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

With the fight over, they all took a moment to get their breath back and discuss what had just happened.  They suggested they’d angered the cult and were being attacked as a result.  Reidoth thought on what had just happened and concluded this Boar was a servant of Talos he’d heard mention of before.  A lesser avatar of sorts, worshiped by his wilder followers.  They ran around the compound and checked on the others and checked on the damage to the palisades and doors.  Falcon barricaded the broken southern door until he had time to fix it while the party searched through the corpses and started burning them outside.  They had a short rest and then Karson and Melandrach joined Falcon as he went to chop more wood to repair the palisades.  The party helped out with this for the rest of the day, and stopped for a good night’s rest.

Over dinner they had a long chat about what had happened and what their plans are for the Circle of Thunder.  Talindra spoke up to reveal a secret.  She confessed that she wasn’t supposed to be there.  She had never been hired by Gundren, she just hid in the group to get out of town and escape those chasing her.  A local gang of thieves were after her for stealing on their patch.  Her and her friend Miri had been stealing just enough to survive.  It was Miri he’d asked Bilba to look for when they were in Neverwinter.  The gang had got her, and had now seemingly left town.  The party seemed to be understanding and accepting.  Reidoth admitted it was unusual for him to be there too.  The church of Eldath is usually pacifistic.  His community had suffered a seemingly organised and prepared attack by followers of Talos.  Almost everyone had died, but he was one of the few that got away.  It has made him more willing to fight, and he has a personal grudge against Talosians, and may be a little concerned it will cause him to lose his way.  They ate well, got a good night’s rest, and got up with the sunrise to head towards the Circle of Thunder, with the storm still beating down upon them.

When they were half a mile out they stopped and sent Bilba, Karson, and Melandrach ahead to scout.  The scouts came to a large hill in a clearing with a stone circle at the top.  Four  Half-Orc Anchorites of Talos appeared to be performing a ritual, guarded by Twig Blights and watched by Orcs.  Bilba used the sending stones to call the other up urgently.  As the main party drew near, the scouts circled around to the east a little, found hiding spots and acted once they thought the others were close enough.

Bilba used her Wand of pyrotechnics to set off fireworks over the hill, drawing their attention.  Melandrach put a couple of arrows in to the nearest priest and Karson killed the nearest Orc, and they all dove for cover.  Meanwhile, Ramond cast bless and Reidoth summoned some wolves.  The Orcs advanced forwards, but didn’t really know where the arrows had come from.  Thorivor stepped up to the tree line and put four shots in to the nearest Priest, and Melandrach fired two more arrows at him, but missed one.  Mounted on Thunderer, Ramond galloped in to the nearest orc with a cry to Tempus, and killed him with the Serpent Spear, before galloping further to the North West, trying to draw away a large force.  The Twig Blights ran towards the nearest attackers.  As the Priests chanting drew momentarily louder, there was a flash of lightning and the ground quaked briefly.  Talindra Hexxed and Blasted the injured priest, hitting him in the back full of arrows, pushing them through the rest of the way.  There was a spray of blood and he went limp.  He fired his second blast at another Priest but it went wild.  Karson stepped out of his hiding spot in the tunnel entrance, downed an Orc with one swing of his axe, stepped forward and swung at but missed a Twig Blight.  Bilba shot and killed the nearest orc and went back to hiding in the bushes.  Reidoth advanced and summoned some flame and threw it at an orc.  He shouted for his wolves to work in pairs, protect the party and attack the enemy.  His wolves ran forwards and tore in to the Orcs and blights.

The Orcs charged their nearest threats, doing what damage they could, and surrounding and hurting Karson and Ramond.  Thorivor put two more shots in to the closest Priest.  Melandrach ran to Karson’s aid and started clearing enemies off of him.  Ramond stabbed an Orc and then disengaged, galloping past them, to the north.  The Twig Blights attacked and chased, largely ineffectually.  The Priests’ chanting rose again and a couple of lightning bolts struck the standing stones, which glowed briefly.  Talindra Hexed the damaged Priest and put two more Blasts in to him.  As Karson continued to clear enemies off of himself, Bilba put an arrow in to a Priest further back.  Reidoth threw fire at another Twig Blight as his wolves continued to chew up the enemy and hold them in place.

The Orcs attacked who they could and continued to chase Ramond around the hill as Thorivor put another arrow in to his Priest.  Melandrach continued to thin the pack around him and Karson as Ramond Smote an Orc gaining bonus HP, attacked another, and galloped further east around the hill.  The Twig Blights attacked as best they could as lightning struck the standing stones again.  The stones held the storm, and lightning started arcing between the stones around the circle, occasionally jumping out in to the middle.  Talindra double blasted the Hexed priest, nearly killing him, and threw a heal at Karson, who was close to death.  Karson turned his sword in to a Hawk and sent it to attack and kill the Priest, while murdering an Orc with his axe.  Bilba put another arrow in to her target Priest, while Reidtoh healed Karson through his Owl Familiar, and moved east, never leaving the trees.  His remaining wolves did what they could to help.

The Orcs continued their assault, finishing off the last of the wolves and hurting Ramond.  As some of them chased Ramond through the circle they caught stray sparks of lightning coming from the stones.  Thorivor put two shots in to Bilba’s target Priest, including his final Grasping Vine.  Melandrach attacked an Orc four times, and only hit it once.  The Orc was quite surprised.  Ramond stabbed one orc and Smote a second feeling the pressure that something bigger was about to happen.  He then galloped as fast as he could to the east.  As the Twig Blights continued to give chase, the ritual came to a head.  All the stones starting sparking in to the middle, and a single bolt of lightning struck the ground.  A new, huge from had arrived in the middle of the stones.  Gorthok the Thunder Boar had returned! (DM: And everyone needed a change of underwear and was suddenly very unhappy with my choices)  The head Priest turned to the attackers and loudly said, “Now you shall pay the price!  Talos shall have you!  Gorthok, kill the intruders!”  He then walked over to the edge of the now dormant stone circle and threw a lightning bolt and Ramond and Thunderer.  Thunderer vanished, but Ramond was able to land on his feet, next to the saddle.  The other priest, wrapped in Grasping Vines, held his ground and fired a Lightning Bolt at Thorivor at the edge of his range, frying Talon (Karson’s bird/sword) in the process.  Feeling overwhelmed, Talindra cast Hypnotic Pattern over the Gorthok and the two priests.  The head Priest passed his save and Gorthok used a Legendary Save.  Karson and Bilba tried to clear up the nearby group of Orcs and Blights as Reidoth summoned a fresh pack of Wolves, instructing some to deal with the smaller enemies, and some to hold the line between the party and Gorthok, and sent his familiar towards Ramond, ready to help later.  Gorthok took in his surroundings, staring at the party, growling menacingly.  He then slowly turned his head to the left, towards his summoner.  He let out a loud deep “Squeeeee” and charged the High Priest, goring and trampling him.  He turned around to face the boar with a look of horror on his face, and tried to back up slowly.  The Wolves then tore in to their targets and held the line.

DM: it was very late and everyone was sure this was not going to be over quickly so we called it for the night between rounds.

The last three Orcs attacked, injuring Ramond and missed Karson and a wolf.  Hearing all the excitement at the arrival of Gorthok, Araloth rallied from his illness and ran out from the treeline and killed the nearest Orc as Thorivor killed Ramond’s attacker.  Gorthok kicked the Half-Orc priest with his Thunder Hooves.  Melandrach killed two nearby Twig Blights and an Orc and moved to flank the remaining Twig Blights with Karson.  Ramond ran south towards the party, chased by twig blights and shouting out for everyone to get ready for a hard fight and to be prepared to die.  Gorthok gored the Priest with his tusks again as other Twig Blights fought their wolves.  The gored priest shouted towards the sky, “I can still be useful!  I’ve been loyal!  I can turn this around.  Please don’t, Talos!  Please!” as he defended himself against the Boar, lightly injuring it.  Talindra cleared two of the Blights away from Ramond with Eldritch blasts, saying, “We need to end this here.  We can’t let it get back to town!”  Karson Marked the boar and killed a Blight.  Bilba cleared off another of Ramond’s pursuers and backed up as Reidoth’s familiar delivered a heal to Ramond.  Gorthok landed two attacks in to the Talossan priest, bringing him near to death.

The wolves continued to follow their instructions.  Four held a defensive line as the others dealt with the lesser threats.  Araloth killed the last nearby enemy and headed towards Ramond.  Thorivor put two arrows in to Gorthok as Melandrach advanced to behind a standing stone and threw sunbolts at him too.  Ramond Layed On Hands on himself and ran towards the Boar, shouting out for the wolf defensive line to advance and for everyone to focus their ranged attacks on Gorthok.  The blights chasing him switched their attacks to the Wolf that was now in their face.  The High Priest got gored again and called out, “I have been faithful.  I will continue to serve!  Please stop this!  I can still do your bidding!” and continued to try and defend himself from Gorthok.  Talindra moved up and cast web so as to hinder the boar should he head their way.  Karson cast Longstrider on himself and Ramond, and advanced as Bilba put an arrow in to the Boar.  Gorthok then kicked the Priest in to unconsciousness.  Reidoth ordered his summoned wolves to advance and protect their allies and cast Cure Wounds on Ramond.

Gorthok Trampled over the body of the Priest before goring him with his tusks.  He tossed him in the air and caught him in his mouth.  He shook him around, caught between his teeth and the body came apart in two (big and a few smaller) parts.  He then turned to face the party and stared at them as the storm light up behind him.  A bolt of lightning came down from above and hit him and he vanished.  They made short work of the remaining Twig Blights and Ramond opted to knock out the last dazed Priest after the other put a few hits in to him.  They left Melandrach to fetch some rope from Ramond’s saddle while they took the wolves to go explore the three entrances in to the hill.  Talindra started searching the bodies and Melandrach helped out when he was done.

Each led in to a simple short tunnel with different arrangements of the same basic rooms.  Each had a pen containing a Boar they were cautious about.  Each ended in a ladder rising up to a hatch that opened up near the stone circle.  Each had an empty cell that had evidence of recent animals inside.  Each had one larger chamber lined with shelves containing pots, boxes, stick figures etc.  They had the wolves attack the stick figures, expecting Twig Blights, but not getting them.  They searched all three rooms and found items buried in two of them: A potion and a golden shield with an embossed griffon on it.  With no immediate threat, Karson cast Speak with Animals and went and spoke to each of the Boars.  Convinced that they were just animals and didn’t have any information, he set them free and they ran off.

Talindra and Melandrach had gathered together all the loot from the bodies and the prisoner; A bunch of non-magical weapons and armour, but a few gold and one letter from the body of the high priest.  It was rain soaked and the bottom of the page had been soggy-torn off at some point.

“Gramrak,

Talos has bestowed a gift upon you.  He will lend you the might of Gorthok the Thunder Boar.  Use him to crush that hunter who kills our followers.  Once that is done, gather your forces behind Gorthok, and show those in Phandalin Talos’s might.  Bring the storm down upon them.  Those who survive will not doubt his might and will join his worship, or die.  They are still weak, but have begun to build defences.  You should move quickly.

Do not disappoint him and you will become a key part in his future plans, but remember that he is quick to anger and does not tolerate failure.

Stormherald K…”

As they gathered in one of the barrows for Talindra to ritually Identify this new shield, which seemed to be cleaning itself of the mud and grime it had been buried in Karson asked if they had the magic to topple these stones.  Reidoth said it should be doable, but they remembered that Falcon told them this was a place of nature worship.  The boar skulls, vines and muddy graffiti over everything was a more recent addition, and had likely been used to corrupt the place to Talos.  Reidoth concluded that destroying the place was unnecessary and it would take him time and effort to cleanse the place later.  Talindra revealed that the shield had basic magical defensive enhancements but had extra magic placed there by someone vain.  The shield would keep its bearer clean and well groomed at all times (DM: more details below).

They shared the letter around and discussed it, concluding that Talos or Gorthok were angry with the High priest for his failure, and that there are greater threats from the Cult of Talos out there than they had previously encountered.  With the Identify complete, they walked up the hill discussing who should get the shield (Ramond).  While this was happening, Reidoth had run off from the main group and was frantically checking out the faces of each of the dead Orcs.  Melandrach asked him what was up.  Reidoth revealed he recognised the name the letter was addressed to.  He had led the massacre on his home in the High Forrest.  He went to check the faces of the Half-Orc priests.  He recognised the High priest as Gramrak, and thought perhaps the others might be familiar but wasn’t sure.  Reidoth asked for the Clawed Gauntlets that had been taken from Gramrak’s body and kept them for a ritual later.  He then took an Axe out of the loot pile and severed Gramrak’s head from what remained of his torso.  He then used Shape Water to freeze it in ice and stored it for later.  They all took a moment to regain their composure before continuing.

The party then gathered at the top of the hill to interrogate their prisoner, noticing that the storm seemed to be starting to ease off a little.  Melandrach decided to patrol around the base of the hill in case of attack, but probably just to separate himself from an expected execution.  Reidoth stood behind the priest, with a Detect Thoughts spell ready (DM: He cast this twice this going forward and relayed his findings telepathically to Ramond).  Melandrach and Ramond checked his bonds, then Ramond shook him awake.  His eyes opened and he looked up.  He took in his situation and tried to move back, but his arms were tied and he could barely wriggle.  “You have a few moments to choose either a death that pleases or Displeases Talos.  WHERE IS THE STORMHERALD?” demanded Ramond.  The priest took a moment to look around him and gather his thoughts.  Ramond pulled him close and gave him a violet shake as Talindra used magic to make lighting spark around his eyes.  “Where is the Stormherald?  Do you want to die like a dog?” “I I I don’t know” he replied.  “She only ever met with Gramrak.”  “She?” asked Ramond.  “I think she.  I only ever saw her at a distance and she was always cloaked.”  “What race?  What name?”  “Humanoid I think.  I never got a good look at her.  She only ever visited Gramrak”

Ramond dropped him to the ground at this point.  Karson stepped forward and asked, “Where did your camp is as you clearly aren’t based here.”  “I live in the tunnels under this hill”, he replied.  “There were far more Orcs that can fit down there.”  “The tunnels are for the priests.  The Orcs came to us for aid and worship Talos for his guidance and help.  They live all around Neverwinter Wood.”

Reidoth asked if summoning the Thunderboar was the culmination of their plans, or was there more?  “We followed Gramraks plan.  He didn’t tell us it all, and he followed the Stormheralds orders.  We all follow Talos’s will.”  The priest appeared to rally a little as he said this.  Talindra spoke up, “Obviously not any more.  You have angered Talos in your failure”.  The priest replied, “This was your doing. Talos will have you.  His servants are everywhere.  He brings destruction.  You should let me go before he comes.  The rain is still here.  Talos is all around us.  He has not abandoned me yet”  “The rain is Eldaths blessing.  She cries upon the violence she has seen here”, offered up Reidoth, “Now she heals the land that is stained with the blood of the fallen.  Are there any others of yours within Neverwinter Wood?”  “The prisoner replied, “We are everywhere.  You will not be rid of us.  You can kill me if you want but my soul will continue to serve Talos.  Others will come” Reidoth smiled back at him and said, “You and I both know the lie of those words”.   He turned to the others and said, “I believe we are done here”.

Talindra said, “If we are done here I have one more thing to do before we are finished.”  She cast Suggestion on the prisoner and advised him to renounce his faith in Talos immediately.  He met her eyes and spat at her feet as a flash of lighting came down behind Talindra.  Talindra reacted with two Eldritch Blasts, killing the bound prisoner.  Reidoth winced as he was still reading the priests mind at the time.  Ramond turned to Talindra, “I’d have at least given him a sporting chance, but I can’t criticise”.  “After what he planned to do to Phandalin, I think he deserved this.  Let’s be honest, setting that Boar on Phandalin, there wouldn’t have been a town left.” “That’s true.”  Reidoth offered up, “I’m not in a position to judge.  I need to pray on my own actions here, later.”  Talindra said she would not have felt safe transporting him back to Phandalin and everyone agreed the town was not set up to contain him anyway.

They gathered themselves together and began the walk back to Falcons Lodge through the rain while the storm continued to ease up slowly.

The storm had died down to a light persistent drizzle by the time they saw Falcon and Tiber working to repair the ruined fencing around the hunting lodge.  Falcon downed tools and greeted the party and let Tiber go off for a drink.  The party caught Falcon up with what had happened and asked if he knew of any more cultist or suspicious activity in the area.  They also showed him the letter and asked if he knew who the Stormherald could be.  He didn’t know anything new.  He agreed to keep an eye on the stone circle until Reidoth could come back and cleanse it, and to get word to the party if he learned anything.  They decided they needed a good long chat so he showed them in to his kitchen, made a brew for everyone, got out some leftovers for them, and got back to work on his fence.

They then surprised me by spending the best part of two hours IRL talking IC between themselves.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them do this before.  I was very happy, even if my full afternoon of prep now seemed wasted!  I can’t remember everything that was said, and it’d be a many, many page script if I did write it all out so here’s a few key points. (DM: My computer froze for a few minutes and when it came back up my video was broken for the rest of the session.  This broke my focus as I was distracted trying to fix it for a while.  I probably missed some stuff and can’t remember it all)

• Ramond wants them to split up the party kitty so he can buy horse barding as he sees that as the way he wants to progress
• Ramond feels he needs to retrain to be more sword and board
• They have been a disorganised mess in combat so far, which has created unnecessary risks to themselves
• They discussed the need to be open about your abilities so they can plan better and there are fewer surprises in combat
• They actually questioned each other about their backstories a little (Causing a few “Erm I haven’t written that yet’s)
• They discussed everyone’s best combat role and what they could do going forward to maximise their usefulness. No one really seemed to know what to do for Araloth.  Not even Araloth
• They liked the idea of a “Combat Captain”. Someone who takes charge in combat and gives orders, but otherwise isn’t their leader.  This way people aren’t doing their own thing, and aren’t arguing over best tactic.
• They want someone to scry the letter from the Stormherald to work out who and where they are, as they still fear Cultists are a nearby threat.
• They discussed where to go next. Loot the lighthouse leftovers, deliver Tiber back to town, head to Neverwinter and find a Diviner, possibly through The Lords Alliance, or head back to the Woodland Manse and give it another look over for clues.
• More I’m forgetting, I’m sure.

They spent the night at the Lodge and headed towards Phandalin the next morning.  After two nights in the wilds the arrived back in town midmorning.  As they drew near to town they could see the scaffolding had been removed from their Manor up on the hill.  Tibor got off the wagon, thanked them, and went to the inn.  The party went to Barthen’s provisions to get paid for deliver the supplies and updated Barthen on the state of the logging camp.  They then split the party kitty between them.  Reidoth and Ramond went off together to find the blacksmiths while Talidra went to check the job board.  Ramond commissioned some chainmail barding for his horse which should take 6 days to make, and he overpaid by 100gp.  Reidoth pulled a couple of Ankheg shells from his bag (DM: That’s a big bag!) and asked if she could turn them in to a breast plate for him.  She said it’d been a while since she’d made weapons or armour but she’d give it a go.  It’d cost 600gp and would take 12 days.  She’d be happy to take half up front and pay the rest later.  Reidoth didn’t have the money, but someone gave him a loan.  They asked her to prioritise the barding first.

They party met up and Talidra shared what she’d taken off the jobs board:

Mountain’s Toe Mine

The Mountain’s Toe Gold Mine lies fifteen miles northeast of Phandalin. The new overseer is making the trip from Neverwinter to Phandalin and needs to be escorted to the mine. There’s no telling what dangers lie between here and there.  We are looking for guards to escort and aid him.  Please speak to Halia Thornton for more information.

Infested Ruins

Redevelopment of Phandalin has run in to troubles recently.  While pulling down a ruined hospital to make way for new buildings an old cellar was uncovered.  Strange sounds from below suggest wild, potentially dangerous animals have taken up residence.  We need some brave people to explore these ruins.  If any threat is present, please remove it so construction can begin.  It may also pose a danger to the locals.  Speak to Foreman Theobald Bristol for more information.  200gp reward.

Deal with the dragon

2000GP reward to anyone who can bring back proof of Cryovain’s demise.  Speak to Townmaster Harbin Wester to collect the reward

They then headed over to the Shrine of Luck to have a chat with Sister Garaele, who had a familiar Orc toddler with her.  They updated her on their findings and asked if she had any ability to scry the letter.  She said no, but there were people back at her order who might.  She could get the letter to them to scry on if the party wanted.  They didn’t have a better idea so they agreed.  Garaele asked them to write a letter to go with it saying what they wanted and she’d get it taken care of.  Once she had the letter and the party started to walk away, she finished up what she was doing, picked up the child, and left.

They had a chat about what to do next and headed off to the nearby sounds of construction to look for Foreman Bristol.  He explained that they’d been clearing out some ruins ready for construction and some of his men had found an opening in to an old basement.  They said they’d heard noises coming from down below and got scared.  The men don’t want to work there until it’s been made safe.  This sort of thing happens now and again and its usually just rats or the wind.  Sometimes it’s wolves that found another way in or perhaps badgers that have tunnelled up.  There was that one time some Ankhegs had made a nest in a cellar, but that sort of thing almost never happens.  It’s definitely never ghosts.  Any time there’s unexpected noises at a ruins some idiot always says it must be ghosts and they’re always wrong.  Anyway, if they go in and its rats or its nothing, he’ll give them 2gp a piece for five minutes works.  It’ll be the easiest money they ever make.  If it’s more and they make the place safe he’ll give them 200gp for what’ll still likely be a quick job.  They decided thy had nothing more immediate to do, so Foreman Bristol lead them over to the ruins and the cellar opening.

DM: And that’s where we ended things.  Next week they head down to deal with a couple of rats.  It’s totally not ghosts.  Never ghosts. No sirree!

SPOILER WARNING: This week are playing through the DMs Guild module “The Haunt 2”.  If you think you might end up playing it please stop reading and skip this and the next session or two.  We played through the first module months ago, back in S15-17.  The party have no idea this isn’t part of the main adventure, and may not even know The Haunt is a small series.

Karson, Bilba and Reidoth couldn’t make it this week.  The party has no dedicated healer, which makes this interesting/challenging. 

We are playing this map with Dynamic Lighting enabled again, meaning people can’t see through walls or without a light source or Darkvision.  This restricts what the player can see to what the characters can see, which is great if it works properly.

Roll20 assigns everyone a colour when they log in so when anyone draws on the map you can tell who drew what.  I’ve realised it assigns the same colours to the same people week after week, so I’ve colour coded everyone’s tokens so they are easier to identify at a glance.

Looking down in to the uncovered basement, Karson cast Aid on himself, Ramond, and Melandrach.  Then, Araloth, Melandrach and Karson went to scout ahead down the stairs.  The only light down there came from behind them, but they all had Darkvision.  The stairs led down into a 10-foot-wide hallway. Double doors led to the south, while a chamber appears to open to the east.  Moving past the double doors, and into the chamber to the east, the corridor opened around a corner to the south, revealing a rectangular area. Rotten wooden chairs orderly lined the walls, as if waiting for someone long gone to sit in them.  At the southern end of the room sat the broken remnants of a desk with a hole about a foot wide visible in the back. A similar chair, in similar condition, sat behind the desk.

They held back from exploring and ushered the rest of the party down quietly.  With no immediate danger they decided to open the doors before searching the room.  The doors opened in to a long crossroads corridor with more double doors opposite.  Araloth and Melandrach explored ahead while Karson kept an eye on the waiting room and entrance, revealing the full cross junction.  The opted to explore west, reasoning it was probably a dead end.  The party moved up while the scouts checked the door, finding only a horrible smell.  Ramond opened it, revealing a room holding eight beds. Despite decades of disuse, the room is still home to four desiccated corpses, which lie in the beds where they likely died.  Four large pools of old vomit remained on the floor.  As the doors opened they were hit by the bottled up foul stench finally being released.

As Ramond cautiously edged in, Aaloth found a tiny fleck of stone and threw it at the nearest vomit pool, and it stuck and slowly sank in.  When Ramond drew adjacent, a jet of vomit rose up and launched itself straight at Ramonds face.  Little bits of vomit got in his mouth and seemed to move around in there.  He spat it out and the little bits reformed with the larger spout, now formed up like a serpent.  Melandrach hit it with a Sunbolt, then ran in to punch and flank it from between two beds.  Thorivor hit it with two arrows as Araloth stepped up and cut it down.  He then asked where Ramond wants him to stand, expecting more vomit monsters from the other pools.  (DM: Last session during the long chat there had been a chat about Araloth’s fighting style being very unhelpful as he always jumps out after each attack.)  Ramond said there were no good places.  The others outside the room moved up as best they could.  Talindra stood in the doorway and readied a Sacred Flame.  When the other pools also rose up Talinda scorched one with that spell.  They then moved up.  Two attacked and badly hurt Araloth, and the third hit Ramond.  All attacks seemed to be aimed for the mouths, like the vomit was trying to get back inside.  Ramond moved over and focussed two attacks one of the vomit monsters ganging up on Ramond, and cast Shield of Faith on himself.  His piercing spear didn’t seem to be being as effective as he would expect.  Melandrach hit Ramonds attacker with his longsword twice and a solid kick, but couldn’t quite finish it off.  Thankfully, one of Thorivor’s arrows did the job and a second nearly killed the other.  Araloth killed his injured attacker and stabbed the last one.  Near death, he then chose to back away.  Talindra stepped in to the doorway and double Blasted the last Spawn, but it wasn’t enough.  The spawn moved over and attacked Ramond, but he got his shield in front of his face in time.  Ramond then struck it down with two swings of his spear.

(DM: They had to make regular con saves to avoid being poisoned by the foul smell during this fight. None of them could make a save.  This becomes a running theme for the whole session)

With the threats dead, and the smell slightly less dreadful, Araloth took a swig of his magical rum flask to remove the taste of stale vomit from his mouth, and got his second wind.  He asked where Reidoth was when he needs healing, while eyeing Talindra and Ramond.  They quickly discussed if they wanted to explore the room, or keep pushing forwards and chose to keep moving whole Ramond’s spell is active.  They ensured the desiccated bodies were definitely dead, and headed towards the doors to the east. (DM: Bilba, Karson and Reidoth never made it in to the fight.  As they move across the corridor to the other doors no one lays eyes on those three.  Mostly, no one comments on this IC.  I’m giving them a half-pass on this as they must know I’m just getting them out of the way as their players are AWOL, but a reaction would have been nice at some point)

Melandrach listened at the new door and heard a low buzzing / droning noise on the other side.  Ramond opened the door.  Three tubs filled with rusty stagnant water lined the western wall, two were made of iron, the third was constructed of tarnished copper.  Small braziers beneath each tub, once used to heat this water, now sat filled with only ashes and rust. A swarm of mosquitos buzzed menacingly about the area. The buzzing of these creatures was extremely disconcerting as it sounded like a blending mix of flying insects and the cries of infant children. Blood splattered curtains separated this area from the eastern area beyond.  Ramond used his Divine Sense, and registered only a low level latent evil in the air all around, but nothing in particular beyond that.  As they advanced in the swarm started to try and snack on everyone.  As they flew in to his face and tried to drink him, it became too much for Melandrach and he became scared by it all.  The party defended themselves and quickly made short work of the swarm.

Melandrach regained his composure and went to listen and the filthy curtain, and said he could hear a child crying.  He pushed through the curtain in to the next room, and Ramond did the same.  Talindra then used prestidigitation to draw the curtain fully to one side before anyone else could walk through.  This revealed a long room with floor tiles missing, exposing ancient floorboards.  A series of beds and bassinettes lined the opposite wall.  The bed in the northeast corner was splattered with fresh, wet blood. The faint sound of a baby crying could be heard from the bloodied bassinet next to this bed.  Melandrach made to head towards the baby, but Ramond asked him to stop, pointing out it isn’t in any immediate danger.  Ramond cast Divine Sense and picked up a faint red fiendish glow from each of the bassinettes, and a stronger one from the one with the baby in it.  Melandrach surveyed the room, and then walked slowly towards the baby.  As he was walking over the exposed floorboards, the wood gave way under him and he began to fall.  He reacted quickly and was able to grab hold of the tiled floor before he could fall much past his waste.  He could feel his legs moving freely in an open space below.  Ramond inspected the exposed floorboards and discovered they were all rotten and weak, while Melandrach pulled himself up with the aid of a rope from Talindra.  Talindra sent her Familiar in to the narrow hole to inspect below, and looked through the owls eyes.  Below was a dark room, with many humanoid shapes within.  There were lots of people with loose fitted straightjackets running around excitedly, trying to jump up towards the hole, way beyond their reach.  In the midst of them was one stationary figure.  A woman in an old nurse’s uniform, her head bowed, hair over her face, and her hands tucked in the opposite sleeves.  She did not move or react at all, and she creeped out Talindra.  None of the people looked quite right, or healthy.

Ramond went to look inside the nearest bassinette.  It was empty, but filthy.  Araloth went back to the previous room, emptied his cantina, and filled it from one of the filthy tubs.  He then poured it in to the bassinette just north of Ramond’s one to see what would happen, but nothing interesting occurred.  Talindra cast Light on a bit of timber that had fallen off of Melandrach and gave it to his owl.  She then took possession of her familiar again, used it to drop the Light off towards the north, and then flew it over at ceiling height to peer in to the crying bassinette.  Ramond advised everyone to be ready to shoot whatever rose up in response.  As she drew near she could see a baby curled up with its back towards the room, except it looked a little big to be a baby.  More toddler or young child sized, but with the chubby proportions of a baby, almost swollen.  It was crying and wailing, and it turned over to look towards the owl.  Its eyes were big and black.  As it stood up in the bassinette its mouth began to open revealing needle like teeth and a grin that reach almost to the ears; far too far to be human.  Its mouth opened wide, possibly dislocating its own jaw, and unleashed a bloodcurdling scream that hurt everyone’s ears, and killed the familiar, who vanished from reality.  The previously empty bassinettes then began to slowly fill with bubbling blood.

Dodging the faulty floorboards, Melandrach took a few steps towards the evil baby and threw four Sunbolts at it, hitting three times.  Thorivor critically hit it with a thunder arrow, enough to kill it.  As the arrow boomed, the blast knocked it backwards and the body fell down out of sight, between the bassinette and the bed.  Then, out of the bumbling bloody bassinettes, five more evil babies arose and attacked the nearest enemy, biting Araloth and Melandrach.  The party coordinated and defended each other, and were able to cut down the toddlers before they could act again.  As they died, the blood stopped bubbling and the room went calm again.

They had a long chat about what to do next.  Talindra proposed clearing the below room from up here.  They could make the hole bigger and pepper them with arrows, or drop down oil and ignite it.  They agreed fire could be dangerous to everyone.  While they liked the plan of attacking from safety, the decided to explore and see if they could find the way down to that room so they could potentially attack from two angles when the time comes.  They decided to head through the south exit of the mosquito room for now.  Melandrach listened at the door, but didn’t hear anything from the other side.  While he was doing this they all heard a scream from behind them, in the general direction of the entrance.

They headed back the way they had come looking for the source of the scream and arrived at the stairs out without seeing anyone.  They noticed that they could no longer see the sky or sunlight from up the stairs.  There appeared to be a dimly lit room up there now, where before there had been their entrance.  They also realised they should have passed Karson, Bilba, and Reidoth but there had been no sign of them for a while now.  Melandrach, Ramond and Araloth went up the stairs to explore while Talindra and Thorovir covered the rear.  They found themselves in a large chamber containing three overstuffed couches of fine make, but in ill repair. Tapestries depicting the heroic works of a lady in armour adorned the walls, but had long faded and were thick with dust and dirt.  The room was evident with faded, rotten luxury.  There were two large windows that were too dirty to see through but allowed some dim light in.  Ramond beckoned the others to come up.  He then tried to clean a window to see out, but whatever was blocking vision must have been on both sides of the glass.  He grabbed his spear and tried to smash the glass, but it just bounced off, not even chipping it.  Melandrach listened at the western door, but heard nothing.  He then tried to open the door, but for whatever reason he couldn’t grab the handle.  Either he hand was passing through it, or it was just sliding straight off.  He couldn’t quite decide.  Meanwhile, Talindra tried to use prestidigitation to clean both sides of a window, but couldn’t improve the visibility.  Talindra announced that she thinks they’re in a pocket dimension.  Araloth listened at the southern double doors, but heard nothing.  He tried the handle and could get a grip, but he didn’t open it yet though.  Ramond tried the eastern door and had the same experience as Melandrach.

The got in position, and Ramond opened the southern door, into another crossroads corridor. Oil paintings depicting a girl, two women, a man in military uniform, a nurse, and an infant hung on the walls in this hallway. The oil paintings hurled insults, taunts, and dark prophecies as they passed down the corridor.  They realised they recognised some of these figures.  The beautiful woman was the dark adviser Gertrude, who had turned out to be a hag living in a seemingly abandoned house in Neverwinter Wood.  They had stopped there to avoid a storm a month ago.  They had seen the ghost of a little girl get murdered by an evil doll there.  She was in one of these painting too.  Her father, General Montarthas was the military man.

They headed down the western branch and Melandrach listened at the doors.  He then tried the handle.  The latch released, but the door wouldn’t open, like it was blocked from the other side.  They tried the other two doors with the same result.  The debated forcing a door, but Talindra said she thought this would be like at the manor.  They’d need to do things elsewhere in the house to open these doors.  They headed back down the stairs, to the mosquito room door they were going to try earlier.

Ramond opened the door in to a large room.  Six beds lined the eastern and western walls. Next to each bed was a small table covered with bizarre, rusted medical equipment.  In the south western most bed a shape could be seen; a man without arms and legs.  He reacted to the newcomers and called out for help.  He tried to sit himself up but couldn’t.  He said he was in a lot of pain.  The party entered the room but kept well away from him.  He kept calling out for aid.  Ramond cast Divine Sense and could tell he was undead.  They asked him what had happened to him, and he said the people who run the place had taken his limbs and it hurt bad.  It hurt to shout too.  Could they come closer and he’d tell them more.  No one was buying it.  They cautiously advanced and Ramond got his spear ready to use its Entangle power on him.  As he got adjacent, the body made a poor attempt at a lunge to bite Ramond, so he ran him through with his spear and a Divine Smite, killing him.  Talindra inspected a tray of rusty tools and concluded they were designed to inflict pain, rather than for medicinal purposes.

They explored through the last door from this room and found a set of stairs leading down.  As they approached the bottom the temperature went through a sharp drop, and there was a large patch of mould at the bottom which caused them concern.  Rather than walk through it, the party held back as Melandrach took a running jump over it.  As he passed nearby the cold became painful and damaged him.  When he landed he had frost formed on his face and hair.

Araloth tried to cover the mould with his cloak to see if that blocked off the cold effect, but it didn’t.  Talindra took a good look at the mould and realises she had seen something like this once before.  It is Brown Mould.  It feeds on heat, sucking it out of everything around it.  It is killed by cold.  They didn’t have access to any cold magic so they thought on this for a while and came up with a plan.  They tore up some mattresses from the previous room and made a series of small pre-bonfires leading up the stairs and in to a corner of the previous room.  Everyone got out of the way and Talinda used magic to ignite the fires one by one.  The mould grew to expand over and consume the new fire, and then died off where it had been before once the new heat could not sustain its new size.  She did this again and again, until it was out of their way.

DM: it was very late and so very very hot.  We ended the session there, with the party trapped in a weird house and three of their numbers missing.

Araloth was a maybe this week so I kept thinking he could turn up mid-session, but he never did, so we just kinda ignore his existence this week.  Reidoth and Bilba had to back out at short notice too, so once again, they have no dedicated healer.

There are some effects that can happen that trigger mechanical and RP changes that I don’t want the players knowing about until any advance warning can’t affect their behaviour.  There are times I’m rolling saves for them and not telling them.  There are times I’m tracking effects and not telling them.  There are times I’m whispering individuals with partial information about what their character is aware of and asking them to RP it as they see fit and apply any rules without tipping off the others so they have to figure stuff out in character.  When the visions happen, I sent them and the pics to only the relevant player and asked them to not share the text, but feel free to relay it in their own words.  The character wouldn’t have it written down, after all.

With the Brown mould moved out of the way the party went back down to the sub-basement and met back up with Melandrach.  They discussed which way to go, reasoning the northern doors at the far end of the corridor likely opened in to the room Melandrach almost fell in to before.  They know this room contains lots of enemies so they chose to ignore it for now and focus on the open corridor ahead first.  Around the corner there appeared to be an oil stain on the floor.  The corner beyond that seemed to be getting darker still, despite night vision.  Melandrach and Ramond advanced cautiously towards the stain as the others gathered at the corner.  Ramond went to poke it with his spear.  As he reached out it rose up and started to take form and grow.  As it did so, its colour faded from oily black to a grey.  A short fight ensued as it tried to lash out with pseudopods and psychic attacks with little effect.  Melandrach attacked it with his longsword, which is now showing evidence of corrosion.  No other weapons show damage.

As the oil creature dissolved and evaporated, a single piece of folded paper appeared out of its remains.  Ramond unfolded it and looked at it.  The life appeared to leave him as his eyes went blank and his body went limp, but didn’t fall.  Melandrach went over, took the paper from his hand and asked him if he was OK, getting no answer right away.  After a few moments, Ramond appeared to wake up, but couldn’t see at first.  When he recovered he relayed what had happened:

His vision had blurred and everything felt both immediate and far away as he become aware of a horrific wailing, like the pained cries of childbirth. As he look around, his surroundings begin crumbling to ash, the ashes being pulled up into the sky and revealing Carol Anne, the girl from Montartha Manor who had been killed by the Evil Doll.  She was playing with the lifeless, limp doll in the main hall of Montarthas Manor. Hearing the sound of splashing water come from the second floor, Carol Anne picked up the doll and slowly crept up the stairs, towards the Guest Wash Room. As she crept toward the slightly ajar door, the only sounds were her tiny footfalls and her increasingly deep breathing.

When she reached the door, Carol Anne paused in fear, hugging the Evil Doll close for comfort. After a beat, she pushed the door open, revealing her mother, the woman from the delivery room, lying in a bloody bathtub with slashed wrists. Her eyes, now drained of life, coldly stare back at Ramond.

His vision had blurred and filled with a blood-red light, rendering him blinded temporarily, before his sight returned to normal and he found himself back in the room with his allies.  (DM: He took some psychic damage too)

No one else inspected the page, but Melandrach kept hold of it.

With the oil monster defeated and Ramond recovered, they carried on down the corridor.  Around this new corner everything grew darker.  Even Darkvision and magical light sources seemed to be affected, like something was sucking the light out of the room.  In the darkness they could see half a dozen cat sized maggots with human faces that seemed to be sliming their way over a prone figure.  They reacted to the new people and most of them hungrily started to inch their way towards the new food.  Once again, Ramond and Melandrach blocked the corridor and led the fight.  Before the maggots could get close, Melandrach blasted one with four Sunbolts, nearly killing it, and called out a battle cry.  This seemed to wake the prone figure at the back.  As it started to move and most of the Maggots got off of it, they recognised it as Karson.  He picked himself up slowly, a little confused, and between the group they killed the maggots in a couple of rounds, taking a some damage between them.  With everyone wounded and sore and no sign of their missing healer, they decided to retreat back to the ground floor room with the couches and take a short rest.  Besides, this corridor was making them feel uneasy.  The darkness seemed to be sucking their motivation along with the light.

They went upstairs and Talindra cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut to keep everyone safe.  Karson revealed he had no memory of what had happened to him since they last saw him.  They had a long chat about how to proceed and what they thought might be going on, referencing Montarthas manor.  They agreed that a greater presence must be in the place somewhere, that had yet to reveal itself and they needed to be prepared to deal with whatever appeared.  Melandrach produced the child’s drawing and had a look at it.  He had a similar experience to Ramonds, and they all agreed not to look at it again, instead of passing it around as they were about to.

With the rest over, they went back down to the area of darkness and headed towards the double doors at the end of the corridor.  Ramond tried to open them but they were locked.  Karson told him to stand aside, and two good swings from his magical axe, Hew, had the doors open.  Inside the room, it was immediately obvious this was once a beautiful chapel. Now, however, the room contained broken pews and shreds of rotten tapestries were scattered across the floor. At the southern end of the old chapel sat a broken altar. In front of the altar were shattered holy symbols and tools of divine ritual splayed out across the floor. Sat in the centre of the shattered altar was a badly beaten and bloodied humanoid winged creature.

The group held back in the doorway and Ramond approached.  The figure appeared to be breathing, but otherwise not aware of his surroundings.  Ramond cast Divine Sense, but it didn’t register anything beyond the latent background evil of this place.  No celestial presence, which it should have registered.  The angel turned to face him while Ramond processed this.  It reached out its hand slowly towards him.  The hand morphed it to a slick red cudgel and hit him.

Karson ran in to flank the false angel and laid in to it.  It lashed out at him, but then something red began to rise and bubble up through the pew near the door.  A big red slime like creature engulfed the pew and attacked Melandrach.  One swipe from a gloopy limb, hit hard and his response was to fall over maniacally laughing.  The creature also lashed out psychically, hurting him further, and then split itself in two, with its new self becoming a perfect replica of Melandrach.  The Angel did not appear to be taking any damage so Ramond moved over to attack the red blob, taking a free strike in the process.  Talindra took one look at what was going on and panicked.  She backed slowly away from the combat doing nothing, mumbling about how it was all hopeless and they needed to get out.  Everyone took their shots at the red blob, and it attacked Ramond, also cloning him.  The Angel hit at Karson and the Melandrach clone attacked Ramond too, having taken a few swing at the retreating Talindra.  Shortly after Ramond was able to Smite the blob to death, and its clones dissolved in to little red pools.

Melandrach and Talindra regained their composure and rejoined the group .  They were badly hurt so she summoned the Tiny Hut and they had a rest here.  While she was casting Karson had a good look around the room.  The holy symbols appeared to have been broken intentionally and seemed to relate to Ilmater.  The other doors would lead back to near the stairs.  They were broken though.  They had fallen on their hinges and were likely wedged in place, but had created a small gap at their bottom through which someone could crawl.  They had a short rest and discussed all the information they had.  They decided that something bad had happened to the Montarthas family, and that this had once been a hospital and that someone had abused it to cause as much pain and suffering as possible.  They also decided that they wanted to deal with the room Melandrach almost fell in to next and expected a big fight.  Talindra was creeped out by the stationary nurse figure in there and expected bad things to come.

DM: They reasoned it’d be a long fight next and we were looking at the clock.  It wasn’t too late just yet but it would be after a long fight so we ended things there.  Hopefully next week we’ll at least have out healer back.  They’ve used up all their hit dice for healing and what little they have left they’d rather save for bringing people back from death saves rather than combat healing.

We had everyone but Araloth in attendance this week, which is great.  His character is hanging around and just being ignored by the world until the player turns up.

They came up with a plan to open the North eastern doors of the sub-basement with Talindra throwing in a web immediately before anything could act.  They headed down there, everyone took up positions reading attack actions.  Talindra was ready to cast Web the moment Melandrach called out.  Mel tried to open the doors, but they were locked, and appeared to be reinforced extra strength doors.  They decided to open the only other doors down here first instead of try and pick the lock or beat down the doors.

They took up similar positions around the North Western doors, and Melandrach swung them both open.  Inside, the room was filled with dry rotted wooden furniture, rusty medical equipment, and filthy, desecrated texts.  A few old rotten trolley beds were pressed up against the walls.  On two of these beds they could see people strapped down and unconscious.  This was Bilba and Reidoth!  There were four other stationary figures around the room, dressed in old nurse uniforms, heads hung low, with their hands rested inside the opposite sleeves.  They did not react in any way to the intrusion and remained motionless, like statues.  Melandrach told the group what he could see.  Ramond pointed out that they had seen evidence that people tied to beds round here got tortured so they needed to go get their friends now.

Ramond went in to the room first and disturbed a rat near the doorway.  It ran towards the back of the room past one of the motionless nurse figures.  There was a flash of movement and the rat was diced and cubed in a splash of blood.  The nurse’s head was raised revealing pupil-less milky white eyes, and her hands were out, revealing elongated figures with long razor sharp claws.  After a moment she slowly reverted to her resting pose, not reacting to anyone else.  Ramond moved towards the nurse and attacked her with his spear.  Talindra stepped in to the doorway and took in the scene.  She cast Hypnotic Pattern covering the other three nurses, Bilba and Reidoth, but could feel no feedback through the upkeep of the concentration spell. (DM: We couldn’t tell if the caster knows if the spell has worked or not but its concentration so she’s still connected to it.  We made a call) She backed up saying her spell was useless.  The shouting appeared to wake Bilba, who looked around her and tried to reach for a dagger from her belt to cut herself loose from the old leather restraints.  The Nurse lashed out at Ramond, but he got his shield up in time.  The others remained at rest for now.  Thorivor put four arrows in to it over his shoulders.  Seeing this, Melandrach couldn’t control himself.  Laughter rose up through him, making him incapable of doing anything else.  Karson ran in to beside Ramond and attacked the same nurse.  The nurse behind him sprang to life and dragged her claws down his back so hard there was a shower of blood and he continued to bleed badly.

Ramond hit and Smote his nurse twice and then Talindra threw an Eldritch blast at each active nurse, killing Ramonds target.  Bilba was able to reach her dagger and started to cut on her straps.  The nurse took another swing at Karson and left him bleeding out on the floor.

Thorivor moved behind Talindra and put two arrows in to the active nurse while Melandrach continued to laugh uncontrollably nearby.  Ramond dragged the unconscious Karson out of the room, dropping him in the corridor behind the laughing Melandrach.  He then called out to see if the enemy reacted to purely ranged attacks as there had been some chat about this.  Talindra cast mage Hand and sent it to undo the buckles holding Bilba in place.  She jumped out of the bed and tried to Disengage from the nurse to join the others, but it lashed out anyway, missing her.  Bilba put an arrow in to the nurse on her way out of the room.  Talindra also put a minor heal in to Karson as this happened.  The injured nurse ran forwards and attacked Bilba, ignoring the more accessible target in front of her.  Her claws cut so hard blood spurted out of her, the blood loss doing more damage and she continued to bleed.  The other nurses moved 20 feet towards Bilba before stopping and seeming to eyelessly study the room around them.  Thorivor put two arrows in to this Nurse.  With all the shouting and screaming Reidoth finally woke up, took one long around him and Wildshaped in to a small spider.  He ran up the wall, along the celling and then Misty Stepped to behind the party.

Karson drank a healing potion as Ramond stabbed the nurse twice.  Talindra was now face to face with the nurse and was realising that it seemed to be completely focused on Bilba and possibly ignoring everyone else, and the others seemed to have been chasing her.  She took her chances and Blasted her, hitting with one and missing with the other.  She reacted to the impact and turned to face towards Talindra.  Her milky white eyes appeared to be looking over her left ear, but were hard to read precisely.  Bilba tried to back up while aiming her bow, but the nurse lashed out and left her unconscious and bleeding on the floor.  The two nurses in the room moved to where spider-Reidoth had last been and made attacks towards the ceiling.  The other one tried to head towards Bilba, but bumped in to the wall and Talindra and slashed out at the wall, leaving marks in the stone.  Thorivor put two arrows in to the confused nurse, as Melandrach, composure regained, killed her with a borrowed Longsword.  He then stepped over her corpse to defend the doorway.  Reidoth leant over and healed Bilba, as Karson readied his bow to shoot any nurse that advances towards an ally.

“We cannot rest while they remain to threaten us”, said Ramond as he ran in to attack a Nurse who was busy attacking where Reidoth had teleported from.  As he drew near, both nurses’ heads snapped to focus on him.  Talindra spoke up, “I think they’re drawn to movement”.  Talindra joined the fight with a couple of Eldritch Blasts and Bilba got up of the floor at shot Ramond’s nurse too.  The injured nurse swung at Ramond but missed.  The other stepped up and Karson shot at her, but it went wide.  She also swung and missed Ramond.  Thorivor put two more arrows in to the hurt nurse as Melandrach threw four Sunbolts in to the room, missing three times but hurting the nurse once.  He moved in to engage the uninjured nurse, ready to provide flanking later.  Reidoth moved over to heal Karson, who thanked him saying he was getting ready to “commit stupid”, and Reidoth begged him not to.  Karson walked in to engage the nearest nurse and sent out his sword Talon to provide flanking against both nurses in its Hawk form.  He swung his axe at the uninjured nurse and had Talon attack the other.  He injured both, but then the healthier nurse spun around and killed Talon, who quickly reappeared as a sword in Karson’s hand.

Ramond killed his nurse and the other one swung at him, missing again (DM Ramond has got lucky a lot today).  He stepped over to flank the final nurse, making his five foot step as over pronounced as possible, trying to draw its attention.  Talindra double Blasted the nurse and Bilba sunk an arrow in to it.  The nurse slashed out at Karson, but he was just out of reach.  Thorivor shot her and Melandrach stabbed her and then “engaged dancing steps” and took the long way around the room to flank her from the other side.  Half way around her head snapped to them and she seemed to focus on him.  Reidoth stepped in to the room and threw a flame at her, but missed.  Karson raised his axe high and brought it town in to her head, splitting the skull open.  She fell to her knees and then flopped on to her face, lifeless on the floor.

(DM: My party the surprised me by going heavy in to IC chat once again.)  They had a catch up, telling Reidoth and Bilba what had happened.  They tried to work out what was wrong with Melandrach causing him to break down laughing.  They wondered if it was a curse, perhaps.  Ramond was convinced he’d seen reference to the god Loviatar, the Maiden of pain earlier in the chapel, and tried to wrack his memory for any curses or anything they are known for that might do this.  He realised the chapel had no icons to Loviatar in it, but couldn’t work out where he’d got that idea (DM: He’d had a short lived memory drain effect last session that the short rest had cleared, but he was RPing up residual effect every chance he got).  Reidoth gave Melandrach a check over, making Religion and perception checks, but could only conclude that he looked tired, sweaty and unwell.  They asked Talindra to ritually cast Detect Magic to see if they could pick up anything on Melandrach.  While he was casting this Karson and Bilba searched the room.  It was full of old medical texts books and journals.  They found one that would work as a Dummies Guide to Medicine (DM: It’s basically a portable trainer.  Sink in a month of downtime or 20 mandays of reading and gain the proficiency), which someone had scribbled in the margins of with suggestions of how to inflict the maximum pain for the minimum damage and other creepy nastiness.  Karson took that for later.  With everyone moving around the room generating an occasional draft, he also noticed a piece of paper on the floor billowing enough to reveal colour crayon on the other side.  He carefully picked it up so as not to look at it, and put it in Thorivor’s Bag of holding.  Talindra’s Detect magic didn’t reveal anything and she huffed out of the room announcing that was a complete waste of her time.  Melandrach went after her to try and raise her spirits.  As a group they explained to Reidoth about Montarthas Manor, as he hadn’t been with them at the time.  Ramond took the lead on some of this and seemed to have some details muddled.  They explained about Gertrude the Hag, the Evil Doll, and about the Montarthas family, all of which they’d seen reference to here.

DM: They spent a long time doing a lot of cracking IC RP here and I can’t remember it all.  They really impressed me today and do so again later after the next scene.

When they were ready, they headed back to the locked door and got ready to do their readied web SWAT breaching technique.  As Bilba was pulling out her lockpicks Thorivor, far up the back, let out a whelp and a scream as something had landed on him from above and was trying to attack him.  As they spun around they could make out a roughly cat sized shape moving around on his back that they couldn’t get a clear look at.  The shape continued grab hold of him and move around as he tried to grab it.  They heard a small, but angry and ragged voice call out, “Give me back my drawings!  You can’t have them!”  As it ran around on his back slashing and punching, but missing, parts of it came in to view.  They could make out a mess of matted hair, and a porcelain face with multiple spiderweb fractures all over it.  Some of the cracks seemed almost melted like heat had been used to try and fuse them back together.  The evil doll had survived!

Reidoth commanded the doll to Grovel, but she did not react.  He shouted out, “Evil Doll on his back!”  Melandrach took one look at this and burst out in cackling laughter once again.  Realising he couldn’t get a good reach to grab a small moving target from his back, decided to throw himself backwards on the floor and pin her under his weight, which succeeded.  With the doll partially visible from under Thorivor.  The party moved up and began stabbing at her while she continued to demand the return of her drawings.  Ramond pulled his drawing out of a pocket and held it out, still folded.  He offered it to her if she stopped fighting.  She continued to shout out and try and wriggle free.  Bilba and Talindra attacked her again before she could wriggle enough to gain movement.  She stabbed at Thorivor once and vanished entirely under him.  A moment later the lump in his back vanished and he fell to the floor.  The doll had vanished.  Thorivor picked himself up and Ramond asked for the drawing from his Bag of Holding.  They needed more information and he was going to chance a vision.  Karson was behind Thorivor and found the doll had left behind a third drawing under him when she had vanished.

Ramond looked at the drawings one at a time and relayed his experiences to the group.  After each vision he tore the drawing in half, and then Melandrach burned it.  They also did this with the first drawing they’d already “used”.

Nurses Drawing:

Your vision begins to blur and everything feels both immediate and far away as you become aware of a horrific wailing, like the pained cries of childbirth. As you look around, your surroundings begin crumbling to ash, the ashes being pulled up into the sky and revealing the young, blond girl running down a hallway towards closed doors. Screaming can be heard from behind the door. She presses her way through the door, to see a bloody woman lying on the delivery bed, weeping uncontrollably. Two nurses stand at the foot of the bed, one holding the stillborn child.

Gertrude stands next to General Montarthas, who sits in a chair, weeping.  Seeing the girl run into the room, Gertrude steps toward her.

“Carol Anne,” Gertrude says. “You needn’t be in here child. Come. Let’s go.”

Gertrude takes Carol Anne by the hand and begins to lead her out of the room. Carol Anne looks over her shoulder and sees the nurses pass the baby between each other. The baby’s face is a twisted mask of pain and agony, with bulbous black eyes and a smile filled with clusters of needle-like teeth.

Your vision blurs and fills with a blood-red light, rendering you blinded temporarily, before your sight returns to normal and you find yourself back in the room with your allies.

Doll’s Drawing:

Your vision begins to blur and everything feels both immediate and far away as you become aware of a horrific wailing, like the pained cries of childbirth. As you look around, your surroundings begin crumbling to ash, the ashes being pulled up into the sky and revealing Carol Anne playing with the lifeless, inert Evil Doll on the floor of the hallway outside the Sanitarium. Gertrude walks up, carrying a swaddled child. Carol Anne looks at Gertrude with tears in her eyes and asks, “Is that my brother?”

“It is,” Gertrude replies. “He did not survive the birth, but I have ways of fixing such problems.”

With that, Gertrude leans down and lays the blanket on the floor, revealing a baby with empty black eyes and a needle-like sharptoothed grin.

“I promised you a present, didn’t I,” Gertrude asks as she stands up.

Overcome with joy, Carol Anne leans forward and hugs the demon-infant. She then introduces her dolly to the deformed baby while Gertrude watches with a perverse, evil grin.

Your vision blurs and fills with a blood-red light, rendering you blinded temporarily, before your sight returns to normal and you find yourself back in the room with your allies.

Ramond relayed the vision in his own words and they had another long IC chat about what they could mean and how their tied in to their past experiences both here and at Montarthas manor.  Again, Ramond played with the failing memory part and got some older details a little wrong.  Everyone did a cracking job and embraced the spirit of what was going on.  Reidoth asked if they were sure if The Hag Gertrude was definitely dead.

It was late and opening another door would trigger a long scene so everyone agreed to call it for the week.

Gerry, in the uHH you said you thought I’d already had a Golden Button for this project.  I haven’t.  Do with that information what you will….

No Melandrach this week so his character is busy dealing with laughing fits and is keeping away from the party while he does so.  Everyone else turned up though, even if that was an hour late in some cases.  Grrr!

They headed towards the last unopened door in the sub-basement and explained the plan to Araloth, who they had pick the lock and open the door.  Once he opened it he shouted out that he could see enemies inside and Talindra cast Web over the doorway and in to the room with her readied action.  Inside the room there were about a dozen people in loose fitting straitjackets with their hands unavailable (DM: Maniacs according to the module).  Their hair was wild, they were filthy, and they had no shoes on.  Towards the back of the room was another nurse, stood still.  When the door opened all every Maniac eye in the room snapped to attention on Araloth, before he backed out of the way of the incoming web.  They then executed their plan masterfully.  As the Maniacs struggled with the web everyone held back and only attacked what they could reach without going in to the room.  One Maniac made it as far as attacking Thorivor once.  He threw himself at him and managed to hook his arm loop around him so he could hang on.  He then proceeded to bite him until Talindra pumped two Eldritch Blasts in to it.  With the Maniacs all dead, the web dropped and they pelted the Nurse with ranged attacks and readied attacks when she drew near.  She didn’t get an attack in. (DM: It’s taken 44 sessions but they’ve finally come up with an excellent plan and executed it properly.  Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.  I am regretting giving them that Spider Staff a little)

With the room cleared, they had a look around inside.  What furniture had been in here had been mostly destroyed and the parts were scattered around this filthy room.  Amongst the dirt Karson caught a glimpse of a corner of paper with some crayon on it.  He called over Ramond who pulled it free, shook the dirt off and carefully looked at it, before spacing out and going limp briefly.

His vision began to blur and everything felt both immediate and far away as he become aware of a horrific wailing, like the pained cries of childbirth. As he looked around, his surroundings began crumbling to ash, the ashes were pulled up into the sky and revealed Carol Anne strapped to a bed in the Sanitarium, her crystal blue eyes wide in pain.  A nurse stood on either side of her, shoving various medical implements and arcane devices into her arms, legs, and chest.  Gertrude stepped up to the foot of the bed, carrying the lifeless and limp Evil Doll.

“Don’t struggle, Carol Anne,” Gertrude whispered. “This is for the best. You like to play, yes? This will let us play together forever! Don’t you want to play with us… forever?”

As she finished the last sentence, Gertrude’s attractive face melted away, revealing her true form, that of a twisted hag.

Carol Anne’s face turned motionless as she stopped struggling.

“Now you can play forever … in your new body” the hag cackled.

The doll in Gertrude’s arms slowly began to move as its head swivelled around to look directly at Ramond with cold crystal blue eyes. A murderous and evil grin adorned her face as she began to sing a haunting lullaby before Raymond’s vision blurred and filled with a blood-red light, rendering him blinded temporarily, before his sight returned to normal and he find yourself back in the room with his allies.

The party discussed this and the other visions and felt like they had the whole story now.  Carol Anne Montarthas is the Evil Doll, although they’ve no clue how that information might be useful.  While Ramond regained his composure, Karson went to check out the previous Nurses room to make sure all was still quite.  As he wandered in to the corridor he noticed the stars had changed.  The stairs had flattened, becoming a very steep ramp. Ectoplasm and blood were flowing down the ramp, pooling on the floor.

He went back in to the room and told the others.  They had a chat about how to proceed, given the hospital appeared to be changing.  They needed to go back upstairs, but couldn’t guarantee anything was safe up there anymore.  Everyone was running low on resources and exhausted, even though it was only nearing 4pm.  They could go upstairs and find any more drawings in the areas they didn’t search and then rest to recover after but risk facing a fight they aren’t ready for, or sleep first but then not be at full strength when they deal with whatever force is behind events.

Reidoth summoned his familiar as an owl and had her fly up the stairs.  He has not been upstairs yet so doesn’t know what to expect.  He looked through the owl’s eyes and relayed everything to the others.  The blood and slime appeared to be oozing out of the flagstone sat the top of the stairs but didn’t spread much further.  The room with the 6 beds that had the limbless zombie-thing in it remained unchanged.  The corridor towards the main entrance was a different story though.  Thick blood was seeping out of the walls and soaked the floor.  The walls seemed to have a slow rhythmic pulse to them too, and as Reidoth looked on he found his breathing synced up with this pulse, as if the walls were breathing too.  It was very disturbing, but his resolve held.  He did not send the owl down that was but through the other side door through the room with the baths and in to the room where the mutant baby things had attacked.  They were as they’d been left.  He had the owl hop down through the hole in the floor to look at himself and the others.

It’s at this point that Araloth remembered he was wearing Boots of Spider Climbing and decided he was going to walk up the walls and along the ceiling to the hole and try and pass a rope through.  He was a little careless, and the damage was less evident on this side.  He put his full weight on the rotten part of the ceiling and with nothing to grab on to, fell, taking damage and widening the hole above.

The party decided to rest the night in the Nurses room.  They had a restless night and woke up a little after midnight.  With no means to forage, they were dependant on their rations and water skins, and some Goodberries from Karson for their breakfast.  Araloth ran in to a problem here.  He’d emptied out his waterskin and filled it with rusty water yesterday.  He had nothing to drink and no one had a spare waterskin.  After some discussion, Reidoth came up with a plan and said he’d take care of him later.  Whole everyone else ate some breakfast and got ready for the day, Araloth went out to the stairs.  Using his Slippers he walked up the walls and put a few pitons in to the walls and fed a rope through so everyone else could pull themselves up.  When they were ready Karson was the one brave enough to go first.  The blood and slime soaked up to his ankles as he climbed up the slope, but with the rope in place he made it up fine.  Everyone else followed after and now everyone has gore soaked in to their shoes and socks and is leaving bloody footprints.  Karson lead the search as they went through each room, looking for anything they’d missed.  Their original plan was to clear the place and then do the looting and investigating later, and later has arrived.  They avoided the bloody corridor and checked everyone this side of it first.  They didn’t find new, although most of this was new to Karson, Bilba, and Reidoth as they had been missing when the party came here last.  In the evil mutant baby room, Araloth noticed that there was a body missing.  The first baby, the one that had screamed calling the others, was no longer there.  Reidoth ritually cast Purify Water on the copper bath and Araloth filled his waterskin (DM: And I assume everyone else topped up theirs although no one said it.  People gonna get thirsty soon otherwise!)  They then opened the door from the bath room in to the newly bloody corridor.  As they stepped out, half the party freaked out and had full blown panic attacks.  This was too much for them.  Talindra, who was looking a little tired and clammy this morning, burst out laughing and just stood there in the blood until she could bring herself to move again. Melandrach had a case of the chuckles but kept it together enough to back out of the hallway.  They all backed up in to the bath room, and after about a minute they regained their composure and were ready to face the horror.

DM: It was about 11.30pm so we ended it there, ankle deep in thick blood.

No Melandrach or Thorivor tonight so Mel is holding back for fear of being a liability due to his laughter fits, and Thorivor is guarding him.

After everyone calmed down, they headed back in to the blood soaked corridor in dribs and drabs.  Karson and Araloth led the way north with the others following up.  As they headed north a hand came out of the blood and grabbed Karson’s leg.  A bloated disfigured toddler with black eyes and needles for teeth rose up behind the hand.   Karson and Araloth fought back and found that every time they hit it there was a sharp stabbing pain in their heads.  Before anyone else could move up to assist the Evil Doll jumped out of the shadows and landed in the blood down the southern end of the corridor.  She shouted out, “I saw them first!  They’re mine!” and charged Talindra, the nearest person.  She hit her with her clawed hand and Talindra burst out laughing so hard she curled up on the floor in the ankle deep blood.  The knife was enough to end the laughing and bring Talindra to Death Saving throws. (DM: It was then Talindra turn who rolled a 1 on her death saves causing 2 out of 3 failures needed to kill her)  Ramond moved up to hit the doll, and taunted her about burning her drawings as Reidoth healed Talindra while throwing fire at the Doll.  Karson and Araloth wailed on the child while continued to take psychic damage in response while the others fought the doll.  Health was low.  Karson had drunk a potion and Araloth had got his second wind before they finally killed the child.  The doll saw this and called out, “Nooo!  What have you done to my brother?!” She then ran towards him straight in to Araloth.  Before reaching Araloth she took a dive in to the blood and vanished from sight.

The party checked the room and Karson scouted in to the reception area quickly.  Around the corner he could see the room looked the same as when they had arrived, except now a skeleton was sat at the desk.  He avoided its sight and the regrouped.  Reidoth took a minute to heal everyone back up after that tough fight.

Araloth and Ramond stepped around the corner to see the Skeleton and Ramond used Divine Sense to reveal it as Undead.  The skeleton called them losers and said, “You’re all going to die down here.  You’re doomed!”  Ramond challenged him and the skeleton went on repeatedly telling them they didn’t stand a chance and they’d all die.  The party tried to ignore it and have a chat about how to proceed but it continued to tell them about how they’d fail and die.  Karson had a little look up the stairs and a normal room could be seen.  Talindra got a little fed up with this and went over and hit the sitting skeleton with her staff.  It was unarmed and only wearing a few tatters left over from a nurses uniform.  The skeleton took the damage and did not retaliate.  “You think a stick will get you out of here alive?  You’re gonna end up worse than me” Talindra took a second swing, but missed.  Karson followed Talindra in to the room and attacked the desk with his magic axe, Hew.  With a single swing the desk broke in two, most of it crumbling from rot, scattering the draws out from under it.  The skeleton stood up out of its chair and swung its fist and Talindra.  As the fist connected, the giggles overtook Talindra once more.  Seeing the attack, Ramond walked over and killed the skeleton with his greatsword.

They took a moment to take in their surroundings, not really having given this room more than a glance before.  There were rows of chairs lining the walls, a broken desk and chair, a dead skeleton and a large portrait of a woman in armour behind the desk.  Ramond checked for a plaque for the painting and read, “Lady Margery Greycastle, Founder”.  They’d seen her image upstairs in multiple tapestries.  Reidoth checked the skeleton which had no possessions, and the broken draws.  In the draws he found a small hinged box, and a folded piece of paper with crayon on it.  They debated who should look at it and Reidoth Volunteered.

His vision began to blur and everything felt both immediate and far away as he become aware of a horrific wailing, like the pained cries of childbirth. As he looked around, his surroundings began crumbling to ash, the ashes were pulled up into the sky and revealed a young, blonde girl walking hand in hand with an older, yet beautiful woman. The girl looked troubled as she glances up at the woman.

“Why do we have to go to the hospital, Gertrude?” She asked.

“Your mother,” the elder woman answered. “She’s going to give us a present today.”

“I don’t like the hospital,” the young girl said.  “But I do like presents.”

The woman paused and crouched to look at the young girl in the eyes.

“I know,” the older woman said. “How about I give you a special present today?”

The young girl nodded. Gertrude smiled, her face warping momentarily to take on deep wrinkles, sharp teeth, and evil eyes before then returning to normal. Gertrude stood, and the pair resumed their walk.  Reidoth’s vision blurred and filled with a blood-red light, rendering him blinded temporarily, before his sight returned to normal and he found himself back in the room with his allies.

Ramond offered Reidoth a drink once he had recovered and revealed what he had experienced.  Reidoth then burnt the drawing.  They said this felt like the completion of the story.  Reidoth was concerned that the hag was somehow going to return, but Ramond insisted that they’d killed her and it wasn’t her here.  As they were having this chat they became aware of a low rumbling.  The kind of noise that creeps up on you and you don’t realise you’re hearing it a first.  A little like a large truck driving up the road past your house.  The ground began to shake a little.  They decided they needed to get up stairs quickly.  As they ran up the stairs the noise and tremor got worse, and they could hear the distant sounds of banging.  The sounds appeared to be coming from every direction.  Up the stairs they started to cross the sitting room, and a small tornado burst through the far wall.  Everything it touched came apart and turned to ash and got caught up within it.  Another one appeared through the opposite wall.  The continued to run, heading south through the ground floor of a building that hadn’t been there a day before.  More tornadoes appeared and more debris went airborne and the noise became deafening.  Some people got his by debris and got knocked prone as it all became too much.  No one could see or hear anything except the storm.

When everything subsided, they were back outside and around 30 foot south of the entrance to the basement.  Everything looked the same as before they had gone in.  It was night, but a few people could be seen watching on, including two of the junior guards that Sildhar had hired, Private Norwood Tarrenfall, and Private Merric Alderleaf.  Melandrach and Thorivor appeared to be trapped under some rubble, but everyone else appeared to be fine enough.  Ramond called out to his horse telepathically to ask id it was dark there and to call him over.  The horse responded like he’d just been woken up and agreed it was dark as it’s the middle of the night.  Before anyone could stand up, there was a shower of rubble as something burst up from the ground.  Before them, the Evil Doll could be seen. Battered and damaged, covered in wounds and dust.  The blood soaked corridor fight had left its mark on her, having stained the exposed rough ceramic within the spider web cracks of her face, from when they had killed her before.  “You ruined this!  You ruin everything!  This was my home!  You destroyed my last one and you destroyed this one!  I will destroy you!”

DM: My intention across this fight was to have the guards corral the crowd for a couple of turns and then start firing their crossbows in to help out.  Every turn I’d think I must remember to do that and didn’t until right at the end.  I’m telling you what I told my party: Pretend that happened.

Bilba unleashed an arrow in to the doll before a geyser of rubble burst through the ground under her, battering and slicing her on the shrapnel.  Reidoth stood up and stepped over to Ramond, saying, “Unleash death”, and cast Haste on to him.  Four deformed black eyed children pulled themselves out from the rubble from all around them and moved in to the group.  Reidtoh, Araloth and Ramond were attacked, and Reidoth lost his concentration on the Haste Spell.  The Doll ran up to Ramond and cut him with her knife.  Araloth attacked the child to his left before backing up and attacking the other.  The laughter overtook Talindra once again.  Ramond was overcome with exhaustion as the Haste spell collapsed and needed to get his breath back.  Karson moved away from the doll and killed both the children Araloth had damaged.

Bilba put another arrow in the doll as the area began to shake enough to make the ground unstable.  Bilba was knocked prone, and the area became rough terrain for the next round.  Panicking, Reidoth raised his Staff of Birdcalls above his head in both hands and brought it down hard on the child’s head.  There was a loud goose “Hooooonk!”, and the child died.  He then threw a quick heal Ramond’s way.  The last surviving child missed an attack on Ramond as two more children pulled themselves up out of the rubble.  One hit Bilba, while the other ran to close the distance.  The Evil Doll hit Ramond with both her clawed hand and her knife as Araloth circled around Bilbas opponent and killed it.  Reenergized, Ramond stepped to one side and Smote the doll with his Greatsword, and hit her a second time, sending stuffing and splinters of ceramic flying all around.  The doll slashed out with her clawed hand in response, but missed.  Karson ran up to flank the doll and critted with his axe.  Bilba stood up and shot the doll before another rubble geyser burst up under her, knocking her unconscious.  Reidoth healed her and swung his staff wildly at the doll.  Another child rose out of the rubble and double moved to engage Bilba as the doll hit with her clawed hand and critted with the knife, downing Ramond.  Araloth intercepted Bilba’s attacker and killed that child.  Karson drew a wile free strike as he stepped away from a child and attacked the doll, flanking with Reidoth and landing two blows.  Stuffing when flying, and a few bits of it seemed to be damp with blood.

As Bilba got up and put another arrow in to the doll, the doll caught a glimpse of Araloth, “You!  You killed me! You stabbed me a thousand times as I lay dying.  Suffer!”  The earth around Araloth moved and took the form of a giant stone hand, crushing him.  He fought back and was able to break the hand, which crumbled back to mud and rubble.  Reidoth shouted a Healing Word at Ramond and swung his staff at the doll.  The children missed their attacks against Araloth and Ramond as another pulled itself free of the ground and ran at Araloth.  Considering Ramond to be down, the doll turned on Karson and hit him with the claw, missing with her knife.  Araloth attacked each of the children around him while moving closer to the doll as Talindra overcame the cackling laughter and got to her feet and hit a child with her staff.  Ramond slashed at the doll twice, sending sprays of stuffing and some blood spatter flying.  Karson’s axe did further damage, cracking her porcelain face further and causing it to bleed a little.  She lashed out her clawed hand and critically hit Karson.

Bilba killed one of the evil children as an eruption of flying rubble appeared under Araloth, battering him.  Reidoth cast Misty Step to appear behind Ramond and the doll and threw some fire at the doll, but missed.  The two children missed as a third appeared and ran towards the fight.  The doll lashed out but missed Karson while Araloth killed his injured child and hurt the newcomer before moving closer to Talindra and Bilba.  Talindra backed away from him and Eldritch Blasted the doll twice.  The doll lashed out at Karson and raked her clawed hand down him.  Ramond hit the doll twice, landing one Smite in the process.  As the doll burned in holy radiance some of her filthy matted black hair burned away and some blonde hair could be seen through the patch.  The doll tried to retaliate but Ramond was ready and deflected the attack.

Bilba shot the doll again, who was still glaring death at Araloth.  The doll summoned another earthen hand to crush him, but he was ready and braced against it, defeating it.  Reidoth summoned the voice of Eldath and Commanded the doll to Grovel.  The children missed their attacks and a new one arose and charged towards Talindra, missing its attack.  The doll dropped to her knees to grovel and Reidoth let out a cheer.  Araloth killed the nearest child and attacked the one attacking Ramond.  The Evil Doll started to sing a creepy lullaby whole on her knees, which freaked everyone out (DM: except for Talindra who failed her save and would have triggered the laugh and some psychic damage that would have killed her.  Then I realises she was out of range and we did a quick rewind.  Every saved against the fear except Araloth)  Talindra smacked her new attacker with her staff as the guards advanced and fired two crossbow bolts at the other child landing one hit.  Ramond then critically hit the doll with a Smite.  As he pulled his blade out of her it was soaked in blood.  He swung again, critting once more.  He leaned in and shoved his blade through her neck, bending her over backwards.  He unleashed a holy smite through the blade, burning the evil within her.  With his face close to hers there was a look of fear in her glass eyes.  She blinked and just for a moment Ramond thought one eye looked human, but she blinked again and they were both glass.  Then, the head fell from its body and rolled along the floor. (DM: 82 points of damage in two swings!  Well done, Ramond!)  He then collapsed in an exhausted heap.  They made short work of the last two children and no more spawned.

DM: It is 1.30am-ish in the game and almost midnight IRL so we ended it there, tired and exhausted both in and out of the game.  We talked toot for a little bit then headed to bed.  I’ve messaged Reidoth with a mod for his Staff of Birdcalls.  He can always spend a charge to trigger it when it hits and it’ll go off for free on a crit, because why not?  It’s more fun that way.

There’s no session next week as Karson and I are away at a Warmachine tournament.  This’ll be my first game in 20 months.  I don’t remember how to play.  Hopefully we will be back the week afterwards.

We’ve had a couple of sessions recently, but since I’m back in full time work I just don’t have time and motivation to continue updating this project.  It was taking half a day to write the updates and I don’t have it in me anymore.  Life was better under Lockdown.  Can we go back please, but without the death and fear?