Untamed Wilds session 22

Our party made it to the dig site safely. Along with their angel friend and Keyhaw, the group of Mai, Striker, Stone, Red, Astra, Japachi, Chance, Kadence, Kiva, Carrososa, Drixel, Keeper, and Weirdo the second entered a large chamber of dirt and musty air. Across the way they could see a hulking giant, a multiheaded lich like creature, and seven cultists chanting around pit in the ground. Astra left her found elf skin book out in the hallway. As soon as the party started precasting spells the monsters knew they were there. Mordel the lich laughed at them for daring interrupt his ritual. The giant rushed toward the party, engaging both Stone and Kadence and taking huge swings at them. Mai helped Rex Kadence again and Carrososa made her bite attacks holy with a spell. Half the party attempted to spread out to the north, the others to the south hoping to disrupt whatever was happening and the pit as well as hit the lich and the giant. Keyhaw went around invisibly surveying the battlefield, trying to find a place to be the most useful and the angel went and started attacking the ritual casters. Mordel seemed resilient, each time the party cast a spell while within close range of him they would start a dispelling battle, each of his heads reacting and attempting to punch through the magical energy to either help or hinder the magic. He was able to dismiss the polymorph effect on Kadence rather early in the fight. His lair also sprouted eyes and skeletons, allowing him to attack with swarms of allies and see characters where normal vision should have failed. Striker and Red got in a few well-placed shots on Mordel, even forcing him to evoke a shield spell. Stone got in a good magical giant hand attack, grabbing Mordel and slamming him into the ceiling. Mordel shouted to his minions to finish the ritual quicker. The giant became engulfed in wolves as the two young druids summoned their swarm. Astra engulfed four of the cultists in a wall of fire and a few other party members took a few shots at them. The party watched as the seven cultists, many of which were still on fire dove into the pit, falling a great distance before a few low thunks could be heard. The ground shook and buckled a bit as two colossal claws rose from the darkness and through the wall of fire. 

A long-rotted neck of black and red scales topped with just the skull of an ancient dragon rose above the flames, flicking the remains of the dust from its boney wings. The party screamed as a colossal magma dragon skeleton entered the fray. Mordel dispelled the magic of the floating hand that held him and hid behind his dragon, administering some much needed healing to himself. 

While in shock of the dragon, over half of the party was caught in its flame breath, many falling close to single digits and Keeper getting knocked unconscious. Scrambling, Carrososa was able to get most the party back up, having cast beacon of hope before the blast and having mass healing word at his disposal. The giant, having been a fire giant was unharmed and started tearing into the seared party, scoring some strong hits on Kadence. Drixel took this chance to “parkour” off the dragon and tackle grapple Mordel. In this attempt he was successful, had he failed he would have fallen into the pit. He disrupted a few of Mordel’s spells and got stabbed by an artifact sword for his trouble. Kiva took this chance to get in a few good stabs on Mordel as well. Mordel did not like this, cast cloudkill on himself, being immune to its effects, and on his next turn snuck out of the clutches of Drixel via magic, Drixel falling towards the pit but getting caught by a now visible Keyhaw, who had been trying to find a way to sever an effect on Mordel but kept failing. 

The group noticed that magical tendrils of magic were feeding into Mordel and his shadowy extra skulls were taking the brunt of the damage for him. Mai did his best to keep Kadence a dinosaur but either damage or magic kept knocking her out of the form. Arrows and bullets raked his form, Mordel did not like this, but like a mosquito, this small bird with a blade kept sneaking in and bleeding out his energy. Mordel struck Kiva with a finger of death spell and two large shadow sword strikes, sending the little bird running. 

  

The giant eventually fell to the mighty combined effort of the party and the group was hit with another fire blast from the dragon. The angel ally had perched on the skull of the beast and struck blow upon blow across its brow but the dragon ignored it, the beast seemed intent on eating the Kadence Rex and Stone in front of it. The party rained blow after blow against this dragon, seeing minor signs of wear and tear forming arounds its edges. Keeper turned into an air elemental and started chasing Mordel, eventually catching up with him and chucking him and Kiva with a whirlwind attack, almost causing Mordel to fall into the pit with Kiva. Kiva, could and can fly so danger was not as sudden as everyone expected. Blast after blast and many lightning bolts rocked the titan sized dragon and eventually one last gunshot to the skull caused it to back up and fall into the pit, catching Kiva and bringing her to the ground. The rest of the group ganged up on Mordel, Kadence charging and grappling him and he slapped her arms away. She tried again and got him and dove off into the pit, taking him with her, as well as Stone for the ride, falling close to three hundred feet. The bottom of the pit was becoming crowded with Kiva, Stone, Kadence, a dead dragon, a slew of dead cultists, and Mordel, but they were joined by Drixel and Mai via dimension door. Mordel wanted to take as many of them with himself and disincorporated himself into an explosion, which Stone canceled with a counterspell. Mordel still dissolved, leaving his gear. Stone grabbed the cloak and started cackling and the rest of the party made their way out of the pit, having had enough of this place. Astra went to grab the skin book but found it was missing. The party rejoiced in their seeming victory and returned to town. After tales of their victory spread the town scheduled a party in their honor. 

Our next adventure begins mid festival with the ground cracking near the party and a massive form burrowing out of the ground… the dreaded tarrasque one shot is next.

Some photos came from Jarrod, one of my players. Thank you for taking pictures, all of mine were from my side of the table, and mostly the back side of a dragon.