Well my players and I have all been armed with shiny new PHB’s and I have also bought my copy of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen too, but we continue running our Lost Mine adventure here at Tabletop Tyrants for now (I want to complete chapter 2 and have slightly modified it to link to the HotDQ Encounters adventure.
This week Patrick brought his new character and so the roll call was:
- Jon – elf mage (evoker)
- Jack – elf fighter (archer)
- Lee – elf rogue (thief)
- Patrick – half-elf bard
On Sildar’s advice they head straight to the Inn and arrange modest rooms and over hear a few grumbles about a band of thugs in town, three of whom are in the inn. Subtle as a brick Lee approached them but they quickly left. They delivered the mining equipment to Barthen’s Provisions and gathered more gossip on the thugs (called the Redbrands). Recognising the symbol of the blue lions face outside another building they inform the owner of the Lionshield Coster that several crates of their goods can be found in the goblin lair and mark its location on a map for them.
It quickly becomes apparent that most people in town are too scared to stand up to the Redbrands, though they seem scared of the owner of the Mining Exchange. Everyone points that the majority of the thugs hang around the Sleeping Giant tap-room. Again subtlety is optional as Jack and Patrick sneak up under cover while Jon and Lee march boldly down the street. Rough words are exchanged briefly before blades are drawn. At the end of the fight 2 Redbrands are dead, one is asleep and captured and the gobby leader escaped, while the heroes are Jon and Jack on their feet with Lee and Patrick bleeding on the floor. Jon uses his healers kit to stabilise them before Jack drags them to the local shrine to see if they can be healed while Jon drags their prisoner to the town hall for incarceration.
Lee and Patrick are healed and Patrick makes a huge social blunder when he notices the healer has a harp brooch similar to his own, commenting on it. Meanwhile Jon finds that the townsmaster reluctantly locks the Redbrand in the small goal.
Returning to the inn they gather their meals before retiring to their rooms, Lee had a cryptic note pushed under his door inviting him to a midnight meeting behind the Mining Exchange. He asked his allies to follow after waiting 10 minutes. His meeting proved to be with the owner of the Exchange who turned out to be a ranking member of his own faction and gave him a mission to assassinate the Redbrands leader and bring her any of his correspondence. Lee was able to head back and meet his comrades before they caught up with him. As they regrouped they spot the Redbrand Jon captured being released into the night.
Returning to their rooms they made a plan to tackle the Redbrands. Next morning Lee secretly leaves town and takes up a position in the woods where he can watch the comings and goings from Tresendar Manor’s basement. The rest of the heroes make a big show of leaving town, fully aware of a pair of Redbrands watching them, eventually heading round to meet up with Lee. They continue to watch for a few hours, seeing a quartet of figures enter, one of which is obviously a goblin. Satisifed that there are no hidden sentries the heroes head in.
They cautiously enter the cellar and after a quick, quiet search uncover a secret door that wasnt marked on the map Lee’s contact had supplied them with. Jack investigated one of the normal doors finding a trio of sleeping Redbrands, and with Lee and Patrick’s help quickly and quietly despatched the thugs. Jon was still watching the corridor beyond the secret door but everyone else headed through the door which led under the stairs and into the corridor leading up to the doors with a grieving angel carved on them. Lee spotted a pit trap and he and Jack circumvented it and passed through the doors while Patrick waited to see what would happen.
The room beyond had a three sarcophagi and a trio of skeletal remains, the heroes passed through to one of the other exits keeping a wary eye on the bones. Unsurprisingly the skeletons rose up and attacked. Despite driving them back to the doorway the skeletons were dealt with reasonably easily but when Patrick saw his allies engaged he went back to call Jon for aid. As the bard and mage caught up with their friends, they had searched the sarcophagi and smashed the remains within (just in case they too were animated) and had found a platinum ring.
The party decided to investigate one of the doors as it had a little bit of light showing from the room beyond. Listening carefully Lee could hear a woman sobbing. upon opening the door they could see the room had a cell at each end and Patrick rushed forward to aid the distressed woman – and was attacked by the pair of Redbrands that where hiding beside the doorway, their combined strikes killing the eager bard before his body even hit the floor! (Oh oh. Two sessions running and I’d killed Patrick, could this be a recurring trend?) the remaining heroes dealt with the thugs handily though at the cost of Lee falling unconscious to a lucky blow. Going through their foes pockets they find a vial of shining platinum liquid which Jon identifies as a fabled Tear of Bahamut (using one of the special items from my DM’s pack) and he risks using it in an attempt to revive Patrick. Happily the magic restores the bard to life and the heroes settle into a short rest while they await Lee to regain consciousness (We’d rolled a 1 for how long he would be out for after being stabilised).
Time had caught up with us and so we left it there, with the heroes facing a choice – do they lead the woman and her daughters to safety or leave them to their own fate while continuing to explore the Rebrands hideout. I think we’ll be able to complete this chapter in our next session and maybe begin HotDQ too, but that wont be for another fortnight, aargh! The tension is unbearable!
Jon’s own write up from his pc’s perspective is up on his blog.
vobeskhan 