2024-07-16 # 08: Bizness Time
We came to the Brambles' Keep in the Intrepid Hills--an earthworks wall protecting a bustling gnome village, with a stonewalled inner keep.
Built on and near ruins, it's dotted with creepy statues of bird people. A dwarf stonemaster, nicknamed Thump, oversaw the building of a new stone wall. Workers and residents were abuzz, because the project had just unearthed an eldritch sarcophagus. We met Lucas, the former Rustler, working the project. He hoped to go to the ruins soon.
Endra met her traveling apothecary mentor, Hoggle, a rotund human man. He congratulated her and gave her healing salts from a coastal hellhole.
Mou5e and Raxus were mobbed by curious gnome children. Raxus was deeply uncomfortable. Mou5e showed off his robot tricks. One child brought a glass bottle gnome, Fizzy "the Wiz" Wizler. It wizzed blue goo.
Bobby went to check his family's heirlooms and found that the Brambles' signet ring--one of five rings from five founding families--was safely there. The one he carried, taken from Arvax, was in fact a copy.
Then Bizzy met us there. Her leg was still healing from her fight with Doku and his thugs on the island northwest of the keep. She didn't know why Doku was there.
We went to the Vault. Not the lower "decoy" vault, but the high tower, on rails that could sequester it in the nearby mountain. This is where the real magic items were kept. It was projected by a lock from the Black, combination stairs, and a blood barrier.
Inside, Artemis's wand perked up at the presence of a hammer--the Dwarf King's thunderous Hammer of Colossus. Bizzy admitted that Bobby's Uncle Bruce died trying to wield it. The wand gave it voice: it was there with all the rest of the iconic items when the Archmage summoned the Plane of Light. We placed the Lightning Greaves beside it, and the hammer and greaves mated magically and produced a magical sprite that asked us to give it an item to inhabit. Bobby gave it the fake signet ring. In a flash of light, it bonded with it, leaving the Brambles seal seared into the floor.
We debated the wisdom of leaving all the iconic items in one place. Mou5e feared theft and wondered if all together they'd complete the summoning of the Plane of Light. Bobby wanted to make new magic items and sell them. For now, we agreed to leave the Greaves but likely put a third item somewhere else. Mou5e pondered theological implications. We hoped Bizzy's magical researchers would discover something about the mating rituals and offspring of the hammer and greaves.
There was an impromptu feast of wild boar and root vegetables. We stayed for two days. When we left, Bizzy rejected Endra's apothecary pack but let Mou5e heal her. Bizzy gave Bobby a sending stone.
We left for the coast, to travel by sea to the Wake Islands. Raxus knew an enemy of Doku who would happily arrange discreet passage for us (Prince of Shadows benefit). But on the outskirts of the village, we found orcs harassing Hoggle. They wanted food. Also, they were Doku thugs. We murdered most of them and captured two, leaving them for Bizzy to imprison. The captured orcs said, "Doku is scouring the land for his former apprentice."
Full heal up, plus incremental advance (the third at 2nd level).