Session 14: Scarecrows' revenge and stone men

General Summary

Summary: 3 points, a fairly thorough summary with a chorus of voices.

After the short rest

In the Shipping and Receiving Office

It occurs to the original trio during the break that they haven't spotted a single spiderweb in the facility despite them being pretty noticeable the last time around. There's a short discussion of the possiblity/likelyhood that someone has been here and cleaned up. Sunny points out that the party opened all the crates they found on the previous trip, so the crates in the room that had the tin soldiers in them were not present on the earlier visit. Kolvonnin remarks that he wasn't expecting the hidden attackers and suggests that given the higher-than-expected threat level, the group should stay closer together and in a more battle-ready formation.

On the nature of mecha-racism

Nock doesn't have any particular insight into the constructs based exclusively on his material similarity to them. Aside: Is it in the nature of blood-filled sacks to regard all machines as the same?

Shipping and Receiving

Maya suggests that the tin men were in cahoots with the scarecrow. Ol'Harb and Leucis inspect the remnants of the tin men more closely, but don't find any loot or explicit manufacturing information. They appear to be of similar make and materials, so they're likely to have been created at very nearly the same time, probably by the same creator or team of creators. A few party members (Sunny, Maya) collect a small trophy gear as a memento; it appears to be a tin alloy.
In the discussions of how to proceed, there's some confusion as to the details of what is in the rooms ahead (based on the prior visit). The party proceeds down the hallway; Maya listens at the door but hears nothing.

Alchemy Workroom

The ruins of several tables and benches are piled in a corner.
Harb notes some broken glass from bottles, clamps, tubing and the like. The returning party describes that the room was previously set up with a trio of workbenches producing what appeared to be the same item (as they were all set up the same way).

Alchemy Supervisor

A long corridor leads to an office. The ruins of a desk and file cabinet are piled in a corner.
Nock sweeps this room for enemies before returning to the prior room.

Alchemy Workroom

A closer inspection of the broken furniture seems to indicate it was sundered such that the breaks would reveal any hidden compartments. The group moves down the hallway into the next room. Maya listens for movement, but the proximity of his compatriots moving around makes that impossible, so he suggests they wait for a moment while he slides ahead stealthily.

Llyrian Alchemy Lab

The ruins of several tables, benches, and beds are piled along the south wall. The walls show partially-removed signs of multiple explosions, and the floor appears to have been either melted or partially dissolved in several places. Aside from the broken furniture there is little else of note in the room. Light can be seen coming from the west hallway.
Maya, detecting no immediate threats, calls back to the group that they can advance. He steps up to another corner and peers around, indicating that he's spotted something. The group girds itself for the unknown and initiative is rolled.

More scarecrows

Round 1

• Harb charges into the room towards a pair of scarecrows. As he passes a pair of statues, they unexpectedly lash out with their claws and some magical effect causes Harb to halt in his tracks, restrained. Harb expends his Second Wind to recover somewhat from the onslaught.
• A scarecrow moves towards the party and produces an orange cloud of dense gas that obscures vision.
• Leucis Blesses Maya, Sunny, and Kolvonnin before moving into the hallway.
• A statue emerges from the cloud. Nock chips away part of it with an arrow.
• Sunny casts Shatter, encompassing the statue that people can see and extending into the obscured cloud. The statue crumbles under the thunderous assault.

Round 2

• Harb takes a while swing in the cloud, connects with something and hears some stone break. He then shakes off the magic that restrained him.
• Sunny casts Heroism on himself, steeling his resolve against the creepy scarecrow fear.

Round 3

• Harb emerges from the orange cloud and lands a solid hit on the visible scarecrow, collapsing it.
• Leucis attempts to discern what the cloud is using Arcana, but isn't aware of an effect that a scarecrow or statue would have that would produce something like this.
• Leucis and Nock ready their attacks for an enemy to emerge from the cloud.
• Kolvonnin heals Harb for 10 via Lay on Hands.
• Sunny roots around in his equipment for the Wind Fan.

Round 4

• Harb returns to the interior of the cloud, swinging wildly and glancing off something.
• Leucis, noting Sunny's readying of the fan, moves up to the edge of the cloud and notes that it smells quite foul. He muses about how on earth Harb can be inside it.
• Sunny moves into the cloud and activates the Wind Fan (dropping concentraton on Heroism), causing a line of fast-moving air to shred the cloud and expose the battlefield.
• Maya charges into the fray towards the scarecrows, yelling threats. He gets a clawed by a statue as he passes, then shifts into bear form.

Round 5

• Harb is blown further into the room by the roaring wind. He sidesteps the column of wind and strikes a statue with his rapier, crumbling it.
• A scarecrow is blown away in the wind, but returns against it with some difficulty. It claws Sunny, breaking his concentration on the wind and frightening him.
• Another scarecrow glares at Leucis, both frightening and paralyzing him.
• Kolvonnin heals Sunny for 5 via Lay on Hands.
• Sunny stabs out with his rapier and lands a hit on a scarecrow, but it doesn't seem as affected as a flesh-and-blood creature might.
• Maya bites and claws at a scarecrow, making solid connection and tearing out bits of its material. He gets the impression that he's not impacting the magic that animates the matter.

Round 6

• A scarecrow claws Sunny and connects with both attacks.
• A stone man lashes out at Sunny but its claws thwarted by Silvery Barbs and misses.
• Kolvonnin channels divinity to Turn the Tide, restoring some health to his more wounded comrades. He requests that Sunny move out of the way.
• Sunny uses his Defensive Flourish on a stone man and chips his head fully off before moving out of Kolvonnin's way.

Round 7

• Harb gets his rapier through the thigh of one of the statues, shearing off the bulk of it can causing the rest of the statue to fall to the ground in pieces.
• A scarecrow lashes out at Kolvonnin but is misled by Sunny's Silvery Barbs.
• Leucis casts Healing Word on Sunny for 5 HP, then casts Sacred Flame on a scarecrow.
• Kolvonnin belches acid on two scarecrows, dissolving the foremost.

Round 8

• Harb finishes off the scarecrow that Maya has spent the last several rounds disemboweling.
• Kolvinnin brings his morningstar down hard on the final scarecrow in a crushing blow.

Combat summary:

• Total duration: 8 rounds
• PC drops: None.
• Rule clarifications:
  
  1. The restrained condition does not impact speech (RAW).
  2. The paralyzed condition does not impact concentration and does not cause the person to fall prone (RAW).
• Kill board:
  • Statues killed by:
  1. Sunny: 1 via Shatter(1), and a second via rapier(6).
  2. Harb: 2 stabbed with a rapier(5,7)
  • Scarecrows killed by:
    1. Harb: 2 stabbed with a rapier(3,8).
    2. Kolvonnin: 1 melted with acid breath(7), and a second crushed by morningstar(8)
• Loot:
  • 2 garnets (100 gp each)
  • 2 chalcedony (50 gp each)
  • 2 carnelians (50 gp each)
  • 2 golden beryls (300 gp each)
  • 3 vials of viscous orange liquid (?)

As the combat concludes, the party find itself in...

The Tree room:

Light comes from a section of the ceiling (which is domed, about 30’ high in the center and 20’ high at the edges) - it appears solid but emits sun or moonlight depending on the time of day. In the middle of the room is a large tree, with brownish bark and gray-green leaves.

Maya announces his intention to burn the remains of the scarecrows, then quaffs a health potion. Harb looks closely at the fallen creatures and Leucis does the same - it seems the straw is merely straw and the outer material is bedsheet or similar. Three of the scarecrows have vials with a viscous orange liquid in them, and the statues had gemstones for eyes.
A more thorough look at the Llyrian Alchemy Lab reveals that the grimlock nest that was here previously is gone without a trace. The room with the Tree shows no signs of the basilisk nests that were here before, either.
Sunny expresses an interest in Identifying the Tree (he considers trying for the light source in the room as well, but it's not really feasible). Leucis and Harb keep an eye out for potential danger while Sunny performs the ritual. The Tree has no magical effects on it and is not of itself magical - it seems to have been bred with unusual traits but was not directly created by magic.
Meanwhile, Maya and Nock cart scarecrow remains out that Kolvonnin is gathering up. Cinnamon expresses an interest in the straw, but the group declines to feed it to him.
Maya suggests proceeding no further today after the recent exertions, to general assent by the party. They set up camp outside the facility near the lake before sundown.

Next steps:

1. Determine what's in the vials.
2. Reach agreement prepared spells (druid, paladin, cleric).
3. Ritual-cast Gentle Repose on the gastrolith.
4. Maya has a chat with Harb about survivability.
5. Check on Order of the Rising Twilight - Holy Symbol charge restoring on long rest.

Session Feedback

Eddy: Combat was surprisingly long, but it was mostly defensive and caution. [re: the Leeroy Jenkins manuever] "That's this character, he's a hard charger. Sorry?"
Heather: It went ok. Now would be a great time for a long rest. Being stuck in the corridor kind of sucked.
James: Gas + statuses made the combat was a bit much. Hoping for a bit more lore this go round.
Jeremy: Chokepoint was rough but party utility is high. Used lots of the kit, especially short rest abilities (breath weapon, channel divinity).
Matt: If the DM wanted Harb dead... he'd be dead. Why did we charge in, exactly? I mean, this shooting gallery is nice and all, but...
Meg: Man, fuck scarecrows. Bottlenecking sucks when you're stuck in the bottle.
John: This combat was more complicated than the tin men but not necessarily harder or more threatening.