Eighth Session (Monday, November 20, 2023).
Another week break as a player was moving. We're back now for an extended run, I hope.
With the Lost Mine and The Spider dealt with, it was back to Phandalin to deal with loose ends. This was a good opportunity to deepen the player's links to the NPCs. More than the adventure-as-written, which immediately gets you into the new adventure with a goblin raid. Plus, there was still content from Lost Mine to play!
So, various NPCs offered congratulations on reopening Wave Echo Cave - especially Halia Thornton and Harbin Wester, who saw the business opportunities. Sister Garaele was interested in what they could tell her about the Forge of Spells. They visited Elmina Barthen to buy supplies, gaining a few spell scrolls she'd picked up from a travelling cleric, and learning that her brother (a miner) was looking for work and would ask the Rockseeker brothers.
The satyr of the group decided she wanted horseshoes (goat shoes?) I idly wondered if a satyr with disadvantage for wearing medium armour then got double disadvantage on stealth for metal horseshoes attached to their hooves.
Then we had the funeral of Tharden, the Rockseeker brother murdered by the Spider. It was not that well-attended - Harbin, Sister Garaele, and Sildar were all there, helping Gundren and Nundro (who was using a cane) say farewell to their brother.
With everything in town now dealt with, the party headed out to Owl Tree Well, to find out what the reports of undead activity (related by Daran Edermath) were about.
One random encounter on the journey was with a group of Cragmaw Goblins. According to the adventure text, I should reroll this as the Cragmaws were dealt with. I changed it to a group of Cragmaw goblins trying to start a new life... as marauders on the road. Old life, the same aa the old. The party spotted them in advance and instead of immediately fighting, they deceived them into thinking they were selling subscriptions to knives. Alas for the party (or the goblins, depending), the goblins were poorer than the party expected and couldn't afford even the basic suscription, though the goblins thought it was awesome. And with them now even more fired up to go marauding (and gaining sweet, sweet coin), there was no choice but to kill them - a battle that left only a few goblins alive and fleeing.
They then arrived at Owltree Well, where the stench of unwashed zombies was soon apparent. Stealth was attempted, and was not achieved (both Simeon and Nymia are terrible at stealth). And so we got a battle, which lasted one round (including one zombie death and a turn undead working successfully). But then the Red Wizard of Thay whose zombies these were arrived, demanding to know what was going on.
And it didn't turn hostile! He was reasonable, the party was reasonable, and some glorious interactions ensued. ("Are you using these zombies for evil?" "I'm using them for commerce!") He realised they'd dealt with the marauders at Wyvern Tor, which had made his life easier, and quizzed them about Agatha the Banshee, learning what sort of gift she wanted. For this, he rewarded them with a spell scroll - darkness.
He convinced them he needed his zombies for defense, and the best way for travellers not to be hurt is to not go off the beaten path to his tower and engage the zombies!
With this, the party had enough information to end the quest, and the next time they saw Daran, they'd tell him what they found.
That night, a random wolf attack almost slew the tiefling, but good spell use and sword play managed to save him. (Simeon rolled poorly for initiative, and didn't wake up until it was over).
Back travelling, this time to Thundertree, gave yet another random encounter - an ogre, standing in a stream, looking puzzled. He'd been given instructions, but he couldn't remember what they were. (In fact, he'd been hired by the Cragmaw goblin survivors to deal with the party). We got a brilliant interaction that ended with Nymia persuading him to make money by transporting people over the water, with the party being his first customers.
In Thundertree, the party gained a better idea of the lie of the land from the druid, including where the dragon was and the cultists. (Syzoth wanted to get some of the dragon's poison glands to brew something unspeakable). Twig blights ambushed them as they moved towards the east side of town, but they were easily dispatched.
But as they opened the door to the barracks, grey-faced zombies began to rise from the floor!
At this point, we had internet connection issues and left it on a cliff-hanger until next week. Until then!
Cheers,
Merric
