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.

Shattered Star: Feed Me, Seymour!

Game Date: 4/11/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 23
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (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

The Session:
Last week our party arrived in Kaer Maga.  We began today's session still settling in to town, and wrapping up some minor business.  Tai took care her cursed bracers, and Maruca somewhat clumsily delivered a severed hand for the Nightscales.  We spent the rest of today's session trying to break into a house.

Our search for a missing person led us to a wealthy home.  The richest dwellings in this town are positioned on ledges, where the elite can reside above the rest of the rabble.  When we reached the site, our first task was to find a way up ledge.  There was a set of stairs, and an elevator powered by a system of pulleys and gears.  We chose to give the elevator a try.

The elevator broke down on its way up.  Most of us took falling damage, then additional damage as components of the elevator rained down on us.  As we climbed out of the wreckage, we saw a small mechanical dragon fly by.  Then the house's security system went off.  Several eyes opened up in the stonework and recited a "No solicitors" message.

Not willing to take no for an answer, Tai climbed the wall and let down a rope for the rest of us.  At the top, Tai found that the opulent house was surrounded by gardens.  Two huge plants started moving, quickly closing the distance and grappling Tai.  Slancio and Carlie used fly spells to give her some support, and the rest of us climbed the rope.  Bjertha made it to the top after a couple of rounds, but Meruca and Fellany spent most of the fight trying to get up the rope.

The plants kept grappling Tai and Bjertha, doing a lot of damage and trying to eat them. Tai got swallowed at one point, so it was a scramble to finish them off before our monk was digested.  Carlie used her lightning wand for some decent damage, and Bjertha delivered the killing blow.  We cut Tai out of the plant's stomach, just in the nick of time.  We licked our wounds a bit while exploring the area.

Fellany approached a gazebo in the middle of the garden.  Gazebos have something of a history in D&D, and this one was no less dangerous.  A Lurker Above descended from the gazebo's ceiling, and grappled Fellany with its long tendrils.  The lurker had unbelievably high attack rolls, but there was only one of it and six of us.  Carlie hit it with a lightning spell for 37 damage, and Tai finished it off. 

Now we were really hurting, but we didn't want to rest in this area.  After a brief discussion about the appropriateness of adding advanced Pathfinder templates to D&D 5e monsters, we downed some healing potions and kept on.  We opened the front door of the house, where we saw a pair of clockwork soldiers.  We tried to talk to them, but got no response, so we just attacked.  Meruca finished off the first one with one of her "roll every die on the table" moves.  Slancio, in a rare melee moment, showed his swashbuckling skills by dispatching the second one.

There was a lot of clockwork in this room.  Carlie was fascinated by the work, and confiscated a small eyeball creature called an Arbiter.  Bjertha salvaged some of the gears for a side mission she's been working on.  We kept looking through the house.  In another room we saw a pair of terra cotta statues.  We were genre savvy enough to know they would attack, and we weren't disappointed.

Shortly after the fight began, another construct joined the fight.  It was a "tupilaq", a large-jawed creature carved from whale-bone.  It came up from behind Carlie and started chewing on her.  Carlie tried to cast Sleep on it, but centered the spell on the creature instead of at a point farther away.  The spell didn't affect the tupilaq but unfortunately caused Carlie to lose consciousness.  The tuplilaq took Carlie to 0 followed by Tai. 

The rest of us kept wearing down our foes.  Meruca finished off the tupliaq, Slancio killed one of the terra cotta soldiers, and Bjertha defeated the final one with an opportunity attack.  We then had a long discussion on whether we should take a short rest or a long one, finally settling on a long rest using a "Leomund's Tiny Hut" spell.  The hut should keep us safe from harm, but it's going to stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of the garden.  We won't know until next week if we're going to be discovered during the rest.

Reminders:
Daniel is out on 4/18, Thomas is out on 4/25, and Chere is out for the month of May.  We might make a group trip to the RenFest sometime in May.

 

Shattered Star: The Search for Gluttony

Game Date: 4/4/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 22
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (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

The Session:
I couldn't make it to the session, so here's a recap courtesy of Thomas:

We were in Magnamar and made our final preparations to leave town.  Sheila Heidmark booked us passage on a riverboat to make the journey to Kaer Maga in search of the Shard of Gluttony.  The riverboat was captained by Othlo Janke and his crew of halflings.  We had the boat to ourselves as Sheila had booked the entire thing.  The boat had a magic paddle-wheel that allowed it to make the journey upstream in 2 weeks instead of the months it would normally take.

On the way when we were making camp less than a week into the journey, we came under attack by some bullywugs and their king, Krugulk Throatcaller.  He had a pet giant dragonfly, Chuggie (?) who was the most formidable of our opponents.  Bjertha and Slancio were on watch when the attack happened.  Chuggie nearly took out Slancio in the first round, but then the other party members awoke and made quick work of him.  The rest of the bullywug attack party fell shortly thereafter.  Slancio and Maruca provided some emergency healing to the halfling crew members and thankfully none of them died.  

When inspecting the bullywug leader's body, his belt had the name Eando Kline engraved on it.  This is the name of the Pathfinder that found the ioun stone that goes with the Shard of Gluttony.  We have heard tales that he's no longer associated with the Pathfinders, but no one knows of his ultimate fate.

We made two stops other stops on the journey, one at Wartle and another at Whistledown.  The party took the opportunity to go carousing all night on these stops.  At Wartle Carlie turned up unconscious and pickpocketed and Tai somehow came into gambling winnings.  Coincidence?  Then at Whistledown Slancio made even more money gambling, though Bjertha and Felony's night took a different turn.  They both ended up drinking with members of the Aspis Consortium, a prominent trade consortium.  Felony could not help but make crude mis-pronunciations of their name, which they did not take kindly to.  Then on the way out, Bjertha added to the insults by making some crude gestures of her own.  We're pretty sure that the whole Aspis Consortium will soon learn of that night.

When we finally arrived at Kaer Maga, the city itself is on a very high, sheer cliff over the lake.  To get from the port to the city itself, we had to traverse the Half-Light Path under the guide of the Dusk Wardens.  While waiting in line to see about passage, Abra Lopait, a Dusk Warden Ranger, pulled us aside and offered us a discount on passage if we would help as guards along the path.  And by that, he meant that he would be the only Dusk Warden to accompany us.  We also had a man (Bolga) and his two young servants (Tugus and Marro) pulling a cart to protect.

The path itself wound up and up, sometimes underground, sometimes along sheer cliffs.  At one point of the path, part of the brick that had blocked a side passage exploded and three creatures out of nightmare rushed at us.  We quickly found out that they were Seguthi and had a crippling confusion aura that made most of us staring blankly into space.  Slancio got turned around and ended up decapitating one of the boys pulling the cart.  He's not sure which one, he could never tell them apart.  Tai put her new magic bracers to good use during the fight.  However, she soon found out that while they provide a significant armor bonus, they are cursed as to where if she does get hit, it's always a critical.  Abra proved to be an able-bodied fighter and stood alongside Bjertha.  Carlie made good use of the Wand of Lightning Bolts and once those started flying, the fight ended quickly.  Abra was so thankful to Carli that he gave her a Dusk-Light Charm that would call him to her side once a year, instructing her to only use it in dire circumstances.

We finished going up the path and then entered into the city proper.  Of course, the way in was through the slum shanty-town with children crowding begging and offering to work as guides.  One particular person, Gavnally (not a child) locked eyes with Tai and seemed to be a knowledgeable person to show us around.  He led us to one of the finer inns, the Sorry Excuse, to stay for the night.

Inside the Sorry Excuse, a troll by the name of Vargun was nursing a tankard of ale.  Having heard of a troll clan that had skills in divination, Slancio struck up a conversation with her.  She was indeed a member of the Augers who were said to be mystics.  Her brother, Argustille, was one of those who possessed the gift, though he had recently been taken by Berkanin of the Ardoc family.  The Ardocs were the most powerful family in Bis, a section of Kaer Maga.  Vargun doesn't know what Berkanin wants with Argustille, though Berkanin is known to be kind of like the red-headed-step-child of the Ardoc family.  And so perhaps the party may be able to talk to other members of the Ardocs to shed some light on Berkanin's intentions or to negotiate for him to release Argustille.  However, Tai's first stop will be to help her remove the cursed bracers.