Session 20 - Tipping the Scales and a Mountain Chase

Drant: What’s wrong with you?

Jalan: I drink more, I’ve got more water weight.

Fritz: You’re a thieving backstabbing bastard is what you are.

Plot points/Scenes

BACKIN’ IT UP

• So Michael had some second thoughts about the way he ran the last session post-combat so we’re going back, Drant has just flying flaming haymaker’ed the guy into oblivion and we’re just out of combat
• We have three goblin prisoners, our friends are supposedly in the black sphere
• Jeochhmann and Zavala Stormrender recognize us and let us into their sphere
• Questions
  • Zavala: had a dream just before being woken by explosion…….
  • Enough horses to seat everyone who can ride - the rest can fit in the caravan
• Decide to stay night to rest riddle the thing out in the morning - it’ll be safer and more easily defendable to stay in the fortress
• Jalan gets confronted by a bold mercenary who wants his pay - Dan
  • Talks to Terrence, gives Dan the most but pays everybody else 10 gold (1 gp/day for a 10 day contract)
• Fritz talks to Gregory, makes sure he feels welcome and not abused or taken advantage of, apologizes for not having like monthly wages anymore but if there’s ever anything he needs to speak up and she’d be sure to help him out
• Terrence talks to Drant and makes him mad
  • T: “don’t fuck up your post...because we both know that you’re here because you fucked up your first one…” *walks away*
  • Drant volunteers to take the first watch in a huff (not only was that very personal that was very secret and Drant is pissed)

Riddle Time - Pillars and Ancient Titans

• Zavala mentions that the place we need will be active at dawn, and wakes us up 2 hours before dawn
• The ones that are rotated 180 degrees are opposites
• SOLVED:
• is fire, is water, is air, is earth
  • Or at least the abstract concept of them….as we will find out, water can be a river, and air is wind
• Choosing which river to follow...looking at the map, there are quite a few - end up choosing the one that looks like it has a cave at the end
• Bringing Zavala and Gregory with, leaving Jeochhmann and Robin and Nevermore in charge of guarding the caravan, Terrence asks Jalan to be in charge of the caravan while we’re gone
• Fritz gets Jeochhmann to direct Meghan to collect anything salvageable from the facility and begin packing the horses/caravan so they’re ready to leave right when we get back
• Zavala brings out a box of goodies that they excavated from an old gnomish settlement nearby
  • A rod, a broken stopwatch, a pair of boots
    • (holla for getting our magic items despite the retcon)

Opening the Inner Sanctum

• Follow the river up the mountain, find the mouth of a cave, Jalan’s not stoked about going into a cave (gives him Underdark flashbacks)
• Floor and ceiling is covered in moss, Jalan suggests lighting the moss on fire
• Fritz does jokingly, it actually reveals some intricate pattern on the floor and wall that leads directly to some wall - on the base of the wall is two upright open triangles, at the top of the wall is one upside-down open triangle
• Jalan gets a cup of water from the river, Drant and Fritz shove torches into the symbols
  • Nothing happens
• Investigate the floor for symbols - there are some, but they’re very jumbled and no one is particularly successful at figuring out any connection
• Drant works out that it means steam (water above fire)
  • We call for Gregory to fill his helmet up with water and come in here - except we forget that he’s a human and dark-blind
  • Zavala offers her cooking supplies to set up a sort of spit for the helmet
  • Creates steam - but only the top one lights up
  • Someone works out that the other two mean smoke- both light up, everything starts shaking, floor opens up in like a circular pattern
• Fritz peers over the edge
  • D: “I wonder how deep it is”
  • J: “I cast Levitate and push Fritz down”
  • D: “Let’s see how long she screams”
  • F: “WHAT”
  • About 40 feet down are 4 pillars, can’t make out many details
• Fritz Gravity Cloaks, Drant Thorn Whips, Jalan Levitates and brings Zavala with him, trying to impress her
  • But forgets her name….she’s sort of disappointed

Unlocking the Scales

• More moss, Fritz finds a pattern underneath it like the one above
  • F: “Should I burn it?”
  • J: “It could be a trap”
  • F: …………..*burns it*
• Moss burns up to a point about 10 feet high, then burns in a circle, then in a spiral up into the ceiling, where the roof above spirals shut
  • Everybody but Gregory is down here
• Translucent sheet of black rock on the wall, four pillars exactly like Zavala’s drawing, but there is no symbol in the middle of the floor
• Putting the elements in the correct pillars
• Translucent sheet of black rock becomes transparent and we have a perfect view of the horizon, it’s just dawn
• Sudden snap and a pillar shoots up incredibly quickly in the center, where the time symbol from Zavala’s dream was drawn
  • Sunlight hits the pillar and it starts disintegrating, in the center and untouched is a black sphere
• Jalan picks up the sphere, it sounds like there’s something inside
  • Jalan Detect Magic but it doesn’t penetrate the barrier
  • Drant tastes it (it tastes like rock)
  • Fritz (being a materials craftswoman) observes it looks somewhat like obsidian
• After a bunch of debate Drant just throws it on the ground and it shatters
• Inside is a scale (like a measuring scale) made of golden shimmery material - The Millennium Scale
  • Jalan Detects Magic and it radiates all kinds of magic
• Jalan continues to try to woo Zavala by pretending he could’ve teleported us all out of it “if they weren’t somehow blocking teleportation”
  • Also at this point
  • J: “Oh, Zendaya - Ze-....what’s your name again?”
  • Z:*clearly annoyed now* “Zavala.”
• Zavala holds it up to Jalan and it tips one way, up to Fritz and it tips the other way, for Drant and Zavala it tips the same way as Fritz
  • D: “What’s wrong with you?”
  • J: “I drink more, I’ve got more water weight.”
  • F: “You’re a thieving backstabbing bastard is what you are.”
• Try water on one and fire on the other
  • Gregory starts screaming
  • G: “The river just turned to steam!”
  • We dump it out and he calms down
• Try air and earth
  • Have to hold it near the telescoping air pipe for the air to trigger
  • Experimenting with the “air”
    • Jalan tries blowing on it (nope)
    • Somebody not holding it, just setting it on the ground (it doesn’t quite reach, we’d need to come up with some contraption)
    • Fritz tosses a ball bearing through the wall while it’s ethereal, then before it falls Jalan removes the scales, then a few seconds later put them back (the ball bearing only drops after he puts the scales back, meaning the full wall turns back into solid stone instantly)
    • How long does it take to change back? (instantaneously)

• Zavala mentions we can just leave and circle around and open the door for whoever remains
  • F: “Bye Jalan!”
  • Zavala volunteers to stay with him
  • *Drant and Fritz exchange knowing glances*
• Fritz and Drant are going above
  • F: “Whatever you two do down here while we’re gone, DON’T. Move. The scales. Or we’ll die.”
  • D: “I mean, I could just Absorb Elements.”
  • F: “Air turned to earth. All bodily orifices filled with earth.”
  • J: “Speaking of bodily orifices filled with earth….”
• While Fritz and Drant walk, Jalan tells Zavala an abridged and incorrect version of his and Fritz’s backstory together (skews it so it’s Fritz’s fault it happened, that she was the one running and she caused the accident)
• Once the ceiling’s opened, Drant and Fritz make fun of Jalan, telling “Mr. Wizard Man” to just teleport them back up or levitate them back up
  • Says something that his specialty is detection magic, Zavala pulls out some device that apparently is also designed to detect things (Fritz is sort of interested but we never return to it)
• Jalan tries to throw a rock up at Fritz who’s taunting him but crit fails and hits himself in the head
• Jalan climbs up himself, we drop a rope and work together to pull Zavala up
• We test the scale on Gregory, and he shows a true neutral
  • J: “........I don’t know why the scale’s like that”
• Drant realizes he hasn’t tested out his boots and starts climbing up and around Jalan



Conducting Science Experiments

• Earth + Flaming Oil
  • The more the scales are tipped in one direction, the more drastic the effect: but the earth becomes hot and glows red-hot
• Earth + River Water
  • The earth in the cave begins to get soft and slump inwards, the river behind us starts to get muddy and slushy
• Vodka + Flaming Oil
  • The vodka in Fritz’s bag gets super hot, and the water in the river turned into super violent steam (the river was turbulent and spewed boiling water/steam everywhere)
  • (*inspired by something Danner said: “vodka is the perfect combination of water and fire”*)
• Zavala mentions the Unsosen and how the scales seem to correspond to a Fellowship of Equilibrium (but since we retconned the conversation with the dragon we don’t really know what she’s talking about)
• We want to do more science, Jalan wants to go back to the caravan
• Meanwhile, we hear someone breathing heavily climbing up the side of the mountain
  • One of Jalan’s mercenaries with the news that Terrence interrogated the three goblin scouts and got the intel that there’s going to be an attack on the fortress at noon, it’s just after dawn so we’ve got some time but we need to get back down the mountain, packed up, and moved on before then
• One last experiment
  • Metal + Flaming Oil
    • The flame is snuffed out instantly, the metal is hot to the touch and inexplicably heavier

Back at the Caravan

• Everything’s packed up and ready to go
• Nevermore seems quiet and tired
• Terrence tells Jalan in secret that he thinks the goblins are being brainwashed by something
  • Jalan consults with the party and we agree we should kill them
• Fritz talks to Nevermore
  • Didn’t sleep well last night, he’s having doubts over his actions in his life, he’s got the feeling that he needs to expend a lot of energy today and that thought makes him tired
  • Fritz says she hopes he feels welcome and that we’re not just using him (N: “Jalan’s definitely using me” F: “Yeah well Jalan’s an asshole”), and that if he ever needs anything or just wants to talk she’s there
  • Also talks about the artifact we found, and that we’ve only had time to do a few experiments
  • She holds up the scale to him and it actually wavers, like back and forth pretty drastically
    • He’s not reassured but Fritz tries to reassure him that there isn’t a ‘normal’ that we’ve found yet in the five people we’ve tested
      • F: “three were the same, one was neutral, one was off the rails in the other direction”
      • N: “I bet Jalan was the weird one”
      • F: “Oh yeah”
      • J: “hey!”
• Jalan and Drant interrogate the goblins
  • Jalan and Drant play good cop bad cop, Drant is the bad cop
  • These three goblins are apparently just scouts
  • At one point rips out one’s eye and grabs another by the throat and starts ripping out his tongue
    • Goblin starts talking: the yells were getting a plan together, some information went to the wrong person, information that was supposed to direct someone to find something powerful
    • Who’s in charge: some dude in a big black cloak, some rumors he’s not really a goblin, he never really seems to talk but he nods
  • Goblin starts getting anxious because his friend’s getting his tongue ripped out
    • J: “It’s alright! Hey! I’ll keep him away from you! Keep talking.”
    • D: *chitters aggressively*
    • Next scouting was supposed to be Stonedeep
    • Their chieftain has talked with an orc chieftain recently, and there’ve been more kobolds around recently

Fleeing the Base

• Gregory informs Jalan that only three of his mercenaries know how to ride, but we’ll all fit either riding horses or riding in the caravan
• Jalan asks if anybody prepared the hot meal he asked for, one of his lackeys brings it to him - it tastes amazing for two bites then it’s meh
  • He offers some to Zavala, who offhandedly and disinterestedly dismisses him, then goes to talk with Isabelle on the cart
• Partway down, we hear a war horn sound back up by the fortress
• A short while later, Gregory starts sensing weird things, is super uncomfortable but can’t really put his finger on it, until...
  • G: “......RUN!”
• There’s a horde of wargs chasing us
• Nevermore shoves his hand down into our carriage and spreads his other five fingers towards the horde and he pulses with energy, everything gets enveloped in pulsing energy and starts moving faster

COMBAT - A Chase Down the Mountain and a Warrior Wreathed in Shadow

• Round 1
  • Jalan casts Faerie Fire, mercenaries fire upon the warg riders, warg swarm ‘summons’ another warg, Gregory CRITS and starts sentinel-booping goblins off their wargs, Fritz starts Shoving goblins off their wargs
  • The black-cloaked dude shoots an arrow at Drant’s horse (he’s in the middle of us three) and sudden silence falls, Drant tries to rip the silence arrow out of his horse, falls off it, Gregory is a badass and Sentinel-snatches him out of the air and plops him on the back of his horse, Drant is no longer silenced, wargs start attacking the people nearest to them
• Round 2
  • Jalan rapiers the guy up in his business, his mercenaries deal some damage, Gregory misses and yells back at Drant “You threw me off my groove!”
  • Black cloak guy fires an arrow at Fritz (her armor suddenly gets painfully hot), then erects a shimmering barrier, she falls back and shatters the barrier but doesn’t have enough attacks to hit him
  • Drant casts Slow on the horde and ALL of the six closest by fail, the horde is thinned out significantly
  • Robin shoots an arrow and CRITS and takes out a warg
  • Fritz manages to dodge or deflect 6 arrows shot at her - apparently these goblins really don’t like people fucking with their leader. Other wargs move up to attack Drant
• Round 3 - ...Caltrops?
  • Jalan throws caltrops
    • Fritz and Drant reminisce about all the good caltrops have done for our party
    • Wargs are more used to this kind of terrain than horses so they take damage and move slow but won’t fall like horses
    • Fritz fails an animal handling check and her horse goes down, the warg leader next to her also fails a check to stay mounted
    • In a split second Fritz dives off her horse and tackles the warg leader off of his mount
    • Drant sees this happen and dives off his mount after them
  • The wargs who were slowed by Drant earlier will be joining combat with Fritz, Drant, and the chieftain, everything else will follow the caravan
    • BUT the horde is no longer infinite - the ones left on the board are the ones left to kill
• Round 4
  • Jalan’s mercenaries attack the nearest wargs and miss
  • The black cloaked dude heats Fritz’s armor again and shoots an arrow, Fritz shoots herself up with adrenaline and tries to attack but misses
  • Robin tries to shoot off a fancy tinker’s arrow but misses
  • The goblins circle up around Fritz and shoot crossbows at Drant but all miss, all the goblins/wargs in the group still running miss, one warg stumbles and falls out of Gregory’s range but he misses his opportunity attack, Jalan takes some damage
  • Drant uses full movement to get up behind Fritz
• Round 5
  • Jalan and his mercenaries and the wargs up front keep exchanging blows
  • Gregory attempts to charge backwards into the horde but fails and falls off his mount, the wargs circle up around him
  • Black cloaked dude leaves Fritz’s side and hides behind his ranks of archers, deals enough damage to Fritz to bring her to 6 health
  • Fritz makes the decision to charge in, disengages, attacks the black cloaked archer dude, knocks him prone and knocks the shit out of him, he loses concentration on the fire spell that would’ve killed her
  • Drant attacks the sword-y goblins that Fritz disengaged from
• Round 6
  • Jalan orders the pleasure barge and the mercenaries to turn around and charge back into the circle to attempt to save Gregory
  • One of the archer wargs in the front group shoots an arrow at Zavala and knocks her unconscious, another warg hurts a mercenary
  • The goblins left behind all focus Fritz, but miss, she shoulder shimmies her success
• Round 7 - JALAN IS CLUTCH
  • Jalan casts Darkness
    • From the goblins’ perspective, Gregory charged into their ranks, dove off his horse, stood up, raised his sword, and darkness
    • J: “honestly I forgot that Gregory could see in the [magical] dark I was just trying to save his ass”
    • SIDE NOTE: Jalan cast Darkness on the tip of Gregory’s sword, and every time he plunges it into somebody, the Darkness flashes out for a split second - like a gory and macabre strobe-light show

• The wargs charge in, them and their riders all attacking at disadvantage - Gregory only gets hit once and takes 2 damage because of his heavy armor master
• The chieftain backs away from Fritz, tries to hit her, and puts up his shield barrier again
• Gregory action surges and kills 4 of the riders, the rest of them hear their comrades dying and screaming and falling coming from the darkness surrounding them and make (succeed) a morale check
• Drant crit fails a punch and breaks his hand
• Zavala fails her second death save, but Meghan manages to stabilize her
• All the goblins around Fritz attempt to attack her but miss, then change their mind about trying to kill the frothing bleeding-out crazy midget chick who just punched their leader in the face, and back off
• Round 8 - The Chieftain Kills Himself
  • Jalan swipes at the one remaining goblin outside of the sphere of darkness, and his mercenaries finish it off
  • The wargs in the darkness circle attack Gregory and this time get 5 successes
    • (Phil pointed out that the goblins didn’t have a very high attack modifier and Michael realized he’d been reading it wrong - so now they’ve got a +4 instead of a +2, which explains the more hits)
  • The chieftain attempts to retreat and shoot an arrow at Fritz, but crit fails and his bowstring snaps and HE KILLS HIMSELF
    • …..well that was anticlimactic but I’m not complaining
  • Meanwhile, Gregory is going ham on the people in the circle of darkness with him, and takes 3 out
  • Fritz attempts to walk over to the chieftain and gets an attack of opportunity CRIT on her, she goes down
    • And the crit chart says Heinous Hit, which means all of your teammates have disadvantage on their next attack because of how horrible the attack was to witness
  • Meanwhile, Jalan gets a sudden piercing mental pain as Fritz goes down, which he crit fails a con save against, takes 29 damage, and loses concentration on darkness thanks to luck succeeds on and takes quite a bit less damage, and succeeds on a concentration check on darkness
    • So for flavor - darkness flickers out for a split second as Jalan loses concentration, we see Gregory kneeling down mid spin, eyes closed, covered in gore, before Jalan regains concentration just in time and the darkness flickers back into existence
    • But in that brief second, the pleasure barge releases their held arrows and manage to take down one of the warg riders
  • The goblins around Drant and Fritz all circle around Drant and even with a 50/50 chance to hit they only hit once (but they crit)
• Round 9
  • Jalan, now knowing that Drant/Fritz are in some deep shit, takes off towards them but doesn’t get quite there, crossbow kills one of them
  • Jalan’s mercenaries attempt to take out some more wargs in the circle but miss
  • The horde charge in, get two hits and two crit fails, Gregory only takes four damage
  • Gregory attacks but misses, then takes a Second Wind - poor dude’s just exhausted and took a breather
  • Fritz fails her first death save
  • Drant opts to drop a Goodberry near Fritz and cast Blur on himself, knowing that the goblins are not aggroed on her and that Jalan is approaching
  • Goblin archers attack Jalan and hit once but crit fail bad enough that he gets exhaustion
  • The pleasure barge fires off arrows into the darkness
• Round 10
  • Jalan emergency stops his horse and uses the forward momentum to leap forward, and shoves a Goodberry into Fritz’s mouth and rapiers the goblin next to Drant; his mercenaries back at the caravan finally get a hit
  • The horde attacks again and Gregory takes 3 damage, one crit fails which gives him a free attack and he kills it
  • Gregory attacks and takes down four more goblins
  • Fritz stands up, shoves a Goodberry into Drant’s mouth to heal his broken hand, then attacks and barely damages one of the goblins
  • Drant kills one of the remaining goblins in the secondary group, there are two left
  • One of the remaining crossbow goblins shoots at Fritz
    • J: “oh my god are you okay I thought you were dying-”
    • F: “I think I owe you my life-”
    • *Crit’d crossbow bolt embeds itself in her chest and she goes down again*
  • TIME REWINDS
    • *Jalan shoves Fritz aside and jumps in front of the arrow, tanking 25 damage for her and suffering disadvantage on attacks plus advantage on attacks against him for the rest of the encounter*
      • For context, he’s still got 18 health
• Round 11

• Jalan’s turn
  • J: “I...took an arrow for you…..I just didn’t want to give you another Goodberry…..”
    • F: “no it’s okay, stay down, we got this-”
  • *clearly bleeding out and dying, while Jalan’s still got 18HP*
  • J: “oh….I guess I’m kind of okay”
  • He runs up to the remaining two crossbowmen and attacks them, then backs away
  • Meanwhile, Jalan dropped concentration on Darkness for a half second again with that 29 damage, in which time the remaining wargs got their courage up to go attack Gregory again, but then the Darkness came back
  • They deal a bit of damage, Gregory uses his turn to kill all but three of the remaining creatures
    • Fritz runs up to the remaining two crossbowmen, crits on one, stabs all the way through him with a pike and hurts his comrade, then kills his comrade with her hasted attack, then falls to the ground in exhaustion
    • Drant begins moving towards the horde
    • Everyone on the pleasure barge attack and kill the goblin and warg that left the Darkness
• Round 12
• Jalan hops on his horse and charges back towards the main battle, his mercenaries attack and kill one of the riders outside the circle
  • The wargs surrender, but Gregory is not merciful - he kills them.
  • Combat is over

OUT OF COMBAT - finally a breather

• We only have two horses remaining - the rest were trampled or hobbled
• Gregory sheaths his sword and the Darkness vanishes, he’s covered in blood and panting, bloodlust in his eyes, finally drops his sword
  • G: “These bodies will be a testament to any who follow who seek to harm us.....I need a bath”
  • *notices Jalan*
  • G: “oh hey. You know Zavala took an arrow? And almost died? You might want to check on her.”
  • J: “Oh. I took an arrow in the shoulder….I jumped in front of Fritz. I thought she was going to die….”
  • G: “....I thought you were into Zavala?”
  • D: “my hand is broken.”
  • G: “.....I’m sorry?”
• Looting the leader - Goblin Tribal Leader Staff (don’t know what it does)
• Jalan’s six remaining mercenaries (they all survived) achieve level 1 status as UA Sidekicks
• Fritz pulls the arrow out of Jalan
  • At the last second:
  • F: “you know I’m not the best person to do this, right?” (-1 wis modifier)
  • J: “Wait. Wait-”
  • *pulls it out with a natural 18, so 17*
  • F: “see, I was careful-”
• We scalp the goblins and de-tail the wargs for potential monies (we get 73 scalps, but then…)
  • As Jalan attempts to scalp the goblin chieftain he wakes up screaming
    • J: “oh my god this one’s still alive”
    • Fritz ties him up, Jalan throws him over the back of his horse and rides him back to the caravan
• Gregory takes the chieftain by the hair and throws him in the center of all the bodies he massacred (still covered in blood), intimidates him, and tosses him back to Jalan for interrogation
• Fritz strips off her armor (she’s covered in 2nd degree burns from the Heat Metal spell) and goes to check on Nevermore, who’s passed out
  • She just sits down, strokes his head and cries a little
  • Zavala and Isabelle start chittering
    • I: “Do you have a thing for him? You know he’s like 3, 400 years old, right?”
    • F: “first of all, this poor dude’s been through a lot…..also you know I’m like, 70, right?”
    • Z: “...you don’t look a day over 30?”
    • F: “.....thank u”
• Island culture history [side note]
  • Calooshiis (pure blood goliaths who live in mountain top centers and learn specialized and magical martial arts) - like mimes, they mime certain things and they become real - they’ll mime an invisible wall and it’ll become physical
  • Gregory is half-goliath, we don’t know if he’s associated with this group, or with goliaths from the mainland, or...
• Chieftain interrogation
  • Jalan bargains with the chieftain for more information - we’ll give him a proper burial/send-off, on fire down the river, if he tells us everything he knows
  • Wasn’t a part of the clan who was assigned to take down our company but heard something like third-hand about us, his mission was to bring his clan to take over the fort, when their scouts didn’t return, they went to investigate and followed our trail
  • His name is Walter Stoneheart - Fritz offers to carve him an epitaph
  • C: “I don’t suppose there’s any way you will let me live….my clan is without warriors and leadership, they need to get a message somehow. Can any of you help me send a message?”
  • Terrence: “I can!”
  • *Drant immediately kills him with his bare hands*
  • F&J: “NO, Drant WHAT”
  • D: “fuck Terrence”
• Identifying the clan
  • Jalan approaches Zavala to ask if she knows which clan these people were so we could send his message
  • Z: “I got shot in the should- hey we match!”
  • J: “.....yes...anyway”
  • She is able to identify the clan and where they live, we get Terrence to send off a raven and give Walter his requested burial
• Before we leave COMPANY LOGO
  • A screaming skull with soul flying off it, with gears visible through the eye sockets, with tattoos decorating the bone, and coins flowing from the open mouth
  • We want to burn it into the center of the ground where the massacre happened
• Jalan names his mercenaries
  • Dan, Todd, Howard, Linus, Marcus, Fishfinger McGee

Plot type

Session

Parent Plot

Act 2: Uprooted