Previously: Chapter 12: Cleanup in Thundertree
Last Day in Rivergrounds
After the party has gotten its rejuvenating rest during the night, they awake to find themselves more powerful. Willowbark and Granny return to the Forgetful Faun Inn, where they first met all those weeks ago. Willowbark tells the party about her dream, where she was wandering through the forest, before being dragged into a vast lake of nothingness, being observed by the massive green eye that have haunted her dreams for so long. She is unsure if the dream is a premonition or just a nightmare, but tells the party that she has had variations of this dream ever since she was a child.
Kal recounts her dream as well, and tells the party that she saw all of them, dead, undead, and coming for her. Not knowing what to do, she did the only thing she could, use her god given powers to protect herself, killing all of her friends, before they killed her. The party stares at Kal for a good 10 seconds, before Demetrius blurts out “that’s messed up Kal.”. They finish their breakfasts, with the rest of the party unwilling to share their dreams, as they either don’t want to or cannot see the significance.
Before leaving town, Granny, recognizing the potential value of an additional layer of protection despite her already formidable defense, decides to consult with the village smith. She expresses her desire to acquire a shield, seeking one that offers convenience in terms of wearing and removing it, even though her shell provides a robust defense. The blacksmith, acknowledging Granny's quest for something unique, informs her of the various shields available in his possession. However, it becomes apparent that Granny is in search of a shield with special attributes.
Understanding the urgency of their departure, the smith proposes an alternative. He suggests that Granny crafts her own shield, enabling her to tailor it to her specific needs. Delighted by the idea, Granny promptly purchases the required materials and acquires a portable forger's kit, a valuable tool that will allow her to forge the shield while on their journey. With her newfound supplies in tow, Granny is prepared to embark on a new journey of self improvement.
In the meantime, Theren is wandering the streets, looking for anyone who can sell him ink so that he can start copying spells over to his spellbook. After asking around for a while, most people mention that the only magic wielder in town is Elysande, the Cleric of Elios. He seeks her out, asking her if she has any ink to sell, but as she is a cleric, her magic comes from her god, and so she doesn't use spellbooks, and thus doesn’t require ink. Theren thanks her for the help anyways, and joins the other as they leave the town.
A Visitor in the Night
On the journey out of Rivergrounds, following the road that eventually leads to Phandalin, the party faces little danger other than the odd beast who comes a bit too close, but runs away when it realizes that it is outnumbered. During their breaks, Granny starts working on her shield, much to the interest of Penny who asks where this newfound interest in crafting comes from. Granny explains that she wants to be useful, and figures that she can at least learn a new skill now that she has the time. She tells Penny about her family, her long lost sister egg that was lost, as well as her time growing up near the Independent Isles. She eventually left the isles, in search of adventure, and found herself in Khuzunzan when she met Gundren, leading to her meeting the party.
During the night, as Penny and Willowbark take the first watch, Penny can hear some sounds coming from a bush, so she stealthily approaches the disturbance, and discovers a giant spider, who is trembling and looks terrified. Willowbark, who can speak to animals, comes over to ask what it wants, and it meekly asks if the party has any food to share, preferably fresh meat. Penny runs over to Kal, waking her, asking her if she has any meat to spare. In her half-asleep state grabs some chunks out of her bag, with Penny returning to Willowbark and the spider. She gives it the meat, and it quickly gobbles it up, thanking the party for helping it before it scuttles away in the night.
Penny and Willowbark sit a bit reflecting on the encounter, with Willowbark pointing out that although some creatures may look evil or mean, they aren’t all like that. Penny agrees, and thinks that the party should come up with a name for themselves. Willowbark agrees, but thinks they should discuss it during breakfast.
During Granny and Demetrius’ watch, not much happens, but she has been watching him for the last few weeks, and feels that he is a bit like a fish out of water, questioning his intentions for joining the group. He is vague as always in his replies, but it boils down to the fact that he is looking for new experiences and opportunities he can use in his regular line of work.
As Theren takes up his post for the night watch, his vigilant gaze scans the surrounding darkness, searching for any signs of potential danger. The tranquility of the night prevails, leaving him alone with his thoughts. However, an unsettling sensation washes over him—a haunting feeling of being observed. A disquieting presence infiltrates his mind, as if something or someone is rummaging through his thoughts.
Acting swiftly, Theren concentrates his focus, summoning his inner strength to resist and expel the intruding entity. With a determined effort, he successfully pushes the presence out, regaining control over his own consciousness. Momentarily disoriented, he scans his surroundings, hoping to catch sight of the elusive culprit responsible for the intrusion. However, his scrutiny reveals only the familiar faces of his companions, their expressions innocent and unaware.
Throughout the remainder of his watch, Theren remains on high alert, regularly glancing over his shoulder, a lingering sense of unease tugging at his instincts. The unnerving encounter has left him wary, his senses heightened as he maintains a vigilant watch over his companions.
During the last watch, Kal focuses on getting breakfast ready. As the sun rises over the eastern mountains, the rest of the party awakens, and joins her. Penny and Willowbark ask the group about suggestions for a group name. Theren points out that they really don’t need one, but the rest of the group thinks it sounds like a fun idea. They come up with a few creative names, but cannot agree on one they all like, so they decide to table the discussion for now. Theren asks the others if they have felt something weird in the last couple of weeks. When they ask him to clarify, he elaborates with “the feeling of being watched”. The party looks at each other, none having noticed anything out of the ordinary. He tells the party to be vigilant, and mindful about what they think about, and that he will have to do some more experimentation. The party gathers their belongings and continues on their journey.
Killer in Plain Sight
After another day of travel, the party finds a new campsite, and settles down for the evening's rest. As Granny continues working on her shield, she is having a hard time with it, but gets a few pointers from Kal on how to use and be effective with it. Willowbark and Penny forage for food and firewood, and return a while later with supplies. Most of the night goes by uneventfully. When Theren wakes Demetrius for his shift, he asks him to take care of the ring, and vanishes into it, hoping not to be disturbed by the intruding presence once more. During Willowbark's watch she cannot find Theren anywhere, and worries at first, but realize that it must have a reasonable explanation.
As the party wakes in the morning, Willowbark confronts Theren on why he didn’t sleep in his bedroll last night, but Theren says that she doesn’t have to worry, as he was always around. Kal is very suspicious about Theren and Demetrius, sensing that they are up to something, but gives them some snacks to prepare them for the day, giving them the stink-eye.
While traveling down the road, the party spots something lying in the grass a bit to the side. On closer inspection they can see that there are two corpses, a man and a woman, as well as a dead horse. Penny walks closer, trying to examine what the people and the horse died from, as they don’t appear to have any visible wounds from a distance. When she examines the bodies of the people, she can see large bite marks on their torsos. As there doesn’t appear to be any wild beasts in the immediate vicinity, she decides to loot the horse. The rest of the party tries to stop her, but they’re too late, having seen the danger a bit too late.
As Penny touches the horse, her hands suddenly become attached, like they’re glued in place. The belly of the horse splits open, revealing a large mouth with huge teeth ready to pounce on her. She has walked straight into a mimic. The party jumps into action, and tries to free Penny by dragging her away, and the mimic manages to get in a few chomps before they pull her off it. Thinking they have the upper hand at first, they suddenly realize that most of the rocks surrounding them are also mimics, as they begin to move towards the party.
The party, using all the tricks at their disposal manages to kill most of the monstrosities, with Kal summoning a thunderstorm to finish off the remaining mimics. As the last one falls, she takes no chances, blasting every single stone she sees with a lightning bolt, with Theren helping with his Eldritch Blasts. After they are confident there are no more mimics remaining, they examine the bodies, and find a few coins, as well as a note from a child, presumably belonging to the deceased couple. After Willowbark have given them her usual rites, they mark the location, telling some passing sentries about the encounter, as well as the location of the bodies, before moving onwards to Phandalin.
Last Night in Phandalin
A few days after defeating the mimics, the party turns the final bend in the road and climbs the last hill, seeing Phandalin in the distance. When they go to stable their horses once more, they meet Tim again. Willowbark starts acting extremely suspicious, and begins questioning him about his background and if he has any family. Tim feels uncomfortable answering questions from a stranger, which frustrates her. Granny watches this, and tries to find out his secrets by casting hunter’s mark on him, hoping to track him if he goes to a hidden lair or something. Seems like the party is quite paranoid about the innocent looking stable boy.
After boarding the horses, the party goes to the Stonehill tavern to meet with Gundren. When they enter the inn they can see Gundren in the back having a few beers with the local prospectors. When he sees the party he quickly excuses himself from his drinking pals and heads over to greet the group. “Right on time” he says, with beer frothing from the mouth, and then asks if the party have accomplished what they had to do and if they’re ready to head out. They reply that they indeed feel they have accomplished their tasks, and can head towards the cave whenever Gundren wants. As it is quite late in the day, he feels that the most prudent thing to do would be to leave in the morning when they all have gotten a good night's sleep. The party agrees, and heads to the rooms Gundren has provided. Granny checks out her hunter’s mark, but finds that Tim hasn’t moved, before she and Willowbark head to the fields to sleep.
The next morning, the group in the tavern is awoken at the break of dawn by Gundren knocking on their doors, telling them it’s time to wake up. They have never been so drowsy before, barely getting enough sleep. When they get downstairs, Gundren is already in full gear and ready to head out, and tells the party that he took the liberty of retrieving their horses, which the party sees waiting outside being tended to by Granny and Willowbark who are already awake. They all mount their horses, and head southeast, towards the mountains.
The Final Push
The journey to Wave Echo Cave is a fairly straight forward path, taking the party through a beautiful serene landscape with the Iron Hills rapidly approaching in front of them. During the trek they have to cross a chasm with a narrow bridge, but as the horses have gotten quite used to traveling with the party, it proves no challenge. After a few days, the party can see a lake on the right hand side, to the south of them. Thinking nothing of it at first, Willowbark can see a small altar at the edge of the lake. Looking closer she can see that it is covered in blood.
Penny wants to go closer, but Gundren advises against it, explaining that some local goblin tribes use it for sacrifices, hence the blood. He has been lucky enough to avoid getting too close to the ritual itself, but has seen it from a distance, and heard the screams of the sacrificed goblin. The party shudders, and decides to leave well enough alone, following his advice. The path curves around the lake, and after taking a short rest, they continue onwards for a few hours, before Gundren proclaiming “we’re here”, looking at a large opening in the mountain wall in front of them.
Missing Siblings
Gundren dismounts his horse and approaches the mountain wall. He calls out to his brothers, but gets no response. He begins running frantically towards a nearby clearing, with the party following right behind. Reaching the clearing, they find what appears to be a ruined campsite, with no dwarven brothers in sight. Gundren looks concerned, and so the party starts examining the campsite. Looking around they find several footprints barely visible after a couple of weeks of rain and wind, but it’s definitely visible. A large group of big footprints, as well as some smaller ones. Seems that someone found his brothers, and as the tracks lead to the cave entrance in the mountain wall, they took the brothers with them inside.
With cautious curiosity, the party directs their attention towards the entrance of the cave. Their keen eyes discern a poorly disguised trap, cunningly designed to activate and send cascades of rocks tumbling down upon unsuspecting intruders. Evidently, it serves as a deterrent, an attempt to warn and impede those who dare to venture further, left behind by whoever took the brothers.
Undeterred by the trap's presence, Demetrius steps forward, his expertise in disarming such obstacles evident. Skillfully and effortlessly, he renders the trap harmless, disabling its mechanisms with practiced precision. With the danger neutralized, Demetrius paves the way for the rest of the group to proceed deeper into the cave, to face the dangers within.
As they venture further into the depths, the cave opens up, revealing a large chamber, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The air is humid, much more so than the party would expect, and a faint booming sound can be heard emanating from deeper in the cave. Kal lights her sword, granting vision to the members of the party who cannot see in darkness, revealing a large ravine in the cave floor in front of them. On the edge, they can see that someone has fastened a rope for easily climbing down. As the party looks over the edge, they can see a single body lying on the ground at the bottom.
Wasting no time, Gundren quickly descends down the rope, and confirms his worst fears. The body is that of his brother Tharden, and as the party descends to assist him, they see him clutching his brother's corpse, weeping silently in the darkness. Overcome with grief, he tells the party that he cannot go on, as he would not be much use in his current state. The party wholeheartedly understands, and is confident that they can finish the task on his behalf. Gundren gives them the map that he and his brothers found, hoping it will guide them through the cave. They help him with bringing his brother's corpse to the top of the edge, and as he exits the cave, the party sets their sights on which way to go first, as they see two pathways out of the ravine.
Following the Trail
The party looks around, examining the area closely, looking for clues to which way they should go first. To the south, they can see a large collection of bodies, old and new littering the cave beyond the ravine. They look to the north, and can barely make out what looks like railway tracks, with the trail from the group that took Gundrens brothers leads to. The party decides to follow the tracks, hoping to find his remaining brother alive and well.
As they travel along the tracks, they get the odd sensation of being watched, but as they peer through the darkness, they see no one, but can hear a weird noise that can only be described as wet. They walk past dark puddles, and several broken down minecarts that haven’t seen use in quite some time. Just as Demetrius is about to turn around a corner, Willowbark quickly grabs his collar, preventing him from walking into a gelatinous cube which was waiting in ambush. Noticing the sudden movements and exclamation from Demetrius, it starts moving towards the party, who is forced to back away from it.
The cube is not a dangerous foe, but it manages to swallow a few of the party members, who easily escapes its grasp with the help of the others. Theren who is in the rear of the group have been firing Eldritch Blasts at the cube, but suddenly find himself between a rock and a hard place, as the puddles they passed earlier proves to be more dangerous than first suspected, as they have creeped up towards the party from behind, explaining the weird sounds they heard earlier.
Just when the party thinks the fight is turning in their favor, a large yellowish ooze comes crawling from around the corner, straight for the disturbance in the tunnels. When the party tries to attack it, it just splits into several smaller parts, each attacking on their own, but through teamwork and clever use of repelling spells, they manage to take all the oozes down, and quickly retreat back to the ravine.
Finding Shelter
Feeling tired, they realize that the cave might be more of a challenge than they first suspected, and decide to find a place to rest for the night. Not wanting to go back out, they look at the map Gundren gave them, and decide to try to find some place that might be defensible so that they can rest.
As the map is covered with blood and quite deteriorated it is hard to discern a safe room for them to rest, but they see what looks like a sleeping quarters that seems to not be too far from where they currently find themselves. Not wanting to go through the cave with the large amount of bodies, they head back to the mines, hugging the eastern wall, and manage to make their way through it without encountering any enemies.
When they reach what they think is the correct door, they quietly listen in the hallway to hear if they notice any dangers approaching them, while Demetrius examines the door, checking for traps. He determines that it should be safe, so the party decides to open it carefully, hoping not to attract any nearby enemies that are lurking in the shadows. As soon as the door swings open, they can see six sets of eyes staring back at them, as a group of undead monsters notice their approach, and come rushing towards the entrance straight at the party.