OAWYM: Sidequest Inception

Game Date: 7/23/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 4
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Last session we fought some brigands from an evil organization called the "Iron Circle".  Today we headed for the town of Albridge, where we were told we'd find people who wanted to fight back against the criminal group.  We reached Albridge and entered a tavern called "The Mallard Inn".  All the patrons became silent as we entered the building.  Several of the customers were Iron Circle members, and they told us it was against the rules to carry weapons around.  We refused to surrender our weapons, and fighting ensued.

We faced seven foes - two brigands, two cutthroats, and three rabble.  Malcer won initiative, and took out an enemy with his first shot.  Thokk took some damage, and went berserk courtesy of his cursed axe.  Byzun hit a few enemies at once with Thunderwave.  Marcella used Calm Emotions on Thokk, and the barbarian fled the battle so he wouldn't go berserk again.  When we had two enemies left, one of the cutthroats critted with a sneak attack, knocking Val down to zero.  Once she was back on her feet, Val finished off the final enemy.

The bartender told us to get out.  She was afraid to be associated with any resistance to the Iron Circle.  We left the inn and encountered some village people (we refrained from singing "YMCA"). The villagers told us we should see the village elder, a halfling named Jared.  So, we went to Jared (we refrained from buying any jewelry, but we did make a few Subway jokes).  Jared told us to leave town, and wanted to make sure the villagers saw us leave so they could honestly tell the Iron Circle they witnessed our departure... but with a *wink wink* he also told us to visit the local druid outside of town.

The druid was an very ancient elf who told us to visit another village called "Tor's Hold", so we could defend them from some bullywugs.  Keep in mind our main quest was just to pass through these towns to deliver a skull to Sarthel, so this is a sidequest within a sidequest.  In Tor's Hold we met the inbred-but-friendly Bran Torson, who allowed us to stay overnight, and even threw us a party before pointing us to the bogs.  In the morning we set off to slog through the bog, finally finding the bullywug cave.

In order to enter the cave, we had to climb a small cliff next to a waterfall.  Malcer, Thokk, and Val climbed up first, and the occupants attacked us before the rest of the party made it up.  We faced a few stirges and several bullywugs.  More bullywugs kept joining the fight throughout the fight, but they weren't terribly tough.  The biggest danger came from a pair of grey oozes, which did some major damage to Malcer.

In the middle of the cave there was a large dragon skull. A bullywug spellcaster hid inside, firing spells at us. At one point he cast Entangle, creating a large zone of difficult terrain that lasted for most of the battle.  Thokk managed to go about half the battle without becoming enraged this time, but eventually he failed a Wisdom save and the madness took over.  We made sure not to get too close to him.

Thokk attacked the back of the skull, trying to break through to the spellcaster. Once everything else was dead, the rest of us fired ranged attacks into the skull's eyeholes, until we finished the caster off.  We kept him alive so we could ask questions.  Malcer knocked Thokk out so his rage would wear off, and we dragged him to the cave entrance.  While the rest of the party looted the room, Val worked on healing Thokk.  It was at this point that several more bullywugs and giant frogs entered the cave.

Most of our new opponents were easy pickings, but one bullywug was an enraged barbarian who was resistant to physical damage. At one point the bullywug grabbed Thokk's cursed axe and started wielding it.  The two struggled over the axe for a few turns.  We managed to hurt him a bit with magic damage, then Val landed the final blow with a Divine Smite crit.

These last bullywugs had been dragging a prisoner, a tied-up Halfling named Heron.  We released the Halfling and ended the session there.