Session 17 - Fight Party vs The Iron Golem
I might have spent a little longer preparing this session than I normally would. Made the decision to trim down the battle mats so that they can rest nicely on one half of the D&D table, not the neatest job in the world but definitely easier than trying to unroll and lay flat something that is almost the size of the table.
So, Fight Party are using their merronoloth skiff to fly straight to north bridge in hopes that they get there before the iron golem. When they get close enough to see the town they find the locals have set up some defenses against the approaching iron golem. They also know that those defenses will not stop the giant automaton, so theyâre there just in time.
The information they got from Kwalish allows them to attack the golem as if its AC were a little lower and gives them insight on how to overheat the thing. Apparently the iron golem has vents on the back of each of its arms and legs that help it channel the power of fire damage. Lose one of those and it canât absorb fire, lose another and it canât nullify fire damage, lose a third and it canât resist fire damage. With all four damaged or blocked it becomes vulnerable to fire damage.
The group started by landing their skiff, which was losing power, off to one side. Marla deciding to draw attention away from the people defending the town. Doran Doran however, decided that he was heading straight for the guards to let them know what was happening.
The early battle went very well. Being forewarned about the golemâs immunity to non-magical damage, Marla used her newfound forge cleric powers to imbue her mace with divine magical power. This allowed her to engage in her favourite activity, âsmacking bad guys with a maceâ. Canon remembered how this fight went last time and came out of the gates with a Ray of Enfeeblement, which was not resisted against for several turns, this meant the golemâs physical attacks were doing half damage. That and Bearylâs raging resistance meant the automaton put out way less damage than it could have during the fight.
One of the guards on the ridge got a lucky shot with a crossbow. My decision regarding the guards was that since they only had mundane weapons they present a distraction to the golem, but not a threat. However, a natural 20 is always fun to reward, even for background mooks, so a natural 20 for the guards meant âthe crossbow bolt flies through the air and lodges into one of the vents, jamming it upâ.
This reminded S that the vents existed and got her very excited. Bearyl spent her turn attacking with disadvantage trying to claw at one of the leg vents. Marla cast Create Water to try and block up one of the vents, wouldnât work as written so I had her roll a wisdom check to see if she could influence the angle of the created water enough to funnel it into a vent. It worked, meaning the group had in a few rounds taken the iron golem from a fire absorbing monster to something that could be burned.
So Marla got to use one of her brand spanking new level 4 spells. Wall of Fire, complete with pink-red divine fire spell effect.
The iron golem took a little bit of a beating from the wall of fire, suffering two turns of damage before it charged out of the fire and managed to kill some of the town guards. Another lucky shot from the other guards in retaliation took it from being damageable by fire to being vulnerable, and Marla reacted.
The cleric rushed forward to Doran Doran chanting under her breath as she laid hands on his sword, causing it to burst with magical fire. His next couple of attacks took advantage of the extra fire damage, drawing the iron golem to the brink of death. In a last ditch effort to survive, the iron golem used its poison breath on most of the party. Doran was already hurt and couldnât survive the blast despite making the save, Marla rolled low and took the full brunt, also falling unconscious.
Canon was unsure how to proceed, he could get Marla up or he could try and take down the golem. S told me out of character that he should take down the golem. A couple of rounds of touch and go death saves and some fire damage from Canon finally downed the Iron Golem. Canon immediately used his recently acquired paladin skills to get Marla on her feet, Marla immediately healed Doran Doran.
So Fight Party emerge victorious, having defeated the threat looming above their heads for some time. But what happens next?
pixelskylines
gummygunk
jacobvanloon
kianamaiart
kaledo-art
snowghoul
