H&Y Infinite Open Table Session 19 (River Fort Redux)
Characters:
Xavos (Laggs)
Silvio (Reeves)
Regular Phil (Duress)
Summer 65, 6023
Party decides to head to the River Fort. Silvio picks up a couple pieces of metal to trade to the goblins to watch the boat while they're gone.
As the party sails upriver to the River Fort, they see a couple big plumes of smoke coming from the Purple Heron camp in the Puddlegrass. They beach the boat and head inland, looking for any sign of what happened. They see a few dead orc corpses scattered around the hole to the Underworld as well as many dead goblins covered in long, thin burn marks, as well as a few glitterbug carcasses near the woods.
The party finds some tracks from goblin survivors heading into the woods, toward's Palomo's sawmill. Silvio knocks at the gates and discusses the situation with the bandit that answers: the survivors came to the sawmill for refuge and are hiding out here until they figure out what to do next. Silvio learns that a gnome did this with a platoon of orcish soldiers, they don't know what happened to the rest of the enemy. Silvio thanks the bandit and the party heads back to the boat.
Summer 66, 6023
Party continues heading upriver to the River Fort. They see the corpse of the giant 30' muskipede still lying on the bridge, it's just half-rotted now and is covered with scavengers. The PCs hold their nose and sail under it, accessing the River Fort though the secret door they found the last time they were here. They sneak up the stairs to find themselves face to face with an Acid Watcher, a floating red jellyfish coated in acid. Xavos attacks it with fervor, eager to make use of his new demonic strength. He got coated in acid for his troubles, but he did succeed in vanquishing the Watcher.
The party continues into the courtyard and approach the skeleton seated at the well in the middle what this time it being unguarded. They find a magical bracelet made from ice on the skeleton's wrist. Xavos attempts to claim it, but Malphas intervenes and tells him he's not willing to share his host with another spirit. Xavos reluctantly passes the bracelet to Regular Phil, who pockets it for later. The party checks the status of the doors they know of from the courtyard, finding the desert to the east (expected) and the empty dining hall to the south (unexpected, but welcomed).
The party continues into the dining room, confirming the dimensions of the room in the relative safety of their light. They continue on into some back hallways, finding stairs down into the Underworld and a door into one of the fort's watchtowers. Phil can hear a couple of muskipedes within the tower, so the party gears up to kill them all via a combination of braced spears and a bear trap. Phil skins the muskipedes, as they're looking to create a fashionable garment of extreme chic.
Continuing their exploration, the party comes to a chapel of the goddess of the depths, Cytherea. Silvio grabs the Tome of Water off the altar after carefully checking it for traps. Silvio is delighted to see that Arthur's favorite spell Liquid Light is also in this Tome and the party backtracks to the kitchen to find a saucepan so they can have a more stable light source than Xavos's torch.
The party continues their search in the hallways behind the dining hall, finding a wing of bedrooms in the back corner. They open the first door and find another magic Tome, this one with a wasp emblazoned on the cover. Xavos immediately picks up the book, awakening the Nightmare Wasp that was hiding on the cover, causing it to spit it's narcoleptic acid him and try to burrow into his brain.
Xavos psyched himself up for an intense fight in his mind between himself, the Nightmare Wasp and Malphas, but Phil acted quickly and smashed the bug to smithereens before a real fight could break out. Phil grabs the Tome and helps Xavos up, the demon swordsman drinks a healing potion to get back into fighting shape.
Fearing the worst if they stay here longer, the party troops back through the dining hall, courtyard, and back stairs to the S.S. Eggbert and heads back to Circlebrook.
Summer 67, 6023
Arrive in Circlebrook.