Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.
You can find the previous episode here.
26th of Waning Summer - 4th of Waxing Fall, 1AL
Though Patrick died, Extang was able to revive him thanks to a deal he made with the Negotiator. Everyone is very happy that Patrick is alive and relatively well, but it's the middle of the night, so they go back to sleep without asking Extang how he performed this miracle - much to Extang's relief.
In the morning, Quib gives Fiaeorri a magical ring he acquired from Zotzillaha's corpse which will allow her to speak with animals periodically - she immediately puts it to use with Ruby, her giant fire beetle. Logan and Extang decide they're going back into the depths of the temple to retrieve Zotzillaha's axe - Patrick and Fiaeorri think they're crazy, but Logan wants the axe for himself, and Extang wants to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Most of the group waits above with the freed prisoners while they delve in. They wait as the hours tick by. Almost four hours later, the delvers emerge, axe in hand. Everyone agrees to wait another day before heading home - Patrick, in particular, could use the rest.
During their resting, Logan learns what he can about the axe, and is impressed with what it is capable of. He tells the others, but Patrick warns him not to form the magical bond needed to use the axe until someone magically identifies it. He's worried that such a magical item may be cursed. Logan agrees to wait.
As they set out for home the next day, Saifon, the half-elven cartographer speaks up, pointing out that they're taking the long route by going straight through the jungle to the settlement. He explains that when the vampire captured him, he was brought along the beach for most of the way before pressing into the dense jungle. The 3rd Watch decide to follow his advice, cutting their journey almost in half. En route, T'Zaric talks to Dilmi, his halfling jewelry teacher, and gets her to agree to work with him on a necklace he's designing to store the liquid light he has a vial of.
On the night that they arrive home, Patrick returns home to Saul and throws his arms around his guardian, then tells him about how he died and was brought back to life. Saul is glad that Patrick is alive, but more concerned about how he was brought back than that he died - which Patrick questions him about, and he reveals the he'd also died on occasion while out adventuring with Patrick's parents.
Fiaeorri goes to report the death of the foul, undead vampire to Gregor, the head of the cult she was brought up in. Gregor congratulates her and accepts the treasure she gives him as a contribution to rebuilding their order. Then he notices the necklace she is wearing - the one like she was holding onto for him, and that she found a duplicate of. He asks to see it, and looks at it for a moment before commenting that it's slightly different, and attaching it to his necklace. He says it looks like it's designed to have one more, and lets it drop to his chest. Fiaeorri is a little disappointed that her necklace wasn't returned to her, but she rallies and says she'll seek out the third piece.
Logan takes his axe to Feryon for identification, and doesn't learn anything new about it - so he takes it home and attunes to it.
Extang gathers together everyone except Patrick (who is home with Saul) and brings up how some of them have been taking treasure for themselves, rather than splitting it with the group. He suggests all of them pooling their resources into the bag of holding, from which they can all draw funds as needed for their various enterprises and expenses. He gets reluctant agreement, and some new treasures and money are added to the bag of holding - though some secretly hold some back.
Much happens over the next few days. Quib begins working on a song relating the tale of their battle with Zotzillaha. Fiaeorri starts putting up posters for her necklace. Patrick and Logan visit Gorbosh the blacksmith to make some commissions - Patrick, a rapier with Epesta's symbol on it, and Logan to get work started on a suit of full plate. Patrick then goes searching for a diamond that is valuable enough to use in a spell to bring people back from the dead - in case of another fatality in the group. Meanwhile, a string of people go looking for him at Saul's house.
T'Zaric, having had encounters with Saul's paranoia before, decides to play a trick on the old man. Just after the door has closed from Extang asking after Patrick, he uses a spell to turn himself into a clone of Saul, and dimension-doors into the house behind him. This leads to a bickering argument with him imitating Saul, until Saul punches him - hard - and Extang, hearing the commotion, teleports into the house. He has trouble telling which Saul is real - one is beating up the other, while the other is calling his accouter a fraud, but then T'Zaric teleports out and up into the sky, where he resumes his own appearance and begins flying around.
Saul tells Extang that the impostor was a Somvidian spy, here to kill Patrick, and Extang rushes outside, polymorphing himself into a giant eagle and taking to the skies to look around. He sees no sign of the fake Saul, but he does see his friend T'Zaric flying around. He heads over to recruit him to help, forgetting that he can't speak while in this form. T'Zaric sees a giant eagle bearing down on him and begins casting spells at it. Extant attempts to mime his identity to T'Zaric, conveying, at least, that he isn't a normal bird, since no real bird would act like that.
The display is seen by others of the group on the ground. Quib, seeing a fellow bird in danger, borrows Fiaeorri's ring, teleports himself up onto the eagle's back, casts speak with animals, and is surprised to find the bird he is talking to is Extang - information he conveys to T'Zaric. Eventually they rally together and meet on the ground - with Extang spreading the word about the potential spy.
Fiaeorri heads home, as does T'Zaric - but T'Zaric gets approached en route by someone who's heard his rumor that he's the person who will get things done - anything - for a price. It is a familiar dragonborn lady, with a small child in tow, who tells him that she believes there's a secret cult who has her missing husband - a blue dragonborn - held hostage. She says they approached her in the night and threatened her unhatched child. T'Zaric promises to let her know if he discovers anything about her husband or this cult, then goes home. Finding Fiaeorri there, he tells her of the crazy dragonborn lady who is still searching for her dead husband, and has a laugh with her about how someone could think there was a cult in this tiny town. However, something about Fiaeorri's responses - and her request that he keep her informed if he does find out anything about a cult - strike him as a bit off. He decides that, unlikely as it is, he should still keep his eyes open for any unusual activity.
Patrick, Extang, Quib, and Logan all end up at Saul's house, having tea, with Extang communicating his treasure plan to Patrick. However, the conversation turns to Patrick's death, and how Extang managed to resurrect him. Extang refuses to say anything beyond that it was magic, and teleports away when they continue to pressure him for more information. He heads to Wyatt's Tavern and waits until closing time so he can talk to Stor as the goblin closes up the Explorers' Guild. He tells Stor about what happened, and his very uncertain deal with the Negotiator, revealing how concerned he is about it - and that he doesn't want to tell the rest of the 3rd Watch about it. Stor understands, and tells Extang that he's been making some very reckless decisions. He also points out that a deal Akta made with the Negotiator has resulted in her and Kordak having been gone for over a year - and that Kordak wasn't even part of the deal. It's possible that the deal he made may draw in the rest of the group as well, so it may be a good idea to warn them first. Nodding, but still undecided, Extang goes home.
T'Zaric also has a mission that evening. Knowing that Patrick is wanting a valuable diamond for a spell, he asks around and finds that Naldor has acquired one. He wakes up the grumpy shopkeeper and buys it with money he neglected to add to the party treasury. He manages to deflect at least some of the suspicion over why he has money - when all his profits are supposed to be going to Port Noble as part of his punishment for murdering Balasar - by saying he's on an errand for someone else. He then delivers the diamond to Patrick.
Time passes, with T'Zaric continuing his indentured learning of jewelry, Fiaeorri learning draconic, Quib learning to cook, Logan training Lykos, Patrick working as town healer, and Extang beginning work on making barrels - intending to start a trade caravan with the lizardfolk they met several months ago. On the 1st of Waxing Fall, they celebrate the Festival of Change.
On the night of the 3rd of Waxing Fall - so late that it's the early morning of the 4th, the 3rd Watch are awakened by the sound of screams and the ringing of the bell on the town hall. They all rush outside. Most of the group are staying in their Skull Hall home up on the hill, and they look out towards the beach where they can see a number of houses burning. Armed people are running in that direction, while others are fleeing it.
Patrick leaves Saul's house, and can only see the flow of running people, while T'Zaric steps out of his own home to find himself a handful of feet away from five spear and trident-wielding blue-green creatures with big black eyes and fins on their heads. He rises into the air, seeing the burning houses closer to the beach - some inside the second palisade wall surrounding Port Noble - and figures rushing between the buildings. He flies towards the hill, hoping to lure the blue-green creatures behind him until he can find and regroup with the rest of the 3rd Watch.
And that brings an end to this game session. Who is attacking Port Noble? Find out next week in Episode 56.
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