Lost Crown of Neverwinter - D&D Encounters Session 10

Fun with Tentacles and Slime, is this DnD or Anime?

Dirty dripping and frustrated was how the party started this session.  The dead rat gang member, who’d pulled the chain to start the great flush, lay half on the ledge and half off it. He looked back the party in time for them to see the last of his wounds heal and he tried to pull himself up out of the pit.

Cognitoe pulled his bow and pointed it directly at the Dead Rat.  Locke hurried to his side not to help him or anything but to rob him. Then Mr. E . Meat bull rushed him to try and knock him in to the watery chasm. The attack misses and fearing for his life the Dead Rat shifts into full rat form and tries to make a break for it.  Cognitoe’s bow was just too fast and hit him with an immobilizing shot.  The whole scene was enough to get the attention of the Kraken that lurked below and tentacles shot up out of the water.

Two tentacles lash out and grab ahold of Darbeck. Another 2 took hold of Mr. E. Meat and both pairs played with the impending food.  Single tentacles took hold of Locke and Cognitoe. As a DM I was reminded just how weak my PC reflex scores were.

Cognitoe rapid shots a group of three at the far end of the tunnel and kills two of three. Then, using an AP, he shoots again at the one holding him. It was a miss, but thanks to his enchanted heirloom card he is able to roll again and this time he kills it. Now that he was no longer grabbed he high tailed it back up the sewer pipe to put some distance between him and the tentacles.

The little colour hair bands show who is
grabbed by who.

Adrie uses magic missiles one the one that holds Locke and kills it. Locke spots a kraken shaped amulet on the furthest body.  He rushes towards it passing under a waiting green slime that is hidden in the ceiling. It drops down on him and engulfs him. His speed was too much to be contained by the slime and he breaks free on the far side. Then, uses an AP, he tumbles the rest of the way to the body and grabs the amulet.

Mr. E Meat attacks and misses but again the enchanted heirloom comes into play and he is able to hit it on the reroll.  Then he moves away from the chasm.  Darbeck free of tentacles moves and kills one of the few remaining tentacle with a blow from his hammer.

The green slime oozes across the cavern floor and attacks Mr. E Meat sucking him into its slimey body. The second slime had slithered across the roof and dropped down from the ceiling beside Cognitoe its attack missed.

Cognitoe shifts back away from the slime and tries to put an arrow into it but misses. Adrie again goes for the old faithful magic missiles and uses it against the slime that is eating Mr. E. Meat. The damage is nicely spread between the two of them. Mr. E. Meat uses Adrie attack as a distraction and makes good his escape.  Then tries to take his revenge on the slime but misses.  An AP is used to take a second wind.

Locke puts on his new amulet and then pulls out and drinks down a healing potion.  He fires off a sling stone but misses then fails the save against the ongoing damage. Darbeck second winds and uses a fortune card called Over Bold for ten extra temps. I had honestly forgotten anyone even had these at my table. They come up so rarely. Afterwards Darbeck uses healing word on Mr. E. Meat  and then misses his attack on the slime.  One of the remaining tentacles grabs ahold of Darbeck.

Both Green Slimes attack and miss. Cognitoe moves up and across the pipe and gets slammed by the slime for his efforts. He returns the favour and hits it with an arrow and slows it.  Adrie moves to attack the last two tentacles with Burning Hands the one hits and the other is missed. Mr. E. Meat takes out the last tentacle with a critical hit and then saves against his ongoing damage. Locke moved to the other body carefully watching the ceiling with each step he takes. Then he searches the body to find the second amulet He fails to save against ongoing damage for a third time.

Darbeck hits the slime and then AP for total defense. The remaining dead rat desert had finally shake

off the effects of Cognitoe’s attack and was able to move again.  He ran back up the pipe in his rat form

carefully avoiding attacks from Cognitoe and the green slime. The Green Slime moved into the sewage

and disappeared beneath it. Unknown to the players it saved vs slow. The other slime attacks and

engulfs Mr. E Meat, he is just so tasty.

Cogneato moves away from the slime and fires at it but misses. Adrie hits the slime and Mr. E. Meat. Sadly she failed the perception check to notice the damage being done to her companion.  The player of Mr. E Meat and I were able to use text messages to quickly let each other know about the damage being taken by the attacks. It worked really well and kept the other players out of the loop.   

Mr. E. Meat escapes the slime and moves away and then says “It hurts the person who is inside it when you attack it.” Locke backstabs with his sling doing massive damage to the empty slime. Then finally makes his save vs the ongoing damage. Darbeck healing word Mr. E. Meat and shifts to give Adrie flaking but rather than attacking he uses total defense.

The slime moves out of the sewage but can't reach anyone. The other slime engulfs Adrie.

Cognitoe hits the slime that is behind the wall and slows it. Adrie takes her ongoing damage and then does everything she can to escape but fails. Mr. E. Meat shifts back and attacks the second slime scoring hi third crit of the night and kills it.  Although he did admit later to seriously considering attacking the slime that held Adrie, since she’d been responsible for attacking the slime both time’s he was trapped in it.

Locke shifts to a rat form.  Darbeck moves away from the slime that holds Adrie and spots a lights coming down the tunnel towards them. Cognitoe holds his action until Adrie escapes the slime. Which Adrie does just moments later and then misses it when she attacked. Cognitoe clever shots the slime with a critical and kills it.

The party scored somewhere around 6 critical attacks over the course of the battle. They were rolling amazingly hot.  I on the other hand was attacking their Reflex so I didn’t need to roll all that well at all.  It made for an interesting little Encounter although I surprised they didn’t try and talk with the dead rat at the beginning of the Encounter. 

The soldiers arrive at the end of the hallway and the PC’s are asked if they are the ones who fought the dragon. Mr. E. Meat speaks up first confirms it. Then they are invited to accompany them for a place to rest and also to discuss certain matters. As the group starts to leave Mr. E meat points out the rat hidden in the corner and tells them he is with them.

After being led to a secret lair of the Sons of Alagondar they are taken to a private room.  Food and buckets to clean up are brought in and the group has a few minutes alone.  Arlon Bladeshaper, the head of the Sons of Alagondar returns, he talks with the group and shares his desire to have this conflict end peacefully as well as his fear that the Heir will force the issue with violence. The party is unsure how to take this information and several insight checks are made.

Towards the end of their exchange he drops the bombshell that he plans to refuse the heir request for aid in assaulting the Protector’s Enclave. This piece of information seemed to be the key to gaining the groups trust. They will meet with him and try and convince him to end this peacefully.

Throughout the exchange Arlon keeps glancing over at Cognitoe.  He suspects that he recognizes him as a noble of the area.  The two of them have a brief exchange outside in private where Cognitoe confirms that is of noble blood. Arlon is blunt and admits that Cognitoe could help them down the road against the protector and give the people someone to relay behind. To that end he offers the loan of his armour to ensure Cognitoe’s survival in the coming battle.

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The kids table as it is officially known.

I wanted to touch on something a little different at the end of this report. In the past I’ve mentioned some of the other tables that play at the Brick and Mortar where I play.  Towards the end of the summer we had a sudden and rather large influx of new players.  All of them were very young, no more then 15, and all of them wanted to play together as a group.  We did our best to accommodate over the summer but also prepared for the winter and their return to school.  The ideal situation was to do something where they could continue to play without interfering to much with homework and bedtimes.

So what happens now is one of the DM’s starts his game at 6 rather than the regular 7 o’clock that the rest of the tables start at.  He has the patients of saint I think, Gods know I couldn’t do it.  His table averages about 7-9 players. Honestly I think that number will grow if the kids talk about it at school. This is the real success of DnD Encounters.  It is introducing kids to our hobby and through them it will hopefully continue far into the future.