Session 49 — The Forbidden Mine

Session Recap

Inside the occupied Menagoles, the four travellers on hand — Fenric, Magra, Lash and Jex (with Salamandine) — finally run down their patron. After a comic detour past a shuttered, Laewendas-coded church and a slow loop through the bustling Tapped Clapper (where the one-armed-band drummer who gives the tavern its name plays to a packed house and the cat-folk keeper Isilme runs the whole place single-handed), a winking guard waves them down the toilet corridor to a hidden back room. There, behind a secret knock answered by Pavid, Eldrich the Elder has set up a war-council base — figurine map-table, locked strongbox, a hidden cabinet, war-tactics bookshelves and a bed — with the Doctor he keeps concealed (Dr. Provostinalkov) finally venturing out of hiding. Magra holds the bar as cover; the others slip back to the room.

Eldrich lays out the campaign: make the Menagoles a secure landing point for skirmishing against the warband barbarian Knucklebones outside Lambert's Crossing — to "cut the head off one of Laewendas's snake generals" — and, above all (he repeats it four times), investigate the closed-off mines. The official story is that an orc, Vara'nak Gar-Galdar, burnt the tin mines from the inside and killed the workers; Eldrich, who doubts a 45-year mining veteran would do such a thing, wants the truth. Magra sketches the sigil from the Session 47 grove skeleton and Eldrich names it the craft of the Helmnack family — one of the town's two missing blacksmiths is Horonir Helmnack, a lesser noble of a line that anciently claimed to own one of the Tors (but never knew which). Lash adds the grimmer lead: their Speak-with-Dead conversation with the ancient mountaineer warned that monsters were kept in check beneath the mines, and that digging would let them out.

The party long-rests at the tavern (Magra sings out Heroic Inspiration to Fenric, Lash and Jex) and sets out on the morning of the 21st of New Summer in light rain, marching north toward the Middle Tor mine. Lash's survival lore (a 19) threads the right path; they find a fortified, forbidden mining settlement — barricades, out-turned spikes, five-to-ten guards, a dangling prisoner-cage, and a second path running suspiciously toward Lambert's Crossing. Choosing to slip around two smoke-break sentries (one nearly clocks Fenric, who bluffs and doubles back), they pick the steep south-east forest approach and run straight into the cliff's resident pest: a brood of badeedles — half-bird, half-beetle creatures — defending the 50-ft dirt face. The whole fight is fought deliberately silent (no guns, no spells — both casters are off elsewhere) so the guards stay none the wiser. The brood and their Mama Badeedle fall to crossbow, bow, claw and tail; Lash even tames one with a treat. With no alarm raised, the party scales the cliff — Fenric up a great tree, Magra after him, Lash and Jex up a fossil "dragon tail" jutting from the wall — and crests the rim beside a lone, miserable sentry. The session ends there. Still level 7.

Key Events

• Casing the Laewendas church. Wandering the streets, the party eyes a shuttered, empty church — "definitely Laewendas-coded," watched by a sunglassed cleric and a sword-resting "Rose of the Church" recruit-for-hire outside. Nobody's inside; a side door is unlocked but they leave it (a Jex perception 27 finds nothing through the closed shutters).
• The Tapped Clapper. They reach the central-fountain tavern: ~75–100 patrons, a Mad-Max-style one-man-band drummer (its living namesake), and the cat-folk keeper Isilme singlehandedly running bar, kitchen-window, tills and kegs while one cook grills out back. Eldrich the Elder's guards are posted at the hearth and the toilet corridor; Thalia and the goblin tour guide are getting on famously in the corner.
• Finding Eldrich's base. A recognised guard winks at Fenric, Jex and Lash and gestures past the public toilets. After Lash's long slapstick search of the bathroom (secret buttons that only flush and dispense gel) and Fenric's "secret knock," Pavid opens the hidden door to Eldrich the Elder's set-up.
• The Doctor emerges. A companion Eldrich has kept hidden in his carriage finally comes out — greeted by Lash as an old acquaintance ("hi Doctor, it's been a while") — almost certainly Dr. Provostinalkov, the scientist Eldrich extracted and conceals. "It wasn't safe to come out, but now it is."
• The war council. Eldrich the Elder sets the agenda: establish the Menagoles as a base for skirmishing at the Knucklebones warband near Lambert's Crossing, and — emphatically, four times over — investigate the sealed mines, whose official "orcs burnt it down" story he distrusts.
• Town intel from the patron. Eldrich relays what he's gathered: the local guard fort wants a blacksmith (its last two blacksmiths vanished, and a missing smith's wife vanished searching); an alchemist also disappeared; the jail holds militia-disturbers plus one long-held political prisoner, a "philosophizer"; and by the food going into the prison, it's "either starving many or feeding few." The freshest event is the murder two days ago (the walled-estate killing from Session 48).
• Vara'nak, the scapegoat. The named mine-burner is Vara'nak Gar-Galdar — an orc in his mid-to-late 60s who'd spent 45 years in the mines, executed per the records (no how, where or why given). Eldrich doubts the story; Magra, an orc herself, suspects monsters or a cover-up. (Sneaking the fort's private records is floated, but the party has "no stealth operatives" without Thalia and Silithane.)
• The Helmnack sigil. Magra draws the crest from the Session 47 grove skeleton; Eldrich the Elder identifies it as the Helmnack family's craft and names a missing blacksmith — Horonir Helmnack, a lesser noble. The Helmnacks anciently claimed one of the Tors (Little, Middle, or a mythical "Greater" Tor that may not exist); if they held the Middle Tor and its tin mine they'd be rich. The mine sits on the Middle Tor, north of town.
• Lash's monster theory. Lash recalls the Speak-with-Dead mountaineer (Ulda Golgain): monsters beneath the mines were "kept in check" by the mountain people, and digging would release them — so the disaster may have been monsters, not arson.
• Long rest and the march north. The party hires two rooms (Fenric insists on his own); Magra uses Encouraging Song to grant Heroic Inspiration to Fenric, Lash and Jex. They wake to the 21st of New Summer, lightly raining, and head north for the Middle Tor mine.
• Finding the mine. With no one to ask (asking a guard for directions to the forbidden mine would be dangerous), Lash rolls a 19 Survival and threads the right trail past a fishery path, a herbalist's hut and a mountaineering track — to an abandoned riverside mining operation (the river once carried out the heavy ore). A second, half-overgrown path runs not toward town but toward Lambert's Crossing — strange for a derelict mine.
• The fortified mine. The settlement is plainly forbidden: barricades with out-turned spikes, palisades, 5–10 guards at a small mine entrance, and a dangling cage with a prisoner (a caught trespasser). Two Laewendas guards loiter ~200 ft out on a smoke break.
• Slipping past the sentries. Voting down killing the smokers, the party sneaks around — but Fenric fumbles his stealth (burning his Heroic Inspiration to no avail) and is half-spotted; he bluffs ("just walking in the woods"), is told the mine's closed, then doubles back wide and slips by on a disadvantaged re-roll. They are now officially trespassing, and the guards are vaguely aware "a humanoid" is about.
• Choosing the approach. Of four angles (steep south-east forest, the suicidal front gates, the western river side, or rappelling down the mountain from above), they pick the south-east forest climb as likeliest to avoid all human contact — accepting it might mean a fight.
• Silent climb, after the fight. With the badeedle brood dead and no alarm raised (see Combat), the party climbs the 50-ft sheer, wet, loose-dirt cliff: Fenric scales a huge tree and Assassin's-Creed-jumps to the lip (cat-claws, Acrobatics 18); Magra follows up the tree; Lash (hauling Salamandine) and Jex climb a skeletal "dragon tail" fossil jutting from the cliff face. They crest the rim — where a lone guard the GM dubbed "Private Thunt" stands loudly complaining about how much he hates the posting, looking eminently slip-past-able or bribable. Session ends; still level 7.

Combat & Encounters

• The badeedle brood (half-bird, half-beetle pests). The cliff's resident badeedles — bird-legged, beak-and-claw, chitinous-shelled creatures with tremorsense — boil out of the brush, roots and dirt to defend their under-cliff nest, "silently screaming" a high whine the cliff absorbs. A mob of baby badeedles plus a much larger, faster Mama Badeedle (heard before seen). They have resistance to slashing, wildly varied HP (some ~28, some ~60+), no real tactics and don't punish movement with opportunity attacks; the brood is mechanically a pest, not a trained foe.
  • The catch: the fight had to be silent, or the mine's guards would come. With both spellcasters absent, the party fought as "four magicless humanoids" — Magra's near-silent arbalest/Take-Aim volleys, Jex's bow (he Misty Steps onto a 30-ft tree branch to shoot from safety, immune to fall damage), Fenric's claws and Salamandine's tail — quiet enough that no alarm was raised. Three crits landed across the fight.
  • Lash tames one. Mid-fight she offers a badeedle a treat from her treat belt (Animal Handling, a 35) and wins it over completely — "you're the new mother now" — gives it a pep-talk about pupating into the next Mama and minding the fresh nest of eggs, and a d100 for its future comes up thoroughly average. The GM nicknames it Burrito.
  • The kill. Jex drops the Mama Badeedle with a 44-damage volley; with her dead, two outer badeedles burrow away while one zealot keeps fighting "for the love of the game" and the tamed one stays friendly. A Magra Nature check (17) reveals the Mama laid eggs today, somewhere on the map — the party decides to leave them be rather than farm the pests for food.
• No guards engaged. The two smoke-break sentries were bypassed (Fenric half-spotted, then slipped past); the mine's main garrison never sees the party, and the silent badeedle fight keeps it that way.

NPCs & Factions

• Eldrich the Elder — met on-screen in his hidden Tapped Clapper war room. Lays out the two-pronged plan (a Menagoles base for the Knucklebones strike; investigate the mines), shares the town's intel (missing blacksmiths and alchemist, the prison's political prisoner, the food-flow clue, the recent murder), and identifies the Helmnack sigil and the missing smith Horonir Helmnack. Travels with the concealed Doctor and is guarded by Pavid.
• Dr. Provostinalkov (inferred) — the "Doctor" Eldrich has kept hidden in his carriage, who emerges now that it's "safe." Greeted by the party as a known acquaintance; consistent with the scientist Eldrich extracted and shelters (not named outright this session).
• Pavid — the Varian Trio catman, now door-guard to Eldrich's secret room; answers Fenric's "secret knock" and staredowns him before letting them in.
• Isilme (new) — the mottled-white cat-folk keeper of the Tapped Clapper, running the entire bustling tavern almost single-handed (one cook in back). Welcomes the party warmly as outsiders.
• The Tapped Clapper drummer — the tavern's living namesake: a mid-20s one-man band with a rain-canopy he keeps even indoors, drumming the place to life. One-scene colour.
• Knucklebones — not present, but confirmed as Eldrich's next target ("one of Laewendas's snake generals"): the traveling warband barbarian operating outside Lambert's Crossing, to be skirmished from the Menagoles base.
• The mine guards — a Laewendas garrison (5–10 at the entrance plus roaming sentries in full crest-and-tabard kit) holding the forbidden mine; the cliff-top sentry the GM called "Private Thunt" loudly hates his job and reads as easy to slip past or turn. (Name likely a joke reuse of Thunt — see Open Threads.)
• Thalia & Silithane — both "checked in" and are off doing generic townspeople help as cover; not run on-screen (their players absent). Thalia is seen chatting with the goblin tour guide in the tavern. Their absence (no stealth specialists) shapes the party's plans.

Locations

• The Tapped Clapper (new — visited) — the Menagoles' big central-fountain tavern, named for its one-man-band drummer, run by the cat-folk keeper Isilme. Its hidden back room (off the public-toilet corridor, guarded) is now Eldrich the Elder's secret war-council base in occupied territory.
• The Menagoles Mines (new — reached) — the town's old tin mines on the Middle Tor, north of the settlement: officially burnt out by the orc Vara'nak Gar-Galdar and sealed, but in truth a heavily fortified, forbidden Laewendas installation (barricades, spikes, guards, a prisoner-cage, a riverside ore route, and a path toward Lambert's Crossing). The party reaches its rim via the south-east cliff. Tied to the warning that monsters lie beneath.
• Menagoles (revisited) — the occupied merged town; this session adds Eldrich the Elder's base, the disappearances/political-prisoner detail, the dead-mine backstory, and the Middle/Little Tor geography.
• The Laewendas church — a shuttered, empty Laewendas-faith church the party scouts (sunglassed cleric, a sword-armed "Rose of the Church" recruit-for-hire outside); not entered.

Loot, Items & Rewards

• A tamed badeedle ("Burrito") — Lash wins over one half-bird, half-beetle pest with a treat; an average specimen, left at the cliff.
• Heroic Inspiration ×3 — Magra's long-rest Encouraging Song grants a one-time panic-reroll to Fenric, Lash and Jex (Fenric spends his, fruitlessly, on a botched stealth check).
• The Mama Badeedle's chitinous shell could make ~15-AC armour, but the party is well past that tier; her fresh egg nest is left alone. No level / no pip noted — the party remains level 7 (the GM defers mine "pips" until they go deeper).

Decisions & Open Threads

• Into the mine. The party is poised on the forbidden mine's rim, past the guards, beside one slip-past-able sentry. Next session: penetrate the mines and learn what really happened — the GM teases that uncovering the truth, plus a big fight (and a gag about the mine "collapsing" or being a live mimic), await inside.
• What's under the mines? Two competing stories: the official orc arson by Vara'nak Gar-Galdar, and Lash's memory that monsters were sealed beneath and digging frees them (Ulda Golgain's "under the tors" warning, Session 47). Magra wants the truth partly to clear orc-kind's name.
• The path to Lambert's Crossing. The derelict mine has a fresh-ish trail toward Lambert's Crossing — suspicious for an abandoned site, and a possible link to the Knucklebones operation.
• The Helmnack thread. The missing blacksmith Horonir Helmnack bears the same crest as the Session 47 grove skeleton (Ulda Golgain of Clan Helmnack); the family anciently claimed one of the Tors. Whether this Helmnack ties to the half-giant pie-champion Horanir Helmnet of Session 48 is unresolved.
• The disappearances & the jail. The fort's vanishing blacksmiths (and a smith's wife), the missing alchemist, and the jail's long-held political "philosophizer" prisoner all wait to be investigated — alongside the unresolved prison escape-tunnel under the church (Session 48) and the unsolved two-days-ago murder.
• Carryover: the strike on Knucklebones at Lambert's Crossing; the deferred reunion's other business with Eldrich the Elder; Thalia's two undelivered druid tomes (Kerri and Maelor); the Grey Man's nature; the held soul candles, cursed mask and cave symbiotes; Jex's deciphering tablet and legal non-existence; the imprisoned Caressa; and the eventual siege of Cathalon.
• Roster. Player-run this session: Fenric (Fantom), Magra (Mia — present this week), Lash (Kadie), Jex (Nat), with Salamandine. Thalia (Cara) and Silithane (Johan) were both absent — written as "off helping townspeople," so the on-screen party is a caster-less four. Neko is at the table reacting/voicing NPCs but has no active PC (Valmora left in Session 44); Ashlyn's player and Draak remain away. Still level 7.

Memorable Moments

• The toilet adventure. Lash mistaking the tavern's bathroom for the secret entrance and running a full mini-game of "increasingly gross things in the toilet" (combining the gel button with the flush) before being pointed to the actual hidden door.
• "We are magicless random humanoids." With both casters gone, the party squaring up to infiltrate a guarded mine as "just four guys with weapons who shoot things and smack things and a salamander or two."
• The silent fight. A whole boss-brood combat played under a strict noise budget — crossbows and claws fine, "a gun or a fireball" would bring the guards — won without a single alarm.
• Burrito the badeedle. Lash crouching to talk up at a four-foot bird-beetle taller than her, feeding it a treat, and adopting it as the brood's new mama mid-battle.
• Misty Step up a tree. Jex teleporting 30 feet up onto a branch to snipe in peace — "I just want to get out of the range of these assholes."
• The fossil ladder. Climbing the forbidden mine's cliff by hand-over-handing up a skeletal dragon/dinosaur tail embedded in the dirt — yet another ancient northern skeleton turning up far to the south.

SUMMARY: The party meets Eldrich in his hidden Tapped Clapper war room, takes the charge to uncover the truth of the Menagoles' sealed mines, and infiltrates the forbidden Middle Tor mine — winning a silent fight against a brood of half-bird, half-beetle badeedles and cresting the cliff beside a lone guard.