Season 5 Episode 1 - Caught in the Undertow Through commune with nature, Feng learns that the magic circle surrounding friendfell sinks into the ground beneath it, so scrubbing at the surface doesn't remove the circle. Team isn't sure how deep it goes, but they need to find out. Flying back into the storm will lead to failure. too much elemental toruble for a ship to close distance in time to do anything. They figure getting from friendfell to the circle is going to be fast enough to get something done before having to get away. Feng spends some time watching the storm pulsing electricity into the magic circle.. it has a definite, complex pattern that meets the note variance of the Lost Chord that Feng found last summer before everything turned all adventure for the last 6 months. Faeris will want to take some time learning about the chord... as a bard it' can be fully appreciated) disabling the circle is definitely top priority. Since the circle is sunk into the ground... they realize they could get into the river under the circle and work UP to disrupt it. So Faeris Ritual True Polymorph Feng into a Gold Dragon, and then concentrates the hour to permanize it. Feng then can promptly shapeshift back into a half orc like normal Feng. But, Adult Gold Dragon CR17 is a good combat upgrade. . Next: ritual teleport back to the cauldron in FriendFell to dip into the river from the inside, so never expose themselves to the storm at all.! Well, the friendfell Demon Lair is flooded. All 7 layers of it are full to the top with rising water piping somewhere off-map and possibly very dangerous. So they only have 1 route: down river towards the circle. It's not more than 6 mitues down stream that the stream ends-- Undertow is pulling the entire river back fronm Blood Crescent INTO the Freindfell structure. Faris burns two freedom of moevements to let them move well in the water and engage Undertow, Dragon Style! Faeris hops onboard and using alterself gets some gill sto manage the terrain and get his verbal spells back-- pew pew from his magic missle sidearm. Feng the Dragon laysdown steam-nducing firebreath and bite claw clamelee routines to gnash at the river spirit. Undertow enguls the two of them repeatedly, thousands of jellyfish and battering currents make their lives miserable quite a bit. .. but a clever Suggestin from the Bard givesthe vampires trapped inside Undertow the compulsion to distroy the magic scircle--- Undertown can't keep all three vamps trapped while fighting a Full Gold Dragon and a baddass bard at the same time, so after failing to outpace the duo in the river tunnel, Undertow finally releases the vamps to swim upstream while he returns his ocus on killing off the players-- another few rounds of splashing aroud with Undertow and some summoned thug elemental muscle, the team causes the elder spirit to disperse, releasing the river's unnatural bond, releasing the river's flow again downstream. On a gut's instinct, Feng returns to human form to earth open a ledge in the river tunnel then excavates a chimney to the surface--- causing fragments of the magic circle and embeddded stone to fall through, dumping downstream. bad timing though-- one of the lightning bolts pulses downt he circle into the hole, affixing on Feng with the spell energy, bonding him to the stone cubby he created. Stuck.. they gotta find a way to priy the druid dragon free before things get worse.. there's a pattern, and it could be nearly any beat of the rhythm until another lightning bolt jets down the hole to the water below.... Time spent in game: about 3 hours. 1/3 way to level 19 Feng is an Adult Gold Dragon until soeone manages to dispell Faeris' DC 19 spell effect. Everyone else should consider cherry-picking a CR 18 or lower critter from the monster manual to take on as your alter identity. Faeris learns of The Lost Chord... now no spell focus or material components are needed to cast his spells (bard privilege) you'll also gain advantage in circumstances when recognizing the Lost Chord's use in magical effects, spells, or construction (bard privilege)
