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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 8622420" data-attributes="member: 7031495">Session 30: Rivers of FireThe party delves deeper, searching the bodies of the sahuagin, but not finding anything of worth. In a room that might have been full of provisions, they find a hole in the floor with a pulley erected around it. There is a warm glow emanating from the shaft, but before Mishka can begin to lower them down, Eluriah stops her, noticing a small silver thread intertwined with the pulley. Orwin is able to ensure it won’t break, and when they lower themselves down, find a thunderstone that would have gone off if they had not disabled the warning.They find themselves in a steamy cavern, as the water running down flows into a river of magma that comes from a large runed portal, which Orwin surmises to be the Plane of Fire. Gruz considers flying into it, but reconsiders. Instead, the group sidles up to the next door, and listen in on a group of people talking in a mix of Common and Orcish. They burst in, and catch Ragesian soldiers at rest, and are able to slaughter half of them without warning. The remainder manage to raise up their shields and offer more resistance as one of them runs off to grab Inquisitor Damius. The party finds the soldiers difficult to catch, so Gruz attempts to flank them by taking an alternate route. As he enters a room with tanks full of biomantic fluid, the sheer amount of the fluid triggers his memory, as he remembers that same transmutational ozone smell from that terrible night on the Ostalin border where he lost his company. As he rounds the corner, he sees the Inquisitor Damius, an imperious man who launches a fireball into the main room, dissipating Giorgio’s specter. Gruz attempts to counterspell, but Damius counters in turn, laughing in Gruz’s face. “I’m an Inquisitor of Ragesia, boy!”As the party chips away at the rest of the soldiers, slowly cutting down their numbers, Gruz faces off against Inquisitor Damius, attempting to give his compatriots time to join him. However, Damius is able to throw up a wall of fire, blocking off the rest of the party. Mishka rushes through to get into Damius’ face. Damius throws a panicked Shatter spell out, killing one of his own men. Mishka gets the last blow, bringing Damius to his knees, but allows Gruz the honor of decapitating him. With all of her company dead, the final solider surrenders, blabbering about how she wasn’t responsible for any of the kidnappings. Eluriah and Mishka are disgusted at the cowardice of the Ragesian attempting to avoid responsibility.They question the soldier, discovering that Lee Sidoneth left hours before, to “oversee the storm.” They begin searching the area, when Gruz notices that there are still bodies in the tanks. He begins breaking people out, halfway through the stages of being turned into elves. Orwin checks to see if this is dangerous, letting them out before the transformation is complete, but thankfully the changes are entirely cosmetic. In a well-furnished room, they discover a black orb, with silver waves etched into its surface, held aloft by the gods Suijin and Gruumsh. Orwin is able to determine that while the orb is part of controlling the storm, there is another component, which Lee likely has. Eluriah suggests throwing the orb into the lava, but Orwin warns that most magical artifacts are quite hardy, and they can’t be sure to retrieve it if the lava doesn’t destroy it. The party begins to discuss whether to go out and look for Lee, or to delve deeper into the dungeon.Post-Session ThoughtsThis session went fairly well, with combat taking a majority of the time. I was a little hesitant to give them another surprise round, but it made sense, and t still turned into a tight combat. The lack of a lot of AoE spells on our side means that even a bunch of low CR mooks can make things fairly interesting. Running Damius went far smoother than my last inquisitor, and I enjoyed playing him as a taunter. THe back and forth of counterspelling could have been boring, but he was such a bastard that it still had a lot of weight, making Gruz's player decide whether or not it was worth it to try and counterspell. Mishka was also forced to use her last rage to withstand the wall of fire, so that will be interesting as we move on.Eluriah has a passive Investigation of 16, and a passive Perception of 22. At first glance it made me wary, but in practice it honestly just makes my life easier to look at the sheet, see what she would notice, and mention to the player. While it might have led to a more interesting fight above the river, the players obviously like avoiding traps. I look forward to the later levels when those passives aren't enough, and it bites them in the ass.Changes to the ModuleI added the detail of the people still in the tanks. I don't think it makes complete sense, but it added some interesting flavor, and also made evil of their kidnappings more immediately obvious. Also some dead weight for the party to make some decisions about!Next week: The end of the dungeon?</blockquote>

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