14.01.2250 NG
Janustag. Raining Heavily.
Investigating the missing alchemist Denes, the Tusks went straight to his house to examine the location and see if Gritgoz has missed anything. Throkk carefully removed the door from its mounting and gently placed it against the wall as Ernodal found an old book of maps with pages missing – these referred to some of the surrounding area. Otherwise the house appeared trashed, with a large Throkk shaped hole in the rear wall. While visiting the house, Celeste was accosted by a friend of Denes who was passing by to check on the place. After a brief and civil interaction with Throkk, the man became more talkative, and under the impression that the players were members of “The Road” he brought them back to his bakery to discuss his missing friend.
He introduced himself as the Baker, Gregory. He was a supporter of the Road, and an old drinking buddy of Denes. Denes and he had planned a trip to Caville to visit relatives a few weeks ago, but Denes cancelled this last minute and make Gregory swear not to visit the village. He disappeared shortly thereafter. After swapping some sourdough starters and making friends, the Tusks sneaked out the back door and made their plans. As they entered the main street they were stopped by a handsome mustachioed man, dark haired man, with an intense stare – he introduced himself as Mario, a detective and told the party they were under arrest for the murder of a number of individuals in a nearby alleyway (see Mario in previous fiction / fight with Baron). A number of Judges were present, including the hulking figure Throkk first met on the bridge in Fairharbour (episode 0). He remembered Throkk’s Orcish gesture and replicated it again, taunting him. A crowd gathered and Celeste managed to win them over with her natural charisma and before long stones begin to fly at the judges (thrown by Conan the librarian who seems to be a real rabble rouser). A fully-fledged Riot breaks out – in the chaos a member of the Road (who met the part on the Bridge previously) emerges from the crowd and helps the group escape into the sewers, but not before Throkks manages to stamp onto a spear lying on the group, catch it mid-air and fling it through the outstretched arm of Mario.
The Tusks find themselves exploring a section of the sewer – avoiding the explosive mycotic spheres they notice “thieves cant” on the walls, but not being able to understand this , continue along and stumble onto a poorly hidden stash containing: some gold coins, empty whiskey bottles, a crude map with entry points into the city marked off, a potion with an enormous finger nail floating within and finally what appears to be an empty wand case.
Following a light source, the party find themselves blinded by shafts of light in a large underground chamber, only to realise they have stumbled into 5 Risen (Gjenganger) chained up and pumped full of those foul black slugs. A melee erupts, and the party fight off the first wave of the attack but no sooner have the creatures fallen than the sewage churns and froaths and they assemble into a large heaving monstrosity of animated dead chunks and debris: the “proto bone-powder”. The party have seen the fully-fledged version of this in episode 0 on the beachhead when they fled on the Walrus(RIP) and fired the cannons into it. Midway through the battle, Tulip notices hundreds of rats fleeing behind him, just as Erndoal realises the water level is rapidly rising. (it has been raining heavily for days now, remember?)
The water level rushes up as the party battle on, Celeste is knocked out and with his last Eldritch blast Erndoal is completely submerged underwater and begins to hold his breath. With 1 HP remaining, Throkk manages to leap clear of neck high water and drive the creature into the ground with his spear, slaying it. The party swim for freedom, and all in their own suboptimal way find themselves falling 30ft out of the sewage pipe into the moat outside Vicetina. Exhausted they hike a few hours and set up camp to sleep.
The party witness Throkk’s Dream: A young half orc boy flees through a burning village, his family and friends mutilated around him. Figures snatch at him, but he fights them off and crashes through the streets. One figure looms above all others, is around every corner, in every doorway. Pausing to catch his breath, a wall explodes behind him as the figure bursts through and grabs him. He drags the boy to a dead tree in the centre of the village, a tree decorated with impaled corpses and limp figures swaying from their hempen nooses. The boy is thrust into the hollowed tree and the tree set on fire. Screaming Throkk wakes.
Journal updates:
Characters / Vicetina / Mario
Places / Caville
Bestiary/ proto-bonepowder
NEW RULES! Baking!
The Baker’s Primer: Saving the world one loaf at a time (filed in journal under rules + references)
To attempt to bake goods, you must be proficient in cooking or Bakers kit.
If you have 2 hours and a usable heat source (fire, oven, lava etc) you can make some bread. The following recipes are know to Ernodal already, and more can be discovered throughout Vaul, some common, some rare, some legendary.
To bake bread, simply make the DC required – you can make 1 portion of bread during a suitable time period, ( e.g. long rest will allow you make 1 loaf and the rest). The bonus from bread applies to 1 player of the bakers choice, who obviously needs to eat the bread. The bread only stays fresh for 24 hours at which point the bonus is lost.
Only one bread bonus can be active at one time.
| Bread | Skill DC | Bonus |
| Momma Mollycoddle’s Salted Muffin of Minor Healing | 5 | can consume as a potion 1d6 healing |
| Elven Bagel | 10 | gain 1 additional Hit die during next short rest |
| Vicetina Sour Dough aka Throkk’s Loaf (Gregory’s starter) | 15 | next Str or Con check is at advantage |
| Infinity Pretzel (sesame seed variety) | 20 | gain 1d6 temp HP |
| The Hardy Tart of Chance | 25 | Resistance to one random damage type for 4 hours (DM rolls) |