On the morning of the fifth day of the fifth month (5/5), cries from the fields brought the party to the door of the humble farm house. Beyond the tents of the would-be adventurers ever squatting in the field, dark shapes were rushing between the white forms of the sheep. A camper came breathlessly up to Tienarth to announce that giant beetles were attacking the flock. They gather weapons and rushed out to meet the monsters. There were four insects as big as elephants spearing the sheep with sharp horns then mashing them up in jagged jaws.
At once, Tienarth produced a haste spell. Jerker, Nate and the lion rushed to engage. Aderian and Ollie joined them. Nate and the lion were grievously injured, and while Nate retreated, the lion fought on. Ferris stuck the beetles with arrows, and the fighters landed solid blows. Then, Tienarth transformed into a dragon and pounced on the remaining beetles.
Jerker notice shiny jewels spilling from the guts of the beetles. He quickly picked them out of the goo and found a nice collection between them of 7 gems together worth 1,985 gp. Ollie and Aderian followed the tracks of the beetles as they entered the farm, and Tienarth observed from above, still in dragon form, but the trail became impossible to follow.
The returned to the house to assess damage. It would take some magical healing to get the lion and Nat back into fighting shape. Nate would not apply his holy powers to an animal, but Tienarth was more than willing to use the Haderaxian healing magic he’d learned from a spellbook in Tosasth.
They noticed how dreams of insects they’d each experienced over the previous week were perhaps an omen.
The next day (5/6), Odji the halfling, one of the campers, brought a bedraggled man to the porch. He called himself Zedemab and appeared delusional as he begged for help. “Take me to the old elf!” he demanded. He described a dream about a maze under a dwarven city. He claimed a lady lay trapped in a silver tube in that max beneath two towers.
Tienarth doubted the story, but turned to the magic mirror in order to perhaps scry the location described. He soon was looking upon Doukreg. The towers were the sturdy legs of Molokatu. And at his feet was an open pit from which giant insects intermittently escaped. The old elf peered further into the mirror in order to view the trapped lady. Just as the vision started to come into focus, a blast of energy shot out of the mirror and the vision was gone.
These events seemed to convince them that another trip to Doukreg was advised. Many questions were posed. What happened to the dwarves of Doukreg at the time of Tosasth’s zenith? The elves of Tosasth turned themselves into undead, perhaps out of spite for being subjugated by the dwarves, but no lore is remembered of what happened after that. Why was Doukreg empty and lying in ruins?
The next morning (5/7), they walked to the ruined tower, then the river camp (5/8) and finally headed to Doukreg (5/9). On the way, they met a group of ogres on the road who hollered for them to stay at a distance. Saul produced a patch of entangling weeds meant to hold the monsters in place. Jerker and Aderian hurled boulders, and one ogre dropped dead on the spot. The rest of them broke free of the vines and ran away. From out of the pockets of the dead ogre, Aderian found 180 gp, 700 sp and 2,700 cp, all of which went into the greedy bag. The battle helped pacify Hex 0402.
They reached the edge of the ruined city as the sun was setting. Silhouetted against the orange sky were the outlines of five giant wasps. They buzzed as they dove towards the adventurers. A brief battle with the bugs ended with the lion lying unconscious, soon to succumb to poison, but Ferris produced a potion of anti-toxin that he rubbed into the wounds. The lion revived, for which Saul was grateful.
They camped that night in the ruins and were not disturbed.
The next day (5/10, they climbed down into the canyon to pay a visit to Grubbycheek, their mining partner. The operation had been running successfully for many months, and the dwarf handed over 388 gp, 20% of the profit produced by the mine so far. He showed to them the tunnel being excavated that followed the vein of gold. Little troubled the small mining crew, and they stayed most of the time in the mine, dining on the endless supply of large worms produced by the glowing crystal. That evening, they entire lot of them held a feast of roasted worm.
End Notes
- Days
- Downtime 4/29 – 5/4
- Adventuring 5/5 – 5/10
- Treasure
- Gems from beetle bellies worth 1,985 gp
- Profit from the mine 388 gp
- Combat 7,120 xp
- 4 Giant Rhinoceros Beetles 5,200 xp
- 1 Ogre 240 xp
- 5 Giant Wasps 1,400 xp
- Characters 791 xp base
- Aderian (fight) 878 xp
- Ferris 870 xp
- Hocuspo 870 xp
- Jerker (fight) 878 xp
- Nate (fight) 878 xp
- Ollie (fight) 799 xp
- Saul and Lion 870 xp
- Tienarth 791 xp