Rhenny
Adventurer
Travensburg Campaign – Part 21 – 5/24/2014
“The Bugbear God Avatar”
We played for about 3 hours…6 players –– 6th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor (not present this game)
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
Rhaegar the Dragonborn Paladin (Bounty Hunter – Oath of Vengeance Build - Acid)
The party had defeated the tainted bugbears and had subdued Borella (the Iglip’s mate – a bugbear that the others had kept captive at Lord Xexor’s manor house) and Gorkill (the bugbear leader). The heroes tied up both captives, binding their hands behind their backs, and Rhaegar cured them of the Taint, and used his divine power to bring them back to consciousness. Fid had jumped into the fetid pool to find a 2’ tall brawny bugbear idol that glowed with red light. At that point, Nalcon, came strolling into the cave. He had made the trek over from Lord Xexor’s manor house, and found the trail of slaughtered hobgoblins, guard drakes and bugbears that the party had slain. The party rested for an hour as Fawnsworth, Rhaegar, Darhgel and Nalcon studied the bugbear idol. The hair on the back of Fawnsworth’s little Gnome neck raised up as a tingle of fear passed through him. He could tell that the idol had very powerful magic, but he could not tell what type of magic it held. Rhaegar could tell that the idol’s magic was divine in nature, most certainly evil. Nalcon verified that the idol seemed to represent the bugbear god, and the magic within could withstand any dispel magic that he might be able to cast. Triss, played a healing song, and those who needed to bandage their wounds were aided by her soothing music (mostly Rhaegar who had been pretty badly hurt last game). Fid, not badly hurt at all decided to walk off to the other part of the cave area to pick some of the poisonous mushrooms that the group had found earlier in the south area of the larger cave complex. Fawnsworth ranted to the others trying to convince them to defile the dragon bone alter in this god forsaken shrine, and he led the charge by standing atop the alter to urinate upon it.
Soon after, Rhaegar, who was holding the idol at that point, put it on the ground in the tunnel that led out towards the common area in the caves. Within seconds, the idol emitted a pulse of red energy that washed over the entire room and flowed out through the tunnel into the other areas of the cave as well. Then, the group found that the bugbears that they had slain only an hour ago started to stand. Their mangled bodies animated and they grabbed their fallen weapons and shambled toward the party. Additionally, where Fid was picking mushrooms, the 4 hobgoblins that Triss killed earlier also rose to attack. (In fact, all the dead corpses in the entire cave complex rose…a total of 6 bugbears, 3 guard drakes, 12 hobgoblins).
Through the first round of combat, the heroes fought valiantly as Triss played her battle song. Rhaegar and Fid both hacked at foes and found that even when they cut the creatures down, they stood again. (Zombies) Darhgel ran from the back cave and shouted that they all should follow him, but as he turned the corner of the tunnel, he found that a guard drake zombie was approaching. He was bitten and screamed in pain. Nalcon, afraid that the idol was the source of the danger, cast burning hands upon it, but the idol withstood the flames. Fawnsworth, called out and said that he would probably cast fireball...so he jumped down from the alter, took a hit from a nearby bugbear zombie, and unleashed his spell. The spell dropped 4 of the 6 bugbear zombies in the room, but also damaged Rhaegar who was caught in the blast. In the other cave, Fid ran from the zombies and tried to get out into the main cave area, but then he saw that zombie guard drakes were coming his way. He was facing 4 zombie hobgoblins and 2 drakes were soon to engage. He hacked at the injured zombie, and this time it fell for good. Then he turned and hit another with his magical hammer. Nalcon, seeing that Darghel was in trouble moved up to the zombie drake and tried to hit it with his mace, unsuccessfully.
The battle inside the cavern continued for 2 rounds until the entire cave area began to shake dislodging small pebbles from the cave ceiling. After Rhaegar cut down bugbear zombies, the Dragonborn Paladin ran out to follow both Nalcon and Darhgel, kicking the idol over as he ran by. Triss attacked a zombie bugbear piercing it with rapier and magical dagger, but it did not go down. The shaking inside the cave continued and more debris fell to the ground around them. Fid had his hands full fighting the undead hobgoblins but even though they hit him a few times, his skill and armor warded off most of the damage. Fawnsworth hit the remaining zombie bugbear with a ray of frost, which froze it in place. Darhgel disengaged and moved away from the guard drake while Nalcon gave him the opportunity do so. Then, Nalcon had an idea. He ran from the drake back to the idol, the drake biting him as he ran. Nalcon was able to reach the idol, pick it up and run a 10 more feet into the shrine area. Then he threw the idol into the middle of the fetid pool where Fid had found it. His aim was true, and the idol sunk into the mucky water. As the idol fell to the bottom of the pool, the undead in the caves started to shake and collapse to the ground. All of the foes had fallen down inert once again. There was a loud cheer, but that’s when the adventurers realized that the shaking cave and the falling debris was getting worse. Now it was a race against time to get out of the caves. The heroes ran as fast as they could toward the cave exit. Each turn, larger boulders fell from the ceiling hitting some of them as they tried to leave the area. Nalcon stopped a moment to cast a mass cure, and he had the luck of his god, eventually exiting the caves without getting hit by any falling debris. The others were hit 2 or 3 times, taking damage as they ran. Triss was the last to dive out of the cave, and as she exited, the entire cave area and the hill that was above it collapsed to the ground. Outside, the party looked back to survey the scene, seeing a nearly deflated hill area, that had fallen down as if the entire hill rested upon a sink hole.
Brushing themselves off, Nalcon gathered the group for another mass cure. Then the party managed to see a huge bugbear head and torso rip up through the ground about 120’ away in the middle of the area where the hill once stood. Fid and Rhaegar could tell that the giant (70’ tall) bugbear looked a lot like the bugbear idol that they had found earlier. As the bugbear god avatar broke through the rubble of the caves, and stood up, the party prepared for a horrible conflict. Rhaegar blessed his comrades before Fid moved out of cover to see the Avatar more clearly, and also to present himself as a target. Then Fid drank a potion of heroism he had and waited for the creature to engage. The others moved into cover and peered out through bushes and trees. Only Fawnsworth stepped out, but since he was unable to draw upon the weave to manifest a fireball, he pulled out a pearl of power that he had found previously. The pearl began muttering jibberish inside his mind. “The past will be the future. Look to the future to revisit the past. Glory consumes the present.” The crazy muttering confused Fawnsworth as he fought to keep his own sanity. His disciplined mind found strength and drew forth mana from the weave to unleash a fireball at the Avatar. The fire burst around the foe, but it did not catch it squarely. At this point, the Avatar pulled itself up and to its feet. Then it threw a huge boulder at Fid and hit the Warforged, but he withstood the blow. The bard began her song again, and the Paladin moved through the trees to get a little closer. When the Avatar moved forward, Darhgel hit it with a lightning bolt, but again, the damage was minimal. Nalcon also tossed a fireball at the creature, hitting, yet again not as squarely as he would have liked. The creature threw another boulder at Fid and hit, and then it closed ground and ended up only 20’ from Fid, where it stomped violently on the ground. Fid felt the shockwave pulse through the ground, but he was able to keep his feet under him and suffered no ill effect. Fawnsworth, from inside the trees, peaking out, fired a ray of enfeeblement at the creature, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. Then, as Fid, Triss and Rhaegar stepped forward to engage the Avatar in melee combat, the creature lifted its leg and stomped down upon each of them in turn. Each was crushed under foot, taking substantial damage. Rhaegar and Fid were both wounded pretty badly, but both Fid and Rhaegar hit the Avatar and started to do some damage to the awesome creature. Darhgel added to the damage with a magic missile.
With a number of heroes to attack, the giant bugbear swept its huge morningstar down twice, hitting Fid once. Rhaegar, wielding the Dragon Crafted magical greatsword that the group gained from defeating Gorkill, slashed at the creature with a Thunderous Smite and drew more blood, but the Avatar would not give ground or fall prone. Then the enraged Avatar reached out its giant hand and tried to grasp Rhaegar. Rhaegar barely stood his ground as the hand grasped around him but couldn’t close or pick up the Dragonborn. Seeing that Rhaegar was bleeding badly, Nalcon moved through the trees to get behind the Paladin. Darghel and Fawnsworth both fired magic missiles at the creature, and Fid hit it twice to soften it up further. Nalcon’s divine magic bolstered Rhaegar just in time as the Avatar lifted its leg again and stomped down upon the Dragonborn Paladin (down to 3 hp). With what could have been, Rhaegar’s last attack, he called upon his god and attacked with an overcharged Thunderous Smite. The blow landed and he cut the Avatar down. As the body of the creature hit the ground, it seemed to disappear and then the heroes saw the Bugbear Idol, broken in half before them.
The group was able to travel back to Lord Xexor’s manor to tell their tale and rest in safety. They have earned enough XP to level up to 7th level now.
Comments
Much fun with foes from different directions and clever play by the gang.
It was nice to have 6 players playing at one time, and even though the first encounter had a ton of foes (for the 4 rounds it lasted), it still went pretty fast. For this session, a player who played in our games before, guest played Rhaegar for the player that usually plays Rhaegar. I’m glad he didn’t get killed. lol.
If the pcs had to fight all of the undead, they would have been much more damaged as they exited the cave, which might have caused 1 or 2 of them to go down while fighting the bugbear god avatar. At the end, Nalcon had 2 first and 2 2nd level spells left, but if the giant grabbed Rhaegar (or anyone else for that matter), it would have bit and then thrown the Rhaegar at another PC. That would have surely killed Rhaegar outright and if Triss was the one who was hit by flying Rhaegar, she would have gone down too. Lucky for the heroes, that didn’t happen.
In the summary, I didn’t include a number of times when PCs made intelligence checks to determine different things. For example, Fid tried to determine if the cave was structurally sound when it started to shake and debris started falling. (Basically, it is really hard for me to remember everything the players do in our games, so again, the summaries are just approximations of our sessions).
I created the Bugbear God Avatar as a Legendary creature. This was fun to DM and made for a thrilling encounter that frightened the players. Using Legendary points to do things at different moments in a round outside of the creatures turn is brilliant. It really makes the creature seem dynamic and fearsome.
Minor Avatar of the Bugbear God
Huge Giant, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 17 (scale)
Hit Points: 158
Speed 40’
Str 23 (+6) Dex 15 (+2) Con 20 (+5)
Int 10 (0) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 9 (-1)
Saves Dex +5, Con +8, Wis +6
Legendary Resistance: 2/day – auto save
Advantage to Save vs. Spells
Multi-Attack – makes 2 huge morningstar attacks
Morningstar - +9 15’ reach 3d8+6 bludgeon
Throw Bolder 100’/200’ +7 3d8+6 Target creature must make DC 18 Strength save or be knocked prone.
3 Legendary Points each round
3 Stomp – creature stomps the ground and makes shockwave that radiates out 20’ in all directions. Creatures in the blast must make a DC 18 Dex check or they are knocked prone.
2 Grab and bite – Contest of strength vs. one target – If the Avatar succeeds, he picks up a larger or smaller target and bites it doing 3d6+6 damage.
1 Throw – Avatar can throw a grappled creature or rock at another creature within 40’ -- +7 doing 2d6+6 to the other creature and 3d6 to the thrown creature (automatically).
1 Crush underfoot - +9 5’ range 3d8+6 bludgeon
“The Bugbear God Avatar”
We played for about 3 hours…6 players –– 6th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor (not present this game)
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
Rhaegar the Dragonborn Paladin (Bounty Hunter – Oath of Vengeance Build - Acid)
The party had defeated the tainted bugbears and had subdued Borella (the Iglip’s mate – a bugbear that the others had kept captive at Lord Xexor’s manor house) and Gorkill (the bugbear leader). The heroes tied up both captives, binding their hands behind their backs, and Rhaegar cured them of the Taint, and used his divine power to bring them back to consciousness. Fid had jumped into the fetid pool to find a 2’ tall brawny bugbear idol that glowed with red light. At that point, Nalcon, came strolling into the cave. He had made the trek over from Lord Xexor’s manor house, and found the trail of slaughtered hobgoblins, guard drakes and bugbears that the party had slain. The party rested for an hour as Fawnsworth, Rhaegar, Darhgel and Nalcon studied the bugbear idol. The hair on the back of Fawnsworth’s little Gnome neck raised up as a tingle of fear passed through him. He could tell that the idol had very powerful magic, but he could not tell what type of magic it held. Rhaegar could tell that the idol’s magic was divine in nature, most certainly evil. Nalcon verified that the idol seemed to represent the bugbear god, and the magic within could withstand any dispel magic that he might be able to cast. Triss, played a healing song, and those who needed to bandage their wounds were aided by her soothing music (mostly Rhaegar who had been pretty badly hurt last game). Fid, not badly hurt at all decided to walk off to the other part of the cave area to pick some of the poisonous mushrooms that the group had found earlier in the south area of the larger cave complex. Fawnsworth ranted to the others trying to convince them to defile the dragon bone alter in this god forsaken shrine, and he led the charge by standing atop the alter to urinate upon it.
Soon after, Rhaegar, who was holding the idol at that point, put it on the ground in the tunnel that led out towards the common area in the caves. Within seconds, the idol emitted a pulse of red energy that washed over the entire room and flowed out through the tunnel into the other areas of the cave as well. Then, the group found that the bugbears that they had slain only an hour ago started to stand. Their mangled bodies animated and they grabbed their fallen weapons and shambled toward the party. Additionally, where Fid was picking mushrooms, the 4 hobgoblins that Triss killed earlier also rose to attack. (In fact, all the dead corpses in the entire cave complex rose…a total of 6 bugbears, 3 guard drakes, 12 hobgoblins).
Through the first round of combat, the heroes fought valiantly as Triss played her battle song. Rhaegar and Fid both hacked at foes and found that even when they cut the creatures down, they stood again. (Zombies) Darhgel ran from the back cave and shouted that they all should follow him, but as he turned the corner of the tunnel, he found that a guard drake zombie was approaching. He was bitten and screamed in pain. Nalcon, afraid that the idol was the source of the danger, cast burning hands upon it, but the idol withstood the flames. Fawnsworth, called out and said that he would probably cast fireball...so he jumped down from the alter, took a hit from a nearby bugbear zombie, and unleashed his spell. The spell dropped 4 of the 6 bugbear zombies in the room, but also damaged Rhaegar who was caught in the blast. In the other cave, Fid ran from the zombies and tried to get out into the main cave area, but then he saw that zombie guard drakes were coming his way. He was facing 4 zombie hobgoblins and 2 drakes were soon to engage. He hacked at the injured zombie, and this time it fell for good. Then he turned and hit another with his magical hammer. Nalcon, seeing that Darghel was in trouble moved up to the zombie drake and tried to hit it with his mace, unsuccessfully.
The battle inside the cavern continued for 2 rounds until the entire cave area began to shake dislodging small pebbles from the cave ceiling. After Rhaegar cut down bugbear zombies, the Dragonborn Paladin ran out to follow both Nalcon and Darhgel, kicking the idol over as he ran by. Triss attacked a zombie bugbear piercing it with rapier and magical dagger, but it did not go down. The shaking inside the cave continued and more debris fell to the ground around them. Fid had his hands full fighting the undead hobgoblins but even though they hit him a few times, his skill and armor warded off most of the damage. Fawnsworth hit the remaining zombie bugbear with a ray of frost, which froze it in place. Darhgel disengaged and moved away from the guard drake while Nalcon gave him the opportunity do so. Then, Nalcon had an idea. He ran from the drake back to the idol, the drake biting him as he ran. Nalcon was able to reach the idol, pick it up and run a 10 more feet into the shrine area. Then he threw the idol into the middle of the fetid pool where Fid had found it. His aim was true, and the idol sunk into the mucky water. As the idol fell to the bottom of the pool, the undead in the caves started to shake and collapse to the ground. All of the foes had fallen down inert once again. There was a loud cheer, but that’s when the adventurers realized that the shaking cave and the falling debris was getting worse. Now it was a race against time to get out of the caves. The heroes ran as fast as they could toward the cave exit. Each turn, larger boulders fell from the ceiling hitting some of them as they tried to leave the area. Nalcon stopped a moment to cast a mass cure, and he had the luck of his god, eventually exiting the caves without getting hit by any falling debris. The others were hit 2 or 3 times, taking damage as they ran. Triss was the last to dive out of the cave, and as she exited, the entire cave area and the hill that was above it collapsed to the ground. Outside, the party looked back to survey the scene, seeing a nearly deflated hill area, that had fallen down as if the entire hill rested upon a sink hole.
Brushing themselves off, Nalcon gathered the group for another mass cure. Then the party managed to see a huge bugbear head and torso rip up through the ground about 120’ away in the middle of the area where the hill once stood. Fid and Rhaegar could tell that the giant (70’ tall) bugbear looked a lot like the bugbear idol that they had found earlier. As the bugbear god avatar broke through the rubble of the caves, and stood up, the party prepared for a horrible conflict. Rhaegar blessed his comrades before Fid moved out of cover to see the Avatar more clearly, and also to present himself as a target. Then Fid drank a potion of heroism he had and waited for the creature to engage. The others moved into cover and peered out through bushes and trees. Only Fawnsworth stepped out, but since he was unable to draw upon the weave to manifest a fireball, he pulled out a pearl of power that he had found previously. The pearl began muttering jibberish inside his mind. “The past will be the future. Look to the future to revisit the past. Glory consumes the present.” The crazy muttering confused Fawnsworth as he fought to keep his own sanity. His disciplined mind found strength and drew forth mana from the weave to unleash a fireball at the Avatar. The fire burst around the foe, but it did not catch it squarely. At this point, the Avatar pulled itself up and to its feet. Then it threw a huge boulder at Fid and hit the Warforged, but he withstood the blow. The bard began her song again, and the Paladin moved through the trees to get a little closer. When the Avatar moved forward, Darhgel hit it with a lightning bolt, but again, the damage was minimal. Nalcon also tossed a fireball at the creature, hitting, yet again not as squarely as he would have liked. The creature threw another boulder at Fid and hit, and then it closed ground and ended up only 20’ from Fid, where it stomped violently on the ground. Fid felt the shockwave pulse through the ground, but he was able to keep his feet under him and suffered no ill effect. Fawnsworth, from inside the trees, peaking out, fired a ray of enfeeblement at the creature, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. Then, as Fid, Triss and Rhaegar stepped forward to engage the Avatar in melee combat, the creature lifted its leg and stomped down upon each of them in turn. Each was crushed under foot, taking substantial damage. Rhaegar and Fid were both wounded pretty badly, but both Fid and Rhaegar hit the Avatar and started to do some damage to the awesome creature. Darhgel added to the damage with a magic missile.
With a number of heroes to attack, the giant bugbear swept its huge morningstar down twice, hitting Fid once. Rhaegar, wielding the Dragon Crafted magical greatsword that the group gained from defeating Gorkill, slashed at the creature with a Thunderous Smite and drew more blood, but the Avatar would not give ground or fall prone. Then the enraged Avatar reached out its giant hand and tried to grasp Rhaegar. Rhaegar barely stood his ground as the hand grasped around him but couldn’t close or pick up the Dragonborn. Seeing that Rhaegar was bleeding badly, Nalcon moved through the trees to get behind the Paladin. Darghel and Fawnsworth both fired magic missiles at the creature, and Fid hit it twice to soften it up further. Nalcon’s divine magic bolstered Rhaegar just in time as the Avatar lifted its leg again and stomped down upon the Dragonborn Paladin (down to 3 hp). With what could have been, Rhaegar’s last attack, he called upon his god and attacked with an overcharged Thunderous Smite. The blow landed and he cut the Avatar down. As the body of the creature hit the ground, it seemed to disappear and then the heroes saw the Bugbear Idol, broken in half before them.
The group was able to travel back to Lord Xexor’s manor to tell their tale and rest in safety. They have earned enough XP to level up to 7th level now.
Comments
Much fun with foes from different directions and clever play by the gang.
It was nice to have 6 players playing at one time, and even though the first encounter had a ton of foes (for the 4 rounds it lasted), it still went pretty fast. For this session, a player who played in our games before, guest played Rhaegar for the player that usually plays Rhaegar. I’m glad he didn’t get killed. lol.
If the pcs had to fight all of the undead, they would have been much more damaged as they exited the cave, which might have caused 1 or 2 of them to go down while fighting the bugbear god avatar. At the end, Nalcon had 2 first and 2 2nd level spells left, but if the giant grabbed Rhaegar (or anyone else for that matter), it would have bit and then thrown the Rhaegar at another PC. That would have surely killed Rhaegar outright and if Triss was the one who was hit by flying Rhaegar, she would have gone down too. Lucky for the heroes, that didn’t happen.
In the summary, I didn’t include a number of times when PCs made intelligence checks to determine different things. For example, Fid tried to determine if the cave was structurally sound when it started to shake and debris started falling. (Basically, it is really hard for me to remember everything the players do in our games, so again, the summaries are just approximations of our sessions).
I created the Bugbear God Avatar as a Legendary creature. This was fun to DM and made for a thrilling encounter that frightened the players. Using Legendary points to do things at different moments in a round outside of the creatures turn is brilliant. It really makes the creature seem dynamic and fearsome.
Minor Avatar of the Bugbear God
Huge Giant, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 17 (scale)
Hit Points: 158
Speed 40’
Str 23 (+6) Dex 15 (+2) Con 20 (+5)
Int 10 (0) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 9 (-1)
Saves Dex +5, Con +8, Wis +6
Legendary Resistance: 2/day – auto save
Advantage to Save vs. Spells
Multi-Attack – makes 2 huge morningstar attacks
Morningstar - +9 15’ reach 3d8+6 bludgeon
Throw Bolder 100’/200’ +7 3d8+6 Target creature must make DC 18 Strength save or be knocked prone.
3 Legendary Points each round
3 Stomp – creature stomps the ground and makes shockwave that radiates out 20’ in all directions. Creatures in the blast must make a DC 18 Dex check or they are knocked prone.
2 Grab and bite – Contest of strength vs. one target – If the Avatar succeeds, he picks up a larger or smaller target and bites it doing 3d6+6 damage.
1 Throw – Avatar can throw a grappled creature or rock at another creature within 40’ -- +7 doing 2d6+6 to the other creature and 3d6 to the thrown creature (automatically).
1 Crush underfoot - +9 5’ range 3d8+6 bludgeon
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