DM write up! Bug bears & Zombies!

Unfortunately Rachel missed the game today and as a result you’ll have to put up with my ramblings this week. Our session starts with our party sealed in a room which looks quite safe and the group decide to rest up. As they rest their powers increase and after the clerics are bestowed more power from their deities, Aralon receives a dream visitation from a powerful cambion. The cambion is far more powerful than Ichtar the imp who usually deals with Aralon at the behest of Glasya. Aralon is granted more powers as part of his pact but the cambion warns Aralon that Glasya is not mocked and will suffer no treachery. We are reminded of Ichtar’s last conversation with Aralon where he spoke candidly about replacing Glasya with another candidate. After exploring their new powers and gifts the party leave the relative safety of the room and venture forth. The first room they find is full of mushrooms and in order to help Luna casts light and illuminates the whole room. Some of the mushrooms recoil from the light and after recalling their knowledge of nature the party realises not is all as it seems. Closer inspection reveals some of the mushrooms are sentient and are a benevolent race known as myconiods. Lacking the ability to communicate vocally due to lack of vocal cords and having a hive mind the myconoids communicate with Vorn and Vandal by using spores to open their minds to the hive mind. They warn of the power of the forge of souls and that it has become weaker over time but it seems to producing necromatic energy. They also tell of the dark pool and an entity that can be summoned there. The myconoids warn not to eat mushrooms that they leave behind as they are poisonous. This doesn’t deter Vandal from trying to pick them and subsequently being poisoned by the noxious spores. Also stopping Thrabaks pig from munching them proves awkward. As the party traverse the caverns they find the dark pool they were formally warned of. It is a thick viscous liquid that seems to glow with necrotic energy. Thrabak attempts to push Aralon in for a laugh but ends up in the murky waters himself. After he struggles out vandal strikes the anvil that acts as a summoning device for what lurks in the lake. Soon the shade of King Graygar Boneflayer forms from the dark pool. Standing 20 ft tall he warns the party of the Black Spider and warns them of his power. He also warns them that Phandlever has succumbed to the power of undeath and a wraith called Mormesk feeds of its dark power. He also warns of a flame skull that believes he still lives in the time of the miners. After thanking Graygar and paying respect to his greatness stalactites fall into the dark pool allowing the party to use them as stepping stones to the other side. They soon find themselves on a large cavern that acted as a mess hall for the former miners of Phandalin. Covered in corpses that have been preserved by the power emanating from the forge of souls the party slowly pick their way across after Vorn who has opened a door at the opposite side of the room. Using Aralon’s shrunken halfling head he reveals the presence of bugbears wearing the livery of the Red Brands. The rest of the party proceed cautiously but Mushu isn’t quite careful enough and awakens some zombies including an ogre zombie. They make a run for it and Aralon unleashes a fireball at the bugbears not once but twice killing them all and a myconoid that was being experimented on. Getting into the room they slam the door shut as the insatiable face of the ogre zombieapproaches. When they are safe inside the room Aggripana resurrects the myconoid. Their rest does not last long as a knock at the door reveals more bugbears. Aralon using his acting ability mimics a bugbear’s voice from behind the door but this does not deter them. Vorn pretends once more to be the Black Spider and commands the bugbears to go. Vorn meventually leaves with them and goes into the room where the forge of souls is kept. Here he sees the flameskull commanding more zombies and some 20 bugbears. Using the halfling head to relay what’s happening to the others Vorn attempts to pass himself off as the Black Spider but the flameskull sees through the ruse. It is confirmed to all that the Black Spider is a necromancer and the zombies then attack Vorn. Luna ignites her radiant power and sprouts wings flying in to rescue Vorn who gets a crafty shot off. The rest of the party face off with the 20 bug bears but Vandal casts spike growth injuring the first wave of attackers. We leave our intrepid party facing off the bug bears...... wow that was long