The Party raced after Draco, discovering his Wand of Shocking Grasp and his pendant had been dropped along the way. They later found him cornered by the Asimar woman and another yeth hound. Having come from the same town and been through similar mistreatment, she had extended an invitation for him to join her. He refused and was about to be taken out when the Party arrived.

Seeing their “fledgling” in trouble rallied the Party to take the Asimar down, complete with Chaka declaring that he was going to knock her upside the head with his club.

Jyn was, per usual, the first to attack. He ran for the Asimar, but he forgot that the yeth hound was close enough to initiate an Attack of Opportunity. The yeth hound proceeded to bite him and trip him right in front of the boss…

More fighting ensued. Ciara granted Draco an emergency Shocking Grasp with the wand they recovered just in time to get the final hit on the yeth hound (at the end of the encounter, when Ciara went to check on him, Draco gave her one of those emotional young-child hugs). The Party spent everything they had taking down the Asimar. The fight culminated in one epic action. Remember how I said Chaka threatened to knock her upside the head with his club? That is EXACTLY how he dealt the finishing blow, all while yelling, “For the rabbits!!!”

After looting the Asimar’s body (Jyn helped himself to an amulet with a Seven-Pointed Star that gave some nice stat perks), the Party camped for a short rest in a barricaded room before exploring the rest of the basement. They may have stopped the leader of the goblin attacks, but there were other treats and terrors lurking inside the fortress.

They found a sculpture of a pile of coins blocking a hidden path. An inscription that said something along the lines of “Give your wealth to the mighty K and he shall grant you passage” was carved above a coin-sized slot. Everyone immediately looked at Jyn and told him not to be cheap about it. He reluctantly placed a piece of PLATINUM in the slot, and the sculpture receded.

(Jyn, if you’re reading this and I didn’t tell you already, you just needed a gold coin, not platinum. Sorry, dude…)

The passage led to a treasure room of sorts, which Jyn was more than happy to loot. However, it was also the prison cell of a Greater Barghest that could turn invisible. Jyn survived the attack and got a Ring of Force Shield out of it.

Later, the Party encountered a room with stone coffins. A pack of living Shadows came out and attacked them. Now, shadows are an interesting enemy. They’re incorporeal, which means that they can’t be harmed by physical attacks. Also, they don’t damage your HP. Their attacks reduce your Strength stat. Once your Strength reaches 0, you’re gone. Dead. This turned into a terrible time for Ciara for two reasons. One: she had no means of magical attack. Two: my DM dice gifted a shadow with a Nat20, dealing Ciara maximum Strength damage. Thankfully, she survived.

The last encounter they had in the fortress was with a Giant Hermit Crab that used a gold encrusted giant’s helmet for a shell. No, they did not take this animal with them, though that didn’t stop Chaka from trying.

During the crab battle, Chaka and Draco pulled off another combo maneuver. Draco had just recently acquired a new spell, an Oracle specific technique called Oracle’s Burden. Basically, this would allow him to inflict a target with the Curse he suffered from. All the weaknesses, none of the benefits. If you recall, Draco has the Shadowbound Curse, which makes him sensitive to bright light. Back in Session 3, Chaka had used a flash-type spell that accidentally blinded Draco. A couple of call-outs later, and the Oracle’s Burden Flashbang was born.

The helmet the crab was living in was worth a lot of money, but also really heavy. Thankfully, Rainstorm had learned a Levitate spell that allowed them to guide the floating helmet out of the fortress (kind of like Ochako from My Hero Academia).

The Party returned to town victorious (and much richer). They set the horse up in a nearby stable, but the rabbits and the giant gecko were housed in Chaka’s room at the inn, along with all the stray dogs he befriended. All the loot from the goblin fortress earned them a lot of money, and by now, they had reached Level 4.

The townsfolk realized that just calling them “the town heroes” wasn’t very original or catchy. Taking their exploits into account, they brainstormed a new name.

And that was how the Party became known as the Gob Stoppers.