Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

[J-H]

In Between
I noticed last night that Ssword had accumulated 7 points on the power tracker, enough to hit the next transformation, which mean’s he’s going to have a dream. Coincidentally, Teador the Paladin (wielder)’s player asked me for an updated statblock:

Spoiler: Ssword

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Artifact, requires attunement
This +3 mithril short sword’s surface has a snake-scale pattern on the surface, and is tinged green. The crossguard is made from a pair of giant fangs, and the pommel is an emerald set in gold.
True Poison. When you strike a target, it takes 2d12 poison damage or acid damage, whichever it is less resistant or more vulnerable to.
Divinity Sense. While you hold the weapon, you are aware of the location and position of all deities and divine spellcasters within 120’. At a range of 30’ or less, your awareness becomes perfect, granting you Blindsense against such creatures and thus the ability to attack without being hindered by Blindness or Illusion-based defenses.
Godslayer. When making an attack with this weapon against a divine creature or spellcaster whose spells come from a deity, your critical hit range is increased by 2.
Mind Shield. The wielder benefits from the effects of a Mind Blank spell, becoming immune to psychic damage, charm & domination effects, divination spells, and anything that would sense its emotions or thoughts, even when cast with the power of a Wish spell.
Sentience. Ssword is a sentient lawful evil weapon with an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 16, and a Charisma of 18. It has hearing and Darkvision out to a distance of 60’.
The weapon can speak, read, and understand all languages spoken within the region, and can now audibly converse in a sibilant, snake-like voice.
Spells. Once per day, it can cast See Invisibility on itself and its wielder. Twice per day, on the wielder’s turn, it can cast 2 spells twice each: Inflict Wounds (3d10 necrotic) on hit, and Cure Wounds (wielder only, 2d8+2).

(this draws from descriptions a specific place, plus a “side plot” option I have scripted out)

When you rest, you have a dream. You are in a small library, about 20x20’, containing four bookshelves, a table, a few chairs, and two doors. The bookshelves are about ¾ full and appear to be in good condition, containing a variety of hardback books labeled in the yuan-ti script.

You hear a soft sound behind, you of something sliding over the carpet.

Teador takes note of the exits, then turns around.

You turn, and see one of the snake-like yuan-ti. This one seems bigger, and has dragon-like wings and glowing eyes.

Teador would put his hand where he thinks Ssword would be and say "who are you, and what is all this?" readying his shield as he backs up 5 feet to get closer t one of the doors.

The yuan-ti looks down at itself. “I am Ssword, it sseemss. And you are a hairy monkey persson, not a yuan-ti.”

Teador gives Ssword a slightly confused look. “That I am, hopefully it’s not an issue for you. I guess you’ve never seen yourself like this?” He seems to keep his guard up.

“No… no…” It seems lost in thought for a moment. “The yuan-ti were once hairy monkey people, lacking in intellect and grace compared to now, and perhaps I can finally do what I wass ssuppossed to.. Would you, I wonder, become one of them, the better to crush our enemiesss?”
(Mechanically you would gain some yuan-ti traits over time without losing existing species traits)

He seems taken aback at the offer "uuhh... Thank you for the offer, but I think I'd prefer to stay a... monkey, as you call it" he puts some air quotes over the word money, then looks around the room briefly "what is this place by the way, how did we get here?"

“Ssss… You do not want to become…better…and ensslave our foes to build a gloriouss empire anew one day?
This place isss real… I think. Look for a ssspring atop a hill, about twenty milesss sssouth of the large lake.”

"I'll definitely keep that in mind, don't you worry Ssword... but nonetheless that's interesting, does this place have any significance to you, like should I be actively looking for it?"

“Yes, a ssecret library. Find it.”

The dream fades. You feel like your views on politics and ethics don’t line up with Ssword’s, but it might be persuaded to change some views if you work at it.

Session 26: 5/21/2022

This was a shorter session at a bit under 2.5 hours. We don’t think we’ll see Dmitri’s player often; he hasn’t been responding.
Rivkah (bard) took Power Word Kill as her 9th level spell for now. Ratel the monk took a level in rogue (just 1) for the sneak attack and skills, as he’s not impressed by Monk 20. Teador continued to Paladin 17, and Saqwam took True Polymorph as his 9th level Mystic Arcanum.

Since most of the map has been explored, and since the original map they were filling in and making notes in got lost, I handed them a printout of the terrain map (not annotated).

After finishing with level-up discussions, it was “What do you do next?” Teador says there’s a library he’s been told to look for. The party proceeds, on foot to not draw attention, to within 30 miles of the Aaracokra capital. Along the way, a titanic snake attacks, hitting Ratel and swallowing the monk whole with its first surprise attack. That is, I think, the only attack roll the snake ever got to make, as it rolled a net -2 against Psychic Lance and was incapacitated, then got stunned by a Stunning Fist from within, then Finger of Death’d, Eldritch Blasted, stabbed, and hit repeatedly until dead.

They search in the area described, and find a hidden switch behind a small waterfall. The switch is trapped with a poison that only harms non-yuan-ti, and Teador takes 8d10 poison damage (resists for half) on a failed save. The waterfall piles up behind a temporary wall of water, the rock next to it opens, and a tunnel is revealed. The party goes inside and down under the hill, finding an area with some machinery that pumps water up to the “spring” atop the hill to generate the waterfall that helps conceal it. After some searching, they discover the key Ssword said ought to be there, and enter a very small library.

They spend 12 days in the library without going outside. Why?
-One Anyspell tome (detailed below)
-One set of the teachings of Sseth, which Ssword wants to be placed near – and by the end, Ssword is upgraded to Freedom of Movement 1/day and Mass Healing Word 1/day
-One of each of the 6 types of stat tome.

With a paladin (str, cha), a bard (cha, dex), a warlock (cha), and a monk (dex, wis; already used a dex tome), there is a lot of interest in the Cha tome. This took some time to settle out, and by the end:
Str tome: Teador the paladin
Dex tome: Rivkah the bard
Con tome: Saqwam the warlock
Int tome: Held for possible sale or trade
Wis tome: Ratel the monk
Cha tome: Teador the paladin

12 days later, they emerge for some fresh air and some showering under the waterfall.

There is discussion of setting fire to the Aaracokra’s agricultural areas, but they would need a lot of rope and flammable liquid and time to cover ~1200 square miles. The giants would be the best source for large quantities of alcohol. The party heads towards the city of Tlaloc, the rain/weather god. Early on, the player for Teador commented that they do well at avoiding random encounters… so the dice this time generated a random encounter in every hex. Once it was a flock of blood hawks; once it was a small group of yuan-ti spies who cautiously gave away little information; once it was a large Aaracokra patrol (3 air-skiffs and about 30 of them) that they BARELY avoided (1 point lower on any of the 4 stealth checks would have put them below the DC, then when moving away I rolled 3d20 with “if two of the numbers are over 10 they get spotted” and the rolls were 14, 3, and 9).

They lost time evading these. I was going for the “you’re hunted, the enemy is out in force now, you want to stay unnoticed” and I think I got it.

Then we ended the session with some bad perception rolls on their part leading to them not spotting a Quetzal until it was close, and it beat their stealth checks by a lot and headed their way. It’s 180 feet away, Ratel started rolling and got a natural 20 on his first attack, and that’s where we will pick up next time as it was too late to start this fight, as a quetzal is (per knowledge checks) smart, perceptive, and slightly less powerful than an adult dragon.

Anyspell Tome
Very rare, requires attunement by an arcane spellcaster
As an action, the attuned user may speak the name of any spell and open the book, and the spell will be written inside. It may be cast from the book as though from a scroll, or scribed into a spellbook. Doing either one consumes the magic, wiping the page clean. The book has a recharge time in days equal to 2d10+ the level of the last spell used from it, and must stay attuned during that time.

DM notes: The delay is a balancing point to avoid a wizard being able to scribe every spell on the wizard spell list into a spellbook in just 3 months. It’s still a chance to get any situational spell with very little lead time, or Wish every 2d10+9 days.
The tome is arguably legendary based on the Wish access, but a Ring of 3 Wishes, and most legendary items in general, can be used more than once every couple of weeks.

I ended up drawing a bit of a chart out on the dry erase battle mat with what classes benefit from what tomes, and helped guide the discussion from "easiest to assign" to "hardest" so things stayed fairly fair. Everybody got something. This is the most contention over loot I think I've seen.
The library is definitely the motherlode of "valuable find" and is gated specifically behind either having a partly-juiced Ssword or an extremely high set of exploration rolls in an area that's hard to find.

I don't know how the Quetzal fight will go; it may get away and alert the local forces; if so, the party may have to teleport out. They are definitely not in "exploration" mode now.