Ruinë sends a blast of divine energy toward the creature, but is also unable to land her ranged attack.
Grelda gives Tasha guidance before targeting the frog fey with a curse of death.
It is completely unaffected! The witch mutters angrily.
With a heroic effort, Tasha breaks free, then moves to flank the frog fey with Ashlion, stabbing it. Abandoning its efforts to swallow the tiefling, the doblagub contents itself with just biting at her repeatedly, scoring one hit.
In a pique of frustration, Grelda draws forth the rod of wonder you claimed from the Celestial Menagerie. "I've been carrying this around for months. Let's see what it can do," the witch says.
She points it at the frog fey, and the magic tries to enlarge the creature, but since it is already large, nothing happens. "Bah!" Grelda curses.
"Oh, did I upset your tummy?" Tasha calls out as she stabs and stabs.
Finally getting a good clear shot on the creature, Ruinë fires another lance that will surely hit!
Tasha and Ruine both land good hits. But the tough frog still fights on, scoring two critical hits on Tasha!
Tasha staggers under the fey onslaught, not even sure where to stab. Almost instinctively she invokes one of her reflections and stabs where her feelings tell her to stab.
Between Tasha’s critical strike, Ashlion’s two heavy blow, and a salvo of magic missiles from Grelda, the fey finally falls! With their deaths, the performers on stage are freed from their mind control.
The two most talented of the performers come to thank them personally. These two have been bitter rivals throughout their employment at Fortune’s Hall and, as a continuation of their rivalry, each tries to be first and the most effusive at thanking the heroes.
The first is the stout and oily-haired Ginritz Partroy. Ginritz used to act as a sword- swallower in a Taldan circus, and he came to Fortune’s Hall to perform at their theater. He can still perform his old sword-swallowing act, but he’s become a skilled juggler as well as a moving orator. He’s now eager to move on and wants to join the heroes’ circus. Ginritz can work in whatever capacity the heroes will use him, but he’d prefer to go by his old stage name of Ginritz the Blademaster. He knows the Professor from back in his former circus days, and the two are old friends.
Imlander Groost is a suave half-elf who is an exceptionally skilled dancer; they performed for many years in Absalom but had to suddenly leave the city years ago for a reason they don’t discuss. Imlander has a magical ability to compel an audience to sway to their movements as well, making even a simple dance routine a lively crowd-pleaser. Imlander’s dancing is uncannily but harmlessly catchy.
Ginritz and Imlander both vie for positions in the Circus of Wayward Wonders, but each conditions their joining on disallowing the other!
Tasha does her best to convince the duo to look past their differences, but Imlander just isn't having it. In the end, she offers the half-elf the position anyway, as the circus has a number of jugglers.
Ginritz crosses his arms and huffs but accepts your decision. "Guess I'll head on to Absalom, maybe I'll find better luck there," he says.
Imlander smiles and bows before you. "Thank you, friends. You won't regret choosing me!"
Searching backstage, you discover a ransacked dressing room and storage area. However, it seems the fey overlooked a case marked “Nalven’s Stage Magic.” The case contains a fade band and a sheet of thin vellum studded with tiny diamonds worth 950 gp.
The other rooms on the first floor hold gambling tables. Some have card games, others have dice, and one has a big wheel for placing bets. The rooms are lively, with several patrons in each and staff members coming and going with platters of food, drinks, and gambling tokens. Although the atmosphere is festive, all of the people here are emaciated and many lack even the strength to stand fully upright for long.
The food here is all illusory, just like the banquet in the foyer. Nevertheless, everyone is pleasant; the patrons ask you to join them in the games, and the staff members ask if there’s anything they can get for you. In addition to the human patrons and staff, who are all noncombatants, each room has a single brughadatch enjoying the games and creating further deceitful feasts to share. These brughadatches try to ignore you, but persisting in trying to break the patrons free from their charms forces them to attack! They don't pose much threat, and you make quick work of them.
With the brughadatches' defeat, the charms are removed. Unwilling to make the trek back to Willowside alone, people freed from the brughadatches’ influence hide out wherever you suggest until you have finished your task here.
Looking out the western door, you can see a garden terrace that is surrounded by a wrought iron fence covered with creeping vines. Blooming buttercups grow in pots ringing the terrace. The center of the terrace contains several broken theater seats piled in a heap.
Two children appear to be playing hide and seek here. When they see you looking out from the main hall, they wave. "Hi! Will you come and play with us?"
Tasha waves back, but then looks to Ruinë and Grelda to explain to her that she's not really seeing two children here.
Greeds frowns and shrugs. ”I cannot be sure if they are real or not. But it is best to assume deception when fey are involved. We can come back later if necessary.”
”Aw, you’re no fun!” the children whine. But they let you go back inside without protest.
Around the back of Fortune’s Hall, a weathered wooden staircase leads to the Carristers’ private suite. The door at the top of the stairs is locked with a good lock, but Grelda puts her new thievery skills to work and picks the lock. Beyond is a hall with three doors. You can hear brughadatches crossing behind one door, while the other two are silent. The door at the end of the hall is locked.
The smallest room in the suite is a bedroom. A few brughadatches have been sleeping here and have trashed it, but none are here now. The bureaus hold clothing that was designed to look expensive but is crafted from cheap fabrics, and the bed linens are similar. Paintings on the walls depict various fey creatures, and the brughadatches have defaced these with crude comments in Sylvan about the creatures pictured.
Grelda doesn't find the trap on the next door until it is too late. A rune appears on the door and begins emitting a loud buzzing sound, but the thanks to her skills with avoiding traps, the witch completely resists the effects of the jolting rune!
Beyond the door is a library. This room is filled with books and parchments, and magical diagrams hang on the walls. The focus of the library seems to be on fey and the First World, though there are general treatises on other types of magic as well. There are markings on the floor next to various burnt plants, flowers, and mushrooms.
"These are the components for a primal call ritual," Grelda says. "They've been expended. Somebody used the ritual. That's probably why there are so many fey running amok here."
A large book lying open near the expended ritual components shows stylized pictures of brughadatches, complete with a sumptuous buffet of food, much like the bounty currently on display in the foyer. Annotations in one hand suggest modifications to the ritual, while notes in another hand identify various plants to use as components. The book provides details of the primal call ritual, and it also gives instructions on how to reverse the ritual—although it doesn’t give specifics about what reversing the ritual does.
"We'll need to gather more components if we want to reverse the ritual. Two lily pads, a handful of buttercups, willow bark, and brughadatch blood. We have plenty of the latter, at least." Grelda looks to the others. "I suppose we'll have to venture into the courtyard and the outbuildings after all."
Sequestered in small jars and cloth bags stashed around the library are 200 gp in gemstones, rare oils, and other ritual components. A set of druid’s vestments hangs on a hook on the east wall. A folio on a nearby bookshelf titled “Leaves of the Wisdom Tree” contains several rare, esoteric drawings of primal significance. The folio is worth 1,500 gp. It also contains a scroll of haste (7th level) and a scroll of stone to flesh.
"So if we use this ritual it will return all the fey from whence they came?" Tasha asks, unsure about doing something so complex.
”Yes. At least, I think so,” Grelda replies. ”The instructions were a bit obscure.”
"Well then let's begin our floral quest," Tasha, taking a grand stance. "Lily pads, buttercups, and willow bark, oh my!"
You first return to the pond our front to gather some lily pads. Grelda uses mage hand to gather them from a distance to stay away from the monstrous tadpoles in the water. She then turns invisible and repeats the trick with the buttercups in the courtyard to avoid provoking the “children” at play there.
Five small cabins are arranged behind Fortune’s Hall, each with a single door and small window. A few willow trees between the cabins provide them some shade. No enemies are nearby, making it a simple matter to gather some bark from the trees. ”There. That wasn’t too hard,” Grelda says.
You return to the library to prepare the ritual. As Grelda begins it, though, the brughadatches down the hall realize what is happening. The two of them rush out to try to stop you, accompanied by a strange flightless bird!
Grelda sends Ash off to battle with a haste and a nudge fate!
Ruinë opens with a ray of fire towards one of the rude creatures that interrupted Grelda's rirtual.
Tasha stands ready behind the enlarged half-orc, intending to intercept anything that tries to get past him.
As Ashlion swings on the strange bird, it hops aside, causing his weapons to strike the brughadatch behind it! It darts in under his reach. Ruine burns the froggy fey but it still stands.
The bird begins a strange warbling song that threatens to make you lose control of your mental faculties!
Success The target is unaffected.
Failure The target is confused for 1 round.
Critical Failure The target is confused for 1 round and immediately attacks itself (in the normal fashion for attacking oneself while confused). This Strike doesn't give the creature a flat check to recover from the confusion.
The song confuses the cleric, causing her to look at the fey with squinted eyes while she rubs her head.
With the whole party confused, the brughadatches hang back to watch the chaos unfold.
Ruine fires a divine lance towards the bird but doesn't hit. Grelda beans Ruine in the face with a hurled projectile! Tasha attacks Ruine but misses, while Ash lands one good hit on the half-elf.
The bird continues its warbling song! One of the brughadatches is confused and moves to attack the bird!
Shaking off the confusion, Grelda bolsters Ruine's vitality before trying to scare the bird to death! It resists but is frightened!
After getting hit from Grelda and Ashlion, Ruinë shakes off the spell to notice that she's injured, though not as bad as Tasha. She uses her healing on the tiefling to try and keep her conscious.
In spite of the healing her love bestows upon her, Tasha still can't seem to focus with all the Damn!
Tasha attacks Ashlion, stabbing him in the leg! The pain of the strike breaks the half-orc out of his confused state!
Ash focuses his fury on the wounded bird, dispatching it with two powerful strikes from his weapons! The brughadatches move in to attack the barbarian.
Grelda focuses her magic to banish a brughadatch the old fashioned way, sending it back to the First World! Ash lands one hit on the other frog fey.
Ruinë tries to contribute to the fight, but is too distracted by Tasha's remaining injuries to land her spell.
While the song may have stopped, it's clear that the echoes of it are still bouncing around in the tiefling's head by the way she stands, steps, and lunges.
The brughadatch takes a few nasty hits but still desperately tries to stop you, biting Tasha.
The second blow is a critical hit, both powerful strikes eviscerating the fey! The brughadatch cannot duck the last two blows as it is already dead!
Searching the room the fey came out of, you find a golden key worth 125 gp and a stoppered vial made of blown glass, crafted to look like a gourd, worth 300 gp. The vial contains a greater elixir of life with a distinct pumpkin flavor. There is also an eye of fortune and gems worth 109 gp.
Grelda returns to the ritual, now able to proceed without interruption.
Guided by her astrological readings, the witch is able to successfully perform the ritual. The remaining fey lurking in and around Fortune's Hall are pulled back to the First World.
Now freed from the fey's charms, the human staff and patrons are still in very poor shape physically. They thank you profusely. One of the chefs goes immediately to the kitchen and starts preparing food with whatever ingredients are still good, and everyone eats heartily to rebuild their strength. Quite a few of these people want to leave the Willowside area altogether, though a few talk about working to reopen Fortune’s Hall. Regardless of what they want to do next, all 20 of these people need to recuperate back in Willowside. They ask you to escort them back to town. It takes the staff several hours to pack their belongings in Fortune’s Hall’s wagon, giving you time to rest.
***
The next morning, you make the journey back to Willowside. However, you quickly learn that the xulgaths have been very busy. Grelda's familiar, Basil, returns from scouting ahead to report that a blockade of cut trees has been hastily erected across the road you used to reach Fortune’s Hall. A xulgath mounted on a tyrannosaurus watches the road along with two xulgaths on triceratopses. You can either confront the xulgaths and clear the road, or you can haul the wagon through the blighted forest around the blockade to try to avoid the xulgaths altogether.
Tasha carefully observes the xulgaths defending the road and then looks back at the exhausted civilians they're escorting.
"We need to avoid conflict at the moment," she declares. "Let's see if we can get around them through the forest."
Fortunately, since embracing the Black Butterfly, stealth is something of Grelda's specialty. Augmenting her natural skill with magic, she keeps the wagon concealed from the xulgaths as you travel through the woods and circumvent the blockade. By midday, you arrive back in Willowside.
Once in town, you quickly learn that the blockade you faced on the road was not an isolated incident. The xulgaths have grown increasingly aggressive over the last day and are cutting off all paths into and out of the town. People living in outlying communities—such as the Densirts—have moved into Willowside for safety, exacerbating the town’s already-strained resources. These refugees include the dockmaster Arglynn Pranson, who saw monstrous sea serpents thrashing around the pier. During her flight to Willowside, she encountered enormous reptile tracks and heard roars closing in on the road. Willowside’s path to the sea is now blocked.
The workers and performers of the Circus of Wayward Wonders are particularly unnerved at hearing the pier is blockaded, as it means they’re truly stranded in Willowside. Your most stalwart supporters in the circus, including the Professor, Somber Tom, and Tygrah, are keeping the other workers calm by pointing out that you have led the circus well until now and won’t abandon them.
As soon as Mayor Vandy realizes you are back, she asks to speak with you, ushering you into her office to ask about Fortune’s Hall. She is shocked to hear that the Carristers would resort to summoning monstrous creatures, but she understands that people in desperate situations make terrible mistakes. With the Welt’s relentless encroachment, she worries that bad decisions like this will occur more frequently.
In the meantime, Mayor Vandy has tasked several residents with putting together defenses to keep the town safe from the xulgaths and asks you to pitch in and help.
By the time you are done meeting with Mayor Vandy, the fear that pervades the town has turned to an attitude of grim determination. The leaders Mayor Vandy asked to organize the defenses have been talking with the townspeople and galvanized them to action. Several are now at work erecting defenses, and they welcome your assistance.
None of the villagers know when or where the xulgaths might strike, but they’re committed to working hard to erect as many defenses as they can in the next 2 days (after that, they’ll work on fortifying and improving the existing defenses without the heroes’ help). Aiding in the town’s defenses requires selecting and performing one of the following downtime activities. Each takes a day of effort. The heroes can split up to assist the town’s defenders however they wish and don’t need to perform the same activity. You can determine that an inventive idea for a task or use of a spell increases Willowside’s Defense Points without need of a check, but any of these inventive solutions should take some time or coordination with the townspeople to enact.
BOLSTER MORALE
CONCENTRATE DOWNTIME LINGUISTIC MENTAL
Requirements Diplomacy (expert) or Performance (expert)
The undercurrent of fear among the townspeople is palpable. You can provide encouraging words throughout the town to raise morale or perform lively acts to keep the townsfolk’s spirits up. Attempt a DC 30 Diplomacy or Performance check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point. Your efforts don’t take much time at all; if this was your first downtime activity of the day, you can perform another downtime activity (including this one).
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
BUILD BARRICADES
DOWNTIME MANIPULATE
Quite a few townspeople are constructing barricades out of bricks, boards, metal scraps, and other materials at hand with the hope of building something strong enough to impede a charging dinosaur. You perform the heavy lifting to construct a functional wall or barrier. Attempt a DC 30 Athletics check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 2 Defense Points.
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure The defenses aren’t strong enough to contribute any Defense Points.
Critical Failure As failure, and you are fatigued.
CONSTRUCT TRAPS
DOWNTIME MANIPULATE
Several townspeople are digging pit traps and covering them with leaves, setting up trip wires, and hoisting nets up into the dead trees that surround the town. Setting these traps to be effective against massive attackers is tricky work. Attempt a DC 30 Crafting or Thievery check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 2 Defense Points.
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure The traps are too small or shallow to contribute any Defense Points.
Critical Failure The poorly set traps give clues to the attackers on safe ways to enter the town. Willowside loses 1 Defense Point.
ERECT MAGICAL WARDS
CONCENTRATE DOWNTIME
Requirements Arcana (master), Nature (master), Occultism (master), or Religion (master)
The few people in Willowside capable of simple magic are erecting alarms and magical traps to deter intruders or warn of their movements. You have sufficient skill to bolster these magical defenses. Attempt a DC 30 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 2 Defense Points.
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure The wards aren’t strong enough to be effective.
Critical Failure Your failed wards create temporary magical backlash in the area; no creature can Erect Magical Wards again during the defense preparations.
PREPARE ARMS
DOWNTIME MANIPULATE
Requirements Crafting (expert)
The town’s blacksmiths and hunters are getting everyone’s weapons into shape for battle and ensuring that there is enough ammunition, such as arrows and bolts, to supply all the townspeople. You can demonstrate techniques to speed this process up. Attempt a DC 30 Athletics check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 2 Defense Points.
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure The weapons aren’t numerous enough to contribute any Defense Points.
Critical Failure The weapons are downright shoddy and undermine Willowside’s defense. Willowside loses 1 Defense Point.
RETRIEVE TOWNSFOLK
DOWNTIME
Requirements Stealth (expert)
Not all residents of Willowside’s outskirts made it safely into the town. You try to seek out missing townspeople on farms, ranches, or solitary homesteads and sneak them back into town without alerting xulgath patrols. Attempt a DC 30 Stealth check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point, and your stealthy work was skillful and quick. If this was your first downtime activity of the day, you can perform another downtime activity (including this one).
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure The townspeople you return with are too exhausted from the terrifying ordeal of sneaking past xulgath patrols to contribute any Defense Points.
Critical Failure The xulgaths take notice of your movements; two gutragers are added to the first xulgath strike force you encounter (page 44).
TRACK PATROLS
CONCENTRATE DOWNTIME
Gristarn Vrick and Willowside’s other skilled trackers are tracing the paths of the dinosaur patrols, trying to get a feel for their routes, timing, and movements. You can coordinate this tracking and get a good sense of how the patrols are most likely to converge on the town. Attempt a DC 30 Nature, Perception, or Survival check.
Critical Success Willowside gains 2 Defense Points.
Success Willowside gains 1 Defense Point.
Failure You’re unable to discern a pattern in the tracks.
Critical Failure You not only fail to see a pattern in the tracks, but the townspeople inadvertently obscure the traces of xulgath movement. No creature can Track Patrols again during the defense preparations.
Grelda spends the first day skulking about the wilderness to bring more villagers into town. The second day she performs the same task quite quickly and efficiently, then spends the rest of the day constructing outstanding occult wards around the town!
Even as you spend your days preparing the town for the siege, your nights are plagued by more nightmares of storms, drowning, and fanged reptilian maws. Indeed, the dreams are so bad that Ashlion and Tasha awaken fatigued, having not getting very much sleep at all.
During this time, many of the townsfolk mutter worriedly that nobody has seen the Banyan Boys at all during the defense preparations. Mayor Vandy assures the citizens that she has sent them out on an important mission, and that they hopefully will return soon with good news. After two days of preparations, though, the mayor asks to speak with you again.
"Thank you for the work you've done on the town's defenses. I hate to ask for more help when you just got back from looking into Fortune’s Hall, but since you’re trapped in town until we fight off these xulgaths, I imagine it’s in your best interest as well. We need your help dealing with the xulgaths, but first, we need the Banyan Boys back.
"There are these caves underneath the town that have been here since before the town was built, and there’s an entrance in the basement of the general store. Some old documents from the town’s founding indicate that those caves were important, but I’m not sure why. A lot of stuff from that time is gone. Local legend has it that the town’s founders might have left something special down there in case of emergencies.
"Well, if this doesn’t count as an emergency, nothing does. The Banyan Boys went down there, and they should have been back by now. I worry that something happened to them. Can you go look for them? They’re our town’s best protectors.”
Tasha spends the first day moving through town and utilizing her mastery of diplomacy to its best effect as she encourages and emboldens the citizens to take a stand to defend their town.
The second day is spent working with some of the laborers to improvise some concealed spiked pits.
~~~~~
At the idea that they'll be heading down into caves, Tasha doesn't seem thrilled, but she nods, accepting the responsibility. "We'll do our best to bring them back alive," she says.
Ruinë is successful in the creation of magical defenses, but when she tries to help track a group of xulgaths, she inadvertently causes the tracks to be destroyed and gets her patrol lost instead.
---
"Absolutely. I'm certain we will find them, though I cannot say what condition they will be in. Regardless, we will do our best to locate them as quickly as possible."