Dealing with Player plans

The session I had this week was all about dealing with the players having a plan. My Swords & Wizardry campaign has a plot going on in the background. The players have interacted with it on occasion but for the most part, they are only slightly aware of it. I hope this will change as they increase in level because dungeon of the month can get boring.

Recently they interacted directly with the plot when one of their NPC party members was kidnapped by doppelgangers. The players did not follow up on the clues but the doppelgangers has a purpose and they were not going to leave the player's characters alone. One ambush on the leader of the party later and they started planning how to get the doppelgangers out in the open. Thankfully the planning for the trap was at the end of a session so I had plenty of time to prepare. They also decided to spring the trap at their home base so I already had the main map ready. It was just a question of creating a few smaller location maps in case they followed up on things.

Everything went off quite well. It is always enjoyable to watch the players take the lead on where they want to go. Since the encounter began at the player's manor house, all of the NPCs for the party were present plus just about everyone they ever interacted with in the town. The Roll20 map of their manor at one point had dozens of tokens moving around on it. It was not as difficult to manage as it sounds.

Session 68: Changeling Ball

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alonso (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Vervork (human fighter NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC), Glason Bosk (human thief NPC), Rune Frost (human wizard NPC).

For two weeks Lakima works on creating the two magical Revealing Portals. During this downtime, his wife Alayna sends out invitations for a Ball to be held at the Black Dragon Manor. She even auditions entertainment. Aashdoshan busies himself with the study and preparation of the Manual of Flesh Golems. The other members of the company take precautions to avoid an ambush by doppelgangers. Always traveling around town in pairs.

The Ball is held after dusk on the evening of Arbel 6th. All of the most important families in Edgerton are invited and most of them have sent their RSVP. In bunches, the guests arrive. Some of the more important merchant families arrive as large groups including retainers who wait outside. Soon the Manor’s Main Hall, Parlor, and Dining Hall are packed with people. Eathwund, Alonso, and a disguised Mimic watch the main door where their man-servant Huntley announces guests. Lantosh and Vervork watch the servant’s entrance. The first excitement occurs when Lantosh catches Nuen of Blackcreek trying to sneak in the servant’s entrance. After a quick word with Lakima, Lantosh tosses Nuen into the street. After speaking with Wynather, the elvish ambassador, Lakima decides to show him the altarpieces they took from Haven – claiming they found them in a hobgoblin lair. Wyanther graciously accepts their return.

All of the party-goers enter through the Revealing Portal that has been placed around the Manor door but nothing interesting happens. That is until the Galvis family arrives. As Lord Galvis steps through the front door he is briefly revealed to be a doppelganger. Eathwund, Alonso, and Lakima immediately react. Lakima casts web over the doorway, missing Lord Galvis but trapping him inside the manor. The rest of his family turn and run away. Eathwund and Alonso attack the doppelganger and kill it with a few well-placed sword thrusts. The commotion at the front door causes a minor panic in the Main Hall. The music stops, some people scream and try to run. But Lakima loudly announces that it is just something they had put in place for everyone’s protection. Everything is okay now.

The dead doppelganger is carried by Eathwund and Alonso across the Main Hall (in front of shocked guests) as Aashdoshan directs them to take the corpse down to the cellar. The corpse is laid out on a table in Aashdoshan’s work area. Alonso heads back up to the Main Hall where Lakima has removed the web. They get back to watching the front door as late-arriving guests continue to enter. The music starts up again and everyone settles down. The ball is a little subdued after that. Lakima discusses the Revealing Portal with the dwarven ambassador who expresses an interest in it. Eventually, the guests begin to leave, some a little earlier than planned.

Meanwhile, Aashdoshan casts Speak with Dead on the doppelganger corpse in the basement. He asks the spirit of the doppelganger three questions and learns that the doppelgangers have taken over Galvis Manor as their new lair. He also learns that only five doppelgangers remain in the gang.

The last few guests are ushered out of the Manor a few hours after midnight. Lakima tells everyone that they need to investigate Galvis Manor immediately – before the doppelgangers have a chance to move to a new hideout. After some convincing, new friends Glason and Rune agree to accompany the group. Aashdoshan brings a skeleton dressed in a hooded robe. The troop of eleven adventurers walks through the quiet streets of Edgerton in the still of the night.

Galvis Manor is a small, two-story building located near the Church of St. Johan. The building is dark with no lights shining out of the windows. Fenris carefully checks the front door and tells everyone that it is locked. Lakima suggests he open it then. Fenris picks the lock on the front door and swings it inwards. The inside of the manor is well-lit by oil lamps, all of the windows are covered with blankets to block the light. In the main hall, a well-dressed woman sees Fenris at the door and screams, “Thieves, intruders, help, help!”

Fenris, Eathwund, Alonso, Vervork, and Lantosh rush into the room to try to prevent the woman from getting away but she darts out of the room into an open sitting area. There they see two of the people they saw at the Manor. Through an open doorway, they also see a man working in the kitchen. The four people snarl and brandish clawed hands at the adventurers, leaving little doubt that they are doppelgangers. There is a furious fight as Fenris and the fighters wade into a melee. Fenris is injured with the swipe of a claw and Lakima yells at him to get back so the fighters can handle things. One of the creatures is killed and turns into the familiar emaciated-looking body of a doppelganger. The rest turn to their true forms. One flees to a dining area and is chased by Lakima’s pet mimic. All four are killed.

Lakima tells everyone to spread out and look for a stair down to a cellar. They search several rooms but do not find any stairs or trap doors leading down. There is a stair leading up to the second floor. On the second floor, Fenris listens at a door and tells everyone he can hear someone pacing. Eathwund flings open the door to the master bedroom and he is startled to see a familiar man pacing in the center of the room – Nevain, Alayna’s father. Alonso and Eathwund advance menacingly on Nevain who cries out his thanks for being rescued. Lakima enters the room and questions Nevain who claims to have been kidnapped and questioned about the members of the Company of the Black Dragon. Uncertain if he is a doppelganger, Lakima tells Nevain to strip off his clothes. Puzzled at first, Nevain complies. His clothes end up in a pile on the bed. Satisfied, Lakima tells Nevain to get dressed and asks him more questions.

Suddenly, a dozen doppelgangers come storming up the stairs from below. Eathwund recovers first and swings his sword at one – and it goes right through it. Aashdoshan shouts out, “But there is only supposed to be five – the dead cannot lie to me?”

Domago declares, “It’s an illusion, disbelieve and they all disappear!” Aashdoshan casts Magic missile, and the missiles harmlessly pass through the doppelgangers. Alonso swings and his sword thrust somehow misses the massed doppelgangers. Slowly, they all begin to question the illusion and it wavers and vanishes. Then a blast of Magic missiles leaves Nevain’s hands and slams into Aashdoshan deeply wounding him.

“Die you vermin!” Nevain yells and waves his hand closing the door to the bedroom and Holding it. A few of the adventurers are caught in the room with him. Lakima calls out, “Don’t hurt him I think they are controlling him!” Eathwund and Alonso strike Nevain with the flats of their blades. Nevain is knocked back toward the bed but recovers and changes his appearance to that of Lakima. “Or maybe not!” Lakima shouts. One more strike from Alonso knocks Nevain unconscious onto the bed. The door to the bedroom has to be smashed to pieces to get it open again.

Lantosh, Vervork, and Lakima search the rest of the second floor finding the real human members of the Galvis family locked in a room. Meanwhile, Alonso and Eathwund search the master bedroom. They find an open chest full of gold coins and a locked desk drawer. Fenris is asked to open the door and he checks it carefully before gasping, “Poison!” and falling dead on the floor. Domago uses his magical tome to neutralize the poison in Fenris’ system. Fenris sits up and tries to pick the lock but his hands are still trembling and he fails. Glason gives it a try and opens the locked drawer quickly with a flourish.

Inside the drawer, they find sheets of paper and some gems. The papers detail the legal and illegal dealings of the Galvis family. There is also a note detailing the location of a magical cudgel in a locked chamber beneath the Church of St. Cuthbert in Edgerton. Finally, there is a strange note:

"I have a task for you, thrall. Meet me at the sewer junction beneath the cold forge and I will give you the details. There are some troublesome vermin that must be removed."

The note is signed with a strange symbol they have seen before. The sign of the Mind Flayer.

Once the gold and gems have been safely stashed away in the Bag of Holding, they let the legitimate Galvis family out of their room. Lord Galvis is questioned. Lakima asks if there is a cellar in the manor but he is told there is not. Lord Galvis laments the ruin that has been brought on his family and business. The adventurers seem unmoved and soon take their leave.

The adventurers arrive back at their Manor House and read through the papers they have found. They connect the cold forge mentioned in the note with a disreputable smithy located in the warehouse district outside the city walls. Lakima suggests they leave immediately to check it out. Aashdoshan points out that he is in need of healing. Healing potions they took from a hobgoblin shaman a few days ago are given to Aashdoshan.

The entire group heads out of the town in the middle of the night, they are stopped by a curious member of the town watch. In the warehouse district, they look for an entrance to sewers or tunnels without success. This part of town is not supposed to have sewers. Fenris picks the lock on the door to the smithy and vanishes inside for 10 minutes. When he emerges, he tells them that he has found a trapdoor leading to a cellar. They head through the empty smithy to the cellar. A short tunnel leads to an ancient sewer. The walls are made of old, crumbling bricks. Stagnant water rests in a channel. They follow the sewer in the direction of the river and come upon a rusted barrier of iron bars. There appears to be no way around it. However, after some searching, they find that a latch allows a section of the barrier to swing open. They pass through and continue along the sewer line.