The third session, which begins a sequence of at least one person missing. We compromise by me or another player rolling for them.
5/4/20 - Session #3
Albrecht Schultze - Human Sorcerer 1
Yelrah - Half Orc Barbarian 1
The party bathed, fed, and rested at the Lion's Den. In addition, they found and rented an apartment from the Bailiff, NAME, for a period of three months, at 50gp per month. Being flush with cash, the PCs happily paid for their privacy.
In addition to finding a new home, the team sold loot and had items identified. The gems were sold and the profits split among the survivors. The fancy belt that the skeleton had worn was found to have small words spelled out in thread: Scutum (shield), Armis (mage armor), and Lorica Segmentata (globe of invulnerability); the belt was also determined to render its wearer utterly exposed to enchanted missiles. Yelrah claimed the belt. The fancy ring was determined to be fire aspected (+2 to fire spells DC and damage), and was taken as Klayton's share. The scroll found on the upper floor was determined to be clerical in nature, and (gotta love random rolls) held 5 spells: level 6, 4, 2, 2, 2. Albrecht traded it to the Chaplain for some healing potions now and future healing down the line.
Still flush with cash, the adventurers visited Mario Favarro's shop, and met the hired help: Constanzo Stregone. The old man minded the till and answered basic questions. While there, the party learned that Mario Favarro acted as a broker of sorts for enchanted items, and would happily purchase or trade for them. As such, there was a variety of items available for purchase.
Klayton took advantage of this and purchased a potion of diminution (shrinking), planning for an eventual escape. Klayton privately voiced a suspicion to Yelrah that Constanzo is an arcanist of sort (he is correct), based on an overly alert cat in the shop.
While Klayton and Yelrah were shopping, Albrecht had unrolled the scroll that the statue had come with. He then voiced the word (in Elvish) to awaken the statue, which resulted in the statue growing to nearly 6 feet tall and becoming an irritated warrior woman named Morgan Ironwolf.
After learning the particulars about when and where she was, Morgan grudgingly agreed to accompany Albrecht on his next adventure, if only out of a sense of gratitude for her freedom (and also to see if the skeletal remains belonged to the mage who statuefied her - Melchior the Malevolent).
The party went to the tower of the Lord Magus, but was only able to meet with one of his apprentices. Apprentice Brunhilde agreed to take the supposed spellbook for study, but was not happy to learn that Klayton is either a warlock or sorcerer, both likely agents of Chaos. She said as much and sent them on their way.
With the necessities of civilization attended to, the party decided to continue investigating Gargamel's Tower, as they recalled the secret basement area and the area within the chest were ripe for exploration.
Enroute to the tower, the party ran afoul of invisible sprites. The sprites were more bored than malicious and became amused enough at Klayton's failed attempts to trip Albrecht as a prank that they left after one last trick: attempting to put Yelrah to sleep. That failed, at least partially because 5e sprites suck, and the party continued otherwise unhindered.
As the stairs in the chest made them suspicious, the party decided to check the secret area in the cellars first. Explorations revealed an empty safe room and an escape tunnel. It was (properly) surmised that this is how the servants survived the fall of the tower.
Moving to the chest, the party listened closely to the pipes and drum, and determined that whatever was making the noise was moving about. Yelrah noted that the piping was strangely soothing to him, reminding him of home. That acknowledged, they descended the stairs to find themselves in a dark area that was far larger than the size of the chest suggested. At the foot of the stairs, a skeletal piper and drummer marched by, wearing odd necklaces. The key-looking necklace was successfully removed by Yelrah's lucky grab. Beyond that, the undead musicians ignored the PCs as they passed by (DM note, had PCs stopped the music, ALL the undead would have woken up, and it is unlikely an additional session would exist with these PCs).
Exploration and application of player brain eventually netted the party several keys: Iron, Copper, and Silver. A golden lock was found, but without the key (or a competent rogue), it was left closed. The silver key came from a wight with a flaming sword.
The wight fight was anticlimactic, leading the DM to reconsider 5e's choice to not use level drain. Moving forward, the DM may not use level drain, but these options from Dyson Logos look mighty tasty - as does inflicting levels of exhaustion. In addition, the action economy is telling in these one-on-many fights.
Regardless, after defeating the wight, the PCs left its purplish-green blade behind as no one could safely use it. Examination via Mage Hand revealed runes written in Infernal on the blade and an attempt to wield it by Yelrah burned him (due to differing alignments), so it was dropped on the ground.
The session ended with the PCs still in the dungeon and excited to explore the rest of it.
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