Wine, Song and Roots

First, the boring stuff:
DM: Geokhan
Session Date: 19th October 2021 at 23.00UTC
Players/Character:
Tootired78: Barley, Druid 3 – Male human, middle aged, looks grumpy and present himself as a druid; Hate jokes about druids, and expressed last group has not been useful
Trulhammaren: Karthis, Wizard 2 – Male human of average height, long blonde hair, nice looking beard, relatively unremarkable if it wasn’t for the sheer number of tattoos covering all of his visible skin, even his face. Was carrying a book. Presented himself as a Mystiques Art Extraordinare.
Iceforge: Morros, Rogue 2 – Male Shadar-kai of average height, with long white hair, pale skin, a studded leather armor, a shortbow upon his back, a shortsword and 2 daggers in his belt

The Adventure in Song Form

• Skipper Klements morgensang

Tyler the farmer had a vision
Wine-yard build, hence our mission
South of Port Mirandia we went
Grape plant roots our intent
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Feasted on deer, slept like kings
Fearles of what the night brings
Stranger Cortail our names knew well
Meet us weeks ago, is this a spell?
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Daylight did not the spell break
Meet another on a stone by the lake
Gregory also our names knew well
Did not our worries quell
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Pendant to Barley was returned
Not seen it before, was concerned
Continue on our quest we must
Soon on The Sour Grapes we thrust
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

A wine serving inn with friendly folk
Also all us knew, is this a joke?
Sleep uneasy in their latrine
The smell I’ll let you imagine
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Bill the inkeep was most helpful
Knew of 3 spots, all dreadful
But there we might find the roots
And that put some speed in our boots.
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

First was a spot of barren land
There a vile evil chicken made a stand
“Cockatrice it be” did Karthis cry
Morros tip of his blade did apply
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Dug into ground of the old compond
Barley soon the grape root found
Should we head home right away?
No, the other places had a sway
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Second we came upon old dry cellar
Its condition was no longer stellar
Inside spiders came over broken barrels
Killed them swift, no rest on our laurels
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Also in found in the wall a breach
Out of which came a dreaded lich
Lich was an illussion you see
Conjoured to make us flee
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

The conjourer was a man or fey
Stout, hairy, big belly on display
And while he had servant blighted twig
Soon he as a scorpion into a hole did slick
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Gone was the low statured hairy lark
Found evidence he had done rituals dark
Left the cellar to finish our mission
Check all Bill spots our ambition
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Last was a house on a hill
Cry out did a voice very shrill
Dont our taken home come near
Clearly the skulks inside all did fear
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

Grumpenstein you should fear
Did the skulks inside sneer
Instead a friendly ent we met
Just our kitten wanted to pet
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handles it when things get gnarly

And thats the end of the story
Not dull but neither gory
Tyler soon wine grow can
To the enjoyment of EVERY MAN!
Morros, Karthis, druid Barley
Handled it when things got gnarly

The adventure in Story Form

Karthis, Brley and Morros gathered and met in the tavern in Port Mirandia, looking for a worthy cause to go out on an adventure on the island, when we noticed a man going around the tavern, asking for help.
The mans name was Tyler and he was offering coin for retrieval of some roots from a grape plant that worked in the soil of the island and he had, through a previous group, found out there used to be a successful winery to the south on the western side of the river, and hoped some plants would still be viable enough to harvest roots from, that he could then use to split and grow additional plants and quickly turn his wheat farm into a winery.

We agreed to help and set out, travelling south across the bridge and into the grasslands, the calm cold day turning warmer as we travelled, easily rising 10 degrees during the first hours of the day.

Travelling along the river was a challenge, and despite Karthis best efforts, we was delayed and only barely made it to the footsteps of the hill before dusk was upon us and we had to set up a camp. Karthis set up the camp, as I assisted Barley with hunting, netting us a deer, some roots and some napweed, which when dried can apparently be used by a skilled herbalist to create a sort of anti-toxin, a neat little boon.

For watch, as we was only 3, we decided on me trancing for 4 hours, as the humans would take turns taking watch, and then, Barley would summon an owl to keep watch for an hour, after it disappeared, it would either wake up Barley itself before disappearing or I would poke him awake to summon another owl, and when the 2nd owl disappeared, I would take the last watch, as the humans would finish their rest.

During the last watch, I saw a tall, seven and a half foot tall that is, human approaching the camp, he did not move as if a threat, so I casually approached and asked if I could help him.
To my surprise, the stranger, who called himself Cortail, knew my name, and even pointed at and named Karthis, claiming we met him a week ago, seemed surprised we was still looking for grape plant roots, saying he figured we would be done with that at this point, and then hurried off, having to be talked into staying long enough to reveal he was still in a hurry with his quest to find a golden key for some unknown purpose.
Claimed we would meet again at the winery some day, and maybe both be done with our quests.

After he left, my head felt heavy and I was a bit drowsy, struggling a bit to keep awake for the end of my watch, when I then saw a star on the sky that looked like it should be falling, but it was not, it just moved across the sky from the north to the south, perhaps a omen, perhaps related to the appereance of Cortail?

As the humans woke up, I told them about my nightly encounter and the omen, and we discussed the meaning of his appereance and the omen, and Karthis shared my sentiment of not knowing this warrior neither from name or my description of him.

We continued south along the river, soon walking in the rains, and after half a days travel, we came upon a human traveller perched on some rocks, around 5 feet tall, looking more like a wizard with a bit scroll case, white skirt and red flowing skirt-like dress and a staff in hand, and a ton of junk strapped to his person, and again, this stranger knew us, this time naming Barley without us presenting ourselves to him.
This stranger introduced himself as Gregory and handed a perculiar pendant to Barley, thanking him for lending it to him, saying the pendant had been very useful for Gregory on his quest, as it lead him to the cave he had to find and where he had fought a troll.
Gregory told us that last we spoke, about a week prior, we had told him about the white dragon we had met and the satyrs we had fought. None of us knew what he was talking about.
I tried to lie to Gregory, pretend I remembered and asked him to remind me what color of dragon it was he had met, as I wasn’t sure if he had said it was a red dragon or if it was another type.
Gregory got confused about that, saying he never met a dragon nor ever claimed to have met one, but he did slay a troll in the cave.
He told us we could get to the winery if we hurried on, before he departed, again thanking Barley for lending him the pendant, an item Barley had never seen before.

We continued south along the river after parting ways with Gregory, and around dusk, we came upon a winery called “The Sour Grape”
We went up and I opened the door, the others shouting about knocking, so I knocked on the now open door and yelled out hello, and we was warmingly greeted by multiple people inside, again, they all seemed to know us, there was the friendly Connor coming up to us immediately and greeting us as friends, the innkeeper/brewer Bill, and bunch of others; Marge, Trisha, Stralzhe, Robert, Jackson, and later Chief, the chef of the place, who made awesome raspberry and peach tarts for us to enjoy with the wine we had there.

They all remembered us coming about a week prior, and also saying we had looked for roots of grape plants back then, curiously, and we played a bit more along this time and didn’t protest as much the point of knowing them.
Bill had found 3 locations we could look into, a barren field, old dry cellar and an abandoned shack and helped point out the locations on a map for us, saying we might find the plants we seeking in either of those locations.

They told us about Don, their brewmeister here at “The Sour Grape”, and how while they had grape plants we could get roots from, we had already a week prior refused that, as they was not the plants we needed, so we decided our past selves was probarly right and after sleeping a night in their latrine at”The Sour Grape”, we ventured to the first location, the barren field, marked by Bill, after eaching some peach tarts for breakfast, delicious things those tarts.

We made slow progress, Karthis might not be the best trailblazer ever, as he lead us through some difficult to navigate areas nearly each day, but he did his best and was a nice chap regardless and got us to the right place, as we came to a big barren field with ramnants of a structure, perhaps a farm house, long since fallen to ruin.

As we started searching through the area, we heard squawking and then a fiesty strange looking chicken came charging out of the bushed and straight towards us, battle following.
Karthis quickly called out that it was not a mutated chicken, but a cockatrice and can turn one into stone with its bite, sounds more bothersome that a mutated chicken.
As we fought it, it was first assisted by some huge mutated stirges and the sound of struggle caught the attention of some nearby velociraptors, who charged us from the back.

The battle was tough, but I managed to pierce the cockatrice on my shortblade, as well a one the stirges, ending the life of the beast, while Barley turned into a giant wolf-spider and killed a stirge, and Karthis, using magic missiles, ended a few more stirges.
Barleys poisonous wolf-spider bite subdued and paralyzed one velociraptor, and a nick from my dagger scared of the last one.
After the battle, we carried the unconscious and paralyzed velociraptor nearly a hundred feet into the forrest and left it, so it would hopefully run away and not come for us, once it recovered.

Searching the area, we found some suitable plants and harvested roots from them, and I found an old box of wood and bone, the wood having nearly rotten away, and inside found a piece of paper with some strange writings upon it

“The legendary paladin Sir Arabal Demonsbane descended into the dungeon to seek out a mighty demon that lurked within. Sir Arabal was never seen again, but neither was the demon. It is believed that both slew the other. Sir Arabal had his famed sword with him, the Demonsbane after which he was called, and that never surfaced again either. The sword probably still lies deep below ground, waiting for a new wielder to carry it into battle against demons.”

The text on the piece of paper

Also was a small golden bracelet inside the box, unfortunately Karthis could identify it as not magical, but at least it would be worth some coin to sell back in Port Mirandia.

Then a woman suddenly appeared with a hood up and a dagger in hand, standing 50 feet away and stared at us very intensely

She spoke a strange tongue, we tried all the languages we knew, but she seemed to understand but not speak any of them, shaking her head and then she spoke another word and my head got drowzy and everything turned dark, as I felt my body freeze up, paralyzed.

When I came to, I was standing in the Barren field, with Karthis and Barley also seemingly having been frozen and zoned out, the woman gone and it was near morning. We determined, from the rot setting in on the corpse of the cockatrice, that we had to dig up again, that nearly a week had passed and this strange might be a time wizard and somehow related to the experiences we had with people thinking they had meet us a week prior to us even leaving Port Mirandia.

We found some burned rings in the ground near where she was, which the others said was a sign of this mysterious group of time wizards that apparently roam the island and mess with adventureres.

We ventured onwards, going for the old dry cellar, maybe we could get even more roots and bring some to “The Sour Grape”, and soon found a very decrepit looking old shack

As Barley knocked on the door, it crumbled, dry rotten with age, it was too fragile for his human hands.

Stairs lead deeper underground and we found an old storage room with barrels that had dry rotted away nearly.

Suddenly we saw a creature blow past, not getting a good look at it, before giant spiders appeared on the other side of the room, and we engaged them, through I quickly felt exhausted from stumbling about a bit and poisoned by the spiders bite, becoming very weak.

While the spiders died fast, the other creature appeared again and was more troublesome; it was short, life halfing height, stout like a dwarf, hairy, even more so than a dwarf, bearded, with big hands and a white cap upon its head and seemed fey in nature, and it conjured first blighted twig creatures to attack us, and then its lich friend came out to attack us, a ghastly looking undead mage with a terrifying wand in hand

Fortunately, turned out the lich was just an illussion to scare us away, and not real, and we soon had the blighted twigs handled and while Barley was unconscious briefly from a sleep spell, and the fey went for him, shouting we killed his pets so he would at least take one of us with him, we protected Barley and harmed him enough to make him flee, turning himself into a scorpion before slicking away into a hole in the ground.

In his cavern, behind a breach in the old cellar walls, we found evidence of him having performed dark rituals, making arcane drawings on the ground.

We also found a carven boned statuette and a gold locked with a painted portrait inside, again just valueable to sell in Port Mirandia upon our return, but then we found a book titled “Tender Care of Grapes”, and figured Tyler whom hired us might pay a good value for that book, as it was found in a location related to those tending the grape plants he was looking to clone through cuttings/roots.

We started going for the abandoned shack, after debating if we should check it out or go by The Sour Grapes again to rest and recover, and slept in the forest on the way. After enduring a night with heavy soaking rain, we discovered in the morning that merely 50 feet from our camping spot, was a hollow tree with accomidations for one medium creature inside, and which had obviously been used for such purposes about a week prior. My soaked leather made me wish I had noticed that in the evening.

After a bit of travel we found a hill with the supposedly abandoned shack on it, but as we approached, a voice called out from inside, telling us to go away, not wanting to talk with us and claiming not knowing about any grapes or grape plants nearby.

I wanted to leave, but Karthis and Barley wanted to push on and investigate the place with their own eyes, and as they saw the residents, they insisted even more, arguing they could tell that the residents was not human, so they was allowed to, what a mindset, I reminded them that Im not human neither and not being a human is not a crime!

We found of the residents was a type of creature called Skulks, vaguely humanoid and intelligent, but cowardly and by some considered a parasitic race who just take over old abandoned places and fester and known for the chameleon-like features, explaining why their facial features had seemingly shifted a bit earlier, making Karthis and Barley feel justified in basically violating the Skulks rights not to be disturbed in their own dwelling.

They yelled out their fear of someone called Grumpenstein and warned us to leave before Grumpenstein would come, as one never knows what Grumpenstein may do to you; “He might help you or rip your arm off, you never know” was the words they used.

Barley conjoured a young cat to try and spy on the insides of the house,, but then a swampy ent like creature approached, and the Skulks fearfully cried out that there he was, the creature had webbed claws, bulbous eyes and two nostril-slits that ooze an oily black substance.

Grumpenstein perhaps to the Skulks, but the ent-like creature called itself Maggie and only expressed desire to pet the kitten that Barley had conjoured earlier, so we let Maggie do that and asked about grapes.

Maggie pulled a bunch of muddy grapes of his/her own back and threw them to us, and we took them and offered Maggie could keep the kitten, before we hurriedly left, before Maggie would find out the Kitten would only stay for about an hour.

We hurried along the road, and besides seeing a herd of goats early on, the trip home was uneventful, as we pushed late into the night to make it home that day.

We was awarded 60 gold from Tyler, 20gold for the roots, 20 gold fo rthe grapes and 20 gold for the book, as that would greatly benefit his establishment of a grap farm/winery in Port Mirandia.
He even purchased the dried napweed for 10 silver, as it could be useful during tasting and testing of products once he starts up production.

Map Legend

• Black Dots: Route out
• White Dots: Route home
• Yellow – Location of meeting Cortail and first nights camp
• Purple – Location of “The Sour Grape”
• Unmarked: Just one hex back from purple star is where we encountered Gregory
• Blue Star: Old Barren Field, former winery location mayhaps
• Red Star: Old Dry Shack and now home to a troublesome stout little feyman with a hairy body
• White Star: Location of hollow tree that 1 medium humanoid could sleep dry inside
• Green Star: Location of old abandoned shack, or well now home to Skulks living in fear of “Grumpenstein”