We picked back up in the town of Phandalin. Nefresil and Gareth had convinced Connal, Nigel, and Dhugal to accompany them to Cragmaw Castle to search for the Dwarf, Gundren Rockseeker. The adventures had not promised any money for the help, but had heavily implied that Gundren was rich and would be willing to pay for the help.
The group made its way to Cragmaw Castle without any problems. They scouted the castle again, and determined that it would be best to enter the castle from the North, through the canvas again. The party made it inside the castle without any problems. They scouted a few rooms, before stumbling upon a pair of Hobgoblins that appeared to be on watch. Nefresil and Gareth readied bows, and fired on one of the Hobgoblins while its back was turned. After downing the first Hobgoblin, the party made quick work of the second Hobgoblin without drawing attention to themselves. They kept the second Hobgoblin alive, and drug it back out of the castle, to the woods for questioning. They tied it up, and asked about the whereabouts of Gundren. The Hobgoblin said that the Dwarf was in the castle, and in one of the towers, all of which was not helpful. Nefresil put a sword to the Hobgoblin’s throat and threatened it if they did not get better information. The Hobgoblin being a warrior to the end, opted to push his own throat onto the sword, and thus end its life, rather than talk. The adventures determined that they would have to search the castle room by room to find out what happened to Gundren. They went back into the room that contained the Hobgoblins. That room had a door barred from the outside. They opened the door, and witnessed a very angry Owlbear rise and begin to charge right at the party. Gareth was quick enough to get the door shut and barred just before the Owlbear crashed into it. The door held and the party gladly continued their search. They came to another room and could hear two voices from inside. One was a growling voice that was demanding something. The other voice was silky smooth and seemed to belong to a female. The party decided that it would benefit them to attempt to draw the creatures out of the room, rather than entering the room. They all put their backs to the wall, and at the same time both Nigel and Dhugal threw themselves against the wall causing a loud clatter to emanate from their armor. At the same time Connal grabbed his necklace, bowed his head, and said a quick incantation, casting Bless. A golden glow surrounded him and after a few seconds of the light getting brighter, the light broke into countless motes of light that went out from him and into Nefresil, Gareth, and Dhugal. Once the clatter had sounded, the door opened and a Bugbear came out to investigate the sound. He was quickly attacked by everyone in the party, and he found himself quickly sounded. During the attacks on the Bugbear, a wolf came bounding out of the room at the party. In addition, what appeared to be a female Drow was seen in the room. Nefresil was disgusted at the sight of the Drow, and the Drow was disgusted by Nefresil. However, a moment later the Drow changed and now looked exactly like Nefresil. As the battle ensued, first the Bugbear, then the wolf were killed through a combination of melee attacks and magic. During the battle Connal went into the room, and cast Spare the Dying on Gundren since he was lying on the floor unconscious and badly beaten. During the battle, Nefresil was felled as the mirror image of him spent most of the battle focusing on attacking the elf. Seeing Nefresil down, Connal ran back into the fray in order to cast Spare the Dying on Nefresil to keep him alive. Soon after the battle ended with the party victorious. Once the mirror image of Nefresil was defeated, it changed back into a blue colored creature without clothes on. Nigel quietly pointed out that it was a doppelganger.
The group decided to take a short rest here to heal up before leaving the castle with Gundren. Gundren was adamant that his map needed to be found before he would leave the castle. The party convinced him to at least come back to the forest to rest before searching the castle. Once in the woods, Nefresil and Gareth went back into the room that the Bugbear and Doppelganger were in to search it. In the room they found some coins, a trio of potions of healing, and Gundren’s map. They came back out in the forest, and gave the map back to Gundren.
The group travelled away from the castle until night. Once came was setup, Gundren pulled Nefresil and Gareth aside and confided that the map was a map to the lost mine of Phandelver. The mine of legend that was filled with both riches and magic. He and his brothers had found it, and planned to open it back up again. He then asked what had happened to Sildar Hallwinter. Nefresil and Gareth said that they had not found him, but suspected that he was back in the cave where they were originally lead to by a Goblin. Gundren implored them to help retrieve his friend and the pair agreed. The other three were not sold on the idea of this second rescue. Nigel claimed that “A man must eat” as a way of asking for more payment. Nefresil was appalled by this, and argued with Nigel, but made no headway. Gundren finally stepped in, and told Nigel that he would get plenty of money, since his friend’s life was more important than some pieces of gold. Once that was settled, everyone slept during a quiet night.
In the morning, the group travelled to the cave that contained Goblins. They had Dhugal and Gundren start a fire slightly downriver and make noise while doing so, while the rest of the group hid further north. This noise caused a pair of Goblins to leave their lookout spot to investigate. The party was able to catch the Goblins from behind and quickly dispatch them. Then everyone but Gundren entered the cave in search of Sildar. Connal cast Light on a stone so that both he and Gareth would be able to see in the dark cave. They group came across a room with three wolves, and they decided to leave them alone. They continued on and saw a path leading off to the left, but continues moving forward through the cave. They came across a bridge next that spanned the stream and connected two openings that were about 20 feet off the ground. As they moved forward they came into a room that contained a large pool of water, and a smaller pool of water, both held in by fieldstone walls that served as dams. Nefresil and Gareth recognized that those could be undimmed to cause a flood similar to what they saw a few days prior as they left the cave. The room also contained 3 goblins that were overcome, though not without Nefresil needed to drink his healing potion.
DM Recap
This session got off quicker than the last. The players made some good strategic decisions that really benefitted the group. They were able to kill 1 of 2 Hobgoblins during the surprise round, making the fight even more in their benefit. In addition, everyone was rolling well for Initiative, causing the party to all get to act first in the fight. Nefresil had some bad luck that the doppelgagner decided to focus on him and eventually knocked him unconscious. Despite that the group was able to work well together in order to accomplish their mission. It was a lot of work to run the 3 extra NPCs, and though they really helped the main party, I felt that they were on the cusp of overshadowing the PCs which I want to avoid. I think I would go about using NPCs differently in the future, but this was a good experience.
Loot and XP
The group already took possession of 220 silver, 160 electrum, and 3 potions of healing (2d4+2). In addition as a whole the group earned 2000 XP, and it will be divided into 5 equal shares, 1 each for Nefresil, Gareth, Connal, Nigel, and Dhugal. That is 400 XP each. The breakdown is:
5 Goblins @ 50 XP - 250 XP
2 Hobgoblins @ 100 XP - 200 XP
King Grol - 200 XP
Snarl (Wolf) - 50 XP
Vyerith (Doppelganger) - 700 XP
Rescuing Gundren and finding his map - 600 XP
At this point both Nefresil and Gareth have attained 2nd level. However, until the party spends an entire day in a town reflecting on their adventures, and practicing their craft, they get no benefits from leveling up. However, both players should come to the next session ready to update their character sheets to level 2 since they will have the opportunity to do so in the middle of the session.
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