Session 90: Chloracridara's Lair Report

General Summary

Session 90 – Wednesday July 31, 2024: Chloracridara’s Lair

4-hour Exploration/Battle session 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Stone Bearers. Party of 4:

It is the 5th day of the month of Alturiak (The Claw of winter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Feb.)

• Ajani– High Elf, L15 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda (Vacation)
• Cassidy – Human, L15Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L16 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L15 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L15 Paladin – Will Johnson
• Seften Mitcaver – Human, L15 Cleric – Jacob Munson (Absent)

The aftermath.

Jaun and Ajani were unconscious. Cassidy sneezed and Isabella re-appeared while Seften and the unconscious Ajani vanished into the Ethereal plane. Isabella ran to Juan to give him a healing potion. While she rummaged through her bag sorting all her potions, Gazlowe rolled his eyes and gave him a normal healing potion. The party returned to their long rest.   Cassidy took her time and examined the dragon to determine what can be harvested. She identified all the parts, and the party harvested all sorts of items (See treasure below.) Isabella made a fire and she and Juan feasted on the poisonous green dragon steaks. Even raw, they were able to tolerate the poison.

The lake.

Isabella gave Cassidy a potion of poison resistance. Juan summoned bird and all but Cassidy entered the portable hole. Cassidy took the hole and dove into the poisonous lake. After a few moments she made her way to the bottom of the lake and found a portal to a demi-plane. She went into the portal and into the ancient dragon’s lair. Even with the resistance, Cassidy suffered a significant amount of poison damage. She took out the portable hole and the rest of the party crawled out.

The entry tunnel.

The party found themselves in a humid dark tunnel with basalt walls. Cassidy and Gazlowe were providing light for all. The floor was covered with ovular slits that spurted poison gas. The party tried to determine any pattern to the eruptions of poison but saw none. Gazlowe used his pickaxe to extract a chuck of obsidian (worth about 100gp) and suffered necrotic damager in doing so. The party then rushed down the hall dealing with the poison as they were hit.   The tunnel ended at a small platform in front of an expansive dark swamp. Obsidian, plant-shaped formations stuck out of the liquid. Drifting silently over the dark swampy water were four 6-foot-tall mushrooms with long, prehensile eyestalks that dangled from their cap. Like jellyfish, they wafted aimlessly over the swamp.

Abyssal Swamp.

Cassidy identified the mushroom-like creatures as celestial rot-angles. As they looked at the expansive swampy lake, they saw 2 paths in the northern side. The one to the northeast was lit and the one to the northwest was dark. Cassidy put her hand in the lake and sensed something psychic. She knew that diving in would do psychic damage, but she sensed something else from the water, something magical. She put her hand back in and sensed whispers.   She jumped in all the way in the water and focused. She took a small amount of psychic damage but discovered that the entire swamp is a magical scrying pool. Even though she couldn’t cast scry normally, just being in the lake she realized she could cast scry and even sending to the subject of whomever she scried upon. As she stayed in the water, the psychic damage became exponentially worse and worse.

Intruders detected!

Cassidy climbed out of the water but her being in the water alerted the rot-angles and they moved towards the party. The rot-angle mushroom creature tried to control Cassidy, but she resisted it. It moved next to Cassidy and the party watched, wondering what it might do. It then touched Cassidy with its tentacles causing necrotic damage. The other rot-angles got closer with their tentacles outstretched.   The party attacked! The ledge was rather small, so they all crowded at the end and Cassidy jumped back into the water taking psychic damage. The water was murky with limited visibility. Cassidy used her crossbow to shoot at the creatures. When the rot-angel was hit it expelled spores that blinded Jaun. The party noticed movement in the water but focused on the mushroom celestials.   Bird and Juan flew at the creatures and even blind Juan landed a critical blow with his sword. Juan was struck by one of the creatures and the party noticed he was marked (as was Cassidy.) Isabella engaged with her axe and Gazlowe with his gauntlets. Gazlowe landed the killing blow on one of the mushrooms and it fell into the poison swamp and dissolved.

Undead in the water!

Cassidy caught a glimpse of an undead bog body swimming to her. She continued to suffer psychic damage and downed a potion of supreme healing. The bog body struck Cassidy and grappled her. Juan and bird focused on the rot angels and started to smite them when he hit. The creatures seemed to focus on Cassidy in the water pulling her towards the bottom. Isabella pulled out her trident of fish command, jumped into the water (taking psychic damage) and started attacking the bloated undead creatures attacking Cassidy.   Gazlowe pulled out his tuning fork and dipped it into the water casting shatter dealing thunder damage to 5 creatures (and Cassidy.) One of the Rot Angels shot a hypnotic beam at Gazlowe convincing him to walk into the water and take the psychic damage. Cassidy tapped into the power of the swamp and cast sending on Gazlowe asking him to shoot a lightning bolt into the swamp. Another of the Rot Angels convinced Isabela to go further into the swamp and then it struck her.   Cassidy was pulled to the bottom of the swamp 30 feet below the surface where the creatures tried to bury her in the muck. Another grappled Isabella. In the water Isabella continued to suffer more and more psychic damage. Using her trident she continued to poke the undead bog bodies. Gazlowe continued to punch the creatures underwater and Cassidy, restrained, continued to strike at the creatures grappling her.

A bad situation.

Isabella was brought to the bottom of the swamp. Gazlowe hit one of the body bogs and killed it. Isabella critically wounded another, but they all continued to suffer more and more psychic damage. Gazlowe killed the one holding Cassidy. The remaining celestials tried to entice Juan into the water, but he resisted. Cassidy continued to suffer intense psychic damage and tried to get out of the water. She swam up near the surface and shot a crossbow bolt at the creature holding Isabella underwater. The bolt pierced its head and killed it. Despite the intense psychic damage, Cassidy didn’t get out of the water.   The celestial finally persuaded Juan to leap off of Bird and jump into the water. It then landed a critical blow on Juan, blooding him. Bird pulled Juan out of the water by the scruff of his neck and Juan killed the rot angel. Isabella took more psychic damage from the water as she continued to poke the undead around her. She badly bloodied one of the creatures who then hit her and grappled her.   Seeing the situation as dire, Gazlowe shot a lightning bolt at 3 of the creatures killing one of them and bloodying the others. Gazlowe then climbed back onto the shore. The Rot angel called to Gazlowe and convinced him to leap back into the water. Cassidy reached for the shore and passed out from the psychic damage. Her necklace revived her to 1 hp. But she couldn’t leave the swamp. Juan healed himself with his lay on hands.   Isabella used her trident and poked the creature holding her, killing it. She then critically hit another. Gazlowe landed two blows on the last creature bursting it open and killing it. Cassidy, not having left the water, got knocked out by the psychic lake again and again the necklace revived her.

Cross the swamp.

Isabella took a massive amount of psychic damage while she dragged Cassidy to the shore. Gazlowe pulled Cassidy out of the water. The necklace revived Cassidy again and she took a potion of healing that Isabella gave her. Cassidy looked at the marks on her, Isabella and Juan and identified it as a death mark that lasts 24 hours. The mark will make them more prone to death (1 auto death save fail.)   Cassidy moaned, “I need a rest.” The party, concerned about the poison geysers behind them decided to use Bird to cross the swamp. Bird and Juan ferried the party one at time with Juan singing “I can show you the world” to each person as he flew them. For some reason, Bird took them to the dark path rather than the lit one.

Deep Dreamers.

One by one, each of the creatures were brought to the dark path. After the last person was brough over, Juan looked up towards the ceiling. 30’ in the air was a plant creature, a “Deep Dreamer.” It released its psionic spores and Juan became charmed; he had bird fly up to the creature where he could gaze upon it.   Cassidy saw this and said, “No!” She downed a potion of flying and flew up to protect Juan. Isabella got excited and drank her potion of flying and joined Cassidy. Gazlowe shot a firebolt at the Dreamer, but the creature had Juan fly in front of him to take the hit. Bird (smarter than Juan) attacked the plant creature. The other creature charmed Isabella. Cassidy was struck by the plant’s tendrils and again knocked unconscious.   Gazlowe used his reaction to yank the creature to the ground with his Go-Go Gadget Extendo arms. Cassidy was revived again by her necklace and said, “I didn’t hear no bell!” Cassidy whipped the plant creature, but the charmed Isabella got in the way and took the damage. Cassidy then landed a critical blow on the plant and branded it. Even though Isabella was charmed, she threw a splash potion on Cassidy. Isabella shot her crossbow at the other creature, but Juan got in the way and took the shot. But the damage allowed Juan to break the charm.   Gazlowe bloodied the deep dreamer next to him. Juan charged down to the creature that had been charming him and struck it. Cassidy was hit twice by the creature in the air. Cassidy punched Isabella to try to break the charm and it worked! Cassidy then struck the Dreamer, bloodying it. Isabella realized she was being charmed. She made the Dreamer a sworn enemy with her oath bow but missed both attacks. Gazlowe continued punching the Dreamer yelling, “Why won’t you die?!” Juan continued to attack.   The creature struck Juan and Isabella and knocked Cassidy unconscious. The one Gazlowe was attacking then raised into the air. Cassidy used the last charges in her necklace and regained consciousness and then attacked the creature leaving it near death. Isabella finished it off. She then flew to the remaining creature and slashed it with her sword leaving it badly bloodied. Gazlowe finished it off with a critical firebolt.   Gazlowe examined the creature and discovered the spores were having the hypnotic effect. He collected a vial with the intentions of making some sort of “Control Creature” potion. Cassidy said, “I need a rest!”

Rewards Granted

Treasure

Grean Dragon Harvesting.

• 13 days worth of Green Dragon Steak rations. Note: After consumption must make a DC10 Con save or be poisoned until a long rest. Consuming an additional ration while poisoned gains 2 levels of exhaustion as you continue to vomit until a long rest. 3 successful saves before 3 failures grants immunity to green dragon steak poison.
• 2 Green Dragon Wings (44gp each.) Acts as a blanket. Can be mastercrafted (leatherworker’s tools) into a cloak that requires attunement and grants its wearer resistance to poison damage and ability to fly 40' once per day.
• 1 Green Dragon Tail (96gp.) Acts as a magical whip +1. Can be mastercrafted (alchemist’s supplies) into a Potion of Poison Immunity (grants immunity to poison damage for 1 hour).
• 10 Green Dragon Claws (27gp each.) Acts as a magical dagger that deals an additional 4 (1d8) poison damage on a hit. 6 of these can be mastercrafted (smith’s tools) into a magical sword that deals an additional 7 (2d6) poison damage on a hit. This poison damage ignores poison resistance, but not immunity. Alternatively, 6 of them along with 6 Green Dragon fangs can be mastercrafted (smith's tools) into a Dragon Slayer sword that does 3d6 dmg to any dragon creature when hit.
• 17 Green Dragon Fangs (27gp each.) Acts as a magical Shortsword that deals an additional 4 (1d8) poison damage on a hit. If planted into fertile soil, after 1d10 days the tooth will grow into an armed humanoid warrior. The Warrior has the statistics of a Guard (MM pg. 347) except that its type is construct and it has immunity to poison damage. The warrior will attack the first thing it sees, fighting until dead.
• 5 Strips of Green Dragon Hide (50gp ea.) Acts as a blanket. Each can be mastercrafted (leatherworker’s tools) into the equivalent of one of the following: Studded Leather Armor +1, Scale Mail +1, or Splint armor +1. Additionally, the armor requires attunement, and grants the attuned creature a swim speed of 30 feet and the ability to breathe underwater.
• 1 Ancient Green Dragon Heart (342gp.) If a humanoid creature’s heart is removed or damaged in some way, the dragon’s heart can be placed in the wound. This saves the creature’s life, and confers the following benefits: The creature’s Strength, Constitution, and Charisma increase by 2, to a maximum of 22. The creature gains one use of the Legendary Resistance trait (once per day, if the creature fails a saving throw, it may choose to succeed instead). The creature gains immunity to poison damage, a flying speed equal to their walking speed, and Darkvision out to 120 feet. Additionally, the creature’s alignment becomes Chaotic Evil if it wasn’t already, and they become an NPC under the DM’s control.
• 1 Ancient Green Dragon Poison Gland (2,550 gp). Difficult to handle: DC25 to obtain and will deal 1d8 poison dmg per each point by which the DC failed (max of 16d8) during retrieval. Once removed it deals 9 (2d8) poison damage per round to any creature in contact with it. Can be master crafted (alchemist’s supplies) into a Green Dragon’s Bane Poison (if ingested, a creature must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw, taking 72 (16d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success). Alternatively, it can be carefully crafted (alchemist's supplies) into a poison damage Bomb whose damage ignores poison resistance. When complete, the Gland has an AC of 10 and 6 HP. When it bursts, each creature within a 30' radius must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 56 (16d6) poison damage and (unless it is immune to poison damage) is restrained for 1 round. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage and isn’t restrained.
• 8 Green Dragon Scales (167gp each.) No immediate use. 21 of these can be master crafted (smith’s tools) into a shield that requires attunement and will grant resistance to poison damage, plus a +2 to any Saving Throw to avoid any effect that deals poison damage.
• 3 Green Dragon Spines. Acts as a magical dagger +1. 3 of these can be master crafted (smith’s tools) into a magical shortsword +3 whose wielder can cast Plant Growth as an action once per day.

Other items found in lair

• A chuck of Obsidian worth about 100gp.