Mattiverse Next - Session 7

Firefight!

• They enter the Butcher's workshop.
• Their impromptu shadow bootcamp has taught them the telltale signs: There is a shadow in the room. They immediately engage.
  • They miss, it disappears. The commotion causes other entities to burst from behind the curtain at the other side of the room: Fire beings, so hot that they set the curtain aflame with their passing (two mephits and two magmin.
  • The first shots from the party go wide. The mephits make Four's scourge and Banner's whip unwieldable (doing damage in the process), and Four's sore condition at the beginning of conflict leaves him in a pretty bad position as he and the elementals close. He takes hits that leave burning residue on his flesh, and even the shadow slips in an icy touch.
  • Banner engages the other flank while Bobwhite harries and Beldon supports. Bobwhite finally gets a hit in, but fails to take out his target. Four falls, and his opponents turn their attention to the rest of the group. Later, Beldon heals him and be attacks from the elementals' rear.
  • The first mephit and magmin fall, creating explosions in their wake. Banner takes out another, and the resulting blast knocks him unconscious. Four has a similar experience.
  • The last enemies fall. Flames are consuming everything flammable--it's time to go.
  • Beldon busies himself with bringing the fallen members back up, while Bobwhite uses a mage hand to investigate the curtain.
  • Behind it is a large altar. A sword, large enough to be unwieldy for anyone smaller than an Ogre, lays across it. In its middle, there is a brazier set aflame, with a silvery rod in the middle.
  • Bobwhite extracts it. The group is immediately beset by a voice like squirming spiders in their heads:
  • It introduces itself as the Master of Hounds‎‎, and thanks them for turning its prison into its lair. In return, it offers safe passage.
  • The Rindherders are not into this development, but given their state, decide taking it up on that offer is the better idea than pressing further into the dungeon. They got what they came for, and it is time to leave.
    • (have they just created Ravenloft??)

• As promised, they are able to leave the cave. In the twilight, they are stopped short by none other than Gerom and his band of assholes.
  • He wants the wand. His connection to it, and how he tracked the halfling boys down, are unclear. He offers up that it's simply one of the gifts "Ma" has given him--she loves all her brood, but loves him just a little bit more.
    • Everyone but Bobwhite notes that he is saying "Ma" in a different way than they did growing up. From him, it sounds more like "Maw". Bobwhite is too busy causing mischief with his mage hand.
  • He also says that he doesn't really want things to get violent, but that that is the difference between them leaving with just the wand, or leaving with everything they own.
  • It goes against every fiber of Bobwhite's being to do so, but he capitulates. With a stroke of fast thinking, though, he decides Gerom doesn't know which piece of the Lance they have--he gives up Good Luck, rather than the one they have just picked up, reasoning that the unknown might provide more opportunity than the known.
    • He also, again, picks Gerom's wallet.
  • Gerom and his gang leave, with a parting quip: "We left a nice batch of roadwater in your cart for you!"
    • This means he emptied their waterskins out and pissed in them.

• The boys lick their wounds and plan next steps.

Onward to Ubrekt

• Beldon now can tell the direction of all (five) other pieces of the Lance. Three are West, in the Ubrekt/Wydmoor/Celestia/Odessa general environs.
  • One of them seems to be in the Wydmoor area.
  • One of them seems to be up in the Crysanthemum Bay.
  • One of them seems to be in the far, monster infested parts of Old Fresia.
  • One of them is somewhere in the Northern Stormchalice.
  • One of the is on the far side of the Kalthresi Range.
  • Gerom's (or, at least, Good Luck's) location is now visible, too.

• Three are West, and two are East. The group decides on West, and sets off for University Island (by way of Laketown). They decide to make a stop at the closest hamlet to trade for a bunch of dogs for the overland travel.
  • There is an ambush on the way! It was clearly not accidental, but good planning does not make up for poor morale and tactics--the encounter is a one-sided slaughter.
    • Shooting a bolt in the back of his sixth consecutive bandit, something in Bobwhite clicks and he realizes how uncharacteristically into the Wolfen-Khan thing he had become. He begins to suspect that his enthusiasm might have another source, and wonders if the new Herald might express some of the same tendencies.
  • On search, the bandits possess an accurate (if poorly spelled) description of the four of them. Gerom is an obvious suspect. It seems that if he's not willing to be a kinslayer directly, he's at least willing to encourage others take it up for him.
  • They at least have some equipment to pawn, so the party scoops it up.

• This, with the wagon, gives them enough to trade for a full retinue of dogs. They set off for Laketown immediately.
• In Laketown, they only spend enough time to get their bearings and buy some potions before moving on.
  • Strangely, Gerom has veered South from here, which is not toward any of the other pieces. He proceeds to move into the Crogbon, then vanishes from Beldon's radar, over the next couple of days.
• Travel over the plains is uneventful, and fast. They make it to the canals, trade off their extra dogs (keeping a mount for each), and Four is able to barter work for passage.
• More travel, work-filled, but otherwise without incident. Beldon is comically bad at boatwork, which is a great ice-breaker. They're well-liked by the crew before they arrive at Verdon, on the Stormchalice Sea.
  • Transfer to boat--the (this time, human) crew is uninterested in their assistance, but passage is still cheap. They make it to University Island, ready to search.

Awards

• Bonus: 25 xp to Bobwhite for Cheating with Mage Hand
• Encounter: 100 to all for Mephits and Magmin
• Objective: 150 to all for The Lance part 2
• Bonus: 25 xp to Bobwhite for Knowing What's Coming
• Milestone: 200 to all for Mission Failed (?)
• Encounter: 200 to all for Ambush
• Milestone: 150 to all for The Wild Hunt Begins
• Bonus: 100 xp to Bobwhite for Preemptive Bookkeepering
• Milestone: 250 to all for Making the Kessal Run