Criminal Quandaries - S27

We open with the party mid-fight with the candlestick mimics. Gus immediately gets thrown into the spike pit, but was able to mostly avoid the spikes. With Kaige waking up, they were able to thwart the mimics quickly.

Venturing through the rest of the basement, they came across a small room for human servants. And found none other than Gus's mother and father. They told the story how they were struggling for money, but a halfling came by with an offer. They packaged up the souls of the recently deceased, and sent them along to house Cannith for pay. Not long after, the war took Tiberius from them, and the family knew that his soul must be worth something since he was one of the most powerful fighters in the realm. A well-known paladin. They requested that he be honored, but never heard back. Until recently. They got a letter saying they could see Tiberius.

The party had a hard time convincing Gus's parents to leave, but eventually they got them to leave. Even though they were not convinced that Tiberius would be different. He may not even be alive in the first place. The party did wonder if there was a powerful warforged that cropped up at the same time.

His parents were sent along their way to the inn, and the party ventured to the holding cells. There they found only one person alive- Momo- a Monkeyfolk fighter. Despite the party's reluctance to free him, he would help the party if they let him go. They went down the stairs to a portal which required teamwork to light up the runes.

Momo slipped through the portal first, and the party followed. What greeted them was the taskmaster- a huge warforged titan with a grappling hook and hammer. As the conveyer belts whirred into action, the party quickly turned their attention to the spiked armor firing at them except for Gus. He was miraculously able to dodge most of the hammer blows while he kept the task master's attention. Bastle discovered the batteries did damage to the task master when destroyed, but exploded in turn.

Sufficiently damaged, Yeet pulled out his favorite- Polymorph. The taskmaster shrunk into a harmless Squirrel. Yeet emptied the bag of holding to put the squirrel and second battery in it. They ripped the bag open, banishing the taskmaster to the Astral Plane.