Session 13: Scary straw and tin soldiers

General Summary

Summary: 3 points A little confusion about whether loot was divided up after the last combat. Cleared up with some review of the #gmchatter channel.

Assess after the combat

Maya takes a whiff of the pouch they removed from the leader bugbear, attempting to determine its contents, but detects several different herbs and minerals that don't make sense together but seem centered around food. The bugbears' javelins(12) are packed onto Cinnamon for later use/sale. The group decides to take a breather given their recent exertions, so they relocate to another clearing away from the carnage to rest for a while.

A short break

The party cleans off the worst of the battle gunk, straightens out the worst kinks in the armor, and has a snack. Sunny sings a song about bugbears and how they're right bastards. The noise of the forest resumes after things have been quiet for a while.

A chat with the prisoner

The bound and gagged bugbear has returned to consciousness, so the group (after some discussion) decides to ask him some questions. Ol'Harb menaces the bugbear and inquires how many of his kind are around, but the bugbear seems unfazed by these efforts. He mentions that he has many cousins but doesn't elaborate futher. Sunny tries to buddy up with the bugbear, explaining that Harb is dangerous and might vomit acid in his face. The bugbear is more swayed by this line of approach, admitting that being dissolved in acid sounds like a bad way to go.

• Of other of his kind - he has many cousins, but has not seen most of them for a month or more. He suspects the party has slain all his nearby kin.
• Of the gold mask - the bugbear inquires about whether the leader who wore it is dead. When he is told that yes, the leader is dead, the bugbear chuckles a bit and calls him a fool for thinking the mask protected him. The bugbear indicates that being the biggest and strongest protected the leader more than the mask did.
• Of the pouch - the bugbear apparently knows nothing.
• Of the medallion - "when you are not the leader, your choice of treasure is poor."
• Any nearby elves or where they found the treasure - "we kill many people in this forest; who can remember every fight they have ever had?"
• Maya makes a vague threat about killing him, but the bugbear seems resigned to being dead already, either killed by the party or (if they let him go) by some forest creature. Maya indicates this may not be his fate, but the bugbear seems unconvinced.
• Of the bugbear camp - "We search for prey; where we find it, we camp. Then we search for more prey."
• Leucis asks why the bugbear ran - "You let me run."
• Sunny points out that the forest wasn't any less dangerous when the bugbear ran before. Nock interjects that this was before he had hit him. The bugbear doesn't so much reply as indicate the rather sorry state of his physical person.
• Sunny inquires if the time since the last meetup with his cousins is normal - the bugbear is noncommittal and indicates they don't have some set schedule to meet up, it just happens when it happens.

Given the bugbear's (relative) cooperation, the party elects to turn him loose. Maya casts a Cure Wounds spell on him and directs him to the hollow where the arms and armor were sunk. The bugbear is surprised and suspicious; Maya then threatens to pick him out of his teeth if he ever sees him again. Then Maya unties him. The bugbear takes off into the woods.

Back underway

The underbrush gets a bit thicker as the party continues into the forest. Toward the end of the day, the group locates a clearing in which to make camp. Maya turns up some game and makes a small fire; Nock prepares to cook.
Sunny Identifies some of the items claimed:

• The mask has no magical properties.
• The key is a Mystery Key.
• The medallion has no magical properties.
• The pouch is a Heward's handy spice pouch and gets passed along to Nock.

Nock uses the pouch to season up a stew, and after dinner folks bed down for the night. The wind dies down during the second watch, and Maya's Druidcraft indicates clear skies. In the wee hours, Nock hears howls in the distance to the west, but other than that it's uneventful.

The next day (27 Stormwake, Ironday)

A new day dawns. The party handles its morning prayers and ablutions, then sets out towards their destination. At just before midday, they reach the Llyrian Moon Facility. The thick wooden door dangles from the hinges in the same way it did when the trio was here before. Nock and Kolvonnin light torches, and the group proceeds down the ramp into the facility, leaving Cinnamon tied up at the top of the ramp.

In the Llyrian facility

The fountain room

Four stone pillars support the ceiling about 20’ up. There's a fountain in the room center, slow steady flow with almost no noise. Water seems clear/clean and gives off a mild glow (5’ of dim moonlight). North wall has some engraved writing in large letters. In Gnomish, Elvish, and Dwarvish it reads: "The Llyrian druids welcome our friends from distant lands. Please see an attendant in the room to your right." The northwest wall features a pictorial clock - a tree with a sun and moon that move over it. South wall near the door has an engraving of the moon, half in dull gray stone and the other half in jet.
Near the edge of circle of moonlight stands a humanoid figure, apparently made of sticks, straw, and cloth - a scarecrow. Maya is pretty creeped out by it, and Leucis comments that it wasn't there previously. Leucis and Kolvonnin come forward to investigate. Everyone considers it quite creepy and unnerving. Maya casts Darkvision on himself, then casts Shilleglagh.
Maya bludgeons it into pieces.
Sunny casts Identify on the Moon Carving:

Travelers from far and wide used this portal to travel to the Llyrian Moon Sanctuary, renowned for its alchemy prowess. This portal only receives incoming travelers; it does not have a matching placed endpoint, but connected portals are created through alchemical means where needed (single-use potions).

Nock takes the scarecrow remains outside and burns them while Sunny is casting. Maya steps into the nearby room referred to in the wall carving to check for more scarecrows.

The reception area

Several broken barrels and the remains of a destroyed desk are piled in this room.
The group discusses how previously this room had some supplies (food, water, lanterns and oil) as well as some angry fungus, but this has all been either removed or destroyed.
Most of the group proceeds through a swinging door, down the hall eastward from the fountain room into a room with crates. Ol'Harb seems to be wandering in the opposite direction.

Shipping and Receiving

Crates are stacked neatly in three corners of the room with some broken crates in the other corner. The door to the south is a wooden door with a broken lock that opens into an small room. It has a placard reading “Shipping and Receiving Office.”
Looking around the room, Maya notes there's not much in the way of dust, then calls out to the trailing party members (Ol'Harb and Kolvonnin). Maya then opens the door to the south room.

Shipping and Receiving Office

The ruins of a desk and file cabinet are piled in a corner.
Maya finds nothing of interest and returns to the previous room, closing the door.

Shipping and Receiving

Nock and Leucis hear something moving in the room they're in, but they can't isolate where it's coming from other than in the room. Leucis pulls the lid off a crate, and discovers...

Bursting from the crates - tin soldiers!

• Nock uses an Bursting Arrow on the trio in the northwest corner, inflicting heavy damage on one and significant damage on the others nearby. He then ducks out of the room down the western hallway.
• Sunny casts Shatter in an area encompassing four tin soldiers, causing some damage to three and outright destroying one tin soldier as well as Nock's unattended torch.
• Kolvonnin calls upon Pelor to smite his foe with his morningstar, which destroys it.
• Leucis activates the Divine Favor spell from his holy symbol but misses his swing with the warhammer.
• Maya casts Cure Wounds on himself.
• Harb closes in on the one blocking the western door. Upon close inspection of the foe, he realizes that while he's never seen this kind of device/creature before, he's heard of similar things made by artificers or gnomes - a mishmash of mechanical and magical creature for various purposes.
• Sunny uses a Defensive Flourish on a tin soldier.
• Kolvonnin exhales acid on a pair of tin soldiers, melting off the outer layers of metal in spots.
• Maya shapeshifts into a brown bear, then bites and claws one of the tin men in his immediate vicinity, rending it inoperative.
• Nock sinks an arrow into the neck of a tin man, and it collapses to the ground.
• Harb pierces a tin man with his rapier and the metal creature drops, defeated.
• Sunny uses a Slashing Flourish on two tin men.
• Kolvonnin bashes a tin man's head into its chest cavity, destroying it.
• Leucis shouts a Healing Word at Kolvonnin.
• Nock tags a tin man with an arrow; it seizes up and falls motionless after.
• Leucis crushes a tin man under his warhammer.
• Maya reverts to his halfling form and casts Cure Wounds on Kolvonnin.
• Sunny drives his rapier into the last tin man.

Combat summary:

• Total duration: 5 rounds.
• PC drops: None.
• Rule clarifications:
  
  1. Movement diagonally can't cross a corner of a wall (RAW). It may be possible to attack across this kind of corner but there would be interposing cover (DM discretion).
  2. Ranged attack rolls while in melee are made at disadvantage (RAW). Note that this is not applicable on spells that use a save instead of an attack roll.
• Kill board:
  1. Kolvonnin, Nock, and Sunny with 2 kills each.
  2. Maya, Leucis, and Harb with 1 kill each.

There's a smell of ozone in the air, the sound of threshing gears and springs mutters among the fallen, and a few oily spots where the tin men fell. Maya smashes the wreckage until the parts stop moving.
It's a little past midday, so the group decides to hole up in the Shipping and Receiving Office to the south (as a defensible position) and take a short rest (with Song of Rest).

Next steps:

1. Check the tin men for loot.
2. Assign the Vigilant Blessing to someone.
3. Consider discussing who prepares what spells on future rests.

Session Feedback

Eddy: Hoping for more information from the bugbear.
Heather: Dolls and toys theme? Constructs maybe? Combat was good, got to use some resources.
James: Tin men are some rude bastards. Concern about Cure Wounds not being prepped for the party cleric.
Jeremy: Glad the group freed the bugbear with minimal friction. Probably could have thrown a cloak over the scarecrow.
Matt: The dim light on the light-colored token made it hard for players to spot the initial scarecrow. No new information. No friction expected on the bugbear, Nock was just going along. Crates are super dangerous.
Meg: Do much better when not on frontline. Started the battle by poking something again.
John: This was probably a fairly "typical" combat in terms of relative difficulty.