⛰️26. revisiting friends

session 26 • 04/19/2022 • 2,663 words

『 📜 』 adventure log

🌞 DAY 7 • 📅 ELEINT 28

📌Cragmaw Castle

Tense Negotiations

Lera warns the group of the encroaching hobgoblins. Soren sweeps everything that looks like loot into the Bag of Holding. As the group panics and there's some brief discussion, a sword goes right through the door and splinters it open, revealing the hobgoblins angrily standing outside.

Hugh and Lera both cheerfuly introduce themselves, which displeases the hobgoblin leader, who looks ready to fight. Soren steps on Grol's body and introduces himself with his full name of Sorennar'Vayre Tansine'Thiir, 'Drada of House Catanzaro, implying that he's an associate of the Black Spider and insulting Grol.

Soren rolls well on deception, and the hobgoblins seem slightly intimidated. The leader, Targor, shows some grudging respect to the group, and especially to Soren, who pretends that he's the group's leader BECAUSE HE'S REALLY NOT >:(

Soren questions Targor, learning that:

• He doesn't know much about Grol's interactions with the Black Spider

• He knows that Grol wanted a dwarf, and recently captured him.

Targor informs us about the lost connection with Klarg, and Soren tells him to disregard the Cragmaw Hideout goblins, snapping at Targor when he tries to show his reverence for the Black Spider by offering to kill them.

Soren also informs Targor that the kitchen goblins (Droop's family) ran out the door as soon as they arrived and escaped North. Soren also warns Targor that "powerful adventurers" were in Phandalin, and that troublemakers might come to the Castle to try and "recruit" the hobgoblins (i.e. attempting to pit them against the Zhentarim that Halia said she would send). Soren instructs him to give them a "warm welcome".

Targor, self-proclaiming himself as the leader of the Cragmaw tribe, agrees to this. Lera steps out to finish off Yegg, snapping at Targor when he offers to take care of Yegg himself. Hugh also demands the helmet off of Targor's head, which he begrudgingly gives to Hugh.

Targor expresses frustration at continually being insulted and undermined, which Soren recognizes and has the group take the leave. Lera kills Yegg.

Hugh wants to go to liberate the sleeping goblins, but we hear Targor coming down the hallway, and see him walking down the hall with Grol's severed head, so we dip and hide outside the tower. We hear Targor give a speech to the goblins, establishing himself as the new king and ask them to join him to hunt down the "traitors" that "escaped North." ☺️

📌Neverwinter Woods

Path to Cragmaw

We speak to Gundren, who affirms that the Forge will be largely unusable for at least a tenday, and that's before the Spider has to locate powerful mages of different races to re-ignite the Forge. Soren treats this as great news, reminding the group that they can now relax and take their time.

Gundren corrects him and says that though it can wait a bit more than they had originally thought, it can't be put off for too long as the Spider can eventually gather these resources. He mentions wanting to speak with the Harpers and Lord's Alliance.

Soren checks in with Sildar about the Lord's Alliance's involvement. He establishes that he's OK with it, as he trusts in the network's fundamental goodness, despite a few bad apples such as Iarno. Lera brings up concerns about further corruption, at which point Sildar mentions that he has a trusted superior in the Lord's Alliance: Laeral Silverhand, whom he believes is next in line for Open Lord. He states that he's sending his paper bird to her, most likely.

We regroup with the kitchen goblins, inform them on what happened (after a touching hug-tackle renunion between Hugh and Droop) and leave for Cragmaw Hideout, where we plan to leave the goblins. Droop gets carried by Hugh!

The goblins bounce bounce on the rothe!

Jharym and Gundren are holding hands 😊 Soren takes Sildar's hand, and checks in with him about having a private talk, jokingly mentioning that they should have it here, with witnesses.

Talks on the Road

Sildar seems a little hurt by this, and brings up the conversation they had about torturing Grol and Yegg. Soren and Sildar have a brief, fundamental disagreement about whether Soren should torture Nezznar when they finally catch up to him.

Soren establishes that Nezznar has done terrible things for centuries, and deserves to suffer more than a quick death. Sildar doesn't disagree on this point, but states that torturing someone will leave lasting psychological damage, especially based on what he knows of Soren's personality.

Soren tries to divert the conversation with a strawman: that he's drow and doesn't feel emotions, something that Sildar "should know" since he tried to put a hand on Soren's shoulder in the room with Grol to restrain Soren.

Sildar gets frustrated, pointing out that Soren literally has 80 names stitched on his cloak and carries the weight of them everywhere he goes because he feels guilty over their deaths, to which Soren doesn't respond. Sildar notes also that he was putting his hand on Soren as an encouraging / placating gesture, to make him feel safe.

Soren admits that he doesn't know where he's supposed to stand anymore; too immoral to be a surfacer and too soft to be a drow -- not good enough for either.

Sildar says that the only thing that matters is that Soren can be himself -- "we care for who you are" -- and that he would relent on the torture subject, unwillingly, if Soren believed it would help him, though he remains concerned about Soren's psychological wellbeing.

Soren points out that he would never be able to match Sildar's morality: that he thought that Colt's tendencies to steal and Hugh's chair debacle. He admits that he only "pretended" to care about these things to get on Sildar's good side. He also drags Jharym into this LMAO by admitting that he thought Jharym looked funny sitting in a bathtub full of shit.

Jharym glares at Soren, so Soren prestidigitations Jharym to smell like charcoal, which we know to be Gundren's favorite smell. Jharym fking hates it lmao but tolerates it for Gundren.

Soren repeats that he cannot match Sildar's humanity and feels that Sildar will eventually grow tired of the difference.

Sildar questions Soren about his thoughts the first day they met. Soren goes ON AND ON LMAO about how he thought Sildar would be self-righteous, a thorn in his side the whole journey, potentially racist and distrusting of him for drow, and that Soren would have to exert effort to remain civil and pretend he was an ally. He ends off with "from the beginning I knew that you wouldn't approve of me or half the things I did, I just didn't expect to start caring about it".

Sildar takes these confessions in stride and asks him what he thinks of Sildar now, pointing out that in just six days, Soren has undergone drastic changes in mentality and morality. Sildar concludes that he believes that Soren is capable of diverging from his drow upbringing; that he understands that it will take time, but that "you're as human as the rest of us, you just started a little behind."

Soren begrudgingly warns that he doubts Sildar's patience will extend past the multitude of times that this issue will arise. Sildar assures him that he would be patient, if Soren would be patient with him, and they can improve each other -- "I think we already have."

;-----;

Soren and Sildar hug!

Wet Noodle

While still holding tightly onto Soren, Sildar whispers into Soren's ear that he wanted to talk about something else -- something that hurt Sildar. Soren wet noodles in the arms 😢

Sildar confronts Soren about his threat of leaving. Soren attempts to reason that if they had a fundamental moral disagreement, Sildar should not want to "keep around a support he does not trust".

Sildar, once again, becomes frustrated at this I am sorry for my dumbshit drow. He questions if Soren just sees himself as Sildar's "support".

Soren relents, finally, and sincerely apologizes for threatening Sildar with that, acknowleding that he had said that he said that with the intention to hurt Sildar -- though he didn't expect how badly. He apologizes once again for the whole ordeal.

Sildar apologizes for being overbearing in the Grol room, and the two exchange forehead kisses as DROOP GOES FUCKING FLYING OVER HEAD

STOP THROWING THE GOBBO

Hugh and Droop, while Soren and Sildar are having a conversation, discuss Droop's actions while the group was fighting Grol. Droop proudly proclaims that he was training the whole time by whacking a tree with the dagger Lera gave him.

Hugh mentions wanting to throw Droop, and Droop, of course, wants to be thrown so fucking bad. Hugh hesitates because he got yelled at last time, but at Droop's insistence, throws the shit out of Droop LMAO. Droop flies overhead and attracts the attention of everyone as he bangs on a branch.

Lera yells at Hugh for this, pointing out that he was endangering Droop when they were meant to be protecting him. Everyone attempts to get Hugh to stop -- Lera by telling Hugh that he wasn't allowed to do this anymore, and Sildar by trying to logically reason that Hugh, as Droop's mentor, should know better than to endanger him like this.

Hugh is unreceptive, mostly, until Soren bargains with him -- if he does not endanger Droop anymore, Soren will Enlarge/Reduce Hugh with any leftover spellslots at the end of each day, as Hugh enjoyed being big in the fight with Grol.

Hugh agrees to this and starts dart training with Droop (ie throwing the dart forward as they walk and then picking it up and then throwing it again LMAO), which quickly makes Droop exhausted but he tries his best.

📌Cragmaw Hideout

New Home!

We arrive at Cragmaw Hideout, which we introduce to the goblins as their new home. At their apprehension, Hugh assures the goblins that Yeemik is much less tyrannical than the larger goblinoids -- and if the power got to his head, we would kill and replace him.

Striebs, one of the goblins, volunteers to be the new leader LMAOOO

We decide to send in the goblins first in order to make sure that our presence doesn't influence Yeemik's treatment of them (just to make sure the power didn't go to Yeemik's head).

The hideout looks like it's undergone a few construction projects and defenses have been erected! Good job Yeemik! Two archers guard the entrance. We send Droop in and wait for a little bit. Lera points out that Soren could use Message to communicate with Droop. Lera and Soren hide in the thickets trying to pinpoint where Droop is.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....

The following comical conversation ensues, with Droop answering unsatisfactory or one-word answers without realizing that Soren has to take 6 seconds to re-cast the spell every answer.

Soren: Hello Droop, how are things?

Droop: Who?!

Soren: It's me, Soren, how are things inside?

Droop: Where are you?

Soren: Telepathically communicating with you. It's OK. How are things? Please don't say anything out loud.

Droop: Good!

Soren: Is yeemik being good to you?

Droop: He has us in a room with other goblins and sit us down to talk.

Soren: Are you talking to him right now?

Droop: Oh no, I’m talking to you right now!

Soren: ...........I will come back and check in again in 10 minutes.

Droop: Ok, he is just telling us what we’re meant to be doing.

Soren: And what are you meant to be doing?

Droop: Oh! Has it been 10 minutes?

Soren huffs off in frustration and reports the situation back to Lera, who reasons that Droop is just very curious and unfamiliar with magic. We rejoin the party to explain everything. Hugh points out that Droop probably stopped talking to Yeemik mid-sentence to talk to Soren, to everyone's horror.

Next convo, 10 minutes later, goes just about as well:

Soren: Droop? How are things going, it's still Soren.

Droop: Oh it's still Soren, thank you!

Soren: Can you tell us exactly what Yeemik told you to do?

Droop: He explained the cave, and told us that we need to do jobs around the cave to stay.

Soren: What are those jobs?

Droop: Ok wait, Yeemik is getting upset that I’m not talking to him

Soren (panicc): Say you were trying to remember a word but couldn’t, I’ll check in again with you in 10 minutes

Jared, 19, Sussy

Soren speaks to Lera about suspicions about Jharym. They agree that he seems very reserved and that some aspects of his story line up too perfectly, but note that Gundren wasn't charmed (thanks Hugh's detect magic!) so there's nothing concrete to fault him on.

Lera attempts to get Soren to apologize to Jharym for his comments about wood elves being "tree-loving, potato-eating" folk, but Soren maintains that these are accurate statements of Wood Elves, and that he showed his camraderie by making Jharym clean and smell "nice".

Birthdays

The conversation turns to the smell of roses and other flowers. Soren admits that the surfacer tradition of giving each other flowers is bewildering to drow; most of these gift flowers are useless medicinally or for making poisons -- but he recognizes that it's a nice gesture to give someone something pretty just to do so.

He reminisces about when Rizoyn learned about the surfacer tradition of "birthdays". Rizoyn had fished out an old boot from the Darklake, filled it with Fire Lichen and given it to Soren as a birthday gift. Lera hopes that he and the group can make good memories together. Somewhere along the line, Soren misunderstands this talk of spending time with each other and begins talking openly about "procreating" with Sildar, flustering Lera.

They exchange birthdays. Soren's birthday is Marpenoth 3rd, which is coming up in the next tenday!

Jokes

We return to Hugh regaling Sildar with Tasha's Hideous Laughter - worthy jokes.

Hugh: Why was 6 afraid of seven?

Sildar: Cuz 6 is small?

Hugh: Get this? Ready? Seven eight nine!

(Naturally, someone makes a "death by 69" joke.)

Hugh: Why was the tomato blushing? Because he saw the salad dressing

(This one makes Sildar laugh oh my god I love our two muscle himbos)

Sildar eagerly repeats a joke to Soren:

‘What did the cupcake tell its frosting? I’d be muffin without you’

Which delights Soren, who is taking ALL of these down for his big book of Tasha's Hideous Laughter jokes.

Soren checks in again with Droop, and this time negotiations have ended. Droop informs us that Yeemik has presented fair terms to the group -- the able-bodied goblins have to work, in exchange for food and shelter for the group, protection and care during sickness. We instruct him to tell Yeemik that "Sildar and the Fabulous Five" saved the goblins and may be paying them a visit soon.

As we approach the cave, Hugh drops this last absolute banger on the whole group who does not expect it

Hugh asks if Lera knows how to make holy water, after 18 religion check, she learns and relays: Process takes about 25 powdered gold and takes a first level spell slot to make water holy, and can only be done by clerics and paladins

Hugh: I thought you just had to boil the hell out of it?

The session draws to a close as we walk towards the cave and Hugh continually drops jokes, encouraged by the reaction to them.

Hugh: What's orange and sounds like a parrot?

Lera: I don't know! What is it?

Hugh: A carrot!

Hugh turns to sildar and says: You’ve been all over the place, right?

Sildar: No, yes but no, just a little

Hugh: Have you ever talked to a giant?

Sildar: No

Hugh: You should use just big words.