Normally we stream Dungeon of the Mad Mage on Tuesday nights, but we had to give Zombie Joe a week off from DMing because its in his contract. So instead we decided to run a game for our subscribers! It has been a bit since the last time I wrote about what has been happening in the subscriber game, but recently the Keep has fallen victim to an attack from within. You see, a while back one of our subscribers had purchased a rumor via the chat and suggested that a disease was spreading through the keep and it was believed to be a virus transmitted via contact with goblin blood. Shortly after a small group of clerics claiming to be the followers of St. Cuthbert of the Cudgel came to help purify and cleanse those infected. This rumor proved to be false when those “infected” with this disease died and transformed into undead and attacked the keep from within its walls. Fortunately heroes and the Keep’s military retainers were able to deal with the undead but the clerics escaped. News of this event was abuzz within the keep.
This weeks party included some veterans and two newcomers:
- Sire Loo of Sanssol – Goblin bard. An emissary from his tribe looking to secure the Caves of Chaos and made a deal with the keep to establish a peaceful “puppet” government within the caverns in accordance with the keep. Recently hooked on cave mushrooms.
- Rax – Human Monk – Adventurer looking to explore the vastness of the borderlands.
- Shiver – Kenku warlock. An enigmatic companion of an absent adventurer. Mimics the phrases of other adventurers and attempts to pocket spare change unnoticed (mostly unsuccessful).
- Gurgle McFinley – Gnome warlock. Recently came to the borderlands seeking adventure and fortune.
- Heiro – Firbolg barbarian. The last of his tribe, Heiro came to the borderlands to make friends and be an emissary to spread the goodness of his people.
- Torun – Dragonborn bard. Came to the borderlands seeking to entertain and inspire other heroes.
As newcomers arrived at the Keep, they came to find Sire Loo’s small encampment just outside its gates. He had been forbidden from entering since the rumor of the goblin virus had spread and had setup a place of respite for himself and his friends along the road. After introductions, the Elven advisor to the castellan, Marevak, came down the road to approach the party and inform them that the Castellan was interested in meeting with them.
They were taken to a waiting room within the keep and heard an argument happening between Lt. Vornum, a previous employer of some of the adventurers, and the Castellan. Lt. Vornum had wanted the heroes to find the fugitive gnomes who attempted a heist on the royal treasury but the adventurers had instead turned the felons over to the Castellan’s care. He soon stormed out of the audience chamber and it was the the PC’s turn to talk with the Castellan for the first time.
The Castellan’s chamber was very lavishly furnished except for one item within a display case that seemed to be a ratty old fox fur cloak that had its bottom hem sheared off. The Castellan was a woman who bore the pin of Duke Steffan Karameikos’ family (a helmet, a galleon and a sword). She was an imposing figure who spoke directly and informed the PC’s that she was concerned about the act of war that had been struck against the keep by the false healers of St. Cuthbert. She informed the heroes that they had inquired with the clergy of St. Cuthbert in the capital city of Specularum and no mission had been sent by them. The Castellan offered to pay 1200 gp to the party if they could identify who the clerics worked for and determine their motive for their actions. She also offered them permanent residences within the Keep. The heroes accepted her offer and set out to the east.
Once the heroes delved back into the Caverns of Quasqueton, former lair of Zelligar the Unknown and Rogahn the Fearless, they navigated the black stone halls up until an intersection in the southeast section of the first floor. Rax searched for some tracks of the clerics and found their muddy footprints and even a medallion of their faith. As he held it up for the others to see, he noticed a strange etching on the back of it. No one was quite sure what to make of it.
Then a charitable viewer (we are raising money this month for the Center for Suicide Awareness in partnership with Jasper’s Game Day) donated a wandering monster and a BULETTE crashed through the dungeon wall and instant killed the poor gnome, Gurgle. The rest of the party rallied to the fight to take down the beast. Heiro fearlessly jumped on top of it and wrestled it to the ground, allowing the heroes to take advantage of its weak positioning. It eventually burrowed underneath the ground to leave the party feeling cautious and vulnerable. It jumped from the opposite end of the hallway and tried to leap at Rax, but Sire Loo intervened and prevented him from being taken out as a result. The heroes defeated the bulette and another charitable gift from the same viewer who imposed all this crisis helped to bring Gurgle back to life.
Next the heroes explored an adjacent room and found a splendid bedroom. Poor Gurgle went to examine a tapestry on the wall which depicted a mighty warrior and his companion slaughtering enemies on the field of battle when suddenly another donation came in and caused the tapestry to turn into a rug of smothering. The heroes came to Gurgle’s defense but did not realize their attempts to attack the rug were doing damage to him as well. Gurgle dies again! Another charitable viewer intervenes to save Gurgle, but this time Gurgle comes back a little different. He has a hallucination of a pale, bearded human drinking from a stein. Gurgle starts to strike up a friendship with him, though everyone else observes Gurgle muttering strange conversations with himself. As Shiver tried to pocket a bit of the loot, the imaginary friend urged Gurgle to kill the kenku.
More exploration brought the heroes to an ancient throne room now covered in webbing. The bedrolls on the floor suggested that some folks had decided to camp out here, but the web sacs in the corners of the room added further detail that perhaps the transient occupants of the chamber found a cruel fate at the hands of some spiders. The heroes did battle with the three giant spiders that emerged once they started burning the webbing and claimed the loot that the adventurers entombed within the spider’s silk had been carrying.
We always love having new players join us for these subscriber games!
We have two more subscriber games scheduled for May (Ma7 25th at 12pm cst and May 31st at 7pm cst). Want to join the fun? Head to twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory and subscribe or support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=8880443.
It was fun and memorable! And I think Rax the monk broke third level!