Session Report 4

General Summary

The ruffians promptly parked their behinds in the room filled with 2 feet of water. The party held to the walls and slowly spanned out, searching for clues to the existence of the chanting heard early from the stairs. So far no figure had revealed themselves to the group of sweat stained scallywags that now prowled the cavernous room.
While searching, Kif inspected an iron wheel and went about at pulling at the rusted metal grips. The verdan strained and struggled to pull the rusted metal grips yet he did not relent and was soon able to spin the iron wheel, which raised the iron gate blocking a passage the party had investigated earlier.
As Kif was raising the portcullis with his grips of steel, Russel the Crow took a different route. Upon this route he found a sprout. About, About, over the mound sat the sprout.
Russel conferred with the group that he had suspicions plenty about this mound of vegetation and thought that the party should investigate further to see if this might be a creature of the night. Gunter and Russel agreed to guard the lean wood elf sorcerer Bartholomew as he froze the water near the creature. The reasoning of these stench stained stooges was clever as the spell Bartholomew was using to freeze the ice could only operate if all creatures were presently outside of the body of water. And with all party members safely outside the splash zone, Bartholomew could now go ahead with the magical experiment.
No ICE.
The ruffians rush over to the mound with a flurry of questions blanketing the air.
"Is it alive?"
"What is that thing?"
"Are plants a creature?"
"Can the spell freeze water with grass at the lakebed?"
As the questions were piled experiments were outlined and various damage dealing effects, from magical to physical, were inflicted on this mound of vegetation.
The vegetation atop the mound sat motionless at these attacks and soon the party grew restless and the air once again filled with the pressure of a stuffy debate.
As Russel the Crow was not one for these types of talks, he aimlessly explored the cavern as his party members argued on and on over if the mound was truly a worry. The debate had devolved to the discussion of whether this cave was the right turn or not when Russel stepped upon the top of the dais and triggered a horrific thumping chant.
The chanting rose as thirteen dark apparitions appeared on the ledges overlooking the room. Each one resembles a black-robed figure holding a torch, but the torch’s fire is black and seems to draw light into it. Where you’d expect to see faces are voids. “One must die!” they chant, over and over. “One must die! One must die!”
Stunned, Russel the Crow backs up urgently, stepping down from the dais. As he does this the mound of vegetation that had been motionless before now moves with thunderous speed. Yet before the creature can happen upon a stunned Russel, the minotaur Gunter swings his axe and gouges a heavy blow, attracting the monsters attention.
The rest of the party leapt into action as Pablo cast moonbeam on the shambling mound. His brother, Carlos, launched a flurry of arrows at the large beast. Kif and Bartholomew kept their distance, launching spells and placing magical effects on the lump of vegetation. Russel regained his composure and as the apparitions dissolved into the air, he rushed over to aid the minotaur in his fight against the shambling mound.
Within a minute the party vanquished the giant sack of plants and the party walked away unscathed other than a small flesh wound on the shoulder of one Gunter Hash Horn. As the party left the cavern the chants could be heard no more. The ruffians found the children, Rose and Thorn, running around in their room. They thanked the adventurers and told them that they meant not to be rude butttt Rose and Thorn wanted to go back and play with their parents so they left the ruffians with only the thank you and not much else.
The party decided that all this dying was not going to be for naught even though Russel the Crow had scrounged together a full set of plate armor. As the party searched the house they came away with a few items of jewelry and some other hidden items.
The ruffians walked out the front door that just half a day ago they had all stood in front of while watching Carlos and his dark rump wiggle their way up to the third floor balcony.
The party ended their day by finding a drink at the local tavern. As they approached the location they were able to deduce the name of the tavern as "Blood on the Vine". As the party entered they spotted three distinct groups filling in the surroundings. One was of a tall, bald man with a scruffy mustache who sat behind what appeared to be a ramshackled together bartop. Another group appeared to be three individuals who smelled of spice and wore a flurry of colors in their clothing. The third group was a lone man, sipping from some clay jug in the corner.
The party approached the three clothed in a flurry of colors as the designs and patterns of their fashion seemed to match that of the individuals who had originally brought and abandoned the party in this strange land. 
The three never gave their their names to the party and the conversation lasted but a minute yet much was learned and exchanged in that time. The three called themselves Vistani, which turned out to be various groups of caravanners who shared a similar cultural identity.  The three recognized the name Stanimir as one of the leaders of a Vistani caravan in Vallaki, to the north west of the village. They also found out the lone other man in the tavern is the new burgomeister(burgermaster). The party paid for a look at the map of the Vistani and saw that Vallaki would be at most a day of travel.
The vistani shooed the party away with a free round of ale and got back to laughing heartily. The party of six stench stained individuals stumbled over to the one lonely man and asked him if he was indeed the new burgomeister(burgermaster). 
He was indeed, and his name was Ismark. He welcomed the party to come back to his estate as he had an urgent problem that needed dealing with. The discussion of this possible issue and job would be discussed over wolf steaks of course. The party agreed and headed to the burgermasters place.

Report Date

06 Jun 2021