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

I have spent 5 days last week adding the rest of the campaign to Roll20.  For anyone else looking to run DoIP and the Beyond modules for it I would definitely recommend reading everything before you begin.  You can get away with not reading the Beyond modules until after DoIP, but the Beyonds are not written clearly.  There’s stuff in modules 2 and 3 that you could really do with knowing at the start of the first.  Some of the encounters are not written very clearly either.  There is some very cool stuff in there though and I’m super keen to run my players through it.

Do not click the above link if you hope to play as it contains teasers and probable spoilers.

Anyway, back to this session.  Remember, Talindra is still currently guest DMing for us and I am playing Reginald the Bard. This is an Adventurers League module so this fight plays out as if there are multiple other player groups in the background doing things that affect our fight and vice versa.  This explains a few things that happen (IE the zombies and the healing wind stuff)

Having signalled our army and blocked the barracks we ran towards the leaders of the Cult and the Hobgoblins to prevent a permanent alliance being formed.  With the sounds of battle rising behind us they were on alert and we drew weapons and charged straight in.  Melandrach punched a nearby Cultist while Devere stepped forward and blasted the area with channelled his gods divinity in to the Radiance of the Dawn, burning every enemy nearby that could see him, killing two cultists.  He then summoned his Spiritual Weapon to attack the Hobgoblin Captain, but missed.  The Captain then called out in goblin, “Get that f*£$!ing cleric!”, sunk an enchanted thunderous arrow in to Devere, and then backed off around a corner.  Hiding behind Karson, Bilba shot and killed the Hobgoblin archer in the bridge in front of the group.  The Fanatic summoned her Spiritual Weapon to attack Melandrach, and then prayed to Tiamat who blasted Melandrach with Sacred Flame before retreating behind the tower.  Karson ran towards the Captain, Hunter Marking him and Swinging at him ineffectually with both attacks.  The two Hobgoblins shot at Devere and Karson, nearly killing Devere.  Reginald stepped forward, casting Heat Metal on the Captain and then Inspired Devere to better defend himself.  One of the Cultists stabbed Reginald and the other flanked Karson, swinging and missing.  Araloth attacked the flanking Cultist and then moved to flank against the Captain with Karson.  Thorivor moved in to the open and shot at but missed the Hobgoblin above Devere.  He gritted his teeth and fired again, hitting but nor killing, before ducking behind the tree.  Ramond ran forwards, effortlessly cutting down the Cultist on Reginald on his way past.  Then, to our horror, the three dead Cultists arose as Zombies and joined the fight, attacking Reginald, Ramond and Melandrach!

Melandrach unleashed a flurry of blows on his Zombie and then chased after the Fanatic.  Devere healed himself, adding the Bardic Inspiration to it.  His Spiritual Weapon hit the Captain, who dropped his bow, drew a Greatsword and missed one swing on Karson, but hit with his second.  Bilba sunk an arrow in to the Zombie by Ramond while the Fanatic cast Hold Person on Araloth (Natural 1 on his save.  Araloth is definitely the king of failing saves).  Her dagger missed its attack on Melandrach.  Karson missed the Captain, but killed the Cultist with his offhand.  The Hobgoblins shot at Devere (Reg tried to help but failed) and Ramond.  Then a new Hobgoblin appeared on the northern bridge and shot at Melandrach who deflected part of the impact.   Reginald’s heat metal burned the captain again while he Viciously Mocked the Hobgoblin above him.  Two new cultists appeared from the West and attacked Ramond.  Thorivor missed a shot at Reginald’s Hobgoblin and Ramon Smote his Zombie, giving himself temporary hit points.  The Zombies laid in to Reginald who took the blows, failing his concentration save.  The dead cultist by Karson then rose up as a Zombie.

Melandrach beat the Fanatic with his staff and then unleashed a Flurry of Blows on her, almost killing her, and then moved around the corner away from the Spiritual Weapon.  Devere healed Karson, then stepped up to flank and smack a zombie.  The Captain took a critical hit against the Held Araloth, and then swung at Karson, but Reginald was able to distract him.  Bilba shot at a nearby zombie while the Fanatic reached out and drained the life out of Melandrach, dropping him to the ground.  She then moved up and sent her Spiritual Weapon after Reginald.  Karson critted the Captain and shoved his short sword straight through his eye and out the back, while hitting a zombie with his other weapon and taking an arrow from a Hobgoblin.  Reginald took two arrows, and Ramond took one.  A new Hobgoblin stepped out from the west and shot Thorivor twice.  Reginald hurled damaging insults at the Hobgoblin above him, then squeezed between the zombies and healed Melandrach.  The Cultists attacked Ramond.  With benefit from Ramond’s inspiring words (He has a once per day power on his sword), Araloth was finally able to overcome the Hold Person spell.  Thorivor put a Seeking Arrow in to the Fanatic and backed up down the side alley.  Ramond smote a cultist to death as the Zombies lashed out at Devere (Warding Flare for defence), Reginald, and Karson.  The sense of dread that had hung over the camp faded, and a wave of hope and optimism washed over us all.  (With this second wave coursing through us we gained the ability to use a bonus action to spend hit dice to heal just the once during this encounter.  I assume the DM thought we were in serious trouble!)

Then Claugiyliamatar swooped across the battlefield, with a deafening roar and the beat of massive leathery wings, shaking us to the core as the wind reached staggering speeds; scattering debris and bodies like trash on the wind.  “Behold, wretched ones!”  Claugiyliamatar roared with fury, “The price of your hubris is at hand!”  She then flew overhead and attacked a nearby tower with a large ballista being requisitioned by human soldiers.  The tower vanished with a cloud of her poisonous breath and none survived.

Melandrach picked himself up and chased after the Fanatic and brought his staff around the side of her head from behind, causing her neck to break, and she fell to the floor, while he healed up before stepping over her corpse.  Devere moved to flank a zombie and hit it hard, before healing himself.  Bilba killed a zombie while Claugiyliamatar could be heard tearing apart nearby soldiers.  The hobgoblins shot at Thorivor, Melandrach, Bilba, and downed Karson.  Reginald’s insults finally became too much for the Hobgoblin above him, who died as Reg healed Karson.  He then called out, “Guys, we did what we came for.  We can leave now”.  The last Cultist swung at and missed Ramond.  Araloth made a run for a ladder up the central tower while healing up.  Thorivor shot a zombie who weathered the blow while Ramond whiffed his swing against the last cultist and healed up.  The zombies went for Devere and Karson, who fell unconscious once again.  Melandrach ran to his aid and wailed on his zombie.  Devere hot his zombie and weapon hit Karson’s, but both just absorbed the blows.  Then the dragon retuned, swooping down to claw at Araloth.  Reginald tried to distract her, but she was too enraged. (The dragon was clearly being nerfed by the module, thank god!)  She flew off to murder more of the army right after as Bilba sunk an arrow in to a Hobgoblin.  The Hobgoblins fired ineffectually as Reginald healed up and insulted a zombie.  The last cultist hit Ramond as Araloth tried to attack a Hobgoblin and tried to take cover from the skies.  His Hobgoblin then died to an arrow from Thorivor as Ramond killed his Cultist and moved up.

Melandrach hit a zombie who just took it, and then Radiant Sunbolted both Zombies, finally killing them.  Devere moved up and healed Karson and then sent his Spiritual Weapon to attack a Hobgoblin.  The dragon swooped overhead but ignored us for now.  Bilba ran to the east and murdered the Hobgoblin over there.  Karson stood up and healed himself, before grabbing the Captains fancy bow from the floor.  He then used it to take a shot at the Hobgoblin, but missed.  Outgunned and outnumbered, the Hobgoblin ran away.  We then looted the bodies we could, and Ramond just grabbed the captain’s body, and we ran back towards the gates where our army could be heard.  On our way out Claugiyliamatar returned, diving down at us readying a deep breath.  As it exhaled a spectral fey creature appeared and sucked all the poisonous gas into itself and vanished in a blinding flash of light.  Claugiyliamatar roared in frustration.  Bilba plinked a shot at her before running out with the rest of us.  Once we made it to safety we shoved everything in the Bag of Holding to sort out later.

Once the battle was over and we were walking back to camp with the army, Valero came over to talk.  She thanked us for our efforts on behalf of The lords Alliance, and handed us a pouch of 200 gold as a reward.  She said the order of the Gauntlet would be happy to cast some spells for us for a Token fee, such as Identify.  Later in the day we took them up on that offer (Items below) and had a long chat about who gets what magic item.  We then camped for the night as it had been a long day.  In the monring we will likely leave camp and head back to Phandalin.

Loot

Non-Magical Half Plate – Taken by Devere

Non-Magical gemmed golden pendant of a 5 headed dragon (300gp)

Periapt of Wound Closure – Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement) – Taken by melandrach

• While you wear this pendant, you stabilize whenever you are dying at the start of your turn. In addition, whenever you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, double the number of hit points it restores.

Pearl of Power – Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement by a Spellcaster) – Taken by Ramond

• While this pearl is on your person, you can use an action to speak its command word and regain one expended spell slot. If the expended slot was of 4th level or higher, the new slot is 3rd level. Once you use the pearl, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Thundercloud Longbow – Weapon (longbow), rare (requires attunement) – Taken by Thorivor

• You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
• If attuned this longbow empowers each shot with a thunderous strike, adding 1d4 thunder damage to each shot.
• In addition if attuned by an arcane archer it allows the user to regain a use of their arcane shot once per day as a bonus action and improves the save DC for arcane shots by +1.