• 2018.06.22
• Present: Alex, Carlos, Chris B., Corey, Ryan
• Party:
  • 😈 Fisty, Tiefling Fiend 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: The gang goes to chat up the dragon cultists. The kobolds arrive. The cultists, the kobolds, and the Reserve all go up to the dragon's tower to combine their tributes and try to gain the dragon's favor. The gang runs off with all the tributes, and Pankas sneaks inside and steals the rat flute back from the dragon. Dug convinces the gang to go back to Phandelin, where he delivers the cultists' loot to somebody shady.

1. A Night's Rest
2. Cultists and Kobolds
3. Tribute
4. Heist
5. Retreat

Ducky shoves the tome in the drunk druid's face and demands, "What! Is! This!"

Red Dot freaks out and starts yammering on about "unspeakable evil" this and "the heart of corruption, the seed of the blight" that, and starts to insist that everybody get the heck out of his house.

Ducky sneaks out and burries the thing 5 feet deep, returns, and creates an illusion of the book, which the throws into the fire place in order to convince Red Dot that it has been destroyed.

Placated, he lets the team spend the night.

During watch, Dug hears a scraping and a scracthing at the door. He grumbles quietly, "Nobody messes with my doors. Nobody but me!" And he casts sacred flame right outside the door in an attempt to teach the interloper a painful and valuable lesson: there is only one Doorbane!

Not much happens of it though and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.

The next morning, the gang rises up bright and early. They feel super well rested considering they spent the previous night begging washed in necrotic energy and fighting off of bunch of shambling plant zombies.

Dug finds a small two-fingered hand print burned into the front of the door. He lifts his own hand to the scorch and gently touches the door, and he glowers.

Ducky digs up her cursed book.

The gang merrily trots along to the barracks that the cultists have taken over.

Red Dot, true to form, stays behind to do not much of anything.

Before the barracks, the gang discusses wether or not they will try to work things out with these cultists in a peaceful way. It is decided that an attempt will be made to resolve this blight via discourse, but if push came to shove, they would do some pushing and shoving... with their weapons.

Dug decides to sneak around and scope out the barracks, but Tumutch, full of purpose and a fresh plan, knocks on the door and requests an audience with the Head Cultists. For business purposes. Some death threats are made. This isn't very productive.

Tumutch has a prolonged philosophical discourse with the cultists through the closed door. "What is a soul, really?" "Are plants alive?"

Eventually Dug give up on his stealth mission, and the group somehow convinces the Head Cultist to come out (with a couple of guards) and talk to them. Despite more death threats from Tumutch, they ultimately offer to combine their tributes to the dragon and go together to make an offering.

Suddenly, kobolds erupt from their hiding spaces among the trees and declare themselves the true followers of the dragon. Much confusion ensues as the kobolds demand delivery on a promise that none present are aware of. Holding to the afore mentioned plan, Tumutch threatens some lives.

Finally, all three groups--the cultists, the kobolds, and the Reserve--agree to the original plan, despite great hesitation on behalf of the cultists at associating with kobolds, and they all pool their tributes.

Piles of loot are secured atop one of Ducky's floating disks, and they start their way up the hill.

With the party egging them on, the Head Cultist and Bolo start jockeying for the dragon's favor ("No, it is I who am the most humble and deserving!"). As their bickering intensifies, Fisty casts suggestion on them both, instructing them to approach the dragon for 8 hours. As they go along with the absurd request, Dug gives a little head motion to Ducky, suggesting it's time to head out. Ducky casually turns around and walks away, trailing all of the loot behind her as she goes.

Pankas knows that all Tumutch really wants from this whole escapade is to recover his rat flute. In an amazing feat of heroics and cavalier disregard for his own safety, he saunters up to the tower and approaches the door of the room containing Venom Thang. He notices the dragon scratching at what he assumes are the pipes lodged in between the scales on his side, casts invisible servant above the spot so it can snatch the pipe as it falls, and then uses mage hand to softly catch and then retrieve the treasure. He turns and walks out of the tower to find that everyone but Tumutch has left him behind, but he's pretty sure that if they had stuck around, everybody's jaws would have hit the floor. He then pretends to not want to give it back to Tumutch, but the Paladin is not interested in playing games. Pankas eventually hands over the magical pipes, but the admiring gleam in Tumutch's eyes seems to have dimmed.

Everybody meets up with Ducky and the treasure at the bottom of the hill. Dug suggests that the group return to Phandelin. For business reasons. Ducky throws a bit of a fit about secrecy and whatnot, but is convinced to go along.

So they all walk all the way back to Phandelin. Dug peels off from the group with the cultists' loot litter and hands it over to some shady dude.

Ducky reveals that she has known of Fisty's plans to kill Yarno the whole time, and brings Pankas into her confidence. She sows seeds of distrust in Droop's mind, and asks him to "trust her when the time comes."

Vignettes:

• Droop confesses to Fisty that he looks up to him. That's why he's always impersonating him. A friendship blossoms.

• Outside the gates of Phandelin, Ducky tries to "do a Dug" and force a vote that everybody turn around and go back the way they came. She is voted down.

spoilers

Ducky attaches a letter to Thatso's leg and sends him off to warn Yarno of Fisty's treachery.

the end?