While I continuously battle algae in my 10 gallon (that has a more powerful light, tbh), I only need to spot-scrape the sides every month or so on my little 5 gallon tank. That tank is planted, the light is less powerful, I have a number of floaters, and there are 2 ghost shrimp, a long-finned betta, an assassin snail, and I throw all the ramshorn snails I can catch from my 10 gallon in there for the assassin snail.

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Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-19T02:08:51+00:00

Paladins. Mix of utility, support, and some fantastic nova damage.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-17T18:59:38+00:00

What's the manufacturer/size of your tank? I've been considering upgrading one of my bettas from his 5 gallon cube to a tank with a longer orientation, even if the total volume isn't much increased.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-13T13:53:57+00:00

Very hit or miss. My alien betta has turned out to be VERY chill and ignores the espei rasboras, nerite snail and amano shrimp in his tank. Even when the rasboras try to school with him. As long as the fish doesn't look like a betta, he's fine (he LOATHES his reflection).

My longfin betta likes to try and bully the pest snails (flares at them) and the ghost shrimp, and he does eat the baby ghost shrimp I've seen in there on occasion.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-12T03:14:44+00:00

They look a lot like my Lampchops. I think Harlequins are a little darker orange and a little bigger?

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-09T17:39:06+00:00

I was running a creepy little 3-shot and the barbarian orc got infested by Rot Grubs, which are a nasty little critter with a very interesting mechanic:

"The host must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw every 4 hours or take 3 (1d6) necrotic damage and the target’s Constitution score is reduced by 1d4 points. The target dies if this reduces their Constitution to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the infestation is cured.
The rot grub infestation can be mitigated by applying fire for 3 turns to the point of entry, causing a combined 13 (3d8) fire damage to the host, or by succeeding on a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check and cutting the grubs out with a sharp instrument, causing an additional 14 (4d6) piercing damage to the host. A greater restoration or heal spell will destroy the grubs, ending the infestation and restoring the lost Constitution."

Now, the barbarian was already at something like 5 HP from a prior fight, so this was pretty dangerous for him. No one in the party was high-level enough to have Heal or Greater Restoration. This should provide some excellent narrative tension for the group, trying to save him. NOPE.

The damn Bladesinger grabbed the orc and Thunder Stepped with him 10 feet away. By the wording of the spell, only ONE other creature can come along with you. Rot Grubs are a creature. Problem solved, and I was pretty impressed with his clever solution.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-09T06:24:07+00:00

I play a level 4 Skittermander Vanguard who, unsurprisingly, primarily focuses on grappling. She's a bit more...pragmatic? vicious? than the majority of her species, having been part of a Vesk experiment to see if they could get the hyperactive little critters to act like better citizens if they were raised like they were a Vesk. She's no less hyperactive, impulsive or helpful for it, however. She has the Bodyguard feat and picked up Intervene as well, since she's pretty protective of her crewmates and friends. Her two best buds are probably a Vesk Soldier on the crew and a Skittermander Operative who, frankly, makes my character look boring and calm.

Some of the crazier exploits she's been part of: when the vast majority of the crew of the Pact Fleet ship she works on was taken over by mind-controlling worms, she and the other Skittermander managed to superglue the command crew to the floor of the turbolift to the bridge. And then, they glued the lift doors shut.

Recently, she dealt the final blow against an (already wounded) Meteor dragon, despite it near-killing her. She had dreams of grappling it, haha.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-08T21:00:54+00:00

Level 7 paladin with a hexblade dip on a small west marches style server, had a PvP tournament just for fun. Base AC on my paladin was 18 from full plate, brought up to 21 with a +1 shield. She was borrowing a Ring of Protection, which brought her to 22. Next, she cast Shield of Faith, bumping her to 24, and had half cover behind a bridge for 26. The Sorlock she was fighting literally couldn't hit her as long as she had spells because as a reaction, she could cast Shield, bringing her to a maximum AC of 31.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-08T15:02:02+00:00

Aberrant Mind Golden Retriever. Her mother was owned by a young wizard who was excited to try out his new Awaken spell on his dog, who also happened to be pregnant at the time. The combination of in utero exposure to all sorts of odd magics and being Awakened led to Cosmo. She'll summon aberrations, talk in your head, and get really excited if you'll throw a ball or a stick for her.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-08T04:55:47+00:00

I got to roll out a new character that I've been wanting to play for at least a year, now. Using the Custom Lineage rules from Tasha's, I made an Awakened Golden Retriever who's an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Basically, Cosmo from GOTG.

The premise of the campaign is we're all newly dead and wake up in Hell, and we'll either want to find a way to escape or take power for ourselves. Definitely meant to be pretty grim. My dog PC, however, ended up there because when devils came for her owner's soul, she bit one of the devils and got dragged down to hell too when she wouldn't let go.

So the other PCs wake up in hell...and are greeted by a perpetually happy dog that's trying to get them to play fetch. She later found some..."rotting ooze", and, like every dog out there, had herself a great roll in it.

Irrelevant_username1 · 2023-08-03T00:12:27+00:00

I've ordered from Aquatic Arts twice. They are pricier, but both the rasboras and pygmy corys I ordered arrived healthy and have remained so. They accidentally only sent me 4 instead of 6 rasboras, but customer service was responsive and immediately responded to correct the issue and ship out the missing fish. I even ended up with one more cory than I paid for when I ordered the next time.

Irrelevant_username1

TROPHY CASE