Session 36, 1/21/2023
Teador’s player couldn’t make it due to work. Starting at 7:30 and ending around 10:15 means we are ending up with some pretty short game sessions. RL happens.
When we left off, Ratel had six Aarakocra teleport in front of him. He wins initiative, turns, and high-tails it back to the party, running across the top of the jungle canopy at 180’/rd (1 ki point per round). They give pursuit, but he quickly outpaces them. Saqwam True Polymorphs into an Adult Gold Dragon, picks up Troudar, and heads to meet him.

The Aarakocra pause, group up, and ready an action to Teleport in front of Ratel. Roll 1d100… 05. They Teleport someplace else, and having only one charge left in their Helm of Teleportation, do not return.

The group stays in the area, and Saqwam remains a dragon. Unfortunately, True Polymorph specifies that your gear melds into your body and provides no benefit, so he is no longer protected from Scrying. At dawn the next day, the group is on the ground when the same team of Aarakocra teleport in. There are two Slayers, two priests of different levels, a wizard, and one wielding an atl-atl.

Troudar flies up to the atl-alt javelineer and reduces him to about 15 hit points. Ratel then shoots him, hops onto the back of Saqwam the Adult Gold Dragon, and starts picking on the next target. Saqwam hits the enemies with Dragon Fear (4/5 fail) and then breathes fire at the two Slayers who, with +14 to hit, missed most of their attacks on Ratel.

The enemy priest tries to dispel Saqwam’s polymorph, then eats a full attack routine from a dragon. The Aarakocra wizard gets knocked down to single digit HP by Troudar, and finished off by Ratel again. The remaining enemies leave via Word of Recall as they have lost two of their number without doing major damage (Cone of Cold does not count).

Loot:
Atl-atl of the many: When you launch a javelin from this, 1d4 copy javelins are created, each with their own attack roll against the target. Requires attunement.
Helm of teleportation: Requires attunement. Ratel dropped the Bracers of Defense for this.

The group bails on the hex and heads southeast to solve the fey riddle and get the sword out of the stone:

Useless to the blind,
A drinker, a spiller,
Chains this crystal blade bind,
Until offering is made in kind.

Dryness of ocean,
Melting of rock,
Color of air,
Flow of clock,
Hair of the wielder,
Place to unlock.

Their answers, in order:
Salt
True Polymorph into a magma mephit and try to fit into the bowl
Breathe into one of the bowls
Sand, like from an hourglass
A bit of Troudar’s hair

The sword comes out.
Troudar is now hairless.
Ratel succeeds on his Constitution save as the bowl tries to suck all the breath out of his lungs.
Saqwam is de-polymorphed as the bowl destroys his Magma form, and succeeds on a Con save to not die (improvised system shock roll).

The sword is a +3 crystal greatsword. The wielder, when targeted by a single-target spell or ranged spell attack that he can see, can use his Reaction to make an attack roll. If the attack roll meets or exceeds the spell DC or spell attack roll, the sword absorbs the spell, discharging it into the next target struck within 1 hour. It can only hold one spell at a time.
Yes, you can catch and redirect Disintegrate with this.

After some discussion about trapping Eater Goats and releasing them in a city, or using the Helm of Teleportation to conduct city bombardment via 9’x9’x9 rocks 3000’ into the air, the party teleports to the old fort they had dug a hideout under, over in 15.11.

We ended the session there.

For next time, the discussion question is: What is your action plan and where are you going? I feel like they’ve been muddling around with no clear plan. With scheduling getting tougher and sessions getting shorter, I’d like to see this end soon… but they keep not committing and following through to a single course of action.

There is no one correct answer to the fey riddle... just "Good enough that everyone believes it." Their answers were more creative than some of the basic answers that I had in mind when I wrote it!