[Day 67 Continues – Clearing the dungeon, Part 2, Versus the BBs!]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened December 6, 2021.]
[SPOILERS! If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]
Player Characters
Via Roll20
Roscuro – male ratfolk 7th level Monk
Hrefna – female changeling 6th level Omdura
Swamprover – female grippli 6th level Wizard
Marativy – female ratfolk 7th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 7th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 7th level Summoner (Synthesist)
NPCs
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 5th level Wizard (Invoker)
Ariphi – female tiefling 6th level Rogue
Mel Sharples – male halfling Cook (Expert of unknown level)
Alice Hyatt – female halfling Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
Flo’ Castleberry – female gnome Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
Oriana – female human Captain of the Grey Maidens (temporary ally, remained at camp)
Autumn
Day 67 (Continued)
Having just tripped a trap, the Ratpack was being attacked by four red-scaled beings with pitchforks. Two of the beings stepped out of the carved wall at the far end of the unfinished room past the vampiric mists and two stepped out of the back corners of the room, flanking part of the party and surprising most of the rest. Zitch quickly identified them as babau, a kind of demon.
The first babau attacked Roscuro at range with a longspear, catching Roscuro by surprise [it did sneak attack damage]. Gridik, back in the corridor to this room stepped closer to cast Snow Ball at the demon attacking his boss, but walked into an attack of opportunity from one of the babaus just around the corner. This caused Gridik to lose his Snow Ball spell [he failed to make his concentration check to cast the spell after taking damage]. Marativy focused her chi and turned invisible to attempt a surprise attack on the babau that attacked Roscuro, but it saw right through her invisibility and her attack missed. Ariphi attacked the babau that hit Gridik and slashed it with her sword. The second babau in the front attacked Marativy but missed. The second babau in ambush advanced to flank Roscuro and bit Roscuro. Roscuro stepped to the first babau and unleashed a flurry of blows, hitting it four times with the last hit causing a caustic liquid to squirt from the babau, doing acid damage to Roscuro. Roscuro, having punched beings of fire before, considered this par for the course. Swamprover cast Magic Missile at one of the babau, but the missiles fizzled out against its spell resistance. Templeton cast Evolutionary Surge to gain acid immunity and advanced into the fight, taking an attack of opportunity in the process. The babau that caught Gridik in an attack of opportunity pressed its attack against Gridik, hitting the kobold wizard again. Zitch cast a Healing Hex on Gridik to keep him alive and started calling out the strengths [many] and weaknesses [none, really] of the babau. Finally, Hrefna activated her healing aura [provides Fast Heal 3 and is a free action], stepped forward, and missed on an attack.
The first babau dropped its longspear as Roscuro was too close to use it and did a full round of attacks on the ratfolk monk, hitting three times and wounding Roscuro so much that he was staggered [down to zero hit points]. Gridik [healed for 3 and then] stepped away from the babau attacking him and cast Magic Missile at the one attacking his boss [Roscuro], penetrating the demon’s spell resistance and killing it! Marativy [healed for 3 and then] stepped to the babau attacking her and attacked, but missed it. Ariphi asked Templeton to join her attacking the babau after Gridik and attacked with both her weapons. Only the adamantine dagger penetrated the hide and did damage. The babau Marativy was fighting dropped its longspear and attacked with its natural weapons. Roscuro bodyguarded Marativy and the babau only hit with one claw. The next babau paused in its attacks on Roscuro, turned and stepped closer to Ariphi, and hit her twice with its longspear, nearly dropping her. Roscuro [healed for 3 and then] pulled out his last vial of cure light wounds and quaffed it to minimal effect [gained only 2 hit points from it]. Swamprover asked Templeton to move out of her attack path and waited. Templeton activated the power of the shard in his possession, granting Haste to all the adventurers. He then moved per Swamprover’s request. Swamprover immediately stepped into the space he had just vacated and cast Shout! At the babau attacking Ariphi [it saved for half damage]. The babau pursuing Gridik changed targets and attacked Ariphi. Templeton attempted to bodyguard Ariphi but the babau hit anyway, knocking her down and out, and used its remaining attacks on Templeton to no avail. [Templeton has the best AC of the party and is very hard to hit, specially once Haste is active.] Zitch cast a Healing Hex on Roscuro, who was looking bad, and greatly improved his health [gained 21 hit points]. Hrefna moved to attack the babau that dropped Ariphi and hit, but did no appreciable damage [did not surpass its DR] and was splashed with acid as a result.
Gridik stepped away from swirl of melee and cast Magic Missile at the babau previously attacking Ariphi [but not the one that dropped her] and surpassed its spell resistance for near maximum damage. Marativy turned invisible again and attacked the babau fighting her, hitting but doing no damage. Ariphi healed 3 from the healing aura and stabilized [she stopped bleeding, but was still at -7 hit points]. The babau Gridik just tagged with Magic Missile decided that Zitch’s healing was a problem and moved to attack him. Templeton, Marativy, and Roscuro were all able to bodyguard Zitch, making him to hard a target for the babau to hit [that round]. Roscuro stepped into the same space at Marativy [allowed due to Ratfolk racial trait of Swarming] and attacked the Babau she was fighting, critically hitting the babau, exposing the babau to an attack of opportunity from Marativy [due to both having the Outflank feat], which Marativy landed, also hitting the babau in a critical spot! [Both did 21 points of damage, Roscuro’s bypassing the DR as his fists count as cold iron weapons.] Templeton stepped to the babau that dropped Ariphi and did a full attack routine, only hitting for minimal damage but causing it to start bleeding. Swamprover cast Shout! again, hitting the babau attacking Zitch squarely [for near maximum damage]. The bleeding babau stepped over Ariphi’s body and fully attacked Templeton to little effect. [I think it missed, but there is a gap in my notes.] Zitch placed a Healing Hex on Ariphi, bringing her back to consciousness and some semblance of health. [She went from -7 to positive 11 hit points.] Hrefna activated her Touch of Corruption and tagged the babau standing atop the now awake Ariphi.
[The healing aura is still active and healing the adventurers 3 points each round, but I’m going to stop specifically mentioning it at this point. Just be aware it is happening and saving our butts.]
Gridik fished out his pearl of power and used it to restore a casting of Magic Missile to his mind. Marativy did a full routine of attacks on the babau she and Roscuro were fighting, hitting it three times [with sneak attack]. Ariphi acrobatically flipped herself out from under the babau and over to the pillar holding up the ceiling. The babau Marativy and Roscuro were fighting attacked Roscuro [who was clearly the more wounded of the two] and despite Marativy bodyguarding Roscuro, the babau hit twice, once with a bite and once with a claw. The babau attacking Zitch missed due to Templeton bodyguarding the witch and dropped its longspear [rolled a 1 on its to hit]. Roscuro focused his chi for an extra attack and did a flurry of blows that killed the babau he and Marativy were fighting. Templeton did an all-out attack on the babau after Zitch and hit multiple times, but failed to inflict any damage. Swamprover, forgetting Zitch’s listing of the babau immunities, stepped to the far end of the room and cast Lightning Bolt to no effect. [Babau are immune to lightning attacks.] The bleeding babau, deciding a wizard with that level of power might actually become a threat, rushed to Swamprover to attack the grippli. Hrefna, Ariphi, and Templeton all made attacks as it moved past them, but only Ariphi’s critical hit did damage to it. The Babau bit Swamprover, taking a big bite out of the small grippli. Zitch stepped away from the babau attacking him and put Protective Luck on Swamprover and then cackled to maintain it. Hrefna stepped over to the babau attacking Zitch and hit it with Touch of Corruption.
Gridik cast Magic Missile at the babau attacking Swamprover [wizards have to stick together] but failed to penetrate the demons spell resistance this time. Marativy stepped over to the babau attacking Zitch and waited for Roscuro to join her. Ariphi attacked the same babau with her adamantine dagger twice and critically hit it [with a sneak attack], killing the demon. Roscuro re-directed to the babau attacking Swamprover and swung and missed it. Templeton flew and pounced on that babau, hitting several times but to no effect. Swamprover stepped back into the corner and cast Magic Missile at the bleeding babau [the one pursuing her], penetrating its spell resistance. The bleeding babau stepped close to Swamprover and raked her with two claw attacks, nearly dropping the grippli [total of 29 points of damage]. Zitch cast Air Geyser to no noticeable effect [at least none that made it into my notes - sorry, Tony] and cackled to maintain the Protective Luck on Swamprover. Hrefna attempted to land Inflict Moderate Wounds on the babau but failed to hit.
Gridik used his Arcane Focus to cast Magic Missile one last time, but failed to penetrate the last babau's spell resistance, again. Marativy stepped to the last babau and held her action. Ariphi passed the adamantine dagger over to Hrefna. Roscuro stepped over to Marativy and the two of them attack with everything they have – they hit it multiple times each, killing it.
The Ratpack spent some time catching their collective breath and letting Hrefna’s healing aura heal everyone back to full health. [This required an additional use of the aura after the first one expired.] Marativy was finally able to investigate and open the hidden compartment in the bas-relief carvings on the back wall of the room. Inside was a single scroll.
The writing on the scroll used the Thassilonian alphabet but was not in clear Thassilonian. Gridik and Swamprover spent some time attempting to decipher it, but were only able to work out a few random words, not even enough to get a sense of what the scroll was about. Gridik knew of some reference works back in Magnimar he could access that would help, so the scroll was put away for later.
Marativy harvested a hand from one of the babau to add to her increasingly disturbing collection of trophy hands.
After that was done, the group discussed whether they were done or wanted to investigate the door at the end of the Hall of Bedrooms. They decided they had time in the day to investigate the door and whatever might be behind it, so they started heading back up to the upper dungeon level.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Long combat rounds, but most of the session was the fight against the babau, or as I called them, the BBs, so this write-up would have been exceedingly short if I had not written them out. This fight was the toughest one we have faced. One NPC dropped, one PC went to 0 hit points, and two others were down to single-digit hit points each. If Hrefna and Zitch had not ladled out the healing early and often, this could have been a TPK, especially if the babau pursued fleeing characters out of the room. We were very satisfied when we finally won.]
[Yes, calling the babau “BBs” was a Kim Possible reference. Several of us are big fans of the show.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
…
…
…
…
No comments:
Post a Comment