DND Blog

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

The Eleventh Session

August 11, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

The diplomatic meeting does not go as badly as it could have. The Golden Sea concealed a reward of two thousand gold pieces. We board our ship, bound for Kingalore. New Party members: The Empress Marina, Commandant Corbin, Amira.

  1. Sunrise Appointment with the Empress
  2. The Diplomatic Fight
  3. Battle at the Palace Gate
  4. At the Golden Sea
  5. Escape Through the Sewer
  6. Next up

Sunrise Appointment with the Empress

Belmac, Zoltar, Ship, and Bear stay at the house. Belmac fronts some money for ale.

Fulwin, Theren and Marnoc board the ornate carraige, accompanied by the Commandant, and they ride off to the palace. Marnoc tells Theren that the two of them are probably the most-level headed. Fulwin says that the agenda for the meeting will be:

They arrive at ornate wrought-iron gates and enter, through paths among light stone buildings and gardens. The Commandant leads them to a waiting chamber, which is decorated with velvet-padded wooden chairs, gilded paintings, platters of small fruit, and water.

Fulwin sits down and mulls over what he wants to say in the meeting. "I do need some of your input. You know more about this attack back in Kingalore. You say some Drow that you met — did he mention his name at all?"

Marnoc says "Well, he said something like 'Wolf Mother take me'"

Theren corrects, "Lolth Mother take me."

Oh.

Marnoc remembers the name of the guy, "Lucius was his name." Marnoc responds that Lucius was working with Duergar to dig up some sort of buried god, who was related to Therezduun.

Theren pull out the book that was found in the Underdark under Kingalore, Book of the Edicts of the Chained Darkness, and Fulwin skims it but can't read it. Fulwin shrugs and hands it back.

Marnoc points out that Therezduun, the Beholder that we killed, was kind of bound down there. Was Therezduun the Bound God?

Not likely.

The Party fills Fulwin in on the assassination attempt of the night before. He decides not to bring it up during the meeting. Fulwin changes his mind a lot; keep reading. After the matter of the Kingalore zombies, he'll discuss with the Empress the usual economic matters: lots of boring trade talk. Fulwin doesn't think that Marnoc or Theren will find it interesting.

Before they go into the meeting, Marnoc casts Warding Bond on Theren. Theren gains 1 AC, but damage he takes is split onto Marnoc.

They enter the meeting room, which has wide octagonal table of purplish wood. Guards enter from the opposing door and take seats; the Empress enters in fine clothes and jewelry.

Fulwin rises and greets the Empress. He brings up the last night's attack. The Empress apologizes for the inhospitality and says that her guard are investigating. (Marnoc's insight says that the Empress is shocked that the Ambassador was attacked.)

Then the conversation turns to the attack on Kingalore. He talks about the poisoning of the council, Lucius in the Underdark, the Duergar and the Medusa. After 45 minutes of talk, the Empress waves her hand and water is brought in. Two guards enter, both in heavy armor to match the two guards who sat at the table before. They serve water first to the guests and then to the Empress.

Marnoc notices nothing; he's focused on being pleasant. Theren sees something: one guard reaches behind his back as the other pours water for the Empress. It looks like he's pulling a weapon.

Theren, in reaction, casts Suggestion on the guard to ask that Theren get served another round, hoping to disrupt the attack. The guard shrugs off the suggestion, draws a knife, and moves to attack the Empress.

The Diplomatic Fight

Marnoc rolls a 2-2=0 initiative. The contents of the room are an octagonal table 5 feet by 15, wider than long. On one side are Theren, Fulwin and Marnoc. On the other side are the Empress and her two guards; behind the two original guards are the two serving guards.

  1. Round 1
    1. The attacking Guard #1 succeeds in his attack against the Empress. He stabs her in the neck, but she looks a lot better than she should for a normal Drow.
    2. Theren casts Hexblade Curse on the attacking Guard #1 and moves around the table towards #1.
    3. Fulwin panics, but successfully casts Hold Person on Guard #1.
    4. Serving Guard #2 attacks the Empress with a longsword; she ducks the swing.
    5. Defending Guard #3 attacks Theren and misses, then attacks recklessly with advantage to hit (opponents have advantage to hit the attacker as well) and succeds in hurting Theren.
    6. The Empress quckly dodges out of the way, dives over the table, and then attacks Defending Guard #4 with a couple of quick critical-hit punches doing 10 damage. Curiously, Guard #4 was one of the pair that had accompanied the Empress from the start. This suggests that she doesn't trust any of her guards. The Empress expends a point of chi to do a flurry of blows.
    7. Guard #4 stabs 13 damage to the Empress; then hits with a second attack and bludgeons the Empress into unconsciousness.
    8. Marnoc jumps over the table into the middle of the Guards, and casts Spirit Guardians. He clutches his hidden holy symbol of Noidesop and starts chanting in Abyssal. Everyone in 15 feet of him has halved speed, and must make wisdom saving throws against 3d8 of necrotic damage. Theren, Marnoc, Fulwin and the Empress are exempt. Shadowy tentacles reach up through the floor.
  2. Round 2
    1. Guard #1 fails the save and takes 10 damage from the spectral tentacles. He's also Held by Fulwin's spell, and can't escape.
    2. Theren attacks Guard #1 at advantage because of the hold, and does 11. He attacks again for 11.
    3. Fulwin, concentrating on his Hold Person, shouts, "Theren! Save them!" Theren feels bardically inspired. Fulwin casts Cure Wounds on the Empress, giving her 6 HP.
    4. Guard #2 takes halved damage from the tentacles, then misses Marnoc with all his attacks.
    5. Guard #3 takes full damage from the tentacles, then attacks Theren for 8 that is split.
    6. The Empress, raised, now attacks Guard #4 for a little damage, then follows with Stunning Strike but doesn't succeed in stunning him.
    7. Guard #4 takes 5 from the tentacles, then downs the Empress again.
    8. Marnoc continues concentrating on the Spirit Guardians tentacles spell. Then he Channels Divinity to cast Thunderwave for a 15-foot cube centered on him. That does 24 damage to Guards #1 and #4, and pushes #3 and #2 back some. Guard #1 remains within the tentacle field; #2 is blown into the wall far away from anything.
  3. Round 3.
    1. Theren kills Guard #1, raising him as a Spectre because that's a thing that the sixth-level warlock Theren can do now. Theren moves to Guard #2 and attacks.
    2. Fulwin heals the Empress for 6 HP again; she's conscious again.
    3. Guard #3 has to enter the tentacle field to leave the room; he tries and dies. The arms reaching from the floor pull him into the ground.

The Empress is alive, coughing and spluttering. Marnoc jumps onto the table and reaches down to her, saying "Captain Marnoc at your service," accidentally kicking a wine glass off the wall. She accepts his hand and is pulled to her feet.

"This spectre of mine that I have control of," says Theren, "could tell us some things. It can't speak, though. Gather your guards, my Queen, and we can follow this to its lair."

She pauses. "I think the problem is that these guards were trusted to protect me. They can't be trusted."

Theren pulls out the sending stone and calls Ship. Ship answers at the Ambassador's house; the party gathers. "Join us at the palace, say that the Empress gives you passage," says Theren. The Empress doesn't have any passwords to give to ease the party's passage.

Ship's party jogs to the palace: Ship, Bear, Belmac, Zoltar, and the servant Amira. During the run, the whole party discusses where to hide the Empress or how to proceed.

Belmac walks up to the gate and knocks on the gate; the gate is guarded by two guards that he just walked straight past. They ask him what he's doing. There's a short conversation with the Empress over the sending stones; she convinces them to open the gate. And as the outer half of the party enters, the guards attack.

Battle at the Palace Gate

There are four guards at the gate; the party is through the gate. Because the group inside the palace is close enough, we consider that they're close enough to be invovled in this combat. They're stil in the building, but maybe 200 feet away.

For once, Belmac has higher initiative than Ship.

  1. Round 1.
    1. Gate Guard #1 attacks Belmac but doesn't do noticeable damage.
    2. Gate Guard #2 attacks Zoltar for half her health and follows it up with for another quarter of her health.
    3. Guard #3 attacks Ship but misses both times.
    4. Guard #4 attacks the bear for 21 damage.
    5. Belmac goes into a holy Rage; the clouds break open and a ray of Noidesopean necrotic light lights him up as he activates his Bear Hands. With a critical hit, he stabs Guard #1 for 19 damage, then Action Surges to miss, follows it up with a once-per-rest bonus attack, and its corresponding extra attack for 8 more damage. Total 39 damage.
    6. Ship disengages from Guard #4 and moves their full move, 30 feet, away. The Bear's reaction attack does not hit Guard #4 successfully.
    7. Zoltar flies 30 feet in the air with Radiant Soul; guard #2 misses its attack. Zoltar casts Mage Armor The players are somewhat incredulous that Zoltar has not used this fly ability before.
    8. Theren smashes a window on the palace and jumps out; he sends his Spectre on ahead.
    9. Fulwin jumps out the window too, and runs forward to join up with Theren, 140 feet away from the gate.
    10. The Empress follows.
    11. The Spectre moves to the 100-foot line.
    12. The Bear misses its attack against #4, then poops on #3 as a bonus action.
  2. Round 2.
    1. Guard #1 throws a javelin at Zoltar; reducing Zoltar's damage to 0. Unconscious, Zoltar falls from the sky 30 feet, taking two death saves' worth of damage.
    2. Guard #2 does something.
    3. Guard #4 moves up to Ship, taking 7 from the Bear's oppportunity attack, and then attacks Ship for 14.
    4. Guard #3 downs the Bear.
    5. Belmac uses his action to shove a Potion of Healing down Zoltar's throat. With a bonus action, he attacks Guard #1.
    6. Ship does 16 to Guard #4 with an arrow full of Hail of Thorns, in melee range.
    7. Zoltar casts Hold Person on Guard #2 from the ground, then stands up and flies 15 feet away from the melee.
    8. Theren is 140 feet away. He casts Blink to augment his move, bringing him to 110 feet away. But the aspect of Blink that would make him incorporeal until his next round fails to activate.
    9. Fulwin and the Empress move up, to 80 feet away from the gate.
    10. the Spectre moves to 50 feet away.
    11. The bear passes its death saving throw.
    12. Marnoc moves to within 80 feeet.
  3. Round 3.
    1. #1 attacks Belmac, fails both times.
    2. #2 fails his saving throw to break the Hold Person.
    3. #3 javelins Zoltar again, knocking her out again, and then moves up next to Ship.
    4. #4 attacks Ship, hits. Ship is at one-third health.
    5. Belmac misses #1, but then hits him again and downs him, then brings his attack forward to attack #2 with a weak whirling attack.
    6. Ship disengages from Guards #3 and #4 and moves 30 feet closer towards Belmac.
    7. Zoltar passes a death save.
    8. Theren's Eldritch Blast has 100 feet of range; from 100 feet away he hits guard #3.
    9. Fulwin casts Hold Person on #4, but fails.
    10. The Empress moves up a little, then casts Fairy Fire on #4 and #3. Everyone gains advantage on attacking #4.
    11. Theren's Spectre attacks #4 with advantage. His Blink fails to activate.
    12. Marnoc moves up next to #3 and tries to intimidate him by banging his warhammer against his shield.
  4. Round 4.
    1. #2 misses Theren.
    2. #3 hits Marnoc for 15 damage, but Marnoc's Heart of the Storm does 9 to the attacker and pushes him back 15 feet, on top of Zoltar.
    3. #4 attacks Marnoc but misses twice.
    4. Belmac eventually does 17 damage to #2.
    5. Ship shoots at #4 and misses.
    6. Zoltar fails a death save, no doubt because of #3 on top of her.
    7. Theren Eldritch Blasts #4 for a bunch of damage, downing him.
    8. Fulwin casts Hold Person on #3, but fails. He then bardically inspires Belmac.
    9. The Empress hangs back.
    10. The Spectre moves up next to #3 and attacks.
    11. The bear fails a death save.
    12. Marnoc moves up next to #3, then kicks Zoltar's foot to cast Spare the Dying to stabilize her.
  5. Round 5.
    1. Both of #2's attacks miss Belmac.
    2. Both of #3's attacks miss Marnoc.
    3. Belmac stabs #2 some.
    4. Ship shoots #3 for 5 damage.
    5. Zoltar is stabilized.
    6. Theren moves up 30 feet and Eldritch Blasts #3 for 5. His Blink fails to activate.
    7. Fulwin does nothing, nor does the Empress.
    8. The Spectre kills #3.
    9. The bear gets a natural 20 on a death save, and revives at 1 HP.
    10. Marnoc moves up next to #2 and misses.
  6. Round 6.
    1. #2 attacks Belmac twice, hits once for 16 which is parried by Belmac's Battlemaster's skill.
    2. Belmac then misses the follwing attack, the after attack, and the second attack.
    3. Ship shoots #2, killing #2.

Marnoc rummages through Zoltar's pockets and digs out a healing potion to feed her.

Do we follow the Spectre, or do we get out of the town? It looks like we should go to the Golden Sea. Theren dons the appearance of the Empress; Ship covers the Empress with a winter blanket as a shoddy disguise.

We don't see the Commandant nearby, which is unfortunate.

The Empress casts Pass Without Trace; we're mow at a +10 to Stealth. Amira leads us to the brothel.

At the Golden Sea

The Golden Sea is a lavish establishment with painted gold trim. Inside the door there's a Drow woman, who is surprised by this "interesting crowd". Ship says, "We'd like to rent a room for an orgy."

The Drow notices that Theren-disguised-as-Empress and Empress-in-disguise look like twins; Ship wiggles their eyebrows insinuatingly.

"You look very much like the Empress," the madame says to Theren-disguised-as-Empress. Theren drops his Empress disguise to look like a half-orc. "So very interesting," says the madame. We're pretty sure that she knows the Empress is in her brothel.

The Drow leads us to a room covered in pillows, a very nice setup for an orgy. It's got some incense burners along the walls, but the Bear notices nothing out of place.

Fulwin casts Song of Rest, gaining everyone +6 health on the first. Most people gain back most health.

Marnoc and Belmac go to the Madame and ask about the Golden Waves. They are told of the room in the brothel called The Waves, and a girl called The Tide, who is in much demand. Marnoc pays one platinum; it turns out the girl is not busy.

In the room called The Waves, there is a heavy glass plate in the floor with waterfalls beneath. Belmac looks down and sees a small chest it the bottom of the waterfalls.

The Tide arrives; she's a young drow woman with white hair. "I did not know there would be two here."

"I'm just here to watch," says Belmac. "For my master."

Marnoc asks her if there's any sort of chest left by their friend V. She doesn't really know; she's slightly confused by their questions.

The glass floor doesn't really seem to be removable; there's a listtle bit of air under the glass. They find a trap door that opens under the floor. Belmac takes his armor off, assisted by the Tide. She tries to go a little further, he says "no, no."

Belmac opens the trapdoor. jumps into the water, refreshes his lungs from the air pocket. He taps on the glass and waves to Marnoc and the Tide. He dives down to the chest, and opens it. A jet of black ink shoots out, which he dodges. The chest is open, but the ink clouds the water. He feels around. It feels like a lot of coins. He grabs a handful and swims back up, and out the trapdoor.

"Belmac, what did you find?"

"Nothing," he winks.

They send The Tide away; she leaves contentedly. She's already been paid.

Belmac grabbed 20 gold coins. Marnoc doffs his armor. They look down through the glass. The ink has mosty diluted away; the water is pretty clear now. They decide to pull the chest up with ropes. They swim down and tie off Marnoc's ropes against the chest, and close the chest to prevent spillage.

From the room above, with an 18 and a 16 on the athletics checks, they pull the chest up to the top of the trapdoor with the ropes, and pull it out. The chest has some water and a lot of gold. More than a thousand gold. They shovel it into the bag of holding and empty the chest.

Belmac throws the chest back into the trapdoor, recovering the rope.

And they go back to the orgy room. The bear opens the door for them.

We disguise Fulwin and the Empress as best we can, but the Empress points out that people looking for her are probably going to be looking for the rest of this party as well. The Empress says, "If I were to die, there are two things that my opponents would get out of this. They would pin it on the Collective and on you. If I were to escape, they would frame it as a kidnapping."

We talk about delivering the Empress to any friend; she says there probably isn't anyone.

We talk about going back to Kingalore, to get the 500gp/person reward for returning Fulwin safely.

We talk about going to Theren's dad's place to kill his dad. Maybe we'll set her up with a new throne there.

Marnoc suggests using the Sending spell to contact Corbin; we send something along the lines of "Empress safe at Golden Sea. Come alone, must escape. from Captain Marnoc. P.S. Bring digsuises."

Corbin replies, "OK. Bring clothes, 15 minutes."

Marnoc takes a frilly pillow for the Bag of Holding.

20 minutes go by. There's a knock on the door. Corbin is there when we open the door. She steps in and closes the door. She says, "There was an attack, guards were killed."

Marnoc says, "Yep, speak to the Empress."

"This is true, Corbin. There was an attempt on my life. We should find our allies in other cities, and we may be able to return at some point." Corbin has two bags of changes of clothes. The Empress changes clothes. We give the Empress a dagger that she says she can use.

We talk about ways to the ship; Almira says she knows ways through the sewers. The Empress casts Pass Without Trace again to hide our passage. Theren disguises himself as a guard; Marnoc and Belmac don the symbols of Lolth. If they're seen, they'll say that Theren is a guard that has bought them as slaves.

Escape Through the Sewer

Almira leads us into some side passages; we're pretty stealthy. Ten minutes of travel later, she starts checking walls. She finds one with certain symbols on it. Theren's Comprehend Languages does not reveal the meaning of the symbols to him; they're a mix of shorthand and symbols.

Almira opens a manhole, and we climbs down into the sewer.

We spend at least an hour through winding passages. Everyone has darkvision except Marnoc, who pulls out a hooded lantern. We come to an intersection, and Almira says, "I was trying to get us as close to the docks as possible. We're under the slums." She's lost.

The Bear thinks that the straight path smells closest to the docks. We continue onwards and come to a ladder that is Almira's best guess to be the closest thing to the docks. The drains to the sea would be locked. She climbs up, dislodges a manhole cover, ducks as a cart passes overhead, and then invites us up.

We're three streets over from the ship; we stealthily move towards the ship. There are two guards posted at the gangplank and two on the ship. Marnoc walks up and says, "Excuse me, this is my ship! I need to get onboard!" The guard laughs and knees him in the armor, hurting his knee. The other guard laughs at him. Belmac's attempt at intimidation is better. They straighten up and say that they're here to guard the ship. They'd need paperwork to let people onboard. "We have the Empress with us; there's been a coup and we're taking her to a safe place." "Why would you have the Empress?" Theren disguises himself as the Empress and walks around the corner.

Belmac says, "Look, it's our ship. Let one of the crew talk to us and they'll confirm it." The guards call down their mates from the deck; they come down the gangplank with weapons ready. They're in a bunch; Marnoc casts Gust of Wind and blows the guard who kneed him off into the water. The other three aren't blown off. Ship casts Barkskin on Fulwin, bringin his AC to a minimum of 16.

The remainder of the party, behind the corner, are: Theren and Spectre, Ship and Bear, Zoltar, Fulwin, the Empress, and Commandant Corbin.

  1. Round 1.
    1. Fulwin runs around the corner, runs up to the point that he can see the guards, and casts Charm Person, but fails. Marnoc gives him a thumbs up.
    2. Ship moves around the corner and uses the Dodge action.
    3. Marnoc uses Thunder Wave to throw two guards into the water, dealing 14 damage. The remaining one is pushed up the gangplank and he takes 7 damage. So does Belmac. Marnoc casts Gust of Wind.
    4. The gangplank guard gets pushed 15 feet farther back by the wind, practically pushed onto the ship at this point. He decides to jump into the water at this point.

We rush to the boat and push it off using the remaining portions of Marnoc's Gust of Wind, and we get well off from the docks.

In the captain's closet, we upend the bag of holding. There's 2000gp in the bag; we put 250 in the party box and each character gains 350 gold for their own.

Marnoc tips one gold into the ocean.

We welcome the Empress to the pirate life with rum. She says, "Call me Marina."

"That's an Aquatic name," says Marnoc.

"We are an aquatic nation."

Next up

Outstanding things:

The Eleventh Session - August 11, 2018 - Ben Keith