Mattsters of the Mattiverse Session 6

9 1/2 days until the auction

• The party (except Edi) gains levels, to three!
• The party descends into the first level of the Citadel. The vine growth makes it relatively easy (but Russ still manages to almost fall)
• They immediately encounter three skeleton gardeners, who attack with shovels, and are dispatched relatively easily.
• They head North into a small cavern area. Inside, they encounter Balsag the Bugbear Hunter and his dire rat pets, "Grip" and "Fang". Battle ensues!
• Balsag's first attack is an incredible critical hit that does exactly Russ's HP + Con. GM rules that his spontaneous healing saves him from death.
• Two hits later, and Mad Gokar has returned the favor. The rats barely survive long enough to get a mention--the party has become very adept at dispatching their kind

• The party searches around, and finds:
  • 65 sp and 55 gp in the nests
  • 3 spears (ignored)
  • 6 javelins (Russ takes a few for quieter ranged weapons)
  • 1 longsword (ignored)
  • 1 bastard sword (ignored)
  • Balsag’s spear (+1) (used by Apt, mostly, until later)

The Help

• The Mattsters continue, Eastward now.
• The first area seems to be a common area of some sort, with small branching rooms
• They seem to contain Goblins and infrastructure
• Apt finds two that are sleeping. He dispatches them mostly stealthily while the rest of the party gets ready for when he inevitably fails a stealth roll. That happens, and melee ensues.
• All told, eight Goblins are senselessly murdered.
• One of the subrooms contains a Goblin distillery. Another contains a first aid station--a rat is tied to the table there, covered in woody tumors and evidently the subject of experiments
  • There is a poultice (lotion) worth 10 gp
  • There is a bottle with an elixir nearby, molasses-y and kind of nasty-smelling. Nobody drinks it
• Goblin wages: 106 (sp)
• The next two rooms, and one smaller side-room, are large garden areas. Each one contains a bugbear gardener, who is summarily dispatched (although one threatens a potentially devastating scythe critical, the crit is not confirmed).
• Spoils:
  • Three regular ol’ scythes
  • 79 sp 34 gp

A Curious Trap

• At the last of the garden rooms, there are stairs up, stairs down, and a ramp up. The Mattsters go up the ramp.
• In the room, there is crumbled masonry on the floor, intricate tilework and wording around the edge, and a statue of a dragon. Its eyes still glow after millenia.
• Apt finds a loose stone beside the statue
• Fiddling with it triggers two shadows to appear
• After suffering heavy Strength damage, the party gets the fuck out of dodge. The shadows do not pursue.
• The party rests in Balsag’s room, and is not disturbed.
• Edi catches up in level. This is fortunate, because he is able to memorize Lesser Restoration and get Russ back into action from his ability damage.

Nine days until the auction

• The party heads south, to follow a rift in the Earth
• They find a little air-bubble/cavern thing (node?). There are holes in the ground, one of which is glowing
• Russ pokes it. It's a Thoqqa! And it burrrns!
  • Ends up being a pretty hilarious counter to the party, since attacks do auto-damage and it is immune to fire. We still manage to beat the snot out of it.
  • Edi's Planar knowledge is enough to know that Thoqqa's commonly accumulate precious ore deposits. We carve it open, and lo, there are 2 sapphires (50 gp each)!
• Next is a room filled with mushrooms. A mush-room, if you will.
• There are Goblins! (four)
  • 58 sp
• There's another hole room filled with holes, and burnt organic matter.
  • Another Thoqqa, another sapphire (25gp)
  • Another room has skeletons

The Boss Fight

• There's a very long hallway!
• At the end are two doors. One is locked, which doesn't stop Apt. It appears to be Belak’s office
• A couple of nicely bound books
  • One is mundane, the other magical. We don’t open the magical one (Edi or Apt think it's probably trapped, and we're not really going to have time to absorb any knowledge inside right now anyway)
• Two scrolls (Divine):
  • delay poison
  • entangle
• The party heads South, into a room that opens into a monstrous cavern. There are (three?) goblins. One starts running and screaming, the rest are quickly cut down.

• Mad and Russ give chase and manage to stop him, a couple of twig blights are disturbed from their hiding places and do what they do.
• In this way, the party makes its way further South, one twig blight at a time.
• A little more south, things open up into a courtyard. Belak is inside--he asks the party to stop. Apt engages him in some questioning, although what he's really doing is getting the party into position (and, in Russ's case, hella buffed--Shield, Enlarge, Dexterity Mutagen) so they can get the upper hand.
  • Belak calls the tree the Gulthias Tree. He indicates that the party should join his great cause and be subsumed into the tree's purpose, which is to spread Twig Blights far and wide with the seeds of the apple it grows. He indicates Sir Braford and Sharwyn, to whom supplication has evidently happened already.

• The party strikes, and gets a surprise round. Apt dazes Belak successfully--he doesn't get a single action before he is cut down by Russ and Mad Gokar (probably a very good thing, since he was evidently a CL 4 Druid), and Apt finishes him with Balsag's spear before one of his minions can attempt to revive him.
  • Sharwyn hangs back and throws bombs. She's not great at it, but manages some damage

• • Sir Braford engages the heroes, aiming particularly at sundering Gokar's weapon. Gokar shrugs and drops it, using his fists with equal pleasure (and nearly equal effectiveness)
  • Belak's giant tree frog companion uses its tongue to grapple Gokar. The grapple is short-lived. So is the frog.
  • Twigblights run in and generally muck things up, doing more than anything to harass Apt and Edi. Apt is actually very effectively surrounded, and takes some time to extricate himself
  • Erky Timbers spends the entire battle swinging at a twig blight, doing minimum damage all but once. He never manages to actually kill it. It is not one of his prouder moments.
  • Russ wades in and claws things with his improved reach, steadily making his way to Sharwyn after Braford is taking out, but never actually reaching her (and, thanks to misunderstanding Adhesive Spittle, he's a round late in its application)
  • After contributing heals and some fire in the back, Edi rushes through an opening to the Gulthias Tree, and unleashes a Burning Hands onto it, specifically at the apple seen growing out of its trunk. Every badguy immediately focuses on him, taking AoOs in the process. It ends up being an extremely effective mop-up strategy.
  • Sharwyn is subdued, rather than killed.
  • The party rests in the glow of the burning, evil tree.

Rewards

• 800 xp (everyone): all encounters through the first rest (that is, until but not including the shadows)
• 240 xp (everyone): 2 Thoqqas
• 100 xp (everyone): Four Goblin mushroom farmers
• 80 xp (everyone): Three skeleton farmers
• 275 xp (everyone): Boss Fight Twig Blights
• 100 xp (everyone): Goblins
• 500 xp (everyone): Belak and the Supplicants
• 50 xp (Apt, Russ): Tapped Out achievement
• Belak’s (+1 Greenwood armor) (Apt wears it)
  • +4 AC 0 ACP +3 Max Dex
• Masterwork cold iron sickle (Russ takes this as a backup, or to sell, or whatever)
• 3x clw potions
• 1x lesser restore potion
• heavy steel shield (ignored)
• Steel Lamellar armor (ignored)
• Shatterspike (Apt wields it, hands Balsag's spear to Russ)
  • +1 longsword
  • If its wielder has improved sunder add 4 to sunder attempts
  • It can damage items up to a +4 bonus
• Masterwork Spear (to sell)
• Masterwork leather lamellar armor (Russ switches out Balsag's)
• Sharwyn's Formulae book
  • Abjuring Step
  • Ant Haul
  • Bomber’s Eye
  • Comprehend Languages
  • Third Eye, a Rare Spell
  • Polypurpose Panacea
  • Shock Shield
  • Crafter’s Fortune
• Signet rings
  • Sir Braford
  • Sharwyn (presumably still worn on her finger)