March 26, 2016

Betrayal

The Motley Too are back from their trip to Hemel with the ledger proving Heriberto Florentino did not treat his people well. They provide that ledger to Vashti. He sends out town criers to inform the people of Florentino's deception. Soon, the townspeople are an angry mob demanding retribution. Florentino and Trufino flee to the castle for sanctuary.

With the Motley Crew still missing, Vashti leaves it to the Motley Too to decide Florentino's fate. Seeing him for the first time, the group takes a good look at the man. Florentino appears quite old, his face pasty and bloated. Trufino hovers nearby, nursing a painful foot due to a mysterious case of the gout. After a short debate, the Motley Too decide to exile the would-be usurper and his bodyguard.

While Vashti calms the crowd, Florentino and Trufino change into less conspicuous clothing. The Motley Too will escort them to a ship leaving tonight for Nyngard. Florentino is reluctant to take off his cloak at first, but The Harper of the North is able to convince him to hand it to Aoki so that he can change into something the townspeople will not recognize.

Heading to the docks, Kurtis and Jandove take point and walk ahead of the group. The area is quiet as all of the townsfolk are occupied listening to Vashti. Suddenly, Florentino cries out and collapses to the ground. Turning in surprise, the group sees Aoki standing on top of the old man, her daggers glistening with blood. She reaches down and pulls something off of Florentino's body.

Glancing up at the stunned faces of her companions, Aoki spins around. Three copies of the halfling appear, peeling off as she turns.

The Harper of the North: What are you doing?

The Harper tries to cast Hold Person on an Aoki, but the spell somehow bounces off of her and ensnares Delphine instead. Without saying a word, all four Aokis take off in different directions. Adarra is able to cast Faerie Fire on two of them before they are out of sight.

Meanwhile, Sir Gyles scoops up Florentino, trying to move him out of danger. Trufino attacks Sir Gyles, misunderstanding the paladin's actions. Kurtis and Jandove hear the sounds of battle.

Kurtis: That's loud. I guess something's happening.

The two return to the main party to find chaos. Delphine is still frozen. Aoki's missing. Trufino and Sir Gyles are fighting. The Harper, trying to light up the dark streets, cast continual light. But like the Hold Person spell, this one also backfires. Instead, a glowing ball appears around Wileu's head, blinding the elf.

It takes a few minutes to calm things down. Adarra dispels the light from around Wileu's head. Florentino appears to be dead and Trufino blames the Motley Too. Taking the body with him to the ship, he vows to return to exact retribution. The Harper of the North farewells him with a bout of ulcers.

With Trufino out of the way, the group decides to have Wileu, Kurtis, and Jandove split up to try to find Aoki's trail. After an extensive search of the city, they manage to find a faint one leading north out of Gelfini along the coast.

On the Hunt

A light rain begins to fall. They have to move quickly before it washes away all traces of the halfling's trail.

Shortly after leaving Gelfini, the Motley Too comes across a group of six dwarves bringing a boat ashore. Seeing them, the dwarves brandish their weapons, approaching warily. As they get closer, it becomes evident that these are derro, not dwarves.

One derro, most likely the leader of this group, is wearing crystal armor. He and Kurtis exchange some words in orcish. Just as it seems they've come to an agreement to let each group pass without incident, Delphine speaks up in outrage.

Delphine: Why aren't they docking at a real port? Are they claiming to be traders? If they're traders, what are they trading? We need to tie up loose ends. Let's just kill them.

Seeing that Delphine is not going to let them go, the derro attack. The Harper casts a spell on a piece of silver, causing an intense light. The light causes the armor and weapons of five derro to disintegrate, leaving only the leader still armor-clad and armed.

The Harper stabs him, warning the Motly Too not to touch him. Three derro flee back to the boat while two stay to attack. These two are easily killed. Jandove hits one of the fleeing derro with her arrows. The remaining derro abandon the boat and start swimming away.

Kurtis questions the lead derro. He doesn't appear to be cooperating. Kurtis turns to the group, translating.

Kurtis: He lost his wife. He's very distraught. He can't be held responsible for his actions. Anybody want some mushrooms?

Skeptical, the group questions Kurtis and he unconvincingly assures them that is exactly what the derro told him. Knowing they need to get moving if they hope to catch Aoki, the party reluctantly lets the derro leader go after taking his crystal armor for Jandove.

Kurtis: Don't forget! Great Kurtis of Kurtisville whipped your butt!

Back on the hunt for Aoki, they follow her faint trail to a cave.

Tako Grotto

They cautiously enter the mouth of the cave. The Harper of the North takes out his magically illuminated coin to light up the area. The sudden brightness disturbs four owlbears and they charge at the party with an angry roar.

Sir Gyles easily cleaves through two of the creatures as Delphine's lightning finishes the other two. Before the group has time to discuss how to proceed, they hear a grumbling, oafish sound coming towards them from farther inside the cave.

A group of ogres soon comes into view. At the sight of them, Jandove is filled with hate. Grabbing her bow, she prepares to fire, but her motions are stilted and causes her bow string to break.

Kurtis moves to fire his arrows, but his bow strong also breaks.

Sir Gyles: I will inspire you all with this battle leadership!

And so saying, the paladin steps into the fray, dealing large amounts of damage to their foes. Adarra summons a small swarm of insects to harry the ogres. Between the insects and Sir Gyles' inspiring battle cry, the Motley Too eventually kills all of the ogres.

As they continue farther into the grotto, the corridor comes to a T. The floor is covered in water and appears to get deeper farther in. Aoki's trail is lost. Now they won't be able to question her about assassinating Florentino.

Hearing a sound to their right, they shine a light down the east corridor and see a giant scorpion-like creature coming towards them.

Kurtis: Battle leader!

The rest of the party gape at the elf ranger as he charges towards the pedipalp. Adarra follows, her body transforming into that of a crocodile as she runs into the deeper water.

Delphine: Did she just turn into a crocodile?

Jandove: Yup.

Delphine: Hunh.

Crocodile Adarra, Jandove, and Kurtis are able to kill all four pedipalps but not before their poisoned stingers injure Sir Gyles, Wileu, and The Harper. Luckily, they are able to neutralize the poison and continue on.

The pedipalps were nested at a dead end. Retracing their steps to the T, they try the western corridor. Perhaps they can still catch up to Aoki. The corridor ends in a small room, the walls covered in runes. There is a door on the far wall. The water is starting to get too deep for the gnomes so Crocadarra lets them sit on her back.

Opening the door brings in more water. This portion of the grotto must be under sea level. There is likely an opening to the sea somewhere in the cave.

Walking through the door, they surprise a group of mudblups (or were they called mudglups?). Before anyone can attack, the door shuts and weapon wielding tentacles burst out of the water. The group splits, some fighting the mudblups while the others tackle the tentacles.

Kurtis and The Harper of the North are both injured by the tentacles, but Kurtis reacts as if the injury is more severe than it appears. Wileu manages to stab one of the tentacles. All of them react to the injury, straightening suddenly as if in pain, before disappearing once again into the water.

The Harper: I can ease your wounds if you can take more pain.

Kurtis: Uh...O...K?

Harper grins as he puts his hands on Kurtis. Kurtis screams as he is healed and then stress eats a few hallucinatory mushrooms.

Despite having lost Aoki's trail and suffered quite a bit of abuse from the creatures they encountered, the party presses on, heading north because the water becomes shallower in that direction. The cave opens a bit, the walls in this section giving off an eerie purple glow. Mushrooms the size of halflings are growing out of the water.

Seeing this, Kurtis starts to grin wildly, waving at the mushrooms. He strides forth, gripping one of the mushrooms and tries to pull it out of the ground. The mushroom starts screaming. Kurtis pulls harder. The screaming attracts the attention of a giant purple worm. Rearing out of the water, it dives at Kurtis with it's mouth wide open. Kurtis manages to avoid being swallowed, but gets cut on the worm's razor sharp teeth.

The Harper ushers the rest of the party forward, poking another mushroom as they run past. This mushroom also shrieks when it is disturbed. It is enough to distract the worm and allow Kurtis to escape and join his companions.

The cave turns east. The entire left wall seems to be a mirror. Up ahead is an octopus creature with very familiar-looking weapon wielding tentacles.

Kurtis, still addled by the mushrooms he ate, thinks it's smiling at him and beckoning for him to come closer.

Kurtis: I'm going to shoot you with happy arrows.

Kurtis shoots the tako with a total of no arrows while Sir Gyles kills it.

The group finds that the takos are armed with weapons magically enhanced to hurt elves and, for some reason, dogs.

As Kurtis mourns the death of his happy octopus friend, Wileu notices a hidden door in the south wall. She feels around for a bit before finding the mechanism to open it. As the door opens, Delphine, who is standing closest to it, is nearly overwhelmed by the stench that wafts out. Behind the door is a small room full of undead creatures - zombies, skeletons, and a wight.

Before Wileu can move to defend Delphine, a second tako appears and slashes at the elf with one of its weapons. She screams in agony. Adarra, Jandove, and Kurtis help Wileu kill it.

Sir Gyles runs to Delphine's side and lifts up his holy symbol. The zombies and skeletons retreat in fear, but the wight is unaffected. Delphine fires acid arrows at it, but the wight barely slows. Kurtis moves forward to kill it, but not before Delphine is scratched. Though the injury itself is not too severe, Delphine is visibly weakened and diminished by the wight's touch.

Angry and feeling her companions had been slow to help her fight off the wight, Delphine walks away to investigate a small alcove farther east. Inside the alcove, she finds a chest perched above a pile of gold and electrum coins. Inside the chest are more coins, 4 sapphires, a Scroll of Disintegration, and a Horde Horn.

Meanwhile, Jandove and Kurtis inspect the north mirror wall. As they get closer, they realize instead of their reflections, they see a pristine marble corridor. Walking down the corridor is a man in antiquated armor holding a dagger. When he catches sight of Jandove, he glares at her and, raising the dagger, makes a cutting gesture across his throat.

Kurtis also sees a one-eyed stegosaurus standing next to two white versions of Vain, the black statue that follows Brecaryn around. Kurtis recognizes Erintrah from the Motley Crew's description. Seeing them, Erintrah sends his white Vains through the mirror. While the Motley Crew might have been able to handle two Vain-level golems, the Motley Too is not. Kurtis is severely beaten. Wileu is knocked unconscious.

Luckily, though still miffed, Delphine doesn't want her companions to die. Reading from the scroll she just found, she is able to disintegrate the two white Vains.

To Bravely Flee

From further down the corridor, more takos and mudblups approach, with one of the takos seemingly guiding a horde of more undead. But the group is in no condition to fight on. Discretion being the better part of valor, the Motley Too retrace their steps and escape the grotto, using the shrieking mushrooms to sidestep the purple worm again. They then head back to Gelfini to lick their wounds.

Aoki has escaped, and the group doesn't even know why she betrayed them.

Back to the bullet points