After a night’s rest, the party did some shopping and made preparations in the small settlement of Dyresange Berm. Amaris’ made a charismatic connection with a traveling merchant so she bought a serrated hunting knife in a cool sheath. Walter advanced a loan to Rathy (30 silver pieces, 5% daily interest) so they both could get some black powder, musket balls, and ramrods; they cleaned up their muskets and everyone did some target practice. Rathy traded a helmet for 10 silver pieces and two sheaths (strapped carrying cases) for the muskets. He removed his grungy guard armor in favor of a change of clothes and carried his shield.
Malique said the green beads in a jar were not magical, but they do exhibit the interesting property of being frictionless and seemingly unstoppable once in motion. Rathy’s emerald-studded skull-pendant is magical, a minor trinket from another necromantic society, and gives Rathy an energetic jolt for a few seconds when licked. A scribe and aspiring historian named Cadeus was helping Malique. She thought the glittering shell-man made a strange tale.
Walter, Bruusa, and Rathy visited a newly-arrived dwarven colony (about a dozen) who have taken up residence in the caves. They have heard of The Doombringer of the Penultimate Thunder, but there were no adherents in this small settlement (it was thought that Bruusa could leave some pamphlets). The dwarves could probably smelt and forge almost anything, including Rathy’s gold-plated coffin lid.
Turlough stayed in town while the party entered the Iron Coral for the second time.
[note to self: must streamline downtime activities/mechanics so we don’t spend an hour IRL shopping and equipping]
“Don’t let a visit to a steading become a permanent respite… Fill the characters’ lives with adventure whether they’re out seeking it or not. These moves exist so you can make a visit to town an interesting event without spending a whole session haggling over the cost of a new baldric.”
– Dungeon World, LaTorra and Koebel
They went down the usual entrance tunnel but instead of the dark cave that was the first room encountered yesterday, the party found themselves in a large underground cavern next to a vast lake. The Coral changes with each passing day. Warm, salty water. They waded in up to their knees towards the sound of waves lapping against stone.
The party proceeded down the corridor to the east and entered Room 13 that had two rotting corpses on the floor. The mounted suit of violet plate armor, with a shriveled corpse inside, was too heavy and bulky to carry. They followed a sweet smell to Room 4, a sticky cave. The floor and walls were made of white rock that was soft, like taffee, and tasted slightly sweet.
Room 2 was more soothing, with softly glowing stone walls. Three tidal spirits (immaterial snake-men) appeared and whispered their encouragement to destroy the coral. Rathy repeatedly struck the walls with his weapon, which brought a glutinous fin-thing to life from the previous sticky room; it slapped Rathy hard enough to knock him back off his feet. Walter blasted the wall with his musket; the sound brought a hungry swarm of piranha-rats. Amaris threw her jerky into Room 4. The rest of the group killed the piranha-rats, and the fin-thing retreated back into the walls of the sticky room.
An open passageway led to Room 1, a garden of colorful dried coral. To the north, a stairway leads upwards. To the south, Rathy broke through the dried coral (crumbles at touch) wall to reveal a passageway to Room 3. This room contained a 10-foot pit, with a half-man half-coral gladiator down inside, armed with a net and trident. Rathy answered his challenge by leaping into the pit, sword-first. He landed badly at the feet of the gladiator, who laughed and plunged his trident into the floor. Walter fired his musket to blast off a quarter of the coral man’s head, but that didn’t stop him. While Rathy struggled with the net, the gladiator swung up, using the stuck trident pole as leverage, and grabbed the top edge of the pit. The coral man stood up to face Walter as Amaris backstabbed the gladiator, who seemed hurt, but he grew coral back in the “wound” and then transformed his other arm into a long coral sword extending from his elbow. He turned to face Bruusa, pointing his coral sword at him and said, “You… look like a worthy opponent.” Bruusa needed no more convincing nor divine guidance to swing his axe in a mighty arc, cleaving the coral man in two horizontally through the torso. The two pieces of his coral body landed separately on the floor and crumbled into dried coral dust.
The party decided to make camp there for the night. Perhaps Turlough used his time in Dyresange Berm today to gather some intel on:
- • a trio of refugee alien vampires who escaped before the Halls of the Blood King were turned into rubble; they cut a deal with Seleana to find a way to travel the planes, and get them and her home
- • former slaves/workers of Drazhu, learning about freedom, and trying to find their homes/families
- • the centaurs of the woods, who have agreed to share defense info with Mashito in exchange for the regrowth of the forest
- • the newly-arrived dwarves in the mountain caves
- • itinerant merchants, blacksmiths, and those interested in salvaging the wrecks from the chaos ooze
- • an extravagantly-rich hunting party; are they really noble cousins of Walter?
- • Titanius’ barbarian tribe seems to be doing a lot of the construction work in exchange for food
- • Mashito is the de facto head of this little community; does she want to lead, or leave, or establish a council?
- • a scribe, Cadeus, who draws up announcements and billboards while keeping copious notes on almost everything