Halloween '17: A Half-Orc Barbarian Attends a Costume Party

A Half-Orc Barbarian Wearing Glasses?!


Ladies and gentlemen, my original title had I blogged this earlier. Before October. Lacks the Halloween-flair, don't you think?


Why is this virtually the first Halloween 2017 blog entry you may ask? Why, because the events transcribed below occurred Halloween night on 2016. Shadowrun Missions had been planned that evening. Alas, we didn't have enough players that evening so that game was cancelled. One may call it a Halloween trick if they may. Deciding to salvage our gaming session that All Hallows Eve, the four of us decided to replay a two-hour Adventurers League (D&D 5E) module.


That module was *dun dun dun* Hillsfar Reclaimed a Year 3 module tied to the Out of the Abyss storyline.


Your humble narrator of those events can regale you with the events that followed because I took notes. Now, my note-taking was in its infancy in those days, although to be honest its still developing to this day, so your humble narrator must * ahem * decipher his own notes. Plus, think this is among the first of the much promised game write-ups I have been mentioning...


The cast: My PC - Grogg the Half-Orc Barbarian. Believe he was 2nd level at the time. The other two PC's were Jared a war cleric and Pax the cleric of a domain I do know. Trickery wouldn't surprise me though given how the PC acted. Believe they were both human but not sure as I didn't record such at the time but they were both level 4.


I'm going to forego much of the background and many of salient points of the adventure so while there be spoilers many of them will be out of context.


Our intrepid adventurers had to access a secret entrance while underneath in the sewer system. Grogg was dismayed to encounter a swarm of rats and utters a 'why did it have to be rats!' ala Indiana Jones talking about snakes. Unfortunately, the rat swarm really, really liked Grogg and proceeded to swarm him. Feeling left out, another rat swarm assaults poor Grogg and crits! Poor Grogg is ineffectual at defending himself. He also *ahem* forgot to rage. Upon realizing that, I decided to make the * tactical * decision to not rage all combat. Thank goodness for two 4th level clerics nearby!


One of the clerics, the war cleric Jared vanquishes one of the swarms. Alas, poor Grogg is downed by the swarm. Uhm, yeah I forgot about the half-orc's ability to avoid that... One of the clerics heals Grogg. Again, as it was the early days of my note-taking I do not know if it was Jared or Pax. The rat swarm nibbles on Grogg dropping him to 1 hp. After missing three strikes, Grogg finally connects and downs the remaining rat swarm with his great axe! Rummaging through rubble, Pax and Jared find a pair of glasses. Out of jest, Pax places the glasses onto Grogg. Hence, the original title. Pax convinces the puzzled Grogg to continue wearing them.


Eventually, the adventuring trio are hired to infiltrate a nobleman, who hates nonhumans, costume party. We're provided magical means to disguise ourselves. Grogg adopts the nondescript moniker of 'Bob'. While weaving our way through the crowded streets, the befuddled Grogg dodges an errant horse. Despite Jared's attempt to calm the horse, Pax is struck. Since we're down on hit points and there's plenty of time to infiltrate the costume party, we short rest. I rolled a 12 on the hit die healing!


The trio reach the keep where we're each individually interviewed as to why we should be hired on as extra help. Grogg: "I am Bob. Just got here. I work cheaply and move heavy objects." The interviewer listens to each of us with blatant disgust. Desperate to be done with his sordid task he hires us on and we're ushered on.


While being signed in, Grogg discovers the glasses are tremendous help while performing a quick investigation of the desk. With advantage, he gets a natural 20 and discovers the schedule we seek. After sign-in, Grogg receives 1 GP and true to his human peasant disguise he celebrates as if he acquired hundreds of gold pieces. As its a costume party and the lord hosting detests nonhumans, we're given the option of wearing masks whose depiction is a mockery of several non-human PC races. The magically-disguised-as-human Grogg decides to slyly rib the nobles by selecting... the half-orc costume. Meanwhile, Pax chooses to heckle Grogg while also selecting the half-orc costume.


Well, there's a party and party stuff happens. Eventually, as with all D&D modules, combat occurs. The two clerics and their half-orc barbarian discover that two of the human nobles aren't who we thought they were. They were magically disguised too! Except they weren't disguised PC races. They were actually demons! Hmm, guess the mod is more Halloween-related than I thought! Plus, Out of the Abyss does have a connection to the Abyss and demons and year 3 modules did contain the occasional demon. But I digress.


The demons were succubus and an incubus. Fortunately, the incubus didn't actively engage in battle. As for succubus, battle was joined!


Unfortunately, she uses her wiles of a succubus and gazes at Pax. Who promptly fails his Wisdom save and strikes Grogg. Fortunately for Pax, the then raging barbarian Grogg had decided to focus his fury on the demon instead due to the unease he felt toward it due to his tribal upbringing. Afterwards, Pax would feel his wrath. The succubus kisses Pax, which saps Pax of much of his hit points but enabling him to break his compulsion. Grogg's swings at the succubus experiences the same luck as with the rats as he misses terribly. She, however, does not miss him. Jared strikes her with his magical weapon (which he may have cast earlier...) and then attacks again with a spiritual weapon he brings forth with a prayer. Pax using his priestly magic calls upon the Radiant of Dawn onto both fiends. The incubus who had stayed out of the battle reacts by going ethereal and flees. The succubus attempts her succubus wiles on Grogg. Unlike Pax the cleric had, Grogg shrugs off her charm! Grogg then realizing Pax must not have been so lucky decides to attack her instead. Finally, Jared's spiritual weapon vanquishes her.


The adventurers get everything sorted out and manage to leave the keep unmolested by the very, very embarrassed guard.


Pax's trick on Grogg with the glasses turns out to be more of a Halloween treat as they're magical glasses. The barbarian * ahem* keeps them. Grogg also leveled too!


And that folks, is what transpired during my unexpected D&D session on All Hallows' Eve last year.


Happy Gaming!


Next time.