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

(Talindra is still currently guest DMing for us and I am playing Reginald the Bard)

We slept the night at the camp and then headed out the next morning to intercept the people who had just raided Westbridge on their way back to the Hobgoblin stronghold through Kryptgarden forest.  Early in the day we encountered a clearing with an engraved obelisk in the middle.  Melandrach scouted south around the clearing while Karson scouted north.  Melandrach found some fresh Worg prints and Karson ran in to a particularly corrupted tree, riddled with diseased vines.  When they told us there was no noticeable immediate threat Devere and Ramond approached the stone to investigate.  The runes were too weathered to read, but appeared to be an ancient form of elven we could not make out.  Then Melandrach spotted four Worgs sneaking up on him through the woods, so he and Karson moved towards the middle of the clearing.  The Worgs looked wrong, like the forest had corrupted their form and started growing over them.

Karson and Bilba shot at the Worgs as Araloth approached and braced for attack.  Then, Karsons diseased tree upped root and started walking towards the group, apparently a Treant.  As it approached it tore a large chunk of rock and dirt out of the ground and threw it.  It hit the monolith just above Reginald’s head, shattering to dust and shards.  Ramond shouted out for Melandrach and Devere to follow him and hold off the Treant and then ran towards it.  Melandrach followed the advice and ran at the Treant and tried to use his staff to smash off some of the corrupting vines, with little success.  Two of the Worgs charged at Araloth who cut one of them down, but the other hurt him badly and knocked him to the floor.  The others ran towards Karson and Devere.  Thorovir shot at Araloth’s Worg twice while Reginald Viciously Mocked Karson’s worg to throw off its attack, and then healed Araloth.  He then shouted out that there seemed to be small black blighted plant creatures up in the branches of the Treant.  Devere summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack Karson’s Worg, and then uttered a Word of Radiance, hurting both Worgs.  Three of the Twig Blights in the Treant jumped down to attack Melandrach while the other three threw spines and darts at Ramond.  Karson and Araloth both attacked their Worgs then Araloth backed away towards Bilba while she was shooting at Devere’s Worg.  The Treant backhanded the Melandrach, leaving him bloody and sore.  Ramond moved up and joined the fight against the Twig Blights.  In a flurry of blows, Melandrach then killed one Twig Blight and beat up a second.

One of the Worgs charged at Araloth, who dodged out of the way, while the other two attacked Devere who distracted them with a Warding Flare.  Thorovir dropped his bow and attacked Araloth’s Worg with his rapier.  Reginald started insulting the Twig Blights in the branches and moved up to provide better assistance in that melee, and Devere followed him, dodging the blows from the Worgs and attacking one with his spiritual weapon.  The twig blights attacked everyone nearby with punches and darts.  Araloth killed his Worg and Karson tried to do the same but missed twice.  Bilba managed to shoot and kill the Worg that had been focusing on Devere.  The Treant lashed out at Ramond, who got out of the way and killed another Twig Blight, as did Melandrach.  The Worg jumped for and missed Karson.  Thorvir dropped his rapier and picked up his bow, shooting at the nearest aerial Twig Blights.  Ramond insulted a Twig Blight and held his ground.  Devere’s Spiritual Weapon hit the last Worg while he cast Cure Wounds on Melandrach.  The twig blights all threw darts at Devere in response.  Karson finally managed to kill his Worg and moved towards the Treant.  As Araloth ran towards the Treant, Bilba stepped out of her hiding spot and killed a Twig Blight with an arrow.  As Ramond dodged another Treant attack he jumped up and swung his blade at a Twig Blight 15 foot up in the air, killing it.  Melandrach fired Radiant Sunbolts to kill the last Twig Blight, and to attempt to burn off more corrupting vines, hurting the Treant in the process.  The party then spent some time trying to cut, smash and shoot the vines off of the Treant, with limited success, always hurting it in the process.  There was a brief chat about running away and trusting it would recover once the dragon is dead, until Ramond and Devere started grabbing fistfuls of corrupted vines and tearing them off.  With enough removed he calmed down and started talking instead of fighting.

It tore off the remaining vines from itself and removed the dead Twig Blights from his canopy.  It turned to Ramond and thanked him for his aid.  As it spoke some berries sprouted on him, which it removed and offered as assistance (Goodberries).  It said it was off to see the King about this and wandered off in to the forest.  The group handed out the berries and healed up before heading back on their path.

A while later we happened upon the path we were looking for and could hear a creaky wagon approaching.  We spread out and hid in the bushes as best we could (Not very well at all!) and waiting for the wagon to be in the middle of us.  When they came in to sight two wagons could be seen escorted by 6 human guards and an Ogre at the rear.  As they drew near the leading edge of the ambush, the two wagons scouts shouted out, “Who’s there?” and started firing their bows towards Araloth and Karson.  We all advanced and attacked the enemies leading the caravan and on the front wagon.  Expecting hobgoblins and finding humans, Reginald assumed these would be the mercenaries the spy we are looking for has infiltrated, and began looking for the tell-tale scar.  The man on the rear wagon shoved the woman next to him off the wagon and began running south in to the woods.  When she got up she shouted out, “Get the traitor!” and unloaded two hand crossbows in to his back.  Thorovir fired a Grasping Arrow in to the Ogre who chose to ignore its by walking slowly around the caravan, taking extra damage and swinging for Melandrach.  While the party worked on the mercenaries Reginald ran around behind them to try and distract the woman from killing our spy.  Araloth was faster though and ran around everyone and attacked her.  Our spy turned around and finished her off with his crossbow, before running west away from everything.  Ramond ran up to engage the ogre, finally making it in to combat from the back of the ambush.  Devere ran towards our potential spy, saw the v shaped scar, and called out, “Wait!  We are friends.  We’re here to help.”  The ogre swung and missed Ramond and the remaining two guards attacked us.  Karson knocked out one of the guards and moved up on to the wagon next to the other and the ogre.  Araloth stepped over the woman’s body to backstab the ogre and noticed her wounds had healed.  Araloth hit it with an arrow, and then Melandrach beat it down with his staff.

With all the enemies defeated, Araloth and Reginald tied up the survivors.  They were all wearing black sashes with a simple five headed dragon drawn on them.  We have taken all six of these as a disguise to infiltrate the stronghold.  Araloth looted a heart shaped ruby pendant from the woman and we found some gems and trinkets we can sell later, along with a couple of healing potions.  The rest we left on the wagons.  The horses looked emaciated so Reginald tried to offer them some rations.  They did not respond.  They appear to be on the brink of death, but held alive by some magic.  We need them for now, but they should probably be either saved or freed from this when we are done.

While this was happening, Devere and Melandrach went to talk to Yalek.  He was grateful for the rescue.  He thought his boss was getting suspicious and was looking for a way to make a run for it.  Devere explained we had been sent by Lillith of the Zhentarim to find him.  He had to get back to camp to tell them where the Red Wizards are.  We pumped him for information and then asked him to take the prisoners back with him.  The sashes should be enough to fool any hobgoblin guards as they don’t pay enough attention to who the humans are.  He gave us a basic map of the enemy encampment, showing where we can find the leaders of the Zartruss clan.  We had a discussion on distances and we decided if we took a short rest and then headed out he would arrive back at camp around the same time we started infiltrating the enemy stronghold so assaults would align.  While we were chatting, Reginald thought he saw a shimmering fist sized orb in the air for just a moment, but it vanished as her turned to look at it.  Probably nothing (poor roll to see/ID it).  We rested up and got back on the road.

It was getting late so we called it a night ready for the main assault next week.