My Campaign Ended...

[Dust]

...and I'd like to briefly share it with you. It's been a few days now and I'm still reeling.

We'd been playing this game for a bloody year now, and it was at last coming to a conclusion. The party is attempting to re-plant The World Tree, Yggdrasil. They require a bunch of metaphorical 'ingredients' in order to do so, like the tears of an immortal hero, soil from where the world ends, and so forth and so on. They've managed most of the list, but have run into a deadlock in getting the last item; the blood of a tyrant.

They decide they need to get the blood of the BBEG, who I know to be a lich whose phylactery is another plane of existence. Only by planting Yggdrasil will they be able to cut the lich off from his phylactery, effectively destroying it and preventing his reincarnation. But the final battle looms on the horizon and they keep getting distracted, and at last it's too late; the BBEG has amassed his armies and come to them, and I wasn't sure if the game would end with the group 'losing' or not. It was rather worrisome for me, but I wasn't going to fudge things in their favor at all.

They decide there's only one way to keep the seed and all collected materials 'safe' - the party ranger/druid/naturey guy - named Kinneas Wetherford the THIRD - eats them. A standard PC plan if I've ever heard one.

One of the other PCs is a little goblin that the group rescued from indentured servitude and possibly even certain death. He is absolutely worthless in all social situations, yet the party likes him anyway and makes him the group mascot. He gets stepped on the entire game, but he's always there believing in the greater good and trudging onward to his 'destiny.' The ranger/druid, especially, has taken a shine to the little guy and they've become friends, with the goblin acting very much like a sidekick to the much cooler hero.

So. The group cleaves their way through the armies and up to where the BBEG waits, realizing that if they could just get his blood somehow, they'd be able to finish the ritual to plant yggdrasil and cut him off from his power source.
The combat was quick and messy (it was late, I was tired and jus twanted it to be done).The only one left in fighting form is the goblin. The BBEG plucks the group mascot up by the neck and begins to strangle him with one gloved hand while the group watches helplessly. I was sure this was the end of the campaign, and I was wrong.

The goblin (sorcerer, I might add) has time for one last action, which....he uses to roll EXTREMELY well on an improvised biting attack. This manages to bite a huge chunk of flesh and skin and muscle and blood off the BBEG; the goblin is dropped angrily and unceremoniously to the floor, dodging fireballs as he rushes over to the ranger who had previously swallowed the seed.

And kisses him. Square on the lips, forcing the mixture of meat and blood down his throat with his bumpy goblin tongue. The entire table goes completely silent except for both players who just sort of...stare at one another apologetically. I may have coughed up Pepsi on my notes.

The tree explodes outward from the rangerdruid's body, ripping him to pieces but saving the world. Epic cinematic ensues. The party wins.
The goblin reaches level three.

[Mono Vertigo]

... epic.
Pretty damn good way for a PC to die, if you ask me. "Yeah, I'm the guy who exploded into Yggdrasil and saved the world. Sure, my goblin sidekick had to kiss me for that, but my body was the vessel for the World Tree, man."

[Hatchet91]

EPIC


i applaud your group and you for this story. very win way to end a campaign

but the title of this story may be "broke back Yggdrasil" :P but epic conclusion.

[Greensleeves]

...

That was awesome.

[Yuki Akuma]

...The goblin only reached level three?

[dsmiles]

...The goblin only reached level three?

They could be like my group. We only have the chance to get together about once a month, at best.

[Dust]

Everyone else was level 14, 15ish. The goblin was a level three sorcerer. It's a long story.

[holywhippet]

I'm more curious about the lich - I wouldn't have thought they even had blood, not to mention the damage reduction and the paralysing touch.

Still, rule of cool for the win though.

[Rogue Shadows]

Maybe the lich found a way to get a permanent gentle repose, which would preserve blood, on himself (not normally permenancy-able, I know, but hardly gamebreaking). Not every lich wants to look like a skeleton, I guess.

Side note:


(and your group)

[Kuma Kode]

I'm going to throw my two cents into the hat and say that your group made an epic ending. Dramatic as well as emotionally satisfying (and not in a creepy way).

[Pisha]

Wow. That is just... wow. Well-played, and well-told.

[Sipex]

*slow dramatic clap*

Bravo, that is a great ending to a campaign. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

You can spring a future campaign off this too. Introduce the now grown Yggdrasil which has a goblin hermit living amongst the branches.

[Vemynal]

ok, that's pretty awesome lol

[Morph Bark]

*slow dramatic clap*

I ditto that.

Spoiler

Show

This is book-worthy.

[GoatToucher]

The goblin reaches level three.

That there is the best part of the whole story.

[Bobby Archer]

That there is the best part of the whole story.

That really is the kicker.

Great ending. Absolutely amazing.

[One Step Two]

That is indeed epic. If you're the kind of person to do an epilogue for the characters, something along the lines of the druid becoming the eternal spirit guardian of Yggdrasil, and tales of a goblin sorcerer that guards the perimiter woods would be very cool for those players.

[begooler]

This is really awesome. You are now obligated to tell us the story about how the party came to have a level 2 goblin mascot.

[nihil8r]

The goblin reaches level three.

so were you running the goblin or the players?

[Atcote]

Hruh... UH!... Ahhhhh...

... I think I just had an epicgasm...

[Draconi Redfir]

WALP i think we can all stop playing D&D now. nothing will be able to top the world saved by Yaoi.

[Peregrine]

This is book-worthy.

My thoughts exactly. That's exactly the sort of climactic moment of epic awesome that you expect to find in a book or a movie.

No epilogue necessary; just tell your players, "Congratulations, you've won D&D."

[Cruiser1]

...The goblin only reached level three?

Any single encounter can only gain you XP to level up once. Or rather, level up and also get enough XP to be just 1 XP shy of the next level. (See PHB page 58.) The moment the goblin kills anything whatsoever or roleplays even a tiny bit, he'll level again to 4.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Any single encounter can only gain you XP to level up once. Or rather, level up and also get enough XP to be just 1 XP shy of the next level. (See PHB page 58.) The moment the goblin kills anything whatsoever or roleplays even a tiny bit, he'll level again to 4.

True enough, but I think we can bend the rules a bit for end-game-epicness.

[Yuki Akuma]

Any single encounter can only gain you XP to level up once. Or rather, level up and also get enough XP to be just 1 XP shy of the next level. (See PHB page 58.) The moment the goblin kills anything whatsoever or roleplays even a tiny bit, he'll level again to 4.

I meant it mainly as "why the hell was he only level 2".

[Hiro Protagonest]

Liches have flesh and blood?

[Bobby Archer]

Liches have flesh and blood?

The description in the Monster Manual specifically mentions "withered flesh." As for blood, dried, desiccated blood locked in rotted veins could certainly count. Just because liches don't use or need these things doesn't mean they don't have them.

[Bleak Ink]

That... Blew my mind. I don't blame you for going into shock afterwards. Very, very well played.

[Xanmyral]

This, sir, is untold in its awesome epicness. I am curious though, what happened to the lich and the army? I doubt they just went like, "well guys, I guess we should just go home."

[Timeless Error]

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...
...
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*Sound of speechlessness*

And, as others have said, this NEEDS to be turned into a book.