Things had gotten a bit dicey and complicated for our party at the end of our last session. Thalimor, apparently, had released some sort of demon or devil type creature that had been trapped in a magical box for untold centuries. The party took to calling the thing an imp and it introduced itself as Aerlium. The imp had found the two children that the heroes had been searching for and had also released the various undead that were in the complex. Various bargains had been offered by Aerlium for the lives of the children and safe passage through the complex. Eventually, the bargains struck left Bay running from the complex carrying the two unconscious children (with one of the vicious creatures found in the complex hot on his heels) while the rest of the party prepared to fight their way through a long line of undead as Magnus had refused to even give his name to the imp, let alone agree to any bargain, and was thus not party to the safe passage of the others. We pick up with this action after the break.
Todd has rejoined the group for the next few months. He is playing a half-orc paladin named Pounder. With a Strength of 20 and a big warhammer, the name seems pretty apt. After some catching up and a bunch of pizza, we got to playing.
Bay’s spell granting him magical speed came to an end while he was still miles away from the prospective safety of the village of Swallowfeld. The creature was still chasing him and the ground he had gained on it was going to be lost soon. The wagon approaching him from the direction of Swallowfeld, turned around when Bay shouted out a warning about the approaching danger. The guards escorting the wagon, positioned themselves between the wagon and Bay, leveling crossbows in his general direction. Definitely not the reaction that the warlock had been hoping for.
Setting one of the children down to free a hand, Bay again cast his spell to increase his speed. In that short time, the chasing creature had closed about a third of the distance between them. Picking up the child again, he started running towards the wagon. As he did so, a galloping horse crested a hill just beyond the wagon. The rider atop it was well over six feet tall and the horse was straining under the weight of the massive man and his armor. Holding a green shield that was shaped like a leaf, the man whirled a large warhammer and shouted something about a foul creature being a blight upon the land. Bay wasn’t sure but it seemed like the man was yelling at him!
Meanwhile, back in the complex under the hill, Osric, Isenthorne, and Thalimor began to more carefully explore the other rooms in the complex. The undead scattered throughout the complex took no aggressive action towards the trio. Actually the undead took no action at all. They didn’t move to get out of the way of the trio but also did nothing to block the actions of the heroes. They were able to explore the final room that they had not yet entered. It was a fairly largely room with nearly a dozen small pits dug in the floor. Wooden lids looked like they had once covered the pits but they had been removed. Four or five zombies were simply standing about within. One of the pits had a child’s shoe at the bottom but there wasn’t much else of interest within.
They proceeded to search around the other areas that they had searched before as well. In the small room at the top of the stairs, the one with the pool of water, Thalimor cut his had with the wicked looking dagger that had been found in the box and let some blood drip into the pool. Nothing happened. He had hoped that, perhaps, it might attract the attention of whoever was the real ruler in this place as he did not think Aerlium was…in fact, he thought Aerlium might have been imprisoned in the box by the real ruler of this place. He also called out for Aerlium throughout the complex, thinking that the imp might still be around but there was no response.
Heading back to the room with the pool of orangish liquid where Magnus was, essentially, imprisoned as the undead had been ordered to attack him if he left, Thalimor tried the same thing. He cut his hand with the dagger and let some drop into the pool. Before the blood could the surface of this pool, a small pseudopod of the think liquid shot up and grabbed the blood, sinking back into the bulk of the pool. They then went and got the dead body of the human in the first “statue chamber” and lowered it into the pool. The body sunk beneath the liquid but there was no real reaction from the pool.
Back outside, the rider came right up to Bay and dismounted. To Bay’s relief, it looked like this warrior had been talking to the creature chasing him. The pair interposed themselves between the creature and the children. The reached them and creature attacked. It bit Bay and the warlock was overcome with blind rage and turned on hits new-found ally, swinging his dagger at the armored warrior before quickly regaining his composure. Bay and the warrior defeated the creature.
The pair picked up the children and approached the wagon. The guards ordered that the stop a distance away and were obviously on edge. The woman on the wagon climbed down and took charge of the encounter. She introduced herself as Teza Sosia, obviously Cesvani, began to ask about the creature. Bay must have still been a bit shaken by his recent encounters because he lamely answered her questions about where it had come from with comments like “about a mile and half that way.” Eventually, Bay provided a more coherent story about the ruins that had been uncovered and that the creature had come from there. It had attacked a nearby small settlement and he was trying to save the children. With that, Teza volunteered to take the children back to Swallowfeld and to the Fellowship Hall there…even though she had obviously not been traveling in that direction originally. Pounder, the name of the armored warrior, was a little suspicious of her willingness but agreed to let her. He and Bay then rode and ran respectively back towards the ruins to help Bay’s allies within.
Back in the complex, it was decided that they really didn’t have any choice but to fight their way out. Osric, Isenthorne, and Thalimor positioned themselves outside of Magnus’ “prison” and readied themselves to attack the pair of skeletons standing “guard” there as soon as Magnus came into the room. Magnus, however, had different plans. He was convinced that the undead could not enter the room in which he remained as none had done so yet. He called down holy flame to strike one of the skeletons. The change in plans was enough to distract his allies outside such that they didn’t react quite as quickly as they would have otherwise.
Magnus’ theory was quicly proven wrong as ne of the skeletons entered the room to attack Magnus while the other turned on the trio. The other undead in the rest of the complex began to move towards this room to attack as well. Osric took up a position to block the narrow entry into this chamber while the others finished off the pair of undead guards that had already attacked. The battle quickly dragged into one of Osric keeping the undead out, attacking each one as it approached, with Thalimor harrying them from Osric’s side, Isenthorne, shooting arrows through the narrow gaps that appeared, and Magnus alternating between healing Osric as he became wounded and calling down holy fire on the undead when the big warrior was not. One by one, skeleton or zombie, came to Osric and fell before his blade, Isenthorne’s arrows, or Magnus’ spells.
Bay and Pounder reached the ruins. As Bay had been here before and knew where to go, he entered first. He had, however, forgotten that only one of the statue creatures had chased him. The other was still just within the entry and quickly attacked. The battle did not go quite as well as they that the pair had just prevailed in. Both Bay and Pounder fell before the creature.
The line of undead was long, determined, and obviously had no tactics other than press forward to be defeated. Osric came close to following before their attacks more than once but never actually did. Then a greater threat arrived. One of the statue creatures reached the front of the line and destroyed the skeleton in its way so it could reach Osric. The creature was obviously already badly injured and quickly fell.
[Although this turned out to be the longest combat we’ve had with 5e and was, almost literally, undead walking up to be killed, the statue creature added a bit of tension to things. The players all realized that its bite affected the target and made them attack their nearby allies if the Wisdom save was failed. Pounder was bit multiple times and was given a Bennie to be granted Advantage pretty much every time on his Wisdom save (every players gets a Bennie that they can use to grant another player’s character Advantage on an attack, save, or ability check…it is our replacement for Inspiration). RJ feared Pounder getting to attack Bay and if Osric had been affected by the thing’s bite after it reached him, that very well could have allowed the undead to enter the room and swarm about the heroes.
Todd had also failed two of Pounder’s death saving throws. When the time came to make the third, I made Todd roll where I would see the result before anyone else. I couldn’t believe it…he rolled a 20!!!]
Pounder’s wounds turned out to be less fatal than they had appeared. He was stunned and dazed but was able to clear his head and regain his feet. He performed some minor healing on himself and then did just enough to save Bay’s life and restore him to consciousness. The pair set off into the complex following the sounds of battle. The came to the end of the no longer long line of undead and engaged them with a loud shout/roar/battlecry from Pounder. A cry that reminded Isenthorne of those made by orcs during battle.
At last, the final undead lay dead. Isenthorne was a little concerned about the half-orc at the other end of the not defeated undead line but Bay quickly let everyone know that Pounder was a friend and had helped him. Thalimor, however, was immediately concerned by the green shield and leaf motif that Pounder sported. Danu’s warning about bewaring the Green was still fresh in his mind. The bard peppered the half-orc with questions about his shield and who he served but Pounder was resolute in simply stating that had wouldn’t answer questions about his shield and that he didn’t serve anyone.
Everyone eagerly headed outside, particularly since most had been cooped up in this place for a couple of days at this point. Thalimor, however, wanted to go back inside to examine the magical box again. Everyone accompanied him except for Bay…the warlock just couldn’t bring himself to go back inside. Thalimor took some time to cast a ritual to see if he could ascertain what the runes on the box said. It turned out, however, that they were arcane sigils and not a written language so he learned nothing else. They did, though, decide to take the box with them.
Heading back outside, they found Bay lying on the ground with blood dripping from his mouth to a growing pool of it around his head. Checking him, Isenthorne found that he was still alive and the bleeding was a result of a whole new set of teeth in his mouth! Bay now had teeth like a shark…even to the point of having two rows of teeth! His old teeth were scattered on the ground about him. They tended to him and it was then decided that they needed to block the entrance to the complex.
[It worked out perfectly that Bay decided to stay outside by himself. It also worked out perfectly that Bay only had one hit point left. So when rows of shark teeth erupted from his gums and forced out his normal teeth, the damage was enough to make him lose consciousness. I wonder if all this had anything to do with the waters he drank from the bowl on the altar and his failed CON save. 😉 ]
The heroes salvaged materials from the nearby huts with which to block up the entrance. Thalimor got some charcoal from the charcoal pit near the huts and wrote, “Beware – Zombies inside,” across their crude barricade across the entrance. By the time they were finished, it had already become dark. Rather than camp in the wilderness, the heroes pressed on for Swallowfeld. Despite hearing some wolves howling, including ones that Isenthorne thought didn’t quite sound natural and normal, they arrived without incident. Most of the village was dark as the residents were asleep. Pounder led the way as he had already been staying at The Wolf’s Head, the village’s only inn. Banging on the door got the attention of the innkeep, Askettil, or Kettle as most called him. He brought out some cold dinner and ale and went back to bed letting the heroes know that they could settle their account in the morning.
Worrying about Bay having additional transformation during the night, the heroes tied him to a bed and kept a rotating watch on him all night. In the morning, however, he didn’t feel any different but did realize that his skin was rough and almost leathery.
Pounder had risen early and, having his own room, slipped out unnoticed by his newfound allies. He headed to the Fellowship Hall to check on the children. They were within, sweeping the main hall. The priest, Ceaddan, introduced himself and the children and suggested that they thank the man who had saved them. The girl quickly flung herself against Pounder’s leg, hugging him tightly, but the boy was reluctant given the warrior’s heritage. Ceaddan chastised the boy for this and he too thanked Pounder, though not as enthusiastically. The girl, Kettilwig, then asked of Pounder would take them back to their parents now. The boy, Daegelric, told her he couldn’t because their parents were dead. They girl refused to believe that and the bickering would likely have continued if Ceaddan had not interrupted. It was clear that their recent experience was going to leave some marks on the pair.
Ceaddan stated that he’d keep the children with him until a family could be found that would take them in. Pounder thanked him and gave him a couple of gold pieces to help care for the children.
Back at the Wolf’s Head, the rest of the heroes were heading down to the common room for breakfast. A woman who was wearing entirely too much makeup approached and asked if they were Pounder’s friends. When they said yes, she wanted to hear about how the half-orc had saved the two children.
[That’s pretty much where we ended the session. Not really a cliffhanger but I can’t end every session like that. Plus it was getting late and I was really tired after having spent much of the day at a local beer festival drinking probably too much…damn beer festivals the same day as game nights. 😉
The fight with the undead was pretty long. Definitely the longest combat we’ve had in awhile. It was a dozen skeletons, six zombies, and the one statue creature thing. If the party hadn’t adopted the tactic of blocking a five foot corridor to limit the fight to one at a time, I’m guessing it might have been a tpk. As it was, Osric was nearly taken down a couple of times…a critical hit didn’t help. I’m generally not a big fan of long combats but this one was okay since we were switching back and forth between a couple of groups AND the bite of the creature could turn the PCs against each other. That added some definite tension to the night and Todd’s rolling of a 20 on his Death Save after having failed two was one of those iconic D&D type moments.
What is going on with Bay? What does the shark stuff mean? While the party is a bit concerned about how the “locals” might react to him, I’m actually more interested to see how his Fey Patron, Danu, reacts. What’s up with Pounder’s green shield and why won’t he answer questions about it? Who is Teza Sosia, the woman who took the children to Swallowfeld? Where is Aerlium? Wouldn’t it have likely done a better job of directing the undead to be a bit more tactical if it was still in the complex? So lots of little things are starting to shape up nicely.
Beers…we had stopped at our local coop for brunch this morning and picked up a couple of things to share this session. The first was William’s Dragon’s Breath, a cider. I’m not really a big fan of ciders but it was kind of hard to pass up something called Dragon’s Breath for a D&D game. It is spiced with ginger and you could definitely smell and taste it. From the “oohs” and “oh, I like that” that could be heard around the table, I’d have to say that this was an overall hit with the group even if it isn’t really my cup of tea…so to speak. The second was Anderson Valley’s Highway 128 Blood Orange Gose. We’ve shared this a number of times before while gaming. Gose has been a favored style at the table and this one was no exception and is a general hit with the group.]
