Session 16: Mead Hall Battle

The Adventurers continue their fight in the Mead Hall. 

Our scribe Carl, could not make it for this session, so I wrote this one up myself so it will tend to have more of the monsters' perspective. It is based on our Sunday, January 6, 2022 session. Thanks to Jimmy for taking the screen shots on roll20.

Continued from: After the Storm.

Location:  Inside Tegel Manor,  in the Mead Hall.

We began where we left off with the party fighting Swarms of Spiders and Zombies in the Mead Hall.  The burning oil from Shadow Walker's flask had nearly burned out, but had caught the spiderwebs on fire and the fire was starting to spread.

The rectangle north of Syndra is the area covered by her Gust of Wind spell.    

Nattie started by trying to cast a firebolt, but she slipped on some unidentified substance on the floor and fumbled her cast.

Syndra then used both her regular and dancing longbows to fill one of the Zombies full of arrows and then stepped to the left, moving her gust of wind spell with her, blowing Aefir and a whole lot of spiders towards the back of the room.

Shadow Walker stepped into one of the swarms and did one of his fancy monk moves. When he was done, every spider in the swarm was dead and he and the floor around him was covered with squished spider ichor.

Reebo shot one of the Zombies, but it continued moving forward, oblivious of the arrow sticking out of it.

Aefir, leaning against the wind, squished spiders with the flat of his blade as they crawled all around and over him.

While he was busy with the spiders, two of the Zombies walked up and started to hit him with their hammers.

Three more Zombies, still smoldering from the burning spider webs, shuffled up to Shadow. One of them hit him with its hammer.

Some of the spiders crawled between gaps in Aefir's armor and bit him.

Nattie, having stepped out of whatever that was on the floor, tried casting firebolt again. It flew over Reebo's head and hit one of the zombies in the center of its chest with a sizzling sound.

Syndra killed another Zombie with an arrow.

Anis the Hag, exhausted from the day's activities, needed a place to rest. She looked into the mead hall and said to herself, "This will do nicely". So as not to be disturbed, she morphed herself into one of her favorite forms, a teddy bear, and settled into a long rest.

About a century later she woke covered in burning spider webs.  She assumed her natural form and looked around. She was releaved that the building wasn't on fire, just some webs. She was ravenously hungry and set her gaze on the elvish paladin and thought, "He will do nicely".

Shadow started to attack one of the Zombies, but with the spiders crawling all over him, he had a loss of nerve and just disengaged, quickly backtracking to the rear of the room.

Reebo cast a sleep spell and all of the spiders on the right side of the room were motionless.

Paraselene stepped into the wind from Syndra's spell and using her cloak as a sail, practically flew up to Aefir, skating on the spider ichor covering the floor. She landed right behind him and cast Cure Wounds as she touched him.

Aefir swung at the spiders again and the wind caught his blade, causing him to give a himself a self inflicted wound before he finished off the last of the swarm attacking him. He felt the heat of the burning webs on his neck and decided to move back down towards the Zombies fighting their way through the wind.

One of the Zombies swung its hammer at him and the blow was deflected by his armor.  The other one landed a solid hit.

Arkhelm threw his dagger at a Zombie and it hit, stuck in the Zombies chest, not slowing it down at all.

A Hag stepped out of the burning webs and walked toward Aefir, mocking him viciously. He had heard worse and just shrugged it off.

Nattie cast a firebolt, missing one of the Zombies, hitting the floor in front of it.

Syndra stepped up next to Paraselene, swinging the Gust of Wind around to focus on two of the Zombies and the Hag. She then shot one of the Zombies with an arrow.

Shadow shot his crossbow, finishing of two more Zombies, leaving only one left standing.

Reebo shot his crossbow at the remaining Swarm of Spiders, killing a bunch of them as he stepped back by the door, checking the hall to make sure the acrid smoke from the burning spider webs hadn't attracted any unwanted attention.

Paraselene cast Shield of Faith on Aefir making him even harder to hit. Then did a leg sweep, causing the Zombie to loose its balance and get blown into the table. Aefir then chopped it to pieces with his sword.

The the burning webs reached the sleeping spiders and they moved towards Syndra, but they were caught in the wind, blowing harmlessly past her and Paraselene.

Arkhelm cast Magic Missile on the Hag, doing some damage, but not stopping her from approaching Aefir.

The Hag grabbed Aefir with her claws, hurting him even through his armor. She was strong!

Nattie cast her Fire Bolt, at the Hag and missed. 

Syndra shot three arrows at the Hag and all three missed.

Shadow fired at the Hag with two bolts from his crossbow and also missed with both.

Reebo shot an arrow at her from his shortbow and hit. She hardly noticed.

Paraselene cast Cure Wounds on Aefir, healing nearly all of his injuries.

Aefir took a Vow of Enmity against the Hag who still had him in her grip. He tried to break her grip and failed.

Paraselene noticed she was covered with spiders, blown there by the wind and brushed them off before they could find a gap in her armor and bite her.

Arkhelm cast a Bonfire cantrip, burning most of the rest of the spiders. The swarm was no longer a threat.

The Hag drained some of Aefir's life force and he was alarmed to see that she looked at him as one would gaze at a fine meal as he struggled to release her grip.

By this time most of the spiderwebs had burned, but several of the banners in the room had caught fire. The wind spell had created a firebreak of sorts, protecting the webs in the southeast corner of the room. Arkhelm's bonfire caught those webs on fire and the began to burn, producing more foul smoke.

Syndra dodged through the burning webs to get behind the Hag and shot twice, one arrow missed and hit the wall on the far side of the room, the other hit the Hag in the back with little affect. She remarked how tough she was to the group.

Shadow leaped over a table to land behind the Hag next to Syndra, slicing the Hag with his katana, while being careful not to cut Aefir.

Reebo shot his bow at the Hag and only hit the wall next to the rusty suit of armor behind her.

The color drained from Aefir's face as the Hag continued to drain him.

Nattie drew her Greatsword of Vengeance and landed two solid hits to the Hag, who looked up and snarled at her for interrupting her meal.

Syndra stopped the wind, since it was now more of a hindrance than help. Then she summoned her Unicorn Spirit Totem, lending its protection to those nearby. She then touched Aefir and healed him of all physical wounds, but could not replace the life force drained by the Hag.

Shadow swung again, slicing the Hag twice more with is blade.

Reebo shot an arrow into the Hag and she started thinking she might have been hasty in going after the paladin first.

Paraselene smacked the Hag with her mace, and she hardly reacted beyond tightening her grip on Aefir.

Arkhelm went up to one of the dead zombies, rolled it over and retrieved his dagger.

The Hag, badly hurt by this time, decided it was time to get away. She released Aefir and started to cast Invisibility. Much to her annoyance, Aefir grabbed her arms and interrupted the cast.

As she struggled to get away from Aefir, Nattie swung her Greatsword of Vengeance again, killing the Hag. Nattie felt a surge of pleasure radiating out from the sword as it reveled in its kill.    

Syndra said, "We clearly need a long rest".

The party decided to camp in the room and spend about 8 hours healing up. Reebo took a quick inventory of the room. The two unburned banners looked like they might be valuable.  The goblets, flatware and plates at the head table were low value. The heads on the wall looked like old hunting trophies and were not worth bringing back to town.

Shadow Walker sat on the floor next to one of the banners and began meditating to recover his ki.

Syndra sat down leaning against the west wall, pulled he hood over her head and was fast asleep while Reebo was still examining the dishes.

Arkhelm and one other picked up one of the long tables, turned it on its side and put in in the doorway to slow down any intruders.

Someone opened a window to let some of the smoke out and most of the party found comfortable places to rest.

After rolling up the banners, Reebo made himself comfortable next to the doorway where he could see past the table and warn the others if anyone tried to enter the room.

Aefir, decided to remain awake, not trusting Reebo not to doze off at his spot by the door. Being an Elf, he only needed four hours to rest and decided to wait until Syndra woke up in four hours to take his own rest.

Meanwhile, the foul smoke from the burned spiderwebs drifted through the Manor. The first to smell it were some giant rats who dived into a nearby hole to get away from a possible fire. It drifted undetected past several spectres who no longer had the capability to smell. It eventually reached Ricienna the Ravenous. Her ghostly form could not smell either, but she could detect the smoke in her own way and found it disturbing. She began to wander toward its source. 

Four hours passed without trouble and Synrda woke to to releave Aefir. The smoke had cleared. In the beams high overhead, some of the surviving spiders began to quietly rebuild their webs.

About 20 minutes later Reebo looked up to see a Ghost walk through the table blocking the door.

Shadow saw it and yelled, "Ghost!", waking everyone up.

Still half asleep, Nattie drew her Greatsword of Vengeance, charged the Ghost and hit it, much to her surprise.

Reebo swung his rapier through the Ghost without doing any damage.

Seeing that his weapon was useless, he ran toward the back of the room. He felt a searing pain as the Ghost raked its clawed hands across his back.

Syndra cast Elemental Weapon (acid) on her bow, making it magic and hopefully able to hit the Ghost.

The Ghost swung at Nattie, hitting and aging her six years in addition to doing normal damage.

Arkhelm took a torch and flask of oil from Shadow and lit the torch.

Aefir cast Shield of Faith on himself and yelled, "Come face me, you coward!", at the Ghost.

Paraselene shouted, "I'm for leaving!" Then she cast Channel Divinity to turn the Ghost, but it had no effect.

Shadow went to the window and opened it and the shutters to provide a clear exit for the party.

Nattie disengaged from the Ghost, ran toward the window and yelled, "Bail!"

Reebo ran to the window with one of the banner poles and propped it open, knowing that Ghosts can do telekinetic things like slam windows shut on people.

The Ghost hovered up to Aefir and hit him.  Aefir dropped to the floor, apparently lifeless.

Paraselene cast Spiritual Hammer and hit the Ghost with it in an attempt to distract it.

Reebo climbed out of the window and dropped to the ground outside.

Syndra dropped the Unicorn Spirit Totem and then cast Healing Word on Aefir. 

Aefir groggily stood up, looking dazed.

The Ghost then flew across the room to Paraselene surprising her with its speed. It grabbed her and she aged by four years.

While the Ghost was attacking Paraselene, Aefir ran up behind it and hit it with his sword, casting Divine Smite while he ran. He landed a solid hit, causing the Ghost to fade somewhat.

Right after that, Paraselene's Spiritual Hammer caught up to the Ghost and smacked it again. 

Nattie ran up to the Ghost and swung at the Ghost with her sword and it vanished, leaving only a small puddle of ectoplasm on the floor.

At that point, everyone who wasn't already outside climbed through the window and we all headed back for town.

Afterward

Flambard Sandyman was working on the stone wall at the edge of his field when he saw two robed figures approaching. At first he thought they might be some acolytes from the temple, but when he got a look at the froglike faces inside their hoods, he thought, "Bullywugs!"

Then he realized that they were either humans or elves wearing masks, they didn't have Bullywug hands or feet. Whatever they were up to, he wanted no part of it. He ran and they followed him.

He finally lost them and nearly became lost himself.  He found himself at the bridge, looking up at the sinister Tegel Manor on the hill to the south. There didn't seem to be a good way to get home from here. There was the mucky Derfingel Marsh with the Dearth Monster. There was the haunted forest with the Old Temple Ruins, probably full of ghosts and worse. The goblins in the valley to the north would have him for dinner. Maybe he could sneak past the pirates on the coast.

Glancing back toward the Manor, there was a group of seven adventurers walking down the hill, maybe there was another option.

We finally made it back to to town and Altharontha’s Boarding House, encountering only a Hobbit farmer with an unlikely story about being chased by fake Bullywugs. He went on his way as we got to the outskirts of Tegel Village.

Altharontha looked at Aefir and said, "You look terrible! Here, drink this", as she handed him a steaming mug.

Vinca One-Eye said, "You look like you've seen a ghost".

Aefir replied, "Seen a ghost?  We destroyed a ghost!"

Continued in: Ghosts, Wraiths and Talking Paintings - What Next?