The Dracholt party weathers a night outside Blackshire before venturing into the cave they had been told of.
Cast of Characters
Dungeon Master
Red
Aldin Thuliaga
Goliath Paladin – Red’s Husband
Lawful Neutral Paladin of Devotion tied strongly to Goliath’s tendencies for meritocracy. Thinks magic is cheating, and has a personality loosely based on Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.
Nick “Pyro” / “Gandra Nox”
Human (Gold Draconic) Sorcerer – Tyrone (older teen girl)
Vigilante-type that masquerades as a Dragonborn-esque creature “Gandra Nox” in order to keep himself safe.
Crux “Craux”
Kobold Warlock – Mort/Blackwold (new DM candidate)
Peddler of fallacies and miracle cures that found a dragon’s scale while helping dig out sewers under Dracholt. Now proclaims the wisdom of the Blood Dragons in loud, Born-again Evangelical style.
Madame Mau
Tabashi Rogue – lady with a baby
Dietrich
Dwarven Fighter – Hazudra (Mau’s husband)
McFadin
Half-Elf Rogue – new player Red’s friends knew
Kildrak Dankil of the Silver Flame
Dwarven Cleric – new but experienced player McFadin knew
Summary
Wandering into the forest outside of Blackshire, the party began to debate the merits and consequences of starting a fire. Of course, fire could help keep animals at bay, but it could draw the atttention of other things that might want to seek out people. Aldin was concerned that more undead might appear, especially since there had been little time to locate where the cave was, but the others thought the fire might keep said undead away. As the discussion intensified, Crux decided to put an end to it, launching little magical fireworks all around, which prompted Nick to join in, fire springing from his fingertips.
Unfortunately, as the party shortly began to start setting up camp, two glowling, ghostly creatures floated into the area. Nick, being the one assigned to watch, threw a firebolt at it, although the magic went straight through. In response, the creatures charged forward, their faces contorted in awful screams as they swung their arms at Nick, although each strike only phased through him. Thinking they were hostile, Nick then succeeded in setting one on fire, Aldin grumpily getting up off his bed roll and sticking the flaming spectre with a crossbow bolt.
Convinced the Spectres are just misunderstood and need to be calmed down, Crux goes to hug one, somehow managing only to feel cold instead of feel the full pain of their necrotic touch. Dietrich then charged the one in front of Nick, his hammer scooping a chunk of glowing apparition away, while Mau attempted to tackle Nick but missed. The Spectres then hit back, one almost knocking Nick unconscious as its touch froze his flesh, and the other hitting McFadin so viciously that it knocked him out of a tree, one of Crux’s spells going wide and hitting the half-elf as he fell.
After that, the party easily finished the Spectres off, crossbow bolts and melee weapon swings making the creatures disappear. After that, the rest of first and second watch went by quietly, although a large group of zombies stumbled toward camp and woke the party near dawn, although they easily tore the creatures apart.
Finding themselves covered in nasty rot, the group then went to wash their armor in a stream, Crux venturing on ahead after casting prestidigitation to clean himself. Almost tripping over the cavern, it was so close to their campsite, Crux wandered inside to find two dozen skeletons wandering about, his connection to his patron allowing him to blend in with the creatures, which follow him for a short time because of noise he made before getting distracted by a small rockfall.
Continuing further into the caves, he then came to a suspiciously clean part of the cave, a quick dusting of one of the powders he routinely sold revealing a tripwire. Inspecting it closer, he noticed it was of familiar make – a product of other kobolds – so he called out a greeting into the caves, which prompted a child kobold to come investigate. Recognizing Crux as a kobold despite his albinism, the child led the Warlock into a system of tunnels filled with kobolds. Clearly they lived in this place, and at the back of the caves, the child introduced Crux to the kobold leader Jojoba.
As Crux spoke with Joe, the rest of the party ventured into the cave, avoiding the skeletons that Crux had led off to one side since they could hear the things milling about. They then encountered a trap of their own, although they purposely set it off so they could obtain the metal cable and net the tripwire held up.
The noise of the net falling drawing the attention of the kobolds, who gathered at the edges of their small tunnels, the party proposed that they had entered the cave in search of their kobold friend, which saw Crux ejected from among the natives. In his eagerness to speak with the kobolds, Nick rushed forward to join the conversation, and quickly set off another tripwire to fall down a pit upon assuming the trap would have been a net.
As Aldin pulled the young sorcerer from the pit, McFadin and Crux got in a heated argument, Joe and the other kobolds just sitting back to watch, although the noise shortly drew the attention of the skeletons the party had earlier avoided, Aldin preparing to throw his new net at them while Nick jumped across the pit toward the kobolds.