Session 29: 8/6/2022
Teador’s player is out sick. The group decided to wait until he’s back to assault the temple in Kiayaltepetl, so they instead head up into the nearby mountains to explore. After searching for a day or two (on foot due to no air-skiff), they spot a cave protected by a small palisade. When checking it out, Ratel notices an Aaracokra with black feathers keeping watch. They haven’t seen Aaracokra with this color scheme before. Approaching and some short discussion reveals that these are Revenant Aaracokra opposed to Huitzopochitl – the champions of a destroyed tribe, reanimated for vengeance. They have ~3 weeks left before they “die” one way or the other. The party promises to bring them in on the next major attack. All 3 of them are packing magical weapons.

Heading northwest, they search another hex of mountains. As they top a low rise, they notice some trolls hiding about 80’ away. Ratel attempts to engage in diplomacy, but is unhappy with a response of “Get in our cookpot.” Further talking is attempted, until the trolls decide that the party is trying to trick them and just attack. They are big and fast and hit for some damage, and there are 7 of them. Ultimately the party can outdamage them, and by round 2 or 3, several have gone down but popped back up. The bard, warlock, and monk all lack fire or acid damage sources.

Two Rocs pop into view in round 2, and make a pass on round 3 to pick up some snacks. I roll randomly for targeting, and one of the trolls ends up carried off. Troudar’s player then realizes that he did in fact get the Rod of the Sun, and does thus have a flaming sword. Two trolls are killed the next round – as they’d already been knocked down, they only had 10hp. The third troll Troudar scorches runs away and is finished off. Ratel hops up on top of one of the trolls he’d stunned and makes an animal handling check (21) to get a Roc to attack it, resulting in another Roc being carried away.

Power Word Kill was used to kill one troll by Rivkah the bard, and Finger of Death from Saqwam killed another troll. Flaming sword: 3 Rocs: 2 High level necromancy: 2.

The party continues exploring, and finds the village of the Blue Updraft Aaracokra tribe. They do not like Huitzopochitl, but, as a small tribe that has suffered losses, also fear him and his warriors. They have few fighters, no magic, and don’t want to do anything that would cause a fighting force larger than the entire civilian population of their tribe to be casually dispatched to hunt them. There’s some discussion of fostering better ties between the tribes/villages, but when you’re low magic and a day or two apart over dangerous terrain, options are limited.

They do relay a rumor of strange skinny rude people with green-yellow skin hunting for something off to the northeast. It’s fourth or fifth hand, so that’s all they know.

DM notes: The Revenant’s magical weapons are good but not great at this level. They will still be a reward of sorts for the party.

I did a “roll for 2 days and combine the random encounters” for the trolls. I meant for the Rocs to be a threat for the party, but the way it turned out was fun. I’m glad someone thought to direct the Rocs towards a troll to use one threat to remove another. It’s odd to have an 18th level party with nearly no sources of acid or fire, but that’s what happens randomly sometimes. Two of the characters who had acid damage before were from players who dropped out. I know I gave someone a trollbane bota (acid spray 3x/day) but again I think that was a player that dropped. Not all parties are formed in total coordination all at once in a whiteroom optimization scenario.

Spot the gith rumor. There’s a crashed illithid UFO that I’m looking forward to them finding.