The Fifth Session

May 6, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

This session's notes are contributed by Marnoc's player, with some editing.

Shopping Spree

Our heroes wake up at the Bashful Walrus, the bar run by Belmac's cousin. There is a runner with a message for Belmac. The high priest of Nodiesop, Hauke, has invited us to the Feast of Ghosts, a Dwarven celebration of remembrance for those who died in the Wildfire. Fine clothing is required. Belmac keeps the dispatch.

Marnoc gives the splint mailFoisted from the Temple of Noidesop last session, under a ruse that Belmac was converting. to Belmac and warns Belmac that he has only seen Paladins and Clerics wear such armor. If anyone questions Belmac, he should say, “We are on a mission from God”.

After the Party enjoys a hearty breakfast they head to the trade quarter. At the blacksmith. Belmac exchanges his chainmail to help cover the cost of resizing the splint mail. Resizing the armour will take a day. Macnoc exchanges his scale mail for ring mail.

The Party leaves the smithy and heads to Salaar Balaar’s Bazaar. Ship buys some Lightning arrows. Marnoc buys a compass to cast Augury and some ruby dust. Zoltar inquires about the price of several wants. Belmac asks about the price of different enchantments for his bow. Theren enquires about a cask.

The Party leaves the bazaar and heads into the market to buy fine clothes. Everyone who doesn’t own fine clothes buys a set. Marnoc also buys a squid-themed pipe and a live chicken. The Party heads to the temple of Nodiesop to sacrifice the chicken.

Chopping Spree

At the temple of Nodiesop, Marnoc asks the acolyte minding the door about using the Altar of Sacrifice. The acolyte replies that it has been a slow day and that only a couple of chickens have been sacrificed, since it's only about 10 a.m. The Party heads to the altar. A couple of chicken heads stare down from spikes mounted behind the blood-soaked altar. Marnoc removes the chicken from the cage and hands his dagger to Belmac. Marnoc holds the chicken tenderly with neck exposed as Belmac chops off its head. The head of the chicken is placed on a spike behind the altar and Belmac returns the bloody knife to Marnoc.

After sacrificing the chicken, Marnoc is stopped by one of the temple acolytes who asks why his armour has no symbols or sigils of Nodiesop. The acolyte directs Marnoc to the armoury where they can affix the appropriate sigils. It will take about an hour. Marnoc changes into his new fine clothes and leaves his used common clothes in the temple’s community chest.

Meanwhile Zaltar attempts to learn how to play a song for Nodiesop on her ocarina. She also inquires about joining the church. Marnoc says Noidesop is for sailors only. Belmac says women can’t be sailors. Marnoc disagrees. Casandra the Paladin of Noidesop, who happens to be walking past, smacks Belmac in the back of the head, dealing 1 damage. Marnoc gets his armor back and the Party returns to the Bashful Walrus.

At the Walrus, the Party plays the only game Belmac knows: GO FISH. The Party discusses plans on how to smuggle their Bag of Holding into the feast. Backstories are exchanged:

• Marnoc lost his fingers and mangled his leg on a smuggling run that went sour.
• Theren was branded as a coward and thrown out of his village, then found an enchanted weapon.

A Ghost at the Feast

The next morning, the Party heads back to the Trade Quarter to pick up Belmac's armor. Theren is given the Bag of Holding to smuggle on his person. Everyone who is wearing armour doff their armour and places it in the Bag of Holding. Everyone places their backpacks stuffed with adventuring gear into the Bag of Holding. Marnoc and Belmac keep some of their weapons on their person.

At the entrance to the feast, Marnoc and Belmac check their weapons at the door. Marnoc tells the weapon-check man to be careful with the knife, as it is covered in chicken blood. The coatman offers to clean it and Marnoc declines. A guard asks about Ship's Bear, and whether it is possible to put diaper on bear. Marnoc says that the bear is enchanted and doesn't shit. The guard believes him and the bear is let through.

When the guard asks Theren about his satchel (the Bag of Holding) and why Theren was hiding it, Theren explains that the bag was nowhere near classy enough for a fancy feast. When the guard asks what is in the satchel, Theren takes out ink and paper and says that it is empty. The guard inspects in and believes him.

Once everyone is through the gate, the Party mingles with the guests. Theren uses Prestidigitation to light Marnoc’s pipe. Marnoc belches loudly and impresses a nearby, very classy looking, dwarf. Marnoc grabs two glasses of wine and approaches High Priest Hauke, who is standing in the place of honor along with most of the city’s guild masters. The Party talks with them and inquires about employment.

Marnoc looks around and sees nothing out of the ordinary, but the guild masters and high priests are drinking different wine from the rest of the attendees. Theren uses Detect Magic and only notices the magic crystals most of the guild masters are wearing.

Marnoc and Belmac try to convince a passing wine-waiter to bring them a glass of the fine wine the guild masters are drinking. Marnoc tries to bribe with a silver piece, then a gold piece and fails. Belmac tries to bribe with platinum and succeeds. The waiter returns with two glasses of the finest wine the city of Kingalore has to offer. Belmac and Marnoc drink the wine and notice no adverse effects. The waiter directs them to the brewmaster, who had previously been impressed by Marnoc's belching.

The Party approaches the brewmaster and explain their concerns about the wine. Zoltar asks about employment. Marnoc asks if it would be possible to buy a bottle of the fine wine, claiming to be a connoisseur. The brewmaster grabs a glass of wine from as passing tray and asks Marnoc to describe it. Marnoc waxes poetically for about a minute about arid summers, wet winters and volcanic soil. He completely fails to convince the brewmaster.

The head counselor taps a piece of silverware on his goblet and begins to propose a toast when suddenly all of the guild masters collapse. Guards escort the head counselor away from the party and attend to the fallen guild masters. The guards close off the party and, we suspect, the entire city.

Theren tosses the Bag of Holding back to Marnoc. When the guards question our heros Marnoc explains that he noticed the guild masters were drinking from different wine and they should question the wine servers and the wine goblets. He also requests a bottle of the brewmaster’s finest for “personal inspection”. The wine is provided. Soon a runner from the temple district arrives at the party exclaiming that the dead are rising and threatening the city. Our heroes retrieve their gear from the bag of holding, claim their checked weapons, and rush to the Temple District.

Graveyard Shift

At the Temple of Nodiesop, Cassandra the Palading is arguing with a cleric about whether to send the clerics to attend to the guild masters or keep them to help hold off the undead. After some disagreement, the clerics are sent away to attend to the guild masters. Our heros are lead to part of the graveyard where the waves undead are thinnest and begin to combat ghasts and ghouls.

Therin and Belmac slice and dice. Zoltar blasts away with magic. Ship sharp-shoots away. Marnoc does nothing of value. The Party easily reaches the mausoleum in the center of the graveyard.

Inside the mausoleum, the Party sees a huge brass ball. Theren detects that a mural along the back wall is magic. Marnoc enters the room and magical darkness engulfs the entire party. An evil entity offers to reward them greatly if they set him free. Before anyone can respond, the lights come back and four ghasts have spawned in the room. Our heroes dispose of them quickly and begin examining the room.

There are doors to the north and south. The Party inspects the door to the south of the entrance, but finds a dining room with nothing of interest.

Theren examines the mural more closes and walks through the illusion, where the Party finds a narrow hallway guarded by a turret. Theren borrows Marnoc's shield, and extends the shield into the hallway. The turret fires at him. Marnoc takes back his shield and tries walking into the hallway.

Belmac runs behind Marnoc and enters a room coming off of the hallway. In this first room our Belmac finds two treasure chests. In the first chest is some platinum, gold a potion (probably Cure Wounds), as well as a journal explaining that whomever wrote it is waiting for a champion to free the evil entity. Marnoc opens the second chest and finds more treasure as well as a silver key and a stone.

Marnoc enters the hallway while holding the stone and the turret does not fire at him. Marnoc and Belmac continue up the hallway to a second set of doors. The turret shoots at Belmac once.

Belmac and Marnoc loot a couple more rooms. They find nothing of interest other than some gold and another potion (later Theren figures out it is a potion of Gaseous Form). Marnoc smashes the turret and uses the key to open the door the turret was guarding.

They are in a small room with a plinth and a stone chest. Theren, Ship, and Zoltar re-join Belmac and Marnoc in the plinth-room. Theren detects magic items inside the chest. Marnoc gives the stone to Theren. Several party members try to rip the chest open and fail. Marnoc and Belmac smash at it with their hammers, but fail to open it. The plinth has a similar sigils as the stone that deactivated the turret. The Party votes on whether to place the stone on the plinth. Zoltar and Belmac vote “Yes”, Theren, Marnoc and Ship vote “No”. The bear doesn’t vote.

Our heros travel back to the entryway then proceed through the North door. Inside is a library with few books of note. There are two tomes preserved inside a glass case. Marnoc smashes the case and triggers a force trap, taking massive damage from the broken glass. One of the tomes is an antiquated history books of civilizations past. The second book, written in Low Common, is read by Zoltar. It contains more details about the evil entity. Our heroes continue on through a door on the far side of the library and find themselves in a sanctuary.

That's where we leave our heroes for the night, with Ship poisoned.