Session Ten: Return to Grace

Alt Title: Are We Gonna Smash or Nah?

We picked up in media res with Gabriel down in the antechamber after the party "chased" Venomfang out of the ruined tower. The space he found himself seemed incredibly antiquated, predating much of the works above, and was likely undisturbed for centuries. Whereas the tower above was most likely the abode of a wizard or warlock in the past, the under-space felt almost hallowed, and Gabriel experienced a sense of calm and comfort down there.

Because Darkvision can be limiting with colors and shapes in shadows, Gabe cast Light to illuminate more of the space down the hall from where he fell, which was itself mostly bathed in light from above. After stopping to listen closely, no signs of life of movement were detected and Lenneth & Besiljka bandied ideas for getting down via rope. A ruined tower leaves for lots of places to anchor themselves and before much time had passed, they were down in the hole.

But where Gabriel felt comfortable, Lenneth felt a ton of air pressure, like being underwater or the way the air changes right before a storm. Bessie felt none of that, and her Danger Sense (which I realized we were playing way wrong) didn't tingle at all to alert them of traps, though she did have a notion that the area was... Different. 

They went up the hall into the "main" chamber of the underground space, where an altar and several pieces of furniture lay. The tower itself held no treasure for the dragon hadn't been there long enough to amass a new hoard, and it'd have been fuming with the mound beneath its feet. A pile of coinage (which was described as gold, silver, and copper, but not in the mintage of any current kingdom the players know), as well as goblets and assorted trinkets including a rusty axe, met them. Further searching through some old papers found a couple of spell scrolls, including a Scroll of Misty Step. I make mention of this one specifically because in imagery, the effect reminds me of Ciri's blink dodge in The Witcher 3, and since it's something that'll be available after further levels for Gabriel, I think it might be an incredibly useful motive spell.

As the party located those goods, Besiljka wanted to really do a deep investigation, convinced there was more to the area than they could easily see. So some checks later and she realized that one section of wall was slightly different colored than the remaining stone. Messing around with the rusted axe and using brute force, she poked a hole through the masonry and a pinpoint of light became visible. She and Gabriel worked together and eventually busted a hole through a patch of wall, revealing another chamber to the area. Torches burning brightly in odd colors, clearly magical, lit the space and Gabriel's feeling of comfort intensified, like coming home after a long trip. Lenneth's discomfort also increased and she made the decision to stay far out of the subchamber. In addition, a low whispering started. Though he couldn't make out the words, Gabriel could tell the language was Celestial. As he and Bessie went into the hall, the walls were described as having intricate murals depicting demons and devils at war with one another, and angels flying above to protect the Material Plane from their conflict. These images continued along until they reached a larger portion, a tomb with a sarcophagus surrounded by what appeared to be priests or monks, six in number, kneeling as if in prayer. All were long since dead, bones stripped of any semblance of flesh. With the whispering and the dead bodies, the party started throwing out theories on what was in the sarcophagus. Either Bessie or Gabe (probably Bessie) tipped over one of the monks, and around his neck was a silver holy symbol, an upright skeletal hand holding a pair of scales. I had to specify these were of the weighing things type, and not of the dragon type. So, Gabriel and Lenneth thought the party should get the fuck out of there and not mess with anything else, lest they incur the wrath of a God or of some kinda demon/devil (maybe Lenneth's dad even! Just kidding, he's... elsewhere).

But, and this is why (important later) I'm not allowing Feats as an option for this campaign, I very subtly reminded Gabriel that Paladins could sense good and evil stuffs as a class trait, and after he did so, I revealed that the ground was hallowed, centered on the sarcophagus, but that no fiend or undead was in the room. That was all the motivation Besiljka needed, as she rushed to pop open the tomb and blammo, stepped into a Holy Ward, taking a radiant beating. But Bessie easily shrugged it off, revealing what was inside - what appeared to be a fine diamond dust surrounded by a golden-hued set of immaculate splintmail! The judgement motif was etched across the suit, similar to the holy symbol the monks carried.

Gabriel is the only party member set for heavier armors and he was quick to snatch this find up. As his hand touched the suit, he had a mini-seizure. The Celestial whispering intensified and he could clearly make out the words "that which has risen must fall; that which has fallen may rise again." He sees a realm of artifice filled with clockwork beings and angelic entities flitting about and accomplishing tasks with mechanical precision. After clearing his head and making a Religion or Arcana check (I forget which), the party learned the vision was of Mechanus, an Outer Plane of Absolute Law ruled by Primus. Fitting the armor on, he discovered the back pieces was cut specifically to allow a winged being to wear the splint, and his feeling of righteousness grew within it. 

After a little "but what does it all mean, Basil?" going on (and the party having more questions than answers, but does this burial chamber even have any connection to the crisis in Phandalin or the zombie assault?), the party returned topside and exited the ammonia-stinking tower. Before they could reach the bottom of the hill, Reidoth and freshly-arrived Grimfang met them.

Reidoth was flustered about Venomfang flying off, and wanted to know what happened. 

"Gods bedamnit! Phandalin may be safe now, but greens are liars. Here, this map'll get you to Cragmaw Castle through the Wood. I'm heading back to town to warn them."

With that, he Animorphed (look, it's what Druids do, alright) into a giant hawk and flew off to warn Phandalin. Grimfang shrugged in a very Dragonborn way, and explained his presence.

“Sora is helping to shore up Phandalin's defenses. A band of dwarves showed up in town looking for Sildar. Sildar sent me to Daran, Daran sent me here. Looks like I missed out.”

Of course, the party was less than thrilled that he wasn't there to (potentially) help them slay a dragon (they'd all have just died) but having him along to go to Cragmaw Castle as a four-stack instead of three definitely buoyed their confidence level. Where Gabriel is a more offense-oriented Paladin, Grimfang is definitely a Protector.

I had to adapt a little on the fly for this next part so it didn't flow quite the way I wanted it to, but..

Though Cragmaw Castle looked to be a relatively short jaunt, Neverwinter Wood is primeval forest and not easy going. After a day's push, the party reached a clearing near a stream, a great place to set up camp. Or it would have been, but an arrow whizzed by Besiljka's head, a squad of Hobgoblins ready to open ye olde canneth of whupass on the party. This was the first time we've had to deal with a longer range. Something I've noticed in combat is that most dungeons and maps and using Warlock Tiles etc is that skirmishes rarely occur with more than 30 ft separating combatants. Maybe that's my fault. But this time, the Hobknobgobblers we're near the stream with the party coming through the trees and other than some logs, cover was sparse. It looked like the party would soon be pincushions but then Lenneth remembered she had a Sleep spell. Casting at the maximum level she could (as a 2nd Level spell), she was able to sleep three of the six, and daze the fourth enough to give him Disadvantage on his attack roll. Besiljka and Grimfang rushed forward. The Dragonborn took an arrow to the shoulder but sloughed off the damage. Unable to get close enough, Besiljka instead chucked a javelin like an Olympic athlete. The party knew they needed to close the gap, and the Gobblinthisjunk squad had to shake off the sleep effects as quickly as possible. Tactics came into play, surprisingly, and whilst Bessie  Grim held the line, Gabriel pulled out THE FUCKING CURSED LONGBOW and rolled with all the big dick energy he could. Resulting in a 1. Of course, you know what that means, rolling again aaaaaand he shot Grimfang with an arrow. Look, guys, no more. Until someone -actually- gets Proficiency with a Longbow, maybe let's get rid of that thing. Hell, Blindsight Lenneth could probably just work a crossbow and kill fewer party members. 

With the center of the Hobbledgobbles line half asleep, Grim tried to use his breath attack and did a dismal three measly HP of damage to them. Yikes. But then Gabriel's brain went all the way back to the Cragmaw Hideout, and he decided the best thing he could do would be to chuck Lenneth forward for some Thunderwave into the stream followed by using a Lightning Bolt scroll. 

Was this the dumbest plan ever? Nope not even close. Especially when it worked to get her within range, and Thunderwave did enough damage to flat out murder a couple of them. Thunderwave has proven itself to be the MVP of spells.

Anyway, the militants were killed after another round or two and the party went to lewting. Their leader carried a bounty notice for Besiljka, and signed by a black spider. Like, -the- Black Spider. It was for 25 GP though and if I were Bessie, I'd feel freaking insulted. 

As the party went through the bodies, the trees sprung to life and a force of wood elves appeared, bows drawn. Their leader introduced himself as Faren Elmdreamer, and let them know that they'd been following the party with plans to kill them, but it seemed as if they had a common enemy. A battle plan was struck between the two teams where the wood elves would draw off as much of the Cragmaw army as they could, and the party would kill their king.

Now... My plan here was that the party would camp for the night so we could get some roleplay in between the party, Grimfang, and the elves. I'd actually hoped for enough of that to finish out the session and then start next at Cragmaw Castle, especially because the party hit level 4. But we did the leveling and camping quickly, and then moved on. 

Elvish intelligence gave the party enough of a rough layout of the castle that I just laid down battle maps. Studying it for a bit, Besiljka decided to disguise herself as a tree to get close without being seen. Her Stealth roll was low, so she didn't go unobserved, but the goblin that saw her just assumed the trees were walking again. Neverwinter Wood is a weird place. And when the rest of the party followed suit, it was basically a normal day. 

Again, mess up on the Danger Sense had Besiljka easily spotting and disarming a tripwire trap. Pushing into the interior of the castle a bit, the party made it into a great hall with religious iconography. All rolled Perception and Gabriel blew his, resulting in a surprise attack from a Grick! This was the first time a multiattack creature came at the party hard, so I described its tentacles finding the slits in the back of Gabe's armor as its beak tried to pierce his neck. In his splintmail though, he is a tough nut to crack and the Grick just couldn't get in there that much, resulting in its untimely death.

That's where we ended things. Party is in the room with a dead Grick and who knows what else lurking in the ruins of Cragmaw Castle.