Lost Mines of Phandelver – Session 29

Unnatural Bargaining 

The Spectator’s co-workers descended upon the party who had been busy going around in circles on how to deal with the Spectator. *So I rolled on the random encounter table… * Quick as a whip both Merric and Wendel charged the zombies, downing one in the first round. -.-

A couple more rounds passed of the zombies not scoring a single hit *As a DM I’m thoroughly convinced my dice are cursed. * The party reconsidered the floating Spectator who hadn’t moved from the adjacent room.

“Oh what lay abouts!” exclaimed the Spectator referring to the dead zombies. “Told you they were lazy, look at them just lying there not even bothering to pretend to be working.”

The party looked at each other. It was becoming quite clear to them that the Spectator’s grasp on reality had slipped, if they could only reason a way around the employment contract with it then they could perhaps get away without fighting it. Any attempts to discuss the terms of its’ contract was rebuffed as “impolite talk in the work environment.” Then Aurelia had an idea.

Grabbing an apprehensive Gundren she approached the door to the Spectator’s room. Addressing the creature, she explained that the mine was under new management and that Gundren was the new owner of the mine. After the Spectator clarified a few of the details and some very successful persuasion rolls by the Warlock, the Spectator informed them that his employment contract had been fulfilled and had no desire to enter into a new one.

A shimming of air with a slight pop of noise and the Spectator had returned to it’s plane of existence, allowing the group to explore the new room without interference. Buoyed by their success the party entered the Forge of Spells. The workshop was badly damaged by some ancient magics that occurred during the fall of the mines’ original inhabitants, with scorch marks and burnt plaster walls.

In the middle of the room stood a stone pedestal that held a small brazier with an eerie green flame that danced and crackled. The pedestal and brazier alone appeared untouched by the forces that had destroyed this area. Aurelia’s detect magic signalled a strong presence of magic coming from the pedestal and some magical aura on some items on the workbench on the far wall.

The items turned out to be a mace named Lightbringer (+1 mace, that can glow on command and deal +1d6 radiant dmg to undead when aglow) and a breastplate named Dragonguard (+1 Breastplate, grants advantage on saving throw versus breath weapons from dragon type creatures). The party divided up the loot with Asterin opting for the breastplate whereas no one had any desire to use the mace so it was added to storage.

*We opted to use the special rule for identify on short rest and attunement. I allowed people to roll arcana checks on the items, unfortunately no one rolled high enough to determine all the benefits, only the +1 nature of both items. *

Asterin was very drawn to the green flame on the pedestal and after an unusually high arcana check *counter balance for not passing on the armour* determined that any items passing through the flame would be granted a bonus if not already enchanted. So needless to say the party began passing every item they had available through the flames.

*The flame granted a +1 attribute to any weapon or armour for 1d12 hours. A lot of dice were rolled and I made all players aware of how long each enchantment would last. If the group wasn’t OP before… *

Very happy with their good fortunes they recalled that the Wraith had requested that they remove the Spectator from this room so they returned to the undead creature to inform him of their success. Mormesk was pleased by the groups actions gesturing to his chest and bookshelves to help themselves, reiterating that his smoking pipe was off limits.

New Arrivals

dragon icon green

Ignoring the chest completely Asterin began perusing the bookshelves, most of the books were old historic texts which she pocketed happily. One of which she noticed had bulging cover, inside the back cover was an old sewn map. She would need to time to read the book further to determined what the map contained.

The others had opened the chest and came away with;

  • 1,100 cp
  • 160 sp
  • 50 ep
  • 3 diamonds

Even though the wooden smoking pipe had a platinum filigree that would be worth a pretty penny, the group decided to not invoke the Wraith’s wrath and left it in the chest. Pleased with the hoard of treasure the group had now amassed, Gundren politely reminded them that they hadn’t encountered the figure known as the Black Spider nor had they located his lost younger brother Nundren.

Confident that they could overcome whatever the mine had left in store the group retraced their steps past the Forge of Spells and headed further north towards the sounds of the crashing waves. Down a northern passageway the party entered another cavern along a narrow ledge that overlooked a large body of water. The rhythmic booming heard throughout the mines was louder here.

At regular intervals, a fresh surge of water would funnel up into the chamber to slam against the wall just below the ledge upon which the party now stood. The echo suggested that this cave could be one arm of a larger cavern to the northeast. Although the party were not inclined to attempt to swim through the raging waters to find out. *Which is fortunate because this wasn’t included in the campaign. *

The ledge angled to the northwest and continued into another passageway that angled further west. Proceeding further Wendel swore he could overhear something up ahead and requested the party to proceed with caution.

*That awareness feat can be quite annoying, Wendel. *

Sneaking forward with Merric in the lead, the passageway ended at the edge of a wide rift which was 20ft deep. On the other side of the rift were several ropes securely fastened to allow for easier climbing. Within the rift were two Bugbears excavating some rocks trying to locate something. Another Bugbear and a male Drow stood on the other side of the rift supervising the others.

The party remained undetected… for about 10 seconds, as Gundren rounded the corner accidently kicking a rock which went sailing over the edge of the rift. The Drow immediately looked up spotting the party and shouted out the alarm. The battle was on.

The party is closing in on the Black Spider, find out how they fare in the next session.

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