18 July 2021
⏪ Previous - Session 16
The party
· Kisandra Starlight –Half-Elf Sorceress (Heather)
· Barendil Dawnwood – Elf Ranger (Robert)
· Guillerme don d’Lyonne – Human Paladin (Martin)
· Friar Buck Norris – Human Cleric (Silas)
· Nobby Nobbs – Human (probably) Rogue (Tom)
Recap
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| Map of Cragmaw Castle explored so far at the start of Session 17 |
Poisoned!
“Well, I reckon we go to the northwest tower,” said Nobby, “get
our pal here, Yeeslik, to deliver some poisoned food to the bugbears there,
then we stick ‘em!”
“Before we do that, we’ll have to hide any dead bodies in
here,” warned Barendil. “Then if any of the other inhabitants of the castle
come looking for their dinner, they might just eat some stew and do our work
for us – if they find dead goblins in here, we could be in for a punch up with
them before we’re ready.”
The party agreed with the elf ranger that this was a
sensible plan, but Nobby questioned whether they should perhaps wait in the banquet
hall for any hungry enemies. Ultimately, they figured it could be a long wait
in the banquet hall and they would be better off being proactive to explore the
castle, lest they be overrun by enemies once their sneak attack had been
discovered.
Nobby asked Yeeslik how many bowls he would take to the
bugbears, in an attempt to determine their numbers. Unfortunately, the goblin
didn’t understand the question and said that he would normally take one big pot
to the hairy beasts and they would sort it between themselves. Kisandra tried a
more direct approach, simply asking the goblin how many bugbears there were,
but he started pointing at his fingers and furrowing his brow in earnest
concentration. It was clear the poor little wretch couldn’t count.
Barendil was concerned in case there were other enemies
between the banquet hall and the bugbears, but after some angry words back and
forth between him, Nobby and the goblin, Yeeslik, they eventually determined
that the little goblin only had to walk through the corridor that they had
already explored and he would arrive straight into the bugbear quarters.
Yeeslik looked on in confusion as the adventurers continued
to discuss and argue the best way forward. Buck was wondering whether the
goblin could be trusted, though they had quite effectively persuaded and intimidated
him into doing what they wanted, and by the vacant look in his eyes he potentially
didn’t even realise what they had done to the stew. Nobby was trying to suggest
cutting out the goblin’s tongue to stop him from warning the bugbears, but that
idea was quickly quashed by the rest of the party who thought that even a lowly
gobbling didn’t deserve such a fate. Likewise, Barendil put a stop to Nobby’s
plan to set traps behind the goblin after he entered the bugbear barracks – the
elf said that they should give the little guy the chance to get out of the room
safely before creating a deadly scenario in the corridor. Buck agreed; after
all, they had given their word to the goblin that he would be safe (and retain
his ears) if he did exactly as they asked. The cleric was not comfortable
breaking his word, even when dealing with a creature like Yeeslik.
It was perhaps Kisandra’s more practical approach that got
through to Nobby, as she pointed out that the goblin could be used to deliver
more poisoned stew elsewhere in the castle if they were more careful and
avoided killing him with traps. Nobby relented to some degree, but it was clear
he was still largely unconcerned by Yeeslik’s welfare. Ultimately, however, three
of the party were in agreement that the goblin should be protected as far as
possible, which was a majority. Guillerme finally chimed in when Barendil asked
him for his opinion and the paladin, as always, demonstrated a remarkable
ability to sit on the fence and avoid taking either side in the disagreement.
All he wanted was to get into battle with something.
Nobby filled a big pot with steaming, poisoned, stew and
gave it to the little goblin before tickling his pointy green ears just to give
him a reminder of what was at stake should he betray them. They then followed him
as he walked from the banquet hall and north, past the main entrance and the
devastation from the trap that the party had tripped earlier, then past his
sentry post overlooking the main entrance. As they walked, they suddenly
realised Barendil wasn’t with them – the elf had decided to remain behind to
guard the eastern entrance to the banquet hall, to protect the party from being
surrounded. They told Yeeslik to wait in the corridor while they ran back to
convince the elf to come with them – his companions thought it was more
sensible to leave the banquet hall unguarded, in case any other denizens of the
castle decided to look for their food. Barendil wasn’t happy but eventually
relented, coming with them towards the bugbear barracks, but he still insisted
on hanging back in the corridor to watch out for enemies following them.
Nobby sidled up just behind Yeeslik as the goblin opened the
door while the rest of the party hid within the sentry post nearby. The rogue
was able to peek inside as the goblin entered, seeing a storeroom filled with sacks,
crates and barrels of food in various states of decay. There were no bugbears
within the room, but there were two doors – one to the left, leading to an
outer room of the northwest tower, and one door to the right leading into the
centre of the castle. Yeeslik indicated that he needed to open the door to the
left, but Nobby held him back while he informed his companions of what he could
see. Of particular note was a suit of chainmail armour with a crown design embossed
on the chest, leaning against a crate with a crossbow and a fine longsword with
the emblem of Neverwinter worked into the hilt.
 |
| Adventurer's Gear found in Cragmaw Castle |
“Typical Guillerme behaviour, that,” said Nobby with a
cackle, “not even recognising his own faction’s insignia!”
Now that the armour was identified as belonging to someone
from the Lord’s Alliance, Guillerme got very excited trying to think who it
might have belonged to. Maybe there were other prisoners held captive in the
castle? Kisandra wondered if the Rockseeker brothers had been members of the
Lord’s Alliance – perhaps this was Gundren’s armour? But it was clearly a human-sized
chainmail shirt, not suitable for a dwarf.
Guillerme decided that he would have to take the armour to
Sildar as it may be that he could identify the owner, though first he wanted to
try it on. He was about to stomp into the storeroom to take a closer look before
he was held back – he would certainly have made enough noise to alert the bugbears
that he had completely forgotten about in the next room if he were to start
playing around with the chainmail. The party were considering whether the
chainmail would be useful for one of them to wear, possibly considering if it
had magic properties, though nobody actually investigated it fully to find out
one way or the other. Finally, it seemed to click as if some higher power had
shown them the connection. Of course, this was Sildar’s armour! They had first
encountered the agent of the Lord’s Alliance in the cave inhabited by some of
the Cragmaw Tribe, where he was almost totally naked as the goblins had sent
his arms and armour back to Cragmaw Castle along with Gundren Rockseeker. He
had even asked for them to keep an eye out for his equipment in the castle as
he would like it returned. It seemed so obvious now! However, they had now
become totally side-tracked in what they were doing.
“This stew’s going to get cold by the time we decide what we’re
doing,” said Barendil astutely. He encouraged the others to get on with it
while calling his falcon, Perry, to swoop round and look in through an arrow slit
while Yeeslik went in to deliver the food to the bugbears.
Nobby, reluctantly, waited for Yeeslik to come back out of
the bugbear barracks before setting his traps. He squirted oil on the flagstones
in front of the door, draped a net across the doorframe that was likewise
soaked with oil, and spread a bag of caltrops down for good measure. The rogue
stood back in admiration at his sneaky work until he heard a cawing and Perry
flew back in through the main door and landed on Barendil’s outstretched arm.
The elf leant his head in towards the bird before turning to the others.
“They’re dead,” he said. “Three dead bugbears, according to
Perry.”
Nobby sighed, after all that effort laying the perfect trap.
Clearly the candy cane cyanide was suitably potent, which was good to know. But
now he had to carefully recover his bag of oily caltrops. Kisandra found a dirty
goblin blanket to throw on the floor, covering the oil slick Nobby had left
behind so that they could safely enter the room. The bugbears were, indeed,
dead. There was only a small amount of silver on their bodies, but three pairs
of ears which made Nobby happy.
Guillerme was now able to take a closer look at the chainmail,
picking it up and wondering if he could somehow wear it on top of his splint
armour for some reason. Kisandra snapped at him to stop messing about, they
knew it was probably Sildar’s so they would return it to him as soon as they
could, but for now there was no need for anyone to do anything with it and they
could return to get it once the castle was cleared of enemies.
“There speaks a wise woman,” commented Barendil.
Castle Exploration
Before leaving the storeroom, Guillerme decided that they
should have a bit more of a look around to see if there was anything else of value,
so he kicked a couple of crates and sacks but couldn’t see anything. Buck’s
nose twitched as Guillerme was doing this, and the cleric reached past him to
pluck a small barrel from amongst the debris. Once it was uncorked, the sweet
scent of good strong brandy reached the noses of the rest of the party, causing
Kisandra to smile happily as it was one of her favourite tipples.
Nobby put his arm around Yeeslik’s shoulders as he started
to walk the goblin back towards the banquet hall.
“Tell me, anyone round here been particularly mean to you?”
he asked the little goblin.
“Well, hobgoblins hit goblins, bugbears hit everyone… anyone
bigger hits anyone smaller,” replied Yeeslik with a shrug.
“Not anymore,” Nobby assured him as he gave the goblin one
of the bugbear ears. “We’ll look after ya’.”
Yeeslik was clearly excited by the kind treatment he was
receiving and didn’t notice the glint in Nobby’s eye as he looked at both the
bugbear ear and the goblin’s ears, sure that he would get all three before they
left this castle. Nobby then went over to Guillerme and Buck, who were both in
deep conversation about the small barrel of brandy and how good it may or may
not be.
By this time, Barendil was getting annoyed. He was seriously
considering firing an arrow at someone’s feet if they didn’t get on with the
matter at hand – all these delays put the party in danger of being discovered
and potentially overrun by enemies. He was trying to listen at the eastern door
out of the storeroom but couldn’t hear much because of all the kerfuffle going
on behind him. Once they did quiet down, he could hear shuffling feet inside
but couldn’t tell what was inside.
Kisandra said that she could see two main options for them.
They could burst in through the door that Barendil was standing by, to surprise
any potential goblin worshippers in there, or they could head to the King’s
quarters in the northeast tower. If they did the latter then they could
potentially use Yeeslik again to deliver poisoned food, and they might be just
as lucky as they were with the bugbears. They agreed that this was the better
option and Buck tried to give Yeeslik a little pep talk to keep the goblin
happy working for them. Barendil then decided to offer the goblin a gold coin
if he did a good job serving the food, which then seemed to cause some sort of
strange competitiveness in Guillerme who said he would match any offer made by
the elf and suggested they all do the same – meaning the goblin could end up
with a veritable fortune for one of his low standing. Guillerme said it was nice
to be offering the carrot for a change, instead of just a stick.
“What carrot are you talking about?” asked Nobby. “You mean,
a big one you can use to hit them with instead of a stick?”
The party continued towards the banquet hall, letting
Yeeslik go in first in case there were any diners within, but all was quiet.
They retrieved another pot of stew and continued towards the northeast of the castle.
Nobby asked Yeeslik to head towards the king’s quarters to deliver the food,
but his normal route to do that would include going through the hobgoblin
barracks where the hobgoblin guards were stationed. This caused the party to
pause with concern, so Barendil sent Perry once again to go and look in the windows
to see what she could see. As soon as the falcon approached the window closest
to them, an arrow flew from the room and almost hit her out of the sky, so she
flapped her wings and retreated. She then attempted to get a look through in to
the southeast tower but found both windows blocked. Once the bird returned to
Barendil, he could sense she was agitated by the near miss, so sent her to
relax outside the castle for a while.
Hobgoblin Barracks
They sent Yeeslik into the hobgoblin barracks, Nobby
coaching the little goblin to go and offer the food to the hobgoblins even
though they would normally go to the banquet hall themselves. It paid off as
the goblin was able to go into the hobgoblin barracks without any problems and
hand over the tainted stew. Before long, the adventurers outside heard a couple
of thuds, sounding like bodies hitting the floor. But there was also a harsh
voice crying out in surprise, and Barendil could make out the sound of running
boots heading away to the north followed by a hammering noise like a fist on a
heavy wooden door.
Nobby quietly opened the door a crack to have a peek inside
and could see three dead hobgoblins on the ground, bowls and stew strewn around
their still-twitching corpses, while a fourth hobgoblin had Yeeslik held up in
the air by this throat and a fifth was standing nearby, holding a bow and
shouting at the goblin. A curtain to the north of the room was flapping as if someone
or something had just run through it, and Nobby could tell this was where the
hammering noise that Barendil had mentioned was coming from.
Suddenly, Guillerme sprang into action. He was terribly
concerned by Barendil’s warning of hammering on a door, afraid of what aid
might come from that direction to help their enemies, so he leapt forward to
try and stop the alarm being raised. Nobby, for his part, was starting to draw
his dagger; he hadn’t been spotted by the two hobgoblins, so he was
anticipating a chance to replicate his stealthy goblin assassinations from the
banquet hall earlier that day. He was therefore more than a little surprised
when Guillerme suddenly bundled into him from behind, yelling something
incomprehensible about honour, athleticism and style. Unfortunately for
Guillerme, he had misjudged the strength in Nobby’s wiry frame, and all he
succeeded in doing was knocking the rogue forwards into the door with a bang,
sending his dagger clattering to the floor, while the paladin staggered
backwards with a surprised look on his face.
No amount of stealth or deception from Nobby could overcome Guillerme’s bungling, and the hobgoblins were immediately alerted to the party’s presence.
 |
| The hobgoblin guards in their barracks before three of them were killed by poisoned stew and one ran to fetch help |
Nobby shook his head to clear the dizziness caused by
Guillerme slamming him into the door, while the paladin lamented his own misfortune
when attempting to be helpful, apparently oblivious of the consequences of his
actions. Ignoring this, Nobby rushed into the room and raised his crossbow. Understanding
the treachery perpetrated by Yeeslik in helping the adventurers, the hobgoblin
that was holding the little goblin aloft by the throat slowly pushed his dirty
scimitar straight through his chest with a snarl. Yeeslik shuddered for a
moment before dropping his arms to his sides and going limp, then was cast to
one side where he landed on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Just like that? He killed him just like that?!” exclaimed
Kisandra in surprise.
Nobby loosed his crossbow at the cruel hobgoblin, piercing
its thigh with a bolt, while the second hobgoblin aimed its bow at the rogue to
retaliate. He was moving too fast, however, and the arrow flew past his head.
Meanwhile, the hammering noise from beyond the curtain continued, and a rasping
voice was shouting.
“It’s poison boss, it’s poison!” came the alarmed yelling from
the next room.
Barendil stepped forwards, drawing his bow to take aim at
the hobgoblins.
“No one touches my bird, you filthy greenskin” growled the
elf as he released the bowstring, but his anger made the shot go wide.
A loud voice, more gruff and gravelly, was now responding to
the warnings from through the curtain.
“What’s that? What’s that about poison?” called the gruff voice
in a deep rumble.
A second voice, more laconic and apparently uninterested, also
drifted through the curtain.
“It’s just goblins playing up isn’t it?” asked the laconic
voice in a lazy drawl. “Can’t you keep them in line Grol?”
“Shut up!” responded the deep, gruff voice, “I’d better go
have a look.”
It sounded to the adventurers like a heavy wooden door had
been flung back on its hinges in the adjoining room. Kisandra breathed out
slowly at this noise, looking nervously towards the curtain to see if anything
was coming through yet. There was no sign of any additional foes so she decided
to concentrate on those that she could see, firing a magic missile at the hobgoblin
archer and slamming the monster backwards into the wall with the sorcerous projectiles
where he slumped down, dead, to the floor.
Guillerme had finally stopped bemoaning his misjudged
attempt to leap through the door and decided that the noises beyond the heavy
curtain needed addressing, so he boldly leapt into the fray and slashed his glaive
at the curtain. With a series of frenzied thrusts and swings, the tattered
remnants of the curtain flopped to the ground in front of the paladin, who was
breathing heavily at the exertion. Beyond the thoroughly killed curtain, a
bemused hobgoblin looked back at the paladin while a hulking bugbear began to
step through the doorway leading from another room, exuding an air of brutal
authority.
 |
| A hulking Bugbear exudes an air of brutal authority over the smaller goblinoids in Cragmaw Castle |
The King Comes Out to Play
The large figure revealed by Guillerme’s vicious
curtainicide seemed more than likely to be King Grol himself, leader of the
Cragmaw Tribe. Friar Buck acted quickly, peering past Guillerme to cast Shatter,
intending to damage both Grol and the hapless hobgoblin beside him. The cleric
drew on all his divine power to bolster the spell, dramatically increasing its
damage. As the thunderous energy wave of the Shatter spell radiated outwards,
Grol staggered in obvious pain while his lackey fell to the floor, dead. There
was also a howling noise from the room beyond, followed by a yelp and a gentle
thud; perhaps something unseen had also been caught in the spell’s zone of
effect.
Nobby cocked his ear, listening to the yelping noise with
great interest, but was so intent on replaying it in his head that he failed to
accurately aim his crossbow at the remaining hobgoblin. However, he did cause
the monster to duck and so its return fire was likewise ineffectual. It was
left to Barendil to show these two what a proper archer could do. He managed to
hit the hobgoblin in the shoulder, wounding the fiend but failing to kill it
outright.
At this point, the laconic voice that they had previously heard
from the adjoining room could be heard once again, questioning what was going
on though still sounding bored by the whole affair.
“What’s going on out there? What are you doing Grol?” it asked
wearily, “we can’t allow the prisoner to be taken.”
The Bugbear King turned round with a roar of anger, looking
back into the room he had emerged from.
“Oh shut it, get out ‘ere and give me a hand!” he snarled at
the unseen occupant of the room, before dropping his head forward and charging
towards Guillerme.
Grol hit the paladin like a tonne of bricks, smashing him
with a hefty war mace. Now that the bulk of the bugbear was out of the doorway,
the adventurers could see through into the room where a wolf corpse lay on the
floor and a dark-skinned figure with white hair and pointy ears glared out at
them with cold, red eyes. The adventurers recognised this figure for what it
was – one of the drow, a murderous dark elf from the depths of the Underdark. Could
this be the Black Spider that had been plotting against them all this time?
 |
| Now that Grol was out of the doorway, the adventurers could see his pet wolf laying, dead, on the ground, while a dark elf advanced behind the Bugbear King |
Kisandra used her sorcerous abilities to enhance her
spellcasting, deciding to focus on the imminent threat that King Grol presented
rather than the dark elf behind. She used True Strike to improve her aim before
sending a crackling Witch Bolt hurtling at the bugbear. Everyone in the room
could feel the power of the spell as it surged towards him, hitting with
critical force and causing the king of the Cragmaws to double over in pain as
the lightning wracked his body. He wasn’t killed by this magical attack, but
the sparks continued to fly as Kisandra held her eyes closed to concentrate on
keeping the spell flowing pain into the monster.
Concerned by the danger he found himself in, Guillerme used
his glaive defensively to back away from King Grol as quickly as he could. Buck
saw this and decided to cast Shatter once more, sending waves of thunderous
energy coruscating out to hit both the dark elf and Bugbear King. Both enemies
found themselves reeling at the magical thunder that assailed them but remained
standing – though Grol was looking weak on his feet. Nobby decided to capitalise
by throwing the oily caltrops on the ground between Grol and Guillerme, in an
attempt to keep the paladin slightly safe from the rampaging bugbear. Nobby
then danced backwards out of the way; he was trying to help, be he wasn’t mad
enough to put himself between the beast and its intended target!
One hobgoblin remained alive in the room, but the injured
shoulder he had suffered thanks to Barendil reduced his bowmanship even further
and he failed to hit Nobby with an arrow. Barendil drew his own bow and finally
put the wretched creature out of its misery with an arrow through its eye.
As Grol charged forward in anger, he stepped on the caltrops
Nobby had thrown on the ground, causing him to yelp in pain. He wildly threw a
javelin at Guillerme which clattered uselessly against the wall and then he roared
in frustration. Watching all this, the dark elf shook his head in
disappointment.
“Grol, you’ve lost control of this situation,” said the drow
with bitterness creeping into his voice. “That prisoner must die.”
Kisandra gasped in fear as she saw the dark elf turn and
begin to stalk back into the room.
 |
| The drow is clearly unhappy with the current turn of events |
Kisandra was unsure what to do now. Her companions could see
the conflict on her face – she desperately wanted to make sure that the
prisoner was saved from the murderous drow, but King Grol still had to be dealt
with. Nobby and Barendil called out that they would hunt the dark elf down, as
they were the fleetest of foot, and reminded her that the Witch Bolt she had
cast so successfully at Grol remained as a method for taking down the bugbear.
She saw the sense in their words and narrowed her eyes at Grol, shooting more
bolts of lightning at him, fizzing and crackling in the air between them. Yet,
still, the hulking monster stood.
She saw Guillerme had a similar air of uncertainty around him
but shouted at him that he should hit the bugbear. Nobby couldn’t believe that
Guillerme looked like he was going to try and charge straight past the beast,
through the slippery and spiked caltrops; that seemed a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, the reach of Guillerme’s glaive meant that he could attack Grol
without moving any closer. Even more fortunately, he heard Kisandra’s shout and
decided to follow her advice. He swung the weapon in an almighty arc, slashing into
the Bugbear King’s torso and burying the blade deep. Guillerme then summoned
divine magicks to infuse his weapon with almighty power, which he used to
rotate it and burst out of Grol’s (now dead) body with a spray of viscera. The
mighty king of the Cragmaw Tribe was no more.
Run Him Down!
Buck chased after the retreating dark elf. He vaulted over
one of the hobgoblin beds, soaring over the caltrops that Nobby had strewn on
the ground, and ran onwards past the tattered curtain (which remained a testament
to Guillerme’s handiwork with a blade). As he rounded the corner into the room,
Buck could see the drow advancing towards a bed where a dwarf lay, tied up and
slipping in and out of consciousness. The cleric lowered his head and forced
his legs to continue pumping (the most exercise his body had gone through in
many a year) and he barrelled up to the dark elf, panting. He didn’t have the
strength to raise his weapon immediately, but he knocked into the evil warrior
and temporarily distracted him from his murderous objective.
 |
| The dark elf advances towards the dwarf prisoner, but Buck and Nobby are in hot pursuit |
Nobby was hot on Buck’s heels, running after the dark elf.
The rogue drew his rapier as he ran, intent on sticking the drow with the
pointy end, and feeling more capable of doing so as he was less out of breath
than Buck was. The moment was too overwhelming, however, so his rapier thrust
went wide, missing his foe entirely, but at least now the dark elf was
surrounded on two sides by enemies, making him reconsider his plan of action to
deal with the imminent threat.
An elven warcry from Barendil reflected his ire at his dark
kin and the anguish at allowing one such as him to remain alive on the surface.
He ran after the other two, stopping just inside the door to loose an arrow at
the drow. The ranger’s anger caused him to tense and his shot to go wide,
missing the dark elf and clattering against the stone wall.
Although he had taken no damage from the angry adventurers
chasing him, the dark elf looked at Buck and Nobby with something akin to fear
in his red eyes. As they looked on, the red eyes flashed yellow briefly, before
they heard a bone-crunching noise that set their nerves on edge. With an awful
cracking sound, the features of the dark elf began to contort and change, the body
proportions altering and distinctive white hair disappearing. Before the adventurers
now stood a horrific vision, looking something like an inside-out dark elf,
with fleshy pink colouring on the outside and malevolent yellow eyes glaring at
them. This creature hissed at them then turned and fled into an adjoining room,
ducking and weaving past both Buck and Nobby to avoid their attempts to stop it
escaping.
 |
| A horrific vision stands in front of the adventurers, looking like an inside-out person |
With the strange creature running away, it seemed that the
party had managed to stay the execution of the dwarf prisoner, but still some
of them wanted to hunt down this creature and destroy it utterly. Kisandra moved
towards the commotion and, from what she could make out from the alarmed shouts
of her companions, she was fairly sure that this creature was a doppelganger –
a shapeshifter, able to assume various humanoid forms. The sorceress rushed
into King Grol’s bedchamber to find that the doppelganger had already escaped
to the adjoining room, with Buck and Nobby looking on at the injured and bound
dwarf on one of the dirty beds. Considering all her options, she decided to
send her pseudodragon, Aster, like a hunting dog after the fleeing
doppelganger. Aster obliged, flapping from Kisandra’s shoulder and swooping
through the open door, stinging the doppelganger as he passed it. The evil
creature was unable to dodge the attack but it did resist the natural venom in
the pseudodragon’s tail.
Guillerme ran to join the party in the bedchamber as Buck pursued
Aster and the doppelganger. The cleric burst through the doorway, slashing at
the creature and knocking it forwards, blood dripping from the wound. It was unclear
to the party where the doppelganger was running to, as it appeared that it had
run into a dead end, but Nobby dashed after them anyway. The turn of speed that
the rogue could achieve when he was motivated surprised everyone and he cockily
went to slap the doppelganger’s backside as he ran past it, presumably aiming
to block its escape. In his excitement, however, Nobby inadvertently slapped
Buck’s arse, which proved to be much harder than he was expecting and hurt his
hand. Whether the hardness in Buck’s cheeks was down to his natural physique or
the heavy chainmail he wore was a mystery best left unsolved. Nobby ended up in
front of the doppelganger, nursing his stinging fingers and unable to wield his
rapier.
Barendil heard the commotion from next door and shook his
head in despair. Clearly, Nobby was buggering about again instead of just
getting the job done. However, trusting that Buck would be able to get the job
done and aware that Kisandra and Aster were on the doppelganger’s tail, the
ranger turned his attention to the captive dwarf. He drew a dagger and sliced
the ropes binding his wrists before placing a hand on the dwarf’s brow and
imbuing him with healing energy. The dwarf’s eyes fluttered open and he looked
up into Barendil’s concerned face.
“Thank you,” coughed the dwarf with a hoarse voice, “thank
you so much whoever you are. You don’t know how horrible it’s been here. I
appreciate you coming to my aid.”
He leant back with a sigh as Barendil continued cutting his
bonds, clearly in exceptionally poor health after so much time being tortured
by King Grol and his goblinoid cronies. It seemed more than likely that this
was indeed Gundren Rockseeker, and Barendil realised just how long it had been since
he had been captured by the Cragmaw Goblins and sent up here from the cave
where the party had rescued Sildar. Though elves and dwarves had had their
differences over the years, Barendil was stirred to sorrow when he thought
about the suffering Gundren must have endured.
Meanwhile, the doppelganger continued its desperate flight
to freedom, dodging away from Buck, Nobby and Aster and towards a pile of
rubble in the corner of the room. These walls were in poor repair but, much to
their surprise, the onlookers saw the creature dive forwards and crawl through
a gap in the debris. As it scrambled on, shifting some of the loose stones,
shafts of sunlight shone through the hole. Far from being a dead-end, there was
a secret escape route from this small room!
Following the directions from Kisandra, Aster flew down and
scrambled through the hole in the wall as well, swooping out to watch where its
quarry was going. The pseudodragon communicated with Kisandra telepathically,
conveying the images of the trees that the doppelganger was running towards. She
conveyed this information to the rest of the party and, though they were unsure
whether they should focus on the interior of the castle rather than getting
distracted by this fleeing creature, Barendil looked up from the injured dwarf
and made it clear he would be hunting the doppelganger down. Kisandra nodded
and wordlessly ran to the gap in the wall, where she could see the doppelganger
running outside. She sent a Scorching Ray spell through the hole in the wall,
smashing burning shafts of light into the fleeing creature’s back and causing
it to stumble.
Barendil told Guillerme to guard the dwarf while he went to hunt
the creature down, which the paladin was glad to do. He confirmed that this was
Gundren, saying that he thought it was perhaps a bit of an unfair assumption to
decide that the first dwarf prisoner they encountered on their travels was the
one that they were seeking. He stood by the bed with his glaive drawn in case
there were any other assassins that may try to end Gundren’s life. Guillerme drank
a healing potion to restore himself, not noticing Gundren’s pleading eyes
looking up at the drops of magical liquid dripping down the paladin’s chin.
Though the gap in the wall was fairly small, Buck was able
to squeeze himself through and out in order to continue chasing the
doppelganger. Nobby found it easier to slip himself out through the hole,
following close behind the cleric. They reached the fleeing creature
simultaneously, Buck’s swinging axe flying over its ducking head as Nobby’s
rapier plunged into its right buttock, piercing the flesh and causing the
creature to limp as it still tried to escape. By this time, it had a haunted
look in its eyes, like a scared wild animal running before a pack of hunting dogs.
 |
| The doppelganger makes a desperate attempt to escape to the treeline |
A Dwarf, Rescued at Last
King Grol and his hobgoblin bodyguards were dead, the
doppelganger who had been impersonating a dark elf had been chased down and
slain, and Gundren Rockseeker had been saved. There was more work to do in Cragmaw
Castle to fully cleanse it of goblins, but the adventurers could feel proud of
their achievements.
Kisandra examined the doppelganger’s body, but there was
nothing to indicate its identity or origins – as doppelgangers could alter
their appearance then, by their very nature, identification was almost
impossible, particularly for anyone who wasn’t themselves a doppelganger. Perhaps
this mystery could be solved at a later date. For now, the party congregated in
the king’s bedchamber to talk to Gundren and plan their next course of action.
 |
| Gundren Rockseeker, safe at last |
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| The party congregate in King Grol's bedchamber to discuss a plan of action with Gundren |
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| Map of Cragmaw Castle explored so far at the end of Session 17 |
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