Session date: 04/27/2019, Joel’s house

Previously On

Acting on a tip from some space dragon kiddos, the party has decided to loot a haunted wrecked spelljammer, where they hope to find a spelljamming helm. They’re still in a space, on an astroid, in a tunnel the space dragons say leads to the lair of a space beholder lich. It’s been a while since they’ve seen Jon Tobart, and by now there is supposedly an entire fleet of space beholders waiting for them above the astroid’s surface.

Session Notes

• The party parks the bubble car a ways away from the spelljamer and approaches on foot. The spelljammer has a vaguely fishy-themed design and is laying at an angle in a pool of black liquid. The pool surrounds a hole smashed in its hull.

• Grimbok can sense undead now. He does so and detects 16 undeadforms aboard the spelljammer. He’s also supposed to be able to identify the “type” of undead, but it didn’t work because what does that really even mean from an in-character perspective?

• As the party gets closer, an apparition rises from the deck of the spelljammer. It has a bald head and oversized 15-foot-reach clawed hands. It announces: “This is my ship! I’ll kill anyone who boards! Anyone!” The party, apparently not woke to the ownership rights of undead apparitions, proceeds with plans to board the spelljammer.

• It never actually came up in the session, but the apparition’s name is Grimnar, and his spelljammer is the Defiance.

• Two ooze monsters rise from the black pool as the party approaches. Prepare for battle!

Battle Stage 1: Ooze Monsters

• Ovek and Marvus move to rear positions on either side of the party to do rangy stuff:

  • Flynn blasts lighting bolts and takes one of the oozes out with a magic missle.
  • Ovek summons his fire elemental, but it can’t doo much becasue the oozes are immune to fire. He switches to radiant beam.

• Marvus is also hampered by the oozes various damages resistances and immunities, but overcomes this by getting in his usual billions of attacks per round.

• Grimbok lays down a hex, but also gets grappled before eventually getting in the other kill. He tries walking into the black pool, but changes his mind when it gets too deep.

Battle Stage 2: Deathlocks Appear!

• Shortly before the oozes are defeated, two undead (deathlock wights) emerge on the deck of the Defiance from the aft passage. They bombard the party with ranged spell attacks.

• Flynn thinks that he can counterspell these attacks becasue “ranged spell attack” has the word “spell” in it. The DM has since checked the wording of counterspell and confirmed that this is bullshit.

• Ovek summons a shadow, which can do actual str damage.

• After spending a surprising amount of time working out the logistics of traveling up 20 feet to the deck of the Defiance, Marvus flys, carrying Flynn and Ovek. Grimbok teleports.

• Flynn softens up the wights with some more lightning bolt, and Marvus takes them out.

Battle Stage 3: Grimnar’s Last Stand

• Grimnar reappears, and reiterates his ownership claims and trespass policy. He invites the party to join his crew FOREVER after they die.

• The aforementioned “crew” —a whole bunch of specters— rises to the deck to join the battle, totally surrounding the party.

• Specters have “incorporeal movement,” but being incorporeal is otherwise meaningless in 5e. LAME.

• Grimnar is large and has crazy reach. He quickly takes out Ovek (who is revealed to have not much going on in the AC department), but Flynn brings him back with aura of life.

• Marvus achieves a total lockdown of the battlefield with a combination of reach and feats/stances. The specters were perhaps a bit metagamey when they chose not moving over facing Marvus’ unlimited opportunity attacks.

• Battle ends when when Grimbok takes down Grimnar with a critical eldritch smite attack.

Wrap up

• After the battle, the party heads below deck to loot, where they find that the Defiance’s main spelljamming helm, sadly, is destoyed, and all that remains is a spelljamming furnace, which is powered by burning magic items. They also learn that in life Grimar was a wizard who came to this astroid intentionally. More on all of this next time!

Foes Vanquished

• 2 Corrupting Oozes
• 2 Deathlock Wights
• 13 Specters
• 1 Boneclaw

Loot obtained

• A broken minor spelljamming helm
• A wrecked immobile spelljammer
• A spelljamming furnace

Goals Achieved (sorta)

• Obtain a spelljamming helm

XP Earned (per PC)

• 3450

Bonus content:

A rendering of a not-wrecked Tradesman-type spelljammer, by YouTube user silverbladeTE: