Session 2: Old Grudges Report

General Summary

The session began following the rescue of the inkeeper's daughters, as members of the party begin to inspect the corpse of the abducting horror. Skreech finds that both his hardening carapace and his golems provoke attraction from the creature's dismembered parts and the black substance leaking from its open wounds, while Brakmat discovers his presence causes an opposite reaction. Dacha and Rinrin tend to the children while Droknar ventured further into the crop fields toward the green glowing light, discovering a portal to a dark realm and a mysterious humanoid figure in a golden mask who observes him before teleporting away.   Sheriff Morro appears with the town militia and Odsar in toe, the half-orc rushing to tend to her children while Morro questions the group about the commotion. Droknar leads them out to the fields to search for clues about the portal and the creature he'd seen, uncovering a small grey-green stone with a phi symbol carved into it. The group eventually returns to the tavern and finishes a well-deserved rest, with Skreech collecting the remants of the artificial spider creatures that had attacked them.   The next day the group discusses the events of the previous night with Finton Berrybottle over breakfast and they notice something slightly off about the tavernkeeper's demeanor, though they chalk it up to nerves from his daughters being kidnapped. The party makes their way to the Temple of Thar Ashaela where they find Nasse and the rest of the priests busy making preparations for funerals for the victims of the previous day's Sahuagin attack. Nasse apologizes for being unable to accompany the group on their journey but doubles the reward to 50gp per person as compensation.   Armed with a map of Timberwall, the group made the decision to head through the Receding Swamps north of Donborough, opting for the most direct route to Timberwall which would allow them to steer clear of the Huntswood, as they were warned by Brakmat the woods the home of the Emerald Hunters, a rival clan of lizardfolk. On their first day in the swamp they came upon an abandoned campsite and a cupcake which was the most obvious trap imaginable. Skreech sent Francis to inspect the cupcake and the golem triggered a pit trap before the group was ambushed by Bullywugs. During the battle, Droknar manifested an echo of an unknown dragonborn wielding a large hammer, who seemed to disregard the party but followed his every command. They dispatched the first wave of frogmen, Rinrin in particular picking off several on her own, just in time for Gulpa-gor and his lieutenant Arrp to appear with their bodyguards, looking to finish off the group while they were still recovering. The party dispatched of Arrp while Gulpa-gor looked on in amusement, then when the leader of the Bullywugs began to threaten the party, Brakmat stepped forward and intimidated the king into leaving. Their enemies dispatched, the party found a treasure that had been hidden by the Bullywugs.   They continued north toward the Inamja Mountains, coming upon a fossilized seaweed forest at a split in a path. They took the eastward route which sent them out of the swamp and into the western Huntswood, where they happened upon a shrine to some ancient deity. Brakmat felt a pull toward the shrine and found himself making an offering to the angelic deity, who bestowed upon him a blessing of wisdom. The party made camp for the evening during which Skreech collected donations toward crafting the group a Bag of Holding and Droknar and Rinrin discussed a bit about their history, discovering that Rinrin had seen the same figure Droknar witnessed entering the portal in Donborough. Skreech examined the two spider constructs he had salvaged from the tavern and discovered the creatures probably followed pre-programmed commands and were not fully constructed creatures, but rather mechanically enhanced engineered organisms.   During the night a displacer kitten wandered into the site, Rinrin watching the beast steal some food from Droknar's pack. During his watch, Skreech was caught by a surprise silence spell and grabbed by two Saurians. Before they could abscond with the thri-kreen, the rest of the party awoke to his screeching and managed to fend off the lizardfolk, all of whom seemed particularly angry at Brakmat for being in their forest.   Droknar dreamed that evening of being in some strange room that housed a large mechanical device, discussing some experiment with a silver dragonborn who spoke of harnessing the power of the gods. He noticed in his reflections that he, too, was a silver dragonborn, and as he worked on the machine, it activated and pulled his body apart, waking him from the nightmare. At the same time, Brakmat dreamt of a horrific angel-like creature with metallic wings and wielding a massive scythe, while he found himself clad in golden armor and wielding a flaming sword. He moved to strike at the horror before him, but woke from his dream before the blow could connect.   The following day, the party happened upon a crystal pool whose waters revitalized them all. Further into the forest they found a pack of dire wolves hunting down a displacer kitten. The party engaged the wolves and managed to fend them off, saving the kitten who rewarded them by pointing out the location of its hidden stash. That afternoon, the group finally reached the edge of the forest and arrived at the village of Timberwall.

Rewards Granted

325gp and a Helm of Underwater Action Two mechanical spider bodies (one destroyed) Powerstone 18sp and a Potion of Healing

Missions/Quests Completed

Fended off the bullwug ambush Killed the Saurian kidnappers Rescued the displacer kitten

Character(s) interacted with

Nasse - will contact Dacha with more information about connection between Phi symbol and the constructs that attacked them