Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Day 3 Summer Camp

Roll Call

Magic-user (human) - Dhaklan the Ryne

Fighter (human) - Borak blackhand

Cleric of Bast (human) - Jek Rallah

Ranger (aaracockra) - Creeg Mar

Fighter (lizard man) - Golgan Torg

Druid - (aaracockra) - Fara Chald 

Illusionist (Malu - Fish man) - Phost the Grim

Previous days saw the party primarily engaged in negotiation, stealth, information gathering and planning (with the occasional skirmish with fairly easily handled foes).

Today the chickens came home to roost, and it was primarily combat.

One of the players was sick for days 1 and 2 of the camp, he joined the physical game virtually through discord on day 3, so there were 2 additional characters in the game, a druid named Fara Chald and an illusionist named Phost the Grim.

When we left off on day 2 the party had tried to negotiate with the bullywugs. The bullywugs controlled the dragon egg, and allowed Horan to have control over the dragon. They were terrified of Horan, and worked for him primarily out of fear.

So when the party came to them and offered to destroy Horan, and told them the dragon was on their side, they were interested but very skeptical. They even sent a bullywug to talk to the dragon and confirm the alliance with the party. The dragon told them that any help for the party was contingent on the bullywugs agreeing to help them first, so that didn’t convince the bullywugs to ally with the party.

I played the bullywug chief as confident, completely focused on the safety of her tribe, but also mocking the PCs for their hubris. The way I figured it, MANY adventuring parties had wandered into the Forbidden City over the last few years looking to ransack the place and kill Horan, and since Horan was still here... that implied that previous attempts had failed.

So she was very skeptical. But at the end of the day the encounter reaction roll is King. I rolled, and the bullywugs were cautiously positive to the proposal. I had to interpret that, so I decided that the bullywug chief would suggest that the party could prove that it had what it took to take on Horan if they could slay or capture a yuan-ti patrol. At this point the party was convinced that the only way to defeat Horan was to secure an alliance with the dragon, so they agreed to the terms.

They retreated to the bandit’s camp and discovered that two of their party, delayed by other responsibilities, had finally arrived, the aaracockra Druid Fara Chald and the Malu Illusionist Phost the Grim were waiting for them when they returned. They had arrived at the outskirts of the city several hours ago and were met by a bandit patrol that had been informed of their potential arrival. The party caught them up on the developments of the past several days.

Everyone slept, then the next night, after consulting with the bandits about the yuan-ti’s patrols, they found a rooftop and waited, planning an ambush. However, the dice were not kind, and they did not achieve surprise on the patrol. They were sighted, and decided to attempt parley. While the lead party member was doing this from the rooftop, the party priest was behind him and attempting to cast a spell. Since the visibility was not great, and the distance was significant, I rolled to see if the yuan-ti patrol noticed the spell caster in the back. 

They did not.

So Jek cast silence 15’ radius on the patrol, so they couldn’t warn anyone, and they attacked. 

The party fighter, Borak Blackhand, leapt from the rooftop to “CROM” a yuan-ti with his lucerne hammer. Everyone else casts spells or prepares missiles, while the party ranger (an aaracockra) flys out to “swoop” down and attack.

Initiative does not go well.

The lead yuan-ti casts sticks to snakes on the roof, and suddenly there are snakes everywhere.

One of those snakes bites the druid, ruining his casting of pyrotechnics

The ranger swoops down and slices at one of the yuan-ti, breaking it’s concentration on it’s suggestion spell

Borak flies through the air, lucerne hammer held high above him, a crossbow bolt nicks his arm and he lands too far to the right and misses his target.  

The illusionist casts blindness on one of the yuan-ti but it makes the save.

A yuan-ti crossbow bolt misses the party fighter and strikes one of the other yuan-ti!

That got some hoots and hollers.

Dhaklan targets a yuan-ti with magic missile, doing some meaningful damage.

Finally, the party priest casts light on the eyes of one of the yuan-ti, blinding it. 

End of round 1

Round 2

Once again the yuan-ti do well on initiative, and the three remaining swarm the party fighter, the only one in melee range!

The first two attacks miss, but the third hits Borak and knocks him flat to the ground. 

The snakes on the roof attack various characters, but they do not manage a successful hit. 

Creeg swoops down and clips one of the yuan-ti with his sword.

Phost reaches over and casts Mirror Image on Fara, who is protecting the illusionist from attacks, and now there are 5 Fara’s standing in front of him.

One of the yuan-ti casts fear on Borak, he fails his save and turns and flees in terror. As it is night time and the fighter is running off alone into the darkness, they all howl at the situation.

Dhaklan fires off another volley of magic missiles, grateful that he memorized the spell multiple times that day.

Another yuan-ti casts suggestion on Golgan, but the fighter pushes off the magic by force of will (Golgan made his saving throw…) 

The last remaining active yuan-ti casts cause fear on Creeg, hoping to take out the flying ranger, but he makes his saving throw.

That’s where we stopped. Four active yuan-ti, one blinded, two wounded. Fortunately the silence spell is keeping this “local”, but that could change if any yuan-ti flee or leave the radius of the silence spell. They are all amply aware that if the yuan-ti raise the alarm they are in DEEP TROUBLE, as Horan has 50+ yuan-ti at his disposal.

The party is competent and powerful, but not THAT powerful.

Everything really hinges on how this fight goes, if it goes well they have a chance to gain an alliance with the bullywugs, and thus the dragon, and they have a shot at defeating Horan. If the patrol wins, or they set off the alarm… it will be chaos.

The final game session will be a corker!