Some builds borrowed from the Hero Forge community library with minor alterations: Goblins, Hobgoblin, King Grol, wolf, various paladins, and doppleganger.
Targor proved slippery than expected, or at least Caress proved to be a poorer guard than expected, as the hobgoblin lieutenant slipped his bonds on the second day back to Phandalin. However, this did give the party a clear trail to follow which led them straight to the place that they had been seeking: Cragmaw Castle. They once again came upon Targor arguing with a guard, but this time they did not politely take him prisoner. Instead as they noticed Caress's noisy approach, an arrow from Mythram removed him permanently from their concern.
At this point, the guards called out an attack and everybody moved forward. Lyra vanished in a swirl of unseasonably red and yellow leaves reappearing within a guard post along with two goblins, one of which was charmed by the sudden appearance of the beautiful fae creature. The other was less impressed. Unfortunately, the guard outside ignored Ravyn's spell, only to be killed by a blast of hellish fire as he struck the Warlock. Caress darted around the corner to support Lyra, though unfortunately her clattering approach warned the bandits and the wily goblin dodged aside of her blessed dagger.
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| Where'd the grick come from? |
Lyra vanished again, moving to the source of more noise and unleashing a cascade of fire upon the dining room of the goblins, apparently killing the head cook in the process. Though the eladrin did run afoul of a deadfall trap in the process.
Ravyn and Mythram moved into the center of the hallway, finishing off the central guards and moving out of the line of sight of the southern arrow-slits just as a door opened and presented Caress with several hobgoblins even as goblins spilled in to assault Mythram and Ravyn and the dining room started trying to bash its way through Lyra's arcane shields.
Caress managed to stay firm with some healing aid from Mythram. Though she was having some issues getting a solid blow on the bandits, she switched from the dagger to the whip for the increased range, but dropped the dagger in the process. Ravyn's eldritch blast slammed one bandit into a wall, the force twisting his bones into bizarre shapes though they were still finding their resources and luck spread thin. A moonbeam cascaded down at Lyra's command supporting first Caress and then herself, burning through several bandits.
In another room, they heard chants to Maglubiyet, but that was quickly cut off as Mythram drew a bead on the chanter and released an arrow straight for them. A moment or two later and one of the bandits battling Caress broke off and opened a door, after which the sound of an animalistic shrieking and a hobgoblin screaming echoed through the halls. Caress found her enemies finally starting to find holes in her defenses even as she whittled them down.
A grick burst into the room pursuing a hobgoblin who was then killed incinerated by the radiant forces of Lyra's moonbeam, leaving the rest of the living beings here to deal with a monster angry that his beloved master had been killed. The beast set upon Mythram almost immediately harrying the rogue and warlock.
Making a break for it to fall back to where she could have range, Ravyn tried to get clear of the melee, only to be pursued by a bandit that dropped her. A moment later though and the imp that had been helping the adventurers by whispering secrets into their ears broke out of its invisibility to stab the goblin that downed their master. And then Caress, finally clear of foes, darted around the corner to heal the warlock. She started to look to Lyra who had exhausted the charges of her staff's magic for the day but was advised to heal herself by Ravyn and Mythram.
The remaining goblins fled the grick, getting cut down in their flight as Lyra stepped out, looking heavily battered and unleashed a burst of fire to reduce the grick to cinders and the final bandit was slain in flight by one of Mythram's arrows. After which the party took a moment to hole up in the barracks and catch their breath before moving deeper.
Some cursory exploration found a desecrated shrine to one of the many Faerunian gods and two sleeping hobgoblins whom Mythram slew, pointing out that Caress's suggestion to tie them up was too dangerous with her making too much noise. Then they opened the door with the owlbear. At first they just locked the door back up in the room. But calling upon Sharess's blessing, Caress managed to convince the Owlbear to just leave and they weren't interested in killing it.
Unfortunately, in trying to clear out of the Owlbear's line of egress, Lyra ran afoul of a massive bugbear, apparently King Grol, who called out to a confederate to "finish quickly" as their were adventurers. The owlbear burst out, fleeing a moonbeam and shoving Mythram and Caress across the room as it fled the castle out into the forest. Hearing sounds of violence and struggle, Ravyn sent her imp past Grol to see what was going on and interrupted a drow trying to slit the throat of their employer.
Mythram kipped up and breezed past King Grol and his wolf snarl, practically melting through them in an absurdly precise acrobatic display before coming up behind the drow and unleashing a swirl of steel that took the killer by such surprise that they dropped their disguise to reveal that they were a doppleganger. Which left Caress to fill the door and block Grol's access to Lyra and Ravyn, just as Lyra teleported again to move to where the imp and Mythram were dealing with the doppleganger. After shifting her moonbeam to come down upon Grol and his wolf. The eladrin turned her attention to trying to save the life of the dwarf as Mythram danced around the doppleganger.
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| Rogues gonna rogue. |
From over Caress's shoulder, Ravyn's eldritch blast tore through the wolf and Grol fended off Caress's whip once, twice, but not a third time before the smiting the beast. Ropes of celestial twine erupted from the swirls of Caress's whip wrapping about the bandit king's arms and legs, but the warrior shrugged them aside easily a moment before a blast of powerful ice lashed out from Lyra and slew the bandit finally.
That left them to see to Gundren and wrap up the investigation of the bandit lair before making their way south to Phandalin, short one prisoner, but up one rescuee. The LuckSister Garaele promised to look after the dwarf though she lacked the power to cast the spell that would hasten his recovery. Likewise they received accolades and rewards from Daran Edermath and though the mayor was quick to minimize their importance and gain the credit for himself.
In the aftermath, several interesting invitations came to the party. A Harper pin was passed on to Ravyn and Daran Edermath suggested that he might be able to induct Caress into the Order of the Gauntlet.
"I'm not certain I'd quite fit into your group," Caress said. "I think I shall maintain a relationship with the Gauntlet as supplicants rather than comrades." She was considering that paladins of Tyr, Torm, Hoar, and especially Helm might not be especially welcoming to a courtesan of Sharess.
"Well, if you change your mind, Daran," said. "I may be retired but I can provide you with the rank of Chevall."
"I shall... consider... " Caress said.
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| Would the Gauntlet really accept me? |
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