Arc: Journey to the Shrine
With talks of a Dark God on the rise and a hostile cultist moving their way into town, Yenia, people of The Yawning Portal are contracted by a Tiefling, working with a group looking to spread awareness and search for knowledge about this Dark God, to journey to Dracojune and look for a lost temple. Baern, a local Wizard prodigy, Petunia, a crafty Artificer, Kriv, a trained gladiator and piano-player at the tavern, Sching, a stealthy Ranger who doesn't say a word, and Enna, a law-bringing Monk, were the ones to answer this call.
Structure
Exposition
Feeling stressed, as many people in Waterdeep now are, with talk of a Dark God on the horizon a impossibly good at cards Dwarf, wordless Kenku, well rounded Dragonborn, stern law bringing Monk, and mechanically modified Human girl accept to journey with the well dressed Sister of Aust to Dracojunein search of a hidden temple, Enna being the only one to have a prior relationship with Aust's sister.
Conflict
Before setting out on this impromptu journey, everyone decided to take a day to stock up on supplies. Enna decided to spend her day in the bazaar district looking for animals, but after the closest she could find to that was a vegetable stall she quit her search and made her way to the commercial district where everyone else had went. Petunia made her way to Magicbound, a shop specializing in spell scrolls, wands, and spell books. She got a steal on a Wand of Fireballs from the owner, Zap, for only 500 gold pieces. Baern, Kriv, and Art separately made their ways to The Weave's Weaver to purchase Slippers of Spider Climbing, a Cloak of the Bat, and Bag of Holding respectively. Sching didn't go around to purchase anything, just tagging along with Art. After their spending the group met up in the commercial district outside of The Weave's Weave with Petunia, apparently drunk from The Yawning Portal showing off her new Wand of Fireballs. Everyone except for her could see the issue with her, drunk, handling the wand and kept asking her to give it over to Enna, Art, Baern, or really just anyone less drunk than her, so when she dropped it the result was likely expected. The wand activated, scorching the ground, but before that everyone except for Petunia herself and Kriv were able to jump out of the blast radius, the explosion nearly killed Kriv though.
The explosion got the immediate attention of two guards ordering the group for information on what just happened. Enna diffused the situation saying she'd take care of it, being recognized by the two as a member of The Seers. Before being dragged back to The Yawning Portal, Petunia tried to enter The Weave's Weaver, but was quickly ordered out of the shop by Clarice, the owner, after she noticed how heavily intoxicated Petunia was and learning that she caused the loud explosion outside. After this Enna escorted Petunia back to The Yawning Portal and Art carried Kriv back.
Rising Action
On the dawn of the day they were to leave Waterdeep everyone except Art had gathered on the top balcony section of the tavern as she walked in, now wearing a suit of Scale Mail and armed with a Longsword as opposed to the beautiful flowing robes she was wearing the day before. She informed the party she picked up her new equipment form the local Blacksmith after needing them reforged and purchased some a horse-drawn cart from the stables on the outskirts of the city to take to Stoneport. Due to no ships docked in Waterdeep, or soon to dock in Waterdeep, planning to sail to Scalene, a port city near to where the temple in the jungle was supposed to be, the planned trip involved going Northwards out of Waterdeep, around The Crown Mountain Range's East side into Northcrown and taking another ship, one that The Watchful Eye had already payed ahead for, from there to Scalene.
On the 4 day journey to Scalene the party had nothing of note happen for the first 2 days and first night, but come the second night a line of hooded figures were on their way down the left side of the road. Enna decided to stop the figures and ask where it was they were going, but in an extremely rude attempt to pull off the hood of one of the figures, hit them in the face with her Bo-Staff and began to anger the apparent cultists on their pilgrimage to Waterdeep. They said they were heading there from their various towns from The Stout Empire, Northcrown, and Pincim to meet with a Prophet that had been to their towns on her own way to Waterdeep, Yenia. The party did not have a nice night's sleep that night.
On the final day of the journey to Stoneport the group could see a man, a Firbolg Bard, with purple skin, a golden-white tunic, and a plumed hat making his way down the road to them, seemingly singing a song. It may not have been immediately obvious to the group that the song was about them, but by the point he turned his head at the ending of its sixth line, it certainly was. With the song's, supposedly, last line spoken Art cast an Eldritch Blast at the Firbolg revealing him to be no more than an illusion, now carrying on their way South, down the road and away from the group.
This would not be the only or last time the party meets the Bard, as that night as they parked their cart on the beach, so as to curve around the Crown Mountain Range, during the first watch, Baern's watch, he saw him. Standing on top of the grassy hill overlooking the sandy beach. Just standing there. Standing and watching. Baern approached hoping to get the man to speak about who he was or what he was doing, but he did not speak and he did not avert his gaze from the cart. When Baern took a glance back to look at the cart and make sure nothing had changed with it, which seemed so, he turned back to the Bard only to find him gone. Baern took a split second to take a second glance at the cart and back to where the Bard once was to make sure he didn't side-step around him and get behind him, but had had no sight of the Bard. Or did Baern? As he faced where the Bard used to be for the second time a thought crossed his mind: "Wait a minute, who's that behind the cart?".
He turned around to find once again nothing had changed with the cart, but he could've sworn in his mind that it was the Bard man. Baern rushed back terrified to the cart, wanting to wake Enna up about this. As he began to wake up Enna and describe what was going on with the situation, Enna's face could only be described as horrified as she saw this Bard looming behind and over Baern. As she spoke up about it to Baern, Baern turned around to get a terrified glance at this, but as he did Enna's vision flashed completely black for a split second, nothing in sight, and by the time Baern had turned around her sight was back to normal and the Bard was gone.
At this point it was decided that the rest of the party should be woken up about this, that the rest of the night should be spent on the move, and that watches should now be double shifts instead of single ones. Enna, only recently woken up, and Art took the second watch after Baern who needed to rest. During their watch Art saw nothing strange, just the ocean to the cart's right and the mountains to its left. Enna, however, repeatedly saw him in the corners of her eyes, standing on the water's edge, back on the top of the hill, right in front of them, but each time Enna tried to look directly at the man, he was already gone.
Art and Enna went to sleep and had their watches taken over by Sching and Petunia. Only a single sighting of the Bard was made during their watch, standing knee deep in the water. Sching hopped off the cart to grab a pebble from the now gravelly beach and throw it at the Bard, but when Sching had turned their head back to throw the pebble the Bard was, obviously, already gone. Petunia, who didn't take her eyes off of the Bard, said that he had "slid" back into the ocean, his legs not moving. Petunia did not seem to think of this as a problem until later in the morning.
The sun rose that day with Stoneport now in sight of the party. Art hitched the horses and cart at a local stable, payed for them to be hitched there, and met the ship captain of the ship they'd be taking to Scalene to tell him that the group had arrived and was ready for departure. As the group mounted the ship and looked back at Stoneport as it faded into the distance and they sailed towards the Expa-June Isles only one thing was noticed abnormally. And only one person noticed it. Baern, like he had portented that morning saw a man standing beneath the docks from which they had departed, but spoke nothing of this final sighting of the Bard to the group.
Three weeks later, now docking in Scalene, the group prepared to venture into the middle of the jungle in search of this 'Hidden Shrine'. Baern made his preparations by visiting the local general store to which he found no physical items of which to buy, but did receive information of a fortune teller. Her name was Madame Ma'dall and her shop's entrance was found by Baern at the front of a side alley. When Baern got his fortune read, three cards were drawn from the deck by the Madame, the first being the Void, representing Sudden Change, Upheaval, or Chaos. Baern's second card was the Fates, a card to represent his resourcefulness. Baern's final card though may have been the worst, a reversed Jester. This card simply represents bad luck, and when staring down at it Baern couldn't help but see the face of the Firbolg Bard in the Jester's face, but upon closer inspection it was nothing more than a human. Petunia prepared herself as expected, she got drunk, gambled, and bought some alcohol, in that order, and everyone else decided it would be best to hang around at the ship until the two returned.
Climax
When Baern and Petunia returned from their workings in town the group ventured North into the jungle of Dracojune. As Art was explaining what exactly the temple they were looking for would look like, while cutting down jungle brush and branches in the way with a machete, Baern had portented where it was and pointed it out mid-explanation. As the group progressed towards this temple on the top of a large hill Sching noticed something very out of place, but didn't alert anyone in time. The ground they were walking on was very loose, the sign of being right over a sinkhole or cave, but as no one thought anything suspicious of Sching's squawks, they all kept walking until seconds later the ground collapsed and they were all taken down into the lowest levels of The Hidden Shrine.
Relations
Protagonists
Baern, Petunia, Kriv, Sching, and Enna
Allies
Art
Adversaries
A Firbolg Bard.
Plot type
Arc
Parent Plot
Related Locations
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