H&Y Infinite Open Table Session 1 Notes (Buzzing Temple)
Hither and Yon Infinite is the name of my Knave 2e open table that I run in Discord for my friends. Follows is my notes of the gameplay and rulings from Session 1.
In attendance:
- Ronby the former magistrate (played by Duress)
- Billy Buntrock the dwarf (played by Nero)
- Aster the veteran (played by Kimani)
- Flamagio Delecino, elven wizard (played by Reeves)
- Rattenfänger the dwarf (played by Shukkle)
Starting Date: Summer 01, 6023
The players began in the humble riverside town of Circlebrook. They had heard about a dwarven temple to the north that was refusing visitors for the past 3 seasons, a heavy depature from their previous behavior. The PCs decided to check for more information from the local rulers, a triad coven of naiad sisters who called themselves the Council of Currents.
The Council indicated that not only were the dwarves not trading with the town, they also weren't taking in any new supplies and indeed weren't responding to communication at all. They feared the worst. They told the party that if they were to make contact with the dwarves, securing a cask of Healing Mead for the town of Circlebrook would be much appreciated to the tune of 500 coins to split amongst the lot of them. They also told the party that the temple was accessible via two entrances: the Forest Gate, which requires a unique liquid for new visitors; and the River Gate, which is only accessible from the surface of the river 100' down the cliffside on which the temple perched.
The party thought this was a great thing to hear and went off in search of supplies. They bought gear, bought mules, hired Vincent the Student and Samuel the Smith (mercenaries) to guard their mules, and hired Cindy the Pilgrim to haul their loot within the temple itself. They proceeded out of town through the Sweetwoods to the north with no notable encounters in the woods to speak of.
The party reached the Forest Gate around noon, finding an imposing mossy stone temple complex filled with a low buzzing sound. The Gate itself was a set of stone double doors with a massive dwarven face carved into the front. The PCs quickly guessed that the door had very likely already tasted urine already and so set about attempting to create a different unique liquid to give the door. Flamagio took some mustard and mayo from his sandwich that he bought in Circlebrook and mixed it with some ink from his inkwell, then offerred it to the door. This liquid was deemed sufficiently unique and the doors opened, allowing Flamagio and any companions he wanted to bring into the temple forevermore. The PCs left their mules, Vincent and Samuel outside.
In the gatehouse just beyond the gates, they found dusty tables, chairs and robes along with 5 Giant Bee Warriors guarding some honeycomb that had been newly constructed on the north wall. Seeing their hostile reaction to the party's sudden appearance, Ronby and Buntrock thought quickly and tossed a torch onto the dusty cloaks, starting a fire. The Giant Bees failed a morale check and fled north out of the room, deeper into the complex. Rattenfänger ripped off two massive hexes of honeycomb and shoved them into Cindy's backpack, then filled up her pockets with loose honeycomb bits.
Heading deeper in, the PCs quickly came across an enclosed flower field with several apiaries set up outside. The dwarves were famous for their beekeeping, so the normal-sized apiaries made sense, though the PCs began to get concerned why they'd only seen bees and no dwarves yet. They did find 3 "incredibly lifelike statues" of dwarves on the path north out of the flower field, which they thought very concerning. Rattenfänger took the opportunity of being somewhat exposed to the wilderness once more to capture some rats in his rat traps, securing 3 rats. He subsequently fed 1 rat to the other 2 rats to get information out of them, learning that there were "giant longrats" (giant weasels) active in the complex as well.
The PCs left the field, entering the Great Hall that bordered it. They saw more dwarf statues, all looking north towards the deepest part of the temple. After looking around a bit, they went down the nearby stairs into the cellar.
Within the cellar, they found more dwarf statues, smashed casks and spilled mead. They also found 2 more Giant Bee Warriors, whom they fought and killed. The dead bees began emitting strong pheromones so Rattenfänger and Flamagio opened a cask of mead and dumped it on the corpses to attempt to dampen the effect. Rattenfänger harvested a pheromone gland. The PCs, having seen 3 sets of dwarven statues now all looking north with fear and horror in their eyes, assumed some sort of petrifying monster. Buntrock took the remains of the broken casks and barricaded the stairs pointing north, hoping to block the path of any marauding creatures. The party also found the stairs leading to the River Gate as well as a trapdoor leading straight down into the Underworld amongst the casks of mead.
Heading south to finish their exploration of the temple, the PCs found a balcony, a solarium / greenhouse with rarer overgrown plants and a chapel. In the chapel, they found a sleeping giant weasel enjoying the warmth of a wall shared with the burning gatehouse and a crude cage built from pews to hold several sleeping Giant Bees. The party decided not to investigate the chapel too much so as to avoid the sleepers and blocked the door from the solarium side with some big plant pots.
The party looped back north and entered the kitchens from the cellar, finding more dwarven statues and Giant Bees guarding more honeycomb. Buntrock spoke soothingly to them in Dwarven, which changed their reaction enough that they were not immediately hostile. Taking this as a great omen, the PCs crept past the bees into the northern wing and connecting hallway.
They headed west into the brewing room, finding 3 vats of spoiled mead ingredients. The party also found 3 recipe sheets: one for dwarven mead, one for dwarven healing mead, and one for magic cider. Buntrock and Ronby took the recipes for healing mead and magic cider.
The party headed east, looking for the source of the petrified dwarves. They found the temple dormitories and within one of the cells Buntrock found an imprisoned Giant Weasel. The weasel attacked Buntrock but was quickly lured away by Rattenfänger's honeycomb that he had Cindy carry. The weasel left into the north wing's hallway out of sight.
The PCs chose to leave the dormitories, heading into the back orchard. In the orchard, they found 16 magic apple trees with shimmering flowers (none of them were bearing fruit yet). They also found a door leading to the High Altar to match the blocked one they had seen in the north wing's hallway. They heard a fight from inside, sounding like the giant weasel was attacking a human woman (the PCs feared a medusa).
Buntrock climbed atop the roof of the High Altar using a rope tied to his trusty mining hammer, the other PCs quickly joining him after contemplating joining a fight between a Medusa and a Giant Weasel. Buntrock caved in the roof with a blow from his mighty pickaxe, exposing a bloody medusa, a dead giant weasel, and a small chapel and altar covered in honeycomb and beeswax. Fearing petrification, Flamagio covered the medusa's head with his Tar Bolt spell while the rest of the PCs leapt in to kill her in her weakened state after fighting the Giant Weasel.
They were successful in killing the medusa. Aster saw a silver skull ring on one hand and reached for it, gaining the medusa's Curse of Hydrophobia. Ronby and Flamagio took the holy text from the altar, finding it to be a Tome of Rot[ Cast each 1/day: Putrefy Liquid, Purify Biomass, Spell Decay]. Ronby prayed to the altar to commune with the dwarven god Yegorov, god of brewing, decay and vermin. Ronby got a mission to taint the water supply of a settlement and a relic to assist with this task, a Ring of Party [1/day drop the ring in a body of water no larger than 20'x20'x20' to turn it to beer].
The party backtracked to the cellar and took a look at the casks. They found 1 cask of magic cider, 3 casks of healing mead and 22 casks of dwarven mead. They took 1 cask of healing mead for themselves and dumped magic cider on the two dwarven statues in the room, hoping that it cured them of paralysis. The dwarves were happy to be freed and took the rest of the magic cider cask to free what other compatriots they could, including the Abbot and the Brewmaster. The party took their cask and left, rejoining their mercenaries and mules outside, then returning to Circlebrook as the sun went down.
Flamagio and Ronby traded Tomes, Ronby traded their Tome of Eyes for the Tome of Rot. Flamagio used his Liquify Book spell to turn the Tome of Eyes into a potion, which he drank to gain the permanent ability to cast one of its containing spells 1/day (he got Engineer's Goggles). Aster had Flamagio cast Spell Decay from the Tome of Rot to destroy the Cursed Ring of Hydrophobia.
XP and Cleanup:
- The party made copies of the recipes for healing mead and magic cider and returned the originals to the dwarves. They chose not to sell the recipes A) because they likely would not get their full value back and B) because the dwarves might not appreciate their secret recipes being shared widely in the region.
- 500 coins for the cask of healing mead (coins split)
- 200 coins from 2 hexes of giant bee honeycomb (coins split)
- 100 coins worth of xp from 2 casks of mead that Flamagio took for himself
- 400 coins worth of xp from the Tome of Rot, which Ronby kept
140 coins / 240 xp share for each PC
Appendix: Follows are the text for the magic items mentioned in these notes.
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Tome of Eyes Can cast each of the following 1/day: Engineer's Goggles The caster gains the ability to "see" how mechanisms and machines work. They can intuit the triggers and purpose of machines they can see, even if they can only see a small piece of it. This also means they can tell when something is a part of a mechanism just by looking at it. Lasts for 10 minutes or until the next sunrise, whichever comes first.
Recall Vision The caster casts this spell initially, saving a mental picture of whatever they can currently see using their vision. At any point afterwards they can recall the picture. Effect does not terminate at the sunrise.
All-Around Vision The caster's skin becomes covered in eyes. They can see all 360 degrees around themselves at all times and cannot be surprised. Seeing from so many different viewpoints also makes it easy for them to "see through" sight-based illusions or spells like invisibility. Lasts for an hour or until next sunrise, whichever comes first.
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Tome of Inks Can cast each of the following 1/day: Alter Text The caster touches written ink, changing it to words of their choice. The new words have the same handwriting and style of the original text. This effect is permanent.
Summon Book The caster calls the name of a specific book and summons it to hand. The book either has to be in a location known and accessible by the caster or has to be a location known and accessible to no living soul.
Liquify Book The caster turns a touched book into a consumable liquid (it can be automatically put into a convenient flask if the caster has one to hand). Anyone drinking the liquid knows the contents of the book as if they read and memorized it. This destroys the book. Effect is permanent.
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Tome of Rot can cast each of the following 1/day: Putrefy Liquid The caster corrupts a touched liquid, turning it into stagnant filth. Creatures drinking the liquid will vomit and get sick if forced to consume it and animals will flee the area. Effects an amount of liquid up to the size of the caster. Effect fades over time and is diluted in larger bodies of liquid. Lasts until sunrise.
Purify Biomass The caster touches a rotted or putrefied object, removing the decay and restoring it to its original state. This can effect mass up to the size of the caster. Effects are permanent (though this doesn't mean the object won't get new, different decay).
Spell Decay The caster corrupts an existing spell they can see or are otherwise in the presence of. If the spell was cast longer than 3 days ago, the spell begins to rot and decay, quickly losing power over a span of 10 minutes. At the end of that 10 minute timespan, the spell is dispelled. Effects are permanent.
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Ring of Party 1/day drop ring into body of liquid, it turns into beer. body of liquid no larger than 20'x20'
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Follows is Aster's map of the Buzzing Temple complex:
