16 August 2019

Badger!?'

"From the journal of Caius of Reckenmark, date unknown"

Venturing deeper into this strange place, I can not help but wonder at our new environment. It is both fantastical yet in disrepair. The flagstone floors are covered in dirt and dust floats on the stale air. Nevertheless we venture forth. The room is an odd shape. Aside from the door on the other side, there are three alcoves each with their own focus. I wipe the last bits of ‘crawler much from my garments and boldly stride towards the first alcove that caught my eye, the forest scene, a celebration of life. A stark contrast from where we currently dwell. I ruminate on how much I have forgotten about the surface world. Its scents and sounds, the warmth of the sun and the option of not eating salted fish… It is at this point my survival instincts kick in a few moments after I am beset by swarms of skeletal rats!! Somewhere in my reverie I failed to spot a cracked flagstone underfoot and now my compatriots pay the price. I should have held focus… No time for that now though, battle is upon us!

The fight is not without danger, yet we make short work of these hordes, my rapier was of little use stabbing these things but my shield was all the more potent. I beg your forgiveness at the lack of details of my fellow’s prowess, I assure you that being beset by a horde of undead vermin is a harrowing experience that leaves little thought for things beyond the sea of tiny teeth that threaten my tender tonker. As the last bones scatterer across the floor, I let out a sigh of relief. That could have gone a lot worse.

The party senses the forgotten majesty of this… shrine? And sets out to restore its splendour. I am drawn, however, to these alcoves and their themes. The plaque from the entrance hall comes unbidden to my mind.

“The earth is the heart and soul of the Forgotten Folk. From its nurturing embrace spring forth the children of Garl, on its surface and amid its tunnels and caves they dwell in life, and beneath its silent shroud they rest in death. Preserve and protect the natural world that lies beneath the roots of those who dwell on the surface. Dig burrows, tunnel, and explore, for the Badger welcomes all gnomes into his domain. Ware the evil that ensnares those blinded by the avarice and destructive impulses of the Crawler Below, and the Lord of the Burrow shall protect those who dwell in his demesne and live in harmony with his teachings.”

As my eye falls on the cupped hands at the foot of each alcove, bardic inspiration strikes me! This is a test! I wonder if this refers to the evil that ensnares those blinded by avarice.. What were those glowing things the gnomes where holding? A blue gem, a red gem and a green gem… I wonder. Digging through the pouch at my hip I fish out an Emerald and place it in the cupped hands at the forest scene alcove. In the Mountains hands I place a Ruby and the cave of glittering lights is adorned with an additional Sapphire star. This seems to appease the spirits of this place as the doors open and we are allowed to move onward.

As we descend the stairs revealed by these doors, the steps get less grimy. Was the dirt above real or merely an illusion of this strange temple? The stairs descend and our environment grows cleaner the further we go until we are treated by another set of doors. Opening these we are greeted by an empty round chamber, this one decorated with a grand circular fresco adorning the entire wall. I investigate this, watching my footing carefully. It appears to depicting a progression of the seasons with trees in various stages of enleafment.

It was Bree who save my life this day, was it not for her timely “Err, Guise? There is some stuff floating in the air over there!”, I fear I would have met my demise at the… pseudopods of whatever those things were. For what opposed us was something so strange it almost defies description, undulating mere feet away towards us were a duo of what seems to be blocks carved out of a body of water? One of these had a telling assortments of metal object floating within its bulk, hinting at the carnivorous nature of these things… All else what remained of its previous meal had been digested.

We decide to attack! These things are slow to move and thus we keep our distance and pepper these things with spells and arrows. I viciously mock this thing, assaulting its feeble sentience with attacks aimed at destabilising whatever holds it together. “You are dreadfully unsuited for a hexagonal grid!”, “You are modelled after the most common of dice!” Autun chances a mighty blow with his great axe and is absorbed by one of these… gelatinous cubes in return! Suspended in the translucent monstrosity he is unable to breathe, I can see a bubble of air forming and disappearing at his mouth and we redouble our efforts. We manage to rescue Autun from his Oozy imprisonment, right as more dastardly gel coalesces from the ceiling. We have but moment before these new threats join the fray.. Suspense builds as the ochre mould and the dark doom dessert congeal down and we risk being overwhelmed. With mere moments to spare we dispatch of the Cubes, the now lifeless forms becoming a sloppy puddle on the floor.

Or next foes are something else. The sinister slimes strike swiftly, splitting into siblings when struck, seeking to subdue and slaughter the scattered but subsequently superior swashbucklers.

-

After a pitched battle leaves us the victors over a snot covered battlefield. The dead oozes coalesce in the the center of the room, irrigating the ground into what looks like good fertile earth.

A second look around the room shows us a mural with a seasonal progression in marvellous detail. I am reminded again of that poem/riddle we found in the first room of this wondrous place. We cast spells on the earth to be earth air fire ice and a tree grows

A door opens and a translucent badger at the door.Sunlight We find a rectangular room with a table with all out favourite foods

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Prior: 19 July 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 23 August 2019

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Inventory

Gained:

• 25gp, 40 sp. Glass jar with snowglobe-like liquid in it. Ointment of Sharpness
• Necklace with round black balls, 35p, 170gp, 205sp, 425cp.
• Lenses of the underworld

Lost:

• 3 gems worth 1gp each, ruby, sapphire, emerald

Party inventory (excluding Gained and Lost items above)

cash and jewelry

• 105cp 744sp 1632gp 19pl -cost of rooms -cost of Ezri's companion of negotiable affections -cost of Bree's surface coin
• misc gems worth 19gp
• 7 gems x 2gp each
• 3 amythysts worth 10gp each
• 2 rings from Wurtz (value?)
• 12 small gems worth 1 gp each (held by Jimjar)
• a pouch of surface coins. The pouch of coins seems to correspond to the coins in the obelisk notebook for the last week's worth entries or so.
• Silver bracelet worth 5 gp
• bracelet (silver) worth 6gp
• Gold ring with the insignia of Ilvara's family
• A necklace with silvered spider fangs (Ezri)
• 1 surface coin (carried by Bree)
• necklace with 3 headed flail (Yeenoghu??)
• silver headdress
• 3 rings with gems (from dead drow)

personal items

• all of our original possessions, except coins and disposables

magic consumables

• Potions of Greater Healing x3 (4d4+2)
• 2 potions of healing
• 2 gourds of antitoxin (gives 1 hour of advantage on saving throws against poison)
• 1 flask of holy water (carried by Autun)
• spell component pouch x2
• diamond worth 300gp x2
• 2x spell components for Find Familiar
• 23 pygmywort mushrooms
• 16 bigwig (embiggen) mushrooms
• 2 potions of greater healing
• Potion of fire breath
• 8 ampules of poison
• A jar of salve (5 doses of aloe)
• 2x potions of Alchemist Fire
• 4x Vials of Acid

magic and other special items

• A magic box that turns into a boat on command.
• Boots of Elven Kind (Kais)
• Stone Speaker Crystal
• bag of holding
• scroll of Protection From Fiends in a box of surface wood
• one pair of spectacles of darkvision
• a Quiver of Ehlonna (carried by Kais)
• Bree's Book of Shadows
• a +1 shield (carried by Caius)
• bag of magical rubies for delivery
• hobbit-sized walking stick (Rod of the Pactkeeper)
• pendant in the shape of a scroll (Pendant of Messages)
• A spell scroll (gentle repose: now copied into Bree's spellbook)
• A note from Droki addressed to Nerrick
• 2 Vials of poison
• A book with 3 wizards' spells

misc

• a large pouch of incense worth 10gp
• 6 perfumes worth ~2gp each
• 12 pouches of potpourri containing surface flowers
• bolts of velvet, silk, and linen worth 5gp each
• a feather of some unknown bird
• 5 furs worth 3gp each
• 1 ball of amber
• notebook with documentation of objects retrieved by the obelisk
• detached hand of a deep gnome wearing a 2gp ring (hand to be returned to Blindenstone)
• A chest with a key
• a hairy belt from an unknown surface animal (worn by Kais)
• snuff box with bits of incense (~1gp worth)
• a surface leather belt (worn by Caius)
• portrait of Ilvara, the drow priestess
• some crappy poetry about gemstones
• insignia from the dead drow priestess (3 headed flail?)
• 5 drow insignia
• book on drow heresy
• one set of bone dice (carried by Jimjar)
• recipes for Alchemist's Fire and Acid
• fishing tackle x4
• thieves' lantern (carried by Kais)
• pouch with incense (worth 5gp)
• a Dwarvish recipe book
• a Dwarvish poetry book
• a bone flute
• a strange hourglass (worth 2gp)
• silver hand mirror
• small wood box
• decorated quiver (5gp)
• drow underwear
• a bunch of hairpins (fished out from between the teeth of the elf-Quaggoth)
• some rope: mostly hemp + 50 feet silk rope and 100 feet of silk rope
• a grappling hook
• 1 bag of pitons (kept by Kais)

armor and weapons

• Myconid leather armor (Rumpadump)
• plush purple velvet cloak (worn by Autun)
• silvered sickle (carried by Ezri)
• 1 studded leather armor (kept by Kais)
• 2 short swords (kept by Kais)
• 3 daggers (kept by Kais)
• 1 hand crossbow (kept by Kais)
• 1 bag of caltrops (kept by Kais)
• 2 longbows (one kept by Kais, one kept by Autun)
• extra great axe from ettin (Autun)

ammo

• about 20 +1 arrows
• a lot of arrows (around 150)
• 15 longbow arrows
• >90 crossbow bolts
• some spears (around 10)

food and firewood

• 260+ rations
• some salt
• some salted fish
• blue cap mushroom spores
• water orbs
• shambling mound debris (tinder)
• fire lichen

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Prior: 19 July 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 23 August 2019