3.1a Well, It's a Start

SESSION DATE: January 6, 2024
PRESENT: Rory Emberscale, Jafar, Mazira, Varkos

Deep Dive

![[Rory - 3.1a Well, It's a Start.wav]]

Adventure Photos

World Anvil Journal

sooo... i herd thomewon tawkin abowt thith kween bagnad ow thomethin and how she needth to be kild or taiken bak to uthwiwiwu i dont no ekthakwy but i wath wike yah i cud do that. tho i fownd thome peepl to help me owt AND I FOWND MATILDA WIKE WAT ITH SHE DOIN HEWE wow i didnt think i wud thee her in thith thtwange pwathe! i dont evin no how i got hewe much weth how she got hewe to but thath pwetty cool that i alweddy no thomebody hewe. tho we teemd up and fownd thome othewth to go with uth one guy jafaw and hith hok naimd yawgo and the othow one varkith and he awtho had a burd naimd thwoop.

n e way we thtawn makin ow way awong the mane wode owt of town and awong the way we wath thtopd by thomebody who thaid thewe wath bandith neerby and thewe wath a bownty on thewe weeder the kween bagnad tho we new we wath in the white thpot. varkith fownd a thpot that didn't wook white and jafaw thenth hith burd up to wook awound in the air wile we wookd on the gwownd. he fownd a ton of twap dorth in the gwound and we fownd one that wathnt dithgis... dithgdised... hidden vewy well and tho we wint down into that won firtht. it opind weel eethy and we wint in. we thaw a dor and win matilda twied to open it the durt awownd uth thtawted fawwin in. it twapped jafaw and i helpd him owt of tha durt. appawentwy that wathnt evin a weel dor becuth we thtawted heewing footthtepth cwothe to uth and owt of nowere thome gobwinth caim to fite uth. well we tuk them owt tho eethy and WHOA WIN I GIT MAD IN THITH PWATHE I GIT BIG it maid me feel pwetty gud i kinda wike it.

well we dethided to taik a quik wetht befowe we kept goin. thin we wint to anuthr whole in the gwownd and thith one wint down pwetty deep tho we uthed a wope to go down. matilda wint firtht and towd uth she cud thee thome more gobwinth down thewe tho we had to be quite tho thay wudnt no we wath hewe. well u no me i cant go n e were quitewy i fell of the wope and made thome noithe but thay mutht not been paing atenshin cuth thay didnt hewe me. woo that wath cwothe. evewyone got down hewe withowt them noing it. jafaw gav me thome whitening on my thord and tode me i had to huwwy up befow it wint away tho i wushd in AND THEWE WER THO MINY PEEPL HERE but we tuk em down eethy too. thewe wath evin a fwying pig with a buncha wegs it kinda wookd wike a bat but not weewy ith kinda hawd to ekthpwain. matilda thot she wath gonna git thome bacin haha.

well we wethted agin and thin went on thwu a dor. in the woom wath a wikthey bawwel and it wookd wike thomewon wath pwayin wowwieth cuz they wath a buncha cointh and thome gween gwowy dithe. i tuk the dithe and matilda got the muny. jafaw took thome of the withkey in hith fwathk becuz he thaid he cud make it ekthpwode. that thowndth cool. we go thwu the nektht woom and fownd a gobwin in a caig. he thaid hith name wath toblob and that he cud hewp uth find tha kween bagnad and git wid of her. he thwore he wathnt kiding and wud hewp tho we wet him owt. he thaid he nose abowt all the thecwet dorth and thewe wath even won in thith woom that wud take uth wite to her. befowe we did that tho we tuk evewything we cud find fwom all the cwateth in thith woom. thin matilda opind the dor.

THEW WATH THO MINY GOBWINTH HEWE TO MAN I DONT NO WHER THAY ALL COM FWOM but we thtawted takin them down. the kween wath in hewe to. thethe guyth hit tho hawd we did all we cud but we jutht cudnt take em down. thay knocked uth owt aftew a wong fite and thin tuk all of ow thtuff and put it thomewher and then thwew uth in the caigeth wike we wath thome kinda pwithoner ow thomethin.

dwaugniw if u can hewe me in thith weerd pwathe we need ur help man we gotta git owt of hewe thomehow.

Private Notes

• Fenrir Whipp, a human cooper and the leader of the High Road Guild of Merchants, puts out a bounty on Queen Bargnot. The merchant offers 500 gp to any band of adventurers who can capture or kill the bandit queen.
• We follow the main road out of Urithiru until we get to the first main fork in the road near Thistlebriar. In this area, we were stopped by a cooper, who told us about some bandit attacks and put out a bounty on their leader, Queen Bargnot.
• When searching for the bandit camp, Varkos finds a secluded area with bushes and trees just off the main road, close enough to be a good attacking point. He finds goblin tracks all over the place, some of which look fresh.
• Jafar sends Iago on a bit of a reconnaissance mission. As he does, we follow and find a hidden trap door. As Iago flies around, he finds even more trap doors.
• Amongst them, we find one that was quite poorly hidden compared to the others. It's easy to spot. Mazira tries to open it. It pops open easily enough. Varkos notices that this trap was particularly easy to see, without tracks nearby this one. Mazira finds inside this trap a tunnel that slopes gently down with its earthen walls supported by vertical wooden beams.
• Mazira stays with Mazira and checks around the area for other such traps. We decide to cover up the hole and catch back up to Jafar and Varkos.
• Jafar says he has an idea. He wants to cast the Light spell on a ball bearing. Sounds good to me. He throws it down one of the holes. We can see the light curve around to the left around 15 feet down, and we don't hear it hit the ground, if any.
• Jafar starts heading down. We soon lose sight of him as he curves around the same corner as the ball bearing. He tries to stealthily climb down, but doesn't do a great job.
• He flies back up to us telling us there's a wooden door. We climb the steps down with Jafar taking up the rear.
• Down we go. We do indeed find a dirty wooden door. Mazira suggests going in and opens the door.
• The door easily opens. Too easily, in fact, as the door falls off its hinges, causing the tunnel to begin collapsing. The collapse catches Jafar in three feet of loose dirt. Rory begins pulling Jafar out of the dirt by his arms, telling Mazira that she might need to start helping remove dirt from him to help. Rory is able to successfully wrest Jafar from the collapsed dirt.
• Varkos says he's able to hear the sound of soft wood on dirt to the west. Someone, or something, is beyond the door.
• Turns out the door was fake, and this was an obvious trap that we didn't find. The tunnel collapses completely, turning this into a shallow trench which poses to movement penalties. We hear some nearby goblins coming out of the nearby woods from our west. INITIATIVE!!!
  • We finish them off easily enough. Combat over.
• On them we find 28s, 34c, three shields, four sets of leather armor, three short swords, four short bows, and a dagger.
• We take a short rest before continuing.
• We find another hole and we just pick one to go down into. Jafar anchors the rope and follows us down after us.
• We open the trap door and climb down the one we chose. Mazira climbs down first. She finds a room in which a bunch of goblins are engaged in sparring exercises, whacking targets in the middle of the room. Most are younger grunt types, but two stand out. One is fairly imposing for a goblin, carrying a greataxe. The other is leading the training session. This one carries a skull item.
• Mazira motions for us to be quiet as we climb down. Rory follows since he's next in the marching order. Rory attempts with all he's worth to quietly make his way down the rope, but falls off the rope, creating quite the clatter. Varkos, then Jafar, follows.
• Luckily, it seems like nobody seemed to have noticed our presence, oddly enough.
• While standing in the small corridor we now find ourselves in, Jafar reaches out and touches Rory's greataxe, infusing it with extra lightning damage. Sweet! Jafar says it only lasts a minute, so Rory wastes no time rushing in and raging. INITIATIVE!!!
  • These minion goblins are easy enough to swing through, allowing us to cleave sometimes.
  • Varkos attempts to fire his bow at the sort of shaman goblin named Forcan. He would've hit, but the shaman goblin yells something to one of the nearby minions, causing that minion to fly across the room and land in front of him, causing the minion to take the damage instead, killing him. Oh well, at least one still went down!
  • One of the minion goblins attacks Rory then moves away and digs his claws into the dirt walls, allowing him to climb.
  • Suddenly a swarm of flying marmots with six legs and a pair of wings appears from the room to our south and attacks Mazira.
  • Swoop deftly takes care of the marmot swarm easily. Combat over.
• In the backpacks around the room, we find 36 rations, 5 silvered arrows, 90c, 23s, 58g, 11 shields, 11 leather armors, 11 daggers, one hide armor, handaxe, and a greataxe.
• We take a short rest before investigating the nearby door. Varkos searches for traps. Not finding any, Mazira opens the door and heads inside, and Rory follows.
• Inside, we smell a strong scent of liquor. On the floor are some bright green dice near a barrel. There is a stack of copper coins as well. The barrel says "Brimshire's Best" on it. Turns out to be a well-known high-alcohol-content whiskey barrel. The alcohol content is so high, in fact, that it is explosive. Jafar takes some of the whiskey in his waterskin for later use. Rory takes the glow-in-the-dark dice set.
• Mazira opens the next door. Inside are some holding cells and tons of crates marked with the various merchants they are from. In one of the cages is a goblin that asks us to release him. Jafar questions him about why we should let him out. He explains he's a prisoner. Doesn't answer our question though. He says Queen Bargnot and her cronies put him in here to give goblins a bad name. He says he's here to track her down, but he got caught. He claims he'll help us get into Bargnot's room if we just let him out. Jafar senses he's true to his word. Mazira breaks open the cage door, releasing the goblin. He says his name is Toblobb, and thanks us for releasing him. He says these crates belong to Queen Bargnot, but tells us we're free to peruse the crate's contents. He then says he knows where all the secret doors are, and shows us where two of them are in this very room, the western one leading to her quarters. We ask him what he thinks would be the best way to go. He says we should go through the western secret door. The southern one leads to a room where they keep some kind of beast meant for battle.
• In the crates, we find a Bag of holding that contains a potion of climbing, a spell scroll of cure wounds, a spell scroll of lesser restoration, and a glowing poison recipe (see below) • Monocle of secrets (see below) • 5 silvered arrows • 250 pounds of flour (worth 5 gp) • 10 pounds of ginger (worth 10 gp) • 200 pounds of salt (worth 10 gp) • 5 pounds of cloves (worth 15 gp) • 200 pounds of iron bars (worth 20 gp) • 3 pounds of saffron (worth 45 gp) • 10 square yards of linen (worth 50 gp) • 193 cp, 110 sp, and 83 gp.
• Mazira checks the western secret door for traps. Not finding any, she opens it. Inside are several goblins, along with Queen Bargnot herself. INITIATIVE!!!
  • The first time Rory enters the room, he can see several goblins clinging 15-20 feet up the walls. Trapped in the southeast corner of the room on what appears to be a dais or platform is Queen Bargnot.
  • As Rory moves up to the queen, she commands everyone in the room to attack Rory, doing quite a bit of damage to him. If he doesn't get healed soon, things are looking grim.
  • After not one, not two, but THREE back-to-back-to-back crits, Rory goes down hard. The first hit was fine. The second hit knocked him unconscious, the third one immediately made him lose two death saves. Jafar rushes to Rory's aid by giving him a healing potion, bringing Rory back to life once more.
  • Rory gets back up on his feet, uses his fire breath attack to take out as many minions as possible, and attempts to leave the room. While leaving the area, the swarm of spiders makes an opportunity attack, making contact with Rory, taking him back down. At least Rory is in the darkness, which might help.
  • During the fight, Varkos also goes down, but is able to get back up immediately after with a Nat 20 on his first Death Save.
  • Varkos goes back down soon after thanks to a crit for one whole damage. Welp... This ain't looking good now.
  • Mazira also goes unconscious. Things are very grim indeed. Jafar is the only one up at this point.
  • Rory makes his next Death Save, getting a Nat 20! At least he's up. Who knows for how long.
  • Jafar attempts to make his escape, probably the only one to do so.
  • Unfortunately, he is unable to do so and goes down as well. Combat over.
• After our defeat, instead of being killed, we are placed into the cages in which we found Toblobb as prisoners. They have taken all our items from us. We either need to come back using other characters, or wait until we're rescued by another group.

That's all for this session!