Actual Play - 5e Undermountain - Goblins vs Vampires!

Session 7

Raku Chihuly - dragonborn guid artisan, 4th level battlesmith artificer - played by Emily
Willibald Honrblower - halfling noble, 4th level college of lore bard - played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 4th level brute fighter - played by Corey
Demic - minotaur entertainer, 4th level oath of the dragonlord paladin - played by Ben
Crow - tabaxi acolyte of Nuula, 3rd level swashbuckler rogue - played by Lindsey
Owyn Lavashield - hill dwarf hermit, 2nd level circle of the moon druid - played by Eli

After they defeated the masters of Castle Cragmaw, the adventurers returned to the village of Alpenshire to enjoy some well-earned rest. Travelers reported that the mountain trails were currently free of bandits. All goblin sightings showed them heading deeper into the Grosseberg mountain range. Black Iris received a number of mysterious overnight deliveries, and her storehouses were soon almost overflowing with merchandise.

For several weeks, the group members trained in their abilities and began spending some of their treasure. Raku turned the frog statue she'd found into a figurine of wondrous power, able to turn into a living frog and deliver messages. Willibald cobbled himself a pair of boots of elven kind, which would help him scout ahead of the party more stealthily. After being introduced by Raku, Nehryx was able to commission the artisan's guild to enchant his mighty greatsword to make it a weapon +1. Demic commissioned the guild as well, but he had them make a statue of his revered Dragon Goddess so that he could begin consecrating a shrine. Crow and Owyn spent time at the temple for the Nature Goddess they both revered.

All the same, they began to feel a bit of wanderlust. Willibald still longed to show up the Brandybuck family, who he believed may have sabotaged his vineyard. Nehryx and Demic enjoyed their status as local heroes, but longed to venture back into the mountains. Together, the party agreed to investigate a the legendary Under-Mountain in heart of the mountain range. The map they'd retrieved from Castle Cragmaw seemed to show one path there. The party convinced Black Iris to let them use some of her secret smuggling trails for extra security. Owyn Lavashield also located some fellow dwarves in Alpenshire, and persuaded them to write him a letter of introduction that he could use to let the party stay in any of the dwarven mining villages that dot the Grosseberg mountains.

For two more weeks, the group traveled the mountains, sticking the Black Iris's smuggling trails when they could, staying the night in dwarven mining towns when one was available. Their last stay was in Dworfsborro, only a half day from the fabled Under-Mountain. The next day they arrived at the entrance to the ancient dungeon. It appeared to be just a simple mining elevator. At the bottom they found themselves in a room filled with loose sand and broken shields. On one wall, written in blood, they saw a dwarven warning that a Mad Mage waited somewhere beyond a place called the Pillar Forest.

There seemed to be only one exit from this first room, a dog-legged passageway that eventually led to a wider hall. This hall ran to the west, and its walls were decorated with bas relief images of demons. The skeleton of a birdman lay in the middle of the hall, pointing at one of the demons. The group felt suspicious of whatever might have killed the bird creature. Demic investigated the skeleton but saw no obvious signs of what killed it. Checking the wall the creature was pointing at, he thought he could make out some loose stonework. Nehryx helped ram a shoulder against the wall, and a secret doorway opened!

Beyond the secret door, a curving and roughly dug tunnel led into a strangely slanted room. It was as though it had been build on a different floorplan (and a different definition of "down") - and it was half full of fetid water that smelled like sewage. While the others held back, brave Nehryx waded in, and was attacked by a blob of grey protoplasm, the same color as the dirty water. The ooze lashed at Nehryx with its tentacles, but with support from his friends who used arrows and magic from the doorway, the monster was quickly defeated. Acid from the ooze sizzled against Nehryx's new sword, but couldn't harm its fine magical craftsmanship. Pleased with his purchase, he wiped the blade clean.

After the excitement was over, Nehryx spotted an alcove with a statue in it. Demic investigated and discovered a statue of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The statue was carved of black stone. One arm had broken off, and it was covered in melted wax and other stains. It had a screw on head that could be removed so that candles could be placed inside, allowing light to spill out of the Creature's eyes and mouth. Demic thought this was really cool, so he placed the rather heavy statue in his backpack, determined to use its special feature as a template for some additional decorations devoted to his dragon goddess.

After really thoroughly checking the room for additional secrets, ("There's got to be more to this place! It's too weird to just be standalone!"), they returned to the hall with the demon carvings on the walls. At the end of the hall, they descended down a double-wide staircase into an octagonal room filled with many pillars. The group theorized this might be the so-called "Pillar Forest" the graffiti near the entrance had mentioned. Several party members felt an unnerving sense that someone might be nearby, or might have snuck away just as they were entering. They spent awhile spreading out across the room to look behind every pillar to make sure no one could surprise them. They saw the skeleton of an enormous constrictor snake coiled around one pillar - and Demic smashed it with a rock. Owyn also found more bloody dwarven graffiti, this time warning of "certain death" down the south exit.

Besides the way the party had entered, the room had three other exits, all of them up a staircase, making this room a low-point within this part of the dungeon. Willibald climbed each staircase to peek ahead. He saw a short dead-end passage to the north, a hall lined with alcoves to the west, and a very long passageway to the south.

Gains
100 XP (grey ooze)
Creature of the Black Lagoon statue (no monetary value)

Session 8

Raku
Willibald
Nehryx
Demic
Crow

Taking stock of their options, the party agreed to avoid the passageway that was marked as "certain death". They felt curious about the alcoves and decided to investigate, but immediately felt worried about what might be hidden just out of sight. A single burnt out torch lying in the middle of the hall increased their anxiety. Willibald use a mage hand to float a lighted torch down the hall, and light seemed to reflect back from within the alcoves - mirrors! Raku decided to detect magic and saw that a couple of the mirrors were magical, and based on their placement, she thought one of the mirrors at the end of the hall might be magic as well.

As the group debated what to do about this situation, three giant centipedes entered the hall crawling on the ceiling and rapidly approached them! The centipedes seemed especially drawn to the smell of sewage clinging to Demic's and Nehryx's fur. Unfortunately for the insects, their chosen meals were quite capable of defending themselves. The party quickly dispatched one of the creatures and the other two began to scuttle away, but another was slain before it could escape. Demic and Nehryx both thought the creatures might possess some kind of poison, but since they'd withstood its effects, they weren't entirely sure what it would do to someone affected by it.

Still worried about the possible effects of the magical mirrors, Demic led the group the rest of the way down the hall. As he passed the final two mirrors, he looked in one and saw a distorted, funhouse reflection of himself that pointed behind him, he turned to see a similar reflection in the other mirror, then turned again - the distorted reflection was standing in the hall with him! Nehryx charged the rest of the length of the hall to help his friend. He wiped out the mysterious mirror creature in a single cut, but a mirror Nehryx hopped out to confront him too. Willibald magically shattered one of the mirrors. Crow ran past, hoping the spell might be broken too, but a semi-transparent and very angry mirror Crow appeared as well! Fortunately, with Nehryx's help, both reflections were quickly defeated. Willibald went up and down the hall shattering all the non-magical mirrors. He discovered that the other magical mirrors that Raku had identified were simply illusions, with no mirror present at all! Behind one, he found a bronze mask depicting the face of the Mad Mage. Raku carefully broke the remaining magical mirror without allowing herself to be reflected, then collected the magical glass for future study.

Past the hall, passages branched off to the north and south. Willibald scouted ahead, and thought that the northern passage had only a single dead-end room, while the southern branch led to a complex of several rooms. Entering into the rooms to the south, the group met a half-dozen goblins who were amusing themselves with a human skeleton they'd turned into a crude marionette. The skeleton looked very old, and a broken shield in the corner identified its bearer as "NIM - RATH".

The goblins were impressed that the party had fought their way through the "bad mirrors", and learned that the goblins never used that hall. Upon further questioning, the goblins told a sad tale of how they used to have a good life up on the surface, but a series of tragedies had chased them down into the Under-Mountain, where they still had no relief from their troubles. Once they had a simple life, living in a cave, robbing travelers, led by a bugbear boss. Then someone came in and killed their boss, flooded their cave, and stole back all spoils of their banditry. "It's probably that darned Black Iris," one of the goblins opined, "she never gives us no peace!" The survivors of that disaster had moved into a castle with some of their friends ... until one day someone massacred and entire dining hall full of goblins, and again, killed their newest bugbear boss.

The party members exchanged meaningful glaces with one another. "Gee, that's so sad." So now the goblins had resolved to leave the cruel surface world behind, but they were troubled again by a group of Draculas living to the north, who gave them all kind of hassle down here as well. The party felt alarmed by the report of Draculas, and took pity on the poor goblins, who at this point just wanted to live in peace far away from humans. Willibald and Raku used some simple illusions to create a disco ball, flashing lights, and ambient music playing "The Hustle". The goblins danced to celebrate their newly forged friendship, and got their skeleton puppet to disco dance, chanting "Nim-rath, nim-rath, nim-rath!" in time to the music.

Eventually, the goblins took the party to meet their newest bugbear bosses, who were also pleased to hear that someone else was going to kill the Draculas and save them the trouble. The bugbears agreed to deliver "big treasure" and to avoid bothering the town of Dworfsborro if the party was successful in clearing out the area to the north. The speed and apparent generosity of the bugbears' agreement may have struck some as inherently suspicious.

The goblins meanwhile were enthusiastically and unreservedly excited about this new alliance. They explained the layout of their group's "turf", which included several more rooms south of the Pillar Forest. The party worked out that the Draculas were somewhere to the north of that. But wait, how did the goblins get to and from the Pillar Forest if they never used the mirrored hallway? What about the sign warning of "certain death" to the south? The goblins couldn't contain their laughter - "hahaha! I can't believe you guys fell for that!"

Eventually, the goblins took the group to an empty room where they could camp for the night. It was the dead-end room Willibald had identified earlier. The floor was littered with trash, burnt torches, empty potion bottles, empty wine bottles of Chateau Brandybuck. In the distance, the party could hear the goblins disco-ing long into the night.

Gains
1200 XP (two carrion crawlers 450/each, three shadows 100/each)
bronze mask of the Mad Mage (50 gp)
sample of broken magical glass
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Session 9

Willibald
Nehryx

The next day, the rest of the party stayed behind to disco with the goblins, while Willibald and Nehryx planned to scout out the so-called "Draculas". Based on the legends and folksongs Willibald had heard, and backed up by Demic's religious knowledge, vampires were believed to be incredibly powerful and dangerous, possibly moreso than the goblins seemed to think. The party was suspicious that something might not be as it seemed.

Willibald and Nehryx asked the bugbear bosses for their bravest goblin warrior to accompany them on their scouting mission, but the bosses were not entirely receptive to this request. "Ha! No. Tell you what, we'll give you our most expendable goblin." They were introduced to Pincushion, a goblin who sounded suspiciously like Don Knotts. When asked how he got his name, Pincushion explained that on several occasions, he'd somehow managed to shoot himself in his own butt. "Now they only let me have this one arrow..."

Nehryx and Willibald encouraged Pincushion to scout head as they went back through the Pillar Forest and into the northern hall. "Hot dog! I'm the leader, I'm leading the way!" Their first stop was a room just on the edge of Dracula territory. Listening at the door, Willibald heard voices coming from inside, so they steeled themselves for a fight. The room proved to be deserted though, and the voices were coming from narrow air shafts in the ceiling. Who knew where else in the dungeon those connected to? They also spotted some eye holes cut into the south wall. Peering through showed a view of the hall with the bas relief demons - in fact, the eye holes were probably positioned to be one of the demon's eyes.

The most interesting feature of the room though was a glowing sword nailed halfway through an upturned wooden table. The table itself was smeared with dried blood, and a skeletal forearm lay on the floor beneath. Nehryx held back the excitable Pincushion while Willibald investigated. He used mage hand to try to dislodge the sword from the table. It released easily, almost as if it wanted to be held, and flew toward Willibald's outstretched hand. He managed to dodge just in time, and the glowing blade clattered across the floor behind him. Willibald heard a scraping sound as the sword dragged itself across the floor toward him. He ducked behind the table, and the sword flung itself into the wood so hard it actually stabbed him coming through the other side! Deeply suspicious of the sword's apparent eagerness, Willibald offered the weapon to Pincushion, who felt no doubt or concern whatsoever. "Oh boy!' he exclaimed, waving the sword wildly from side to side, like a toddler with a sparkler, "My very own sword! Look out world, here comes Pincushion!"

A quick test revealed that it was impossible for Pincushion to let go of the sword, although the redoubtable goblin didn't see this as a drawback. "Set it down? I'm never lettin' this baby out of my sight! Hiyah! Ha! Take that!" Nehryx further spun the advantages of a blade that no enemy could ever knock from one's hands, while both he and Willibald kept a safe distance from Pincushion's enthusiastic practice swinging.

Past this room, the northern passageway branched again, with routes going east and west. Deciding to take the much longer passage to the west, Nehryx, Willibald, and Pincushion arrived in a room with black bone-covered pillars, its floor covered in the bones of goblins and some kind of beaked snake-like creature. Two large floating brains with nasty beaks of their own and dozes of wafting tentacles floated out of ambush positions and approached the two friends and their erstwhile sidekick. Pincushion rushed forward, eager to try out his new weapon, and was summarily decapitated by one of the floating brains, which crunched noisily on his skull. Nehryx had much better success with his greatsword, and Willibald used a combination of crossbow and magic to dispatch the other.

When they returned to the goblin hideout, Raku had just finished teaching the goblins to limbo under a rope.

Gains
1650 XP (cursed sword 4th level "medium" encounter 250, two grell 700/each)

Losses

Pincushion the goblin

Session 10

Raku
Willibald
Nehryx
Demic
Crow
Owyn

After Nehryx and Willibald's scouting mission, the group was certain they knew the way to the territory controlled by the alleged "Draculas" and they were eager to learn more about the supposed monsters. After bidding a fond farewell to their disco friends, the party passed through the Pillar Forest and went north, then east, into a new region of the dungeon. At the end of the passageway, they found an alcove with more eye holes, and they realized they'd found a secret door into the entry chamber. Though there was no way to open it from the side of the mining elevator, they had discovered yet another hidden connector.

Backtracking slightly, they took a northern branching passage, and opened a door into room with three graffiti-covered statues ... and a crowd of vampires?! Half a dozen of the vampires were average human sized, obviously wearing white greasepaint, and simple black bandit's outfits that had been modified to look a bit like tuxedos. Another was a much larger man dressed much the same, and two were absolutely flawless images of Dracula! The smaller "vampires" brandished knives at the party. "Blah, blah!" they shouted, "I vant to suck your blood!" One seemed confused, ("I like to eat the peanut butter first!"), but he was quickly silenced by the others. "Blah!"

Nehryx rushed the crowd of smaller vampires, and rapidly struck down two of them. The others tried to run, but Nehryx managed to grab one before he could get away. The other party members concentrated on the surprisingly convincing Draculas, who unnervingly seemed to heal every injury only moments after it was dealt. One of these fled away too, but the party finally defeated the other. As it fell, it turned into a grey humanoid with fluid, clay-like skin. Another doppelganger, like they'd encountered at Castle Cragmaw! Now that it was dead, they could see that their attacks had injured it, but it had been using its shapechanging abilities to conceal the damage.

They questioned their prisoner, who admitted his name was Tony, and that he was not really a vampire. He belonged to a gang that used to be called the Jets, until their leader, Benny, met an actress and agreed to her plan to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies by disguising themselves as vampires. Tony was not altogether sold on this plan, ("I mean, it used to be, when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way ... but now we're supposed to just give that up?"), but thought it was working pretty well against the goblins. Tony was also not enamored with the actress, Victoria, who in addition to leading the bandits into the Under-Mountain and rebranding their image, had also started building "a really gross flesh monster" in her dressing room.

Tony was able to explain a bit of the layout of the gang's territory. To the west were a small number of hangout rooms. To the north were a couple of hidden chambers they sometimes used for ambushes, ("plus there's an honest to goodness vampire coffin in there! it's just empty though"), and further north, a throne room where Victoria was likely to be found. Beyond that, Tony knew about a hallway filled with statues that led into a larger room controlled by a trio of lions with human faces.

With this information, and a tied-up Tony bringing up the rear, the group headed west into the vampire gang's hangout rooms. They found the surviving gang members hiding behind an overturned card table. Benny leapt out to fight the party, but was clearly outmatched, and then Willibald suggested that he surrender. Confronted with both the logic of his situation and Willibald's magical persuasion, Benny readily agreed and encouraged the other bandits to give themselves up. He helpfully offered to turn over his accumulated loot to the party, and agreed to hurry to Dworfsborro to turn himself in to the appropriate authorities. Before jogging off, Benny also confirmed the layout of the other section of the gang's turf, and again warned the party of the danger posed by Victoria and her "gross flesh zombie thing". The party debated what to do with the other bandits, but didn't feel able to take custody of a group of prisoners at the moment, and worried that they'd just escape, and possibly lead Benny astray, if they tried asking them to go to Dworfsborro. In the end, they released Tony and the other three bandits, on the promise that the Jets give up stealing.

Gains
1300 XP (doppelganger 700, six bandits 25/each, bandit captain 450)
21 gp in surrendered bandit pocket change
96 gp in bandit treasure (2 gp in copper, 9 gp in silver, 85 gp in gold)
dwarven rune ring (25 gp, given to Owyn)

Session 11

Raku
Willibald
Nehryx
Demic
Crow
Owyn

As Benny jogged off toward Dworfsborro and the remaining bandits dispersed, the party returned to the room with the three graffitied statues and headed north, following the directions provided by their informants. In the northern passage, they spotted a pair of hidden doors.

Pressing his ear to the wall, Willibald heard someone banging around inside. The group burst in through both doors, and saw a giant, picture-perfect Frankenstein's Monster. Could this be Victoria's creature?! Their multiple attacks quickly subdued the monster. Upon death, it was revealed to be the other doppelganger from before. It's body showed both its previous injuries and the newest wounds.

Surveying the room, they saw that this was a bandit hideout, filled with bedrolls. In a side room, they found an ancient wooden coffin on a stone plinth. This must be the vampire coffin! Nehryx, Demic, and Owyn investigated the coffin by tapping on it and then using several magical senses. Eventually Owyn opened the lid and found it empty. The bottom of the coffin was covered in dirt, with a single vial of holy water inside.

Following a westward passage, they arrived at a more ornate looking doorway. Perhaps this was the throne room? Inside, they found large throne room. They had enetered just beside the large throne; made entirely of bone. In the middle of the room, they saw a small dragon skeleton surrounded by broken crystal or glass. Raku and Demic were both unsettled by the disrespectful treatment of a dragon's remains, and vowed to carry it back to Dworfsborro after they finished with the bandits. They saw another door just on the other side of the throne, and two more at the far side of the room. The group decided to check the nearest doorway.

Inisde, they found Victoria's dressing room! The walls were covered with posters of Victoria from various plays she'd appeared in. They saw her dressing table, costume trunk, changing screen, and of course, the woman herself, and her giant horrible flesh monster. Victoria was dressed in a much better version of the other bandits' costumes. The monster was an awful stitched together mess of various scraps of skin. "Blah blah!" intoned Victoria, "Who dares invade my sanctum? Blah! Get them, Frankie! Destroy them, my pet!"

For a few rounds, Victoria taunted the party as they struggled against her terrible creation ... until Demic channeled his deity to roar like a dragon, terrifying the woman. "Oh god, we're all doomed! He's gonna go crazy! I can't control him! He's going berserk for sure!" Ordinarily, she would have fled the room, but she was too afraid of Demic to try to run past him, and so just scrabbled backward against the wall. "Please! I surrender! Just take me in! Don't let him kill me!" Owyn changed shape to become a dire wolf and kept her cornered while the others fought. The monster, Frankie, did not end up going berserk, and eventually, the party managed to put down the horrible creature.

With Victoria in manacles, the group checked the side room and retrieved the remaining five bandits. The bandits volunteered to give up their life of crime, but the party tied their hands and prepared to lead them back to Dworfsborro to face dwarven law.

They also gathered the bones, realizing as they did that this was a wyvern, an animal that was related to dragons but lacked their noble intelligence. The broken glass appeared to be the remains of a display case that probably hung from the ceiling. Demic thought that he could begin consecrating a grotto to his Dragon Goddess in Dworfsborro, and this skeleton could be respectfully interred there.

When the party and their prisoners arrived in Dworfsborro, they found that Benny had turned himself in, and the group received a reward from the dwarven authorities for the capture of the seven gang members.

Gains
3075 XP (doppelganger 700, bandit captain 450, flesh golem 1800, five bandits 25/each)
22 gp surrendered bandit pocket change
1025 gp reward for captured bandits


Notes

Before the start of session 7 up there, I went ahead and totaled up everyone's experience and treasure from their previous adventures. The totals below don't include any cash that Nehryx and Demic made by selling used goblin weapons, and also doesn't include any deductions for purchases of armor, healing potions, and the like. I did go ahead and subtract out the cost of their magic items though - 500 gp each for Raku and Willibald to craft their own, 1000 gp for Nehryx to commission one, and 750 gp for Demic to commission his statue.

Raku - 3350 xp, 621 gp, figurine of wondrous power (same power as silver falcon)
Willibald - 4200 xp, 900 gp, boots of elven kind
Nehryx - 4200 xp, 400 gp, greatsword +1
Demic - 3225 xp, 650 gp, statue of dragon goddess
Crow - 2975 xp, 1275 gp
Owyn - 1850 xp, 996 gp

The party also started out collectively owning 3 healing potions that they'd found as treasure and not used, a scroll of revivify, and a scroll of silence. I think at the start of the next session I'll encourage them to officially divvy those up so that someone has responsibility for tracking when they get used up.

By my count, each party member got 194 gp from this adventure (1164 ÷ 6), Demic got a broken statue and co-ownership of a wyvern skeleton, Willibald got a brone mask, Owyn got a dwarven ring and a vial of holy water, and Raku got some magic glass and is the other owner of the skeleton.

So by the end of all of this, everyone's experience and cash are higher:

Raku - 9025 xp, 815 gp
Willibald - 11525 xp, 1094 gp
Nehryx - 11525 xp, 594 gp
Demic - 8900 xp, 844 gp
Crow - 8650 xp, 1469 gp
Owyn - 6325 xp, 1190 gp

Session Report - 5e Undermountain - Assault on Castle Cragmaw

After defeating the goblin bandits in the Cragmaw caverns, the group decided to pursue the bandit leader by following the map they found, leading to Castle Cragmaw!


Session 5

Cast of Characters
Raku Chilhuly - dragonborn guild artisan, 3rd level battlesmith artificer - played by Emily
Willibald Hornblower - halfling noble, 3rd level college of lore bard - played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 3rd level brute fighter - played by Corey
Crow - tabaxi acolyte of Nuula, 2nd level rogue - played by Lindsey

The group hiked a day through the Grosseberg Mountains. Thanks to a well-chosen campsite, they didn't encounter any of the hobgoblin warbands that stalked this part of the range.

In the morning, they found the ruin of Castle Cragmaw. It had seven towers, with only the smallest keep connecting them all. Several of the building walls were collapsing. They circled through the woods around the castle to check for possible entrances. There were a couple obvious ways in, but the group opted for stealth, and Willibald managed to find a hidden passage through the rubble and into the ruined keep.

They arrived in a hallway that separated one half of the castle from the other. The air was filled with echoes of activity, distant shouts and bumps from the activity of the goblin inhabitants. Heavy canvas curtains had been hung as dividers. They checked one set of rooms off the hall, and found another curtain dividing a large bedroom. They could hear voices beyond the curtain and opted to return to the hallway.

Further down the hall they found a door to a room that seemed to be housing a great commotion. Someone was barking orders, and there were rhythmic clangs and grunts beyond the door. Willibald carefully cast an illusionary copy of the door while the group gingerly opened the real one. They couldn't see beyond, but would be able to surprise anyone on the other side by appearing to pass directly though the door itself.

Expecting to find some sort of military drills, the group was somewhat surprised themselves to find a fat bossy goblin in a chef's hat and apron shouting orders as a miserable work crew of sou chefs and cleaners engaged in various preparatory activities around the dining hall. Crow shot the head chef in the back with her shortbow, and he went down with one blow. The others burst through the door, with Nehryx galloping across the dining room to block one of the exits. Strangely, as the other goblins ran around in a panic, they still avoided leaving via the last unguarded door...

Willibald rode on Nehryx's back, and the two were troubled by another group of goblins emerging from the other side of the door Nehryx was blocking. Willibald used his newfound skill in demoralizing commentary to take some of the sting out of the goblins' blows - "You're the cleaners? No wonder they call this a mess hall!" Together, he and the one-man brute squad Nehryx worked to defend themselves from the two groups of attackers, while Crow and Raku sniped from the doorway, keeping the goblins in a state of panic and confusion until the last body fell to the floor.

Gains
400 XP from monsters (eight goblins 50/each)

Correction - Nehryx is the brute squad!

Session 6

Cast of Characters
Raku Chihuly - dragonborn guild artisan, 3rd level battlesmith artificer - played by Emily
Willibald Hornblower - halfling noble, 3rd level college of lore bard - played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 3rd level brute fighter - played by Corey
Demic - minotaur entertainer, 3rd level oath of the dragonlords paladin - played by Ben
Crow - tabaxi acolyte of Nuula, 2nd level rogue - played by Lindsey
Owyn Lavashield - dwarven hermit, 1st level druid - played by Eli

The group waited in rapt tension for a few moments to hear if the ruckus had attracted any unwanted attention from elsewhere in the castle. Moments later, they heard footsteps coming from the room beyond the dining hall ... it was Demic and Owyn, enjoying some pilfered snacks. "Were you two back there the whole time? Didn't you hear us fighting?" Nehryx demanded. Demic brushed the crumbs off his hands, then shrugged, "Sorry, we thought it was just the goblins arguing with each other!"

Apparently the castle's other inhabitants thought so too, because no one else came to check on them. Not wanting to push their luck, the group also avoided the door that none of the goblins used, even as they were being slain, and went back out into the ruined hallway. In the hall, they considered clambering up the rubble piles that still acted like walls to peek into a couple of the neighboring rooms. Willibald went up one wall and Crow the other, but neither was able to be very quiet about it, knocking loose debris down into the rooms they intended to spy on. Willibald saw two hobgoblins dressed in their mercenary armor ... and they saw him too! "Hey, look over-" but the sound was drowned out by a thunderous "HOOO!" as an owlbear in the other room spotted Crow and decided to make her a snack. Willibald slid back down the rubble pile and told his friends to make ready. The hobgoblins burst into the hall and were followed not long after by the galloping owlbear.

The group made short work of the two mercenaries. Demic and Nehryx outmatched the pair with their swords, Willibald magically shattered a section of intact wall to shower them with shards of rock, and although Raku had little success with her crossbow, she was able to send in her robot (technically a "steel defender") Darla, who looked like a metallic cat-dragon hybrid. "Robot robot, attack attack" intoned Darla.

After the brief battle, they heard stomping footsteps and a voice approaching from deeper into the secure area. "What's all that noise?!" Demic put on his best monster voice and attempted another act of deception. "Uh, sorry sir, the owlbear didn't like chef's dinner tonight." The voice behind the curtain seemed to find this extremely plausible, perhaps it was a common occurrence? "Well, just try to keep it down out there. I'm conducting important business. If it doesn't like the goblin's dinner, then feed it some goblins!" The footsteps then receded and a door slammed not far away.

The group took a few moments to search the hobgoblins' barracks and the owlbear's keep. Raku spotted a chest sitting atop the last remnant of the old first-floor ceiling, but they decided to retrieve that after dealing with the king of Castle Cragmaw. Before following the voice they'd heard before, the group members refreshed each other with magic.

Crow volunteered to loop around look for a side-entrance into the king's chamber. She found a partially collapsed wall she could clamber up, and ended up in a small room connected to the main chamber. Nehryx planned to lead a charge into the room, but rolled too low on initiative, and ended up going last. "Okay, everyone behind me, on ten! One, two, hey wait not yet!"

Willibald barged in first. He saw the aging bugbear king, a vicious wolf, and an elvish woman who suddenly changed to look like a copy of Willibald. He attacked his duplicate, who attacked him back much harder! As the others hurried in, they made quick work of the wolf and the befuddled king, who scarcely had a chance to raise his morningstar against them before he was struck down by Nehryx and Demic's mighty blows. Crow emerged from the side room to find only the second Willibald remaining. "Hey guys, hey guys, it's me, it's me Willibald, Willibald" the two said in eerie unison. "Ask me something, ask me something only I would know, only I would know!"

Noticing that his double was copying his movements, Willibald lay prone on the ground. His touble tossled with him so that the two kept trading places on the floor. Raku cast a spell to see magic, which revealed which one was false. By shouting advice to the others, she was able to direct them to hit the imposter every time, which proved fortunate, since the strange creature proved able to endure far more punishment than the original Willibald could have. Between these two tactics, the creature was defeated without any of the others hurting Willibald, and before it could change shape again to copy Raku. As it died, it assumed the form of an almost featureless gray humanoid.

With the king dead, and the castle certain to devolve into anarchy when the other mercenaries and bandits in his employ discovered that. A search of the room revealed the king's private stash of coins and healing potions, along with an unidentified map. The group quickly sent Crow up the side of the owlbear's tower to steal the king's treasure, a horde of coins, along with a healing potion, and a pair of scrolls.


Gains
950 gp each from Black Iris
277 gp from treasure (220 silver pieces + 270 electrum pieces + 120 gold pieces)
potion of healing
scroll of revivify
scroll of silence
1850 XP (two hobgolins 100/each + owlbear 700 + bugbear 200 + doppelgagner 700 + wolf 50)

"Robot robot, treasure treasure"

Player Art - Two Self-Portraits - Jimbo Chirrup and Crow

I wanted to share a couple of players' portraits of their characters.

 
First, we have Jimbo Chirrup, the Grasshopperfolk Garden Wizard, drawn by Josh Burnett. Jimbo has appeared in my GLOG Wizard City campaign, which you can read about here and here.

 
Next, here's Crow, the Tabaxi Rogue, drawn by Lindsey M. Crow has appeared in my 5e Undermountain campaign. You can read about Crow's first adventure here, and an earlier adventure in the same campaign without her here. Lindsey also drew some monsters for me earlier, which you can see here.

Session Report - 5e Undermountain - Cragmaw Goblins

My 5e campaign, I think, is going to have a primarily mission-based structure. There's no real sandbox here for the players to make a lot of choices about what they're going to do next, but I do want to offer them some options.

I noticed that the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign from the 5e Starter Kit has several small dungeons, and I thought that might be a good way to give them some choices. The Cragmaw Hideout and Redbrand Hideout are kind of introductory adventure sites, and they have the possibility to lead into Cragmaw Castle and the Ruins of Thundertree, respectively.

Session 3

Cast of characters
Raku Chihuly - dragonborn guild-artificer, 2nd level artificer, played by Emily
Willowbald Hornblower - halfling noble, 2nd level bard, played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 2nd level fighter, played by Corey

After successfully completing their first adventure, the party was ready to level up. I walked Steve and Emily through the process, and Corey volunteered to pick a different fighting style for Nehryx that's easier to use without worrying about fictional positioning. He chose Great Weapon Fighting, which helped produce some really spectacular damage rolls later on. The group also used some of their new money to buy better armor, an antidote in case of poison, and a healing potion.

At The Laughing Halfling pub, Raku, Willowbald, and Nehryx tried to enjoy a rare treat from Aunt Dinah's cellars - a rare bottle of Chateau Hornblower, produced in the brief window before Willowbald's family's lawsuit forced him to sell all future bottles as Chateau Willowbald. The wine tasted like someone had used red-wine vinegar to steep very strong black tea, had then used the brew to douse a smoldering campfire, and then bottled whatever they managed to strain from the ashes. Willowbald claimed it was an acquired taste.

Just then, old man Bassoon Hornblower appeared in the doorway to the pub, pointing a menacing finger inside. "There they are!" he shouted to an unknown figure, silhouetted behind him. "These are the ones I told you about! They're the one ... who saved my pipeweed!" The poor old man had tears in his eyes as he showed off a new green leaf, fully restored to health by the first good rain after the volcano vanished.

The mysterious figure behind him proved to be Black Iris, who had a business proposition for them. "That diamond was worth a lot more than Bassoon could pay for, you know," she started, before explaining that if they were going into the do-gooder business, there were a number of opportunities to do some good up in the mountains, where various gangs of bandits were making it difficult to ship anything. Iris explained that supply carriers were being intercepted by a group of goblins who kept appearing out of the forest, and by some human ruffians who seemed to be operating out of an abandoned mansion. When they expressed interest in stopping the goblins, Iris offered to pay 275 if the party could stop them, then noted that the ones she'd seen might be getting instructions from somewhere higher up in the peaks.

Following Iris's instructions, the group headed up a caravan trail into the Grosseberg Mountains, where Nehryx felt quite comfortable from his time spent living off the land both before and after he was kidnapped by the traveling circus. They spotted a footpath that seemed like it must be how the goblins were reaching the main trail, Nehryx estimated at least a dozen goblins traveled it semi-regularly. The group decided to camp a little ways off in the woods, in order to surprise the goblins by arriving in the morning. Due to a well-chosen campsite, no goblin ambush patrol found them in the night.

Rising just before dawn, the group set out on the goblin footpath, with Willowbald scouting ahead. The group moved slowly, risking a greater chance of encountering patrols for a better opportunity to avoid being ambushed by any goblins they did meet. Willowbald's careful approach seemed to pay off when he spotted a snare hidden under a pile of dead leaves, and again later when he noticed a deadfall that might have been difficult for Nehryx to climb out of.

In between the two traps, Willowbald noticed a goblin patrol coming down the footpath, and managed to duck out of their sight into the woods. As the four goblins rounded a corner to encounter Raku and Nehryx, Willowbald caught them by surprise from behind, and quickly took one down with his crossbow. Raku and Nehryx won the initiative - Raku quickly eliminated one goblin with her fire breath and Nehryx ran forward to absolutely destroy another with his great sword. The last goblin surveyed the carnage and ran off into the woods, but Nehryx gave chase and prevented it from escaping with his longbow.

When the group arrived at the mouth of the goblin's hideout cave, no alarms or warnings had alerted the inhabitants of the adventurers' arrival.

Gains
200 XP for monsters (four goblins 50/each)
250 XP for traps (snare trap 100 + pit trap 150)


Session 4

Cast of characters
Willowbald Hornblower - halfling noble, 2nd level bard, played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 2nd level fighter, played by Corey
Demic - minotaur entertainer, 2nd level paladin, played by Ben
Crow - tabaxi acolyte of Nuula, 1st level rogue, played by Lindsey

Inspecting the entrance to the goblins' cave, the adventurers realized that they'd either have to cross a small river to reach a land entrance, or walk in the cold but slow-moving water. Nehryx invited Willowbald and the cat-woman rogue, Crow, to ride on his back across the water. (Ben hadn't arrived yet, so Demic didn't participate in this part of the session.) Hurrying across, the group got the better of a pair of inattentive goblin sentries, quickly putting them down and then dragging their bodies behind the treeline.

Listening at the mouth of the cave, they still heard no alarm, although they realized the sound of the stream would mask most quiet sounds. The cave mouth led to a tunnel with a walking path beside the stream. The tunnel ran slightly uphill while curving to the right, so their visibility was limited. They passed by a staircase where they could hear growling and rattling chains, then a steep side-path across the stream.

Continuing on, they saw a wooden bridge crossing the tunnel overhead with goblins guarding the ends. Worried that they might have been seen, the group retreated, and natural-climber Crow offered to try scrambling up the steep side-path. Halfway up the loose gravel trail, she realized that the path was trapped - an avalanche of gravel slid down around her, dumping her in the stream. Just then, a rumble came from further up the tunnel. They had been seen, and the goblins had unleashed their most dangerous trap yet - floodwaters filled the tunnel, battering everyone and washing them downstream and outside!

When the group washed ashore, Crow wasn't breathing, but quick help from Willowbald and Demic got her back on her feet. The party retreated further downstream, then crossed into the woods to hide, rest, and regroup. After recuperating, they snuck back toward the cave in the woods, emerging in the clearing where goblin sentries were watching for threats emerging from a different direction. These two guards were also rapidly dispatched.

The group returned to the cave and quickly went up natural steps they'd bypassed before. The snarling and rattling came from a trio of wolves all chained to a stalactite, who worked together as a pack to attack the heroes at the front of the group. Ben was able to use Demic's new Protective fighting style to good effect, nullifying the wolves' advantage against one of his allies in melee each round. The vicious, starving creatures were soon put out of their misery.

A narrow passage at the back of this cave appeared to offer a way around traveling the main tunnel. Willowbald could fit through easily, and Demic volunteered to squeeze behind him. They arrived in a larger cavern, lit by a burning brazier. The walls were crowded with dozens of boxes and barrels stowed along the walls. A large, hulking and fur-covered goblin-type leader stood by the firepit with his pet wolf and two regular goblin henchmen. "Who dares disturb Klarg?!" the bugbear demanded.

Demic, drawing on his performance skills from his gladiatorial days, pretended to be a fellow monster. "I caught this one lurking around. I brought him to you to interrogate!" Klarg, not the brightest fellow, was convinced, and asked Demic to bring Willowbald forward. "Of course," said Demic, raising his voice so that Nehryx and Crow would hear him in the other cave, "just let me tie my shoe." He ducked down, and an arrow from Nehryx's bow flew through the passage and skewered Klarg. "What?!" Klarg was briefly furious, but from his crouching posture, Demic rushed forward and gored him with his horns, ending the bugbear's reign of terror.

The goblin lieutenants ran away screaming in fear, and behind them, the group heard the sound of a second rush of water pouring down the main tunnel. Klarg's loyal wolf leapt on Willowbald, knocking him to the ground and harrying him rather severely, but Crow appeared out of the shadows of the passage, and with Crow and Nehryx's help, Willowbald was soon safe.

In the background, the group heard more screaming and the sounds of goblins running away down the main tunnel. They inspected Klarg's hoard and saw that it was mostly stolen trade-goods, exactly the kind of thing Black Iris liked to deal in, and a treasure chest with Klarg's personal wealth. Inside the chest was a crude hand-drawn map that seemed to show a path between a castle and the current cave. After allowing the goblins a head start to escape, the party left the caves and returned to Alpenshire.

Gains
275 gp/each from Black Iris
57 gp in treasure (600 cp, 110 sp, silver statue worth 40 gp)
2 healing potions
600 XP from monsters (four goblins 50/each + four wolves 50/each + bugbear 200)
125/250 XP from traps (avalanche trap 50/100 + flood trap 75/150)


Notes
Running combat went more smoothly this time. Steve managed to think of the one other way to get advantage on an attack roll that I hadn't thought of - which was to take the enemy completely by surprise. The "Protective" fighting style seems to work fine, even in theater of the mind, since it's obviously meant to protect an ally standing right next to Demic, which means someone who's part of the same melee group. He used it to good effect, and I think it adds a nice way to incorporate some teamwork into the fights. Meanwhile "Great Weapon Fighting" gave Nehryx some really impressive hits with his great sword, and ended a couple of fights with a single blow.

The 5e Dungeon Master Guide recommends that you can give XP for non-combat challenges (like traps) using the "experience budget" for building combat encounters, with the amount of XP awarded based on the difficulty of the challenge and the character level. The main impact of that is that characters of different levels will get different amounts of XP for encountering traps.

By my count, at this point, Raku has 1100 XP, Willowbald and Nehryx both have 1950 XP, Demic has 1025 XP, and Crow has 725 XP. So we'll probably start the next session by leveling people up appropriately.

Session Report - 5e Undermountain - Temple of the Azur Volcano

Life under quarantine continues, and I'm continuing to use D&D as a form of escapism to deal with the stress and isolation of staying home all day, every day, both for my own safety and to help protect the safety of "the herd" (which has got to be one of the least flattering metaphors for human society).

Some players I've run in-person games for asked me to run an online game, and one of them requested that we use D&D 5e, so I'm game-mastering my first ever Fifth Edition game. My plan was just to default to the Undermountain megadungeon from Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but it turns out that the first dungeon level there is for 5th level characters, so I've been improvising a little to get the party up to 5th level so they can enter the Undermountain.

Their first adventure was in the Temple of the Azur Volcano, which I've adapted with very light re-skinning from "The Candy Island!" adventure from the Azurth Adventure Digest.

SESSION 1

Cast of characters:
Raku Chilhuly - dragonborn guild-artificer, 1st level artificer - played by Emily
Willowbald Hornblower - halfling noble, 1st level bard - played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 1st level fighter - played by Corey

I started by asking the players to introduce their characters to me. I had helped Emily and Steve a bit with 5e's character generation process, but I let each player come up with their own backstory however they wanted.

Raku Chihuly is a glazier and glassblower who was raised by the Glassblower's Guild. She's spent her left so far making beautiful glass objects, but wants to find rarer materials and learn to make magic items.

Willowbald Hornblower is the black sheep of his family. The Hornblowers are synonymous with their successful pipeweed mercantile house. They grow it, bundle it, dry it, and sell it, making a fortune along the way. Willowbald tried to chart his own course in life, and attempted to become a vintner, but winery failed, and now he lives on a ramshackle estate at the edge of town. He hopes to learn some new techniques for running a vineyard, or find some new merchandise to sell to try to get back in his family's good graces.

Nehryx is from far away, from a plains that's dominated by centaurs and their ancient rivals, the minotaurs. Nehryx wanted to explore up in the mountains where the giants live. He was kidnapped and enslaved by a traveling circus, variously shackled, humiliated, and physically abused, until his will was nearly broken and he was ready to die. Eventually, the circus owners wanted Nehryx to stage gladiatorial combat with an enslaved minotaur. Somehow, this final indignity rekindled some spark of vitality in both of them, they set aside their ancient enmity, slaughtered their oppressors, and escaped, eventually arriving in town with the others.

Based on details the characters provided, I decided that they're starting out in Alpenshire, a halfling town at the foothills of a great mountain range, known locally as the Grosse Bergen. (Remember, the Undermountain's got to be nearby somewhere!) That same mountain range is home to numerous giants, and apparently a deplorable traveling circus, and on the other side is the Taurean Plains, where the centaurs and minotaurs live. Alpenshire is home to one branch of the Hornblower family, who grow vast fields of pipeweed in the shade of the Bergs.

The most exciting thing to happen in the Shire in quite some time was the appearance, overnight, of a black volcano to the southwest of town (the opposite side from the mountain range). Most Alpenshire residents are a bit parochial and uninterested in things happening outside, but Willowbald, Raku, and Nehyrx decided to investigate this mysterious appearance.
 

After walking for a few hours, the friends arrived at a point where the grass began to give way to shiny green sand. Upon closer inspection, Raku determined that the "sand" was actually minute pebbles of green glass. The group assumed this was an effect of the volcano's arrival, but weren't sure if it had been dredged up to the surface from below, or if the grass itself had somehow been transformed into glass.

Within a couple hundred yards of the volcano, they reached a point where the green sand gave way to black sand, also made of tiny bits of smooth glass. They could see a ziggurat built into the side of the volcano, and a crowd of humanoid figures gathered around outside. The figures seemed to be roughly human-sized, but made entirely of grey stone. (Like Korg, from the Thor movies!) The three adventurers crouched behind what appeared to be either a strange looking boulder or a crystalized bush.

As the three friends watched, they were able to discern that a handful of the figures were carrying stone spears, and that occasionally these guards would drag off someone who'd been standing around. There appeared to be a few more stone figures on top level of the ziggurat, but they kept moving in and out of an entryway, so they were hard to make out. Watching the ground level again, they saw that individuals were drawing stones from a box. Most drew a black stone and went back to milling, but drawing a red stone meant being carried away.

At one point while their backs were turned, a large snake made of glass or rock crystal slithered up behind them, its eyes set on swallowing Willowbald whole. Nehyrx managed to engage the monster with his spear, and prevented it from getting past him, fairly quickly subduing it.

Resuming their vantage point, the group debated what to do. Nehryx thought about his travails with the circus, and worried that the rock people who were being led off were unwilling victims, and wondered what fate might befall them. Willowbald suggested trying to talk to some of the stone creatures, and pointed out that he knew magic that would allow them to communicate, even if they didn't speak the same language.

The group approached the edge of the gathering, trying to find someone who was standing somewhat apart from the others. They tried talking to one, but it didn't appear to recognize their language, or show any interest in them at all. Willowbald tried casting his spell to comprehend languages and asked the creature what was going on. When it spoke back, Raku and Nehryx just heard unintelligible growling, but Willowbald translated for his friends.

Upon questioning, the stone figure revealed that their home had unexpectedly risen to the surface. No one seemed to know why this had happened, but the head priest had a plan to return them home. Unfortunately, this plan would involve sacrifices. The figure wasn't happy about the situation, but understood the sacrifices to be necessary. Likewise, it assumed that while no one wanted to die, the lottery system was fair, and the ones who were sacrificed would be doing their part to save the others.

When Willowbald offered "But what if no one had to die? What if we could help you?" The stone creature perked up. It called over to a group of nearby guards. "They volunteer as tribute! They volunteer to help us by being sacrifices, so none of us has to die!" Willowbald tried to correct the misunderstanding, "No that's not what I meant-" but the guards didn't seem to be listening to anything else he had to say.

A brief combat followed. Raku's fiery dragon breath seemed to fuse two of the guards into lifeless stone. Willowbald distracted another with an illusion of the crystalline snake. Nehryx interposed himself bodily between the living guards and his friends. He was speared once and decided to run for it, helping the two onto his back to gallop away. The stone guardian threw its spear but declined to give chase. Nehryx was felled and had to spend an hour out in the field coming to, but the guards returned to their posts and their people. After Nehryx recovered, he, Willowbald, and Raku returned to town.


Gains:
125 XP (snake 50 + three guards 25/each)

SESSION 2

Characters:
Raku Chihuly - dragonborn guild-artisan, 1st level artificer - played by Emily
Willibald Hornblower - halfling noble, 1st level bard - played by Steve
Nehryx - centaur outlander, 1st level fighter - played by Corey
Demic - minotaur entertainer, 1st level paladin - played by Ben

After Nehryx healed up from his injury, and the volcano did not disappear back down into the earth, the three friends were joined by Nehryx's old companion, Demic. Demic had been enslaved by the traveling circus even longer than Nerhyx, and had already fought in countless gladiatorial matches by the time the two first met. The two maintained a campsite together, just outside of town. They were both larger than human-sized, while everything in Alpenshire was built for halflings, so they were more comfortable outside and on their own.

The group marched back out to the volcano and circled it warily from a distance, not wanting to get close enough to attract the guards' attention. Raku used of the empty wine bottles from Willowbald's run-down estate to collect samples of the interesting sand, believing that she might be able to melt it down and make glasswork out of it. The group watched the ziggurat for some time, but it seemed significantly less active than before. Not entirely deserted, but with only a handful of stone guards and other stone humanoids around. Miraculously, they weren't disturbed by any more strange wildlife during their scouting trip.

(At this point, I reminded the players that if they weren't interested in the ziggurat, that there was probably some adventure to be had up in the mountains.)

Although worried about the guards' spears, Nehryx and Demic reasoned that there must be someone in town who would pay them to investigate the temple, and thus no reason to risk their lives for free until they found that person. Willowbald and Raku also wondered if anyone in town had ever heard of something like this happening before anywhere else.

Their first stop was to see Willowbald's favorite aunt, Dinah Hornblower. Although he was not on great terms with the rest of the family, Aunt Dinah still had a soft spot in her heart for her wee nephew. The group went to her public house, The Laughing Halfling, where Willowbald was able to determine that nothing like was part of the town's collective memory. He did get a couple leads though. Old Man Bassoon had been complaining about the volcano's effect on his soil, and Black Iris, who spent a lot of time up in the mountain sourcing implausibly-discounted goods, was very worldly and might know rumors from distant lands.

The next day, they traipsed out to the edge of town, to the furthest out farm, which belonged to the constantly complaining Old Man Bassoon. "Just look at these leaves! They're all withered and sickly!" Old Man Bassoon was convinced that the volcano had ruined his soil, and that his pipeweed crop was in trouble. Reluctantly, he was offering up his rainy-day fund of 500 gp to anyone who could send the volcano back underground and rescue his crop.

Later they found Black Iris, named for her dark hair and the flower she tucked behind each ear, enjoying an afternoon drink. She was a very successful businesswoman, known for finding merchandise that fell off the back of a supply caravan through the mountains and reselling it in Alpenshire. She knew that the stone people were called Azurs, that they're mostly simple rock farmers, and that they typically lived underground. She'd heard of one of their communities accidentally surfacing before. "Every Azur community has a diamond as big as your fist," Black Iris told them. "You could use it to send them back. Or you could bring it to me. I'm sure I could find you a buyer. It would be worth a king's ransom."

Satisfied that they knew enough, and had enough financial opportunities, to justify the trip to temple, arriving just before dawn and coming from the north this time, where they could see dozens of small caves dug into the side of the volcano, and a small number of Azurs sleeping individually out in the sand. They decided to wait until one woke up and use Willowbald's magic to speak to it. While they waited, a cloud of glass mosquitoes descended on them, but Raku quickly dispatched the insects with a blast of dragon fire.

As the sun rose, an early-rising Azur awoke and began rubbing its arms for warmth. Willowbald approached it to speak, and learned that Garblegrox was a rock farmer and found the weather up here a bit cold for its liking. Willowbald asked about the sacrifices and learned that they hadn't worked yet, but the high priest was calling for more. Willowbald asked about the guards and learned that there were about a dozen, working in shifts, and none of them had been chosen as sacrifices, which Garblegrox hadn't previously considered suspicious until just that moment. Finally Willowbald asked about the diamond, and learned that the high priest would probably never part with it, that it belonged to the dead king. The priest would never give up the diamond or the body of the king, so the sacrifices would continue. Willowbald thanked Garblegrox and returned to the group. They decided that the Azurs were probably suffering under corrupt leadership.

The four adventurers inspected the ziggurat again. The only visible entrance was on the top level, where a couple guards stood totally motionless. But they remembered that the other day, they hadn't seen anyone climbing the stairs, and so went to look for a hidden chamber. They found a door, and Raku was able to pick the lock. Inside were two more guards standing over a group of sleeping Azur farmers. Nehryx and Demic rushed forward to attack the guards while Raku and Willowbald helped wake the prisoners and return them to freedom.

There was no obvious way out of the room, but Nehryx and Demic both thought there must be a secret door, and soon found one along the far wall. Inside was a giant Azur lying still on a raised platform, holding a large uncut diamond. As the adventurers entered the room, the figure sat up and bellowed its name "GOORRR-GAAARRRRR!" It tosses the diamond into the air where it hovered overhead. The fight that followed was brutal. Demic leapt onto the table to strike at GORGAR from above. Nehryx first had his glaive get stuck in GORGAR's hide like wet cement, and then was trapped by tentacles that sprang from the monster's side. Willowbald tried viciously mocking the king to no effect, then assailed it with shots from his crossbow Raku rushed forward to help free Nehryx, who was able to escape with her help before delivering the killing blow.

GORGAR collapsed into a puddle of wet mud, and the diamond tumbled to the ground. Willowbald rushed forward to catch it. The group briefly debated how to destroy the diamond, including climbing up the side of the volcano to toss it inside. Demic checked the large ceremonial doors and found a room where a curtain of lava flowed behind an altar. Willowbald entered the room and prepared to throw the diamond. For a second, he felt tempted by thoughts that the diamond might be worth much more than Old Man Bassoon could pay, but rejected those thoughts and tossed the diamond into the lava. The whole temple began to rumble and shake and sink into the ground. The altar crumbled, the platform where GORGAR had lain split in half, the stairs rocked from side to side as they ran back up to the surface.

Outside they heard cheering and watched Azurs running from their rudimentary rock farming efforts to jump back onto the sinking volcano. A few remained on the surface, seemingly by choice. One approached the party and spoke to Willowbald. It was Garblegrox! "It's cold up here, but my rocks grow well, and there are friendly neighbors nearby."

Back at the village, Old Man Bassoon was still grumbling and complaining. "Yeah, the volcano's gone, but it hasn't helped my pipeweed has it?" He paid the agreed upon fee with no difficulty, but he wanted them to know that he remained troubled and put upon. Reward in hand, the group retired to the Laughing Halfling.

Gains:
500 gp reward
525 XP (mosquitoes 25 + two guards 25/each + GORGAR 450)



GAME MASTER'S COMMENTARY

As I said, I agreed to run this campaign shortly before we got started, and only picked out this adventure because the one I'd planned on was too high-level. That said, I think this worked pretty well. In retrospect, maybe I should have gone with the hook Trey built into the adventure, of the party spotting a meteorite landing, finding the strange people at the crater, and then discovering the people's temple and their new-found meteorite worship. But my slimmed-down version did result in a new, friendly Azur settlement near their starting town, so that's not bad either.

The collaborative world-building with the players seems to be working out too, although there are some tonal differences between their various backstories. Part of me wishes I had my own bespoke campaign setting, ready to go, able to be picked up whenever I'm running a game on short notice like this.

I've seen other GMs complain online that their players just rush into the dungeon without gathering any information first. I came close to having the opposite problem! The group's search for actionable intel resulted in them earning a reward and making three new contacts, to say nothing of the way it benefited their path through the temple.

5e appears to have a lot of interesting support for earning renown within your community, joining factions and attaining favor, and I haven't done anything with those rules so far, although if I feel like I have time I might look into them. So far, I find myself playing catch-up on the combat rules.

A couple of my players are clearly quite experienced with tactical combat in 5e, probably either with miniatures, or with a digital tabletop like Roll20. My main concern is that, whatever the rules seem to say, no, you can't get advantage on every single attack roll just because you said you were flanking, and no, the Tunnel Fighter fighting style and use of a polearm still don't mean that you get an attack of opportunity every single round. I don't think this is really want the 5e designers intended, and more to the point, I don't care, because it's not what I want a game I'm GMing to be like.

Flanking is an optional rule, and furthermore, its an optional rule within the already-optional rules for using miniature figures in combat, which we aren't. So currently, there are five ways to get advantage on an attack roll - spend a point of Inspiration, have an ally spend their point of Inspiration on you, use your action to "Hide", have an ally use their action to "Help" you ... or do something cool that interacts with the environment for a one-time situational advantage.

Interacting with the environment might not be possible in every fight. Maneuvering into position can be done as an action (treat this like "Disengage" basically), or as a movement that might provoke an attack of opportunity (I don't love this, but there should be some cost for doing it faster), or by attempting a relevant skill check. If the check succeeds, you get the advantage without giving your opponent an opportunity, but if the check fails, then you don't gain advantage and your opponent gets the bonus attack. This was how we handled Demic jumping up on the platform, and I thought it worked well.

The 5e DMG also has some advice for "improvising damage" directly from interacting with the environment, (ranging from like 1d10 for making a bookshelf fall on them to like 4d10 for having a ceiling collapse on them) so depending on what you do, you might just damage your opponent directly instead of getting advantage on your attack roll.

As for attacks of opportunity, this isn't a mechanic I like at all, although I admit it's probably just a personal preference. They feel like they both force people (like me) who prefer "theater of the mind" combat to have to care about the fictional positioning of the combatants, while preventing people who do care about tactical miniatures from being able to move around as freely as they might. And its another thing that makes retreating from combat harder. Not impossible, you can "Disengage" after all, but harder.

Nehryx being a Tunnel Fighter means that intelligent enemies aren't going to risk his glaive to try to pass him to get at anyone using ranged weapons, which is really good protection for Willowbald and Raku. Unintelligent enemies, like the crystal snake, might still try it, and face his prowess. Nehryx also doesn't get an opportunity attack against someone approaching him, especially not someone he's already attacked, although he could gain that opportunity by taking the Polearm Master feat when he reaches 4th level. As a 2nd level fighter, he'll already get an extra attack every combat, because fighters are cool like that. But combat should never just be one or two player rolling all the dice while everyone else sits on their hands, even if it is a chance for the more martial characters to show off what they're good at.

All the characters have earned enough XP to go up to 2nd level. And I haven't been paying attention to the rules for Inspiration, but they've all done something to earn a point, so they'll all start the next session with that available.