Quartz 4

Session 009

9 min read

Session Notes

Emmeline is out in front of the tavern before anyone else - feels guilty looking at the ruin and thinking about getting seduced and pickpocketed. Also a little pride that she was able to get everyone out

Mac, Ayana, and Gnorman walk out behind her, Mac is carrying food out for the people that are cleaning up the pub

A and E volunteer Mac to make goodbyes, he heads to the pseudo foreman of the cleanup crew

We head out - come up to the Highway bridge over the Primflow river. We see a man running towards us, yelling out MONSTER!! Tells us that it killed a munch of workers, we run off to meet it.

We come across halflings that lead us towards dead bodies INVESTIGATE CHECK

  • E sees blood everywhere, the body she walks up to has no head, one of the more gruesome things she’s seen in person

  • G sees an eyeball around 10 ft away other side of the head is an ear, all around it are parts of a head, absolutely exploded from this spot

  • A sees footprints that look like a scuffle, nothing large or monstrous, only humanoid footprints

  • Mac sees worn, tan, wrinkled hands, obviously an old person. The bottom of the shirt that’s not bloody is rough spun grey cloth, sees a smear of blood that doesn’t come from him, leads off to the left into a ditch

A activates divine sense - feel a sense of dread and darkness and a void that shouldn’t be here on this sunny cloudless day. Rippling tear of darkness that is fading, as soon as I feel it, it disappears. No creatures in the vicinity

G looks at trail of blood with passive investigation and finds a fingernail embedded in the grass, rolls 16 for bravery, pukes a little bit in his mouth and runs after us

A looks in the brambles by the fingernail and sees a human with blistered skin, their clothes are blackened he’s dead, my divine sense isn’t detecting anything

PERCEPTION CHECK

  • E and Mac - see on this corpse’s face, his ears are blackened, more like rotted than burnt, mouth agape in silent scream, black cracked skin around mouth, nose melted off, on cheeks theres remnants of melted eyeballs

G does Arcana check - 16

  • Mind reels at possibilities, demons, aberrations from another realm, spirit from fae realm, a satyr of hate, fire elemental, so many different possibilities

E does history check - 19

  • Thinking of weaponry that could do this, boiled oil, not set on fire, clothes would be completely burnt off if he was on fire but they’re only singed

Mac does Nature check - 17

  • Thinking about tales Ser Norman has told, plenty of monsters that can breathe fire, maybe is thinking of a dragon?

A does Religion check - 19

  • What catches my attention most is the rotting skin around his orifices, ears, mouth, not burnt, can determine theres a foulness, scar of necrotic energy

G thinks it could be some eldritch horror or some kind of magic he isn’t familiar with, not sure about possession

A finds traveler’s pack, and a dagger on his belt, rations, change of clothes, 20 copper and a fine tooth comb, this shirt is similar to the exploded head

A tells one of the halflings to go to Oglet to alert the guards of what happened here and bring them to the bodies, we try to find the culprit. Mac is trying to track them, can follow footprints that seem the most fresh, headed North. They just stop around 200-300 feet down the road. Not much vegetation around

ARCANA CHECK NAT 20 FROM GNORMAN

  • Any trace of magic in the area - if this person teleported? Would have to be high level but there would be scorch marks. Flying would’ve swept up the surrounding earth and disturbed the surrounding footprints. Maybe he’s thinking too hard, not necessarily magic. No tracks that go anywhere else, whatever this thing was, maybe it was just able to cover their tracks. Misty step? 

  • 13 perception check - sees a small boar rustling around in the brush, other small animals around but doesn’t see anything else to indicate what happened

G tells us that the trail has gone cold - casts firebolt at the baby boar. We stop and eat lunch

Mac and E spar to work off lunch a little bit, A is sharpening and oiling weapons in line with her blacksmith training.

G goes back to look at the bodies to see if their decomp has accelerated at all. Younger man doesn’t have any more acceleration of necrosis. Notices it looks like his mouth looks aged - a tooth has fallen out, very blacked with death. Townsfolk finish digging the burial holes, ask G if he’s finished drawing. He is and heads back to us

E just barely beats Mac in their spar, thwacking him on the back of the head with the broadside of her sword.

We head off back towards Hillock. We come across the Halfling capital surrounded by tiers of farmland, a veritable mountain in the midst of the plain. Hillock is surrounded by a moat and there’s a tunnel going into the mountain. Small town at the foot called Sothers.

PERCEPTION / INVESTIGATION CHECK

  • Mac - has been through town before, is used to the bustling marketplace in town. This area does a tremendous amount of trading. It’s busy here, not super out of the norm, would be expecting mostly humans coming back from the tournament. This is mostly halflings. 16 insight check - remembers there are refugees from other halfling towns, sees exhaustion on a lot of faces, not any merriment as halflings are known for. Mostly desperation, fear, uncertainty. Most people go into building that has the symbol of a setting sun - Dawn’s Rest, the Inn in town.

We head to a nearby tavern, the inn is OVERFLOWING with people. There’s a lot of talk of travel and things left behind in the tavern

E and A overhear “Like orcs but smaller and nasty” Mac hasn’t told us of his experience with the goblins - only Ser Warrington

Mac and G go up to the bar and wait 20 minutes for service, order ales for all of us - the kitchen is closing and they’re obviously slammed. Gave bread to the Solar Chapel down the road

Mac joins in the singing - E and G go outside to a food vendor. A sits at the table listening in on conversations 16 Perception

E and G head into the marketplace - beaver on a stick, vegetables from garden, and a man selling chowder. E goes to grab some chowder.

G wants to find some ink, he’s running low. Sees a gnome in a half closed stall writing on parchment. Asks if he’s written anything down about what’s going on around town, he has noticed a bunch of halflings coming into town from the Haffles, not much room at the Inn. 

There’s a tent city up at Northers, been pushed out by little orcs. Gives G 2 vials of ink for free because he like his answer to “would you drown a dog or a cat?” Takes out a “Spelling book” and will sell it for 1 gold or 1 silver - this guy is drunk off his ink. Eventually reveals his name is Gilben.

G realizes that he doesn’t have his coinpurse, runs back to the tavern and E follows.

A listens in on conversations with Mac singing in the background I hear “orc, beady eyes, fangs, sharp vile teeth, malice and hate, forced out of the Sheershales, they’re hiding, Godfricks hills, everyone either dead or disappeared. Need to get reinforcements, shut up there were too many of them. We’re going to get them back, we’ll go back, it’s our home!”

Mac comes back to the table as E and G come back in. E agrees to give G 1 gold in the morning. G and E go out to try to retrace his steps and see if he dropped his money somewhere.

Mac tries to ask A about what happened during the fight at the pig tail tavern, she misdirects by ordering more ale. Mac says “i’m not going to ask you outright but you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t want to say anything, I trust you.”

G and E walk around and find that the Gnome’s stall has disappeared, and retrace steps back to the road and find nothing. It’s been a while since it was taken. 

PERCEPTION CHECK E hears a snap of a twig in the forest and sees 5 sets of human eyes watching the town. Sees them slink back into the trees around the town. Decide to head back to tavern to tell Mac and A

Mac and A have been drinking and talking to drunk halflings - “Monsters ran us out of haffles, we’ve got to take it back”

E tells us about the eyes she saw - we decide to split up to tell crossbowmen in both the inn and the tavern.

Mac and A go to the Inn, A walks up to the bar and asks the bartender about any town guard. Connor, the crossbowman, comes outside with us to take a look at what’s happened.

G and E walk into the tavern to everyone hammed singing about whiskey. They get up to the bar and meet Rory, “I’m on the watch for the night”. 

We all meet up at the southern edge of town, all of the guard are drunk “sorry to say, we are the sober ones”

A says “you guys don’t get a lot of action do you?” Connor says “No, mostly boar or crabs from skull lake, and….” gets hit with a throwing axe in the chest.

**

NPCs This Session

Home

Graph View