Session 9 - Ghouls Don't Have an AC of 16?!?

General Summary

When last we left our heroes...

They had just engaged in battle with the high priest of the death cult, a suspicious-looking warlock character, (*cough* Janhara *cough*) and a host of their undead lackeys. The room they were in was filled with three large dissection tables in the middle, shelves filled with vials and other instruments along the east wall, and a row of jails or cages along the west wall. The warlock immediately started moving towards the southern wall, where a door could just be made out, surrounded by piles of corpses.
The party surged forward into battle. Slappa played an epic tune on the lute of chaos, that didn't really seem to affect the skeletons. Seeing this, he then pulled out his shortsword, swinging at any of the undead who came his way.
Trickles made a hook shot to the ceiling and swung over the skeletons, heading for the warlock - who spoke a Word of Power and stunned Trickles before fleeing the room, causing Trickles to land hard on the ground.
Glitz moved quickly, slicing right through the joints on one of the skeleton's legs. The creature stumbled around while Glitz kept a few others engaged in battle.
Norath Pyloth pulled his wand out of his robe and fired magic missiles at the group. "You'll pay for this!" he cried. "This was the greatest gig of my life! You'll all pay!"
Flaar was almost immediately cornered by a Ghoul who lurched toward him and his small companion. Flaar kept moving Boner in front, cowering behind the little skeleton and trying to get magical hits in on the ghoul when he could.
Marcel invoked the power of Selûne, attempting to turn the undead throughout the chamber, but it only minimally worked, with most of the creatures completely unaffected. "These are premium skeletons!" yelled Flaar. Marcel agreed, as his cleric insight gave him the feeling that these were more than just ordinary skeletons - they were raised and powered by some source beyond mere magic.
Trickles moved forward to engage with Norath, and noticed that, while at a distance the high priest looked like a drow, up close he did not look to have particularly elven features. He swung his rapier at the priest, who responded in huffed annoyance. "I'll kill you myself!" Norath cried, motioning to summon a Mage Hand to try and distract Trickles while he stabbed at him with a dagger. The halfling was too quick for the priest, though, and nimbly dodged out of the way.
He was not quite so lucky with the dragonborn skeleton. The undead creature stumbled close to Trickles, swinging its sword and injuring the halfling badly. Norath just laughed, but quickly changed his tune as Trickles deftly rolled between his legs and jabbed him hard with his rapier. "How dare you strike me, you halfling half-wit?" Norath yelled. (Narrator's note: glass houses, throwing stones, Nyloth.)
"Hey, some of my best friends are halflings!" Trickles replied. Watching this all go down, Marcel was able to pull on his last reserve of magical energy to send a healing spell Trickles's way, then he moved to Arindorf and swung WaveRider, his magical mace, at one of the skeletons nearest his friend.
Moving closer to the trapdoor, Marcel called out, "We might be in over our heads, here! Maybe time to think about getting out - or strategically circling up - or something!"
Just then, Nyloth cast a Hideous Laughter spell on Trickles, who doubled over rolling on the ground laughing. Norath sneered as if to say yeah, that's what I thought, then stepped over Trickles to move towards the rest of the group.
Flaar, still engaged with the ghoul, was still hiding behind Boner but managed to shoot of a spell at the ghoul - a spell that had the unfortunate side affect of turning Arindorf into a bear! (Or fortunate side effect? Depending on your point of view I guess?) BEAR-indorf (yup, it's canon. Get used to it.) charged at Glitz, grabbed her, and flung her with eerie precision at Norath. Glitz wasn't expecting that so didn't quite manage to hit the priest with her sword, but did jump on his head, rebound off, and land right in front of him, ready for battle.
Trickles quickly became surrounded by skeletons. A dragonborn skeleton took a swing and hit his prone figure, which at least helped the halfling snap out of the spell and manage to jump to his feet. "That stopped being funny five seconds ago!" he shouted. But just then, a human skeleton came up from the other side, cutting into Trickles with his weapon and rendering the halfling unconscious.
"Nooooooooo...... Trickles!!!!!!" Glitz yelled, fiercely holding her own against Norath and keeping an eye on the one legless dragonborn skeleton crawling towards her. At this point, Glitz could see that Norath was sweating, with black paint pooling off of his face. He also didn't have pointy ears - this was clearly not an elf or half-elf.
Marcel leapt into action, swinging WaveRider into the nearest skeleton, pushing it away and breaking through the undead to run towards Trickles. "Hang on, buddy!!" he yelled.
Slappa grabbed the Lute of Chaos, throwing down the magical whammy bar as hard as he could. Suddenly, a sphere of magical energy appeared around him, adding a layer of protection on all sides of the dragonborn. Even as a dragonborn skeleton swung and hit Slappa, the shield repelled all of the damage.
Glitz, still engaged with Norath, sent a quick communication to Gig, her owl, and the little creature dive-bombed the priest's eyes, trying to incapacitate him. Unfortunately Norath was able to dodge out of the way, holding up his arm as a shield. "You dare attack me with an owl?" he cried, stabbing at Glitz with a magical-looking dagger, which she nimbly dodged. "Damn you halfling!" he yelled. Clearly, Norath is not the sharpest weapon in the smithy.
Skeletons continued to attack Bearindorf, and with a mighty swing of his paw, the ranger was able to cut one of the human skeletons completely in half. It exploded in necrotic energy, but thankfully only Bearindorf was affected by the blast.
Marcel finally reached Trickles, and frantically cast Spare the Dying on the halfling. As Trickles gasped into consciousness, Marcel shoved a Superior Healing potion into his hands.
Slappa ran over to Trickles and Marcel, making sure to get them and Glitz inside his protective bubble, and got ready to breathe his powerful dragon breath.

Tyler: "I'm pretty sure ghouls have an AC of 12."
Craig: "This is a PREMIUM ghoul!"
Tyler: "I'm definitely going to check the Monster Manual about this."

Report Date

27 Oct 2020

Characters Interacted with:
Norath Pyloth
Janhara
a bunch of undead

The Short Version

Part 1 of an epic battle against death cult high priest Norath Pyloth and a bunch of undead minions. A mysterious warlock figure (Is it Janhara? We're pretty sure it's Janhara) stopped Trickles in his tracks with magic and fled the scene. Everyone engaged with multiple skeletons, tried to take down Nyloth, and Flaar and Boner were stuck with the single ghoul.