Tragedy seems thick on the ground these days: but you can help here!
Also, we're no longer AL. We moved to la Casa de Yaeger, and it was pretty nice. Quiet dinner table and not having to shout over a crowd of people. Of course, Calvin no longer felt he could make it. So we were down Bruenor.
So, as I predicted: Herman died again as he unlived: being a meat shield. He opened the door and got sprayed with all the alchemist fire. Enough it overwhelmed his Undead Resilience. We didn't have time to pour one for our deader buddy. The room beyond contained nothing of interest, however: just some reservoirs of alchemist fire and the trap mechanism. The door did start to close, presumably resetting the trap, but Phox wedged it open.
We explored the southernmost door in that same room and ran into an orc shaman and some body guards. Once again, Vrinn got to open up, but I scored a critical hit on the follow-up. Hiro got to use another spell out of Elemental Evil: Snilloc's snowball swarm. It hits an area with snowballs. Phox but the finishing hit on the shaman, Shannon tried a new, and effective tactic, in this battle. Hoggle opened with bane and supplemented it with Cutting Words. The notion being that a bard's de-buffs are more effective than their healing. In this case it did prevent Squiz from having a new axe-hole being torn in him. Once again, Jeff decided to hit the RNG button for a wild surge. Summoning some flumphs, which scared poor Phox.
We did find some alchemists' tools in the shaman's lair. Which would have been nice for harvesting that alchemist fire. If anyone had the proficiency. Instead we climbed down.
The stairs were cut into the stone and lead to some natural and excavated caves. At one point, a stream crossed them: a rill! D&D is good for your vocabulary, kids! Because we all want that 100% Map Completion Trophy, we followed the stream.
It led to a little side cave that served as a lair for more stirges. They had managed to exsanguinate another adventurer, and we looted the corpse. We continued down the stream, and Lydia fell heels over ass down into a larger cavern, where the stairs would have eventually led us. Now, with several passages to traverse, we went for left-hand most one first, coming upon a group of troglodytes, stinky subterranean lizard people in D&D monster terms. The real fun was a locked gate in their lair.
Phox loudly proclaimed, "There's no bears in caves" before we opened it. Of course there was a bear. This, apparently, made out barbarian angry. So she raged and grappled it. In effort to help her pet human, Lydia used hex on the bear's Strength, to give it disadvantage on the checks needed to escape a grapple. This gave Vrinn the opportunity to sneak attack it in the hit points, dropping it.
We continued on, finding ourselves in a forest of fungi. Some of it glowed, of course. We came to a side ledge, an iron gate, and a grand stair case. Since we just had to have that 100% map, and Hoggle volunteered to go first, Phox hoisted him up onto that latch. Only for a couple of gricks to attack. These ugly things are resistant to non-magical attacks. So, pretty tough on their own. But then a giant subterranean lizard attacked us, too. It put the bite on Phox, holding her in it's jaws. Once again, Lydia used hex, not wanting the funny human to die. Jeff mashed the RNG button again with Hiro using a wild surge, turning everything and everyone in the fight invisible. This did allow Vrinn to end the fight with a sneak attack on the last remaining grick after everything else was dropped. Unfortunately, Phox and Hoggle both got dropped. With the healer down, we had to use a potion of healing.
We found some dead adventurers in a back cave past the ledge. We looted the corpses, then barricaded ourselves in for a nice long rest.
Then we climbed up that long flight of stairs, coming to an unlocked iron door. We heard the sound of hammers on anvils beyond. Seems someone or something was still making those weapons! It lead into an octagonal room lined with doors and more statues or armed dwarves. Hiro went up to a door and a statue attacked him. To add insult to injury, the door was false. Hoggle searched around for more traps, but some poor rolling led to the conclusion that nope, there were no more traps! Then Squiz tried to open another door and also got hit by a statue. Again, the door was false and trixie. Why did we send the arcane casters, the squishiest party members, to check for traps? Reasons.
So, Lydia, another arcane caster, but slightly less squishy, looked around and found a secret door with her drow eyes. She, however, exercised a little prudence and opened it with mage hand. It led to a pillared throne room. As we arrived, we heard a voice, possibly an alarm, shout something in dwarvish about intruders. We moved in cautiously and were confronted by duergar. These subterranean dwarves aren't generally regarded as altruistic, but are willing to treat with other races from time to time. So we opened with parley.
The dwarves told us they were reactivating the forge for their own business, which was none of ours, thank you. They told us there were undead roaming some rooms to the north that needed clearing, and also let us know that a dragon lived in the lower levels of the complex on top of a treasure hoard. They offered to take us to the dragon for 200gp. Hoggle tried to barter with a potion, that was in fact poison, but failed. Then Lydia offered to clear the undead for them for half that fee, and they agreed.
Alec really wanted us to just go to the dragon. He wants to take a break from running, even though he's pretty darn good. He wants to go to Chult and fight Acererak.
But, we took the undead option. In return for the promise that we could keep any treasure we found. Looks like he'll have to run another week or two. I'll be good to go.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
LEEEEEEEEERRRRROOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYY JENKINS!
Before we get started: this is happening. If you or someone you know (or someone who's blog you read!) has a pre-existing condition, this will devastate them economically. Call the congressional switchboard and tell you senators to vote no: 202-224-3121.
So Joseph made it back to our table. He rolled up a half-orc fighter named Tog. Tog is a little like Thok, Shannon also brought a new character named Hoggle. Yes, based off of that Hoggle. The race was a home-brew mixture of dwarf and gnome. And he's a bard.
So we had crossed the bridge, our new PCs fell through a plot hole and joined us. We did have some debate over have Tog along. Lydia did speculate that his ear might be worth 12gp and 5sp in bounty. Once the playful banter passed, we found that we had a door.
Phox kicked in the door!
There were more orcs. We had a particularly deadly opening turn before the orcs closed with our mostly ranged party and did some damage. We still managed to drop them without severe casualties, however. It was a barracks for the orcs and included a cage full of human prisoners. We freed them and sent them on their way back to town. Then we leveled up!
We moved on, finding a storage area and well. We passed that area and into more corridors with lots of options for doors. One of those doors had a cool statue of a dwarf holding a sword and a hammer in front of it. Hoggle went forward to examine it. It was, of course, trapped. The mouth opened and sprayed poison gas. That poisoned him. Vrinn disabled that trap while the poison wore off, and then took a listen at the door. There was some raucous shouting and cursing behind the door. We all positioned ourselves in the corridor outside. Except Hiro, he position himself way in the back so he had clear sight and access to another door.
Fuck.
We kicked in that door by the trapped dwarf statue. It was another orc barracks, and one of them was the bigger, meaner orog variety. But by this point, we were a well oiled monster killing machine. "We got this!" we all said.
Then Hiro set that door behind us on fire using the bonfire spell. It turns out there were more orcs behind that door, and they were upset that their door got turned to kindling, so they charged through, getting a little burned in the process.
Back on the western front (you know, the only one everyone cares about in American pop culture), Lydia and Hoggle discovered that shatter is a good crowd control spell on the second level list.
Hiro, however, tried get the RNG to help him conjure a fireball on that horde of orcs out of wild magic surge. Jeff, has, apparently, no experience with the RNG. Instead he had spend the rest of the session shouting. He did pull back.
Then, because in table-top games sufficient loud noises will pull more encounters, another door opened. Out stepped an ogre with a small hunting pack of dire wolves.
Hiro DID make a good speed bump for that horde of orcs. And they did make a decent roadblock for that pack of dire wolves and the ogre.
While they were busy killing Hiro, we killed the orcs in, then re-grouped in, the original orc barracks. You know, the encounter we had planned to pull in the first place and not the other two. Kyla went with path of the totem warrior for Phox, and chose Wolf as her totem. And let me tell you, giving the pack tactics feature to your allies while raging is amazing! And speaking of Phox, she blew that whistle and turned one of those orc corpses into a zombie, which, because Kyla is that kind of person, she named Herman.
Using Herman as a speed bump and the corridor as a bottle neck, we cleared the second pack of orcs and killed the ogre. With their boss dead, the dire wolves fled.
Bruenor drunkenly stabilized Hiro and we took a long rest. During that period Phox found some money and a potion of healing in the orog's bed. Then, in the ogre's room, we found more money and a +1 rapier. Finally, we visited the third orc barracks and found more money. Hiro, of course, just said, "Your welcome."
We finally got around to investigating the well. No gray oozes. No black puddings. Just normal, brackish water. We came at last to a stairwell with a locked gate nearby. Vrinn picked the lock and we found a swarm of stirges.
Hiro triggered another wild magic surge with a casting of ice knife, this one causing ethereal music to follow him around. Phox was in the explosion's area, but managed to uncanny dodge it.
At the north end of the stairwell chamber was an ornate stone door. We spotted spouts around it and a pile of charred bodies in front of it. When we left off, the rest of us stood well back while Phox sent Herman to open it.
Herman will die (again) as he unlived. Or will he?
So Joseph made it back to our table. He rolled up a half-orc fighter named Tog. Tog is a little like Thok, Shannon also brought a new character named Hoggle. Yes, based off of that Hoggle. The race was a home-brew mixture of dwarf and gnome. And he's a bard.
So we had crossed the bridge, our new PCs fell through a plot hole and joined us. We did have some debate over have Tog along. Lydia did speculate that his ear might be worth 12gp and 5sp in bounty. Once the playful banter passed, we found that we had a door.
Phox kicked in the door!
There were more orcs. We had a particularly deadly opening turn before the orcs closed with our mostly ranged party and did some damage. We still managed to drop them without severe casualties, however. It was a barracks for the orcs and included a cage full of human prisoners. We freed them and sent them on their way back to town. Then we leveled up!
We moved on, finding a storage area and well. We passed that area and into more corridors with lots of options for doors. One of those doors had a cool statue of a dwarf holding a sword and a hammer in front of it. Hoggle went forward to examine it. It was, of course, trapped. The mouth opened and sprayed poison gas. That poisoned him. Vrinn disabled that trap while the poison wore off, and then took a listen at the door. There was some raucous shouting and cursing behind the door. We all positioned ourselves in the corridor outside. Except Hiro, he position himself way in the back so he had clear sight and access to another door.
Fuck.
We kicked in that door by the trapped dwarf statue. It was another orc barracks, and one of them was the bigger, meaner orog variety. But by this point, we were a well oiled monster killing machine. "We got this!" we all said.
Then Hiro set that door behind us on fire using the bonfire spell. It turns out there were more orcs behind that door, and they were upset that their door got turned to kindling, so they charged through, getting a little burned in the process.
Back on the western front (you know, the only one everyone cares about in American pop culture), Lydia and Hoggle discovered that shatter is a good crowd control spell on the second level list.
Hiro, however, tried get the RNG to help him conjure a fireball on that horde of orcs out of wild magic surge. Jeff, has, apparently, no experience with the RNG. Instead he had spend the rest of the session shouting. He did pull back.
Then, because in table-top games sufficient loud noises will pull more encounters, another door opened. Out stepped an ogre with a small hunting pack of dire wolves.
Hiro DID make a good speed bump for that horde of orcs. And they did make a decent roadblock for that pack of dire wolves and the ogre.
While they were busy killing Hiro, we killed the orcs in, then re-grouped in, the original orc barracks. You know, the encounter we had planned to pull in the first place and not the other two. Kyla went with path of the totem warrior for Phox, and chose Wolf as her totem. And let me tell you, giving the pack tactics feature to your allies while raging is amazing! And speaking of Phox, she blew that whistle and turned one of those orc corpses into a zombie, which, because Kyla is that kind of person, she named Herman.
Using Herman as a speed bump and the corridor as a bottle neck, we cleared the second pack of orcs and killed the ogre. With their boss dead, the dire wolves fled.
Bruenor drunkenly stabilized Hiro and we took a long rest. During that period Phox found some money and a potion of healing in the orog's bed. Then, in the ogre's room, we found more money and a +1 rapier. Finally, we visited the third orc barracks and found more money. Hiro, of course, just said, "Your welcome."
We finally got around to investigating the well. No gray oozes. No black puddings. Just normal, brackish water. We came at last to a stairwell with a locked gate nearby. Vrinn picked the lock and we found a swarm of stirges.
Hiro triggered another wild magic surge with a casting of ice knife, this one causing ethereal music to follow him around. Phox was in the explosion's area, but managed to uncanny dodge it.
At the north end of the stairwell chamber was an ornate stone door. We spotted spouts around it and a pile of charred bodies in front of it. When we left off, the rest of us stood well back while Phox sent Herman to open it.
Herman will die (again) as he unlived. Or will he?
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Orcs, orcs, orcs!
So the new adventure, Tomb of Annihilation is out. It's got everything: undead, dinosaurs, pirates, undead dinosaurs, undead pirate dinosaurs. It's gonna be fun!
Shannon wasn't feeling well, so Auryx took a hiatus. But three younger players were orphaned, so we adopted them into our table: Douglas playing a wood elf rogue named Bruidist; Victoria playing a wood elf druid named Nyalda; and John playing a human wizard named Rein.
Jeff also decided to restat Hiro as wild magic sorcerer. And Will restatted Squiz as a dwarf wizard.
We returned to Waterdeep after getting our reward from the Sunless Citadel. There, we learned the tale of Durgeddin the Black and Khundrukar, a redoubt he had taken his clan to after their homeland had been invaded by orcs. From this fortress he declared war on orc-kind. He and his clan were renowned weapon-smiths. This news alone got Phox's interest. Lydia, who's developed a habit of reading her book and muttering to herself in in strange languages, felt this was a good portent to follow. We haggled for a map to Khundrukar, under a mountain called the Stone Tooth near small town called Blasingdell.
Our newest recruits and Squiz went shopping. I had done some before leaving Waterdeep: acquiring a rapier for a better melee option when forced into it. Squiz got a potion of healing while the new recruits bought some weapons. I also bought a potion of healing, depleting the town's stock.
The local militia had captured an orc raider, but it didn't have much in the way of information. The militia did offer us a reward of 25 gp per orc head. We walked to the Stone Tooth and camped at it's base, hiding but still able to view the trail leading up. During third watch, the watch Lydia took, a group of orcs were bound up the trail. She woke up everyone. The rogues managed to ambush the orcs while the rest of the group rushed them.
This degenerated quickly into a running battle. Hiro used an unusual tactic: setting a twig in the midst of the orcs on fire with fire bolt, then causing a blinding flash with pyrotechnics. Then Nyalda hit a bunch with faerie fire. The non-blinded ones made a break for it.
Phox did what any good barbarian would do: she took off after them screaming at the top of her lungs. Lydia finds her pet human too interesting to let her die, so she followed. Vrinn and Hiro didn't want to watch us both die, so they followed.
So everyone else finished off the blinded orcs, and Squiz started harvesting orc heads, in the form of left ears.
When Phox, Lydia, Vrinn, and Hiro finally caught up to the fleeing orcs, they only managed to pin one of them, and the rest continued running up the path. At one point Vrinn even took off through the forest to skip the twitch-backs climbing the hill. Here though, Alec did some clever DMing. Orcs have a feature called Aggressive, which lets them use a bonus action to move up to their speed toward a hostile creature. They moved toward Vrinn, then used Dash and their normal movement to move past him.
Incidentally, PC orcs also get Aggressive. If something ever allows a creature to use 2 bonus actions on a turn, an orc monk or rogue could theoretically move up to 120ft (rogue) or 240ft (maxed out monk) in 6 seconds. That's a 27.28 miles an hour sprint for the monk. That's just shy of Usain Bolt's current record. We all know what has to happen: Wizards needs to release that rule. I suppose, as the rules stand, you could put haste on that maxed out orc monk. Which, even with only one bonus action (for either Aggressive or Step of the Wind), adds up to 480 feet per 6 seconds. That's 54.55 miles an hour. Highway speeds for a car. Nice! That is, of course, assuming haste doubles speed after the Unarmored Speed feature is applied and not before. I'm sending that one in to Sage Advice. Incidentally, assuming a monk's Unarmored Speed applies directly to an aarakocra's flight speed, a maxed out monk, hasted, would make 73 miles an hour or so flying.
At this point, we did catch up with the fleeing orcs. Because they had run into reinforcements near the top of the path. Vrinn managed to get surrounded and dropped by those orcs before we got in enough support to kill the lot.
Then, after healing Vrinn's wounds, we did the only ethical thing: sent him ahead to scout again. He spotted a stone door and several arrow slits. Not satisfied with that information, we sent him back for more. This time, however, he was spotted and had a few crossbow bolts to show for it.
We made another plan. We used Squiz as bait, since he can get his AC up to 20 with shield going, to lure out the orcs' attacks then shoot back while they're firing. This only sort of worked. So Lydia dropped her Quaal's feather token in front of one of the windows. It blocked the attacks out of one, and provided and convenient way to climb into the other windows. Squiz climbed on up, then used Aganazzar's scorcher on a line of orcs. Parkour! and Fuego!
After dropping these sentries, we took a short rest. We found a secret door out of the arrow slit corridor and into the main gate area. The orcs had barred the inside of the stone door. Opposite the door was a deep chasm crossed by a rope bridge. We heard water gurgling up from the depth. Phox unbarred the door while the rest of us poked around for secret doors, finding an entrance to another arrow slit corridor on the other side of the stone door.
Someone lit a torch and dropped it into the chasm to test the depths, attracting the attention of orcs on the other side. We easily dropped them. The bridge held up under our weight, but the crossing wasn't without incident. It turns out Phox is scared of heights. So Lydia had to encourage her while crossing.
We broke at that point. Next week: more orcs? Probably.
Phox did what any good barbarian would do: she took off after them screaming at the top of her lungs. Lydia finds her pet human too interesting to let her die, so she followed. Vrinn and Hiro didn't want to watch us both die, so they followed.
So everyone else finished off the blinded orcs, and Squiz started harvesting orc heads, in the form of left ears.
When Phox, Lydia, Vrinn, and Hiro finally caught up to the fleeing orcs, they only managed to pin one of them, and the rest continued running up the path. At one point Vrinn even took off through the forest to skip the twitch-backs climbing the hill. Here though, Alec did some clever DMing. Orcs have a feature called Aggressive, which lets them use a bonus action to move up to their speed toward a hostile creature. They moved toward Vrinn, then used Dash and their normal movement to move past him.
Incidentally, PC orcs also get Aggressive. If something ever allows a creature to use 2 bonus actions on a turn, an orc monk or rogue could theoretically move up to 120ft (rogue) or 240ft (maxed out monk) in 6 seconds. That's a 27.28 miles an hour sprint for the monk. That's just shy of Usain Bolt's current record. We all know what has to happen: Wizards needs to release that rule. I suppose, as the rules stand, you could put haste on that maxed out orc monk. Which, even with only one bonus action (for either Aggressive or Step of the Wind), adds up to 480 feet per 6 seconds. That's 54.55 miles an hour. Highway speeds for a car. Nice! That is, of course, assuming haste doubles speed after the Unarmored Speed feature is applied and not before. I'm sending that one in to Sage Advice. Incidentally, assuming a monk's Unarmored Speed applies directly to an aarakocra's flight speed, a maxed out monk, hasted, would make 73 miles an hour or so flying.
At this point, we did catch up with the fleeing orcs. Because they had run into reinforcements near the top of the path. Vrinn managed to get surrounded and dropped by those orcs before we got in enough support to kill the lot.
Then, after healing Vrinn's wounds, we did the only ethical thing: sent him ahead to scout again. He spotted a stone door and several arrow slits. Not satisfied with that information, we sent him back for more. This time, however, he was spotted and had a few crossbow bolts to show for it.
We made another plan. We used Squiz as bait, since he can get his AC up to 20 with shield going, to lure out the orcs' attacks then shoot back while they're firing. This only sort of worked. So Lydia dropped her Quaal's feather token in front of one of the windows. It blocked the attacks out of one, and provided and convenient way to climb into the other windows. Squiz climbed on up, then used Aganazzar's scorcher on a line of orcs. Parkour! and Fuego!
After dropping these sentries, we took a short rest. We found a secret door out of the arrow slit corridor and into the main gate area. The orcs had barred the inside of the stone door. Opposite the door was a deep chasm crossed by a rope bridge. We heard water gurgling up from the depth. Phox unbarred the door while the rest of us poked around for secret doors, finding an entrance to another arrow slit corridor on the other side of the stone door.
Someone lit a torch and dropped it into the chasm to test the depths, attracting the attention of orcs on the other side. We easily dropped them. The bridge held up under our weight, but the crossing wasn't without incident. It turns out Phox is scared of heights. So Lydia had to encourage her while crossing.
We broke at that point. Next week: more orcs? Probably.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Kill All the Trees, No-Tongued Bastards.
Again, shit is happening. Always be aware of what's going on. Shit will affect you sooner or later.
So after resting in the fire snake den, we returned to where we fought the goblins and moved on. We continued to find infestations of bio-luminescent fungus in the corridors. We did find an intact wall mural depicting a dragon doing dragon stuff: burning down stuff and pillaging. We ran into another bugbear, this one apparently a fungus gardener. I got to viciously mock it out of my new Warlock Book of Shadows. Shannon suggested a Shakespeare insult generator to accompany this spell. Sounds legit. Phox took it out with a crit. Hopefully this breaks Kyla's bugbear curse?
During this scene we learned that Bruennor is meta-aware that Calvin re-statted him from a Knowledge Cleric to a Life Cleric, and has taken up a new hobby in response: drinking. We found ourselves in an area of plant-filled rooms. After opening some more doors we came to a different room.
It held a dragon statue with the eyes glowing blue and a circle of runes in the in front of it. As we moved to attack it, a shadow ambushed us. As you may recall, these incorporeal undead are weak to radiant damage. Auryx used moonbeam. I also used another new one out of my Book of Shadows: sacred flame. Bruennor also used that spell. But Calvin decided that being drunk reduces Wisdom (as well as Intelligence, Charisma, Dexterity, Strength...), so Bruennor kinda sucks at it, now. Once she had her moonbeam, Auryx became a giant honey badger. The thing had a bad habit of hiding behind that statue, so I broke out the drow racial ability to cast faerie fire, and it failed. Fortunately, Vrinn was finally able to sneak in and get a sneak attack off. Once we had beaten the shadow, we read the runes in the circle. It said in Draconic, "Sorcererous power illuminate my spirit." We tried putting some sapphires in dragon eyes again to no avail. Then Bruennor just said it out loud and got advantage on Charisma checks for a while.
Moving on we found a modest library. We took a short rest there. Vrinn poked around, finding a spell scroll of Melf's acid arrow. Phox tried to read by holding a book upside down. I helpfully flipped it right side up. Bruennor, in addition to his drinking problem, has also decided to take up the hobby of destroying and belittling knowledge. So he tried to vandalize books before the rest of us subdued him.
Beyond that we found some descending stairs! But dang it if we aren't players and we don't want that 100% map completion achievement (it unlocks a new skin for characters!), so we back-tracked to open more doors in the plant-filled area. We found a room of skeletons clearing scorched plant matter. As we engaged them, some twig blights appeared. We did have short discussion about Harryhausen, then moved on.
We found an octagonal room with more scorched plant matter and several holes in the walls. Squiz decided to stick his arm in one of the holes. He got attacked by another fire snake. Hiro used a new trick: charging his bow with psychic energy before attacking it. Needless to say, we won. Sqiz was rewarded for searching its lair, though, finding some sapphires.
Last, we found some goblins collecting edible lichen. We totally face murdered them, then moved back to library for another short rest. One of the fun features of the warlock: a short rest tops off their tank of spell slots.
The stairs led down, under a room we had explored, and then back up. It led down another corridor. We opened some stone doors, finding big old room full of goblins and twig blights. Another opened into another rift. Vrinn tried to pick a locked door, but failed. We fought the goblins, and they called for the Protector of the Twilight Grove, which summoned more twig blights! Hiro covered the area of that swarm of twig blights in darkness. Surprisingly they started moving away from us. Auryx dropped a flaming sphere to burn out the twig blights. Hiro also summoned up a pair of shadow beasts to block their retreat.
Squiz, once again proving he just exists to try different things, started throwing tridents. As Hiro's shadow beasts started killing blights, we had to check some rules. Apparently, if they kill a non-evil humanoid, it will raise a shadow in 4 hours. So we need to be careful with those. Once we had cleared the mob, we got to explore.
There was a back door to the locked room Vrinn failed to pick. It lead to a study with a soil floor. I found an interesting book written in draconic: Treasures of the Firelord. I opened it. It was trapped with a cold damage glyph of warding. Haha. Looking around we found some more spell scrolls: entangle and protection from poison.
We took a short rest back at the stairs. We decided, even though it would end with us running late, to go on to the final battle.
We came to a walled clearing: the site of the Gulthias Tree. We found Belak, and some humans: Sir Braford and Sharwyn Hucrele. The last two weren't looking good: a little bit like Zerg-infested Terrans but with wood. We got Belak monologuing about the tree: it grew from a stake used to kill a vampire. He using the fruit to "spread it's seed" as it were. Plus, he had turned Sharwyn and Sir Braford into "supplicants" of the Tree.
We concocted our plan: grab a red apple off the tree and use it to, hopefully, cure the transformed humans. Vrinn snuck around to the flank. Or tried to. This was the last straw, and Belak started fighting. Auryx finally got to use her entangle to tie down some of the enemies. Vrinn did manage to sprint up the tree and grab that apple as we were fighting twig blights, Belak, and the "supplicants." We managed to knock them out. I did helpfully remind newer players that you can decide to knock out a foe when you drop them to 0 hp in this edition. Yay more cinematic play style! Hiro got to score the killing blow on Belak.
While everyone else was trying to secure the humans for restoration, I listened to the strange voices in my head and poured lantern oil onto the Gulthias Tree and set it ablaze. Fortunately, the apple did cure the humans of their tree-infestation, and we were justly rewarded.
Next week, we move on to the Forge of Fury.
So after resting in the fire snake den, we returned to where we fought the goblins and moved on. We continued to find infestations of bio-luminescent fungus in the corridors. We did find an intact wall mural depicting a dragon doing dragon stuff: burning down stuff and pillaging. We ran into another bugbear, this one apparently a fungus gardener. I got to viciously mock it out of my new Warlock Book of Shadows. Shannon suggested a Shakespeare insult generator to accompany this spell. Sounds legit. Phox took it out with a crit. Hopefully this breaks Kyla's bugbear curse?
During this scene we learned that Bruennor is meta-aware that Calvin re-statted him from a Knowledge Cleric to a Life Cleric, and has taken up a new hobby in response: drinking. We found ourselves in an area of plant-filled rooms. After opening some more doors we came to a different room.
It held a dragon statue with the eyes glowing blue and a circle of runes in the in front of it. As we moved to attack it, a shadow ambushed us. As you may recall, these incorporeal undead are weak to radiant damage. Auryx used moonbeam. I also used another new one out of my Book of Shadows: sacred flame. Bruennor also used that spell. But Calvin decided that being drunk reduces Wisdom (as well as Intelligence, Charisma, Dexterity, Strength...), so Bruennor kinda sucks at it, now. Once she had her moonbeam, Auryx became a giant honey badger. The thing had a bad habit of hiding behind that statue, so I broke out the drow racial ability to cast faerie fire, and it failed. Fortunately, Vrinn was finally able to sneak in and get a sneak attack off. Once we had beaten the shadow, we read the runes in the circle. It said in Draconic, "Sorcererous power illuminate my spirit." We tried putting some sapphires in dragon eyes again to no avail. Then Bruennor just said it out loud and got advantage on Charisma checks for a while.
Moving on we found a modest library. We took a short rest there. Vrinn poked around, finding a spell scroll of Melf's acid arrow. Phox tried to read by holding a book upside down. I helpfully flipped it right side up. Bruennor, in addition to his drinking problem, has also decided to take up the hobby of destroying and belittling knowledge. So he tried to vandalize books before the rest of us subdued him.
Beyond that we found some descending stairs! But dang it if we aren't players and we don't want that 100% map completion achievement (it unlocks a new skin for characters!), so we back-tracked to open more doors in the plant-filled area. We found a room of skeletons clearing scorched plant matter. As we engaged them, some twig blights appeared. We did have short discussion about Harryhausen, then moved on.
We found an octagonal room with more scorched plant matter and several holes in the walls. Squiz decided to stick his arm in one of the holes. He got attacked by another fire snake. Hiro used a new trick: charging his bow with psychic energy before attacking it. Needless to say, we won. Sqiz was rewarded for searching its lair, though, finding some sapphires.
Last, we found some goblins collecting edible lichen. We totally face murdered them, then moved back to library for another short rest. One of the fun features of the warlock: a short rest tops off their tank of spell slots.
The stairs led down, under a room we had explored, and then back up. It led down another corridor. We opened some stone doors, finding big old room full of goblins and twig blights. Another opened into another rift. Vrinn tried to pick a locked door, but failed. We fought the goblins, and they called for the Protector of the Twilight Grove, which summoned more twig blights! Hiro covered the area of that swarm of twig blights in darkness. Surprisingly they started moving away from us. Auryx dropped a flaming sphere to burn out the twig blights. Hiro also summoned up a pair of shadow beasts to block their retreat.
Squiz, once again proving he just exists to try different things, started throwing tridents. As Hiro's shadow beasts started killing blights, we had to check some rules. Apparently, if they kill a non-evil humanoid, it will raise a shadow in 4 hours. So we need to be careful with those. Once we had cleared the mob, we got to explore.
There was a back door to the locked room Vrinn failed to pick. It lead to a study with a soil floor. I found an interesting book written in draconic: Treasures of the Firelord. I opened it. It was trapped with a cold damage glyph of warding. Haha. Looking around we found some more spell scrolls: entangle and protection from poison.
We took a short rest back at the stairs. We decided, even though it would end with us running late, to go on to the final battle.
We came to a walled clearing: the site of the Gulthias Tree. We found Belak, and some humans: Sir Braford and Sharwyn Hucrele. The last two weren't looking good: a little bit like Zerg-infested Terrans but with wood. We got Belak monologuing about the tree: it grew from a stake used to kill a vampire. He using the fruit to "spread it's seed" as it were. Plus, he had turned Sharwyn and Sir Braford into "supplicants" of the Tree.
We concocted our plan: grab a red apple off the tree and use it to, hopefully, cure the transformed humans. Vrinn snuck around to the flank. Or tried to. This was the last straw, and Belak started fighting. Auryx finally got to use her entangle to tie down some of the enemies. Vrinn did manage to sprint up the tree and grab that apple as we were fighting twig blights, Belak, and the "supplicants." We managed to knock them out. I did helpfully remind newer players that you can decide to knock out a foe when you drop them to 0 hp in this edition. Yay more cinematic play style! Hiro got to score the killing blow on Belak.
While everyone else was trying to secure the humans for restoration, I listened to the strange voices in my head and poured lantern oil onto the Gulthias Tree and set it ablaze. Fortunately, the apple did cure the humans of their tree-infestation, and we were justly rewarded.
Next week, we move on to the Forge of Fury.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)