After around 4 months hiatus we were finally able to continue our D&D adventure. I recommend you read the first part here if you haven’t, otherwise the story doesn’t really make sense.
Recap
Our adventurers ended first session in a cave full of wolves and goblins and had defeated the mini boss in form of a bugbear. Christian the cleric really took a beating, so he started the session unconscious and had to roll death saving throws. The player playing our wizard Hilda currently resides halfway around the globe, so he couldn’t be there for obvious reasons. Instead I ruled that Hilda had had enough of the adventuring life and promptly fled the dungeon after the fight, abandoning the party.
Close call
The dice gods didn’t smile at our unlucky cleric, as he ended up with 2 success and 2 failures so everything hinged on the last throw. Luckily our party found a healing potion which they poured down his throat and got him back to his feet. In the meantime they found a woodelf held prisoner a chest full of coins and the bugbears diary (which contained entries about useless goblins and about how close they were to capturing a dwarf near the 3 sisters). They freed the woodelf who introduced herself as Nowyn Strongoak, a ranger captured by the goblins by sheer bad luck. In the middle of all the talking, getting Christian back on his feet and getting excited over all the loot, it knocked on the door and heard a voice asking in goblin if everything was OK. They all fell silent, Varis positioned himself by the side of the door while Draug took stance in the middle of the room, before the ordered the Goblin to enter the room. Before the goblin had any chance to react, Varis felled it in one stroke.
After that they all decided to leave the dungeon as fast as possible. However, the chest didn’t fit into the hole they had entered the room by, so they decided to take the long way out. After exiting the room, they found themselves on an overview, looking down on the rest of the dungeon. They had shabby made watch-post in front of them, guarding a set of stairs leading down to the main floor. Down by the main floor they spotted 4 goblins sitting around a camp fire, bickering and what else goblins now do. Discussing what to do, they decided on pushing down the watch-post on top of the goblins (but not before discussing whether they should set it on fire beforehand). One of the goblins was instantly crushed by the falling tower, while the rest took minor injuries. Draug decided to take matters into his own hands and jumped down into the goblins. Only to critically fail his acrobatics check and then missing the goblin afterwards. In the meantime the rest of the party had taken care of the rest of the goblins with bow and arrow and some sacred flames.
On their way out of the dungeon, they were surprised by the remaining two wolves they met at the entrance of the dungeon. They quickly slay the foul beasts, with Christian scoring a critical hit against a severely wounded wolf and almost hitting maximum damage – he essentially bashed it brains in with such force that it exploded like a ripe watermelon.
Back in town
On their way back to town, Varis slay a goblin at night who was heading back to the cave. It carried a map of the area with a route plotted into it and some dwarfish runes written in some sort of code.
Back in town they rented some rooms at the inn, divided all the treasure and set out to tell Vincent his daughter had been avenged. Vincent was very grateful for their help and asked them to come to the funeral for his daughter in two days time. Varis quickly chipped in that he could play a song on his lute while the rest of the party didn’t really want to go but couldn’t get themselves to say it.
They asked a bit around in town if someone could help them decipher the code on their map and were directed over to the wizards tower on the outskirts of town. The wizard was really excited to help them after he saw the map, but didn’t want to let them in (being a wizard and all). He just wanted the map, nothing else.
The party didn’t really want to hand it over to a total stranger, so they made a copy (and a costly one indeed) and gave that to the wizard, only to have it thrown directly back in their face. If they wanted some help they had to give him the real map. They reluctantly handed it over and were told to come back in two days.
With nothing better to do, they attended the funeral and headed over to the wizard to get their map back. The wizard told them the map was magical and the runes were a cipher that when decoded said “to enter you have to pay the highest price”.
To the mountains and below
With their new map and rumours about Baldur last seen near the 3 sisters, they decided the best course was to head out for the mountains. The map led them to an abandoned mine, overrun by goblins many, many years ago. Instead of taking the main entrance, they found a secret way hidden by a giant dwarven statue. For a dwarf, the most valuable and precious thing, is gold. So to enter the secret way, they had to pay a gold coin to open the secret door.
In the mine, the found several rooms full of skeletons – both dwarfs and goblins. The dwarfs had fought valiantly and made a last stand but to no avail. At one point they heard chanting and were lead to a lit room containing several persons around an altar. And who was laying on the altar? Yup, Baldur – the dwarf who hired us for this expedition.
They decided to sneak closer, but Snowyn fumbled her stealth roll and they were soon discovered. A vicious fight broke out with Varis being bum-rushed as he was the one farthest ahead. He fought valiantly but lost a lot of HP. Christian healed him up again, but Varis was sorely pressed. Draug raged and joined the fray but was brought down by magic fire, while Snowyn sent arrow after arrow into the leader of the cult members. The cult leader continued the ritual and was only brought to stop in the last second. Instead of being cheated of his sacrifice, he turned his dagger on himself and stabbed himself in the heart while saying he would have his revenge.
That’s where we decided to call if for a day. Two from the group had to leave and I didn’t have anything else planned out. So that fit very well. Oh, and they also levelled up (much to Draugs happiness, as he had been clamouring for a level up the entire session).
Kill count:
Christian: 1 goblin, 1 wolf, 1 cult member
Draug: 2 goblins, 1 wolf, 2 cult members
Snowyn: 1 goblin
Varis: 2 goblins, 1 cult member, 1 cult leader
Total kill count:
Christian: 2 goblin, 2 wolf, 1 cult member
Draug: 3 goblins, 1 wolf, 2 cult members
Hilda: 1 goblin, 1 bugbear, 1 wolf.
Snowyn: 1 goblin
Varis: 3 goblins, 1 wolf, 1 cult member, 1 cult leader