ADVENTURES ACROSS HOLLINDAGEN: NIMINYA at SAM'S LISTENING BAR(D)

Set in the world of Ekstasia

These are the recaps of the actual play with friends at Sam's Listening Bar in St J Vermont!

Hollindagen is the western continent of Ekstasia and is occupied by two main factions: the Chalkanium, the human-supremacist empire who is hell-bent on conquering all of Ekstasia, and the Ekstasia Alliance, a confederation of the nations of Niminya, Phaedra and Lauzeta who oppose the imperialism of the Chalkies.

CHAPTER 1: to CHUG or to CHUGGERNAUT

Session 1A

The party begins the adventure at noon on Anarsday 14 moonshine 169 CE / 421 AE at the Blushing Vine tavern in the city of Matterleine, having drinks and eating food. They meet each other while socializing as the town prepares for the CHUGGERNAUTS' FESTIVAL.


Later in the day, the CHUGGERNAUT'S FESTIVAL drinking competition begins. They sit down to prepare to chug, but after the first round begins everyone realizes that all the competition kegs have been replaced with water! A travesty! Councilmin Falvalur’s hands are full trying to placate the angry crowd, so he asks the party to help get to the bottom of this bizarre caper. They've already begun their own investigation into the legs and have determined that they had been switched with the real kegs due the fact that the kegs were brand new and cheaply made, and from there begin their search for more answers.

They are given the keys to the Hall of Records, and so they go there to search for the contract with the import company. They find a suspicious copy of the contract that has a red wax seal and is written as an agreement between the city and a company known as “Doddson”.

They then return to the blushing vine to find Falvalur to ask him more questions and in the process discover that the cousin of the import company was present, but his name doesn't match the one on the contract. His name is Mason Fairebancks, and for years he and his cousin Jorbin from Port Magdalia have been the main company importing foreign booze. The party interviews Mason, sobering him up in the process. He shows them his copy of the contract and they can spot the difference in signatures. With the help of Falvalur they can see that the Doddson contract is false. Why would someone make a fake contract? Another red herring- the fake contract was sealed with red wax, when most Niminyan wax is violet or brown. One of the drunken gnomes overhears the party asking questions and fills the party in on the fact that they had seen a suspicious group handling the shipment of imported booze the night before - a halfling, three humans and an elf. At the moment the party notices that they are being watched by a Halfling in a robe. They pursue him, giving chase through the crowd. Eventually they subdue the Halfling who reveals himself to be Davlos of the Mangled Fist, a bandit group from the Thieves Kingdom who was hired by a mysterious person to steal the booze. He also reveals that there are two dead bodies north of town. The townswatch arrives and helps with the investigation.

The party and two townswatch, with Davlos in tow, make their way out of the city and discover the bodies of the Raingroves, an elderly elvish couple who live in Raingroves Manor in the southern residential ward of Matterleine. He also reveals that the Mangled Fist is made up of three humans, a Halfling and an elf.

Everyone makes their way to the mansion where Davlos tells them that the rest of the bandits are holed up in the basement along with the stolen booze. He also asks them to set him free because if he’s discovered to have been caught the Mangled Fist will kill him. So they cut him loose and he runs off, fleeing town.

The party searches the first floor of the house, finding evidence of contact with the Chalkanium. They then access the basement and find the stolen imported booze, but no sign of the bandits. They return to the street and tell the townswatch who then go and gather reinforcements. A sketchy orc wizard character that the party had seen around town earlier is present with the townswatch and helps them surround the building. Farvalur is present and tells them to hold off going back into the house until they can figure out an effective strategy in dealing with these bandits.

What is the truth behind the theft of the booze? What is the nature of their involvement with the Chalkanium?

Session 1b

Several days before the events of the main campaign, Cenny falls through a hole and lands in Ekstasia, encountering the dragonborn ranger Tynan. They are mistaken for heroes sent to Redwood Watch to deal with a green dragon wyrmling that is causing a blight in the forest. They successfully dispatch the wyrmling and cure the blight. After being rewarded by the town of Redwood they are sent to Matterleine to celebrate at the Chuggernauts’ fest.

Session 2

Cenny and Tynan enter a desolate Matterleine where everyone seems to be depressed- the Chuggernauts’ fest is cancelled. They follow a crowd to the mansion. They meet the party and decide to help them retrieve the stolen goods

The party returns to the basement of the mansion at the bidding of the town council and successfully retrieves the stolen booze. They confront the Mangled Fist, a bandit group from the Thief Kingdom of the Northeast who claim to have been hired by a shady Chalkanium military guy but were unable to give a name. The party then clears the rest of the house, battling an animated armor on the rooftop.

After they leave the house the town of Matterleine is in celebration and they are awarded with "keys to the city" (they can stay at the inn for free and eat and drink for free in the town of Matterleine for life).

The sketchy half-orc wizard approaches the party and introduces herself as Nivda. She asks what they've learned. At first they are suspicious, but after some insight they realize she is well-intended. She explains that she is part of a watchdog group keeping an eye on the Chalkanium. The party tells her about what they've discovered, that the Mangled Fist was hired by someone in the Chalkanium to steal the booze. Confounded by a seemingly benign act, Nivda states that no act by the chalkies, even a small one, is without connection to a larger conspiracy and becomes suspicious. She requests for them to seek out an elf fighter named Sylhaan who lives in seclusion to the east for more information. Nivda gives them a small map with an X marking an area in the forest just north of Lake Automine.

Session 3

Unable to accompany them due to being preoccupied herself with domestic issues which she is unable to discuss at this time, Nivda also provides them with a small token with a shrimp insignia and tells them to use it to gain Sylhaan's trust. It is around midnight when the Chuggernaut celebrations restart. They mourn those who lost their lives and party well into the morning. Stan-Paul wins the beer brewing contest as now there are other contestants to compare his brew with.

Moonday, 15 Moonshine 169 CE / 421 AE

Everyone gets rooms across town and goes to sleep around 8am- the party gets a full rest. They rally around 3pm, take breakfast and stock up on travel supplies enough for 3 weeks courtesy of the collectivist town of Matterleine. Having attracted the attention of the ranger "Mad-dog" Mavnon, the party is offered the guidance and protection of Mavnon to guide them out of the city and on the right path to Lake Automine. The party then departs town around 6pm.

After traveling for almost 3 hours through the grasslands east of Matterleine, they make it about 7 miles east-southeast of town before reaching some ruins.

“Ruins of Littlewood", so named for an event in local history where a small wood -the "Littlewood"- once stood and was torn down to build Matterleine. Local dryads and nature spirits became furious and a battle ensued. The druids of Smolyaa were able to placate the spirits via reparative magic offerings for 206 years. A tower and temple was built to perform the offerings, and after the spirits were placated and returned to the Fey realm the temple fell into neglect and was abandoned for another two centuries.

They spot two giant spiders and battle them. After defeating the dangerous creatures they set up camp amongst the ruins and take turns keeping watch. Mavnon leaves the group, having helped them and pointed them in the right direction.

Nothing much happens of note except that Calyx finds a faery ring of glowing mushrooms, makes an offering of garam masala and is granted inspiration by the faeries.

A fey pixie then appears and demands that several of the party accompany them to the feywild where they will tell stories to a Satyr revelmaster. In return they will be rewarded and those that stay behind will be granted protection from a fey sprite. As the sun comes up, Fang, Gibbous, Crank, Cenny and Stan-Paul oblige the pixie, leaving Calyx, Marvin and Tynan in Ekstasia.

Session 4

Higgsday, 16 Moonshine 169 CE / 421 AE

Marvin, Calyx and Tynan eat some breakfast and then travel eastward under partly-cloudy skies for 6 hours (17 miles).

Ahead they see a group of bugbears fighting ankhegs. They carefully approach the fray, Calyx staying back out of sight while Tynan and Marvin sneak up and stealthily make ranged attacks on the ankheg. The bugbears have already taken out all but one of the ankhegs, and now that the remaining ankheg has become aware of Marvin and Tynan it charges at them. They make more attacks against it, Marvin with eldritch blasts and Tynan with his longbow, as Calyx moves up the field and gets a critical hit with their crossbow. After a brief battle the party successfully dispatches the ankheg.

The bugbears have already begun pulling apart and stowing the bodies of the ankhegs- they were hunting for food. They lost a few of their own but are happy to have food for their tribe. They offer a feast to the party as thanks for helping with their hunt. The party obliges and joins them, traveling north for one hour.

They have a meal, Calyx shares spices with the tribe cooks and introduces a new spice that only some of the bugbears like (only one of them is very very into the new flavors and their mind is blown). Tynan and one of the bugbear night hunters have a drinking match with fermented blood from an elk bladder. Tynan barely loses the showdown.

They all lay down to rest, each of them keeping an eye out throughout the night. Calyx takes the first watch which is fairly uneventful. Then comes Marvin’s watch. He dozes off, waking up to a bugbear child stealing his daggers. He summons an unseen servant who picks up the child which freaks out the parent bear. He then successfully persuades the parent bugbear that he meant no harm and that the child had stolen his daggers. The bugbears calm down and Marvin finishes his watch as Tynan gets up for the last shift. Tynan sees the bugbear night hunters fighting something in the distance, but there is no danger to the camp.

Watersday, 17 Moonshine 169 CE / 421 AE

The party bids farewell to the bugbears and continue on, getting back on the road in half an hour. They continue for 2 hours and cover 6 miles of road under clear skies before seeing ahead a long and short plateau. On the plateau are two giant greyhound statues, one of them is missing a head. They go around the statues, losing only one hour before getting back on the road eastward.

At this point the road is very unkept and hard to keep track of but Mavnon’s guidance from two days before sets them in the right direction. In 4 hours they travel 11 miles eastward under partly cloudy skies. They see a field of scattered boulders. They come to a larger boulder with a cave leading underground. They decide to follow the cave.

They follow the cave to an underground archway that leads to a stairway that heads down about 60 feet. The party then discovers an ancient underground dome-shaped chamber with a sacrificial altar in the center. Lining the dome’s walls are statues of various tieflings. Marvin, who is of abyssal descent, recognizes these as infernal tieflings. Behind the altar is an old encampment with the skeletal remains of 2 tieflings, an elf and an orc who seem to have killed each other in a battle long long ago.

TO BE CONTINUED…