“Durnan’s gone missing? It’s up to all our brave adventurers to save him!”
Or so the premise of the third epic of Season 8 of Adventurers League goes! Melbourne D&D Adventurers League organized our third epic, Last Orders at the Yawning Portal, with just a little over a month of our second one!
Even with the limited prep time, we were able to put together an even bigger epic then the last in terms of the number of players we had.
We had 13 tables, with 6 players to the table; a significant enough increase from the 5 on 12 tables we had last time. And we even had the admins put on a little skit before the final part. Well… a skit because we couldn’t be bothered to memorise the actual dialogue and thought it would be more fun to improvise!
Of course, my I-want-to-wear-makeup-and-heels ass has to play the Black Viper. There was no way I wasn’t. It was also a really enjoyable role to play at the epic. My job was to intercept clues that the players passed along to other tables after they succeeded in a mission. If I got enough clues, they would require the Black Viper’s help to finish the adventure.
I liked how people were wary of me as my heels clicked along the wooden floor. I could see people trying their best to hide their clues and finding the best time to pass them along to other people while I wasn’t there.
When I wanted to be menacing, I wore the heels. When I got serious and wanted to collect as many clues as I could (which I did when I realize I only had 1/4th of what I needed about half way through), the heels came off!
There were many in-character shenanigans too, as I swore vengeance on one character who had managed to trick me into tailing him only to reveal he didn’t have any clues after all.
Everyone, from the players to the DMs were all such good sports! The DMs and a good number of players came dressed up and really got into the spirit of it all! Heck, when I (the Black Viper) eventually revealed I had beaten them, multiple people volunteered to give their characters up to me for permanent servitude. Of course, the Black Viper chooses the strongest of adventurers, and we said goodbye to Misty the Tabaxi, now forever serving the Black Viper and doing her bidding.
And as always, at the end of the day, the players of Melbourne D&D Adventurers League managed to be victorious in the end and slay the dragon that had enchanted Durnan to come down into the Undermountain, thus ensuring that the Yawning Portal would live on!
And that’s how we said farewell to season 8: with a bang!
