Daggerford: Baby Don't Cry

Game Date: 6/26/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 17

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Last session left off with us traveling East, our eventual destination being Mount Illefarn to find the Elemental Key of Fire.  We made our way through the wilds, until we came upon some Elven hunters.  They were unhappy and suspicious due to the recent fires, but we persuaded them to hear us out.  They took us to their camp, where we met our newest party member, Nikolice Gomez.  

They told us that they had been hunting for a sneaky dragon who had been picking off their Elves.  We took a long rest and continued to Illefarn, traveling through heavy rain.  On our way, we found some dead Orcs and climbed some cliffs, taking refuge from the storms in a building.  We set out to explore the structure.

While examining a dragon statue, Nikolice set off a trap, causing Khemed to fall into a pit.  Nikolice used his psionic powers to levitate Khemed out of the pit.  While we attempted to deactivate the trap, we noticed three Dwarves in an adjoining room.  They turned towards us and accused us of being after their gold.  Combat ensued.

The Dwarves were actually "Stoneghosts".  They used an attack called "Calcifying Touch", which could cause both damage and exhaustion.  The fight began with Azul and Vanya on the wrong side of the pit.  Azul handily jumped over the pit, but Vanya remained and fought from a distance. 

The Stoneghosts also had the annoying ability to move through walls.  After the first two were killed, the third one phased through the floor, ending the encounter.  We fixed the trapdoor, and continued exploring.  While playing more with the dragon statue's tail, we found a secret compartment nearby with some goodies inside - a potion and a gold necklace with a warhammer pendant.

The next hallway split North and East, and we went East.  The next room contained a dead Ettin, and the ceiling looked like it was on the verge of collapse.  Nikolice walked around the edge of the room to check out a chest, which contained four 100gp gems and a Dwarven carving.  The next passage led North.

We found some more dead bodies - Orcs, Dwarves, and an Ogre.  We also found some little piles of sand, and noticed that some of the bodies were calcified.  In another room to the East, we found a workshop, which contained an iron safe.  The safe had a slot sized for a coin.  Depositing a gold coin had no effect.  

There were stairs to the North that led nowhere.  A hall to the West led to a four-way junction.  The North hall led to a small room used for sculpting.  We found some Dwarven script written on one wall.  None of our party speaks Dwarven, but Khemed cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual.  The words said "Gold Fever".  

There were three statues covered in tarps.  Uncovering the first tarp revealed a statue of a Dwarf in mid-leap, swinging a hammer.  The next statue unveiled depicted a female Dwarf cradling a baby in her arms.  The third statue was unfinished, but looked like it was going to be a tall, robed figure. 

We went West, filling in the map.  Down a South hallway we found a room with an anvil in the center.  As we approached the room, we noticed that our Stoneghost was back, accompanied by two Shadows.  Spider quickly finished off the Stoneghost, while the Shadows ganged up on Vanya.  

Fortunately, they weren't that tough, and we had them down pretty quickly.  We examined the anvil.  It was covered in arcane runes, a few of which had been defaced.  The runes translated to "Praise Moradin!"  It looked like the point of the runes were to prevent scrying, and to prevent the anvil from being moved.  Vanya used a Mending spell to repair the broken runes.  

To the North we found a room with a bathtub.  Then we heard from crying from the South, and went to investigate.  As we explored, a few more enemies phased through the walls.  Three more Stoneghosts, a couple of Stoneguards, an Orc Zombie, and a Specter - the ghost of a female Dwarf who kept asking about a lost child. 

The party members were fairly spread apart at the begin of the battle, with Spider and Nikolice facing the Stoneguards and Orc Zombie in the kitchen, and the rest of us facing the Stoneghosts in the North hallway.  Azul convinced the Specter that the child was elsewhere, but she returned after a couple of rounds.  Azul offered to lead her to the baby.  Meanwhile, Spider and Nikolice found a stone baby in the kitchen area, and began to deliver it to the rest of the party.

We reunited the Specter with the baby, but her hands kept passing through it.  She kept getting angrier and angrier, and we had to finish her off before she turned her ire back toward us.  Nikolice picked up the stone baby, and took it over to the statue of the mother with child - which was now missing the child.  He returned the baby to the mother's arms.

And that's where we ended the session.