In case the episode title doesn’t make it clear, I did not die this week. Came close, but didn’t happen. Let’s dig right in.
We began with Cassius and Ghoti being asked to go back and clear out the remaining smugglers by the captain of the town guard, who is a family friend to Cass. He also directed them to one of the taverns in town to find a mercenary, since they were a man short. They went there and found Friendly.
Friendly is a human barbarian, whom I think I can best describe as miserable but obliged to be alive. Heavy drinker, cries a lot, built like a brick shithouse… But when asked, will help others in exchange for coin or drinks (or, ideally, both) so agreed to join the party.
We returned to the house and as we made our way to the basement, we heard voices. We sneaked to the secret door to confirm there were smugglers beyond before I charged in first with the others backing me up. Cassius cast Faerie Fire before we wrecked face. The three smugglers were cut down without ever putting a scratch on any of us. I didn’t even rage.
From there, we had two options: a door marked ‘danger’ or a secret door leading to cavernous tunnels. We chose the cavernous tunnels.
We made our way through the tunnels, trying to sneak but not doing as well this time, so when we came upon a wizard, two human smugglers, and a hobgoblin, they already knew we were coming. I charged straight in, hacking into one of the smugglers before Ghoti finished him off with an Eldritch Blast. The wizard blasted me with a huge amount of damage before a second hobgoblin joined in the fight. He and the others hit me for piddly amounts of damage, but I ignored them and went straight for the wizard.
I hacked into the wizard, but then he Magic Missile’d me, taking me down. Cass, whom the hobgoblins cut down to just 1 hit point, healed me up before he and Ghoti finished off the hobgoblins. I mulched the wizard and then hacked into the last smuggler, who tried to run before Cass finished her off with a thrown dagger.
A short rest and a quick bit of exploration later told us we had cleared the whole area out. Feeling invincible, we decided to investigate the ‘danger’ room before heading back to town to let the captain know we were done. It was a terrible mistake.
I removed the beam sealing the door from our side before entering, finding half a dozen skeletons within. I attacked one, not doing as much damage as I should have, before they swarmed us. Cass was quickly brought down, before I was too shortly after, after killing only one skeleton. Ghoti fled, firing Eldritch Blasts as she retreated and taking out another couple before she got outside and they stopped pursuing. Meanwhile, in a shocking twist of events to what usually happens to our characters (especially me), both Cass and I stabilised on death saving throws.
We woke up a couple of hours later in a secret room with a skeleton alchemist, the former owner of the manor. I managed to break both mine and Cass’s chains and tried to escape, bull-rushing the other skeletons on the way out with Cass over my shoulder before hurling him towards the door, but the alchemist reacted too quickly and took us both our again with thrown acid. However, we were stabilised before we had to make any more death saving throws.
When we came to again, it was shortly before Ghoti returned with the captain and a couple of guards. They easily cut through the remaining skeletons and the alchemist. Once they freed us, they recovered the contraband, we searched the place for any other goodies, and all was good.
After that, we went through some downtime, which mostly involved drinking and carousing. We were hired by the council to deal with the rest of the smugglers, but that won’t apply for several weeks, so we’ve taken a different job in the meantime. It’s underwater, so we went to a wizard to get some water-breathing ability, and we finished our session on our way to the cove where this job will take place.
So far so good. Friendly’s first outing has gone better than Ham’s, if only thanks to the dice being in my favour for a change. It’s also very fun to play a character that’s completely miserable most of the time and prone to outbursts of wailing.
We won’t be playing next week, so tune in in a fortnight for the next instalment, where we shall see just what is in store for us under the waves…