After a long hiatus from the campaign due to COVID scares and previous obligations, we were finally able to meet up again, without our Elven (Cocksleeve) player who may or may not have strep. He could just be faking it though. Never know with those guys. I ran him as an NPC in the way that I thought Sean would approve of (and didn't get him killed) and Brian provided the voice over which was a lot like Mr Hat from South Park, so it felt pretty much like a normal session.
Because we had such a space of time without playing, the recap took a bit longer and a lot more brain power to pull together. Since there's no gap in the blog, I don't really need to go back over it here, but the biggest points were that the party agreed to handle the Redbrand menace, they killed a bunch of guys, they discovered that the dreaded Glasstaff was a weak-ass wizard named Iarno Albrek, they read about the Forge of Spells in the Wave Echo Cave, and they know both the Black Spider & someone who signs their letters "N" are interested in keeping the party from the wedding and from the Rockseeker brothers.
That's much to remember. Glad someone decided to blog this shit, eh?
Since the GM screen has pockets on the outside and inside, I threw the map of Phandalin in one of the front panels and a map of the northern Sword Coast in the other, with written notations based on where the party has been/locations they've seen, so we have extra ways of tracking the campaign progress. I don't anticipate that we'll hit every encounter, random or otherwise, that I've built, but they're there if we need them.
Lenneth was also able to do the spell stuff she didn't get a chance to do when she hit level 2. Because we remembered.
Picking up right where they left off in the wizard's workshop, the party had the option to either back track their way through the Redbrand hideout or to continue to press on. Didn't take much for them to decide to clear out the last bit of basement area as Gabriel charged into the next map area, busting right into a Redbrand common room, where the boys were just playing some good old fashioned Knucklebones. Not liking their game being disrupted, the four Redbrands in the area decided it was time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel! With hilarious results. I saw more crit failures on attack rolls in this one battle then probably the entire campaign up to this point. Lenneth knifed Gabriel, both a Redbrand and Laucian (I was controlling him), dropped their swords, etc. It was just good clean fun.
Besiljka was able to use her Rage abilities for the first time, after we went over the rules for them a little bit to better understand how they work. That was probably a lifesaver as the added damage boost was really great, but she had one roll (with advantage) where her d20s came up a 1 and a 2. It was some pretty standard combat overall and eventually the party won without a huge amount of life lost.
At that point, they knew they still had one room unexplored, spell slots were gone, Rage was halfway used up, and everyone basically had some damage, knowing "something stronger than Iarno" was still around. So I started mentioning a psychic feeling, like some bad juju or a creeping feeling, and a voice in their heads too quiet to hear. Until now, they were expecting a dragon. That changed to them expecting a Mindflayer.
NOTE TO MY PLAYERS - Mindflayers are sacred to me. I wouldn't just throw them into a low level dungeon area.
But if you gotta press on, you gotta press on. Gabriel still taking the lead moved into the next area, and found a pack of three bugbears fucking with a goblin. The goblin faints right away, and the perturbed bugbears demand to know what "the wizard wants now." Aye, the bugbears, being segregated from the human members, had no idea the party wasn't with them. I sort of forgot about it, but Mirna Dendrar's son actually told the party about them. We spent almost a half hour debating how to play this, with eventually Gabriel rolling a Charisma check to try and convince them the wizard had urgent business as the rest of the party moved into the center chasm of the dungeon. They didn't really believe him (he rolled low) but they were also incredibly bored and decided to check it out. They never made it where they were going. Gabriel decided to take the goblin with. We had this whole discussion about gaping humanoids found in dungeons and a PTSD clinic for them.
After the bugbears were out of party sight, everyone heard their screams of sheer agony, "as if being burned alive." Now the party was really paranoid. And, of course, I didn't let up. Five more feet into the center of the map and BAM! Everyone is getting nose bleeds and maniacal laughter is going on inside their heads. Yes, I was made to cackle aloud. This is where everyone assumed they were going to die.
The nothic, however, was having a great time. And talking in Gabriel's head, it requested the dead Redbrand bodies be dropped into the chasm in the area. For dinner. It was a rather jovial creature that had been looking forward to eating the Redbrands for a long while, but was unable to do so based on the deal it had with Iarno. Whilst it could possibly leave the cave, it liked it there. And Lenneth asked it about treasure, which it was happy to share. Amongst this treasure was a longsword with the name "Talon," that Laucian's successful History check revealed to have belonged to the last Tresendar heir that died fighting orcs a couple hundred years previously. It also showed the party a way out through the southern forest, which they used when they were ready to go. But not before Lenneth had a chance to set up a date at the local Olive Garden ("it's over by the orc-hards") with the nothic.
Leaving the manor basement, the party went back to Stonehill Inn to rest up. Elspeth was there waiting for them. When Mirna and her kids were saved, they ran straight to the sheriff and told her everything they knew, including that the party rescued them. So she dispatched a messenger to Valeth Tower and settled in to wait. For Besiljka mostly, as the two of them had food and retired for cuddles. But Besiljka knows that Elspeth is a "Lady," capital L, so she's gonna take it slow. Sildar made plans to depart for Neverwinter with Iarno so that he can be put on trial for betraying the Lord's Alliance, and the rest of the party prepared to do last minute errands in the morning prior to heading to Valeth Tower.
Because we were going to roll hit dice to heal up anyway, this was the perfect moment for the party to level up to 3. Going from 1 to 2 took almost an entire session, but 2 to 3 was fairly quick since we all had a better understanding of the leveling mechanics, and I -think- for the three players, we didn't miss anything. At least Lenneth got her spell stuff this time hah.
Gabriel is going Oath of Vengeance for his Paladin subclass, based upon his background story and motivations as a fallen Aasimar. It's a good internal conflict where the higher and lower selves want to go in opposite directions. I dig it. I do have to make up a spell card for Hunter's Mark, which might actually be my favorite Ranger spell, since I don't have the Ranger card deck at the moment. That extra 1d6 damage on a marked target is cool, but I thought about how that would work against a BBE and holy crap would that add up fast. Let's say Gabriel is using Talon for 1d8+1 (+3 w/Str mod) damage, so max on both rolls would be 11+6 = 17 DMG a hit. He levels up to get multiattack and conceivably is hitting for 34 in a single combat round, that could be brutal against even a 200+ HP boss. Of course, bosses that strong have Resistances and whatnot to think about, and it's unlikely to max roll consistently but still. And I believe Hunter's Mark scales up if cast as a higher tier so...
Besiljka picked Path of the Ancestral Guardian for Barbarian. Partially because of how she plays barbarian in Diablo 3, but it's also a good fit for Besiljka's backstory thematically, and the drawing aggro when using Rage makes her the ideal tank. Unfortunately, after a run of good rolls, her HP roll for level 3 was pretty abysmal so she only has a handful of HP above the Tiefling now, but since Rage gives Resistance against a bunch of attack types, and the party is getting closer to the point where they can improve stats, this isn't as big of an issue. She can Hulk out and still be just fine.
The plan for Laucian is Battlemaster subclass for Fighter. We'll see if that still holds true, but he's going from just shy of level 2 up into 3, so that'll be two levels worth of stuff to do next time.
Last, but never least, Lenneth has gone College of Valor for Bard, which is also the closest to a Valkyrie-style character she can do as a bard, without bringing in homebrew mechanics. She also max rolled for her HP increase, so with the added armor and weapon proficiencies, and the new spells, plus expanding her Inspiration abilities, the whole team becomes that much stronger. Also, we've been playing it as such more or less, but I decided to mechanically write it down as giving Lenneth Blindsight in a 30' radius from herself. So, she's still unable to do certain things like read without magical means, and body language from others is totally lost on her, but mechanically, she can still use sight/sense based magic on things within that radius and be able to benefit from the Valor subclass abilities, which also means that if she's standing at point A, and something at point B is seven squares away on a tactical map (35'), she's shit out of luck on even knowing it's there without another character using a bonus action as a "spotter" if she needs to target it for some reason. Actually, that's something that is great for roleplaying purposes and shit, if the party has to call out their own location if past that point. The Blindsight lets her know where things are based on sound and smell and vibrational feel, but characters or targets beyond that point have to specifically call themselves out, or she continues to suffer Disadvantage.... Is that agreeable? It'd better be. Also, that makes the Darkness spell an absolute nightmare for enemies in close quarters. If the party splits up and Lenneth has to defend herself, Darkness dropping and then enemies having Disadvantage versus her.
I'm only sometimes mean to my bard.
Without further ado, morning rolled around. Elspeth stayed to have breakfast with Besiljka, before the party had to rush out to further the story. The party has pointed out that they're accruing a lot of gold but not really spending much, and a big part of that is because their room & board has been comped by the establishment since Lezard has paid for all of the wedding guests up front. After the wedding, the party'll be on the hook to cover their own living expenses and whatnot. Plus, eventually they're going to want better armor and +1 weapons/gear/whatnot, more magic items and potions and trinkets, or they'll need to replace adventuring gear, so all those ducets will go quickly. Good thing they murderhobo so much.
Prior to skipping town, they stopped at the Izzet Enclave to have the "mysterious blue potion" they found in the wizard's workshop last session identified. Crix popped the top, smelled it, topped it back up, swirled it a bit, popped the top again and smelled it again (which was pointed out is NOT safe scientific method, but these guys blow themselves up regularly, so...) before announcing that it's a Potion of Invisibility. This may be fun later on. Since the party was already heading to the wedding, Crix requested they take some supplies down with them for a few pieces of gold, which the party agreed to since it wasn't out of their way or anything.
The tower being such a short 12-ish mile jaunt south, I didn't impose any random travel encounters this time. Especially given how much combat we've had the past couple sessions, I was hoping we could end this one with some roleplaying and story/world building instead. Of course, I never know when my players are just going to gut a random NPC so...
The grounds around the tower are immaculately well-kept. Rumors swirling Phandalin say that Lezard keeps a team of druids on hand so that not a single blade of grass rises above the others, and though that is surely an exaggeration, it's only just barely. Even the trees at the edge of the forest appear to bow their boughs in respect to the tower.
Or, at least, the areas of the grounds that don't possess a carnival's worth of tents and wagons for the wedding are immaculate. As you exit the forest and "deftly maneuver" to avoid being trampled by supply carts weaving to and fro, you spot numerous banners of regional lordlings, with various races represented. There are no Eroth banners amongst the tents, of course, as Lezard's kin has suites in Valeth Tower. Nor are there more than a handful of Brokengulf banners, the bride-to-be's family, for the same.
Surprisingly, a large number of attendees
appear to be neither High Elf nor human. Their blue skin easily
noticeable regardless of their height, you quickly spot the contingent
of Izzet goblins Crix requested you deliver to, as their group is the
furthest north from the tower. Not far past them is a sizeable gathering
of dwarven merchants and mining foremen. A group of Devkarin elves,
recognizable by their triblistic face markings and ashen skin, to say
nothing of their aversion to standing in direct sunlight, gather to the
west. Scanning the individuals milling around, your eyes pick out
entertainers of all shapes and sizes, as well as a scattering of
half-orcs, gnomes, and even a pair of hulking Dragonborn having a lively
discussion with Lezard's guards."
Lots of potential for future side quests, and political drama with the local power structure. There were points I wanted to make with the groupings here that might have been lost since I didn't have nearly enough miniatures on the "field" as I'd have liked to accurately represent that there were more than 50 individuals outside at that point alone (making Lezard's front yard a bigger town than the hamlet in session one), but the beautiful thing about using the blog to recap is that anything the players might have missed or not been able to pick up on at the time, I can convey. In-game, it's something the characters would already know or notice anyway.
So I drew large circles on the dry erase board (putting the bard's offering to work) as rough areas where the guests had segregated their tents and preparations to. These weren't hard and restrictive - whilst the Devkarin kept mostly to themselves, the dwarves and gnomes and goblins and entertainers and assorted folk all kind of intermingled and did their own goal-furthering, things that didn't directly involve the players.
Given that they had some supplies to deliver, the party went to the goblins first. Mizmagnus, a successful galvanic blastseeker (he makes things blow up) received the supplies, and I relayed that he's the actual head of the Izzet Enclave, not Crix. Their purpose is to end the wedding with magical fireworks and to, hopefully, not blow everyone up instead. Because the party delivered the remaining supplies that the goblins were supposed to go back for (they aren't pack mules and don't have a ton of carrying capacity), he gave them a handful of gold coins AND inquired if anyone was a caster. Since Lenneth is the closest thing the team has to a wizard, he offered to teach her a new spell he is working on, in exchange for her to test it out ten times and report the results to him. She now has access to Chaos Bolt (I tried to make the A like the anarchy A, and that just resulted in her giving me shit, so back to being mean to the bard we go :-P ). Because there's no way to control what type of damage the spell does, it could be less effective or completely ineffective on some enemy types, whereas it could be twice as much on others.
From there, the party split. Gabriel went to talk to the Devkarin, Lenneth headed down to the entertainers to jam out, and Besiljka & Laucian went to interact with the guards and a pair of Dragonborn, conversing lively, by which I had to mean loudly but not necessarily angrily. There wasn't any rolling for initiative here, I just wanted to get a feel for who was doing what so I could lay down exposition as needed.
Gabriel started with his friendly not-at-all-interrogative banter trying to get a feel for why the Devkarin would be there at all, knowing that the High Elves and the Dark Elves don't have a lot of good feelings for each other. Relations between the High Elves and their dark cousins are never good, even at the best of times. These are not the best of times, and the Eroth are incensed that Lezard's invitations made it to Korozda. Lichlord Jarad vod Savo was thrilled and amused to have received it, and contemplated sending Kraul, or even Ishkanah in their stead (they won't elaborate on who or what that is, beyond chuckling darkly). However, as amusing as that might be, he was also intrigued at Lezard's endgame. This also gave me a chance to lay out that as sudden as the wedding itself seemed, Lezard has had at least a couple months to plan, given the distance the Devkarin had to travel from Korozda to Valeth Tower. And that it definitely is odd that a High Elf of his lineage would be marrying a human, noble or not. Gallows humor seems to be their stock in trade, and as Gabriel was walking away, Marwyn, a Golgari Circle of Spores Druid, tells him to visit the city, and Penvar, the Spider Keep, "if ever in the Underdark."
Since Lenneth was hanging with "her people," we went there next. Unfortunately, they were a whole bag of dicks to her. Malark Greycastle, the half-orc entertainer, led the verbal abuse given that Lezard "suspiciously" went outside of the Entertainer's Guild to contract her to perform at the wedding, instead of using one of the many performers the Guild already had available. They feel like she is taking coins out of their coffers, as it were, and Greycastle was very vocal about it. Unfortunately for him, humiliation is what Lenneth lives for, and before long, there was a puddle. -insert chuckle here- Otherwise, they didn't know much about regional goings ons, other than what is happening in Waterdeep, where they originated from.
With the Dragonborn (they're actually called Vayemniri, by the by) talking to the guards, Besiljka and Laucian butted in to see what was going on. They were discussing that the male (Grimfang Shields-the-Weak) used to be a bodyguard for the Brokengulf household (bride's family) and he had arrived to offer his services again, feeling that the elves couldn't possibly do a very good job protecting her family on such a long trip back and forth from the tower to Waterdeep via Phandalin and the Triboar trail. The female (Sora) relayed that the wedding is definitely big deal status-wise for the Brokengulfs, as their power is waning in the city. Waterdeep. Not Phandalin. Obv. The guards aren't hearing any of it though, and it takes the appearance of Erevan Siannodel, the captain of Lezard's guard, coming from the tower to defuse the situation. He sends the Dragonborn on their way with placations that Lady Analise will address their concerns when she is able to, after the ceremony. That's good enough for them. He then turns his attention to the party members, specifically Laucian, who he refers to as "cath'quessir" and treats as a younger sibling, thanking him for the party's efforts in Phandalin. He goes on to mention that Harbin Wester has told neither him nor Lezard about the Redbrands, any murders in town, missing dwarven miners, or anything other than good news about the area's prosperity. Only Elspeth's recent messenger has hinted at any troubles, something he finds deeply concerning, and he promises to speak to Lezard about future work after the wedding. Because he's a dual wielder like Laucian, I pointed out how nice his swords are, with the Eroth family crest worked into the pommels (the Siannodel are a vassal family of the Eroth). It's something for Laucian to aspire to, given Silent Rain's overall goals in the Realms.
That just left the dwarves as the last major grouping of wedding attendees. Their invites were pro forma given their own nobility, and their interests were more important than general information. But they did say that the Rockseeker clan once had large mining interests
in the area, until after the loss of the Wave Echo Cave to orcish
assaults, where their fortunes have waxed and waned. None present have spoken
to Gundren or his brothers in years, yet his obsession in locating the
mine is well known. Otherwise, the dwarves were chatty about their own
work to the southwest of the tower, and to the east of Phandalin, both
with a dwarven excavation and gold mining. Endeavors they hope to expand into more of the Elvish protectorate with Lezard's blessing. Because Dazlyn
Grayshard & Norbus Ironrune, Shield Dwarf commoners (I didn't give their names though) are looking for help with their excavations, I had the Dragonborn also show an interest, since they're looking for honest work until the Brokengulf family calls upon them. The rest of the dwarves mostly represent Clan Stoneshield, specifically the trio of Adrik, Harbek, and Oskar,the main delegation to entreat with Lezard. A couple of Rockgnomes were there as well, hoping to get the dwarves to help the in their own problems but they didn't have time to talk to the party because...
After a
period of time, Lord Lezard Eroth and Lady Analise Brokengulf, servants in tow, came out of the tower to greet the different groups, spending mere
moments making the rounds. The characters finally had a chance to get some type of formal introductions, where Lezard thanked them profusely, and socially awkwardly, for their efforts, before being a little creepy with Lenneth, as his fiance looked on. Gabriel moved to make sure Analise wasn't charmed or enchanted or under any kind of spell, but lacking dispel or sense magic abilities, there isn't much the party can do. She seems overly friendly, and gives backhanded insulty compliments though, so it's just as likely that she's put Lezard under a spell as the opposite.
With introductions made, the wedding party more or less met, and a bevy of new information & side quest seeds planted, and our time drawing close to an end (Sadly. I love time with my players.), we decided that was a great stopping point. So next session, we'll actually get to see an Elvish wedding in action, the bride & groom will get some blessings, and we'll move onto the next section of season one (I'm mentally counting the end of the wedding as the "mid-season break" even though we likely won't have downtime after, except for upcoming holidays). At this rate, maybe we'll get a half-orc wedding too, if Besiljka keeps wooing Elspeth.
We were pretty spot on rules-wise, but regardless I always prefer roleplaying to roll playing and I'm not a super big stickler for following the books at the table. I did, however, only allow Laucien to use one of his equipped longswords since we weren't dual wielding correctly. Also, Redbrands are statted with "multi attack, two attacks per round" and that's nuts. They're potentially doing 8 HP damage per hit, and Lenneth had 14 HP at level 2, so she could be conceivably cut down in one combat round by guys that are, essentially, no name thugs just there to pad experience and burn party resources. Granted, they all did horribly bad on their attack rolls, but the concept of it all left me shooketh. ALSO, might have to gonna ban phones at the table because -someone- was looking up stats on the nothic during play. The party parleyed instead of fighting it, which is good because it would have been a tough fight at that point, but I'm still not a fan of trying to "beat" the DM, so party members, please be on notice that I'll be using more Monster Manual Expanded I/II/III stats and or added extra abilities/more HP to common monsters to "beat" the researchers/keep the fights from feeling too repetitive.
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