Session 16: Nocknapped

General Summary

Summary: 3 pts

At the scene of the prior combat

The stone defender belched oily smoke and collapsed to the ground, dropping its mighty shields with a resounding thud. There's some hissing and bubbling inside the machine, and in the relative quiet after its fall heavy footsteps can be heard from the north corridor. While the party can't discern exactly what's coming, they can tell there's more than one creature and they're making no secret of their approach. They must also be either large or relatively beefy, based on the noise.
With only a round to prepare, the frontline fighters gather around the north hallway. Nock heads into the south hallway, ready for fire on the intruders. Sunny takes up a position off to the side. Harb makes ready to charge in, but Maya cautions him against getting in over his head. Meanwhile, at the entrance to the facility, Saf encounters Cinnamon, who regards her hopefully. Saf breaks off a piece of a ration, and while Cinnamon is not enthused, he does eat it. She proceeds down the ramp into the main part of the facility.

Interlopers!

Round 1

• Sunny and Maya hold their action for the oncoming creatures, not sure what to expect.
• A trio of stocky pig-men, tusky and bearing mauls, come around the corner in a purposeful trot. One spots Nock and shouts "The metal man!" in guttural Common as they press forward.
• Maya casts Thunderwave, shoving all of them back down the hallway and doing some damage. He suggests to Harb that now is the time to enter the fray.
• Leucis confers Selune's Blessing upon Maya, Kolvonnin and Harb.
• Saf hears some hissing on the way down the ramp and reaches the fountain room. There's a significant ruckus - a sound like a thunderclap from the west. She stealthily in to investigate.
• Kolvonnin breathes a line of acid into the hallway crowded with hog-men. There's much squealing and sizzling of flesh, and the smell is terrible. Kolvonnin casts Shield of Faith on Harb and gestures with his shield as if to signal Harb to head in.

Round 2

• In the south corridor behind Nock emerge some rat-men. The one in the lead flings something from his pack onto the wall of the hallway - a portal of some kind?
• A second rat-man gestures at the portal on the wall and speaks to Nock in Common: "Hide in here until those guys leave. We'll tell you when it's safe to come out." Nock seems to think this is a good idea.
• Sunny casts Shatter on the pig-men in the hallway.
• Harb considers trying to move past the pig-men, but their relative sizes and the tight conditions preclude that possibility so he runs in and attacks the first one. He pierces the pig-man with his rapier, but the wound closes immediately as the weapon is removed.
• The pig-men make a concerted effort to shove Harb back down the hallway into the room.
• Nock ducks into the hole in the wall and disappears.
• Maya lands a blow with his Shillelagh'd club on a pig-man.
• Meanwhile, on her way towards the party, Saf spots a tiny construct, similar in shape to a gargoyle. It looks up as she walks by, but does not attempt to strike her. She continues on towards the rat-men and startles the one at the back(who's wearing a bandoleer of potions) pretty badly.

Round 3

• The lead rat-man gathers the hole off the wall and tucks it away, then moves up the hallway and into the room. Sunny inquires as to where Nock when but the rat-man just hisses as he passes.
• The other ratmen join the first in entering the room. One is wearing a strange mask, split down the middle between pain and mirth. Another has on a helmet, and he fourth is the one wearing the bandoleer of potions.
• Sunny employs Vicious Mockery on one of the pig-men, saying his mother was a football.
• Harb takes a defensive stance.
• Harb's efforts to dodge prevent the first hog-man from progressing down the hallway.
• A second pig-man runs up and attempts to gore at Harb with his tusks, but is unable to land the strike.
• The backmost boar-man puts away his maul and gestures with the black iron gauntlet he's wearing. A shimmering translucent hand appears in the room with the party and attempts to grapple Leucis, but is not successful.
• Maya casts Thunderwave again, but isn't as successful this time in shoving boars back down the hallway.
• Saf moves further up and sees the mayhem going on in the room. She calls out to Kolvonnin and gives him the Help action on his next hit. She lands a hit on a rat-man with her sword, but can't seem to leave a wound.
• Leucis casts Moonbeam over the group of rat-men, dropping concentraton on the Blessing.

Round 4

• The ratmen caught in the Moonbeam react poorly - their flesh bubbles and muscles spasm in a painful and disturbing way, but they do not change shape. They run out of the searing light further into the room. The one who wasn't originally in the effect steels himself and runs through the agony.
• The rat-men closest to the moon cleric attack him, landing one shortsword strike and one bite. Leucis maintains his concentration. One rat-man attacks Sunny without success.
• Sunny does a Defensive Flourish, but the strike doesn't leave any lasting damage.
• The gauntlet boar-man gestures and the giant spectral hand pushes Harb out of the way. The boars troop into the room to take up station near the rat-men, taking a few solid opportunity attacks for their trouble.
• Maya casts Cure Wounds on Leucis.
• Saf determines that discretion is the better part of valor and refrains from moving into the Moonbeam. She goes defensive and calls out a help to Kolvonnin again.
• Leucis moves the Moonbeam onto the nearby rat-men, and exhorts them to leave this place.
• Kolvonnin lands a hit on a boar-man with a smite on it.

Round 5

• The rat-men in the Moonbeam continue to sizzle and writhe painfully. The one in the helmet calls out what sounds like a nonsense word, and in a flash all the boar-men and rat-men disappear.

Combat summary:

• Total duration: 5 rounds
• PC drops: None.
• Rule clarifications:
  
  1. RAW: Characters can't move through hostile creatures unless there's a significant size difference. This may be possible in friendlier circumstances with a high Athletics roll, but in this combat the quarters were too tight and the enemies packed too close to rule it as possible.
  2. RAW: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack. Since grappling requires the Attack action (RAW) I have ruled that you can't grapple as an attack of opportunity, generally speaking.
• Kill board: No enemies were slain in this combat.
• Loot:
  • None

Post combat cleanup

A few folks in the party surmise that the escape was done via Teleport on a magic item with a command word. Leucis seems a bit weirded out by the fact that the Moonbeam is supposed to force shapeshifters into their natural form (usually humanoid), but seemed to not have an effect on the attackers. That would indicate that either they were born into lycanthropy or their condition reacts differently; Harb suggests that there may be generations of shapeshifters who were born with the curse. The werecreatures were lightly armored (as though they depended on their abilities to handle most damage) but didn't seem to bear any insignia.
Leucis and Maya look over the spot where the rat-man landed a bite, and there seem to be no lasting effects on the cleric. Harb muses over the way the battle played out and comes to the conclusion that the two groups of werecreatures were clearly coordinating their attack as a distraction at the front and something important from behind.

Where's the archer?

Sunny runs around the nearby halls and rooms in search of the missing warforged, calling his name. Sapphire seems confused by this, as she's not accustomed to people banging on walls and yelling "Knock!"
The bard isn't able to locate Nock, and sits by the fountain in obvious concern and sorrow. Kolvonnin tries to sympathize with Sunny and shares a few minutes in quiet reflection and prayer for Nock's safety.
There were no real close witnesses to what happened to Nock, but Kolvonnin saw him step out of the hallway (as though through a door or around a corner) but at a spot where there wasn't a door or corner.

Who's this new person?

Saf introduces herself and says that Roger told her where to find the group on the premise that she might be able to help. Saf has an interest in being involved with the "high grade merchandise" that the party tends to run across. She was able to follow the path the party took (but didn't run across the bugbear that the party allowed to escape).
Maya asks why Saf felt it was a good idea to follow them. Saf indicates that the party seems to be in the business of locating and acquiring unusual "doodads and knickknacks" that are worth good money, so her services (if welcome) could net her a comfortable living. Leucis indicates that while scavenging is a worthy enough trade, he has duties to Selune and isn't a scavenger. Maya chimes in that he's out to save his people and not for money. Saf and the druid talk across one another a bit and the conversation turns toward differential economics.
Harb, Kolvonnin and Sunny return. Introductions all around. Maya vows to tell Roger to be a little more discreet about telling strangers what the party is up to. There's some discussion about taking a defensive posture outside the facility as several folks are running low on resources, but the consensus builds around investigating the remnants of the prior combat first.

Investigating the stone defender

The stone defender's main body is dented and sheared in spots, as well as partially melted. The two shields are largely unaffected by the combat despite the heavy blows they were known to have blocked. The keener eyes spot what looks like a chip or etch into the back side of one shield where the handle is mounted. Due to the weight concerns it seems unlikely to be a compartment, so the group decides to remove the mounting plate to look underneath it. After applying some acid, a crowbar, a hammer and some elbow grease they are able to remove the fitting, revealing what appears to be an etched map:

The group puts their heads together about how to get a copy of this and decides on making a chalk rubbing across a few pieces of paper. Carrying the shield itself around seems like a bad idea, as each one is over 200 pounds.
It occurs to Maya that no one has looked in on Cinnamon in a while, so he runs up the ramp to check in on the donkey. Cinnamon seems unperturbed and interested in snacks, so not out of the ordinary.

Watchful eyes

Saf reports that on her way in (in the room with the fountain) she saw a small gargoyle-ish creature that sounded like it flew away during the fight. The consensus is that this smaller construct was probably present as a means of watching the goings-on or a scout meant to keep watch.

Rest and regroup

The group decides to take a long rest outside the facility, and use this time to: get to know Saf better and catch her up. Before leaving, though, the set the stone shields across the Moon Carving so that anyone using it makes a lot of noise (one shield leans against the wall itself, the other is set up in front of it). Satisfied with this rudimentary alarm, the group adjourns outside the facility.

Next steps:

1. Level up characters (aside from Saf).
2. Inventory Cinnamon.
3. Set up for a long rest outside the facility.
4. Refer to the existing maps to match up the etching on the stone shield.

Session Feedback

Eddy: Combat was longer than it really should have been. Very mercenary sort of vibe off of Saf.
Heather: Distracted by emotional reaction to Nock's disappearance.
James: Resistance to nonmagical damage is the suxxor. It keeps happening and there's not a lot of good ways to handle it without spending expensive resources. Tactics for two characters was a bit of a strain. Leucis would probably have been more involved emotionally if his player had been present. Plus this session had a lot going on (new person, PC kidnap, new information, etc.)
Jeremy: Had to dig deep for better combat actions. Moonbeam is pretty awesome.
Matt: Long rounds due to having more complicated things than point-and-shoot to do. Sort of a scripted battle, so that made things a bit harder than they might otherwise be. Interested to see how the party handles Saf.
Meg: Not present for session.
John: The lycanthropes showed up earlier than the plot might otherwise have brought them in to accommodate the character swap. The party was harder to run over than I expected, so the combat was a bit longer for that reason. This was also a battle with a specific outcome needed, so the opponents were a bit tougher to make that outcome more likely and believable. This being quasi-scripted made me a bit nervous to run it becuase I don't want to trample over player agency.