Session 43: Bell and Wagon Cleanup

General Summary

Summary of prior session

3 points

Clothday, 29th Leafbreak: late morning

Where we left off

It's late morning, and the group has just finished off a combat. There's a few wisps of robe, a troll-looking corpse, a ruined bell, and a (now disabled) wagon with a giant crystal? Ice block? in the back of it. As the dust settles from the fight, it starts to sprinkle a little. While they catch their breath, a few things occur to the party at large:

The sigil from the center of the circle is gone.
Leucis (on the strength of his earlier Arcana roll about the circle) knows with certainty that Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond) is usually much faster once cast (1 round total duration of travel/arrival). So this one was operating in a very strange fashion. He figures it's a reasonable speculation that the delay may have been brought on by the obstructed circle (since clearing it caused it to activate) but the extended duration is very strange and not readily explicable.

The Twilight Sanctuary drops and Maya shifts back from his relic sloth form.

Check the remnants

Maya and Kolvonnin look into the troll. Sunny takes a breather off by himself for a bit, and the rest of the group checks out the wagon.

Troll

The troll carries no weapons beyond its claws and fangs. Across its back is a large sack, grimy and bloodstained. While it was visibly rotten even while it was fighting the party, the decomposition seems to have sped up since it stopped moving. Kol tries to get it to the brazier before it becomes to gooey to move, and removes the sack from it before dragging it away. Inspecting the corpse more closely, Maya notes that while it was originally a relatively normal troll, it seems to have been exposed to some intense necrotic energy. The troll's regeneration appears to have been focused on keeping the necrotic energy it had absorbed from completely destroying its body, rather than regenerating the troll as it would ordinarily. Further, there's a large hard mass in the midsection of the troll that's not decaying in the same way as the rest of the corpse. Maya muses that there was a rumor about some giant-kind within a week's travel of here based on the map.

Kolvonnin prods at the hard mass, then scores it with his morningstar to see what lies beneath. After creating a ragged slice, he notes the expected acid and bile, with little other content other than what appears to be a sack of burlap or a similar material. The sack seems unmarred by the stomach acid and has lumps in it that indicate some contents; Kol removes it from the troll's stomach (noting that the acid on it might have marred someone without his racial resistance to that substance). Leucis comes by with Detect Magic (DnD Beyond) active and mentions that the strange stomach sack has a weak aura of Conjuration, and the sack on its back has a couple of auras in its contents (one medium Conjuration, one weak Evocation). The troll itself doesn't have an aura of its own, which would seem to indicate it was not an undead creature.

Bell

Detect Magic (DnD Beyond) shows the Conjuration and Evocation auras on the bell's wreckage are still present and seem to be fading slowly with its destruction. However, there is a smaller, separate Evocation aura in the ruin that remains steady.

Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond)

The Detect Magic (DnD Beyond) shows Conjuration, as expected. The sigils have the same "steady state" glow they had when originally uncovered before it was triggered.

Wisp

A few smoking wisps of robe and some broken bones are all that remain. The whole mass seems to be slowly dissolving or dissipating, much as the horses did but slower.

Detect Magic (DnD Beyond) shows an aura of Conjuration and Necromancy on what's left, and the auras seems to be fading fairly quickly. At the end of the day, it has completely dissolved and disappeared.

The wagon with the block

[The block] feels cool and smooth to the touch, like ice but not cold. Within is the general shape of a humanoid body, but the frosted nature of the block hides the details.

On a closer look, the frosted effect of the material only starts about six inches below the surface of the block. Harb gives the block a polite knock in case someone will open it from the inside. Saf gives it a tap with the pommel of her weapon, noting that it sounds similar to glass but seems harder. Leucis activates his Wand of Detect Magic and gives it a look. The cleric notes a powerful Evocation aura on the block, and tries to take the measure of the magic through his own connection to Arcana. He's able to note that the forces used in this don't have the feeling of being intended to be harmful (unlike many of the spells in the Evocation school). There's a short discussion about how to open the block, either using the Skymaul or jeweler's tools or some other means. Harb suggests that perhaps the block is better left unopened until more is known about what's in it and suggests that Sunny should try to Identify it. The cleric checks out a few other the other potentially magical items in the near vicinity while Sunny handles the Identify before returning. Sunny completes the Identify and discovers the following:

First, a bright internal vision of the sigil from the center of the Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond) from before. It self-identifies as the Arcane Mark of Nogos.
- The bard's grasp of History doesn't turn up much beyond Nogos being a famous wizard or something.
There are elements of Wall of Ice (DnD Beyond) and Forcecage (DnD Beyond) present, but there are some other elements that can't be placed. Unlike prior casts of Identify where some elements were not clear, this feels like it's been deliberately obscured.
There's a message embedded in the Identification:
- Due to the sensitive contents, Dispel Magic (DnD Beyond) is recommended as a means of opening the vessel.
- Sunny's sense of the magic indicates that it would take a 19 on the Dispel Magic check to properly remove the block.

Sunny shares his findings with the rest of the group (now reconvened from dealing with the troll and detecting magic on the various other notables nearby). At the mention of the name Nogos, Harb again feels the tickle of something he should recall - he's heard that name spoken many times, potentially dealt with him or someone who worked for him in some fashion. Leucis recalls from his studies a few details about this name:

Nogos was a reclusive wizard. Stories about him were that he had accumulated a vast fortune and retired to an unspecified location to study the mysteries of the universe.
He was a big fan of making his own custom magic.
He was regularly described as "superbly powerful."
Nogos is presented in the histories as being more about what's interesting and figuring things out than having a partilcular bent towards good or evil.
The books don't speak on his demise, but the books are quite old (potentially even pre-Calamity, though it's hard to tell).
There was a rumor that Nogos had his own version of the Contingency (DnD Beyond) spell.

Clothday, 29th Leafbreak: later in the day

A short rest and planning session

The group takes a short rest about midday:

They discuss whether they should leave the immediate surroundings rather than camp here again tonight.
Leucis uses Mending to repair the wagon, so it's easy to move the block somewhere.
Sunny plays the Song of Rest, and tunes up Deep Rumble to recover some of its spent charges.
The group emerges largely recovered (though not completely restored to full HP).

Afternoon activities

Maya crushes the bell

While he's poking around in the rubble, he notes that the clapper is still in one piece. It appears to be a single piece of solid copper (with a loop to attach to the bell on one end) but shows no sign of tarnish, and while it's heavy (15 lbs) it could be used as a (+1) maul by someone of sufficient strength. Of the other pieces, some runes and engravings are intact but none form complete words. After collecting the maul, the druid pulls out the Adamant Mortal and Pestle and starts hunting up bell pieces that will fit in it so the noisesome device can't be easily restored.

The troll's nasty back sack

See Rewards below for more details about how the rest of the equipment is split out. The bard loosens the nasty knot at the top of the sack and dumps its contents on the ground. It contains mostly very chewed bones and a few scraps of meat. Some strips of clothing and fragments of armor cling to a few of these, but the only items of clear value are:

A knobby iron bar (sort of like a mace head) backed with springs. A gnome or goblin hand is still curled in it, starting to rot.
A wooden staff with a forked end, carved with laughing gnome faces. It's broken into four pieces.
A well-made backpack (much stained with blood and signs of having been licked or chewed on the wearer side).

The gory backpack

The backpack, despite its grisly appearance, has a fairly complicated buckle keeping it closed. Saf inspects it briefly and then makes quick work of opening it with Sleight of Hand. A little more careful this time, Sunny pulls out the various contents:

A few changes of clothes for a small humanoid
10g, 58s, 12 cp
2 Potions of Healing
1 Potion of Greater Healing
1 Bottle of Boundless Coffee
50' of rope
A grappling hook
An Immovable Rod
A Climber's Kit
A Healer's Kit (7 uses)
A collection of wires, leads, prongs and tubes attached to a palm-sized metal box marked with arcane sigils. It seems to be of Gnomish design but its functional properties are not immediately apparent. On its flattest side are two small glass bubbles, one is marked "B" and the other marked "Я". B is red, "Я" is amber.
The backpack itself turns out to be a Heward's Handy Haversack (DnD Beyond).

Sunny Identifies the unusual box, learning that it's a Gnomish Gnowledge Gnode. Interested in the amber light on the strange device, he collects the stored information.

What the Gnode Gnew

Sunny suddenly knows what the gnode was able to learn about some unknown thing it Identified:

Living creatures who attempt to read the stone or approach within 30' must make a Wisdom save (DC 18). (Creatures within 60' of an Estimarth Token and the nonliving automatically succeed.) On a success, nothing happens. On a fail, they are Suggested to go home immediately, and their memory is modified to recall they found nothing of interest beyond the trading post and decided to go home.

Translated text on the stone (magically translated for those who approach and pass the save):

You stand on the outskirts of Estimarth, but what makes it safe for its residents is hazardous to the living. If you are an honored guest and bear the city's token, have no fear. All others, proceed at your peril - death and darkness will be your close companions.

Sunny is also aware that the object Identified contains the spells Glyph of Warding (DnD Beyond), Suggestion (DnD Beyond), and Modify Memory (DnD Beyond). In the wake of the strange device's action, Sunny congratulates it on a job well done and tucks it away. The light that was amber turns red. He then recites the above infomation in a bit of a stilted voice. The group muses about what the Estimarth Token would do, or have to be. But they're not aware of any item they have seen that would fit the bit. Maya seems a little weirded out by Sunny's reaction to using the gnode. Meanwhile, Leucis mends the broken wooden pieces (which seems to be made of white oak). They locate a stretchy leather strap to connect the forked staff pieces, since it's a Gnomish SlingStaff. In his enthusiasm, Sunny casts Identify on the gnode to recharge it so he can try it out on one of these unIdentified items, the knobby bar. It makes some clicks and whirs while the tube and leads poke at the item. After a minute, it stops moving. Sunny again relays the information that the bar is a Gnomish Springfist (DnD Beyond) in a strange tone of voice. The bard then congratulates the strange device again and tucks it away.

The troll's gut sack

Kolvonnin dumps the sack out, and a single fist-sized rock drop out of it to the ground, and disappears almost immediately after. The bag doesn't feel any lighter, and it's about 20 lbs. Harb, his curiosity piqued, reaches in and pulls out a rock. He tosses it at a nearby piece of rubble, and it disappears after the impact. Kol takes a few minutes to clean the worst of the troll's stomach acid off the Bag of Rocks (DnD Beyond) and considers how it might be used.

What to do next

There's some discussion about leaving for some other location, taking the wagon with. The main concern being the relative danger of this location, the party decides to do some scouting. There's also concern for the folk of Sohmweyr, since a troll and lots of undead have been encountered here, not a crazy distance from the town. Other ideas for moving the block involve putting it in the portable hole (which it would fit inside), though given its mass that would be effortful. If the group is going to stay, they think it might be of use to scout the area for potential threats and see if they can tell where Estimarth.

A tabaxi eye in the sky

Sunny climbs the pair of Immovable Rod (DnD Beyond) into the sky some distance to gain a good vantage point. Off to the southwest, he can see the cobblestone road straight as an arrow. To one side of it stand a glossy black obelisk, but it's not so large as to be able to pick out details easily. The bard notes that there's a shadowy presence, like overcast but more localized and independent of the cloud cover, where the road leads. He's not able to spot any movement of creatures, so it's held pretty certain that there are no large or obvious groups of potential enemies in the nearby surroundings. Sunny pulls a paper bird from his equipment and sends word to Saf on the ground. The party surmises that the glossy black stone is likely to be thing that the Gnode had Identified information on. On receiving the intel, Saf calls up that he can come back down.

Disabling the circle

As a preventive measure, the group decides to cover a bit of the circle to keep it from being used, at least temporarily. They may decide to uncover it when they leave so it could be used if they get the ability to teleport later.

Contact with the Frosted Library

Leucis has a Sending to/from Mia as scheduled, but the librarian has little to report since combing through atlases is more time consuming than text.

Dinner, conversation, and settling in for the night

As the day draws to a close, folks note that the remains of the wispy figure have disappeared completely. The group manhandles the wagon near an open building and Maya cooks a hearty meal. Leucis puts forward the idea of rehabilitating lycanthropes as a possible approach. The group's conversation boils down to the following:

The cleric suggests using Remove Curse (DnD Beyond) to cure lycanthropes that seem redeemable, and putting them in some secure location (such as the Temple of Selune in Stonebridge, since its consecration repels those with the curse).
The level of effort and resources needed to make this happen is a heavy lift, so Leucis would need help and/or more spare time than he has laying around. He seems hopeful that the Church of Selune would be likely interested in this.
Sunny seems a litte skittish about the lack of free choice involved but seems to understand the necessity.
There's some concern about dealing out death for folks who fail the redemption, as well as the local community's opinion of them. Kol in particular takes the stance that efforts toward redemption are laudable but there's a line beyond which death is only the reasonable response.
The time those freed from the curse would need to be held and/or monitored is a concern, as well.
The group discusses taking prisoners - there's not a lot of equipment in the party gear or spells commonly prepared that suit that goal. In the next town with a blacksmith, they'll be looking to acquire something for that purpose.

Leucis sets up the Leomund’s Tiny Hut (DnD Beyond) and grants Maya the Vigiliant Blessing.

Overnight watches

Sunny and Harb

Sunny explains a bit about the Gnomish Gnowledge Gnode doing some of the work for him on using the Identify spell. Harb inquires if Sunny has a history with gnomish devices, and the bard cheerfully elaborates that no, he has no real past with them, but Identify is great. Harb suggests that the gnomes of the Glaciery (particularly Breslyn von Swizzlebop) might take an interest in this device, next time the group passes through Grayhill.

Harb

Harb passes a quiet watch alone.

Saf and Maya

Saf takes a few minutes to check the block for a visible seam in case there might be some means of physically opening the strange material if the Dispel Magic doesn't work out.

Leucis and Kolvonnin

The cleric and the paladin have an undisturbed watch. Kol takes the opportunity to Send to Einar.

Sunday, 30th Leafbreak

Folks will complete their long rest and we'll pick up next time.

Next steps:

Scheduled:
- Next Wisdom of the Elders of Hearthstone scheduled for the next in-game evening
Between session tasks:
- Players: Review the threads and respond to them before the deadline on August 17th.
- Please verify the Rewards Granted section, update your inventory (if you haven't already), and put in that you want to roll on the unclaimed gear if you're interested.
- DM: Prep for the exposition dump
- DM: Sketch out the next Wisdom scene
Out of Character tasks:
- Long Rest Checklist activities; prep spells (specifically Dispel Magic)
- Sendings:
  - Kolvonnin: Sendings to Einar and Cileskn
  - Saf Sends to her contact

Session Feedback

Eddy: I really like the Teddy Ruxpin vibe of the Identify item. I think I was the one who stopped the party from breaking the block in the first place. What happened today was probably what I enjoy most about playing DnD. Searching through and finding weird shit and RP. I like the occasional combat, it just takes a long time. Sidebar stuff is also fun.
Heather: Enjoying RPing the new toy and the shenanigans with the Immovable Rods.
James: We got some cool loot, interesting but not necessarily effective, we'll have to see. I'm disappointed that we haven't gotten to the exposition yet. RP was fun, and it was nice to get back to RP after so much combat. I enjoyed the sky climb with the Immovable Rods. I really want to see Harb shove someone off a cliff with the springfist.
Jeremy: Good loot, but it's weird milestone that we passed with this loot dump: there's a +1 weapon and no one is super interested. I need to see Harb shove someone with that springfist. Unfortunate that we didn't get to the plot, but it's only a week out, so that's good.
Matt: I am glad we didn't get to the exposition so the summary of the threads will go fast. I also continue to get to complain until the info dump. I like that folks weren't all that opposed to organizational efforts. The Rod idea, as an outgrowth of Meg's idea about sending out a scouting party, seemed to work out well. Tack that onto the new item's exposition, and we got a lot of information that linked together really quickly. I totally understand not wanting to just smash the 9th level spell block, that does make sense. Interested to see what happens and what direction we end up going go next - it's pretty clear this area is defended by some pretty strong magic, especially with the memory-affecting qualities. Maybe the upcoming source of information will give us even more info that will turn us around, or we'll find other things that turn us around.
Meg: Damn it, no exposition yet. Curious about opening up River from the cube and what kind of cool assassination powers she has.
John: I'm glad the homebrew hit the way it did and folks liked it. I was a little taken aback about reading the Identify on the gnode as quickly as it came up. No one said you couldn't use the "master key" to open the block, it could possibly have worked. Things moved a bit slower than I expected but that's not new. I do get why folks didn't want to smash their way in. I want to take credit for planning how well the info linked up, but I can't realistically plan how that worked out. I did have all the pieces in place, though, which I will totally take credit for. I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to exposition. I noted people remembered they have things that they don't pull out all that much.

Rewards Granted

Divided among the party

10gp, 58sp, 12 cp
1 share = 1 gp, 12 sp, 7 cp
Leftover (unsplit): 3 cp

Unclaimed

A few changes of clothes for a small humanoid (missed on first pass)

Claims

Claimed by Ol'Harb

Gnomish Springfist (DnD Beyond)
A Climber's Kit
A Healer's Kit (7 uses)

Claimed by Sunny

Gnomish Gnowledge Gnode
50' of rope

Claimed by Kolvonnin

Heward's Handy Haversack (DnD Beyond)

Claimed by Leucis Darkstar

A grappling hook
1 Potion of Greater Healing
2 Potions of Healing

Claimed by Saf

Immovable Rod (DnD Beyond)
The Clapper (+1 maul, 15 lbs)