Wrathbone wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 12:57 pmYou also have your Spider Staff which can cast Web and Spider Climb a few times a day (should be in your inventory now).
Recap of last night:
Returning from the previous cliffhanger, the party continued to dispatch the onslaught of enemies while somehow avoiding their own demises. The last remaining bugbear surrendered as his comrades fell, and was forced by our illustrious heroes to strip naked and flee with his last shred of dignity in tatters. As surprising as it may be, this would prove to be their most merciful action of the coming day.
Amidst the sea of corpses, only Truss lay alive, and only barely as his friends came to revive him. The Black Spider was not so fortunate, having had his body and brain devastated by Sage's sonic blast which literally shattered multiple stone pillars. Slythe investigated the room and found papers indicating the Black Spider was receiving orders from someone he disliked, along with a coded message in an unknown script. The party also freed Gundren's brother, Nundro, and then conveyed to him the death of his brother Tharden by parading the fancy boots they had ripped off his cold, dead feet. After some much needed rest, Nundro proceeded to hack the head off the Black Spider's corpse as proof of his death, or perhaps as a trophy.
Upon leaving the mine, the party bumped into Jeff, who had got lost and wasn't sure if he was outside or not because he had no concept of what that meant. The group helped Jeff find the exit (Truss scooping up Tharden's body along the way, like a sack of non-destined potatoes), and Jeff was elated and shocked at the sheer scale of the sky. Charr brought him back to earth by informing him that looking at the sky for too long was dangerous, and so Jeff diligently kept his eyes to the ground as he set off on his journey of exploration to the North. Would he find untold treasures and wonders, make new friends and test the depths of his character? Or would he incinerate the first group of travellers he encountered due to an unfortunate misunderstanding and his total ignorance of the wider world? Only the trail of ashes and blood in his wake would tell.
Arriving back in Phandalin, the party found many new wanted posters and warnings of their various activities and disguises, and they heard a commotion from the town centre. A crowd stood around a hastily-erected gallows as the Townmaster decreed that Sildar and Gundren were to be put to death for the crimes of sedition, multiple counts of accessory to murder and conspiracy to depose the town's rightful authorities. Rather than taking the flimsy, pissant approach of trying to defuse the situation, Sage marched forth into the crowd disguised as the Black Spider, his dark and ominous staff in hand, and demanded that the Townmaster release the prisoners into his custody at once.
It is unclear what part the Townmaster played in the troubling events surrounding Phandalin and the Black Spider, though it seems he had been involved to some extent with a subordinate or associate of the Spider's. What is certain is that the party then rallied the crowd against the Townmaster, placing the blame squarely on him for every ill that had happened in the past weeks and months. With the frenzied, ill-informed rage of a Daily Mail reader (that being the local Neverwinter hate rag, of course), the crowd cut free Sildar and Gundren and summarily hanged the Towmaster without trial or forethought until - with his dying constrictions - he watched as Sage reverted in front of him to his true form and revealed the trickery that had led to his demise. Hours later, the Townmaster's corpse still swinging in the breeze, Charr sent his ethereal, disembodied hand to loot a pouch of gold off his belt.
Knowing they would find no dignity in such company, Gundren and Nundro set about burying their brother alone on the edge of town, and then returned to regroup with Sildar and the party at the inn. The town had agreed for Sildar to administer the town's needs temporarily until proper elections could be held. Sildar accepted the charge and suggested that the party returned to Neverwinter to report back to General Sabine and Sir Carac (Sildar's superior), receive their reward and perhaps find more work in tracking down the Black Spider's masters and their plans. Gundren and Nundro also agreed that as a just reward, the party would be given 16% of any profits from the mine once it was up and running again.
With the rescue of Gundren, Nundro and Sildar, the scuppering of bandit activities in the area, the discovery of the Lost Mine and the demise of the Black Spider, the party had proven their value, and their flexible ethics. As they headed to Neverwinter at the close of the first chapter of their story, whispers began to spread of their deeds and misdeeds to ears of both friend and foe. Their true journey had just begun...
The humiliation of a vanquished foe, the unleashing of a potential evil upon the world and the execution of a man possibly trying to do his best in difficult circumstances pretty much sums up what our little band is all about
