Saturday, May 30, 2015

Shattered Star: Mananana(nggal)! Do dooooo do do do...

Game Date: 5/30/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 27
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (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

Full party today.  Left to right: Bjertha, Tai, Carlie, Fellany, Slancio, Maruca
The Session:
When we left off last week, a friendly brain was about to teleport us into a pocket dimension, which is not a sentence I've had to type very often.  We arrived in the Dark Forest, standing by a trail that led to the Black Keep.  The keep was a fine example of bizarrchitecture, with many wings that had been added with no structural support, stubbornly refusing to obey the laws of gravity.

Immediately after our arrival, we were attacked by two swarms of rot grubs.  These could not be harmed by our physical weapons, so we moved away from them.   Meruca got hit and several grubs burrowed into her skin.  The swarms moved slowly, so we kept our distance while Carlie used Burning Hands and Slancio viciously mocked them.  Bjertha burned Meruca's grubs with a torch, and eventually Carlie used Shocking Grasp to painfully cure Meruca.

Meanwhile, a trio of flying Wyverns joined the fight.  They had poisonous bites, which one immediately used on Slancio.  Tai teleported onto the back of one Wyvern, grappling and stabbing it with glee.  Then Tai stunned her mount, causing it to crash to the ground.  Fellany finished off Tai's mount while Bjertha killed another Wyvern.

All the while we were still playing keep away with the grub swarms.  Carlie hit them with spell after spell, until they finally dissipated.  The final Wyvern perched on top of the keep, and Tai tried her mounting trick again.  This time she rode the Wyvern into an area behind one of the keep's walls, out of our view.  When the Wyvern finally resurfaced and attacked the main party, Slancio finished it off.

Tai's adventure behind the wall allowed her to find a side door, which we used to enter the keep.  We entered a great hall, with sculptures of a headless knight and suits of armor in the corners.  Tai went back outside to get something when the doors slammed shut, separating her from the party.  A green mist fumed out from the suits of armor, coalescing into two large foggy shapes.  Then a head with bat wings flew into the room.  We faced a pair of Hungry Fogs, and a Manananggal.

Slancio cast Knock at the front door, alerting Tai so she could join the fight.  First we ganged up on the Manananananawhatever, until Tai killed it.  This left us with just the fogs.  They only had +2 to their attack rolls, so it looked like an easy fight...  until Fellany failed a fear save, fleeing until she opened the next door, triggering the next encounter early.  This side room held a porcupine-person called a Pukwudgie, and four Wights. 

This is where things got difficult.  The Wights were hard enough as it was, but they could heal themselves by entering the fogs, making for a deadly combination.  Carlie, Fellany, and Bjertha all went down at least once this fight, nearly staying down for good.  Tai killed one fog, then used her great speed to rescue Carlie from the thick of things.  Meruca, Slancio, Carlie, and Tai went out the front door and attacked from a distance, but the Wraiths followed them out the door and off the battlemat.

Once the fogs were gone we did a little healing and started to make some progress.  Bjertha, Slancio, Meruca, and Tai each killed one Wraith, and Meruca finished off the porcupine guy.  We ended the session there, licking our wounds and taking stock of our immediate surroundings.  We would really like at least a short rest, but in this hostile dimension it might not be in the cards.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Shattered Star: Happy Mouthers Day

Game Date: 5/16/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 26
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

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

The Session:
So, we're making our way through the dungeon beneath the library, looking for the last couple of members of the missing expedition group.  In one room there was a sand floor with bits of armor scattered about.  Up on a balcony was a throne overlooking the room.  Two Gibbering Mouthers showed up on the sand, while a brain with tentacles watched from the balcony.

"Sir Slancio ran away..."
This had the potential to be a difficult encounter.  However, Slancio won initiative and started things off by casting Hypnotic Pattern.  Then he ran out of the room, past the rest of the party, and hid from the encounter - Slancio doesn't like to mess with mind-affecting monsters.  All three monsters were stunned by Slancio's spell, and we could have taken them out one at a time, but we didn't focus fire.  Bjertha was blinded at one point by a Mouther's spittle.

Still, it wasn't too hard.  We managed to kill both Mouthers without waking the brain, and Tai managed to kill the brain with one hit before it could take any actions.  There was nothing of value in this room, so we went back to the main hall and tried another door. 

In the next room the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky (Hogwarts should sue).  The floor was covered with vines, and there was a giant flowering plant in the center.  A nature check later revealed it was a "Moonflower" - a plant from outer space.  Bjertha attacked the Moonflower while Slancio fled down the hall.  Bjertha and Meruca both got swallowed during the fight, but they survived.  Once we'd fully destroyed this mean green mother from outer space, we took a short rest.

The next room was perfectly cylindrical, with a small platform in the middle.  Sitting in the center was a gnome bloatmage, one of the explorers we've been searching for.  He greeted us, showing delusions of grandeur, then pulled a lever.  The room started spinning like one of those centrifuge rides at the fair.  While we were pinned against the walls, the gnome explained that it wasn't just the room, but the entire world that was spinning around the gnome.  He was probably fooling himself.

Using all our strength, we made our way to the center of the room, pulled the lever, and grabbed the gnome.  He kept using fireballs and fire shield spells, damaging us greatly.  His fireballs damaged himself as well as us, but he was too crazy to care.  His final fireball burned himself to a crisp.  On his body we found a jar of magic leeches.  We took a short rest and did a LOT of healing.

At the end of the main hallway there was a small, bright room.  Inside there were three small fey, called "Lurkers in the Light", who were nearly invisible in bright light.  Tai used darkness to fight them, but they just countered with daylight spells.  The rest of the party had difficulty seeing them either way, but we managed to kill them.  We took another short rest.

Another room was partly filled with water.  In the center was a large fish in a cage.  The fish had some sort of metal plate attached to its head, with wires coming out of it.  Slancio tried talking to it with a Speak With Animals spell, but it didn't respond.  Bjertha, Tai, and Fellany entered the room, and steel doors slammed shut, with Slancio and Meruca still in the previous room.  The room started filling with water.

The party wasn't separated long.  Slancio opened the door with a Knock spell, and joined the fray.  The room still kept filling with water despite having more area to flow into.  Every once in a while the fish would electrify the room, hurting all of us.  Bjertha delivered the killing blow on the fish, which exploded.  The room then drained.  It turned out the fish was magical, functioning like a "Create Water" spell.  We spent some time playing with its organs before taking a long rest.

In the next room we found the last explorer, a naga.  She was trying to figure out a puzzle to open the next door.  There were paintings on the walls, one of a dark forest and one of a subterranean city.  There were runes on the door representing the seven deadly sins, and a spot in the middle where you could draw runes.  If you drew the wrong one, you would get shocked for a ton of damage.  The naga had already tried once, and wasn't willing to try again.

All of us but Tai gathered in the previous room, while Tai tried drawing a rune.  She was shocked.  Then Bjertha tried a different rune, and was shocked.  But Bjertha has a Sword of Vengeance, which makes her fly into a rage when attacked, so she attacked the door while taking shock after shock.  She finally destroyed the door with one hit point left.  That's one way to solve a puzzle.

The next room was a natural cavern, with a stone bridge over a river.  The naga tried to talk us into leaving her, but we refused to leave.  Then two Hydrodaemons burst from the river, one of which summoned a Water Elemental.  The naga joined their side, giving us four large enemies to fight.  Slancio used an Entangle spell to control their movement.  Fellany got engulfed by the Elemental, and retreated to the previous room with Slancio and Meruca.  Tai used Darkness spells to solo her targets, which worked well but prevented us from giving her much help. 

After the battle we found a Ring of Mind Shielding on the Naga's tail.  We took the Naga back to the librarians, and went back to the cavern.  Around the corner we met another brain creature, and a pair of monstrosities with two mouths.  They were friendly to us, and offered to teleport us to the Dark Forest so we could find the next shard.  They warned us that the forest is the domain of the "Black Rider". 

We all took a long rest and leveled up.  Next session is on 5/30.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Shattered Star: Chain Gang

Game Date: 5/2/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 25
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Fellany Mertien (Matt, Subbing for Cliff) - Human Fighter
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger /Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard
Tai Lindro (Angela) - Human Monk/Warlock

The Session:
Following a lead from the Augers, we decided to check out the mysterious closing of the Therassic Spire library.  The librarians didn't want to let us in at first, but they were more forthcoming when we revealed we were seeking the Shard.  They explained that they'd recently found a passage to the Underdark under the library.  About a week ago they'd sent an expedition to explore the tunnels, but no one had come back.

Four people were missing:  A female human monk, her halfling rogue husband, a male gnome bloatmage, and a female dark naga.  We offered to look for the missing explorers while we sought the shard, and the librarians offered a reward.  We will receive 2000 gold for each one we bring back alive, or failing that, 1000 for each body we return.

We descended to the lower levels of the library, where several librarians guarded a stone door.  We entered a twisting passage and came out in a small square room.  In the center of the room a purple blob asked us a question in another language.  Slancio attempted to cast Comprehend Languages.  The blob turned into a rune which hit us with a despair effect, followed by fear.  Slancio fled out the room's opposite door, and Bjertha pursued to catch him.  Meanwhile Meruca fled back towards the library, and Tai had to retrieve her.

Once everyone overcame their fear, we regrouped in a hall and started trying doors.  The first door led to a round room with a seven pointed star on the floor.  There as a disembodied snake head floating above the star.  The head said, "I'm so sorry my friends."  His body appeared, that of a celestial snake with feathered wings.  It attacked.

Tai stunned the snake, and we spent a round pounding on it before it surrendered.  It turned out it was actually a good creature, but he had been under a compulsion effect when he attacked.  We asked him a few questions, Slancio flirted with it a little (he's like that), and it gave us three feathers we can use to summon it later as a planar ally.  We let it leave, and went back into the hall.

We opened the next door and saw three beautiful women dressed only in chains, beckoning to Slancio.  We stayed back, but these chain devil sisters summoned their chains down from the ceiling to grab us.  Bjertha was the first to get caught, and her inability to make her escape checks kept her out of most of the fight.  And since she was blocking the door, things got complicated.  But we persevered, muscling through the chains to fight them.  Meruca delivered all three killing blows, one at a time.

We found two cloaks of protection and a  cloak of elvenkind.  We went back into the hallway and took the next door.  This led to a large round room with a model of the planets in the center.  By playing with the levers and gears, we could make it show the solar system or the town we were in, and we could make time move backward or forward.

We saw a dark spot growing in the sky above us, and two "Hounds of Tindalous" jumped out of cracks in the walls and attacked us.  Bjertha had been looking through one of the cracks when they appeared, so she got hit hard off the bat.  After we killed the two hounds, we went through a door on the other side of the room.

In the next room we found two of the missing explorers.  The halfling rogue was on the ground, and the human monk was crying over him.  The monk had been driven mad by her husband's death, and she attacked us.  Meanwhile, a swarm of wasps escaped from the halfling's mouth.  So we had to beat the monk down without killing her, and wipe out the swarm.  It wasn't easy.

After the battle, we found some books of Undercity lore on the halfling's body.  We took the body and the bound monk back to the librarians, and took a long rest.  We ended the session there.  Our next session will be on the 16th.