Session 2 - Bullywogs... Yeah... They Really Are A D&D Monster

DM: Kenneth
Location: Randall's (most likely, I had this session starting at 2pm in my calendar)
February 27, 2016 
[I didn't even try changing all the Is to Kaminari. Hopefully he learns to write in third person soon. I also think I changed all the player names to the character names, I may have missed one or two.]
Lots of death in this one, including a forgotten member-on-member death.

PLAYERS: 
Tom (Human male) (Kaminari "Kam" Arashi)
Kenneth (Du Tamn)
Kevin (Halfling male) (Alton)
Steven (Blue Dragonborn male) (Aggadah Drachedandion)
Jonnie (Human male) (Kolgrand Fire Beard)
Randall (Orc female) (Veshna)
Ted (Human male) (A Phoenix Initiate Named Slickback)



CURRENT:

We start out the adventure exploring the rest of the cavern.  We take a few turns and when we get to the end of the cavern we see the light of a camp fire.  As i am not stealthy the other get into position before i move.  We all gather at the mouth of the cavern.  The rough number of people outside the cavern is 5 or 6.  I fail my sneak check and the group outside hears me.  Slickback tries to bluff and says that he is the old man (Earl).  They do not believe his deception.  They all shout, "someones there...hit the schroom..."
- Slickback; holds action
- Kaminari move up to the mouth of the cavern to see better into the room.
- Slickback; peaks around the corner and sees the camp fire and the sleeping places of other people.  There are crates.  There are 4 armored humans.
- Veshna; take a move to join the combat
- Kaminari moves into the main entrance in full view and launch a sacred flame but miss
- Slickback; rocks the flurry and hits for minor damage.  He takes some damage from a AOO
- Firebeard; managed to kill one of the humans
- Veshna; throws flame at closest and manages to miss
- Kaminari move into combat and strike with my mace
- evil; moves into the mushroom patch and tries to attack with a crossbow but misses.
- evil; strikes at Aggadah with a mace and deals serious damage and drops him to the ground but makes his save.
- evil; strikes at Slickback and drops but he manages to make his death save
- Alton; shoots at the worst looking evil and manages to hit and deal minor damage
- Veshna; launches critical damage for Produce Flame and strikes and drops one
- Kaminari take a healing kit and restore 11 points
- evil; strikes me but also takes damage from my wrath
- evil; strikes me but also takes damage from my wrath
- Firebeard; strikes and manages to hit but only deals minor damage
- Aggadah; stands up and moves to a safe space and misses
- Alton; stands back and fires at the most damaged one from distance but misses.  He manages to strike Veshna with friendly fire.
- Veshna; He produces flame but misses the evil again
- i make it to Slickback and burn another healing kit to restore 10 point of health
- evil; fires crossbow and misses
- Firebeard; He is able to use Protection Fighting Style to impose disadvantage on the evil attacking me
- Slickback; stands from prone and moves to flank for advantage.  He manages to strike with a full strike and a critical
- Firebeard; strikes and kills one of the evil
- Aggadah; tumbles through companion and strikes with the staff for minor damage.  It is enough to kill the second to the last of the evil.
- Alton; strikes with bow but does not kill
- i manage to cast Thaumaturge and cause the cavern to rumble and shake to try to intimidate.  I tell him to drop his weapon and come out.  He only drops his weapon.
- Slickback; manages to strike and him but also manages to intimidate because the cavern is still shaking.  He manages to pull him out of the mushroom patch but it is still shrieking.
As the party moves around the cavern searching i take time to use my manacles on the remaining evil.  Slickback and the rest of the party take time to search the three crates and the bodies of the fallen evil.
- 20 gold pieces total
- crate 1
     - 20 rations
- crate 2
     - 3 healing kits
- crate 3
     - 20 rations
- 4 heavy crossbows
- 40 crossbow bolts (goes to Kam)
- 4 leather armor
- 4 mace
Veshna goes over to questions him by asking what is behind the double doors.  Veshna bites his ear off and asks the questions again.  The evil says that he was here to protect the son and wizard (Denos).  Slickback takes the time to knee him several times but manages to knock him out.
We do not find anything in the sleeping bags, the fire, or around the other walls.

Veshna moves over the the mushrooms and tries to determine what they are.  He is able to pull from his survival and determines that none of them are edible.  He has not seen this type of mushroom before.  The structure of the room is one that hit slants up and directs the smoke outside.  We take time to string the body up and remove the manacles and replace with rope while he is unconscious.  He is secure and i have my manacles back.  We approach the door but can't hear anything.

Slickback moves to the door and opens the door.  There is a large fire in the room and a rig for a cauldron.  There is a bookshelf on the far wall and there is a workstation.  There is a raised place on the far wall.  There are two suits of armor that appear to be not moving.  The walls, floor, and ceiling are worked stone.  The ceiling is roughly 20 feet and the bookshelves are 15 feet high.  We all take time to move into the room.  We don't see or hear anything that has been hiding.

Slickback moves to the armor suit on the south wall while i move the on on the west wall.  They appear to be complete and real sets of plate armor.  It appears that there are several pieces of other armor.
Aggadah searches the counter and finds tools and other animal dissection and handling equipment.  There is an indication that something sat on the counter that was not there.  Once Aggadah says that something used to sit here the suits or armor come to life and prepare to attack.
- evil; strikes at me and deals damage but my Wrath of the storm deals some major damage
- Alton; strikes at the armor and hit for minor damage
- Aggadah; tumbles past Slickback and strikes with shocking grasp for extra damage and advantage for the attack roll
- Veshna; strikes with his sling and misses
- i take time to heal myself and ready for the next combat
- evil; strikes at Firebeard and deals wuss damage
- evil; strikes at Slickback and hits for some serious damage
- evil; strikes at Kaminari but has disadvantage thanks to Firebeard
- evil; this one strikes Aggadah and drops him again
- Alton; strikes with major attack and only deals minor damage
- Firebeard; can't seem to hit anything but he can block well
- DuTamn; swings the sword and fails
- i try to strike the armor but miss
- evil sword; both strike and miss
- evil; is blocked by the shield
- Alton; shoots and hits
- Aggadah; manages to stabilize with a healing kit
- evil; manages to get past
- i am hurt and need to rock another healing kit for me
- Firebeard; he misses by crit and lands an attack at me that drops Kaminari. [Awesome!! Forgot about this too]
- Veshna; uses a healing kit and stabilized me
- Veshna; runs to Slickback and stabilized him
- evil; drive an attack into Firebeard an only deals minor damage
- Firebeard; strikes and shatters the sword with a massive attack The combat is over and the armor and swords are destroyed.  Veshna casts his goodberry and uses three, one on me, one of Aggadah, and one on Slickback.  This brings us up to a normal healing.  I am able to use the healing kit on DuTamn, Firebeard, and the monk to bring them up to speed.
We are all hurt but we need to take time to search the room.    I can
search the bookshelf.  We take time to look at the books and each take time to translate the books.  I am able to identify that most of the books deal with enchantment of creatures and shadow magic.  Slickback is going to search for a secret door on the far wall.  Slickback is looking at the dais and manages to locate the secret passage that leads into the wall.  Aggadah looks at the table and sees that some of the material over here is for small creatures.  Firebeard and Alton take time to go an examine the chest.  Alton tries to pick the lock on the chest and manages to open the chest.
- 3 gems of d20 size (red, green, blue, white)
- bag of coins (30 gold)
- 2 books that appear to be journals (blue, brown)
- small animal restraints (Veshna) [Does Veshna still have them??]
- small animal medicine (Veshna)

We have decided to take a short rest and check the rest of the room.
I take time to look through the blue book and determine that it is focused on applying shadow magic to small critters.  It appears that this book is a work in progress and it appears that the author has been trying to devise this magic on their own.  This appears to be something that was more advanced for a 1st level.  There are several diagrams and other sketches.  I take time to determine that this writing is from the son Denos.

There is a general consensus was to take a trip down the tunnel.  I take time to charge a crossbow bolt with light and fire it down the tunnel.  When i fire the bolt we can see that the tunnel hits a wall that curves to the right at about 50 feet.  The bolt shows us that the
walls are natural stone and no other creatures of other items.   I am
not able to get my arrow and have to burn another arrow.  The trip takes us through two turns and we eventually reach the end of a tunnel with a double stone door.  As we turn around the corner we can see an eye with four stalks floating in front of the door.  It asks us, "What can this one do for it...".

As we interact with the eye.  This creature is a spectator and it similar to a beholder but not as evil or aggressive.  They are amiable but they will not abandon their cause. The basic premise is that we are either going to have to fight it and kill it to let us pass.  I make a few comments to gauge his response and there appears to be no emotional attachment but just logical.
- Aggadah; casts chill touch and it failed its save for minor damage
- Slickback; tries to attack but misses
- Firebeard; he swings and misses the spectator and strikes Slickback for minor [What the fuck? Why do you keep hitting party members?]
- evil; attacks Slickback with one of the eye stalks and Firebeard with the other.  They both make their saves and avoid damage.
- Alton; he strikes with arrow and hits for minor damage
- Veshna; produce flame at the spectator and deals only minor damage
- i move to the spectator and launch a sacred flame.  The spectator casts reflect and bounces the spell at Slickback but it misses.
- Aggadah; he moves double to get a flank
- Slickback; moves closer to me for healing and strikes but only hits once.
- Firebeard; strikes with advantage and hits
- evil; takes the full attack and disengage action to move through the door and open/close.
- Alton; he runs to the back of the party and waits for us to act
- Veshna; he tries to open the door or push it open.  He notices that the handles are green
- I try to cast Thaumaturgy to try to open the door but the spell fails
- Aggadah; tries to break the door by hitting it.  He is not able to do anything
- Firebeard; tries to move the door but fails
- i take time to rock a little heal on Slickback
- Firebeard and Aggadah;  they both try to push open the door and they fair.  They try again and this time i am going to try to wedge in a mace.  On the third time to push the doors they manage to get them open.  Aggadah fails his con save and Firebeard fails the save.  Alton fires at the door and hits the spectator.
- Firebeard and Kam;  we try for three times to open the door.  I am making all of my saves and we are still taking the effects of fatigue.
As we are trying to get through the door we stop trying and decide for a long rest before trying again.  We decide to use the manacle on the door and the rope.  We are able to determine that the door is about 3 inches thick.  After the 8 hour long rest we come back and discover that the door is no longer flowing green.

We manage to pry the door open and shoot through the gap.  The arrow strikes something on the door but the green glow remains.  I cast light on our crowbar and that gives us a better view on what ever is on the other side.  Aggadah & Firebeard have to make CON saves but Aggadah looses 11 points of necrotic damage.  Aggadah falls over.  I am able to heal Aggadah.  We have managed to get the crowbar in the door but can't get the door open.

We have to try a different path.  We go and get the guy from the other room hoping that he could provide some sort of word or phrase.  We have had no luck.  In my frustration i look at the brown book.  This is a book about his experiments and his work.  He speaks about the Eye that always sees as if they were a group.  We take time to examine the door and realize that there are small runes on the handles.  We are at the point where we are just going to bash the crap out of the door.
Firebeard is going to specialize and try to hit the handles of the door.  i take more time to read through the brown book while Slickback takes on the blue door.  Our goal is to try to find some way of commanding the spectator.  During the attacks on the door Aggadah and Firebeard manage to snap off one of the door handles.  When this handle falls off the handle.  The door opens slightly and the crowbar is dislodged from the door.  Once all the handles drop the green glow disappears.

As i am looking through the brown book i find the ritual that will summon the spectator.  The summoning binds this creature to the wizard Denos and will last past the wizards life time.  I am not able to find a way to dispel the creature.

We are about to go through the doors.  I run up to the door and as i open the door i am hit with 18 points of necrotic damage.  This is enough to drop me at the door.  The party launches at the spectator.
- DuTamn; tags me with 2 hp of healing which brings me to above 0 HP
- Firebeard; moves to strategically block the door and manages to deal damage.
- Alton; he holds his action and waits for the time
- Veshna; fires with flanking but still misses
- Aggadah; he kills the creature

The creature is dissolved and there is nothing that remains.  The body dissolves and we are not able to locate anything else on the body.  We leave the guard tied up and in the tunnel.  We are not going to kill him but we are not going to save him. [This guy is probably pissed off by now.] We move down the hallway to the chambers roughly 70 feet.  The tunnel leads to some bushes and a secret entrance to this cave.  We can see the main road off in the distance.  Veshna notices that there are tracks at the cave exit.  The tracks are like frog feet and they match the legs that Veshna kept for snacking on later.  There is also humanoid feet.  Roughly 24 hours since the tracks have been made.  We are also able to see that the farm house is at the top of the hill.  We are not far from the house.
- coin purse (gems, gold)

As we walk back tot he house we take a different approach to the journal.  We start again from the back of the journal.  we discover that the bullywogs have moved into the swamp in the forest.  The wizard Denos was having to bribe them every time he went through.  He even encountered the tax collector and gave him to the bullywogs.  The plan is to take a quick trip to the stream and leave the horse at the house.

DAY 2:  12:00 noon

We follow the stream and we notice that the ground becomes more and more swampy.  We hear some frog and bullywog chirping.  They are several hundred feet ahead and they are vocalizing.  We can walk in the water and move on but the water is roughly thigh high.  As we get closer to the bullywogs the stream straightens out.  We get to the end of the stream and we approach a makeshift bullywog village.  There are roughly 10 around the village.  There is also a larger bullywog that is sitting on the the largest hut.  There are 4 humanoids in the cages that appear to be the tax collector and his guards.  There are also 4 giant frogs in the mix.

As we approach the village we alert the others to our presence.  The bullywog king shouts that the other should attack.  There are 10 bullywogs, 4 giant frogs, and 1 bullywog king
- i line us with my crossbow and fire and hit
- evil; moves from the other side of the camp to us
- evil; manages to grapple Firebeard
- i take another shot at the G6 but miss
- Firebeard; strikes while grappled but misses
- evil; they all move closer to the party ready for attacks.  I am struck by two of the bullywogs and they manage to drop me to below zero.  The only good thing is that my Wrath manages to kill one of them.
- evil; he uses his attacks while grappled and managed to put some serious hurt on him
- evil; they are not able to get an attack on Veshna
- i cast Thunderwave and manage to deal some serious damage to two of the bully wogs and one of the toads
- Firebeard; he is grappled again but does not take damage
- Alton; he is sneaking to the bullywog king and the king does not even see him
- Aggadah; he uses his breath weapon and manages to deal some massive damage
- Veshna; launches Produce Flame and deals a pathetic amount of damage
- i cast Bless on Slickback, DuTamn and Firebeard
- Slickback; not able to land a hit but still tries
- Firebeard; he is trying to keep 5 at bay
- Alton; he is within 20 feet of the king and is about to strike with sneak attack in the next few moments
- i manage to crit fail twice and drop my mace.  I notice that the evil is starting to fear us as we have taken some of their number out and we are still up.  There might be a way to demoralize these bullywogs
- Alton; he strikes at the kind and does some serious damage.  This strike managed to shake the other bullywogs
- i swing around the bullywog and pick up my mace.  I am able to strike and kill the bullywog
- Firebeard; makes a try and kills the remaining frog
- evil king; he manages to take one more shot and drops
- Veshna; he is ab;e to take a look at the cage and make it to the humanoids We ask the men and they identify themselves as the tax collector Silver Claw.  We search the huts and the only treasure that we find is in the Kings hut.  We take time to search the bullywogs.  While we are searching the huts and trying to get the humans out we take time to hide the gold.
- 50 gold
- 2 gems ()
At the end of the adventure we have rescued the tax collector and his guards

SKETCH IDEAS

RANDAL BITES EAR OFF [We need a sketch of this!!]
ATTACK BY PLATEMAIL
SPECTATOR
GREEN GLOWING DOOR
BULLYWOG KING, FROGS, VILLAGE

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