XVI – February 17th, 2020
- Morgana the Druid (Liz)
- Ender the Rogue (Steven)
- Kif the Ranger (Irving)
- Maardaar the Warlock (Matt)
XVII – March 4th, 2020
- Morgana the Druid (Liz)
- Kif the Ranger (Irving)
- Maardaar the Warlock (Matt)
- Bririck the Bard (Steve)
THE INVESTIGATION
The party continues their investigation, suspecting that something is up at the Emerald Moon Cheese Co. that they unsuccessfully tried to break into the previous evening.
Outside the tavern they see merchants beginning to make preparations for the next day, arriving in their caravans and unfolding their tables and wares on the street. Streamers have gone up from building to building, and kids play in the street with excitement as the big holiday nears. The party stops to chat with one merchant, a half-orc named Bull who runs a china shop in Yartar. He and his small halfling wife love cheese and thought it would be a good excuse for a road trip. Maardaar buys a very fine teacup from the Bull Noir Collection.
They stop by Svent Pent’s blacksmithery for more information, but just as they are discussing the tragic death of the herbalist, Constable Bert pounds on the door. He barges in and accuses Svent of the sabotage of the Silver Crescent Inn, claiming that the supports holding up the foundation were hacked with a dwarven axe. Svent vehemently denies this, but seeing that the party is reaching for their weapons, he tells Bert he will agree to go to keep the peace, if Bert will call in the Lord’s Alliance to adjudicate. Svent tells the party that he does not wish to see any more violence in the town, and that he will go willingly.
Morgana chants under her breath and manages to charm Bert. She suggests to him that he does not want to arrest Svent, and that he should go take a good long nap this afternoon. Bert agrees he is very tired, and heads out empty handed back to his house. Svent is confused but thanks them, and again says that he thinks the herbalist was murdered, but he does not know who or why. He wishes them luck finding out and says they should stay for the Founder’s Day Jubilee.
THE EMERALD CHEESE CO.
The party, realizing that Bert is going to wake up knowing he was charmed, heads back to the tavern for a nap before their midnight adventure.
They wake to find the town asleep, and Jimmy on the porch smoking a joint of wolfsbane. An almost full moon hangs over the village, so the party uses Invisibility to sneak through the main street. This time, knowing which key it is, they quickly get inside the main door of the Emerald Moon Cheese Co.
Inside it does smell of animals, but no guard dog is in sight. The front entry is a vestibule for waiting customers, a secretary’s desk at one end and the rest of the room lined with chairs. A small table with cheese samples is laid out, but there is no one here. They neglect to sample the cheese.
The invisible ones slip into the next room, finding several large vats of cheese curd bubbling away over a magical fire. They find several giant rats running around, and the visible party members are unable to avoid them. As the rats are splat by attacks, their corpses transform into hybrid human rat wererats.
As quiet falls over the factory again, they find a metal door in the corner with both a locked door and a combination lock. Ender is unable to figure it out, so they head upstairs to the next level. Ender’s rogue spider sense goes off, and he notices that the stairwell is trapped for heavy creatures… heavier than a rat.
WERERAT’S LAIR
The stairwell comes into a room lined with freshly pressed cheese. As soon as they enter, a wooden golem with cheese press hands comes to life, attacking the party. Morgana in bear form fucks him up, while Ender ties his feet to the furniture. Prone and tied, unable to stand, the golem helplessly thrashes about while Maardaar repeatedly attempts to hit him with Eldritch Blast from a safe distance.
Into the next room, a large storage facility for aging cheese, racks and racks of cheese for as far as they can see. As soon as they enter, they are ambushed by wererats who had heard the commotion next door. Kif, stuck in the doorway, immediately takes a venomous bite from one and fails his save for… who knows. Morgana uses her primal savagery to fuck up the rats, and finally they are defeated.
The party knows there is a third floor, but sees no stairwell. Ender searches and finds a secret latch, which opens to a staircase leading up.
They take this up to a room lined with opulent rugs and fine oil paintings on the wall. The paintings show the previous owners of the Cheese Co: a wizard, a human, and then finally Grendel Orfman, current propreitor. As they examine this painting they realize it is covering over a door.
They sneak into the room beyond and find a human, obviously Grendel Orfman who looks exactly like the painting. He pleads with them and says he is being held captive in his own home.
Morgana, having been burned by polymorphs before, uses Dispel Magic and Grendel is revealed to be…. a wererat as well.
Just as this is revealed and the party draws their weapons, a voice sounds out from behind them: “I am Jiles Nogler, and I demand to know what you are doing in my factory immediately”. A wererat in a wizard’s cloak and hat, clutching his necklace, enters the room.
GAME XVII: THE FESTIVAL
Jiles the Wererat casts Wall of Force, which forces Ender onto the wrong side of it and out the window. He falls to the ground, but the party sees in the now darkness of the midnight, he scampers away on all fours like an animal.
Jiles turns to the party, backed up by several wererat guards with weapons drawn, and tells them they are trespassing and must leave. He says he knows nor cares nothing for what happened to the herbalist, he had nothing to do with it as he has been holed up assuming ownership from Grendel over the factory and making the preparations for the Cheese Co’s reopening special surprise.
The party hears a thumping from inside a closet. Jiles gives Grendel a mean look, and Grendel says, “Oh yes, I forgot, I was saving him for later”. He lets out a deep gnome bard named Bririck. Jiles says “Another trespasser, but as in the spirit of the jubilee, I will forgive this if you leave immediately.”
The party agrees and marches out. Dawn is rising over the hill, and merchants are pouring themselves coffee as they begin their days, setting up their shops and games for today is the Jubilee.
After discussing the goings on with Bririck over a watered down mead at the Scoundrel’s Mug, the party realizes they need to get into costume to avoid Bert. Bririck happens to have a disguise kit with him, which is fortunate, because as soon as they step outside they see a pumpkin headed fat guy, closely followed by two costumed goons, searching the crowd.
They hide themselves by ducking into a game booth – Saul’s Strength Challenge. They arm wrestle Saul for a few rounds, both winning and losing, as they see Bert round the cheese factory and go down a different street.
INTO THE DUNGEON (WOOPS)
The party decides they will attempt to rescue Ender by having Morgana turn herself in, and then bust them both out. Kif, Maardaar, and Bririck follow from a distance. Morgana does so, and Bert triumphantly marches her straight through town to the ruined tower on the west side. The others stay back and watch, as she is led down stairs into the dungeon below.
Turns out the “drunk tank” is not an ordinary jail, but a dungeon. Morgana is thrown into a windowless cell, behind a solid metal door, and does not have her weapons or spellcasting focus with her. She realizes she is fucked.
Through the door, she can hear two voices, both claiming to be Ender, both in obvious pain of some kind.
The rest of the party, up above, watches from an alleyway. They see Bert come up, put on his pumpkin head, and leave without the guards or Morgana. Realizing something is wrong, they ambush him as he enters the alleyway. Knockin him unconscious, they strip him of his costume. The pumpkin head is slightly dented from their blows.
Maardaar dons the costume and goes back down into the ruins of the dungeon. Costume on, he tells the wererat guards there that hooligans ambushed him, and that they must go keep the peace right that instant. The guards say, “yes boss, anything you say boss” and transform into their human forms, run out, heading back toward the crowd looking for the disturbance.
They take Bert’s keys and let Morgana out. But both voices behind the other two doors claim to be Ender. They ask him a question only Ender would know: who did we fight inside the mountain? Nezznar the Drow of House Baenre.
They pull open the door to find a horrible sight: Ender is on the floor convulsing, half transformed into a wererat himself. The party immediately burns a bunch of spell slots attempting to revive him, but they realize his wounds are not physical or magical, but a curse he has been infected with. Lycanthropy.
They search the rest of the dungeon and find a large circular room lined with bookshelves. They take these out and find arcane diagrams, including one book of rat haruspex.
With the hour of the festival’s surprise drawing closer and closer, they leave Ender there to make another run at the Emerald Cheese Co.
BACK TO THE LAIR
This time, with Maardaar still dressed as Bert, they decide to sneak into the factory as him. Morgana wildshapes into a rat and sits on his shoulder. The other two go invisible and follow.
“Bert” bangs on the door and demands the guards inside let him into to see Jiles. They hurriedly rush him and admonish him for not taking the “employee entrance”. As he is led up the stairs and back up to the second floor cheese aging room, there is a giant crowd of a dozen wererats or more. Many are eating and drinking, but many are also sharpening their swords. As the guards turn to see who enters, one of them calls out “Hey Bert you fuck, get over here boss man and play a hand of Cee Lo with us. Loser has to turn into a rat and sneak over bite Horace” – he points to a big fat mean looking wererat across the room – “on the ass.”
“Bert” plays along and fortunately wins the hand. The other guard says, “Ah shucks I guess it’s my turn.” and does go off to bite the other guy in the ass. The commotion and laughter this causes gives the party – and the invisible ones – time to sneak up the secret entrance and back to the upper floor.
Rushing in on Jiles and Grendrel, the party instigates a giant fight in the narrow crowded corridors of the upper residence. And they soon realize they are vastly outnumbered, as the factory shakes on it’s foundations and floorboards and walls creak and strain as giant rats pour out of the walls.
Jiles casts Force Wall again, blocking himself off from Morgana’s magical attacks while Kif and Bririck are cornered in a hallway by wererat guards behind him. Unable to land any damage, Kif succumbs to his wounds and goes down. Finally, breaking Jiles concentration while Maardaar frantically Eldritch Blasts the rats around his feet, the Force Wall comes down.
They hear a clock strike midnight, and a dolorous bell rings out over the town. They hear cheers from outside as the crowd below goes into a midnight frenzy as the time for the surprise has arrived.
Seeing her chance Morgana and the others move in to strike the wererat wizard, but he casts Expeditious Retreat as the giant rats block their path. Jiles magical run propels him out the window, and down to the ground.
Morgana morphs into a wolf and takes falling damage as she leaps from the third story. But the crowd is so large and huge, the bodies packed so closely, she cannot smell anything except piss and fried food in the air as Jiles disapears into the crowd, people assuming his hybrid is some form of costume.
Above the full moon shines down on the village. It’s midnight and time for the surprise.