Shattered Star: We Get The Shaft

Game Date: 2/6/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 45
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

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

The Session:

Last session we fought a huge sea monster.  Today we started out by looting the monster's hoard, and looked for a place to rest.  We started to explore a small island, only to stumble across an invisible shaft.  We sent Gustav's raven down the shaft, and found that there was a room at the bottom.  We took a long rest in Gustav's magic mansion, then debated on where to go next.

We decided to check out the rest of the islands first.  We flew around a bit, looking at various small beaches and islands.  One landing had a trail of broken stalactites, and we found evidence of a giant purple worm.  We saw the worm's tunnel in one wall, but didn't investigate it yet. 

Another island hosted six Nagas performing some sort of ritual.  Slancio hit them with a Firestorm spell (from a magic harp he'd obtained from the sea monster's hoard), and the battle was on.  We hit them with a lot of good attacks before they got a turn, so by the time they got their footing (so to speak) we'd already killed half of them.  It turned out they had some decent mind attacks, taking Bjertha out of the battle with a hypnotic stare.  But by then it was too late for them to take control of the fight.  Fellany delivered the final blow,  and we looked around the island.

It looked like the Nagas had been trying to create a portal to the Abyss.   We trashed the place, so when they reincarnate later (as Nagas do), they'll have to start from scratch.  At this point we'd seen all the islands.  We had to decide whether to go down the shaft, or into the purple worm's tunnel.  The party voted, and picked shaft.  We made our way down the long shaft, with help from Meruca's mechanical wings.  At the bottom of the shaft was a small room, with a short tunnel leading to a door.

Bjertha (who is currently really an Intellect Devourer) detected an alien sentience beyond the door, but didn't tell the rest of the party.  The door was locked and trapped.  Meruca failed to unlock it, so Slancio tried the Knock spell.  We were blasted by a powerful gust of wind, leaving some of us confused.  Gustav was controlling two ghouls at the time, and both got confused and attacked their master.  The first hit paralyzed Gustav, so he was unable to tell the party his minions were just confused.  Thinking the ghouls had turned bad, we killed them.

Through the door was a long grand hallway, with a faceless sphinx at the far end.  As we walked through the hall, some of us were suddenly slowed.  A "Flying Polyp" appeared and attacked.  This thing was tough.  It used powerful wind attacks and had a Frightful Presence.  Gustav used a lightning wand, and found it the monster was vulnerable to lightning damage.  It countered by hitting Gustav with Windwall.  Gustav went down three times during this fight.  It was a long battle, but Meruca finally finished it off.

We examined the sphinx statue at the top of the stairs, but (oddly for this game) it didn't come to life or try to eat us.  We saw one side door that we will investigate next, but for now we ended the session.