General Summary
Following the Red Road
A job posting on the village's notice board brings together an odd group of adventurers: Eylas Fenhorn, Bilge, Thondi Wyrmhart, Orawyn, Ashi, Mozi, and Flimp. All of them well-versed in the dangers of the westernlands decide to come together for this job. The village elder Chakub is hesitant to let the group go especially with the two gnomes in the group but having no other choice he lets them go. The party questions Chakub about potential dangers in the area and finds out there are several groups of bandits that call this region home. The elder has no knowledge about these groups and tells the party they should ask others in the village. Chakub explains that Logan Freefellow is the leader and owner of the Ruby Merchant. He travels with a dozen guards and occasionally has other merchants tag along with him on his trading route. Logan typically stops at a long-abandoned dwarven settlement about half a days travel on horse. This settlement connects to the Red Road which cuts his travel time in half.
The party decides to head over to the local inn, the Far Chair Inn, where they find two kids vandalizing the sign so it says the Fart Chair Inn. Orawyn scares them off. The party heads inside to gather information about the Ruby Merhcant while Mozi finishes vandalization. The party meets with Farin and he shares his love of pickling with them. Bilge is brave enough to try the pickled mystery meat Farin has which is a bull testicle. The party questions Farin to which they find out Farin hasn't heard anything about the caravan and he's eager for it to arrive since he is waiting on more vinegar. Ashi buys rations from Farin and he throws in a treat for Yakul. Some of the party decides they need horses for the journey so they travel to the stables to speak with Triss. Triss isn't in the business of renting out horses since the risk of them dying in the westernlands is too high. Mozi convinces Triss to rent out her donkey Gerald for their journey but the party vetoes Mozi's idea. Bilge manages to toss the rest of the pickled bull's testicle to Gerald which decides not to eat the pickled meat. The party votes to take the Red Road in the hopes of finding Logan along the path and, if not, at the dwarven settlement.
The party discovers that the animal life and general nature noises are nonexistent the further they travel down the Red Road, which raises tensions. The party makes it to the edge of the settlement. Flimp decides to crawl into a nearby log to sleep and the rest of the party makes camp near it. The party readies themselves for the potential dangers of the dwarven settlement as it is rumored the dwarves were known to trap their homes. During Ashi's watch she hears clicking and Thondi sees a humanoid figure in the treetops watching them. When the party tries to get closer to it bamfs out, leaving a light blue haze behind. The rest of the night is uneventful.
In the morning, the party discusses what they saw last night. Elyas remembers a ghost story he once heard about a creature named Fiddlesticks. It originates in Dwarvish folklore. Mozi believes that Fiddlesticks is from another plane of existence and tries to convince the party they should kill it. Ashi disagrees, stating that this creature is potentially thousands of years old and could easily kill them at their current level of experience. Orawyn partially agrees with Ashi but states that death is a natural part of life but pushes the group to look for the caravan. Orawyn finds wagon tracks and footprints that lead into the dwarven settlement.
The party sneaks into the settlement and finds 7x7 stone pillars each with its own door. They are built in the shape of a semi circle. Elyas attempts to open a door but activates a booby trap, barely missing a cross-bolt. After another attempt, Elyas manages to open the door and sees a descending counter-clockwise spiral staircase. Orawyn follows the tracks and goes further into the settlement while Elyas and Thondi investigate the staircase. The party discovers bodies skewed all over the settlement. Investigating the bodies the party discovers there are two distinct groups- bandits and guards. Mozi checks the wounds and finds that they are unnatural wounds, puncture wounds two side-by-side piercings that whiten the skin and blacken nearby veins. Orawyn discovers it was a paralytic poison. Mozi states that the bodies have been dead for roughly four days. Bilge finds the caravan wagons and they are undamaged. Bilge manages to pick the locks on the wagons only to discover they were never looted, meaning this was a potential friendly meeting with the bandits.
Back to Elyas and Thondi, Elyas decides to solo the mystery staircase letting the blue crystals on the walls light his way. The last three crystals are cracked and won't emmit light. Elyas enters a stone room and see feet as well as a pool of blood. Groaning is heard from the feet and Elyas investigates. It is a mortally wounded guard who can only move his eyes and whose breathing is raspy. Elyas calls up to Thondi to get a healer and he gets Mozi and Orawyn. Elyas discovers he and the guard aren't alone in the basement and a Siver Silk Phase Spider webs off the only exit. It pins Elyas down and begins to web him. Elyas screams and the rest of the party runs to his rescue. They fight the spider, killing it, and rescue Elyas. Mozi attempts to save the guard while Flimp opens the door the guard was leaning against. Orawyn puts the guard out of his misery. Flimp opens the door and finds a stache of counterfeit items the caravan is replacing their goods with. The party leaves and Ashi searches the settlement for Yakul
Yakul is looking out in the distance and sees a pillar of smoke. The party investigates and comes across a bandit camp that has been ransacked by some creature. The bandit bodies that remain have had their faces removed as well as their organs. They find footprints which lead to a dwarven fortress. They sneak inside the fortress and find the inner fortress and Bilge charges into a room full of spiders. Flimp follows closely behind screaming FLIMP! Flmmp is paralyzed by the spiders and is carried by Mozi. They kill the spiders and enter the next room where they find Logan webbed up to a wall. Mozi tries to pull Logan's leg off. They all panic for a moment. They try again and pull of his other leg. The party discovers that Logan is a halfling who wears fake legs to appear as a human. The party bumrushes the monster in the next room and kill it pretty fast. The monster is an Ettercap and it freaks Ashi out. Thondi casts detect magic and discovers a secret door that is sealed off by powerful Orc magics. They will have to come back later to open this. They enter the other door and discover a web covered armory. Within the armory are two Silver Silk Phase Spiders that phase out of this plane. The party loots the room and gets 70gp, 800sp, 314cp. ◦ 2 silver ewers (Ashi) ◦ A black velvet mask with gold stiching (Ashi) ◦ Engraved bone dice (Bilge) ◦ A mirror with a wooden frame (Mozi) ◦ 3 potions of healing (1 Thondli, 1 Flimp, 1 Bilge) ◦ 3 potions of climbing (2 Bilge, 1 Mozi)
They leave the fortress with Logan who gives them knowledge about Dwarven archiecture if they don't tell the townspeople he is a halfling. Chakub give the party a 120 gold reward.
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