As the wagon rattles along the rough pathways, Bendeg suggests a hidden compartment may be present to hide all of the profits somewhere within the caravan. Almost immediately after the dwarf suggests to search for Chesix's stash, he hears the sound of a shovel hitting gravel. Pulling back the cloth cover, he sees a tiefling woman filling in a hole and aggravated cussing. He also hears the sound of muffled screams from the hole the woman is re-filling with dirt. Dimli asks Omen if the tiefling is her cousin, which understandably offends her. Omen counters asking if Dimli is related to every dwarf, but Dimli shakes his head wondering why the tiefling asked such a strange question.
The female tiefling glares at Omen, who has exited the wagon now and is asking what she’s doing, and she says she’s burying an adulterer- and to watch out for succubi. Omen and Dimli decide to hop back in the cart and leave but Mort asks the tiefling to throw him a stone, to which she begrudgingly obliges. He turns it into a sending stone.
A few more miles down the road, Bendeg notices the carts stop moving (And upon further inspection, the world and time itself seems to have stopped). Quinn, characteristically out of the loop, asks Mort how he stopped time. Zym and Quinn argue over who stopped time. Bendeg watches as everything turns to dust, swirling around them until their vision goes completely dark. Then, finally, the dust settles and the party finds themselves surrounded by buildings that look awfully familiar. The architecture seems to match that of Expersia.
Zym walks forward, Dimli following close behind. There are no windows in the buildings anywhere. Doors are shutting and locking. Mort knows this is his city, but it looks different. The buildings shift and close as we move, like space and time is bending to their physical position. Mort walks to a door and knocks, there is no answer or movement. Zym kicks the door and bursts it open. There is just an endless abyss on the other side, causing Zym to stumble backwards but he falls through a symbol on the floor and is relocated back into a corner of the courtyard. He has vanished and come out of a wall. The stone Zym stepped onto has the same symbol as Bendeg’s hand. Zym smashes the stone with the symbol and the warhammer comes out of the ground. Bandage touches the back of his hand with the symbol to the symbol on the wall. He feels a searing pain and falls to the ground. Both symbols vanish, including the one on the back of Bendeg's hand
An evil laugh echos through the town, which leaves Zym pissed as he invents 45 different curse words. Zym marches into the square and is met with a demon lady, deemed Big Bertha whose large form has skin pouring out of her dress and her bat-like wings turning to face him. She is most certainly not his type.
A fight breaks out instantaneously. Quinn yells at Zym to stop time as they both charge the beast, but then Big Bertha teleports. She appears next to Dimli and kicks him so hard that a loud snap can be heard across the whole courtyard. His arm is barely hanging on with bones poking out in multiple different directions. Mort casts fire bolt but Bertha absorbs the fire. It appears Bertha takes little damage from fire attacks. With one arm, Dimli holds the decanter of endless water, pops open the cork with his mouth and calls Geyser while aiming the decanter at Bertha. Bertha is knocked prone but Dimli also falls back prone. Quinn uses Remorse on the back of Bertha’s skull and fucks her up. She is very bloodied. Mort hits bertha with acid damage and she explodes.
The party is covered in acidic goo. 4 creatures rise out of the ground. We hear a voice inside our heads scream, “fools!” before Bertha fully explodes. The 4 creatures we see are antler boy, lady ram, Fred, and Barney (all undeads of varying kinds).
Antler boy is a beast, hits Dimli once and the poor dwarf falls to the ground, bleeding profusely from multiple wounds, then slams Quinn, slams Bendeg, and finally slams Quinn again.
Lady ram tries to attack Mort and Quinn respectively, not able to scratch either of them. Dimli is on his death bed while Quinn spins and attacks antler boy with remorse. Antler boy knocks Quinn’s sword out of his hand. Bendeg uses channel divinity on Dimli and heals him a bit. Omen eldritch blasts throughout both fights btw, she is doing well. Zym attacks Lady ram and cuts her jaw halfway off.
Mort drinks half of his blue potion and blacks out. , falling limp onto the ground. The party fights while Mort wakes up inside the caravan and sees that everyone is inside the same cart and unconscious. He can see the carts and the guards but he can’t move.
Quinn is inspired by seeing 1-armed Dimli attack and hits Barney with his dagger so Barney dies. Bendeg is hitting Fred with radiant damage now that his comrades are no longer in dire straits.
Mort notices the party is bleeding from their orifices. Mort can move and feels better than he ever has before, though strangely he feels more vulnerable to death. He successfully wakes up Omen by shaking her foot. Omen then scrambles across the cart and heals Dimli’s shattered arm.
Zym kills antler boy with his goading attack.
The world starts falling apart, in addition to Mort and Omen vanishing. Quinn tries to get his sword, but can’t get there in time. Bendeg runs to grab Quinn’s sword and throws it at him, but it knicks Quinn on the shoulder. He feels his soul being leeched out from the wound.
Omen tries to wake Dimli by threatening to steal his dice. Dimli falls into a deeper sleep, not wanting to face a reality where he didn't have dice.
Zym tells the party to hurry up - he sees a cloaked figure on top of the clock tower. The cloaked figure disappears as a door appears at the clocktower.
Mort picks up casks of ale and pours them on Dimli, who wakes up and shakes Bendeg awake. Quinn is headed to the clock tower. He dashes with Zym and they wake up on their own in the cart.
Now awake in the middle cart of the caravan around noon, the party regains composure. Dimli is drinking. We see 2 guards. Dimli asks for a pee break and threatens to aim his stream at the guards so the caravan stops. Dimli hops out and pees. The trees are more alive and seem healthier. Omen asks Chasix what happened and how much time has passed. Chesix says it’s been a few days and tells us we’re 2 hours out from Darkwater. Mort moves to the 3rd cart. Quinn asks Chesix where we were when we were thrown into the cart. Chesix says we were on the side of the ride. The missing guard (Ingus) went up an empty set of stairs and died before he reached the top. Sven and Cletus are the last 2 remaining guards.
Status begins to lif our hair right before lightning strikes and brings a book to Omen with shadow tendrils. Zym is bearing down on Bendeg. Bendeg tries to jump from the wagon, but Zym drags him back in and throws him against the side of the cart. Bandage tries to rush Zym but can’t. Bendeg steps away from Zym. Zym claws through Bendeg’s bag. The holy water rolls across the wagon, and the mess kit drops. Ben-deg tries to hit Zym with a warhammer but it doesn’t work. Zym tears the bag open and all of the inventory falls to the ground. He sees the book from the mirror and tries to strike it. Quinn tells Bendeg to let Zym have the book. Zym is asleep through all of this.
Mort hands Quinn a few drops of blue potion to pour into Zym’s mouth. Quin bum rushes Zym and knocks him out of the way and Zym snaps awake just as the caravan stops. Before us is a large bridge. A town that used to be beautiful is now covered in moss and black sludge. We’re over the bridge and on the center of the island in the center of a foggy swamp. We see huts and houses. Chesix hands gold to Sven and Cletus, they turn in their armor and go their separate ways. Chesix is going to the inn, but before he leaves Bendeg acquires a knapsack from Chesix.
A loxodon approaches us. He is an old guy with white hair coming out of his ears and carrying a staff. Tamuh welcomes us to Darkwater. Quinn tells Tamus we’re in a band. Tamuh knows all of our names. Tamuh asks for the letter we have. Mort reads the letter to Tamuh and tells him Throom has fallen. Tamuh tells us there is a memorial in the graveyard. Mort asks what we’re doing here. Tamuh says we can sleep in the inn and it is paid for already. Tamuh asks us to purchase a book from Morb’s called Armonian Adventures. Tamuh leaves to say goodbye to his son.
Ben-deg follows Tamuh to service. Gargoyles are everywhere and the cart is left unattended in the center of the town. Quinn is casing the cart. Mort goes to the blacksmith and meets a dwarf, Boromir, working on a commissioned sword. He pays 200g for split mail.
Zym, Omen, and Dimli enter Morb’s. It is dusty with cobwebs, but books are neatly ordered. Morb is a gnome who brings the requested book to Omen. Dimli asks where Nile (of Nile’s river boat) is at and Morb says Nile is in Fluxx. He tells Dimli to stay away from people covered in moss, don’t touch the water or you get covered in moss and die a few weeks later.
At the memorial, Bendeg sees Tamuh bowing before a Throom statue. “Lost to the clouds, but never forgotten” the memorial reads. Ben-deg talks about Throom’s exploits.
Zym, Omen, Mort, and Dimli walk to the center of the town. Zym tells Quinn it’s his turn and sits down next to the fountain. Zym didn’t feel the urge to hurt any books in the book store.
Quinn, Omen, Mort, and Dimli walk to the Throom memorial. Mort places the quarterstaff at the base of the pedestal. Mort tells Tamuh, “I wore your son’s face so the world would know who he was.” Tamuh asks for the book, takes a map out of the book and tosses the books aside. Dimli picks up the book. Bandage’s book says, “One wish this may grant, but flesh will no longer be yours.” It’s a tome with a wish spell that will kill you.
Tamuh asks Dimli if we are trustworthy and if we’re willing to be tested. If we pass the test then we can join his group, Mortuus Manus. Three of us will go on one test, three will go on the other.
Mort, Omen, Ben-deg, and Dimli go to Miriam’s Emporium while Zym and Quinn go to the blacksmith.
At the Emporium, we are drenched in perfume when we walk in. The room is messy and there is a human woman brewing things. She charges 10g for appraisals. Mort pulls out a dagger. It drips basilisk venom. Bandage has the intuition marble looked at - he can see a vision of the future. The cleanliness marble will break 1 curse. Omen’s night telescope shows the night sky at a very specific time and date. There are symbols on the telescope. Dimli’s marble gives him 500 g, which he immediately spends on potions. Dimli gives Omen a potion of healing.
Zym eyes the blacksmith’s personal tools. Quinn is looking for holsters for his wrists to hold daggers. The blacksmith directs him to the tannery. The tannery will have the holsters ready at noon the next day.
The group heads to the inn, Charlatan Jack’s. It’s a mini castle. A pretty woman in the archway with blonde hair, blue eyes and is pale enough to look like death, is actually named Death. Zym makes a saving throw against blondes. “I don’t know what I was expecting” she says as she hands Dimli 2 papers. The temperature has dropped 10 degrees. She is wearing a black cloak with the same symbol as the letters.
The papers she hands Dimli have the two different tests written:
Group A - The Shade Initiative
Infiltrate the Faceless; Kill their leader. 300 g for every proof of kill
Zym, Dimli, and Bendeg will go on this quest.
Group B - The Flayer Assessment
Delve into the nearby temple; Retrieve the fabled artifact
Quinn, Omen, and Mort will go on this quest.
We are told to meet at Tahmuh’s island at 6pm. We will meet our new members for tasks and go our separate ways. Death asks what our goal is. She asks Bendeg why he is with the misfits because is the most trustworthy of us all. She advises him not to make enemies if we want to be part of their group.
Death asks again why we are here. She tells us we’re here for a reason. Everything started in the Capital, only demons came out of the capital.
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