DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Second Session

March 24, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

In which the Party learns that it has been betrayed by its employer, Skrolark. New employment is sought, and a piñata is obtained.

  1. On the hunt
  2. At the portal
  3. The encounter at the portal
  4. Honeyhand
  5. Conclusion

At the end of the last session, we had broken out of the dungeon and found that we were between Tallfield and Honeyhand.

The party consists of:

Marnoc has been thinking things over, and decides that he wants the 700 gold that our employer had promised us for the safe delivery of the artefact. He advocates that we head back to where we were attacked; see if there's anything. If nothing, cast a light at night on the wreckage and then ambush the people who come to investigate.

"What if no one else comes?" asks Ship. Theren says we ought to look for tracks.

We're about a day and a half from either town, don't know how long we were unconscious. But Ship's Natural Explorer Ranger trait means that Ship can't be lost.

On the hunt

We head back to the dungeon, find tracks, and then Ship follows the trail. There was a wagon where we were attacked, but there is no wagon there. There's scattered remnants of the wagon, and there's signs that we got out to see what was happening or got attacked or something, but we definitely all got off. The horse was fine enough, and the tracks continue towards Honeyhand.

Zoltar can't see any magical inprints. but Ship sees where the wagon went and doesn't see any tracks beside its horse and stuff. All that Belmac remembers is that he got off. Ship didn't see any blood or debris other than the ripped-off top of the cart.

So we decide to follow the trail, and it becomes clear that there was haste involved in getting the fuck away. The horse was pushed to its limits, and half a day's travel in, the horse's trail goes off the road. Honeyhand is long in the distance. We're about a day's travel away from Honeyhand. The tracks lead off in the direction of the plains leading to the foothills to the mountains in the North.

The rations we have are sufficient to continue tracking.

We follow the tracks, under Ship's guidance. We track for miles off the Tallfield-Honeyhand trail, finally arriving at a forest. The party has traveled 3 hours thus far; it's about midday. Do we head into the deep dark forest?

We bound through the forest, aided by Ship's Natural Explorer ability, and we find a clearing with the discarded wagon. There's no camp, but there is a tear in the sky with a ragged hole. It looks like portal into another plane, with fire and brimstone.

At the portal

Belmac investigates and finds a clue that everyhting from the cart went through the gate. Ship's Religion perspective it's some kind of demonic portal. Belmac sticks his head in. There's a stone path, but he's got knowledge about stonework. It's literal hell.

Marnoc throws a rock through, and it skitters through. So he walks through. He mumbles like a bitter old man about these damn kids, being too cautious. He notices the overwhelming heat. it's going to be very challenging to not get exhausted. He hobbles back out.

Belmac comes back out. "It's literally hell in there. I don't know what those rocks came from." Belmac and Marnoc make hell puns. Belmac, from a gameplay perspective, would have to make a check every 30 minutes to avoid exhaustion, and at a disadvantage with armor.

Marnoc says, "Maybe whatever came out of that portal and went back into it, maybe it would come back out sometime." He advocates for staying the night, so he can prepare the spell of Create Water.

Belmac finds a way to make an omnidirectional trap under the portal.

Ship heads off to find water and food, Theren keeps watch on the portal, and Marnoc and Zoltar sets up camp, and Theren builds the trap.

Now we're making dinner. And eat and tell dinner and stories.

So the order of the night, starting at 7 p.m.

  1. Belmac has first watch, and so he hides in some bushes. With a 17 he intimidates the darkness and the portal. He hears the sounds of wildlife, and he can't hear what's happening in the portal but can't see anything that happens in it.
  2. Marnoc takes second watch. With a 16 Perception, he sees distant movement in the portal. He can't hear things, but there are lots of little demon-like creatures scampering around, vaguely filling ranks. They're not flying around. He wakes up the party.

"Do you still want to go to bed?" Marnoc asks us. The swarm of demons is 500 feet away and walking towards the portal. Marnoc thinks they're heading out to scavenge. There are 7 of these creatures that are a hallmark of the Hellfire Event, the little demons known as Quasits that were the first wave of the demonic invasion. They're not particularly strong, but they can put up a fight and would likely cause serious trouble for a town's guard. There is no obvious leader to the pack.

The encounter at the portal

So we prepare an attack. Marnoc and Zoltar had set up the camp, so they roll for stealth, to see how stealthily the camp was set up. Zoltar rolls 1d20 = 8. The camp is like 10 feet away from the edge of the clearing, somewhat obviously set up.

We decide that Marnoc will provide support, and the rest of us will hold attack until the trap has played out. Everyone else prepares a ranged attack, under 3/4 cover at the ede of the clearing. Belmac is next to Marnoc is next to Zoltar is next to Ship is next to Theren.

The Quasits come all the way up to the target, look around, and the first one jumps through. It triggers the trap, and takes 3d4 = 10 damage, and it dies.

The second comes through, and then the rest pile on through. The party makes its attack.

On to actual rounds:

  1. The remaining 5 Quasits (30 move) scatter, going for each of us.
    1. #1 is dead.
    2. #2 goes for Belmac, and does some piercing damage.
    3. #3 is dead.
    4. #4 hits Zoltar for 6 damage, decreasing her HP to 1.
    5. #5 goes Marnoc, whiffs.
    6. #6 hits for 3 putting Zoltar down.
    7. #7 goes for Theren, hits for 5 and takes 5 cold.
  2. Theren whiffs with the longsword; the Quasit hisses at him.
  3. Ship hits Quasit #4 for 5 damage, killing it. It collapses on top of Zoltar.
  4. Belmac melees the Quasit that is on him for 7 with his first sword, and the second sword for another 7 damage. He moves to the next demon, close to Marnoc.
  5. Zoltar makes a death saving throw and succeeds on a natural 20: at 1 hp and conscious.
  6. Marnoc uses his warhammer to do 5 + str 1 for 6 damage to #5, then casts Shield of Faith to Zoltar
  7. Quasit turns:
    1. #1 is dead.
    2. #2 is dead
    3. #3 is dead
    4. #4 is dead
    5. #5 is alive, does damage to Marnoc
    6. #6 died
    7. #7 is damaged and is on Theren, attacks him and whiffs.
  8. Theren casts the Hexblade Curse on the Quasit next to him for 1d8+7 = 9 to the Quasit.
  9. Ship tackles the remaining Quasit, but doesn't succeed. Ship imposes over the Quasit.
  10. Belmac succeeds in tackling the Quasit.

Marnoc ties up the demon, we hang it from the tree, and we interrogate it. "I will kill you" it speaks in Common! Marnoc speaks Abyssal, and that's the Quasit's natural language, but its intelligence is 7 so it's only slightly more intelligent than a dog.

"Have you seen this wagon?" asks Marnoc, and it replies "Why are you asking?" Belmac slaps it for 1 damage, with intimidation. Marnoc tries again. "Do you know where the artefact from that wagon? Did you steal the arteffact?" "Master took it!" "And where is master?" "Where do you think!" In the portal, duh.

Ship offers to play bad music for twelve hours to torture it, it replies that it will respawn in the 9 Hells.

"Who is your master?" "My master is Skrolark the Unforgiven!"

The name is familiar to most of use - we remember that something about Skrolark attacking. But also, Skrolark had offered us that 700 gold for transporting Skrolark and his artefact. The demon is implying that Skrolark set us up to be scapegoats for his planned attack on Honeyhand.

Marnoc fishes out the daggars from the pit.

Meanwhile, Ship loots the bodies. They don't have anything interesting, but Ship cuts off 12 horns from the 6 dead Quasits.

"So Skrolark wanted us to escort this artefact, and then also set us up to be ambushed." "Skrolark would kill all of you weaklings!" says the demon. Marnoc asks how's skrolark talking to the demons. The demon replies that they were summoned to attack honeyhand. What was the artefact?

We debate how to intimidate the demon or whether to keep it around, and in what state to do so. "Scrotum the Unforgiven was the guy who hired us," says Belmac. "Says the demon," interrupts Ship. "So Scrotum was hiring us to take over the town of Honeyhand, and setting us up to be the fall guy."

We gag the Quasit with Theren's bag of sand, and Marnoc trims the prisoner's nails down to the quick.. Marnoc says that we should keep the thing for proof of our goodwill, when we enter Honeyhand. We continue the long rest, watching the piñata, whom has been named "Spot" by Marnoc. Marnoc has tourniquetted and amputated both hands of the demon. It goes unconscious, but Marnoc stabilizes the demon so it won't continue towards death.

We continue the long rest. Zoltar does the first hour, at 1 health, with 11 perception. After an hour passes, another group of 5 Quasits jumps through the portal.

  1. The 5 Quasits:
    1. #1 goes for Belmac, 3 damage
    2. #2 goes for Marnoc, 6 damage and Marnoc is out.
    3. #3 goes for Zoltar, 4 damage down to 3 HP and now in melee
    4. #4 goes for Ship, whiffs
    5. #5 goes for Theren, 6 damage
    6. The piñata struggles
  2. Ship hits #4 for 5 with the frist shortsword and 2 with the second, #4 is almost dead
  3. Belmac gets 9 HP back from Second Wind, but whiffs #1
  4. Marnoc fails the first death saving throw
  5. Zoltar casts Magic Missile at #3 and kills it, then retreats all 30 feet of her move
  6. Theren cases Hex at #5 and does 13, killing it, then moves close to Marnoc
  7. The 5 Quasits:
    1. #1 still alive, whiffs at Belmac
    2. #2 still alive, attacks Theren now and does 4, putting Theren at 1
    3. #3 is dead
    4. #4 is damaged, does 6 to Ship to 5 HP
    5. #5 is dead
  8. Ship does 6 to #4 and kills it, moves to Marnoc but doesn't succeed in hitting #2.
  9. Belmac does a bunch of damage to #1, killing it, and moves to Marnoc
  10. Marnoc passes a death save.
  11. Zoltar casts Magic Missile at Marnoc's Quasit #2 and kills it with 12
  12. Spot doesn't break free from its piñata bonds. (It would have to make a CR 30 Strength check, with disadvantage.)
  13. Theren uses Help on Ship for Ship's medicine roll.
  14. Ship rolls with advantage for 23 Medicine, to bring Marnoc to 0 HP and consciousness.

We decide to walk farther away from the portal. Belmac carries the cleric Marnoc, and Ship carries Spot, and we relocate to the stream, and go back to bed for the remainder of our long rest. Zoltar takes another short rest instead of a long rest. Ship takes the next watch, with a 24 Perception roll Ship notices nothing concerning. Eerie noises and yipping in the direction of the portal but not approaching the new camp. The new camp is further from the path; the portal is between us and Honeyhand. The next watch is Theren, who, with an 8 Perception roll, doesn't notice anything approachng the camp. Without a fire, we all finish a long rest at 3 a.m. Except Theren and Zoltar, who were doing short rests.

We wake up, drink from the stream, use leftover forage from yesterday as a meal. Spot looks a little worse for wear.

We head onwards, to Honeyhand. The portal is still open, as we pass it. We continue to the road, and get to Honeyhand at nightfall. There are no travelers coming from Honeyhand. We pass the occasional traveler, and we get a lot of weird looks. Belmac taunts the travelers, "What, you never seen a dwarf a before?" Belmac is carrying Spot alone. The Quasit continues to not die.

Honeyhand

Honeyhand has a wood palisade wall, with houses and shops inside. We are greeted by guards, who question about the demon slung over Belmac's shoulder. We explain, using Theren as the spokesperson. "Do I need to get the guard captain?" asks a guard. YES replies the party. The guard goes and gets the captain. It's like 8 p.m. "Ugh," says the guard captin. "Quasit invasion? We got attacked by some Quasits early in the morning." We show him the defeated Quasit horns that Ship has been collecting. The quosits have been attacking Honeyhand all day long.

Belmac rants for a bit at the guard captain, then kills Spot. The guard captain says he'll cover rooms for the first night at the Sleepy Flumph inn. We go to the tavern, and Marnoc buys a round of cheap mead for us. Mead is Honeyhand's primary export. Belmac spends 1 gold on the finest mead, which arrives in a bee-dragon-hybrid-shaped shotglass. It's "Liquid Sunlight" and it tastes like the richest kind of flavorful honey. "It's not as strong as Dwarven ale but it's good enough for me," he says, and pounds the rest of it. Marnoc talks with a bunch of people. We're not the only people there, and most are drinking the 5-copper mead that Marnoc bought.

We go to the Sleepy Flumph, where Norris Foulbin the half-elf greets us in a British accent, and explains that he's got 5 beds for the party across 3 rooms, and we wake up in the morning with a full long rest.

The Party levels up!

Overnight, the Quasits have continued attacking about every 2 hours, from the same direction. The guard is tired. The town guard captain mentions that if we find a way to close the portal, we'll get 900 gold from them.

We go to the potionmaker in town, at the Unicorn's Patch. There's a cloud-like jekkyfish creature sleeping on the counter, and it's totally passed out. It doesn't hear us enter. It's a Flumph. Theren knocks on the door, and the Flumph wakes up. It floats up, and Belmac discovers that Flumphs aren't unicorns. The Flumph is genuinely surprised about the existence of the portal, and thinks that killing the person who opened it would help in closing the portal. And the potions of heat/fire resistance cost 75gp apiece. The Flumph doesn't have an alchemical jug for holding lots of water, but recommends those resistance potions or 60gp healing potions.

The Flumph offers 2gp per horn, we sell 24 for 50gp total, gain 10gp apiece.

Belmac decides to go to the general store to buy a portable battering ram, and talks to the half-orc shopkeeper. "Do you have a portable ram?" "What?" "To break doors?" "Why do you need to break a door?" "We found a portal to Hell, and a portal is like a door, and how to you break doors? You use a ram!" The shopkeeper suggests digging a pit.

Ship asks a passerby where the dwarf and the human went, and Ship and Theren go there. Ship walks into the discussion of the battering ram when the shopkeepers says he doesn't have any to sell, and Ship suggest just cutting down trees to make the battering ram. Belmac buys an axe.

Marnoc asks for a holy symbol, and the half-orc goes off to find holy symbols. We discuss buckets for holy water, Ship suggests rerouting the stream and blessing it. The shopkeeper returns, says "uh, yes, I can sell you shovels", and proffers a counterfeit holy symbol. Which Marnoc buys.

Most everyone buys some waterskins, and miscellaneous other supplies. Ship buys a local and world map.

Ship asks if there's a temple and a priest about, and gets told about Piven, who attends the town temple.

We go talk to the priest, a human man, who doesn't know much about Quasits. "They never taught me about that at priest school," but he assumes that killing the man who opened the portal would close it. The priest blesses 2 liters of holy water, which are carried by Zoltar. Zoltar bought 5 waterskins.

And then the session ends at the tavern.

Conclusion

Outstanding questions:

The Second Session - March 24, 2018 - Ben Keith