This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers
- Silvermist Biggins: (she/her) half-elf/half-halfling drunken master monk.
- Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises, a charismatic male Vuman warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
- Abby: An Autognome clockwork soul sorcerer (she her)
- Nimbat/Nimowl, Nimrod's enthusiastic, ever-helpful bat/owl familiar
- Jax the investigative rogue dhampir (she/her)
- Dormin, Nimrod's trusty shadow spirit
The party is currently at level 6. They will be at level 7 at the conclusion of this adventure.
The Adventure
Arrival on Feytasy Island
Nimrod and Nimbat, and Dormin were the only party member who left the sphinx's lair. All others stayed in the Gynosphinx's library to do as much research as possible. Nimrod was confident he had the legal acumen to procure the rights to the daguerreotypes on his own. But he felt comforted that additional Bad Decision Makers Guild members who had stowed away on the ship would help him do any dirty work needed if negotiations with the locals proved "difficult". Nimrod was confident Jax the dhampir investigative rogue and his other new companions would be sufficient back up in difficult situations.
The island had no natural harbor. But the handlers of the Annabelle Lee's landing boat deftly maneuvered their craft through the island's treacherous coral reef to the entrance of a lagoon that was barely larger than the Annabelle Lee's whaler.
To Nimrod and everyone else, the island felt strongly magical. It also had a strongly floral scent. Jax said this place stank of fey magic.
Feyish animals were scurrying in the lagoon's waters and ashore. Neither Captain Sheila nor her crew would dare set foot on the island for fear someone on the island would charm them.
A barely seen diminutive figure ashore was yelling "The boat! The boat!" and ringing a bell as the whaler reached shore. This startled Captain Sheila, who curtly commanded her passengers to jump from the boat as she rapidly positioned a ten foot pole to push the boat back into the water and away from the island. She did not even want to set foot on the island long enough to unbeach the boat. Sheila told the party she would watch the beach from afar through her spyglass to know when to return with the whaler.
Faun Times on the Feytasy High Road
The team took a foot path up from the beach rather than a trail that followed the beach. They passed through some trees and into a clearing where they met three stoned teenaged satyrs. The satyrs were carrying wineskins and skateboards. Silvermist, being only partially inebriated at this point, used this opportunity to greet the satyrs and immediately partake in their potent liquor to become fully inebriated. With mutual good feelings established, the satyrs further ingratiated themselves with the party by offering the team healing lotion as they prepared it from the sap of a trail-side tree.
After a while of drinking and cajoling, the satyrs said they would give directions to an owner of daguerreotypes if the team would help the satyrs deal with a colony of mean ravens that had been following the satyrs around and bullying them mercilessly after school.
Shortly thereafter, much squawking from the sky alerted the fauns and the team to the raven murders diving upon them. The fauns instinctively dived under a flat boulder. The team remained in the open and fought. Silvermist, her reflexes being freshly lubricated with the satyr's spirits, dealt with the ravens particularly gracefully. Nimowl found a prominent role in this fight many of the ravens were intimidated by the owl. Nimrod and Abby killed some ravens as well. In the end, the ravens were totally defeated and the satyrs rejoiced.
The Daguerreotype Keeper
The three satyr teenagers led the team to another clearing which had a majestically large oak tree at its center. Its branches were moving rhythmically as if in the wind even though there did seem to be a breeze. As the team came closer, the Bad Decision Makers saw the tree was a treant. It had 3 sprite associates in its boughs.
The treant's name was Feynor. Feynor said he would exchange the desired daguerreotypes if the team checked on the status of a unicorn named Lurue. Feynor said the moon goddess had appointed Lurue as the protector of the island's Pool of Eternal Spring. But lately Lurue had gone missing and the minions of Lurue's sworn nemesis Malar the Beastmaster had been very active around the pool.
The team agreed to Feynor's terms. Feynor told them to make haste as he suspected Malar plans were about to come to fruition on this day, the day of Winter Solstice. With urgency of helping Lurue in mind Feynor equipped the team with a potion of hill giant strength and a potion of clairvoyance. He also advised the team to be careful of the hag named Stagger.
Nimrod openly stated his misgivings of aiding a unicorn. He hated unicorns. He had studied many accounts of disgusting unicorn foolishness during his legal training at the Kas Law Academy. In all the case law he had studied, Unicorns were always time wasting naïve idealists who had no practical value in the real world or the courts. Nimrod silently hoped he would have an opportunity to improve the world by further marginalizing and disgracing or even slaughtering Lurue the contemptable unicorn.
A Quiet Homestead in Woods
The Well
The Bad Decision Makers left the satyrs with the Treant and trudged off in the direction of the Pool of Eternal Spring. Nimrod, who was quite curious about Malar the Beastmaster, was lost in his thoughts during this walk as he mentally argued with Nimowl about whether Kas Enterprises may benefit from setting up a franchise headed by someone like Malar on this island. Ultimately Nimowl told Nimrod to shut up by insisting Nimrod drop the idea because of the inevitable NIMBYism of obstinate unicorns and the island's remoteness.
Ordinarily familiars are subservient to their invokers. But this break with their ordinary master-servant relationship made Nimrod testy and distracted. Nimrod resented Nimowl reminding him that Nimowl still outranked Nimrod in the Kas Enterprises management. So when the team came upon a small homestead in a dead thicket and wanted to check out a suspicious well before they would attempt to get drinking water, Nimrod casually stood away from the well as he transformed Nimowl into Nimbat and volunteered Nimbat for looking down the well.
"Fuck you, Nimbat! Sure you have more influence than me at corporate HQ, for now. But at least I am not a familiar.", Nimrod mentally shouted at Nimbat.
"No, fuck you Nimrod--you pasty piece of shite! Your best possible career end-path is being a familiar. And I believe you're more likely to end up as a janitor in the mail room of a branch office, you wannabe management drone.", Nimbat mentally snarled back.
Nimbat in his fury and shame only slowly gave the well a haphazard look and was flying back out of the well while Silvermist was already starting to look down it.
Suddenly much to everyone's surprise, a giant slimy grick alpha worm erupted from the well. It ignored Nimbat and attacked Silvermist first with little success. Silvermist fought back well and everyone except Nimbat helped defend her. Dormin was particularly effect at preventing many of the grick's attacks from being directed at less armored team members while taking much damage himself. Jax scored several damaging precision attacks. Abby and Nimrod inflicted important damage as well.
After Jax scored the killing blow on the grick, Jax walked down the well to see if any treasures or body parts were salvageable. Jax's search turned up nothing.
Entering the Cabin
The team was pretty beat up after fighting the grick and deliberated resting the nearby shack. That was when they heard cackling from the shack, apparently from an old woman. The team concluded this woman must be Stagger the evil hag of whom Feynor had warned them. Everyone walked towards the shack's front porch with Silvermist, Abby, Jax, and Dormin leading the way and Nimrod taking the rear.
Silvermist kicked open the door and saw Stagger had two Dryad prisoners. This blue haired crone was ritually slaughtering one of them by burning its branches in a pot belly stove. Plentiful blood and left over body parts about the room showed she had many other recent victims. Interrupted from her torturing, Stagger furiously attacked Silvermist. Jax and Abby joined the fight. Nimrod was not yet in position. But Dormin rushed forward but could not reach the melee quickly.
The hag was putting a beating on Abby [I don't remember who got beat. But I am certain someone got beat.] Nimrod cast protection from good and evil on Abby [or whoever was lowest on HP]. Dormin's attacks drained some of Stagger's strength.
Dormin, already hurt from the grick fight, received too much damage from Stagger and was dispelled. Abby threw chaos bolts. Jax repeatedly hit Stagger with Knowledge is Power until this book's title was embossed on the hag's face. Nimrod cast eldritch blast from outside the cabin for some effect. Finally Stagger succumbed to Jax's bookish blows and was destroyed.
The team freed the Dryad prisoners in the cabin and learned from them of Stagger's other prisoners in the barn. The team liberated them and learned how to reach the Pool of Eternal Spring. The Dryads convinced two hawks who had been prisoners to be guides to the pool.
One of the Dryads agreed to cast barkskin on Abby to help him for the rest of the day, granting Abby a small boost in armor class for an hour.
A Campfire Party
The hawks led the team to a campsite where five human barbarians were dancing around a bonfire while gluttonously tearing apart live animals, eating them, and smearing the blood on their naked bodies as they howled like they thought they were wolves. Two actual wolves were staked out nearby.
Upon seeing the bloody naked idiots, Nimrod looked at his own meticulously tailored clothing and recalled his favorite law school drama instructor, Michael Wincott, saying in his deep gravely voice
It's good to dress well. Elegance expresses greater expectations of life. The current culture of slovenliness conveys a spiritual and intellectual surrender.
Upon Nimrod concluding this remark, Silvermist attacked without warning. Nimrod trapped two or three of the barbarians in a Hunger of Hadar centered on the bonfire. He used repelling blasts to try to contain them there. Abby, Jax, and Dormin fought and defeated the berserkers that did not attack Silvermist or that managed to eventually escape Nimrod's hunger zone. During all this time, the berserkers shouted curses at the Bad Decision Makers, insisting that Malar the Beastmaster would kill them all.
Eventually no berserkers were left and the wolves were released. The barbarians had no useful items. But they did have a lot of intestinal parasites that made the team wonder how the berserkers were strong enough to walk.
The team did not dawdle here. They rushed off to some wolfish howling nearby.
The Pool of Eternal Spring
The Pool of Eternal Spring was only a few minutes walk away from the berserker campsite. When the team got there they saw the pool's waters were inky black with red streaks. Four werewolves were individually spaced along the pool's near shore and staring toward its center when not howling as if they were bidding something to emerge from the water. They also chanted "water into blood, earth in bone".
Suddenly bubbles and water were jetting out of the round pool's center. A black horn struggled up from the surface. Then a unicorn's black head and body arose through the defiled water. But this unicorn was different. It wanted to kill everything. It wanted to make war on the entire world.
The anti-unicorn's angry red eyes immediately looked past the werewolf that was between the party and itself to meet Nimrod's sneering gaze. Whether it sensed Nimrod's anti-unicorn prejudice or maybe Nimrod had defeated it in a court room, it had chosen a new target for all of its hatred and violence.
With super speed the demonic unicorn charged out of the water directly at Nimrod. But a werewolf was unwittingly in its path. The unicorn gored and trampled the werewolf as it charged forward, losing no momentum as it flung the werewolf's corpse in the air while charge past the rest of the party to the completely shocked Nimrod. Nimrod had barely a chance to yelp before Lurue nearly kicked him to death and then literally transformed Nimrod into a mangy wolf-dog servant under the unicorn's command.
Lurue the anti-unicorn attacked the rest of the party. The werewolves attacked the party and the anti-unicorn. Nimwolf defended the anti-unicorn by attacking a werewolf that had intended to target the anti-unicorn's haunches.
Silvermist was taking on two or three werewolves and somehow she was holding her own against them with drunken acrobatics and powerful fist strikes. But she was running out of chi.
Jax and Abby were trying to non-lethally subdue Lurue. Dormin helped by drawing some of its strength and necrotizing its flesh. Abby and Jax were optimistic Lurue could shake off her evil madness if given a chance.
Nimbat laughed as he maneuvered for a better view of Nimwolf. Nimbat mockingly squeeked at the uncomprehending Nimwolf, "Who is the familiar now, you fucking pasty freak?!"
Nimwolf was over-matched against the werewolf. Has a wolf ever defeated a werewolf? The anti-unicorn forced Nimwolf to try. Nimwolf lunged at the werewolf and against all odds knocked it prone and managed to hurt it. But the werewolf fought back and the anti-unicorn also attacked Nimwolf while also attacking Jax and Abby. Soon Nimwolf was down and his dying, comotose body transformed back into Nimrod. The werewolf Nimrod/Nimwolf had been fighting took this opportunity to exit the battlefield.
Abby revived Nimrod using a healing spell as Jax continued fighting Lurue. But Nimrod was still prone on the ground and barely alive near Lurue's hind legs.
Abby went back to fighting Lurue. Silvermist was still fighting two werewolves. But one of them now elected to run away into the woods. Then Lurue kicked Nimrod unconscious while he was down, undoing all the healing Abby had done to Nimrod.
Finally, Lurue went down after Jax scored a particularly good hit on Lurue's skull with her Knowledge is Power book. Jax and Abby then helped Silvermist defeat the remaining werewolf and revived Nimrod again.
Abby and Jax suggested Nimrod use a Tensors floating disk to carry Lurue to Feynor for a spiritual cleansing. Nimrod was about to summon a disk when Abby had a better idea to cast dispel magic upon Lurue. This worked instantly to revive the unicorn and restore its coloration and personality from black and evil to snowy white and good.
The Pursuit of True Goodness and a Werewolf
The revived Lurue jumped upright and dashed at full speed in pursuit of the werewolf that had fought Nimrod. Abby, Jax, and Silvermist pursued on foot to assist Lurue. Nimrod was too exhausted and injured to keep up. He was too busy rethinking his anti-unicorn prejudice to be of much help anyway.
Abby, Jax, and Silvermist caught up with Lurue as he was finishing off the werewolf.
Lurue gave Abby a ring of shooting stars in gratitude for Abby's help. Then Lurue escorted the team to Feynor.
Acquisition of the Daguerreotypes
Feynor was greatly pleased to see his friend Lurue in good health and he was pleased that the team had foiled Malar's plan. He gladly gifted the daguerreotypes to the team. He also gave each of Jax, Nimrod, Silvermist, and Abby a charm of heroism. {For 1 hour after drinking it, you gain 10 temporary Hit Points that last for 1 hour. For the same Duration, you are under the Effect of the bless spell (no Concentration required). This blue potion bubbles and steams as if boiling.}
The team was now ready to return to the Annabelle Lee and the Gynosphinx's lair.
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