This game followed
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Downfall and was played on Sunday, October 8th, 2023. The events of this game picked up immediately from where the last game ended. Joining as players were:
- Heather Thompson as Gabilan
- Nicole Thompson as Tinga
- Katy Asher as Willamina
- Mack McFarland as Zabbas Shackleton Fluffenstuff
- Jess Jennings as Buster Unit 37
Each character received 3500 XP for the game.
The group had been given “Bavlorna’s Book of Bad Blood” by the good King Gullop XIX with the instruction to return it to Bavlorna Blightstraw. An instruction hastily added by the King was to make sure to not directly go to Bavlorna’s cottage from his current location. Members of the group ascertained that the King didn’t want to be connected with the possession of the book.
Before sending the group on the way, the group was provided with a map of the small community of Downfall, and were assigned by two guards (Knights, actually!) that were to “escort” them in their travels. They also learned that the frog-like people referred to themselves as bullywugs.
Given free reign of the community, the team decided to travel back to the burned-out balloon factory to see if there was anything that they could personally salvage. Buster announced to the others that he was specifically looking for plans to create balloons, but his malfunctioning servos (i.e. Jess’s series of bad dice rolls) was giving him trouble, so Willamina assisted him in looking around. The two of them located a cabinet that contained flat files, but many of the schematics within had been badly burned.
From the fragments of schematics that they found, Buster and Willamina felt like they’d gathered enough knowledge to construct a hot air balloon and a basket, but the instructions for filling the balloon portion were mostly lost. Buster did find a few scraps of parchment that led him to understand that the concentrated swamp gas that filled a balloon was highly flammable.
Before more information could be gathered from the scraps of parchment, the knights that were assigned to accompany the team reminded them that they were supposed to be delivering the book to Bavlorna, so the group moved on and reviewed the map to see if there was anywhere else that they wanted to visit. A strange notation on the map that looked like a storm cloud caught their eye, so they chose to proceed to that location. On the way there, they first passed a larger structure that seemed to be built around a large tree, and then separately a lowly building with a couple of guards in front that appeared to be some sort of jail.
Approaching the site of the storm cloud that they saw on the map, they realized that it was indeed a storm cloud, but it was also something more: it was a lightning-racked storm cloud that was constrained to a 40’ sphere harnessed by cables. The cables ran down to a small storefront; instead of a balloon and a basket, this was a storm cloud and a shop.
The group approached the shop, which was a poorly-built ramshackle thing. It was perhaps seven feet in height, made of wooden planks, with a walk-up window with a bartering counter and shutters that could close the whole thing up. As the team got nearer, two small creatures staffing the shop moved up towards the counter and got ready to do business. A shingle underneath the counter listed a number of mundane things that the shop had for sale. Examples included a thimble, a mug of Bumble Beer, a pie, and dry wood. Each of them had somewhat snarky descriptions of what the item was. Only one item seemed particularly intriguing: “Moonlight Monocle”.
Tinga (who must have had someone read the list of items for sale to her, a detail that I forgot as a DM!) heard that there was beer, and she immediately wanted some. She asked the strange small shopkeeps for a beer. The figures, about three-and-a-half-feet tall, with small beady eyes and beak-like features obscured underneath scarves, conferred with each other momentarily and one ducked down beneath the counter before returning with a stone marble.
“Okay. Beer for the color of your eyes.” It held the marble towards Tinga’s face. Tinga was taken aback by the question, and the creature clarified that it would take the color out of Tinga’s eyes in exchange for the beer. This was not a deal that Tinga wanted to take.
The creatures conferred again, and decided to ask for Tinga’s rhythm of her step. They produced a small maquette, a wooden humanoid figure, and asked for Tinga to march. Tinga, wanting a beer after a few days spent in the Feywild, agreed and walked around a bit. The creature with the maquette greedily manipulated the figure to match Tinga’s steps and after a short-but-awkward time, put the thing away and produced a beer for Tinga. The beer was crisp and had a bit of a sting to it, but was quite satisfying.
After this transaction, Zabbas and Buster found themselves curious about the Moonlight Monocle, which was explained that it would help them see in the dark. Zabbas could already see in the dark to some extent, so this wasn’t particularly desirable to him, but Buster remained interested. Buster asked to purchase it, but one of the creatures, addressing the other as Bauble, noted that Buster didn’t have colors to their eyes to trade. They pressed Zabbas to bargain for it instead, but he declined.
Tossing the monocle over their shoulders behind them, the one that spoke to Bauble declared that these “weren’t serious customers” and ended the possible transactions. Bauble declared that they were closed for business and shuttered the shutters after pulling up the plank offering items for sale.
Some members of the group stalked around the closed shop and saw that there was a door on the back side. Gabilan, anticipating the thoughts of the others, cautioned them that the strange shopkeeps hadn’t been outwardly hostile to them and warned them against raiding the place. Her wisdom prevented the group from causing unnecessary violence.
The two bullywug knights attending to the team wondered aloud about what they were doing and when they intended to return the book to Bavlorna, so the group decided to head across the pond in that direction. As the group got closer to Bavlorna’s place, they saw through the fog that the structure rested on wooden pillars extending thirty feet above the lake. In the distance, they could see that a wooden stairway looped up towards the undercarriage of the structure.
[Divorced dad dead fly story!!!]
As the group approached the structure, one of the knights instructed,”Just jump from lillypad to lillypad. Go on.” The lillypads seemed pretty far apart, and thanks to Willamina’s Druidic magic, the group could walk on water. They chose to walk over to the staircase.
Ignoring the instructions to use the lilypads, the group began to proceed towards the rickety staircase that rose from the water and connected to the structure above. As they were walking across the open water, Tinga stepped on something that seemed to be a log at first, then slipped eel-like beneath the water. Instead of a log, this was a part of a snake-like creature. In the next instant, two serpents - likely the ones that were seen at the Slanty Tower, erupted from the water to confront the team.
Tinga, first to respond to the presence of the massive creatures, swore a quick oath to Pelor and cursed the creatures for interfering with her goals [Tinga cast Bane]. A brief flash of light appeared in the eyes of one of the serpents and quickly thickened to a sort of mystical cataracts. The other serpent was unaffected.
Willamina, seeing these creatures rise up from the open waters, channeled her natural energy into the waters of the swamps and manifested four sturgeons in the waters, which immediately swarmed the two serpents, latching onto them with their sucker-like mouths.
Zabbas and Buster, having recently combined their powers to douse the flames of the balloon factory, collaborated again in what they called “Sno-Cone”, spraying a continuous beam of frost at the serpent that had been affected by Tinga’s Pelorian curse. Becoming coated in ice slowed the creature’s movement.
As the unaffected serpent swam closer to her, Gabilan looked to the waters beneath it and used her Druidic powers to part the water. As the lake split beneath the creature, it dropped 30 feet to the muddy bottom of the lake. In response, the creature tried to snake to the top of the water wall that Gabilan had created. While not able to fully broach the powerful wall of water, it was able to get its head high enough to rear back and breathe a concentrated spray of poison at the group.
Willamina nearly lost her concentration on the sturgeons that she had summoned out of pure water, but Buster was able to boost her with some of his latent magic. After that, Buster turned towards the serpents, firing off a volley, but they were too quick for him and they missed.
Tinga, the hottest of the heads, flew into a rage and chopped heavily at the serpent that was affected by her curse. [Khris: I messed up here: Tinga should have lost her Concentration on the Bane spell when she raged, but I let the spell continue. Barbarians drop Concentration spells when they Rage. Ultimately it didn’t matter: all the consequent dice rolls still would have hit if they weren’t affected by Bane.] Buster and Zabbas maintained “Sno-Cone”, continually slowing one of the serpents.
While continuing to maintain the sturgeons that she’d created from water, Willamina sent her mind into the lillypads that dotted throughout the lake and exploded their growth. The lake around Willamina suddenly became choked with lillypads, which effectively trapped the two serpents.
The serpents, now slowed by the dense plant growth and churning channel of water so much that they couldn't effectively move from where they were located, continued to strike out at the team, landing some nasty bites. The group was still locked in battle as well, unsure what would happen if they dropped their spells or tried to move past the serpents.
Eventually, Zabbas, seeing that the powerful bites and threat of poison gas was wearing the team down, called out for everyone to make it towards the staircase of Bavlorna's cottage. It almost seemed that he had rallied the team to take collective action, but looking back as he moved across the water, he watched as Tinga's bloodlust compelled her to keep slashing at the serpent engaged with her.
Gabilan and Willamina were the farthest from the staircase, but were looking for opportunities to head in that direction. Unfortunately, both of the serpents were blocking the easiest path. While trying to navigate their next move, Willamina was savagely bit by one of the serpents, and fell to the surface of the water, unconscious but not sinking due to the mystical buoyancy that she had channeled into the group. Gabilan, seeing that her friend was in danger, channeled healing energy from her body into Willamina's, restoring Willamina to consciousness. Roiling clouds of poisonous gas began boiling out of the nearest serpent's mouth.
Realizing how desperate their situation was, the druids took action and shifted into different forms. Willamina changed into a hummingbird in order to dodge the attacks of the serpents and dodge to safety. Gabilan embraced a different tactic and merged with the water. In her water form, she was able to bludgeon at the nearest serpent with a concentrated and deadly assault of water.
Gabilan's assault on one of the serpents marked a turning point in the battle, and the creatures, who couldn't escape the overgrowth of lily plants, were soon cut down by the group. With the battle over, the team decided to retreat somewhere else to nurse their wounds.
As the group left the area of the pond canopied by Bavlorna's hut, they encountered King Gullop XIX accompanied by his royal guard. One of the two guards that had been monitoring the group gave a clue to the King's presence: "We told them to stay on the lily pads, but they didn't listen!" The King accused them of having no actual intention of delivering the Big Book of Bad Blood to Bavlorna, and of possibly conspiring with the traitor, Wigglewog. When the team seemed non-commital to the King's demand that they go deliver the book to Bavlorna right then, King Gullop yanked Clabberclaw into view from behind one of the knights and threatened the child-construct with harm, holding Clabberclaw's gourd head on both sides.
Seeing this, Zabbas said something along the lines of "go ahead!" and got ready to pray to his god, the Traveler. The king responded by yanking Clabberclaw's gourd from his body, to which Clabberclaw exclaimed, "Hey!", but was unharmed. Zabbas began to utter the words of his prayer, and the knights, readied for any sign of trouble, jumped in to strike him as he cast.
On this cliffhanger, the game concluded.
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