Saturday, November 10, 2018

Lark's Landing, Episode 45

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.


37th of Waxing Spring - 7th of Waning Spring, 1AL

After reestablishing herself with her former cult, Fiaeorri takes a trip to visit the bronze dragonborn woman whose husband she had murdered. The dragonborn had put out a contract with the adventurer's guild asking for her husband to be found - or some evidence of his death - offering a large reward, presumably with the money the 3rd Watch had given her to help her support herself and her child who has yet to hatch. Fiaeorri is not happy about this and intends to discourage the widow from continuing with her search.

Fiaeorri magically disguises herself as a hideous creature with bloody swords and sneaks into the house where the dragonborn is sleeping, curled around her egg. She shouts out, waking and terrifying the mother, threatening to smash the egg if the search for her husband continues. At that, the dragonborn belches lightning at her and starts screaming for the guards. Mildly singed, Fiaeorri retreats, reiterating her threats before vanishing into the night which is coming alive with people woken by the ruckus.

In the morning, the guards are more active than usual, and T'Zaric catches rumors of an attack the night before, but the group isn't too concerned seeing as how the militia seems to be on top of the situation. They're far more concerned about tracking down the vampire.

Hammer has his own concerns after having been taken over by the vampire. He goes to Stor at the adventurer's guild, now dubbed the Caerdian Explorers Guild, and asks him to find a replacement for him. He doesn't feel up to the adventuring life anymore. He was a guard before, and a guard he shall be again - plus he has plenty of skills he wants to learn now that his life is his own. Stor assures him he understands, and that he will find someone. Hammer returns home and informs the rest of the 3rd Watch. They are sad to see him go, but understanding as well.

Extang sets out to carry on with a plan he had come up the night before, getting a cake baked and arranging a surprise farewell party for Stor. That evening, they all burst into the tavern and the connected guild hall with their cake. Stor breaks out the mead and they have a great time, with their newest member, Quib, entertaining them with music and magic.

Partway through the evening, the door opens and a scrawny young man with over-sized armor and eyes like the sum comes in. Stor waves him over and introduces him as Patrick, the replacement for Hammer. The group immediately begin to question him, but he's hesitant to talk about himself in public, so they return to their home base with them. There he tells them that he's a divine child, born to two worshipers of Epesta who sent him to safety with his monk guardian - who he has snuck away from to be here. As for his skills, he's a cleric of Epesta.

With first Quib, and now this strange young man, some of the group are beginning to question Stor's recruitment talents. Nevertheless, they accept Patrick as one of their number - at least for now.

The next day, they spend their time preparing for their next adventure and gathering what information they can on vampires - with Fiaeorri asking Gregor, as undead are loathed by Pagslas, and T'Zaric seeking knowledge from Patrick's collection of books, which is delayed because Patrick's guardian isn't happy that his charge has been sneaking out and is worried about Somvidian spies. In the end, they do manage to gather some useful information.

The following day, the 3rd Watch finally head out to hunt down the vampire, aiming to start with the ruined temple. There was a little concern about finding their way without Stor's memory for landmarks, and his ability to find enough food to feed everyone, but it ends up not being a problem. After the seven day journey, they camp outside the temple. A couple of them notice that there seem to be more bats and rats around than there were before.

In the morning, they enter the temple, working their way down into the lower levels - noticing along the way that a few traps had been reset. They reach the large room where Extang and T'Zaric, along with the old members of the 3rd Watch, had fought a giant snake with a head on each end. Here, they have three doors to choose from - they decide to go through the middle one, which wasn't explored the last time they were here.

Beyond is a passageway, filled with a yellow haze in the air. After about ten feet, the floor drops away into a long pit with plants filling the bottom and metal bars set across the top every five feet. T'Zaric decides to test walking across the bars, figuring he can fly if something goes wrong. The bars seem stable enough, but the plants below begin flinging thorns up at him. This proves to be little more than a nuisance as he, Extang, and Logan clear the plants, allowing everyone to cross to the far side, where there is a door that looks very much like the back of a secret door.

They open the heavy door, and find themselves looking out into a room decorated with a cat motif, with an ajar calendar stone on the far side, a statue of a panther-man, and stuffed cats everywhere.


And that's where this session comes to an end. Find out what happens in a week with Episode 46.

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