Shard Saga – Whirlwind, ramps and platforms

This is the fourth session of Shard Saga. (read sessions one, two and three). The story continues after the brown, blue and green shards were obtained. When they were brought close together, something awesome resonated between them and sparks flew, world hunger ended, birds gained sentience and everyone lived happily ever after. Alright fine, the shards just gained some power. Kepler took the green shard, with the Poison Thorn Form.

My DM says:

You spend a few weeks experimenting with the shards’ new powers and seeking out more rumors of strange weather patterns. At the end of this time, you hear rumors of a perpetual whirlwind in an uninhabited area near the Byeshk mountains which border the monster-filled region of Droaam.

However, the day before you planned to leave to explore the truth of these rumors, a Lyrandar airship lands in the village and a halfling disembarks.

We are leaving the Eldeen Reaches! Kepler’s starting to get stifled by the trees… He likes trees, just… not that much.

The halfling from the Lyrandar airship was Sharyn, of the House Jorasco. She had a dragonmark, and she’s one of the Twelve. “Twelve” didn’t ring a bell with Kepler. “Eleven” was better. Kepler could use 2 index fingers and form the number in the air. (psst, Kepler has abysmal intelligence and even worse wisdom. But don’t tell him that…).

Sharyn’s purpose was to study the shards, and she’s prepared to offer any assistance.

“You’re not getting my shard!” Kepler clutched his tunic pocket.
“I’m not taking them away from you, I’m just studying them.” she placated.

Then the bard wants to roll a Perception check to see if there’s any sexual tension between Kepler and Sharyn.

Face. Palm.

Anyway, Titanator (the fighter) declared that she’s ok, and the party moved on. As her first gift, Sharyn offered to fly the party to the Byeshk mountains. Beats walking. Turns out, the whole airship crew was made up of half-elves. Sharyn’s the only halfling on board.

The airship flew near the whirlwind and landed some distance away. A whirling mass of dust and debris was circling on that patch of bare wasteland, obscuring the inside of the whirlwind, and rising high above the ground. As the party approached the whirlwind (brave [or stupid] adventurers that they were), the shards resonated with each other again, and a small opening appeared.

And the DM prepared the battleground:

That looks huge. And the party entered through that opening.

Ok, this looks interesting…

There were 3 platforms, 10 feet high, 20 feet high and 30 feet high (or 2, 4, 6 squares high respectively). The platforms were connected with sloping ramps, and the ramps were considered difficult terrain. Well, walking up was difficult. Walking down was normal. But we didn’t know that until someone tried to move downwards.

The party was very far from the ramps and the enemies to do much. The barbarian had different ideas though. He double moved and contacted the draconian. Unfortunately, something buzzed and stung the barbarian.

I believed that’s called a stirge or something. The rest of the party hurried up to help the barbarian. Then the ferrio dragon (from the right) flew down and the bard had to fight alone.

The bard had something up his sleeve though, jinxed the dragon, and fled up the ramp.

The barbarian hammered the draconian to death, and it shattered into…

A lightly obscured zone was formed. Due to the tile used, it extended beyond the platform. Kepler’s not affected because he’s 2 squares below. But he’s also the only one on the ground with the dragon…

The party took care of the stirge, the avenger practically flew to attack the runespiral demon (the one at the 20 feet platform), and the rest of the party went to finish the dragon. Kepler teleported up the ramp to help the avenger.

My friend then threw a 20 on this:

That’s tiny. He’s also the same guy who owns the gigantuan d20.

We climbed up to the second “level” and saw… the same battleground.

The DM also forgot to tell us something. When each enemy died, it’s supposed to leave behind this:

“They look pretty,” says the DM.

We did the usual skill checks, and the summary goes like this. A successful Religion check (minor action) allows one to fly at one’s speed movement. A successful Arcana check (minor action) allows one to pull an enemy 6 squares (standard action). A successful Endurance check (minor action) allows one to move at one’s speed +1.

Each lightning fragment was good for one use only. The party gave Kepler two of them. The barbarian took one and the avenger took one. Apparently, my friends didn’t know Kepler’s Arcana was like 7… it’s gonna take some luck to do something…

Anyway, the monster at the centre was a storm shard vortex (I think). But I think the griffon looks awesome.

We decided to focus on the storm shard vortex and let the dragon and griffon fly down to us. The draconian artillery was bothersome, but it’s too far for us to reach quickly. Then Kepler nailed the storm shard vortex to the floor with a critical hit (wild magic sorcerers knock enemies prone on a critical).

Indeed the griffon and dragon flew down, the party spread out, and the avenger went after the draconian artillery.

Kepler saw an opportunity when the griffon and dragon ganged up against the fighter. He rushed up, hopped past the griffon, dodged an opportunity attack from the griffon, griffon got hammered from fighter because it’s marked, and Kepler jumped in between the griffon and dragon. And cast Flame Spiral, the spell that also did damage if enemies were adjacent to Kepler when it’s their turn.

And knocks the griffon prone with a critical hit.

Unfortunately, Kepler never got to do his burn-adjacent-enemies trick. And you’ll find out why … in the next story article. Here’s another cliffhanger. What didn’t the avenger do after the first fight?