Beneath The Cypress Tree Session 2
The party explore Piki's house, starting by meeting her mum in the kitchen/loungeroom. She speaks worm but isn't in the mood to do so long, as she's quite tired after such a long day (they all are for Annierack Spindling Rolleo but nobody judges her for it). The couch covers the walls and is reflected on the ceiling as Mrs Annie is a spider. They go upstairs and discover Piki's floral door (where they can hear her inside), a plain door adjacent to it and a large concave section at the end of the hall. Deino uses his jaws to yank open the trapdoor above so they can explore (and steal from *sigh*) the attic. They both get a random trinket and notice the room looks pretty abandoned, especially the loft bed which is covered in dust, with empty storage containers.
In Piki's fathers (currently empty) room, which is adjacent to hers, they discover a cramped bedroll under his desk which is covered with ink and writings. Many shelves hold a mix of fishing gear and quills (Deino is especially intrigued by the fishing gear because when talking to Piki at the hospital; she said her younger brother and dad sell fish, and her elder brother loves archeology. The last part made him nervous because Deino has been pretending to be an Earth elemental so he isn't prosecuted). Deino takes a lure with a squid on it and a pen, while Mr Tongue takes 10 pages and half a jar of ink, then they scadaddle.
The last room has a large padlock and is owned by Piki's elder brother. They're let in and marvel at his laboratory. The spider uses his 8 limbs to carefully examine the chemicals he's mixing, not wanting to cause yet another explosion (or his family say he'll have to find his own place, like his older sister). Palleo wears glasses like his mother (and father, but he rarely uses them anymore), and is quite intelligent, getting the bad eyesite gene from his father and smarts from the both of them.
Worm Tongue asks him many questions, and despite Palleo being the leading scientist in this field (as far as he's aware - he even has a home-made telescope hidden under a tarp), with the most elements he's ever seen on a periodic table discovered (magnesium, sodium and ), when Mr Tongue tells him (20 deception) he mixed the substances wrong, Palleo hands them over allowing Mr Tongue to steal 10mg of Magnesium in a performance that looks helpful.
Deino wants to meet the dad (and Piki's younger brother Mikeypike), so they decide to check the family's private dock in the kitchen. They discover the pair there with Mikey trying to practice swimming and Andesite fishing normally. Deino gets a nat20 to teach the kid to swim, giving him the skills to use his 8 arms and pillbug shape to perfectly recreate crocodile swimming. Like most the family, the dad is suspicious of Deinosuchus's water related origins and subtly questions him about it. During the hour Deino manages to catch 10 fish, totalling to 18 for the group.
Meanwhile, Worm Tongue uses his down time to explore the local area. He asks around about dungeons and is met with confusion or suspicion, but is eventually told to talk to a miner at the ravine. A worker travelling down informs him that most of the dungeons and lower layers of the mine are blocked off or just avoided. Years ago it's said greedy people ruined the town by digging it out for gold, some even add that the brought a dragon or other beast todo the job for them. The man adds that there's no need for gold here anymore and nobody wants those sinners returning so he should forget the idea and just try settle into life here.
The duo eventually leave and go downstairs to the basement to sleep. There's an arrangement of bedrolls, and wooden parts which can be used to make storage or proper beds. When they awake in the morning Ms Annie gives them porridge and informs the party that while they were left to sleep in, her family went out to the towns dock.
Mr Tongue takes the opportunity to try unlock and steal from Palleo's room, he fails, and because Kingsley complained about how the roll was pointless (any other door I'd understand, and I do agree due to my nerves despite most my numbers being improvised, I was slightly over doing the dice rolls to stall for planning/notetaking time this session. But, Palleo owns some of the most expensive equipment in the world, of course he has a decent lock lol), Ms Annie heard the clanking and came upstairs to investigate.
Deino managed to hide but Mr Tongue with his +7 stealth, got a nat1 and was caught. They discussed the situation with Annie asserting that if the party were to stay in her house, he had to give her his thieves tools. Worm Tongue could borrow them when outside if he explained to her the reason he wanted them, but if she heard he bought another set or tried to take advantage of her families kindness again they'd be out.
She would tell her family and the town council, the duo wouldn't have a home here anymore and she'd have at least something off her plate. After all their role as the traveller guardians doesn't extend to criminals. She also explained the uselessness of gold in their town, stating most goods are given for free or traded at the markets. "There's no reason to steal when the only reason to work is to help others." She then prompts Worm Tongue to explore the town and learn this, "Greed is the sin."
Worm Tongue was forced to agree and when Deino 'arrives at the scene', Ms Annie reminds him he has a place and power here, with or without his deceptive friend. The duo decide to visit the local market todo some shopping. In the labyrinthine, half submerged streets they found a set of small stands, where locals assemble to sell junk and goods daily. By asking around the party learns the town has a couple of specific stores scattered around town, but most shopping is done here.
While shopping for lights the duo end up at the gullible Flicker Bulb's stand, a firefly who they've overheard people mocking for being unintelligent. At the beginning she simply mimics what the party says until they realise she speaks though light flashes. Then Mr Tongue who understands the struggle of not speaking common (his primary language being worm has led him to be reliant on the translations of those who do speak it. Luckily there's more of those in this bug Earthen town, but Deino isn't one of them. Cough cough Nick Andros and Tom Cullen parallels because Deino can't read.) uses his knowledge of thieves cant (which I made function like morse here) to convince her to give him lots of different lights for very little. She also encourages him to join the community, stating he's a nice fellow and she hopes he'll settle down so they can be friends.
In the market they also encounter the travelling dog Merry Christmas Brandy-Buck Moss who Deino encourages to join the party since he's been looking for one. After checking what a few other stands in the market have to offer, the party decides to walk to the Blacksmiths which is in another part of town.
The party enters the shop yammering about trying to figure out what they may need. Igor Iron-clad tells them if they're going to be lollygagging around his shop they can just get out and save his time. Deino buys a grappling hook, some spears, and a custom trident, which would be impossible to get in these parts but Igor says for the right price he'll have it finished in a week. Worm Tongue spends over a hundred gold pieces in this shop, and Igor hollars for his apprentice Horace Hornhead to collect the items. Once Mr Tongue realised the beetle will accept gemstones, to make new products, he wanted to get as many objects to trade (even though villagers would be more likely to buy them from the shop) or use as possible.
This includes an order for 2,000 ball bearings, which he's told will be ready in a day. Worm Tongue also inquires about the price of a Heavy Core (my players are obsessed with making the minecraft mace *facepalm*) which Igor states he'd make for 1150gp. Deino also gets some of the items Mr Tongue grabs, and is charged an extra gold piece by Igor because he "doesn't like crocs, one of those wretched water elementals took his leg." Which shocks Deino as he's 'totally an Earthen... crocs are amphibians haha...' When Mr Tongue buys a pair of locks, Igor insults "that Rolleo boy" who always buys large, intricate customs, and Mr Tongue joins in which causes Igor to raise a judgemental eye. As the family are valuable customers and he doesn't see why their purchases are other customers business.
While Worm Tongue is shopping like a "respectable customer", Deino starts monologing about how the party got here (his favourite activity), so Horice is instructed to kick him out. Igor refuses to sell Worm Tongue any of the ironing tools in case he tries to replace the beetle in business using his newly bought materials. In the end, Mr Tongue is 8gp short and tries to scam the blacksmith with gambling games to escape his debt. Igor states he can either sort out the situation right now or leave with nothing, including his gold. As he'd already given 70% to Horice to start using, and Deino notices him sneak the other 30% under a trapdoor on the floor. Worm Tongue keeps trying to scam the beetle which decreases his trust in the worm, before Mr Tongue eventually gives him a short sword to make up for the missing gold. When Deino tells Mr Tongue about the hidden gold, the duo decide to hide a pole in the dock which will stick out underwater so they can investigate underneath the blacksmiths later.
The party then heads towards the Lake and immediately notice it's churning with tourists on little row boats and the wharf, but not many locals. They spot the Rolleos out fishing though, and Piki talking to some tourists. The duo ask her why there aren't many bugs around and she states it's because most residents are scared of the water. As, "they're raised from a young age to fear the creatures that lurk in the depths - and for good reason. It's said that if a child goes too far out into the water they won't be able to swim and their feet will be snatched by water elementals, who'll eat them alive. The creatures here are dangerous, so everyone tends to agree it's not worth the sites (everyone but my father anyway)." Mr Tongue sets up a tourist trap using his weighted dice (which Merry licks), but only gets a dead chicken, a wood plank, and a creepy, haunted looking, children's doll (which he stabs).
The party decides to rent a small boat (for free) to meet up with the Rolleos. But, Merry is terrified of the water and decides to wait for them on the dock. As they row Deino notices pale forms under the water, they look almost like limbs. But not any limbs he's ever seen. They're pretty deep down but he can tell something's there, and that it's not a rock, but not an animal either. The duo pauses rowing floating anxiously. It's only when Mikeypike shouts out "AHOY THERE!" and invites the duo over that they continue the journey. The form is too large to create a complete image of at any certain time. All one can tell is that it looks off, skinned. Wrong. When the duo arrives at the boat Andesite comments on his daughters absence, "that girls showed tourists around all her life and yet still refuses to get close to the Mountain's Child."
The party inquires about who that is and he explains "the Mountain's Child has been in Laketown forever. Some say it wakes up when needed before returning to sleep, others that it's simply a fetus, growing inside the town like a womb until it's ready to emerge as a prophet or god." Andy argues it's all a load of cobblewash, and that "nobody knows what the Mountain's Child is, not even the creature itself." Regardless he states, "people come from all over the realm try and find out. Personally, I choose to believe it's a thing of the past that will continue to rest here long into the future. Forever or not." Deino and Worm Tongue decide to dive into the depths and attempt to touch the giant. I warn them they'd die in the process, but they choose to risk it with death saves and Deino's 4 hours of waterbreathing (which wasn't enough). Starling succeeds his roll with a nat20 and on Kingsley's last roll which could've gone either way, I snatched the dice.
