Below is the 1st episode's write up as completed by JM (Selise). We have more party members to join in future if you spot the glaring hole in our line-up.
Location: The North-West of the Forgotten Realms,
on the Sword Coast. The nearest city is Neverwinter.
A Half-Elf named Naivara, a Human named Selise
Marivaldi, and a Tiefling named Temperance, are part of a convoy of prisoners
being led by a band of Orcs and Goblins through the Nether mountains towards a
ruined castle. A temporary, albeit huge, encampment surrounds the castle.
The majority of the prison convoy is led away
across the front of the castle and further into the camp, but for some reason
Temperance, Selise and Naivara are separated from the rest of the group and
taken inside the castle.
They are led into a dungeon, and locked in a
square room with the pitiful remains of a fireplace set into one wall. They are
guarded by a huge, hairy monstrosity that none of them particularly wants to
mess with. Selise’s vague knowledge of Bugbear lore is detailed enough to let
her know with relative confidence that he is a particularly bad-tempered
hobgoblin.
They sit there, in sullen silence, for about
three days. The passing of time is marked by the delivery of an indeterminable
root and meat stew, and the occasional re-supply of fuel for their fireplace.
Temperance lights these with the Firebolt cantrip, for which everyone else is
eternally grateful.
In addition, the progression of days is more or
less indicated by the fact that every so often, their guard drags a very
bruised and bloodied Dwarf out of cell next door, and moments later they hear
his screams echoing through the prison.
When this has happened about three times, they
come to a general consensus that they need to escape. However, besides a loose
flagstone in the floor of their cell, they have no immediate means to do so.
On what they assume is the third day, a bugle
call sounds from outside. It would seem that the encampment around the castle
is being called to move on. The three prisoners decide that if they’re going to
escape, it’s now or never.
The guard comes back for his daily torture of the
Dwarf, but this time, as he’s being hauled past the shared cell, the Dwarf
stumbles and falls to the floor. The guard gets even more annoyed than is his
norm, and as he reaches down to yank the Dwarf to his feet, a key falls out of
his pocket. It lands right on the edge of the cell. Temperance surreptitiously
moves over and stands on it.
The guard aims a swing at the bars in front of
Temperance’s face, then skulks out with the Dwarf. The three captives wait until
the screaming resumes from the corridor.
Temperance gives the others three options for
escape: either wait until nightfall, or, if we’re going now, to try and sneak
through the castle or fight our way out.
The three of them agree that they’d rather not
risk their chances fighting that hobgoblin head-on, so they go for the sneaking
approach. Temperance unlocks the cell and they immediately break the desk in
the corner to pieces, using each of its legs as a makeshift club.
The bucket that their food has been delivered in
is sitting in the corner by the door. Selise picks it up and ties it to her
belt, mumbling something about it coming in useful later.
Naivara steps outside the dungeon and sees a
staircase going up on the left, and a door on the right. Since the Dwarf’s
screaming is coming from the stairs, they determine that that’s probably their
way out, so they check the door on the right first. It leads to a small store
cupboard, in which they find small bags of spellcasting items, a lute which looks
like it’s at least a hundred years old but somehow still works, provisions,
bedding, and some large sacks. Everyone takes what provisions they can carry.
Temperance and Selise take the spellcasting items, and Selise claims the lute.
They head upstairs.
Naivara sneaks quietly up, wincing at the
clumsiness of her companions.
Upstairs, they come to a door on the left and
more stairs ahead. The screams of the Dwarf are coming from the door. Naivara
slips inside, while Temperance and Selise wait in the hall.
The hobgoblin guard has his back to Naivara and
doesn’t see her, as he’s too busy torturing the Dwarf. Along the left side of
the room are three tables, on which are various torture implements that loosely
resemble daggers, darts, lockpicking utensils, a meat cleaver, and a whip.
Naivara picks up three daggers, the lockpicks, and the whip.
She sneaks up on the hobgoblin. She tries to kill
it quickly with one stab, but as she lunges the hobgoblin moves, and she
misses. It turns around, confused.
Temperance casts Firebolt at it from the doorway.
He also misses.
The hobgoblin is now so confused that it stumbles
against the torture table, and drops his sword as he goes to draw it.
Selise hits hurls a torrent of Vicious Mockery at
the hobgoblin, followed up by another firebolt from Temperance.
Naivara stabs the hobgoblin. He flails in pain.
As his hand flies past the Dwarf on the table, he bites at his fingers. The
hobgoblin roars and flails around some more.
Selise casts Vicious Mockery at the hobgoblin
again, but he’s already pretty traumatised and it doesn’t do much. In
exasperation, Temperance shouts at Selise to go and grab one of the remaining
daggers on the table, which she does, but it turns out that she doesn’t need
it. Temperance intimidates the hobgoblin further using Thaumaturgy, before
Naivara finally reaches up and slashes him across the jugular. He dies, rather
horribly.
The Dwarf groans on the table.
Temperance goes back into the hall to check if
anyone heard all that noise. It would seem that nobody did.
Naivara tries to heal the Dwarf, but he gets
annoyed at her efforts and heaves himself up off the table. He grabs the meat
cleaver from the dwindling pile of weapons, and all four of them make their way
further upstairs. This time, Selise is a lot better at sneaking. Temperance and
the Dwarf, however, render her and Naivara’s efforts useless.
They arrive on the next landing, and can smell a
kitchen.
Without breaking stride, Temperance marches
straight into the kitchen, causing everyone else to panic slightly. There are
two goblins tending the fires immediately across from the doorway.
Naivara leaps past Temperance and over the table
in the middle of the room, landing in front of the goblins and brandishing her
daggers. Temperance turns, sees an Orc at the other end of the room, and hurls
a Firebolt at it.
Selise decides that she’d rather not get
involved. She turns around, slowly, and wanders off further down the corridor
towards the next flight of stairs.
The Orc swings the meat tenderiser it’s holding
straight at Temperance’s head, but it’s a clumsy swing and easily ducked. The
Dwarf takes a chunk out of the Orc’s thigh. Naivara slashes at the right-hand
Goblin, and at the same time, Temperance casts Thunderclap at the Orc. Both
attacks, annoyingly, only serve to anger their foes, and do nothing to slow
them down.
The Orc hits Temperance with his meat tenderiser
right in the collarbone. The second Goblin misses a stab at Naivara, while the
Dwarf swings his cleaver so hard it gets stuck in the Orc’s chest. The Orc
falls down, very dead.
Naivara tries to stab at the other Goblin but
swings too wide and gets tangled up in the muton spit. Temperance throws a
Firebolt at it, burning a hole in its chest. He strides across the room,
kicking the Orc on his way. Naivara and the Dwarf close in on the remaining
Goblin. It, too, dies horribly.
Meanwhile, Selise has made it to the top of the
next set of stairs. As she peeps above floor level, her eyes meet a huge,
Morningstar-wielding Bugbear standing right in front of her, already on alert
thanks to the commotion from the kitchen downstairs.
Selise screams. She yanks the bucket from her
belt and lobs it at the Bugbear. It curves gracefully through the air and lands
perfectly upside-down on the Bugbear’s head with a satisfying squelch. Remains
of that unidentifiable stew trickle down its chin. Selise doesn’t stop to
watch. She turns and runs, still screaming, back down the stairs, passing the
kitchen and continuing on until she reaches the torture room below. She jumps
into a barrel in the corner, and stays there.
The other three hear her screaming from the
kitchen. Naivara and the Dwarf glance at each other nervously. Temperance
quickly searches the pantry before leaving, and he finds water, wine, and two
bottles of something which looks useful but he doesn’t have time to identify.
He also checks the Orc’s pockets on his way out into the hallway, and finds a
handful of gold.
The Bugbear – having removed the bucket from its
head – rounds the corner. The Dwarf grabs Temperance and yanks him back into
the kitchen before the Bugbear sees him. The two of them take up positions on
either side of the kitchen door, and Naivara crouches behind a chair.
The Bugbear is followed by three more goblins,
one of whom breaks off and scuttles downstairs. The second waits in the
corridor while the third advances into the kitchen alongside the Bugbear.
Nobody moves for a moment.
Temperance casts Thunderclap, which hits the
Bugbear but misses the Goblin. Naivara throws a dagger at the Bugbear at the
same time, but her aim is wide. She throws another one, which also misses, and
the Goblin also misses its attack on Temperance. He steps backwards and casts
Chaos Bolt at the Bugbear, which forms a heavy layer of ice all across its
chest and shoulders. The Dwarf carves a gash out of its back with his cleaver.
The Bugbear roars, lunges at Temperance, and its Morningstar whistles by so
close to Temperance’s head that his hair is moved by the breeze.
Downstairs, Selise can hear all of this from
inside her barrel, but is too scared to come out. The Goblin follows her into
the torture room and looks around, although more out of curiosity than anything
else. It finds something underneath a bench on the other side of the room, and
shouts excitedly to the third Goblin in the hall. It comes downstairs to
investigate.
Back in the kitchen, Naivara draws her third
dagger and leaps at the Bugbear. She stabs it in the back of the head, killing
it instantly, giving Temperance room to launch a Firebolt at the Goblin as it
takes a swing at the Dwarf. The Goblin dies too, and an eerie silence fills the
kitchen. Temperance sinks into a chair. His collarbone is broken, and he’s
bleeding profusely from one leg.
Selise finds the silence even more unsettling
than the sounds of fighting, so she jumps out of the barrel and throws her
dagger at the goblin in the torture room. The dagger sinks into its shoulder.
It yelps, drops the bottle it had found under the bench, and runs away into the
hall. The other Goblin takes its place and squares off against Selise.
The Dwarf hears the yelp and steps into the upstairs
hallway, shouting for Selise. Naivara moves out and around the corner. She sees
the wounded Goblin and throws her dagger at it, but misses.
A look of extreme annoyance crosses Temperance’s
face, and he wearily gets out of his chair.
Inside the torture room, Selise casts Thunderwave
at the third Goblin, throwing it across the room.
Temperance steps past Naivara, who has missed
another dagger throw at the Goblin, and casts a Firebolt at it. It dies in
flame.
Selise casts Vicious Mockery at the last Goblin.
It runs out and down the stairs, tears streaming down its face. The Dwarf
follows it down into the dungeon. Nobody else goes with him, but since he comes
back again fairly quickly, it can be assumed that they won’t be having any more
trouble from that particular Goblin.
Selise climbs out of her barrel and retrieves the
bottle that the Goblin had dropped. There’s another one under the bench, and
she picks that up too.
The four of them then traipse back upstairs, past
the kitchen and up again, into a room that appears to be the Smithy and
armoury. In there they find all the equipment that they’d had on them before
they’d been captured. They also find about 10 days’ worth of rations each in
supply kits around the armoury.
The Dwarf scans the whole floor and realises that
there’s no one else around. They move next door into a barracks, bar the door
shut behind them, and take a short rest.
During this time Temperance and Selise have a
look at the glass bottles they’ve both picked up along the way. They contain
healing potions. Temperance drinks one of his, and he returns to full health.
Once rested, they go up the last set of stairs.
There are two rooms, both thankfully devoid of life. Temperance goes to the
windows. On one side he can see the foothills of the surrounding mountains, and
on the other sprawls the remains of the Goblin-Orc encampment. He thinks he
sees the odd small movement, but for the most part, it is deserted.
Selise investigates the first room. It’s fairly
decrepit and clearly hasn’t been inhabited for a long time. She finds a handful
of coppers in the chest in the corner, but nothing else.
The other room looks considerably more lived-in.
The chest in there is locked, and Naivara crouches down in front of it with her
lockpicks and tries to get it open. She triggers a trap. Electricity hits her
in the chest, sending her flying backwards.
Temperance sighs and takes the lockpicks from
her. He gets the chest open in seconds.
Inside is a very well-made map of the surrounding
area, which Temperance hands to Selise. There is also a piece of paper, with
writing on it in a language none of them can understand. Temperance casts
Comprehend Languages and reads it aloud.
It is a list of orders for whoever was commanding
the garrison, written by someone called Breck. They state that the garrison is
to obtain slaves, separating engineers and skilled people to be sent to the
mines, and good fighters to be sent North. They are the orders of “The Hammer,”
but they’re not addressed to anyone specifically.
Also in the chest is 100 gold pieces, gemstones
to the potential value of 200 gold, and another scroll in a very fine
protective case. It is a Magic Scroll of Scrying, which Temperance stows away
in his pack.
