Goocon 2022 One Shot

The party of adventures consist of Caspar (Paladin), Miraqen (Rouge), Nikol (Monk), Pog (Ranger), Syrio (Fighter) and Yosi'k (Druid) They have found themselves in a small village whose biggest excitement for the year is in full swing....

The most anticipated coming of the faire was also the biggest let down once it arrived. The Faire is not what the town really deserved and little more than some scavenged daggers and hand axes, a couple of bards and a juggler. 

The party look around and some sample the mead which has a greenish tinge and tastes mostly like mead, the ask about food, and Nikol buys a tomato which is very nice, the other food offerings being "Meat on a stick" at one of the other tents. Yosi'k decides to try his hand at the axe throwing, 10 coppers and if you make the three throws you get a silver. He wild shapes into an ape and throws the axe so hard the vendor hands over the silver and begs him not to destroy the targets. 

Caspar and Miqaqen head over to watch the juggler who calls to Caspar to come on stage and try it out, instead Miqauen tries, and he says there will be a price if she can juggle 5 balls. She tries and fails the first time but manages to do it on the second, and the jester hands her a small potion of healing. 

As the party head to the dagger balancing game, a large well dressed man bumps into Nikol, and drops his monocle. He apologizes and asks if Nikol can find the monocle and inspect it to see if its broken which of course he does, and states the sad news that its cracked, he asks for a second opinion and gets Pog to check it out, and then a third opinion asking Syrio. 

He then requests a private meeting with the three of them, taking them back to his office/tent where he first introduces himself as Garthek, and states that they have had their souls stolen by his magic Monocle and that if they want them back they would need to retrieve some gems of his that have been stolen. He has the means to get them to the location of the gems but is not in a position where he can retrieve what was rightfully his. 

The three confer with the rest of the party and decide that they will go on this quest with plans to steal the gems, and bargain for more payment. They arrive back at Gartheks tent and agree to the quest with some conditions, as they start negotiating Yosi'k picks up a small silver ink bottle, to which Gartrhek says "Careful friend you don't want to get ink on your plumage" to this Yosi'k tips the ink on the rug on the ground and continues to play with the ink pot, thanking Garthek for saving his plumage.

They negotiate an extra 100 gold for the job and Garthek agrees and summons a portal for them. They step through and as Miraqen passhis Garthek she picks his pocket taking a potion. 

 They arrive in the dungeon, a beautiful place which appears to have be grown, the walls are made from vines, and roots, and the roof is covered by a luminous moss. There is a door to the north and one to the south, and a passageway leads to the east, they take the passage passing a door, and find a vine based bridge across a fast flowing river. They cross and find a door, as the rouge is inspecting it for traps etc they find that it opens at the wave of a hand. Inside is what looks like a dining room, with some bookshelves lining the walls, crumbling books with intact spines and titles in elvish such as "growing in the underdark" and "Plants for Dummies".  The room contains an open chest with what looks like large buckeye seeds. 

They head into the adjoining room which is the barracks and find several beds, and a crumbling table, atop is a chest. As Nikol approaches the table and chest, several skeletons appear from each of the beds. 

They fight their way through the skeletons and after a disappointing display of martial arts from Nikol they are  defeat them all. Examining the chest they see no visible locking mechanisms, but imagery of people being strung up and bled out, and dark figures drinking the blood from wine glasses. Yosi'k decides to prick his finger and put a drop of blood on the chest, and as he does the blood sinks in and the chest pops open about an inch. They open the chest and inside is white gem and a scroll of call lightning. The gem contains runes not of this world, and none of the party are able to read them.

They continue down the hallway off this room and enter a very large chamber with a high roof, where they see a badly carved statue standing in the center of the room. They skirt the room wary of it, and notice it is standing on top of a chest. On the south side of the room is a door which leads to a grand entrance, a blocked stairwell and small scrying room off to the side. Heading back to the large room they see that the Statue has taken some steps towards them, They are able to sneak out the side of room without engaging the Golem and find another bridge crossing the river. Noticing that downstream there appears to be cavern off to the west side they head down to check it out. It appears to be some kind of ritual chamber where it looks like elves have gone to die of natural causes their remains show no signs of combat injuries. Within the room there is an open chest containing some scrolls (Fireball, Tidal Wave and Gust) as well as another 4 healing potions. 

They head back to the entryway to check out the doors not opened, and start with the one to the north in the room with the portal to find it impassable. They then move on to the other north door down the hallway that they passed when they first headed that way. In this room they find a bedroom, which contains another chest. This one has imagery of lakes, rivers and waterfalls on it, and is damp to the touch. They decide to try some water to see if it opens the chest which it does releasing a massive gush of water which knocks a few of them over but does no real damage. Inside is a blue gem.

They decide next to check out the door to the south where they find a chapel to the goddess Mielikki, a symphony of music emanates from this room as wind comes and goes to unseen places. As they approach the dias they see a chest and as they get close they see vines start to grow out of the dias and around the chest, growing into a large shambling mound. Yosi'k steps up and casts speak with plants to determine that the mound is the protector of the gem, and that it has sat idle for a long time, it is happy to have someone to speak with and misses its masters who abandoned the place long ago. It asks why they seek the gem and Yosi'k explains that their friends souls have been taken and they seek to return them. 

The mound likes the nobility of their quest and agrees to let them use the gem if they promise to return it when they achieve their outcomes.  As the mound retreats into the dias the chest raises up and pops open, the rest of the party clear the room and Yosi'k pops it open, the room immediately fills with a beautiful cyclone of flower petals that have no adverse effect to Yosi'k and in the center of the cyclone is the open chest containing the green gem.

They decide to approach the golem by splitting the party with the fighters heading to the north entrance and plan to lure it away while the rouge heads in from the west to steal the chest, Pog and Syrio providing cover. The plan is sound right up until the first blow, where they discover that they are able to do more damage to the Golem than expected. They fight away the plan abandoned with everyone doing some damage to the construct, between psychic blades, long bows, flurry of blows, a moon beam, short swords, war picks, javelins and shield bashes they manage to take it down. The crumbling golem drops some dust on the chest which causes it to open a crack. As they open it all the way they find the room fills with about a foot of dirt which they can easily climb out and over. 

As they make their way out they see a vision of Garthek who says that now they have all the gems they should head back to the entry room and the locked door should now open inside will be the portal. 

They head back and open the door to find a portal awaiting them as they step through they hear a voice from the other side yell "YOU STOLE MY GEMS" and a lightning bolt blasts through behind them setting the papers on Gartheks desk on fire. 

He hastily agrees to pay them 300 Gold for their efforts and takes the gems eagerly ushering them out the door with their new found riches. 

The party take one last look at the gems before heading out to try the "meat" on a stick