Witch-Hunting

"Witch-Hunting" (Ses 04) is the fourth session of The Exiled Abyss. With NovaTome now officers it's time for them to embark on their first mission. But before they explore the rumored curse of a city-state a little side-questing is in order.

Sidequesting:
Last time NovaTome had just been formed under the appearance of The Lords of Entropy. NovaTome went through a tour of their new residence: Meddledew Villa. They were led by Smitle and their new servants: Lonvi Palbel IV & Eshallena 'Eshes' Stoutgrace. They explored their fancy new home complete with bedrooms for the 8 of them, a kitchen, a masterwork room (Smithy & Enchanting Room Combo) and a ‘War Room’ for planning. After the tour Smitle recommended that our adventurers either hit the bed or go sidequesting. Midnight sidequesting was the obvious choice for our adventurers.

The first side quest was Bells in the Alley, where locals reported a creepy old ship bell that led to a monster in the mist. NovaTome located the source of the noise and traveled down a misty alleyway to a mini plane of existence. They met a creepy demon-like humanoid figure with an unpronounceable name, he said they could call him The Horned Salesman. He described himself as a collector and a seller of all known magic items. He takes anything of personal value as payment, but coin will do. He offered to leave Varenlot Terrance as long as our adventurers returned and gave them a bell to summon him. Jenavive reported back and lied to The Varelot Community citing it was only these bells on a clothesline and was rewarded.

The second sidequest was My Cat is a Demon? where an old cat lady claimed her cat has been possessed. NovaTome figured out that the cat was a wizard (with a bad mouth) who was cursed from a faraway city called Gloverwood and Admiral Mittens was just stuck in a tree. The old lady was confused, but got her cat and gave her miscounted gold. Before returning to base NovaTome was interrupted by a group who called themselves The New Order. They harassed Inxibis for being a tiefling and suspected her of heresy and being a Ryevalene spy, but ended up leaving the party alone after seeing they were Braveateers.

Witch Hunt:
They then meet up with Smitle in The War Room to discuss their next mission. He explained that Lyria has been in a 10-year uneasy peace with Ryevalene that has led allies question Lyria superiority over The Exiled Abyss. The main focus of the Braveateers is to secure Lyria’s friendships in case of future Ryevalene aggressions. He gave them a choice: Investigate a cursed town with a wild card governor and a witch or Crash a literal political party involving an aasmar elven princess that Tiben slept with. They chose the former. The details are as follows: The Democratic Citystate of Gloverwood recently had all communication and trade cut off from Lyria. This happened within 24 hours of the tower incident NovaTome dealt with. The Braveateer Council suspects that rumors of a witch and a curse are true and is linked with The Lords of Entropy causing Gloverwood isolation. The Lyrian Parliament believes that Elect Crown Wilford, an anti-democratic, anti-lyria, anti-elf man intentionally isolated Gloverwood. The goal is to find and stop the reason for isolation of Gloverwood.

Our adventurers traversed their way to Gloverwood before being ambushed by a firebomb and an assassin. Eventually, NovaTome was able to overcome this assassin who was wearing Ryevalene symbols. They explored a town that was filled with animals and blanketed with a creepy silence. While Glug was being harassed for being an elf in a racist city, Tog took intuitive and found that the church bell nearby made all the residents nervous. The barkeep of The Blind Bastard warned Tog that people who asked too many questions were hit by the curse first, he blamed the witch he sighted in White Oak Woods. Surely enough as Tog walked out of The Blind Bastard the church bells rang and he was turned into a black bear. Taking their lead our adventurers passed through the “Do Not Enter” signs with skulls into White Oak Woods. They were ambushed by demonic dretches and after they won the fight the bells rang turning Glug into a giant wolf spider.