Session 162: A Smell and a Mel (12/10/23)

Verget the 12th.

The PCs continue to rest, Gary finally recovering from the negative effects of his resurrection several days earlier. Finian hunts for the orc refugees while Gary makes wreaths for the children, who eventually gift them back to Finian for the meals he provide. The trio leaves some treasure behind to help the refugees should they need the coin, and they prepare to head out in the evening, eventually exiting Midge Creek back into the Well. The glint of town lights is far off in Tarndim and to their next destination, Hobfast, which they arrive at later in the night, after steering away from some large creature in the Well that was keeping pace with them for a bit.

In their absence, the Garbal has been stolen from the docks, so they are unable to switch watercraft! The grizzled dwarf Ruttekeer nearby doesn't seem to have any information, only that he's seen a lizardman down by the docks. Finian purchases a silver fishing rod and lure from the shop, and Indrid offers the dwarf some good pipeweed. The ropes mooring the PCs' boat were indeed chewed through or severed, and a quick visit to Lt. Silverstrings and the Eidolorn Guard turns up little more. Most of the other soldiers are out of the village, dealing with a threat to the direct west near Cheeky's Hollow. Gary visits the local shrine to Crake, only to disturb a young boy sleeping in a hidey-hole nearby. He also uncovers a colored box in which are stashed some thieves' tools. The PCs decide to rest at the barracks until morning, and inquire with the Hosspotches. Gary transforms into a bat to scope out the area, and finds an abandoned campsite just north of the village with an impression in the mud the shape of a humanoid with a tail...

Verget the 13th.

Grandfather Hosspotch is grooming his favorite ponies while his family's youngest watch on, and claims he knows nothing about the disappearance of their vessel, but also mentions a scaly thief by the docks that has been more active in recent nights. The PCs cautiously carry their three-dimensional map of the Crowslode past the Hobfast manor, and bring it to the rowboat loaned to them by the refugees. They row just north to check out the campsite, and find another of the hidden lockboxes, this one containing some fish-flaying equipment. They also find an encrypted message in a bottle sunk into the mud, and copy it onto some parchment of their own. They leave the camp behind, heading back to the Gravers' Guild and Floivin Keep to answer their summons from Oskar.

In the afternoon, they encounter a strange serpentine creature with the face of a humanoid female, sunning on a capsized river craft. They determine it is not the Garbal, but approach with some caution to gauge the danger the serpent might pose. It can speak Common, and warns them away or it might become hungry to devour them. They can't quite tell if it sunk the vessel and ate its crew, or just came upon the wreckage itself, but they err on the side of caution and turn back towards the shore. They eventually arrive at the Well, climbing the dam and entering from the West. As they approach the Guild, they notice something strange smelling, like carrion in the area. They go inside and are greeted by Mel sitting by the evening fire, but the gnome hasn't noticed anything.



Gary heads outside and sniffs around and finds a corpse stuffed with crystalline rock candies, the PCs cautiously approach and realize that these candies and the items inside are part of the Summergaunt's leavings, an urban legend/holiday that occurs around the beginning of the Fall, after summer has parted. The city has stashes of the dyed rock candy everywhere for children to enjoy, but it seems someone has used it for a more sinister purpose...

Verget the 14th.

The PCs head to the Armory Square to report the murder, and they meet with the General himself, Scot Morrow. They learn that two other bodies have been found within the last week, one of a local whore and another a beggar. They also learn the craftsman they found is a vendor who sold things in the evening at local markets. Morrow dispatches some soldiers to clean up the body, and the PCs return to the Guild, where they meet with Oskar. Ser Stratton is away on business, having joined a Dig for higher ranking Guild members, and Oskar says he will be leading the next local Dig, with Fleshless Tess joining and Mel remaining to watch over the Guildhouse.

The PCs have the 3D map locked into the Guild's basement Vault, perhaps to be used for a Dig in the future, and Oskar presents them with three options to vote upon: clearing out the recently unearthed Spiderfang Mine at Fort Gurd to the north, exploring the Vault of Sustanne in Toul Tabor as per the map they found in the Dwarf Lords' rest, or helping the gnomes at Skachalo to clear the new Underway pass to Melethesz, since they have encountered some saboteurs in the tunnels beneath the Vernal Wall, and there might also be the ruins of some old civilization down there. The PCs unanimously vote to assist the Skirkwhistle Mining Co, and it turns out Tess has also voted that way, with Mel voting for the Vault since it might yield the most wealth. Oskar asks the PCs to gather supplies and try to fetch the porter Oatmeal in the morning.

PCs: Finian Redfoot, Gary Greasewax, Indrid Hosspotch

NPCs

General Scot Morrow (human male): A lithe and handsome human of 50 summers, the General wears a fine maroon cloak bearing his rank badges over a shimmering suit of chain mail. A bone-carved longbow hangs from his shoulder, and a pair of white-hilted swords, one long and one short, are struck through his belt. His hair is kept well with a slight curl to it, and he wears a feathered brown hat. Even more impressive is the foot-long, violet tinted dragon that glares at you knowingly from astride the General’s shoulder.

Session 161: The Stomp in the Swamp (9/17/23)

Verget the 9th

Our heroes discover that the source of the thumping and unnatural fogs are a pair of vile marsh giants, who engage them to make a handy snack out of the trio. The PCs survive the initial onslaught of rock throwing but then engage them in melee, which is nearly a fatal mistake, as the massive humanoids trip them with their gaffes and then pound them all over the swamp. Gary falls to the violence after trying to ward them off his friends with his 'blazing dive' maneuver, but manages to stabilize. Indrid and Finian are nearly reduced to corpses but through sheer luck and a few missed swings, they turn the corner and fell both of the creatures. After that they desperately heal themselves and search the creatures' belongings, taking their gaffes and some unusual items within, including a slimy whip. They decide on a very long 12-hour rest period and shift between watches. During the middle watch, Finian notices a strange two-tailed crow flittering about the Marsh, but it doesn't spot them in their concealed camp.


Verget the 10th

The following morning, the PCs continue their trek northward towards the Midge Creek, stopping to apply more healing along the way after the wounds they received from the giants. Gary identifies a few of the items' properties that they found, and later wild shapes into a bird to get the lay of the land and steer the party towards a thin column of smoke near the approaching river. He notices a commotion in the marsh canopy off to the west but the trio ignores it, and eventually arrives by evening at a humble campsite where they finally meet Brofous Bellowbroth. The dwarf is engaging in missionary work to assist refugees from Sothos Karr, and his companion, an orc named Oodagh the Kindly, seems to hold some sort of leadership position among said refugees. 

Finian presents him with the head of the Axe of Dwarven Lords, completing his quest for the Hall of Mercies, and paying off the raising of Gary from the dead. Brofous seems confused at first but realizes it may have something to do with his ancestry, and promised he will return to the Hall and begin his quest to find the rest of the weapon. Ale is shared with the PCs and then they are offered rest at the camp, which they take. Through the night, an occasional voice is heard of other orcs, male and female, who are either scouting or helping traffic more refugees to safety.

Verget the 11th

In the morning, a group of them has assembled for a breakfast fish fry, to which the PCs are invited. Oodagh says there is a strange bird that has been squawking their names, and despite Gary's attempt to drown himself, they realize that the weird two-tailed crow must have been sent from Oskar, as it cites their names and says 'Oskar wants you', 'Big Dig', apparently heralding the next Gravers' Guild expedition is almost underway. The PCs decide to return back to Floivin Keep, and are offered the camp's sole boat to speed their way, if they can in return send it back and perhaps some others. They agree to the terms, and rest and heal a bit more before embarking.

PCs: Finian Redfoot, Gary Greasewax, Indrid Hosspotch

NPCs:

Brofous Bellowbroth (dwarf male): A handsome young adult dwarf with flowing locks and a thick but well-maintained beard. He has thick arms and a barrel-chest adorned with a chain shirt of some excellent craftsmanship, and a gray tunic with a pair of crossed white battleaxes. His own battleaxe is handled with relative ease, and his left leg seems to disappear beneath the knee, replaced with a jointed plate legging and boot.

Oodagh the Kindly (orc male): A tall and lanky orc with pale yellowish skin, discolored eyes of red and green, and a prominent, broken tusk on the bottom left corner of his mouth. He wears a tunic and breeches that seem to be entirely composed of multi-colored cloth patches, while a wide straw hat and a pair of primitive wooden clogs round out his attire. A fishbone flensing knife and a knotted ash cudgel hang from a loose snakeskin belt.

Session 160: Can I Keep My Bodies? (3/19/22)

Verget the 9th

By the light of the morning, our heroes more closely examine the 3-D map they found stashed beneath Boyl's Baubles, and realize that it must belong to the Crowslode, the dangerous cavern network in the northern Vernal Wall of Floivin Province. It's a miracle of fine glass and stonework, and each of the nine layers is labeled differently, from initial cavernous levels to an underwater lake, a massive bridge through the underdark, a maze of crystals, and an Illithid city! They decide to bring this to the Eidolorn Guard, specifically Lt. Silverstrings, who says they can keep it. She ultimately hides it for them in one of the barracks until it can be transported to the Gravers Guild in Floivin Keep, but not before Indrid and Finian carry it back and forth to their river barge...

Which they find has been broken into by some creature dragging mud and lakeweed behind it. Finian climbs above Roy's Rods, Reels & Rubbers to get a better look, and notices that the strange muddy tracks are all over the docks, not just on their own vessel. Indrid rushes back to warn the Lieutenant again, fearing that these might relate to the lake creatures that Gary had a brush with on their way over to Hobfast a day or so before. Supplies are gathered, and the PCs head west from Hobfast to try and locate the dwarf Brofous Bellowbroth, to whom Finian is supposed to deliver the volcanic axe-head artifact.

After some hours of travel, where the Tooth Marsh darkens beneath a thicker canopy, they run across some mounds of orc corpses forming little hills. It turns out that they are being 'worn' by large, turtle-like creatures who try and add the PCs to their collection! However, using a flurry of blades, arrows and druid magics, the creatures are rather quickly dispatched...other than one which has the common sense to surrender, as they possess a limited speech and intelligence. The creature, retreated into its shell, begs for its life by giving them information...it knows a bit about the dwarf Brofous, and also warns them away from Cheeky's Hollow, a location they were headed towards.



They let the creature (a graveshell) go, and head west anyways, thinking they will find Saffron, a local druidess who can guide them, or perhaps Brofous himself, but when they arrive, the Hollow has been covered with thick vegetation and a pulsing plant door which is sealed. They encounter a strange old man, the 'Trufflefinder General' of the Eidolorn Empire, who doesn't seem all that right in the head. He attempts to enlist the trio into helping him break into the plant-crusted marsh hill where he might find some exotic specimens of mushroom for the Royal Table of Emperor Borth, but they turn the man down. Regardless, in exchange for some shroom-scavenging, he directs them closer to wear Brofous is holed up near Midge Creek, where he assists orc refugees fleeing from Sothos Karr into the Empire.

The trio parts ways with the mysterious elder, and travels several hours more into the evening, when they encounter thick, rolling fogs across the reedy, tree-speckled marshes. As they pause to set up camp, there is a steady, heavy thumping that shakes the earth nearby!

PCs: Finian Redfoot, Gary Greasewax, Indrid Hosspotch

Eriel Swann (half-elf female): A striking, lithe young woman with delicate features, her ears just pointed enough to reveal her elfin heritage. Bright blonde hair serves as a contrast to the full set of black leather armor, boots and gloves that she wears, and her satin cloak is deep purple. She carries a mandolin of finely carved birchwood, and a bone-hilted saber hangs by her side.

Grum'brol'so (graveshell female): A large, turtle-like predator with a spiked shell, small but bright yellow eyes and a curiously shaped, toothy maw twisted into a perpetual grin.

Scarlton Thurn II, Trufflefinder General (human male): A bespectacled, inquisitive human somewhere in his 60s, with a slender nose and a knowing grin which seems etched onto his face. The clothing on his upper body seems to note some official or royal status, offset by the marshy garlands and leaves he wears upon his shoulders and cowl. Below the waist, his legs are bare, save for the hair and mud-spatter which cover them, ending in a pair of filthy sandals. He leans upon a two-handed sword in some disrepair, also camouflaged with foliage from the local surroundings, and has a pair of half-stuffed sacks slung across his shoulders.

Session 159: Just Say No (2/12/23)

Verget the 8th

The PCs land at the docks of Hobfast, then decide whether to travel through the village in disguise. Indrid and Finian decide to take the straightforward route, and pay Grandfather Hosspotch a visit, with the latter using the hat of disguise to appear as his old self, and Gary also wild shaping into a halfling that he can go unnoticed. They are admitted to see Grandfather by a pair of young roughs, but discover that the old man is rather ill with the 'Fall Haze', which the mysterious halfling Gary cures. The Hosspotch patriarch makes things right with Finian and Indrid, apologizing for Harley Hosspotch and his ambitions which might have inevitably turned into a coup for his own position. He does warn them that there might be some other bounty hunters or assassins that the late Harley paid off to deal with the pair, and he also lets them know that Brofous Bellowbroth has been serving as a missionary to help orc refugees in the Tooth Marsh.

Next they kill some time by visiting Boyl's Baubles, where they meet one Wesper Veks, who inherited the place from its former owner. He sells all manner of drug paraphernalia, pipeweed and other substances, as well as the baubles and charms from the old shop. Gary picks up a few that he detected were magical, and the three head over to go fishing by the docks and kill some time before meeting Lt. Keira Silverstrings for drinks. Gary takes one of the narcotics he acquired off Veks, and begins to feel strangely refreshed, but also paranoid, and hallucinates that everyone is watching him, including all the freshwater life beneath Udders Well, which he confirms in both a fish form, and a shark form, before Indrid wrestles him out of the beach with his metallic arm. Finian has some luck fishing, but not a lot are biting with the shark about...



Before deciding where to next, they visit with Captain Fowler for a friendly conversation, and then pick up Lt. Silverstrings for drinks. They grab a bottle at the Crimson Harpy, but Gary (understandably) doesn't want to go inside, since he was kidnapped and held captive beneath the tavern in his original half-elf days. So they end up at Finians' parents house, which it turns out has been ransacked numerous times, inside and out, presumably by rogue elements of the Hosspotches that were working for Harley. Finian cleans some of the mess and they take their cups. Keira retires to the barracks after a few hours, and the rest decide to get some sleep, though Gary wants to burn the midnight oil and spend some time working on his tome of wisdom. He hears a sound around midnight and senses someone nearby, but the culprit flees before he can get outside.

He wakes the others and they manage to track the prints to the large ash tree hanging across the waterway from Boyl's Baubles. They all find various means to climb it, and get inside to find that there is a stash of burglarized items in a hollow way up on one of the larger tree boughs, along with a corpse. Indrid leaves to round up the Eidolorn Guard, and brings back a Private while the other two watch over the goods, which Gary uses detect magic on, and discovers that a key on a twine bracelet around the skeleton's wrist glows. Unfortunately, he breaks the skeleton to get it, and they further demolish it as they lower the stash down to the marsh floor where the summoned Eidolorn Guard can bring it back to the barracks to return to the townsfolk. Before that, he interviews Veks, who seems innocent enough and himself claims to have heard footsteps up on the roof of his shop. The drug dealer goes back into his shop, and Indrid investigates the roof, to find little more than bird droppings and a torn package of weed.

Captain Fowler arrives, and once again questions Veks because they find the situation suspicious, and then they also find some of the shopkeep's ANSWERS suspicious, so he is taken 'for tea' to the barracks, and Fowler deputizes Indrid to search Boyl's Baubles thoroughly while the (now) dwarves stand watch. They find no records of anything shady, but some suits of leather armor, some thieves' tools in a drawer, the spot behind the service counter where Wesper stores the heavier narcotics, and a trap door below his wardrobe in the back room...It leads down into a crawlspace, full of old, forgotten goods, dusty and undisturbed. The main feature, however, is a large wooden square box, with a lock that glows magically, and the PCs manage to struggle it up through the trap door, and then use the key from the corpse in the tree to open it...

Within, they find an unusual, 9-layer swiveling 3D-map built of glass and stone...

PCs: Finian Redfoot, Gary Greasewax, Indrid Hosspotch

NPCs

Wesper Veks (human male): A reed-thin human in his middle years, he has slick black hair, tied back in braids, and a wrinkled brow above a pair of sea-green eyes that seem astonished at everything around him. His jerkin and breeches are fanciful, with lots of patterns dancing on the fabric, and his boots appear to have cleats on them for tramping about in the muck of the Tooth Marsh. A dagger and short sword, their pommels jeweled, are tucked neatly into sheathes at his waist, and he carries a satchel over his shoulder which seems to be made from the skin of a serpent or crocodile.