Session 2: The Cave

His breathing stopped. Blood pooled on the ground, the dirt fast turning slick to mud. The wound in Ragnar's side was not closing, and no amount of pressure stopped the flow of life from his body. The party sat in silence as they saw the worst result happen for their fallen comrade. Then, a spectacular bright light, fading through all colours of the rainbow, and what appeared to be a translucent blank scroll appeared and unwrapped from him, before disappearing nearly as quickly. Ragnar's eyelid's fluttered open and he coughed the liquid from his lungs. He sat up out of the ichor-ridden dirt painfully, and with help up from his friends, managed their way back to the cart. After noticing a large fallen tree slightly off the road, the party decided it would be worthwhile to make camp for the night behind it, so that everyone could get some rest and recover, before venturing into the cave. If it was true that their employer's were captured, they might be in there, and there was no way the party was going to go through this without any chance at payment.

Twelve hours later the party had fully recovered, with no issues during the night. They swiftly made their way back toward the cave, with the exception of Mytar, who remained with Jurgen and the cart. Again, they passed the pit of spikes, however there was no body to found. A brief moment of engineering, and the party had created a small trap, to prevent anything from exiting the small cave at the bottom.

They continued to the cave mouth, and found that all of the bodies had been removed from the area, however there were no sentries, and the cave was eerily quiet. The party cautiously moved into the cave, though it was dark, and half of the party couldn't see, a lit torch prevented stealth from being an option. The first chamber the group encountered was empty, bar a few beds made of matted fur and straw, encircling a stalagmite in the middle of the room, with three iron rings attached to it. Any attempt at searching was in vain, and nought was discovered among the beds or anywhere else in the room. They continued forth, and the light illuminated a rickety wooden bridge twenty feet above them. They heard a high, raspy little voice shout in goblin (which Galion translated to 'Release the dam!!') and the sound of rushing water filled the cavern. A wall of water rushed down, passing beneath the bridge and toward the party. Vanar fled and dived into the nearby cavern they had recently explored, while the water flooded forth to buffet the rest of the party. Thespus and Galion withstood the force of the water, while Slagathor and Ragnar were flung from their feet and washed out of the cave. They dragged themselves out of the stream (now almost a river) and lay on the ground briefly, chests heaving. Galion, unimpressed now with the soaked state of his robes, prestidigitated the water away, and was much more pleased with his dried clothing, while the two humans were now blind. another torch was lit, and a javelin and arrow from Thespus and Vanar in unison dealt with the goblin on the bridge. Slagathor and Thespus decided it would be worthwhile to explore a newly discovered side tunnel over the other side of the river, up a steep path of single and ledges. They managed their way up and with a brilliant piece of stealth by Slagathor, managed to prevent the heavily armoured noble from being heard. The rest of the party waited below for them to return. This cavern opened up into a massive area, a fire pit in one corner surrounded by five goblins, and one which looked rather similar to the one who had owned the wolves the previous day. The two decided very quickly that this would not be safe with only the two of them, and Thespus retreated back down the shingle, while Slagathor continued around the cave branch to the right of them, which curved back to the bridge.

The halfling crossed the bridge,a candle in hand for light, to scout ahead of the party. As a swift escape route he decided it would be worthwhile to drop a rope off of the bridge, but wasn't so wise as to realise the iron piton he was hammering into the wall would echo through the cave. He had his escape set up, when he heard the sound of a pair of goblins making their way toward him. He dropped down, swinging under the bridge, and holding onto the wall, to hide from the goblins. He was watching above him, the candle snuffed, and he heard the creaking and squabbling of the goblins directly above him. He felt a tug on the rope, and he tugged back, harder, and the goblin stumbled off the bridge, headfirst, and the disturbing crack of goblin skull filled the cavern. This alerted the other to the presence of intruders, and as he was about to yell, another javelin/arrow unison attack from the humans dropped the goblin too. Slagathor then tried to climb up onto the bottom of the bridge by leaping from the wall, and missed, plummeting twenty feet to the cavern floor, winded and in pain. Vanar ran to his side, thankfully Slagathor was still concious, but barely. The group again heard the sound of rushing water fill the cavern, and they knew exactly what was coming. Thespus ducked back into the shingle path, while Vanar reacted swiftly to grab onto the rope beside him, however could not grab onto the halfling at the same time, who was washed out again. Ragnar resisted the flow of water this time, as did Galion. Thespus looked out of his cavern, and had to make the swift decision between the halfling and his javelin, floating past in the body of a goblin. Naturally he picked the weapon over the rogue, who continued out of the cave, where he crawled out and collapsed on the ground beside the stream.

Three goblins took their places atop the bridge, arrows notched and bows drawn, aimed at the party. However, a well-placed arrow from Vanar sliced once of the ropes at the bottom of the bridge, and it collapsed, hanging now vertically, the goblins hanging onto the planks, barely. Galion saw his opportunity and took it, fire sprouting from his fingers, swamping the bridge and the goblins, turning them to a crisp, and the bridge began to smoulder. More goblins charged from around the corner, and above the party, in the cavern that the bridge once lead to, a large hairy goblinoid stood with a wolf at his side. Another blast of fire from Galion dealt with the charging goblins, and an arrow from Vanar sunk into the side of the wolf. It then dived onto the bowman, and sunk its teeth into his shoulder, while the larger enemy swung down the rope, landing menacingly in front of Vanar.
Thespus thought this a good time to try and get the advantage against the enemy, and moved up the shingle path, to try and flank them, though tripped at the top, and landed at the feet of 2 goblins and the armored goblin, who had Sildar in his grasp and a spear at his neck. 'Deal or he dead!'

Vanar and the bugbear tussled, greatsword swinging and colliding with the mace, slashing and bludgeoning each other alike, while Ragnar dealt to the wolf swiftly with his war-hammer and Galion hammered the wall with his rays of frost.

Thespus twirled upward, slicing open one of goblins, and the armored one plunged his spear into Sildar, tossing him aside. Thespus laughed off the other goblins blade, and charged forward, grappling with the armored goblin, and thrusting him into the fire pit, burning him, holding him down, and killing him very quickly. The human rushed to Sildar's side to attempt to stabilise him, while the goblin rushed out of the cave to where he though safety was.

The goblin rushed out, hoping to cross the bridge to Klaarg for protection, but came to a burning bridge, goblinoid bodies littering the floor, and his leader among them. He barely had time to soil himself before an arrow, and a ray of frost hit him in the chest, followed swiftly by a hand-axe. The party regrouped, and they explored the rest of the cave, coming across the cavern which they assumed the bugbear stayed. It was filled with crates and barrels in poor condition, with a blue lion painted on them, and a chest, filled with treasure. The group grabbed some rations, the treasure and some healing supplies, and rested in the safety of the cave, hoping to find out what happened when Sildar regained conciousness.

Session 1: Goblin Ambush

Our party of enthusiastic adventurers found themselves on a caravan headed to Phandalin drivcen by a cheery yet unkempt man named Jurgen, hired by the dwarven miner Gundren Rockseeker and his close associate Sildar Hallwinter. They were to escort the cart to Phandalin and protect it from anything that might be willing to take the goods, as the Triboar Trail is not the safest place in the Sword Coast. The southern regions of Neverwinter Wood crawl with beasts and monsters (and goblins).

After travelling for half a day, the party rounded a bend and saw a pair of dead horses a hundred feet in front of them. While no one could pick exactly what had killed them from this distance, they did indeed recognise the two as the horses Gundren and Sildar had been riding when they had rode ahead of the party. The party's suspicions were rewarded when Mytar spotted a small humanoid shape waiting in the underbrush. After a brief presdigitation of a banshee's wail, the creature dashed out of the vegetation, crying for its life. A goblin. It was shortly followed by another 5, their cover obviously blown. Four of them drew their bows back, arrows notched, whilst another drew his shortsword and the last continued to panic. Mytar was first to react, dancing forth and attempting to stick one of the goblins with his rapier. Thespus was next, charging forward, swinging his greataxe, hacking into one of the bowmen (bowgoblins?) and slicing open a decent gash across its chest, dropping it to the ground. Ragnar also charged forth, warhammer raised, while Galion threw motes of fire unto the goblins and Vanar rained arrows upon them. The goblins managed to sneak a couple of slices into Mytar, forcing his swift retreat, while Ragnar and Thespus fended off the remaining goblins. Few goblins remained, stuck with arrows, crushed bones and one sliced in half by a greataxe, when Thespus barely deflected a swing from one of the final goblin blades. He saw the opening in his defences, and expected a blade to cut into his side. Much to his surprise, the goblin stood still, upright, with a blade protruding from his chest. As it collapsed, he saw the small shape of Slagathor look up at him. He looked at his blade in minor disgust, 'Goblins.'

It was at this stage, the party turned to notice that Jurgen was in the process of being dragged away by a big, hairy goblinoid. Vanar and Thespus reacted swiftly and delivered a couple of cuts to the creature, forcing the release of Jurgen, sending it dashing into the forest. Part-way in, he held his head, damaged by a few uttered words by Mytar, but continued to flee. As he was almost out of view, Vanar fired an arrow his way, which struck true, and the creature collapsed out of sight. Mytar, Vanar and Thespus acted to find the body of this creature, while the others stayed to comfort Jurgen after his near-abduction.

The pursuit group moved toward where the large enemy fell, and found his body in the bottom of a spike-pit, 10 ft deep. After some knots around a tree with a rope, Vanar made his way into the pit. However, the knot was not quite as good as expected, and he fell the last five feet, barely missing some of the sharpened sticks that protruded from the bottom of the pit. He examined the body of the creature, finding little but a few pieces of copper, and a morning star. However, the morning star was not of goblinoid make, but as if it had been made by a blacksmith, a shop-worthy weapon. Not only this, there was a small tunnel carved into one of the sides of the pit, however was dark upon closer examination. With this in mind, Vanar climbed out of the pit and explained his suspicions to the others with him. As they looked back the way they came, the noticed the semblance of a path back toward the road. There was a slight track where they were. Thespus wished to scout ahead, while Mytar wished to inspect this tunnel. Vanar stayed with Mytar before they were to go grab the rest of the group. The gnome climbed down into the pit, and deactivated it's danger by removing the spikes from the ground. He crawled slightly into the hole and threw a lit torch down to see if there was anything that would react to it in the small cavern that opened up. As the torch rolled in, there was a tremendous hiss, and a thick, serpentine shape slithered over to the torch and put it out. Mytar stayed in that pit for exactly another three seconds.

Thespus's scouting proved worthwhile, though with the amount of clanging and clinking from his chainmail, stealth proved ineffective. He saw a small cave ahead of him, with a stream leading out of it, and heavy vegetation over the far side of the stream. From which he barely spotted two goblins as they fired arrows, which Thespus laughed at as they deflected off of his armour. He meandered over to the two, now nervous goblins and hacked into them as easy as one possibly can. The rest of the party arrived, to see Thespus standing in a pool of goblin blood, with the bodies of two goblins at his feet.

As they were about to question it, the party turned to see a heavily armoured goblin with three wolves on chains in one hand, and a spear in the other. The party realised this was not going to be easy, so Thespus and Ragnar strode to take the enemies head on, while Vanar and Slagathor were to stick them with arrows, and Galion use his magics in support. The wolves were released and immediately began to attack Ragnar, one he fended off with his shield, while the other tore into his side and the goblin plunged his spear into the dwarf's chest. The dwarf dropped to the ground almost immediately. Arrows rained on the enemies, as did magic, dropping two of the wolves, while Thespus was taking heavy damage, resulting in his lack of conciousness also. The magic and arrows however defeated and damaged the final enemies, and the goblin retreated back into the cave, while the party tried to stabilise their comrades. Thespus survived, but it was unclear whether Ragnar was to survive. He had lost a lot of blood, and he was going pale. His breathing was non-existent, and he did not stir. The group feared the worst.

Introductions

Hello everyone!

The campaign I am currently running is the Lost Mines of Phandelver, by Wizards of the Coast (NOTE: All content involved with and referencing to The Lost Mines of Phandelver is owned explicitly by Wizards of the Coast, please don't sue me). In this post I will introduce my characters and my campaign, then the real fun will begin in the next post. I decided to use the pregenerated character sheets for most of the characters, though one of my players had already created an absolutely fascinating character which I was more than happy to comply with (I will get to the characters in a moment). I know is isn't normal for most Dungeon Masters to use pregenerated characters, but I wanted to experiment. I wanted to give the players a structure to work off of, a guideline, but let them build who their character was. I gave them the background, class and race, and they determined their characters personality, and actions. This, I believe, is a very good exercise for not only new players and DMs, but also generally new groups. No matter how experienced a DM or player you are, stepping outside of your comfort zone into a class or character type that you've never played before is brilliant for you. You learn to be a lot more diverse, and to appreciate the other classes. You begin to feel for your character and you role-play a lot better, as you have to thin about your character's reaction, instead of using your default role. As a person, I am a big fan of the role-playing aspect of D&D, thus I will role-play if I play, and I reward it in my own campaigns. 

Now, to the characters:

    

1. Firstly we have Thespus Corlynn, a human fighter, played by Jordan. Being the son of count and countess of Corlynn Hill, Thespus is no stranger to wealth, power and privilege. He was born in a large estate in the hills northeast of Neverwinter, however when Mount Hotenow erupted, Corlinn Hill was wiped from the map. Instead of growing up in his parents estate, he was raised in a small comfortable town house in Neverwinter. As an adult, he stands to inherit a meaningless title and little else. Thus, Thespus wants to build a legacy, something worthy of his title, something worth ruling. He plans to attempt to civilise the small hamlet of Phandalin which orcs sacked many a century ago, however has never been able to rebuild itself to worthwhile town. Phandalin needs someone to take the reins, to bring law and order. Someone like Thespus Corlynn.

2. Secondly, we have Vanar Weatherwood, a human fighter, played by Jackson. Vanar's parents lived in the prosperous village of Thundertree, east of Neverwinter and bordering Neverwinter Wood. He doesn't recall much of Thundertree, as his parents fled with him in his infancy when Mount Hotenow erupted. Vanar has never been much more than a labourer or servant, finding work where he could. The last few years had been spent at Neverwinter as a porter and labourer at the city docks, however it became clear to him and everyone about him that he is destined for so much more, when he stood up against an abusive ship captain, and all the other dockworkers began to look up to him. He was destined for so much more. One day he will drive off the dragon that inhabits Thundertree, he will make it inhabitable. He will be a hero.

 

3. Third is Ragnar Rockseeker a dwarven paladin (yes this has been altered form the starter set), played by Matt. Ragnar was trained as a soldier on the island of Mintarn. He was hired into a mercenary company, and travelled to Neverwinter to serve as both army and city watch. However he grew disillusioned with his fellow soldiers, who seemed to enjoy their authority at the expense of those they were supposed to protect. He was recently suspended from active duty, after disobeying an order to get a job done, however he retained his rank and connection to the Mintarn Mercenaries. Since, Ragnar has devoted himself to Oghma. He plans on making his way to Phandalin to deal to a group of local thugs that are bullying the town, and need to be taught a lesson. Putting a stop to their villainy is certainly a worthy goal for Ragnar, and he plans on achieving it. 

  

4. Fourth is Slagathor Lovelock, a halfling thief, played by Theo. Slagathor was originally drawn to Phandalin after hearing stories of it's history, and the gold and platinum that inhabit the foothills surrounding from the centuries before. He was not looking to earn a living, but instead to prey on those who struck it rich. Slagathor joined the local gang, the Redbrands, and made some decent coin as an enforcer, burglar and fence. However, he must have made an enemy among the Redbrands. Someone set him up. On the word of the leader of the Redbrands, a wizard named Glasstaff, Slagathor was to be killed. He escaped, barely alive, and thanking Tymora for his good luck. He left Phandalin penniless and with only the tools of the trade. But Slagathor is back, and he's looking to exact his vengeance on those responsible for his attempted murder.

   

5. Fifth is Galion Talari, an elven wizard, played by James. Galion has spent his entire life devoted to Oghma, the all-seeing god of knowledge. Through visions delivered to him in his trances, it seems Oghma has called Galion to a new mission. A goblin tribe has made their home in an ancient ruin, called Cragmaw Castle, where they have defiled a shrine to Oghma in favour of their vile god Maglubiyet. Such an insult to Oghma cannot be left unpunished, and thus, Galion seeks to clear the goblins and reconsecrate the shrine. Maybe Oghma will have something greater in store for him if he can complete this quest. Galion sure hopes so.

6. Last, but definitely not least, is Mytar Goldwynsson, a gnome played by Will. No one knows exactly who Mytar is, much less his past, but rumours swirl on the wind of his previous escapades and history. Some say he is a travelling minstrel, with the ability to appear and disappear at will, while some others claim he is a wizard who can summon a Tarrasque as a companion, or a cleric of a long forgotten deity, possibly even the deity himself reincarnated. The people that speak these whispers and talk these rumours, or rather should I say, the person that speaks them, is indeed Mytar himself. While it is true no one knows who he is, or what he's doing (himself included) he is here, and he is indeed, one not defined by his past.

This, ladies and gentlemen (and possibly fiends, fey and all in between), is the cast for the beginning of the campaign. I hope you all enjoy your adventures through the world that is Dungeons and Dragons with Jordan, Jackson, Matt, Theo, James, Will and I as much as I am looking forward to sharing them with you all.

Happy adventuring,
~Aidan

Greetings to all internet-dwellers out there. My friend (who shall be known only as Clayst) has convinced me to write a blog on the events that unfold during the many sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition that I run. Hence, here I am, and hopefully you might be able to attend our exciting ventures with us. Enjoy!