018 - 250409 - The Hollow I -
Hook:
"That old barn ain't empty, if that's what you're thinking," a scavenger nursing a swollen arm muttered into his drink. "Giant beetles, big as dogs. They don't like sharing." He winced, flexing his fingers. "Something's buried under the floor. Don't know what. Don't care." ~Kesh
Date:
446 PC, Dawnrise 51
Players:
Loot:
None
After Actions:
A breakfast chat at camp, Die-Anna and Raven Madapple are sharing the story of our deaths.
Raven: Maybe next time we should tell Steve where we're going...
Die-Anna: Alright guys, I know I may look... uh a little different so me and Raven are just gonna explain what happened...
Raven: So we were chatting with Kesh about these giant beetles in an abandoned orchard, and I thought BUGS? And apples? Obvs I've never wanted to see anything more in my entire life. Die-Anna was totally flirting with Kesh btw!
Die-Anna: I MEAN I WOULDNT SAY THAT I MEAN like they're cool and- uh i dont know hahah um yeah so anyway APPLES, yeah apples and beetles so we end up walking over there. Honestly it was pretty nice at first, Raven was climbing trees and we were eating apples! Some of them were weird? Like rotten but also alcholoic I think?
Raven: It was super weird to see apples out of season, but snacks are snacks and we didn't question it too much. There was a sticky earwaxy resin on a lot of the trees. I licked the resin... not recommended.
Raven: The orchard used to be a ciderworks called Bigkin & Bramble! We saw the logo on some old broken pottery.
Die-Anna: Godsyeah please if you go out do not lick the resin... then we went a little deeper into the orchard and found this old building where Kesh said they saw the beetles. At first we didn't see any.... that was until I kicked one of these weird resin balls They came out of no where! There were so many beetles and they were pissed! They skittered out of no where and then they started teleporting around trying to get to us. We were able to take down a few but...
Raven: They were relentless, standing on their gross resin balls and attacking nonstop. I tried to run to get a better vantage point to shoot at them... but then we were extremely dead.
Raven: Then we were floating high above the Rift... chilling and observing... you guys this place is so much bigger than we thought.
Die-Anna: The view was insane! I couldn’t feel anything as we drifted up… then I felt this weird pain in my stomach. It was like something was holding us back from going all the way up into the planes
Die-Anna: Then there was this strange voice I think? It was saying something but I felt so strange. It was like we were in jello or something… I think I remember seeing one of the jerman… then we were pulled back
Raven: We woke up on slabs... I felt like I'd been deeply exfoliated, inside and out. Worst spa day ever, but kinda rad that all my scars are gone. Die-Anna looks cool as hell now! I think she got exfoliated even harder than I did.
Die-Anna: Uhh yeah that’s definitely what happened they just took all my skin off hahaha thanks Raven! You look great too! Now that’s what happened and everyone can go back to eating their breakfast! Also if anyone finds our bodies can you give our stuff back
038 - 250730 - A Bitter Vintage - The Hollow II
Date:
Brightwane 35
New moon
Players:
Loot:
Seed Stone from basement of Bigkin & Bramble Cidery Barn [scholar's tent]
Note: "Delivery for Moss-I, handle before dusk"
Sample of beetle resin for Murph
40 gp mixed coinage in resin ball (turned into company)
After Actions:
Ragnum finds Steve immediately on returning to camp:
Steve, I’ll get the written report later, but the bottom line is we got a big bug problem that, if it isn’t dealt with quickly, is going to be a huge bug problem.
Raven, Die-ann, Odette, Dev and I went out to the old Bigkin & Bramble Cidery, where Raven and Die-anna ran into those blinking beetles last month. Well, we were obviously cautious when we got there, given what happened last time, but the beetles were nowhere to be found. Turns out those beetles have dug an underground colony—think ant hill or termite mound, but for this colony, the tunnels are between 3 and 10 ft wide, and we found tunnels that stretch for miles. I was able to map some of the tunnels using a see invisibility scroll, as the resin they use to build their tunnels is apparently solid even in the ethereal plane. We found some exploratory tunnels that reach halfway back to camp.
While at the old barn, we fought a bunch of beetles similar to what had been seen before, but there was one beetle that was at least twice the size of those. We also found some sort of magical stone in the basement of Bigkin & Bramble I'm taking that to the scholar's tent to be looked at, and it looked like there were some cave paintings of furbolgs on some of the tunnel walls, but they got destroyed when the beetles broke through the wall. At any rate, this is a problem that the camp needs to devote serious camp resources to dealing with, or we eventually will run out of here.
039 - 250804 - Branching Paths - The Hollow III
Date:
Brightwane 37
Players:
Loot:
5 x Flask of Controlled Combustion (Wondrous Item, Uncommon)
Description: This flask contains a volatile mixture of Alchemist's Fire and specially treated Oil, designed for both an explosive impact and a controlled burn.
Use: As an action, you can throw this flask up to 20 feet. Upon impact, the target and all creatures within a 5-foot radius must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 + your Dexterity modifier + your Proficiency Bonus), taking 1d4 fire damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one. Controlled Burn: After the initial explosion, the area is covered in burning oil. For the next 2 rounds, any creature entering the area or ending its turn there takes 5 fire damage. The oil burns out after this duration.
5 from Murph
After Actions:
We held the center entrance marvelously before the bugs retreated back underground. Since that first assault, Thalia has been sending small skirmish groups of her warriors into the resin-coated passageways. Their efforts have focused on mapping the upper levels, but with miles of twisting corridors to cover, progress has been slow. Still, your role in the initial wave has earned you a noticeable boost in Thalia’s respect. She's even considering inviting some of you back to deal with the beetle queen she assumes is down there.
Essentially, you repelled the initial defense. Now, the combat division is clearing out the top layers of the hive. The center cache is still down there, though.
049 - 251006 - A Hollow Crown - The Hollow IV
Date:
High Flare 6
Players:
Donk
Raven
Keres
Loot:
Seed Stone from basement of Bigkin & Bramble Cidery Barn [scholar's tent]
Note: "Delivery for Moss-I, handle before dusk"
Sample of beetle resin for Murph
40 gp mixed coinage in resin ball (turned into company)
After Actions:
Die-Anna's Report regarding the beetle hive nest thing:
Hiya Steve, so me, Donk, Raven, and Keres went down the beetle hole where Talia and co have been at “war”. Those tunnels were sooooo gross, they were warm from all the beetles scurrying about and puking their goo everywhere, but being the hero’s we are we persevered.
We were tasked with spearheading the assault, aka getting attacked first. Together we cleared out the first cavern of beetles pretty quickly. They all kept gnawing on Donks boots, and surprisingly he and his boots were fine! (need to ask donk where he got them..) Anyway we cleared the first room but one skittered off down the tunnel.
Following the bug we ended up coming across this MASSIVE bridge made from that goo the beetles were making. The cavern was vast and when we looked over the bridge's edge there was nothing but little motes flickering in the distance. Keres said it looked like what she saw at the edge of the rift!
Gravity was also weird, chunks of the resin were floating around us as we made our way across. It was almost peaceful, well besides for the sound of Talia and her guys grunting as they crawled across the bridge because it was too slippery for them.
When we were half way across, Keres noticed a slight thrumming from the end of the bridge. At the end of the bridge there was the main hive, the resin around it was almost church-like. I would almost say beautiful if it wasn’t so gross.
Anyways, we got to the main hive and advanced forward. The beetle queen was massive! She was ethereal in a sense! The queen had some strange aura about her, astral I wanna say but I’m no arcanist. Despite her size Raven (our local bug expert) informed us that she wasn’t even fully grown!! Thank the gods for that! After an intense battle Taila landed the killing blow to the beetle queen (of course after we all wore it down). All the egg sacs were destroyed except for one which we threw into the scholars tent! Overall it seems like we rocked this mission and deserve a nice day at the beach! Or lake?..... Whatever body of water you guys can find would be nice….
Signing out, Die-Anna of the Starshard Banner