Lark's Landing, Episode 35

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.


14th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

Having just saved a couple of lizardfolk from a band of small lizard-creatures known as kobolds, the 3rd Watch begin bargaining to be let into the swamp - apparently outsiders aren't allowed, and there is a war going on between multiple factions. However, in the middle of this conversation, they are interrupted by the surprising arrival of two more of their companions.

The gnome ranger, Dugg, had been tracking his friends for days after finding a note left for him by Fiaeorri. Riding upon his trust badger Laverne, he caught up with T'Zaric - who had been following the party at a distance - just in time to witness the end of the battle. T'Zaric promptly asked him to to accompany him to the rest of the group in a friendly manner, and to lend him some support if it was needed. Dugg, uncertain of the reason for this strange request, said that he would do whatever he believes is right.

So the two arrive, to the particular shock and dismay of Stor and Extang. After a brief conversation, in which T'Zaric says he wants to come along and help the group, Extang determines he needs more time to process his feelings, and Stor insists that, unlike some people, he doesn't murder people for revenge. It's an uneasy peace, but T'Zaric is permitted to rejoin them.

The lizardfolk hesitantly agree to take them to their village, where their shaman will determine if they are worthy to help with a problem they've been having in return for allowing them in their lands to find Stor's mother.

They journey into the treacherous lands of the swamp, grateful for their guides who seem to know all the safe paths. They periodically have to stop and wait in silence while a patrol of kobolds or strange frog-people go by.

After about two hours - during which Fiaeorri catches Dugg up to speed on the events of the last few days and Extang tries to understand why T'Zaric murdered Balasar - they arrive in a hut village filled with suspicious lizardfolk and are led to a particular building that hoses the shaman. After explaining the situation, the shaman declares that she will commune with Pagslas to see if these strangers are worthy. Fiaeorri, excited to find another worshiper of Pagslas, asks if she can help, and awkwardly joins in a strange dance around the fire.

The shaman declares the 3rd Watch to be worthy, and tells them that an important religious idol of the village has been stolen - a statue of a fly. It was taken from them by the kobolds they are at war with, and they have been unable to retrieve it. She also tells them that the recently collapsed temple they described as the location Stor's mother was is in kobold territory - it was collapsed by a trap set for the kobolds, and the area is currently swarming with the creatures. However, there is a way in from beneath, through a trap-door in a cursed room of peace - but they have to get past the guardian. Both the room, and the place where the kobolds are believed to be holding the idol are in a network of tunnels that are being fought over by the various factions.

The 3rd watch head down into the tunnels, magically lighting their way. They identify them as being an old sewer system, built with large, white stone blocks. The lizardfolk in the area aren't particularly helpful - tending to pointedly ignore them - but they do learn which general directions lead to the kobold and bullywug territories, and a rough direction that leads towards the 'cursed' room - apparently all directions can eventually lead them to the room.

They head into the tunnels, going towards the kobold territory. As they approach the first intersection beyond where the lizardfolk patrol, Fiaeorri spots a trap on the floor. They skirt around it, taking one of the narrower tunnels, but as they arrive at the next intersection they're spotted by some kobolds. The 3rd Watch charge into battle, quickly taking down the front lines, but there are more kobolds rushing in and these ones are tougher. Then T'Zaric drops a fireball down the tunnel, and the blast does more than kill a few kobolds - it collapses the entire tunnel in front of them!

With the battle over, they retreat from what remains of that tunnel and continue on their way - with Extang falling into one trap, and Fiaeorri spotting another - until the path forward is blocked by rubble. They turn to one side, heading down a tunnel that seems slimier than the others. This one is also blocked, but there are two tunnels carved through the stone walls and into the dirt on either side. From the left, they hear voices speaking an unfamiliar language and footsteps coming closer. They retreat into the tunnel on the right to hide, and find that after a turn it comes to a dead end with slime containing what Dugg believes to be some type of egg.

They douse their lights so they can hide and wait for the footsteps to pass. Those who can see in the dark can make out the shapes of a pare of fish people marching along - then Logan shifts, causing his armor to clank, drawing the attention of the fish people - who charge in. Stor meets their charge and quickly dispatches both of them. Searching their bodies, Fiaeorri finds some odd coins in the shape of gears with a staff on one side, a blank book on the other, and a hole in the middle.

They head down the other rough tunnel, but come to a main thoroughfare of these fishy folk. After a failed attempt to impersonate one with magic, the 3rd Watch retreats to the main tunnel and head back the other way. After another intersection - trapped to the left, collapsed to the right, though with another carved tunnel to one side - they find something strange up ahead. While the tunnel is blocked by rubble, there is a doorway to the left - which seems very odd in a sewer system. There is a brass door with a stone sign on it that forbids entry in several languages - based on the construction and anvils carved on it, Stor guesses the sign is from the Drovinaar Empire they heard about before.

They go through into a bright room of incredibly different design - the walls have more brickwork, as well as copper, brass, and glass decorations. The room is filled with tables populated by lizardfolk, fish-people, kobolds, and frog-people - all intermingling, in spite of whatever differences they may have. They look up when the adventurers come in, but then return to their drinks.

On the far side of the room is a bar manned by some metallic being. On the wall to there right is a strange metal box with a flat panel inset with a number of semi-precious stones, as well as a picture of a gold gear-like coin with an arrow pointing to a slot. Rising out of the back is a glass panel with a sheet of parchment behind it, and up above is a sign reading, "Win 10,000 Gold Pieces!"

Without a second thought, Fiaeorri drops a coin in the slot and promptly vanishes, with the 10,000 on the sign above becoming 10,001.

A cheer goes up from all the creatures at the tables as, on the parchment behind the glass, an ink drawing of what something recognizable as Fiaeorri scribbles into existence. At prompting from the patrons, the metal man behind the bar pulls a lever, and a larger version of the screen lowers to cover one of the walls as four odd, monster-like creatures are added to the drawing.

Logan perches on a table to watch, while T'Zaric and Dugg go and order drinks from the bar - then Dugg places a two-gold bet on Fiaeorri. Stor also approaches the bar for a drink and to ask some questions about the machine, but only learns that no one has ever run and the actual rules of the game have been lost to time. He also learns that there is a trapdoor behind the bar that is for employees only, and he believes that is the direction he needs to go to save his mother.

Back at the machine, Extang puts another gold coin in, and sees "Select your option" written on the screen. He starts by rolling a pearl that's in a bowl-like depression (Fiaeorri, who has found herself in a strange room with a pile of skeletons - one of which has a fancy-looking red cloak - and being attacked by four metallic creatures, suddenly feels a tug in her mind trying to convince her to move in a certain direction), seemingly with no effect - but the writing is still on the parchment, so he presses the green jade button - and vanishes!

Seeing this, Stor and T'Zaric rush over to the device, now seeing the moving drawings of two of their friends, battling creatures. They begin inserting coins and pressing buttons. The marbled black onyx button adds another monster to the fight, though its texture changed as it did so. The red-orange topaz button causes brilliant, artistic fireworks to burst across the parchment (Fiaeorri, Extang, and the monsters inside are all blinded for a few seconds), and the yellow quartz allows T'Zaric to use the pearl to select one of his friends, allowing him to heal some of Fiaeorri's wounds - but then the quartz turns purple.

The battle is completed, just as Stor adds another coin. They see the drawing-Fiaeorri take something from one of the skeletons in the room, then she and Extang leave through the one door in the room. They appear in another room with two doors - on labelled "Continue" and the other "Exit". Since he's already put in a coin, Stor hits the only button he and T'Zaric haven't pressed yet - the green jade - and joins the others in the strange room (where there are no labels on the two doors they see).

T'Zaric rolls the pearl in the direction of the door labeled "Exit". All three of the adventurers in the game follow the nudge they feel and go through the door, reappearing beside the machine to disappointing groans from the spectators. Fiaeorri is sporting a fine new cloak she found inside, but after that strange experience she really needs a drink, so she heads over to the bar.

The group reconvenes, discussing this fascinating game and the possibility of winning the now 10,006 gold by playing it. Bardroy, the machine tending the bar, tells them that he's seen at least seven rooms in the game, though there may have been people who got farther that he didn't see. They consider playing the game again, but they must also weigh that decision against the missions they are on.


And that's where the game session came to an end. Come back next week to find out what the adventurers do in Episode 36!