A Ryke in Need

General Summary

With the last month at the Bibliopolis being rather quiet, the team had got some much needed down time. Resting, studying the narrative device, scribing spells. Now Procella, C351SL, Kingra, and Zaketh sit around the table of goblin manor after being introduced to a new adventurer named Squall. A Genasi Bard and a friend of Dreki and Hanzo. As the team gets to know him, a frantic knock on the door breaks up the conversation. On the other side, professor Surinaal. She addresses the group, telling them that her and Ryke have been working on a way to track the remaining pieces of the narrative device. While working on it, they were interrupted by Joybel who asked him to come help with something in Scuttleglen. Though he said it would only take a couple days, it had been upwards of a week and the gnomes wouldn’t let her into Scuttleglen.
The group, with their new found member Squall, set out to the gnome colony and we’re greeted with hostility and crossbows. Fibblestib and Dabbledob were brought out to ensure the party’s allegiance, and filled in on the details. The gnomes had uncovered an ancient gnomish settlement in the process of their mining expansion, they had Ryke and Joybel check it out incase of danger but they never came back out. The door had been blocked and the gnomes were at the decision point of making their next move.
The team went in and quickly found a hiding deep gnome. With no visible or audible components he cast Charm person on 2 out of five party members. As talks and mild aggression mounted, another deep gnome was revealed and caught another 2 party members with the same spell. The only one left in his right mind was Kingra.
Directed to a specific room, the team found the door blocked and decided it’d probably be easier to knock down a wall. . . . . . . . . One of the gnomes used the offer of a pick axe to lure C351SL far enough away from the party to be attacked, C351SL retaliated much to the surprise of the rest of the charmed crew. A puppeteer parasite came charging in to offer aid to the gnomes and a largely intense and confusing battle of charm persons and suggestions brought the party to blows against each other as the gnomes attacked the minds of the others, only breaking the charm once they had what they came for. In the end, it seemed the gnome was some sort of ooze who was quite focused on attacking Procella’s mind. When that was accomplished, it dissolved into a pile on the floor and retreated through a long tendril to a distant room. Once the parasite was dealt with and the party was convinced they were in full control of their mental states after a short rest, they proceeded. Coming into the final room, the full Ooze form of the Oblex rose from a stone fountain and tried to make a run away as it stunned C351SL and squeezed through a crack in the wall, making a break for the door. Procella quickly put an end to it. Finding Joybel’s locked down spider miner in the next room, the party was able to signal that the coast was clear, and a panel was opened from the inside. Ryke and Joybel looked to be on their last legs, dehydrated and exhausted, but alive.
Searching the remainder of the cleared structure, the party found and promptly put an end to some Oblex spawn that remained. As well, they found a secret room in one of the barricaded areas that contained a small group of long dead deep gnomes. Their bodies were stripped of any significant belongings that proved their existence or lineage, as well as a journal that one of them was keeping. All of that passed on to Fibblestib and Dabbledob, the group was paid, and compensated in gold as well as a Keg robot filled with mushroom wine for the manor.
Though, Squall kept one of the deep gnome rings on him. It portrayed a house crest and the name “Topazmask” in Gnomish.

Report Date

14 Jul 2022

Primary Location

Scuttleglen

Secondary Location

Bibliopolis