The Third Session

April 7, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

1. On to the portal
2. In the portal
3. Skrolark!
4. Honeyhand
5. Onwards to Kingalore.
6. Conclusion

Belmac had the crushing insight that a battering ram opens the door, rather than closing it. So plan "Holy Battering Ram" is out.

The barkeep says we're the only ones from out of town available, so there's no one here that can give us dispelling information.

We talk about fixing the wagon, then bringing a lot of water with us when we enter the portal. But the wagon won't fit in the portal.

Marnoc says we should close it from outside, if at all possible. But he can also cast Create Water to create 10 gallons 3 times per day, which massively extends our water-carrying potential for journeys into the portal.

And this town is 6 days from the nearest larger town, which isn't really much useful.

Belmac and Marnoc go over to Crusader Joe's to get new, lighter armor. Marnoc tries to trade the counterfeit holy symbol for armor; fails. But then Belmac and Marnoc offer to leave their heavy armor (scale @ 50gp, chain mail @ 75gp) there in exchange for borrowing studded leather armor (normally costs 45gp) to close the portal. He agrees, and charges a 5gp rental fee apiece. Belmac asks him to repair his gauntlets, which Joe throws in with the rental fee. Marnoc asks for a valet check, and Joe gives him one, but Marnoc isn't sure that Joe is literate.

Belmac marvels at the new flexibility the lighter-weight armor gives him. He walks into the bar flexing.

We return to the portal. Belmac marvels at his newfound flexibility, and asks Ship what it's like to always be that flexible. Ship demonstrates their flexibility.

On to the portal

Because Ship is a ranger and has Natural Explorer, the party travels at a normal speed without being hampered by difficult terrain. We make a beeline straight to the portal, across fields and brush and into the forest. It takes half a day to get there; it's about 3 p.m. when we arrive.

The portal is sitting right where we left it; with the wagon on the side.

Ship advocates for doing something with the wagon wheel thing, but Belmac draws his swords and walks right in. Marnoc remembers that he forgot to prepare Create Water. Oops.

Waterskins:

• Ship: 4
• Zoltar: 5
• Belmac: 4 + brewing jug = 6
• Theren: 1
• Marnoc: 10

In the portal

There's a cobblestone path leading into the distant reddish haze. Zoltar identifies it a standard Hell rock, basalt. There is lava off to the sides. It's hot; players will be making a constitution check every 30 minutes to avoid taking levels of exhaustion. Tod has a custom exhaustion thing for the heat of Hell, which I won't get into here, but basically we won't die from exhaustion within Hell and will recover all exhaustion levels after a long rest. By drinking or dousing with water, we can roll a con check with advantage instead of rolling normally.

We follow the cobblestone road; the portal disappears into the haze behind us. We stave off the first round of exhaustion, and the second.

Off to the side of the road we see a gazebo,Yes, a gazebo. made of black basalt, a couple hundred feet off the path, with a stone dias in the middle holding what is probably an item. Belmac approaches stealthily; Marnoc walks right up to it, passing Belmac. Belmac shrugs and approaches less stealthily. There's a thunderstom emanating from a leather bag.

Zoltar checks her Arcana knowledge to see what the magic is, but she doesn't recognize the magic or its effects. She readies Magic Missile and Marnoc stops her; Belmac readies to shoot it with a bow and he stops him as well. Marnoc checks his religion knowledge and the magic is probably not divine. Marnoc lowers his bow-withholding hand and Belmac shoots it.

We're all outside the gazebo; the arrow pierces the magical field surrounding the bag, bounces off the bag, and bounces into the lava. The stormclouds dissipate.

Ship readies an arrow; Marnoc blesses it with Noidesop, and the arrow gets a little bit of holy water from Zoltar. It zips across above the bag, and nothing happens. Marnoc picks up the bag, and says the bag is empty. (Tod hands David a card that contains a description.)

The bag almost has a face in patches; Marnoc says he doens't think it's religious. He shares the secret of the bag with Belmac.

We decide to go one more waterskin into hell, and then turn around.

At the next stop, we see a steep hill at the very edge of sight. There's a switchback going up the hill. Zoltar takes a level of exhaustion and receives disadvantage on ability checks. We're at 13 water-skins which isn't enough to make it all the way back to the portal without beginning to take exhaustion. The switch-back is at least 30-45 minutes going straight up, taking an hour going up the path.

Belmac tries to climb up the cliff-face, immediately falls like 1 foot and says, nope. But then he tries again, and succeeds enough to go up. And so he goes up, and Marnoc follows. Zoltar and Ship go up the path at speed and a half. The two parties wave to each other as they go up, moving at the same speed. On the next constitution check, Belmac takes a level of exhaustion. We're about 15 minutes from the top and continue to the top, 15 minutes later. Ship takes a level of exhaustion.

At the top of the hill, we see a man standing in the middle of the cut stone area. It is Skrolark!

Skrolark!

He's standing up, holding a longbow towards the sky. A dark manifestation of energy is pulling down out of the sky into the bow. He says, "I thought Golthia The tree from session 1. would have killed you!" and draws the bow, aiming at us.

Order of battle:

1. Marnoc casts Guiding Bolt, does 4d6 = 12 and closes the distance.
2. Belmac swings with a sword and swings, but whiffs because of the radiance of Guiding Bolt which should have given him advantage. With the offhand attack, does 1d6+Str=7 damage.
3. Ship casts Ensnaring Strike, hits with a longbow for 1d8 + Dex = 3+3 = 6, but Skrolark is not restrained by the thorny vines.
4. Theren uses Eldritch Blast, but does not hit.
5. Zoltar casts Magic Missile for 3d4+3=10 damage.

6. Skrolark incants something in Infernal, which Ship recognizes as "Fus Ro Dah!", and it pushes Marnoc back 5 feet. Belmac is not pushed back. Skrolark fires his mystical dark longbow at Marnoc, and misses.

7. Ship casts Ensnaring Strike again, but misses with the bowshot.
8. Marnoc closes the distance and swings at Skrolark with a warhammer, which bounces.
9. Belmac does 9 damage with the first weapon, 9 with the second, triggers Action Surge for an action and a bonus action for 8 damage.
10. Theren hits with Eldritch Blast for 8.
11. Zoltar hits for some damage.
12. Skrolark's turn. Ship feels a blast of wind, but isn't pushed off the cliff. A Quasit is summoned next to Zoltar, not Spot, and Skrolark attacks Marnoc with the bow. Marnoc triggers Wrath of the Sorm and channels divinity, for 16 electrical damage to Skrolark.

13. The Quasit does nothing.

14. Ship misses with an arrow, but moves 5 feet closer to Skrolark.
15. Belmac with his two swords does some damage.
16. Marnoc hits with the warhammer for 9.
17. Theren uses bonus action to cast Hex on Skrolark, and follows with Eldritch Blast for 3.
18. Zoltar crits the Quasit for 2d4=7, killing it with a dagger.

19. Skrolark has a direct line of sight on Zoltar, so he blasts Zoltar with wind, and Zoltar is pushed over the edge. Zoltar is left barely hanging on the edge. And then Skrolark misses with the longbow.

20. Ship fails with the longbow again, and then moves over to Zoltar to try to save her.
21. Belmac hits again does 10 and cuts straight through Skrolark. It's time for a one-liner, and Belmac delivers: "Go to hell."

There's a shudder in the world.

Marnoc replies: "You should've said, 'Scrotum, you've been gelded!'" Marnoc takes Skrolark's clothes and coin pouch; Belmac takes the weird dark bow. Marnoc heads towards Zoltar to pick up Zoltar, and Zoltar makes an Athletics check at Advantage + Disadvantage normal, and loses a hand on the cliffside. Ship pulls her up.

Ship says, "let's see this shiny new bow." It looks identical to a normal longbow, but when it was fired the bolts that were fied with it had a light trail behind them, like wind. Belmac gives Ship the bow. We restock on arrows.

In the coinpouch that Marnoc acquired, there are 50 platinum pieces and 200 gold pieces. "We'll discuss this when we get out of here," he says. The clothes are "Damaged Fine Clothing".

We're 2.5 hours into Hell, now at 3 hours. It's an hour walk down the cliff. Halfway down, Ship and Zoltar gain a second level of eaxhaustion, gaining disadvantages on attack throws and saving throws. Another half hour passes by the time we reach the bottom of the hill, and Ship and Zoltar take a new level of exhaustion, decreasing their max hit points to half. Belmac goes to the second level of exhaustion. Marnoc goes to the first level of exhaustion. The Hell continues to tremble with occasional quakes.

At the foot of the hill, we see the basalt gazebo, and 30 minutes later we're there. Ship takes another level of exhaustion, halving their speed. At the gazebo, there's water coming out of the dias, where there was previously the bag of holding. We refill our waterskins. Marnoc casts Fog, with the divine inspiration of Noidesop, and everyone loses a level of exhaustion. "Noidesop has given us fortune," he says.

We continue the next hour's travel to the portal, gaining no new levels of exhaustion, and enter the portal. We're back in not-Hell, which is refreshingly chilly. Theren has no levels of exhaustion. And as we step through the portal, the portal collapses.

It's 3 a.m. We set up camp at the stream. Marnoc says to Belmac, "We went to hell and back, twice." "Reminds me of the time I went mining with my parents." We take watches, but nothing happens. There's a calm in the forest, and we lose all levels of exhaustion.

Ship attunes to the Bow of Twilight.

And then we go back to Honeyhand.

Honeyhand

Honeyhand still stands. There are scorchmarks in the front gate, and there are guards doing repairs, but it's mostly intact. We approach the guards, and after some banter the guard we're talking to brings the guard captain. "I see you made it back; we havne't been attacked in a while. They stopped about midday yesterday." Belmac fails a pun check and Ship calls him out, and we go off into town. The guard captain gives us a sack of 900 gold.

Marnoc gives everyone 10 platinum, and splits the 200gp between them. Marnoc pulls out the valet check and says that they paid Crusader Joe's 100gp apiece for the rental instead of 10gp total, trying to deceive the rest of the party, but Zoltar sees through it. So instead of that 200gp split, it's 50gp to Marnoc and Blemac each and the rest is split 33gp apiece to Ship, Zoltar, and Theren, with the remaining 1gp as a tip to Crusader Joe. The party minimum take is 10 platinum plus 180gp from the reward plus 33gp = 313gp.

We return to Crusader Joe's at 6 p.m.; the store is closed. So we go to the bar, the Bitter Bee.

Belmac takes 3 shots of the bee dragon mead. Marnoc takes 4. Ship buys a round of that "Liquid Sunlight" for everyone in the bar, and there is cheering. Belmac takes his 3 shots at once, makes a 24 on the saving throw, and shrugs all that alcohol off. Marnoc takes his time drinking. Belmac purchases 4 glasses of the middle-tier mead.

Ship turns of and goes hiding in the corner, where the farmers leave them alone. Marnoc tells the story of Spot the Wise Quasit. Belmac is now quite drunmk. He starts hugging peasants who walk in the door, which because he's a Dwarf means that the Human patrons are being hugged around the butt by an ambulatory armored traffic cone. Ship drags Belmac outside, then comes back inside and returns to their corner.

Marnoc stumbles to the place of sleeping and asks for accomodations sleeping things and Belmac follows, and it turns out that guard captiain paid for our rooms for the night again. Belmac vomits in the lobby. Marnoc takes Belmac, throws him into a room, falls on top of him, kicks the door shut, and zonks out until morning.

Theren is a responsible drinker and goes to bed early.

Zoltar examines the room key for arcana; it is a mundane key. She sleeps in the hotel too.

Ship climbs up on top of the tavern and goes to sleep.

The next morning, Marnoc and Belmac wake up, covered in Marnoc's vomit, cuddling. They are hungover. There is some struggling. Belmac goes to go wash off. Marnoc steps outside and creates a local raincloud with Create Water.

From Ship's point of view atop the tavern, Ship watches Marnoc take his 15-foot-cube rainshower. It's amusing. Zoltar comes downstairs and is offered breakfast by the hotel staff. Belmac and Marnoc go to Crusader Joe's to regain their armor. Ship heads to the inn for breakfast.

As Marnoc is taking off his armor, he asks, "Joe, have you ever heard of the Scrotarian Vomit Demon?" Belmac says, "I've never heard of that." Joe says no, but he takes the vomit-encrusted armor. Joe says their rental fee will go towards laundering the vomit-encrusted studded leather armor, and they give him the one spare gold for his trouble. Belmac regains his gauntlets, which look a lot cleaner.

The party levels up. Ship needs to go to the woods to spend 8 hours to call forth an animal from the wildnerness to serve as the faithful companion.

The guard captain told us to go warn the people in Kingalore, which is 6 days to the southeast. We're in the northern parts of the Elemental Collective.

Onwards to Kingalore.

Ship goes to find their bear companion. And gains a black bear. The bear doesn't have a name yet, but ship has a feeling about the sort of hat it should wear.

We leave Honeyhand to go to Kingalore, the dwarf capital of the dwarves of the Elemental Collective.

On the second day, a border collie on the side of the road comes up to us. It's distressed and looking for help with the well next to the abandoned house beside the road. We follow the dog; it barks into the well.

Marnoc looks into the well's depths and sees a child, about 15 feet down. It's about 20 feet down. He calls to the child "Can you hear me?" The child continues crying. Belmac throws down a rope; the child doesn't really succeed at grabbing on. Ship re-throws the rope with a loop in it; the kid doesn't grab on. A quick arcana check by Theren reveals that there's nothing magical in the area. Ship tries to remember if there's any demons regarding wells. At the very moment that Ship remembers one, the dog pushes Belmac into the well, on top of the crying child.

Party vs Lassie and Timmy, ready, go!

1. The child at the bottom of the well grasps Belmac with unholy strength, trying to drag him into the well, doing a critical grapple attack, doing 2d8=12 damage. And the child casts a spell, making the walls of the spell slippery and slimy.
2. Ship casts Ensnaring Strike and shoots the dog, for a critical hit damage of 2d8 + dex = 16 plus an effective spell, so the dog is restrained and takes 1d6 piercing at the start of each round.
3. Theren casts Suggestion on Timmy, saying "let him go; stop attacking". It doesn't really work.
4. Ship's bear does not succeed in hitting the dog with its claws.
5. Belmac breaks free of Timmy's hold, and hits Timmy with the longsword hilts for 18 damage. Then he he uses Second Wind to heal 9 hit points.
6. Zoltar casts Scorching Ray at the dog, for 21 damage.
7. The dog takes 5 damage from the vines, and it dies.

8. Marnoc jumps into the well, then casts Gust of Wind to push Belmac and Timmy up and out of the well. And he succeds. Everyone in the well is pushed to the top of the well, momentarily. Marnoc pulls himself out; Belmac falls down on top of Timmy again.

9. Timmy fails to attack Belmac.
10. Ship shoots down into the well, kills Timmy. Timmy reverts to an impish form.

Belmac scalps Timmy. We pull Belmac out of the well, and take a short rest. Marnoc and Theren look at the house; it's abandoned and nonmagical and delapidated and overgrown. All that's left is the well.

Ship sets fire to the house. Zoltar uses a cantrip Firebolt too.

Conclusion

So Ship gains a magical bow and a bear; Marnoc gains a Bag of Holding.

We've got 4 days left on the trail to Kingalore.