Shadows in Moonlight session report: 01.17.2025
Our session begins in Deepvale. It's been several days since they confronted and capture Keeper Daragor and now the party are making their final preparations to depart. With nothing specific needing to be done that day, the party gathers in the tavern that evening. Rina, the party's halfling rogue, has been ill off and on for several days and when she joins the others at their table, conversation turns towards that subject. After trying to dodge questions, Rina finally asks Magnolia to take a walk with her. As they depart the tavern, the rest of the party strikes up conversation with some of the regulars they've gotten to know during their stay.
Meanwhile, Magnolia and Rina decide that the halfling should visit a healer. The cross town to the Temple of the Muses, hoping that even late in the evening someone will be in attendance. Conveniently for them, Danmin Elderdew, Priestess of Tatiana the Muse of Life, is currently tending to the Temple when they arrive. After some questions regarding symptoms and a little magic, Rina discovers that she's pregnant from her tryst with Jimjar before departing Mindreh. The pair return to the tavern with Rina much more subdued than usual. Magnolia shares the joyous news with the rest of the party. There are congratulations from all around and the party spends the night celebrating.
They're awoken way too early by the sounds of screams. They see villagers fleeing in panic. As they gear up and exit the tavern, they soon learn that the undead are attacking. Along with their more combat-oriented companions, they move to intercept. The locals are holding off the horde of skeletons and zombies well enough, so the party focuses on the tougher foes: a pack of ghouls, three drow, and three larger skeletons with serpentine lower bodies. The cleric thins the number of undead with a timely turn undead and the rest of the party focus fires on the drow with some well placed arrows, a shatter spell, and a moonbeam spell. One of their number goes down, followed by the necromancer himself when the cleric wades into melee the next round. The third drow turns to flee, leaving behind the undead to cover her tracks.
Which is when they then learn that the serpentine skeletons with the glowing staves are the larger threat. Several party members and their NPC companions take direct hits from the energy blasts, reduced to dangerously low hit point totals. The party brings one of them down after a few intense moments, but as they stare at the two remaining foes who are much healthier than they'd like, reinforcements arrive. Javed reveals himself as an archmage, his magic quickly bringing the fight to an end.
Session went great from my perspective. The start was a little slow, but we're coming off a 7 month hiatus, so I expected things to be a little rusty and squeaky. It went much smoother than I expected. I still need to do a better job with being descriptive, both of the environment and of events. I think I need to focus more of my prep in that direction because I tend to forget the smaller, more evocative details it in the heat of the moment. I'm not sure how happy I am with the combat system I used for the background NPC fight. It worked okay and I really didn't want to roll it blow for blow like a normal combat, but I don't think it gives detailed enough results to provide a good round-by-round summary of the combat. Or maybe I just need to use it some more.