Session 179: The Birds and the Bees

[icastsword]

ROUND 8

Mr. Bishop moves up next to Shane, pats him on the shoulder, tells him to "watch this," and shoots. His first attack hits. His second attack is a Nat 1, which hits Jericho. He does 16 damage to the Relentless Slasher, and also 16 damage to Jericho.

But here’s the thing: That first shot kills Jack the Ripper.

Griffin eats his Gusher while Mr. Bishop and Shane and Jericho banter. He beefed his concentration roll when he took 30 damage, so he refreshes Expeditious Retreat, picks up Serra, and moves 55 feet closer to the next pump, giving Ant a gift.

Abhorrent Overlord idly flaps his way over, closer to the Baahl cocoon. He sees Griffin and Serra racing across the bridge to wards the next pump. He holds out a hand, and in the air next to the bridge, large gouts of black flame manifest. A swarm of hell wasps emerge. Griffin has landed dead center in the middle of six Hell Wasps.

Hell Wasp flies up and stings Griffin. It crits to sting him, and then slashes at him with its legs to hit with a 23. Griffin uses a reaction to cast Shield to make that miss.

He takes 9 Piercing and 3 fire halved from 6. He rolls a constitution save: 18. He’s fine. He also saves on Concentration with an 18.

Nellie moves 25 feet closer to the hell wasp swarm and casts a cantrip on the closest wasp. It has to make a Con save: 10. She causes numbing frost to form on that wasp, and gives it disadvantage on the next melee attack it makes. It takes 12 damage. Now Nellie makes a quick Perception roll:9. It looks like the hell wasp is struggling a little bit with the frost she’s built up on it. Time to roll nature - are these things vulnerable to Cold? 23 - yeah. These guys don’t do very good with cold damage.

Hell Wasp flies down to attack Serra. But Griffin is still carrying Serra, so it’s going to roll with Disadvantage. If it misses Serra, it’s going to hit Griffin. It stings her with a 24, and misses with a 16. But her bursting shield comes into play when an attack misses by 2, so she just deflects it entirely. The bursting shield does 4 damage and her armor does 8. Serra rolls a Con save: Crit fail.

She takes 7 Piercing and 6 fire damage (13 total). Serra is poisoned for one minute. She is also paralyzed. She can make a repeat saving throw at the end of her turn.

Hell Wasp flies in to attack Griffin. Actually, wait, Nellie hit this one. It flies up and attacks Nellie. Good thing she gave it Disadvantage. It hits with a 17. Boo. She takes 12 Piercing and 12 Fire damage. She has 9HP. Then it hits her with a talon. It does 8 damage. Nellie is at 1 HP.

The gusher saved Nellie.

But now she has to make a con save: 18. SHE’S FINE, she’s not poisoned or paralyzed.

Crimeny shoots a bee, since Pippinella is right there and in Very Danger. They roll an 18 to hit, but that misses. Good luck, Pippinella.

They scoot onto the walkway and insert their Goodberry into the USB port on their head.

Hell Wasp misses Griffin with a 12 and a 15.

Hell Wasp flies in to attack Serra. Any attack that hits is an insta-crit because she’s paralyzed. It hits with a 24 and a 19. First attack does 12 Piercing and 4 fire (16) and the second attack does 10 Piercing damage. Her Clangeddin armor does 20 damage back.

Shane moves away from his dad. Bye, Dad. He moves 30 feet south, toward Crimeny. He’s going to attempt to banish the two hell wasps that are menacing Griffin and Serra that are also closest to Shane. They fail on Charisma with a 4 and a 5. They are banished back to Hell, their home.

He turns to the bee next to him and yells at it. He kicks dirt at it. He rolls Intimidation with disadvantage. He still rolls a 24. It is not insightful, it’s a bee. He just gave Nellie 77 more hitpoints. They’re his, but it’s fine.

Jericho drops his rage. He is allowed to do that. He needs to be coherent enough to cast a spell. He casts Raolthim’s Psychic Lance, which requires an Int save from the wasp menacing Nellie. He does 30 Psychic damage, and the wasp splashes down into the pool of blood at Nellie’s feet. It’s dead.

He gives Nellie Bardic Inspiration. She will survive.

Serra is paralyzed. She can repeat her Con save to try to break out of it. She rolls another 1. She remains paralyzed.

Hell Wasp flies up other attack Serra. It hits with a 25. It misses with a 12. She takes 16 Piercing and 5 Fire damage. She’s unconscious. She just died in Griffin’s arms tonight.

ROUND 9

Mr. Bishop can use dash as a bonus action, so he ruuuuuns 60 feet to the east. He promises to cover Griffin from over there. He’s going to draw the attention of the Abhorrent overlord. Both of his shots hit, for a respectable 24 damage. "Take that, you overgrown demon moth!"

Griffin has this cool magic jewelry.

Ring of Amity
Ring, Very Rare (Requires Attunement)
This ring is carved from hematite and bears an engraving of the friend rune. When you first attune to this ring, you can touch one willing creature and form a magical bond between the two of you. While this bond lasts, whenever you are subjected to a spell or magical effect that restores hit points, the bonded creature also receives the benefits of the spell or effect. You can bond with a different creature whenever you finish a long rest, provided that you can touch the creature and the creature is willing.

A creature can benefit from only one ring of amity’s bond at a time. The bond ends if either you or the creature travels to a different plane of existence, if you bond with a different creature at the end of a long rest, or if you sever the bond as a bonus action.

Invoking the Rune. When the bonded creature hits a target with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to invoke the ring’s rune if you are within 60 feet of the bonded creature. The bonded creature’s attack is then turned into a critical hit. Once the rune has been invoked, it can’t be invoked again until the next dawn.

He uses his action to form a magical bond with Serra, then he uses his Bonus Action to Second Wind. Griffin and Serra both recover 12 hit points.

Then Griffin Action Surges and hits a bee. He hits with a 30. He does 9 Slashing and 4 Cold. His second attack misses with a 16. He did a good 17 damage, though.

Abhorrent Overlord is weighing his options now, because some motherfucker just shot him. He casually flies toward Mr Bishop. He points a finger at Shane 64. A 20ft radius sphere centered on Mr. Bishop appears. A cloud of black fire appears above Mr. Bishop. A swarm of spectral crows and harpies descend upon him, and fill the sphere. Mr Bishop has to make a Con save. He rolled a 3. That’s a lot of damage. He takes 18 Slashing and 26 Psychic.

Hell Wasp crit fails to stab Griffin, and misses with its leggy attack. Griffin deflects the wasp’s stinger and breaks it off.

Nellie has a spell that has a range of 300 feet, and the remaining wasps are now nice and clumped up. She casts Ice Storm at the 4th level on the three wasps still menacing Griffin and Serra. The first one fails on Dex with a 12, the other two save with a 23 and a 25. Full damage is 12 Bludgeoning and 24 Cold. The one that didn’t save is gone - she’s taken him out. The other two are hanging in there, but not by much.

Crimeny shoots the hell wasp to the right of Serra. They hit with a 25 for 38 damage. They snipe that bug right out of the air - he’s gone. Crimeny follows Griffin and Serra to provide support.

Shane is out of spell slots, so we all know what time it is. He hits the Abhorrent Overlord with a 17, a 19, and a 26. This is good, because the spell the Overlord cast on Mr. Bishop is concentration-based. He does 10, 10, and 13 damage. He fails on his first concentration roll with a base 2. Shane saved his dad! The spectral crows and harpies dissipate. He moves Crimeny-ward.

Jericho uses his action to dash to Mr. Bishop and his bonus action to give him a Greater Healing Potion. Mr. Bishop recovers 19 HP.

Serra casts a 4th level Cure Wounds on Griffin. He recovers 35HP. She also recovers 35HP thanks to the Ring of Amity :)

Hell Wasp attacks Serra. Griffin imposes Disadvantage with his reaction, and it misses both attacks with a 15 and a 9.

ROUND 10

Mr. Bishop uses his action to cast a 2nd level Cure Wounds on himself. He recovers 18 HP. He asks Jericho if he and Jericho should head Griffin-ward, or should they try to get the Overlord’s attention? At this point it’s just going to be playing catch-up, so Jericho is game to harass an asshole.

Griffin hits the bee with a 25.

13 Slashing, 8 Cold (x2) for a total of 29. That destroys the final hell wasp.

With his Expeditious Retreat, Griffin carries Serra 60 feet and makes it to the edge of the next platform.

Abhorrent Overlord takes some time to plot his next move. He stretches out his hand toward Mr. Bishop and Jericho. Black fire appears above the two of them. A number of flying heads with bat wings for ears appear. There are seven of them. Then he moves south.

Nellie looks to the south where Griffin has finished Baywatch-running to the next chamber. She looks over to the head cloud that has surrounded Jericho. They’re getting a lot of head over there. She’s going to pause a moment, and decide that this is a good turn to heal up. She casts a 3rd level Cure Wounds on herself. She recovers 23HP.J ericho and Mr. Bishop are 75 feet away, she can get there in three turns.

Vargouille flies up and gives Mr. Bishop head. It bites. It misses with a 13.

Vargouille flies up to give Jericho head. It bites. It misses with a 10.

Vargouille flies up to Mr. Bishop. It bites with a 15, and misses.

Vargouille flies up to bite Jericho but misses with a 14.

Crimeny triangulates. They have something that has a range of 120 feet. Are they petty enough to use it on a single target? They are. They cast Synaptic Static from their spell-store ring. The Overlord has to make an INT save: 22. It saves, but still takes half damage. Full damage is 32, halved to 16. He levels his gaze at Crimeny now.

Now that it’s looking at Crimeny, Crimeny moves back up to the platform and skids through the blood pool, hiding in the blood. Blood for the blood bot.

Shane uses his full action to dash Griffin- and Serra-ward.

Vargouille flies up and bites Mr. Bishop with a 22. It does 5 Piercing damage. And then - some poison damage: 6.

Jericho is surrounded by a lot of heads. Can he sweep Shane Jr. Sr. Jr. into his arms as a free action? Ant will allow it, but only if they roleplay it. Jericho picks him up in a princess carry and casts Thuderwave. Time for seven Con saves. Only one saved. Full damage is 24, half is 12. Six of the flying heads die immediately. The seventh is looking pretty stunned.

Griffin sets Serra down, and she moves 30 feet to the second pump. She hits Griffin with a 1st level healing word to top off: he and she both recover 9HP.

ROUND 11

Mr. Bishop hops out of Jericho’s muscular arms. The last head is within 5 feet of him, which means he’s disadvantaged on ranged attacks. So he’s going to cast Enhance Ability on Jericho, but he asks Jericho to pick an animal from a list. What is this Buzzfeed quiz bullshit? Jericho says to make him more Dex-y. But wait, that’s not going to help him much here. Mr. Bishop decides to give Jericho Bear’s Endurance - Advantage on Con checks and 2d6 Temporary HP - he gets 10 temp HP.

Griffin moves 30 feet to stand at Serra’s back, and readies his action to hit whatever the Abhorrent Overlord summons.

Abhorrent Overlord summons a pair of Hope Eaters.

Nellie casts Expeditious Retreat and flees to the safety of Bearicho’s arms. She moves an impressive 50 feet.

She still has an action. She can’t cast a spell, so she cocks her gun and shoots at the remaining flying head. She rolls a 19 to hit. Blam blam! She does 10 damage. She blows it out of the air! Now there’s nothing over here to kill, and two eaters of hope 200 feet away where Griffin and Serra are.

Crimeny can’t get to the Overlord right now. They begin running back Griffin-ward. They roll to attack one of the Hope Eaters from a long distance - they hit with a 21, and do 12 Piercing damage and 2 Psychic.

Shane moves his 30 feet to come to a stop right before the platform. There are some guys. There are some dudes. Time for Eldritch Blast. He shoots at the Eater of Hope. He rolls an 18, 21, and 25 to hit, which all connect, and he does 33 hurt damage.

Hope Eater steps up to attack Serra but Griffin is ready for it.

Griffin hits with a 25 and a 19.

Hit 1 = 11 Slashing, 1 Cold (12)
Hit 2 = 14 Slashing, 1 Cold (15)
27 total damage

Hope Eater is now going to try to attack Serra - Griffin imposes Disadvantage with his reaction. It misses with a 13 and a 9.

Because Shane shot him, and also got real close, within walking distance, Hope Eater strolls up to Shane. It hits with a 16. He wallops Shane, who takes it like a man, and then uses Misty Escape. He takes 7 Slashing and 3 Necrotic. Shane bamfs out of existence to hide behind the blood pump Serra is purifying.

Jericho has a flying speed equal to his walking speed. Well, that’s not great. Nellie has an idea. If Jericho has a rope, she can use her movement, action, and bonus action to go 75 feet, and kite him along behind her. So he tethers himself to Pip.

Serra uses her turn to finish sanctifying the machine.

The blood being pumped out of the pipes is beginning to look a little mottled with bits of radiant light. Everyone except Nellie and Griffin see the Baahl cocoon - the Baahloon - it’s pulsing and wiggling. Whatever’s in there might be kind of cranky. Baahl baby’s kickin’.

ROUND 12

Mr. Bishop has noticed Nellie’s looking pretty rough, so he walks over to her as she secures the rope and casts Cure Wounds at the third level on her. She recovers 25 health. He uses Dash as a bonus action and runs back up the way we came, to cover the exit.

Griffin hits with an 18 and misses with a 12.
Hit 1: 16 Slashing 8 (4) - Total of 20. The Hope Eater didn’t like that.

Abhorrent Overlord floats away. He’s monitoring the situation.

Nellie flies her Jeri-kite with her 75 feet of movement, dragging a flying Jericho along behind her.

Crimeny moves 10 feet closer to the Eater of Hope and requires a Deception Check from that one. It fails with a 9 versus Crimeny’s 25. They have its number, now. They hit with a 28, and do 40 Sneak Attack damage. They take off part of its head. It’s still alive, but there is a gaping wound in his face.

Shane, being the brave boy he is, attacks the Eater of Hope that smacked him. He hits with a 25, a 25, and a 26. He does 35 damage. Shane blows a hole through it, and he splooges. It explodes. It is done.

Shane creeps around the pump, and peeks around to see the other Hope Eater’s butt.

Hope Eater is too focused on Griffin, and didn’t notice its friend exploding. It hits with a 22 and a crit. He takes 22 Slashing and 12 Necrotic for 34 damage total.

Time to swing the gnome. Jericho dashes his 60 feet, dragging Nellie behind him. 60 feet gets them in front of Crimeny.

Serra casts a 1st level Inflict Wounds on the Hope Eater. She hits with a Nat 20. She does 27 damage.

ROUND 13

Mr. Bishop delays.

Griffin hits with a 24 and a 24.

Hit 1 = 10 Slashing, 2 cold (12)
Hit 2 = 15 Slashing, 2 cold (17)

For 29 total damage. He beheads the Hope Eater!

He looks up. He sees the Jericho-Nellie…thing. He’s going to stay where he’s at and wait for them to catch up before we proceed.

Abhorrent Overlord is considering his options. He heads over to the next platform we need to proceed to via flight.

Nellie gets her feet back on the ground and drags Jericho, expeditiously retreating into the Griffin Safety zone.

Crimeny once again sprints backwards, away from the team, towards Mr. Bishop.

Shane emerges from hiding behind the pump.

Jericho takes Nellie with him and dashes.

Serra piggybacks on Griffin.

Next week the gang make the leap of faith and confront the Abhorrent Overlord directly.