Session 3
When last we left our heroes they returned the kidnapped girl to her worried parents, stopping overnight in the neverwinter woods to rest. There they found themselves trapped in a strange magical dream where they met one of the Sewn Sisters, a night hag who predicted their future for the price of one copper.
On returning to the town of Villaine the party ran into an old friend of Morgran's who hired them to drive a cart of supplies to the outpost town of Phandalin. But along the way they were ambushed by the one goblin to escape the Delian temple. Snozmallow returned with a new look and an evil scheme to trap the party with two hyenas and a couple barrels of lamp oil.
But the players escaped his trap and captured Snozmallows cohort, a goblin named Rash who told them their friends had been carried away to the local goblin outpost in the dripping caverns to be tortured and eaten.
Dripping caves main cavern
You see a yawning cave mouth 12 feet wide and 20 feet high in the side of a rocky outcrop. Beyond the cave mouth is a vast cavern filled with a forest of stalagmites and ten foot high ledges around the edges. The path to the entrance of the cave is churned earth, dead grass, and bat droppings. You hear a deep, breathless, and repetitive groaning "hurrrr-rrrr-rrraaahhh! hurrrr-rrrrr-rrraahhh!" coming from the darkness around the corner.
The sound is an ogre (Tor) singing as he bathes in the mud pit by the entrance.
four goblins bros stand guard on the ledges around the chamber.
Gleek, Lop, Pitch, and Slibberdabber.
The muddy earth is full of broken shields, weapons, and bat guano. The sound of dripping water is continuous.
The dripping caverns (SKT:30), 1 ogre and 4 goblins.
The goblin huffs and stands up. Tor, dude, why don't you give it a rest.
"Yeah bro, tell him!"
"Tor not rest, Tor eat your head and fill neck stump with poo. Come down here and bring poo."
The goblins fire down into the melee as Tor fights with the characters.
Warrens (2)
You hear the scrabbling of feet and strange whispers in the darness ahead. The rocky passageway splits and splits again until it's a maze of crooked passages with a well worn soil floor.
4 caves with 1d6 goblin non-combatants (AC10 1hp no attacks) The floors are covered in grass pallets, a few rusty pots, odd tools, and goblin toys.
cave of bones. - a refuse pile filled with the bones of small animals (bats) and a few humanoids - no treasure.
East Caves (3) goblins don't go in here to avoid meeting the blob monster.
Stalactites and stalagmites crowd this 20-foot-high, 15-foot-wide cave. Rising up from the middle of the floor is a particularly large (10-foot-tall) stalagmite riddled with 4-inch-wide, 12-inch-deep naturally formed holes that bore down into a hollow central cavity. Lying near the base of the stalagmite are the badly corroded remains of two goblin scimitars.
A gray pudding (or one with twice the hp) has taken residence inside the stalagmite's hollow core, and the holes in the stalagmite's "shell" are wide enough that a character can stick an arm, a staff, or a weapon into any one of them. The pud ding makes a free pseudopod attack against anything that is inserted into one of the stalagmite's holes. The pudding has total cover while inside the stalag mite's core. If left undisturbed, the pudding remains inside the stalagmite until the characters make their way toward area 3b, whereupon it quietly emerges and follows them. Once the characters are trapped in area 3b, the pudding attacks.
Bats and Prisoners (4)
The entrance of this tunnel contains two strange goblin-sized leather suits hanging on the wall. They are all in one-piece with booties and a hood but leaving the hands bare.
A short tunnel leads to a sunken cavern that echoes with the sound of flapping wings. The sound emanates from a naturally formed pit in the cavern's floor, which is covered with bat guano. Ten-foot-high ledges surround the pit and form raised alcoves to the north, east, and south. You can see numerous dark shapes huddled in these alcoves.
Huddled in these alcoves are thirty Phandalin villagers. The villagers are prisoners of the goblins and ogres, and they are trying to remain as quiet as possible for reasons that might not be readily apparent to the characters.
And sound agitates the bats which fly up out of the hole on initiative 10 screeching and biting. players take 1hp each round they stay agitated. roll 1d6 on a 6 they go back down the hole. The pit descends through 20 feet of solid rock before opening into the lower cavern, which is 30 feet deep.
Morak Wester the son of the townmaster and speaks as their leader.
Hiral Mystrum is the cowardly priest of Lathander and six unarmed guards.
Rob o'Dale is severely wounded and an old member of Ronda's crew. He has a gangrenous wound in his side and a bad cough that suggests the infection has spread to his lungs. He needs a cleric to cure the disease or will die in three days.
Have the group describe his clothing and the last big problem he wanted to overcome before he could retire.
Ronda? Is that you? Damn my eyes it's you or you're dead I've gone to hell. Ronda, they got me, they got me and I was so close to getting the money to win back Hellgrina. ___________(solving his last big problem). Here, I don't think I will make it but you, you could. He tries to sit up and winces. The compartment in my boot, a map!
Sinister Slaard got him. Gerald the poisoner! You remember? Must have thousands of gold stashed at his home in the mountains
You know Gerald Mystsail was an alchemist and wizard living somewhere at the foot of the sword mountains. He made a living selling poison salves to mercenaries along the sword coast, travelling down from the mountains with a magical push cart and returning when his cart was empty.
The rest are surviving members of local families.
Fissure (5)
An 8-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep fissure splits a tunnel leading north.
If the characters continue down this path they see the sandy floor has not be disturbed for a long time. The passageway continues for a half mile farther into the mountain growing pretty narrow before opening up a little.
You catch the rancid smell of death. The corners of the corridor are festooned with cobwebs and mosquitos circle lazily in the wet air. The spiderwebs grow thicker further along the passage until they become draped across the passageway and you have to break them as you go. You also detect a slight breeze but the air isn't any fresher for it.
Two giant spiders lair near a hole that opens into a small grotto where they've been catching wildlife. (or an ettercap!)
Underground Stream (6)
An ankle-deep stream of water pours through a narrow tunnel in the west wall and forms a small pool in this otherwise empty cave. There is a broken bucket in one corner.
Natural Chimney (7)
A chimney has formed in the 7-foot-high ceiling of this small side cave. The chimney is 5 feet wide and has abundant handholds and footholds. A creature can climb up or down the shaft with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. No ability check is required if a rope or climbing gear is used.
Snigbat the snitch stands guard at the bottom of the shaft. She resents the bros and feels her intelligence entitles her to run things. She offers the PCs to lead them to boss hark if they let her become the new boss. If they kill Hark she wants them to go after the ogre and bros.
Has the tendency to pontificate on stuff she doesn't know.
"well actually... that rock is igneous instead of meta-morpork. I know all about rocks" "well actually... I thought some adventurers might come through here so you didn't surprise me. I knew you were there."
The chimney is discovered on a perception check of 15.
Hark's Hoard (8)
A large round rock fills the low, 4-foot-diameter tunnel. It fits snug and looks like it was placed there.
The boulder fits snugly in the tunnel and must be pushed into the cave to clear the passage. Moving the boulder out of the way requires a successful DC 11 Strength (Athletics) check. The sound of the rolling boulder is loud enough to be heard by the creatures in area 9. The cave has an 8-foot-high ceiling and contains a grass pallet (Hark's bed), next to which rests a battered wooden chest with a rusty lock. The lock is purely for show and falls apart if handled roughly.
The chest contains * 9 gp, * 55 sp, * 87 cp (loose) * three gold teeth worth 1gp each * A matching pair of silver salt and pepper shakers (worth 10 gp apiece or 25 gp for the pair) * A bloodstained leather case containing a complete set of thieves' tools (worth 25 gp), * A holy symbol of Silvanus carved from wood and in laid with gold (worth 25 gp) * caltrops of entanglement * a cartload of general supplies (grains, sugar, salt, flour, apples, biscuits, nails, booze) marked with the image of a blue lion (the symbol of the lionshield coster)
Boss Hark (9)
You hear cacophony of squeeks and laughter as you peer into this room. Inside this ten foot high cave you see a goblin decked out in necklaces and bracelets lounging on a ratty couch with two female goblins wearing dirty bikinis with pierced ears laughing and pointing as a swarm of giant rats devours a dead man and takes nips at a plump elven woman who shrieks and pants with the exertion of staying away.
The woman is Lady Daphne Featherstone. She was kidnapped from her bed by the goblins and was taken from the other prisoners to feed the rats.
The slain villager (Darthag Ulgar, the proprietor of the Lionshield Coster trading post).
This 10-foot-high cave contains Hark, the goblin boss, two female goblins (bodyguards) named Ratcha and Zukluk, and seven giant rats (Hark's beloved pets). When the characters enter the cave for the first time, Hark and his bodyguards are gleefully watching the rats feed on the corpse of a slain villager (Darthag Ulgar, the proprietor of the Lionshield Coster trading post). Hark has collected all the weapons and shields be longing to the captured villagers and stashed the equip ment in a western alcove behind rocks. Characters who search the cache find nine spears, five clubs, two dag gers, and six wooden shields.
Sildar Hallwinter is chained to the back wall. If the fight goes badly Hark will threaten to kill him if they don't stop. He asks for 100 gold pieces and for the characters to leave this cave forever. Both he and Gundran were ambushed and taken to this place. The black spider sent someone around to take Gundran away and he's been torturing Sildar to find out why.
sildar's background (LMoP:11)
I'm with the lords alliance investigating the fate of Iarno Albrek, a wizard and fellow member who disappeared shortly after arriving in Phandalin. I met Gundren in Neverwinter and he told me he found the cave! Wave echo cave!
- <on a history roll>
You know wave echo cave is a place where dwarves and gnomes signed phandelver's pact hundreds of years ago! The cave contained a vein of magical energy and was used to create the forge of spells where magical items could be crafted. The orcs came rampaging out of the hills and destroyed it and the location was lost.
I overheard the bugbear Klarg that took Gundren tell this goblin the black spider wanted him for questioning. Gundren had a map showing the location of the cave but they took it from him when they captured him and Klarg said something about taking it back to a place called Cragmaw Castle. I need to get to Phandalin as quickly as possible, find Iarno, and find the castle. I can pay you 50gp if you get me there.
This is enough to get them to level 3.
dripping_caves.pdf (24.7MiB)