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• Arhian Vos – Human Monk
• Hartmut Helmsworth – Elf Monk
• Sindri Waggletop – (Forest) Gnome Wizard
• Rettniss Kulvith – Water Genasi Druid
• Avacyn “Jolyne” Uloth the Merciless – Half-Orc Paladin
• Twilight Skybane – Tiefling Bard

• The party, being escorted by the goblin “chief” Unk’toon and his three trusted warriors continue after a short rest, having fought a dark mantle which had dropped down on Rettniss.

• Unk’toon and his three scouts take the lead

• Unk’toon signals the party to be silent, but Twilight has an issue trying to stop Gem (her macaw) from singing off key, only encouraged by Avacyn’s humming to Gem’s off key song (both failed Stealth check)
• This causes – what appears to be tiny bats – clinging to the ceiling to suddenly become active, and while it’s very difficult to count how many (due to low light and really – have you ever tried to count bats fluttering around in a cave?), Sindri manages to estimate that there’s about 20 of them and as Arhian holds up her staff with the light on it, she sees that these are clearly not normal bats!

• Sindri immediately reacts using a Sleep spell, which manages to render half of the Stirges unconscious as they fall to the ground
• Twilight follows up, casting Faerie Fire on the remaining fluttering Stirges
• Rettniss follows up after Twilight unleashing Thunderclap which manages to kill the remaining Stirges before any of them get to attack
• However, almost immediately (as the goblins sigh, reminding them that stealth was the better part of valor) – they hear a twinging sound as a giant spider crawls down from higher up on the ceiling and confronts the party – which both Twilight and Hartmut warn the party (Rettniss, however, failed to see Critical Fail, apparently taking pride in his work of putting an end to the Stirge threat – ensuring that nothing is ever going to drop down on him again from the ceiling… well, except now, a giant spider!)

• Sindri is again, quick to act, launching a Ray of Frost which hits the spider for some damage, as well as slows down its movement
• Hartmut swings his short sword, but barely misses; then tries to punch it as well, also missing, as the spider quickly moves out of the way of the attacks
• The goblins assist on the attack – Unk’toon hits, Brek’tor hits, Kurston however critical fails, hitting Hartmut for some minor damage, as his sword glances across Hartmut’s leg, but Shalice (who looks the most vicious and demented of the lot) manages to land a Critical Strike.
• The spider seeing Hartmut swinging at him, manages to bite him – but Hartmut is able to push off before the spider’s able to inject its venom; leaving venom dripping from its fangs
• Twilight steps forward and attacks with her rapier, landing maximum damage, which makes the spider wobbly, at which point it begins clicking
• Arhian looks up and spots a second (but smaller) spider coming down (Natural 20 on Perception)
• Arhian then attacks with the quarter staff, killing the first giant spider
• The second spider lands just next to Arhian, allowing her to use her bonus action to punch the spider, which she hits
• Rettniss screams on this initiative (Natural 1 on Initiative)
• Avacyn continues humming the song about the bats in tune with Gem’s horrible singing (Natural 1 on Initiative)
• Sindri launches another Ray of Frost – which damages the spider enough to consider a retreat, but it’s movement is impaired by the Ray of Frost
• Hartmut tries to swing his sword, and misses; but manages to punch the spider in the eye, penetrating it, and killing the spider
• Avacyn turns and sees the two dead spiders and asks, “When did we fight spiders?”
• Arhian turns to Hartmut and asks, “Ever seen a druid so afraid of wild life?”
• Unk’toon looks over the party and explains that he was initially worried that the party would not be very efficient (considering the fight with the dark mantle), but he admits how impressed he was with how quickly they handled the Stirges and the spiders
• Sindri asks Unk’toon if this is a good spot to rest, and Unk’toon says, no – Kuo-Toa patrols come through here frequently – but there’s a recess up ahead that they can hide in
• Unk’toon sends Shalice to go scout around while the others take a short rest
• Shalice comes running back after a short while explaining, “One of the pets is coming!”
• Sindri creates an illusion at the base of the recess to make it look like stone
• They watch from the other side of the illusion, like a two way mirror, as a Rust Monster sniffs around the floor, but proceeds forward (Critical Fail on Perception)

• The goblins tell the party to wait for a moment, to ensure the Rust Monster has moved on
• Unk’toon asks the party if they will help them catch the Rust Monster after dealing with the Kuo-Toa, so that they can have it for when their master (the Beholder, As’zar’vari’tium, comes for them; even though it’s now been about five years since the goblins have been stranded here, as far as they can tell)
• Unk’toon sends Shalice again to scout ahead, who returns after about fifteen minutes, and explains that there’s a slave unconscious in the cave in front of them
• Sindri asks if it’s a goblin, but Shalice explains that they appear to be human
• The party enters the cavern and there is a human, just laying on the floor in tattered clothing, and bleeding
• They’re not able to identify the human, because he is face down and Hartmut examines the room to ensure a beast did not attack the human
• Sindri and Arhian approach the body and roll him over, and by the appearances was someone who was probably on the ship, by the tattered clothing; but it’s not one of the crew members, but may have been one of the passengers. The human moans, “Please help me…”
• Avacy uses three points of her Lay on Hands
• Sindri asks what his name is, and the slave responds “Tanar.”
• Sindri asks “What happened?”
• He glances at everyone standing around him, and tries to recall, and pauses for a moment, before he explains that he was aboard a ship, when a lightning bolt struck the ship, and he washed ashore and awoke to the “fish people”
• Arhian asks were there other slaves, and Tanar explains that there’s only goblin slaves
• Sindri gives him food and Tanar goes to explain that some strange monster had been chasing him and devoured his shackles, which Tanar had been using as a weapon. Tanar explains if he’s given a weapon he will help the party.
• Rettniss offers his scimitar to use
• Due to his lack of armor (protection) the party puts him in the middle of the march

• The goblins lead the party to a large underwater lake

• Rettniss dives into the water and notices a large, underground hole below the lake’s level
• He swims closer to investigate and notices a broken trident and green fish scales
• He recognizes the green scales to belonging to an aquatic race known as Sahuagin

• Rettniss surfaces and begins swimming towards the party, when something brushes up against his leg
• He looks in the water and sees a fish she’s never seen before, that is about six feet long and she notices it seems to be heading towards the shoreline where the party is
• As Rettniss begins swimming to the shore, the movement draws the attention of the Maltarum
• The fish reacts, ensnaring Rettniss within one of its tentacles
• Avacyn and Sindri both see Rettniss try to jump out of the water, but suddenly get pulled back in and realize their Druid may be in danger

• Twilight spots a stalagmite and runs there to tie a rope around it, so that they can use it to pull Rettniss back

• The Piercer lands next to her, missing and slowly begins scurrying back up the wall
• Arhian witnesses as a stalactite tries to drop down – another Piercer barely misses Twilight
• Twilight manages to complete the knot around the stalagmite, but just as she does one of the Piercer manages to land on her shoulder and she feels the small hooks of its mouth burrowing into her flesh
• The Maltarum manages to bite and do extensive damage to Rettniss
• Hartmut quickly jumps in the water and gets to Rettniss and swings his short sword at the sea creature and misses, but manages to hit the sea creature with an unarmed strike, doing maximum damage
• Arhian tries to yank the Piercer out of Twilight’s shoulder, but fails to do so (inflicting an additional point of damage)
• Rettniss uses the Shape Water skill and destroys a 5′ cubic feet of water around them, which forces the sea creature to drop (while still holding Rettniss) – which allows Rettniss to escape the sea creature’s grasp
• In the chaos, Sindri casts Ray of Frost but does a Critical Fail striking Arhian for some minor damage
• As a bonus action, Twilight casts Healing Word on herself, then manages to stab the Piercer
• Arhian and Twilight get away from the stalactites that were hanging over the stalagmite – the remaining Piercers do not attack and resume their position on the ceiling
• Avacyn ties the rope around him and dives into the water – sinking very quickly down to the bottom due to the 55 lb chainmail armor he’s wearing (failed Strength check), so he quickly removes his armor and swims to the sea creature
• Avacyn tries to hit the beast with his battle axe and fails to hit
• The sea creature, seeing Avacyn – a large, bulky female half-orc, believes she is the biggest threat and lunges with a bite (and since Avacyn has no armor or shield), the sea beast easily takes a massive bite out of Avacyn, blooding the waters further
• The goblins launch arrows at the sea beast – Unk’toon hits, Brek’tor and Shalice hit – with Shalice landing a critical hit, killing the sea beast
• Rettniss swims to shore and casts Healing Word on himself for maximum amount of health he can get
• Though the Piercers have retreated to the ceiling, Arhian hits one with a dart while Sindri fires Magic Missile at the one in Twilight’s shoulder, knock it off of Twilight’s shoulder
• It slows begins to crawl away, full of Twilight’s blood
• The party determines that the Piercers will not attack further
• The party moves up the lake a little more and takes a long rest
• During the long rest, Unk’toon sends Brek’tor and Shalice to scout around
• Avacyn uses the 2 remaining points of his Lay on Hands to heal himself
• Avacyn is reminded to go get her armor out of the water
• Hartmut, Sindri, and Arhian notice that only Brek’tor returns from the scouting mission
• A few of the party members notice that Tanar returns from going to the restroom and he seems very uneasy, saying that between the Piercers and the sea creature, that they need to get out of here
• Sindri tries to persuade Tanar to remain calm, but fails to do so
• Twilight asks if he’s seen something that has made him more restless and he explains that he hasn’t – he simply went to the bathroom but was always looking at the ceiling to make sure there weren’t piercers above him
• Avacyn tries to intimidate him to remain calm, but fails to do so
• Sindri calls for Arhian and Hartmut to do their meditation to keep him calm, but despite their advantage, they fail to do so
• Rettniss suddenly notices that there’s blood on the scimitar
• When questioned about the blood; the party begins to question why he wasn’t helping in the battle (and if he didn’t – why was there blood on the blade)
• Arhian does Insight and gets the feeling that Tanar is lying about something
• They ask about the goblin, but Sindri tries to calm the party down (Critical Fail on Insight)
• The party questions Tanar further and Tanar claims that it’s from the Rust Monster came back and he’d cut off one of it’s antennae
• But examining closer, the blood on the sword is green in color and they know that the color of Rust Monster blood is brown (rustic) color; they easily determine that goblin blood is green in color
• Tanar explains it’s probably the acidic blood properties on the blade
• They look at the blade and see no rustic damage which would have happened had he hit the Rust Monster
• Tanar explains that he wouldn’t kill the goblin, because he needs all of you to get off of the island…

And this is where this session ends!