Daggerford: What's Eating Khemed?

Game Date: 1/9/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 9

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Esmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue - Absent
Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:
Last session we barely survived a run-in with some wraiths (actually wights).  We began today's session still in the crypts, licking our wounds.  We took a short rest in one of the crypts, then went through a not-very-secret secret door to the South.

We followed a hallway South, then East, until another secret door led to a throne room.  We saw a shroud-covered figure sitting on one throne, and a clockwork cat at her feet.  There were also four alabaster urns, each representing one of the four elements.  (Where's Leeloo when you need her?)

The figure greeted us, and asked us if we were another group of tomb robbers.  We asked her which way previous robbers went, and she said they went down the stairs.  She even gave us her clockwork cat.  We asked her if the cat had a name, and she answered, "You can name it as you like."  So the cat's name is now "Azulike".

We went down the South stairs.  In a large room, we saw a statue of a Fire Giant, and some cauldrons filled with different liquids.  We examined the different cauldrons, whose liquids were of all manner of consistencies - one bubbling, one still, one syrupy, one shimmery, one icy, etc.

We experimented with some of them.  From the NE cauldron we pulled out a staff with a stone hand still attached.  It gave off toxic fumes, but they quickly dissipated.  The hand had come from a statue inside the cauldron.  

A room to the North was full of debris and mirrors, with another door to a hallway leading East, then South.  It stopped at a door that appeared to be giving off light.  Neven opened the door to a 20x60 room with wall murals featuring exploding undead.  Beyond a portcullis, two ax-wielding minotaurs gathered up scraps of armor.  They turned toward Neven and charged.

Only Neven and Sylvester were in the room with the minotaurs.  The rest of us were all the way down a long hallway, and took a few rounds to join the action.  The first minotaur lifted the portcullis, and the other attacked Neven.

As we came running down the hallway, one of the minotaurs rushed up to meet us.  Azul engaged with the hall minotaur ("hall monitor", *snicker*), while Neven tried to survive the other one's onslaught.  We concentrated on Neven's foe first until it went down, then ganged up on Azul's opponent.  Once both enemies were down, we did a little healing and looted the minotaurs.  

The white marble doors to the South gave off extremely bright light.  They opened to a another 20x60 room, this one with murals of sun priests with donkey heads.  There was a horribly mutilated corpse on the floor.  Afraid the room might be trapped, we used magic to drag the body closer to us.  We examined the body, and found bruises and bite marks. 

We saw something dark and leathery moving on the ceiling, and we started shooting at it.  A few turns in, the doors closed.  We considered leaving, but our cat was in there.  Vanya mustered the strength to hold the door open, and Azul used pitons to keep it from closing again.

The creature flew towards us, and we fought it in the doorway.  It had damage reduction, but we kept hacking away.  We used a combination of spells that lowered its saving throws so that further spells were more likely to hit.

After a few turns it flew above our heads, which was unnerving.  It grappled Khemed, and Sylvester cast a magical bonfire under the creature.  Unfortunately the damage was split between the monster and Khemed.  The monster smothered and squeezed Khemed until he was at zero hit points.  Azul finished the monster off, and we healed up Khemed.  We identified the monster's corpse as a Lurker Above.

We found a secret door in the Lurker's room.  While walking through the room, part of the floor attempted to attack Khemed.  We rolled initiative and fought a Trapper.  Azul charged in and hit it hard.  The Trapper tried to engulf Khemed but failed.  Sylvester threw a bonfire on it.  It moved towards Khemed, provoking OAs from Neven and Azul.  

The Trapper engulfed Khemed, who was apparently really tasty today.  He might want to consider switching to a different cologne.  The Trapper let go of Khemed to attack Azul, who finished it off.  We ignored the door to the South for now, in favor of the secret door to the West.  It opened to a staircase, and down we went.

At the bottom of the stairs, we found a room with an altar.  A second clockwork cat was playing with a mouse.  There was a statue of a surprised-looking woman, leading us to believe there might be monster capable of petrification nearby.  After a party huddle, we decided to look around the room using Vanya's hand mirror.  

Neven tried touching a hole in the altar with his pole (get your mind out of the gutter), which triggered a bolt of lightning.  We recognized the statue as Darwa Dalion, the wizard we've been looking for.  We cut off the statue's head as proof that we had found her.  Sylvester tried tossing an electrum coin into the hole, and received a major shock.  

We decided to take a long rest in the stairwell.  While resting, we examined the staff we'd found, and discovered it was a Staff of Charming.  Thus endeth the session.

XP: 1,000