Lark's Landing, Episode 29

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.


29th-35th of Waning Summer, 0AL

Extang, having fallen down the hill merely from stepping off the path, wisely returns to the path and climbs back up the hill to rejoin his friends. Meanwhile, Stor begins blowing his magical whistle, flying straight up into the shaft that appears to be their way out. Nearing the top, a giant spider bursts out from where it was concealed behind some webs and attacks him. He fights back, quickly dispatching it, then flies the rest of the way to the top and used his crowbar to open the top, revealing a room beyond.

He goes up, only taking the time to tie a rope around the stone well he just emerged from, then dropping back down to mime (so he can keep blowing the whistle to fly) the need for another rope as the other one was too short - Akta eventually understands and hands him one. He flies back up, ties the ropes together, and drops it down. Everyone else climbs the rope, emerging in the room above, which has two fountains - one dry, and one with some dark water and a large crayfish. On the far end of the room are some stairs heading up to a door, with dusty shelves on either side of the door.

Stor heads straight for the door, checking it for traps, while T'Zaric shows a great deal of interest in the dusty shelves - though he only finds dust, and his interest attracts others over. Extang examines the fountain, finding nothing of interest in the empty one, and discovering that the crayfish shape in the other is just an ancient husk of a crayfish. Being cautious, he pokes at the water with his ten-foot pole - and a creature made of water rises out of it, retaliating. It isn't very strong, and it is dispatched fairly easily. Extang then finds a platinum key in the water, hidden beneath the former crayfish.

With nothing else of interest around, they go up the stairs and into a room that has a mummified centaur between them and the door on the far side, its spear pointed at the far door. There is copper jewellery scattered everywhere - most of it being trampled beneath the hooves of the centaur - and two urns filled with river stones. Distrustful of the centaur, the group edges around the edge of the room - Stor ready to attack anything that jumps out at them, and Balasar waiting to call upon Epesta to turn away and destroy undead. T'Zaric very carefully puts his hands in his pockets, exerting all his willpower to not take any of the treasure. They reach the far door, surprised to find they haven't been attacked.

Stor examines the door and, finding no traps, opens it. That's when the mummified centaur begins to move. Seeing the movement, Balasar quickly calls a prayer to Epesta, asking her to clear away undead. The goddess comes through and the creature becomes frightened, fleeing into a corner. The group then corner it - except for T'Zaric, who take the opportunity to grab some treasure - and strike all at once, taking down the powerful creature before it can recover from the fear. T'Zaric and Extang then look around the room - ignoring the nearly worthless copper jewellery - and dig to the bottom of the urns of river stones, finding some valuable trinkets down there.

Stor takes the centaur's fancy spear, and is disappointed to find it isn't magical. Kordak and Balasar head for the door, finding that there is a big slab of jade on the other side. They give it a forceful shove and are surprised to find that it is weighted to fall outwards very easily. It thuds to the ground, and they are very happy that they were'n trying to get through this door from the other side.

The group presses forwards, into a narrow hall. They follow it around a corner and come across a small room with a corrugated floor, a metal hatch in the middle of the ceiling, and rusty, broken ladders climbing up in each of the corners. After a brief look, they follow the passage that continues out the other side. It winds around a little before bringing them to another small room - with stairs up in the opposite corner to the one they enter near. On the wall near them is a lever facing downwards above a crank wheel. They avoid it and head straight for the stairs, only to find that they lead to a blank wall. Some investigation reveals that the thick, heavy wall can be moved in some way - and their thoughts turn with dread to the lever and the crank.

Kordak decides to stay on the stairs, near the wall, while everyone else crowds at the base of the stairs - far from the lever and the crank. Akta steps forward and flips the lever up. Nothing happens. She pulls it down, and nothing continues to happen. She flips it several more times, just to be sure, then leaves it in the up position and backs away. T'Zaric then calls forth his mage hand and turns the crank. A pit opens up beneath the crank, but the wall blocking the stairs also rises up. Unfortunately, a portcullis also drops at the base of the stairs, blocking the way forward.

Kordak, separated from the rest of the group, steps up to the portcullis and lifts it up, allowing everyone else through. T'Zaric keeps his focus on holding the crank in place until everyone is past where the wall used to be, then releases it = and the wall comes crashing down.

They make their way to the top of the stairs and come to a stone door. After ensuring it's safe, they push it open - and are rewarded, at last, with a breath of fresh air. The door doesn't open all the way, but it is enough for them to squeeze out into what looks like a ruin located in a bowl-like depression in the jungle, illuminated by the light of a gibbous moon. They emerge from behind the wing of a carved giant bat creature on one wall of the ruin. In front of it is an alter carved to look like a mass of swarming rats, weasels, and worms, with a bat face on the front and metal bat wings extending to each side.

Akta, not entirely certain that this isn't some sort of elaborate illusion, sends Fluffy up into the air to see if they really have finally escaped that horrible ruin. Her psudodragon familiar reports back that they do seem to be outside. Wanting to find the young would-be adventurers they were sent out to find and get this over with so they can go home, Akta sends fluffy out to find the camp they believe to be nearby.

While Fluffy is away, T'Zaric takes a closer look at the alter, noticing a trapdoor on the ground around it, and also that it has handles on the front that would allow for it to be tipped up. However, he decides to leave it alone.

It takes Fluffy some time, but he returns with the location of the camp. They make their way over, briefly discussing the possibility of sneaking in, but deciding against it. Nevertheless, they do set off quite the alarm when they are spotted, until they are recognised as the 3rd Watch - a name the group chose for themselves because whenever something happened to them in the night, it always seemed to happen during the third watch.

The two groups meet, with most of the younger ones excited to meet their idols. Siha, their leader whose mother had sent the group out to retrieve her, does most of the talking, while in the background a 16-year-old tiefling named Yasi, enthusiastically tells the others who each of the adventurers is - omitting T'Zaric as someone she has no idea who he is, and expressing that she learned to fight by watching Stor train (at which Stor recognises her as the youngest daughter of the group's tiefling neighbours). Hearing that they have no idea who he is, T'Zaric goes and introduces himself to the chatting ones, and is delighted to find he is recognised by the human brothers, Breu and Wessu, even though they only remember him because he was sick for the entire journey on the Noble's Lark.

The excitement dies away as the younger group realises that the adventurers are here to take them home. They insist that with the economy coming back, they needed a way to help make money - plus they are trying to help the 3rd Watch, and they pull out one of Akta's missing person posters that she drew of Shend. Siha tells them that they've named their troupe the 4th Watch.

Eventually they agree to go home, if a bit sullenly, but their hopes are brought up again when Akta suggests the possibility of sometimes taking some of them out on adventures to train them. They set up watches and everyone gets to sleep for the rest of the night.

In the morning, as they're preparing to leave, they hear a thudding sound and feel a rumbling in the ground. Trees to one side of the clearing shake, then, with a roar, a t-rex - likely the one the adventurers have come across before - bursts out of the trees. It has a rope through its mouth and standing on its head, holding the ends of the rope, is the familiar dwarven figure of their friend Shend.

The t-rex crashes into a tree, dislodging the dwarf, who tumbles to the ground, rolling to his feet, ready to fight. Cries of joy at seeing Shend are mingled with cries of joys at the sight of this huge, fearsome foe. The adventurers quickly rush to their friend's rescue. Stor tries to bring it to the ground with a water whip, but the t-rex avoids most of the damage, only to have a fireball explode around its head from T'Zaric, as well as fire bolts from him and Extang while Extang circles towards Shend, casting a spell on himself to allow him to breathe fire.

Enraged by the fireball, the t-rex spins, smashing Shend with its tail as it charges over to bite T'Zaric - who quickly casts a shield spell that diverts the t-rex's jaws just enough to make it miss him. Akta begins casting her eldritch blasts at it, while Balasar calls upon the might of Epesta to bring forth storm clouds and summons a lightning strike right upon the oversized lizard. Kordak runs up and uses the power of the magical bracelet they found in the ruins to cast a spell, restraining the t-rex and starting it turning to stone. Siha, and Yasi charge in to attack. The others of their group back away - Breu, the group's cleric, hiding inside a large, hollow, fallen tree, and Tiaree, the halfling rogue, skulks off behind a tree. Wessu pulls out an instrument and plays a song, outlining the beast in magical fire that makes it a much easier target, and Gerfo the gnome casts a spell hurtling a rock at it.

Shend begins firing arrow after arrow into the t-rex. Seeing Yasi fighting with her fists, Stor leaves off his elemental attacks to join her and show her how its done. With magic blasting, and weapons flying, the battle doesn't seem to be going too badly, until the t-rex scoops up Siha in its jaws. The girl falls limp, unconscious, barely escaping death by a stroke of luck. Balasar quickly revives her with a spell, but she's still weak, injured, and trapped in the beast's mouth.

Seeing their friend almost killed, Gerfo and Wessu flee, the magical flames highlighting the t-rex vanishing as Wessu loses concentration. The battle begins in earnest, with spells needing to be directed more carefully to avoid hitting Siha. Eventually the half-orc girl manages to pull her way out of the beast's mouth and tumbles to the ground, barely alive. The t-rex continues fighting. It roars its rage at the sky, and Shend sees his opportunity. His arrow goes flying into the t-rex's mouth, up through its soft palette and into its brain.

The creature sways for a moment before toppling over - Akta gets out of the way in time, but it lands on top of Kordak and T'Zaric. Luckily they both survive with only minor injuries and they crawl their way out. A ragged cheer goes up, and the fled members of the 4th Watch return. Balasar and Breu see to everyone's wounds as best they can. Shend and Stor both take some hide from the t-rex, and everyone takes teeth as trophies. They even take a bit of t-rex meat.

Shend says it was good to see everyone, but he's not ready to go back to the settlement yet, so he says proper goodbyes this time and heads back into the jungle. Everyone else resumes the seven day journey home. About a day out from home, they come across something that wasn't there on their way out - a large metal fortress in the middle of the jungle. Leaning against the front of it is the humanoid-fox figure of the Negotiator. She complains that it took them long enough, and invites Akta inside for a chat.

Akta follows her through the doors into the fortress, having to move out of the way as two red frog-like beings exit to stand outside the door. The walls inside are a fleshy colour, with eyeballs on stalks sticking out and looking around. They pass between two desks manned by imps - one with a rack of sending stones like the one Akta uses to communicate with the Negotiator, and the other with a rack of glass spheres. They go through a door, into the Negotiator's office.

The Negotiator explains that she has come to collect the favour Akta owes her, but she's willing to give Akta a choice. This mission could either be very quick, or very long, taking her into other planes of existence like the Shadowfell and the Feywild. If it takes a very long time, however, the Negotiator says that it may pay off Akta's debt, as well as earn another favour from the Negotiator - a favour that might be used to help reunite her with her mother.

Akta accepts and asks if she can bring anyone along. The Negotiator says that she can bring one, and only one, of her friends along. She also advises that, if she wants to survive, she may want to bring her strongest friend.

They go back out and Akta tells the others that she needs to leave for a while, but before she goes she casts spells on Stor and Balasar to remove curses, hoping to help them recover their memories. Stor gets hit with a flood of childhood memories that had been magically changed, but Balasar feels no different.

Akta then asks Kordak to come with her. Kordak agrees, but negotiates with the Negotiator to have the magic that has changed his personality removed from him. The Negotiator agrees, saying that where their going his current mentality could get him killed, and pulls out a scroll and casts it. She then turns to the metal fortress and speaks some words that cause it to shrink into a small cube, which she stashes in a pocket.

Kordak and Akta say their goodbyes, leaving behind the bag of holding and a couple other items. The Negotiator then pulls out another scroll, and with the two in tow, reads the spell off of it. The three slowly fade from existence as Extang calls out, asking if the Negotiator will at least let the group know if they perish during their mission. The last thing he sees before the three vanish is the Negotiator giving him her fox-like grin.


And that's where this session comes to an end. What will happen next week in Episode 30?