Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2020-06-05 12:12 pm
icastsword) wrote2020-06-05 12:12 pm
Entry tags:
Session 30
Shane is on a coffee date with Kug. We need to find Genie.
The coffee date is super awkward because Kug is enamored and awkward. Per Kug: Genie is perpetually mean. He's loyal to her because she signs his paycheck but he wouldn't take a bullet for her. He's out here doing his best, trying to be self-sufficient. He finds Shane's accent rather charming. He seems intrigued by Earth realm; it seems exotic, just like Shane.
Shane: You wanna come to Party Town? We got Axe-con next year. Shane rolled a 17 Persuasion vs. Kug's 10 Insight.
Kug decides to quit Metamorphosis and runs off to arrange to move to Earth.
The Drasil Tree we need to get to is on the eastern side of the city. It takes a long-ass time to get to the tree, but we get there. It looks like there's a cavern underneath the roots of this massive tree - this is apparently the doorway to get inside. It's not dark inside. As we enter, the tree is so massive it's its own ecosystem. The air in the cavern beneath the roots is thick and humid like a rainforest. The inside of the tree isn't hollow, but there are paths that have been carved out of the solid living wood. There's mushrooms and bioluminescent organisms.
As we enter, we hear a familiar laugh. We turn around and it's Majnab, hip-thrusting like there's no tomorrow. It's just Majnab this time. Firo breaks off from our group to have a manly one-on-one pound-fest.
At a triple-fork south: The left path bends around to what sounds like a larger chamber. We go that way. The large chamber at the end appears to be home to some extra-large termite mounds. The rest of the chamber is home to lots of mushrooms and fungi.
Nelli rolls a 15 nature to identify the mushrooms. As she gets close, she realizes something a little too late: The cluster of mushrooms she's approaching begins to shriek. They're known as Shriekers. Everybody roll a Con save. The shrieking is painful for Griffin and Jericho but that's it. Pip super saved b/c she was prepped. Crimeny, Serra, and Shane take 7 Force damage.
Nellie casts Dragon's Breath on Griffin, and he happily freezes the shriekers! While they're doing that, everybody rolls perception. We notice that the shrieking did disturb some stuff in this chamber. Some other mushrooms get up from the ground and start to approach us. Jericho rolls Nature to determine the attitude of these walking mushrooms: 17
These walking mushrooms are known as Myconid sprouts. They're dangerous if they're accompanied by adults, or if they're swarming. Neither of these things seem to be happening. They're not aggressively approaching, they're just kind of meandering. The closer they get, the sweeter the air smells. Jericho doesn't want to hurt the dumb babies. Shane wants to murder.
They're making us hear each other's thoughts.
We roll Perception again to make sure we're not missing anything. We do notice some larger fungi that have the same type of caps as the babies. They're not moving. Yet.
We leave.
The sprouts follow. We don't want them to follow because we don't want to lead them to death deeper in the tree. Jericho rolls Nature with Disadvantage and rolls two 7s. He manages to make them excited and hopping around. Shane throws a biscotti at them. Actually he sets it gently on the ground so they can step on it. It walks over it and trips. Shane gently picks it back up.
Crimeny picks one of the babies up and takes it back to the cavern. They gently replant it in one of the holes. When they do that, another baby uproots itself and joins Crimeny. Crimeny rolls a 21 Nature to figure out if the adults are any smarter. They're marginally smarter, not much.
One of the myconid sprouts sits on Griffin's foot. He can't move. He lives here now.
Shane leaves. He finds another large chamber. It has a big ol' dead tree that could be used as a barricade. Shane goes back to get Griffin.
The tree is a good 15 feet tall, it's covered in eerily-glowing moss. Griffin manages to find a good spot that's not covered in moss, and gives it a good shove! It falls over! Griffin works it around so that he can roll it, which he does with Shane's help. We manage to roll the tree back to the entrance to the cavern.
It turns out the violet fungus on the tree causes necrotic damage. We learn this when the dumb baby mushrooms bump into the tree and start crying. 8(
Shane takes 5 necrotic damage because he just got his hands all up in the fungus when he was helping Griffin. The dumb babies start to cry and run around and we start to hear something shambling from down the corridor. From both corridors. Crimeny whispers hide. We check the live tree in the cavern for purple fungus.
Griffin is sad about the babies. Shane is sad about his hands. Everyone else sees purple fungus on the tree. Shane decides to go to the northern corridor to see how many big mushrooms are coming. There are at least four. Crimeny's advice is to keep calm and walk past them. Shane tries to do that but the mushrooms notice him. One of the mushrooms swings at him and hits him for 6 damage. Its meaty fungus fist thumps into his wimpy warlock ribs.
1.) M4 (
2.) Griffin
3.) M8 (17+9)
4.) M3 (19+14)
5.) Jericho (11
6.) M2 (20+12
7.) Serra
8.) M6 (27)
9.) M5 (23)
10.) M1 (?? 1
11.) Pippinella
12.) Crimeny
13.) M7
14.) Shane (13
ROUND 1
- M4 punches Shane but crit fails and misses. They punch M1 instead. He then crit and rolled max damage on his pal.
- Griffin moves to attack M3 and totally whiffs with a crit fail and an 11. He can't see through the tears. He is so upset about these babies.
- M8 attacks Griffin with a crit for 14 damage.
- M3 attacks Griffin and misses.
- Jericho does NOT cast Fireball. He approaches M8 and does two stabs - 24 and 19 both hit. 11 + 6 damage on M8.
- M2 attacks Shane but misses.
- Serra casts Aid on Shane, Griffin, and herself
- M6 slaps at Jericho and misses.
- M5 slaps at Jericho and misses.
- M1 slaps at Shane and misses.
- Pippinella casts Toll the Dead on M8. It failed its Wis save and takes 9 damage. It dies. She backs up and kind of ducks behind the tree.
- Crimeny shoots M6 with a 22 and a 25. M6 takes 18 + 9 damage. They use a bonus action to hide behind the tree like a fuckin' coward.
- M7 waddles through the viscera of M6 to attack Jericho but whiffs.
- Shane uses his action to disengage and move toward Pippinella.
ROUND 2
- M4 slaps at Serra but misses.
- Griffin hits M3 with a 19 and 21 for a total of 19 (9 + 10) damage.
- M3 tries to hit Griffin but misses with a big fat 1.
- Jericho stabs M5 with a Nat 20 and a 17 for 13+10 damage.
- M2 waddles south and attacks Serra. It missed to hit by 1, and gets knocked prone by the Bursting Shield. It gets blasted back and now its legs are kicking in the air, and took 4 damage.
- Serra blasts M2 with Sacred Flame for 16 damage.
- M1 attacks Serra and misses by 2 - it gets knocked prone and takes 1 damage.
- Pippinella casts Toll the Dead on M3. It fails its Wis save and takes 14 damage. It explodes.
- Crimeny fires their crossbow at M7. They roll a Nat 1 and Nat 20 to hit. Jericho rolls an 18 Dex save and just narrowly dodges it. They do ??? damage to M7
- M7 rolls a Nat 20 to hit Jericho for 11 damage
- Shane whips an Eldritch Blast at the prone M2 and hits with a 24 for 12 damage. It explodes.
ROUND 3
- M4 looks at the crater of M2, looks at M1 still on its back, looks at Serra, and puts up its mushroomy hands to disengage. Serra allows it to disengage, and it shambles toward the tree where the little babies are.
- Griffin rolls a 13 Insight on M7 to see if it's rethinking its life choices. A 13 reveals that Crimeny's shot destroyed its neurons, so he moves in to mercy kill. He rolls a 26 and 22 to hit. Hit one does 11 damage and Ant said not to bother rolling the second damage. Griffin cleaves it in half and it falls dead.
- Jericho decides We're Done Here.
- M4 gathers up the babies and leaves. Serra helps M1 up off its back and it limps away.
We're terrible heroes. 8(
We go north to the next tunnel. There's a massive bramble patch.
Ryo: Who has metal legs, and wouldn't mind walking through the thorns?
Crimeny investigates to figure out how the Myconid guys got through here. Crimeny can kind of make out something pressed against the wood along the walls, but can't see what it is.
We send in Shane's cat. Nekonomicon navigates the bramble patch deftly. Shane rolls Nature to identify the things Crimeny saw. They are Vine Blights. They look like Swamp Thing. Instead of vines, they're literally made of brambles. They're normally peaceful toward other plants, which is likely why the Myconids got through. They're just leaning against the walls. They might be sleeping.
Belated realization: If we'd let the babies follow us, they would have gotten us through this bullshit with no problem. We are the worst heroes.
How did Genie get past this? She didn't. She flew up the outside of the tree.
We decide to chop at the vines. Ant makes us roll to attack. Most of us hit and so we roll damage. We manage to clear a lot of the vines. One of the Vine Blights just sort of falls apart. Serra trips into the brambles with her crit fail. Pip makes a kind of stabbing motion, and misses and her arm gets caught. Serra and Pip are now Entangled. Serra takes 11 damage, and Pip takes 11 damage. Griffin swings to free Pip and Crimeny frees Serra.
The path is now clear. We go.
In the next chamber is something resembling a very steep stairwell that goes up in a winding fashion for quite some time. There's some running water in this mossy, fungus-y room. The floor is blanketed in dead leaves and wood chips. As we round the corner we encounter another bramble patch that looks younger, sturdier, goes a lot deeper, appears to be moving a bit, and is also blocking the path.
Crimeny investigates to see if they can see more figures. They only spot one. They try to shoot it through the brambles, and manage to hit! They get to do sneak attack damage and do a total of 25 damage. They bury the bolt right in its face. The brambles slither and crumple on the floor. Most of the brambles are cleared away but in their place are a number of actively moving vines.
Where are the vines coming from? It doesn't look like they're attached to the walls, it looks like they're rolled into a ball and are writhing around.
Griffin steps forward to choppy-choppy and has to roll a Wisdom save. He fails and is suddenly overcome with a feeling of trust and warmth towards this massive pile of vines. He walks into the warm embrace of the badtouch vines, which begin wrapping all around him.
Jericho yells at Griffin to come back, and he gets to make another Wis save because Mr Jericho asked!!! He manages to save, and realizes he's In Trouble. He casts Burning Hands. The vine creatures Dex save but still take 6 Fire damage. However, the vine ball does burn away - and reveals two Dryads. They are angry and alarmed.
Crimeny prepares their sleep spell, but Jericho rolls a 29 to Seduce. He speaks Sylvan at them. The residual heat from Griffin's fire creates a little updraft that flutters his hair. The top button of his shirt is undone. He rolls a 27 Persuasion to get the Dryads help us.
Everything listens to the Dryads on this floor. We solved Ant's Dryad-Shambling Mound puzzle. The Dryads tried to get Jericho to stay with them, but he persuaded them to let him go by promising to come back later.
Jericho parts ways with the reluctant dryads, but promises to return.
Ant attempted to make Inky roll Deception on that, but she argued that Jericho isn't lying - he will absolutely be back later.
The next set of rough-hewn stairs go up again for quite some time. After what feels like an ungodly length of time, a fresh breeze hits our faces, and we see what appears to be the late afternoon sun, streaming in from an opening ahead of us.
We push forward, and we step out into the sunlight, the wind hits our faces. We realize we're about halfway up the tree. We can see Midshade sprawling out below us; we are several hundred feet in the air. We are stepping out onto one of the lowest boughs of the Drasil tree. There are a series of rickety bridges connecting this part of the tree to another forked part of the trunk. These bridges look very very old. Above the picturesque scene, we see a flock of harpies.
The coffee date is super awkward because Kug is enamored and awkward. Per Kug: Genie is perpetually mean. He's loyal to her because she signs his paycheck but he wouldn't take a bullet for her. He's out here doing his best, trying to be self-sufficient. He finds Shane's accent rather charming. He seems intrigued by Earth realm; it seems exotic, just like Shane.
Shane: You wanna come to Party Town? We got Axe-con next year. Shane rolled a 17 Persuasion vs. Kug's 10 Insight.
Kug decides to quit Metamorphosis and runs off to arrange to move to Earth.
The Drasil Tree we need to get to is on the eastern side of the city. It takes a long-ass time to get to the tree, but we get there. It looks like there's a cavern underneath the roots of this massive tree - this is apparently the doorway to get inside. It's not dark inside. As we enter, the tree is so massive it's its own ecosystem. The air in the cavern beneath the roots is thick and humid like a rainforest. The inside of the tree isn't hollow, but there are paths that have been carved out of the solid living wood. There's mushrooms and bioluminescent organisms.
As we enter, we hear a familiar laugh. We turn around and it's Majnab, hip-thrusting like there's no tomorrow. It's just Majnab this time. Firo breaks off from our group to have a manly one-on-one pound-fest.
At a triple-fork south: The left path bends around to what sounds like a larger chamber. We go that way. The large chamber at the end appears to be home to some extra-large termite mounds. The rest of the chamber is home to lots of mushrooms and fungi.
Nelli rolls a 15 nature to identify the mushrooms. As she gets close, she realizes something a little too late: The cluster of mushrooms she's approaching begins to shriek. They're known as Shriekers. Everybody roll a Con save. The shrieking is painful for Griffin and Jericho but that's it. Pip super saved b/c she was prepped. Crimeny, Serra, and Shane take 7 Force damage.
Nellie casts Dragon's Breath on Griffin, and he happily freezes the shriekers! While they're doing that, everybody rolls perception. We notice that the shrieking did disturb some stuff in this chamber. Some other mushrooms get up from the ground and start to approach us. Jericho rolls Nature to determine the attitude of these walking mushrooms: 17
These walking mushrooms are known as Myconid sprouts. They're dangerous if they're accompanied by adults, or if they're swarming. Neither of these things seem to be happening. They're not aggressively approaching, they're just kind of meandering. The closer they get, the sweeter the air smells. Jericho doesn't want to hurt the dumb babies. Shane wants to murder.
They're making us hear each other's thoughts.
We roll Perception again to make sure we're not missing anything. We do notice some larger fungi that have the same type of caps as the babies. They're not moving. Yet.
We leave.
The sprouts follow. We don't want them to follow because we don't want to lead them to death deeper in the tree. Jericho rolls Nature with Disadvantage and rolls two 7s. He manages to make them excited and hopping around. Shane throws a biscotti at them. Actually he sets it gently on the ground so they can step on it. It walks over it and trips. Shane gently picks it back up.
Crimeny picks one of the babies up and takes it back to the cavern. They gently replant it in one of the holes. When they do that, another baby uproots itself and joins Crimeny. Crimeny rolls a 21 Nature to figure out if the adults are any smarter. They're marginally smarter, not much.
One of the myconid sprouts sits on Griffin's foot. He can't move. He lives here now.
Shane leaves. He finds another large chamber. It has a big ol' dead tree that could be used as a barricade. Shane goes back to get Griffin.
The tree is a good 15 feet tall, it's covered in eerily-glowing moss. Griffin manages to find a good spot that's not covered in moss, and gives it a good shove! It falls over! Griffin works it around so that he can roll it, which he does with Shane's help. We manage to roll the tree back to the entrance to the cavern.
It turns out the violet fungus on the tree causes necrotic damage. We learn this when the dumb baby mushrooms bump into the tree and start crying. 8(
Shane takes 5 necrotic damage because he just got his hands all up in the fungus when he was helping Griffin. The dumb babies start to cry and run around and we start to hear something shambling from down the corridor. From both corridors. Crimeny whispers hide. We check the live tree in the cavern for purple fungus.
Griffin is sad about the babies. Shane is sad about his hands. Everyone else sees purple fungus on the tree. Shane decides to go to the northern corridor to see how many big mushrooms are coming. There are at least four. Crimeny's advice is to keep calm and walk past them. Shane tries to do that but the mushrooms notice him. One of the mushrooms swings at him and hits him for 6 damage. Its meaty fungus fist thumps into his wimpy warlock ribs.
1.) M4 (
2.) Griffin
3.) M8 (17+9)
4.) M3 (19+14)
5.) Jericho (11
6.) M2 (20+12
7.) Serra
8.) M6 (27)
9.) M5 (23)
10.) M1 (?? 1
11.) Pippinella
12.) Crimeny
13.) M7
14.) Shane (13
ROUND 1
- M4 punches Shane but crit fails and misses. They punch M1 instead. He then crit and rolled max damage on his pal.
- Griffin moves to attack M3 and totally whiffs with a crit fail and an 11. He can't see through the tears. He is so upset about these babies.
- M8 attacks Griffin with a crit for 14 damage.
- M3 attacks Griffin and misses.
- Jericho does NOT cast Fireball. He approaches M8 and does two stabs - 24 and 19 both hit. 11 + 6 damage on M8.
- M2 attacks Shane but misses.
- Serra casts Aid on Shane, Griffin, and herself
- M6 slaps at Jericho and misses.
- M5 slaps at Jericho and misses.
- M1 slaps at Shane and misses.
- Pippinella casts Toll the Dead on M8. It failed its Wis save and takes 9 damage. It dies. She backs up and kind of ducks behind the tree.
- Crimeny shoots M6 with a 22 and a 25. M6 takes 18 + 9 damage. They use a bonus action to hide behind the tree like a fuckin' coward.
- M7 waddles through the viscera of M6 to attack Jericho but whiffs.
- Shane uses his action to disengage and move toward Pippinella.
ROUND 2
- M4 slaps at Serra but misses.
- Griffin hits M3 with a 19 and 21 for a total of 19 (9 + 10) damage.
- M3 tries to hit Griffin but misses with a big fat 1.
- Jericho stabs M5 with a Nat 20 and a 17 for 13+10 damage.
- M2 waddles south and attacks Serra. It missed to hit by 1, and gets knocked prone by the Bursting Shield. It gets blasted back and now its legs are kicking in the air, and took 4 damage.
- Serra blasts M2 with Sacred Flame for 16 damage.
- M1 attacks Serra and misses by 2 - it gets knocked prone and takes 1 damage.
- Pippinella casts Toll the Dead on M3. It fails its Wis save and takes 14 damage. It explodes.
- Crimeny fires their crossbow at M7. They roll a Nat 1 and Nat 20 to hit. Jericho rolls an 18 Dex save and just narrowly dodges it. They do ??? damage to M7
- M7 rolls a Nat 20 to hit Jericho for 11 damage
- Shane whips an Eldritch Blast at the prone M2 and hits with a 24 for 12 damage. It explodes.
ROUND 3
- M4 looks at the crater of M2, looks at M1 still on its back, looks at Serra, and puts up its mushroomy hands to disengage. Serra allows it to disengage, and it shambles toward the tree where the little babies are.
- Griffin rolls a 13 Insight on M7 to see if it's rethinking its life choices. A 13 reveals that Crimeny's shot destroyed its neurons, so he moves in to mercy kill. He rolls a 26 and 22 to hit. Hit one does 11 damage and Ant said not to bother rolling the second damage. Griffin cleaves it in half and it falls dead.
- Jericho decides We're Done Here.
- M4 gathers up the babies and leaves. Serra helps M1 up off its back and it limps away.
We're terrible heroes. 8(
We go north to the next tunnel. There's a massive bramble patch.
Ryo: Who has metal legs, and wouldn't mind walking through the thorns?
Crimeny investigates to figure out how the Myconid guys got through here. Crimeny can kind of make out something pressed against the wood along the walls, but can't see what it is.
We send in Shane's cat. Nekonomicon navigates the bramble patch deftly. Shane rolls Nature to identify the things Crimeny saw. They are Vine Blights. They look like Swamp Thing. Instead of vines, they're literally made of brambles. They're normally peaceful toward other plants, which is likely why the Myconids got through. They're just leaning against the walls. They might be sleeping.
Belated realization: If we'd let the babies follow us, they would have gotten us through this bullshit with no problem. We are the worst heroes.
How did Genie get past this? She didn't. She flew up the outside of the tree.
We decide to chop at the vines. Ant makes us roll to attack. Most of us hit and so we roll damage. We manage to clear a lot of the vines. One of the Vine Blights just sort of falls apart. Serra trips into the brambles with her crit fail. Pip makes a kind of stabbing motion, and misses and her arm gets caught. Serra and Pip are now Entangled. Serra takes 11 damage, and Pip takes 11 damage. Griffin swings to free Pip and Crimeny frees Serra.
The path is now clear. We go.
In the next chamber is something resembling a very steep stairwell that goes up in a winding fashion for quite some time. There's some running water in this mossy, fungus-y room. The floor is blanketed in dead leaves and wood chips. As we round the corner we encounter another bramble patch that looks younger, sturdier, goes a lot deeper, appears to be moving a bit, and is also blocking the path.
Crimeny investigates to see if they can see more figures. They only spot one. They try to shoot it through the brambles, and manage to hit! They get to do sneak attack damage and do a total of 25 damage. They bury the bolt right in its face. The brambles slither and crumple on the floor. Most of the brambles are cleared away but in their place are a number of actively moving vines.
Where are the vines coming from? It doesn't look like they're attached to the walls, it looks like they're rolled into a ball and are writhing around.
Griffin steps forward to choppy-choppy and has to roll a Wisdom save. He fails and is suddenly overcome with a feeling of trust and warmth towards this massive pile of vines. He walks into the warm embrace of the badtouch vines, which begin wrapping all around him.
Jericho yells at Griffin to come back, and he gets to make another Wis save because Mr Jericho asked!!! He manages to save, and realizes he's In Trouble. He casts Burning Hands. The vine creatures Dex save but still take 6 Fire damage. However, the vine ball does burn away - and reveals two Dryads. They are angry and alarmed.
Crimeny prepares their sleep spell, but Jericho rolls a 29 to Seduce. He speaks Sylvan at them. The residual heat from Griffin's fire creates a little updraft that flutters his hair. The top button of his shirt is undone. He rolls a 27 Persuasion to get the Dryads help us.
Everything listens to the Dryads on this floor. We solved Ant's Dryad-Shambling Mound puzzle. The Dryads tried to get Jericho to stay with them, but he persuaded them to let him go by promising to come back later.
Jericho parts ways with the reluctant dryads, but promises to return.
Ant attempted to make Inky roll Deception on that, but she argued that Jericho isn't lying - he will absolutely be back later.
The next set of rough-hewn stairs go up again for quite some time. After what feels like an ungodly length of time, a fresh breeze hits our faces, and we see what appears to be the late afternoon sun, streaming in from an opening ahead of us.
We push forward, and we step out into the sunlight, the wind hits our faces. We realize we're about halfway up the tree. We can see Midshade sprawling out below us; we are several hundred feet in the air. We are stepping out onto one of the lowest boughs of the Drasil tree. There are a series of rickety bridges connecting this part of the tree to another forked part of the trunk. These bridges look very very old. Above the picturesque scene, we see a flock of harpies.