Troll Bridge

 

This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers

• Silvermist Biggins: (she/her) half-elf/half-halfling drunken master monk.
• Princess the flying cat
• Chumbawamba the warg
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises, a charismatic male Varient human ("vuman") warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed

• Devora --she/her,  Valor Bard and Student Intern
• Hootie Hoo -- Devora's owl familiar
• Nimbat: Nimrod's bat familiar
• Dormin: Nimrod's summoned shadow ally.
• Jax the investigative rogue dhampir (she/her) 

The party is currently at level 7.  The is the team's 2nd level 7 adventure.

The Adventure

The team needed to travel on a dangerous road to their next destination.  They had heard caravans had been attacked with many being completely destroyed.  So the team accepted a contract to solve the problem of the caravan attacks in return for payment in gold.

The team came upon overturned and destroyed carts atop a bridge that spanned a ravine.  Closer investigation revealed a tunnel under the bridge leading deep into the cliff.

The team entered the tunnel.  Within the unlit interior they found a flimsy 40-50 foot long bridge that bridged a smelly toxic cesspool.  Nimrod teleported across the chasm and tied off ropes to allow others to follow.  

Shortly after everyone crossed, the party found a side tunnel that led to a very heavy secret door that would have allowed an easy alternative to the rickety bridge.  

Upon travelling a little deeper into the cave the party had its first encounter with the caravan raiders.  They were one troll plus three goblins.  Silvermist killed 2 of the goblins quickly.  The troll was brought down by everyone's focused efforts.  One goblin had an uncanny ability to hide nearly in plain sight.  Eventually zhe was found out.  Zher name was Aryx.  Aryx was allowed to live and leave on condition zhe did not cause further trouble.  

Nimrod cast speak with dead to interrogate the dead troll -- using Undercommon.  The troll revealed it was the camp cook and said there were several more trolls.  It also said the trolls wereckeeping their treasures in this cave complex.  It promised the team that its trollish brethren would be avenging its death upon the team soon.

The team travelled into another chamber and found another troll and some goblins.  It was a tough fight and both Devora and Silvermist took some hard hits.  One of the goblins escaped and ran around a corner to alert its kin elsewhere in the cave while the team was busy putting down the troll.  

Nimrod found some caravan loot in a side cave.  But everyone else wanted to pursue the escaped goblin.  Nimrod summoned Dormin and then they both followed Jax as she pursued Devora and Silvermist.

The team caught up with the goblin as it was alerting the biggest troll the team had met so far at a big heavy door.  Nimrod casted Hunger of Hadar on the area behind the door.  Devora casted Entangle immediately behind the door as well.  Chumbwamba and Dormin stood at the door's threshold to block  the room's occupants from charging toward Nimrod out of the Hunger Zone.

Silvermist, Nimbat, and maybe Jax had glimpsed another exit from the room in the brief time before the Hunger of Hadar obscured their view of the room.  They backtracked past Nimrod at a dash to block the troll's escape just in case it was not caught up in the Hunger of Hadar.

Nimrod and Devora heard the dying cries of the goblin in the hunger zone.  But they curiously did not hear any sounds of the troll.  But the spell casters kept their spells up just in case the troll trying to fool them into prematurely stop their spells.  However, Nimrod did periodically monitor Nimbat's observations through Nimbat's senses.  So when Nimbat and the rest of the team found another way into the troll's chamber Nimrod and Devora went to Nimbat's discovery while keeping their spells up.  Chumbawamba and Dormin maintained their positions on the door threshold.

The other entrance into the troll's chamber required a dangerous jump across a deep pit.  Silvermist and Jax easily crossed the pit to discover they were inside the troll's throne room that had many chests that likely contained the remaining caravan treasures.

The troll retreated through another door opposite the hunger zone as Nimrod and Devora reached the pit Nimbat found.  Jax and Silvermist told them the troll was in the chamber beyond the new door.  So Nimrod and Devora ended their spells to allow Dormin and Chumbawamba to enter the throne room.  Then Nimrod teleported across the pit as Devora intuited going down a parallel passage would allow her to intercept the troll.

Nimrod saw the troll clinging to the side of a chamber which had shallow pool of scummy water on its floor.  He casted Hunger of Hadar again to further erode the troll's strength.  The Hunger Zone filled the chamber and the troll was suffering.  Silvermist and Devora were on the other side.  So now the troll was surrounded.  Silvermist freed a halfling merchant hostage on the far side of the pool at this time.  Unfortunately this troll escaped the zone and started putting some serious hurt on Silvermist and Devora.

Nimrod dropped his new Hunger of Hadar and Jax tried to bound across the pool to help Devora and Silvermist.  This activated a poison fungus in that chamber which inflicted some poison damage on Jax before she retreated.  Dormin followed suit knowing he was immune to all poisons.  Dormin tried to attack the troll but could not land a blow.  Nimrod pelted the troll with eldritch blasts and mind slivers that the troll surely found mildly annoying.  Jax used something like flaming oil to further hurt the troll at this time.

Jax then shot the troll with a silvered arrow.  Luckily this was a killing blow since Devora and Silvermist were in dire peril at that time.

The team inventoried the items in the throne room and took a short rest.  They found:

10 gems worth 50 each

javelin of lightning  for Jax

pair of crystal lenses -- eyes of the eagle for Jax

adamantine chain shirt for Devora?

instrument of the bard -- a citern -- barkskin, curewounds,  -- for Devora?

The loot Nimrod found at the 2nd encounter site belonged to the now liberated halfling merchant.

The team then went into the last unvisited chamber of the complex.  It was adjacent to where they had their first encounter.  Within this chamber there was a vicious plant monster that was quite hard to put down.  But it lost in the end.  The team garnered a small gem from a filthy rusted knife from that chamber.

The team safely exited the cave back up to the road.  Nimrod used his floating disk and unseen servant spells to evacuate the loot and the hostage back up to the road to conclude the adventure.