Our Saga Begins

"Our Saga Begins" is the first episode (canonically episode 0) of SuperQuest Saga, a campaign set in the homebrew universe of Drakken Star. It all starts outside a tavern... Meet our unlikely group of heroes, Sebastian Crenshaw, Persephone Goldpetal, and Carter Huttenberg, and follow them as they venture deep into the "Chasm of Blackwood" to find the source of the nearby town's strife.

Introduction

 * Will Stark welcomes everybody to SuperQuest Saga, the show where "we here at The Dungeoncast sit around and play some Dungeons & Dragons" and introduces himself as "your benevolent dungeon master" for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, a half-orc Paladin. His father was killed and Sebastian is trying to continue the legacy of his family and honor his father by adventuring, and maybe find out what happened to his dad since he’s not sure
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal, a firbolg druid. She is albino and was kind of ostracized by her tribe and has since been in the forest wandering around by herself. She’s a little naive, a little young and she’s here to bring some sunshine into these boys’ lives.
 * Brian is playing Carter Huttenburg, a human warlock. Carter’s patron will not be revealed at this time for canonical reasons. Carter is known locally as somewhat of a sage, although people don’t tend to want to come to advise with him.

Our Saga Begins...
The story starts in the kingdom of Castillian. The trio has been hired to venture out to the border town of Ashford. Ashford has been having an issue with a mysterious monster terrorizing the common folk of the area and King Allmark wants them to get to the bottom of it.

The King had scryers cast some spells and they detected a unique magical signature, something they’ve never come across before. They can’t detect the magical origin and want to know what it is. The party’s real mission is to investigate the source of the magical signature, as well as help the town if they are able.

It is established that the three party members did not know each other prior to the mission, they all separately answered the King’s notice, interviewed, and got the job.

The Bronze Tankard
The party starts outside The Bronze Tankard, a single-story stone building in the middle of the small hamlet of Ashford. Ashford is locally known as The Town. The weather is cold and a little rainy, the streets are a little muddy, and the group is a little wet.

Carter plays with a coin and asks what they’re waiting for, and after it’s established that they are not waiting for anyone the group heads inside for a drink. It’s been a long journey. Sebastian does not drink but he does want some food.

Inside there is a very cozy common room, a few long tables with benches, a bar, and a rotund middle-aged human man behind the bar cleaning glasses. A dwarven male sits in the corner nursing his drink, and an elderly lady sits on the opposite side of the room. The guests all glance up when the party enters but no one says anything and they all go back to their business.

Carter approaches the rotund and bald barkeeper asking for a whiskey and tonic. The barkeeper responds that there is no whiskey, the choices are ale or wine. Carter orders wine. Sebastian goes to sit next to Carter and asks what the Special of the Day is. The barkeeper states there are two choices: Roasted Pork or Pickled Lamb, with crust of bread or boiled potato. Sebastian takes one of everything.

Prior to entering the bar, Persephone cast Disguise Self so she looks like an average  5’4” human woman with blonde hair  with a nice frock. Persephone does not know what ale is. Carter orders her an ale, and another wine for himself.

The barkeeper asks what brings three outsiders to a small town like this. Carter says that word on the street is that they’ve been sent by the King. The barkeeper assumes that the King has sent them to slay the monster terrorizing the countryside. Carter shows their writ of passage, the barkeeper cannot read but he believes them. The barkeeper only knows rumors about the monster, it hasn’t affected him directly. He directs them to the mayor and points to the old lady in the corner. Carter orders one more wine.

Persephone and Sebastian sit at a table, Carter follows until they get there and then changes direction to talk to the mayor. Carter puts out his hand to the mayor, she does not take it and reacts a bit stiffly asking who he is and what he wants. Carter slowly retracts his hand, pulls down the coat of his three piece suit and brushes himself off. He responds that he is here on business of the King and pulls out the writ. “I trust you can read.” The mayor becomes relieved that the King has sent someone, she introduces herself as Mildra.

Carter attempts to introduce Persephone and Sebastian, who have now realized Carter is talking to the mayor and approached, but he claims to have forgotten their names. Sebastian introduces himself and shakes Mildra’s hand. Persephone introduces herself and avoids shaking hands by claiming to be germaphobic.

Mildra asks what they know and what they’ve been told. Carter distastefully responds that they know very little since he was speaking to someone who cannot read. Mildra shakes her head and says that Tunner never did learn how to read. She states that the town does not know as much as they could about the situation.

The Situation
The whole thing started two months ago when the town noticed the disappearance of the Creoll family. Tomas and Alicia usually bring a weekly harvest to the Farmer’s Market, but when they didn’t show someone went to investigate. Their whole house was torn apart, windows were smashed, and the doors were caved in. Inside was no sign of bodies anywhere but there was blood and furniture was torn to shreds.

Next, the shepherds started having trouble with sheep near the Blackwood. Their herds were moved after a dozen or so sheep disappeared in the night.

Then a few weeks back old man Fenton went out to the Blackwood for a hunt and never came back. His wife’s been distraught ever since.

The latest incident was two days ago. The woodsman collecting lumber heard something freakish and demonic out in the woods. Someone saw something insect-like and enormous. The lumberjacks have since moved on to different forests. Something is out there and it’s nasty. It’s killed people, it’s taken sheep, and it’s scaring off the lumberjacks.

The Investigation
Carter asks to speak to anyone who has come close to encountering the monster. Mildra points to the dwarf, Beau, who has worked with the lumberjacks. He was there the day they heard and saw the noises. Carter orders one more wine. Persephone thinks about creatures she’s heard of that could fit the description and concludes it could be giant spiders or ettercaps.

Carter approaches Beau to get more information. Beau seems reluctant to relive the unnatural encounter in the woods, but Carter encourages him to recount the tale to maybe save the town.

Beau says it was out at the Blackwood near the Chasm of Blackwood, a place rumored to be haunted. The lumberjacks heard weird, indescribable, and unnatural sounds. Like a chittering and screaming, but nothing human. Beau adamantly believes no human could make this sound. Carter says “not willingly.” Two men came running out of the woods saying they saw some giant spider monstrosities. Carter buys Beau an ale as payment for his information.

Carter has another wine. Sebastian asks how many Carter’s going to drink. Carter asks “who’s counting? Are you counting?” Sebastian says too much wine dulls the senses. Carter claims the wine makes him feel alive. Persephone thinks he has had four, Carter says he’s actually had five.

Persephone asks Beau where the Chasm is. He gives her directions: follow the King’s Road two miles east, then due North to the Blackwood. The Chasm is twelve miles deep into the Blackwood along the cliff face of the North Crown mountains. Keep straight and narrow North and you’ll find it.

The party argues about whether to go now or later, and when it will be dark. They decide to go. Carter gets one last wine to go.

Into the Woods
They travel the first two miles, it’s uneventful and muddy. When they turn a hard left northward, they are able to see the Blackwood in the distance about a mile out. At around 4pm they approach the tree line of the dreary woods.

Percy is excited to be back near the woods and takes the lead as they enter the forest. Carter takes the rear and Sebastian tries to linger back with Carter since he also prefers to be last. Carter reads as he walks and uses Mage Hand to brush things out of his way.

The party makes good progress traveling five to six miles before it’s dark. Percy continues on, leading with a torch and they travel four more miles before stopping to make camp around 11 pm. Persephone notices that the forest is eerily quiet.

The party is able to find a spot to fortify for camp. Sebastian pops a Divine Sense to get a read on the area, he can detect the location of any Celestial, Fiend, or Undead within 60ft. Sebastian suggests they set up a watch. Carter doesn’t sleep much so he’s up to watch whenever. Sebastian has darkvision so he can take first. Persephone takes the second watch, and Carter takes the final watch.

Sebastian’s watch is mostly quiet, but about an hour before the watch is over he hears violent rustling in the bushes about 100 ft out. The noise continues for ten minutes then stops. He does not investigate but passes the information on to Percy when she relieves him. Percy’s watch goes by eerily quiet. Carter readies his crossbow and sets it on his lap as he reads during his watch. Between  4:30 and 5 in the morning he hears a bizarre sounding shriek in the distance. Could be 300 ft away, could be a mile away. Carter doesn’t like the sound of it and informs the others when they wake.

The party is now two miles out from the cliffs. Sebastian wants to check out the area where the rustling was and Carter tags along because he loves mystery. The group finds the remains of a small tree that has been thrashed about, and there are multiple gashes and slashes in the surrounding trees as if something has torn through them with big, meaty claws. This doesn’t look like the work of anything they’ve seen before. Carter notices that the damage looks like it’s been done by multiple creatures. A slash squad. They investigate for anything in particular about the trees, but from what they can tell it is just a random act of violence. The rain has stopped but it is still quite cold.

Carter casts Mage Armor on himself and it looks like there’s shadows passing over him with no source, like a bird wing or the shadow of someone passing by moving over his body. Something that would cause someone to double take if they noticed.

Percy suggests she can track the beasts. She roars and uses Wild Shape to transform into an albino direwolf. There is the scent of something wrong in the air but she cannot locate the source. Sebastian finds a broken branch with a shell-like substance stuck to it that Persephone can smell. Once she catches the scent, Persephone howls and heads north. Within a couple hours they make it to the cliff face and the scent takes a turn west along the wall. After about a mile they find the chasm. It’s a vertical slit, like a crack in the stone, that goes from ground level all the way to the top. It’s a narrow entrance, a tight squeeze, and they will only be able to fit single file. It is hard to see because the crack starts to serpentine into the cliff face.

The party thinks it’s very cool that Percy can turn into a wolf. They take a short rest and Carter takes some time to draw the chasm.

Into the Chasm
They enter the chasm, Persephone, Sebastian, and then Carter. After about 45 ft of travel through a serpentine the chasm widens and opens into a canyon. There’s a lot of wildlife, thick brush and ferns, and it’s a humid 80 degrees. Persephone uses her firbolg ability to talk with plants and gets an emotional energy sense from the plants in response. Normally plants are calm and serene but there’s a fevery, frantic feeling that doesn’t feel right. Carter feels like there’s something off, but he’s not worried because the unnaturalness feels familiar to him. Percy says there’s something wrong but Carter has a big smile and suggests the party moves forward, taking the lead.

The canyon seems very long and the nature gets sparser the further the party travels. It’s getting hotter and they start to notice some of the trees have weird growths, and someone spots a rabbit with two heads instead of one. The brush-line is getting thinner, the bushes are looking tumorous and twisted. They spot some snakes whose skin is shedding as they are slithering. After another quarter mile the wildlife line just stops, and it becomes a desert-like environment. It’s hot, 100 degrees now, but the weather outside the canyon has not changed. Above the cliff walls they can see it is still cloudy. Persephone thinks it is an unpleasant place.

Around the next bend Sebastian hears bizarre sounds; a chittering and clicking that sound very alien to him. He hears scratching in the dirt and the rocks like something is around the corner.

He sees three insectoid looking monsters with four sharp limbs; they have a head on a long serpentine neck with prominent sharp teeth and mandibles. Their entire body is covered in spiny plates and they have a foot-long tail. They are feeding on something.

Persephone and Sebastian are down for slaying the monsters, Carter is interested in a more observational approach. Persephone recognizes them as kruthiks from the Underdark. Kruthiks usually they’re in packs, so it is likely there are more than these three. The party opts to wait and see what the creatures do. After they finish eating, all three monstrosities head northward away from the party.

The party continues to travel into the canyon. It’s eerily quiet and even hotter now, around 105 degrees. Carter does not like the heat so he’s sweating. Sebastian is also sweating in his armor. At the end of the canyon they find a bizarre alien looking black tower set into the dirt. The tower is cylindrical at its base and comes up into a weird cone shape. It appears to be made of a black metallic material and looks very foreboding. There are strange grooves and depressions carved into it, like weird symbology. It’s around 200-ft. tall, which peeks up into the forest beyond the top of the canyon walls. At its base and facing the party is a doorway. Carter discerns that this is something outside of the normal scope of magic for this world which is why the scryers were unable to ascertain its magical source. Carter heads to the tower and opens the door.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock.

NPCS

 * Tunner: A rotund and bald middle-aged man. The barkeeper at The Bronze Tankard
 * Mildra: An elderly woman. The mayor of Ashford
 * Beau: A dwarf. A witness.

Mentioned

 * King Allmark: The monarch of Castillian. Employer of the party.
 * Tomas and Alicia Creoll: Farmers presumably slain by the creatures in their home.
 * Old Man Fenton: A hunter presumably slain by the creatures in the woods.

Music

 * Superquest Saga Theme - by Brain

Trivia

 * Carter orders six wines total.
 * Persephone drinks her first ale and does well enough on a Constitution check that she enjoys it.

Behind the Scenes

 * The podcast version of this episode was released a few months after the show dropped on YouTube. The audio starts with a message from Brian that there was an audio hiccup and that it is perfectly fine to skip to the next episode and revisit this one if listeners like the content.

Out of Character

 * Brian is not revealing Carter’s patron at this time.
 * Persephone’s Disguise Self spell does not hold up to physical scrutiny, so Persephone tends to linger back and does not touch people since the disguise is much smaller than her actual self.
 * Carter does not actually like the King he serves.
 * Brian wanted to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on the barkeeper but decides against it. The barkeeper made Carter mad because he couldn’t read.
 * The liaison to Carter’s patron sends Carter a sense of recognition upon sight of the tower. Their patron knows something but is not revealing more at this time.

Dice Breakdown

 * Special Guest Jake rolls the first critical fail of the campaign while Persephone is searching for a camping spot.
 * Brian rolls the first critical success of the campaign while Carter tries to determine what kind of creature was thrashing about in the forest.

Nat 20's (4 total)

 * Brian (Investigation)
 * Special Guest Jake (Perception)
 * Brian (Nature)
 * Special Guest Jake (Nature)

Nat 1's (1 total)

 * Special Guest Jake (Perception)