The Fallen Star: Ape, Sacrifice and Redemption

Characters:

• Shabasta: Porcupine Bard (Grant Haseloff). A performer with a flair for the dramatic who mixes enchanting music with prickly wit; his sharp melodies inspire allies and dishearten enemies.
• Aera shan Ravanór: Wood-elf Rogue (Liz Mathews). The party’s lead scout and a deadly archer, legendary at finding and disarming traps and always first into the dark. Carries the session’s inspiration for her 71 damage against the Abbot’s first form.
• Olfin Darning: Hexblood Paladin (Seth Booth). Bound by an oath to the light, with a hexblood heritage that hints at old bargains; both protector and enigma to his companions. Flies on the eagle wings taken from the Abbey.
• Malron Lichtstrahl: Reborn Cleric of Lathander (Christopher O’Toole). Raised by a resurrection gone wrong that let an ancient elven spirit share his body, he now speaks with spirits and understands Elvish and Sylvan.
• Crusty: High Elf Sage Wizard (Cole Smarr). A spectacled scholar with a crystal-crowned staff, a well-worn tome and a tawny owl familiar on his shoulder.

The fight in the Abbey’s asylum never stopped. Aera’s arrow went through the Abbot’s heart, but his body twisted into something new: the Fallen Star, a chimera of lion, ram, bat and crocodile, at full strength. Shabasta lies prone at 8 hit points, Olfin hovers on borrowed wings, and the flesh golem still fights at the party’s side.

Summary:

The fight in the Abbey’s asylum picks up where it left off. The Abbot, Ethereal, has fallen once, only to rise in his second form, the Fallen Star: a chimera-like beast with a lion’s head, a ram’s body, bat wings and a crocodile’s tail. Shabasta lies prone at 8 hit points and Olfin hovers on the eagle wings he took from Clovin. The beast’s frightful presence washes over the party: Shabasta and Crusty are frightened, and Malron shrugs it off under Protection from Evil and Good.

Note: Inspiration for the last session’s damage went to Aera, whose 71 was almost half of what Ethereal’s first form took. The table also floated a snack conveyor belt and a water fountain for the game room.

Ethereal claws at Crusty, who throws up Shield (23 AC), and flicks a radiant dart from his tail into Olfin. Shabasta casts Enhance Ability (Bear’s Endurance) on Aera for 7 temporary hit points and sends Bardic Inspiration to Olfin. Malron, down to 5 hit points, heals himself to 25 with Cure Wounds. Crusty Misty Steps into a far corner to stay clear of the cone attack he expects and fires a Ray of Frost, his owl offsetting his fear.

Olfin dives in with a 2nd-level Divine Smite for 27, only to learn Ethereal is a celestial who shrugs off most of the radiant damage. The tail thrashes back for 11. Aera’s arrow misses because she moved and lost Steady Aim. Ethereal bites Olfin and grabs him in his jaws, dropping him even after Aera’s Silvery Barbs forces a reroll, then shoots a radiant dart at Aera, which her Uncanny Dodge halves.

Shabasta drops Enhance Ability and spends his inspiration on a cold Chromatic Orb for 29. Malron casts Aid on three allies, which brings Olfin back from unconsciousness, and Crusty spends his last 3rd-level slot on a Lightning Bolt for 25. Stung, Ethereal beats his wings toward Crusty, dropping Olfin on the way. Olfin wakes in the arms of an angel, hits with a Wrathful Smite for 18, and is promptly knocked out again by the tail.

Aera plants her feet for a Steady Aim shot that deals 27. Ethereal slams his tail into the ground, raising fountains of earth and stone that knock Aera around, then bites and claws her for 34 and she goes down. With Olfin and Aera both unconscious and the beast only “halfway there,” Shabasta’s Chromatic Orb misses and he inspires Malron instead: “You’re the MVP, bro.” Malron upcasts Aid for another 10 hit points each.

Note: Ryan dubbed it “the famous Chris O’Toole phrase”: it’s actually better if you die first, since Malron can bring you back. Grant pointed out that Shabasta is a reborn too at this point.

Then Crusty changes the fight. He polymorphs Shabasta into a giant ape with 157 hit points. Ethereal’s tail knocks the ape prone, Olfin wakes and stabs for 12 before going down again, and Aera stands to shoot but rolls a 1 (and a 100 on the fumble table, so nothing worse happens). Ethereal turns on the prone ape: a critical bite for 55 and a claw for 13, then a breath of brilliant radiance and shadowy murk that drops Aera again and burns Shabasta and Malron.

“It’s time to monkey around.” The ape heaves itself up and punches the Fallen Star for 18 before another wing gust knocks him prone. Malron’s 4th-level Scorching Ray misses with all five rays. Crusty uses Catapult to launch one of the golem’s thrown candlesticks for 14. The ape takes another 34, soaking about 124 damage in all that would otherwise have landed on the party. Malron heals Aera back up with Cure Wounds and Crusty adds a Magic Missile for 12, still cowering in his corner.

Then Olfin fails his last death save and dies. Under the table’s heroic-moment rule, a dying character gets one last act with full slots and an automatic critical hit. Olfin climbs the beast’s tail and drives his sword, glowing white-hot, into its back: a 2nd-level Divine Smite for 47 radiant. With his last breath the Fallen Star roars, writhes and falls still. Malron had sworn never to spend his last 3rd-level slot until someone died, so he reaches Olfin within the minute and casts Revivify. Olfin lives.

Note: The table named Malron’s rule “the Shabasta clause.”

The Icon of Dawn’s Grace stirs. Motes of golden light gather over the fallen beast into an orb of golden flame above the Abbot’s chest, and the shard of divinity asks each of them to touch the icon to it, ape hand included. They find themselves in a dark, endless void of rolling mist, drawn toward the sound of sobbing. There sits the Abbot as a gaunt young man in threadbare robes, a blindfold of mist over his eyes and his frayed wings shackled to the ground, muttering “I’ve failed you.” Malron tells him he hasn’t failed: this is his chance to be reborn. A Taroka card drifts down, the Four of Glyphs, the Shepherd, drawn as an older woman under a rising sun: a message from St. Markovia. Shabasta’s Persuasion falls short, so Malron calls on her by name.

St. Markovia appears in a simple white robe, her eyes kind and strong. She knows the Abbot by his name, Ethereal, and asks to approach him. The Abbot confesses that he threatened her friends, separated parents from children and abused the faith of those who trusted him, and asks how she could forgive him. Malron answers: “Because that’s what the Morning Lord would want. Second chances, rebirth, a new dawn. This could be your new dawn.” The mist burns from the Abbot’s eyes, the void vanishes in white light, and in the beast’s place a white-winged youth in plain white robes lies sleeping on the abbey floor. Ethereal is restored, and the party reaches level 8. Malron asks the golem to look after him.

Note: Crusty took zero damage the entire fight. Inspiration for the session went to Olfin for the sacrifice. Level 8 sent everyone to their character sheets.

Key Locations:

The Asylum (S15), Abbey of St. Markovia: The battleground for Ethereal’s second form, littered with candlesticks and broken furniture from the golem’s throws.

The Void: A dark, endless, mist-floored space reached through the Icon of Dawn’s Grace, where the Abbot’s soul sat weeping in shackles.

Encounters:

Combat: Ethereal, the Fallen Star (second form). Frightful presence, claws, bite-and-grapple, tail thrash and radiant darts, a tail slam that throws up earth and stone, wing gusts and a radiant-and-shadow breath. Olfin, Aera and Shabasta-as-ape all go down at least once. Olfin dies and lands the killing blow with a heroic auto-crit smite for 47.

Social: Redeeming the Abbot in the void. Shabasta’s Persuasion (16) fails; invoking St. Markovia with the Shepherd card succeeds, and Malron’s words about a new dawn restore him.

Loot:

• Milestone: Ethereal Restored. The party reaches level 8.
• No items recorded this session.

Notable NPCs:

The Abbot / Ethereal: Fought in his second form, the Fallen Star. Defeated, then redeemed through the Icon of Dawn’s Grace and St. Markovia; restored as a sleeping white-winged youth.

St. Markovia: Appears in the void, summoned by her name and the Shepherd card. Calls the Abbot by his name, Ethereal, forgives him and asks to approach him.

The Flesh Golem: Still on the party’s side, though its throws mostly miss this time. Malron asks it to care for the sleeping Abbot.

Plot Points:

• The Abbot’s corruption is cleansed and he is restored to his angelic, youthful form, asleep for now.
• The Shepherd card (Four of Glyphs) carried St. Markovia’s message; her spirit still answers in Barovia.
• The Abbot admits separating parents from their children and abusing the faith of those who trusted him.
• Malron’s “last 3rd-level slot is for Revivify” rule saved Olfin’s life.

Session Highlights:

• Shabasta as a 157-hit-point giant ape, absorbing about 124 damage.
• Olfin’s heroic death and auto-crit smite for 47, then Malron’s Revivify within the minute.
• Malron’s five-for-five missed Scorching Ray.
• Crusty finishing the fight without taking a single point of damage.
• “Saint Markovia compels you.” (Malron)