Session 40: A Dark and Boney Night Part 2

General Summary

Summary: 3 points

3rd watch, early Clothday, 29th Leafbreak

The party continues the combat already in progress, which started during the 3rd watch (Maya and Saf).

Bones, bones and more bones continued...

Round 4

• Maya steps out and casts Erupting Earth around two of the bone heaps, raising bone chips and dust from the impacts on them.
• Leucis triggers the Divine Favor (even though this shouldn't work) on his holy symbol and prepares to shoot at an oncoming foe.
• Sunny steps out and casts Dissonant Whispers on the flaming skull (which has a wavy, blurry look to it), but it passes the save. The bard passes bardic inspiration along to Saf.
• Leucis fires at an approaching swarm of bones, stopping it in its tracks.

Round 5

• Saf uses her bardic inspiration to land a crossbow bolt on a bone heap.
• Sunny upcasts a Shatter (with a pinch of Kana Dust at the bone heap with collateral damage on the flame skull, then steps back into the hut.
• Kolvonnin activates the Light (DnD Beyond) spell on his morningstar and steps up to melee range. The flaming skull casts forth a ball of fire, scorching Harb and Kolvonnin both.
• Harb and Kol are swarmed under by bones, but despite being deafened are unharmed.

Round 6

• Maya steps out again and casts another area of Erupting Earth, destroying the swarm of bones that engulfed his allies.
• The flame skull fires two rays of fire at Harb, landing one.
• Leucis shoots his crossbow at the largest bone creature and lands a critical hit. The cleric then casts Healing Word on Sunny.
• Harb moves away (activating the Shield (DnD Beyond) on his Initiate's Gorget), gets his Second Wind, then tries to leap up to the flame skull to grapple it. He's able to get enough air (with his Action Surge) but can't get a grip in the skull.
• Sunny uses his Feline Agility to move through difficult terrain and whack the largest bone creature, expending two charges from Deep Rumble. It collapses, but its component bones are still moving - a dozen skeletons emerge from its remains and continue to fight.
• The skeletons make a few attacks but fail to hit anyone.
• Kolvonnin uses his breath weapon, melting 4 skeletons and damaging the nearby heaps, then takes a swing at the closer swarm, adding a level 1 spell slot for smite.

Round 7

• Maya casts Moonbeam onto a couple of skeletons (which collapse) and two swarms of bones.
• The flaming skull attempts to roast Harb with fiery eye beams but isn't able to get past his Shield spell.
• Leucis steps out of the Hut which immediately dissipates, then attacks with the Skymaul, crushing the animating energy from a heap of bones. He then casts a 3rd level Healing Word on Harb.
• Sunny calls forth a Thunderclap, killng a couple of skeletons, damaging a swarm, and Maya.
• The Moonbeam kills the skeleton still in its area.
• A skeleton slashes at Harb with its shortsword, finding flesh.
• Kolvonnin crushes another two skeletons with his morningstar.
• The Moonbeam kills the skeletal swarm on its turn.

Round 8

• Saf kills a skeleton with Excowlibur and retreats to grab her crossbow.
• Maya moves the Moonbeam over the flaming skull and then shifts into his boar form.
• The Moonbeam sears the flaming skull, causing it to no longer appear blurry.
• Leucis flings a 2nd level Guiding Bolt at the flaming skull but can't land it.
• Harb kills a skeleton with his flail.
• The bard destroys the remaining skeleton with his instrument.
• Kolvonnin calls upon the power of Pelor to initiate a Compelled Duel with the flaming skull, but it's able to shake off the challenge despite Sunny's Silvery Barbs.

Round 9

• Saf shoots the skull, which cracks and falls to the ground, with its eerie green light guttering out.

Combat summary:

• Total duration: 9 rounds
• PC drops: None
• Rule clarifications:
  1. Divine Favor vs Tiny Hut
• Kill board:
  Character: creature (round), creature (round)...
  1. Kolvonnin: 6 skeletons (4 in round 6, 2 in round 7)
  2. Sunny: flameskull (2), skeletal juggernaut (6), 2 skeletons (7)
  3. Maya: 2 skeletal swarms (6,7), 2 skeletons (7)
  4. Leucis: 2 skeletal swarms (4,7)
  5. Saf: skeleton (8), flameskull (9)
  6. Harb: skeleton (8)

Mopping up and settling down

For the first time in some time, quiet settles over the area - the din of rattling bones and mad laughter finally silent.

A quick look at the fallen

Harb strides over to the last fallen skull, noting that it's cracked but not completely broken. Several people inspect the fallen creatures, noting:

• The mounds of bones contained skeletons of many types, humanoids and animals alike.
• The magic animating these creatures seems to have abandoned these creatures abruptly upon thier destruction.

Patching up

Maya and Leucis throw a few spells to patch up the worst of the party's wounds.

Setting up camp in a new space

The group sets up the Tiny Hut (actually using the cast in favor of an extra 10 minutes of sleep). in a different ruined building with some extra space.

Maya, Saf

Maya complains a bit about how Sunny's Thunderclap spell caught him, and Saf (having front row seats) is also concerned about that kind of thing. The watch is quiet.

Kolvonnin, Leucis

Kol pulls out his armorer's kit and does a little routine maintenance on the party's various armors.
Leucis explains that he's working through an idea about dealing with lycanthropes, but the group needs some means of determining if a given lycanthrope is actually a problem before commencing hostilities. The cleric expands that he is considering some means of reforming the lycanthropes, if they can be freed of the curse or otherwise put to good use. The paladin, for his part, thinks this may be a fine line to walk, especially with the party's travels pressing. They muse about involving Harridra Flintchip and the Temple of Selune, since its consecration protects from lycanthropes. Kolvonnin says:

If there's a way to save those that have been unjustly saddled with such a burden, let me know how the dawn can help.

Leucis is appreciative of this offer of the support of the Church of Pelor and will consider the matter further.
Kolvonnin, for his part, says he'd like to reach out to Cileskn and Einar when the needs of the party allow (perhaps when they're in a town next). This would, however, require Sending and the Gossip's Mirror. The cleric is only to happy to assist when the time is right.

Clothday, 29th Leafbreak

A new day dawns, with a bit of brisk wind. Druidcraft indicates impending rain.

Cremating foes, excavating sigils

The group sets about cleaning up the battle from the wee hours and looking into the circle of sigils.

Another bone-fire

As before, the group gathers the bones of the slain undead and piles them in a brazier to be thoroughly burned. In their gathering, they take a somewhat closer inspection than they had last night, noting a few more interesting things:

• The dead from the day before still had equipment on them when they became undead; their flesh had rotted, so it didn't fit, but there were still bits and pieces of armor or clothing on them. These bones, contrastingly, seem to have been picked clean before they became animated.
• Deer, wolves, skunks, other wild animal bones are in among the humanoid bones.
• Several bones showed signs of being chewed. It's not clear what sort of beast might have done it, but it seems unlikely to be something with a human sized or shapes mouth.
• Maya suggests the bones may have been originally from an animal refuse pile that acquired more bones as it went along.

Maya concentrates on creating a bonfire in the brazier while the rest of the group moves to the circle.

Excavation

While the druid burns the bones, the rest of the party starts excavating the Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond) in the ruin with the bell. Working in an orderly fashion around the outside, they reveal a series of sigils that seem to be the "address" for this teleportation circle. Leucis considers what he knows about teleportation sigils, but isn't able to match them up to another language or phenomenon.
Having recorded the sigils for potential later use (if someone learns Teleport), the group removes the rubble from the circle's center, revealing another sigil. No one immediately places it, but Harb is sure he's seen it before.
Harb reaches for his sketchbook, and....

Tune in next session for ????

Next steps:

1. Scheduled:
   • Sending(s) to/from Mia
2. Continue exploring the ruined trading post
   • Having cleared the Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond); find out what happens next!
   • Investigate the blood stains further - track the scent of blood where it goes.
3. Leucis: Discuss lycanthrope reclamation with more party members
4. Between session tasks:
   • Players: Token requests for the most commonly-used spells/shapes
   • DM and interested players: Review/discuss rule clarifications above
   • DM: Token for Tiny Hut
   • DM: Sendings to/from Mia
   • DM: Wisdom scene upcoming
5. Out of Character tasks:
   • Consider adjusting campaign flavor and discuss player expectations from the game at large and combat in particular; discussions in progress on the posted document
   • 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: I got to try a bunch of stuff. I failed miserably, but still. Wasn't there a magic boomerang at one point and no one bought it?
Heather: I'm trying to remember to use my stuff. We seemed to have the combat so I didn't use the Horn of Valhallans. I thought the combat went pretty well, and I got to kabong somebody and that's always a good time. I had a full charge on the instrument so I felt like I could use a couple of charges.
James:The skeletal juggernaut was an good pick. Flameskulls are nasty. The combat was dynamic. The Hut was a good bunker but I don't know that we'll always get that but it is handy. Maya needs a sling real bad. I'm looking forward to the rehab camps with Leucis. Maya has to have a chat with Sunny about that Thunderclap. I burned through all of my third level spell slots.
Jeremy: The magic boomerang was before we learned "buy every magic weapon." Some of the combat dynamics were a little different, like stacking up the large baddies, hadn't seen that before. That one skull that went for elevation kinda changed things up - "Haha, I can fly and y'all can't." Though I think we have some magic items that can handle that, it was neat to see one be a little defensive and take height for defense. We've taken our first Fireball, and I passed the Dex save.
Matt: Slightly disappointed that the magical damage didn't mean anything. But my turns were easy to figure out, and it was nice to get in a finishing kill. Saf's turns were very straightforward and easy. We'll see what happens with the circle. I was very disappointed to miss the conversation about re-education camps, super interested there.
Meg: I liked the battle - that was interesting. The thing exploding into multiple skeletons was crazy. I was concerned Kol's light source was too bright for Steps of Night.
John: I decided to treat the post-juggernaut skeletons as minions so they'd go down even if it wasn't quite enough damage for their HP totals to keep things moving along. RAW flameskulls don't stay down unless you do some extra stuff to them as well. There was always going to be one combat where the group discovered how powerful the Hut spell is. There is at least one party member who can fly. First time spritzing two Deep Rumble charges on something. I felt that combat went pretty well for the party but that you felt like you had to use some resources, which is nice. I'm really looking forward to next session; I've been waiting for you guys to do what you just finished doing since you got to this place.