Session 2

General Summary

Previously ...

The Party had arrived in the quiet town of Termalaine in the calm early morning of the 19th of Flamerule and made their way to the The Eastside inn to a good mornings' sleep.
Marta, the innkeeper, was asleep at the counter and greeted them and started making the fire and set up their beds for the morning. It was a bit cold at first, but they managed.

Calm afternoon meal

19th of Flamerule, 15:00
As is custom, The party all woke up after midday and met their drying rack downstairs and all had a meal and some words. Tirten had made their way to Lonelywood Forest to gather herbs and ingredients for a new ale and perhaps some fancyful rocks.
The party spent a good while discussing the recent situation, not fully understanding why they had to leave in the middle of the night.
From what Aabel and Hex, they were scouting peacefully when suddenly, they were attacked and all hell broke loose. There was absolutely no mistake made on their part. They did reveal what they learned from the location, but the only secret they uncovered was the secret door in the office.
Some info was also shared about Seppo, who they all considered to be rather metrosexual.
At some point, Aabel also showed his sword to Exo'six, who held the shadowy blade in his hand and largely felt nothing.

Some comments

Aabel:

All kobolds are racist.
All southeners are gay.

Exo'six:

Never seen a kobold before.

Hex Is an actual kobold that has been travelling with Exo'six for months.
Pho:

All orcs smell like undeath.
Hex is not undead tho.

Pho Is an actual half-orc, but is also not undead.

The questline

At some point, when refilling their cups, Marta the inkeeper butted in that the issues they've heard about the mine are true and that a group of around 10 kobolds had made their way into the mine and took it over.
They were told to have a word with Oarus Masthew, the town speaker, who can usually be found at The Blue Clam, which he often uses as his office.
Marta begrudgingly gave them directions to her small time competitor.

A Nice Stroll in Town

19th of Flamerule, 16:05
After a plentiful meal, the party had started to make their way across town to get to The Blue Clam, but distracted by a disturbing sight of robed figures destroying the windows of a building, in front of which stood a small family.
After some deliberation, they decided to investigate and found that The Cult of Auril was there with a large group of largely unarmed and frostbitten acolytes, dismantling the home of a local family as punishment for openly criticizing Auril.
The family asked for help from the group, while there was a slight confrontation with the apparent leader of the group, who was a lanky semi-frostbitten and somewhat serious man, whose name they forgot to ask.
The help came in the form of some gold and a suggestion to find rest in the local inn for now, which they gladly accepted, having lost faith that they'll get their home back, as the cultists kept destroying the windows and doors, along with some furniture.
The party was wise to not start a fight with these people and even made a peace offering in the form of a donation to the cult.
They also learned that there might be a way to prove to Auril that you're a true faithful, something that all cultists go through, which is to remove all clothing and walk into the deep wilderness in the night and to pray to Auril as she passes by. Those who truly follow her will be protected, others will simply perish, never to be seen again.
They left the cultists to their work and made sure the family got to the inn and continued on their way to The Blue Clam.

Meeting the Local Speaker

19th of Flamerule, 16:10
The party met the speaker of Termalaine, Oarus Masthew in front of The Blue Clam, talking to someone else.
The speaker welcomed the party in a friendly manner, expecting them to be there for the mine job and largely being right.
The speaker welcomed them in to his office, which was at the back of the tavern on a slightly raised platform, around a circular table, along which he took the corner seat. He ordered food and drink for all who wished it and covered their expenses.
The party told Oarus about the family that was left on the street by the cultists, to which he seemed visibly disturbed and promised to help the family out.
He also revealed that there's not much they can do about The Cult of Auril, because going against them directly might infer the wrath of Auril, as it had with Bryn Shander 3 months ago, when the largest storm hit them and froze people.
Getting back on topic, he relayed the information about the mine, that it's been taken over by the pesky kobold folk.
After a slight interrogation, he had to admit that he's been having some issues in town with the captain of the guard - Morgan Black, who has largely barred the local guards from dealing with the mess, leaving to the the speaker to figure something out. Apparently there's some political struggles going around.

The Trouble in the Mines

Apparently, roughly 5 days ago, a sizeable group of kobolds entered the mine and drove everyone out without harming them. They've been there ever since, while the speaker has been coming up with a way to get them out.
Every day the mine remains closed is costing the town a sizable sum due to lost profits and miners who are without work.
Additionally, one dwarf miner called Gregory never returned, but the other miners don't recall the kobolds hurting anyone, so it's unclear what happened to Gregory.
As Hex requested additional info about the mine, Oarus called over one of the clients in the clam - a dwarf called Edgar, who apparently knew the lay of the land well enough to provide some information about the mine and a map of the location, along with info about an incredibly deep hole in the mind.
The hole in the mine had apparently been explored up to 400 meters, but they never went further. It appears bottomless and it's unwise to fall into it.
Oarus promised 100gp for clearing the mine, plus whatever they find within and a potential bonus for a peaceful solution.

Along the Shaft

19th of Flamerule, 17:00
The party made their way to the main gem mine north of town, finding it largely deserted, aside from the crude sign up front with the finely etched words "Kobolds only".
They decided to enter regardless and found the entrance room to contain many tools of the mining variety and the sound of running water coming deeper from the cave. While exploring, the light from their lantern shone on the walls, which made them sparkle with various tones, notifying the contents of the walls. Most of those small points are minuscule deposits of tourmaline that aren't worth the work to uncover them.
Two large rats find their quick end through the swords of these new arrivals, as they find an underground fast moving river, which has a fairly high temperature, all things considered.
In another room they find tables and tools used to clean up the findings before sending them out of the mine and a resting area. On one of the tables is a small statuette of a dog, carved from a rock that contains two equally sized tourmalines as eyes. The statue appears to be completed and of fairly high quality, perhaps roughtly 20gold worth, so Aabel decides to pocket it.

Two Lost Souls

19th of Flamerule, 17:10
They come across a deep pit, into which the underground river flows. There's sizable scaffholding built into the walls and they decide to use the pitons and rope they bought in town to make sure they have a way out if something should happen to it.
This is namely because Exo'six noticed two kobolds working on sabotaging the scaffholding by sawing it through. It appears they still have a ways to go.
Unbeknownst to others, Mervin decides to silently kill the kobolds and quickly drops them one by one through a well placed stone and a spell.
In the next room, there's a fairly small bucket that appears to be used to transfer personnel and equipment down 50ft to the next level. They quickly descend one after the other.

Meeting the King of the Kobolds

After some more exploration, they come across two kobolds, who had just finished killing a rat and are in the process of skewering it on the table with their spears. Upon seeing the light source of the characters, they charge them, but stop as soon as they see Hex.
They turn out to be easy conversionalists and agree to take the party to Drex, as long as they hide their weapons.
Going down a further level through some carved tunnels along the pit, they reach the final level of scaffholding, after which, in a small tunnel, are 3 kobolds, one of them with wings, which seems quite surprising, as such creatures are very rare.
The winged kobold introduces itself as Drex, in perfect common.
What proceeds is a short overview of the situation, in where Drex assures the party that they're in the cave temporarily, as they're using it as a way of getting the attention of the town in order to be allowed to live with them. While they've started off on a bad foot, it does appear that Drex just wants to get safely into town.
A potential solution is found, the kobolds can help the town with mining if the town provides the kobolds with a home to call their own and safety. To help prove that they've got what it takes, Drex tells the players there's some valuable geodes in the bottom tunnel that they mined out and they party is free to take it to prove to the townsfolk that they can work.
Among other things, Drex also mentions that he sent two of his smartest kobolds to create traps in case they need to protect themselves, but they should be far from complete, the party makes no sign of being aware of any additional kobolds that may or may not have fallen into the pit.
With a potential solution and 100gp worth of geodes in the bag, the party decides to head back to town.

Surprise Tentacles

While travelling up the bucket lift, which takes about a minute to move each passenger, Aabel and Hex remain behind to be the last ones. As soon as the bucket is out of sight, two tentacles attack them both from the shadows and one of them manages to paralize Hex, who is immediately pulled up to the ceiling, into the shadows. The torch Hex dropped shines some light on a strange floating brain with a beak and multiple tentacles that floats near the cave ceiling, with Hex ready to be consumed.
A short but fierce battle ensues, where Hex and Aabel is almost killed, as the floating brain takes bites out of the paralized Hex and Aabel, who is left all alone. Luckily the others risk their lives and jump from above to reach their friends faster. Aabel manages to get the killing blow by smashing his fist through the brain matter, dropping the floating creature instantly in a large pile on top of Hex.
Hex regains control over his body shortly after and they take a breather, as they vivisect the creature to grab a few leathery tentacles and a small chunk brain matter, as the rest almost dissolves to nothingness.
After the short rest, the party returns to town.

The Problem With Harengons

19th of Flamerule, 19:00
They head straight towards The Blue Clam and Aabel sees a nice door just waiting to be kicked in by powerful and muscular furry legs, nobody stops him.
He takes a running start and smashes into the door, ripping the hinges from the weatherworn wood and slides into to the tavern, sliding on the door, hitting Eliise, the local barwench and friend to all patrons, breaking her leg, as she falls into his arms and covers Aabel and herself with the beer from the 5 mugs of ale she was carrying.
As Aabel stands there, looking at the silent crowd who can't help but to gawk at the bizarre entrance, with the girl screaming in pain in his arms, Aabel offers eveyone a round on him.
This does not go over well, and while the party does heal the girl and she's taken to a doctor by the locals, the group leaves Aabel to the patrons and head to the office of Oarus Masthew, which is basically right there and he saw the whole thing.
There's a severe looking man with a couple of guards who come to pick Aabel up from the heavy set dwarves who are holding him and he's taken to prison for the night.

What's the deal with these kobolds?

19th of Flamerule, 19:10
The party reveals to Oarus the situation in the mines and Oarus seems fairly accepting of the plight of the poor creatures and promises to write up a preliminary contract that would be accepted by the council.
He rushes off to make the preparations and get everything ready and asks the party to wait for him, as he will return within an hour or two.

Masterchef ID runner-up

19th of Flamerule, 20:00
Hex decides to try to make some food out of the grell brain/body meat and shows it to the proprietor, who seems accepting of the idea and sends it off to the kitchen to be made ready for him.
Some time later, an immense 8 foot tall and extremely wide humanoid walks out of the kitchen some time later, with a large covered plate, though in his arms it looks quite normal sized, and walks up to the party, placing the platter down in the center of the table.
He seems a bit dull, having a hard time finding words, but is excited and explains to Hex that he's managed to make something nice for him and he lifts the cover, revealing 4 equal portions of brain spaghetti with sauce and each of them is decorated with a cherry, which must be a rarity in this area.
Hex and the others are hesitant to try it out, but once they do, they feel a strange sensation as the world around them opens up, as if they're able to see in all directions at the same time, up to a limited distance. Aside from the side effects and the gooey, yet stringy and sinewy consistency, it actually takes rather good.
The ogrish brute introduces himself as Tarmo, and seems to enjoy it when people partake in his foods.
Tarmo reveals to Hex that he's welcome to return here with interesting meats and he would gladly make something out of them. He especially mentions he'd like to try the meat of a white dragon, the murderous scum of the crags.

The Grand Escape

19th of Flamerule, 19:30
Soon after Aabel was bunnyhandled and dropped off at the jail, with the promise from the leader of the group to "deal" with him in the morning, Aabel decides to make a run for it.
Due to his teleporting shadow sword, which he is able to call to him at will, he manages to throw himself out of the cell he was locked in, right near one of the two guards who remained there to guard him and attempts to shiv them with it, but ends up knocking them unconscious with his fists.
The other guard manages to escape the terrifying magic user and runs to call for help, after blocking off the shivving attempts. Aabel uses this opportunity to make a run for it outside and disappears into the snow, after making his way closer to the tavern his friends are staying at.

The Contract

19th of Flamerule, 20:30
After playin around with their food and fully enjoying it, eventually Oarus returns with the contract, which stipulates that the kobolds will be indentured servants for a period of one year for penance, but they will be provided for, and put to work in a manner suitable for their stature. Assuming everything goes well, they will earn their citizenship after this period, or earlier with good behaviour.
There's no apparent sign that Oarus is aware of the rabbit-man's escape.
The party is told to meet with Oarus in the town hall after they get the kobolds. The town hall is the largest building in town with a tall domed roof, roughly in the center of town. Supposedly the jail is also there.

Sliding Back Down the Shaft

19th of Flamerule, 21:00
The party make their way back to the mine with the contract and upon reaching it, Aabel pops out, stating the he got out on good behaviour already, which everyone believed if they so chose.
Going deeper into the mine, they're more careful about dark corners and meet up with one of the kobolds who calls himself Tipsy the Bro, who appears to be looking for the two kobolds who were creating traps, but is unable to find them. Hex tells him about the grell and that it's likely they were eaten and that there could be others in the mine. The kobold takes this at face value and semi-thanks them for dealing with the creature, but goes on to shiv every dark corning in the cave ceiling as he continues his search.
The meeting with Drex goes well and he appears to be wholly accepting of the terms, even though they could be considered to be slavery of sorts, but it's for the greater good, so it's fine. Either way Drex is most satisfied and is excited to meet with this town leader fellow, who is probably of high standing in the town.

Victorious Return to Town

19th of Flamerule, 21:40
The party arrives back in town and Aabel runs off to "find a place" or something, who knows. The party pay no heed to him, but would notice the increased amount of guards on the roads, apparently searching for something. It's immaterial to their current goal of getting Drex and Oarus in the same room, however.
They reach the Town Hall and are greeted by the friendly Katariine von Moorhexen, who offers them tea and biscuits and guides them to meet Oarus Masthew in his office.

Meeting of Oarus and Drex

Oarus is very happy to meet this fine leader of the kobolds and comes in to shake his hand as they greet one another, but somehow it takes a bit longer than it perhaps should, and suddenly, the whole demeanor of Drex changes, as he starts looking around, confused and speaking in kobold of how he doesn't know where he is and how he got here.
Oarus, however, seems very pleased with the situation and brings the party two bags from the table, one filled with 100 gold pieces for the job and the other is payment in tourmalines, which was supposedly the agreement for a job well done.
Oarus also takes the bag Drex was carrying from the frightened kobold and places it on his person, and then proceeds to ask the party to take the kobolds and leave, as their work here is done.
The paladins of the party consider this situation and, as is tradition, in unison, open their minds to the forces of evil, only to detect that there's a scent of undeath eminating from the direction of Oarus Masthew. They decide to not act on it at the moment and take their leave.

Post meeting cooldown

In the hallway of the town hall, Katariine offers them some tea, and the party ask her to help the kobolds, but alas, she has no such powers here, as she's just the caretaker. But she does have a word with Oarus and comes back slightly confused, stating that Master Oarus must be a bit ill at the moment, as he doesn't seem like himself.
They also have a word with Drex, who seems to have lost his majestic wings, as his friends have discovered them to be fake, once Drex complained about them.
Drex doesn't know how he got there, the last thing he remembers is finding a place to rest and some food with his small tribe, and finding a frozen body in the snow and picking up a bag.
The party helps the kobolds sign the contract, as they already had the signature from Oarus from before, making this deal official on their own end, though it might not stick if Oarus is against it.

Small victories

Hex doesn't like the situation and barges back into the office of Oarus, who seems a bit more reserved than before, slightly less distant and more aware of himself. They have a small argument, but eventually Oarus agrees and tells Hex to show the signed document at the Miner's Guild of Termalaine, taking some time to recall where it is and telling them to leave.
Hex is adamant that something is up and asks Oarus to reveal himself, to which Oarus threatens him and demands he leave, lest there be problems later on.

The Miner's Guild of Termalaine

19th of Flamerule, 21:55
The party, with kobolds in tow, make their way a couple of buildings away from the town hall and to the Miner's Guild Office and demand entrance at this ungodly hour.
There's a seasoned old groundskeeper that opens the door and asks their business, and eventually allows them to enter and wait in the hall, as he calls the guildmaster.
Some time later, Guildmaster Theodore Goldleaf, the leader of the miner's guild and a member of the council of Termalaine, comes down the stairs, having taken some time to freshen himself up, having recently gone to bed.
The Guildmaster is a serious old dwarf, with the look of someone whose been a lifetime miner, but having reached a certain level of financial stability later in life.
They explain the situation to him, as he stands on the staircase, keeping himself slightly above the eyeline of the party, as if asserting dominance. After seeing the signed document, he eventually invites the party to his office.
The comtemplative dwarf takes his work seriously and asks some questions from the party about the kobolds as he looks through some papers, not looking at the party nor the kobolds who await in the hall behind them.
Eventually, he finds something he deems suitable and writes the address to a building the guild owns that is empty at the moment and lets them know the kobolds can stay there and they'll be picked up by someone who speaks draconic in the morning.
It's difficult to read the man, he seems somewhat dismissive, but not in a particularly demeaning way.
But with the address in hand and the promise of the kobolds being "dealt with" and the contract stored away in the Miner's Guild, the party leads the kobolds to their new home, north of town, near the supposed dwarven quarters.

The Great Bunny Hunt

19th of Flamerule, 22:00
As Aabel is lurking around town, his scent gets picked up by a guard dog and the town guards try to lay a trap for him, but Aabel has little problem jumping onto roofs and making his escape that way. Even an unleashed fast dog is unable to keep up with him and the scent is lost eventually.

He tries to put off his scent by sleeping in a local kennel, which does not appear to like him, as the dogs within start getting rowdy as he approaches.
Aabel sees that the town is not safe for him and decides to head out of town.
To try to lose the scent for certain, he tries to track down some animal to rub its feces across his body and find the tracks of a lone elk that once passed through the woods, perhaps not too long ago.
He follows the tracks for a while, until he comes across a dug up area, revealing a small mound under a fresh layer of snow, it seems the elk had dug something up as it passed by. As he pushes the snow off, he finds the long frozen corpse of a human male in decent garbs. Judging from the depth of snow around him, he's been here for a good while, it's difficult to tell. He has some simple weapons on him and a smallish heavy bag made of dark material, but is otherwise nondescript.
Aabel takes the bag and, as he's close to the caves, he decides to spend the night there alone, but out of the cold.

Saying Goodbyes to the Kobolds

19th of Flamerule, 22:30
They come up to a somewhat dilapidated one story building with no furniture and a small collapsed basement area with access in the corning. The building is slowly lower to the ground, as it's been built partially below ground.
But, there's a chimney and a fireplace, so if the kobolds had some firewood, they could get some warmth.
Drex comes up to Hex and thanks him, as they've been talking amongst eachother and told him that the party seems to have helped them.
Drex mentions that he's a lot bigger than he remembers, as if a long time has passed that he has no memory of. He also seems a bit childlike, as if he was only just reaching adulthood when his memories end.
The party leave the kobolds, huddled in the dark basement entrance, holding eachother for warmth in the cold winter night, and leave to bring justice to all.
As they walk away, Pho considers the fate of the two kobolds who probably died to the grell that they couldn't save in time.
Hex is glad that he doesn't have to babysit the kobolds, but somewhat worried for their immediate future.
Mervin is satisfied and considers what to have for breakfast tomorrow.

Report Date

27 Nov 2021

Primary Location

Termalaine