Session 8 Parnest Report

General Summary

Against all odds after our arrival through the portal, Wilbo caught an STD and had to sit this one out. Hoovs has taken up the quill to tell our epic story.   So it was down to Martha, Deornoth, Hoovs, and Lilifern.   After making it though the portal we are greeted by an icy and snowy landscape. Lillifern and Martha notice Runes adorned around the portal and are doing their best to decipher them.   “Holy Shit T-Pain!?? Where the hell have you been?” Hoovs yelled as T-Pain came stumbling through the portal clutching his back. Before T-Pain could tell one of his elaborate stories, out of the corner of his eye, Deornoth noticed the Red Wizard trying to run. Well, a Paladin can’t let that happen and off he went in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, the Red Wizard disturbed an Ice Troll in his dumb-fuckery and now we get to murder an Ice Troll.   RAAAAAAAGE!   The battle begins. Hoovs charges hooves first and lays the smack down with his Bloody Glaive. Deornoth quickly behind Hoovs does his awesome Paladin stuff and we do some SERIOUS damage to the troll right out of the gate. T-Pain dashes in sword flailing to lay some serious damage. But, this being an Ice Troll, gives a giggle, and regenerates, healing his deep cuts and hoof markings. Fuck. Round 2 Hoovs, Deornoth, and T-Pain are at it again. Martha yells “It’s a fucking Ice Troll, Burn it!” so when the last blow was laid, Martha directed her fire-bolt right its icy sole and murder it to death. Unfortunately, the Red Wizard was already deceased before we tried to save him.   We thought it best to loot his body.   Martha ended up with a really cool hat out of the deal. Martha had a great idea and asked everyone how they felt about a tiny hut. We all looked at her perplexed. “It’s a magical tiny hut” Martha said. “It can keep us cozy from this cold and no one else can see us, we can take a long rest before we explore in there”. The group still side-eyeing her decided the tiny hut would be much better than this icy and snowy landscape. With a flick of her wrist, some crazy gibberish, and some really cool lights, we had a tiny hut to recover in.   After our recovery we finally began to explore our surroundings and better understand where we were. What we found out was that this was one of many portal locations. We could see a village just south of us down a hill and a cabin up north the may have been abandoned and surrounded by giant footsteps. Not good, but we decided the cabin made the most sense to check first. As we got closer to the cabin, the party noticed wagon track, large foot prints, small foot prints, and some storage sheds with the door cracked. This area clearly had activity, but what? Around the cabin the was a large hammock, likely for the troll we just murdered. Deornoth decided to peak his shiny, helmeted, head in through the cracked cabin door. Deornoth noticed that there were some human bed rolls and whomever was here, may have left in a big hurry.   Deornoth let the others know the place was empty and that we should take a look around. Deornoth noticed some papers lying around. These papers had details such as a desert coast line and similar runes to the ones outside near the portal. Deornoth talked to his God and used their divine powers to translate some of the runes he saw. He was able to translate on of the pass phrases and was working on two more before he became distracted by the following letter:   Lady Talis Erondale,   Our mission moves forward as planned. The last of the crates should make its way to you shortly. Send them on the yverns to Parnast where Captain Othelstan will take control of them and bring them aboard.   Once the last of the crates are on the way, begin your preparations to clean the lodge.   Kill Trespin and his trolls and recover the treasure they have been skimming off of our Lady's hoard. We have no tolerance for those who would steal from Tiamat's Hoard. With that done and all of your critical possessions packed, burn the Lodge to the ground.   As for your inquiries into the so-called Heroes of Greenest. I am happy to say they are all dead in the Mere of Dead Men. Fitting, no?   With our part of the hoard aboard, we can travel to our final destination and deliver it to Severin.   I understand your worry about our alliance with Blagothkus. As long as we have what he wants, however.   he will remain loyal. Since he is the only one capable of speaking   to Escaratta, he is critical to our plans.   I also understand your apprehension about Rath Modar but Severin trusts him as much as we can trust a Red Wizard of Thay. As refugees from Thay, these Red Wizards bring a great strength to the cult.   You have served the Cult well. Lady Talis. Your honor your parents. Soon, when the time is right.   I have no doubt that you will reach what you desire and wear the White   Dragon Mack as you stand beside me as we watch our Queen rise.   Resmir   Wyrnspeaker of the Black       Another piece to the puzzle has fallen into place. After checking the remainder of the property and finding nothing of use, we decided we should head towards the town. But not before Martha sends out her owl familiar, just to make sure we don’t run into trouble again. The owl reports back that we are looking at a place called Parnast. It appears to be a mostly agricultural market and a giant floating castle. Yes, a giant floating castle with a fuck ton of cult activity surrounding it. It appears they are loading some last bits of cargo into the floating castle.   Parched and thirsty for more information, we thought it best to head to the Golden Tankard that the owl had spotted. Hopefully we’ll be able to gather some information from the locals. I know, typically we just go in and kill shit, but no one messes with a floating castle, no one. To no ones surprise in the party, on our way to the tavern, everyone was giving us the side eye. Along the way we spotted an individual with a wyvern who appeared to be trying to train it. Other than the wyvern, it was a pretty typical agricultural market. Deornoth’s curiosity got the best of him and he decided to chat up one of the locals on the way to the Golden Tankard. The patron said there hasn’t been too many folks since the dragons and giants have been around. Once them portals started opening up, trade has been good so far, lots of coastal elites. The cultists have been good for our little village. Deornoth wasn’t thrilled to hear about the cultists and grew more concerned about the dragons and giant.   We final make it to the Golden Tankard and are glad to see its busy. Hopefully the party can overhear things and gather more information to understand what the hell is going on around here. Sure as shit, there is, in fact, a golden tankard. One of the party suggests we order some food and get some lodging for the night. As the party makes their way to the bar they pick up on various details from the conversations around them:   “That good for nothing Rsmir hasn’t been around for weeks, what gives?”   “When is the last time you’ve seen a dragon?” “Dunno about a dragon but what about them giants? They seem to be gone too. I hear they’re in that floaty castle.”   “They took the armory camp down, looks like they’re packing up…”   “I’m not so sure the town will do so well with them leaving, who will buy our goods now?”   “I hear trolls were being used as slavery by the giant. Them trolls that live with the white dragon lady, crazy that one.”   “That fuck Trespin is always hanging out with that white dragon hag. Heard she’d been skimming off the top, get her self killed doing that....”   “I heard Trespin has four arms…”   The party has made their way to the bar but Martha can’t shake that there is something significant about the golden tankard. Using her wizard sense and did confirm there is something about it. She whispers this information to Deornoth who also had a suspicion about the tankard. So he talked to his god to make sure it wasn’t evil and thankfully, it was not. Apparently, everyone in the party was wondering why the golden tankard had such a draw to it, but not as much curiosity as T-Pain who wanted a closer look. “Hey bar keep, I bet you I could chug that whole tankard, I’ll put 20 gold on it, what do you say” The bar keep simply smiled, “You’re on what would you like to drink?” “Let’s go with a Frostkiss Ale” said T-Pain. The bar keep slid the golden tankard to T-Pain with the smile still plastered on his face. T-Pain took the golden tankard, a deep exhale, and began to chug. He could almost see the bottom, or thought he could see the bottom. But then the tankard began filling up again, starting to panic, he doubled down and tried to keep drinking. After probably 1 tankard too many, T-Pain finally slammed the tankard down on the table and with a full bellied laugh from the bar keep, the bar keep said “That’s the Tankard of Plenty lad, thanks for the 20 gold!” T-Pain was pretty well blitzed at this point and stumbled over to a table to chat with the locals.   “Alright, alright, alright, so tell me, how do they work” said T-Pain.   “How do what work?” a local chimed in.   “The portals, like, how do they do the thing?”   “I don’t know, we’ve been trying to figure it out ourselves. It would be worth while to figure them out so we can use em for trade instead of destroying them like the captain wants to.”   “The Captain, who the hell is that, you fuck?”   “Well, most of the trolls are gone and we need to convince the captain to keep the portals and not destroy them. We’ve seen giants, lizard folk, and all sorts of folks have been coming through them. They’ve been her for years but none of us know how to use em.”   “Where is this captain?”   “He stays in the castle and comes down in the morning to do his rounds.   “Hold on, you said giants? What kind of giants are we talking about here?”   “Well, there is a large frost giant and some say folks worship him. You can ask the cap, he knows.”   “Does cap have a name? Horatio?”   “The frost giant? No, his name isn’t Horatio, we haven’t seen Crunch for years. It’s Blagothkus. The caps name is Othelstan. He seems pretty crooked himself. He may have been skimming some off the top as well”   “Sounds like we’ll need to find Blagothkus in the morning, I think T-Pain needs to go to bendy-bye.”   We paid for our meals and drinks and then headed up to our sleeping quarters. All of us were surprised T-Pain could even walk let alone climb stairs.   The following morning was eerily quiet when the party came downstairs to check out. “I don’t want no trouble” the bartender said. “The captain is waiting outside for you, I don’t want n-no trouble”. The party sensed danger awaiting them. Martha and Lilifern take a look out the window and Captain Othelstan is standing surround by guards. Deornoth thinks he can head out and have a “civil” conversation with the captain. Hoovs and T-Pain volunteered to be at the ready directly behind the main entrance of the tavern, in case things go sideways. Lilifern and Martha moved near the back of the tavern to go for a surprise attack if needed.   Deornoth stepped outside and greeted the captain “Good morning Captain, is there something going on here that we can chat about?” Captain Othelstan smirked and then spoke with authority “I am here to arrest your party for conspiring with the cult of the dragon. Gerald will be charged as an accessory because he aide and abetted criminals in his establishment if your party does not comply. You have one minute to decide or there will be consequences.” Deornoth replied “There must be some misunderstanding, surely we can discusses this like the civilized?” Captain Othelstan is joined by several Cultists and a Giant. “Time has run out for your party”. It’s clear the captain may be a fan of Tier judging by the crew that just showed up.   Thankfully, the party was ready. IT’S BATTLE TIME! As the battle begins, the castle has begun to float away from the shoreline. Hoovs strikes first in hopes to put the enemy at a disadvantage and lands his bloody gloive twice. Deornoth is up next to bat and deals his damage. Then T-Pain impales with the Impaler and just wrecks the Captain. Just as the last blow was delivered, and the captain could surely not survive, the shutters fly open behind and above him and with a flash of light, the captain was healed. Fuck. Martha, being quick witted and clearly not putting up with another spell casters shit, aimed her fireball at the window. Martha’s aim was true and she killed at least two in the building. Lillifern summoned her bear army and got to work on the cultists and captain. Hoovs being no stranger to stupidity, decided to charge the giant. Though he did land some blows, the giant struck him down. Lilifern flanked the giant with her bear army and attacked. T-Pain was not far behind and went for the Giant’s knee cap. This dropped him to the ground and T-Pain rammed the Impaler straight to the giants gut, eviscerating him. All the while Lilifern was resurrecting Hoovs who wen bananas once he came too and hit the Giant three times with his hand ax completely murdering the Giant. T-Pain disengaged and headed for the Captain with Lilifern and Deornoth not far behind. But not before Hoovs began to charge the captain and Martha took aim with an another fireball at the building behind, killing the Captain’s only hope of survival. Hoovs landed his hooves and Bloody Glaive. T-Pain, Lilifern, and Deornoth came in for the cleanup, the Captain didn’t stand a chance. The battle is over as quickly as it began. Before we made our way towards the castle, we checked the captain for anything useful and to let Gerald know he is safe.   The castle has moved further from the shore during our battle. Far enough away that we no longer have an easy way to reach it. Luckily, there are quite a few Wyverns still on land that we may be able to fly to the castle. There is one very large, four legged issue, how does a Centaur fly a Wyvern? Pick the largest Wyvern and saddle up is how! The remainder of the party mounted their Wyvern in pairs. Lilifern with Deornoth and T-Pain with Martha. They were able to fly the Wyvern with relative ease. Hoovs however, was being left behind. He had some issues getting the Wyvern to cooperate.   Lilifern, Deornoth, T-Pain, and Martha were making good time on their way to the castle. As they were quickly approaching, they noticed some caves at the base of the castle and thought it would be best to land the party there. At this point, they realize the Wyverns were trained to land in a different area and they had a difficult time getting them to fly towards the caves. Through some frustration and persistence, they were able to steer the Wyverns towards the caves and land safely.   After several attempts Hoovs was able to get off the ground with his Wyvern, but just barely. It’s clear this Centaur was not meant to be riding a Wyvern. He could see his fellow party waving him towards the caves. Hoovs tried everything to get the Wyvern to fly towards the caves and nothing worked. Not a damned thing. They Wyvern steadied its course towards its typically landing, the courtyard. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out for Hoovs. Not many folks get to see a Centaur riding a Wyvern in their lifetime.