Hello, lovely readers!
This last weekend's gaming session was remarkably brief-seeming. Some folks had some car trouble, so we had a late start. We played some Adventure Time Munchkin to pass the time (Trinity was closest to 10 when we stopped).
Then, once we actually got started, we had a difficult time staying focused (I recorded the audio of the session to use for these notes, and they ran around 140 minutes; we only advanced something like 20 minutes in game time).
For this week, every PC except Saito was present.
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Last time, the heroes had just encountered Juju, the flumph, and were headed to his little hole in the tunnels below the caves.
Once they entered "Flumphy Town," as it is now called, Trinity buried herself in flumphs and Squidsy confirmed her location for the rest of the party.
Saito took ill from the spores that he had inhaled in the other room and began retching. The flumphs told the party they would take care of him.
Around the time that he took sick, Cara, Ulic, and Trinity all began to have strange feelings in their heads.
The party, sans Saito, then returned to the main chamber and began discussing how to proceed - explore the remaining tunnel, return to the "warforged fun room" and see what else might be hidden there, or charge headlong at whatever remained in the "scary tunnel."
First, they had Hazmi cast light on a stone and throw it down the "falling rocks" tunnel.
To discover that the rocks had already fallen.
The tunnel was choked with boulders and rubble, blocking the path further down.
Next, they decided to return to the "warforged fun room" to see what might remain there.
Ulic used his divine sense feature - and found that the only thing he could detect there was himself.
Eos checked for traps - and found nothing.
Cara looked around for identifying marks - and found nothing.
Then the looting began.
Several PCs walked away with some coinage, and Ulic discovered a carved horn wand of some sort.
Which Trinity desperately wanted.
After smashing the fountain in frustration, Ulic decided she could hang on to the wand for a little while if she promised to not be so smash happy.
And she agreed.
And carried through on the agreement.
She also said the incredibly innuendo-y "Trinity expects more bones" when I brought up the subject of giving her too many nice things. Some laughs.
Happily sated on their looting, the party returned to the room that was filled with fungi.
One of the shriekers cried out, and Ulic allowed Trinity a temporary grace period on her vow of non-smashing.
A rousing game of "Wack a Mold" ensued.
Once that was done, and the party couldn't find anything else in the room, they continued on into the tunnel opposite the one they had entered.
Cara, Trinity, and Ulic experienced a strange phenomenon at this point: as if in a dream, they saw a blurry humanoid figure approach them and attack. They were only slightly unsettled by this, as Cara explained it was probably due to the spores they had inhaled earlier.
This next room was smaller than the last, and something was floating just beyond their light.
Those with darkvision, however, saw what it was: a true beholder.
To be specific, a spectator.
Ulic knew from experience that these monsters weren't necessarily hostile, though they would guard something until their death.
So, the party approached it.
Several members were shocked that it could speak to them.
Ulic decided to act on his knowledge and asked it what it was guarding.
And what a great question to ask a spectator, a type of magical guardian that just loves to talk about that kind of thing.
It revealed to them that it was guarding a secret for Vecna (whose holy symbol was on the scary warforged) and could only allow followers of that deity to pass it.
This sparked several different things:
- The party asked when the last time a follower of Vecna came through here was, and it told them it was about a week ago
- They said that couldn't be true, as that faith was wiped out ages ago
- The spectator described to them a person that matched the vision that Cara, Ulic, and Trinity had had
- Trinity got the bright idea to impersonate a follower of Vecna to try to pass, but failed to convince the spectator. This was probably due to the holy symbol of Beory emblazoned on her head
- Then Cara decided to do something truly clever: she used her fey presence feature to charm the spectator, then used persuasion to let them pass - and it went for it!
With that bit of good luck under their belts, they proceeded into the next, and final, chamber.
In here, they found what amounts to a "warforged birthing chamber" with nine alcoves, only three of which were currently occupied.
The room was in pristine condition, despite the general ruin of the rest of the temple.
After discussing their options and asking me SEVERAL questions, Trinity decided to try two things:
First, she would climb into one of the charging stations to see what would happen.
She made a Constitution saving throw and... nothing happened. Because nothing would have happened. There was a deliciously tense moment when she rolled the die though :)
Next, she wanted to try to evict one of the warforged and hope that it imprinted to her like a duckling.
With Hazmi and Ulic ready to tie it up when she pulled it out, she let loose.
The party was able to secure it quickly, but then things turned ugly.
The other two warforged had awoken, and the third began to strain against its ropes.
Eos, who had been hidden, had readied his action to attack anything hostile that might have moved. His sneak attack hit and dealt good damage to one of the machines.
Sabah likewise had prepared an action, flinging fire at the warforged in the ropes. Her spell, however, shed off its metallic hide like water on a duck's back.
Then combat began in earnest.
The fighting was brutal. Both Sabah and Hazmi retreated into the hallway: Hazmi because of his personality, Sabah because she was being beaten savagely.
Eos and Cara were having a hard time hitting the warforged, rapier and spells glancing off their metal hide.
Ulic, however, was able to deal the most damage to them, using his claymore to slay one and then greatly cripple the other two.
Hazmi's expended all of his spell slots to cast magic missiles, but the damage he dealt was probably critical in the party's survival.
At one point, Trinity decided to punch a warforged for NO. APPARENT. REASON (To put this into perspective, her unarmed strikes deal 4 damage, while her warhammer deals ~8 damage). However, she did score a critical with the hit, so that was worth a laugh at least.
At one point, Cara was knocked unconscious and Sabah ran to her rescue. However, she was knocked out in turn just after stabilizing her friend.
After several turns of brutal, agonizing combat, the party prevailed. Cara was stable but unconscious, and Sabah required medical attention to avoid slipping closer to death.
The party decided to take a rest here to refresh their spirits, splint broken bones, and prepare to trek back to the spectator.
During the rest, Trinity found a +1 spear that was hiding in an alcove, and Ulic identified his wand as a wand of web that he then attuned himself to.
And that is how the fifth session ended.
Actually, looking at it, there really was quite a bit covered.
Now, for our next trick: how are we going to reunite the party with a beholder in the way?
Later this week, I'll add another link to the psionics update project.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
