Aboleth Group - "The Testicle Necklace" - LMOP Session 10
22nd Aug 2019, 7:45 – 10:45pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 9. End of session, day 9.
We last left our “Heroes” standing before a blank wall in the cellars of Tresendar Manor – the current base of operations of the Redbrand ruffians that have been terrorising the town.
After some discussion over remembering why they were here – primarily to rescue Pruni’s cousin, Carp, but also to hopefully wipe out the Redbrand threat to the town, and find out what happened to Sildar’s old friend, Iarno (though they forgot to ask Sildar what he looked like) – they started to look for the mechanism for the secret door that they were pretty certain was around somewhere.
Derrick found it, and pushed on, into an empty room containing some barrels, crates, and a cistern of water, fed from pipes above. They considered using Esme’s Find Traps spell, as they knew a trap was around somewhere, but decided against it and instead decided to use Thaumaturgy to open each door in the room in turn, from a distance.
Opening the first two doors had no adverse effects, but the third opened into a room containing three surprised Redbrands. When there was no one at the door that had just opened before their eyes, they were confused. Derrick appeared from around the corner and once again tried the “I’m new here, where are the prisoners?” trick. Surprisingly it seemed to once again work, though the Redbrands were not entirely convinced, despite Derrick’s red cloak. When Derrick announced he was alone, immediately proved to be a lie when the Redbrand (Byron) checked the cistern room and saw Esme, Pruni and Mallorn standing around the corner, it looked like the ruse was over and a fight was on the cards. Remarkably however, Esme pulled it out the bag by improvising a “Oh there you are Derrick, stop rushing off” spiel, and dropping the names of the Bugbear (Giles) and the other Redbrands (led by Fred) into the conversation. Byron was convinced, told them to get a move on, and confirmed that the trap was in the corridor nearby, before closing the door on them.
A huge sigh of relief echoed around the cistern room!
Ignoring the stone door they had just opened that seemed to lead upwards, they went through the northern door into the corridor. Rather than use a spell slot on a Find Traps spell, they instead hunt around for the trap – and find it, a pit trap in the corridor. Easily avoided. At least they thought it was easily avoided, but Derrick almost fell down it as he leapt across it in the style of a ballet dancer, and even dextrous Pruni slipped and nearly fell down it whilst edging across the narrow ledge.
Safely across the other side, the party enter a room containing 4 sarcophagi, which, judging by the engravings on the tops, contained members of the Tresendar family. Initially confused and concerned by the 4 skeletons leaning against the sarcophagi, the group quickly dismissed them as not a problem when they failed to animate and try to kill them as they expected. Though Derrick did advise leaving them well alone, just in case.
Geoff the spider was sent to explore inside one of the sarcophagi, which was slightly opened. He saw the bones of a body inside, in a pose that suggested there should be a sword in there with the body, but no sword was to be seen. There was also a tablet with some writing on it, though Geoff (and Mallorn, through Geoff’s many eyes) could not make out what it said. The outer carving also suggested the body should have a ring, but Geoff couldn’t find one of those either.
While discussing their next steps (a common occurrence in this session – maybe the party are becoming more cautious?!) they hear a scream coming from the adjoining room. Ignoring the sarcophagi and skeletons for now, the party enter the next room to see three more Redbrands guarding some prisoners. This time the “We’re here to collect the prisoners” line doesn’t work, and the Redbrands attack!!
Most of the party were quick off the mark, though, and get their attacks in first, with Mallorn and Pruni getting some good damage on the leader. Derrick takes a hit, but the other ruffians miss, and Derrick takes his opportunity to take out the leader with Mary, his greataxe. After a couple of misses from Mallorn and Esme from range, Pruni fires a deadly shot from her shortbow, aiming as usual for the groin, and managing to take off the Redbrands entire private area with a massive 21 points of damage in one shot. While Derrick takes another hit, and Esme makes up for her previous misses by smashing the head of the last Redbrand in two with her, as yet unnamed, warhammer, Pruni sets about collecting her spent arrow, which was embedded in the far wall and had a single testicle dangling from it. Pruni sits down to thread the testicle on a cord, forming a gruesome ‘trophy necklace’.
The prisoners are released – Mirna Drendar, her children Nars and Nilsa, and Carp. Derrick unsurprisingly tries to flirt with Nilsa who despite the situation (and the fact that she recently lost her father who was killed by Redbrands and was told had been fed to “the monster”) seemed to succumb to his wily charms, and fluttered her eyelashes at Derrick and seemed to be quite besotted. Mirna pushed her to the back, away from Derrick.
After some discussion over remembering why they were here – primarily to rescue Pruni’s cousin, Carp, but also to hopefully wipe out the Redbrand threat to the town, and find out what happened to Sildar’s old friend, Iarno (though they forgot to ask Sildar what he looked like) – they started to look for the mechanism for the secret door that they were pretty certain was around somewhere.
Derrick found it, and pushed on, into an empty room containing some barrels, crates, and a cistern of water, fed from pipes above. They considered using Esme’s Find Traps spell, as they knew a trap was around somewhere, but decided against it and instead decided to use Thaumaturgy to open each door in the room in turn, from a distance.
Opening the first two doors had no adverse effects, but the third opened into a room containing three surprised Redbrands. When there was no one at the door that had just opened before their eyes, they were confused. Derrick appeared from around the corner and once again tried the “I’m new here, where are the prisoners?” trick. Surprisingly it seemed to once again work, though the Redbrands were not entirely convinced, despite Derrick’s red cloak. When Derrick announced he was alone, immediately proved to be a lie when the Redbrand (Byron) checked the cistern room and saw Esme, Pruni and Mallorn standing around the corner, it looked like the ruse was over and a fight was on the cards. Remarkably however, Esme pulled it out the bag by improvising a “Oh there you are Derrick, stop rushing off” spiel, and dropping the names of the Bugbear (Giles) and the other Redbrands (led by Fred) into the conversation. Byron was convinced, told them to get a move on, and confirmed that the trap was in the corridor nearby, before closing the door on them.
A huge sigh of relief echoed around the cistern room!
Ignoring the stone door they had just opened that seemed to lead upwards, they went through the northern door into the corridor. Rather than use a spell slot on a Find Traps spell, they instead hunt around for the trap – and find it, a pit trap in the corridor. Easily avoided. At least they thought it was easily avoided, but Derrick almost fell down it as he leapt across it in the style of a ballet dancer, and even dextrous Pruni slipped and nearly fell down it whilst edging across the narrow ledge.
Safely across the other side, the party enter a room containing 4 sarcophagi, which, judging by the engravings on the tops, contained members of the Tresendar family. Initially confused and concerned by the 4 skeletons leaning against the sarcophagi, the group quickly dismissed them as not a problem when they failed to animate and try to kill them as they expected. Though Derrick did advise leaving them well alone, just in case.
Geoff the spider was sent to explore inside one of the sarcophagi, which was slightly opened. He saw the bones of a body inside, in a pose that suggested there should be a sword in there with the body, but no sword was to be seen. There was also a tablet with some writing on it, though Geoff (and Mallorn, through Geoff’s many eyes) could not make out what it said. The outer carving also suggested the body should have a ring, but Geoff couldn’t find one of those either.
While discussing their next steps (a common occurrence in this session – maybe the party are becoming more cautious?!) they hear a scream coming from the adjoining room. Ignoring the sarcophagi and skeletons for now, the party enter the next room to see three more Redbrands guarding some prisoners. This time the “We’re here to collect the prisoners” line doesn’t work, and the Redbrands attack!!
Most of the party were quick off the mark, though, and get their attacks in first, with Mallorn and Pruni getting some good damage on the leader. Derrick takes a hit, but the other ruffians miss, and Derrick takes his opportunity to take out the leader with Mary, his greataxe. After a couple of misses from Mallorn and Esme from range, Pruni fires a deadly shot from her shortbow, aiming as usual for the groin, and managing to take off the Redbrands entire private area with a massive 21 points of damage in one shot. While Derrick takes another hit, and Esme makes up for her previous misses by smashing the head of the last Redbrand in two with her, as yet unnamed, warhammer, Pruni sets about collecting her spent arrow, which was embedded in the far wall and had a single testicle dangling from it. Pruni sits down to thread the testicle on a cord, forming a gruesome ‘trophy necklace’.
The prisoners are released – Mirna Drendar, her children Nars and Nilsa, and Carp. Derrick unsurprisingly tries to flirt with Nilsa who despite the situation (and the fact that she recently lost her father who was killed by Redbrands and was told had been fed to “the monster”) seemed to succumb to his wily charms, and fluttered her eyelashes at Derrick and seemed to be quite besotted. Mirna pushed her to the back, away from Derrick.
Mirna was very grateful at being rescued, and asked that they recover her husband, Thel, from the ravages of the monster so she could give him a burial. When Derrick unsubtly mentioned a reward she informed the group of a valuable emerald necklace that her family left in Thundertree, in the herbalists shop. Mirna also identified Reidoth’s tea concoctions for them – one will brew up into a potion of poison resistance, the other a potion of greater healing.
Carp, who is keen to become an adventurer someday, gave a little information to the group, though nothing particularly useful. The group decided to lead the prisoners back to town, to ensure they get out safely. Cladding them in the Redbrands cloaks, they lead them back towards the secret entrance, but are delayed when Nilsa, who was busy staring at Derrick, managed to trip and crash into him, just as they were passing the Redbrand room they encountered earlier.
Another almost unbelievable period of pretence took place, where Derrick once again managed to convince the Redbrands that they were leading the prisoners to be fed to Ishtar, under command of Glasstaff. Once again the dopey Redbrands fell for it and the party got away with it!
Heading quickly through Ishtar’s cavern proved a little more difficult, however, when the large group, all pretending to be Redbrands, did not completely convince Ishtar, and he directed his Rotting Gaze at Carp, causing Carp to fall to the ground, his left arm slowly rotting away. Esme quickly stopped the rot, Derrick tried talking to Ishtar, and Mirna, spotting the dead body of her husband in the crevasse, climbed down to recover it.
Everything was happening at once, and even Ishtar was getting confused by it all. Esme and Derrick managed to convince Ishtar to let them leave, giving him a full week’s rations to keep him sweet/occupied/distracted. Esme jumped into the crevasse to help Mirna recover her husband’s body, and spotted the dead body of Harbin Wester beneath Thel Drendar’s body. No time to stop to recover that too. However, suddenly….SHINY, SHINY…. A chest! Hidden nearby the bodies. So tempting! Esme stopped and was starting to drag the chest out to open it when Derrick and Mallorn somehow managed to persuade her to leave it – they would come back for it, and for Harbin’s body, later. Reluctantly Esme agreed, and before Ishtar finished the rations, they all escaped through the secret entrance, carrying Carp’s unconscious body and Thel’s dead (and a little nibbled by Ishtar) body, with Mirna, Nilsa and Nars following.
They made it back to Qelline’s farm where she was overjoyed at getting Carp back alive, albeit unconscious. The party decided to have a short rest before heading back, telling Mirna to stay with Qelline and keep a low profile until they got back to avoid raising an alarm.
And so we leave our “Heroes”, amazed at their powers of persuasion, planning their approach back to the hideout, wondering if Ishtar would prefer half a haunch of pork, or a recently killed bugbear (Giles). Pruni twiddled her trophy necklace between her fingers.
