The Twenty-Seventh Session

July 11, 2020, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Begin with combat

Zelrathi gets pulled into the snow wall.

1. Round 1: Zelrathi burns his Potion of Fire Breath to free himself. We pull Zelrathi out of the wall, and encounter a snow elemental.
   1. Ryltar does nothing; he's too far away.
   2. Zelrathi chugs a Potion of Fire Breath, exhales, and deals 4d6=13 damage to the wall holding him, burning the wall out. He's still grappled and restrained, but now we see the attacker: an amorphous form of packed snow, with glowing eyes, eight feet tall, trying to munch on Zelrathi.
   3. Bugfood sees the big friendly snow beast and pops Inflict Wounds on it, dealing 4d10=28 necrotic damage. The snow elemental shrinks back.
   4. Salris pulls out the hot pot, and splashes some water at the thing holding Zelrathi. The water is very hot, so it has to make s Dex save or take 2d6 fire damage. It takes half damage for 3 damage. It squeezes Zelrathi again, then rolls him in its snow.
   5. Vurguron attacks twice, and with a natural 20 deals 36 slashing to the monster. The monster's forearms shift back in, releasing Zelrathi. It dissolves back into the snow.
   6. Jerry pulls Zelrathi out of the wall.
2. Round 2: A momentary end of combat.
   1. Ryltar heads back up the tunnel towards the group.
   2. Zelrathi heals himself, and steps behind Jerry. "What are we going to do here?"

We scout forwards, and Ryltar is just barely able to pop Shield to defend himself against arms that spring from the wall. He passes the wall again and the arms pin him against the opposing wall. He squeezes past, and points out: "See! The arms, right there!"

Some more combat

1. Round 1: Zelrathi makes Jerry large, and we discover that the monsters are snow elementals.
   1. Bugfood moves away from the party, continuing along a side tunnel. He sees another pair of wall-arms, which miss him. He moves back a bit.
   2. Vurguron Firebolts the wall that Ryltar passed.
   3. Ryltar Ray of Frosts that same wall, and at disadvantage misses.
   4. More arms come from a wall closer to Ryltar, and he Shields from them.
   5. Wall arms attack Jerry, dealing 14 bludgeoning and pulling her into the wall.
   6. Zelrathi casts Enlarge on Jerry, freeing her from the grapple and the wall and the suffocation. But now she is uncomfortably constrained by the narrowness of the corridors.
   7. Salris attacks the arms exposed by Jerry's embiggenmnent, dealing 28 points magical khopesh damage to cut it in half.
   8. Jerry tries to pull the ice monster out of the wall, and her 9 beats its 8. Something that looks kinda like a snow elemental is pulled halfway out of the wall.
2. Round 2: Three snow elementals engage the Party, and we learn that they can punch as well as enfold.
   1. Bugfood puts his beer down real quick, and then continues exploration. He sees more snow walls, and more arms. He evades.
   2. Vurguron Firebolts the snow elemental, and for 2d10= does some damage.
   3. The snow elemental that Jerry pulled out of the wall punches her, dealing 20 bludgeoning. It tries to pull her into the wall.
   4. The snow elemental that Bugfood just ran into now punches him, for 16 bludgeoning, and pulls him into the wall a little. The snow elemental is the wall.
   5. A third snow elemental attacks Jerry, but misses.
   6. Zelrathi moves to where he can heal Jerry, and drops a twinned second-level Healing Word on Jerry and Salris, for 11 healing apiece, and then an Eldritch Blast on the elemental that's attacking Jerry.
   7. Salris kills the snow elemental that was attacking Jerry.
   8. Jerry attacks the newest snow elemental with her bludgeoning glaive for 21 damage.
3. Round 3: Bugfood is captured and released.
   1. Bugfood is grappled, restrained, and suffocating. He Inflicts Wounds on the snow elemental, taking it down by a third, but isn't able to free himself.
   2. Vurguron, with a natural 20, Firebolts an snow elemental.
   3. Ryltar Mind Spikes the snow elemental that Bugfood is in.
   4. The snow elemental nearest Jerry fails to land a hit on her.
   5. The snow elemental constricting Bugfood continues constriction.
   6. Zelrathi does some healing, and frees Bugfood.
   7. Salris slides past Jerry to attack her snow elemental.
   8. Jerry smashes that snow elemental flat.
4. Round 4: Bugfood summons a Dire Wolf to attack yet another snow elemental.
   1. Bugfood throws a ball from the Bag of Tricks at the arms, and gets the sole Large creature, a Dire Wolf. The Dire Wolf slides through its arms, and then is picked up by another set of arms farther down the hallway. It's not grappled, though.
   2. Bugfood's Dire Wolf attacks that snow elemental for 12 nonmagical.

The monsters seem to be coming from the east, so we try to head north via the tunnels.

We have a bit of a running battle for a bit with the Dire Wolf's snow elemental. Salris gets sucked in and another snow elemental appears to attack the Dire Wolf. Bugfood kills off the elemental that was holding Salris in the wall. Vurguron pulls Salris out of the wall. The new elemental kills the wolf, and advances to separate Salris and Ryltar. Ryltar, Salris, Zelrathi, and Vurguron attack this elemental for 0+16+ some more damage. Zelrathi adds an Eldritch Blast, killing it.

Ryltar and Zelrathi observe a pair of humanoid legs sticking out of the wall.

Jerry, still enlarged, advances down a side corridor and encounters a new snow elemental, and attacks it for 15 damage. It misses. She deals 2d10+2d6+2d4+10=38, not quite killing it, but smashing it into a pile of flurries. Jerry is hit by a natural 20 bludgeoning attack, dealing 21 points of damage, but she's still Large and therefore not grappled. She kills it with 37 more bludgeoning damage. The peering eyes drop into the snow and are drawn away from her, back into an open area where there are several snow elementals and an ice-crystal pedestal.

Bugfood feels a rush of air as the wall in front of him rushes forwards to hug him, dealing 15 bludgeoning and trapping him again. He can't escape by becoming Large, because he's out of uses of Wildshape unless we can get a short rest in. He Inflicts Wounds, doing some damage to it. Salris frees Bugfood by killing the snow elemental with the first spell he's cast in this dungeon.

Ryltar recalls:

My halls and walls shall defend my tomb
have this to protect, my people in my absence.

So it's indirect, but it could be argued that we were warned about this.

The large Jerry shouts out to the rest of the crew, "There's a funky ice crystal here, and I need healing!"

The Snow Elemental Regeneration Room

The essences of the defeated snow elementals flow towards the pedestal and are absorbed by its base. The pedestal starts to glow from the bottom.

Ryltar squeezes past Jerry and says, in Primordial, "We're only here to protect this artifact." He knows that elementals speak Primordial, when they choose to speak.

The light continues rising up the pedestal towards a basin, slowly filling it. At the bottom of the basis is an engraved snowflake.

He keeps talking, "I implore you. We're just trying to protect this artifact." His persuasion roll of 20 stops the elementals in their charge towards him.

The pedestal spouts out a glob that turns into another elemental. The four elementals back off, blocking off four exits from the room. That's their response.

Ryltar continues speaking: "More will come. More will come tomorrow, and you won't be able to defend against that many."

The pedestal starts to glow again; it spits out a fifth elemental who goes to blend into a wall.

Is the pedestal the artifact we're looking for? Ryltar doesn't think it is.

We decide to ask the elementals which way it is to the tomb. Either they don't know, or they won't tell us, but in either case, they don't respond.

Back in the hallways: Bugfood continues looking around, but finds that all the tunnels lead to this room.

A short rest

We take a short rest and heal up.

Zelrathi had seen through Detect Magic that Dirius had something that provoked conjuration magic. But we don't have the opportunity to steal that. It was about the right size to fit into the basin.

We think about ways through this room. It seems that the best option, if we're fighting our way through, will be to defeat the pedestal before attacking the elementals.

We consider the option of going to find Dirius, stealing the orb from her, and then returning here, but reject it because there's no way we'd be able to get back to this room before Dirius et al get here.

Ryltar examines the pedestal, looking for an on/off switch. He finds none.

Jerry rolls up a snowball.

Executing the Plan (more combat)

We check the pockets of the boots of the corpse, who appears to have been a Dwarf of some persuasion, in the same clothes as other ice dwarves in the area. We find 20 gold and a satchel full of letters and scrolls. Ryltar leafs through the letters. Most are written in Dwarvish or Ancient Sylvan. One is of spell components. The Dwarvish letters are requests for supplies for Storm's Eye. The Dwarf may have been a courier. The spell scroll has a third-level casting of Fly.

Bugfood takes the shape of a wild badger and starts digging down. Ryltar reminds him that the snow elementals are watching. We move out of their immediate point of view, and Bugfood continues burrowing downwards. It's 5 feet before he hits stone. There's no way to get down to a lower floor; Bugfood can't dig through stone.

We think about digging through the walls between the elementals. Ryltar suspects they'll object.

Bugfood starts digging at a wall in the pedestal room. He digs all the way through a wall, and once he reaches through to show that all the natural exits are blocked by more snow elementals. He returns, and says, "all the natural exits are blocked."

Jerry plops her prepared large snowball in the bowl on the pedestal.

Nothing happens.

Bugfood finishes his 'Nam flashback, yells, and attacks the font with his quarterstaff.

Salris starts his demonic incantation to summon a Greater Demon, a Barlgura.

Bugfood's quarterstaff cracks the plinth's ice.

This giant fucking demonic monkey lands directly on top of the plinth. It's CR 5, higher than the snow elementals. The pedestal cracks further.

1. Round 1: The snow elementals are surprised by the Barlgura. Bugfood is pulled into the ground by a snow elemental underfoot.
   1. Salris is amazed that he was able to summon the Barlgura. He attacks the plinth again, and it snaps off. Then he screams to the party, "Don't attack the gorilla!"
   2. Ryltar pops Slow to hit all four snow elementals that he can see; it affects only a few.
   3. Jerry attacks the snow elemental north of her, doing 31 bludgeoning to it.
   4. That snow elemental attacks Jerry but misses.
   5. The second snow elemental attacks the Barlgura, but misses.
   6. The third snow elemental attacks the Barlgura, but misses.
   7. The fourth snow elemental attacks Vurguron, but misses.
   8. From beneath Bugfood, arms reach up to enfold him. He is pulled straight down, and only his head remains above the floor.
   9. More arms reach out from under Ryltar, but he is able to dodge them. The paths to the north and the south are blocked off.
   10. Bugfood, a sunken head, casts Toll the Dead on the snow elemental beneath him, dealing 2d8 = 4 necrotic damage to it. Now it's damaged, which is important for the purposes of that spell.
   11. The Barlgura recklessly makes a bite attack to its north, and two punches to its east. But the attacks aren't magical, and aren't doing much damage to the snow elementals. It remains under Salris' control.
   12. Zelrathi attacks his nearest snow elemental with two Eldritch Blasts.
   13. Vurguron blows all his attacks against another snow elemental.
2. Round 2:
   1. Salris deals 30 magical slashing against a snow elemental, but is not quite able to finish it off.
   2. Ryltar uses his Ray of Frost on one snow elemental, not damaging it, but partially paralyzing it.
   3. Jerry deals 31 bludgeoning to the one under Bugfood, but didn't succeed.
   4. Snow elementals make their attacks, mostly missing.
   5. Bugfood rolls poorly on his Toll the Dead, dealing only a little damage to the elemental holding him.
   6. The Barlgura makes more reckless attacks against snow elementals, dealing 24 damage total before making a charisma save that lets it stay in Salris' control.
   7. Zelrathi attacks a nearby snow elemental, but misses. His second attack succeeds; the snow elemental fades and approaches the plinth, where two elementals are queued for resurrection.
   8. Vurguron attacks the nearest elemental, and does max damage to it! It is not discorporated, though.
3. Round 3.
   1. Salris pulls his old Chaos Bolt spell scroll out of his pocket, and casts it at an snow elemental that hasn't been attacked yet. Dealing 10 points of die-determined Force damage. He uses a charge of his Ring of the Arcamag to take 7 damage and use the Eldritch Blast cantrip on the elemental constricting Bugfood for 15 damage, almost killing it.
   2. Ryltar uses Chilling Hands on two snow elementals next to each other near him. One succeeds and one fails on the con save, taking 7 and 14 cold damage.
   3. Jerry kills the snow elemental holding Bugfood, moves her Hunter's Mark to another one, and misses an attack on that one.
   4. The light comes up through the plinth and falls out of the broken pedestal, making a little bloop of a snow elemental's essence. It doesn't reform.
   5. One elemental attacks Jerry, but misses.
   6. One elemental attacks the Barlgura, and brings its health down a but.
   7. Another elemental attacks the Barlgura, bringing its health critically low.
   8. Ryltar rebuffs an attack from another elemental.
   9. Another elemental is repelled by Salris' dragonscale shield.
   10. Bugfood Tolls the Dead on a damaged elemental near him, and misses critically. He converts his staff to a snake, and remains buried in the ice.
   11. The Barlgura bites and claws at various snow elementals,
   12. Zelrathi does some attacks.
   13. Vurguron attacks an elemental and does some other things, killing one elemental.
   14. The breeze picks up.
4. Round 4: More combat, and a confirmation of the direction to go.
   1. Ryltar casts Chilling Hands on two snow elementals, freezing them into blobs of solid ice.
   2. Salris deals 12 points of damage to an snow elemental.
   3. Jerry halves the life of an undamaged elemental.
   4. The breeze picked up from the North, but dies down, and a new elemental comes down the hallway. It's a fresh elemental, not a reformed one. It came from elsewhere. It attacks Vurguron.
   5. More snow elemental attacks, dealing little damage.
   6. Bugfood climbs out of his hole, takes the Disengage action, and moves upwind into a newly-opened passageway, just in time to see another snow elemental close it off.
   7. The Barlgura recklessly attacks the elementals again, dealing more nonmagical bludgeoning damage of limited effectiveness.
   8. Zelrathi casts more Eldritch Blasts.
   9. Vurguron does some slashes.
5. Round 5: Jerry suggests moving upwind, making this a running battle.
   1. Salris uses the last charge of his Ring of the Arcamag to pop two Eldritch Blasts at the snow elemental that the Barlgura had been attacking, and brings it almost to nothing.
   2. Ryltar moves up to where he can see that, and Ray of Frosts it for 9 cold damage, freezing it.
   3. Jerry stabs the elemental in front of Vurguron, and then backs away, suggesting that Vurguron back away to follow Bugfood.

In conclusion: we smashed a plinth that was resurrecting the snow elementals, and proceeded to aggro the entire dungeon.

Also Salris summoned a Greater Demon for the first time.

But we're still in combat.

Next session

Old items:

• What the hell is up with all the sleeping dwarves? Why is this big chamber full of suspended dwarves who predate the current calendar by almost a thousand years? What relation have they to the Divergence of the Gods?
• What was that distant glowing tower with the people walking around it? How do we get there?
• Who are the twins?
• What does Red-Finned Shark taste like?
• Why is Moon part of the expedition, disguised as an Orc?

New items:

• Heading upwind seems to be the direction we want to go to find the tomb
• So, so many snow elementals
• It's Hayden's turn, and the snow elementals will move.