Session 16
Exterminators
Party: Chunk, Coine, Dorian, Flynn, Urzein, Vaelen and Zalos
Short Synopsis
The party arrives at Goldenroad and rests at a small in. They wake up to find two cultists and an ankheg attacking the innkeeper. Upon defeating their enemies and reviving the innkeeper, they learn that several other cultists ran off with magical decanters that provide water to the town.
They pursue the cultists and encounter a traveling warrior, Zalos. The group defeats a group of vultures and tracks the cultists to a pit. After fighting off ankhegs, they interrogate an escaping cultist and learn that a witch is responsible for enslaving villagers.
The party goes inside and takes a few other cultists prisoner and discover that the witch is down the tunnel on the right.
Long Synopsis
On their way to the Monastery of Alban, the party stops at the small trading outpost of Goldenrod. The cleric Sheera of Temple of Tymora sells potions to party members, and the innkeeper Lede Swiftdagger runs the local inn.
The party members awaken to find that the inn is infested by an ankheg and two cultists. Vaelen casts *spare the dying* on the prone innkeeper while the rest of the party works to exterminate the pests. Dorian sprays eldritch blasts, while Coine uses organic methods by summoning a wolf. Flynn uses ice on the pests while Chunk uses the old-fashioned smash-the-bug technique. Once the pests have been dealt with, Coine revives the innkeeper and she explains that there were more cultists, and that they took three of the five magical decanters that sustains Goldenrod’s water supply. Urzein finds the tracks of the invasive pests and suspects that they returned back to their nest.
The adventurers agree to help the trading outpost after being offered a fee of 600 gold pieces for return of the decanter. In order to help with transportation logistics, Coine turns himself into a camel and gives Vaelen a ride while the rest ride horses or take the wagon.
Along the way, they encounter another person concerned about pest control. Zalos is wearing full plate armor in the desert and is concerned about avian pests. When giant vultures swoop down, Zalos shoots his crossbow, Chunk swats it with his club and Dorian uses *hellish rebuke*. It does not take long for them to deal with the vultures. Zalos, who is also traveling to the Monastery of Alban, joins the party.
The tracks lead to a pit where a man in cultist robes is looking anxious. Then, the party is attacked by two ankhegs. The party quickly finds a way to stamp the ankhegs out, though they do suffer from some acid spray by the creature. Coine had cast *hold person* on the cultist. Upon interrogation, they discover at “Reggie” was trying to escape and he warns that the witch forcing locals to serve her and doing strange experiments. Urzein ties up Reggie, knocks him out and hides him in a tree.
They go down into the pit and Flynn incapacitates some cultists with *hypnotic pattern*. There are strange sores on their bodies related to the ankheg infestation, and these cultists want to escape as well. Vaelen believes that they can be cured.
The cultists tell the party that the door to the right leads to the witch. It is up to the party to decide how to finish this extermination of the witch’s infestation.
