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Message: <blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8122327" data-attributes="member: 7016699">Session 18: Earth Elementals Gone Wild!Dramatis Personae:Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/RangerJoybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow SorcererGM - Everyone Else1 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 32) (immediately after)Fiona, still flying after the combat, flew up to the top of the tree canopy, just poking her head out, to look around and see if there was anything that looked like a lair around. She saw the gorgon’s trail through the trees heading on in the same north-east-ish direction we’d been generally traveling.Off in the distance, some miles away, she saw some rocks that formed a notable outcropping in the valley we were traversing.When she came back and reported we decided to approach that outcropping of rock from a direction other than the gorgon’s bulldozed path through the forest.Orryk: I’m in favor of not taking the ambush trail.While we talked about this we got a short rest, during which Taman switched out his shortbow for a longbow from the bag of holding.Fiona cast Leomund’s tiny hut and we rested for the night. Our watch order was: Taman and Imaktis, Joybell and Mo, and Orryk and Fiona.The watch was mainly to keep an eye on what was going on all around us, because we were very safe inside the hut.In the middle of the second watch, Joybell and Mo noticed that something was moving around under the ground -- it wasn’t so much that they felt tremors as that the trees around would shake as something disturbed their roots. After a moment they saw a big vaguely humanoid-shaped head made of rock and stone (not the myrriq) pop up out of the ground and look around. It didn’t seem to notice the tiny hut. It did however seem to be looking around, perhaps on patrol of some sort. We couldn’t tell if it was looking for us specifically or if it was just generally keeping an eye out.Then it went away and the trees around stopped rustling, without us getting any sense that it had found us (or anything else that it was either looking for or needed to report).We figured that it was probably an earth elemental, because that’s a creature that would be easily dominated by the myrriq.When Joybell and Mo woke up Orryk and Fiona for their watch, they told them about the earth elemental and that it didn’t appear to have spotted us.Indeed, the rest of the night passed without incident.2 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 33)The next morning, the first thing Joybell did was cast find steed to get Scooby back. She greeted him with a big hug and he greeted her with a lick on the cheeks.Imaktis cast gentle repose on the gorgon head (to keep it from getting stinky and nasty) and then we buried it to keep it safe. We can come back and collect it when we’re ready to head back to Pelsoreen and Urlott’s to do research.We headed out through the woods following a game trail (not the gorgon’s Ambush Alley, just an ordinary deer trail). Taman and Joybell were in the front, pretty much next to each other, with Imaktis close behind. Fiona and Mo were a bit behind them and Orryk kept watch from the back.As we were proceeding, a gigantic vaguely humanoid thing, made of rock and earth, came up out of the ground right in the middle of the party. Fortunately the Sword of Warning gave us enough of a heads up that we weren’t surprised by this. It looked like a big earth elemental, perhaps the same one Joybell and Mo had seen in the middle of the night, but it’s hard to recognize individual features on an earth elemental.Mo thought about casting blindness on it, rejected the idea on the grounds that it probably had tremorsense and blindness wouldn’t slow it down much, and viciously mocked it instead. Then he inspired Imaktis: “Go get him, Turtle Guy!” Then he backed up behind Imaktis, provoking the elemental to take an opportunity attack. The attack hit, but Mo’s goliath endurance kept it from doing any damage to him.Taman turned around and walked right up to it and stabbed it, getting a critical hit and a sneak attack on it, because its attention was on Mo and Imaktis. Doing a fantastic amount of damage to it (39 points!) with his magical rapier.Orryk used one of his elemental powers, water whip, on it, trying to knock it prone, but it avoided that. So he used his fists of unbroken air to get a critical hit.Joybell cast wrathful smite, her favorite spell right now, and took two swings at it. The first missed but the second connected and it failed to steel itself against her wrath. So the large elemental was afraid of the tiny gnome. With the glowing flail.Fiona misty stepped away from the monster that had appeared right next to her. Then she threw an acid splash spell at it, but it saved so it only took a very small amount of damage. Imaktis cast toll the dead on it and it failed that save.The elemental took two swings at Joybell with its stony fists, but missed both times.Mo shot it with a magic missile from his wand, then inspired Orryk.Mo: Punch the stone thing!Orryk, with a smile: OkayTaman stabbed it with his rapier, once again taking advantage of its distraction to make a sneak attack. That killed it and it fell apart into dirt and muck and rocks.We sifted through the rubble remains looking for anything like a magical heart or some core essence of elemental that made this pile of rocks and dirt an animated and intelligent single thing. We found nothing.We took a short rest and then resumed our way. Between Taman’s upbringing in the wildlands and his skills as a ranger, we were not in danger of getting lost, but we didn’t take the exact route to the rock outcropping that we were anticipating either. We were, however, staying out of the gorgon’s ambush alley.Orryk hoped that we’d find something we can take back that could be made into an item that would grant control over elementals.Mo: Or maybe we can sell something in Pelsoreen. This is the nature of spec work.About five hours of walking through the difficult terrain of the forest later, 9 gargoyles flew overhead. They looked like they were patrolling more than looking for anything (us) in particular.Taman: Do we want to get their attention?We discussed briefly hiding under the trees and letting them fly away.Orryk: But if we let things go, we’ll just have to fight them later when it will be worse.Imaktis: They don’t see us.Orryk: We’ve learned this lesson.Orryk, Taman and Mo all started shooting at them. Only Orryk was using a magical bow, and the gargoyles were 200 feet away, so they didn’t take much damage. However, it did get their attention, which was what they were aiming for.8 gargoyles wheeled around and came toward us -- even moving at their top speed it was going to take them more than a few seconds to get to us. The other one turned and flew in the direction of the rock outcropping. The gargoyles were clearly spreading out. They also had learned from prior experience and stayed out of fireball formation. They came at us in a large semi-circle pincer formation.Orryk took a shot at the same one he’d shot before then backed up 30’ to keep them from getting up to him as quickly. He had expectations, perhaps, that the rest of the party would follow this very sensible approach. Fiona moved back as well and held a cantrip until one had moved into her range.Taman took a shot at the one that was heading back toward the rock outcropping but missed. It really was a long way off (though in longbow range). Joybell readied a javelin and prepared to throw it as soon as one was in range.Mo shot with his crossbow at the one heading away but missed it, then he inspired Joybell. “Be ready for gargoyles!”The gargoyles then flew into range. Joybell threw her javelin and hit, because of Mo’s inspiration. Imaktis hit one of them (#6) with a firebolt.Orryk took a shot at one coming in from the side (where they’d spread out to semi-encircle us), then moved forward again with a sigh, putting himself between the gargoyles and Fiona and Mo. We had not followed his sensible example. He then did patient defense.Fiona cast firebolt on one of them on the other side of the pincer around us (#9).Any hope of stopping the one flying back to the rock outcropping faded as he flew away out of all range, even the longbow.Taman did his insightful fighting so he was able to sneak attack one of them (#5) even though no one else was in combat with it. It would have been a lot more damage done to it if he had a magical bow.Joybell threw another (non-magical) javelin. She missed and waited for them to get in melee range.Mo, to Orryk: Thanks a lot for having our back!Then he cast haste on Orryk and inspired him. “Please kill that thing.”The gargoyles moved from 80 feet away to right on top of us, though they were then unable to attack.Joybell: Yay! They landed!Two went to Orryk, three to Joybell, and one each to Taman, Imaktis, and Fiona. (Oh, dear!)Imaktis cast spirit guardians and moved behind Taman and Joybell so his guardians, little flying turtles with wings and halos, would catch as many gargoyles as possible.Orryk, hasted, started punching the one on him that was already damaged -- with his regular attack and his haste attack and he got a LOT of hits and dropped that one. Then he did an extra bonus attack on the other one, but missed it.Fiona, looking at a gargoyle right in front of her, cast misty step and moved 30’ away, then she threw a firebolt at the one that had moved up on her.Taman dropped his bow and drew his rapier, but he missed with his stab against the one he had insight against. Joybell then attacked that same one, the one menacing Taman, and hit it pretty solidly.Mo cast shatter on that one and one of the ones that was just on Joybell. They both failed their saves. He inspired Joybell. “Joybell, go kill these things please.” Then he moved back to where Fiona had misty stepped to.The gargoyles all failed their saves against the damage from the tiny angry flying turtle spirit guardians. The one that had been on Fiona, briefly, before she misty stepped away, went to Orryk, rather than following Fiona. (From its point of view, that was possibly a poor choice.) One of its attacks hit Orryk -- Mo tried to use cutting words to prevent the hit, but it still got through for a small amount of damage.Joybell took a claw from one of the ones on her and a bite from the other, doing a chunk of damage to her. Then she protected Taman from one blow with her shield. Unfortunately he then took two more hits from the other one on him. None of them were able to hit Imaktis.Imaktis cast shillelagh and hit one of the ones on Taman (#7) with it. Orryk attacked one of them (#1) for two hits, then he channeled some of his ki into patient defense.Fiona observed that they’d abandoned the tactically-sound spread out pincer formation that they’d started in and were instead mostly bunched up around Joybell, Imaktis, and Taman (with a couple of outliers on Orryk). Fireball-formation.Fiona: Huh. Well, then.Then she cast fireball centered on Scooby and Joybell. This caught five gargoyles, but she was able to leave all of the party members, including Scooby, out of the spell. Two of them dropped, their stone forms shattered by the thermal shock. Another one looked really really rough.Taman disengaged and moved around behind one of them and attacked it from behind (an actual backstab!) but missed. Joybell moved to the one Taman had disengaged from, sidling through another one’s threatened area without provoking an opportunity attack, then hit it for a goodly lot of damage. Mo used the wand of magic missiles on one of the ones on Orryk (the one that had gone to Fiona) for some damage.The gargoyles then took damage from the spirit guardians. One of them (#3) dropped to the little winged turtles. One of them clawed Joybell and hit her. One missed Imaktis. Both of the ones on Orryk were unable to hit him through his patient defense.Imaktis dropped one of the ones in that cluster then moved over to Orryk, taking the spirit guardians with him. Both of the gargoyles on Orryk were then forced to save against the spirit turtles.Orryk, still hasted, took many swings at one of the ones on him but only hit once. So he used his bonus action to hit it again. Fiona firebolted the one that had come to menace her and shattered it with a firebolt.Taman once again moved to attack one from behind. And once again he missed it. Fortunately, Joybell got a crit on that same one and it died very thoroughly to that.Mo cast vicious mockery on the last remaining gargoyle. “All your friends are dead.” But it saved.It then took damage from the spirit guardians and missed Orryk with both attacks.Imaktis missed with his shillelagh. But Orryk shattered it with his second punch and just kept punching the gravel chunks out of the air as they fell to the ground.Joybell suddenly put two and two together: Orryk! Your fists are magic weapons now?!! That’s amazing!He confirmed that graciously, even though Joybell should probably have figured that out a few gargoyle fights ago.Taman climbed a tree and looked around, but didn’t see anything else incoming. However, one of the gargoyles had definitely gone back to report. We moved half an hour off the game trail, then Fiona cast a tiny hut so we had a totally safe place to take a short rest.We resumed on our way, after deciding to get off this game trail and loop around toward the rock outcropping from another direction.After another couple of hours, we saw a grassy area with a few scattered clusters of trees between the forest and the rock outcropping. We found a safe place in the forest so Joybell and Imaktis could oil up with the oil of prevention of petrification. There was a bit of fun with the slickness on Imaktis’ shell. We believed that the oil would halt the entire petrification sequence from the myrriq - so they'd be immune to the slow aura and all of its additional effects.Joybell peeked out through the trees, but didn't really see much except Orryk casting a minor illusion of a bush in front of himself looking out. Brilliant. She moved a few feet and did that herself but still didn’t see much.Fortunately, when Orryk, Taman and Imaktis looked out from the shelter of the forest they got a good sense of the situation. We were looking at an approximately 120 foot wide grassy strip between the edge of the forest and a rocky scree covered slope with some huge protruding rock outcrops. There was a clear path in the scree leading up the slope and around behind one of the rocks. It was clear that one or more gorgon had rampaged around in the grassy area several times, clearing the underbrush and leaving only small groups of trees that provided some cover.There were 10 gargoyles spread out on three different rock outcrops. (Note: My sketched map is below. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible either.)We talked for a moment and remembered that the myrriq's slow aura only worked if you were on the ground - being in the air, or in a tree, or even mounted would keep you safe. From that anyway. So Orryk and Taman climbed trees and Fiona cast fly on herself. Joybell stayed mounted on Scooby. In retrospect, she didn’t really need to do that because she’d oiled up and that left Scooby vulnerable.Orryk drank a potion of firebreathing.We decided to stay where we were in the trees, at least on this side of the grassy area, and let them come to us.Mo, Taman, and Orryk took shots, all at the same gargoyle (the nearest one, #5), hitting it for 14 points of non-magical damage.(Note: Then we rolled for inits. Joybell, with the advantage on init rolls conferred by the sword of warning wound out with an init of zero. Two nat 1s. Oy!)Taman and Orryk took shots again at the same one - both hitting.Mo cast haste on Imaktis -- making him the fastest Tortle in the land. Then he inspired Joybell.Fiona held a magic missile spell until something was in range.As we prepared for the gargoyles, a gorgon came charging along the trodden path in the scree, coming just around the rock outcropping toward us.The gargoyles moved up so they were flying over the no-man’s land of the grassy strip and taking cover in the clusters of trees. Fiona’s magic missile got one of them as it came into range and went into the trees.Imaktis moved up 45’ into the grassy area and dodged, coaxing them to come to him. Joybell, on Scooby, moved up to right near him and dodged as well.Taman took a shot at #10 -- it was in the trees and in some cover, but he could get a clear line on it from his position. He hit and did some damage, but the non-magic bow could only get so much through. Orryk shot again at #5, which was in cover but he still hit and did a good deal of damage.Mo cast shatter on the group taking cover in the same clump of trees (4, 5, 7, and 8). Because gargoyles are made of stone, they had disadvantage on their save against the spell, though most of them saved anyway. But he still did a fair amount of damage to them.Fiona, flying right at the edge of the trees, moved a little so she could get a clear shot then firebolted #8 and did a good chunk of damage, but didn’t drop it.The gorgon charged right up to Joybell and Imaktis, but wasn’t able to attack that round. Then the gargoyles moved up so that six of them were surrounding Imaktis and Joybell (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8). The other four moved to different clusters of trees closer to the edge of the forest. Staying in cover.Joybell, observing the knot of baddies that had formed: Oh, Fiona!The four gargoyles on Imaktis all missed him with both of their attacks (eight attacks against him total), because a hasted, dodging Tortle is both armored and nimble. The two on Joybell also missed her.Imaktis cast spirit guardians, because the winged, flying turtles are bad-ass. All of the ones around him and Joybell were in the cloud of guardians, but the others were not. Then he reached out and clawed at the gorgon with his powerful tortle-claws, doing 7 points of damage against it.Joybell was unable to get to the gorgon because of gargoyle #1 right in front of her so she attacked it, missing with one attack and hitting with the other.Taman and Orryk (acting on the same init) each targeted the gorgon with their arrows. Taman was able to sneak attack it while it was focused on Imaktis and did 30 points of damage to it. Orryk hit it as well, but not quite so dramatically.Mo, about 20 feet behind Imaktis and Joybell and right in the way of the gorgon’s breath, cast shatter again on some of the cluster around Imaktis and Joybell -- he couldn’t get all of them and avoid the party members, but he did get the gorgon, and three gargoyles in it. Gargoyle 8 completely blew apart in the shatter spell, the others took damage. The gorgon took some damage but saved. Then Mo moved along the treeline toward where Orryk was in a tree, moving away from the gorgon and its petrifying breath.Fiona flew closer to Orryk’s tree, which gave her a clear view of the fireball formation of gargoyles and gorgon around Joybell and Imaktis. She took the invitation and cast fireball on that cluster, doing a good deal of damage. (Note: I think she dropped #7 and #4, as I can’t otherwise account for them dying.) Then she flew higher, up above the tree canopy.The gorgon took a step back, provoking a claw attack from Imaktis. It also took damage from the spirit guardians. Then, having lined up a better attack, it breathed on us. Because of the oil, only Scooby had to actually save and he had no problems (Nat 20!). (To anyone watching from the rocks, it looked like we all just made our saves.)Then the gargoyles were attacked by the spirit guardians, which dropped #5 and #1, leaving only #2 of that cluster of six. It attacked Joybell and missed.The gargoyles that had been taking cover in the trees moved out. Mo was attacked by #3 and #10 and one of them hit him but he was able to use his goliath resilience to ignore the damage. The other missed.#9 and #6 found Orryk in his tree. The first one hit him, so he used his gnomish ability to fade away and go invisible, so the second one, unable to see him, missed.Imaktis moved up to right in front of the gorgon again and attacked it twice. The first attack missed but the second dropped it. Yay!Joybell dropped gargoyle #2, the last of that cluster, then moved on Scooby over to where she could protect Mo with her shield from the two on him. And hopefully draw some of their attacks.Orryk in the tree had two gargoyles flying around him, #9 and #6, but couldn’t get both of them in a firebreath. So he punched #9, hitting once, and then did his patient defense, dodging their attacks nimbly, while perched in a tree.Taman ran to the end of the branch he’d been perched on and leapt off, flipping through the air somewhat ungracefully, but landing behind one of the gargoyles on Mo and stabbing it in the back for a lot of sneaky damage.Mo used the wand of magic missile to shoot #10 with three missiles, then he inspired Taman. “Please kill the things that came to kill me.”Fiona, seeing that all of the flying monsters were occupied, flew over the grassy area and took a shot at #9 with a firebolt, but missed.One of the gargoyles attacked Taman and Joybell tried to protect him from the first attack, but despite her interposing her shield the attack still got through to hit him The gargoyle’s second attack missed him and the other gargoyle they were facing missed her entirely.The two on Orryk, who was dodging through the branches of the tree, both missed.Imaktis moved up to where Joy, Taman and Mo were dealing with gargoyles #10 and #3, forcing them to take some damages from the spirit guardians. Then he missed with both of his attacks (regular and hasted) on #10. Fortunately, Joybell then dropped #10. Unfortunately, even with Mo’s inspiration (from early in the combat) she missed #3. Taman attacked #3 and, inspired by Mo, hit it, and did damage, but not as much as earlier sneak attacks.Orryk punched #9 again, hitting once and missing once. Then, because he had two opponents on him, he spent a ki point for patient defense and went back to dodging through the tree branches.Mo stabbed and #3 and got a hit, but because his rapier is not magical, it just knocked a chip off the gargoyle. Fiona took a shot at one of the two on Orryk with a firebolt, but missed.#3, surrounded by Joybell, Imaktis, Taman, and Mo, and harrassed by the winged spirit guardian turtles, mussed with both of his attacks against Taman. Orryk, on the other hand, was hit twice, despite his athletic and graceful dodging in the tree.Imaktis, still enjoying the effects of the haste spell, took a swing at #3 and did a good chunk of damage, but didn’t drop it. Then he went over to Orryk’s tree, provoking an opportunity attack which missed. The very large tortle then began climbing Orryk’s tree, his tortle claws gaining purchase in the tree’s bark, to get the gargoyles attacking Orryk into the cloud of spirit guardians.Joybell attacked #3, missing once and then hitting for maximum damage, but it didn’t drop.Orryk punched #9, getting a critical hit, then dropped it with his second punch. Now no longer outnumbered, he used his bonus action to punch #6.Taman stabbed #3 for 23 points of damage, because he was able to sneak in the attack while it was focused on Joybell, dropping it finally. Then he moved to the nearest cluster of trees in the grassy strip and climbed into it.Mo used the wand to magic missile the last remaining gargoyle, #6 on Orryk.That gargoyle then attacked Orryk, hitting once for a small amount of damage, despite the harassment and damage from the spirit guardians.Imaktis cast toll the dead on the final gargoyle. It didn’t save against the spell, but didn’t drop to the ringing of the bell either.Joybell, figuring that Imaktis and Orryk had that situation in hand, moved (still on Scooby) into one of the groves of trees in the no-man’s land of the grassy strip, taking cover.Before anyone could act, a shatter spell went off next to Fiona, floating in the air well above the grassy area. Fortunately she didn’t take a lot of damage from it and was able to maintain her fly spell.Taman immediately looked around to see who cast the spell. What he saw was some rippling in the ground on the scree-covered hill, like something was diving back into the earth.Taman: Earthmander!Orryk, with a gargoyle still in front of him, punched with three strikes against the gargoyle, getting two hits, one of them a crit. He punched another gargoyle into rubble. His hands were covered in gargoyle dust and his clothes had chips of stone and dust on them.Mo moved a little closer to the tree Taman was in and started dodging. Imaktis ran at full, hasted tilt across the grassy area, ending at the start of the path through the scree. Joybell moved up next to him and started dodging herself.Two rocks (2 boulder creatures) started rolling toward Imaktis and Joybell, one from each rock outcropping flanking the path. Imaktis hoped they were creatures, because they'd take damage from the spirit guardians. They were apparently enemies at least, because one attacked Joybell and got a crit on her, even with her dodging. Ouch!Then the myrriq came up out of the ground behind Imaktis and Joybell. Its eyes flashed and it flared its aura toward us in a potent cone attack. Only Scooby had to save against the slow and he was able to do so. Then it sank back into the ground.Orryk, still in his tree, nocked an arrow and held his attack, waiting for the myrriq to appear again.Taman took a shot at the boulder on Joybell, but missed. Mo moved up just a bit and took a shot with his crossbow at the boulder on Imaktis, but missed.Fiona held a chromatic orb spell for the myrriq to appear.Imaktis attacked the boulder-thing in front of him twice with his shillelagh, then attacked it again because of the haste. Joybell took two swings at the boulder in front of her but, unfortunately, missed both times.The two boulders attacked. The one on Joybell got hit again for 14 points of damage. Imaktis was missed.The myrriq appeared further up the path, higher on the scree-covered hill. Fiona, seeing that it was just barely in range, let her chromatic orb spell fly, but it missed. The myrriq did something and the earth around Imaktis, Joybell and Scooby erupted, rocks and gravel and large stones flying all around. Imaktis was able to avoid some of the damage, but Joybell and Scooby were not. Scooby disappeared, back to the celestial realm he comes from. Despite the damage, imaktis was able to keep his concentration on the spiritual turtle guardians.Taman and Orryk both took shots at the boulder-thing attacking Joybell, who was looking a bit ragged, and both of them were able to hit. Because the boulder was focusing its bouldery attention on Joybell, Taman was able to make a sneak attack.Mo moved up just a bit and cast healing word on Joybell, giving her some welcome relief from her injuries, then used the wand of magic missiles to shoot the boulder attacking her.Fiona, not wanting to have to aim her spell the next time, held a powerful magic missile spell for the myrriq to appear again. That would definitely hit.Imaktis hit his boulder twice. Joybell missed hers twice then cast misty step and moved away 25 feet, out of the difficult terrain created by the myrriq’s spell (the one that took out Scooby). Her plan was to lay hands on herself then get back in the combat.The boulder that had been attacking her went to attack Imaktis instead -- not a great decision on its part, but it was a boulder, so okay. Both of the boulders took some damage from the spirit guardians. Then both missed with their attacks against Imaktis.The myrriq popped up out of the ground right next to Joybell. It immediately took 18 points of damage from Fiona’s magic missile spell. It also clawed at Joybell, missing with one attack and doing a glancing blow with the other. That “glancing blow” did her 13 points of damage.Taman shot the myrriq doing a lot of sneak attack damage (though it was non-magical damage). Orryk moved closer and took two shots, adding up to almost the same amount of damage as Taman did.Mo viciously mocked the myrriq. “You look like a pile of dirt.” But the myrriq saved against the barb. Fiona tried again with her chromatic orb, and again the spell missed the target.Imaktis disengaged from the boulder-things and moved to the myrriq. The spirit guardian turtles attacked it. Imaktis, still hasted, also cast guiding bolt, but that missed. Joybell cast wrathful smite and attacked but missed with both of her swings.The boulders followed Imaktis, reentering the cloud of tiny winged turtles and taking damage from them. They both missed with their attacks.The myrriq slashed at Joybell, who was once again very badly injured, with its rocky claws. One attack missed. The other almost hit but Mo said some cutting words that distracted it and saved her from the blow, which would certainly have dropped her. Whew!Taman tried to use his insightful fighting ability on the myrriq, but it was able to remain inscrutable to him. He took a shot at the myrriq with his bow, using his luck to try and force the arrow to strike true, but even with what seemed like a lucky deflection off a branch, he still missed. Fortunately, Orryk was able to shoot it twice with his magic bow.Mo used the wand to magic missile the myrriq then moved a little closer to the action -- but not too close and definitely still outside of the slow aura.Fiona cast a magic missile at second level on the myrriq and damaged it. Imaktis attacked the more damaged looking of the boulder-things, bludgeoning it with his shillelagh in his first attack, but his second attack missed.Joybell, on her last legs, got a hit with her flail, triggering her wrathful smite. She also called down divine energy into the blow and dropped the myrriq, which collapsed into earth and rock.The boulders settled to rest on the ground, no longer animate.An elemental, different in type from the one we’d fought on the way here, rose up out of the ground and apologized in Terran. (Imaktis speaks Aquan, a different dialect of Primordial, so we were able to communicate with this entity.)We all started to move in the direction of the elemental. Joybell laid hands on herself on the way, giving herself all the healing she could muster.The elemental told Imaktis that there was a minor portal to the plane of Earth here. He has been here protecting the portal and protecting this plane from what might come through for a long time. The myrriq overwhelmed his mind and dominated him and he has been forced to do its bidding.Imaktis: What is your name?Elemental: I don’t have one.Imaktis, in common to the party: His name is Rubble.We decided to call him Barney.Barney: I am what you call a galeb duhr.Imaktis: These creatures have caused a lot of damage to the villages around here. Can you help them rebuild?Barney: I would be happy to help repair the damage, but the gate still needs protection. I can close it for a short time, but not for long.Barney said that he would summon an earth elemental with a control gem and let us take it back to Tall Orchard to help with the rebuilding. It would be able to help in any way the villagers needed. He summoned an elemental through the gate and then closed it.Orryk is not going to be happy about giving up the elemental.He told Imaktis that the myrriq had been collecting things for some time and that we were welcome to anything he had collected. He led us up the path toward the gate to where the myrriq’s treasure was collected.Orryk and Taman each noted the location of this portal on his personal map.Imaktis: Is there anything we can do for you? This has been a difficult experience for you.We spent some time going through the myrriq’s hoard of treasure.Treasure:150 pp2200 gp4000 sp1100 cp2 silk robes (250 gp each)3 boxes of figurines, one each in obsidian, turquoise and jade, with figures representing gods from before the Severance. (250 gp each box) (Joybell would like these -- so she will add 750gp to the pool of dividable coinage and take them if that’s okay.)Magical items:Keoughtoum’s Ointment - 3 dosesPotion of Radiance ResistanceBelt of Hidden Knives (Orryk) - produces +1 daggers on demand, though they disappear immediately after their attack.Medic’s Blade (Joybell) - +1 shortsword that allows you to use your reaction after dropping an enemy to cast healing word on someone else.There were also three scrolls with three unknown 3rd level spells:Ameliorate (Cleric, Bard) - grants temporary hit points to several creatures over the course of several rounds.Shadow Bolt (Wizard, Sorcerer) -- an illusion that does damage. (Fiona)Mass Vicious Mockery (Bard) - allows the bard to viciously mock up to six creatures at once. (Mo)Now that Imaktis knows about Ameliorate, he can pray for it and prepare it as with any other cleric spell. Mo has the option to learn the bard spells when he gains a level. And Fiona can transcribe Shadow Bolt into her spellbook in the usual manner.The coinage divides up thus:25 pp491 gp (with 4 left over) (this is taking into account Joybell buying the boxes of religious figurines and putting that gold in the pot to be divided)666 sp (with 4 left over)183 cp (with 2 left over)The Bag of Holding has some items that we recovered from the House of Masks but didn’t want to sell in Pelsoreen. We can add the robes to it so that the Bag of Holding now has the following coinage-nearly-equivalent items that are party treasure:2 small boxes of jade animals (250gp each)3 gold bracelets (250gp each)2 silk robes (250 gp each)The religious figurines were described as including an obsidian jaguar curled around in a circle -- which someone recognized as the symbol of a god called Smoking Mirror (Tezcatlipoca), a turquoise dog recognized as a god called Coyote, and a multi-armed humanoid figure in jade representing a goddess called Kali. Kali was worshiped to the east just across these mountains, but Smoking Mirror and Coyote were not historically worshipped in this part of Urnod. They were worshipped across the sea to the south of Pelsoreen.Joybell wants to reexamine the boxes of jade animals we found at the House of Masks to make sure that none of them are pre-Severance gods before we sell them. (Note: They are not.)Party Kitty:Since the last Party Kitty Update we paid for 3 nights of lodging at the Iron Steed in Pelsoreen (at 6 gp/night) and three nights of travel on the road (at 3 gp/night, because Mo sang us a discount). So taking out 18 gp for lodging in Pelsoreen, 9 gp for lodging on the road and adding the leftovers from the coins as above, the party kitty currently has: 2 pp, 9 gp, 14 sp, and 14 cp.</blockquote>

Verification