Red Claw Distillery

The party enters the lair of Tuckerrath the Agitator also known as The Red Claw Distillery.

As The Shades start hiking into the mountains, and it immediately gets hotter, sand know they’re nearing the lava. They realize that going further without water would be unwise. They send the animals (Meera and Highwing) off and Bobushio prepares the alchemy jug with water. Gilly and Bobushio plot to taste some Red Claw so the alchemy jug can produce the beer tomorrow.   They continue toward the source of the heat, and approach a canyon. A huge black volcanic rock shard that doesn’t look natural and a river of lava flowing behind the canyon stands near a volcano looks like it shouldn’t exist; it is unlike any of the surrounding mountains.   A single bridge flanked by obsidian gargoyles stands in front of a river of lava. 25 foot high wooden platforms with kobold guards protecting a courtyard at the base of the mountain. They are within short bow range of the bridge. A large hand-painted sign over a shack called Kobold Kauldran, and can hear laughing and cackling. There is a low haze floating low over the ground. Five towers with at least two or three kobolds per tower. They seem to not be paying attention.   Thuniel can tell the gargoyles are traps and Bobushio sees they are magical, but not sentient. If they step within ten feet, they’ll activate. There’s clear evidence that things got close to the gargoyles and were pushed away.   The party is determined to give them a chance to flee. Bobushio tinkers with the arrow to make it repeat a message. Thuniel fires the arrow, aiming at a hat and skewers a Kobold right in the forehead. The message has not the desired effect. They rush for their weapons.   Thuniel picks off another one, and they sling rocks back at her. Gilly takes a few hits, and the kobolds seem idiotically aggressive. One runs off to ring an alarm. Bobushio punches down a tower with his Thuner Gauntlets. Thuniel takes out a few more and one more commits suicide. They quite quickly take them out and move across the lava river.   Bobushio mimics the voice of the kobold who sounded the alarm and says it was a false alarm. The reinforcements return back into the cavern. There is a tavern with stairs too rickety for us to climb. As Gilly checks out the various entrances and see dire weasel pens and one carting a wagon on the left side. The passage beyond the weasel cart goes steeply upward. The other way goes past dire weasel pens and barrels of stuff. The sneak in through the left and see a horrifically ugly dragonlike humonoid, no tail, so deformed that it doesn’t look like a dragonborn. It seems like this is the offspring of a dragon that polymorphed into a human and “bred” with someone. He appears to be a leader and seems in charge.   They sneak attack him from the shadows and injure him severely. Moz runs up to hit him, but misses. Then hit him again before he can react. Moz takes his short sword. He looks like a cross between a dragon and an elf. Inside his armor, we see his named inscribed; Ankor. The weasels don’t seem affected by the tussle. They put his body into the weasel pen.   The next room is a brewery. Bobushio casts Detect Magic and sees that every barrel is magical. There are two more half-breeds, a female and a male, and there are more kobolds working the brewery. The half-breeds are definitely being jerks to the kobolds but they are also unlikely to get any sort of treatment anywhere.   Thuniel recalls that red dragons are, by nature, ruthless, mean, and motivated by greed and wealth. We discuss that we need to stop the dragon permanently to prevent the spread of this magical addiction and also to stop a possible agent of Ukaru.   Gilly and Thuniel each take a half-breed, and Bobushio runs in to try to punch them both. He gets the female. ISAC shoots the male half-breed. Thuniel destroys the female in a turn. Moz wipes out the kobolds. The last guy tries to run and we take him out.   The party finds an evacuation plan of the rest of the mountain and plot how to tackle this dragon. ISAC goes into the hallway to scout it out, and a door slams down behind it. ISAC gets cooked to a crisp in an oven. RIP ISAC.   Bobushio throws a rock into the hall and nothing happens. Gilly throws potatoes into the hallway and little kobold hands reach out and snatch them. Bobushio jams the door open so it won’t come down. Gilly spots a kobold at the end peek out to check if someone walked into the hall yet. Bobushio sprints into the hall and thorn whips the kobold at the end away from the button. Gilly finishes the kobold. Thuniel prances in and beheads the two kobolds hiding beneath two oven doors. The three doors are closed, but radiating heat.   The kobolds in the distillery book it and sound the alarm. One sleepy, hungover kobold is still there, and Bobushio casts Friend on him and convinces him just to go back to sleep.   As the party enters the central cavern. The dragon squeaks, “I’m going to burn your face off. I will make this quick” From cover, Gilly does Insightful Fighting. Lava Golem monsters rise from the rivers flowing throw the cavern to help. The party does its best and tries not to die. It comes very, very close and the dragon runs at the last minute. In one hidden room, there’s a small desk with papers in draconic and a fire resistant ledger. Also, a fountain of molten gold.   Bobushio creates an ingot mold out of the paints and uses the alchemy jug to create water to cool the gold into ingots. There’s a safe in the back, which Gilly attempts to access. Inside the safe is an ale recipe written by Boeger, and Gilly thinks the ingredients could create an antidote. The curse is applied to the drums, not the ale itself.   The other room is trapped and Thuniel takes thunder damage. She glimpses someone kobold sized Dimension Door away.   Over the next two days, the party travels back and forth to the city. They report to the Captain Kollias and he sends men to collect the gold and destroy the distilleries. The total amount of gold horde is 300,000 gold, of which we get 25%, resulting in 75,000 GP for the party, 18,750 per person. Bobushio steals an extra 5% (1000 GP each) for funsies. Gilly uses her “bonus” to pay the crew.   Gerrig talks to Gilly about how helpless and worried he feels. He questions whether he should be on the ship. He talks about maybe training to get better at things. He’s not sure because he’s not sure of the status of the relationship, but it’s very clear that he really likes Gilly. So now, Gilly needs to figure out how she feels.   Now that Tucker isn’t in his lair, the heat subsides and the mountain will likely revert to a normal mountain instead of a volcano.   Next time, Bobushio wants to read the book and pages. There are details from Ukaru and notes on what he was doing. .   And Thuniel wants to track the Tuckerrath the Agitator and Bobushio rebuilds ISAC.