D&D 5E Rhenny's Princes of the Apocalypse Campaign Logs

Session 24 – “Knife Point Gully Again” – The party is 6th level at this point.

After their rest, the group traveled for only an hour more to reach the area near Knife Point Gully. They attempted to sneak up as best they could, but pretty soon, two hippogriffs with Feathergale Knight riders were diving down upon them. As the beasts got closer, both knights jumped from their mounts backs and floated down to stand ready for attack as the hippogriffs also chose targets.

The adventurers fought with these foes for a little while and the noise alerted other foes who were at the enterance to the stairway that led down to the Howling Hatred Temple. Pretty soon, Hundar, Pate, Tury and Kippi were fighting a much more dangerous battle against the knights and their mounts, 4 Howling Hatred Hurricanes with thunder boomerangs, and a Howling Hatred Priest, who also summoned 4 dust mephits.

For once, Pate seemed to hold up better, not the pincushion he usually became, but later in the battle, he was momentarily blinded by a dust mephit. Tury fought bravely and took every opportunity to protect his wife, Kippi. Hundar used his magical greataxe to kill many foes, but even he took damage from thunder boomerangs, barehanded attacks and thunderwaves. At one point, Kippi was put to sleep by a dust mephit, and a Huricane pummeled her nearly to unconsciousness, but Tury protected her, and used cure wounds to keep her from going down. During the battle, Tury took a number of blows along with some thunderwave damage, and by the end of the fight, he was nearly unconscious (1 hp left). Pate used vicious mockery, and hold person twice, once failing to paralyze the Priest, but the second time succeeding. With the Priest held, Hundar ran from the foes he was engaged with, dodging their blows, and he attacked the Priest with devastating strokes, cutting this foe down.

After a good minute of combat (about 10 rounds), Kippi panicking and firing off two fireballs while fearful for her own life and Tury’s life as well, the party was able to kill the last foe and search the area around the cave mouth that led to the stairway leading down.

With no sign of life at the top of the stairway, the group gathered together as Pate sang a healing song. Resting for about an hour, the group restored some of its lost vitality and prepared to descend into the depths. (about 2:30 pm on the first day of Flamerule)

Comments

We played for about 1 ½ hours – a long battle.

We only had 2 players so we had to NPC Tury and Kippi tonight, which definitely slowed things down a little.

This 3500 xp battle was a pretty good test for the party. At first, we were going to ghost Kippi, but soon it became clear that her fireballs would be needed (eventhough her first fireball only did ½ damage to the foes caught in the blast, which was a measly 9 points of damage – horrible damage roll).

Tury had to use all of his HD of healing, and Kippi used many too.

Session 25 – Back Down the Stairs into The Temple of the Howling Hatred (Still 6th level)

It has been a long time since our last game. The end of the school year and summer vacations kept me away from Dming. This was a short session just to knock the rust off and get us back into our campaign.

We played for an hour or so.

The party, led by Hundar the Half-Orc fighter and Tury, the Gnome paladin, trudged down the stone stairway for miles until they got to the landing on the edge of a cliff where the doors to the old Dwarven structures stood. They pushed into the tower area and heard the screaching and moaning of tortured souls through arrow slits in the jagged walls. In fact, Pate could hear the voice of Aerisi saying “don’t let them in…kill them,” and the voice of Windharrow saying, “don’t understimate them.” The voices were coming from multiple sources behind the arrow slits, and the adventureres could see feathered creatures in the darkness.

Hundar just ran toward the other end of the hall to try to get to the other door as the others followed behind him. Hundar was attacked by 5 arrows a few hitting him. Tury and Pate also got hit. Not wanting to waste time in the kill zone, Pate, the Half-Elven bard, ran to the opposite door to find that it was locked. He tried to bash it down, but it was too strong. Kippipop, the Gnome wild magic sorcerer, stepped up to the door and issued forth a thunderclap that injured Pate slightly, shook the door a little, but the door remained locked. Then the group heard Pate’s voice from the Kenku behind the arrow slits, “It’s locked…It’s locked…It’s locked.” Tury ran up and tried to tinker with the locking mechanism, but the door held fast. Then Hundar ran through them all and smashed the door open with his hulking body.

The streets of the ruins were quiet, but the adventurers didn’t want the Kenku to alert anyone so Hundar found an ally that led back to the area behind one of the banks of arrow slits. Before they entered, Pate sang a song and invoked his new knowledge of divine vitality. Slowly over the next minute, he was able to heal Tury, Hundar and himself, if not completely at least enough to feel revitalized and fresh.

The adventurers made their way to the door and Hundar could tell it was wedged or locked. Tury, started jamming things into the door to make it even more locked, tinkering to keep the door from opening. Hundar, grunted, “Argh” and then bashed it open. Tury shook his head in slight disdain.

Hundar slashed with his greataxe as Tury tried to block with his shield and attack with rapier. Kippi fired an ice knife that missed the mark, but shattered injuring a number of the Kenku, if only a bit. She also used her ray of frost when possible as the others fought up front. Pate, continuing to use his divine vitality, also threw his dancing rapier into the room to attack the Kenku.

After a while, the group killed the Kenku. Hundar and company raced around the other side of the ally/streets to enter a fountain square nearer to the waterfall, to find another door that led to the other side of the hallway of arrows. Inside only 1 Kenku tried to put up a fight, but was immediately cut down by Hundar.

The adventurers, remembering this area from the first time they were here, turned north and passed the three pillars that used to have initiates chained to them. As they got closer to the great pyramid, they saw a wyvern and rider atop the pyramid. The rider and mount, seeing the party, dove straight for them. Both Pate and Kippi remembered a bit about the wyvern and its poisonous tail…they looked at each other as Hundar and Tury braced themselves for the fray.

Session 26 – Jerris and the Worm Skeleton Stairway

This was a 2 hour session -

The party tensed as the Skyweaver riding a wyvern dove down from atop the pyramid in the center of the Howling Hatred occupied are of Tyar-Besil. Hundar braced himself for an attack as Turytopple stepped up next to him to guard and attack as well. Pate and Kippipop took positions behind the nearest pillar to keep from sight. As the wyvern came within 30’ of the group, it banked left and flew to the side. The group could hear the skyweaver casting a spell as a lightning bolt fired from his hands to hit Hundar and Tury. Hundar jumped aside and got singed, but Tury wasn’t as lucky. The bolt hit him straight in the chest and did substantial damage.

The party retreated behind the pilar hoping to draw the wyvern and rider towards them. Pate drew forth his wand of magic missiles and fired 3…then 4 missiles at the skyrider, but that did not deter the foe. Although it was difficult for the rider he steared the beast closer and using his skill with animal handling, the rider forced the wyvern to reach out with claws to grab on to Windvane, which was attached to Hundar’s pack. Hundar snatched the weapon back with ease and then fought the great beast. Pate, used his arcane skill to make the wyvern chuckle with hideous laughter causing it to plummet 20’ to the ground. The skyweaver took some damage in the fall as well, but both skyweaver and wyvern fought on. Kippipop fired a number of frost rays at the skyrider as Tury stood toe to toe with the wyvern to block attacks directed at Hundar and Kippipop, and jab at the beast with his rapier.

While they were fighting the two foes, the skyweaver turned invisible and the party could not find where he was so they concentrated on the wyvern. The beast thrust its poison tail at Hundar, and Tury blocked it with his shield. Hundar hacked and hacked the beast with his magical great axe, and Pate was able to make it laugh once more. Running low on spell power, the group fought with melee weapons for a while until the invisible skyweaver appeared and discharged another lightning bolt headed toward Tury and Pate. Pate sang out a song of arcane magic to counter the spell and the lightning bolt fizzled before doing any damage.

Kippipop shot another frost ray at the skyrider and froze him in place. Hundar, Tury and Pate took out the wyvern before it could do more damage to the group, and at the end of their fight, Pate invoked divine aura to heal the party over the next minute.

Unfortunately, the sound of battle called forth two Howling Hatred Priests along with 6 commoners. They came from the south, behind the party, but Kippipop was ready. She stepped around one of the pillars and let lose a fireball that killed 5 of the commoners and wounded one of the priests. During this fight, one of the priests was able to hit Tury with an empowered Witch Bolt. Pate used one of his last spells to make that priest laugh uncontrollably, and the deadly Witch Bolt fell. Hundar hacked the other priest, but it was resisting the damage. Tury tried to reason with the commoner, apologizing that his wife incinerated the others, but he could tell that the commoner was glassy eyed and incoherent. Over the next few seconds, Tury slapped the commoner and tried to get him to shake free of his stupor, but it did not work. Then, the priest next to Tury assumed gaseous form and started to float off into the darkness.

The group fought the other priest who kept on telling Hundar to give up “the weapon”. Hundar kept hacking the priest and dodged a number of Witch Bolts in the process. Kippipop moved down the hall to look for the gaseous priest, but she didn’t see it. Pate finished using his healing powers and attacked the priest that Hundar was attacking. Tury, apologized once more to the commoner and then struck him a non-lethal blow to the face. Although it did not knock the commoner unconscious, it did shake him out of his stupor. He dropped his club and asked what was happening. Evidently, he had been in this hell a long time.

Eventually one priest fell and the other reappeared in material form to attempt a Witch Bolt attack upon Kippi. Kippi, told the priest that she could do a better Witch Bolt, and she did. Then, after another unsuccessful attempt, the priest finally hit Kippi with his own bolt of energy and the two were locked in battle, Witch Bolt vs. Witch Bolt. The others quickly responded and took down the priest before he could hurt Kippi further, then they spoke with the commoner, named Jerris.

Jerris told them that the Queen was looking for Windvane. She had the entire temple level on high alert. She had gone to “The Eye,” and he was afraid that she had more power there even though she did not have Windvane. The group discussed what to do. Could they rest? What kind of power did “The Eye” give Aerisi? Jerris told them that there were a number of patrols so it would be unlikely that the group could find a place to rest unless they could disguise themselves. Jerris told them that he could guide them to the stairway down to “The Eye”, but they’d have to walk through the old ruined area of Tyar-Besil. The group decided to take the priests’ outfits and the skyweaver’s outfit to use as disguises. Kippipop used prestidigitation to clean the clothing and then she got on top of Turytopple’s shoulders and draped one of the robes over them. Pate and Hundar dressed in the other vestements and they pretended to push the commoner ahead of them as they walked around the pyramid to the Plaza of Mordadin.

Tury and Kippi tottled along as one as Pate and Hundar pushed Jerris ahead of them. In the Plaza they saw a number of foes, but they were not approached until one skyweaver challenged Pate. Pate tried to bluff his way past, but the skyweaver was suspicious. He asked the name of their god, and the group remembered “Yan-C-Bin.” With that, the group slipped past the plaza and continued east to another small square. Outside a large building that looked like an inn or hall of some sort, a number of Kenku milled about. The bird creatures kept their heads down, not wanting to look at the party members dressed like Howling Hatred Priests.

After turning another corner and heading east, Jerris led them to an area with a large skeletal worm, frozen in time, bursting out from the ground. In its mouth, there was a tunnel leading down, along with stairs. Jerris told the group that the level below was called “The Eye”, but there was a specific alter area on that level that was “The Eye.” He dared not follow the group, but wished them luck. Tury, thanked Jerris and gave him a ham sandwich (an old one at that) from his pack. Jerris headed back to attempt to escape as the party decended the stairway.

At the bottom of the stairway, the group was in a cave with a passage to the north and to the east. At the bottom of the stairs, the group saw a bunch of large packs. Tury peaked out from under the robes and knew that these were the Howling Hatred balloon packs that he had tried to modify earlier so each of the party took one of the packs in case they needed them in the future. Stopping for a short while, the group listened and could hear the howling of wind coming from the north, but only quiet from the smaller passage way to the east.

Comments

This was fun. The party used almost all of their resouces, but all for the best results.

Key moments included the way Pate countered a lighting bolt spell that would have been bad news for Tury and himself. He also stopped a witch bolt that had affected Tury and provided a ton of healing with his divine aura (learned spell from the Paladin list).

Tury got the commoner, Jerris, free and gained valuable information to help them continue without fighting more.

Hundar was able to hold on to Windvane and keep it from the foes, and he fought with great skill (a number of critical hits today).

Kippipop was played by the others as a ghost character, but she gave Tury a chance to roleplay the husband and wife team that they are and she got a chance to show the Howling Hatred priest how to cast Witch Bolt.

Each PC is about 500 xp from leveling up to 7th level, but they are very low on resources. They realize they can’t really rest, and hope that they can find “The Eye” and stop Aerisi once and for all.

Session 27 – "Exploring the Eye – Search for Aerisi"

The party had just decended the stairway that led down through the skeleton of a purple worm at the other end, they could take a short rest, but then they decided to scout. The adventurers could hear wind howling to the northwest, but saw a small passage curving off to the east. Turytopple was first to prance off to the east down a tunnel to see what was there. Kippipop, Pate and Hundar followed. When the party came to a large cavern area, Hundar and Pate recognized that they were in a trapped area that they had already been in, The Wind Prison. Since they had previously shattered the orb that rested on a pedestal in the middle of the cave, the wind trap didn’t function any longer. Then Tury went south and east and found a cave with 3’ mists clinging to the ground. Hundar and Pate remembered that room as well. There was a hidden trench in the center of that room, but they had already killed the rust monster that was living within it.

At this point, Hundar wanted to run to the east to find the stairway that went up to the Temple of the Crushing Waves. Kippi turned Hundar invisible and Hundar took off. While he was gone, the others discussed how on earth they could get a long rest. Tury suggested that they let Pate ritually summon his tiny hut, but do it at the bottom of the trench so that it would be covered by the fog. Meanwhile, Hundar made it up the stairway that went to where the Temple of the Crushing Waves was, and found that the room upstairs where they had previously defeated a mezzoloth seemed abandoned. He also found that the two prisoners they had left at the foot of the stairs, a sailor and a cultist of The Eternal Flames, were gone.

When Hundar came back to the rest of the group, he found Tury and Kippi playing hide and seek in the fog. Imagine little gnome heads popping up out of fog and disappearing every moment or two. (Whack-a-Gnome style) Pate, looking at Hundar, shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. Quickly, with Pate making the ultimate decision, the group decided to summon the tiny hut in the trench, out of view. For 10 minutes, Pate read from his book and chanted to create the dome. The party was well hidden and although they kept watches through the night they were not found. Hundar had a fitful sleep though and at one point he had a nightmare in which eyes were boring down upon him. He could tell that they were Queen Airesi’s eyes and they were trying to locate the adventurers. Before the eyes could gain too much information, Hundar imagined himself clutching Windvane and flipping Airesi off. Then the image shattered and Hundar felt more comfortable in rest.

After preparing for the next day, the group climbed out and searched to the north west. They found the source of the howling winds, a huge pit that seemed to go down 70’ or 80’ but they scooted past that and made it back to another cave they had been to before about 10 days ago. It was an area that laired three harpies, which they had killed previously. Now, there was still the filth of their nest and a decomposed body of a water cultist with a crab shell shield and a shark tooth sword. As Hundar took the shield, Tury climbed up the side of the harpy nest. Inside it smelled horrible. Scraps of rags, mud, leaves, twigs, pieces of armor and cloth littered the inside of the nest. Tury disgusted by the filth jumped back down. Hundar, not feeling at all squeamish, jumped in and searched to find gold, silver, a few jewelry items and a potion. Pate could tell that the potion was a potent healing potion, which the group let Hundar keep for emergency use.

The group continued north to find a cave that was splattered with blood. Nearly a dozen dead bodies of earth cultists and water cultists, some months old, some more fresh. were scattered about, and an air spirit dressed in plate armor spun through the air wielding a flail. It saw the adventurers and started to hover closer speaking a language nobody could understand. After a few seconds, Hundar (since he had wielded Windvane previously and while it was attuned he could comprehend and speak Auran) recognized the language, but he could not tell what it was saying. The air myrmidon kept on speaking as it floated near. Tury stepped up to confront it and found it was difficult to pierce with his tiny rapier. The creature swept its flail at Tury, but did not connect. Then Pate threw his dancing rapier down and had it attack the creature. The magical weapon connected and seemed to hurt the myrmidon a little. Then Hundar stepped up and tried to hack at it with his magical great axe, but did not drive through the plate armor. Then, the myrmidon attacked Tury twice and when the flail hit Tury, lighning sparked and he felt not only the impact of the weapon, but also a major electrical surge that nearly stunned him. Kippi, afraid for her husband, was able to catch the creature in a witch bolt, but she could tell it was not taking full damage.

The group fought the myrmidon for a while, luckily its electrical attack did not recharge as it did hit both Tury and Hundar a number of times as it spun faster and faster. Eventually Hundar scored a violent hit and the others were able to knock pieces of armor off the air myrmidon. Pate was able to affect it with hideous laughter for a short time, but also get off a few vicious mockeries that ultimate spelled doom for the air creature.

After the fight, Hundar collected a number of longswords thinking he might be able to sell them back at Red Larch, and the group moved toward a northern cave. At the mouth of the cave, only Hundar could hear a cry of pain in the distance to the west. To Hundar, it sounded as if someone was being killed in cold blood.

Comments

This was a 2 hour session

Hundar leveled up to 7th level – the others are only a short way behind. Pate only needs a few hundred and Tury and Kippi need a few thousand.

The idea to use the hut in the fog was great. I didn’t know how the group would be able to get a long rest otherwise. Perhaps they could have gone to the Temple of the Crushing Wave since they had already killed Gar Shatterkeel, but still it might have been more risky.

I rolled for random monsters quite often as the group explored and rested, but they were really lucky (no rolls over 14…so no wandering monsters).

Session 28 – Showdown with Aerisi (I'm changing the writing style of this entry to save time. This is more like notes using present tense rather than past tense narrative)

Hundar hears screams of pain...tortured death from the northwest

Strange viscous blackness fills the passages between caves.

Tury and Kippi investigate. Kippi uses Dancing Lights to create a glowing gnome, and Tury wades into the black curtain. No damage, just disgusting feeling that blocks vision.

In the next cave about 30’ from the cave enterance right in the center of the cave, a giant amorphous statue about 20’ tall. This cave is noticeably warmer.

Tury gets closer and sees that the blob has tentacles and has a glowing purple gem the size of a human head for an eye on top of this strange amorphous black sculpture. He tries to climb it and a black pudding drops from above.

Tury dodges and keeps it occupied. Kippi blasts it with fireball and does damage. Hundar steps up and slashes it with his magical axe, but that only splits it into two entities. Pate tries to mock it, but it does not feel the sting.

Hundar takes out Windvane and jabs repeatedly at one of the puddings, killing it.

Tury and Kippi argue. Tury turns back to apologize, but the pudding slams him, burning him with acid and corroding his armor (-1 AC).

Using a few other spells and another fireball, with Hundar and Pate attacking as well, the group dispatches the pudding. Pate calls forth a healing spirit to bring Tury back to health and the group waits a minute or two before pressing on.

To the west, Hundar hears chanting. The screams of pain have stopped, but the chanting grows louder.

As the group moves into a tunnel to the west, they see orange and red glow from the cave ahead. The chanting gets louder and then they see a large cave with a ziggaraut and an altar atop it. Areas in the cave also have pools of lava. Aerisi is at the altar with her hands inside a dead body. She is covered in gore and entrails as she continues to chant with the others around her (Windharrow, 3 initiates and 2 Hurricanes).

Pate mimicks the chant and enters the cave. He passes by Windharrow who eyes him, but allows him to pass. Pate goes right next to Aerisi and they converse. She listens to him and passes him a dagger from the altar. She asks him to join her cause and slit a prisoner’s throat. The prisoner is slumped unconscious beside the altar. Pate tries to delay and then attempts to make her laugh with Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. She does not succumb, and she instructs all to attack.

Through the battle, Kippi uses her last fireball and some shatter spells to damage the foes. Pate gets pushed into lava, but manages to grab the ledge, although he fails to extricate himself, so Tury helps pull him out.

As Aerisi tries to conjure an air elemental, Pate counterspells, but needs help from Kippi’s Twist of Fate. Hundar runs in and resists a thunderwave. Windharrow tries to cast confusion on Tury and Kippi but fails.

Tury dodges and strikes. Pate strikes with his dancing sword. He also inspires Tury.

Windharrow makes Aerisi invisible but Kippi’s shatter shows she’s still in the room as the pain makes the Queen yelp.

The fight goes on a little longer as Aerisi moves to the north and then appears and unleashes lightning bolts from chain lightning, hitting both Hundar and Kippi, who both dodge to avoid some of the damage.

Windharrow moves towards Aerisi and begins to cast a spell. Hundar strikes Aerisi down and stands over her. Then he hacks her head off and her form dies turning to air.

Windharrow creates a dimension door and tells the party that they’ve killed his meal ticket. When the group offers to allow him to join with them, he says he values his life more, but perhaps at another more advantageous moment, they’d meet again and he’d consider the offer. Then he steps through the portal and vanishes.

The group kills the other minions and feels the entire Fane of the Eye shake slightly as if responding to the death of Aerisi.

****

This was a 2 ½ hour session and interestingly it was defensive abilities that seemed to be more prominent (Kippi’s twist of fate, Pate’s counterspell, Tury dodging a lot). The players also roleplayed interesting interactions, especially when Tury and Kippi argued and Kippi kept on refering to Hundar as “Hungry”. Hundar grunted a few times and even responded with uncharacteristic Half-Orc resignation. Pate also did a great job talking his way past Windharrow and he was able to buy some time with Aerisi. His refusal to sacrifice the prisoner and his attempt to cast the spell on the Queen was the end of diplomacy however.