Session 77 - Karoshi Is Vulnerable After All!
25th August 2023
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1490DR Ches 15. End of session: 1490DR Ches 15
Our "Heroes" decide to press on, despite knowing that they are probably being watched and the mine is alerted to their presence. They consider crossing the chasm, despite there being no bridge, but eventually disregard that option. Instead they look for, and find, the secret door heading north and go through that.
This reveals a corridor at the back of the arrow slits which caused them some problems on the approach. These defences are now empty, despite evidence of enemies being there previously. At the end of this corridor is a closed door. With perhaps surprisingly little preparation, they just head to the door and open it.
The door opens to reveal a sleeping quarters, of sorts. It contains numerous duergar, as well as a large spider-like creature, complete with a duergar rider, on the ceiling. The enemy seems aware they were coming, as evidenced by the number of crossbow bolts that fly towards Karoshi as soon as he opens the door. Two of these manage to pierce his considerable armour, followed by a ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!
The spider-like creature and his rider rush across the ceiling and both take some swipes and bites at Karoshi, who responds with a Hellish Rebuke on the rider, surrounding him in flames.
Jaxii reaches over the paladin and uses her ancestral charm to send a Fireball into the room. The contents of the room burst into flame, as do many of its inhabitants. Two of the duergar fall to the floor, including the rider of the creature on the ceiling. Jaxii, expecting more battling will be needed, goes into a rage.
Iwee buffs up the fighters and watches the goings on from behind.
Karoshi uses his warhammer, Smite, to cast Thunderwave which manages to take care of the spider-creature, which falls to the floor. Karoshi runs into the room to clear the way for the other fighters to get into the room.
This decision proves to be a poor one for Karoshi. One of the other duergar in the room runs over, enlarges and shuts the door, holding it shut. Derrick tries to pull open the door and needs to use his action to break the hold that the duergar has on the door. With the help of Iwee's inspiration, he manages to pull the door open, but is now standing in front of the enlarged duergar. With no more actions available, Derrick just calls his opponent a "big man", in a rather camp manner.
With Karoshi isolated in the room, another enlarged duergar runs over to him and stabs him with a couple of nasty attack, including a critical hit. In a monumental turn of events, this takes Karoshi down and he falls, bleeding out.
With the shouts and screams of the other "Heroes" ringing out, a third enlarged duergar in the room runs over to Karoshi's unconscious body and stabs him, taking him very dangerously near death (two death saving throws failed).
With Jaxii up next, she considers her options for saving Karoshi before he dies. The paladin is surrounded by large duergar, ready to stab him, and there is another duergar blocking the door, preventing any of them from getting into the room. In a desperate act, Jaxii barges into Derrick, who allows himself to be shoved into the enlarged duergar blocking the doorway. The shove is contested, but Jaxii manages to shove both Derrick and the duergar into the room. This ends Jaxii's turn, but does allow Iwee to reach the now-clear doorway. She sees her friend lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor with two large dwarves standing above him, swords drawn. She quickly sends a healing spell in his direction, bringing him back to consciousness and saving his life.
Karoshi, still recovering from the strange experience of being unconscious, stands up and flails around wildly with his hammer, but is so disoriented that he misses. Derrick is attacked by "weak boy", and needs to use his Shield spell to avoid damage. The fighter responds with a critical hit on the duergar, and then finishes him off with his next attack, stabbing him in the butt and dropping him.
The sight of their friend being stabbed in the arse is quite off-putting for the last two duergar, who are both trying to bring Karoshi down again and all four of their attacks on the weakened paladin miss! Jaxii, annoyed that she hasn't killed anything with a melee attack for a while now, piles in with her greatsword, and takes one of them down with an attack from behind. As the duergar falls, dead, he turns and speaks in draconic to his attacker, revealing another strange message to the dragonborn.
Iwee clambers over the dead bodies to reach Karoshi, and then heals him with a Cure Wounds spell. Karoshi, now boosted again in health and better focussed, tries to hit the final, enlarged duergar, using his Advantage to better ensure a hit. He manages to hit the duergar and adds in a smite to increase the damage caused significantly. It is enough to bring the last duergar down as Smite is smashed into the guard's chest and he falls to the floor, shrinking back to normal size as he falls. Jaxii and Derrick are disappointed that he did not smash him in the butt.
With that room now cleared, our "Heroes" consider having a short nap. With Karoshi still reeling from realising he is not invulnerable, and the others having used a lot of their abilities, they would like a bit of "me-time". Unfortunately the other enemies in this area, still well aware of their presence, have other ideas.
Unable to rest and hearing voices from outside, they build up a barricade and a basic tripwire within the room and await whatever may come in. They don't have to wait long before a large construct "machine", with a duergar seemingly fused into the structures, smashes down their barricades and comes towards them!
The party loose off their crossbow bolts at the creature and their preparation pays off as they all hit, with Karoshi re-finding his form with another critical hit! The machine is peppered with crossbow bolts, and falls backwards, dead.
After hearing some shouts from Umnik the boss in the distance, the group hear two more machines approach the room. Having had time to reload, they fire off their ranged weapons at these new machines, but have less luck this time, and the machines continue to approach.
Iwee uses a shatter spell to not only cause some damage, but also manages to reveal a previously invisible duergar standing behind the machines. One of the machines enter the room, menacingly, only to trip over the crude tripwire set up by Karoshi and fall flat on his face. Our "heroes" decide not to press their advantage on the prone machine, instead keeping their distance and shooting ranged attacks at the still standing one. This allows the other machine to approach and tear apart their barricades, smashing into Jaxii. This mechanised dwarf seems in intense pain, and Iwee feels sorry for him and offers to help. In a strained voice, he asks to be killed, so Iwee shoots him with her crossbow.
As the two machines push into the room, joined by the previously invisible duergar, Derrick is shoved into the room and Jaxii goes back into a rage and swipes with her greatsword. With two machines attacking Jaxii and a duergar attacking Derrick, Karoshi pulls yet another critical hit out of the bag and manages to shove the duergar out of the way. Derrick has an opportunity to line up his shot and takes down the duergar with his next attack, leaving only the two machines to worry about.
As another duergar outside the room enlarges and throws a javelin into Jaxii, Iwee addresses the very injured machine with a very vicious mocking, making the construct question his reason for being here, and he falls to the ground, killed by a mock. Jaxii, not wanting to be outdone, swings her greatsword at the other one and takes him down too, stabbing him in his exposed face.
Karoshi jumps over the bodies and manages to grapple the remaining, enlarged, duergar, preventing him from running away and allowing Derrick to follow up with a pair of attacks at advantage, doing very significant damage. Derrick shouts a mocking in the direction of the boss, Umnik, though it is not up to the bard's quality of mocking. The grappled duergar manages to shove Karoshi, who is still holding on to him, towards a dwarven statue that stands just outside the door. Karoshi, despite using a gifted advantage from Derrick, fails to oppose the shove, and is pushed onto the statue. As the paladin lands on the floor, he is surrounded by a cloud of poison gas emitted from the statue and becomes poisoned. The duergar, looking very much the worse for wear, tries to escape, but is taken down by an opportunity attack from Derrick as he runs.
And there we must leave our "Heroes", having taken down another group of duergar, but with the boss, Umnik still somewhere nearby with who knows how many others. The party are feeling confident, but their resources are low, and Karoshi is fallible - who knows what will happen…