NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Motorskills" data-source="post: 7336305" data-attributes="member: 15921">The party, now all L15, teleport to Yartar. One of their patrons is one of the twelve Waterbarons, the mother of Artan from Kraken's Gamble. They also have good relations with Hands of Yartar thieves' guild. With this help, and their previous investigation and interrogation of the Purple Lady, they work out that Lord Drylund is trying to take over the city.They decide to go diplomatic again(!), which turns out to be the exact correct move. They learn that Hekaton was captured and placed upon a custom-built ship (commissioned by Drylund from a distant shipwright). Iymrith (divination wizardess) provided permanent prevention of scrying, and "a friend of Oosith's" provided prevention from psionics and telepathy etc. Drylund has only contacted the crew once or twice since the kidnap, he teleports to the Purple Islands to do so.Slarkrethel kills Drylund before he can reveal too much more. but the party now have all the information they need.They teleport to Neverwinter and present their information to the Factions. Instead of loaning them one of the boats in SKT, I said screw it, and gave them all five. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />A few days later the assembled fleet heads to Grundbarg, where a straightforward negotiation sees the Jarl explain that the Morkoth has been sighted a couple of times in the past few months, always sailing in the same direction. After a disastrous attempt to pirate the Morkoth, the Jarl has ruled that ship completely off-limits to his people.The party work out that the Morkoth is doing a slow circle of the Purple Islands. The Jarl is happy enough to send his fleet to kill everyone there, while the party's fleet attempt an interception of the Morkoth.They know that Oosith is on board, and they have a reasonable readout of the other foes.Each of my players controls one of the baddie groups, assists me to DM the fight. I used reskinned Yuan-Ti, "Krakenbrood"Captain Daggerdark - standard MM Archmage (controlled by me)First Mate Rool - hybrid build: Krakenbrood Mind Whisperer, Warlock of the Great Old One, L10 Rogue Assassin12 Krakenbrood Pit Masters4 Kraken Priests 1 Aboleth - Lord Oosith from Kraken's Gamble - they really wanted this guy deadAnd le piece de resistance....1 "Elder Brain Mindwitness", octopus-beholder-aboleth thing which was wrapped around Hekaton - I also managed this thing during the fight, a hybrid of the Elder Brain and Mindwitness both from Volo's. Really nasty. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Along with everything else stolen from both monsters, I allowed one Legendary action per player, easier maths for me, nastier for them. I also allowed the AOE Mindblast, when recharged, to be used in the same round as the eyestalk attacks.Yummy! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Hekaton is submerged in a "bath", in which Oosith swims. He's not been there long enough to benefit from Lair actions, but the Elder Brain Mindwitness has.The party are well aware that they will be detected from distance, they also know they need to be in and out fast - they have worked out that the REAL BBEG is a psionic Kraken. The Bard puts Mindblank on himself, everyone else benefits from Non-Detection (another great move by the party - they were not to know, but this made a big difference in the fight with the Elder Brain Mindwitness)The battle begins with ranged missile fire between the ships. I handwave that all the Priests and Pit Masters lose half their HP. Daggerdark throws up Globe of Invulnerability and the Elder Brain Mindwitness provides a Wall of Force, so he and Rool are unaffected. This fight is all distraction to allow the party to get on board. The party is relying on their (legal) Conch to teleport them and Hekaton away.As soon as the battle is underway, the party gets on board, and decimates the mobs with fireballs and annihilate Oosith. I immediately start to think maybe I have badly understatted the battle.... But in reality, it soon becomes apparent that they left too many of the Pit Masters alive, and split too early to tackle the different threats. The Bard and Sorcerer came under melee pressure, the Paladin, Ranger, and Druid really started to struggle against the Elder Brain Mindwitness. The Ranger gets stunned to death, the Druid and Paladin are downed at different points. The Elder Brain Mindwitness hasn't really taken much damage. They regroup (sans Ranger) and decide to go full throttle for the Elder Brain Mindwitness. This works, allowing them to finally clean up.An amazing fight, I'm really proud of the rebuilt encounter, and the way my players used the baddies under their control to best effect.But....For some reason the party is planning to tow the Morkoth back to Neverwinter (they just love the design LOL), crazy bad decision. So I paused the game for the day, with Hekaton still chained up, slowly returning to consciousness. The party is low on spell slots, but have recovered hit points.They will need to deal with Hekaton and then Slarkrethel will arrive if they don't change their mind.....Good times. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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