And so begins the finale of Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist. They continue from where they last left off in this interdimensional mansion belonging to Manshoon. The first thing that happens is that the Manshoon doppelgänger melts into water. They begin raiding the place finding a room with an ice coffin, a library where they pilfer a collection of books they plan to sell and the sleeping quarter of all the dead guys where they pilfer all the items. And then they meet the big guy himself. They try to persuade him to give them the skull, I won't waste 2 months of preparations so after some awkward laughter from all involved the battle starts.
They begin in good mood as Immeral begins the charge and begins hitting him... and he just hit with a dirty 20. When they realise that they went "oh no". Then it was his turn. And I changed my way playing since we usually play it mechanically, you do this and this happens. This time I described it more, the air vibrated with unknown forces and I asked Hope's player to roll a d8 to see which character would get the blunt of the spell. She of coursed rolled a 7 which meant Parker, their cleric and only one that could raise them if they died. I cheated a bit before the game since none of the players had counterspell which meant that they couldn't stop the incoming spell, Power Word Kill, that instantly kills a person below 100 HP. So I gave Parker counterspell so they wouldn't be completely left to chance. So described that he felt something grabbing his heart and then I told them about this level 9 spell. This time they went "Oh No". And then I described Parker raising his hammer summoning the symbol of Moradin as white light as a ray of green light shot like a laser toward Parker. I asked Hope to roll a d20 and told them that to save Parker they needed a 19. Now it was "OH NO!". She rolled a 19 on the die. Parker was saved.
With that I had Parker using Death Ward on the players while Manshoon shot lightning bolts on them and the others tried to take him down. Since he was alone they wouldn't have a problem and after 3 rounds he was pretty much dead, but with the DM Fiat I let him break his staff over his knees, teleport away and sending a shock wave across the room that did 160 HP. Would have killed everyone if I hadn't Death Warded them and Parker rolled rather good on his Dex save having something like 5 HP left. Even if they are overleveled for most encounters that thaught them hopefully that they can still die. They rested up, leveled up to level 9, searched the rest of the mansion and found a ledger with names in it, Manshoons spell book and the skull. They got the rings from the dead henchmen and return to Waterdeep, bluffing their way out of the towers and back to town. They get the rest of the skulls and uses them to get to the Vault of Dragons.
I sped through here as well by describing much what happened. As they opened a door Parker gets charmed by a Fresco so he can't leave... so Freya got to use countercharm for the first time, singing a rendition of Hellfire from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. They get to the second floor and the three bridges. As they cross the middle bridge Parker, Hope and Immeral jumped over while Freya rolled a 1 and fell down in the hole. Immeral, being now able run up walls jumped after her while Hope threw a rope toward them. Immeral misses, but Freya is able to grab his leg while Hope and Parker pulled them up. They get in, solve the puzzles and get to the vault and meet the dwarf protector. And since they only want a piece of a staff they get it and leave... and Freya once again rolls a 1 on the jump, and this time Parker hangs from the other side. Hope pulls Parker while Immeral, again tries to grab Freya... and misses again. Freya has to save herself and throws a rope toward Hope and Parker is able to roll a 20 to stop Hope from falling backwards and let Freya do a pendulum swing with the rope so that they all arrives on the right side of the bridge.
They leave and on the way out they are stopped by Jarlaxle and his troops as he arrives on order of the Open Lord of Waterdeep, They give the spellbook to them, they get 50 000 gold from the Open Lord and then they leave. They go back to the pub and goes to bed. they have a dream of Mishka within his spider cocoon as they see his face in it. The next day they get visitors that need payment so they loose 20 000 gold at once, begin selling everything and as they open the pub again all the people they met are their until Volo comes by with a treasure map to an jungle island where they will find the third piece of the rod of rule. The End!
We will continue in February of 2024. Maybe it overstayed it's welcome, but I believe it more has to do with not playing as much as we did before the third sister joined. Now it might be 9 times a year when we got something like 12-18 sessions a year before. Had we played more often I might have went through with playing all dungeons (we skipped Jaraxle) and maybe have more pub adventures, but now it was to get the story going. Need to read through Tomb of Annihilation and create a new DMPC to help them around, don't know if a wizard, warlock or ranger is the thing to go. Need magic to balance the team, but a ranger might be easier to explain in game... of course, reading through the book it's probably use the guides mentioned, let the players make the decision. And now the final parting words of the session:
Will our heroes find the third piece before the Spider-Demon is released?
Will they survive in the Jungles of Chult!
Will Immeral find a were-Tiger to be bitten by?
Find out in "Tomb of Annihilation", unknown time, same blog!
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