Daemonium - Brave Surviver!! Session 16: North Ambern Hex Crawl Part 2

 Characters:

Za'vak Al-hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Fighter 1
Gene Erikson - Level 4 Fighter

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The Hex Crawl in North Ambern continues. The party is searching through the Fae Woods and attempting to escort the Princess of Cashua to the Wood Elf kingdom. The Princess, Hildebrandt, is travelling along with the party and is a capable fighter in her own right.

The previous session left off with Za'vak, Redmond and the Princess taking refuge in the Old Fort they found in the east of the Fae Woods. They opted to head back to the Orc Fort constructed on top of the hill in the morning (about half a day's travel to the west) and wait for Gene. Gene, the previous night, had gone off to search for Vamp Testy who had gone missing. He found the corpse of Dire Wolf defeated by Vamp, and followed its blood back to where Vamp had hidden. Gene found his friend's body by the river. It was riddled with stab wounds and covered in blood. Both Gene and Za'vak's party avoided encounters and met up at the Orc Fort in the afternoon.

Redmond, whose player was not present, was sent to bring the dead Vamp Testy's body back to the Village of Homble to prepare it for funerary rites. The cursed knife he now has (Called the Wicked Chew) continues to drain 1 max HP per day. I decided to limit it to another -1 max HP and then wait to discuss what to do with it with Redmond's player when he becomes available. It feels a bit dickish to drain this guy's HP while he can't play, so I want to see what Redmond was up to at this time before draining him.

Gene really wanted to get some ancient bronze armour the party had found in the previous session, so the party went back to the Old Fort. They took the long way around, as the Black Dragon was napping on the most direct path to the Old Fort. Once they got there, in the late evening, the party heard the scream of a woman. Gene doffed his armour to improve his stealth, and snuck ahead. A beautiful woman wearing a ragged dress was under attack by 4 Dire Wolves. Gene leapt into action, and Za'vak and Princess moved to engage. Gene took a few blows, but due to his decent Dex his AC was 14 even without armour. To help fight off three wolves at once, Gene used an item he had gained from the Bag of Holding in the last session and covered the wolves in web. The woman retreated behind, Za'vak. With the help of the Princess, he put down the Dire Wolf quickly.

The woman introduced herself as Matilda and thanked the party. She was hoping the party would escort her back to her home. While Gene and the Princess agreed, Za'vak decided to use Divine Sense and discovered that the woman was some kind of evil creature. Though he did not know Matilda's deal yet, Za'vak tackled her to the ground and pinned her down. She cried for help, and the Princess grabbed Za'vak and asked him to stop. Gene decided to trust his friend and drew his weapon. Seeing that the two men wouldn't relent, Matilda changed into her true form: a Green Hag!! 

She went first in initiative and cast Call Lightning. A bolt was sent from the heavens, damaging both the Hag and Za'vak. Because of the grappling scenario, I did not permit a Save for either. Za'vak lost about half his HP here. Gene decided to use the Wooden Doll, another item he got from the Bag of Holding, and used it to cast Hold Person on the Hag. It was successful and, over the next two rounds, the party beat on the paralyzed Hag. They dealt around 50 damage at this point. The Hag finally passed her Save, and Cast Misty step to teleport up to a nearby tree. She then called another bolt, which hit Za'vak for 30 damage (He had 1 HP left after this) and the Princess/Gene for 15 each. Gene whipped out a Giant Crossbow from the Bag of Holding and blasted it, blowing up the crossbow and... uh... missing the Hag. Za'vak used his last spell slot to fire a laser beam from his Gauntlet of Torm. This did enough damage to blow a hole through the Hag's chest. 

At this point Gene has: Tuft of Unicorn Fur (Haste), Wriggling Worms (Entanglement)

Design Note: To make the Hag a credible encounter on its own, I made it make no Concentration saves. Also, the creature's goal was actually just to retreat but... well... the party really did a good job of shutting down the Hag with Hold Person. They tore through 90HP like nothing. I was hoping the Hag could stalk them with its Invisibility, learn about the party, and then return in a more effective form (Like, she could capture a friend of theirs and then appear in said friend's form). Such is Bungeons and Bragons.

The party camped out near the Old Fort. The next day, they went inside. Unknown to them, another encounter was rolled. They saw footsteps outside of the fort leading inside. The footsteps appeared to be human, based on the size and booted imprint. Inside, they ran into their friend Tomlinson who had, apparently, been stalking them and watched them fight the Hag! He offered to join them, and the party got another dude for the ride. As the Ref, Tomlinson is my favourite character to run and, because he hunts in these woods, I included him as an encounter. I'm glad he showed up!

For context, Tomlinson Leery is a young boy (About 17 years old) from the nearby village of Homble where the campaign started. He was an important ally in the party's first adventure, and every character except Gene has had some significant interaction. Namely, Za'vak pushed Tomlinson into killing someone for the first time, Redmond stole a hereditary sword from Tomlinson and then, later, returned it by lied about its origin (He told him it was called the Frionbarr, which is Redmond's last name) and the now dead Vamp Testy, who had the body of a teenager, was Tomlinson's "best friend" though this was very one sided.

Gene put on the ancient bronze armour that he was looking for, and Tomlinson grabbed a Greatsword from the destroyed ghost armours. The bronze armour provides AC as Plate, but gives Disadvantage to Acrobatics, Athletics, and Dex Saves. They found an old, dank library to the north, which had an awful smell of mildew and mold. Three other exits were in this room. Gene and Za'vak decided to use the bookshelves to bar all exits except the one they went through, and the one they wanted to explore. As they moved them, the books tumbled off and a whole bunch of spores shot off. They cause a loss of 2d6 Max HP, Con save for half. Za'vak is immune to disease and suffered no effect. Gene lost a bit of max HP, however. From then on Za'vak handled moving all the ancient furniture. Meanwhile, Tomlinson searched the room and found a Potion of Growth and a magic scroll.

They went east, to an old barracks. The party was worried about more spores, so Za'vak went through and tore up all the old furniture and chests. Tomlinson, the Princess, and Gene stayed outside the room and kept watch. They all failed to notice the Giant Spiders creeping along the roof looking for revenge! Gene got webbed, and Tomlinson dodged out of the way. 

Tomlinson, now a level 3 Fighter, took care of two of the spiders on his own. He rolled incredibly well, and only got tagged once! I imagined Tomlinson used the bookshelves in the library to aid in his defence. He rolled high on his greatsword damage, and also used his magic sword (The Frionbarr) to finish them off. Gene, Za'vak, and the Princess took care of the other spiders quickly, though Za'vak took a pretty nasty bite they dropped his HP quite low. Though the spiders themselves are easy, their poison effect can be pretty dangerous.

They then searched the northwest exit of the library. They found a room totally overgrown with trees, that was some challenge to navigate. After squeezing through tightly grown trees hanging vines, they found a large doorway. Gene opened it, and immediately heard a voice call out in the tongue of Giants "Who goes there!" An Ettin who fancied himself a king sat on a throne in a room with an opened wall. It looks like the Ettin punched through the wall himself A red carpet, with a lazy dye job, sat on the floor and various antlers were displayed proudly on the wall. The Ettin had two slaves chained up via collars that appeared to be wooden people. They looked quite sad.

The Ettin rolled a very positive reaction roll, so it was willing to enter negotiations with Gene. It introduced itself as Vothar, and demanded tribute worthy of a king, and Gene decided to give up his bronze armour (Gone so soon!). I'll provide a brief summary of the negotiation's outcomes: Gene told Vothar that the empire Aeon was threatening this area with its flying ships, and asked Vothar to help them fight. He seemed amenable to the idea. Gene's player decided that she wants to forge Vothar a sword using her new forging skill, which is pretty cool. Vothar described his way of life to the players: he uses the Dryad's he's enslaved to move through the overgrown room and would retreat back there when he would confront the undead king within the fort. The players informed him that they killed this king, so he thought that was dope. The player's asked about the Wood Elves, and he told them that they have tried to kill him a few times. He described their skirmish tactics, and called them cowards. The party then left the Old Fort through broken wall. Gene did a good job of playing up Vothar's royal status which really helped to win him over. 

Oh, the party also learned that the Ettin was in talks with the Orcs to recruit them into his "army." The party did not say that they killed most of them, haha. I did roll for the fate of the orcs, 50% chance they meet with the Ettin and 50% chance they go elsewhere. I cannot spoil where that is, as my players read these reports. I rolled the latter, and look forward to seeing what the Orc Boss does next.

Low on rations, and eager to meet with Redmond for Vamp's funeral, the party travelled back to the Orc Fort on the hill with the remaining daylight. They got another encounter (This session has had more encounters than any other) and ran into a large group of Pixies. The Pixie's were giggling with one another and, speaking in Common, asked the players if they were the ones who lived in this fort. The party told them it was orcs, whom they had defeated. For the Pixies, the Orc Fort is a destruction of their forest and basically a blight on the land, so they appreciated the party for running them out. Gene asked if they knew the whereabouts of the Wood Elves and the Pixies told them that they'd let the party know how to find the Wood Elves if they removed the Fort. Gene drank a Potion of Growth, and the Princess used her leadership and knowledge of engineering to help make the process efficient. By working through the night and accruing exhaustion, the party managed to demolish the fort.

Next morning, the Pixies told the party that the Wood Elves live north of the river, but that the kingdom is shrouded in fog which confounds those who try to go through it. In order to avoid it, the party must go to the North of the fog shroud and enter through a path there. The party also learned that some Wood Elves live on a wide section of the river east of the Wood Elf Kingdom itself. Finally, the Pixies informed the party that Wood Elves hunt Pixies, capture them, and shake them vigorously for their Pixie Dust. This is, apparently, used to make the Wood Elves fly somehow and, apparently, the Wood Elves are assholes and take credit for this ability. The party had mixed reactions to this: Tomlinson didn't care, the Princess has to ally with the Wood Elves and doesn't feel its right to bring this up during negotiations, and both Za'vak and Gene felt some righteous indignation.

The party used the rest of the day and took the known route back to Fort Redmond (I keep forgetting the name. The Palazzo I think? Or Palazia?). There were no encounters on the way back. By the end of the venture, the party was pretty drained of resources. 

Also, Tomlinson decided to stay and chill with the Pixies. Za'vak tried to appeal to Tomlinson's logic and remind him of his duties to the village. This did not work. Gene was a bit more effective, and told him not to miss Vamp's funeral. There is a 1-in-6 chance that Tomlinson will stay out with the fairies lol. Can't wait to roll that.

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Notes:

- I enjoy how my party is very flexible with items. I've played with people who have hoarding tendencies which tend to harm the party rather than help. Instead of waiting for "perfect" opportunities, the party is willing to use them. Originally I was going to ascribe this to Gene and Redmond, but on reflection all my players are really gung ho about items. It's just that Gene and Redmond have picked up the most consumable magic items.

- I wanted to play up the two heads of the Ettin, but was kind of tired at that point so it kind of got away from me. Too bad! I think I did well with the Pixies, at least.

- I'm always happy to see Tomlinson, and I'm glad the Princess got a few more character moments. Mostly, though, she's just enjoying the chance to travel around. She enjoys the immediacy of the problems you face on an adventure -- Unlike Princess-ing a rebellion everything is very tactile and immediate.

- This was my fave session yet, even more fave than the previous hex crawlin' session! I think this one was a bit better because a player didn't die, as that really slowed down play for a bit. Also, the player's were familiar with the procedures and had a plan for what they wanted to do.

- I enjoy how dense and teeming with life the Fae Woods feel. Lots of creatures and factions living in an uneasy balance. 

- Gene's player decided to switch from Battle Master to Champion. I'm going to make a blog post about this soon, and also just explain why I don't like the Battle Master in general. This ties into a lot of the issues I have with 5e, so I'm looking forward to writing that up. 

- Next session I want to encourage a bit more inter-party roleplay. It's nice to have characters talk to each other, and that's fallen by the wayside a bit. The start of the campaign was filled with that kind of thing.