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.