Session 19 - Liberating the Facility And (Redacted) History Lessons

Fritz: *cackling in the background* NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS!

Jalan: Unlike you, I have multiple weapons on my person.

Fritz: Well, I did too, until I broke one, and got the other stuck in a rock.

Plot points/Scenes

Sneaking Into/Through the Facility

• Picking up where we left off, it's been 2 weeks and we didn't save the turn order so DM goes first, the one wolf we didn't manage to kill howls and alerts nearby units, Fritz dispatches of it, Drant stealths closer to the only group we're aware of
• Jalan grabs blankets from a nearby tent and attempts to disguise the bodies of the people we've killed, then hides in a tent
• Fritz moves out of their sight behind a corner but gets attacked by a shadow pupper, attempts to hit it but crit fails and gets her pike stuck in a rock
• (F: *sobs quietly*)
• Drant casts Slow and gets four of the goblins and Fritz's pupper
• Gregory (on the other side of the fort, unaware we've blown our cover) attacks another group of goblins, is a general badass
• Jalan shoots his crossbow
• One of the slowed dudes crit hits Drant, he loses concentration on Slow
• Puppers flank Fritz, she forgets the pike, draws her light hammer and shield, skirts around one of the wolves out of range of the other and hits some
• (F: "I'm basically attacking with a hammer-and-chisel sized hammer right now."
• (J: "I mean, it's probably more like a carpenter's hammer
• (F *sobbing quietly* "but it's so small..."
• Drant goes for the turtle punch approach and hits some dudes, the goblins retaliate, Gregory realizes we're not in stealth anymore and starts sprinting
• Jalan comes out of the tent and attacks one of the puppers, it's still not fucking dead
• (F: "These puppers have a ton of health."
• (DM: "Compared to their masters? Yes."
• One pupper tries to run into the darkness, Jalan kills it, the other wolf comes up to get vengeance, Fritz vaults over that wolf and reclaims her pike
• (J: "What? You're supposed to attack it. Help me!"
• (F: "Nah, you'll be fine"
• Drant turtle-punches, goblins make some attacks, Gregory runs up and power-boops the wolf by Jalan, Jalan finishes it off, then runs up to attack the nearest goblin
• Crit fails, and rolls the same fumble as Fritz did, gets his dagger stuck in the turf
• F: *cackling in the background* "NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS"
• J: "Unlike you, I have multiple weapons on my person."
• F: "Well, I did too, until I broke one, and got the other stuck in a rock."
• Fritz barely makes it back to the combat on her teeny tiny legs, but the 10 foot reach of the pike makes up for it and she boops a goblin into oblivion
• Drant is feelin' frisky and moves forward, and crits on an enhanced punch
• Gregory (at the back of the pack) full dashes to the two goblins that are currently trying to flee into the keep
• (none of the goblins have sounded the alarm yet so it's imperative we stop them)
• Jalan trusts the rest of us can handle the two rogue goblins, moves to climb one of the towers, crit fails, falls, is prone and takes damage
• Fritz runs up by Gregory and crits, killing one of the two remaining goblins
• Drant runs up to the other and un-modified punches it, it's still alive and tries to Disengage run away but Gregory the Sentinel boops him into nonexistence

A Brief Respite - Clearing the Ground Floor

• We've taken care of all of the guys on the ground, and the alarm has not been sounded, Jalan carefully climbs the tower and attempts to eavesdrop, learns that they're not aware anything's happening but doesn't learn anything else interesting
• We discuss the best way to approach the top floor, whether through the facility and the top center door all surprise-like or up the side tower to try to dispatch of more goblins before going for the big baddies
• Jalan scouts ahead - good stealth and perception
• First floor is empty, even the living quarters - but the living quarters is a mess, ransacked and filled with blood and bodies
• Identifying bodies
• F: "Oh no! Were they the researchers?"
• J: "I don't fucking know. How would I know that?"
• F: "You were there when we met them Jalan. Were they wearing lab coats?"
• (DM: "No. Sleepwear.")
• J: "Nope, see. Impossible to tell."
• F: "Fucking-"
• Fritz identifies all of the bodies to be researchers, but Drant points out that there's one missing from their number and that the head researcher's bed is unbloodied, and at the foot of it is a goblin dead with a deep dagger wound
• We deduct he's one of the ones sheltering in the shadow bubble on top of the keep and that we need to get there as quickly as possible, Jalan scouts the upper floor, discovers two goblins near the staircase that we need to take care of
• Fritz suggests creating a mild disturbance to draw them downstairs, settle for banging her pike against the wall
• One of the goblins says something about "if I'm not back in 30 seconds, something cLeArlY happened. (to someone else) Come with me."
• He comes down the stairs seemingly alone, Jalan takes him out, Drant becomes aware of an invisible dog nearby, but only Drant - who does some odic shit that casts bright light and reveals its location
• Only Gregory and Fritz haven't acted yet so have to roll combated initiative rolls to see who goes first, Fritz rolls 12, dog rolls 21, Gregory has to roll a nat 20 to beat that initiative and DOES FUCKING GET IT GREGORY HELL YES
• Major boops the dog into fucking OBLIVION
• Drant drops his light so we're not seen
• Jalan rushes forward and takes out the goblin that was told to come after his buddy
• Fritz, feeling pitiful with her hammer, borrows a shortsword from Gregory (who only uses it in emergencies or sudden situations - foreshadowing??)

Moving on the Top Floor

• Two large doors at the top of the stairs are closed so we're not sure of the layout/situation on the roof - Drant sneakily cracks open one of the doors and peers out
• Directly in front of the door is a group of three - a dragonoid human, flanked by two orcs, one is super buff and one is hooded
• There's a fire off to the left with some goblins around it, but with the rain he can't see anything around to the northwest
• While we're debating what to do, another goblin enters the chamber - Jalan deceives him into thinking we're the reinforcements and starts chatting him up
• Reveals that there's food in the basement (relevant information)
• People stationed in the north, west, and south towers
• Makes a short joke towards Fritz about her specialty being sitting on a shelf and jumping on top of people and hitting them with a hammer because "no one suspects people sitting on a shelf!"
• Jalan gets tense thinking she'll be angry and blow their cover but she's actually intrigued by the prospect
• Jalan talks him into walking us to the north tower ("so we don't have to walk outside in the rain"), once there he chats it up with them
• At first not convinced we're the reinforcements, but since Jalan's claiming Drant and Fritz are Gregory and Jalan's slaves, and "a Drow would team up with him (the dragon on the mountain)" they believe us
• Jalan offers the goblins a drink and they let their guard down and we mingle around the fire so we're all casually adjacent to each goblin
• J: *super casual and cheery* "Alright guys. Let's let em have it!"
• We dispatch of the dudes relatively quickly, before poor Gregory even has time to draw his greatsword (he looks ruefully at the shortsword he lent Fritz, she hands it back and picks up a scimitar from one of the goblins)
• Discussing the plan - how to move forward?
• The big baddies are important to damage focus - just burst through the doors directly behind them and go for them first?
• But there's probably so many goblins that would be great to dispatch first - not really the best idea
• Could sneak across the walls to the other towers and take out the other goblins stationed there
• But Fritz and Gregory are not particularly stealthy
• SO! It's decided that Jalan and Drant will stealth across the wall to the nearest tower and try to stealth take out the team there, and if successful would move on to the other tower, then try to take out as many on the ground as possible
• If at any point the alarm is sounded, Fritz and Gregory will burst through the center doors where they're waiting and attack the big bads from behind
• Sneaking into the first tower
• J: "Oh hi guys, we're the reinforcements, I'm a Drow and we're super evil, so -"
• Goblins: "......what."
• Jalan sweet talks them with alcohol, gets chatty, stands with his crossbow undetected at the ready under his cloak
• Goblins say they're gonna go get some food, but first shows the "reinforcements" a weird looking rock with a stick attached to it, if the stick is broken the alarm will sound
• J: "So if this very stick is broken the alarm is sounded?......" *tosses it out the window and shoots the dude with a crossbow*
• Jalan and Drant both attack but one goblins survives and books it across the wall to another tower, Jalan shoots him in the back
• DM: "Roll two luck rolls."
• J: *crit fails*
• D: *rolls a 7*
• J: *uses luck to roll a 15*
• So the alarm stick does not break as it hits the ground, but the goblin body falls on the wrong side of the wall
• Drant Alters Self to make himself sound like a goblin and calls out that the dudes on ground to come up to the tower and witness this "it's so cool"
• He rolls pretty bad and the goblins crit succeed on their insight checks, start heading over aggressively, our two heroes hide and await the goblins
• ROLL INITIATIVE
• Meanwhile Fritz and Gregory wait for their cue in the stairs lobby, cue the elevator music
• Combat in the West Tower
• Goblins charge into the tower, don't spot Jalan or Drant and spread out to investigate further
• Drant (who's kinda tapped, his max HP is down to 46 (half his full, and equal to his current HP)) attacks one of the goblins and gives Jalan advantage
• Jalan finishes one off with sneak attack, but even with advantage misses a second attack
• A luck roll determines that this group of goblins is cowardly, and the one that Jalan missed runs out of the tower onto the main floor
• F: "........well maybe since this goblin's got a cowardly reputation they won't believe him that anything's wrong"
• J: "He is bleeding sorta"
• F: "Ach, only 6hp, he's fine"
• J: "That's half his health"
• F: "Nah"
• Drant Odic-pulls one of the goblins towards him through the sentry fire, the fire is just enough to kill it
• Jalan finishes off the last goblin left in the tower
• The other goblin runs up to the three big baddies and starts talking fast about how people are trying to kill him - they make jokes about how of course his goblin-mates are trying to kill you ya wimpy little shit stop being dramatic, but they decide to send Edgelord over there to investigate
• Gregory hears this conversation through the door, Fritz decides to give it ~20 seconds to let him get some distance away before they jump out
• Meanwhile in the tower, Jalan and Drant makeshift a little pile of bodies to hide behind, Edgelord comes up to the door, slits the little wimpy goblins throat and tosses him in without looking
• EL: "If any of you come out and bother us again, you'll end up like this one!" *starts to walk away*
• D: *who still sounds like a goblin* "Is that all you got?!"
• ROLL INITIATIVE

Combat on the Roof of the Keep

• Fritz (who's crit succeeded her initiative) - stabs herself in the thigh with an adrenaline shot, screams like a banshee, and slams through the door
• (D: "What if she'd failed?"
• (From the other side of the door *muffled scream like a banshee*..........*thud*)
• Three big baddies coined by Drant beefy boi, scaly boi, and sneaky boi - Fritz goes for the scaly boi and does 7 attacks in one turn (crit'd initiative + 2 reg + 2 action surge + hasted attack)
• Sneaky boi casts some magical darkness into Jalan/Drant's tower
• Gregory comes bursting out of the tower and cuts down scaly boi, barely, with advantage, by 1HP
• DM is sad but nobody cares bc he scurry
• Goblins swarm Fritz, hit even with her great hasted AC of 21
• Beefy boi shouts and all of the nearby goblins attack Fritz, then swings with his longsword but misses
• Fritz cackles
• Jalan Dispels the darkness in the tower and resumes hiding
• Gregory takes some arrow damage but his Heavy Armor Master negates some damage
• Drant is egged on by Jalan to go into melee with sneaky boi but Drant is really lookin' bad, goes turtle and takes resistance to damage
• Fritz tries to hit the goblin in front of her but isn't totally successful
• Sneaky boi hits Drant fucking hard but luckily he's got resistance, sneaky boi disengages and runs down the stairs deeper into the keep
• Gregory is like "beefy boi! Showdown"
• Goblins all try to attack Fritz, can't get through her improved AC
• Beefy boi (who recharged his ability) shouts and the goblins once more go ham on Fritz, who dodges all of them but one (only 8 damage from 11 attacks, she'll take it but she's still not lookin' great), takes two big swings at Gregory and misses both
• Jalan (who can't take sneak attack on reactions and can't see sneaky boi) decides to hold levitate for when sneaky boi steps 5 feet out of the tower
• Fritz (who's hurtin' real bad) disengages, second winds, and attempts to shoot beefy boi with a crossbow but crit fails, becomes her own Bane (.....cool)
• Sneaky boi would've walked outside but since Drant didn't move he's going for him instead, then decides he's done with this and goes outside anyway
• Unfortunately succeeds his saving throw on Jalan's Levitate and is fine, keeps going
• F: "If he comes up behind me to stab me in the back I swear" (foreshadowing??)
• Gregory crits on beefy boi, deals a bucket of damage and incapacitates him for a round
• All gobbos try doin' stuff (two follow Fritz, others fire on Gregory), but errybody fails
• Jalan crit succeeds an attack on sneaky boi with sneak attack, also rolls the Bane crit
• Crossbows up in tower attack Gregory
• Fritz shouts out "if there's anybody in that shadow bubble that wants to help out, now would be a good time"
• Then attempts to hit some goblins, her Bane prevents all but 1, which misses killing him by 1hp
• Sneaky boi comes up behind Fritz and attempts to stab her, rolls a 24 but rolls a 4 on Bane and misses
• *general screams of excitement*
• Gregory misses both attacks on beefy boi
• Beefy boi hits Gregory twice, hard, then shouts and the goblins get some hits on him as well, but he doesn't get his shout back
• Jalan shoots and kills sneaky boi, then with his pussy-ass bitch almost full health climbs down from the wall and runs toward Fritz, who shouts at him to go help Gregory because whoo boy he's hurtin'
• DM: "Just FYI, Gregory would be so dead without this Heavy Armor Master"
• Drant, hasted, runs through a nearby fire, absorb elements, does a fly-by flying flaming haymaker on one of the goblins attacking Fritz then sprints forward to beefy boi and beats beefy boi to death with his flaming fists
• DM: "take your inspiration dice"
• F: *applause*
• Fritz's jaw is on the floor and she can only manage to deal 4 damage but does manage to kill one of the two goblins
• Gregory moves up to the two remaining goblins on the ground and takes them out
• There's still 3 goblins up in the tower and the one in front of Fritz
• Goblins in front of Fritz disengages and runs like hell, Jalan catches up to him and rapiers him in the back of the neck
• Drant is like vibrating with energy and nearly dead F: "Calm down, buddy, breathe"
• We suddenly realize that we didn't notice two orcish wizards firing beams of energy at the shadow dome, Drant goes to attack one of them, does a bunch of damage and takes a bunch of radiant damage and is pushed back 20 feet
• Fritz even on her stubby legs gets close enough to the tower to fire off her grapple launcher, even with advantage, rolls two 5s. She smiles. Dead inside.
• F: "I'm so glad we came here, guys."
• J: "I'm feeling pretty good."
• Gregory charges the mage whose protective shield broke, kills him, then charges, risking it for the biscuit on the other dude and crits but also goes down from how much damage he takes
• Jalan's turn is next and he feeds Gregory a goodberry
• We hear some faint screaming in the distance, and like a minute later Nymarinian comes crawling up the side of the keep with three live goblins wrapped in silk
• Gregory gives Drant a goodberry

Out of Combat - Finding the Survivors

• Jalan throws a pebble into the sphere. It disappears
• Call out for Jeochhmann and Zavala Stormrender (head researcher), the sphere slowly diminishes
• Jeochhmann is exhausted, Zavala is distraught, they're the only two survivors - they explain what happened
• They heard chanting in the distance, then an explosion, Jeochhmann made his voice loud and shouted for everybody to get into the main keep (unfortunately only Zavala was able to make it there - her research team died in their beds and Jeochhmann's security team died on and around the roof defending the path to the keep)
• We ask what the fuck this magic shit is
• F: "We actually came here hoping you and your research team might have an answer to what this anomaly thing is and why it's happening"
• *Zavala starts crying again*
• J: "Don't bring up dead people! That's rule number 2"
• (DM: "What's rule number 1??")

Zavala Explains Her Research

• Phantasmium is key to all of it - dragon on the mountain is planning something big, way back in the Rupture they bound all the island's magic to phantasmium, eventually through time there would've come a point where the magic inside and out of the stones would've been at equilibrium
• Not sure how? Just magic accumulating outside the stone? The world slowly regenerating magic? Whatever, the amount of magic inside the stone does not deteriorate, but an equal amount of energy would eventually exist outside the stones
• But the dragon sped up the process and initiated this new magical something all at once - and now they are theoretically uber-powerful because they control nearly all of the magic that had existed in the world before the Rapture in the form of the phantasmium throne they've got, plus control over a huge amount of this new magic
• And apparently phantasmium's power is related to something called the unsosen (remember Fritz's brief research with Tangerlyn) --
• Unsosen blood used as an alloy with phantasmium - unsosen was a race of immortal being
• UNSOSEN: race: beholders/mindflayers; race of native beings that owned the island long before the age of mortal races (which existed at the time, but were playthings of the unsosen.) Wicked/selfish/destructive unsosen were making mortal races instinct. All unsosen were born with an innate affinity to manipulate specific parts of reality, unsosen with similar abilities formed factions (leaders of factions were most powerful user of that ability)
• Known factions: Light/darkness, Mind, Heat/cold/fire, Magic, Equilibrium
• (that was all we were told but is that all that existed?) there are plenty more
• Had a centuries-long war that destroyed the island, one faction (Fellowship of the Equilibrium) didn't participate ((to the common man known as thermodynamics, equilibrium)) because they were all about maintaining balance or some shit
• Story - there was a piece of sun when bound to someone would make someone turn to ash
• (this was literally the only sentence that was said on this subject and I'm not sure wtf it's about - a specific faction had this ability? This was a once-in-all-of-time event or a common occurrence, etc.)
• How long ago was all of this? like 1 million/1 billion years ago, contention on the subject but very long ago
• At end of war, Fellowship of Equilibrium ended the war by creating a new plane of existence and binding all of their race to this plane and dragged out of the Material Plane (only ones allowed to remain were the lesser beings (mindflayers, beholders, etc.))

• And domains were created within the plane for each fellowship
  • Sealed power inside plane and prevented all unsosen within from interacting with mortals anymore
  • The Fellowship of Equilibrium remains on our plane and wanders the world searching for unsosen that have broken through and have started meddling in mortal affairs (only the most powerful able to even get through the barrier between planes do so), and they aren't all coming for our island or even the Material Plane
  • Recent story
  • Mindflayer taking residence in Shadowfell
  • Finding unsosen is hard, summoning them isn't - very much like demons
  • Take on varied physical forms from humanoid to monstrosities
  • Humans have actually learned to breed/farm unsosen for use in alloys with phantasmium
  • The stronger the unsosen killed, the stronger the artifact
  • But humans only really able to farm small beings like imps (still crazy), that's where we get the unsosen required to alloy with phantasmium
  • So apparently "unsosen" refers to both the race Unsosen and the material (blood?) unsosen drawn from creatures for alloying
  • Dragon in mountain had bound itself to the phantasmium
  • (like the sun stone binding from earlier? I'm a little unclear on what this binding refers to)
  • So what can we actually do?
  • Potentially could find/bind a powerful enough unsosen to phantasmium and weaken the power of the dragon
  • Oookay but what and how
  • So brief summary of the magical anomaly we just experienced
  • Dragon in the mountains sped up the phantasmium equilibrium process by like infinity, now as much magic exists in the real world as used to before the Rapture, except that amount of magic still exists in the form of phantasmium, which this antagonistic dragon has control of
  • Why? Who the fuck knows.......we bout to find out

  Well Shit

  • Gregory - "Uh, guys? What's that?"
  • Drant is acutely aware of a massive dragon shadow flying quickly towards us
  • D: "abandon ship-"
  • Everybody scrambles, Jalan sets a grapple and most people rappel down, Fritz's fancy cloak lets her fall harmlessly
  • But this dragon is flying super fucking fast, y'all
  • We barely make it onto the ground and a massive black dragon lands and transforms into a woman
  • Demands that we hand over the facility's research notes, then says as long as she's here she might as well "begin the cleansing process"
  • This chick is literally Hitler - asks everybody present to perform some feat of magic or they'll be 'cleansed'
  • Jalan casts darkness and immediately tries to flee, but she counterspells his darkness and caught red-handed he sheepishly goes "....well, I did it?"
  • She congratulates him, says he's going to be a member of this new era
  • Drant "gets his glow on"
  • (those were literally the words that came out of Danner's mouth and I'm not sure what he's talking about)
  • He is approved
  • Jeochhmann does some minor illusion stuff
  • He is approved
  • Fritz Mends the chipped edge of her goblin scimitar
  • She is approved, but is told she'll be one of the lower members of this new regime
  • Gregory's turn
  • *whole party is simultaneously griping "NO nono Gregory no not Gregory" because GREGORY CAN'T DO MAGIC*
  • Dragon lady fucking stabs Gregory with some spear shit that grows out of her arm but she doesn't kill him, spares him because some reason I didn't catch
  • Approaches Zavala, who can definitely not do magic
  • "Any questions before I kill your non-magical friend here?"
  • J: "Yeah. What the fuck?"
  • F: "Yeah, that pretty much covers it."
  • She became immortal, got tired of that and wanted to be all-powerful, now is tired of that and wants to move on - is purging all those who don't know magic
  • Arm-spear stabs Zavala in the knee, who collapses and whimpers
  • Wants to give the people the power to rise up against the Empire
  • J: *quietly* "oh.....are you gonna fight him too?"

  Answer: no. but she's gonna make sure other people have the power to

  • F: "What's your name?"
  • She's been called many names, but chooses the name Dominiana for this new age because domination
  • F: "So, what did you mean when you said you want to move on? From this island, this plane of existence..."
  • Gonna have her acolytes imprison her in a jewel for all of eternity
  • J: "When you say you want to cleanse here, what is here? The island, the world..."
  • Apparently the island, but also the underdark underneath the island
  • Dom: "We can't have anybody anywhere ruling in power who cannot use magic"
  • Drant: "How many hitpoints does she have?" (A: 1000)
  • (J: "In humanoid form? Oh no.")
  • Jalan asks for a boon
  • She says no, bc he's not a part of her dragon cult
  • J: "Well, if I got a gift basket I might consider joining..."
  • She's impressed by his sense of humor, and decides to give us all gifts as a welcome present
  • Drant asks to be able to climb like his spiders (his boots get fancy spider climb ability charges)
  • Fritz asks for an immovable rod (yus)
  • She commands some collapsing stone from the keep and swirls it all around, compacts it, and draws from it a rod
  • Jeochhmann characteristically asks for some shadowy shit, she weaves stuff out of shadow and he now has the ability to become invisible in the shadows
  • Gregory asks for a better weapon, she summons and merges all of the goblin weapons (including the one Fritz was carrying) into a tiny pea-sized blob, then expands it into two jewels which she places on either side of Gregory's greatsword's hilt
  • Drant doesn't enjoy the torture of Zavala that's happening (all throughout these discussions dragon lady has been punctuating points with jabs at Zavala)
  • D: "...so I run up and punch her."
  • F: "DRANT!!!?"
  • D: "Not the dragon lady! Not the dragon lady! Zivana!"
  • (F: "Jesus christ, Danner")
  • So Drant punches Zivana and puts her out of her misery, Dominiana actually congratulates him, says he's getting the hang of it
  • Then tells us our work as her acolytes has just begun, now continue on our mission to travel the island and killing all of the non-magical people we come across
  
  

  ARE WE PART OF A DRAGON CULT

  • Fritz immediately turns on Jalan
  • F: "Did you just sign us up to be a part of a dragon cult?"
  • J: "......"
  • F: "She specifically said we weren't a part of her cult, but then you said you might consider joining if she gave out gift baskets and she gave out gift baskets and told us to go kill non-magical people for her as her newest acolytes???"
  • J: "I think I'm gonna go back to the Underdark now."
  • Naomi emerges from the shadows, admits she went in and grabbed the research notes before we got there and it was apparently a good thing she did
  • Admits she's a no-mag
  • Brings outside news
  • Local encampments of barbarians have started attacking cities, a few of which have fallen, in those cities that have fallen, they line up everybody within and if they can perform magic they're spared, if not, they're executed
  • So why not kill the goblins and shit that can't do magic? They're cannon fodder
  • Naomi is surprisingly not antagonistic...because she realizes we might be the no-mag's only hope
  • So.....
  • J: "Let's just leave, guys. Yep, this is the perfect time to just leave"
  • Except we can't really escape, because remember - she's trying to convert everywhere, including the Underdark underneath the island
  • J: "We could just leave the island?"
  • N: "Ooh! Let's take Emperor Ragnar's grand Airship and fly off the island!"
  • F: "..........that's...what? No, that's absurd and impossible, it's not even on this island-"
  • N: "Oh, I thought we were throwing out stupid ideas"
  • WHAT NEXT?
  • Three goblin prisoners
  • Loot the bodies
  • Unsosen
  • Next town?

Plot type

Session

Parent Plot

Act 2: Uprooted