S07E05 – Maradona

[Flashback starts]Aeson, a male elf wizard, Arveene, a female elf druid, and Rupert, a puppet-sized warforged are aboard a flying caravel along with the ship’s crew and they are about to crash-land. Arveene decides to take hold of the steering wheel to try to crash into trees instead of the hard rock they are presently directed towards. Aeson casts protection spells on everyone and they all brace for impact.[Flashback ends]

Back at Don Diego’s hamlet, Maradona, our heroes find out, with some communication issues, that the ettin has been chasing the bulette for hours in order to appease his domineering mate’s ravenous appetite. Elijah feels pity and heals and gives food to the two-headed orc who then proceeds to finish the bulette that was hiding nearby and then accepts Don Diego’s invitation to leave the deserted village.

The group then arrive at Don Diego’s manor where they meet the butler, the cook and Moncho’s little sister. The servants tell Don Diego about their hardships during his absence. Meanwhile Elijah visits McEledir, an old ale monger who escaped Wrath’s mass abduction, and gives him a bag of money that Elijah’s divine advisor had provided him as payment for some unspecified service. McEledir lets some comments slip regarding his involvement in Wrath’s attack but quickly shuts up. Elijah informs Don Diego and when the latter questions McEledir the old ale monger breaks down after a tense discussion and confesses his crime: he sold the villagers to the mindflayer. McEledir primarily dealt with Zlavoi so he has no idea where Wrath and the kidnapped townsfolk are now. With calm poise Don Diego forgives McEledir but exiles him from the village.

That night, while the group is enjoying a delicious röschti, Rosita asks Moncho not to leave her alone again. Moncho talks with the group and they all decide what any reasonable adult would: to bring the eleven year old girl with them on their deadly adventures. Don Diego offers Eva, the soothsayer, to stay in the hamlet but she’s more interested in finding a wealthy and loving, mostly wealthy, husband. The party decides that their next step should be to go back to Bluetrail and search for Zlavoi.

During their trip they meet the Avengers, a group of sour adventurers devoted to finding and exterminating mindflayers with whom they each have had a negative experience. They inform our heroes that there are six mindflayers working together to raise an army. The Avengers are looking for Pain, the leader but they kow that Wrath is the one in charge of mining resources for building weapons and armors for the army and that his dungeon is called “The Pits of Wrath”. Our heroes prefer to stick to Wrath for now and both group part ways in friendly terms.

Once they are back at Bluetrail the group finds out that the Iron Shields have detained Don Quinn under suspicion of possessing forbidden magic artifacts.

The party goes to the Iron Shields’ camp that same night where Don Quinn is being kept. Don Diego casts invisibility on Miriel who sneaks into the camp, finds Don Quinn and frees him and four cages full of prisoners. Meanwhile Don Diego approaches the camp, sets on fire one of the tents with his fireball, accidentally reveals his position after untimely breaking wind and then then runs for his life back into the forest. On the other side of the river Miriel, Don Quinn and all the prisoners take advantage of the distraction, storm into the horses corral to grab a ride and escape the camp.

Some time later and in the safety of the night, Don Quinn reveals Zlavoi’s hideout location to the heroes and decides to go back to Bluetrail. In order to have some leverage against the Iron Shields the group sets things up to make it look to Gottesklingen, the leader of the Iron Shields and still a prisoner of the group, that Don Quinn is rescuing him.

A couple of days of travel later the heroes find Zlavoi’s base. As they are interning the rocky maze they spot a flying caravel crash landing somewhere in the distance. They run towards it and they meet the ship’s crew, all alive, three adventurers, Aeson, Arveene and Rupert, who are also looking for Wrath. Both groups decide to join forces and they then leave Rosita, Moncho and Morgun’s baby dragon with the ship’s crew while they repair the airship.

Once the heroes get to Zlavoi base’s entrance, hidden inside a mountain, Arveene transforms into a rat and slips through a slit. There she charms the two dwarven guards and convinces them to open the gate before returning to playing checkers. Once inside the heroes find some abandoned mines and a trap room filled with fake treasure chests that they successfully skirt. The group of seven is also forced to hide inside a three by three meters restroom. While they are inside it Morgun convincingly impersonates another dwarf called Frederik and sends away a thug who urgently needed to use the restroom.

With the coast clear the group leaves the restroom, explores baths, dormitories with more snoring dwarves and finishes the session in front of one more door…