Session 38 - Jaxii Finds A Signature Move
7th Jan 2022 - 19:45 - 11:15
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Uktar 05. End of session: 1489DR Uktar 05
Our "Heroes" awake in what they refer to as a "hut", but what others would call a mighty temple to the great Dwarven Goddess Berronar. They are keen to get to the last temple, where they hope to find Clarice, and possibly some information regarding Karoshi's mysterious artifact.
They decide to boldly strut towards the temple, though they not-so-boldly use the route behind all the buildings to try to avoid being seen. Unfortunately their debate over whether to strut or to creep only results in a noisy traverse across the temple area.
They are seen. A human male dressed in a reddish cloak sees Derrick as he emerges from behind the temple of Berronar and challenges him. Derrick tries to pretend he is here to rescue the clerics, but he is not very convincing. The human turns and runs to the door to the temple where Bayleaf is staying and shouts for help. His calls seem to go unanswered and he turns to run across the plaza. Derrick throws a javelin at him, destroying all pretence of being there to help, and manages to catch him as he runs, but he reaches the large temple where the party think there were three clerics staying.
Derrick bars the door to "Bayleaf's temple" and the group decide to continue on to the tower, rather than to confront the clerics. As they look over at the "Cleric's temple" they spot some shimmering weapons appear in mid air outside the door and start to slowly move towards the group. They run to the tower, wrench open the door, and dash inside, piling a lot of stuff against the door to prevent anyone creeping in. Derrick uses the Tresendar Manor key to lock the door. It doesn't do anything, but he is convinced that it does.
As the group 'alarm' the door from their side, they hear the door seemingly being barricaded from the other side too. Surprisingly, this seems to reassure the party that they are safe.
Knowing that this tower probably contains a mage named Ozymandias, and potentially some of his "pet" harpies, the group prepare for battle. Karoshi casts bless on the group (other than Iwee) and they all put bread in their ears as protection against the harpies song. They then quickly head up the staircase to the first floor.
Which is empty, other than a door which they presume leads out onto the walkway across the river. Ignoring this for now, the group, other than Iwee, continue up the circular staircase to the next level. Iwee waits by the door to guard their rear.
As the other three progress up the stairs they are suddenly surprised by a big ball of fire that explodes in front of Derrick and envelopes all three of them. Their fire resistance, and the bless spell, ensures that the damage taken by them all is not as extensive as it could have been, but they still take some fire damage.
They race up the stairs to try to catch up with the source of the fireball spell and Derrick runs up to the roof, on the way taking some magic missile bolts which he sensibly (!) uses shield to negate the effects of. On the roof he confronts Ozymandias, who seems to be calling his harpies - the two remaining harpies are flying towards the tower. As the others try to catch up with Derrick, the mage points at Derrick and Derrick suddenly feels weaker and more feeble than usual, finding it hard to fully swing his heavy greatsword. But he swings it nonetheless, and manages to hit the mage, though his damage doesn't seem to be quite as good as it should be due to his feeling feeble.
In response the mage points once again at Derrick and a large bolt of lightning emerges from his finger and strikes Derrick directly in the chest, though the fighter does manage to twist his body to deflect some of the impact. Ozymandias is pissing himself laughing, but no one can hear him because they all have bread in their ears.
Karoshi runs up to the roof and attacks the mad mage, benefitting from his own bless, and from Iwee's bardic inspiration. Unfortunately the mage manages to deflect the attack with his own shield spell, but Karoshi attacks again and this time connects for significant damage to Ozymandias.
Feeling a little left out, Jaxii wants some of the action, and she goes into a rage and charges Ozymandias and tries to push him off the tower. She shoves him while he is distracted by Karoshi's attacks and he loses his balance and falls between the castellations on the tower. Jaxii watches as he tumbles towards the ground, a big smile on his face. The smile fades a little as his body is crushed by the fall, and he remains unmoving on the ground. Jaxii (and Katherine) claims that this is the best thing she has done (in D&D, and in her own life!).
With the wizard taken care of, attention turns to the two harpies that are now landing on the tower. Derrick attacks the matriarch and does significant damage. The harpy retaliates, but it's not enough to take Derrick down. He is pretty battered though, and Iwee sends some remote healing towards him, following it up with some vicious mocking of the harpy matriarch.
A vision in Derrick's mind of him being adored and adulated is somewhat tempting, and not particularly unusual, to the egotistical fighter, but he knows it is not real, and it doesn't distract him from dodging the attacks from the harpy. Karoshi hits the harpy matriarch, but she is still alive. Jaxii however takes out the second harpy that is just arriving in two, massive hits, and the harpy crashes to the ground. Derrick, inspired by Jaxii's success, scores a final hit on the harpy matriarch and she too falls to the ground, dead, minus the wing that Derrick cut off.
The party head down to the first level and open the door onto the walkway. At the far end of the walkway is a closed door, and the walkway itself has four crystal statues on it. The two nearest statues seem to be of crystal dragons, and the two at the far end of the bridge seem to be more like bulls.
Derrick and Iwee head across the bridge, with brave Jaxii and Karoshi hanging back at the door they just opened. As Derrick and Iwee reach the centre of the bridge, they suddenly notice the two far crystal statues move, rear up, and come rushing towards Derrick and Iwee!
The first smashes into Derrick, knocking him over and causing some damage, though the damage is reduced by Iwee's nearby Cutting Words. The second crystal bull smashes into a prone Derrick and tramples over him. Karoshi blesses the group once again. Jaxii, meanwhile, has a new favourite action. She rages again, and rushes up to the crystal bull that just charged Derrick and manages to shove him right off the bridge into the water below.
Iwee steps up and casts Shatter behind the crystal minotaur that remains on the bridge, causing significant damage to the creature. Derrick gets up and punches the bull in the face. Just out of spite. The minotaur gets his own back by trying to shove Jaxii off the bridge. With the help of Iwee's Cutting Words, she manages to hold on and withstand the pushing.
Karoshi rushes forward and hits the minotaur with his warhammer, smashing shards of crystals from its body. Unfortunately some of these also hit Derrick, causing him further damage. Seeing that the crystal creature is very damaged now, Jaxii smashes him with her greatsword for massive damage, effectively blasting the crystals away from its body. The minotaur falls to the ground, but the resulting spray of crystals also manage to take Derrick down and he falls unconscious.
Iwee quickly removes the red crystal from the statue's body, and then heals Derrick to bring him back to consciousness (though he now has a level of exhaustion). Jaxii looks over to spot the first crystal minotaur that fell from the bridge is emerging from the water's edge below.
And there we leave our "Heroes", low on spells, some low on health, some exhausted, standing on a bridge and looking towards an ominous temple building which exudes an increasing feeling of dread. Nothing to worry about then!