Session XXXI: The Shifter

Rewards Granted

Allies

At the very beginning of the session, the party was able to acquire the help of Kuchek Goralin, the doctor who helped Ukar during the Plague's takeover of Blech. Kuchek is now travelling with the party, and his services could be used in the future.
  Towards the middle of the session, Ukar was able to convince ten members of his old army platoon to help him save his family and the other members of the town who were captured by a shifting man.

Character(s) interacted with

Prince Zauberer & Atsa

The first character the party interacted with was Atsa, who was waiting for them at the destroyed RBOSTI HQ. At the request of Prince Zauberer, she was looking for survivors of RBOSTI, and was to bring them directly to Prince Zauberer. All of the party members, except Heigolor, followed Atsa through her tree portal. The party then met with Prince Zauberer, who congratulated Ukar on his success in Greenfell, as well as offered his condolences for his previous companions. Initially, Prince Zauberer was somewhat angry by the presence of Elandril, as he was a high elf in the Oaken Palace, in the middle of the war. He was also intensely suspicious of him, due to his assassin attire. The party attempted to convince the prince that Elandril meant no harm, and subjected themselves to Zauberer's Zone of Truth in order to be interrogated and prove their intentions. Initially, when it was revealed that Elandril was the High Prince of Wistonland, Zauberer was furious, but he later calmed down when Elandril told him that he wanted to kill his father. Zauberer saw the opportunity in this, and offered the party what help he could. He offered to pay for transportation to Wistonland, which the party declined, and he also offered the services of Kuchek Goralin, the doctor who Ukar had worked with before. The party accepted the doctor's assistance, and Zauberer wished them luck on their journey.

Mrs. Cloudberry

After speaking with Zauberer, Ukar convinced the party to check on Mrs. Cloudberry. After an initial scare, the party found Mrs. Cloudberry sleeping in her living room. She quickly offered them rooms and a meal, which the party accepted. She was told of Micnik's trauma with old women, after which she proceeded to pet his head. Micnik seemed to enjoy her petting. She also pet Oswald's dragon, calling her a "cute little lizard," which the dragon also enjoyed. However, Micnik and the dragon became jealous of each other, and began wrestling on the floor, each of them vying to be pet. Mrs. Cloudberry offered her condolences to Ukar, but also complimented him on finding his new companions, who she seemed to like very much. She complimented Elandril on his manners, and said that he seemed like a very nice fellow. She complimented Oswald on his helpfulness, as he helped her make dinner. At the end of the night, she offered to make the party cookies, and asked who, and how many she should make them for. The party told her five people: Elandril, Kuchek, Micnik, Oswald, and Ukar. The party stayed with Mrs. Cloudberry for the night, and left for Wistonland the next morning, concluding their one day in Berfordia.

Mr. Leif

After traveling for three days, the party reached the Wistonlandic village of Bronediton, where Ukar lived after his time in the Wistonlandic Army. The party came to Bronediton with the goal of acquiring allies for their coup against High King Tandoril, but were met with a large congregation of people standing outside of Ukar's old house. Upon asking one of the townspeople, Ukar learned that his adoptive father, Mr. Leif, had mysteriously returned home four nights prior. According to the townsperson, he stumbled, bloodied, out of the woods on the outskirts of the town, where he was spotted by the night guards, who rushed to help him. At this point, Ukar rushed into the house and hugged his father, who was confused because Ukar was not a dragonborn when he last saw him. Ukar quickly explained everything, and began asking his father what happened. Mr. Leif replied that Mrs. Leif was still captured, but he was able to escape and come back here. He believed that he was held near the capital, Watlema, but he couldn't be sure. He said that he ran to the nearest town when he escaped, and rode on horseback to Bronediton, hoping to find help. He also mentioned that after he was captured, his dragonborn captors asked him and the other residents about legends of Newbigton, the City on the Lake. After that, they put them to work digging out some sort of underground complex.

The "Snake Man"

After suspecting that Ukar's father wasn't being entirely truthful, Elandril went into the woods where Mr. Leif supposedly came out of, to see if there was anything suspicious. While in the woods, Elandril found an unnaturally large piece of molted skin, similar to that of a snakeskin. He was able to determine that the creature it came from was bipedal, and had scales. The skin was tinged slightly green, with mottled white patches, which could be assumed to be the color of the creature. Upon further investigation Elandril was able to determine that the scale pattern was similar to the that of a dragonborn, but he was unable to match it to any of the dragonborn in the village. Increasingly odd, was the fact that dragonborn do not molt in such a way where they leave an entire skin behind. Instead, their old, dead scales fall off, like dead skin cells. They do not go through an entire molting process. Elandril was able to find more of this skin around town, but never in a very specific location. He reconvened with the party, who then decided to try to track the skin with Oswald's dragon. The dragon sniffed the skin, but was unable to track a specific individual. Instead, it seemed that the dragon was only attracted to the most strongly smelling individuals, such as the blacksmith, the baker, and Mr. Leif—who used to be a coal miner. The party decided to question the baker.

The Baker

In the middle of the night, the party broke into the bakery and decided to look around. They found vials of a substance, that when tasted, tasted exceptionally good. It was discovered that the baker was putting this on her food, which made the party extremely suspicious. Elandril and Micnik confronted her in the morning, an encounter that she was very afraid of. Elandril tried to alleviate this by charming Micnik and making him be exceptionally friendly to the woman. It was revealed that the vials were just substances from a plant she found in the forest, that she found after taking the advice of the apothecarist and wandering through the woods to find ingrediants. After this, the party decided that their next course of action would be to question the apothecarist.

The Apothecarist

The party questioned the apothecarist about whether he knew anything of a snake person in the woods, which he said he had no knowledge of. The party asked him if there was anything else in the woods they should be worried about, which he again denied. However, at this point the party could tell he was lying, and intimidated him into talking. He revealed that there used to be a "shifting man" in the woods who threatened him and his family. He said that in order to protect his family, he worked with the man to lure people into the woods, where he then captured them. He said he could never see the man's face because it was constantly shimmering and shifting, almost blurry even. He did, however, say that it was a wood elf. He said that he hadn't seen the man in six months, and the party asked him what he did the last time he saw him. He revealed that he attempted to capture one last family, whose son was higher up in the military. It was a family of a high elf, a wood elf, an aasimar, and a silver dragonborn. The aasimar was able to escape. Ukar realized that the man was describing his own family, and proceeded to vault over the counter and tackle the man.

The "Shifter"

The shifter was described as a wood elf man by the apothecarist, and it was revealed that he had been taking people from Bronediton for years, however he has not been seen in six months. Supposedly, his face shimmers and shifts, almost to the point of blurring, making him unidentifiable. This Shifter was also the same person responsible for kidnapping Ukar's parents and fiancée, which was his last kidnapping. During this previous encouter, Ukar went to attack the wood elf to get them back but was defeated by the wood elf. The elf turned around and began to attack. No amount of Ukar's military training prepared him for the onslaught that was brought on by the wood elf. Attack after attack, Ukar couldn’t get a single hit in. Then in a final desperate attempt he charged at the elf and stabbed his arm which revealed that he was actually a green dragonborn. The dragonborn was furious, grabbed Ukar by the throat, stabbed him in the chest, and threw him to the ground. It was at this point Ukar ran to fight another day, knowing he was not able to beat the Shifter in his current state.