Session 26 - Stone Bat and Gnolls

The party fights a stone bat and finds an old boot with a lucky gem before getting into a fight with gnolls, lots of gnolls.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our March 20, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Credits to Kay and Jojo for the screen shots.

Continued from: Down to Level Two

Date: May 19, 3517

Coming down the stairs, we noticed the architectural style had changed.

11:40 AM
We opened the door, saw a room with a western alcove containing a statue of a man in armor riding a dragon, wearing a helmet (or his head, unclear) with a goat head with horns, carrying a shield with a bat insignia on one arm and a giant mace in the other hand. In front of the statue was a pool with stagnant water covered with algae.

Lark entered the room and moved to one side, allowing the others to enter. Elron went in and inspected the walls for secret doors. Artie went in to look on the south wall for secret doors. While that was going on, Parahelia came in.

Lark started looking in the pool using a stick to poke around. Lark heard a rumbling sound and looked up to see the bat peel off the statue and fly toward him. He swung his sword at it and missed. The bat bit Lark’s hand; he riposted and hit the bat in return. Artie saw it, moved, and cast fire bolt which missed. Beneddar cast Toll the Dead, but there was no effect. Elron used his sling and magic stone, but missed. Sinis moved to the door and cast acid splash, hitting it. Breena cast magic missile and the bat fell into a pile of gravel on the floor at Lark’s feet.  He scattered the rocks around the room and began smashing the statue. Artie and Elron went back to checking the walls for secret doors.

Outside, Beneddar looked down the hallway to the north, and saw a zombie walking towards us, stepping on the dead stirges. Beneddar cast Toll the Dead on it to no effect. The zombie moved forward to Sinis and slammed him with a fist. Sinis cast burning hands, scorching it. Blaze used witch bolt on it and it began to smolder.

Breena went to the door as Lark continued chipping away at the statue. Elron stepped back into the hallway using his sling and magic stone. Beneddar put a bolt into the zombie with his crossbow as it slammed Sinis again. Sinis pulled his dagger and sliced at the zombie, but didn’t hurt it. Blaze’s witch bolt did and the zombie fell to the ground.

When Lark finished with the statue, he poked his stick in the pool again. One of the gravel pieces from the bat started moving back toward the shield; Lark broke the shield, then continued investigating the pool. He felt something in the water that felt like coins.

The pool was 1.5 feet deep. Beneddar pulled out a silver piece with mage hand. Elron searched the cracked base of the statue. Beneddar found another silver piece, and a broken tooth, possibly elven; a gold piece; an old boot, size 7 dwarf’s; more silver and gold pieces. When he was done, there were 20 gold pieces, 100 silver pieces, a broken elf tooth, and a boot.

Beneddar examined the boot and found something rattling around in the heel. Blaze recalled a piece of information about an adventurer who had a gem hidden in his boot heel for luck, but he never came back from the Mouth of Doom. Beneddar pried off the heel and found an emerald probably worth about 100 gp.

Blaze healed Lark from the bat attack back to full health. Artie gave up searching after finding no secret doors. The group continued north up a diagonal hallway.

Around a bend, they found a door on the east wall. Artie checked it for traps; he could find no traps and he determined that it was not locked. He stepped back and Beneddar used mage hand but couldn’t get it open, so Lark used his “bastard sword of door opening” as we’ve come to call it. After several swings, he smashed it open.  The room had bones on the floor and looked like gnolls had been using it. A door on the east wall opened and gnoll came through it, probably to see what the noise was.

Out in the hallway, Blaze heard another door open to the north around a corner.

Lark charged through the door with Beneddar following, saying, “Holy shit, Lark, can you make any more noise?”

Beneddar fired an arrow and hit the gnoll. Other gnolls began entering the room from the far door. Blaze hit the second gnoll with a witch bolt. The first two gnolls ran to Lark and engaged. The next two went after Blaze. A pair of hyenas ran out of the other room, followed by more gnolls, for a total of six.
 

The first gnoll on Lark managed to break his own weapon.

The next one, who Blaze had cast witch bolt on, slightly wounded her as the bolt did continuous damage to it. The gnoll to her south was now so intimidated by her that he did not act. The gnoll to the east attacked Blaze but missed.

Sinis moved forward and cast acid splash on the first gnoll, who fell to the ground, dead.

Breena and Elron, who were guarding the hallway, saw a gnoll coming around the corner from the north. Elron used his sling with magic stone, killing the gnoll in the lead. Parahelia blessed Lark, Blaze, and Beneddar and stepped forward. Artie stayed in the hallway watching to the south.

Sinis cast acid splash on the one of the hyenas who dodged out of the way. Lark stepped up to the first hyena and used his sword on both hyenas, both of which died. Beneddar shot one of the gnolls on the southern side of the fight. Breena moved up to the north hallway, looked at the dead gnoll, and heard the sound of running feet behind it. Elron moved up and readied his sling.

Parahelia stepped forward and swung her longsword at a gnoll but missed. Blaze’s witch bolt killed the second gnoll, as another gnoll missed her. The other gnolls moved in, stepping on their fallen comrades, and closing with Parahelia.

Breena called out a warning from the hallway, “There are gnolls to the north.”

A gnoll attacked Beneddar with a short sword, but the blade snapped off from the grip. That was the second gnoll that happened to – really cheap weapons.

A gnoll attacked Parahelia, but missed. The gnoll afraid of Blaze attacked Lark and missed. Another gnoll attacked Parahelia. At the end of the hall, two gnolls each shot an arrow at Elron, but both missed. Breena was not as lucky, as an arrow hit her.

Sinis attacked one gnoll with acid splash but missed.

Lark used action surge for two attacks on the gnolls facing Parahelia, missed with one and hit with the other.

Breena saw more gnolls at the north bend of the hallway, moved up and cast thunderwave at the middle gnoll, and caught the first and second gnolls with damage. Elron cast a spell, and a gnoll died. Parahelia in combat hit a gnoll.

Blaze cast witch bolt, but badly missed, hitting herself for an ungodly amount of damage. A gnoll hit Lark for minor damage. The third gnoll hit Parahelia. The fourth gnoll hit Beneddar, delivering a minor cut.

Back in the hallway, all three gnolls charged at Breena; the first one’s sword hit, the second and third missed.

Sinis cast a blur spell on himself.

Lark attacked the gnoll on Parahelia, but missed. Beneddar hit a gnoll with his dagger.

Breena retreated, running away from the gnolls leaving only Elron there. Elron attacked with a sling, killing one gnoll.

Parahelia began a healing prayer on Blaze, Parahelia and Sinis.

Blaze hit a gnoll. A gnoll dropped his broken sword and bit Parahelia. The two gnolls on Lark both hit.

Back in the hallway, the three gnolls looked around confused, wondering where the gnome went. They spotted Elron and charged him, with two of them hitting him.
 

 

Continued in Session 27: Gnolls, Zombies and a Trap