There was a brief discussion as to what our next task should be but the promise of a powerful vampire slaying Sun Sword at the Amber Temple trumped all. We headed south with the two NPCs included. Esmeralda and Irena. The weather quickly turned cold but we argued that the researching NPCs would have warned us and we would have picked up some extra clothes. Rather than argue the point, Brian allowed us to bring some, although they were a bit shabby. We reached the bridge without incident. There, we faced a fortress guarding the narrow pass. There were statues on the walls but no people were seen. The portcullis opened automatically but there was a wall of green flame in the way. An arcana roll indicated that a Dispel Magic was needed. Searches for levers or buttons or writings or any else yielded nothing. Rather than risk finding a way around or over, which wouldn’t work with the wagon anyway, Patrina just cast the spell. We hurried through. There was a door into the tower on the other side. We spent some time searching it but we found nothing but stone and bones on all 3 levels. Eventually, we moved onto the bridge.
As Ambrus got to it, a mysterious rider in black appeared in the middle. He hailed him at which point it turned to dust and blew away. We never did figure out what that was about. Ambrus went across cautiously, looking for traps or faulty stone. When he reached the other side, others started across. Kaladin chose to fly across, looking under to make sure there weren’t any trolls or anything. And then, from up river, a gargantuan Roc flew in and attacked. It grabbed him with its talons and crit him with his beak and he went from full to a handful of hit points. It landed on the far side to finish him off. Ambrus charged towards it and bravely engaged. The rest started moving across the bridge, firing range shots if they could, but it was going to take a round or two. Kaladin attacked a couple times, then Misty Stepped out of its grasp and flew back to some cover. When Patrina finally got to go, she turned Kaladin into a T-Rex, with a new compliment of hit points. Unfortunately, he barely fit in the archway he was hiding and blocked those that were trying to get past. But that was a momentary distraction. Massive amounts of damage were pumped into it. But it did save against a Disintegrate from both Baron Q and Patrina.
Just when the meleers finally got over to it, it decided to fly back across the river with the T-Rex in tow. Gargantuan carrying huge. And that’s when things got complicated. Do we kill it and let the T-Rex fall 500 feet into the river below? Kaladin could fly but could Patrina dismiss the spell in time? Most kept shooting and the T-Rex kept biting. It started to fly off the board. Patina dismissed the Polymorph and cast Bigby’s Hand and caught Kaladin. However, Esmeralda continued with her plan and Dimension Doored she and the raging Kharn onto its back. It started to fly away and Brian gave them an Acrobatics roll to stay on which she promptly missed. Kharn tried to argue to use Animal Handling instead since he was proficient in it. Brian said that would be a tougher 20 roll but if he made it, he’d give Ez another roll. Paul rolled and missed. Inspired and missed. She inspired him and he missed again. (Does that ever work?) As Brian started calculating falling damage, DG pointed out that Kaladin was right near them on the floating hand. He should use his Rope Skill to lasso them to safety. That was so ridiculous and turn based rule breaking that Brian allowed it. DG got an inspiration for it. Kaladin missed it. Inspired and missed. Used DG’s new inspiration and he missed again. (Does that ever work?) They fell into the water but Kharn took half damage and Esmeralda had tons of hit points. She simply DD’ed them back up as the Roc flew off.
We needed a rest. Preferably a long one given the number of high-level spells used. Since it was near the end of the day, we decided to take a long rest in the tower rather than on the road. Watches were formed. In the 2nd watch, we were attacked by 4-5 Giant Hell Goats. What now? Some bounded onto the roof and the others beat on the door. People awoke or were awoken as they could and a fight ensued. That was going well enough when the statues on the top of the towers turned into Vrock demons and flew down to attack. 4 of them. They did an AOC poison attack which put the poison effect on and did continuing damage. Then they did an AOE screech attack that stunned. And then on their actual action, had a claw and beak attack. In that first round, at least 5 heroes were poisoned and a couple stunned. By this point it was 1 AM so we decided to call it. Hopefully our demon slaying Paladin will return from watering the horses to help in the fight. And this will certainly mess up our long rest. I anticipate a late morning next time.