Lark's Landing, Episode 36

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

Free of the strange and dangerous game located in the weird bar that, for some reason, exists in an ancient sewer system, Stor turns his attention to the mission of rescuing his mother. The trapdoor that leads the way to where he believes she is rests behind the bar, but Bardroy - the mechanical barman - informs him that only employees are allowed behind the bar, and when he's asked to check in the cellar for them he says he isn't allowed to go into the cellar unless to bar's owner asks him to.

T'Zaric turns himself invisible and tries to sneak behind the bar, but as he lifts the trapdoor, Bardroy notices him and the room's lighting turns red. T'Zaric blips out of existence and the lights return to normal. T'Zaric finds himself standing outside the Bar's entrance. He magically alters his appearance and walks back in. He's surprised when Bardroy welcomes him back.

They continue seeking a way to get into the bar's cellar. Through questioning Bardroy, they learn that the bar was built in year 25 of Gnerstic Reckoning, 3739 years ago, and that the bar's owner hasn't been seen in well over 3000 years. After a few tries, they give up on starting a bar fight, realizing that even though all the patrons are at war with each other, they know there's no point in fighting in here. They attempt asking Bardroy if the bar needs any new employees, but the construct insists he's been fine on his own all these years, and that the bar will post a sign when help is required. Extang talks to Bardroy about a bar-wide competition, but gives up on the idea when he realizes it won't get Bardroy out from behind the bar. Logan pulls out his warhammer and takes a swing at the bar, only to get teleported outside. T'Zaric, having returned to his original appearance, manages to convince Bardroy that the old owner of the bar is clearly dead and he, T'Zaric, is the new owner - however, Bardroy requests the appropriate paperwork before T'Zaric is permitted to take charge.

Frustrated, the group - minus Fiaeorri and Dugg who are happily drinking at the bar - consider leaving in search of another way to get below the sewers. But first, Extang attempts to cast a spell on Bardroy to slow him down long enough for everyone to sneak past - but gets teleported out right before the spell finishes. They're just attempting to reorient themselves in the sewer when T'Zaric notices a group of Kobolds entering through one of the bar's other doors. He goes back into the bar and befriends them and convinces them to try to convince someone else to play the strange game by the wall - but no one is interested.

Extang follows T'Zaric back in to ask some lizardfolk about other ways to get into the tunnels below the bar. Most of them don't believe there is anything further down, but one had seen someone sneak through the trapdoor behind the bar before. He thanks them and shares this information with T'Zaric, who asks his kobold friends about other paths below ground - they say that they had some access through their temple, but that it had recently collapsed and they were working to dig their way in. The give general directions on how to get there, but warn that one of their tunnels recently collapsed as well and that the whole army is up in arms.

The 3rd watch realize that the path behind the bar might be the only way to get below, so they return to figuring out a plan to get past, but can't come up with any ideas until T'Zaric asks the lizardfolk how the person who snuck past Bardroy before had done it, and learns that it was done while the mechanical man was distracted getting drinks.

Eager to save his mother, Stor immediately pays a large amount of money to buy a round for the entire bar. While Bardroy is shuffling to and from the counter, filling drinks, they sneak over the bar and down through the trap door - though Logan gets spotted and teleported out a couple times before he makes it in.

Down in the cellar, they find a massive hole in one wall and rubble filling most of the room. Pressed up against the rubble is a very large stone chest. T'Zaric tries to open it from a distance with his summoned magical hand, but the lid is too heavy for it. Stor, having determined that there were no traps, joins him in opening it.

Inside there is a tall figure made of metal on wood, with empty eye-sockets that begin to glow red as the figure comes to life, demanding to know who they are and where this is. They talk for a while and learn that this is a sentient construct named Hammer who had been made during year 555 of Gnerstic Reckoning to help defend a city of Copperspire during a rebellion of the less intelligent lower-classes against the highly-intelligent ruling elite. An explosion was the last thing Hammer remembers, and he would like to know who won during the rebellion.

The 3rd Watch don't have any answers for him, other than telling him how long he's been asleep, but they suggest that he may find answers if he joins them. He does so readily, insisting that he take the lead to protect those behind him, as was his job with his squad.

With a new member in tow, they head off through the tunnel, which leads them to another rubble-strewn cellar. The hole continues through the far side, and there's also a much smaller tunnel of similar design on the right wall. Stor, who is the only one who can easily fit through that space, makes his way through to scout ahead. He finds another rubble-filled cellar with three green-brown worm-like creatures almost as big as him. He quickly retreats, guessing that they probably made these tunnels and worried about what made the bigger tunnel.

The group continues on until they reach a fork in the tunnel. They continue to the right, down a long winding tunnel, until it breaks through into another cellar - this one with another big worm-thing in it, though still not big enough to have made these tunnels. It charges at them with alarming speed for such a creature. It's tough to fight, as striking it causes a spray of acid, but they manage to take it down. Seeing where Hammer's metal plating has shined up from the acid, T'Zaric uses a simple spell to clean up the rest of his metal plating.

Feeling a bit worn down, they decide they need to take a short break, but they don't feel entirely safe here. They retreat to the first cellar to rest and treat their wounds, before returning to the worn-corpse. In the cellar beyond it, Stor finds some coins and a strange metal rod with a button on the end that Extang believes is magical.

The tunnel goes through another of the cellar's walls and continues on, so they follow it until it comes to another cellar that it seems to have sheered the corner off of before continuing on, widening just at the end of their vision. Seeing the cellar as having a hallway and doors, they head into it, believing they may have found what they're looking for.

They head into the first room and find a hollowed section of a log filled with coins and gems. They are immediately suspicious of it, but can't find any traps. T'Zaric uses his magical hand to lift some of them from a distance, but nothing seems to be hazardous. So, they dump the treasure into their bag of holding and take a look around the room to see if they can determine who put this treasure here. They find clawed footprints on the floor and surmise that this must be the treasure troves of one of the swamp's warring factions.

They move on down the hall to the next door, which reveals a pool of a green slime - now they're certain they're on the right track, as they were told that the kobolds grow their green slime below the collapsed temple. They move on around the hallway's corner and head down to the end of the hall - where there's a closed door on their left, and an open doorway on their right.

Stor goes on ahead to peek through the open doorway, but as he arrives, a spiked tentacle grabs him and pulls him into the room. The others rush in to help, and find themselves fighting either a garbage mound, or something within the garbage mound. They cast their spells and hack away while the creature bites at them with a massive mouth and lashes at them with tentacles - or, when someone is impaled upon the spikes of its tentacles, bashes them against the wall.

The monstrous creature is felled, though many wounds were taken in the process. However, they feel they must press on. Extang ties his light-producing gem to his forehead and opens the last door into a larger room with a huge pile of rubble in the middle. As he enters, a dark figure drops behind him from above and puts a knife to his throat, demanding to know who they are and what they're doing here.

Thinking he recognizes the voice, Stor calls out, "Mom?" and hears in reply a very surprised, "Stor!?" The knife is lowered from Extang's throat, and the group move on into the room. Stor expresses to his mother that they have much to talk about when they get home, making it clear that his memories of his past are restored, but there is an element of the past that others in the group insist upon talking about immediately - finding Stor's mother to be alive has sent T'Zaric into a crisis, for he had experienced her death in Balasar's memories - the same place where he'd seen Balasar give the order to burn down T'Zaric's childhood home with his father inside. It was why he's killed Balasar - but if Stor's mother was alive, could T'Zaric's father be alive, too? Had he killed Balasar for nothing?

Once her memory is drawn to the time when she and her husband had sent Stor on ahead to the Noble's Lark, she explains that they knew they were being tracked by an assassin - and a very good one, at that. Because they needed to survive to reunite with Stor, they had befriended a couple on the road, fed them a story, then made them up to look like themselves and left them at the inn. Then Stor's parents had made themselves look like they had been disguised as themselves and had made their mistake.

This seemed to coincide with their experiences in Balasar's memories, but it made T'Zaric realize he hadn't actually seen his father die. His remorse earns him some forgiveness, at least from Extang.

With one of their missions complete, they make camp there for the night so they can recover from their wounds before heading back to the bar. They fall asleep to the tap-tapping sounds of the kobolds that are working to dig into the collapsed temple from above.


And that brings an end to this game session. Stop by next week to find out what happens in Episode 37.