Andy started us on a huge battle map with the ruins in the distance. We could see them, hiding behind pillars and statues but they could also see us, standing in the desert. We had no cover and since they could already see us, any plans of sneaking seemed unrealistic. We threw out some ideas but then Andy rolled initiative and set forth the large lion headed beast things at us. Despite their 40’ move it would take a while for the two of them to get to us. Those with ranged weapons (including the Fighter with his strong bow) moved forward in hopes of getting a shot or two at them before they were upon us. The fast moving meleers moved up and prepared to meet them. That left the Holy Paladin sort of in the back. He’s not built for speed. That all worked well. One of the lion giants was killed before reaching any of us and the second only got one claw on the Swashbuckler Paladin before falling. Meanwhile, the rest of the cultists charged from their positions and approach in a continuous wave. And there were a lot of them. The good news is that by charging us, they gave up their cover whereas we had none anyway.
At first, we were keeping up. The first ones were relatively weak and Row hit them with some AOEs to soften them up. We killed a bunch without taking any real damage however they started to get tougher. The last to arrive was a mage and a high cleric who started casting spells. In addition, there were 3-4 acolytes who also had spell slots up to 3rd level (although limited choices) and 3 guys with stunning staffs that cause paralysis on a failed CON save. Things started to turn when we couldn’t keep up. Then the Swashbuckler Paladin was hit was a Command and fell prone. As people moved to help him, the high priest hit him and the Rogue with a Hold Person. That causes paralysis which means advantage to be hit and an automatic crit if hit. Anybody that could, tried to break the concentration of the caster from range but he made 50/50 roll after 50/50 roll. Somehow the Swashbuckler managed to avoid getting hit too much despite his state but the Rogue was not so lucky. She fell as the Monk tried to charge the caster only to be stopped by a foe with the Sentinel feat. Meanwhile the Holy Paladin finally got into the action and quickly found himself surrounded by 4 foes and no allies. Luckily their damage was low and with his 3 points of damage reduction, he managed to take blow after blow. The Fighter finally switched to his maul and started to clear away the wounded but with two of us down and many more foes still closing, it was looking dicey.
The Fighter was hit by one of those stunning staves but saved on the next round so he only lost one action. The Monk managed to finish off the high priest with a handful of hit points to spare. Our Wizard hit theirs with a Hold Person but unfortunately we had no one who could get to him to get that guaranteed crit. But it did stop him from shooting at us for a couple rounds. Then the Sorlock healed the downed Rogue and Swashbuckler. The former finally got to act after spending most of the night prone, paralyzed and/or unconscious. And the later managed to get to their wizard and crit him with a sneak attack since he was still paralyzed. When he was dropped, the tide had turned. The acolytes were still casting and there were still guys left but it started to head towards clean up. A couple fled and were run down. An acolyte hit the Fighter with an Inflict Wounds as a last act and drop him but the Rogue finished him off with some supporting spell fire. The Holy Paladin was still swinging but with allies helping, his foes were cleared out as well. And we were done. Most were down to a handful of hit points. So much for the prelude to the “actual” dungeon.
We search them and found various bit and pieces plus some magic items. We did a detect magic and identifies. A potion of healing which the Rogue took to replace the one he used 2 games ago. A scroll of Unseen Servant which we already knew. Maybe we can sell it or trade it. 2.5 of those Scorpion staves. They’re a +1 quarterstaff. They do that paralysis on charges which recharge at dawn. One of them is out of charges so it could turn to dust on a 1. The Monk took one as he can use it as a Monk weapon. One went to the Sorlock since he can declare any weapon to be his Hex blade and use his CHR to attack with it. Lastly was the wand which Andy created. It has 3 spells in it that are powered by common charges that recover at the dawn. Don’t know how many it has. It can cast Dust Devil (2nd), Thunderwave (1st) and the Burn Flesh that we saw used (probably 3rd). Despite the fact that the Wizard just got a magic cloak, it was a better fit for him over the Sorlock. Another spell pool will be welcomed since long rests are becoming harder to get.
We debated the long vs short rest as always. Eventually we realized that with a short rest, we’d actually be in pretty good shape. Most characters mostly reset with a short rest. Of the part time casters, neither Paladin seemed to have used many spells. The Rogue didn’t use any. The cleric less Monk version no longer has any long rest powers at all and the Sorlock is mostly getting his powers from the Warlock class which doesn’t need long rest either. The only ones really affected are the Wizards however our Wizard cast mostly long ranged cantrips due to the size of the map. With the arcane recovery, he’s almost full up. Row used more spells but he recovers more from the same arcane recovery and has more to start with so while depleted, he should be okay. So we took a short rest and burned through most our healing dice. (The next rest will likely have to be a long one as a result.) Only the Monk rolled poorly on that and will be going in hurt with the Holy Paladin yet to roll.
