Shattered Star: Feed Me, Seymour!

Game Date: 4/11/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 23
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Carlie Nackle (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:
Last week our party arrived in Kaer Maga.  We began today's session still settling in to town, and wrapping up some minor business.  Tai took care her cursed bracers, and Maruca somewhat clumsily delivered a severed hand for the Nightscales.  We spent the rest of today's session trying to break into a house.

Our search for a missing person led us to a wealthy home.  The richest dwellings in this town are positioned on ledges, where the elite can reside above the rest of the rabble.  When we reached the site, our first task was to find a way up ledge.  There was a set of stairs, and an elevator powered by a system of pulleys and gears.  We chose to give the elevator a try.

The elevator broke down on its way up.  Most of us took falling damage, then additional damage as components of the elevator rained down on us.  As we climbed out of the wreckage, we saw a small mechanical dragon fly by.  Then the house's security system went off.  Several eyes opened up in the stonework and recited a "No solicitors" message.

Not willing to take no for an answer, Tai climbed the wall and let down a rope for the rest of us.  At the top, Tai found that the opulent house was surrounded by gardens.  Two huge plants started moving, quickly closing the distance and grappling Tai.  Slancio and Carlie used fly spells to give her some support, and the rest of us climbed the rope.  Bjertha made it to the top after a couple of rounds, but Meruca and Fellany spent most of the fight trying to get up the rope.

The plants kept grappling Tai and Bjertha, doing a lot of damage and trying to eat them. Tai got swallowed at one point, so it was a scramble to finish them off before our monk was digested.  Carlie used her lightning wand for some decent damage, and Bjertha delivered the killing blow.  We cut Tai out of the plant's stomach, just in the nick of time.  We licked our wounds a bit while exploring the area.

Fellany approached a gazebo in the middle of the garden.  Gazebos have something of a history in D&D, and this one was no less dangerous.  A Lurker Above descended from the gazebo's ceiling, and grappled Fellany with its long tendrils.  The lurker had unbelievably high attack rolls, but there was only one of it and six of us.  Carlie hit it with a lightning spell for 37 damage, and Tai finished it off. 

Now we were really hurting, but we didn't want to rest in this area.  After a brief discussion about the appropriateness of adding advanced Pathfinder templates to D&D 5e monsters, we downed some healing potions and kept on.  We opened the front door of the house, where we saw a pair of clockwork soldiers.  We tried to talk to them, but got no response, so we just attacked.  Meruca finished off the first one with one of her "roll every die on the table" moves.  Slancio, in a rare melee moment, showed his swashbuckling skills by dispatching the second one.

There was a lot of clockwork in this room.  Carlie was fascinated by the work, and confiscated a small eyeball creature called an Arbiter.  Bjertha salvaged some of the gears for a side mission she's been working on.  We kept looking through the house.  In another room we saw a pair of terra cotta statues.  We were genre savvy enough to know they would attack, and we weren't disappointed.

Shortly after the fight began, another construct joined the fight.  It was a "tupilaq", a large-jawed creature carved from whale-bone.  It came up from behind Carlie and started chewing on her.  Carlie tried to cast Sleep on it, but centered the spell on the creature instead of at a point farther away.  The spell didn't affect the tupilaq but unfortunately caused Carlie to lose consciousness.  The tuplilaq took Carlie to 0 followed by Tai. 

The rest of us kept wearing down our foes.  Meruca finished off the tupliaq, Slancio killed one of the terra cotta soldiers, and Bjertha defeated the final one with an opportunity attack.  We then had a long discussion on whether we should take a short rest or a long one, finally settling on a long rest using a "Leomund's Tiny Hut" spell.  The hut should keep us safe from harm, but it's going to stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of the garden.  We won't know until next week if we're going to be discovered during the rest.

Reminders:
Daniel is out on 4/18, Thomas is out on 4/25, and Chere is out for the month of May.  We might make a group trip to the RenFest sometime in May.