Turning of the Stew - 05/04/2022 - A Kavel Perspective

On the way to the Anvil and the Almiraj

My last two adventuring teams were heavy on thicc-bois, which was great! I feel I’ve probably met all the ‘pure’ thicc-boi adventurers now. They are also mostly all training at Kavel’s Corner too, which is very pleasing to me. But, on my way to my next adventure, I thought I was due for fewer thicc-bois in my team.

It was early in the morning. I was following an adventurer’s notice that said to meet a R. O’Sheehan in the Anvil and the Almiraj, a tavern in Stoneside. I was checking the directions I was given when I heard:

“Hey Kavel!”

It was the slasher to my basher - comrade Marto!

The last time I saw Marto he had just gotten a new set of splint armour made. Now he was wearing a very ornate set of plate armour. But, there was a problem!

I took off my vest and tried to fan away the cause of the smouldering from Marto’s armour.

“No, Kavel! It’s magical, it’s an effect.”

Marto explained the smouldering was supposed to be there and nothing was catching alight. The woodsmoke smell was confusing me, but this was also part of the armour’s magic.

Marto explained a bunch of other stuff to me, but I must confess, I was preoccupied looking at the timed smouldering that the armour gave off, that I didn’t really hear him. When I took in the whole look, I must admit Marto looked very dashing in his new plate armour. I wasn’t sure if the plate's main purpose was armour or attracting ‘mates’. Still, Marto is a good fighter, and as it turned out, we were both joining the same adventure, so I was pleased to see him here. Plus, he treated me to breakfast. Good man!


Entering the Anvil and the Almiraj

As Marto and I entered the Anvil, two things happened.

Firstly, I could hear a follower of Selune at the bar:

“The moon has gone, she can’t see me anymore!”

This announcement was accompanied with the knocking back of a spirit. It was followed by a request for tea. I will have to ask Sorrel when I next see her if imbibing spirits in the morning is routine for worshippers of Selune.

Secondly, the barkeep looked from me and then down to the smouldering halfling beside me.

“No! You can’t come in here on fire!” The barkeep said, pointing at Marto.

Marto explained his armour to the barkeep. ‘Feature, not flaw,’ was a phrase he began using. After that, Marto ordered us breakfast and paid with 5gp - generous and dashing.

The barkeep led us to the table where the follower of Selune was now sitting with her tea.


Nessa - Follower of Selune - Feeler of Muscles

“Feature not a flaw.” Marto explained. I was used to it by now.

Nessa is a humanoid woman, but has traces of the holy about her. I’m not sure if this is just because of her devotion to Selune, or something else.

Marto and Nessa know each other. Nessa asked Marto about the death of Andromeda. Marto was less forthcoming with an answer than he normally is.

Nessa introduced herself to me. Many people are fascinated by my stature and physical enormity. It is understandable that people often want to examine me close up. Most people do not ask though. Nessa asked - immediately. I saw no problem with this, and since my arms are bare of clothing, I flexed my bicep for her. During my examination, I couldn’t help but feel Ivan would have had his shirt off before even being asked if someone could touch his muscles.

As the front door opened, two things happened.

Firstly, two other adventurers entered; someone new to me, and comrade Fog.

Secondly, a busboy fainted from behind me.


A Little Bit Goth A Little Bit Angelic

I met comrade Fog, a firbold (taller than me!) a month ago. We helped Silvia spoil an ambush that was planned for her. Fog, like me, likes the sleeveless. I could see he also still has his magical tattoo that the dragon man, Mr. Kurtz gave us.

Velania was new to me, but both her and Nessa were familiar with each other as they were both priestesses of Selune. Again, like with Nessa, I was unsure if Velania’s divine demeanour was more than just her profession and was a racial aspect… maybe both? Velania had a basket with her. When Velania opened the basket, I was expecting a bottle of liquor to appear, confirming my current belief that followers of Selune drink spirits when the moon isn’t out. Instead, Velania presented us with a variety of blueberry baked goods.

Everyone is offering me free food today, this is very nice.

I didn’t eat one of Velania’s baked goods while we were in the tavern. But, by looking at Nessa’s face as she ate one of the blueberry muffins, I could tell that she finds the blueberry muffins are as delicious as my muscles are huge.
The barkeep confirmed we were here to see R. O’Sheehan, and went to inform her she had adventurers waiting for her.


Rahmina O’Sheehan - Our Boss

“... it’s a feature, not a flaw,” Marto explained as Mrs. Rahmina introduced herself.

Rahmina is a young-looking half elf, who has the air of a fighter about her. She is here representing the Turning Fields Autonomous Farming Collective.

At the sound of hearing the name ‘Turning Fields’, I did become a little apprehensive knowing that Kruger, my goliath bro, as a werewolf could not control his bloodlust and killed a civilian on a farm around the Turning Fields. I think Kruger never transformed back into a goliath while he was caught up in the bloodlust, so perhaps my presence in the Turning Fields will not be unwelcomed?

Rahmina explained that someone may have poisoned the main water supply to the Turning Field village. Possible kruthiks - Marto and Velania explained to me later what these were - but if we could solve the poison problem, there was 65gp each for us.

Fog brought up that the notice mentioned a stew. Rahmina explained that this was her wife’s addition to the notice, and there would indeed be stew.


Rahmina O’Sheehan - Our Mum

Rahmina fetched her horse by herself and then met back up with us at the Stone Gate.

There were some secrets that Rahmina wanted us to swear never to divulge before we got to her village and discovered what they were.

We all agreed to keep the secret, but for whatever reason, Mrs. Rahmina gave comrade Fog a lingering look, as if she suspected he was being dishonest. The look was less like when Derthaad, my investigator friend, is suspicious of someone’s honesty - it was more like your mother knew you were lying about finishing all your chores.

I had to vouch for comrade Fog’s reliability. I assumed Fog and I weren’t supposed to talk about the dragon we met in Daring Heights with everyone, and I assumed he hadn’t. So, I tried to explain this to Mrs. Rahmina - not very well. She understood me though, so we were all good, and we set off for the Turning Fields.


Chatter on the Road

The clerics were talking about Selune. Fog and I were discussing our tattoos, and then I realised Marto and Mrs. Rahmina were laughing at me. There seemed to be some kind of bonding going on whilst taking the mickey out of my immense size. Fair enough.

“Kavel, what's the biggest thing you’ve ever lifted?” Asked Marto, walking alongside Rahmina.
I had to stop and consider this. I guess the answer is either the weights I lifted at the temple near White Dragon, or the weights I lifted in a Trecorvum gym, which were both a little under 2,000lbs. However, I’m still making gains. So, my answer was:

“I’m not sure. I’m still making progress with my strength gains. I probably haven’t lifted the heaviest weight I can lift yet.”

Mrs. Rahmina told me this was a strangely philosophical answer that she wasn’t expecting from me.

I guess I am philosophical, as well as very strong.


The Turning Fields Village and the First Secret

We turned west along the main road past the Hugging Stones and Mrs. Rahmina led us off road through a dense forest, which I was familiar with having tracked my bro Kruger through here.

No odd looks from the villagers when I got to the town - other than the usual looks one gets for being so tall. Good.

Madeline, Mrs. Rahmina’s wife, was using sign language to communicate to Rahmina as we approached their house. Mrs. ‘Maddy’ was a human who looked about the same human-age as Rahmina. Maddy, like her wife, also looked like a veteran.

We were introduced to one more member of the house, Theo, Maddy and Ramina’s son. Theo was younger than Marto, and was disappointed and annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to deal with the poisoned water problem. Before an argument between one mum and her son could break out, the other mum beckoned us inside for a meal of turnip soap and fresh bread.

The turnip soap was surprisingly delicious. We were told the secret is the magical infused water from the stream, caused by a hidden, magical, broken artefact - this was the first of two secrets we were sworn to keep.

Marto paid for breakfast, Velania baked goods, and now delicious soup. So far my adventure consisted of nothing but free food.


An Important Villager and the Second Secret

Velania handed over the rest of her basket of blueberry baked goods to the O’Sheehan family as a gift.

Marto was being mothered. I had noticed, when we were together in Hell, Marto wasn’t up for finding Adeyal and smacking him up on his own plane. Shame. I made a note to ask him to come train with me, because training solves everything - strength comes first.

Rahmina opened the front door and whistled.

The sun had set, and in the dim light that remained, we could hear the sound of pitter pattering footsteps, as a fox glowing with a shimmering light leapt through the entrance. This was Safi - she introduced herself in Common. Safi was the second secret we were sworn to keep.

Safi explained that the broken artefact gave her the ability to speak common, and the shimmering light that trailed her with its own ecosystem of ethereal insects.

While Maddy put out a bowl of soup for Safi, Rahmina explained we would have to go through a tunnel system, also Safi’s home, to get to the source of the stream and where the water was being poisoned. The water had been getting worse and worse for a month now. At this point, the village could not safely use the stream and were relying on reserves. Rahmina was offering us 65gp each, and if we wanted we could stay the night in the barn, and set off for the tunnels in the morning.

“How are you with tunnels, big lad?” Rahmina asked me.

“I guess I’ll have to crawl?”

“Yeah. It’ll be tight, but you’ll be handy in a fight, I reckon”

Our temple of Selune priestesses wanted to discuss the preparation of spells for the morning. Marto and Fog wanted Safi to take them to the stream so they could investigate. Offered to tag along, I did.


Team Investigators… Includes Kavel

Safi led us to the nearest part of the stream, and Fog put some of the dark water into a vial for Marto to investigate with the Identify spell, while he himself casted Detect Magic. Fog could sense evocation and transmutation magic, and the hand used to feel the vial was then itchy.

Marto was able to discover that the black substance was the by-product of a hag.

I stopped to think about how this blackened water was similar but very different to the polluted water I saw in the Witching Court. I kept looking back up and down the stream and at the surrounding area. After a while, a ghostly bear wandered up to the stream on the other side. Mr. Bear helped me commune with the environment to confirm that there was an influence from a foreign plane of existence originating from the source of the stream. I had until now not realised that I could observe the natural world with such insight. It was nice of that ghost bear to guide me through this new talent. I waved the bear goodbye, but when I checked to see if the others were joining me in saying goodbye to Mr. Bear, they were preoccupied with the vial. Mr. Bear had gone before I could point him out.


Tunnels Need to be Larger

The clerics were all prepped, and Maddy sent us off with a nice breakfast.

Safi led us upstream, and up a hill, and into the tunnel entrance.

Comrade Fog, and I both had to stoop to get through the entrance. But comrade Fog is a skinny big boy, he had much less trouble than I squeezing through some of the tunnels. I was getting scrapped up by the cave walls, it was enraging.

“Comrades, if we come back, I’m bringing my masonry gear and widening these holes,” I said, as I struggled and shimmied through the tunnels.

Safi protested that she didn’t want alterations to her home.

There was some laughter from behind me, and a light source appeared to be emanating directly from my arse. Nessa was, as she put it, showing her dedication to the moonmaiden by creating a moon down here in the tunnels.


Safi’s Stopping Point

We came to an opening and Safi said she would go no further. She described an underground lake with dragon bones if we take the tunnel ahead of us, and the source of where the water flows into the lake, where the water was being poisoned.

Safi also took the time to mention a scary lady would be inside, and was the cause of the poisoned water. It would seem odd that Safi didn’t tell us this earlier, if not for the fact she was easily distracted from answering our questions by the butterflies she was chasing.

Safi described the scary lady as not tall like Fog and I, but very long, with black hair and pointy teeth.

We left Safi out here, and proceeded into the next tunnel, as quietly as we could.


Underground Lake

We peered into the lake, and could just about make out the bones of a large dragon under the lake in the polluted water. The tunnel on the opposite side to us, north, appeared to contain the most darkened water.

Before we approached what looked like the origin point of the poisoned water, Velania gave us a blessing from the moonmaiden.

The terrain over to the water source was uneven. Fog and I walked up to the source, Marto, further back, picked up a loose stone.

Marto threw the stone. It rippled in the water, and a head of hair revealed itself, and rose up to reveal what certainly looked like a hag. Marto’s spell from the day before, and Mr. Bear were not wrong.


Pest Removal - One Hag

The watery hag lashed out at Fog with her very long claws, reaching him from a distance we wouldn’t have suspected possible, and slashing him across his shoulder and chest. Some of the poisoned water entered Fog’s wounds.

Fog grit his teeth and let loose the arrow he had prepared straight into the hag’s shoulder, and then turned invisible, whilst retreating to a safer distance. However, the hag yet again focused on Fog and slashed the space where he was last visible and the poisoned claws dropped a now visible Fog to the ground.

We couldn’t have this, so I smashed my poleaxe into the hag’s arrow wound, not once, but twice. The hag, not pleased with the worsening of her wound, produced some magical crackling effect that hit Marto from where he was further back, but also Fog and I. Marto’s armour and own magical defences appeared to absorb the effects. My conditioning did for me, what armour and magic did for Marto. But Fog, unconscious on the ground, was hit by the magical effect at full force, unable to dodge.

Velania, from the rear ran up to Fog and casted her divine healing magic into Fog, healing him and bringing him back round. Unfortunately, in order to reach Fog, over this rocky ground, Velania’s ankle gave way and she fell prone.

Nessa casted a spell that enveloped her in a wide aura of pure magic, and she moved from the rear close enough to us on the front line that we too were protected in her bubble of anti-poison magic.

A puff of smoke appeared by my right side, followed by a halfling swinging a battleaxe down onto the hag’s opposite shoulder repeatedly.

Fog stood back up, and helped Velania to her feet as well.

Witnessing three mighty axe swings to my right, I couldn’t help but think of comrade Ivan. Comrade Marto had some thicc-boi energy of his own. Inspired by Marto’s axe work, I swung the poleaxe’s hammer round twice and then thrust the spike into the hag as well. Two crushing blows to the hag’s right shoulder and the point was driven into her abdomen.

The hag retaliated at Marto and I. Missing me, but managed to pierce through the gaps in Marto’s plate a little.

Velania - had wings?! I guess I was right that she didn’t just have a professionally divine aspect to her - she is an angel. She flew into the air, and attacked the hag with a spiritually manifested sickle, cutting radiant damage into the hag.

From the far rear, scorching bolts of energy stormed into the hag, as Nessa brought magical artillery support down upon our foe, joined by Fog loosing a thundering arrow.

Marto seized upon the hag’s preoccupation with the ranged attacks and continued to cut deep axe slices into the hag’s left hand side. Black ooze was pouring out of the hag and onto me and Marto. Poor Marto, being shorter, got drenched in the black blood. I was drenched no further up than my abdomen, and was mostly unaffected by the pure poison, on account of my conditioning.

With so much blood pouring out of the hag, I thought I had this. I attempted two hammer swings and a thrust, but missed on my second hammer swing. The black blood was under my feet, making me lose my footing. Marto’s axe strikes were so effective, but to a fault - he’d caused a slipping hazard.

Marto was looking a little under the weather, drenched in the poison blood, but Velania magically removed the poison, whilst commanding her spiritual sickle to slice a bit more black blood out of the hag - me and Marto both wisely took a step back as she did so. This was just as well, as it gave Nessa a better line of sight to fire another volley of scorching rays at the bleeding hag. The hag set on fire and collapsed to the ground in front of Marto and I after the first three blasts, but Nessa fired off two more at the prone hag to make sure the hag would not be getting up anymore.


Clean Up?

“Comrades, is it on us to clean up here?” I asked.

Safi appeared, feeling it was safe to join us now, and observed that the black poison was disappearing from the water immediately.

We could see a sword beside the dragon skeleton in the lake. Safi was not happy with the idea of us taking the sword that the dragon died with, so we did not press the issue too far. We asked if there were any treasures we could take, and Safi mentioned the hag had a nest through the cave.

We managed to gather up rubies and emeralds to the value of 100gp. There was a snake shaped dagger, and a potion of greater healing.


Back at the O’Sheehan House

We met Rahmina back at the stream where it was closest to her home. She confirmed that the water was better.

We earnt the gold that was promised, and some stew-to-go.

On the way back to Daring Heights, Safi intercepted us to say goodbye, and gave us a little fox boop on the nose each. She mentioned we would all be able to glimmer like her one time, for a while.

Nessa and Velania mentioned they had seen Sorrel in the Temple of Selune, pacing around checking doors and security. Sorrel was taking the high diviner, Rholar’s safety very seriously.

Marto mentioned he was up for training at Kavel’s Corner, but like me he too is learning a trade, and his time is occupied with that.

When I got back to the Fort, I checked in with Tokh Mar, and practised my carpentry. Not long after that, I was back on the road to Daring Heights. I wanted to check in on Sorrel and make sure she wasn’t going mad in the temple.