🗺️24. no! no!
session 24 • 04/12/2022 • 2,484 words
『 📜 』 adventure log
🌙 NIGHT 6 • 📅 ELEINT 27
📌Neverwinter Woods • Campsite
Magic for Dummies 101
Sildar suggests starting the promised magic lessons right then and there. Soren explains the different types of casters to Sildar, noting that with bardic magic, the conduit between his magic and the Weave are the emotions of wonder and joy, amplified by his music.
Soren runs through the schools of magic before asking Sildar for his reason for learning magic. When Sildar answers with "that's easy, to protect the people I care about -- to protect you". Touched, Soren suggests Abjuration magic, and laments the fact that he's only familiar with Enchantment.
They decide they should probably start small, from cantrips. Explaining that strong emotions and beliefs help strengthen connection to the Weave, Soren attempts to get Sildar to tap into the Weave by provoking him to think about his helplessness in the dark--from the Oblex fight and the troll fight, to the Underdark darkness in the potential near future.
Sildar claims that "you'll be my light in the dark". Though flattered, Soren pushes on, forcing Sildar to confront the fact that he might find himself alone in the darkness someday. After much pushing, Sildar manages to produce a flicker of magic, which he misses because he had his eyes closed from concentration ;-;
Soren, ecstatic, tells him about it and after some disbelief, the two exchange thanks and compliments. It's time to wake everyone up!! Soren wakes up Hugh and Droop, who are very slebby, and then go to wake Lera.
Diirinka
Lera, moments before Soren wakes her up, finds herself in a dream.
You see yourself walking through the streets of a city. The sunset paints the sky a lovely pink and orange, and it's quiet all around you. As you keep walking through this city, you pick up the smell of blood in the air. You chase after it, hoping to help whoever is injured. But as you turn the corner, you see the scarring image of those children on the altar, with markings scrawled all over their bodies. Though you've been trying to repress it for quite some time, tonight, the markings are clear as day in your mind.
As you turn to the children, despite knowing there is no saving them, your surroundings morph into a forest, and as you run towards where the children once were, you feel someone grabbing you from behind, wrapping their hand around your neck with a tight grip. You can't breathe. You feel the cold sharpness of a blade at your throat. The hand that is grabbing your neck causes such searing pain that it's impossible to utter a single cry.
In this panic, you feel something fuel you alongside your adrenaline, you steady yourself, grabbing the knife out of your attacker's hand and lashing out with it, stabbing until they're no longer moving, no longer breathing. You remembers feeling that you're familiar with now, the power that has been alongside you for quite sometime, pushing you to escape danger and make it out alive, to protect your friends. How did you ever forget, that the source of your power has been with you from the very start, helping you?
Even as your attacker falls to the ground, motionless, the place where he had gripped your neck stings with a lingering burn.
The symbols carved into the victims resembles a grinning mouth:
(Need transcript ;; )
The group is extremely alarmed by Lera's panicked and hyperventilating state as she wakes up. Soren attempts to ascertain Lera's physical condition but rolls abysmally low. As Lera has her hand to her throat and alludes to a past assailant, Soren angrily assumes the worst -- that she has been physically abused before.
Lera eventually calms down enough to send Droop far away to pet Black, then explain her past encounters with cultists and cult activity:
Before she departed on her adventure, she was attacked by a hooded cultist in the woods, who grabbed her neck. She managed to turn his weapon on himself, and killed him -- this was her first kill, and she's consumed by guilt over it.
While wandering a forest, Lera once stumbled on the remnants of a cultist ritual site, where they had used children as sacrifices and marked them with their cult symbols.
Lera expresses her intense guilt and has a moral crisis over killing the cultist that assaulted her. Hugh and Sildar assure her that it was the right thing, with Sildar reassuring her that he wouldn't have spared her a second thought.
Despite this, Lera spirals into guilt about whether the cultist was redeemable after all, if she had given him a chance -- whether he might have had family, or a reason for doing what he was doing, or if he was being forced or blackmailed into it due to third-party circumstances.
Soren, who has been quiet this whole time, assures her that, as someone who had been in said cultist's position, he would have been grateful if she ended his miserable life.
This seems to calm Lera slightly, and upon realizing the parallels between Soren and the cultist, she changes the subject. Several group hugs ensue.\
🌞 DAY 6 • 📅 ELEINT 28
Bunny Apples
The group discusses breakfast. Soren offers to give the others a chance to cook, Lera rightfully says oh no, pointing out that we were going to fight soon and it might not be the best time to experiment.
Sildar proves her point by trying to feed the whole group just. apples and sugar. Soren and Lera work together to make the most challenging meal of all time: french toast.
Droop and Hugh begin flail training, and Droop Immediately has second thoughts because of how exhausted and sore the training made him.
S I L D A R M A K E S B U N N Y A P P L E S
Lera asks and he explains that he learned this from his late parents.
At Sildar's request, Soren toot toots on flute to Inspiring Leader everyone.
📌Cragmaw Castle
To the Castle
Along the way to Cragmaw Castle, the group discusses the castle layout and strategy with Droop. The group learns about Droop's family, a group of several goblins that have been forced into serving Yegg, the cook.
Conflict arises in the group when we begin to discuss about how to handle the tyrants of the Castle, Yegg and Grol. Hugh and Sildar unanimously agree that the party should kill them, as per our discussion with Droop the previous day. Soren, however, demands that we give Grol and Yegg to the goblins to "tear apart", which Lera is not opposed to.
Sometime during this very tense conversation, Soren draws a picture of a worg for Droop, who thinks they have the cutest "teef".
Disagreements of Morality
Sildar expresses distaste at Soren's willingness to let the goblins torture Yegg and Grol. Droop expresses that he doesn't care much for torture either, and states that he just wants to see his family safe.
(OOC: Chris clarifies that Sildar both ,, generally doesn't approve of torture as a form of punishment, as well as does not want the goblins' first foray into "civilized life" be ... torture..)
Soren, seeing Sildar's and Hugh's disapproval, begrudgingly agrees to concede to the group, but in no uncertain terms threatens Sildar that he would leave the group, should Sildar stop him from doing as he liked to Nezznar.
Sildar, taken aback, falters that Soren's situation is different from the goblins' and that he would not stop him, though he would not approve. Soren lashes out, implying that cruelty is in his nature as a drow and that it was "too much to hope" that Sildar would love that part of him
Sildar patiently expresses that friends / partners don't always have to see eye to eye and that it was OK to have flaws. Soren is Salty and changes the subject abruptly by talking about how Sildar had succeeded in channeling some magic.
After much encouragement from the group, Sildar manages to flicker a light again!!! But he doesn't see it. Open ur fkin eyes old man.
As we near the castle, Sildar pulls Soren aside to express stronger distaste in Soren's desire to torture Nezznar, and asks to talk about it later tonight. Soren acknowledges that it is best to talk about issues, and agrees. They hug (Sildar reluctantly ;-; )
NO! NO!
We discuss the possibility of using the Redbrand cloaks that we still have, in order to disguise ourseles as Redbrands. Droop lets us know that the "Red Cloaks" have been made known to the goblinoids as their allies.
Lera, however, is concerned that news has spread to the Cragmaw Goblinoids, given the uncertainty of what exactly was writen in Glasstaff's paper bird to Nezznar, as well as her suspicion that Nezznar knows of Soren's betrayal.
The group eventually decides to send Droop to scout ahead to see whether or not the goblinoids have reason to suspect them, before deciding on further actions. Droop draws a gorgeous map in the sand for us to reference.
Droop also lets us know of some traps in the Castle, as denoted by the "X", as well as the monster that the goblinoids keep as a guard of sorts (?), denoted by the first "NO! NO!"
We chicken out in the end about sending Droop in alone, babbieee ; ; and decide to all go in while disguised as Redbrands, take out Yegg, and have Droop explain to his family that we are here to liberate the goblins. We tie Black, the rothe, to a tree and approach.
Whack a Chef
As we near the side of the castle, we hear goblinoid yells of orders. Soren recognizes it as kitchen prep. Soren struggles with the lock into the back / kitchen entrance, until Droop eventually proposes yelling through the arrow slits that he's returned from Phandalin and has brought Red Cloak messengers.
That is in fact a better plan good job Droop. He does exactly that.
A goblin servant, whom Droop recognizes as Blogh, comes to greet us at the door and brings us into the kitchen, where we see a pudgy, pompous goblin barking orders and hurling abuse at the gobbos.
Soren puts on his best drow act, addressing Yegg as a fellow "employee" of the Black Spider, leading Yegg to immediately switch his tone from annoyance to deference. Soren alludes that Droop misbehaved on the way here, and Yegg immediately proposes beating him to placate Soren.
Soren agrees that a beating is in order, though not for Droop, and nods to the waiting martials. Sildar comes and just. bonks the fuck out of Yegg, who passes out in one hit.
Meanwhile, Droop has been trying to "telephone game" a message down the rest of the group of goblins, and the message has only made it halfway, leading to the goblins to react with distress at the attack on Yegg. Soren, in heavily accented goblin (New York accent?? 😭) explains the party's friendliness to the goblins. We tie up Yegg, who will be out cold for over an hour.
Seeing the kitchen filled with food and how emaciated the goblins were, Soren urges them to eat their fill, which they do, before the party ushers the goblins out of the kitchen to where we had tied Black to a tree.
The Female Drow
As the goblins settle down and Droop catches up with his family, we learn the following information:
Soren asks about a "dark elf", attempting to see if Nezznar has been in the vicinity.
The goblins let us know that there has in fact been a drow, though a female one.
We realize this is the one that Is had spoken about: the "elf woman" who was nice to the goblins.
These goblins affirm that she was nice to them, had complimented their food and called them cute.
She last visited 3 days ago, and left angry.
Gundren was alive last the goblins saw, is being kept in Grol's room, and may have been eaten.
Soren is bewildered at the idea of a female drow being "nice", especially to goblins. Lera inquires about the Xorlarrin heirs, if Nezznar had any sisters -- Soren affirms that Nezznar was the only son left alive of the Xorlarrin family, and that he had 5 sisters, none of whom would call a goblin "cute".
We wonder if the drow might have been a surface-raised drow, though Soren questions why she would serve Nezznar, then. Sildar acknowledges that even drow who never underwent the regimen of Menzo may be led astray, especially with Nezznar's charisma.
We theorize that she might have left angry because either gundren was too tortured that she cant get info, or because Grol realizing the importance of gundren and not teling her. Soren muses that if she was nice to the goblins after, then she might have gotten what she wanted, as drow are not known for their restraint towards "lesser beings".
Sildar and the Fabulous Four (?)
The group wonders if they should send the goblins ahead to Phandalin for their safety, in case the group falls to Grol. Hugh notes that it may not be bad to send the goblins into a town, especially since the group had been telling people that they were hunting dangerous goblin patrols to hide the truth of the forge.
We muse about sending them to join Yeemik with the Cragmaw Hideout goblins, though we wonder if they'll remember us. Sildar fuckim destoys Soren with a "they should remember me at least :))" and tells the goblins to mention that Sildar Hallwinter and the Fabulous Four sent him, which is mathematically incorrect.
Droop expresses distress at the idea of the group possibly dying to Grol. Hugh reassures him that now that he has 7 goblins (referring to their previous convo with the dice game, with each number on a d6 die representing a goblin), he's the leader and is the strongest of them all.
Checking In
The goblins chorus "good luck" to us as we re-enter the Castle. Soren pulls Sildar aside and wonders about his mental health, given that he was previously tortured by goblins.
Sildar brushes off the concerns, stating that he would be willing to forgive the Cragmaw Hideout goblins as long as they were willing to turn over a new leaf. Soren muses over the fact that he's willing to forgive, citing it as the difference between human and drow.
Sildar tries to cheer Soren up and ends up saying "Iarno is the worst human I've ever met, and you don't even compare" LMFAOOOO. Soren understands mwhat he means and gives him a kiss on the cheek, which Sildar promises to reciprocate if Soren emerges unharmed from the ordeal.
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