Session 3

June 28, 2019

Saltmarsh 3: Prisoner of Azkaban

The party fights through the Twilight Grove and confronts the Outcaste, Belak. They recover the apple from the Gulthias Tree and exit the Sunless Citadel with survivors, Sharwyn and Sir Bradford.

Synopsis
The party defeats the bugbear and her skeleton comrades, Emmett takes a short rest to recover from battle and eat lunch, and Malcolm moves to question the goblins. Emmett reveals his job as a bounty hunter, and that he and Vel were hired to recover the golden apple to heal a dying woman. He also reveals that Vel stole a dagger from said woman, which shocks Malcolm. Dora checks the next hallway, before joining the party in a rest. Malcolm asks about her injured ear, Dora assures him that she can still hear through it, those has gained mild tinnitus. She makes a light joke that she lost both her barber and her doctor when Malcolm retired from war.

The party presses forward into a room with walls covered in glowing mushrooms, a bench covered in gardening tools, and a dying campfire. Finding, killing, and following a dead snake, Vel sticks her arm in the snack hole, and recovers two slime covered sapphires. Emmett and Velaeria take one, and Malcolm and Dora take the other.

There's a statue of a dragon with shiny eyes in one room. Malcolm thinks back to his conversation with Yusdrayl and concludes that this is a statue of Ashardalon. More draconic runes; "Let the sorceress' power illuminate my spirit". Malcolm steps onto the the statue's pedestal, and a bright red flame ignites under him, causes no damage, gives him advantage on Charisma checks for 24 hours.

Dora checks the next door, and is so perceptive, she can tell there is a library on the other side. They enter, and find the room with shelves of burned books. Emmett finds a book with a red dragon scale cover, filled with draconic lore. Malcolm finds two spell scrolls; Scorching Ray and Acid Arrow. Dora finds a book written in goblin, Eek's Tome of Sonnets, of romantic poems, and spends a moment translating a haiku. Emmett and Malcolm strike up a deal to teach each other Dwarvish and Draconic. Dora read the translation poem;

My love is like snow,

Pale, and cold, and oh so still,

Turns out she's dead.

A stone staircase descends into darkness. Dora backtracks to grab a torch, for the darkvision-less Malcolm. Goblin voices are heard. Emmett leads down the stairs. Goblin soldiers attack, Emmett tears down three immediately. One of them retroactively recognized as Eek. After the fight, Malcolm takes the poetry book and 'autographs' it with Eek's bloody handprint, and gifts it to Dora.

The next room contains a desk covered in books, one is about the town of Oakhurst, another releases cold damage, which knocks Dora unconscious. Malcolm administers a Goodberry to her, and apologizes. Dora comes to and uses a second wind to bring her back up for full health. Malcolm determines the book's magic has been dispelled, and pockets it, learning that Belak is a druid.

Feeling their exhaustion, the party decides to head back to the library, and make camp for the night. While on watch, Malcolm finds another scroll, Entangle. The party levels up to level 3.

Carrying on to new door, Emmett opens the door, is missed by anchor, but hit by a swordsman. They fight. Emmett restrains one goblin with his net, Malcolm threatens him into showing the party the way to the Twilight Grove.

The Grove is covered in spirals of vines and half alive plants. In the centre of the room is a spiraling tree, Sir Bradford, a heavily armoured man, Sharwyn, a young woman in noble dress, and Belak, an older bearded man in brown robes and carrying a staff. The young man and woman have black eyes and appear to have skin made of bark. Sir Bradford holds a sword that, when it hits the ground, shakes the earth. Emmett and Vel make a bet that whoever takes down Sir Bradford gets to keep his sword. The fight begins.

Emmett takes out Sharwyn, Dora becomes grappled in the mouth of a giant frog, Velaeria falls unconscious and is stabilized by Malcolm. Dora rolls out of the frogs mouth, and Emmett knocks out Balek. Sir Bradford deals a critical hit to Malcolm, who falls unconscious, and is healed by Vel, framed by the light of Lathander. Dora spits on the dead body of the giant frog, the Dawn Speaker gives her a disappointed look. Velaeria takes a rapier to Sir Bradford, killing him.

On Belak's person, Emmet finds a key, a handful of healing potions, and a wand of Entangle. Malcolm stabilizes Sharwyn and Sir Bradford, but their eyes remain black. The party checks their possession, finds Sharwyn's ring and spellbook, and on Sir Bradford, a magical longsword called Shatterspike.

Velaeria climbs up into the tree with a boost from Emmett, and frees an apple partially encased in bark. Malcolm and Dora remove Sir Bradford's armour and bind the two unconscious humans. The party takes a short rest before making their way back up through the citadel. Sharwyn eventually comes to consciousness, although blinded, recognized Malcolm from town, and walks with his assistance down the hall.

Later, the party renters kobold territory and finds the area littered with kobold bodies in various states of frozen. Queen Yusdrayl is dead in her throne. The party sneaks passed the dragon and out of the citadel, to find their horses gone.

Featured Characters
Emmett

Velaeria

Malcolm

Theadora

NPCs
Eek

Sharwyn Hucrele

Sir Brantford

Balek the Outcast

Dern

Yusdrayl

Quotations
"Lathander guide me to a better salon."

"Its getting hot in here, so take off all your armour"

Trivia

 * Session Length: 5:13:57
 * This session covers 2 days in universe, the party has now known each other for 3 days
 * This session is named after Prisoner of Azkaban, the 3rd film in the Harry Potter franchise
 * Velaeria is the first party member to roll a death save, fail a death save, and roll a natural one on a death save
 * Theadora became the first party member to fall unconscious outside of battle
 * Malcolm heals a party member from unconsciousness for the first time
 * Malcolm falls unconscious for the first time