[Day 3 – Conclusion]
[This game uses the D&D 5E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened July 24, 2023.]
[SPOILERS! This is part of a published adventure set, Prepared 2: A Dozen One-Shot Adventures for 5th Edition, by Kobold press.]
Player Characters
Blaze Fulmen, Lord Auctor Braccas – male tabaxi (Noble), 6th level Storm Sorcerer; NG
Cecilia Payne – female tabaxi (Outlander), 6th level Circle of Stars Druid; LN
Joe Trade – male human (Guild Artisan), 2nd level Celestial Warlock, 4th level Armorer Artificer; LG
Via Roll20
Donnis Dustdrifter – male human (Investigator), 6th level Shadow Monk; CG
Bjoern Bjoernson – male human (Urchin), 3rd level Totem Warrior Barbarian, 3rd level Circle of Moon Druid; CN
Min – female tabaxi (Hermit), 6th level Mercy Monk; N
Autumn
Day 3
Late Morning
[Resume mid-fight. The gnome woman summoned a crystalline entity and Lord Blaze cast a weak Lightning Bolt at the entity just prior to this point.]
Bjoern, in bear form, advanced to the gnome woman, standing on a broken display case and towering over her, and swung his great axe with rage, wounding the gnome. The crystalline entity attacked Donnis twice, missing once and hitting critically with the second attack, dropping Donnis in one blow [it did 40 points of damage with a sneak attack]! Donnis failed his first death save, slowly bleeding to death from the wound. Hearing the crackle and boom of a lightning bolt, Cecilia realized a fight was happening inside the shop. She used her Feline Agility to sprint over the low building and into the front door, where she shifted into her Starry Form [Bonus action] with the Sign of the Chalice prominent [bonus to healing]. Min followed suite, but being a Monk [with lots of extra movement] was able to arrive at Donnis’ side and use Hands of Healing on the downed monk, stopping his bleeding and reviving him. Joe Trader placed a Strength Hex on the gnome woman and cast twin Eldritch Blasts at her, dropping her to the floor.
On the floor, the gnome woman bled. Lord Blaze Transmuted his Lightning Bolt into a Thunder Bolt and cast it at the Crystalline entity, Empowering it [and rolling just under average damage on 8d6 after the rerolls], wind and lightning whipping around Lord Blaze [Heart of the Storm effect] and his cloak billowing dramatically [bonus action to activate Cloak of Billowing – yeah, he’s a drama queen]. Bjoern wildshaped into the form of a velociraptor, stepped to the crystalline entity, and multi-attacked, hitting with both claws, once critically. The crystalline entity released a cone of crystal shards, hitting Donnis and Cecilia, dropping the monk unconscious again. Donnis’s body fought to contain his soul [he made his first death save]. Cecilia upcast Healing Word [using a third-level slot] on Donnis to great effect [healed 21 points of damage after bonuses] and then drank a healing potion herself. Min hopped up on a display case and attacked the crystalline entity from on high [gaining advantage] and strongly struck the creature. Joe moved his Strength Hex from the unconscious gnome woman to the crystalline entity and cast dual Eldritch Blasts at it, hitting once.
The gnome woman bled out, her damned soul leaving this plane. [She rolled a 1 on her death save, which counts as two failures. Combined with her previous failure last round, she died.] Lord Blaze cast Rays of Thunder [transmuted Burning Rays] on the crystalline entity, dropping the thing.
Bjoern rushed into the back room of the shop, following the blood trail on the floor. Joe Trader went to the gnome woman and announced she had bled out and was dead. Several members of the party were upset at this, wanting to question her further or see her on trial for her crimes. Joe collected a dagger and her rapier to turn over to the guards as evidence she was the one who was the killer. He also identified the crystalline entity as a crystalline devil.
Lord Blaze followed after Bjoern, also curious about where the blood trail led. He paused at the door to the back room, observing a chest and some shelves. Bjoern was looking down a set of stairs in the far corner, where the blood trail continued. Lord Blaze called out to the others that there was a chest in the back room and that he was following Bjoern down some stairs to a basement.
Donnis walked over to investigate the chest. Inside he found six potions of healing. He quickly secured all six on his person, notifying the other investigators of this. Cecilia and Min spend some time not moving [to recover use of their Feline Agility ability].
Heading down the stairs, Bjoern and Lord Blaze observed crystalline growths starting to appear on the walls and floor, getting more numerous as they descended. At the bottom of the stairs, to the left, they found the body of a dead human, the source of the blood trail. Ahead of them was the first room of the basement, with several side passages off to the right.
By this time the rest of the investigators had caught up with Bjoern and Lord Blaze. As the group moved forward, they could see through the first passage on the right. It was short and led to another chamber with a long worktable on which sat six kyanite hearts. Seated at the table was a golden devil.
The devil asked, “Who are you?”
“We’re here to stop your silver-tongued ways!” Donnis replied.
Bjoern screeched out a battlecry and the fight started!
Cecilia used her Feline Agility to rush down the stairs past her allies to the entrance to the room and cast Thunder Wave at the devil. The devil resisted the spell itself but was knocked over by the worktable as it flipped over onto him from the force of the Thunder Wave. In response, the area around Cecilia sprouted large crystal that attempted to box her in but failed. [This was a Lair Action, something unique to 5E D&D.] Bjoern advanced and pounced on the devil, hitting critically with both claws and massively biting the devil. The devil attempted a [Legendary] action on Bjoern [the exact effects I neglected to write down], but Cecilia’s Cosmic Omen caused it to fail. The Devil then multi-attacked Bjoern, hitting the barbarian twice. Donnis then circled around the devil to flank it and hit it with a Stunning Fist, stunning the devil. [Clone DM 1 did not give the devil a Legendary Save, so this shortened the fight significantly as the devil never got to act again after this.] Min advanced, struck the devil, and then unleashed a flurry of blows by focusing her ki. Sadly, only one hit from the flurry landed. Joe Trader moved into the room and moved his Strength Hex from the fallen crystalline devil to this one. He then struck the devil with his twin Eldritch Blasts. Lord Blaze finally stepped into the room, amongst the crystals on the floor and cast Magic Missile at the devil, the wind and lightning surrounding him damaging the crystals.
Cecilia moved out of the crystal patch and upcast Healing Word on the injured Bjoern. More crystals erupted from the floor [Lair Action again], this time forming a crystalline pillar between Bjoern and Joe Trader, damaging and grappling Bjoern, forcing him to revert to his human form. [The damage done was enough use up the raptor’s hit points, which forced the wildshape to end.] Bjoern raged and attacked the devil, missing the stunned devil completely [even with advantage]. The stunned devil did nothing. Donnis struck the stunned devil with his Stunning Fist again, stunning the devil and dropping the fiend.
With no other foes in the basement, Lord Blaze and Cecilia left to report the situation to the Guard. Joe Trader identified the devil as a gilded devil. While waiting for the guards to arrive, the others looked around and found a Lapidary Guide marked “Property of Anni”.
Once the Guard show up and took control of the building as a crime scene, the party of investigators left, going to a tavern for lunch [taking a Short Rest]. Afterwards, Lord Blaze played dragon chess with Bjoern [who cheated but Lord Blaze never noticed].
Several Hours Later
The group of investigators were summoned to appear before the Starosa. Once there they made a full report of their investigation with Lord Blaze doing most of the talking. The report matching up with the other reports filed on the situation, the Starosa agreed that the group had successfully completed the job and paid out 1002 gold pieces [because 1000 does not divide by 6 evenly].
Outside the Starosa’s office, Lord Blaze split the bounty with the others and they went drinking.
End of session
End of Adventure
Commentary
[Clone DM 1 very much regretted not giving the gilded devil a Legendary Save and now understands why they are necessary for your Final Boss to have. He was honest about it and did not retcon giving it one, which was the right thing to do.]
[Would I play 5E again? Yes. It is a different style of D&D that has some things I like very much and some things I’m more iffy about. I very much have Monk Envy as the 5E Monks have many benefits over monks from any other edition, notably the ability to apply Stunning Fist AFTER you see if you hit or not. It makes Stunning Fist useful and not a big gamble to use. Also, monks in 5E recover ki after a short rest, so even if they have to use it to power Flurry of Blows, they recoup it much easier and faster.]
[With this adventure complete, we next switch over to a new campaign of mine, reviving an old campaign world I ran for 14+ years. We also return to using the Hero System 5th Edition Revised as the game system, my favorite game system. Next week I’ll post short synopses of the player characters and the starting situation they are in. The week after that will be the session notes for Session 1.]
Hell Comes a’Glittering
Last session: Session 4
Next session: None – Adventure complete.
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