Session XV: The Swarm of Destruction and the Siege of Drezen Report

General Summary

The party stands at the entrance of the swarm cave mouth, and they use invisibility sphere while entering. They see a hole inside the cavern where the vescavors are coming from. The party climbs down into the hole and they see a chittering crystalline cave covered in mucus. They head to the south, seeing various vescavors just eating at the wall, beating its head against a wall, swirling around against its own tail. They stick to the south wall, keeping away from vescavors when needed. They have been relatively quiet, and they have been able to maintain their stealth. After moving through, they notice something a lot larger than a vescavor, a Vescavor Queen.   The party starts working on their attack. They move in silently, and start preparing their surprise round. They back out, thinking they are going to buff up, and return to the cavern where the queen is. Reid starts off by notifying everyone about the invisibility dropping. Setra uses gravity bow. Jorryn uses shield of darkness. Reid then casts haste on the party. Yuhia then opens up with a smite and a charge. The queen responds with a little bit of healing, a little bit of screaming, and then attacking Yuhia, doing some damage. Bosco then starts bardic performance, buffing the party, getting Setra at a higher bonus, and emptying a lot of damage into the enemy. Jorryn then charges in with a two-handed bastard sword, and Jorryn shoves his bastard sword into the demon's head.   Afterwards, the party discovers a portal to the southeast, a small tear in reality. It is noticably hotter here, and the party starts figuring out what the portal is, and attempting to figure out what to do. The vescavors are starting to leave and disperse. Bosco notes that the portal is a dimensional portal to the Abyss, and it can be closed in various methods. Reid then shoots a scroll of dimensional anchor to close the portal, and it swirls, expanding as the creature's hand is let in, but then it implodes, cutting off the creature's hand. The rift is closes. The cavern's temperature starts reducing as the portal closes.   The party heads back to the surface, and as they emerge from the cavern entrance, the vescavors seem to be dispersing, heading further into the Worldwound in random directions. The party returns to camp, and reports back. Irabeth congratulates the party, and the army presses on towards Drezen. They sleep a few miles away from Drezen.   Arles Jhestander is then convinced by the party to show that victory is possible. Reid tries to convince him that nothing will ever be wrong. Yuhia sits him down and tries to figure out what he thinks will happen. He explains that every time that Drezen is attempted to be recovered, it ends in serious failure. Yuhia explains, in this situation, they have a lot more this time. Yuhia successfully convinces Arles and shakes his hand, doing a wrist grab hug.   In the afternoon, the party arrives at the entrance to Drezen. Anevia begins to scout the town, and the army sets up camp on the south side of Drezen. The entire town looks like it is completely ransacked, and the place is destroyed. The party sits down to talk while the scouting groups begin to find out the state of Drezen. After the scouting party comes back after a few hours, Irabeth calls the party over to the command tent to report on the situation.   Anevia, Irabeth, and Aron are all inside talking about what is going on, and what the results of the scouting has been. They explain that there are six points of interest: - The Drezen Cemetery: A horde of demons, zombies, and ghouls. - Haunted Vault: Something that comes out of it every now and then. - Ahari Bridge: Something is roped around the pillars ready to destroy it at a moment's notice. - Southbank: Soldiers that have taken residence, as well as an army of tieflings. - Paradise Hill: Its a high ground, but its guarded by shears. - Watchtowers of Drezen: Need to be dealt with to allow the army to advance   Jorryn K'Thral says that he would prefer to destroy the Cemetery should be recovered first. Yuhia says it would be best to do that so that the west flank is cleared up. Reid notes that the Sword of Valor might be in the vault. The party decides the best bet is to let the army take care of the Cemetery while the party takes care of the Haunted Vault.   As the party approaches the Haunted Vault, they notice that light's distance is reduced here, making it harder to see. At the front doors, the party heads up to them and inspects the door. Setra tries to unlock the door, while Jorryn helps with his magic. However, Setra is not successful. Finally, Reid moves up and uses the chime of opening on the door which also fails, which means that the party switches to Jorryn with the heavy adamantine mace, and giving it to Setra to try to open the door by bashing it down. After a good half minute of work, Setra bashes down the door, and looking inside, the party sees lots of bones.   The party buffs up as they head inside. They are greeted by more double doors. They open them and head inside. At the end of the hallway, they notice a creature, a Berbalang/, and it starts off by casting a spell and charging. Reid casts ray of enfeeblement, but the Berbalang/ ignores it. Jorryn starts off by swinging, but missing. Bosco starts inspire courage. Setra then unloads her arrows into the Berbalang/. Yuhia smites the creature and moves in, doing some serious damage.   The Berbalang/ responds by reaching into Jorryn's heart and draining his constitution. Reid unloads some magic missiles into the Berbalang/, while Jorryn casts true strike. Bosco moves up and throws at the Berbalang/, but misses twice. Setra then casts gravity bow, while Yuhia Zhir steps up and swings at the Berbalang/ and does some serious damage, ending its undeadness.   The party begins to heal up, and they begin to figure out why the area is covered in darkness. They discover a permanent unhallow effect on the roof. They find out that they can target the effect from the outside. Reid attempts to dispel it, surges it and disables the spell. They have cleared out the Haunted Vault. Reid suggests the party explore the area, but they do not find anything of importance.  

Elsewhere... on the Battlefield at the Cemetery

The Mass Combat begins with the Paladins versus the Zombies, led by a Ghast. The army assembles on the south battlefield, readying their bows. They sit at the edge, pulling out their bows and smiting the enemy. They release their bows, and it lands on the faces of every enemy routing it in one ranged phase. This grants the army a +1 Morale Bonus.  

Heading back to Base camp

The party and the army returns back to the Basecamp and rests for the night. The army and the party sit down for some good food. In the morning, Anevia and Irabeth assemble the party, inquiring into what they plan on doing for today. The party discusses the options, discussing options of Ahari bridge. The party decides to use invisibility sphere as they approach the bridge. The scout ahead, noticing some large creatures that are tied to the pillars of the bridge. They are Man-Eating Aurochs. They talk about how they could start the fight by taking out some of the creatures, then going into the chasm to deal with the other two. As they are discussing it, a creature releases a wave of glitterdust onto the party.   Setra starts off by just blind attacking one of the Aurochs, but misses all of her attacks. Bosco starts an inspire courage, while Reid casts floating disk. The flying creature then casts black tentacles, wrapping Emily, Bosco, Jorryn, and Reid. Jorryn and Bosco struggles to get out, and Yuhia heads into the valley to confront the Auroch. She hits it and the Auroch responds with a strike. Another Auroch is able to successfully pull a pillar out, but the bridge stays standing. Setra shoots a few arrows at one of the Aurochs and succeeds, but is still blind. Bosco attempts to throw two starknifes, one misses, and the second lands solidly on the creature, but it hits one of his mirror images.   Down in the valley, the Auroch has pulled itself free and is heading towards Yuhia. The flying creature throws an acid arrow at Yuhia, but she absorbs it using Absorb Blow. Jorryn uses a channel energy to heal the grappled party, and then Yuhia opens up on the Auroch she's in front of, destroying it. Another Auroch, which is free moves up to Yuhia and misses. Setra and Emily struggles to get out of the black tentacles. Another Auroch succeeds on getting out from his location, and the bridge stays standing, but barely. The last Auroch struggles against his chains. Reid attempts to get out, and remains blind. The caster moves over towards Yuhia starting to cast a spell. Jorryn grants Bosco a boon, and then Yuhia smacks another Auroch for some damage. Setra surges out of the tentacles, but Emily sticks around in the tentacles. Setra finds the edge of the cavern, and then gets out of the tentacles. The free auroch moves around and tries to hit Yuhia but it fails. Bosco struggles against the tentacles. Reid then is able to break free of the blinding.   The flying creature then swings around, and buffs one of the Aurochs with stoneskin, Bosco struggles against the tentacles, but even with Reid helping with liberating command, he doesn't succeed. Jorryn also fails to do anything against the tentacles, sticking in the effect. Yuhia then strikes a few times on the Auroch he has been dealing with, and then switches to the other one that has come up behind him. Emily tries to get out of the tentacles, but fails. Setra casts companion shield on Emily, and then tries to stop the glitterdust but fails. Bosco finally breaks out of the black tentacles and moves out. The Auroch attempts to get to Yuhia but fails, and Reid casts glitterdust on the Auroch and flying creature. The Auroch is blinded, while the flying creature is just covered in glitter. The creature flies up, and then casts fireball where the tentacles are, which hits Reid, Jorryn, and Emily, which Reid responds with casting liberating command on Jorryn, which he breaks out. Jorryn responds by casting shield of wings, and then moving out of the tentacles, heading towards the flying caster.   Yuhia heals herself up a little bit and then attacks the blind Auroch, killing it. Emily continues to struggle to get out, but a blind Setra tries to shoot blindly, but fails. The remaining Auroch attempts to hit Yuhia and lands a blow, but doesn't succeed very well. Bosco shoots at the caster, and causes the spell he was casting to end. Reid then casts telekinetic volley at the flying caster and gets rid of an image. The flying creature then moves close to Jorryn and casts resilient sphere, which he fails at, but Bosco uses saving finale to prevent Jorryn from getting trapped. Jorryn then attempts to cast dismissal on the flying creature, but, since he is a native, he doesn't need to try to roll.   Yuhia delivers more damage on final Auroch, and Reid uses liberating command on Emily, which gets her out of the black tentacles. Setra then shoots the flying creature, missing twice, but hits the third, and gets unblinded at the end of her turn. The final Auroch attempts to damage Yuhia, but fails. The flying creature flies over the party and then shoots acid arrow at Reid, dealing some damage. Jorryn moves over and heals Reid with a channel energy. Yuhia then finally delivers the final blow against the last Auroch. Setra then launches a volley against the flying caster, and hits a bunch of images, and dealing a little bit of damage. Bosco throws at the caster, and then hits an image, then goes to pick up a blade from earlier. Reid then launches a telekinetic volley at the caster, dealing some damage. The caster turns around in the air, and casts stoneskin on himself.   Jorryn then drops his shield and charges the caster, dealing a significant amount of damage, slicing him in half, and the two halves land in the water below. Reid tanks the remaining damage from black tentacles, and the party heals him through it.  

Over at the Southbank...

The army meets the enemies in the town, finding tieflings and cultists in the town. They begin by shooting the creatures from long range aggressively, and smiting the second army. They are able to severely damage the second army before going into the Melee phase. The tiefling army deals some significant damage against the paladins. The army decides to heal a little bit, resulting in the enemy unable to damage the paladins, but also preventing the paladins from dealing any damage to the enemy. The next round the army heals up a little more, and the enemy deals some damage against the healing. They continue healing, with the enemy unable to deal damage. The army releases a volley against the second army, routing it. The paladins then retreat and heal up a little bit, while the cultists regroup for the round. In their retreat, the paladins rout the cultists.   The army is able to find a cache of magical armor and a bunch of supplies for the army.

Rewards Granted

• cloak of resistance +3
• amulet of natural armor +2
• wand of dimension door (9 charges)