Session 35, 1/7/2022

Teador’s player couldn’t make it due to work.

Once everyone gets back up to speed after the long break, the party continues south and east, working their way towards the Yuan-ti, but exploring along the way. They find an old giant hideout with a couple of Superior Healing potions and some oversized bandages, needles, thread, etc.

They then spot a couple of goliaths heading south while carrying longbows. Introducing themselves, they learn that the two goliaths are named Sadat and Ihtafeer. The group offers to travel with them, but then starts debating it. Saqwam notices himself saving against a Suggestion to travel with the two. Ratel takes him aside and they have a conversation in Primordial (to be sure the two goliaths can’t understand them), but ultimately decide to travel with them. They do notice the two asking a lot of questions. hey are very interested in what the party is doing, and eventually offer to show up when the party is ready to attack the Aarakocra. After traveling close to the giant city to the south, they part ways and the group heads in a more easterly direction.

Passing through some already-explored areas, they find an abandoned cliff settlement. Along the way, they also find an overgrown statue of a Yuan-ti Abomination clasping hands with a Giant. Uncovering the inscription, it commemorates a peace treaty between the people of Sseth and the giants, and the giants sending stone-workers to help built Sseth’s main temple, which has now been converted to the High Temple of Huitzopochtli. The Ssword of Sseth thinks this was around 800 years ago. I roll an Int check, and that also jogs the sword’s memory. There was a secret back route…a Teleportation Circle hidden in a small chamber underneath the temple. If someone can cast Teleportation Circle, they have a possible secret way in. Nobody in the party has it, but I do let them know that the yuan-ti should have at least a few wizards who can cast the spell. This is not the first Circle they’ve run across.

Due to time and turnover we recap the kraken that may help during the final battle, as well as remind them about the Crystal Sword locked in a stone by a riddle…the party is close to the area.

A few days later they find an old fortified cave with a small shrine to Lolth. Everything else there is just scraps aside from a half-shredded backpack containing two Unbreakable Arrows and 3 Acid Flasks.

The group continues southeast into the jungle, and spots an Aarakocra patrol about 900’ away. They decide to attack it, and Ratel immediately flies upwards on his bow and starts raining arrows upon them. Once the first guardsman falls, the air-skiff makes a quick U-turn and starts flying away. Ratel pursues, running across the treetops as monks do, while trying to shoot down any that aren’t within the boat for cover. He continues to pursue. After about a minute and a half, he’s 900’ away from the party, and the session ends with the sharp crack as six Aarakocra arrive via teleportation to a point not far in front of him.

DM Notes:
I know none of my players have played Baldur’s Gate II, so I felt very safe naming the Rakshasas disguised as Goliaths after two of the Raskshasas from a quest in that game. They failed one of their deception vs. insight checks, and failed to land a Suggestion, and acted a bit over-interested, but the party never cut them loose or interrogated them more thoroughly. I made sure to phrase a few things with weasel words like “We’d be happy to show up to one of your battles with some friends if we know in advance.”
I did have the Rakshasas offer to help with night watch duty. Saqwam has the invocation that means he doesn’t sleep, and Ratel is an elf and only trances for 4 hours, so they specified that there were always two of them awake on watch. If they had not been paranoid, well, Rakshasas do have Dominate Person.

I forgot to roll Random Encounter checks for part of the evening, then near the end did roll the weakest possible Aarakocra patrol. At this point, the party has attacked 3 temples and is very well known to their enemies. There is only one entity in the entire setting that will fly up on a broom and start putting arrows into people reliably from 900’, and that’s Ratel. Sending is a 3rd level spell, so easily accessible to the low-level cleric in charge of the weakest patrol.

The character, and his player, have grown very, very confident. Now he’s going to face a full ambush party by himself for at least two rounds, including several Slayers. He’s solo’d quite a bit before, but it really only takes a failed save against Hold Person. On the other hand – he’s a Monk with high WIS saves, and he can spend a ki point to reroll a failed save. If they kill him, logically they may try to escape with the body for interrogation. I would not want to perma-kill a PC at this point in the campaign, so I’ll probably have him raised and imprisoned, and then let the others find out about it quickly… say, perhaps by Saqwam soul-caging one of the others and finding out that they had a plan to capture, interrogate, and then sacrifice any of the PCs they capture. Saqwam’s a warlock, so Soul Cage is his only spell of that level. I’m pretty sure he'll use it, especially if Ratel goes down.

Assuming the PCs succeed, they’ll get a Helm of Teleportation out of it. I had an ambush marked down for the abandoned keep they’d designated as a “base” but they have not returned to the area since I put that in place.