Assault on Cragmaw Castle - Part I

Current Adventure - The Lost Mines of Phandelver

Party
Rolen Moonshadow (Remy) - wood elf ranger of the Emerald Enclave
Mojo ar Meisce (David) - human monk
Saarkson (Paul) - tiefling warlock and new Zhent agent
Rogar Lighttalon (Adam) - dwarf cleric
Droop (npc) - goblin henchman

----
Warning: Adventure Spoilers

The night started as expected, the party eliminated the orc scouts at Wyvern Tor and their ogre ally. The fight was rather quick and I was rolled terribly. I couldn't hit a pc to save my life.

After defeating the orcs, the party returned to Phandalin. They spoke with Sildar and received their reward for killing the orcs. Then they went to the orchard to inform Daran that they'd taken care of the undead at the Old Owl Well. The aging knight gave them each a bottle of his best hard cider and inducted Rogar into the Order of the Gauntlet.

For reasons unknown to me Rogar's player started talking in a really bad Ringo voice. We laughed too hard and I'm still not sure why it was so funny. I ended up giving him inspiration because my face hurt from laughing. It might have been payback for me saying "Dude, do you even dwarf?"

The party picked up Droop from the former Redbrand hideout and that's when things went a different way that I expected. Instead of heading to Thundertree, they decided to head straight to Cragmaw Castle (with Droop leading the way).

The coolest moment of the night happened right outside of the castle. One of the goblins fired through the arrow slit and Mojo's player spent a ki point to deflect/catch missiles. He caught the arrow, rolled a 20, and through the arrow back at the little bugger... killing it before it could duck for cover.

He would catch two more arrows before the night was out. though not as cool as throwing it through an arrow slit). One of the two throws was even another crit.

The party made it through two thirds of the Cragmaw castle. They took out a multiple groups of goblin mooks, the hobgoblins, and the goblin "priest" and his pet.

We all had a great night! I wish the game was weekly, but the best we can do is bi-weekly. I'm looking forward to finishing Cragmaw Castle.

Mojo's magic 20

The party vs. the orcs of Wyvern Tor