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

(DM: Araloth and Devere missed the start of this session otherwise there would have been some RP shouting at Araloth for what happened at the end of last session.  Thorovir couldn’t make it this week)

With the Jellies defeated, the party retreated back a few rooms and got a long rest in, while Dazlin and Norbus stood watch.  When they woke up the two dwarves had prepared a hot evening meal to share as it was gone 10pm.  They then went and explored the rest of the ruins.  The main pillar chamber appears to have been some sort of temple a long time ago and a thorough search revealed lots of secret doors, and a secret chamber in one of the pillars containing lots of dwarf skulls at 10 gems.  They party had a discussion about what to do with the gems and decided they’d tell the dwarves it contained 3 gems and they’d keep the rest.  They carried on exploring and found lots of secret doors and lots of collapsed corridors.  In one of the piles of rubble they found a skeleton wearing a chain with an ornamental jewelled dagger with the words, “Greed is good” engraved in to it in Dwarven.

At the back of the complex they could make out a green glow emanating through the rubble blocking the final corridor.  They decided to clear it to investigate.  After 2 hours heavy labour they went back to camp and got the two dwarves and Devere and Araloth to help with the work.  Another hour and a half later and they broke through in to a chamber with a ruined statue in the south and in the north a statue of a dwarf looking greedily at a glowing green gem in its hands.  Melandrach gave the room a quick look around, Ramond used his Divine Sense to check for good or evil, and Talindra detected for magic, revealing a mild glow under the gem.  The party considered this a cleared dungeon and called in the dwarves and offered them the green gem (no mention of the earlier gems).  The dwarves asked if t was safe and the party said it was before leaving the room.  As they reached the end of the corridor they heard a loud bang behind them (DM: And I heard the sound of the players all laugh).

They returned to the gem room (Ramonds player: “There might be something valuable in the rubble”.  More laughter from the players) to find the statue had exploded covering the room in shrapnel, reducing both the dwarves to below 0hp.  The now not glowing green gem was lying on the floor near Norbus’ lifeless hand.  Little bits of glowing shrapnel were in his chest.  Devere and Talindra went in and stabilised them and Ramond laid on his hands to heal them 1hp each.  The dwarves woke up shaken and a little confused.  They were cautious of touching them gem, poking it with a pick axe before doing so.  The party suggested the dwarves should probably come back to town now as this place is clearly dangerous and there’s a dragon out there, but they insisted they wanted to stay and see what else they could find here.

Everyone retreated back to the camp area and had a short rest (They’d had an encounter with another Jelly) before heading out around midnight.  The dwarves followed them out to wave them off on their way to Phandalin.  As they left the ruins they noticed it was unusually cold tonight and headed down the road with Dazlin and Norbus watching them go.  With over 200 feet between the two groups they noticed a change in air pressure and the loud sound of flapping wings behind them.  They turned around to see a huge white dragon descending from above the canyon they just left, diving towards the two dwarves. (DM: They’re still level 3.  This is very much not a baby dragon!  One of the perks of playing remotely is you’re never too far away from some clean underwear)

The ranged characters began unleashing everything in to it as it breathed cold all over Dazlin, coating him in several inches of solid ice.  Norbus saw this and ran terrified towards the party at full speed.  The party’s shots were mostly ineffective as the melee members spread out (Under Ramonds insistence) and ran towards it.  It picked up the frozen dwarf and flew full speed towards Araloth, the nearest threat and picked him up in his free hand.  Another volley of fire mostly plinked off it, but was slowly chipping down its health bar (DM: The players can see the bar but not the numbers.  There was swearing when they saw how little it moved after the first hit).  There was another volley of fire and Ramond charged in to Melee with his greatsword drawn and gave it his all.  Araloth tried to break free but failed so went for a bonus action offhand stab but couldn’t move enough for a good attack.  The dragon flew straight up to a height of 90 feet and dropped Araloth on to Ramond.  Ramond got out of the way, but the fall was too much for Araloth who dropped straight to death saves.  As they took another round of ranged attacks against the dragon I remembered his fear attack he should have used at the start so I sued this at the start of his next round and most of the party failed.  He then flew off with his dwarf popsicle prize back over the cavern they had just left.  With the dragon gone, Karson suggested Norbus return to town with them.  He was super keen now and asked if they could come with him while he gathered his stuff.  They then headed north to town, with a quick stop off at Umbridge Hill at Talindras request.

They arrived at the Windmill around 7.30am and Talindra went to check on the Manticore corpse.  It was still there and had evidence that animals had been gnawing at it.  She pulled out a knife and set about extracting a large bone from its forearm.  The rest of the party decided to check in on Adabra Gwynn and buy some more healing potions from her.  Melandrach told her of their encounter with the dragon and tried to persuade her to move to town for a while but she is surprisingly stubborn.  Karson persuaded Norbus to tell her his tale and he became a gibbering wreck unable to talk in complete sentences.  She sat him down and made him a brew, trying to calm him down, but dismissed his concerns as little more than panic.  She is not moving for any man, dwarf or dragon apparently.

The party said their goodbyes and headed back to town, arriving around 8.30am and Norbus headed straight for the inn, relaxing visibly now he’s “safe” in a town. (DM: Safe?  Mwah ha ha ha!)  They stopped by the Townmaster house to cash in their quests and collect their rewards and woke him up in the process.  They then went about selling their finds and stocking up on equipment for the assault on Cragmaw Castle.  With their sleep patterns now a mess and a challenging fight ahead of them, they have decided to spend tonight in town and head out refreshed in the morning.  They have each taken the day to do their own thing (DM: Being handled over discord across the week.  Some are researching, some are training, some are likely to be brewing a potion) and are gathering at the Stonehill Inn in the evening.

After finishing dinner, Sildhar walked in to the inn, having just that moment returned to town after escorting the prisoners to Neverwinter to receive justice.  He approached the table, greeted everyone and made them an offer.  Before heading out, he had done a deal with Townmaster Harbin and taken over the Manor the redbrands had been hiding under.  He is having it rebuilt and turned in to a local branch of the Lords Alliance to help bring law to the area.  He wanted the party to join the Lords Alliance and work as free agents to protect the area.  They’d get a monthly wage and free access to the Manor, the basement of which is already liveable.  They should carry on doing what they have been doing, but with the official aid and support of the Lords Alliance.  He’d be hiring some more people soon to act as guards within the town.  The party weren’t sure if this meant they had to follow order or not.  Sildhar said they would mostly be free to do what they wanted for the good of the area, but there may be rare moments when they get given orders and would be expected to comply.  Araloth was able to convince Sildhar to offer the wages up front each month.  Sildar walked away to buy a round for everyone so they could have some time to discuss this.

They took some time to discuss this, expressing concerns about whether or not the Lords Alliance could be trusted.  After all, Glasstaff had been a member and he was up to no good.  They expressed concerns about constantly being given orders they didn’t like.  They liked that it was free money and they’d get access to the alchemy lab in the manor.  They joked that they weren’t actually helping the area as since they’ve arrived the threats have only escalated.  Ramond pointed out joining would be a good thing as it would give them access to resources, contact and trainers they wouldn’t get otherwise, and give them a chance to clime the ranks.  Ramond also pointed out that taking free food and lodging from the inn is as a reward is probably something they should stop exploiting soon anyway.  Talindra mentioned the hidden difficulty of this: They would actually have to come up with a name for their adventuring company.  (DM: I thought this would be a 30 second chat and they’d just jump at free money and a free manor, but they actually spent a long time having an in character chat about this.  Much longer than they do about deciding to kill people or not!).

The offer of free money was enough to persuade them and they accepted Sildars offer.  He handed them some keys to the Manor, their first months wages, and gave each of them a signet ring bearing the emblem of the Lords Alliance, calling it their badge of office.  Sildar then left them to their drinks and got a meal, before heading up to the manor for the night.