Shard Saga – Venturing into the volcano part 1

This is the 5th session of Shard Saga. I have to say, my memories of the gameplay are starting to slip away real fast. That was about a couple of weeks back. I really should have written it down… then again, I don’t see anyone writing so detailed a log as I am (with pictures!)… You might want to recap sessions one, two, three and four.

SO,

About a month after the recovery of the clear shard, Lady Sharyn tells you that the Twelve’s study of the shards has revealed that they seem to contain some kind of strange elemental energy. Another source of similar power has been detected inside a previously dormant volcano which has recently become active again.

Cue dramatic music for “Oh $#@&!” moment. To find out about Lady Sharyn, she’s a halfling with a dragonmark (more here).

I think my DM didn’t plan much for pre-battle story. He just wanted us to go to that volcano. We were doing some roleplaying and enquiries and checking if there were skill challenges. Nope. I think this was going through my DM’s mind:

“Just go to the freaking volcano already!”

Being a nice guy, he didn’t say it.

So we finally decided to venture forth into the volcano. And we were still hesitant to enter the volcano.

“Does the opening look natural?”
“No, the sides look smooth enough that it’s man-made.”

["Will you people get in the volcano already!"]

It’s a volcano. We were cautious. Then my impatient DM happily laid out this:

The map is not a D&D product. Can’t remember which game it came from… Then we were told to position ourselves.

The dark squares cannot be moved into. They also block line of sight. We each had a turn to move with nobody on the map except us. Then my DM dumped the first batch of monsters on us.

Then the duergars attacked us.

Duergars are like evil dwarves. I also didn’t know their beards were sharp. They can just wrench clumps of their beard and hurl them at their enemies.

The barbarian injured his duergar enough that something happened…

“OMG he transformed into a giant monster!” said the barbarian.

“Technically, he’s a she.” said the DM.

The avenger got pestered by the tiefling.

There was a priest who cast some irritating spell that dealt ongoing damage. The avenger was hit especially bad, failing saving throws and much damage. The bard had to do some quick thinking and helped the avenger instead, leaving the barbarian and fighter to fend for themselves. Which led to this.

The fighter was dazed. We were trying out another method of tracking statuses.

Then the evil duergar priest came forward, said something about Asmodeus. I remember my DM doing an awesome gruff pronouncement of doom on us.

Taking advantage of the priest’s proclamation, a duergar charged bravely into the fighter’s face and felled the fighter.

We took care of the priest and the rest of the enemies, and then concentrated on helping the fighter.

After the battle, the DM said the door (on the opposite side of the map from where we started) was already opened. Or was it a cave entrance that was dug out? I really can’t remember, and I’m too lazy to email my DM for the details. You’ll just have to hear my side of the story.

So we concluded that there was probably another adventuring party who arrived here before we did. And that was us with Lady Sharyn’s help. Somebody out there had a lot of resources at his/her/their disposal…

You will also notice the lack of any mention of Kepler. Well, I’ll tell you more when I finish telling you this session’s story. There were 3 encounters in all, so there’ll be a part 2 and 3.