Shattered Star: Are You A Good Witch Or A Bad Witch?

Game Date: 1/31/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 14
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
Last session we left off preparing to enter the swamps, to make our way to a lighthouse called the Lady's Light.  Today we entered the swamps, led by the doomsayer Jasper.  We noticed that it was unusually cold for this time of year.  On our first night, Bjertha took the first watch.  A Half-Orc came out of the woods and approached the camp, but he was peaceful enough.  He warned Bjertha not to wreck the swamp, and left us alone.

The next day we saw some smoke in the distance.  We headed that way until we came across a small cabin, and heard sobbing inside.  The door was partly open, so we peeked in.  A woman was crying on her bed.  She told us name was Grizelda, and that she had just given birth, but a witch named Hassani stole her baby.  Some party members started searching the grounds for Hassani's tracks, leaving only Slancio, Jasper, and Bjertha alone with Grizelda.

Slancio attempted to give Grizelda a medical exam, but due to a bad die roll ended up offending her greatly.  She barred the door and turned into a disgusting old hag.  Jasper cast a "Calm" spell on her, and she apologized.  She claimed she was just hungry.  We unbarred the door and left.

Later we found a camp full of grubby children.  In the distance we saw a Tengu about to slay a newborn baby.  As we closed the distance, Slancio called out, "If you harm that child, your life will be forfeit!"  The Tengu put down her knife and answered, "Don't be alarmed! It's not what it looks like!"  She turned out to be Hassani the witch.  Her modus operandi was to kidnap the children of evil races (goblins, trolls, hags, etc), kill them, and resurrect them as kinder races (elves, humans, etc).

It was a hard concept for us to accept.  It's a different type of morality, and each of us had to think long and hard about whether we should accept it.  Yes, she was making the world a better place.  But she was also killing infants.  Sure, she was also bringing them back to life, but still...  We finally decided that it wasn't really our business, and that the issue was between Hassani and Grizelda (and whatever other monster parents Hassani had stolen from).  Maybe we'd have felt differently if Grizelda hadn't tried to eat us.

Hassani offered to let us stay for the night, and we accepted.  We spent the evening playing with the children, telling them stories, and teaching them how to sing, fight, and pick pockets.  Because we're good influences that way.  The next morning we continued on our way.

We came to a clearing full of quicksand.  We saw a path around it, but there was a very poorly-hidden Manticore preparing to ambush us.  While we debated on the best way to attack the beast, he started shooting spikes at us.  He flew at our faces, and hit Jasper with a confusion spell.  Bjertha kept held the Manticore back from the party, and the rest fired at it from the woods.  Maruca dealt the monster a particularly powerful blow, and it soon surrendered.

The Manticore offered to give us his treasure if we would let him live.  Bjertha and Maruca got on his back, and he took us to his nest.  He gave us a box which included a gold ring (with a ruby), a spyglass, a pouch containing 150 gold, and a potion of water breathing.  He brought us back to the party and flew off, and we made our way around the quicksand.

Later we came to a sign that said "Chalos the Sage".  We followed a path from the sign down to a bog, where a hydra was resting.  One of the heads was rational and polite, and was a bit embarrassed by the actions of his other heads.  We chatted with Chalos for a while, asking him questions about this area.  Slancio payed him 100 gold for a romance-related prophecy, but unfortunately Chalos predicted bad luck for Slancio's love life.  Eventually Chalos asked us to leave; it seemed he was having trouble keeping his other heads from attacking us. 

That night Bjertha was on watch when several Lizardfolk walked past.  Bjertha let them pass peacefully.  One of the Lizardfolk was holding up a frog adorned with jewels.  Bjertha asked them if the frog was sacred, and they said it was their god.  Bjertha bowed respectfully as they passed.  Later, on Maruca's watch, it started to rain heavily.  Lightning struck the ground nearby, and the party rose to find better shelter.  We finally found a cave at the mouth of a river.  We had to tie ourselves together to avoid being swept away.

The rain died down, and by morning it was feeling a little warmer.  As we resumed our trek we were soon able to see the Lady's Light off in the distance.  The lighthouse was a giant statue of a woman holding a lantern, facing out to sea.  We ended the session there, with our destination in sight.

XP: 300 each

Shattered Star: Bring On The Swamps

Game Date: 1/17/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 13
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
iCarlie Nackle (Chere) - Gnome Wizard
Kelson (Matt, Subbing for Ben) - Half-Elf Warlock
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Shemus (Cliff) - Elf Ranger
Slancio Brioso (Rusty, Subbing for Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
We left off taking a short rest in a crypt.  Today we turned the corner and approached a door, but Bjertha and Meruca set off a Glyph of Warding.  We made our saves, but still took 13 damage.  Then we opened the door which revealed a shrine. 

There was a person kneeling before the altar.  He stood up and turned around to face us, revealing himself to be Henric Slidell, a former party member.  He fired off a Silence spell at our party, which rendered several of our party useless until they left the zone.  We used some of our best attacks, taking him down a lot faster than we were expecting.  Oops, guess he wasn't the real boss. 

There were two side rooms that appeared to be prison cells.  We heard someone calling for help from one of them.  We let the prisoner out and grilled her for info.  She claimed to be a follower of Sarenrae, who had been captured by evil cultists of Shax.  There were holes in her story - she said she was a washer woman, but her hands were too smooth, and she detected as magical.  Bjertha trusted her enough to stand a little too close, and paid the price.  The woman hugged Bjertha and gave her a "Draining Kiss", which did 29 points of damage - exactly enough to bring Bjertha to 0.  Worse, it reduced Bjertha's max HP by the same amount, giving Bjertha a max of 11.

The prisoner then altered her form, revealing herself to be a Succubus.  The party had to face her without their tank, everyone keeping their distance so they could lob spells and arrows.  Bjertha was healed a little late in the fight, but only got one revenge whack in before Kelson dropped the Succubus.  After looting the bodies and finding a hidden stash in one of the cells, we found 2500 gold, a magic dagger, and scrolls of Greater Restoration, Cure Wounds, Divination, and Cure Disease.

We went back to Heidmarch Manor.  A long rest cured Bjertha's ailment.  We received 3000 gold for solving the crime, and spent the next day knocking around town and doing research.  We learned the order we will be finding the shards, since each shard leads to the next.  We already have Pride and Greed, the next one will be Lust, followed by Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, and Sloth. 

We're to search for the Lust shard in a lighthouse called the Lady's Light, which is south of Magnimar.  We had to choose whether to take a boat, or trudge through the swamps.  Unfortunately it's hard to find a boat willing to go there, so swamps it is.  Looks to be about 40 hours of travel.  It was suggested that we seek out someone named Jasper, who knew his way through the swamps.  We were also warned to "be patient with him."

We went to an area of Magnimar called "Beacon's Point", where it was pretty easy to locate Jasper.  He was an evangelical kook, shouting doomsday prophesies to passersby.  When he saw us, he seemed to recognize us.  As he approached our party, another party approached him.  Three members of a gang called the "Black Kiss Boys" attacked Jasper.  I can't say I blame them, but we needed Jasper alive, so we had to intervene.

We made short work of the clowns, and we introduced ourselves to Jasper.  He'd been having dreams about our party, and believed we would be the ones to bring on the end times... and he seemed to be pretty happy about it.  He agreed to lead us through the swamp.  We asked him (and some shopkeepers) what we should expect to encounter in the swamps.  We should be prepared for Troglodytes, Bullywug tribes, Maroux the Swamp Witch, as well as crocodiles and will-o-wisps. 

We made a few more preparations - waterproofing our gear and buying magical bug repellant, and ended our session ready to leave for the swamps.

Rewards:
300 + 450 = 750 XP each
2500 + 3000 / 6 = 916 gold each
+1 Dagger (Kelson)
Scrolls: Greater Restoration, Cure Wounds, Divination, Cure Disease

Shattered Star: CSI: Magnimar

Game Date: 1/10/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 12
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Carlie Nackle (Chere) - Gnome Wizard
Kelson (Ben) - Half-Elf Warlock
Maruca (Daniel) - Human Ranger/Cleric/Rogue/GodKnowsWhatElse
Shemus (Cliff) - Elf Ranger
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
After a long holiday break we resumed our campaign.  Our characters experienced a similar downtime - having recently found the second shard, we took a few weeks to discover its power and research the location of the third.  During our break, our characters practiced professions, gained renown, caroused, and basically did whatever they could to pass the time.

Today we got a visit from the Magnimar Watch, asking for assistance with a case.  Someone has been murdering clerics of Sarenrae, the goddess of healing.  These murders have been particularly brutal, the victims suffering from multiple stab wounds before having their hearts cut out.  The Watch had few leads.  They'd even tried using "Speak With Dead" spells on the victims, but the attacks had been from behind.  The only clue they had was that the murder weapons had a strange symbol on them - a white feather dipped in blood.

We split up and went to various taverns, churches, and shops around town.  Our investigations eventually led us to an old abandoned shrine, and its graveyard out back.  The tiny cemetery only had three graves, and it looked like the dirt had been displaced recently.  We dug up one of the graves only to find it was now empty.  We were about to try going through a door when a red skinned Gargoyle attacked the party.

We attacked the Fiendish Gargoyle as it swooped in and out of range.  It was extremely difficult to damage, so after a round or two we fled through the door.  The door led to some stairs, at the bottom of which was a passageway.  Bjertha was the first down the stairs, where she was attacked by three Wights around the corner.  Slancio hit one of the Wights with a Fairy Fire spell, giving us advantage when attacking it.  The rest of the party tried to enter the door, but there wasn't enough room for all of us to get inside.  Stuck outside, Shemus continued to fend off the Gargoyle, taking a lot of damage from the creature.

Eventually Carlie hit the Gargoyle with a sleep spell.  Once it lost consciousness, a few of the party members worked on tying it up while the rest of us dealt with the Wights.  They didn't take a lot of damage from melee attacks, and it was difficult to maneuver in the close quarters. We finally took them out, but we almost lost Kelson in the process.

After the battle, Shemus performed a coup de grace on the Gargoyle, and we took a short rest.  We ended the session there.  Next session we will explore more of the passage under the shrine.