Shattered Star: The Werebear Stare

Game Date: 8/29/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 34
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Maruca (Daniel) - Elf Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard
Tai Lindro (Angela) - Human Monk/Warlock

The Session:

I missed last session, in which they unlocked the Doomsday Door, fought a bunch of skulks, and cleared out several rooms in the dungeon below the abbey.  Today we continued exploring the level.  We searched several empty rooms before finding one with an ice-covered door.  The room contained four ice-covered statues.  As Slancio inspected one of them, they came to life and attacked.  Tai quickly teleported Slancio farther down the hallway, then joined Bjertha at the entrance.

This battle looked pretty grim at first.  Tai and Bjertha thought they could keep control of the fight by blocking the entrance to the room.  But the statues hit hard and could cast "Cone of Cold", and soon Bjertha and Tai both found themselves at zero hit points.  Slancio healed Tai for a few hit points, and she teleported down the hall.  Then Slancio healed Bjertha, but she played dead for a couple of rounds as the statues left the room.

This is where the fight really got interesting.  The party was now scattered around the various hallways, and was able to use hit-and-run tactics to fend off the statues.  Slancio managed to hit two with a wand of lightning bolts, causing a good amount of damage.  Tai teleported Bjertha around to help the much slower dwarf get into a better position.  Eventually the final statue went down, leaving us hurting for hit points.  We took a short rest and used up a lot of hit dice.

We went down one hall, which turned then stopped abruptly at a dead end.  We didn't trust this, so we tapped on the wall until we were sure we heard the distinctive hollow echo of a room on the other side.  Bjertha attacked the wall until she made a hole big enough to see through.  The hidden room was the spiked bottom of a pit trap.  Tai teleported inside, and forced her way through the ceiling trap door.  The trap was located in the ruined cathedral above us.  Somehow we'd actually failed to set off a trap when we were up above.

Satisfied that we'd now explored every inch of this level of the dungeon (except for another Doomsday Door), we peered down the stairs to the next level.  Tai went on ahead, using her great speed and stealth to see where all the hallways led.  The rest of us stayed at the top of the stairs, waiting for a signal to join her.  It wasn't long before Tai triggered an encounter with a pair of Water Elementals.  They chased her back to the stairs, where the rest of us joined the fight.

Digging through his pack, Slancio found a pouch full of "Dust of Dryness", a magic item he'd been holding onto for a while.  It was super effective against the Water Elementals.  Best moment of the battle:  After the DM told us one of the Elementals looked close to death, Tai said, "Wanna see a trick?"  Then she stepped back one step, deliberately provoking an OA from the Elemental... and when it attacked her, that provoked an OA from Bjertha's Sentinel feat, which finished the Elemental off.

The other Elemental engulfed Slancio, but he managed to kill it not long afterwards.  The sounds of our battle attracted a group of Werebears.  Tai attacked one of them, but felt bad about it later.  With more time to plan this battle might have been avoided, but once we started it we felt it was best to keep going.  Soon a Shoggti (big pale tentacled monster) joined the fight, followed by a second one a bit later.  Tai charmed three of the Werebears and had them attack the first Shoggti.

Slancio hit three of the Werebears with Lighting Bolt, and soon there was only one left.  The Shoggti were resistant to our weapons, even though the weapons were magic.  Meruca figured out that they could be harmed by cold iron weapons, so those of us who could switched out our arms.  Bjertha finished off one Shoggti, and Meruca killed the other.  We spoke to the final Werebear, who was friendly to us despite our having just killed his family. Turns out they'd been hostile because they were under the control of the Shoggti.  A pity.

We offered to help the Werebear in any way we could, and we took a short rest in a nearby temple.  Not wanting to get caught up in any more long battles this late in the day, we ended the session there.

XP Reward: +8850

Reminder: There is no game next week.  Our story will resume 9/12.