Session 4 Report - A Festival!
General Summary
Tanith opened her eyes to the sight of the giant golden egg, and the events of the day before came rushing back to her. Looking around, she saw that Silas had joined them sometime during the night, but Aliurinal was gone. Rolling her eyes, she stretched and sat up. The sound of a rooster crowing at close range startled her, and her companions began to stir as well. She caught Lucian's eye, who had the last watch, and he nodded to her while swaying gently on the bale of hay he sat upon.
Aliurinal entered the barn and Tanith realized he must have just stepped out. Lucian stood up, weaving toward the door, muttering something about getting more arrows. The rest of the party resumed the discussion of what to do with the egg.
"If we were to use it as bait, where would we want the demon to go??" asked Silas.
His query was met by silence. Aliurinal suggested taking it back to the cave where the portal was located. Tanith countered with keeping the egg in the city, where the city guard could assist with dispatching the demon. While they all stared at each other blankly, a servant of Exius entered the barn and invited the party to breakfast. Lucian walked back in at this point and suggested they eat in the barn with the egg. The servant left to speak with his master.
About 20 min later, a parade of servants streamed out to the barn with platters of food, and the party dug in eagerly. Exius, looking bemused, arrived in the barn carrying a stack of books. Tanith noticed he was still in the same clothes as yesterday, but he appeared as fresh as usual. He expressed his wishes that the party had slept well overnight and hoped that Harold (apparently the rooster) had not awakened them too early.
Getting down to business, Exius pulled out a map where he had charted the two previously known portal locations plus the one the party had discovered, intersected by a circle superimposed over the map. The circle also passed through Lake Newleigh to the northeast. The original two portals were opened by Kaige Everbleed, an evil warlock prominent in the histories. Exius explained that the portals are a way for minor demons to get quickly from one place to another. The demons can step into one and out of another, almost instantaneously.
Lucian suggested the party journey to the lake, going by way of the center of the circle on the map rather than walking the perimeter looking for portals. Silas, looking at the scale of the map, confirmed what Tanith had been thinking - that the lake was much more than 2 weeks away, especially hauling the egg along with them. Another consideration was the Betelands to the southeast along the circle, who are currently on poor terms with the Chich Empire.
Bear asked if humans could use the portals. Exius answered that the outcome would be uncertain as humans typically do not survive well in the abyss. Tanith paled, looking sick.
It seemed to come down to whether the party intended to return the egg to the dragons or to use it to set a trap. Lucian pointed out that the decision would not need to be made any time soon if the party went to the lake. He also pointed out that returning to the portal in the ogre camp might work as bait, although the portal may be nonfunctional.
Exius offered to contrive a bag of holding to ease transport of the egg. Tanith and Bear exchanged a glance filled with relief. Plans commenced, with the scouts memorizing the salient features of the map. It was determined that the party should strike out to the northeast, aiming for the Corough River and then following it to the lake. A path joining Mitford River to the west was discussed and discarded, although it would bring the party close to the center of the circle.
Roland enquired about obtaining a book about dragons with relevant lore. Exius felt he could find one in his library. Pausing briefly, Exius went on to ask for assistance with a letter he received a few years ago, describing a band of marauding trolls and the loss of a necklace that was to be delivered to Exius.
Good morrow,Durmouth is located on the Mitford River. Exius stated the necklace was imprinted with his family crest, and they were bringing it back for his inspection. Obviously the matter was not urgent as several years had passed since receiving the letter, but if the party was going to pass that way anyway....? Silas and Aliurinal exchanged a glance and began altering their path to go to the Mitford rather than the Corough River. Bear asked if either river was navigable by boat. Silas pulled out his scouting maps and began plotting various towns in the area in question. He estimated the journey to the lake would be about 600 miles all told. As the debate continued, the party's eyes kept being drawn to the town of Brastedge, which seemed to be at the center of the circle. Eventually the decision was made to head toward the Mitford, hopefully obtaining a boat at Warton. While Silas continued to plot their path, Aliurinal went hunting and brought down a deer, while Lucian pulled Exius aside and asked him about the sigil on his scrap of leather. Tanith saw Exius shake his head, and Lucian stowed the leather back into his pack. Exius then retrieved his copy of Learning from Dragons from his library, bound in purple leather, and gave it to Roland. He then went back to work on modifying the bag of holding to accommodate the dragon egg. When he finished, Roland offered to carry it as the fastest and most armored party member. Silas drew a letter out of his bag and trotted off toward town, leaving it on Captain Hal's desk. Checking in at the guardhouse a short time later, Silas was informed that he had been transferred to Warton. Hal wished Silas well and told him he would always be welcome in Nosbury. Shaking hands, Silas thanked Hal and collected the rest of his meager belongings, heading back toward Exius' barn. The next morning dawned bright and early with Harold crowing in the sun. Exius came out to the yard to see the party off after another fine breakfast. Roland shouldered the newly modified bag of holding, the egg already stowed safely inside. The party made good time, covering 30 miles in the first day. They camped that night, setting a single guard, and the night passed uneventfully. On the second day out, in mid-afternoon, Aliurinal called out that two people were approaching rapidly. The party readied themselves for action. As the two strangers approached, Aliurinal saw that they appeared to be merchants not used to running, who panted out, "Help! Help! Ogres! They are taking our beer!" "How far?" barked out Aliurinal. The two exchanged a glance. "Um. We have been running for a while. Maybe a half mile?" "How many?" asked Roland, moving up to join them. "Three!" Roland smirked and started up the path with Aliurinal. Tanith saw his armor roll down his arms and she grinned, speeding up to follow, hard on the heels of Bear. Silas shrugged, looking for cover but finding none, and followed along behind. About a half mile down the road, the party saw an overturned wagon in the road and large shapes cresting the next hill cross country. Two horses grazed at the roadside. Bear left the road and kept moving toward the hill, the rest of the party keeping pace. After 5-10 minutes, the ogres were sighted off to the east among the trees. Aliurinal melted off into the prairie grass, heading toward the trees. He could see the ogres were sitting, passing around a barrel and drinking directly from it. Bear keep going in a straight line toward the ogres, his javelin in his hand. Tanith readied her crossbow while Silas moved off to attempt to flank the ogres. Roland and Lucian were a few steps behind, the bag of holding secured to Roland's back. As the party approached within 30 feet of the ogres, they still did not look up from their amusement. Aliurinal let fly and struck one of the ogres who roared in pain, and then Aliurinal melted out of sight. Bear hurled his javelin a second later while Roland's lightning lanced from his gauntlet. Tanith aimed her crossbow and fired, striking the nearest ogre just as Lucian's arrow pierced it as well. He staggered to his feet and then fell, his two companions looking up in surprise and confusion. The ogre carrying the barrel of beer lumbered up and threw it at Tanith. She attempted to duck, but it struck her a solid blow and she staggered backward, gasping for breath. The third ogre rushed at Bear and swung at him with a giant tree branch, Bear ducking under the blow. Aliurinal shot at the ogre attacking Bear, striking him with an arrow, and then attempted to hide behind a nearby tree. Bear attacked with his sword, slicing across the ogre's abdomen. He released the sword, and it began to dance at his side. Roland launched a lightning bolt at the ogre on Tanith, and smoke rose from the ogre’s flesh while it bellowed in pain. Lucian released another arrow and struck the ogre in front of Bear. Tanith concentrated and summoned her echo, which struck the ogre twice in quick succession with her longsword. Silas closed in on the ogre's flank and attacked with his sword, stabbing him in the back. The ogre fell forward to the ground, gasping out with his last breath, "Waste.....beer....." The final living ogre bellowed "REGINALD!" and charged at Tanith's echo, swiping at it. The echo dissipated and Tanith sighed, still clutching at her chest. She saw an arrow spring out of the ogre's hide from Aliurinal's place of hiding. "CANNOT KILL ME; I KILL ALL OF YOU!" the ogre bellowed. Aliurinal answered with, "We have your egg!" and Tanith looked at him in incredulity. Bear missed, but his dancing sword connected, and Roland let loose with another lightning bolt, striking the ogre square in the chest. Lucian dropped his bow and ran forward, drawing his staff as he went. He connected with the ogre who yelled, "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT..." and then the ogre fell to the next blow from Lucian's staff. As the party regrouped and explored the clearing, Lucian quietly advised Aliurinal to not advertise their possession of the egg. Tanith looked down at her beer-soaked garments in disgust. It was already starting to dry and become sticky. There were four more barrels of beer untouched among the trees. Silas collected the right ear from each ogre and searched their pockets, finding 10-ft of chain, a fishing net, and a collection of smooth rocks. Aliurinal took the fishing net and added it to his pack. Roland healed Tanith for a small amount, and she downed a small healing potion, feeling much better. The party made their way back to the merchants. They found the merchants in the road with their wagon with a hired guard, holding a rag to his bleeding head. "Look! They didn't even kill Tom!" Tom looked annoyed. Roland pointed out the way to the clearing with the beer and wished the merchants luck. They gave each party member 2g in thanks. "Have a nice day!" called Roland as he stepped away. Tanith muttered in passing, "You might want to hire more guards next time." The party set off down the road at a good clip, passing the rest of the day uneventfully. The next week passed in much the same way, without incident. A little before midday on the seventh day after the ogre encounter, nine days out of Nosbury, the party approached Warton. About half again as large as Nosbury, there seemed to be a celebration going on, with tents set up in the middle of town and people out in the streets. The decision was made to spend a night or two in town to rest and recuperate, and to replenish their supplies. Aliurinal's eyes lit up and he made off straight to the archery contest to enter his name. Tanith wandered among the tents, gazing with wide eyes at the pie eating contest, weapons contests, a magician touting his potions, and other wonders. The entry fee for each contest was 1 sp. Tanith remembered festivals like this from her childhood, and a shadow passed behind her eyes. She stopped to watch Bear enter the wrestling contest, squaring off against Tator VonSpud! Bear looked like he was trying not to laugh. A gnome hawking the event advertised a prize for anyone who could grapple Tater and throw him out of the ring. Aliurinal walked up and wagered 10 sp on Bear to win. Bear quickly got Tater into a grapple. Straining, he heaved Tater over his head, but stumbled as he tried to throw him from the ring. Regaining his balance, he heaved one more time and Tater cleared the ring, striking the ground with a solid thud. Aliurinal cheered, collecting his 20 sp. The crowd went wild. The gnome handed Bear a cut gem, estimated to be worth around 5 gp. Tater brushed himself off. "Go again?" Bear shrugged. "Sure!" Aliurinal moved off to take his turn in the archery contest while Bear pinned Tater, lifted him over his head, and heaved him out of the ring once again. Bear received another gem, significantly smaller than the last, and Bear laughed. He waved to the crowd and moved off to watch Aliurinal. In this game, the contestant was able to choose short, medium, or long range targets. Aliurinal chose long range, and he let fly. He hit his mark, earning 16 points. "Congratulations! Would you like to try for the bonus bell?" Shaking his head, Aliurinal shot again at the long range target but missed. With his third and final shot, he aimed for the bonus bell but missed. "Too bad! Too bad! But for 16 points, you have earned yourself a free beer down at the tavern!" Aliurinal shook his head, disappointed, and stepped aside. Lucian stepped up, shooting at the farthest target but just missing. His second shot hit for 14 points, and the third was a bull's eye, earning him another 15 points. For 29 points, he earned a full meal at the tavern, called the First Peacock. Just then, a commotion burst out at the wrestling ring. "TATER IS SO STRONG," bellowed Tater, and he morphed into a large red monstrosity and started picking up townspeople and tossing them around. Aliurinal narrowed his eyes, searching the crowd for anyone suspicious. He did not see anyone wiggling fingers at him, but Presto, the potion-master, appeared concerned and was rifling through his potion bottles. Aliurinal nudged Lucian, hypothesizing that Tater may have got hold of a potion. "Perhaps we should go speak with the potion vendor." Nodding, Lucian and Aliurinal moved off toward Presto. "He sampled one of my strength potions, but it has never done this before! What can I do? They last for hours!" Aliurinal suggested Bear go and pin Tater down. Aliurinal wondered if he could get 5:1 odds on Bear. Silas questioned the gnome at the wrestling ring where he cowered behind a barrel, but this had never happened before. "He's usually so sweet. He makes cupcakes!" exclaimed the gnome. Lucian ran up to Tater and taunted him, then backed away quickly with Tater in pursuit. Tanith was paralyzed with indecision, when to the side she noticed a halfling whose legs suddenly grew to 15 feet long. Aliurinal turned back to Presto, threatening him with forcing him to drink all of his own potions. The whole crowd had gone nuts, with some growing fangs, some dripping acid. Presto said he could go back to his house for antidotes. Tanith grabbed his arm, "Come on! Which way to your house?" Presto points and moved off with Tanith and Aliurinal. Before going more than a few steps, a half elf started to scream. Tanith covered her ears as did everyone nearby, but two people dropped to the ground and stopped moving. Tanith started pushing Presto toward his house. Aliurinal moved to the half elf and knocked her on the back of the head. She fell to the ground, and Aliurinal ran after Tanith and Presto. Bear went to check on one of the downed villagers, who was alive but unconscious. Silas moved to the Potions table, keeping others away. Presto, Aliurinal, and Tanith made it to the alleyway unimpeded and started down. Roland carefully watched the crowd. He noticed a townsman who had sprouted hair and claws and was approaching a child. Roland placed himself between the almost-wolf and the innocent, dodging attempts at bites, deflecting the wolf but trying to not injure it too badly. "I just didn't want to be bald!" cried the near-wolf. By now, Presto made it to his home and entered, finding it ransacked. "Where are the antidotes?" asked Aliurinal, but Presto seemed disturbed at the condition of his home. There were broken bottles and spilled potions everywhere. "I need my recipe manual," he cried and moved deeper into the house, followed by Tanith and Aliurinal. His clothes had been thrown out of his wardrobe, fancy top hats and sparkly capes strewn about the room. A hidden compartment at the back of the wardrobe was hanging open. "My notebooks! They had all my recipes in them!" he cried. Uttering an orcish curse, Tanith turned and sprinted back out of the house and into the alley, making her way back to the town square. She heard Aliurinal questioning Presto about who his competitors may have been. Presto, rifling through his belongings, said, "I don't recognize these," and handed some papers to Aliurinal. The papers appeared to be advertisements for a new business. "Do you know this Hammerhearth?" asked Aliurinal. “He’s my assistant! Is he trying to put me out of business?!" Aliurinal showed him a drawing of a storefront and advised that they needed to go look for this Hammerhearth. Presto described him as a dwarf who likes fancy hats. Back in the middle of the chaos, Bear saw a toddler breathing fire. The toddler's mother was speaking with a dwarf wearing a top hat with a fancy purple feather in it, who was handing a potion to this young mother in exchange for some coins. She gave the potion to the toddler, and he seemed to recover instantly. Bear moved off toward the dwarf, leaping over the twitching legs of the extended halfling. The dwarf turned and saw Bear approaching. "Are you in need of an antidote by Hold Hammerhearth?" said the dwarf, smiling and bowing with a flourish. Bear seized him by the arm, and Hammerhearth threw a potion at Bear's face. Bear's face felt hot but essentially unharmed. He shook the dwarf, "Try that again, and I will break your back!" The dwarf reached into his bag for another potion, drinking the potion and shrinking down so fast that Bear lost his grip on him. He continued to shrink as he ran from Bear. Bear threw his battleaxe at the fleeing dwarf. It bounced off the ground and the dwarf escaped down a sewer grate. Tanith ran up and asked what was going on. He explained about the dwarf and the antidotes, pointing toward the sewer. Tanith moved over and looked down into the sewer. Bear appeared beside her and cast Thunderwave into the sewer. Tanith staggered backward from the resulting concussion. As the thundering echo abated, Bear could hear cursing and the sound of glass shattering, and then a rodent of unusual size appeared down in the sewer. Quickly questioning the townsfolk, no one seemed to know where the sewers led. Aliurinal and Presto decided to head toward Hammerhearth's house. On the way, they passed the sewer and stopped, seeing Tanith and Bear peering into the gloom. Aliurinal showed Bear and Tanith the business plans and advised going to the dwarf’s home. Tanith filled Aliurinal in on the antidote situation. Looking around, they could see Lucian still dodging away from Tater while Roland boxed up potions at Presto's shop and Roland engaged in a slap fight with a discount werewolf. As she watched, Roland knocked the werewolf out with a well-placed shield blow. Roland joined the other three and Presto and moved off to Hammerhearth's home. The house was mostly empty, with a trapdoor in the center of the floor. Aliurinal exchanged glances with the others and pulled out the fishing net he took from the ogres. Tanith grinned. Aliurinal shushed everyone, motioning to the trapdoor, and the group moved to be behind where the trap door would open. Waiting in silence, they continued to hear sounds in the sewer but not getting any closer. Then they could make out the sounds of glass tinking, as if the dwarf were making more potions. Bear said, "Oh, I'm going first" and opened the trap door. Climbing down the ladder, Bear emerged into a large underground cavern with a bed, cabinet, chest, tables full of merchandise, and many barrels. Tanith followed close behind, attempting to be stealthy but not sure that she succeeded. Bear saw the dwarf dive down behind barrels further into the room and took off after him. Suddenly, the dwarf grew to immense size on the other side of the barrels. Bear jumped up onto the barrels and stumbled, but steadied himself. Tanith ran forward and summoned her echo, directing it behind the immense dwarf. The echo attacked and hit twice with her sword. The dwarf remained focused on Bear and attempted to rip a barrel out from under him. Bear danced away to the next barrel over, and the dwarf heaved the barrel toward Tanith. The barrel hit the ground and exploded, releasing a green slightly glowing liquid that formed into a funnel and spun toward Tanith. As if out of nowhere, Roland dashed over from the ladder and took refuge behind one of the tables. He shot lightning from his gauntlet at the whirling column of fluid. Aliurinal made it down the ladder and moved into the room, hugging the far wall, and readied his bow. In the meantime, the liquid funnel grew arms and swiped one through Tanith. Crying out, she staggered backward looking dazed. She could smell something foul but pushed through. Switching places with her echo, she commanded it to attack the glowing green liquid column twice. The column appeared to shrink minimally. Standing behind the giant dwarf, Tanith tried to stay inconspicuous, nursing her wounds. The dwarf, facing Bear, attempted to pick Bear up. Fighting back, Bear eluded his grasp and the dwarf swayed backward. Roland backed up and shot at the green funnel with his lightning. Aliurinal let fly at the funnel as well, his arrows somehow seeming to lodge in the liquid. Back on the surface, the town square seemed to be calming down. Afflicted people were sitting quietly, nursing wounds and unnatural conditions. Tater slowly wound down and fell unconscious. Back in the basement, Bear slashed the dwarf with his sword, which then began to dance at his side. Tanith resummoned her echo, striking the liquid column twice, collapsing it into a puddle on the floor. The dwarf picked up Bear and tossed him into the back corner, where Bear fell into an open vat. Tanith watched in trepidation as Bear floundered in the vat and burns appeared on his skin. Roland moved forward, summoned acid into his hand and lobbed it at the dwarf. It adhered to his skin and he began to scream, as Tanith watched in horror from behind. Aliurinal shot at the dwarf but he was flailing and dnacing around so much, he evaded the shot. Bear climbed out of the vat of acid and moved back up to Hammerhearth. The dancing sword at his side swung and missed. Tanith moved her echo to face the dwarf and struck twice in quick succession. By now, she got her second wind and felt a little less injured. Alas, the dwarf smashed the echo, which popped out of existence. He tried to wipe acid off but failed, and then picked up a barrel and threw it in Roland's direction. The barrel burst on the ground and splashed what appeared to be glue onto Roland, securing him to the floor. Heaving mightily, Roland broke free from the glue and backed up to the far corner. Aliurinal let fly with his longbow and the dwarf tumbled to the ground. Tanith scrambled out of the way, narrowly avoiding being crushed but breaking a nail in the scramble. His hat rolled off and came to rest beside him. From the top of the ladder, Presto stuck his head in. "Did we win?" he called down. The group began rummaging through the contents of the cavern. Presto came all the way down and tested the potions. He determined they were good antidotes, universally effective. Tanith climbed painfully to her feet, kicking Hammerhearth on her way by. She saw he was still breathing, and she felt conflicted. Glancing down, she saw that the fancy hat with the purple feather was undamaged, and she stared at it dazedly. Roland started his ritual to identify magic while Aliurinal climbed the ladder to bring potions to the peasants. Ten minutes later, Roland announced that the hat was the only magic item in the basement other than the potions, of course. Tanith picked up an empty vial and moved to a vat filled with minor healing potion. She filled the vial and drank from it, repeated this once more, and then passed the vial to Bear. "What does the hat do?" Tanith asked Roland. He began another ritual. In the meantime, Tanith went through Hold's pockets. She took out the potions she found and lined them up on a table. He also had a bag full of 800 gp but she left it alone. Presto asked, "Is that my moneybag?" Shrugging, Tanith backed away. Presto picked it up, noted the PG monogrammed on the bag, and slipped it into his robe. Ten minutes later, Roland announced, "This hat aids with deception and makes you appear slighter taller and particularly fancy." Tanith snorted with amusement. "Dwarves!" Silas looked shifty. He sidled off and started searching the room for a hat box. Tanith laughed harder, sitting down on the floor and wiping tears from her eyes. Aliurinal organized the villagers and explained the sequence of events. He also volunteered Presto to make restitution for Hold's actions. Presto donated the bag of gold he had retrieved from Hold's pocket. The constable took Hold into custody. Presto offered 5 greater restoration potions to the party, plus three potions of choice per member. The party thanked him and moved off to make their selections.
We apologize for not bringing you your necklace. We had to abandon some supplies on the way to Durmouth. We got a lead on trolls attacking Craftry. Tell Sabine her potions were very helpful.
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