The Eighteenth Session

January 12, 2019, Campaign: Wildfire

This is the third session in Ofinor, the ancestral home of Theren the half-elf Hexblade Warlock. We were led here by dreams of the town's downfall at the hands of his father, and have determined to kill his father. This journey began in the thirteenth session and we entered Ofinor in the sixteenth session.

In the witches' room

We're in the witches' room's closet, and we elect to take a short rest.

Those of us that are listening during our rest hear light scrabbling on the outside of the building, beyond the room that we're in. Things are running around, checking windows. The witches' room's closet has no windows, but the witches' room does.

We discuss whether to cut and leave the city.

Marnoc opens the door to the witches' room, and steps into the room. The windows show that it is very early morning.

We leave the witches' chambers, head down the trap door into the guest bedroom's closet, and then into the bedroom. It's eerily quiet here; we can't hear any scrabbling noises. We leave the bedroom for the lounge, where the elevator, rug of smothering, and painting were before we destroyed them. There's a spiral staircase heading up and down; we decide to head out of the castle: down.

We head down the spiral staircase. Those in front as we go down the staircase hear in our heads phantom screams of people being murdered.

As we peek around the dorner into the main hall, we see an elven figure (not Theren's dad) standing on the main staircase leading up, directly across the hall from us. Theren recognizes him as Theren's father's steward.

"Leaving so soon?" asks the armored butler.

"Well, yes," says Belmac. We start walking towards the front door.

"Should we expect you to return?" As we incidentally approach the butler, the phantom screams grow louder, interfering with thought.

Marnoc realizes that the butler is asking sarcastically. "No sooner than a day, but at least within two years."

"Two years," confirms the butler.

We exit.

Outside the castle

It's a wan, thin daylight, but it's daylight.

We elect to head back to The Rebel Skull tavern. We pass all sorts of dead zombies, littering the streets, quite dead. None have anything worth looting. We travel a circuitous route, not stealthily but trying to throw off any possible trailing people.

The undead "people" who were in the tavern have all collapsed on the floor. There are plenty of flies in the area.

Belmac hops the bar and starts trying to find liquor. Marnoc pours himself an "Ofinor Gut-Punch", a pint made with shots from every available liquor in the house. It's strong. Belmac has a beer.

We move the bodies out of the tavern, into the street.

There's various rooms upstairs, and the kitchen on the ground floor, and a cellar. After some discussion of escape routes, we hole up upstairs, and wait until we can take a long rest: ten hours.

• Marnoc takes first watch; he sees werewolf patrols in the streets, looting bodies. But the wolves aren't taking bodies. Some of the later patrols are starting to carry sacks and bags, parcels, backpacks. Marnoc thinks they're planning on moving out.
• Belmac sees more werewolves leaving town.
• Zoltar notices that the number of werewolves is decreasing; there aren't any patrols by the end of her shift.
• Theren takes watch as the daylight fades. He sees no movement at all out in the streets.
• Bear and Ship's night watch hears nothing beyond the buzzing of flies.

We have completed the long rest.

Ship thought that we were going to leave the city; nope, we're going back to the castle.

Marnoc tries to play the Dirge Singer's Lute; with a bad performance score he takes 6 psychic damage. We put it back in the bag of holding.

With Ship's Pass Without Trace, despite Belmac's unstealthy stomping, we walk to the castle. The werewolves appear to have combed through everything, leaving nothing of interest behind save bodies and torn clothes.

The castle, again.

Marnoc pushes Zoltar to the front of the party, and forces her through the front door as Belmac opens it. A reluctant Leroy Jenkins. For a fleeting moment, she is alone in the castle.

And then we all follow through the door.

Zoltar looks for the steward; the steward is not present. And there are no phantom screams.

We spend a little while discussing strategy; Belmac whistles loudly and we hear it echo off the walls. We decide to go up the grand staircase, which we hadn't been up before.

We find no traps, coming eventually to a landing which has a staircase on either side of two statues of armored knights on statues. Marnoc flips a coin; we should go to the right, which requires us to pass in front of the statues.

Belmac is first in our order; as he walks in front of the statues they suddenly slide forward. Belmac is knocked backwards by their attack, taking 11 points of bludgeoning damage as they retreat, but he did make it past them. He sees the triggering pressure plate on the floor, and points them out. But he's on the other side of the knights' track, and we need a way to cross safely.

Marnoc asks Belmac to hand him his warhammer from the Bag of Holding that Belmac carries. Belmac throws it across, but it falls short, landing on the pressure plate. The pressure plate doesn't actuate. Ship carefully grabs the warhammer and passes it to Marnoc, who bludgeons the pressure plate. Nothing happens.

Theren Eldritch Blasts the back legs of the statue's horses, dealing 13 damage, toppling the statues forward off the mechanism. The collapsed statues push the pressure plate down, but nothing happens. We all walk across. The echoes of the collapse reverberate in the stone walls.

The audience hall

We carefully ascend the stairs, into an audience hall, with a chair that faces the staircase. Dim light through the west wall's broken window shows us a very large, chilly room with empty iron sconces; cobwebs drape the ciling. Directly across from the windows on the west wall are a set of double doors on the east wall. And there's a door near the chair. Zoltar casts Light; Marnoc lights a torch and puts it in a sconce. Zoltar casts Firebolt as a cantrip at the ceiling; some cobwebs fall, but the ciling remains obscured. The wooden throne is empty; Marnoc smashes the shit out of it. Belmac sets it on fire. We go through the small door.

It's a small room. Dusty scrolls and tomes line the shelves; there are four ironbound locked chests on the floor, and a door on the far side. Marnoc takes 10 minutes to cast Detect Magic as a ritual; there are no magical items in the room except in the bottom of the fourth chest. Belmac pries the lock off the chest; there are 500 platinum pieces, and a book. Marnoc carefully opens the book with his warhammer; the book contains tips on health and diet. It perplexes the shit out of him. We pass it around; Zoltar investigates it to try to find any puzzles and finds none. It's powerfully magical.

Ship hands the book to the bear, which takes it in its mouth. Marnoc objects and takes the book out of the bear's mouth, but there is no saliva on it. The bear thinks it's leather. Belmac licks the book, tastes like paper. He spits on it; the spit slides off.

Belmac pries off the locks of the other three chests and Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to blow them open, with the other door opening too. THe door opens onto the stairwell that we used a lot yesterday. There's 1000 gold an uncountable amount of copper coin. We take the gold.

We head back into the audience room, and open the double doors. There's a 10-foot corridor, with another set of double doors. At each end of the hallway is a human skeleton with rusted armor. Belmac shoots an arrow at one skeleton; it shatters. He shoots the other one. We cross the hallway, after checking for traps, and open the door. There's the obliterated Visage of Strahd puppet, and the elevator. The cathedral is just ahead, we know.

We head back to the statues' landing, and go up to the other stairwell, which leads to the audience chamber as well.

We head to the guest room, via the closet of chests, up that stairwell two floors to the guest chambers.

We sit here in the room, flipping through the book, reading it out loud and arguing about it. The book is full of health tips. We're also simultaneously trying to figure out how to attract Theren's Dad. We eventually decide to go down to the servants' quarters, perhaps.

We talk about summoning the butler, or killing the butler, or asking Theren's dad to take us to Theren's Dad.

Theren says that the only thing that Theren's dad would want is Theren dead, but none of us have the spell prepared to mock Theren's death convincingly.

A journey with Cyrus the butler

We go down to the servants' quarters, to talk to the butler, down the main staircase. We pause at the elevator trapdoor, and cross it one at a time. On the far side is a door, which opens to the servants' hall. It stands in deadly silence; there's thick fog above the floor. A figure emerges from the far side of the hall; it's Cyrus.

A thick stench permeates from the room behind Cyrus. The bear recognizes the smell as boiling bodies; Marnoc pushes Cyrus aside and walks into the room to see an enormous cauldron with three zombies in it. They reach up to grab him, and miss. Cyrus pushes Marnoc aside and starts whacking the zombies with a ladle.

Through conversation, we bribe Cyrus with the cart of wheat to take us to Strahd, who is somewhere in the catacombs. We discuss using the wheat to create an aerosol bomb to thermobarically blast him, but the wheat is outside.

There are several ways down to the crypt, we decide to continue down the main staircase to the waterlogged corridor, with zombies, that leads to the catacombs.

Incidentally, Cyrus is humanoid. Just in case Theren wanted to turn him into a Spectre.

Cyrus leads us down the stairs to a waterlogged tunnel. The water is 3 feet deep with really foul water. "Maybe we should go the other way," says Marnoc. "This is a very bad idea."

"I can lead you through here. There are some traps in here but I can lead you through them," says Cyrus.

"No, we're going to go around."

"There are zombies down here," says Cyrus helpfully. "It's where I get the ingredients for my stew."

"Let's go back upstairs."

We go back up the staircase, then go the cathedral, then down the staircase in the cathedral to the main floor of the catacombs.

The catacombs, again

The sconces have been lit, the floors cleaned, the cobwebs banished. A figure in armor kneels, facing the stairs that lead down the glowy-wall crypt. The figure is wearing ornate armor.

1. Surprise round
   1. Marnoc casts Guiding Bolt, which hits the armor; it clatters to the ground in pieces.
   2. Theren casts Armor of Agathys.
   3. Zoltar casts Mage Armor.
2. Round 1
   1. Ship readies an arrow and casts Ensnaring Strike, preparing to shoot Strahd.
   2. Marnoc advances into the mdidle of the catacomb, and holds an action for Strahd.
   3. Zoltar casts Firebolt on the armor, and misses critically, passing through the magical field.
   4. The nagging screaming starts up; a figure approaches from the left. He announces, "Oh, you're back so soon! I thought you were coming back in two years." It's the steward we met, taking cover behind a pillar.
   5. Theren can't see the steward, but knows where he is. Theren moves to where he can see the steward, around the corner of a pillar. As the turns the corner, the screams pulse in a crescendo in his mind, but he takes no damage. He Hexes the steward and Eldridch Blasts the steward, hitting twice for a bunch of necrotic damage and disadvantage on Strength checks.
   6. Belmac moves next to Theren and shoots at the steward with his bow. The arrow bounces off the steward's armor.
   7. Bear moves into the catacombs, aiming to circle behind the steward from the other side.
3. Round 2
   1. Ship moves behind Theren, shoots an arrow at the steward, misses.
   2. "Gentlemen, gentlewoman, and Theren. It's good to welcome you to my home again." It's Strahd, coming from the opposite direction. "I believe you have regained your arcane power; so have I." Strahd casts Fireball, affecting Ship, Theren, Marnoc, Zoltar, and Ship. Most take 33 or 16 damage. Theren's Armor of Agathys dissipates.
   3. Marnoc casts Guardian of Faith near himself in the center of the crypt; if any enemy gets near they'll take damage. He moves near the fallen armor; it's starting to shift and move. A wisp of fog seems to be animating it.
   4. Zoltar casts Blight on Strahd, triggering her Wild Magic with 1d100 = 1. For her next ten turns, she'll roll Wild Magic surges. She runs towards Ship, Theren, and Marnoc, despite being encouraged not to: she's a walking hand grenade. And she's at 7 health.
   5. The armor stands up, moves towards Marnoc, and attacks with a critical hit for 16 slashing. Theren Wrath of the Storms for 2d8 = 11 lightning damage, pushing back the animated armor 10 feet The armor swings again, and misses.
   6. The steward, Rahadin, advances to close to Belmac and Theren, who make Wisdom saving throws. They take 13 points psychic damage. Then he uses his scimitar to attack Theren for 7 damage, follows up with another two scimitar attacks.
   7. Theren Hexblade Curses Rahadin again, and then swings his frost brand for 8d6+18 = 47 damage. Rahadin is very maimed.
   8. Belmac uses Second Wind to regain 11 health. He attacks and extra-attacks for 2d8 + 10 = 18 damage. Rahadin is still up. Belmac Action Surges and Rages, missing once, for 1d8+7=10, and Rahadin is still up. On a scale of 1 to 100, he's about a 2. Belmac moves around behind him.
   9. Bear moves up to Rahadin, and claws him to death. The screaming subsides. The Hexblade's Curse withdraws to Theren, and he heals 12 health. Because the Bear stole the kill, Theren can't resurrect the steward as a Spectre.
4. Round 3
   1. Ship moves out of cover, shoots at Strahd, misses, and moves into the area of the Guardian of Faith.
   2. Strahd casts Fireball again. Ship, Zoltar, Theren, Bear, and Belmac are within range; Ship and Theren remain standing. Zoltar, Bear, and Belmac are down. Strahd moves next to Ship.
   3. Marnoc moves away from the armor, towards Strahd. He tries to cast Turn Undead. Strahd fails the check, but passes it with a Legendary Action. "Really?" asks Strahd. "I thought I'd try," says Marnoc. He casts Healing Word on Belmac, restoring him to 8 health.
   4. Zoltar makes a Wild Magic save, rolling 11, shrinking 7 inches. She passes her first death saving throw.
   5. The animated armor staggers 30 feet up the stairs (leading from the crypt below) and forward into the crypt, wandering into the space covered by the Guardian of Faith. It takes 6 damage.
   6. Theren moves his Hex to Strahd. (We hear the butler Cyrus gleefully saying, "I am going to collect so many nice things.) He moves over to his father and swings his greatsword, for 6 necrotic, 32 slashing, and 6 cold.
   7. On the end of Theren's turn, Strahd moves away, up the stairs, without provoking attacks of opportunity. He says, "Well, then, if you don't want my presence, I'll let you lick your wounds." Marnoc strongly objects with vulgar imprecations.
   8. Belmac is now up, and moves round the pillar, prone, and he gets up, moves around the pillar, and shoots at Strahd, but misses.
   9. The bear passes its first death saving throw.
5. Round 4.
   1. Ship shoots Strahd for 7 magical piercing; Ensnaring Strike fails to hold him. Ship calls out, "Look, I just shot you with Ensnaring Strike, can you stay there for a minute?"
   2. Strahd turns and comes down the stairs, saying, "Well, if you want me to stay, I have a spell for you." He deals 8d8 = 45 to Marnoc, who remains standing. "Or would you prefer I left?" he pulls out the arrow that Ship had shot him with, and the skin quickly heals over. Then he moves away, towards the tomb that we had destroyed previously.
   3. Marnoc casts Guiding Bolt for 4d6 = 23 radiant damage. "You like that?" he shouts. And then he awaits his death at the hands of the animated armor.
   4. Zoltar's wild magic surge is 76; she glows with bright light that will blind anyone within 5 feet, for a minute. Fortunately, the nearest player character is 10 feet away. And she passes her second death save.
   5. The animated armor takes 20 radiant damage from the Guardian of Faith, then attacks Marnoc, downing him. Marnoc uses Wrath of the Storm in immediate retaliation, dealing 5 damage, and pushing the armor back 10 feet. The armor then advances to Ship and attacks, downing Ship. The armor is more scorched than dinged, but not immediately about to die.
   6. Strahd moves back to the start of the stairs. "I'll give you an hour," he says.
   7. Theren Eldritch Blasts Cyrus and the Animated Armor. He hits Cyrus for 4 damage, but misses the armor. This was an attempt to resurrect Cyrus as a tool of Theren's will. Theren drinks a witches' brew healing potion. He takes 5 damage.
   8. Belmac runs over to Ship, grabs their one remaining healing potion, runs over to Marnoc, and heals him for 9 health. "Revive, fucker!"
   9. The bear fails its second death save.
   10. Cyrus runs 30 feet away, towards the stairs we just came down.
6. Round 5.
   1. Ship passes their first death save.
   2. Strahd moves up the stairs about 90 feet.
   3. Marnoc is revived. He casts Sacred Flame on the animated armor and does some damage. Then he casts Heal on Zoltar for 10. She's conscious again. "Zoltar! Wake up! Stay away from me!"
   4. Zoltar wakes and takes her Wild Magic. With a 65 up to 3 creatures of her choice within 30 feet of her take 4d10 lightning damage. She deals 24 damage to the animated armor before standing up. She moves 15 feet to where she can see Strahd: next to Theren. As long as Theren moves more than 5 feet away from her by the end of his turn, he won't be blinded. Zoltar casts Fireball on Strahd, rolls wild magic and passes, and hits Strahd and Cyrus the butler for 8d6 = 35 damage; Cyrus is obliterated and Strahd takes 17 damage.
   5. The animated armor takes 10 damage from the Guardian of Faith, but it's still alive. It moves next to Marnoc and Belmac, dealing 10 slashing to Marnoc and downing him. It trips Wrath of the Storm for 8 damage and pushed back 10 feet. It moves back to Belmac and attacks, who parries, taking 4 damage.
   6. Theren moves 30 feet towards Strahd, then teleports 30 feet towards his father under the terms of Hex. With advantage from Marnoc's Guiding Bolt he hits twice with his Frost Brand longsword for 6 necrotic, 35 slashing, 10 cold. Strahd doesn't look great.
   7. Strahd makes an unarmed strike against Theren, but the weak attack doesn't succeed in damaging his son.
   8. Belmac attacks the animated armor thrice, missing twice, for 12 damage, finally killing it.
   9. The bear succeeds its third death save.
7. Round 6.
   1. Ship doublefails their third death save: one more failure, or any damage, and they will die.
   2. Strahd regains some health. He casts his final Fireball, saying, "If I can't have my kingdom, you can't have your friends." He hits Zoltar, Ship, Belmac, and Marnoc. Zoltar is down. Belmac is down; Ship is dead. Marnoc is still down. Strahd moves up the stairs 30 feet. Theren attack-of-opportunity stabs Strahd for 1 necrotic, 1 cold, 17 slashing.
   3. Marnoc fails his second death save.
   4. Zoltar, thanks to her Wild Magic, can now teleport up to 20 feet on her next few turns. She rolls a 1 on the death save, remains down but not dead.
   5. Theren runs up to Strahd, attack twice, misses once. 4 necrotic, 17 slashing, 6 cold. Strahd dies, by 1 health. Theren bonus actions himself with a witches' brew potion for 8 health, to total 19 health. He then jumps down the stairs, critically failing the acrobatics check for 4 points bludgeoning damage. He moves 30 feet forwards towards the party's remains.
8. Round 7.
   1. Belmac fails his first death save.
   2. The bear fails his second death save.
   3. Marnoc passes a death save.
   4. Zoltar's wild magic 47 results in a unicorn appearing within 5 feet of Zoltar, controlled by the DM.This roll is regarded as extremely lucky; it's agreeed by all that believing in the heart of the dice had a positive effect. She passes her death saving throw.
   5. The unicorn uses Healing Touch on Zoltar for 13 health, and Zoltar regains consciousness. It moves next to Belmac and Marnoc.
   6. Theren runs towards Marnoc, but can't quite reach Marnoc or Belmac with enough energy to heal them. He remembers his father's words, "you can't have your friends." He moves up next to Belmac with a Dash, taking his only action for the turn.
9. Round 8.
   1. Belmac passes his death save.
   2. Ship's death takes its final toll upon their animal companion: the bear fails its final death save, and dies.
   3. The unicorn heals Marnoc for 4 health.
   4. Zoltar's wild magic 23 turns her Remove Curse Blue, again. She teleports to Belmac, applies a healing potion to him for 9 health, and then moves away so she doesn't blind him.
   5. Theren picks up Ship, and carries them out of the crypt. Belmac says that we have a lot of money; we can take them to a temple for resurrection.
   6. Marnoc moves 30 feet towards the marble crypt with the barrier.
10. Round 9.
    1. Zoltar's wild magic makes most of the party invisible, and the unicorn too. With her teleportation she moves a total of 50 feet towards the barrier.
    2. Marnoc hears a voice in his head, "Do you know," and pushes the concept of every single spell that can raise the dead, reincarnate, revivify, or bring back the dead at him. Alas that he had not prepared any of his spells to do so.
    3. The invisible unicorn moves towards the crypt with the glowy blue wall, following Marnoc.
    4. Theren passes his turn.
11. Round 10.
    1. Belmac invisibly moves over to Ship and Bear, puts all their gear and items in the bag of holding, and picks up Ship. He looks over at Marnoc, and says, "I got him!"
    2. Marnoc, running away from where he last saw Zoltar, plugs his ears and shouts, "Tell me when it's safe to come out!" He's up next to the barrier.
    3. Zoltar can now see invisible beings, thanks to wild magic. She invisbly teleports to the other side of the barrier that had once rejected the entire party, and sees the two sarcophagi. One has the visage of a king, and the other has the visage of a queen. They were the king and queen of this castle, once upon a time.
    4. Theren takes a moment to contemplate if he felt his Hex return to him. Since we had destroyed the coffin, Strahd is indeed dead, and he feels the Hex return.
12. Round 11.
    1. The invisible unicorn walks past Marnoc and through the barrier; it moves up to the king's sarcophagus, and it starts pushing at the sarcophagus.
    2. Theren passes his turn.
    3. Belmac carries Ship towards the barrier.
    4. Marnoc, having felt something invisible go past him, dashes into the barrier to return towards the top of the stairs. He sees the invisible Belmac carrying Ship's visible corpse, says "Something's not right!", sprints past, and cowers next to the Guardian of Faith.
    5. Zoltar's final Wild Magic, a 69, recasts invisibility on herself and the unicorn. With help from the unicorn, she tries to open the king's sarcophagus, and succeeds. Inside is the corpse of the king, with a sceptre with a large diamond at the top. She then teleports next to the Queen's coffin, and the unicorn follows. She opens the queen's sarcophagus to reveal another crown.

Belmac calls out to Zoltar, who says nothing. Zoltar rides the unicorn over to Marnoc, scaring the bejezus out of him when the unicorn brushes against his shoulder. The unicorn then vanishes; its minute of life is up. Zoltar falls to the floor, eventually regaining visibility. Thanks to the effects of Wild Magic, she is now an inch shorter than Belmac, and blue.

Leaving Ofinor

The party leaves the castle and spends the night in the tavern; in the morning Marnoc casts Gentle Reposte on Ship to give them 10 free days, not counting towards the time passed since their death.

In two weeks' time, the party returns to Kingalore. The guards let the party back in. Belmac stomps up to the temple of Noidesop, kicks open the door, and slams Ship's body down on the temple altar. "How much?" asks Belmac of High Priest Hawk, who says, "The cost of the components." "How much?" "The … cost of the components?"

Theren explains the cost — a diamond worth 500gp to Raise Dead — and Belmac gives Hawk 50 platinum.

"I guess we could go buy another for the temple," says Hawk. "Lady and Gentlemen, if there's anything that you can contribute to this ceremony, that would help to anchor Ship's soul and bring it back."

Belmac says, "Ship was the one that stood up for the Sverfniblin girl, who gave me this fist-sized uncut emerald. Ship convinced us that she gets an equal share." He puts the emerald on the altar.

Marnoc puts his mace there; Hawk says, "That is an evil mace." Marnoc takes it back.

Belmac dumps out the party's loot from Ofinor on the table, including the book. Hawk says that the book is the Manual of Bodily Health, giving +2 to Con if read for 48 hours in 6 days.

Hawk performs the ritual.

Ship is content to return. And with a 19 on the DM's success die, Ship returns to life, Bear-less and with 1 health. Marnoc immediately shouts all the healing swear words at Ship, and Belmac dumps Ship's items out in front of the altar for them to reclaim.

Ship, not knowing what to say on this once-in-a-lifetime occasion, awkwardly says, "Thank you?"

"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news," says Belmac, "but we couldn't bring back the bear. The bear will be missed. I cried for 6 days on the wagon way back, not sure that we could bring you back." Ship looks at Belmac with an expression of doubt.

Epilogue

"This is eneough adventuring for me; I'm going to go live on the ship in Bugboldir. Bye," says Marnoc. Belmac declares his intent to go with.

Zoltar goes to magic school to better control her magic; but she finds that it's easier for her to cast from her soul.

Theren, having no home, joins with the ship. Belmac welcomes him, because he has some experience fighting.

Ship, entirely full of socialization, goes off to become a park ranger for several years, and take several levels in druid.

For the next several years, things happen. THe Solar empire begins to attack the Collective through the lands that separate the two. The Solar Empire eventually makes their way to the border; there's an uneasy standoff on the border. After some time, the peoples of the Collective return to Ofinor and re-inhabit it. With its position in the nation, it helps to slow the growth of the Empire and stump their antagonism. Very little word comes from the Drow cities in Tennult; internal warring prevents any firm power structure. When war breaks out, Captain Doctor Marnoc, Belmac, and Theren are offered letters of Marque as privateers.

Loot

All of this is spent on Ship's resurrection.

• 500 platinum
• (Ship) A dark crimson leatherbound book, with no title, of health and diet tips.
• 1000 gp
• The king's scepter
• The queen's crown
• The formerly-animated armor