Session 39: "Under the Cover of Swamp Explosion"

General Summary

A Place to Hide and Wait

You traveled through the swamp. A twelve hour journey on your amphibious cart, and, as you approached Thera Relovut, plans were settled on to have Hysteria and Kaswink teleport into the prison to get all the prisoners they could and some grime for Namina's talisman. The journey was easy, thanks to Agave's ability to avoid danger is previously navigated areas, and you set up camp about a mile out from Thera Relovut. You discussed plans to visit Quince someday at the Gate Camp. Plans to demand explanations and answers, maybe get your payment, maybe see just who Namina is talking about when she says that Quince has some "good company". There was a general air of nervousness about the whole idea of visiting that camp, but it is something that you should probably do. Namina did eventually reveal that the people she knows that are with Quince include one of her brothers apparently working with him, and another that was "Captured by northern elves".

While camp was being put together, Frode began cooking up some meat soaking in a mysterious brine of Kaswink's own design along with some berries and such he had been collecting in a pot. He had the option to go find some sort of speedy vegetable to help with the mission, but opted not to due to the frightening nature of the surrounding swamp. Meanwhile, Namina began to do that magic thing again and decided to check on the place you were going to teleport to. She peeped in on the Warden's Office in The Prison Beneath Thera Relovut. She saw mostly just darkness as the office had no windows, a closed stone door, and no light sources. She could tell the office was empty though, and could see the faintest of outlines that looked to be the furniture that was seen last time. She would occasionally switch to "hearing mode", and when she did she would hear screams of agony and despair, or she would hear nothing but the most quiet muttering coming through the door and walls from the nearby prison. The muttering seemed to be a completely mundane and boring explanation of sewing techniques. All-in-all pretty spooky, and she used this spooky opportunity to voice her terror so that Hysteria could take her blood for the Talisman. Agave continued setting up camp, and AND started looking around to keep an eye on the area. They saw fog starting to come in...and within the fog he saw a silhouette. This silhouette was obscured, its true shape hard to gauge, but AND started to tell others in the camp about this discovery. They started with Agave, though Agave had no luck in seeing the shape in the fog. Despite this, he still trusted what AND was saying. AND, feeling dejected by Agave's initial skepticism, also approached Kaswink about this, and a plan began to be put into motion.

A Critical Error

Kaswink saw the spooky thing, again, just a silhouette fading into existence then immediately vanishing. She suggested that Agave and AND should approach the silhouette on the ground while she sneaked through the canopy. Frode, considering the prospect of looking for veggies again, observed his surroundings. The swamp was very spooky for sure with the thick fog rolling in, and he also saw his friends starting to walk into the fog as they approached whatever they saw. Kaswink explained the situation, that she thinks something is watching you all. AND brought up the strange silhouette with Frode, and the plan suddenly changed. Frode suggested that AND use their mighty juggling abilities to juggle the problem away like they always do...though AND was skeptical that it would work in this situation. They also revealed that DAN is apparently better at juggling than them. Frode stated it could still work, and that Kaswink could always kill the threat if need be, he also lamented the potential cancellation of dinner should this path be pursued. Kaswink warned about Frode's volume and brought up that dinner could be made after the current situation was handled. Frode and AND left the away team to instead tend to the dinner pot, and Hysteria joined the dinner squad as well.

Agave was now alone and walking into the fog. Kaswink was in the canopy sneaking along, and they both tried to look around for any signs of an ambush or the creature they saw. Agave continued on the path, but Kaswink heard another rustle in a different direction. She decided to sneak ahead and around the rustling, hoping to prevent it from escaping. As she snuck after it, Agave heard rustling above his own head, and Kaswink heard it from behind her. She took a moment to consider if the rustling is just something playing with her...and she eventually chose to slowly head back thinking that it might've been Agave. Agave was alone, and the rustling that he heard above him proved to be a valuable success as he was able to react to an attack. A small grappling hook like device pierced straight through his left wrist and began pulling him up into the air. He reacted by unleashing a thunderous blast that dislodged the grappling hook but damaged his wrist even further. He fell to the ground, critically injured as Kaswink hastened her return having heard the sound of Agave's spell. Agave's wrist was badly damaged. A gaping hole, jets of blood, some tendons barely hanging on and the thin skin on either side being the only support. Agave healed it, closed up the bleeding but still being damaged: he found that he could barely bend the tips of his fingers and had lost the use of his left hand. Kaswink had returned, and she saw the leg of some creature making an escape into the fog to the northwest. Kaswink followed this creature.

The sound of Agave's spell also alerted those that were in camp, and it was quickly followed by Agave calling out to them about the creature and its direction. Namina was the first to move into the swamp, followed by Hysteria. Namina looked over Agave's wrist -being experienced with brutal hand injuries- and found that it would likely need something more serious that low level magic to close it up...but there is always the option of the Wooden Hand prosthetic. Maybe there'll be time for surgery later when you aren't in a swamp. AND was tempted to go into the forest, but Frode held them back, again keeping his allies from helping each other. AND explained that it doesn't matter if there's fighting, their friends need help and they should help. Frode argued that dinner isn't ready yet...and it was soon apparent that Frode is likely scared of something. He claimed it would be foolish to go fighting something with only half the group, but AND logic'd him by stating that they were going to meet with the other half. Kaswink continued chasing the sounds and signs of her prey. At one point she managed to get directly above it, and she leaped from the canopy to pierce the threat with her glaive in a diving motion. She timed it correctly, and the creature basically impaled itself on the glaive. She inspected the kill and found something unexpected: an innocent, and incredibly mundane, looking rabbit. AND, Frode, and Namina stayed with Agave while Hysteria went after Kaswink.

Kaswink hurriedly tried to store as much of the rabbit as she could, but it began melting into shadowy, inky darkness that looked to be marbled with rotten greens and browns. Gross! First the body sloshed from the ears and spine that she was holding, and she watched it become this puddle that she decided to collect into a jar. It was time to relocate your camp.

Freeing Prisoners

Agave had a plan, and the plan was to move camp while the teleport team got in, using the distraction of the noise Agave made to hopefully have an easier time getting in and out. They would have a description of where the new camp would be, and a risky teleport would be needed to find them quickly and then teleport out of the swamp. The teleport into the prison went well enough. Kaswink and Hysteria landed right in the warden's office and immediately began the hasty mission of getting as many people as possible and getting out. Kaswink quickly grabbed some grime, completing that part of the mission, and some prisoners were brought together to be teleported away. A middle-aged human woman had to be magically slumbered to prevent her from alerting anyone, a young murid was already sleeping, and an elderly gnome was reasoned with to remain silent. All the prisoners, including to Myotlings were wearing rags. One of the myotling prisoners was familiar looking and was revealed to be Ob from Ilven's Court. The other was some random myotling that had yet to be spoken to or seen. Both of them were frozen in fear, staring forward and only moving with the smallest of shivers. This was recognizable as the effects of The Unblinking Sein. Further north in the prison were two more cells with human tourists that had been corrupted with the vines found growing from the loggers that were fought awhile back.

Everyone was gathered up in a cell with the sleeping murid, though as the first myotling was touched a strange dripping sound began to be heard somewhere in the prison. Kaswink noted it, but continued working saying she would patch it up if she saw the source. The other myotling was touched and the dripping became a steady stream of some liquid pouring into the prison somewhere...and indeed some black substance had covered the floor. As the myotlings were moved to the cell with the murid, the steady stream of liquid became a rushing current, the black inky liquid quickly starting to cover feet, then ankles as the next use of teleport brought Hysteria, Kaswink and the prisoners out of danger. Luckily, there were just enough people for a normal teleport, so the needle could be saved to teleport the much larger group from the swamp. You now have a group of 3 healthy lookin' folks, two rough looking myotlings possessed by fear and two humans filled with dem vines. With plans to cure the myotlings before taking them anywhere, I guess plans on how to fix these people and where you're going to do that will need to be had.

August 01, 2022 D&D