MAL Ep. 36

Not really a lot to remind you of for future reference in this episode-- most of the session was taken up by a big messy combat, the tactics and implications of which are being discussed on Discord. The general overview:

1) The illithids succeeded very well at using their psionics to create chaos and turn the party and the drow crew against each other. Their attempt to kidnap Red went... less well for them. Eventually the illithid skyship disengaged and vanished, taking with it Red's snake staff. The final casualty rate, due to Zadkiel's furious healing, was only two lizard-illithids (identified by Aishek as cannon fodder troops) and one drow sailor Adriel demolished with a critical hit.

2) After the illithids left, Jon attempted to use diplomacy to convince the drow sailors to join forces with the party against the illithids. There turned out to be limits to the power of diplomacy. The captain did call off combat and allow the party to leave, though it's not clear whether that's because he was moved by Jon's words or just because he didn't think his crew could take you guys.

3) Red used a combination of Scry and Commune With Nature to try to identify where her snake staff was. She saw it lying on the ground half-submerged in greenish water in a location a few miles to the northeast.

4) On the ground, the party was attacked by a chthulhoid tongue monster like the one they had to flee from in Mendham Wood. That was like 6 levels ago, though. This time, the party stood their ground and killed the beast. Bay was killed by a horrific mental attack, but Red managed to use druidic magic to save her.

5) The party was met by three curious couatls, who proved difficult to parlay with because they seemed to communicate only in mental images and emotional sensations. Jon managed to effect some rudimentary conversation, though the couatls' mental imagery was so abstract and Jon's so concrete that it was hard to tell how much they actually understood each other. They seemed friendly though, in their way, and flew off without causing any trouble for the PCs.

6) The party had a look around the eerie Underdark landscape, as depicted below:

They then discussed whether to travel to Ellenun along the river (which is a more built up area where they will run across more people) or cut across the plateau (which is a more direct route, is wilderness, and would have a higher risk of encountering a monster.) Corollaries were also discussed of whether the group is going to make a detour to the place Red believes her staff is, and whether it was better to walk whichever route you chose to take or to have Red turn you all into birds and fly.

I would appreciate if the players give me their travel plans in advance of next week's game so I can plan encounters accordingly.:-)

Game on!

Laura