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vaalaketh · 10 months ago

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Moonsea Campaign Session 3

Date: 2/18/24

Location: Ashabenford, The Moonsea Ride

IG Date: The 15th, 16th, and 17th of Tarsakh

Relevant map below:

15th of Tarsahk - In the evening

Vaalaketh ends up sharing a room with Malachai, and Julian with Vierithra, as the two of them, mainly Vierithra, want to discuss visions and religious meditation. Julian is still very vague in the conversation, only saying again that “you reach out and pull the threads that connect you to your deity, find them, tug, and see what pops out.”

Vierithra ponders this and thanks her for her guidance, then settles down to try it herself during her trance.

Vaalaketh and Malachai don't interact much beyond Malachai worrying that ze is going to get bothered, but Vaalaketh is tired and just ends up going to sleep, avoiding any annoyances.

~~ Long Rest ~~

16th of Tarsahk - Ashabenford

Vierithra comes out of her trance at around 2-3am, having had a bit of a clarifying vision after attempting the technique, but she does not share any of this information with the party. Afterwards, instead of staying in her room, she decides to snoop around, and exact some petty revenge on the innkeeper for his racism against her the day before.

She sneaks around the inn sabotaging where she can, doing things specifically to make the unfortunate events to occur due to her actions look like accidents instead of outright sabotage, so not to implicate herself, or give the innkeeper any sense that his beliefs about Drow are justified in any way. All in all she:

Loosens the bolts on the wine rack, so when its touched next it will fall

Closes and jams the flue of the kitchen chimney and puts chicken bones on top to make it look like something died up there

Hides scraps of food around the kitchen and inn to try and provoke a cockroach infestation

Closes the oven vents so it will overheat

Moves everything in the common room 2 inches to the left

Other than Vierithra, Vaalaketh is the first up in the morning, and after a brief attempt to go outside and sun himself, upon realizing its much colder this far north in the spring, he decides to stay inside, start a fire in the common room fireplace, and sit next to it to warm himself up while he waits for the others. Once they are all downstairs and ready, they leave the inn as a group at Vierithra’s urging and go to get breakfast across the river at the Ashabenford Arms.

The caravan isn’t set to leave until mid-morning, and no one is in need of anything that they would need to shop for, so, with Vaalaketh having seen through Vierithra’s attempts to lie about not having done anything, the group spend their morning discreetly watching the White Hart Inn for signs that Vierithra’s sabotage has had an effect, and they do eventually see weird black smoke coming out of the chimney and have a good laugh about it, with even Malachai approving, having witnessed the incident.

By mid-morning, the party head over to the Black Eagle Coster to meet the caravanners.

There are 4 wagons in total, each being pulled by 2 draft horses. Around them are 5 people performing various tasks. 3 humans (2 men and 1 woman), a half elf woman, and a halfling woman.

The caravanners greet the party and introduce themselves, and the party introduce themselves in turn.

They are as follows:

Iletian Blackeagle: human man in his mid 30s, shoulder length brown hair and dark eyes, resembling the women we spoke to the day before. Says that he is her brother and that she runs logistics while he’s in charge of the caravans.

Dorn Shandean: human man in his early 20s, with dirty blond hair put back in a ponytail. Blue grey eyes and looks like a farmer.

Mera Holdfast: human woman in her late 30s, with long brown hair with a few streaks of grey coming in at one temple, which is tied back into a braid. Keen black eyes.

Hella Malorn: half elf maybe in her early 20s, looks like shes of wood elf descent, brown skin and coppery hair.

Rosiden Merrimar: halfling woman in her early 30s, just barely 3ft tall, curly brown hair and lively hazel eyes.

Vaalaketh puts himself in charge, as he has the most/only experience guarding caravans, and walks around with the caravanners taking stock of the wagons and cargo. Learns that the goods consist of cheese (Mera), grain (Dorn and Hella), flour (Dorn and Hella), and beer (Rosiden). Iletian tells him that it will take around four days to get to Hillsfar at 20ish miles a day. The party also learn from that the people in Hillsfar aren’t very friendly to non-humans, which the entire group is disappointed with.

The caravan gets going a bit after introductions and the walk-around are finished, and Vaalaketh positions everyone to be on watch at the same time at different points around the caravan. The wagons are traveling in a diamond shaped formation, with Vaalaketh positioned at the front, Julien at the back, and Vierithra and Malachai in the center with Malachai flying while the terrain is open and ze’re unobstructed, which, initially it is.

The first half of the day is uneventful, the only encounter being with some people heading south toward Ashabenford from the village of Glen.

In the late afternoon the caravan reaches the treeline of the Cormanthor Forest. There are again no dangerous interactions, only an encounter with some people on foot coming from Essembra, in Battledale, heading back towards Ashabenford, who stop to chat. Vaalaketh asks them how the road ahead looks, but they haven’t actually been on the Moonsea Ride long, having come from the intersection of Rauthauvyr’s Road, so they don't know much, and can only warn the party that the trail is very muddy near “the standing stone” and there’s a possibility that the wagons might get stuck.

Vierithra shares some information on the standing stone on the uneventful way to it, telling the party that it’s a tall, grey monolith, that was erected almost 1500 years ago to mark the signing of the Dalelands compact, which was an agreement between human settlers and the elves of Cormanthor about where they were allowed to settle, what kind of treatment they would have toward the forest, and so on.

The road does end up being pretty muddy. Vierithra uses guidance to help Hella navigate through the mud, and Vaalaketh hops off the cart he was riding (Mera’s) to help her do the same from the ground. Malachai flies overhead again keeping an eye out for bandits while the others are busy, paranoid about getting attacked while stuck. The only wagon to get stuck is Dorn’s, who starts to panic a little, but is helped get unstuck by Vierithra, who uses a combination of guidance on Dorn, and channel divinity on herself to gain proficiency in athletics to push the wagon and get it out of the mud and back on the road.

The group stop for the night not long after, and watch is organized, with Vierithra offering to stay up all night to watch one end of the caravan since she only needs four hours of trance and can do that in the morning, and also has the best darkvision and perception out of everyone. Vaalaketh thinks this is a good idea, and also that Hella’s offer to help with watches is a good idea, settling on Julian being on first watch with Vierithra, Then Malachai, then Vierithra on her on at the darkest point of the night, and then Hella on fourth watch with Vierithra.

Vaalaketh is still wide awake and chatty, and with no one super tired, the whole group decide to play a few games after Vierithra offers to play dice or cards, and Vaalaketh says he has a dragon chess set. The whole group agrees on dice, but not for any money. Rosiden comes up with an alternative, pulling a handful of really nice shiny rocks out of her pocket. Vaalaketh follows her example excitedly, pulling out his own handful of both shiny and round rocks, and then Vierithra pulling out the chunk of luminous stone she took from the cave.

The party go looking for more rocks on the road. Vaalaketh finds three nice and shiny chunks of quartz, Julian finds a few skipping stones that are smooth but aren’t really nice to look at, Vierithra goes back into the woods looking for bones and lucks out, finding a fully intact wolf skeleton, teeth and all, and lastly, Malachai does zer best, but (natural 1) ends up tripping over zer own tail and falling in the mud, and everyone sees it.

All of the party but Malachai (who has none) and Rosiden put stones into the pot and they start to play. Julian wins the first round with a perfect 15. She wins:

2 wolf teeth

2 quartz

3 small sparkly rocks (probably mica)

Second game Rosiden rolls badly and folds, Malachai and Vaalaketh both tie, closes to 15 at 14, during the tiebreaker they tie again, and during the second tiebreaker Vaalaketh wins:

1 agate

2 wolf teeth

1 skipping rock

A pinch of chili powder (given by Malachai out of spite after a squabble about zer not putting anything in the pot)

After this the party and Rosiden play cards, each trying to get the highest hand and bluff each other, they try to deceive and sus each other out for a bit, but Rosiden ends up taking the win out of nowhere with a perfect 20 for her hand. The group continue playing various games until they get tired and everyone other than Vierithra and Julian, who start their watch, go to sleep.

~~ Long Rest ~~

Watch 1 is uneventful, other than Vierithra accidentally startling and chasing off a badger. While they're awake together, Vierthra reveals to Julian that she did have a bit of a clarifying vision, but like usual it raised more questions. Julian confirms that it’s usually like that for her as well. Then, after an offhand comment about clerics needing to be wise to figure things like that out, Julian says that she’s not a cleric and never has been, and that she was an anchorite, was cloistered, and it was something she enjoyed; that “people came from all over to get help with their visions” from her. She no longer performs such services though, even though she seems to wish she could. When Vierithra presses, and asks why she couldn’t still do so on the side, Julian makes it clear she can't, and doesn’t want to discuss it any longer or be asked about it again. And that’s the end of their conversation.

Watch 2 is also uneventful, and Vierithra and Malachai discuss various things, what exactly Vierithra did at the inn and why those things specifically, her religion and motives, and Malachai asking for advice on how to blend in better since both of them stand out quite a bit, to which Vierithra says there’s probably not much to be done, and if ze doesn't feel like ze can do anything, than to not bother. That she herself feels no need to change her appearance personally and she’s proud of who she is, and that if someone were to take issue with her that she’s willing to defend herself, and Malachai as well, as zer a member of the party. Which Malachai is grateful for.

17th of Tarsahk - The Moonsea Ride, heading deeper into the Cormanthor Forest

Watch 3 is uneventful other than a skunk wandering into camp, which Vierithra lures away with a piece of leftover ramps root that she found the other day.

Watch 4 has Hella joining Vierithra, but not doing very well perception wise so is clueless as to what’s going on for the most part. As it gets close to dawn Vierithra notices shapes moving out in the woods and realizes that they are a pack of wolves eyeing the horses. She gets up and goes to stand with the horses, watching the wolves as they watch her in return. She does her best to look intimidating and aggressive, not breaking eye contact and standing so that she might look bigger than she is to try and spook them, and it works, they do take off after a brief standoff.

In the morning Vaalaketh wakes up early and takes over for Vierithra, who promptly climbs onto one of the wagons and goes right into her trance. Meanwhile, Malachai changes into zer more masculine clothes due to the others being covered in mud, as well as not wanting to face any transphobia alongside the racism heading into Hillsfar, and tells the party they can use he/him pronouns on him for the time being, as that’s what he will be presenting as from there on out.

The other caravanners are preparing breakfast, which Malachai hovers over until he sees that they're doing a really good job with and relaxes. Vaalaketh has the very strong impulse to bother Vierithra as she opens her mouth to signal that she wants food, but he’s also sluggish and cold in the mornings, so is able to resist in favor of going to sit close to the fire and eat instead.

Before too long the caravan is back on the road. With Vierithra in her trance and resting, Malachai decides to fly over top the two middle wagons so he can keep an eye on both sides simultaneously. The forest begins to get closer, the trees becoming older, taller, and thicker, very dense, and all coming alive as spring rolls in. there is birdsong in the trees, and the occasional rustle in the undergrowth as birds and animals go about their business.

At first the day is uneventful. Then around midday, Vaalaketh notices that there are some strange vines with yellow flowers growing along the side of the road, it is noted that it should be way too early in the year for flowers to be blooming. He also notices there is a sickly sweet smell in the air. He is unaffected, but Vierithra is woken from her trance feeling weird and not quite awake, not sure whats going on but with the irresistible impulse to get up and head towards the source of the smell, which she does, falling out of the cart while doing so.

Dorn and Mera are afflicted similarly, their wagons coming to a stop, and in the same not entirely there state, they get out of the drivers seats and start to head toward the vines as well.

Vierithra reaches the vines well before the other two and one of the vines curls up towards her, winding around her wrist and attacking her psychically. Vaalaketh witnesses it burrowing into her skin, as well as spots 4 zombies coming towards the caravan. He takes the risk of an opportunity attack from the vines to get Vierithra away from it, and takes a similar amount of psychic damage in the process, but succeeds in moving her back, as well as grabbing Mera and moving her back toward the wagon as well, though he isn’t able to make it too far with both of them struggling despite initially being able to overpower them. Malachai flies down to help him with Mera, pulling her back to the wagon further, and just in time, as the zombies swarm him and Vierithra, both of them taking hits, and her managing to slip out of his grasp in the chaos and returning to the vine.

Julian, Iletian both attack the vines with arrows, and Malachai uses silvery barbs to protect Vierithra from both the vines, and a stray arrow from Julian. Fortunately, before things get worse, Vierithra, Dorn, and a little while later, Mera, are able to break free of the control the vines have over them. Vierithra is able to dodge another attack by the vines, and between her, Julian, Iletian, and Malachai, the vine is destroyed.

Meanwhile, Dorn joins Vaalaketh with a spear and attacks the zombies. Vaalaketh casts divine favor, channeling Bane’s divine power for the first time, killing one zombie instantly, tanks almost every hit from the remaining 3, and then kills two more with single hits after one is stabbed and injured by Dorn, one is shot by Iletian, one is shot by Julian, and two are driven back by Vierithra coming back to aid them with her own channel divinity turn undead.

The only injuries are to Vierithra and Vaalaketh, and while both are pretty bad off, Vierithra is able to take care of both with cure wounds and Vaalaketh doesn’t end up needing to use his lay on hands. She is apologetic for getting charmed by the vines, what she perceives as a failure, but no one blames her, Iletian telling her “don't worry about it, it happens to the best of us.”, they are all just happy she’s okay, and Malachai tells her so.

Vaalaketh is very excited about being able to do the radiant damage despite his injuries, having not expecting it and going on about it as the caravan gets moving again.

Final Loot/Items Acquired

A caravan to guard

A bunch of nice rocks

#session notes #dnd #session 3

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