2023-05-20 The Wandering Village
Player Characters
- Wiznt
- Val & Soonie
- Tarhun
- Malivette
- Amartherui
Summary
The party devised a plan to find the moving village. Malivette brought a few members of the Inkpot Gods to sit atop Howlpeak and watch the moving village, which moved slower while observed. The PCs purchased horses and outran the village while it was moving slower.
They caught up to the village in the forest in the northwest Haunted Castle. Wooden picket fences surrounded the calm, comfortable village, and the overhead sign above the road said "Welcome to Obbleville".
The party examined a sign with a directory of major businesses.
As Amartherui approached the general store, a woman stepped out. She appeared dwarflike in stature, but different, resembling the stoutfolk that adventurers had observed in the Great Southern Tower. She introduced herself as Irqthwil, welcomed the party to the village, and asked who they were. The party were able to communicate with her as if they spoke the same language.
Tarhun tried speaking draconic to Val, who could understand what he was saying even without knowing the language.
After exchanging pleasantries, most of the party went into the general store, The Umbral Buyout. Wiznt stood outside to chat to Irqthwil longer. He sold her a red scale belonging to Crim for 10gp. Irqthwil expressed curiosity about the dragonborn folk, who she had never seen before, and wondered if their scales held the same power as dragons.
The Umbral Buyout was run by a vinefolk, another ancient race that had previously been witnessed in the Ancient Laboratory. Their name was Ooanoi, and they asked the party for more details about who they were. Seeing Soonie, Ooanoi stated there were a few other dogs in town. Like Irqthwil, Ooanoi didn't have much of a memory of how long they had been in Obbleville, only that it was a long and happy time.
Wiznt used his truesight to examine the town more closely. He saw bits of slime littered about, mostly on the ground, and occasionally stretched from building to building.
The party decided they would look for the tavern next. Upon stepping outside, one of the buildings nearby was the tavern, even though that building held a different sign and establishment earlier.
The party entered Off-Name's Heaven, the tavern. The barkeep was a conehead woman who introduced herself as Wolsha, and the two drinking patrons were insectoid folk. Wolsha invited the party in. Mal inquired about items on the menu with increasingly strange requests, eventually asking if they had remorhaz steaks. Wolsha said yes to everything. Finally he ordered a nice rotisserie chicken, which Wolsha was happy to cook. She asked him about his travels and interests, and told him the same thing others had said: Obbleville was a great and happy village, and she had been there a long time. She mentioned that the town had no guards and no enforcement, because there wasn't any trouble to be had.
Wiznt examined a wagon of goods near the general store. He stole a nice vest and tried carrying it out of the village. Upon doing so, it transformed into a mimic, eyes and pseudopods sprouting out of its amorphous form. Instead of attacking him, it crawled back to the village and became an additional post in the picket fence.
The party reconvened and visited the magic item shop. They did not purchase anything, but were bemused by a strange pendant with a nonsensical description.
The PCs continued to Thinton's Library, which was just down the road toward the circular central plaza containing a large statue of an angel. Inside, a coneheaded man with a monocle welcomed them in. He asked Tarhun about his interests; Tarhun answered by saying he wanted to learn about the past, old people, and the crystals. The party looked around at the books in the library, and found many to be uninspired fiction.
Wiznt asked to purchase a book, which the librarian accepted. Wiznt mentioned he would go munch on the book to learn its information. The librarian was expressed confusion by this, which Wiznt took offense to.
The party heard a bell ring outside. Stepping out, they saw that a clocktower stood in the center the town, instead of the statue. They traveled to Rann Town Hall.
Each time the party stepped out of a building, the nearby shops changed and swapped around again.
Inside the town hall they met Mayor T'luk, a thri-kreen insectoid person. Tarhun asked him if there were any large crystal orbs nearby. T'luk told him to check out the fountain just outside.
Tarhun stepped outside and saw the fountain, with a large spinning orb crafted from quartz spinning on the topmost layer. He approached a stoutfolk citizen on a nearby bench and asked him about the statue. The man mentioned a skilled artist named Thirweelve who lived nearby; her house was the one with two statues in front of it.
Meanwhile, Wiznt informed Mayor T'luk about the situation with the librarian, and how the librarian was racist and rude about Wizn't way of consuming books. T'luk promised he would deal with the troublemaker, and that such trouble wasn't allowed in Obbleville.
The party left to find the artist while T'luk walked to the library.
They found a house with two statues in front: one of Ophanim, and one of Caim. They knocked on the door and asked Thirweelve about her art. She told them how she often sculpted statues that were inspired by her dreams. She pointed out that Soonie resembles the statue she created in the town center, and accused him of ripping off her work. Val tried to point out that that makes no sense, but Thirweelve refused the logic. After a fruitless argument, Wiznt offered Thirweelve the book he bought earlier as a gift for her time. She accepted it and began to eat it.
Val picked up a scent of sulfur coming from the stoutfolk artist. Tarhun thought back to his studies, and remembered reading about a memory-stealing ooze called an oblex. Oblexes can create simulacra of people whos memories they've consumed, which tend to smell faintly of sulfur.
The PCs walked back to town center. On the way, a group of playing dogs ran by, tempting Soonie to join them. Val pulled him back.
The party passed by a farm, where the farmer talked about how good their chickens would taste later.
Amar noticed a strong smell of fine wine coming from the tavern, which had appeared on the street.
Tarhun saw a shady figure in a nearby alleyway. They were fidgeting with a primal crystal.
They saw a book club meeting in the central plaza. The members were talking about a book while munching on it.
The party decided it was time to leave. Upon taking the road out, however, they found that it led to the town center instead- there was no way out of the village.
Tarhun tried to address Obbleville directly. One of the bookclub members told him to chat with the Mayor, who oversees the town. At that moment, T'luk happened to step out of a nearby building, and said hello.
The party talked to Mayor T'luk. His reponses were somewhat cryptic, worded in order to avoid directly addressing much of the weirdness happening in town, but the conversation was nonetheless informative.
- Obbleville is between 100 and 200 years old. It spent most of its life traveling around the Haunted Realm, collecting ghosts' memories and learning about the ancient history of the place.
- It cannot leave the Haunted Realm. Doing so would release the ghosts it has collected, along with their memories. To leave would be to give up its prized collection of ancient memories.
- It endlessly hungers for knowledge and memories. Obbleville wants the freedom to travel the world so it can find more.
- The village is constructed of mimics, which it controls as a hivemind. The mimics feed off zombies and ghouls found in the valley, but the undead aren't very tasty.
- Its memories are somewhat scrambled and unreliable, but it can attempt to provide some information that it has learned about the Ancient Ones.
- About 40 years ago, Obbleville was summoned to the top of Howlpeak by a powerful witch doctor. The witch doctor, Obbleville, an undead person wrapped in bandages, a well-dressed vampire, and a ghoulish king were all assembled at this meeting. The witch doctor gave each of the others a stone object he called a key, and told them to keep their keys safe in order to protect the dark realm in which they reside.
- The PCs informed Obbleville that they were trying to find the Orb of Preservation. They offered that once they were successful, they would allow the village to take the Orb and carry it around, allowing it to maintain its precious memories while traveling the world. In exchange, they needed its key. Obbleville accepted the deal, and Irqthwil appeared to give the party the runic lever key.
- The party asked about the strange amulet in the magic item shop. Obbleville gave them directions to find the rock it was left under in the southeast.
- Wiznt cast a spell to imbue the village with expertise in a skill. This gave the oblex village a sort of high.
After agreeing to the deal, Obbleville allowed the party to leave. They exited to find the village had traveled east with them, and they set out to find the amulet it described. Its directions led them to the Chancemaker's Amulet.
After returning to Salmund, Wiznt talked to Quasar about the possible dangers of placing a teleportation circle in the middle of town. Quasar agreed to give it more consideration and a safer placement.
Val picked up a cache of items left in Grey's will. He had left it with her in case he was completely corrupted by the Voice, and sure enough, he had fallen completely to its influence. One of the items was a steel cube about 1 foot on a side, heavy but not solid, but also not hollow.
Val, Malivette, Wiznt, and Tarhun worked together to drill into the cube carefully, and to remove the outer 2-inch layer of steel (and small layer of lead). Inside was a roughly cube-shaped green primal crystal.
Tarhun re-fabricated the steel/lead cube into a sort of cheset, this time leaving it openable.
Tarhun performed some experiments with orange crystal transmutation of organic/non-organic objects. He also performed some tests with blue crystals and spell permanence.
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