The Fifteenth Session

November 3, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

Oh, we've got Zoltar's player again.

The arrival of Zoltar

When Zoltar entered the Fae Wild, she experienced a stronger-than-usual wild magic surge and found herself in a separate clearing. She took the only path she could find, which brought her to a henge with an old lady sitting in the middle, meditating. There had recently been a fight at the henge; the bodies of several creatures lay around the center.

Talking to her, Zoltar gleans that her part had already been there. Her wandering took very long. The wizened crone told Zoltar of the events of our previous session, including the passing of Belmac's Revenant.

She follows the path of the Party and comes to the Mansion, and as she enters the mansion, she sees the Enormous Monstrosity Boar.

She enters the parlour. The door under the stair rattles and slams against its lock.

Above, in the master bedroom, on the bed, Theren notices that Zoltar has arrived.

We call out to Zoltar, she comes up the main stairs, and towards Room 11, the guest bedroom.

Belmac is the only visible person in the room; he invites her inside. She walks flat into the invisible bear, which is blocking the door. We laugh a little at her expense.

The Imp

Theren feels that the unknown invisible creature is leaving the room; he Eldritch Blasts the doorjamb, and then the something that is flying out of the room. We all see it momentarily; it's demonish. Ship notices that it is an Imp. The Imp is a lesser, worthless creature.

We wait in the bedroom for a wile while Theren uses the Bed of Whispers to track the Imp. It goes into the attic.

We discuss how to continue the skull quest. Marnoc tries to leave the room, but runs into the invisible bear. He smacks his hammer into the doorframe, becoming visible.The effects of the Invisibility spell cast by the closet end when the target of the spell makes an attack. He does not like the Bear's invisibility. And he's blue, and his pants are blue, but his face is purple.Theren&#3t;s player gains a point of inspiration for making this observation. The bear licks him, and then moves out of the way.

The Library

Marnoc walks over to the library, room #12 in the map. He thinks that we have insufficiently explored the library. The players have Word of God that there is a skull as-yet undiscovered in the Library.

Marnoc looks around with his ritualistic Detect Magic vision. The suit of armor in the corner doesn't have a headpiece that would hide the skull. The candelabra on the table is slightly magical. The desk has some drawers that we haven't opened. And then there's the rest of the books in the room.

The candelabra, upon investigation, has a candle whose wax is not melting. He tries to remove the candle from the candelabra, and fails. Belmac wanders into the room as this is happening. He gestures Marnoc aside and then smashes the candelabra with a warhammer, but his attack bounces off the candle.

Marnoc picks up the candelabra; it's finely made of gold, with wrought Hydra heads on either side. He doesn't like it, and passes it to Belmac.

Belmac tries to blow out the candle, or pinch it out. He fails.

Marnoc examines the desk; the one drawer he can open has a pouch with 50gp of gold and a magnifying glass. Something in the drawer he opened is magical; something in the locked drawer is magical.

Using the magnifying glass, Belmac looks at the candelabra and other things. Some of the titles of the texts that we couldn't read before are now legible. They're written in Orcish, Draconic, and Abyssal. Theren arrives and asks why Belmac is using the magnifying glass; Marnoc replies he's a coward and didn't want to use it himself. Belmac throws down the magnifying glass.

Theren picks it up and looks around; it's a normal magnifying glass. Marnoc also looks around through the magnifying glass; it's a plain magnifying glass.

Belmac is still able to read the titles of the books that are written in Orcish, Draconic, and Abyssal. He doesn't realize that he's able to read.

Marnoc asks Belmac to try to bust open the locked drawer. Belmac uses his crowbar to open the drawer; there's a key inside. He uses the key on the remnant of the lock from the broken drawer. It doesn't fit. The key, when seen through the Magnifying Glass, is normal. It's made of a silvery-white metal.

Ship uses the candelabra to investigate the drawer that held the key; there's a false back with the first-quarter moon skull.

Because Ship is still invisible, the candelabra is invisible when carried.

The Shrinking Room

We move to Room #10, across the hall from the library and adjacent to the Bedroom of Whispers. As we look in through the door, there's a bed, an ornate chest, and a chair. Belmac walks in. As he enters, he sees a weird haze, and from outside the room, we see him shrink to one-twelfth normal size. The chest is 36 feet tall, as Belmac looks at it, and he finds that he cannot lift it.

But when we throw a rope in from outside, the rope doesn't shrink. We start to pull the chest out, and as we pull it out, the chest begins to shrink, until the rope slips over it.

Belmac walks in, picks up the chest, and carries it out. The chest shrinks to one-twelfth size as he returns to normal size.

He cracks open this three-inch-tall chest, and inside are a lot of tiny gold and a tiny skull.

He dumps the chest out on the floor; Ship catches 30gp and the skull. Belmac throws the chest into the room and it grows back to normal size as it crashes into the far wall.

Ship taps the skull with the magnifying glass, but nothing happens.

Theren uses the magnifying glass to pick up 10 more gold from the cracks of the floor. The DM tells us that there were 100 gold coins in that chest.

Marnoc finishes re-casting Detect Magic as a ritual and sees an invisible wall in the room, running its full width, boxing in an area that

Theren carries the 40gp and skull into the room, putting them down at their normal size, and from outside uses Blink to try to get across the field. He shrinks to half size. He blinks out and blinks back in; he's at 1/12 size; the skull is half-size.

Belmac walks in, shrinks, picks up the skull, and carries it out. It comes out at slightly shrunken, along with the slightly-shrunken 40gp.

This is the Waning Gibbous Skull.

We return to the dining room, and place the skulls. We're missing just the Waxing Crescent.

To the Attic

We go back to the attic, which is full of trinkets and stuff.

Marnoc starts to walk across the room, swinging his hammer. A clock flies across the room and hits him in the face for 10 bludgeoning damage. He puts up his shield. Belmac follows. A bunch of silverware flies from behind Marnoc, and stabs him in the back. Plates fly at Belmac and crash against his armor, dealing no damage. Belmac approaches the moon door and uses the blue-silver key to open it. Objects continue flying around the room.

In the floor of the room, there is a bloody pentagram, with the Waxing Crescent Skull in the middle.

Ship crosses the room dextrously, dodging the flying objects. Based on their summer-camp experience, Ship figures that the pentagram is not inherently dangerous. There's nothing else in the room besides the blood pentagram, the skull, and the candles surrounding. The candles look like they're about to go out. Ship blows out the candles and grabs the skull.

Theren asks if the blood is fresh — it's dried.

Marnoc continues cowering in the middle of the room, under his shield. Teapots and cutlery whiz overhead. Finally fed up with the divebombing crockery, he springs up and sprints back to the safe side of the room. He's safe. Everything flying falls to the floor.

Belmac walks back, with a swagger in his step, and takes 9 points of damage from a tea set.

Ship walks back, dodging everything thrown at them.

We return to the bedroom of the Whispering Bed, and take a short rest.

Placing the last skull

We return to the Dining Room and place the last skull.

The moment we place the last skull, we hear a grinding sound behind the painting at the head of the table. The painting is of a wolf howling at the moon. Belmac pulls the painting off the wall, and there's a small treasure trove behind it. There's about 250 gold, 500 silver, 2 potions of healing. Zoltar takes one potion; Ship takes the other. And there's a stone button.

A party member picks up the button. We hear a grinding noise coming from the stairs in the foyer.

We go over to the stairs.

The door which had previously been rattling sits quiet. The door is unlocked.

Belmac opens the door; the door is pulled shut from inside.

Belmac knocks the door, and says "Housekeeping!"

Nothing happens.

Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to snap the door open. It swings open, and remains open. We enter the door, and descend the stairs to the basement.

The basement

The basement is cold and stone, 30 feet to a side. On the far wall from the stairs is a fine desk with a unicorn horn wand floating above it.

Marnoc approaches the wand, reaching out for it; he disappears.

Most of us notice that he walked through a portal.

Marnoc finds himself in Hell, with no sign of the portal. It is the exact same sort of Hell that we were in in the third session's adventure into Hell.

Belmac sticks his hand through the portal; Marnoc sees the hand.

Ship notices that the portal is a bit of like a picture frame; it doesn't surround the desk. Ship walks around the edge of the portal.

Marnoc sees in the distance a Large Fiend running at him. It has two horns, and above its arms it has pincers.

1. Round 1
   1. The bear, with an improbably high initiative, sits around doing nothing.
   2. Theren looks on as Ship moves to grab the wand.
   3. The fiend moves 60 feet towards Marnoc, and it's now adjacent to him.
   4. Zoltar watches Ship.
   5. Marnoc grabs Belmac's hand. He can't go through the portal. He tries to pull Belmac through. Belmac resists being drawn through the portal. Belmac tells Ship that if his legs start flailing, there's something in trouble. Marnoc casts Spirit Guardians. The fiend takes 10 necrotic damage.
   6. Belmac, having contested the grapple, sticks his head into the portal. He decides to jump through. He flails his foot around to signal Ship, flips Rage, and jumps in. As a bonus action, he uses his action-action to attack twice, dealing 24 damage. Then he Action Surges, fails to hit, Extra Attacks and Bonus Attacks for 15 more damage.
   7. Ship grabs the unicorn-patterned wand. Immediately, Belmac, Theren, and the creature are all thrown through the portal into the basement. Ship points the wand at the creature; nothing happens. Ship throws the wand to Zoltar. Zoltar does not recognize the wand. It is the Wand of Wonder.
2. Round 2
   1. With a 19 to hit, Bear deals 6 slashing to the fiend.
   2. Theren Hexblade Curses the monstrosity, and crits it with his frostblade for 20 slashing and 2 cold. The second attack also crits, for 21 slashing and 3 cold.
   3. The fiend casts a spell, stunning Theren. It stands up, and attacks Zoltar with one shoulder's pincers, and makes an attack against Theren with its other pincer. It misses with the pincers in both attacks.
   4. Zoltar disengages from the fiend and runs 20 feet out of the room, through the door and up the corridor, towards the stairs.
   5. Marnoc casts Thunder Wave: the fiend is pushed backwards into the door, and it takes 6 lightning damage. That damage had less of an effect than expected.
   6. Belmac uses his bonus action to Primal Strength to lose 9 HP, and he crits with his normal attack and a bonus attack that also hits. 16 non-crit slashing and 17 critical slashing. The creature bellows in Infernal. Ship knows Infernal; the fiend is shouting a lot of swear words.
   7. Ship replies in Infernal, "Stop cursing!" And then shoots it for 14. The bear misses its reaction attack against the fiend.
3. Round 3
   1. The Bear misses again.
   2. Theren, being Stunned, fails a constitution saving throw and is still stunned.
   3. The fiend takes 14 necrotic damage from Marnoc's Spirit Guardians spell, which, being anchored on him, followed him back through the portal. The fiend casts another spell; most characters within 15 feet are now confused. Then it makes a pair of pincer attacks against Theren for 14 damage. It receives 15 cold damage in return from Theren's Armor of Agathys, and Theren is grappled. Then, with its long pincer-arms' reach, it attacks Marnoc for 15 slashing, but takes 8 points lightning damage. Marnoc is grappled.
   4. Zoltar attempts to cast Scorching Ray. Wild Magic surges with a die-roll of 7, meaning that Zoltar casts Fireball as a third-level spell centered on her. The fireball does 25 damage to all in its range, halved for Zoltar. The fiend is not significantly affected.
   5. Marnoc is still grappled by the pincer; his Guiding Bolt misses the fiend.
   6. Belmac is confused; his action is a melee attack against the fiend for 8 damage - minimum damage. The table is unimpressed.
   7. Ship misses with an arrow. The bear misses its reaction attack.
4. Round 4.
   1. Bear is confused; it takes no action and makes no move.
   2. Theren is stunned; he fails to do anything. And he remains stunned.
   3. The Spirit Guardians do 14 necrotic to the fiend. It drops both Theren and Marnoc, and casts Dispel Magic on the Spirit Guardians, dispelling them. And then it uses its pincers to attack Theren and Marnoc again. It deals 25 bludgeoning to Theren and takes 15 cold damage. The other pincer misses Marnoc.
   4. Zoltar casts Scorching Ray again, hitting the fiend's buttside with one of the three firebolts bolts for 3 fire damage.
   5. Marnoc casts Shatter with Channel Divinity, hitting Belmac and the fiend both with a giant clap of thunder that kills the fiend.

Ship carves off the fiend's horns, doing a mediocre job. A fairly-poorly-cut-off set of horns. This was a Glabrezu.

The desk and table are now bare; there is nothing left in the room that is interesting.

We go upstairs. Belmac pulls out a torch, lights it, and drops it in the middle of the main hallway. He grabs one of the skulls, and somewhere in the house a door closes.

We leave the mansion. There is no sign of the monstrosity.

We go back to the henge. The dead trees to the sides of the path seem to be slightly regrowing. Life springs up out of the forest. The Fae woman who sits upon the hill in the henge looks no longer elderly and sickly; she looks young and attractive. She sits atop the hill, meditating. We collect the wagon and head back to the portal.

Back in the Lororna Forest

We exit into the cold moonlit air of the forest in the Material Plane. Belmac sees nothing in the first watch. In the second watch, Marnoc tags Theren stealthily with the Apple of Blue.

Theren has his recurring dream. The same familiar themes — the dying plants around Ofinor, the dying farms — and where he had seen thousands of corpses in the past dreams, now he sees the corpses have risen, and in the great tower in the center of Ofinor there is a soft and terrible singing. The night passes quickly in Ofinor, yet is longer than the day. Five day/night cycles pass. During the nights, the corpses are raised and wander the streets. The days are very short. The dream ends on Theren's father looking over everything from his spot in the tallest tower.

The night passes without incident.

The party levels up.

Theren casts Disguise Self to look not-blue. Marnoc is confused by Theren's not-blue appearance.

The road to Ofinor

Two days' travel pass without incident. Every night, Theren has bad dreams, and tells us about the wheat maybe not being needed, since most everyone in Ofinor is dead. Belmac is fine with "salvage".

(Marnoc has continued to rub the blue apple on Theren's face every night. Theren has continued to cast Disguise Self.)

Halfway through the third day, we reach what Theren describes as the border of the dead zone around Ofinor. All the plants are dead. It's midday, yet the sun hangs lower in the sky.

Marnoc hangs out his lantern of Continual Flame on the wagon, and Ship ties the candelabra to the wagon rather than carrying it by hand.

There aren't any hills to hide our camp behind. As we travel across the plain we occasionally find the ruins of an abandoned farmhouse. Finally, there is one close enough to the path to investigate.

We go into the house. Inside, there's about 27 silver.

Zoltar uses the Wand of Wonder from outside the house; the house fills with butterflies. Inside, Marnoc casts Thunderwave in response; the butterflies are jelly.

We have 27 butterfly-gore-covered silver pieces, and a 10gp ring.

We set fire to the house and continue down the road. We are too traumatized by the Mansion's Butterfly Room to leave the butterfly building standing.

We continue another three hours into the day. Belmac takes an hour to try to attune to the magnifying glass. He does not learn its properties.

The day turns to night.

Belmac takes the first watch, with a 2 on his perception check.

Zoltar takes the second.

Ship and Bear take the third watch; the bear is agitated by the smell of nearby wolves.

During Theren's watch, the wolves arrive. There are two large direwolves; there are two hybrid man-wolves. They prowl around the camp; Theren does not notice as he is bothered by his dreams.

1. Round 1.
   1. Werewolf 3 attacks Zoltar with a bite. She screams. Everyone awakes except Marnoc, who rolls over and mumbles.
   2. Werewolf 4 attacks Marnoc.
   3. Ship shoots Direwolf 2 with an Ensnaring Strike arrow to restrain it, dealing a small amount of damage.
   4. Zoltar casts a twinned Blight at the two Werewolves, dealing 40 to each. They become more gaunt from the spell's necrotic damage.
   5. Theren casts Hex on Werewolf 3, jumps down, and attacks twice with his frost brand, bringing the werewolf very close to death.
   6. Direwolf 1 bites and claws at Belmac, but misses.
   7. Direwolf 2 is restrained.
   8. Marnoc casts Spirit Guardians as a fourth level spell and stands up.
2. Round 2.
   1. Bear claws at Werewolf 3, but misses.
   2. Werewolf 3 fails and takes its Spirit Guardian damage, and is pulled into the ground, never to be seen again.
   3. Werewolf 4 takes 21 damage from Spirit Guardian, and then bites at Marnoc for 14 piercing and bites for 14 slashing.
   4. Belmac whiffs his first attack on Direwolf 1, and then hits with the Extra Attack and the Bonus Action, for total 25 damage, which kills it. He Action Surges, and hits Direwolf 2 thrice for 31 damage.
   5. Ship shoots Direwolf 2 for 10 damage.
   6. Zoltar hits Direwolf 2 with the Wand of Wonder, turning the wolf to stone.

Belmac smashes the direwolf, and then we continue the night's rest.

In the morning, Marnoc casts Remove CurseA new spell for him, this level-up. twice, on the off chance that Zoltar and Marnoc were afflicted by lycanthropy. They are no longer blue.

We travel onwards. Eventually, the day gets lighter. In the dim daylight, we travel at least 5 hours, to the outside walls of Ofinor. As we approach, we begin to hear light, beautiful, horrific, melancholy singing from the tower.

Next session

We are at Ofinor.

Total loot from the mansion in the Fae Wild, across both sessions:

• A crystal decanter of a potion of Fairy Fire (Bag of Holding)
• An ornate vase (Belmac)
• A yellow gem, worth 100 gold (Belmac) (The butterfly room)
• 3 candelabras worth 25 gold apiece (Belmac)
• 8 sets of cutlery worth 5 gold apiece (Belmac)
• An Apple of Blue (Marnoc)
• 4 wizardly robes (Belmac)
• 1 candlestick worth 5 gold (Belmac)
• A wizard's spellbook (Marnoc)
• 30 gemstones worth 1 gold apiece (Belmac)
• A makeup kit worth 105 gold (Belmac)
• 1 candelabra, not extinguishable (Ship)
• A magnifying glass (Belmac)
• 50 gold coins (Marnoc)
• 40 slightly-smaller gold coins. (Party fund)
• 250 gold
• 500 silver
• 2 potions of healing (Ship, Zoltar)
• A stone button
• The horns of a Glabrezu (Ship)
• One of the Moon Skulls (Belmac)

The abandoned farmhouse:

• 27 silver
• a ring worth 10 gold