Session 55 - Plantoids, Part 2

The adventurers finish up the Weird Plantation and visit the Gates of Gloom where they find four black skeletons.

This write up is based on Kay’s notes from our April 30, 2025 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we use Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to Kay for the proofreading and JoJo for the screenshots.

Continued from: Plantoids

Location: The Weird Plantation in The Gut.

Date: Wednesday, June 10, 3517


7:30pm
We were still in combat in the plantation room. Elron hit Plantoid B for a lot of damage. Rocky stayed where he was, at the south end of the room. Artie disengaged and moved away, shooting at Plantoid A, doing more damage. Plantoid A moved away from Blaze’s flaming sphere and flew to Artie, tried to attack him and missed.

Sinis cast acid splash on Plantoid B for some more damage. Plantoid B attacked Parahelia, missed, then hit with mind control but Parahelia shrugged it off.

Breena ran from Plant Servitor B toward the bottom of the ramp. Blaze moved her flaming sphere to Plantoid A, which disengaged and moved up the ramp. Parahelia used word of command on Plant Servitor B to “grovel” and now it was prone. Parahelia then healed Breena who really needed it. Plantoid Servitor C moved to Breena and stopped short of an attack. Plantoid Servitor D moved down to follow Plantoid Servitor C.

Plantoid A hit Elron with a tendril that bounced off his armor. Elron’s second shot hit Plantoid B and damaged it, and moved back up the ramp.

Artie disengaged, moved up, and shot at Plantoid A but missed. Plantoid A moved to Elron, its tendril attack missed, the second tendril hit for minor damage, and a third attack hit but the armor deflected it.

Sinis cast acid splash on Plantoid A for some damage. Plantoid B attacked Parahelia; its first tendril missed; the second control tendril hit for damage, but her armor helped to block the attack.

Plantoid Servitor A moved to Parahelia; it slammed her with its fist, but missed and then tried to bite her, but the armor stopped it.

Breena cast dragon’s breath on herself, breathed fire on Plantoid Servitor C and killed it. She then moved and attacked Plantoid B with frostbite for some minor damage. Blaze moved her flaming sphere to Planetoid A; it fell to the ramp, dead. Then she moved the flaming sphere to Plantoid B and Plantoid Servitor A.

Parahelia cast Spiritual Hammer on Plantoid B, killing it, moved and hit Plantoid Servitor A with a command to “flee”, it didn’t, but Plantoid Servitor E did.

Plantoid Servitor B stopped groveling and moved toward the ramp. Plantoid Servitor D moved around to the south and up to Breena. Plantoid Servitor E moved away to the south toward Rocky, ignored the squirrel and moved down the corridor to the east.

Elron moved to the west side of the ramp for a better position and hit Plant Servitor A, and with a second hit from his sling, it died.

Artie moved in front of Sinis to get a better aim at Plantoid Servitor B with his shortbow, and it hit for a fair amount of damage.

Sinis moved down the ramp and hit it with his witch bolt, finishing it off. Breena moved and hit Plantoid Servitor D with dragon’s breath fire damage and followed it up with Frostbite doing cold damage.

Blaze moved her flaming sphere and cast acid splash which missed. Parahelia moved to Plantoid Servitor D and cast spiritual hammer, hit it with both her longsword and spiritual hammer, killing it.

Plantoid Servitor E moved back to Parahelia. Elon shot it twice and killed it.

Elron passed out some goodberries to the others and popped one into his mouth. Parahelia, using her aura of vitality, healed herself and Sinis.

Elron searched the plant bodies, finding nothing of use. Breena sent Rocky down the east tunnel all the Plantoids came from; he saw a cave rising to an egg-shaped cavern, covered in moss that seemed to be humming. There were six glowing flowers located at the surface, 20 ft high, 30 ft high and at 40 ft up on the walls. Rocky sniffed the flowers but they had no scent. We went back up the ramp for a long rest and had no interruptions.

June 11, 4 AM

After our long rest, Artie pointed out that using thunderwave is a monster magnet, and if we get too spread out, we can’t cover each other; we agreed.

We moved down the ramp again and went east along the southern corridor. Breena examined some of the plants in the room, and identified an edible mushroom, taking it. A short distance down the hall was an opening in the north wall. Blaze, Breena, and Elron entered it and followed what appeared to be a natural tunnel to the north ending in the same egg-shaped cavern with the blue glowing flowers. The ceiling is 50 ft high in the center and 30 ft across at the base.

We went back down to the south corridor and continued east.

8 AM

Four hours later and about 10 miles to the E-SE, we noticed an opening up ahead; there was the sound of water. The hallway opened up in a large chamber with a stream across the room. There was a platform with steps going up. On the platform was a series of bars of black cast iron going north to south across the surface with a door in the middle. On the door were three symbols, a demon, a circle and a square.

Blaze stepped into one foot of water in the stream and climbed the stairs on the other side. There are three steps up, and bars with a door trending north-south; we can see between them and there is a wide hall going east from there. Artie and Breena could squeeze between the bars without their backpacks, but the rest of us couldn’t. The door has a latch on the back side.

Breena sent Rocky through the bars and down the hallway. He saw four black skeletons in a room in the form of a cross farther on, standing at attention. Artie checked the door for traps, there were none that he could find, though he was suspicious of the runes. We figured the symbols have a touch code that keeps the skeletons from attacking. Blaze reminded the others of the black skeletons we’ve already fought and the rumor in town that they can’t be turned by a cleric.

We tried getting Rocky to unlatch the door from the other side, but he was not strong enough. We suggested tying a rope to him and we would pull on the door. We discussed different options for opening the door without touching it, but then Sinis just transformed the iron bars into wood and we chopped though it.

8:30 AM
Elron got through the bars and moved down the hallway to the east. He yelled, “Here they come,” and ran back toward us, coming back through the bars. One black skeleton was hot on his heels and got to the bars, while three more skeletons were moving fast behind it.

Skeleton No. 1 moved fast past Rocky and nearly got to Breena. Skeletons No 2 and 3 moved fast toward the bars. Sinis cast witch bolt at the first skeleton but missed. Blaze hit the first skeleton with chaos bolt for a lot of damage, and pointed out that the skeletons are thin enough to go through the bars themselves.

Artie was hiding behind Elron, cast fire bolt, missed and hit Elron in the back, but his armor absorbed it. Parahelia aimed her crossbow at the opening, but fumbled, her quiver spilled, broke its straps and the bolts fell out.

Not a good start.

 

Continued in Session 56 - Gates of Gloom