Aboleth Group - "Do Skeletons Have Testicles?" - Session 12 LMOP
11th Sep 2019, 7:45 – 11:15pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 9. End of session, day 9.
We rejoin our “Heroes” resting in a small bedroom, of sorts, previously inhabited by Bugbears – now dead – and a goblin named Pob, who is being prevented from leaving the room by Esme’s impressive bottom blocking the door.
After the group have rested for a short time, they turn to Pob and fire questions at him. “Who is Glasstaff? Where is he? What does he look like? What can he do? Do you know the exact floor plan of this cellar?” etc, all of which gain answers you would expect of a goblin, recently captured by the gang, and pressed into work cleaning out the bedrooms in the cellars. But the answers were not good enough for the group, and they continued pressing Pob in the belief that he was some sort of villainous mastermind. Which he could be. He could even be Glasstaff, as was mentioned by Mallorn at one point. Pob asks to be set free, which, after some discussion the group agree to do, though reluctantly from Esme, who was slighted at Pob’s ‘Lardarse’ comment, and Derrick who was just getting bored and wanted to kill something. Before letting Pob go, Derrick decided to give Pob a slap, not realising that a slap from a strong fighter can cause considerable damage. And so it did, and Pob promptly fell unconscious. Esme, still sulking a little, did eventually make Pob comfortable, but they decided to just let him come around of his own accord.
The party headed into Fred’s gambling den in the room above. Which was empty apart from some kegs of beer. The north door was one that they hadn’t opened before, and was too tight a fit to send Geoff scurrying through as a recon mission, so the party spent a while planning for combat, preparing weapons and strategies before opening the door. Which opened into an empty corridor. Derrick’s frustration grew.
The room opposite was more interesting – a laboratory of sorts, empty of people and monsters, but full of bubbling flasks of liquid, vials, ingredients etc. Mallorn worked out from some nearby books and manuals that the lab was set up to attempt to brew potions of invisibility. It is uncertain whether the attempts were successful.
Moving into the next room produced even more interesting information, though no monsters or fighting, so Derrick’s frustration increased. The room was a bedroom/study, obviously Glasstaff’s. The party find a number of books – two unusual tomes: “So You Want To Befriend A Drow” and “The History of the Forge of Spells”; two basic books covering how to look after magical familiars, and Potion Making for the Absolute Beginner; and Lord’s Alliance Handbook (though no owners name was inside). The group also find some letters (linked here) which seemed to confirm that Glasstaff was in fact Iarno, and a chest of some gold, gems and useful scrolls (Charm Person and Fireball). An open secret compartment contained another volume of the Faerun deity genealogy, but Mallorn reckoned it also contained another book previously but that had been taken in a hurry. A secret door at the far end of the room had been left slightly ajar, as if someone had left the room quickly.
Cautiously following the trail out of the door and up the stairs to another open door, they find themselves back in the storeroom leading off from Ishtar’s cavern, that they had previously looked around. Another secret door is slightly open on the opposite wall. Derrick is getting mightily bored by now.
Across the way, the party find an armoury, and Pruni and Mallorn equip themselves with some light crossbows, while Derrick, bored out of his skull at this point, walks to the next door, throws it open and strides into the room....
....To be confronted by 4 skeletons, which the group had previously seen lying by the sarcophagi in this room, but this time were standing, armed, and looking straight at Derrick. Two fire off arrows, the other two pile in on Derrick with their shortswords. Derrick takes a beating, with 3 hits, but retaliates with his Thunderwave spell, which knocks back one of the meleeing skeletons, and damages both of them. The rest of the party join in on the next round, but with plenty of misses from the party, and Derrick managing to roll a 1 damage twice in a row (after rerolling the first due to his Great Weapon Fighting ability), it took a while to bring the skeletons down – Pruni doing her usual job of letting the others bring the enemies’ health down, then going in for the final blow!
With the 4 skeletons defeated, though not before they got some hits on most of the party, Pruni searched the bones for any testicles, before realising that skeletons don’t have testicles. She considered crafting a hat from the pelvic bone of one of them, but decided against it for now.
The attack from the skeletons seemed to have removed any semblance of “respect the dead” that the party, even Esme, may have had previously, and they proceeded to open up all the sarcophagi and rob them of any treasure they could find. Each had a platinum signet ring, emblazoned with the Tresendar crest, except for Aldith’s tomb, which was already partially open, and was missing his ring and his sword, which, an inscription implied, was named “Talon” and was a beloved treasure of Aldith – not that that would have stopped the party nicking it, if it had been there. With a mild pang of guilt, Esme said a few cleric-type words over the now plundered coffins. I’m not sure why – they had already been laid to rest respectfully and at least 3 of them were untouched before “The Grave Robbers” adventuring party arrived.
After having pilfered everything they could find, the party pressed on in the hope of finding Glasstaff, who they surmised had run away at some point. In the cistern room Esme spots that something seemed to have been taken out of the cistern – a small pool of water had been splashed over the edge, and there was a small hook below the water line in the cistern itself. The party were about to head outside via the main entrance, when it was realised that no one had checked the bodies of the Redbrands for any loot. “The Grave Robbers” therefore headed into Ishtar’s room to do just that.
Ishtar was busy feasting on the fresh meat that was lying in pools of blood all over his cavern – eating already dead people in red cloaks seemed to be allowed. The party looted the bodies and got a fair few pieces of gold, then Esme decided to check out Harbin’s body that she had earlier spotted in the chasm.
Esme’s skill in healing and medicine told her that there seemed to be some form of magical aura in the chasm, that seemed to be keeping the bodies down there in a fresher state than they should be. Armed with this knowledge, she worked out that although Harbin’s body looked to be only a few days old, it was in fact a few months old! Curiouser and curiouser! Does this mean the Harbin in town, who they spoke to only a week or so ago, was an imposter? Or was this body an imposter? The plot thickens.
Seeing Ishtar distracted, Esme calls Pruni down and between them they take a peek in the chest. Seeing gold, gems, vials, bits of paper and a decent looking long sword, they decide to try their luck nicking the paper and manage to recover a scroll of Speak with Dead. With Ishtar’s eye scanning the room, they decide to leave the rest of the loot untouched.
The party head out of the cellar and head back to Qelline’s farm, to return her now battered and a little unappetising half-a-ham that they have been carrying round the cellars for some reason, and to have a long rest before deciding on their next steps.
And so we leave our “Heroes”, resting up after a harder-than-it-should-be battle with some skeletons, having robbed the graves of some ancient local heroes, but having learned that Glasstaff was Iarno all along, but that Glasstaff seemed to be working for someone, or something, called Black Spider, who is also looking for the Lost Mine, and who may or may not be a Drow. Possibly a Drider. And one of the Harbin’s is/was an imposter. Probably. Or he had a twin. And Glasstaff is missing. But the Redbrand threat is sorted. For now, at least.
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 9. End of session, day 9.
We rejoin our “Heroes” resting in a small bedroom, of sorts, previously inhabited by Bugbears – now dead – and a goblin named Pob, who is being prevented from leaving the room by Esme’s impressive bottom blocking the door.
After the group have rested for a short time, they turn to Pob and fire questions at him. “Who is Glasstaff? Where is he? What does he look like? What can he do? Do you know the exact floor plan of this cellar?” etc, all of which gain answers you would expect of a goblin, recently captured by the gang, and pressed into work cleaning out the bedrooms in the cellars. But the answers were not good enough for the group, and they continued pressing Pob in the belief that he was some sort of villainous mastermind. Which he could be. He could even be Glasstaff, as was mentioned by Mallorn at one point. Pob asks to be set free, which, after some discussion the group agree to do, though reluctantly from Esme, who was slighted at Pob’s ‘Lardarse’ comment, and Derrick who was just getting bored and wanted to kill something. Before letting Pob go, Derrick decided to give Pob a slap, not realising that a slap from a strong fighter can cause considerable damage. And so it did, and Pob promptly fell unconscious. Esme, still sulking a little, did eventually make Pob comfortable, but they decided to just let him come around of his own accord.
The party headed into Fred’s gambling den in the room above. Which was empty apart from some kegs of beer. The north door was one that they hadn’t opened before, and was too tight a fit to send Geoff scurrying through as a recon mission, so the party spent a while planning for combat, preparing weapons and strategies before opening the door. Which opened into an empty corridor. Derrick’s frustration grew.
The room opposite was more interesting – a laboratory of sorts, empty of people and monsters, but full of bubbling flasks of liquid, vials, ingredients etc. Mallorn worked out from some nearby books and manuals that the lab was set up to attempt to brew potions of invisibility. It is uncertain whether the attempts were successful.
Moving into the next room produced even more interesting information, though no monsters or fighting, so Derrick’s frustration increased. The room was a bedroom/study, obviously Glasstaff’s. The party find a number of books – two unusual tomes: “So You Want To Befriend A Drow” and “The History of the Forge of Spells”; two basic books covering how to look after magical familiars, and Potion Making for the Absolute Beginner; and Lord’s Alliance Handbook (though no owners name was inside). The group also find some letters (linked here) which seemed to confirm that Glasstaff was in fact Iarno, and a chest of some gold, gems and useful scrolls (Charm Person and Fireball). An open secret compartment contained another volume of the Faerun deity genealogy, but Mallorn reckoned it also contained another book previously but that had been taken in a hurry. A secret door at the far end of the room had been left slightly ajar, as if someone had left the room quickly.
Cautiously following the trail out of the door and up the stairs to another open door, they find themselves back in the storeroom leading off from Ishtar’s cavern, that they had previously looked around. Another secret door is slightly open on the opposite wall. Derrick is getting mightily bored by now.
Across the way, the party find an armoury, and Pruni and Mallorn equip themselves with some light crossbows, while Derrick, bored out of his skull at this point, walks to the next door, throws it open and strides into the room....
....To be confronted by 4 skeletons, which the group had previously seen lying by the sarcophagi in this room, but this time were standing, armed, and looking straight at Derrick. Two fire off arrows, the other two pile in on Derrick with their shortswords. Derrick takes a beating, with 3 hits, but retaliates with his Thunderwave spell, which knocks back one of the meleeing skeletons, and damages both of them. The rest of the party join in on the next round, but with plenty of misses from the party, and Derrick managing to roll a 1 damage twice in a row (after rerolling the first due to his Great Weapon Fighting ability), it took a while to bring the skeletons down – Pruni doing her usual job of letting the others bring the enemies’ health down, then going in for the final blow!
With the 4 skeletons defeated, though not before they got some hits on most of the party, Pruni searched the bones for any testicles, before realising that skeletons don’t have testicles. She considered crafting a hat from the pelvic bone of one of them, but decided against it for now.
The attack from the skeletons seemed to have removed any semblance of “respect the dead” that the party, even Esme, may have had previously, and they proceeded to open up all the sarcophagi and rob them of any treasure they could find. Each had a platinum signet ring, emblazoned with the Tresendar crest, except for Aldith’s tomb, which was already partially open, and was missing his ring and his sword, which, an inscription implied, was named “Talon” and was a beloved treasure of Aldith – not that that would have stopped the party nicking it, if it had been there. With a mild pang of guilt, Esme said a few cleric-type words over the now plundered coffins. I’m not sure why – they had already been laid to rest respectfully and at least 3 of them were untouched before “The Grave Robbers” adventuring party arrived.
After having pilfered everything they could find, the party pressed on in the hope of finding Glasstaff, who they surmised had run away at some point. In the cistern room Esme spots that something seemed to have been taken out of the cistern – a small pool of water had been splashed over the edge, and there was a small hook below the water line in the cistern itself. The party were about to head outside via the main entrance, when it was realised that no one had checked the bodies of the Redbrands for any loot. “The Grave Robbers” therefore headed into Ishtar’s room to do just that.
Ishtar was busy feasting on the fresh meat that was lying in pools of blood all over his cavern – eating already dead people in red cloaks seemed to be allowed. The party looted the bodies and got a fair few pieces of gold, then Esme decided to check out Harbin’s body that she had earlier spotted in the chasm.
Esme’s skill in healing and medicine told her that there seemed to be some form of magical aura in the chasm, that seemed to be keeping the bodies down there in a fresher state than they should be. Armed with this knowledge, she worked out that although Harbin’s body looked to be only a few days old, it was in fact a few months old! Curiouser and curiouser! Does this mean the Harbin in town, who they spoke to only a week or so ago, was an imposter? Or was this body an imposter? The plot thickens.
Seeing Ishtar distracted, Esme calls Pruni down and between them they take a peek in the chest. Seeing gold, gems, vials, bits of paper and a decent looking long sword, they decide to try their luck nicking the paper and manage to recover a scroll of Speak with Dead. With Ishtar’s eye scanning the room, they decide to leave the rest of the loot untouched.
The party head out of the cellar and head back to Qelline’s farm, to return her now battered and a little unappetising half-a-ham that they have been carrying round the cellars for some reason, and to have a long rest before deciding on their next steps.
And so we leave our “Heroes”, resting up after a harder-than-it-should-be battle with some skeletons, having robbed the graves of some ancient local heroes, but having learned that Glasstaff was Iarno all along, but that Glasstaff seemed to be working for someone, or something, called Black Spider, who is also looking for the Lost Mine, and who may or may not be a Drow. Possibly a Drider. And one of the Harbin’s is/was an imposter. Probably. Or he had a twin. And Glasstaff is missing. But the Redbrand threat is sorted. For now, at least.