Session 63 & 64: Ambush and Reconnaissance
The group is ambushed, and all but Aripos are able to react in time. Mishka takes the brunt of the attacks, fending off axe blade after bolt after wall of flame. As Aripos dodges the blows and tries to gain a good spot, a monstrously large ogre specter floats through the battlefield, directing the soldiers in Orcish. "Focus your fire on the mages," it hisses, before dipping through a wall to safety.
Gruz cuts through the Wall of Flame with a Dispel Magic, but Mishka goes down just before she's able to retaliate, and Eluriah is about to join her when Corban finally descends far enough on Gruz's broom to cast Mass Cure Wounds, bringing Mishka back up, and allowing Eluriah to cast her own Mass Cure Wounds. Slowly, the tide of battle turns, and the party is able to cut down the last of the skeletons. Before the last one is destroyed, the ogre specter looks in, shakes his head in disappointment, and then rises through the ceiling.
Recovering from their wounds, the group decides that they need to find a place to rest. They discuss going back to the pump room, but instead decide to try and find the sleeping rooms they found through peepholes earlier. As they make their way there, they run into members of Clan Millorn, who are also looking for a place to rest. Several of them are wounded, but they seem largely in good spirits. They tease out several skeletons, and make short work of them, when a large burning bulette comes barreling down the hallway and attacks them. Gruz quickly turns it into a mouse, and then they panic, trying to get rid of the mouse before it returns to its original form. Mishka tosses it into the spa room, and returns to the group.
Within the minute, they hear crashing, and the bulette breaks through several rooms to attack them. This time, they focus their fire, and kill it swiftly, just barely dodging its gnashing teeth. The party makes their way through the rooms, and Eluriah recognizes the art in each room as that of a famous Sindairese gnome artist. The party and Clan Millorn make quick work of taking their share of the loot, totaling to several thousand gold if they find a buyer.
As the party rests, they tell the clan that they found an elevator. When Oller asks if they found the pump that powers the elevator, the party demurs, deciding to keep its location a secret. Jorrinova speaks with Eluriah, and reveals that Clan Millorn has a buyer interested in the Torch. "They'll pay enough that this," she waves at the now empty frames on the walls, "will look like pennies. Think about it."
Eluriah is more interested in destroying the Torch, as she believes it is responsible for the necrotic firestorm. In fact, she even muses that the storm itself may be the Torch, enlarged by some magical mishap.
In the "morning," the group explores, finding a passageway up to the second floor, where they hear the sound of music. Turning into a spider, Eluriah ventures into a room filled with undead dressed in finery and eating each other's flesh. An undead bard sings songs of stupid skeletons, and a phosphorescent ooze with a skeleton floating in its slime sits on a throne and presides over it all. Eluriah returns, and the party all agree to leave them be.
Nearby, they find a room with a map. When Mishka reaches for it, it bites her. She rips it off before its venom can affect her. They also find a secret entrance into the same room Eluriah spied on, but decide to leave it. Returning below, they find a cistern that leads to the same water that runs through the pump room. Going upstream, they find a small cavern where they could potentiall rest, and water spewing from the rock. Following the river back down, they find Clan Millorn working on the pump. With Aripos' help, they manage to fix the wheel and pump, and water begins to churn.
Making their way to the entrance, Aripos runs into a patrol of gnome skeletons, and the ogre specter as well. Battle ensues, with Aripos taking hits from enemies his own size, while the specter homes in on Eluriah, slashing at her as she attmepts to maintain an Aura of Life. Dipping in and out of the walls, the specter has almost drained Eluriah, but Aripos lands a bolt that disrupts its entire being, sending it into nothingness. They are about to finish off the stragglers when a lucky shot sends Eluriah to the ground. Will she survive? We'll find out next week!
Post-Session(s) Thoughts
This ambush was stressful. I had even done a quick HP check before the start of the first session, and figured everyone, Mishka included, would be fine. When she went down before she could even take a turn, I think everyone at the table realized how much trouble they were in. You know it's a hard fight when the spellcasters are stuck on heal-duty. Everyone was suitably terrified of Reddengot, which was fun too, especially since he's a more passive figure in this one.
Once again, they killed me when they decided to keep forging forward, but the bulette and skeletons turned out to not be a big deal due to excellent stealth rolls, meaning they had largely dealth with the mooks before the big boi turned up. Turning enemies into rats has been an effective strategy for Gruz's player, but for once it wasn't any real use, because they didn't have a way to get rid of the mouse, or talk it out of fighting them. And so, the next session started with it crashing through the wall.
These two sessions were separated by two weeks of me moving across several states. When it came time to play last week, We were missing two players, Corban and Gruz, which meant for a very different dynamic, as they tend to be more vocal about their decision making. They were also much more cautious, almost to a disappointing degree when they decided against entering the Sindaire nobles room, but I understand why. We'll see if they return.
Changes to the Module
I think the first session was run pretty much by the book. Reddengot's second attack is supposed to be an ambush during the night, but I decided against it because the remaining players were the ones who had taken the brunt of the damage in the ambush. If it were Gruz or Corban there instead of any of the other three, I would have done it, but it didn't feel fair to pick on the people who had been on the front line the most by chance. As it was, it was still a tough fight, which only ended when I kept Reddengot near Eluriah so that she couldn't opportunity attack when he was in single digits, and forgot that ranged attacks from other players was a thing. I still look forward to ambushing them with the vrock.
Next session, we find out if Eluriah survives (she will, the battle is over) and the players will find that some members of Clan Millorn have stepped into the deep end with some devils.