Session 2, Into the sewers

The session starts with the party and Renaer Neverember getting ready to go into the sewers to rescue Floon from the Xanathar kidnappers. They had already questioned the Kenku and knew to follow the ‘yellow guildsigns’.

Rogelio de la Vega joins them after his performance at the Seven Masks theater and is caught up on the activities so far.

In the sewers they quickly discover the yellow signs drawn with chalk which depict an eye with 10 lines protruding from it. The party follow them through the sewers easily.

Who needs perception?

Just before a zombie crocodile ambushes the party, Cithras the paladin decides to use his sense undead ability. With this he spots the crocodile in the sewage water. They turn the ambush around and kill the crocodile before it can even act.

Xanathar Hideout

They press on through the stinky sewer and encounter an entrance to an underground complex. Venthras was inspecting the walls for traps and secret doors and notices some arrow slits. He looks through them and sees that a couple of goblins are sleeping on their watch. He shushes the party as they sneak through and kill a goblin in his sleep.

Bum tickling

Further in, they hear two voices arguing. By their accent and voice they conclude that they are probably duergar, which are grumpy evil dwarves. There is a heated discussion about keeping something out by pressing cloth to something.

The party prepares two friends spells and walk into the room and charm the duergar there. They convince them that they are here to help with whatever the dwarves are struggling with. They see that one of the dwarves is Krentz, the dwarf that was attacking Yagra in the Yawning Portal, who hasn’t noticed who the characters are.

The other dwarf explains that he was taking a dump in their lavatory when suddenly a gray ooze appeared from it, tickling his bum. They don’t want to risk their weapons and are trying to block the door with a piece of cloth. The party help them with the ooze with mainly magical attacks and ranged attacks and a very manly punch by Rogelio.

The friends cantrip is coming to an end and the party decides to ambush the two dwarves. Sadly, they fail their deception and the dwarves notice something is wrong. They roll initiative and start combat. The party quickly defeats the dwarves and even stops one who tried to escape by turning invisible. They blocked the doors and the dwarf surrendered.

They question the dwarves and are told that their boss ‘Nihiloor’ is a mindflayer and is in the next room.

The party was terrified of the thought of facing a mindflayer but heard the screams of Floon in extreme pain in the next room. They overcome their fear and press on.

Boss fight

The party finds Floon Blagmaar on the floor being tortured by a half-orc wizard named Grum’Shar. Also in the room are the mindflayer Nihiloor and his pet Intellect Devourer Fluffy. They hear Nihiloor deride Grum’Shar for his incompetence and order him to kill these intruders or face dire consequences.

Combat starts and the party deals with the half-orc and Intellect Devourer quite quickly, while they let Nihiloor escape through a magical portal. Just before his escape, Nihiloor dominated Cithras with a spell and the party needs to deal with their friend.

There is some indecisiveness and bad saves and Cithras is mind controlled for 6–7 rounds. He finally goes down when he hits Ludoviche and takes damage from his Armor of Agathys. Funnily enough, Ludoviche is also taken down by this hit so it was basically a double kill.

The party stabilizes them both and rest for two hours to lick their wounds. They loot Grum’Shar and find a Periapt of Wound Closure, that they were not able to identify yet.

Back to the surface world

The party brings Floon and Renear to the Yawning Portal where Volo is sitting and looking very worried. When he sees Floon his face lights up and embraces Floon with a big hug. Rogelio cannot resist and joins them for a nice group hug.

Renear and Floon are very thankful for the party saving their lives but have nothing to offer now except the very best rooms at the Yawning Portal. They promise to reward the party later and will be back in the tavern tomorrow if they wish. Volo helps the party identify their Periapt of Wound Closure for free, since he is feeling guilty that he is not able to pay the party as promised.

Instead, he offers the party something better: a piece of property called Trollskull Manor and hands them a blueprint of the building. He says that this transfer of property needs to be documented by a government official and invites them to join him in the Castle Ward first thing in the morning.