DND Blog

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

The Hundred and Thirteenth Session

December 7, 2024, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We find the source of the mysterious desert statues: a Medusa! Thanks to a show of trust from Ryltar, we solve her curse without fighting her or an army of protective statues. And then we fight some sandworms.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. The Stone Girl
  3. The thirteenth week: equinox
  4. The fourteenth week: worms
  5. Next Steps

Last session

We've come across another petrified person in the desert: a young halfling woman.

The Stone Girl

We slather this halfling girl with a depetrification potion. As her face becomes flesh, she ends a scream "— ardent!", and Percival hits her with Cure Wounds. We ask if she's OK. She had minor abrasions, but nothing life-threatening.

We ask what year it is; she says it's 912. The current year is 998. "It's been a while," says Ryltar. "You've been petrified as a statue."

She pants, and looks around at us and the trailing, approaching Harbingers party. She is quite unmoored. We give her water. She gathers her thoughts, and says, "Medusa."

Jerry knows that a medusa can live hundreds to thousands of years, if left alone or isolated.

We invite her to tag along with us.

She says her group was traveling in the Red Wastes, and ran across a temple. It had stone pillars and a fountain in the center.

We ask where her group was going. She says that they were traveling south from Setton, not following the Water Line, because their party member Gavin had ways to provide for them. Her name is Ginen. She shows no signs of recognizing the Library.

We walk on. Ryltar catches her up on recent history.

We find another statue, a Half-Orc which Ginen doesn't recognize. This one also doesn't look like it's been fighting, which Genin says is weird because they were fighting, and they were in the temple, not out in the sands.

There's another statue off in the distance. We decide to save our last Potion of Depetrification for a party member of Genin. Neither Genin nor the Half-Orc seem to have any equipment. Ryltar asks; Genin says she's a caster, using The Weave. She's an arcane caster, no spellbook, but he has her crystal.

We find another, and another: an ongoing line, different races and ages, about every 200 feet. It's hard to tell if they're in a line or a shape; each one looks in a different direction. We look back at the line of statues we've passed, and where there was once one statue, there are now four.

Jerry asks everyone to look at those statues and hold still for a minute. With a 28 Perception, she hears a sense of calm. There's the blowing of wind over sand. The horses are still, but breathing. Jerry looks around, and at the four statues there's waves of heat that make it look like there are more statues, and then there aren't.

Ryltar gets everyone to look the other way, and then back. Jerry notices that they're closer, and they didn't make any sound as they moved.

Jerry asks what the statues' intent is. Do they mean us harm, or do they just want to be healed. She turns to the cluster of statues following us and shouts, "You know, if you're already petrified, the Medusa can't petrify you more. Just saying!" And then she turns to join Tyltar.

Our intended path for the day heads east, perpendicular to the line of statues, so we check the next statue to see if there's anything we can use as a teleportation anchor. Nope.

We head east for a wihle, and come across another line of statues, now about 100 feet apart. Behind us, there's now a line of six statues, against the top of a dune behind us.

Dirius et al. are staying quiet. We ask them what they think. "The desert holds many secrets. These are people who had lost themselves within the dunes. Their following us is of no consequence, correct?"

"I don't think it is, yet," says Ryltar.

"Then we push on," says Dirius.

We push on.

Now we come to a stone pillar in the dunes. Carved of solid stone, broken at the top, with the beginnings of a manmade structure. Genin says it's the architecture of the temple. She wants to stay with the Drow; she says there's strength in numbers. We convince her to stay with us.

The pillar leads on to other pillars, stone under the sand. Now there's 12 statues following us. Jerry begins to hear a singing, and warns the group to be prepared for combat with a Medusa.

We ask ho "Ardent" was. It's the sort of name that one might give a Tiefling, the sort of name that Ryltar thinks he once read in a book about an adventurer that headed into the desert.

After some discussion, we resolve to head into the temple to kill the Medusa. We convince the Harbingers to lend us two of the students.

As we pass one of the pillars, the statues catch up, just behind the pillar. Jerry asks the statues of they're going to help us against the medusa, then turns around and walks away, casting Pass Without Trace on our group.

We enter the temple. There's a giant fountain in the center, softly bubbling, 75 feet across, with a 15-foot bench on the side closest us, where a Large hooded figure sits.

Jerry approaches, dropping Pass Without Trace, and says, "I would appreciate it if you dind't turn. The statues that are following us; is that your doing, or are they doing that on their own?"

"Those who betrayed me now protect me," says the medusa, half-turning.

"How did they betray you?"

"They do not trust a creature such as me. Such a pity that they could not see past their narrow-minded insolence." The medusa's tail cracks some stone off the edge of the bench. "Maybe you can see past what is directly in front of you."

"What would you prefer we see?"

Hood still up, face obscuring, we hear a distinctive hiss and snap of jaws, as the Medusa turns to approach Jerry.

"No, you can stay over there, that would be nice," says Jerry.

"You do not command me in my own home."

Jerry banters with the Medusa, who wants Jerry to look into her eyes. Jerry turns to face her, but with closed eyes, trying to secude the Medusa into giving her her hand.

Seduce-a

Ryltar backwars over to where the Medusa is, and faces the Medusa. He opens his eyes. "Trust," you said. With a Persuasion check with advantage, 19, he sees a set of reptilian eyes, slits and iris and all. The snake's rear stretches beyond. As he watches, the sclera turns white, the iris turns blue, and the medusa shrinks to a Medium creature. The snakes from the hair slither down and out, the tail recedes into legs, and …

Her face shows relief. "I'm not sure that was the smartest thing I've ever done," says Ryltar. "But you trusted," she says.

She appears to have become fully humanoid.

There's a great crowd of statues around us now, which fall forward and puff into dust.

"What's your name," Ryltar asks.

"Audrey," she says, as the statues blow away.

"Have we cleared you of some spell or curse," asks Jerry, her eyes now open.

"A very vindictive noble," she says. She's been here for hundreds of years.

"What was the noble's name?" asks Jerry.

"Gyleon Herrev."

"Was there a city around here then?"

"Yes; this temple was central. Many have come to me for portents, fortunes."

"Have any come here for directions? We stumbled across you because we're looking for someplace else."

"Not for some time. For some time all I could see was destruction. Wiping away a city from the map. A dune to tomb the noble and his family. They did not take kindly to that."

"They didn't like a prophecy that you gave them?"

"The ultimate destruciton of their name and everything that they built. They could not fathom the possibility of that. They thought I was a charlatan, that I was angry. No."

"It looks very much like you were right."

"Yes."

"Have you heard of a library? A great library, somewhere in these sands."

"I have not; these sands are unknown to me. I kept by my temple as I was bound here, next to the fountain. it is what sustained me."

"Will you remain here?"

"I don't know. I haven't left here in ages." She doesn't know where the Great Library is, nor where the town's library was.

We ask if she'd like to leave with us.

That night, we rest at the temple, with our horses and Drow.

Ryltar, meditating, sees the former medusa activate a piece of magic, looking into the pool. She smiles, and walks away. Later, he asks her what that was. She says that if she were to leave here, that she would only be able to portend destruction once more. He says it's a terrifying thing, to be stuck here. But she smiles, and says that the fountain will provide.

We offer to send other people her way.

"There is turmoil in this world, that I have only seen when I was young." "Sure is." "Staying here will allow people the mercy of not knowing. Sometimes knowledge is detrimental, and mercy is not knowing."

Ryltar still asks her to travel with us. It would be neat to have her meet Guy.

Ryltar gains a piece of broken tile from the fountain, to use as a teleport beacon.

There is a palpable tension around Genin, regarding Audrey, but Genin and Audrey elect to join up with the Drow. That night, Dirius announces that one of the other two parties has elected to withdraw, after losing half their group.

Plan A was trust the Medusa

Plan B was Plane Shift the Medusa

4 Legendary Resistances, 3 attacks, a dozen 20-HP Stonecursed "Weeping Angels", Petrify as a Bonus Action

The thirteenth week: equinox

Next week is the Spring Equinox, when we promised to aid Magister Andraste Netyoine with something.

We send him a message, asking if he needs us. He replies that it wasn't a necessity that we be there. "We were going to celebrate your contributions to last year's Equinox. But this is unnecessary, otherwise." We'll make it up to him another time, we say.

The fourteenth week: worms

We're walking through the dunes when suddenly the ground begins to shake, and two sandworms erupt from the sands under Embersia and Ryltar. Embersia is swallowed. She sends the heartburn with an upcast Burning Hands.

The other worm digs back down; the worm on the surface keeps flailing around and poisoning people with its tail. The worms are not smart; they continually fail against Ryltar's Int-based attacks. Jerry hacks most of the way through the worm while takign large maounts of damage, when a Flying Percival swoops down and slides it open with his sword, freeing Embersia.

Ryltar was stomping on the ground to draw the second worm away from Jerry; it does attack him, and crits! Embersia heals herself up quite a bit; someone Polymorphs it into a turtle.

But those two worms were babies. Now the parent shows up, even bigger, and it crits Ryltar again, eating him. He manages not to die, and in the total darkness of the worm's stomach, he recovers his sense of self and manages to Dimension Door well away.

Jerry drops Ashardalon's Stride, picks up the turtled baby turtle, and holds an attack to throw the baby turtle into the mother's mouth. She advances to within 20 feet, and waits for the parent worm to open its mouth. Percival throws his Storm Boomerang and hits for half damage: 7 bludgeoning and 8 thunder. ting it flies away. He stands still.

With a 25 Athletics, Jerry throws the turtle into the parent worm's mouth. The parent tries to bite Percival; with a 29 it hits and with 15 Dex it deals 21 piercing to him and swallows him.

Percival and the turtle, in the belly of the worm. Percival took damage, and loses concentration: all three take a Constitution save. Percival rolls 1; he takes 49 bludgeoning and so does the baby worm; the parent worm takes 24 and is enbloatened.

The parent survives, though. Jerry is whapped by the parent's tail and avoids going down thanks to Relentless Endurance, and deals a little damage thanks to . Embersia casts Cure wounds to heal Jerry up. Jerry attacks the parent, dealing a little damage. Percival Dimension Doors out; Ryltar Polymorphs the parent worm. With a 21 Wisdom, it avoids getting turned into a turtle. Percival gives Jerry bardic inspiration, and continues running.

The baby worm is digested. The parent is still pissed, and continues attacking, going after Embersia with some more damage. She uses Power Word: Fortify to give herself, Jerry, and Percival 40 temporary HP. Ryltar Hits the worm with Psychic Lance and incapacitates it for a term; it takes a lot of slashing and fireball damage. Ryltar keeps hitting it with Psychic Lance, keeping it incapacitated. We keep whacking at it, with Moon Scythe and Fireball, and Percival's final Fireball explodes the worm.

Through this entire battle, the group of Drow have been attacked by young worms, which they defeated. We know that the stingers are valuable; we carve the mother's stinger off, and the two young that we defeated. These three go into the Bag of Holding.

Next Steps