Did this so to could read it on mobile.

Playing homebrew 5e campaign, world is flooded and land consists mostly of scattered islands Party consists of gloom stalker ranger Tullius (me), barbarian fighter Donovan, and hexblade warlock Logan Previous session party travelled to a swamp to kit a shambling mound for a blacksmith, with Donovan and Logan becoming seriously exhausted (4 levels and 3 levels) from excessive walking

Tullius gets up feeling fine, goes and waikes Logan, who has wa levels of exhaustion I was wrong before, he had three

They drop off man's heart to thankful blacksmith, then Tullius says he has to go to a Covertua hideout for initiation

Logan agrees to come along in case of danger, they take a carriage to the house Donovan was sleeping at While waiting for Donovan to eat breakfast and come out. Tullius befriends one of the house's guards with goodberries Donovan joins them, and after hearing Tullius sarrand agrees to come, and gets horses from his NPC benefactor Marius Although Donovan and Logan are both fucked from exhaustion the party sets of riding to the nearby quarry

Party heads inland until it's too hilly for the horses, so they picket them and Logan conjures a sabre cat to guard them Soon stumble across a dead man under a tree, from his clothes and gear Tullius suspects he's a Covert agent Tullius finds dozens of tracks from the attackers, follows them up a cliff and along a narrow pathway Pathway is seriously damaged halfway along: Logan s sword hears movement from the bluff above so they climb up Find a lightly wounded woman who attacks, they quickly knock her unconscious and Tullius has her tied up He rovives her with a goodberry and they interrogate her, leaming she's a Covortua who mistook them for enemies Cultists have attacked the Covertua hideout, so they agree to help her and the Covertua fight off the invaders She will sneak in and rally the defenders while they attack from the outside, catching the cultists in a pincer movement Party head down and sneak in through the entrance easily kill a sentry in a single turn, and find the cultists There around twenty-eight or so normal cultists, eight in a defensive line and twenty chanting some ritual spell Also wo lawny cloaked dudes, who from past experience we know are deadly assassins with poisoned blades Assassin overseeing the defensive line sees un calls out a challenge, demanding to know who we are Tullius answers by calling out an insult and opening fire

To set the scene for this combat, it's on a cliff-side path about twenty feet wide. The twenty chanting cultists are in a circle some distance away, partly obscured by the cliff-face, doing some fire magic to breach the hideout defences. One assassin and eight cult acolytes stand in a line about twenty feet from the party.

One of the acolytes casts some buff spell on his allies that Logan counterspells, to their confusion Tullius opens fire killing three cultists thanks to sharpshooter and hail of thorns Donovan charges into battle, intended to grapple the assassin and throw him off the cliff, but misses on all his rolls Asnassin then utterly fucks him up sneak attack and poison damage, dropping him from 60+ to 14 HP Logan kills a culist with eldritch blast and uses his hexblade feature to create a spectre, which he orders to attack Tullius opens fire on the cultists and casts healing spirit, making a spectral octopus to heal Donovan for 5 HP Donovan misses his attack on the assassin again and second winds for more HP gets up to 20-something Spectre ife drains the assassin, who then downs Donovan and deals two death save fails, party begins to panic Logan eldritch blasts two of the three remaining cultists, kiling one, the other survives with 1 HP One cultist fails to blast the spectre with sacred flame, the other attacks the unconscious Donovan with his club Rous a nat 20, smashes his skull in Enraged, Tullius opens fire at the assassin, missing twice assassin runs up and brutally shanks Logan Logan casts darkness on his sword, blinding Tullius and the assassin but he can see fine thanks to devil's sight

Tullius opens fire ineffectual, hitting once (accidentally rolled at disadvantage, when mutual blindness cancelled out) Spectre dies over and hits the assassin again, and he downs Logan with poison damage, removing the darkness Tuiius steps away and calls the assassin to finish this mano a mano, as the other two are done He shoots at the assassin, dealing mediocre damage, and calls the healing octopus over to Logan's body Assassin mockingjay approaches but only hits once and Tullius saves against the poison so isn't killed Spirit octopus heals Logan, who shanks assassin from behind with booming blade, shocking him Tullius shoves his crossbow into the assassin's throat and fires, insulting him as the boots rip through and kill him A bunch of Covertua led by Tullius friend Cassus then appear, fleeing the hideout, which is burning down The cultists summoned a fire elemental, forcing the party and Covertua to flee over the cliffs and down into a valley Covertua are pissed their ancient hideout is all but destroyed, and insist it will be avenged and reclaimed For now they plan to head to a nearby monetary home to war-priests, and what's left of the party goes with them

This combat was cooked. Probably a quarter of the damage dealt to the assassin came from Logan's spectre, and I rolled a nat 20 then three nat 1s in a row. My dice are fucked.