The Favorites of Selune - Skin Deep - Session 1

I'd like to start this post with a special thanks to Stubborn from Sheep the Diamond, without whose creative input this new adventure would not have been possible.

In the previous session we finished Madness at Gardmore Abbey. The Favorites of Selune had spent 18 sessions collecting the cards of the Deck of Many Things. And then the wizard decided to cut short the discussion about what to do with that deck by drawing a card from it, and promptly drew one of the two really bad cards in the deck, imprisoning his soul on a faraway plane and forcing the player to roll a new character. That event also gave the others the quest to go looking for the wizard's soul, which was a good starting point for this next adventure.

The temple of Selune in Fallcrest was able to determine by divination magic that the wizard's soul was somewhere on the plane of Feywild, a parallel dimension full of life, and origin of elves and faeries. For more detailed information the temple recommended to rather talk to somebody more attuned to nature, a druidess living nearby. The players had already met that druidess in the Harkenwold adventure and were on good terms. The druidess was able to localize the wizard's soul in Feywild and knew how to get there. Even better, her apprentice had been with her at that place, and would accompany the group to show them the way. (The druid apprentice being the new character of the player of the wizard)

The place in the Feywild where the Favorites of Selune had to go can be reached through a portal in the town of Moonstairs. Moonstairs is in the middle of the troll marshes, and is best reached by boat from the nearby town of Plumton. And Plumton is only a week's travel on foot away. So the group set off on that voyage, with the new druid group member casting a Create Campsite ritual in the evenings to make the travel more comfortable. On the way, between Fallcrest and Winterhaven, the group was ambushed by five kobolds. At the same location where they had been ambushed by five kobolds when they first took that road at level 1. By the same level 1 kobolds. :) The group now being level 9 dispatched those kobolds very quickly, a short warm-up fight to remind the players how far they had come since.

As the group approached Plumton, they met a merchant on a cart, who wanted to know whether the road to Winterhaven was safe. They were able to get some information about Plumton in return: Plumton is the capital of the Duchy of Faywyr, ruled by Duke Ruwan. The merchant was making good money by importing salt to Plumton, with the town being far from salt mines or the sea, and by exporting dried fruit, the Duchy's main product. While normally a sleepy place, currently the inhabitants are worried about a not further specified "Underdark menace", and security is tight.

Arriving at Plumton the Favorites of Selune found the gate closed, with an armed guarded sweating in the summer heat standing before it. The guard demanded them to leave their weapons at the gate, but with the help of some gold the group was able to persuade him that this wasn't practical, seeing how they planned to leave by boat and not go back out by this gate. Entering Plumton the heroes find a typical medieval city with mostly two-storey houses and narrow streets. Plumton is on a river and has a small inland harbor, but the river only connects it to two towns up and down the river, with rapids preventing connection to the sea. It being already evening the group then headed to the nearest inn, the Mad Cow.

In the inn the first thing they see is a very tall dwarf behind the bar (who then turns out to be walking on a walkway behind the bar to appear taller). This is the innkeeper, Falgrim, who calls out for the tavern wench Belina to serve the group. There are also some other customers, and a boy shining shoes. The group gets a common room and food, and Belina starts to flirt with the two human males in the group, the druid and the cleric. It turns out that she is a lady of negotiable virtue, and the cleric actually takes her up on her offer to go upstairs to a room for an hour for 10 gold. Afterwards he learns that she is an orphan, and that she supports her brother Irv, the shoeshine boy, by working both in the tavern and for the "seamstresses' guild". During the evening the group also learns more about the "Underdark menace": A month ago an earthquake caused a crack to appear in the mountains south of Plumton. Hunters exploring found that the crack led to a network of caves and tunnels, obviously the Underdark. They even spotted a dark-skinned gnome. Since then there has been an increasing panic about a possible invasion from dark-skinned creatures from below.

The group retires to their room, and nothing happens to them during the night, in spite of the windows being left open due to the oppressive summer heat. They go down to get breakfast, where the innkeeper is already behind the bar, but his shouts for Belina get no response. Finally Falgrim goes to fetch breakfast for the adventurers himself, but find the body of Belina in the cellar. The adventurers and Irv go down the ladder to the cellar, where Belina lies dead, her skin turned unnaturally grey, next to a big molehill in the earthen floor. Her body shows no visible wounds or cause of death. Falgrim sends Irv to fetch the guard, and the group's sorceress insists on accompanying him. The guard arrives, led by a young guard commander and a veteran sergeant called Zef. The young commander goes rather pale on seeing the body, and leaves the investigation to the sergeant. The sergeant finds Belina's guild insignia, a thimble, nodding knowingly. Her earnings from last night are also still there, so it wasn't a robbery. But Zef has no idea either how Belina died, is puzzled by the molehill, and asks the group some questions suggesting that he suspects them, them being strangers in town. He asks the group to come to give a formal statement at the palace in the afternoon, and takes off with the body.

Irv, who has been rather quiet in the presence of the group and refused to give the sorceress any information about special clients of his sister, also says that he must go. That raises the suspicions of the rogue, who secretly follows the boy and sees him going to the seamstresses' guild headquarters, a brothel in the shady part of town behind the palace. The rogue talks to the boy, and Irv reveals that he thinks his sister was killed by dark magic, and he suspects the sorceress. The other group members meanwhile search the cellar, where they find that the molehill is leading nowhere, it is just a hole dug a meter deep into the ground and made to look as if something had come up there. They also find a secret door and a tunnel to outside the city, which turns out to be the way that Falgrim gets his dwarven ale into the city without paying toll. But they can't make out how Belina died, or what exactly happened.

At this point the group reunites and considers their options. As usual somebody proposes to use the tunnel to run away, which isn't a good option because it basically means skipping the adventure that the DM prepared. There is some disagreement whether the visit to the guard headquarters in the afternoon is just a formality, or whether the group risks ending up in prison just because the guard can't find any other culprit. The sorceress wants to question Irv more about his sister's clients, but the boy is nowhere to be found. Finally the group decides to talk to the seamstresses' guild. But going there they are ambushed in a back alley by a scarred woman with an eye-patch with some ruffians. The women says that she is the muscle of the seamstresses' guild, and she wants the group to hand over their weapons and come with her to Madam Emerine, the guild mistress. Somewhat to my surprise the Favorites of Selune agree and hand over their weapons. Having thus avoided one optional combat encounter, we ended the session here.