Ep 1305: Of fiends and fear

We had gone through one level of "portal" in Tsedek's attempt to scry for his long missing brother Malek and fought off a pair of fiends (one white, one black). Then we went through a second level of "portal" and came across a pair of green fiends. And we ended mid fight with them. Tsedek is in the center of this ring of swirling purple mess of energies, Itanis and Leoven on the north side of the ring, Elle on the south side. One green fiend is between Tsedek and Magnus, and the other is in Elle's face. So that's where we'll pick up today! Oh and Elle's non combat follower, Gearbox, for some unknown reason decided to follow her into combat this day so he's to her left and behind her.

Itanis once again flings his caltrops at the green fiend near Magnus, hitting for a lot of damage. These things appear to be quite hard to kill. Leoven then sent a couple of arrows at it as well, finally killing it. As it was dying though the fiend tells Magnus (in Infernal) "The 5-headed mistress will be coming for you." Magnus, being who he is, understands Infernal and replies in the same language something to the effect of "I'll be coming for her."

Now, keep in mind, only Magnus and Tsedek understand Infernal. Elle decides to change tactics with the fire and she decides to Lightning Bolt the one right in front of her, and then tells gearbox to run away from her. Little dude would get smushed flat in a millisecond in direct combat like this.

Tsedek made his checks to keep the alleged scry spell going, which is good as we do not know what would happen if it collapsed while we're inside. Magnus then strides up to the green fiend in Elle's face and lays the smack-down on it.

Dratted thing is still alive though, so it takes a swipe at Elle, which triggers Magnus' "Sentinel" ability, so he gets to smack on the fiend again. The fiend would have hit Elle too if she hadn't done the reflex spell Shield. So the fiend then turns its head and does an area effect of Fear. Itanis and Leoven both failed. Magnus would have too, but he's actually immune to fear.

Itanis again sends his caltrops of doom down range, hitting the fiend in Elle's face even with the Fear disadvantage. Thankfully at this point it too drops dead. Magnus tells the party about his earlier conversation in Infernal and we're all like *TIAMAT!?

But again the energies of this spell pull us in, and we let it as we think we know what is to be expected. And when we "land" in the next level, sure enough we're back to our original positions. Tsedek kneeling in the middle, Itanis and Leoven on the north side, Magnus in front of Elle on the south side, little Gearbox still with us.

This time the image of Tsedek's missing brother is quite clear for a couple of seconds then the blur snaps back into place and out pops two more fiends. One red, one blue. Back into combat we go. Tsedek made his checks to keep the alleged scry spell going.

Then the fiends went. Red fiend sauntered over to Itanis and Leoven, and did the fiends' Fear stunt again. It also took swipes at Itanis, who used some of his trickery to avoid getting hit at all. Blue fiend sends a lightning bolt at Magnus and Elle. Elle makes her save so took half damage, Magnus failed his so took full damage.

Itanis then uses another one of his tricks to move away from the red fiend he's afraid of and launches his caltrops at red fiend. Hits pretty well too even with the disadvantage. Leoven also pulls a trick out of his hat to run away from the red fiend and then lobs a couple of arrows down range.

Magnus, however, fails his concentration check to keep Haste going so he came to a literal halt this round. Knowing that when he can move again next round he's going to wade into melee, Elle decides to pull out her sword and to Sword Wind Strike. She steps to the side a little and targets red fiend first, hitting it solidly with some good force damage. She targeted blue fiend second, but missed entirely, then elected to end the spell kinda between blue fiend and Magnus (and to the side a little). That way she keeps his bonuses and next round when he's functional he'll be a physical barrier between her and the fiend.

And ... yep, that was the end of the game session today. More next week hopefully!

* For the readers who aren't quite up on broad D&D lore ... Tiamat is the 5-headed evil dragon Queen who is currently imprisoned on the first level of hell with fiends. Her heads represent all the colors of the evil dragons: White, Black, Green, Red, Blue. Sound familiar? The game we're currently running is called Rise of Tiamat and we've been actively killing off "dragon cultists" ... the folks who worship Tiamat.