Adventure #18 - Eagle Egg on My Face

General Summary

Adventure #18 - Eagle Egg on My Face 8/30/24
Players: Karl: Zorka (Kobold Archivist) Terri: Oriana Tealeaf Mikey: Ragnar Eldenwood
Synopsis: It's an average night at The Elderflower; Ernie is singing off key on stage, Azalea is sipping tea quietly by the fire, and Captain Azriel is playing dice with a stranger at one of the round tables. Oriana Tealeaf arrives at the bar to meet with tomorrow's adventuring party to discuss the urgent quest to find wolfsbane to cure Erberk and Tesh of their lycanthropy infection. Surprisingly, she bumps into Erberk, who raves again about exploring the Myneheart Delve. Oriana sends him off on a wild goose chase to seek "mystic answers" about the mine from her feline business partner Sylvi at Future's Unveiled, and Erberk wanders off into the night. Shortly after, Zorka, a kobold archivist and head of the local library, finishes writing in his book from the corner of the tavern and joins Oriana at the bar. Pappy tells them about the new businesses in town, including Azalea's new bird sanctuary and the new bakery called Bread & Bone. Then Oriana and Zorka take some time to get to know each other better; Zorka talks about his love for lore and history, and Oriana talks about her fortune telling business and explains her friendship with Sylvi. Intrigued by her profession, Zorka asks Oriana for an impromptu harrow reading, and while she shuffles her cards Ragnar and Berformet arrive and join the party. As Oriana studies her cards, Zorka debriefs Ragnar about the mission to come, that they must try to safely acquire a number of plants for The Gnome's Solution to both replant in their greenhouse and to distill into a lycanthropy antidote. Zorka plans on walking all the way up to the mountains, but Pappy reminds them that arrangements have already been made with Cecil Flickerwick to fly the party via his hot air balloon transport service, the Zephyr Express. After, Oriana gives her reading:
Past: The Fiend - Many deaths in great calamity Present: The Owl - Harsh realism, bad things that make you stronger Future: The Midwife - The arrival of new knowledge
Zorka attempts to understand and explain the meaning of the reading, and then asks Ragnar to talk with Azalea in their Druid tongue about wolfsbane, which he uses as an opportunity to try to secretly learn their protected language. Aware of what Zorka is trying to do, Azalea and Ragnar purposefully speak language in strange phrases and sentence structures, and Zorka feels confident that he has accurately translated their conversation (though in truth, he was not even close). Afterwards, Zorka decides that its time to return home for rest before their adventure, and the party decides to meet at Cecil at the Zephyr Express at 7:00am the following morning. The party says their farewells, and departs for home.
At 7:00am sharp, the party meets at the Zephyr express. Cecil greets Oriana and Ragnar warmly, but is terrified at the sight of Zorka (Cecil was once held captive by a kobold tribe and fears them), and hides behind Berformet. The party take some time to convince Cecil that Zorka isn't a threat, and Cecil reluctantly accepts and prepares the party for their voyage. He discusses the safety protocol of riding in the Zephyr Express; all passengers are to wear their own belt harness that tethers them to the basket of the balloon, so that they are free to roam the space without risk of falling to their deaths should they accidentally fall out. Since Cecil frequents the airspace above Aberystwyth and the surrounding area, he knows that there are a few clearings on the top of the Black Ridge Mountains to land the balloon, and he feels the trip should be straightforward. The party accepts the safety protocols and the plan for transport, board the balloon, and gently take to the sky. Zorka takes over the conversation with more talk about the mine for some reason, and Cecil and Oriana interrupt him with an incredible realization; they both love the country-wide famous bard Téylor Swyft. In that light, Cecil pulls out a musical scroll and activates it, and a popular song from Téylor Swyft booms from the parchment, which Oriana and Cecil passionately sing along to word for word, at Zorka and Ragnar's discomfort. For a few minutes, the hot air ballon ride turns into a high altitude Téylor Swyft dance party, filling the air with booming music.
While the music captures everyone's attention, they fail to notice a giant eagle approaching their balloon until it's too late; the giant eagle, agitated by the music, circles the balloon and shrieks menacingly. In an effort to deescalate the situation, Ragnar attempts to calm the beast its a calming spell, but fails. Zorka thinks quickly, and remembers that giant eagles are territorial and won't attack unless their territory or nest is threatened. Zorka considers this, and then loads a screeching bolt into his crossbow and fires at the eagle in hopes of scaring it away. With incredible speed, he loads and fires another screeching bolt, which makes eagle wildly agitated. Ragnar fires a flare spell at the eagle to help scare it away, but Zorka's and Ragnar's effort succeed in only riling the eagle into a frenzy, and the eagle swoops to the very top of the balloon, out of sight by the party, and begins ripping and tearing the fabric of the balloon itself. Oriana attempts to climb the ropes up the side of the balloon to get a visual on the eagle, but slips, catching herself just in time from falling. Cecil desperately looks for a place to land, while Zorka begins summoning a swarm of bats to aid them. Ragnar attempts to climb up the opposite side of the balloon and succeeds, and sees the eagle tearing away at their means of transport. The eagle tears a sizable hole in the top of the balloon, and the notices Oriana hanging on the side. In response, the bird dive-bombs and knocks Oriana off the balloon, causing her to fall. Thanks to Cecil's safety protocols, Oriana is saved by the tether belt, and her fall is suddenly and painfully halted as she dangles beneath the basket, disorienting her for a moment. She attempts steady herself and fire a crossbow bolt, but missed the eagle by an inch. With the hole in the top of the balloon hemorrhaging air, the hot air balloon begins to descend rapidly, and Cecil does his best control the damaged balloon and direct it to a relatively safe clearing. Zorka casts a mending spell to fix the ballon, and the tear begins to sew itself back together about 30% of the hole, which somewhat stabilizes it. Zorka's summoning spell completes, and the swarm of bats finally manifests beside the balloon. Zorka commands the bats to attack eagle, but because bats are unaccustomed to both flying at such high/windy altitudes and doing so during the daytime, the bats struggle against the high winds as they make their way towards eagle. Ragnar shimmies along the side of the balloon ropes to face the eagle, and prepares a spell. Berformet finally springs into action, and bites down on the rope that is holding Oriana, and pulls it back to help return her to the safety of the basket. Meanwhile, the eagle see the bats advancing on it, and proceeds to dive bomb them with its sharp talons. The bat swarm explodes in a burst of furry bodies and blood, and the majority of them plummet to the ground. Oriana climbs up halfway towards the basket while Zorka fires another crossbow shot, sinking a bolt deep into the eagle's chest and causing it to screech in pain, and then reloads his crossbow with a tangle bolt. Ragnar climbs back into the balloon and pulls Oriana the rest of the way back into the basket, just in time for the eagle to finish of the rest of the bats and land on the side of the basket with its talons to attack the party within. Oriana fires a bolt into the eagles neck, and Zorka sings a lullaby to the eagle in hopes of making it drowsy. Ragnar then proceeds to impale himself on his own sword, and the eagle sinks its beak into Berformet's flesh. Oriana fires another shot at the eagle's face, and Zorka's casts Chord of Shards pointblank at the bird, as Oriana heroically pushes the entire party down and out of the path of the spell. The Chord of Shards deals a devastating blow to the eagle, causing its body to fall lifelessly off the side of the balloon and plummets down to the ground, disappearing into the forest below.
Cecil shouts to the party to brace for impact, and he guides the balloon into a controlled crash in a clearing on top of the mountain near an ancient tower. When the crash is over, the balloon deflates and falls to the ground, leaving the basket turned on its side. As the players climb out, they check themselves over and find that they are not harmed from the crash, and discuss what to do next. Cecil decides to spend this time repairing the tear in the balloon while the party explores, and immediately sets to work. Ragnar approaches a tree to ask about the ancient tower, and learns only that the tower has been there as long as the tree can remember, and that the tower is offensive to the surrounding trees. Ragnar also asks the tree if there is wolfsbane nearby, and the tree replies that there is indeed some wolfsbane on the opposite side of the tower. Ragnar explores the other side of the tower, and finds what appears to be an overgrown garden, dividing plants of all kinds into sections by small stone walls. Ragnar identifies the wolfsbane plant and, thanks to his Druidic prowess with plants, he is able to successfully extract two wolfsbane plants without poisoning himself. He carefully wraps them, and returns to the party, while Cecil finishes making repairs to he balloon and begins to re-inflate it. With the wolfsbane in hand, the party decides to part ways; Oriana will return with Cecil to Aberystwyth with the plants and bring them to A Gnome's Solution, while Ragnar and Zorka stay behind to explore the tower, and Cecil agrees to return to pick them up after he drops off Oriana. By then, the balloon is fully inflated, and Cecil and Oriana lift up into the air and drift away, with the bopping music of Téylor Swyft accompanying their trip home.
Ragnar and Zorka turn to the tower, and Zorka immediately begins inspecting the stonework to try to determine the age or the era of its design or construction, but is only able to determine that it dates back further than he knows. He then attempts to open the front door, but finds that it is stuck in place. They give the door a good shove, and the entire door breaks off of its rusted hinges and slams to the ground inside the tower. They shrug and proceed inside, and find a chest, a desk, and a fireplace, all covered in dust and cobwebs. Ragnar goes to the chest, finds it has a rusted lock on it, and has Berformet break the chest open. Lifting the lid, he finds mostly ragged clothes, but underneath he finds a small mirror-like buckler shield. He inspects it and realizes that this is a magic shield, a mirrored living mithril buckler, which is made from trees that have absorbed mithril minerals, which is polished to a mirror shine that can deflects magic ray attacks, while also being able self-heal damage over time. Zorka approaches the desk, and is excited to find ancient parchment stacked on top. He picks up the first page, and it turns to dust in his hands. The same thing happens to every single sheet of parchment he picks up. He sighs, and then tries to open a stuck drawer, succeeding only in ripping the knob off the drawer. He attempts to cast a mending spell on the drawer, but critically fails, and instead the face of the drawer fuses with the rest of the desk, leaving only a smooth surface where the drawer once was. Zorka moves on to the bottom drawer, and finds a black metal rod of some kind with a red button at the top. He examines it, presses the button, and discovers that the rod is completely immovable when activated. He lets go of the rod completely, and the rod remains suspended in the air. He pushes the button again, and the rod falls to the ground. Zorka realizes that this is an immovable rod, and decides that this would be a useful addition to his library's magic item sign out program. He pockets the rod, and then he asks Ragnar if Berformet can break the desk to get into the drawer he sealed with his failed mending spell, and Ragnar obliges. Using his jaws, Berformet smashes through the ancient wood and into the drawer, where pens, parchment, and broken ink bottle glass break and shatter, and some of the broken glass wounds the bear's snout. Whimpering from the unexpected pain, Ragnar helps his bear companion and has him wait in a corner while they explore the fireplace. Zorka and Ragnar inspect the fireplace for secret buttons, but find none. Zorka then climbs atop of Ragnar's shoulders, and rides him over to the deer head mounted above the fireplace, then grabs both antlers and pulls them as if they were secret levers, but instead just breaks them off. Zorka tosses them to the ground, and the pulls the whole deer head off the wall, but nothing is behind that either. The deer head smashes in the ground, and after Zorka dismounts Ragnar, they head up to the next floor. On the second floor, they find the remains of a small living area, including a rotten bed, an old kitchenette, and a dresser. Ragnar finds a satchel filled with valuable gems in the dresser, and Zorka finds black slime in sealed jars, assuming that they were once preserved food. Zorka pockets these, thinking that these might be a useful thrown weapon in the future. With nothing more to find, the climb the stairs to the next floor.
The stairs lead to the roof of the stone tower, where they find what appears to be a giant bird nest in the center of it. They climb inside and find three watermelon sized eggs, and they put two and two together; this nest belonged to the giant eagle they just killed, and it was protecting its nest. Knowing that the eggs no longer have a parent to warm them, they decide that there are only two possible options; either they leave the eggs to die on their own, or they cook the eggs up for lunch as a mercy kill. Both of them decide that a giant eagle egg omelette is the way to go, and they begin working out the best way to cook the eggs, with one option being to just light the entire nest on fire. As they go to pick up an egg, they feel movement from within the eggs themselves, and decide that giant eagle omelettes are no longer on the menu. However, they figure they could just roast the unborn birds while still inside the egg and then eat them like a rotisserie chicken. Just as they're about to crack open an egg, the glint of an ancient telescope at the edge of the roof catches Zorka's eye. He puts down an egg and proceeds to examine the telescope, cleans the lens, and looks through the eye piece, and discovers that the telescope is looking out at the town of Aberystwyth. From his view, he can clearly see The Elderflower, the new bird sanctuary, and the rest of the town, and he briefly ponders why the telescope was looking at the town. Zorka then shrugs off the thought, and returns to his plans of roasting the eagle eggs. Ragnar also decides to look into the eyepiece, and sees a similar view of Aberystwyth. He sees The Elderflower. He sees the new bird sanctuary. He sees the rest of the town. He too ponders for a moment the significance and history of why this telescope was peering at the town, and then immediately rejoins Zorka in preparing to roast the eggs. Just as their plan is about to begin, they hear the music of Téylor Swyft gradually rising in the distance, and they see the Zephyr Express approach the tower. Cecil docks the hot air balloon at the top of the tower, and then joins the party, asking what they're doing and if they're ready to go. Zorka and Ragnar explain the whole situation; they killed the giant eagle mother, and now they have no other choice but to eat these eggs. Cecil looks at them confused, and the says that maybe they could just bring the eggs to the new bird sanctuary in town. A long moment of silence fills the air as this new option dawns on them, and Ragnar takes a moment to think about if killing unborn eagles to eat them goes against the ways of the Druid. He remembers that such an act would be greatly frowned upon, as a Druid is by definition supposed to be a protector of all natural life. Zorka finds himself a little disappointed by the sudden change of his lunch plans, but agrees that bringing them back to town would be a reasonable option. The party loads up all three eagle eggs, the telescope, an ancient globe, and head back to town. While they drift along, Zorka obsessively seeks the corpse of the giant eagle they killed earlier, and locates its mangled body near a forest stream, writing down the coordinates to pass along to Dimple at a Gnome's Solution.
Back in town, a number of events take place after Zorka, Ragnar, and Cecil return. The eagle eggs are successfully given into the care of Azalea and her Sister Tree Sanctuary for incubation. The wolfsbane plants were delivered to A Gnome's Solution, where Scoots is able to replant one of them in their greenhouse, and Dimple is able to use the other to distill two vials of lycanthropy antidote. Both Tesh and Eberk drink the antidotes; Tesh quickly overcomes the poison as it purges the infection from her body, and Erberk nearly dies from the purging process and is forced into more bed rest at the Lady Lenora's Church of Sarenrae, where Azalea continues to visit him daily as he recovers.

Report Date

30 Aug 2024

Primary Location

Aberystwyth