c02s01e02 - Heroes of the Day ----Day 7 the next day after a night of drinking and celebration, the 2 humans awake on the road with their warforged companion looking over them .. they wre at a blacksmith's shop who had been the victim of a submerged attack the day before... this is where the children's book came from. THX hands the book to the kid poking them with a stick... nearby villagers hve come over the help repair the barn that was damaged in the attack. The creature was decidedly moving westward. Takijng off horseback at a gallop, the ranchers were making decent use of the signalling system Nero suggested... showing that the creature had struck westward-- One of the Cragwar ships was checking in on ranches as well-- so they flagged it down to get ahead of their prey. zeke and his eastern neighbor got hit on the edge of their properties this time and the team was a day behind. Checking on the site of the attack, the tunnels were in far better condition than others had been-- taking a closer look, the purple was missing but they found 3 foot scuttle crabs in the tunnels; their shells packing the earth as they chikitied along the space. Team immediately lays into them; fire burning, spear stabbing, hammer smashing.. they go down pretty easily, and THX takes a bite to no satisfaction (the warforged has no sense of taste but is obsessed with eating...)the ship crew though-- they want that crab bad. There's crab fishing in the southern sea near Passage, and it's a delicacy to have. Here are 60 pound crabs freshly baked... mmmmm hard to resist. The team trades some cooked crab after unusually large amounts of haggling, getting a ride to Jeb's ranch to get ahead of the burrowing creature. The team figures either these are infant critters and they are chasing the full sized adult, or some other large creature that these scuttlers had a scavenging relationship with... either way, its heading west. After dropping off the team, the cragwar ship heads home to update Jasper on what's going on, and to have the crab examined. Jeb is happy to have the company... the team convinces him to lead the herd southward in roughly harm's way... Jeb is very skeptical, and ultimately feels betrayed when they successfully cajole him into getting his herd attacked-- losing 2 yaks in the middle of the pack-- a massive 20 foot long 4 foot diameter worm with rows and rows of grinding teeth that begins processing the yaks on impact, dragging one under along with the leg of another while the herd panics and scatters-- jeb cussing the team while trying to keep his livestock in check while the team dive into the freshly churned ground-- Frank grabs hold of the work while Nero sets loose swarms of magic missles, forcing the critter to tear off its tail or become prey itsel! THX and Frank dive down the fresh tunnel descending into the ground-- grabbing the bloodied stump and dragging the beast out while more magic missles pepper the monster. Eventually wtih enough beatings, it stops moving. Legit dead. while trying to hoist the thing out of the ground, scuttle crabs arrive-- ignoring the team, focused on the blood, purple goop leaking formt he worm's face and cow bits strewn about the shallow tunnel. Team barbecues them pretty easy... they weren't hostile at all, but still.. they gotta go. Jeb laments the loss of his yaks, but is thaknkful the team managed to murder everything. The team has a meal with jeb's family, and get the household up to speed on the signal system. ----Day 8 The next day the party takes the crabs and worm on a wagon back to cragwar to report and exaine the critters. Once someone catches sight of the dead beasts, everyone is real interested in what the team has to say... minor paranoia erupts from the crowd, that monsters could be coming for all of them from beneath the ground.. and the slow, heavy people are at greatest risk. Jasper meets the team with congratulations and offers a favor to the team which they use to stock up on supplies. Jasper also invites the team to dinner, where he shares that rangers have been missing in the woods for the past few days, that he's having Raskal (the team's boss) look into it... at times it feels odd that Jasper opens up about his concerns for the safety of the community, that ther's more going on than he's sure his soldiers can handle without casualty... he stops himself a few times during convesation like he suddenly realized he was talking his mind without filter and eventually excused himself. The request for the potion will be fulfilled by Abbot Bobbi tomorrow.. the team is invited to visit the Flame Temple at the inner fortress. THX takes the evening as an opportunity to turn spoiled food into free meals for the outer community's poorer residents; speaking of the AllSpark to those that will listen. ----day 9 Morning comes round and Brother Bobbi greets the team at the Inner courtyard gates, inviting them to join him in the temple's alchemy chambers beneath the massive fortress. While the public areas of the Silver Flame are laiden with silver inlet motifs of good triumphing over evil, the lower levels are far more utilitarian, and the holy symbols of the Silver Flame are more like markers and reference points under ground than decoration. Two levels down, the Alchemy lab is large; 20 foot ceilings, various tables with gear that THX mostly recognizes.. plus the worm and crab corpses are present and ready for examining. The purple goop... the team already knows it's highly acidic, but the crabs seem to eat it and excrete a almost custardy material that they store under their shells... it's a sweet aroma but no one offers to taste any of it. They're both definitely athasian, and their relationship does seem to be symbiotic.. their anatomies are completely different. At this point, Abbot Bobbi wheels a large crystal mounted on a telescoping arm that hums quietly and emits a light when activated-- Bobbi talks to the machine which surprisingly responds in a quiet, tinny accent while they discuss the specimens. The team edges closer to take a look at the crystal-- THX invokes the AllSpark to look into the crystal covertly and finds an... intelligence.. inside the crystal. A three-pupiled eye staring back at the priest, startling the warforged. Meanwhile nero and Frank are sassing the abbot about the healing potion-- chiding that if this was a real temple, there'd be more healing avaiable, and that they should even be able to raise the dead if the Silver Flame was really present. The crystal suddenly goes dark and Abbot Bobbi starts making odd suggestions that the creatures could be resurected... but they would have to get a book of rituals from Cardinal Ir'Maladar's personal study higher in the temple. Frank and Nero immediately call out that this is some covert stuff he's suggesting, but the Abbot carries on, talking about the cardinal's daily activites, when he would be away and the private quarters area would be quiet. They could sneak in and get the book.. and suddenly bobbi snaps out of what he was talking about, claiming he has NO idea he was encouraging the team to steal sacred texts. Frank monster hunting instincts are firing and he chirps suspiciously at the Abbot, insisting the Cardinal be advised. Offended-- bobbi agrees and calls guards to summon the Cardinal directly. After 15 minutes of intense, accusing staredowns, the cardinal arrives with temple guards to get to the bottom of the confrontation. the team suspects the crystal is manipulating the Abbot's mind-- which the Cardinal dismisses. The crystal was a gift from Nibernay to the Temple as a means of communicating unusual activiy.. these creatures certainly qualify, and that the the other end of the communicatin can be trusted. The Cardinal does, however, take the circumstance seriously, and after a short ritual, spots an imp on the Abbot's shoulder, that it is tethered to Nero's soul. A quick banishing sigil exorcises the creature from the Abbot, and the Cardinal warns Nero that he had become infested at some point in the recent past-- something very dark must have come into his life to leave a Passenger like that.. but the Cardinal seems content that the creature is vanquished and all is restored as it should be.. Nero doesn't volunteer that he's the unwanting benefactor of a blood pact, and that the imp is likely to return-- the silver Flame is known for killing people in that particular circumstance to remove further threat from Thrane. The Cardinal turns attention to the warforged, praising him for spreading the word of the Silver Flame's more charitable role by helping the villagers-- THX's argument that the AllSpark is not the Silver Flame seems to be glossed over by the Cardinal, who invites the warforged to attend mass to hear this week's sermon in two days. The team finishes up collecting their gear from around town, a suit of scalemail for Nero 10 mile search binoculars for the team healing potion for the team dozen signal flairs for the team Raskal is due to be back in port for the evening.. the team heads to the Inn of the Moored Siren for their next assignment.... 3 days spent in game. 1/2 to level 3 successful assignment: eliminating the threat plaguing the local yak ranchers. 1 favor earned from Jasper / Cragwar guards 1 favor spent from jasper / cragwar guards for equipment... a suit of scalemail for Nero 10 mile search binoculars for the team healing potion for the team dozen signal flairs for the team also: 5 doses of purple acid 5 loafs of crab custard 5 scuttle crab corpses 1 razor worm corpse