Adventure Notes – The Discovery 09

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  • The party moves up and examines the large field of mushrooms and confirms that many – not all of them – are Shriekers – and that the orcs and gnolls probably have a specific path that they take but it’s not worth risking; they spot a cave entrance to the west and decide to go that way
  • As the party emerges from the other side of the narrow path, they’re greeted by two Specters, raised by Avacyn’s mother
  • Twilight casts Fairy Fire and manages to stick the spell to one of them, but the other seems unaffected
  • Hartmut hits one with his bow; and that one attempts to Life Drain but Hartmut is able to shrug it off (Natural 20!), the second Specter also tries to Life Drain but Hartmut shakes it off as well
  • Rettniss (Successful Nature Check at Advantage) warns the party, “There’s something else in the water over here – besides Quipper Fish – there’s a Water Weird, and I can’t control those!” (She warns being familiar with them on her Native Plane of Water)
Water Weird, terror of the Plane of Water
  • Arhian hits the Specter ignited with Fairy Fire and lands a Natural 20 dealing some great damage, and then following up with an unarmed strike for maximum damage, putting the Specter down – leaving one unholy creation alive
  • Avacyn makes her way through the cave, pushing past Sindri and leaping out with the ax she’d taken from her now deceased sister and brings the magical ax deep into the Specter and then smiles at the undead aberration and extends a Divine Smite for some additional damage
  • Rettniss unleashes Thornwhip and pulls it directly in front of Arhian
  • Twilight tries to hand Hartmut a healing potion in the heat of the battle, but it’s dropped and shatters on the floor
  • Twilight rushes to Hartmut’s side, who is bloodied, and does Cure Wounds and does maximum healing
  • The Gnolls hear sound of combat, and join in the fight
  • Hartmut swings his shortsword and manages to put an end to its unholy life
  • Hartmut uses an action to put away the shortsword and then pick up his longbow
  • Sindri firebolts one of the gnolls and hits and does some great damage
  • Arhian launches an arrow with her longbow and hits for solid damage also
  • Twilight shouts, “What if we purposely hit a Shrieker – see if it draws a purple worm to eat the gnolls and drain the lake?”
  • Sindri shakes his head, “That would be a bad idea. Purple worms are like dragons without wings.”
  • Avacyn, despite her previous history of failing to hit gnolls with javelins, gives it a throw and manages to hit with some good damage!
  • One of the gnolls fires its longbow, but fires wide; as does the second one; but the third one fires more precisely and manages to hit Avacyn, but not for much damage
  • To the east of them – the party hears a thundering sound – and look, and see two ogres approaching!
  • Hartmut fires his bow at one of the gnolls and takes it down doing maximum damage
  • Twilight fires the crossbow and misses the gnoll
  • Sindri tries a firebolt, but misses; but Sindri can hear some chanting coming to the far east; and realizes that Avacyn’s mother has begun chanting. He warns the party that she’s casting a spell and that the gnolls may be troublesome; but they may want to focus on the necromancer (Avacyn’s mother)
  • Arhian moves up, and fires an arrow at Avacyn’s mother, but misses
  • Avacyn charges closer and shouts, “Mother, what are you doing?”
  • She clearly hears Avacyn, but continues chanting. Avacyn’s father draws both of his swords and steps in front of his mate, taking up a defensive position
  • The gnolls fire a shots at Arhian, and both miss
  • Rettniss moves around and Thornwhips the first gnoll she can reach and yanks it into the water; but the Quipper fish swarm miss
  • Hartmut moves into a position where he can line up a shot; and fires – Avacyn’s father attempts to block the shot but misses, so the arrow hits Jacqueline
  • Jacqueline however maintains her concentration (Natural 20!)
  • Twilight fires at the Ogre approaching (Natural 20!) and does some nice damage
  • Sindri launches a Ray of Frost on the approaching Ogre, and hits for some nice damage, and reducing his movement by 10′ until Sindri’s next turn
  • Arhian fires and hits and does maximum damage to Jacqueline; but she continues to maintain her Concentration
  • The Ogres officially join the fray now that Avacyn has gotten close enough (the overly slow Ogres are thankful when foolish people rush up to them so that the blubbery mass of the Ogre body doesn’t need to expend energy going to them)
They’re like over sized babies… with big teeth… bad breath… bad attitude… and a lot of strength.
  • Avacyn casts Bless on herself, Arhian and Hartmut
  • The Ogre swings it’s mighty club and with a sickening thud cracks Avacyn’s ribs and drops her in one hit; it raises the bloody club over its head and cheers
  • One of the gnolls, inspired by what it’s just seen, fires a longbow at Ahrian and hits for minimal damage
  • The gnoll that Rettniss had Thornwhipped climbs out of the water on its turn, thankful that neither the Quipper or the Water Weird were able to get to him
  • Rettniss casts Entangle on the Ogres; which snags one of them, the other breaks free
  • And at that moment, Jacqueline, Olith and the sarcophagus all vanish
  • Hartmut fires at the Ogre, and hits it for good damage
  • Twilight fires and hits with her crossbow
  • Sindri hits with a Ray of Frost again, for some trivial damage
  • Arhian kneels down next to Avacyn and spends an action giving Avacyn a potion which puts Avacyn at 0 (stabilized, no longer bleeding out) and expends her bonus action giving a potion, delivering maximum health from the potion – and then she backs up
  • Avacyn knows if she steps away, despite being Entangled, that the Ogre will struggle to try and hit – so instead she howls furiously and brings the ax she looted from her sister – and lands Natural 20 delivering some heavy damage into the ogre’s blubbery chest
  • The Ogre swings its greatclub – but misses (good thing, it was maximum damage)
  • The gnoll who Rettniss pulled into the water, fires and misses; the other gnoll manages to hit for some good damage
  • With Gem giving the Help action, Rettniss has advantage and hits the Ogre and does maximum damage, and pulls it into the water – and the Quippers swarm and do extensive damage to the Ogre, instantly bloodying him, as it climbs out and swings at Avacyn and barely misses
  • Hartmut takes careful aim at the Ogre that climbed out and Natural 20 – and does some great damage
  • Twilight fires her crossbow at the same Ogre, but misses
  • Sindri fires Fire Bolt at the same Ogre, but this time misses
  • Arhian fires her longbow and hits for some damage at the one who is Entangled
  • Avacyn, despite wanting to keep fighting, knows she’s badly wounded and Disengages
  • The Entangled Ogre manages to break free of the spell now
  • The gnoll who had been pulled into the water, fires and hits Rettniss for minimal damage
  • The second gnoll fires and also hits Rettniss
  • Rettniss thorn whips the Ogre into the water, next to the Water Weird; and the Water Weird misses as do the Quipper (perhaps the luckiest Ogre ever), as the next turn is his, and he climbs out of the water
  • Tired of seeing the Ogre pulled in and out of the water, Hartmut shouts, “Do I have to do everything?” and fires and hits it, killing it (so much for luck)
  • Twilight fires her crossbow at the unrestrained Ogre, but misses
  • Sindri tries Ray of Frost, but the thundering approach of the Ogre rattles Sindri’s nerve (Critical Fail) which strikes Arhian, slowing her down for a round
  • Arhian fires at the Ogre – Natural 20 – and bloodies the Ogre; and she uses a Ki Point for Patient Defense which acts like a Dodge action
  • Avacyn moves up to help, swinging her ax, but missing
  • The Ogre hastily swings at Avacyn, striking itself in the back of the head (Critical Fail)
  • The Gnoll fires at Rettniss again, this time taking Rettniss down
  • The second Gnoll laughs after seeing the Druid go down, and fires at Sindri but misses
  • Hartmut looks and sees Rettniss is down, and whispers, “Sorry,” and turns and fires at the Ogre and misses
  • Twilight rushes to Rettniss’ side and uses a Medicine check to stabilize Rettniss and prevent her from bleeding out
  • Sindri applies a healing potion to Rettniss, but it only provides minimal amount of health
  • Arhian fires her longbow at the bloody Ogre and lands a hit doing maximum damage, nearly killing it
  • Avacyn swings her ax, but barely misses (the ax biting into the blubbery ogre’s flesh)
  • The Ogre in turn tries to hit, but Avacyn is able to get out of the way
  • Both Ogres having seen Sindri give Rettniss a potion fire two arrows at Sindri, and both miss
  • Rettniss, furious, Thorn Whips the gnoll and yanks it into the water, where the Quippers deliver Natural 20 – Critical Strike – and the gnoll becomes a pool of crimson tide
  • Hartmut fires at the remaining gnoll and lands a hit
  • Twilight fires her crossbow at the ogre and lands a hit and the ogre tumbles and falls to its knees, then collapses
  • Sindri begins casting Fire Bolt and Twilight shouts, “Do not miss! There’s Shriekers behind it!” (This is a reference to how Sindri has burned down trees with missed fire bolt spells), and Sindri manages to hit however and do some nice damage
  • The gnoll, not pleased that it raised the Druid – and got fire bolted – the gnoll fires a longbow and hits Sindri for some good damage
  • Rettniss lands a Natural 20 and Thorn Whips the gnoll into the lake, and the Quipper attack and the gnoll becomes a pool of blood
  • With all the enemies slain, the party heads for the tent to see if they can find any clues – in one of the tents they find a number of items –
    • 6 gems (worth 50 gp each)
    • 230 gold
    • One +1 Short Sword
    • One Potion of Climbing
    • Two Potions of Hill Giant Strength
    • One Pipes of Haunting
    • One Ring of Water Walking
    • One Staff of the Serpent
    • One Wand of Magic Missiles
  • Behind the tent there is a shallow grave, housing over twenty corpses; and thrown in there are what appear to have formerly been magic items; and the party surmises that perhaps Jacqueline was siphoning the magic from the items

TO BE CONTINUED!