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a-d-n-d-journal · 4 years

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Game Session #8

Characters:

Bakunawa, dragonborn paladin; copper scales, chainmail, a shortsword and shield

Zastu, dragonborn rogue; white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Rysiel, half-elf druid; simple clothing and leather armor, scimitar

Teir, tiefling warlock; vibrant gold skin and black hair w/silver highlights, horns, hooves, expensive-looking clothes and leather armor, carries a dagger as his only (physical) weapon

NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Alara Winterspell, human (Rashemi) fighter; deceptively light and warm head wrap, chain shirt, dagger, shortsword

Kaelen Zam, human (Illuskan) fighter; bald, small handlebar mustouche, chain shirt, dagger, greataxe

Bats! Teir and Guard Kaelen manage to leave the swarm, taking minimal damage based on how far they had to move. Bakunawa also leaves the swarm, but takes a swing at the bats flapping around him, causing a few to fall to the ground dead. There are still several hundred bats. Zastu uses her prepared action to breathe acid at the swarm, causing a swath of them to fall to the ground and create a little gap that lasts for half a second. Rysiel casts a really impressive Moonbeam, causing a wide cylinder of silvery light to appear within the swarm, dealing damage on the bats' turn for about a minute. But on the bats' turn, they settle down and return to their roost. Rysiel dismisses his cool moon spell.

DM note: this is a difficult situation for me as a DM--I know that technically the party can completely kill all the bats in the swarm, but it will deplete their resources by quite a bit. While they won't get damaged much, they need these spells for a later fight, which you'll see... The point of this encounter was to fill out the atmosphere of the cave and give a sense of what the villagers have been through--the event was scripted to end when I rolled a 6 on the bats' turn, which happened in round 2... But I can't tell them any of that, so they make the best choices they can based on what they know: there's a swarm of bats attacking them and the villagers they came to rescue.

Rysiel reaches the bad rooster and manages to calm him so he doesn't crow again. Bakunawa talks to the defacto leader of the Nightstone villagers--a dwarf named Morak Ur'gray, the owner of the inn. He explains about leading the villagers to the caves, and their capture by the goblins. The party stops briefly to pick up some weapons, handing shortswords to the injured and disarmed guards they found with the villagers and a shortbow to Baku (with arrows from Zastu). Then they take a Short Rest outside the cave to heal some HP (B:10, R:9, T:5, Z:4) and regain some spells (B:0, R:2, T:2). The priest of Lathandar (Hiral) performs a very fervent prayer over the party--but no one is sure what it does. Hiral isn't a spell-casting cleric. Teir uses a ritual to cast Alarm over the area while Rysiel distributes muffins and cheese to the party members, then smokes a pipe (+inspiration).

The party prepares to fight the mystierous ooze monster that Snigbat told them about by getting into a marching order: Front: Rysiel Middle: Bakunawa, Kaelen Back: Zastu, Teir Rear: Sydiri A lantern still swings from Kaelen's belt, and Zastu manages to rig her bullseye lantern to shine (mostly) ahead of her. After a short winding tunnel, the party arrives in a small cave full of stalagmites. In the middle of the cave is a particularly large stalagmite full of holes. Three swords lie at the base of the stalagmite--two very rusty and pitted, one shiny and nice. Two tunnels branch off the cave on opposite ends. Rysiel casts Produce Flame and tosses it down one each of the tunnels. Nothing happens, but he sees that the tunnels are winding. He picks up a rock and throws it down a tunnel. Again, nothing happens. The druid investigates the cave (roll:3), but just ends up cutting himself on the shiny sword. Teir attempts his own intimidation investigation of the cave (roll:5), but the sword seems to be the only interesting thing to him. His knowledge of history (roll:24) tells him that this unusual sword with strange (giant) runes was one of many used to kill many goblinoids. Bakunawa claims it happily. The party (correctly) deduces that one of the tunnels leads out of the cave complex to an exit they had scouted earlier, so they go the other way.

Rysiel reaches the end of the other tunnel at the head of the party. A nice waterfall splashes into a deep (5ft) pool here, and there are several slightly glowing green mushrooms. Zastu hears a sound behind her, and reacts just in time to see an enourmous black blob oozing toward them!

DM note: I was so, so sad that the characters didn't roll high enough to discover the Black Pudding inside the hollow stalagmite, and NONE of them suggested looking into the holes... SO, they had their squishiest characters placed closest to the monster when it attacked...

Round 0 Zastu breathes out her acid breath in shock, but the acid doesn't affect the oozing blackness. She pushes past Teir and Bakunawa in an effort to get away from the gross thing. With Teir being the closest target now, the Black Pudding stretches out a massive Pseudopod and hits the warlock square-on (critial hit: 10 bludgeoning + 20 acid; Teir had nearly full HP with 17, leaving him at -13), knocking him out and covering him with acid that destroys his armor (-2AC due to a crit). He would have died outright*, but a faint glow covers his body and Hiral's blessing is used up, leaving Teir in a stable condition at 0hp**. Teir tries to use Hellish Rebuke, but he doesn't realize that he's already unconscious, and the ability fails. Bakunawa tries to impose disadvantage with his Protection ability, but he's too far away. Round 1 Bakunawa declares a Vow of Enmity on the Black Pudding for fatally wounding Teir, granting him Advantage on attack rolls. He then swings his new +1 Longsword at the ooze. The ooze quivers and is cut in two, some of its blobby goodness being lost in the process.*** Zastu hides in a dark corner to watch. Rysiel steps up and conjures a flame blade, lighting up the tunnel and dealing a large amount of fire damage to one of the new smaller blobs. He forgets to step back behind Bakunawa though, and both blobs attack him. The first misses, but the second gets its pseudopod on Rysiel, just barely knocking him out as well (5 bludgeoning + 22 acid; -1AC; he had 27 hp) Kaelen steps in, swinging his new Greataxe and cutting the injured ooze in half again. Round 2 Bakunawa breathes out a huge gout of fire, filling the upper parts of the tunnel (missing Rysiel and Teir, who lie on the ground), scorching the Black Pudding on the walls and destroying the two smallest ones.**** Zastu comes out of hiding to shoot an arrow at the remaining ooze, dealing full damage.***** Rysiel and Teir** make death-saving throws. The Black pudding attacks Bakunawa, but misses. Kaelen darts forward and cuts the ooze in half again (dammit Kaelen!), but deals damage. Round 3 Bakunawa swings at one of the ever-splitting, ever-shrinking oozes. He hits, but it doesn't split in half! Zastu aims her bow at that one and shoots. The ooze dissipates and is gone! She shrinks back into the shadows. Rysiel and Teir** make death-saving throws again, and Rysiel gets a crit-fail. Uh oh. The remaining small Black Pudding attacks Bakunawa again, but misses. Kaelen hits the ooze with a critical strike, but oozes are immune to crits... The ooze doesn't split. Round 4 Bakunawa attacks with his sword. The ooze still doesn't split... Zastu fires her bow, but misses. Rysiel and Teir** make death-saving throws. The Black Pudding attacks Bakunawa and gets a critical hit! Bakunawa falls to the ground, unconscious and covered in acid that eats at his armor. (7 bludgeoning + 34 acid; -2AC from the crit leaves his chainmail with 14AC) Kaelen strikes one final time with his greataxe, sundering the remaining ooze. But people are dying!

DM notes: *I made a couple mistakes: First, Hiral's blessing should have left the character at 1hp, not prevented a death; Second: 5e differs from 3.5e in that death doesn't occur at -10hp, it happens at negative max hp, so -18hp for Teir; **Even though I would forget this almost immediately... ***Technically it was immune to Slashing damage, but I thought it was a bit much for it to split AND not take damage, so I dealt half-damage instead ****Pro-tip: If your enemy can split, they probably have half the HP, so area attacks that hit multiple targets are twice as effective!!! *****Black Pudding aren't immune nor resistant to Piercing

Zastu and guard Kaelen stabilize their dying teammates. Sighing, Zastu robs all of them out of spite, coming away with almost 40 gold. She gives 5 to Kaelen to keep quiet, then they fetch the village guards to help carry them out of the cave. The villagers and everyone set up a temporary camp within the treeline, just barely able to see across the meadow out to the walls of Nightstone. Zastu takes a walk in the forest to clear her head and try to find a way to get a message to her gang. She's looking for bandits who might be camping out, but instead a group of Elf scouts finds her. The elves question her as to why she's in their part of the forest. She explains the situation, and they guide her back to the temporary camp, after extracting a promise from her that there will be no hunting. She takes the opportunity to ask about the cloud giants... They answer that there was one very very large cloud castle that came by three days ago, responsible for dropping the boulders on the village. They point the direction it left in (East-north-east). There was also a second, much smaller cloud tower that was seen recently over the forest--this one had a comical pointy-wizard's hat for a roof/spire. When asked if this was normal, the elves reply that it happens fairly often relative to an elf's lifespan--maybe once a decade, but seeing two within a few days is unusual.

By the time Zastu returns to the camp, Rysiel is awake. The druid uses a spell slot to cast Cure Wounds on Bakunawa, waking him. The paladin then wakes Teir with a use of Lay on Hands. Morak explains further to the elves, who allow them to stay where they are if they wish. The dwarven innkeeper agrees with the party members to keep the villagers outside the village, despite days of capture within the caves. However, he insists on sending a few guards to check out these bandits they mentioned and get more info for himself. Zastu still wants to get a message out to her gang in Waterdeep, and sees an opportunity with the bandits inside the village, so she volunteers to go ahead of the guards.

At the gates to Nightstone, Zastu calls up (alone) to the two lookouts that Xolkin has posted in the towers. The fetch the bandit leader and lower the drawbridge for him. When Xolkin comes out, he has a very civil conversation with Zastu, again extending the invitation for her to join the Zhentarim. He compliments her tenacity and ability to stay alive, and agrees to get her message to Waterdeep (for a hefty 5g) even as she declines (again) to join him. He warns her that he intends to keep the village as a Zhentarim outpost, but the villagers are welcome back into their homes (just not her party members who attacked him). He wants a partnership with them, and since the noble controlling the village is dead... Zastu writes a message in code, and gives it to Xolkin to get to her contact (Gervis) in Waterdeep. In brief, it describes how she was able to swindle this noble and paladin to steal some money, and how great an asset she is to the gang. She also asks if they want her continue to siphon money off, or return to Waterdeep with it now?

Zastu goes to the guards standing back from the village and explains the situation, then the return to the camp. Morak takes in all the info and talks further with the party... Sounds like it's possible to return to the village, so the adventurers ask if Morak can maybe distract the bandits so they can get into the fort to spend the night. Morak agrees.

After packing up the camp, Morak, the adventurers, and the villagers walk down to the lowered drawbridge. Xolkin meets them there, but Kella and some of the other bandits are posts in the towers with their crossbows out. The bandit leader and Morak have a conversation with some brief comments from the adventurers. Xolkin points out how respectful they've been to the dead in the town, and how they haven't stolen anything, and even started carting out the bodies of the goblins and orcs--a battle which they could totally have run from, but didn't. He also points out that the adventurers attacked first during their fight*. But Morak is still skeptical, and as Bakunawa points out, the Zhentarim are well-known for trafficking in slaves and black-market items like poison. (*--technically a lie since one of his people let off a crossbow by accident while Teir set off non-damaging spells) In the end, they agree to take the conversation to the inn, and let the villagers in. Zastu sneaks in with them leading Bobble the horse, while Rysiel Wildshapes into a house cat to come as well. The Rillix the tressym flies along nearby, but Jest the Rooster has gone missing again. Once inside, Rysiel and Zastu go to the broken bridge between village and fort, and lower some ropes to help the others up. They spend the night in the fort. (Long Rest and level 4!)

Spells cast:

Bakunawa:

Paladin abilities: Vow of Enmity (Channel Divinity) Lay on Hands

Slots: 1st 3/3 Regained: 0

Rysiel:

Cantrips: Produce Flame x2,

Spells: Moonbeam (2nd), Flame Blade (2nd), Cure Wounds (1st)

Slots: 1st 3/4 +1 used; 2nd 1/2 +2 used Regained: 2 levels (1 2nd-level slot)

Teir:

Rituals: Alarm

Slots: 2/2 Regained: All slots on Short Rest

Killcount:

...It's hazy, but Baknawa, Zastu, and Kaelen all destroyed part of the Black Pudding

Treasure looted:

3 Shortswords for the village guards

+1 Longsword of ?? (Bakunawa)

Zastu looted 39g 18s from her party members! (Giving 5g to Kalen, and 5g to Xolkin)

Other Important Notes:

Teir's leather armor was destroyed (10ac)

Rysiel's leather armor is half-destroyed (11ac)

Bakunawa's chaimnail is partially destroyed (14ac)

All three have major scarring from acid burns, but Rysiel has noticably less

#5e #A Great Upheaval #A Party Most Queer #D&D #session #Storm King's Thunder

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