🪱17. sack of worms
session 17 • 03/05/2022 • 3,775 words
『 📜 』 adventure log
🌞 DAY 5 • 📅 ELEINT 26
Sticky!
Immediately, it's clear to the group that these Redbrands are of a different caliber to the ones we fought at Stonehill: these seem stronger and more organized.
Regardless, however, between the group's combat capabilities as well as the surprise of getting webbed while inebriated, the fight remains one-sided throughout in the favor of the party.
The martials of the group -- Sildar, Hugh, Colt -- rush forward, trying to skirt the webs and pick off the Redbrands closer to them. They eventually venture into the webs to get to the rest of the ruffians and are immediately caught in the mess along with the Redbrands. Chaos ensues. Ya boi DM God has to roll MANY many dex / strength saves.
I am so sorry.
Sorennar offers to dispel the webs spell once it's clear that the group is struggling with it as well. The group reassures him that the webs should stay as they're stopping the ruffians from escaping, and so the clown fiesta continues, with both the party and the Redbrands getting stuck and unstuck in the webs almost every turn.
Lera and Sorennar continue their offensive and supportive spellcasting from the hallway, and the group whittles down the Redbrands easily.
Droop the baby goblin is losing his mind in the meantime, and attempts to escape past the Nothic to leave the cavern as we had discussed. Sorennar warns him that there may be more enemies down the hall, causing Droop to turn RIGHT back around and stay holding Sorennar's pant legs. I can and will die for this babey.
The Nothic once again approaches out of curiosity, and is encouraged by Lera to start attacking the Redbrands because they're "food", with its reading gaze. It's not apparent to the group whether its attacks are successful, but it tryin'.
As the fight goes on, Lera continues attempting to trick the Nothic into aiding them in the fight against the Redbrands by referring to the Redbrands in the room as "food". Unfortunately, however, the Nothic eventually catches on and lashes out suddenly at Lera -- seemingly proving its madness -- by pointing out that she shouldn't be ordering it around.
Sorennar attempts to defuse the situation by letting it know that Lera helped kill the bugbear that the Nothic ate previously, and once again reassures the Nothic that all the bodies in the room would be his to eat, easing its anger seemingly. The Nothic demands that the group leave one of the Redbrands alive so it can eat it alive and "hear it scream".
Seeing Lera's disgust at this, Sorennar promises the Nothic they would "try", but makes no move to inform the rest of the group about this arrangement.
Encouraged, the Nothic enters the room and, with its gaze, begins to rot one of the Redbrands!!!! RIght in front of our salad.. :/
Terrified at this point, the remaining two Redbrands attempt to escape, but are hindered by the webs. One makes it to the entrance across the room. Noting that it would be bad if one of the ruffians escaped and warned Glasstaff, Sorennar inflicts him with Unsettling Words, then uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter (Hey what do you call a goblin with no eyes? A gobln!) to bring the ruffian to his knees with laughter.
DROOP LAUGHS,,,, THANK YOU FOR THE PITY LAUGH MY BELOVED
The remaining Redbrand is caught in the webs, and the Nothic begins trying to eat it alive. Seeing this, Hugh kills the Redbrand quickly, and incurs a furious hiss from the Nothic, who begins insulting Hugh for robbing him of its "screaming meat". Sildar drags the laughing Redbrand back into the room, and Sorennar brings Droop in (Droop is holding his hand with both hands ; - ; )
With that, combat is concluded.
The Nothic's Gift
The Nothic, still furious at Hugh despite Lera's attempts at getting it to eat the bodies, peers into Hugh's mind and successfully gets through. Whatever it sees in there, however, causes it to WORDLESSLY TURN AROUND and begin heeding Lera's suggestions of eating the other bodies LMFAOO????
what the gotdamn is in hugh's head 👁️👄👁️
The remaining, laughing Redbrand, which we successfully shielded from the Nothic, is still ... laughing. Sorennar reasons that with Droop as their guide, they did not need the ruffian alive, and asks Sildar to execute him quickly. Sildar does so with a longsword strike to the heart.
Two Purple Ones
The Nothic, pausing in its eating, looks to Sildar and asks him, "will the two purple ones be joining us today? can we eat them?" Bewildered, Sildar asks for clarification, to which the Nothic replies, "the two I saw in your head".
Sildar immediately draws his weapon, and Sorennar attempts to stop him, trying to reason that it was best to stay on the Nothic's good side. Sildar, furious, whispers that the Nothic must be talking about Vulmar and Aire. Sorennar acknowledges this, and promises Sildar that if the Nothic does it again, he would kill it himself.
Red as Blood
As the group loots the bodies, the Nothic turns its attention towards Lera, whom it is still salty about. It asks about Lera's mother, having detected her strong (?) emotions about her mother when probing in her head. It comments on her red hair looking like blood, inquiring if her mother also tastes like sand, building off of the lie that Sorennar had previously told it about the party.
Extremely nervously, Lera establishes that she has as little idea about her mother's whereabouts as the Nothic. The Nothic offers to look for her with Lera, which Lera quickly declines. She informs the Nothic that folk with red hair are even "sandier" than usual, then backs out of the room with Droop, my beloved, who is concerned about the rest of the party.
The boys, after looting the bodies, drag them down the hall to the crevasse and carefully (after Sorennar drops one violently and the Nothic gets mad) places them into the Nothic's lair.
Just Oozing
Absolutely ecstatic over its new store of food, the Nothic skitters its way down into its lair and fumbles around in the bones to bring out a beautiful shortsword, which he presents to Sorennar as a gift for being kind to it.
Before letting Sorennar leave, however, the Nothic attempts to demand that Sorennar let it "into his mind" for a peek. Sorennar deflects, and ends up promising the Nothic that next time he comes around, he would let the Nothic shop around.
The Nothic makes a final request: that Sorennar bring him Glasstaff -- alive. Sorennar wonders about the Nothic's previous loyalty to "Master Glasstaff", but the Nothic breaks off into ramblings about how he wants to see Glasstaff ooze, reminding Sorennar that Nothic is, after all, an insane creature.
Regrouping
As we regroup in the Redbrand common room, Sorennar points out that after rescuing the Alderleafs, it may be hard to get them back through the dungeon -- and to find them in the first place -- without Droop's help. He suggests the party bring Droop with them, then have Droop escort the Alderleafs out of the hideout. The party agrees.
Droop points out that we are RIGHT outside of Glasstaff's door, and the group has a mini panic attack over him having heard the commotion and laughter, before we remember that the Redbrands were playing knucklebones and probably making just as much noise beforehand anyway.
Sorennar gives Colt the shortsword from the Nothic cave, citing his "fine ass" as a reason. He notes that he's no good with a blade, but when pushed by both Colt and Sildar about his decent sword skills against the bugbear, he admits that he is trying to learn how to do this "nice" thing.
Sildar reminds Colt that there are many cursed items in the world -- advice that Colt heeds by stowing the sword away for the moment. Sildar compares Garaele to the Nothic when the group suggests letting her identify the sword, prompting disbelief from the group. Sildar affirms that Garaele once held him captive and broke his leg to stop him from escaping?!?!, further escalating that disbelief. We collectively decide to speak to Garaele on this at dinner.
The group moves on across the bridge that Droop said was the safe one. Sorennar offers for Droop to sit on his shoulders, and he eagerly obliges. Before entering, Droop reminds the group that they were about to enter a crype full of angry skeletons that would attack anyone who wasn't a Redbrand. This prompts Sorennar to go retrieve the Redbrand cloaks from the dead ruffians in the Nothic's pit.
After a tense exchange with the Nothic that involved a lot of flattering and empty promises, Sorennar retrieves the cloaks. The Nothic expresses, more aggressively, its desire to taste Sorennar.
The group finds a stash of various miscellaneous items. After some investigating, we find about 30 beaver pelts that may be of value, and stow them away. Droop points out a hidden secret door next to the stash, and the group gets into optimal marching order to continue their delve into the dungeon: Sildar in the front, with Sorennar close behind for verbal support if needed.
The Alderleafs
We enter a hallway. Sorennar comments on Sildar's FINE ass indirectly, but amends it to "hair" to shield POOR 3 year old baby goblin Droop from his sin. Droop establishes that he hasn't really seen other creatures aside from the bugbears :(
The group enters a room with 3 closed sarcophagi. Sildar becomes visibly bothered by the potential presence of undead waiting to ambush them, though the cloaks seem to do the trick. The group relies on Colt's amaZING lock picking fine ass prowess to get through all of the locked doors, finding what seems to be a prison with two cells.
There are two female halflings in one cell, and one male one in the other -- we gather that these are the prisoners we're looking for. Though initially very hostile and angry given our attire in red cloaks, Sorennar explains to them that the party had been in contact with Carp and were here to rescue them, as Colt makes quick work of the cell door locks.
Sorennar gives them all red cloaks, and instructs them to take Droop and run past the Nothic as he tries to distract it. The Alderleafs are very grateful and offer material remuneration, but Sorennar wryly states that any rewards should come from the Townsmaster. They are very concerned about Carp's wellbeing, and are eager to return home.
They make their way back through the caverns without much trouble, and though the Nothic notices them, Sorennar manages to distract it -- though it is very agitated now and seems much more aggressive. Hugh manages to usher the group down the cavern, and they flee, holding Droop like a BABEY CHILD.
Spears and Longswords
We circle back to some of the unopened doors we previously bypassed in our urgency. We find a weapons storage room of sorts, and raid the entire room, dumping 12 spears, 6 light crossbows, 6 shortswords and 8 quivers of crossbow bolts into the Bag of Holding.
Sorennar comments on Sildar learning how to use polearms, as though Sildar the battlemaster fighter doesn't have proficiency in everything, dumb drow gremlin smh.
Lera comments on the weapons' prices and her father's craftsmanship, prompting Sorennar to ask about her father's occupation. She mentions that he's a blacksmith but seems to lament that she does not have the body type to follow in his footsteps.
Sorennar tries to gather into words the lesson that he's beginning to learn with the party: that the hand you're dealt when you're born doesn't determine what you can do with your life. Lera establishes, however, that she is simply disinterested in the occupation : ( Sildar reaffirms Sorennar's point, thanks dad.
After all this, the group readies themselves to confront Glasstaff.
Disillusionment
Before entering Glasstaff's lair, Sorennar reminds the group that the Black Spider is an extremely manipulative individual, and that it was more than likely that he was forcing Iarno Albrek into a role he might not want to play -- via hostages, blackmail, etc. He asks that the group bear this in mind when dealing with Glasstaff, likening it to his own situation.
The group pushes the door open to find a laboratory of sorts. There are inanimate skeletons standing in the corners of the room.
A rat scurries across the floor, which reviles Sorennar due to his experiences with being fed rancid vermin. Hugh offers to kill the rat, but Sorennar declines due to fear of making noise.
Before moving forward, Sorennar swipes all the herbal components on the table into his bag nonchalantly. We open the door to reveal a male human wizard with dark hair, wielding a glass staff, standing confidently as though waiting for us -- confirming Glasstaff to be Iarno Albrek of the Lord's Alliance.
Sildar immediately confronts Iarno, pleading with Iarno to admit that he's being held hostage by the Spider to be doing such horrible things. Iarno is amused by this, stating that he had joined the Lord's Alliance only for money and power, and that he had been exploiting the confidential information that his position gave him in order to nourish his band of Redbrand bandits.
Sildar accuses Iarno of wasting away, and Iarno retorts by revealing, from Sildar's Alliance files, that Sildar had a long history of refusing promotions, even going as far as to threaten to quit if he were promoted again. Sildar explains that he wanted to actively help people through fieldwork, rather than be stuck behind a desk doing paperwork, and accuses Iarno of squandering the goodwill of the Lord's Alliance.
Iarno attempts to taunt Sildar about the amount of corruption in the Lord's Alliance, but Sildar is adamant about receiving a straight answer about whether Iarno was being manipulated(Sorennar taught him well 😢), and draws his weapon threateningly.
Iarno reveals that Dagult Neverember, Open Lord of Waterdeep and the leader of the Lord's Alliance, had just embezzled 500,000GP (dragons) from Waterdeep's banks, started a Waterdhavian great game called the Dragon Heist, and was being sheltered in Neverwinter by the Alliance. Sildar adamantly refuses to believe this, calling Iarno a liar.
Believing that Sildar would not live much longer, Iarno shrugs this off, and taunts Sildar once more: "the whole thing is corrupt, if you want to fix it, you'll need to tear it down and rebuild from the ground up", lamenting that Sildar would never be able to, with his rank and power. He releases a piece of paper from his coat, which folds into a bird and flies out of the room.
The party in range of the bird attempts to swipe at it, but it's too dexterous and manages to fly out of the room. Iarno, readying himself for battle, states that he hopes Sildar is good with a sword, as it's clear Sildar is too stupid to use magic. Seething and furious, Sildar affirms that he is skilled enough to cut out Iarno's tongue. 😳
The battle begins.
Glasstaff
Colt quickly steps into the room to approach Glasstaff, stopping near another set of skeleton statues, and hesitating to get too close to Glasstaff due to the group's previous warnings in the bugbear/oblex fight 😢 Honey this is a mage
Colt mocks Glasstaff's taunts about Sildar being unable to use magic, and attempts to cast Chill Touch at Glasstaff,,,, only to miss. ; ;
Glasstaff scoffs at this, and orders the skeletons to “hold down” the party members, and two of them manage to grab ahold of Sildar and Colt as Glasstaff slams his staff down and lets loose a blazing fireball that puts Colt on the ground, badly damages the rest of the party, and incinerates all but one of the skeletons.
Sildar lunges for Iarno, only to have all three of his next slashes absorbed by Glasstaff’s mirror images as Glasstaff taunts him continually about his swordsmanship.
Seeing Colt downed and Sildar struggling to land a hit, Hugh enters a new form of rage as he begins to weep dark mist from his eyes, which turn a deep pink-red. Finally, just as Sorennar had described when they first met, Hugh shoots a blinding (literally) beam of light from his navel, which blinds Iarno.
This turns the tides, granting advantage to the martials as they begin to land hits on Glasstaff. Panicked, the mage calls to Sorennar, whom he had seen at the start of the fight, to help him: “you’re the drow spy, aren’t you? It’s time to drop the ruse, help me now and I won’t report your incompetence to your master.” — thinking that this would turn the party against Sorennar.
Sorennar, without hesitation, tells him: “I won’t waste time on trying to explain to you what a good person Sildar is, but say another word about him and I’ll cut your tongue out myself”, before casting Enlarge/Reduce on Sildar, granting him extra damage on his hits.
Lera channels divinity, granting 15 HP to Hugh and the unconscious Colt, bringing him back to life, thank you for our lives! Colt wakes up to see belly-button-beam Hugh and a Sildar who is twice as large as usual, and says “what the FUCK”, before pulling himself together and joining the series of successful attacks on Iarno.
Blind and forced into the defensive, Iarno casts a magical shield over himself and continues issuing orders to his skeletons. Sildar continues brutally attacking him, confusing Hugh, who is unsure whether we were still trying to take him alive as planned. Despite Lera’s best efforts and convincing them to see reason, Sildar is too enraged to stay his hand and Hugh follows Sildar in trying to lethally attack Glasstaff.
Sorennar, worried that Sildar would regret his rashness later, hugs Sildar’s leg bc he’s so big ;-; Sorennar offers to be Sildar’s anchor, referring to the bugbear room, but Sildar still resists. Finally, Sorennar refers to the Black Spider as “Nezznar” by name for the first time (with much difficulty) in an attempt to jolt Sildar back to reason, which it does.
The group continues to land heavy attacks on Glasstaff, eventually causing him to panic enough to attempt to escape, teleporting across the room behind the party and exiting after drinking a potion of invisibility. Sildar and Hugh dash after him, while Sorennar attempts to listen for Glasstaff's whereabouts, and upon determining that he was still nearby, casts Faerie Fire to outline his invisible figure.
Colt comes up and nails Glasstaff across the face with the hilt of his dagger, knocking him out and ending the fight.
Strip Search
No You Strip The Wizard BEFORE You Tie Him Up
Hugh, Colt and Lera drag the unconscious Glasstaff back into his laboratory. Lera searches the lab and locates some books of interest, while Hugh and Colt have a clown fiesta of a time handling their unconscious prisoner.
Colt and Hugh tie Glasstaff up with rope, before realizing that they should strip him as they're not sure what the wizard is able to use as a spell focus, proceeding to untie him just to strip him down to his underwear, then re-tying him up, loudly discussing their courses of action.
A Wonderful World
In the meantime, Sorennar stops Sildar at the doorway and checks in with him regarding his emotional state. Sildar, incredibly dejected by all of Glasstaff's remarks about the corruption in the Lord's Alliance, snubs the state of the world and all the bad people in it -- "the world is not as beautiful as I had hoped."
Sorennar admits that he has plenty of grounds to be angry, and offers his listening ear -- after they get done interrogating the "sack of worms", referring to Albrek. Before they join the shouting duo of Colt and Hugh as they try to tie up Glasstaff, Sorennar tells Sildar: "for the record, I think that the world is more beautiful with you in it."
At this, Sildar admits that he may have been too pessimistic, acknowledging that there are still good people in the world: "after all, just look at the party. And-- yes, that includes you."
"Lord Albrek"
Sildar surveys Colt and Hugh's work in trussing up Glasstaff, smugly telling them they did a good job.
Sorennar proceeds to Glasstaff's study / bedroom, searching for any clues or important documents. Quickly, he finds a letter signed off with an all-too familiar spider symbol: the Xorlarrin house sigil, much like the one branded on his back.
Colt also comes into the room, in the meantime, to loot Glasstaff's room of valuables, and finds a bewildered Sorennar poring over the letter and holding it up to the light to check for forgery.
Sorennar brings the letter out to the group, still extremely confused -- this is Nezznar's handwriting for certain, but Sorennar is unable to believe that Nezznar is capable of the polite vernacular in the letter when addressing a "lowly" human.
After reasoning with the group for a moment, Sorennar laughs, beginning to realize just how desperate Nezznar was -- and how even his tormentor of 8 decades was not infallible nor all powerful.
Colt finds an unlocked chest in Albrek's room, and opens it to find lots of gold and gemstones, which Lera is able to identify by name. Sildar compliments her on her knowledge of gems, leading her to proudly speak of her blacksmith father. This quickly turns into a "competition" of sorts when Lera claims that he is the best blacksmith in the world, and the party members -- minus Sorennar -- begin to bring up talented blacksmiths that they also know.
Lera invites the party to visit Velprintalar, her portside hometown. Sildar politely but flatly refuses, stating that it would be far too long of a travel to get there, and alludes to his desires to retire to a peaceful town.
After a bit of idle chatter and a complete search of Albrek's lab and study, Sorennar suggests that Sildar kick Albrek awake -- which Sildar happily obliges.
Last updated