DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

Strategy Session: Defeating Kerjes

April 15, 2023, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We come up with a game plan, meet a Magister, clean up the demons, and do some prep work. We have a team, and we have more weapons.

Table of Contents

  1. Next session

What we need:

The initial plan:

  1. Ryltar taunts Kerjes to the ground
  2. Jerry Webs Kerjes to the ground, either bleeding a legendary resistance immediately or trapping her.
  3. Web is signal to start shooting, or Jerry's Lightning Arrow
  4. All the other ranged attacks.

Q: Can we throw the folding boat at Kerjes?
A: We would need a ballista or catapult, and then would need to shout the command word for the 24' version.

Prep items:

We proceed towards the southern guardhouse, and look up the main road to see where the sunbeam landed. The sunbeam is no more, but what's there is a figure in silvery plate mail, riding a pegasus, dispatching a horde of demons with radiant attacks. One barlgura gets slashed and immediately dies.

We've seen this armor before, on a stand in an office in West Haven. The wearer approaches us, and removes his helmet. It's Magister Andraste Netyoine, high priest of Corellian Lorethian, who presided over our trial.

"What brings you to this neck of awful," asks Ryltar.

"A friend called in need," he says. It was Merrill, who's off helping those in need. He can only stay here until the noonday sun, but given that he has a pegasus and can three-shot a Bolgura, we think he can definitely go off and do independent hunting of all the demons. He's a mid-level paladin who can cast Find Greater Steed, so he's fine. We ask him to take out the demons and send survivors to the warehouse on the southeast side of the city.

From the guardhouse we collect:

We find a ballista, and Vurguron puzzles it out. Jerry and Vurguron drag it out of the rubble of the watch tower, and set it up. It's a large machine. It comes with two bolts, and it fits through the front door of the mayor's house, if we can move it there.

The Magister swoops overhead. He's killed all of the Vrock now.

We go to the Temple of Pellor. All the glass is shattered. The doors have been kicked in.

We call out to see if anyone's there, and we find an old man in scorched robes, supported by a Dwarven woman in slightly plainer robes. They're not rested,a nd have run out of healing. We follow them into the basement, and we find a lot of people hiding there. Ryltar gives an encouraging speech, aided by Percival. There's a tension in the room, so Ryltar says that we've closed the portal, and that the Magister is flying around, smiting the demons, even as we speak. The speech is a success; the wounded guards and acolytes stand. There is a rising hope in the room. "We fight for our homes," says Jerry, "And for those that we love." There's a cheer. It's the first one we've ever really heard directly for us.

Our recruits:

We decide to rely on the church's sanctuary properties, and move the injured here.

We're short on crossbows now, so we head to the northwest guardhouse.

What we want from the Magister:

The northwest guardhouse is mostly intact, and the door is open. It's probably looted. We go in anyways. All that's left is splintered. We find a few crossbow bolts and arrows.

At the eastern guardhouse, we find an intact building and a splintered ballista.

We go to center stage, and have Ryltar call out to the Magister. Some demons decide to attack us; the celestial pegasus gallows down from the sky and tramples an Armanite. The demonic presence there is quickly and easily defeated.

We ask the Magister what he'd do if he were as crazy as us, if he were in a demon-infested city, if he were going to attack a dragon. He says that he's not as crazy as us, and the city is much less demon-infested than it was. We explain the ballista, and the companion options, and he says that it's a good plan if we have the element of surprise. He won't be around to help us, but he's interested to hear about the Great Banyo Tree, and the Roc.

We send him out by way of the Temple of Pellor, to do more healing. He decides that he will see through what Ren had started, and with two third-level castings of Aid, he gives everyone +10 standard HP, and Ryltar gets a second helping for a total of +20.

Ryltar asks, "Is there anything we can do to repay this debt to you, assuming we live?"

"Yes. I do not know how, but we will be needing assistance in the future. I will call for you. But for now, West Haven will give you support."

"And we will support West Haven," says Ryltar.

The Magister flies off to the Temple of Pellor, so we go back to the warehouse to start moving people there. The warehouse is overflowing with people, and a line to get in. So we co-opt the captain of the guard, and his chain of command, and get people moving.

The embers of the city's mood are fed with a breath of life, and the people move with new energy. We distribute the weapons we had gathered. A wandering Maw is found and quickly dispatched. The ballista is set up in the foyer with a little freedom of movement to allow aiming, and tables are turned to defensive shields.

Umara and the two youngest go to the temple of Pellor; Majorie insists on joining the fight.

The noonday sun comes.

Next session

Our augments:

The plan:

  1. Ryltar taunts Kerjes to the ground
  2. Jerry Webs Kerjes to the ground, either bleeding a legendary resistance immediately or trapping her.
  3. Percival casts Bixby's Giant Hand to limit her movement upwards, and does so from somewhere else in the square, so we're not losing both our healers to the same breath weapon.
  4. Web is signal to start shooting, or Jerry's Lightning Arrow
  5. Fire the ballista! The captain of the guard is on this.
  6. All the other ranged attacks. Jerry switches to Hunter's Mark.
  7. Merrill stands by in the mayor's mansion for emergency healing of Ryltar or other combatants.

In the long run: