• 2018.04.05
• Present: Alex, Chris B., Carlos, Corey, Ryan
• Party:
  • 😈 Fisty, Tiefling Tome Pact Warlock
  • 🦆 Ducky, Gnome Wizard
  • 🛡 Tumutch, Human Vengence Paladin of the Silver Flame
  • 🛠 Dug, Dwarf Forge Cleric
  • 🎸 Pankas, Wood Half-Elf Bard of Whispers

tl;dr: Hiro climbs a mountain. The gang frees a half-orc and his son from cages in the orc caves and they turn out to maybe have been doppelgangers? Fisty re-appears acting super suspicious, and a bunch of mysterious hand prints are burned into nearby trees. The gang collects a reward from the Mayor of Phandelin and Ducky accidentally gets a bounty put on Fisty's head. They all take off for Cragmaw Castle with Droop leading the way, and are ambushed by a small pack of displacer beasts, which they fight off before making camp for the night. Fisty hatches a Murder Pact.

1. The orc cave
2. The way back to town
3. Talking to the mayor
4. Towards the castle
5. Conspiracy

Hiro stares in awe as Talon releases its grip on him. Cautiously he sheathes the sword and unsheathes it, and to his delight it remains nothing more than a sword. He says he most retreat and meditate on the meaning of this, and he turns and walks right up to the side of the mountain and starts to scale it, climbing straight up, hand over hand, grunting with exertion and gleaming with dragonborn sweat.

He isn't seen again, but he can periodically be heard in the background.

The group watches him slowly climb straight up the side of the mountain, ignoring the footpath winding its way up around the mountain to the top.

They shrug and cautiously explore the orc cave. Inside the cave are the orcs' prisoners: Nico and Franko, a half-orc carpenter and his child, both imprisoned in a cage; and a large treasure chest.

They tell how they were ambushed by the orcs, their cart and supplies smashed, and his orc wife killed. Nico himself had just recently been tortured by the orcs. They beg to be released and say that the big orc held the key to the cell.

Ducky rushes outside, searches the body, and finds a large key and small silver key on big orc.

Ducky opens the cell, freeing the prisoners. She tosses the smaller key to Dug and tells him to open the chest, which he does easily because it wasn't even locked. Inside were a whole bunch of coins and two potions.

Ducky expertly examines the potions and determines that the dark brown one is cologne, and the bright yellow one is perfume.

CB's note: in retrospect, it probably would have been a really good idea to let Glass Staff, the actual alchemist take a look at them. But oh well.

Exit the cave. Collect heads for ransom. Ducky collects some faces without realizing the company surrounding her. Glass Staff looks on in shock and disgust. Ducky blushes.

This closes #20.

Nico and Franko say goodbye-o and start walking away from town, cross over the crest of the hill, and suddenly morph and twist into an odd shape, the form of which can't quite be determined as it recedes over hill and disappears from sight.

Yarno says they're probably doppelgangers. Most likely the very same ones he had imprisoned below Chesendar Manor.

Theory: Myrna and Nars Dendrar were actually this doppelganger. They had almost the exact same story as Nico and Franko. The doppelganger has been captured twice and we have twice released it.

Let's head back to town!

The shape of a handprint with four extended fingers is burned into in the trunk of the trees lining the road. Nobody is quite sure what to make of that, but it sure is interesting.

Note: Hiro knows about the deal he made with the Kobolds, but the rest of the team does not.

Fisty comes crashing out of the bushes and spills into the road. "Hey, guuuuys!" He cannot account for any lost time, saying he woke up in the Chesendar caves after everybody had left, and he's just been trying to find everybody since then.

Basically, nobody believes him and they think he's an impostor. Or a liar. Everybody is essentially super sketched out.

Next thing Fisty does is ask Yarno, a little too casually, "Hey, um, what's a phylactery?"

At the mention of this very powerful piece of necromancy, Ducky's jaw hits the floor, and she tries to keep Yarno from answering, but he does anyway, explaining it as simply as he can in layman's terms.

Fisty: "That's neat! Say, um. Do you have one?"

Yarno: "No."

Fisty: Neat!

Spoilers..

Ducky is in a silent panic.

She sends Thatso to stealthily climb up into Fisty's pocket and do a sniff-sniff. Yep, smells like Fisty.

But she's not 100% convinced. She just saw a danged doppelganger after all.

Shrug. Head back to town.

Droop is marching around and brandishing his gauntlet, calling himself New Fisty.

Everybody still suspicious of Original Fisty, so they allow it and start calling Droop Best Fisty. Old Fisty is somewhat chagrined.

Arrive at town.

Pankas, Tumutch, and Droop stay behind, outside the town walls, and jam out. Everybody else heads in to town.

Fisty disguises himself as a human. Ducky is still pretty sure that Fisty is an impostor, so she disguises herself as Fisty in order to mock him.

Fat, sweaty, gross mayor is eating a cinnamon bun at his desk, sweating from the exertion.

Ducky-as-Fisty swats the pastry out of the man's mouth and out of his hands. Demands payment for services.

Dug brandishes orc heads. Mayor says thanks, but he never agreed to pay anything.

Group changes his mind somehow? He consults a bunch of books, makes a series of calculations. Notices some heads are missing faces, scrutinizes the team. "What'd you say the name of your outfit is? Steel Reserve? Uh-huhhh." Makes a few more notes. Goes back to his hoard to get some gold.

While he's gone, Ducky-as-Fisty snatches a ledger from the shelf, looking for the one in which she thinks he has made notes about the Reserve.

Mayor comes back, notices right away that a book is missing. Starts counting and cataloging all the books on the shelf. While his back is turned, Ducky-as-Fisty turns and nopes right out of the room. When the mayor turns back around, he notices Ducky-as-Fisty is gone. Mayor proceeds to freak the eff out. Throws a major tantrum.

Outside, Ducky drops her disguise and comes back in as Ducky the gnome. With the book. Returns it to the mayor.

Dug gives the mayor the two potions which are probably just cologne and perfume.

Mayor demands Fisty's hands in exchange for 200 gold. Or his head for 500 gold. Team's like, riiiiiight. And they leave and go to join back up with Team Droopjams.

Droop has gained no proficiency with the drums, and has succeeding only in annoying Tumutch and in further mocking Fisty, pretending his drumsticks are horns and dancing around obnoxiously.

Fisty is somewhat chagrined.

The team tries to decide what to do next.

Yarno tells the gang to visit the old alchemy shop in Thunder Tree and gather supplies for potions for the fight with Black Spider.

They decide to stick to the plan and go to Cragmaw Castle to get the location of Echo Cave, hopefully kill Grohl, and hopefully rescue Gundren. And go to Thunder Tree after.

Yarno decides to stay behind in Phandelin to clean up his lab and tidy up Chesendar Manor.

Fisty: I'll go with you!

Ducky: Me too!

Yarno: No to both of you. exits.

Everybody: Okay, here we go!

Walking off into the woods, following Trail Guide "Best Fisty" Droop.

Sun starts to set.

Suddenly, displacer beasts!

Three adults and a cute widdle kitten emerge into the path.

Droop faints.

The gang leaps into action, hurling lighting, blasting, swinging axes and glaives, slicing with rapiers.

Then Tumutch stabs the baby kitten right through its skull, and it friggin dies, and all three adult beasts immediately freak out and pounce on him and kill Tumutch dead.

Dug smashed one of the beasts and then cured Tumutch back to life, and with his first living breath, he rolled over and impaled one of the panthers and killed it.

Whatever Dug did to bring Tumutch back, there must have been a wild surge of magic behind it because the kitten wakes back up too, but it still has a hole in its head, so it's probably not going to have a great quality of life after this.

And Droop also wakes up! It was a powerful, powerful healing spell. He stands, takes a few steps, and faints again.

A second beast falls down, slain, and Dug scoops up the kitten. The last remaining beast stops fighting and fixates on him, approaching slowly, head lowered. Dug gently releases the cub and the beast picks it up by the scruff of the neck. Dug heals the cub while it's still in the adult's mouth. The beast backs away, rolling slowly away on an office chair into the woods.

Everybody like, Welp! Guess it's time for bed! and they make camp.

Ducky digs out a barrow to sleep in and pulls Fisty aside.

Ducky: I know something's up with you. We're Dark Magic bros. You can talk to me. Why are you acting all weird and why in the world are you asking about phylacteries?

Fisty keeps on being Fisty and pretty much dodges every question and assures her that everything is just fine.

Fisty leaves and pulls Dug and Tumutch aside.

Fisty: Listen. I recieved a vision from... my patron. And basically, Glass Staff has got to go. I gotta kill Glass Staff.

Dug: Okay.

Tumutch: Um. But..

Fisty: Um. Necromancy?

Tumutch: Okay.

Fisty: Sweet, thing is we cannot let Ducky know. She will freak out and mess everything up. Cool? Murder pact?

All: Murder pact.

spoilers..

Unbeknown to everybody, Ducky is hanging out in her barrow all by herself.

She's lying prone, inert and comatose. Her eyes are wide open and entirely shock white as she sees and hears through the senses of her familiar.

Thatso is still curled up in Fisty's pockets. She hears everything.

the end?

Yes! Our string of wins continues!

By dealing with an nearby Orc problem, we efficiently closed out a nice little business deal with the Phandalin Town Master. We were paid a handsome sum on top of the money we encountered while carrying out the task, leaving us considerably wealthier in short order.

We did however hit a minor hiccup while settling up which ultimately left some earnings on the table. Although it’s a bit upsetting, we should all view this as a learning opportunity. In the future we should at hold off on the thievery until business dealings are settled.

Overall, great work, everyone! As we look ahead, remember: opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.

Your Treasurer,

Dug Hammerhound

Treasury totals are as follows:

• 1007 Gold
• 677 Electrum
• 726 Silver
• 750 Copper
• 3 Garnets
• 3 Malachite