AAR [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

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bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm
AAR [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:52 pm

LFG: The Perils of Mudville
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 2
Difficulty: Medium

Rumor: Post-Scourge Barsaive abounds with natural magical oddities, and surveyors have found one on the banks of the Ilya river in the Lowlands between Throal and the Servos Jungle. On the banks of the river are pits of fascinating, enchanted clay. A settlement has formed nearby, but residents are now claiming that their possessions, and even their livestock are going mysteriously missing. Adept help requested!

Notes:
- Adventure runs at 7:00pm EST on Tuesday, June 8th
- As always, I run groups of 5 players.

Sign up format:

Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b] Character name
[b]Date of Last Game Played:[/b]
[b]Circle:[/b] Circle of your character
[b]Discipline:[/b] Your character's Discipline(s)
[b]Unique:[/b] What your character is bringing to the table.
[b]Downtime:[/b] Talents and Skills that other characters can use over downtime: [Talent] [Step including +Karma Step if appropriate] ([Rank]) ([Further Details])
Last edited by bronzemountain on Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:37 pm

Name: Garak

Date of Last Game Played: Saturday

Circle: 2

Discipline: Archer 2

Unique: Failure is not an option - it is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.

Downtime: Nope.

verse86
Posts:269
Joined:Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:16 pm

Re: LFG [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (POSTPONED)

Post by verse86 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:36 pm

Name: Z'mokki
Date of Last Game Played: 2021-06-06
ECR: 3
Discipline: Thief 3
Unique: A boisterous thief
Downtime:

Fattom23
Posts:5
Joined:Thu May 13, 2021 8:38 pm

Re: LFG [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (POSTPONED)

Post by Fattom23 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:20 pm

Name: Drask'a
Date of Last Game Played: May 20, 2021
Circle: 1
Discipline: Nethermancer
Unique: The World's most joyous Nethermancer
Downtime: None

Dougansf
Posts:465
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:14 am

Re: LFG [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by Dougansf » Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:32 pm

Name: Indran
Effective Circle Rating: 1 (0 LP)
Discipline: Shaman 1
Unique: Tracking, Wilderness Survival
Last Time Player Played: UPDATE ME

Downtime:

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:59 am

The Journal of Garak of Irondelve, Part 2: The Perils of Mudville

It is good to know that the land can still surprise me with its wonders. I was browsing in the markets looking for work when an opportunity presented itself; a pair of dwarves (Big Lazska, Moishvan) were looking for Adepts to investigate a rash of recent petty thefts in their village, Mudville.

Z'mokki also joined, as well as two new to me; Drask'a, T'skrang Nethermancer, and Indran, Dwarf Shaman, both just starting on their way. Mudville is a place with strange clay that shapes itself to copy nearby clay, although it is limited in detail. Very unusual. Various objects have gone missing of late, most notable being a wash tub that was seen moving away. None made of clay, all crafted items except some chickens and a pig (they may have simply wandered off).

Moishvan shows us the clay shaping itself, then we set up a meeting. We discover that no clay objects have disappeared, and they agree to take us to the clay pit where they gather clay. There is a pool that runs underground to the nearby river, filled with clean water, right next to the clay pit, which seems mostly normal. I spot some footprints as if someone has been walking upside down on the underside of the clay though. Indran spots signs of things being dragged into the nearby pool. Z'mokki notices an underwater opening that seems to lead off past the clay pit. The water was nice, I think Z'mokki was really enjoying it.

Indran says he has a spell to help us swim, we agree to go in the morning after setting up watches for the night. Second watch, Indran notices a barrel leaving town. He wakes us up, and we follow. The barrel seems to have signs of something moving underneath the ground below it, and when Z'mokki gets close it stops moving. I move ahead to the pool to get a better look, and as the barrel and a few other items are moving to the pool Z'mokki runs to jump in, but is instead jumped by small stony creatures.

They are very fragile, I had hoped to capture one to interrogate but a decent blow simply destroys them. They are joined shortly after by larger creatures made of mud, tougher and very sticky. Indran and Drask'a think they are probably some sort of spirit. We hope we have not made it impossible for the village to continue to get clay by intruding, but they are glad to have their things back, at least the ones that didn't keep going into the pool and down the tunnel.

Next morning, we ask what they want; we may be able to stop the thefts, but it may mean they can no longer shape the clay. They tell us to do what we think is best. I think they just don't want the responsibility. We decide to investigate at the very least. The tunnel in the pool leads to another pool in an area surrounded by steep cliffs. Looks like a pre-scourge community, only stone and rubble is left. We see some mud creatures and a large clay ball, they are stuffing crafted objects into it. It reminds me of an egg. I wonder if this is how Spirits are born?

They seem cautious, but not aggressive. We explore looking for anything that might explain what they are, but it seems the creatures must have taken all the crafted objects from here first. Indran decides to approach and try a greeting ritual, and makes a passable embroidering which the creatures accept as an offering and put into the ball. I make a terrible carving of a dog which they accept with equal reverence. It would really help to have an Elementalist.

In the end, we decide that they will probably leave the village alone if supplied with offerings of crafted non-clay items. Indran finds the pig and insists on bringing it up the cliffs with us. We return to the village and Z'mokki grumbles the whole time that it is the slow way. I think he just likes swimming. I like breathing though, and this time it would have been against the current. We tell the villagers we're going to try making offerings, and when we do that it seems to work. The villagers get to keep their wondrous clay, and these strange copycat earthen creatures are unharmed. The village is safe, we get paid (I take payment mostly in kind, there is an alchemical and enchanting concern that uses the clay for enchanting pots. I got some good deals, the others took mostly cash). A hot pot, a pot of grumbah, and a pure water pitcher. Should come in handy.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

AAR [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:16 pm

AAR: The Perils of Mudville
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 2
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Drask'a: 800 LP, 200 SP, 3 TIPs
Indran: 800 LP, 150 SP, 3 TIPs, 1 Kelix's Poultice, 1 Pure Water Pot
Z'mokki: 800 LP, 200 SP, 3 TIPs
Garlak: 800 LP, 37.5 sp, 3 TIPs, Hot Pot, Pot of Grumbah (small), Pure Water Pot

Alt Rewards: 50% off Hot Pot, Pots of Grumbah, Pure Water Pot, Traveler's Mug, Kelix's Poultice

GM Reward: Valterri- 800 LP, 200 SP, 3 TIPs

Downtime:
None.

Summary:
The potter's settlement of Mudville has come to a strange sort of accord with the mud creatures that live nearby, and thus preserve their access to the very obliging and obedient clay that is their wondrous resource. Will the mud folk's primitive attempts to create consciousness result in a new Earth spirit? Will they just have a really heavy lump of clay? Will something more awful happen? What is up with that super pig? Only time, and future adventures will tell.

Dougansf
Posts:465
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:14 am

Re: AAR [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by Dougansf » Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:37 pm

Indran Field Journal
First Entry


We travel to the Meat Market, a place where adepts may find jobs. We meet Big Laszka and Moishvan the Elder from Mudville. Things have been disappearing for about a month, small things, some animals. One witness saw a washtub moving itself out of town.

Mudville
We trek out and find the Illia river and find a settlement of 5-10 partially built houses. They found the clay pits, “obedient and obliging,” he was able to make 30 in a week. They look very solid, but plain, no glazing. They clay seals itself for storing water. Moishvan shows us how he makes the jars. He places a pitcher on the table, and 5 lumps of clay around it. He fixes us a meal to wait for the clay to duplicate the pitcher. After 3-4 hours, the lumps have shaped themselves into duplicates. The duplicates are still soft and need firing. He smacks one with a hammer, and they all start to stiffen.

I sense a few Beast Spirits in the area, Drask’a senses some other spirits as well, but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s a very fertile place, lots of potential.

We gather the town into a meeting of about 25-30 people. Nothing clay has gone missing. Clay has not duplicated anything that isn’t clay. Everything is found missing in the morning. They discovered the clay’s properties within a week of arrival, but things went missing in the last 3 weeks.

Laszka brings us to the river where it comes up from underground. She stands on the clay pit, stomps on it, and sinks into the clay up to her knees. She pulls herself out and appears covered in muddy scales. Looking over the area, we find raised footprints. There are scrape marks near the water. I confirm they are prints of a washtub and a pig, and they head into the water. The earth around the tracks are higher than the rest of the area. Our t’skrang members go for a quick swim.

I believe these are not Horrors, but could be some kind of earth spirit.

We head back to Mudville for dinner and night watch.

Night Watch
Drask’a takes first watch. Nothing eventful.
Indran takes the second watch, and sees a barrel sliding across the ground. The earth is being disturbed beneath it. I can’t determine if it’s an animal or spirit, so I wake the others.

When we approach, we find other items are being dragged with the barrel. We follow it all the way to the water. Just as things are about to go into the water, I jump up and down. All the items stop moving. As Z’mokki approaches, a small rock mole leaps out of the earth at him to attack.

Z’mokki’s magic warns him and helps him avoid the attack.
Garak shoots one, and it shatters.
Different muddy creatures emerge and hurl clay at Garak and Z’mokki.
Draska and I weave threads.

We eventually gather back on the West bank of the water and finish off the last mud creature.

Having seen their manifested forms, I think they’re primitive Earth spirits.

We watch two of the objects move along the walls, spiraling down into a tunnel. We bring the other objects back to town. All the objects that were taken were crafted, not grown.

Morning
The next morning we tell the villagers what we found. They call a meeting and take a vote, they trust our judgment.

We head back to the water. Z’mokki dives into the water and scouts the pool. He determines we can make it, as there are pockets of air we can use. With the help of the Otters, we swim down fast enough to reach the air pockets and then to the tunnel below.

There we find ancient stonework ruins, some submerged. On the other side of the clearing, we can see a pile of stolen objects, and a red sphere surrounded by mud creatures who are trying to push things into the sphere. The sphere grows when something goes in.

Z’mokki tries to talk to them at first. I examine the sphere some more, and spot something hiding in the water between them and Z’mokki. Z’mokki throws them a torch, and one runs to place it into the sphere.

We carefully search around the ruins. It’s been abandoned since before the Long Night began. There are no trinkets or crafted items other than the walls. It doesn’t appear to have been a kaer, and was abandoned before the Scourge began, and thus was not likely attacked by Horrors.

We get closer to the sphere, and they stand defensively. I sit and start my greeting ritual. They move closer, very curious. When I finish, it’s eager to take the cloth, which I offer up with care. One mud creature forms a fingered hand to take it eagerly to the sphere. Garak follows suit with wood carving.

We search around and find another way out of here, via climbing, taking nearly a day. We return to village and instruct them to leave offerings out for them to take.

We are paid, and also get payment from the alchemical and enchanting concerned bodies, who are also willing to pay us in clay-based products.

verse86
Posts:269
Joined:Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:16 pm

Re: AAR [2M]: The Perils of Mudville (2021-06-08 2300 GMT)

Post by verse86 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:31 am

Z'mokki's Journal:
Word of my heroism has traveled so far that even a little backwater town called Mudville has heard of the Great Z'mokki. It seems the village was having issues with random objects disappearing at night. Of course, the first step to any great adventure is assembling a crew. I found Garak whose skill with a bow is deft from my careful tutelage. As always, the Great Z'mokki is willing to take students under his wing. I decided to nurture the talent of two up and coming adventurers: a dwarf shaman named Indran and a t'skrang nethermancer named Drask'a.

We set out for Mudville. I regaled our employers with the finer details of my exploits along the way. When we finally arrived we found out an interesting thing about this village. They had found some "obliging" clay. The clay would literally form itself into whatever clay object was put near it. It would even fire itself without fire. It was the strangest thing I had seen in some time. Curious about it, we asked to be taken to the sight of this clay. It was near a deep clear basin. We noticed the footprints raised instead of indented into the clay leading up to the edge of the water. What a curious thing. I decided to dive into the water to investigate (and also wash off some of the mud). Some ways down, I found a tunnel that led deep into the ground further than light could penetrate. Erring on the side of safety, I decided not to explore too deeply.

We returned to the village to set up a night watch for these disappearing objects. Eventually we caught the objects moving away. It seemed something under the ground was moving them along. I tried to sneak up closer, but the beings noticed my presence and stopped. I stepped back to see if the things would continue, which they did. We tracked the objects to the basin. Not wanting to lose the objects, I rushed forward. This upset the things which turned out to be some kind of rock mole things. We would quickly discover they were not alone as some mud beings came up and attacked me as well. I deftly dispatched the beings, but don't believe this actually destroyed them. Now having an idea of what we were dealing with we went back to the village to wait for day.

I was starting to think there was more to this than we thought. And I just knew it had something to do with that underground tunnel. We returned to the basin the next day. After grabbing a party member's light crystal I started to explore the tunnel. It went much further than I expected. When I found the end, I turned back to get my companions. Fortunately for the non-t'skrang, Indran had a spell that imbued them with the swimming prowess of an otter. I'm not sure they would have managed the tunnel otherwise. We made our way through and came out the end to find an old destroyed kaer entrance in what appeared to be a canyon.

Near the old kaer door, we noticed an egg-like mud ball. There were mud creatures around it trying to shove objects into it. I approached them slowly to show I meant no harm. My unmatched wit locked onto the fact the mud things were trying to put crafted items into the egg. I tossed them a torch to test this theory. They quickly grabbed it and took it to the egg. At this point I instructed Indran to use his skills at woodcarving to make something for the beings to see if my hunch was correct. They all gathered around him with intense interest. Upon completion, he offered the object which they happily took. At this point I assessed these beings were only a threat to those who meant them harm. We decided to make our way back to the village. The way back took us many days since my land-loving companions preferred to scale the canyon than swim back through the tunnel against the current.

We arrived back to much fanfare and cheer. I instructed the villagers to leave offerings of handmade objects near the basin to keep their more precious items in the village from being taken. After a few days of testing this, the items at the basin were gone and nothing else from the village had gone missing. And the villagers got to keep their "obliging" clay.

A truce between the village of Mudville and the mud beings brokered thanks to Z'mokki and crew.

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