DND Blog

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

The Seventy-Ninth Session

February 4, 2023, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We arrive in Lanthet, and discover a city beset by demons. Entering the city, we sneak arounduntil we locate Jerry's family in a beseiged temple. After breaking the siege, we escort the trapped people to a more-defensible location. Kerjes returns, notices our presence, and demands our heads by tomorrow. Kerjes was wounded, and Ren's sacrifice damages her again.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Ren's House
  3. Lanthet
  4. Next Session

Last session

We teleported to Ren's house. He told us that Kerjes has moved to attack Lanthet.

Ren's House

He rushes out of the Teleportation room, into his main room. He says that we must hurry. Ryltar can't teleport us there; Ren says he can. His tearoom is no longer a mess: it's pristinely clean, well-placed, everything in its proper place. The only thing that stands out is a coffeetable with five stacks of various items.

He says that these items are all that he could get for us in time, since his normal supplier was destroyed. We sort through the stacks. Ren finishes writing a note, and tells us that it's time to go.

Majorie insists on going, and Jerry agrees. Ren gives her a spell scroll, saying "stay out of sight."

Ren walks around, poking each person in the forehead, casting Telepathic Bond. "So you can communicate in the fray," he says.

"The fray? Is it not just Kerjes? Her Marilith?"

Jerry pulls out her small trophy knife, and a small bag of pink powder from home.

"What good is a demon general without a demon army," says Ren, and casts Teleport.

Lanthet

We arrive in a slightly-wooded area outside of Lanthet. The walls around the town are slightly broken, and smoke streams from locations. Black buzzards wheel above the town, constantly cawing.

Jerry casts Pass Without Trace, and passes the Spell Scroll of Locate Creature to Majorie, telling her, "Find your mother."

Ren looks up at the sky and says, "This is bad. There are more demons than a summoning. They must have opened a portal."

We come around to the south side of the town, where there are demons posted at the gate: two centaur-like Armanite. For Salris to disguise himself as a demon and bluff his way through, we'd need to hide our weapons. We sneak along the wall, approaching the gate, and then Ryltar casts Darkness subtly, covering both of the guards in the 30' sphere of darkness. Ryltar sees through his own darkness, and leads the party through the darkness, undetected.

We are now inside the town, moving through a warehouse district. We duck into a warehouse. Majorie casts Locate Creature on Umara, and locates her.

Ren says that he has a friend in the city, but he doesn't know where she is: Merrill, one of the clerics of Melora, the Wild Mother. (The other major deity is Pelor).

We move among the animal pens, hearing the panicking sounds of animals, as a lumbering mass moves among them, snacking on them. There are two of them, Barlguras. We sneak around them, out to the main street.

The streets are crowded with wreckage: walls, wagons, strewn debris. The black vulture demons still circle above us. We come to a crossroads where there are Barlguras and Tanarukks and smaller demons, all milling about in the middle of the square. The building's blown out inside and basically impassable; we squeeze through, except for Salris, who takes 16 bludgeoning damage from a collapsing wall.

The demons in the crossroads are alerted by the noise. Despite Salris' disguise, they begin to move towards us.

Ryltar pops a Darkness over the demons, and we hurriedly cross the street.

Salris is disguised as a Tanarukk, and is second-to-last to cross the street. Another demon shows up as Percival crosses the street, and Salris grabs him, saying in Abyssal, "C'mere." With Percival's assistance through acting. Percival is doing his very best "woe is me". The big demon looks at their acting, suspicious. Ren pops out and casts Banishment, successfully.

We cut through the side streets, as Ren stays behind to blast the demons.

We break through into the old part of town, where the buildings are further apart. The church is entirely surrounded by demons, Maws and Tanarukks and Barlguras who are kept at bay, ten feet back from the wall. It's the effects of the spell Hallow.

And Majorie says her mother is in the church.

There are 5 Barlguras, concentrated in the alleyways on the south and north sides of the church. We cast some fireballs and cones of cold to clear out the alleys. There's an Armanite, five Barlguras, five Tanarukks, and six Maws.

  1. Salris casts Crown of Stars for the first time, which he uses to do tons of radiant damages.
  2. Jerry notices that the vultures are only flying outside the city, not inside it.
  3. Vurguron gets in a lovely triple kill

With four Barlguras dead, eight Maws, four Tanarukks, and us slightly damaged, the remaining Maw, Tanarukk, Barlgura, and Armanite run away. The Armanite's lightning attacks have damaged the building significantly, and one corner is completely caved in. We head to the front of the church, and the doors are intact.

Inside the church the people are panicked, but we persuade the occupants that we're not demons, and enter the church.

We telepathically check in with Ren, who says that the Marilith is at the Mayor's house.

Majorie and Jerry and Umara meet in one giant hug. Jerry's other kids, Zolis and Shautha, run up, and Jerry picks them all up in a hug.

Umara says that Kerjes was here, and that Kerjes blamed this destruction on us, the Knights of the Summer Court. That Kerjes said to bring us to meet the Marilith. The church folk mutter. There are guards in the church.

Jerry says that this is Kerjes' fault, wholly and entirely. She offers people the option of evacuating the town first, or killing the Marilith first and then evacuating the town.

Kerjes came first, then the Roc entered the airspace and dropped the Marilith. They landed, took over the north gate, and the demons came from there. Then, after a while, there were even more. Ten or so minutes after the first attack, there came more and more demons. The buzzards outside the city are to cut down anyone who runs.

Umara says that we can shelter a bunch of people in the Nathandem-Falone storehouse, near the southeast gate. Umara heals Jerry for 6; Jerry pops a Greater Healing potion on the sly for 14.

Most of the Party sets up to escort people to the warehouse; Jerry pops Pass Without Trace to hide the group as they move the wounded. We cross the main street and then move into the alleys. We pass through an open market, where there's an upturned cabbage cart, on fire.

We move the entire group of church occupants into the warehouse safely. The storehouse is full of wine barrels.

Jerry spends some time disguising people with barrels.

And then there is a thunderous beat of wings, gradually getting louder, approaching the city. Jerry peeks out the holes in the roof, and sees that it's Kerjes.

With a 24, Jerry sees that Kerjes is wounded. Arrows in her wings, blackened scales around her neck.

"We kill the dragon," says Ryltar. "She's wounded. We can cut the head off the snake."

Kerjes bellows: "Insects of Lanthet! You are not alone in your malfeasance. But you will be spared, as long as the heads of the Knights of the Summer court rest upon the Mayor's steps by tomorrow night." A pause. "They are here. Find them. Bring them, And you shall be spared, in time."

Ren muses: "This is not how it is supposed to be."

Kerjes flies up and out, heading north, and a line of white sizzles across the sky to pierce her flank: like a white sword, gleaming white, slashing her side. Kerjes turns in her flight, speaking at a volume that we can hear from across the city: "Fool! Who dares?"

Ren says, "I'm Sorry."

Kerjes belches out a cloud of poisonous gas, and we can no longer communicate with Ren.

The town of Lanthet. We approach through the south gate, make our way to the temple of Melora, and thence to a warehouse.

The town of Lanthet. We approach through the south gate, make our way to the temple of Melora, and thence to a warehouse. Ren's death is marked.

Next Session