Shattered Star: Don't Step In the Entrails

Game Date: 12/5/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 40
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Fellany Mertien (Cliff) - Human Fighter
Gustav Greycastle (Graham) - Human Necromancer
Maruca (Daniel) - Elf Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Daniel, subbing for Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:

Last week we fought our way through the gates to Guiltspur.  Today we climbed the hill to the metal spire, stopping at a building.  We decided to investigate the building before approaching the spire, so we wouldn't get attacked from behind.  Gustav animated the body of a Fire Giant we'd killed last session, and sent it in to intimidate the giants inside.  They laughed it off, and invited us in to parlay.

Turns out this group of giants was of a different faction from the ones working for the dragon.  They offered to show us the way down into the dungeons, if we would do them the favor of eliminating their enemies.  We didn't necessarily trust them, but since they were asking us to do something we were going to do anyway, we accepted their help.

We went downstairs, and immediately got in a fight with three Fire Giants. It didn't last long, though we found out later the DM had accidentally under-calculated their damage rolls.  After the fight, we saw there were three tunnels leading out of the room.  The Eastern tunnel looked the most traveled, but we sent Meruca to scout the other two first.  While she was exploring the North tunnel, three Hill Giants came from the East passage.  This fight didn't take too long either.

Once we were satisfied the North and South tunnels didn't go anywhere important, we explored the East tunnel.  With Meruca scouting in the lead, first we came to a small room with a seven-sided pillar.  There were runes on each side of the pillar, but they were so worn they were almost impossible to read.  After a very high perception roll, we were able to read this much: "..who sleep in Guiltspur’s shadow shall know this fear, and what waits beyond shall..."  We kept going.

The next tunnel opened up into a long hall.  The first 65 feet were covered in gore.  Entrails, heads, and other body parts strewn about the floor, hanging from the ceiling, and fastened to the walls.  This grizzly area counted as difficult terrain, and we spent a while trying to decide how to get across.  Partly because we were afraid there might be traps in the gore, but mostly because it was just plain icky.  On the other side of the gore we saw three horribly scarred Hill Giants. 

Slancio hit two of them with a lightning bolt from across the gore, and Bjertha used her Boots of Striding and Springing to leap over the difficult terrain.  Bjertha killed one of the giants, then fell through a trap door.  One of the Hill Giants knocked out Gustav's zombie Fire Giant.  Meruca flew Fellany over the gore, and Fellany managed to kill one of the Hill Giants in one round, doing over 100 points of damage from all her attacks.  Then Fellany fell into a different pit trap.  The final Hill Giant fled out the far door.

At the bottom of their respective pits, Bjertha and Fellany faced a lot of discarded enemies.  Bjertha encountered a Fire Giant and two Hill giants, all of whom were missing their hands.  At first she considered reasoning with them, but they were mad and feral.  Fellany's pit was full of Trolls.  Both pits also contained a fire breathing Rift Drake.  Fellany used her Helm of Command to get one of the Trolls to toss her back out of the pit.

By this time the rest of the party had finally made it across the pit.  Meruca slid down into Bjertha's pit, and flew her back out.  Slancio helped Fellany get the rest of the way out of her pit.  We were all low on hit points and ready to find a place for a long rest.   This would have been the worst possible time for three Rift Drakes to fly into the room through side doors, but guess what happened next.

Gustav transformed into a Stone Golem, which turned out to be a very good match for a Rift Drake.  Hurt as we were, we managed to take out all the Drakes.  We're now limping pretty badly, but we ended the session before we could take a rest.

Reminder:
We've gained enough experience to reach level 12, but won't do so until we get a long rest.