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Addermarch Campaign - Session 3

Cockatrice Hunt: in which the party explores a cockatrice lair

Featuring: Yvan, Drou, Fazoth
In Taelgar: May 02, 1715 DR to May 04, 1715 DR
On Earth: Friday Sep 20, 2024
Roscombe and the Stonewolds

The party hunts and kills a cockatrice, deals with a water nymph, and returns stolen treasure to Elowen Duval.

Timeline

  • May 02, 1715 DR: The party receives letters from priest Owen Tavish and Lady Elowen Duval. Fazoth visits the Sunday market and sells ancient coins recovered from Torvaine Watch. Alchemist Caradoc arrives and hires them to slay a cockatrice and return with its gizzard as proof.
  • May 03, 1715 DR, morning: The companions leave Roscombe, cross open farmland and the rocky hills of the Stonewolds; near the Kilrath Standing Stones they locate the cockatrice cave.
  • May 03, 1715 DR, midday: Inside they discover a petrified dwarf, a strange map, and fend off a shadow-animated skeleton.In the main cavern they defeat an adult cockatrice and its hatchlings amid a dormant fey gate and a lifelike statue of a shepherd boy. A furious naiad binds Fazoth and Yvan until they purge red algae tainting her pool; treasure—including Duval family jewels and an odd golden symbol of The Sibyl—is recovered and the fey gate is destroyed.
  • May 03, 1715 DR, evening: Laden with gizzard, eggs, and loot, the party camps on the road back toward Roscombe.
  • May 04, 1715 DR, morning: A detour to Brantor lets them deliver the gizzard to Caradoc.
  • May 04, 1715 DR, evening: Returning to Roscombe they present the recovered jewels to Lady Duval, claim the long-standing bounty on the thief who stole them, and settle again at The Traveler’s Rest.

Cast of Characters

Places

Narrative

Sunday, May 2nd, 2 Robert I

We begin in the morning at The Traveler’s Rest in Roscombe. As Drou, Fazoth, and Yvan eat breakfast, they receive two letters. One is from Owen Tavish, the priest of The Sibyl; the other, sealed with green wax, imprinted with the Duval seal, showing a stylized valley between two mountains with an oak tree in the middle, is from Elowen Duval.

During the day, the party rests and relaxes. Sunday is a market day, and Fazoth goes to the market to find a buyer for the ancient coins he found in Torvaine Watch. Otherwise, the day passes quietly until the evening, when Caradoc arrives to meet the party.

Caradoc proposes a simple mission as test of the party’s skills: travel to a nearby area where a cockatrice is thought to lair, kill it, and bring back a cockatrice gizzard, which is a valuable ingredient in several potion recipes.

Monday, May 3rd, 2 Robert I

Drou, Fazoth, and Yvan depart Roscombe in the morning, heading west through open fields and pastures, towards the hills. Reaching a rocky outcropping indicated as a landmark by Caradoc, the party navigates easily through the forest, guided by Drou, and sees both the cockatrice cave and a stone circle in the dell below. Faint voices can be heard echoing from the stone circle, and warnings written in an ancient tongue, but the party moves quickly past into the cave.

Soon, the party finds a statue of a dwarf with its arms broken off, a rotted pouch at its feet hinting at the possessions of a treasure hunter, including a Dwarf Map from Cockatrice Cave. Exploring the passages that lead from this chamber, they encounter a dead end first, where a shadow attempts to ambush them, thwarted by perceptive Yvan, who notices the shadow moving. As the skeleton on the ground rises up to attack, Fazoth taunts it with Vicious Mockery, causing it to miss, while Yvan destroys the shadow with a burst of fire.

Continuing to explore the cave, the party finds the main cavern of the cockatrice, discovering that it has apparently made its lair in a place with a strange – and not functioning – fey gate. Fazoth storms into the room with a booming voice and flashing eyes, frightening the cockatrice, and then it is hit, in quick succession, with multiple witch bolts from Yvan and Fazoth, as well as haunting whispers from Drou, while the cockatrice teleports around the room. It eventually retreats and drinks some healing water, and Fazoth kills it with his witch bolt while Yvan goes scouting and discovers another room full of cockatrice hatchlings and eggs. The hatchlings pose little challenge with the adult dead, and the party is able to collect the eggs, while also noticing a particularly realistic statue of a shepherd boy in the room.

Fazoth and Yvan explore, looking for the source of the sound of a waterfall, and are dazed and surprised by the sudden appearance of a hypnotic pattern on the cavern ceiling. Coming to in a minute, they find themselves bound with watery cords as a water nymph, a naiad speaks to them, yelling about corruption and evil mortals and insisting they drink the water and clean the water and deal with it. As Drou approaches, Yvan dives to the bottom of the pool, retrieving some treasure while swimming through a strange patch of red algae. The naiad does not calm down until Yvan freezes the algae, and Fazoth uses mage hand to drop it in the boiling mud near the cockatrice eggs.

Sorting through the treasure recovered from the bottom of the naiad’s pool, the party fines some jewelry clearly belonging to Elowen Duval, or at least her family; and a golden holy symbol of The Sibyl of a strange design. After speaking briefly with the naiad about fey, the party returns to the cockatrice lair and destroys the fey gate by melting the crystal keeping it from fully closing with acid from Yvan’s sorcerous burst.

After having brought everything outside, the party departs for Roscombe, spending the night on the road.

Tuesday, May 4th, 2 Robert I

The party detours to Brantor, to give the cockatrice gizzard to Caradoc, and then returns to Roscombe, where they give Elowen Duval back the treasure they found, learning it was stolen by a bandit two years ago. Lady Duval pays them the still-outstanding bounty for the capture or death of the bandit, and wishes them luck. We end that evening, back at the Traveler’s Rest.