Dolmenwood Session 08: Bile and Gambling
Thoughts
The rumor tables really put in the work of getting the ball rolling with today's session. The players latched onto the rumor about the mossling bones being used in the brews and wanted to make sure that wasn't really going on.
The party just got back from a prolonged training break so they were ready for something new. I am running XP a bit differently than normal. I am not dividing XP by number of party members so players are leveling quicker than usual. But they still have to seek out training to get their level ups. This has actually been pretty good so far. They still earn XP and level up faster than normal, but when they're in the middle of something they put off going to seek a trainer until they resolve whatever the current focus is. The training weeks also gives us time to bounce to another party of characters in a different part of the map which is a fun diversion. That party is a bandit party and currently poking around Barrowmaze (but tweaked a lot to fit Dolmenwood.)
Chaosbraithe will prove a challenge for the party and I am not sure how they will contend with it. Hopefully they plan well!
I still need to brush up on my folklore and fairytale stuff a little bit because I do find the tone a bit hard for me to riff off of at times.
Session
Party
- Tomumbolo, Level 5 Mossling Cleric
- Prince Milktongue, Level 3 Grimalkin Enchanter
- No Name, Level 5 Woodgrue Thief
- Wumbus, Level 5 Woodgrue Hunter Party hears a rumor about the Prigwort Brewers using mossling bones for the brews. Head south to the Mossling Village of Shotton. Tomumbolo has been here before to help bury the dead and provide the services of the Church to the villagers.
They travel to Shotton and a child sells them some decent healing mushrooms for poultices.
They check the graves and find the growth around them withered. The graves themselves are filled with bile.
A mossling guides them to a stream, which they follow to a chasm.
Down a long passage they enter a cave filled with dead knights and hordes of wealth. Prince Milktongue casts detect magic and discovers a massive sleeping beast. They turn away as the beast stirs in its sleep.
The knights bore the heraldry of Brackenwold so the party heads off to meet the duke.
They forgot to grab some of the ancient armor so send a hireling back to get the old armor. Lililth Loomer is chosen for the job.
The party arrives at Castle Brackenwold and make a beeline for the Poppycock. They drink, gamble, and meet a well dressed man with fucked up teeth who wins the final hand of blackjack. Milktongue makes a fairly tidy profit from a night of gambling. Wumbus and No Name overhear a gang of men talking about a hidden passage in the city.
Lilith Loomer returns with the piece of ancient armor. She speaks in tongues and explodes into a mound of bile. The Wyrm has marked the party for death.
The next day they go to meet the Duke of Brackenwold. They announce a wyrm has been spotted are let in for an audience. The Duke seems worried but not rushing to any action and requests some time to consult his advisors before making a plan. The party agrees.