Session #2 : Kindlewood is Nevermore
Cast of Characters:
- Brand
- Fedwig
- Lumpy
- Russell
After the battle for Lumpy (where the party rescued the halfling druid from the kidnapping bandits), the party stands in the ruins of Kindlewood.
Suddenly a thumping noise is heard from below their feet!
Digging around in the rubble, a locked metal door is unearthed. Without their trusty expert, Red, the party is left to pry the door open. Russell does this with his sword (which is roughly the size of a grown human… and serrated…). The door bursts open, a bandit rushes out screaming bloody murder, and the opening down into the cellar of the merchant’s basement is left with jagged and sharp edges.
The bandit is quickly dispatched and the party is left figuring out how to get down into the basement without harming themselves.
Russell chooses to muscle through and let his armor do the work for him.
Lumpy turns into a quick-footed rabbit and leaps down the stairs after him.
Fedwig, being of slim build, slips through unharmed.
Brand grabs the clothing from the dead bandit and uses that pad the edges so he can make his way downstairs.
In the room beyond, the party finds lots of smashed open and looted crates and barrels. A pattern in the dust alerts the party to a hidden door, and they search for the mechanism with which to open the door. Brand and Russell find this (and share a bro-ment) and a secret door opens!
Beyond the secret door lies a looted and smashed workshop. Fedwig realizes that the chemicals and equipment contained in the room is definitely used in the manufacturing of poisons! He also spies a poisonous beetle escaped from his captivity crawling around on the benches. Lumpy makes friends with the beetle and learns a little about the operations of the place.
Beyond the workshop was a hallway. Lumpy hears an odd voice echoing down the hallway speaking very creepily of eating something. He attempts to speak with the entity beyond. After stalling for a bit, the being Lumpy made contact with reveals herself as a giant spider and shoots webbing at Russell!
A fight begins and everyone gets covered with sticky webbing. Lumpy shapeshifts into a great bear to do battle with the spider, and through a series of events Russell ends up riding Lumpy into battle as he became stuck to his fur while trying to leap over the bear. Fedwig enrages the spider by shooting magic missiles into her eyes, Brand gets wrapped in webbing but uses his firemancy to conjure a spider of fire, and together the party slew the great arachnid!
Searching the room, the party finds a bunch of spider eggs, which Brand quickly dispatches with a conjured beast of fire. The webbing and eggs are burned away, along with whatever, or whomever, was rolled into cocoons…
Lumpy’s friendly poisonous beetle makes an appearance, crunching on some moss (which is known to have psychedelic properties for its species) and informs the party to a group of bandits is waiting in the room beyond.
The party thinks on the best way to get the drop on them, even though the bandits know they’re coming. While they’re deciding how best to do this, they hear a fight break out in the room, and footsteps pounding away!
Fedwig readies himself by turning invisible. Rushing into the room beyond, they find a small storeroom. At the back of the room is a tunnel leading up and a pedestal with smashed glass at the bottom. A bandit lies slumped against the pedestal, desperately trying to hold his insides in!
The party charges in! Lumpy shapeshifts into the form of a wolf. Russell puts the dying bandit out of its misery, and the party summarily dispatches two of the three other bandits. The last one is hamstrung by Lumpy and the party questions him. Brand is able to get some information out of the bandit (he found a treasure in the room, and he desperately wants to keep it) and the party promises to let him live, but Russell ends up killing him anyway! Russell also ends up killing the friendly poisonous beetle for threatening to touch the stone.
The party investigates the treasure the bandit found, which is a curious stone. Russell touches it and it promises him power… but he has to kill Fedwig! He declines and drops the stone. The stone is carefully stowed away in a bag for safekeeping.
Following the tunnel further, the adventurers find that it empties out into the Evermoors.
Deciding that was enough excitement for one day, the party decides to make camp in the tunnel leading out.
Places:
- Kindlewood (now known as Nevermore), a formerly-wealthy town located on a trade route near the Evermoors. Used to boast a lovely tavern and a stone mage tower. Former home of Brand and Lumpy
- Nevermore, a ruined town that was burnt to the ground during a horrific bandit attack. Has a large burnt and blackened stump of a great tree near the edge of town. Surrounding the ruined town are farmlands
- The merchant’s basement, a curiously fortified basement that survived the burning of the building above and held quite a few mysteries and unanswered questions in its depths
Notable NPCs:
- The friendly poisonous beetle, friend of Lumpy
- Wealthy merchant, used to have a home in Kindlewood. The party believes that the merchant had been creating poisons in his basement and selling them to the bandits
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