Nicole wanted to roleplay dating OP and was jealous of the "flirting" between OP and Laila. I dont think it was about the characters at all. Nicole had a crush and had a terrible way of communicating it

Dungeon Masters who try to teach players some sort of lesson by making their main class feature useless will always be in immediate berserk button for me. I don't even understand the logic of how that's supposed to work in your favor. This isn't going to convince the player that the class they picked is bad because it's not the class that screwing them over. It's you the dungeon master.

“We need to collect the four evil things before the cult uses it!”

I am very aware that’s a terrible plan. Just get one piece, and they cant do nothin. Plus, gathering them all makes it easy to use

I will forever despise the "for shits and giggles" excuse. For me it translates to "I don't value the time of my co-players".

Edit: I'll be That Girl, the organization is called Harpers, not Harpists.

Paladin: Claims to play Braum.

Proceeds to not actually play like Braum, you know, the epitome of being a really good dude.

Ask the DM AND THE PLAYER, "Would you be OK with this sexual harassment if the ones doing the sexual harassment were men, and the target of the sexual harassment was a woman?"  Use the term "sexual harassment" as many times as you can.  Make both the player and the DM understand that SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS BAD, NO MATTER WHO IS DOING IT TO WHOM.

And when you tell them, "At this point, we might as well stop the whole campaign," add, "Because you two have been SEXUALLY HARASSING ME, and now you want to 'pause' because you're TICKED OFF THAT I DIDN'T RESPOND POSITIVELY TO YOUR SEXUAL HARASSMENT.  Which makes you both "THAT GUYS."  Oh, except you're women.  So, yeah, let's stop this entire campaign, because IT'S DANGEROUS BEING NEAR YOU SEXUAL PREDATORS."

Good for you for getting out.  I just wish that you, or someone else, had called them exactly what they are:  Sexual Predators, guilty of Sexual Harassment, over an extended period of time.

Weapon, mount, hostile to other people. That paladin wasn't  Braum. Braum is one of the friendliest people in League, a man with a warm smile always willing to help people. Braum is my favorite character in League of Legends and it hurts to see someone besmirch his name.

Crispy just keeps upping the tavern aesthetic and I'm here for it

As someone who enjoys RPing romance, an in-character, one-sided romance is DRAMA GOLD. However, this only works if ALL PARTIES involved are down for it. It made amazing in-character awkwardness that the other players were more than happy to involve themselves with, especially the sh*t-stirring PCs (you know the ones. Those who enjoy poking a bear just to see what happens). But even then, said sh*t-stirring PCs would "walk back" actions if any of the involved players (DM included) became uncomfortable with the actions.

“My character blinks.”

“Your symbol breaks.”

“WHY?!”

“You killed your eyesight for a second.”

The DM in story 4 is out of line. The only reason they aren’t the villain is the storyteller is on their side and is making their actions seem less egregious.

Aro/ace here.  I love shipping characters together--it ain't just the allos.

"Allos will do that sometimes." That's certainly not just an allo thing; much like how not all allos would, not all aces wouldn't. As an ace,  I sure do like imaging certain characters going the full romance mile.

I feel like the last story, in the right hands, could've easily turned into an in-universe Doki Doki situation where Nicole's NPC is some magic-user posing as Monika, leading to a bossfight and some horror shenanigans.

The holy symbol breaking:

There are three options I would take with that. First option is to have a chat with em, probably with input from the other players about how this is a little egregious and not fun. Something tells me that wouldn't work, but you gotta try to communicate. My second would probably have me do what OP did and just leave if it wasn't worth it. No DnD/RPG's is better than bad DnD/RPG's.

The third option I would go with if they really pissed me off enough is to go "Alright, obviously the Cleric lost the favor of their deity and they need to self reflect. They leave the party and I guess I'll roll up something else." Then, depending on what was allowed, I'd basically just go full munchkin, not choosing a class with a "patron" or "oath" requirement. Heck, I could go bard or divine sorcerer and he couldn't take away my support, or just go with some old reliables ala tank mage (min max Abjuration wizard) or "Immortal Punch" (Way of Death Monk, Totem warrior barbarian). Or I could just not take it serious any more and just go Lord of the Dice (Simple incarnation is luck feat, hafling Divination wizard, but someone posted a video about literally multiclassing into every class and subclass that manipulates dice... its funny and a little terrifying) and see if that makes him pop a vessel?

Friendzone:
Forced ships are a great way to ruin a game.

Nicole basically wanted to write a fan fiction with Op and her Sue—OP did not want that.

With that shipping story, it's obvious that Nicole had a thing for the OP and had made a "self-insert" (someone completely different from herself that she deluded herself into thinking was exactly like her) to hit on OP's character in the hopes of sparking OP's interest through their character's romantic interactions. OP's rejection of her 'self-insert' was taken as a rejection of her and she couldn't handle it. At least, that's my opinion.

The “We Quit” story is different from my own, but your mention of not noticing stuff until you sit back and think is actually how I realized my first (or, technically second) long term game was not the one for me. A big thing made me sit back and think and realize. I didn’t leave for a while later dur to social obligation (and being the only note taker). Eventually did

Shipping wars never end well, even in fanfic, where they belong. Keep them the hell out of your D&D game.

Ooh fun idea... If your amnesiac character starts getting memories that paint an NPC in a very flattering light (especially an NPC that "everyone loves") your character should start assuming their memories are being fabricated by that NPC. If the other players hate that NPC as well maybe it becomes a conspiracy among the players that all the memories that make this NPC beloved are also fabricated. This will annoy the hell out of any DM using a Mary-sue (male, female, or non-binary... No one is free from sue status) and thus I can't recommend this highly enough

"They're not creating memories"
"We don't know that, and can't trust what they say... And since everyone loves them we can't trust the others either"

This will promptly make the DM's head explode