Mission 06, Bugbear Stronghold & Shunned Valley
Party: Ioelena, Finial, Pear, Hilniflit, Fledermaus, Rufus
Day 0: Settled up with the city taxes for Mission 05 loot. Visited Yanos to download Faun stuff.
Guild Kitty after buying supplies: 906 gp + 200 gp – 425 gp in taxes (equipment outpaced currency in 5) = 681 gp, 18 sp (A +1 longsword has been set aside for Exandra Redjoy if she wants it.)
Day 01: Uneventful journey to the edge of the woods outside of town. Camp uneventful.
Day 02: The weather is clear, but with a strange chill. Our usual trail was overgrown, so Rufus found an alternate route that lead us to a small shrine overgrown with vines. The central focus of the shrine is a large bronze statue of a minotaur holding an axe standing in the middle of a small fountain. Bronze severed heads have water pouring from their mouths into the fountain. As we begin to search the fountain, the statue comes alive and two spiritual minotaurs flank us on two sides. They ask us if we are here to toast their victory or drown in their defeat.
Pear makes an effort to diplomatically toast their victory (drinking water from his own skin), this seems to appease them, but they ask us to leave their sacred place. We decide to do so.
That night we made camp in a grove filled with soggy wood unsuitable for making a fire. We gathered sticks from the surrounding area and set the watch. On third watch, 4 large, 200 lb green creatures with 10 tentacles and pale faces attack the party. Hilniflit immediately takes out the two attacking sleeping members of the party with magic missiles. The two instantly disappear. Battle commences as the party wakes and the other two creatures seem to be more substantial and pretty grabby – they are also a little clumsy on the ground.
Additionally, the two that blink out when attacked seem to be reappearing, but not attacking. Hilniflit tells the party to ignore the two that turn out to be illusions and focus on the more substantial pair. The party takes some damage from wrestling with the creatures, but the creatures are eventually killed.
In the aftermath, the corpses produce 1 gp each and everyone gets a nature lesson about the decapus.
Day 03: We decide to head toward the Bugbear Keep to check in on its status and find it to be inhabited with guards from Dulwich. The party approaches and are greeted at the entrance by Sir Valio Ilmonen. The party is barely able to stifle their groans as he greets us. We ask if we can spend the night in the Keep and Valio tells us it is in the service of the Priestess (Cena?) in Dulwich. They are trying to repair the Stronghold so it can serve as a sanctuary from the escalation of tensions in town under Mayor Weido's increasingly authoritarian rule. He asks the party for a fee of 5 gold pieces to spend the night as a kind of donation to the cause.
The party balks and offers the 2 gold they just found the night before, Ioelena tries to intimidate Valio into a reduction, but neither intimidation nor diplomacy are able to sway him. The party resigns itself to the 5 gp fee and spend the rest of the day helping out around the Stronghold. Hil gives Valio a marked token and tells him to find us in Westmarch if they ever need any help dealing with Weido.
Day 04: The night and following day on the trail to the Shadowed Keep are uneventful and the party arrives at their destination. The Bandit Tower's lights are on as night falls, suggesting they still inhabit the tower. The front gate is still accessible by slipping through and the party decides to try sneaking into the Keep without confronting the bandits. The donjon itself seems to remain empty, so the party quietly heads down the stairs to the goblin catacombs.
At the base of the stairs, we find 4 new goblin guards sitting around a fire pit. They are complaining about being left behind on a hunt or raid. Hilniflit is in the lead coming down the stairs and envelops them in flames from her burning hands, two die instantly. In less than a few seconds, the party fills the guards with arrows and subdues them all, including two additional goblin guards skulking in the corners of the room.
Pear interrogates one of the goblins and learns that Razagan, the goblin leader, is out hunting with a larger group of goblins. Someone makes the executive decision to kill the goblin, citing rear guard safety concerns. A set of stairs that were either unobserved or didn't exist the last time we visited the Keep lead down into lower levels. The party decides to go down and explore further.
