S1 E1: Into the Unknown
General Summary
Highlights from this episode:
- Kristre, a dragonborn Rune Knight fighter and part of the Talaganza militia has been commissioned by the Duchess - the head of the Talaganza Merchant Council that runs the city - to find her missing son, Eebo Nibbis.
- Eebo told his mother he and his friends were setting off to delve the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, which they said they had found via a recent sinkhole a relatively short distance to the north of town. Saying he'd be back the following night, Eebo has by now been missing for three days.
- When Kristre tells the the Duchess he has also recently seen what he's almost certain is the same sinkhole while patrolling north of the town, the Duchess assigns him to find her son, and also tells him to get help in the task, with a reward of 200 gold each for Eebo's safe return. Kristre recruits acquaintances from town, easily done since everyone is taking part in Talaganza's annual Independence Festival.
- Ris - a Goblin Paladin peacekeeper from the caves near the silver mine who has decided that fighting and killing bad guys makes more sense when it brings him Glory. Conveniently he and his tribe are also fluent in Kaalengi, the old local language used by the inhabitants of the region before Common became so common, and still sometimes used in traditional names and other writings. If this really is Tamoachan then surely the things written there will use this language.
- Nesskan - a Kenku whose small restaurant in town failed, probably because of interference from the Merchant Council, so she has a reason not to help the Duchess - but 200 gold would go a long way to recovering her losses. In the meantime she's gone rogue and was getting paid on the side for assassinating bad people in town as well; She and Ris have crossed paths before as they both enjoy dispatching bad people and keeping peace in the town a little more directly than the guard is able to.
- Nyx, a Shadow Sorceress who's also the assistant funeral director of the town, with some experience dealing with evil and enemies of the city, whose extraplanar origins from Theros make her uniquely attuned to certain dark energies of the kind the Duchess expects to find in the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.
- The party tops off their supplies in town, then sets out on the journey, only five or six hours to the north. The jungle terrain is difficult to get through once they leave the main route that connects Talaganza to Kanambou in the north; about an hour of the journey follows a narrow path through the jungle. Along the way, they discover they're being stalked by a Kamadan, a large leopardlike creature with three snakes emerging from each of its shoulderblades. Though it succeeds in putting a couple of them temporarily to sleep with its breath weapon, it finds them too tough a fight to make a meal of, and makes its escape instead.
- Shortly thereafter, Kristre finds the clearing he had noticed before, where ancient ruins have tumbled down and been reclaimed almost completely by the jungle, leaving only valleys between rubble hidden under soil and trees where once was a small stone city. The sinkhole is in front of a very large pile near what looks to be the center of town. The party hasn't gotten close enough to investigate the sinkhole further for signs of Eebo Nibbis or his party having gone inside.
Notes
Report Date
02 Mar 2023
Primary Location
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