Session 15

Good game. You guys need a name for your party. Something fun out of character and also in character. You are currently the "Heroes of Phandalin." Maybe soon you'll be the "Finders of Phandelver" and the "Dragon slayers." Until then though, I need to work on keeping the sessions a little closer to the target time of 4 hours. I was starting to feel wornout after todays game. We started at 10:00 AM my time. That is Central standard or GMT -6. Some people were late, but the start time for the game has been 10:00 am my time for the last few sessions. It used to be later, but we changed it remember. Just look in roll20 and everyone can see the start time. I just scheduled the next session to the same time next week. Point is that if we started at 10:00 am and now it is 5:30 pm my time, we played for 7 and a half hours. I really need everyone's help to try to speed up combat and find good stopping points and cliff hangers.  I don't won't to get to the point that I dread having to play. We all play to have fun and I hope we can continue doing it for as long as possible. I know we are all still learning and that questions will arise and need to be answered, but lets try to know what our characters can do and how they do it and if there is a question, try to accept my quick ruling and we will go on with combat. If you feel like I was wrong or unfair we can talk about after the game when it doesn't steal play time from everyone else. About the end of the session. I feel like I was getting some hate about Nezzenar escaping. Stefis had questions after the game through PM's. No body seemed to like the way we ended. I guess I can understand that. Maybe you feel like you failed, but that's not the right way to look at this. This escape is just a temporary problem for the "Heroes of Phandalin." This will only help to create a more epic story when you do finally find him. He's burned spell slots. He's low on charges. He's low on Hp. You shouldn't waste time. You should go after him. It just wasn't possible to catch him in the temple. He escaped. No bid deal. It shouldn't be hard to deduce where he's going. Just go there and finish the battle. Sorry for all the ranting. I just wanted to get that out there about the length of the games, because today's left me with a pounding headache. And I felt the disappointment from some of you and I wanted to cheer you up so that next session you would go after him and finish what you started. It's not like there's nothing left to do in the mine. You still have to deal with Mormesk. So, a quick recap. Trix scouted ahead in a generally North-Westerly direction.  She found the flame skull that Rook had tossed in that direction. A quick battle ensued and then ended with Rook playing T-ball with the flame skull. Riviera (or Riveara. Sorry, the red underline from chrome's spell check drives me crazy, I keep changing it to Riviera to get rid of the underline.) So, Riviera turned into a Croc after having lost the bear form when hit with the fireball from the flame skull.  Then the croc investigated the depths of the lake and found a wand and a ring.  After that the croc went through the watery tunnel and found the water fall and the workers digging in a collapsed section of cavern.  After a bit of argument, and a bit of un-stealthly approaching the Drow/Doppelganger turned to face the party. This battle was over quickly, and Rook went down the passage to the West, while the rest of the party prepared to sneak down the other northern passage.  Rook, like the gentleman he is, knocked on the door and ask for an audience. Nezzenar let him in and they had a nice conversation. Rook was even allowed to leave, but wasn't very sincere about helping the Black Spider against his party.  Having had enough of sneaking, Glanbir walked down the corridor toward the webs. Noticed by Nezzenar's helpers, he was admited into the temple.  He almost negotiated the release of his cousin. Good thing he didn't, because it wasn't cousin. It was another doppelganger assassin. At the very end he decided again to accompany Nezzenar to the Spell forge in exchange for his cousin's life.  But Bryndon would have none of that. He cast a fireball in the midst of them all and burned many. A very long battle ensued that taxed my mental powers. My head hurt and the bad guy got away. I think everyone was disapointed in this.  I hope everyone will just use this as motivation for next week. There is still much to do. After a spell battle and much poison and webbing being thrown around, Nezzenar, the Black Spider himself, escaped by casting invisibility on himself. Then using the power of his staff, spider climbed up on the ceiling and out the Eastern passage.  Rook broke down a door and Glanbir rescued his Cousin Nundro. I hope I will be recharged for next week. This is the first time Nezzenar escaped. Same with Glasstaff. Only one of my groups let him get away, but they caught up with him at Cragmaw Castle. I'm sure your party will do the same with the Black Spider next session. His motivations are obvious and should lead you right to him. XP:  1000 xp - 5 Bugbears  600 xp - 6 Orcs   800 xp - 4 Giant Spiders   400 xp - 8 Giant Wolf Spiders 1400 xp - 2 Doppelgangers 1100 xp - 1 Flame Skull   700 xp - Nezzenar, The Black Spider Fled from you 6000 Total xp divided by 6 = 1000 xp each. Loot: 1 Wand of Magic Missile two identical platinum rings (75 gp each)  Gauntlets of Ogre Power an iron key with a head shaped like an anvil. This key unlocks the door to the high priest's chamber where Nundro is being held prisoner. 190 ep 130 gp 15 pp nine small gemstones (10 gp each) a dwarven ale mug made of hammered electrum (100 gp).  There is also a letter he was writing; "Unfinished Letter to Belkul Swordhand," as well as two letters to him; "Letter to the Black Spider" and "The Riddle of Keraptis." potion of healing 1 Pair of Goggles of Night (Drow made. BDSM black leather style)  2 - Heward's Handy Haversacks (Drow made, Dark with web designs, made of spider silk) 2 - Drow Utility Belts

Mike, Rook should read the book you found last week as well as all the letters you found this week. All the info you need for finding your father is there.

BTW, the maul that Rook picked up from the Drow/Doppelganger is not magic, but it does have a compartment in the head that can be filled with poison. The compartment holds 3 doses and can be refilled as an action. Each hit uses one dose of the poison. Any poison can be used.

ok here we go: first off thanks to all for a great game, Andy i will set an alarm for 3 hours of game time then you can look around for a stopping point and decide if maybe we stop a little early not getting into a combat that game unless you think it  can be finished within i would say no more than 30 minutes run over preferably 15 minutes.   i do not think any of use want to get to where we dread playing.  as to keeping the game moving everyone can do whatever they want if it has bad effects on one or more characters oh well we will just deal with it. we do not have 15 or 20 minutes to argue about what to do every  round remember that a round is six seconds  a quick one or  two line statement or question is fine but more than that is unrealistic in my opinion.  any question about a rule let  Andy make a quick decision or maybe take a quick party vote and then live with it until after the game. a rule any rule in D&D first off is as Gary Gygax said is not a rule but a guideline,  as long as it is applied fairly and the same way too everyone in that game we just accept it.  as to friend Nezz getting away  maybe he would not have if we didn't pull punches trying to keep him alive. rewards of dead or alive even if different amounts are easier to collect dead.  :)   we might or might not meet him again but we did stop him from getting control of the spell forge for now. so we did not fail in our mission. we will be alright and if we get another chance we do  not underestimate him and his  powers including the staff. suggestion for party name  the avengers or justice bringers as we do a good job of avenging wrongs done to others or our own families. inspiration nominations   Glanbir for trying to negotiate the release of his cousin ( the one whose name he can never remember :) ) Bryndon for good use of fireball to hurt multiple enemies and burning webs. Rive for finding the magic items  in croc form Jabril for getting some good use out of his kung fu and even though the player was not there  trix for great soutingand the huge damage she does.

i nominate Mike for 2 insperations for always nominating us for different inspirations its truly awesome and also i nominate him for role playing his characters story amaZingly. 

i nominate glanbir for using spirit guardian so effectively and almost killing the boss

where has Glanbir been hiding that spell i think he needs to use it more :)     thank you Jabri everyone just makes this game so fun so i just like everyone to know what a great job they do      maybe we can write wizards so they can mmake a rule we can spend inspiration for 10 minutes of crit rolls by Andy not counting lol

lmao or make andy reroll his crits 

That was a big battle and the "boss" of the whole first 5 levels of the our campaign. Everyone who doesn't already have inspiration, please take it now. I hope you can catch up to him and finish him off before he becomes somehow even more powerful.

well Andy if you really want us to catch up to him you could have him trip and knock hmself out at the entrance to the cave LOL