Recap: Age of Extinction, Session 1

by Steve

The party is in the employ of Togomor Vorica, a bloatmage from Kaer Maga who’s been traveling across Varisia conducting some sort of arcane research.  Whatever he’s doing, he’s writing everything down in a large leather-bound book, which is ALWAYS locked in his wagon.  Currently on the way to Sandpoint, they’ve met up and joined with a caravan of nomadic native Varisians who are also enroute to Sandpoint.

Party makeup so far:  Myldy (human rogue), Franco (ysoki investigator), Micah (human Magus), Jagz (elf/aasimar fighter), and Menvir (human/aasimar champion).

While camping in the woods the night before reaching Sandpoint, caravan is attacked by large tribe of goblins.  Togomor blasts a huge swath of them of fireball/chain lightning, while party deals with several waves of them that run rampant within the camp. 

Next afternoon they make it to Sandpoint, leaving the wagons camped in the woods near Boggy Creek.  As they begin to head towards town on foot, Togomor gives the party some background on Sandpoint:  it was founded about 200 years ago by a group of 4 families from Magnamar.  Unfortunately, the area was already inhabited by a group of nomadic Varisians and druids – one of the families (the Scarnettis) tried to drive the Varisians away by violence, which ended poorly for the Scarnettis.  Eventually things were smoothed over, with the native Varisians offered positions of authority in the newly formed town, and thus began Sandpoint.  Togomor hypothesizes that geographically, this is an area of power, which is why the Varisians were drawn to it in the first place (i.e., the Thassilonian ruins below the town), as well as an intersection of ley lines that drew the druids – a grove in the woods nearby is still visited by druids who bless the crops of sandpoint every year.

At the Rusty Dragon Inn, the party is greeted by a halfling woman named Bethana Corwin, who is obviously and old friend of Togomor.  They catch up a bit – Amieko has traveled to Minkai and been declared Empress with her prince consort, Kainyn – a nice young man who’s sworn to protect both her and her Magic Box.  The rest of the group were a bunch of miscreants who are probably in prison by now.  Togomor tells Bethana that someone will be meeting him here, and that he’s reserved one of the upstairs rooms – when they come in send them up there.  He then proceeds upstairs, asking the party to help out Bethana in any way she requires.

As the afternoon progresses into evening, the party helps out with some rowdy drunks in the common room – local farmers not in a great mood as the harvest was somewhat disappointing.  One of the varisians that came in from the caravan with the party was an exotic dancer named Elizia who performs with a rather large python named Egg – but before she can start her act Egg begins to act strangely.  Micah discovers some swelling in the snake’s throat – turns out a strangely deformed rat is lodged in the poor snake’s trachea.  With some medicine checks, Micah removes a disturbing (and quite dead) rat, which looks like perhaps it was developing demonic traits (foreshadowing????)  It perhaps would have been better for Elizia if her anaconda did in fact NOT want some.

Just then Bethana runs up to the party with horrifying news – Togomor’s dead!!!!!!!  Which is weird, as bloat mages are normally quite healthy!  The party runs upstairs to one of the small rooms on the inn’s second floor.  There’s a round table with two chairs (one flipped over), a pitcher of ale, 2 mugs (one has been used), and Togomor’s lifeless body on the floor.  Examining the body reveals: legs are extremely swollen and covered in numerous small bitemarks, looking very much like the fangs of small snakes.  Also, the key to his wagon is missing from his beltpouch.  Numerous rat droppings litter the floor, the vast majority of which are NOT from Franco.  A window with wooden shutters is the only other exit from the room.  Window looks out over Mud Street – ivy covers the side of the building, and it looks like the ivy could have supported the weight of a medium-sized creature.  Looking down on Mud Lane, a strange circular pattern can be seen in the dirt, as of many, many small creatures having walked in the circle down there, obliterating all other tracks.

In a wisely-thought-out move, it’s decided to split the party – most hurrying back to the caravan outside of town to check Togomor’s wagon, while Franco stays at the Rusty Dragon looking for more clues.  It’s dark by the time the caravan is reached – as the party approaches, they hear a weird, piping music.  Coming into the clearing, they find the Varisians there dancing frenetically in concentric circles around the campfire, panicked looks on all their faces as they plead for help from the party.  A pair of small creatures is at the center of the circle – things that look like very large crickets, but with the upper torsos of tiny humanoid creatures.  Their back legs are rubbing together high over their backs creating the haunting music, which compels all who hear it to dance without stopping…

Franco still at the Rusty Dragon in Sandpoint, the rest of the party about to engage with a pair of cricket-like fey that have entranced the Varissian caravan into dancing to the point of death.  Jagz had climbed a tree and was preparing to shoot an arrow at one of the fey.

Things you know so far: 

• Togomor was found dead alone in a small, second-story room of the Rusty Dragon, with the staff seeing no one enter. 
• He was laying on his back on the floor, his legs swollen and covered with numerous bites that looked like the fang-marks of snakes. 
• A pitcher of ale was on the table in front of him with 2 cups, one of which he had been using. 
• The window behind him was covered by wooden shutters – closed but not latched – they easily could have been pushed open then closed again from the outside. 
• Enough ivy grew up the side of the building to have supported the weight of a medium-sized creature – in fact, you’re pretty sure you see evidence that it had in fact been climbed. 
• Looking down at Mud Lane, you see a strange circular pattern in the dirt – possibly many, many small creatures had circled down there, seemingly obliterating any larger tracks.