Session 24 - "A Parting of the Ways" - LMOP
18th Sep 2020 - 19:45 - 23:30
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 29 (1489DR Eleint 22). End of session, day 34 (1489DR Eleint 27).
Our "Heroes" are together in Griff's room, contemplating their next steps. Many plans were discussed, most discounted. They finally settled on a plan.
They headed up towards the temple area, hoping that Lucian and his bugbears would still be around there. Treading slowly and carefully, our 'heroes' regrouped in the pool room and sent Geoff out on yet another scouting mission back into the room that previously held some bugbears. It was now empty. (Note to self - the next dungeon may well be full of bats. Bats eat spiders. Big bats eat adventurers.)
Slightly nervous of what they are letting themselves in for, the party head further north, slowly and carefully, with Derrick made invisible by Mallorn's spellcasting. They spot a bugbear guard at the door, who also spots them, and they quickly retreat back to the safety of the pool room. Whilst waiting there and discussing options, hoping that the enemies would come to them rather than the other way round, they are slightly surprised when the voice of Lucian calls out to them, eventually offering them freedom in return for something that may work the Forge. It seemed that during their copious rests, Lucian and his 'gang' had realised that the party had cleared much of the mine of undead.
Refusing his offer, our "Heroes" make their move. Mallorn sends Geoff into the corridor, heading for Lucian, and Derrick creeps out, invisible, to stand near to the leading bugbears, while Esme creates a noisy diversion with Thaumaturgy to cover his noise. The attack begins!
Through Geoff, Mallorn casts shocking grasp on Lucian, scoring a hit and causing Lucian to yell out. At this trigger Derrick casts Thunderwave at the three bugbears before him, damaging all of them and pushing two of them back. Derrick, now visible, runs back to the pool cavern as the three bugbears throw javelins at him - the two that were pushed back by his spell missing their attacks whilst the third scores a hit on Derrick. Mallorn meanwhile puffs Geoff out of the material plane just in time to escape an attack from Lucian.
Hoping that the bugbears will follow and they can pick them off one by one, this doesn't happen. Funnily enough, Lucian isn't stupid. After a short time, Geoff is sent out again to scout what is happening and sees one fewer bugbear - the others are still waiting at the top of the corridor, though they soon disperse.
Not wanting to meet that group head on, the party decide to try a different approach. Sneaking across to the empty guard room, they unbar the opposite door and then, sensibly, send a now-exhausted Geoff out again. The invaluable spider spots 4 bugbears approaching, who turn away and head southwards. Thinking that this group are intending to head round and attack their previous position from the rear, our "heroes" decide to act swiftly. An hour later they have a plan.
They manoeuvre northwards, seeing areas of the mine they haven't explored yet, but come upon another entrance to the temple room. Unfortunately it is guarded by a bugbear. Pressed for time and wanting to get rid of Lucian before the second group of bugbears arrive from the south, the party split up - Mallorn and an invisible Pruni head for the south entrance to the temple, while Derrick and Esme plan to attack the guard from the north, after waiting a short time to allow Pruni to attempt an assassination on Lucian before he knows there are there.
A fine plan. Unfortunately there was a second bugbear guard by the south door too, and Pruni was not able to get past him even in her invisible state. As Mallorn used Nezznar's spider staff to cast Web on the corridor where they expect the second group of bugbears to come from, Pruni emerges from her invisible state to assassinate the bugbear guard, which she manages to do with a single crossbow bolt, managing to drop him before he can raise an alarm.
At this point Derrick launches his attack on the bugbear guard on his side, hitting him but not killing him, though Esme follows up with an attack which downs the bugbear. Lucian, surprised to find Derrick alive, grabs the unconscious body of Gundren before him and tells the group to back down or he will kill the last of the brothers, implying that Nundro was already dead. This threw the group into a bit of confusion, but Pruni decided to take a chance and attacked from a hidden position, causing significant damage on Lucian, but not killing him. Lucian responded by running his rapier across Gundren's neck, killing him in front of the group, including Esme, who was distraught. Derrick threw a hand axe at Lucian and caused more damage, though he was still standing. Pruni took out the last bugbear in the room, whilst Mallorn, having now reached the room, launched magic missiles at Lucian, which still didn't manage to take him down. However, Lucian, running over to engage with Derrick missed both of his attacks, and Derrick finally ran him through with his new greatsword, Garoth's Needle. Lucian was dead. The only other person who really knew what went on in that final exam battle at Fight School could no longer tell his tale.
Esme was in shock. Gundren was dead. Checking the side room showed a dead Nundro too, Derrick working out that Nundro had been dead for some hours. All three Rockseeker brothers were no more. Esme brought Nundro and Gundren before the statue of the dwarven god in the temple and, ignoring all others, said a prayer over the bodies. A later check of the party inventory showed the benefit of keeping track of items and reviewing it often, as the scroll of Revivify that could have saved Gundren's life went, unused, in someone's backpack.
The second group of bugbears appeared from the south, expecting to catch the party in a pincer movement. They did not expect to find their dead colleagues, and a dead Lucian. Intimidated by the scene, and the threat from Mallorn, they turned and fled the mine.
As the others wondered how to deal with an inconsolable Esme, she suddenly got up and ran south. The others followed as quickly as they could. It turned out that she was heading to the room containing the troll and, without stopping, she unbarred the door and walked in, engaging the troll without a pause.
Luckily Griff had earlier given the group some useful information about killing trolls - acid or fire was needed to stop them regenerating. This help proved invaluable, though the troll managed to get a significant hit on Derrick before a combination of hits from Esme, Derrick and Pruni brought the troll down (after Esme took off one of its legs completely with a fire-based attack, preventing it from regenerating). Pruni has now switched her attentions from the groin area to the eyeballs, it seems.
Having cleared the mine, Esme, still racked with grief, reports this to Griff, who thanks the party before disappearing, finally managing to obtain peace. Esme took the skeletal remains of Griff's friend, the elf Aliel, out of the mine, along with the bodies of Gundren and Nundro, and buried the Rockseekers near to the mine, and the elf in the nearby woods. She then carved the Rockseekers name into some stone and set it above the mine entrance, claiming the mine in the name of her clan, even though without one of the brothers being alive, she may never be re-accepted into her clan.
Heading back to town, they leave the gnomish gadget that operates the magic Forge of Spells in the care of Pruni's aunt, Qelline Alderleaf, and Esme sends a message to the Rockseekers, telling them that the mine is theirs, and they should come to claim it.
Exhausted, they rest in Phandalin, before spending some days improving their skills and LEVELLING UP to L5!
And thus the tale of the Heroes of Phandalin, Scourge of the Drow, Disrupters of Evil Plans and Ditherers Extrordinaire comes to an end. The Forge of Spells has been restarted, the Lost Mine found, Phandalin town will grow and flourish with the visitors to the mine, and Griff's torment has been laid to rest.
The Rockseeker clan has claim to the mine, the fate of Iarno has been resolved, Cragmaw Castle can hopefully be restarted as a place of learning in honour of Oghma, no one else alive knows of the fateful events in the Fight Club battle arena with Derrick, and Pruni's secrets, well, they are slightly less secret now that some people around Phandalin recognised her. Halia, for good or for ill, is the new Townmaster of Phandalin to take it into a new age of prosperity, and some vague mentions have been found of a "Corruption" that may come upon the land in the coming year - though no one seems particularly bothered about that.
Mallorn decides to return to Cragmaw Castle with the revitalised Statue of Oghma and a number of scrolls and magical tomes obtained from the old wizard, Mormesk, hoping to restart the library. It will take some months to clear the route to the castle, rebuild the crumbling ruins and re-establish the Place of Learning. Mallorn takes his share of the loot and sets to work.
Pruni decides to spend some time with her aunt, helping to build up the town of Phandalin in preparation for the influx of visitors and prospectors now that the lost mine has been found. She feels that the Rockseeker claim on the mine needs to be protected in some way, and her necklace of monster testicles and collection of eyeballs may be enough to deter all but the most persistent of rival claims. She also feels an ever-so-slight pang of guilt about her previous work done in Phandalin under the Redbrand banner, and wants to make up for that in some small way. She stills sees the widow and her child begging on the streets, and that reminds her of the destruction she can leave in her wake.
Esme has retreated into herself. She blames herself for the loss of her cousins. Convinced that she can never again be accepted within the Rockseeker clan, and angry at her God, Marthammor Duin, for not stepping in to save Gundren, though knowing that the fault may lie with her and her friends, she spends many days and weeks contemplating her religion and her past life as a soldier, as well as her actions over the past month. Whether she turns away from the religious path, or returns with greater resolve to attempt to become re-accepted as a Rockseeker, maybe taking a greater role in the re-enabling of the Rockseeker Mine and the Forge of Spells, perhaps taking revenge on Nezznar the Drow, who she sees as the cause of her problems. It all remains to be seen. No one hears from Esme Panklepot for some months…
Derrick meanwhile is pleased. Pleased to have finally bested Lucian in battle. He forgets the significant damage caused by Pruni and Mallorn to Lucian prior to his running him through with Garoth's Needle and strongly believes he bested Lucian in a fair duel. Derrick's concept of 'fair' is still a little skewed. Convinced that there is now no one alive who knows of his cheating in Fight School and his previous identity (despite most of his fellow adventurers having worked it out from Lucian's declarations in the Mine) he begins to hold his head high once again. Not that he ever held it very low anyway. He decides to reward himself with a new jaunty hat from Maude's Milliners, and pays well over the odds for the hat (despite having to wait half an hour for Maude to fetch the jaunty hat section) to help her keep her business afloat until the new 'tourists' arrive in town. Derrick has little interest in the Mine, now that 'his' job is done in clearing it. He also has no interest in running for Townmaster in the next elections - they are far too far in the future and Derrick's attention span does not last that long. Anyway, Halia seems competent enough, even though even Derrick realises that Halia may not be fully trustworthy.
Derrick receives a letter from a distant cousin of his - one Ichabod Phoenix - who tells tales of adventures with hags, demons from another plane and ancient, long-dead, sailors. Derrick becomes jealous. Surely HE should be the only 'hero' in the family - even in his very extended family who he rarely associates with, now he is a member of nobility. Ichabod mentions that the group he has teamed up with, they call themselves "Chimera", which Derrick thinks is far too grandiose (though he has to ask Mallorn what a Chimera is), is heading off to try to find the family of one of their members, but that Ichabod needs to remain behind to study (something about 'breaking a pact', or similar. Derrick isn't really interested in the details). Derrick decides to meet up with this group in Neverwinter, and hopefully continue to make a name for himself as "defeater of evil", rather than stay in this small backwater of a town. He bids farewell to his fellow 'heroes' (well, to Pruni at least, as Mallorn has set off for Cragmaw Castle, and Esme is nowhere to be found) and heads to Neverwinter.