Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): Hoard of the Dragon Queen: Episode 3.93 Adventure #23
Date of Session: October 21st, 2019 (7:00pm to 11:00 pm)
Number of Players: 3
Legendary Hero Menos (Dragon-born Paladin)
Kai-tick, Kin-slayer and “Servant” (Aarakocra Rogue)
XerX, the “X” Archer and “Master” (NOBLE Half-Elf Ranger)
The Enforcers are officially reunited with each other. They’ve all also ascended to Level 7 players. The milestone system is officially over as everyone is happy to work together in this heavy combat session. There were a lot of fights in this session in order to show off everyone’s new abilities against The Beast’s grand return, who invaded Greenest in the Enforcers’ absence.
Kai-tick and XerX must fend off Carp Carp in order to return back to their dimension, who is getting tired of Kai-tick’s refusal to acknowledge his true name. Carp Carp activates his own Corpse Eater against Kai-tick, who’s impressed with how much power Carp Carp had gained post-death. XerX shoots arrows at Carp Carp in the background and watches Kai-tick destroy himself with every swing.
Around this time, Kai-tick is beheaded but survives thanks to his chain with Carp Carp’s post-death state. Carp Carp invokes the true name, and activates Corpse Eater’s Bankai form. Kai-tick begs his Corpse Eater for the answer, not wanting to die against Carp Carp. Thanks to Kai-tick’s acceptance of his limitations as an assassin, he learns the true name and activates Bankai! Soul Eater!
XerX and Kenji also work together to perform the FUSION DANCE as Master and Servant. Carp Carp is angered and tears a rift between dimensions, spotting Menos and Tiffany on the other side. Carp Carp jumps out of the rift and strikes Tiffany, cutting him right in the shoulder with his new Scythe. Kai-tick flies out and joins forces with Menos to finish Carp Carp for good.
Kai-tick and Menos are reunited… and it’s a good one after Kai-tick realizes he’s not Vin. XerX joins them from the other side before the rift closes, leaving Carp Carp stranded in Phandalin-2. But, he warns the Enforcers that not returning through the Time Chamber will have consequences. Kai-tick believes nothing will go wrong about that. They’re back and that’s all that matters…
Tiffany is wounded, but Menos heals his shoulder injury. Everyone decides to make camp for the night as the injuries are too grave. Kai-tick falls unconscious from all the damages he took during that ordeal. He also cannot comprehend that only a day passed for Menos while he and XerX endured forty days in Phandalin-2. They didn’t finish out their year of training. XerX and Kenji practice the FUSION dance in front of Menos who wasn’t paying attention, and a laughing Tiffany getting ready to eat a flaming stick.
They successfully learned the dance, but without three command seals, the fusion between Master and Servant did not go off. XerX decides to wait until the last seal recharges to try out his new transformation. Then Kai-tick—waking up—and XerX… were talking about stuff.
Menos runs off after a slime that resembled The Beast, and runs into a Vin clone. Tiffany follows and touches the slime, getting his whole arm infected. Menos thinks fast on his feet and cuts the arm right off with a nat 20 amputation. The cut was clean, and Menos managed to heal the socket in time. They return to camp, freak Kai-tick and XerX about Tiffany’s lack of arm, and to warn them about The Beast taking over Greenest.
XerX and Kai-tick are confused… last they left Greenest, it was already invaded by The Beast. Menos explains the past few sessions where he did defeat The Beast with Lina’s help, but he didn’t anticipate The Beast hiding himself in Lina before that death.
Menos was kind of mad at himself for not considering his baby as a shield for The Beast. Tiffany is in pain, XerX and Kai-tick are resting their injuries, and without Lina’s magical assistance, Menos’ ability to change into the Paladin of White Dragon is unavailable. He hates himself more for not recharging the emergency scroll. Kai-tick gives the Paladin a couple of scrolls he got from Ten the Wizard that could hold any spell.
Around this time, everyone takes a short rest for what remains of the night. Menos dreams about Lina hoping to connect… not that way… but he meets her in pain and pregnant. Lina warns Menos that The Beast has stole most of her power for his own purposes, and may kill their child soon. Before departing, Lina gives Menos enough energy to power-up into the Paladin through his recharged emergency scroll.
The following morning was oddly peaceful for the Enforcers. They woke up to a calm wind, bright sun, and cheery background music. They returned to Greenest and once they did, the calmness was immediately snuffed out by The Beast’s clear goo invasion. The Enforcers don’t know what to do or how to proceed… except Kai-tick who chooses flying head first inside.
Tiffany also disappears around this point. Only Menos notice this as XerX and Kai-tick are too busy trying to survive the onslaught. An army of tree monsters is being lead by XerX’s childhood friend, Zora, who’s under the influence of The Beast. Menos and XerX prepare to battle… Kai-tick tries to escape inside Greenest.
Zora is massacred by Kai-tick’s forced attacks, but The Beast within regenerates all his wounds, keeping him alive against his will. The tree monsters go after the coward but XerX and Menos plan to distract Zora / maybe save him. In the end, they decide killing would be easiest to do. The mentality of the players is definitely getting better when it comes to decision-making.
Zora also uses shadow streak, a new technique, to gain an advantage over XerX. However, the Fusion Dance with Kenji goes off without a hitch, and they create somebody new to defeat an infected Zora.
A Fighter / Wizard / Ranger fused warrior who has no official name yet. XerX is wearing Black Bulls styled armor and gained the strength of Kenji’s berserk state without going mad. He’s also able to wield his Great Axe without a problem. This new fused warrior is ready to kick ass. Zora is destroyed further, but it’s revealed in the end that this specific Zora was a Beast Clone made out of his DNA. This put everyone at ease about resorting to murder.
Kai-tick runs into the Ginyu Force, who are definitely controlled by The Beast. XerX and Menos catch up, and get caught in the crossfire. Kai-tick rolls a lucky high number, and resumes running away. Menos and XerX, still transformed, prepare themselves for the absolute worse as the Ginyu Force are too strong together. The relentless Ki Blasts don’t help their chances of escaping the fight either.
That was… until Ginyu tried his body switch (DBZ to the finest). XerX and Menos both succeeded their saving throws, which meant his blast kept going until he hit a body… Menos’ horse, Axel was the victim. This allowed Menos to “command” Axel in Ginyu’s body to hold off the rest of the Ginyu Force while they ran away to catch up with their friend Kai-tick. Also, Recoome snapped Axel’s body in half… effectively killing Ginyu.
Axel Ginyu, in order to escape reality and The Beast’s influence inside the body, uses his body switch on a random infected villager… He switched with Bex, the woman seducer, and begs to get killed so he can be resummoned as a mighty horse. Menos believes he can just make another Axel… and this hurts Axel’s feelings. Kai-tick ends up killing Bex Axel and has Corpse Eater consume the corpse. Bex Ginyu is alive by the end of all this… the Ginyu Games will need to be adjusted.
The Enforcers dive into the massive hole that leads into the training room where the time chamber is kept. However, they run into Captain Leon, the primary host of The Beast. Menos wants Kai-tick and XerX to fight Beast Leon because he wants to find Lina. He uses a “red string” connection (a Yu Yu Hakusho reference) to look for Lina and his child, making XerX and Kai-tick wonder about the love connection between them. Menos is adamant that there is no connection between them.
Then, he goes off to follow the red string of love. XerX and Kai-tick cannot see it because it’s literally inside Menos’ head. Kai-tick activates his Bankai immediately, Soul Eater Corpus, and attacks Beast Leon, who is able to heal from every injury. XerX does the Fusion Dance with Kenji to change into the BB Defender, and slams Beast Leon into submission.
Menos finds Lina, but sees her trapped inside a sphere that is impenetrable despite how many swings he takes at it. Lina is hooked up to wires and tubes that are draining her green magic power. Menos wants to keep attacking, and eventually breaks through the defenses. However, he was too late to stop the energy from augmenting Beast Leon into the next stage. XerX is running out of time on the Fusion, and Kai-tick is simply running out of ideas.
Eventually, Menos returns with Lina and transforms into the Paladin of White Dragon to join his friends in the final battle. Beast Leon is swiftly defeated and escapes Leon’s body, who is barely alive. Lina spits out the last of the Beast in the form of the worm that XerX and Kai-tick left behind in Phandalin-2. Menos tosses his Javelin BBC and with a success high roll, he’s able to destroy The Beast for good. The session ends with all four Enforcers: Menos, Kai-tick, XerX, and a pregnant Lina reunited and exhausted from all the fighting, having saved Greenest for the third time since their arrival.
Two days are left until the Ginyu Games commence… but with Bex inside Ginyu’s body and real Ginyu dead… How will the Enforcers proceed? Stay tuned for our next session, where the answers await.