A sinister journey of three parts Report
General Summary
Previously: A Curse in Ivory
There are three imp-like creatures following us in the wood and they seem to be able sense the cursed unicorn horn we are carrying. Imps are creatures of malice, however these look like they are made of soft clay and only one of them has stubby wings. They talk to each other in common, saying disturbing things.
They want to take items and put them in the right place, so it seems they're not actually imps. They also don't seem to see us as people, just looking at us for the stuff we are holding.
Anathema shoots a fire arrow at one, and it explodes over me. The gross smell is a mixture of blood, mud and something planty. We capture one and freeze one with magic.
The captured one tells us his master is Fulbert the Foul, who is the wizard that created them. He is human, and has been 'catalogued'. From the clues, we gather that they are some kind of homunculi, which is a type of artificially created wizard's familiar.
The two remaining homunculi lead us to where they are based, intending to 'catalogue' us too. We approach a small trader's caravan that has been abandoned by the side of the road. The board sign over the cart declares 'Fulbert's Fabulous Fancies'.
Anathema notes muddy homunculus footprints ont eh steps into the caravan, and doesn't find any traps, but notices a strong smell of something flammable, like spirits or pungent oil. She opens the door wider to air it out.
Investigating the caravan, we discover that the wizard was done in by his own homunculi, who smothered him in his sleep, and then dismembered him, preserving and storing the correct parts in the correct jars and cupboards inside the caravan. We find magical items, tools, weapons etc. The magical items are mostly everyday items like buckets, hairbrushes and the like that have minor enchantments on. Much of the caravan's contents seems to be body parts in jars, including heads, hearts, toenails, etc. Small packages wrapped in paper, antlers, various eyeballs, claws fur and vellum - all are neatly organised and nicely labelled. There are some books, too. Nothing is alive. Everything is well organised.
Tharg takes the homunculi outside and burns them until they melt and disintegrate. We find a journal on the table. The wizard seems to have experimented with making more than one homunculi (the usual wizard's limit) by combining both his blood and imp blood into the recipe. He writes that this is very efficient, increasing the number to three, although it seems he noted some unusually amoral behaviour in them in the last entries. It seems that the innate malice of the imps caused them to turn against their creator, murdering him in his sleep, while following his orders to dissect any creatures he put in the caravan and catalogue their parts correctly.
Using detect magic, our investigation of the caravan turns up a magic scimitar made by the Yuan-Ti (a type of snake people), a mask of the bat, an unidentified magic ring, and a throwing knife. The ring has transformation magic, the mask's magic is divination based, and the scimitar is enchanted. What the enchantment does is unclear, but considering the Yuan-Ti, it might be poison based. There is also a preserved monkey claw. Anathema declares that none of us should touch it at all.
We hitch the caravan to daisy and continue towards the Place of the Unicorn. Tharg uses his wildshape to pull the cart as well.
A couple of hours later, we see the remains of a village, with a graveyard overlooking the High Road. Most of the graves seem to have had the occupants dig themselves out from inside and left. We hear a sound like a large dice being thrown, but more rumbly. In the centre of the graveyard is a stone covered grave. On top of this is a shadowy figure hovering next to a quivering circle of air, a window into another realm. Another figure leans his head and one arm out of the window. Between them floats some kind of polyhedral shape. The shadowy figure holds his hand over the shape and the sound happens again. Various sides on the object light up. The thing leaning out the window repeats the action, putting it's own hand over the shape, making different sides light up. The shadow pumps its fist.
Looking closer, we could see more details, like the fiery landscape through the window behind the figure that is much larger than a human, and the horns and wings of the shadowy figure. Are these devils playing dice with each-other? The shape, too, has symbols in a language none of us recognise, which means it's not draconic, orc, common, or druidic.
We carry on past, don't interact, and stealth as much as we can inside the caravan.
A while after that, we came across evidence of a fight - undead body parts and splashes of blood. The trackers among us recon it has been at least two hours since the violence happened. Unusually, some of the undead, some type with pale white skin and sharp claws, seem to have been squashed flat to the road. We hear a grumbling groaning sound from ahead. Anathema thinks these must be undead that eat flesh but aren't animated corpses.
A few hundred feet onwards, the area left of the High Road opens up to a large pond with a group of amphibian creatures in. Some giant frogs, large frogs and frog people. They've clearly just been in battle and are beaten up.
We identify that these frog people must be Bullywugs, an amphibious people who usually live in tribes. They have different cultural values to men and elves and etc, so they are generally not very integrated into civilisation. They are territorial, but they don't necessarily kill on sight. Some of them are riding giant frogs, while some of them are armed and seem to be guards. The number of large and giant frogs is unusual in a group like this, and the group is gathered around one large bullywug of immense girth and grandeur.
A frogman playing a musical instrument similar to a guitar approaches us and identifies himself as Gluncloff, the Croaker (the bullywug equivalent of a bard) of this group. They just fought a tough battle against the undead of the swamp and are resting and recovering. Their group is on its way to sell livestock (large and giant frogs) at a market. He asks if the party has any healing to offer, in exchange for goods. They have a substance called swampspittle, a globule of sticky liquid that can be used as a grenade-like weapon and if set aflame will stick and burn like alchemist's fire. Gluncloff also purveys small bottled poison-frogs of various bright colours, which can produce different poisons, which can also be infused into swamp-spittle globs. We give healing and settle for payment of four globs of swampspittle and one yellow-spotted frog in a bottle whose poison can cause confusion on affected creatures.
Once this is done, we head onwards into the still swampy foothills where the High Road skirts both the Sword Mountains and the Mere. It takes two and a half hours for Anathema to search for where the mountain peaks match the vision shared by Lurue, then I quickly point out what she is looking for. We set up camp and wait for moonrise.
Next: Unicorn Heaven.
There are three imp-like creatures following us in the wood and they seem to be able sense the cursed unicorn horn we are carrying. Imps are creatures of malice, however these look like they are made of soft clay and only one of them has stubby wings. They talk to each other in common, saying disturbing things.
They want to take items and put them in the right place, so it seems they're not actually imps. They also don't seem to see us as people, just looking at us for the stuff we are holding.
Anathema shoots a fire arrow at one, and it explodes over me. The gross smell is a mixture of blood, mud and something planty. We capture one and freeze one with magic.
The captured one tells us his master is Fulbert the Foul, who is the wizard that created them. He is human, and has been 'catalogued'. From the clues, we gather that they are some kind of homunculi, which is a type of artificially created wizard's familiar.
The two remaining homunculi lead us to where they are based, intending to 'catalogue' us too. We approach a small trader's caravan that has been abandoned by the side of the road. The board sign over the cart declares 'Fulbert's Fabulous Fancies'.
Anathema notes muddy homunculus footprints ont eh steps into the caravan, and doesn't find any traps, but notices a strong smell of something flammable, like spirits or pungent oil. She opens the door wider to air it out.
Investigating the caravan, we discover that the wizard was done in by his own homunculi, who smothered him in his sleep, and then dismembered him, preserving and storing the correct parts in the correct jars and cupboards inside the caravan. We find magical items, tools, weapons etc. The magical items are mostly everyday items like buckets, hairbrushes and the like that have minor enchantments on. Much of the caravan's contents seems to be body parts in jars, including heads, hearts, toenails, etc. Small packages wrapped in paper, antlers, various eyeballs, claws fur and vellum - all are neatly organised and nicely labelled. There are some books, too. Nothing is alive. Everything is well organised.
Tharg takes the homunculi outside and burns them until they melt and disintegrate. We find a journal on the table. The wizard seems to have experimented with making more than one homunculi (the usual wizard's limit) by combining both his blood and imp blood into the recipe. He writes that this is very efficient, increasing the number to three, although it seems he noted some unusually amoral behaviour in them in the last entries. It seems that the innate malice of the imps caused them to turn against their creator, murdering him in his sleep, while following his orders to dissect any creatures he put in the caravan and catalogue their parts correctly.
Using detect magic, our investigation of the caravan turns up a magic scimitar made by the Yuan-Ti (a type of snake people), a mask of the bat, an unidentified magic ring, and a throwing knife. The ring has transformation magic, the mask's magic is divination based, and the scimitar is enchanted. What the enchantment does is unclear, but considering the Yuan-Ti, it might be poison based. There is also a preserved monkey claw. Anathema declares that none of us should touch it at all.
We hitch the caravan to daisy and continue towards the Place of the Unicorn. Tharg uses his wildshape to pull the cart as well.
A couple of hours later, we see the remains of a village, with a graveyard overlooking the High Road. Most of the graves seem to have had the occupants dig themselves out from inside and left. We hear a sound like a large dice being thrown, but more rumbly. In the centre of the graveyard is a stone covered grave. On top of this is a shadowy figure hovering next to a quivering circle of air, a window into another realm. Another figure leans his head and one arm out of the window. Between them floats some kind of polyhedral shape. The shadowy figure holds his hand over the shape and the sound happens again. Various sides on the object light up. The thing leaning out the window repeats the action, putting it's own hand over the shape, making different sides light up. The shadow pumps its fist.
Looking closer, we could see more details, like the fiery landscape through the window behind the figure that is much larger than a human, and the horns and wings of the shadowy figure. Are these devils playing dice with each-other? The shape, too, has symbols in a language none of us recognise, which means it's not draconic, orc, common, or druidic.
We carry on past, don't interact, and stealth as much as we can inside the caravan.
A while after that, we came across evidence of a fight - undead body parts and splashes of blood. The trackers among us recon it has been at least two hours since the violence happened. Unusually, some of the undead, some type with pale white skin and sharp claws, seem to have been squashed flat to the road. We hear a grumbling groaning sound from ahead. Anathema thinks these must be undead that eat flesh but aren't animated corpses.
A few hundred feet onwards, the area left of the High Road opens up to a large pond with a group of amphibian creatures in. Some giant frogs, large frogs and frog people. They've clearly just been in battle and are beaten up.
We identify that these frog people must be Bullywugs, an amphibious people who usually live in tribes. They have different cultural values to men and elves and etc, so they are generally not very integrated into civilisation. They are territorial, but they don't necessarily kill on sight. Some of them are riding giant frogs, while some of them are armed and seem to be guards. The number of large and giant frogs is unusual in a group like this, and the group is gathered around one large bullywug of immense girth and grandeur.
A frogman playing a musical instrument similar to a guitar approaches us and identifies himself as Gluncloff, the Croaker (the bullywug equivalent of a bard) of this group. They just fought a tough battle against the undead of the swamp and are resting and recovering. Their group is on its way to sell livestock (large and giant frogs) at a market. He asks if the party has any healing to offer, in exchange for goods. They have a substance called swampspittle, a globule of sticky liquid that can be used as a grenade-like weapon and if set aflame will stick and burn like alchemist's fire. Gluncloff also purveys small bottled poison-frogs of various bright colours, which can produce different poisons, which can also be infused into swamp-spittle globs. We give healing and settle for payment of four globs of swampspittle and one yellow-spotted frog in a bottle whose poison can cause confusion on affected creatures.
Once this is done, we head onwards into the still swampy foothills where the High Road skirts both the Sword Mountains and the Mere. It takes two and a half hours for Anathema to search for where the mountain peaks match the vision shared by Lurue, then I quickly point out what she is looking for. We set up camp and wait for moonrise.
Next: Unicorn Heaven.
Anathema Summerbrace
Her'dyr Greymoir
Tharg Who is Wise
Report Date
31 Aug 2023
