Campaign Bridge - Session 11 - Madness in Gnomengarde

 It's been a couple of months and the town has been recovering and growing since the attack.  Investors from NeverWinter have accelerated the town's development with their funding, once news of the Forge of Spells was spread.   

An Autumn Festival was held and the heroes were honored for their continued defense of the town in a ceremony where their exploits were read aloud to numerous cheers.  There were even statues of the party constructed in the town square.  OneShoe insists that his statue is still being built, but there is no sign of it yet.

The town voted to grant Reiner the ruined keep to turn into a stronghold/monastery.  Builders have asked for Reiner to provide plans for its construction, and his portion of the mine profits will begin funding it's construction.  

Innil and Vendel have also been offered properties in the town, perhaps in the woods next to the farm for a more natural theme.

Funerals were held for Tharden Rockseeker and Marigold in the new town cemetery.  In other news, it has been rumored that Halia Thornton seems to be trying to use the recent events to blame Sildar and is trying to get an election for town master to be held.  

The party also met Gwen Rockseeker, cousin of the Rockseeker brothers, whom came for the funeral and explained a lot of local history of this area of the Sword Coast.

The party rode off towards Gnomengarde on their own horses and soon came upon the ruins of an old village on the side of the road.  They encountered two strange goblins with glowing green eyes and psionic powers.  After being thrown around by the telekinetic goblins, the party defeated them, but were quite baffled by these new foes.

After following the map to Gnomengarde, the party followed the stream and it led to a large cavern filled with a lake and two islands of giant mushrooms that were being harvested by spider-like machines.  They were question by two comical guards and were allow into the gnome settlement and they encountered various gnomes engaged in amusing antics.  

They fought a mimic disguised as a barrel and barely avoided being attacked by an auto-reloading crossbow machine.  They also encountered crab-barrel excavation machines, one of which as driven by a drunk gnome that sped around the complex.  OneShoe also tried to drive one of the machines, but ended up crashing it.

A female gnome named Nyx tormented the characters with bad mushroom puns, but did agree to show them around the place, and eventually show them where the king resided.  

The king was quite mad and had glued his assistant to a chair, as he thought he was the Queen, and wanted to protect them from the rug that supposedly tried to eat the King.  

They also learned that something had sucked the brains out of two gnomes and they suspected the shape-shifters.

The party eventually cured the King of his madness and showed him the dead mimic.  They also used white mushrooms to remove the psychedelic effects of the wine, which also helped the King's mental health.  The King agreed to the pact with the Dwarves at the Forge of Spells, and gifted the party some magical items in thanks for helping the King.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Session 10 - Finale

The party returned to Phandalin and were greeted by Sildar, whom invited them to the trial of Glasstaff.  They attended the proceedings where the towns people and the party testified against the rogue wizard.  Glasstaff protested in his own defense and tried to accuse the party of twice invading his home without provocation and attacking him. 

He also claimed, falsely as it were, that OneShoe also ate his rat familiar.  OneShoe was very offended by this false accusation and argued with the wizard before he then tried to attack the villain, but was restrained by the party.  Glasstaff was found guilty and sent to NeverWinter prison after being appropriately bound and gagged for the trip.

The party then traveled to the Tomb of Phalanyx to recover Wyrmsbane, in the hopes it would help them defeat VenomFang.  They discovered a group of dragon cultists that were guarding the tomb in service of VenomFang, but these were weak enemies and the party soon won the battle at the dragon mound.  They then forced the surviving cultist to tell them how to enter the tomb, which they then did by descending a hidden spiral staircase.  They soon realized that they were literally in the dead dragon's remains which had long ago been constructed into a crypt for Lady Aragonia and her fallen party.

After easily dispatching more cultists inside the tomb, despite Reiner falling into a spiked pit trap, the party explored the small dungeon.  They discovered two Skeleton Warriors and had a long battle with the creatures, but finally killed them.  They then discovered that they could put the skulls of the fiends into the pillars near four coffins of the fallen party, in order to unseal the tombs.  

They recovered four magical weapons and then proceeded to the dragon skull room.  Reiner pulled out the Wyrmsbane from skull and a flesh golem emerged to destroy the grave robbing Paladin.  The golem seemed like a difficult battle, and since the party had the sword in their possession, they decided to leave the dragon barrow tomb and lock the golem inside.

The party then camped outside of the dragon barrow in order to heal from the battles in the tomb, but were interrupted by a giant boar that invaded the camp site.  Innil and Reiner were able to kill the boar, and Reiner prepared a nice feast for the party.  They left the next day for Phanadalin, Wyrmsbane in hand, and a determination to face VenomFang in their hearts.

As the party approached town, they saw what appeared to be smoke rising in the distance and the feint sounds of combat that grew increasingly louder.  They emerged from the forest surrounding town and saw the town guards in a pitched battle with more dragon cultists.  

 

The masked invaders were attempting to break through the newly constructed wooden gates to the village, as Sildar and his men shot arrows down upon them from two guard towers. Several smaller buildings outside of the walls were already burning.

A large shadow blocked out the noon-day sun.  The party looked to the sky and saw it...VenomFang!  The dragon circled casually above the town, observing the results of the siege, smiling a malevolent fanged grin, before landing and saying: 

"Pesky little ones, I see you managed to survived our earlier encounter...and you've brought some friends to our little gathering in your would-be town.  Know this, puny worms, I will lay waste to this entire pathetic little hamlet right after I feast on your bones!"

The dragon then looked at the battle between its cultist minions and Sildar's forces with a bored expression, before blasting the entire area of the gate with its breath weapon of chlorine gas, which immediately killed everyone in the area.  

The party and the dragon then faced off.  Innil attacked with her Divinely Inspired spells of Thunder Wave and Shatter, while Reiner used his Divine Smite to deal massive damage to their scaled foe.  Marigold and Vendel shot arrows and Ice Knife spells from a distance, and one of Vendel's Ice Knife spell hit the dragon right in the heart.  The enraged dragon used its claws and fangs to fight back while its breath weapon recharged.  The party did a great deal of damage to the dragon, including Innil shooting out one of its black eyes with a well-placed arrow, before it finally blasted Reiner and Marigold with a green cloud of gas.  

Marigold, already injured from the claws of the beast, was instantly killed, while Reiner was able to avoid the main part of the cloud, but was still injured.  Vendel also went down from the dragon's claws and fangs, but Innil was able to use Spare the Dying to keep him barely alive.

The party then rallied at the death of their halfling companion and dealt even more damage to VenomFang, whom was utterly surprised at the force of their vengeful onslaught, and it then attempted to fly away to fight another day.  Reiner sprinted at the beast and somehow managed to cling to its tail as it flew into the air.  

Just then, Sildar emerged from the pile of bodies and destroyed guard tower timbers, holding a wizard's staff.  He cast a web spell that tangled the dragon's wings together.  A look of fear was in the beasts reptilian eyes as it plunged to the ground. 

Reiner was able to hold on to the dragon despite the impact of the crash landing.  He ran up to the head of the monster and plunged Wyrmsbane straight through its head, finally slaying their nemesis, VenomFang, aka 'The Black Spider,' the one whom had orchestrated the entire evil plans against Gundren and his friends.

The terrible beast was defeated, but the party mourned the loss of their rouge halfing, Marigold Brandybuck.  Her chaotic and fun-loving nature would be missed greatly. 

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Session 9 - A Ghoulish Good Time

 After returning to Phandalin, Glasstaff was handed over to Sildhar at the town jail to await his trial.  The party then spent some time healing up from the encounter with VenomFang.  Vendel arrived back in town and reunited with the party.

After resting and resupplying, the party, minus OneShoe, whom stayed to help guard Glasstaff, headed back to the Wave Echo Cave to finish exploring the sections they had not been to before.  They retraced some of their steps and then entered the area of the mine that used to be the entrance.  

They ended up having a couple of battles with groups of ghouls, but by employing smart tactics and utilizing the layout of the cave interior, the ghouls were killed without much trouble.

The party also came across the wraith, Mormesk, whom they decided to not attack, and instead engaged in negotiations over treasure swapping of all things.  They decided to decline trading and left the wraith to its own business.  They learned from the wraith that there is a "floating eye creature" behind the locked door to the Forge of Spells.  Attempts to find a key to the door were not successful, and the party surmised that VenomFang possesses the key.  They sent DeathCap the mushroom-folk to scout out the area where the dragon had attacked them, and it was uncertain if he remained in the area.

As Innil had previously asked the magic statue her 'one question' that it would answer, the party had learned of the Tomb of Phylanax, and that a 'dragon-killing' sword could be found there.  Plans were then made to travel to the tomb for some extra fire-power before confronting VenomFang again.