Shattered Star: The Power of Lust

Game Date: 3/28/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 21
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Carlie Nackle (Angela, subbing for Chere) - Gnome Wizard
Fellany Mertien (Cliff) - Human Fighter
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger /Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard
Tai Lindro (Angela) - Human Monk/Warlock

The Session:

Our party fully rested after a fight with a group of Gray Maidens, today we proceeded to climb a large spiral staircase.  We ended up in a room with eight alcoves.  Seven of the alcoves had statues featuring each of the seven deadly sins.  It took us a minute to figure out which statue represented which sin.  The one confusing us most was greed, because it appeared to be offering a gift to one of the other statues. 

Some words carved in the floor instructed us to "embrace the lady and the lie".  We took this to mean the statues of Lust (because it was a statue of Sorshen), and Greed (because the statue was deceptive).  We hugged the statues, and the empty alcove filled with mist.  Stepping into the mist teleported us to another area. 

We wound up in a pair of seven-sided (and hard to draw) rooms with serpent mosaics on the floor.  At first this separated the party, but our rooms weren't far from each other. As our two groups reunited in the large connecting chamber, another woman stepped out from a room on the opposite side.  It was Oriana, leader of the Gray Maidens.  She began to address Tai (who looks like her master the Runelord Sorshen), but our ex-Maiden Fellany wasn't in the mood to talk.  Fight!

There wasn't a lot of moving around in this fight.  We pretty much surrounded her early on, and just kept whacking away.  Oriana's full plate made her hard to hit, and her Great Weapon Master ability meant that she hit hard.  Luckily, Slancio used effects that gave her disadvantage on attacks, so she missed a lot.  Tai finally delivered the killing blow. 

We looted the body, and took a short rest while we identified her items and attuned ourselves to our new equipment.  Bjertha got a Sentinel Shield (advantage on initiative and perception), and unfortunately accepted a cursed +1 Sword of Vengeance (which compels Bjertha to repeatedly attack anyone who damages her... not much of a change from her usual strategy anyway).  Tai got a Cloak of Spell Resistance (but later gave it to Meruca).  Fellany donned Oriana's armor, and took the Maiden's Helm (advantage on Intimidate checks, and the Command spell 3/day).  We also found the key to a locked chest we found in an earlier session.

The floor had two large snake mosaics, and a couple of wheels which rotated the entire mosaics.  We experimented with aligning the snakes in different ways.  When the two snakes were head-to-head, a golden mist appeared, and we hopped in.  This teleported us to a large round bedroom.  The room had several columns, some of which bore the bodies of tortured Maidens.  On a raised platform was a canopy bed, upon which the real Sorshen watched us appear.  She made some playfully suggestive comments, and Tai attacked her.

On Fellany's turn, she used her Maiden's Helm to command Sorshen: "Faint".  While the Runelored was prone, Bjertha attacked her four times.  Then Sorshen commanded Bjertha to attack Fellany.  A confuse spell hit Meruca, Bjertha, and Fellany, mostly causing them to walk in random directions. 

Sorshen was easy to hit, but she had powerful mind spells and multiple fireballs. These fireballs knocked a few of us down to zero.  Finally Tai hit Sorshen with a crit, combined with one of Slancio's inspirations, for a total of 35 damage.  This dropped the Runelord.  We did some healing and looted everything that wasn't nailed down.

Tai got some Boots of Speed, which is going to make the Monk a mobile monster.  Slancio got a wand of Dimension Door (14 charges left, not rechargeable).  We also found a few healing potions.  There were two gems on the bed's headboard, which matched some slots on more snake mosaics in the room.  Slancio used his Whispering Coin to get a hint on which mosaic to use, and we teleported once again.

We appeared in a magic-filled room filled with still more loot, including the Shard of Lust we'd been seeking.  We grabbed everything and sorted it out later.  We made our way back to the Gray Maidens' barracks, opened the locked chest, rested more, and took stock of our inventory. 

The chest had over 4,000 gold.  We also ended up with an Orb of Consumption, a Bag of Holding, a Breastplate of Fortification (AC 16+Dex, 25% chance to negate crits), Boots of Striding & Springing (walk 30, jump farther), an Immovable Rod, Goggles of Night, Ring of Lightning Resistance, and some valuable gems. 

During the night, Slancio - who is carrying the Lust shard - became overcome with a "longing" (if you know what I mean), which gave him the same effect as poison.  (Thomas: "If this lasts more than four hours, I should see a doctor, right?")  Tai helped him overcome it, but without that shard's Ioun Stone the feeling would come back every 12 hours.

We made our way back through the bowels of the Lighthouse.  We recovered Jasper's body, put it in Sorshen's crypt, took Tai's original body, and finally left the building.  Back through the swamps.  Eventually we reached Hassani's compound, but it was now a smoking ruin.  We investigated the bodies and found that some had died of axe wounds, and others had been chewed up. 

After days of travel, we got back to town and headed straight for Heidmarch Manor.  Sheila gave Slancio the Ioun Stone, calming his loins and giving him a +2 Charisma.  Sheila also went ahead and gave us the stone for the next shard we'll seek, the Shard of Gluttony.  Bjertha is carrying this stone, which gives her +2 CON.  We learned that the next shard is in the far away town of Kaer Maga.  We'll begin that journey after about twenty days of downtime.

Glad to have a second chance at life, Tai returned her original body to her mother.  While Tai tried to hide the fact that her mind was in a new body, her deception may not have been successful.  Slancio got a visit from his girlfriend.  Bjertha was visited by a gnome named Mortimer, who gave us a side mission in Kaer Maga: there is a family of Golem makers there, and he wants some of their scraps so he can reverse engineer the process.  Meruca got a visit from a member of the Nightscales criminal organization, who wants her to deliver a severed tattooed hand to Kaer Maga.

We all leveled.  With much updating of character sheets and plenty of downtime before our next trip, we ended the session.