Eggcellent, "Do we have enough time to go to Halruaa and buy an airship?", Zanticor foiled

Session Notes #23 - 5/1 and #24 - 5/8

No session on 5/15 as I was ill. Likely doing a make-up session this Friday. Schedules are all over the place during the next few months due to summer vacations, we'll get in where we fit in! (Or perhaps do our first Roll20 session not in the same room *wink*)

In an amusing twist of fate, Rogtar's first attempted Legato Piece on the Infernal Bargain masterpiece (what the hell bard naming conventions) summoned up a couatl to help with their struggles against the plane hopping, recurring villain Zanticor in exchange for the mystery eggs. Little did any of us know that, according to their, lore couatls - 1. particularly enjoy fighting against evil planar travelers and 2. are highly motivated by offerings of food. Well played.

Rumor has it the eggs were thunderbird eggs, but I guess we'll never know.

The white dragons the party encounter early in the first session got absolutely annihilated, I think it was 3 rounds? Seriously, ouch. Delaying and readying around the tactical use of Dimension Door to get full-attacks is effective.

Spent longer than usual prepping the Cloud Peaks section up next and think it paid off with an enjoyable encounter. While the party has quickly adapted to flying and short-range teleportation to get the hitters in striking positions, the anti-magic shielded, flying deva posed quite a bit of trouble by flitting back and forth between Talon and Rogtar and bringing the fiery non-magical sword smackdown. Zanticor took careful advantage of the "distraction" to taunt the party and pull out some force wall and programmed image shenanigans before shifting out.

Sensing a pattern, the party debates tactics a bit, then sends out Spot, the courier hound archon, to procure some specific scrolls/pages of spell knowledge to counter his bull. It pays off. Who needs dedicated casters when you've got the teleport-without-error-express, a searchable SRD spell list, and melee damage.

Day Tracker
Start Day 167
Descending the Cloud Peaks (169)
Two days travel to Keczulla (171)
Two more days travel to Eshpurta (173)
Four days thru Snakewood enroute to Parlfray's keep (177)
One day to Thurmaster (178)
Two days to Baldur's Gate and then waiting around two days for crafting (182)
Back to Snakewood for meeting and fighting (185)

5/1
Jimmenju - 3,200 EXP
Cloud Peak Path - bound Movanic Deva and Flayer Demon, Zanticor (fled) - 7,400 EXP

White Dragon diplomancy - Toristryx and Auronus (mature adult white dragons) - 4,250 EXP

Rogtar's amusing "luck" with the couatl, Stisix, summoning - 500 EXP

5/8
Snakewood - Zanticor and reduced CR for Veruguran fighting dumb dominated - 14,000 EXP
Cowl Character Bonus - 2,000 EXP
30 Total Slaves Saved - 9,000 EXP

DM Notes

The Snakewood session marked the culmination of a fairly long Cowl story-line the rest of the party wasn't even aware of. In short, wanting to continue his growth into a Dragon Disciple, Cowl sent out a number of his Meowswitchian followers to attempt to ally with a green dragon that would become his "mentor" and protect the town. While they were successful, Zanticor struck Meowswitch before Cowl could meet said dragon. Unknown to Cowl, his followers were interrogated by the mind-controlling illithid and spilled the beans. Zanticor then planted a false journal message detailing an arranged meeting where he took the form of a green dragon and convinced Cowl to accept a spell to verify his dedication to the proposed alliance. One dominate later (along with the injection of a mystery fluid), and Cowl was fighting for the wrong side. While he did manage to slip the control, Jobin and Or'Tree were having none of it and slew the potential ally (lawful evil) dragon Veruguran during the encounter despite Cowl's protests. To be fair, it definitely would've killed Jobin without Or'Trees sacred shield halving damage (I'd estimate that ability has prevented ~5ish deaths).

We'll have to wait and see how the conflict shakes out for the party!

...I wonder what the City of the Glass Pool has been up to during all these time-consuming diversions. Probably nothing important...