Previously: Chapter 07: Orcish Encounters
Haste to the Woods
When the group wakes up the next morning, not having any unwelcome orcs approaching in the night, they have a quick breakfast to prepare for the day, before setting out north-west towards the Jaded Wilds, and Cragmaw Castle. Looking a their crudely drawn map, they realize that they are not far from where Old Owl Well is supposed to be, but considering how much time they have already spent getting to where they are now, they realize they have to wait until later to check that out, hoping that nothing too dire will come of it being ignored for now.
The party gathers their horses, and sets out towards the ruins of Covenlet, as Agatha's lair has been described to be near there. Considering it is right in the path they are taking, it shouldn’t be too much of a distraction. The group luckily doesn’t encounter any dangerous orcs or wandering hobgoblins, so they feel confident that they should reach their destination before nightfall. To the east they can see the peaks of The Iron Hills over the horizon, and to the west the large grasslands and hills that hide Phandalin. In front of them, they eventually come across some ruins that the path to Khuzunzan runs straight through. They have reached Covenlet. Following the directions of Sister Garaele, they head northwest into the woods towards the banshee. Granny knows from experience that banshees are dangerous creatures, and have a very short temper, so the party should be careful with how they approach her.
The Banshee
As they reach the threshold of the forest proper, the horses appear to be agitated by something, and the party can sense a cold feeling lingering in the air. There is a powerful undead presence here, and the feeling of dread is prevalent. After looking around for a while, with the darkness of night slowly creeping in, they eventually come across a thick growth where they can barely make out what appears to be a makeshift house of sorts made out of an old massive tree trunk. The party decides to leave the horses outside, as to not spook them too much, and venture into the growth. Penetrating the threshold, they are face to face with the lair of the banshee, and can see a weak light coming from within.
Kal and Penny slowly walk forward, while Willowbark, Granny, Demetrius and Theren keep watch on the outside. Entering the “house” Kal and Penny can see a lone candle lit on a table, with a chest in the corner. Suddenly, the air grows cold, and the candle flickers out, before a new light can be seen appearing in the middle of the room. The spectral image of an elven woman with wild hair and dead eyes hover in front of them. She introduces herself as Agatha, and demands to know why they have entered her home.
Kal and Penny quickly act courteous, careful not to anger the spirit, and tells her that they were sent by a cleric for guidance, and that they brought her a gift in hopes that it can appease her. Penny takes out the silver comb Sister Garaele gave them. The banshee looks down at the two mortals, before snatching the comb out of Penny’s hands.
“This is a beautiful gift. Ask your question, if I can answer, I will give a truthful response”
Kal wastes no time and tells Agatha that they are looking for the spellbook belonging to the mage Bowgentle, and if she knows where it is. Agatha, in the middle of admiring her new silver comb, replies that she indeed knows of the spellbook, but that she traded it to Tsernoth, a necromancer, in the city of Ilysnor, but that was more than a hundred years ago. She doesn't know what happened with the book after that. Kal and Penny thanks Agatha for her generosity, and quietly but quickly retreat to the waiting party members outside, before they all retreat back to their horses.
Through the Woods
Having the information they were sent to get, they take a note of what they learned from the banshee. No-one in the party recognizes the name Tsernoth or the city of Ilysnor, so they think that it might be on a different continent entirely. When they return to their horses, they are severely agitated so the party finds it best to move on quick, away from the dark energy prevalent in the area. They decide to head straight towards Cragmaw Castle, having gotten a fairly accurate description of the road there from Covenlet by Reidoth.
The party doesn’t get far before the horses need to rest, so they decide to make camp for the night, as they are far enough away from Agatha to not feel her influence any more. They decide to keep watch for approaching dangers, and on Willowbark and Penny’s watch, Willowbark hears some snarling in the darkness just outside the light of their campfire. Coming out of the shadows, a group of wolves approach, looking hungry. Willowbark decides to wild shape into wolf form, in order to talk the wolves down, but they demand to be fed. Willowbark suggests that they can have some of their food, but they need some for themselves as well. The wolves are not convinced by this, and as more wolves come out of the darkness, they are surrounded, so they attack the party, hoping to eat them instead.
Penny quickly warns the rest of the party members that were sleeping, and the group defends themselves around the campfire. Even though they are awoken rudely in the night, the party is competent enough at this point that a bunch of wolves shouldn’t be too much of a worry. As the last wolf falls and the rest scatter into the dark, the party tries to calm themselves down and go to sleep. Penny harvest the pelts of a few of the fallen wolves, hoping to use it for clothing or sell it, much to the horror of Willowbark who again does her burial ritual to appease her god, saddened by the fact that she didn’t manage to talk the wolves down.
Trolls
The next morning, after no more beasts come lurking in the night, the party continues onwards towards the castle. Willowbark tries to convince the horses to move faster, but as the forest is thick, they don’t feel confident or safe moving faster than the party can walk, lest they hurt themselves. Willowbark understands, and thanks the horses anyway for bringing them to the forest so quickly.
As the party makes their way through a pass in the forest, with tall cliffs coming from both sides forcing them to cut through it or be delayed, they can suddenly hear the footfalls of something big ahead of them. Now wanting to engage something they don’t know what is, Demetrius decides to try to stealthily sneak up to whatever lurks ahead of them. The party can see him disappearing among the trees, and after a couple of minutes, they suddenly what a loud roar, the cracking of trees and smashing of stone, as Demetrius comes running back through the woods towards the party, blood streaming down the side of his face, shouting “TROLLS!”. Behind him a large green troll comes lumbering through the forest, straight towards the party.
The group quickly springs into action, sending their horses back where they came from to stay out of danger, and engage the troll. Theren, having learned a bit in his travels, knows for a fact that trolls have the ability to heal, and tells the party to use fire, as it inhibits the regeneration. The troll is a fierce foe, perhaps the strongest the party have faced so far. At one point, Granny manages to cut off the arm of the troll, which continues to act on its own, as the troll tries to put it back in place. They seem to be hard to kill.
Just as the party feels the battle is in their favor, another troll can be heard running through the woods towards the party, but it is too late. They manage to take down the troll that attacked first, and then the other troll before it even manages to reach the party, with Granny using her longbow, Theren, Penny, Kal and Dandelion firing magic at it, while Demetrius finishes off the first troll with his daggers.
As the trolls have regenerative abilities, they figure that by harvesting the blood of the trolls, they might get some cheap healing potions out of it. They use their waterskins and manage to fill up five of them with troll blood, to use later. After gathering the horses again, the party crosses the pass and emerges on the other side, being careful not to agitate any more trolls that might be lurking in the area. They travel a couple more hours, before setting camp for the night, knowing they must be close to the castle.
The Castle
The next morning, they quickly gather their stuff and make breakfast, not wanting to waste more time than they already have, as they have a meeting they cannot be late for. Knowing they should be close, most of the day is spent trying to locate where the castle is, and in the afternoon manage to find a clearing with a large castle in the middle of it. They have reached their destination, and on time.
Not wanting to barge straight in and endanger Gundren, they wait a bit to do some recon on the area, watching if there is any movement. They don’t have to wait long, as on the southern wall there is a door, and a goblin comes walking out, relieving himself next to the stairs, before returning back inside. Demetrius and Willowbark decide to sneak into the castle to get a closer look, so Demetrius is turned invisible by Penny, while Willowbark wild shapes into a rat.
Infiltration
They decide the best course of action would be to go through the front, and so they sneakily head into the main entrance, as the doors there are torn down. Inside it is very dark, and Demetrius must rely on his darkvision in order to navigate safely. Willowbark in rat form can see that the area leading further into the castle straight ahead of the entrance is trapped, and desperately tries to warn Demetrius who almost triggers the trap, but is stopped by the squeaking of Willowbark. They decide to instead head north through a side tunnel, as they can hear a great commotion behind the south door.
Entering the door to the north, they find the storage room of the goblins, containing whatever the goblins have raided in the area from unlucky travelers. Demetrius notices something shiny behind one of the barrels, and finds a sword and some chainmail, recognizing the sword as the same one Sildar carried when they first met him in the Forgetful Faun Inn as it carries the symbol of the Forgeblades on it. He takes a note of it, hoping to grab it on the way back.
Going further into the castle, they come across a couple of goblins in the middle of a prayer to a deity neither Willowbark or Demetrius recognizes, but they are almost discovered as they had to open the door to enter the shrine. Luckily the goblins are not smart enough to make the connection, probably thinking it is just the wind. The castle seems to be riddled with goblins, so they have to plan their approach carefully when they are to storm it. South of the shrine, both Willowbark and Demetrius can smell something weird, almost like it belongs to a creature, but they cannot see anything in the dark chamber, other than an unlit brazier and figures sculpted into the walls.
Not wanting to push their luck too far, they retreat the way they came, distracting the goblins in order to open the door again, with Demetrius grabbing the sword on the way out, reaching the party waiting in the forest just as the invisibility expires. They tell the party what they saw and smelled, and realize they have to be stealthy in order to catch the goblins by surprise.
As Venomfang has yet to make an appearance as he promised, they look around for him, but he is nowhere to be seen. Granny decides to use her ranger ability to try to sense if he is nearby. Focusing on the surrounding forest, she gets the distinct feeling that a dragon is indeed nearby, and fairly close.