Session 9 Recap

• The party levels up to level 5, woohoo!
• Players finished their cat rescue and the fight with Shtriga Nonna. They released the Kobold warrior Kira and defeated the hag.
• The following players each unlocked their Talent:
  • Muk-Muk, after almost dying twice recently and returning to full hp after a long rest.
  • Gwynne, for allowing an extreme emotion to wash over her. Rage, in this case. It triggered when Shtriga Nonna transformed into a cat.
  • and, most surprisingly, Syl managed to also trigger her Talent Awakening.
• They looted a bunch of stuff from the hag's hoard and harvested the hag herself and some of the chimera.
  • Hag's head
  • Hag's horn (1) - (The other was given to Kira as proof that the hag was dead)
  • Hag saliva and blood
  • Red Chimera Scales (10 for Gwynne, and 7 for Syl)
  • More blood

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Jotted down like this, it seems like a short and simple session.

In reality, I took down one player and had her rolling death saves (Syl), and almost had a second doing the same (Peril). Muk-Muk had been taken to 0HP last session which canonically was the same day, and I think everyone felt like the fight was challenging but fair.

For a solo monster, the Hag (lifted from MCDM's Flee Mortals / Where Evil Lives books) was a fantastic challenge. It's rare that a solo monster can take on 5 characters and survive more than three rounds, but we spent literally 2 solid hours of real-life time trading blows. It was a wonderful fight. I forgot a few of her abilities as it was a LOT to remember on the fly... but it was great.

Since I'm prepping everything in Obsidian (have I mentioned how great Obsidian is? lol), it gave me a handy checkmark-capable section where I could just focus on listing out her tactics:

Shtriga Nonna's Tactics

Before fighting, she attempts to make a deal with the party. Bring her victims, and she'll reward them handsomely with treasures from her hoard, for each one brought to her. She will additionally offer something of real value - knowledge about the Quill - but only if they bring her a victim before the sun sets.

[!summary] Read:
Shtriga Nonna looks up from the large cauldron she's stirring. "Well, well, well, haven't you lot made a fine mess. No bother, I haven't lived this long without a setback or two... and maybe we can help each-other. No need for you to die here today. Here's my offer kiddos: I'll give you treasures from my considerable hoard for every person you bring to my hut. And, if that's not enough... I can introduce you to the little helper that brought you to me. He keeps asking me to scry on you. You wouldn't believe how many people he's brought me to pay for that."

If the party agrees to accept the deal, they must show their commitment by bringing Shtriga Nonna a victim by sundown. She will hold up her part of the bargain only after she's eaten them, and demands 24 hours to "get them seasoned right".

If they don't accept the deal, the fight's on, and she absolutely refuses to provide any information about the Quill contact under any circumstances.

Fighting Shtriga Nonna

1. It is imperative that we use all 3 of the Villain Actions in this fight.
   1. [ ] Snackies For Sweeties used
   2. [ ] Feline Felicity used
   3. [ ] Open The Oven used
2. Use LAIR Actions as well. Lair actions are not limited to once per encounter.
   1. [ ] Fatten You Up
   2. [ ] Kitties of Despair
   3. [ ] Sugar and Spice
3. At 50% HP (60 or less) she casts Grow, which lasts 10 rounds.
   • [ ] used
4. She can use Feline Resilience 3 times when failing a Saving Throw.
   • [ ] 1st - Read [[Session 9#Scene 4]] Gwynne's trigger condition
   • [ ] 2nd
   • [ ] 3rd

Rendered in Obsidian, this looks like:

I use my tablet at the table these days, so as I used various skills, I'd simply toggle them and not have to worry about keeping anything in mind at all. It was a wonderful at-a-glance reference and was the first time I've used Obsidian for this. It definitely will not be the last.

I was also able to embed the PDF I'd pulled this quest from right into the page itself, making this single Session 9 planning page a truly one-stop-shop. I don't always run published adventures, but when I'm short on time and use one... it's really handy to be able to embed a pdf directly into the page I'm making my own notes on. Assuming of course that I haven't changed things too drastically from the source material.

This quest had a very strong Hansel and Gretel vibe to it throughout the entire session - one of the traps they triggered getting to the hag literally covered them in seasoning, and some of the Lair actions have a wonderfully 'Grimm' feel to them.

Her stat block too had this same vibe, and it made the session a lot of fun. It made running her a lot of fun.

Now that I'm posting this publicly I might have to edit the stat block if she ever returns (death, after all, is an inconvenience in modern D&D). We'll see though - for now, this was a great one-off fight and it provided a lot of fun for myself and the players.