Subduing Xavier
Facing The Beast
The path to the dungeon is a long, twisting stairwell that goes even deeper than the furnace. As the party descends, the temperature begins to plummet. Deep claw marks decorate the wall in vicious parallel lines and hair is scattered across the stone steps.
At the bottom of the stairs is a doorway, but the door that once covered it has been ripped off its hinges and tossed aside.
The sound of claws scraping against stone echos through the area as well as the stifled sounds of a woman crying.
Xavier - or what was once Xavier - paces in front of the cage containing Emma. She is curled up in the corner of the cell, wrapped in a thick blanket and sobbing deeply.
There are five cells in total in the room, each roughly ten square feet and along the left wall. The total size of the dungeon is approximately fifty by fifty feet. Off to the right are a few tables, some of which contain bowls filled with food and water. There is a huge pile of rags and blankets in the corner that form a makeshift bed. There is no sunlight in the room, but four torches provide dim light in the area. There are also a few barrels and crates scattered throughout the room with labels for perishable goods carved into them.
The werewolf Xavier becomes aware of the bands presence............
Saving Xavier
Heironymo casts a noxious cloud that causes the werewolf to start reaching
Lemmog casts something that challenges the werefolf to dual with him
But then Silme Dominates it, and orders it towards Ekam, who gives it a potion and Silme orders the werewolf to drink it.
Nothing happens for a full ten seconds. It seems the potion is a dud until his eyes snap open and they are no longer yellow and ferocious but blue and friendly. He starts to cry out in agony as he writhes on the floor, his body transforming back into that of a young human man. It takes over a minute for the process to finish, but in the end, he returns.
Xavier is in his early twenties, but has a massive beard and accompanying moustache. His clothes are in tatters, leaving him nearly nude as he lays on the stone floor of the cold dungeon. His blonde hair is long and matted with dirt, hanging down over his shoulders. He looks around with large frightened eyes for a moment . . . and then they begin to swell with tears. “I’m me,” he whispers as he looks down at his ordinary hands (albeit with some incredibly long fingernails). “Thank you. Thank you!” he says and then screams and leaps at Ekam to embrace embrace him while he is still on his knees.
“Welcome back, young master," Eparius says tenderly. "It seems my duty is completed and my services are no longer needed.” The sword clatters to the ground moments later. A strong burst of wind rushes through the area and causes goosebumps to break out on the bands arms and neck.
“Eparius!?” Xavier shouts as he looks around, but does not see the loyal family servant. “I swear I just . . . heard a voice."
Ekam then picks the lock to Emmas cage, after which he spots a set of keys hangs on the wall in the dungeon.
Yomi picks up the cutlass (a +1 scimitar)
Xavier apologizes profusely for what he did to her, but Emma is surprisingly understanding of the situation. She forgives him and even asks if she could return sometime and get to know the man behind the beast. Xavier agrees emphatically and they all return to the main floor of the castle and its embracing warmth.
The band then return to Jorlen in his laboratory. He and his son hug, crying as they hold each other tightly and share words of their struggles. It is a touching moment and Emma has to wipe away tears as she witnesses the reunion. Finally, Jorlen ends the embrace, giving Xavier a hearty pat on the back as he turns to the party. “Now I do believe I owe you payment for your services!”
Jorlen moves to the desk and arranges the animal statues in a new pattern. When it is complete, there is a loud click and a set of books slide to the side and reveal a safe mounted in the wall. Jorlen reaches in and pulls out ten gold bars, each worth 250 gold pieces, and gives them to you. He then reaches back in and pulls out a ring as well. This is a Ring of Protection and he offers it to the band as an additional thanks for their aid which Ekam accepts. He hands one additional gold bar to Emma to compensate for the trauma she must have endured which she hesitantly accepts.
With all the small talk Heironymo spots an interesting book with a scape of paper sticking out of it.
The note reads:
Possible books that could be the 10?
- Arcane Grimoire
- Black Crystal Tablet
- Book of Exalted Deeds
- Book of Vile Darkness
- Duplicitous Manuscript
- Enduring Spellbook
- Manual of Bodily Health
- Manual of Gainful Exercise
- Manual of Golems
- Manual of Quickness of Action
- Nether Scroll of Azumar
- Psalms of Ephrael
- Quick Notation Scroll
- Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning
- Scroll of the Comet
- Tome of Clear Thought
- Tome of Leadership and Influence
- Tome of the Stilled Tongue
- Tome of Understanding
- Traveller’s Hymnal
The book found is:
Tome of Leadership and Influence
Source: Dungeon Master's Guide
Wondrous item, very rare
This book contains guidelines for influencing and charming others, and its words are charged with magic. If you spend 48 hours over a period of 6 days or fewer studying the book's contents and practicing its guidelines, your Charisma score increases by 2, as does your maximum for that score. The manual then loses its magic, but regains it in a century.
Heironymo manages to hide the book from the rest of the band, but shows them the note.
With the reward given and Xavier saved, the band take Emma and start their way back to town to return her to her father.
Return to Conquessa
The adventure back to town is rather unexciting. There are no wolves to be seen and the band makes it back to the main path without incident. Emma gives the band directions to her house where her father Maury waits and gives his daughter a massive hug when she returns. He gives the party a similar thanks as Jorlen, both of these men having their lost children returned to them. He then offers them their reward - a pistol. He invites the entire party to the tavern to share their story with the rest of the town and prove once and for all that he is not mad!
While in the tavern Yomi distracts Ekam while Lemmog summons the twins and asks them to make copies of the pistol for his army.
The twins let Lemmog know they will return with a new copy within a month, as it is better to copy from the original than from a copy, and they will need to perfect the process.
It is only why the twins disappear that Lemmog thinks that they were in rather nice clothing. Oh well, things must be going well back in Richmond.
Path to Adaven
The journey is a few days but uneventful and the band stumble into The Summit tavern in the small mining town of Adaven. It is a few hundred yards from a sprawling Spineridge Mountain range filled with gold and silver for those willing to work hard to extract it from the mines.
The band have been traveling all day and it is nice to finally have a place to sit down, rest their sore feet, and have a tall mug of beer. The Summit is packed to the brim with patrons. Barmaids push through the crowds with trays covered in drinks, a man plays boisterous music on the piano, and couples fill the dancefloor! The people here are filthy - clearly having come here after a day of work in the mines without taking time to bathe afterwards - but the mood is one of joy!
The band enquire why the tavern is so popular on this night, the barmade tell them that: The miners stumbled into a new vein in the mines today. It is loaded with glimmering gold and silver and is sure to make them all a pretty penny! When the mining industry profits, all of the miners profit as well, and so tonight is a night of major celebration. The supervisor of that crew, a woman by the name of Valeria, bought a round for every miner in the Adaven Mining Company and they have been drinking ever since!
The band mingle for a bit and settle down with some drinks. They are then approached. A dirty, sweaty half-orc man walks up to the band carrying a pint of ale that is half empty. He has olive-green skin, a bald head, dark brown eyes, and towers at six feet and seven inches tall! He is muscular and you note his hands are calloused. His tusks are quite prominent, nearly three inches in length, but the one on the right is broken about an inch from the tip and covered with a silver cap.
“You new in town? Looking for work? With the gold we just struck we are going to have plenty of new positions so my crew is hiring!”
he introduces himself as Eldra, one of the other supervisors in the mine. "Me and Valeria (who goes by Val) have a bit of a rivalry with our crews, a sort of friendly competition and helps to motivate the workers as they will often make bets that involve leaving the mines early, free drinks at the tavern, or simply bragging rights."
He will offers the band a rate of 5 silver pieces per day of work - more than fair pay for mining.
Eldra is a loud, boisterous man who loves to play pranks on his employees but expects to have this behavior repaid in kind! He is fun-loving and leads by example rather than by punishment and harsh words. He seems to brighten whatever room he walks into with his optimistic attitude, but when things turn dangerous he will grab his greatsword and be at the frontlines in a moment’s notice. This is quite jarring for most for Eldra is such a large and intimidating figure that his cheerful personality creates quite the juxtaposition.
Val makes her way over. She knows strong, capable miners when she sees them and is not about to let Eldra win out. She offers them 6 silver a day to come work for her and promises drinks on her after a hard day of work. Her wife is the bartender so she gets first dibs!
Val is a half-elf with pixie-cut black hair, emerald green eyes, and a tall, slender build. For a miner, she seems to do well keeping up her appearances, clearly more of a facilitator of work than one to get in there with a pickaxe herself. In contrast to her clean appearance, Val’s attitude is grimy and tough. She is quick-witted and spouts off insults and expletives in rapid succession when she speaks.
Ronah is a plump, short human woman with light blue eyes and long blond hair that is normally in pigtails. Her attitude, much like that of Val, is crude and fits the demeanor of the town’s occupants quite nicely. Ronah has only one arm, which makes her bartending all the more impressive. She lost the arm in a mining accident many years ago, which is what prompted Val to take on a leadership role that values the safety of miners above all else.
She is compassionate and the miners love her, knowing she would be down there alongside them if given the chance again.
As the night goes on, people filter out of the tavern and head home but a few remain passed out at the tables. This seems to be normal in this tavern as the barmaids bring out pillows and put them under the heads of these sleeping patrons.
The band get a room on the second floor. There are six rooms in total, all of which open up to a walkway over the tavern area below. The rate is 1 silver per evening.
Startled Awake
The band are awoken from their sleep by an ear-piercing scream of agony from a man somewhere nearby. They can feel the room itself tremble a bit, almost as if there were an earthquake happening. The man continues to wail in pain, begging for someone to help him, but it is sharply cut off. You can hear some of the remaining patrons in the tavern below crying out in alarm.Fight or Flight
On the Rooftops
"These seem to be Rock Worms.
Rock worms are vicious predators that burrow through dirt and stone using a combination of innate magics and a diamond-shaped head that breaks through most materials with ease.
The species that is attacking this town is of a variety that goes through long cycles of feasting and slumber. These monstrous worms will gorge themselves on whatever food they can find, eating nonstop for weeks at a time before finally burrowing back into the mountains and slumbering.
During this time of rest - which can extend for centuries - the rock worms grow larger.
Looks like the rock worms in the mountains near Adaven were awoken prematurely as the miners broke into the new vein of gold and silver. Now that they are awake, they look to feast and slumber once again.
The rock worms have no eyes but can sense even the slightest disturbance in the ground at great distances. They use this tremorsense to hunt creatures, opening rifts in the earth and grabbing their prey with a powerful clawed tongue and dragging them down into their tunnels before consuming them.
Though, when they are particularly hungry they have been known to simply devour creatures whole, which is what happened to poor Roger.
Rock worms are not intelligent, but they are effective hunters. They will remain dormant for extended periods to trick their prey into assuming it is safe to touch the ground once again.
They keep most of their bodies buried in the ground even when attacking to ensure that minimal damage can be done to them - if something can even pierce their all but indestructible stone carapace.
The only time they fully emerge from the ground are in times of desperation or rage, when the worm feels its life is threatened and it must destroy the target if it hopes to survive.
Most creatures would flee when hurt, but the rock worms are far too savage for such behavior.
Once the rock worms have feasted, they begin to grow new spawn deep inside their massive bodies. Once they have eaten enough to give life to these small rock worms, the parent will spit the spawn out near potential prey and let them feast and grow.
Only those strong enough to devour prey survive to enter the great slumber and grow larger! Some of these spawns have the ability to fly when first born and others have powerful legs that allow them to leap to great heights.
Once a worm enters its first period of rest and growth, these adaptations fade as the worm grows too large to make use of them anymore"
- Eldra didn’t see eyes.
- Are these things blind?
- They have a tremorsense of 60 feet, but are blind to anything beyond that.
- How many of them are there?
- Exactly how fast are these things?
- Up to 60 feet per round above ground and while burrowing.
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