Lark's Landing, Episode 19

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.


15th of Waxing Summer, 0AL

The adventurers find themselves closed in a fairly small room with Grubfrub the bugbear, his four goblin bodyguards, a goblin shaman, and a bound and tied golden dragonborn from their settlement. While none of them have interacted with with this dragonborn, the green patter in his gold scales makes him memorable - he's also missing an eye, which has the group worried that he was tortured for information. Stor, in particular, is very upset that these goblins have hurt someone from his home again.

Kordak expresses that they weren't told not to go home before reporting, and that they did do some scouting before doing so. Grubfrub seems to accept this and asks for their report - to which they say there are a lot of hobgoblins in the city that are very strong - and that they don't think there are enough goblins to attack it. Grubfrub replies that that's why he sent them to find any weaknesses - and demands to know what those weaknesses are. When he gets a quick, detail-free reply that there are no weaknesses, his suspicion begins to show.

Grubfrub asks what colour the walls of the hobgoblin city are. Stor, assuming the bugbear has no way of knowing, quickly lies, giving the most obvious answer that the walls are grey. Grubfrub sees the lie for what it was and announces that he's seen the walls before - if from a distance - and, while they have some grey in them, they have other colours as well - most prominently, sections of white. Having had enough of his lies, he snaps his fingers - dropping a net from the ceiling onto most of the party. Kordak and Shend manage to dodge out of the way, but Stor and Akta get tangled in it.

Kordak rushes forward with his two-handed sword, quickly deciding that the shaman beside Grubfrub was a greater threat. He scores a vicious hit on the goblin, who responds by trying to use his magic to lock Kordak and Balasar in place. Then Grubfrub and two of his bodyguards start bashing and hacking at the heavily-armoured half-orc while the other two bodyguards take advantage of the net restraining Akta and Stor to attack them. Stor swings a couple blows at the goblin attacking him, but misses because of the net, to he aims his last blow at the ropes - breaking free.

Suddenly, the captive golden dragonborn bursts free of his bonds, pulls the gag from his mouth, and casts a spell causing Kordak to grow to twice his size - to everyone's astonishment. Balasar, with his back to one of the doors, chants a quick healing spell to help Kordak recover from the many hits he's already taken while swinging his warhammer at the bodyguard attacking the tangled Akta. He misses, and the goblin arrogantly spits at his feet.

Shend draws a short sword and attacks one of the goblins going after Kordak, but his swing is parried, so he drops the sword and backs away to the door, drawing his bow for his next attack. Not bothering to even get out from under the net - trusting Balasar to take care of the goblin attacking her - Akta casts a powerful spell, causing a shimmering crown to appear above his head, allowing her to exert her will over Grubfrub and forcing him to attack his own men.

The shaman dodges Kordak's next attack and casts a spell that begins to fill almost the entire room with a cloud of stinking gas, but that spell fades as Grubfrub, his own boss, brains him. One goblin continues to attack the giant Kordak, while the other that was attacking him runs over to the escaped prisoner and attacks him, recognising him as the source of Kordak's size.

While the rest continue fighting and whittling down the bodyguards (with Grubfrub's unwilling assistance), the new dragonborn vanishes - reappearing on the other side of the room yelling something about his belongings and swiping at a pouch on Grubfrub's belt. He missed, and while the others continued fighting, he confused them further by continuing to go for the pouch - only succeeding in hugging Grubfrub in the attempt.

Balasar and Shend feel some pressure on the doors at their back - as of someone trying to look in to see what's happening. Knowing how many goblins are outside, they keep pressure against the door. The pressure slowly grows until the doors open a little, revealing a crowd of curious goblins outside. The golden dragonborn looks up from trying to steal Grubfrub's pouch to cast a spell through the opening, putting several of the goblins to sleep and allowing the doors to swing closed again. Shend leaves the door in Balasar's care to join the fray. In the time it takes the goblins outside to wake up their friends, Grubfrub's bodyguards are finished off - just in time for Grubfrub to shake off Akta's spell.

The crown above the bugbear's head vanishes, and he lays about him with his morningstar - focusing his attention first on the golden dragonborn who has been harassing him, until the dragonborn, weak from his wounds, carefully steps away. Then Grubfrub's attention turns on those nearest him - Kordak and Stor, both already bearing heavy wounds from the rest of the fight.

No longer needing to spend all her attention on controlling Grubfrub, Akta bursts free of the net and joins Balasar at the door - the two of them desperately trying to find a way to wedge it closed. Across the room from them, Grubfrub brings down Stor, turning his full attention on Kordak as the half-orc shrinks back down to his normal size.

Shend rushes over, handing a healing potion off to Kordak and magically healing Stor, bringing the dying goblin back to consciousness and rescuing him from death's door. Everyone's attention turns to taking down Grubfrub - knowing that the bugbear's death is the only thing that might save them from the hoards of goblins outside. But Grubfrub is tough and hard to hit.

Then Akta darts away from the door and, popping up over Kordak's shoulder, sends a blast into the surprised bugbear's face. Grubfrub has only a moment to register his shock before tumbling to the ground. Kordak immediately removes his head, stomping over to the door and shouting to the goblins outside that Grubfrub is dead and that they should bring their leaders here.

The goblins outside gabble to each other in their own language, which Stor can understand. He reports to the others that the goblins don't entirely believe them, so they allow the doors to open enough for the goblins to look in and see Grubfrub's detached head. A couple of the gobilins immediately shout "Avenge Grubfrub!" and run up the stairs. One of the other goblins follow, but the others stay to fight - though only one is able to make a weak attack through the door.

Balasar, hoping to intimidate the others, grabs that goblin's arm and - with an amazing feat of strength - hauls him right into the room. This shakes the other goblins a little, but not as much as what happens next. The golden dragonborn, not paying attention to anything else, immediately goes for Grubfrub's pouch. Shend wanders over to see what he's up to and is shocked when the dragonborn pulls a gem out of the pouch, shines it up a little, and then pops it into his empty eye-socket.

"Oi! He just shoved a rock in his eye!" Shend calls to the others. From outside the door, they hear gasps of alarm from the goblins.

"Yes!" Akta shouts, seizing the opportunity presented to her. "If you keep fighting, you'll all get rocks in your eyes!"

"Bring us your leaders!" Kordak reiterates.

It is all too much for the goblins. They flee up the stairs, and everyone's attention is turned to the goblin Balasar dragged into the room. Amidst begging them not to kill him or stick rocks in his eye, the goblin tells them his name is Skapu and agrees to go fetch the goblins who were chieftains before Grubfrub had taken over. The adventurers release him, and he runs off up the stairs.

The group then takes to discussing how they're going to handle this situation. The golden dragonborn introduces himself as Extang and, in response to Stor's questioning, tells them that he was kidnapped by the goblins less than half a day outside of camp. This is distressing news to Stor because it means the goblins know where their settlement is - which could be dangerous. Kordak believes that the goblins will follow him as a new leader - or at least some of them will. The rest they can scatter - the important part is breaking up the tribe so it's less of a threat.

Akta asks Extang if she can see the pouch from Grubfrub and begins searching through for anything that might be on the list of items her patron requires. She finds an uncut bloodstone - which she takes with Extang's permission. She needs two that are spherical, but she believes she can get it made into the right shape.

After a while, they realise that no goblins seem to be coming back. Stor volunteers to sneak out. He very quietly heads up the stairs and discover that there are no goblins there. He goes and looks out the door and sees goblins running off in all directions, as well as a few groups that are fighting each other and a number of corpses scattered around. Right outside the door, Skapu is talking to Ilk - but as soon as he catches sight of Stor he says, "That's one of them!" and runs.

"Is it true? Is Grubfrub dead?" Ilk asks. Stor confirms this and tells Ilk he can work for them now - saying he can have all the food he wants, and there are no beatings. Ilk is impressed with this offer, and misunderstands it to mean he's being made a chieftain. Stor explains that in their society, everyone lives like chieftains - a concept Ilk likes, but has trouble understanding.

The two return downstairs and report to the others. Akta, drunk on power, immediately picks up a rock and says she's going up to scare off more goblins. Everyone else joins her. They come out of the building and start yelling at the remaining goblins, who forget their quarrels with each other and flee. As the silence descends, they hear a sound and look over to a collapsed and trampled tent that something is moving inside of. Stor, believing he recognises the brewing tent, goes over and finds the rough-looking goblin girl B'yeta crawling out of the tent. He explains that Grubfrub is dead and offers her the same deal he did with Ilk. She also thinks she's being made a chieftain at first, but accepts.

The group retreats inside to see what loot they found. Extang discovers that Grubfrub's pouch contains mostly pretty rocks, but it has a few gems as well. Balasar casts a spell to detect magic, revealing that Grubfrub's morningstar and the gem-studded leather headband he wore were magical, as well as of of Extang's gems. They take a short rest, healing their wounds a little and learning more about the magical items - determining that the headband makes the person wearing it very intelligent and the magical gem can emit light - sometimes bright enough to blind enemies.

Feeling a bit more rested, Balasar takes the magical morningstar and goes upstairs to the undamaged fresco wall at the top of the stairs that radiates magic. He swings the magical weapon at it, hoping that the weapon will be able to break through, but he can't seem to damage the stonework. Remembering something mentioned by Gilligan, he finds the hairline crack running down the center of the fresco, hidden in the buildings of the city depicted there. Suspecting that this may be a door, he heads down the stairs, confirming that the consistent ceiling level presents an opportunity for a hidden room.

Akta wanders over to the statue on the lower level. It has been defaced once again, with the goblins trying to make it look like Grubfrub. She reads the draconic runes aloud: "The Great Rhovar, First Emperor of Drovinaar. He forged this Empire with his breath."

As soon as he hears this, Balasar's eyes fly open. He sprints up the stairs, wondering what type of element Rhovar could breath. Not having any other option, he opens his mouth and spews lightning onto the fresco. The image seems to absorb his power, then, with a popping-crack, it splits down the middle and swings inwards, revealing the secret room. At the back of the room is a pedestal, on which sits a silver anvil. On the floor, there are two skeletons - one kneeling before the pedastal with an undamaged warhammer across its knees, and the other slumped against a wall with a longsword at its side.

Everyone gathers around, curious to see this new discovery, but Balasar holds them back - insisting that they proceed with caution. Searching for traps, he carefully enters and bends down to examine the kneeling skeleton. As he does so, he brushes against it and in instantly crumbles to dust. He then casts his detect magic spell again, revealing that both weapons and the anvil are magical. There don't appear to be any traps anywhere.

Stor recalls that the anvil is a holy symbol of Mirinrie, the goddess of crafting and tradition. Kordak decides to find out if he can lift the anvil. As soon as he touches it, a sense of calm and peace washes over him - but it's also accompanied by a deep sense of regret for all the things he'd done in his life that weren't, strictly speaking, good - such as throwing sailors overboard; things that, as soon as he took his hand away from the anvil, he knew that he didn't always regret normally.

He could lift it on his own, however it's very heavy and it will slow him down a lot if he carries it on his own. He mentions this, and Balasar offers to help. As soon as he touches it, he feels the same sense of peace - but also a nagging feeling that his life should be more orderly and would be far better if it was. He and Kordak lower the anvil back to the pedestal and talk about their experiences from being in contact with it. Balasar says he thinks it means that his life before he lost his memory was far more orderly than it is now.


And that's where this game session came to an end, with Balasar and Kordak discussing this strange item and what it makes them feel. Find out more next week in Episode 20.