DND Blog

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

The Eighty-First Session

March 18, 2023, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We find Ren's body, which is mostly scraps. We then find the portal, and manage to close it. Jerry is a Giant Ape now.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Across the town
    1. Closing the Portal
  3. Next Session

Last session

We're fleeing from the scene of death of the Marilith, pursued by demons. Ren is still dead, and Kerjes has called for our death.

Across the town

As we run down an alleyway, we hear screams, and the flying Vrocks circling the town begin to rush inwards towards the town. We've been running away from the center of town, and now turn on to a circumferential road, past a street where a Bolgura is dragging a kicking-and-screaming woman. We continue running past, and come to a square with a well, where a Vrock hovers above a crowd of resistance fighters.

We shoot at the Vrock with all our ranged attacks. The Vrock decides to get too close to us, and dies. The resistance fighters reveal themselves as town guards, heavily damaged. They haven't seen any wizard, but they know where the beam that hit Kerjes came from, and they know where there's a gathering of demons.

We follow them to the northwest gate of the city, which is blasted open. A lingering smell of ozone and electricity, with the guardtowers collapsed. On the road inwards, there's a small gathering of demons. A Bolgura and an Armanite. The guard tells us that the portal is actually behind us, not out the gate.

Ryltar and Salris put their heads together, and cannot figure out how to close the portal. It's not their specialty. But Percival frequently teleports, and knows that quickly-created portals to other dimensions are usually volatile and fragile. That the portal simply appeared here without a prior demonic presence means that it was created by a creature or an item that's holding it open.

We think about whether we should take a short rest, no more than an hour, to pick up Dispel Magic and some hit points. Nah. We approach the demons, stealthily.

The guard escorting us jumps up, shouts, "They're here!" and runs away. Ryltar freezes him solid with a Ray of Frost and Salris splatters him with Eldritch Blast.

Ryltar laments that the portal is likely not in this direction. "He probably lied to us."

Ryltar casts a lot of frost at the Balgura, and fails to do much. Jerry shoots the Bolgura with a Lightning Arrow, hitting the group fo Bolgura, Armanite, Maws, and miscellaneous other demons. Ryltar and Jerry manage to hide in an alley, leaving Vurguron, Salris, and Percival to get hit by the Armanite's lightning spear attack, taking 30/15. Then it summons a writing mass of arms from the ground. The two Tanarukks approach, and attack Ryltar and Vurguron. Vurguron gets heavily damaged. Percival and Ryltar work together to kill the Maws. Jerry attacks both Tanarukks, and then ducks down an alley. The Armanite advances and makes three attacks against Vurguron, but Percival blocks the attacks with Cutting Words. The Balgura knows Invisibility, and the Tanarukk misses two attacks against Vurguron. Vurguron kills it, and then attacks the Armanite. He's almost dead, but he Action Surges, misses, misses, and crits, to kill it with 30 slashing 4 radiant. Then we all go gang up on the remaining Tanarukk, and kill it.

At which point the Balgura, invisible, attacks Vurguron and Percival. It knocks Vurguron prone; he casts Blur on himself. Percival does some self-healing. Salris kills the Bolgura.

With all the demons dead, we see rags of clothes and mutilated remains. The demons might have been eating him. We pick up all that we can, shove it into the Bag of Holding, and scoot the fuck out of town. Weird rumbles are coming from near the center of town.

We hole up in an empty, looted house. There don't appear to be any living creatures inside it. We find a dark back room and wrap our wounds. There's some distant banging and screaming; a Vrock lands on our roof and flies off. The sounds outside die down, and we're able to take a short rest.

Salris tries to attune to the magical Dancing Khopesh. Waves of emotion flood over him, with malice and tyrannical impulses. It's malicious, somehow, but willing to respond to him.

Salris and Ryltar regain some spell slots, and Ryltar casts another round of Mage Armor.

To investigate where the portal might be, Salris Disguises Self as a Tanarukk, makes himself Invisible, and then heads out to scout the city. He heads towards the center of town, and finds lots of wounded demons. He invisibly bumps into an Armanite, who looks around. Salris retreats the way he came. He returns to the group, and says that he saw lots of bodies and fire, but no portal, and no high-ranking demons.

There are no birds about, save the remains of one which was eaten by a Vrock.

Jerry climbs a chimney and looks around. She can't identify the portal. The northern side of the city, where the demons entered, has no fires or smoke, which is odd. She climbs back down.

We decide to evacuate the families and civilians from the city, acquire whatever resources and allies there may be, and then think about returning. Hope that the portal has collapsed.

We stealthily move through town. There are roving bands of demons, which we avoid. A Vrock takes off from a roof and flies away. We come to a crossroads of the alley and a main north-south road, and find that there's a moss spreading along the road, not visibly moving. It's thicker to the south. There's a lowing sound, building up into a tearing screech, pained and agonized, trying to force something. It's coming from the south.

We move half a block to the south, aiming for another alley, and the moss is increasingly thick. There's blood and ichor coming out of an alley on the west side of the road; we cross to the east side. The screech is continuing. The moss in that eastern alley develops bloody pustules, and beyond the moss, a blackness. There are half-eaten Maw demons twitching. Another demon, eating. And a noticeable heat.

Closing the Portal

"It has been an honor," says Ryltar. Jerry rushes down the alley, shoots off two longbow shots, and ducks into a side alley. Ryltar looses off a Ray of Frost. All the attacks miss. The Armanite emits a Balrog scream.

Vurguron advances to do some shooting, and so he and Ryltar are both exposed when the Armanite lets off another lightning blast. Jerry advances from her alley, and gets within 10 feet of the Armanite before encountering a wall of spores. She pushes through it, the spores ringing in her ears. She stabs the Armanite for 31. Then she retreats.

While she was close to the portal, she saw sparks moving in the darkness, formless shapes gaining form. Two Maws emit from the portal, covered in ichor.

Vurguron advances and shoots at the Armanite. It approaches him and deals a large amount of damage. Percival advances up the alley, and viciously mocks the Armanite. The Armanite dies.

Jerry moves up and attacks the two newest Maws; their health is brought to a third. Vurguron advances and kills them. Salris cleans up the parted-out Maws earlier in the alley, and advances, becoming confused by the spores. The walls ripple, and the pustules begin to pop. Jerry attacks the final Maw, and doesn't quite kill it.

Ryltar advances to Ray of Frost the portal. Nothing happens.

The Bolgura which emerges from the portal looks slightly chilled. The walls gyrate, erupting in pseudopods, and slam Jerry three times, for 42 acid. The Balgura attacks Jerry, doing 29 damages. The Maw hits Jerry for 9. She's down from 119 to 39.

Salris advances to cast Dispel Magic, but he is still confused. He hits Jerry with an attack, bringing her to 19. She attacks the Maw and Bolgura, killing both.

Ryltar looks at the wall. The wall is bulging, and the there are shapes moving in the depths. He shoots the edge of the portal with Ray of Frost, misses.

Tentacles attack Jerry and Vurguron. They avoid the attacks. Vurguron attacks the walls with his radiant sword, dealing one fuckton of damage across three attacks, but not much happens.

Salris is confused and hits Jerry with an attack, bringing her to 2 HP. Jerry spends her turn confused, but shakes it off. She's got 2 HP left.

The Bolgura that emerges from the portal looks slightly chilled. The walls gyrate, erupting in pseudopods, and slam Jerry three times, for 42 acid. The Bolgura attacks Jerry, doing 29 damages. The Maw hits Jerry for 9. She's down from 119 to 39.

Salris advances to cast Dispel Magic, and the portal ripples. It's not effective. Salris is still confused. He hits Jerry with an attack, bringing her to 19. She attacks the Maw and Bolgura, killing both.

The walls lash out with new tentacles, and Salris' Confusion hits Jerry with enough damage to bring her to 2 HP. Ryltar Polymorphs Jerry into a Giant Ape, which is a Huge Creature, but, more importantly, has 157 HP.

The walls bulge again and deal 33 damage to Jerry.

Vurguron hits Salris with a confused attack, for a little damage.

A confused Percival flees.

Salris checks to check whether Dispel Magic would work, but there's a Giant Ape in the way. Her fuzzy butt blocks him casting Dispel Magic on the portal, but it's possible to cast Flame Strike on the portal and Jerry. Jerry climbs up on the roof, and then begins attacking the portal, punching it for 26 damage.

Ryltar aims his Cone of Cold against the floor and wall, missing Jerry but hitting the portal, dealing 35 cold.

A second fist emerges from the portal, trying to pull it open. Vurguron slashes at the hands with his radiant sword, and the hands and portal flicker. Percival tries to mock the portal.

A Vrock drops out of the sky, and attacks Jerry for a little slashing.

Salris approaches the portal and casts Banishing Smite (+5d10 force) and then stabs the portal. The portal is pried from the wall, and collapses, and collapses, and collapses, making the walls creak. The hands coming through the portal release its edges. One hand falls back, and one hand reaches forward, to attack Salris. Dealing 19 bludgeoning, before falling back into the portal.

The Vrock begins to fly away, and Jerry lashes out at it. It lurches in the sky.

Next Session

The portal was an Alkilith, which we killed and banished.