Shattered Star: Legen... Wait For It... Dary Actions

Game Date: 1/30/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 44
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:

Last week we had some visions, re-fought the Curator, and Bjertha got taken over by an Intellect Devourer.  Today we went up some stairs and wound up in a room with three sets of doors.  No, make that two sets of doors, and a wall painted to look like a third set of doors.  Naturally we tried the fake doors first, and were surprised to find that they actually opened.  Wile E Coyote would be proud.  Inside was an opulent mansion, filled with ghostly servants.  Gustav immediately recognized this as the "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion" spell.  It seemed like a safe place, so we took advantage of the hospitality.

In another room (outside the mansion), there was a window that kept changing scenery.  A jackal-headed creature in one of the scenes psychically attacked Fellany, leaving her with INT and CHA of 1.  We all took a long rest in the mansion, most of us having bad dreams.  Fellany dreamed about the next shard... she saw a room with seven doors, but she knew the correct path was behind a hidden eighth door.  She fell under the effects of madness, and awoke wanting to kill people (well, more so than usual).  She rushed us through breakfast and began her search for a fight.

Don't blink.

Through another door we found a very long hallway, filled with stone columns.  The columns were carved to look like faceless angels. Two of them animated and attacked us.  It was not a difficult battle, and Fellany was happy to have something to hack into pieces.  In fact she kept hacking away long after they were rubble, but it still wasn't enough to satiate her insanity.  We continued through the hall, barely keeping up with Fellany's search for more opponents.

We wound up on the broken edge of a bridge, overlooking a huge water-filled room.  There were still two rows of pylons sticking out of the water, remnants from where the bridge used to be.  The room was dark and vast, and the walls were too far away to see.  Gustav sent his raven familiar to explore the area.  Able to see through his raven's eyes, Gustav learned that there were a few small islands, and a couple of beaches.  One of the beaches seemed to lead to more tunnels.

While we were discussing our plans, something affected Bjertha's mind, and she began hopping from pylon to pylon away from the party.  The bloodthirsty Fellany was afraid Bjertha would steal her kills, and hopped after her.  Not wanting to be left behind, Gustav and Slancio cast "Fly" on their undead Fire Giant follower, and rode it in Bjertha's direction.

Fellany soon missed one of her hops, fell into the water, and was grabbed by a tentacle.  She was pulled under by a large sea monster ("Ognathooga").  Gustav's turned his flying giant around to aid her.  Bjertha saved against whatever was compelling her, and also turned around to aid Fellany.  It was a tough fight.  The sea monster was hard to damage, and had advantage on saving throws against spells.  In addition to its own turns, it had three "Legendary Actions" per round, allowing it to make extra attacks after other players' turns.

Fellany fared the worst in this battle, spending most of the fight restrained by tentacles.  Slancio and Gustav stayed on the flying Fire Giant.  They swooped back and forth for strafing runs on the monster, eventually picking up Meruca for even more firepower.  At one point the monster exuded a cloud of gas at our flying party members, causing Confusion and Wisdom damage to some of them.  When Fellany reached 0 hit points, Bjertha poured a healing potion down her throat.  Then the monster grabbed Bjertha as well, and swam off with both fighters in its grasp.  It pulled them into an underwater tunnel. 

Bjertha broke free and swam to freedom.  The monster followed.  Once it was back in open water, Meruca donned a Cap of Water Breathing and dove in.  Then Gustav dropped poured out a bag of zombies to give the monster more things to target.  Bjertha tried using her Intellect Devourer powers several times, but the monster kept saving.  When Fellany hit 0 for the second time, Meruca used a powerful healing spell that restored 70 hit points and cured Fellany's madness.

The monster took off with Fellany one more time, dragging her back into the tunnel, and adding her to its treasure hoard.  Our casters used some Freedom of Movement spells, greatly speeding us up as we swam towards the monster's lair.  The sea monster used a Dominate spell on Meruca, but she was cured before her turn even came around.  On Meruca's turn, she finally finished off the monster.

It was a long battle - like "4e" long - but it was full of exciting twists.  By the time it was over, it was well past the time we usually end our sessions, so we stopped there without dealing with any aftermath.  Given all the damage we took (especially Fellany), it's likely we'll take at least a short rest before continuing.  And we should probably check out the sea monster's hoard... that sounds promising.

Miniature Spotlight:  Thomas paints a mini for Daniel.  Great job!