Aboleth Group - "Tentacle Slushy" - Session 18 LMOP

24^th Jan 2020, 7:45 – 11:30am

In-game timeline: Start of session, day 20 (1489DR Eleint 13). End of session, day 23 (1489DR Eleint 16).

(Summary written by Mike)

Barricaded in King Grol’s room, a tower in Cragmaw Castle.

Gundren is unconscious and placed safely out of harm’s way.

The group search the room.

Esme finds 20g + health pot + map (showing detailed map of Phandalin, but not the location of the Forge) + letter explaining only Rockseekers (ROCKSEEKERS!) can use the map – Esme knows this is with a drop of Rockseeker blood.

Mallorn drags the dead body of Glasstaff into the room.

Mallorn conjures a tripwire. But unfortunately the glowing wire was spotted by the goblins

Derrick and Pruni place Glasstaff’s body into a chair, facing the entrance to the room (reminding them of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’)

The team hear footsteps - 2 arrows fly into the room and hit the already dead Glasstaff. Mallorn hears the command ‘FIRE!’ In Goblin and more arrows hit Derrick

Pruni pops her head around the door way and shoots whatever she sees. She sees 5-10 goblins, uses her crossbow and kills 1 goblin instantly.

Esme tries the same tactic, and throws an Axe but misses. Mallorn hits a goblin with his Ray of Frost, but only injurs rather than kills it.

Then Derrick charges out, casting Thunder Wave, and with a massive boom of Thunder kills 3 goblins in a single action.

Mallorn then hears the command ‘Back off and wait for reinforcements’ in Goblin. He keeps the group informed, to keep their tactical advantage of the narrow entrance to their room.

Pruni emboldened by her recent success jumps back into the doorway and sees 3 dead bodies, and 4 live goblins all with arrows aimed at her which hit her hard. She misses with her response and ducks back in.

Mallorn launches magic missiles, killing another goblin and severely wounding another.

Derrick rolls a CRITICAL HIT and kills yet another goblin.

One goblin intimidated by this, runs off.

Mallorn hears the goblin command ‘get back in there!’

As Pruni is now on low health, Esme heals her, bringing her back to fighting fitness. Pruni is more affected by the shock of actually being seen, and hit, than by the actual wounds.

Mallorn hears the goblin leader give the commands: ‘You, you and you this way, and you 2 that way’. On hearing this, he tells the group to prepare for another wave of attackers and their reinforcements.

In an attempt to distract and confuse the goblin survivors, Mallorn conjures a glowing Nothic eyeball and floats out into the corridor, only for it to be hit and destroyed by an arrow almost immediately.

In a similar spirit, Esme uses prestidigitation to speak in a thunderous and imposing voice:

 ‘You have angered the new disciples of the Black Spider. Leave now’

However, she sounded very unconvincing, and the goblins ignored her.

By this time, Pruni and Derrick had up-ended the table and used it as a defensive cover. Derrick gets hit by an arrown, whilst Pruni again pops her head over it and slams another crossbow bolt into goblin flesh, killing one more. Esme follows suit, and also despatches another goblin almost instantly with sacred flame.

Mallorn casts another ray of frost, causing minor damage, but slowing its movement. Derrick misses. Mallorn attempts to intimidate the goblins by shouting out threats in goblin.

A high pitched voice responds:

‘Don’t you move. The rest are coming!’

The team now hear heavy footsteps following by King Grol issuing the following command: ‘Throw down your weapons and surrender’.

Out of the corner of his eye, Derrick spots another Hobgoblin move just behind the entrance to the door to the room. He engages it in combat and hits, then risks an opportunity attack by coming back into the room – the hobgoblin hits him with its longsword as he runs away. Derrick swigs a health potion from the relative safety of the room.

Esme, Pruni and Mallorn all prepare for attack. Suddenly 4 hobgoblins are in the room. Between the team, ready for the onslaught, they kill 1 hobgoblin quickly.

The remaining 3 hobgoblins attack Derrick and Esme. 3 goblins sneak into the room, and prepare to fire their arrows. The team hear a deep voice which they think is Grol: ‘Enjoying Yourselves?’. Their answer “Yep” isn’t well received. Mallorn takes a hit from a goblin arrow.

Esme whacks the nearest hobgoblin with her magic axe, Hugh, who is really not enjoying this fight at all. Esme uses the remainder of her time to discuss the pros and cons of killing creatures such as goblinoids with Hugh. Hugh is not convinced.

Mallorn misses the hobgoblin, but the new line of goblins at the back now take another opportunity to aim at Mallorn. They all miss Mallorn. Pruni misses too.

One more time, the voice of Grol echoes through the hallways: ‘Given up?’ Esme replies: ‘No. But we’ve got a drink ready for you!’. Grol is upset that his taunts are not being treated with the respect he feels they deserve, and runs in to enter the fray.

Esme then swings her axe and instantly kills the nearest Hobgoblin to her. Hugh is upset.

Then almost everyone misses: Mallorn misses; Derrick misses; The Hobgoblin misses; the goblin archers miss

Then Pruni has  another go, and kills a hobgoblin.

Grol takes his turn, and attacks Derrick but misses. Mallorn casts an overpowered magic missile with 4 missiles slamming into Grol for significant damage. Derrick follows this up by hitting Grol for even more damage. Grol’s smile fades. The hobgoblin attacking Esme misses and the 5 goblin archers now in the room all aim at Mallorn, who gets hit hard, very nearly dropping him.

Pruni aims at Grol and hits him where it hurts. Despite his limited health, Grol smashes his Morningstar into Derrick, and laughs. Unfortunately for King Grol, his years of cunning had run out. With a mighty swing of her axe, Esme kills Grol!! His head bounces across the room in front of the shocked goblins.

Hugh the axe is very upset at what he has just done, and Esme seems similarly affected – the rest of the party wonder why Esme is talking to her axe. They are concerned about her mental health.

Speaking in goblin, while he downed a health potion, Mallorn rises to the occasion and intimidates the survivors:  “We killed your king, we killed your clan, now leave with your lives or join them!’. The Hobgoblin doesn’t think twice about this, looking around at the piles of dead bodies and the fallen king Grol (who even in death managed to fart, further confounding and frightening them). The Hobgoblin and goblins decide to drop their weapons and run.

Mallorn casts a ritual to conjure his familiar, Geoff the spider. Then he takes a rest whilst the rest of the group inspect the nearby rooms and loot all the dead bodies lying around them. Following his trance state, and whilst he prayed in thanks for their victory against Grol, Mallorn has the realisation that Cragmaw Castle is in fact the original Shrine to his god of knowledge, Oghma.

Gundren wakes up! He shares what he knows:

Black spider wanted information from him.

The black spider is female, and has found the Lost Mines of Phandelver.

Gundren is worried about his brothers, and discussed the magical keys to open the forge with Esme.

He confirms that he thinks the gnomish contraption is a key to the mine, although the iron key is simply that. Esme has carried it since Tresendar, and it only opens the Tresendar prison.

Gundren needs to rest some more, and the group agree to meet up again after they explored the Castle, so they all travel back to town together.

Mallorn uses his familiar to sneak under a nearby door, that has a heavy bar across it. Through Geoff’s eyes, Mallorn sees a collapsed tower room. Inside the room is pacing a great beast, with the head of an owl and the body of a large bear. There is meat on the floor nearby, and upon learning this, the group believe the beast is trapped and not in league with the goblins.

With uncommon (almost balletic) prowess, Derrick stealthily lifts the bar from the door and then repairs to his hiding place in the dark corridor far back from the Tower room door.

Esme uses thaumaturgy to use a magic force to push open the door from safety, and she also hides, using her inspiration to ensure she stays as hidden as possible, since the group is a little battle-weary at this stage!

Using Geoff, who was watching from the ceiling, Mallorn sees the beast jump into the hobgoblin’s chamber near the firepit. Fortunately it didn’t notice Esme or Derrick and left the building.

Going into the Tower room, Derrick jumps up to find a treasure chest. Inside it, he finds some gold, a scroll of silence and a scroll of revivify which he generously donates to the group’s loot.

The team now venture further into the castle.

They find a high narrow hall, and cautiously moving through it, find themselves at what they believe is a SHRINE.

Derrick walks into the room, and sees at the end of the room a raised, albeit cracked, iron brazier. On either side of the brazier are two heavy curtains. Mallorn enters the room holding his breath, not quite believing he had discovered the Shrine of Oghma which was the very reason he signed up to this quest. What secrets were held within? He looked around, for religious clues. Looking up, he saw angelic figures carved into the walls looking down upon him.

However, he saw movement. Up, in the high vaulted ceiling, Mallorn sees a creative that was disguised to look like stone. Suddenly the creature drops down and onto Derrick.

The creature is made of tentacles with a beak for a mouth. Mallorn casts ray of frost, slowing the creature down and damaging it, though only slightly.

It hits Derrick with its tentacles, but fails to follow up with a beak attack. Pruni scores a critical hit, and with Derrick distracting it, hits it for significant damage. Mallorn casts another ray of frost. His ray of frost freezes the creature on the spot and with a frantic shudder,the tentacles seize up and then explode into a frozen slush that covers Derrick.

Using his knowledge of Oghma shrines, Mallorn realises that the main shrine is likely to be in the next room, beyond the heavy curtains next to the brazier. Whilst looking around, Derrick sees a glint of gold amongst the coal inside the brazier - he pulls out a gold statue of an Elf which the team believe will be quite valuable if they agreed to sell it off. Under the brazier, Derrick finds a wizard’s spellbook, previously owned by a P. Daniels, which contained some good spells, some of which were not known to Mallorn:

The group then venture through the curtains into the altar room. The room is brightly lit, but the team barely notice as they start to get hit by arrows - Derrick is hit by an arrow, as is Esme. The team see 3 goblins, wearing filthy robes over their armour and who are taking cover behind the altar. Pruni hits and damages a goblin, closely followed by Derrick who kills the nearest goblin.

Enraged by these intruders who have defiled his god’s shrine (and attacked his friends), Mallorn bellows in goblin:

‘We have killed your king, we have killed your clan, now prepare to die!’

He immediately launches an overpowered magic missile – firing two bolts at each of the remaining goblins, killing them both.

Cragmaw is now cleared.

The group inspect the altar room and loot the goblins. On top of the altar are 3 golden artefacts, a chalice (150g), censor (120g) and knife (60g). They are filthy and covered in blood. The top of the altar is covered by a black cloth. They remove this to discover the stone altar underneath - it is engraved with angels.

They find a statue of Oghma in need of repair. If they repair it for 50g its value will increase to 150g. However, Mallorn realises that if they imbue it with magic powers and return it to its natural place inside the altar. He realises if they do it, the statue will radiate +2 intelligence in a 10’ radius – he realises this was the original intent of this shrine to knowledge – Cragmaw Castle was once a great library and place of learning, and disciples of Oghma came from far and wide to study here, benefitting from the improved intelligence that the altar offered, whilst reading from the comprehensive library.

Mallorn is overcome with religious awe and prayers to Oghma once again, re-consecrating the defiled altar. As he does this, the altar opens. Up from inside the alter, a stone book rises. It is open and upright. It contains the message:

‘Mine offers my name, yours stays out of sight.

Mind binds me together, yours keeps you upright.

If your precious treasure is one of my kind.

Set yours to the altar, our edges aligned.

If ‘knowledge is power’ is what you proclaim.

Present our god’s symbol and mutter his name’

Mallorn, with a little help from his friends, works out the puzzle and places his own spellbook on the altar, spine to spine with the stone book, pronouncing the Oghma’s name and presenting Oghma’s symbol. Shimmering with mystical energy, the ‘Comprehend Languages’ spell is magically inscribed into Mallorn’s spellbook. 

Meanwhile, Derrick finds some goggles which don’t appear to show any magical properties. He wears them anyway, despite them being broken with only one intact lens, and rust around the edges.

On their way out of the Castle, Derrick picks up Grol’s head and ties it to his belt to use as evidence of their victory.

The party make their way back to Phandalin, with Gundren, preparing to level up to level 4! Gundren is desperate to get to the lost mine to see how his brothers are, but realises that he needs a few days rest before he can make any kind of journey, or be of any help to his brothers. While he rests, the group study….