Report: An Autumn Harvest
General Summary
It was a brisk autumn day when me and my crew set out on the mountains. The crew consisted of myself, the flexible bard Patrick, the sassy sorceress Monique, the stalwart paladin Elron, his plucky sidekick Dodo, and the mysterious elf, Pale Moon (Pales for short). With basket and sword in hand, we traversed up to the hydra's cave. Fortunately, the local hunters had struck a bargain with me – a magic item in exchange for a map to the cave. Briggs delivered the map, and Gus would be waiting for us at our destination. The map made our trip easy. The only thing slowing us down were the plentiful blueberries we stopped to pick.
When we arrived at the cave though, Gus was nowhere to be found. We picked up on the faint sound of screaming. There were two tunnels leading north and a pond in the entrance cavern. We started by looking in the pond. Pales descended into the murk like an eel. Ten minutes later, he came back up and told us the screaming was clearer on the other side of an underwater passage. Unfortunately, the trip down under was probably too long for the rest of us.
So we tried finding another way by going up the tunnels. We started with the left one. It wasn't long before we ran into some angry dwarves. I tried reasoning with the little buggers, but all they wanted was to loot our corpses. So we had to show them that we wouldn't be such easy prey.
We killed one of them. The others backed off after that. We tried reasoning with them one more time. It was clear they were still hostile toward us, but they were cowed for now. They left, leaving us with their enormous hoard of junk, and a bit of information. There were spider people – ettercaps – in these caverns. It was very likely those creatures had Gus.
I was sorely tempted to search through the dwarven hoard, but it would've taken too much time to sift through it all. We had to find the hunter before it was too late. He wasn't in this tunnel, so we'd have to look in the other one.
Down the other passage, we came to a rickety bridge. We sent the smallest of us to scope it out – Dodo. We tied a rope around his waist for safety. It was a good thing we did. Undead, wraiths and skeletons, swarmed out. They knocked out the halfling, sending him into the river below. I was holding the rope, so I kept him from getting swept away. The gallant Elron took the rope from there and pulled his squire up. In the meantime, I worked with the rest of the crew to dispose of this scourge.
From their remains, we found a bit of gold, and Monique picked up a fancy ring. I held out my hand for it, but she was reluctant to part with it. Pales came to her defense, but Patrick and I reminded both of them about the terms of the contract – all artifacts we found belonged to Maze Creations. They relented, but not without some dirty looks.
After catching our breath, we continued down the passage. At the end, there was a large cavern with a pool in it. In the pool was a young hydra – the goal of our search. I cast Speak with Animals on myself and tried to greet the beast. It growled at us.
We retreated back into the tunnel. The others were staring daggers at me. They assumed that we were just looking for the hydra, not engaging it in anyway. Well, they assumed wrong. What was the point if we weren't going to do something with it? Pales mentioned that if we were just looking for healing reagents, he could have whipped something up. I groaned; that would have been useful to know.
While the crew was squabbling, the hydra made its move. It lashed out and grabbed Dodo in its mouth. The strike knocked the little guy out; he'd be chum if we didn't do something. I bravely dashed forward to the squire's aid. I revived him and dragged him out. I'd saved the halfling's life, at great risk to my own. This became plainly evident when the head lashed out and then knocked me out.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hydra's mouth, with Pales and Patrick above me. They must have healed me. I was grateful, even if I still felt like shit. I clambered out of the beast's jaw. I noticed Monique guarding the tunnel entrance; had something tried sneaking up on us? Pales was looking forlornly at the hydra; I vaguely remember him asking us not to kill the thing. I was on board with that plan. If it lived, we could harvest more from it in the future. But ultimately, I hadn't had much of a say in that decision. And finally, I saw Elron consoling Dodo. Even though he'd made it out alive, the halfling looked different, like a candle blown out too soon. Maybe he was questioning his purpose as an adventurer. I couldn't say I blamed the guy; I had similar thoughts from time to time, given how often I was brought to death's door.
I got to work harvesting the blood from the hydra's corpse. I removed ten vials of its blood and lifted two of its scales. These would definitely help the town. With the hydra dealt with, it was time to find Gus. We returned to the entrance of the cave.
We'd explored the tunnels as much as we could; there was only one way left to search. Pales guided the crew through the underwater passage. I was the last one through; Dodo decided to stay behind. The elf had warned us that the passage was rough, but words and experience were two different things. I got caught on the rocks there too many times to count. Pales had mentioned that he could provide air if one of us needed the emergency support. As I struggled down there, I imagined the elf's face on mine. It was the motivation I needed to power through.
As the dwarves had intimated, we found the ettercaps on the other side. After a tight, sticky battle, we vanquished the spider people. I harvested a bunch of spider parts and also found some loot among the corpses of their victims. Fortunately, one of their victims wasn't dead yet. We hacked out Gus from a silky cocoon, alive if not roughed up.
Past the ettercap chamber, we found another small tunnel. Monique cleared it out with a fire fist, and we proceeded through. It led us to an opening facing down. We jumped through and ended up going through the ceiling of the entrance cavern. Dodo was waiting there for us, as docile and pensive as before. Jeez, it would have been nice if we'd noticed this path sooner.
With all immediate danger past us, I told the crew that we'd be searching the dwarf hoard next. That's when things got sketchy. They complained and groaned that they'd already fulfilled the terms of the contract – they'd slain a hydra. If they were going to do anything else for me, I'd have to pay them extra. To be honest, I was a little concerned the fucks were going to jump me – take everything and leave my body in a ditch. But I gave them a tongue lashing. The contract was to gather medical supplies for the town, which included hydra's blood and anything else we might find laying around.
I stormed off back to the hoard, telling the others to wait outside. If they were going to get handsy, I preferred to finish this part on my own. While I was making my way back there, I received a telepathic message from my buddy Patrick. This wasn't our first trip together; he had my back. With the reassurance of the bard's extra eyes, I did a full search of the hoard and came away with a good haul.
When I returned to the crew, Pales was gone. The others told me he had stormed off, disgusted by the greed that had been exhibited. He was probably upset about the hydra still too. I shrugged, that was more gold in my pocket. At least it would have been if Elron hadn't piped up that Pales wanted his share to go to Dodo. Given the beating the squire had taken today, it didn't seem out of character for the compassionate elf to give that to him. I didn't object.
Our mission completed, we returned to town. I dispensed the contracted fee, and the crew dispersed. All that was left to do was to hand over the spoils to Gravesend.
I found Ingrid in her usual spot and whipped out one of the vials of hydra's blood. At first, she couldn't believe what I had in my hands. But upon further inspection, she was more than happy to accept my offering. She told me that just one vial would be enough to bolster the town's potion supply for a month. With all ten of them, Gravesend would be in a good position for a while.
The day's journey had been fruitful. Not everything went according to plan, but we were able to roll with the punches and get what we came for. Furthermore, we had helped the town. I was more than happy to do my part; I just wish that everyone could be so charitable.
-Scribed by Vincent Maze
Adventuring Patry: Vincent Maze, Pale Moon, Patrick Smith, Monique, Elron Cartwright, Dodo Diggles
Date: 22OCT21
Report Date
22 Oct 2021
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