#SessionNote # Session 2 ## Getting where you're going Two days of downtime were productive! * [[Cadoperious (Caddy) Shortstout|Caddy]] had time to craft a set of armor called [[Scholar's Compassion]] for [[Miralith Stormhoof|Miralith]] * [[Jacob Hargrave|Jacob]] has started snooping in on the cook to start getting ideas on field cooking for the team * Miralith spent a bunch of time studying * [[Lyta of the Embereye|Lyta]] did some training and some [[Gauntlet News Network|GNN]] watching * [[Janis Hoplin|Janis]] did some Janis stuff. Spent a good bit of time in [[Peeper's Library]] The morning of the 3rd day after getting wrapped up in the Guild's sphere of influence, you set out on your first official hunt as [[Monster Hunters Guild]] members ### Team Menagerie has entered the chat At breakfast, some conversations are had. [[Lutecia]] learns of the new team name and sets you up with provisions for the hunt: * 6 Potions of Healing * 2 scrolls of Greater Restoration * Rations for a month * Copy of leather bound edition of [[Heliana's Guide to Hunting Monsters]] * 5 Rubies worth 500 gold each ## Welcome to the Jungle [[Maphrok Jungle]] isn't anything super special. It's a jungle... it has the dangers of a jungle... not a lot of people like to spend a lot of time in it. As you discover teleporting from [[Loot Tavern|The Loot Tavern]] to [[The Sheaf and the Scythe]] in a village just outside of the jungle. Lutecia mixed you up a drink she called a Baloovardier to get you there. After a quick conversation with dark elf named Shanis, (presumably the tavern's owner) you find out there haven't been any dealings with goblins in the village. Best she can suggest is maybe checking out the ruins 4-5 days east, deep in the jungle. You learn there's a blacksmith in town that often goes out with hunting parties that might be able to help. Leaving the Sheaf and the Scythe, you spot a bakery called Wheaties ran by Sinahs. A quick comparison confirms the superior bakes bread is at the tavern. You meet the blacksmith, Yamis. The dwarf isn't able to give you a ton of details other than it's a jungle with the dangers a jungle comes with. But he sketches you out a rough.... VERY rough map of around about direction of where he saw some weird stuff about a days travel from where the rumored ruins might be. Yamis tells you about a weird shaped flower that was a near perfect pyramid shape. Weird, right? ## The Friends You Make Along the Way This was your first tracking attempt! The map was rough but the dice were sweet. Some overwhelmingly good successes, made short work of the 4 day trek through the jungle. Close to the end of the journey you come across what was described as what looks like a "Dwarf on safari." Complete with Khaki pants, shirt, and even the little hat, this dwarf was suspended in vines above a small grotto full of crocodiles. You try your best to get him down but run into some trouble and notice a swarm of fire ants making their way up the tree and towards him. Just when it was looking to be the end of him, the vines are cut and he is freed. [[Professor Reginald Hinklebottom]] thanks you all profusely and rewards you with 500 gold for saving his life. When asked where he came from, he simply says the north and that he was just exploring the jungle as a member of League of Exploratory Gentlefolk. You point him in the direction of the village you set out from and he starts his way in, mostly, the right direction. ## The Big Bad Base When you get to the general area of where the blacksmith showed you, you start to see some weird shit. Mutated flora and fauna. This includes monkeys with hexagonally curled tails, plants with polygonal flowers, and fruit shaped like perfect dice: cubes, octahedrons, and even twenty-sided icosahedrons. The smell is the first indication of the presence of a large population, quickly followed by the yammering and clanging of dozens upon dozens of hammers at work. However, rather than the unruly and unwashed horde of goblinoids you might expect, these individuals are all wearing appropriate personal safety equipment, working well in small teams, and they smell well-washed! The stench is being emitted from a neat line of outhouses and sewer trenches that look to fertilise a surprisingly healthy-looking mushroom field. Metallurgists cast steel in a variety of shapes, herders drive teams of oxen, and a monocled locksmith appears to be adding the finishing touches to an incredibly complex vault door. Neat rows of tents lit by smokeless red torches depict a scene of communal living, with food being shared, wounds tended to, and rhythmic music enjoyed by all. An elderly goblin approaches you, a satchel full of scrolls and quills bumping against her patchwork clothing. Eyeing each of you with a quick glance, she announces in perfect Common: “Welcome to the Frockit Clan Co-operative, where we help each other to help you help yourself.” This is [[Bogbolz]], matriarch of the Frockit clan and the elderly goblin that asked the Monster Hunter Guild for help. She's gruff but full of info. Here are the highlights she gives you * Her company was contracted to refurb this dungeon for a new tenant complete with traps and a vault * This place was apparently, at one point, a dragon's lair tended by kobolds that set a bunch of smaller, inferior traps * Between then and now, though, this place was also some kind of biomancer's lab and there's some weird liquid in there that's mutating things that touch it * The going theory is a Gelatinous Cube they've started calling The Motherlode was affected by this mutation and spawned a bunch of smaller polyhedroozes * The Motherlode ambushed a bunch of goblins carrying treasure to the new vault * They have to carry it by hand because the kobold's traps are set off by weight. Anything that weighed a little more than them would set it off * The client has agreed to letting the people that handle the issue 10% of the horde that was taken by the Motherlode * She has a trapped Hexahedrooze the party can check out near the entrance to the base. At the end of a twisting, root-strewn path through dense jungle forest, a large wooden facade sits in a mossy rock face riddled with tunnels, broken machinery, and misspelled graffiti. Signs of neglect are plentiful: the wooden staircase’s planks hang loose, the scent of mouldering lumber perfumes the air, and large cobwebs can be seen down the tunnels. However, it’s also clear the goblins have been at work. Wheel tracks and footprints lead into every tunnel, and an array of small towers in the forecourt—presumably the Frockit clan’s offices—can be reached by ladders. The air tingles, as if anticipating the hunt ahead, while the distant sounds of the industrious goblins are muffled by the foliage behind you. A large smiley face is drawn in chalk on the ground and surrounded by yellow and black twisted ribbon. Some ten feet to its right is a large, heavy-looking metal crate that occasionally vibrates, shifting a few millimeters across the bare-rock floor. ### SLAP FIGHT The fight with the hexahedrooze was notable for 2 reasons: * The ooze prioritized engulfing treasure over actual food * It adapted to attacks against it; you saw the following * Two of these effects seemed to be happening at the same time as a result of attacks * Piecing damage caused layers of pointy membranes to appear * Bludgeoning caused layers of spongy growths to bloom from the outer membrane * Slashing caused a layer of hard coated angled crystals * Cold and Fire both seemed to create a insulated gel to excrete from the outer membrane * Subsequent attacks after the adaptation seemed to not have hurt it as much as the first ## Trivia What is the name of the band in The Loot Tavern? They wrote you a limerick in Session 1. Send me their name in your personal channel on Discord for a prize! You got until the start of [[5. Session 3 - 06-28-2025|Session 3]]. ## What happens next? Let's find out together.