Adventure #35 - Erberk's Birthday Surprise
General Summary
Adventure #35 - Erberk's Birthday Surprise
5/9/25 and 5/16/25
Players: Karl: Erberk Torunn, Seth: Gimp, Kira: Tesh, Cooper: Constable Mumbo, Terri: Oriana Tealeaf, Chris: Dimple Nackle
Synopsis: Following the adventure in the Medical Sector of the Myneheart Delve and the emotional trauma that came with it, Trayarus and Erberk decide to wait a little bit to recuperate before using the surgical tools they acquired to graft the Zerrythian prosthetics arms to Priestess's stumps. In the mean time, Trayarus presses that they still need a powerful healer, and Erberk is once again reminded of his distaste for Ahlysaaria Dryaalis and her role in his stepping down as Judge. Regardless, Ahlysaaria name is brought up, and Trayarus convinces him that he needs to set aside his pride for the sake of Priestess, and Erberk begrudgingly agrees. While Trayarus is getting things set up for the surgery, he asks Erberk to pay Ahlysaaria a visit and ask for her healing powers, and Erberk trudges to Lady Lenora's Church of Sarenrae. When he arrives, Ahlysaaria greets him warmly, and Erberk gets straight to the point, speaking curtly and businesslike. After hearing his request, Ahlysaaria accepts and delights in the opportunity to help Priestess, promising to be there at the designated time. Erberk gives a quick thanks, and turns to leave. Before he reaches the door, Ahlysaaria calls out to him, and Erberk cringes as he stops in the doorway. She explains that she has noticed he hasn't been to any small group meetings with her since his stepping down as Judge, and that she recognizes that Erberk isn't very happy with her. Still, she asks if she can talk to him about it sometime, and after Erberk sighs, he explains that he gets that she is trying to do the right thing, and that he just needs some more time to come to terms with the situation. However, he agrees to meet with her after things have settled down with Priestess's surgery, and Ahlysaaria accepts. The bid each other farewell, and then separately make preparations for the surgery to come.
When the day arrives, Erberk, Trayarus, Ahlysaaria, and Priestess all meet at The Father's Forge, where a table has been prepared with bedding for Priestess, and as well as an organized array of tools, equipment, and the Zerrynthian prosthetic hands. As Priestess gets settled in the surgery bed, Erberk encourages her, and she nods quietly, lies back, and is alchemically put to sleep. Once she is under, Trayarus and Ahlysaaria begin their work. After merging Priestess's bones to the central supports of the Zerrynthian hands, Trayarus begins to graft each of her nerves one by one to the sensors in the prosthetic, and Ahlysaaria heals each one individually. During the grueling hours of the surgery, Erberk goes to the forge to work, pray, and chant the tenets of Torag on behalf of Priestess. Hours later, an exhausted Trayarus approaches Erberk to let him know that the surgery was a success, and that Erberk should come sit beside her bed; he feels it's likely Erberk will be who she wants to see first when she wakes up. Erberk nods, takes a seat beside her, and waits patiently, noticing that the Zerrynthian prosthetics are more than just mechanical hands; they also include metal casing extensions that cover Priestess's forearms that look very much like GearSwytches. As Ahlysaaria makes her way to leave, Erberk thanks her for her service, and says he will talk with her soon, to which Ahlysaaria receives with a smile, and quietly departs. While they wait, Trayarus explains that although the surgery went well, it will still take a significant amount of time for Priestess to use her new hands, and that she will likely need a lot of encouragement from Erberk during this frustrating time. Soon, Priestess's eyes begin to flutter as she rouses, and wearily turns to Erberk. Erberk relays the same information, and encourages her, calling her "Apprentice". Weakly, she replies "Kryxi Vyscera. My name is Kryxi Vyscera", and then falls back asleep. Erberk smiles, and leaves her to rest.
By evening, he gets a knock on his door, and Azalea pops by to check in and see how everything went. Erberk explains the result, and Azalea sighs a breath of relief. Azalea then asks if Erberk would like to join her for dinner at The Elderflower, and he agrees, but first asks Numbers to watch over Priestess while they are away, to which he responds "Compliance!". When Erberk and Azalea arrive at The Elderflower, the windows are dark and it looks quiet inside, as if the tavern is closed (which is unusual, because it's always open). Erberk suggests going somewhere else, but Azalea insists on going inside to make sure everything is alright. Erberk uses his GearSwytch to don his full-plate armor and wields his war hammer, The Heat of the Forge, then takes a battle stance and enters the tavern with Azalea close behind. As soon as he enters, the lights immediately come on and he finds the entire town has gathered together to throw him a surprise party, and in unison they shout "Happy Birthday, Erberk!", shooting streamers and confetti into the air. Everyone cheers for Erberk, and the birthday festivities begin. Erberk immediately hits the bar to paddle of shots and calls over his typical party of adventurers to join him, but realizes that literally everyone in town came to this party except for Dimple. Erberk shrugs, asks someone else to join, and they down a number of shots. Meanwhile, the party is in full swing; Tesh's array of three different birthday cakes are a hit, the goblins run around playing hide and seek with frosting on their mouths, Ernie the town drunk sings sloppily on the stage, and the Elderberry Brew is flowing. Pappy and Ahlysaaria approach Erberk with a wrapped present, and when he receives it he finds that it is deceptively heavy, and it piques his curiosity. He opens it to find four dark Adamantine ingots inside (the hardest and the most valuable metal available), and Azalea explains these ingots should be enough to craft a full-plate set of armor, and that she, Pappy, and Ahlysaaria worked hard together to find them all over the kingdom. Pappy chimes in, saying that they wanted to do something special for him, that each ingot represents the four of them (Erberk, Azalea, Pappy, and Ahlysaaria), and that no matter where he is, it's like they are there with Erberk protecting him. The gesture and the meaningful gift cause Erberk to get emotional and teary, and his friends wish him happy birthday once more, and rejoin the rest of the town in celebration. As they leave, Azalea says that she has one more special gift for Erberk, and guides him outside and away from the party. Azalea explains that hopes that Erberk enjoyed the party, and that it was a town wide effort to show how much he means to them, and how much he means to her. Erberk reciprocates, admitting that Azalea means much to him too, and Azalea leans in and kisses Erberk. He is caught off guard at first, but then leans into it and they share their first kiss beneath the starry sky.
However, their romantic moment is abruptly interrupted by a deafening and ground-shaking explosion coming from A Gnome's Solution. Erberk and Azalea turn to see a massive orange mushroom cloud rising from the roof of Dimple's shop and a blaze of fire is coming out of all the windows. Erberk tells Azalea to go to the tavern for help, and he runs towards the burning building in a slightly zig-zag line (Erberk had enjoyed many birthday beverages before this). Azalea bursts into the tavern, and shouts that there has been an explosion at A Gnome's Solution and that they need help. Gimp, Tesh, Oriana, and Mumbo all run towards the building and find Erberk standing in front of the door looking for a way in. Now closer to the building, the party finds the house fire ablaze with various types of color mixed with the orange flames, and intermittently they hear smaller explosions from within the structure. Erberk finds that the door handle is warm but not yet hot, but can't seem to open the door; it's as if something on the inside is jammed or holding the door in place. Gimp and Erberk decide to ram the door open together, but Gimp singlehandedly bashes the door down with one smooth motion, and Erberk follows close behind. A thick cloud of dark smoke billows out of the inferno and alchemical fumes make it difficult to breathe; in response, Tesh, Gimp, and Erberk each activate their GearSwytch and spawn their Variac Packs on them, covering their faces with respirators and providing them clean air. Tesh casts Endure Elements all over companions, allowing them to endure the harsh temperatures of the house fire without getting hurt, and Erberk casts Create Water, which clears the entrance of flames enough for them to enter. Mumbo takes a moment to assess the scene, and deduces what caused this explosion; he remembered Dimple recovering a bomb placed near the cliffside by the Boltstop Tower by a group of renegade kobolds from the Evermoon Enclave, and Dimple had intentions of trying to take the bomb apart to figure out how it worked. After this realization, Mumbo shouts to the party that the explosion came from a powerful bomb, and to use extreme caution. Oriana looks around for something useful, and not only finds a gnome-sized shovel, but also locates a well on the far side of the property near Dimple's greenhouse. As Oriana and Mumbo run towards the well, Gimp, Tesh, and Erberk enter the building, and are forced to move slowly through the alchemy shop due to limited visibility and their precarious surroundings. Each call out to Dimple but receive no response, and while they look through the smoke to find him, a jar of acid explodes in Erberk's face from a nearby shelf, burning his skin beneath his gear. Gimp finally catches glimpses of Dimple trapped beneath a table on the far opposite side of the building with his legs kicking wildly to free himself, and he relays that to his party. Erberk misunderstands which table Gimp is talking about, and flips the nearest table, and is annoyed to find that Dimple isn't there. Outside, Mumbo fills a bucket of water and makes his way towards the building, and Oriana finds a wheelbarrow leaning against the greenhouse and starts filling that with buckets of water. Inside the building, a bottle of invisibility explodes all over Gimp, causing him to suddenly disappear. Erberk and Tesh call out to him, but Gimp chooses to remain quiet for some reason, and the two decide to move closer towards Dimple. Erberk then casts Create Water for a second time, but this time directly over Dimple, completely smothering him with water. Then, invisible Gimp runs up behind Erberk, picks him up with supernatural strength, and throws him in the direction of Dimple in hopes of helping him reach Dimple quicker. As he does so, Erberk freaks out from being lifted up by an unseen force while suddenly being propelled forward, and shouts "By the All-father!" as he sails through the air and directly out the window ahead of him, landing on his back outside. Mumbo arrives at one of the back windows on the building as it bursts with flames, and he throws his bucket of water at it, putting out the window and the inside floor. As Oriana is about to move the heavy water-filled wheelbarrow on her own, Azalea runs beside her, and the two work together to transport it to the building, and Mumbo waves them over to the window he just put out. Back in the building, fireworks explode in Tesh's face, blinding her momentarily obscuring her from view from her party. Still outside, Erberk stands up, turns back towards the window he was just propelled out of, and then fails to jump through the window, instead just falling forward and flipping on his back inside building, but this time landing directly next to Dimple. Erberk and Dimple greet each other causally, and for some reason Erberk grabs a random bottle on the floor and "pours one out for his homies", which unbeknownst to him was a bottle of liquid ice. As the bottle pours out, and explosion of ice shards burst from the ground and smash the window he just entered from, effectively blocking their nearest exit. Outside, Mumbo, Oriana, and Azalea work together to lift the wheelbarrow and pour gallons of water through the window, which rushes across the floor all the way to the opposite side of the building where Dimple and Erberk are laying, which makes a clear path for their companions inside. As Tesh gets hit in the head with fallen fiery debris, Erberk kicks the table off of Dimple, and attempts to help put out the fireworks surrounding Tesh by throwing a random jar at her, and instead beams Gimp with Rusting Powder, which rapidly deteriorates his armor to nothing, leaving him mostly naked but for his Variac Pack. Gimp picks up Dimple, and Dimple exclaims that they need to find his formula book, causing them to search everywhere for it. Mumbo runs back to the well to fill more buckets of water, and finds the town guard has arrived and joins him at the well. Mumbo commands them to form a bucket brigade, and as they begin to form one, Mumbo also takes a moment to encourage a particularly nervous guardsmen, Anthony Johnson, and Anthony steels himself at Mumbo's words. Oriana calls out to her party within the house fire to guide them towards the exit, and the party begins to move towards the window on the opposite side of the building. Erberk makes his way close to the door where they entered, and decides to toss another random bottle at the fire blocking them from exiting, and it explodes, causing the doorway to collapse. Tesh makes a beeline for the window, and Oriana and Azalea help her outside. Gimp and Dimple find Dimple's formula book on the ground, recover it, and also make their way out the window to safety. Meanwhile, Erberk starts grabbing random things about the shop on his way out, including Dimple's Poisoner's Gloves, and storing them in his GearSwytch before leaving through the window. By now, everyone in the house is safely evacuated, and the town guard work tirelessly to put out the fire, with the help of others who toss buckets of water or cast water magic to put out the flames. After a long fight, the town finally puts out the fire together, but sadly what remains of A Gnome's Solution is but a charred husk of its former self.
Players: Karl: Erberk Torunn, Seth: Gimp, Kira: Tesh, Cooper: Constable Mumbo, Terri: Oriana Tealeaf, Chris: Dimple Nackle
Synopsis: Following the adventure in the Medical Sector of the Myneheart Delve and the emotional trauma that came with it, Trayarus and Erberk decide to wait a little bit to recuperate before using the surgical tools they acquired to graft the Zerrythian prosthetics arms to Priestess's stumps. In the mean time, Trayarus presses that they still need a powerful healer, and Erberk is once again reminded of his distaste for Ahlysaaria Dryaalis and her role in his stepping down as Judge. Regardless, Ahlysaaria name is brought up, and Trayarus convinces him that he needs to set aside his pride for the sake of Priestess, and Erberk begrudgingly agrees. While Trayarus is getting things set up for the surgery, he asks Erberk to pay Ahlysaaria a visit and ask for her healing powers, and Erberk trudges to Lady Lenora's Church of Sarenrae. When he arrives, Ahlysaaria greets him warmly, and Erberk gets straight to the point, speaking curtly and businesslike. After hearing his request, Ahlysaaria accepts and delights in the opportunity to help Priestess, promising to be there at the designated time. Erberk gives a quick thanks, and turns to leave. Before he reaches the door, Ahlysaaria calls out to him, and Erberk cringes as he stops in the doorway. She explains that she has noticed he hasn't been to any small group meetings with her since his stepping down as Judge, and that she recognizes that Erberk isn't very happy with her. Still, she asks if she can talk to him about it sometime, and after Erberk sighs, he explains that he gets that she is trying to do the right thing, and that he just needs some more time to come to terms with the situation. However, he agrees to meet with her after things have settled down with Priestess's surgery, and Ahlysaaria accepts. The bid each other farewell, and then separately make preparations for the surgery to come.
When the day arrives, Erberk, Trayarus, Ahlysaaria, and Priestess all meet at The Father's Forge, where a table has been prepared with bedding for Priestess, and as well as an organized array of tools, equipment, and the Zerrynthian prosthetic hands. As Priestess gets settled in the surgery bed, Erberk encourages her, and she nods quietly, lies back, and is alchemically put to sleep. Once she is under, Trayarus and Ahlysaaria begin their work. After merging Priestess's bones to the central supports of the Zerrynthian hands, Trayarus begins to graft each of her nerves one by one to the sensors in the prosthetic, and Ahlysaaria heals each one individually. During the grueling hours of the surgery, Erberk goes to the forge to work, pray, and chant the tenets of Torag on behalf of Priestess. Hours later, an exhausted Trayarus approaches Erberk to let him know that the surgery was a success, and that Erberk should come sit beside her bed; he feels it's likely Erberk will be who she wants to see first when she wakes up. Erberk nods, takes a seat beside her, and waits patiently, noticing that the Zerrynthian prosthetics are more than just mechanical hands; they also include metal casing extensions that cover Priestess's forearms that look very much like GearSwytches. As Ahlysaaria makes her way to leave, Erberk thanks her for her service, and says he will talk with her soon, to which Ahlysaaria receives with a smile, and quietly departs. While they wait, Trayarus explains that although the surgery went well, it will still take a significant amount of time for Priestess to use her new hands, and that she will likely need a lot of encouragement from Erberk during this frustrating time. Soon, Priestess's eyes begin to flutter as she rouses, and wearily turns to Erberk. Erberk relays the same information, and encourages her, calling her "Apprentice". Weakly, she replies "Kryxi Vyscera. My name is Kryxi Vyscera", and then falls back asleep. Erberk smiles, and leaves her to rest.
By evening, he gets a knock on his door, and Azalea pops by to check in and see how everything went. Erberk explains the result, and Azalea sighs a breath of relief. Azalea then asks if Erberk would like to join her for dinner at The Elderflower, and he agrees, but first asks Numbers to watch over Priestess while they are away, to which he responds "Compliance!". When Erberk and Azalea arrive at The Elderflower, the windows are dark and it looks quiet inside, as if the tavern is closed (which is unusual, because it's always open). Erberk suggests going somewhere else, but Azalea insists on going inside to make sure everything is alright. Erberk uses his GearSwytch to don his full-plate armor and wields his war hammer, The Heat of the Forge, then takes a battle stance and enters the tavern with Azalea close behind. As soon as he enters, the lights immediately come on and he finds the entire town has gathered together to throw him a surprise party, and in unison they shout "Happy Birthday, Erberk!", shooting streamers and confetti into the air. Everyone cheers for Erberk, and the birthday festivities begin. Erberk immediately hits the bar to paddle of shots and calls over his typical party of adventurers to join him, but realizes that literally everyone in town came to this party except for Dimple. Erberk shrugs, asks someone else to join, and they down a number of shots. Meanwhile, the party is in full swing; Tesh's array of three different birthday cakes are a hit, the goblins run around playing hide and seek with frosting on their mouths, Ernie the town drunk sings sloppily on the stage, and the Elderberry Brew is flowing. Pappy and Ahlysaaria approach Erberk with a wrapped present, and when he receives it he finds that it is deceptively heavy, and it piques his curiosity. He opens it to find four dark Adamantine ingots inside (the hardest and the most valuable metal available), and Azalea explains these ingots should be enough to craft a full-plate set of armor, and that she, Pappy, and Ahlysaaria worked hard together to find them all over the kingdom. Pappy chimes in, saying that they wanted to do something special for him, that each ingot represents the four of them (Erberk, Azalea, Pappy, and Ahlysaaria), and that no matter where he is, it's like they are there with Erberk protecting him. The gesture and the meaningful gift cause Erberk to get emotional and teary, and his friends wish him happy birthday once more, and rejoin the rest of the town in celebration. As they leave, Azalea says that she has one more special gift for Erberk, and guides him outside and away from the party. Azalea explains that hopes that Erberk enjoyed the party, and that it was a town wide effort to show how much he means to them, and how much he means to her. Erberk reciprocates, admitting that Azalea means much to him too, and Azalea leans in and kisses Erberk. He is caught off guard at first, but then leans into it and they share their first kiss beneath the starry sky.
However, their romantic moment is abruptly interrupted by a deafening and ground-shaking explosion coming from A Gnome's Solution. Erberk and Azalea turn to see a massive orange mushroom cloud rising from the roof of Dimple's shop and a blaze of fire is coming out of all the windows. Erberk tells Azalea to go to the tavern for help, and he runs towards the burning building in a slightly zig-zag line (Erberk had enjoyed many birthday beverages before this). Azalea bursts into the tavern, and shouts that there has been an explosion at A Gnome's Solution and that they need help. Gimp, Tesh, Oriana, and Mumbo all run towards the building and find Erberk standing in front of the door looking for a way in. Now closer to the building, the party finds the house fire ablaze with various types of color mixed with the orange flames, and intermittently they hear smaller explosions from within the structure. Erberk finds that the door handle is warm but not yet hot, but can't seem to open the door; it's as if something on the inside is jammed or holding the door in place. Gimp and Erberk decide to ram the door open together, but Gimp singlehandedly bashes the door down with one smooth motion, and Erberk follows close behind. A thick cloud of dark smoke billows out of the inferno and alchemical fumes make it difficult to breathe; in response, Tesh, Gimp, and Erberk each activate their GearSwytch and spawn their Variac Packs on them, covering their faces with respirators and providing them clean air. Tesh casts Endure Elements all over companions, allowing them to endure the harsh temperatures of the house fire without getting hurt, and Erberk casts Create Water, which clears the entrance of flames enough for them to enter. Mumbo takes a moment to assess the scene, and deduces what caused this explosion; he remembered Dimple recovering a bomb placed near the cliffside by the Boltstop Tower by a group of renegade kobolds from the Evermoon Enclave, and Dimple had intentions of trying to take the bomb apart to figure out how it worked. After this realization, Mumbo shouts to the party that the explosion came from a powerful bomb, and to use extreme caution. Oriana looks around for something useful, and not only finds a gnome-sized shovel, but also locates a well on the far side of the property near Dimple's greenhouse. As Oriana and Mumbo run towards the well, Gimp, Tesh, and Erberk enter the building, and are forced to move slowly through the alchemy shop due to limited visibility and their precarious surroundings. Each call out to Dimple but receive no response, and while they look through the smoke to find him, a jar of acid explodes in Erberk's face from a nearby shelf, burning his skin beneath his gear. Gimp finally catches glimpses of Dimple trapped beneath a table on the far opposite side of the building with his legs kicking wildly to free himself, and he relays that to his party. Erberk misunderstands which table Gimp is talking about, and flips the nearest table, and is annoyed to find that Dimple isn't there. Outside, Mumbo fills a bucket of water and makes his way towards the building, and Oriana finds a wheelbarrow leaning against the greenhouse and starts filling that with buckets of water. Inside the building, a bottle of invisibility explodes all over Gimp, causing him to suddenly disappear. Erberk and Tesh call out to him, but Gimp chooses to remain quiet for some reason, and the two decide to move closer towards Dimple. Erberk then casts Create Water for a second time, but this time directly over Dimple, completely smothering him with water. Then, invisible Gimp runs up behind Erberk, picks him up with supernatural strength, and throws him in the direction of Dimple in hopes of helping him reach Dimple quicker. As he does so, Erberk freaks out from being lifted up by an unseen force while suddenly being propelled forward, and shouts "By the All-father!" as he sails through the air and directly out the window ahead of him, landing on his back outside. Mumbo arrives at one of the back windows on the building as it bursts with flames, and he throws his bucket of water at it, putting out the window and the inside floor. As Oriana is about to move the heavy water-filled wheelbarrow on her own, Azalea runs beside her, and the two work together to transport it to the building, and Mumbo waves them over to the window he just put out. Back in the building, fireworks explode in Tesh's face, blinding her momentarily obscuring her from view from her party. Still outside, Erberk stands up, turns back towards the window he was just propelled out of, and then fails to jump through the window, instead just falling forward and flipping on his back inside building, but this time landing directly next to Dimple. Erberk and Dimple greet each other causally, and for some reason Erberk grabs a random bottle on the floor and "pours one out for his homies", which unbeknownst to him was a bottle of liquid ice. As the bottle pours out, and explosion of ice shards burst from the ground and smash the window he just entered from, effectively blocking their nearest exit. Outside, Mumbo, Oriana, and Azalea work together to lift the wheelbarrow and pour gallons of water through the window, which rushes across the floor all the way to the opposite side of the building where Dimple and Erberk are laying, which makes a clear path for their companions inside. As Tesh gets hit in the head with fallen fiery debris, Erberk kicks the table off of Dimple, and attempts to help put out the fireworks surrounding Tesh by throwing a random jar at her, and instead beams Gimp with Rusting Powder, which rapidly deteriorates his armor to nothing, leaving him mostly naked but for his Variac Pack. Gimp picks up Dimple, and Dimple exclaims that they need to find his formula book, causing them to search everywhere for it. Mumbo runs back to the well to fill more buckets of water, and finds the town guard has arrived and joins him at the well. Mumbo commands them to form a bucket brigade, and as they begin to form one, Mumbo also takes a moment to encourage a particularly nervous guardsmen, Anthony Johnson, and Anthony steels himself at Mumbo's words. Oriana calls out to her party within the house fire to guide them towards the exit, and the party begins to move towards the window on the opposite side of the building. Erberk makes his way close to the door where they entered, and decides to toss another random bottle at the fire blocking them from exiting, and it explodes, causing the doorway to collapse. Tesh makes a beeline for the window, and Oriana and Azalea help her outside. Gimp and Dimple find Dimple's formula book on the ground, recover it, and also make their way out the window to safety. Meanwhile, Erberk starts grabbing random things about the shop on his way out, including Dimple's Poisoner's Gloves, and storing them in his GearSwytch before leaving through the window. By now, everyone in the house is safely evacuated, and the town guard work tirelessly to put out the fire, with the help of others who toss buckets of water or cast water magic to put out the flames. After a long fight, the town finally puts out the fire together, but sadly what remains of A Gnome's Solution is but a charred husk of its former self.
Comments