LFG: Two Wights Don't Make a Wrong (Sorry)

Game Date: 7/13/2013
Campaign: Looking For A Group, Session 4
System: D&D Next / 5e Playtest
DM: Rusty

Players:
Barad (Jeremy) - Dwarf Paladin
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Flip (DM, subbing for Trevor) - Halfling Rogue
Keyleth Siannodel (Matt) - Elf Druid
Tamel (Cliff, subbing for Andrew) - Elf Ranger
Zuul (DM, subbing for Graham) - Half-Orc Paladin

Recap: 
We'd been tasked with clearing the squatters out of a mansion, so the new owner could safely take possession of the property.  We'd explored nearly every inch of the building, and only had a handful of challenges left before us:  A gelatinous cube in one room, some giant wasps in another, a locked door we couldn't open, a vengeful doppelganger running around, and the fact that we were trapped in the basement with no visible exit.

The Session:
When we left off last week, we had just defeated some hobgoblins.  Under a pile of treasure, we discovered Barad, who had been tied up and badly beaten.  We introduced ourselves and he agreed to join us.  When we opened up the door to leave the room, we found the doorway was blocked by the gelatinous cube we'd been putting off fighting.  Convenient.

We fought the cube in the doorway.  It didn't seem as dangerous as the cubes in previous editions of D&D.  No one got engulfed, though Barad was injured pretty badly.  Once we killed the cube, we found a magic dagger in its remains.  We gave the dagger to our party rogue.  We continued down the hall, and found the next door had been spiked shut.  We assume it was the doppelganger we've been chasing around this basement.  We managed to push it back open and kept going.

Last session we passed a locked door with an ornate keyhole.  We'd recently found a key, so we headed back to see if it was the right one.  The key unlocked the door quite easily.  Inside, there was some glowing treasure in one corner.  We sent Flip to check it out, and he vanished when he got near it.  We experimented a little with some rope to find out if he'd been disintegrated or just teleported.  Unable to know for sure either way, we finally just said "what the heck" and followed the rogue. 

We were transported into a room with walls lined by sarcophagi.  Barad used his channel divinity power to detect undead, and we learned that two of the coffins contained something evil.  We decided to save those two for last.  We opened the coffins one at a time, having the rogue check them for traps.  The one time the rogue rolled a 1, it turned out to be trapped, but luckily our heroes were not harmed by the acid spray.  Most of the sarcophagi contained treasure, and we wound up with a big pile of coins to divide. We also found a map that promised to show us the way out of the basement.

The last two coffins each contained a wight.  These monsters are bad news for a first-level party, but our paladins managed to obliterate them with channel divinity spells before they had a chance to mess us up.  (Though we did have to take an extended rest between the first and second wights in order to regain the power.)  One of the coffins activated the portal to teleport us back to the previous room.

At this point, there was only one room we'd passed on, which contained four giant wasps.  We'd promised to clear out the entire mansion, so we were obligated to do this last bit of pest control.  Keyanna turned into a bear and charged into the room, only to roll badly and get swarmed.  She hit zero hit points twice this encounter, but she also managed to do her fair share of damage in the fight.

Our mission now complete (with the possible exception of the missing doppelganger), we examined the map to figure out how to get out of here.  We returned to the room where the trapdoor had been, and found a brick on the floor.  There was a hole in the wall where the brick had been, in which we found a piece of paper.  It was a short note directed at Tamel, and we can only assume it was written by the doppelganger.  It was nothing particularly informative, just a brief statement of disrespect, expressed in the eloquent style we'd come to expect from the doppelganger.

We played with the brick and the hole (no giggling), and heard a click whenever it was inserted or removed.  But we couldn't figure out how that helped us, so we consulted with the map once again, paying more attention this time.  It directed us to go to the Eastern corridor and chant some magic words.  Doing so opened up a new corridor, which eventually led us into the woods outside the mansion.

Tamel searched for the doppelganger's tracks.  He did find some barefoot humanoid tracks leading from the exit to the road leading to town.  Due to an extended rest we'd taken earlier, we knew the doppelganger had a huge lead on us, but we still rushed in hopes of catching up to it.  Keyanna turned into a horse and carried two of the party members, and the trio reached town well before the rest of the party.

Once the party was reunited, we received our payment from Caldwell, divided our treasure, and took advantage of the hospitality granted by Barad's church.  Next session we will find a new mission to keep us busy.  I still wonder if we'll ever see that doppelganger again, though.  He seems to have a personal grudge against Tamel, which could come back to haunt us.

TL;DR Version:
We finished clearing out the mansion and collected our reward.  Next week we'll pick up a new plot hook.