(S047) The Beholder's Minions and Interlopers

Storming the hobgoblin barracks with lightning and frost, the party captures a doomed guide, survives a treacherous trek through trapped hallways, and unleashes a brutal ambush in the treasure room—complete with Sas raising fungal zombies.

📝 Session Summary

The Wild Cards were called The Menagerie by some until they came up with the name The Wild Cards.

• Barlo: A grizzled tabaxi barbarian who has been doing some work for a network that one should be wary of.
• Bastion: An orphan human who spent his life studying magic and blades, even though his elder pushed him away from the sword. He replaced Reginald.
• Calliope: This bardic faun joined the party late when she needed to find help to save her homeland.
• Reginald: A leonin cleric who was off to show his family's royal background and would later find out there were secrets leading to him becoming a king.
• Sas: A tortle hermit was given an item of power and a quest.
• Shadow in the Snow: This tabaxi got a coin, and her curiosity set her on a path.

🎬 Scenes

• Scene 1: Barlo's Backstory — From The Bronze Canyon in Kampos. Gave up Tabaxi name, "Smiles". Help move people. On way to Eushia to help Black Road with a client. Currently on ship near Carrune.
• Scene 2: Bastion's Backstory — When Bastion Bladesinger was very young he lost both of his parents to a plague. He took care of himself as he taught himself how to use the rapier his father once wore. He lived in Dyrt and watched all of the great knights. He also had an interest in the ways of magic and he wished he could do both – use swords and excel in magic – like many elves he had heard about.
• Scene 3: Calliope's Backstory — Calliope was born into the nestled highlands of the Oraniad Mountains. The Skola Vale, wild and free, blessed by the gods and inhabited by whimsical Satyr and Faun. Deep within it among the lush valley, reside the Dawngreets, a long generational line of storytellers and lore keepers.
• Scene 4: Reginald's Backstory — He was born at home, a modest-sized mansion where his family lived a modest means – even though his father could never stop talking about how they were royalty and yet this was the only lands they currently possess. His childhood was generally a happy one full of several friends. He was an only child.
• Scene 5: Sas' Backstory — Sas was born on the continent of Oth'Mar – a content mostly inhabited by Tortles and is far to the south of the Carrune Isles.
• Scene 6: Shadow's Backstory — Deep in the snowy mountains high in the north, there lived a large group of Tabaxi, The Blinding Wild Clan.

📜 Missions & Quests

• Completed:
  • Established individual party origins and initial connections to the world of Dierde.
• Active / Discovered Threads:
  • Barlo's ties to the smuggling rings and the Black Road.
  • Bastion's mysterious past and fallout with Grognard.
  • Calliope's quest to save the Skola Vale.
  • Reginald's pursuit of his family's royal mint commission and claim in Neyer.
  • Sas's vision of the Cat Goddess Bast and journey to find her lost lands.
  • Shadow's golden coin and mystical calling from her clan shaman.

NPCs

S047: The Beholder's Minions and Interlopers

Date: 2023-02-18

Short

The party ventured deeper into the cave system beneath Towers North, navigating trap-laden corridors and spiraling passages before ambushing a barracks full of hobgoblins. Using a coordinated strike — Shadow's lightning arrow, Bastion's icy curse, Calliope's magical distractions, and Sas's conjured spike field — they dismantled the room with lethal efficiency. A formidable Hobgoblin Captain rose to meet them in full armor, trading brutal blows with Barlo and Calliope before finally falling. A surviving hobgoblin prisoner revealed critical intelligence: a dreaming beholder above was obsessed with replicating itself, a Tiefling wizard had entered the caves and never left, and many guards had already defected to a mercenary group called the Blood Hands. Before the party could decide the prisoner's fate, Barlo kicked him into a trapped stairwell, which swallowed him whole.

Pressing into a trophy room guarded by at least ten hobgoblins, the party launched another assault — but a Hobgoblin Captain sounded a horn, sending an alarm echoing through the entire complex. Despite the threat of incoming reinforcements, the party held their ground. Bastion blinked through multiple enemies in a single fluid motion, Sas's spike field continued to grind down anyone who moved through it, and in a striking development, Sas raised two fallen hobgoblins as fungal zombies to fight alongside the group. With the treasure room cleared but the alarm still reverberating through the stone, the party stood amid loot and corpses — two shambling undead at Sas's side — knowing that ogres, hobgoblin reinforcements, and a dreaming beholder a hundred feet above them still lay ahead.

Summary

The party pressed deeper into the cave system beneath Towers North, their path lit only by the faint glow of their night-vision tattoos. They had already cleared a chamber of large fungus creatures — four still living among many more that lay dead, likely felled by adventurers who had come before them. Barlo had uncovered a series of hidden pitfalls concealed beneath tarps in a trap-laden hallway, and had scouted a vertical tunnel that stretched far beyond what even his keen eyes could follow. With the layout partially mapped in their minds, the group pressed onward through spiraling, upward-sloping passages until they spotted the warm glow of a lit chamber ahead.

Bastion sent his familiar, Princess, ahead to scout the room, and what she found was a chamber full of hobgoblins — towering, broad-shouldered creatures with reddish-orange faces and sharp fanged teeth, some playing cards at a table while others slept in their bedrolls. The party moved into position, Shadow nocking a specially prepared arrow while Sas readied a field of conjured spikes to sow chaos across the floor. Calliope conjured a harmless but eye-catching display of sparks and small fireworks over the card table, drawing the curious gaze of one of the guards. Then Shadow loosed her arrow.

The shot struck a hobgoblin square in the chest, killing him instantly, and a burst of lightning erupted outward from the impact — arcing across the room in what looked, from a certain angle, like the fireworks display had suddenly gone lethal. One hobgoblin took the bolt directly to the face while another barely twisted out of the way. Bastion followed up by placing a dark curse on a second target before unleashing a frigid beam that encased the creature in a chaotic crisscross of icicles, killing him so thoroughly that the DM could only describe the result as an instant hopsicle. Barlo, already raging, leapt over the campfire and charged across the room toward the farthest enemy.

The remaining hobgoblins scrambled from their sleeping bags as the ambush unfolded around them. Calliope hurled a stream of magical insults at one of the guards, causing him to wince in genuine mental anguish and lose his focus. Sas attempted to reach out with a spectral hand to seize a hobgoblin, but the creature's armor deflected the grasp and the magic dissipated into a cloud of smoky spores. Barlo, meanwhile, had grabbed hold of one of the guards and was dragging him around the room, trying to break his spirit through sheer physical dominance. A hobgoblin spellcaster attempted to retaliate with an acidic curse, but magical vines erupted from the ground, coiling around his arm and then his throat, choking the spell — and the life — out of him before he could finish casting.

The Hobgoblin Captain proved a more formidable foe. He had apparently slept in his half plate armor, which said something about the kind of life he led, and he rose from his bedroll with a greatsword in one hand and a javelin in the other. He hurled the javelin and then charged into melee, trading blows with Barlo and landing punishing strikes that drew blood. Calliope drove an elbow into his face, splitting his lip and bloodying his nose, and the party could see the fire going out of his eyes — the swagger of a commander who believed he had the upper hand slowly replaced by the look of a creature beginning to reconsider its choices. Eventually, the captain fell, and with him, the last of the resistance in the barracks.

The party took a surviving hobgoblin prisoner and pressed him for information. He told them of the beholder above — a creature deep in a dream state, obsessed with replicating itself, its madness spreading through the caves like a slow rot. Many of the hobgoblin guards had already fled or defected to a mercenary group called the Blood Hands. The guide also mentioned a Tiefling wizard who had entered the caves some time ago hoping to strike a deal with the beholder, but who had never been seen leaving. The beholder, it seemed, had taken something from the wizard — some kind of power source — and believed it could help him create a new body.

The guide led them through a trapped corridor, warning them to step exactly where he stepped. The passage was riddled with hidden floor mechanisms, and Sas nearly learned this the hard way when she triggered one — a bear-trap-like device that snapped upward from the floor. By some stroke of fortune, she had stepped on it at just the wrong angle for it to catch her properly, and her leg slid free as the jaws closed on empty air. The guide glanced back with wide eyes and reminded them, with some urgency, that there were more traps ahead that would not be so forgiving.

He brought them to a junction and laid out the path forward: one tunnel dropped away into a fall with no bottom, and was not to be touched. The other led up through a guarded gallery where the beholder kept trophies collected from fallen adventurers, and beyond that, a ceiling hole that climbed a hundred feet to the beholder's private sanctum. The guide made clear he could not accompany them further — his presence in the guarded room would raise immediate suspicion. Before the party could decide what to do with him, Barlo made the decision for everyone, kicking the hobgoblin down a trapped stairwell. The floor opened beneath him like a mouth, swallowed him whole, and then snapped shut again — smooth and ready, as though nothing had happened.

Shadow crept ahead to peer around the corner into the treasure room and counted at least eight hobgoblins, with likely two more hidden from view. Piles of glittering loot sat heaped in the center of the chamber, and the guards were spread throughout, some larger than others, at least one near the entrance resembling the captain they had just put down. The party coordinated quickly — Sas would try to catch as many as possible in a single devastating strike, while the others prepared to flood in behind her. They moved as quietly as they could through the final stretch of tunnel, and when they rounded the corner, the fight began.

Barlo charged in first, cutting through the nearest guard and absorbing a punishing counterstrike as he pushed past. Calliope slipped into invisibility and repositioned herself deeper in the room. Then the Hobgoblin Captain — a different one, larger and more alert than the others — pulled a horn from around his neck and blew three long, resonant blasts that echoed through every tunnel in the complex. The alarm had been sounded. Somewhere in the darkness beyond, things began to stir. Bastion responded by flourishing his blade, vanishing in an instant, and reappearing moments later having cut through multiple enemies in a single fluid motion before blinking back to where he had started, like a ghost passing through the room.

Calliope struck down a hobgoblin and her invisibility fell away with the blow. Sas held her ground as her conjured field of spikes and spinning blades continued to chew through anyone foolish enough to move through them. Then, as a hobgoblin fell near her feet, Sas did something unexpected — she reached out with a quiet, fungal will and the dead creature twitched, then stood. A moment later, a second fallen hobgoblin rose as well. The party now had two shambling, fungal zombies fighting alongside them, and Sas showed no signs of stopping.

The last few guards broke or fell, and the treasure room grew quiet except for the distant echo of the horn still reverberating through the stone. The party knew reinforcements could be coming — hobgoblins from the western passages, and something larger from a tunnel that reportedly housed ogres. Above them, a hundred feet up through a hole in the ceiling, the beholder dreamed its mad dreams and built its broken copies of itself. The party stood in the middle of a room full of loot and corpses, two fungal zombies swaying at Sas's side, and the hardest part of the night still waiting for them above.

Scenes

Infiltration of the Hobgoblin Lair

The party navigates a treacherous cave system, bypassing traps and fungus creatures to reach a lit chamber occupied by hobgoblins.

• The party enters a cave system and quickly dispatches four large fungus creatures, noting that many more dead ones of larger size were already present, likely killed by previous adventurers.
• Barlo discovers and exposes a trap consisting of tarps covering deep holes in the floor.
• Barlo scouts a vertical tunnel, climbing thirty feet before determining it continues at least another sixty feet and is not the primary path.
• The party discovers a ceiling hole leading to a room with hobgoblin bedrolls and card tables.
• The party moves through a spiraling, upward-sloping cavern toward a lit entrance.
• Bastion sends his familiar, Princess, ahead to scout the lit room.
• Shadow prepares to initiate combat with a lightning-infused arrow while Sas prepares to conjure magical spikes.
• Barlo rages and leaps over a campfire to engage the hobgoblins as the rest of the party rounds the corner.

Ambush in the Hobgoblin Barracks

The party initiates a surprise attack on a group of hobgoblins resting and playing cards in a large lit chamber.

• Barlo charges across the room toward a hobgoblin at the far end, utilizing his superior speed.
• Calliope creates a distraction with a display of magical sparks to confuse the enemies, with one hobgoblin becoming momentarily curious.
• Sas attempts to grasp a hobgoblin with a spectral skeletal hand, but the creature's armor deflects the attack and it dissipates into smoky spores.
• Shadow fires a magically infused arrow that strikes a hobgoblin in the chest, killing him instantly.
• A burst of lightning erupts from Shadow's arrow, arcing to nearby enemies — one is struck directly in the face while another partially dodges.
• Bastion places a hex on a hobgoblin and then fires a chilling beam of frost, encasing the target in a chaotic crisscross pattern of icicles, freezing him solid.
• Several more hobgoblins begin to stir from their sleeping bags as the alarm is raised.

Skirmish in the Hobgoblin Quarters

The party engages in a chaotic battle against the remaining hobgoblins and their captain within the barracks chamber.

• Barlo grapples a hobgoblin, attempting to intimidate him into submission while the creature struggles to break free.
• Calliope uses magical mockery to demoralize an opponent, causing them to wince in mental pain and suffer disadvantage on their next attack.
• Shadow fires her longbow, striking a hobgoblin with precision, while her companion Arktos moves into the fray to roar at the enemies.
• A hobgoblin spellcaster attempts to cast an acidic spell but is choked and pulled down by magical vines, falling dead before the spell can be completed.
• The Hobgoblin Captain stands up from his sleeping bag — notably still wearing half plate — draws a greatsword, and hurls a javelin at the party before charging into melee.
• Calliope strikes an enemy with an elbow to the face, drawing blood and further breaking the captain's fighting spirit.
• Sas maintains a cloud of magical daggers that slices at a nearby hobgoblin.
• The party pressures the remaining guards and eventually convinces a surviving hobgoblin to lead them toward the beholder's sanctum.

Interrogation and the Trapped Hallway

The party finishes off the remaining hobgoblin guards and convinces one survivor to guide them deeper into the lair, navigating a trapped corridor along the way.

• The surviving hobgoblin agrees to lead the party, warning them of the extreme dangers ahead and the beholder's growing madness.
• The guide instructs the party to walk exactly where he walks to avoid hidden floor mechanisms.
• Sas accidentally triggers a mechanical floor trap resembling a bear trap, but narrowly avoids injury as the blade fails to clamp onto her leg.
• The guide explains the layout of the upper levels: a gallery of trophies collected from fallen adventurers, and the beholder's private sanctum located approximately a hundred feet above through a ceiling hole.
• The guide reveals that the beholder has been obsessed with replicating itself and once made a deal with a Tiefling wizard who entered the caves but was never seen leaving.
• The party learns that the beholder believes the Tiefling's power source can help him create a new body.
• The guide describes the beholder's current dream state and how his madness has caused some hobgoblins to flee or join the Blood Hands mercenary group.
• Bastion and the party discuss the mechanics of a beholder's anti-magic cone and how it might affect their abilities, including Bladesong.

The Trapped Stairwell and Disposing of the Prisoner

The party decides to dispose of their hobgoblin prisoner before moving toward the main treasure room.

• Barlo kicks the hobgoblin prisoner down a trapped stairwell.
• The floor mechanism triggers, opening up to drop the prisoner into a deep pit before automatically resetting like a reusable mechanism.
• The party prepares for a stealthy approach toward the next chamber, with the guide warning them not to get ahead of him.

Scouting the Treasure Room

Shadow sneaks ahead to observe the main chamber and its occupants before the party plans their assault.

• Shadow creeps to a corner and peers into a large room filled with piles of treasure in the center.
• Shadow identifies at least eight hobgoblins guarding the room, with possibly two more out of sight, confirming the guide's estimate of around ten.
• Shadow notes that some hobgoblins look bigger than others, with at least one near the door appearing similar in size to the captain they previously fought.
• The party coordinates a plan to use area-of-effect spells to thin the enemy ranks before engaging.
• The party successfully sneaks up to the corner of the room, with the lowest stealth roll being a 15.

Ambush in the Treasure Room

The party launches a coordinated ambush on the hobgoblin-guarded treasure room, triggering a chaotic and escalating battle.

• Barlo charges into the room, striking a large hobgoblin but taking slashing damage from a longsword and additional martial advantage damage as he moves past a guard.
• Calliope moves into the room and turns invisible to reposition herself for a better vantage point.
• A hobgoblin captain blows a horn three times, sounding a loud alert throughout the entire lair.
• Shadow commands Arktos to dash into the room and roar at the enemies, though Arktos takes damage from a hobgoblin counterattack.
• Sas holds her position as vines and spikes from previous spells continue to hinder enemies.
• Bastion flourishes his weapon, vanishes, and teleports through the room striking multiple targets with magical force before reappearing in his original position.
• A hobgoblin hurls a javelin at Bastion but the projectile falls short.
• A hobgoblin archer strikes Bastion with an arrow as the battle intensifies.

The Fungal Rise and Clearing the Treasure Room

The battle in the treasure room reaches its climax as Sas begins animating fallen hobgoblins into fungal zombies and the party systematically eliminates the remaining guards.

• Sas uses her reaction to animate a fallen hobgoblin into a fungal zombie servant when one dies within ten feet of her.
• The Hobgoblin Captain takes damage from Sas's spores but manages to strike her with his greatsword.
• Barlo recklessly attacks a weaker hobgoblin, leaving the creature heavily wounded and bloodied.
• Calliope, while invisible, delivers a lethal blow to a hobgoblin, ending her invisibility in the process.
• Sas animates a second fallen hobgoblin, expanding her small army of fungal zombies.
• A hobgoblin attempts to flee the room but is cut down by an attack of opportunity.
• Shadow attempts to use her swarm to push an enemy through the spike growth, but the maneuver does not work as intended since the creature did not move on its own.
• The party clears the immediate room of threats as the horn blast echoes through the tunnels, potentially alerting hobgoblin reinforcements to the west and ogres in a nearby passage.

The Aftermath and Tactical Planning

The party concludes their skirmish in the treasure room and discusses the looming threats from nearby tunnels as they prepare for their next move.

• The party assesses their position, noting that hobgoblins may be approaching from the west and ogres from a nearby passage.
• The party discusses whether the beholder may have been alerted by the horn, though his dream-state obsession may have kept him distracted.
• Barlo uses a powerful technique to strike at multiple targets with the speed of the wind.
• Sas continues to bolster the party's strength by reanimating fallen foes into a small contingent of fungal zombies.
• The group coordinates their positioning to prepare for the arrival of reinforcements, with the session ending on this tense note.

Memorable Moments

Shadow fires a lightning-infused arrow into a hobgoblin's chest, killing him instantly, as the lightning arcs outward and strikes nearby enemies — one taking the bolt directly to the face in what looks like a fireworks display gone lethal.

The party's opening strike in the surprise ambush, combining Shadow's arrow with Calliope's distracting sparks for a dramatic visual effect

Bastion freezes a hobgoblin solid with Ray of Frost in a chaotic crisscross pattern of icicles, prompting the DM to declare the result an 'instant hopsicle.'

Bastion combined Hex and Ray of Frost on the same target for a decisive and visually absurd kill

Barlo kicks the hobgoblin prisoner down a trapped stairwell, the floor mechanism opens to swallow him whole, then snaps shut again — ready for the next victim.

The party's cold and efficient disposal of their prisoner before pressing deeper into the beholder's lair

Sas raises two fallen hobgoblins as fungal zombies in rapid succession during the treasure room battle, building a small undead army mid-combat.

Sas used her Fungal Infestation reaction twice as enemies fell near her, turning the tide of the battle in a creepy and unexpected way

NPCs

Hobgoblins

Seven-foot-tall goblinoids with muscular frames, coarse reddish-orange faces, yellow eyes, and sharp fanged teeth. Some were affiliated with the Blood Hands mercenary group. They were found sleeping, playing cards, or standing guard throughout the lair.

Hobgoblin Captain

A formidable leader among the hobgoblins who slept in his half plate armor. He wields a greatsword and javelins, uses martial advantage to deal extra damage, and blew a horn to alert the entire lair before being brought down by the party.

Hobgoblin Guide

A surviving hobgoblin guard who agreed to lead the party through the trapped tunnels in exchange for his life. He provided intelligence on the beholder's madness, the layout of the lair, the Blood Hands mercenary group, and the Tiefling wizard who never left the caves. He was ultimately kicked down a trapped stairwell by Barlo.

The Beholder

The insane master of the caves, currently in a dream state and obsessed with replicating himself. His madness has caused many of his hobgoblin guards to flee or defect. He possesses a single green scale that is unusual for his kind, and is believed to be using a power source taken from a Tiefling wizard to fuel his experiments.

Tiefling Wizard

A mysterious figure who entered the caves some time ago hoping to strike a deal with the beholder. He was never seen leaving, and the beholder is believed to have taken his power source to fuel his current experiments in self-replication.

Arktos

Shadow's owlbear companion, polymorphed into a giant eagle. Arktos moved into the barracks room to roar at the hobgoblins and engaged in combat in the treasure room, taking damage from a hobgoblin counterattack.

Fungal Zombies

Reanimated corpses of fallen hobgoblins brought back to a semblance of life by Sas's fungal infestation ability. They have only a single hit point but serve as immediate allies and a growing 'zombie army' for the party.

Locations

Towers North Cave Entrance

A cave entrance where the party left their cart before entering the subterranean tunnels. The party felt safe tying it up outside.

The Trap Room

A hallway featuring hidden pitfalls covered by tarps, discovered and exposed by Barlo.

Hobgoblin Barracks

A large, lit chamber containing a campfire, tables, and sleeping areas where several hobgoblins were resting and playing cards when the party arrived. The room was spacious enough for the hobgoblins' preferred range.

The Trapped Hallway

A dangerous passage filled with various hidden floor mechanisms, including a bear-trap-like device that Sas nearly triggered, leading toward the deeper sections of the beholder's lair.

The Gallery

A central room described by the hobgoblin guide where the beholder keeps items collected from fallen adventurers, heavily guarded by hobgoblins. The party was warned not to enter directly.

The Sanctum

The beholder's private chambers, located approximately a hundred feet above through a ceiling hole. The beholder retreats here to dream and attempt to replicate himself.

The Treasure Room

A large chamber where piles of 'shinies' are collected in the center, guarded by approximately ten hobgoblins. Features multiple exits including a stairwell, passages toward ogre dens, and a ceiling hole leading upward toward the beholder.

Items

Night Vision Tattoos

Magical tattoos etched onto the party members that grant them the ability to see in total darkness for up to eight hours. The party confirmed they were still active during this session, having been applied before entering the caves.

Saddlebags

New equipment acquired by Shadow for their mounts, obtained after helping hunt down a target and bringing back the corpse.

Beholder in a Jar

A preserved beholder specimen previously found in the Spider Forest and kept by the party. It features triangular eyes, thick and short ridged eye stalks resembling earthworms, vampiric fanged teeth, and wrinkled purple-blue skin. The party referenced it when discussing beholder anatomy.

Mechanical Floor Trap

A bear-trap-like mechanism hidden beneath the floor tiles in the trapped hallway. It snaps shut when stepped upon and is designed to clamp onto a creature's leg. Sas accidentally triggered one but narrowly avoided injury due to stepping on it at an odd angle.

Alarm Horn

A horn carried around the neck of the Hobgoblin Captain in the treasure room. He blew three loud bursts to signal reinforcements throughout the cavern complex, potentially alerting the beholder above.

Pile of Shinies

A large collection of treasure and gear piled in the center of the treasure room, gathered from past adventurers who had come through the beholder's lair.

Spells

Find Familiar

Cast by Bastion to maintain his familiar Princess, who was sent ahead to scout the hobgoblin chamber. The party discussed that changing Princess's form would cost ten gold pieces worth of materials to recast.

Thaumaturgy

Used by Calliope to create a harmless sensory effect of sparks and small fireworks over the hobgoblins' card table to distract them. Two hobgoblins ignored it, but one was momentarily curious. The DM noted it is not a combat cantrip and is more situational.

Chill Touch

Employed by Sas as a spectral skeletal hand that attempted to grab a hobgoblin, but it dissipated into smoky spores upon failing to penetrate the creature's armor.

Lightning Arrow

Cast by Shadow, transforming an arrow into a bolt of lightning that killed a hobgoblin instantly upon striking his chest. The lightning then arced outward, striking nearby enemies — one took the bolt directly to the face while another partially dodged.

Hex

A curse placed by Bastion on a hobgoblin to weaken a chosen ability score and increase the damage of his subsequent attacks against that target.

Ray of Frost

A frigid beam cast by Bastion that froze a hobgoblin in a chaotic crisscross pattern of icicles, killing him instantly — described as an 'instant hopsicle.' Used again later in the treasure room to freeze and shatter another enemy.

Ensnaring Strike

Magical vines that sprouted and wrapped around a hobgoblin spellcaster, restraining his hand and eventually tightening around his neck, choking him to death as he attempted to cast an acid spell.

Vicious Mockery

Calliope hurled magical insults at a hobgoblin, causing mental pain that made the creature wince and suffer disadvantage on its next attack roll.

Cloud of Daggers

A localized vortex of spinning magical blades conjured by Sas that sliced at hobgoblins caught within its area. Later in the treasure room, it shredded a frozen hobgoblin into pieces.

Spike Growth

A lingering magical effect that created a field of hard, camouflaged physical spikes on the floor of the hobgoblin room, making movement treacherous. Shadow attempted to use her swarm to push an enemy through it, but the maneuver did not work since the creature had not moved on its own.

Invisibility

Cast by Calliope to vanish from sight, allowing her to move through the dangerous treasure room undetected and gain advantage on her first attack. The invisibility ended when she made her attack.

Steel Wind Strike

Bastion flourished his weapon, vanished, and teleported through the room striking up to five targets with magical force before reappearing in his original position. The effect was likened to a blink spell.

Bladesong

A secret elven magical combat style invoked by Bastion. The party debated at length whether it would be suppressed by a beholder's anti-magic cone. The DM ultimately ruled that because it is invoked rather than cast with a spell slot, it would not be fully suppressed — though the party acknowledged Bastion would not know this in advance.

Tiny Hut

Discussed by the party as a potential safety measure for taking a short or long rest within the dangerous dungeon, with Calliope advised to save a spell slot for it just in case.

Fungal Infestation

A druidic ability used by Sas to immediately animate a small or medium humanoid that dies within ten feet of her as a reaction, turning the corpse into a loyal fungal zombie with a single hit point. Sas used this twice during the treasure room battle, building a small zombie army.

Classic

Last we left off, our intrepid band of adventurers had descended into the cave system beneath Towers North, guided only by the faint glow of their night-vision tattoos and the kind of reckless courage that tends to get people either very famous or very dead. They had carved their way through a barracks full of hobgoblin guards in a masterwork of coordinated ambush — Shadow's lightning arrow splitting the room open, Bastion flash-freezing one poor soul into what can only be described as an instant hopsicle, and Barlo doing what Barlo does best: grabbing things and refusing to let go. A hobgoblin captain, sleeping in his half plate like a man who has made peace with his life choices, rose to meet them and fell all the same. From the lone survivor, they learned of the beholder lurking above — a creature lost in a dream of self-replication, its madness seeping through the stone like rot — and of a Tiefling wizard who had entered these caves seeking a deal and had never been seen leaving.

Their captive guide led them through a corridor of hidden traps, Sas narrowly escaping the snapping jaws of one such device through sheer, improbable luck, before pointing them toward the path forward: a treasure gallery guarded by no fewer than ten hobgoblins, and beyond it, a hundred-foot climb to the beholder's private sanctum. The guide, having outlived his usefulness in Barlo's estimation, was introduced to a trapped stairwell and was not seen again. The party pressed on.

The treasure room erupted into chaos the moment they crossed the threshold. Barlo crashed through the front line, Bastion ghosted through the room like a blade made of shadow, and Calliope put her elbow through a hobgoblin captain's face before vanishing back into the dark. But it was Sas who changed the shape of the fight entirely — raising two fallen hobgoblins as shambling fungal servants and setting her conjured field of spikes to work on anyone still breathing. Then a second captain raised a horn and blew three long, resonant blasts that rolled through every tunnel in the complex. The room is quiet now, the loot gleaming in the torchlight, two fungal zombies swaying patiently at Sas's side. But somewhere in the dark, something heard that horn. And above them all, a hundred feet up through a hole in the ceiling, the beholder dreams. And waits.

Middle English

Lythe and listin, gentilmen,
Of brave adventurers bold!
Who delved beneath the Towers North,
Through darkness, damp, and cold.

With tattoos lit like foxfire pale,
They crept through fungus and snare,
Past pitfalls hid beneath old tarps,
And traps beyond compare.
Princess the familiar scouted forth,
And found the hobgoblins there.

Then Shadow loosed her lightning shaft,
It struck a foe full dead!
The sparks of Calliope's bright ruse
Turned lethal, burning red.
And Bastion froze a second knave
Into a hopsicle instead.

The Captain rose in half-plate grim,
With greatsword, javelin, and spite,
But Calliope's elbow split his lip,
And dimmed his fearsome light.
The prisoner spake of beholder's dream,
And Barlo ended him that night.

Now two dead hobgoblins rise and sway,
By Sas's fungal will,
The horn has blown through every stone,
And ogres stir, and will.
Above, the beholder dreams its dreams,
The hardest battle waits there still!

Snarky

Welcome to the most organized a dungeon crawl has ever been: ambush the hobgoblins, interrogate the survivor, then let Barlo kick him down a trapped staircase anyway. The party descended into the caves beneath Towers North armed with night-vision tattoos, a familiar named Princess, and absolutely zero chill. Shadow opened the evening's entertainment by firing a lightning arrow into a hobgoblin's chest so precisely that it looked like Calliope's fireworks display had simply escalated — which, honestly, is the best possible cover story. Bastion followed up by freezing a second hobgoblin into what the DM officially classified as an "instant hopsicle," and Barlo spent most of the fight dragging a grown man around the room by sheer force of personality and rage. The Hobgoblin Captain, who had apparently been sleeping in his half plate armor like a man with serious trust issues, put up a real fight before Calliope elbowed him directly in the face and the party watched the confidence drain out of him in real time.

The prisoner they kept alive long enough to be useful — he told them about a dreaming beholder upstairs, a missing Tiefling wizard who definitely made a bad deal, and a mercenary group called the Blood Hands who had the good sense to leave. Then Barlo kicked him into a floor trap that swallowed him whole and reset like nothing happened. The party pressed into the trophy room, where Sas conjured a field of spinning blades, Bastion ghost-walked through multiple enemies in a single blink, and Calliope punched her way out of invisibility. Then a second Hobgoblin Captain blew an alarm horn, reinforcements started stirring in the dark, and Sas — completely unbothered — raised two dead hobgoblins as fungal zombies and added them to the party roster. The beholder is a hundred feet above them, dreaming its mad little dreams. The ogres are somewhere to the west. And Sas now has minions. Everything is fine.

Limerick

Through caves lit by tattoos' soft gleam,
The party crept forth like a dream.
They mapped out the traps,
Found pitfalls and gaps,
And spotted a hobgoblin team!

With fireworks conjured as bait,
Shadow's lightning arrow flew straight.
It struck with a crack,
Bolts arcing right back—
And Bastion made one a hopsicle's fate!

Barlo raged, dragging foes 'cross the floor,
While Calliope's insults cut more.
The captain arose,
In half-plate and blows,
But fell with an elbow—then snored!

A prisoner spilled what he knew:
A beholder, mad, building anew.
A Tiefling had tried,
Gone missing inside,
And Barlo then kicked the guide through!

The treasure room gleamed, horn blasts rang,
As Bastion blinked, slashed, and sprang.
Sas raised the dead,
Two zombies she led—
Above, the mad beholder still sang!

Exported from GMAssistant on 2026-08-16