Charles Rampant
Explorer
So I had quite a rough game last night. My players, as you may remember from my last recap (top of page 27), got themselves into a hell of a scrape at the Feathergale Spire, thanks to some Zhentarim diplomacy and some roguish ineptitude. We began last night with me and the Rogue's player rolling up his new character, an Aarakocra Wild Sorceror who took several of the new EE spells. This was fine, and it was especially easy to add him into the group as the players were chilling with the Aarakocra at the time. The player seems especially to have enjoyed making weird bird noises, so everyone was happy.
The session started with the players leaving the Sighing Valley, skirmishing briefly with some Gnolls and Hyenas on their way out. They noticed the canyon leading into the Air Temple, but happily didn't go in. Anyway, they spend the afternoon marching to the Sacred Stone Monastery, where they proceeded to make an incredible nuisance of themselves. They banged on the door, demanding to be let in; ignoring the monks' order to leave, they then banged on the kitchen door and asked to be let in there, too. Eventually they remembered some of the blustering words of the cultists that they captured in the Believers' Tomb, and said that they were here 'in service of Ogremoch'. That got the doors opened, sure enough. They were taken to meet Qarbo.
Now, let us remember that my players have no healers in their group of a Lore Bard, an Elemental Monk, a Beserker Barbarian, a Wild Magic Sorcerer and a Pact of the Tome Warlock. They furthermore have no healing potions, having deemed them too expensive. After the disaster at the Feathergale Spire, they had no weapons or armour beyond some spears that the Aarakocra could lend them, and they furthermore had expended some resources (level 2 bard spells, barbarian Frenzy) on the Gnoll fight. So they were in reasonably rough shape, despite all being at full health.
When they are led in to meet Qarbo, which was an enjoyably confusing affair with him asking them odd questions, and them providing a varied mixture of convincing lies, unconvincing lies, and squawks. Their attempt to pretend to be Earth Cultists was undermined in large part by the presence of an Aarakocra, for sure. Anyway, they refused to head down the stairs when they had somewhat convinced him of their interesting qualities, and a huge and messy fight broke out. With the five players facing off against Qarbo, two Stone Knights, and two Stone Monks, it was already going to be a tough fight, but they were unlucky on the initiative and the Barbarian took 20pts of damage before he could go into a Rage.
At the end of the fight, two characters were dead, having bled out as the Warlock desperately kited the last Monk. At one point, the Warlock was the only character still standing, but a lucky 20 brought the Wild Sorcerer back to life. So we ended the session with the Lore Bard and the Elemental Monk both deceased, with the Barbarian out for the count, and with the Warlock (on 10 hp) and the Sorcerer (on 1 hp) desperately trying to think of a way to escape the monastery that wouldn't involve fighting the two Gargoyles outside the door. The Elemental Monk's player took it pretty hard, but has since said that he plans to roll a Cleric of some kind to deal with the obvious issue in the party composition; meanwhile, the Lore Bard's player is likely to leave the campaign, as he didn't seem that interested in what was happening this week (and missed the last week). Whenever it was his turn in combat, he simply cast Dissonant Whispers until he ran out of spell slots.
So yeah, a fairly rough session, and I'm likely going to have to recruit another player to fill the Bard's position, but hopefully my group manages to work out a way to move forward. They have had some terrible luck so far - not on dice rolls so much as on their chosen approaches leading to disaster - and I think that they probably will be happy to get some serious revenge on one of the elemental cults soon.
The session started with the players leaving the Sighing Valley, skirmishing briefly with some Gnolls and Hyenas on their way out. They noticed the canyon leading into the Air Temple, but happily didn't go in. Anyway, they spend the afternoon marching to the Sacred Stone Monastery, where they proceeded to make an incredible nuisance of themselves. They banged on the door, demanding to be let in; ignoring the monks' order to leave, they then banged on the kitchen door and asked to be let in there, too. Eventually they remembered some of the blustering words of the cultists that they captured in the Believers' Tomb, and said that they were here 'in service of Ogremoch'. That got the doors opened, sure enough. They were taken to meet Qarbo.
Now, let us remember that my players have no healers in their group of a Lore Bard, an Elemental Monk, a Beserker Barbarian, a Wild Magic Sorcerer and a Pact of the Tome Warlock. They furthermore have no healing potions, having deemed them too expensive. After the disaster at the Feathergale Spire, they had no weapons or armour beyond some spears that the Aarakocra could lend them, and they furthermore had expended some resources (level 2 bard spells, barbarian Frenzy) on the Gnoll fight. So they were in reasonably rough shape, despite all being at full health.
When they are led in to meet Qarbo, which was an enjoyably confusing affair with him asking them odd questions, and them providing a varied mixture of convincing lies, unconvincing lies, and squawks. Their attempt to pretend to be Earth Cultists was undermined in large part by the presence of an Aarakocra, for sure. Anyway, they refused to head down the stairs when they had somewhat convinced him of their interesting qualities, and a huge and messy fight broke out. With the five players facing off against Qarbo, two Stone Knights, and two Stone Monks, it was already going to be a tough fight, but they were unlucky on the initiative and the Barbarian took 20pts of damage before he could go into a Rage.
At the end of the fight, two characters were dead, having bled out as the Warlock desperately kited the last Monk. At one point, the Warlock was the only character still standing, but a lucky 20 brought the Wild Sorcerer back to life. So we ended the session with the Lore Bard and the Elemental Monk both deceased, with the Barbarian out for the count, and with the Warlock (on 10 hp) and the Sorcerer (on 1 hp) desperately trying to think of a way to escape the monastery that wouldn't involve fighting the two Gargoyles outside the door. The Elemental Monk's player took it pretty hard, but has since said that he plans to roll a Cleric of some kind to deal with the obvious issue in the party composition; meanwhile, the Lore Bard's player is likely to leave the campaign, as he didn't seem that interested in what was happening this week (and missed the last week). Whenever it was his turn in combat, he simply cast Dissonant Whispers until he ran out of spell slots.
So yeah, a fairly rough session, and I'm likely going to have to recruit another player to fill the Bard's position, but hopefully my group manages to work out a way to move forward. They have had some terrible luck so far - not on dice rolls so much as on their chosen approaches leading to disaster - and I think that they probably will be happy to get some serious revenge on one of the elemental cults soon.
