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<blockquote data-quote="Burnside" data-source="post: 7315336" data-attributes="member: 6910340"><p><strong>EPISODE 5: INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, PART 2</strong></p><p></p><p>Holy crap, we played for two weeks in a row.</p><p></p><p>I Frankensteined together elements from a few different sources for this session.</p><p></p><p>Darkroot the Treant was grateful to the party for dealing with the catoblepus, and created a gate through his bramble barrier that allowed them to access the interior of the island. Millie asked him if he knew anything about the cave they were looking for, and he explained that when he was a young sapling it had been the lair of a black dragon. A storm giant priest and his human allies had killed the beast, and the cave entrance was now decorated with its skull. The cave later became a sanctum for the storm giant, and Darkroot believed the giant had hidden something in there - and that whatever it was had not been let unprotected, as others had entered the cave over the ages but none had come out.</p><p></p><p>The party entered the cave and soon detected the tell-tale scent of chlorine that they recognized from Thundertree in LMoP - as sign that Venomfang was already in here.</p><p></p><p>For the basic layout of the cave, I used the Blacklake, which is the bottom level of the Forge of Fury dungeon from Tales of the Yawning Portal. This involved navigating two natural bridges over a subterranean river. The first was crossed without incident; the second gave out when Klegg stepped on it, though with a dex save he was able to grab the ledge and save himself the fall. Wizma had already crossed, but as the bridge was now destroyed, a complicated passage using Klegg's ring of jumping, several ropes, and Millie's Boots of Striding and Springing was necessary to get everyone across.</p><p></p><p>The path then descended to water level, and into Darksquall Cave, a location I got from backing Dan Coleman on Patreon. I used this for the Storm Giant's sanctum - it was the tomb of his favorite human follower, who had been interred with the book of rune magic the party was after. Unlocking the cache involved the manipulation of three sparking nodes of energy into position to power three storm giant runes that would unlock the tomb on and island in the middle of a shallow lake of cold water. Also on this island, razorvine was growing - a hint that there was something otherwordly about the runes and the tomb.</p><p></p><p>As the party worked on the puzzle, Venomfang rose from the water and greeted them. She claimed that the tomb was a door that could send her back to her own plane, and that all she had ever wanted was to return home ever since Wizma and her brother had accidentally summoned her. She called the resulting death of Wizma's brother a tragic accident. She proposed they work together to solve the puzzle. When Klegg asked what would happen if the refused, she replied that this would be another tragedy.</p><p></p><p>As Veomfang complimented their cleverness and encourage them while offering no substantive help, The party solved this puzzle (a very fun and clever one) and opened the cache, but that also activated the tomb's guardian (a storm spirit, an elemental monster from the Coleman thing). This was a tough fight during which Wizma was badly wounded and Tordeck was KOed and revived, and he and Wizma used up about half their spells. Of course, as soon as the guardian was defeated Venomfang attacked the weakened party with her breath weapon - all she had wanted here was the treasure.</p><p></p><p>The characters had luckily spread out while fighting the elemental, she she was only able to breath on Wizma and Klegg. Wizma was immediately KOed, but Klegg largely shrugged it off due to making his saving throw and wearing Dragonguard. This was my players' first dragon fight, and I was really happy with it. It went down to the wire as they threw everything but the kitchen sink at her, and she turned tail and tried to flee down the entrance tunnel with 50 hp left, but a combination of Wizma's very last spell slot (magic missles at level 2) and Millie chasing her down with her boots and landing a hit and a crit finished her off. Players cheered at the table. ("We killed a dragon!" - Millie)</p><p></p><p>Wizma thanked her friends for helping her to avenge her brother and vowed to leave behind her life of crime now that she had redemption.</p><p></p><p>The hidden cache contained a suit of Plate Mail of Lightning Resistance ("Safety from the Storm"), a Javelin of Lightning ("Ride the Storm"), three healing potions, and the book of rune magic (to be examined further next time.</p><p></p><p><strong>PLAYING TIME: </strong>Just over 2 hours.</p><p></p><p><strong>Rating:</strong> A-. Hard to say what I'm really rating here; this sessions had a character and location from Jeff Stevens' INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, a location, puzzle, and enemy from Dan Coleman's Patreon page, a location from TotYP, and an enemy from LMoP. It all worked really well together. I guess the lesson is "don't be afraid to cherry-pick the good stuff."</p><p></p><p>Everybody gets 1 rep point; Millie gets an extra for the Razorvine and Wizma gets an extra for the death of Venomfang (a wanted enemy of the Harpers).</p><p></p><p><strong>NEXT EPISODE:</strong> DDAL-05-12: BAD BUSINESS IN PARNAST (Sun, Jan 21)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Burnside, post: 7315336, member: 6910340"] [B]EPISODE 5: INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, PART 2[/B] Holy crap, we played for two weeks in a row. I Frankensteined together elements from a few different sources for this session. Darkroot the Treant was grateful to the party for dealing with the catoblepus, and created a gate through his bramble barrier that allowed them to access the interior of the island. Millie asked him if he knew anything about the cave they were looking for, and he explained that when he was a young sapling it had been the lair of a black dragon. A storm giant priest and his human allies had killed the beast, and the cave entrance was now decorated with its skull. The cave later became a sanctum for the storm giant, and Darkroot believed the giant had hidden something in there - and that whatever it was had not been let unprotected, as others had entered the cave over the ages but none had come out. The party entered the cave and soon detected the tell-tale scent of chlorine that they recognized from Thundertree in LMoP - as sign that Venomfang was already in here. For the basic layout of the cave, I used the Blacklake, which is the bottom level of the Forge of Fury dungeon from Tales of the Yawning Portal. This involved navigating two natural bridges over a subterranean river. The first was crossed without incident; the second gave out when Klegg stepped on it, though with a dex save he was able to grab the ledge and save himself the fall. Wizma had already crossed, but as the bridge was now destroyed, a complicated passage using Klegg's ring of jumping, several ropes, and Millie's Boots of Striding and Springing was necessary to get everyone across. The path then descended to water level, and into Darksquall Cave, a location I got from backing Dan Coleman on Patreon. I used this for the Storm Giant's sanctum - it was the tomb of his favorite human follower, who had been interred with the book of rune magic the party was after. Unlocking the cache involved the manipulation of three sparking nodes of energy into position to power three storm giant runes that would unlock the tomb on and island in the middle of a shallow lake of cold water. Also on this island, razorvine was growing - a hint that there was something otherwordly about the runes and the tomb. As the party worked on the puzzle, Venomfang rose from the water and greeted them. She claimed that the tomb was a door that could send her back to her own plane, and that all she had ever wanted was to return home ever since Wizma and her brother had accidentally summoned her. She called the resulting death of Wizma's brother a tragic accident. She proposed they work together to solve the puzzle. When Klegg asked what would happen if the refused, she replied that this would be another tragedy. As Veomfang complimented their cleverness and encourage them while offering no substantive help, The party solved this puzzle (a very fun and clever one) and opened the cache, but that also activated the tomb's guardian (a storm spirit, an elemental monster from the Coleman thing). This was a tough fight during which Wizma was badly wounded and Tordeck was KOed and revived, and he and Wizma used up about half their spells. Of course, as soon as the guardian was defeated Venomfang attacked the weakened party with her breath weapon - all she had wanted here was the treasure. The characters had luckily spread out while fighting the elemental, she she was only able to breath on Wizma and Klegg. Wizma was immediately KOed, but Klegg largely shrugged it off due to making his saving throw and wearing Dragonguard. This was my players' first dragon fight, and I was really happy with it. It went down to the wire as they threw everything but the kitchen sink at her, and she turned tail and tried to flee down the entrance tunnel with 50 hp left, but a combination of Wizma's very last spell slot (magic missles at level 2) and Millie chasing her down with her boots and landing a hit and a crit finished her off. Players cheered at the table. ("We killed a dragon!" - Millie) Wizma thanked her friends for helping her to avenge her brother and vowed to leave behind her life of crime now that she had redemption. The hidden cache contained a suit of Plate Mail of Lightning Resistance ("Safety from the Storm"), a Javelin of Lightning ("Ride the Storm"), three healing potions, and the book of rune magic (to be examined further next time. [B]PLAYING TIME: [/B]Just over 2 hours. [B]Rating:[/B] A-. Hard to say what I'm really rating here; this sessions had a character and location from Jeff Stevens' INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, a location, puzzle, and enemy from Dan Coleman's Patreon page, a location from TotYP, and an enemy from LMoP. It all worked really well together. I guess the lesson is "don't be afraid to cherry-pick the good stuff." Everybody gets 1 rep point; Millie gets an extra for the Razorvine and Wizma gets an extra for the death of Venomfang (a wanted enemy of the Harpers). [B]NEXT EPISODE:[/B] DDAL-05-12: BAD BUSINESS IN PARNAST (Sun, Jan 21) [/QUOTE]
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