Opening
The team wakes up in the undersea cave air pocket that they camped in, successfully Long Rested. Hana casts Water Breathing (3rd level spell) on everyone else and they begin the undersea trek to the coast (a day's journey with Hana's magical assistance). Everyone rolls adequate Atheltics checks and swim alongside Hana's Hydro Rush (1st level spell), successfully arriving by the shore late evening. Before breaking to the surface, Nyrus stealthily scouts forward to make sure the coast is clear (tehe). He rolls Stealth successfully and guides the group to shore. Exhausted from the day's swim, the group works to make camp in the woods just beyond the beach, thanks to Haku's successful Survival check in his Favored Terrain. He forages and finds seven sharp thorns (can be used to cast Spike Growth) and 2 arrowheads (can be used to cast Conjure Barrage). Hana forages looking for two lodestones, a caterpillar cocoon, a pinch of dust, the stem of a plant with thorns, & a bit of spider web. Fails 3 times and succeeds twice, gathering one caterpillar cocoon (can cast Polymorph) & a pinch of dust (can cast Ice Storm). Kiara forages and finds enough edible fruit for the group, while Viko, Nyrus & the Jaguar hunt. All succeed at their Stealth, but only the Jaguar succeeds on Perceiving prey, spotting a Coast Buffalo in the woods. Nyrus hits it with a Shock Enhancement Longbow shot, doing 24 piercing & 17 lightning damage to the bovine. The Jaguar pounces afterwords, dealing 12 slashing damage with its claws and knocks it prone with its pounce. It then slashes and bites with its opponent on the ground, dealing 11 slashing & 13 piercing damage for the kill. Viko carries the bovine kill back to camp, while Nyrus retrieves his arrowhead from the creature's neck.
Rescue Mission
After eating their food and enjoying each others company through dialogue and character exploration, the group goes to sleep, earning 500 XP for the successful day. Kiara, being an elf, goes into her deep Trance in lieu of sleep, remaining fully aware of the campsite and keeping watch. The next day, the group sets off further into the forest, led by Haku's impeccable navigation. Haku & Hana forage for components again; Haku finds seven small twigs (Spike Growth) & a tribal dart (Conjure Barrage), while Hana finds one stem of a thorned plant (Thorn Whip). During their travel, Kiara senses darkness in the region, as if it used to be teeming with life but has recently become barren. Haku senses the discomfort as well, leading them both to conclude something is amiss. Just then, they find a region that shows scars of a recent battle, proving their theory. They hear screaming and a struggle far away, so Kiara casts Telepathic Bond (3rd level spell) on the group while Haku & Nyrus leap to the trees for Stealth scouting (both succeed). They find a prison carriage loaded with an entire Halfling village (30 people). Loading the carriage appear to be six Grettanian soldiers and a commanding mage. They tail the conjoy until it gets near their destination; a nefarious castle on the edge of the woods. Nyrus, Haku & Viko jump the carriage. with Nyrus firing a Shock Enhanced arrow to the carriage driver to start the fight.
After freeing all but 6 unfortunate halflings, who died in the escape, the crew gains 6,500 XP for the kills and 800 XP for the rescue. (24/30 halflings * 1,000 XP). The halflings thank the team for the rescue and grant each of them the enchantment of Halfling's Luck:
- For one attack roll, ability check or saving throw, you can roll an additional d20 and choose which outcome they take, or
- For one attack roll made against you, roll a d20 and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours.
The team thanks the halflings and heads for the nefarious castle. Hana casts Organic Mending (2nd level spell) on Haku & Nyrus for 15 HP, while Kiara casts Cure Wounds on Viko (4th level spell) for 25 HP, then casts Cure Wounds (2nd level spell) for 12 HP on Jaguar. During a Short Rest while Nyrus scopes out the castle, Viko expends 2 Hit die to fully heal, Kiara expends 5 & Haku expends 1.
Search & Destroy
During her Short Rest, Kiara recovers one 4th level spell slot & one 2nd level spell slot via Natural Recovery. Nyrus rolls a near perfect Stealth check and expertly moves through the darkness and trees around the castle, watching several soldiers walk in with prisoners (halflings, magic wielding humans, magical creatures, etc.). He reports back to the group telepathically that the gate is guarded by two symmetrical guard towers on both sides of the door. He stealths until he is 60 ft away (out of the trees but close to the ground), successfully hiding from the guards’ perception checks. He casts Vibrosense (cantrips) to count how many guards were in there, detecting one at each tower viewpoint and three per tower’s base. Against his team’s judgement, he gets closer to get a sense for the layout, which Haku says he could do once they get there. He fludged his Stealth a bit (15 total), but the guard’s perceptions were even worse, getting right up to the tower and hiding on the side. Nyrus says he’ll stay scoped out until just before the team arrives, when he’ll take out the tower’s forces so they can pass through stealthily. Meanwhile, Nyrus casts Vibrosense again to sense the path forward.
The group moves through the forest; Viko Kiara Haku & Hana move stealthy enough while the Jaguar Nat 20s and moves phantasmically through the woods. By the time they are close, Nyrus springs into action. He climbs stealthily with his Grapple Blades, landing one below his target window but missing the other entirely. He calls it back stealthily and climbs to his perch. When the guard comes to his post, Nyrus launches a Grapple Blade at his throat, dealing 68 piercing damage and killing him instantly. Nyrus climbs in and places the body out of immediate view, then returns to the window and grapples over to the other tower, doing well on both blades and nat20d the stealth check. This time, he drops from above the window and tosses two shurikens via Sharpshooter, nat20s with advantage dealing 58 piercing to kill him instantly. Nyrus stashes the body and reclaims his shurikens. He Grapple Blades a guard downstairs with advantage and surprises him, landing a crit. Nyrus deals 66 piercing damage and killing the seated soldier. He Grapple Blades the second one without the element of surprise, hitting for 29 piercing damage and successfully grapples the knight. He draws himself in with a drop kick, but it does not pierce the knights armor and frees him from grapple.
The group arrives to the gate and get to work; Haku busts through the wall with Rock Throw (1st level spell) to make an opening in the other tower, hitting a guard for 14 bludgeoning damage. Both groups successfully kill their targets in one Round, before any of them can alert the castle. Kiara abandons her darts, since they are covered in blood from the Jaguar’s kills. They sneak through the castle based on Nyrus’ recon, barely completing a group Stealth check (4/6 passed, Viko & Kiara failed). However, no guards immediately notice. Secretly, up in his tower, the meditating Goultani Archmage rolls a nat20 on his Arcana/Perception hybrid check (Perception w/ advantage due to Arcana presence of the group), noticing the group and becoming intrigued. He attempts to cast Scrying (5th level spellon the group; Kiara nat20 passes and gets a Perception check to detect the spell’s presence, Haku & Hana pass, Jaguar Viko & Nyrus fail. She warns the group that they are being watched and Mind Probe (1st level spell) on the sensor and invades the Archmage’s mind, learning only that he’s draining magic from the life force of magic-sensitive beings in the region, presumably for the empire. This psychic strain shatters the Scrying spell, convincing the Archmage to cast Mind Blank (8th level spell) to prevent any further intrusions. (The mage has Regenerate as a 7th level spell, instead of Teleport). He orders his guards into positions that force the team his direction.
As they move through the castle, they see magic-tech laboratories with mysterious cylinders of magical liquid. They find one in the horrific process of draining energy from a Pegasus, enraging both Kiara & Haku. They liberate it, with Haku casting Conjure Barrage with the tribal dart (3rd level spell & tribal dart), dealing 18 piercing damage to all four scientists in the room. When the guard on duty takes charge, an enraged Kiara casts Mind Probe (1st level spell) with advantage (flanked him while his attention was on Haku) and blasts the guard with 23 psychic damage. While Kiara & Haku run over to free the Pegasus, Viko drives in and kicks the guard for 8 bludgeoning damage, Hana casts Acid Splash for 11 acid damage, and the Jaguar pounces for 11 slashing & 16 piercing damage, killing the guard. However, the Pegasus is too far gone and dies after being freed, leaving Kiara & Haku devastated & the rest vengeful. Hana & Nyrus raid the lab; Hana gathers the 5 cylinders of magical fluid and identifies them as raw Gaioforce energy, drained from the Pegasus and other beings with its power. Nyrus finds a scientist’s notes on potential applications of this fluid as a bioweapon, pocketing the notes.
The party moves through the castle, finding more labs but seeing that they’ve been recently abandoned, their prisoners either slaughtered or taken. Eventually, the party moves up the tower to the Archmage’s keep, which is a massive mage-chamber despite being at the thin top of the tower. Just as Kiara senses an illusion being cast (Major Image in place of Archmage’s Counterspell, 3rd level spell), the doors close and reveal 10 guards on standby, as the Archmage materializes behind them with his hands on the door as the illusion drops, casting Arcane Lock (2nd level spell, in place of Detect Thoughts). By this point, he has casted Mage Armor (1st level spell) & Stone Skin (4th level spell), giving him an AC of 15 and resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing attacks. He can also cast Disguise Self & Invisibility at will & is resistant to damage from spells. He has advantage on all saving throws agains spells/magical effects. The Archmage admits how interested he is in them, being such pure representations of the Gaioforce and “rare specimens”. He does dismiss Kiara as less important, but would surely have a use for her. At that, Viko launches a Rouzhai Flare at the Archmage, who merely casts Invisibility to allow himself a Dexterity Saving throw, reducing the total damage to 5 fire and starting combat.
After a long & tough battle against the Archmage & his soldiers, the team wins the day. They gain the following amounts of XP from their adventure up to this point: 5,600 XP for the 8 guards at the gate, 900 XP for killing the guard & 4 scientists, 100 XP for looting/finding out more about the nefarious project/Kiara’s investigative rebuttal of Archmage’s Scrying, 7,000 XP for the Archmage’s soldiers, & 8,400 XP for the Archmage. In total: 22,000 XP, so they level up to 14. The team decides to fortify in the mage's chamber and Long Rest, performing the following activities before they fall asleep:
- Viko, using his Blacksmith's tool proficiency (was taught as a child & young adult by his parents, separately), a Rouzhai-enhanced Burning Hands (1st level spell), an arcane forge, his Chain Mail & metal from a soldier's armor to craft a new set of Rouzhai-compatible Plate Mail.
- Kiara learns Dispel Magic from level up, and with successful Investigation & Arcana checks, learns everything about the Archmage's operation. She also learned that the Archmage ordered all magical assets, whether living beings or raw Gaioforce energy, into lockdown and protected by soldiers. He stated that no one was to interrupt him during his study of the group, once he had lured them to his chamber and locked them in.
- Hana changes some spells around (replaces Thorn Whip cantrip with Aquaflesh, replaces Web & Globe of Invulnerability with Ice Knife & Maelstrom). She also studies the alchemic recipes the Archmage was working on, learning two potion recipes. For one of these potions, she draws a sample of the Archmage' blood & combines it with several strings & her caterpillar cocoon (component for Polymorph) to create Ventriloquist's Ale; a potion that can be applied to weapons, controlled hydrokinetically, or ingested directly, gives the brewer complete physical and mental domination over the victim for 6 hours if they fail a Wisdom saving throw against Hana's spell save DC. The other allows her to craft 4 Manaheal potions, which allow the drinker to roll a d6 and recover one spell slot of the level shown by the dice (if you get a number for spell slots you are already maxed out on, roll again until you get one thats empty). She also ransacks the mage's component cabinet, gaining all the components she needs to cast her spells thanks to her nat20 Investigation check.
- Nyrus tinkers with his shurikens, using the notes from the scientist & a few vials of raw Gaioforce energy the Archmage has hoarded (deflty broke into a chest in his desk with a Thieve's tools check). With a succesful Sleight of Hand & Poisoner's kit check, Nyrus crafts 6 Explosive shurikens.
- Haku studies the Archmage's catalog on magical creatures living in Hythenos. He adds these animals to his memory so that he can utilize them during Conjure Woodland Beings
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