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.
34th-37th of Waxing Fall, 1AL
The 3rd Watch have just completed a strange and grueling battle with wyverns where Logan turned against them, but he seems to have recovered. He describes his experience as his vision going red and he just wanted to kill everything, but that he's better now. Though Patrick is furious with him, the rest of the group accept this with little concern and are ready to continue on - which they do.
Their journey to secure a route to a new settlement location continues through the savanna for the rest of the day. In the afternoon of the following day, they notice a large, mixed herd of animals crossing their path. Fiaeorri notices a black panther lying down, seemingly watching the herd - but, strangely, it also has a humanoid head visible other its side. Fiaeorri creeps closer and is surprised to find that it's their old friend Dugg the gnome with his new companion, Shirley the panther. He claims to be there, watching a show, and points to the herd.
Just then, a speck detaches from the head of a passing brontosaurus and plunges towards the ground. The speck appears to be attached by a rope to the brontosaurus's neck, as the is suddenly pulled downwards, slowing the speck's fall - then the speck detaches from the rope and vanishes into the herd. A moment later, there is an enraged bellow, and a rhinoceros comes charging out of the herd, crashing to the ground, dead, right beside the group. On its back is Shend, the dwarven ranger who was part of the original 3rd Watch, his swords driven into the beast.
It's a fairly short reunion. Shend and Dugg aren't interested in taking them to the white stone house where they plan to establish the new settlement, but they are a bit interested in this attack by the Soggy Alliance. Shend mentions that he may carry this news to Kalon, an elven druid, and check in at Port Noble. The herd passes, the pair of rangers head off into the jungle, and the 3rd Watch continue onward.
Late in the afternoon of the next day, the 3rd Watch arrive at their destination - the white stone building with the weather-worn statue on top. Fiaeorri decides to sneak in ahead of the group to ensure it's safe, and finds herself getting splashed by smashing vials of acid that had been set up as a trap on the door. She enters, determined to find any other traps in the area, and finds two long-dead goblins inside, with "You're next, murderer" written on the floor in their blood. This is of some concern to the group, as these two goblins were friendly with some of them. Extang searches the lower part of the building for clues, but, finding none, they decide to wait to find out more until tomorrow when Patrick can prepare his spell to speak with the dead.
In the meantime, they begin making plans for how to set up defenses in the area, and take the goblin bodies outside for a burial. Extang begins cleaning out what he can inside the building and notices a scraping sound as he's sweeping out the straw bedding the goblins had used. He calls Fiaeorri over for a look, and they find a broken dagger with the three leaves of Pagslas in its pommel. Knowing this is Fiaeorri's goddess, he suggests she keep the dagger.
They set their watches for the night and head off to bed, with T'Zaric and Quib deciding to sleep in the copse of trees some distance from the building - though T'Zaric had to assist Quib in making his nest. During his first watch, Extang wakes up Patrick and brings him to the fresco of a city at the top of the stairs. The dragonborn breaths his poison breath on the fresco, which opens to reveal a hidden room beyond containing a pedestal upon which rests the great sword once wielded by Balasar. Extang gives the sword to Patrick, along with a magical gem that will allow it to be used as a focus for his spells. He then goes on to tell Patrick the full story of his experiences in the 3rd Watch, with a particular focus on Balasar's death and the exploration of his memories that led to it. With that done, he re-seals the room and sent Patrick back to sleep, returning to his watch.
Out in the trees, during the third watch, T'Zaric is dozing when his attention is suddenly drawn by the vibrations in the ground. He scans the area and spots a pair of t-rexes settling down to sleep outside the white stone building. Alarmed, he quietly wakes up Quib, using minor illusions to communicate what he has seen. It takes a moment for Quib to understand, but when he does, he climbs onto T'Zaric's back and they fly up high in the air to hatch a plan. Heading some distance away, Quib then creates a very convincing illusion of a rhinoceros, bellowing and wounded. As planned, the t-rexes awaken with a roar and storm off after the distraction.
With the exception of Patrick, the rest of the 3rd Watch wake up and rush to the doorway to see what is happening, but they can't make out anything in the night. Then they hear the wings of something taking flight above them and flying off into the night, in the direction of the other sounds they are hearing.
Over by T'Zaric and Quib, the t-rexes catch the illusion, and are confused as to what it is. They turn to head back to where they were sleeping, but Quib and T'Zaric confuse them with some more illusions - until spikes begin flying out of the night sky at them, followed by a winged, spiky lion-like creature. Giving up on their illusions, Quib teleports himself and T'Zaric back up above the white house of rock - where Extang has jumped up onto the top of the weathered statue, the light of his magical gem shining out into the night.
T'Zaric flies down to Extang's height while Quib drops down to the roof with a spell that slows his falling. In come the lion-creature, flinging spikes, and, down below, the t-rexes come charging in towards Fiaeorri and Logan on the ground - until they suddenly turn into a pair of turtles thanks to a spell from Extang, accompanied by a shout to pick them up.
While Extang, T'Zaric, and Quib finish off the lion-creature on the roof, Logan and Fiaeorri pick up the turtles -Logan getting a nasty bite in the process. Logan takes his turtle inside, but Fiaeorri wants to see the dead creature on the roof - so she tries to climb up - dropping the turtle in the process, which gets injured enough to return it to it's true t-rex form, inadvertently pushing Fiaeorri up onto the roof in the process.
Logan runs as far into the building as he can, putting down his turtle, and runs back to the doorway to face the other t-rex just as it bites down into Extang - causing him to lose his concentration on the spell keeping the other t-rex as a turtle. Extang manages to get out of the t-rex's mouth with a minor teleport spell, but it continues to bite at those on the roof while bashing at Logan with its tail, all the while the other t-rex, cramped inside the building, is attacking Logan from behind.
Many spells and blows are landed - except by Fiaeorri, who can't seem to overcome her her sword Renn's desire to not be stabbed into things. Her mental battle falls silent as she's scooped up into the t-rex's mouth, teeth sinking into her and causing her to lose consciousness. Meanwhile, in the building's doorway, Logan has just lost his self-control battle and begins to fly into a rage...
And that brings an end to this week's game session. What will happen next week? Find out in Episode 61.
No comments:
Post a Comment