Summary
While traveling aboard Ferrar’s airship, the party detoured to the Hay District of Greythorne to track down a legendary ale—a side-quest that briefly surfaced a eerie warning from an entity called The Archivist possessing Theratina. In Greythorne, they met a family of tieflings (The Bongos) whose supply of ale was stalled, prompting the party to journey to Potitor’s Tower to rescue the brewer Potitor Bongo. Along the way, they pacified a toll-collecting troll named Goremak, bypassed multi-layered illusion fog, and snuck past a territorial chimera. After driving off an ambushing pirate crew at the tower, Cal used Detect Thoughts on the captured captain to uncover a dark conspiracy involving The Council of the Cold Veil, a figure named V, and their plot to awaken The Unknown and the undead dragon Dracacar. Securing Potitor Bongo as the exclusive brewer for Tale’s End and hiring Barbara Bongo, the group returned to the airship, unaware until the end of the night that the chimera had secretly stowed away on board.
Events
On Ferrar’s Airship
- On the ship we walk past Ferrar’s room and see some advertisements:
- “The best ale ever made: come one, come all to The Twin Veins”
- Around Greythorne
- “Top of the notch furniture: something something damage proof”
- In Evershade
- “A sign like never seen before. Neon: a magical adventure”
- On the border of Carrowyn and Karvok Thuldor
- “The best ale ever made: come one, come all to The Twin Veins”
- We choose to go pursue the ale
- Note: this is going to be a fun side-quest one shot
- Ferrar tell us we can find the ale in the “hay district” of Greythorne from a lady named Barbara Bongo
- It is a roughly 3 day journey
- During the journey, Raelor watches Ferrar to learn how to pilot the ship
- It is a Morning Guide ship
A conversation with Theratina
- Cal speaks to Theratina about the vision they had at Ferrar’s mansion
- She has no recollection of it happening
- The person Cal saw is someone who “lives in their memory”
- They call him The Archivist
- In a very deep, frightening voice, Theratina says, “Keep asking the correct questions”
- She doesn’t recall having said it, as if she was momentarily possessed
- Theratina mentions she had a “cold dream” before leaving Vel Rau’dan
- Theratina eventually interjects with “I’m hungry”
- They both head into the ship to get a snack
- Sometime along the ship, Roz shares the crazy dream he had
- Some red wizard approached him to do help some people and he went on an adventure
- I assume this is from when he joined another campaign for a session yesterday
- As the days pass, we approach Greythorne
At Greythorne
- For the sake of the one shot, Theratina stays on the ship with Ferrar
- Ferrar tells us to look for a house with tieflings, and to find a woman named Barbara Bongo
- We enter the Hay District and notice it is most populated by Orcs
- We ask about Barbara Bongo
- “Oh her! She’s the lively tiefling!”
- “Just follow the music!”
- There are 5 tieflings by the music:
- They claim to be out of ale due to a supply chain issue
- “We claim to make this ale, but the truth is we don’t”
- “My brother, Potitor Bongo, does”
- Evidently Potitor Bongo lives far south, through a small stream, over a bridge, down a pathway until another path until you reach his tower
- Roz is slightly put off by how Sir Onitor assumed we would help
- He offers us each a small glass of the remaining ale he has
- The ale is so amazing that it even gives a point of inspiration
- Once per day when consuming this beverage, we get a point of Heroic Inspiration
- Sir Onitor claims he has never partnered with anyone because they are tieflings
- He is extremely moved that we would want to do so
- He agrees that if we fix his issue, we will be his exclusive partner
- He warns we likely will encounter a Chimera on the mountain along the way
- For whatever reason, it does not harm tieflings
- Raelor wraps up Barbara Bongo’s painting and puts it in his pocket
- First he looks at it
- It’s a Chimera
- Before we leave, Onitor offers us some Death Whistle (a rum)
- After drinking some, he burps a small amount of fire
On the road
At the stream
- After an hour, we reach the aforementioned stream
- There is some raised ground along the path, and the stream is slow and lazy
- It is clearly man-made to allow passage
- There are very big, humanoid footprints on the other side
- A huge creature approaches on the other side of the stream
- “Fee fi fo fum this is my fucking bridge”
- It appears to be some sort of troll seeking a toll to cross
- His name is Gor’mak Ironmaw Skullringer…
- Theres like 500 titles
- His name is Gor’mak Ironmaw Skullringer…
- Roz uses Mold Earth to destroy the bridge
- Roz offers to rebuild it once we cross, assuming people we designate can cross unharmed
- He also offers to let him pet “the biggest cat you’ve ever seen”
- Goremak offers us a massive scroll art piece in exchange
- It is a bunch of cats with cigars at a table playing poker
- Roz transforms into his lycanthrope form (a weretiger) and lets the troll pet him
- Avenj uses a flask of Enlarge/Reduce to make him bigger
- Goremak pets him so aggressively that his disgusting fingernails cause 3 points of slashing damage
- Some of his other cats come out of the trees
- He pets them delicately with a single finger that he manicures to have a small nail
- He gives us the scroll and we continue on our way
On the path
- It is extremely foggy/misty around us
- No matter where we go we have a 30 foot sphere of clearing around us
- Theodore recognizes it is caused by some kind of illusion magic
- Although it is too big for any one person to have cast it
- After walking only a few hundred feet, we somehow spent about 6 hours
- We are all very tired
- Roz casts Dispel Magic
- The fog temporarily clears and we see the chimera across the bridge
- The fog returns
- Theodore casts Detect Magic
- It’s almost as if there are layers to the fog
- Illusion is on the base
- Transmutation is on the bottom, near our feet (to slow us)
- Abjuration is in there, too, to regenerate itself
- We decide to Dispel Magic and make a run for it
- At one point the bridge snaps, but we barely make it across
The next path
- We make our way to a windy path
- The chimera is here
- Raelor uses his Hat of Disguise to appear like Sir Onitor Bongo
- The chimera seems to buy it
- We slowly walk up the path as it closely follows us
- It is sniffing at us suspiciously the entire way
- We eventually cross, going over a thin mossy log
- The chimera goes back to its guard, watching off in the distance
At Potitor’s Tower
Fighting Pirates
- As we continue towards the tower, we pass a small garden of sesame seeds
- As we get closer, we hear arguing
- There are ships lining the shoreline
- There are grappling hooks and ropes
- Pirates are climbing the cliffside
- We see Potitor Bongo arguing with 9 pirates
- They shoot him and he drops to the ground
- We run up to fight the pirates
- Eventually we kill them all except for the captain
- Roz heals Potitor Bongo
- One ship is already sunk (from a Theodore fireball during the fight)
- We want to try to steal the ships, but the pirates are uninterested in trading for the captain
- One claims to be the new captain
- Potitor Bongo says that they have a written copy of his recipe
- We decide to sink the other two ships
- Everyone fires cannonballs at it (Potitor Bongo has cannons)
- Except Theodore, who Fireballs it
Interrogating the Captain
- We now have the captain bound
- He expects us to execute him
- He tells us that he works with “prophesizers” who are in Mazca’Tan looking for a lizard girl
- The work with The Council of the Cold Veil
- They are “looking for artifacts”
- He says more
- “Council of the Cold Veil is working with someone pretty and devilish by the name of V. She wants to bring back Dracacar: an undead dragon once ridden by The Unknown. She is working with The Council to stop the blood moon. She is also hunting these artifacts; I believe she is trying to awaken The Unknown”
- We decide to take him and the other bodies to go feed the chimera
- Cal casts Detect Thoughts on the pirate captain (some special memory exploring thing)
- Brad has him roll a d100
- He gets a 43
- Cal enters the captain’s memory
Heading home
Heading to Greythorne
- We go back and feed the captain and dead pirates to the chimera
- Potitor Bongo is with us
- Every stop along the way, he shows us invisible paths to avoid all danger
- In the distance, the chimera is following us the entire way back
- At one point, Roz approaches it and it sniffs his hand
- It gets nervous and goes back into the treeline
In Greythorne
- When we get back, Sir Onitor Bongo and Potitor Bongo get into it a bit
- Potitor Bongo says he will be working with us now
- Sir Onitor Bongo belittles Barbara Bongo for her painting
- Roz puts him to sleep
- We invite Barbara Bongo to join us and work in The Tale’s End
- She join us