Eberron Ep. 2 Redwater Redemption (The Sharnbound Saga)

After crash-landing the airship in the daggerwood forest, our party finds themselves in a magical red fog with only a handful of survivors. Wanting to come up with an action plan on how to get out of the forest before the fog makes them fall asleep (potentially forever) the party calls the survivors together and forwards an expedition out of the forest to send back help for the other survivors. 

Our party levelled up between this session and the last taking the following subclasses:
Battle Smith Artificer (V1KT0R)
College of Whispers Bard (Vel)
A 2nd level of Warlock (Sid)

Thanks for joining along in this modern day Eberron Campaign! We sure appreciate you taking the time to read this description (Go ahead and gain a point of inspiration)

Transcript

Speaker: 0:08

Hello and welcome to Knocked Prone. We are playing in the Eberron campaign. This is our third session, right? No, this is our second session. So, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, our first session was just a session zero. Yeah, so this is our second session. The party last session aborted an airship, found some cargo that was being smuggled out of wherever it was supposed to be from initially, poached as they say, and an electric elemental that was trapped inside of an aquarium-like cage. After freeing the from the aquarium-like cage, they were bombarded by poachers of poachers who wanted to steal some stuff that was on board the ship. You guys fought these these umbrelliers, as we called them, and they and you have dispatched them, however, at the cost of the ship's flight. So, the ship has crashed into the ground. A Cid has taken some significant damage. We've all leveled up, which is pretty rad. So, we're all level three now. Even me, I'm a level three dungeon master now. So, it comes with a feat, actually. I get a feat every level. I only have two right now, and that's normal for humans. Now, we are going to join the party as we are amongst the wreckage. And here, let me tell you what that wreckage looks like. This airship around you is jagged with blackened, it's like a blackened skeleton that is sprawled against the damp floor of this daggerwood forest that you have landed in. The bluish elemental lightning that once gave this ship life has seeped into the air and crackled into the mud surrounding the forest and seemingly dissipated. It is flickering like a campfire spark that is illuminating the red fog of the daggerwood forest, and it feels like you are all breathing in wet wool. And then, your focus turns to the other survivors. Who has the highest wisdom score? Not Cid. Let's see. I have a plus one. Oh, nice. I have a pluses. Okay. So, with a plus one, V1, Victor? Victor. Victor, perfect. Victor, your focus hones in on these survivors with your war-forged eyes, and you see their faces are smudged with soot and wide-eyed with shock as they pile out of this airship and scatter around the forest. They're wandering aimlessly, and their boots are squelching in the muck as they drift into the tree line. Now, you would recall with your war-forged knowledge that this daggerwood forest is home to something called red water. The red water is the fog that is surrounding you guys. It can be distilled into something called a red water potion, which is what this daggerwood forest is known for, is this fog that can be distilled into a red water potion. The red water potion is not a health potion. It is kind of like a street name for this potion because it can be used for putting creatures to sleep. So, kind of dangerous to be breathing it in, but not too bad. And that is what you're able to recall with your wisdom score, but let's roll initiative to see who we're going to follow first in this record. I got a 10. 10? 11? Nice. That's a 6. Alright, so let's follow Vel for a moment, shall we? Alright, a few yards away from the crash site, you were able to safely propel yourself down some trees and grab onto some vines and lower yourself to the ground. Obviously, it still hurt to fall, but you are unscathed at the moment. You feel a weight press against your leg as you realize that you did not leave this airship alone. It's the hyena that you pulled from the poacher's crate, but it's not growling or cackling at the moment. It is shivering with fur matted. It has hydraulic fluid kind of matting in its fur, as well as it's mixed in with some of the the damp from the red water mist. If you could make me an animal handling check, Vel. Six. Six? Alright, perfect. Well, with a six, go ahead and tell me what is Vel feeling about this hyena? I feel kindred to the hyena in that I too feel like sometimes I have to put myself in a box in the society in which we live. So maybe, maybe we're friends. Maybe I don't want hyena around. I'm not sure yet. Yeah, so you were a little apprehensive of the hyena, and it seems like with the six, the hyena's a little hesitant about you. It's not actively aggressive, but it is just studying your face and kind of wondering who you are and why you would save it. And how are you able to ground yourself post this crash? Are you feeling shaken by this crash? Is this a day in the life of Vel? I feel totally fine. This is, this is not the worst thing I've ever been through. I have a lot of questions. These two dudes came together, and they definitely seem to be cool with fighting against trust. What? Why? Right? And I think I feel a little bit concerned on were they just after the hyena and the elemental, right? Or was there other reasons they were after this ship, right? Yeah. I'm also curious on if I am able to notice, did everyone survive? Is there anyone who perished, right? Because as you know, it's a changeling. I have the ability to take on that person's persona. And if they've recently died, I can determine what was their, what was their cause for being here? Or what were they after? Or what was their intent? Yeah. Right. Like, I don't know much about them. But like, maybe that could be helpful for me. Absolutely. Go ahead. As you were looking over, there are scattered Umbrella Air bodies that have fallen from the airship in the forest around you. Go ahead and make me an investigation or insight check as you were kind of trying to suss out why these Umbrella Airs were after this ship. Okay. With insight, I have a 21. Wow. Okay. With a 21, you are going to reach into the pocket of one of these Umbrella Airs, and you are going to pull out something that is akin to a wanted poster. This has a description of why this person is wanted. You see in big letters, the word reward. Under reward, it says something about, it's kind of smudged with the red water, so you're not able to fully read it. But it does say that something about how a changeling was able to fuse something together, and they are wanted at all costs. And as you look over, as you fold out the rest of this reward wanted poster, you see the face of a changeling who looks very similar to the face that Vel is currently wearing. Do I feel safe enough that the Umbrella Airs are all gone? We said, hey, everyone has run from the ship. Don't really know what these guys are up to. I'm going to take this wanted poster, and I'm going to pocket it, but I'm not going to do anything else. I'm just going to wait it out. Yeah, absolutely. And as you are folding up this piece of paper and putting it inside of your pocket, your pocket actually lets out a little vibration of where you had stored this little arcane pager that you had received from last session. You've been buzzed. You've been buzzed. And so the device that you pull out, again, it's like this palm-sized slab of brushed, polished brass that's held together with the copper filaments that hum with this low frequency, and it has a black screen. And as you hold it up and feel the vibration from it, the black screen lights up with glowing violet words. The fog will be your map. Follow the runoff, but don't get too close. Three miles north by northwest, look for red smoking chimneys. The daggerwood provides the mist. The distillery will create the sleep. Underneath it pauses for a moment. The screen goes black and then alights again with, destination, Redwater Distillery, Sector 4B. Hurry, the owner is awaiting your prompt arrival. He will provide safe transport to Sharn. Take the boat to cross the river. In Sharn, you will receive further instruction. The screen goes black once more, and then the screen again alights with this violet light that says, contact name, Giddy Briggs. And it stays on the screen, the name Giddy Briggs. Giddy Briggs. This name does not ring no bells. It does not. You are unfamiliar with the name Giddy Briggs at the moment. In that house. I'm going to leave you with that information as you are a little deeper into the forest. So Sid, we're going to go over to you. You are standing near the stern of this ship where you had fallen out. Yep. The smell of copper is stinging in your nose. And every time the wreckage groans, it feels like kind of pointed at you. It feels almost like an accusation, like, like a mocking, a calling after like you did this. And you can see the empty fishbowl-like house of the shattered elemental where it used to be held. And next to you, Thorla pulls herself out of the debris. She's coughing and wiping blood from a gash that's on her forehead. And her eyeliner is smeared into a raccoon-like mask. Nice. She looks at the wreck, then looks at you and says, where do we go from here? I just need a second here. Let me, let me, let me sit. That was, that was a bit of a trip. Watch the first step. It's a doozy. You, you're bleeding. Do you need Leon? Oh, I don't have Leon hands. Do you need healing word? If you got a smell, I got a smell slot. And then I think he pulls out his guitar and sits there on the grass, takes a moment and starts to play a few tunes. His guitar is magically amplified through his relationship with Maul. And so he does not have to carry around an amplifier, luckily. And so kind of reverberating through the air, almost, there's this gentle, just kind of ballad that is played. Perfect. I think at that point he would pick himself up and feeling a little bit of that, shame might not be fully the right word, looking around the ship. I definitely think he feels pretty bad that he crashed the ship. Well, more than other people were negatively impacted by that. I don't think he minds at all that a ship was broken. And I think looking at the empty fish bowl, it, you know, and knowing that there was something being held against its will and being forced to do a job that it was not being compensated for in the slightest, he feels kind of a tamping down of some of that shame, but he still wants to help. So I think he would next go to look around and see if anybody else needed help. Yeah, absolutely. So you were going, go ahead and make me a, just a straight up medicine check. D20? D20, yeah. I would say five. Love it. Okay. Thorla sees you trying to help. And after you, you start rubbing some dirt into a nearby survivor's wound to stop the bleeding. She's like, she walks up to you and she says, you mind? And then she holds up a dwarven cigarette, asking you to light the cigarette. She uses breath weapon. I mean, it doesn't take a full breath weapon. You could just. Does a little, a little flame out of his lips versus his lips and blows out a little bit of fire. Perfect. And she says, all right, you got me taken care of. I'll take care of the rest. You just, you just, you go sit over there. Are you saying the old adage, rub a little dirt in it isn't working? I think it's working fine. This guy looks much better already. He looks infected. I do. Tomato, tomato. Cid, Cid wanders off feeling like he really can't help right now. And yeah. And we'll leave you thinking, plucking at your guitar strings, thinking about the day that you've had. Okay. Could you do an investigation check to see if there's anybody trapped under anything? Absolutely. That seems on brand. He rolled a big old nine plus intelligence. No, that's a negative one. I rolled an eight. Go ahead and roll me a D 100. D 100. That's 2D10. Yes. 30 on the dot. I'm not rolling high. On the dot, you walk up to one of the pieces of large metal scrap on the ground and you hear underneath, help, help, help. Definitely jumps in to help. What should you do to help? Strength check? Yeah. Go ahead and roll me athletics to see if you can lift this bad boy. That's a four, so five. Man, I'm not rolling well. You lift this piece of metal rubble and are struggling with it for a while. And we'll come back to that. And Victor, we're going to join you. You are surrounded by a machine, however, that has failed. This airship has crash landed. The air is thick with this arcane static of the elemental as its residue begins to ebb into the earth. You see the glowing viscous remains of the elemental energy that has this kind of like raw turquoise lightning that seems to be kind of like pooling within this red water fog. And in the shattered trees of this daggerwood forest, you don't really see scrap around you. You see opportunity. What would you like to do? Victor, while he was falling, had an epiphany of almost a vision of a steel defender friend that he could build for himself. Perfect. So as he falls, it's almost as if the designs and schematics were just kind of poof in his head. And he almost like kind of ignores the rest of the happenings around him. And he starts to fiddle with the broken metal and the essence of the elemental. And he starts to kind of slowly put this together. I don't know how long the party is going to be here at the wreckage. Yeah, roll me an arcana check with advantage. That is a natural 20. Okay, sick. So 24. Yeah. So you begin with a natural 20. I got to pull up my table. You begin to drag pieces of this whole together. You find a jagged metal strut that kind of resembles like a spinal cord. You find a cooling fan for what you would make into somewhat of a heart for this being. You reach into the flickering core of this remnant of the turquoise red water and are able to snatch a handful of the raw residue that was left behind by this elemental. And you are able to shove it into the center of this metal mass. With a natural 20, a sudden sharp crackle of electricity is followed by a mechanical hit and the metal twists into... Go ahead and describe what your steel defender looks like. A natural 20, you were able to do it nearly instantaneously. It almost feels like a steel defender blueprint. Actually, speaking of blueprints, the blueprint that you had found that you had taken from the bomb. The bomb, yes. You were able to kind of dissect parts of that and why that kind of fires and makes combustion. And you were able to pulse that into this creature's remnants as you were able to kind of put it together. And go ahead and tell me what it looks like. So this is a medium-sized creature. The blue seems to kind of just pull the scrap metal together to form what was a small four-legged lizard almost. What seems to be a large, to me, metal dragon suddenly is walking around. Perfect. Yeah. And with a natural 20, again, instantaneous, you were able to piece this together like you had the entire creation plotted out in a dream. And a puff of blue steam lets out. And it stands with its neck clicking into place. Its eyes glow with the light of the ship that birthed it. And Victor, you stand beneath this creation that is looking over you. Salamence! Yes. Looking at it. Perfect. I now know what you're saying. It's blue and you're talking about wings. True. You're right. Isn't Salamence also kind of a metal dragon? I don't remember if that one is. I love Pokemon, so you can get me on a whole tangent here. But back to the session. So you look out over these survivors and you see the dragonborn that shattered the glass of the elemental. The residue of the elemental has kind of helped power your dragon. And you see as he rubs some dirt trying to assist one of the survivors and then lights a cigarette for his dwarven companion and then goes over and is struggling to lift a metal piece of debris that is squishing a survivor. What would you like to do, Victor? Well, I should probably go help the dragonborn to lift up the wreckage. Yeah. So me and now new unnamed yet to be named dragon will hop over there and try and lift up and assist. Perfect. Go ahead and roll me, both of you, roll me another athletics check and take the average. I got a 16 this time. 16. I got a 19. 19. All right. Well, that averages out to like a 17 and a half or something. So that's going to absolutely succeed. You are both able to lift up this metal husk off of this halfling and you see this finely dressed halfling. He has a mouth full of golden grills. Do you remember like in the tooth? Yeah, he's got golden grills. And he's like, shoot, what does this sound like? What does a guy with grills sound like? Not good enunciation. Thanks so much. Oh, my gosh. I was stuck under there for so long. Put it down. Put it back. Put it back. You don't need to be. No, no, no, please. Please stop. My name is Rizzy and I am so excited that you guys got me out of here. Well, we should probably go help some other people, but I'll come talk to you guys afterwards. And you see as he walks off with kind of a spring in his step, or maybe it's a limp from almost getting crashed into by a metal husk. And he tries to help other survivors as well. Is this one of the gnome gnomes? No, he's a halfling. Halfling. Yes. Halfling named Rizzy. Or Rizzy. Yeah. The Rizzler. The Rizzler. Yes. Rizzler. The Rizzler. So, and with that, Vel. He's going to stick to you like glue because you nicknamed him. Just watch. Yeah, he's going to be a party companion this whole time. The Rizzler will always talk about himself in third person. He's like the type. So, Vel, you come back after finding this wanted poster and you have deciphered this message from the pager and you watch on as a metallic dragon, a dragonborn, and gnome-sized warforged lift a metal husk off of a survivor. And then you watch as they continue to go out and try and help other survivors. What are you doing in this moment? No, no. Because of my history, I kind of wonder, what are they getting out of this? Why are they doing this? Do they feel guilty for how we all got here? I mean, with your passive insight, the dragonborn has like a chip on his shoulder. He is not feeling bad. If anything, he's like, this is awesome. I helped you make a dragon. You're welcome. Out of the ashes of the elemental that you accidentally killed. No, the elemental's alive. Yeah, in my dragon now. Do I know my way around enough to know? Okay, I gotta go three miles to the northwest. I gotta follow the fog to a smoking chimney. Like, I'm not worried about meeting a dude. I don't know. Whatever. But do I feel like I have orientation skills enough to know that without myself? Because I'm assuming that I cannot do this alone. Roll me an arcana check with advantage, actually, because you had good direction with the pager. Nat 20. Okay, perfect. With a natural 20, you were able to decipher that if you wander in the woods for too long, there is a high chance that you could fall asleep. And if you fall asleep and you don't have anything to wake you up, there is a good chance you will stay asleep. And with a natural 20, you would actually know that red water, the red water potion can be, I can't think of a better word for it, so I'm just gonna call it what it is, overdosed on. And what it does is it sends people to the elemental plane of air and dreams, and this makes it a huge commodity for elves who are unable to sleep. They trance. And a trance dream is not as strong as a sleep dream, so it is kind of like a designer potion drug of choice for the aristocratic, like, socially elite elves. And it is even in the undistilled form. You could make it, but you know that there is a chance of death. Okay, this is what this is what this is what Belle's gonna do. Belle, we're going to to take one of the female dragon guards from one of these homes, right? So I'm gonna look mostly similar when it comes to certain features. I'm still gonna keep some of this dark hair. I'm gonna say similar build, but I want, I want to look thick enough that they think I can help them. And maybe I am strong enough to help them, but that's normally what I want to do. So I'm in my travel clothes. I filled them out just a little bit more, and I am going to look around and see if there's someone I should be helping, or I'm gonna start working my way over to these very kind fellas who seem super into helping people. Yeah, go ahead and roll me a medicine check. Sorry guys. A lot of the skills are intelligence based. Yeah, not so strong. Okay, great. You pick up a big clump of dirt. You thought that you saw the dragonborn rubbing some dirt in a wound, and you thought that's a great idea. And Thorla, actually, this dwarven woman that was the companion to the dragonborn, stops your hand as you're about to rub it in one of the wounds, and is like, hey, you don't want to be doing that. Go stand over there with the rest of them. Like, kind of like, is like, okay, you're in timeout. You've been banished to this forest corner that is not a forest corner because it's a forest for bad medicine handling. But you are still able to, you see that Thorla has a medicine kit that she's able to kind of ration out to a lot of the survivors as you are walking over towards these other two adventurers. And the three of you are going to meet over. Sid and Victor are going to kind of be listening in to Rizzi as he's telling you how great he is. He's telling you like, you know, like, back home, like, my mom's really good at, like, she's kind of, like, in charge. She's kind of, like, in charge around there. So it's kind of nice. But I got a, like, this really cool place. And he's just going on about nothing. And you two are kind of looking to maybe get out of this conversation a little bit. And you see a, are, are you changeling? Or are you another? You said you were dragonborn? Or? I think I, I am a, I'm a human guard. Like, I, I want to have, I, I know this person from a dragon, like, house. I see. So you have a dragon mark of one of the, are you passing as having a dragon? Yeah. Perfect. All right. So the two of you are trying to drown out the sound of, of Rizzi as he is talking about how cool his home is and how important of a person he is. You said I was still strumming, right? Yeah, you're still playing. I think he plays a little louder. Yeah. Where did my plant go? Actually, your plant is amongst the wreckage. You're able to find it and wheel it over on your cart that you have for it. And Vel, you see the two of them as they, one is wheeling along a plant. One is strumming loudly, trying to time his strums to the words that Rizzi is saying as he is saying them. And the three of you meet over kind of this general annoyance that you have unleashed from, from a metallic husk. So what next? Sharn's that way or wait, hold on. Maybe it's, I don't know. Roll me a survival check. Okay. Sounds right. 20, right? Hey, I got a 15. With a 15, you point in the Western region. However, Vel, you would recognize that the slight edge of the direction that he is off by would take him in a completely separate location than Sharn would be. Missed it by that much. By about 180. Yeah. We, well, I got to say, I was trying to help out the elemental. Hey, I don't like, I don't like looking at little guys getting picked on. I can understand that maybe my actions may have caused some unforeseen consequences that the rest of us are dealing with. So I apologize for that. And what, what, what do you think we should do from here? Do we head into this dark woods? I'm, I'm not much of a woodsman. This, this feels like the wrong direction, but I don't know how to get back to Sharn. Are there like ship captain, ship crew? Do you notice that a lot of the ship crew has seemed to have gone down with the ship being in the engine room as it exploded and not having a resistance to it is kind of detrimental. Yeah. So there are kind of everywhere. Yeah. You, uh, your plant is fully fertilized. There's one over there and over there and over there. So there's practically, if there's any organization done, it's probably not going to be from the crew. Yeah. Yeah. And you see many of the, many of the survivors of this crash landing upon any interaction with this like red water mist have kind of this dazed and like stumbling stance and are wandering in every direction. And that like, it is hundreds of people that are just going in the opposite directions. Okay. I have a mechanics question. Yeah. What does thaumaturgy allow you to do? It allows you to make your voice louder. Could I try and gather people back together? You can make your voice louder and tell people to come back. Yeah. Yeah. Make a charisma. Yeah, absolutely. Do you want it to be persuasion, intimidation, or... Intimidation's plus four. I will take intimidation. Perfect. And if people are tired, they may respond better to... A little bit of a kick in the pants. Yeah. A splash of water in the face, if you will. Let's see how we do. A 19 plus four. Wow. Okay. 23. So 23 is going to, go ahead and tell me what you are announcing as you, so you're, you place a little amplifier that... I think his battle jacket, his punk rock battle jacket has runes across all of it. And it's his arcane focus given to him by Maul. And depending on the spell, certain runes will glow. And for thaumaturgy, a set of runes glow like this magenta fiery purple and his voice is amplified tenfold. And in his, he does his best to... All right, this is super dangerous, everybody. I need you to get your scrawny buds back here. We got to make a plan. And... Yeah. Yeah. With a 23, people are shaken away, if you will. And everyone kind of comes into this big gathering. It is reminiscent of the swamp at the beginning of Shrek with all the fairytale creatures gathered in one place. Okay. I don't think Sid wants to be the guy though, that makes like the plan. So he has two new... We need to make a plan. Anyone else? That's probably the energy he's feeling at this exact moment. Does anybody know what the red, what the red stuff is that's, that's out there? A couple, I've seen a couple people wander into it and then suddenly they're, well, I mean, you guys look like a bunch of dopes now. What, what, what is this forest? Does anybody have any idea? I kind of agree, right? Like, what's the objective? What is your objective? Well, we, we were on a pathway to Sharn. It's probably a pretty safe guess to assume that most of the people in this crowd have an end goal of getting to Sharn and safely. So is there a way to move through this forest as a group? And