(un)reason
Legend
Some lateness and general confusion due to daylight saving shifts, but everyone eventually turned up. This was another session full of combat, although the action economy was definitely more in favour of the players this time. The winged kobold, being extremely low on hit points, killed the monk in front of him and headed up the stairs to the library where the others were finishing off the jann & fleeing monks. There he got some healing from the priestess and got ready to head back to the fight. The drow summoned an elder earth elemental, which was not the wisest of tactical choices because it's too big to fit through the doors, trapping it in the library until it did some smashing. Having cleared all the obvious threats on this level, the group split up again and headed downstairs, except for one of the summoned barbazu, which explored the rest of the top floor while telepathically relaying info back to the gthyanki. It encountered the mephits in the bathhouse and the prisoners in area 26, but since neither attacked it, it simply completed an exploration of all the open rooms, before trying to smash it's way into the heavily sealed room 28.
Downstairs, things were rather more interesting. The other barbazu met a logjam on the stairs, as Argharot the yak-folk, the brass golem and the two ogre mages all tried to follow the kobold upstairs, but kept getting in each other's way and not being able to move their full rate. The binder headed down the stairs and attacked as well, but this turned out to be another instance where her massive flurries of small attacks with fire damage added on were not only ineffective, but would actually have healed the golem if it had taken any damage. Growing impatient, the ogre mages used gaseous form to get around the yak-folk and flank the binder, but this only gave her targets she could actually hurt.
In another thread, our githyanki disguised as a yak-folk headed down the stairs and to the north door of the library, out through the guard room and to room 11, where Xotkil the master librarian beholder was continuing to work, uninterested in the intruders as long as the books were fine. When the door was opened, it was very fortunate only a side eye saw him, otherwise the jig would have been up very quickly. The githyanki made a hasty bluff check to say that yes, there were intruders, but it was all under control. When it looked like the beholder was about to turn back to it's writings, he cast cloudkill and closed the door, before moving out of the line of sight of the doorway ready for when it opened it again. Our orc arrived a round later and seeing his ally in a position by the door, also readied an action for whatever trouble might be coming out of that door. When the beholder used its main eye to suppress the cloudkill and opened the door from the side with its telekinesis eye, very angry, he leapt into action and sliced it apart with his mighty battleaxe. The two of them then joined in the fight on the main stairway, the orc taking some damage, but able to penetrate the golem's DR in a way that the binder could not, while the priestess also managed to squeeze down the stairs to finish Argharot off.
At this point, the combat would have been over. However, the drow, being suspicious of the statue in room 14 even though it hadn't moved in several rounds of observation, cast magic missile on it. This meant the brain in a jar inside it could no longer lay low in hopes of surviving by avoiding their notice and attacked him back with mind thrust. This failed against his SR and he called out to the others. The binder was first up there and between her and the summoned earth elemental, the statue was quickly smashed, revealing the flying brain within. Looks like there's still a few more challenges to deal with at the start of next session before they can properly loot this place and get the next bit of exposition.
Downstairs, things were rather more interesting. The other barbazu met a logjam on the stairs, as Argharot the yak-folk, the brass golem and the two ogre mages all tried to follow the kobold upstairs, but kept getting in each other's way and not being able to move their full rate. The binder headed down the stairs and attacked as well, but this turned out to be another instance where her massive flurries of small attacks with fire damage added on were not only ineffective, but would actually have healed the golem if it had taken any damage. Growing impatient, the ogre mages used gaseous form to get around the yak-folk and flank the binder, but this only gave her targets she could actually hurt.
In another thread, our githyanki disguised as a yak-folk headed down the stairs and to the north door of the library, out through the guard room and to room 11, where Xotkil the master librarian beholder was continuing to work, uninterested in the intruders as long as the books were fine. When the door was opened, it was very fortunate only a side eye saw him, otherwise the jig would have been up very quickly. The githyanki made a hasty bluff check to say that yes, there were intruders, but it was all under control. When it looked like the beholder was about to turn back to it's writings, he cast cloudkill and closed the door, before moving out of the line of sight of the doorway ready for when it opened it again. Our orc arrived a round later and seeing his ally in a position by the door, also readied an action for whatever trouble might be coming out of that door. When the beholder used its main eye to suppress the cloudkill and opened the door from the side with its telekinesis eye, very angry, he leapt into action and sliced it apart with his mighty battleaxe. The two of them then joined in the fight on the main stairway, the orc taking some damage, but able to penetrate the golem's DR in a way that the binder could not, while the priestess also managed to squeeze down the stairs to finish Argharot off.
At this point, the combat would have been over. However, the drow, being suspicious of the statue in room 14 even though it hadn't moved in several rounds of observation, cast magic missile on it. This meant the brain in a jar inside it could no longer lay low in hopes of surviving by avoiding their notice and attacked him back with mind thrust. This failed against his SR and he called out to the others. The binder was first up there and between her and the summoned earth elemental, the statue was quickly smashed, revealing the flying brain within. Looks like there's still a few more challenges to deal with at the start of next session before they can properly loot this place and get the next bit of exposition.
