Shattered Star: Gnome Baseball!

Game Date: 2/28/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 17
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Carlie Nackle (Chere) - Gnome Wizard
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger /Cleric/Rogue
Shemus (Cliff) - Elf Ranger
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
Today we started out resting on the beach, recovering from last session's epic fight with a statue.  After a long rest, we tried the nearby door and peeked into the next room. On the walls were murals depicting wanton acts between otherworldly beings and the Runelord Sorshen (whose body is now a party member named Tai, having changed her name after Sa'oa's mind took over Sorshen's body.  Confused yet?)  The murals were signed by an artist named Amivadeus Yasrin. 

Around the next corner was a gate.  Maruca picked the lock and we entered the next room.  A crimson-clad man approached and asked us for a password.  We quickly pointed out that his master Sorshen was with us, and he grudgingly let us pass.  In the next room we found a few more statues of Sorshen, but one was missing a head.  Two other statues' heads suddenly came off and grew legs.  We soon found ourselves in battle with a pair of sentinels.

Once they were destroyed, we saw another statue around the next corner.  We took a preemptive strike on this one, and killed it in a couple of rounds.  Through the next hall we saw more dirty murals.  Meruca, Slancio and Bjertha triggered a pit trap, but only Bjertha failed her save and fell.  She managed to land between the spikes, and didn't take much damage.

We spent a while figuring out how to get the party across the 15-foot long pit.  We did lots of tricks with ropes and pitons, some climbed across, others jumped.  Bjertha performed a Fastball Special on Carlie, easily tossing her across the pit.  Once we were all across, we made our way down the narrow hallway until we reached a door.  We kicked the door in, and saw a chanting Incubus.

The Incubus started out by trying to charm Bjertha, but failed.  We ganged up on the creature, and after a couple of rounds he vanished.  When he reappeared, he proclaimed, "If nothing else, the imposter must die!" and attacked Tai.  Bjertha finished the Incubus off with a double crit.

The next room was very warm.  It was a large room, with a two-tiered raised area in the middle.  In the center of the highest platform, a gray flame burned.  There were two side chambers, one of which had a set of doors.  On another wall there was an obvious secret passage - a dull gray section of wall next to an unlit torch.  Meruca got the idea to light the torch from the gray flame. 

When she touched the torch to the flame, four animated balls of fire jumped out of the flame and attacked us.  While we fought the fireballs - actually Cacodaemons - Maruca put the torch back on the sconce, and the secret door opened.  Carlie used a Shatter spell to damage all four fireballs, and it didn't take long to finish them off.

Note I had to leave the session early, but here's what I'm told happened next, courtesy of Rusty:

Shemus impetuously opened the doors to the west.  They found a hallway with ten doors; five on the south wall, and five on the north wall.  All but one of them said the same thing, translated from Thassilionian by Jasper: "Thou wouldst enter? Then thou must touch!"  The remaining door, the closest on the north wall, was covered with frost.  It said, "Thou wouldst enter to enjoy the company of the Runelord of Lust herself? Then thou must touch!"  So Shemus touched it.   Shemus, Slancio, and Carlie received a large amount of Cold damage.  The rest of the rooms were luxurious bedrooms.  Maruca and Slancio helped themselves to the sheets.  Shemus found a secret door in the west wall, which led to an even more luxurious bedroom, complete with a 10 x 15 ft bed.  Leaving that room, they found another room with benches and a starburst pattern on the floor that detected as magical. The group decided to back out of the room at that point.

 

Going back to the flame room, the door had shut again.  Bjertha lit the torch again, with no ill effects. They then spent several minutes trying to figure out how to shut the door again, and how to open it from the other side.  Eventually, Shemus had put the torch out, and went back up to the flame to light it again.  The Cacodaemons reappeared, showing a new ability, flame breath.  One breathed on Shemus, but he escaped the worst of it.  Another got Bjertha, Maruca, Tai, Carlie, and Jasper.  Jasper got dropped.  No sooner had he been brought up when another one breathed again, killing Jasper outright.  Shemus was dropped again before they were all dealt with. 

 

Finally going down the stairs, they came upon a large lascivious painting of Sorshen, arms outstretched in a welcoming embrace, lips twisted in a faintly cruel smile.  A phrase in a foreign tongue was inscribed in gold across the top of the mural.  The feet of the mural showed wear.  Slancio used his comprehend languages to get, "Prostrate thyself and demonstrate proper devotion, my sweet slave, if you wish to enter my domain."  Maruca, Slancio, Shemus, Carlie, Tai, and Bjertha kissed the feet and vanished in order.  That's where we stopped for the night.