Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Pirate booty and old women

After last session's extermination of the dark elf encampment[1], we took a well deserved short rest, during which we noticed the wind blowing from down south. Off we go, no matter our chances[2]!

The tunnel was getting tighter, the wind stronger, and the spider webs denser. Oh well, we advanced nevertheless. I heard a far away voice crying "Make it stop!" in Elven, and alerted the party. Soon enough, we found a drider. I tried to cast Suggestion, telling it to go to the dark elf area and go to sleep - instead, it attacked, and we killed it.

I petted a doubly lucky zombie who survived two attacks that should have killed it, then we carried on.

We found a larger cavern already open to an underground river. Here the spider webs were more curtains than obstacles. A thorough inspection of the room resulted in a pirate poem carved into a wall:

If Skullport’s where ye wish to be,
With the Sargauth’s flow go ye.
If pirate booty is what ye crave,
Fight the surge to the captain’s grave.

We all agreed to get the booty first, and so we navigated the river upstream. My minions crowded into the Bag of Holding, Tari rode behind me on the Broom of Flying, and Solid held on for dear life on Tenser's Floating Disk. He got wet below the waist in the fast-flowing stream, but that was all.

The next opening had a small dock. A crowbar was stuck into the ground, and a backpack (all wet and half-rotten) was tied to that. Looks like somebody never returned for it...

We advanced into the tunnels, coming to a small cavern with a pirate's skeleton[3] off to one side. It was still clutching a wooden chest. We rolled for initiative with no enemies visible, so I had the zombies go into the room (to no effect) and then pulled away to the other side so as not to stand in the way of my companions. Next up, two barlguras materialized out of thin air: one attacked the zombies, and one came for me.

After a short fight, we... you guessed it, killed them. Both zombies died, but I re-animated them. I also leeched back my lost health using Vampiric Touch, so literally no damage done.

We inspected the skeleton, and discovered that the small chest only contained some blackened powder - ash, maybe. He died next to a small opening in the wall, just enough to fit a blade. I took his rusty sword and pushed it inside. A larger wooden chest fell on my head, broke apart and clothed me in literal gold.[4] 

DM's impression of what happened

We split the loot, then went back to the river.

We moved downstream the same way, only this time Solid swallowed water and coughed it back violently[5]. We landed in a small cavern where the sand was blackened. No idea about it's significance. We were more interested in the large group of humanoids eating around a campfire. I opened up with Lightning Bolt, killing 4. They attacked back, and we killed them all.[6]

Next up, another cavern with small geysers shooting up mud. Three old women were in the room, picking stuff up from the ground. I greeted them politely, and they came closer, introducing themselves as Coral Black, Gurgle Brine and Caldra Cuttlefingers. Then they took a good look at me, and we rolled for initiative. It's the second time already on this level when I try to talk and I get attacked for it, wonder if maybe, we should just kill them all.[7]

The old hags turned out to be some sort of fey creatures, with considerable spellcasting abilities. A Lightning Bolt instantly fell 3 out of 4 skeletons. I Counterspelled, and got Counterspelled. The transformation from old woman to monster also frightened us - well, only Tari, to be precise. She also got the glare from two of the monsters, which instantly reduced her to 0 health. Not to mention, they each had a pet giant crab to tank.

With my damage dealing abilities greatly reduced (no spells and no minions), I fell back to a support role. I Counterspelled, and healed Tari. Slowly, we whittled the monsters down. The last survivor tried to run away, hiding each turn in one of the mud puddles. I prepared a Toll the Dead, and killed her at the last leg of her escape. Then I went and kicked her, and taunted the dead body the way they taunted me after a string of Counterspells.

The crabs at least turned out to be harmless. Tough, but harmless. One died in horrible pain after an extremely lucky Toll the Dead (double 12!), after which I tried to spit on it. Critical strength check equals 30 foot spit, a world record to be sure. Solid turned the last crab on its back, but he could not enjoy the effect, as we killed it before it got a turn.

We finished at 16:07 (game time).

[1] The DM remarked that every paragraph describing the last session ends with "... and then we killed them." I see no issue with this.

[2] As we were only 3 brave adventurers: Solid, Tari and Zyn. And 6 undead minions.

[3] How could we know? Tattered remains of a shirt, pirate hat and such.

[4] Well, silver and other riches, technically.

[5] Courtesy of the DM for not paying attention.

[6] Yeah, that's pretty much the theme here.

[7] Oh wait, we do.