D-I-G. What’s that spell, Caulkin?

• Retcon - During the last long rest outside of the cave, Brylwynn had a dream. She felt like she was in a large, Vegas-style casino. She sees a man who appears to be a well-dressed croupier at a blackjack table. He offers her to play a game of Dwarves or Dragons, or simply put, heads or tails. He flips a coin as she exclaims, “Dwarves!” The coin reveals itself to be a dragon. He flips the coin again, she calls out dwarves, but the coin is a dragon. This sequence repeats over and over again. No matter what she calls, she can’t win for the 8 hours she finds herself asleep. As she begins to wake up, the croupier’s voices switches from a masculine one to a feminine one and says:

• “Well my annoying little plaything. I shan’t have my puppet in tip-top form shall I? Let’s do one more thing: you call it. If you win you get another day or freedom, if you lose, your precious tiara does its job. So what’ll it be?”

• She calls out “dragon” and the coin is revealed to be a dragon!

• The croupier congratulates her and sends her on her way.

• Back in the cave, the battle resumes. We last saw Pearl fall into a hole as she let out screams as her legs began burning in the acid of a gelatinous cube. 

• The battle roars on as we take turns dealing damage, with a good amount of radiant damage. In the midst of the battle, Pearl notices a Bugbear and a Displacer Beast standing off to the eastern side of the cavern. They do not attack us during the fight, but do watch comfortably from the sidelines the whole time. 

• The Bugbear speaks and notes that most people either run back out of the cave, or further inside. He calls out to Pearl and Brylwynn, asking what we are doing here. They ask again, what we are doing here. Calla steps forward and provides a brief explanation, outlining the recent shift in energies around the Starmounts.

• He speaks over and asks Tessa, the displacer, if we should meet their boss, to which she growls in agreement.

• We walk into a large cavern and see several Bugbear who raise their crossbows towards us. The one we first met at the entrance speaks to the others, telling them we are heading off to see their boss, and some lower their bows.

• In the center of the room, we see the bones of a skeleton whose flesh has been picked clean from the bones. RC guesses that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Bugbear and the Cubes. 

• We carry onwards and come up to a room with a Bugbear who is standing over us on a ledge looking down. He comments on the group and how we made it past their first line of defense. We talked with him briefly. He tells us that the cave used to be much more naturally expansive, but whatever is here, has changed the architecture of our [their] home. RC asks if we were the first group to make it past the cubes, and the Bugbear says that a few have, but they’ve “taken care” of them.

• We get the sense that we’re getting half truths and partial lies. 

• RC notices and senses that the Bugbear is wearing magical boots of some sort. 

• The Bugbear was intentional to say that he won’t harm us, but he can’t promise us no harm will be done in the cavern. 

• We move on through the cave. In the next cavern, we see a type of scary looking Cave Fungus. RC knows that this fungus looks scarier than it is to fend off predators. He also knows that these Gas Spores, can be deadly, if someone is nearby them if they release spores.

• We explore the cave more. A little further in the path splits. Off to the left, we see some drop offs and hear running water. We backtrack to the right and come to an opening. Inside, we see a creature that says, “Do not intrude upon our master’s lair!!” as another battle begins.

Summary

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