Nerdaissance

The party woke up from their first day of rest to see Lloynis praying in front of the fire.

Now that everyone is up, we should really get going. With how serious the illness is, it is important that we get to Gavin as quickly as possible.

The party makes it uneventfully to Woodglen by mid-day. Lloynis takes leave of them to go take care of Gavin, asking them to meet him at the inn at sunset. The party wanders about town, eventually entering a local blacksmith’s shop. Xangul is interested in buying a grappling hook, and does so, not realizing that rope doesn’t come with the hook. Tabris buys an oak quarterstaff, and Yurram fiddles over whether or not to buy several items, eventually getting nothing.

Talking to Joe the merchant, the party learns of  Dalia Cowherd, she was a jewelry hawker. She showed up a little over a week ago, and became terribly sick. That missionary happened to show up a few days later and insisted that he could cure her. Alas, he couldn’t, and now even worse, he is just as sick.

At sunset, the party heads to the inn to see Lloynis fraught with grief, drinking green tea from a mead glass. I’m afraid this is a horrible case of illness. Gavin’s such a lively character, but he is as frail as me right now. In order to cure him, I will need to figure out what has poisoned him. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. If I can get a sample of what has poisoned him, I should be able to make an antidote magically, but only if I have the sample as a reference. Will you help me get the sample?

The party agreed to go get the sample, but first they asked to go see Gavin. In the temple, Gavin is looking feverish in his bed. He tells them te story of the gypsy. “There was a one time where the wheel on her wagon got off the road, so she had to stop to get his wagon back on track. She never saw anything, but she felt the greatest sense of dread. She knew he had to hurry or something might happen. It was where the stream runs right next to the road, maybe a half hour North of town.”

Similarly, Gavin never ate anything unusual or ran into any monsters as he was coming to Woodglen. Rather,  Gavin woke up from a horrible dream when he was taking a nap before entering Woodglen. He always likes to take a rest before entering a town and spending all of his energy helping people. He took a underneath a tree by a stream, and woke up from the worst nightmare. There wasn’t anything happening in the dream, but he just felt a horrible sense of unease.

The party agrees to try to find the stream that seems to be in both stories. When they get to the stream, Lloynis tries to find any source of evil or dread. There is nothing there that could have caused the illness, but there are four  Troglodytes ready to fight. The party makes good work of them, but it does take a toll on them. They leave one Troglodyte alive to try to beat information out of him. He is mum about much everything except that he has failed the Great one. The party agrees to let the Troglodyte go and use Yurram’s owl to find the lair. The owl indeed is able to find the hideout, and the party decides to storm the lair, as Gavin slips closer to death.

As they peer into the lair, they see their escaped Troglodyte, two Troglodytes wearing steel medallions and a grotesque bigger Troglodyte. He is the great one, the corrupted one. The normally slick troglodyte skin has become scaly, and it looks like he is almost demonic with horns almost growing from his head. His hands are large and scaly, with longer claws than any normal beast.

The party came to fight, but unfortunately they were overmatched. Despite the efforts of Yurram and Lloynis, everyone is dropped by the four Troglodytes, except for the mighty monk Tabris, Yurram’s owl, and Lloynis. They flee the scene, for discretion is the better part of valor. They rest up, so Lloynis can restore his spells, and they sneak back into the cave. The three Troglodytes, for the escaped one did die in the last battle,  worshipping the source of the black stream and the Corrupted One.

Tabris is able to sneak up on them while Lloynis revives Yurram. Soon, everyone is up and fighting again, and eventually even the Corrupted one falls. Lloynis sees that he can indeed make an antidote from some of the black stream water, and they head off back to Woodglen, hopefully in time to save Gavin’s life.

The next session proves to be the end of the party’s first quest, and hopefully it will happen soon!