Session 1: Taking the Top Bunk (10/3/21)

Pulyana 15, 1423.

The PCs are sharing a campfire and meal near the foothills of the Gargoyle Steeps when approached by a local courier, Pavli and his Samoyed pup. The boy wishes to share some food and drink and mentions that the nearby village, Svodnikha, known to several of the PCs, has some troubling news. A child's voice has been heard wailing from a condemned well near one of the farms, but none of the local children have been unaccounted for. After breaking open the well, a young farmer and a pair of Soverat soldiers have already disappeared trying to find the source of the distress. Our heroes are prompted to investigate, and Pavli is on his way to try to spread the news westward towards the Skorbi river. They decide to travel on into the evening, and arrive within a few hours, where they split up for lodgings.

Aldren and Nebel'shoy decide to stay at the Obylensky farm, where the half-elf has some pull. As they approach, they agitate some dogs, but the matron of the farm, Zilya, welcomes them with a meal of soup and some lodging. It turns out that the well in question is on the corner of their property, and as the pair are trying to sleep in one of the farmhouse stalls they can hear it throughout the night. They also notice that the dogs running about the place tend to avoid the well. Meanwhile, Bjork and Rucia head to the Meek & Marrow, where Bjork plans to perform for some lodgings, which the proprietor Lubomir does agree too. The tales by cowbell start out rough, but after Rucia hawks his friend's performance to some agitated locals, the crowd grows and the minotaur does quite well, earning some coin. He retires to the top of a bunk being occupied by a human couple, and Rucia stays at the local Soverat barracks.

Pulyana 16, 1423.

The groups meets back up at the Meek & Marrow for some breakfast, where they learn that Lubomir believes the voice in the well is good for village business, a potential tourist trap. They then head over to speak with Kapitan Krykba of the Soverat, who claims he can spare no more soldiers investigating the strange phenomenon, and offers the PCs coin to find the missing villagers and uncover whatever the disturbance may be. They ask for supplies and he permits them to take whatever they can find lying around. Aldren finds a strange arrow near the Soverat's target range, and learns that it has come from the river market at Zolovny. After gathering their bearings, the PCs approach the old Obylensky well, which they learned was condemned years ago after a local businessman, Aleksi Bazeilevsky, deemed it collapsed and unsafe, thus boarding it all up.

After Rucia carries Nebel'shoy down the well on a rope, Bjork falls on his other companion, but the mounds of dirt and refuse that have gathered at the bottom protect him from being crushed to death. The bottom of the well has indeed collapses into the cavern below, which is heaped with junk that has been thrown in over the last few days by locals or tourists listening for the wailing below. Two natural, flooded cavern passages exit the area, and after finding some clothing left on a stone near the southern passage, the PCs wade their way through, to an overgrown cavern which seems to have developed its own ecosystem after a tree and vegetation fell from a sinkhole on the Obylensky farm, the same terrain instability that might have collapsed the drinking well. They find a fetid pool of green liquid here, dripping from a rotted tree-trunk poked through the ceiling, but avoid drinking it.

They split up, two of the party investigating a corridor stacked with rubble. An eerie blue light emanates from a stone that has been removed at the top of the pile, and they find tracks and evidence that recently someone has climbed up and removed it. The others find a larger cavern full of stalagmites, stalactites and old mining equipment. After reconvening, they determine that they'll check out the larger area first. Several of the stalagmites have been shorn down to create small tables, here lanterns, picks, rope and old candles are set up, covered in years of webs and dust. They find a small, single-person tent, and a corpse within, which seems to have been strangled by some now some tentacled creature which is still wrapped around its throat. It turns out that several such creatures still dwell in the cavern, and they attack the PCs, dropping from above! A savage melee ensues, the creatures ensnaring the heads of some of our heroes while others had to try and fight them free. Nebel'shoy is knocked out at one point but saved, and at last they manage to obliterate the aberrations.

Within the tent, they found a strange pair of goggles that seem to extent or grant darkvision to the wearer, and a lockbox belonging to the dead miner, who they presume to be Aleksi after discovering a nearby mine full of quartz crystals and potentially some gold veins! Before turning back to search the corridor of blue light, the PCs decide on a long rest...

PCs: Arlend, Bjork, Nebel'shoy, Rucia

NPCs:

Kapitan Krykba (human male): The Kapitan wears the leather duster so common in the Soverat, with a black cap dressed in brown and white owl feathers. His long, slightly graying hair is kept neatly in a ponytail down his back, while his drooping moustache is decorated with brass rings. He has deep-set, suspicious eyes and a nose that looks to have been half-mulched against his face. A scar runs from his forehead down to beneath his left ear, and his right hand is missing a middle and forefinger. He leans steadily upon a pike, and wears a shashka and length of spiked chain on his belt. Mail clinks beneath his jacket, and four golden hawk pins denote his rank.

Lubomir Longbelts (dwarf male): A smiling dwarf of many winters, with a shock-white head of hair that arranged into braids and arches, a neatly-trimmed beard and thick, sharp eyebrows that accent his mismatched, grey and green eyes. He wears a thick leather apron with a fine fur trim, upon which are strapped the two bandoliers from which he gets his name. Each is packed with tabs and sheaths that contain spice shakers, bottle openers, a mallet, carving knives, spoons, and other utensils; for rough customers he reserves a falcon-beaked mace on his belt.

Pavli (human male): A young boy of around 10 years, with a fur cloak pulled up over a pale, freckled face, and carrying an unlit lantern on the end of a quarterstaff. At his heels, a white-furred Samoyed pup nips excitedly, keeping pace with its master.

Zilya Obylensky (human female): A graceful, 6’ tall matron with a strong upper build from her many ears toiling about her garden plots. She wears a simple leather vest over a long wool skirt and furred boots caked with earth and grass. Her brown hair is streaked with gray, tied back in a practical braid and her high cheekbones offset the many lines and cracks in her face from age and weather. Her left arm is missing below the elbow, but it has been replaced by a wooden forelimb to which she can attach tools and utensils for farming and cooking.