(This session was based on the Mines of Phandelver campain. Possible spoilers ahead! )

Act 1-5

Night was upon them, it was time to make their move. They entered the cave with baited breath. The temperature seemed to drop the further they pushed their way through the irregular tunnel, an improvised ladder lead them into the cellar of the mansion, an area yet unexplored by Jamie’s escapade. Quallion emerged first into a wide and fractured stone basement and helped his fellow adventurers up onto solid ground. The room was humid and yet unnaturally cold. A large fissure had dug deep into the center of the room long ago probably due to water erosion. Said fissure was about 8 meters deep and 5 meters wide, it could be traversed easily with two shotty looking suspensions wooden bridges build above it, granting easier access to the basement’s many corridors and rooms.

Jamie and Quallion felt something harsh and bitter in the air as Ash and Sti-Zix scanned the room for any red robes, they didn’t seem to have noticed the air growing colder around them. A look of surprise and confusion, followed by fear had grown on the rogue’s face. A sinister whisper had slipped into her mind, regardless of sounds and vibrations in the air. Someone was breathing coarsely and haggardly inside her head with fake promises of revenge upon those who destroyed her life so many years ago. Something she had never breathed a word out to anyone. She shook her head, trying to regain her composure, catching the attention of her little warlock cohort.
‘’Are you alright?’’ he asked. With a troubled and veiled expression under his hood.
‘’Yeah... it’s nothing.’’ she lied.
The cleric soon began to share a relatively identical experience as dark whispers only he could hear began to raise his hair on ends. Only they spoke of his personal aspirations and hopes to find his long lost father, perhaps this sinister presence could read their minds? But unlike the jackalope, Quallion had remained a bit more composed and instead of keeping it to himself, asked his group.
‘’Are you guys hearing this? Someone...whispering.’’ He scanned their reaction, afraid of sounding like a fool.
‘’Huh? You hear it too?’’ Jamie blurted out; reassured she wasn’t going crazy all of a sudden
‘’Whispering? I don’t hear anything.’’ Ash chimed in with Sti-Zix shaking his head to affirm it.
Jamie had a hunch and sat on the edge of the crevice and slowly descended down onto the wet uneven rocky ground below with a small splash, once her gaze was set beyond the eroded stone walls, she froze in place. Sitting below the suspension bridge, hidden away by the shadows was a grotesque and nightmarish silhouette hunched over a half eaten human body. What Jamie had assumed she stepped on was more than just water after following the streaks of red liquid navigating the uneven ground between her feet to the horrible scene in front of her.

The creature lifted up its head and turned its gaze towards her, she was met with a huge bright orange eye full of malice. And the whispers began anew. The source of which was coming from this abomination.

‘’...I can grant you ...anything you desire....All I need is something to ...EAT....’’ It echoed its desire through the minds of everyone.

The rogue did not dare break eye contact, fearing the moment she moved it would charge at her. She was visibly trembling. Quallion knew something was wrong peering down at her fixed gaze and circled the other side of the chasm. He scaled down the rocky edge and flanked the creature, just as stunned as the jackalope had been.

‘’Something is down here Ash...!’’ He stammered. Gripping his shield and mace tightly with his feet firmly planted on the uneven ground.

Ash and Sti-Zix got closer to the edge of the pit, the height and distance gave the enough courage to draw their weapons on the creature. Whispers assaulted their minds again; the creature’s words could not sway them under the current circumstances and just as the tension and suffocating glacial atmosphere could be cut with a knife, Quallion stepped forward and caused the creature to shift its attention to him.

Jamie lunged forward with her estoc drawn now that the huge intimidating eye was facing the other way. Sti-Zix let arrows fly downward onto the hardy hide of the abomination. Ash channeled eldritch blasts. Quallion pushed back the creature’s large claw strikes effectively, allowing the rogue to stab its backside once more causing it to bleed an awful mucky black substance. It soon fell to the ground under the dim light of the manor’s lit torches on the walls.
They had vanquished a Notic; a dreadful magic creature of pure evil and malice that fed on the living. It was bound by its master and its mortal coil no more. The air around them returned to a moderate temperature and upon closer inspection of the underside of the bridge, the group found a stash of gold and a good quality long sword that Jamie decided to keep for now. They soon climbed out of the fissure to decide how to go about clearing out the hideout after calming their nerves down.

With three directions offered to them, the group decided on moving at the back of the large room they currently occupied and found a storage room full of supplies the red robes had confiscated from the villagers over the few months they have been settled in. Nothing especially valuable was amongst the supplies, but Jamie couldn’t help but snag something out of the pile and stuffed an otter skin in her bag. Ash questioned what she was going to do with it but she simply shrugged and that was that.

At first it seemed like they had no way to go further passed this storage room, but Sti-Zix pointed out a lever protruding out of the wall. Was it some sort of trap mechanism? Jamie pushed her way through the small crowd arguing over the risks and pulled it down nonchalantly. The group was stunned into silence and a hidden door opened up inside the storage room into a narrow corridor to the right. Jamie hugged the wall and peeked beyond it, it was clear, she waved Quallion over and the rest followed.

Within the small corridor, one door was propped on their left and another framed the end of the hallway. Taking a peek at the door handle, Jamie tugged and pulled, finding it locked. She let her associates pass in front of her towards the unattended door while Sti-Zix kept an eye on the rear from where they came from. Jamie took out her thieves tools and worked the lock without too much difficulty and discovered the armory. Stocks of simple weapons lined the shelves. Jamie’s goblin friend took the opportunity to refill his arrow quiver but otherwise there was nothing worth taking from the stocks.

Next they pushed the door open at the end of the hall into a large and familiar room to the rogue. Three stone sarcophagi lay in the corners of the room. This was the last room she had snuck in the previous night. She pushed the large double doors she recognized into the wide empty hallway where the pit trap lay in wait.

‘’Be careful everyone, there’s a hollow space under those tiles.’’ She announced.

The group avoided touching anything in this room and counted their lucky stars they had not encountered any hostile presences thus far after defeating the Notic. But upon entering the next small door to the left of the large doors leading to the trapped hallway, they ran face to face with a lone red robbed bandit who upon seeing these strangers enter, ran into what could only be described as a brig and grabbed a woman and a child he had in captivity, using them as hostages. He seemed agitated and sweating bullets.

‘’Who the hell are you guys?! Get back or the woman gets it!’’ He demanded, inciting cries of distress from his hostages. This was bad.

Quallion stepped up to negotiate with the ruffian. He agreed to let him leave and so the adventurers stepped out of the prison and backed up to let the red robe pass as he awkwardly side stepped with the woman crying in his grip passed the large hallway and into the fountain room which lead to the outside. Quallion and Jamie followed closely behind; their hands idle trying not to antagonize him. As soon as he pushed the woman aside and made for the door, Jamie dashed outside after him and before he could alert anyone, she punched the air out of his lungs from behind with a strong head butt with her antlers and grappled him forcing him to eat dirt. She tied him up and carried him back inside and retraced her steps to the brig, locking him up for the time being.

By this point, it seemed clear whatever distraction mayor Halia Thorton had organized emptied most of the hideout. The group felt confident they could lead the woman and the girl back through the secret hillside entrance they had used to infiltrate the base. Once they were successfully out of danger, Ash pointed out the unexplored staircase to the right of the fractured room; echoes of activity were coming from it. And so, they descended further down into the eerie passage, muffled cheers and jovial sounds were coming from what appeared to be the barracks here.

Jamie decided to ignore the barracks and explore the right side door when suddenly the barracks opened up and a large hobgoblin stepped out smelling intensely of booze, caught by surprise, the group stood there stiff in the hallway but the large being didn’t seem to pay them any mind and pushed its way passed them to stop right on the edge of the crevice where they had killed the Notic and began to take a leak... It could have been soooo easy to push him down into the pit but without wasting the opportunity, the little changeling stepped closer to the giant creature and asked for directions, it was a bizarre sight. The hobgoblin with a dumb smile on his face couldn’t recognize them as foes and pointed them towards the opposite door to the barracks when asked where his boss was. He then shambled back into the barracks joining his equally boozed up pals. It was quite the scene.

The group proceeded further down the path into a mess hall and then into a laboratory. Books were neatly stacked on shelves and potions were brewing on the desk with an hourglass counting down its boiling process. No sign of the sorcerer they were looking for apart from a small wooden door on their right. Sounds were suddenly heard passed it; someone was vacating in a hurry and with a spring to her step, the hasty rogue opened the door and entered the sorcerer’s chambers.

It was a small yet spacious room with a simple wooden bed, wooden chest and a work desk with documents resting on it. The chair and inkwell had been spilled onto the floor, a small portion of the stone wall had given way to a secret passage leading up a stairwell, an escape route it seemed. Jamie shouted and rallied her companions and followed behind the villain up the stairway and into the first storage chamber they had explored. Quallion followed Jamie closely, tailed by Ash and Sti-Zix. They soon tracked the sorcerer into the large empty hallway where he faced them head on.

He wielded his glass cane, taunting them to charge him, knowing a pit trap stood between him and the intruders. Casting magic missiles, he targeted the rogue who could not dodge the homing projectiles made of light. Jamie hid behind the door after being hit to recover with a potion of healing. Ash cast an eldritch blast across the corridor but missed his mark. Sti-Zix shot an arrow as a follow up which was deflected by the sorcerer’s magic barrier. Quallion cast divine protection before the sorcerer baited them further with another magic missile and dashing into the room adjacent where the water fountain and the stairs to the outside was located.

Jamie peeked around the corner and saw no sorcerer at the end of the hall, she dashed her way passed her companions, wall running across the trap and reached the despicable sorcerer, she tried to pierce him with her estoc but the magic shield deflected her weapon. Ash having forgotten about the pit trap in the heat of the moment walked over the loose stone tiles and soon fell through, landing a dozen feet below on solid ground. Sti-Zix then stayed behind to help the changeling out of the hole, leaving Quallion to scoot across the wall and join the rogue.

The sorcerer hit Jamie with another magic missile and teleported at the top of the staircase about to make his escape. The wounded jackalope knew she could barely scratch his shield but she couldn’t let him escape. She jumped up on the staircase next to the villain and grappled him, allowing time for her teammates to organise. Ash was finally out of the hole and inched his way across it to join the fight. Sadly Jamie was shot point blank by another magic missile and crumpled to the ground unconscious. Quallion had ran up the opposite side of the stairs and slammed his mace against the sorcerer, breaking his magic barrier. Ash dashed into the room and channeled the biggest eldritch blast he had yet produced thus far and blew the sorcerer off his feet and slamming him against the stone wall behind him. The fight was won.

Jamie was put back on her feet, Ash grabbed the wizard’s iconic glass cane and they made their way back to his chambers to have a look at those hastily discarded documents the sorcerer had on his desk. Jamie lay onto the bed for a moment to catch her breath while Sti-Zix examined the chest at the foot of the bed only to find old clothes.

From what Quallion could gather, the leader of the red robes was in contact with a certain individual known as the Black Spider. Whoever this was, they were responsible for attacking Syldar and Gunndrin Rockseeker on the road to Phandalin. Quallion grabbed the secret correspondence and exited the mansion with his allies out by the secret tunnel; their mission was a success for now.

To be continued...

Jamie belongs to  Hokkigai
Quallion belongs to  Zalakir
Ash belongs to  Lazynore
Sti-Zix belongs to  Carotte666