Shattered Star: The Great Curator

Game Date: 12/19/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 42
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 (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
We left off faced with a round, foggy room.  The room was a giant pit, but the fog obscured the bottom.  We could see a tunnel on the other side.  Gustav sent his bird familiar across the pit, and confirmed that the tunnels on the other side only led to places we'd already been.  Then he sent his bird down into the fog to determine it was safe to proceed in that direction.  Once we were ready, we all descended into the pit using ropes and fly spells.

Once we were past the fog, we saw that the room below us was a library.  There were four doors, one in each cardinal direction.  There were high bookshelves all over the place, and several robed people walking around.  As soon as we were detected, the robed people vanished, and the books started flying of the shelves and expelling a black mist.

As we landed, a pair of giant scorpion constructs attacked us.  They were powerful creatures that hit hard.  They had multiple attacks, poison, grapples, damage reduction, and a fear effect.  Gustav was knocked down to 0 before he even had a turn, and our Smilodon friend was killed in the first round.  Fellany soloed one (not by choice - she was grappled) while the rest of us ganged up on the other.  Bjertha dealt the final blow on the first one, and one of Gustav's zombies finished off the second.

Once the scorpions were dead, we searched the library.  Slancio found a set of thin metal plates that, when spread out, showed the anatomy of a large aquatic creature.  As we explored and looted, a glowing ghostly Curator appeared and told us to put everything back.  We asked him about the area, and he told us the South passage was full of interesting curiosities.  He said we could look, but not touch.  We took a short rest and proceeded through the South door.

This door lead to a series of hexagonal rooms.  As promised, they were full of interesting relics.  A ghostly voice welcomed us and reminded us not to touch anything.   We were very respectful and kept our hands to ourselves.  Yeah, right.  We saw a lot of neat artifacts.  The entry room had several statues of people with four wings and no faces.  One room housed a statue of a Sphinx, the front half buried under rubble.  Another room contained a fireball frozen in time.  Another artifact-filled room had a mummified snake with an Ioun Stone in its mouth.  Slancio grabbed the stone and waited for retribution, but nothing immediately attacked us.

In another room, Gustav found a spiral staircase, which took him to the top of the tower.  Up on the roof, he saw a forest one one side and a tundra on the other, which was odd considering this dungeon is in the desert.  He also saw some butterflies carrying a miniature version of this tower.  Or maybe he imagined the whole thing.  He came back down and told us about what he'd seen.

Meanwhile, Fellany also saw something strange.  While examining the butt of the Sphinx statue, it turned around and faced her with its faceless face.  The entire world seemed to fall away for a second before Fellany snapped back to reality, and the Sphinx was back to the way it was before.  Gustav came to help Fellany to investigate the Sphinx, and found a crystal ball.  Slancio tried to pocket the ball, and the Curator appeared and attacked.  The Curator was beyond talking to, so we had to fight him.

The Curator was tough.  He was insubstantial, had a lot of high level spells, and he had the ability to steal spell slots from our party's magic users.   Slancio hit him with Dispel Magic, which took away his Mage Armor.  The Curator dominated Bjertha early in the battle, and she fought Fellany for round before another Dispel Magic returned her to normal.  Angry at having been controlled, Bjertha finished the battle by hacking away with her Undead Bane Longsword. 

We ended the session pretty quickly after the final blow, so we haven't rested yet.  The party is getting low on spells and Hit Dice, so we could really use a long rest.

Reminder:
There is most likely no game on  12/26 or 1/2.  We should play again on 1/9.

Shattered Star: The Pie Is A Lie

Game Date: 12/12/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 41
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:

Mr. Coffee sits in for Thomas

Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Fellany Mertien (Cliff) - Human Fighter
Gustav Greycastle (Graham) - Human Necromancer
Maruca (Daniel) - Elf Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas / Mr. Coffee) - Human Bard

The Session:
When we left off, we were in bad shape after a battle with Giants and Rift Drakes in a disgusting trap-filled room.  We started today's session by finding a decent resting spot and leveling up.  Then we passed back through the entrail room, double-checked for additional traps, and went through the doors at the far end.

Eventually we reached a large circular room.  It had a slatted wooden floor, with boards laid far enough apart that we had to be careful not to step in holes.  On each side of the round room there were gigantic holes in the wall.  One side led to some lava tubes, and the other side opened up to a makeshift throne room filled with Giants.  We faced four Hill Giants, a Fire Giant, a Chieftain, and the Chieftain's mate.  A few rounds into the battle, three more female Giants joined along with a Smilodon.

The Chief cast fireball early in the fight, which hurt a lot.  We noticed that one of the spikes on the Chief's club was actually the shard we've been searching for.  That seems a little early in the dungeon, we thought.  The first big turnaround in the fight occurred when Gustav cursed the Chief, keeping him from taking actions.  This kept us alive for several rounds.  When the curse wore off, the enraged Chief rushed past all other combatants, straight for Gustav.  One round later, Gustav was down.

Fellany chased the Chief and finished him off, while Slancio revived Gustav.  Meruca killed the Fire Giant and the final Giantess.  The Smilodon ran off, and we started looting the area.  There was a chest with a boulder sitting on it.  Once we removed the boulder, we found some furs, gold, silver, a Rope of Entanglement, seven gold Dwarf skulls, a Ring of Spell Storing, and a few other odds and ends.  Gustav cut off the Chief's head and eviscerated some of the other corpses, because he's like that.  The Chief's shard was indeed the Shard of Wrath we'd been looking for.

While we were searching, the Smilodon attacked us.  It was still badly hurt from the fight, and we decided to befriend it rather than kill it.  We healed it, fed it, and used a "Speak With Animals" spell to find out more about the area.  He told us the dragon would be returning at some point.  We used the Wrath Shard to point us to the next shard (Sloth), and it is indeed further down in this same dungeon.  Two for the price of one!  We explored one of the lava tubes.

At the end of one tunnel, there were two Fire Giants guarding a door, which was also blocked by a boulder.  They were also guarding a pie.  We showed them the Chief's head in hopes of intimidating them, and asked them what they were guarding.  They told us that the door was keeping the monsters from coming through.  We asked them to leave, and tried to strike some sort of deal.  They wanted us to bring them a cook.  Apparently their pie - which was made of Hill Giant - wasn't good enough.  Slancio tried to bluff them by conjuring an illusory pie, but this only made them angry and they attacked.

These Giants hit hard, but we used some attacks early on that kept the battle from getting too intense.  The Smilodon pounced on one Giant, knocking him prone, while Gustav blinded both opponents.  Fellany killed one Giant, Meruca finished off the other.  Meruca tried tried to keep hers alive, but Fellany decided to coup de grace it.  We moved the boulder, opened the doors, and faced a round, foggy room.  Meanwhile, the Smilodon ate the pie.

We'll pick up there next week.

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.