Lost Mine of Phandelver - Wave Echo Cave (Part I)

 

Spoilers follow for the adventure…

22 Mirtul

The day dawned bright, far brighter than the mood of Aina, Anarath, and Amafrey, still in shock at the sudden loss of Bree the day prior. The mysterious goblin druid they had found in the cave the day prior, Blaaz, seemed blissfully unaware of their feelings, and they awoke to see her dancing in the golden spot cast into their shared room by the rising sun, flowers woven through her hair and floppy hat. 

They soon made their way downstairs, drawn by the smell of fried bacon and beef, along with scrambled eggs. Sitting in the tavern was a new person they didn’t recognize. He appeared to be a large humanoid with the face and hard scales of a lizard. His scales were tinged green, and he had a light red fringe running up the center of his head. His eyes rotated towards them in a detached, reptilian manner as he bit into an egg, shell still on.

“Who are you? What are you?” Asked Blaaz. The small goblin stood on the wooden bench next to the lizard man, poking his hard scales.

“Have you never seen a hard-skin before,” said the lizard.

“No! You’re funny!” laughed Blaaz. “How are your eggs?”

“Delicious. They’re wonderful when you suck the yolk out. Would you like to try?”

The goblin accepted the raw egg and bit a small hole with one of her upper fangs, then sucked at the egg through the opening. Amafrey groaned as he watched the display.

“It is delicious!” Said Blaaz, a dribble of egg white running out of the corner of her mouth.

“You look like adventurers,” said the lizard man. “Are you adventurers?” 

“Well…yes I suppose,” harrumphed Anarath. Since the pulling the card from the Deck he had felt strangle aged. He’d noticed grey in his normally youthful beard and hair. And his back was sore from that bed.

“Ah, I have been looking for adventurers to help,” said the lizard man. “Ever since I saw some like you defeat evil lizard warriors in my swamp I have desired to learn your ways. You are going adventuring today? May I join you?”

“Great, another stray,” said Amafrey under his breath, glancing at the small goblin in her tattered white dress and hat, its top daisy poking up at a jaunty angle. Louder he said “Well, why not? The last few days have been strange enough. What’s your name?”

“Thorntail, and much thanks.”

The others agreed, and after finishing their not raw breakfasts—Toblen Stonehill, the innkeeper looked sideways all morning at Thorntail, but brought him half a dozen more fresh raw eggs—they set off towards Wave Echo Cave.

Upon entering and moving down the long passage, they reached the larger entrance cavern and the opening which they had climbed down into. They also found Gundren, who had elected to stay behind rather than leave his greatest mining stake behind the night prior. He had spent a white knuckle evening, shivering in the dark, and looked even more tired and disheveled than they had last seen him.

They poured him some strong black coffee they’d brought from the Stonehill Inn, and the gleam returned to his eyes of a dwarf close to finding treasure.

“Saw a bunch o’gobbos going into the cave. Said they was following the Spider. You best hurry. It sounds like this Spider fella is hot on the trail to the fabled Forge of Spells. Who knows what kind of power he’ll get from that thing,” said the dwarf between ravenous bites at a loaf of bread.

The adventurers descended the rope into the main cave once more, then choose to take the left passage rather than the right where they’d already been.

As they moved through a maze of old mine tunnels the adventurers heard a loud wet slap as an ooze of mustard yellow and brown fell from the ceiling. It began to slap them with its harsh pseudopods. They made short work of it though, and continued on until they found a larger natural cavern with a large pool of water. Thorntail and Blaaz dived in and swam until they came upon a humanoid skeleton. They pulled it to the surface and found a magic ring upon the long dead mage.

Next they proceeded into another portion of the cave that was worked stone. Soon they stumbled into a room where the Spider’s bugbears appeared to have set up a camp. They immediately attacked, with Blaaz and Anarath laying down wind gust and wall of fire to control the battlefield, and the others making short work of the enemies. They pursued one as he ran along a corridor, shouting, and slew him with an arrow. 

They returned to the room with the camp, then moved into a ruined great hall divided into three platforms by height. In this massive chamber they came upon bands of ghouls, hungry for flesh, which they defeated quickly. The  they headed through another tunnel to find a giant smelter and a water wheel surrounded by another pack of zombies with a mysterious floating skull, wreathed in green fire…

GM Reflections 

This session occurred 48 days (according to the chat timestamps) after the last one. So the losses to the Deck of Many Things were less fresh or painful. The addition of a new drop in character (Thorntail), played by a close friend, was a welcome addition.

It was a fun session, and interesting in being the first time trying to balance against a party with characters of various levels. By this time though, I was getting tired of the campaign and really hoped that they’d follow the passage where the fleeing bugbear was going and stumble upon the Spider as the final boss fight.