Kay's Journal - 11/26 - Reaper Errant

Kay’s Journal, 11/26

We are back at the venue for the speech, as it’s about to start. CornCob is at the back of the gazebo. I’m on top of the building across the street. Pujol is with CornCob. Gooseneck is by the front of the gazebo. Fathom and Abran are on the bridge.

Timothy begins by thanking everyone for their patience at the venue change and mentions that there’s a meet and greet planned for after the speech. The he introduces the speaker – Darius Greenridge.

The speech begins with Darius mentioning that there was a break-in at his home, but everything is OK. His personal belongings were rifled through, but that was it.

I see that the speaker has a book on his belt and is carrying a couple of satchels. The cover of the book has a symbol on it – a series of concentric diamonds. It looks familiar, but I can’t place it.

The younger of the monks we met on the road is approaching the stage. He’s not looking at the speaker so much as the book. Gooseneck approaches him and mentions how intriguing the book is. The monk looks startled, but says it’s not an Aparan text. Gooseneck asks what it is. The monk says it could be an arcane symbol – maybe a name, maybe part of a language. The monk looks nervous, like he’s expecting trouble. Gooseneck puts his arm around him and guides him over to Timothy. Gooseneck tells Timothy about the book and the monk being nervous.

Fathom notices that the young monk did something odd, a weird movement of his hand. She messages Gooseneck about it.

The older monk is engrossed in the speech, but CornCob sees him glance at the young monk and Gooseneck. It doesn’t hold his interest for long, though, and he turns his attention back to Darius. CornCob moves a little forward on the stage even so.

Most of us notice the old man lean forward, reach out with his hand, maybe say a few words…like he’s possibly casting a spell. 

CornCob sees a tiny rift in the air in the gazebo. It might be the beginning of some kind of summoning spell. He runs up to Darius and tells him he needs to follow. Darius checks with Laerdethian, who nods and follows them.

Pujol moves to the front of the gazebo and starts playing his harp to distract the crowd. He tries to charm both the monks. The growing rift behind him gives him a feeling of dread, but he keeps playing.

CornCob leads Darius over to Patrick, tells him something bad is being summoned to the gazebo and it might have something to do with Darius’s book.

Gooseneck charges at the old monk and attacks him. I try to shoot the old monk, but miss. Abran shoots at him and hits. 

The portal opens. The gazebo explodes as a gate opens to a realm of chaos – the same plane the Mushroom Queen sent us to. The old man relaxes when the portal opens.

Pujol tells the young monk to run and casts Protection from Evil on Gooseneck. Fathom casts Darkness in front of the portal, hoping it will blind and disorient whatever is coming through.

Following Pujol’s suggestion, the young monk runs from the gate. The old monk tells Gooseneck ‘It’s too late.’ He reaches out to touch Gooseneck, but misses.

CornCon casts a bolt at the young monk and hits him. He sends his Spiritual Weapon over to the old monk and hits him. Gooseneck rages and swings at the old monk.

I fiddle with my new goggles to see if they have a lens that will let me see into Fathom’s Darkness. They do! There’s a big demon in there! I shout down to the others about what I saw, but it’s too far and they can’t hear me.

Abran shoots at the old monk again, and that finishes him off.

Pujol casts a Wall of Thorns around the darkness. He tells Timothy and Darius that the target of all this is the book.

Fathom goes over to Abran, asks if he’d like her to cast Fly on him.

The young monk, still trying to flee, hops over the wall and gets him by the alarm spell there. He falls down on the outside of the wall, unconscious.

The demon shoots a tiny explosive ball of fire in Gooseneck’s direction. He tries to get out of the way, fails. CornCob does what he can to dampen the fire damage, and it helps, but a number of the audience members are hurt, KO’d, or killed by the fire.

The demon walks through Pujo’s wall of thorns, which does hurt him. Darius’s bodyguard takes a swing at the demon as she goes by. She puts herself between Darius and the demon.

CornCob summons the water elemental, then hits the young monk. The elemental attacks the demon. Gooseneck moves inside the water elemental to protect himself from the fire will attacking the demon. He can breathe underwater, so why not?

Abran accepts Fathom’s Fly spell, and shoots at the demon from the air. Pujol and Abran have both grown fungus armor again (ew). The demon casts a spell to paralyze Abran, and he falls to the ground.

Pujol casts Invisibility on Darius and tells him not to let the demon get the book. Fathom casts a wind spell at the demon. Darius’s bodyguard continues attacking the demon.

One of the clerics in the audience heals Gooseneck. CornCob casts a bolt at the demon, has the spectral weapon attack it, and also has the water elemental attack it. Gooseneck also attacks it. Abran tries to recover from the paralysis spell.

The demon bites Gooseneck – it does some damage, and also poisons him, but he shakes off the poison. She also claws at him, but the water elemental provides some protection.

Pujol polymorphs Timothy into a giant ape.

Everyone, including the giant ape, attacks the demon. It takes a few more rounds of attacks, but before long the demon falls, turning to ash.

In the aftermath, we search the bodies of the monks. We find spell components, travel backpacks, and a bag of holding. CornCob heals a number of the survivors. Fathom recognizes the symbol on the book – it is the Book of Names. Darius says it describes encounters with various demons and is useful for summoning them, as it lists their names.

Kay's Journal - 10/15 - Reaper Errant

 Kay’s Journal – 10/15

• Quiver of Ehlonna (Abran)

• Goggles of a bunch of things (night vision, detect magic, see invisible, see true form) (Kay)

• Necklace of Breathing in Anything (CornCob)

• Puffy Shirt of Spell Storing (Fathom)

• Bag of Holding

• 26600 gold, of which we have spent 2750 on the above

We are chilling by a farmer’s field after the fight in the tower. A kid runs up through the vegetables, carrying a letter to deliver. Gooseneck asks who sent him, and he says it was a guy at the docks who says there’s a possible buyer for our wagon. Gooseneck gives the kid a copper for his trouble.

The letter says there’s an interested party for the wagon, but they want it delivered to the cliffs, where the wealthy folk live. The Broken Bell, the shop where Kit suggested we might be able to fence stuff, is also in that area. We are to meet our agent at the home of Margaret Fairweather. The boy says the Fairweathers sell plants and do a good business at it. He says he thinks there’s a big tree and apples out front.

We go up to the house. It’s a nice place, very well kept. The broker is there with the wagon. Fathom looks around for magic; sees that Margaret is wearing a pair of earrings and one of them is magical. The fruit from the trees is also slightly magical.

Our broker bows to Margaret; she looks at him, and then at us. She asks about the wagon, and we tell her it is enchanted. To demonstrate, Pujol throws some mud on Abran and has him go through the wagon door. She is suitably impressed when it cleans the mud off him. Pujol puts some dirt on her, sends her into the wagon. It still works. She heads into the house for a moment, and there’s some shouting. After a few seconds, a boy with a stack of dirty dishes comes out and goes into the wagon. It cleans the dishes. She is definitely interested, but hopes the horses aren’t included in the deal. We tell her no, as they are the rental horses. 

She asks the broker about his fee, and he says he’s taking 10%. She offers us 600gp + his 10%. The broker looks happy. Pujol wants some of the magic apples in addition – why, oh why, does everybody insist on looking for trouble. She agrees, though. And, it is kind of interesting that the apples are being produced so prolifically while they are out of season. Margaret says they have always had good luck with plants and took steps to keep the apple tree warm.

Gooseneck asks if she’d be interested in the ship. She says the broker already mentioned it, but she’s turned off by its reputation. She asks more about it, and we tell her that while there were monsters, they weren’t there long. Gooseneck asks if we had it cleansed, would that help? After all, we have an in with some clerics. She says she sent someone to look at it and is concerned that it might not be big enough to suit her needs. She also thinks the broker might be under selling the boat. She offers an extra 1000 gp if we have the priests cleanse it, offering us a total of 26000gp. The broker says that’s high – it’s the cost of a brand new ship.

Pujol goes to talk to the apple tree. He says ‘hi’ and asks why it’s bearing fruit so late in the season. The tree says it always feels good this time of year. Pujol asks why, It is happy about the wonderful, fair weather. The tree says that its mistress sang to it just this morning. Pujol asks about the song, but the tree can’t sing so it can’t really demonstrate. Instead, it kind of waves its branches. They are moving counter to the wind. Pujol asks if the song has a story, which it does, something about a boy and a tree growing together. Pujol asks where the boy is, and the tree says it’s just in the song. Pujol says the trees he knows grow from sun and soil…what does a boy do in this? The tree says the song itself also provides sustenance. If Pujol wants to learn the song, he has to ask Margaret. Pujol asks the tree why it gets special treatment, the tree says she sings to all the trees, not just it. She sings just before the sun rises. Pujol asks how the song affects the fruit, and the tree says the song helps him grow. Pujol asks the tree how old it is, and not being big on counting (because it’s a tree), the tree says ‘many’. It was there before the building across the street was built, and that building looks 50 or 60 years old.

They want to wait a day to sign the boat deal. I ask the broker about standard contracts for this kind of deal; there definitely are some, and they have coverage for non-payment. It’s cool.

Gooseneck eats an apple and feels pretty good about it.

We take the deal. She has people bring out a lock box and key with 26,000gp. The broker brings over a contract. There is nothing magical about the lock box. The contract looks fine, so I sign. We’re still on the hook to get the boat cleansed.

We head directly to a nearby bank with our very heavy gold. For now, we get a ledger from the bank which will get used to track our spends; when we leave, we can come back to the bank, get the accounting done, and take whatever remains in gems or whatever currency seems appropriate at the time.

Next stop: The Broken Bell. From the outside, it looks like a wealthy pawn shop. It will also fence things. Someone comes out to greet us who is wearing bright purple silks. He waves us into the shop. Inside, there are rich carpets, art on the walls, lots of trinkets….and everything has a price tag on it.

The proprietor brings out a tea set (also for sale) and asks what we are interested in. Abran asks if he’s be interested in some saffron, and Fathom brings up the silk. He thinks we could get 150gp for the saffron with the right buyer, but he’d only offer 75gp. 

We start asking after what he’s got in the way of magic items. No wand of fireballs for Abran, to our vast relief. He brings out a quiver from the back and demonstrates its use; it is a quiver of holding.  He wants 800gp for it.

I ask about things that would improve night vision. He brings back a set of ornate goggles. They have night vision for sure, but also allow the wearer to see magic and get a sense of what kind of magic it is. They can also see invisible things and see true form. They’re expensive – 10,000gp – but the group feels we really, really need those goggles. 

Abran asks about something useful for defense for Gooseneck. While he’s looking in the back, we notice three bags hanging on the wall. They are bags of holding, costing 1000gp each. Then the fellow brings out an amulet – it sets the wearer’s CON to 19. It’s expensive – another 10,000gp. Gooseneck is not impressed.

Pujol asks about water breathing for CornCob. He has a puka shell necklace that, if you put the shell in your mouth, will let you breathe in any environment. At 1000gp, this one seems like a good purchase.

Fathom asks about things that can help her access more spells. He brings out a duelists’ shirt in cerulean silk with lace on the cuffs and collar. Very flamboyant. You can cast up to 5 levels of spells into it in advance. 2500gp for the shirt of spell storing.

It’s time to start dealing in earnest. He offers us 6000 for the undamaged silk, 3000gp for the damaged silk, and 4750gp for the artwork. That’s 13750. We want the quiver (800gp), the goggles (10000gp), one bag of holding (1000gp), the necklace (1000gp), and the shirt (2500gp), for a total of 15300gp. 

The Pujol asks about weapons. The proprietor offers a necklace of fireballs for 3000gp, 3 +1 darts for 700 gp, and a pearl necklace that gives the wearer an additional 3rd level spell slot once/day for 1200gp. Pujol likes that one, so we add the 1200gp to our total for a total purchase of 16500. Minus the 13750 he’s giving us for the silk and art, we’d paying him 2750 gp from our ledger. Not bad.

He offers us the other items – if we do some work for him. Apparently he sold an item to a sailor without vetting it properly first, and now he’s concerned that it’s causing problems. The deck hand bought a wand that corrupts plants and gives them a demented sentience. The corrupted plants might also birth spawn from another realm. None of that sounds good.

He thinks the sailor is at his ship. He wants us to get the wand back; he will refund the man his money. The deck hand is a dwarf with armor, very matter of fact and business-like. The ship he’s on is the Maiden.

We go to the docks, and sure enough, we see some highly suspect plants. My shiny new goggles show they are kind of like demons bound in the plants. Yup, those definitely have to go.

Kay's Journal - 10/1 - Reaper Errant

The party has won a wagon full of art stuff. We make plans to sell most of it, keeping a signet ring with a stylized ‘MC’. No idea who that is.

Pujol and Gooseneck go looking for draft animals to pulls the wagon back to town. They find a stable with a wide variety of animals, including some horses that should do the job. Pujol asks about renting 2 horses and appropriate harness for pulling the wagon. The fellow running the stable asks for 150gp, which seems a little steep, considering that we just want them for a day. The stable keeper also asks for collateral, considering that it would be easy to abscond with the horses. Gooseneck suggests the stable keeper comes along with the horses; then he can look after them and make sure we don’t take off with them. He’s amenable, and under that arrangement only charges us 5gp.

CornCob and I head to the place that’s selling the ship for us. The guy says there’s been some interest in the ship and that it might sell in a couple days. CornCob asks about where we could sell a wagon. Our friend says he could probably sell it. We give him a gold to reserve some warehouse space to store the rest of the stuff before we sell it, and he agrees to sell the wagon for us on commission.

Abran and Fathom stay with the wagon to keep an eye on it. Abran very much wants to set stuff on fire. While they are debating if there’s a reasonable way to do that there, an older halfling man walks by with a younger person following him. Fathom looks for magic, but neither of them is carrying any. The younger person’s clothes are clearly built to blend in, but they are high quality and in good repair. The older man looks like he is alone. The older man goes into a building, and the person following him disappears into an alley.

CornCob, Pujol, Gooseneck, and I get back to the wagon after our respective errands. We learn the wagon has a spell on it – it will clean your clothes when you enter.

The man at the docks is pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wagon, definitely thinks it will sell for 500gp or so. CornCob wants to be there when the wagon is sold, and the dock guy says he’ll send a runner to the Mud Worm.

Abran & I sneak in to the alley and see the younger person who’d been following the older halfling looking in a window of the building the halfling went into. I sneak up behind them, ask what’s going on in there. They double-take and almost fall off the little platform outside the window…I was expecting that and grab them by the collar, and then pull them back to safety.

It turns out she is a young girl named Kit. She says the old man is buying stuff on her behalf in an auction that’s going on in the building, as she’s not allowed to do it herself. She asks if I’m part of the thieves’ guild, and seems pleased when I say I’m not part of it (just passing through). We trade names and where we can be found. She also says we might be able to unload the art stuff at the Broken Bell, up by the cliff docks. It’s basically a place for fencing stuff.

We head to the new site for the conference to check on the preparations there. Timothy sees us, and ushers us in to Riverside Park. He tells us they found a druid willing to help regrow the tree we killed at the old site. Timothy also thinks it’s odd that a vampire would be in this town; certainly, none live here.

Timothy tells us that some representatives of the various churches will be allowed in. Each must show the seal of their church to get in, and someone is actually checking them. Fathom wants to look at the list of dignitaries and maybe see the speaker himself to make sure he’s not compromised. Timothy thinks that’s unlikely; also, the speaker has a bodyguard who looks pretty butch.

We go to Patrick to see the list of dignitaries. Timothy goes to cast wards along the walls; the wards are meant to discourage people from jumping the walls to get in.

We look for high points, and see the top of the gazebo itself and a nearby bridge over a river. The river is maybe 4-5 feet deep and isn’t very fast. The speaker’s guard is giving us the stink eye and CornCob goes to confront her. He learns her name is Lairdethian.

Fathom looks around for magic. She sees the wards Timothy is putting up and Lairdethian’s maul. She doesn’t see anything that looks like it doesn’t belong.  

We see the list of dignitaries, and note that the signet ring we took from the vampires is not on it. Fathom makes a wax impression of the signet to show Lairdethian.

There’s a tallish building across the street from the site. CornCob asks Patrick and Timothy if they’ve done anything about the building. They say the building is closed for the day, but we still think we should go sweep it. We get the key from Patrick and head over.

The first floor is storage. We hear some sounds from upstairs, like someone moving around, and then quiet. CornCob, Gooseneck, and Abran storm upstairs. Pujol goes outside to tell a guard to warn Lairdethian.

Inside, CornCob and Gooseneck go up the stairs first. Someone jumps at them and casts a spell, which does some damage to Gooseneck. A second attacker jumps out and casts another spell. Abran fires arrows at one of them, hits. CornCob casts a spell that damages one, and casts another spell that causes some vines to grow in the corner and try to grab one of the guys. Pujol comes up the outside stairs, trying to flank them. Gooseneck attacks one of them, then I do. I hit him hard and tell him to yield or die. He’s intimidated and casts a spell at me, and I go…elsewhere. The other one casts a spell at CornCOb and does a bunch of damage to him. Fathom and Abran attack the wounded one, and take him out. When he goes down, his spell ends and I come back.

We all pile on the second one and taken him down before long. We search the bodies. They have spell components, but no other magic, no papers or coin, nothing that will identify them, except the Fall tattoos on their arms.

Kay's Journal - 8/20 - Reaper Errant

We take the satyr we captured back to the church; Timothy and Patrick are there to help and decide to question him in the middle of the temple. CornCob places himself between the satyr and the door. The clerics ungag him (the satyr, not CornCob!), and Pujol asks in Sylvan if he speaks Common. He does, so the conversation proceeds that way. 

We describe to Patrick what happened at the circle. Fathom watches the satyr while the recap is being given. He perks up when he hears how he is described, almost like he thinks of this as a game. Pujol notices that the satyr doesn’t respond to the description of the spell, but looks remorseful about the tree.

The clerics think we were justified in destroying the tree under the circumstances. Pujol asks the satyr if he came up with the joke, or if it was someone more clever. The satyr says it wasn’t his idea; he was just there to carry it out. Pujol asks who came up with it, but the satyr won’t answer that question. Pujol says that as the winner, we are owed some answers. The satyr buys that, but wants his freedom in return for the name. Pujol specifies that it should be the true name of the person behind it. The satyr says that if we release him, he would go back to the fae. He also offers the name of a local druid to help with the tree. 

Gooseneck asks if the satyr will agree to not cause trouble, but the satyr balks at that. Gooseneck puts some limits on it – the satyr is to not cause trouble in this area for 50 years. The satyr agrees to that. Fathom asks if a name will be enough to find the instigator. The satyr says….probably not. CornCob asks if the druid and the instigator are the same person; they are not. Patrick asks for any physical item the satyr exchanged with the instigator; he agrees. 

The satyr gives Patrick a pouch and says the name of the instigator is Sustabian, and the druid that can help with the tree is Fellorian. Sustabian is a fiend. 

Gooseneck unties the satyr and he leaves, disappearing into the wood paneling in the alcove. Pujol says that the rose petal exit was better.

Patrick asks us to talk to a wizard friend of his who is showing up soon. We’re to ask them about Sustabian and the Fall.

We go nap while waiting for the wizard.

The wizard arrives – she is a dragonborn who introduces herself as Leana. She asks for introductions, and chaos ensues, of course. Patrick told her about us. She asks about our meeting with the guys from the Fall. We tell her a bit about that, and then Gooseneck dives into the recent events. She asks if the satyr was still around, probably not. We explain about the podium and the tree, and that the plan was Sustabian’s. She is familiar with the name – he’s a greater demon. Yay. Gooseneck also tells her about the incubus in the church.

She suggests we sit and chat. There is a magic circle in this room; she had been standing in the middle and moved away. It seems she might have used it to teleport in.

She wants to talk about Sustabian first, then the Silver Swan. CornCob objects, wants to talk about the Fall. She says the Silver Swan is embroiled with the Fall as well.

With that, we agree to talk about Sustabian. Leana tells us she can try to divine his location. Gooseneck asks if she can tell us about him. He’s a large greater demon in control of an army of a few hundred demons. Sustabian’s goal is a chaotic one. She doesn’t know why they might be involved with the Fall, unless maybe Sustabian just wanted to caused chaos. She also thinks the Fall might have the upper hand. CornCob asks if there’s anyone who might be a bridge between the two groups. She thinks maybe the human wizard Melthias. He’s got a tower in town.

Leana thinks we might have foiled their initial plan, but they probably have fallbacks. 

Abran asks if she could teleport someone into the tower. She could, just not right now.

Meloris, the captain of the Silver Swan, is a good captain, but there’s a plant from the Fall on the ship. Leana wants us to report to her of any places they might find to be of interest. She thinks the plant is either the first mate or the navigator. 

Abran asks Leana what she thinks the bast path forward is for protecting the city. She thinks we should stay long enough for the oration, at least.

Abran really wants to go murder the wizard.

CornCob asks for the items she talked about giving us to help us send her information. One if a bag of junk, but she is attuned to the items. If we leave one somewhere, she will be able to find it. Fathom takes the bag of tokens.The other item is a leather-bound book. Good for someone who likes to take notes – she will get whatever is written on the pages. Anything written between a couple of runes will be transferred to another book that she has.

Abran asks to get paid to do this work for her. She offers to look for magic items for us.

We tell Patrick to change the venue and warn the keynote speaker. He agrees to change the venue to the Overlook. Gooseneck asks him about Melthias. Patrick knows him; he tells us Melthias’s tower is next to the Redwood Foundation complex in the city. Patrick thinks Melthias is eccentric. He doesn’t know if Melthias deals with the Redwood Foundation. Abran asks if Melthias would be missed, and while Melthias himself is often not seen for months, he still does business, and carts come and go regularly. He keeps to himself, but occasionally the ruling council asks him to do favors – build walls, defend from attacking creatures, etc. Gooseneck asks which walls – near the entrance and up on the cliffs. The new venue for the talk is not near any of these places.

We go back to the Mud Worm to rest and get breakfast. Then we go to Melthias’s tower. This seems like a terrible idea. 

We walk by the Redwood Foundation first. The complex is surrounded by a wall. There are guard towers and a courtyard where people are exercising. We can see long barracks inside. 

The tower is not enclosed within the walls, and the Redwood Foundation was built first.

As we walk by the tower, there’s a loud crack and explosion. A big chunk of stone flies out and arcs down toward the street. Odd sounds follow.

A big whirlwind of air bursts through the barred door into the tower and runs right into CornCob. He manages to hold his ground and stay standing as it passes over him. We all attack it while trying to stay out of its path. I see a shadow fly out of the tower above, and shout a warning. Fathom casts a wind spell to try to push the elemental back.

Talons grab Abran and lift him into the air. The air elemental goes after Gooseneck. Abran drops his bow, draws his sword, and stabs at the hippogriff that grabbed him. He kills it, and now is falling. This is not better.

The fight with the air elemental continues, but we hear a scream, cut off abruptly by a gurgle, from the tower. I get out the rental spyglass and look up to the top of the tower. I see a roughly humanoid figure, but it moves much more smoothly and gracefully than any human. It’s also larger than a regular human. I see it drop a body to the floor.

Fathom destroys the air elemental, and then we debate how to investigate the top of the tower. No one is keen on trying to walk up. So, with a couple of spells, they make me invisible and fly me up to the top of the tower. I look from a bit of a distance, and see a body on the floor. The tower wall was broken outwards. I move in closer, looking through the opening into a 20’ hallway with tile mosaics on the floor. I go in. While the mosaics definitely have a theme to them, my best guess is they are just decorative and not actually magic. I hear a thump from the other side of the inner wall.

I follow the hallway around until I can see into the interior room. There’s an airy, floating female being in there, ransacking the room. Still invisible, I talk to her and learn that she’s looking for a way home. I go get the rest of the group to talk to her.

On the way in, they loot the wizard’s body.

She’s looking for an item, maybe a censor, that was used to summon her and that she thinks she can use to go back home. Fathom finds it and gives it to her to destroy. She melts it, and it crumbles into powder. CornCob asks what she is – a djinn. He asks what the wizard wanted her to do, and she says he wanted her to serve a friend of his – the friend is named Jorick. She gives us her name, which translates to Sunset Breeze. She doesn’t know about Sustabian, but in the past she has been called upon by the Fall to retrieve poison or body parts. Ick.

Abran asks her if she’s like us to inform her if we come across the Fall, or if she can inform us. She offers to replace the water elemental summoning stone with a way to contact her, but CornCob says no. We look through the tower for another suitable item, and find some elemental stones. She takes the cold stone, and Fathom takes the fire stone. Touching one will cause the other to freeze/heat up, so we can use them for basic signalling. 

• 1420 XP
• Ring of Animal Influence
• Ring of Obscuring
• Ring of Water Walking
• Cap that always keeps your head comfortable
• Robe of Entanglement – throw it at someone to entangle them

Kay's Journal - 8/6 - Reaper Errant

 Kay’s Journal, 8/6

• 1033 XP

• Magic Sword

We are still in the church after the defeat of the demon(s). Gooseneck gives Fathom the bag of spell components the demon had. She takes a look; it appears to be standard stuff except for a smaller pouch full of diamond dust. Fathom gives that to CornCob, as it’s more of a cleric thing.

The temple priests heal everyone, but we still haven’t rested. The priests have questions – how did we get in? How did we know there was trouble? Gooseneck tells the story while some of the other clerics study the spell circle. Upon hearing the story, the head priest we are talking to appreciates our help. He also offers Pujol a Cure Disease spell after his mishap in the sewer. They also give Pujol some strong brandy to rinse out his mouth, and he downs it.

The head cleric asks us to sit and chat with him further – he may have work for us. So, we go sit and chat. His sitting room is furnished with pieces of good quality, but not fancy. The church here seems to use its wealth for long-lasting things. The fellow we are talking to runs this particular temple; they perform healing, and also handle accounting for the church in the city.

He asks about us. CornCob tells him we are looking for new challenges and work. The cleric says he’s heard we’re looking for work on a ship, and Gooseneck answers that we are waiting for a particular ship. CornCob asks how to address the cleric, and he gives us his name – Patrick. There’s a bit of a fuss outside, and another cleric comes in and says they have a lead on the circle. It has instructions saying the demon was supposed to go to a place called ‘The Rounds’ and cause chaos. We are told that The Rounds in an ancient magic circle in town. In general, it’s kept locked down, but they are opening it up tomorrow for an event – the oration that we heard about on our way into town. Normally the Rounds are closed off because it was built by the ancient elves and they’re not entirely sure what it does.

On the mention of the oration tomorrow, Pujol brings up the monks we met on the road, what we learned about the Redwood Foundation and the Fall, and that he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence. CornCob asks who asked that the Round be opened, and who approved it. The clerics of Apara themselves asked to be able to speak there. 

CornCob asks what they would like us to do, exactly. They want us to check out the Rounds and put a halt to whatever is going on. They offer to pay us. Fathom asks for a guide who’s familiar with the Rounds, and Patrick assigns Jarick to go with us. CornCob thinks we might need more help, and Patrick also assigns another cleric, Timothy, to go with us. CornCob asks what the main worry is. Since the church asked for the Round to be opened, they will be responsible for whatever harm befalls the crowd.

Patrick is very positive about the Redwood Foundation, and dislikes the Fall intensely. He is not happy to hear agents of the Fall might be at the talks tomorrow. 

They are building a stage and a food vending area on the grounds.

There are no unusual tensions between the church of Apara and the lawful evil organization that has power in the city. If Apara lost standing, Leial would gain, along with maybe some of the Chaotic churches. Anaru would stand to gain a lot – that is a lawful neutral church that’s very in to vengeance. CornCob asks what factions might be in to chaos in general, and Patrick says there are some but they generally aren’t invited to things. 

We go to investigate the site with Timothy and Jarick. CornCob asks where we can buy spyglasses, and they point us to the same jeweler that’s working on Pujol’s necklace. We go there and CornCob asks about spyglasses. He has one, but wants 1000gp for it. CornCob asks about renting it for 3 days instead. There’s some negotiation, and we end up renting it for 5 gp/day, and a writ of guarantee saying we’ll pay the full amount if it’s damaged. 

We head to the Rounds. It’s fenced off, so Jarick lets us in through the gate. There’s a standing circle of stones with a big tree in the center. Though the site is near the center of town, they haven’t built anything near it. Pujol thinks the area looks more druidic than elven. The fence is 12’ high and looks like it could be climbed. CornCob asks if it is patrolled, and Jarick says the city guard passes by as part of their patrols.

We go to look at the stage that’s being built. CornCob asks if there’s anything magic about it, and the clerics say no. Fathom casts a detect magic spell and looks around. She sees a spell has been cast on the back of the pedestal that’s on the stage. She also senses something in a big circle around the tree that’s in the center of the standing stones. We split up to investigate.

Fathom thinks the spell cast on the pedestal is some kind of illusion magic, but combined with transmutation as well. CornCob and Gooseneck check out the construction of the platform, but don’t see anything of note.

CornCob and Pujol go look for tracks around the perimeter. Abran goes to take a look at the tree and circle. Abran sees symbols inscribed into the tree around the bottom. He thinks it might be another transmutation spell, but is incomplete.

CornCob looks for high points archers could fire from. There are some far away buildings that would work, and a few closer trees.

Pujol finds bi-pedal hoof tracks by the fence. He follows them around the tree, up to the platform, out to the fence, and then to a small tree where they dissipate. The tracks don’t look like they’d belong to the incubus we killed; they seem more like a natural creature’s hooves. The tracks appear to both enter and leave at the small tree. Pujol notices that the tree appears to have been pruned over the years to be in a particular shape and size.

Fathom looks at the tree circle, and thinks it feels like a weird combination of arcane co-opted for religious purposes. We ask Timothy and Jarick about it, and they think it might be nature magic. We’re going to need a druid.

The clerics think the spell at the podium and the thing on the tree are related. They think the spells can be cleared. Gooseneck swings at the podium with his axe; a mouth opens on the back and speaks arcane words – completing the spell on the tree. Lovely.

The base of the tree lights up and the ground shakes. The tree rips itself up out of the ground, and a satyr appears at the feet of the tree. He looks angry, and the whole thing feels corrupt.

The fight starts. After CornCob has cast a spell at the satyr, Fathom has cast a fireball, and Abran and I shot at them, Pujol tries talking to the satyr to say we are friends. Unsurprisingly, the satyr isn’t buying it. He responds by moving very quickly or maybe teleporting over to Pujol and stabbing him. Then he flicks his sword and Gooseneck, which launches a swarm of swords at him. Gooseneck manages to dodge.

The tree attacks Abran. CornCob keeps casting spells at the tree. I try to distract the satyr from Pujol by hitting his with my sword. More spells are cast and blows traded, while Pujol casts invisibility on himself and sneaks away from the satyr. The tree waves a branch, and the two smaller nearby trees animate and move to attack – one going to Abran, and the other to Fathom and CornCob.

The fight continues, and the large tree falls. Gooseneck hits the satyr, who disappears into a cloud of withered rose petals. Cute, but nobody believes he’s actually gone. We keep on fighting the small trees while Fathom casts detect magic again to try to see where the satyr went. She spots him huddled down in the base of the fallen tree. Pujol tries talking to the small trees, but they don’t seem to have the ability to think freely – not like the latrine trees. We finally take out the small trees. Fathom points out where the invisible satyr is hiding and Abran shoots him, knocking him out. We take his stuff and take him back to the church.

Kay's Journal - 7/23 - Reaper Errant

2166 XP

Gooseneck makes shields out of the crab carapace. The first two he makes are no good, but the third one should work. Abran takes it. They think it might confer some protection against lightning, given that the crab seemed resistant to Gooseneck’s lighting ability.

That evening, I’m on first watch. It’s pretty active tonight, as another ship came in to port. On second watch things are still a little rowdy, but winding down. On third watch, a heavy fog rolls in. CornCob hears a sound like iron being rent or bent, or maybe a hinge being stressed. He and Pujol look out the window. They think the sound is coming from far enough away to be out past the mud flats on a rocky outcropping they see in the bay.

They don’t wake us, as it doesn’t seem to be an immediate problem, but then CornCob wakes up Gooseneck to go investigate. There’s no way to walk out to the rocks, but there are a number of small boats they can borrow. They row out. Pujol sees a spot in the rocks that looks like crude stairs, and sees a flicker of what might be torch light from wherever the stairs lead.

Gooseneck hears sounds like maybe someone is mining – picks on stone.

Pujol stays to keep an eye out while Gooseneck swims back to get the rest of us. Clearly, someone mining at night must be up to no good.

It’s daylight by the time we get out to the rocks. I see where a chunk of wood was ripped off a boat, but hasn’t washed out to sea yet – it must have happened pretty recently.

We get off the boat. It’s obvious people don’t come out here regularly, so the boat may draw attention. 

As soon as the sun started to rise, there were no more sounds from inside. CornCob thinks the stairs and some other non-natural shapes are very old, and may have been of elven make. He thinks there might have been a religious element to the carvings but isn’t sure. He sees a spot where it looks like some of the rock was melted. He also sees a grate where foul water is coming out; maybe a sewer drain?

Abran and Pujol think we have about six hours before the tide comes in.

We go in. Light is coming from a hold above. There’s a grate we force open; it definitely leads to a sewer. It doesn’t seem to be hooked up to anything, but also is clearly in use (ew). It looks like the tide probably comes in to this sewer pipe up to a depth of a foot or so, and probably washes the sewage out to the bay.

It’s dark in here, so Gooseneck lights a torch. Everyone except Pujol notices places where there was some plant growth in the water that has been disturbed and torn away, like someone waded through recently.

As we move forward, CornCob uses his staff to swish the water ahead of him to find any critters or maybe chase them off. Whatever came through here, want down a tunnel to the left. We turn that way, and Abran sees eyes and movement ahead. He signals us, and then moves forward with his bow drawn. The water gets a little deeper.

CornCob walks on top of the water. Gooseneck hangs back a bit with Pujol. Abran, up ahead, doesn’t see anything moving now. He passes by a tunnel going left, then asks which way we want to go. CornCob thinks the left passage goes downward slightly and may not come out of the rock, but below and to town.

As Abran turns back, I see a ripple in the water heading toward CornCob. I shout to him to look out. CornCob sees a long, snake-like creature in the water, and hits it with his staff. The snake-thing attacks CornCob, but misses him…barely. It’s covered in algae and plant growth. Under the green goo there is some colored banding – this thing is probably venomous, probably hallucinogenic.

We manage to fight it off without too much trouble. Pujol tries to collect the venom, but scratches himself in the process and is exposed. He starts trying to eat the sewage. CornCob casts a spell on him to try to neutralize the poison, and it seems to do the trick. Pujol spits out the sewage and rinses his mouth out.

The poison is a random madness poison; the effect will be variable. Pujol managed to collect enough for three arrows.

We go down the side passage, following what we think is the trail of whoever came in here before. We go quite a long way, until we think we must be under the town. Ahead, we see a small platform. The platform has been hammered into the wall. There’s fresh stone work above it, and maybe some flickering light.

Abran climbs up stealthily and ends up in a church. He sees a figure in the shadows, working on casting some sort of spell. It’s a humanoid with wings. He’s in the church of Apara, and looks like the place has been tossed.

Abran drops back down into the tunnel with the rest of us and relates what he saw. We think it’s an Incubus, and we decide it needs to die. CornCob blesses me, Gooseneck, Abran, and himself. Pujol makes Gooseneck and CornCob invisible. 

CornCob goes up, and the Incubus starts casting his spell faster. The rest of us each go up in turn, trying to be as stealthy as we can. Even so, the Incubus must have noticed us, as he continues to speed up his casting. Gooseneck moves up and hits the Incubus, but he still manages to finish his spell. A large pair of wings starts emerging from the summoning circle. Abran and Pujol both shoot the incubus and he falls back into the portal, dying. Not that it helps – the damage has been done and the bigger demon climbs out. 

Gooseneck and Abran start attacking this large demon. Pujol casts Protection from Evil on Gooseneck. CornCob casts Spike Growth right under the demon’s feet. The demon casts some kind of spell at Gooseneck, but he is raging and doesn’t care. Goose neck does notice the physical attacks when the demon bites and claws him, though. He is badly injured.

Everyone continues attacking. Abran’s hands start to glow, and mushrooms start growing out of them (more ew). However, the mushrooms produce spores that get on the arrow, and when it hits the demon it seems to hurt him quite a bit. Pujol casts a Wall of Thorns at the demon, and the wall comes out kind of mushroomy. It also hurts the demon a lot. 

The demon turns its attention to Abran and Pujol, for obvious reasons. He bites Abran and hurts him badly, but apparently even Abran’s blood has become mushroomy poison to the demon. The demon claws at Pujol, but has not learned his lesson and takes more damage as Pujol’s flesh harms him back. 

Gooseneck attacks it while Pujol casts healing on Abran. Clerics start arriving from other areas now, and start casting…something. CornCob uses the stone he grabbed when we fought the water elemental to summon his own water elemental, which starts going to town on the demon. That does it – the demon dies, turning to watery ash. 

The portal is closed, and the clerics heal those in our party who are injured. Abran investigates the summoning circle and learns that it was specifically meant to summon a demon of that type, but that it looks like the summoning was originally intended to activate later. 

Abran’s arm has a mushroom ridge, but it seems to be receding. He thinks this can only happen a limited number of times, and only against demons of that type. 

Gooseneck looks for anything the incubus left behind and grabs a pouch of spell components. CornCob has the water elemental wash away the summoning circle.

Kay's Journal - 7/9 - Reaper Errant

• 150 gp in various coins and gems
• 50 gp worth of navigation tools (Pujol)

We get back to the Mud Crab in the morning. There are a couple clerics of Apara (good deity) out front talking. We don’t exactly mean to listen in, but we totally listen in. They are talking about some kind of ruckus happening out at the docks – a ship found a derelict vessel out on the water, but when they went aboard, something bad happened. They towed the ship in, but the sailors are scared of it.

We go to offer our services, and Abran does the talking. At first, they don’t seem keen on us helping, but after Abran mentions how we rescued Aubrey, another cleric of Apara, a couple towns back, they warm up to the idea. Apparently that news travelled fast. They ask us to meet them at the he docks; we will take a longboat from the Rat Tail out to the derelict.

Gooseneck asks for more details. Part of the reason to go out there is to find out for sure, but they think the ship has been overtaken by evil creatures. Of the sailors who went out, many did not return. Some of those who did cannot remember what happened to them out on the water. The ship is out in the deep anchorage. Pujol thinks he has heard of sea creatures that can charm with a song.

We get breakfast first, and then on the way to the docks get some wax and cotton for our ears.

We get down to the docks. There’s a representative of the church waiting there. We ask to speak to the survivors, and they bring us one of the sailors. His name in Marty, and he says he didn’t see any creatures on the ship, good, bad, or indifferent. They circled the ship once in their small boat, then went aboard. He was the last one aboard. As he set foot on the deck, the others were fleeing. Some were staring at the deck, like they were trying to look into the hold below. He heard a persistent humming.

The ship itself is in good shape, except for a torn sail. It had been adrift for a week or so. Marty describes the hummin as being a ‘melancholy hymn’. He grabbed a friend and ran for the boat. It seems like he lost some time between when he remembers stepping on to the ship and when he fled back to the longboat.

After that, they towed the ship in to port. Some of the sailors were bleeding, some looked like they hurt themselves fleeing, but one looked like he’d been clawed from hip to armpit.

We get to the ship. Someone has dropped anchor, so it sits more or less immobile in the water. We do not see any bodies or blood, even though we know some sailors were left behind.

CornCob in his magic water-walking boots walks around the ship to look it over. Gooseneck swims around the ship, looking it over under the water line. There’s no damage to it under the water, except for one gash in the wood that doesn’t go all the way through. It looks relatively new, and is a good two, two and a half feet long.

Abran, Gooseneck, and CornCob go on board. Something feels off, but they don’t know what. It’s oddly silent, but maybe that’s just the earplugs. Abran pulls out one of his earplugs, but still hears nothing. He looks for doors and hatches. There’s a grate that looks down into the hold amidships, and a door toward the back that probably also goes down to the hold. Abran tries looking down through the grate. He thinks he seems some movement, but still no sound.

Fathom casts Protection from Evil on Abran and Pujol casts invisibility on him so that he can go into the hold and scout. Fathom asks if Gooseneck, as a lizardfolk, might be immune to a mammal’s song, but Pujol doesn’t think so.

Abran goes down into the hold, and for a few moments feels like he is back with the Mushroom Queen. He realizes it’s fake, though. He hears a discordant song and see a hunched, feathery figure in the shadows. He plugs his ears, and then shoots the feathery shape twice. No longer invisible, he runs up the stairs.

Even with earplugs, the rest of us hear screeching, along with the song the feathered things are singing. Everyone else goes on board the ship, and most manage to resist the song. I, however, and stuck in a moment of my past.

The creatures come up from below. Abran shoots the one he shot before again. CornCob hits one with his stick, and it falls to the deck. When that happens, we get the sense that there is something…bigger…starting to take notice.

The second harpy goes at CornCob and hits him. Gooseneck jumps into the water to swing at whatever is down there – it’s some very large crab thing. Gooseneck whacks it.

Pujol plays his harp, which helps me shake off the memories. Fathom casts a blast at the harpy. It falls, calling for mother to avenge her. That can’t be good. Fathom gets on the boat.

Abran and CornCob shift to attacking the crab thing. Abran shoots it, and CornCob jumps on to the water and casts a word of radiance at it.

The crab grabs Gooseneck and hits him multiple times. Gooseneck hits it with his axe. Pujol shoots it with his crossbow. Everybody takes turns unloading on the crab, while it attacks Gooseneck and CornCob. Eventually, though, it is killed.

I keep an eye on the horizon. There’s a strange storm forming up.

Fathom searches the harpies while Abran and Gooseneck go into the hold. The harpies aren’t carrying anything of value, nor are any of their body parts worth much. Maybe the feathers. The remains of the sailors are in the hold, but nothing of value. However, in the captain’s cabin, there’s a chest with coins, gems, and some fancy navigation equipment.

Our best guess is that the crab was just following the ship to get the dead sailor bits that the harpies were throwing overboard.

Pujol searches the dead sailors. Based on their clothing, they likely came from a colder area. He checks the charts, and based on that, he thinks the ship was coming back from somewhere after making a run. There should have been whale oil on board, though. This ship is called the Snow Slipper, and was owned by an individual, likely the captain.

CornCob pulls the ship into port. The storm does not follow us in.

Pujol asks where to register the ship as salvage. The cleric will send some people to clean up the dead. The harbormaster wants to know what we want to do with the ship – he will sell it for us, if we like. It’s probably worth 700gp.

We eat the crab for dinner, and save the shell for Gooseneck to work with. Somehow, the giant crab dinner party seems to cheer the whole town.

Kay's Journal - 6/25 - Reaper Errant

Kay’s Journal, 6/25

• 340 XP
•  25GP
• Gem of Elemental Water Control (CornCob)

We are waiting in line to go through the city gates. As the line moves forward, there’s a beggar who’s making his way down the line away from the gate, asking for money. Pujol gives him a gold, and learns that he certainly smells like a legit beggar. Gooseneck gives the guy a silver. I use the distraction to move to the front of the line.

There are a couple of guards along with a guy wearing glasses who’s giving everybody a once-over. I claim my bow and rapier. Mr. Glasses takes a really close look; I think those glasses let him spot externally visible magic items. He seems to take note of my cloak, but not my backup cloak that’s in my pack.

CornCob goes next, and tells the gate minders that he’s looking for work, and also for food. He says he expects to be here for a week or two, and goes through. This set of events is largely repeated by everyone. Pujol and Fathom not only have to register their crossbows, but have to pay a copper for them. Abran has to come up with a story for his weird space rifle, and tells them it’s a cane his grandfather made. The guards buy it. As we all go through, we get the idea that this is a new process, and neither the guys manning the gate nor the people travelling through are used to it yet.

We go to the port to see if the Silver Swan is here. It isn’t, but is expected sometime in the next couple weeks. The port is very busy; there are lots of boats of various sizes, but very much more small ships than very large ones.

We go check out the Mud Worm. It’s on a side of the bay that is all mud flats; the tavern itself is right on the edge of the high tide line, and up on a large rock. It still stinks. There’s a large red dragon head hung over the door, but it’s probably not real.

We head in. It seems to be mostly working folk here. We’re told it’s a silver for a meal and a drink. The food is set up buffet style – go through the line, fill your plate, then go find someplace to sit. Gooseneck asks about rooms, and learns they are 5 silver/night for a room and a meal. The rooms are free standing bungalows at the high tide line. We rent 2 bungalows for a total of 1 gp/night.

We head out on to the deck to eat. There are a couple of guys already at a table here, apparently having a private conversation in this public space, given how quickly they shut up and the looks they give us when we come out. Gooseneck asks if we are interrupting and they say no, they’ll just talk quieter. They are not sporting funky tattoos on their forearms, so that’s good. Abran and I listen, trying to overhear whatever they’re on about. They are talking about roughing up some dude down by the docks. They may have been hired to do this, or they may be doing it on their own. It sounds like their target is some kind of business man. They leave shortly after we sit down.

We discuss, and decide to try watching them tonight and seeing what they get up to, and decide then whether or not to interfere.

We head to The Tiny Pearl, a jewelry store, for Pujol, so he can get his dragon rock set into a necklace. It’s a wee building, maybe not quite completely straight and plumb. Shells tinkle when we go through the door. There’s a gnome in there, wearing glasses. He asks if we all have business there, and CornCob says no, we’re just co-dependent.

Pujol negotiates for what he wants. The cost is 15 gold, 7 to be paid up front, and it will be ready for Pujol to come back and have the stone set in 2 days. Pujol gives the gnome 10 gold instead of 7 and tells him to do an extra good job.

We mosey our way to the docks. On the way, we come across a bounty board. There are many ‘capture alive’ contracts posted, almost all sponsored by the temple of Ronda. There are a few other temples that have put up bounties as well, including a Lawful Evil one. Even the bounties that are sponsored by other churches are approved by the temple of Ronda.

There are a few good paying contracts. The best two are sponsored by the temple of Layeel, a lawful evil goddess. The targets are all inside the city, and will be aware there is a bounty out for them. There are no otter poachers, but there are a few small contracts for people who’ve been stealing crab pots or such.

There is a contract for someone who has been encroaching on someone else’s abalone grounds. It sounds like the guys who were going to beat the business man were hired to discourage the guy who put out this contract.

We get to the docks after dark. This are a is not well-lit, which turns out is a good thing because Gooseneck is not wearing any pants. I’m not sure why this is suddenly important.

The businessman who’s the target is named Jin, and he’s a crabber. A passer-by points us to where he is bringing in his day’s catch. We warn him that a couple guys are coming for him. CornCob and Fathom go into his office to make sure they aren’t already there (they’re not).

We set a trap. Pujol casts an illusion to make himself look like Jin. Abran and CornCob hang out by the corner of the building, pretending to be drunk. Fathom, Gooseneck, and I get up on the roof.

I hear the would-be attackers approaching; whoever hired them gave them a stone that might help them, whatever that means. One of them wants to use it right away; the other says it’s not necessary. Both seem a little afraid of it. They head toward Pujol-as-Jin, who jumps into the boat and becomes invisible. Abran and CornCob ‘drunkenly’ come up behind the two men, cutting off their escape.

The two attackers jump into the boat and look around for ‘Jin’. Gooseneck tries to jump down from the roof to go after them, but lands badly and can’t make it any farther right away. CornCob rushes the boat and swings at one of them with his quarterstaff. That guy draws a rapier. Abran jumps in the boat and kicks one right into the water. He points his sword at the other one, and then Pujol levitates the second attacker who Abran just threatened into the air.

Levitating Guy pulls the magic stone out of his pocket and activates it. It summons a very large water elemental.

Gooseneck dives into the water to catch the one Abran kicked off the boat. Fathom calls forth a gust of wind, which shoves both the elemental and the levitating guy back away from the boat. CornCob casts a bolt at the elemental, and seems to hit it pretty well. From what we can tell anyway, given that the thing is…well…water.

Abran gets out of the boat, takes out his bow, and shoots at the elemental. Pujol moves the levitating guy into the body of the elemental. The elemental comes back to the boat and attacks CornCob, pulling him into the water. Gooseneck comes back to try to get CornCob out of the water and back into the boat.Fathom, CornCob, and Pujol all cast spells at the elemental, and between them manage to make it dissipate. Abran goes to the next down over to fish the swimming guy out of the water. CornCob walks out on the water to get the levitating guy, who has since fallen in. CornCob takes the elemental summoning stone from him.

We question them. They do not want to name who hired them, but when Jin mentions the name ‘Seth’, that gets a reaction. We ask Jin about Seth – he’s a guy who makes his business by stealing other people’s business.

After Jin notes that these two would not be missed if they were to disappear, they become more cooperative. One of them admits that it was Seth who hired them. They’d have met him at the Mud Crab to get paid when the complaint against Seth is rescinded.

We turn these two in in the morning to get paid for the contract.

Kay's Journal - 6/11/2021 - Reaper Errant

Kay’s Journal, 6/11

Leaving the ruins of the old city, we follow the dagger to figure out where we’re supposed to drop off the Mushroom Queen’s bauble. Still travelling, we stop for the night. On 3^rd watch, the watchers head voices in the distance, speaking common. As far as they can tell, it sounds like average-sized humanoids. The voices are coming from the ruined town, or possibly the mountains past it. So, they are travelling the same direction we are. Pujol thinks it sounds like they’re having a normal conversation. We armor up anyway. We see two robed figures coming down the road. They seem oblivious to us and our camp.

Fathom checks the dagger to see if these people are approaching are who we need to talk to (they aren’t). I hide behind a tree, Pujol sits by the fire and plays his shiny new harp, CornCob hangs out with him, Abran holds his bow, and Gooseneck sharpens his axe.

The two speakers approach us cautiously, and join by the fire when Pujol invites them. They tell him they are travelling to town to attend a sermon, and are super enthused about it. At least, one of the men is. He’s very talkative. The other is pretty quiet. CornCob has heard the name of the speaker they are going to see, but hasn’t heard much specifically about him. CornCob doesn’t think they speech should be as interesting as these guys seem to think it will be.

The men came from the mountains, and expect to winter in the city.

CornCob thinks they are church folk – wandering scholarly monks. That would explain why they’re so very excited about a religious lecture.

Pujol comments that it’s unusual for them to travel in the dark, and they say they are trying to make the whole trip without sleeping. Because they are idiots.

Pujol and CornCon invite them to sit down and have some breakfast. Gooseneck notices that the quiet one is giving the talkative one a stern look, and then he guilts the talkative one into continuing to stand.

More importantly, they reveal that their order also brews beer, and offer to share a bit of their beverage.

I notice that one of them has a symbol branded/tattooed on his arm. I’ve heard of the symbol; it is the mark of an organization called The Fall. The Fall has some monks, yes, but also some assassins. They are an extreme, fanatical organization, and very secretive.

Gooseneck asks how long they’ve been in the order. The young one says 5 years, they older one, his whole life. CornCob asks how much it costs to attend the lecture, and they say that it’s free to all at the temple of Apara. They say we should totally go. CornCob asks if there’s food (they don’t know) and how long it is (multiple talks over two days).

Pujol offers to travel with them. Out of their earshot, I tell the others about the guy being a member of The Fall, and what I know about what that is. Gooseneck knows that they Fall embraces a nihilistic, only the strong survive mentality, and think a world-ending catastrophe is coming. Fathom has heard they are not aligned with any deity, but embrace an ideology that focuses on personal strength. Also, that they dabble in necromancy. She thinks it’s odd that they’d be going to a religious talk.

We are outside the town of Ven, but there is a waystop between here and there.

Pujol manages to enthrall them with his music. They ask why we are going to Ven, and we say we are on a mission and looking for adventure. Brother Yaris is the older monk, and Brother Marthis is the younger. Pujol asks about the tattoo, and Marthis hides it quickly and says it’s from an older life. Pujol says we all have shames in our past, but Marthis doesn’t like that at all. CornCob asks if it hurt to get the mark, and Marthis says yes, but doesn’t quite seem to know how to answer the question.

Pujol continues to ask about body marks and such, and asks how Marthis got it. He says he was orphaned and an organization picked him up, schooled him, realized he had a talent for magic, and recruited him to be an acolyte. They taught him how the end of the world was coming, and to be strong and self-reliant. He read their book, but needed to attain a certain rank to get access to the higher mysteries. CornCon asks what kind of magic, and Yaris says they do ‘large’ magics, no mere hedge mage stuff. Fathom asks if the lectures they are going to are about the end of the world. It’s not, but they think Melifithus will touch on it some.

Marthis says the organization that took him is was the Redwood foundation. The Redwood Foundation apprentices out its foundlings to various organizations, including the Fall. CornCob asks how old the order is, and it’s over a millennium.

The Redwood Foundation is well knows, and has representation in many towns. They take in orphaned kids, feed, clothe, and educate them. It’s a legit organization. They do seem to have a militant side – they run some of their places like military academies. They do have a small (not that small) standing militia. The militia occasionally acts as mercenaries to raise money; other times, it serves as ‘special’ protection for towns. In those cases, it is often true that the town leaders were raised by the Foundation.

The paranoid might think that the Redwood Foundation is planting the kids it has raised/indoctrinated in places that help it gain control of areas and organizations. It seems like they might also be involved with the Fall.

Pujol asks Yaris is he has any body markings – Yaris says he also has the tattoo, and was also a Redwood orphan.

Fathom checks the dagger, and it is still pointing generally in the direction of town, but maybe off a bit from there. So, maybe just outside the town? It seems to be pointing at an inn – The Rowdy Peach. She also casts a detect magic, and sees that Yaris has a magic ring and a bag of holding on his belt.

Pujol asks the monks where they will be staying, and they are going to check in with the local Redwood branch and probably stay there.

We head down the road to the Rowdy Peach, where a brawl is underway. A woman inside shouts for them to stop, and they do. The dagger points into the tavern.

CornCob checks on the guy who was thrown out the window in the brawl. He says it was Mabel who stopped the fight, she runs this place. There are rowdy dwarves in there that are causing a ruckus.

We head in. This is a tavern, not an inn, so there are no rooms to rent, just food and drink. There’s a short woman behind the bar, and three well-armed dwarves near the door. CornCob and Gooseneck keep the dwarves busy while Fathom looks for her contact. She spots a likely candidate right away – he doesn’t really look like he gets the idea of ‘blending in’. The people around him avoid him. Fathom and Abran go to talk to him, while Pujol goes to the bartender to ask about doing the bard thing here.

Hood Guy is indeed the contact. Fathom gives him the orb; he has no messages or further instructions from the Mushroom Queen. Fathom asks him about the Fall and the Redwood Foundation. He’s intrigued, and asks her why she cares. He says the Fall is an occult necromantic organization. They believe the end times are coming and they are equipped to handle it because they have been preparing for so long.

CornCob and Gooseneck talk to the dwarves, and find out that the brawl was over land rights. The farmer who got thrown out the window wants to farm land that the dwarves are mining. They mention that as far as inns in Ven go, the Mud Worm is pretty good, as is the Gilded Blade.

Pujol asks Mabel to recommend a jeweler – he wants to get the gem that the dragon gave him set into a necklace. She recommends the Tiny Pearl or Johnson’s Jewelry.

We spend 3 silver on beer, and head on to the (very, very lawful) city of Ven.

 

 

Kay's Journal - 5/28 - Reaper Errant

• 1800 XP
• 100-ish platinum coins
• Magic flask (Fathom)

So there we were, standing in front of this blue dragon that had just erupted out from the ground in front of us. Yikes! Things could get real bloody real fast. Before anyone else could do anything, Fathom ran up to where Abran and I were. She curtseyed to the dragon and offered it greetings. It looked…puzzled. Then Gooseneck followed her lead, running up, bowing to it, and speaking to it in Draconic. It stands up out of the rubble, and I see a large wound on its side that’s in the process of healing. It answers Gooseneck in Draconic, and seems to have relaxed a bit. Pujol and CornCob join us, being careful to be non-threatening. Though, I’m honestly not sure what a dragon would find threatening about us. Pujol stands to the side, hopefully out of the breathing area should the dragon decide he doesn’t like us. 

CornCob offers to heal the dragon’s wound. The dragon and Gooseneck talk some more, and Gooseneck says it’s OK for CornCob to approach, the dragon has said it won’t bite. CornCob approaches to get a better look at the wound, and asks the dragon what happened. The dragon says it got into a fight, but is vague on the details. CornCob thinks the wound is mostly healed, but it has healed messy, and the scarring might limit the dragon’s mobility some. He casts healing, and the magic cleans up the scarring some. The dragon says it helps.

The dragon is apparently looking for warmer lands to stay. He asks why we are in the ruins. CornCob says we are adventurers, and Gooseneck mentions the cow. The dragon admits he ate the cow (well, half). Fathom asks the dragon if he plans to stick around or move on, and the dragon asks why he should move on. Fathom answers that the local townsfolk might have…concerns. The dragon says that he stopped here to look for an item that he thinks is under the town. CornCob offers our help, and the dragon says there’s a door he can’t get through to get into the tunnels below the ruins. If we help him, he would want the item he’s looking for and any gems we find, but we could keep anything else. He pulls a rod out from under one of his scales, and shows where there’s an egg-shaped gem missing from the end. CornCob doesn’t think the dragon is being deceitful, but he does think maybe the dragon isn’t telling us everything. He definitely wanted us to do this for him, which seems a little odd.

Pujol thinks this kind of dragon usually lives in a desert and likes to feel superior. Fathom thinks it can summon lightning and see in total darkness. She also thinks it hasn’t been here long – the ambient magic that would collect around it isn’t here.

Fathom thinks the rod is a stellar map, and the onyx might show interesting pathways through the map.

The dragon reveals a door leading down into the ruins that he has uncovered. CornCob asks the dragon to describe the onyx in more detail; it’s cut into the shape of an 8-point star. The dragon says he hasn’t seen the gem, but a sorcerer told him about it.

The door is locked and magically trapped. It’s also a very large lock, which will make it difficult to pick. We ask the dragon if there’s anything he can do about the trap, and he breathes lightning at it. It heats up, there’s an explosion around it, and voila! The trap is gone. CornCob tries to break the lock with his masonry tools, no dice. Abran tries to pick it and gets it, but breaks his picks in the process. It’s clear that the lock was designed to be locked from the outside, not the inside. That’s not a great sign.

We head down the steps into the tunnels. It’s dark, so I move to the back of the group with my lantern. Abran casts a spell to let me see in the dark. Yay! Gooseneck still can’t see in the dark, so he carries my lantern. At the bottom of the stairs, we see a door to our left and a door in front of us where the hallway turns to the right.

We go to the door on the left. It’s a wooden door with metal hinges, not as heavy-duty as the door into the tunnels. We don’t see many footprints in the dust on the floor. There are some alcoves in the ceiling above us. The door at the end of the hallway looks like it has started to rot, but the door to the left has not. I hear something like a faint thump behind the left door. 

Corncob takes a closer look at the door ahead of us. He looks through the hold in the bottom. The metal band has rusted away, and the wood on the bottom has been chewed or rotted away from where the band was.

Abran listens at the left door, but doesn’t hear anything. He checks for traps on the door, and doesn’t find any. The door opens towards us, so we back away from it and Pujol uses his Mage Hand spell to open it. I see a glistening sheen behind the door, moving toward us. I shout to close the door, and Pujol does. CornCob spikes the door shut, which will hopefully slow the jelly down and give us time to prepare. We pour out some extra flammable oil on the floor in front of the door and back up down the hallway. Pujol suggests leading the cube outside for the dragon to deal with, but we decide that’s probably not a great idea. CornCob and Gooseneck stand ready to throw torches at the oil. 

It bursts through the door seconds later. We all shoot at it, except for CornCob and Goose neck who use their torches. Once it’s on fire, Fathom makes the flames surge up. It’s not long at all before the thing collapses into a pile of goo. 

Disappointingly, it left nothing behind but bits of dead rodents. Even the room it was in was empty. 

Pujol moves up to the corner and peeks ahead. There’s another door around a couple of turns in the hallway. 

We investigate the room at the end of the hallway. There are acid stains on the floor around the door and down the hallway. The room itself is very small, with a grate in the ceiling. Looks like it might have been a ventilation shaft or something.

We move down the hallway to the next door. It’s locked, so I unlock it and we go in and look around. Mostly it’s just broken junk in there, but CornCob knocks over a jug and 5 onyx carved into the shape of 8 pointed stars. They might be able to fit into the rod. Fathom detects magic, and they are not magical. She checks the rest of the junk in here, and see a glow at the bottom of a barrel. She finds a flask in there, and grabs it.

We head to the next door, and it’s fancy. It’s got a copper face with a spot for a key in the front. The door itself isn’t magical, but Fathom sees a glow from the floor in the next room. She thinks a run has been cast on the floor in there.

The key hole has slots in the shape of the onyxes. We do our best to match the subtle differences in the shapes of the stones to the slots, then Pujol uses his mage hand to place them. Strangely, nobody wants to stick their hand in the door’s mouth. We have to tweak it a little bit from our initial layout, but the door unlocks, and Pujol has his Mage Hand open it. 

Looking into the next room, we see carved panels with humanoid figures. Pujol, Abran, and Gooseneck jump over the rune to get into the room. The stone figures are…large. Abran takes a closer look at the figures. They’re stone, and they’re big. Fathom doesn’t see another rune on the door on the other side of the room, but does see runes on the figures. 

Abran checks the other door, and it isn’t locked, so he opens it. It goes into a small hallway that opens in to a large room. There’s a pedestal in the center of the large room. On the pedestal is a golden claw holding up an egg-sized, 8-pointed onyx. 

Fathom looks around for magic, and sees that the pedestal is in the middle of a rune. It’s the same rune as what’s on the floor in the statue room. Also, the onyx itself is magical. Pujol goes back and spikes the mouth door open.

Pujol investigates the pedestal, thinks the claw is mechanical and will drop into the pedestal if disturbed.

Everyone but Pujol and Gooseneck goes back through the guardian room, outside the mouth door. CornCob casts blessing on them, and Fathom casts Protection. Pujol makes the two of them invisible. Pujol has his mage hand hold the claw, while his Unseen Servant grabs the onyx. The unseen servant gives the onyx to Gooseneck, and then we run for it.

The unseen servant does trigger the trap. The claw tries to retract, but the mage hand delays it just long enough. The mouth door starts to close, but Abran and CornCob hold it open while Gooseneck runs, carrying Pujol and the gem. Both stone guardians have activated, but we just run away. We book it out of the tunnels, and then close the door behind us. 

The dragon shows up, and has no trouble seeing the currently invisible members of the party. Gooseneck offers the dragon the onyx. He seems pleased, and says that he’s going to move on now, but will contact us later if he wants anything else. He gives a small stone to Pujol, and tells him he can use it to contact the dragon. The dragon asks about any other treasure in the tunnels, and we tell him about the gems that opened the door, but that we had to leave them and there was nothing else. He gives Pujol a bag full of coins and flies off.