[Petals & Thrones] Session 7: Bug Hunters

 Session VII

In this session, we gain a new player to the group. His presence isn't going to be as reliable, so he will be coming in and out in all likelihood.

Parth

• Race: Shifter (Wildhunt)
• Class & Background: Gloom Stalker Conclave Ranger

Delving into the spider caves, they make exceedingly quick work as they progress from cavern to cavern. Due to the house rules I'm using for Stealth, the spiders have advantage on their Passive Perception, but not automatic detection. This gives Morluck advantage half the time for the opening round of combat, which combined with Parth's first round insanity, means it's not until four encounters in that a spider even gets to attack. Granted, that one that did attack was a recluse, whose poison damage terrifies the party as it bloodies Morluck in a single blow.

That the spiders aren't organized, nor in communication with each other, giving our stealthy party a severe edge, but the consequences are failure (once realized) are sufficiently high that they feel the tension and dread with the fact they haven't reached the egg room yet. They do, however, run into a large chamber with three giant tarantulas and have a rousing combat there.

They have been searching the bodies for valuables, and we end our session with them finding magic items on slightly fresher (as in a few months instead of a year or two) corpses of members of the Order of the Third Eye. They are debating taking the hour rest for casting identify on the items in this chamber, since there's no alarm from the spiders.

Monster of Folklore: Sun Drake

Large dragon, unaligned

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 51 (6d10+18)
Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
19 (+4)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	5 (−3)	12 (+1)	6 (−2)

Skills Perception +4

Damage Resistances cold, fire, necrotic, poison, force, slashing

Damage Immunities piercing, radiant

Damage Vulnerability lightning

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages --

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Solar Wings. The drake's wings alternate with the passing of day & night.

• Day. The wings glow with the brightness of a bonfire.
• Night. The wings take the form of a cloak of shadow, granting advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks against those using eyesight. During this time, the wings are not functional for flight.
• Dusk/Dawn. A dim glow on par with a torch, maintaining flight requires concentration.

Actions

Multiattack. The sun drake makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its stinger. While flying, it can use its claws in place of one other attack.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.

Stinger. Melee Weapon Attack +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.

Lore

More commonly known in the Sword, the region of sandy dunes in the Anauroch, these creatures were originally the chosen of At'ar the Merciless. They have become rare and reclusive since the rise of Amaunator, having chosen to spend much of their time sleeping.

Reflecting the sun, their wings shine brightly during the day and turn into a cloak of darkness during the night. Cloud cover does not change this, which makes sun drakes uncomfortable with storms during the day, strongly preferring to not leave whatever shelter they've found. Retaining their original patron's blessing, their hide cannot be pierced, not even by the rays of the sun. Their weakness to lightning is a sign of Kozah's punishment for At'ar's infidelity.

When active, sun drakes are commonly scavengers, attracted to sites of death and carnage.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 5+6: Dead & Deader

Session V

This is, strictly speaking, two sessions. Our brave adventurers decided to handle the catacombs next, fighting a couple spiders en route. They listened to the Lion Knight's call to honour in cleansing the catacombs of necromantic energy, but decided the call to gold offered by the Vlatla was louder.

They spoke with the Vlatla to make sure they didn't attack the wrong undead, delved in, and spent quite a bit of time breaking bones and scooping the salvage. Pointing out the artificial tunnel to the spiders' den, they find out that they'll earn more favour with the Vlatla if they go there. This incentivizes them to go into the place and purge the nest and leave the eggs alone, though not without trying hard to get even more reward.

Unfortunately, they have chosen not to investigate much into the history or nature of the corpses within the catacombs. But, given as how they've been kind of reticent to side with any of the established power structure, this isn't super surprising.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 4: Liquidated Assets

Session IV

Looking at the pile of goblin corpses they had recently summoned (material component - live goblin), they strip them of gear and bring them a short jump to where they met the pack led by a werewolf as an offering of meat. Over dinner, they find out the werewolf's hatred of the Huntsman, and offer to help slay it if afterward they can be told where the sahuagin cave might be. Morluck's diplomacy wins out, and they travel to where the Huntsman is (werewolf rolls great on Survival), and wipe the floor with it thanks to the wolf pack's aid. They accept the information and leave.

Returning to their trek through the wilderness, they come upon a three way argument between hobgoblins, sahuagin, and a few frazzled Bear soldiers that have been without a base for a week. Just as the three factions' opinions reach a heated moment, the players jump from their ambush and come to the aid of the Bears, wiping out goblinoid and shark men alike. They apply some basic healing to the one wounded Bear soldier, and move a short distance to meet up with rest of the remaining soldiers.

Morluck has a conversation, convincing them that they can get Ramshorn to accept them as refugees who will abandon their associations with the Order of the Bear and start over in the community. All the PCs ask for in return is to guard the entrance to the cave while they go in and clear it out. Moving up, they encounter a few more sahuagin, giving chase until they reach the cave.

To not let them have the time to alert the whole cave, they send Morluck under full stealth a full round for possible recon, to which he sees that two of the four sahuagin are moving farther into the cave & opens with a sneak attack while the rest of the party unloads into the rest of the group.

It's a fairly clean follow-through with the rest of the cavern system, only one person going down (stabilized) in the fight with the shoggoth. They take the tentacles, pack up, check on the mermaid they rescued, & return to Ramshorn to convince the townsfolk to let the surviving members of the Order of the Bear turn their swords to plowshares (a small bribe & good Persuasion check later...).

[Petals & Thrones] Session 3.5: Goblin Ambush & How It Happened

Session III + 1/2

This has been a short session due to the alignment of real-life responsibilities, so we didn't get much done.

After having paid for the hirelings and set out for the sahuagin forces Sir Caspar spoke of, they didn't get far before running into an ambush of three bugbears and at least half a dozen goblins. It was a brutal fight. Both Selpora & Ribbles were fully taken down, and while the bugbears were ultimately taken down, every single goblin escaped with their hides intact. What helped was that for that entire fight, which the goblins entered and exited from Stealth at least twice each, I rolled an average of 16 on their checks. Worried, they went ahead and took a short rest to get everyone standing again and assess the situation.

Addendum

Now, for those who have experience with 5E, it has been commented that there are no concrete rules for handling Stealth on the whole. Sure, there's the skill check for it, Perception, and Passive Perception. But there's precious little in the way of when the check can be made, what can be expected to modify the results, etc. For that, I have been using the following rules:

Perception

Passive Perception 10 + Wis mod, max 10 unless proficient in Perception

Alert Status - If you designate yourself as Alert, you must designate what you are specifically keeping an eye out for; enemies, secret doors, strange behavior in a crowd, etc. Any time you roll Perception, you are guaranteed a minimum result. To remain Alert, you must not engage in activities that require concentration; conversation (quick battle shouts are fine), fighting, casting, maintaining concentration on spells, etc.

•     Low Alert 10 + Wis mod + proficiency (if applicable)
•     High Alert 10 + Wis mod + proficiency modifier (even if not proficient)

Low Alert is only applicable if you don't expect an immediate threat, such as being on guard duty. High Alert is when it's known that your target is afoot, such as hostile goblins receding back into the underbrush.

Complementary senses that aid in detection, such as tremorsense, increase all of these minimum values by +3. Effects that grant (dis)advantage adjusts these minimums by +/-5 as usual.

Stealth

To perform a Hide action, you must have some amount of cover or be within an area that is obscured, relative to the creature(s) you are hiding from. If you do not know the creature is there, then your check is made at disadvantage. If you are invisible, you may forgo movement to gain advantage on Stealth checks, and have the option to hold your breath to add your Proficiency as a stacking bonus to your Stealth check for the round.

Cover If you have cover, you enjoy a minimum Stealth result. Effects that grand (dis)advantage adjust this value by +/-5 accordingly; such as loud sounds or the enemy is able to be directed by someone else that can see you.

• Half Cover 8
• 3/4 Cover 12
• Total Cover 16

Credit: Grit & Glory. I cannot take credit for designing these rules. I found them online through an outside source and have applied them here. The resource is handy for ideas, though I feel the product as a whole can be overly detailed and difficult on an adventuring party.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 3: Blood & Gold

Session III

The battle begins to their advantage. The Red Jester sets Sir Brander's breastplate on fire with heat metal, and then the Ringmaster takes out nearly the entire enemy force but a single archer and ogrillon with hypnotic pattern. It was essentially a rout from that point, the party hunting down runners, ultimately only a single archer escaped with their life.

Some time is spent trying to figure out who will carry what in terms of loot, but the party ultimately returns to Ramshorn with their bloodied reward. That night is the Lunatic Fête, in which the party mingles. Aquilan's kata routine brings a joyous smile to Clown. Morluck pushes really hard to convince Vlatla & Lunatic alike to send soldiers over to Ramshorn to handle the leftover spiders in the region, which grows tiresome with both factions; fortunately, Morluck's call for mercy on the captured Bear soldiers (besides Sir Brander) was sufficiently impassioned to offset that concern.

After the Fête, a few days later, they are approached by Caspar & Lidia for their respective quests. Morluck presses Caspar that they could take members of his Order to fight spiders as additional payment, but runs hard into the fact that while they deserve respect, the Order's needs are elsewhere.

After the long rest, they hire Selpora, Milo, & Fodel and let them have access to their small armament.

Belldrone: A Tavern's Silencer

Artist: Aleksandar Ignatov

Designed by Draco Hallacan, a former adventuring wizard who turned to running a drinking hole called the Wight House, the Belldrone is a novelty of convenience. It's primary function is to manage the noise level in a tavern to a comfortable level. Draco's belldrone has become the de facto mascot, its light-emitting clapper having been adapted to adjust the colours generated and allowing for a dazzling performance.

It's been a popular design, and has seen variations made in taverns across the realms.

For a PDF of these stats, go < HERE >