Wilderlands: Session 23

 

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

This session was run on November 1, 2022.

 

 

This session picked up with the PCs aboard the crashed escape pod on the surface of Ghenrek IV. They narrowly escaped from the abandoned Alliance space station when the Markab arrived in system. The Beagle, their ride home, has been destroyed, their escape pod is on fire, and a horde of strange frog creatures are closing in.

 

They fled the burning ship and the frog things immediately attacked. Raup easily killed one with her psionic attack and Le Roche made quick work of another with his pulse rifle. Kirk studied the creatures when he reached the bottom of the ramp and announced that he thought they were the product of genetic engineering. 

 

 

 

The creatures rushed them, swarming over Mendel and cutting her with their claws. The others desperately fired into the approaching frogs. They found them easy to kill, but they were able to separate the characters and surround them based on sheer numbers. The tide shifted when they managed to break the attack on Mendel. This allowed them to concentrate on the creatures around LeRoche and Raup and mop up the rest.

 

With the immediate threat of the frog things gone, the party concentrated on getting as far away from the burning spacecraft as possible. After about 5 minutes of running into the swamp, the escape pod blew up releasing a giant fireball over the swamp.

 

After a short distance, they came to a clearing and saw two men in brown robes crouched behind a tree on the other side. The men were pointing at the smoke rising from the pod and did not seem to notice the PCs. Strom slipped through the woods around the clearing to approach the two men from behind. Once he was within a few meters, he could hear them discussing whether “their babies” had survived the explosion. Strom’s translator device had no trouble deciphering their words. They were speaking a language distantly related to Galanglic.

 

Strom signaled the others to enter the clearing and the two men appeared shocked to see them emerge from the trees. Strom chose this moment to address them from behind, startling them further. He explained to them that their craft had crashed, and they were trying to get to safety.

 

The men were initially confused by his use of “craft” and assumed he meant a boat. When he explained that they came on a “sky boat” the two men decided they were dealing with a group of powerful magicians. The two men introduced themselves as Jons and Sefton Bril, monks from the nearby Temple of Tsathoggua. They explained that the party had crashed in a place called the Great Dismal Swamp and that their religious order was forced to live in the swamp because it was fleeing persecution by Lady Risa Aleford of The Barony of the Lakes. They offered to take the party to the temple.

 

On the way, they explained that the frog creatures were part of their ongoing effort to create life in the image of their god. The party decided to not mention that they had killed the frog things, instead they told the monks that they tried to get them to run away from the burning ship, but they did not understand. The monks revealed that the creatures were born from vats in the temple and that there had been several prior attempts that had been unsuccessful. They also admitted that the creation of the frog things was one of the reasons that they faced religious persecution. “People just don’t seem to like them.”

 

They crested a hill and saw the temple before them.

 

 

 

This ended the interlude and we returned to the main campaign.

 

19 Sweetrain 4433 (Day 59)

 

The morning after they returned from the Montu manor, Duycken and Vargr set out for Webfoot (CSIO Hex 3110), a duck settlement at the mouth of the River Stillring. The rest of the party was going to spend the next two weeks training and Duycken wanted to recruit some duck henchmen. As they made their way to the Byrny docks, they saw a paladin and his retinue of fifteen men making their way into town from the docks. The paladin’s banner bore a golden hind.

 

Duycken hailed the paladin and introduced himself and Vargr. The paladin greeted the drake knight and introduced himself as Sir Runic Rump of Tegel. He announced that he was in Byrny to compete in the upcoming tournament. This caused some momentary confusion until it was clear that he meant Lady Rixia’s tournament. Duycken informed him that he was too late and displayed his fourth-place medal as proof.

 

Sir Rump began yelling at Chastain, one of his men, that he had embarrassed him by making him travel all this way only to miss the tournament. Rump then asked Duycken for information about the tournament and the duck provided a summary of events including their defeat of a ghost lady.

 

Rump seemed intrigued by this and mentioned that he had been having some problem with ghosts at Tegel Manor himself. He asked Duycken if he and his friends might be interested in helping him with his ghost problem. Vargr mentioned that they had quite a few things on their plate now but had plenty of experience with ghosts having defeated one at Stormwind Manor as well. This excited Rump and he indicated that he would be willing to reward them with a fifty percent stake in his manor if they could rid him of the ghosts of his troublesome relatives.

 

When Duycken inquired as to which relatives were giving him trouble, Runic replied, “All of them. The Rump family tree is quite large.”

 

“And straight,” Chastain added. Rump eyed him carefully, unsure whether he had been insulted.

 

Duycken and Vargr told the paladin that they would think on it, and they knew where to find him. They also mentioned that perhaps the Castle Keeper had given them enough adventure options to choose from already. Faithful reader, the Castle Keeper is nowhere near done giving adventure options.

 

They suggested to Sir Rump that he spend the night at Tulip’s Roadhouse and ask for the Stranger Special.

 

1 Meadowlark 4433 (Day 81)

 

Duycken and Vargr reached Webfoot and found the town to be in ill repair. Duycken sought an audience with the mayor and learned that business had been bad since the harbor had silted up and the newer ships headed for Dwarfport had a deeper draft and could not dock. Duycken asked how much the dredging operation would cost and was told that they estimated it would be around 20,000 GP. They mayor told him that many of the young ducks were leaving Webfoot because of the lack of opportunities, but he offered to take them down to the local watering hole to see if there was anyone interested.

 

Duycken recruited two ducks, the illusionist Rouen, and the bard Cayuga. He decided to pass on Pekin, an assassin, and failed to recruit a cleric of Torrchas named Khaki.

 

3 Meadowlark 4433 (Day 83)

 

Duycken and Vargr arrived back in Byrny.