Lost Mines Of Phandelver : 14 – Double Trouble

Our heroes:

Euphemia “Mia” Tosscobble, the Halfling Rogue,

Count Erspell, the Elvish Mage,

Kui-Kui, the Human Noble Fighter,

Viggo, the Human Druid,

Dave, the Human Folk Hero Fighter,

& Eorlund Granitefella, the Dwarvish Cleric

Had finally found Gundren! The problem was he was being held captive by Grol the King of the Bugbears.

The fight had begun, Mia set Byron at the drow elf, who was knocked down as the mastiff pounced on him. Dave swiftly drew his bow and fired a shot at the wolf, the arrow hit its mark as it hit the wolf squarely in between the eyes, killing it instantly.

Eorlund darted across the room to his cousin, healing him and helping him regain consciousness. Showing his dwarven hardiness, Gundren immediately leapt to his feet and grabbed the nearest thing he could wield, a table leg, running up to the bugbear and smacking it.

With the drow preoccupied with the dog, the party focused on Grol, easily beating down the bugbear with a 6 on 1 assault. Once the king was neutralised, the party moved onto the drow, Byron released his grip on the dark elf as Viggo, still, a giant panda grabbed him. The party decided it would be a better idea to interrogate their captive and find out what they know.

To help speed things along, Eorlund cast Zone of Truth, as the zone ripples out from the dwarf, it passes the drow, who seems to shimmer for a moment before his entire body starts to morph! The drow was actually a doppelganger!
The party start to ask the creature questions, simple stuff to start with, just to check if the zone was working, its name (Miraj) what it had for breakfast (eggs). Satisfied the creature could not lie to them, they asked who it worked for, Miraj revealed he was working for the Black Spider, the mysterious drow behind all of the trouble in the area. They try to find out more about the Black Spider, he’s a wizard, he’s extremely powerful, he needed Gundren to find an old mine which is home to some incredible artefact he wants.

After a few minutes, Eorlund’s spell lost its effect and the doppelganger refused to divulge any more information. Feeling that it had outlasted its usefulness and not wanting it to go back to warn the spider, Mia pulled out her crossbow and shot the creature in the head. As it slumped over, the party made their way out of the room, wanting to leave the castle. Viggo climbs onto the roof.
The party are stopped by the two hobgoblins they spoke to earlier as one noticed that the dog they claimed to be delivering was still with the party and covered in blood. Not being able to deceive them a second time, the party attacked. But as they were in a narrow corridor, the members of the party at the back couldn’t help.

While the party was fighting, Viggo once again stepped on an old raft and fell into the castle, luckily he wasn’t hurt too bad, and landed just next to a collapsed wall to the outside.

Kui-Kui standing at the back of the party decided to try and run around through the castle, hoping to get a flank on the hobgoblins, but as he passed through one room, something caught his eye… Mia? Kui-Kui wondered what she was doing here as she was supposed to be back fighting the hobgoblins. He called out to her, Mia turned and faced him, but something seemed off, did Mia always have that scar in the middle of her head… he quickly worked it out, the doppelganger was still alive and had taken Mia’s shape. Drawing his weapon, he chased after Fake-Mia. As the pair ran through the castle, they came across Viggo who was sitting just outside the castle walls. Seeing this as an opportunity Fake-Mia called out to Viggo claiming that Kui-Kui was, in fact, the doppelganger.

Viggo believed the Halfling and started advancing on Kui-Kui. The fighter dodges and parries Virgo’s attacks, trying to tell him that he’s been tricked, that they need to capture ‘Mia’ before she can escape. Viggo is finally convinced when Kui-Kui calls him brother, a fact the pair haven’t made public yet. The panda stops his attacks an turns to look for Fake-Mia, but the doppelganger is long-gone.

The rest of the party fighting the hobgoblins manage to defeat them without too much issue, but hear yelling coming from behind. Checking it out, they see Kui-Kui berating Viggo for believing the Fake-Mia. Angry at everything, Kui-Kui tells everyone to get to the cart and that they are getting out of there.
The group make their way back into Phandaline late at night and head straight to the Inn, to recoup and to deal with Gundren’s injuries.
Kui-Kui sits at the bar and talks with the Dragon born barkeep, asks him for the strongest drink they have. The Barkeep reaches under the counter and grabs a bottle of Dragon Whiskey and hands it to Kui-Kui, who pours out drinks for the whole party and several for himself. With a blast of fire breath, Kui-Kui falls back off of his stool, hic-upping while still blowing out little plumes of fire. The dragon born tells the party not to worry about him as he picks up Kui-Kui and takes him up to the party’s room. Mia pockets what was left of the bottle.

Gundren is safe, all that remains is to confront the Black Spider,

The Adventure Continues…