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| The Great Lava Cavern |
Having not been seen approaching through a steam cloud, Badric cast Bless on several of the party, and Death Ward on Zarya, the NPC guide. He also cast Water Walk on the entire party, meaning that they could walk on the lava as if it were solid ground. We ruled they would still take heat damage in any turn in which they were on the lava, but this removed the possibility of near-instant death upon falling in.
Niam opens the battle with a bowshot sneak attack that kills the junior priest talking with the efreeti (named Azard), and Arian follows up with a lightning bolt at the boss. Azard hurls great gouts of fire at Malchy and Thalmyr in the center, damaging them (and with Mal not raging yet).
Mal and Thalmyr charge up the middle, and Water Walk comes in handy as Mal falls off one of the central stones in his hurry to engage the enemy. He takes only a little damage. Azard summons a fire elemental in the gap between the two of them. Mal turns back to aid Thalmyr and they go to work on the elemental.
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| Fire elemental |
Duncan the wizard, somewhat hampered by having his Fireball unlikely to have any effect on the fire creatures, conserves his spells and uses his wand of fireballs (gifted to him by Frayka the granite dwarf way back in the early days of the campaign - an item that has been conserved since it is not believed to be rechargeable). The target of the fireball was the minion next to Azard, who was promptly incinerated.
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| Fireballing the minions |
Melior moves to the left in spider form. Thalymr and Mal defeat the elemental and turn to charge at Azard.
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| Taking on the elemental |
Duncan uses a scroll of Fly on Thalmyr, and Thalmyr flies at Azard (greatly increasing his speed).
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| Arian's lightning bolt |
As Mal approaches the efreeti, it flies up out of reach and hurls more gouts of fire at the oncoming Thalmyr.
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| Thalmyr takes flight |
Two guards come out of the righthand passage and begin shooting crossbows at the party. Niam and Arian begin moving to the right to engage them. Arian also wants to investigate the mechanical wheel and gears on that side (there is one on the left as well). Melior transforms out of his wild shape and casts Grasping Vine from a scroll, successfully snaring Azard and pulling him back down into reach of a raging Mal. Melior follows up with casting Call Lightning.
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| Malachy and the efreeti Azard |
While Mal fights the efreeti, it assumes Gaseous Form to get out of the Grasping Vine, and begins to float away. Niam and Duncan shoot arrows and spells at the guards on the right, while Arian turns to mechanical wheel. He notices right away that the steady breeze moving through the chamber (and probably helping keep noxious fumes at bay) stops. He reopens the wheel mechanism and the breeze returns. Meanwhile, another priest comes out the left passage and casts Call Lightning of his own, targeting the cluster of people in the back (Duncan, Badric and Zarya). Zarya continues to effectively rain arrows on the efreeti, but is taking a beating.
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| Thalmyr flies to the high priest |
As the battle nears its climax, the battered efreeti goes Invisible. Thalmyr flies toward the priest while Mal waits for Azard to reappear. Melior casts Wind Wall around the priest, and then Spike Growth the following turn, wounding him severely and effectively boxing him in. Thalmyr flies over to try to grapple the priest, rolls a critical hit, and picks him up and tosses him into the lava.
In one final burst of activity, the efreeti reappears, hurts Mal badly, takes a lightning bolt from Arian, and decides that he will Plane Shift away on his next turn (if he can get to his next turn, as he has very few hit points remaining, and that last lightning bolt was a big one!). The last turn of the battle comes down to Mal's attacks being the last thing remaining before the efreeti's turn. Two hits out of three attacks will do the trick, and maybe even one really good hit. Mal misses with his main weapon, misses again with his main weapon, and then hits the efreeti with his offhand longsword. Damage is rolled, it isn't quite enough to kill the creature, and Azard Plane Shifts away. He had 5 hit points left out of his starting 200!
Next...The Aftermath.
GM Commentary - This was a very entertaining fight, but once again highlights one of the potential drawbacks of increasingly higher level "boss fights" against powerful foes - we played a shorter session of three hours, and the entire session was taken up with this fight. Because of the difficulty of the combat, there was much discussion, plotting, planning, and resolution of spells and abilities. We had seven characters (we did what we usually don't, and played the characters of the two missing players - they needed it), and an NPC. A big boss and several priests and a few other minions. So lots of stuff going on. Fun for sure, but as we discussed briefly at the end of the session, you can only do this kind of session once in a while. And that makes sense, as the next couple of sessions will most likely end up being more oriented toward exploring and role playing, as opposed to heavy combat.
Each character gained 2,300 XP for the session, with most characters gaining an additional 300-500 "end of mini-arc" XP depending on their adventuring motivation (a house rule). This put Melior over the threshold for level 8, and he will gain that level when his player returns (having missed this session).
Interacting with the World (what the characters learned...or were reminded of) - Not a whole lot new here, given the type of session. But an efreeti can hold a grudge for a long time, and Azard is a powerful creature who can potentially find a way to come back looking for revenge...
Present: Duncan, Arian, Thalmyr, Badric and Niam (all level 7). Missing (but played in their absence) Malachy and Melior.
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