Session 4: 8/6/2022

Mergand’s player attended via Discord due to back problems. Leon’s player was out sick. I’d say we ran about 2.5 hours due to a late start and trying to end a bit early.

We return to our heroes facing a genie who has posed them a math question:
A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice as old as the prince was when the princess' age was half the sum of their present age.
How old are they?
After a few minutes, I swap it to multiple choice as in the original format. I wish I had started it as multiple choice, and had the genie give them a piece of paper with four circles to pick from, and instructions to fill one in with a pencil (standardized testing). That’s what this ended up feeling like. Bleh.

They eliminate the two most wrong answers, and then settle on the incorrect choice out of what remains. The genie gives them a second riddle, about the poor having it, the rich not lacking it, and both dying if they eat it. What is it? It doesn’t take too long to arrive at the correct answer of “Nothing.”

The genie says that Kalah respects those of wit and intellect, and allows them to proceed. I should have made the genie more sarcastic. Playing through this I realized more and more how he’s just egging them on to go find Kalah and kill him. Kalah made a bad deal.

Crossing the bridge, they enter the tent and encounter Aerie, a young elven woman turned into an ogre. She asks for help, and they go looking for the sword/key. There’s a giant spider in the way (it’s actually a harmless woman)… it looks like they’re going to attack it, but Ludwig says he just walks past it … so they don’t.

They then find the “commoners” they were warned about. I give them big dumb orc voice, and they don’t answer questions too well. Eventually they decide that Ludwig’s questions are making their heads hurt, so they attack. I just used the CR ½ Orc statblocks, and they got a couple of good hits in. Nobody in this group wants to stay in melee! Eventually they go down. As they’re walking back and freeing Aerie, somebody comments about the spider and she speaks up “Well, I didn’t want to get killed” and explains about her son being outside. Ludwig BS’s some answers about him being fine and doing great, and how they will totally reunite them, etc.

I don’t recall what prompts it, but Ludwig’s player has had a bit of fun with Yoshimo’s “The great Yoshimo, whom people have heard of” thing. He made a comment about “We’ll always remember Yoshimo.”

I hope they take him to Spellhold.

Spoiler: Aerie
Show

Aerie, Elven Arcana Cleric of Baervan
Medium Humanoid, 4th level
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 19
Speed 30 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
10(0) 15(+2) 9(-1) 16(+3) 16(+3) 12(+1)
Saves Wis +5, Cha +3, adv. vs. charm
Condition Immunities magical sleep
Skills Arcana +5, History +5, Medicine +5, Perception +3, Performance +3, Religion +5
Senses Passive Perception 15, Darkvision 60’
Languages Common, Elven, Gnomish
Proficiencies light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, longbow/shortbow
Actions
Quarterstaff (melee). Melee Weapon Attack, +2 to hit, 5’, 1d8+2 bludgeoning damage.
Channel Divinity. [] 1/SR
Regain 1 spell slot, of up to 2nd level
Arcane Abjuration One celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend within 30’ who can see or hear Aerie must make a Wisdom save. On a failure, it is turned for 1 minute or until damaged. During this time, it cannot take reactions, and must use its action and move to move as far away as possible. If unable to move away, it Dodges.
Turn Undead, Undead within 30’ must make a DC 15 Wis save. On a failure, they are turned for 1 minute or until damaged, using their turns to Dash away, and being unable to willingly move within 30’ of Aerie. If unable to Dash away, they Dodge. Undead of CR ½ or lower are automatically destroyed if they fail this save

Spellcasting. DC 13, Spell attack +5
[] [] [] [] 1st level
[] [] [] 2nd level
Attack
Cantrip: Fire Bolt (120’, ranged spell attack, 1d10 fire)
Cantrip: Sacred Flame (60’, Dex save or 1d8 radiant)
Cantrip: Shocking Grasp (5’, melee spell attack, adv. vs. targets wearing metal armor, 1d8 electric dmg and target can’t take reactions)
1 Magic Missile (120’, 1d4+1 damage x 3 force missiles)
Buff
Cantrip: Resistance (C up to 1 min, tgt has adv. next save)
1 Bless (C up to 1 min, 3 allies within 30’ roll +1d4 to attacks and saves, upcast 1 target/level)
Control
2 Hold Person (C up to 1 min, Wis or paralyzed, re-save end of each turn, upcast 1 target/level)
Heal
1 Cure Wounds (Touch, 1d8+4, upcast 1d8/level)
2 Lesser Restoration (Touch, cure various ailments)
Utility
Cantrip: Mending
Cantrip: Light
Cantrip: Prestidigitation
1 Detect Magic
2 Magic Aura
2 Magic Weapon

Bonus Actions
1 Healing Word (60’, 1 target, heal 1d4+3)
1 Sanctuary (30’, 1 min, Wisdom save required to attack target until it attacks in some way)
2 Spiritual Weapon. 60’, melee spell attack, 1d8+3 force damage, move 20’ and attack each subsequent round, up to 1 minute.


The 3 PCs + Yoshimo and Aerie move on to the next area (I didn’t like the Pleasure Slave conversation, which is distasteful and pointless), and, having been reminded about illusionary enemies, don’t fight.
There are 4 illusionary werewolves, and two very real Shadows. The Shadows each open by casting Fear… on Ludwig, who wears the Helm of Balduran and is immune to fear.

I think it takes about 5 rounds of moving around, looting scrolls off desks, etc. for everyone to reach the exit. During that time, the two Shadows flub every single attack roll except one near the end.
The werewolves also “just miss” because they haven’t been interacted with and thus aren’t real. Me rolling 5, 5, 2, 1, 5 doesn’t help… but it’s a great excuse to keep up the illusion/reality divide, especially when the “they’re just illusion” Shadows actually do land a hit and drain 4 points of strength.

Eventually they tell the Genie they are ready to proceed, and go fight the spellcasting ogre (Kalah). He rolls terribly on initiative and takes over 20 damage before he can act. One Shadow does succeed in Fearing Yoshimo, and then the player running Yoshimo forgets to roll to save to end it multiple times.
Everyone’s happy, and then at the end of the first round of combat, all 6 enemies from the previous room follow them in the door. Kalah tags two players out with Hypnotic Pattern, although one gets knocked out of it by being hit by a Shadow.

The party ends up split up and chased by Shadows, with Mergand’s player being worried they’re going to die… except, out of 4 spellcasting characters, the only spells being used are Chill Touch, Spiritual Weapon, and cantrips. I go full Illusion and have Kalah cast Mirror Image the next round. The player running Aerie brings that down with Mirror Image. A couple of more Shadow hits land, and Kalah goes down, ending the combat.

At the tent, they loot the body, chat with Quayle, try to figure out what happened, see the woman rush out to find her boy, etc. Quayle asks if Aerie can travel with them, after checking their immediate plans (Dryad acorns to Windspear Hills). I remind them that they’ll have to pick next session and drop either Aerie or Yoshimo… but they take her for now, with plans to “help her get some experience and training” as one of them said.

Outside, the guard thanks him, and they chat for a bit. The Cowled Wizards come up again, and they learn that there’s an office in the Government District, but their real base is secret. The guard takes their names to pass along to his bosses as a “These guys helped us” for their records. I have no official system for it, but +1 Reputation with the Athkatla city guard.

With some more gold and a bunch of scrolls, they head to the Adventurer’s Mart. Ribald identifies the Ring of Human Influence (Attunement; Cha to 19, Charm Person DC 15 1x/day), which of course goes to Mergand as a sorcerer. Cormak the cleric takes the Girdle of Piercing (Attunement; DR 3 vs. missile weapons). They have just enough gold to buy Glasses of Identification, which lets them identify items 3x/day for free. This puts them down to under 100gp, although they sell a scroll of ID to Lady Yuth upstairs. On the way out, they see a poster advertising an interplanar merchant who visits every two weeks, with powerful items like the Armor of Balduraan and the Robe of Vecna, but at very high prices.

Three people have strength drain, so they take the rest of the day off to Long Rest at the Den of Seven Vales. Mergand does not attempt to flirt with the proprietor this time, so they aren’t charged extra.

In many playthroughs, I finish the circus and end up with just enough gold for the Glasses of Identification, and that’s what they did. They could have sold the load of scrolls they’re carrying for 500-1000gp. I doubt they’ll ever use most of them.

Next time, they plan to head to the Government district. The route for that takes them through the slums where they’ll meet Gaelan Bayle, and quite likely get distracted at the Copper Coronet with the other intro quest. The hand-and-a-half sword you get from there, the +3 vs. shapeshifters that grows warm in their presence? It’s usually vendor trash, but in a tabletop game, there are applications for it against vampires, Firkraag, and the Rakshasa in Trademeet.

In the Slaver Stockade, there are trolls (fine) and there are usually a couple of Yuan-Ti abominations. The Yuan-Ti also show up in the De’Arnise keep alongside trolls. I really don’t see them fitting in anywhere else…they are just “generic monsters” rather than intelligent plotters. Any suggestions for what I could sub in?

I want to do the Bhaal dreams for those players, but I want to do them with the voice… but without just sending a video link. Are there any non-complicated ways to extract the audio clips from the cutscenes so I can just send those over?
Wait, I think they’re probably in Shadowkeeper….