Starter Set, Motivations and Reunions, Session 3, Part 2

[DM note: prior to the beginning of the session, each player rolled a d20 for their Deception against the nothic's weird Insight.  They were not told what it was for until after the session.
I also rolled Deception for Sildar and Fleek; both passed.  Durial, Lemon, and Eva failed...]

As the party decided their next move, transfixed by the strange monster, the nothic continued to toy with their minds:

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To the drow rogue, Durial...

"Why, hello there, little spider…

He knows you are here, he knows who you are.

You knew him once, thought highly of him, owe him?

Perhaps now you are destined to kill him..."

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To the human barbarian and former Redbrand, Lemon...

"Do not fear, my dear sour fruit.

The man in red who wished you dead is here.

His boasting was of jealousy, of fear, of power.

Ridding of your presence granted him rank.

Should you confirm his fate, the Captain awaits..."

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To the human druid, who once lived in Thundertee, Eva...

"Ah, child of flowers and ash.

Your home, yes, your home.  What is left of it?

I knew that place once, before the curses, mine and their own.

It is ash, rising up to bring death, laden with pain.

The friend you seek, the gray squirrel, he resides there still..."

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Durial seemed the least affected, and though Eva was surprised, Lemon was enraged and decided to press forward to the hallway on the East side of the cave.  She stopped, seeing doors to the North and South, and allowed Durial and Fleek to pass her.  The party lined the narrow corridor, preparing to attack in surprise.

The drow and goblin each listened at the South door, and noting the sound of deep laughing, opened the door to an unexpected scene.

Three large bugbears stood over a small goblin girl, holding a small clay bowl they had just pulled from a satchel.  The largest bugbear, wearing a gemstone encrusted eye patch, bellowed with laughter as he threw the bowl to the ground, and the goblin girl cried out and fell the the floor, unconscious.

At this, Eva cast Entagle, and magical vines sprouted in the room.  With crossbows bolts and magic spells flying about the room, the bugbears struggled to free themselves in the barrage.

Fleek fired a bolt at point blank into the largest bugbear.  Recognizing the creature, Fleek taunted him.  "Mosk!  Your brother Klarg is dead!" screamed Fleek in the goblin language, rolling away and running back up the hallway several feet as he did so.

The enraged Mosk ripped free from the vines, shoved past Durial, Lemon, and Eva, and brought a mighty maul down upon the small frame of the goblin.  A sickening crunch echoed in the hall, as Fleek's shoulder met his hip, and he fell.

Surrounded, the eyepatch-laden monster went down fast; his fellow bugbears, who never had the chance to escape their vines, were dispatched quickly.  In the quiet moments after the fight, Raven rushed to Fleek, healing him with a spell.

[DM note: literally 1 more point to instant-kill.  Whew.]

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Dazed, his life having flashed before his eyes, the goblin father approached his unconscious daughter and roused her awake.

"Who?  What?  Dad?  I thought you were dead..."
"It's okay, I'm here now, we're here.  I brought some friends."

Droop, dazed, reached out and picked up the fragments of the broken clay bowl.

"This was mother's offering bowl.  I don't remember her, but I remember you told me she was a priestess of Meriadar."

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she placed the fragments in a pouch and stood.  She suddenly became stern, angry, and walked over to the corpse of the bugbear, Mosk.  Lifting the eyepatch, she spit in his face, then picked up his crude stone maul.  Hefting it above her head, she slammed it upon his skull with surprising strength, flattening it to the floor.

(Borrowed from https://ronindude.deviantart.com/art/Piglet-the-Goblin-Barbarian-674594765)


"Better.
I'm done with this.
I'm done with Grol.
I'm done with bugbears.
I'm done with Redbrands.
I'm going to end this now."