Home is Where the Heart Was
General Summary
Even were they capable of understanding, it is unknown whether the children of St. Eventide's Orphanage would comprehend the how central their fate had become in the plotting of gods and men, but as not even gods can see the future, these little pawns may yet become the next of fate's plotters.
Having reincarnated as an orc on the plane mere days earlier, Grud discovered that the orphans were missing, and what's arguably worse, they were being sought by northern adventurers out of the mushy-gushiness of their hearts. Following their trail, Meako, the Just king of the north, Covak, the Dragon Monarch, and Tiff the Undying met Grud at his old pawn shop. Wolfsbane bade Grud take their help, as a wise chief always seeks powerful allies, and revealed that more than the orphans had been taken:
"There is also is the remnant of your clan. Yes! Some of the women and children yet live. But you must live up to your name, Grud. Forsake elvish perspective or human plots or dwarf’s cowardice, for you are an orc! See only with the One Eye of Gruumsh. Gather what is left of your clan and I shall be empowered to name you First, not the Last, of Clan Granite. And I will make you an Eye of Gruumsh, as well."
Together, the allies pooled what they knew and discovered that this was where the trail stopped. They searched the shop, and Covak chose to ignore the unconscious pawnbroker left on the floor. They soon found that a message written in blood in the vault: "Where your heart is,
there your treasure will be." Upon stepping forward to investigate, a teleportation circle activated, and the party found itself in one of the Beastlord's hunting grounds, a voice mocking them from among the trees.
"I am Anth-Malar, Chosen of the Beastlord. Do you remember the smell of prey, Grud? Do you remember the taste of blood? Your new patron may have cursed you with your mortal form, but I will give it back to you. Abandon your petty god and serve the eternal hunt! Defeat me and I will make you an even more powerful hunter than you were before."
The Chosen of Malar fell upon them, then, but he underestimated Grud's rage. Covak kept Malar's beasts off his back while his blood-red blade struck. Tiff, masquerading as "T," supported them with spells while Meako dropped a torch into the circle, his help unnoticed.
Anth-Malar, having bitten Grud, held up a hand to stop the fighting and revealed that he had returned the moon's blessing to the orc. "Only one of lycanthropic blood can open the portal where your kin be, so consider my master's offer: Infect the Clan and leave it where you found it."
The party entered the portal and found it led to an abandoned shrine to Sebek, the crocodile god of the Mulhorandi. Quickly moving into the city, they found that the children and the clan were in the possession of the Arenamaster, a djinn of some power. The djinn revealed that he had already set the clan to be devoured by Shai Hulud in the arena, and Grud charged in while he was still speaking, dragging the rest of the party into the fight. A young half-orc, surprised by Grud's appearance, asked, "Uncle Grud?" before being swallowed by a half-fiend crimson worm. Approximately 30 seconds later, Grud and the party had rescued the clan, and Grud cut Sharhorn out of the beast's belly, but the orphans were nowhere to be found.
Sharhorn said his "mother" had taken the targets of their quest, and feared that she was beyond saving in her madness. Eventide, after whom the orphanage was named, had succumbed to the Black Forest Blight that had poisoned so many fey in Pandora. The young half-orc provided the stolen journal of his adopted father to Grud, but only wished to return home. "I can't kill her, Uncle. Please don't make me do it." Together they dispatched the arenamaster, created a net, and flew the clan out of the Shedje without a thought for their safety, while Covak, Tiff, and Meako covered against the elemental forces pursuing them. Returning to the shop, Wolfsbane took charge of the Clan so that Grud could pursue this last target: Eventide, the lost wife of Nihilus. Unable to discipher the book himself, Tiff, having revealed herself, searched it for clues. Together the party found a forgotten entry about a cottage built by the fey, and ignored by Nihilus. They teleported there and confronted Grud's old friend, Eventide. Unwilling to release the orphans, Eventide was intent on making them "her children" and would not release them from the dead blighted tree that had sprung up from the center of the cottage. Among the ruined branches, the children were being changed into blighted dryads and began to attack them. Eventide was not without considerable power, however, and she managed to stay just beyond the worst of Grud's blows. Her attack upon his companions, however, proved to be her undoing. Covak, seeing the cloak of darkness that armored her, and seeing how Grud's red blade cut through, summoned the spirit of a warrior into his polearm and a glowing blue blade burst into life. She swept down to plane shift Meako to the Elemental Plane of Fire, one whose past with fey made him the most susceptible. Covak was ready for her, and his hatred of mages overwhelmed her before the spell could be cast, and she was instead cast down at his feet. Coughing up the black bile that her blood had become, she called out to Grud, who approached. "We should never have turned you into a monster, Grud. But that's all he does. He turns all of us into monsters. I just wanted to be a mother." At her caress, Eventide removed the lycanthropic curse from her friend's blood. "I know," was the only response. And then Grud cut off her head. Though able to cure them of the blight, two of the children were turned into dryads before the party could rescue them. The little ones, as if by instinct, chose trees to guard, and by such small acts, bit-by-bit, the Forest becomes less Black.
...
Ten leagues to the south, deep within the bowels of the earth, a tiny sound of stone hitting metal clangs from within an arcane cube, a lockbox containing the ringfinger of a sovereign, until recently banded by an obsidian wedding ring.
Sharhorn said his "mother" had taken the targets of their quest, and feared that she was beyond saving in her madness. Eventide, after whom the orphanage was named, had succumbed to the Black Forest Blight that had poisoned so many fey in Pandora. The young half-orc provided the stolen journal of his adopted father to Grud, but only wished to return home. "I can't kill her, Uncle. Please don't make me do it." Together they dispatched the arenamaster, created a net, and flew the clan out of the Shedje without a thought for their safety, while Covak, Tiff, and Meako covered against the elemental forces pursuing them. Returning to the shop, Wolfsbane took charge of the Clan so that Grud could pursue this last target: Eventide, the lost wife of Nihilus. Unable to discipher the book himself, Tiff, having revealed herself, searched it for clues. Together the party found a forgotten entry about a cottage built by the fey, and ignored by Nihilus. They teleported there and confronted Grud's old friend, Eventide. Unwilling to release the orphans, Eventide was intent on making them "her children" and would not release them from the dead blighted tree that had sprung up from the center of the cottage. Among the ruined branches, the children were being changed into blighted dryads and began to attack them. Eventide was not without considerable power, however, and she managed to stay just beyond the worst of Grud's blows. Her attack upon his companions, however, proved to be her undoing. Covak, seeing the cloak of darkness that armored her, and seeing how Grud's red blade cut through, summoned the spirit of a warrior into his polearm and a glowing blue blade burst into life. She swept down to plane shift Meako to the Elemental Plane of Fire, one whose past with fey made him the most susceptible. Covak was ready for her, and his hatred of mages overwhelmed her before the spell could be cast, and she was instead cast down at his feet. Coughing up the black bile that her blood had become, she called out to Grud, who approached. "We should never have turned you into a monster, Grud. But that's all he does. He turns all of us into monsters. I just wanted to be a mother." At her caress, Eventide removed the lycanthropic curse from her friend's blood. "I know," was the only response. And then Grud cut off her head. Though able to cure them of the blight, two of the children were turned into dryads before the party could rescue them. The little ones, as if by instinct, chose trees to guard, and by such small acts, bit-by-bit, the Forest becomes less Black.
...
Ten leagues to the south, deep within the bowels of the earth, a tiny sound of stone hitting metal clangs from within an arcane cube, a lockbox containing the ringfinger of a sovereign, until recently banded by an obsidian wedding ring.
Rewards Granted
Loot:
Half-buried piles of hidden treasure were littered throughout Eventide's Cottage and on her person:
Armor
[25,150 gp] +4 Darkwood Heavy Shield
Gems
[5,000 gp] diamond
[100 gp] moonstone gem carved into the shape of a butterfly
Scrolls
[1,125 gp] divine scroll of plane shift: Pandora (cl 9)
Wands
[750 gp] Wand of Cure Light Wounds (CL 1)
[750 gp] Wand of Inflict Light Wounds (CL 1)
Weapons
[22,060 gp] Luck Blade (small; 0 wishes)
Wondrous Items
[125 gp] Engagement Ring (Prisoner's Dungeon Ring missing Jailer's Dungeon Ring)
[8,000 gp] Wedding Band (Jailer's Dungeon Ring missing Prisoner's Dungeon Ring)
[16,000 gp] Belt of Incredible Dexterity +4
[12,500 gp] Cloak of Resistance +5
[4,000 gp] Headband of Intellect +2 (Craft: Cooking) (sheds light)
[5,000 gp] Lenses of Situation Sight
[18,000 gp] Ring of Protection +3
[9,900 gp] Seducer's Bane Bracelet
Miscellaneous
[?] Eventide Apocrypha (written in Abyssal; claimed by Tiff)
[?] Nihilus' Journal (written in Common and Abyssal; claimed by Grud)
[1,000 gp] Aurumvorax pelt (golden fur)
[2 gp each] 68 golden spoons
[100 gp] Moth-eaten Prophetess Gown (Dancer's Garb)
[10 gp total] 2x Spring-loaded Wrist Sheaths
[1 gp] wooden holy symbol (three amber teardrops on a purple triangle)
[11 cp total] 11x batches of cake mix
[2 sp each] 105 silver spoons
[25 gp] Familiar Satchel containing an undead known as a Beheaded created from the head of a fetchling (Koza)
[0 gp] hag wand (0 charges)
[6,000 gp] Crystal of False Friendship (anyone who picks it up hears a child laughing; DC 10 history check to recognize it as anything other than a necklace with a flawed pink and green ioun stone with strange coloring)
[1 cp each] 40,009 wooden spoons
Experience:
Covak (16): 6,800 XP = 3,600 (The Chosen of Malar... and his scary pet) + 1,200 (The Maker) + 200 (Arenamaster? More like Arena-plastered.) + 1,800 (Are You My Mother?)
Grud, Tiff (15): 8,719 XP each = 4,500 + 1,688 + 281 + 2,250
Meako (13): 15,113 XP = 7,800 + 2,925 + 488 + 3,900 Alignment:
Grud, who truly embodied the traits of Gruumsh and made no plans, only acted, shifts to:
Grud replaces his title "Last of Clan Granite" with "First of Clan Granite"
Half-buried piles of hidden treasure were littered throughout Eventide's Cottage and on her person:
Armor
[25,150 gp] +4 Darkwood Heavy Shield
Gems
[5,000 gp] diamond
[100 gp] moonstone gem carved into the shape of a butterfly
Scrolls
[1,125 gp] divine scroll of plane shift: Pandora (cl 9)
Wands
[750 gp] Wand of Cure Light Wounds (CL 1)
[750 gp] Wand of Inflict Light Wounds (CL 1)
Weapons
[22,060 gp] Luck Blade (small; 0 wishes)
Wondrous Items
[125 gp] Engagement Ring (Prisoner's Dungeon Ring missing Jailer's Dungeon Ring)
[8,000 gp] Wedding Band (Jailer's Dungeon Ring missing Prisoner's Dungeon Ring)
[16,000 gp] Belt of Incredible Dexterity +4
[12,500 gp] Cloak of Resistance +5
[4,000 gp] Headband of Intellect +2 (Craft: Cooking) (sheds light)
[5,000 gp] Lenses of Situation Sight
[18,000 gp] Ring of Protection +3
[9,900 gp] Seducer's Bane Bracelet
Miscellaneous
[?] Eventide Apocrypha (written in Abyssal; claimed by Tiff)
[?] Nihilus' Journal (written in Common and Abyssal; claimed by Grud)
[1,000 gp] Aurumvorax pelt (golden fur)
[2 gp each] 68 golden spoons
[100 gp] Moth-eaten Prophetess Gown (Dancer's Garb)
[10 gp total] 2x Spring-loaded Wrist Sheaths
[1 gp] wooden holy symbol (three amber teardrops on a purple triangle)
[11 cp total] 11x batches of cake mix
[2 sp each] 105 silver spoons
[25 gp] Familiar Satchel containing an undead known as a Beheaded created from the head of a fetchling (Koza)
[0 gp] hag wand (0 charges)
[6,000 gp] Crystal of False Friendship (anyone who picks it up hears a child laughing; DC 10 history check to recognize it as anything other than a necklace with a flawed pink and green ioun stone with strange coloring)
[1 cp each] 40,009 wooden spoons
Experience:
Covak (16): 6,800 XP = 3,600 (The Chosen of Malar... and his scary pet) + 1,200 (The Maker) + 200 (Arenamaster? More like Arena-plastered.) + 1,800 (Are You My Mother?)
Grud, Tiff (15): 8,719 XP each = 4,500 + 1,688 + 281 + 2,250
Meako (13): 15,113 XP = 7,800 + 2,925 + 488 + 3,900 Alignment:
Grud, who truly embodied the traits of Gruumsh and made no plans, only acted, shifts to:
Show spoiler
Title:C9/E9
Grud replaces his title "Last of Clan Granite" with "First of Clan Granite"
Report Date
24 Aug 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
