The adventure continues! Last time, our heroes went diving for tongs in a boiling lake, went apple-picking in a twisted orchard, and lost two friends to a voracious meadowshark and a pack of talon-dashers…
Play time: 4 hours
Adventurers:
- Altair the Clockwork Sorcerer (Professor of Astronomy)
- Astra the Celestial Warlock (Professor of Astrology)
- Kaze the Kensei Monk (Visiting Master of Painting)
- Ormr the Totem Barbarian (Janitorial Arts)
- Teth the Mastermind Rogue (Bursar’s Office)
Morning of Mourning
The party said good-bye to their dead comrade’s family. Then Teth went to work transforming the remains of the Dire Toad into a powerful potion, which he convinced Altair to drink. The potion turned Altair’s bones to stone, rendering him Immune to Thunder damage.
Perle arrived and collected the Vile Apples the party had collected so she could make Vile Cider. She also mentioned that her friend Breindel was worried about a dead sheep up in the hills, so the party went north to investigate. After talking to Breindel at the Woolery, they continued north to the shepherd huts and spoke to Liba. She said that one of the sheep became strangely ill, so they burned it. Astra inspected the remains and found orange mushrooms growing on the bones. She then began following a path in the grass. Teth lingered behind to carefully collect some mushrooms.
The trail led Astra to a cave in the side of a hill where a man lay dying, covered in orange mushrooms. He said he was Selig and begged them for a knife, and to never tell anyone what happened to him. He offered his silver wedding ring in exchange. Teth tossed him a knife, and the man killed himself. The inside of the ring said “Hodel”.
Back in town, they learned that Selig was a local fisherman and Hodel was his wife, one of the women at the Woolery.
Fun Around Town
They went to the smithy and gave Leiber the Master Tools so he can make them literally anything they request, as long as they provide the raw metal. Altair asked for a giant telescope and Ormr asked for a maul.
Then Teth checked in with his clumsy spy Feivel and learned the local drunk Gavrel probably has a valuable black pearl and the old lady at the shrine might have some money. Teth thumped him on the head and told him to gather rumors instead.
At Perle’s Place, Astra repaired a lot of tables.
Teth turned his orange mushrooms into a vial of poison and a vial of who-knows-what. He gave the mystery vial to Kaze, who then turned it into paint.
Night Time Madness
Astra prayed to her patron and the giant black cube of the angel Zodiel appeared, telling her that her destiny was “below”. Then an explosion rocked the graveyard! The party ran to investigate and found a woman crawling out of the earth, along with a pack of vicious foxdrakes. After a brief battle with the little fire-spitting dragons, they met Sister Sharp, a Knight Vagrant.
She was confused and excited to be “on the Surface”, but reported that she had seen a terrible monster somewhere below. She also seemed to have some strong political ideas about the need to kill rich people. The party agreed to venture down into the tunnel and stop the monster.
Underneath it all…
Plunging far down into the earth, the party found a vast cavern illuminated by a giant chained crystal. They realized the hot crystal was directly below the boiling waters of the lake. Farther in, they found a stone village, and then a dead body, and then a glittering creature crawling down the wall toward them…
And that’s where we ended.
DM Notes
This was a solid session of shenanigans. The players got to explore and investigate the town a bit more. One person got an unexpected power-up. The smith was upgraded. And most importantly, the dungeon showed up! Now that the party has found the giant dungeon lurking under the village, there will be tons of opportunities for strange encounters, deadly combat, and upgrades to both the PCs and the town. If they survive the monster they just found!
