DND Blog

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

The Ninetieth Session

September 2, 2023, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We fight the Mummy Lord Degrazil at Lanthet, and almost kill him, but fail to prevent him from taking Kerjes' body back to his Lady, Mistress Silra Edenair, also known as Belladonna.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Planning to save Lanthet
  3. Lanthet

Last session

We went to the Sky Diamond Academy and caught up Guy on goings-on. He gives us the latest on the stars. We learn that the stars represent Fey Seeds, of which we have three. We discovered that a professor of divination was actually a bard, and got him in trouble. And then we learned that the Mummy Lord is marching on Lanthet with an army of demons and undead.

Planning to save Lanthet

Merril's spell is still waiting for Jerry's response.

We're coming with what help we can. Contact magister. How many; how soon? Evacuate if possible, else civilians to sanctuary. Destroy Kerjes' corpse if possible.

No response comes.

Guy wonders what the fuck just happened; Jerry tells everyone in the astronomical observatory.

The Mummy Lord is resistant to fire and ice and will be surrounded by his army. Plus he may try to raise Kerjes.

The bard professor will be useless; little more than ablative meat.

The deans of the school will probably be asleep; do we want to try to find an administrator who can wake them?

Guy is packing up all his stuff. Guy says, "This is all I have for the tower. I still have notes to go over, but I can't really stay in here." He's willing to take a note for us to the Deans when the Deans wake up in the morning.

We have to go save Lanthet again, from the Mummy Lord we mentioned yesterday. The Butcher of Othe, Degrazil, seeks his Lady, Silra Edenair. We ask that you grant clemency to Professor Gon-Li, because though he doesn't know much Divination, he is apparently very good at teaching it. If you're interested in fighting a Mummy Lord, or examining the corpse of a Green Dragon, come to Lanthet. If you want to do archaeology to a pre-Divergence structure, visit the pyramid at Barehold.

We leave the note with Guy, ask hiom to tell the reception desk if he receives premonitions of our return, and then we head out of Sky Diamond to the Lyceum. We teleport off to Lanthet.

Lanthet

The city is awake. We see Merrill and Majorie, and a 30yo half-elven male in a guardsman outfit, a darker-skinned older male human.

The scouts report 50-100 skeletons with bows and arrows, and multiple demons. They're a half-day's ride out at most. They have run out of scouts. The mummy and skeletons are vulnerable to fire.

There's some discussion of how to make Kerjes safe; we end up snapping her neck, and leaving Merrill in charge as a last line of defense.

Then we all run off to the north wall, and set ourselves on the guard towers on the north side of the gate. The horde is not yet visible.

The guard on top of the tower is shaking, but Ryltar calms him and inspires him.

To the west, we see a flying black fabric banner. The air falls quiet. "Smoke if you got 'em" says one of the guards, and Ryltar lends his pipe to Percival. Percival takes from the pipe, tries not to cough, and in the cloud of smoke that erupts from him, he sees the time that he saved a child from drowning.

We learn that the approaching army are skeletons, marching in order with shields and spears. It's not like them; they don't naturally march in formation. A commander is giving them order and shape, but we don't know if the Mummy Lord is with them. And we don't see the Mummy Lord, but we do see steam rising off the three demons, who we recognize. Preceding them is the Mummy Lord, the Butcher of Othe himself.

But something is off about the Mummy Lord. He has an odd silhouette.

The demons are the demons we fought at the Banyo Tree.

They're approaching the northwest gate, so we reposition there.

300 feet out, they stop their advance.

A booming voice calls out: "People of this city, flee before your lives. I come to take what is now property of Lady Silra Edenair Belladonna, Great Lady of the Banyo Tree." And then there's some threats and such.

The right arm of Degrazil has been replaced with vine-covered tree trunks.

They reach within 200 feet.

The commander of the guard calls out for a volley of arrows. Ryltar dispatches an Ottiluk's Freezing Sphere among the volley of arrows. The volley of a few dozen arrows flies towards the army; Degrazil orders the skeletons to turtle under their shields. Some arrows land on Degrazil; he seems unharmed.

The sphere explodes. Degrazil smiles, and says, "Perfect."

The Mummy Lord becomes sand and falls apart into a moving cyclone of sand.

The Hezrous charge the wall, splitting towards either side of the wall.

Vurguron uses the Boros Charm to Haste Jerry, who runs off to attack the lone Herzous, popping Hunter's Mark and slashing twice, missing once, for 14 slashing. The Herzous attacks her.

The other two Herzous begin to climb the wall; they come close enough now for Ryltar and Percival to attack. They deal some damage.

  1. Round 1
    1. Ryltar casts Blink on himself, and blinks out.
    2. The first Hezrous, Silver in Color, climbs the wall, and attacks the two nearest guards, crunching one and wounding another.
    3. Jerry's Brown Hezrous lands the first of three attacks, for 9 slashing and poisoned.
    4. Jerry casts Protection From Poison on herself, curing the poisoning, then attacks the Hezrous for 12 slashing.
    5. The skeletons advance a bit and form up some more.
    6. The Copper Hezrous climbs the wall and moves into the city.
    7. Percival's Storm Boomerang knocks apart the horde of skeletons, but there is such a mass of bones that they simply reform.
    8. Degrazil reforms from the sand, and attacks Vurguron. He reaches out with his stump-hand, and blasts Vurguron, taking 26 necrotic, and his hitpoint max drops by the same amount. It was Harm.
    9. Vurguron is 20 feet away from Degrazil, and casts Melf's Minute Meteors, sending one at the pharaoh. Degrazil succeeds, but the flames eat away his bandages, exposing tree vines.
    10. Degrazil rushes past Vurguron in a wave of sand.
  2. Round 2.
    1. Ryltar Blinks back in, dropping to the ground just inside the wall. He chases after the Pharaoh, casting Psychic Lance for 21 psychic damage. Then he blinks out.
    2. Copper drops to the street.
    3. Brown attacks Jerry, missing three times.
    4. Jerry shrugs off the aura of poison, casts Hunter's Mark, hasted-ly attacks thrice for 56 slashing, and then backs up 40 feet.
    5. Vurguron gets volleyed by the skeleton archers: 12d6 = 17, not too terribly bad. Then the skeletons move 20 feet closer.
    6. Percival climbs down the wall, and casts Protection From Good And Evil on himself.
    7. Degrazil casts Guiding Bolt on Vurguron, who Shields. He says, "Do not pursue."
    8. Vurguron pursues.
  3. Round 3.
    1. Ryltar blinks in, 40 feet away from the Mummy Lord, and casts Psychick Lance for 24 halved to 12, runs 30 feet closer, then doesn't Blink. He converts some sorcery points into a fourth-level spell slot.
    2. The Pharaoh turns to stare Vurguron in the face, and with a 18 Vurguron succeeds against the Dreadful Glare, becoming immune to it.
    3. We can no longer see the silver Hezrous or the copper, but we hear screams.
    4. Brown approaches Jerry, pinning her to the wall.
    5. Jerry kills it. Sher climbs the wall. She sees Percival and asks where the Mummy Lord went; he gestures in a vague direction and she runs off that way, at Hasted speed.
    6. The Skeletons double-move closer to the gate.
    7. Percival moves towards the Mummy Lord direction, running, gets line-of-sight, and deals 27 fire.
    8. The Mummy Lord rushes forwards in another surge of sand, getting now line-of-sight to the main square with Kerjes' Head.
    9. Degrazil gets to the courtyard.
  4. Round 4
    1. Ryltar Dimension Doors to the square, on the other side of the Mummy Lord, 30 feet from the Dragon.
    2. Merrill, Majorie, and half-a-dozen others have taken aim at the Mummy.
    3. The Pharaoh frightens and paralyzes everyone present, until the end of his turn. Ryltar rolls a natural 1 on the resistance.
    4. The morning air is full of scream.s The Herezous are not going for the body.
    5. Jerry hastes towards the square, and stops just short of being able to see the ground, for safety. The last Herzous falls down into the streets.
    6. The skeletons approach the city gate at a quick march. Percival is right in front of them.
    7. Percival Dimension Doors in next to Ryltar, and inspires him.
    8. Degrazil looks at them. "What you fight for is fruitless. You know that I will come back. Get them. There is more to fight for than this," he says, and pulls out a brick-sized cage, made from twigs and string, and opens it. A huge suction appears, trying to draw the body into the cage. It consumes the body.
    9. Merrill casts an inverted Magic Circle on Degrazil, trapping him inside it. He cannot teleport out, cannot exit by means of teleportation or interplanetary travel, has disadvantage on attack rolls, and creatures cannot be charmed or frightened by it. Ryltar is no longer frightened.
    10. Degrazil looks around, annoyed.
    11. Vurguron attacks the mummy lord.
  5. Round 5
    1. Ryltar opens with Psychic Lance for 24 halved to 12 damage.
    2. Jerry climbs down the wall, attacks thrice, missing once, for 32, and then climbs back out of the Magic Circle.
    3. The Herzous continue to attack.
    4. The skeletons advance.
    5. Percival uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the Mummy, and it fails.
    6. The Mupmmy tries to cast something, and Ryltar tries to Counterspell, but fails. Degrazil successfully casts Dispell Magic on the Magic Circle, which shatters. "Fruitless", he says.
    7. Vurguron advances as close as he can, to within 60 feet. He looses two of the Minute Meteors for 15 damage. The mummy staggers, and the last of the tattered bandages are burned away.
    8. "Do not get in the say of progress," says Degrazil, and with two legendary actions, whirlwinds away behind Vurguron.
  6. Round 6
    1. Ryltar casts another major spell on the Pharaoh, which is resisted legendarily.
    2. Screams continue off in the distance of the city.
    3. Jerry sprints up and slices twice, for 39.
    4. The skeletons march further into the city. They're beginning to file out into the city.
    5. Jerry succeeds on a Wisdom save.
    6. Percival moves closer to line-of-sight on the Pharaoh, and casts something.
    7. Vurguron and Jerry hear the pharaoh say, "My Lady, return me to you." He falls into sand and disperses.

"Guess we should go after those demons," says Percival, but the skeletons are invading too. Jerry and Vurguron go after the demons; Percival and Ryltar go to the skeletons. Haste wears off on Jerry; Vurguron closes the gap but is still behind her.

Ryltar gets as close as he can, and then Cone of Colds them into oblivion. He destroys more than half. The skeletons reply with swords and shortbows. Ryltar takes 23 slashing. Percival takes no damage, and replies with a Fireball that tickles Ryltar's eyebrows and shatters a few skeletons. Ryltar does Cone of Cold again, for 45 cold damage. The skeletons are slow to reassemble from their scattered bones, but they're still reassembling. The reassembled skeletons slash with swords and miss, then volley with arrows, hitting Ryltar for 17 and Percival for 8. Percival Fireballs for 38 and the skeletons are scattered once more, slowly reassembling. Ryltar is kind of out of useful spells at this venture, but still does some damage. The skeletons are much diminished; they do not do meaningful damage to Ryltar or Percival. Percival replies with an upcast Fireball for 46 halved to 23, leaving behind one little inchy-squinchy finger. Percival steps on it, and grinds it under his boot into the ground.

The Herzous attacks Jerry and fails; Jerry replies with 15 slashing, and flees 20 feet up the wall. Vurguron casts Firebolt and misses. The Herzous attacks Vurguron thrice and misses each. Jerry moves down, flanks, and attacks twice, hitting for 37. The Herzous attacks Jerry thrice and attacks once, for 13. Jerry replies with two attacks and a crit for 59, killing it.

The screams are dying out; she and Vurguron head in that direction.

The body of the other Herzous is found dead, in front of Majorie and Merrill. It is covered in the blood of townsfolk.

Jerry asks whether the townsfolk had been set in a Sanctuary; they had instead been hidden anywhere they could. Majorie asks what happened.

"The Mummy Lord took the Green Dragon's corpse, back to Belladonna. Belladonna is not only the poisoner of the forest, but also his "Lady", his girlfriend. They will be working together at the Great Banyo Tree. Which means we need to break his canoptic jars."

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