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- Adrian Silverstrength (Human Paladin)
- Morsus Firebeard (Hill Dwarf Cleric)
- Sephrenia (High Elf Cleric)
- Ragnaroc (Aasimar Warlock)
- Don Kannin (Half-Elf Ranger)
- Korra (Air Genasi Rogue) – Not Present This Session
Connected Adventures: Adventure 14, Adventure 15, Adventure 16, Adventure 17, Adventure 18, Adventure 19, Adventure 20, Adventure 21, Adventure 22, Adventure 23, Adventure 24, Adventure 25, Adventure 26, Adventure 27, Adventure 28 , Adventure 29, Adventure 30, Adventure 31, Adventure 32, Adventure 33, Adventure 34, Adventure 35, Adventure 36 and Adventure 37.
- The party decides to position the dead cultists around the camp fire in the same position (although sitting, rather than standing) to give the illusion that unless someone closely examines the bodies, it will seem as if the cultists are just sitting around the camp fire; then the party takes position at the northern portion of the cave to attempt a short rest
- While everyone begins resting, Don takes the first watch and observes a Drider that peeks it’s head into the cave, as her eyes look at the campfire and see the three cultists there. Due to the campfire, it impedes her darkvision to see that the three cultists have blood on their dark cloaks. After sitting there for several minutes, the Drider departs and continues her patrol
- Korra explains that she’s going to scout around the cave and see if she can find any clues as to where the chamber is that the sphere of Darkling “death bursts” are being taken to (This is because the player wasn’t able to attend this session, so it’s easy to explain that as a Rogue she’s out scouting)
- The party manages to successfully take a short rest without further interruption
- The party then decides that they will spend another hour here so that Morsus can summon his bat
- The party does not notice two Drow who walk into the cave and see their comrades sitting down, then spot the party above – as initiative begins!
- Morsus opens up with Radiance of the Dawn – but the Drow are ready for him and make their saves (taking half damage)
- Don whispers the spell to wrap the energy with magical energy that surges with Hail of Thorns and rolls a (Natural 20!) and hits – so the Drow take the hit and the critical damage from the roll – but one is quick enough (roll a 21 on the DC check) to avoid the full damage of Hail of Thorns but the other Critical Fails (Natural 1!) and takes the full brunt of the Hail of Thorns
- Adrian runs up to the Drow, brandishing his sword, while his first swing misses as the Drow deftly dodges, Adrian is able to curve his sword around and land a hit with his second attack which hits hard enough to bloody him
- Despite typically being dexterous – both Drow fail to avoid Sephrenia’s spell of Acid Splash
- One of the Drow throws Faerie Fire down and manages to make it stick on Morsus who begins glowing purple
- Ragnaroc who rolled a Natural 1 during Initiative, is caught flat footed – but the other Drow also was flat footed (he too, rolled a Natural 1 for Initiative – surprised to see his companions around the campfire were actually dead)
- Morsus manages to run up and kick the Drow who’d cast Faerie Fire on him into the river (which is populated with blood thirsty Quipper fish)
- Don fires an arrow killing the one that Adrian had engaged in combat with
- Don fires the Starbow at the one in the water and hits it for heavy damage; sending it falling backwards lifelessly as the Quipper fish make quick work of the fresh body in their waters
- After Adrian finds nothing on the one closest to him, he and Morsus throw the second body into the water
- Morsus is able to finally get enough time in to summon his bat familiar and sends it flying out (which is good as bats are native to these caves and won’t draw any attention to itself)
- The bat senses another cavern just north of where they are – but the ground seems unusually software, as if the water from the stream was impacting the soil
- Sephrenia tries to move into position to stealthfully launch a surprise round, but due to her armor, the Drow hear her and initiative starts
- One of them rolls Natural 20 on Initiative – which, per the House Rules, gives him two actions – the first, he tries to drop Faerie Fire which everyone manages to avoid, then fires his bow at Sephrenia and manages to hit her with an arrow from a short bow
- Don moves around the corner – so he can get a visual on one of them and fires off a bolt from the Starbow hit the Drow and instantly blooding him with a sharpshooter attack; but the second bolt from the Starbow misses
- Morsus launches a Toll of the Dead on the same target that Don had hit, landing 12 points of Necrotic damage
- Ragnaroc uses Eldritch Blast and kills one of the Drow, giving him Temporary Health Points
- One of the Drow casts Faerie Fire and lands it on Ragnaroc, Adrian and Don
- Adrian fires his crossbow and hits the Drow that cast Faerie Fire, but the Drow manages to maintain his concentration
- Sephrenia hits the same Drow with Guiding Bolt and does some incredible damage, but the determined Drow somehow still manages to maintain his concentration and keep Faerie Fire going!
- Don fires his Starbow, using Sharpshooter – and kills the Drow who’d cast Faerie Fire, then turns his attack to the other Drow behind the tent and manages to hit him as well (without Sharpshooter)
- Morsus attempts to Toll the Dead but the Drow is able to save against the attack
- Adrian spends his turn examining the soft dirt more closely ahead of them – and spots several human sized mounds – that clearly look like they could potentially be shallow graves – and deduces, since the other cultists in the other cavern had raised Doomsilk – that the mounds were undoubtedly undead that these cultists were prepared to raise as well
- Ragnaroc launches two Eldritch Blasts that strike the Drow, but is not enough to put him down
- Sephrenia fires a shot with her bow and hits
- The Drow quaffs a potion and fires his crossbow at Ragnaroc and misses
- Don tries his Sharpshooter and misses, so he fires a second shot and in his haste, misfires (Critical Fail!) hitting his companion, Morsus
- Morsus fires a Toll the Dead – and does some damage but the Drow is still standing
- It’s Ragnaroc’s second Eldritch Blast that finally puts the final Drow down in this section of the cave
- As the Drow falls, Morsus’ bat seems to be acting erratically – and as Morsus gazes through its eyes, he sees a Drider approaching
- The party quickly opts to hide as Don casts Pass Without Trace
- This allows the party to safely hide in the cavern
- The Drider fails its perception check and moves on after a quick examination into the cavern
- Looking back at the mounds – the party suspects that there’s bodies there and these Drow cultists were doing Necromancy – so Adrian uses Divine Sense to see if he can detect any undead near him (specifically the mounds that appear to be shallow graves)
- He detects undead and moves carefully by the shallow graves; he searches the first two bodies and finds nothing. In one of the tents he finds a parchment that has some ancient arcane texts on it. He searches the third deceased drow and finds a dagger with ceremonial runes on it that seems unusually well taken care of (and undoubtedly used a a part of the dark necromancy ritual)
- Morsus decides he will hold onto the Ceremonial Dagger
- Adrian brings the parchment back and shows it to the others – and seems to decipher it says something along the lines of a spell – on how to channels souls/energy/life force from one thing to another (Necromancy)
- They study the parchment and realize it’s a soul transference; where the soul can be taken out of a living being – and give a soul to something else (a dead person to resurrect them, to animate a statue) – it merely costs the “soul” of the person reading/doing the transfer – because they willingly sacrifice their soul to empower someone or something else
- Adrian believes the party should hold to the parchment as evidence of what the Drow are doing (using Necromancy) where as Sephrenia believes it should be burned to rid the world of anyone abusing such vile power
- Adrian makes the executive decision to give the parchment to Ragnaroc to hold onto
- The party opts to leap over the river full of Quipper fish
- Everyone manages to leap across except for Adrian who slips in the mud and tumbles into the water, taking a few points of damage from Quipper fish who manage to find bits of flesh through his armor, before he manages to crawl out
- After crossing the party comes across a cavern that is heavily covered in webs – and to the left the bat familiar is able to perceive piercers moving ever so slowly on the ceiling
- Adrian throws a torch into the webbing – and a rather unique looking drider descends from the top of the ceiling and begins attacking!
- Sephrenia dislike of these twisted spider-elves has her on edge and she’s ready for the attack (Natural 20 on Initiative – granting her two attacks this round – see House Rules for more information)
- Sephrenia opens the volley with a third level Guiding Bolt – however, the bolt goes wide (missing AC 17 – definitely something about this Drider seems different – not just it’s unique coloring) – however, not one to be shaken, she launches a second Guiding Bolt and lands a hit, doing significant damage to the Drider – she then uses a Bonus Action to summon her Spiritual Hammer which is in range and hits for maximum damage!
- Adrian uses Channel Divinity to grant a plus to his next attack
- While Don pulls out his energy bow and whispers the vow that allows him to make this Drider his sworn enemy; however due to using Sharpshooter he misses; but his second shot that he fires normally, strikes the unusual Drider with some damage – especially since it had been marked by the Starbow as a sworn enemy!
- The female Drider goes, weaving her hands about and casts Faerie Fire – most are able to avoid it except for Adrian who begins glowing purple!
- Morsus in turn casts Faerie Fire back at the Drider and despite recognizing the spell, it’s unable to escape it’s effect – it begins glowing blue
- Sephrenia launches another Guiding Bolt and hits again, bloodying the Drider
- Adrian lands a hit with the sacred weapon – and follows it with a critical hit (Natural 20!) and inflicts significant damage on the Drider
- Despite the numerous hits it has taken the Drider manages to maintain it’s Concentration check to keep Faerie Fire going
- However, since it’s also Faerie Fired Don is able to fire Sharpshooter at advantage, delivering the killing bow with his Starbow
- The patrolling Drider that the party had seen while taking cover in the cave catches up to them and a new round of combat begins
- Don fires two shots, but only one manages to land a hit. Ragnaroc follows with two Eldritch blasts – both of which miss! Adrian also takes two swings – with only one of them landing a hit on the Drider!
- Sephrenia casts Ray of Frost and manages to hit the Drider
- Morsus casts Toll of the Dead on the Drider, but the Drider is able to shake off the effects
- In similar fashion, the Drider takes two swings at Adrian who had run up to her to attack, but she bares the same ill fortunate as the party and actually misses both of her attacks!
- Don commands his badger, Jackson to run up to the Drider and feign attacks, thus giving Don the Help action (granting advantage on attacks against it so long as it assists him specifically)
- This allows Don to hit it twice, causing the Drider to become bloody
- The party’s luck seems to be changing as even Ragnaroc’s two Eldritch Blasts land a hit
- Adrian’s first hit strikes, but as he goes to swing the second time, he loses his footing as Jackson gets too close to him – and his sword swings down slightly cutting into Jackson for minimal damage (Critical Fail – Natural 1)
- Morsus attempts to Toll the Dead on the Drider, but the Drider fails his save – nearly toppling the Drider (down to 1 hp!!)
- Don commands Jackson on his turn to use claws – and Jackson rolls a 22 – raking the Drider’s insides out from below, killing the Drider!