Astrid, Lofty, Galdor, Sildar & Gundren meet Jingles in the forest.

The adventurers return to collect Sildar Hallwinter and Gundren Rockseeker and they are both impressed and shocked that these 3 young adults were capable of such efficient slaughter and happy that they have left Jingles behind.

Lofty insist that they make rest in the Kings Quarters. There they can leave Sildar and Gundren in the care of Astrid while they take a short rest, meditate and regain KI. That would allow Lofty to search Cragmaw Castle for food, enemies, treasure and any other useful information.

Galdor offers his services and spends some time preparing his Spell of ‘Detect Magic’. First Galdor checks all the item that the adventurers had.

Glador’s Sword glows and he remembers to return it to Sildar along with his Chainmail armour. Sildar gives his recently purchased suit to Galdor. Apart from that the only other new item to glow was the Red Gem Broch that Lofty found in the Owlbear Tower. The Quarterstaff in not Magic.

Magic Item – Broach

Lofty and Galdor set off and head south to the Guards Barracks, down South to the Owlbear Tower back out west past the Postern Gate, which remained unlocked, to the Banquette Hall and finally into the southern Ruined Barracks.

RUINED BARRACKS:

The southwest tower of the castle is little more than a heap of rubble. Several ragged bedrolls are scattered across the remaining floor space, and a small, twisting passage leads east through the ruins.

Both Lofty and Galdor find nothing of interest. They continue north out of the Ruined Barracks and Lofty spots that the southern Archers Post door has been left opened.

ARCHERS POST SOUTH:

This small room is littered with debris and smells like a bog on a hot summer’s day. The arrow slit opposite the door offers a fine field of fire over the terrace in front of the castle gates.

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “The Gobos must have run away too.”

Galdor: “Don’t call them that, that’s not a very nice.”

Next Lofty and Galdor head north and check The Archers Post north, the Hobgoblin’s Barracks and then the Storeroom. Inside Lofty spots 1 Small Cask with Dwarven runes. It is filled with an exceptional Dwarven brandy, which the goblins overlooked because of its size. The cask contains the equivalent of twenty glasses. A character who imbibes a glass of brandy regains 1 hit point.

Next Galdor and Lofty check the Dark Hall and find that Lhupo, the Goblin Priest, had a small key on a chain around his neck which did radiate Magic. Lofty removes the key from around Lhupo’s neck and inspects it closely. The Rogue can see that there are a number of religious symbols around the Bow, or loop, of the key.

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Look at this, the symbols match the statues of the deities. We need to check the alter.”

Galdor uses his ‘Detect Magic’ Spell but does not find any sign of Magic in this room.

Galdor: “if there is anything in the alter, that much stone would block my Spell. All the item on the alter are non-magical.”

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Non-magical but the chalice, knife, and censer are human-made art objects worth 150 gp, 60 gp, and 120 gp, respectively.”

Lofty spends some time looking for a keyhole on the alter and eventually find that by sliding a small section to one side, he could use the key to open a compartment in the alter. Lofty uses the key and opens the door to the hidden compartment.

A Gold Statuette of a Sun Elf (100 gp) wrapped in Crimson Cloth.

Galdor’s ‘Detect Magic’ spell reveals that the statuette is imbued with Divination Magic. Lofty tell Galdor to take it as it best suited his line of work.

The last place checked was the Ruined Tower which was also empty.

After much discussion, eating and drinking the adventurers decide to stay in Cargmaw Castle for the night and attempt to ride through all the way to Deadwood the following day. They knew that they would arrive late and in the dark but that may help mask their arrival.

Gundren is eager to head to Wave Echo Cave to find his brother Nundro and will go to at least the tunnel entrance or the camp that Tharden and Nundro had made inside the first cavern that they found. Lofty takes out the Map and Gundren show him on the Map, the south-west corner.

After having something to eat and drink the adventurers’ set watches, Lofty focuses on the Broach with the Red Ruby while Galdor focuses on the Gold Statuette of a Sun Elf.

The Gold Statuette of the Sun Elf:

Any non-evil creature grasping the statue can ask it a question and receive a telepathic response, as though it had cast Augury. Once a creature has asked its question and received a response, it can never activate the statuette again.

Magic Item – Golden Elf God Statue

Fabulist Gem:

This glittering Red Ruby Gem is commonly found embedded in a Ring or Brooch. While wearing the gem, you gain the following benefits:

Counterfeit Coins:

You can use your action to magically create a pile of coins, worth no more than 100 gp total, in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of yourself. The pile must appear on a surface that can support it. After 1 hour, the coins vanish, regardless of where they are. Once this action is used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Illusory Fashion:

As a bonus action, you can magically change the appearance of your clothing and armour. You can change the style, colour, and apparent quality of what you’re wearing, or you can make it appear as if you were wearing different garments entirely. In either case, the changes wrought by this magic fail to pass physical inspection.

Galdor keeps hold of the Gold Statuette of a Sun Elf and Lofty put on the Red Ruby Broach.

Lofty also takes all the papers and books off the table used by King Grol. Galdor collects the horses and the adventurers set-off at about 09:00 am which means that they would reach Deadwood at about 23:00 pm.

The adventurers, Sildar and Gundren make their way out of Neverwinter Wood with no incidents. Once they reach Triboar Trail travelling is much easier but they loose time due to the lack of horses causing the adventurers to swap and walk at times.

Finally, as it was getting dark, the adventurer, Sildar and Gundren turn south off the Triboar Trail and make their way to Deadwood. As they reach the same area where Gundren and Sildar were captured, Lofty became more and more uneasy. He was convinced that something bad was about to happen and so he began to stop and listen out.

To his horror, at the very edge of his hearing range the Rogue could make out the chilling sound of Jingling Bells far off in the distance. Lofty informed the rest of the party and said that he would go ahead and investigate.

Lofty turns ‘Invisible’ using his Shadow Touched ability and his guts churn and a small amount of bile fills his mouth.

Monster – Wraith

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “I will send a Magic ‘Message’ to you if you wait here and let you know what I find. Stay alert.”

Lofty moves off quietly, stalking along the edge of the hillocks and thanking his Gods Yondalla and Urogalan for the ‘Belt of Dwarvenkind’. Lofty moves out and hears nothing so continues to move until he is at the limit of his ‘Message’ Spell and then hears the Jingle of the Bells once more. The Rogue continues to move and can now clearly see the Goblin Jester Suit hanging from a tree and hidden from the road by a thicketed area.

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “I knew something was off. The Black Spider doppelganger, the Goblins and the Wolves must be around here somewhere.”

Lofty moves closer to the hanging Jester suit and further away from his team. Lofty can see hidden some 30’ feet away Jingles the Goblin ridding Snarl the Wolf and with them both 2 other Wolves.

Once the Rogue is some 10’-15’ feet from the Jester Suit, that belongs to Jingles, he decides to climb a tree for a better view. He knew that there should be more foes around and takes another look around.

That is when Lofty spots Jingles sitting on Snarl the Wolf and accompanied by 2 other Large Wolves, Salt & Pepper, with one being white and the other grey. Lofty then, still being ‘Invisible’ and hidden from Jingles decides to attempt to send a Magic ‘Message’ to the party but the Arcane Trickster realises that he had stray too far and his companions where too far back from his position.

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Maybe if I fire at Jingles, it will be enough to scare them off or alert the others.”

Lofty is able to Surprise Jingles and his pack of Wolves and hits the Goblin Jester. The Rogue casts ‘Sleep’ on Jingles, Snarl, and the 2 newer wolves, Salt and Pepper. Only Jingles and Snarl fall asleep, being the weakest of the pack. Salt and Pepper being to yawl calling out to their pack.

Jingles – Goblin Jester

However, as a result of the Rogue breaking cover, this alerted the main force that was also hiding nearby. Lofty can see that 4 Hobgoblins, none of which were wearing the Crossed Hand-Axes of King Grol, were running to stand by the tree he was in all with their Longbows Drawn and aim at him. Luckily the tree did afford some protection and Jingles was still asleep.

Lofty casts his ‘Magic Missile’ at the group on the top of the hillock hoping not to wake Jingles.

Beyond the 3 Hobgoblins the Rogue also could see that there were 2 more larger Hobgoblins standing either side of the biggest Hobgoblin Lofty had ever seen. The biggest Hobgoblin was calling out orders and Lofty hear then address him as Targor Bloodsword. That is also when Lofty spots the Dog or Dogs by one of the Hobgoblins, not just the one but it has two heads. Lofty thinks back to a book he once read whilst casing a joint and remembers what this creature was, a Death Dog from the Underdark.

Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Now I remember, a Death Dog is an ugly two-headed hound that roams plains, deserts, and the Underdark. Hate burns in a Death Dog’s heart, and a taste for humanoid flesh drives it to attack travellers and explorers. Death Dog saliva carries a foul disease that causes a victim’s flesh to slowly rot off the bone.”

The Rogue in the tree attempts to attract the Hobgoblins attention away from himself and he casts ‘Dancing Lights’ and creating a humanoid figure. The Hobgoblins on the ridge fire at Lofty’s creation.

Eventually Galdor and Astrid hear the commotion and dash over to aid their sister in arms. Galdor uses his Longbow from distance and Astrid uses her abilities to cast ‘Darkvision’ on herself so she can be at the same advantage as her enemies.

Sildar and Gundren arrive on horseback and Sildar is able to fire off one of hit Cross-Bow Bolts at the Hobgoblins but he misses due to the darkness of the evening and his poor eyesight.

The Death Dog rushes to the horse ridden by Sildar and Gundren and kills the poor creature outright. Astrid engages with the Death Dog and has to deal with the creatures feted saliva which would normally pass its deadly disease. Astrid was Lucky. Galdor aid in the slaughter of the Underdark beast.

Monster – Death Dog

Galdor and Astrid then fight with the Hobgoblins whist Lofty continues to fire at those close to his comrades. All are eventually killed and, having searched the dead, Lofty finds that 3 of the Hobgoblins carry bloody sacks, each containing a severed Elf head. The severed heads are trophies from the Hobgoblins’ recent victory over an Elf hunting party. Lofty opens the Puzzle Box and finds a pipe inside. The pipe is wooden and adorned with platinum filigree (150 gp).

There is no sign of Jingles, Snarl, and the 2 newer wolves, Salt and Pepper as they were eventually roused by the wolves or the time elapsed. Jingles will come back and Lofty best be ready.

The adventurers return to collect Sildar Hallwinter and Gundren Rockseeker and they are both impressed and shocked that these 3 young adults were capable of such efficient slaughter.