Traveling overland Ursa stayed in bird form and scouted ahead occasionally sweeping back past the party to screech warnings. Rosie having been to Phandalin before was in charge of directions while Abe was in charge of meal preparation for the group. Rosie tried to cut through the woods near Thundertree only to find that the wagon could not pass the same ways as a halfling on foot. This resulted in a couple days worth of rations being wasted as the party had to backtrack to the main road to go towards Phandalin. After two days teh group found the thin cart track to Phandelin due to a old wooden way-sign that had seen better days. The party turned down the old cart track but Ursa flew back and set the wooden sign aflame before nodding to herself and flying off to scout again and not a moment to soon as immediately ahead of the group was an obstruction in the road but from above Ursa could clearly tell it was an goblin ambush because they were hidden behind blinds on either side of the road.
The road was through a narrow cleft with raised berms on both sides and a bunch of large rocks obstructed the way ahead making it difficult for a horse or treacherous for a wagon. Ursa told the group to goo off the patch and circle to the north due to easier ascent while she would use eagle form to dive bomb the southern flank while the rest of the party snuck around the north face and ambushed the goblins on that side.
Burden summoned a spirit to help in the battle finding them plentiful in the area but the spirit that came readily to hand was a recently deceased goblin which made communication difficult. However once animated the stone goblin saw one of the ambushers wearing a beaded necklace he had gifted to his girlfriend and went into a rage pummeled him over the cliff edge starting the fight. Rosie shot arrows at the other north face goblins while Abe used the confusion to turn invisible and sneak around the goblins to check out their hidden path to the north which buzzed with all sorts of residual energies. But no sooner did he step on the goblins escape path than a snare trap snagged his leg and whipped him into the air upside down. Focusing on his spell Abe managed to keep invisibility but was unable to extract himself from the snare for the time being.
Meanwhile back to the south Ursa crashed down in bear form and mauled the goblins on the Southern flank breaking moral while using her Ursine talents to shrug off the tiny goblin arrows. Goblin after goblin fell before her claws and teeth and with the southern flank decimated the goblins facing Burden and Rosie broke for the hills and fled right past the dangling Abe who observed them avoiding certain sections of the path. When the others came crashing after the goblins Abe yelled a warning and finally managed to pull free form the snare dropping his invisibility right as he plunged to the ground appearing as if from thin air.
Warned about the traps and about foul magic that both Burden and Abe could feel buzzing further up the path the party turned their attention back to the blockade. Burden sooth the stones back into the earth where they belonged opening up a path for the wagon but noted the stones were far too big for Goblins to have moved.
Near the blockade the group found dead horses belonging to their employer and his bodyguard and investigating further found Gundrin had been crushed when his horse fell on him and the goblins had stripped him of belongings. There were signs that Sildar had fought and killed several goblins but had eventually been beaten and then been carried away by a large creature of some sort.
Abe used his magic to call on Gundrin's Spirit to ask what needed to be done. Gundrin replied that his brothers had rediscovered the lost Forge of Souls and needed supplies to help recover the forge but suspected others were acting to obstruct or sieze the forge and that it rightfully belonged in Dwarven hands since it was his people's creation. The party was generally confused because the goods they were escorting were barrels of apples, cheese, and salted meat. But Ursa had already identified metal implements hidden in the barrels and to prove a point she smashed a barrel revealing pick heads, and mining lanterns (And in retrospect the barrel staves were probably meant to be handles for the picks). Another barrel was also smashed and it revealed pulleys, mauls, metal cables, and spades. All implements used for a major earthmoving project. It was only apple barrels that seemed to be used to carry goods and Phandelin was a community known for growing apples. But the group had no idea why teh dwarves would have needed to hide weapons or simple mining equipment.
The party decided to let Ursa use her nature magic to further question the spirit of Gundrin but while purifying herself for teh ritual goblin reinforcements came down via a different path to the north. In roughly twice the numbers as before this time with caster support and some form of spiritually infused totem beasts.
Burden summoned another spirit this time but rather than risk a goblin or worse yet Gundrin he chose Sildar's horse but the horse proved to have a bit of Kelpie blood and in death its hoofs left puddles of dark water that spread and appeared to have alarming depth. The Kelpie trampled some of the goblins who has slew it in life and in its rampage surging dark waters sucked down at least one goblin.
The caster's spiritual totems though could fly and it was clearly only a matter of time before they destroyed the Kelpie. Also during the fight the waters from the kelpie were encroaching upon the party and their wagon. The party decided to flee. Gundrin's corpse was loaded onto the wagon which Bludo and Pendleton piloted down the road towards Phandalin while Ursa transformed into a Griffon to carry Abe, Burden, and Rosie (three relatively light individuals excepting Burden's millstone which I suspect had to be left on the wagon temporarily) rode the griffon out of reach of the goblins and got a lay of the land.
It was clear that the spiritual totems were more than a goblin caster should be able to conjure. But it seemed like the felmage had some sort of magical implement which allowed him to command the spirits in some form. Using their arial vantage they found that the goblin base was fairly close and had a tower from which the goblins had been able to observe the roads and send the ambushing parties. The party found a good ambush point outside the lair and awaited the spellcastes party's return from the Kelpie battle. The plan was for Burden to explosively emerge from the cliff face right before the goblins entered their abode but somehow his earth sense was off and instead of coming out of the outer face of teh cliff he overshot and emerged deep insde the goblin fortress in a dimly lit cavern where the goblins were questioning Sildar in broken common tongue.
Outside seeing the stone explosion did not occur Ursa decided the much smaller goblin party was still manageable without their bound totems companions which must have been left behind to guard the path. Ursa leapt out in giant cat and roared multiple times breaking the moral of the already traumatized goblin guards still hurting from the Kelpie fight. The caster was made of sterner stuff though and summoned a roiling sphere of noxious toxins to throw at Ursa. Meanwhile a spiritual guardian dropped out of the sky behind Abe having tracked the party through the air. Rosie catching the movement yelled a warning and shot to drive back the guardian giving Abe a moment to again turn invisible and dart into the goblin warrens in search for Burden.
Outside Ursa turned back into a bear to deal with the spiritual guardian now hunting Rosie and Abe (whom no one knew where he went because invisibility). Rosie used her power to coax a more Grendelesque Ursine companion from the ether and the bear form that emerged was truly horrifying in visage but took a long time to emerge. A slug fest ensued between Horrific Beast Ursa and the totemic gaurdian and the caster.
Meanwhile inside Burden had collapsed part of the cavern's roof to keep the goblins from swarming him and Sildar but needed to throw himself onto Sildar to protect him form teh ensuing cave in. Which pinned both of them in the debris on a ledge over the main group of goblins. Abe having heard this latest commotion and the cursing of Sildar followed the sounds until he invisibly came upon the cavern and the pack of goblins trying to climb up onto the now half collapsed ledge where his friend and late employer's bodyguard were trapped.
Abe, due to his larger than goblin size was able to climb up the far end of the 7 foot ledge on the end away from the now collapsed stairs the goblins were working to clear and proceeded to quietly free Burden and Sildar. The goblins were taking their time as they knew they had the group trapped on the ledge but Abe found another even higher route that he could boost Sildar and Burden up onto and climb up himself to get out without passing the goblins but this route took them across a walkway to a room with a hulking brute of an bugbear cointing coins into his chest of treasure. Rather than fight the brute for his meager spoils Abe used his invisibilty to sneak in and snatch a potion from beside the chest. But seeing a nearby sleeping wolf start to stir he then backed off and used rope form his pack to lower the others from the high path to his original washed out dry riverbed and led the others out of the cavern. past a large cistern rigged to flood the entryway to defend against intruders which he had missed when he had travelled upstream earlier.
Outside Ursa was wrapping up the battle with teh felcaster. The totem proved able to take several blows and the caster had some unpleasant unnatural magics but in the end Ursa in Grendel-bear form loomed up and swallowed the caster in a single bite which caused the totem to go inert and upon changing back became a problem for Ursa because when she changed back the caster has some sort of magical implement that the spirit bear was not able to digest and that was too large to comfortable fit in a halfling's belly. Ursa had to change back to griffon form so to cough up a recently digested meal of now dead caster and his magical rod that was clearly better than goblin quality and due to the fancy griffon motif possibly from the order of griffon knights.
The party then decided to catch up with their compatriots on the wagon heading toward Phandelver. That was where we left off. The Goblin bandits badly battered. A captive saved and a dead body to question.
Treasure - a couple dozen wooden gob coins. 9 metal coins pierced and crudely worked into a necklace. A potion. A rod with a griffon motif.
We had not managed the end of session move as we ran far too late wrapping up the first dungeon.
One of Abe's go-to abilities seems to be cause fear. Why do you feel the need to cause fear in others and is it a spell Or just part Of having stolen energy from others?
• Sigils in his books are taken from spirits.
• Cause fear was one of his earlier abilities taken from a dark fae?
• Invisibility was taken from another fae spirit - mischivious trickster.
• Contact spirit was the one spell he knew this from school
• Blood spirit the group fought allowed him to steal the powers of charm person which is how it controlled others
• Abe came up with stealing powers as a shortcut to power as a human doesn't live long enough to get powers in the typical slower way but it was warned it was dangerous. That was why he made the protective charms FIRST before starting with his power stealling
Abe do all wizards need to steal energy or is there a more common roads to power? If so, why did you not take it that one?
• It takes a lot more math and time consuming and as a short lived human I needed to cut corners.
Abe did you know a fellow wizard Iarno - the mage who was disgraced when he lost the seal of the Griffin nights? How do wizards feel about him joining the militant order like the Griffin knights?
• The knights have their own structure. Human are impatient with the wizard path. The knights have power and resources of their own.
• Abe had heard about Iarno because there are not that many wizards and Iarno was notable as the court wizard of a major organization up until his disgrace.
Ursa picked up clerical spell casting. What God does she serve?
Nature in all its raw magesty
What are Ursa's memorized spells?
• Magic weapon
• Cure wounds
What religions opposes Ursa's god?
* Any gods of civilization. Especially Titan of industry
Sildar feels that he owes Iarno his life. What did the wizard do that Sildar feels he owes him for? You knew Sildar, were you there when it happened?
• Sildar fought a creature that needed magic to effect. Iarno came to his rescue. It was a Draco-lich. Cast invisibility and drank a potion of the same and it allowed Sildar and Iarno to escape an otherwise hopeless situation.
Last session Rosie was able to free Ursa from possession. How did you learn how to do that?
• It was a trick she learned about how to use her voice to fill people to shake of enchantment. She had used it to free a friend from a faes enchantment. Some Dryad or wood nymph.
Is channeling rare? If so, what is it that prevents people from becoming channelers?
• Sacrifice needed of small innocent children to the role. Adults can not become channelers.
• Alternately you can torture someone until they lose all sense of self. That is only path available to an adult caster.
Burden said last time your family did a dangerous ritual to help you become a channeler as a child. Why did they do so?
• The spirits were coming through and they needed someone to hold them back and the ritual target needed an innocent soul. He was the sacrifice his community was willing to make as the only canidate of the right age.
As a channeler you were in tune with the Earth. What types of other spirits are there?
• These are actually the spirits of the dead - they do not want to stay there and they are trying to come back. They are just crafting bodies out of teh earth as that is where they were interred.
• They were not always able to come back but someone did something 100 years ago and ever since then the spirits have been getting more restless.
So then what is a necromancer?
• Necromancers deal with animating bodies while channelers deal with spirits themselves. Necromancers do not have the original soul. Just a corpse that their magic can puppet.
What does this mean for ghosts and other incorporial spirits?
• I don't know, I have not met a incorperal undead. The dead tend to form spirits for themselves out of materials at hand.