Session 5: Bookwyrms and Nerds, the Lot of You!

General Summary

A yummy breakfast in the AHARRG Guild Hall starts our champions off, where they munch meat and hear whispers of a freak storm that happened overnight, impacting parts of the city.
As they venture up to get their assignment from Gleddy Goodvine, the party learns plenty more about said storms: they're called Spritestorms for their unpredictable, dangerous yet fleeting nature. They come and go in highly localized areas, just one more example of The Breaking's influence on the magic of the world, and as [bad] luck would have it, one hit a portion of the City Plateau, specifically some of the merchant quarter of the City of Wrath, causing flooding and much destruction.
The party is tasked to go help one business impact, Third Place, a bookstore and community gathering place run by their new client, Piras. A few current-events-minded PCs happen to recognize the name: Piras was part of a group a few years ago that escaped secret slavery, subdued their captors, and brought them to justice. Rumor had it that one of these escapees took the money they won sueing their captors and started a bookstore in the City Plateau.
(The party also resolves to make sure Gleddy is eating properly after Kitanya Evermoon brings her an egg-scramble-nee-poorly-flipped-omelette and ALEK51 observed she has nowhere to keep food while she's stuck in meetings and paperwork sessions before she eats it. Food safety, Gleddy! Self-care, Gleddy! Come on!!)

Side note: Tervik Likkus stops by Dortlitt's store and picks up an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location because business men can never be too careful. Or because he's got a shady past he's dodging. Who's to say! Not Tervik!

Venturing over to Third Place, the gang meets Piras, a satyr with kind eyes and a nervous smile. They beseech the party to help with a Bookwyrm infestation that has broken out, in addition to some strange and dangerous (strangerous) fungus that have popped up on their books overnight, likely due to the flooding the Spritestorm brought.
The gang, being a bunch of goody-two-shoes nerds like they are, cannot abide a bookstore and chill hangout spot being a wreck, so they reassure Piras that they will also gladly take care of the lingering puddles and random debris/detritus displaced by the beasts. Piras thanks them, clearly overwhelmed at their dream being threatened by one measly supercharged-freak-magic thunderstorm, and goes to sit in the cafe kitchen area in case they need anything. Like healing, the druid satyr (no, not Kitanya Evermoon, the other druid satyr hanging out in the kitchen!) offers.
Spurred on by civic duty and a truly nerdy dedication to books, the group sets out to assess the situation.
The mushrooms are determined to be Trobeskine, a nasty fungus probably blown in from the Fugue Wisps further south. The fungus is harmless in its smallest form, where little white coin-like buttons grow in clusters and can be harvested for use in Potions of Psionic Fortitude. The issue is when they get bigger, merging all the small buttons into one larger dome/bubble oozing spores that cause extreme psychic distress (Dissonant Whispers). Over the course of the session, the party dispatches several with some ranged attacks, rendering the larger bubbles inert, although they've yet to investigate how to harvest them or what to do with them. ALEK51 (not being a combat-type person) takes lead on carefully prizing the smaller buttons off the bookshelves they've sprouted on, using his trusty Thieves Tools to harvest them for selling later.
The rest of the team sets out to find the wyrms and clean up. It is known that bookwyrms are valuable scholarly resources, so the goal is to ultimately capture them alive if possible (or at least not damage the carcases) though Wynnie Bishop can't help but yeetapult one pretty brutally because ugh, bookwyrms you guys, really? That is what you want to take as a pet? They eat books, you know!
L0L4 for her part sets off to Bard it up and does so with spectacular aplomb, using Prestidigitation to distract wyrms with sparkly confetti paper rain and pied-paper-piper-ing them to be her friend. (By the end of the session, L0L4 has acquired 3 wyrmlings as her temporary allies, with the clock ticking down on one hour before Bartleby, Herman, and Scrivener remember she's an enemy to monch and not their mommy.)

by The Fluffy Folio (Michael Habiger)

Along the way, the team also uncovers an unpleasant surprise: a more evolved Bookwyrm that is more dragon/large snake and less cute origami paper. The Bookwyrm seeks to make Third Place its hoard and can be assumed to either be a recently-evolved babby or the source of the babbies. It has a nasty constricting tail and the ability to cast Silence because, you know, library-dwelling creature.
The party works to dispatch this intelligent intelligence devourer, including Tervik Likkus blowing not one, not two, but all three spell slots trying to lull it to sleep; Kitanya Evermoon running at it with an ineffective but really cool-looking Primal Savagery headbutt; and Amanita Guttata brutally Shillelaghing it to death with blunt force trauma. The party resolves to take time later to figure out if its corpse can be useful to anyone.

Bookworm (later modeleted into miniature by Dark Sword Miniatures) by Tony DiTerlizzi

The cleanup efforts also include:

• A joint effort between Amanita Guttata and Tervik Likkus where the former Shapes Water freezes puddles the latter then Business Strongman carries out of the store

• L0L4 trying to climb a ladder and failing but, like, in a really funny heartwarming way that makes her oh-so-approachable and lovable

• ALEK51 befriending two wyrmlings of his own: Paige and Thesis

• Kitanya Evermoon going enemies-to-lo...friends on a bookwyrmling she names Half-joint, and not in a construction way, in a weed way thank you very much

• Wynnie Bishop reverently putting displaced books back on tables

• Carrying debris out of the store, mostly thanks to Kitanya Evermoon but with a valiant effort from Num Erik Al who pretty much immediately sprains his left pinky and gives up because this sucks dude, why are all the shelves so tall and the rubble so heavy

• One wyrmling being fucking NUKED into ash by Kitanya Evermoon's Guiding Bolt, though the others don't seem to hold it against the party. Nobody tell Half-joint its mommy is a cold-blooded murderer.

Rewards Granted

• 1 bookwyrmling corpse

• 1 larger bookwyrm corpse (TBD what to do with it)

• 4 neutralized larger Tromaskines (TBD what to do with them)

• 48 smaller Tromaskine samples and counting (38 with ALEK51 , 10 with Num Erik Al)

• 1 bookwyrmling worth of sad ash

• Tromaskine samples for Amanita Guttata's growing collection

Character(s) interacted with

• Piras (client)

• Dortlitt (off-screen, for Tervik's purchases)

• Gleddy Goodvine (doing what Gleddys do best: quest-giving and being a momfriend)

Created Content

Homebrew with inspiration from Fluffy Folio and 1D6Adventurers

Book Wyrm CR: 3

Medium monstrosity, draconic, lawful neutral

Armor Class: 17 (natural armor)

Hit Points: 70 (12d8)

Speed: 30 ft , climb: 30 ft

STR

16 +3

DEX

14 +2

CON

11 +0

INT

18 +4

WIS

12 +1

CHA

13 +1

Skills:

• Perception: +4

• Stealth: +2

Damage Resistances: Poison

Condition Immunities: Poisoned

Senses:

• Blindsight: 10 ft.

• Darkvision: 60 ft.

• Passive Perception: 13

Languages: Draconic, Common

Challenge Rating: 3

3/day:

• Silence. Casting Time: 1 action, range: 120 feet. Concentration, up to 10 minutes. Target: 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range. For the duration, no sound can be created within or pass through a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range. Any creature or object entirely inside the sphere is immune to thunder damage, and creatures are deafened while entirely inside it. Casting a spell that includes a verbal component is impossible there.

Actions

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 2d6 + 4 piercing damage.

• Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 2d8 + 4 bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the snake can't constrict another target.

Usual Tactics

The larger bookwyrm trades a mimic's deception for environmental cunning, climbing ceilings and flattening itself atop bookcases or on empty top shelves to ambush its prey from above. In addition, it has eschewed poison in favor of constricting its prey.

Suggested Environments

Bookstores, libraries, archives.

The Fluffy Folio (Michael Habiger)

Book Wyrmling CR: 1/2

Tiny monstrosity, draconic, lawful neutral

Armor Class: 14

Hit Points: 10

Speed: 10 ft , fly: 5 ft

STR

1 -5

DEX

18 +4

CON

10 +0

INT

5 -3

WIS

18 +4

CHA

4 -3

Skills:

• Perception: +6

• Stealth: +6

Damage Resistances: Poison

Condition Immunities: Poisoned

Senses:

• Darkvision: 30 ft.

• Passive Perception: 14

Languages: Draconic (understands, doesn't speak)

Challenge Rating: 1/2

• Marked for Death: A creature with at least one Poison Mark must make a DC 13 Con save each hour, taking 2d4 poison damage on a failed save (halved on success). On a success, creature loses one Poison Mark. Poison Marks may also be removed by typical antidotal means. A creature with 6 or more Poison Marks falls prone at the end of each of its turns.

Actions

• Bite: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. On hit, 1 piercing dmg. Target makes DC 13 Con saving throw, taking 2d4 poison damage on a failed save, or half on a success. On failure, target gains one Poison Mark.

Bonus Actions

• Paper Shaper: As a bonus action, the book wyrm can fold or unfold its body. When folded and remaining motionless, it is indistinguishable from a piece of paper.

Usual Tactics

A stealth hunter that lies in wait for extraordinarily long periods of time before seizing an opening. Relies on pack/swarm tactics to bring down larger prey.

A tiny wurm that is able to perfectly imitate a sheet of paper. Able to remain motionless for long periods of time, many are mistaken for looseleaf paper and used for notes, letters, or other documentation. Able to live for several centuries, the oldest Bookwyrms may be covered in long-dead script or bear forgotten knowledge.

Suggested Environments

Bookstores, libraries, archives, stationary stores.

Notes

The only thing really threatening the party at this juncture is the truly devastating schism between different camps on how to pronounce "gif." Full transparency: This author is strictly pro-gif-is-short-for-graphics-of-course-you-say-guh-not-juh.

Campaign

Ostelliach Campaign

Protagonists

L0L4

Neutral Good Warforged (Entertainer)
Bard 4

29 / 29 HP

STR
15

DEX
10

CON
13

INT
11

WIS
11

CHA
15

ALEK51

NG/CG Warforged (Cloistered Scholar (Sage))
Artificer 4

36 / 36 HP

STR
7

DEX
18

CON
8

INT
17

WIS
14

CHA
16

Amanita Guttata

True Neutral Owlin (Hermit)
Druid - Circle of Spores 3

25 / 25 HP

STR
8

DEX
16

CON
14

INT
12

WIS
16

CHA
8

Num Erik Al

()

8 / 8 HP

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

Wynnie Bishop

Kitanya Evermoon

Neutral Good Satyr ()
Cleric 1
Stars Druid 1

15 / 15 HP

STR
14

DEX
8

CON
13

INT
8

WIS
18

CHA
11

Report Date

04 Apr 2024

Primary Location

Third Place