C1S19: Consequences Have Actions

  is the nineteenth session of the first campaign. While attempting to rid Che of his cursed item, the party finds that their actions in Hupperdook have unforeseen consequences...

Synopsis
On the morning of the 10th of Fessuran, Badis and Che decided to fly down to Hupperdook to quickly remove the curse placed on Che by the Cuffs of Transcription. Landing near the Ironside Barracks after taking arrow fire, the party realized that Hupperdook is now more heavily fortified with Righteous Brand soldiers posted nearly everywhere. Speaking with Watchmaster Bram Gulchswattle, the party was connected with the Crownsguard wizard assignee, Rupert. Unfortunately, Rupert did not have the Remove Curse spell, but told the party that an unsavory man by the name of Poric Bronzefern, who collects antiquities may have one. With that, the duo traveled through the Idleworks Shelf running into the children they had fought with and set on the right path. The four children, Peggy, Arnold, Samantha, and Puck, were now staying with the Watchmaster at his home, attending school during the day, and being his eyes and ears the rest of the time. Quickly sharing hugs and goodbyes, the party arrived at Poric’s estate to be met with scantily clothed women who were paid to be there. By paying more, they left leaving the estate open. Walking inside, Che decided to insult Poric who in anger came out of his bedroom wielding an arcane firearm. Che quickly moved the barrel of the gun away from him as fire spurt out of the end. Through a tense negotiation, the party relinquished their Rod of Leadership and was given a scroll of Remove Curse. Giving Rupert the scroll, the duo spent the next six hours at their home-base cave.

The duo found several Righteous Brand monitoring the cave as well as the Underdark entrance, so the duo took to monitoring their improvements as well as train and nap. After the six ours had passed, the duo made their way back to Rupert at the Ironside Barracks but were being followed by a mysterious figure. Through some magic, the duo found the figure to be Tansy Grumpstomp, the wife of Toni Grumpstomp who had undergone something serious and was whisked away by Lady Vess de Rogna of the Cerberus Assembly. She begged for them to tell her what happened to Toni and the party relayed that the Watchmaster called Lady Vess who took Toni. Solemnly, Tansy said she would find peace through this.

Che was able to have Rupert clear his curse but said that a Greater Restoration was needed to fix his hearing. Rupert was also able to identify the staff, which turned out to be a Staff of Cubic Cultivation, also cursed. With that, the duo went about town, buying incense, warm clothes, and other odds and ends. While waiting on the clothes to be hemmed, Badis divined through elderberry leaves that Tansy’s plan ended up with five dead bodies of varying sizes. Not understanding the cryptic message, the duo discussed and ultimately went to investigate after Tansy. Searching her home, the duo found bomb residue and using a dire wolf wildshape, Badis was able to follow the guano scent all the way to the Watchmaster’s home where he and the children were playing a game inside. Che burst down the door getting them all to leave the house, while Badis spent time digging for the bomb. With the targets at the doorway and the bomb uncovered near the doorway, Tansy revealed herself telling everyone to halt what they were doing as she held a detonation device. She cried that the Watchmaster took her husband away and that he needed to get him back. Sending Samantha to retrieve his sending stone from the Ironside Barracks, the duo and company waited tensely. No longer wanting to wait, Badis began to transform into a Giant Sperm Whale prompting Tansy to attempt to pull the trigger. Thankfully, Che was faster allowing him to take the device from her and fly away. Through the commotion, Samantha returned with the sending stone, which the Watchmaster used to call Lady Vess de Rogna. Through Tansy’s attempts to retrieve the bomb, Lady Vess appeared disintegrating Tansy into a pile of ash. She chided the Watchmaster for his lack of keeping this contained and disappeared as quickly as she came. With the damage done, Badis took the explosive device for her own purpose and the party took their long rest.

On the morning of the 11th of Fessuran, the duo flew back up to retrieve Iron Maiden and the animals. Before leaving Master Mafu Thornton gave Che a scroll to practice the movements that would imbue him with the ability to manipulate another individual’s ki. With that the party, made their way down the mountain now buffered against the cold with their new clothes. Halfway down the mountain, Badis spotted once again this strange altar area: a frozen solid ice archway with a stone pedestal that housed a slowly moving magical puzzle that was halfway complete. Noting with detect magic, the schools of transmutation and conjuration, the party spent about half an hour attempting to complete the puzzle until Badis figured it out. After she completed it, a gateway opened within the archway to the Plane of Water. In the archway, the party could see an endless snow-covered landscape and coming out of the archway was a figure made of pure ice akin to a water elemental. The party quickly fought the elemental as it came out, but quickly realized that more and more were coming out of the portal. While Badis and Che fought off the elementals, IM attempted to solve the puzzle of the pedestal after it was reverted and changed. With Che coming close to death, Badis was able to solve the puzzle, close the portal, and kill the remaining elemental. Before taking their short rest, the party attempted to destroy the ice archway to no avail but did break apart the stone pedestal. About three-fourths of the way into their short rest, Ovak contacted the party informing Che that Cael found the enslaved adults and children and were on their way back to Zadash. Speaking about the chaos that just happened, Ovak informed the party that the Shadowhunters also had to spread out after multiple intrusions from the Plane of Water were opened across Wildemount. The party reckoned that this altar was a sort of focusing area allowing the entryways into each of the planes to be controlled and monitored, and that by breaking the pedestal, it released the magic that kept it here. Ovak noted that she heard about stuff like this across Wildemount from during the Age of Arcanum noting that there could be one in the Ashkeeper Peaks, which held various volcanic pockets. IM noting that the Ashkeeper Peaks were where his parents disappeared, he decided to not tell the party until he figured it out more. Dealing with the bullshit of the past few days, the party made their way back down the mountain to Hupperdook to prepare for their journey ahead.

Player Notes
Last updated: // by