Session 25: 3/10/2024
We got through 5 encounters in about 3 hrs 10 minutes, with a bit of downtime and a few discussion breaks. I did about 4 pages of prep for this – 1/3 of a page diagramming King Strohm III’s tomb and where the traps are, notes on where in the MM to find various creatures, plus plus abbreviated statblocks for the vampiric mist, the Kamikaze kobold damage, stats for Samia’s team (I have a special surprise addition there, anyone want to guess?), Tazok, and Conster. If you don’t know what these mean, you’ll find out in a couple of weeks. 

After Mergand’s player was caught up on why the party is charging headlong into a trap, they entered, heading down a broad, dark tunnel. Nalia and Ludwig (the two with rogue levels) both lack Darkvision, so Mergand casts Light on an arrow in Ludwig’s quiver. As they reach the end of the tunnel, it opens out to a large natural cavern, albeit one that has seen some modification and has a more clear and level floor than most. There are also hobgoblins waiting in ambush on either side of the door, although they roll poorly on initiative (4 hobgoblins, 1 captain, plus Chieftan Dig-Dag, who retreats immediately). The party rolls through them in about 2 rounds with a critical hit or two, and little to no damage. By this time, Dig-Dag is well out of range of Darkvision.
There is also a moment of questioning as to whether or not these are real goblins, but they do speak in the Goblin tongue, which Cormak understands.

The party hears spellcasting in the distance, and then 6 Bless-boosted arrows fly at Ludwig, scoring 3 hits. He’s there all lit up, and the enemies are more than 60’ away, so nobody can see them. A couple of people dash or move forward, revealing that there are 8 hobgoblins (1 captain, 5 regulars, 2 shamans) behind a chest-high wall built between a few stalagmites. Mergand is able to move just close enough to drop a Fireball 10’ behind the wall. Good-bye 11hp hobgoblins! Only 3 are left. I should have boosted their HP enough that they’d have a chance of at least surviving a failed save vs Fireball.

The two shamans fire Guiding Bolts at Ludwig, hitting him twice. Terry dashes forwards, vaulting the wall and landing next to the captain, who attacks him. After that, it’s cleanup with no more major damage. The party loots the bodies, finding more daggers, shields, swords, longbows, and some gold. They proceed forward into the cave in line abreast with a 10’ space between each of them for better visibility.

Around the corner await 3 Kamikaze Kobolds, plus a Rakshasa transmuter…. I roll stealth for the first one, and Cormak’s passive perception beats it. He gets to go first, and instead of moving to see around the corner, he just casts Light on a rock and tosses it forwards so Nalia and Ludwig can see. The first kobold runs towards the party. They offer to make friends because it is small and cute, even though it’s also red and kind of swollen and maybe glowing a bit. Then someone decides to attack it, and it explodes (5d6, 15’ radius Dex DC 12 half). A couple of people get to go, then two more turn the corner. Terry moves back, as he’s discovered that he has not a single throwing weapon, and he doesn’t want to close in with them. Mergand hits the back kobold with Chill Touch, causing it to explode, which kills the closer one, which also explodes, damaging only Cormak.

After this, they start to move cautiously around the corner. Ludwig and Nalia take the lead, but unfortunately can’t get quite close enough to see whatever is there due to the limited range of Light (after this, the player running her discovers Dancing Lights on her character sheet, which fixes the issue). It casts Blink and vanishes.

The group moves closer, with Ludwig and Nalia standing next to each other. On its turn, the Rakshasa blinks into existence, attacks with Green-Flame Blade (hitting both), then again with its scimitar, targeting the apparently softer and weaker Nalia. Mergand uses See Invisibility, which lets him see it and identify what’s going on. This is repeated the next round, and people start wising up with readied actions – but their positioning is terrible, so it can avoid most of them as it blinks out 2 or 3 more times successfully, plus a couple of cantrips “hit” but do no damage. Then everyone figures out where to go and hits it a few times with readied attacks, but it manages to knock Nalia to zero after multiple hits… but it doesn’t blink out, so it gets hit a LOT and dies after its very next turn.

Nalia gets a regular and greater healing potion, plus a cast from the Gloves of Healing, and they identify the ring. Here’s the description, because it’s fun.
Ring of Fire Resistance: 'Batalista's Passport'
The grand mage Batalista intended this item to aid in his travels in the
plane of fire, and it is said he repeatedly summoned a Salamander from that
realm to aid in the construction of this ring. Not being known for their
patience, it is likely he should not have pestered his "instructor" quite so
much. The finger bearing the finished ring was indeed untouched by the
inferno that claimed his tower. Had that finger still been attached,
Batalista himself might have fared better.
My adaptation of this is: If you wear the ring, you have resistance to fire damage. If you attune to the ring, you have immunity to fire damage.

That’s worth an attunement slot (probably) and will keep this pretty useful for whoever has it for a long time. It goes to Terry, who’s a bit light on attunement and who’s was a bit down earlier in the fight having no ranged attacks and no way but a readied interaction to deal with the blinking rakshasa.

Somewhere around here, Ludwig’s player refers to his notes and comments that Lord Jierdan Firkraag has indeed set up lots of games, very funny. I think they’re learning to hate him.

They give Terry about 10 daggers and 4 handaxes.

They explore the rest of the cavern… there’s a big pit down to the west, which they don’t go look at (I was slightly concerned they might try to rappel down to Firkraag), and off to the south, a sunken area with a lot more stalagmites/tites, a black pool, and something shiny on the far side of the pool. Shiny gets their attention! Ludwig starts climbing towards it, then Mergand decides to do Create Bonfire next to the Shiny. That makes the Vampiric Mist in the area mad, so it coalesces and moves up. Terry gets there first, and bait-and-switches Mergand out of melee range. The Vampiric Mist attacks him twice, but can’t hit an AC that’s up to 26 due to the maneuver. He is going to be a nightmare for vampires if the party manages to pick up the Mace of Disruption or if they realize how useful Azuredge is and buy it!

During the next round of combat, Mergand Misty Steps and moves and dashes to get to the shiny thing, finding a beheaded skeleton with a chunk of wood through its ribcage, and a skull with fangs. Ludwig also rushes over there and picks up the shiny amulet. Despite 2/5ths of the party going off to loot in the middle of combat, the Vampiric Mist’s 65hp go down pretty fast (I think Terry critted again). I should have put two there instead of one.
Using their 2nd of 3 charges, they identify the Amulet of Protection+1 and give it to Nalia.
Mergand takes the old vampire skull and ties it on to his waist as a trophy(?).

They then head in through the double doors to a 40’ long, 25’ wide room with arrow slits on both sides, and a group of 3 orcs on each side firing longbows through the arrow slits (slight HP and Dex boost). Terry moves into the room and dodges, and of course they can’t hit him. Cormak invokes the Thunderclap power of the Staff of Thunder & Lightning. The entire party saves, as do most of the orcs, so it’s 12 damage to the party and 24 to the orcs. Mergand moves over to one side and Fireballs the archer hallway, even though it’ll hit himself. He was very happy when I told him the 3/4ths cover gave him advantage on his save, as he’d rolled a 3 and was about to do 30 damage to himself.

The door at the far end of the room is locked (they checked). Nobody looked for the entries to the arrow halls, and nobody had a high enough Passive Perception. I wonder if anyone will ever think “How did the orcs get in there?”

After this, it’s a couple of rounds of “hitting someone with cover giving them AC 19 is tough”… the last orc lasted two full rounds because nobody could land a hit, even with them all running past. On the flip side, the orcs (+4 to hit, 1 attack per round each) didn’t do so great at dealing any damage, especially since people were moving in and out of the room, dodging, etc. Behold the power of cover!

We stopped there, and I think they are going to short rest next time. This was fun. 5 combats (or 4, with one being a two-part with the hobs) but each one was different and had interesting things going on. Although these are mostly “easy” combats, I can definitely see resource attrition going on. They’ll have to long rest somewhere. King Strohm III’s tomb being warded (preventing Samia from entering, and not looted by Firkraag’s minions) is probably a good choice.

Again, this is a very well designed D&D dungeon. My prep work has all been on the monster statblock side, plus relocating Samia to be in a less blatantly “I’m totally tricking you” location. Whoever designed these knew what they were doing and created a very good tactical D&D experience.