We started with resetting a bunch of stuff that should have expired over the 4 hours it took us to build the rope ladder. E.g. expired spells and cool down periods. We rolled crap for initiative so the Chuul went first. (Xeelie’s attempt to talk to them didn’t make a dent.) The first one stepped up and missed Oakwood 3 times. Xeelie wasn’t so lucky with the second one. She was hit for 16 and grabbed again. It then transferred her and caused that Fort save. She missed that, used a hero point and made it. Ter Stegan stepped up, turned on his stance and missed. Clarisa showed up and managed to roll even lower than the first two and could go at the end of this round. Brian realized he used 4 actions on Xeelie so he declared her ungrabbed. She moved with mobility, exploited, raised shield and missed. Oakwood turned on his Nimbus. He couldn’t really move without taking an AOO so he swung with reach and missed. Clarisa used her last Force Barrage and did 43 points.
The first Chuul turned and crit Xeelie for 41. And then grabbed her again. And then moved her for another Fort save. She missed it but it was below our level so she saved since it was an incapacitation effect. (Evidently these were slightly smaller than the ones we fought last time.) The other hit her and did 19. It rolled a 1 on its grab. That crit fail broke her free from the first one. She was near death but not grabbed. For its last action, it missed Oakwood. TerStegan started with a Demoralize and crit for Frightened 2. And then missed twice. Xeelie attacked the frightened one and crit with a nat 20. That did 44. And then used Mobility to move away. And then cast Fast Heal on herself. Oakwood stepped up to get them both in his area. And then hit for 18 fire damage. Clarisa pulled out her Force Barrage wand and then cast Flurry of Claws and missed twice.
The first Chuul missed Oakwood 3 times. The next one hit him for 17 but missed the grabbed. And then missed. TerStegan missed 3 times. Xeelie healed a bit and stepped back into melee. She rolled a nat 1, and then missed again. Oakwood missed but hit on the second agile swing. That did 17 and dropped it. Clarisa used the wand and did 38 points on the remaining one. The last Chuul did a burst attack on all of us. A 35 Will save. A hoard of Chuul flooding around us doing 84 damage to all since no one made that save. That dropped Xeelie and Clarisa and the Chuul. The next round, it wasn’t real. Oakwood did a round of Herbs for all. TerStegan did his Hymn on Oakwood for 32. We went back to the game room and refocused and used our short rest heal stuff again. So fortified, we went back to our plan. And somehow argued about it for another 30 minutes.
TerStegan’s climb speed was faster than the fliers because going up didn’t cost him double so he got up there first. He peered cautiously and saw movement at top. (He likely blew his secret perception roll.) He waited for the fliers to catch up and motioned them to be quiet. He placed the ladder bundle down and readied up his axe. Briscoe snuck forward along the wall and did a blind roll. He was so quiet, it startled TerStegan. He was moving 30 feet up since he was still flying. Briscoe didn’t see anything either. With Briscoe guarding, TerStegan pounded some pitons for the ladder and sent it down. Meanwhile Briscoe started talking to the mushrooms. Clarisa just hovered there. TerStegan made his Athletics roll. Brian generously allowed the ladder climbers to succeed without a bunch of rolls. Xeelie brought the ladder up behind her. The mushrooms say that occasionally a big spider-like creature wanders around. Is that the departed Drier or the TPK Ling Spider?
We made it back home. We sold our meager treasures and bought new rope. We took 2 long rests to get rid of TerStegan’s Enfeeblements. We went into town and checked on various plot threads. Nothing had happened in the 2-3 days. We warned Carmine about that Teiling plotting to free him from jail and selling his soul to that devil. There was no sign of the Tiefling and he was still in jail. The trial was still awaiting the judge to come into town. We warned the guards about the dwarf claiming to be from the Absolom guards. Xeelie talked to Amica who had reopened the shop. Business was slow as the town was still mad at her family. But blacksmiths are needed. Xeelie told Amica they were half-sisters. She didn’t take it well. Oakwood checked in with his family and got his usual earful from his father. Similarly, Clarisa got a guilt trip from her mother. TerStegan created a jingle to improve Carmine’s status in the town and rolled a 32.
And we went back into the dungeon. Xeelie rigged the ladder so we could pull it up into the fog. We searched the roper room and, other than a sign that said “warning: do not enter” in gnomish, we found nothing. TerStegan even cut it open. We unspiked the door in the game room. In that hallway was a door. It would take 5 successful DC30 thievery checks to pick. TerStegan and Xeelie tried and we all had to roll Reflex saves. They took 16 damage. Briscoe’s halfling luck backfired and he took 32. Oakwood and Clarisa were too far away and took none. Oakwood tried the key we found last time and it opened. He did a round of Herbs as we peered in. It was a dusty room with a small body in funeral wrappings 15 feet away. Xeelie and her lantern checked it out. She made an esoteric lore roll. She recalled Belcora was supposed to be a demilich and it sat up. It asked if “it“ had happened yet. We said no. It said it would kill us to get the power and we rolled initiative.
TerStegan didn’t hear Xeelie’s warning to close the door. He turned on his stance, moved in and attacked. And missed its 30 AC. Gorsalthith cast a spell and TerStegan hit it (with a hero point) in response for 20. He missed a DC 30 Fort and was blinded for a round. And then missed him with a fist on a nat 1. Xeelie did her thing and learned it was weak to cold. And it looked undead. She then hit it for 32. Briscoe moved into the 3x2 room and crit with a Moonlight Ray. That did cold so it totaled 92 damage. Yikes. Clarisa was two rooms away so she moved to the doorway and cast Vitality Lash. It saved for half so a total of 10. Oakwood turned on his cold Nimbus. He moved into the room and used reach to barely hit for 14 vitality damage.
TerStegan recovered from the blinded. He tried to demoralize it and missed. And then missed and missed again. On its turn, it wanted to cast a spell but took 16 from the Nimbus and dropped. It had gems for teeth. And some larger stones for eyes. And a quartz crown. It would take some time. TerStegan chopped its head off and Xeelie examined the gems to see if they were cursed. She knew that demiliches were much more powerful so she thought it was an undead pretending to be a lich. And concluded the gems were harmless. She started to pry them loose. Briscoe offered a vial of holy water just in case. She had no issues with the gore of the task. A tidy sum went into the party sheet.
The hallway led to the south end of the swamp. We found another Hulk in a cage and left it alone. And a giant lizard with pointy teeth in another cage. Oakwood suggested feeding it some dead Chuul to get on our side. Or at least distract it. Briscoe tried a Nature roll to befriend it. It ate but wanted to eat him as well. Meanwhile, TerStegan went to get a boat so we could get around it to the next door. Xeelie studied the lock “in case” we wanted to open it. We gave it more food. The boat only held 3 but Clarisa and Briscoe counted as one and Oakwood Jetted over. The door became a hallway with two doors. The right door opened to a big room with 6 alcoves and a door at the end. It smelled swampy. There was a pile of dark rags with a sword pummel sticking out. There were scorch marks on the ground. In the alcoves were planters with dirt. Oakwood pulled the sword out of the rags with his Mage Hand. Both the blade and the hilt were black as coal. He handed it to Xeelie for examination.
The planters had swamp mud and dead trees in each. The sword seemed unique but not impressive. She used detect magic on it. (It’s now heightened so a bit better.) But it was barely magical. She tried to stow it for later but we couldn’t get past it. Clarisa read its aura for a minute but didn’t think it was magical. Eventually everyone tried and didn’t get anything. The trees had lights on them. Briscoe spent a bunch of time on the planters. He tried to aid the trees by replacing the swampy water with fresh water from a spell but the swampy water was replaced on its own. Eventually he examined the lights. They did not provide any sunlight but seemed vaguely familiar. The type of lights one might see in a swamp. Wisps, we all yelled out as they turned into Wisps. We stopped there, facing 4 Wisps next time.
