2023-03-14 Tists at the Pond
Player Characters
- Ellis Tist
- Igoff Tist
- Den Tist
- Mortha Tist
- Pragma Tist
Allies
Summary
Sheriff Bolnir of Deerwatch offered 200gp if the PCs figure out what happened near the pond, and put a stop to it. Igoff negotiated it up to 250, if and only if they fully resolve the problem.
The siblings approached James and Bralgo, who were now broke from paying the fines for their crime of attempted murder. They invited the pair to join them to the pond, but neither wanted to go anywhere near it. They PCs convinced the pair to travel to Solaki for work, and to seek out House Tist. Igoff demanded a finder's fee if James & Bralgo find fruitful work. Ellis provided them a writ of recommendation, and the two set off on the road.
Evening fell. The inn was not good enough for the noble family, so they slept in the cushioned wagon prepared by the butler.
The next day they traveled to the pond. Pragma awakened from his deep slumber, joining the party.
Pragma found and fixed a discarded fishing pole. He tried to fish in the pond with it, but gave up after 10 minutes and threw the pole back. Mortha discovered a trail of small tracks that might belong to an intellect devourer.
They followed the trail, which led to an empty goblin camp. While they investigated for valuables, a group of goblins burst out of nearby bushes and fought with an unhinged craze. During the fight, the goblins shouted about "smashing your heads" and "staying away from our minds".
The party followed a trail of intellect devourer & goblin tracks, which led to a small cave in the side of a grassy hill.
Den led the way into the narrow cave. He triggered tripwire, and narrowly ducked the log that swung down.
The first room had two corpses with smashed heads, some money, and a wolfskin cap (which turned out to be a hat of disguise). A third corpse was partially sunk in a pit of mud, and its head was not smashed.
The group ignited the muddy corpse. As it burned, they saw it had some equipment, and reached into the fire to retrieve a journal and a flask. The flask contained a potion of invisibility. The journal mentioned that its owner knew the code to a safe, but it wasn't written down.
In the second room, a group of elementals were scratching futilely at a stone door that was barred from the other side. The mephits & magmin turned to face the party and attacked.
After settling the angered spirits, the group heard a telepathic voice coming from the door. It asked what they seek, and offered help in exchange for letting it go free. The party agreed to let it go in exchange for some of its intellect devourers. The door opened.
A mind flayer stepped out of the door. It introduced itself as Grathk, and asked who the PCs were. Igoff introduced himself as "Connor." The party told Grathk to travel to the town of Brightmeadow up the road, and to take its brain minions there later.
The PCs looked in the last room and found a cot and a 5-number combination lock safe.
Ellis told Grathk to consume the brain of the muddy corpse to retrieve the memory of the safe's code. Grathk obliged and provided the code, but then insisted on leaving before the group could test the code. Ellis tried to cast suggestion on it, then it responded by trying to cast dominate monster on him. Combat ensued.
Igoff kept the illithid stuck in laughter as the party pummeled it. It broke free as its health became low, then unleashed a blast of psionic energy that stunned all but Igoff and Pragma. The two struggled to finish the creature off with their daggers, and it managed to grapple Igoff with its tentacles and devour his brain. As the rest of the party awoke from their daze, they finished off the monster, but found their brother dead.
The group opened the safe and found mithral plate armor and gold. They returned to town to claim the reward.
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