Stop the earthquakes

Gore, Farren, Krumbleton and Rust were asked to investigate the source of some clearly unnatural earthquakes that were wreaking havoc in the town of Perch.

Investigations into the quakes in Perch:

• A couple weeks prior, a stranger arrived in town, and travelled into the mountains. He passed through again not long afterwards, angry. He asked senseless questions, like who else had been up the mountain (not recently, but ever), what year itwas, etc.

• Soon thereafter, the town was struck by a massive earthquake. Many buildings were destroyed and many people died. Tremors continued on and off. It was evident that this was not natural, and the party suspected that there must have been a cause somewhere in the nearby mountains.

• From the bards Ollie and Jim, the party heard rumours that the stranger woke the old sky giant or sky whale:

"well the sky giant came to rain fire down, or to rob or something Luin said he was not welcome and smote him weren't Luin, was a foreign god, come chasing him from his own nightmare land well the sky giant was duly smote duly or something"
J&O: We will sing ye a song O: A song of the old sky demon J: It will not be too long O: though we sure could go on and on
J: Though it weren't a demon truly But it was still a fright Rained down magic Or fire Or stones Rain? Rained down some manner of death J For a night O fortnight
(They go on to sing very cheerfully of many manners of destruction Coming from a world far away.)
J&O:But long ago the King Cravyre Imposing, guided, untouched by fear Brought low the demon, and cooled its ire And let him bury it somewhere around here.
So when the mountainside shakes It must be the sky demon wakes
(Jim flips off of Olli's head, still strumming on his lute in midair before landing in front of you and holding out his hat.)

• Perch had sent for help, but help was slow in coming. The townsfolk were scared, unprepared for travel. Many supplies had been lost in the destruction.

Into the Mountains

The party investigated further into the mountains and found that, in addition to the earthquakes, the rivers in some places were temporarily flowing in reverse. Eventually, they discovered a cavern which had been occupied by a group who were excavating an airship sealed beneath the ground. This group had been killed prior to the party's arrival. Given the unofficial nature of the dig and the various weapons they found lying around, the party assumed these unfortunate individuals to be bandits. Amid the eleven corpses, they found a burned spellcaster, and several marked keys which were used to unlock a large door. Beyond it, they encountered a two headed canine creature which promptly attacked them. They found the corpse of a similar creature halfway within a wall. The living creature was easily dispatched, unlike a crawler creature that had given them difficulty earlier on.
After a brief issue with a 300lb warforged and a weak ladder, the party found the airship, the presence of which was angering nearby elementals. After nearly crashing through the ceiling, the party disabled the airship, calming the elementals and putting an end to the earthquakes.

Items found

• Three fireproof-until-open barrels of Black Lotus mead, worth approximately 500g each.
• A heavily damaged airship.

Completion

The party returned to Perch and collected a small token of thanks from Abigail and Glaldraek Marblestone.
Sir Finn the Green offered to oversee excavation of the airship while the party travelled to Celeb to register the ship with the Department of Documents and perhaps take part in a festival.

Related

Arrival