Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): Hoard of the Dragon Queen: Episode 3.1 Adventure #12
Date of Session: July 30, 2019 (10pm to 12:00am)
Number of Players: 4
Legendary Hero Menos (Dragon-born Paladin)
Kai-tick, Kin-slayer and “Servant” (Aarakocra Rogue)
XerX, the “X” Archer and “Master” (NOBLE Half-Elf Ranger)
Bubby, the God-Child and “Master” (Aasimar Cleric)
Episode 3.1 is dedicated to Bubby’s last game with the Enforcers until further notice. This was a lot of fun and a very good reminder on why we play this game: to have silly fun. It’s refreshing to see the players improve over the last couple sessions especially their role-playing. Everyone’s getting better, and while the teamwork is definitely better too, there are still kinks to work out in that department. Let’s dive into the story, now:
Picking up where we left off, XerX and Menos were disrespecting the Blue Eyes White Dragon’s dead corpse after the Blue Eyes sacrificed himself to complete Menos’ White Dragon Ritual. The two reanimated Blue Eyes were reincarnated into tiny dragon eggs and the one who did the sacrifice was also converted into an egg, bringing the total of baby dragon eggs to three. This means Mas O Killer God cannot reanimate them back under their control. This was a total success…
Then the pillaging of the dead corpse came into effect. The Spirit of the Blue Eyes materialized, angered over the disrespect, and begins to dish out punishment to Enforcers, creating a one-shot adventure that will send everyone into a different animated world. Dungeons & Dragons gets weirder and weirder the more we keep playing.
The Enforcers arrive outside of Greenest. They end up outside the village too many times. As the bright light diminishes, Bubby notices something… different about the Enforcers: all of them have been reduced to children size (anime chibi). The sky looked drawn by a child and the trees / ground / town was 2-D flat. Long story short: the Blue Eyes changed their reality.
XerX, Menos, and Kai-tick are children (resembling 5-year-olds) while Bubby appears unaffected. Everyone freaks out in silly child-like voices. The role-playing was getting good from that point onward. Only Kai-tick didn’t use a silly children voice. Allegedly, Aarakocra don’t go through puberty. They are confused about the change in Greenest and decide to investigate.
Around this time, Chibi Zora runs into them all anime-like and calls out XerX for being a crybaby during their childhood. XerX begins to cry a lot, revealing his shameful past of a weak point in his life. Zora confirms everyone else in Greenest is chibi except for the ones inside Castle Greenest. The Enforcers want to enter the castle but see it’s under a no kids’ zone guarded by two knights. I like using Knights.
Kai-tick tries to scare them into letting them through, but his chibi form does not make any of them look scary anymore. The knights declare they stay outside of the line as the king and queen have ordered it so. This brings up the Enforcers’ next question, which is answered when King Mokuba and Queen Kaiba appear in a powerful wind tornado. Its the power of the Air Dragon Egg, connected to the Blue Eyes White Spirit Dragon. XerX, Kai-tick, Menos, and Bubby are frightened by this development.
The Enforcers are also bound in human cages prior to this meeting. The Knights insisted to keep the King and Queen safe from the Enforcers’ tricky ways. Everyone agreed to this before learning Mokuba and Kaiba became Master Airbenders and rulers of Greenest. It was glorious to see them so vulnerable again.
Menos declares, “I’m sorry”, in his child-like voice for what he did to the Blue Eyes White Dragon’s corpse, but the kids do not listen to the Hero’s real apology. King Mokuba and Queen Kaiba are in love with the power to rule and decide to break the Enforcers’ team apart. They propose Bubby, who they choose to spare, decide on a game that will show the true nature of their teamwork. Bubby suggests asking the Enforcers, which Menos agreed with. The Kid Rulers agreed, having been moved by Menos’ sincere apology to Blue Eyes White Spirit Dragon.
The Kid Rulers are also in possession of the Three Blue Eyes Baby Eggs (BEBE). Bubby and Menos agree to a 100-meter race. The winner will be spared from dying like the others. It was a tough call to make, which one of them would die? This is where the game got really interesting… Menos, XerX, and Kai-tick (who was paying half-attention) discuss what the next move was. A plan was formed: they would all try to win at the same time so the Kids cannot have a winner. What amazing teamwork for once and I got to say—
Kai-tick decides he’ll run forward for the win. Menos tries to stop the Kin-slayer using the Avatar Blade, where he learned he lost the power of Air due to the disrespect, and resorts to using the Water element to freeze the tracks. To help Menos stop Kai-tick from leaving them behind, XerX uses the classic fog cloud spell to hinder his vision. Somehow, Kai-tick surpassed this clever tactic using speed alone… lucky rolls helped, too.
Basically, Kai-tick stopped and remembered the tracks direct line to the finish line. He fails the roll to avoid Menos’ ice trap, but he makes the saving throw to slide over it and uses his bonus action to tap into his full speed, winning the race. Honestly, the visual of what Kai-tick did was impressive, like My Hero Academia anime impressive, but the price of victory was his teammates. This player has a lot to learn about working with others. I mean his own teammates worked together to stop him from winning the race. Kai-tick had no good explanation for his abandonment aside from Bubby, who openly belittled the Servant.
The Kid Rulers are not impressed either and suck the air out of Kai-tick. The true test of the race was to see the teamwork, which spared Menos and XerX, and Kai-tick failed to convince the Kids otherwise. Especially after he continues to not acknowledge them as his children. Mokuba calls him, “Father”, instead of Daddy, and admits that he prefer to not kill Kai-tick, but he secretly wants to… which makes Kai-tick awkwardly proud of his “son”. The words slipped out of the player’s mouth… so full of regrets.
But, this relapse gives the Enforcers their second chances at surviving. The Kid Rulers declare there will be another round of games which will truly determine whether the Enforcers live or not. They clap their hands and summon the Golden Dawn’s personal Entertainment Squad: The Chibi Ginyu Force!!!
The Enforcers, remembering their last encounter with Jeice, Burter, and Recoome, are not ready for such a ruthless execution…
The Kid Rulers declare that the teams will do battle poses and whoever impresses them the most will win the games. The Ginyu Force begin their signature poses, which makes Kai-tick suddenly pro-teamwork saying they need to make a great battle pose to outdo the Entertainment Squad. Menos is outraged and hates Kai-tick openly for this sudden change in behavior… he didn’t forget that five seconds ago, Kai-tick literally abandoned them in the dust. I died of laughter at this point. The role-playing was miles better than last session for sure. The players are getting the hang of what it means to play D&D.
There are three quick rounds of battle posing: the Enforcers win round 1 out of pity for their weird shaped pose, then they go on to perform an arrow eldritch blast fight pose, inspired by XerX, that does not win round two. Bubby questions why since both Kaiba and Mokuba were into the Enforcers’ technique more than Jeice’s Crusher Ball Juggling explosion. The Kid Rulers explain that giving the teams 1-1 will get them a round three, and that their fun was the most important thing to consider. Bubby thinks this is a bias contest, which the Kid Rulers do not deny.
In fact, they openly embrace this and remind Bubby that this is what they tried to teach the boy during hide and seek. Bubby does not speak to them all that much to avoid the ignorant. Round three was about something else… the Kid Rulers believe the Enforcers need to be taught a lesson about teamwork. To properly punish Menos for his misdeed against the Blue Eyes, Mokuba removed Menos’ breath and forced XerX and Kai-tick to save him or suffer the same fate.
Kai-tick and XerX argued about the CPR, but ultimately Kai-tick was the one who did mouth to mouth. Aarakocra and Dragon-born mouth to mouth to be precise. The roll saved Menos, and he was revived. The air getting sucked out of them was not making anybody happy. I’m getting better and better as the Dungeon Master.
Bubby wants the Kid Rulers to stop the chibi madness and discovers that Kaiba is having second doubts about Mokuba’s ruthlessness, which makes Kai-tick more proud which is not helping his deadbeat father title. The father-son bond is a complex one that will not go away anytime soon. The Kid Rulers agree to honor the deal, to let the Enforcers live to fight another day, but they refuse to let them or anyone leave the Chibi Reality Greenest. They plan to keep everyone inside until Mas O kills them for their Water and Air Dragon Eggs, wanting to spend what little time they have left with each other.
The Kid Rulers leave to play in the sky. The Enforcers, including Bubby, regroup to figure out how to convince Mokuba and Kaiba to reverse things. Bubby, having lost his patient, wields HaThor’s Hammer, and casts the Lightning Bolt against the two Guards, enacting his first kills so beautifully. He instructs the rest of the Enforcers to raid the Castle to find their last resort: Lina and Kurt Swift. The Kid Rulers’ other parents. Bubby was born to be leader and showed his potential wonderfully in his last game of 2019.
Lina and Kurt Swift, living comfortably inside the Castle as normal adults, are bewildered to learn the Kid Rulers have not stopped the chaos yet. They were promised it would stop after Menos apologized to the Blue Eyes White Dragon, which he already did earlier and the kids accepted. This all starts to make sense to everyone. Mokuba has truly developed power-hungry. The Kid Rulers arrived in Castle Greenest to put an end to everyone, but a miracle happened. Bubby spoke to them from the heart about doing the right thing not the fun thing.
Thanks to Bubby’s high roll success, Mokuba and Kaiba are moved by the speech. Then, they reveal an awful truth. The two of them alone cannot reverse the Chibi Reality they placed on Greenest. The Blue Eyes Spirit helped them the first time. Mokuba and Kaiba reveal that was a one-time deal. They suggest their third sibling next, which is news to everyone at the table, but then they reveal the sibling died, making the whole point of the reveal pointless…?
Bubby is their next best option thanks to his connection to HaThor and similar age to the Kid Rulers. Bubby agrees to help the kids reverse everything and use the Air Dragon Egg as their center of power. They chant, “I wish I wish, with all my heart to fly with Blue Eyes, in the lands apart.” The reality begins to reverse, but then another unexpected opponent appears to stop the reversal.
Mysterious Figure returns to stop the kids, but the trio Enforcers intercept to give them enough time. Menos, XerX, and Kai-tick throw their strongest moves against the target, but he phased right through without any effort. They get frustrated and begin to figure out how he’s doing the technique. Menos and XerX theorized that a Mysterious Figure’s feet was the secret to his phasing ability, which Kai-tick tried to shut down but failed to do so.
They aimed for the feet, which ultimately destroyed the floor beneath, sending the Enforcers to the endless training grounds in the basement. The Mysterious Figure’s ability to hide was impressive, able to sneak up on Kai-tick for a physical chokehold: Mysterious Figure gloated and squeezed, ready to end the Kin-slayer for not being a Legendary Super Servant. Kai-tick smirks and says his command word, which turned a normal leaf into the Sword of New Horizons, a gift he was given by HaThor earlier. It threw everyone that an actual hit got Mysterious Figure.
Menos and XerX joined with their strongest attacks. They landed massive hits that dissolved the Mysterious Figure’s arm. The limb was not normal, looking more like dough than flesh. The Mysterious Figure was caught off-guard for a moment. It was something he would not let happen again. He disappears and allows Bubby to have proper send-off.
The reversal is a success at a cost. HaThor returns to restore Greenest back to standard reality and begins to take the kids with her to their next task in the multiverse. Bubby isn’t sure if he was ready to go, but the Enforcers gave their blessing, wishing him luck during this next adventure. Bubby’s and Kai-tick’s HaThor marks begin to glow, which triggers XerX’s as well, leaving Menos out sadly. The contract is transferred over from Bubby to XerX, making the half-elf the Master of two powerful Servants. Menos begs HaThor for a mark, but she assures the Paladin that there is a plan in the works.
Bubby, Mokuba, and Kaiba follow HaThor to their next mission with a group similar to them called the K.N.D. = Kids Next Dimension. Before officially leaving, Bubby passes the bag of holding over to Menos but keeps HaThor’s Hammer for himself, seeing that they are not worthy yet. The goodbye is perfected, and Bubby leaves with—
The Water Dragon Egg crashes in the aftermath. The hardened cover breaks and cracks, which releases the Mysterious Figure, hood off, out of the Genie’s Lamp. The Enforcers couldn’t believe Vin the Genie was the Mysterious Figure this entire time!!! The Genie’s been pulling the strings, including with Mas O, who is nothing more than a Servant. A Dragon’s Head Tattoo glows on his healthy arm, revealing he is a Master like XerX and Bubby.
Vin reveals his basic motive: revenge against Menos for betraying him and loving for centuries in a potential future, something that he took care of with a different Menos from a different timeline, an ongoing mystery since the Phandalin days. Vin rips off everything to reveal a different but familiar face: Menos minus his eye scar from the Stranger Things adventure. Vin and the alternative Menos merged into one person to never be apart again… Menos PC was not pleased about this twist.
Vin reveals the new name is Menos Venti Plus, also known as the MVP. The Enforcers were impressed about the name. They gave him brownie points for the creativity—a brilliant plan in the making since the days Vin pretended to be Genie. Vin preferred to wait on the reveal, but Bubby’s unexpected departure forced his hand. He leaves that Water Dragon Egg behind, wishing to move forward with the other Dragon Eggs, now that Water and Air are lost causes. The session ends with him declaring Water Deep is where he’ll be heading next.
We’ll miss you, Bubby. Things are going to get crazier going forward. I hope the Enforcers are ready for their next set of challenges. Vin, Mas O, and Mirna have joined forces to end the multiverse. Before we even go that far, let’s see if the Enforcers can help Greenest get legalized and funded after losing all their money to the Hoard of the Dragon Queen.