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

On the wagon back to town Talindra started asking questions about what they had all just seen.  The converging triple lightning bolt symbols the Half-Orcs were wearing had jogged a memory loose.  She revealed that upon originally arriving in Phandalin she had been given a vision.  The shrine in town was under assault by ice and lightning.  It struck the shrine and destroyed the whole area.  She suspected these guys are related.  Ramond said he heard the heartless guy call out to Talos, who would be the angry evil god of storms and destruction.  Worship of Talos is illegal in most places.  He is not part of the main pantheon so is not as well-known as some other gods.  Araloth wondered what they were doing there.  Turning the light off so ships would crash?  Devere said the green light was probably drawing the ships on to the rocks.  Ramond said the green light wasn’t bright enough so ships couldn’t see the rocks in time.  Talindra suggested that the destruction could be an offering to Talos.  Devere was concerned that his new sparking eyes might mark him as a worshiper of Talos and that might get him arrested.  Araloth suggested he discharge himself, but he opted not to for now.  Using the Sending Stones Devere told Gundren they were on their way back and would be ready to go after lunch tomorrow.  Gundren responded, saying he would be ready but he was worried about his brothers as they had not come for a resupply, but ran out of words before he could explain.

The journey back was uneventful and when they arrived in town they went straight for a hot meal at the Stonehill Inn, where they saw Gundren already eating.  They joined him and ordered food and exchanged pleasantries.  Gundren explained he had spent the last few days getting supplies together ready for the mine.  Along the way he had been asking about and his brothers hadn’t been seen.  They should have come back to town a couple of weeks ago to resupply on the essentials but they had not.  Gundren was worried if something had happened to them as was keen to get moving to check on them.  They had been camping a short walk from the mine entrance.  The party agreed to head out after lunch and a chance to plan and shop.

While the party did some shopping (DM: Lots of private messages while people were talking.  Got a little confusing),Talindra went to speak to Townmaster Harbin Wester who once again refused to open his front door.  She told him what they had found at the lighthouse and that it needed restaffing.    He said it was managed by Neverwinter, but he would send them a letter to inform them.  Talindra also asked about any possible reward for the job, but Harbin said the town didn’t really have the money to spare for that but he was grateful for their efforts.

They spent a while shopping, arguing about money (DM: They party has decided that Araloth is a penny pincher and it’s definitely Araloth and not his player.  This is becoming a focal point for RP), and planning for the future.  Talindra has a project she wants to work on and Thorivor wants to spend some time brewing healing potions before they face the dragon.  Ramond doesn’t like just walking around town with 600gp in his pockets and wants something better to do with it.

When they were done they met up with Gundren outside the Inn.  Gundren had gathered together his own wagon filled with supplies and had hired four people to help get the mine up and running, once the party had cleared it for them.  Following Gundren’s directions they all headed east out of town and arrived at the Rockseeker campsite with around an hour of daylight left.  The place looked clear and unused.  Hunting around they found an old campfire that had been buried and covered, and a few prints.  They place didn’t looked like it had been used for a week, perhaps two.  Gundren’s plan was to camp here while the mine was being cleared but people didn’t feel safe here, knowing something may have happened to Nundro and Tharden.  Gundren didn’t know if they had abandoned the camp for some reason, or if the Black Spider had found them.  They hunted around and found a suitable new site nearby.

While everyone set up the new camp, Karson, Bilba and Araloth had Gundren lead them to the mines entrance to scout it out.  Ten-ish minutes later he pointed them to a gap in some rocks hidden from the surrounding area by the terrain.  The gap was just about big enough for a person to squeeze through and had evidence of being man made.  Gundren said he had dug through the rock here to reach a natural tunnel shortly behind it that leads directly to the mine.  They looked around while never entering and found old footprints that looked around two week sold entering but not leaving the cave.  They retreated a safe distance and watched the area for 20 minutes but didn’t see anything of interest.  Karson hid a bear trap by the entrance and they went back to camp and everyone got a good night’s rest.

The next morning they left Gundren and his miners behind and returned to the cave entrance.  The bear trap remained set so Karson disarmed it with a long stick and put it back in his bag.  Bilba and Ramond had Light spells cast on a stone for each of them and they all squeezed in to the cave one by one.  The cave soon opened up in to a wider tunnel and Talindra summoned her owl familiar and sent him ahead to scout revealing a room ahead.  The entrance tunnel lead into a large-cavern supported by a natural pillar of rock and containing three stalagmites. In the western part of the cave, behind the column of rock, were two bedrolls and a heap of ordinary supplies-sacks of flour, bags of salt, casks of salted meat, lanterns, flasks of lamp oil, pickaxes, shovels, and other gear. Amid the supplies, the body of a dwarf miner could be seen, dead for at least a week. The north-eastern section of the cavern had collapsed, forming a ten-foot-wide, twenty-foot-deep pit. A sturdy hemp rope was tied off around a nearby stalagmite and dangled down the side of the pit, at the bottom of which was a rough-hewn tunnel heading northwest and east.

Araloth went to check out the rope and the trench.  The rope looked securely tied around a stalagmite with nothing at its other end and no one could be seen in the trench.  Araloth stood guard while the others explored the chamber.  Devere inspected the corpse for time and cause of death and found some old bruises and a few cuts, but the final would appeared to be a series of around 5 small sharp bruises in a grouping to centre mass, like someone had repeatedly poked him to death with a stick.  Araloth said this looked like it was done by a person and not an animal.  Melandrach said it sounded like Magic Missile.  They had been blasted with Magic Missile before and it did match their old wounds.  Upon close inspection Meladrach said that this was Tharden’s body.  He had met Nundro and Tharden before and was the only one in the group who had (DM: backstories finally being relevant and looked at!  Yay!  It did take a prompt from me for everyone to check though).  Devere finished searching Tharden and concluded that someone else had already stripped him of everything of interest, but that his boots looked unusually clean, new and high quality and didn’t match the wear on the rest of his outfit, so they took them.

After checking the crates (Just mining and camping supplies) they descended the rope in to the trench, except for Melandrach who showed off by jumping safely down the 20 foot drop (DM: Bloody Monks!).  Talindra sent her owl for a quick scout through both exits, revealing something of a maze to the north west and some branching tunnels with a distant light at the far end to the east.  They had a discussion about which way to go and chose to head towards the light as that might be a sign of a surviving dwarf.  Bilba and Ramond shielded their lights.  Araloth and Karson went ahead to scout while the others gathered ready to react.  As the paths forked they split up, while staying nearby and the party advanced up behind them.  Araloth found his pathway widening to become a larger chamber.  Many tunnels intersected at this natural, thirty-foot-high cavern.  The walls were carved with simple reliefs showing dwarf and gnome miners hard at work. Below them, nearly two dozen skeletons in rusted scraps of armour were scattered across the cavern floor. Some were dwarf skeletons, while others were orc remains. Half a dozen large brass lanterns stood in niches or on ledges around the cavern, but none were lit.  Araloth went to see if there was any oil in the lanterns, but anything that had been there had long since dried up.  While he was doing this the sound of flapping and chirruping could be heard from above as ten flying insects dropped off the ceiling and came to attack him.

He stabbed the nearest and ran back to the group as arrows flew over him and Devere Blessed his allies.  Karson moved in to attack another as the Stirges flew in to the front lines and attached themselves to Araloth and Melandrach, drinking their blood.  Talindra stepped forward and unleashed a Shattering wave in the midst of the bugs, hurting his allies, but killing all the bugs.  With Bless active, the party decided to get productive and explored to the east, revealing a glowing cavern.  Dense carpets of weird fungi covered large sections of the floor in this cavern. The growth included puffballs a foot across, weird shelf fungus grown on stalagmites, and large stalks and caps a good five feet tall. Some of the puffballs glowed with an eerie green phosphorescence.  They turned around to explore the last corridor behind them in the hopes of preventing any surprises creeping up on them later.

Melandrach listened to the eastern door, but heard nothing from within.  While he had his ear pressed up against the door, he felt more than heard a sound.  A single low deep thrum and tremble, like a large heavy pounding sound a long way off, carried through the rock.  Araloth listened at the other door but heard nothing.  Araloth opened his door and revealed splintered stone benches and heaps of rubble from a partially collapsed ceiling filling this room. Amid ruined stone bunks and toppled weapon racks were the bones of several dwarves and orcs.  Melandrach opened his door.  This chamber was once an office or storeroom of some kind. A large stone counter bisected the room, set with three dusty balance scales made of iron. Cubbyholes carved into the north wall were stuffed with dusty paper scraps. Several long dead corpses – gnomes and orcs by their look – were sprawled across the floor.

As the group discussed the possibility of using these rooms for resting later and Ramond said they should fully search these rooms now rather than later as they should never plan on returning anywhere, Araloth and Devere entered the west room to look around.  As the group continued talking the bodies on the floor surrounding him pulled themselves together and the dead rose around them and nine skeletons attacked!  Two rounds of combat later the skeletons were dead and Melandrach had needed a heal spell.  They searched the room and found nothing of interest.  Expecting the same in the other room, they moved over and prepared for an attack, but nothing happened.  Araloth went to the cubby holes and started looking at papers.  They crumbled at his touch so he tried to read some where they sat.  The ink was faded to almost nothing, but he could make out some dwarven writing.  This looked like records of weigh-ins and disbursements from the mine.  Ramond checked behind the counter and found a rusted but study lockbox.  Araloth gave it his all but couldn’t pick the lock.  Bilba gave it a try and almost had it, but failed.  Talindra saw no harm in trying and effortlessly popped the lock to find it stuffed with coin.

By this time a few people were interested in a short rest as spells were running low and some needed healing.  They also wanted to Identify those boots they thought would be magic.  Talindra identified them (DM: Boots of Striding and Springing, which Bilba put on) and they had a rest while the Owl kept an eye out at the junction. As they sat around resting they all slowly noticed a tremor through the ground.  A short shake.   A dull thud only felt at first, but once they knew it was there they could just about here it.  About once every two minutes a single quake happened, like something heavy but far away.

DM: It was about 11pm on a Sunday so we called it there as any encounter could go on for a long while.  They are maybe two hours in to their adventuring day and on the final stage of the first major story arc at last!

DM: One of my players gifted me a year’s subscription to Roll20 so I spent a few hours adding dynamic lighting to the mine.  It worked well when it was just me running around, but once all the players logged in it ran so slow and sluggish and we gave up and switched back to the non dynamic version.  Anyone have any experience with this and knows what the issue is?  Is it just a thing where the more players it has to light for the exponentially slower it gets (There were 8 accounts logged in)?  Is the issue server/software side, or can one player having issues slow it down for the rest?

With their short rest over, the party headed out (DM: They were heading east last week and talking about heading further east, so I did my prep assuming they would keep heading east.  Guess where they went?  North West!) to the door to their immediate north.  They said they wanted to explore the worked stone areas and not the raw stone as the raw was most likely mine shafts and the living areas most likely contained more immediate threats.  Karson listened at the door and could hear some gnawing and scratching noises.  The party readied for a fight, kicked in the door and made short work of 4 emaciated Ghouls sucking what marrow they could from the bones of a skeleton in the middle of the room.  Karson listened at the next door and didn’t hear anything at first, but could hear the clank of heavy armour approaching, so they opened the door and sent out Ramond with sword and board to encounter any threat there.  He saw Devere who had got bored and gone the long way around while they were looting and listening.  Ramond gave him a stern telling off about ignoring party tactics and plans, and endangering everyone.  Devere went back with his head hung low.

Karson and Araloth went out scouting to the west, with the group staying just far enough behind them to keep in line of sight.  This section appeared to be a mass of interconnected corridors forming something of a simple maze.  They’d scoot forward 30 foot, with Karson in the lead and Araloth 10 foot behind him, and the rest keeping Araloth at the edges of their light/darkvision.  When Karson was 90ish feet down the corridor he turned around as he could hear angry scrams and the sounds of bare flesh slapping on stone behind him.  He could see the group bracing themselves against a charge from a large number of Ghouls coming down some stairs.  Seems that while the scouts could not see what was up the stairs, the ghouls could see the passing light from the party and wanted lunch.  The corridors created a bottleneck for the ghouls that the party had already filled meaning that only three ghouls at a time could engage the party, but there were a lot of them.  They ended up using a few AoE powers to burn them down so they kept the situation under control and the fight was over after three rounds.  They chose not to explore up the stairs for the moment, opting to stick to one level at a time.

They scouted through most of the mini maze and followed the corridors north through an unworked section to discover a still pool filling much of a cavern. The water was dark, revealing little of what might lie within. The shore of the pool consisted of a thin layer of broken shells from strange, pale mussels, and a fishy odour hung in the air. A set of steps climbed up to the east and a sluggish stream flowed out of the cave to the northeast through a low tunnel through the wall.  Karson slowly edged in to this room, staying cautiously away from the waters, afraid of what might lurk within.  They remembered an undead beholder rising out of the last dirty body of water they saw.  As he explored he remained unmolested so the group advanced up and headed towards the stairs.  Talindra had her owl familiar explore the watery tunnel.  There was only a 3 foot gap between the water and its roof so Nezhar wasn’t happy about this so she wouldn’t really go in there and Talindra didn’t force the issue.  She could see that the tunnel opened up after about 10 feet and the stream curved around out of sight to the east shortly after.

At the top of the stairs the corridor went north but there was a more interesting door immediately in front of them which they chose to investigate.  Karson listened closely and could hear some grumbles in what sounded like deep voiced goblinoid, although he couldn’t make out what they were saying through the door.  They lined up in formation and opened the door.  Old stone bunks lined the walls of this barracks, which was lit and heated by a glowing iron brazier in the middle of the room.   Across the room was another door, this one blocked by a barricade made from the remains of a wooden table.  Five Bugbears were sat around and surprised by the intrusion.  As the party ran in to engage Ramond shouted out, “Why on earth to they need a barricade?”  The bugbears were wearing good armour and their Morningstar’s hit hard so Devere put up a Bless spell.    Devere lined up with two Bugbears and unleashed his second Lightning Bolt from whatever power had entered him at the Lighthouse, hurting but not killing them (DM: I rolled nat 20 for both their saves!).  It was a slow and hard fight, with the Bugbears dealing their share of the damage and some poor rolls early on from the party, but they prevailed after a few rounds.

They looted the room, took stock of their wounds and did some healing, and decided the barricade should stay in place for now while they explored elsewhere.  They didn’t know if whatever was threatening the Bugbears would threaten them, or become an ally.  Having run in to a “dead end” (DM: And it getting late enough that they didn’t want to get locked in to a long encounter) they decided now was a good time to do a more thorough search of the areas they had passed through.  Talindra ritually cast Detect magic and did a run around with the group.  Something in the lake caught her eye.  She summoned an Unseen Servant and commanded it to bring up anything it could find while pointing towards the glow.  Over many trips it brought back shells, bones, shells, two platinum rings, stones, shells, more bones, stones, a magic wand, shells, stones, some muck, stones, stones, bones, stones, and Talindra dismissed her servant.

They went back in to the Bugbear Barracks and discussed having a short rest and taking the time to ritually identify the wand.  Araloth went up the northern corridor to stealthily peek around for any threats.  To the east of the end he could see a Bugbear and a Drow with their backs to him, with the sounds of stones being shifted within a crevasse in front of them.  He carefully retreated and informed the party.  They took their chances on a ritual identify but opted against a short rest at this time.  It was a Wand of Magic Missiles.  After a short discussion it was agreed that Ramond the Paladin should have it for all those annoying times when he finds himself spending 2+ rounds just running close enough to hit things with his sword.  He felt a little bad as he is already covered in magic items, but this does seem like the best use of the item.

Throughout all of this exploration they slowly noticed that as they head north, the regular tremors were getting slowly louder.  They could hear and feel them a little more, once every two minutes.

DM: We called it a night here.  It was approaching 11pm at this point and one of our players has an early start and two more had their internet go out.

DM: Dynamic lighting.  I’d spent the week trying things to get it working and thanks to some pointers from another DM using Roll20 we got it up and running well enough to use for the first time.  By the end of the session we’d had a human player without a light source in complete darkness for a few hours and they’d have a miserable time.  They couldn’t plan their turns, or even tell what everyone else was talking about during their turns.  They called it “the worst radio play ever”.  I didn’t understand how bad they had it until after we’d called the session. This cannot be allowed to happen again.  I’m either ditching Dynamic Lighting or dropping an OOC light source in to fights so everyone can watch and I can remove to determine IC sight when it matters.

After Talindra was done exploring and identifying they sat around in the Bugbear barracks for another half hour so the others could complete a short rest before heading out to deal with the enemies that Araloth had scouted out at the end of last session.  The quietly made their way down the corridor with the archers up front with the plan that the archers would focus fire the Drow down and Karson would tank the Bugbear.  As they were getting in to position, they heard the Bugbear say he had heard something and peaking around the corner they could see he and the Drow had turned their way.

Karson ran around the corner and killed the bugbear in one round.  Bilba stepped out, rolled her Light stone down the stairs and Crit shot the Drow as two more bugbears climbed up out of the trench, drew weapons and moved towards Karson.  The Drow fired his crossbow at Bilba, poisoning her before he backed up over the stream.  Devere ran to engage the Drow while Melandrach Sun Bolted him.  Thorivor shot the Drow with a Grasping Arrow (Damage if he tries to move) and Talindra followed that up with a Hexed Eldritch Blast as Ramond ran full pelt to engage him.  Araloth missed his attack on the Drow while Karson beat up the closest Bugbear.  The two bugbears beat in to Karson while the Drow disengaged from the surrounding enemies, taking Grasping Arrow damage as a result, but not quite making it to cover.  Devere overtook the Drow and hit him with his mace and Melandrach finished the job.  The eight of them then made short work of the two Bugbears who had nowhere to run before looting the corpses.

They took everyone’s weapons and armour and put it in the Bag of Holding and discovered that the Drow was actually another Doppelganger.  Araloth dropped in to the canyon and had a look around where the Bugbears had been digging.  It looked like they had been at it for a while.  He removed a few rocks quickly and discovered nothing more interesting than a bone before deciding to leave this for now.  Ramond healed Bilba’s poison by Laying on Hands.

They noticed that the tunnel behind them and the pathways the Drow was heading towards were both filled with more cobwebs than the rest of the mine and possibly connected.  They split the party in two and headed down both pathways at once, coordinating via Talindra’s Sending cantrip.  Devere passed by a side door he listed and could hear laboured breathing behind, although he chose to ignore it for now.  Karson, Devere and Melandrach took the northern corridor and everyone else took the southern pathway.  When they were in position Araloth opened one of the double doors and took two crossbow bolts to the chest from readied actions.  The first poisoned him and knocked him out, but the second woke him back up again.  Before he went down he saw

Six cracked marble pillars lining the walls of this hall, at the north end of which stood a nine-foot-tall statue of a dwarf seated on a throne, a mighty stone warhammer across his lap. Large emeralds gleamed in the statue’s eyes.  The dust and debris covering the floor had been swept to one side, and a campsite of sorts spread in front of the statue. Half a dozen bedrolls and packs were neatly arranged around a rough-built fire pit. A wooden table stood on the west side of the room between two pillars.  A spider could be seen behind the far pillar, failing to hide.  Gathered in that corner were two bugbears with Morningstars’ drawn, and a Drow with a hand crossbow.  A second Drow with a hand crossbow could be seen on the other side of the statue, stood upside down on the ceiling.  Everyone was ready and waiting for the intruders.  A disembodies voice could be heard, “It seems that I must deal with you myself. A pity it must end this way.”

(DM: Bear with me.  This is a loooong fight and as I type this, it’s still not over)

Thorivor stepped up, shot the grounded Drow twice and backed away, narrowly dodging a bolt from the Drow on the ceiling.  Ramond ran in to the room, pointed his Wand of Magic Milles and fired 6 charges at the same Drow, hitting it with 8 missiles, nearly killing it.  Talindra fired an Eldritch Blast at him, but it went wide.  One bugbear double moved towards each group, engaging Karson and Ramond, as the damaged Drow ran for cover behind the table and missed a shot at Ramond.  The disembodied voice spoke up again, “We don’t have to be enemies you know.  Work for me and we can share the spoils of the mine.  You know what the Spellforge can do.  It can be ours.”  The visible spider moved forward and spat some webbing at Ramond, restraining him where he stood.  Another spider appeared from behind the central western pillar, moved forward and spat web all over Melandrach.  Araloth picked himself up off the floor and moved to flank Ramond’s Bugbear, landing a blow in its back, before retreating to behind a pillar.  Bilba moved up and hid behind Ramond, and shot his target.  Devere Blessed himself, Ramond, Melandrach and Karson and moved to flank with Karson.  Karson Hunters Marked and attacked the flanked Bugbear as Melandrach tore himself free of the webbing and moved forward.

The Drow on the ceiling began to chant and the area around the southern doorway was plunged in to magical darkness, dispelling their only two sources of light before backing up behind the corner pillar (DM: And pooping on the enjoyment of the HUMAN paladin player for the rest of the session.  The Halfling shares a screen with Karson, who has Darkvision so it’s less of an issue there).  Despite being trapped with the darkness, Thorivor was able to fire off a Seeking Arrow and almost finish off the damaged Drow.  Ramond Tore the webbing off himself and stepped to the side while Talinda waded across the darkness and Eldritch Blasted the damaged Drow to death and Hexed the guy on the ceiling and stepped back in to the darkness (DM: They quickly worked out how to use the Darkness to their advantage) .  Karsons bugbear smacked him hard with its Morningstar while the other backed out of the Darkness and hit Araloth.  The voice could be heard again, “You work for that dwarf, don’t you?  He’s got no greater claim on this abandoned mine than I do.  I found it first.  I have salvage rights to this place.”  Lightning fired along the eastern wall of the room, electrifying Devere and Melandrach, and then a new Drow could be seen in the corner, wearing black clothing and holding a black staff with a spider crafted on it top.  The spiders stepped up and bit at Devere, and downed Melandrach.  A third spider appeared from behind the pillar over Araloth and missed an attack against him.  Araloth missed two attacks against his Bugbear before hiding back in the Darkness.  Bilba rested one hand on the wall and followed it around in to the room.  The only thing she could see was The Black Spider (The new Drow) illuminated by the fire pit.  She gave it her all and critted him badly.  Devere healed Melandrach and channelled his divinity to restore a spell slot while Karson and Melandrach beat up their Bugbear.

The ceiling Drow hit Devere with a poisoned bolt, but he resisted as Thorivor stepped out and back in to the Darkness and piercing the Black Spider with an arrow.  Ramoned channelled divinity to restore a spell slot and ran out of the Darkness towards the fire, drew his shield and engaged The Black Spider.  Talindra supported this by Eldritch blasting him before backing in to the darkness again.  One bugbear missed Karson and the other moved up around the Darkness.  The Black Spider looked shaken and bloody, mumbled a few words and vanished from sight.  The three spiders made their attacks and a fourth appeared from behind the central eastern pillar, spitting web at and missing Bilba.  Araloth got his Second Wind (healing for 11), kicked open the second of the double doors, and moved and stabbed the spider that was behind Bilba.  Bilba drew her sword and stabbed at the same spider before disengaging in to the Darkness.  Devere channelled the storm within and fired a lightning bolt through two spiders to where The Black Spider had last been seen.  This killed one spider and badly burning the other, and then he summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the closest Bugbear, which Karson then finished off before backing up for safety.  Melandrach then unleashed a flurry of blows on the closest spider, who survived.

The upside down Drow ended his Darkness spell and moved south to the next pillar and missing a shot at Thorivor.  Thorivor recovered one of his magical shots and fired a Seeking Arrow at the vanished Black Spider, hurting him badly and revealing him to be invisible and about 5 foot north of Melandrach.  His target gone, Ramond turned around and missed an attack on the nearest Bugbear.  Talindra fired an Eldritch blast where the arrow had hit, but it didn’t connect with anything.  The last Bugbear hit Ramond and the spiders attacked their nearest targets.  Araloth missed both attacks against his spider and then followed the wall out of the room.  As he hit the door he bumped in to something invisible and shouted to the group to alert them that he’d found their target.  In complete darkness, guided purely by Araloth’s voice Bilba aimed (While essentially blind???) a shot at the invisible Black Spider and a moment later his invisible corpse slumped in to Araloth before fading back in to site.  Devere and his spiritual weapon ganged up on the nearest spider while Karson drank a healing potion and advanced.  Melandrach killed his spider and moved over to hit the final Bugbear.

DM: We called the session there.  Midnight was aproaching and even then we discussed the lighting issues until near 1am.  The Black Spider is dead, and they’ve killed some of the trash.  Most of whats left is almost dead, but the party are out of resources and low on health.  They should be able to outlast whats left, but dice happen and Ceiling Drow is still on full health and out of reach of melee attacks.

So the dynamic lighting worked well, in terms of little to no lag and walking down corridors was cool.  However, this fight highlighted how lack of LoS, or losing your light source could make the game incredibly boring and frustrating.  Here are two pics of the same situation taken at the same time from two different points of view.  Ramond tells me that most of the session was spent with a cview like this, which he took in good spirits for most of the game but was understandably frustrated after four hours of play.  I’m not going to let this happen again.  I wish I’d been fully aware of this sooner as I’d have fixed the issue even if it meant ditching the Dynamic Lighting completely.  As I could not see his view I didn’t understand how little he could see and how detatched he felt from events.

My current plan of things to test before next session is:

1: I drop a bright OOC light source in the room any time theres a fight going on and we can move it out of the way briefly when we want to tell who can see what IC

2: Try “Daylight mode” in Roll20. Not sure what this does yet but I’m thinking it provides illumination everywhere at all times, but still allows for walls to block LoS. I need to play with this feature to see how it works, and if I can turn it off and on mid-session without dumping load times on everyone or creating other issues

3: If those options don’t seem to work or any one player doesn’t want to deal with Dynamic Lighting again then I switch back to the old reliable manual FoW system

The party made short work of the rest of The Black Spiders minions with the exception of the Drow crossbowman on the ceiling.  As his allies were killed off and Ramond was shouting out for a light source, he ran across the ceiling, down the wall and out through the southern doorway.  Continuing along the ceiling he ran down the corridors heading south along the western edge of the mine.  The party gave chase as best they could.  The Drow was double moving and they were trying to run and shoot so he was mostly outpacing them.  The melee characters decided it was their job to carry a lantern and double move so the archers could still see him from a distance.  The rogues seemed to be able to double move and still take a shot, but quite often Bilba ran forwards in to darkness and readied a shot until someone else brought some light up.  They’d chip away at him and then he’d run a little further and the gap would grow.  As he was about to move out of the lake room and potentially turn a corner breaking line of sight forever, Bilba was able to get the final shot in to him.

His corpse clung to the ceiling for a round or two as people continued to shoot at him and then he dropped.  They grabbed the body and went back to the Black Spiders room and searched everything while Talindra ritually cast Detect magic.  By the time they were done they’d found a magic spear, magic slippers, a magic staff with a spider sculpted on its tip, and what they’re assuming is a healing potion (DM: See below for stats).  They also found some money and a hand drawn map of the cavern showing only what they’d already explored, but with two written notes.

One note was on the fungal cavern, saying, “Dangerous spores?  Avoid?”.  The other was on the other side of the barricade and said, “Dangerous undead.  Flying skull.”  As the room was being looted Devere’s attention was drawn to the giant statue of a dwarf with emeralds for eyes at the back of the room.  Having seen a similar trap before he got super cautions and checked the statue thoroughly for traps.  It appeared there was an in built structural weakness and that the emeralds supported a small but important amount of weight and if they were removed it could trigger a chain reaction.  While he was up there he realised the emeralds looked off.  He called over Araloth who confirmed his suspicions.  They were just coloured glass and not worth the trouble.

Karson investigated the side room and found a battered dwarf tied up and unconscious.  He lit a brazier and untied him and let him come to on his own.  The dwarf looked scared and started to scooch away from Karson, who offered him some Goodberries and tried to be reassuring.  He eventually took some and relaxed and they had a chat.  The dwarf was Nundro Rockseeker, Gundrens other brother.  They updated each other on what they knew and Karson offered to escort him to safety.  Nundro asked for a spare weapon just in case and took a morningstar and shield from a dead bugbear, but couldn’t face putting on armour over his beaten and sore body.

Talindra had a quick look in Nundros room and down at the dig site for anything that might show up to his Detect Magic and didn’t immediately spot anything. The group discussed digging up whatever the bugbears had been looking for.  Nundro said he’s heard Nezznar (The black Spider) say he’d divined that some magic was buried there but didn’t know any more.  Devere, Araloth and Talindra were tempted to dig further, but Ramond pointed out this was unwise right now and anything buried would likely still be there after a nights rest.

The group carefully left the mine and headed back to camp.  As they got a few minutes away from the campsite Devere heard Gundrens voice in his head, “Hello?  We need a little help here!  Ah!  Go away!  Get off me!  There’s some…leave me alone!  My ankle! They’re in the camp.  We’re under…”  He informed the party and they picked up the pace.  As they drew near they ran in to one of Gundrens hired miners, Turval Heruca, running the other way.  He said Owlbears were attacking the camp and he’d run for his life.  The others were in danger.  They drew weapons and advanced and quickly saw the camp.  One Owlbear was on its hind legs swiping up a tree.  In the tree was another miner (Selwart Peters) throwing sticks and pinecones at the Owlbear while shouting at it to go away.  The other Owlbear was walking through the camp, clipping tents with its rear and sniffing at a cooking fire.

With no one in immediate danger the party held back, behind some tent sand the wagons.  Devere made the ground shake a little while Talindra replicated the sound of the dragons roar overhead.  They stopped what they were doing and looked up and around.  The tree Owlbear gave up on his quarry and headed to the other campfire, ignoring further thrown sticks.  Devere created the sound of thunder as the other Owlbear started trying to pull dinner of the campfire without burning itself.  The party started firing warning shot at the Owlbears or running in trying to look big and menacing and eventually chased them off, only losing one of the two campfires worth of food.

Gundren and Nundro were reunited and had a catch up and everyone rebuilt and repaired the tents.  Talindra identified their magic items and they discussed plans for the next day.  They check if Gundren and Nundro had any further information about what was in the mine and discovered that Nezznar hadn’t found the Spellforge yet as some undead were in his way.  Nundro didn’t know more than that.

The next morning they got up and went to back the mine and had a long chat about who would carry what light source and ensured backups were to hand and went back in to the darkness.

DM: We called it there.  It was getting late and any encounter would have us ending very late

Loot:

Serpent Spear

+1 spear, Uncommon

Simple Melee

1d6 + 1 piercing, Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8+1)

This simple bronze spear will turn in to a snake at its bearers request and wind itself around their arm.  Upon command it will slither in to their grip and turn in to a spear.  Once per short rest this spear can be commanded to turn back to a snake and attempt to grapple a large or smaller creature when it hits it.  The bearer must let go of the spear when this happens.  Once the grapple ends or fails, the spear will try to slither back to its master and up their leg to return to their arm.

Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft. STR 15 (+2, DEX 14 (+2)

Constrict.

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. The target is grappled (escape dc 15) Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the snake can’t constrict another target.

Black Spider Staff

Staff, +1

The top of this black, adamantine staff is shaped like a spider. The staff weighs 6 pounds. You must be attuned to the staff to gain its benefits and cast its spells.

The staff can be wielded as a quarterstaff. It deals 1d6 extra poison damage on a hit when used to make a weapon attack.

The staff has 10 charges, which are used to fuel the spells within it. With the staff in hand, you can use your action to cast one of the following spells from the staff if you have levels as an arcane caster: spider climb (1 charge) or web (2 charges, spell save DC 15). No components are required.

Additionally, one spell cast from this staff can be concentrated on and not prevent the caster from concentrating on another spell cast by other means.

The staff regains 1d6 + 4 expended charges each day at dusk. If you expend the staff’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff crumbles to dust and is destroyed.

Slippers of Spider Climbing

While you wear these light shoes, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. However, the slippers don’t allow you to move this way on a slippery surface, such as one covered by ice or oil.

DM: Thorivor sadly couldn’t make this session and due to an easter induced unexpected napping related incident Ramond missed all the combats but arrived in time to help decide what to do after.

The party decided to begin exploring the mine today starting with the large central room they had not been to, but was revealed on The Black Spider’s map and head up towards the room labelled, “Dangerous undead!  Flying Skull”.  They headed north from the entrance towards the stairs to that room a mess of Ghouls had swarmed them from.  Scouting ahead, Karson spotted some Stirges feasting on the ghoul bodies.  Behind him, Melandrach tripped and accidentally revealed his hidden Light Stone, outlining Karson for the Stirges who looked up and chased the fresh meal.  They drank well from Karson, but with them all bunched up to eat him, Devere unleashed a cone of Burning Hands and friend them all while only mildly singing Karson.

They edged their way up the stairs in to the big room and then cautiously and slowly explored the room and came up with a plan to draw the enemy back in to a defensive position.  Everyone would form up around the top of the western stairs and the enemy would be baited to follow someone through the north eastern entrance towards them.  Archers could pelt them for a few rounds and the melee could deal with them once they got too close.  They wanted some light in the area (DM: The dynamic lighting feature already influencing everything they do.  Worth having, if you can get it to work without creating too many issues) so they broke up some of the tables for fuel and lit the two braziers in the room.  They then got in position and Karson crept in to the next room with Araloth nearby as backup, walking on the ceiling with his new Slippers of Spider Climbing (DM: Which presumably also do something to stop you suffering from all the blood rushing to your head even though that’s not mentioned).

As Karson headed up the path he became aware of a light source ahead and it appeared to be moving.  He eventually caught sight of a floating skull wrapped in green flames slowly moving about the room.  As he was considering shooting it, it disappeared behind a blast furnace.  He held his action and waiting for a clear line of sight.  When it reappeared he suddenly wondered if he was within the light of its glow and not stealthed (DM: it was close, but he was safe), and he unleashed his arrow (DM: And initiatives were rolled).  The Flameskull advanced towards where the arrow had come from and shot two Fire Rays from its eyes at the intruder, nearly killing him.  Karson ran away as fast as he could, while shouldering his bow.  Araloth shortly followed suite while shouting out a warning that the flying skull was approaching and some Zombies were following it.

The light of the Flameskull could be seen moving down the corridor but he did not reveal himself to the room.  Karson drew his swords and ran around the room looking for somewhere he could stand that was in complete darkness, but the braziers prevented this.  Devere Blessed Melandrach Ramond and Thorivor as everyone continued to hold their shots.  Then the first of the Zombies came running out of the corridor, drawing fire from Melandrach, Bilba, and Thorivor.  A surprise zombie appeared from the other entrance in to the big chamber, much closer to the party, behind Araloth and Karson.  Araloth turned around and went for him, attacking from above, stood on the wall.

The now Blurred Flameskull entered the main room and Talindra hit it with a readied Eldritch Blast, and Ramond fired his Wand of Magic Missiles at it (DM: 3 charges, leaving 1 remaining), which was countered with a Shield spell.  The Flameskull unleashed three Magic Missiles and Karson, knocking him unconscious, before retreating back up the corridor.  As the zombies approached the party pelted them with arrows, holding formation, and slowly whittling them down while Talindra healed Karson.  Devere spoke up, saying he’d noticed something behind them down the stairs.  (DM: He had a sliver of light showing him part of a token down the stairs behind them.  He couldn’t make out what the token was, but it was big.  An Ochre Jelly had been following them for a while hoping to sneak up on a lone victim at the back of the party.  At this point it thinks it is hidden, just as I thought!)  Devere then Sorching Ray’ed two zombies and the big thing behind him.  Still walking on the wall, Araloth killed his zombie, but another appeared at the top of the stairs nearby.

The light of the Flameskull faded from the far corridor.  Realising he had been spotted, the Ochre jelly advanced slowly up the stairs.  Talindra used her new staff to trap the jelly in webs, restraining it successfully, and then cast Shillelagh on her staff just in case.  Devere summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the jelly for the next few rounds.  Melandrach backed up and put an arrow in it too while the others continued to work on the Zombies, killing some before they could make it half way across.

The Flameskull appeared atop the stairs where Araloth was fighting and hit him with both his Fire Ray eye shots, hurting him badly, before ducking back around the corner.   Ramond threw a javelin at the Jelly and got back in formation.  Karson turned his sword in to a bird and had it attack the Jelly and block its path.  Talindra joined in, Hexing its Strength checks and Eldritch Blasting it, and Melandrach shot it then drew his Staff.  The first of the Zombies finally made it to their defensive position as the last of the Zombies revealed itself.  Araloth got his Second Wind (DM: healing) and ran up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the wall on the other side, trying to get to cover (DM: Slippers of Spider Climb means tracking full 3D movement and mapping.  This is gonna get interesting / frustrating).

The Flameskull ventured down the corridor and shot both rays at Araloth but went wide, and didn’t have time to retreat to cover.  The Jelly advanced 5 foot through the webbing, squeezing next to Talon and through the Spiritual Weapon.  Ramond stepped forward, eager for a melee opponent, and cut deep in to the Zombie in front of him.  Karson stepped down to help, but the Zombie somehow survived.  Karson retreated and dodged a free strike.  Talindra Eldritch blasted the Flameskull as Devere’s Spiritual Weapon smooshed the Jelly.  The lines met, Melandrach took his staff to the nearest zombie as others shot arrows in to the remaining nearby horde (DM: 3 left at this point).  Melandrach took a hit in retaliation.  Araloth wall walked to attack the Flameskull before retreating again.

The Flameskull advanced forward, rising as he went, and then spat out a Fireball behind the group, getting everyone except for Talindra and Araloth, even killing a zombie.  (DM: He rolled 33 damage and scared everyone badly.  They don’t know how often he can do that).  Melandrach and Karson dropped and everyone else was looking bad.  The Flameskull took what little cover it could.  Ramond smote the nearby zombie and gained some temporary hit points to keep himself alive as he tried to make himself a tempting target to the last zombie.  Talindra healed Karson and Blasted the last Zombie.  Devere ran down the stairs and healed Melandrach as Thorivor gained his Second Wind and put two arrows in to the Flameskull.  Melandrach threw a Radiant Sunbolt at the skull and ran for cover away from the others.  The last zombie fluffed its attack on Ramond.  Araloth ran along the walls around the corner to the Flameskull and sunk his blade deep in an eye socket, gained leverage on it and swung it around.  It flew off the blade, hit the wall and bounced around before landing motionless and extinguished on the floor.  Arlaoth then stood over it to ensure it didn’t get back up again while Ramond finished off the final Zombie.

With the enemies dead, the party investigated the skull and asked if anyone had any clue what it was, while Devere prepared a healing prayer circle.  Melandrach said he had read something about this a long time ago.  He told the group that they were made from dead wizards and were usually created to guard something or to complete a specific task.  They also self-resurrect after a short time, although he wasn’t sure how long it took.  They then spent 30-45 minutes (DM: in real time) discussing what to do to stop it getting back up, along with having a quick wonder round the Blast Furnace room.  Their final solution was to lock it in a room until they could make or buy some Holy Water and hope that killed it for good.  Any cleric or paladin can spend an hour and a 1^st level spell slot to turn a flask of water and 25gp of silver dust in to a flask of holy water.  If they can find some tools they can spend a while filing down 250 silver coins and make a flask themselves.  They took the skull back to the most southern rooms and threw it in the eastern one.  They closed the door and used pitons to wedge it shut.  They went back to the small central room with 2 doors and beds and had a short rest.

During their short rest they discussed where to go next.  Head north through the Blast Furnace chamber, head south east to the fungal room, explore the nearby side chamber, or go and try to talk with the trapped Flameskull with no way to perma-kill it yet.  They opted to head north for now.

The furnace room had an exit to the west to the door barricaded from the other side which they had already explored, and an exit to the north which they confirmed connects to the crevasse they found two bugbears digging in.  The crafted gulley that previously powered the water wheel also went out under the wall to the east, from which the sound of water and the periodic tremor grew louder.  There was also a corridor near this heading east, which is the path they chose.

Karson went ahead and found the short corridor quickly opened up in to a vast chamber, larger than his Darkvision could reveal to him.  There was open darkness to the south, and a corridor heading north down some steps and out of site.  In front of him he saw a building with two entrances.  He listened carefully at both doors and didn’t hear much, but light could be seen from the cracks in the double doors.  He went back to the party and they got in position ready for the double doors to be opened.  As they entered the large cavern some element in the walls and ceiling picked up the light they were carrying and bounced it around the cavern.  Every surface looked like it was covered in little stars, providing dim illumination throughout.  A second building could be seen further south.  Karson snuck in through the side door and found a simple damaged workshop showing signs of an ancient battle.  Another door could be seen in front of him, with light escaping from under it.  He waited by this door for signs to act while the others opened the double doors.  Melandrach gave a quick listen at the double doors and could hear what sounded like a small fire crackling on the other side.  He gave the group a nod and opened them.

The doors opened in to a large workshop which was badly damaged by the ancient spell battle that had laid waste to the mine. Worktables taking up two corners of the room were scorched, and the plaster has been burned off the masonry walls. In the middle of the room, a stone pedestal held a small brazier in which an eerie green flame danced and crackled. The brazier and its pedestal appeared to have been untouched by the forces that destroyed this area.

Behind the brazier of green flame floated a spherical creature measuring roughly four feet in diameter. Four eyestalks protrude from its central mass, two on each side. In the centre of the body was a large eye that stared at them. “Hello,” said a thick, burbling voice inside the heads of all who could see it.

The green beholder seemed polite and pleased to see them and they had a conversation.  The beholder revealed his name is Netyrk and that he was guarding the Spellforge and the items created from it, gesturing to the only two clean items in the room, a mace and a set of half plate.  The party tried to tell him that the mine had fallen and everyone was dead, but Netyrk insisted it was a fully operational mine and he’d spoken to the miners recently.  When asked what he could see in the room he greatly downplayed the damage, insisting it just needed a good clean and wasn’t largely destroyed.  They asked if they could enter the room and he asked what they were doing there.  They said that the mine had been attacked and they had been called in to check the threat had been fully removed and it was safe again.  Netyrk remembered the battle and insisted it was recent, when it had been 500 years ago.  He was happy to see them and let them enter, but asked them to not touch anything they shouldn’t.  They had a look around the room and let Karson in from the side door.  The breastplate had a gold dragon motif worked into its design, and the head of the mace was shaped like a sunburst and made of solid brass.  This was presumably Lightbringer, the mace they had read about long ago, commissioned by the church of Lathander.  They asked who his boss was and who had created the items.  Foreman Grindle Rezinbakker was the name they were given and they were pointed towards him for more answers.  Netyrk continued to act like all was well in the mine and he’d spoken to Grindle only a few days ago at most, although one day is pretty much the same as the next when you don’t leave this room.

They said they needed to keep securing the mine but they’d be back later and headed to the southern building.  They listened at the door and heard nothing before opening the door.  Dust, ash, walls blackened by fire, and heaps of debris beneath the sagging ceiling showed that this room was damaged by a destructive blast. The furnishings-tables, chairs, bookshelves, beds-were charred or splintered, but otherwise well preserved. A scorched iron chest stood near the foot of one of the beds.

They filed in to the room and began looking around.  As Devere approached the chest and started talking about opening it, a smoky shadowy mass began rising out of the floor, and took on a human form.  “Your presence is offensive to me, your life forfeit. My treasures are mine alone, not yours to plunder!”  He looked about the group, in particular towards Devere.  Devere asked if he was the offensive one.  The apparition responded that this was his home and they should get out.  Devere looked around at the group for help and they shrugged and gestured for him to take the lead.  Devere said they’d leave.  They carefully backed out, covering their rears, and closed the doors behind them.

They backed off a bit and had a chat about what to do next.  They considered asking Netyrk about who this spirit is, but decided that was pointless as he still thinks it’s 500 years ago.  They knew they couldn’t leave it here as they were hired to clear the mine and this would not be safe for Gundren.  The beholder might be safe to leave here as he appears to be one of the original employees and they might be able to convince it to accept new management.  They agreed to head back in and kill the spirit.  Araloth said he was sure it is a Wraith.  An evil spirit of malice infused with negative energies.  It was likely once a living human a long time ago.  They got in position and Devere kicked open the door, shouting, “By the light of Lathander, your presence in this realm is anathema to every living thing!  We will quench your fire and send you to the pits where you belong!”

Karson charged past him, but the wraith was waiting behind the door expecting this.  It attacked Karson, sucking the life from his bones (DM: and reducing his max HP).  Karson countered, attacking with both his weapons.  Araloth ran down from the roof, through the doorway and along the inside wall to slash at him, before backing up to stand upside down on the ceiling.  The Wraith lashed out at the only target in range, but missed Karson.  Bilba crept in and put an arrow into the Wraith and Ramond moved to flank it, hitting with a Divine Smite.  It lashed out at him feasting on his life force, rejuvenating itself partially.  Melandrach ran in and beat it with his stick and then punched it to death with a Flurry of Blows.  They then looted the room, pulling some trinkets out of the chest.  The books on the shelves seemed to be a mix of history texts and guides and notes on magical item creation.  One of the books had a few pages stuck inside that did not match the rest of the book.  They were handwritten in dwarven, but had a drawing of an elven plaque that had been badly copied.  The pages appear to be torn from of a larger text and start mid-sentence.  They detail the authors stay overnight in a ruined elven temple he was hiding in after some unspecified incident.  He made drawings of what he saw and the next day kept notes on his attempts to find his way back to civilisation as he was apparently lost deep within the Mere of Dead Men.  The elven plaque was hard to read as it was such a bad copy, but it suggested Sehannine Moonbow had once visited the temple and left an artefact behind which the temple had dedicated itself to guarding.

They concocted a plan to get Lightbringer from the beholder so headed back to the northern building.  They popped inside and said some of them were representatives of the Church of Lathander (Gesturing towards Devere, the cleric of Lathander) and they were here to collect their commission, the mace Lightbringer.  This worked and Devere was able to take the mace.  He tried to collect the plate too, but Netyrk asked him to stop.  They tried to pump Netyrk for information on who that commission was for, but he would not tell them, siting Client Confidentiality.  They eventually gave up trying and headed north.

The northern passageway took them to a vast underground lake.  Every two minutes something would bumble up under the water and burst forward.  Water would slam against the banks and the water level would raise almost enough to flood the land around it.  This seemed to be the source of the periodic tremors, although they could not work out what the source of this activity was.  The followed the path around and it lead them back to the crevasse the Hobgoblins had been digging in.  They then spent 20 minutes trying to work out the original water network in this cavern, eventually concluding water flowed from the west to the east favouring the manmade canals and terminating in the north eastern lake.  An earthquake had created a new exit in the crevasse and had redirected the water away from the water wheel.  They stopped to dig for a few hours to find whatever the Black Spider had been looking for and pulled out some magic gauntlets.  They decided to head back to camp and see if Gundren knew anything about the Beholder, the Flameskull,  or the original defences of the mine.

They got back to camp and had a check with Gundren who didn’t know anything he hadn’t already told them.  He had packed a selection of tools for mining and metalworking which the group borrowed to spend 8 man hours filing down silver coins.  Talindra also identified the Mace and the Gauntlets.

Lightbringer, +1 Mace

This +1 mace was made for a cleric of Lathander, the god of dawn. The head of the mace is shaped like a sunburst and made of solid brass. It was possibly the last item made in the Spellforge at Wave Echo Cave before the mine was lost centuries ago and has never been used before.

When attuned to by a follower of Lathander, this weapon can glow up to as bright as a torch when its wielder commands.

Gauntlets of Ogre Power

Your Strength score is 19 while you wear these gauntlets. They have no effect on you if your Strength is 19 or higher without them.

Devere took the mace and the party decided that Karson was the best fit for the Gauntlets.  They rested in camp overnight so Devere could craft some Holy Water in the morning.  The night passed by uneventfully, but when Devere got up to pray during the sunrise something unexpected happened.  As the first rays of sunrise hit his new mace it began to vibrate and it lit up by itself.  There was a flash of power within it, echoed within Devere and he became aware of a new power within the mace: While at full brightness, its wielder gains a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and to the saving throw DCs of their divine spells. (DM: He didn’t notice this new line at first and said, “oh great.  It’s a torch”.  3-4 seconds of silence before there was a more excited “Oh!”).

The party got themselves ready and went back to the mine and decided to speak to Netyrk again.  They tried to convince him that he’d been in the mine longer than he realised.  They showed him Urmon’s journal (DM: They found this with Glasstaff’s stuff.  It was written 500 years ago by a dwarf who had been at the mine when Lightbringer was being worked on).  They showed him the dates on the entries and how old the book was.  He wasn’t ready to believe them, but he was listening.  Melandrach also realised that this handwriting matched the pages they had found yesterday.

They told Netyrk the truth as best they could.  They persuaded him to look outside this chamber.  He wouldn’t leave, but he stood in the doorway as they pointed towards the dead bodies scattered around.  He insisted they were just resting.  Weren’t they?  They picked one up and brought it over.  Bits fell off on the way.  Under close inspection, reinforced with their persuasion, they convinced Netyrk that it had been 500 years, not only a few years.  Netyrk took a moment to absorb this, and then said his contract had expired.  A portal opened behind him, and as he disappeared through it, he thanks the group.  They looted the half plate and headed south to deal with the Flameskull.

They tried to talk to it through the door, but all they got was death threats and maniacal laughter.  They quickly realised talking wouldn’t get them anywhere so they came up with a plan, took up positions and opened the door.  3 Zombies came pouring out.  This fight didn’t last long and the party downed the zombies and the Flameskull with much more ease than last time (DM: it was about midnight and we were all making mistakes.  I forgot his Blur and Shield spells until it was too late to make much difference.  Devere attacked the burning skull with fire at one point!).  Devere poured the Holy Water over it, and it fizzed and bubbled like it was acid.  It melted away like a cheap plastic toy in an oven.

They debated leaving the fungus for Gundren to deal with, but decided best not to.  There could be something hostile living in there.  Talindra sent her Owl familiar to scout through the room.  As it flapped about the fungus unleashed a thick cloud of spores and the Owl choked and died before it could escape.  The spore cloud added away and Devere sent in a Flaming Sphere to burn the fungus.  This seemed to work well, so he sent in another and then they went in after with other fire spells and cleared the room up.

With the fungus gone, the noticed a circle of runes carved in to the floor where the fungus had been.  An earthquake had broken the ground here allowing the original fungus entry and had put a crack through the runes.  Fungus grew out of that crack and had lifted up a section of rock over the years.  Talindra tried to read the runes and concluded they were magic in origin, but she couldn’t read most of them.  The one she thought she knew was something to do with transportation or teleportation.

With the mine now cleared they called Gundren over to join them.  They took him and the miners on a tour telling them what they had encountered and what the risks and challenges might be going forwards.  Gundren asked them to hang around for a few days and guard them until they were sure it was safe.  They were going to have to reopen some collapsed shafts and didn’t know if anything might be living in those areas.

(DM: The party have agreed and Gundren will hold them here for 3 more days before allowing them to leave.  They will be kept busy the first day, but as the miners get used to the place they’ll have a lot more free time, basically finding themselves “on call”.  This gives them some free time in the mine to do as they see fit.  Gundren has asked that anyone magically inclined take a look at the Spellforge and figure out how it works.  We called the session and I’m hoping to deal with this time across the week over Discord.  They now own 10% of a mine and will get 10% of the profits, once it’s up and running.  They also have access to the mythical Spellforge.  This was used to make magic items with much more ease than normal, long long ago.)

The party spent 3 days in the mine doing occasional guard duty as old shafts were reopened.  Occasionally a rat swarm, a jelly, or a skeleton would be revealed and dealt with, but mostly the party got some down time to do with as they wanted.  Devere announced that he wants to stay and protect the mine for now and returned some of his magic items to the party, but kept his new mace. (DM: Real life is clashing right now.  We hope to see him return later).  They party made plans for the next week or two.  Talindra wanted to stay here for a few more days and finish a project she had been working on in the Spellforge.  Thorivor wanted to return to town and develop his potion crafting.  Ramond wanted to head to Neverwinter to do the kind of serious trading that can’t be done in the backwater town of Phandalin.

They headed back to town, leaving Talindra and Devere behind.  When they got there Ramond went off to buy a saddle and barding for his new summonable horse while the others parked the horse and cart.  As he returned to the group they were greeted by an older looking Druid who introduced himself as Reidoth (DM: They have a quest to find this missing druid.  It took a few minutes for them to put two and two together, at least out loud for me to hear).  He said he needed some help with a threat and the animals he’d been speaking to had suggested them.  The animals had told him about their adventures in Neverwinter Wood dealing with goblinoids at Cragmaw Castle.  (DM: The druid was supposed to be an NPC who didn’t leave Thundertree but when Devere said he was leaving over Discord in the morning I had another friend offer to sign up with a healer and I suggested he rewrite this character and make it his own.  Had he not I think they’d have spent a week in Neverwinter shopping before going to Thundertree and I’d have had Reidoth be a dragon’s lunch by then)

He’d been checking up on the ruins of Thundertree a few weeks back and an injured young green dragon had crash landed there and taken residence in an abandoned tower.  He’d had a conversation with this Venomfang to ask her to move along.  She’s said she was too injured (big visible wound across left side of neck and in to the wing a little) and just needed a place to heal up and would leave when she was strong enough.  An injured dragon was still too much for Reidoth so he didn’t push the issue and chose to watch events from a safe distance.  It’s been a couple of weeks and the dragon has shown no signs of moving on and just seems to be getting more comfortable, and now some dodgy folks in robes and masks have moved in to town too.  This is far too close to Neverwinter for such a threat to get a stronghold and so Reidoth has come looking for aid in removing that threat, one way or another.  The party agreed to help and used the Sending Stones to call Talindra to town.  They ate lunch and got to know each other and then headed towards Tresendar Manor to speak to Sildar Hallwinter.

At the top of the hill they can see that the ground floor is ready for use, but the upstairs is still being worked on.  When they enter they are greeted by Sildar who calls four soldiers to attention behind him.  There’s a chat about how things have gone and Sildar congratulates them.  He then says his work in town is done.  He came here to find Iarno and make sure his mission is a success.  Iarno was sent to town to establish a constabulary to guard Phandalin and now Sildar has the manor ready for use for that and some special agents (the party) protecting town.  He’s had four junior members of The Lords Alliance stationed at the manor and it’ll be their job to act as town guard, under the leadership of the party.  He had one last request of the party.  If this mission is to be a lasting success then there needs to be some locals in the constabulary, not just Lords Alliance soldiers.  If it’s just outsiders then sooner or later the townsfolk will see them as such, and treat them as invaders.  The constabulary needs to be seen as part of the town so needs to have members of the town within its ranks.  The party have been asked to keep an eye out for suitable people to recruit and perhaps train.  Sildar said he’d be heading off to Neverwinter in the morning to get his next assignment.  The party said they were heading that way too and Sildar asked to join them on the road.

They rested up and the journey to Neverwinter was uneventful.  They arrived late on the third day and got rooms at an inn.  They spent the next day selling off their gems, trinkets, and second hand weapons and armour without going overboard looking for the best price.  They stayed a second night and headed towards Thundertree.  They got within sight of two with an hour or two before sunset so while most made camp, Araloth, Karson and Reidoth (in the form of a giant spider) went for a quick look around town.  They skirted around the outside at first and then crept in to town when they couldn’t see any threats.  Araloth climbed up a building for a better view as Karson went ahead.  As he was sneaking through some bushes under cover of twilight a twig snapped underfoot and it let out a grating chirrup.  All the bushes around him started to shake and chirrup and tried to attack him.  He was surrounded by Twig Blights!  A short and easy combat ensued as twig blights are weak and Karson gets 5 attacks on round one now so killed 5 of them before anyone could act.

Once the Twig Blights were dead, they got a little more cautious.  They climbed up a building for a better view and Reidoth pointed towards where the shifty men in cloaks had been seen.  They sat around and watched for half an hour and eventually one of them came out for a smoke.  They’d seen masks and cloaks like this before when they’d been sent to deal with Claugiyliamatar’s hobgoblin army.  These were more dragon cultists!  They crept back to camp and discussed what they’d seen.  Thorivor (DM: After I’d given him a swift kick under the virtual table to look at his backstory) revealed that this was his home town and he’d seen the recent state of it before.  He shared what information he had on the local monsters.  Twig Blights, Giant Spiders, and Ash Zombies (Zombies somehow infused with ash from the eruption decades ago).  All things that Reidoth had already mentioned, but this reinforced everything).  They got a good night’s rest and prepared to head out the next day to meet Venomfang.

It was about 11pm and doing anything would have kept us there for a long time so we called the session for the week.