Winedark, Chapter Nine

General Summary

Wherein the Blasters meet a decidedly not robotic construct, confront a plague/disease/curse, and take themselves back to the endless ocean

Password: Manderbundt

Although their encounter with the chained ogres left the Vastblasters bloody and contused, they decided that they must press on. And, in order to press on, they needed to head down--specifically down the giant excavated hole in Blaststorm's camp in the hopes that maybe it holds answers. A quick trip down the creaking rope and pulley revealed a pretty large excavation, placing our heroes in some sort of alchemical lab.
Looking around, Kharlo Chondricht found some Void Arrows and Kasula Neristina felt the pull of an Eye of the Bookwurm reaching out to her. This Eye would become particularly useful as it became clear that they weren't alone in this hole. A tiny clockwork construct leapt out of the shadows, running around the excavation, screaming PASSWORD. 
None of our adventurers are especially adept at cracking ciphers, so it was decided to try and use Kasula's newly acquired Eye to comb through Blaststorm's blueprints for this thing to try and figure out a password. After a few hours, that password revealed itself: Manderbundt, named after Blaststorm's daughter. Speaking this command word enabled the construct to activate a homing beacon of sorts and begin to lead our crew to Blaststorm, who is hopefully alive.
Thus, the Blasters headed back out into the Ruins and experienced a few Magic AF encounters--namely, with some "tigers, but not tigers" and a yeti that seemed to somehow be in control of the beasts. These were dispatched and soon our shipmates found themselves very close to Blaststorm's location, which happened to be a foreboding looking compound.

A Most Unpleasant Camp

Wisely deciding not to just crash in and see what this camp is all about, Water sneaked forward and discovered that yes, Blaststorm is here, but he is currently tied to what appears to be some sort of roasting contraption and in the company of some severely mutated orcs.
Reporting back, Captain Pitch decided that maybe a distraction was in order, so Manderbundt was directed into the camp in the hopes of distracting the orcs long enough for Kasula to misty step to Blaststorm and get out of there. 
Things, of course, don't always work out as planned and Manderbundt was promptly smashed by the orcs. Combat commenced and was brutal, as an unforeseen orc emerged from one of the camp huts, cast the compound in darkness, and just went ham on Water, leaving them just about as close to perma-death as one could possibly be. Otuna's Favored, though, are not going down so easily and the orcs were overcome. The Blasters survived another day.
The same cannot be said, though, for Blaststorm. All of Kasula's medical efforts appeared to be for naught, as there is something deep inside Blaststorm that cannot be fixed. It was "planted" there (if that is even the right word) by some sort of priest that was in cahoots with the orcs. Or maybe the orcs were in cahoots with the priest? Regardless, something wrong is happening inside Blaststorm and he knows a painful end to his life is nigh. He took the time, however, to fill in some details about the priest--masked, tall, black and purple tentacle tattoos all over. He also informed the Blasters that, although the priest took all the artifacts stored at his camp, all is not lost, because Blaststorm commanded Manderbundt to secret a cache of scrolls away in a location that only it knows. Fortuitous!
With that, Blaststorm asked our heroes a most heavy favor--to be euthanized before what is going to happen to him, well, happens. It was asked if any word should be given to Blaststorm's daughter, to which the duergar replied that Manderbundt the construct is his daughter. Of course. Blaststorm met his end as gracefully as possible, repeating the names of all the friends and acquaintances that have been claimed by the Tong Ruins. He is one of them now. He is home.

Hast Seen Razorfin?

The party wasted no time on just getting the fuck out of there. Manderbundt guided them to the trove, they dug it up, and hauled just a bunch of scrolls back to VastBlaster. Having had just about enough of this place, the crew quickly got underway for Awa Harbor to report back to Twinstar.
During that voyage, they came across a schooner named Brazen Rain and the captain, Utterly. This tiefling is on the lookout for a ship named Razorfin, as apparently that vessel has been doing some merchant hunting. Kharlo whistled nonchalantly, saying that nope, never heard of that. Oh, and have you heard about the Teacup? Surely that's a vessel you need to hunt down! Kharlo and Maltina shared that story and Utterly promised to look into it. Partings were exchanged and the crew of the VastBlaster resumed course toward Awa and toward destiny.

And That's Where We Left It

We'll see what else The Vast has it store for the Blasters during our next session.

Various & Sundry Details

• Kasula got really into mending things with Water. But, it turns out that the ol' maxim of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies a hundred fold in a Magic AF place and was "rewarded" with several bad things.
• It appears that the next custodian of Manderbundt will be Kharlo. The construct will surely make an able kitchen assistant.
• Each of the Blasters discovered that they knew a wizard cantrip during their Magic AF excursion. Kharlo can now harness Kogo's lightning to cast light. Kasula, now able to commune with the seabed of The Vast (?!?) has learned message. Captain Pitch was granted the ability to shape water from one of their hag patrons, Snakes-in-the-Reeds. Water, seeing how the ruins are blasted and torn apart, mediated on the art of fixing things and learned mending. Irk's cantrip has yet to manifest, but it surely will soon.

Rewards Granted

• Level 5!
• Void Arrows
• Eye of the Bookwurm
• Trove of Tong Ruin scrolls

Missions/Quests Completed

• Located and debriefed Grembrek Blaststorm
• Retrieved excavated Tong Ruin material to return to Loshi Saltbloom and Twinstar

Character(s) interacted with

• Manderbundt, a capable construct assistant
• Grembrek Blaststorm, intrepid explorer and excavator (RIP)

Notes

"Tellum....Nicophage...Yonnisstem...Stewfist...Regimond...Blik....the rest whose names I never knew. You have been waiting for me. I come."
--Last discernable words of Grembrek Blaststorm

Report Date

18 Jul 2021

Primary Location

Cheltong

Secondary Location

The Vast