Adventure #8: Errand to Trinity Island

 

2023/11/19 Session 8: Errand to Trinity Island (Campbell, Doug, Ronn, Zak)

I confess that I have waited too long to write this up and the events are unclear in my memory. I shall do my best to recall what transpired, the instigating events, and the secrets/clues revealed. –DM Ronn

7 Winterwane 5023

In the dark of night and fearing pursuit from the vengeful gobels, whose king they had just slain, the members of The Order of Righteous Peregrination made the three mile trek down to the Village of Trinity Center. They had rescued their friend, Gundren Rockseeker, and retrieved the precious map to the lost Phandelver Mine known as Wave Echo Cave, but had lost their hoblin companion, Vrandon Charez, to the claws of an owlbear in the process. Grieving, tired, and sore they returned to their horses and a nights rest in the barn of Bark and Vilma Wilson. 

  Broan Gelda the Elder | Vilma & Bark Wilson

The villagers offered them simple sustenance in the morning, listened to their tale, and congratulated them on rescuing one friend and consolation on losing another. Broan Gelda, the goblin wise-woman in her brilliant cloak of bluejay feathers clucked her tongue and shook her head sadly.

“I have a favor to beg of you and a lesson to teach.”

Whereupon she proceeded to tell them of an island witch, known to them as Auntie Enn, who aids the village, but who has not been seen in weeks. With the rewilding of the land, since the sea of tranquility drained away, they are concerned for her and need her assistance. Given the hospitality shown to them, would the Order be willing to journey to her island, check on her wellbeing, and deliver the request from the locals?

Her lesson to them appealed to their bonds of companionship and oaths sworn. They must return the swords of Vrandon Charez to his family. His spirit would be unrestful and his journey incomplete until this was done. This task fell most heavily on the shoulders of Chane Titanoak, who had taken the life debt from the defeated warrior.

The Order accepted the errand to visit the island and decided they would wait until nightfall to return to Cragmaw Castle for the hoblin’s swords. But having spent many days seeking Gundren and his ragged condition, they also decided to send him back to Weaverville rather than risk his well-being further. Garnet Stormsoar agreed to chaperone him and the two headed back to the relative safety of the town.

The remaining members of the Order, Dartina, Chane Titanoak, and Horatio Helkat decided to head for the Hatchet Creek Bridge and the longboat moored there as the few boats in the thorp were already out on the water. As they approached the bridge, they noted a trio of bighorn hoof-folk debating a bridge crossing in their strange language. The party continued forward and the hoof-folk allowed their approach. Communication was as futile as ever between the species, but the trio gave all signs that they believed the bridge to be a hazard. Assuming they feared the technology of the stone bridge, the party assured them of the strength of the bridge and moved forward to prove their case. As they stepped foot on the bridge a large, nine-foot-tall, she-troll clawed up over the sidewall and growled in the common tongue, “Troll bridge, tribute to cross.”

With a monstrous troll standing at the center of the bridge, Horatio wasted no time letting loose a rain of fire magic while Chane and Dartina rushed to engage the creature. The hoof-folk abandoned the bridge and retreated from the combat. The troll roared and gave fight to the puny homen before it. As the fight raged on and the lives of the combatants were balanced precariously on the edge of fate, a rang clearly in Horatio’s head. A voice he had heard before in the council chambers of Eureka–calm, impatient, and authoritative–an evocation magic most certainly, perhaps a sending spell. 

"The Council of Eureka requires the Order of Righteous Peregrination to address the continuing Charnock House dilemma, next commencing nights of twenty-ninth through fourth." 

~Sending from Keledek the Unspoken to Horatio Helkat

The message was received and a holding vessel seemed to exist awaiting reply, Horatio muttered some noncommittal acknowledgement and the spell was gone, whisked back to the caster on a wave of arcane energy. At this moment, the troubles of smugglers on Humboldt Bay was not paramount.

The fire magic burned and enraged the troll and with her incredible speed, Dartina was there to brook that wrath. She struck and kicked, but the razor sharp claws slashed her flesh to ribbons and she collapsed from her wounds. In the end, swollen with Giant’s Might, Chane grappled the burning she-troll and threw her from the bridge.

Without a pause in the action there was a roar and rushing of wind. From somewhere above a blast of frigid spital engulfed the falling troll in ice a heartbeat before a pale, yellow-white dragon snatched it from the air and carried it off with another roar of warning, or dominance, directed at the stunned heroes. The dragon and its prey were gone, concealed by the treeline, as quickly as it had appeared.

hoof-folk, bighorn | troll | dragon

Dartina, clutching her wounds, struggled to her feet and was quickly tended to with one of the group's precious magical healing salves. Chane shrunk back to his usual size. Horatio noted the rapidly receding trio of hoof-folk retreating to the mountain trails. The party regrouped and made their way down to the longboat, only to notice a troll den beneath the bridge. The large nest of sticks, leaves, and mud showed movement and plaintive caterwauling came from within. Three troll whelps, the size of goblins, wrestled within stepping and swatting each other in an attempt to escape the safety of their cage. Along with the immature trolls, there was a small trove of coins and treasure within. There was debate on the matter, but in the end the group left the trolls and made off with the valuables. They would tell Auntie Enn of the trolls and she could do with them what she would.

Leaving the troll whelps behind the trio dragged the longboat to the water and began to row across the lake. The lake was smooth and easy to transverse the several miles, but having just seen a dragon the entire journey felt like one drought with deadly exposure to the sky above and the dark water below.

The island was a low, swampy thing of intertwined grasses and reeds that had a feeling of impermanence. The rickety dock felt unwelcoming and the soggy trail to the cabin deeper inland was festering with biting insects and half-seen slithering things. The path laid before them was clearly marked by skull topped stakes on either side. The cabin sat on slightly higher ground and did little to ease the fears of the visitors, as the place was ramshackle and foul. A garden to the side of the cabin was tended by more of the strange ambling plant creatures, but of considerable size and disturbingly humanoid in form.

Auntie Enn was easily seven feet tall and disturbingly not-human, in very subtle and amorphous ways. She heard the villagers' plea and took gleeful cheer in their concern for her disappearance, noting that the region has become quite dangerous for an old woman. She took even more cheer at the discomfort her tea and biscuits brought them in refusing politely. Dartina, being a brave soul, risked the tea and found it to be one part oil, one part slime, and three parts twitching awfulness. She sent them away with a potion for the villagers, a package for Dartina, and a warning that their new stick was stirring up the island's serpentine denizens.

The trek back to the longboat was more of a pursuit and even on the lake there were a disturbing number of serpents seen in the water, at least one of enormous size. Putting the staff in the Bag of Holding seemed to have little effect on this strange attraction. Dartina was sick three times, from the foulness of the tea, and still suffering upon reaching the village.

Returning to Trinity Center, they dropped off the potion, shared news and food with the villagers, and Broan Gelda provided Dartina with a potion of her own to settle the swarming in her gut. The trio took a short rest and then as night fell they returned to Cragmaw Castle to retrieve the blades of their fallen companion.

8 Winterwane 5023

The midnight return to the gobel keep was an eerie trip, with the closer they came to the old ruin the quieter the landscape became, the stronger the stench of smoke, and finally on entering the meadow, the sight of blood and bodies. What force the gobel king had kept at the castle had been slaughtered, bodies were strewn about the meadow, brutally hacked and pierced with the heavy, dark fletched arrows of the scro. They had come and done their work and left again, leaving none alive to witness the carnage.

The owlbear was where it had been felled, the body of their friend beneath it. The work of separating the two and retrieving the blades was grim and fraught. Would the orcs return? Were they still watching? Had Garnet and Gundren made it back to town? But it was done quickly, the swords retrieved, the body of their companion entombed in the earth, and after some hesitation, even the bodies of the fallen goblins were laid beneath a pyre of stones. Dirty and tired, the trio stepped back to the trail and returned to the village to pass on the blades and the warning of the raiders.

The villagers praised them for their actions and insisted they watch over them as they rested, tomorrow they would have a mourning feast. Many of those at the castle had been familiar and some would be missed. Broan Gelda refused the blades of Vranden Charoz, he was not of this band and his blades would need to be taken west to his people, the Maowan clan. The Order took their leave and journey the 30-miles back to Weaverville and all the trouble therein, but at least the beds at the Stonehill Inn were soft and warm.

9 Winterwane 5023

The Order reunited over breakfast. Sildar Hallwinter passed word that Gundren was recovering nicely as he headed to his office at town hall. Dartina was complaining that everything still tasted like pond scum and sat in her guts like a live trout when Grista, the denwar from the  Sleeping Giant stormed through the door and straight to their table. 

“Here’s the rest of your stuff,” she said, dumping her bag of their missing possessions on the table. “Albrek says to get that skull out of his basement! Today!” 

TREASURE

12 sp

10 gp

MAGIC ITEMS

Staff of the Python (attunement, divine summoning magic)

Short Sword, +1

ITEMS OF NOTE

Scro Totem

Fertility Potion for Trinity Center 

Paper Wrapped Package for Dartina (Do Not Open Until 25th)