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

DM: Dynamic lighting.  I’d spent the week trying things to get it working and thanks to some pointers from another DM using Roll20 we got it up and running well enough to use for the first time.  By the end of the session we’d had a human player without a light source in complete darkness for a few hours and they’d have a miserable time.  They couldn’t plan their turns, or even tell what everyone else was talking about during their turns.  They called it “the worst radio play ever”.  I didn’t understand how bad they had it until after we’d called the session. This cannot be allowed to happen again.  I’m either ditching Dynamic Lighting or dropping an OOC light source in to fights so everyone can watch and I can remove to determine IC sight when it matters.

After Talindra was done exploring and identifying they sat around in the Bugbear barracks for another half hour so the others could complete a short rest before heading out to deal with the enemies that Araloth had scouted out at the end of last session.  The quietly made their way down the corridor with the archers up front with the plan that the archers would focus fire the Drow down and Karson would tank the Bugbear.  As they were getting in to position, they heard the Bugbear say he had heard something and peaking around the corner they could see he and the Drow had turned their way.

Karson ran around the corner and killed the bugbear in one round.  Bilba stepped out, rolled her Light stone down the stairs and Crit shot the Drow as two more bugbears climbed up out of the trench, drew weapons and moved towards Karson.  The Drow fired his crossbow at Bilba, poisoning her before he backed up over the stream.  Devere ran to engage the Drow while Melandrach Sun Bolted him.  Thorivor shot the Drow with a Grasping Arrow (Damage if he tries to move) and Talindra followed that up with a Hexed Eldritch Blast as Ramond ran full pelt to engage him.  Araloth missed his attack on the Drow while Karson beat up the closest Bugbear.  The two bugbears beat in to Karson while the Drow disengaged from the surrounding enemies, taking Grasping Arrow damage as a result, but not quite making it to cover.  Devere overtook the Drow and hit him with his mace and Melandrach finished the job.  The eight of them then made short work of the two Bugbears who had nowhere to run before looting the corpses.

They took everyone’s weapons and armour and put it in the Bag of Holding and discovered that the Drow was actually another Doppelganger.  Araloth dropped in to the canyon and had a look around where the Bugbears had been digging.  It looked like they had been at it for a while.  He removed a few rocks quickly and discovered nothing more interesting than a bone before deciding to leave this for now.  Ramond healed Bilba’s poison by Laying on Hands.

They noticed that the tunnel behind them and the pathways the Drow was heading towards were both filled with more cobwebs than the rest of the mine and possibly connected.  They split the party in two and headed down both pathways at once, coordinating via Talindra’s Sending cantrip.  Devere passed by a side door he listed and could hear laboured breathing behind, although he chose to ignore it for now.  Karson, Devere and Melandrach took the northern corridor and everyone else took the southern pathway.  When they were in position Araloth opened one of the double doors and took two crossbow bolts to the chest from readied actions.  The first poisoned him and knocked him out, but the second woke him back up again.  Before he went down he saw

Six cracked marble pillars lining the walls of this hall, at the north end of which stood a nine-foot-tall statue of a dwarf seated on a throne, a mighty stone warhammer across his lap. Large emeralds gleamed in the statue’s eyes.  The dust and debris covering the floor had been swept to one side, and a campsite of sorts spread in front of the statue. Half a dozen bedrolls and packs were neatly arranged around a rough-built fire pit. A wooden table stood on the west side of the room between two pillars.  A spider could be seen behind the far pillar, failing to hide.  Gathered in that corner were two bugbears with Morningstars’ drawn, and a Drow with a hand crossbow.  A second Drow with a hand crossbow could be seen on the other side of the statue, stood upside down on the ceiling.  Everyone was ready and waiting for the intruders.  A disembodies voice could be heard, “It seems that I must deal with you myself. A pity it must end this way.”

(DM: Bear with me.  This is a loooong fight and as I type this, it’s still not over)

Thorivor stepped up, shot the grounded Drow twice and backed away, narrowly dodging a bolt from the Drow on the ceiling.  Ramond ran in to the room, pointed his Wand of Magic Milles and fired 6 charges at the same Drow, hitting it with 8 missiles, nearly killing it.  Talindra fired an Eldritch Blast at him, but it went wide.  One bugbear double moved towards each group, engaging Karson and Ramond, as the damaged Drow ran for cover behind the table and missed a shot at Ramond.  The disembodied voice spoke up again, “We don’t have to be enemies you know.  Work for me and we can share the spoils of the mine.  You know what the Spellforge can do.  It can be ours.”  The visible spider moved forward and spat some webbing at Ramond, restraining him where he stood.  Another spider appeared from behind the central western pillar, moved forward and spat web all over Melandrach.  Araloth picked himself up off the floor and moved to flank Ramond’s Bugbear, landing a blow in its back, before retreating to behind a pillar.  Bilba moved up and hid behind Ramond, and shot his target.  Devere Blessed himself, Ramond, Melandrach and Karson and moved to flank with Karson.  Karson Hunters Marked and attacked the flanked Bugbear as Melandrach tore himself free of the webbing and moved forward.

The Drow on the ceiling began to chant and the area around the southern doorway was plunged in to magical darkness, dispelling their only two sources of light before backing up behind the corner pillar (DM: And pooping on the enjoyment of the HUMAN paladin player for the rest of the session.  The Halfling shares a screen with Karson, who has Darkvision so it’s less of an issue there).  Despite being trapped with the darkness, Thorivor was able to fire off a Seeking Arrow and almost finish off the damaged Drow.  Ramond Tore the webbing off himself and stepped to the side while Talinda waded across the darkness and Eldritch Blasted the damaged Drow to death and Hexed the guy on the ceiling and stepped back in to the darkness (DM: They quickly worked out how to use the Darkness to their advantage) .  Karsons bugbear smacked him hard with its Morningstar while the other backed out of the Darkness and hit Araloth.  The voice could be heard again, “You work for that dwarf, don’t you?  He’s got no greater claim on this abandoned mine than I do.  I found it first.  I have salvage rights to this place.”  Lightning fired along the eastern wall of the room, electrifying Devere and Melandrach, and then a new Drow could be seen in the corner, wearing black clothing and holding a black staff with a spider crafted on it top.  The spiders stepped up and bit at Devere, and downed Melandrach.  A third spider appeared from behind the pillar over Araloth and missed an attack against him.  Araloth missed two attacks against his Bugbear before hiding back in the Darkness.  Bilba rested one hand on the wall and followed it around in to the room.  The only thing she could see was The Black Spider (The new Drow) illuminated by the fire pit.  She gave it her all and critted him badly.  Devere healed Melandrach and channelled his divinity to restore a spell slot while Karson and Melandrach beat up their Bugbear.

The ceiling Drow hit Devere with a poisoned bolt, but he resisted as Thorivor stepped out and back in to the Darkness and piercing the Black Spider with an arrow.  Ramoned channelled divinity to restore a spell slot and ran out of the Darkness towards the fire, drew his shield and engaged The Black Spider.  Talindra supported this by Eldritch blasting him before backing in to the darkness again.  One bugbear missed Karson and the other moved up around the Darkness.  The Black Spider looked shaken and bloody, mumbled a few words and vanished from sight.  The three spiders made their attacks and a fourth appeared from behind the central eastern pillar, spitting web at and missing Bilba.  Araloth got his Second Wind (healing for 11), kicked open the second of the double doors, and moved and stabbed the spider that was behind Bilba.  Bilba drew her sword and stabbed at the same spider before disengaging in to the Darkness.  Devere channelled the storm within and fired a lightning bolt through two spiders to where The Black Spider had last been seen.  This killed one spider and badly burning the other, and then he summoned a Spiritual Weapon to attack the closest Bugbear, which Karson then finished off before backing up for safety.  Melandrach then unleashed a flurry of blows on the closest spider, who survived.

The upside down Drow ended his Darkness spell and moved south to the next pillar and missing a shot at Thorivor.  Thorivor recovered one of his magical shots and fired a Seeking Arrow at the vanished Black Spider, hurting him badly and revealing him to be invisible and about 5 foot north of Melandrach.  His target gone, Ramond turned around and missed an attack on the nearest Bugbear.  Talindra fired an Eldritch blast where the arrow had hit, but it didn’t connect with anything.  The last Bugbear hit Ramond and the spiders attacked their nearest targets.  Araloth missed both attacks against his spider and then followed the wall out of the room.  As he hit the door he bumped in to something invisible and shouted to the group to alert them that he’d found their target.  In complete darkness, guided purely by Araloth’s voice Bilba aimed (While essentially blind???) a shot at the invisible Black Spider and a moment later his invisible corpse slumped in to Araloth before fading back in to site.  Devere and his spiritual weapon ganged up on the nearest spider while Karson drank a healing potion and advanced.  Melandrach killed his spider and moved over to hit the final Bugbear.

DM: We called the session there.  Midnight was aproaching and even then we discussed the lighting issues until near 1am.  The Black Spider is dead, and they’ve killed some of the trash.  Most of whats left is almost dead, but the party are out of resources and low on health.  They should be able to outlast whats left, but dice happen and Ceiling Drow is still on full health and out of reach of melee attacks.