🪢61. loose ends

session 61 • february 12 2022 • 1,124 words

🌞 DAY 17 • 📅 MARPENOTH 6

Big Beard Energy

As the group rouses for the day, Hugh grows an Absolute Bahonkadonk of a Massive Beard due to the side effects of the Belt of Dwarvenkind. He hates it lmao

We wash up by the nearby river; Droop destroys Will's hair. Sildar offers to help Hugh shave, but Hugh declines as he doesn't want a blade near his face. Along our way back to Phandalin, Sildar sending-stones' Jalester, his SUPERIOR in Waterdeep, to update him that we're on our way to the city, with a high-profile prisoner.

Jalester responds that things are dicey in Waterdeep, but promises to send what reinforcements he can to meet the group halfway.

Nezznar is a dick to Will, feigning politeness while referencing his hurtful conversation from last night. Will takes it in stride. Hugh and Droop hound Will to train with them, and Will ends up running along the cart for a respectable amount of time, though he doesn't last as long as 20-CON Hugh and 19-CON Droop. They heckle him when he has to take a break.

This pure cinammon roll just cannot catch a break I guess lmao

Back to Phandalin

We arrive in Phandalin, and are greeted by the townsfolk like heroes. The woman with her child, who was previously terrified of Soren despite his saving them during the orc raid, awkwardly approaches and thanks Soren--who is beyond surprised and ecstatic that he has changed someone's perception of the drow, a little.

We inform Garaele about what happened with Agatha and Kost, as well as about Myco being permanently awake now. There is a clownshow of a conversation where Hugh reignites his desire to become a judge, and says he'll kill anyone who steals from him; Nezznar inputs that death is not enough for such a crime.

RIP Garaele's blood pressure

She eventually reminds the group that Will owes her the truth about his celestial heritage and shoos the group away to have a private conversation with him. The rest of the group get their gems and loot cashed in at the Lionshield Coster.

Talks with Garaele

Garaele leads Will into living room and asks what he is; Will dodges the question and Garaele tells him to cut the bullshit. Will admits his aasimar heritage but also that he’s hesitant to share this information. Garaele reassures Will that she is only here to help him. Will explains his heritage a little more (mother deva, dad human).

Garaele questions if the mother was always out of his life, Will is pained, says mother was around for a bit. Lost contact with her 15 years ago, when he was 24. Mom was gone for months at a time, just this time didn’t come back. Garaele asks about dad, Will says he’s dead.

Garaele seems very interested in the deva part of Will’s heritage due to limited understanding of celestials and fiends, but is disappointed bc Will doesn’t know where she is. She lets Will go but hopes that Will could “put in a good word for her’ if the mom resurfaces. Will admits that he doesn’t think she will ever get back in contact with him again but agrees.

Garaele memes Will by jokingly threatening to expose this information.

Will:

Garaele dismisses Will and he awkwardly leaves.

The Nothic

As the group reconvenes, Soren recalls that they'd left the Nothic, a relatively dangerous creature, in the basement of Tresendar Manor. We decide to go and take care of it.

On the way to Tresendar Manor, they are once again lauded by townsfolk whom they saved. Soren enjoys the attention thoroughly, greeting the townsfolk and embellishing the party's adventures. Eventually, Sildar wonders why Soren does so, citing that "our story is a pretty good one as it is", which Soren agrees with. Hugh denies having a "cool" story, and Sildar encourages Hugh to narrate his life, it's very cute. Soren promises to write the group's adventures into a book.

As we trek through the ruins of Tresendar Manor, Soren is wistful about owning such a large property (as Nezznar calls him, he do be a beggar's child), and asks that they eventually return and clean it up / that Sildar can retire here, after which Soren and Sildar could start a farm. Sildar happily agrees.

We navigate the Tresendar Basement, recounting the various traps and encounters to Will. Droop is scared and sad because this was once where he was kept prisoner, but the group encourages him to face his fears.

We find the Nothic and quickly execute it. Soren muses that the Nothic was also once a wizard who "delved too deeply" and got turned into a monster, pointedly poking at Nezznar. He also points out that Nezznar's spider familiar, which Soren previously used to rendezvous with (and which had bitten Soren on multiple occasions) was in the nearby woods, and suggests dealing with it too.

Nezznar claims that the spider is no longer there, but we go to check anyway.

The Spider

As we arrive at the meeting spot, the group splits up to try and locate the spider familiar. Soren nervously hangs back, and is ambushed by the spider which knocks him prone and takes another bite out of him.

The group quickly executes the spider and help Soren up; Soren angrily berates Nezznar for his apparent pettiness, but Nezznar angrily admits that he truly did not sense the spider, and has lost control over his spider familiars--likely due to his drider transformation.

Soren, shaken, comments that he can't wait to ride himself of Nezznar once and for all; Nezznar reminds Soren that he treated Soren well--by drow slave standards--"it could have been worse", which Soren knows to be the unfortunate truth.

Bye Phandalin!

Before leaving, the group says our goodbyes to Toblen and Gundren, who have become friendly with the group and give us hugs. We instruct Gundren to use our share (minus Will's) of the Spellforge's profits to fix Tresendar Manor.

Soren checks in with Halia at the Miner's Exchange, and Halia points Soren towards a Zhentarim contact in Waterdeep--Ziraj of Trollskull Alley. She notes that drow activity has been heightened in Waterdeep, and that Soren would likely make a good undercover agent.

Soren agrees, and promptly tells everything to the rest of the group before we head off, leaving Phandalin behind us! WE FINISHED LMOP YALL!! 🎉

Crow-Scaring

After several hours of traveling, we encounter an open field with eight terrifying scarecrows perched along the road. Soren and Nezznar have never seen a scarecrow in their lives, and comment on how strange surfacer customs are after the party explains.

THE SCARECROWS START SPRINTING AFTER US

A tough fight ensues as the scarecrows use their terrifying presence to incapacitate the party, but we eventually emerge victorious--though Soren almost dies. We lick our wounds and continue on the adventure.