Session 78 - Pacino Claims A Kill

22nd September 2023

In-game timeline: Start of session: 1490DR Ches 15. End of session: 1490DR Ches 15

Our "Heroes" are mid-battle, having overcome a number of Duergar foes, but knowing their leader is still to come as they can hear him calling and geeing up his 'troops' from the safety of the background.

Derrick, in true "Derrick" style, goads Umnik for his cowardice, and jeers when Umnik decides to send in his pet dire wolves into battle rather than face the party himself. Derrick increases this level of taunting by slicing the head off of one of the dire wolves, after Iwee had caused the other to run away for a while though not before Karoshi had taken more damage from a bite.

Umnik, getting a little annoyed by Derrick's taunting, not least by Derrick getting his name wrong, deliberately, Enlarges and moves out of the way to allow his other pet dire wolf to return and attack, along with two more Duergar who fire crossbow bolts at Karoshi, one of them hitting. Karoshi is not looking too healthy right now!

Jaxii moves forward to engage the dire wolf and does considerable damage to the wolf already injured by Iwee's previous Dissonant Whispers. Enough damage, in fact, to kill the second wolf, further annoying Umnik.

Karoshi needs to regain some health, so downs a health potion, and Derrick runs forward to take on the Duergar with the crossbows. He does significant damage to one of them, but Umnik runs over to engage his nemesis - Derrick. For all Derrick's bravado, the sight of a large Duergar boss wielding an impressive hammer makes the fighter quickly cast Shield to protect himself from the inevitable incoming blows.

This turns out to be an excellent idea, as Umnik has three impressive, and damaging attacks, along with being able to encourage the two other Duergar standing in front of Derrick to also make additional attacks. Derrick's Shield spell saves him from multiple hits that turn and almost certainly saved his life.

Derrick's goading of Umnik also ensured that the boss remained focussed on the fighter, allowing Jaxii to run in and attack recklessly, hoping that these reckless attacks would not encourage Umnik to change targets whilst she remained exposed. She scores some useful hits in this manner. Derrick tries to hit Umnik but finds out just how armoured the Duergar is when Derrick misses both hits. With Umnik swinging his hammer high, still focussing on Derrick, our trusty fighter uses his last Shield spell to try to protect against all the hits coming his way. And it is lucky that he does, as a number of hits from Umnik and his troops would have hit him, if not for the Shield spell. And so Derrick lives to fight another round.

And what a round it is. Knowing that the next time Umnik gets to swing his hammer, Derrick is likely to suffer badly, having run out of shield spells, everyone steps up. Jaxii recklessly attacks again, scoring a useful hit. Karoshi scores two hits and supplements the damage with a Smite, and Derrick, in a final swing damages Umnik enough to allow Pacino to scratch his eyes out and claim the kill - Umnik falling to the floor, reducing back to normal size as he does so.

Seeing their boss fall before them, Iwee manages to shout out and persuade one of them to flee, but the other one ignores her and takes a swing at Derrick before running. He does manage to hit Derrick, but the fighter is saved by his previous judicious use of healing with Second Wind. As the enemy flees, Derrick pursues and runs him through the back of the neck with his sword, taking him down.

With their resources heavily depleted, the party decide to shore themselves up in Umnik's room in the hope that they will be able to get a short rest in before anyone else arrives. Luckily they manage this, and recover much of their health, and some of their spells in preparation to progress. Looting the bodies and the room, they find a few things that could prove handy, or valuable, in the future. There's still a way to go yet…