D&D 5e: Web of Doom

Game Date: 8/23/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: N/A
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:

Looplily Timber (James) - Gnome Cleric
Moe (Thomas) - Human Monk
Ramas (Daniel) - Human Warlock
Torgga (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter

The Session:
Last week I couldn't make it, so the remaining players tried out D&D 5e.  Today we were still down one player, and didn't feel like returning to our Shattered Star campaign quite yet.  So we continued the story they started last week.

They'd left off in a narrow hallway, outside a room full of giant spiders.  It was a large cavern, filled with approximately sixty giant spiders.  There was a cage in the center of the room, with skeletons in it.  We knew there was something important about the cage, but couldn't agree on a plan to get to it.  Among our assets was a sample of purple mold, which reproduces quickly and puts nearby creatures to sleep.

We decided to... well, we never actually decided anything, which was our downfall.  We tried a bunch of different stuff, had some communication issues, and generally got our asses kicked.  We threw some mold in there, letting it spread so that it would put some spiders to sleep.  Then we tied a rope around the monk, and had him tiptoe through the room to reach the cage.  Problem was, he kept failing his saves against the mold, and we'd have to pull him back out again.

So we tried it again with the fighter, who had better saves against poison.  She managed to reach the cage, but got attacked by a spider.  As she started to come back out, she found herself trapped by two spiders and restrained by webbing.  The monk tried to help, but he got knocked out again.  Both the monk and the fighter were covered in spores, and due to suffocate within a few rounds.

The cleric and warlock managed to save the monk, but they couldn't make it to the fighter.  As the cleric pulled the monk to safety, the warlock got caught up in the webs, and couldn't make it out.  The fighter and the warlock both died, but the monk and the cleric lived to fight another day.

Reminders:
There's no game next week.  Our next session will be on 9/6.

Shattered Star: Pride Cometh Before The Fall

Game Date: 8/9/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 3
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Sneex (Cliff) - Sylph Rogue
Toad the Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle

The Session:

When we left off, Bjertha had found Natalia in the rafters of a ruined building.  Holding a crossbow trained on Bjertha, Natalia informed the Dwarf that she would rather not return to the Pathfinder Society, because they might take the trinket she had found.  Natlia held a metal shard, which seemed to possess magical properties.  To keep the rest of the party from climbing up to help, Natalia used the shard to set the ladder on fire.  Then she used the trinket's power to charm Bjertha into being her new bodyguard.

It turned out the fire was an illusion, but Natalia proceeded to charm Slidell, and asked us to take her to Heidmarch Manor... not to turn in the artifact, but in the hopes of making it her new home base.  She gathered a group of charmed goblin followers, and ordered us to lead the way to the mansion.  Sneex tried to run off, but Natalia charmed her as well.

This left only Toad and Bugg free from her influence, but those two followed along anyway - Bugg was happy to be in the company of goblins again, and Toad just enjoys chaos.  Besides, let's face it, our mission was to return Natalia and the artifact, so in a way she was playing right into our hands.  As we approached the next section of town, the town watch stopped us.  They were a bit concerned about us leading a bunch of goblins through town in the middle of the night.  Such worrywarts.  We told them that we meant no harm, but they escorted us through the area just to play it safe.

We arrived at the mansion of Sheila Heidmarch and knocked on the door.  A manservant answered, but was repulsed by our gaggle of goblins, and shut the door in our face.  He opened a slot on the door and asked us what we wanted, and we ordered him to fetch Sheila.  An impatient Sneex climbed up the wall and broke in through a second story window.  Two of the goblins worked on setting up a crossbow to fire as if it were a mortar, while the rest of the goblins got into general hijinks.  When Sheila finally answered the door, Natalia ordered her goblin minions to attack.

Because of all the charming going on, this battle was a bit confusing.  Several of the goblins ran around the sides of the mansion to cause more mischief, so we didn't have to fight them.  Bjertha broke her charm and tackled Natalia, pinning her to the ground.  Toad killed a couple of goblins, shouting "I surrender!" after each one.   Bugg killed a goblin or two with his crossbow.  Sheila attacked Toad and took him down on one turn, using nonlethal damage.  Slidell managed to wrestle the artifact away from Natalia, only to succumb to its effects himself.

His mind suddenly affected by delusions of grandeur, Slidell refused to turn the amulet over.  Sheila managed to convince him to combine it with an Ioun stone, which broke the spell.  Now that no one was being affected, we cleaned up and let Sheila lead us to a meeting room.  She briefed us on the artifact we'd recovered.

It turns out this trinket was just one piece of a powerful relic.  When complete, the Shattered Star had seven points, each made of a different metal.  Now in pieces, each shard represents a different one of the seven deadly sins.  The one we recovered represents pride.  We also learned that properly used, each shard could guide its wielder to the location of the next shard. 

Looks like our mission is obvious.  We're taking a week of downtime while Sheila does more research on the shards.  We ended the session there.

Rewards:
+336 XP each
+200 Gold each

Reminder:
Next week I will not be there, and the remaining players are planning to try D&D 5e instead.

Shattered Star: Choked and Grappled by Grappling Chokers

Game Date: 8/2/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 2
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Sneex (Cliff) - Sylph Rogue
Toad the Wet Sprocket Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle

The Party

The Session:
When we left off last session, we were trying to learn Natalia's whereabouts from a disgusting informant called Fenster the Blight.  We took a quick trip back to the Pathfinder Society so we could enjoy a nice dinner and added Sneex to the party.  Then we went back to the Underbridge district to take another crack at Fenster.

We considered several options, including beating the information out of him, but rejected that idea because it would involve touching him.  Finally we took the high road and bribed him with a garnet.  He told us that Natalia had been seen at a local boarding house.

We headed for the boarding house.  On the way, we were attacked by five chokers.  They won a surprise round, grabbing most of the party and dragging us in different directions.  Bugg the goblin was dragged up the wall.  Bugg broke and reversed the grapple, briefly grappling his grappler before the grappler regrappled the grappler's grappler on its next turn.  Or something.

Bjertha struggled against her choker, consistently failing to hit it with any attack rolls.  Toad fared much better, gradually killing chokers one at a time and freeing up other party members.  Sneex climbed the wall after Bugg's choker, attempting to save the goblin.  Just as Sneex reached the goblin, Bugg broke free and dropped to the ground, leaving Sneex alone with the choker.  Then Bugg threw a bomb at the choker.  It didn't do much to harm the choker, but the splash damage finished off Sneex.

We used some tokens to save Sneex's life, but the rogue was not happy with the goblin.  Bugg should sleep with one eye open for a while.  Once the chokers were all dead, we continued to the boarding house.  The building turned out to be in extremely poor shape.  After a few minutes of deliberation, Toad charged through the front door... and fell into a pit of sewage.  He climbed out of the collapsed floor, now covered in filth.

Much of the house's floor was similarly collapsed, so we decided not to just barrel through that part of the building.  Bjertha kicked in a side door, and encountered two angry thugs.  Bjertha attempted to apologize, but Toad taunted them and they attacked us.  On Slidell's turn, he convinced them to stop fighting.  We prodded them for a bit of information, then persuaded them to leave the premises.

Around the back of the house, we knocked out a few of the boarded-up windows.  We saw the same thing in all the rooms - collapsed floors, and some ladders leading up to the rafters.  In one room there was a chimney with a ladder in it.  Sneex climbed through the window and tried to climb up the chimney, but a Goblin Snake attacked her.  The rest of us gradually climbed through the window, and Bjertha dealt the final blow to the snake. 

Once it was dead, Bjertha climbed the ladder up to a landing.  At the top of the ladder, she found a crossbow aimed at her head.  The weapon was held by a gypsy woman, who we believe to be Natalia.  We ended the session there.

XP So Far:
+378 (7/19)
+760 (8/2)
= 1138