Session 64 - A Fight Beneath The Fort
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Alturiak 26. End of session: 1490DR Alturiak 26
Our Heroes prepare to leave for the Old Fort, in the hope to find more information with regards to the whereabouts of Silvermoon. All attention turns to Iwee, who appears to have vomit all over herself (or himself, as the disguise as Bob is still quite convincing). She sheepishly washes herself clean as she relates to the others what she saw in her mind after eating the last small piece of bluecap mushroom that they found.
They head out late morning, following the trail north-west and managing to find the little-used path that led to the old fort. Pacino scouted ahead and reported that the fort was up ahead, and seems to be deserted.
They approach cautiously, though the fort itself has a good vantage and so stealth is of little use. Jaxii saunters towards it, whilst the rest draw their weapons.
When close enough, Derrick sees through Pacino's eyes and spots a bit of the palisade fence broken down on the far side. They decide to try that entrance rather than to go into the main gate. As they enter the fort they do find it apparently deserted, though the tents and tarpaulins indicate some relatively recent usage.
Searching beneath one of the lean-to tarpaulins, Derrick spots a hidden trapdoor, and calls the others over. They carefully lift up the trapdoor and see a sloping floor leading into the depths below. The trapdoor is large enough for them all, including Sully, to descend, but they decide to leave Sully outside when Derrick, who seems to be having a very perceptive day, spies a crude tripwire trap that seems designed to raise an alarm, just inside the entrance. Rather than attempt to disarm it, they carefully step over it and head down into the tunnels below, which are dark, but obviously inhabited, as there are some lit torches around.
As they creep ahead, they try to keep quiet, but the clunky armour of Karoshi and Derrick makes clanking noises as they descend the low steps. Karoshi espies a small figure running behind some wooden barricades ahead of them. He quickly trains a crossbow bolt on one end of the barricade. He is unsurprised, but unfortunately looking in the wrong direction, when an arrow flies towards him from the other end of the barricade. It misses, but the intention is clear. FIIGGGHHHHTTTTT!
Derrick acts first and runs after the fleeing figure. He spots a small humanoid messing with the ropes on the far side of a bridge crossing a pit. Throwing a javelin at the humanoid, he misses with the first throw but decides to recall his javelin and throw it again with his action surge. This time he hits, and the halfling takes a javelin in the shoulder. Jaxii runs forward and does the same, scoring a second hit on the poor halfling before she has a chance to get away.
Iwee causes horrible noises in the halfling's head, causing some psychic damage and forcing her to run away. This unfortunately takes her out of range of Karoshi, who arrives to see an empty bridge. With Derrick screaming that the halfling fiddled with the bridge, Karoshi decides to get Lionel out of his backpack and prepare to make use of him next round.
Derrick uses his (stolen/borrowed/gifted) boots to leap the entire length of the bridge, landing on the other side. He sees four humanoids standing nearby, ready for a fight. Alone, and on the opposite side of the bridge to the rest of the party, he decides to Enlarge himself in preparation for a tough individual fight until the others can reach him.
Jaxii decides to put her athleticism to good use. She uses her javelin as a pole vault to help her leap the chasm, without putting too much weight on the bridge. Using her Inspiration, she manages the leap gracefully, and lands on the edge of the bridge on the far side. As she steps off the bridge to join a now enlarged Derrick, the bridge itself falls away, but she makes it!
Things are looking ok for the party. Until now. All of a sudden, both Derrick and Jaxii are surrounded by magical Darkness - unable to see anything despite the torch Derrick is holding and the brazier burning in the cavern. On the other side of the bridge, Iwee and Karoshi see only their end of the collapsed bridge leading into pitch darkness.
Iwee has been dying to play her vuvuzela and now seems an opportune moment. However, for her distant location, she is unsure if it will reach the caster of the Darkness. Her second thought is to read out her Poem of Moonfall, but unfortunately that would be unlikely to reach Derrick. So, frustrated, she ends up granting Karoshi Bardic Inspiration instead.
Karoshi runs to the edge of the pit, seeing a deep drop and wooden spikes below. He quickly checks out the bridge mechanism and ascertains that he would be able to reset the bridge and make it safe from this side of the bridge, but it will take a couple of rounds of concerted effort to do so. He makes a start on this.
Just in case their attackers are on the side of Silvermoon, and protecting her, Derrick cries out from the dark that they "We are here for Silvermoon!". He receives no answer, other than a javelin flying past his ear. His cry could be interpreted either that they are here to save the old gnome, or to kill her, so the enemy response does not really give away their motives. Derrick runs in the direction he last saw the group of people, emerging from the darkness and being on the receiving end of some prepared attacks, taking some damage but managing to Shield himself from some of them. In response Derrick hits the Goliath barbarian standing before him, causing decent damage before the brute is able to Rage.
Jaxii runs towards the shouting Derrick, but in the darkness she trips and falls. She scrambles to her feet (after much debate as to whether she should just stay lain on the ground) but is still in the darkness. An attack comes out of nowhere in the darkness and hits Jaxii with such precision that she is sure that her opponent can see her.
Iwee, frustrated at her inability to see what is going on, becomes desperate. She grabs a pinch of Pixie Dust and throws in on herself, hoping that it may do something useful. Luckily, it does. She lifts from the floor and discovers she is able to fly! Quickly, she flies into the darkness, hoping to be able to emerge on the other side. She has to feel her way and guess at the correct direction. She manages not to hit a very tall Derrick, but she is unable to escape the darkness.
Karoshi manages to secure the bridge and is ready to help out on the other side the following round. Derrick braces himself against the attacks that are bound to come his way. He takes some damage, but also feels his metal armour start to get very hot. Luckily his fire resistance reduces this. He responds with some swings against the goliath, who by this time is now Raging and able to reduce the damage against him.
Jaxii decides to use her breath weapon in the dark against her assailant. A good plan, but unfortunately in her confusion her breath is rather feeble and the damage caused is minimal. She runs out of the darkness, taking damage from her unseen attacker in the darkness as she runs.
Iwee grabs her opportunity and flies out of the darkness, pulling her vuvuzela from her backpack. The sound that emerges is incredibly annoying, causing people who hear it to cover their ears. The darkness disappears as the half-orc caster is so distracted. Derrick is also distracted and his Enlarge spell stops and he returns to normal size. Luckily, his armour stops heating up too.
With the darkness gone, and the bridge fixed, Karoshi finally joins the fight. He runs over and assesses the scene. Spotting a half-orc paladin - one that looks suspisciosly like an Oathbreaker, fighting Jaxii, he fires his crossbow towards the paladin. He misses, but is distracted by the sound of paws running towards them from behind!
The little halfling, who has done very little since the start of the fight, spots a flying gnome and starts to fire his arrows towards Iwee, hitting her in the air.
Derrick is hit with some Dissonant Whispers in his head, but is unable to run away as he has no reaction left. The fighter responds by swinging his longsword at the injured goliath, hitting him twice and causing enough damage to take the barbarian down, despite the damage resistance! Derrick eyes the bard in the jaunty hat as he does so, knowing that the whispers in his head came from the annoying minstrel.
Jaxii, now free of the darkness, smashes at the half-orc before her, scoring a perfect hit and significant damage, bringing the paladin close to death. The female paladin responds with some smashes of her greatsword, and some impressive smite damage that breaks through Jaxii's raging resistance. Iwee quickly fires off some Cutting Words to reduce the damage, saving Jaxii from possible unconsciousness.
With a large wolf now in sight, running towards the group, things are looking a little grim. But the party are inspired by the fall of one of the enemies to Derrick's sword, and the rough-looking paladin. Sensing that Jaxii could take care of the oathbreaker paladin, Karoshi runs to the bard with the jaunty hat and smashes him with his hammer, adding in some significant smite damage. Despite only having one attack due to the need to swap weapons as he runs, he smashes the bard to the ground, taking him down in one go. As the others continue fighting, Karoshi stands above his vanquished foe and shouts, to no one in particular,
"To the righteous we bring hope, to the tainted we bring fire!"
Iwee takes more damage from the halfling firing arrows at her, and the little, flying bard is getting worried for her own safety. Jaxii, so confident that she would be able to bring down the half-orc paladin before her proceeds to miss on both of her attacks, allowing the paladin to heal herself and remain in the fight. Iwee shifts her attention to the now recovered paladin and casts Shatter. It hits the paladin, but also catches Jaxii, so Iwee feels a little guilty and uses Cuttting Words to negate the damage to Jaxii.
Karoshi runs to join Jaxii and smashed the rival paladin, hitting and smiting, but the oathbreaker still stands.
A large Winter Wolf joins the fray and attacks the first enemy it sees, which happens to be Jaxii. The bite sinks in, but luckily Jaxii's raging halves the damage.
Worried about the paladin who seems pretty resilient, Derrick runs in and swings at the half-orc. After the first attack she almost falls, but her racial ability keeps her standing. Derrick's second attack, however, brings her down and she stays on the ground, dead, as Derrick declares that only he can break oaths around here.
Jaxii focuses on the wolf, hitting it in its side. A flying Iwee tells a joke to her nemesis, the halfling, and he seems to find it incredibly funny as he falls to the floor, laughing. Karoshi smashes the second wolf that has just joined the fight, smashing it twice with his hammer and adding some smiting damage too, to both hits and causing significant damage.
The first wolf, with the lovely white coat, opens its mouth and spews forth a blast of freezing cold air towards Jaxii and Derrick, showing the dragonborn how a breath weapon really works. Unfortunately for the wolf, it also hits the prone halfling, who is able to rise, but looks quite hurt. Derrick steps towards the halfling and takes him out before he is able to fully rise, and the halfling rogue dies, still chuckling at the joke that Iwee told him,
Jaxii does more damage to 'her' wolf but he still stands. The other wolf, with the slightly blue-tinged fur coat, opens his mouth and, as with the first wolf, blows a blast of cold air, this time hitting Karoshi and Derrick. Karoshi responds with a Hellish Rebuke which causes further damage to this wolf, but Derrick falls to the ground - cold and unconscious.
Iwee flies down and quickly heals Derrick before flying out of range again. Derrick regains consciousness, with a level of exhaustion. Karoshi smashes his magical warhammer on the ground and causes a wave of thunder to hit both of the wolves.
With four of the enemies now dead, and the wolves looking quite bloodied, another halfling appears on the bridge, takes one look at the situation before whistling loudly, turning and running towards the entrance of the caverns. At the sound of the whistle, the two wolves prick up their ears and start to turn as if to run away. Derrick considers his options, and decides to let the wolves run away, rather than to attack them and potentially keep them in the fight. The rest of the group also allow the wolves to turn and run, and the group hears the trapdoor opening as the halfling and the two wolves escape.
Iwee shouts out in the echoing cavern "Silvermoon! Are you here?" and they hear a small voice from the north-west weakly respond,
"I'm here!"…