A Mysterious Theft, Part 2 - Group 2
General Summary
Recap of Prior Session
The party responded to a note posted on the bulletin board of the Bugbear's Head Inn - Farmer Jennings' tools had mysteriously vanished and he was offering a reward to help recover them. The party journeyed to the farmstead - encountering a lone Bugbear bandit along the way - and heard the farmers story.They quickly determined that the problems began when Farmer Jennings had unknowingly threatened the "home tree" of the Dryad Castilia. Castilia had arranged for her Brownie friends, Brannoch and Altruil, to hide the farmer's axe. They did this, and more, giving all the farmer's tools including the axe to their leprechaun friend Harley Dimpleglade. Harley offered to help in return for "an egg for his breakfast", and told the party where to find the "big chicken" whose egg he desired.
New Action This Session
The party set out in the direction indicated by Harley to find the "big chicken" and retrieve an egg. They were wary - wondering what a chicken was doing this deep in the woods, and why the leprechaun couldn't retrieve an egg himself - but they realized they had no choice if they were to recover the farmer's tools. The "chicken" was found in a glade in the forest - a clearing approximately 200' in diameter. An attempt by Elven Ranger Tanalith to stealthily sneak to the edge of the glade to reconnoiter failed miserably; the beast appeared from behind a large shrub in the center of the clearing. It had obviously heard Tanalith's approach, and was screeching a threat/challenge.Aryk the Dwarf (Fighter, former Dwarven army), quickly decided that it was time for action. (He was also impatient; wearing chain mail, he was essentially frozen in place while the Elf had made his stealth approach to avoid his armor rattling.) Aryk charged into the clearing, stopping about 20' in, raising his shield and banging on it with his axe to get the creature's attention. Meanwhile, Thornas the Half-Elven monk circled in the direction opposite that taken by Tanalith. Pickles, the Goblin Wizard, calmly awaited orders from "Sergeant Aryk", while the Gnomish Cleric Zatqualmie cast sanctuary on himself. (After all, he was not an adventurer - but watching these adventurers at work was fascinating!)
The party - but especially Aryk - was surprised when the "chicken" took to the air and closed the 80' distance to Aryk almost immediately. Leading with its beak, it managed to punch a hole through Aryk's shield, wounding his arm slightly. Aryk's strong Dwarven constitution allowed him to shake off the momentary feeling of stiffness that swept through his body from the point where the beak had drawn blood.
It took less than a minute for the party to bring down the beast that was obviously more than just a "big chicken". The high points of the battle included the Elven ranger missing with all three arrows fired at the beast, and the monk missing with his sling bullets. Aryk's axe was the only effective weapon in the fight.
Inspection and recall after the fight told them this was a cockatrice, and Aryk was lucky to have fought off the potential "turn to stone" effect of the beak strike. Nevertheless, the party located the creature's nest and retrieved the large egg just as the sounds of at least one more of the creatures started echoing to them through the forest trees. The beast's mate, perhaps? They didn't wait around to find out.
Returning to the leprechaun, Harley Dimplegrove, they presented the egg. Aftter accepting it, Harley informed them that he no longer had the tools; they had been stolen the night before by local gremlins. The party was incensed - Harley had promised to return the tools! Harley reminded them that he had promised no such thing... he had promised to "help them in locating the tools. A leprechaun never lies!" Harley then led them to the rocky outcrop with the narrow cave mouth that marked the lair of the gremlins.
Aryk, practically crawling through the 3' high cave entrance, led the way underground. He could, after all, see in the dark. Pickles, who also has darkvision, followed, having to duck his head only slightly to get through the cave mouth. The rest of the party (none of whom could see in total darkness), followed closely behind - the elf and half-elf needing to practically crawl.
As soon as Aryk reached the point where the cave tunnel opened into a chamber, he was attacked from two sides by small stabbing swords - one just below his shield at knee level; the other even lower down on the other leg. His darkvision allowed him to detect his attackers; they were clearly two different types of gremlin. Aryk quickly moved into the cave, clearing the tunnel mouth. Thornas the monk, hearing the sound of combat from ahead, ignored his blindness and pushed past the hesitant Pickles to get into the chamber himself. At least he was able to stand here! He too, was then accosted by little stabby things that disappeared back into the darkness.
While Aryk continued to fight off the mix of "run in - stab - run away" and ranged dart attacks, the rest of the party found its way into the chamber. There were three separate melees going on, with the gremlin antagonists attacking then darting behind the several tall piles of rubbish they had accumulated in their lair. In only took a few seconds for Tanalith to start wondering out loud why the entire party felt the need to blunder into a pitch black hole, totally unable to see! He had just missed with two arrows. It took another few seconds to realize that they had acquired a "flashlight" - an everburning torch - in an earlier encounter involving zombies and ghouls. Tanalith started asking aloud, "Who has the magic torch?" Another few seconds passed before the response came from Aryk: "I do, it's in me backpack". Aryk, at the time, had his back leaned against the chamber wall and was fighting off two of the darting gremlins.
Ignoring the incoming attacks, Tanalith managed to find Aryk, and while the dwarf continued to fight, Tanalith retrieved the Everburning Torch. When light filled the chamber, the entire party was able to see what they were dealing with, and proceeded to deal with the two jinkins and three mitflits rapidly. All, that is, but one jinkin, who managed to escape down the tunnel to attempt an escape. It was Tanalith's animal companion, Ewulf the wolf, that chased down the escapee, holding him at bay until Tanalith himself caught up. Tanalith then proceeded to miss with his longbow twice before advancing on the creature and finishing it with his shortsword.
In the meantime, the party was busy tearing apart the rubbish piles in the lair in a search for the tools. They were eventually discovered - under a rubbish pile, but also buried in the dirt. Alongside the tools were several other items made of iron, rather than steel - a few pitons, nails, other rusting scraps. Zatqualmie recalled that many of the fey have an aversion to cold iron; it's not something these gremlins would have considered "treasure". The party uncovered some other goodies as well, including a little under 11gp in loose coin, a full suit of splint mail armor, and a vial of liquid later determined to be an alchemist's Darkvision Elixir.
The party returned to the farmstead and delivered the stolen tools to Farmer Jennings. He was grateful, and in keeping with his word, offered the party a 10gp reward -- "All I have, but it's worth it to have my tools back". The party, not wanting to leave the farmer penniless, took only half the reward. The farmer also informed the party that after a few long talks with his wife while they were gone, she was beginning to realize that not all fey are bad, and that there could even be advantages to having a Dryad looking out for the area near the home - and even to having a couple of Brownies around to keep an eye on the kids.
The party then headed back to the Bugbear's Head Inn, satisfied that they had completed their mission, and looking forward to sleeping in a decent bed after having a nice meal and a few ales.
Rewards Granted
Material Rewards
- 9gp, 16sp, 22cp scattered amid the gremlin junk piles
- 1 set of splint mail armor - its components scattered amid the junk piles
- 1 vial of Lesser Darkvision Elixir
- 10gp reward from the farmer (but the party only accepted 5)
Experience Rewards (per player)
- 60xp -- Bugbear bandit on the road to the farm (prior session)
- 20xp -- Finding the Dryad (prior session)
- 20xp -- Finding and speaking with the Brownies (prior session)
- 80xp -- Defeating the Cockatrice
- 20xp -- Dealing with the Leprechaun (and not killing him)
- 120xp -- Defeating the gremlins
- 30xp -- Returning the farmer's tools (mission objective)
Missions/Quests Completed
Farmer Jennings' tools were recovered from the gremlin lair and returned to him.
Character(s) interacted with
... the Cockatrice - and defeated it in combat
... the Leprechaun Harley Dimplegrove - and managed to refrain from killing him
... 2 Jinkins and 3 Mitflits (gremlin types) - and defeated them all in combat
... Farmer Keelan Jennings and his wife and kids - establishing ongoing "peace" between farm family and local nymphs.
Notes
- Need to review rules regarding Attacks of Opportunity with group (dispel 5e memories)
- Need to carefully go over the Animal Companion rules (beyond the really simple stuff that's in the book; certain situations should be worked out before they arise again).
