Well, when we last left our heroes, Vivenna had just returned from successfully persuading Meldrin the dwarf to help us extract the prince from the cultists’ territory. She gave the party the lowdown, and then Snuki asked to borrow her knife and promptly ran off (concern).
They returned a bit later with an armload of apples—and no knife. Vivenna demanded to know where the knife was, and Snuki immediately scampered off again just as the Cook and a small sortie came down the path to find us.
We were worried… and it turns out we were worried about the wrong thing.
Cook set down a stool, pulled out a prison tattooing kit, and both Wilfram and Vivenna died inside.
“Time for the next part of your initiation!”
After some dissimulation, we determined that we were supposed to get tattoos in places that are relatively easy to see or reveal (much to everyone’s disappointment, for various reasons). Wilfram went first, getting it on the back of his forearm while carefully keeping his other tattoos hidden. Vivenna tried to sneak a peek and failed abysmally.
Vivenna went next and got hers on her inner forearm. Circe got hers on her hand, and by then Snuki had returned—with Vivenna’s knife.
Cook insisted on trying to tattoo Snuki, which went poorly for everyone.
Snuki screamed bloody murder and managed to bite the Cook. Cook then made us hold Snuki down. (In hindsight, Vivenna probably should have had disadvantage on that, since neither of us wanted to be there doing it… not that she rolled well anyway.) Eventually Snuki and Cook reached an agreement: no more tattoo, no more biting. The result is the barest squiggle of a tattoo on Snuki.
Willfram asked Circe about tattoo removal. She said, “Sure!” Vivenna clarified, “Without removing the arm,” and Circe went, “Oh.” She then explained that there are magics where you could cut off your arm and regrow it, and she hopes to be able to do that someday. Apparently there are people on the mainland who can already do it.
Vivenna did manage to glimpse some letters on Wilfram’s arm tattoo.
Shortly after, Kelden came by and told us to go shake down a bugbear named Vragnorod for a bushel of carrots and a bushel of potatoes. He’s a gang member with a “farm,” and “they had a deal.”
We headed down the mountain and found the farm under attack by dog-sized centipedes (ew), with clear evidence of burrowing. We jumped into the fray. The centipedes had low AC and went down easily, but if they hit you, it was about a third of your HP.
Eventually the bugbear jumped into one of the tunnels left behind by a larger centipede, and we followed him down to find the nest. It wasn’t far, but the broodmother’s acid spit was no joke. Her back was far more vulnerable than her front, and we lucked out with positioning—having the bugbear and Wilfram in the nest while the others were down the tunnel meant that whenever she turned to bite or spit, someone had a good angle on her.
We couldn’t hide from her because of tremorsense, which was frustrating for the rogue and ranger, but we managed to kill the broodmother and destroy the eggs in a horrifying fountain of goo. The killing blow went to a terrified Snuki with a magic rock.
And then we immediately got back to shaking down the bugbear for his carrots.
(Thanks to Snuki, who found the bugbear and said, “Oh! We’re here for your potato bush!”)
The bugbear claimed he had nothing to give Kelden because of the centipedes. Wilfram told him to wait in the tunnels and that we’d tell Kelden he wasn’t there—and despite his 8 Charisma, we all believed him as he climbed out.
Wilfram and Vivenna searched the cabin. Wilfram rolled well; Vivenna rolled a 1. Wilfram found exactly one bushel each of potatoes and carrots hidden under the bed and took them.
By then Snuki had panicked about being left behind, beaned the bugbear with a rock to get past him, and scrambled up to the surface. The bugbear followed and caught us carrying off the goods.
Wilfram reminded him that he had a deal—and that he could eat at the base if he needed to—and then just started walking.
Snuki climbed into the basket of potatoes and threw one at the bugbear.
Wilfram shoved Snuki out of the basket. The bugbear charged, got pelted with potatoes, dodged Vivenna’s attempted trip, shrugged off her attempt to knock him out, and then downed Snuki in a single hit.
Apparently that made him feel better.
Circe used the eels of life to bring Snuki back. Wilfram scolded Snuki for antagonizing the bugbear, and Snuki pointed out that now the bugbear has some potatoes.
Vivenna “accidentally” dropped a few carrots, and we headed back up to camp.
The Cook received the foodstuffs and asked if we had to kill the bugbear. We said no.
We reported back to Kelden, who told us he had another job: stop a deal between Hawkhurst and the Reapers, steal everything, and make it look like the Covenant did it.
Vivenna said she had questions and asked who she should talk to. Kelden said he had someone in charge of the raid—and also that we ask too many questions.
“People who ask questions only cause problems. Wouldn’t you agree?” Disconcerting little smile.
Snuki cheerfully agreed.
Vivenna and Wllfram both managed not to say anything that would get them in trouble—Vivenna internally scrambling for something flattering to say and coming up empty—and we went to rest up, all of us critically injured or at least bloodied and covered in goo.