Adabra, Orcs, and the Temple of Abbathor
The session picked up in the immediate aftermath of the manticore fight at the Umbrage Hill windmill, with most of the party badly wounded. Rut spent his last spell slot on Goodberry and Barnaby used Lay on Hands to get everyone back on their feet. Rut also ripped a tail spike from one of the manticore corpses and kept it, offering no explanation.
The woman the party rescued introduced herself as Adabra Gwynn, the midwife and apothecary who brews the healing potions supplied to Phandalin. The party delivered Harbin’s warning, but she refused to relocate — she insists she can’t brew anywhere but her windmill. She gave the party a free healing potion (handed to Dax, who tossed it to a still-bleeding Thom), mentioned to Sage that she knows Harbin well and that her potion supply matters to the town, and noted that orcs have grown more common in the area lately. Before the party left, she handed Sage a note for Harbin confirming she’s staying put. The party agreed to check on her on the return trip.
After a short rest and a home-cooked meal from Adabra, the party set out for the dwarven excavation and soon found day-old orc tracks — a sizable band, most scattering off-road. Sage and Hamish scouted ahead, confirmed a large orc encampment a few miles down a split trail, and confirmed the path to the excavation was clear. Dax attempted a strategic read of the orc movements from his military days and came up with nothing (“Wasn’t in the military very long anyway”), while Barnaby’s assessment gave the party confidence to push on. They made the rest of the trek in the dark.
At the excavation — a ruined settlement behind a broken black-stone gate in a canyon — Bean crept in to scout, kicked a pebble, stayed unseen anyway, and then announced herself: “I’m Bean!” The camp belonged to two dwarf prospectors from Phandalin, Norbus Ithermel and Dazlyn Grayshard. The party delivered Harbin’s dragon warning and shared news of the orc band nearby, which clearly rattled the dwarves — but they refused to abandon their site. Dax offered a formal introduction in Dwarvish, earning appreciative nods. The dwarves explained the site is a ruined temple of Abbathor, god of greed, which they believe holds treasure — but ochre jellies inside have stopped their dig, and they’re miners, not fighters. Thom negotiated a 60/40 treasure split in the party’s favor, plus food and lodging for the night.
Over the evening the party learned the temple’s history: Abbathor, displeased with his priests’ sacrifices, buried the settlement in an avalanche — and transformed the surviving priests into the ochre jellies. There is no known way to change them back. The dwarves also warned of secret doors.
In the morning, Thom lit the way with Dancing Lights into the main chamber, where one jelly clung to the ceiling and another to the wall. Highlights from the fight:
- Dax’s thrown handaxe caused a jelly to split in two (axe embedded in the process), and his follow-up longsword slash did nothing — slashing only makes more jellies.
- Rut absorbed a nasty acid hit with Absorb Elements, then Wild Shaped into a boar to tank.
- Thom’s Magic Missile triggered a Wild Magic Surge that aged him several years — actual stubble now.
- Bean landed a natural 20 with sneak attack.
- Barnaby blessed the front line, Sage went in close with dual daggers to finish a split jelly, and Hamish — after pouring longbow fire into the original wall jelly all fight — leaped in with his shortsword for the final kill.
After the fight, Dax discovered a hidden door in a pillar base concealing a coffer of gemstones — rubies, emeralds, topaz — which went to Thom, with the empty coffer quietly returned behind the door. The dwarves don’t know about the find. Hamish located two secret doors in the chamber. Rut spotted a gold chain inside a dead jelly’s acidic remains and fished it out with the Pole of Collapsing: a gold necklace, its nameplate illegible, overwritten in ancient Dwarvish. Sage read the inscription aloud: “This is what happens to those who displease me.” Rut pocketed it.
One secret door revealed a dark bending hallway with something glinting in the rubble; the other, a short passage to a closed door. Rut Wild Shaped into a rat, while Hamish went in to investigate the glint — which turned out to be not gold, but one more ochre jelly lurking in the rubble.
Session 6 likely opens mid-fight.