Thunderspire Session 6 part 1

This session was played on 1/7.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

The shadow dragon was dead, and the doors to the Well of Shadow’s Inner Sanctum were open. The companions made their way through the doors, and down the corridor. A dark chanting could be heard from the far end of the corridor. An acrid smoke burned at their eyes and noses. The corridor ended in a multi-layered chamber. Over the entire structure a giant idol of Orcus loomed. Within was a demonic winged gnoll chanting from a book, and sucking the life energy from the final 2 missing citizens of Winterhaven. Protecting the dark being was a large demon and three lesser demons, all of the type they’d faced before. In addition, a minotaur skeleton with a giant double bladed axe stood near the door.

The companions, battered from their previous encounter, were very focused, and took down the skeleton with extreme prejudice. Due to their highly coordinated efforts, the skeleton made a single swing before it was pulverized on the floor. The demons in the room barely had a chance to move before the companions before they had switched to their next target, the big demon in the room. This did allow the little demons to move into some tactically strong positions, which did put some hurt on the companions. However they remained committed to their strategy, in spite of the damage that they were soaking up. All the while the demonic gnoll continued to blast and curse the adventurers, while maintaining the ritual.

The big demon was near death, but the accumulated damage the companions had taken from numerous solid hits was beginning to take its toll, and the demons could smell (and taste) blood! In fact, with a succession of quick hard hits, Dietrich dropped, followed quickly by Barakas. Some quick thinking by Ander and Chan got them both back on their feet. Then Ander dropped and was revived. Dietrich fell twice more before Chan also fell. Then it was Ander’s turn again followed in quick succession by Dietrich, Chan, and finally Ander again. By this point the demons had been destroyed, and the companions turned to the demonic gnoll. Using his speed, and the terrain to his advantage he kept the party at range. While this allowed him survive a bit longer, he was eventually overcome by the party.

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This was a tough fight for my players. They went into it with only a short rest after having completed the Well of Demons challenges, including the shadow dragon. Their focused fire strategy worked out pretty well, except that I was rolling slightly above average with both my hits and damage, resulting in characters falling unconscious a total of 10 times!!

The final tally for the party at the end of the fight:
Dietrich - 14 hp and 5 remaining healing surges - dropped unconscious 4 times
Ander - 13 hp and no healing surges - dropped 3 times
Chan - 13 hp and 1 healing surge - dropped twice
Barakas - 14 hp and 5 surges - dropped once.

Also of note was the use of d30 rolls. 2 were used on this fight. Ander the rogue got a 30. Chan the monk got a 1. Both rolls were used for damage.

Finally the number 34 came up a lot this fight, for both attack and damage totals.