Murder Hobo Squad: A Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak & Beyond D&D 5E record (Beware Spoilers!)

As the party headed back down the hill from Old Owl Well they saw Melandrach fending off some wolves, and arrived just in time to stop him getting overwhelmed, making short work of them.  Ramond threw their bodies on the wagon to skin later.

They rode the wagon to the outskirts of Wyvern Tor and set up camp an hour or so before sunset.  Talindra sent her owl familiar to scout the area while everyone set up tents, and then Araloth and Karson went out to see if they could locate the Orcs.  With the tents set up, Bilba and Talindra got straight in the new luxury tent and made it their own before any conversation could be had over who would get the comfy bed.

Karson quickly located some orcish footprints and they followed them as far as they dared.  Once they got too busy they headed back to camp, figuring they were close to the orcish base.  They arrived back at camp as the sun was starting to set to find Ramond had skinned the wolves, dinner ready to eat, and Melandrach studying a book on Herbalism.  The group got a good night’s rest, the two women sharing the good tent, and Araloth choosing to sleep under the wagon as he’s used to roughing it.  The next morning Araloth was woken by Talindra banging some pots together by the wagon trying to make him bang his head on the wagon.  Araloth shot awake but managed to avoid his low ceiling.

With the party breakfasted, they made their way to where Karson had explored yesterday.  Thorovir had decided to stay back at camp and guard everything so as not to bring the wagon to the Orcs.  The stealthy characters went ahead, with the Owl scouting from above and they discovered a cave entrance, with two Orcs stood outside by a campfire and a third orc closer, standing watch behind a large rock.

Araloth and Talindra tried to use the terrain to sneak around the west while Bilba headed east.  Karson cast Alter Self and made himself look like an Orc.  He then headed down the worn path straight towards the cave, calling out a hello as he got closer, and offering a “suitably orcish greeting” (DM: None of us knew what that would be).  As he approached the two campfire orcs noticed him and turned to watch him approach.  Before he could reach them, the guard spotted Talindra sneaking up from the side and moved back to the camp.  In orcish, she said, “there’s someone sneaking up around the corner.  I don’t think he’s a friend”.

As Karson drew close he overheard this and shouted, “There’s a half elf over there.  They’re coming to attack you!  I am Garthok.  I’ve been sent by your boss with a warning”.  The orcs did not look convinced, and as they drew their weapons, so did Karson.  He held out his sword and let go as it turned in to a black hawk and flew forwards.  It made two attacks against the guard and tore out their throat.  Moments later Bilba unleashed an arrow from some nearby bushes killing another nearby orc.  As the party started advancing towards the cave with weapons ready, the last remaining orc retreated in to the cave.

Karson and Araloth moved to one side of the entrance while everyone else drew up from the distant rear.  Melandrach moved up to opposite the entrance to get a look inside, revealing a tunnel, but no visible Orcs.  Karson went in far enough to reveal that the Orcs were not alone.  He discovered an Ogre and a Mountain Wolf, along with more Orcs.  He stepped back in to an alcove inside the cave.  Araloth moved up to join him.  Allerted, the wolf moved up and attacked Karson.  Devere stepped up to the cave entrance and summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the wolf.  Ramond ran up to in front of the entrance and shouted, “Draw them out!”

Bilba moved up and fired at the wolf, before ducking back in to cover.  The Orcs then tried the same tactic, jumping out and throwing javelins at Ramond and Karson, before jumping back around a corner.  One stayed out in the open.  Melandrach stepped forward and rapid fired three Sunbolts Street Fighter style into that orc, dropping him to the floor.  Talindra finally moved far enough forward to see in to the cave and hexed and Eldritch Blasted the wolf, using her Owl to assist in all attacks.  The ogre couldn’t hold his ground any longer and stepped forward to meet his enemy, taking an attack from Araloth.  The Ogre then swung back with his club and missed (DM: Spoiler alert.  The useless Ogre misses every attack he makes!).   Karson and Araloth both stabbed the massive target in their faces, chipping away at him.  Araloth dodged out of the cave and out of his melee range.

The wolf, having been ignored, bit Karson, wounding him.  Devere cast a guiding bolt in to the ogre, and hit the wolf with his Spiritual Weapon.  Ramond put himself in the ogres face, called out, “I’ll probably need healing” and swung at him, putting all his divine energy in to the attack for a might blow while giving himself some temporary hit points.  With the party in close, the orcs charged around the corner throwing javelins and swinging axes.  The Warlock Blasted the ogre, almost ending him, but he got to swing hisclub ineffectually once more before Karson dealt the killing blow.

With the orcs bunched up in a narrow tunnel, Dever cast a Flaming Sphere behind them to act as the anvil to the party’s hammer and hit the closest with his floating flail.  Ramond dropped his greatsword and pulled out a shield and short sword, shouting, “If they’re trapped, then push”, then climbed over the ogre corpse and swinging at the same orc, which Bilba then killed with her bow.

Feeling trapped, the remaining two Orc’s disengaged and ran around the Flaming Sphere out of its reach.  Devere dropped the sphere and the party followed up, chipping away at them.  Talidra ran deep in to the chamber to attack them from behind, but revealed a particularly big and nasty Mountain Wolf at the back of the cave, who she preceded to Eldrich blast.  The Orcs did not last long, but the wolf put up a strong fight.  Everyone got a swing in, but Bilba shot an arrow straight down its throat while it was roaring, causing it to choke and cough blood over everyone, until the damage caused him to collapse dead.

Devere and Ramond advanced to explore the final chamber as everyone started looking for loot and noticed movement under some wolf pelts behind a pillar.  As Devere moved closer, asking, “Hello?  Is somebody back there?” a scared orc toddler crawled out and backed away from the group, earning an “awww” from the cleric.  Ramond instantly lost interest and wandered off to recover his greatsword.  Devere beckoned Karson over as he speaks orcish and currently is disguised as one.  They all backed off and let Karson try to talk to her, insisting they can’t just leave it.  That would be a death sentence.  Karson asked it if there were any more of its kind around here, before realising just how young the child was, realising she probably doesn’t have the words to answer.  He then asked her its name and offered her a biscuit.  She responded with “Grilda”, grabbed the biscuit and retreated away to eat it.

They spent some time trying to decide what to do with the child, while some of them searched the lair and the corpses for treasure and any signs they were connected to The Black Spider or King Groll.  Ramond thought this would be King Grolls lair, and Karson thought they were working for The Black Spider.  They found a small chest with some coins and perfume in, but nothing more.  Grilda got brave and approached Karson again, tugging on his trousers to get his attention to ask for another biscuit, which she received.  He tried to ask Grilda if she knew the name King Groll, but she just stared blankly at him.

The group said they had three options.  Leave the kid here alone, kill the kid, or take her with them.  The first two were not an option for anyone.  Talinda suggested the priestess at the shrine in Phandalin might be able to find her a home.  Melandrach suggested they find some less bad orcs to raise here.  Karson responded that they had no proof there were bad orcs, now that he thinks about it. They were just acting on the word of the townsfolk.  There were a couple of human bodies outside though.  Karson spent a short while investigating the nearby tracks and thinks all the footprints were likely made by everyone here so there was no Orcs they could take the child to.

Karson bribed the child with food and then wrapped her in a wolf pelt and picked her up, while Talindra looked for any clothes and baby supplies nearby.  They then headed back to camp for a good night’s rest before spending the next day travelling towards Agatha’s lair, which they then camped around 5 miles away from, as the sun was setting.

With the sun setting on them and their destination still a good few miles away they set up camp and had a chat about things.  Ramond expressed concerns that he had expected King Groll to be at Wyvern Tor, but it was just a small group of Orcs.  He was reminded that this was just a bounty from a jobs board.  He said he expected that camp to be the tip of the iceberg, and there would be far more connected to it.  They then discussed their plans for the next few days, and what to do with the Orc child, Grilda.  They decided to head back to town after Agatha’s lair to drop off the child, rather than head straight to the lighthouse, although they expressed concerns that she won’t “do well” in town.  Grilda spent the night in an improvised bed in a chest inside the luxury tent.  Talindra keyed her Alarm spell to wake her if the toddler tried to leave the tent in the night.

The next morning Araloth woke up expecting to be under the wagon, only to find the wagon gone and the campsite empty.  He shot out of bed and banged his head on the unseen wagon, discovering his head was encased in a very small illusion and outside it Talindra and Melandrach were falling over themselves laughing at him.

They then headed to Agatha and when they found her home they split in two.  All the more charismatic characters ventured inside, while the rest held back with the child.  They left their obvious weapons behind too.  Talindra took the lead on the talking to her and quickly persuaded her to answer their question (DM: Although unfortunately we didn’t go full RP here.  I’m hoping we can get more in to that as time goes by).  They found out what happened to Bowgentles spell book.  It was given to a necromancer 5000 miles away 100 years ago.  They made their notes and the politely but quickly backed out and ran away as quick as they could, and spent the next 2 days heading to town.

When they arrived in town Ramond went to the inn and booked them all 6 rooms between them and the Innkeeper said they could stay for free after helping them with the Redbrands.  Talindra and Karson took Grilda over to Garaele at the Shrine of Luck and asked her to find the child a home (DM: Talindra’s player has told me one of her goals in life is to start an orphanage and she gets rid of the first orphan she finds???  Why do I bother?).  They also relayed the information she had requested from Agatha.  Araloth headed over to the farm he had stayed at last time to see if he could stay there again.  Quelline Alderleaf was happy to see him and have him stay again.  She made him some lunch, and asked him a favour.  A friend of hers was due in town about a week ago but hadn’t arrived.  Reidoth is a local druid who travels around the area often.  He was last headed to Thundertree and Quelline was hoping Araloth could check in on him if he found himself in the area.

Talindra and Karson went to the Townmasters hall to get paid for Wyvern Tor, but the clerk inside told them that the Townmaster was working from home and they should head over there if they wanted to speak to him.  On their way in the noticed the jobs board had 3 more jobs on it:

Dwarven Excavation Quest.

Dwarf prospectors found ancient dwarven ruins in the mountains southwest of here, and have been working an archaeological dig seeking treasure and relics. They need to be warned that a white dragon has moved into the area. Take the warning to them, then return to Townmaster Harbin Wester to collect a reward of 50gp.

Gnomengarde Quest.

A clan of reclusive rock gnomes resides in a small network of caves in the mountains to the southeast. The gnomes of Gnomengarde are known for their magical inventions, and they might have something with which to defeat the dragon. Get whatever you can from them. If you bring back something useful and don’t want to keep it for yourselves, Townmaster Harbin Wester will pay you 50gp for it.

Umbrage Hill Quest.

The local midwife, an acolyte of Chauntea named Adabra Gwynn lives by herself in a stone windmill on the side of a hill a few miles south of Phandalin. With dragon sightings becoming more common, it’s not safe for her to be alone. Urge Adabra to return to Phandalin. Once she’s safe, visit Townmaster Harbin Wester to claim a reward of 25gp.”

They headed over to Townmaster Harbin Wester’s home and knocked on his door.  When he eventually answered he refused to open his door at any point as he is terrified by the rumours of a white dragon in the area.  They introduced themselves and asked for payment for the bounty.  Talindra relayed a greatly exaggerated tale of what had happened.  Harbin shoved a small pouch of money under the door as payment.  Talindra pointed out that an Ogre had not been part of the bounty and surely they deserved more and he agreed to give them a further 20gp, again shoved under the door.  The tale had been very convincing and he does want them to deal with the dragon.  They asked him where these stories of dragons had come from and he said some miner had wandered in to town and told him.  He didn’t get his name though.  Harbin is a well to do sort, and people like that are generally beneath his station.  They asked where Sildhar was, and found out he was still escorting the prisoners back to Neverwinter.  They enquired if there was anyone who knew the surrounding countryside well who could answer some questions for them and Harbin suggested to go speak to “that wandering druid” who stops by town now and again, but he had no idea where he would be now.

With the bounty paid, they did some trading, and ran in to Araloth in the Miners Exchange when they were selling along their gems.  He was asking for any further information about the Lighthouse.  With everything done the party gathered back at the Inn.  Thorovir locked himself in his room to study Glasstaff’s research on crafting Invisibility Potions, and the others gathered to discuss their plans for the next day.  Talindra spent the afternoon scribing spells in to her tome while joining the chat.  Once crowds had gathered in the inn for the evening meal Ramond took joy in loudly regaling the room with tales of their adventures and his bravery.  They had a good night’s rest, and then headed out towards Umbrage Hill the next morning.

As they approached the windmill on top of the hill a shape came flying out from behind it.  A winged lion with a barbed tale was attacking the windmill.  Sadly due to the long distances the ranged character were able to dispatch it before the melee characters could do much, but not until it had almost one rounded Karson with its tale spikes.  Under a close inspection of the corpse, Talindra found evidence of frostbite along the beast’s rump.  Adabra was grateful for the rescue and gave Karson one of her healing potions to drink.  They tried to persuade her to move back to town but she said she’d been out here for years and was always perfectly safe and had no intention of giving up her home now.  They were able to persuade her to head back to town today to check in and look in to setup up a signal to she could contact the town or town could contact her in an emergency.  Those who did not want a short rest after the fight escorted her back to town while the others healed up.  They then made their way as a group to Gnomengarde.

DM: Thats right.  A white Dragon and all these quests in Phandalin, but those aren’t in the Lost Mines module .  I’m also putting everyone through the Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials set.  They’re in the same town, for similar level characters.  No reason they can’t be at the same time.  DOIP ends at a higher level, and leads in to a series of modules that’ll take them up even further.  The party don’t know this yet though, although those who know of this module might now have figured this out.

(DM: The Gnomengarde quest was to head to this Gnome settlement and ask if they have any inventions or magical items that might help deal with a dragon.  The characters should be expecting a town encounter)

Late in the afternoon the party found themselves following a stream uphill to the base of the mountain, where waterfall erosion had carved out a natural concavity. The roaring waterfall created a cloud of mist as it plunged loudly into a shallow pool of water, within which rose two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms. Several cave openings overlooked the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain blocked any sunlight from reaching this place.  As the approached, they called out but got no response.  The sound of the waterfall was loud enough to drown muffle their call, forcing them to shout to be heard when talking to each other.  Of the five visible entrances only one was accessible from ground level, and that was on the other side of the 10 foot wide stream, which had no bridge at ground level.  They spent some time discussing whether to climb up to an entrance on this side, or cross the stream.  Karson got bored and jumped over and the others decided to follow.  Everyone was able to make the jump except for Talindra, who bundled up her possessions and threw them over and then waded through the 3-4 feet deep stream.

As they walk down the entrance corridor, calling out as they go, they see it branch off in three places.  At the end they hear a series of started gnomish yelps from their right.  They turn to see a female gnome sat in a chair above a complicated machine built out of many gears and chains and four giant crossbows.  As the gnome starts pulling on levers the machine comes noisily to life.  As the machine draws aim on the party, Devere shouts out, “We mean you no harm.  We are not here to fight”.  The machine lines up on Devere and she raised her hand ready to slam it down what is likely the fire button and she looks him in the eye and pauses.

Gnome: “Who are you?  What do you want?  Are you the thing?”

Devere: “The thing?  What thing?”

Gnome: “The weird thing.  The thing that attacked me.”

D: “No that’s not us.  We just got here.”

G: “How do I know you’re not a monster?”

Talindra: “Well, we’re not attacking you, so wouldn’t a monster attack you?”

D: We’ll sheathe our weapons and come out with our hands up.  Please don’t shoot us.  We come in peace”

G: “Go on then.  You come out in the open, but you keep your distance.  Prove to me you’re not the thing. That you are who you say you are.  What you say you are.  So what are you” The rest of the group them stepped out in to sight.

Melandrach: “I am an Elf”

D: “I am an Aasimar”

G: “Can you prove it?”

D: “What?”  He thought for a moment, and then his eyes light up with golden light and a pair of incorporeal radiant wings grew out behind him

G: “Oh wow.  That’s… That’s… That’s certainly something.  Erm…”  She manages to say, while looking visibly stunned.

D: “So you see we are not… So what is this thing that’s been attacking you?”

She went on to relay a story about how she had been working on her machine and a part of it came to life, grew weird tentacle things, and tried to attack her.  She was able to chase it off, but she’s been on edge ever since, jumping at shadows.  She told them that their mad king had also been telling stories about being attacked by a carpet.  No one had really believed him, but now she thinks he might be right.  The king has since locked himself in his chamber with his husband and won’t come out.  The party offered to help with this problem and asked her name. Facktoré relaxed a little and allowed them to pass.  Having said she saw the thing head south, that’s where the party headed.  The kings chamber was also revealed to be on the other side of the river (Talindra started giving the group a dead stare when this came up), accessible via bridge to the south.  They were advised to seek out the chief engineers Flibblestib and Dabbledob to see how they could help out.

As they headed south the encountered two gnome guards in a raised alcove who demanded the party prove they weren’t shapeshifters.  Ramond introduced them as friends of Facktoré.  Talindra wasn’t sure how they prove a negative.  Devere suggested he could prove it by not shapeshifting?  Talindra explained why they had come.  Devere asked f they were Flibblestib and Dabbledob, but the guards introduced themselves and Pog and Ulla.  Devere asked how they could prove they weren’t shapeshifters.  Ulla suggested they prove they are who they say they are.  The party talked amongst themselves about this briefly.  Talindra asked what a shapeshifter wouldn’t be able to do.  Gesturing towards Talindra, Karson said, “You would think they’d pick forms that wouldn’t fall in the river, unlike my friend here who is wet.”  Devere chuckled.  Talindra apologised for dripping water everywhere.  Pog spoke up, “You fell in the river?  Well I suppose if I could shape shift I’d pick something that could fly over the river, or float in it.  I wouldn’t just fall in it.”  They lowered their weapons.  The party asked for more information about the shapeshifter, and got the kings story relayed to them again.  Ulla and Pog seemed less convinced that it was real.  They gestured the party to move along, but kept one eye on them.

They moved across a rickety rope bridge and found the entrance chamber filled with floor to ceiling spinning bladed.  Araloth took on the impossible mission of ducking and weaving through the room to reach the off switch on the other side, taking minimal damage on his way.  They turned the blades back on when they were all through.  They followed the corridor around and entered in to what appeared to be a tinkerers workshop containing two gnomes mid debate.

“I still tell you, the solution to this is a sanity ray.  We need to invent a sanity ray.  That will help.”

“We don’t know how to do that.  The simple solution for now is to invent a strait jacket.  We build a strait jacket he’ll be contained and we can help him.”

Talindra interrupted them with a loud and jovial “Hello there!”  The party was invited in and the gnomes enquired who they are and what they are up to.  Talindra explained their quest and offered the groups assistance.  These gnomes dismissed the talk of shapeshifters as the king’s madness, but Thorovir told them of Facktoré’s encounter to show it’s not just the king that’s seen this thing.  The gnomes debated the possibility that the madness was contagious, which just increased the urgency of inventing a sanity ray to protect the town.   Thorvir tried to argue that they don’t know for sure that this is madness and that they needed to also prepare for the possibility that there is a monster.  The gnome pointed out that between someone not thinking clearly and carpets coming to life and attacking people that the carpet story is far less likely.  He told them about a gnome he used to know called Occam who always used to say that the simplest solution is usually the right one.  They’d never seen a shape shifter in all their years here so it wasn’t very likely.  Karson said they’d fought a Manticore in the morning and there hadn’t been one around before and now there’s a lot of talk about dragons, so why not a shape shifter.  One of the two said they didn’t know anything about a Manticore, but a dragon attacked here a few days ago.  It just swopped down and froze poor shmebulock with its breath, and carried him away.  Melandrach caused a little panic by suggesting it might be a shapeshifting dragon.  Talindra asked about speaking to the king, and they said she’s welcome to try.  Perhaps she can get him to open the door.  King Korboz has his husband, King Gnerkli held prisoner in there and no one’s been allowed in to check on him for a while now.

They headed along the corridor towards the kings’ chambers and Talindra knocked on the door.

“Go away”!

Talindra: “Is that the king?” Knock knock knock

Korboz: “Yeah.  What are you?”

T: “We’re adventurers here from Phandalin.  We’re here to help”

Devere: “Are you ok?”

K: “You’re the monster, aren’t you?  Go away”

T: “Did the monster try and talk to you before?”

K: “It was disguised as a carpet and carpets can’t talk. Don’t be stupid.  That’s madness”

T: “Well, do you think there would be 8 of us?  It seems unlikely the monster would come back as 8 separate people and then want to try and talk to you.  We just want to try and help.”

K: “You say there’s 8 of you.  All I can see is a door.”

T: “Well I know.  That’s because you won’t open the door”

K: “ That’s because I’m not letting you, the monster, in to come and eat me.  I’m not an idiot.”

T: “I’m not asking you to.  Just tell us where the monster was, where it went to and we can put an end to the terror it us wracking upon your people.”

K: “Well if you are really 8 brave adventurers come to end the terror, go and end it.  It was in the throne room and fled out the door as I ran away.

T: “Where is the throne room?”

K: “Over there” he says pointing from the other side of a locked door.

Ramond: “We can’t see wherever you’re gesturing, please”

K: “Oh yeah yeah yeah.  It’s a chamber just west of here”

Devere: “We’ll be back.  We’ll take care of this”

T: “Is your husband OK?”

The distant voice of King Gnerkli can he heard from the background, “I’m OK.  He’s just not thinking too clearly.  We’ve been here for a good few days now.  If you can calm him down and get us some food that’d be nice.”

T: “Okay, we’ll try”

Karson stepped forward and put a handful of Goodberries under the door for them to eat.  King Korboz screamed out and started stamping on the evil shapeshifting berry monsters coming to get him.

Karson: “Ah well.  I tried”

Korboz: “You can’t fool me!  Get out of here, you shape shifting monsters!”

Karson: “Don’t go anywhere.  We’ll be back”

As the party headed back down the corridor they said a sanity ray was sounding pretty good right now, but it wouldn’t get through a door.  What they needed was a sanity gas.

When they got to the throne room Araloth tested the carpet with his sword.  It did not react.  Devere took 10 minutes to ritually cast Detect Magic.  While he was casting Talindra searched the room and found a secret door behind the thrones.  She opened it and revealed a short corridor with another door at the end.  Ramond, Araloth and Talindra went to this door and Talindra opened it in to the kings’ bedchambers, containing Korboz, and Gnerkli, currently restrained to a chair without the use of ropes.  Talindra said hello, and King Korboz yelped, “Ah!  Get out!  Leave me alone!” and started backing away from the obvious threat.  Talindra offered them some food.

K: “I don’t want none of your trick.  You’re the one from the other side of the door, aren’t you?”

T: “I am indeed.  I didn’t realise this door came this way.  Sorry.”

K: ”Leave us alone.  We’re just trying to survive.  We don’t want to be eaten by you.”

T: “That’s entirely fair.  I’m just asking if you want some food or water.  I can leave you some rations and water right here and then I’ll go away.”

Gnerkli: “He means no harm.  He’s just trying to keep me safe.  Please leave some food and water.  I’ll get him to have some”

Talindra left some supplies by the door and closed it behind him and left.  As she retreated Korboz picked up a chair and chased her out of the room, while clearly staying as far away from her as he could.  They could hear the sound of the door being barricaded from the other side of the door after they left.

After waiting a few minutes for Devere’s spell to complete, he revealed that nothing in the room was showing up as magical.

Devere: “What?  What are you all looking at me like that for?”

Thorovir: “Why is your skin blue?”

Devere raised his now vibrant blue hands in front of him to look at them.  “Oh my god.  What the…?  Well, this hasn’t happened before (DM: Smurf jokes were made involving illusion spells, but let’s just assume that was all OOC as I don’t think Forgotten Realms has Smurfs)

Thorvir drew his bow and pointed it in the general direction of Devere.  “If there’s a shapeshifter around and this is new, why should we be trusting that you are you?”

Talindra: “Because he’s just stood there and cast a spell for the last 10 minutes”.  The party took a few minutes to work out if Devere had ever been left alone at any point and decided that no one had ever been alone since they arrived.  They also went through the day’s events looking at anything magical they had done or encountered

Melandrach: “Why are you blue?”

Devere: “That’s a very good question.  I have no idea.  OK guys something is very odd here.”  After further discussion and debate, Devere asked Talindra if this was an illusion she had cast on the sly.  Talindra denied it, saying her illusions are fixed in space and the blue moves with Devere.  Devere said they should all move along, but he would be reluctant to cast any more spells any time soon.  The group agreed to proceed and headed to a nearby chamber to the immediate south.

Bilba checked at the door and thought she could hear some ticking from the other side, but the door was locked.  They decided to go and speak to the engineers in the workshop about a key.  Talindra and Araloth went back and asked what was through the door, interrupting a deep conversation about the very nature of sanity.  They were told the room is their treasury.  It holds all their great inventions.  They agreed to let them in to search for monsters and Dabbledob went over and unlocked the door for them and stepped back.  Talindra advised them that the solution to defining and measuring sanity would be questionnaires.  They are always the answer.  Dabbledob loved this and started talking about conducting a large survey.  The whole group went off on one and invented the science of Psychology.  Melandrach asked if they could work on a sanity gas instead of a sanity ray.  Dabbledob insisted sanity gas was nonsense.  A sanity ray is reasonable.  Sanity gas is implausible madness.

Bilba opened the door and revealed a scene from the Engineers special episode of Hoarders.  Gadgets, gizmos and doohickies were piled up everyone, with barely a place to stand in the room, and most of it had no apparent function or purpose.  Devere’s detect magic was still active and revealed a magic stick and amulet, which he subtly alerted the group to.  He then went out of the room to engage Dabbledob in distracting conversation while the party searched the room for monsters and Bilba subtly pocketed the two items.  Nothing else of interest was found in the treasury after spending a few minutes poking around.

With one last chamber to check in this area, they asked Dabbledob to escort them.  She explained it was a sleeping chamber and they should keep the noise down.  They looked around and let everyone sleep and moved on back over the bridge to the eastern complex.  Once across the bridge they asked Ulla and Pog where the other passage went and they explained it was just a curved corridor to cope up to the raised alcove they were guarding from.

The party then moved in to the next unexplored room, some sort of storehouse full of barrels.  With paranoia and suspicion running rampant, the group took up positions ready for action, and then Talindra used an unseen servant to start checking the barrels starting at the north while Ramond checked starting from the south.  As Ramond hid the final barrel with his greatsword the weapon became stuck as if glued to it.  The barrel then opened a previously unseen mouth with huge teeth and everyone sprung in to action.

Devere charged in and hit the living barrel with his mace, which also became stuck.  Melandrach and Araloth decided not to attack it in melee and held back for now.  Bilba, Talindra and Thorovir attacked it at range.  Karson moved forwards, cast his hunter mark on to it and then found himself teleported back around the corner to near Ulla and Pog.  He was able to move back up to the corner and fire an arrow at the thing.  The mimic lashed out with pseudopods at Ramond and Devere, missing Devere, bit grappling Ramond, who it then bit in to, its acidic drool doing further damage.  To everyone’s surprise three small rocks dropped off the ceiling on to Karson, Bilba and Thorovir.  These rocks sprouted mouths and feet and tried to bite them and run around on them.  Ramond channelled divinity in to his body and tried to break free, but the mimic is not just grabbing, but extremely sticky, making it too hard for him.  Devere pulled out his holy symbol and a blast of radiant energy went out flooding the room, frying the small mimic attacking Bilba and burning up some of the larger mimic.  He then cast Shield of Faith on Ramond, upping his defences with no side effects.

Across the ceiling lots of little mouths appeared and started to drip and drool acidic saliva on to the group.  Karson, Talindra and Devere got badly burned by this.  Bilba shot at the Mimic, and Araloth stepped up to attack the small one on Karsons back, killing it and luckily not hurting him.  Melandrach rapid fired three Radiant Sun Bolts in to the big guy.  Talindra eldritch blasted it.  Thorvir ignored the small one on him and shot the main target, followed up by a similar shot from Karson.

The mimic lashed out at Devere, whose now unconscious body was also glued to the mimic.  It then hit and bit at Ramond and three more mini-mimics dropped from the ceiling going for Araloth, Melandrach, and Talindra Familiar owl.  Ramond drew his shortsword and channelled all his strength and holy might in to what would likely be his final action and screaming defiance, thrust it furiously at the monster again and again.  As he drew blood he went in to a frenzy and started screaming and stabbing, throwing blood, slime, acid and bits of flesh everywhere, coating himself and Devere thoroughly, leaving nothing but an unrecognisable mess behind where a barrel mimic had once been.  As Ramond carried on stabbing Talindra healed Devere and the party made short work of the remaining junior mimics.

With combat over, and everyone having got their breath back they fetched Facktoré through to show her the threat was ended.  She lost her lunch at the sight of what Ramond had done to the already horrific creature, but was relieved to know it was all over.  They scooped up a mostly intact juvenile mimic and took it over to the King’s chamber.  They were able to talk their way in to the room with promises of having defeated the monster.  After poking the corps a few times Korboz accepted the threat was ended and pulled out a bottle of solvent and dissolved the glue holding his husband to the chair.  With everyone more relaxed, the party explained why they were originally at Gnomegarde and the two kings each produced an item and offered them.  They received a Wand of Pyrotechnics and a Dark Shard Amulet.  Before leaving town the kings also gave them a hamper of supplies as an extra thank you, containing a few days’ worth of green mushroom bread and purple mushroom wine.

The party headed in the direction of the Dwarven Excavation to the west for about an hour before the sun set and they established camp for the night.  Talindra identified the two items Bilba had pocketed as a Pole of Collapsing and Clockwork Amulet.  Devere had returned to his usual colour.  Everyone healed up and got ready for bed.

Two miles outside of Gnomengarde the party made camp for the night and finally had some in character introductions lead by Talindra, which was long overdue, and a little awkward, but everyone made the effort.  They followed this up with a chat about events, feeling they were being distracted by lots of jobs that weren’t helping them find Gundren, but admitted they had nothing else to go on yet.  Their current plan is to follow the path of quests on the way to Thundertree (Dwarven Expedition, to the Lighthouse, then north to Thundertree) to see if the Druid there can help.

They headed to bed and then I had to ask lots of pointed questions about watches, and who sleeps in what tent which totally didn’t give away that they were about to be attacked.  They stuck with the established watch order and I made them declare what they do during their watches.  I rolled a dice to see which watch would get attacked and made each watch play out in turn for a minute or two.  During the final watch (Melandrach and Talindra, but Thorovir had also finished his 4 hours of trance and was sat by a bush relaxing) they camp was attacked by a band of eight Goblins coming from the north.  Talindra, Melandrach and Thorovir moved to intercept them, alerting Devere and Ramond along the way, but the goblins charged in.  A fight broke out, waking everyone up over the next couple of rounds.  Due to a series of morning pranks, Araloth decided this was all an illusion at first and went back to sleep.  He eventually concluded this was real, but he was going to ignore it as he was fed up of being picked on.  Melandrach had wedged his staff between the spokes of the wagon Araloth was sleeping under so he would bang his head on it when he wakes up.  On the final round of combat Araloth shoved this staff through as a missile attack against a goblin.  Melandrach was able to knock out a few Goblins and the party killed the rest.

Ramond grabbed Karson (he speaks goblin), and the two went to interrogate the prisoners.  Ramond grabbed the nearest goblin, shook him awake, and screamed, “Where is Cragmaw?!”  The terrified goblin took in his situation and replied, “We are the Cragmaw”.  “Then where are you based?” replied Ramond and began smacking him in to the ground.  While this was happening Karson leaned over the other Goblin, woke him up, shoved a map in his face and demanded he show them where their castle is.  He saw the goblin being abused by Ramond and franticly started stabbing the map with his finger and blurting out confused directions.  They had Ramond’s goblin confirm this location then the group made a decision about what to do with the characters.  Thorovir went away to look up his alignment to see if he was allowed to make cruel suggestions.  Talindra weaved some illusions in to sickly green lights dancing around the Goblins while spouting gibberish in celestial, and told them they had just been cursed.  “You must leave these lands forever.  If you remain your flesh will rot from your bones.  You cannot return to your castle.  If you return, your fate will be worse than death.  Now go.”  Ramond was still holding one, which he put down, and backed away looking scared of being cursed himself.  The goblins looked around, and then ran directly away from the camp as far as they could.  Thorovir fired an arrow over their heads as they ran, and Thorovir had his owl familiar follow them for a while.

The party, now all awake, but tired after an interrupted night’s sleep (Con saves vs exhaustion and no benefit from a long rest) gathered for a chat about what to do.  Only half a day away from the dwarves, they felt it best to warn them about the dragon, and then head north to Cragmaw Castle, forgetting the other stops they had planned.  They packed up camp and headed west along the base of the mountains until early afternoon when they came to a small canyon.  At the end of the canyon, a twenty-foot-high wall of black stone had a broken gate carved into it, with one stone door hanging precariously by a hinge and the other door missing. Beyond the open gate, in the shadow of a great mountain to the east, a ruined settlement could be made out in the darkness.  All was quiet.

They moved carefully though the dark ruins and encountered a couple of friendly dwarves having their lunch behind a pile of rubble, just in front of a thirty foot high temple facade. Cut in to this facade was a ten foot high open doorway flanked by crumbling, life-sized granite statues of cloaked dwarves. Evil grins could be seen on their weatherworn faces.  The dwarves introduced themselves as Dazlyn and Norbus, and enquired why they were there.  The party relayed the warning and offered to take them back to town.  The dwarves explained that they had uncovered these ruins and been excavating them in hopes of uncovering their origin and hopefully some artefacts or treasure and they didn’t really want to leave until they had explored the place.  They had a problem though.  That mornings dig has revealed a slime monster and they had ran away to decide what to do about it while they ate lunch.  They asked the party to help.

The party were exhausted and had not recovered spells or hit points last night and were keen to go rescue Gundren so they discussed how to proceed.  They agreed that if they took a long rest now and then dealt with this it and then took the dwarves back to town, it shouldn’t slow them down much overall.  Dazlyn and Norbus agreed to watch them while they rested, but Araloth decided it best to scout a little further ahead, so they could be better prepared in the morning.  Unfortunately, he entered a large room with an altar and 4 columns and a large Ochre Jelly dropped off the ceiling in front of him.  He ran away and started closing the heavy stone doors behind him.  As he did that Thorovir shot an arrow enchanted with Grasping Vines at the Jelly to slow it down.  Araloth closed the double doors, which had small gaps between them, and the party readied their actions to attack anything, should it breech the doors.  Three rounds later four small oozes followed by two large ones slimed through the gaps in the door, one by one.  With actions readied, and Jellies being slow, they were able to kill three of them before they could reach the party and beat down the rest only taking three slimy acidic hits in the process.

With the party battered, beaten and exhausted, giving dirty looks to Araloth, they retreated away from the doors to make camp both in and out of the game.

(DM: Araloth and Devere missed the start of this session otherwise there would have been some RP shouting at Araloth for what happened at the end of last session.  Thorovir couldn’t make it this week)

With the Jellies defeated, the party retreated back a few rooms and got a long rest in, while Dazlin and Norbus stood watch.  When they woke up the two dwarves had prepared a hot evening meal to share as it was gone 10pm.  They then went and explored the rest of the ruins.  The main pillar chamber appears to have been some sort of temple a long time ago and a thorough search revealed lots of secret doors, and a secret chamber in one of the pillars containing lots of dwarf skulls at 10 gems.  They party had a discussion about what to do with the gems and decided they’d tell the dwarves it contained 3 gems and they’d keep the rest.  They carried on exploring and found lots of secret doors and lots of collapsed corridors.  In one of the piles of rubble they found a skeleton wearing a chain with an ornamental jewelled dagger with the words, “Greed is good” engraved in to it in Dwarven.

At the back of the complex they could make out a green glow emanating through the rubble blocking the final corridor.  They decided to clear it to investigate.  After 2 hours heavy labour they went back to camp and got the two dwarves and Devere and Araloth to help with the work.  Another hour and a half later and they broke through in to a chamber with a ruined statue in the south and in the north a statue of a dwarf looking greedily at a glowing green gem in its hands.  Melandrach gave the room a quick look around, Ramond used his Divine Sense to check for good or evil, and Talindra detected for magic, revealing a mild glow under the gem.  The party considered this a cleared dungeon and called in the dwarves and offered them the green gem (no mention of the earlier gems).  The dwarves asked if t was safe and the party said it was before leaving the room.  As they reached the end of the corridor they heard a loud bang behind them (DM: And I heard the sound of the players all laugh).

They returned to the gem room (Ramonds player: “There might be something valuable in the rubble”.  More laughter from the players) to find the statue had exploded covering the room in shrapnel, reducing both the dwarves to below 0hp.  The now not glowing green gem was lying on the floor near Norbus’ lifeless hand.  Little bits of glowing shrapnel were in his chest.  Devere and Talindra went in and stabilised them and Ramond laid on his hands to heal them 1hp each.  The dwarves woke up shaken and a little confused.  They were cautious of touching them gem, poking it with a pick axe before doing so.  The party suggested the dwarves should probably come back to town now as this place is clearly dangerous and there’s a dragon out there, but they insisted they wanted to stay and see what else they could find here.

Everyone retreated back to the camp area and had a short rest (They’d had an encounter with another Jelly) before heading out around midnight.  The dwarves followed them out to wave them off on their way to Phandalin.  As they left the ruins they noticed it was unusually cold tonight and headed down the road with Dazlin and Norbus watching them go.  With over 200 feet between the two groups they noticed a change in air pressure and the loud sound of flapping wings behind them.  They turned around to see a huge white dragon descending from above the canyon they just left, diving towards the two dwarves. (DM: They’re still level 3.  This is very much not a baby dragon!  One of the perks of playing remotely is you’re never too far away from some clean underwear)

The ranged characters began unleashing everything in to it as it breathed cold all over Dazlin, coating him in several inches of solid ice.  Norbus saw this and ran terrified towards the party at full speed.  The party’s shots were mostly ineffective as the melee members spread out (Under Ramonds insistence) and ran towards it.  It picked up the frozen dwarf and flew full speed towards Araloth, the nearest threat and picked him up in his free hand.  Another volley of fire mostly plinked off it, but was slowly chipping down its health bar (DM: The players can see the bar but not the numbers.  There was swearing when they saw how little it moved after the first hit).  There was another volley of fire and Ramond charged in to Melee with his greatsword drawn and gave it his all.  Araloth tried to break free but failed so went for a bonus action offhand stab but couldn’t move enough for a good attack.  The dragon flew straight up to a height of 90 feet and dropped Araloth on to Ramond.  Ramond got out of the way, but the fall was too much for Araloth who dropped straight to death saves.  As they took another round of ranged attacks against the dragon I remembered his fear attack he should have used at the start so I sued this at the start of his next round and most of the party failed.  He then flew off with his dwarf popsicle prize back over the cavern they had just left.  With the dragon gone, Karson suggested Norbus return to town with them.  He was super keen now and asked if they could come with him while he gathered his stuff.  They then headed north to town, with a quick stop off at Umbridge Hill at Talindras request.

They arrived at the Windmill around 7.30am and Talindra went to check on the Manticore corpse.  It was still there and had evidence that animals had been gnawing at it.  She pulled out a knife and set about extracting a large bone from its forearm.  The rest of the party decided to check in on Adabra Gwynn and buy some more healing potions from her.  Melandrach told her of their encounter with the dragon and tried to persuade her to move to town for a while but she is surprisingly stubborn.  Karson persuaded Norbus to tell her his tale and he became a gibbering wreck unable to talk in complete sentences.  She sat him down and made him a brew, trying to calm him down, but dismissed his concerns as little more than panic.  She is not moving for any man, dwarf or dragon apparently.

The party said their goodbyes and headed back to town, arriving around 8.30am and Norbus headed straight for the inn, relaxing visibly now he’s “safe” in a town. (DM: Safe?  Mwah ha ha ha!)  They stopped by the Townmaster house to cash in their quests and collect their rewards and woke him up in the process.  They then went about selling their finds and stocking up on equipment for the assault on Cragmaw Castle.  With their sleep patterns now a mess and a challenging fight ahead of them, they have decided to spend tonight in town and head out refreshed in the morning.  They have each taken the day to do their own thing (DM: Being handled over discord across the week.  Some are researching, some are training, some are likely to be brewing a potion) and are gathering at the Stonehill Inn in the evening.

After finishing dinner, Sildhar walked in to the inn, having just that moment returned to town after escorting the prisoners to Neverwinter to receive justice.  He approached the table, greeted everyone and made them an offer.  Before heading out, he had done a deal with Townmaster Harbin and taken over the Manor the redbrands had been hiding under.  He is having it rebuilt and turned in to a local branch of the Lords Alliance to help bring law to the area.  He wanted the party to join the Lords Alliance and work as free agents to protect the area.  They’d get a monthly wage and free access to the Manor, the basement of which is already liveable.  They should carry on doing what they have been doing, but with the official aid and support of the Lords Alliance.  He’d be hiring some more people soon to act as guards within the town.  The party weren’t sure if this meant they had to follow order or not.  Sildhar said they would mostly be free to do what they wanted for the good of the area, but there may be rare moments when they get given orders and would be expected to comply.  Araloth was able to convince Sildhar to offer the wages up front each month.  Sildar walked away to buy a round for everyone so they could have some time to discuss this.

They took some time to discuss this, expressing concerns about whether or not the Lords Alliance could be trusted.  After all, Glasstaff had been a member and he was up to no good.  They expressed concerns about constantly being given orders they didn’t like.  They liked that it was free money and they’d get access to the alchemy lab in the manor.  They joked that they weren’t actually helping the area as since they’ve arrived the threats have only escalated.  Ramond pointed out joining would be a good thing as it would give them access to resources, contact and trainers they wouldn’t get otherwise, and give them a chance to clime the ranks.  Ramond also pointed out that taking free food and lodging from the inn is as a reward is probably something they should stop exploiting soon anyway.  Talindra mentioned the hidden difficulty of this: They would actually have to come up with a name for their adventuring company.  (DM: I thought this would be a 30 second chat and they’d just jump at free money and a free manor, but they actually spent a long time having an in character chat about this.  Much longer than they do about deciding to kill people or not!).

The offer of free money was enough to persuade them and they accepted Sildars offer.  He handed them some keys to the Manor, their first months wages, and gave each of them a signet ring bearing the emblem of the Lords Alliance, calling it their badge of office.  Sildar then left them to their drinks and got a meal, before heading up to the manor for the night.

After a good night’s rest at the inn the party headed north through the rain and camped on the outskirts of Neverwinter Wood, and the next morning headed in to the woods.  About five miles in the woods thinned out in to a clearing 30-40 feet around a ruined castle, comprised of seven towers, which had all collapsed down,.  Talindra had her owl familiar fly around to inspect the castle closer, given no one could see any patrols.  The front doors were knocked in and lying on the floor, but there were some stairs around the southern side he couldn’t see where they lead.  To the north he noticed a section of wall and rubble that seemed to billow in the wind.  From on high he could see that the building mostly appeared to be a single story structure now, with no holes he could see through.

The party concluded the open front door would likely be the most dangerous and opted to go for the billowing section.  The gathered in the woods opposite and ran across in pairs, Melandrach and Ramond first.  The pegged it across the open space, pulled back the painted canvas and showed those behind them an opening and then ducked inside.  The others followed immediately without incident.  The light inside was poor (Talindra cast light on a pebble and handed it to Ramond), but they found themselves in an old storeroom, filled with decaying crates and barrels that crumbled when touched.  Given a curtained doorway to the south and a door to the east, Karson listened at the door before opening it in to a short empty corridor section.  There was another door in front of him, and another curtain to the south.  As they advanced in, Melandrach thanked Araoth for not messing with the crates he was investigating while the group moving on.  Araloth went to investigate the curtain while Karson listened at the new door and checked for traps.  When Araloth reached out to pull the curtain aside, a hand from the other side was doing the same thing and they touched.  Araloth flinched his hand back and ducked down low, tapping Melandrach behind him as a warning.

The curtain was pulled back to reveal a pair of Hobgoblins in a bed chamber.  Not aware what had just happened, Karson opened his door in to a room with 3 bugbears (one wearing a rusted iron crown), a Drow, and a resting armoured bear.  In the corner was the tied up, tortured and beaten body of Gundren Rockseeker. (DM: That’s right.  They just bypassed the whole dungeon and strolled in to the boss encounter) They were taken by surprise, and karson ran in and attacked King Groll.  Araloth stabbed at the hobgoblin in front of him and then retreated in to the king’s chamber.  Thorovir put an arrow in to the king, and Bilba stepped in to the doorway and did the same, before advancing deep in to the room, behind Karson and near Gundren.  Holding back, Talindra cast Sacred Flame at the King, singing his fur.  The hobgoblins stepped up and one hit Melandrach with his sword, and the other shot an arrow at him, but missed.  Devere blasted Groll with a Guiding Bolt.  Ramond ran in, throwing the Light stone towards the Drow, called out, “Tempest thanks you”, and swung his greatsword at King Groll, smiting him in the process and channelling divinity in to some bonus HP.  Melandrach made short work of the hobgoblin in front of him and attacked the archer behind him.

Karson took two swings at the king, missing both times.  King Groll drew his greatsword, Shouting, “Get the intruders!” and make two failed attacks against Ramond.  Araloth attacked the nearby guard and Thorovir fired two seeking arrows in to King Groll, leaving him bloody, but still standing.  Securing her reputation as the kill stealer of the group, Bilba popped out from behind Karson and bounced a shot in to Groll off the nearby brazier.  As he fell, they could see the flights had caught fire and the arrow was slowly burning down towards his chest.  Talindra moved to the doorway and Eldritch blasted the drow, who then ran over to the bed in the corner and extracted a leather pouch from under the mattress and moved towards Gundren with her weapon readied.  The remaining hobgoblin dropped his bow and slashed at Melandrach with his longsword.  Seeing his master drop, the bear got up with a loud roar and charged Ramond, biting him on the shoulder.  One guard attacked Ramond, and the other downed Bilba in two hits, celebrating with a Sandperson cheer with his weapon raised over his head.  Devere summoned a Spiritual weapon to attack the Drow, and then channelled divinity in to a blinding Radiance, damaging every enemy in sight (all of them), and killing the last hobgoblin.  Ramond thrust his greatsword at the bear, burning his inspiration token to ensure success, but just grazed its leather armour instead, while calling out, “Protect Gundren!”  With the hobgoblins dead, Melandrach ran in to the room and stood between the two guards and attacked the Drow, landing three solid hits.

Karsons sword turned in to a hawk and flew out to attack the Drow, and provide flanking for Araloth, reducing her to near death.  Thorovir put a shot in to the bear from outside of the room while Talindra Blasted the last breath out of the Drow, who slumped to the floor where her appearance changed.  Her elven appearance faded and she became something of a blank slate, devoid of any defining features.  Talindra then cast a minor heal on to Bilba, causing her to snap awake.  The not-drow rolled a natural 20 on her death saves and woke up and got to her feet.  The bear slashed and bit at Ramond, removing all his temporary hit points and then some.  Devere entered the room and Guiding Bolted the guard attacking Araloth, but missed.  His spiritual weapon was equally ineffective.  Ramond lashed out at the bear with a mighty blow.  The guards battered Araloth and Melandrach, but both held strong.  Melandrach attacked his guard twice and the ex-Drow once, but missed the Drow.

Karson changed target and critted the bear, killing it (DM: There was a brief chat about knocking it out to interrogate it later.  It might be the mastermind).  King Grol then natural 20’d his death saves (DM: WTF??  Twice?), stood up and swung at Karson, hurting him.  Araloth knocked out the ex-Drow.  Thorovir slung his bow over his shoulder, drew his rapier and entered the room.  He stabbed at King Groll, but he easily deflected the blow.  Bilba stabbed the guard that had hurt her.  Talindra empowered her staff with Eldritch Might and hit Araloth’s guard.  Devere healed Ramond for 3hp, and then Melandrach for 4hp.  Ramond then turned towards King Groll, said, “You again?” and knocked him out (DM: Successfully kill stealing back Bilbas kill steal).  Araloths guard battered both Araloth and Melandrach, and left them both dying on the floor.  The other guard attacked Devere, but missed.

Karson hit the nearby guard, as did Thorovir.  Bilba struck her guard with her offhand dagger, missing with her shortsword.  Talindra swung at but missed Araloth’s guard and healed Araloth (DM: Who had rolled a natural 1 on his death save).  Devere Spared the Dying on Melandrach so he could not die, while his Spiritual Weapon killed Araloth’s guard.  Ramond stabbed the last bugbear (DM: And I added the damage to Ramond not the bugbear.  Oops!  Confused everyone).  The guard continued attacking Devere, hitting with the first swing, but missing with the second, before Karson could deal the killing blow.

With the room now cleared Ramond tied up King Groll, and picked up his particularly shiny greatsword.  Karson fed Melandrach and Gundren a goodberry each.  Talindra searched the room while Araloth searched the doppelganger, claiming the bag she had taken from under the mattress (Money, 3 heal potions and Gundrens map).  Thorovir went black to check the hobgoblins room, but found nothing of interest.  Ramond proceeded to tie up the doppelganger.  Talindra cast detect magic (the sword showed up) and Identify (see below) They have gathered back in the kings chamber and stacked the bodies against the door while they take a short rest.

DM: They have forgotten the other two bodies outside the room.  Will they be discovered?  Next week we talk to Gundren, interrogate the prisoners and see if they explore the rest of the keep, or return to town.

Sword of Command

+1 Greatsword

The blade of this greatsword is engraved with pictures of a band of heroes charging in to battle together, heading towards its point.  As the blade moves the image shifts between two images in different layers of the metal, giving the impression of movement.

Once per day, this sword grants its wielder the ability to use their words and actions to inspire an ally (not self) within 60 feet, granting them advantage on their next roll.  This can also be used as a reaction to an ally making a saving throw, a skill or ability check, or an attack roll.  The player is encouraged to say something inspiring when using this power.

After their short rest, the party decided to question their prisoners, starting with the doppelganger.  Talindra asked who they are, who sent them, why are they here.  She refused to talk, so Ramond picked up and chair and sat on it in front of her.  He rested his greatsword across his lap and started unwinding the remains of an old banner from its grip.  He leaned in and said, “Your face changes, eyes?  Will it change when I hold it to the fire?  I think it’s time for you to start talking.  The Black Spider might get us, but we have you now.  Tell us what we want to know”.

“Go on.  Do it!  End it!” She replied.  Ramond waked over and picked her up and as he dragged her over to the brazier she shifted to look exactly like him.  He didn’t flinch and pushed her face in to the hot coals and held her there as she screamed; just long enough for to burn until she passed out (0hp).  He pulled her out and healed her for 1hp.  As she came to, Talindra asked her if she was going to be more reasonable and start talking.  Shaken and suffering, she demanding they kill her.  She would not speak.  “The fire is where I started.  How far do you think I’m willing to go?” threatened Ramond.  Disturbed by events, Devere cleared a path to the door and went for a walk away from the horror.  The Doppelganger just sat there staring at Ramond, breathing heavy from the pain.  Ramond pulled out a shortsword and held it to her throat, and after giving her a moment, he slit her throat.  A look of both fear and relief passed over her as her blood began to spray over the room.

As the blood began to spray, Talindra turned to their other prisoner, King Grol and said, “I hope you’re more talkative than she was”.  He replied, “What do you want to know?” ”Who is the Black Spider?  What is he after?  Where is he from?  Tell us what you think we need to know”, asked Talindra.  “He’s a Drow.  He came to me a while back with a couple of his friends and said if I got my men to plunder the roads, cause some chaos and keep an eye out for a dwarf with a map he would reward me and pay me well.  I’m just in it for the money.  I’m not one of his men.”

Ramond spoke up, “For you I have a different offer.  We can let you leave here.  All you need to do is go out and tell the rest of your people that you are defeated and it is time to leave.  Lay down your armour, all of you, and you can walk out of here with your weapons, but everything else is ours.  Ten you go as far as you possibly can from here, as you won’t just have the Black Spider to deal with, you’ll have us as well.”

The aged bugbear let out a little chuckle before responding, “If I go out there and announce I’m defeated, I’m not in charge anymore.  They won’t listen to me.  They won’t care”.  Pointing to Ramond, Talindra asked, “Does that mean he’s in charge now?”  “You can try”, Grol said, shaking his head a little.

Talindra asked Ramond if they were repeating the Glasstaff Strategy here.  Ramond said, “Not for this one.  Grol at least fought us.  He stood up, swung his sword and fought us.  That thing ran around gathering its possessions and tried to kill someone defenceless.  Grol at least I respect a little”.  Hearing this, Grol spoke, “I’ll do as you say.  I’ll take my armour off and walk out of here.”  With the screaming stopped, Devere entered the room again, looking disgusted at the fresh blood on the floor.

Ramond picked up Grols magic greatsword and began tying the strip of banner around its grip and then laid his greatsword on the floor next to Grol.  “When you’re untied, take off your armour, then you can take that sword and leave”.  Grol though on this for a moment (DM: I’ve seen too many westerns apparently.  Pick up the gun and get shot).  They untied him and he stood there until Ramond offered him the sword again.  He took it cautiously, awaiting a reaction.  None came.  “You fought well”, he said to Ramond, who responded, “And so did you”.  Grol slowly walked out the room.  As he passed through the doorway unmolested, he stopped and tuned back, “He doesn’t need the map.  The Black Spider has already found the mine.  He’s already in there.  He’s waiting”.  They watched him head down the corridor and turn towards the entrance they had come in through.

“There was some discussion on how to proceed.  To stay or go.  What to do with Gundren, who is drifting in and out of consciousness.  Talindra said she would be uncomfortable leaving the other goblinoids here as they have been terrorising the local communities.  The group agreed and decided to stash Gundren in the bath in side room.  As they moved him, he demanded they find his map.  When Araloth showed it to him, he took it back for himself and settled down in the old, dirty bath tub. (DM: cue many jokes about scented candles etc)

They then headed out to deal with the goblinoid menace, and basically chain pulled the rest of the dungeon (all grunts), avoiding the one door that was hastily barred that they could hear heavy deep rhythmic breathing from the other side.  The party wants to leave that door alone, but Araloth wonders if someone is being held prisoner there.  The party has not looted anything yet as they wanted to make the area safe and then explore and loot at their leisure.  With the last of the rooms cleared, Talindra sent her owl to spy in through thee arrow slots of the tower with the barred door, but someone has put shutters over them.

DM: Play started later than usual due to Christmas driving people’s kids a little hyper, and at this point people wanted to leave as it was late and we still have work.  Looting will continue next week, or after Christmas.  We are still working out when the next session will be as who knows what Christmas even is this year?

As a result of conversations with Ramonds player the next day some googling was done and it appears Tempus (Ramonds god) does not approve of torture at all, although getting a clear answer on that from official books proved difficult.  We are looking in to ways to resolve this, as he says he had checked beforehand and it didn’t seem to be forbidden.  I’m reluctant to punish his character for books not being specific.

With all the goblinoids already defeated, the party split up in to groups and searched the castle, finding a few minor sellable art items, a cookbook in goblinoid with a tin marked “Yeggs Magic Spice”, a barrel of quality Brandy, Sildars lost armour, and a small weapons stash (Araloth took a shield for himself, and Karson took a longsword).  This just left the south east tower with its barred door and the sound of deep heavy rhythmic breathing inside.  They decided to investigate as they did not like the idea of leaving anything, man or monster, to just starve to death in a locked room.

Not sure what to expect, the party decided to be ready to run once the door was opened.  Talindra, Ramond, Devere and Bilba went off to get the wagon while the others had a short rest with Gundren, so they could load it up and have Gundren on board before setting the beat loose.  Devere noticed that their stuff had been tampered with.  Everything appeared to be there, but things weren’t quite as they had been left.  Ramond was able to find some footprints heading east.  They were most likely elven.  They did wonder if they were from the druid they had been asked to look for.  They decided it was best not to investigate yet as they didn’t want to get separated from the others.

When they returned to the castle they loaded up their loot and Gundren and told the others.  They then opened doors and removed curtains to create an open pathway from the barred door to the nearest exit, just in case.  Ramond, Thorovir, Talinda and Devere stayed with Gundren at the wagon as it gently started to rain, and the others got in position around the barred door.

Melandrach banged loudly on the door and called out a hello after Karson cast Speak With Animals on himself.  He was answered with a strange loud roar he and Karson could not identify.  There was some debate over how to proceed, but they were brought back to focus when something large started ramming in to the door from the other side.  Melandrach worked the improvised bar loose, then swung the door open and ran away as it opened without looking inside.

As the door crept open, Karson and Bilba could see an irate malnourished Owlbear inside.  The room looked wrecked, as you would expect from a small space with a large animal trapped in it.  Karson threw down some rations and backed up a little.  Everyone held their actions waiting to see what would happen as the Owlbear crept forward, sniffed the rations and carefully ate them, keeping an eye on everyone.  Melandrach ran to an arrow slit and told the others outside what they had found before returning.  Karson threw down another ration pack and backed up, and Melandrach followed his example.  Bilba left through the side door, closing it behind her.  Emboldened, the Owlbear swept up Karsons rations in one bite, and moved forward to eat Melandrachs, along with chunks of the dead Hobgoblin they had landed on.  Comfortable that the Owlbear had a way out and wasn’t going to attack them, the party left the castle without investigating the room behind it.

The party went in to the woods to follow the footprints they had found earlier.  Karson was able to track them a few miles easterly.  As they followed them, the rain worsened, and they discussed who it could be.  Redoith the druid was mentioned.  Araloth also mentioned that he had heard about a Hunter called Falcon who lived in the woods and would help people out.  He’d put you up for free, if you offered him a good bottle of wine.  However, he lived much further north east so this probably wasn’t him.

With the sun setting and the rain really coming down now, the party decided it best to leave the woods so headed south.  By around 8ish they decided to set up camp for the night and continue back to town in the morning.  During a lull in the weather the party gathered for dinner and a chat around the camp fire.

(DM: Ramond and I had a chat between sessions.  We discovered after last session that his god, Tempus, does not tolerate torture at all.  This isn’t made clear in a lot of the books, but it is stated in one or two sources.  As such, we have a little course correcting to do after last week.  I don’t want to punish him because the books he saw weren’t clear, so let’s handle this in character for now, rather than strip away his paladin powers.  Yet.)

Ramond: “I did something very wrong today, very wrong indeed.  I will need to master my rage.  It’s not right that I am this way.  Tempus would not have smiled on what I did today.”

Talindra: “What did you do wrong?”

Ramond: “Torturing and killing that creature was not right.  It brings no glory.  There isn’t any honour in it.  You should treat your enemies with respect.”

Araloth: “Well, I for one think a Doppelganger out of the way is a good thing.”

Ramond: “That is no matter.  Only fate has the right to take life”.  Araloth rolled his eyes and got up to head to his tent

Ramond: “You were all unmoved by this”

Talindra: “No it was disturbing to view but we need information about who this Black Spider is that seems to be hunting us, because of our association with Gundren.”

Karson: “It was a worthy attempt to get the information we needed.  It’s not your fault it didn’t work.”

Melandrach: ”You went too far”

Ramond: “It’s not worthy at all.  No, it was too far.  It will not happen again.  That you can all justify it is for you to decide on, but I will not be doing that again.  The king I treated correctly.  He fought with honour, and I treated him well.  The Doppelganger, for all I hate the deception, and there’s a great deal of deception going on here, and its driving me to rage, I cannot let that rage overtake me.  I cannot follow this god and do these things.”

Bilba: “You should have some brandy, Ramond.  I hear its rather good.  It’ll lift your spirits up”.  Ramond accepts a cup”

Karson: “As a wise man once said, if you do not master your rage, your rage will become your master” (DM: Laughs all round as we all loved Mystery Men)

Ramond: “We got much more information from the king for my treatment of him.”

Karson: “On the other hand, I don’t know that we should have let him go. Goblins like that cannot be trusted.”

Ramond: “My god calls me to battle.  Once it’s over, that is all.  Everything is decided.”

Araloth: “Speculate to accumulate with the goblin king.  We let him go.  Maybe in the future he will help us.  The Doppelganger?  Killing her helped us with the king.  You win some, you lose some.  Maybe the king we’ll never see again, maybe he’ll come back as an enemy, maybe he’ll end up our best help?  We’ll see in the long run.”

Karson: “We could not have let the Doppelganger go because it could have hidden anywhere and come back at any time as one of us.  It would have imitated us and it could have infiltrated the party.  There was no way you could have let it go.”

Araloth: “And it was imitating a Drow, so you know.  It should be killed anyway.”

Ramond: “Who have the imitated before?  The Black Spider knows we are coming.  How does it know?  We can’t believe those goblins we let go have run all the way to him, after the terror we put in to them.  Something else is going on here

Araloth: “Would Detect Evil pick them up?  Is there a way of detecting them?”

Karson: “We don’t know”

Talindra: “Let’s not forget that that thing was trying to escape with the information we needed, and tried to end the life of our employer whilst he was unconscious and bound.  Ending it was a good thing.  But, the treatment it received up to that point, I can agree with you.  I can understand your point.  If you want, I’m sure all of us here will help point out if you seem to be straying down that path again.”

Ramond: “I think that is important.  Torture is not to be condoned and it will absolutely not happen again.  What happens when we capture enemies, well, I will need to think on it more.  Thank you.”  Ramond then took a big swig of his brandy.

Karson: “Make what amends you need with your god when we get back to town, but for now it’s time for us to get some sleep.” And with that they all drifted off to sleep, or take there turns in the watch on this rain soaked night.

(DM: When they rested everyone levelled up.  They are now level 4.  Despite me warning them this would happen a week ago, no one was prepared for this and two players are going to level up between sessions)

As they awoke the next morning they discovered the rain had not eased off.  They sky was black with storm clouds and all was dark.  Their tents and wagon had sunk a few inches in to the mud.  The fire was out and refused to light up again.  Damp and cold, everyone had breakfast and headed out through the woods towards town.  However the magic of Neverwinter Woods got the better of their navigator (DM: Natural 1 on survival and exactly when I needed it!  Thank you, Dice Gods!) , and as the rain turned to hail, stinging their flesh, they found themselves many miles off course and lost deeper within the woods.  With the hail seemingly getting worse, they decided to find a suitable spot to set up camp again and wait it out.  They found an area of the woods where the trees seemed to thin out a bit and went there to camp, but found a path, which lead up towards an old isolated house the wood seemed to be encroaching on.  They parked the horse under a large tree to provide it what shelter they could from the growing hail (DM: I was warning them that if they stayed outside much longer they were going to start taking damage as the hail stones were getting bigger.  Thorovir couldn’t make it this week).  Thorovir stayed with Gundren and the horse for now while the others approached the front door.

DM: SPOILER ALERT!: From this point we are entering the standalone DMs Guild module, “The Haunt”.  If you think you might ever want to play through this, you should probably skip my next session or two.  One of my players has been asking after Curse of Strahd next and always used to ask about Ravenloft back in the day so I thought I’d try a short horror module to see if I can work well with it and see how everyone feels about it.  The Haunt is supposed to be good so I’ve inserted it here and done my best to work it in to events.  I even started mentioning aspects of it a few sessions back.  We will see if they took notes or not.

Melandrach used the heavy iron knocker and as they waited for a response, a pair of crystal blue eyes could be seen for a moment through the dirty old tinted window beside the door.   There was no response.  He knocked again, and Talindra used Minor Illusion to call out a hello just inside the door.  With the hail hurting, and patience wearing thin, the party started looking for other ways out of the rain; window, other doors, the 10 foot wall behind them (DM: They party kept saying they can do a standing jump over a 10 foot wall and wouldn’t even need to climb.  Thanks, D&D.  What were you thinking?).  Behind them they heard a click, and a slow creak as the door slowly swung open, seemingly by itself.

As they stepped out of the hail they found themselves in a large open foyer area with a demonic looking statue to either side of them.  As they shook themselves dry, Ramond had Talindra cast Light on his Greatsword, and moved to peek in to the next room.  As he stepped past one of the statues, they both started to move and went for an attack.  The group found themselves engaged by two Gargoyles, and without a full set of magic weapons they took longer to defeat than they should have.

DM: With the Gargoyles dispatched and the clock running late, we decided to call it a night here.  It’s New Year’s weekend next session.  I’ve no idea how many players I’ll have.  I’ve got 4 yesses so far but we will see.  There were originally only 4 players for this Christmas session, but I ended up with 7 for most of it.