The Golden Vault campaign is back in action, with just 3 brave agents taking on the next task. We were hired by an anonymous benefactor to recover a Canaith Mandolin stolen from the grave of a famous bard. Apparently his restless spirit refuses to leave our plane of existence until the instrument is recovered, and terrorizes the residents of his hometown Frogleap. Time to send in the clowns! 50 Copper, the dwarven fighter Thaldor and the new barbarian Grog geared up for the investigation.
Session 1
Asking around in Waterdeep made little headway. We found out about Froderik Darkwill, the bard born in Frogleap who went on to became an adventurer and was buried back in his home town. I learned a couple of songs he made. That's it.
The tavern we apparently bought last time made some profits, and we immediately spent 300gp to buy riding horses, going to Frogleap in style. It turned out to be a godforsaken little dusty village.
After so much Call of Cthulhu, I was inspired to take on the persona of a paranormal investigator. At the town watering hole, I introduced myself as Archibald Fapplebottom, Waterdeep Ghostbusters. This was enough to pull all the info we could from the locals. The innkeeper was happy to supply us with beer, food and lodging, and told us about Frodi being buried about a month ago, and then busting out of his grave after 2 weeks. He went to his parents' old house, chased out the residents, and is staying there ever since.
We tracked down the family who had bought the house and was chased out, but they were scared out of their minds and had no useful info to share. At least a couple of coppers thrown to the children on the street ensured some entertainment. We checked on the cemetery, and sure enough, the grave was open. Dug open, and the coffin smashed. Old Frodi did not do all that himself. So what else to do but visit the zombie who turned out to be revenant of some sorts - a rotting corpse but able to speak. He told us about being pulled back to the material plane, just hearing two rather small beings calling each other Trout and Mackerel arguing, and then awakening to the world of the living. Sort of. So he went to his parents' house and awaited somebody braver than the local villagers to help him.
We returned to the inn to find out that Trout and Mackerel are halflings living not far from the village, and are generally seen as untrustworthy fisher folk. We rode out to their residence, and introduced ourselves as from the Waterdeep Waterworks, checking up on their hut due to moving soil or whatnot. Grog untied their donkey and gave it a slap, having one halfling chase it, while I talked to the other. They were gullible and impressionable folk, so upon not finding anything inside their house, I told them the cold, hard truth: that we are from the Waterdeep Ghostbusters, and that the mandolin they stole was cursed, and they will each die horrible, torturous deaths[1] unless the instrument is returned. At this they spilled the beans on a nearby noble born musician called Sythian Skalderang. After his family crops of olives mysteriously sickened and died a few years ago, Skalderang turned his family estate into a conservatory, training prodigious noble children in music. The halflings had worked in the orchards until the unfortunate turn of events, which no longer provided them with a steady income. Now they just do odd jobs for Skalderang, including grave robbing, lately. In return for their ill gotten gains[2] and as detailed a description of the estates as they could manage, I drew some random runes and chanted math at the four corners of their hut, ensuring the lifting of the curse. The halflings even managed to make a sand castle version of the conservatory.
We rode back to the village, not wanting to spend a night outdoors[3]. The town mayor had nothing against us, seeing as the mayor was a literal hog hanging around the inn. Next morning, we were off.
We inspected the olive grove upon entrance to the estate, and the trees looked unnaturally sick and withered, with an oily substance on and around them.
On arrival at the mansion, I introduced myself as baron Urien Shadowheart, looking to ensure a place for his favorite niece at the conservatory. A natural 20 persuasion check had Sythian agree to a tour of the facilities, but only after I also demonstrated the musical talent running in the family. I downed a potion of advantage, and beatboxed something by Frodi, just because. The old musician scoffed at my instrument of choice, but accepted the show I put on.
We were introduced to Joster, Sythian's red skinned tiefling colleague, who always seemed to muck around, listening to our conversations, as well as the students currently residing at the facility. I paid a hefty fee to ensure a place reserved for my dear Brumhilda[4], and then we left. We lingered around outside the estate, and returned in the dead of night.
As soon as the lights went out, we tried to stealth up to the mansion - failing horribly, but I then signaled the heavies to stay back. Completely forgetting about my slipper of spider climbing, I grappling hooked and climbed my way to the terrace. Seeing as the check was hard enough, rather than having the heavies climb up, I sneaked down and opened the door for them.
We sneaked around the mansion, peeking into any unoccupied rooms, to no avail. No mandolin. We did find some magical crossbow bolts in a storage area, though. I decided to quickly check the roof before going back down, and I was immediately ambushed by a buzzing demon fly thing.[5]
We tried to fight it, but both Thaldor and I kept failing our CON saves and dropping unconscious at the horrible buzzing. We discovered that kicking someone in the head for d4 damage wakes them up.
After a couple of rounds of this, Grog shut the door on the monster, and I quickly locked it back up. Thaldor was still out, as we finished the session.
Session 2
This played out as an action sequence, and we had a lot of fun. We were the same 3 adventurers, but we felt up to the task.
So as we were there, with the bug pounding on the door, I kicked Thaldohr in the nuts to get him up. Sythian and Joster were already up and shouting, so we ran down, to find them in the music room. I shouted for them to surrender, but instead they summoned little demons. I shot at Joster, hoping that he was the sorcerer behind all this, and lo and behold, he transformed into an incubus and shifted to the ethereal plane.
Grog and Thaldohr quickly got rid of the demons[6], at which point the two villains ran away, down the stairs. The melee guys went after them, and I went down the other set of stairs, still able to shoot at them.
Benny Hill music continued playing as the villains ran to the first floor and summoned more demons, with me shooting down from the floor above.
A small demon opened the front door, letting the bug in. Again, we failed some CON saves but thankfully not all of them. I rolled like crap, but the melee guys went ahead and bashed in the insect's head. The incubus ran out the front door and was not caught[7]; Sythian went up the elevator, but I legged it up the stairs as well and shot him in the eye as he got out.
With the fighting done, I quickly looted Sythian and opened his room with the key I found, taking the mandolin out of his chest. It was trapped, but I managed my save. Mission technically done?!
Well, the children were up, and I introduced myself from the Waterdeep Demonhunters. Unfortunately I scared them witless. At least we rounded up the cook and butler, who managed to calm them down. Against my instructions, they left on a cart. Good enough. Time to loot the place.
On the ground floor, we found a little shrine with a wash basin and blood on the floor. I pissed in the basin, and whatever demonic deity took offense, responded with a summoning. Another head to bash in. "Graz'zt will take his revenge!" Yeah whatever, suck it, looser.
We rummaged through the house, taking a gem studded instrument from the richest kid's room. Joster's room had the kids' portraits, which we burned, just in case of voodoo. Grog found a glyph on the wall behind an armor stand, which I triggered just for fun, and then we looked through the hidden study behind it. Some cash and paperwork.
Just as we settled down for a short rest, the incubus came back with another bug. This time, they would not escape, even with Thaldohr kind of charmed.
In the morning, we rode back to Frogleap, returned the mandolin to Frodi who was gracious enough to lie back into his grave, and we invited all the townsfolk for a second funeral. Afterwards, the mayor[8] brought us a basket of apples.
Mission complete!
[1] Described in great detail.
[2] A measly 10 gp.
[3] Seeing as now we are rich.
[4] I was especially creative that day.
[5] We rolled back the ambush due to my weapon of warning.
[6] Magic weapons are a must at this point.
[7] With Thaldohr shouting creative curses after him.
[8] Yeah, the pig.
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