Winedark, Blood and Therapy: In the Halls of the Herald of Rot

General Summary

Wherein the Therapists take a tour of the marsh, haggle with some hags, and deal rank violence to putrefaction

For the Sake of Soursquam

The Harboreyes are quickly gaining a reputation in Awa Harbor as individuals who can get things done. Granted, most of those things are destroying the horrors currently manifesting all over the Isle with violence, but it is a job done nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, the Harboreyes, along with new recruit Grisk and his 29 named birds, were summoned by Six Bottle to deal with yet another possible threat to the peace of the Isle.
Soursquam, a sickly sour tuber, is incredibly important to the economy of Awa Harbor as the vegetable's slow rate of decay makes it ideal for shipborne voyages. This last harvest has been devastated by a mysterious plague that renders the soursquam unusable. Worse it, it spreads quickly to other soursquam patches and has resisted every effort to treat it. Normally, this wouldn't be considerable cause for alarm, as these things happen in farming communities, but this are not normal times. As such, Six wants them to seek out a farmer named Leechnose who has alerted the Speaker to these developments. The Eyes are to use their discretion as to how best to eliminate whatever threat might emerge from this, probably with the considered application of force.
So, it was off to the lands outside Awa Harbor. After a brief journey into the marshland, our heroes were confronted by an altogether troubling mix of troll and boar. These trollboars quickly attacked but were summarily destroyed by our formidable group, due in no small part to Artag Overdale's continuing saga with fire.
The fight did tucker the Eyes out, however, so it was agreed upon to set up camp and reach Leech's farmstead tomorrow. As it often does, Fate had other plans.

A Hag Hang

Grisk's turn at watch was interrupted in the small hours of the morning by a hag named Lonely Claudia Quillsquirmer and her coven. After eerily imitating most of the Eyes' voices, they declared that this fen was their territory and that a toll must be paid. The toll in this case was the destruction of Vikkramketh The Tyrant who dared encroach on their realm. Rather than fight what appears to be some deadly crones, the Eyes agreed do what they do best--take care of a threat.
Well, Vikkramketh The Tyrant turned out to be a goddamn black dragon. A young, teenaged dragon though, so not yet at the height of its power, which is good news for our heroes. The fight itself, however, was fraught, as fights with dragons often are. But again, the Therapists triumphed. As a reward, the hags told our crew that cause of the soursquam blight dwells "underneath" and that more answers might be found among the Skunkfallow, whatever that means.

Armed with this knowledge, the Eyes located and spoke with Leechnose, who promptly showed them the problem--a bunch of goddamn grossly rotten soursquam. Rainbow, ever attentive to these things, noticed that maybe something was wrong with the water. Everyone agreed that made sense. Perhaps a trip to the nearby (and previously abandoned) Skunkfallow farm will shed more light on this mystery.

The Herald of Rot

As they approached the Skullfallow farm, the Eyes understood that Skunkfallow was not just a name, but a lifestyle as the cause of a hundred yards of literal stench was revealed: a massive mound of manure. Like, concerning big. The Eyes took note of that as they talked with Garlargac Skunkfallow, a very cagey supposed "farmer." After a back in forth in which it was made very clear that Garlargac and his cronies were up to no good, that "no good" revealed itself as a warren of wererats! Uh oh! Quick work was made of these wererats, with our heroes escaping relatively unscathed (notable exception for Salty, as we'll soon see). The wererats were cagey for a reason--that huge pile of dung hide an interest to some sort of underground aquifer. Whatever is wrong with the water may well originate here.
And, yes, whatever is wrong with the water is definitely happening in this polluted underground cavern, as the Eyes had to make constitution save after dexterity save after constitution save to avoid both the lethal gases bubbling up from these wrong waters and the foul creatures that inhabit them (namely, a host of the unfortunately named Pustuloids, which did frustratingly regular splash damage on their demise. This made for a battle steeped in attrition, as each victory against the Pustuloids brought some measure of damage.
But victory was gained over these blighted creatures, despite many in the party now dripping with disease. The only thing left to do was to head deeper into the cavern and confront the threat there, which turned out to be the Herald of Rot. And he was appropriately named, as he battered our heroes with poison and acid and disease until they ultimately resolved the situation in the best way they know how--application of violence. As soon as the Herald went down, the aquifer started to return to normal, much like what happened in the Hippowhale. A quick search of the area revealed a nice magic wand and a journal containing missives from an entity know as "the Ulam." Strange!
With the water flowing more clear, it was time to head back to Six for a reward and the next mission. Upon presenting the journal to Six, he mentioned that he's seen the name "the Ulam" before on other recent documents and these doings might be related.
 

And That's Where We Left It

We'll discover what that connection might be when the chronicles of Blood and Therapy continue.

Various & Sundry Details

• It was agreed that de facto leadership of the Harboreyes is shared between Salty and Rainbow. So, there's that.
• Grisk has 29 birds and most are pretty good. Special recognition goes to Birdy, who ate an entire wererat, and to Yakky, which made of a wererat a chimney.
• Salty was less successful in his wererat endeavors. He got bit by one of the damn things and now has wererat lycanthropy. That can't be good.
• Dennis' Uncle Gary seems like a chill dude, but might be too into Fantasy Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Rewards Granted

• Overshield, a magic shield
• Staff of the Magpie, a magic staff
• Talyard the Great's Wand of Power, a magic wand

Character(s) interacted with

• Sixbottle, Waterspeaker of Awa
• Lonely Claudia Quillsquirmer, hag
• Vikkramketh The Tyrant, angsty teenage black dragon
• Leechnose, goblin farmer of soursquam
• Garlargac Skunkfallow, wererat
• Bartik Skunkfallow, erstwhile "Herald"

Report Date

23 Jan 2022

Primary Location

Awa

Secondary Location

Awa Harbor