How the Dragonborn Monk got launched from a Trebuchet and Survived

This is another story from one of the members of the 'Mouseketeers' called Apprentice Oogway, who managed to pull off a crazy stunt and live to tell the tale of it.


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This story occurred in the same homebrew campaign that I have been running for around a year and honestly this is probably one of the craziest moves I have seen during my time playing D&D as one of my friends decided to hurl himself out of a trebuchet in order to enter an enemy stronghold…. and he somehow managed to survive the fatal death that should have occurred.

The story begins during the grand crusade of Steven the Mouse Paladin who, along with his band of 'Mouseketeers', marched onto enemy territory to hunt down the three Hobgoblin Legions that had been causing grief for the group at the start of the campaign. They had made their way to the island of Karmor where the Hobgoblins Legions were help up in their individual strongholds plotting their attacks against the other cities across Zerenia. After they arrived in the nearest port on the island of Karmor and swiftly dealt with a Hobgoblin war party upon arrival, the Mouseketeers made their way to the stronghold of the first Hobgoblin Warlord that they had recently killed in the hopes that they could gain his soldiers for their crusade.

Once they arrived at the first stronghold the Human Paladin in the group, along with Steven, managed to convince the remaining Hobgoblins at the stronghold to fight for the Paladin Mouse after succeeding in her Intimidation rolls. When they gained their new fighting force they were given a tour around the stronghold to figure out howstrong their new fighting force were. From a defensive standpoint they had the upper hand as their stronghold once belonged to the Dwarves, meaning that it had extremely thick walls and could withstand a siege for a very long time if needed.

In terms of their offensive capabilities, their new Hobgoblin army wore Dwarven plate armour and wielded weapons forged by Dwarven hands. The newly founded Hobgoblin army showed the Mouseketeers their 'legit' armouries and proved to the group that they could hold their own in battle. The group also shown that they had a small group of Worg Riders and two trebuchets that protected their stronghold from potential invaders. The mention of trebuchets immediately grabbed the attention of Apprentice Oogway, a Dragonborn Monk who enjoyed to have a bit of fun and chaos with the Mouseketeers.

Now to give a bit of insight, the player who takes on the role of Apprentice Oogway is a good friend of mine who I have been at college with for a good few years now. He is probably the most social person in our D&D group who likes to have a good laugh and a good time. He also likes to act a little goofy with his character ( his inspiration for Apprentice Oogway sounding a lot like the plotline for the Kung Fu Panda franchise ) and always wants to try the most extreme and bizarre stunts in D&D simply because he wants to prove that it can be done. This proves to be an interesting trait that plays into the story shortly.

After being presented with the trebuchets, Apprentice Oogway immediately set to getting the trebuchets out to the stronghold so that the Mouseketeers could use it in their next attack against the remaining Hobgoblin Legions. This proved to be an issue as the trebuchet did not have any wheels as it was only meant to defend the walls of their stronghold. Apprentice Oogway gathered a group of Goblinoids to help him construct wheels for the trebuchets before the Mouseketeers set off to attack the next Hobgoblin Stronghold, but only had enough time to build wheels for one of the trebuchets. He was fine with this just as long as he got to use the trebuchet later on in their upcoming fight and before long the Mouseketeers, along with their own Hobgoblin Legion at their command, set out to siege the next stronghold.

The group arrived at their destination just as night fell upon them and they decided to scout the stronghold before making their attack. The Wood Elf Rogue, the Warforged Rogue/Monk and Apprentice Oogway snuck up to the walls and discovered that there were several breaches within the stronghold, one in particular that led to a prison room filled with a variety of creatures trapped in cells. The Wood Elf would attack this area once the siege began and waited near the breach for thebattle to start, whilst Apprentice Oogway and the Warforged Rogue/Monk made their way to the main gates of the stronghold.

The Warforged Rogue/Monk had a small group of Goblins that acted as his personal siege squad, which he called 'BugbearForce1', that were going to blow up the main gates with a makeshift bomb that they had made earlier which would begin the siege. Before they could ignite the bomb however, Apprentice Oogway wished to run to his trebuchet and create a makeshift parachute for himself.

Now out of the game I ask 'Wait, why do you want to do that?', which appeared to be the same question that the rest of the group had on their minds as they looked to him in confusion and concern. He then replied 'Oh I want to see if I can launch myself to the other side of the stronghold with the trebuchet.' At this point I am very doubtfulof what his plan as it was almost certain to kill his character through fall damage alone. The rest of the group is lecturing him about how his idea won't work and that there is no strategy behind it, but he simply responded to the group with 'I just want to see if I can do it.' 

After failing to show reason to him, the group and myself allowed him to launch himself once the siege began but warned that his foolish actions would be the end of him, to which he smirked and continued with his plan. Once the makeshift bomb blew apart the main gates of the stronghold and the battle commenced, Apprentice Oogway ordered 'Fire!' and he was thrown into the air by the trebuchet and was now flying across the stronghold and the ongoing battle below him. 

As he made it halfway towards his destination, playing the music from Kung Fu Panda as he glided through the sky, I ask him to make a Dexerity Saving Throw, which he could roll with advantage due to the fact that he prepared with his makeshift parachute to aid him during his descent. He succeeds and only now takes half of the incoming falling damage, which was 55 brought down to 26. Apprentice Oogway only had 25 hit points so he was surely going to perish when he landed in the stronghold, but the player immediately uses his monk ability Slow Fall. 

Slow Fall allows monks to reduce fall damage by an amount equal to the player's level multiplied by five. Apprentice Oogway was currently at level 4 so he managed to take away 20 pointds of the fall damage, the total fall damage becoming a meagre 5 points of damage. I was left astounded along with the rest of the group as we watched Apprentice Oogway crash land into a desolated watch tower at the opposide side of the enemy stronghold… and survive with hardly a scratch on him. Once he landed and shrugged off the pieces of rubbles that landed on him as he fell, the group and myself procceed to ask him what he will be doing now that he has made it through the defences of the stronghold. Apprentice Ooway smiled and said 'I'm going to make my way back to my group now.' which easily triggered the group and me as the DM as Apprentice Oogway walked through the stronghold with an annoyingly smug look on his face.

Now out of game, this was a ludicrous idea that should have not worked in favour of Apprentice Oogway but instead turned into a living miracle that was hilarious and baffling at the same time. The player of Apprentice Oogway now tells this story with such pride and joy to anyone who has a D&D interest whilst the other players bow their heads in disbelief. Looking back at this story it was an amazing turn of events that allowed for great roleplaying as well as a funny piece of lore within the campaign. I am sure that as the story progress, Apprentice Oogway will find new stunts to try that will probably be more complex and insane as this one all I can say it….. try at your own risk.


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