Session 38: Bang the Bell and Bring the Bones

General Summary

Summary: 3 points

Early Evening, Starday, 28th Leafbreak

The party is currently huddled around the dwarf-crafted bell toward the top of the map, having recently wrested it from the ground into an upright position. Maya is in his Relic Sloth form (having wild shaped into that form to make the bell movement easier) and has elected to remain so in case of combat.

Let's ring the bell

Lobbing the orb

Folks take an array of positions around the area and Kolvonnin lobs the Orb of Gonging (DnD Beyond) at the bell. The impact makes a small noise, but the bell seems to swallow the bulk of it. Kol collects the orb and puts it away.

Manually swinging the clapper

Kol reaches beneath the bell and grasps the clapper. While it's quite heavy, it seems to move even more sluggishly than its weight accounts for. He pushes the clapper to the opposing side, earning a light "tink" noise when it impacts.
There's a short conference on trying to speak the words around the outside before swinging the clapper, so Saf takes a run at that. The text around the outside lights up when the words are spoken, but there's no other additional effect.

The ropesaw

The party decides to tie a rope around the clapper and set up a sort of timed tug-of-war to move it back and forth inside the bell. Kol and Harb station on either side and are able to get a resounding ring out of the bell after a few strokes. Once it rings, Saf calls out the text from the outside. The general feeling (and Sunny's insight into the magic confirms) that this doesn't seem to be engaging the full heft of the bell's magical properties.

The bard tries magic

Sunny steps up to the bell and encourages others to move a bit further away. He then summons forth a Thunderclap (DnD Beyond), and gets a similar response from the bell - louder even than the manual manipulation, but still with the sensation that it's not engaging the power resident in the bell - the Thunderclap was amplified, but that's all.
As the tone of the bell fades, Maya hears heavy footsteps approaching from the southwest (down the road out of the collection of buildings). The relic sloth-ified druid lets out a battle roar and telepathically alerts the party of incoming entities. Folks gear up for a fight, taking some cover and drawing weapons.
From the southwest, several humanoid shaped skeletal figures lumber into view, about half larger and the other half roughly human-sized. Up front is a giant-sized skeleton, potentially formerly a giant, wielding a proportionally sized blade of some stripe. The large ones behind that have horned skulls and carry long axes or polearms.

A band of big bony baddies...

Round 1

Mostly closing the distance and getting more information about the foes.

• Sunny uses his Feline Agility to move up and casts Shatter in a clump of foes.

Round 2

• Harb swaps to a flail instead of his rapier and readies for the charge.
• Saf closes the distance and drops prone to avoid getting feathered by the skeletal archers.
• Maya lumbers forward and goes Dodge-y.
• Several skeletal minotaurs charge up and attempt to gore Maya, with some success (22 damage). The druid holds his feet against the onslaught and isn't knocked over or moved.
• Harb, ready for foes, swipes with his flail (rule clarification #1) at the minotaur skeleton that approaches him.
• The giant skeleton lumbers up to Maya and swing its scimitar thrice, landing a single hit for 19 damage.
• Kolvonnin closes in, hurls his javelin at the giant and commanding it to become a lightning bolt in transit. The paladin lands a critical hit on the giant (dealing a whopping 49 damage) and the intervening skeletons sizzle and spark. The dragonborn then belches acid at the same group, dissolving no small amount of bone.
• Sunny hurls another Shatter into the clump, damaging the minotaurs but having no apparent effect on the giant. The bard remains stationary, recovering from his agile movement before.
• Leucis calls upon the power of Selune to Turn the undead. Two minotaur skeletons are gripped by the effect, but the giant again seems unaffected. The cleric calls out to "Hit the big guy!"

Round 3

• Harb crushes the skull of one of the minotaurs with his flail.
• Saf pops up from prone, moves into a ruin and kills an archer skeleton with an arrow (using sneak attack).
• Maya drops his Relic Sloth form (rule clarification #2), and casts Call Lightning. The bolt hits a minotaur but seems to have no effect on the giant skeleton.
• Two minotaurs flee from the cleric's holy power. The other swings at Kolvonnin, landing a blow with his greataxe.
• The giant goes after the shrunken Maya, but can't land three scimitar slices on the druid.
• Kolvonnin lands a hit on the giant's midsection and tacks a level 2 smite on top, then follows up with another level 1 smite to the crown of its head, ending it.
• Sunny calls upon luck to crush in the face of one of the minotaurs with Deep Rumble.
• Three skeleton archers, spotting the arrow from Saf and their destroyed comrade, loft arrows in her direction and land one hit and two criticals. Saf uses her Uncanny Dodge to halve the damage of the second hit. (7,14 halved to 7,11). The skeletons move right away from the rogue's position.
• Leucis strides quickly to near Saf and casts Healing Word.
• The remaining skeleton archers on the right, seeing the cleric run in, attempt to feather him with moderate success.

Round 4

• Saf, somewhat chastened by the response of the archers, takes cover, dodges and drop prone.
• Maya wild shapes into a boar and calls down another bolt of lightning on a pair of archer skeletons; one barely survives but the other is destroyed.
• The two Turned minotaurs continue to flee.
• The bard upcasts a Shatter on a pair of skeleton archers, obliterating them.
• A skeleton archer feathers Kol but only 1 point gets past his Heavy Armor Mastery.

Round 5

• Harb rolls up to a skeleton archer and gives it a good flailing, crumbling it to bones on the second attack.
• Saf fires her crossbow at the remaining skeleton archer and finishes it off.

Interlude

The remaining minotaurs are Turned and forced to flee for 10 rounds. They took two rounds getting off the map (round 4), would be done fleeing on round 12, and return to the map about round 20. At this point, we pick up the combat again, but during the intervening time the PCs arranged themselves near the middle expecting their assailants.

• Sunny gives Kolvonnin bardic inspiration.
• Kolvonnin uses Lay on Hands on Saf (10).

Round 20

• When the minotaurs get into range, Leucis lets fly with a Guiding Bolt and lands a critical hit.
• Sunny gives Leucis bardic inspiration.
• Leucis hurls another Guiding Bolt and hits.

Round 21

• Maya calls down a bolt of lightning, crumbling another minotaur skeleton to the dirt.
• The cleric sends another Guiding Bolt towards the remaining minotaur skeleton.

Round 22

• Maya clouts the survivor with a lightning bolt.
• The minotaur rushes in. Sunny reacts to the minotaur's approach by casting Dissonant Whispers, causing it to reverse direction briefly.

Round 23

• The druid pelts the rapidly diminishing minotaur with another lightning bolt.
• The minotaur gores Harb but the old fighter holds his feet despite the charge.
• Kol lays out the skeleton with a blow from his morningstar.

Combat summary:

• Total duration: 9 rounds played (5 rounds, a 15 round gap in the middle, 4 rounds mopping up at the end)
• PC drops: None
• Rule clarifications:
  1. Ready Action vs Extra Attack
  2. Wild Shape "Movement"
• Kill board:
  Character: creature (round), creature (round)...
  1. Sunny: Minotaur Skeleton (3), 2 Skeleton Archers (4)
  2. Saf: 2 Skeleton Archers (3,5)
  3. Kolvonnin: Giant Skeleton (3), Minotaur Skeleton (23)
  4. Harb: Minotaur Skeleton (3), Skeleton Archer (5)
  5. Maya: Skeleton Archer (4), Minotaur Skeleton (21)

Recovering and checking the fallen

Taking a moment to discuss the foes, Harb inquires if there's a known skeleton or minotaur problem around here. As a former local, Sunny's not aware of major issues with either; while minotaurs are not an unheard of race (Drazhan and Resnek the party has met) they don't tend to be this large.
Kolvonnin heals Harb for 10 (using Lay on Hands). Word turns to inspecting the foes more closely and taking a breather. Harb suggests making a bone broth, but this is quickly shot down as a bad idea. The party splits off into two groups.

Poking the dead dead

Harb, Leucis and Sunny look over the bodies. The bulk of their gear is in sorry condition (tatters of clothing or armor, rusty worn weapons and sheaths, and so on) and the flesh is long gone. There's no clear insignia or maker's marks, but given the clear age of the gear and that it's still even moderately serviceable it was likely to be good quality when it was new (apparently decades ago).
There are a pair of notable exceptions:

• One minotaur has a metal collar plate where his throat would be. Leucis determines that some of the sigils around the outside surface of it refer to elemental energies in arcane study (noting the lightning, psychic, thunder, and radiant). The two pry it off the body and note that the metal feels warm, incongruous with the kind of creature it was on.
• One skeleton archer has a spiky leather strap wrapped around the bones of the arm. The spikes seem to be sharp slivers of bone, but Sunny is able to determine what kind of bones make up the spikes, but he's able to remove it from the collapses skeleton. The leather has a bit more stretch to it than he expected.

Musing over the gorget, Harb notes that one of the symbols looks familiar from things he's seen before - one of the etched sigils he's seen on a crate of weapons to indicate what sort of weapon it was - "piercing."

Catching their breath

Kolvonnin, Saf, and Maya sit down to restore their strength by the unlit campfire. Maya puts together a simple snack and they set up for a short rest. After a while the others join, and Sunny plays the Song of Rest before Identifying the finds.

Next steps:

1. Continue exploring the ruined trading post
   • Finish short rest(s) (first one trio, then the other)
   • Look more into the Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond); potentially clear the rubble and record the sigils for later use.
   • Investigate the blood stains further - track the scent of blood where it goes.
   • Look closer at the giant skeleton
   • Take a long rest?
2. Between session tasks:
   • Players: Discuss post-short-rest activities
   • Meg: Assign the Vigilant Blessing to someone.
   • DM and interested players: Review/discuss rule clarifications above
   • DM: Turn the Initiate's Gorget into a rollable chart for type
3. Out of Character tasks:
   • Consider adjusting campaign flavor and discuss player expectations from the game at large and combat in particular (more to come on this point)
   • Identify the new items.
   • Make some organizational agreements (around in-session suggestions on character actions, where the line between "start a combat" and "see what these arriving creatures have to say" lies, etc.)

Session Feedback

Eddy: Watching Jerm crit with the javelin was awesome. Overall, I liked how everybody was able to deal damage or distract so all the attacks weren't landing on Maya in his form. When Meg hit them with Turn Undead, that was clutch. It was good that varied actions that paid off and the teamwork was good.
Heather: I thought the combat was cool, everybody got to do their thing. It was a nice change of pace and a showcase of new toys. I think it will be interesting to further investigate where these hordes of undead came from, maybe to do with the mortispire.
James: The big guy was a pain the butt for a while, but he was potentially very, very dangerous. Maya's form was only going to last about one more round with the amount of attacks coming my way. But I was the giant distraction, I'll take the hits while folks get up behind them, then I'll change forms. Battlefield was kinda large, which worked against some other characters. Seems like we need a command word for the bell, since it's not being fully activated, that's vaguely disappointing. I know not everyone got to put numbers on the board; sometimes it's about support and support is important. The bell was underwhelming for me.
Jeremy: I think working through the bell possibilities worked reasonably well. We still have the portal to look at, but we chased the bell about as far as we could. I was thinking maybe Leucis could hit the bell with the Skymaul, with the thunder, for more effect. The giant was dangerous, but the straight up ignoring damage is interesting/troubling.
Matt: Apparently "going out and flanking the enemy is a terrible idea and I should never do it again" is the lesson I have learned here. My apologies to everyone for trying that. After that, not much point in getting in for the new weapons/abilities. I don't want to get into the cheap shit that is a stealth archer. I don't think ranged with this class is going to be as much fun. But the party at large is pretty ranged-focused when we can be (there's not a pressing issue where we need to move forward).
I feel like we're banging our heads against a puzzle with the bell. This thing is a little bit better, so let's do more this, is there an activation word, can we even find this out or do we just keep banging away at it until it starts working. I was expecting a bit more out of that. It's unclear (because we can't know) whether the bell summoned them or they came due to the noise. We assume that they weren't summoned by the bell, and that makes sense with what we do know, but there's a lot of vaguery in the atmosphere which is not great. We'll see what happens - with nothing definitive I can't rule anything out.
Meg: I didn't show off at all. I did crit, so that's good, but other than that... Definitely gotta investigate the undead things and the teleportation circle. I still want to find out what the bell does besides attract attention. I don't think it magically summoned those guys, like from being dead, just made noise that they heard and they came running.
John: Cutting the group of minotaurs in half was clutch, because they were not easy to knock over and having only two to tangle with made things much easier. The combat went better for the party than I expected - not by a lot, but definitely better. That was due in large part to Kol's very early absolute devastation of three large targets and splitting the minotaurs. Obviously I expected party survival because I don't really build encounters with the thought that there's no way the party could handle it. I do feel like folks got a bit more threatened by that combat than usual, which is good because the party has sailed through a lot of combats. The bell not paying off how folks want is a thing I'm much aware of, but I think it will settle out in the future.

Rewards Granted

Harb: Initiate's Gorget
Maya: Necklace of Packleader's Fangs