The time has come to enter Wave Echo cave. First, I want to tell you a bit about my history with this module. Feel free to skip, if you want to get to the game.
I started playing Dungeons and Dragons about four years ago, when my wife and I saw that the local game store hosted a game that we could enter. We did and had so much fun we approached the DM and asked him if he wanted to run a game for us and a couple of friends. He did, and we player Lost Mines of Phandelver, with a few homebrew additions. When the pandemic hit, we had been on our way to Wave Echo Cave. Shortly thereafter a falling out between the DM and my happened and I left the group. They have not returned to playing since.
By then I had been DMing myself as well and wanted to run an additional little campaign to ease the lockdown so I recruited some crazy actor-friends of mine and started on LMoP. We are still playing this game, over 60 session now and it has grown into a full homebrew campaign with lots of roleplay. But...they never went to Wave Echo Cave.
About a year ago I tried solo-playing the adventure but my party was TPK-ed at Venomfang and I did not have the motivation to build a new one.
So...this is the first time, since I started this module as a player four year ago that I actually make it to the last dungeon. Well...that's one less item on the old bucket list. And now, lets get on with the game.
📕The entrance tunnel leads into a large cavern supported by a natural pillar of rock and containing three stalagmites. In the western part of the cave, behind the column of rock, are three bedrolls and a heap of ordinary supplies - sacks of flour, bags of salt, casks of salted meat, lanterns, flasks of lamp oil, pickaxes, shovels and other gear. Amid the supplies you see the body of a dwarf miner, dead for at least a week.
The northeastern section of the cavern has collapsed, forming a ten-foot-wide, twenty-foot-deep pit. A sturdy hemp rope is tied off around a nearby stalagmite and dangles down the side of the pit, at the bottom of which is a rough-hewn tunnel heading northwest and east.
Brandr has cast Light on his shield, because three members of the party lack Darkvision. From Gundren's descripition the group can assume that the dead dwarf is no one else than Tharden Rockseeker, Gundrens brother. There is no sign of Nundro anywhere here so the group - one by one and using the rope - descend into the pit.
🎲1d6 for direction (even number: northwest; odd number: east): 2 (northwest)
📕This area consists of numerous intersecting passages, The ceilings here are only six feet hight and several of the passages end in partially excavated rock faces.
🎲1d10 to determing an enemies location: 3 => Enemy placed at predetermined location 3
Exploring the tunnels: At each intersection, I'll roll 1d6, determining the direction as follows:
- On a three way intersection, 1-3 equals left and 4-6 equals right.
- On a four way intersection, 1-2 equals left, 3-4 equals the middle path, 5-6 equals right
After 10 rolls within the tunnels I roll to see if there is a random encounter.
Exploring, out of the tunnel the group comes upon an East-West intersection:
🎲5 => E, then N because the tunnel ends, party reaches a N/E intersection
🎲1 => N, after a few steps there is a E/W-intersection
🎲5 => E, after a few steps there is a N-E-intersection
🎲4 => E, after a few steps a tunnel branches off to the South
🎲4 => S, to an E/W-intersection
🎲3 => W, past a dead end to a N/S-intersection
🎲2 => N, to a door on the East Side of the tunnel
🎲Stealth Check, -2: 5 (failure against everyone's passive perception, the lowest being the fighters and Quillathe with 13)
The group, as they reach the door see how a large, amorphous shape starts moving slowly towards them from a tunnel up ahead Northwards.
🎲Perception Check Harbek +4 (DC 10): 24 (success)
Harbek hears crunching from behind the door, the party gets into position and tries to deal with their gelatinous attacker first.
Download full Battle report, including maps and rolls here
The strange, ooze-like substance crawls closer. Drusa swings her axe at it but only manages to split it into two halves that attack her, one of them injuring her. But a few second later the jellies are reduced to a puddle of slime by the group.
Wiping the sludge from their blades the group opens the door they found here, weapons prepared.
📕Old stone bunks in orderly rows line the walls of this chamber, and a corroded iron brazier full of old coals stands near the middle of the room. The bones of a half dozen dwarves and orcs lie strewn about, clad in scraps of armor. Three gray, hunched figures squat among the remains, pawing at the scraps and gnawing at the bones.
Download full Battle report, including maps and rolls here
The creatures rush at the door and claw at Harbek and Drusa, injuring both of them. But as Brandr raises his shield with the holy symbol of Tempus on it, two of the ghouls turn around and flee and the last one is quickly dispatched by Harbek and Haunui. The group stands prepared as growling and snarling fills the corridors, getting louder and louder.
"Should we run?", asks Quillathe but Haunui shakes his head.
"They already know we're here, we can defend this place, lets not get cornered somewhere else. Both Drusa and him stand at one door, prepared for the attack.
Download full Battle report, including maps and rolls here
There are eight of the undead monsters advancing from two sides through the corridors. They appear to have some intelligence and are even able to understand basic tactics. Their long, grimy claws rake at the adventurers and everyone that is hit feels the taint that they carry trying to get a grip on them. One by one the Ghouls are slain but the last one manages to paralyze Harbek with its filth and take a sizeable chunk out of his arm. It tries to flee with its food but a ray of icy energy from Quillathe takes it down. Drusa feeds the dwarf a healing potion and he is revived.
Harbek, grasping at the symbol of his god sends a quick prayer to the stones below him and his wounds heal. The group is somewhat depleted, but with Harbek restored they feel that they can press on for a bit more or until they find a save location to rest. Having come from the door that leads back into the maze of mining tunnels they now choose the Southern door which seems to lead into a less confusing network.
🎲Direction check, 1d6 (1-3: East, 4-6: South): 4 (South)
📕Many tunnels intersect at this natural, thirty-foot-high cavern. The walls are carved with simple reliefs showing dwarf and gnome miners hart at work. Below them, nearly two dozen skeletons in rusted scraps of armor are scattered across the cavern floor. Some are dwarf skeletons, while others are orc remains. Half a dozen large brass lanterns stand in niches or on ledges around the cavern, but none are lit.
🎲Luck check to see if anyone checks the ceiling, 1d20 (DC 15): 1 (no luck)
Fluttering from above in the dark expanses of the cavern betrays the presence of small critters. It is natural for caves like this to house bats, so no one thinks twice about entering the cave, especially since the body of a ghoul seems to be lying dead on the floor, peaking curiosity. The creature had fled from the first fight at the Miners Barracks, why is it dead now. The group however gets no chance to investigate it as the fluttering becomes louder and many small shapes drop from the ceiling. Nine Stirges attack, hungry for more blood than the Ghoul could provide.
Download full Battle Report, including maps and rolls here
The tiny monsters are disgusting and for a moment frightening because of their quantity. But they soon prove to be no more than a minor nuisance and are quickly dealt with.
🎲History Check Harbek +4 (Stonecunning): 20
Harbek, looking at the walls and the carvings in this cavern informs the party that this cave must have been very close to the original entrance to the mine. They talk amongst themselves for a while to decide in what direction they should head now.
🎲Direction Check, 1d6 (1-3: East, 4-6: South): 1 (East)
📕Dense carpets of weird fungi cover large sections of the floor in this cavern. The growth includes puffballs a foot across, weird shelf fungus growing on stalagmites, and large stalks and caps a good five feet tall. Some of the puffballs glow with an eerie green phosphorescence.
🎲Nature Check Quillathe +4 (DC 20, no proficiency and unfamiliar terrain): 11 (failure)
🎲Roll for marching order, 1d20 each: Drusa (19), Harbek (7), Haunui (16), Quillathe (1), Brandr (3)
Drusa enters the cave first, when the carpet of fungi that covers most of the floor releases a gas into the air.
🎲Constitution Save +4 (DC 11): 7 (failure)
🎲damage, 3d6 poison: 12 and Drusa is poisoned for 10 minutes
Coughing and spitting Drusa climbs back out of the mushrooms. "We need to go another way.", she wheezes, spitting up a bit of sludge blood.
🎲Harbek Cure Wounds, 2nd Level, 2d8+7: 11 HP healed => 23/34
Harbek mutters a few words while grabbing her arm and the wheezing gets a bit less rough.
"Alright, South it is then.", Harbek mutters and the group returns to the Stirge-cave and head into the Southern corridor that quickly ends at a cavein. Two doors lead left and right.
🎲Door, 1d4 (even number: West, odd number: East): 3 (East)
The party looks around and finds a locked iron strongbox. None of them are proficient with Thieves tools, but Quillathe uses a charge of her charm to become so and attempts to open the lock, receiving some Divine Guidance from Harbek.
🎲Quillathe Thieves Tools check +4 +1d4 (DC 20): 28 (critical success, not that that gives her anything extra)
The box springs open and a small mountain of coins spill out that are divided equally among the adventurers. Since there is nothing else of worth here, they cross the hall and open the door there.
📕Splintered stone benches and heaps of rubble from a partially collapsed ceiling fill this room. Amid ruined stone bunks and toppled weapon racks are the bones of several dwarves and orcs.
The party enters the room to search it more closely, as the bones around them stir and come to life once more, picking up rusty weaponry to do battle one final time.
Download the full battle report including all maps and rolls here.
The skeletons do not frighten the group initially but soon it shows that the several battles they have fought in the mines already have weakened them. As the bonemen attack with surprising agility and hardiness the spells are depleted and wounds are left untended to. When all is over, Harbek collects his friends in the abandoned storeroom across the hall. They decide to rest here as they are all exhausted. They close the door as well as they can and huddle down to have some food and rest.
After about an hour of regaining their strength, they decide to carefully advance a bit further. Most of them wear armor that enables them to try and move stealthily, except for Harbek who will stay at the back of the group to try and not draw any unwanted attention. They return to the main entrance, ignore the fungal cave to their right and advance to the Barracks where they turn East. The hall turns left to the North and after finding an abandoned storage-room half-way down the passage they enter a great cavern.
Very carefully, Quillathe scouts ahead, being the only one able to see in the dark and not wearing loud, clanky armor. But even after a while of scouting, she finds no sign of life and the group explores the cavern. The smell here and the many gnaw-marks on the skeletons show that the ghouls that attacked them before must have been existing in this place mainly. Two tunnels lead Northwards, one leads back into the mines.
🎲Exit: 1d6 (1-3: Western, 4-6: Eastern): 3 (Western)The party head onwards and finds themselves at an turn to the East. In the Western Wall there is a solid looking door.
🎲Perception Check Quillathe +3 (DC 10): 8 (failure)
Quillathe listens at the door, but does not pick up anything. She tries it and it won't budge. It appears to be barricaded from the back.
🎲Decision check, 1d6 (1-3, try and force the door open, 4-6, move on for now): 4 (move on)
The group decides that whatever is behind it is not worth making a lot of noise to draw attention and moves East into the next room.
📕A blast furnace and a mechanical bellows powered by a waterwheel dominate this large chamber. The furnace is cold and dark, but heaps of coal are piled nearby, along with carts full of unrefined ore. The waterwheel sits in a ten-foot-wide channel cut into the floor of the room, but the channel is dry. Passages exit to the west, south, and east. The empty channel exits to the north and east.
More than a dozen withered corpses are scattered around the room. These slain dwarves and orcs are still wearing the remnants of their armor. Floating above them is a skull engulfed in green flame.
As soon as the group enters the room that is dimly lit by green flame they hear stirring around them as some of the corpses start to move.
🎲Stealth Checks (DC 12, need 3 successes to pass): Drusa -1 (19), Harbek -1, dis (2), Haunui +3 (20), Quillathe +2 (16), Brandr +0 (16) => Success
Quietly they back up through the hallway. In a whispered conversation they decide that they are not ready for an encounter with this creature
🎲Arcana-check Quillathe +6 (DC 14):21 (success)
Quillathe tells the party that the creature is very aptly named a Flameskull, a creature that has been created from the remains of a dead wizard by dark sorcerous powers. It pertains some spellcasting ability and with their reduces resources and powers the group are confirmed by this information in their decision to not engage. Instead of that they retreat and decide to try an map out the mines a bit more.
🎲Roaming Monster Check, 1d20 (encounter on 17 or higher): 13 (no encounter)
They do so and find that the mines have several exit-points. One leads back to the cave where they found Gundrens cousin, another ends at the hallway between the barracks and the old entrance area. One leads directly to the western escarpment in the Great hall and a fourth one leads into a cave where an underground pool glistens in the magical light from Brandr's shield.
📕A still pool fills much of this cavern. The water is dark, revealing little of what might lie within. The shore of the pool consists of a thin layer of broken shells from strange, pale mussels, and a fishy odor hangs in the air.
A passage leads south from this area, and a set of steps climbs up to the east. A sluggish stream flows out of the cave to the northeast.
Not wanting to mess with possible submerged monsters, the party slowly retraces their steps back to the old storeroom where they can rest safely.
🎲Roaming Monster Check, 1d20 (encounter on 17 or higher): 7 (no encounter)
In the storeroom they roll some ancient barrels against the door. They eat some rations and make their beds and make a schedule for keeping watch, just in case before bundling up in their sleeping bags and resting, exhausted from the ordeals of the Wave Echo Cave, the strange, rhythmic thrumming, that has accompanied them since entering the mines, lulling them to sleep.
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