Session 3 - 7/10/19 - Matt & Chris's Groups

General Summary

Unorthodox Structure

For this adventure, we split into two separate groups. One explored the upstairs portions of the haunted house, and one explored the caverns. However, both groups encountered difficult situations, and the dungeon masters brought the groups together in the last hour of the session.

Team Upstairs

Player Characters

• Ghost
• 'Mad Eyes' Jack
• Lou Scannon
• Varis
• Chip

Summary

In this weeks adventure, the gang decided to search the upper floor of the house first before exploring the secret basement. On their way to the stairwell, some giant centipedes managed to poison Varis, prompting a fortification session hunkering down a room to help their friend, and themselves recover. Luck was with the party, as they remained undiscovered for the better part of an hour.
They agreed to quickly explore the upstairs rooms. Varis speed-ran through, stumbling across and bound and gagged man named Ned. Varis and Ned didn't really click, but Lou Scannon and Ned really hit it off, so much that when Varis triggered a deadly yellow mold trap, nearly killing him, Lou, Ned, and Chip all headed to the basement to eat some ham and gear up their new found friend - Varis was clearly just joking anyway, take this seriously Varis.
After 'Mad Eyes' Jack managed to just barely stabilize Varis, he carried him to the basement to find a well fed and geared Ned, hanging out with his new pals and looking to start a life as an adventurer. After hearing some rumbling's down the cavern, they rushed to find their other companions in dire need of aid.

Team Caverns

Player Characters

• Stout Kegsworth
• Dvun Elekath
• Smakk Hislore

A Short Rest

While some of the group decided to explore the upstairs parts of the house, a couple of members of the party decided to humor Smakk and check out the basement. But firstly, they had to tend to their wounds. They took a short rest. During the short rest, a hobgoblin poked its head out of the secret bookcase, and saw the players. It quickly retreated back into the caverns and closed the secret bookcase behind it. The party chose not to pursue it, instead choosing to finish the short rest.
Dvun Elekath attuned to the magical black and gray river stone. He learned from this attunement that it's some sort of Luckstone. One that allows him to make an ability check with advantage once per day.

The Caverns

After resting, the trio journeyed into the depths of the caverns. The caverns were moist, and the floors were padded to prevent people from slipping on the wet floor. The party gathered that these caverns are probably open to the cliffs the house is perched upon.
The pathway opened up into a well lit hallway and a dark cavernous room. The group decided to explore the room, which was mostly empty. As Stout Kegsworth reached the center of the room, a bit of acidic green slime dripped from a stalactite on the ceiling. It started melting his armor. He quickly scraped as much of it as he could onto his right gauntlet, but then the slime started corroding that. Smakk and Dvun were familiar with this phenomenon, and knew to burn it off. Luckily they both know the fire bolt cantrip.
One ruined gauntlet and a few burned patches of slime on the ceiling later, and the group continued through this passage into another large dark room. This room was incredibly dark. Even with darkvision (a feature that all three members of this trip have) it's hard to see much of anything in this room. The group slowly and meticulously walked through the room, being careful to avoid any traps... but there were none. Eventually the players found their way back into the well-lit corridor, which continued onwards.

Sanbalet & Company

The corridor led to a well-lit cavern. This one is well stocked with bolts of cloth and casks organized in a row. Also in this room is the hobgoblin from before, an archer, and a ghostly wizard. The wizard addressed the party, introducing himself as Sanbalet, a very powerful wizard. The party tried to negotiate, but it failed. Dvun even tried using his Luckstone to increase his chances of succeeding the negotiations, but discovered that the Luckstone is actually cursed. Sanbalet instructed his underlings to attack the party.

"Kill them."

— Sanbalet

The fight was on. Sanbalet started by casting charm person on Stout, preventing him from attacking Sanbalet directly. The hobgoblin and archer sprung to action to attack Dvun and Smakk. Stout absolutely decimated the hobgoblin. As the group entered the chamber, an additional combatant with a scimitar (who rolled a very good stealth check) made his presence known and joined the fray.
Each combatant exchanged attacks and spells. Eventually, the bodies of the hobgoblin, the scimitar-wielding one, Dvun, and Stout had all gone down, bleeding out and dangerously close to death. Only Smakk remained, against Sanbalet and his archer minion. Sanbalet's ghostly appearance had faded, revealing that he was actually a living person. The ghostly appearance was an illusion.

"Pitiful fools! You think you can defeat the great Sanbalet!?"

— Sanbalet

Smakk was low on hit points and completely out of spell slots. Things were looking bleak. She resorted to taking pot-shots with fire bolt from behind cover. It would require a miracle to make it out of this one.

Joining Forces

New Party Member:

• Ned Shakeshaft

From down the passageway, a miracle was coming. The group who went upstairs had completed their exploration and were heading down the secret bookcase to explore the caverns. They quickly assessed the situation between Sanbalet and Smakk and sprung to action. Additional enemies also arrived from further into the cavern: another hobgoblin, archer, and scimitar-bandit.
Eventually, Dvun and Stout had stabilized and the adventurers had defeated Sanbalet and most of his minions. The final minion ran deeper into the cavern to a large cave opening open to the ocean. He started pushing a small boat trying to escape into the sea, but was taken out by Lou Scannon before he could get very far.
This sea cavern featured even more stores of goods. The party gathered that this Haunted House was actually the headquarters for some kind of smuggling operation.

Conclusion

After defeating Sanbalet and his goods, the group gathered up the smuggled goods and set out to return to Saltmarsh. They need to get back to HQ and report their findings to the questgiver: Anders Solmor.

Rewards Granted

Everyone who participated in this session receives:

• 2 Apprentice-level Artifice Coins (provided by the adventurer's guild when you return from the adventure)
• 5 downtime days.
• 100 gold pieces (earned from selling the smuggled goods).

Additionally, you found the following items:

• Sanbalet's Pipe
• Hobgoblin's Scale Mail

Missions/Quests Completed

Shut down the smuggling operation at the Haunted House.

Character(s) interacted with

• Ned Shakeshaft
• Sanbalet

Related Reports

The Haunted House Adventure:

• Session 1 (Chris's Group, Matt's Group)
• Session 2
• Session 3

Report Date

10 Jul 2019

Primary Location

Haunted House