Shattered Star: TROLL SMASH!!!

Game Date: 4/25/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 24
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

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

The Session:
Last session we fought several tough plants and clockwork enemies in a tinkerer's mansion, and ended with a long rest (in a magic hut) in the manor's front yard.  Today we finished up the rest, during which we saw a winged person fly by a few times.  Then we explored the last few rooms on the first floor, and headed up the stairs.

 On the second floor we found a shrine to the goddess of inventors and constructs, in a room full of clockwork devices and torn tapestries.  Another room had been turned into a nest, apparently for some sort of very large avian.  There was a catwalk leading to the other side of the upper floor, but the bridge shook when we tried to walk on it.

On the other side of the catwalk, two enemies attacked us from a distance.  It was a Catfolk named Kanya, and her lover, a Harpy named Herifax.  To kick off the battle, Herifax sang a song which charmed half the party, compelling them to come closer to her.  Then she flew off, causing the charmed party members to jump off the balcony in their attempts to follow her. 

The fight against Kanya was tough at first because there wasn't enough room to get near her - because of her position in one corner of the balcony, there were only two squares adjacent to her.  But as more party members went after Herifax, this freed up room on the balcony.  As the harpy fired on us from the air, Carlie fired a web spell at her, causing Herifax to crash to the ground.  The party members who had followed her earlier now surrounded the fallen harpy.  Having made their saves against the compulsion, they happily ganged up on her.

Maruca dealt a final blow to Kanya, using one of her "roll every die on the table" attacks that was a combination of a crit, hunter's mark, inspiration, sneak attack, and probably a few things I've never even heard of.  Herifax made one last attempt to fly off, but Tai hit her with a sleep spell, and Carlie finished her off with a simple firebolt.

On their bodies we found two rings of protection, some keys, and a potion.  One of the keys opened a trunk in the harpy's nest room.  The trunk contained a skull, a Golembane Scarab (which removes damage reduction from golems), a ukelele, and a journal.  Now across the bridge we found a bedroom, a bathroom, and another set of stairs.  We went up one more flight, and found the tinkerer's workroom. 

In one corner was a troll, the very troll we'd been sent to rescue.  Agustille the troll was in terrible shape, being held in place by an apparatus which drained his life as quickly as he could regenerate.  Across the room stood the troll's kidnapper Berkanin, wearing mechanical wings and threatening to use us for experiments.  His familiar, a small clockwork dragon named Petey, and two mechanical soldiers also faced us.

At 20x30, it was a small room for so many people, and some of our party members were stuck down the stairs for a good portion of the fight.  Meruca spent most of her turns trying to free the troll.  Berkanin tried to fly off, but was stopped thanks to Bjertha's "Sentinel" feat.  Then Berkanin used a mind spell to dominate Bjertha, commanding her to "Defend me."  Then a clockwork soldier attacked Bjertha.

This caused a bit of a conundrum.  The dominate spell meant Bjertha should attack her own party members.  However, Bjertha's Sword of Vengeance required her to attack the last creature that damaged her.  After a quick DM ruling and a couple of will saves, Bjertha attacked Meruca.  Meanwhile, Tai kept trying to stuff Petey in a bag, but the dragon was having none of it.

Berkanin flew off.  There was some open air between the top of the wall and the city's ceiling, giving flying characters a great use of cover.  Berkanin cast Evard's Black Tentacles on the room, which was very harmful but it dropped Bjertha's domination.  Carlie flew out of the room, and Slancio dispelled the tentacles.  Most of our party was still clustered in the corner, and Berkanin took advantage by casting Fireball.  At this point we were starting to really hurt on hit points, healing up at every opportunity.

Meruca freed the troll, rolled 20 on a persuasion check, and Augustille joined our party.  His first act was to destroy one of the clockwork soldiers. Berkanin cast another fireball, which thankfully killed the other soldier but still left us hurting.  Carlie, now in an aerial battle with Berkanin, hurled a fireball of her own at her winged opponent.  Meruca climbed the walls and fired a few magic missiles from her wand.  Petey flew off for good.  Then Tai climbed the wall, jumped over to Berkanin and grappled him in midair.  Performing the most spectacular aerial bodyslam in wrestling history, she drove him to the ground, finishing the battle.

Back in the lab, Augustille the troll went berserk, attacking all of us.  Slancio used a mass hypnosis spell to calm the troll, and ordered the rest of us to tie Augustille up.  When he finally came out of it, he was calm and rational again.  We looted everything we could find.  We picked up a third Ring of Protection, a Wand of False Life (7 charges), Berkanin's wings (which give a fly speed of 30), 81 platinum and 121 gold.

We took Augustille back to the Auger Temple, and met with his sister Vargun.  Before we left, he gave us a prophesy:

The owl will seek but will not find,
but spire of knowledge pays in kind
in secret kept in secret keep
in forest dark and cavern deep.

The abbey of the glutton moon
will flow with blood, the wind in tune
to finish that begun before
and open wide the doomsday door.

The shattered star with seven shards
for seven lords with seven swords
the queen of blue in distant skies
will kindle new the ancient wars.

The seas will rise and men will drown
And what was lost shall claim the crown.

We also picked up a few more rumors.  Word on the street said that "The Council of Truth" (an order of scholars and engineers) has returned; their owl sigil had been seen around town.  Also the Therassic Spire library had mysteriously closed, and was connected to rumors of the next shard.  We ended the session there, preparing for to a visit to the library. 

Notes:
Since Chere will be out for the month of May, we're just going to leave Carlie back at the hotel for now.  So our library expedition will be sans wizard.  Also, the party may have caught on that Bjertha's sword is cursed.