Murder Hobo Squad: A Lost Mine of Phandelver/Dragon of Icespire Peak & Beyond D&D 5E record (Beware Spoilers!)

The hail outside was proving too much for the trees to shelter Thorovir and Gundren (DM: Plus Thorovir’s player had turned up this week.  We had an unexpected full house) so they entered the house with the others as they explored the stairway room, and sat Gundren on the sofa.  They looked around themselves and saw a spiral stairway leading up and down, with both routes blocked by immovable gates.  Beside the stairs was a statue of a griffon with one arm raised.  Ahead they could see an abandoned tea room, with three small sets of tables and chairs, all covered in dust.  On the sofa besides Gundren was a dirty old doll that Devere stopped to investigate as the party explored further.

The party entered the Tea Room and looked around.  Through the next doorway they could see an old empty dinner table, covered in dust and cobwebs.  Melandrach went ahead while the party watched from the tea room.  As he stepped up into the dining room from the sunken tea room, the air grew warm. Suddenly the room came to life, as ghostly apparitions appeared seated at the once empty table. A large dinner party was being held it seemed, as a roasted hog materialised, along with plates of all varieties of food. Jugs of foaming ale were being shared between ghostly companions. A large spectral human man stood at the head of the table, saying nothing, a serious scowl and frown is cemented over his face as he overlooked his guests who seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Melandrach called out from near the doorway, but got no response.

Devere caught up with the group, showing them the doll he had found, explaining his concerns that its eyes, though dull and lifeless, were a similar blue to the eyes they had briefly seen from outside the building.  Ramond used his Divine Senses to check the doll and the area for evil and while the Doll registered, he was surprised to find that the whole area was evil.  The walls were infused with evil.  Even the air itself carried evil floating within it.  The party had a discussion about what to do with the doll, fearing what it could be.  Could it be watching or listening to them?  Could it be an evil totem?  Should the burn it (They checked the fireplace.  It had no wood).  Devere handed the doll to Melandrach, who tied it in to a sack, and eventually left it on the dining table, once the party was over.

As the explored the dining room they tried to listed to the voices.  While they could hear chatter, they could not make out words.  Perhaps they were not speaking common, or perhaps the voices were coming through the veil and losing something on the way? (DM: Or perhaps the module didn’t cover this and I didn’t want to make up a dozen dinner party conversations)  Ramond advanced to get a much closer look at the standing man at the head of the table.  The room abruptly became quiet, all talking and laughter ceased. Every ghost in the room turned to face Ramond when the man at the head of the table rushed toward him, floating right through the hard wooden dining table. “You should not be here! LEAVE THIS PLACE!!!!” He screamed as he rushes closer. Then as quick as the party had started, the room was empty, dark and cold again. The ghosts were nowhere to be seen.

Araloth brought Gundren up to the now empty Dining Room, as the party decided it best to keep him one room behind them at all times.  Gundren is barely mobile right now, only capable of walking slowly with aid.  As the party moved towards the double doors in front of them there came a loud crashing sound from behind them.  When they turned around they could see Talindra stepping out of the Tea Room, having narrowly avoided the chandelier that had dropped right where she had just stepped.  Upon inspection, it seemed to have been held up by a chain used to raise and lower it so the oil lamps could be refilled.  The chain was undamaged so it had somehow come away from its anchor.

They opened the double doors ahead of them, and a large room opened before them. A large chandelier hung from the high ceiling, and an old dance floor stretched before them. A large glass folding door opened onto an alfresco area on the east wall. Materializing from thin air they saw the man who had rushed at Ramond, ending the ghostly dinner party in the dining room. He seemed younger somehow, as if this is a vision into an earlier time in his life.

A beautiful woman entered from nothingness, dressed in a flowing black gown, her eyes dark and dangerous. He held her and looked into those eyes, and she looked back into his.

“We will disappear, just the two of us, my love” the man said dreamily.

“Oh, General Montharthas, but what of your wife? And we have work to do.” She reminded him.

“Never mind her, she will cope. And your army of undead… Let us not talk of this tonight” he replied as their apparitions faded and the room was once again empty.

They recognised that name.  Melandrach had been reading a 500 year old Journal he found in Glasstaff’s lab and one of the later entries had mentioned General Montarthas as being the man in charge of the defence of the area around the time of the fall of the Mine and Phandalin.  He had been a good leader, but he had become distant, and often absent.  No one knew where he had been disappearing to, and without a reliable leader, morale and discipline had been dropping within the ranks.  (DM: I’m impressed they remembered this.  I’d dropped this nugget weeks ago and they’d made no mention of this in their quest notes on Discord.  I’m really glad Melandrach read that book.  There’s almost no information on what’s in it, but it’s let me drop all sorts of tidbits and tease future stuff.)

They had a look around the ballroom, and Melandrach peered out through the dirty rain soaked patio doors.  He could see a murky swimming pool, overrun with algae, and 3 old wooden sun loungers all being battered by the rain and hail.  As he was about to turn away from the walled garden he noticed the glint of metal on the far side of the pool.  They decided to investigate the pool area and had Gundren move up to the entry to the ballroom.  Melandrach and Devere stepped in to the garden as the others filed in to the ballroom.  As they moved around the pool, the water started to bubble and something huge rose out of the depths.  As the waters were disturbed, and awful smell of damp rot arose from it.  Wrapped in sheets of algae it was hard to identify but as sections of it slopped off back in to the waters, four eye stalks popped up, and one big dead white eye could be seen in the centre of its mass.

Araloth stayed with Gundren initially, as Talindra stepped forward and blasted it from within the ballroom.  Karson and Ramond stepped forward to attack it with their swords.  Thorovir fired over their heads.  Devere shot three scorching rays in to it, which only added to the foul smell as its damp rotting flesh got charred.  Bilba sunk an arrow in to it from the ballroom, as Melandrach attacked it from the other side of the pool.  Three zombies pulled themselves out of the pool as the floating beast focused its attention on Karson, sending a single beam of green light from an eyestalk at him (DM: Should have reduced him to 0hp in one hit, but he’d forgotten to update his HP in roll20.  I got a little worried there.  The black ray was much worse though.  Ray 4 had given me sleepless nights up to this point.  It can insta-kill with no chance of resurrection).  The zombies attacked Melandrach, Karson and Devere.  Araloth stepped up, stabbed the nearest zombie and retreated back in to the ballroom.  Talindra channelled a healing spell through his familiar to help out Karson, who was close to death, and also landed a critical hit with an eldritch blast.  Karson then pulled out and chugged a healing potion.  Ramond stepped around the zombie and swung at the Beholder, but missed.  Thorovir fired an arrow over his head straight in to the Zombie Beholders main eye.  It held its ground, gritted its teeth and started to growl, but then its eye popped, and it fell, lifeless back in to the filthy water, splashing everyone out there (Karson, Devere, Melandrach and Ramond) with slime and sludge, and most importantly, that god awful smell.  With the beholder dead, the party made short work of the remaining zombies.

Melandrach then investigated the shiny and found a Sabre that the plants had mostly swallowed up.  The party were curious what else could be hiding in the pool and discussed who would be going in to check the bottom.  As they were tying a rope around Talindra to lower her in, she remembered she could use a ritual to summon an unseen servant to do it for her.  While she was doing that, they checked the ballroom for secret doors (nothing) and investigated the side door from the dining room, while Gundren rested in the chair at the dinner table.  It went in to a small serving area with a ruined dumb waiter leading to the floor above.  They decided against climbing up it.  Once Talindra had set her Servant to spend the next 55 minutes checking the pool before bringing any finds back to her.

They party gathered at the foot of the stairs after deciding there must be some secret doors they had missed, noticing that the gateway down was now open.   They went down the stairs and found themselves entering a small room.  Suddenly the door slammed shut behind them. A locking mechanism with a 4 digit code blocked the door and green noxious gas began to fill the room.  In the room they could see a half made flesh golem lying on an operating table.  It was missing only hands, feet and a brain. A large mechanism with a crank and coils sat behind it with rods connected to each of the golem’s temples.  To the left of the golem were three large buckets holding many feet, hands, and brains. Some rusty operating tools and a needle and thread sat on the table next to it. To the right of the golem sat a desk with a waxed scrap of paper that looks to be a diagram of a humanoid body. It had notes scribbled all over it.

DM: I explained to the group that they were on a real world time limit and needed to work together to escape the room.  I shared the handout over discord so everyone could see it and every so often mentioned how high the green gas had risen from the floor.  They successfully identified all three body parts with only 2 failures (I had them try to sew them on to eat up time, but they didn’t quite fit).  Devere sewed on the parts with an assist from Thorovir, while Talindra cast Guidance on him repeatedly. With 4 minutes left on the 20 minute clock they could not see, and the green gas causing them to cough as it rose above chest height, they finally flicked the switch.

As the air energized and they could feel static energy tingle around the room, the now completed golem began to move. It awakened, straight away sniffing the air. It moved quicker than expected and rushed towards the locking mechanism on the door. Pushing 4 digits, the door opened and the gas cleared.  Araloth wedged the door open with a piton, just in case.  They decided to investigate this workshop/operating room before leaving, while the golem stood there silently.  Karson found a draw filled with interesting parts for unknown machines.  Lots of doohickies and whatsits and thingummies.  All deeply interesting and must serve a purpose.  He became focused on this draw and spent some time going through it (DM: Natural 1 on perception so he stumbled on the mad scientist equivalent of that one box or draw we all have full of “useful” things we don’t need any more but the moment we through them out we will and won’t be able to replace).  The others found a freshly made bag on the table which had been hidden by the Golem.  It was made patches of strange leather.  The different shades and the stitching put everyone in mind of the Golem.  Devere picked it up, despite the suspicion that it’s made of human flesh.

They all went back up the stairs to join Gundren on his sofa, except for Karson who was still going through his draw. (DM: And Thorovir left the game for the night as he has an early start)  They discovered the way up was no longer blocked.  Talindra did a thorough search of the Gargoyle room, hoping to find a secret door, but did not.  He then set about ritually casting Detect magic.  Devere opened his new bag and looked inside.  Upon opening, the smell of rotten meat escaped.  When Devere looked inside all he could see was darkness.  Even his Darkvision could not reveal more.  Araloth went back down to talk to the golem, but despite his best attempts he got no reaction.  While down there he did see Karson surrounded by the unpacked draw contents and persuaded him to come upstairs.  On their way back up Araloth closed and secured the gate to the stairs down using a strip of “leather” he had found downstairs to tie it closed.  Talindras detect magic revealed that the skin bag, the sabre from the garden, and the statuette from Cragmaw Castle were magic.  The party debated ritually identifying these items, but it would take a long time and no one felt entirely comfortable resting here, especially near the unexplored stairs up.  They decided to proceed up the stairs.

Once up the stairs, the hallways had a soft green glow to them, although no source of the light was evident.  Confronted with a crossroads, the party did the one thing you never do, especially in a horror setting: They split up.  Melandrach went north, while Araloth and Karson explored the door to the west.  They opened their door and found a seemingly abandoned bedroom, which they searched, finding nothing, but rotted linen in an old ottoman.  Araloth did a Scooby doo ghost impersonation with a sheet that collapsed before he could even raise it, leaving little more than a napkin for him to hide behind.  Meanwhile, Melandrach headed down his corridor, and was joined by Ramond, while the others waited near the stairs.

As Melandrach enter the room he noticed something that seems very unnatural, though not unexpected in a place such as this. It was a skeleton busy at work behind a writing desk, frantically writing notes in a translucent ethereal ledger book. It looked up at him with empty eye sockets, its jaw started to move as a hauntingly high pitched voice said “ahh, you are here! He has been waiting for you!… You may proceed Advisor Gertrude!”

From behind, Melandrach felt something evil and dark trespass through his body, as the aspect of a dangerously beautiful woman with dark and deadly eyes walked straight through him a smirk on her ghostly smile. She walked straight through the closed door opposite, and disappeared, whilst the skeleton clerk went back to his duties, ignoring the two intruders.  Those chose to ignore the busy skeleton and investigate the next room.  Meanwhile, Talindra moved up to watch them from the doorway behind them.  At this point I added an extra sound to the haunted house music already playing:  A creepy child laughing and running.  Someone asked it that had always been there or if it was new and their characters could hear it.  This was followed by a cry of, “Oh great.  Now everything’s haunted!”  From this point on I was dropping this sound file in now and again throughout the evening.

Devere and Bilba moved up to the crossroads to watch Araloth and Karson move south to the nearest door.  They opened the door to find a ghostly figure inside doing laundry.  Araloth offered to help her with the washing, and she looked up at him and faded away in to nothing, as did her laundry.  Meanwhile Ramond had come back to get Devere and Bilba to come join him.  Araloth and Karson saw this and went to see what was happening.  Thorovir stayed back with Gundren.

With the party mostly gathered by the skeletal clerk, Melandrach opened the door.   As they looked around the room, it appeared empty at first, but within the blink of an eye, a small pretty girl, no more than 5 or 6, was suddenly sitting on the long bench that stretched the northern wall. She seemed to be waiting patiently. The dark and deadly looking woman appeared in the room, smiled at the child, and offered her a children’s doll. The girl smiled with joy as the woman evaporated. The child’s smile turned to pain and anguish as blood soaked stab wounds began to appear on her silky white dress. She fell limp and tumbled to the floor before disappearing. They noticed that the doll was left lying on the bench, a knife in its hand and a grin on its face.

They chose to ignore the doll, and get ready to open the next door.  As they listened at the door, they could hear the storm raging a little clearer than usual from beyond it, and they slowly became aware of a child’s voice singing a creepy nursery rhyme from behind them. (DM: I’ve never seen so many people fail a fear save before!  Everyone started insisting that the evil doll was tied up down stairs.  It was, yes.) As they turn around to see the source of the song, the doll launched itself through the air at Ramond, dragging its empty doll hand down his face, drawing blood like its fingers had been sharpened to points.  Ramond brought his greatsword down towards the doll, but missed, hitting the bench and sending a puff of stuffing and dust in to the air.  Bilba retreated from the doll, and put an arrow in the skeleton, who crumbled to dust.  Fear overcame her and she stood paralysed in the corner.  The doll slashed at Ramond with its knife and its clawed hand, drawing blood with both.  She then rolled backwards and vanished behind and under the bench.  Karson looked for her but could not see her.  He held his weapon ready to strike when she reappears.  Melandrach, Araloth and Talindra did the same, until Talindra and Melandrach became paralysed with fear.  Devere healed up Ramond, who then inspired Talindra with Heroism.  As the dolls initiative slot came and went, they decided it was time to move forward and those who could, gathered around the double doors.

Devere announce, “Right, I ain’t sticking around here” and opened the door.  The moment he turned the door handle, the doors slammed open and everyone nearby felt an overwhelming force pulling them in to the room(DM: Strength checks all round to resist).  Devere, Araloth, Ramond and Melandrach found themselves sucked in to the room, falling flat on their faces, before rising to their knees or rolling on to their backs.  They heard the doors slam shut behind them, cutting them off from their allies.  A great gust of wind blasted the room around them, sending dust, paper and curtains flying around the room. Piles of rotting corpses littered the creaky wooden floor. Then they saw him, on the ceiling, a shell of a man, shrivelled, tortured and used. His body and arms semi moulded into the blackened muck that replicated a ceiling. Slimy black vines crept through his flesh pinning him to the ceiling, as the ends of the vines expanded into drooling suckers that fed from his life force. A glow of green hue emanated from his chest where a green emerald spewed out evil energies into the mansion distributing the feed to all areas of the living building. The most potent looking of these green energies flowed directly into a lifeless body slumped with its head flung back over a wooden chair.

DM: it was 11 at night with tomorrow being the first day back at work after Christmas.  We all really wanted to continue but there’s no way this encounter resolves quickly.  So this week we end with the party split in half, with an evil doll on the loose nearby, and half the party prone in a pile of corpses under a mass of black life sucking tendrils lit up by a glowing green gem embedded in someone’s chest while they are hentai glued to the ceiling.  Unsurprisingly, I don’t think I got any sleep last night after that.  My mind was buzzing.