The downside is that in always looking ahead, making sure I have every decision branch worked out in plausible detail, always planning two or three encounters more than I'll expect to need during a session, I have neglected looking back in review. Some sessions have been chronicled in sufficient detail. (By "sufficient detail"of course I mean "acceptable to my standards" which tend to be more exacting than they really need to be for a hobby.) More often than not, however, a recap has been started and left unfinished for various reasons: awaiting XP totals, leaving rulebooks behind when elaborating on particulars of a judgment call from that session, or just running short of time or energy.
With that in mind, now is probably the best time I have to give at least an overview of the recently ended Sheinnarm Festival. The threat to the city is ended for the time being, and the machinations of various dragons will pause for now. The obvious mysteries have been resolved. While unanswered questions and clues to other events below the surface remain unresolved, their day will come, possibly sooner than later.
So to recap...
The Sheinnarm Festival began with the traditional procession of the invited crafters into the Coronade, or innermost ring of Bellstone Keep.. The characters, traveling along with their different employers, found themselves in the middle of an ambush as goblins crept from the sewers. The City Guard on the scene were poorly prepared for the attack, so the characters swiftly dealt with the interlopers. Suspicious of the tepid response from the City Guard, the players banded together to track the goblins into the sewers, defeating several exiled desert goblins and a humanoid contrivance made of muslin, wood, gears and springs. Inside was a crystal that might control the strange contraption.At the suggestion of Sir Beckley, the group talked to Sir Richard, leader of the Knights of the Coronade. Sir Richard suggested that a magical adept known as 'the Guy' might shed some light on the source of the gem. The Guy was able to cast a spell that indicated a distant magical connection still clung to the gem. The party followed this connection to a hut deep in the swamps northeast of the Keep. Once there, they were greeted by an old woman who indicated both that she had been waiting for them and that it was her responsibility to keep them busy for five days, which would take the party past the end of the Festival.
For the next few days, the party trudged and rested inside a maze build from the loamy mud and plant debris of the swamp, encountering troglodytes, kobolds, goblins, a minotaur, ice-covered gelatinous cubes and more. After the proscribed time had passed, the group found themselves again at the hut with the old lady, who revealed herself to be an efreeti under the service of another with designs to disrupt the Sheinnarm Festival and possibly harm Bellstone Keep. Giving them a magic carpet, she encouraged the party to seek out the Guy to regain some of the lost time spent in the maze.
The magic carpet arrived back at Bellstone Keep as distant figures could be seen in the sky far to the south. The Guy welcomed them inside and gave them a key that would unlock his front door four days ago. Once inside his house in the past, the characters were directed to a magical chamber pot that teleported anything placed inside directly to the sewers. Escaping through the sewers, the party again contacted Sir Richard to explain the situation.
The immediate mastermind behind this plot appears to be a disgruntled crafter named Torrence Zant. Five years ago he was passed over for recognition and personally blames Baron Xenith for the disastrous outcome of the Festival. In the intervening years, the erstwhile competitor has possibly received assistance from both the efreeti at the swamp hut and maybe the green dragon Vavassor Ihkorr, who rules the marshy wasteland northeast of the Keep. Torrence's plan is to convince different desert goblins through intimidation or trickery to launch an attack on Bellstone Keep from the south. The desert is ruled by a blue dragon named Mirage. The aggression of the goblins would encourage factions in the Keep to retaliate against the goblins, and the escalation would soon embroil the dragons in direct conflict. Regardless of the victor, Torrence would see Baron Xenith suffer and Ikor might be able to advance his own position with two nearby rivals weakened.
While most Festival attendees remained unaware, Sir Richard began working to defend the city without alarming the Baron. Meanwhile, the party journeyed south, underneath the Shiftless Mountains and into the desert. They soon discovered evidence of Torrence's unsuccessful interactions with the desert goblins. The Sandslayer tribe found the party and agreed to help them stop the vengeful artisan.
Tracking the Stomper tribe, the mingled group reached the foot of the mountains where some Stompers were camped. Torrence had led the rest of the tribe up into the mountains with various crates, contraptions and supplies. Carefully ascending the mountain, the group found the goblins' camp during the night. Set up along the ridge, facing north, were several winged conveyances ready to launch towards Bellstone Keep.
Under the cover of a silence spell, the flying war machines were disabled. The activity evetually roused the goblins, but when the truth of the fake Chief Gritsnot was revealed, they were eager to abandon this mad enterprise and return home to their desert.
Torrence emerged from his tent, ready to somehow salvage his plot but was quickly subdued. With the mastermind and some of his creations in hand the group was ready to warn the city and diffuse the inter-dragon conflict before it could even begin. However, their brief celebration was interrupted by Stubtoe the Greater, a blind goblin from the Eremite tribe (the goblin mystics) who congratulated the group but told them not to worry, he had foreseen these events and had sent the Feathershadow tribe (goblins that train giant vultures and even rocs(!)) to fly north to Bellstone Keep to warn the citizens of Torrence's plot.
Of course, the party, having warned Sir Richard about an impending aerial assault on the city, knew that a flight of goblins coming from the desert would be mistaken for that attack. While they scrambled come up with a way to return to the city, Stubtoe gestured to a wicker elephant he had prepared. The party climbed in with some hesitation and a waiting bird grasped the pachyderm-shaped basket and whisked it to the city, dropping from beyond the range of any nervous archers. The spectacular arrival caught the attention of nearly the entire city, including of Baron Xenith and other important personages. The party was briefly detained to verify the incredible information presented, but with knowledge of the most pertinent portions of the plot now widely available and accepted as fact, the threat was averted and the festival could conclude.
Willow's mentor created magical serum that grows a tree with silver and gold leaves and rubies for flowers. This glittering display won the overall prize from the Baron, along with the attendant perks of residence in a magnificent house for a year and the potential for lucrative patronage from nobility both near and far.
After an evening of post festival celebrations, the characters were woken by a messenger from Rozazco. The florid nobleman of questionable business practices apparently learned of a disruption in communications with one of his clandestine warehouses. With a simple request to just check in on the premises, the party headed south towards the address given.
Even without Rozazco's information, locating the house in question was a simple task, as the upper floor were on fire and walking around the street in front was an ancient mummy and two embalmed cats. The party quickly dispatched the undead threat and now will try to learn the secrets hidden inside the burning house.
~ Tidwin
12/30/16
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