Session 108 - The Patrol Continues On...
24th August 2025
In-game timeline: Start of session: UNKNOWN. End of session: UNKNOWN (in the Shadowfell)
Our "Heroes" stake out the grimy, desolate keep known as The Rotted Heart. They plan carefully. In a departure from their usual method, they then actually execute the plan. At least to a point. And ideas come thick and fast - primarily from Derrick, though Jaxii often, justifiably, used the phrase "That's literally exactly what I just said!" whenever Derrick came up with a good plan.
After checking that the door does not open easily, they once again back away from the structure. Iwee goes invisible again and waits by the door after seeing the patrol go in. As soon as they come out again, before the door closes, she carefully and quietly places the immovable rod in the door to stop it fully closing. Luckily she seems to do this without being noticed and the patrol continues on its way. As soon as it is out of sight, the others join Iwee and they are able to go in through the unlatched door - they are inside!
Some time is spent debating whether to bar the door from the inside, but they, eventually, decide not to, but to remove the rod so the door closes normally. They head inside.
The first room space - a cavity that seems to be cut from the stone and earth from which the mound is constructed - seems empty, and somewhat dark. A door is on the far side, but they spend a while checking that there is nothing hiding in this room. Derrick and Jaxii need to light a torch in order to see anything useful. Nothing is obviously apparent in here. The outside patrol, meanwhile, continues on…
They approach the far door and use the portable hole to look through. Iwee manages to see something moving on the other side, so they know there is at least one creature in there. Our "Heroes" prepare. The patrol continues on…
Iwee casts a hypnotic pattern through the portable hole, into the room, surrounding the creature she can see. She is pleased when the creature seems to stop in its movements, transfixed by the colours surrounding it. Unfortunately Iwee hears a shout from the room - there is obviously something else in there!
They burst through the door, ready for battle. Except Jaxii, who stops to reclaim her portable hole from the door. She seems unconcerned by the prospect of battle - an effect of the Shadowfell. There seem to be some kind of dogs barking loudly from one side, but they were not the ones who shouted. A wraith-like creature is off to the other side, but as Iwee heard him shout, they expected to find him there. She looks to the other side to see what is making the yapping noise.
Inside an open cage are a number of dog-like creatures, with only 2 legs, no hair and large, teeth-filled mouths. Iwee decides to try to Shatter the cage of puppies. Iwee has changed.
A couple of puppies drop, dead. Others are blasted by the sound and none of them look particularly healthy. They run out towards the group of adventurers entering the room.
The undead creature to the side approaches them, its large tongue almost touching the floor, and an obnoxious smell surrounding it. Iwee is blasted by some magic missiles, taking damage, but luckily maintaining concentration on the hypnotic pattern that is keeping the other undead at bay. She also manages to dodge a couple of the puppies that launch themselves at her, trying to clamp down on her with their large mouths.
Derrick runs in to aid Iwee and takes down one of the puppies. Karoshi runs in and tries to get the ghast (with the long tongue) to grovel by Commanding it, forgetting that undead are unaffected by the Command spell. Embarrassed, the paladin quickly saves what could have been a wasted turn by Shielding Iwee in an aura of Faith.
The remaining puppy bounds over and leap at Derrick, attaching to him and starting to eat into his flesh with a critical hit. Iwee helps out by Viciously Mocking the puppy attached to him, causing the creature to drop off, dead.
Jaxii, still unconcerned by thinking she should get involved, shuts the door and saunters over to the ghast, hitting him with her greatsword. She can't be bothered to rage. In return, the ghast manages to paralyse Jaxii with a Hold Person.
Derrick, seeing Jaxii in trouble, and no longer having a puppy attached to him, runs over to her and quickly despatches the ghast, cutting its head clean off, and freeing Jaxii from the Hold Person spell. Karoshi, not to be outdone, swings at one of the remaining puppies with his warhammer, and crushes its head into the ground. He then gets into whack-a-mole zone and takes one step forward and then does the same to the last remaining puppy.
All that remains is the enchanted undead creature that is fixated by the hypnotic pattern of lights. In a heroic show of brutality, the adventurers surround the creature and just lay into him, knowing that he will be knocked out of his stupor as soon as he takes damage. Unsurprisingly, they kill him easily, with all those attacks they prepared, kicking in before he can do anything. Jaxii cleaves his body in two. The bloodthirsty group relax, briefly. The patrol outside continues on…
This "room" leads into another, and the group explores. A hole in the ground with a ladder leading down is ignored for now, as the party is distracted by a statue of Vecna above an altar with embedded precious stones. They, perhaps wisely, leave this be, but they split up to study what is around the room - it appears empty other than the statue and some bookcases.
Karoshi uses his Divine Sense to detect one more undead in another room to the north, which puts them on their guard once more. As they check out the room a little more, ignoring the apparent presence of the undead for now, they are not overly surprised when a floating undead creature, similar to one that Iwee has seen before, appears through the wall they are looking at! It howls loudly in their presence, stunning Jaxii and Derrick into motionless!
With Karoshi across the room, looking at the statue, and Jaxii and Derrick stunned, Iwee is on her own against the undead creature. Luckily for her, a stunned Jaxii is between Iwee and the creature, and the creature attacks the motionless barbarian instead. Whilst good news for Iwee, it is bad news for Jaxii, who takes significant psychic damage when touched by the creature.
Iwee uses her secret power - her level 5 spell Synaptic Static - to inflict considerable psychic damage on the creature but in response it re-stuns everyone except Karoshi. However, after doing this, it disappears through the ceiling, trying to escape, obviously in not a great state.
It doesn't reappear immediately, and the rest of the group are no longer stunned, so they take the opportunity to heal up a little, and search around. Iwee rifles around the books, grabbing one or two for later reading, but not immediately seeming to find anything useful. Karoshi looks again at the statue, whilst Derrick and Jaxii ready for any other attack, but this does not come.
The patrol continues on…