In this session, our party celebrated in Greenest and then returned to the raider’s camp and entered the cave…

The Lady of the Spring

• At their campsite, Pliny spent the night composing a song for the lady of the spring.
• As dawn was about to break, Pliny ate the last of his Goodberries for inspiration and finished his song.
• And then began to strum his lute (Performance 27), harmonizing with the bubbling of the spring, and waking the camp

Blessed is the lady of the lake
Words unworthy of singing for her sake
Protector of travel and protector of the weary
I find new hope with you a near me
The way you shine with eyes averted
This vagabond is now converted
I swear to thee I sing your praise
Until this bard’s final days
Like the tide my hopes are high
as I slumber by your side
Guide us home you earthly being
her for soul that need a freein’

• When Pliny finished, he turned to see that the Lady of the Spring had arisen from the pool and was applauding his song.
• Aegar walked to the pool and while gently placing his hand on the surface, cast Purify Food and Drink on the pool as a gesture to the water spirit.
• The Lady of the Spring, aloof, stepped aside and smiled and nodded solemly to Aegar.
• Aegar kept his eyes down and averted, and bowed and backed away.
• Zoyana shared that troops from the Cult of the Dragon were probably on their way.
• The Lady of the Spring thanked the party and asked for their water skins, which they provided. She dipped the skins in the pool, and when returned were filled with Greater Healing Potions rather than water.
• As the party and escapees left the clearing, Zoyana cast Plant Growth to obscure the trail and pool from the view of the road, making it much less likely for inappropriate intruders to find the spring in the future.

The Heroes of Greenest

• The party returned to Greenest with escapees in tow and with no other incidents, and found that the town continued the process of recovering from the raid.
• As they walked into town, heads turned to follow them.
• Then they started to hear calls and cries of “They’re back! They’re back!”
• The folks standing in doorways watch them walk up.
• Zoyana tried to hide in the middle of the group, and Aegar started to feel uncomfortable. Pliny, however, started to feel right at home.
• Some of the people start whispering to each other: “The Heroes of Greenest! The Heroes of Greenest!” Kids started following the group.
• The party stopped before heading up to the keep, collect the weapons they loaned to the escapees, and freed the escapees to return to their families. The dwarves, half-elves, and most of the escapees kept with the party, though a couple returned to their families.
• From the keep came calls of “they’re back, they’re back!”
• Aegar steeled himself for the praise, and joined Pliny in heading up to the keep. The town was both appreciative and welcoming ot the group.
  • As they passed the gates, Pliny did his best Labron impression via a Prestidigitation-induced puff of chalk.
• Aegar headed to the blacksmith to offload his morningstar, and then headed to the prison cells to check-in on the people the party had brought to justice before the raid.
  • He spoke with them (Persuasion 29) about the fact that they were a product of their environments and that they had turned to a life of crime due to the lack of available work, and that there was work to be had.
    • Just here in Greenest, there was much work available in helping to rebuild.
      
    • He left convinced (Insight 25) that the raid, the opportunity, and his words landed strongly with the criminals, and they realized that that this is one shot to turn their lives around and that this was a great time because Greenest is at the point where people want to rebuild it.
      
    • There’s a bunch of work to do, so they’ll be able to dive in and do that.
• Zoyana <did something secret>
• The party made a few stops to gear up for their next adventure.
• Governor Nighthill hosted a Lord’s Feast in their honor.
  • The escapees and were able to personally thank the party, their spouses and families got to thank the party, and the escapees got to introduce the party to their families. (It was quite heartwarming.)
  • Governor Nighthill paid out the promised 250 gp for information along with 160 gp for the return of the prisoners.
• At the feast, there were minstrels and song. At one point, Pliny had the opportunity to step up to the stage.
  • “Ladies and gentlemen of Greenest, thank you. Thank you for honoring team ZAP. We got Zoyana, we got Aegar, and we got The Pliny. And what I want to point out is that team ZAP would be nothing without exclamation mark and that’s you. You were the people who saved us a fine night. I would be nothing without you. And so I would like to sing a song to all of you.”
    • And then he sang a song. Something with a Shakespearian mocking of the Governor, without the governor knowing it.
    • A wink to Widow Swift
    • And a hello to Rashida.
      • Who responded with a deadly stare. Clearly, there was one thing on her mind: getting Tom back.
    • His performance (Performance 23) was truly inspiring, and the entire feast was left buzzing.
• Fang was in heaven, surrounded by revelers who both gave him treats and were targets for his mischievous tricks.
• Father Falconmoon and his clergy gave the party a Healing Potion each as thanks. Father Falconmoon also pulled Aegar aside and provides an open invitation to talk about the gods sometime, if not here in Greenest, then with another priest somewhere else in the world.
• While the Governor celebrated the party as ones who saved lives, respected his authority, and raised the morale of the population, the party noticed Leosin eyeing them more appraisingly. When they first met, Leosin was rather dismissive, but now he was showing clear respect.
• Later that night, Pliny visited Widow Swift (Persuasion 23), and comforted her in her loss.

The Next Morning and Day

• The next morning, Leosin caught the party as they prepared to leave on their return to Greenest.
  • He needs a few more days to recover before he could be ready for fighting, so he was planning on heading to Elterel the next day to meet up with Ontharr Frume and coordinate between the Harpers and the Order of the Gauntlet.
    • In Elterel, the party can find Leosin through the Order of the Guantlet at the Pair of Black Antlers tavern.
  • He also mentioned his membership in the Harpers to Pliny, and suggested that they should talk about that when next they met.
• The party headed out, with a focus on balancing speed with stealth. They made it 20-ish miles, which was further than their first camp on their last visit to the raiders.
• They found a secure campsite, and night passed uneventfully.

The Raiders’ Camp

• The party reached the Raiders’ Camp mid-afternoon, and saw no signs of raiders along the way.
• Zoyana wild-shaped into an animal and ventured inside to scout.
  • She saw that the watchtower was standing empty, and the lower camp was gone and burned-out, with only garbage remaining.
  • In the upper camp, the command tent and watchtower were still standing, as well as the group of tents south-of and nearest-to the cave with the first people she saw milling about.
    • They didn’t appear to be cultists or even mercenaries (Perception 20), they instead looked like foresters or hunter types - two men and two women.
    • They were butchering a deer as she watched.
    • Nothing seemed different about the entrance to the cave.
• Zoyana returned to the party and provided her update.
  • The party discussed assassinating the hunters, sneaking past, baiting the hunters to follow Aegar’s steed, or using their stolen Cult robes to impersonate cultists. They went with Pliny’s impersonation suggestion.
• In preparation, Aegar cast Aid on the party, and Pliny passed around shots of Elven Battle Spirit.

Bluffing their way past the hunters

• Aegar and Pliny pretended to tie up Zoyana, and walked with purpose straight toward the cave.
• As they came in sight of the hunter’s tents, one of the four looked over at the party, then turned back and completely ignored the party.
• Just outside the cave, at about 5:30PM, the party stopped to regroup.

The Cave Entrance

• Outside the cave, Zoyana took 10 minutes to cast Detect Magic as a ritual… detecting no magic beyond that carried by the party. She also gave the party a quick review of the things she remembered seeing in the cave on her last visit.
• While she did that, Pliny looked over to the cave (Perception 26) and spotted a thin rope strung across the cave entrance about 18" off the ground. It had been painted black with grease to make it nearly invisible, and was clearly a trip-wire or the trigger for a trap of some kind.
  
• The party did some basic planning and attempted to stealth their way as they stepped over the rope.

Guards

• Aegar made a god-awful clanging as he stepped over the rope, and the party were immediately hailed by one of the two guards at the front. Aegar bluffed his way past (Intimidation 6 vs the guard’s Insight 3).

The Fungus Garden

• Zoyana then led the party towards the next room deeper in the cave, towards stairs leading down to a glowing fungus garden.
  • Down below, the path split in two, weaving to the left and to the right of the glowing fungi.
• Zoyana led the party down the stairs (completely forgetting the trap she had seen on her previous visit).
  • As she stepped on the 3rd stair, the stairway flattened, and Zoyana was sent flying forward into the patch of mushrooms, luckily keeping quiet (Stealth 20).
    • Fang and Pliny were lost in thought, and took the Dodge action their first round.
    • The wiggling tentacles of two of the violet fungi reached out, doing 4 necrotic damage.
    • Zoyana then disengaged, and hid in a corner.
    • Aegar jumped down the small cliff, and checked on Zoyana
    • Pliny looked back toward the guards (Perception 21), and it seemed that they had not noticed the commotion, so he skirted past the violet fungi and joined the others.
• Aegar gave Zoyana his Goggles of Night, allowing her to see with darkvision, but Aegar then could not see.

More Cave

• Past the fungus garden, the cave ceiling dropped to a narrow passage about 5’ high, and Zoyana (Perception 24) spied two more of the black tripwires about 18" off the ground.
• Zoyana’s Detect Magic expired and she immediately cast Pass Without Trace.
• The party then stealthily stepped over the trip wires and into the next room.
• The next room contained a few more mushrooms, a couple clay pots, a rusty old spear leaned against a wall, and on the ground a number of dead bats.
  • Pliny looked up and saw a colony of bats above, and realized that they would probably be flying out of the cave for their nightly feed at any minute.
• The back side of the room made a T-junction, with paths to the right and left, and a series of ledges straight ahead that led down to the area that the kobolds were clearly tossing their trash.
  • To the right, stairs led down. To the left, the passage was obstructed by hanging vines that looked like they had been placed there and could be easily pushed aside.
• Pliny took a Mage Hand to one of the pots (from a safe distance), and as soon as he touched the pot, the lid popped off and a cloud of fungus spores covered the area 10’ around.
• Aegar started investigating the garbage heap, jumping down to get a better view. He saw some shiny bits of metal, some books and parchment, and a bunch of trash.
  • He then took a second look for danger or traps (Perception Natural 20), noticed movement, and made out a number of monstrous beings lurking in the shadows.
  • Rather than picking a fight, Aegar climbed back up and suggested the party move on.

The Path to the Left

• Zoyana pulled aside the vines on the path to the left, and led the party through while skirting the wall to try to remain hidden.
  • For the second time, she forgot a trap she had seen previously, and on her first step into that room, she stepped through a canvas-covered trap and impaled her foot on some spikes (taking 5 points of piercing damage), was poisoned, and couldn’t move. Somehow (Stealth 28), she remained slient throught it all.
  • Aegar Laid on Hands for 5hp, which also cured her poisoning.
• The room that they just entered was about 100’ long and 30’ wide, with a 10’+ ledge separating upper and lower portions. A gated stairway led down from the top.
• The party noticed in the shadows at least one guard drake, but with their stealth the drake had not yet noticed them.

The Kobold Lair

• Ahead, a passage of stairs to the left led downward.
  
• As Zoyana peered around the corner and down the passage, she saw that the stairs led about 20’ down and then the passage opened into a larger room. In it, she spied a couple kobolds. She also noticed that the top step of the stairs was obviously trapped.
• She ducked back, and mentally messaged Aegar and Pliny what she had seen. The party decided it was time to fight
• Zoyana cast Conjure Animals and brought 2 dire wolves into the fight.
• - - -
• Pliny stepped over to peer down the stairs and as soon as two kobolds were standing within 5 feet of each other, he cast Crown of Madness on the nearest kobold.
  • The kobold pulled its dagger and stabbed the second kobold right next to it.
  • The room exploded in the chattering of kobolds. In draconic: “I.. I don’t know what’s happening!”
• While the kobolds were confused, the party waited for the one kobold to continue stabbing the others.
• - - -
• A few seconds later, the second kobold keeled over dead from a second stab wound.
• Other kobolds piled on top of the first kobold, wrestling it to the ground.
• One of the kobolds went running up the stairs, saw the party, shrieked, turned, and ran back into the room.
• - - -
• Zoyana wildshaped into a Dire Wolf, bounded down the stairs, and killed a kobold.
• A series of kobolds started swinging their slings and pelting wolf-Zoyana, doing 7 points of damage with one stone and 5 points with another.
• Fang flew down next to Zoyana, blinded the nearest 4 kobolds with a Color Spray, turned invisible, and flew into a corner to hide.
• More kobolds let fly at Zoyana, doing 4 points of bludegoning damage.
• Pliny used his turn to keep kobold #1 stabbing his friends and inspired good Aegar.
• Aegar cast Sleep and downed 2 kobolds.
• Zoyana’s dire wolves bounded down the stairs.
• - - -
• The kobolds continued pelting and missing Zoyana with their slings.
• Zoyana lunged forward and removed the throat of the nearest kobold, and then stepped aside to allow the rest of her party a clear line of entry.
• Pliny’s kobold #1 stabbed the nearest kobold (Natural 20!), ending it’s life.
• Fang took the Dodge action.
• The kobolds pelted Zoyana some more for 5 points and 4 points of damage.
• Pliny again used his turn to keep kobold #1 stabbing his friends, but this time he moved down into the room where the action was.
• Aegar ran further into the room and blasted 3 of the kobolds with his lightening breath weapon, killing two and seriously frying the third.
• Zoyana’s dire wolves each ate a kobold.
• - - -
• The party took one more turn to mop up, leaving all visible kobolds dead.
• The session ended 24 seconds after the party was first seen by the kobolds, with the party planning to continue up the stairs to the South and deciding whether to take the time to loot the kobold bodies.