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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fuzzybear" data-source="post: 9084063" data-attributes="member: 6917259"><h3>Jaws Revenge</h3>Just kidding about the next session being a ride up to the pyre's heart, I had an idea. But first, a few revelations before the party rests. First up, Winry decided it was time to stop with the spell casting. While the subclass was fun in theory, she was finding herself not using the casting much due to costs in ki points and generally felt it wasn't useful. Beyond that, she was more intrigued by the Living Weapon and her connection with it than with the monks of the Monastery. We decided to put her on the Way of the Living Weapon subclass instead (perfect name, right?) which is unofficial but created for Eberron by Keith Baker. The interesting thing about this subclass is its ability to hit at range and with the Living Weapon already having flavor in our campaign of shifting while she wields it from fist to fist to shin, etc., it felt like the perfect fit. Being able to say that she was leaving the spells up to Jack and focusing on fisticuffs was another bonus.The other major plot point came with Jack talking with his sword Parallax. This might have been glossed over before, but Simeon had given Jack a sentient weapon back before they left on this trip out. This weapon coincided with Jack taking a couple levels in hexblade warlock, which while it is technically against the rules to do so with a sentient weapon, the rules are what I want. In this case, it serves as his pact weapon and the sentient voice his patron. He had been prodding at it periodically, trying to decide what was going on with this connection, if they were evil, so on. And this time I decided to give more information as he pressed further. The force in the blade states that it is a splinter of the power from the Stormchaser Eagle Avilona. I had planned to have something happen if he cast any lightning or thunder spells, but I missed Booming Blade which had been used... oops. My goal for this arc is to have more reasons for someone to take up the power at the end of the campaign, so that was the ultimate end. It was also a way for me to be able to give deep lore if the party needs direction either getting to the next adventure or in the end game. My hope is this will provide one more hook to pull them to the final confrontation emotionally. Hopefully this plays out well as I had meant to avoid "deity level" NPCs in this campaign.I knew that my players were going to have just had a long rest and leveled up, so they would be fully fresh for the fight upstairs. I wanted to at least tax them a tiny bit before that, plus I really hadn't had a great chance to use any of the patrol fights, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to just cause a small amount of chaos. As their rest is ending, the water pressure stops building. Thinking that perhaps it was ready earlier than expected, the group decides to try the lift despite having told Clan Millorn to stay elsewhere than their Tiny Hut. As the door closes and the lift tries to rise, there isn't enough pressure and it falls back to the ground, depressurizing. The door opens and Clan Millorn rushes in, half eaten breakfast in their hands, thinking that the worst had happened - they'd been betrayed by the party.Instead, a clanging noise draws the party back towards the water pump where a handful of skeletons are attempting sabotage instead. Thinking this seemed pretty straightforward, the group charges in until Jack wonders if there's a trick at play. He instead rushes back to the lift and places an immoveable rod activated on the ground covered with his bags and cloak to hide it, hoping to prevent the halflings from taking the lift without them instead (DM note - I'm not so sure this would have stopped the lift anyway, but it wasn't a concern). As the group funnels into the hallway leading to the pump station, Reddengot drifts through the wall and attempts to life drain from the backline. He also has freed the bulette that had been pinned in the guest suites previously and it comes crashing through the floor to attack as well. The battle quickly got chaotic, especially without their controller to unbalance numbers, but honestly they took down the enemies quite quickly. It did lead to one of the best moments of the campaign though as the previously charmed bulette saw Jack again when very low on life. Instead of taking an attack on its turn on Winry, it saw the chance to charge at a group, including Jack, and squash the lot of them. As it charged forwards though, Winry opportunistically lands a punch, Free Willy style, and drops the land shark just before it reaches its mark. The dying body drifts up to Jack's feet with a look of supreme disappointment of promises broken and love denied.The rest was clean up after Reddengot was one round killed. The skeletons were able to break the pump again, but Bryn used Control Water to keep the pressure while Rev fixed the broken section of pipe. All in all, a small diversion for the party, but a few resources expended at least and a memorable moment had.As they returned to the lift, the group had to confront their passive aggressive moves and attempted to strongarm the Clan from joining on the upper floor. Jorrina countered Jack's accusations of non-helpfulness and distrust with the fact that the Clan is already having to just take the group at their word anyway. In the end, no deals are reneged on, though it was a close decision for the party to not resort to aggression and just KO the halflings. There was discussion about just knocking them out and leaving them behind, and while I did not say as much, this would have been tantamount to murder for me with the enemies around. 8 hours of unconsciousness without guards should really be a death sentence in a dungeon in my eyes. While this may never have left the Castle, it would have changed my opinions of them as they had been fairly good up until then when the murder-hobo urge was nearly overwhelming.As the lift begins to rise, we end the session, so next time will really start the upper floor!</blockquote>

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