We D&D.
Session #60 The Rise of Tiamat #19b Sgt Harald Pops Out of Existence.
Brothers of the First Light.
Lummins (played by Rob) Male Half-Elf Cleric of Lathander Lvl 12
Lux (played by Sandy) Female Human Warlock Lvl 12
Watt (played by Jackie) Male Human Bard Lvl 12
&
Hotlips Houlihan (played by Sandy) Female Halfling Rogue Lvl 12
Sgt Harald Hardaxe (played by Pete) Male Shield Dwarf Fighter Lvl 12
Prisoner of the Red Wizards of Thay-
Sgt Bobby Markguth (played by Pete) Male Human Fighter Lvl 12
Secondary PCs.
Left at 8th Level- we’ll get them back if (and when) they’re needed later on.
Derek Pilch (played by Jackie) Male Human Druid Lvl 8
Hard Bonk (played by Rob) Male Half-Orc Monk Lvl 8
This is session #60 of our game, but only session #19b of The Rise of Tiamat scenario.
The Brothers of the First Light are beneath Xonthal’s Tower, looking to find and then rescue Iskander (a Cult of the Dragon turncoat) who has the Blue Dragon Mask in his grasp.
The PCs however know that the Blue Dragon Mask here is another fake- although, Lux (Sandy) still believes that it could all turn out for the best in the end. In short, she thinks that I (your kindly DM) am double bluffing them, and that somehow the Blue Dragon Mask here is going to turn out to be the real thing.
Hope’s a funny thing.
SPOILER ALERT- the Blue Dragon Mask here is a fake.
In the interest of full disclosure.
The PCs are actually mostly playing through Xonthal’s Tower because Pete fancies playing Sgt Harald Hardaxe, so- there’s that.
But let’s just get on, the Pizza’s finished and there’s a blood trail (actually bloody footsteps) heading north from the chamber previously inhabited by the three Elemental guards. Hotlips scuttles ahead, however there’s also a short passage to the north west- ending at a plain door. The bloody footsteps are quickly forgotten about, and the Halfling is redirected here. The chamber beyond the unlocked door is a Wizard’s Lab (with lots of equipment and books), and complete with a (stationary) swirling whirlwind (about ten feet across, and the same high) at the far end of the chamber.
Cautiously the Halfling Rogue creeps in, followed soon after (when it’s deemed safe) by Lux, Lummins and Watt- Sgt H is left to guard the door and the corridor beyond.
There are a clutch of shimmering sparkling gems caught in the strange swirling column of air.
Hmm, the stupid thing, Lux and Watt think (and then say)- would be to try to get the gems out of the vortex. There follows a bit more chat, and then finally a decision- nah, let’s leave it.
The rest of the chamber is very cautiously investigated, it seems to be a mixture of mundane (alchemical/magical theory) papers, and other associated (but also mundane) lab equipment. In short, nothing to get excited about- apart from the swirling strangeness.
The Brothers therefore shut the door behind them, north it is…
The corridor descends a long and increasingly dark (at first) flight of stairs, note- I made this set of stairs much longer, and therefore, deeper (as it were). Then the twinkle of lights ahead, and… stars.
Or, as it should be- “My God, it’s full of stars!”
The corridor continues into space, or as I described to the PCs/Players- at the bottom of the stairs on the right-hand side of the passage is a doorway, all as normal, however ten feet beyond the doorway the passage disappears, or else ceases to exist.
Beyond the jagged stone end to the passageway are the heavens, the glittering lights of stars and far off worlds, and every now and then a comet or meteor whizzes by…
Ohhh, my…
Maybe fifty feet, and/or a world/lifetime away, across the shimmering twinkling starfield, the corridor continues…
Lots of expletives follow this description of the situation.
But before we get too far into it, there’s another doorway. The Brothers are very keen to check this out, even if only to put off the question- how the EXPLETIVE are we going to get across that?
The door opens into a beautifully appointed circular (and domed) study-cum-library, with bookshelves on every wall- all equipped with ladders, in the centre of the chamber is an ornate (and very big and expensive) desk strewn with papers, maps and charts.
The chamber is investigated, it quickly becomes apparent that there are lots of ‘expert level’ books here. Given time the PCs (at least the learned three- Lux, Lummins and Watt) would like to spend a while going through the collection and taking what they need.
But, not now.
Reluctantly (for three of the PCs) the Brothers leave the room and are back into the silent hallway that ends in… space.
How to do this?
Well, the Brothers start with the simple/easy solution. A sturdy rope is tied around Hotlip’s waist (and then grabbed by Sgt H and Lummins) and then the Halfling is told to scamper forward. After a bit of grimacing, she does… and walks swiftly across the space-scape without interruption.
Note, as stated in the module I made a meteor attack on Hotlips en route to the other side, but I rolled a ‘1’, so decided just to tell the PCs that several distant meteors flash by.
Whooooo… that’s nice.
So, now there’s a rope tether to the other side.
Next across, and fastened to the rope, is Sgt Harald- the tank, the PCs/Players figure that if Sgt H can get to the other side then the other PCs should be able to do it easily.
Sgt H has a Dexterity of, from memory, ‘8’.
I lied, I just went and looked it up, Sgt H has a Charisma of ‘8’, his Dexterity is ‘12’.
So, off goes Sgt H- and he’s barely ten feet into his journey when he’s hit full force by a meteor about half his size, he’s hurt and knocked clean off the ‘walkway’.
He falls- at the same moment Hotlips (one end) and Lummins (the other) brace themselves and hold fast to the rope, to no effect- it quickly becomes apparent that the rope has been broken by the comet’s impact.
As I stated earlier… he (Sgt Harald, that is) falls.
Screaming, and quickly out of sight.
At which point Pete (playing Sgt H) is stood up at his end of the gaming table, gripping the wood like his life depends upon it, and glaring at me.
How to defuse the situation?
“Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Sgt H falls from top to bottom, again- and once more the Dwarf quickly descends out of sight.
And then…
“Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Sgt H falls by, yet again.
Which gets the smile I’m fishing for, and Pete relaxes.
But only for a second- Lummins (he’s the eagle-eyes of the group) shuffles out onto the strange space-walkway, just a few steps, and then watches as Sgt H comes around again- the Bard follow’s the Dwarf’s trajectory, Sgt H is falling (seemingly) in an ever-decreasing spiral. Which is obviously very odd.
The PCs/Players scramble for some way of getting to the spinning Dwarf, with the following caveat- that it doesn’t involve any of them risking themselves by stepping out onto the space-walkway, they’re not keen on that idea at all.
The chatter continues for perhaps another five minutes, with me (and sometimes Pete) barking at the other PCs/Players- what are you going to do?
All is confusion- the best they can come up with, and then agree upon, is to firstly- shout at Sgt H, ostensibly to ask him- “Are you alright?”
The answer eventually comes back, “ifeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelsickkkkkkk.”
Followed by, “Iwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantogetoffnowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!”
The Brother's next (I hesitate to say best) idea is to somehow lasso the falling Dwarf- I don’t think they’ve got taken into account the gravity of the situation (if you’ll excuse my pun). When the lasso idea goes badly wrong- the flung loop of rope just floats off in a (seemingly) random direction, they make an immediate improvement on the scheme.
They’re going to shoot the falling/spiralling Dwarf.
Yep, you read that right.
Watt and Hotlips are given the onerous task (why are they grinning like loons then?) of firing at Sgt Harald- but first of all they need to tie a rope to their respective arrow/crossbow bot. How do they do that?
Too silly.
And so, yet another lump of speeding star-rock (a small meteor) thumps into the spiralling Sgt Harald and reduces the Dwarf’s downward/outward spiral considerably.
Time to up the ante.
Sgt Harald is spinning and swirling like a top.
Shooting him (with ropes tied to arrows/bolts) is not going to work, Lummins however reckons he could make the shot with his spear.
Oh God. What are they thinking?
But, too late.
POP!
Sgt Harald has reached the epicentre of his spiral-spin.
Or so it seems.
The Dwarf pops out of existence.
And I did it all so suddenly that the Player’s faces are frozen in time- gawping, with “what now?” expressions.
I point Pete (playing Sgt Harald) to the door of the kitchen, I have some bad news to deliver, and it needs to be in private.
The other three Players around the table are left mouthing.
So, I get Pete quickly into the kitchen, and then tell him in three seconds flat to keep quiet, and that Sgt Harald is safe and well, but that I want him to swear and rage at me, a lot- and right now, as if I had just told him that Sgt H is, in fact, dead. But he’s not- I promise, reassuring him again.
Swear and rage, that’s right in Pete’s zone, he doesn’t need to be told twice.
Thirty seconds after Pete’s tirade (let it all out, deep breaths) I pop my head back around the kitchen door and tell the other Players to take a break, and that I’m going to need a few minutes more with Pete.
Later, after the session was over, the three Players left in the room- Sandy, Rob & Jackie confessed that two of them thought that Sgt Harald was dead/lost-in-space/gone, and that Pete was genuinely raging/upset/angry.
Jackie (Pete’s wife) kept quiet around the gaming table, even when the other two guys asked her opinion- truth be told she knows the old git (Pete, not me) too well. If Sgt H was dead, she suspects that Pete would be in the garden smoking, swearing and kicking (mostly) inanimate objects.
Back to the kitchen- just me, Pete, and Sgt Harald.
The Dwarf suddenly falls ‘through’ a solid stone ceiling and then slams hard into the floor of another beautifully appointed study.
He’s hurt, but more importantly, where the hell is he?
As it turns out, after a few minutes spent investigating the place, he is in (as already stated) another beautifully appointed study- possibly a Wizard’s workroom (is Pete’s metagame suggestion).
There’s a door, Sgt Harald opens it- there’s a bookshelf attached to the other side of the door, the conjoined door swings open and reveals, the library-cum-study room with the domed ceiling the Brothers found earlier.
At which point half-a-dozen swirling spirals of scattered papers funnel up into the air, as if taking part in some crazy dance, the swirling paper whirlwinds (actually Paper Swarms) attack the Dwarf Fighter- all of them.
Sgt Harald receives paper cuts aplenty (although, they’re just cuts- Sgt H has ‘20’ Constitution and the biggest bag of hit points the world has ever seen- at 12th level he has something like 130). The Dwarf, even after his adventure in space, is not even bloodied.
Sgt H starts screaming for his colleagues, and then weighs in to the “paper-bastards” (his words) with his magical battleaxe- he Crits, then hits- and a Paper Swarm is gone (shredded), then he fixes on a second swarm, and… Crits again.
Pete is a bastard.
He does his hands above his head (as if scoring a goal) run around screeching thing, again.
It annoys the hell out of me, every time.
The Players, back in the other room and at the gaming table are alerted that things are definitely okay when Pete (who’s still in the kitchen with me), the silly bugger, (and as described above) starts whooping, shouting and laughing like a drain.
There goes the surprise and/or suspense.
So, I leave Pete for a while and then head back to the gaming table- what have the other PCs been doing since Sgt H blinked out of existence?
As it turns out, not much- although it has been less than five minutes between then… and now.
Therefore, to make things a bit more difficult, remember Lummins edged out on the space-walkway to get a better look at the spiralling Sgt Harald, well a second after the Dwarf popped out of existence the Cleric of Lathander is hit by a much smaller meteor.
The fist-sized space boulder clips Lummins, and it’s only his quick thinking (and a very good skill check)- and his Winged Boots, of course, that save the day- he gets back off the space walkway- tout suite.
Then the PCs mostly prevaricate.
And as I’ve stated already, the secret’s out of the bag- Pete’s whooping with delight has assured them that Sgt H is healthy and well. It doesn’t help my cause that the gurning idiot also puts his head around the door while I’m talking with the other Players, and asks “Can I come back in yet? Have they found me?”
So, we get on with things.
But before we do, just to say- I wanted a bit more oomph from the space-walkway-tiny-meteor encounter, so I added a bit of levity, gravity, and fun (and 2001)- and it worked well until spaceman Pete opened his big mouth.
Sorry, back to it…
The four Brothers in the passageway suddenly hear Sgt Harald swearing and shouting, the noise is coming from the study-cum-library, the chamber they only just investigated.
They rush in… in time to see Sgt H caught in a paperwork maelstrom (we’ve all been there).
He’s a sight for sore eyes, as is Pete back around the gaming table again, and with a perma-grin in place.
It gets to fighting, and it’s the Brother’s favourite sort of fight- plenty of enemies, and easy.
Lummins barges his way in and begins laying fiery waste to the Paper Swarms- he conjures up five Scorching Rays, all hits, and decimates three of the swirling vortices.
Hotlips and Watt open up with the artillery, and another Paper Swarm spirals out of existence.
Suddenly there’s just one left… not for long, two more Paper Swarms form from the scattered scrolls, Lummins takes paper cuts, as does Sgt Harald.
Lux Eldritch Blasts the last Paper Swarm menacing Sgt Harald to pieces.
And this is getting me (the kindly DM) nowhere fast, so I unleash another eight Paper Swarms into the chamber, or else the literary vortices spontaneously form- mostly concentrated around the fat Dwarf, Sgt Harald.
That’s all of the enemies in play for this encounter.
The Dwarf takes a few more cuts, but then gets his Second Wind and starts laying waste to his writerly foes, and yet another Paper Swarm is shredded.
Lux is assailed by another Paper Swarm, her Hellish Rebuke scorches it to a cinder- instantly, that was 58 Fire damage (the Paper Swarms are Vulnerable to Fire, of course).
Lummins, also beset by the swirling monstrosities unleashes his Radiance of the Dawn (but with low damage rolls), only one more Paper Swarm dissipates, another is taken out by Hotlips and her crossbow. While Watt also continues to fire his bow into the attackers.
Lux Shocking Grasps another Paper Swarm to frazzled ash, there are only four left in action, a majority of them still surrounding Sgt Harald.
Lummins starts up with his Scorching Rays again, he destroys the Paper Swarm still menacing Lux- three left, this is easy. Too soon- and then with a stray Scorching Ray (and a ‘1’) sets a bookcase on fire.
Oh bugger!
Hotlips & Watt continue with the artillery, and soon after another Paper Swarm is spent- just two left.
Lux goes again with her Eldritch Blasts, and then one left, and then- at last, none.
The Brothers of the First Light scramble, they all rush to stifle the fire, which burns for only a minute or so- smothered by a hasty collection of blankets and bedrolls, mostly thanks to a flying Lummins.
And the fight is over.
Sgt Harald is back with his (sorta) friends, all is well with the world- although the PCs have expended plenty of their spells and other resources.
The Players are keen to take another short rest, possibly a long rest- and to swap out a few spells (during the long rest, maybe) in an effort to deal with astral walkway problem.
There follows ten to fifteen minutes more chatter amongst the Players, three of them are definite that they should take some form of rest, alas the one dissenter is Sgt Harald (Pete) who just wants to “get on with it.”
But that’s as much as time allows, we’re at the end of the session, and the Brothers have made very little headway, they loved the action in the session itself, but are frustrated to find themselves still chasing the fake Blue Dragon Mask.
I fear there’s going to be a rush to get to the end in the next session.
See you then.