Session 9: Crisis in Cragmaw

The battered heroes snuck out of Cragmaw Castle with their prisoner, Glasstaff, to their makeshift camp. After Pog put Glasstaff to the question they learned the Black Spider is a Dark Elf and looking for the Forge of Spells in Wave Echo Cavern. Stevil, angry at Glasstaff for trying to incinerate the party in the previous battle, nearly killed the wizard with a mailed fist to the face. The team then sent the unconscious Glasstaff back to Phandalin to face justice by the Lord’s Alliance along with Nars and Goh.

After resting Pog and Silde tried to sneak into the castle the next morning, but Pog was discovered by Targor Bloodsword and his squad of Hobgoblins and Wolves. Pog attempted to talk his way out of combat but Targor was intent on bloodshed and charged at Pog.  The party rushed to defend Pog and the heroes soon had the upper hand in the battle, but then Targor retreated to Krol’s chamber and warned the king of the party’s assault. The team were in pursuit and Stevil cast Shatter into the chamber, killing several Hobgoblins. However, he also killed their own employer, Gundren Rockseeker, who was lying unconscious in the room.

Vyerith, a comely Dark Elf and agent of the Black Spider, fled the room to rally the castle defenders while King Krol and his wolf, Snarl, made a last stand against the party. The team easily defeated the pair and discovered a map of Wave Echo Cavern. Unbeknownst to the heroes a large number of castle defenders were converging on their location as they were looting the room.  Vyerith, feeling like she had the upper hand, parleyed with the party and offered free passage in exchange for the map. Blumpkin responded by firing a Piercing Arrow at her while her forces retorted with a volley of their own arrows. Sildar blocked the arrows with his shield before he slammed the door to the chamber shut, giving the party a few previous moments to devise a plan.

The heroes realized they were surrounded by a superior force with no way to escape. However, Pog realized they could climb out to the roof of the castle via a ruined hole in the tower roof. He used his climbing tools and rope to ascend and helped the rest of the team escape the room to the roof.  The heroes could have easily escaped the castle with the location of Wave Echo Cavern secured and avoided fighting, but undaunted by the magnitude of the threat they faced and intent on wiping out the evil threat in the castle, they heroically dropped into their enemies midst via an opening in the roof.

Immediately the party took several damaging blows from their enemies, who had surrounded them from three different sides. Blumpkin was nearly knocked unconscious when his elven-hating foes focused their wrath on him, but he stayed on his feet and fired an Explosive Arrow, which did minimal damage. Silde was a whirlwind of destruction, and killed two enemies in one turn, while Sildar defended him with his shield. Pog held the line and dropped caltrops to the South, which blocked the party from being flanked, while Stevil cast shatter to soften up the enemies.

The future of the party was looking grim with Silde and Blumpkin on the verge of going down while Stevil, Pog, and Sildar struggled to hold their enemies back. Blumpin tried to reposition and moved West into a Dark Hall, but he unknowingly stumbled into the lair of a Grick, a fearsome tentacle monster. The last thing the party needed was to face a deadly foe while fighting a horde of other enemies and the heroes thought they were doomed but they valiantly fought on. Blumpkin, who was already badly wounded, was repeatedly assaulted by the beast and was on the verge of death multiple times, but Stevil was able to keep him alive with his healing magic. Blumpkin could have disengaged but he stood his ground with his trusty Rapier and tights to engage the beast while the party focused on whittling down Vyerith’s forces.

After a protacted battle the party managed to defeat the castle defenders, and then charged into the Dark Hall to help Blumpkin defeat the Grick. After the battle the exhausted party, surrounded by dead bodies and wreckage from the batle, saw that Vyerith was not a Drow but rather a Doppelganger.

Session 8: Glasstaff revealed

Having secured Cragmaw Cavern, our heroes rested to recuperate from their wounds. They traveled back to Phandalin the next morning to return the supplies, but when they arrived they saw that most of it had been burnt to the ground. In the ruins of the townhall they saw the bodies of Sildar, Harbin, Linene, and Barthen, who had been impaled with a warning message from the Black Spider nailed through Harbin’s head. Donton, growing impatient and concerned for his own safety, left the party and began his Journey to Neverwinter.

Despite his horrific wounds, Sildar called out to the party. He extolled them to complete his quest and handed over his ring that opens a vault in his ancestral family castle.  Stevil and Goh used their medical training and magic respectively to deimpale and heal Sildar – an almost impossible task – but they were successful. Sildar, grateful for his life and the return of his ring, recounted the tale of his capture by Glasstaff and the subsequent pillaging of the village out of revenge by the Black Spider.

The band heard the screams of Trilena Stonehill next to Tresendar Manor and charged in to rescue her. They engaged a Goblinoid raiding party about to murder her and break into the basement.  Silde was singled out by the raiding party and was quickly beaten unconscious, but Stevil revived him before he was killed. Blumpkin soon used his Arcane Shot to cause mayhem for the monsters, who were soon destroyed with the help of the heroes. 

The party freed the townsfolk, who had taken refuge in the basement. They soon learned that Glasstaff headed North hours ago and that Nars Dendrar, infused with the resolve of Kord and intent on getting justice, left in pursuit . The party rushed after Nars and Glasstaff, using Goh’s tracking ability to follow, but they were weary from their long march from Cragmaw Cavern and some of them became exhausted – particularly Silde – but they soldiered on. They soon arrived at Cragmaw Castle, but Goh was discovered by Goblins when he came too close to the front gate. However, he was able to flee and the weary party – having lost the element of surprise – rested for the night. The next day they discovered a concealed, side entrance into the castle and ventured inside.

They soon found a pair of Hobgoblins guarding a trap door to a small dungeon and killed them before they could send an alert. Suspecting Nars might have been captured they entered the dungeon and soon found him in one of the cells. He told the party that Glasstaff was in the adjoining room and torturing Toblen Stonehill on a rack.  The brave adventurers confronted Glasstaff and his Goblinoid allies in the torture room, but the diabolical Glasstaff cast a Fireball that smashed into the heroes with a shockwave that reverberated throughout the entire castle – seriously wounding everyone in the party and nearly incinerating Silde. However, Glasstaff also killed his own allies and the party quickly knocked Glasstaff unconscious before he could cause additional mayhem.

Session 7: Entering the Bone Zone

The weary heroes ventured into the altar of the forgotten tomb and saw an undead abomination of bones and rotten flesh shaped like a tree. Beside it was a freakish four-armed skeleton that charged the party while the tree hurled an arrow of bone dripping necrotic fluid that nearly impaled Pog.

Armed Skeleton

The group took cover while Goh and Blumpkin fired arrows at the tree, but its carapace resisted the blows. Pog protected his companions and together they destroyed the skeleton, but the tree vomited up new foes to wear down the heroes. Stevil discovered the tree was susceptible to light, and with the help of the team, who distracted it, cast Guiding Bolt and Sacred flame, which badly hurt the monster. However, Stevil was nearly knocked out of the fight after he got hit twice with the deadly projectiles, but he stayed on his feet with Relentless Endurance and finished off the tree with Sacred Flame.

  

The adventurers deduced from the reliefs that the monster was the mutated remnants of a sorcerer that had been animated by an evil, black diamond of demonic origin. After consulting Kord via an Augury scroll, the heroes smashed the gem and cleansed Phandalin of an evil that would have soon overwhelmed the town. The party harvested several necrotic arrows, shards of the black diamond, and a Periapt of Wound Closure that was worn by Stevil.

On the way to the inn the team picked up Donton and discovered that the townsfolk were in good spirits with the destruction of the gem. Qelline Alderleaf then told the band about undead at Old Owl Well and that Reidoth of Thundertree, a druid, may know the location of Wave Echo Cavern.  The heroes, intent on clearing the surrounding wilds of evil and returning the lost supplies to the Lionshield Coster, ventured back into Cragmaw Cavern. They attempted to negotiate for the supplies with Gnarlgrimm, the new leader of the cavern, but Gnarlgrimm refused and a battle ensued.

The group raced across the creek to do battle, taking potshots at one of the archers, who caught one of Pog’s javelins with his throat. The party was then nearly swept away by a deluge from a raging torrent trap unleashed by the Goblins, but they escaped unscathed.  The party planned an ambush of their foes but Donton gave his warcry, “Donton Clindald!” and charged into the oncoming Goblins, but was ineffective. The team charged after him and became jammed in the tunnel, which trapped Goh between three foes who had been blessed by dark magic. Goh fought heroically and was nearly killed, but Stevil smote their enemies with the power of Kord, instantly killing a rabid Wolf and Hobgoblin, and badly injured a Goblin and Gnarlgrimm.  With Gnarlgrimm’s main vanguard destroyed his remaining forces were easily defeated, with the last threat, a Goblin ritualist, being cleaved in two by Pog to end the battle.

A lone surviving goblin, who cowardly hid during the battle, surrendered and told the party the location of Cragmaw Castle in exchange for his life.