Session 63: Hots for Larva Lady

The party get to enter combat with the Larva Mage. She fires three Eldritch Blasts at them but misses. That causes Timble to fire arrows at her, Arne to Eldritch Blast back, and Magnar to try to hit her with his sword.

They quickly dispatch her after she tries to fight back, turning into a Swarm of Bugs that starts to crawl towards them.

Seeing the manuscripts they were informed about, Arne creates a wall of Force between the manuscripts and the moving Swarm. Timble runs round across a small bridge and snatch them. Magnar grabs Timble and carries him while he throws a lit vial of oil to block the Swarm from following them.

Escaping down the passageways they eventually make it out of the sewers and back up to the surface,

Making it to Father Tossil, they learn that Magnar & Anselma are to have up to 3 children, that they have a physical way back to the Dreamlands as well. To do so, they can travel to the Carpathian Mountains near the Black Sea, and at the night of a full moon, they can find an entrance. It will show up as a five pointed star with an eye design in front of a cave where there is a hole with steps in it. The cave has some type of painting around it of strange design that shows up in the moonlight.

They are sent back to Eschbach after Father Tossil slips something into Archi's pocket.

Examined later he finds it's a map to a tower deep in the Central Massif that holds a copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts.

They all wake up and go about their business meeting in the Eschbach Shields where everything appears normal, and a Half Elf is present. There they are informed with everybody had strange dreams the night before about cats. Some also told Edwardo the apothecary about having trouble sleeping because of it.

They're informed by Baldwin that there had been a strange handsome bard in the tavern the night before but was thrown out and escorted to the southwest road out. He had been making nasty comments & songs about the local leaders including the Duke, trying to start up bother.

Deciding to go to the council, they are told the council knows already and if they want they can look into it further, especially as no word has come from Gitzburg and that something may have happened there.

Going out Archi, Timble and Magnar hug a tree each with Archi accidentally hugging a Treant instead.

Making it to Gitzburg they see smoke rising from the centre of it and the smell of burning heavy in the air. Racing in they find two funeral pyres in the town centre, and a guard speaks to them. It is a funeral for two Goblin guards who were near the entrance to Gitzburg by the road. One was blasted by a magic spell that killed him almost immediately and the other had been hit hard with something.

The latter lived long enough to tell them that it appeared that the bard had came this way and took out the two of them. He turned into a black swan and flew away to the west.

About the same time as they were dealing getting the two bodies, a young girl walked passed asking which way Eshbach was, dressed in red from head to toe with a red cloak, red shoes, and with a small dog. She had long black hair, and pale skin. They pointed her in the right direction.

Magnar decides to listen if there is any any bird noises out of the ordinary and all he ears is wolves to the south with one seemingly much more louder and very aggressive.

Timble speaks to animals and a hedgehog says he seen the swan go west. So, they head that direct. Timble asks a squirrel and told the same, and eventually arrives at an inn used by travellers. No other buildings except an outhouse & stables are present. The wildlife tell Timble that they seen a black swan land on the roof, and then jump down when a party of what looks like labourers appear and enter the inn. An old man seemed to walk from behind and joined them at the back.

The party enters the inn, and Archi casts Detect Magic picking up the old man with the labourers by the fire, and not one of the other two old men in the inn. Timble goes gets a drink and then sits down near the old man noticing he is not interacting with anyone. Magnar comes over pretending to be clumsy and knocking into the old man, while Archi joining them.

Arne sits back near the bar and eventually casts Disintegrate at the old man who takes the hit changing into the Star Spawn Seer.

Timble stabs him with the spear while Magnar tries to hit him, and Archi tries out Ray of Frost. Eventually Archi manages to finish him off, and the inn is left in a state of shock. A couple of the local prostitute start screaming and Timble is on his knees stabbing the extremities of the Seer (all that's left at this point), screaming "You killed my friends, you killed my family". Arne is the first to walk out, and Timble finds a simple moonstone amulet on the body and takes it out.

Archi examines the amulet and finds that it is magical, that when worn creates a two way Message spell with Star Gods. Exactly which one seems to be random, and can drive the user insane.

They head back to Eschbach telling the Council what happened and paying off the inn before leaving.

They are given 190 gold each, and then tell the council about the little girl dressed in red.

The party is informed that a girl of the same description was turned away from the Grove earlier that night, and nobody fitting that description has been seen since. They also hand over the amulet Timble found to Father Tossil to be stored in the new more effective vault.

They all go to their beds with Magnar & Anselma getting a bit frisky on the way to their home, hinting what is to come for them.

Also, Archi starts to try the process of creating simulacrums of them all, including himself.

Now what could go wrong???.....