Session 8: A Very Hungry Caterpillar

General Summary

When the party flees, they will eventually come upon Thywicket. The city is about 500 feet long, with the many small huts built onto stilts along its back. As the flesh pulsates, the buildings rise and rotate on the stilts to match the movement. Atop the largest building in the center of the worm is a bronze statue of a moth surrounded by a halo. Many of the people stop in there and can be seen making offerings.
When the party enters the city, the people tend to look at them with wariness. There are mutters of “can't trust outsiders” and “trying to horn in on our ascension”. Shop owners will grudgingly trade with people if needed. They have no horses in Thywicket, just standard equipment items. One shop near the church sells moth companions to those who seem to be “of the faith”, or at least willing to put up a fair bit of coin.
As the players travel around Thywicket, there are hints of Cranium Rats. Lights glow around corners, there's skittering, and occasionally a rat will sit up and stare at members of the party.
When they get too close to danger, one of them will be pulled into a sub-structure under one of the main buildings. The one who pulls them in will introduce himself as Pendeghast, and he warns them that they are too inquisitive for their own safety. He leaves off with the notion that someone has noticed them noticing things, and that the town's leadership has been acting strangely (Mayor and head pastor, along with a couple other random citizens have been taken over by Intellect Devourers already).
Pendeghast takes them to his little hideout, a sound-muffled room secretly built under a less-used, smaller house. His room is only about 4 feet high, so he has to crouch or crawl. He still has access to his study near the tail of the city but he fears being found or watched too much to use it. ______________________________________________________________________
The party reached Thywicket late in the night, and were taken up by one of the watchmen. Special note was given to how sunken and tired his eyes were. They stabled their lizards, and noted that the stables were otherwise empty. Directed to a small inn in the poor district, they got two rooms for the night. They could see that the innkeeper had bulging, nearly insectile and tired eyes. It was immediately apparent that the people were wary at best of outsiders.
Kestrel settled in and began to create a new leather journal for Visayan to replace the destroyed one. During the night, Claudia woke Visayan with her scrambling. She frantically searched and clawed at one of the many gaps in the wall (having secretly smelled and heard the Cranium Rats outside). Visayan noticed a faint blue glow through the walls, and resummoned Claudia on the outside walkway to investigate. She scrambled in widening circles but eventually resettled just outside the gap, indicating whatever she was looking for had been right there. Unbeknownst to players, this was mainly to signify that the scent of rats was so prevalent that pinning down where they had been most recently was extremely difficult for the ferret. In the morning, the party headed toward the rich district to do some shopping. Outside, Visayan noticed that there were no lamps near his room to produce that glow...
As they moved up the walkways, people would stop conversations to glower at the party, but caused them no trouble. Khashayar noticed some rats that would stop, sit up, and stare at them from the stilts. Soon, they arrived at the entrance to the temple. All walkways converged at the entrances, so they had to walk through to get by. To the starboard side of the city, they could hear Pastor Vormic giving a passionate sermon about the upcoming metamorphosis and ascension. They opted to wait for him to finish and have a chance to meet him. When they did, Visayan took the opportunity to ask him about the temple's art and the religion itself.
After explaining the motifs, Pastor Vormic asked if they had heard “the call”, which none of them had. However, something one of the party members said implied that they had indeed been called by Thywicket, at least to Vormic's secret/coded understanding. With this, his disposition toward the party changed, and he became genuinely welcoming. He lead them to the Observatory, and explained how the giant moths that were drawn to Thywicket could be purchased by insiders. Khashayar keenly observed that he mentioned the moths being used as message carriers, and as they looked out of the butterfly house, they could see the round tower in the rich district. Vormic told them that it used to be a bookstore, but it had been abandoned by the owner, Pendeghast. With the trail refreshed, Khashayar purchased a Rimewing Moth, and the party left on good terms with Pastor Vormic.
Heading out the other side of the temple, the party entered the rich district. Passing by the tower, they could see the worn out and unkempt sign that showed it was a bookstore. There was a small padlock on the front door. Deciding to wait for the cover of night to break in, the party went about their shopping. They first searched for general goods at The Fine Swine. There, Visayan bought a blue drakehide backpack and some spell components, including a pearl worth 100 GP. The shopkeeper (a Kalashtar woman) asked if it had to be from the sea. With Visayan perplexed, she retrieved a Thywicket Pearl- a “freshwater” pearl from the gut of the caterpillar. It was vaguely wishbone shaped, and had a tint of green translucence to it, and Visayan could feel it bending the magic in him, ever so slightly, like a static field. Khashayar was immediately wary, as the translucent material was eerily similar to the translucent bones of Entities. As they examined the pearl, the shopkeeper proudly told them that she had retrieved it herself, as an ordained member allowed to enter the body of the worm. She told them that certain spiracles can be crawled through to enter the body directly, but that only the ordained were allowed to enter.
Next, they went to an alchemist shop, run by a gold dragonborn, to purchase some healing potions. They had enough money for a couple potions, and purchased those. They saw some vials of Thywicket Bile along one of the top shelves, but are as yet still unaware of what it is or what it does. When they left the shop, the city lurched to a halt. The buildings swayed on their stilts, and the sounds of shelves falling and glass breaking echoed around them. Looking down, they could see the caterpillar curling a leg under its body in pain, and a bruise-like blackish brown spot under some layers of the flesh. Visayan was able to recall seeing something like this in caterpillars infested with wasps some time in his past. Noticing that this stop was abnormal for the city, this was their first clue about what was wrong in Thywicket. When the city began to move again, they could not see the bruise under the layers. The party decided to go to Pastor Vormic's second sermon, and waited around until nightfall. Vormic's sermon was decidedly more fire and brimstone than the morning one, and some of the moore perceptive members were able to see a blue glow heading toward them, under the walkways. Kestrel felt someone grab his arm and pull him. Spinning around, he found himself face to face with a dirty, unkempt crazy man with cracked glasses. In a frantic whisper he told them to follow him, and he bolted down the poor district. The party tried their best to keep up with him as he darted through the maze of side paths and bridges. With a burst of energy, Visayan was able to keep up with the twists and turns, with the blue glow close behind. Kestrel and Khashayar got lost for a moment, and had to choose a direction to dodge. They chose correctly, and ran into an apparent dead end as the glow went the other direction. A hand grabbed their ankle, and the man pulled them into a crawlspace. Lighting some firefly lamps, he introduced himself as Pendeghast, and warned them they were in great danger.

Report Date

26 Dec 2024