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A group of ragtag adventurers from various walks of life recently assisted the village of Opal Town in fending off a goblin raiding party searching for a mysterious onyx figure depicting Khurgorbaeyag, the goblin deity of oppression and slavery. Although the village suffered significant losses and damage, the local leaders decided to move forward with their annual apple festival, which the party happily attended as saviors of the town. There were pie eating contests, an arm wrestling tournament, darts, and even an impromptu drinking contest.

As the evening wound down, they visited Old Lady Penelope, the local florist, to have their fortunes read. She seemed to recognize Shadyboi, in spite of his illusory appearance, and asked to meet with him later that evening to discuss information she believed he might want.

After the festival, while everyone else returned to their rooms, Brottor went to the local temple of Pelor where he spoke to Odishal, a gnomish priest who has been, in his mind, exiled to this far outpost due to his previous association with Brottor. Odishal was tight-lipped at first, but Brottor became aggressive from frustration and eventually broke him by pinning Odishal against the wall with his shield. Odishal did call out for the town watch, but Brottor was still able to convince him to give him the letters he received from Yalicia, a former associate of theirs, and Brottor was able to slip back into the night, evading the guards.

Back at his room, he began poring through the letters, which at first glance were unremarkable. Upon closer inspection, however, Brottor found a single word hidden in the paper: Cresthaven, which Brottor recognized as the name of a pub in Biel, the capital of Iounin.

Meanwhile that same evening, Shadyboi went to speak with Old Lady Penelope, who mentioned she rented out the room above her shop to a young woman who’d come through town a couple of months ago. She was secretive and quiet, and kept mostly to herself, and she disappeared in the middle of the night. She left her gear behind, and only interacted with Penelope one other time after renting her room to purchase some monkshood.

After returning from Penelope’s, Shadyboi consulted Shelby on the nature of monkshood and learned it’s also called wolfsbane, which is a fair poison and known to be particularly effective against werewolves.

Preparing for bed, Shump once again felt the figure of Khurgorbaeyag call to him. This time unable to resist the temptation, he attempted to use the figure to the best of his understanding. He was mostly unsuccessful, with the figure seemingly lashing out at him and attacking him mentally. With the pain also came a vision of something running through the forest, but the vision was too fast to say what or where.

The next morning, he consulted Shelby about the figure, and she suggested they travel to Biel to have a wizard attempt to Identify the magical item…

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This ended up being a fantastic game. From top to bottom, it was pretty much gold. I’m glad that we waited for Oscar to join this week before jumping into the Apple Festival, because it ended up being a ton of fun.

Pretty much my mindset for designing this game was “a series of mini-games, a la Mario Party.” So they started with a pie eating contest, which was a series of Constitution saving throws, the DC of which grew with each round. Then there was another arm-wrestling tournament where Shump could get the chance to re-match with Uther. The dart contest, I actually grabbed a dart board online and assigned DCs for each ring for the players to hit, with the standard point values. I had a few other activities that people didn’t end up playing, including an archery contest and some gambling games.

Justin and Oscar really shined in this session. Everyone did great, but Justin and Oscar’s roleplaying in their storyline specific stuff was great. I totally didn’t expect Oscar to get so into his interrogation, but he did great and seems really hooked by the adventure. Justin, too, seems really hooked. I saw that he had “Wolfsbane–why???” written in his notes, so I’m glad to see them so engaged.

My brother doesn’t seem as engaged. He seems to have fun with the activities and the combat, but he hasn’t been super interested in roleplaying or exploring much of the game beyond combat. However, he’s still coming every week. I don’t want him to feel obligated to come–our bargain is long past. But if he’s having fun, I’m glad.

Next week, they’ll finally set out on their adventure proper. It took longer than I expected, but I’m really stoked for where things will go next.

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