The Tresendar Excursion

Hello loyal fans! Long time no write. In Jurassic Park, when Jeff Goldblum says 'Life, uh, finds a way', I think he meant to say 'Life, uh, gets in the way', but I digress.

On my last post you read about facing down deathly monsters in the spirit realm and being granted knowledge by the Spirit of Knowledge, who was a giant gold frog. Very normal stuff for a groups first D&D campaign. We return to the group now, back in Phandalin.

They awoke the next morning, confused by what just happened, but determined to progress with the story, I mean, determined to liberate Phandalin from the vice grip of the Redbrands.

They left the tavern and marched up the hill to the damned Tresendar Manor, which stood grandiose on the hill. They barged through the large front door, ready for a fight and were greeted with... nothing. Nothing at all. Sizeable, but empty rooms sat either side of them, but there were absolutely zero signs of life. However, a rather inconspicuous looking door sat in front of them, a door which no doubt would lead them to some kind of altercation.

They burst through that door next and stood at the top of a staircase which descended into darkness. Naturally, they went down into it.

They found themselves standing in a large cellar. They stood on a five-foot-wide landing, overlooking the small cellar. Some small stone steps led down into the cellar. A lot of the floor was taken up by a stone cistern which was full of rippling water. The walls either side of them were lined with barrels and crates. Suspended above the cistern, hanging from a rope, was a small leather satchel. The group tore it down and emptied it. It contained a potion of healing, a potion of invisibility, 50 gold pieces and a clean set of ordinary travel clothing.

Just beyond the cistern, tucked away in the top right of the room, the group noticed a wooden door, which was shut. The group smashed the door down in a subtle way and inside found a barracks. The room appeared to have been a storeroom pressed into service as a living quarters. Two double bunk beds stood against the wall near the door, while barrels and crates filled the southern half of the chamber.

That wasn't all that was in the room however. Three Redbrand ruffians were resting in the room before the door was smashed off of its hinges. They immediately jumped up, ready to fight. A fight ensued where, of course, the adventurers came out on top.

They scoured the room for anything of value, a few small pouches of money and a couple cloaks, nothing they could benefit from.

They went back into the cellar and noticed on the top left corner of the room, was a small S etched into the wall. An investigation check confirmed this was indeed a secret door, so naturally, off they went.

They entered in to a large natural cavern and were instantly met with a chilling breeze dancing between them. The subtle smell of rotting flesh also filled the air, this was most certainly not a pleasant place to be. A giant crevasse divided the cavern in the middle and was flanked by two rough stone columns that supported the twenty-foot-high ceilings. A rickety wooden bridge stretched over the crevasse, and another on the other side of the cavern. They decided to head over the rickety bridge, when suddenly they heard a clicking and a rattling.

Something then emerged from the darkness and stood before them, blocking their passage across the bridge. The eye-oned leathery looking creature enthusiastically sniffed at the group and hopped around on the spot in a glee-filled manor. Now, DMing has it's obvious perks. You get to craft a world in any way you want, you get to parody some of your favourite pieces of media and basically implement anything you want in to the campaigns and stories you write. But, when it comes to DMing for me, I love doing voices.

In a nano-second of consideration I had the rapid thoughts of; 'okay, this thing is like a leathery little beast and is a bit mental, what do I do? Yeah, okay, let's be original.

I did Gollum.

The Beast, a Nothic, approached the group and asked;

'What are adventurers doing here in Nothic's home?'

They attempted to trick and manipulate the Nothic to gain information, which of course worked.

'Oh yes, Nothic knows everything about beautiful caves, yes yes. You seek man in charge?'

Naturally, the group loved this. A chance to skip all of the meandering and attempts to find the Glassstaff, perfect. The Nothic gave them instructions on how to best find him and then crawled back under the bridge. Before it disappeared completely into darkness it whispered.

'I know the evil that stalks you... I smell its anger... good luck.'

It then disappeared completely from view and the group made their way.

They successfully crossed the bridge and noted a small stone staircase ahead of them which led into a dimly lit corridor. It was in that moment the group decided to split up, to see if they could cover more ground. Group two headed off towards the other side of the cavern, and towards the other wooden bridge.

Group one persisted towards the corridor and found themselves standing in between two doors. One to their left, and one to their right. A brief conversation concluded they should head right, see what they could see. They creaked the door open and entered into a guards barracks. The barracks contained four roughly built wooden bunks, with heaped-up blankets and dirty dishes scattered about. A strong smell of unwashed bodies and rotten meat filled the air. On the other side of the room, three Bugbears were standing around a meek Goblin that they were physically and verbally abusing.

The Bugbears turned to look once the door opened and saw the half of the group standing

there. They immediately brandished their weapons and went to confront the group. The group stepped further into the room to meet the assault head on, but behind them they heard another door open. Through the doorway they noticed four Redbrand Ruffians coming out of the adjacent room, who immediately noticed them and went to meet them head on.

There they stood, sandwiched between three Bugbears and four Redbrand Ruffians, all foaming at the mouth.

Meanwhile group two had made it across the other wooden bridge and in to the North Eastern section of the hideout. They entered in to a mid-sized room. The room had been finished with dressed stone block walls and a flagstone floor. Several barrels were stored against the walls there, along with a number of empty crates, straw for packing, hammers, pry bars and nails. In the far corner they noted a slightly obscured door and headed through it into a narrow corridor.

Right in front of them stood a small wooden door, to their right was a narrow corridor which led to a slightly ajar stone door. They tried with no luck to access the door in front of them so head toward the slightly ajar stone door. With a push they opened the door into a medium-sized stone chamber. Three large stone sarcophagi stood within this dusty chamber, and propped up against each of them was a human skeleton clad in bits of rusty mail. False columns along the wall were carved in the image of spreading oak trees.

They head into the room, being cautious of what it may contain. The door behind them slam shut, then they heard a clicking.

The skeletons before them became animated and slowly rose up. They all grabbed weapons and slowly went to attack.

See, sometimes splitting up can really benefit the group, but sometimes you've got two groups, each stuck in rooms facing imminent combat. The odds aren't always in everyone's favour.