Session 1: Prologue
General Summary
The party meets Tandy Jenwell at the Butchered Boar Tavern in Nearforest, and agrees to help him find a long-extinct bird species called the Casino Hawk-- a large, colorful eagle-like bird named for the gamble you take by seeking one out. Jenwell says that it has been seen by a couple villagers in the previous weeks. They speak to Remma Jays and Broethr, who saw the birds. Remma is a young girl who says she saw the big birds and their ‘baby’ when climbing a tree during a mushroom foraging trip. Her mother marks on the map where that tree is likely to be. Broethr is testy, but eventually reveals that he found a Casino Hawk perched on the corpse of a deer after he shot and tracked it down. He marks on their map where he made the kill, and the party heads into the forest. They run into a camp of people who claim to be scientists searching for the bird-- but they quickly turn on and attack the party. They are beaten easily and the party finds several mirrors, a morse code cheat sheet, as well as a note that reads:
11:15pm full moon. 500p. Reno sends his regards. Signal or be killed.They also find a map with a small shack on the edge of town circled and labeled, “Markus.” The party heads to the tree Remma marked on the map for them and finds a Casino Hawk waiting, perched silently in the branches. It rises its head crest, which seems to be composed of reflective feathers. In morse code, it flashes the message-- W H O ? Anteries deactivates the Casino Hawk by flashing the code RENO. It remains motionless and does not respond to sound. Yuan-ton climbs the tree and finds a nest with an egg. The hawk disappears when Yuan-ton touches it, and he passes the egg to Rick. They immediately go to Markus' house, mentioned in the note and marked on the map, and knock on the door, claiming to be Reno. Personally knowing Reno, Markus attacks immediately, but he is swiftly torn down by the party, and Yuan-tan uses shatter to explode Markus' beloved mastiffs. After brutally executing Markus on his front porch, they find another map with an X marked in the forest, as well as a letter which reads:
I've made it more pure, Markus. Clever's advantages last twice as long now-- but, its disadvantages come on quicker and last longer. You might think that bad for business, but ah; that's how we keep them hooked. They won't be able to resist redosing.During the fight, Rick accidentally smashes the egg open and finds that it contains 50 capsules of the drug called Clever, which is highly addictive but makes you feel like you can do anything (and mostly, you can). They head to the abandoned shack marked on Markus’ map and solve a chess puzzle to enter a secret door into a well-lit, modernly decorated underground bunker. They find one room with a pressurized air-tube system that delivers eggs containing Clever to the tree above. In the back room, they find a cloaked figure with their back to them, leaning over what appears to be a magical chemistry set. She is a tall, lean woman with a pale face and long, silky black hair that fades to white at the tips. She is wearing a lacy but comfortable looking dark blue robe, which matches her deep, alluring eyes-- but she is startled by their appearance and vanishes, and they fight booby traps left behind: a Mockingbook and Bitecoin swarm. Eieb greedily pockets the bitecoins, thinking they are gold, and reaches in when they begin to growl-- the coins attack viciously and, within seconds, consume his left arm from the elbow down. One coin makes its way under Rick's skin and has to be carved out by Eieb before it consumes him from the inside out. The party returns to Professor Jenwell, who seems frustrated that they brought back drugs instead of a live bird. He refuses to pay them. When the party threatens, he casts Hold Person on each of them and walks away, warning that they have angered the wrong man. The party keeps the Clever r in addition to the Bag of Holding and Bigger Knife they found in the abandoned shack.
"Eieb greedily pockets the bitecoins, thinking they are gold, and reaches in when they begin to growl-- the coins attack viciously and, within seconds, consume his left arm from the elbow down."
Report Date
17 Sep 2019
Primary Location
