(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?