Assault on Big Scary Castle

"**Assault on Big Scary Castle**" (1x39) is the 39th episode of Dun-Johns and Dragons.

## **Synopsis**

### **Previously on *Dun-Johns and Dragons***

The party has been traveling through the forest near the Fierfoot Mountains in search of the kidnapped Prince Durrian. They received a tip from some helpful sprites about a castle to the northeast which may be the source of the hybrid monsters in the forest and associated with the prince’s disappearance. After traveling through a swampy area and battling some cloakers in the woods, they are nearing the castle.

### **Part I**

As they travel, Tuli teaches Magpie a card game and Ogbur continues trying to teach Stone Orcish. Barakas seems veru on-edge. Magpie steals some of Tuli’s cards to complete her deck. The ground grows harder and begins to slope upward; the air cools and a few snowflakes begin to fall.Tuli sends Lady to survey the area; she sees a dark smudge in the distance. Ogbur uses Commune with Nature and discovers a building about three miles away that seems somehow *wrong*. They carry on, Barakas walking ahead of the party, hand firmly on his sword, on extremely high alert. As they approach, the dark shape becomes clearer, revealing itself to be a castle perched on the mountainside. Reaching a slightly clearer area in the trees, they see a cow with one head but many, many legs. Something moves in the trees above and they roll initiative.

The creatures in the trees turn out to be four Shambling Apes (apparently similar to a Shambling Mound, but with a furry, apelike creature buried in the vines). Stone casts Faerie Fire on one after Ogbur manages to unseat it by felling its tree with a single blow from his greataxe; he makes a subsequent hit on the creature itself, but in return the creature lands two consecutive slam attacks and engulfs him. Two other shamblers make similar attacks on Zander and Tuli, but don’t manage to engulf them and suffer attacks of opportunity as they retreat into the trees. The fourth creature hurls a boulder at Tuli for a significant amount of damage; in turn, she casts Wrath of Nature, restraining one of the creatures with vines and landing a return blow with a rock of her own. Magpie brandishes her trusty Wand of Wonder, which casts Lightning Bolt at the second ape, but not only is the creature unhurt, it actually seems empowered by the blast.

### **Part II**

As the battle continues, the four Shambling Apes are joined by two flying creatures with octopus tentacles, batlike wings, and hooked beaks. These make tentacle attacks at various party members, and one manages to grab Barakas at one point and fly him 75 feet straight up into the air and drop him, though Magpie manages to save him from damage with a particularly strategic deployment of Feather Fall.

Zander gets good mileage from Eldritch Blast, including knocking one of the Apes out of its tree for some extra damage and landing the killing blow on another. Ogbur spends a few turns still engulfed in one of the Shambling Apes, attacking from the inside with his axe, before it finally takes enough damage and spits him out. Once free, he picks up the tree he felled previously and uses it as an improvised weapon, smashing one of the octo-bats in nearly a single blow and flinging it like a javelin at the other, before using it to make a massive double hit on one of the shamblers with a bellow of, “FLAT! APE!”

Stone makes good use of Spiritual Weapon and Sacred Flame, landing the death blow on one of the apes. Barakas, meanwhile, harries them with Moonbeam and downs one with a short sword. He lands an impressive hit on the second octo-bat by throwing his other sword and then catching it as it falls back to earth, but his moment is somewhat spoiled by Stone then immediately killing it with Spiritual Weapon and its tentacly corpse falling directly on Barakas’ head.

Magpie performs some impressive feats of movement, at one point vaulting off Zander's head as she springs into a tree, later leaping into an adjacent tree and shimmying down with balletic grace, but to her frustration, these acrobatics receive little notice from her companions. She also gets another normally useful spell out of the Wand of Wonder when it casts Fireball, but the shamblers seem to be resistant to fire. She does deal significant damage with Chaos Bolt, however, and manages to incapacitate one of the apes for a time with Hideous Laughter.

Tuli does some damage with Poison Spray and lands some blows via tree limb with Wrath of Nature, but also takes some nasty hits from huge rocks hurled by the apes and ends up unconscious mid-battle. Barakas is able to step in quickly to revive her with Lay on Hands, however, and she makes it through the rest of the combat unscathed.

When the last of the creatures is down, the party stands for a moment catching their breath. As the dust settles, they look up toward the castle and hear the screeching of several more octo-bats; their trespass has been noticed.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Magpie
* Ogbur Bearskin
* Stone
* Tuli Springfoot
* Zander Brushspark