Welcome to yet another installment of the Tuesday Night D&D blog. The only blog where you can get second-hand information about an authentic Dungeons and Dragons 5e game from someone who has first-hand experience and writes like a third-rate author. Let's get in there.

The Adventure Resumes!

We last left our heroes as Ghengis won a cool 50 g's (golds) playing poker against the rest of the party. From this point, the party had two options:

1. Go to the west, where the assassins were spotted and potentially die.
2. Go to the east, where it was rumored that prisoners have gone and potentially die.

After careful consideration, the party went with the second option, and approached a door to the East of the entrance to the fortress. Behind this door, the party was able to just make out the voices of goblins speaking. A lot of goblins. An uncomfortable amount of goblins.

The Party Handles the Goblin Situation

Hildegaard attempts to lure the goblins out of the room into an ambush, yelling something about goblin food and hiding around the corner. This draws the attention of a single goblin, who opens the door, looks around a bit, fails to see anyone who is hiding, and then promptly close the door again. Rurik found this outcome unsatisfactory, and promptly began pounding loudly on the door before "ding-dong ditching it". This of course gets the goblin's attention a bit more rapidly, and just as it steps out of the room to see what is going on Hildegaard stabs it through the head with her spear, killing it outright without a sound. Shortly afterward another goblin decides to see what happened to its friend and combat begins.

Despite an overwhelming number of goblins, the (now much stronger) adventurers manage to cut them all down with minimal effort. Ghengis was of particular help, casting a fog cloud that disorientated the goblins, following it up with a shatter spell that dealt a total of 52 damage and killed four. It was impressive all around. After a quick search of the room that yielded some much needed health potions (branded with Panacea's logo) and another vial of alchemist's fire, the party went East through the only other exit to the room: a wooden door labelled "Chikn Rum".

The Party Encounters Some Scary Chickens

Inside the chicken room, there were three cages with cockatrices inside. Using their ability to communicate with animals, Hildegaard spoke with one, learning that there were two humans who were "like us" that had been lead through there. It's a pretty safe bet that those were the missing persons our group was looking for, and I'm not just saying that as the person who wrote the whole thing.

Sivi listened at the doors leading out of the room, hearing gutteral speech of a nature that she had never encountered before. Further investigation by the party revealed that the speech was Orcish, and likely being spoken by, well, an orc.

Hildegaard, using her ability to speak with animals, convinced the three cockatrices to help them fight off the orcs in the next room, in exchange for freedom. The cockatrices accepted, as they really just wanted to be able to go back into nature. Hildegaard opened all the cages, and the cockatrices remained docile. It seemed that they'd uphold their end of the bargain.

The party then split up, Sivi/Hildegaard approaching the orc room from one side, and Rurik/Ghengis from the other. A classic Pincer maneuver. Kicking in the doors, the party initiated combat with three orcs in the next room.

The fight went well for our adventurers; with the added help from the cockatrices two of the orcs went down within a turn, with the last orc barely clinging to life. In a desperate moment, the lone orc swung at one of the cockatrices... and dealt critical damage, instantly slicing it in half. This shocked the other two cockatrices who just lost a friend. In a dramatic moment of vengeance, the original cockatrice that Hildegaard spoke to pecked at the orc, causing it to fall to the ground and turn into stone. The party had won the combat, but at the cost of a newly gained friend.

Sadly, the first cockatrice asked if it was okay for it and its remaining friend to return the downed cockatrice to nature,where it belonged. The party agreed, allowing the two cockatrices to leave carrying their fallen comrade. On their way out, Hildegaard asked the lead cockatrice it's name. Having never actually considered having a name, it thought long and hard before settling on the name "Cluck Cluck". The cockatrices leave, Hildegaard shot an arrow into the ceiling in salute, and the party continued deeper into the keep.

The Party Walks Through Three Bedrooms

The party's path took them through an aside where they walked through three different bedrooms, each unique in some way:

• One bedroom had very plain decor, with two training dummies across from a bed. One training dummy had several arrows sticking out of it, most of which were embedded in its neck and head. The other training dummy had been cut several time with what appeared to be a very sharp blade. Hildegaard took the sheets off of the bed inside. She has a thing.
• The second bedroom was finely decorated, with silk sheets on the bed and a fancy bookcase filled with magical research. A bliss lab, smaller but similar to the one in Lord Tybalt's manor, was also located in this room. Rurik took it upon himself to dismantle the lab, spilling a clear, ammonia smelling liquid onto the ground. Ghengis took a handful of books related to divination magic from the bookcase. Hildegaard took the sheets, again.
• The last bedroom had cheap, but expensive looking decor. In one corner, a pile of miscellaneous instruments was sitting, gathering dust. To the north there was a working desk with scraps of poetry and unfinished songs upon it. Hildegaard took the sheets. On the desk, Sivi noticed a recently written note that stated the following:

"Everyone laughed when I made the banner, but I know how important branding is when it comes to having a presence. "Lost Three". It has quite the ring to it, and as long as we only initial, no one will know that it's actually more than one person! I shock myself with my brilliance sometimes."

Suddenly, there was some doubt as to who L.T. actually was. A whole bunch of theories were wiped out with one little note. In the distance, the cackling of a DM was heard.

Ahem.

The party continued deeper.

Oh! We Were Expecting You!

The group reaches... Another door. As Rurik investigates this new room, the DM wonders to himself if maybe there are other ways in and out of rooms. After some research... eh. Not so many. Anyway.

Inside the room are three different figures sitting around a table. One is a seemingly blond woman with extravagant clothing and a lute by her side. One is a half-naked half orc male carrying a bow at his side. The third is an ancient looking dwarven male wearing purple clothes and a hat that's almost as silly as Ghengis'. These are, clearly, the people responsible for the attack.

A BUNCH of story things happen here. So many. Like woah. The party learns that these three people used to run security for the city of Holbeck before adventuring licenses became a thing. The blonde lady, who goes by the name "Elinda Lyrestorm" is ecstatic to see adventurers who actually can make it past a group of guards and overcome them. The other two sit silently as she begins enthusiastically pitching the party on joining their group.

"I mean, you'd have to start out as interns, but you're definitely higher up than those guards back there. Assuming you let any of them survive. Well, I mean. You're just like US, right?" -Elinda

This of course inevitably leads to the party deciding that the Lost Three are a nuisance and should be taken out. I'll give the short version, but there'll be an announcement at the end that takes the sting out a bit.

• Ghengis ends up snorting the Bliss he had taken from Lord Tybalt's palace 5 weeks ago. It lets him cast a VERY large burning hands spell that does some significant damage to the entire group of villains.
• Sivi, enraged, leaps upon the table and stabs both the wizard and Elinda, knocking them both to the ground and near death.
• Ghengis is actually knocked unconscious (the first time in the entire adventure!), Rurik gets revenge by crushing the half-orc to death behind a bookcase.
• Hildegaard ends up stabilizing both Elinda and the wizard, wanting to keep them from dying. She pulls it off, yay!

With two of the Lost Three unconscious (and one crushed to death behind a bookcase), the group explores the remainder of the keep.

They Found Treasure!

In a hastily constructed hoard room, the adventurers found the following:

• A scroll of Fireball
• A scroll of Chromatic Orb
• A Wand of Secrets
• Two Greater Healing Potions
• A Climbing Potion
• 480 Gold Pieces
• Five pieces of rose quartz valued at 50 gp apiece.

They also found Lenny & Lord Tybalt!

The two rascals were kept in a prison cell together. The nightmare that Lord Tybalt endured while listening to Lenny for three days or more was lamented. After some questioning, the party decided that Lord Tybalt was not a villain of any kind and that Lenny should be gagged. It was a good call, as I hurt my throat talking like that guy. (Thanks folks!)

With that, the party left the keep with Lord Tybalt, Lennix Thombend, Krisstina, and the two remaining members of The Lost Three. Short version:

• Lenny and the Lost Two go to prison, hopefully never to be seen again!
• Lord Tybalt offers a single favor in return for his rescue, the party decides to wait on it.
• Sivi escorts Krisstina north to Faycrest, where she has family waiting.

Everything is tied into a nice bow, and the first major story thing is completely and utterly resolved. Huzzah!

So, what now?

Hey guys. Let's do some real talk for a moment. This is... Like, THE MOST WRITING. Ever. It's the worst, even though I love doing it. So, since we've gotten past the "first chapter", I figured I'd be cool and start releasing the recorded versions of my sessions to YouTube. You can watch them there, you can download them as audio (though that might get weird since I'm working with a visual medium), and I get to use these blogs as a place to put side information. It's win-win. So look to the forum post for sessions going forward. I'll be adding the "keep" saga to it (older recordings were super rough, as I was still learning), and newer ones will go up day-and-date as I do them. It's been fun writing 2,000 words a week, but now it's time for me to actually focus that energy into making better recordings. You'll all hear from me ON THE INTERNET.

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