Aboleth Group - "Here, let me just clean that wound for you..." - LMOP Session 15

27th Nov 2019, 7:45 – 11:00pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 13. End of session, day 14.

We join our 'Heroes' as they try to recover from a tough battle with a handful of Orcs and an Ogre, Gog, lead by a very tough Orc named Brughor.

The party decide that it's a good idea to rest in this Orc cave, hopeful that they have cleared out anything that may be aware of their presence, so they take a short rest to recover some health and to get their breath, and in the case of Mallorn, some spells, back. Fortuitously, nothing untoward happens as they rest, and they are able to press on into the cave system after an hour's recuperation.

Before heading further in, the party loot the bodies of the 7 Orcs and one Ogre currently lying, and bleeding, all over their chosen resting area. A few coins were gathered together, most (possibly all?) were added to the group's treasure. Pruni, having a strange idea that a bigger body must mean more loot, headed straight for the Gog, only to find he wore very little, and carried even less, though she did extract a filthy rag that was looped around his rope-belt, as it seemed to be less filthy than the rest of his clothing (which was not saying much, to be honest) and seemed to be placed on his belt with some care and consideration, so it MUST be valuable. Surely?

It turns out that the cave system is pretty small - the Orcs and Ogre emerged from a much larger cave, which had some grubby bedrolls around it, and a small campfire, which had some form of bat being barbecued on it. 

Esme took one look at a dirty sheet that had the Many Arrows logo crudely painted on it, in what looked like blood, mud, grass and goodness knows what else, and rushed over to pull it from the wall upon which it hung. Derrick stood back and admired it as a work of art, a "tapestry" even, before Esme yanked it down and stuffed it in her backpack.... only to reveal a hidden passageway behind it!

Heading straight into the passageway beyond, Esme found that it led to a small room, obviously Brughor's, with a fairly comfortable bedroll, makeshift table and a locked chest. Upon the table had been carefully placed two piles of clean, white bones, obviously both Orcish in origin, one smaller than the other, as if a child's set of bones. Between the two piles of bones was a picture of an Orcish family - a male, female and young baby, labelled Glasha, Brughor and Aguk. Esme wiped a bit of dust from her eye, and continued to search the room, deliberately avoiding looking at the picture.

Esme discovered a somewhat hidden area in the table containing a small key, and, with a locked chest before her, and a small key in her hand, spent a little time wondering how she could possibly get the chest open. She called out for Pruni, thinking to call upon the rogue's lockpicking skills. Then the key, THAT WAS STILL IN HER HAND, caught her eye. Hmmm, it's a long shot, but maybe this will work? She tried the key and By Jove! It worked! Who'd have thought it?! The chest was now unlocked!

Unfortunately Pruni had by then arrived, and, as usual, was very interested in what was in the chest. Esme was delighted to recover a nice axe, named Hugh, which she knew had belonged to Gordred, and a simple but pretty gold hair clip that belonged to Elspeth, both past 'colleagues' of Esme. She took those items, with the intention of delivering them back to their respective families, and added the gold, silver and vials of liquid (identified by Derrick as perfumes) to the party treasure.

In the meantime, Pruni had spotted the picture and the delicately placed piles of bones on the table, and she too, seemed to get something in her eye. Derrick arrived, got sight of the picture, and accused Esme of murdering women and children, which Esme denied, batting back the 'you betrayed your friend' at Derrick and much pointing of fingers and calling of names ensued.

After that had all calmed down, Mallorn gently suggested they explore the rest of the cave system. A tunnel led from the large cavern and looped back on itself, containing a few more bedrolls, Gog's bed, and a chest. This chest was unlocked, and seemed full of pretty smelly furs, one of which Derrick took to wrap around himself in full 'John Snow' fashion, whilst Esme found a small, silver dagger in the chest, hidden amongst the furs. Keen for yet more loot, Esme, Pruni and Derrick searched each and every bedroll for anything of value, Pruni no doubt hunting for more dirty rags under Gog's bed. Mallorn looked on, bored.

Until, that is, he was attacked. By three bat-like creatures that seemed to emerge from somewhere in the roof area of the large cavern. Two of them attached themselves to Mallorn and started to suck his blood from wounds they created, whilst the third flew about, trying to find another piece of bare skin to attach to. Mallorn managed to knock off one of the attached creatures and Derrick and Pruni stopped looting enough to take out the other two just a quickly. Mallorn tried to stop the blood flowing from the two open wounds on his body.

At this point Pruni had a brainwave. Despite the fact that Mallorn's wounds were not too bad; all the creatures were dead; the party had a very competent healer standing nearby; and at least 2 of the backpacks contained healing kits comprising numerous bandages, salves, ointments etc specifically designed for cleaning and covering wounds of many shapes and sizes - Pruni decided the best course of action would be to rub Gog the Ogre's filthy looking rag all over Mallorn's open wounds. And Mallorn stood by and let her!

The result, which was not a surprise to ANYONE other than Mallorn and Pruni, was that Mallorn became infected with some sort of disease or blood poisoning from this reckless action.

Given the lateness of the hour, the group decided to fully rest before heading to the Old Owl Well. This also enabled Mallorn to recover from his Pruni-induced sickness. Luckily, nothing untoward happened overnight.

Arriving in the neighbourhood of Old Owl Well in the morning, the group spotted a set of ruins through the trees, with a ruined, stone tower and broken walls, but a rather well-maintained well-head and a large, colourful tent in the courtyard. Some bundles were spotted on the ground around the well, and some large, white sacks were leaning against the outer wall.

Whilst the group were checking if anything was moving in the Well area, Esme spotted two humanoid figures shuffling towards them through the trees. Zombies!! When talking to them nicely didn't work, and waiting to see if they would engage in philosophical debate came to nought, a fight ensued.

It didn't last long, and the party wasted no time in dispatching them, even with their uncanny ability to get knocked down.... and get up again. Esme didn't even need to use her Turn Undead ability.

After this brief interlude, Derrick wandered towards the Well area to investigate, and saw that the bundles on the ground were actually dead bodies, and the white sacks were cocoons. If this were not evidence enough of arachnid presence, a white layer of silk covered a lot of the area. Derrick prodded one of the cocoons with a javelin, and used the edge to slowly cut it open, revealing....

Another zombie! It burst out and attacked Derrick, keeping him, and the others occupied while the other three cocoons started to split open and reveal more zombies! The group of "heroes" were not worried - zombies pose little threat to them these days, despite their hits on Derrick and Esme. However, the giant spider that appeared from around the tower wall before the last zombie was dispatched was a different story!

The spider managed to ensnare Derrick in its web, holding his legs fast to the ground, which helped the last zombie get another hit on Esme before Derrick was able to escape and kill the zombie. The giant spider did very little else, however, as the group managed to get numerous hits on it and took it down soon afterwards. 

It did manage to distract the group, however, and they didn't notice a Ettercap - a "spider shepherd" emerge from the shadows and freeze Pruni in place, followed a few seconds later by Derrick, despite his use of Thunderwave to rock the Ettercap's legs. Whilst these two tried their best to escape from the webs holding them fast, the Ettercap managed to get some hefty hits on Derrick, who struggled for quite a while to free himself. Not only that, but the Ettercap summoned up a swarm of spiders that focused on Esme, bringing her down, then moving on to Derrick, who was looking decidedly hurt at this stage.

Mallorn rushed over to give Esme the group's last healing potion, and when she recovered consciousness, she, in turn, ran to Derrick to give him some healing, putting herself back in danger once again. Meanwhile Pruni, once she finally escaped her restraining web, did her usual technique of popping up to attack and ducking back into hiding. However, unusually for her, she missed rather a lot!

Mallorn held the fort, successfully firing Ray of Frosts and Magic Missiles at the Ettercap and the Swarm, and finally managing to take down the Ettercap, though not before it had, with the spider swarm, knocked Derrick unconscious. The swarm was fighting alone now, and losing spider-members fast. But Derrick was down, and Esme needed to call upon her God to bring him back from the edge of death, before turning her attention to the last of the swarm and eventually taking out the very last spider.

Exhausted after a long fight against zombies, giant spiders, ettercaps and spider swarms, our group of "Heroes" collapsed and considered their next move. Nothing else was stirring in the ruins.... for now, at least.