Aboleth Group - "Derrick is SO woke" - Session 19 LMOP

7^th Feb 2020, 7:45 – 11:00am

In-game timeline: Start of session, day 23 (1489DR Eleint 16). End of session, day 26 (1489DR Eleint 19).

Our “Heroes” spend a bit of time back in Phandalin, levelling up to Level 4, practising their new skills, and talking to some of the locals. Esme repaired Mallorn’s statue of Oghma for him.

Some businesses seem to be closing down as the town gets quieter and quieter. Grista has closed the Sleeping Giant Tap House, and Maude has even had to close her Milliners shop. Halia is standing for Townmaster, which has mixed support amongst the town, as well as amongst the party, but as no one else is standing against her, it seems she will win in the elections next week.

Sildar is heading back to Neverwinter, to report on Iarno’s treachery as well as being needed to help in other causes in the lands to the north – something about a Giants’ uprising, or issues with their council, or some such long-distant problem. He did ask if they knew anything about a “Corruption” – which the group have come across in an ancient journal that they found in Old Owl Well – and the party related what they knew to Sildar.

Before he left, Esme passed on to him her magical axe, Hugh, asking Sildar to try to sell it to someone who would make him happy – a woodcutter or similar – even though she knew she would get little money for it this way (her God smiled down upon her at this, and she is granted inspiration).

Gundren, now recovered from his ordeal, is keen to set off as soon as possible to try to find the Lost Mine, and his brothers. Heading out in the morning, they wander into the hills, following Gundren’s map towards where the Lost Mine is supposed to be.

They reach the likely location of the entrance that evening, and camp for the night as it is hard enough looking for a hidden Dwarvish door in daylight – nigh on impossible in the dark, even with darkvision. As they bed down for the night, Derrick stays awake on guard and, after the rest have fallen asleep, he sees movement in the bushes ahead.

Waiting to see what the commotion may be, and readying his weapon rather than waking the others, proved to be a risky tactic when a large, brown bear bursts from the bushes and runs straight towards him! Derrick hits it with his throwing axe, readies his greataxe as the bear rushes up, and shouts to try to wake the others. Unfortunately they are fast asleep and fail to wake as the bear slashes Derrick with its massive claws, doing considerable damage. Derrick responds with a critical hit, however, and the bear starts to hurt. Another shout from Derrick wakes everyone except Pruni, and the others react quickly.

Mallorn tries out his new spell, levitation and attempts to lift the bear off the ground, nullifying its attacks. Unfortunately he did not count on the weight of the animal, which was too heavy to be levitated. However, the spell was not completely wasted, since the sudden lightness of the bear gave is disadvantage on its attacks. With Gundren recklessly rushing in to attack, and missing, the creature, the bear’s response was to snap and swipe at Gundren – attacks which would have brought Gundren down, but the bear’s disadvantage made it miss on both attacks. It did, however, manage to dodge Esme’s Sacred Flame, but succumbed to another hit from Derrick, who followed up with a second attack and brought the bear down before Pruni could even wake up.

Derrick’s attempt to skin the creature was an abject failure, but he did end up with some decent, if a little messy, cuts of meat, and an impressive looking bear claw for him to wear around his neck.

After a healthy breakfast of roast bear, the group searched for the mine entrance, and Gundren, with help from the others, managed to find it! VERY well hidden. The door seemed to be unlocked, and with a shove Gundren managed to push it open.

Beyond the door was a tunnel leading into the hillside. The group headed in, progressing into the cave system. A regular booming sound was thought to be due to the echo of a wave from somewhere deep in the caves – hence the name “Wave Echo Cave”. Or at least, so they thought.

The first cavern was large, filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Webbing covered one of the walls, and the group found the dwarven brothers’ camping equipment and food stores – Nundro and Tharden had definitely been here! Derrick carefully cut down one of the cocoons that he found against one of the walls, only to find the desiccated body of Tharden. Gundren was distraught and rushed over to see if he could do anything to save Tharden, but it was too late. Way too late. As he sobbed  over Tharden’s dead body, the others consoled him, and Pruni made sure Tharden’s clothing was all in order.

And what do you know! Pruni then seemed to find Tharden’s journal – on the floor nearby, not on his body, oh no. The journal related how the brothers found the entrance, Nundro headed off to Phandalin to send a letter and map to Gundren, whilst Tharden stayed in the cave and tried to work out how to dispel the glowing magical field that was around the bottomless pit in the corner of the cave. Which was strange, as there was no glowing field now, and the pit was definitely not bottomless!

Gundren insisted on burying Tharden’s body outside, and the others volunteered to help him. Derrick eyed up Tharden’s boots, and, with a display of compassion and declaration of respect, he won over Gundren who allowed Derrick to take Tharden’s boots, which turned out to be Boots of Striding and Springing.

After having buried Tharden, and with Esme and Mallorn both saying kind words over the grave, the party headed back inside, with Gundren saying he would wait outside in honour of Tharden, and would join them later. As he was being pretty useless in his current grief, the party didn’t argue with this.

And so we leave our “heroes”, having found the entrance to the fabled Lost Mine of Phandelver, and (finally!) having worked out that The Black Spider may well be ahead of them in the mine, ready to progress deeper into the cave system. They still would like to find a gnome, though, if only to increase diversity within the group. Derrick is so woke!