Session 007 - 11.01.25
Recap
Plan: Head East to Darkwood.
Session
Chapter 1 - Shopping and Background
Darkwood - House are on stilts as it’s a bayou, but has a casino: Owned by Lazlo’s family.
Employees are brought there and never really leave: Soulbound. Try not to die.
Sasha gets Boots of Elvinkind.
We are also able to find a couple different beasts of burden, that can pull wagons. Shamoiah is interested in this.
- Horses.
- Giant Elks.
- Some big cat: A little slower but able to defend themselves in combat.
- Axebeaks.
- Some other giant birds:
- Strider
- Hyenas.
- Dire wolves.
- Bears.
- Salamander. Looks like a giant gecko rather than a lizard.
We opt for a: Giant Elk and the luxury camper. Lazlo, Oona-Lynn, Martok, Shamoiah put in the money for the travel items. Theo and Sasha go off to look for a portable hole.
Shamoiah casts Ritual Speak with Animals in the shop, a hamster gets his attention. They converse. The hamster runs off when Shamoiah doesn’t convince him to come with us.
Shamoiah is worried about the elk’s intentions, Lady Greyhorn, is a little weird. But seems fun. She is very interested in coming to a spooky forest.
Lazlo searches for a spider. The first one disliked him, but the second one liked him and crawled up his arm and into his hat. (Red banded line spider). He is able to find him a tiny top hat, made of the finest silks.
Sasha and Theo go looking for a portable hole. We tracked down a shop, they have one for a 1,000gp. But he also has an expandable chest. 5’x3’ chest, speak command word it shrinks down to the size of a small box: Twice the size of a bag of holding. 128 cubic feet. BIG WARNING: Do not put into another dimensional space. 500gp. Sasha begins to barter with the shop owner about the Portable Hole price. 775gp! We buy it.
Theo gets help from the party and finds a husbandry, in search of a mastiff.
- Black fur w/ white spot over his right eye.
- Military Saddle.
- Chain shirt barding.
- Weeks worth of food.
- 800gp.
Martok purchases new armor
- Chestplate of the Fallen.
- Mantle of Security.
We all meet back up.
When Shamoiah leaves, the hamster tries to stow away, but he feels him climb into his branches. He picks another place other than Theo’s spot. The hamster’s name is Crumbs.
We stop at a tavern for lunch and discuss our next move.
Shamoiah and Theo notice: Kinda stomping through the crowd, being a massive orc (familiar), approaching us. He is from the thieves guild (Borne). He tells us not to leave without saying bye to Devvic.
Shamoiah and Theo show off their respective pets, but we work it all out.
We head back to the Thieves guild, down the familiar sewers. The door opens and we enter. Sitting at the table is Devvic (Black haired elven man), finishing lunch himself. He greets us.
He pushes a scroll, rolled up to us, with details on the upcoming mission.
- Monitor Council Meeting as security.
- Extra security detail rather than guard.
- We have clearance to every room except the council chamber.
He pushes a chest over and inside is a crystal ball.
- Works as a scrying eye.
- “A little gift” from the magic shop keeper for returning his stuff.
Contract:
- Names and descriptions of the council members, so we are aware of them.
Theo asks Devvic to convey his order for the gryphon collar and he agrees.
Lazlo begins talking about a woman named Luba, a clairvoyant, known for her card readings. He asks Devvic to keep an ear out about her.
We load up the wagon and kick off towards Darkwood.
Chapter 2 - Travel and Darkwood
Early evening when we finally get out of the city.
Oona-Lynn drives and we do well. We’ve left the day after the festival, so the days are mostly unoccupied. We pull off the side of the road to camp for the night. Theo climbs up into Shamoiah’s leaves and tries to high five Crumbs, who flips him off.
Rest begins.
Shamoiah attunes to the Crystal Ball and begins to scry.
- He scries where he is from, he sees a man walking in his field of vision, almost like walking towards him. He is wearing rust colored robes. (This is the same type of robes that the man thay flew away from the explosion at the Harvest Festival)
- He does it again to check on One. He is sitting atop a waterfall, kind of on the edge, running his hands off. There is a glowing light that flashes under his hands and giant fish leap off the waterfall and diving into the water below. He pulls his hand out and he is leaking a white light, like blood. He stitches itself back closed. (The waterfall is NOT in Darkwood)
Theo messes with the puzzle box, for about an hour, nothing really happens. It’s an intricate puzzle box, being a curious little guy, he twists and turns, as pieces reset. He is unable to figure it out.
Morning comes: The crispy, dewy morning sounds with the few birds migrating. The day begins.
After 3.5 days of travel, we arrive safely at our destination.
We roll up to Darkwood, there is a zombie playing a banjo. Everything is foggy and misty. Everything makes you want to rub your eyes, as they feel out of focus, but it’s just the air. As we descend deeper into the area, it gets warmer. It is earthy and swampy, but not with decay. It isn’t repulsive.
This is a nice area, but it is swampy and warm. The water is too murky to see through. In the muddy water, we see two giant eyeballs rise up and then sink back into the water. Lazlo warns us that it’s been 100 years and no one knows what that thing is.
All the roofs are covered with dead ghost birds.
Contract deadly is 2 weeks away.
We move along, Lazlo starts recognizing people from his past. There is someone, that he doesn’t exactly recognize, sitting outside a salon:
- Almost cowboy looking, the upper half of his face is skull and the rest is ghoul like. Bandolier, pistol at his side.
- He saw him on a wanted poster. Wanted is crossed out, underneath says: Don’t strike a deal. Ghouly the Kid.
He flicks his cigarette and heads into the salon when he spots Lazlo. Lazlo follows him and kicks open the door. Ghouly the Kid takes a quick shot and then pulls his guns on us.
Combat starts and Ghouly the Kid says, “Been a long time Lazlo, haven’t seen you since I was alive.”
Lazlo gets knocked unconscious but Martok heals him. Lazlo shoots at Ghouly the Kid, blowing his arm off. They banter back and forth.
Tonight is a poker game. He mentions that Lazlo has been gone a while. He puts his arm down on the table. He tells us the bandits will arrive in a few days. So we need to find something to do for a few days.
Evidently Lazlo’s grandfather has been the mayor for 500 years, never losing elections. Everything seems rigged. Ghouly the Kid stole a bottle of whiskey and is bound to servitude for a millennia, according to the contract of the town.
Tonight the Riverboat is shipping off: A party on the water. Our intent is to make sure the people who are aboard are subservient to Lazlo’s family.
Lazlo explains that when someone dies on their land, they come back as a type of undead. Ghouly tells us we can steal things but do not get caught.
Ghouly is instructed to find information on the poker game while we go out on the Riverboat.
Depending on where someone dies, on someone’s property or public property, the dead are constrained in servitude to the owners of the property; unless you are ‘royal’, then you would have some freedom to come and go. Lazlo’s family, way back when, made some dealings with someone on the darker side, for ‘eternal life’.
Lazlo’s family and the Church are at odds with each other. Politics are afoot.
Up on the hill are four different temples/church. 3 above, 1 below.:
- Cult of Shadows
- Church of Light
- Church of Earth
- Church of Spirit
Darkwood is a place that many people come to, to die. As you don’t die all the way, here. There are bodies that stick out of the ground. Some animated.
For being a town of undead, it is relatively lively.
Chapter 3 - Riverboat
The boat trip takes a few hours: Games, food, band.
To be continued in next session.