(LMoP-7) Snake eyes!

What are the odds of rolling two ones in a row? Twice?

Gryff's incredible dice rolling skills come under scrutiny as the heroes prepare to head for Wave Echo Cave - and a date with destiny....and death.

Starring:
Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett
Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne
Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (absent due to being overseas)
Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain

DM comments: This time around I got Brett (Gronn) to deliver a recap of the last sessions events - and I think I'll do that from now on. It gives me a chance to sort my shit out, and let's me hear the adventure from someone else's perspective. Before we kicked off, we had a quick chat about levelling - as most of the party were not far off. Finally, we continued with an experiment - open combat rolling from the DM. So far the feedback has been positive.

Phandalin, destroyed 800 years before, is now starting to revive and our heroes have come through some stressful and dangerous times there. Is it nearing the end, or is it just the beginning?

Our intrepid explorers, not long back from their adventures in the westlands, are preparing for the trip to Wave Echo Cave and question Gundren who, in reality cannot tell them much. He explains that it was a touch search and that he and his brothers had only recently found it, but not yet been able to explore very much - until they had the equipment that the group had originally escorted in blog entry LMoP-1. The wagon stood ready once more, and the party headed out, on a cool, bright summer's morning.

After approximately ten miles travel, and very little conversation, apart from a brief chat about what to expect, they reached a stage where the wagon could go no more and Gundren handed out backpacks full of kit to the others. There was some grumbling.

Another hour of walking and the sun beat down from up on high, but there was regular shelter in the narrow crevasses and canyons through which they travelled - and each time they thought they were lost, Gundren would look around at landmarks only he could identify and then purposefully march off in one direction (also Brett's favourite band).

Gundren exclaimed in delight as they approached a particularly wild looking set of bushes, and behind them the party found a thin tunnel leading into the darkness. A light spell on Wolf's sword lead them through the crack for several hundred feet until it opened into a large cavern. Instantly, their worst fears were partially proved true - Tharden's body lay among piles of supplies (who would be the cousin of an adventurer in this party?!). Gundren roared in anguish and Gronn glowered in anger. Someone would pay - but not at Gundren's hand - he declared he would stay right there and leave the spelunking to the spelunkers. Still no sign of the other cousin, Nundro (but let's face it, he's probably dead if you apply the "Rule of Cousins" from this adventure).

The party climbed down a rope and headed off into the cave. Before long, they found the site of an ancient battle between dwarf and orc - skeletons and rusted armour lay scattered about the place. As Ash nipped forward to check for booty, the party was suprised (stealth roll 17!) by a horde of stirges! After an initial attack round that saw everyone but Wolf injured, a few stirges were stabbed before Ash, in desperation, Thunderwave'd the crap out of every stirge in the room, whilst miraculously (not to him) avoiding all of his colleagues. He celebrated loudly, much to the disgust of Gryff - who's a bit grumpy these days.

The next room, obviously some kind of storeroom held a different kind of surprise. Skeletons! This fight helped hone some tactics for the group (form a semi-circle around the doorway, where Ash cowered in fear could pick off weak enemies at will. After a fairly straightforward battle, the party continued their search. 
The party doubled-back and headed down another corridor, rough-hewn this time, and found themselves in a massive cavern, lit by carpets of fungus. The room itself was full of all sorts of massive mushrooms, small puff spheres sitting on shelves of other fungi and basically made the entire room a little weird looking. The party turned to the Druid, Gronn, for advice.

"Erm, I'm a forest dwarf, not a cave dwarf!".

"It's just fungus, hold your breath and walk through" said Ash, confidently. While the others tended to agree with Ash, Wolf stopped to consider some kind of protective scarf for his face - but wasn't quite sure what to use. 

"...but what about the poof fungus?" asked Gryff....to many guffaws and fnarrs.

Gronn, sick of waiting, rolled a large rock into the carpet of fungus and seemed unbothered by the small cloud of spores which rose in response. The party did, however, all take Wolf's advice and cover their faces before plunging into the room.....and the fungus let out a huge cloud of spores, filling the entire cavern.

"Run!" shouted Ash, "Get the fuck out - back the way we came!"

(since they had face coverings, I gave them all advantage against the poison saves and all made it - one of them "on the button" - damnit!)

The party decided to skip the poof room and go elsewhere (amidst more grumbling).

The party headed north in the cave, before finding a doorway which lead into what was obviously an old barracks. Crouching on the loor, gnawing on a number of centuries old corpses, hoping for the faintest hint of bone marrow, were three ghouls, who leapt at the party and viciously raked their claws across them, slashing faces and chests seemingly at will, but without further ill effect, apart from Wolf, who found himself unable to move. Just as the ghoul leaned forward to sink its teeth into his throat, amazed at its good luck and unable to resist the fleshy feast in front of it, Gryff leapt forward with a series of dazzling thrusts of his blades, driving the creature back, before Ash killed it with a fire bolt.

After negotiating a series of maze-like tunnels, the party found themselves in a room dominated by a large pool. "It's just a pool", announced Ash, and they moved swiftly onwards.

They entered the next room and were surprised to find a number of bugbears, ready for combat, but all facing the wrong direction - across from them was a doorway, blocked with furniture and blocks of rubble. What could possibly have bugbears so afraid? Unwilling to answer that question (or perhaps believing the answer to be, "us"), a short violent melee ended with the heroes taking a moment to discuss their next move over a number of dead bugbears (the highlight of this battle was Gryff rolling a 1, triumphantly reminding me of his Luck racial ability, and then rolling a 1 again!). Ash was all for unblocking the door and seeing what was beyond, but the others disagreed and the decision was to let sleeping doors lie and move onwards in a different direction.

The party moved on and, within a few turns, found themselves before a set of double-doors. Knowing that such a portal in such a place probably meant something nasty, the party burst the doors open and leapt inside!

Across from them, standing next to a table, stood a dark elf in black leather clothes and holding a staff with a spider on top. On either side stood another bugbear.

"I wonder if he knows where The Black Spider is", said Wolf.

Everyone leapt into action. The bugbears charged the group, Gronn and Ash prepared mighty magics while Gryff and Wolf slammed into the bugbears at knee and chest height respectively. Nezznar, the Black Spider, slammed his staff into the ground and as our brave heroes took a moment to await some kind of horrible doom, they saw nothing....but heard something horribly familiar - the skittering approach of giant spiders which ran down the walls, and flung themselves at the valiant adventurers! Ash lit up Nezznar with a witchbolt which didn't seem to want to stop zapping it's target, so the black elf did the only thing he could - he caast a compulsion on Ash, which seemed ever so reasonable, to "go and see what was happening in the corridor"....and Ash duly obliged, ending the spell before it could finish off the brave dark elf.

At that point, four things happened - Nezznar starting flinging magic missiles into warriors, Gronn engaged some giant spiders, the bug bears died and Ash found himself in the corridor which did in fact have something happening - the sound of heavy footsteps and angry voices heading their way!
Ash ran back into the room, just as Gryff and Wolf turned on the spiders blocking their path to Nezznar. Gronn had turned himself into a bear by this point and was laying into a spider. Ash took his last moment of actin to fling some firey doom over at their valiant foe and to everyone's surprise (the witchbolt had done far more than expected!), he dropped to the floor and the spiders vanished in a poof of....err, nothing.

Into the room burst a large black humanoid, nearly naked but well muscled, accompanied by a pair of bugbears. Gronn and Wolf took on the bugbears, while Gryff squared off with the doppelganger. Ash sent waves of fire and doom across their foes, his magics amazingly sliding around his comrades and causing them no harm.

(It's at this time that Gryff obtained his new nickname, Gryffendor "Snake Eyes" Pinecone as he once again replaced a throw of 1 with another 1)

After a series of desperate and impressive parries, Gryff fell to the floor, defeated by the beast in front of him. The others, in desperation, unleashed all they had in one last ditch attempt to fell the doppelganger, his bodyguards already dead, his heavy fists slamming into the heroes time after time before finally, with his final gasp, he whispered a curse into the air, "Vhalak, my brother, avenge me!" before he faded into the blackness...

The party quickly searched the corpses, before taking a moment to relax and rest before searching the rest of the cave.

The Black Spider was dead - but is this the end?

(LMoP-6) Oh no - my family is in peril (again)!

"Who'd be one of our cousins?"

Their patron (in some cases) is now back in Phandalin - and almost in one piece. Despite meeting his death at the hands of the odd shape-shifting creature at Cragmaw Castle, Gundren Rockseeker is alive once more, but Carp, Gryff's cousin, is missing and stories abound through the town of how the undead and orcs in the east are growing bolder - and the adventure continues...

Starring:

Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett

Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne (absent due to illness)

Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (absent due to overseas trip)

Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain

DM comments: Sadly we were down to three for this session, but those who were playing and I unanimously agreed to play on with just three players - there were some adjustments in the flow of the game to accommodate, but the party has proved resourceful (and often require extras!) so I had faith in them... hehehe.

Our heroes found themselves in Phandalin. They had recently returned with Gundren's body and, after some scraping and bowing, arranged for him to be resurrected by Sister Garaele, the priestess of Tymora. As soon as they realised he was alive, the rushed to his side...

"Gundren!" cried Gronn (not actual crying, I hasten to add), "it's so good to see you alive".....barely. Gundren was weak from the resurrection and had little strength in him. He offered them all a small cash reward, but supplemented it with a massive 10% of his business once it was up and running. If Wave Echo Cave was half as rich as they thought it was, money would never be a problem again!

After Sister Garaele confirmed it would be several days before he was fit to move any distance, the party began to plot their next move:

1. Carp was a priority - only missing for half a day, he couldn't have gone far - and the likelihood was that his disappearance was linked to the "hearings" of the strange creature they'd encountered in the crevasse under Tresendar Manor.
2. Sister Garaele had resurrected their friend - and she had also set them a task involving the banshee Agatha, near Conyberry - they were to find out what she did with the spellbook belonging to a man named Bowgentle.
3. The orcs and undead in the east were a menace and needed to be investigated.
4. Hopefully, by the time they returned, Gundren would be fit and recovered from his ordeal, to show them the way to Wave Echo Cave.

The party headed first for Tresendar Manor - and found the secret entrance blocked by rocks. How odd. A quick search of the area found a multitude of footprints - it was impossible to know who had been here. The party went up to the Manor house itself and let themselves in. Going through the kitchen and into the basement, they found themselves in the massive storage room below the manor - similar to before, except for the appearance of two goblins, standing to attention at the far wall, grinning like fools.

After a short discussion (the goblins proved non-aggressive) it transpired they were the newly recruited footmen of the Lord Nothic, Master of the Crevasse (fnaar!). Not long after the discussion ended, they both died without the grins leaving their faces. "Obviously ensorcelled" muttered Ash as they continued moving through the corridors (they remembered the secret door).

As they entered the crevasse cave, the strange voice once again filled their heads (thanking them for the previous supply of fresh flesh, "much better as it was so much wetter"), warning them of his increased power and how they had best leave before it turned nasty. Well, it did turn nasty, particularly when he referred to his latest halfling acquisition as "delicious" - Gryff flew into a rage and charged across the bridge, which collapsed under his feet! (A pretty impressive Dex save took him to the other side) Where he squared off with the Lord Nothic.

Both Gronn and Ash flung spells, with varying levels of success. The creature turned his gaze on Gronn (and this phrase caused much childish amusement) before Gronn also charged the long way around to grapple with the beast. At this stage, things went a little awry for the party. Firstly, just as Gronn got to the Lord Nothic, two goblins charged in behind the party and attacked Ash in the back. Secondly, Lord Nothic critted Gryff, causing quite some damage and making a few eyebrows around the table rise. 

As Gronn and Gryff wailed on Lord Nothic, Ash Thunderwave'd his foes and after taking some more hits (and moaning about lack of protection), then hearing more footsteps in the passageway, Ash flung a sleep spell out into the hall, dropping both goblins and his unseen foe in the hallway to the floor.

While this happened, Gryff and Gronn took swipes at the big mean baddie, who had obviously had enough. He struck Gryff with two mighty blows (a 19 and a 20 to add to the 20 from the round before!) reduced Gryff to unconsciousness (and incredulousness). Gronn, starting to feel the burn (from the Nothic's dread gaze), decided to armour up (Barkskin) and health up (Bear Form), ready for a huge climax (fnaar). 

Within two rounds, Lord Nothic was dead and Gryff was revived (it was so close to a Total Party Kill!). Gronn put the two unconscious goblins to the sword (well, dagger) and then checked the hallway, where they found Daran Edermath fast asleep!

They descended into the crevasse and found a number of items of interest - a large chest which contained a beautifully maintained magical shortsword (called The Talon of the Black Hawk) and a few potions. Oh and they found Carp's half-eaten corpse. Gryff was beside himself. Ash made the suggestion that Qenelle (Carp's mum) might benefit from the treasure they found here, minus the sword, which the rest agreed with.

They woke Daran on the way out and he confirmed that he'd seen a mysterious black humanoid talking with two goblins in the woods and when they had run towards the manor house, he'd followed them, knowing the party were in there. That was the last he remembered before waking up in the hallway - how odd...

They returned to town and Gryff gave his aunt the news. Lots of tears, etc, I drew the line at roleplaying a crying halfling woman whose pies were burning in the oven - and besides, I thought Gryff was going to have a breakdown, so I decided to skip over it a bit.

(I thought this section went pretty well, especially considering that the Nothic needed a boost and the vast majority of this part was made up on the spot - none of it came from the module - apart from the name of the bad guy and the map. I did decide on the missing boy at the end of the last session, but the rest was done on the night)

After a rest, the party headed east, deciding to visit Wyvern's Tor first, to investigate the orc threat. Once they arrived, a day later, they quickly found the orcs (thanks to Gronn crit'ing his Survival roll). One orc stood sentry outside a cave. Using his spider form (acquired from Thundertree), Gronn snuck up and poisoned the sentry - much to the disgust of Ash, who felt spider form was gross. Gronn wobbled his massive abdomen in delight at Ash's horrified look (in real life too).

They snuck into the cave and found a larger opening further back which held four orcs and an ogre. The party leapt into action - Gronn flinging some barbed spikes which leapt out of the ground, Ash casting wave after wave of flames into the orcs and Gryff charging headlong at the ogre to nibble his kneecaps before stopping a few feet short when he realised the ground was covered in brambles and thorns from Gronn's spell! He stood impatiently waiting for the ogre to come to him....

After several rounds, the orcs lay dead (at Ash's hands) and Gryff lay unconscious (at the ogre's club - yes, another crit!) and Gronn was bashing away at the ogre. Ash took the glory with some more flamey bits and while Gronn helped Gryff to his feet, Ash made sure to mention how he killed everything in the room whilst blowing on the end of his staff (his words, not mine). There was much grimacing from the others. They found some treasure, as well as some potion bottles containing perfume (which Gronn tested by tasting - yes, dwarves are odd).

After a brief search of the area outside, they concluded the orcs were finished and decided to head for Old Owl Well, where undead had been seen.

They found an old watchtower, next to which sat a brightly coloured tent. A quick recce from Hugin, the raven scout, found little but the stench of death and the party approached the garish tent and threw a rock at it to get the owner's attention. At this, the horrified party heard a chorus of moans and watched on in disgust as a dozen corpses shambled forth from the tower. As they prepared to fight, a short fat man with no hair and a massive tattoo on his face, with a strange red robe on, stepped out of the tent.

With a wave of his hand he stopped the zombies and spoke with the party. It turns out he was a mage from the land of Thay (he said with a flourish) but only Ash knew who he was (and even recognised his tattoo as being one of a necromancer). After hearing that the party had overcome the orcs and the party decided that he posed no threat as long as he was not attacked (he was only there for research, after all), they all sat down for a picnic of fine wines, cheese and bread. Before long, the party decided to scarper, finding it all a little weird.

They headed off to find Agatha and, before long, found themselves bypassing Conyberry and heading into the dark, spooky woods north. After following the trail through a mist-filled series of pathways and clearings, they eventually came across a hut of sorts, built from the roots and branches of nearby trees. 

They quickly entered and found themselves face to face with a horrifying visage which had risen up through the floor - after a bit of screeching and threats, the banshee finally gave them a chance to speak and, surprised at their politeness (it could have been fear), even allowed them to live. The party eventually remembered the silver comb Sister Garaele had given them as a present for Agatha and Gryff whipped it out - there was a sharp intake of breath around the room (and a look of joy crossed my face) as the banshee spoke next....

"What is it you want of me, halfling, I will answer one question!"...at that time, I somehow thought back to episode two of this series and Gryff's moment involving Ash's riddle and it was all I could not to wring my hands together in glee.

"Where is the spellbook........(and before I could answer, "It's in Ash's bag!")....of Bowgentle?" asked Gryff (it almost went a little funny as Gronn originally recalled his name as BoJangles). Foiled! I gave them directions to where she had last seen it, over a hundred years before. 

"Thank you for the information, " said Gryff as he bowed low, "I'm sure we will use it." he added as he straightened, much to the amusement of the others. The party beat a hasty retreat back to Phandalin before Agatha could change her mind and kill them all.

They returned to town, confirmed their actions to the relevant parties, collected some rewards, and one or more joined a secret society. Then, realising that Gundren was back to full strength, they decided that now was the time to hit the Wave Echo Cave and finally get their hands on the Black Spider! 

And the session ended.

(LMoP-5) "I search them for keys!"

Who would give keys to a goblin for safekeeping?

Gryff once more unwittingly provides the headline for our session as the party leave Thundertree and make their way to Cragmaw Castle. It's time to rescue Gundren and bring the Black Spider to justice for his crimes!

Starring:
Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett
Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne
Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (suspended due to being a big girl - and also overseas)
Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain

DM comments: once more, the party got a quick recap of what happened last week. As an ongoing feature, we are spending the first ten or fifteen minutes of each session going through some of the 5e rules - and it seems a popular decision so far. This week we did "What you can do in a round".

Thundertree, a ruined dump inhabited by ash zombies, twig blights, strange cultists, a useless druid and an angry, vain, house-hunting green dragon named Venomfang. Until a few hours ago, it also provided temporary shelter to our heroes, before a little slaughter and a rather nerve-wracking discussion with Venomfang has turned our erstwhile adventurers from, errr, adventurers into part-time dragon estate agents. Their aim now, to empty Cragmaw Castle and leave it open for Venomfang, thereby removing him from Thundertree! Let's see what happened next...

And so, that is how, 24 hours later, the party found themselves standing just inside the treeline of the clearing surrounding Cragmaw Castle. The first scout, was Ash's raven, Hugin. Despite his sharp eyes, he could make out little more than a set of seven ruined towers in various levels of disrepair, and two entrances - the main doors, which we smashed in and a side door leading to an iron door. Gronn, curious as to what things looked like closer, transformed himself into a small, ugly squirrel and scampered across the rough land of the clearing, up to the ruined castle. As he peeked in through the front doors, he was barely missed by a goblin arrow fired from one of the arrow-slits (and accompanied by goblin laughter)! He leapt away and continued his run around the castle walls. He found a postern door, at the top of some stairs on the south side of the tower and returned to the group, wary of any further arrow attacks.

They discussed their options. They discussed some other options. They considered their options. They deliberated over a plan. They almost arrived at a plan, before Gronn had an idea! Nearly a third of the session was over by this stage! He kept it to himself, but said he'd need a night's sleep before attempting it. Without sharing more, Ash became impatient and questioned the manliness of Gronn and Wolf - one of whom was supposed to be saving his cousin from torture and had agonised over every second lost (until now) and the other who was one moment headstrong and confident, while at other times displayed attributes of a far older and wiser warrior. After this turned heated, Ash walked from the camp and snuck up to the walls (after taunting the aggregate size of non-Ash testicles in the party). He returned to the group after identifying that the postern gate was, in fact, securely sealed.

After a night's (partially reluctant) rest, they set forth and approached Castle Cragmaw, ready for the trials that it might contain. As they approached the doors, Gronn cast forth a mighty spell, coating the entire area in fog, causing no end of confusion for the inhabitants of CC, as a small amount of navigational issues for his pals. Nevertheless, the party made it inside the front doors and felt along a wall until they reached a door.

Upon carefully opening the door and strolling in, Wolf found himself face to face with a pair of mangy goblins. After a brief set-to (during which Gryff almost single-handedly slaughtered them both) and Gryff checked their pockets for keys, the party continued their search and found a similar room on the other side of the main door. This time they leapt into the room and surprised another two goblins who were actually fighting over whether they should go squirrel hunting or not. They didn't last long. Gryff searched the corpses for keys.

Further explorations took them into a goblin barracks - their brief battle ended with a horrifying scream as Wolf cut the last of four goblins in half. As the party waited in horror at the noise (and Gryff searched their corpses for keys), four hobgoblins burst into the room and launched themselves at our undaunted heroes. They were reinforced by goblins from the next room and a fierce battle ensued - and the party realised just how dangerous a set of hobgoblins can be. Battered, they all took a moment to scoff some of Gronn's magic healing berries while Gryff searched the goblins for keys (at this point I may have gruffly pointed out that none of the goblins had any fucking keys on them!).

Next they moved into the kitchen, where they found nothing of value, and travelling deeper into the Castle, they first unlocked the postern door (for an escape route) and then nipped into the next room. In it, were two large hobgoblins - one charged the group while the other ran from the room...in horror, or to get help? We'll never quite know!

The group set about the remaining hobgoblin apart from Gryff, who set off in pursuit and shouted "Never leave a friend behind!" (at this stage, and ever since, none of us were quite sure whether he was talking to the hobgoblin or his companions). While they carved up the remaining hobbo, Gryff left his friends behind and followed the hobgoblin into another room...where he stopped short. No, really short, not just because he's a halfling. In front of him stood his quarry. Behind the hobgoblin was sat a bugbear nigh on seven foot tall and a wolf five foot at the shoulder. Next to the bugbear sat a dazed, bedraggled dwarf, obviously in a state of some confusion. Gryff nodded grimly and leapt to the attack! (he's in the group for finesse weapons, not brains). Just as he launched his attacks, the other swept in behind him, just in time to see a large black-skinned, naked humanoid swing his fists at Gryff's head.

As they all tensed themselves for combat, the bugbear (King Grol) leant over and placed his hand over Gundren's head, his talons tearing easily into the flesh of the poor dwarf, who squealed in pain.

"Stop this!", cried King Grol. "Stop now, or this pathetic creature will die before you can take another step!".

Everyone stopped and looked at one another.

"Let him go!" said Gronn.

"Yeah, let him go.....or else!" said Wolf.

"Have they got any keys on them?", said Gryff (this did not happen)

"I cast charm on the hobgoblin", said Ashnurak, (via text message)

King Grol stood to his full height, just as Ash and the hobgoblin began to talk as if old friends. Wolf and Gronn looked puzzled, but soon turned back to King Grol.

"Let him go, or I'll kill you!", threatened Gronn, backed up by a growling Wolf. Gruff watched on, wordlessly.

"For fucks' sake", said Ash, before swiftly swapping to OOC: "I meant to charm the bugbear not the hobgoblin!" but by this stage, the outraged requests to "let him go" had continued and so there was no going back (Sorry Iain!). 

By this time, the strange black humanoid had moved back to King Grol's side and, while our demented heroes looked on in horror, he changed in front of their very eyes, morphing into an exact replica of Gundren. Blood and all!

"Let him go!" growled Gronn.
"Grrrrr", growled Wolf.

"Sod this." muttered Ashnurak, as he cast a lightning bolt at King Grol.

(I think everyone was taken by surprise at Ash's actions, but he's proved impulsive more than once - and it adds some fun to the session!)

His bolt missed, but it set everyone off - Gronn and Gryff leapt at King Grol. Wolf leapt at the wolf. King Grol flung Gundren to one side, where he bumped into his replica and the pair of them tumbled off to the far end of the room, a tangle of bloody dwarven limbs and straggly unkept beards.

Within a couple rounds, the wolf and King Grol were dead, but before the party could rest, more hobgoblins, returning from an elf-hunt charged into the room, flinging coarse sacks filled with fresh elf heads at the adventurers, they slashed at Wolf and Gryff, cutting them down. Gronn and Ashnurak battled valiantly and laid their foes to rest, before checking on their companions. Gryff and Wolf recovered, but Gundren, alas, had succumbed to his wounds (I rolled a 1 on his death save! And since I was rolling them in full view, the group probably thought it was a good thing!). There was also only one dwarven corpse on the floor - where was that strange shape-shifting creature?

Gronn cursed his bad luck - to come so far and see Gundren die in front of them was a massive blow. All his promises to look after his family lay in tatters. His vows to honour his clan, ruined. As he brooded, Ash questioned the hobgoblin whom he'd befriended.

"Where is the map to the cave? Where does King Grol keep his stuff?" asked Ash. 

I dunno," said the dimwitted hobgoblin. "I think he puts his stuff under his bed, but I don't know nuffin. Except he was busy sticking it to that dwarf", he let off a low chuckle at the sight of the dead dwarf.

Gronn's temper got the best of him, and after a quick Heat Metal spell, the party's quandary over what to do with the hobgoblin was less of a concern and more like a poorly maintained barbecue. He gathered up his cousin's body and the party set off for Phandalin.

Their trip was uneventful and they reached the town the next day. They first went to the Townmaster's Hall, where they met Sildar. He was horrified to hear of Gundren's fate and told them how there had been strange goings on while they were aware. Someone had sworn they'd seen the dead woodcarver in the street, and many folk had said they had heard a strange voice in their heads, asking them to deliver "fresh flesh, the wetter the better" but none had seen anything! On top of that, young Carp, Gryff's cousin, had gone missing.

"Anyone else's cousin want to disappear?" grumbled Ash.

Sildar carried on regardless. "Perhaps you should take Gundren to the Temple of Tymora to see if Sister Garaele can help". Gronn leapt to his feet and went straight there.

They walked in on the sister as she was cleaning the shrine. 

"Perhaps," she replied, as they queried whether she could help. "How long has he been dead?"

"A day." ventured Gronn.

"And does he venerate Tymora?", asked Sister Garaele.

"Oh yea, verily. Can't stop taking about her." replied Gronn.

"Leave" and come back in an hour, said Garaele. Which they duly did. Upon their return, they found a sleeping Gundren and a drained sister. Gronn was delighted! When the sister queried them about the task they had agreed to undertake for her, she was disappointed to hear they hadn't even started. Gronn promised to help as soon as possible, as Ash asked what it was all about.

"Oh, that spellbook sounds interesting. Could I have it?" he asked, politely.

"The Harpers would not want such an artifact in the hands of an unknown", replied the Sister, much to Ash's disgust. He had a little sulk but soon recovered.

And with that, the party took a break. What next? There were still orcs, undead, a banshee, the missing halfling child, the creature in the crevasse and Wave Echo Cave to think about. Whatver would they do next?

(LMoP-4) "What's in this for us?"

Famous last words...

With the manor hour now empty, the party decided their next had to be locating Cragmaw Castle - and so they went off in search of Reidoth, a friend of Gryff's who knew the area like no other. Gryff's aunt Quelline had said he'd be found near Thundertree, so that's where they went...

Starring:

Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett

Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne

Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (playing remotely, Hilton had to exit after about an hour due to bandwidth issues)

Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain

DM comments: after a quick recap of their options, the party swiftly decided to head for Thundertree - at this stage, all characters are second level except Gronn and Wolf who are third level.

While the party had no idea where Cragmaw Castle was, they could find Thundertree. A village not far from Neverwinter, it had been destroyed in the volcanic eruptions twenty years ago. 

Wolf, who was living in Thundertree at the time, remembered nothing, being only a child when Mount Hotenow erupted. His family had fled, leaving all their riches behind. He had heard rumours in Neverwinter of Thundertree, how it was now haunted, and had recently found itself the home of a new occupier - a dragon! He dreamed of killing the dragon and making Thundertree safe for people to return....what a hero he'd be! What a chance this was! Before, him stood only an unknown number of undead and a dragon. What chance did they have against someone as strong as him - and his friends, of course. Glory awaited! (at least that's what his backstory said!)

He mentioned the presence of the dragon to his companions, as well as the undead threat, and they roundly scorned the rumour. Why would a dragon choose Thundertree?

After a day and a half of travel, the group found themselves nearing Thundertree when the tranquil silence was shattered by a massive roar! Looking down into a crevasse which bisected their path, they saw a man run into view, his clothes tattered and bloody, he stumbled and tripped, dragged himself to his feet and ran again, looking fearfully over his shoulder. As they watched on, Gryff suddenly realised it was Reidoth (critted his perception roll!) and they leapt into action. El, Wolf and Ash slid down the crevasse wall, which asn't too steep. Gronn deflty threw his shield to the floor and slid down on top of it, while Gryff, the most dextrous of them all, leapt nimbly from rock to rock.....well, no, he leapt to a rock at the top of the cliff, instantly planned his journey down in his mind and sprang into graceful action, slipping off the second rock and then sliding the rest of the way on his face (crit fail, FTW!) and slowly coming to halt with his nose inches from a bear turd.

With that, the bushes parted to reveal a monstrous beast - a huge brown bear with the head of an owl. It screamed in fury and charged across the clearing towards them - undaunted by the numbers!

They all dashed forward, Gryff to protect Reidoth, who had veered towards them, then collapsed. Wolf charged the beast, while Ash, Gronn and El prepared their ranged weapons. The battle was furious - Wolf was nearly dismembered by the beast (down to 1!), while the others flung spell and arrow, then themselves, into the fray. After a minute, the beast lay dead and the pary breathed heavily. 

Reidoth thanked and, after some time to recover, lead them to his home in Thundertree. A cottage which had handled the last twenty years better than the others. When they asked for directions to Cragmaw Castle, he admitted he knew where it was and asked them for a favour (unfortunately, the party got the impression that he would only give the directions in return for his favour - which was not my intention - I only found out from player feedback afterwards). He wanted the dragon gone. It was too much for him alone - and the town was infected with spiders, undead and some strange men who were hanging around a cottage to the Southeast of town. Believing they had no choice (damn my poor phrasing!), they agreed. Ash remained distrustful of the druid, Reidoth. What motive did he have? The other druid in the group looked at him askance. Even Gryff seemed strangely quiet around his old friend, prefering not to engage in small talk.

After a restful sleep, they ventured forwards to examine the town. Thundertree was half ruins, half nearly ruined. The town was dominated by a large tower/cottage combo on a hill over looking the entire place, while cottages, inns and shops were scattered about the place.

They moved towards the base of the hill, and quickly found themselves blocked off by massive strands of webbing, moving from one side of the road to the other. It was impassable. 

"Allow me!", announced Ash, as he chanted briefly and let loose a ball of fire which obliterated the webbing! He smiled triumphantly as the others gazed on, except for Wolf, ever alert to threats, who peered off in all directions. His vigilance was rewarded when two massive spiders scurried forth from the darkness and leapt upon out heroes. After a decisive battle (during which both Gryff and Wolf were bitten and poisoned - but saved their saving throws), the group entered a nearby residence which was webbed over. 

There, Gryff noticed a cocoon hanging on the wall - it was human-sized and human-shaped! He gathered everyone's attention and tried to cut it down, but he couldn't reach. While everyone else thought about how to bring down the cocoon, Gronn, who had shifted into a bear when fighting the spiders, lumbered up to his hind paws and swiped the strands keeping the body suspended - and shook his head wearily (can a bear sigh?).

"Careful!" shouted Gryff, mortified. "What if he's alive?"
Gryff, desperately and carefully sliced through the cocoon only to find it's inhabitant dead. His companions gently mocked him and Gryff searched the corpse, pocketing a healing potion.

The party searched several houses after that. The first brought them into contract with the ash zombies for the first time - just like normal zombies, but prone to exploding in clouds of ash, blinding their foes and causing their attacks to falter. They also encountered a number of small murderous plants intent on skewering them with their tiny branches. This happened several times, and it was only slightly worrying when they visited the inn, when Gryff (surprising the first through most doors rather than the buff Wolf) put his magically enchanted sword (via a light cantrip) into the room ahead of him - a slashing blow from a zombie almost made him lose his sword and he leapt back in surprise - just as Wolf went flying past (that's more like it, Wolfy!) and smashed the door in. He did find himself on the receiving end of four zombies, but that's what fighters are for, right?

They did find one strange cottage - boarded up from the inside. They knocked at the door politely. After hearing voices and the door unlock, they were met by a large man in strange clothing. Almost entirely black, with a strange mask, he carried a bizarre knife at his belt. 

"What do you want?", he demanded. This lead to a strange, bad-tempered exchange (from his side, at least - the PCs remained surprisingly civil) before he rudely told them to bugger off and he slammed the door in their faces. Confused, the party continued their search.

When Wolf found his family home (from the descriptions his father gave him) he turned strangely quiet and said nothing to the others, although he did admit it later.He made no effort to examine, search or otherwise mark his old family home, instead leaving it as it was, his intentions were kept to himself.

The party rested again. Around this time, Ash scouted the area secretly (so secret, in fact, that the rest of the party didn't even notice, or ask how he did it!). He discovered a number of things - that there was no sight of a dragon, and that the strange men in the cottage were prone to moving up to near the tower and then arguing loudly, before returning to their cottage.

The party decided to visit the tower themselves (finally!).

The only entrance to the tower was through the cottage. Giant dead spiders lay outside. Gronn opened the door and walked into a dusty room, old furniture lay untouched. The others followed. He stomped across the room in frustration, intent on showing the others how foolish their fears of a dragon were. He pushed open the door to the tower....

...and found himself face to face with a dragon's head the size of him.

"Well hello!", boomed the dragon. "You're just in time for lunch!". After being invited into the tower multiple times to join the dragon for lunch, Gronn neatly retreated as Ash stepped forward to parlay with the vain beast. Using a mixture of ass-kissing and appealing to the dragon's ego, he gained some measure of trust....or did he? He found out little, only that the dragon liked where he lived, had plenty of treasure and had no intention of moving. Although he did find out his name, Venomfang. Nor did he care about the strange men nearby, or anyone else (although he did ask if Ash could get the local druid to stand still long enough to eat him!). He also requested the party find him a halfling for his dinner (at which point Gryff found something really interesting to examine behind the sofa). Dismayed, the party went back to Reidoth to consider their options. It was at this point they realised that Reidoth had no intention of hiding the whereabouts of Cragmaw Castle, and he gave them full directions. 

They decided to visit the humans and try to find out what they wanted. It turns out that the strange men in the cottage were there to speak with the dragon as well, but just lacked the conviction at that time. The party tried to get them to open up, but failed - when they told them they'd shared their actions with the dragon, their leader became angry and the party heard his accomplices draw weapons. The situation simmered down, but they parted ways.

Now, almost at a loss, the group considered their options. They had promised to remove the dragon and the undead and the funny trees. They had investigated the cloaked men, but found nothing to be scared of. They figured one last chat to the dragon couldn't hurt.

The group hit upon an idea. If they couldn't force him out, what if they found a new home for him? What about a home like Cragmaw Castle? They ventured to the dragon's lair as before. Ash took the lead.

After some incredible discussions, during which the party believed their final moments had arrived more than once, they and the dragon made a pact. They would clear out Cragmaw Castle and he would move there to make it his home - and that he wanted all of the treasure in the castle. The party agreed. As they turned to leave, Gryff slid up next to Ash and whispered "What's in this for us?", being slightly confused by the lack of positives to the deal....of course, he never accounted for a dragon's excellent hearing...after all, they could detect a fly's fart at forty feet (there's no time for "out of character" comments in the middle of a conversation with an NPC, Jason!)

"Indeed!", roared Venomfang, "What is in it for you?!". "Nothing, but the glory of finding you a suitable home", grovelled Ash. "Please ignore this lot, they're not quite right in the head" he advised. Venomfang grumbled and returned to his tower, quieted.

Our brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robins backed out of the tower and legged it back to Reidoth's place, to rest and then head for Cragmaw Castle. With any luck, Gundren would still be alive so they could rescue their friend, clear out the castle, remove Venomfang from Thundertree and help reclaim Wave Echo Cave for a massive load of loot and glory!

(LMoP-3) A good old-fashioned dungeon crawl

And the adventure continues....underground!

The party has been to Phandelver and decided that their first steps should lead them under Tresendar Manor, where the Redbrands have their hideout - but what else is waiting for them?

Starring:

Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett

Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne

Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (currently on a flight, so missed this week)

Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
and introducing:
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain

GM comments - Ashnurak joins our game tonight - and we have a slight retconn from last week, so we'll be moving the main party back to moments after the combat with the bugbears ends - and since El was on a flight at the time we played, he couldn't even remote link in - but he'll be back next week!

The party stood over the bodies of the three bugbears....well, stood is not quite right, as Gryff peeled himself away from the base of the wall, almost miraculously, and defying the others' belief that he was dead, enquired after elevenses. But as they started to gather in their surroundings, a shadow fell over them from the doorway...

....however, that shadow started somewhere far away....well, in Phandalin:

Ashnurak awoke with a start. He'd fallen asleep on the back of the merchant's wagon. This adventuring lark wasn't as exciting as he might have hoped. He'd hitched a lift with a merchant heading along the Triboar Trail and now he was here....somewhere.

"Welcome to Phandalin" said the merchant, as he walked into a nearby shop, leaving Ash alone in what felt like an abandoned town, It was old, yet new, but the streets were deserted, apart from several large pools of blood further down the street. As he looked around, preparing his next steps, he heard cries for help and turned to see a toddler running towards him at alarming pace...no, not a toddler, a halfling child! 

Carp, for that was his name, entreated this strange young man's help - his mum was being manhandled by some Redbrands, angry at Gryff's slaughter of their pals - and they'd laughed at his little knife and cuffed him across the head. Ash set off after the boy, eager to see if he could help a woman in distress! He arrived at the household, passing a nosey old man watching from his porch, and arrived at the house in time to confront two Redbrands! After a few moments of witty repartee, he launched a firebolt at one and looked on in surprise as the second lurched forward, before collapsing - and Ash saw the old man behind him, blade in hand. The other ruffian scarpered!

Ash took quick stock of the situation and took the old man's advice, following the child to a cave hidden in the woods, where he might find Carp's cousin, Gryff, to let him know what happened and warn him of the dangers he faced.

Ash passed the crevasse beast after a short discussion which left the young lad both puzzled and annoyed. He followed the sounds of combat and quickly located our party of bloodthirsty adventurers.

After a few moments of confusion, the group realised they were all there for a same thing. To rid the town of evil - and that meant starting with the Redbrands. Of course, the others had witness more than Ash, but he'd seen enough. This band needed disbanding!

The party continued their explorations..... it's always nice when the intros go smoothly!

The party burst into the next room, barely (actually not at all) surprising the group of Redbrands playing dice. After a short and intense battle, the party took stock of the situation. 

"I have just killed both the first and second man ever, in my life", announced Ash, having given the killing blow to two of the thugs.

"What a riddle!", declared Gryff, "We shall need an explanation for your tricky words, Ash". 

"I just mean I've never killed anyone before and those two were the first.....", responded Ash. The table descends into chaotic laughter - there's a reason Gryff's a fighter (and a second level fighter at that - DING!)!

The party moved forward in their search for Glasstaff, finding an alchemy chamber and a friendly rat, who took a liking to Gronn, the druid. He fed it, petted it and left it to run free (and report everything it saw to it's master, Glasstaff) - never suspecting its ill intent.

They moved into the next room, where Gryff was struck by multiple magical golden missiles - he pulled back from the doorway, and when he looked back in, he found an empty bedroom! A quick search showed it had been cleared in a hurry, leaving only a note to Lord Albrek from the Black Spider.....but Iarno Albrek was the Lords Alliance representative in Phandalin....and the Black Spider is a bad guy! What madness is this? The party found a secret door and continued their search.

The discovered and unlocked an armory using a key Gronn had kept from the bugbears they killed previously. Find nothing of use, apart from a couple of cloaks, the party decided to disguise two of the group in cloaks (the humans) while the short-arses pretended to be slaves. They walked into the next room, some kind of crypt, with several skeleton defenders. While the skeletons looked at them briefly, then continued their silent watch, when Gronn walked into the room by himself, they lurched to the attack! Blow followed blow before the skeletons lay in pieces, while Gronn stood in all his beary glory, basking in the glow of not having to taste goblin brains. 

When they opened the next door, they found themselves in the dungeons - and there was Glasstaff, together with two of his minions! Gronn leapt at them with a roar, beating everyone to the punch, he slashed one ruffian to the bone, but their return blows, like lightning, stabbed into his bear form repeatedly. Glasstaff leered at Gryff and let loose a magic, leaving Gryff paralysed - and with his revenge so close! He hurled abuse using the power of his mind, but it had no visible effect on the mage. 

The battle raged. Ash's attempt to blast the mage to smithereens failed when his chromatic orb bounced from a bear's paw and rolled into the corner, while the bear and the thugs traded blows. Wolf joined the fray, when Glasstaff sent a veritable herd of golden arrows flying into Gronn, With a surprised groan, his druidic magics failed, leaving him stood in front of the ruffians, bear-less. When the Redbrands fell to he floor and the party jumped forward to crush the wizard, he waved his hand and disappeared from in front of their eyes! 

"Cover the door!" cried Ash, while Wolf and Gronn made sweeping gestures about them with their weapons. Gryff recovered his composure but when wolf and Ash made for the door, they saw Glasstaff in the last room, making his way to the exit! At the same time, Wolf flung a dagger and Ash a firebolt - and just as it seemed the evil caster might escape, his evil reign of terror was brought to an abrupt, sharp, and flamey end. He was indeed Iarno Albrek. He'd turned (not into undead).

Ash quickly took his staff, and papers, while the others rushed to free the prisoners. They escorted the terrified family back to Phandalin, in return for promises of treasure, should they ever visit Thundertree. A promise which fell on deaf ears - any treasure would be returned to the family to help them recover from the loss of their father and husband (not both at the same time).

On the way back to town, Wolf fed the beast in the crevasse one of the corpses from the prison. The beast was thankful, yet made some comment about finding his own fresh meat when Ash asked if he was truly happy here in the caves, or might want an escort out. The group carried on their mission. Although Wofl faniced he saw a strange beast down in the pit....but not trusting his eyes, never mentioned what he saw to the others, but that image would haunt him for days.

The party returned to Phandalin and collected their rewards - for the papers, from the Miner's Exchange, for the clearing of the Redbrand hideout from Sildar, and news of Iarno's whereabouts (dead, in a cave) from Sildar.

They considered their options, many that they were, and decided to head for Thundertree - for that way lay Reidoth, Gryff's old friend, who might know the whereabouts of Cragmaw Castle - and therefore where to find Gundren!

Time to enter the wilderness!

(LMoP-2) The New Guys in Town

You can't spell slaughter without laughter...

And so, having investigated the Cragmaw Hideout and rescued Sildar Hallwinter, our intrepid adventurers set out to make their way to Phandalin to begin the task of rescuing Gundren Rockseeker - and teach the Black Spider a lesson!

Starring:

Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett

Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne

Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton

and introducing:

Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason

DM comments: The party, excluding Gryff, levelled at the end of part one.

While Gron, Wolf and El fought for their lives in Cragmaw Hideout, Gryff wandered, carefree, along the Triboar Trail. He'd left Phandalin a short while ago to make something of himself. He'd joined the Neverwinter Guard and quickly rose to prominence, before the rules and regulations (as well as some barely-veiled anti-halfling sentiment) drove him out and he decided to head back home. He hoped he'd be welcome back - after all, he had left under a bit of a cloud. When the Redbrands had started out, it was just a bunch of teenagers having a laugh - the worst thing they ever did was steal an apple. I guess it all starts somewhere... but anyway, this was not a day to worry. The sun was shining, his tummy full from elevenses, or was it late brunch, he'd lost track. But still, he figured he could take a break, just sit under a tree and, maybe close his eyes for a moment... The joys of bringing a new character in!

Meanwhile, the deadly trio, after helping Sildar Hallwinter back to the wagon, made their way to Phandalin as fast as an ox could drag a wagon laden with equipment and bloodthirsty adventurers. They talked little and wondered what dangers they might meet, when they passed around a bend in the road and saw a strange site. Up ahead, half a dozen figures cavorted around a tree, as if dancing. How odd!

El ran into the woods. Gronn and Wolf continued their slow and steady pace until they saw what it really was, a pack of goblins taunting a sleepy-looking halfling. As the wagon approached, the goblins saw an opportunity for loot ("look, a wagon with a human and their child on it!") and split their forces, two goblins remaining to carve Gryff a new feeding hole and four heading for the wagon. 

The two facing Gryff were down to one almost instantly as El felled one with an arrow, then Gryff leapt forward and skewered the other. Those at the wagon fared no better as Gronn leapt from the seat of the wagon, changing in mid-air and landing on the ground as a massive brown bear! Not to be outdone, Wolf cartwheeled off the wagon and acrobatically posed at the side of an ox, who wasn't impressed (the disgust and jealousy on Lorne's face was classic).

The battle was short and bloody, ending with the bear ineffectually trying to scrape goblin brains from its tongue. An attempt to scratch it behind the ear proved to be unwelcome and Wolf decided that curiosity might kill the kill the human, and left well alone. The bear changed back and Gronn continued to clean out his mouth. The taste stayed for days.

Pleasantries, and thanks, were swapped between them all, before Gryff offered to show the party the quickest way to town - he was a native, after all. When they finally made it to Phandalin, Gryff confirmed their inn (The Stonehill) and said he'd be back to thank them with booze later, he needed to head home. 

While the party got rooms and then handed in Gundren's kit at Barthen's Provisions, Gryff went to visit his auntie Quelline Alderleaf, who has a farm on the edge of town. He met his cousin, Carp, aged 10, who cryptically warned him not to mention his aunt's face - which turned out to be horribly bruised (from a local thug "teaching her a lesson for not sharing Gryff's whereabouts"). Gryff was enraged, but kept his cool. He decided to seek out his new friends - they might be able to help. Carp told him all about the secret entrance underneath Tresendar Manor after following the thugs who'd thumped his mum. He returned to town, after meal of course, and met up with the others to talk about the threat of the Redbrands.

The party met a number of the locals, including Toblen Stonehill, the innkeeper, who was friendly and helpful (but diddled them on the price of a room!), and told them about some orc threat on the Triboar Trail, as well as confirmed the horror of the Redbrands. His wife, Trilena, who told the horrifying story of the local woodcarver who stood up to the Redbrands - and was murdered, before his entire family was kidnapped. El was particularly horrified. Daran Edermath, an old half-elf ex-adventurer who was "getting too old for this shit" but gave some tips about the area, including a lead about an abandoned tower nearby. Elsa, the busty barmaid, who kept Wolf enrapt, but rebuffed his clumsy attempts at charm (his charm attempts automatically failed because of the creepy way he looked at my chest!). They met Sister Garaele, who'd gotten a few knocks trying to convince a local banshee to give up her knowledge of a magical book. They visited Halia Thornton, the only person untroubled by the Redbrands...turns out she wasn't in cahoots (as she offered them a reward for killing them and bring her their papers), she was just hard as nails and somewhat grumpy. They found Sildar Hallwinter at the Town Hall, arguing with a fat, useless turd of a townmaster, Harbin Wester, who insisted the Redbrands were just harmless youths and warned the group not to cause trouble.

Finally, they met a recuperating Sildar Hallwinter, who'd been arguing with Harbin Wester. He offered them a substantial reward to locate Cragmaw Castle, and a slightly lesser one for bringing down the Redbrands and capturing their leader, Glasstaff.

This phase took over half of the session, but it was great fun!

As the four heroes left the Townmaster's Hall to think about their plans, they bumped into a group of thugs. As the wind blew across the street and the local ran for cover, only the occasional small child peeking over the top of a barrel, the two groups eyed each other up and swapped a few insults (mainly about Gryff and Gronn's heights, plus something about El's girly tights) before one of them admitting socking Auntie Quelline in the face and Gryff went apeshit. After a massive barney, all four Redbrands lay dead, and the party decided to take care of the redbrand threat first. They thought about peeling El off the floor, but he climbed to his feet of his own accord (he rolled a 20 on his death save!). Off they set to find Carp and his secret entrance.

Following a long, winding tunnel through the bedrock, the heroes soon found themselves in a long cavern, dominated by a crevasse with two bridges across it. As soon as they walked into the room, they were met by a voice in their heads, telling sharing with all of them, things they not only thought were secret, but might also not want the others to know! The voice, a rasping, insinuating hiss, begged them for food, "Fresh flesh, the wetter, the better" and offered secrets in return, perhaps even the whereabouts of Glasstaff! It also warned them not to use the bridges....Wolf, walked up to the edge with El and peered into the darkness.....was a huge eye he saw, eight inches across? Surely not. His mind was playing tricks on him....

They ducked into a hallway and burst through a door, from behind which they could hear harsh laughter and cruel taunts. Three bugbears were taunting a poor goblin who danced and capered in the middle of the room for them. The party leapt to the attack as the goblin fainted at the sight of Wolf's sword. Gronn and El quickly disabled their foe with precise strikes, while Wolf swapped mighty blows before crippling his opponent with a strike through the chest. Gryff seemingly tauned his bugbear with a series of rapier like strikes with his shortsword before the massive beast lined up his morningstar and slapped Gryff through the chest, sending him flying through the air, before he hit the top of the wall some ten feet away, before sliding down to the ground into a small heap on the floor, lifeless. Horrified, his new friends rushed in and slaughtered the bugbear before turning back to their dead companion.......but no! Gryff clambered unsteadily to his feet in front of their unbelieving eyes, brushed some dust off his tunic and suggested they stop for a snack (he rolled a 20 on his death save too - haha!).

They questioned the goblin, who was as thick as a whale steak, and got precious little information - but at least El didn't kill him this time. The party considered an offering to the crevasse-beast... and, while they considered their options, we paused the session...

(LMoP-1) And so it begins...

In a warehouse in Neverwinter:

It was a cool late summer's morning when they first met in Gundren Rockseeker's warehouse, near the docks in Neverwinter. Every adventure starts somewhere - and this one started there.

Starring:

Gronn, a grizzled dwarven druid (1st level), played by Brett

Wolf, a young human fighter (1st level), played by Lorne

Ellenross, a slick human rogue (1st level), played by Hilton

DM Comments: This was our first ever 5e session and it went really well - offering role-playing and combat in perfectly acceptable quantities.

Firstly, there was Gronn the dwarf, short of stature, but brimming with wisdom and experience from 70 years of living in the wilderness. Gundren Rockseeker was a clan-mate, his cousin to be precise, and had asked for his help transporting a wagonload of goods to the nearby frontier town of Phandalin. Gronn was more used to the wild woods than the wild streets and he was keen to leave. If he could leave Neverwinter and help a family-member, then it was a win-win situation for him.

Wolf was a tall, powerful young human, flush with excitement, his nerves were almost too much for him to contain. Only 18 years old, he wore an old chainmail hauberk which had seen better days. There were gaps in his armour, but he wore it with great pride. On his back was a huge greatsword, almost a foot longer than Gronn, the youngster wielded it effortlessly and it was in immaculate condition.

The third, and last to arrive, was Ellenross, or El, a lithe, clean-cut human who looked bored from the moment he stalked through the door. He was dressed like any number of ruffians you might see on the streets of Neverwinter, but there was something about him that made it feel like it wasn't natural. He played the part well though, and there was a brooding menace about him.

Gundren introduced his cousin to the two humans. Wolf was introduced as the son of an employee who had tangled with a pirate captain and needed to get some space between him and the city, while El was only introduced as an acquaintance, as someone who was no stranger to trouble and also needed to lie low in the styx for a while.

Gundren left almost immediately, accompanied by the veteran warrior, Sildar Hallwinter. The pair trotted off, eager to make it to Phandalin. 

As he left, he shouted his final instructions over his shoulder, "I'll meet you there, boys! Drop off my good at Barthen's Provisions, collect your payment and wait for me to make contact! I'm gonna.....we're gonna be rich!"

Wolf, overcome by the excitement of the moment, approached Gronn and warmly shook his hand. "Any good with a cock?", he blurted, immediately going red in the face. "I mean cookpot!", he quickly corrected himself and stood, head hung low, cheeks bright red in embarassment. Gronn grunted in amusement and climbed up to the driver's seat of the wagon (funniest moment of the game by quite some distance) Wolf sat next to him, and El sat at the back, watching the world he knew fade away behind them.

The trio left straight away, swapping small-talk and stories on the wagon and around the campfire. It soon became apparent that all three were skilled in different ways, and they found their company never grated. The chore became a worthwhile journey among friends. Until the third morning.

Not long into the day, they rounded a corner where the road was on one side a small escarpment, and on the other, a short slope leading up to a heavily wooded area. Ahead were two large mounds in the middle of the road. Eagle eyes realised it was a pony and a horse, slain in the road and left..as a sign, perhaps? Or a trap? 

The three warily moved forward and stopped when they realised these were the mounts belonging to Gundren and Sildar! Just as Gronn was about to rush forward and investigate, from the trees on the right dashed forward two skinny green goblins, yip-yip-yipping their warcries and waving their scimitars over their heads. An arrow followed and brushed past Wolf's head! Gronn was almost overcome in a moment of surprise, but both Wolf and El rushed forward to defend their companion, the former slicing one in half, the latter sliding his rapier through the eyeball of the other. 

El and Gronn dived into the woods and quickly found the other, who found himself on the receiving end of Gronn magical club, a shillelagh. With one wicked blow, the green-skinned menace was crushed. Before returning to Wolf, who was guarding the wagon, the pair realised they were being watched by a fourth goblin! They tried to sneak up on him, but were spotted and set off in pursuit! El caught the goblin after he tripped on a tree root (crit fail in an opposed athletics check!) and, despite his size and strength advantage, was dismayed to find his grip on the slippery goblin wasn't strong enough (crit success by the goblin on an opposed Strength check!). The goblin squirmed from his grasp, booted him in the plums from behind and scampered from the clearing while El clutched at his groin in agony. Gronn shook his head wearily when he came across El clambering to his feet, in obvious pain.

They hid their wagon in the woods and set off on a trail they found of what appeared to be a dozen goblins, at times dragging two bodies through the woods. El carefully lead the group through the woods, easily noticing a snare trap, and then deftly avoiding falling into a pit on the pathway! Not long after, El caught sight of the same goblin, once again observing from the trees! The pursuit this time was not going to be in such doubt. El pinned the goblin to the floor with his rapier, and the trio tied him up for questioning. 

Some time later, after a frustrating time spent interrogating the goblin, they realised that up ahead was Cragmaw Hideout, and Gundren and Sildar had been taken there. El dropped their captive in the pit trap and was dismayed to hear a loud snap when the goblin hit the floor. "Perhaps that wasn't the best option," he muttered under his breath.

Approaching the Hideout, the heroes were surprised by two goblins ambushing them from the trees to one side...(it's not like that happened before) but they were quickly dispatched. 

They entered the cave and found themselves in a kennel of sorts. Two large wolves reared up at them, stretching their chains to the limit. Gronn quickly offered them some tidbits and before long they were like old friends, allowing the companions to pass unheeded, where they found a rough natural chimney leading up into the darkness. 

They quickly climbed it (uneventfully) and found themselves watching a huge creature (a bugbear) with a wolf pet, warming himself by the fire - pausing only to verbally abuse a cowardly goblin who came to tell him of the dead sentries. As the goblin left, the party prepared to ambush the massive beast, but El stumbled, dragging his arrowhead across a rock, alerting Klarg (the bugbear!) to their position. He leapt to the attack! "I'll make a throne from your bones!" he cried. "It will be a small throne" screamed Gronn as he charged forward.

Gronn swept his club up into Klarg's ribs, just as El sent an arrow into his shoulder. Wolf faced off against the wolf and could only watch helplessly as Klarg left Gronn unconscious with one mighty blow from his morningstar. Before Klarg could crush the dwarf, El dived forward and thrust his rapier through Klarg's heart, killing him (he maxxed his damage and brought the bugbear to zero exactly!). Klarg died, face to face with a snoring dwarf. Wolf quickly finished the wolf. The party found some treasure and continued their search of the cave system.

The three stout adventurers moved from one room to another, dispatching a small number of green morons on the way, before they walked into what they were later to find out was Yeemik's HQ - the chief Goblin. As the party squared off against nearly half a dozen goblins, Yeemik played his trump card... standing above the party on a ledge ten foot up, Yeemik held a knife to the throat of a battered and bruised Sildar Hallwinter. Even from here, the heroes could see that Sildar was in a bad way; near naked, cut scores of times, missing fingers, teeth and an ear, he had even been hamstrung. The parley did not last long before rage (and a sneaky goblin shoving his shiv into El's back!) drove the trio forward into a brief and bloody battle - and despite Sildar dropping from the cliff and almost bleeding to death - Yeemik and his crew soon lay dead.

They roused Sildar. He told them how Gundren had been taken the Cragmaw Castle, how someone called the Black Spider was responsible for it all and that Gundren and his two brothers had found the legendary Wave Echo Cave, high in the mountains - and that the goblins had taken his map as well. Their resolve set, the party agreed to escort Sildar to Phandalin and plan their next step: to recover the map, save Gundren and teach the Black Spider to mind his own business!