Terra Povos: Durest's Funhouse

We consider what to do with the tarasque; opinions vary widely, but the general consensus is that we need to keep it in some kind of stasis for a while, and not give it to anybody else. We head back with Stonebeard and Beerbelly the innkeepers, and their kid Queely. 

We load everybody back into the carts and arrive to a tearful reunion. Baldy soaks it up; the rest of haven’t quite gotten over nearly being poisoned. Astrid, the courtesan, seeks to reward us with 20 GP – which Amergin refuses – or her body – which we all refuse. We’re on a timeline after all. 

Lithos takes Mister Pibbles, the tame carrion crawler, as a reward. We get everybody back on board and just follow the wall around until we can get back. We keep our prisoners tied up in the cabin. Whisper will guard their unconscious forms. Archibald will handle the wheel; Lithos goes up front with his new mount, and Amergin will be keeping an eye on the tarrasque, which we have chained to the mast. We’re about a day out from stoneshore. 

Brynja and Durnek wake up once, and then we start just blackjacking them every time they stir. Then we look up and realize that the Tarrasque has ripped the bag off its head. Archibald attempts to fascinate it, but fails; he can’t make another attempt for a full day. 

Amergin tries to grapple it, and gets bitten as he approaches. The struggle, and Amergin gets ahold of its snout; Baldy gets the waterskin back in place, and we wait for it to drown again. Meanwhile it’s thrashing around, and rips the skin off; we get it fairly well tied down and get another sack on it. Meanwhile, we have to feed Mister Pibbles; Amergin feeds it some of our rations. 

We manage to navigate our way back to port (the respectable one) and greet the customs office and one of the guards. “Good day! What is it you have here?” 

We explain that we need to talk to the Alderman, and manage to explain that he needs to take the prisoners and put them in a very deep, very well-guarded hole. He rewards us with 100 GP, and a letter from Senator Ragnus Goldbeard; it’s a personal invitation to his house in Silverkeep for dinner, a far more valuable reward. 

Amergin and Lithos stay behind to guard the terrasque. The others bring Pythia’s body. Tara and Marduk are deeply upset; Marduk thinks he’s going to have to sell the inn. Archibald manages to convince him that the Senator will cover it. Once Marduk has passed out, Tara comes out and wants to talk to us about a couple of stray visitors. 

The first was Dane; he said we… stole from him? Marduk scared him off. She’s worried because he looks… dane-gerous. The other visitor claimed to be some sort of investigator into smuggling; apparently the customs officer back in deepwatch was taking bribes. Maybe a spy for the Quaestor? Mom told him everything before she got suspicious and he left. 

Meanwhile Amergin and Lithos spend the night fending off suspicious onlookers and hiding the tarrasque behind a sheet. 

They explain to Mom that we need to use Stone Shape to make a hole for this thing. We look over the Gunwale and our buddy Max the goblin is selling tickets. 

Amergin drops Obscuring Mist on us. “Please go away.”

Max: “And by the way I’m really sorry to hear about Pythia.”

Amergin: “This man does not have access to the turtle. Please get your refunds from him.”

Archibald tries to entertain the crowd as he, James, and Whisper return with Mom & Dad, and our new Pinnace Master who’s going to be sailing the ship for us; his name is Pubert Edward Addams. We sail out for an hour or so until we can find a proper ledge; Mom shapes a hole in the stone, and we take the thing off the mast and then put the whole thing – bag and chains and all – and then seal it over with a layer of stone. 

We circle and return to town from another direction to drop Mom and Dad off, then set off for Durest’s Puzzle Dungeon. We arrive at a stone landing with a small ledge; carved into the wall is an image of a powerful dwarven necromancer, with the words: “Crypt of Trickery“ and under that “Durest’s Funhouse”. Lithos brings out a ten foot long pole, and hands it off to Whisper. 

The door is in the shape of a face, and there’s blood all over it. The door itself has a large metal crank on outside. Mage hand is not strong enough to activate the lever in the mouth. After a bit of examination, the smaller bit in the mouth is a latch that allows you turn the lever, but turning the lever swings a blade around that will take off your hand if you're still holding the latch.

We jam the latch and then swing the lever around. The door clicks open. We go in slow and paranoid, tapping the floors and walls with the ten foot pole. 

Carved on the wall is a set of four dots with an upward pointing arrow and a four beside it. A bunch of bugbear skeletons start pouring around the corner. Skeletons are notoriously resistant to anything except bludgeoning damage. Lithos casts Shield; Uncle Baldy starts singing. James moves up and smashes one of them; it does not die. Whisper moves back and pulls out a sling; he whips a stone around and promptly hits the stone wall. The one in front of James swings his morning star and hits him for four damage. More of them move up, and James swings again, smacking the same one. Amergin has prepped his staff with Shillelagh, and smacks a bugbear skeleton; it goes down. Baldy drops Cure Light Wounds on James, healing him a bit. James swings and misses. Whisper tries another shot and misses; James swings again as they try to press past him and hits, while one swings and misses at him. One swings at Amergin and misses; another swings at James and hits. Archibald heals James again, this time to full health; James swings again and takes another one out. One attacks Amergin, but misses. Two attack James, and hit. Baldy heals James again, a bit. James swings at an injured skeleton, hits, and takes it down. The others move in and surround James; he hits one of them. Two attack James, and one hits him hard; James goes down. Amergin swings again and manages to connect, finishing another one. Baldy cures James again. James is on the ground beside two bugbear skeletons; he tries to tumble to his feet without getting attacked, and they miss him. He attacks again, smashes, and does damage. Whisper whips out another sling stone and does a bit of damage to one of them. Baldy continues healing James, and James smashes down another skeleton. The bugbear misses, Amergin misses. Archibald pull his whip out and tries to trip the skeleton. He hits James instead. James looks at him, and then bludgeons a skeleton into fragments. Whisper bounces a rock off its head. 

We continue tapping our way down the hall with the ten foot staff. There’s a door in the right wall, and an armoire at the corner; there’s another door past the bend.