Dane's Birthday Jubilee Homepage
the scorched forest
The party was walking through the woods when they were attacked by an awakened tree speaking Celestial. After defeating it, they arrived in the small hunting village of Pine Grove and immediately went to the inn. The barkeeper told them about strange happenings in the woods and they met Dawn, a mysterious tab Tabaxi rogue.Dawn asks the party for help detaining Bishop Ress while she attempts to capture this creature out to the east. She receives a call from Cai on the way. Outside the clearing, Ress tries to get the party to free him and then just teleports inside the clearing. The party follows, watches him get smoked by the deer god, and then after Bigtoe casts a protection spell the creature attacks and they do battle for a little bit. Dawn reappears and casts gem containment and then suggests that the party come back to the guild with her.
swadlin interlude i
The party enters Swadlin late at night in Dawn's carriage. They get a room at the guild and meet Guildmaster Cai, a blind tiefling, the following morning. He has a clear disdain for the Radiant Parish and expresses confidence that the creatures are a manifestation of Aubade's power. He pays the party 400g each and promises more if they decide to join the Cloud Guild in earnest to help them with their angel problem. The party agrees, gets items from the fantasy gachapond, and then enters Fantasy Stop & Shop. Guild member dwarven woman Okerra Shatterspine recognizes Bigtoe because she had been to his B&B.Party does some shopping and visits the First Church of the Radiance, where they meet Bishop Banana and see Bishop Ress. Furn tries to talk to Ress and blows her cover, telling him that there is a possible celestial in Moondew. Bigtoe inquires about Archbishop Wick, and Dane breaks into Ress's office and steals a golden engraved pocket knife. They return to the guild to explain what happened to Cai, who is a little pissed. He teaches Furn how to cast gem containment and muses on how he has been in disguise most of his life, and the two share a somewhat tender moment.
the bottomless lake
The party goes to Moondew, speaks with Consider Waite, and learns about the Bottomless Lake. On his boat they are attacked by Dewey, a normally docile and rarely seen lake monster, who has been injured by the golden algae. Dane speaks with Dewey and learns that the algae is coming from below. Furn's secret gets out and there is some party infighting. After walking into a zone of truth, Consider admits the truth about his wife, Lucinda, who disappeared and built a staircase in order to get to the bottom of the lake.The party overhears conversation between Concordia and an unidentified priest at the Kingfisher Inn, where they are staying. Bigtoe flirts with innkeeper Sylvester. They try and fail to get into the locked mausoleum, and then walk by the church gang on their way to church. They find the year Gloria Wick underwent her transformation - 464. In the church, they also meet Cardinal Dirge, who speaks regretfully of a falling out she had with Lucinda concerning the details of Wick's transformation. They suspect that Torian is the archbishop.
Consider tells Furn that people from the parish had come to ask the same questions the party asked. Back at the inn, they overhear Concordia and Torian talking about going to the mausoleum at midnight. After sabotaging the parish group, the party climbs down the staircase and fights two water weirds that came out of a side porthole. They realize they are being followed and pick up the pace until they are blocked by a rockslide. The parish squad tries to talk to them while they dig through the rocks, Furn just pretends to be a dragon and speaks to the parish group while Torian mistranslates everything, and Ress confirms that this is definitely the people from Pine Grove. Torian finally introduces himself.
After a tense confrontation in the stairwell that results in Torian ordering Ress to fight the party, Ress decides that he's had enough and leaves. The party makes it to the bottom of the lake and fights the flare, a giant snapping turtle. torian was unable to use cleric spells in the presence of the flare and clearly was not expecting it. They have now made enemies with Torian, who deals the killing blow on the flare. They escape with their lives to due to Dewey's help, but are unable to find Lucinda. Torian says that Ress alerted him to the presence of a flare in Moondew. Dane returns Ress's engraved pocket knife, and Ress fully deserts the parish. Torian was unable to use cleric spells in the presence of the flare and clearly was not expecting it. When the turtle was killed, the algae disappeared and so did all of the magic that Lucinda had cast. Torian asked them what they did to the first one, and they said they wanted to keep it from hurting anyone else, so he now has an idea that they are capturing them.
The party wraps up loose ends in Moondew. They have a heated moment with Torian as he tries to escape the staircase and discover more about Lucinda's situation with the help of her husband Consider and Cardinal Dirge. Torian is thoroughly intimidated by Furn. The party reports to Cai over the phone, telling him that Torian probably drowned. He reacts with confusion and surprise and tells them to get back ASAP.
swadlin interlude ii
Furn goes on an insane date with Brooks and threatens him. As a result, Brooks is scared of Furn, and promises to never reveal her identity. Bigtoe fails to get laid. The party returns to the Guild and catches up with Cai. They hear about a job regarding VAMPIRES. Cai says Ress might know more about the celestial in Pine Grove.
The gang does some shopping, gets their tarot cards read by Nano, an old purple tiefling woman, and talks to Ress about what happened in Pine Grove for a long time. The party said they would protect Ress, and he said he would call them if he's ever in danger. The party people encounter the celestial deer again in Cai's pocket dimension and witness Aubade possess it to scold Cai, causing him to have a mental breakdown. They question him after and find out he has met Aubade before, and she caused his blindness.
The members of the party spend some quality time together alongside Dawn and Cai as they journey into the Purity Fields to search for DJ Barrius McFinger. Lots of conversation about feelings and backstories goes down around the campfire. The gang finds Barrius McFinger and hangs out with him for a while. When they return to Swadlin, the town is in a state of celebration... or at least the parish is. Cai requests that they go see what’s happening at the Parish as subtly as possible, and they witness a ceremony devoted to a longstanding member of the Parish who has "ascended" (Firekeeper Morris, a dwarf who has now grown wings). Cardinal Dirge is there. The party debriefs at the guild, and then they check in on Ress, who is still alive.
the verdant desert
After a week since the ascendance ceremony, Cai gets a call from a dragonborn scout named Yarrow who is reporting a sudden influx of rain in the Lapis Desert to the west. While traveling through the Backbone Mountains to Maverick, the largest city within the Lapis Desert and the place where they will be meeting Yarrow, the gang is tricked into entering the den of a blue dragon named Verla. Verla has a young dragon that Furn is incredibly fond of. Verla corners the party and demands they surrender their weapons to her in return for safe passage to Maverick.Furn immediately surrenders her weapons and then decides to intimidate Verla to create an opportunity for escape. After dealing with Verla, the party people get to the desert town of Maverick, where a sudden onslaught of rain has been readily welcomed by many of the townspeople. They find a gray kitten in a box and check in at the Evening Star, Maverick’s inn. Furn wishes they could have saved Zav, the baby blue dragon, from his overbearing mother. Dane names the kitten “Leaflet Gideon”.
The party goes to scope out the Temple of Jora where they meet Leaf on the Water. The party somehow gets in Leaf's good graces and he confesses his anxiety about the flooding, they feel a small earthquake. They go to the abandoned parish and meet Cree. Dane loudly prays to Aubade and asks her if she is involved in what's happening to Maverick. The candles flare up dramatically, and they don’t SEE anything but feel a tremendous, terrifying, dark presence that simply responds in their heads: “Yes.”
The party meets up with Yarrow at the Evening Star and tells them about what they learned from Aubade. The next morning, they head to the temple, and Bigtoe manages to contact Jora herself, who tells him she's being "choked out" and is not responsible for the rain. They report this to Cai and then find Yarrow, Leaf, and Nahla in the basement by the quicksand pit. Nahla has a breakdown, refusing to accept that Jora wasn’t responsible. The party learns about the ruins a bit from Wisteria, then goes into the catacombs via the ruins staircase. They fight some stone lions and then meet up with Yarrow, who falls through the sand pit opening. The party then discovers a 10x10ft tunnel running parallel to the catacombs’ corridor. The party wanders around the catacombs, fights some shit and finds some treasure. They find a feather that looks to be of the Wick variety.
The party wanders around the catacombs a bit and finds a swag ass lion staff that hurts Dane to touch. They finally locate the flare, which is a giant centipede in an underground cavern, smothering a huge piece of meteorite. Yarrow noted that the feather looked like a mourning dove. They fight the centipede and capture it successfully! Still in catacombs, the party confronts Torian and refuses to hand over the gem. He gives them information, namely that the flares are transformed people and he (by his mother's orders) is killing them off to avoid bad press. In an unlikely moment of vulnerability, he reveals his face. He has void eyes exactly like Cai’s. The party also meets with Nahla and tells her that it was definitely Jora causing the rain 100%. She does not believe them but gives them rewards and doesn't push it.
swadlin interlude iii
party returns to swadlin and reports back to cai. they do not tell him about contacting aubade. they discuss things with cai and find that he agrees with torian that the flares are transformed people who defied aubade in some way. everyone questions aubades motives including me(dawn has begun to suspect cai's lies because of the "rosemary" in his book of aubade. she knows about rosemary wick, torians twin who supposedly died of illness around age 11, due to her extensive research of the churchs history. she has not confronted him and is waiting to collect more information (she doesnt want to believe it))
party goes to visit ress, who is doing okay. they get him to agree to help with researching the celestials with cai, promising he will be safe.
they go to pocket dimension with ress in toe. furn causes problems and ress almost gets killed, but agrees to help cai research anyway bc "rosenthal is a bastard but he doesnt deserve this"