Here is the campaign log from the third session of our Quail Valley campaign. I ended up writing this one (for reasons that will become clear later) and so I’m not going to write from any particular characters’ perspective. More of just a blow by blow of the important events. I suppose I’ll still keep my GM comments in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.
The party had decided, after Mook and Rithor recovered from their paralysis, to head back to The Troll’s Tongue as the creature could not be allowed to remain…particularly during Storm Season. Other travelers would have to stay at the inn to shelter from the storms and might fall prey to the ooze thing.
Upon arriving back at The Tongue, both the horse and Flash were reluctant to enter the walls again…actually resisting their leads. Isabel soothed both of the obviously fearful animals and coaxed them into the stable, though both were clearly not happy about it.
[Although the players were concerned that the animals might have sensed some new threat, that was not the case. The ooze had visited the stable the prior night and spooked Flash and the horse. The poor horse had actually been visited before the party had arrived the prior night. So both animals simply knew that this was not a safe place.]
After the party stabled their companions and were heading to the inn itself, they heard a horse whinny from outside the wall. Jak, the merchant they had met in Horvát two nights prior, and his guards were approaching with horses and a wagon. When the party filled them in on the deaths of the Ferenc and his family, they grew quite concerned as well as cautious towards the party. Once it was explained that some creature was responsible, they seemed to be a bit more at ease with the party.
Once in the inn itself, the party set about trying to kill the ooze. They hit upon the idea of having Mook, walking alone in the deceased innkeep’s bedroom, serve as bait with Rithor just in the doorway and ready to cast [em]burning hands[/em] when the creature appeared. A sound plan except two other members of the party were also waiting just outside of the room.
[Interestingly enough, we had, just a few minutes prior, discussed how the ooze probably didn’t perceive things in the same way as humans. Todd even mentioned something about tremorsense which, of course, is basically how the creature did sense things. So while the players seemed to think of Mook as being alone in the room since walls play a role in their perception of things, this was not the case for the creature. Because of this it did not attack.]
After being unsuccessful at their first plan of attack, Mook hit upon a “brilliant” idea.
[I say brilliant because I thought Todd’s soon to be described idea to be brilliant but Mook isn’t all that bright (an INT of 8) but this certainly wasn’t something that would be beyond Mook’s ability to come up with. As a fighter, he should be “smarter” at tactical stuff than say politics or economics or whatever.]
Mook decided that the creature might sense everyone else being close to him. To bypass this, he decided that he’d walk into the room alone with no one else walking or standing in the nearby rooms. However, Mook would not be going alone! He was going to carry Rithor over his shoulder so, when the creature attacked from behind, the wizard could cast his spell at it. This worked a couple of times before Mook was paralyzed by the creature’s attack. Also, Rithor had exhausted his spells. So, Aram picked up Isabel and they attempted a similar tactic…with Isabel carrying a torch to smack the creature. A couple of whacks with the torch and the creature ceased moving. Aram scooped it up with his shield and they burned it in the fireplace.
[As is often the case, players get an idea in their head and even though there is no evidence to support it, they continue to hold to the idea. In this case, they were convinced that fire would do extra damage to the creature since its attack felt icy. I think this is one reason why Isabel was attacking with a torch instead of her sword. It wasn’t the case though.]
With the creature dead, everyone rested much more easily that night.
Oh, at some point, Jak “trimmed” the tongue hanging above the mantel and took what remained. Rithor raised some objections to this…citing a concern that a full troll could grow from the tongue…but Jak held firm. It would be unfortunate if the inn lost its namesake after having lost its family.
Jak also explained that he had decided to head back to Méhkas to find out what had happened to Valter and get the honey he had wanted to take back to Bard’s Gate for trade. With the party having demonstrated its competence with killing the ooze creature, he asked if they would be willing to assist him with the mystery of Valter’s death and barn as well. Since Rithor had “hired” everyone, they turned to him to make the decision. Since his “quest” was not pressing and he has confidence that no one can enter Zakarias’ tower without the ring he holds, Rithor agreed. Jak offered either 100gp up front or 10% of his profit from selling the honey. The latter would, of course, not be available until after he returned from taking the honey to Bard’s Gate. The party selected the 10% option.
The next day the whole group traveled to Fairhill (Méhkas is another day’s travel beyond Fairhill). Upon arriving, Jak immediately asked a villager where Lannet the halfling was staying. Jak picked the Drunken Cockatrice as the inn for the group since Lannet was staying elsewhere (it is pretty clear that Jak really does not care for Lannet).
After getting rooms and having a meal at the Cockatrice, Jak and half of the party head over to the home of Fairhill’s mayor, Arlen, to inform him of the situation at The Troll’s Tongue and the fate of Ferenc and his family. Arlen was appreciative of the party’s efforts in dispatching the creature and offered to pay for the party’s room and board for the night as thanks. He also informed everyone that he would send some folks to The Tongue to clean it up and keep it running. Jak gave Arlen the tongue and gave the party props…he and his guards would likely have been killed by the ooze if not for the adventurers.
Arlen and Jak discussed the issue of the ruined Storm Tower between Presov and Borsad as well. Both are quite concerned about it and worry that it might be a prelude to a larger offensive by the gnolls in the valley. Rithor asked about the bandits around Fairhill and Arlen explained that they had not been that much of a problem…at least not yet. These bandits are a ragtag bunch of various humanoid types that had had little success to date. Rithor also asked about Zakarias’ Tower and learned much of the same information they had learned previously…that it was in the woods and not too far from Fairhill and that it was the home of a vampire.
[I think some of Franklin’s motivation for asking about the bandits near Fairhill was related to the fact that he had run The Crucible of Freya before. As written, the bandits are an early key event in the module. However, as I’ve noted previously, I’m making some fairly significant changes to the module. Plus, combining it with a lot of other things.]
While half of the party was enjoying the hospitality of Arlen, the other half headed for the Cask & Flagon Inn. For some reason, Finch had inquired where Lannet was staying and decided to go there.Mook and Eoin followed their little thief; they were not, however, very sneaky about it. Finch took a seat at the bar and the other two did likewise, though at the opposite end and showed no sign that they knew the little fellow.
Shortly after arriving, Lannet did come over and engaged Mook in conversation. This other halfling offered whatever assistance a newcomer to Fairhill might need in exchange for a meal and a roof over his head (i.e., pay for his room). Over a nice meal and a few drinks, they chatted about the Birds of Prey and Eoin joined in on the conversation. They learned the following:
- The Birds of Prey was made up of Zildjun (an arrogant s.o.b. of a wizard), Roland (a priest), Kilkar (a scout type), Lance (a holy warrior), and, of course, Myongo.
- Zildjun had bragged a lot about knowing that the Vault of Larin’Karr required three keys to open it and that he knew what the keys were.
- Larin’Karr was a drow elf…a renegade wizard of some sort.
- Myongo had a greatsword with a rather large pearl as the pommel…Eoin asked about this.
At some point during the above conversation, Finch left the bar. When he did, Lannet cautioned Mook and Eoin about the halfling. He was concerned that this newcomer halfling might have been “casing” the pair. Taking Lannet’s warning to heart [at least I hope they did], the pair headed back to the Drunken Cockatrice.
Once everyone gathered at the DC, Rithor had them all come up to his room for more information about their “quest.” He explained that he and his mentor had been visiting a wizard in Bard’s Gate by the name of Manas the Mad. While there, Rithor stumbled upon a secret compartment in an old podium in Manas’ library. Within the compartment was a pouch with a ring and a letter.
The letter was to Manas and from a fellow wizard by the name of, you guessed it, Zakarias. It claimed that Zakarias had learned the secret of lichdom from a demon lord, Orcus, and that he would soon be completing the ritual. It also explained that the enclosed ring would grant the bearer access to his tower so that Manas could come and visit and discuss the theory and practice of lichdom.
Rithor also explained that he was pretty sure that the familiar of Balthasar, Manas’ apprentice, had seen him take the pouch from the compartment. The familiar is a raven named Talon. It was Talon, he claimed, that had been in his room back in Bard’s Gate when he first hired the party. Rithor argued that there was no way that Zakarias could have succeeded in becoming a lich. According to Manas, whom Rithor slyly questioned, Zakarias simply was not accomplished enough to complete such a task. This meant that either: a) Zakarias was dead and the treasures of his tower just waiting for them; or, b) he had succeeded and someone would have to deal with the evil being. Regardless, there was no rush as only the ring would grant entry to the tower.
The next morning, the party set off for Méhkas and had an uneventful trip. Upon arriving in the village, Jak took them straight to the home of the village’s priest, Bernat. The merchant filled Bernat in on all of the tragedies of the day (i.e., Ferenc and his family). They then got down to the issue of Valter and his barn. Bernat explained that loud thumps and buzzing is consistently heard coming from Valter’s barn. He also explained that it was true that a young girl, Amelia, had been killed by giant bees in the northern fields. He indicated that this was a pretty strange event as giant bees are typically peaceful unless provoked; Amelia, like all the residents of Méhkas, know not to provoke the bees.
At this point, Finch chimes in about the mushrooms and strange spores on the bees that the party had encountered days before. At the mention of the spores, Bernat became quite concerned that some of the spores may have gotten on Finch and would slowly turn him into a psychotic killer. In particular, the priest was concerned that the spores were white. The halfling, of course, lied about the spores and claimed that they were black and he had washed them off immediately. Bernat said that was a relief but if they had, he would have offered to heal the halfling.
[Todd, as is often the case, provided great fodder and, as a GM, I felt impelled to mention the possibility of curing the fungus before it was too late. Rithor pressed Bernat to cast a spell just to be safe…as Franklin knew quite well that spores had gotten on Finch. Bernat refused…there was no point wasting his god’s blessings. It clearly was an example of bad meta-gaming and would have prevented a fun scene soon to come.]
The party settled down for the evening in Bernat’s barn, something that Jak seemed quite accustomed to doing. In the middle of the night, Finch woke up screaming, waking everyone in the barn. He admitted that he had lied about the spores earlier and that they were the white spores. He, apparently, had had a nightmare about turning into a mushroom. In the morning, Finch filled Bernat in on his earlier lie.
[Todd has a particular ability to play the drama queen and did quite a nice job with Finch waking in terror. It was great fun.]
Bernat did heal the halfling and the two of them then took a short walk. It was explained to Finch that he owed Bernat his life and that the debt could be repaid in one of two ways: a) killing the evil ogress that resides in the Forradás; or, b) recovering the Crucible of Ehlonna from Shandril in Fairhill (who had taken it from Bernat). The rest of the party did not learn of this agreement until much later (in fact, not until the next session).
The party then headed to Valter’s barn and met with his widow, Heléna, and asked her a few questions about what had happened. She didn’t really have any additional information so they went to check out the barn while Bernat and Jak remained behind to offer Heléna support and comfort.
Examining the barn, the party heard loud buzzing and periodic thumps as though something was hitting the walls of the barn. They checked the roof and even cut a small hole in the barn wall. The roof sounded solid and rather unlike a typical barn roof, almost like something was supporting it from the inside. Honey seeped from the hole in the wall. They then opened the doors of the barn to give Aram a quick look inside. He saw that much of the interior was covered in giant honeycomb and honey was oozing from many of the cells onto the floor. A bloated body lay on the floor about thirty feet inside the doors and two giant bees aggressively charged forward but the doors were shut before they could reach Aram or escape…whichever may have been their purpose for flying forward.
[This is where we stopped the session.]
