Basements and Braunsteins

Session 100: Up in the Mountains with a Bundle of Fags

This session was played on 8/30/24, and the PCs adventured until 9/12/24.

Roster

Player Characters and Companions

Introduction

Unfortunately for the reader, much of that session was a follow-up on Sessions 27 & 28 – for which I did not write session reports. In those sessions, the party worked for Lortag, a local oddities trader in Omelett. He employed them to hunt for treasure and antiques for him to sell to his clientele, and in exchange, the party received some of the profit. Around that same time, a local widower in Omelett asked the party to hunt for a “sacred tear” to restore her ailing daughter. These tears only flowed once a year from a statue in an old abbey. A handful of characters died in that quest, and one character, Steve Odenkirk, broke his legs.

Eventually, the party was able to retrieve the sacred tears and return to the town. Before they returned the tears to the widower, Lortag approached them and offered to pay them a high price for the tears. The party declined and gave them to the widower to heal her daughter. As a reward, she offered to make and sell them healing potions for half price.

Downtime

Session Report

8/30/24

The adventure started at the Welcome Wench Inn in Omelett. Steve explained to the party his last expedition to the old abbey that housed the statue that shed the sacred tear. The last time he went, his party had been stocked up with yeti oil, an oil made from the fat of yetis that, when rubbed onto the skin, helped insulate from the frigid weather. The party had zero vials of yeti oil to use and thus began their plots to acquire more.

They debated the next course of action for a few hours, but one obvious solution still eluded them – going on a yeti hunt. Ike Byson decided to go to the bartender to get information. He rudely asked the bartender, Mr. Wench himself, (without introducing himself or even buying a drink) for information on yetis – where they dwelled and how to slay them. Napoleon bought a round of drinks for the bar and tipped the bartender the remainder of his gold piece. The bartender, now appeased, divulged some information on yetis and recent rumors about them.

After another few hours of speaking to the bartender, as well as asking other patrons in the bar about yetis, the party learned a few things. Mainly, that yetis were fearsome creatures that loved the smell and taste of human flesh. Also, they learned that yetis seldom were alone and favored to hunt and travel in small groups – generally a handful of them would be found together. And lastly, that yetis would avoid fire if at all possible.

The party decided the best course of action was to sleep and think. The next morning they would either have to buy firewood & rations or chop & hunt enough to sustain their adventure.

8/31/24

At the start of the day, the party divided themselves into two groups: A wood-chopping group and a hunting group. The wood-chopping group consisted of Ike, Dirk, and his hirelings, for a total of eight people. In 8 hours, the group was able to fell and chop enough wood for 12 bundles of firewood to take with them. The hunting party consisted of Napoleon, Steve, and hirelings. In their day, they came across two mountain goats at different times. Napoleon used sleep on one goat, and had his pseudo-dragon, Bonnie, use her poisonous stinger on the other; both attempts were successful. They spent another night in town at the Welcome Wench Inn.

9/1/24

The party had to pay upkeep costs, which further impoverished them. They then spent the entire day skinning, cutting, and preparing the goat meat for travel. There was enough goat meat for 60 1lb meals. They trimmed the skin into pelts to use for later. Napoleon went hunting one more time, using the same strategy, and came back with some squirrels. He let Steve use the squirrels to create nun-chucks. They spent one last night at the Welcome Wench and decided to depart in the morning.

9/2/24

The party packed their things onto Steve’s mule and carried whatever else didn’t fit. They traveled north out of the town, headed for the mountains with a dozen of fags. It was sometime along this journey that either the party abandoned the idea of hunting for yetis, favoring to travel straight to the abbey and use firewood for warmth, or that I realized that’s what they had been planning for sometime now.

The path is one that Steve Odenkirk is familiar with (he has journeyed here twice before if memory serves me correctly). He knows that the abbey is seated on the side of the mountains, that they have to follow the road past a small woods that cover the foothills, and he knows the journey will take a couple days. But first, before they get to any of those things, he knows that there is one last piece of civilization before they are totally out in the cold. A two-story, wooden tavern sits on the side of the road, will be their last chance for any last supplies before they are on their own.

The party was very cautious of the idea of an inn on the edges of civilization. The paladin used Detect Evil on the building, and it was confirmed to be be harboring something that gives off “evil”. Napoleon sent Bonnie, who is nearly invisible, up to the windows to see who or what was inside. Napoleon has the ability to see through the eyes of his familiar up-to 25ft. Inside they saw the following:

“Roughly a dozen men, all wearing nearly identical outfits. Full wolf fur. A wolf fur cloak, underneath, a wolf fur vest. Their bottom halves were covered in a wolf kilt and thick wolf fur covered boots.”

Once Ike heard about this, his mind was set – for the rest of the session he wanted to destroy these abominable furries. Steve offered to help, but first he needed to get his legs back. Napoleon and Dirk weren’t opposed to the idea, but wanted to make sure they weren’t at a disadvantage. The adventurers had the numbers, though not by much, but they weren’t sure of the skill level of the furries. For the moment, they do nothing, then continue on.

Once the sun started the set, the party stopped their travels and set up camp. Starting a fire was their first priority, and keeping it aflame became their next. They set up their tents, and got ready for the night. They split into shifts, Napoleon leading the first, Dirk leading the second, and Steve taking the final watch.

During Napoleon’s watch Bonnie alerted him of a herd of reindeer across the field. Napoleon debated whether he should try to hunt one of the reindeer for food, or maybe corral one for another pack animal. Ultimately though, he decided risking a stampede toward the camp wasn’t worth it; they already had plenty of food from his goat hunting.

9/3/24

The party spends the day traveling towards the mountains. They kept a continuous pace, only stopping to eat and to relieve themselves. As they travel northward into the foothills they pass by woods that Steve remembers from his previous trips. He knows they are fairly close and should be able to make it to the abbey sometime in the middle of the night if they continue their pace.

As the sun sets they take one final vote to make sure the plan is to continue throughout the night, onward towards the mountain abbey.

9/4/24

At roughly 3am the party gained sight of the abbey. From a distance of a few hundred yards the party is able to see the flickering of a campfire coming from behind the ruined gates of the abbey compound. Steve roughly remembers the layout of it, a ruined front gate, a central courtyard with a fountain (now turned into a large campfire), and ruined walls in the backs and sides that they can mount over onto the second level.

Napoleon sends Bonnie up into the sky and over the compound to gather some more information. Through Bonnie’s eyes Napoleon is able to see two guards standing close to the campfire, in front of them are three men, tied together. The party wanted to take a moment and create a plan, but at the same time they had little to spare before they would freeze in the cold without a fire or torches to keep them warm.

After a moment of deliberation, they decided the best course of action was to send Steve Odenkirk to the gates to get a closer view. Steve already didn’t have use of his legs, the party figured he would be good bait. Bonnie would then provide aerial vision. When he approached the gate he was met with parlay from a guard in a second story tower. Despite his efforts to explain his defenselessness, and his only need was to stay warm by the fire, he was dragged from his mule and tied with the other tree men. Bonnie saw all of this occur from the sky. There were two guards at the gate, and the one in the tower.

During his time tied up, Steve examines and converses with his fellow captives. One is an amputee, one is blind, and one is a leper. All of them say they heard the rumors of the healing properties of the tear, and came to get their ailments healed. The brigands were already camped here and took them prisoners for ransom. They prisoners have been then for a few weeks now, and the brigands seem to have been making a living doing this for months.

Back outside the walls they finalize their plan to attack. Napoleon orders Bonnie to take out the guard in the tower while the rest of the party approaches the gate to begin their charge. Being 85% invisible, Bonnie is able to surprise the guard and render him dead – he is poisoned and collapses to the ground. The rest of the party charges into the courtyard, attacking the first open brigand they can make contact with. They are easily taken care of.

Ike Byson yells to any potential brigands that are still hiding in the rooms of the abbey to come surrender now, or meet cold steel. Three more brigands surrender. They beg for their lives and the party has them dig graves, and ties them up to sell, or turn in for a bounty. The prisoners are all freed and one decides to join the fight as a map drawer for Ike.

Steve remembers that the room for the healing tears were behind some sort of secret wall, but doesn’t remember where it is or how to activate it. The party spends a turn resting and then starts to search the ruined abbey. It takes sometime, but eventually they find a clue. A note written about the return of the queen when her candles are lit. The party previously had passed a room with a candelabra with two candles missing from it. They wonder if that is the answer. Funnily enough, the candles in the candelabra were the exact same type of candle as two that Steve had in his possession.

Once the candles were lit, a purple aura glowed from a room just next to them. Inside they saw a sarcophagus that had flowery designs that were now glowing purple, as well as a veiled entrance on a wall that was previously entirely stone. Steve Odenkirk decides to go through the veil, and Dirk decides to open the sarcophagus. Steve enters into a hallway that is checkerboard colored. Two statues flank him as he continues down the way. At the end of the hallway, he sees the statue that cries the healing tears. When he attempts to move toward it, the two statues activate and attempt to attack him.

Inside the sarcophagus laid two royal crowns, a female one and a male one. A royal dagger, some sapphire bejeweled chain mail, and other treasure. He takes some, and quickly returns to the veil – which the others are now crossing. On the other side of the veil they see Steve limping toward the tears with two statues behind him. Steve is able to reach the tears, and the party is able to halt one of the statues in time to save Steve’s life. When he drinks the tears from a golden chalice, he feels the limp from his legs leave him. He is healed.

The party rests for the night without encounters, aside from seeing another herd, or the same one, of reindeer.

9/5/24

The party continues traveling back to Omelett to turn in their prisoners for a reward. On their way they must pass by the group of men dressed in all wolf fur. When they finally reach it, Ike is more than ready to destroy the evil that is within it. They see a man standing outside, smoking. Ike approaches him to see if he can get useful information. He learns they are called the Wolf Pack and to get into the pack you have to first kill another wolf. He wasn’t clear if it was an animal or another member that you had to kill.

Ike returns to the party and they hatch a plan. They want to lure some members out of the inn, and kill them to gain even more of an advantage. After that they would feel comfortable charging into the roadside inn. Around an hour has passed since Ike was last at the door of the inn talking to the man who was smoking, and now he returns again to start their gambit.

He knocks on the door and yells inside that he has already killed a wolf and now wants to join. After a few minutes of this, he knocks open the door and yells inside. The Wolfs inside get up to put a stop to his outbursts, but he throws a lit oil flask, blocking the entrance and lighting the building on fire. The Wolfs that are able to escape through the windows are impaled by waiting party members. The ones stuck inside plead for their lives, and are allowed to live – but they will be sold to the town of Omelett as prisoners. Unfortunately, their leader escape through the rear while the party was arresting his followers.

That night they return to Omelette and turn in their prisoners to the Bailiff. He is overjoyed, and thinks this means there is hope in finding his lost son, Elmo. The town celebrates the party and offers them discounts on their goods and wares. The Bailiff even offers his daughter’s hand in marriage, and even the grant of some land – if the party is strong enough to rehabilitate it – to them if they can find Elmo.

9/6/24

The party leaves in the morning to go to Chestertonshire, where they plan to sell their treasure or at least get it appraised. On the way they step on a burrowed scorpion, but are able to kill it before it harms anyone in any real way. From this point, the party travels until 9/12/24 with the only random encounter being one they avoided.

9/12/24

The party spends some time looking for the right appraiser, and then the right buyers for their treasure. Eventually they are able to find someone to buy the treasure, but not before they have to tell him where they found it.

The session ended there, over two weeks into the future. We may pick this party up again 9/13 or 9/14, but if not, the will have some downtime to start working on.

Aftermath

Slain

Spoils

Total Gold: 2180 Gold per player: 545

Score

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