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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8162013" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 26: The Cave of the Masks; Also, We Met a Treant!!</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>25 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 56) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>We found a place to camp along the road shortly after the fight against the perytons. We found a campsite that had clearly been used by other travelers along this track in the past and camped there. Thneed and Taman foraged for dinner and Fiona made the usual precautions (tiny hut plus alarm spell). We set watches with the first watch being the gnomes (Joybell and Orryk).</p><p></p><p>During that first watch, just after everyone else had settled in and fallen asleep, Joybell and Orryk saw an enormous big bear (size large) outside the hut.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Oh, cool!!</p><p></p><p>There ensued a conversation between the two of them about whether or not Joybell should go out and talk to the bear. What they finally agreed to was her staying in the hut, but talking to the bear through it.</p><p></p><p>So she cast speak with animals and said hi to the bear. From the bear’s point of view, the opaque dome was speaking to it. She was anticipating a certain level of confusion from the bear.</p><p></p><p>The bear, however, was not confused at all. She said hi and introduced herself as Sorla. Sorla had noticed that we were killing a lot of things -- most especially the gricks and the perytons. Joybell asked if that was a problem for her and she said no.</p><p></p><p>Joybell and Sorla had a lengthy conversation (which I didn’t take notes about because I was having the conversation, sorry) which Joybell was translating for Orryk from time to time. During the conversation Joybell told her that we were looking for the Masks because we wanted to kill them. Sorla said that she knew someone who would know where the Masks are -- his name is Tarck and he’s further back in the woods.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Our instructions say to continue on the road to a certain point then turn off.</p><p>Sorla: What are your instructions?</p><p>Joybell: Umm...I don’t think I should say. Mo would be upset at me if I said.</p><p>Sorla: So Mo is the one I shouldn’t trust…</p><p>Joybell: Well, you can trust..umm...Mo is...yeah. Maybe.</p><p></p><p>Joybell then asked if Sorla could speak common. She said she could take a form that could and she left the clearing we were in.</p><p></p><p>While she was gone, Joybell and Orryk woke the rest of the party up and explained the situation.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: She says you’re the one she shouldn’t trust.</p><p>Mo: She’s not the first woman who won’t trust me when she meets me…</p><p></p><p>After a few minutes, Sorla returned in the form of a very large (6’6” tall) woman. Joybell stepped out of the hut and greeted her before calling everyone else out of the hut (except Fiona).</p><p></p><p>We learned that Sorla is a were-bear but that her friend Tarck is not a lycanthrope of any sort. We also learned that were-bears are not inclined to turn other people into were-bears, so we don’t need to worry about her attacking us. Tarck would be able to talk to all of us.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Can you give us your tavern pitch?</p><p>Sorla: I’m sorry, what?</p><p>Mo: Sorry. Entertainer talk.</p><p></p><p>She told us that Tarck is a treant a couple hundred years old. He knows everything that is going on in the forest.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Is he a twin?</p><p>Sorla: Not that I know of.</p><p>Mo: We’re going to look for twins.</p><p>Sorla: I know of a village where all the births are twins.</p><p></p><p>Taman’s people-sense told him that she was being truthful and straightforward.</p><p></p><p>She offered to take us to Tarck, three days travel into the forest and mountains, to get his information and insight into the Masks.</p><p></p><p>We asked for a moment to caucus amongst ourselves and all went back into the hut. Sorla walked away out of the clearing so we could talk.</p><p></p><p>We talked about whether we could lose our way on the path that Nicolana gave us if we went to talk to Tarck. The rangers, being rangers, could bring us back to this point, which we knew was the place to make the seventh sleep and we could get back on Nicolana’s path if the trip to talk to Tarck turned out to be a wild goose chase.</p><p></p><p>So we agreed to let her lead us to Tarck. Joybell went back outside to talk to her -- she’d turned back into a bear -- and said we’d leave in the morning.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the night passed without incident (what with having all of our usual precautious, plus an enormous big bear outside the hut).</p><p></p><p></p><p>26 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 57)</p><p></p><p>While we were having breakfast in our campsite, Sorla returned in her human form. (With normal clothes on -- she’d been stashing them in the woods when she transformed.)</p><p></p><p>Joybell: How do we go to get to Tarck?</p><p></p><p>Sorla started walking off the track and through the woods. Going through the woods required quite a bit of weaving until we found a game trail, then it was easier going following her along that.</p><p></p><p>As we travelled, Joybell rode on Scooby next to Sorla asking about the woods and the trees and the birds and what it is like to be a bear. About the ecology of the forest and what everything is.</p><p></p><p>As soon as we stopped for the day, which passed without incident, Mo turned Joybell into a squirrel. She immediately began waving her tail around and squeaking in joy. She ran up trees and down trees and jumped from tree to tree and waved her tail some more and just scampered and scurried all around the campsite.</p><p></p><p>Then it wore off.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Thank you, Mo! That was the best thing ever!</p><p></p><p>We set watches (Thneed & Orryk, Joybell & Mo, Fiona & Taman) and made precautions and the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>27 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 58)</p><p></p><p>We had breakfast and then headed out on our way.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Does this treant speak common?</p><p>Joybell: She said he could speak to us…</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode with Sorla again so she could learn to identify everything. The mountains had a bunch of stands of different kinds of trees. We were getting into a part of the mountains with bigger hills and wider valleys -- the hills were more like mountains, but there were wide valleys between them.</p><p></p><p>Mo, musing about treants, to himself: They’re probably vulnerable to fire…</p><p>Joybell, overhearing: We are not burning the treant! They are ancient and wise.</p><p></p><p>The day passed without incident as we travelled over game trails, an actual path for a while, then more game trails.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Sorla, what do you do to pass the time? Do you have a trade?</p><p>Sorla: I spend a fair amount of time as a bear.</p><p>Joybell: That’s so cool!</p><p>Sorla: I can find stuff to eat, and I do. I try to keep an eye out for people taking more than they need or being actively destructive.</p><p>Mo: Sort of a guardian of the forest.</p><p>Sorla: Not as much as Tarck is.</p><p></p><p>When we stopped for the day, Taman and Thneed foraged for food for us and we made camp. With our usual precautions (and the same watches as the previous night) the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>28 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 59)</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Today we meet the treant!</p><p>Mo: Are there any tree-based jokes we need to get out of our system before we meet him?</p><p></p><p>Mo and Fiona proceeded to make a bunch of bad dad jokes and puns regarding trees and wood and bark as we walked along.</p><p></p><p>We proceeded along for about half the day before getting to a large clearing with a very large tree in the middle of it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to Sorla: Is that him?</p><p>Sorla: It was the last time I was here.</p><p>Mo, to Tarck: Hey, Tarck?</p><p></p><p>Tarck made a sort of groaning noise.</p><p></p><p>Sorla: Tarck, it’s me. Really.</p><p>Tarck: Whaddaya want?</p><p>Mo: We’re looking for guys in masks. To scout them. And kill them.</p><p>Tarck, to Sorla: What did you tell them I know?</p><p>Joybell: She told us you know about the Masks and where to find them. Also you’re so old and wise!</p><p>Tarck gave Joybell a look.</p><p>Joybell, quietly: They wiped out the Wold.</p><p>Tarck, with some sympathy: Apparently not all of it.</p><p>Mo: Do you like them? You’re not doing anything…</p><p>Tarck: It’s fun watching Sorla fight them. They can’t hurt her.</p><p>Joybell: They don’t have magic weapons. Right.</p><p>Tarck: They have some sort of magic -- they appear on the trail about an hour from the town of the twins, Callallah. There’s a cave that they appear in.</p><p></p><p>After some discussion, we sorted out that Callallah was between us and the cave.</p><p></p><p>Tarck didn’t know where the Masks start from -- just that they appear in that cave.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Do you have any magic powers? Can you give us some support?</p><p></p><p>Joybell mentioned Nicolana and her directions -- Tarck knew who the Keeper of Secrets is and confirmed that her directions would have gotten us to the Masks. Good to know.</p><p></p><p>Tarck: The people of Callallah are innocent but controlled by the Masks. Living in fear and in terror.</p><p>Thneed: Why do they always have twins?</p><p>Tarck: Because every year or couple of years the Masks come and take one of every pair.</p><p>Taman: But how does it happen?</p><p>Tarck: Maybe high ritual magic. I do not know.</p><p></p><p>Mo then turned the conversation in a different, very interesting direction.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Were you here before the gods left?</p><p>Tarck: I’m not that old. But I met one of her people (indicating Thneed) that was.</p><p>Mo: Where?</p><p>Tarck: He was a very capable druid.</p><p>Taman: He may still be around now.</p><p>Tarck: This was a hundred years ago. I wasn’t here but I wasn’t far from here.</p><p>Mo: Do you know the druid’s name or clan or circle?</p><p>Tarck: The druid’s name? Ornillon, I believe his name was. I can’t speak to where he is now or what he is doing.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>Orryk: We’ve seen what they do to the children to make them Masks. The Masks seem like grunts or thugs. Do they have other types of fighters?</p><p>Tarck: I’ve seen a dwarf. I’ve seen him doing stuff in the cave.</p><p>Taman: One of the dwarves' dark cousins?</p><p>Tarck: He could have been a duergar. It’s hard to tell. I’ve seen a number of Masks.</p><p>Orryk: They’re dangerous enough, but I assume there’s something worse.</p><p>Joybell: Do you remember when the Masks started coming?</p><p>Tarck: Since before Ornillon came through. Callallah isn’t a big village so it works as a slow and steady source of new Masks.</p><p>Joybell: They steal children from other places too.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Have you heard about portals to the elemental planes. I’ve heard of a portal to thee plane of earth in these mountains. I’m looking for ways to access them and ways to close them.</p><p>Tarck: If you had stayed on the road you were on, you would have had to travel much further than ten more sleeps. The turn off the road is near where the Wold was, but after that it’s a week or more travel into the mountains to get to the portal.</p><p>Orryk: Is there anything else we should be worrying about other than the Masks?</p><p>Tarck: The forest around Callallah doesn’t have a lot of predators. The villagers hunt in the surrounding area. I don’t expect you to run into anything that would attack.</p><p>Orryk: We don’t want more Masks coming through the teleportation circle.</p><p></p><p>We all agreed with Orryk on that point, so we decided to skip Callallah and go straight to the cave. Sorla could lead us around the village so that we wouldn’t encounter any villagers and take us there.</p><p></p><p>Before we left, Thneed had one more question for Tarck.</p><p></p><p>Thneed: Are there any hobgoblins passing through?</p><p>Tarck: Not except for the ones you’ve killed.</p><p></p><p>Thneed then told Tarck where her village was located -- he didn’t know anything about that area though.</p><p></p><p>We then left Tarck and his ancient and wise presence and followed Sorla toward the Cave of Masks. As we walked Mo invited her to help us fight the Masks, which she declined. She will however help us skirt the village and its hunting parties to take us to the cave. And she’ll make sure nothing comes to the cave from the village.</p><p></p><p>Mo: If all hell breaks loose, protect the village.</p><p></p><p>She agreed to that.</p><p></p><p>We affirmed among ourselves, and to Tarck, that our primary goal is to find the “machine” for making Masks and destroy it.</p><p></p><p>Tarck said that he could see to the back of the cave and there was nothing in there that looked like a machine. Just some Masks and something on the wall.</p><p></p><p>Mo, to Tarck: Do treants drink? We’ve been on the road a long time…</p><p></p><p>That question was ignored. Possibly because the DM didn't hear it.</p><p></p><p>We thanked Tarck very much, and Thneed and Joybell made special note in their minds of his location so they can come back someday, and headed out toward Callallah.</p><p></p><p>We followed Sorla for the rest of the day, which passed without incident. We camped with a tiny hut and Sorla went out and hunted, in bear form, for us so that Taman and Theed didn’t have to forage far from the party.</p><p></p><p>The closer we get to the continent-wide guild of assassins, the more paranoid we get.</p><p></p><p>We had our usual precautions and set watches (same as the night before) and the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>29 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 60)</p><p></p><p>Joybell: It’s been two months that we’ve been traveling together!! I don’t have any booze to celebrate.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Actually Joybell was confused about the date -- she was really thinking of the next day as the anniversary.)</p><p></p><p>Thneed went out to harvest some overripe berries for us…</p><p></p><p>We continued on our way to the cave beyond Callallah, wIth Sorla guiding us well around the city.</p><p></p><p>The day passed without incident. Sorla provided food for us again (leftovers from the previous night) and we made our usual precautions -- hut, alarm spell and the same watches as the previous couple of nights. The night also passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>30 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 61)</p><p></p><p>We set out again in the morning -- as we drew near to the town, Thneed tried to spot some humanoid footprints to try and identify those of the Masks, but she didn’t find a track.</p><p></p><p>Sorla lead us around to a trail that was bigger than a footpath but not enough for a cart to travel on. She told us we were fifteen minutes from the cave. She then parted from us, intending to go about fifteen minutes up the track toward the village.</p><p></p><p>Thneed took a minute so stop and sense for the presence of her favored enemy (humanoids) in the area -- she detected several dozen of them back in the direction of the village and fifteen in the direction of the cave.</p><p></p><p>We took stock of the geography, before moving closer to the Cave of Masks. The village is in a broad valley -- getting in and out involves going over the mountains and there aren’t any good mountains passes to make that easier. There’s a bit of relief in the valley (some hills and undoubtedly a river or stream). The cave is in the side of one of the mountains that forms the valley -- in a 60 or so foot high sheer(ish) cliff that extends some distance to either side of the cave mouth. The valley is mostly grassy in the middle, with the forest mostly at the edges and on the mountain sides. The villagers had cleared the forest in the valley floor. The track passed through woods and the cave was sheltered by trees.</p><p></p><p>We pulled out one of the party's bottles of Oil of Etherealness.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Grease me up, woman!</p><p></p><p>Fiona made a tiny hut for us to wait in safely while Taman went off to scout and explore. We initially thought he could use the sending stone to communicate if he needed us, but then realized that he wouldn’t be able to do that because of being ethereal. We also realized that we weren’t entirely sure whether the Cape of the Mountebank would work to get him out of trouble if he needed it to.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast a mage hand to help oil up Taman, and as the mage hand did so, we saw Taman shimmer out of visibility.</p><p></p><p>This is how he described what he saw -- 8 Masks inside the cave and 7 masks outside. Some sort of magic circle on the wall (further description to follow) inside the cave to the left. A stack of cots (something like ten of them, stacked up but not currently ready for use) was against the wall and there was some evidence of food (gruel) preparation. (We know they eat and sleep.)</p><p></p><p>The Masks were clearly not “switched off” - they were awake and aware (though they didn’t sense Taman at all), but they weren’t doing anything either. Once in a while one would move a little bit. It was as though they had no orders to follow and without orders they wouldn’t do anything. So they did nothing.</p><p></p><p>The circle on the wall is seven feet in diameter with a border six inches wide carved into the cave wall, with what looks like some intentional texture/pattern inside it. At the top of the circle, there are two strings of sigils/runes: one is just below the inside of the circle, carved directly into the cave wall and painted white (the natural rock of the cave wall is a very dark gray); the other is just above the outside of the circle, carved into hexagonal tiles or blocks that are in turn set into hexagonal niches carved into the cave wall (the tiles or blocks are about an inch thick and visibly different from the cave wall). There is a box or crate near the circle that contains more of the blocks or tiles. The blocks or tiles are stone, but different, almost-black stone, and the characters on them have been carved and painted red. The characters (both carved into the wall and carved into the tiles) are about six inches tall. Both the characters carved into the wall and the spaces where the tiles fit curve some to follow the circle.</p><p></p><p>Joybell’s take on the circle (after Taman described it to us) is that the fixed runes make a fixed incoming address and the moveable tiles allow the Masks to go to different places. So a specific configuration of the moveable tiles would have gone to the circle in Pelsoreen that we destroyed, for example. But Joybell doesn’t really get magic (except for Paladin magic which is all about hitting things better and helping people).</p><p></p><p>After doing his scouting Taman made his way back to the tiny hut where we were all waiting and sat down right in the middle of the group of us to wait for the oil of etherealness to wear off. From our point of view, he shimmered back into view right in the middle of the hut, where he’d left from.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Did you actually go anywhere?</p><p></p><p>Taman described to us what he found.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: I like the idea of pulling a number of them away from the cave.</p><p></p><p>We discussed several approaches to this and settled on pulling some away with smoke from a big bonfire about 1000 feet away from the cave. Orryk dug a few pit traps between the fire and the most obvious path from the cave to our location. We used the earth from the pits to make an earthen berm around the fire. The pits were covered with vegetation to attempt to hide them.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast rope trick about 25 feet away from the fire so we’d have a safe place to hide and wait.</p><p></p><p>Then we lit the fire and stoked it up to the big bonfire (10’ square) that we wanted. Orryk, Fiona, Mo and Joybell waited in the rope trick. Taman hid off in the woods a bit beyond the rope trick. Thneed hid in the woods in a different direction. Scooby tried to play “normal wolf in the woods” and did a pretty good job (better sneaking than Taman) despite the quivers of javelins that Joybell has strapped to him. (He doesn’t wear a saddle or anything, but he does have a bit of baggage.)</p><p></p><p>A little while after the smoke started, maybe five minutes after we lit the fire, seven of the Masks approached the clearing where we had the fire going. The front three appeared to immediately notice Taman (who hadn’t hidden nearly as well as he thought he had).</p><p></p><p>Taman moved behind the fire (from their point of view) and took a shot at one -- hoping to draw them toward the pits. He hit and was able to do sneaky damage because being a rogue/ranger is awesome!</p><p></p><p>Orryk climbed out of the rope trick and took two shots at the same one, hitting with both, then moved away from the bottom of the rope and took a defensive stance. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the same one, but missed with both of her shots. Then she took some cover behind a tree.</p><p></p><p>All of them except the one who’d been shot at by the party moved up 30 feet and started shooting arrows. Two of them shot two arrows each at Taman -- he dodged one arrow, luckily missed a crit from one, and got hit. Orryk was shot at by one of them, and managed to catch the arrow that would have hit him. Two shot at Thneed -- one of the four arrows hit her solidly, one went into the tree she was hiding behind and the other two flew off into the woods. The last one to shoot fired at Taman hitting twice -- once critically.</p><p></p><p>Ouch!</p><p></p><p>Fiona climbed out of the rope trick and, observing that they’d bunched up into a fireball formation that would let her get all of them, cast fireball. But in the stress of the moment it was a puny one and didn’t do much damage to anyone, not even the ones who failed to dodge out of the way. Joybell climbed down and moved to Taman, laying hands on him to cure much of the damage he took from the Masks’ arrows. Then she called Scooby to her and mounted up.</p><p></p><p>Mo emerged from the rope trick and blew out the smoke cloud and swirling sparks of his hypnotic pattern catching three of them in the pretty lights. Then he inspired Taman.</p><p></p><p>The inspiration was timely, because Taman immediately took a shot at the one the party was targeting and, because of the inspiration, got a hit. Then he moved entirely behind a tree (to get total cover). Then, belatedly and because this is all still sort of new to him, put his hunter’s mark on the one he’d just shot.</p><p></p><p>Orryk took two shots at the one we were focusing on, hitting twice, then, in a move that would be an inspiration to many, he laid down so he’d be harder to hit with arrows.</p><p></p><p>Thneed tried to shoot at the party’s target, it was looking poorly but we knew it would regenerate, hitting and dropping it with her second shot. She moved her hunter’s mark to a different one then moved to hid behind a tree of her own. (Her pride was a bit too strong for her to lay down like Orryk had.)</p><p></p><p>The Mask that Thneed dropped immediately regenerated and stood up. Then they began to shoot at us -- Fiona took two hits from one and one from another. Mo took two shots from one but was able to endure the damage from one shot because of his goliath heritage. He was also able to keep up the hypnotic pattern. Joybell took one hit and was missed by another shot. Then they all moved up to close with us -- moving around the pit traps which they had apparently noticed.</p><p></p><p>The other three stared at the pretty lights. Thank you, Mo!</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast shadowbolt -- her new spell that does psychic damage -- on the one that Thneed had her hunter’s mark on, stunning it and doing a lot of damage (more than twice as much as her fireball). Then she moved around behind a tree and lay down -- going for both cover and the disadvantage of shooting at a prone opponent.</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode up to the one Fiona had just stunned, hitting with her second attack for a nice amount of damage, then she and Scooby dashed back into the woods and got behind a tree.</p><p></p><p>Mo viciously mocked the one we’d actually dropped already, stunning it, then moved further away from them and laid down. Taman then took a shot at the one Mo stunned, dropping it again. Then he ducked back behind his tree.</p><p></p><p>Orryk moved up and attacked the one Fiona stunned with her shadowbolt, throwing his daggers at it. He then hit it with a powerful backhand -- leaving it wobbly. He tried to figure out a place where he could attack that one without putting himself in danger of being ganged up on.</p><p></p><p>Thneed, seeing the wobble, stepped out of hiding and shot it, dropping it for good. Then she moved her hunters’ mark to the next nearest one and shot it before moving back behind her tree. Pride took a backseat to self-preservation and she lay down.</p><p></p><p>The two remaining Masks who weren’t stunned moved up on Orryk and attacked him (his calculations had been off by just a few feet). With both of them attacking him things got ugly quickly -- despite Mo using cutting words to reduce the damage of one hit, and Orryk going invisible after being hit the first time, they dropped him. Fortunately the final attack against his fallen body (invisible) missed.</p><p></p><p>Fiona stood up and cast scorching ray on the one that dropped Orryk. Joybell circled around to get to that one (without drawing an opportunistic attack from the other) and cast wrathful smite before attacking. When her attack landed, it became stunned. Then she moved 15 feet away to draw the other one away from Orryk (since they’ve learned to keep hitting on fallen foes after they’re down).</p><p></p><p>Without standing up, Mo cast healing word on Orryk, then inspired him.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hey, buddy, I need you to kill these things.</p><p></p><p>Then he viciously mocked the other one of the two that were not caught by the hypnotic pattern, stunning it. Taman ran in and stabbed that one with his rapier. Orryk stood up and attacked that same one with his daggers, trying and failing to do a stunning strike with one, then he dashed away into the forest.</p><p></p><p>Thneed shot at the one Joybell attacked, hitting it and doing extra damage because of her hunters’ mark.</p><p></p><p>The three Masks staring at the pretty lights continued to do so. The other two Masks shook off the stunning effects of the spells they’d been hit by but were unable to attack.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast toll the dead on one, stunning it. Joybell rode up to it and hit it with one of her swings.</p><p></p><p>Mo viciously mocked the other one, stunning it as well, by saying something about its mother. Taman dropped the one Joybell and Fiona had attacked with his rapier, killing it for real, then moved his hunter’s mark to the other one. Orryk moved back in and punched with his deathtouch gloves, hitting the stunned one twice then punching again just because he could -- and also because each hit healed him up a bit through the magic of the gloves. Then, because that one was stunned and looking poorly, he moved toward the hypnotized ones, ready to start taking them out one by one.</p><p></p><p>Thneed shot at the one Orryk had punched, after moving her hunter’s mark there, and hit with both attacks, but didn’t drop it.</p><p></p><p>Which was a pity because it then immediately shook off the stun, again.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Fiona was right there to cast toll the dead on it. Its eyes glazed over and its muscles went slack for just a moment before it collapsed to the ground, dead. Then Fiona moved a little closer to the hypnotized ones on the other side of the pits.</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode up to the nearest of the hypnotized Masks and attacked. She hit it twice, doing a good deal of damage but also waking it out of the hypnosis. Taman dashed up and sneakily attacked that one from behind, hitting in a critical spot and doing a lot of damage (49 points!). Orryk attacked the same one, because we were definitely focusing fire at that point, punching with the deathtouch gloves and getting three hits, which stunned it. Orryk also healed some more. He was looking better and better with every hit. Thneed took a shot at the one we were attacking, after moving her hunters’ mark, and dropped it with her first shot, . She didn’t take her second shot because she didn’t want to wake one up before we were ready to deal with it.</p><p></p><p>Which left the two remaining Masks just staring at the pretty lights.</p><p></p><p>Fiona woke the next one in line up with a toll the dead. It didn’t take a lot of damage, but it was stunned. Joybell attacked it -- she got a normal hit with her first attack and a critical hit with extra divine smitage for the second. Mo viciously mocked the last one -- waking him up from the hypnotic pattern and also stunning him. Taman moved his hunter’s mark to the one Mo had just woken up, then stabbed with his rapier for a nice amount of damage.</p><p></p><p>Orryk attacked the other one, the one Fiona had stunned with her toll the dead, punching with his gloves and landing three good blows on it. Also healing up a bit more. Thneed shot that one, getting a critical hit and dropping it. Then she moved her hunter’s mark to the last one.</p><p></p><p>It shook off the stunning effect of Mo’s vicious mockery but wasn’t able to attack.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast toll the dead on the last one, stunning it again. Joybell attacked it and hit twice.</p><p></p><p>Orryk, seeing that: Don’t kill it before my turn.</p><p></p><p>Mo hit it with his crossbow, because it has to get used once in a while. Taman stabbed it and did a nice chunk of damage, but per Orryk’s request, didn’t drop it.</p><p></p><p>Orryk did, punching and punching and punching with his gloves. By the end of it he was pretty much healed back up.</p><p></p><p>We ended in the clearing with the bonfire blazing and eight Masks in a cave 1000’ away.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8162013, member: 7016699"] Session 26: The Cave of the Masks; Also, We Met a Treant!! Dramatis Personae: Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant) Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) GM - Everyone Else 25 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 56) (immediately after) We found a place to camp along the road shortly after the fight against the perytons. We found a campsite that had clearly been used by other travelers along this track in the past and camped there. Thneed and Taman foraged for dinner and Fiona made the usual precautions (tiny hut plus alarm spell). We set watches with the first watch being the gnomes (Joybell and Orryk). During that first watch, just after everyone else had settled in and fallen asleep, Joybell and Orryk saw an enormous big bear (size large) outside the hut. Joybell: Oh, cool!! There ensued a conversation between the two of them about whether or not Joybell should go out and talk to the bear. What they finally agreed to was her staying in the hut, but talking to the bear through it. So she cast speak with animals and said hi to the bear. From the bear’s point of view, the opaque dome was speaking to it. She was anticipating a certain level of confusion from the bear. The bear, however, was not confused at all. She said hi and introduced herself as Sorla. Sorla had noticed that we were killing a lot of things -- most especially the gricks and the perytons. Joybell asked if that was a problem for her and she said no. Joybell and Sorla had a lengthy conversation (which I didn’t take notes about because I was having the conversation, sorry) which Joybell was translating for Orryk from time to time. During the conversation Joybell told her that we were looking for the Masks because we wanted to kill them. Sorla said that she knew someone who would know where the Masks are -- his name is Tarck and he’s further back in the woods. Joybell: Our instructions say to continue on the road to a certain point then turn off. Sorla: What are your instructions? Joybell: Umm...I don’t think I should say. Mo would be upset at me if I said. Sorla: So Mo is the one I shouldn’t trust… Joybell: Well, you can trust..umm...Mo is...yeah. Maybe. Joybell then asked if Sorla could speak common. She said she could take a form that could and she left the clearing we were in. While she was gone, Joybell and Orryk woke the rest of the party up and explained the situation. Joybell: She says you’re the one she shouldn’t trust. Mo: She’s not the first woman who won’t trust me when she meets me… After a few minutes, Sorla returned in the form of a very large (6’6” tall) woman. Joybell stepped out of the hut and greeted her before calling everyone else out of the hut (except Fiona). We learned that Sorla is a were-bear but that her friend Tarck is not a lycanthrope of any sort. We also learned that were-bears are not inclined to turn other people into were-bears, so we don’t need to worry about her attacking us. Tarck would be able to talk to all of us. Mo: Can you give us your tavern pitch? Sorla: I’m sorry, what? Mo: Sorry. Entertainer talk. She told us that Tarck is a treant a couple hundred years old. He knows everything that is going on in the forest. Joybell: Is he a twin? Sorla: Not that I know of. Mo: We’re going to look for twins. Sorla: I know of a village where all the births are twins. Taman’s people-sense told him that she was being truthful and straightforward. She offered to take us to Tarck, three days travel into the forest and mountains, to get his information and insight into the Masks. We asked for a moment to caucus amongst ourselves and all went back into the hut. Sorla walked away out of the clearing so we could talk. We talked about whether we could lose our way on the path that Nicolana gave us if we went to talk to Tarck. The rangers, being rangers, could bring us back to this point, which we knew was the place to make the seventh sleep and we could get back on Nicolana’s path if the trip to talk to Tarck turned out to be a wild goose chase. So we agreed to let her lead us to Tarck. Joybell went back outside to talk to her -- she’d turned back into a bear -- and said we’d leave in the morning. The rest of the night passed without incident (what with having all of our usual precautious, plus an enormous big bear outside the hut). 26 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 57) While we were having breakfast in our campsite, Sorla returned in her human form. (With normal clothes on -- she’d been stashing them in the woods when she transformed.) Joybell: How do we go to get to Tarck? Sorla started walking off the track and through the woods. Going through the woods required quite a bit of weaving until we found a game trail, then it was easier going following her along that. As we travelled, Joybell rode on Scooby next to Sorla asking about the woods and the trees and the birds and what it is like to be a bear. About the ecology of the forest and what everything is. As soon as we stopped for the day, which passed without incident, Mo turned Joybell into a squirrel. She immediately began waving her tail around and squeaking in joy. She ran up trees and down trees and jumped from tree to tree and waved her tail some more and just scampered and scurried all around the campsite. Then it wore off. Joybell: Thank you, Mo! That was the best thing ever! We set watches (Thneed & Orryk, Joybell & Mo, Fiona & Taman) and made precautions and the night passed without incident. 27 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 58) We had breakfast and then headed out on our way. Mo: Does this treant speak common? Joybell: She said he could speak to us… Joybell rode with Sorla again so she could learn to identify everything. The mountains had a bunch of stands of different kinds of trees. We were getting into a part of the mountains with bigger hills and wider valleys -- the hills were more like mountains, but there were wide valleys between them. Mo, musing about treants, to himself: They’re probably vulnerable to fire… Joybell, overhearing: We are not burning the treant! They are ancient and wise. The day passed without incident as we travelled over game trails, an actual path for a while, then more game trails. Mo: Sorla, what do you do to pass the time? Do you have a trade? Sorla: I spend a fair amount of time as a bear. Joybell: That’s so cool! Sorla: I can find stuff to eat, and I do. I try to keep an eye out for people taking more than they need or being actively destructive. Mo: Sort of a guardian of the forest. Sorla: Not as much as Tarck is. When we stopped for the day, Taman and Thneed foraged for food for us and we made camp. With our usual precautions (and the same watches as the previous night) the night passed without incident. 28 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 59) Joybell: Today we meet the treant! Mo: Are there any tree-based jokes we need to get out of our system before we meet him? Mo and Fiona proceeded to make a bunch of bad dad jokes and puns regarding trees and wood and bark as we walked along. We proceeded along for about half the day before getting to a large clearing with a very large tree in the middle of it. Joybell, to Sorla: Is that him? Sorla: It was the last time I was here. Mo, to Tarck: Hey, Tarck? Tarck made a sort of groaning noise. Sorla: Tarck, it’s me. Really. Tarck: Whaddaya want? Mo: We’re looking for guys in masks. To scout them. And kill them. Tarck, to Sorla: What did you tell them I know? Joybell: She told us you know about the Masks and where to find them. Also you’re so old and wise! Tarck gave Joybell a look. Joybell, quietly: They wiped out the Wold. Tarck, with some sympathy: Apparently not all of it. Mo: Do you like them? You’re not doing anything… Tarck: It’s fun watching Sorla fight them. They can’t hurt her. Joybell: They don’t have magic weapons. Right. Tarck: They have some sort of magic -- they appear on the trail about an hour from the town of the twins, Callallah. There’s a cave that they appear in. After some discussion, we sorted out that Callallah was between us and the cave. Tarck didn’t know where the Masks start from -- just that they appear in that cave. Mo: Do you have any magic powers? Can you give us some support? Joybell mentioned Nicolana and her directions -- Tarck knew who the Keeper of Secrets is and confirmed that her directions would have gotten us to the Masks. Good to know. Tarck: The people of Callallah are innocent but controlled by the Masks. Living in fear and in terror. Thneed: Why do they always have twins? Tarck: Because every year or couple of years the Masks come and take one of every pair. Taman: But how does it happen? Tarck: Maybe high ritual magic. I do not know. Mo then turned the conversation in a different, very interesting direction. Mo: Were you here before the gods left? Tarck: I’m not that old. But I met one of her people (indicating Thneed) that was. Mo: Where? Tarck: He was a very capable druid. Taman: He may still be around now. Tarck: This was a hundred years ago. I wasn’t here but I wasn’t far from here. Mo: Do you know the druid’s name or clan or circle? Tarck: The druid’s name? Ornillon, I believe his name was. I can’t speak to where he is now or what he is doing. --- Orryk: We’ve seen what they do to the children to make them Masks. The Masks seem like grunts or thugs. Do they have other types of fighters? Tarck: I’ve seen a dwarf. I’ve seen him doing stuff in the cave. Taman: One of the dwarves' dark cousins? Tarck: He could have been a duergar. It’s hard to tell. I’ve seen a number of Masks. Orryk: They’re dangerous enough, but I assume there’s something worse. Joybell: Do you remember when the Masks started coming? Tarck: Since before Ornillon came through. Callallah isn’t a big village so it works as a slow and steady source of new Masks. Joybell: They steal children from other places too. --- Orryk: Have you heard about portals to the elemental planes. I’ve heard of a portal to thee plane of earth in these mountains. I’m looking for ways to access them and ways to close them. Tarck: If you had stayed on the road you were on, you would have had to travel much further than ten more sleeps. The turn off the road is near where the Wold was, but after that it’s a week or more travel into the mountains to get to the portal. Orryk: Is there anything else we should be worrying about other than the Masks? Tarck: The forest around Callallah doesn’t have a lot of predators. The villagers hunt in the surrounding area. I don’t expect you to run into anything that would attack. Orryk: We don’t want more Masks coming through the teleportation circle. We all agreed with Orryk on that point, so we decided to skip Callallah and go straight to the cave. Sorla could lead us around the village so that we wouldn’t encounter any villagers and take us there. Before we left, Thneed had one more question for Tarck. Thneed: Are there any hobgoblins passing through? Tarck: Not except for the ones you’ve killed. Thneed then told Tarck where her village was located -- he didn’t know anything about that area though. We then left Tarck and his ancient and wise presence and followed Sorla toward the Cave of Masks. As we walked Mo invited her to help us fight the Masks, which she declined. She will however help us skirt the village and its hunting parties to take us to the cave. And she’ll make sure nothing comes to the cave from the village. Mo: If all hell breaks loose, protect the village. She agreed to that. We affirmed among ourselves, and to Tarck, that our primary goal is to find the “machine” for making Masks and destroy it. Tarck said that he could see to the back of the cave and there was nothing in there that looked like a machine. Just some Masks and something on the wall. Mo, to Tarck: Do treants drink? We’ve been on the road a long time… That question was ignored. Possibly because the DM didn't hear it. We thanked Tarck very much, and Thneed and Joybell made special note in their minds of his location so they can come back someday, and headed out toward Callallah. We followed Sorla for the rest of the day, which passed without incident. We camped with a tiny hut and Sorla went out and hunted, in bear form, for us so that Taman and Theed didn’t have to forage far from the party. The closer we get to the continent-wide guild of assassins, the more paranoid we get. We had our usual precautions and set watches (same as the night before) and the night passed without incident. 29 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 60) Joybell: It’s been two months that we’ve been traveling together!! I don’t have any booze to celebrate. (Note: Actually Joybell was confused about the date -- she was really thinking of the next day as the anniversary.) Thneed went out to harvest some overripe berries for us… We continued on our way to the cave beyond Callallah, wIth Sorla guiding us well around the city. The day passed without incident. Sorla provided food for us again (leftovers from the previous night) and we made our usual precautions -- hut, alarm spell and the same watches as the previous couple of nights. The night also passed without incident. 30 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 61) We set out again in the morning -- as we drew near to the town, Thneed tried to spot some humanoid footprints to try and identify those of the Masks, but she didn’t find a track. Sorla lead us around to a trail that was bigger than a footpath but not enough for a cart to travel on. She told us we were fifteen minutes from the cave. She then parted from us, intending to go about fifteen minutes up the track toward the village. Thneed took a minute so stop and sense for the presence of her favored enemy (humanoids) in the area -- she detected several dozen of them back in the direction of the village and fifteen in the direction of the cave. We took stock of the geography, before moving closer to the Cave of Masks. The village is in a broad valley -- getting in and out involves going over the mountains and there aren’t any good mountains passes to make that easier. There’s a bit of relief in the valley (some hills and undoubtedly a river or stream). The cave is in the side of one of the mountains that forms the valley -- in a 60 or so foot high sheer(ish) cliff that extends some distance to either side of the cave mouth. The valley is mostly grassy in the middle, with the forest mostly at the edges and on the mountain sides. The villagers had cleared the forest in the valley floor. The track passed through woods and the cave was sheltered by trees. We pulled out one of the party's bottles of Oil of Etherealness. Taman: Grease me up, woman! Fiona made a tiny hut for us to wait in safely while Taman went off to scout and explore. We initially thought he could use the sending stone to communicate if he needed us, but then realized that he wouldn’t be able to do that because of being ethereal. We also realized that we weren’t entirely sure whether the Cape of the Mountebank would work to get him out of trouble if he needed it to. Mo cast a mage hand to help oil up Taman, and as the mage hand did so, we saw Taman shimmer out of visibility. This is how he described what he saw -- 8 Masks inside the cave and 7 masks outside. Some sort of magic circle on the wall (further description to follow) inside the cave to the left. A stack of cots (something like ten of them, stacked up but not currently ready for use) was against the wall and there was some evidence of food (gruel) preparation. (We know they eat and sleep.) The Masks were clearly not “switched off” - they were awake and aware (though they didn’t sense Taman at all), but they weren’t doing anything either. Once in a while one would move a little bit. It was as though they had no orders to follow and without orders they wouldn’t do anything. So they did nothing. The circle on the wall is seven feet in diameter with a border six inches wide carved into the cave wall, with what looks like some intentional texture/pattern inside it. At the top of the circle, there are two strings of sigils/runes: one is just below the inside of the circle, carved directly into the cave wall and painted white (the natural rock of the cave wall is a very dark gray); the other is just above the outside of the circle, carved into hexagonal tiles or blocks that are in turn set into hexagonal niches carved into the cave wall (the tiles or blocks are about an inch thick and visibly different from the cave wall). There is a box or crate near the circle that contains more of the blocks or tiles. The blocks or tiles are stone, but different, almost-black stone, and the characters on them have been carved and painted red. The characters (both carved into the wall and carved into the tiles) are about six inches tall. Both the characters carved into the wall and the spaces where the tiles fit curve some to follow the circle. Joybell’s take on the circle (after Taman described it to us) is that the fixed runes make a fixed incoming address and the moveable tiles allow the Masks to go to different places. So a specific configuration of the moveable tiles would have gone to the circle in Pelsoreen that we destroyed, for example. But Joybell doesn’t really get magic (except for Paladin magic which is all about hitting things better and helping people). After doing his scouting Taman made his way back to the tiny hut where we were all waiting and sat down right in the middle of the group of us to wait for the oil of etherealness to wear off. From our point of view, he shimmered back into view right in the middle of the hut, where he’d left from. Orryk: Did you actually go anywhere? Taman described to us what he found. Orryk: I like the idea of pulling a number of them away from the cave. We discussed several approaches to this and settled on pulling some away with smoke from a big bonfire about 1000 feet away from the cave. Orryk dug a few pit traps between the fire and the most obvious path from the cave to our location. We used the earth from the pits to make an earthen berm around the fire. The pits were covered with vegetation to attempt to hide them. Mo cast rope trick about 25 feet away from the fire so we’d have a safe place to hide and wait. Then we lit the fire and stoked it up to the big bonfire (10’ square) that we wanted. Orryk, Fiona, Mo and Joybell waited in the rope trick. Taman hid off in the woods a bit beyond the rope trick. Thneed hid in the woods in a different direction. Scooby tried to play “normal wolf in the woods” and did a pretty good job (better sneaking than Taman) despite the quivers of javelins that Joybell has strapped to him. (He doesn’t wear a saddle or anything, but he does have a bit of baggage.) A little while after the smoke started, maybe five minutes after we lit the fire, seven of the Masks approached the clearing where we had the fire going. The front three appeared to immediately notice Taman (who hadn’t hidden nearly as well as he thought he had). Taman moved behind the fire (from their point of view) and took a shot at one -- hoping to draw them toward the pits. He hit and was able to do sneaky damage because being a rogue/ranger is awesome! Orryk climbed out of the rope trick and took two shots at the same one, hitting with both, then moved away from the bottom of the rope and took a defensive stance. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the same one, but missed with both of her shots. Then she took some cover behind a tree. All of them except the one who’d been shot at by the party moved up 30 feet and started shooting arrows. Two of them shot two arrows each at Taman -- he dodged one arrow, luckily missed a crit from one, and got hit. Orryk was shot at by one of them, and managed to catch the arrow that would have hit him. Two shot at Thneed -- one of the four arrows hit her solidly, one went into the tree she was hiding behind and the other two flew off into the woods. The last one to shoot fired at Taman hitting twice -- once critically. Ouch! Fiona climbed out of the rope trick and, observing that they’d bunched up into a fireball formation that would let her get all of them, cast fireball. But in the stress of the moment it was a puny one and didn’t do much damage to anyone, not even the ones who failed to dodge out of the way. Joybell climbed down and moved to Taman, laying hands on him to cure much of the damage he took from the Masks’ arrows. Then she called Scooby to her and mounted up. Mo emerged from the rope trick and blew out the smoke cloud and swirling sparks of his hypnotic pattern catching three of them in the pretty lights. Then he inspired Taman. The inspiration was timely, because Taman immediately took a shot at the one the party was targeting and, because of the inspiration, got a hit. Then he moved entirely behind a tree (to get total cover). Then, belatedly and because this is all still sort of new to him, put his hunter’s mark on the one he’d just shot. Orryk took two shots at the one we were focusing on, hitting twice, then, in a move that would be an inspiration to many, he laid down so he’d be harder to hit with arrows. Thneed tried to shoot at the party’s target, it was looking poorly but we knew it would regenerate, hitting and dropping it with her second shot. She moved her hunter’s mark to a different one then moved to hid behind a tree of her own. (Her pride was a bit too strong for her to lay down like Orryk had.) The Mask that Thneed dropped immediately regenerated and stood up. Then they began to shoot at us -- Fiona took two hits from one and one from another. Mo took two shots from one but was able to endure the damage from one shot because of his goliath heritage. He was also able to keep up the hypnotic pattern. Joybell took one hit and was missed by another shot. Then they all moved up to close with us -- moving around the pit traps which they had apparently noticed. The other three stared at the pretty lights. Thank you, Mo! Fiona cast shadowbolt -- her new spell that does psychic damage -- on the one that Thneed had her hunter’s mark on, stunning it and doing a lot of damage (more than twice as much as her fireball). Then she moved around behind a tree and lay down -- going for both cover and the disadvantage of shooting at a prone opponent. Joybell rode up to the one Fiona had just stunned, hitting with her second attack for a nice amount of damage, then she and Scooby dashed back into the woods and got behind a tree. Mo viciously mocked the one we’d actually dropped already, stunning it, then moved further away from them and laid down. Taman then took a shot at the one Mo stunned, dropping it again. Then he ducked back behind his tree. Orryk moved up and attacked the one Fiona stunned with her shadowbolt, throwing his daggers at it. He then hit it with a powerful backhand -- leaving it wobbly. He tried to figure out a place where he could attack that one without putting himself in danger of being ganged up on. Thneed, seeing the wobble, stepped out of hiding and shot it, dropping it for good. Then she moved her hunters’ mark to the next nearest one and shot it before moving back behind her tree. Pride took a backseat to self-preservation and she lay down. The two remaining Masks who weren’t stunned moved up on Orryk and attacked him (his calculations had been off by just a few feet). With both of them attacking him things got ugly quickly -- despite Mo using cutting words to reduce the damage of one hit, and Orryk going invisible after being hit the first time, they dropped him. Fortunately the final attack against his fallen body (invisible) missed. Fiona stood up and cast scorching ray on the one that dropped Orryk. Joybell circled around to get to that one (without drawing an opportunistic attack from the other) and cast wrathful smite before attacking. When her attack landed, it became stunned. Then she moved 15 feet away to draw the other one away from Orryk (since they’ve learned to keep hitting on fallen foes after they’re down). Without standing up, Mo cast healing word on Orryk, then inspired him. Mo: Hey, buddy, I need you to kill these things. Then he viciously mocked the other one of the two that were not caught by the hypnotic pattern, stunning it. Taman ran in and stabbed that one with his rapier. Orryk stood up and attacked that same one with his daggers, trying and failing to do a stunning strike with one, then he dashed away into the forest. Thneed shot at the one Joybell attacked, hitting it and doing extra damage because of her hunters’ mark. The three Masks staring at the pretty lights continued to do so. The other two Masks shook off the stunning effects of the spells they’d been hit by but were unable to attack. Fiona cast toll the dead on one, stunning it. Joybell rode up to it and hit it with one of her swings. Mo viciously mocked the other one, stunning it as well, by saying something about its mother. Taman dropped the one Joybell and Fiona had attacked with his rapier, killing it for real, then moved his hunter’s mark to the other one. Orryk moved back in and punched with his deathtouch gloves, hitting the stunned one twice then punching again just because he could -- and also because each hit healed him up a bit through the magic of the gloves. Then, because that one was stunned and looking poorly, he moved toward the hypnotized ones, ready to start taking them out one by one. Thneed shot at the one Orryk had punched, after moving her hunter’s mark there, and hit with both attacks, but didn’t drop it. Which was a pity because it then immediately shook off the stun, again. Fortunately, Fiona was right there to cast toll the dead on it. Its eyes glazed over and its muscles went slack for just a moment before it collapsed to the ground, dead. Then Fiona moved a little closer to the hypnotized ones on the other side of the pits. Joybell rode up to the nearest of the hypnotized Masks and attacked. She hit it twice, doing a good deal of damage but also waking it out of the hypnosis. Taman dashed up and sneakily attacked that one from behind, hitting in a critical spot and doing a lot of damage (49 points!). Orryk attacked the same one, because we were definitely focusing fire at that point, punching with the deathtouch gloves and getting three hits, which stunned it. Orryk also healed some more. He was looking better and better with every hit. Thneed took a shot at the one we were attacking, after moving her hunters’ mark, and dropped it with her first shot, . She didn’t take her second shot because she didn’t want to wake one up before we were ready to deal with it. Which left the two remaining Masks just staring at the pretty lights. Fiona woke the next one in line up with a toll the dead. It didn’t take a lot of damage, but it was stunned. Joybell attacked it -- she got a normal hit with her first attack and a critical hit with extra divine smitage for the second. Mo viciously mocked the last one -- waking him up from the hypnotic pattern and also stunning him. Taman moved his hunter’s mark to the one Mo had just woken up, then stabbed with his rapier for a nice amount of damage. Orryk attacked the other one, the one Fiona had stunned with her toll the dead, punching with his gloves and landing three good blows on it. Also healing up a bit more. Thneed shot that one, getting a critical hit and dropping it. Then she moved her hunter’s mark to the last one. It shook off the stunning effect of Mo’s vicious mockery but wasn’t able to attack. Fiona cast toll the dead on the last one, stunning it again. Joybell attacked it and hit twice. Orryk, seeing that: Don’t kill it before my turn. Mo hit it with his crossbow, because it has to get used once in a while. Taman stabbed it and did a nice chunk of damage, but per Orryk’s request, didn’t drop it. Orryk did, punching and punching and punching with his gloves. By the end of it he was pretty much healed back up. We ended in the clearing with the bonfire blazing and eight Masks in a cave 1000’ away. [/QUOTE]
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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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