Shattered Star: Pew Pew Pew!

Game Date: 3/19/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 51
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

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

The Session:
Last week we got our asses handed to us by Lord Xin's soldiers, and retreated with our tails between our legs.  Back in Magnimaar, we spent a few days raising our dead characters, and prepared to head back to Xin's island to try that battle again.  (What's the definition of insanity again?)  We knew the soldiers were weak to lightning (but immune to damn near everything else) so we spent some of that downtime seeking out lightning items.  Gustav went ahead and recruited some new undead followers.

When we finally felt prepared enough, we used Dimension Door to pop back to Xin's island.  Aaaand... Ouch.  Turns out the door we'd attuned to was trapped - we should have known that; it was one of the magical Force traps Meruca disabled last session.  It must have reset in our absence.  As a result, it teleported some of us a mile away in the middle of the ocean.  Luckily we were able to catch the attention of a passing ship.  Having learned a valuable lesson about door selection, we gathered back together and entered Xin's tower.

Once again Xin was sitting on his throne, and once again he ordered his Legionnaires to kill us.  Four of the mechanical soldiers sprang to life and attacked the group.  But this time we were ready.  It was still a tough battle, and we still took a lot of damage, but this time we all survived.  Gustav killed two of them with his lightning magic, and Fellany finished off the other two.

We took a short rest, during which we passed around the Sihedron until everyone was healed up.  No spending hit dice for us!  We looked around the enormous room, and saw several doors to try.  Picking one at random, we entered what turned out to be a magical library.  There was a large black crystal held up by a spider-shaped pedestal.  The pedestal began to come to life, but we killed it before it could hurt us.  Then the crystal shattered, releasing a demon.

It wasn't a long battle.  Slancio opened with Faerie Fire, making it much easier for the rest of us to hit it.  Gustav's deadites used their Magic Missile spam.  Meruca got two crits in one turn, and Gustav's zombie dragon got the final hit. Afterwards we found some interesting loot.  There was a tome with brass pages, that allowed you to summon runes.  We found a scroll of Wish and a scroll of Conjure Celestial.  There was also a Flame Orrery that allowed you to see into the past, and allowed you to cast haste and timestop.  Gustav was fascinated by Orrery and began using it in every room, peering into the past to see visions of Xin's rise to power. 

In the next room, two Wraiths sprang out of pillars and attacked us.  Gustav tried to cast Command Undead on them, but failed.  So he went back to Magic Missile spam.  Slancio used Faerie Fire again, which kept Bjertha's aim true while she while she worked over a Wraith with her Undead Bane Longsword.  Meruca finished off that one (kill stealer) while Gustav kept the other one surrounded by his wall of pet skeletons.  Meruca finished off that one as well, and we checked out the next door.

In another small room we found a chair facing a disc with carved runes.  Meruca pointed out a trap above the chair, but Gustav set it off anyway to investigate the runes.  It turned out to be a "spell well", which gave Gustav access to all Transmutation spells.  Gustav hopes to make this dungeon his tower one day, so this will be a nice room to have when that happens.

The next room was some sort of temple.  Several pews floated in the air, and there was a statue at the far end of the room.  The statue was of a mouthless woman with six wings, the Thassilonian goddess of magic.  She had a seven pronged helm on her head (a reference to the Sihedron), and the statue wore an actual removable robe.  Gustav viewed the past through his Orrery, and saw worshipers taking off that robe and wearing it to pray. 

As we entered the room, two living runes emerged and moved across the floor.  Bjertha failed a wisdom save, and wandered away from the battle.  She walked towards the statue, intent on taking the robe and putting it on. Fellany transferred the Sihedron to Bjertha, mistakenly thinking she'd be able to use it for a saving throw against the Suggestion.  This effectively took the Sihedron out of the battle for a few rounds, because Bjertha wasn't in her right mind to transfer it back to anyone else. 

When Gustav noticed Bjertha was going for the robe, he tried levitating it above the statue, but Bjertha's a very good jumper and retrieved it easily.  Unfortunately, when the robe left the statue, it revealed a sigil of death, which caused a large amount of damage to all the party members (though we did save for half damage).  Gustav animated the pews, and had them attack the runes as well.  The pews proved to be fairly effective allies.

During the battle, the runes would change shape to use different powers.  For example, one might turn into a symbol of Pain before causing us damage.  At one point, one turned into a Stun symbol, hitting everyone but Slancio, Gustav, and a couple of zombies.  Meruca, Bjertha, Fellany, and the rest of Gustav's undead followers were stunned for one full minute.  So for the next ten combat rounds, Slancio and Gustav tried different strategies to stay alive and damage the runes. 

Slancio hit one rune with a Lightning Bolt, and Gustav killed it with a Magic Missile.  Then they played out the clock until the stun wore off.  Once we could all move again, we ganged up on the last rune.  Meruca dealt the killing blow.  We were running long so we ended the session there.

Reminder:
There's no game for the next few weeks.  Looks like the next game will be 4/16.