[IC] Henchmen! 5e D&D

[Spore]

Wilfred checks the corpse and riffles its pockets. He doesn't even wait until the corpse has stopped twitching.

[MCerberus]

Gorin

So the looting is going on, fine. Not the time to dwadle though. "Still have a cat ta skin, still wastin' time before the underdark scum comes back with friends."

To keep things going along, he goes over and tries to open the door across the hall from the corpse.

[Caterpie]

Searching the corpse, Wilfred finds nothing besides the bloodied bathrobe, a pair of slippers and the broken cup of tea that the house guest dropped. It all indicates he was getting ready to go to bed. Perhaps his items are stored somewhere else…

Opening the door, Gorin finds a comfortable room, well adorned with a rug, vases and a fancy statue of a female elf scantily clad. This seems like the perfect room to sit down, relax and drink a cup of tea before going to bed.

Out of the windows, the Dwarven druid is able to see the balcony on the floor below, which appears to have been built for dinner parties. “Oh, the frivolity of the upper classes” he thinks to himself as he stares at the large dinner table and the expensive looking chairs.

The balcony is also equipped with a telescope. “Humans and their machinations, always a poor attempt to mimic dwarven eyes”.

There are also small vents on the balcony and the dwarf presumes a kitchen may be direct below it. A delicious aroma emanates from the vents.

Updated Map

Updated Map for those with darkvision

Spoiler: The Party!

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Character	HP/AC	Race/Class	Special effects	Has Inspiration	Purse
Dawner Thunukalath	HP:7/13, AC:16	Goliath Fighter	none	yes	10sp
Wilfred Springgauge	HP:9/9, AC:15	Rock Gnome Wizard	Mage Armor	yes	10sp
Barry Dwark	HP: 8/8, AC:14	Human Rogue	none	yes	15sp
Gorin Hopsmith	HP:10/10, AC:14	Hill Dwarf Druid	none	yes	10sp

It is 10:20pm. Today is Mudsday, Chahari 30, in the 58th year of his magnitude, the Supreme Overlord.
It’s late spring and the night is unseasonable hot for the time of the year.

[Spore]

Bah, useless. USELESS, USELESS! Wilfred states. Nothing of value here. But maybe... the gnome checks the door behind the sleeping wizard-servant and enters it.

[Caterpie]

Wilfred finds himself in a well-kept guest room with a huge bed lined with comfortable pillows and clean sheets, typical of palaces and castles. The room is equipped with a large desk provisioned with parchment and exotic inks, ideal for spending nights hunched over magical scribblings.

On the corner, a full plate of armor is mounted on display next to a table with an assortment of items including:

A nice looking longsword, a shiny amulet, a corked vial with a bright red liquid inside, a wand made of ghost-oak wood, a pair of reading glasses, a novel written by the famous author Ulysses Burmoil and a near complete porcelain tea set, missing but a single cup.

Updated Map

Updated Map for those with darkvision

Spoiler: The Party!

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Character	HP/AC	Race/Class	Special effects	Has Inspiration	Purse
Dawner Thunukalath	HP:7/13, AC:16	Goliath Fighter	none	yes	10sp
Wilfred Springgauge	HP:9/9, AC:15	Rock Gnome Wizard	Mage Armor	yes	10sp
Barry Dwark	HP: 8/8, AC:14	Human Rogue	none	yes	15sp
Gorin Hopsmith	HP:10/10, AC:14	Hill Dwarf Druid	none	yes	10sp

It is 10:25pm. Today is Mudsday, Chahari 30, in the 58th year of his magnitude, the Supreme Overlord.
It’s late spring and the night is unseasonable hot for the time of the year.

[Spore]

Yus. This stuff has to be magical! I can tell. Dawner, Gorin, swipe all of that. Wilfred assumes the inks are good enough to write down spells, the wand and amulet are light enough for the small one to be looted.

[MCerberus]

Gorin

Called over by the loot, Gorin takes a gander at the shiny stuff seemingly defenseless. He hadn't seen the electric trap from earlier, but knows there are traps due to what happened to poor ARGH. Meh, they're on a schedule. While going over to swipe the sword and amulet, Gorin remarks back to the gnome, "And has the fancy weasel picked up the track yet?"

[Caterpie]

The dwarven druid, Gorin, takes the longsword and shine amulet. Druids don’t usually fight with swords, but they are not impervious to the selling of valuable loot. Besides, the weapon weights nicely in Gorin’s hands and the dwarf feels eclectic for a minute, before stowing it away.

Dawner pockets the potion, but leaves the book, glasses and tea set behind. In his defense, they look rather uninteresting as far as items go.

The full plate of armor is left behind, at least for now.

The expert thief, Barry, looks with a grudge at his companions taking all the cool stuff, but he is relieved by the fact that any potential magical wards won’t trigger in his pocket.

The weasel, Eusebius, hints that the party should keep following the hallway and turn east at the end, and so the ragtag band of adventurers follow on the trail of the terrible cat.

Turning the corner at the end of the hall, the group finds two new sets of doors. This is another long hallway with a corner turning back north at the end.

Updated Map

Spoiler: The Party!

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Character	HP/AC	Race/Class	Special effects	Has Inspiration	Purse
Dawner Thunukalath	HP:7/13, AC:16	Goliath Fighter	none	yes	10sp
Wilfred Springgauge	HP:9/9, AC:15	Rock Gnome Wizard	Mage Armor	yes	10sp
Barry Dwark	HP: 8/8, AC:14	Human Rogue	none	yes	15sp
Gorin Hopsmith	HP:10/10, AC:14	Hill Dwarf Druid	none	yes	10sp

It is 10:30pm. Today is Mudsday, Chahari 30, in the 58th year of his magnitude, the Supreme Overlord.
It’s late spring and the night is unseasonable hot for the time of the year.

[HalezYeah]

Barry looks at the little creature being used as a tracker and motions for it to lead the way to the cat.

As they progress Barry looks around for traps.

Spoiler

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(1d20+3)[17]

“Let’s be on our way to get this finished before we get anymore unfortunate interruptions. “

[Relkin]

Dawner Thunukalath Level 1 Fighter | HP: 7/13 | AC: 16 | PP: 13 | Second Wind 1/1 | Stone's Endurance 0/1 Dawner ignored the fallen guest he had slayed and carries on peering into the rooms, lending his torch light to whoever needs it for inspection. Coming upon the items Dawner lets a smile creep upon his face. He quickly pockets the potion, seeing no alarm from the others. After he asks the others to wait for a moment as he inspects the plate armor. If they spare the time Dawner dons (hehe) the armor and flexs his muscles a bit, feeling out the flexibility. Seeing the new sets of doors Dawner nods to Barry and Gorin to open the two closest while Dawner gets the furthest one down, in-case there was anything bad down that way the others would at least be safer behind. He gives it a quick once over and if he finds nothing out of the ordinary he'll open and look inside. Spoiler: OOC Show Move to G24 and open door assuming the others will open the other two behind. Perception on door before opening to spot any traps or locks: (1d20+3)[10] Should all be in order then perception once opening door and looking into room: (1d20+3)[5] Since Dawner got the plate mail what should his new armor be? I'm going to assume 18 as that is normal plate armor and if it's anything special... well Caterpie you should know and can include it in my AC when trying to kill me

[Caterpie]

Dawner puts on the armor and he can immediately tell this is a the work of a master armourer. It is considerably light, but also resistant enough to endure strong blows. The fighter feels confident and eager to fight in this new suit of armor!

The only thing strange is that when examining the armor, Dawner briefly sees it become transparent for a split second and the image flickers light a candle flame exposed to strong winds. The effect, however, ends before Dawner can give it a second thought. But perhaps a short practice with the new suit might reveal its true properties..


After that, the party continues down the hall opening the remaining doors.

Barry inspect the hallway and doesn’t find any traps or hazards. He does find, however, another secret door!


Regarding the ordinary doors:

Gorin finds yet another luxurious guest room, but this time depleted of any valuables or magic items.

Dawner finds a small and windowless vestibule containing a two large chests.

Barry finds a second small chamber, containing a solitary chest.


What will the party do?


Updated Map

Spoiler: The Party!

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Character	HP/AC	Race/Class	Special effects	Has Inspiration	Purse
Dawner Thunukalath	HP:7/13, AC:18	Goliath Fighter	none	yes	10sp
Wilfred Springgauge	HP:9/9, AC:15	Rock Gnome Wizard	Mage Armor	yes	10sp
Barry Dwark	HP: 8/8, AC:14	Human Rogue	none	yes	15sp
Gorin Hopsmith	HP:10/10, AC:14	Hill Dwarf Druid	none	yes	10sp

It is 10:40pm. Today is Mudsday, Chahari 30, in the 58th year of his magnitude, the Supreme Overlord.
It’s late spring and the night is unseasonable hot for the time of the year.

[Relkin]

Dawner Thunukalath Level 1 Fighter | HP: 7/13 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | Second Wind 1/1 | Stone's Endurance 0/1 Moving swiftly in the armor, feeling unstopable, Dawner approaches both chests and gives them a quick once over for locks and traps. Feeling satisfied, if her finds none, he opens them up and peers at their contents. Spoiler: OOC Show Chest 1 Perception: (1d20+3)[20] Chest 2 Perception: (1d20+3)[21]

[Spore]

Very dapper, my large friend! Wilfred compliments the newly found armor. He has to build confidence and relationships. His big brute might be his best ticket to escape this lowly existence. It does make you look less primi... ehr, more sophisticated. The gnome really bits his tongue. He scrambles the room to find enough magical residue and items to cast another divination without straining his mental health.

Spoiler

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Starting Detect Magic Ritual...

[MCerberus]

Gorin

Loot in hand, meaning eventually gold, Gorin regroups with everyone else. The dwarf takes a look around the corner to see more stairs, then at the gnome doing weird magic stuff. "Alright then, furry thing's gotta be close a level up, when yer done with... that"

[Caterpie]

With Dawner’s surprising knack for finding traps, the Goliath notices the chests are dummies. They are hollow inside and serve the single purpose of activating a lever when opened. The lever, on its turn, springs open a trap door on the floor, dropping an incautious treasure seeker to the depths below.

There’s also a light scent of ocean water on the room, but it could be unrelated.

***

With the ritual complete, Wilfred sees the magical auras emanating from the longsword and amulet that Gorin took, from the potion, from the armor that Dawner is now wearing, and also from the wand that Wilfred took himself.

Everything else is mundane.

***

The party then rests and examines the newfound items. During the rest, the cantrip spell cast on the torch ends its duration, but its fair to assume that Wilfred replenishes the effect with another light cantrip.

Spoiler: Dawner

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You have heard in legends about this item, but you never believed it to be true: The Armor of Etherealness! (DMG pg.185)

While wearing this armor, you can speak its command word as an action to gain the effect of the etherealness spell, which lasts for 10 minutes or until you remove the armor or use and action to speak the command word again. Once used, this property can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Etherealness: You flicker out this plane of existence and step into the ethereal plane. Your body, armor and personal items included, become immune to attacks and effects from the material plane (unless the source has a magical power to do so).

Good side: You become invisible and immune to attacks, you can move through otherwise solid objects.

Bad side: You can’t attack or affect creatures/objects in the material plane. And you can’t see very well either. Everything looks gray and you can only see up to 60 ft. Also, moving costs double.

Really bad side: You never know who or what you may find in the ethereal plane.

When you phase back to reality, if you are occupying the space of a solid object you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space and suffer force damage equal to twice the number of feet you are moved.

The potion:
You find this to be an extremely powerful potion of healing. It heals 10d4+20 HP. You know that this can be diluted into many potions of lesser healing, but you don’t know how to.

Spoiler: Gorin

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The Longsword:

A swamp frog once told you a tale of knight who carried a very rare sword named.. The Nine Lives Stealer. (DMG pg.183)

It requires one to be attuned to the weapon to benefit from its powers, which grant the user a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
The user needs to roll 1d8+1, that will be the number of charges of the sword. Once the charges are all used up, it is reduced to a simple mundane item.
Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit with this sword against a foe of 99HP or less, the target must succeed a DC 15 constitution saving throw or be instantly slain. The sword then loses 1 charge.

Spoiler: Barry

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The Amulet:

Examining the amulet, Barry discovers it to be the famous Amulet of the Planes! (DMG pg.150)

It requires attunement to be used, and it allows the user to travel to other planes of existence. Not without the risk of becoming lost or being sent into unwanted destinations!

How to use it? If attuned, spend an action to name a location that you are familiar with on another plane of existence. Then make a DC15 intelligence check. On a successful roll, you cast the plane shift spell, traveling to the desired location. On a failure, you and each creature and object within 15 feet of you travel to a random destination.

The random destination:
Roll 1d100. On a 1-60, you travel to a random location on the plane you named. On a 61-100, you travel to a random plane of existence.

Spoiler: Wilfred

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The wand:

Examining the ghost-oak wooden wand, Wilfred discovers it to be a… Wand of Fear! (DMG pg.210)

It requires attunement to be used and it has 7 charges and the following properties:

It regains 1d6+1 charges at dawn.
If you expend the last charge, roll 1d20. On a roll of 1, it crumbles to ashes and is destroyed.

command: While holding the wand, you can use an action to expend 1 charge and command another creature to flee or grovel, as with the command spell (save DC 15).

Cone of Fear: While holding the wand, you can use an action to expend 2 charges, causing the wand’s tip to emit a 60-foot cone of amber light. Each creature in the cone must succeed a DC15 wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. While it is frightened in this way, a creature must spend its turn trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move into a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can only take the dash action or try to escape from effects that prevent it from moving. If it has nowhere to move, it can use the dodge action. At the end of each turn, the creature can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success.

Updated Map

Spoiler: The Party!

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Character	HP/AC	Race/Class	Special effects	Has Inspiration	Purse
Dawner Thunukalath	HP:7/13, AC:18	Goliath Fighter	none	yes	10sp
Wilfred Springgauge	HP:9/9, AC:15	Rock Gnome Wizard	Mage Armor	yes	10sp
Barry Dwark	HP: 8/8, AC:14	Human Rogue	none	yes	15sp
Gorin Hopsmith	HP:10/10, AC:14	Hill Dwarf Druid	none	yes	10sp

It is 11:50pm. Today is Mudsday, Chahari 30, in the 58th year of his magnitude, the Supreme Overlord.
It’s late spring and the night is unseasonable hot for the time of the year.

[Spore]

Wilfred analyzes the items with a mix of murmurs. They contain: Aahs and Ooh and Hmms among other largely indescribable sounds. After he is finished, he sits down on the large bed and stares at a wall.

The group accommodates itself to the relaxing surroundings, enjoying the silence, but just as Dawner enjoys the silence a bit too much, Wilfred starts over again: BRILLIANT! he shouts, jumping up from the bed and wandering through the room like a young and motivated professor about to start his very first lecture, like Sherlock Holmes trying to explain the case he just unravelled. These items are rather marvelous! The owner of this veritable mansion is without a doubt a collector of powerful artifacts. This sword can instantly slay any enemies by siphoning their life force out through the crystal embedded at the pommel. You need to hit a vital organ and then it drains the life, no matter how large its life force. He turns to Dawner and knocks at the pieces of armor. They don't really clank but rather portray an unearthly chime. This armor however...allows you to travel on the ethereal plane. To say it more plainly, it allows you to phase through solid objects. You could invade an enemy fortress with it, you can escape prison cells, or flee from battle. You can even fly! Of course this way you attract monsters and creatures of the plane ethereal as well. Shadows, lingering spirits and ghosts are just some of the creatures you can encounter. Wisps or fey spirits are probably as well. Which brings me to the next item of power Wilfred doesn't really stop to breathe. He must have developed some breathing technique that allows him to inhale through his ears. The Amulet of the Planes requies a sharp mind to steer it. But with it, we could travel to Hell to pact with devils, we could visit the Abyss and acquire demonic forces or even to the High Heavens. I assume they want to kill evil doers as well, and we might just be their ticket to do so. But I don't trust them. Not until I know the correct banishing rites to keep them at bay. Alas, I don't assume you have the mental faculties to steer us through the astral plane and into a targetted plane. And this small thing here is a wand of fear. All these items might allow us to make more than just shape our future. We could become kings. No, gods! Wilfred's eyes start to twitch from left to right. Remember that offer for immeasurable power? If that is even remotely plausible, we can make the employer there grovel at our feet. We can banish him or her to the Plane of Fire. The power is in our grasp. Wilfred just rambles on and on about the possibilities. He mentions that you have to attune to the items as well. This ritual usually takes about half an hour and is different to every recipient and item. We need to find a book with sigil sequences for astral travel!

[MCerberus]

Gorin

Blah blah swords blah blah planes. The gnome keeps going on and Gorin nearly checks out. At the end though, the dwarf has a reminder. "Gotta get the cat if we don't wanna be a laughing stock. And get out of here. And avoid whatever reprisal's going to come from that underscum."

There's also the possibility they're going to attract people up the food chain with that kind of haul. Probably going to have to pawn off part of it to get coin. "Hopefully we'll find some immediately useful gold to smooth that over."

[Spore]

Wilfred looks in silent shock towards Gorin. "So...you think this is ... not immediately useful?" the gnome is puzzled. We can offer devils a way into our world, to give us untold power and wealth in exchange for them to reap the souls of innocents. And you call it...not useful? the wizard immediately gets a bit of distance between him and the druid. "You like nature, don't you? Wouldn't you WANT to visit the plane of primal nature? Wouldn't you want to transform this stinking city into a lush forest? Into a place where the strong survive and the weak get crushed? I would not worry about that cat furthermore. If we funnel the Feywilds onto this realm, I assume your Oberon or Willy the Fey king will reward us as well.

[Relkin]

Dawner Thunukalath Level 1 Fighter | HP: 13/13 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | Second Wind 1/1 | Stone's Endurance 1/1 Dawner listens intently to the explanation of his armor. "Hmmm good good," He says nodding his head. "That may come in handy. But for now we won't need it. We've rested long enough. Let's go kill this cat!"

[MCerberus]

Gorin

"They can smell your pride, make your end slow." Gorin coughs and continues talking like nothing happened. "Oh aye the faster we get this over with the less chance anything we ran across earlier"

[Spore]

It's quite surprising. Other than the deadly traps and the incompetent guards we haven't seen any real measures to stop robbers. Peculiar. Wilfred looks at Dawner. Yesyes, we should move on. After you, oh armored one. Wilfred signs a small bow.

When Barry mentions the secret door, Wilfred looks into the secret room. Eusepius climb the book shelf. Barry, this room is mostly likely covered in traps. I will not go in but trance here. Wilfred sits down in the hallway and once again connects his senses with Eusepius.

[Caterpie]

Eusepius scouts the room quickly, mindful of the many possible dangers. The book shelf is packed full of books with varied classics of world literature and drama. There is a huge bed, lined with comfortable pillows and the room is well decorated with vases and a statue.

There is also a large treasure chest right next to the bed.

[Spore]

Trash, just trash with the books. Looks like a guest bedroom. But why would its door be hidden. Maybe a panic room.

[Relkin]

Dawner Thunukalath Level 1 Fighter | HP: 13/13 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | Second Wind 1/1 | Stone's Endurance 1/1 Dawner peeks into the room looking around, "Maybe the Wizards quarters. Regardless, no cat. Lets move on." With that Dawner continues upstairs ignoring the contents of the room. Anyone close behind can hear him mumbling to himself about being tired with little sleep and annoyed about having to chase a dumb cat and he swears if there is one more floor above this one he is going back down and burning the tower. mumble mumble

[Spore]

You can't just IGNORE treasure, Dawner! Wilfred shrieks. What if the magical key to this mansion lies in that chest? What if we just obtained a magical castle? The gnome's voice becomes nervous. What if the overlord's weakness is described within a book in here?

[Relkin]

Dawner Thunukalath Level 1 Fighter | HP: 13/13 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | Second Wind 1/1 | Stone's Endurance 1/1 Dawner stops in his tracks and turns around to face Wilfred, at first he appeared angry at the outburst but stopped and smiled at the little gnome, "You want the treasure huh? Open the chest then. Do it. Lets see if you take a swim or get something good." He takes a step towards the gnome, attempting to inch him backwards and towards the room. Dawner stands there with arms folded waiting.

[Spore]

Wilfred wakes up from his trance as he feels the feet of the giant kicking his head. Me? In there? Uh.... The gnome hesitates. He looks back at the grim face that Dawner pulls. He then concentrates his attention on the ground, thinking where a devious wizard would place traps and switches. His trusty sidekick Eusepius sniffs the area besides him.

Spoiler

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Eusepius' help action to investigate:
Investigation: (1d20+7)[20](1d20+7)[15]

[MCerberus]

Gorin

"Yah, I was sayin' earlier that there's more stairs. Cats like being up places anyway."

Not wanting to interfere with the searching around the chest, the druid just hangs around, waiting to see what the fancy weasel finds.

[Spore]

The chest is sealed. No traps! Wilfred states cooly. There must be a key around here somewhere. But not a physical one. It's either a spell or a rune or some other voodoo. We can continue, my friends.

Wilfred - finally - turns his attention to the last floor.